Looking back

6 months have passed. I knew it as my workplace has asked me to change my password once more.

Looking back, this past 6 months have been a mixture of excitement and challenges. I am grateful to have left the awful SME and landed into this secured location.

Nevertheless, I have friends from my old place who are still holding the fort. They were shopping around and I could see that the job market is not rosy as before. I do hope they are able to find somewhere stable soon. After all, staying there any longer is a headache.

I looked back regularly to assure myself that I made the right choice to leave. Reading the latest financial report issued has certainly gave me assurance. No new revenue this FY, no profit and increase in losses, law suits growing and general "forecast" of new revenue in the next FY.

It is not amusing to see that the company is crumbling. Lies and living in past glories have led the employees to hope for a better tomorrow. A tomorrow that may never come.

At my new position, I have seen some products and solutions that could have been my previous place product and solution. Perhaps they have not given enough thought on challenging other sectors. Perhaps they simply believed that the money is not worth the effort. Perhaps simply because the leader is too blind to lead.

In any case, I hope for my friends to find a new beginning soon.

Ideas on Cafe 2

Just today a colleague bounced off an idea with me. Its exactly the same as my Beer kitchen idea. He jioed me to join in if he starts one. I am fairly interested and would likely contribute.

Anyway to continue my list of ideas

5. My Best Friend and me. A place where you can bring your dogs to dine with. There would be extensive menu for dogs, while the human will only a menu with selection of Hotdogs. The place will be an opened area to allow the dogs to smell each other butts. However if you have an unfriendly pooch and Cesar Millan aint on duty, you can opt for a private area.

PS. No cats allow

6. well to be continued

Ideas on cafes

I long harbour the thought of having my own cafe one day. After all, I do like to enjoy drinks with my good old friends and it be a perfect opportunity to waste my time away.

Sadly there are way too many things holding me back. I need this job to pay my bills and cant risk it going away. etc etc etc. So the possibility of me having one started would be next to zero in this couple of years.

What I could have is to throw out several ideas I have been holding onto. If someone steals it, make it a success, I would be happy for that person. Goes to show, my ideas would work.

1.  Cafe Top Ten. It will serve only 10 dishes, with 2 less popular dishes eliminate weekly and replace by 2 new dishes. A giant chart will be shown and votes comes in the form of orders.

2. Beer kitchen. You get to mix and brew your beer, cider, etc there. You paid for ingredients and the kitchen keeps the beer for you. When you collect, you get a table to share it with your friends and bring home the remainder in bottles. For the ATAS group

3. Laser Tag Pub. Just a pub that gives you free laser tag games when you buy a specified amount of drinks. AND a laser tag gaming arena that rewards the winning team with drinks ( loser have to buy them a round). Kinda like a biz that supported by a companion biz. Oh and the games are live cast in the pub. I must add that this target audience are NS ppl :)

4. Mircowave me. A DIY place. heh. Well its simple. Its a canteen layout and all food are in microwave containers. You choose what you want, pay for it and self cook. Now here is the kicker. There is NO ONE working there. Food are replenished at certain hours and you do everything yourself. The target is mostly people who eats alone. Those who are looking to fill up and run off. Its open 24/7.

Ok I got a few more and would probably pen it in the future.

PS. If you did found success with my ideas. Do buy me a drink.

Work Life balance

Its been too darn long since I wrote anything here. I hate to admit, but its largely becos I am busy with work.

In my years of working, I am almost never this tied down before. At my first work place, I could cramp all I need to do in a few hours and slack the rest of the afternoon. Well thats a maintenance role and nothing to do, is consider a good thing to have.

At my 2nd work place, I was sweating endlessly from all the site work. However when I know that the Coy is crap and cheating ppl, I decided that enough is enough. I aint going to lose sweat for them no more. I found a new place and chill out for the remaining weeks there.

At this current place now, I am packed till 7pm daily. Its amazing how time flies by when I am rushing through reports. When there is a call for lunch going out, I noticed that 4 hours has been burnt and my stomach is crying for food.

I must say, I do like this busy lifestyle. It gives me purpose. It gives me drive. And most of all, it allows me to value the free time I have left.

grin

To throw or not to throw

Its been almost a full month since i moved to my home nest. The reno took a while to complete. The cleaning and touch ups left me sweaty and tired.

Then comes the big move. Stuffs from my in laws place were quickly packed into boxes and brought over. Boxes were opened to be unpacked and this repeated.

 When all is done, what i need are finally in placed. The clothes are on the racks. The furnitures are delivered and placed. Even the appliances are delivered and properly installed. I could not be happier. However there is one thing left to do.

 I need to bring over my Memories from my parents place.

I bought boxes and more boxes and there never seem to be enough. I opened up stuffs that i tot i could never find again and relish the moment. I flip thru old mags that has my younger self there and he looks skinny. I see some faces that are familiar but have absolutely no idea who they are now.

 All the history was lying in my room all this time and i never bother to look at them. Its then i have to make a decision. What can i bring over. And what to do with the rest.

Some old school notes were the easiest. Just throw i said. Some old broken toys were also discarded though i had to say my farewell to them first. I then stopped to think. I have to decide what is sentmental to me and draw the line.

