Living in the Moment - Great Song from Jason Mraz

You got to just love the positive vibes this song gives out. Taken from Jason's latest album, the CD has easily 5 -6 very listenable tunes including "I won't give Up". There are many hip hop, rappers and female artists out there, but for true simple Popular Easy Listening, Jason Mraz gets my vote. 

Another great new breakout artistes are Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Man these guys are bad ! I love the cool artistry of their CD Thrift Shop. Simply the best duo in recent memory. 

Christmas 2009

My Aunt Mina elaborating to rapt attention of her sisters Dona and Anna 

The 4 sisters from left Mina, Anna, Dona (back facing camera), Mona 

Happy Birthday to Noel, Dec 2009 

Make a Wish 

Mum and Dad celebrating Hannah's 1st birthday 8 Dec 2005

 This is a priceless moment whereby my Mum (75) and Dad (86) were celebrating my niece Hannah's first birthday on 8th December 2005.  This picture was taken at my brother John's house. 

  My 2 sons were 8 and 11 respectively. We remember with love the ones who have passed on and hold on to the good, bad, happy, sad, triumphant, sorrowful, joyful and satisfying memories  in our hearts forever. 

  

               Below is the happy times shared during Hannah's 3rd birthday in 2007 ; my Mum would have been 77 and my Dad 88. 

Remembering my Mother, Anna Abisheganaden 30 Nov. 1930 - 8th Jan 2011

With my mother at the Singapore Cricket Club Oval Room for lunch 2010

     My mother, Anna Abisheganaden nee Wen passed away on 8th January 2011, exactly 3 years ago from a heart attack at her home. She was 80 and 2 months. She was a wonderful mother to me and my brother John, and doting and loving grandmother to her 3 grandchildren Noel, Andrew and Hannah (John's daughter).  A 45 year career in the Singapore administration service serving 4 Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry of Health, she was the epitome of the good personal assistant over the many years assisting and coordinating the many appointments for her boss, as well as arranging the myriad of meetings, functions, issues and communications between the CEOs of the Government Hospitals, and the Ministry of Health.  

                               With my father Geoffrey Abisheganaden, outside Club Tropicana 1973

She had a wonderful caring side to her, and as she was the eldest sibling in her family (nee Wen), she always took the initiative to arrange family gatherings for Christmas, and Chinese New Years without fail for her 3 sisters, brother and close family friends. I recall gatherings at our house for over 50 people. Many close friends like Prof. Chao Tse Ching, Dr. Teo Hoon Chow, David Mitchell, and many others were regular visits to our family home. Those were indeed precious and great bonding times with our cousins and we always look back at those days with great memories and fondness. 

At Botanic Gardens, 1954

She was a very active Swimming Club member, from 1974 till the year she passed away 2011, (almost 40 years) taking part in swimming, badminton, squash, kong chain (martial arts), line dancing, club D and Ds, singing karaoke, Club overseas swim meets, the range of activities boggles the mind. She was there practically every day except Saturday.

I think my fitness and love for sport, motivation and people skills are probably handed down from her.

Dear Mum, rest in peace in Heaven, love from your Son.   

Success - a Definition by Winston Churchill

 

 

"V" is for victory

This V sign with his fingers was flashed just as he was appointed Prime Minister in 1940 just after the start of World War II in 1939. 

"Success is the ability to move from one failure to another without the loss of enthusiasm" 
                                             -    Sir Winston Chruchill 

       This quote has been attributed to the late Sir Winston Churchill who was a tremendous orator and the Prime Minister of Britain during the Second World War. He was an acerbic and argumentative man, but what a strong motivator of an empire he was ! Using the eloquence of his words he stirred the nation not to be downcast in Britain's darkest hour. In fact he said the Battle of Britain was in fact England's finest hour. 

       In life, we are faced with all sorts of circumstances, successes, defeats, glory, humiliation, money and the absence of it. Failure is said to be the mother of success for if you have not experienced the bitter pill of failure, the stinging humiliation of defeat, how can you savour the satisfaction and sweetness of victory or winning ?  Indeed. It is all relative.

     We all need to strive hard for something we want, to achieve it, against all odds would be doubly sweeter to yourself. 

       Another brilliant repartee from Sir Winston to Lady Astor in the House of Lords : 

" Sir, if I were your wife, I would put poison in your tea ! " Lady Astor

" Madam, if I were your husband, I would drink it ! "   retort from Sir Winston

   

How does One Measure One's Life ? By Adding Value to our Workplace, Relationships and the World at Large

      Last year I read this fascinating book on Steve Jobs. It was a par excellence book written by Walter Isaacson (former managing editor of Time Magazine) and it encompassed many interviews of people from his past and present. Steve Jobs passed away almost 3 years ago and his legacy in his products still live on to this day.  


     It detailed though the many interviews with his parents, his student day friends,, his ex-girlfriends, wife, ex-partners, friends, casual acquaintances, subordinates, board members past and present and business associates. It showed a brilliant, visionary ruthless, sometimes naive man who was fixated in building the best of the best personal computer in the world - and he succeeded. Halfway reading it, I wondered, why people are fascinated with a person with so many character 'flaws' and did the meanest things  ? Yet he was idolised, hero-worshipped from afar. 

Our Family 

      It dawned upon me, that Steve Jobs added value to the world. In terms of producing the best designed, user-friendly PCs, handphones (practically three quarters of this planet own an IPhone or aspire to own one), notebooks, entertainment stations IPods which were 
'game changers ' - products which changed the way people communicated, or interacted.

     He was not the best father to his first child, a daughter, even threatening his ex-girlfriend with a lawsuit on the paternity results, he ignored his daughter for more than 10 years, he bullied his 'working class' parents to pay for expensive tuition fees at Reed College, a private college, when he had won a scholarship to study at Stanford University, because it was where he could smoke weed, cut class and basically bum around in school. He bullied his partner Steve Wosniak on many things, on how the company should be run, the designs he imposed on them, the many petulant outbursts with his staff and business associates, the list of immoderate behaviour would run into the hundreds.

     If he weren't the genius entrepreneur who told the world what to buy when, he would have been labelled a misfit, an asshole who meant nothing or added nothing to this world. 

    Yet there are numerous books about him, and his cool company, Apple. Why ? Because and only because, Apple changed the way the world looked and used the PC from the 70s to the 90s to the 2000s. It changed people's mindsets about how to interact with other people, namely using the phone as an entertainment device first with the call function second. His vision added tremendous value to everyday lives and his products were so good that even the parts which you don't see are sourced from the best suppliers and have been worked at. rewired and reworked more than a thousand times. Such is the emphasis to perfection which was the philosophy of Steve Jobs.

 My niece, Hannah 

   In a small way, we all must add value to our relationships, our businesses, our workplace, our families and possibly to society at large giving of our time, our know-how, compassion, money and leadership which will truly be the measure of how we will look back at our lives and say :

" Yes, I did make a difference !" 

   Seize the Day my friends. 

All the Cousins at Christmas Party 2013

   

Argyle Sweater - Single Strip Cartoon for Intellectuals

   I've always tried to enjoy Scott Hillborn's Argyle Sweater which is a single strip cartoon where the punchline is always there. It reflects society's strange attractions or fads and you need to be clued in to age - old nursery rhymes, puns, synonyms,or even  idiomatic expressions  (an example is don't let sleeping dogs lie).

  Enjoy this one, which I have pasted on my wall next to my desk.