La Rambla 7th Dec 2016

The statue of Christopher Columbus, the Italian traveller at the start of Passeig de Colom

Barcelona is one of my favourite cities the world over to visit ; because it is full of historical buildings and artworks from Antoni Gaudi, works from Joan Miro, Chagall, and Salvador Dali to name a few. The weather is typcially Mediterranean, hence not too frosty winters, (sub 10 deg C in December when we visited) and there is sunshine on most days we where there hence, the overall sense of genuine relaxation amidst a cool environment was our major takeaway.

I remember brining my running track pants, putting on at least 2 layers (it was 8 deg C at 6.30 in the morning) and I ran at least 2 times when we were there for 5 days. What a run, early in the morning, from our hotel at the wharf (Port Vell) area, one run had me running all the way from the hotel and due West towards the Port alongside the Montjuic hill and back. All in it was about 45 minutes. The start time of my run gave me a good 'tour' of the empty city.

The second run, also in the morning (we stayed there for 4 nights) was from the hotel, due East, along the Whart towards the Barcenoletta beach and all the way to the 'W' Hotel right at the end of the coastline. This was more memorable with the fact that the crashing Mediterranean waves and the beach was right next to the boardwalk. I had then decided to sign up for a Temperate Country Run (Paris Marathon 2017 - which I sadly did not participate) as I wanted to experience a temperate marathon (low temp and dry humidity) at least once in my lifetime ! 

Ah there is always 2018 ! 

Street artist at La Rambla 

The food, or small degustation menus with the many tapas bars in the Born area was another great highlight of the 5 day visit. Try the house specials and the Vermouth (sweet wine) goes well with practically any seafood or meat based paella (fried rice) especially during the cold winter nights. The streets are full of smartly dressed folk eating and chatting al fresco (in the open air) under the stars and in between 16 - 17th century Roman era cathedrals and fire heaters.

Finally a word of caution, there are plenty of pickpockets. I had my Samsung S7 Edge stolen right under our noses. The steet thiefs are professional and work in teams of 2, 3, 4 or more. So be very aware, wear a money belt, don't carry a full wallet, spread your cards into many places (leave some back in the hotel safe) and always trust no one on the street.

That was the only glitch I had after visiting this wonderfully hospitable city.  

La Pedrera Barcelona 4th Dec 2016

With the chimney from outer space 

         This photo was taken during my holidays in Barcelona Spain last December. I am slightly jet lagged and my wife and I had just arrived on the first day of our 16 day tour to Europe. I decided to take in the famous La Pedrera designed by the world famous Antoni Gaudi and this picture is of the chimney of the apartment building complex which is quite stunning that there are hardly any sharp lines and the chimney is reflective of his signature style.

        At the top of this 4 storey building there are about 16 chimneys and one can see the other masterpiece La Sagrada Familia in the distance. The title means "The Sacred Family" temple and his architechtural design was way ahead of his time. He passed on in 1925 and the plans of the final completion of the church is expected to be in 2025, exactly 100 years after his death. 

          The circumstances surrounding his death was also quite tragic, apparently he was unpopular with the locals as he had poor hygiene, hardly communicated with anyone except his financiers and was considered an eccentric. He was knocked down by a tram, and after some time, some people sent him to the local hospital where he was admitted into  the lowest class. He quietly ended his days in the hospital after and although the mayor of the city finally found out that he was in the lowest class ward was horrified and ordered the hospital upgrade him immediately. Gaudi refused, as he did not want any fuss at all, and after about a week, passed away quietly.

 

  

The courtyard inside La Pedrera

Staying Active keeps the mind and body 'young'

18th July meeting in Hong Kong 

A well respected Japanese researcher on gerontology has commented that 'retirement shold be delayed for as long as possible'. Studies on his part as well as many other studies have shown that people in general should keep their mental and physical faculties as active as possible and for as long as possible.

