Pencil, Eraser, Ruler and Paper - Will be Relevant for a Long Time Yet.

In this fast paced, user friendly, mobile App dependent world. There are millions, no, billions of people surfing and using the Internet to buy, sell, post their lives, pretend to be someone else, practically living their lives on a second parallel universe called the social media. 
Think Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for English speakers, for the Chinese it is WeiBo, Wei Xin, QQ, Thai, Japenese and Korean prefer Line and the list is endless based on geographical region, ethinicity, cultural influence and even political leanings.   

I for one, am only halfway convinced that the use of digital applications are so useful for everyday life. Here are the reasons why I think the old school stationary are still and will still be relavent for a long time to come yet.

1. You can plan, erase, draw, postulate and just doodle on scraps of paper. There is NO PERMANENCE in drawing a plan, or an idea, and erasing or taking out the excess lines, thoughts and question marks just by using an eraser. True, you can use the electronic Paint software and save some trees, but the feeling of CONTROL at my fingertips is better with a pencil compared to a mouse or a stylus.

Maybe its a generation thing :) 

I was born and played with real kids from the neighbourhood, had real dogs,cats and a parrot REAL animals as pets, caught and fought our spiders, reared fighting fish, song birds, catching longkang fishes (that was a massive thrill there), digging for worms and using them as fish bait, the REAL DEAL. 

None of this imaginery stuff of Pokemon monsters, virtual cafes and Wechat zapped over and received monies. Modern day kids are so deprived nowadays 

2.  Paper, eraser and pencil do not need electricity of depend on your phone battery life. Need I say more ? 

3. The feeling of accomplishment that your picture, your work, your creative doodling, can be framed and you and only you have the satisfaction of holding, smelling the acrylic oils and canvas which the electronic paintboard does and will never have.

4. Finally, the feeling of crushing something is SO SATISFYING when you have completed it, I normally take the Sunday Sudoku out from the papers (much to my wife's irritation sometimes) and spend about 30 minutes to an hour to finish the most demanding (they call it Extreme Sudoku, the Daily Telegraph guys) and when I am done, I have GREAT JOY in crushing that small piece of newspaper implicitly saying :

" THERE, I HAVE OVERCOME ! " (small victory but nonetheless an accomplishment !) 

Again, perhaps its my nature and the fact that I was born in the generation of physical things and being in the real world, reading real paperback books and using pen, paper,pencil, eraser and all these stationery shops have to offer.

True the information and knowledge has never been easier, at the touch or swipe of our smartphones, and we have knowledge of practically anything. They say knowledge is power, well I say the use and the application of that knowledge is the REAL POWER.

Back at the local stationery shop, I must be their dream Gold Class Customer !!! 

Theory of Relativity and the Speed of Light

Lets recall a time from our elementary secondary physics class shall we ?  If you can recall the simple 3 variables relating to speed (velocity as a vector), distance and time  

                    Speed = Distance / Time       or       Speed x Time  = Distance 

Einstein theorised that an absolute number, called the speed of light, or the speed at which light travels is a finite number, 3 x 10 to the power of 8 metres per second. This speed is absolute (fixed). Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. 

Say you take a spacecraft and aim to fly to Mars. We have managed with our high technology to build a spacecraft which can fly to anywhere and can attain speed of light.

If you are in that rocket ship and as the speed of that craft increases so much that it hits the speed of light, for the same distance (observed from say the Earth), time ultimately slows down since the Distance is a constant (Euclidean geometrics).

Refer to the picture above ;  (reference : Relativity for Dummies ;  just to let you know I am not a genius !)

Therefore for someone to shine a laser beam inside the spacecraft and get it reflected from the mirror at the top of that spacecraft and caught in a laser receiver, the time taken for that to happen is t ; which is basically 2 d divided by c (speed of light or laser) ; that time taken INSIDE the spacecraft. Lets call this time t  

For an observer who sees this event from somewhere outside the spacecraft, he / she would have to take into the account the speed of that spacecraft, which is c (assuming it approaches the speed of light). So for the actual distance is 2 D which accumuates the speed x time of that spacecraft (see picture).

As can be seen from the drawing above, then the total distance travelled is 2D ; 2D divided by c (speed of light) will give you T  which in the observer's world is larger than t. 

Hence, the only summary I can conclude is that t is smaller than T, or hence the t in the spacecraft moves slower than the T in the observer's world.

Hmm.... 

You will age in Earth years but if you were inside that rocket ship, you will not feel that time has actually slowed down, it is time as it happens.

This I believe is the concept of general relativity which Einstein postulated in the early 1920s. 



