The Idea of Discipline

I met up with my co-CGL Joanne this evening for dinner & sharing about our plans for CG 4 next year. It was a very fruitful & interactive time… really thank God for it. It’s like there is some sort of healthy CGL ‘chemistry’ which I found really great & that set the atmosphere of our discussion.

We had dinner at Delifrance opposite St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Firstly, coz the Delifrance at Raffles City had been taken over by Subway (those horrendously extra-large sized breads, which makes me wonder why people call them Subway sandwiches). We chatted about our jobs, before progressing onto CG matters.

Joanne brought up the importance of accountability between CGLs before we can strive to encourage accountability among the youths in our CG. That made a point to me & we decided to begin by meeting up once in 2 months to share & pray about the ongoing situation of our CG. We also agreed to begin doing a synchronized Bible Study from a same book which Joanne has & my brother has (I’ll be borrowing his book) & keep each other accountable for punctuality in coming for Sunday church services. We would be planning to mentor 1 or 2 youths who are teachable as well. Finally, we took a walk to St. Andrew’s Cathedral to find a decently quiet spot at the tables & chairs to pray.

I’m very glad that both of us shared quite a bit this evening. Joanne shared about the possibility of her being sent over to Kuala Lumpur to work from March next year onwards for a long-term period. I’m not sure if she would be given an option to choose whether to go or stay, but she’ll see how when the time comes. As for me, I shared about the difficulties of finding a job & how some of my friends had problems staying in their current job. Just today, one of my ex-StarHub friend just received immediate termination from his company because his boss didn’t think he was performing up to his expectation. Sigh… expectation is a dangerous word. It can be good & bad, depending on the extent of implementation.

But all in all, this idea of accountability (suggested by Joanne) made me ponder deeper into & finally linked this idea to the recent VCD that I watched titled ‘The Pacifier’. It’s an amazing Walt Disney show (not a cartoon), which puts both hope & laughter into the hearts of those who watch it.

I’m not sure if it was supposedly a comedy, I didn’t find it funny at all. In fact, I found this show very encouraging to my heart. The storyline is about this US Navy Seal Lieutenant Shane Wolf who was assigned to look after this family of kids, while their mother had to be called on a code-breaking task at some high level security office. The kids’ father was killed & the military wanted to make sure that his family was well-taken of, while their mother assisted with the code-breaking task at their office.

Those kids were very rowdy… beyond common expression. If I were in Shane’s position, I really wouldn’t know if I could handle these kids…4 of them. Shane did his best to put into place a system of discipline in the house & after many days of quarrels, alarm sirens, cookie-baking, a house-destroying party & changing the baby’s nappy…Shane finally managed to tone them down & the kids grew to respect him, through his efforts in helping out in their lives.

I was very proud of him because he really took his job very seriously. And he meant it when he said to the school principal, “I take my job very seriously.” That kind-of made an impression in my mind, the first time I watched this VCD, because I think this is the kind of person whom people trust & who gets things done. Shane was always in the military & in the military, everything is about discipline. Yet in this show, I saw how discipline can be adapted to fit into our everyday lifestyle, so as to make sure that things get done & people are safe.

I admire Shane because he didn’t shun away from this baby-sitting responsibility, even though he had completely no knowledge whatsoever. Don’t forget, this is entirely different from the military, where soldiers are demanded & expected to follow instructions without question (sometimes blindly, for whatever reason). Shane knew that it would be difficult, but he stuck to the task & earned the respect & liking of those kids. He even used his experience in directing rescue missions & amphibious operations to direct a musical performance (their professional musical director gave up & quit), instilled confidence in the cast & brought loud applause from the audience. I remembered tearing when I saw the part where Shane appeared out from the stage curtains to acknowledge the applause from the cheering crowd. I was so moved… for this is the kind of person who really turns things around… for the better.

All these made an impression in my mind & I began to reflect on how discipline can be adapted in my lifestyle. Although it is true that the Army works on strict discipline, I’m sure that a reasonable form of discipline & flexibility (depending on situational changes) can be incorporated into our lives to make things work out for the better as well.

Recognized by Hospital Nurses

This afternoon, I was surprised to hear my doorbell ring. It was really a sigh of relief to see my brother come home from his 2-day stay at Singapore Changi General Hospital!

When he came home from Pulau Tekong last Saturday, he was coughing just as badly as every other weekend when he returned home from his army camp. He told my Mum that he felt weak on Sunday & my parents sent him for a check-up at Singapore Changi General Hospital after attending my grandmother’s birthday lunch.

Just recovered from dengue fever about a month or so ago, he was enlisted in BMT. Apparently, his lower body resistance may be attributed to this frequent cough & weakness in his body. After putting him on a drip (Again! Oh boy, I hate needles!), the nurses took a blood test & found that (unlike the time when his blood platelets drop drastically due to dengue fever) this time his white blood count was very high! After taking an X-ray, the doctor diagnosed him as having slight pneumonia due to lung infection.

My parents & I were worried for him, as he has been hospitalized again, just after he was discharged some time ago. The episode of his dengue fever experience still lingers in my mind, whenever I think about it & now he’s hospitalized again for lung infection & fluctuating fever. Sigh! And to think that a few hospital nurses saw him & said, “Haven’t I seen you here before? You used to stay in the ward one level up, right?” And such incidents make me wonder if that remark is supposed to be a good or bad thing…

Thankfully, his body responded to the antibiotics & he was allowed to be discharged after a 2-day stay. When I visited him yesterday afternoon, he was so bored stiff! He didn’t have anything to do there! Even with a book & Stacy & I there with him, he didn’t have much mood to talk, eat or do anything else. I mean, this isn’t about finding ways to stay entertained. He’s uncomfortable from the lost of appetite & body weakness. He said that perhaps the water at Pulau Tekong may be not as clean as in Singapore; coz 300 over soldiers fell sick this week, according to that same doctor that treated him at the hospital.

The doctor discharged him with a long period of MC which would last till the end of his BMT passing out parade. I feel sad that his BMT experience was so short because his PES C9L2 status due to heart structural abnormality & now his pneumonia. In any case, his BMT was already reduced to 7 weeks (mine though still a bit modified was 100 days) & with this illness, his BMT was further reduced. I can’t imagine BMT that lasts only one month! Hmm… but not his choice either.

We are all just glad that he’s home…

JCBoxercise

Jackie Chan Boxercise (in short, thus referred to as JCBoxercise) is an exercise program choreographed personally by Jackie Chan, who recently came to Singapore (this September) to introduce it to his Jackie Chan Sport Club here at California Fitness Bugis Club. It is a mix of cardiovascular & musculoskeletal workout which involves punch combinations targeted at arm pads (for beginners), punching bag, as well as the use of a boxing ball.

I was one of the few first-timers at this class & took the initiative to introduce myself to a few fellow club members. After going through the punching basics which, to me, were very similar to Body Combat, I paired myself up this guy next to me. We didn’t know each other, but I was glad that he is experienced in this exercise, so I could learn from him.

This exercise involved working in twos (preferably of similar height & gender), with one person holding the arm pads & the other wearing the boxing gloves. I held the arm pads first, while the other guy punched in combinations, as instructed by the Group Exercise (Group X) instructor. At the end of his turn, he turned to me, introduced himself as ‘Alvin’ & asked for my name. Then he said that I had very strong arms & I make a very good sparring partner. After that, he exclaimed that to his other two female friends next to him! I felt happy that he didn’t think I was lousy for a beginner & was smiling at his comment about me!

When it was my turn to punch, he was taken aback because he didn’t expect someone of my size to be able to exert such an amount of force that flung his arms backward! I went “Boom! Bang!” as I punched with my left hand, followed by my right… & my right hook threw his right arm across his face with a rather explosive force! I was surprised too… reminding myself that it could be because of my resistance training that added on this my power punching.

At the end of my punching sets, he was sweating & said, “Wah… your arms very strong! Do you have training in boxing?” I humbly replied that I did not & sheepishly grin quietly to myself. I was glad that my resistance training worked out pretty well, though I would be revising it, now that I have completed my Basic Exercise Course.

So I had power… or at least, a reasonable amount of power for a relatively small built guy. But I knew that I had very poor speed & footwork. Why? Coz even though I could exert a strong force when punching, quite often I found myself off balanced when punching! The instructor noticed that & came to me to caution me. Alvin, my sparring partner could see it & told me to check my stance & distance when punching. And I knew that I was rather off-balanced coz I once nearly tripped over my other feet when we were practicing out forward step jabs.

But all in all, it was a pretty interesting new workout. We finished off our session with 3 sets of circuit training. In the first set, one person skips for 1 minute & the other does push-ups for that entire 1 minute. Trust me, doing continuously push-ups for 1 full minute is no easy feat… at least for me… & after I have done all that punching & dodging.

The next set involved one person doing push-ups, whereby the other person throws an arm pad at him, which he’s supposed to catch, throw back, before doing another push-up. The same steps are repeated for an entire minute, before partners change sides. This was relatively easy for me, but Alvin struggled through it.

Lastly, we had to do partner-assisted leg raises, where one person lies on the floor & raises his legs to the chest level of his partner… & his partner will push his legs downwards - forward, left or right, in variation. This time, I was struggling & he was going relatively strong.

All these prove one thing – One can be strong, but not agile. One can have strong chest, but not necessarily strong abs. It was interesting coz both of us complement each other. It was a good experience indeed.

But one warning for those who wish to participate in JCBoxercise – go & buy a good cloth wrap for your hands, coz without it, your hands, wrists & knuckles will hurt from the punching! Like how I’m feeling now. Quite cheap, about $14 - $18. Wearing this cloth wrap helps prevent injuries to the knuckles & wrists too.

Finally, something to share – for the first time, I heard California Fitness playing new songs! One of them was ‘The Crazy Frog’ & the other was the theme song from ‘Chicken Little’! Luba Luba Leh… =)

In Memory of Pat Morita

I was so shocked when I read in the newspapers today that Pat Morita passed away last Thursday!

Of all the movies that he starred in, he is most remembered as the karate sensei of Daniel Larusso in the 3 sequels of 'The Karate Kid'.

I have watched 'The Karate Kid' since I was a very young kid. I still remember my Aunty used to bring me to the video rental shop near her house (when I came over to stay for a few days during my primary school holidays) & I would choose a few video tapes to watch. Naturally for most kids, it usually began with cartoons, followed by more fiction shows.