 Its not easy.

I took weeks to decide and pack them neatly. Into boxes i see myself playing tetris to fit them as tightly as possible. If they can fit, i shall bring them over. And so this ended 2 weeks back. With me moving my life over.

 The discarded items did not go down the chute. I firmly believed in recycling and made the effort to brng them to the right bins and placed them correctly.

My family and wife found me odd. But i know that this effort now is for my kids future. The memories are now neatly in boxes in my storeroom. I do know i may never look at them till the turn of the decade, but i just want to ensure that they are kept safely.

The leak

I been planning to leave my company for a couple of weeks now. Only my closest colleagues (whom have similar intentions) know about this.

Just last friday, my current boss RW asked if I could help out with another project. As I respected him well, I informed him that I intent to leave and it is not wise to bring me over. He accepted it and hope I can stay at least till the end of the current project.

And then this afternoon, my former boss, L, asked me to join him for a chat. I smell something is wrong.

Just before this, I met up with my new COO, RM. Its his first day and he wants to get to know everyone. The previous COO, G is on 3 mth notice and I am happy to see him go. Dun get me wrong here. The bad place I am in, as cheated of his time and money.

G was brought over as COO after my fat boss wanted to buy over his coy. It din go thru due to cash flow problems. So as such, they been trying to get rid of him for months. G has not been given any pay for 4 mths and been bombarded with questions at every issue.

G took it bravely but know that his days here are numbered.

Anyway, L asked if I was unhappy with my current role and seek to bring me back to his team. I asked him what this about and he said he learned that I have intentions to leave. I openly said its true and he was surprised. I told him that there is no point in gg over his side. After all, the reasons for my leaving is the same. (I told him abt the lack of operating fund. The only reason I held back is that I hate that fat bastard)

L wants me to think it thru and I said I will. But well, my mind is made up. Thinking back, RM was saying things like the coy is very happy with my work here and hope to give me more opportunities. I now smell a rat. They are playing this game to keep me.

What is interesting is that I realise now that this is just a scheme. G is leaving and is likely to bring with him a few staffs whom respected him. I am guessing, they are sounding me out if G is intending to poach me. Perhaps they want to use it to play him out and deny him his pay.

Its my guess and I got a feeling, I aint far from the truth. Now I wonder if RW has leaked this out. If so, I guess he is trying to keep me. If not, it is definitely true that they are sounding me out about the possible poach.

Noguchi Table

Take a good look at this Designer Coffee Table.

Looks damn chio hor.

Very Modern hor.

Now what if I tell you its designed by a Japanese Guy, Noguchi.

I bet you would think that this Jap dude has a eye for simplicity and interesting structure.

Now what if I tell you that this table was designed in 1947. Now, would you believed me?

It is pretty amazing to me that back then, this artist caught an idea and made something that becomes a timeless classic. He probably stand out so much back then that the people around din know what to make of this.

All I know is, I am damn keen to put this in my new place.

Run from the Hippo

I made the bold move last year to leave a comfort zone and ventured out into the open waters. Friends around me had warned me that things out there are different. I was to believe that the sharks are all around and you will likely be bitten from your own kind.

Mentally preparing myself for all this…. Office politics and competitions are impossible to avoid in the private sector. After all I rather have that competitiveness than to be in a organization that endlessly protect the lazy and weak. I always obey the animal kingdom rule. The strong will survive.

I have been out in the shark infested waters for 8 months now and I am glad I have moved.

There was a fair share of people who goes around stabbing backs and some who was bolder (or foolish) to stab while you are facing them. There were plenty of smiling faces who have their hidden agenda. And of course there are friends among them I could trust.

Sadly, I have to find another water body soon. This little pond is running dry of water. Lots of fishes have left and there is a strong chance there would be a drought. On top of that, that hippo in my opinion, is making more and more bad moves. One of which has made me come into conflict with my former colleagues.

I seek to find an ocean this time. Small little ponds have a tendency to run out of water. Hope there is some good news in the coming days.

Privatising

During lunch, a colleague mentioned that the govt made a terrible mistake. They should not have privatise the transports. Giving that the situation now, the govt has to step in to pump in more money in order to keep the fare lows and the bus coy profitable.

However, I think the govt made a bigger mistake. They should have kept transport coy under their wing and should have privatise HDB instead. My colleague was shocked when he heard that.

I laid it out to him. Private coy always look at their bottom line. If they were to build something, they have to ensure they sell it and make money.  If HDB goes private, all developers out there will panic. HDB will go into building not just HDB, but Condos, landed, industrial, commercial etc.

It be the biggest developer out there. As such, all the other developers will have to drop their price in order to compete.

Of course, with HDB being in the private sector, the mass market low cost HDB will be priced higher. BUT the other sectors will drop owning to their entry.

In time to come, some developers will enter into the mass market HDB in order to protect their bottom line. This will create competition that is healthy for the first time buyers.

I guess in the short term, we will see lots of panic and price fluctuation. In the long run, we should see a better controlled property market.

Till then, I guess the govt will have to see if they are willing to let go of this golden goose.