Presentation: Facebook guide for executives

Found a good simple deck about using facebook for business.

Ogilvy On: Facebook for Business

Also, here's a cheap way to use facebook to promote consumer products:



(or you can read a friend's blog on this)

There are already many famous facebook campaigns. Except they aren't campaigns at all. They are long term dedication to a conversation with their customers, bordering customer services, about their brand, products and sometimes themselves. Some of the ideas can be re-purposed, but just like the Internet, novelty counts. Any bright ideas of how to promote our work through facebook?

Sharing my Jerky Moment!

I love jerky! Bite size and flavourful! the combination of spices on the hard and dry texture, usually leaves me no choice but to chew on it slowly ...and deliberately.  Somehow..in between those bites and chews..I sometime discover new sensory insights, of old familar taste.

I got my Jerky today.Separately, a few speakers managed to provide me with those Jerky moments for me. Bite size knowledge, spiced by with perspective... and left  me..savouring the favour of what is to come on cloud computing. Wanted to share this jerky moment with you.

A jerky veteran on how best to experience a jerky moment :

1. Do not assume you know what it taste like
jerky is special, you never know what to expect. Since jerky is made of different part of a cut and they have their unique texture and thickness; spices are willfully layered on, each bite loaded with a different blend.

2. Take time to chew on it.
Its easlier to digest if you leave it in your mouth and chew them up properly, then to swollaw the pieces. Jerkies are not stable, it dont feed you. its only purpose is to offer you savouring moment.

3. Personalised savouring.
I am sure I am not alone in playing with food in my mouth. Meshing up the tohu inbetween my teeth, sticking the gum round my molar. Tightly compressing the food on my tongue against the "ceiling" of my mouth, in an attempt to drain my food of the liquid. Well, in these little experiments, i discover my personal interpretation to the taste of the food.

4. If you are vegetarian, try imgine all the above performed on a well seasoned KimChi.
I think it will work the same. :)

Okay enough with that. What I meant to say is that I hope to provide some bite size insights for you and hope that you find a flavour to them.


Social Computering :
The begining  of community computing - 80s, Workgroup based (lotus); 90s, Intranet (Sharepoint) and now we are entering Social Computing.

Social computing is more than just (and i think,  probably useful part about) social networking. Consider sieveing out, facilitating the social nature of our behavour and integrate it into business operations.

Thoughts : Today, when we cant figure something, we go on the web to check. "how do we... " the last time, I can't figure my Apple Time Capsule with my SingNet router. I surf the web to learn how to do it. I did this, becuse I know SingNet wouldnt know and neither with Apple cust. care. But on the web, another user would have experience the same situation, and likely to solve my problem more specifically.

Hey! So what would Customer Support operation looks like tomorrow when we integrate "social" "crowd sourcing" into the cust. care environment?

Social Connected What?
There was a good catergorisation of what type of socially connected are we.. thought it provide a good insights into the building of our social networking strategy - can it really be one size fits all? are all likely to be the same socially, even digital?

a. Creators : blogs and create articles.
b. Critics: post rates, review comments and join forum
c. Collectors: use Rss feeds, Add tag to web, help organised content
d. Joinners : manage profile on social networking sites, visit social sites
e. Spectators: Watch, Listen, Read about review
f. inactive.

Wat are you? Which type is your audience likely to be? Who among them to make, likely to make creators? Who you need to provide the inform, how.. to help spread it?

Social marketing  B to B
B to B marketing has always and is still heavily reliance on social marketing. In most survey throughout the years, word of mouth (colleagues, friends, business contacts) is still the number #1 reference for customers' buying decision. Though, there is a growing trend in nline media, eg thr social networking websites, but this is just a changing mode of access- B to B has always been reliance on social marketing, its something we already apply and know well as B to B marketer.
So its about creating new mode, respectiving and faciliating the new digital mode. Social Marketing is not replace, but strengthen in BtB marketing. What does it mean to us?

Changing direction of knowledge & communication
Past ( deliver information) Now ( engage interactions0
Past (domain knowledge driven) Now ( crowd mashed knowledge)
Past (outbound) Now ( inbound, plug in to dialogue)
Past (send - recieve) now ( continous iteration)
Past (single tenanted, 1 place, 1 kind of knowledge) Now (multi-tenanted knowledge)

P.O.S.T
Common Mistake of social netowrk strategy - how should i use twitter/facebook.
Strategy focus dont change - it stay focus on People!
consider P.O.S.T. model.
P : people (who is the audience we want to connected)
O : objective (what is the objectives, for them and for you)
S :  Strategy (how will/do you want to change this relationship)
T : Technology (then how to use the exisitng digital property to deliver the above)

Well that is all for now.. my jerky moments today. Hope they provide titbits thoughts for you.