One of the shows that I watched at her house (back then at Dover Road) was 'The Karate Kid'. In fact, if I remembered correctly, I watched all 3 sequels at her house, over a stretch of a few years, whenever I came over during my school holidays. I also remembered that I watched 'Rocky IV' alone in front of the TV one late night... & I got so fired up during the boxing match between Rocky Balboa & Drago, that I got up from my seat & started punching along throughout the fight! Thinking back, those were sweet memories of my childhood...

Although when I got older, the storyline of 'The Karate Kid' began to become far-fetched, the heart of the movie still held strong. There was a cross-cultural content in it, where a Japanese handyman by the name of Mr Miyagi (i.e. Pat Morita) befriended an American teenager named Daniel Larusso. Mr Miyagi became a very good friend to Daniel, because Daniel didn't have any friends in that messy neighbourhood town. His mother was always at work & his Dad died when he was very young. Mr Miyagi was his one & only friend.

Mr Miyagi was always able to advice & help Daniel in his times of trouble... & even taught Daniel the secret of Miyagi's family karate, that enabled Daniel to win the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Championship. Mr Miyagi had strange methods of imparting his karate techniques & wisdom gained over the years. A humble man in his 60s, Mr Miyagi is really a man to remember.

The Contender Rematch (Manfredo Vs Mora)

When I watched 'The Contender' rematch between Peter Manfredo Jr Vs Sergio Mora two days ago, I got so pissed off by the three judges' unanimous decision to crown Sergio Mora, once again, as the reigning champion of 'The Contender'.

Believe me, I watched the entire 8 rounds of the boxing match & Sergio was no match for Peter Manfredo! The first 3 rounds was terrible for Sergio... & he even got a big gash on his left upper eye lid in the first round! That gash was dripping blood down his face, his shoulder & even stained Peter's body during the next few rounds.

The referee stopped the fight twice in that 8 rounds to let the doctor check if Sergio could carry on. Sergio staggered a few times throughout the fight after being punched with much force from Peter & once or twice he was just standing there looking dazed. How I wish Peter wouldn't be so stunned... just give that fella a huge uppercut & send him dazzling straight to the ground! That knockdown would easily give Peter two points ahead in that round, easily sealing him off as the new champion of this rematch.

The judges are just so blind! How can all three of them rate the fight 77 - 75? I mean, come on! Sergio looked like a skinny bum out there! So many times, he & his skinny body frame couldn't even hit Peter! I knew Peter would win... but the judges didn't let him.

The fight ended very horribly, with both contenders insulting & shouting at each other, using 4-letter words, etc. Even the crowd boo-ed at Peter. But why? Peter should have won that fight! Just because the venue is at California, Sergio's home ground? It was so clear! The whole world saw Peter beat Sergio, round after round. Peter was in great shape, after being trained by the world's best trainer for a full 6 weeks! Sergio looked just as skinny & weak as before. He was fast, but his punches packed little strength... & he got his face knocked up badly, whereas Peter was looking fresh & still going strong.

It was a horrendous decision & shocked the whole world. I hope it wasn't a fixed fight. Ridiculous! Peter was definitely the better fighter.

The Heart to Change

Okay, this is nothing new to anybody – that being human beings, we are not perfect, especially when it comes to spiritual morals & disciplines. I think many a times when we sin, or have wondered far away from God; it may seem all too difficult to change. But I have decided to take heart in the fact that if we have the heart to change, God can work in us. It is when we keep on sinning, until we become immune to guilt & prompting from the Holy Spirit, that we ought to take a step back & reflect on how we live our lives.

Jonathan Lee needed someone to assist with the Overhead Projector (OHP) for Youth Ministry worship today, so I volunteered to help out. Before the worship session ended, Pastor Edwin came forward & kindly requested for the chorus of the last song be played, as he encouraged all the youths to quietly meditate on the lyrics. I closed my eyes to pray before everyone started to sing. I quietly spoke to God from my heart; about my worries & all… when suddenly, I felt like there was this firm, still yet soundless voice that spoken very briefly to me. And the sentence that was spoken was, “What makes you think I wouldn’t guide you through?”

It was a strange feeling, coz those words somehow spoke to my mind & heart at the same time. Hmm… & I felt comforted for that brief moment. I knew that God was still watching over everyone & all that’s happening in this world. We just have to keep on trusting that He will do what’s best.

As the music played, I quietly reflected on the lyrics of that song until tears began to form in my eyes. I felt a brief touch from the Holy Spirit & my heart just melted away to receive this overwhelming quietness & peace.

Reaching For You

Chorus:
And I stand here before You
In wide open wonder
Amazed, at the glory of You
The power of Heaven
Revealing Your purpose in me
As I’m reaching for You

Seriously speaking these words can be very ‘cheem’ to understand & interpret. In fact, I would it find it very difficult to even try explaining this chorus, sentence by sentence. No kidding… it can be quite ‘cheem’! But what I knew was that I felt a touch from God while looking at the words… & that is enough to confirm that God is still watching over & taking care of me.

So I’ll just cling onto the hope in the faith that is unseen… trusting God to work out a positive change & improvement in me, as I reach for Him & hold onto my heart to change for the better… Praise the Lord!

Three Lone Rangers

Aunty Molly & I went to send Rebecca off at the airport this morning. She was going on an overseas trip to Bangkok with her school colleagues. Earlier this week, Rebecca shared that there was some disagreement which I believe was due to distinct differences in perception & personality. Nevertheless, I still hope that these issues get worked out & this trip would be a good experience & break away from work for her.

These 3 lone rangers – Yonglin, Rebecca & Huimin were the only 3 girls going on this trip. Quite a small group comprising of only girls, which could be a potential target for snatch thief or other malicious crimes in that messy place. At first, Har Keong & I were supposed to go along too, but in the end both of us pulled out because each thought the other guy was not going. Nonetheless, I still think that without both of us guys tagging along, the girls would be very much more at ease shopping till their hearts content. In fact, thinking about it, I’m glad that I decided not to go, coz it won’t be nice if Rebecca & I stuck to each other during the trip, when it is supposed to be a colleagues holiday trip.

Anyway, Aunty Molly, Rebecca & I had a rather peaceful morning breakfast at Burger King (BK) at Changi Airport Terminal 1. It definitely beats having breakfast in a fast-food restaurant at a busy place like Bedok, where the enclosed glass walls making the echo of voices & noises pretty deafening to the ears. Initially, I forgot how that BK looked like, but when I reached, I remembered that Rebecca & I used to study there during a certain semester while we were still at university.

At first, Aunty Molly decided to go to the food court to buy her breakfast & her morning dose of coffee. However, she returned in a matter of minutes because the queue was very long there & the variety of food wasn’t to her taste. In the end, she ended up eating the delicious BK croissantwich with us.

What made this particular meal special is because the bread that was used by BK for the croissantwich is just so amazingly soft & chewy! I just love the taste! Beats all McDonald’s burger buns hands-down… completely.

We had a short time of morning chit-chat, with both mother & daughter looking rather sleepy, whereas I had been awakened by the hunger & smell of my beloved croissantwich! To be honest, I almost wanted to order another, but resisted the temptation for the sake of healthy eating. Health does come at a certain form of ‘cost’ at times… but it’s for the good & balance of my body.

After the meal, we met up with Rebecca’s colleagues, had a very short chit-chat before the 3 lone rangers proceeded to check in their luggage & get their Air-Asia plane tickets from the ticketing counter at Row 11. It took quite a long time, as the queue was quite long. Finally, we said our goodbyes, bid farewell to everyone & began our journey to church.

I felt a bit sad that Rebecca’s wish of initiating her Mum & I to say a prayer had failed to come to past. However, it was the right thing to do, since her other colleague was not a Christian & her immediate family members were standing next to us, before we departed.

The one over hour journey to church began rather awkwardly, as Aunty Molly & I walked together towards the Sky-Train towards Terminal 2 to board the MRT to church. Both of us were walking together, yet the distance between us was easily 1.5 meters apart. Actually, it wasn’t me who created that distance… it was Rebecca’s Mum. Perhaps she isn’t comfortable with me.

We chatted throughout the journey (at varying intervals) about my family, Aunty Molly’s way of bringing up her own children, my job search, church, etc. The weirdest moment was when we sat next to each other on the MRT. Aunty Molly was clearly uncomfortable sitting so close to me, coz she leaned away in the opposite direction when we were talking. But it was still a good time of chatting & getting to know each other better… though throughout the travel to church, Aunty Molly held a neutral stance & body language. It’s okay… everything starts from somewhere.

No kidding, this is the first time I was relating one-to-one with Rebecca’s Mum & at regular intervals for more than an hour! I just tried to compose myself as much as possible & relate to her as calmly as I could. Depending on the topics being talked about, at some point of time, I felt good because I think I knew more about her, than she knew about me. Thus, perhaps I did feel less vulnerable as compared to her.

All in all, it was a good start to understanding & learning to relate to this hopefully future mother-in-law of mine… if God permits… Hope Rebecca enjoys her trip!

A Peek at Orchard Road Lightings

Rebecca’s parents invited me for dinner at Parkway Thai Restaurant at Centrepoint this evening. It was a rather alright dinner atmosphere with the inclusion of my outsider presence & the food was average.

After dinner, we took some time to stroll along Orchard Road, admiring the Christmas lightings & decorations. It was a very good time spent, especially since this is my first time strolling along Orchard Road with Rebecca’s family, viewing the Christmas lights!

Uncle John was rather amusing… Every once in awhile, he would take out his digital camera to take photos & video clips of us walking, chatting, admiring & soaking ourselves in the mood of the coming Christmas. I was surprised to see myself appear in most of the photos & video clips… wondering to myself if I was the ‘odd-one-out’, since I wasn’t part of their family. But Rebecca reassured me that her family members were comfortable with me around.

Recently, I have been occasionally invited into Rebecca’s house to sit & interact with her family members whenever I send her home. Sometimes after chatting awhile, I don’t really know what next to say. In fact, I’m very thankful for Amos because if not for him, the atmosphere there won’t be as fascinating & amusing. Amos really has a quick mind & can easily rattle off creative, astonishing & amusing comments about people & things. I’m just so amazed by him!

