From The Land Of Epic Fails: I Need A Saw

A metal piece under my desk. Irritating, bugs me whenever I cross my legs. Gives me blue blacks on the knees. I need a saw ...

Fruits Galore!

Happy dessert. So colourful and sweet. A yogurt to top off the healthy meal factor.

Tian Wai Tian Fish Head Steamboat

Not out of the sky, very close to the ground. Prefer the one at Beach Road. At least we tried it once.

I Should Have Assess The Risk Of Studying Risk Management

Just finished the Risk Management Workshop. Ok, so what did we learn from 3 long days? Risk Management is about Identify, Assess, Respond. Errr, uh-huh so why are students paying thousands to hear these 3 steps? I learned the same already in Prince2.

The professor was a disappointment. Well I wasn't expecting much in the first place since the nonsense of the individual assignment. But seriously he was reading off the workshop notes! Damn, I could read it myself thank you very much. I signed up for this elective to understand practical frameworks, tools and applications for risk management, not listen you go on and on about how "banks are useless, all you have to do is use 20 buzzwords" or "accountants have not a clue about risk" or "public sectors don't do risk management at all, it's all a lie". Dear professor, if I wanted to listen to a cynical old man complain about everything under the sun, I wouldn't pay for it, I expect to be paid for it!

I wasn't the only one suffering. A look around the class and you will find at the best of times about half are listening. On the dryer portions, everyone was just spaced out, eyes fixated on their laptop screen or simply snoozing. There wasn't anything to look at anyways, there were not workshop slides nor any engaging topic to hold our attention. It was either stare at this sad old man or read your emails or in the case of the persons beside me, surf the net. I did try my best to listen, I put my laptop away and tried to make the best of the sessions, while fighting off the sleepy bug.

So 3 painful days of listening to this old prick and not any better for it in terms of understanding how to manage risk. A lot of concepts and stories about how corporates didn't do it and how they end up in their bad state. But nothing really practical you can use to apply at the workplace. I suppose all these professors are just to market their consultancy services. They are not going to teach you how to do it, they just want to create 'awareness' that you have to do it, AND you should use their services ...

Risk management hinges on the awareness of it and whether your company's culture actually account for it. Imagine telling your bosses about risk and how we shouldn't do this or that or how we should spend extra monies to mitigate them ... the next thing you will find is the door out of the office. Most bosses are only interested in you helping them achieve their targets, its not about being professional and giving the best option, its about giving what other higher ups want to hear. So risk management is as useful as the management agenda. If they don't want to do something I'm sure they'll find a ton of risks and how dangerous it is. And if they are bend on doing something, all risk are shafted under the carpet. A tool of convenience. That's the route to success folks, management 101. 

La~La~La~ New Karaoke Entries

New entries into the Karaoke album.

周杰伦 & 温岚 -屋顶

五月天 - 恋爱Ing

许志安 & 许慧心 - 恋爱凭率

劉德華 - 我愛你

成龙 & 陈淑华 - 明明白白我的心

張學友 - 每天愛你多一些

李克勤 - 紅日

I've yet to master the first 10 but that doesn't mean we stop adding good songs. If I can sing half of the songs well, I can confidently join Meimei to stage a karaoke concert!

Hidden Stash - Plastic Round Toy Boxes

As usual, stash and hidden, hoping no one would notice. Packrat. Empty boxes. These are going into the recycling bin.

Flowers At Hillview

Dad and Mum's place. Big garden for planting flowers.

Shrooms Galore

Grow it yourself mushroom patches? Can they survive in humid Singapore?

@ Plaza Singapura Cold Storage

Esplanade - Colourful Children Art

Pretty art crafts by children. I love the colours.

@ The Esplanade

CNY Stickers

Stickers for 2013 CNY. Haven't taken them down yet. Maybe we could leave it and reuse for 2014's. 

Risky? Yeah It Sure Is Risky To Talk About Risk!

I'm supposed to be writing about my studies in the academy blog. But I would like to keep that mostly professional where possible and I think rants should be kept here instead. Rants are more emotional than logical.