Happy Snacking!
Lee Fong
SFO

Tis the season to be jolly!

Glad to know there's a group blog! It's great coz I'm such a reading person (I think I tried to measure how much I read online once, end up with a ballpark of scanning 20 websites a day and 100s of status updates / news headlines), although the frequency of posts here would probably make it not feature on any RSS readers... 

One of the reason people find it so hard to "blog" is the expectation of having the post look "long" and substantial. So I'd suggest that we don't feel obliged to write so much, just quick and easy. Better frequency than long articles (this is not some town council publication anyway).

Think I'm settling in fine. Thanks for all your support, especially boss Lee Fung :o)

And finally some up-selling (ehm.. I'm also a bit salesman hehe), here're a list of concerts you might want to attend in the coming 2 months, some small, some major, where moi is performing (playing hard!). In chronological order:

1. 18 Nov 7pm: An evening with chamber brass by Just Brass (www.justbrassensemble.com) @ WCEGA Plaza (Bukit Batok) #4-47 $10
2. 3 Dec 7:30pm: Mendelssohn and Beyond: A midsummer's night's dream by The Philharmonic Orchestra (www.tpo.org.sg) @ Esplanade Concert Hall $20, $25, $35
3. 6 Dec 7:30pm: Cityscapes by Philharmonic Winds (www.philharmonicwinds.org) and a visiting band from Thailand (Nontri Orchestra Winds) @ Esplanade Concert Hall $15, $20, $25, $35, $50

I also have some discount tickets *wink* speak to be personally. If you hang around town during Christmas season you might also bump into me busking around, fa la la la la, la la la la.

-Jiin Joo

How the Mighty Fall

I just finish reading a book, the latest title from Jim Collins “How the Mighty Fall and why some companies never give in” and thought that it would good to share some of the findings in this book. From the author of “Good to Great” and “Built to Last”, this book offers a fresh perspective of why some seemingly great companies fall and even slip to oblivion. His research indicated that organizational decline is largely self-inflicted and recovery largely within their own control.

There are five step-wise stages of decline:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Success is viewed as “deserved”, rather than hard earned and people believe that success will continue almost no matter what the organization decides to do, or not to do. Leaders lose the inquisitiveness and learning orientation and people presume that success is due entirely to the superior qualities of the enterprise and its leadership.

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Companies have this unsustainable quest for growth, confusing big with great. There is an erosion in cost discipline and declining proportion of right people in key seats. People increasingly think in terms of “jobs” rather than responsibilities. People seek to capitalize for the short term, rather than investing primarily in building for greatness decades into the future.

Stage 3:Denial of risk and Peril
There is a tendency to discount or explain away negative data rather than presume something is wrong with the company. Rather than confront brutal realities, the enterprise chronically reorganizes and people are increasingly preoccupies with internal politics rather than external conditions. Leaders set audacious goals and/or make big bets and shift towards either consensus or dictatorial management rather than a process of argument and disagreement followed by unified commitment to execute decisions.

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
There is a tendency to make dramatic, big moves or to find the silver bullets. Leaders “sell the future” to compensate for the lack of current results, initiating a pattern of overpromising and underdelivering. People cannot easily articulate what the organization stands for; core values have eroded to the point of irrelevance, the company has become “just another place to work”, a place to get paycheck and people lose faith in their ability to triumph and prevail. People become distrustful, regarding visions and values as little more than PR and rhetoric.

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death.

Although the book content is primarily in the context of an organization, I feel that there are some lessons that we can apply or learned in our daily activities and also department.

1) Get the right people for the right job
From the book, it states that any exceptional enterprise depends first and foremost upon having self managed and self motivated people. If you have the right people, you don’t need to have a lot of senseless rules and mindless bureaucracy in the first place! This can be manifested in what as known as Packard’s Law which was named after David Packard, cofounder of HP. The Law states that no company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.

2) Distinction between wrong people and right people
Wrong people see themselves as having “jobs”. Right people see themselves as having responsibilities.

3) How to react to panic and desperation
When we find ourselves in trouble, our survival instinct and our fear can evoke behavior contrary to survival. This is the very moment when we need to take calm, deliberate action. Breathe, Calm yourself. Think. Focus. Aim. Take one shot at a time.

4) Failure vs success
We would all fall as we go through life. It is one thing to fall, but another thing to give up. Failure is not so much a physical state as a state of mind. Success is falling down, and getting up one more time, without end.