Evelyn has always recently become more open in terms of her behavior at home. In the past, she tends to answer the phone in a sweet voice & talking politely when I’m at her home. Recently, she has become more open & daring… speaking loudly & sometimes even shouting at the top of her voice in the kitchen that makes her voice echo thunderously throughout the living room…

Tonight, she even asked Amos & later on, her Dad to take photo of her posing next to this lingerie-clad woman in a bus-stop ad poster. That woman looked horrendously ugly & I think that’s why Evelyn found it thrilling to take photo while standing next to this ugly witch-looking female. *Laugh*… I’m glad she’s more open nowadays… hopefully it’s a sign of her getting more used to me being around. Thank God!

Lessons from Monopoly

I played Monopoly with Rebecca this afternoon… & for the first time ever, I lost! I used to win at Monopoly when I was younger & usually win over Rebecca whenever we played this board game. What happened this afternoon was rather surprising (though not shocking) & taught me a few lessons that I wish to share.

1) Nobody ever wins forever

Sporting games’ records don’t stay with one champion for all of eternity. Over time, these records will get broken & replaced by better ones. Like the Chinese saying, “Yi4 Shan1 Zai4 Bi3 Yi4 Shan1 Gao1”, meaning that there is always another mountain taller than the one that someone claimed to be the tallest. This saying holds true & has stood the test of time over many centuries.

2) Unbelievably unfortunate incidents can happen at times

In this game of Monopoly, I encountered an extreme losing streak very early in the game. My dice rolled a ‘2’, landing me at Queen Astrid Park & I had to pay $50. Next, I rolled a ‘2’, landing me at a hotel at Geylang Road & I had to pay $250. Thereafter, I rolled another ‘2’, landing me at the next hotel at Serangoon road & I had to pay $450. Finally, my dice rolled a ‘1’, landing me at the pay income tax square, where I had to pay $200. So in total, I moved 7 steps in 4 turns & ended up paying a freaking scary $950 right near the beginning of the game! Argh! That has never happened to me before! Ever! Trust me, shit happens… sometimes. No one can ever be too sure of himself.

3) Investments (no matter how sensible they may seem), may not always pay off in the end

After losing a straight $950, my ‘real estate career’ in Monopoly began tumbling down the drain. It didn’t stop at the end of the drain, but went on flowing through the horrendously vigorous & slimy sewerage water. After continuing this fiesta of stumbling into houses & hotels, as well as many, many depressing ‘Chance’ & ‘Community Chest’ options that made me cough out even more money, I finally ended up in debt with the bank of $777.

Tired of this terribly continuous downward spiral, I came up with this interesting plan to borrow money from the bank to buy selected locations, so that I could gain a chance to earning back some income, in order to pay off my debts. I figured that it was quite an ingenious idea, as compared to waiting with my single one dollar note on my table (which Rebecca flipped to see if there were any other notes underneath) & waiting for those sickening ‘Chance’ & ‘Community Chest’ cards to give me some charity money. So I went ahead to buy two locations which I observed that Rebecca kept on stepping onto.

However, once I bought them, Rebecca only stepped on one of the locations ONCE & never ever step foot on them ever! I began losing & losing, till I was in heavy debt of $3,333. So I decided to mortgage these two miserable properties that I owned & pay back half of how much I paid to buy these two locations in the beginning. They ended up as terribly unsuccessfully investments that made me lose more money than gain any. In fact, I think I only earned $16, once! And call it freakily strange or what, but once I sold my properties… Rebecca began stopping by these locations once again… & again… for several repeated times! Aww! Argh!

4) Never borrow money when already in huge debt

All throughout my struggles to rise from humble beginnings & pay off my debt, not once did I manage to pay it off. In fact, my debt increased because I didn’t even have any means to earn any money from the very beginning I fell into a huge terrible amount of debt!

Thus, the lesson here is – Do not borrow when you know you can’t pay it off! Please don’t tell me that when you win, you will have the money to repay the loans. The word is not ‘when’, but ‘if’… IF you win… & win enough money first to cover all that you have previously put in to gamble, before having enough to repay what you had additionally borrowed! If you know you don’t have the means to pay… Don’t borrow!

Plus, most people who are addictive gamblers normally don’t have a stable job that allows them to earn a regular income while trying to squeeze out every coin that they have remaining to pay off their debts. In short, with the exception of a housing loan or car loan… don’t borrow, if you know that the chances are that you will have loads of problems paying it back!

Come on, ‘if’ is not really a trusted word to begin with…

5) God’s will always prevails in the end

I decided to set a ceiling of $5,000 debt that was allowed before any player would concede defeat. Upon reaching $4,650 in huge debt, I knew it was only more toss of the dice, before I lost this game. Why? There was a whole long row of owned properties right in front of me & Rebecca owned approximately 70% of the entire Monopoly locations! And guess what? She also owned 8 hotels & 3 houses, making her nothing short of a tyranny in this game.

Rebecca had wished & wished that she would have a chance to buy this location ‘Nassim Road’ ever since in the beginning of the game. All throughout the game, she never once stepped foot on that square, as she fervently saved up enough money to buy that location. And right before my last toss of the dice which would end my game right then & there, she managed to reach ‘Nassim Road’ & bought it & achieved her goal for her Nassim Road project! Argh!

True enough, in this last toss of the dice, I landed on another hotel & choked up a debt of $5,250 which exceeded the mutually agreed debt ceiling of $5,000. That was my last toss & my hope was to toss a number high enough to escape through the whole long row of owned properties. And despite getting the highest possible dice toss of ‘6’… I still couldn’t escape through that disastrous row of money-eating hotels… landing right on the last hotel… right at the end of that scary row of owned properties! There is no escape! That was my destiny! I was destined to lose in this game!

Call it merely a game of dice toss or God’s will, I reflected that sometimes in life, God’s will prevails in the end. For whatever reason that He destined me to lose this time round, nothing can escape His decision. Be it Jonah who got swallowed up by a big fish which returned him to land, or Job who had to suffer through a long duration of mourning & pain from the lost of everything that he had in his life… in the end, it is God’s will that will prevail. No doubt about it. It’s just that sometimes, we humans can be too ‘spiritually blind’ to see God’s reason for allowing something to happen… for a reason. But in time, we will understand… even if not while we are on Earth… perhaps when we get to Heaven.

It’s interesting how many lessons we can pick up from a simple game of Monopoly…

Aichmophobia

Aichmophobia - Fear of needles or pointed objects.

Yeah, this is the term that was introduced to me by Rebecca last night via MSN.

I’m scared of needles, be it being pricked to test blood, before surgical operation, donating blood, etc. Don’t want to talk about it… psychological fear.

Trickster?

I just had a 2 hours chat with my Mum in my room. It started with a simple question to her & it dragged onto several other topics in the end. Eh, that sounds familiar when I'm chatting with Rebecca too!

After seeing the clock showing 1:15am, my Mum rushed out of my room, exclaiming, "You say only 5 mins, but I never stay in your room for only 5 mins one! You always trick me into coming in... You... You... Trickster ah you..." Her comment is SO funny! Hahahaha... It wasn't intentional! She was the one who went onto other issues! Hahahaha... my Mum called me 'Trickster'... *Laugh*... =)

My Unique Christmas Gift

My Christmas gift came exceptionally early this year. In fact, the bulk of my Christmas gift came slightly more than a month early this Monday, November 21, 2005. It was given by my beloved girlfriend Rebecca.

Why this Christmas gift unique? It is because I have never received a ‘live’ Christmas gift before in my life! In my all years celebrating Christmas, my gifts were all non-living… whereas this Christmas, I’m getting a HAMSTER! And the best part – it is the relative of Rebecca’s hamster! She named it ‘Sebastian’. I haven’t concluded on my hamster’s name yet… but as for now, I’m calling it ‘Rudolph’, after the reindeer that pulls the sled with Santa Claus sitting on it. Of course, it is just a cartoon fairy tale, but I think ‘Rudolph’ is a unique name for a unique Christmas gift! =)

This Monday, Rebecca accompanied me to ‘Pet Safari’ at Simei shopping centre to get the accessories to prepare for the arrival of my new pet hamster! It was an interesting time of deciding between all the cages on sale, before finally deciding on that same cage which we decided upon the last time we came by to take a look. By far, it is still the best cage that both of us liked.

The best part of this cage is because it has this fitted hamster ball which allows the hamster to run, with more space as compared to a regular hamster wheel. This hamster ball is also detachable, which allows me to put the hamster in it & let it run around in my house! A two-in-one feature! Marvelous! I’m sure my hamster would love it… =)

Next, we chose & bought the hamster bedding, bathing sand, mixed food & a small pink container that the hamster can dig itself in. The gravel or bathing sand put inside would allow the hamster to clean itself, without regular usage of shampoo which would remove the oil coated on the hamster’s fur, thus making it more susceptible to falling ill or catching a cold.

Rebecca’s P5 student Sarah will be passing her the hamster in a couple of days & soon I would have a new pet! After keeping terrapins & soon a hamster, I wonder whether I can’t do without a pet next time. I really enjoy the presence of a pet that I can own & love. The early development of my paternal instinct? Hahaha… or maybe I just love having a pet… *Smile*.

Good Ecological System

I released my 5 terrapins this afternoon at the pond near Rebecca’s house. I’m not sure if it is against the law, but I wanted my terrapins to be happy & this was the best place for them to thrive in. Besides, Rebecca’s 3 terrapins were released there some months ago & are surviving very well.

Initially I decided to bring them to that pond in the evening, so that nobody would spot me. But later decided to go there in the afternoon coz the place would be most crowded in the evening (after work, after school & those going to the market for dinner). And the biggest plus point was that I would get to take photos of them in the afternoon sun, as compared to the miserable amount of light coming from the nearby lamp posts.

It was a sad moment for me, as I picked up an old shoe box & put my terrapins into the cardboard box laid with old newspaper, to make the bumpy ride on the bus more comfortable for them. One by one, I put them into the shoe box & surprisingly, they love being on newspaper! I didn’t know that… =)

I walked to take bus 14 there, occasionally lifting up the box cover to make sure that they are not suffocating inside. It is so cute to see their little black eyes peering out at me, whenever I smiled & gazed at them fondly. I don’t know if terrapins have feelings (except animal instinct & pain), but I knew I was going to miss them.

My terrapins have been a part of my life for about 10 months now & I have fed, washed, watched & played with them throughout this time together. They were an important part of my family, especially during these 3 months when I have been jobless. They were my only daily responsibility & I cared for them as well as I can. I even bought them neon fishes twice, as a treat, aside from their usual terrapin food.