This is a photo recently taken in Hong Kong with my long time friend and mentor, Frank Rigley, who is based in Bremen Germany. He flew all the way to Hong Kong for a meeting with some Chinese manufacturers and initiated by me. He will be 75 this year and he epitomises the phrase "healthy mind in a healthy body" or the latin phrase Mens sana in corpore Sano (ASICS Shoes tagline) 

Keep active, be it minding the grandchildren, doing taichi, martial arts, line dancing, church or religious group activities, club, condo or town council committees make yourself useful. Be engaged in society even after life's setbacks - and there are and will be many - and you are on your way to your own success.

Towers Lil Mix

The Soft Power List - South China Morning Post

During my recent trip to Hong Kong, I read a very interesting article about the Soft Power List from the South China Morning Post ; we all know about Hard Power which is based on GDP per capita,,military strength and trade balances. Soft Power has in the last 16 years, at least from the turn of the century (2001 being the actual 1st year of the new millenium), made its impact on the world we live and how we view each other's countries.

The various categories in which the Portland Communications derives the ranking (their is no mention of the weightage attributed to each category) are :

a) Government - this I would take it as how well run the country is ; the rule of law and
    the adherence to a basic common civil code amongst its citizens. I agree Singapore's law,     order, and civil society scores our country very highly in this category. 

b)  Culture - I would question as to how much weight is given to this attribute, as a small and still young country like Singapore only has 52 years of existence and hence, a very naturally shallow depth of works in the arts.  A country like South Korea with its recent emergence and global popularity of KPop and Korean movies would score very highly in this area.However, it is ranked below Singapore in the Global Soft Power List coming in at 21 compared to Singapore's 20. 

c) Education : This is very crucial attribute or category. Many Western countries admire the rote learning of the Eastern Asian and South Asian countries but the criticism about too much rote kills creativity and freedom of expression and independent thought, which is crucial for today's leaders. Singapore's scholars have known to excel in achieving top marks from the best Universities, but  when entering into the working world, which is most probably the civil service, end up doing very well, but no one would challenge the status quo. 

    Groupthink  while good for incremental change would be detrimental if that organization just plodded along with all its scholars and 'yes men' just pushing the KPIs mindlessly set for them by the upper management. Its a recipe of mediocrity in the long term. 

d) Enterprise : I would rename that as Entrenpreneurship Creation would be an even better category  name

   When a country creates a flood of new wave of business models from mavericks such as Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Jack Ma, Stan Shi and Kobayashi (Softbank) it enhances its image very much in influencing the way people interact, dress, purchase things and invest. This is definitely soft power.  Singapore only had one or two top rated entrepreneurs in Sim Wong Hoo (Creative Tech) and Olivia Lam (Hyflux). 

   Steve Jobs most famously said in the '80s : "forget what people think, I will tell them what they want".    He as a mega brand ambassador created "wants" for millions of people such as the Mac, Mac II, IPhone, IPad.   Soft Power ?  Very much so. US (then)  - Yes. 

e) Engagement : this I would take it as political and how well connected and engaged each country is to the rest of the world. As a city state, Singapore does punch above its weight class, however, our leaders need to take a recalibration of our 'reach' as our founding fathers have left the scene permanently and the new world order is quite unsettled.

    US has pulled out of the Paris Climate Pact, and TPP. So there are new leaders on their up the Soft Power list namely China, Germany and France. It would be good for us to forge warm ties with the new Head Prefects so to speak.

f) Digital : this is the most disruptive attribute of all. Every month, new normals are coming into the field of play on our smartphones to change the way we interact with people, choose friends, communicate, send messages, book flights, spa packages, fashion,movie screenings the list is expanding at a dizzying rate. 

   Countries which embrace the digital platforms risk losing precious security aspects,personal data and a whole myriad of people's private information on dining, drinking, working, driving, holidaying and playing can be assessed and more.

   So its a double edged sword. Choose wisely and tread carefully.