5) Good vs bad innovation
Innovation does not mean that a company would not fall from greatness. In his study, even when the company increased the number of innovations or activities, it still goes on to the path of decline. The examples he quoted are Motorola and HP. Innovation can fuel growth, but frantic innovation – growth that erodes consistent tactical excellence – can easily send a company cascading through the stages of decline.

====================================================================

This has nothing to do with the book, but thought of sharing some thoughts and experience after I left the team. After I join product, a few people ask me why I want to join product since I am doing “so well” and “so comfortable” in marketing. Was I “tricked” into joining product or “asked” to join product? Is marketing becoming very “siong” or is it because of the boss?

To put things into perspective, I joined product of my own accord. I have been in SingTel long enough to also know that product management is not a bed of roses. (question you might want to ask is why do I want to change, am I not happy in marketing ?)

Actually it is for my own career development that I wanted to change to a different function. It allows me to gain a different perspective of how the company operates from a different function. I gained that when I moved from bid to marketing, and moving to product just seems a natural progression (since I don’t think I am a sales person). Of course, it is tougher for me now that I am in a position that I have no experience in and new things need to be learnt and new relationships need to be built. In a way, product management might even be “tougher” than marketing since product people deals with more internal stakeholders than external people. Not even BG people but singtel people outside of BG. It helps that I am not “new new”, in the sense that I did not join from outside, but that also had its own set of “problems” in the sense that people have a certain expectation or perception of me since I am not that “new”.

I think we all agreed that we are not that “well paid” in SingTel, no matter what HR said or how much “Brain washing” or “propaganda” that we get from management. But there is one advantage that SingTel has over a lot of other companies, is that SingTel is a large organization with many diverse functions and responsibilities. Make use of the opportunity if you have to experience the many different job scopes that come with working in SingTel. That is not to say that you must change department or job scope, but does give you an option to continually learn, meet new people, upgrade yourself and experience new challenges. I would never have imagined that I would become a marketing manager when I was studying in university, doing events and generating leads for sales. But I did.

Yes, I am still “struggling” and learning the ropes and there would be instances when I would hit the wall, but tough times would not last forever and I am sure there would come a time when I am as “comfortable” in product as I was once in marketing.

weeyong

Insurance by Ronnie

I am writing this blog not for the sake of selling Insurance (in FSI) but rather my thoughts on it recently. Insurance has given me a Deep thought in many aspect Family, Life & Car.

Insurance: this is one of the most "Taboo" subject that people has assumed as "given" and not so interesting as discussion topics.

1)Healthcare Insurance
My son was recently hospitalize for 7 days in Jun.
It was very tiring and worrying. He was diagnosed with "Fei yan".

We took a lot of effort and time to take good care. I must thanks my Parent-in-law whom happen to be in Singapore. Without them, I guess my family and I will have to really absent from work for 7 days. Even so, it was really tiring to spend 6 nights at hospital.

One word…..Zombie.

Cost: Luckily, we had got a Insurance package for my son, such that we pay only a partial of the 1000/day. Without it, I can't imagine the entire cost to us financially.


2) Car accident
I had a minor Car accident in Jun as well. Luckily, no one was hurt and it was someone fault.
The other party claimed against his car insurance. This driver happens to be interested to join SingTel SiX event and hope to be a potential ISV/partner with SingTel in the near future. It was a unique way to meet new partner. Anyway, it was troublesome and distruptive for myself again due to this car accident.

Cost: the other party has a Premiem insurance and hence all cost (est 2000), included a Courtesy car was all paid by the Insurance company.

I guess there is always things/plans that we wished and maybe not able to proceed as per plan due to many many reason in Life and etc. How a wish I could just buy all these Insurance plan or package?

With these 2 cases, I recalled that in my Army days, we always need a “Plan B” for just in case.
Perhaps we should always have more Insurance or “Plan B” in Family, Life & Work etc.

Do you agree?

Ronnie
29/Jun/09

Savouring the Past...(thank you BD!)

After much coercion and "poking" from GC, I finally dust off tt procrastination and got my lazy fingers to pen down my thots... :) This is no "parting gift" but purely giving me a chance to satisfy my blogger itch. :p I'm gonna repeat some of those stuff tt I've mentioned over lunch the other day, pai seh....dont have new stuff all the time.