   

Does Time as we know it, move in a Linear, Exponential, or Random Manner ?

This is another postulation which I have. Bizarre as it may sound, the events leading to the missing (so far) aircraft MH 370 which has thrown up so many conspiracy theories that I thought of my own wacky theory.

See, the concept of time as we know it. While we experience it to be moving in a linear and one directional manner, meaning, only going forward and to us, it appears that it is moving daily and measured and calibrated according to the watches and based on Greenich Mean Time,which in previous millenia, was based on the time taken for the Earth to make 1 revolution around the Sun. I believe Copernicus came to that theory and the Arabs then make Sun dials also so as to get a grasp of this 'dimension'. 

Anyway, coming back to the missing plane theory. What happens if the plane had been taking a path in time, and while for the rest of the world, time moved into an elliptical manner due to some event, but the plane continued in a straight path somehow moving but no one noticing that time had indeed slowed down inside the plane, so for all intents and purposes the plane is still moving along its flight path but in another dimension totally removed from the time as we know it. 

  

So the rest of the world's time is on the elliptical pathway and the plane is on a 'straight' pathway. So that would mean that somewhere in the future, the plane MAY meet with the current time as we know it. Did something make the plane fly at the speed of light ? 

No one inside would be none the wiser. But the rest of the world would react with astonishment. Einstein postulated that as any object approaches the speed of light, time slows down, the stuff of science fiction movies past and present, that the spacemen and women would come back only having felt they were away 2 months in space but the time on earth would be in decades.

Just my overworked wacky brain on overdrive. 

Thoughts about the AfterLife ; Heaven and all that

I had a dream some time ago. Not too long ago, but I recall I was sleeping in the attic of my house when I dreampt about the afterlife.   These thoughts are mine only. So do bear with me.

Some questions came into my mind. If our loved ones are gone to Heaven, then when it is our time to go, what age will we 'see' them ? Will they be babies, infants, young adults, mature, old or nearly dying ?

This applies to our parents, our grandparents,relatives, friends who died young, and the lot of people who have passed on before us.

In my mind's eye, in the afterlife the dimension called 'time' does not exist ; the physical being does not exist. So the concept of a person as 'matter' does not exist. Only the spirit which can transcend time and move from ages past, present and future can and will be omni present.

So we can possibly teleport from one age to another in the spiritual realm and see our parents and grandparents in their different ages and stages ? How about the times when they weren't married and you and I were not even born ? Will there be some understanding or do we all go into a 'room' at exactly the ages we passed on ?  

If there is no birth how can there be death ??

Are we in the present realm ? Or is there another parallel universe or universes which occupy diffferent zones which teleport us.

This can explain why aeroplanes, ships, people mysteriously disappear for decades or even hundreds of years and somehow reappear now, in the future or in the past 

These aspects of mortality and the fragility of life has sent many millions of people into group think and trying to find meaning to life.

For me, the meaning of life is that it is totally random. To understand it, one needs to have a full understanding of the complex human mind and we are only at 15% - 20% of grasping how our supercomputer works. Once we get to near 100%, perhaps we can fully understand what we were put here for. 

Comprende ?    

    

Happy Birthday Andrew ! 25th Oct ; 21 already. Fully Grown Man !

Photo taken in Dec 2009 Alexandria Port, Egypt 

The relentless march of time goes unabated, and we will one day return to our Maker. My younger son, Andrew, turns 21 years old today. How time flies ! While I am happy to see him spread his wings, the time has passed all to suddenly and we can never recover it. Love your children unequivocably for the binds that keep us together will last a lifetime. 

Just as my parents have gone before me and I will one day face my destiny, I am glad to have a pretty fortunate life. So I wish for my young son, Andrew to go forth and do his utmost with the world at his young unfettered mind. He will face downfalls, trips, challenges, triumphs, loves, losts, joys and sorrows but through it all he will emerge stronger - that is my wish for this young man, just as many millions of young men go forth into adulthood.

Taken Outside the Valley of the Kings, Egypt 2009 

Seize the day young man, for the day will turn to night, the spring will soon turn to summer,autumn and then winter. We will have turned one full circle. The relentless march of time goes on unabated. Whether we have made a mark is not for us to decide. But we can surely give this life a 'Go'.  Make the fullest of your life. We only have one chance.   

Are You A Scrapper ?? Hard Work and Diligence only takes you so far

The Sydney Opera House is Iconic but Smaller than eveyone thinks in real life 

I have discovered that to get somewhere, I must 'scrap' and fight tooth and nail for survival. That is the only way to move forward. To be nice means people can and will take advantage of you if you are not careful. Hence it is always with guarded optimism that I manage my outlook as well as project my aspirations accordingly. 