I guess the best part about having terrapins as pets is when they look at you once in awhile & you wonder what they are thinking. For one of them (Charlotte) whom I dote on a lot, it could be a fond gaze at this owner who watches over me every day. For another, it could be looking at me & wondering when I would put them in a bigger & more spacious environment. What’s for sure is that my terrapins didn’t want to flee from me. They just wanted a more spacious environment to live in. More space for swimming, more rocks to sun themselves on & lots of terrapin food to gobble daily.

It is just unfortunate that few owners are able to afford to have a spacious & deep tank of approximately 30 - 40 inches in length (minimum) to house a few terrapins comfortably. For a baby terrapin, the minimum water level required is at least 8 – 10 cm in height. Not to forget that terrapins will need a higher level of water to swim in, as they grow bigger. Personally, it would be good to have a tank of this size, leaving it in the open in, for example, the field of a semi-detached or bungalow home. Most HDB flats do not have sufficient space to keep such a tank for semi-aquatic terrapins. It becomes somewhat like a home-based pond for them to wonder around, sun themselves at various spots, swim like nobody’s business & stay happy every day.

This pond at Bedok is a very spot for my terrapins. The water level is about 30cm deep & the amount of swimming area is huge, covering a curvy layout of approximately 50 m2 (10m by 5m). This pond is also filled with all kinds of fishes, including sucker fishes that clean up the green algae in the pond. At one large corner of the pond, there is a huge array of solid rocks surrounding a man-made fountain, which makes it very scenic for both aquatic animals & passer-bys.

I find it quite an excellent ecological system that compliments both fish & terrapins (those that I put in today & those that were already there). Why? Coz fish & terrapin feed on fish, which occasionally die due to natural death… & that becomes their natural source of food. Terrapins don’t have terrapin food to eat in the wild. In addition, they are occasional passer-bys who throw in food for the fishes to eat & terrapins adapt by learning to eat these food too. So I’m very happy for my terrapins, knowing that they will survive & thrive in this ecologically friendly environment.

Lifting the cover of the shoe box, I talked to my terrapins for a few seconds before releasing them one by one into the deep, cool & refreshing water below. Unlike Rebecca’s terrapins, my terrapins did not scurry away immediately. My terrapins are cautious terrapins, picking this up from their owner. It was so fun to watch them checking out their new environment & in my mind, I was hoping that they considered this bumpy bus ride there reasonable to finally get to live in such a spaciously wonderful pond! I so glad for them, as I watched them slowly swim off one by one (my terrapins have always been rather individualistic by nature).

Although I knew they couldn’t hear me, I began talking to them, as I walked around the edge of the pond, keeping a close eye on them, as I watched them explore different corners of their new home. My heart held a mixture of sadness, yet happiness, seeing that they no longer scratch at the corners of the tank, hoping to find a way out & into the green grass that they saw every day below my balcony.

My heart jumped when I saw Jacey (my biggest terrapin) sniffing out a larger terrapin & then following it around. Jacey has found a friend! Yeh! And I’m sure he would find more, coz he’s always been rather easy-going, yet having a courageous heart. In fact, I almost wanted to cry when I waved at Jacey while he was swimming towards my direction. You know why? Coz Jacey saw the familiar hand-sign that I normally do every day & he stopped to look at me. He gazed at me for about 3 seconds before slowly swimming off. My heart just melted as I wondered whether he was acknowledging my efforts in putting them into this magnificent new home. Either way, he looked happy to be free… =)

Charlotte has the most innocent eyes that I have ever seen since the first day I saw her. And by far, she’s the most gentle & nicest of the lot. I saw her imitating another bigger terrapin nibble & bite some flesh off a dead fish that was lying on the bottom of the pond. She was the smallest of my terrapins & I was so glad to see her learning how to find food from other terrapins. That warmed my heart, as I took a last look around the pond, before going home.

I was kind of brooding on the bus home, coz I missed my terrapins. Every day when I wake up, I would carry their tank up to my balcony ledge to feed & sun them. I will miss these times… especially since I’ll be waking up each day, alone & without my terrapins that I have showered so much care ever since day one. Thank God for the scientific discovery of the digital camera… for I have taken 233MB of photos & video clips of them since July this year. It is just unfortunate that my other photos taken in the earlier months are not recoverable due to my old PC hard-disk crash. Nevertheless, I’m still very thankful… & I still miss them very much.

Without A Supernatural Voice

This morning, I went for an interview at TMC Int’l Holdings Ltd. It was the longest & most monotonous interview that I had ever experienced before. It took a total of 2 & ½ hours & in the end leaving me walking out discouraged & depressed.

As usual, I was told to fill up this notoriously long 4 page application form. It was boring as it has always been for me, considering that I have applying for jobs for the past 3 months. But that wasn’t the problem.

Upon completing that application form, I was then directed to sit at this PC terminal where I had to answer type out my answers to two subjective questions. Suddenly I felt like I was about to take an examination of open-ended questions. The first question asked me to comment about the company’s policy that requires every staff to commit to at least one year in the company. The second question asked me to state how I can contribute to the growth of the company.

Although these were not terribly difficult questions, I felt odd at this academic approach of screening prospective candidates. I mean, it is not an IQ test or survey, so why can’t the interviewer just ask me directly? But nevermind, I did it anyway.

After that, I was told to type a draft letter to a student who had just applied for a bachelor degree program at this school, assuming myself as the course coordinator. I understood the practicality of this approach, but isn’t this normally a standard letter format pre-designed & re-used by a typical school administrative department? It doesn’t have to be any fancy or specially designed & I’m sure the school already has a standard letter format, so why not just use it?

All these took me from 9:15am till 10:30am. By then, I was tired out from thinking & staring into this PC monitor that hanged the first time I tried to save my MS Word document. The MS Word program that I was using was cranky too. Anyhow underline my words in red & call it spelling error, when it is not.

Finally, I was told to sit in this old run-down tutorial room to wait for the manager to come down & interview me. The place was very run down, with the walls looking that it used to be white… & now looking a bit yellowish & with cracks. They even used this room to store two very old model stationary bikes & one basic human skeleton model, covered with a large transparent plastic sheet. I found it very odd coz TMC do not offer sports or science related courses.

I had to wait in this freezing air-con dilapidated tutorial room until I was getting all fidgety & my hands turned pale from the lack of blood in it. My skin felt cold & my voice started to feel sore & dry. It wasn’t a very conducive place for an interview.

Finally, this lady walked into the tutorial room. She had this rather bored facial expression & it kind-of made quite a negative impression on me when she told me that if appointed, I would be reporting to her. Immediately, fears from my experience with a fake smiling Gladys shot back into active mind recall. And it didn’t help that I was slightly coughing from the coldness & dry throat.

When she asked me to tell me about myself, I gave a general answer partly because I was very tired of describing myself to interviewers, after going for several interviews. But largely it was because I was affected by her bored body language.

As it is, the environment in this building didn’t give me a good impression coz it wasn’t well maintained, with rather dim lights all around the corners of each floor, wooden doors that looked like they held caged up animals within, stoned-face staff walking around the place & a front desk reception area that was rather cluttered with paper & a few all-female admin staff pacing up & down doing their work.

I couldn’t keep a simple smile on my face & no matter how hard I tried; I just couldn’t smile or look somewhat cheerful to be called for a job interview. In fact, I was quite worried about how it would be like to work in a place like this. The whole environment gave me a cold & dilapidated feeling.

Oh yah! I remembered! This lady didn’t even introduce herself & her name when she came into the room! Up till now, sitting at my desk at home & typing this Blog… I still don’t know her name! What professionalism… Horrible! Sigh…

She questioned me about why I left my job at StarHub & didn’t seem convinced when I replied that I wanted to give myself a chance to explore & develop my career in a different industry which wasn’t so technically complex as required in my previous workplace. I mean, how else should I reply? That my ex-boss didn’t like me & my working style & told me to resign?

When she asked what kind of jobs I have been applying for, she also didn’t like my response when I honestly replied that I have been applying for various jobs in various industries. She looked at me when she said that she didn’t want to hire someone who is unemployed & desperately looking for a job & does not know what kind of job that he wants to work. I mean, it is the truth & it shows that I’m not picky & willing to be open about work. How does she want me to respond to such a remark that she made about me?

As the interview continued, I realized that I couldn’t put on a smile any longer. My smile faded & I just did my best to look serious & not portray unhappiness about everything so far. I was also worried that if she became my boss, I would end up in another episode with another ‘Gladys’. Then that would be my second career nightmare.

It didn’t help when she told me that this is a new department that branched out from the usual big division, so there will only be three staff running the whole department. One executive, one manager (i.e. her) & the currently vacant assistant manager position that I had applied for. Working hours are from 9am – 9pm, which includes working & ending work at 3pm on Saturday. That means that I won’t be able to go to the gym at all. And that thought screaming past my mind got me very unhappy.

At last, the interview was over & I left the office heavy-footed, downcast & depressed. It seemed that I’m stuck in a fix. Due to the unfortunate fact that I was told to leave StarHub after working there for 5 - 6 months, prospective employers look at me as either a job hopper or someone who was incompetent at his job. Either way it is not to my advantage at all. Not even 1% advantage. I really don’t know how to get out of this rut. Very upset about it. Not as if it was my choice to leave StarHub. I liked it there, if not for Gladys!

I spoke to Uncle John earlier this week & asked if it would be awkward if I applied for StarHub again. He agreed that it would be awkward & difficult coz they would ask me why I left the company. What’s worse, as an internal account manager, more people in StarHub know me, more than I know them. In other words, I’m almost literally blacklisted from ever applying for a job in StarHub ever again in my life. Yeah, my entire life. I seriously wonder what I have done to deserve this.

Walking home, it suddenly struck me that I’m like the movie character that Mark Lee acted in the movie ‘One More Chance’. He went to jail & no one wanted to employ him, not even for a janitor job. I suddenly felt like him – like the trash of society. Discriminated… Stigmatized... Unwanted… Discarded…

Where should I turn to? What job should I apply for? Where would I fit in? I really do not know… I’m just so tired of searching for a suitable job for myself… so tired.

Thank God that I managed to download the recent sermons by Dr Paul Stevens. In one of his sermons, he shared a phrase quoted from a Christian author. It read:

“Never allow the thought - I can be of no use where I am, because I certainly cannot be of any use where I am not.”

