Wurzburg

                                      2  karatekas at the ready ; notice the different 'ready for combat' styles

      Meet my new found friend Danail from Bulgaria, he is the boss of the company representing in Bulgaria for my principal Weiss. Coincidentally, we both share the same passion for karate, and Danail has trained for 6 years with the Kyokushin school of fighters and only since last year with the Shotokan school of karate in Bulgaria.

      The Kyosushin school is heavy into free sparring or kumite and Danail has had his rib broken from a fight, amongst other injuries. It is a full contact sport, so injuries are common. Shotokan is another contact form of karate, although international competitions penalise full contact, there are 'players' who go all out in their enthusiasm to score a point.

       Shitoryu branch which I am practising is quite free flowing, although the free sparring is more of light contact than full contact.  This photo was taken when we were going up to the castle in Wurzburg.
Good promotional shot for a movie I must admit.  

A meal fit for a prince ; Presentation, Setting and Taste

                                        Dum chicken Bryani, with ginger tea, yoghurt and condiments

           When I went for the Sales training recently in Germany, I had a free day on the first day of my arrival to settle in and catch up on sleep. I took a 'red eye' flight or one which took off near midnight and arrived early in the morning the next day. Owing to Germany time being 6 hours behind Singapore time, I arrived at roughly 6.15 am on the Sunday morning.

           Upon early check-in and freshening up, I decided to head out for lunch at this lovely little north Indian restaurant along Ludwigstrasse called (what else) India Restaurant. The fare was typcially north Indian food catered by an Indian family who have resided in Giessen for 2 generations already, and spoke perfect German (to me anyway). I decided to opt for the Chicken Bryani and was surprised at the presentation - see picture above.

          The hot plate was delivered first, then the condiments, and then came the side dish like yoghurt for digestion and finally the chicken rice (bismati rice covering the chicken which is cooked inside the rice) which was a delight to see, smell and of course, to eat.Presentation was excellent,aroma was there, and the taste was up to expectations, and even for a small town like Giessen, it has excellent Indian fare. This is the globalised world I am expecting and experiencing.

          It was a wonderful departure from the mass market Indian food which I have come to expect in Singapore, of course I can get excellent Indian food and well presented too, but for the price I paid,in EUROS (around 18), it was a lovely meal, in my opinion, fit for a prince.

          Enjoy the weekend.
 

One Global 'Family'

Left to Right : me, Anders (Denmark), Keven (Australia)

       The annual International Sales Meeting has finished 2 weeks ago, presentations were made, discussions were conducted, dinners were eaten and much beer, wine and spirits were drunk by the representatives of the principal of my company, Weiss Technik, in Lindenstruth, Giessen and Wurzburg. A sincere note of thanks and appreciation to the hardworking backroom staff for arranging such a meeting every single year since 2003. 

       One of the best things I take away from such meetings is the sense of comradeship from all the various reps in the world, from South America (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil), Europe (too many to name), to Asi(again in excess of 10). The reps whom we have known for at least 4 - 5 years now, are like our distant family or 'cousins' and we look forward to meeting them and checking on how things are in their distant and not so distant lands as well as their families.

        We swap 'war stories' and tales of funny and not so funny incidents together (its 5 days to 1 week for many of the reps) and genuine friendships are made and I hope, treasured during our older years. Drinking, and its excesses are only reserved for this occasion for me, so its a 'once in a year' thing for me, but in the spirit of the family reunion, I say, why not ? 

 

        Anders, Keven, Danail, Miriana, Ian, Tibor, Milo, Renan, Fumio, Tamas, Alex, Meike, Flo, Andy, Vincent, and the one and only Frenchman, Herve - its been a great week, lets go get the orders and till we meet again. 

Tribute to Freddy Mercury - Barcelona

Done sometime in 1989, here's the late great Freddy Mercury and Monserrat Caballe with the theme song for the 1992 Olympics held in where else, Barcelona.

Barcelona 2011 Champions League Champions - Again

Barcelona - Manchester United UCL FInal 28.05... by iNfRaS0NiC

A classic win by Barcelona, no doubt about it, the best team in Europe for 2011. Skills, talents, teamwork, passing they are the best. The goal by Messi and Villa are almost unbelievable, full of skill, power and positioning.

A Teenage Suicide in Singapore

     On 15th May 2011, Krystal Mizoguchi was found dead beside an HDB block in Ang Mo Kio. The cause of death was suicide. She was only 18 years old. Born to Japanese and Singapore parents, she came from a single parent household when her parents  divorced when she was very young. Obviously teen suicides in Singapore are again on the rise, and she had kept a blog where she had described herself as a typical teenager, full of angst. When I reading her blog, in hindsight, I felt, that apart from a psychiatrist, I could not distinguish whether she was just venting her daily frustrations or really reaching over a 'tipping point'.

     I managed to read the last few entries of her blog, and it spelled out how she felt she was a loser, and called her results a 'failure'. She did poorly for her PLSE (Primary School Leaving Examinations), messed up her 'O' levels and 'xxxked up' (her words) for her 'A' levels. As such, she missed the cutoff for her desired course in the Polytechnic and  making it into the National University of Singapore. She cited her poor results from school as her major failure in life. 

    The news report also stated she had some 'relationship problems' probably with her boyfriend or family but did not elaborate. 

     As a father of two teenage boys, I can attest that the education system in Singapore does indeed stress every child academically. The boys have to juggle with school work, CCA and social time, plus family outings on the weekends plus many distractions from their time nowadays such as the social media, Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Skype and what not. Its a far more complex a life they lead than what I or my peers lived through when we were teens in the 70s. We only had colour TV, a Macdonalds (1 only in Singapore), movies and simple plain fun in 1976-1980. Life was uncomplicated and unfettered then.  

     However, seeing this sad story above must remind me and all the readers here, that althought academic results  are important, the aim of getting a degree is also important, having a sense of self-worth, a stable and supportive family, friends one can confide in, religion, and an optimistic outlook are MOST IMPORTANT. There are several non-profit organisations one can turn to if one is deeply troubled like Samaritans of Singapore with 24 helplines but the issue of face in our Asian society is always our major stumbling block. Who wants to admit they screwed up, or messed things to gigantic proportions ? But bear in mind, we all are humans, and humans make mistakes.  

     "It takes a village to raise a child" - African proverb ; still so relevant today.

    In Krystal's case, her failure to enter the local University caused her to spiral to depression,plus (possibly) parental neglect and relationship problems may have resulted in her taking this drastic action.  It will be go down as another sad statistic in our increasingly complex and stressful world we now live in.  What a waste.   

In Germany for a week of presentations, meetings and socialising

                                                   At the townpark in Giessen in 2009

I am back in Germany for 6 and 1/2 days for meetings, presentations, discussions and rounds of social dinners provided by our gracious principals, Weiss of Germany. This is a once every year affair, where all the agents from all parts of the world are invited to share their experiences in the sales, after sales and service of the world renowned brand which is practically the top brand name of its niche industry.

My companies (previous and present) have been honoured to be their sole distributor for the Weiss brand for close to 20 years (18 actually) and we have seen the many people, whom we treat as our distant and not so distant family every year as we share the ups and downs of selling the product in our respective territories.

Stay tuned for more posts on Germany this week.