There are opportunities out there to people who are willing to sacrifice their time, their 'face' and their skills whatever that may be. To take it easy and cruise or depend on the kindness of other people is pathetic, especially if I am able bodied and willing to learn new things, even at my age (55).

The Boomerang - what goes around comes around 

I am now scrapping for everything and anything which means that time is limited and opportunities go to the most hardworking or persistent of all. I will ensure that at the end of the day - I will win that opportunity. Scrappy play in football means both sets of players from both teams are fighting for the ball - for to win the ball gives the player and hence his team the opportunity to score goals. Hence, scrappy play while necessary can be disguised once the fluidity, skill and the willingness of the players to take calculated risks to push forward the ball. Hence in business it is like that, being nice or waiting for things to happen sometimes or many a times is like waiting for the durian to fall. I prefer to have a process whereby the opportunities are ever increasing and the orders keep flowing  orders.   

Never stop improving ; keep trying and get better 

For too long I have been in a rut, just playing according to the old rules of the game. I decided to work harder, think more and changed to rules to suit my needs. That way I an dictate to a large extent, the cashflow, the potentials and the profits. Its a very complicated fluid process with no end in sight. Only challenges and facing up to each and every one head on and moving on. To sit on a problem is dragging the issue 1 more day. 

Kill issues once and for all and start afresh, for there is no time to waste or wishing how things 'could have been'.

Think, Do, Act, Moderate and the cycle repeats itself endlessly.

There will be Bad Days

                                      Sam Man Zhai at east Coast Park Beach 1964



There will be bad days, so be prepared for the storm of criticism that comes your way. Deal with it and become a better person for it. To resist and do a "Mexican standoff' just because it is your life, I think is manifestly stupid and sometimes self pride or ego affects your thinking and behaviour. Denial never benefitted people and they pay the price of it somewhere down the road in time. 

I have been pushing my business for 15 years now, toiling at the orders big and small. It is quite something to go and do something if it does not reward me monetarily. So I must be clear what I went into at the beginning of the journey. If I do not see a positive or net profit at the end of it, I think it is best for me to shut and call that  business a failure. 

It is not about the romantic notion of being an entrepreneur and the 'fake news' press many times romanticises and plays up the wild rides of the Bill Gates, Elon Musks and Jack Mas. They must be truly special, driven, and ego maniacal to push through an agenda for only they have the ability to take on massive financial risk, create that public persona and create demand or forsee an insatiable demand for their 'product'  

Bad days are here as my boyhood team lost 2 - 0 at home to Watford. Nuno now has to take stock, analyse what happened, why the lapse in concentration and decide whether to drop players, how to motivate the team further and whip them into a positive force for the next match next week. Its a bad day at the office but not the end of the world.

Bad days are necessary because I will savour and appreciate the good days even more when the deal comes in unexpectedly or when the work is so plentiful I need to come back and work on the weekend.

Its the balance in life. Deal with it wisely and I will be better for it in the end. 

Words to Live By

This 'Ah Ha' moment happened to me after a hard 6 km run last Saturday, 13th Oct to be exact. Here are the starkest unadulterated thoughts of mine : 

         
                                                      Family Portrait circa 1963 

1. What Drives Me : Living up to the good name of my parents. They have gone, but not in my mind's eye. They are there watching. 

2. The Sum of All My Fears : I don't fear death as it is the end of life. Everyone dies. I fear that I have been a lazy has - been ; a good for nothing. In my own mind. Nothing 
else or what other people say does not matter.

3. The Sum of My Accomplishments : is not for me to determine. So I don't worry too much about it. My plans in the past, some have made it, many have not. But I continue to plan and strive to be a better person. 

4. Will I be remembered ? : Why did I write this blog then. Ha Ha. It doesn't matter when i am gone. It surely doesn't matter when I am alive. If I want to be remembered I would like to be remembered as a good son, a good father to 2 great kids, husband to a wonderful wife and I did all the things I thought would make a difference to the people I come across. 

Timed Run 8th Dec 2015 - full marathon

It was never about making pots of money, I may have been misled in my youth and early young adulthood, but no my values have changed. Its surely not about being the best leader, or best runner, or karateka.

In the end, it doesn't matter for people will think and decide what they want to think about me and the life I led.

5. Will I 'succeed'  ??  It really depends on my life plans, whatever enigmatic energy I have expended into this life, industriousness,resilience, persistence and leadership of a few good people. 

