How do you tell if a stall or a restaurant serves good tasting and value for money food ?

By the length of its queue of course ! 

           I have reached the age where I feel that life is too short to be drinking cheap wine, eating lousy and fast food and wasting precious time on pandering to other people's expectations. Food, which is tasty, should also (ideally) contain as little pork fat, ghee (animal fat), butter, and as little reused cooking oils as possible. It should also have some fibre, and offer as lean a cut of meat as possible offering protein, calcium and some carbohydrates. As little processed food, like nitrites, sodium phospates and preservatives as possible.


          Also, I try to eat everything in moderation, and drink as many as 10 glasses of water per day.


          Nutrients would be from fresh fruit and vegetables, plus my daily dose of health supplments.


           That would leave me with steamed fish, fresh fruits, muesli, and certain high end restautants which  cost up to $50 per person just for 1 meal !  I am joking of course. I do enjoy hawker food, but have abstained totally from the following due to the high amounts of fats and oils :


a) Char kway teow
b) Oyster omelette
c) Mutton soup (Soup Kambing)
d)  Most lab dishes 
e) Curries (limited to perhaps 1 x a month)
f) Fast food like KFC, Old Chang Kee, Macdonalds, and Buger King


        As I approach the big 5 - 0, I think, a complete overhaul of my eating preferences and dietary habits are due. 


        Health is indeed wealth. Seize the Day. Carpe Diem.  

Easter Sunday - a misnomer or wrong choice of title

Today is the day Christians around the world celebrate the ascension of Jesus Christ from the dead. He was crucified on a Friday (Good Friday), for no apparent reason by the Roman occupiers of Israel and died, entombed. 


On the Sunday, 2 disciples and Mary Magdelene went to the tomb to clean it, to their amazement, the tomb door made of solid rock was moved aside and the wrappings around his body were strewn inside.


He appeared in front of many people people before he went up to Heaven, and that is why Christians around the world celebrate his rebirth or Resurrection. So in actual fact, it is called Resurrection Sunday. 


Easter happens to be a pagan (no religion) festival which occurs at the start of each Spring,parents hide the chocolate eggs for their kids to find  and enjoy. It was a convenient way to coincide Easter with Resurrection Sunday, as it as easier to pronounce I guess.   

Budapest visit 3 years ago

Tibor and Tunde

In June 2009, my wife and I visited Budapest on the invitation of our friend Tibor Csombordi, who is the boss of the company Amtest, Hungary. It was after our 4 days visit to Paris, and Budapest was raining, unfortunately. We arrived by Maglev Air, the national airline, and were picked up at the airport by our friends. 

                                                                   Chain Bridge  

 Our hosts, Tibor and Tunde, were wonderful guides and they brought us to St.Anne's      church in downtown Budapest, and later to the Chain Bridge overlooking the Danube river. Hungary is fast developing and they have many lovely places to visit, such as Lake Balaton,the downtown Budapest market and up to the Buda castle.

Budapest or Buda - Pes! is so called, because, the rich nobles lived on the high point on the south of the river, called Buda, while the poorer people lived by the river's edge, or Pes!,

Signs of the 1967 uprising, when Hungary was part of the USSR, and the holes were caused by  machine guns

In 1967 there was a Spring Uprising in Hungary, which was bloodily put down by the Soviets as Hungary was part of the then USSR which has now been broken up into many undependent countries. The memories of that uprising are still fresh, as many Hungarians still hold on to their Communist beliefs even though it has been almost 20 years since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

                   

Vietnam 37 years after the Vietnam War

Kannan outside the Basillica, modeled after the Notre Dame in France

          This is a revisit of Ho Chi Minh city, which I did with my colleague Kannan last year, sometime in May if I recall correctly. This was the 2nd visit for me, and I noticed that while the traffic was just as horrible as the first time around, there was evidence of more high end cars such as the Porsches and Mercedes Sports cabriolets.


          The country has developed very quickly after the 1997 Asian Crisis, whereby the Military Government has allowed lassaisz faire business to operate in a free market fashion.There are many tourist attractions in and around Ho Chi Minh city, such as the Banh Tenh market, the Cu Chi Tunnels which housed the Freedom Fighters or Viet Cong, the monuments celebrating Marxism and the Reunification Palace (see below).

The people of Vietnam are a proud people, and history will show that they won the war against the major superpower of the day, USA, against superior technology, firepower,chemical weaponry and sometimes downright genocide. As stated so eloquently by Marlon Brando in his epic Apocalypse Now, he said something to this effect :


" the side which can embrace the horrors of the war will win "


        War is dirty, horrific and tragic. Whoever can break through the psychological barrier of sanity and embrace or accept the insanity of the deeds done, even though their are many Rules of Engagement during war, as stated in the Geneva Convention, will ultimately prevail.


         After my last visit to Ho Chi Minh, and visiting the Vietnam War Museum, viewing the horrific torture chambers and prisons which the US army had and illtreated the Vietcong, all in the name of 'freedom and democracy', I had a major paradigm shift, or an 'Ah Ha !' moment.


         In the name of freedom and democracy,there are countries controlling other smaller ones for their ultimate political,social or business agendas. Its never about 'democrary' or 'freedom', unfortunately. 