My stint with BD isnt too long - all of 12 months, but it was an intense, action-packed, hilarious and fun one year! Right from i.luminate to understanding the life of a BDM to RWS, there was never a dull moment. In my 4 years in BM, I've been blessed with opportunities in Pricing, leading the Pricing team and finally, BD. Each role/function gave me tt training and foundation for me to understand the different aspects of the telco biz. When I took up the opportunity to be BDM for Hospitality, I did it without any hesitation cos I knew this was the next milestone in my life/work experience. Indeed the learning curve was very steep, no time to ponder if it's right or wrong, just "cheong" lah and pray I dont get clobbered along the way! :p

We spent many hours in brainstorm & workplan sessions to expand our BD ambition. I fully understand and empathise with the ups and downs of BDMs. However, optimistically, due to the fact tt we work with such varied functions/BUs across SingTel, we are indeed very different in our thots and the way we manage situations. I saw tt I've changed in the way I conduct meetings, analyse a particular problem or even dealing with external parties.

I'm a firm believer tt all that I learn from an experience (be it good or bad) is for me to keep and it will only make me a "rounder" (not fatter hor!) and better person.

So fellow team-mates....continue to persevere & smile! :D

With love,
Lynette

Here comes the Heroes & Heroines

Beware of the Zurros!

It was a night of fun.

This is really what we call work hard and play hard. I must say the BD team is really serious in everything we do. Even for our D&D night, we have Meng Ger together with Anya and Eunice, bring the team the most professional outfit...for our Zurros image!

As if the outfit is not loud enough, our best actress, Eliza has to act so professionally and the team has to walk around to show off the $25 outfit. This is a true dynamic team that I am proud to be part of. I always believe that we can work hard and have fun at the same time. The laughters are the glue that gel us together and prevent us from shatering under the pressure of stress.

No matter what we do, how we do it and what we can achieve, don't forget to continue to smile and laugh. When you laugh, the world laughs with you.

Geok Chwee

FY0910 : Get Set, Ready, Go!

Dear all,

We are now at the start of FY0910. First of all, thank you all for a wonderful FY0809 where personally, I felt the team had achieved much.

Looking back...

We had our i.Luminate 2008 where our 4 key industries and mobility track form part of the core content for i.Luminate. Without the hard work by the team in pulling in our partners to form the showcase, getting the right content and speakers for our tracks, i.Luminate 2008 will not be as successful as it is. Not forgeting the sponsporship that the team had brought in to support our event.

We had a challenging target for Blue Ocean which we exceeded! Give yourselves a pat on your shoulder for turning ideas into reality and bringing in results!

We had some significant break through in getting value from our CACs, our PR in 2008 as well, propelling SingTel's thoughtleadership in the various industries.

Now, looking ahead..

FY0910 would be as challenging if not more than FY0809. We are at a different phase of growth, an increasing expectation from our bosses as we raise the bars for ourselves and facing a different market that no one is wiser to tell what's going to happen next.

Nevertheless, I am confident that we had a strong team that can band together to face the strong current in the Blue Ocean and we will continue to deliver break throughs. With the right strategies and visions set, we should continue our effort in pushing through our executions, perfecting every move till we get in the results that we are after. So, focus on our last "R" in our famous "IRR" -- RESULTS!

If you sit into enough strategy presentations , be it internal, external, from analysts, or from internal business managers, you would see that strategies rarely varies. Maybe all came from the same business schools...tought by the same teachers....What varies significantly is the people that can exceute vs people that can only produce slidewares.

We have been working closely together as a team to drive our break throughs and I trust the team can make a difference AGAIN in this new FY0910.

Let's ride on the waves that we had created in FY0809 and build on the momentum to reach the next height!

Geok Chwee
5th April 2009

Happy Birthday Nicole!

This posting is kinda late...sorry Nic! :)

It was Nicole's birthday on 8 Jan and a surprise mini celebration was organised by Meng Ger. We were in the midst of updating our BD activities to Kai Hock when Meng Ger came thro the door with a cake and candle. That really took all of us by surprise! :)

Cheese!! :D

I wish for....

Happy New Year!

Dear Team,

Wishing all a Happy 2009 and many good things ahead of us!

I had a good break over the last 2 weeks with my family in Europe. Great scenery, good education on Europe history and architecture, quality time with my two kids and having fun with snow and the freezing cold weather...

I always felt grateful after a long break, that I have a job to get back to and it is not just a "job" that I do to get paid, but one that I truely enjoy doing with a group of people that I love working with. It is always the people around us that matters and what always motivates me in my work are my team mates who are passionate in their work, who are eager to learn and make a difference alongside me; my bosses who are appreciative and supportive of me. Thank you, team for making this place a wonderful place to be in and a place where I love to come in every morning to work.