6. Will I be Happy ? Absolutely. Its all a matter of my outlook in life. I hope I will have numerous bouts of happiness and I am able to handle those times well. 

Parc Guell - Barcelone 2016 

                                                     !!  CARPE DIEM !!

    
     
    

My First trip to Europe II of II - Reflections

feeding the pigeons at Trafalgar Square 

These are among one of the earliest photos I have of myself, apart from the days when I was a brown baby and 'sam man zhai' (street kid in Cantonese as my Por Por or grandmother would fondly say of me). 

We lived in a large 30,000 foot post colonial bungalow at 6 Adis Road, Singapore 9. When the days were long with play, barefoot in the parks, on roads, playing football at the next door cement floored playground belonging to the Methodist Girls School.

My days of childhood, from birth till about 14 or 15 were in 1 word "carefree". The entire era was set in upon a glorious backdrop of emerging Singapore, from the horrors and abject humiiation of the 2nd World War, the Japanese Occupation of British Colony Singapore. Then after the 2nd Wordl War, there was a strong anti-colonialist movement leading to the formation of the Federation of Malaya together with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.

All of these historical events went over my infancy and early childhood days. All I worried about was whether I could score goals against the next door boys and playing with our 3 dogs, Jippy, Mickey and Scamper. 

Fast forward to 1974 and as I fondly look back at these times, I am struck at the innocence of my outlook and my face was aglow and I was rather a plump kid. I had a joyous trip, I vaguely remember the Greece trip (most of the sights were ruins ha ha) but London was a fascinating eye opener for a young lad like me. I immediately wanted to be 'English'. Yes I was naive and stupid for a while. This is called finding out oneself 

Several events stood out from that trip, I strongly remember standing at Trafalgar Square and feeding the pigeons, it was a cold day but the sun was shining. The country was less cosmopolitan than today and the red double decker buses and the black beetle looking London Cabs stood out. In addition, I strongly remember we stayed a couple of nights at the Strand - which was considered 5 star in those days. The service was impeccable to my pre teenage mind.

Outside St Paul's Cathedral 

My father was a lovely, brilliant man. Slow to anger at home, he led by quiet example. My trip to Europe was my luck as the first born. Before my 12th birthday, he took me to visit Greece and England, his 'motherland' as I teased him. He was an Anglophile, that of the "Sun never sets on the British Empire" mentaility which was  mercilessly put down by globalization and the rise of mutlipolar societies each trumpeting their strengths. From socialism, to social democrats, Communists, to dictatorships each one was careening into the future.

My father Geoffrey studied in Grays Inn London, was called to the Bar in the early 50s and still had many English friends from his undergraduate days. I recalled we stayed in a couple of his friend's places and ate some very mild curry. Ha ha !  

In those days (early 1970s) the British Empire's influence was but a small number of countries still considered 'colonies', Hong Kong was about the last to go in 1997 and was handed over to the Chinese, who promptly administered the "1 country 2 systems" rule whereby the Chief Executive of the country was someone approved by Beijing. 

Indeed the white man's soft power influence has been greatly diminished. Especially since the start of the 21st Century.  Good riddance. 

The number of congregation goers numbers in the thousands on Sunday 

My first trip to Europe June 1974 I of II

Outside the Pantheon June 1974 with my Papa 

I believe around June of 1974, my Dad took me to visit Greece, the cradle of civilzation and England, his 2nd home so as to indoctrinate me into the fading glories of Western Europe. As a pre teen, I was a precocious chap probably thinking I knew it all when in fact I knew next to nothing ! 

From the dim recesses of my memory, I can recall Greece and Athens at that time being somewhat overcast, and we visited the Pantheon, as well as some of the other relics. I recall trying to look like my Dad but with no success. 

Feeding the Pigeons at Trafalgar Square with a bobby in the background

In England, he was much more at 'home' and I recall us visiting the homes of Brian Grieg, as well as seeing his sons Jamie and another. It was and is a hazy recollection. Sometime in the '80s Jamie came to our house and I still have a photo of his visit. We also had some dinner at some walk-up apartment of my Dad's and we had some pretty bland curry !

The highlight of the trip, was the visit to Trafalgar Square, seeing Nelson's column (he Lord Nelson was credited with winning the sea battle against Napolean and died on the ship during the height of his victory). The pix above shows me feeding some unamed pigeon with the famed British Bobby in the background. Those days, Asians seemed and felt like 2nd class as we were not that numerous in UK and hence the feeling of "not there yet" was apparent. Times sure have changed. 

