A wonderful day in the bright sunshine 01 Nov 2025.

I have just had a great time out riding in the sun today. No I have not lost my marbles. I am just penning this post to reflect on how even just one day of strenuous exercise can change one's state of mind.

Me with my SPF 50 sunscreen, helmet and gloves 

The last few weeks has been strenuous both mentally and physically. As I approach the 6()_ year of life in a months time, I have noticed certain ostensible changes in my health, and am taking many steps to arrest the decline in physical health.

1. Tiredness - I force myself to walk (up to one hour) every evening for digestion as well as to boost cardio vascular circulation.

2. Flexibility - I had a bad LCL pull just 2 weeks ago and had to go for Chinese Tui Na or physiotherapy which entailed using moxibustion (burning of dried moxa) to deliver heat and stimulate energy flow. In addition, I went to see a Chinese sinseh who did some massive pulls on my leg to alingn them. Yes.  

One key takeaway for me. I need to exercise, or run. This is like breathing well to me. I know there will be a time when I can't run and I am looking at alternatives to this exercise which I have been participating these last 30 odd years and not a single one comes close to giving me the endorphin 'high' which running has done for me.

Back to today, I started my bicycle ride at roughly 10.30 am. I went at a rather fast pace and made it almost 3 / 4 to Changi Village. The sun was shining in the sky, the sky was blue with some cirrus clouds, the sea was a gorgeous greenish blue and there were birds chirping in the distance. 

The ride up to near Changi village was near perfect. There were only a few bicycles I overtook and a couple on road bikes who overtook me. I'm chill to the fact that at this age, being alive is more important than being fast. Enjoying the beautiful sunny environment with nice cool sea breeze is such a privilege. 

I recall a run similar on my birthday last year. I did 8 km at East Coast Park, starting at around 10 am and ran 4 km up and 4 km back from B1 carpark. As I was making my way back at the 7km mark, I recall just wondering, why am I running and baking in the hot blazing sun ? The sheer absurdity of it all, but I needed to be alone with my thoughts, and not to be inundated with the numerous well wishes from all the social media,LinkedIn, whatsapp, phone calls, FB and Wechat. 

My birthday belongs to me. Just as when I was born and when I do leave this earth, it is a solo trip and all my cognizant thoughts about my ride here on earth will go with me.

So last year, at the 7 km mark, in the bright sunshine I stopped. And walked to a stone table and bench facing the sea and just lay down, in all my sweat. I was so happy - alone - and in my own endorphin charged state, I lay down, closed my eyes and thanked God for my life.

I meditated for a good 15 minutes, being still and listening to the crashing waves just less than 100 feet from me. A small squirrel saw me, and made some grunting noise. He was obviously hungry. I picked up some nut which fell from the tree and threw it to him. He came down close by, gave the nut a smell and attempted to gnaw at it. I felt a sense of calm that on my birthday my time truly belongs to me and to no one else. 

That interaction with the squirrel and nature on that bright sunny day comes back to me today.

I feel the same sense of calm.

I finished by near 3 hours ride up to the 3 / 4 mark to Changi Village and back. I stopped several times by the picture perfect seascape, rested, and sat with my knees in lotus position.And meditated. 

I listened to the waves, the birds chirping and the sea breeze. Occasionally I would hear the roar of the aircraft flying overhead every 10 minutes. There were ships in the azure blue sea in the distant horizon, and something like 3 to 4 windsurfers doing their thing. I was where I wanted to be. 

It was indeed a perfect day.

And I Seized It.

Change your habits for the Good

 

 We are defined or what people see us as by 3 things :

a) Your Work 

b) Your Goals Achieved

c) Your Compassion

   Your Work

   Like it or not, people whom we just meet, always ask us this first question. 

   "What do you do (for work or how do you pass your time) ? " 

   If you want to be remembered, make a mark in your work contribution. 

  Your Goals Achieved

  I wish to be remembered as the managing the company which then sold the 2 largest environmental chambers in Singapore, for the improvement of the lives and performance of :

a) the soldiers in NS (research Lab claled Defence Science Organization)

b) the elite sportsmen and sportswomen   (Sports Singapore).

  These 2 helped save and improved lives by :

   a) heat stroke avoidance and

   b) sports personal improvement 

 of thousands of young Singaporeans.

   Your Compassion

I am working on the 3rd aspect, my giving back to society in a meaningful way and hopefully some young people will see the experience garnered by me can be useful in finding direction in their lives.  

I am happy I did my part

Carpe Diem. 

 

6 Rules for Success - Daily Improvement 5% daily.

    Clarity of My Goals

   Have clear goals. Set the goals early, start small and work at it every day.

   Discipline to Take Action 

   Show Up. Do the work day in day out. Do not shirk.

   Communication to Connect with People

   Do more

   Talk Less

   Listen More

   Connect 

   Emotional Control to Stay Balanced

   Improve this. Keep your tongue and ego in check 

   Never let your emotions get the better of you.  Keep your emotions  in  check

   Many things are meaningless 5 days, let alone 5 months from now.

   Practice Mindfulness

   Practice Gratitude

   Ability to Learn and Adapt with Circumstances and People. 

    Never stop learning. Every single day.

a) Go for classes. Read Listen Observe. Ask Questions. 

b) Learn to swim in new waters.

    Be like bamboo.

    Learn from mistakes.