So, as usual, we need to make some "new" (or not so new) resolution for the New Year!

My personal resolution for 2009:

1. Health

This has been always the number 1 on the list (almost every year...don't ask me if I had achieved my resolution every year) . This year, my resolution is to increase number of time I exercise every week, minimially, 3 times per week.

2. Work Life Harmony

Yes, family is number 1 priority in my life. Many times, we get too engrossed in work and lost the balance. So, readjusting working hours to get more work life harmony is something that we have to constantly remind ourselves. I believe that having a happy family life is the foundation to all other things in life, without which, nothing will satisfy the heart.

3. Growing as a team

I believe in continuous learning and self development. Many people stop reading or learning once they leave school which is very sad. Some one ever said that some people maybe on the job for ten years which equates to ten repeated experience of the same one year work which is terrible. No matter what we do, we need to continuously improve ourselves. There is no one out there that can help us if we are not taking charge of our own personal growth. There are many ways that we learn. I love to read and get the wisdom from those great people out there and learn from their experiences. Self reflection is also another way of learning where we reflect upon what we had seen,done or experience and think about how we can do better next time. I also like to observe how other leaders behave in certain situations and learn from them.

In this new year, I hope that we can grow as a team. Learning how we can communicate with each other better, how we can bond together and break barriers ahead to make the impact that we want in the marketplace. I am very grateful to have a great team but there's always room for improvement. So, there's work to do in ensuring tight team work among the BD & SMM, ensuring we all share the same vision and commitement to make things work. We need everyone of us to be proactive in putting forth more good ideas and push our initiatives through together to make a big wave in our Blue Ocean!

Let's work together and grow together as a team. Next year this time, I believe the team would emerge even stronger and Better!

Best Wishes,

Geok Chwee

BD Folks gone wild - Xmas Eve Lunch

It was delightful coming back to the office on Xmas Eve and finding so many presents sitting on my desk, and as usual, a couple of ants greet me by running amok on my desk.. Thanks to all who made the effort to prepare xmas gifts.. i got chocs, facial masks, photo frame (never read e-xmas tree list right?) and more chocs!

Back to our xmas lunch. Firstly, the restaurant: a quaint little pizza place with shiok-adoo-dadoo food. They had the foresight to seat us in a private room. You'll see why.....

Some highlights of the lunch and thanks to....

Lynette "the classy babe" who introduced us to classy dishes like portobello mushrooms and beef carpaccio (cured raw meat..... i think) and who gave her thumbs up to the quattro formaggi pizza (whom EVERYONE liked in the end!)

David who cheered us up with his "dirty jokes" about blondes and planes and cassette tapes.. I never saw this side of David, and i must say, i am still trying hard to "think dirty" so as to better understand him...

MG and Eliza, for their totally outrageous re-enactment of James' wedding march-in and Ronnie's overzealous yum seng toast.. You gals are the true "drama-mamas"!



Ronnie, for choosing the black squid ink pasta. Eliza and David certainly enjoyed the ink stains on their teeth and mouth... Oh, and your "virgin" experience in using a wine opener.

James for being a true "beer lovin' guzzler". We got to try out different types of beer and lager.. i know eliza and David certainly did.

Mei Yi, who graciously became our Xmas DJ and played all our xmas song requests from youtube. Hope you found your way to JB that day.. your face was lobster red from the beer and wine!

Nicole, Anya & Wee Yong for tolerating with us on the far end shoving plates at them and screaming for pizza.. We were a hungry lot!

Wine, beer, Mega pizzas, yummy appetizers, and old granny BINGO.. 'Nuff said.

Look forward to more of these "intoxicated" celebrations and gatherings with the BD Folks! I saw a totally different side of all of you :) Merry Blessed Christmas to the team, and a Happy New Year! May 2009 be filled with peace, joy, love, prosperity and good health!

drama

Hi,
We run the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2008 last Sunday, 7th Dec 2008. We have run a great race and most important was we finished the race at our time.(Half Marathon) What we achieved in this race was feeling healthy and stronger. Only disappointing was that the day I collected my “Bit number 40614” and investing on number “4061”,”0614” and “4014” still no luck.

Jimmy

Crab-e-licious!!! (@ Eng Seng)

Thanks to i.luminate & Amos, we were treated to a sumptuous meal of juicy black pepper crabs last Friday!!! Venue is none other than the ever popular Eng Seng restaurant along Still Road. This rather run-down eatery serves one of the best black pepper crab which is finger-licking good. :p

Anyway the whole group was all psyched up, with "carefully" planned logistics of reaching there by 4.30pm to "chope" seats & crabs.

