Visit from an Australian Musician

My friend Suresh,dropped into Singapore last week and here is a photo of us.
Suresh is the guy with the beard and Richard is his ex-colleague in a company specialising in vision and number plate recognition with business is Asia Pacific.
Suresh is living out his dream by working for Nokia in Gold Coast Australia
and playing the tabla with an Australian singer in certain Indian food estalishments,acting in plays (Othello),writing sonnets as well as rock climbing, running, cycling and many other things.
Quite a different lifestyle from your 9 to 5 working person with family or living in Singapore.

Crisis ? What Crisis ?

My son Andrew, turned 11 on October 25th this past week, so HE arranged his own party by inviting 4 friends over to our house for a) Xbox 360, b) Play Station Portable and c) Maple Story gaming for 4 hours.
It was very timely as the last time he celebrated was in 2006 and that was
a testosterone filled party (about 10 boys / teenagers) whereby his brother Noel invited all the neighbourhood friends and it was a riot !
This time around, he sent out Personal Invitation Cards, asked his friends what they were giving him (at this age it is OK to be impolite !) which were mainly Maple Story cards and stuff and it was Game On from 2pm to 6pm.
When you are 0- 12 years old you are in La La Land and everything is in serach of fun.
Come to think of it, us men are in La La Land even when we are 40+ !!.

HAPPY BITRHDAY ANDREW !

One Night in Bangkok - Oct 16th 2008

On a short business trip to Bangkok, I suggested we try something out of the ordinary,which was to visit the site of the protestors from the Peoples Alliance for Democracy or PAD, who want the Somchai Wongsawat led PPP Govenment out of office as they allege that the PPP are proxies for the ousted Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra. The earlier Prime Minister, Mr. Samak Sundaravaj had resigned barely 2 months ago.

Tawatchai and I went at 9pm on Thursday night with some sense of trepidation, adventure and curiosity fired up in us as barely 1 week ago on October 7th, the 2 rival groups had clashed and the police had intervened leaving 2 dead, and hundreds wounded,some critically. The protestors had camped in Government House and had put up barricades, such as tyres, barriers and sandbags (See picture). They were already there for 114 days !. The atmosphere was almost like a carnival and there were stalls selling Hand Clappers, Bandanas and T shirts saying "Change Politics Thailand 2008" in Royal Yellow,Black and White.

Walking towards the main stage, you could see people sleeping on the mats and inside tents,inside the compound of Government House.There were many big screens showing the main Opposition speakers like Sonthi and others making their speeches.Thousands of unused water bottles were piled up. There were tents offering food and water for all protestors and as you approached the main stage, you were frisked for any concealed weapons. Interestingly all the people in the compound were volunteers from the local Universities or people linked to the Opposition parties,ordinary working folk and lots of elderly people. The Police and Army kept their distance, at least 2 - 3 kms and the Army compounds housing the elite Army was all quiet.

There were reminders of the deaths, 2 dummies were laid on the ground to resemble those fallen, and I was humbled to witness the very tolerant Thai people making their voices heard. How will this all end ?

Thoughts on Financial Crisis - What about the "Little People"

As I was having my morning coffee at Starbucks today,I felt I had to put in my 2 cents worth for the "little people" as Sebastian put it. The people who are working
day in day out for their take-home pay and struggle to make ends meet. That is
probably about 90% of the general population at large. Spare a thought about :

1. The retired couple who lost as much as $250,000 when they were approached by the
Bank's Relationship Manager in a 'Capital Guaranteed' Minibond Investment fund.

2. The workers who are seeing inflation going up as much as 10% per year for basic
necessities like eggs,rice,vegetables,poultry.

3. Oil prices fluctuating up and down and people giving up their cars for public
transport.

4. More and more companies will go under, credit will be tighter,more unemployment
will be upon us and even more people will be pushed down to the 'newly poor'.

As my friend puts it, "it will all come to pass", the world at large has had 2 World Wars,Great Depression,Oil Price Hike in 70s, SARS,Asian Tsunami,9-11, multiple global recessions. We are still around.

Be patient,take stock,take a long term investment view. Don't worry,be happy.

I don't drive a Ferrari so I don't need to feel bad when I am forced to sell
something which I don't have.

Pose Running

This is a great "how to run without injuries" book which I have incorporated
as my key reference running manual. The author is Dr. Nicholas Romanov, a Russian turned American citizen.
The essence of Pose Running is to run on the 'ball' of the foot, that is, the area just behind the toes and use the elasticity of that area to bounce off and from there on,to propel forward as if running down an inclined slope.
Many people run with the heel hitting the ground first which is the cause of many heel and ultimately hip injuries so the Pose run should be practised the following :

1. Maintain a slightly tilted forward stance-as if you are about to tip over
2. Back to as straight as possible
3. After your body's centre of gravity has tilted enough, you will be forced to
move or fall on your face, that is the time to propel forward
4. Run

I tried the Pose Run for last year's marathon and achieved my best time ever
without any major cramping. Verdict : It works ! Thank you Nicholas !