     Have a Sense of Urgency to finish day to day week by week month by month goals 

    This is self explainatory. Go for it my readers and friends. 

  

When we were born, we came with our body and our brain - and no user manual

 

I realised something just the other day. Our bodies and brain, when we were born, we did not know the first thing we had with us. 

Our cognitive awareness was around the age of 5, where we knew we existed - this is as postulated by Carl Jung.

And from that day onwards, we knew like we know now that we have a brain, and the cognitive functions which go along with it. We know we have something called memory, logic, and sensory awareness, which for a large part cant be controlled,  the 5 senses, sight sound taste smell and hearing and as we aged, we knew things like emotions which are human and can be muted or amplified. 

The amazing thing is that for our brain, each of us has one which is totally hardwired to who we are, and we take a lifetime to first understand what our brain is like, how powerful or weak it is, how adaptable it is, whether it has capability to learn new things - for 99% of us we can learn new things - its whether we want to learn new things.

I am still learning how best to maximise my brain, that is the wonderful thing. Coupled that with the years of earned or lived experience and I put than earned or lived experience in my data bank, called wisdom, it is indeed a wonderful thing.

So we create each and every one of us, a personalised user manual of our brain and our body which is only best operated by ONE person. YOU.

If your brain and your body is put to optimal use, feed it the best nutrients, put in the best servicing (exercise), give it enough rest, in theory your brain and your body - like a machine will last a lifetime.

Sounds so simple and rudimentary isn't it ? 

So why oh why do we abuse our body and brain ? 

 

Sales Manager Makes the 1st order, the Service Engineer helps ensure the 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th order

 

Here is a video of Jason, our Service Engineer onsite at a client's location providing service support to an equipment. We offer the following services at very competitive prices :

1. Warranty - warranty for both parts and labour is offered up to 3 years for every new equipment we QRA sell to clients in Singapore and overseas. The client has complete peace of mind knowing that his machine will function in tip top condition for as long as he requires, and sometimes as long as 10 years.

2. Preventive Maintenance  (PM) - We offer PM for the equipment we sell after the 1 year warranty is over. It is very competitive and one of a kind in the markets which we serve.  

3. Calibration - Calibration is recording the readings of the client's equipment and benchmarked with sensors and recorded down for auditing purposes. This means that the reading set at (say) 50 C is actually within an acceptable temperature (normally +/- 1 C) when measured with an audited thermocouple instrument certified according to ISO 17025 or Singlas Good Certification Standard. 

Therefore, when you purchase your equipment, no matter how good the brand of equipment you purchase, do remember, it is the quality of the after sales service which matters so importantly at the end of the day. 

For more information ; visit 

https://www.qra.com.sg/our-services.

or Email : mark@qra.com.sg

Why do Environmental Testing for your Products ? Watch this Video.

 

Why do Environmental Testing for your Products ?  3 Reasons.

1. To enhance your product's quality.

2. To lengthen your product's reliability.

3. As a result your Brand will be boosted through good customer reviews and word of mouth engagement. 

Sudoku End Game Tactic 1 - Gwendolin's Thread

 

Here is one end game tactic which I use pretty successfully after correctly filling in 80% of the blank spaces in the 9 x 9 sudoku game. Its called Gwendolin's thread. Gwendolin was a little girl who went into the forest to pick some flowers. As she went deeper and deeper, she realised she was lost. 

Rather than panic, she used this tactic whereby she pulled out a spool of thread (OK, I know its far fetched, who goes into the forest with a string of thread, but you get my point right ? Its just a fairy tale !).

So she walks with the thread, ties one end at a random tree, and walks in the direction where she thought she came from. The moral of the story, if she came to another junction and there was a thread, she would quickly realise that she was walking in circles ! So she would backtrack and where there was no thread, she would then continue in the opposite direction until she made her way out of the forest. OK its just a fictional fairy tale but the concept is to use markers, and thread so that you know if you had made a wrong choice, you can BACKTRACK your move and try the opposite direction or use the alternate number.

For the Sudoku game, if the square is a 50 / 50 (50% either a certain number or the other), then I will use shortform LETTERS in place of numbers and play along.

So in the game above, I have about 18 unfilled squares, an then I can choose ar an unfilled square to use either (for example) a 9 or a 7. I would proceed with 9 and then write in that box the number N. This is the arbitrary number which I have taken as a 50 : 50. Each Uncertain Number I will put in the 50% chance of that number (a guess)  in LETTER format. 

Therefore 

1 : O

2 : D

3 : T

4 : F

5 : V

6 : X

7 : S

8 : E

9 : N.

Try it. If there happens to be to of the same letters on the same line or column you realise you have the wrong path (say 2 Os)  So I will backtrack and change ONLY THE LETTERS from when you started. The key is note down which square when you put in the first letter, and once you encounter a wrong path, backtrack and replace the letter with the other possible letter.

So, the rule of thumb should be, for me anyway, is when I have a 50 % chance it could either be the number One or 50% of the number Nine. 

I will start with using One, or O and play on. If I reach the end of the game with no duplicate, essentially I have WON the game. I will then replace the letters with the number and that is the end game.

if I reach a line where there is 2 of the same letters, I will backtrack to the first square where I put the O, and delete that, and add in the other possible number, say Nine or N.

If my earlier steps were all correct, that should lead me to the path of winning. 

This is called Gwendolin's Thread.

Enjoy your Sudoku readers !