Amos gave us the go-ahead to order 12 crabs (plus other sides such as mee goreng, fried hor fun, fried you-tiao, rojak etc)! While ordering with the infamous auntie, I could hardly contain the drool that was spilling out of my mouth. *slurp*

We all had a hearty meal, no small parts of the crab was left uneaten (or unexplored?? - quote David). Our table which had more "macho" eaters (James, David, Jimmy, Wee Yong & Amos) were casting furtive glances at the opp table (predominantly female except Ronnie) so that we can help "clean up" their crabs! All that was left on our plate was traces of black pepper sauce cos we had David who was busy lapping up most of it.

I vote David as the NEATEST crab eater! He piled all that's left of the crustacean in a shell which looks good enough to be reconstructed (see pix as proof). The rest of us had crab shells littered all over our plates & table. :p

What a great way to relieve stress!! Thanks Amos!! :D

PaintBall : Our Teambonding!

Dear Colleagues,

This was one of the greatest and very Challenging Team Bonding that i had went through since i had joined SingTel.

PaintBall Team Bonding by BD & SM

The morning started with all of us conducting briefing and warming up.
Excited like a boy and girl going through a new game.

The Instructor saw our excitement, hence he had given us a small lecture on Safety and the Game Rules.

Excited initially, but once we heard the "Safety" briefing especially on danger of close fire and incidents where some participants taking out the "mask"....... ripped lips and etc. The cold went down our spine!

I noticed some of us started to cover the head with cap and many start to use scarf to protect their neck.

Once the game started, it was nothing but full of fun, firing and shouting. There was some cheer leaders by the side (if i could remember)

Some lost some win......but the best thing that we achieved was as follows

Team spirit
Lots of running (exercise)
Souvenirs ("Blue black", i had one too)
Stress Relieved

For those who had short memories, pls refer to the attach photo.
The main bulk with be at the X drive.......

X:\Business Marketing Group\Business development\Pix\TmBdg-Paint

Sign off
David & Ronnie




Why Paintball?
Paintball is great for relieving stress while promoting team work in a fun and interactive atmosphere.
Leaders will emerge through practical application of strategic planning. Team spirit and friendships build as the season progresses .
The tension and pressure of everyday life is forgotten as the participants slip into their fantasy world

What is Paintball?
Paintballs Flying Wild Over Singapore Skies! T.A.G (Tactical Action Games) Paintball has brought the electrifying sport of paintball to Singapore. Trained marshals are constantly on site to guide you through an exceedingly exhilarating day and the different game scenarios, like capture the ammo box and zombie. Their presence ensure that the game is played fair, and more importantly, make sure everyone's safety is looked after.

THE GAME Paintball is a combination of "Hide & Seek" and "Tag".
Two (est 5 pax each) teams are pitted against each other with each game having specific objectives.
Players eliminate the opposition with a paintball splat from a CO2 powered paintgun.
Paintballs are small spherical balls made of a thin gelatin case filled with biodegradable, water-soluble dye, which is environmentally friendly. When the paintball breaks on an opponent, he or she is then eliminated

How to truly enjoy a deserved break?

In today's super well connected world, you are contactable via phone or email no matter where you are with the exception of the more remote places. In all my previous working years, I did not had a enjoyable breakaway at all coz companies love to issue you a super productive tool called the blackberry which cultivates a habit in us to take a look at it to check for any new emails or sms even if you put on silent mode.

However, I had an exception this year in my Japan trip. Not because I did not bring along a bb, I brought along the iPhone along which is err...great for entertainment and also accessing emails :(.
The blessing in disguise came when I was happily eating away the delicious ramen and I received a sms from SingTel to tell me that my data roaming charges had exceeded $300 on my 2nd night in Tokyo!!! I got a bill shock! Super amazing how push emails can be so expensive in Japan...

Anyways, I turned off the data roaming settings and this is where my fun and enjoyment extrapolated on the scale. The best thing is that all the missed calls appeared with unknown caller ID and hence, I can't call them back!

From then onwards, I 'bo chap' all the emails and happily eating and touring away in Japan.
All in all, Japan has been very very good to me (my stomach)!!! Awesome country!!!

Check out my online Japan albums. I strongly recommend Nikko and Hakone for romance during autumn.