One More Hurrah - Paris 2019

This was the marathon done in 2014 ; I had the foresight to have the videotape footage for reflection.

I have signed up for next year's Paris marathon and it will take a special determination from me to complete it within 5 hours. 

It is now beginning November and I have barely 5 months to get into shape. I have been on an intermittent fasting diet these past few months with limited success. The food to avoid is carbohydrates, and alcohol. While these are identifiable, they are sure as hell difficult to cut back from an already seasoned carbohydrate junkie.

I must and will do it !!! 

Impressions of my trip to Doha Qatar 2017 and 2018

Its hot in the desert, mainly sand storms and dry arid air. 

I visited Doha in July 2018, this was my 3rd trip there having had some business in the last 2 years and I was there for a followup visit. The last 2 times, I came it was first in winter, and then in early spring. The weather was cool in winter, and in spring it was about the weather we would experience in Singapore, about 30 deg C. 

This year, in July when I went, it was a scorching 50 deg ! The air was dry, arid and even at night, the temperature felt like 40 + degrees, like living in an oven ! The population of Doha is  made up roughly 25 % of locals and 75% foriegners. There is alot of construction going on, in the light of the upcoming 2022 World Cup being held there in 4 short years !

Dining Al Fresco at the Corniche, Smoking Shisha, Downtown Financial Centre. 

During the winter months, like Nov - January, it is pleasant and cool, sometimes going down to mid teens in the evening. When I first  visited Doha, my host was gracious enough to invite me to try the Arabian food, and we also went down to the Corniche (resembling an English fort by its architecture) which was by the waterfront. The waterfront itself was lined with numerous dhows - something from the old days when the only industry of Qatar was from pearl fishing. My driver and I managed to get a tourist visit on a dhow which brought us from the harbour section and we sailed onto the new downtown section, with all the modern buildings aglow in the night.

The Corniche (English fort) houses many shops, eateries, and art galleries for tourists and visitors from the region. It is a nice first stop for the new visitors to the country. Currency is the Qatar Riyal which is converted roughly by USD 1 = QR 2.5.

Janoos and I dining Arabian style ; from the floor 

The country's largest export is Natural Gas, having the world's largest reserves of natural gas under its desert. Thus, the GDP per capita for Qatar is practically the highest in the world. The total population is only 2.5 million, with less than 1 million being Qataris. The rest are expatriates or foriegn workers involved mainly in construction and infrastructure projects. There are many nationalities working in Qatar, and during my 12 days doing some project work there, I met people, mainly specialists from more than 10 different countries. 

Our finished product proudly functioning and providing valuable data for the research scientists. 

For Asians, the 2 most populous citizens are Filipino and the Indians. Filipinos are mainly engaged in the retail and services sector and I saw plenty working in the malls, the hospitals and food establishments. Indians are mainly from the state of Kerala, apparently it is only a 2.5 hour flight from Kerala airport to Doha, and they are mainly engaged in construction projects, such as the upcoming Mass Rapid Transit train lines, the new stadia (for the upcoming 2022 World Cup) and maintenance of their many municipal facilities (water desalination, parks, waterfront and general maintenance).

I view the country as opening up rapidly for foreign investment and the time is ripe for investors to cast their nets for the myriad of opportunities in this rapidly developing region. 

My old house

Circa 1975 the house on the left 

This is the picture of my old house, taken somewhere during the '70s in the central part of Singapore.

We had a manual gate, white in colour, with grilles on the living room area, and a split level between the living and dining room which was in total about 400 ft2. The kitchen and the backyard area was probably another 800 ft2. Outside we had a big garden of perhaps 1000 ft2. Looking back it was  a huge sized house for modern day Singapore. One the second floor, we had my parent's bedroom, with the big balcony, my room which is on the extreme left, with a small balcony, one other mid level room (where my Uncle Leong used during his recuperation from a stroke in the early '80s.) and the back bedroom, where my brother John stayed.

The roof was made of terracotta tiles and kept us cool and was leak free - most of the time. I did not recall we ever had any leak issues on the second floor. 

In the early 2000, my parents and our family redeveloped the house into 2 which was a lasting legacy for the next generation, John and myself. I will never forget and appreciate the work done by David Mitchell who introduced the idea to my parents and we were the first in the entire estate to redevelop the house into 2 semi-detached houses and in the next 20 years many houses followed suit.

My Dad Geoffrey, brother John, Andrew and I at Imperial Treasure in 2007

My Mum and Pa, I salute you for your foresight and knowledge for indeed you gave us, the children a better life and a decent abode for our families. For this we are forever grateful and thankful.

Thinking of you ever so often.