I'm taking Risk Management as an elective module this term. Like any other modules, there is usually an individual assignment due before the workshop. So I've read through the whole study guide and wrote a piece on outsourcing options and associated risk. The result - 50/100 ... what the ... Checking on the discussion boards, there are folks appealing their results and asking if they could do another assignment for credits to pass the module. 

Coming back to mine, the professor's comments were something like "Succinct to say the least, there is very little on risk management". My first reaction was "What the ****, if I'm good at risk management I wouldn't be taking this elective now would I??! I'm here to learn, not to regurgitate knowledge I know well to get As on my MBA ..." About the last part, maybe thats what some smart people do, but that's them. But I did outline the project, identify the risk, assess them, rate them in an probability impact grid and propose mitigating avenues. Yeah it's not professionally done but hey, wake up ... that's why I'm taking this course ... to learn how to do it right!

Let's see how the workshop goes. I have very little expectations of the course now. The study guide and textbooks go on and on about the concepts and theories on risk management but very little on the application of the risk assessment methods. Hence I think I have every right to ask why in the world does the lecturer think students like myself, who has never done a risk evaluation piece in real workspace, is able to write on the application of such methods on a project. Sigh ... a few professors have their brains up their ass. This must be one of them.

Fish Soup

The cantonese make mean soup. Period.

Although Mama is not a born cantonese, but being married to one and living in Hong Kong for several years helped to hone her skills. And she is one amazing cook, I tease her sometimes that she could open her own restaurant and be the chief chef.

Now back to the soup. I love her fish soup. Its the real deal, cooked milky with fish bones and sweeten with tomatoes, white radish, apples and pears. We need to try our hand at this one day so we can make this often on weekends when Mama is not in town. One bowl of this and I can float in the air!

Ingredients
Ang Ko Li / 红鲷 / Red Snapper Fish Bone
Fresh Tomatoes or White Radish
Red Dates
Apple or Pear
Parsley
Onion
Ginger

Preparation
Wash the Ang Ko Li in hot water
Wok Fry with ginger till it turns yellow and crisp
Turn on large fire and pour in hot water
Let it boil till water turns milky
Transfer to soup pot and continue to boil
Put tomato in hot water to remove skin
Throw in the tomato, red dates, apple or pear, parsley, onion radish etc
Boil to serve

Fishhead Steamboat - Nam Wah Chong, Chiang, Chang?

My parents love Fishhead steamboat and would usually go to the neighbourhood kopitiam to get their fix. For me it's more of a curious thing in the lines of "Hmm yeah I like fish, so what's so nice about fishhead steamboat ... there are alot of people eating this ... should be nice, let's try ... maybe it's an acquired taste and I would fall in love with it after I eat the right ones ... etc" and it goes on and on. So it's been on my mind for some time and I'm always reminded of it when we drive by a fishhead restaurant after dinner at Beach Road market.

It just so happens that we were at the market one day a month ago and lo and behold, the market was closed for cleaning. Not wanting to drive around to look for another dinner spot, I suggested we try this corner shop I've always had my eyes on. We went in blind as to the menu and prices. Nam Wah Chong ... hmm I think I read about this somewhere, and given the crowd it must be good yah. And because we were here for the first time I didn't feel like spending too much and ordered the 'cheapest' fish - Red Snapper. Verdict, soup is fragrant, Meimei liked the yam, fish had lots of bones and not enough meat, expensive $50+ for the steamboat and a plate of vegetable.

Though we didn't want to eat at this place again, we were game for fishhead steamboat when John recommended this place diagonally across the junction. So today we are at Nam Wah Chang. Hmm the name looks so much the same. What gives? A little snooping on the web solved the mystery. 

ieatishootipost.sg (Apr 2011) - "Now there are a few Nam Wah Chang restaurants around and it may get quite confusing.  As far as the owner, Ah Chew, is concerned, his is the only original Nam Wah Chang which can trace its roots back to 1927.  There is another Nam Wah Chang over at Teck Chye Terrace which is run by his ex-wife.  Then there is a Nam Wah Chiang diagonally across the road from where he is.  That one is run by a friend (ex-friend really) of his who took over his previous shop space and did not bother to change the name of the restaurant when Ah Chew moved out."