Day01>> http://travel.webshots.com/album/568266513lcNwjY?vhost=travel

Day02>> http://travel.webshots.com/album/568270574JFBJgb?vhost=travel

Day03>> http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568273957aTUtwG?vhost=good-times

Day 04>> http://travel.webshots.com/album/568278983MNkCNc?vhost=travel

Day05>> http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568275050ybKyeM?vhost=good-times

Day 06 http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568408377VBCDDv?vhost=good-times

Day07>> http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568286688ReBwWn?vhost=good-times

Day 08 http://family.webshots.com/album/568326681xUaUck?vhost=family

Day 09 http://travel.webshots.com/album/568343827mmdsFq?vhost=travel

Day 10 http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568366106iKbVPI?vhost=good-times

Day 11 http://travel.webshots.com/album/568406282jeHads?vhost=travel

Day 12 http://travel.webshots.com/album/568424279qUNbbd?vhost=travel

Carrots, Eggs & Coffee

I just read this which I found it thought provoking...here's sharing it with everyone...

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee... You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled 3 pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.' 'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean , mother?' Her mother explained that! each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. 'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain & adversity do I wilt & become soft & lose my strength Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened & stiff ? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter & tough with a stiff spirit & hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean?

The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

MAYBE WE CAN ALL BE COFFEE.... :D

The Story of a Wedding Dinner

I always like to attend wedding dinners, not because of the food served there, (hotel food are normally so-so only), but because of the company you would see. As you grow older and get married, you tend to go for less outings with friends. So wedding dinners are a good way to catch up with people, especially those friends you have not seen in a long time. But of course, as you get older, you would also attend less weddings, since more of your friends get married and those who are not married, ………….would most probably stay that way :P.

I attended one of friend’s wedding a few weeks back. One of my good friends – who was one of my “brothers” for my wedding. We were school mates in JC and also university course mates. We join the same ECA in JC – Chinese martial arts. So there we were, all the “武林高手” in the same table and some of our spouses.

There was one particular person we did not see in quite a while because she was overseas all this while as her husband had an overseas posting and was only recently back. Of course, she was not idling all this while but had three kids while she was overseas. So I am not the only one who is “productive”. She married earlier than me, so her elder kid is older than mine. Her kid is 5 years old this year and would be going into a primary school in 2 years time and the topic of the day revolves around primary schools for our kids, which is the theme of the story for this post. (Even the financial crisis took a backseat that day).

Because she lives in Buona Vista, she said she is going to enrol her kid in Henry Park Primary School, supposedly one of the better primary schools in that area. She was saying her flat is within 2km of the primary school. Actually I never believe in so call “good” and “average” primary schools. Whether a person would be successful in life really depend on a lot of factors, going into a “good” primary school would really play an insignificant role in his/her success, in my opinion. So I don’t really understand why some parents go to great lengths to do volunteer work or to move house so that their kids would go into a “good” school.

After the birth of my children, I already make up my mind that there is no way I am going to do volunteer work to get my children into a primary school. (I am just too “lazy” and “bochap” to do volunteer work, and my time is too precious for such “mundane” chores.) Moving house is also out of the question (until that night), because my place is in a such a convenient location and many people would “die” to come to live here. The only issue we have is that there are very few primary schools in my vicinity (the price for living at the city fringe). The one primary school within 1km of my place is a all girls school, which is not what I want for my daughter. So the next choice are schools out of 2km, which is an issue I am going to face in time to come.

It just happens that one of the friend works in MOE, so he becomes the “SME” (subject matter expert) on enrollment in primary schools. And though some of us don’t have any kids yet, this is a perennial and popular Singapore topic, so all of us were pretty engaged. Though the wife shares my view of not doing any volunteer work, she still wanted the kids to go to a “good” school. (She wanted to best of both worlds). So how do you get your kids to a “good” school with minimal efforts? Since there was a MOE SME, we know phase 1A is for sibings, phase 1B is for alumnus of schools or people with “connections” to schools like board of directors, member of clan associations etc, and phase 1C, 2 and so on.

Luckily or unluckily, I happen to be an alumni of a “good” primary school, one of the SAP primary school. So if I join the school’s alumni association, chances are that my kid would definitely get into the school, which a lot of parents want their kids to go. The only problem is that school is not near my place, so if I want the kid to go there, I can

1) Drive her back and fro everyday (so I need to buy a car which is not a very wise decision, considering the age of rising petrol prices and ERP rates, anyway, I eschew car ownership because I hate to find carpark lots and cars are depreciating assets)
2) Move house so that I don’t need to subject the kid to long traveling time and hopefully avoid buying a car (also not very wise, if I need to sell my prime location and move to the “suburbs”)

Anyway, the wife was so excited, she had difficulty sleeping that night. To settle this once and for all, we actually went to the school to take a look. And to be frank, we actually like what we see, the surroundings and also the website of the school.