This phrase gave me a tinge of hope, about 5% hope. Not a lot, but it was something to a downcast soul. Dr Paul Stevens also shared that “Calling is more important than situation in life”… that we are placed strategically for a specific purpose by God.

Often in life, the voice of God doesn’t come as a loud supernatural voice. Normally, we have to feel our way through the thick mist all around us, so as to find our way to somewhere. So as for now, this is all that I can cling onto… Till the mystery of God’s path be opened up in front of me…

Basic Exercise Course (BEC) – Day 4 cum Finale

Today marks the 4th & last day of the BEC. For some reason, I really don’t know what reason, I couldn’t fall asleep for the entire night before. It was absolute insomnia… something that I have almost never encountered before in my entire life.

Since young, my parents knew me as the person who can sleep literally anywhere, be it as a baby or adolescent. Just give me a relatively comfortable resting spot & I would have no problem falling asleep. Even at a very young age, my Mum used to say that I sleep like a log. Once asleep, nothing can wake me up. *Laugh*… =)

Perhaps my mind was crowded with thoughts & worries. Afterall, it has been a trying time for me these few months, being without a job, declining savings & no having come face-to-face with the anxiety of passing the coming BEC exam.

After much tossing & turning in my bed throughout the night, I decided to get up at 6am, since I just couldn’t get to sleep. Plus, I needed to get up within the next hour, so no point struggling to sleep at this point of time.

Having washed up & packed my bag, I took a slow morning stroll towards Siglap McDonalds where I ordered Hot Cakes with sausage meal & changed my caffeinated drink to fresh milk. I was the first customer of the day… something that I don’t recall happening to me before.

While on my way there, I felt a tinge of sadness as the course was ending so soon. Deep in my heart, I really wished that I could learn more. Throughout the past few sessions, I can safely say that I’m one of the more attentive & interested class participant. I always had further questions to ask at every chapter, at every session, as well as often staying back after class to ask personal & more in-depth questions. The trainers were responsive, very competent & I’m felt that I was going to miss interacting with them.

Today’s session comprised of Nutrition & Weight Management. And I must say that the part about nutrition really gave my brains such a rattle that not even studying tedious economics in university could give me. This is where I had a first-hand experience of learning about a few terms such as fructose, galactose, glucose, that I had learnt in my secondary school Biology. But these were just a few terms… & there were many more that got me shaken up to rack my brains to figure out & understand.

Let’s remember I’m now learning about nutrition, not in the context of basic human biology… but human physiology in the context of sports science. This topic was very heavy on the mind & many participants yearned for a break, before the next lecture portion on weight management began. My mind was in a state of ‘super-tax’ as well, but I gritted my teeth in a few instances & carried on maintaining high concentration, so as to understand what was being taught. It was satisfying to be scribbling down lots of notes, especially those that were additional information that were not tested.

It was surprising coz most people were more keen on what’s going to be tested in the BEC exam, whereas I was interested beyond that & getting all sparked up about extra useful info which will not be tested at all in BEC. I mean, I was interested & I would be learning this again in greater depth in FIC, so why not figure it out now? And with that level of intensity in eye-contact with the lecturer, notes scribbling & asking further questions… it wasn’t difficult to spot me in the midst of the crowd of 80 participants.

The consequence was that my mind got all groggy at the end of the lecture on nutrition, but I knew that I had learnt a lot… & definitely more than those who were just edging to go for tea or toilet break. It gave me a great sense of satisfaction to see more & more of the blank white spaces in my BEC text notes becoming filled up with words, points & a small handful of personally drawn diagrams. I was glad to be learning & I greatly desired to learn more.

The last portion on weight management was relatively much shorter, as we rounded up that chapter with several formulas to calculate basal calorie intake, comparing between the usage of body mass index, versus body composition test, etc. It was interesting & the lecture ended well, with a very short prelude that we would be going much, much further in-depth in the FIC.

For example, we learnt of 3 different forms of aerobic training in BEC. In FIC, we are required to learn 30. That brought a shocked grin to my face, but I knew that it’s still something that I wanted to learn & become a certified fitness instructor.

I exchanged contact numbers with a fellow course-mate Wong Thim Chong, a technician working at Jurong who conversed mainly in Mandarin, due to weaker standard of the English language. But I respected him for his determination in studying & understanding this course. Despite daily working schedules, he took the time to study 2 – 3 hours every day, with a dictionary beside him. Even while working, he wrote a list of human anatomy terms on a piece of paper & referred it to every once in awhile, so as to aid memory recall. Now that’s a determined guy!

At the end of the session, I approached Paul Oh to ask how I should train for my possibly coming Kota Kinabalu expedition trip next year. My problem was my high level of difficulty in breathing in low oxygen air, up at beyond 3000+ meters till the summit at above 4000 meters at Sabah. Paul told me that it was impossible to train at low oxygen & high altitude levels without the use of high-tech equipment set in an environmentally controlled training room. Thus, his best recommendation would be to train intensively on long hours of aerobic exercises, so as to build up an even much stronger & efficient cardio & muscular endurance that would help lessen this breathing difficulty by a fair bit, but not completely. I’m very thankful for his advice & strive to do even better in my KK trip next year.

Wee Seong & I met up with Shirley Cheah at the ground level of the estate & took the MRT, followed by a relatively long walk to Blk 85 market to eat lunch. I felt bad that the famous minced pork noodles stall (all 3 stalls) was closed & we ended up having to eat other food. It was a long time of chatting & sharing between the 3 of us. I really learnt a lot from Shirley who is highly experienced in this area of sports & fitness training.

Hope that if the opportunity arises, I would be able to meet up with Shirley & Paul again. I’m glad that I managed to get their name cards for future reference & networking purposes. I also got to know Wong Thim Chong, Wee Seong, Fred & Melvin Yo (sales manager for Icon Books) in this course too. Not too bad, I got to know 6 people in a short 4 days course. Glad to make friends with them, especially since all of us share the same passion for this industry!

I really, really thank God for this opportunity to go through BEC. It has brought me networking contacts & an outstanding amount of sports science knowledge that I would not have so effectively learnt, should I not have registered & attended this course. The knowledge gained is simply amazing & I love every minute & part of it! FIC would be terribly tougher, but I’m up for the challenge! =)

Basic Exercise Course (BEC) – Day 3

Flexibility & Aerobics Training - these are the two main components of what we learnt at BEC today. As usual, the theory portion began first, followed by the practical hands-on session.

Flexibility has always been my weakest point. Since young, I have always had incredibly stiff bones & muscle tissues. Even when I was in primary school & my parents allowed me to learn Taekwondo… I was always one of the few kids who couldn’t do a leg split, forward or sideways. Extremes aside, stretching was just not my forte. It was embarrassing & I just couldn’t figure out why.

My brother was one of the most flexible in that Taekwondo class of about 10 – 12 kids… & his elder brother (i.e. me) was anything but flexible. Yet, I have to say that I was one of the strongest in kicks at that age. Now that’s the strange part – my brother is flexible, but not so strong; whereas I’m stronger, yet not flexible. “How I wonder what we are”… just like the song goes… =)

I’m not afraid to admit it - flexibility has haunted me all my life, for the past 25 years. Despite my excellent NAPFA test results every year in secondary school (except in sec 1), I just could never get a gold or silver award… all because of my sit & reach. On rare occasions, I could scrap through by the barest minimum of hair strain length from that wooden measurement scale that seemed light years away from my desperate finger tips.

Perhaps having longer fingernails could help. But at the rate that my flexibility dropped over the later years… seriously, passing would only be a possibility if I had 30 cm long fingernails. Or at least, someone pass me a ruler… quick!

And to much surprise, I learnt in my BEC today that each person’s ability to remain flexible deteriorates every day when he / she don’t stretch. In short, our range of flexibility decreases daily, once we stop stretching daily to stay supple.

Now that’s the interesting, yet amazing truth about our human body. Whatever that is good, needs to be regularly maintained (and if possible, also work at improving it). Be it body resistance against germs, muscle tissue flexibility, strength & stamina of the heart, etc… all have to be consistently maintained, if not it would deteriorate.

And it’s just great that I only learnt it today. Now that I’m already 25 years old & my limbs are all rusty & ‘solidified’. But no matter, better late than never! I will start practicing my stretching daily & work towards an improvement over time.

And that’s why I was worried before the practical session on flexibility started, because I really hoped to learn some amazing & miraculous stuff that I can put into practice & improve on my flexibility. But in my mind, I was thinking, “How ah… stretching only got those few kinds that I can do leh… Just do like that can improve meh?” And so, I stayed worried until the practical session began. Then my worries faded away. Why? Coz that’s when embarrassment came in & almost immediately, followed by wincing & pain.

For the first time in my life, I found myself to be like a block of wood… almost totally unbendable! I started to question whether I was human, just like everyone else who is made up of flesh & bones. And you know why? Coz once I got into the stretching position, my body stiffened into the Great Wall of China... totally solidified… not even a slight millimeter of bending was possible nor imaginable to even BEGIN to perform the stretch. Sitting in that starting position, to me, that was already the stretch. I could move no more. It was embarrassing.

With a mix of facial expression between wincing & flustered embarrassment, I realized that this is my prime objective from now onwards. No doubt about it. The longer I wait & procrastinate, the more difficult it would be for me to regain my ability to stay nimble. I had to do something about it… FAST.

This practical lesson in flexibility was mind boggling. Not because it was difficult to understand, coz the trainer explained to us the logic of how to stretch each particular muscle part, based on the muscle fiber run in our body. Do it otherwise & your stretch will be inefficient or negligible coz you are not even stretching the muscle part that needed the stretch. And the worse case scenario being to risk injuring that muscle, which then kind of defeats the initial purpose of stretching it.

The stretches were quite different from the usual kinds that we do in our earlier school days, in the army or even at gym Group Exercise sessions. These stretching techniques that we learnt was muscle specific, that means when we do a particular stretch, means we stretch a particular muscle. For example, our deltoid (i.e. shoulder) has 3 planes to it – meaning that there had to be 3 different stretches for each plane of the muscle.

It was astonishing to believe that I actually started to sweat while doing these stretches! Suddenly, stretching became my biggest obstacle in physical fitness. Everything else seemed so small…

In the next component of today’s session, we were taught the theory aspect of different methods of aerobic training, calculation & how to make use of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR), Heart Rate Reserve (HRR), Resting Heart Rate (RHR), suitability of aerobic training programs based on difficulty, proportion of fat burn compared to carbohydrate burn, as well as understanding the high importance of rotating training programs to prevent muscle adaptation which leads to ineffective workouts.