   The 6 attributes get reviewed each year ; its a fascinating read. Everyone else watches and follows what the top 30 does each year. 







   

Getting around Hong Kong inexpensively by MTR - world class system

          MTR system of Hong Kong ; 9 lines criss crossing Hong Kong Island and Kowloon 

      Fresh from a trip this last week, I would like to record my experiences on the MTR (Mass Transit Rail) system in Hong Kong. It is an excellent system, which is unlike Singapore's which is newer and still fraught with many breakdowns, delays and frustrated commuters due to the signalling and track faults. The MTR system when I was there worked perfectly.We can learn many lessons from how they run their train system. 

     The key services provided by the HK MTR system as a people mover are :

a) Quick arriving times of trains (on the average, the waiting time is only 1 - 2 minutes     during peak hours) 
b) Reliable train services 
c) Clean and fast moving station entry and exit gantries
d) Concise announcements and signs in both English, Mandarin and Cantonese

    While Singapore has all 4, 1 and 2 are at best a 'work in progress'. HK on the other hand has all 4 operating at the best levels of customer satisfaction.

    Getting around HK inexpensively was my objective, and there are 3 options from the airport if you don't have anyone picking you up.

a) Take the airport express train from airport - Tsing Yi - Kowloon - Central (HK)
b) Take the airport bus to Kowloon or Central station or even your hotel
c) Take a taxi

   I elected to go for a) and the Airport Express is an express train dedicated for airport passengers to and from Hong Kong and Kowloon. Fast, and very frequent, departing every 20 minutes. When I arrived on Monday evening, it was raining cats and dogs and I opted to buy the 3 days pass for HK$ 350 which included a $50 deposit returnable, and 2 airport express round trip (normally costs S$ 110), to save me the bother of buying multiple tickets within the island as well as mainland which normally costs $6 to $ 30 per trip. 

Ordinarily just to take the Airport Express to and from HK Central is HK$ 110 for the Airport Express, so the rest of the 3 days costs $350 - $50 (deposit) - $110 = S$ 190.
or roughly $60  (S$ 10 and US$ 6) per day. Good value, in my opinion.

Buy this pass at the arrival hall and take the train at B2 just below the arrival hall

   A taxi to the hotel on the island will normally cost HK$ 300 or more, so be prepared for the cost of that ; most cost effective is either the MTR Airport Express or the Airport Bus. 

   Since I arrived late in the afternoon or early evening, the Airport Express was very smooth and efficient, and I reached Central station within 30 minutes of boarding and 
another 30 minutes to the Tin Hau station where my hotel was. 

   The next 3 days, I used the card to move around HK with no hassles of needing to stop, queue and buy tickets, although I had to take a day trip into China, the 3 day pass was well worth it.

    Fast, efficient, smooth movement of people. That is HK MTR system from the numerous times I have been there.





   

I share somethings in common with Bruce Lee - and thats about it

Nov 27th 1940 ; DOB of Li Xiao Long aka Bruce Lee 

Bruce Lee aka Lee Xiao Long (small dragon) was born on 27th November 1940 ; I share the same birthdate as him. He passed away in 1973 at the very young age of 33 due to a brain aneurisym (bleeding of the brain) at his friend's house. As the icon of martial arts in the modern world, he had no peers. He published numerous books, (the Tao of Jeet Kun Do was his magnus opus), had 7 films (the last being the Way of the Dragon) and was involved in a hit TV show the Green Hornet as the super competent fighting side kick Kato.

His mother Grace Ho was half Caucasian, and so he was of mixed parentage ; so these 2 things I share with the great man, the same birthdate and mixed race parentage.

I am a martial artist no doubt inspired by him, but by no means anywhere as competent or as good as him in my craft. 15 years of perseverance, I am an assistant teacher in my dojo at the Tanglin Community Centre.

Thats about the only similarity with the great man which I share.