The only “negative” point is that there is no worthwhile house to buy near the school. I didn’t really want to buy a resale flat because it is quite expensive. Yes, there is a condo within 300m of the school, but it is a 99 leasehold property and 15 years old already, which would not make a very good property investment. But then again, is there any basis for comparison between a property investment and investment’s in your child’s education?

For me, one of the consideration is that the kids in this school would get a good grounding in the Chinese language because it is a SAP school, plus I like the motto of my alumni which I still remember to this day.（忠孝仁爱，礼义廉耻）

For those who don’t understand Chinese, it means, in the same order

- Loyalty
- Filial Piety
- Humanity
- Love
- Courtesy
- Righteousness
- Integrity
- Sense of Shame

Compare this against the motto of the neighbourhood primary school which is “Work hard, play hard and make a mark” (doesn’t the first few words sounds eerily familiar??).

The wife called the alma mater to get an application form for me to join the alumni association. It is still on my table collecting dust. Do I really need to孟母三迁 and follow the crowd? Anyway, I still have more than 2 years before my kid enroll in the school?

So it’s between "Work hard, play hard" against "忠孝仁爱，礼义廉耻" , where would you enrol your child if you are the parent?

weeyong

Langkawi

With i.luminate finally over, I took a long-awaited holiday to Langkawi with my husband & 2 young kids. It was a really fun & enjoyable one! One of the highlights for me was watching 30+ eagles flying nearby & scooping for meat in the waters while we were on a boat. I had never seen so many free-roaming eagles before, and it was fascinating watching them repeatedly grab the meat in the waters with their feet, then bringing it to their beaks while still in flight.

Another highlight was having close encounters with about 10 black-tip reef sharks! We were feeding other fishes with bread while standing in the waist-deep waters on Coral Island (a protected marine park, off Langkawi), when these black-tip reef sharks started swimming near us! Most were about 1m long, while 1 or 2 were about double that size. I knew they were harmless, but it was still quite an experience having sharks swim around you! Later, I realised that they swam close to shore because they knew it was nearing feeding time! Apparently, the dive operators that brought us there would feed them at 1pm whenever they are there! The guide would stand just 2~3m from the shoreline, and hold pieces of fish to feed the sharks. They would try to lure the sharks to as shollow waters as possible so that we could have a splashing, close encounter with these sharks! Can you imaging having a shark just 1 meter away from your feet?! Check out the video...

For my son, the highlight was probably the fishing trip we took when we rented a boat out. Even the local boatman was fasinated by this little 4yr old boy who keeps catching fish! At the end of a 4hr fishing trip, we caught almost a bucket full of fishes! :)

Anya

LOVE

Love embraces and enrich one's life, be it spiritual, personal and work life.

Spirtually and in my personal life, the greatest thing that I have know is to have God in my life. Life is not a bed of roses..when things do not go the way you have expected, I have learnt to count on my blessings and know that God has given me much more that I can ever be grateful more - my supportive parents, my wonderful siblings, an opportunity to be a wife and a mother, the love of a husband, being able to work and the steadfast friendship of friends.

Where work life is concerned, I am thankful for the opportunity to be where I am now. The initial period was tough but I have managed to go through it by the grace of God. The journey in preparing for i.luminate was indeed tough but is certainly a fruitful and enjoyable experience. I have gained so much more during these 7 months of preparation especially forging deeper friendship with colleagues working alongside with me.

I am also grateful that I have wonderful bosses who understand when I have to be away from office or needed to rush back home to take care of my son who is at a tender age where colds and flu bugs can strike on them so easily. During the difficult period that I have to go through when my father-in-law passed on, I have grateful that my bosses and colleagues showered me with their concern and love despite the fact that everyone is busily preparing for i.luminate. Thank you to all.

Although the world seem to be in a gloomy and messy stage now, we can indeed make life more positive with small acts of caring and by spreading love around.

Below is a short story which has touches me. Hope it touches you as well....

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six pack of root beer and he started his journey. When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons.

The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted. They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.

As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." However, before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Embrace all equally! ...Author Unknown

Settling In

My first post!

Just want to thank all my colleagues and boss who've made me feel very welcomed in this team. I'm still easing into the company in general and my role specifically. But looking forward to wats ahead!

Anyways, doing a little advertising for my film ^^

It's gonna be screened this 20th Oct! Anyone interested to come let me know ya.

Cheers,

Mei Yi