This concept of muscle adaptation is very interesting to me. You see, our muscle adapts to a certain kind of workout after consistently doing it for a period of several weeks. After that, the effectiveness of our cardio workout becomes stagnant & we will not be exercising effectively for maximum benefit for our heart, muscles & body. That’s when we need to switch in between programs, not switch in between a stationary bike to the treadmill & call that a proper switch.

It is not only about the type of cardio machine used, but the nature of cardio exercise that we put ourselves through. For example, a good switch could mean a transition from interval training to circuit training.

Next, we began our practical aerobics session. First, we were put through this Step Test that was relatively easy, yet even though most of us were not breathing heavily; our heart rate was rather high. So that kind of warned me that just because my breathing is not tired, it doesn’t mean that I’m really all that fit. Yet, my heart rate was still on a good standard, so it wasn’t too bad for me.

What happened in the second part of our practical session was a killer. Everyone who tried aerobics before know it is tough… yet most of us are still moderately fit enough to go through a standard one hour aerobics workout at the gym. Those who tried circuit training before know it can be tough too, but it depends on the total number & type of exercise stations.

So try this – our trainer introduced to us her modified version of combining aerobics & circuit training all together. And she made it easy for us - just five types of exercises done in aerobic style. And believe me from the bottom of my heart… It ‘killed’ us all. No kidding.

All of us fitness instructor- or aerobics instructor-to-be, crumbled at that workout. And it was only five different exercises, but I tell you… they were killer exercises!

Let me give you one example - those who did ABT squats before know how tiring it makes you breathe & how ‘burning’ your thighs would be. Try this – high knee lift, forward step fully extended, followed by quadriceps lunges, downward hamstring stretch, then do it alternate legs in brisk-paced fashion. And that makes up one movement.

Btw, brisk-paced means to complete each movement in about 2 seconds each. Then do it from one end of the room till the end… & back. That’s one set. Then do it for a second set. That completes one exercise type. Four more exercise types to go in similar fashion. No rest interval in between. Go ahead, everyone… smile… & see whether a wince or smile spreads out across your face. Ha!

Wanna try something else new? You think push-ups are easy? Let me give you one more example – Hands & knees on the floor, use your hands to crawl forward till full stretch, fully extent your legs, do one push-up, then crawl back with your hands to original position. Again, brisk-paced ah… & this completes one movement. Then without rest, continue in aerobic fashion till 20 repetitions, counting aloud when completed each count. Then no rest, followed by next exercise type. Come on, boys & girls… smile! Give me a big broad smile!

Believe me, five exercises in this manner, completed in 10 minutes… & that left all of us gasping like our heart would pump itself out of our chest. This time, my thighs weren’t burning. They weren’t really moving already. To be really frank, I couldn’t complete each of the exercise types. It was just overwhelming & left many of us sweating… collapsing on our chairs after that simple 10 minutes, while the trainer shouted out, “Hey! That’s only 10 minutes!” And I began to wonder how I managed to survive through a typical 1 hour aerobic Group Exercise session. Twist the combo & see what you get… it was horrifying!

The power of combinations… Truly shocked the heart out of me… No wonder the trainer said that they don't do such exercises in those gym aerobics sessions. *Laugh*... =)

The Confrontation

Believe me, I have never intentionally confronted a certified Personal Trainer before… & especially not one who goes to the same California Fitness gym as I do regularly. But I did that today for a reason… a reason that crowned me as a ‘Protector’ this afternoon. Well, at least that’s what Rebecca called me.

Today was Rebecca’s turn to go for her free 1 hour health & fitness assessment at California Fitness. Contrary to how depressing that she perceived her results to be, I didn’t think it was that bad. In fact, her main problem was her high body fat percentage… which of course means a state that requires improvement. Yet understanding that it took 23 years to get her to this state, I didn’t feel that it was exactly reasonable to suddenly lump all this together & see it as an utterly outrageous problem & mountainous task which was truly all-out valid to become all downcast & disappointed.

To me, the fact that she has taken a bold step of going to the gym as regularly as she could, at least twice a week, for the past 2 – 3 months, shows that she is willing to attempt something new & beneficial, as well as having picked up a good habit… & that is what is most important to me, first & foremost.

I had been in training & competitions for almost a decade throughout my early school years. And one BIG problem with most people is that we tend to get lazy & not disciplined enough to pick up a good habit of healthy eating & exercise. I’m not saying that going to a gym is the only positive habit (course there are also other forms of varied exercises & sports), but it’s a very good start.

I commend her for the time, effort & commitment that she has taken to make time for regular exercise, in the midst of her grueling in-school & out-of-school working hours. To me, getting used to a good habit is most important, then followed by working towards good results. In fact, no training program works once & always. If one doesn’t work, we need to revise & improve on its weak areas. But most important, it is to get the good habit of committing to regular exercise FIRST. And trust me; in all my years in training & all, this is one of the biggest obstacles of keeping healthy & fit.

Even Sylvester Stallone, after exercising for 40 over years & being world famous for his ripped-up & sculpted muscular body in all his famous movies, still wrote in his book that even after 40 years of exercising, he still needs to rely on his personal motivation to get himself going to the gym.

Some say, well… that’s even more the reason why you need a Personal Trainer! Well, my answer will be yes & no… depending on what you want for yourself. In my opinion, a person who needs to feel the pinch of money spent on a Personal Trainer, which snowballs into an impulse to motivate him to exercise regularly, simply lacks the basic intrinsic motivation that is necessary to push him to excel in what he sets himself to do.

Likewise, if any higher level student or undergraduate always needs to have a personal tuition teacher hired by his parents to always sit down next to him & make him study & do his homework, he will not gain or much less strengthen his will-power to do what’s necessary to achieve his best in his life.

Try this at work. Hire someone to force you out of bed, follow you all around your workplace throughout the day, each & every day, urging you to do your job. How would you see yourself? Of course it is easy to say, course I had my days where I don’t feel like going to work. But the truth is that we can't depend on someone to tag alongside us all the time, so as to make sure that we do something!

The idea is this – your life, health & fitness is your own personal responsibility. If you do not bother or at least try to gradually build up a personal commitment in this, for your own sake, then please tell me who else in this entire human race can do it for you?

I assure you, no individual that has to be kicked, pushed, beaten or punished all through his life, will be able to grow & develop strength in character. And this is one attribute that will carry you through life, through disappointments, through set-backs, through pain, failures, etc. Without that, or least building upon that, a total weakling in this would simply crumble.

Of course, having a Personal Trainer for guidance & planning a customized training program for you is useful. But the problem lies in when it becomes a reliance & dependence on someone to spoon-feed you, all through the many years of your life. The moment you stop or can’t afford to hire a Personal Trainer, what happens? You have to fall back on the most basic & intrinsic aspect within yourself – your own motivation to carry on. Or simply end up going back to joining the human species that fall under the category of ‘couch potato’.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. You see, this particular Personal Trainer was really pushy, sarcastic, proud & simply annoyed Rebecca. While I was doing my cardio workout on the stationary bike, Rebecca walked up to me, looking all worried & tensed, asking me how she should talk to this Personal Trainer who kept trying to push her to sign up for a particular 3 months Personal Training package costing thousand over dollars.

I wish to address this early – I’m not against Personal Training or the types of packages being offered. Each gym has their way of generating sales & valid reason for meeting sales targets. But what I’m against is being PUSHY. Top it off with being rude to the customer, what more my girlfriend & that’s enough to piss me off. Of course, that doesn’t render me to be rude towards that Personal Trainer. But the situation, in my opinion, called for someone to step in to assess & assert the customer’s position, if deemed valid & reasonable. Afterall, it is the customer’s money.

I understand that a Personal Trainer is required to meet sales targets. That’s his job & his part. But Rebecca came to me so flustered up, as if she had met with this hideously aggressive & nasty ‘monster’… & that’s not the way it is supposed to be. Personal Trainers do get commission from each customer’s paid training session. It adds to their basic salary. But it does not permit them to indirectly ‘extort’ through aggressive words.

After talking to Rebecca for a few minutes, I left her to talk it out with this Personal Trainer because I thought she needed to face this situation on her own, if not, she would not be able to gather enough courage & assertiveness in the case of future similar scenarios.

So I carried on with my next cardio workout on the treadmill. Every few minutes, I turned to look at the area where she’s sitting & looked to see if she has come out. After about 4 – 5 minutes of running, I decided to stop my workout & look for her. After going through that barrage of intense ‘persuading’ by that Personal Trainer, talking to me, then going back to talk it out with him, she’s still not out. Something isn’t right. It must be that fella trying to be pushy again.

It started to get on my nerves & I walked into the room to look for Rebecca. When I saw her, I walked over calmly, diplomatically introduced myself to that Personal Trainer & sat down next to Rebecca, asking to understand this situation that is going on.

And that was when the confrontation began, between the Personal Trainer & I. I looked him straight in his eyes, very intensely & listened to him. I made sure that my eyes showed no sign of retreat or fear, before I would begin speaking next.

After hearing his explanation of what he was trying to explain to Rebecca, I tried to counter his aggressive approach by coming forth in a strong assertive manner. I explained to him that Rebecca has a tight budget & she’s not willing to spend this amount of money on Personal Training, well at least not at this point of time.

The atmosphere was tensed as both of us spoke & countered each other’s statements. He dived into Rebecca’s assessment results, saying that she is not working correctly on the gym machines & need a few sessions with a Personal Trainer to correct her techniques. I countered by saying, “Isn’t that why the Fit Pros are around?” Then he said that Fit Pros will not be around to assist for the entire workout duration. So I told him that she cannot afford the training fees now & we do have a business card from one of the Personal Trainers at California Fitness, so we will give him a call, if we do require such training in future.

Of course, these are just two of the intense exchange between me & that Personal Trainer. I think he really gave California Fitness a very bad impression.

So in the end, I thanked him for his time & he walked off. Rebecca tried to reassure the nice Fit Pro named Mohd Danil that his time wasn’t wasted & she might consider him in future, if she needed the training.

In fact, Rebecca told me earlier that she didn’t like him because he’s quite gay (we were not sure if he’s really gay) & was totally turned out by his aggressiveness to close the customer sale. In fact, after this conversation ended, she even told me that she saw ‘money signs’ in his eyes & was convinced that he was just trying to persuade her because of the money. He didn’t seem that he wanted to help at all. He just wanted the money.