Ahhh so now we know. We actually like the pirated version more than the original one! Maybe we were biased as we ordered a Pomfret this time. But at $113 for 5 pax its a steal. The soup was thick, lots of fish meat to go around, other side dishes were tasty, place was cooling and a little away from the dust of the road. Authentic or not, I would come back to this one if I want to have it again.

Karaoke Craze

Gonna start a new list for Karaoke songs! Meimei loves to sing and to accompany her I'm gonna source for songs I can sing. I used to have a good voice but years of smokings spoiled my vocal cords. My music sense is still there though and I could sing at the appropriate lower octaves when a song has high notes which I can't hit. I still hope I would get my range back one day.

So to start off I've briefly gone through my iTunes library and put together a short list of singable tunes. I've maybe only gone through 20-30% of the chinese songs so I'm sure there are more to add. As time goes by and when I work through further through the song list I'll add more. Preference was given to duets, which we can sign together, and songs which are easier on the throat ... we don't want to tire after just one song now do we. So the initial song list consist of:

1. 伍佰 - 与你到永久
2. 成龙 & 苏慧伦 - 在我生命中的每一天
3. 许志安 & 许慧心 - 爱情频率
4. 伍思凯 & 马玉芬 - 关于爱情
5. 许茹芸 & 阿穆隆 - 男人女人
6. 梁靜茹 & 光良 - 只能抱著你
7. 黎明 & 陈慧娴 - 依然是你
8. 許茹芸 & 熊天平 - 你的眼晴
9. 张宇 & 徐熙娣 - 傻瓜与野丫头
10. 葉蒨文 & 林子祥 - 選擇

Not bad for a start. I've built a playlist to listen to these so I can get the tune right and not make a fool of myself. Would we see an audiophile cover CD from Pokpok one day in the stores?? Hehe

Furniture Refresh - Dining Table Chairs Hunt

We've been in our 'new' home for 3 years and things are starting to wear and tear. Aircon aside (the damn thing was crap from day 1), I think the furnishings have lasted quite well. I mean you can't really compare to yesteryears when everything lasted 10-20 years. Those don't exist anymore ... you would be lucky anything last more than a year or two now given 99% of them are "Made in China".

So our dining chairs have started flaking few months ago. I have to confess that this might be my own fault. I accidentally spilled coffee all over the table and chairs. And to clean up the mess I used the floor wipes which may have contained anti-septic chemicals or something to that - it surely smelled so. I suspect the chemicals corroded the PVC leather and now there are patches all over a few of the chairs. 

Hence it's been on our mind to change new set of chairs though we weren't in a hurry, the old ones are still useable. We were at Ikea a few days ago for dinner and chanced on the Bernard chairs again. Now, we have been eyeing this since we saw it first time a year or two ago. But at $269 getting a set of six for the dining area would set us back at least $1,650. Even with the price we distinctly remembered this set though simply because it was very comfy. The cushion had this nice springy feel and the angle and height of the chairs gave me a good ergonomic 90 degrees on my knees when I sat down.

They have it in green now and Meimei jumped at them the moment she saw them. I offered that a combination of white and green would look really good. The whites ones though are a concern since they are likely to colour after awhile. Several online reviews mentioned that the plastic joints would turn yellowish after awhile and there was nothing you could do about it since cleaning it wouldn't turn it back. We are likely to go with all black. It's priced at $195 now so it's 'cheaper', but still pricier than normal ones. I supposed we could wait till the turn of the year, cross our fingers they still ship these and see if the price drops further. We'll continue to hunt for a set of chairs but I doubt we'll find something as fitting as these. We'll see :-)

Update 27 Sep 2013 - We were at Ikea again to look for little plant pots for the office. They have new colours for the Bernard chairs, love them! Since the initial hype, Meimei has calmed down and is now looking for chairs with high back. So I supposed we will be giving these a miss. Then again they might work well in the study ... my study chair has been flaking for the longest time. Well we'll see.