        Look at the USA, it is technically bankrupt, its leaders are chosen from bipartisan parties either the Republican or the Democrat Party, and the leaders have to make good on the promises they gave to their backers who funded them during the election run-up. Is this a good thing ?  Definately not. They may even push though populist policies which seem good for the short run, and in the long run bankrupt the country.


       The USA is a dangerous and degenerating place, in certain states, it is legal to bear arms or carry weapons to protect oneself, in the name of freedom. So if everyone is packing a weapon, what happens when a heated argument occurs, or when someone loses his cool, or snaps ? There are many cases of young teenagers killing dozens of schoolmates, senseless, all in the name of Freedom. Remember Virginia Tech, the Asian schoolboy with a crazy attitude, and went out to massacre close to 30 students. Do you see anything remotely similar in any other 'less free' country ??


        Gangs still rule in many cities, homeless people are everywhere, there are Tent Cities, Food Kitchens, Occupy Main Street, jobless MBA graduates, entire neighbourhoods burned down by the banks who have reposessed the entire block and not finding any buyers, decided to tear down everything, and leave the ground bare, else, there will be destitute people breaking in and squatting. The amount of people moving in a downward spiral runs into the tens of millions, generations after generations have lesser and lesser oportunities of breaking out of the poverty cycle. What is wrong with this society ? 


Plenty   - see above. 


         Vietnam is still run by communist leaders. People are generally happy, there is little or no beggars in the city. There is enough food to feed everyone, it is safe to walk the streets at night. People are generally happy, prosperity is coming to the citites. What is wrong with this system ?   30 odd years later ?


Nothing.    


Do not believe what you read in the popular 'news'. Who is running it and what are their agendas ?? Think carefully.


     
  
   
          

Sensei Chia's birthday celebration - after strenuous 1 1/2hr workout

Our  chief instructor, Sensei Chia K.F. recently had a birthday on 31st March. So, I decided to buy him a small cake and drinks to celebrate the occasion after the class on 1st April. No joke ! Here are the pictures of the happy occasion, although there are only 20+ trainees here, the total dojo size is about 50 when you add the people who come only occasionally. There are about 200 members, and most have dropped out or stopped for work, travel, family or age related reasons. For a 15 year old club, this is not too bad a record, and  I hope we can expand the club far and wide within Singapore.

BHAG - Set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal ;

We have only on chance around the block called 'Life' so, why sit back and just do the bare minimum ? Maybe the reason is "fear". Fear of failure and making a fool about oneself. A good friend called Jane put this very clearly to me yesterday. "The only thing to fear about is fear itself". What exactly does this mean ?   When you are fearful, you are worried about the consequence, such as looking bad, potential injury and even possible death. So, if you can face the fact of losing face, where people laugh hysterically at you, where you have succumbed to a torn muscle, or broke a bone, where you have even cheated death. Then you ask yourself. I have been through it all !! What else is there to fear ????

     Go out and do something worthwhile with you life. Set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal as said so eloquently by Mr. Sim Wong Hoo (CEO of Creative Technology, the little company that captured the Sound in the PC world). 

      Set yourself a BHAG,break it down to smaller parts, and just do it !!!  You will be shocked at once you have achieved it. 

      Fear is nothing to be fearful. Who dares wins BIG. 

Friends - cultivate your hobbies early, plan to do things for life

            


 A good friend of mine reminded me yesterday that the well-off people are more 'kiasi' meaning scared to die when they are at the end of life. Why ? Because they have worked so hard to achieve all the material trappings that life has to give, beautiful houses, boats, planes, cars, holidays, that they never
want to let go.

         Compare that with the homeless, down and out, poor people. When you have nothing, what are you afraid of losing ? We came into this world, naked, with nothing. We leave this world, also with nothing.
Yet, the world is driven by businesses, and building empires that enrich the leaders of the 1st World. How wrong a focus we have in life !!

        The leader Alexander the Great, when we found out that he was dying, made strict instructions to his subordinates that his casket must show him with his hands open and face up. Why ? So to tell every one, that he left with nothing. This great conquerer of much of the European and Asian world. On the other hand, the Egyptian pharoahs, were so obsessed with their riches and things on earth, that they built for decades pyramids which would house all their many earthly treasures, including killing their many wives and concubines plus have thousands of  slaves put to death together with them so that they could serve their master in the afterlife.

        I think, all of these practices are works of people who have lost their direction in life, thinking only of their magnificence and glorious existence, megalomaniac, or requiring a pychiatrist to bring them back to the real world.

      Belief in a religion would help all of us adjust to the light speed of progress in this world, work would give us a sense of purpose, having a family would teach us sacrifice, and impart a  sense of responsibility and selflessness, and plan to have hobbies as well as make the effort to give back, however little you can, to the less fortunate.

       I am blessed to have wonderful parents, a supportive wife, and 2 heirs. I am most appreciative of my position in life. I have a number of hobbies, and finally, I want to give back, because at the end of the day, what matters is not so much what you achieve for yourself, but what good you can do to enrich the lives of others.

      Seize the day, friends and readers of this blog.