In any case, I’m equipped to teach Rebecca how to use these gym machines. Afterall, I’m trained in the BEC that I had taken, which is the actual learning objectives of this course.

I mean, seriously… why has training got to be time specific? Why do we purposely need to set ourselves a deadline that I must lose my excess body fat in 3 or 6 months? Even if a person cannot afford it now, still ‘die-die’ must go for it now? NOW? Of course, body image is important, but it isn’t a life & death issue.

In fact, after thinking it through, that’s why I signed up for the BEC, then later on follow up with the FIC… so that I will be equipped with the necessary knowledge to design my own training programs, along with the knowledge of how to perform gym exercises & workout machines. Then I can help other people like Rebecca & my friends who may ask for my advice.

I believe in learning to fish… not just waiting to be fed fish.

And through it all, I will become more knowledgeable & able to assist others. Not because of money, but because I can help. Either way, being pushy is all wrong. You get a bad reputation & people end up not liking you. How beneficial is that in the long run?

My Health & Fitness Assessment

It’s interesting how I got myself into signing up for this free 1 hour health & fitness assessment at California Fitness.

It was Tuesday, when Rebecca & I went for our regular workout there, a Fitness Professional (Fit Pro) approached her to ask if she’s interested to sign up for this free assessment. It so happened that I was walking up to her & I enthusiastically signed up for this as well.

This is one thing which some of my SIM friends would find odd about me. I have always been fascinated about taking tests to find out more about myself. Be it about personality, career, relationships, spiritual gifts, temperament tests, etc. Perhaps I’m just a person who is keen to find out the latest updates about myself. To me, it’s a natural inclination & fascination. Simply put, I like to ‘stay on top’ of news about myself. *Smile*… =)

So this is the day – Thursday, November 17, 2005, 7pm at California Fitness Jackie Chan Sport Club. This was when I met up with Fit Pro Asyari who came over to introduce himself to me, looking rather flustered. Maybe he was trying to rush something before his appointment with me. But I suspected that the main reason was because I had asked for him at the reception too early… 15 minutes before 7pm. Hahaha… See how eager I can get about such stuff? Just like a typical job interview… must come early, if possible 15 – 20 minutes early. Coz some companies enjoyably like to ask you to fill up those awfully long application forms… Sigh…

So both of us went up to the second floor, passing by a lot of people (as usual, its peak hour at the gym), before finally walking into this intensely square room (near the men’s changing room), where it is filled with a whole series of cubicles… after cubicles… all relatively dark blue in color & making me feel like I have just admitted myself into a scary & squeezy dark blue prison, comprising of many 1m by 1m cubicle representing each ‘prison cell’.

The last time anyone felt like this, it was probably during the 1920s, when our grand forefathers traveled in some stinking & cram wooden boat from China to Singapore. And if I remember correctly, the space allocated per immigrant was 3m by 1m… which makes better human living conditions than that horrendously small blue ‘house’ that would make any non-claustrophobic person become claustrophobic.

Nay, I’m just kidding… I’m not claustrophobic & neither did I become claustrophobic after spending several minutes in that bluish ‘square container’. But I did FEEL claustrophobic though… Anyway, jokes aside…

Asyari is a nice guy, though I felt that I was actually more comfortable talking to him, than him with me. Perhaps I warm up easier to people, especially in a place like this where the air smells fresh & clean… with crowds of people sweating it out on the cardio machines… behaving like a hamster… trying so hard, but really getting nowhere. Oh well, there are benefits of cardio exercises... but not too much.

First of all, he went through this short health history check to make sure that I was able to undergo this fitness assessment. I was cleared for all, except my leg problems, which I shared with him about an SAF medical doctor claiming that I had ligament tear in my knees, due to excessive running & wearing out of the knee cap lubrication fluid.

I referred to my knee injury as ligament tear, but I’m not sure if the doctor was right, coz he merely felt my knee caps. But until otherwise diagnosed, I will just refer to it as knee injury.

Next, he took my height & weight. My height was 1.71m & I weighed 64kg. No change so far, though my height did fluctuate very, very slightly between 1.71m – 1.73m. But no big diff… it is just 2 cm.

My blood pressure was more on the high side though… 155 / 96. I found it odd coz I seldom get readings this high. But just to cut this short, Asyari said that I was probably very excited about this fitness assessment, rather than actually having a high blood pressure… especially with the results that I got from my treadmill test, which I will elaborate later.

My overall body fat turned out to be a stunning 18.4%! I was shocked & couldn’t believe it! With my personally customized weight resistance program, I cut down 4% of body fat in 3 months! And what’s more… in a very healthy way! So you see… smart eating habits… regular proper exercise… get enough sleep… laugh as often as you can… & lo & behold… less fat! =)

And to further emphasize my achievement in terms of lesser body fat, I must say that with the exact same weight that I still weigh… this means that I have actually gained more lean muscle mass! Not those big bulky stiff muscles, but lean muscles trained by a mix of strength training & muscular endurance exercises!

Being of the same body weight also means another thing – I didn’t lose weight because of the loss of water from my body cells. This shows that I can strengthen my body, look better, feel better & still not cheat myself out of excessive loss of water! Who says you must lose A LOT of weight to feel & look good? Huh! Unless you have like full-fledged flab exploding from all corners of your body…

Anyway, he proceeded to measure the circumference of my arms, chest, waist, hip & thighs.

Arms (i.e. biceps & triceps) = 30 cm
Chest = 85 cm
Waist = 80 cm
Hip = 85 cm
Thighs = 65 cm

Based on the results, it seemed that I look quite proportionate… which is good. Coz some people may tend to over-develop their stronger arm as compared to the other weaker arm. See? That’s why it is good to train with dumbbells as well… not just with gym machines, coz we will tend to use more strength with our stronger limb & not train our weaker limb, which actually we ought to.

Finally! We got to ‘escape’ from the blue ‘prision’. No kidding… it felt odd to be sharing that same 1m by 1m cubicle with another person of the same gender.

We proceeded downstairs to the treadmill machine, where he put me on this 5 minute walk test at a speed of 7.3 & incline of 5.0. The firm instruction is that I am supposed to walk, not run… & my hands had to hold this part of the treadmill to measure my heart rate, from beginning to end.

At first I wondered why the test is about walking, not running. Then I realized that it is easier to run 5 minutes up an incline coz there is added momentum from the push off from my calves. But it is not as easy to brisk walk 5 minutes up an incline, with much less momentum. And with all that, my heart rate will be monitored throughout. It is not just the highest heart rate that will determine my eventual fitness result, but also how fast or slow my heart rate ascends & descends during the incline brisk walk.

Even for many who ‘qiong’ on those cardio machines, it may seem easy to brisk walk coz they are used to sustaining their stamina at a relatively high heart rate throughout their exercise. But note – the test here is about heart pumping capacity that determines my fitness level. In sports science biomechanics terminology, we call it “VO2”, referring to the volume of blood over the amount of oxygen that is passed through our body system throughout the whole duration of exercise.

So in short, a person may be able to sustain a high level of intensity of cardio workout, but his / heart may be working harder than the heart of a fitter person. Having the stamina to sustain through an intensive cardio workout does not mean that your heart is pumping efficiently & your oxygen absorption is high.

To cut the long story short (I’m still learning about these stuff), my eventual treadmill test result turned out as EXCELLENT. VO2 = 50.2, with a max heart rate of 124 beats per minute that steadily decreases, showing that it is a very good range for strong heart stamina.

I was smiling to myself when I saw the red words “Excellent” appear on the screen on the treadmill machine. Asyari was surprised too & told me that his own test result was about 48.0. Oh btw, I was chit chatting with him throughout my cardio test, which probably means that my VO2 could possibly be as low as his! Yeah, I think both of us are about the same fitness level! And he’s a Fit Pro, turning Personal Trainer very soon! Yeah!

Next, he brought me through a series of circuit training exercises by combining the Bosu balancing ball & 8 basic gym machines in the Express Zone area. It works like this – do 15 reps of an exercise, then jump on & off the Bosu ball, before proceeding to the next gym machine, do 15 reps then get back on the Bosu ball. And mind you, it is not just merely jumping on & off the balancing ball. There were a few combinations necessarily at each interval of completing each gym machine. But it was fun… & reminded me that my balance needs a lot of work! I finally began to sweat a bit… which is good… if not, I’ll get worried…

Finally, Asyari brought me downstairs to the exhibition room, which they use it for functional training. It is at the small boxing ring-like area where he started my last assessment item – balancing, jumping, turning & side stepping off & on the Bosu ball, in various combinations… before he finally added in the power-packed finale – throwing an 8 kg medicine ball to & fro between each other for a few minutes… while side stepping on & off the Bosu ball! Oh boy! That was tough cardio & body coordination work! And that medicine ball was heavy! And we both ended up panting quite heavily at the end. Regaining our breath, I saw his smiling & looking quite paiseh… must have been a tiring day for him…

Taking the lift back upstairs, what Asyari did next really amused me! Yet it was terribly satisfying to my heart. When we walked past Reza (my ex-BMT instructor), he exclaimed, “Wah… Fit ah!” Wow… that was the moment… the moment of moments… my heart felt warm & my ego was blooming… especially when I saw Reza grinning to himself, before saying, “Fit ah… ‘tekan’ somemore lah!” Meaning can push me harder… *Laugh*…

Sitting down at the consultation corner, Asyari began asking me how often I exercise, how I exercise, what I eat before coming to the gym, etc. And he was surprised that I actually had quite some knowledge about this area! Then I told him that I had taken the Basic Exercise Course & he exclaimed, “Oh… the BEC!” Yeah… it is a good course… trust me… go for it, if you are interested.

In fact, he was most astonished when he asked about my training program & I shared about it. He didn’t know what else to say (maybe coz he’s still a Fit Pro, but I know he’s capable of getting better at it). So I told him that I have a card that I can call to arrange for a Personal Trainer, when I needed one. Coz now I think I’m doing well… though my flexibility REALLY needs A LOT of work. So I thanked him for his time, went to warm down, shower & go home.

It was a fruitful & happy evening for me… & I was smiling & laughing quietly to myself in the shower cubicle. I really have to thank God for giving me a stronger & healthier body. And I intend to keep it that way & make it even better. If we don’t care for our body, who else would… or should I say, can?

Oh! Btw, JC Boxercise (i.e. Jackie Chan Boxercise) is started at the Bugis club! But must book attendance at least one day in advance. I'm going for next week's session! We get to use boxing gloves, punch the punching bag & even have free-style sparring with your opponent! Woohoo! It's my favourite! Go for it! =)

Just Like The Care Bears!

It’s an enjoyable habit to listen to music while doing household chores coz it adds to the atmosphere & I can dance to the music as & when I like. =)

This afternoon, I was listening to MP3 songs from my PC while mopping the house. Strangely, I had chosen to play the Care Bears cartoon movie theme songs, as part of my selected list of songs.

While mopping back & forth in my hall, it suddenly dawned upon me that the Care Bears cartoon is very similar to the angels that were mentioned in the Bible! All my life, I have never realized this similarity & this sudden ‘revelation’ shocked me quite a bit.

In the Bible, angels are heavenly beings in charge of specific duties, according to their designation. Some angels are called to be messengers, others to be warriors in the fight between good & evil in the spiritual realm. Of course, nobody really knows all the different roles are given to angels, but through the reading of several books by Christian author Mary Baxter, I found out that angels are tasked to do many things on Earth, as well as in Heaven.

How are these similar to the Care Bears cartoon? Well, Care Bears live in this place called ‘Care-A-Lot’. It is a place in the clouds overlooking planet Earth. It is a beautiful & peaceful place. Lots of activities are ongoing, such as maintaining of the rainbows, keeping watch over humans on Earth, as well as a place where fellow Care Bears come together to commune & relate with each other, telling each other about the stories that happen on Earth. In times of need, some of the Care Bears will be transported to Earth to help those humans in need.

In my mind, this is quite similar to the description of Heaven, where beauty just amazes everyone till words can’t express at all. It is a place where there is no more pain, sorrow & death. It is also a place where the scenery & building architecture is just so beyond description, just like how beautiful it is at Care-A-Lot, with all the white clouds & rainbows.

To me, the Care Bears are like our angels sent by God to watch over & protect us. In times of need, for example when prayers are made to our Heavenly Father, angels will be sent to help us in our fight against the evil minions in the spirit realm.

I always like the part when the Care Bears will stand together in a straight line & do the “Care Bears Stare”, where they shine forth their chest symbols as a combined bright light, targeting & putting away the bad characters for good. To me, it’s simply a sign of unity which equals greater strength. And that’s what angels do too… fighting alongside each other in the spirit realm. For the good of mankind & out of obedience to God’s will.

So you see… child-like cartoons like the Care Bears do portray some similarity towards this wonderful place called Heaven that we Christians will go to. By far, I think the Care Bears is one of the few cartoons that express care & help to those in need. It teaches kids about the soft side of humanity, such as kindness, love, compassion, etc. Truly a wonderful show for children… =)

Ham Lovers!

My terrapins love ham! Picnic ham, to be exact. You should have seen them fighting & gobbling down these small bits of ham that I pinched & put into their tank for lunch today! It was so amazing seeing them chase after 'dead meat'... which was also slightly salted. =)

As for their master... me, I like ham too... more so regarding hawaiian pizzas! They are the best fillings to have with pizza! Totally original & have definitely stood the test of time since the past so many decades. Long live hawaiian! Yeehaa!

One in a Million

Ryan Chan, Personnel Consultant at Adecco (Tampines Branch).

Okay, perhaps I may be exaggerating that he’s one in a million… but he sure is the first & the only interviewer who gave me such an excellent and beyond satisfactory impression of Adecco, as my first choice job placement agency.

Honestly, I didn’t really prepare for this interview with him on Monday, November 14, 2005. Over these few weeks, I had gone for a few interviews since I left StarHub & I have to say that most didn’t go very well so far. You would probably want to say to me, “Well then… Isn’t it even more important that I came as prepared as I could for this interview at this job agency?” I guessed as much that most would probably throw such a remark at me.

But whosoever would fling such a statement at me would be clearly perceived as someone who does not understand me. I’m currently stuck in a dilemma. I have a business degree & need to gain more working experience before I can consider a ‘safer’ career switch. So needless to say, I have to try all means to get a job for now. Plus, not to forget that I’m almost broke by now.

The main problem with me is that where my current direction in my job search does really go hand-in-hand with what’s truly what I want in my heart. Many people tell me that, “Hey Matthew… You must learn to be realistic. Often, it’s about doing it as a job… simply a way to earn a living.” With so many people thinking this way, it is no wonder that survey results show that 70% of employees are not happy with their jobs. In fact, quite a proportion of them didn’t list salary as their top priority in doing a job. Even my parents USED to tell me that. Till I have managed to convince them into giving me a chance to carve out a career for myself… whatever it may be.

You see, nowadays recruitment personnel are very selective in who they decide to fill in the vacancy for a job. All sorts of methods come into play – (1) Subtle questions asked over the initial phone conversation, which carries much underlying motives and implications, (2) Asking the first question in the interview as, “Do you wish to further your studies?” A obvious question that can carry a diverse amount of motives for asking such a question, (3) Straightforwardly asking, “What kind of jobs am I interested in doing?” Obviously trying to sift out candidates if they are just applying for this job as just a job, (4) All kinds of personality and temperament tests, (5) and most recently even turning to analyzing a candidate’s hand-writing to tell the interviewer something about this person.

I mean, come on! Candidates like me are like being thrown into the meat grinder to produce minced meat! These fellas really go all out to ask questions that hunt you down, corner you & leave you no where to run. Afterall, these HR people are trained for this kind of questioning. It’s their job.

I have been through this kind of questioning many times before. I’m not afraid of this verbal interrogation… trust me, some interviewers really go all out to squeeze and track down whatever that you can find out about you, that’s to your disadvantage… but how often is it possible to find an ideal candidate with all the right skills, experience and passion for the job? What if some really just look at it as a job & a means to earn a living? Must they be so cruel & shrewd?

If you really ask me (& I have no qualms about being truthful to anyone), my heart really lies in working in the sports industry. Be it as a personal trainer, sports science lecturer, strength and conditioning coach, sporting events organizer, sports course coordinator, etc. This is where my interests lie.

But to give myself a chance to apply for these jobs, I need to get a job to save up money to take courses that will enable me to get a job in this sports industry. So at the meantime, I need to work & save up first. This is my current career plan right now. All I’m hoping is that someone gives me a chance now. Afterall, not many stay in a single career for life till retirement. Things change, people change, interests change, direction change... its just part & parcel of life.

After all that shitty nonsense, aggressively ‘sounding-me-out’ questioning & discriminatory crap that I had gone through since the weeks before I was asked to resign from my job till all these past interviews, all these have really taken its toil on my mental and emotional state. Sometimes I toss & turn in my bed & find it difficult to sleep. I find it difficult to come to terms with myself & what I hope & strive to be… in the midst of all the complexities that this horrendous economic world throws at me… & everyone else who have lived through this phase of life & can identify with me.

This is why before I went for this interview at Adecco, I found that I could only rehearse the possible interview questions in my head… coz I knew deep in my heart, that if I just needed to be truthful in all that I had to say… I wouldn’t need to even prepare or rehearse. Everything would just come out, just the way that I share with Rebecca & my parents.

But that’s the irony, see? Having to think up conscience defying statements and answers & rehearsing what’s not really from my heart. Coz the truth is that if someone really knows what he or she wants to do & has the burning passion to work towards it… you can see it in his eyes & body language… the fire, the passion, the enthusiasm, the focus from within.

But God is good. He brought me to meet up with very different personnel consultant by the name of Ryan Chan. When I was conversed with him over the phone, he sounded strong & objective. Personally, his name kind-of speaks that to me too. But I told myself that I will just go forth to meet him & be true to myself.

Ryan turned out to be a gentle, kind, considerate and sincere man, probably in his early to mid 30s. At first I was stunned. Our first handshake was neither strong nor firm… but rather warm & friendly. He greeted me like a friend… a friend meeting up with coffee or something… just to chit-chat.

I found it odd that a personnel consultant could be so calm & soft-spoken. He didn’t seem in a rush to quickly assess my career and personality profile & shoo me off, so that he can handle his remaining work. It surprised me even more when I realized that I had arrived earlier than expected & he decided to meet up with me & push back his lunch time.

At first, I still eyed his body language cautiously & spoke in a formal manner. But as time passed, I began to feel comfortable talking with him. He wasn’t forceful or demanding in any way… even when I shared about myself & the nature of job that I would like to do. Although initially, he could really fit me specifically into a specific type of job, what impressed me is that he was warm & accepting towards how I really am. He never said, “Aiyah, why you are so complex? Very difficult to fit you into a specific type of job leh!” He treated me like a friend & accepted me.

In fact, towards the end of the interview with him, he also shared quite a number of his personal experiences with me & even offered to recommend me to his manager, since I wouldn’t mind working as a personnel consultant like him at Adecco. On top of that, he even said that he will find out more from the other two employers which he selected for me, so that I can decide again whether which job is more suitable for me.

What really made an impression was that he is a very genuine person that speaks from his heart. He doesn’t put on airs & try to dig out stuff that might prove disadvantages to me. He didn’t even ask why I left my previous job at StarHub! He just told me that he’s willing to give anyone a chance to try out a new job. I shared a bit about how nasty & picky some interviewers can be & he was very sympathetic & understood what I was saying.

Oh yes, I forgot… he shared rather early into this interview that he’s also a Christian. And that shocked me… I had never been interviewed by a Christian before! Or at least they never mentioned that they are Christians. Most are just interested in drilling me on whatever that they want to ask & find out. That was how I realized why this particular person was so different from the others. He had a very genuine heart & his warmth put me at ease.

He even shared that he’s the only Christian in this Adecco Tampines branch & he make use of this opportunity to share the gospel in this mission field that God put him in. In fact, he has seen several salvations so far! I was stunned, but happy! The cutest part is that he kept on referring to God as “Father”. Father this, Father that… So cute! I wanted so much to laugh! But I laughed inside my heart… Thank God for allowing me to meet this kind soul. And like Rebecca said, not everyone are bad in this world… there will be some good people around.

I was pleased with this meet-up that when I reached home, I decided to write in a compliment note for him, via the website feedback link. He replied with much thanks & appreciation… & at the same time, ‘cc’ his e-mail reply to his manager. I hope that made his day. Coz he made mine. May God continue to bless this man richly in all that he do.