Coffeeshop Talk

Today at the coffeeshop, I asked the auntie why she is glum and she retorted that she didn't strike 4D (lottery) and therefore there is no cause to smile. I asked if she had noticed if the people queuing up at 4D shops smile, but she didn't reply.

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It is common to see people looking glum in Singapore because they have not struck lottery. Compulsive gamblers become perpetually glum.

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I have two lady friends who have divorced their husband because of the latter's addiction to gambling. And these are educated men in respectable professions, one a teacher and the other a policeman, both fallen to the devil of greed.

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Recently, there is a rich man who lost 26 million dollars within 3 days in a casino in Singapore. It must have been a great pain and suffering for his family and him. It hurts me just thinking of it. More so in this case, as he is someone I know and went to the same kindergarten class in our early years.

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Gambling is a social ill. For one to win, many have to lose. Stay away from it.

High Spirits

When I came home a few days ago, a bottle of freshly harvested papaya wine exploded, splattering the wine and shattered glass all over the place. After cleaning them up, I opened the other bottles to release the pressure to avert another explosion and the first bottle popped like a high pressure jet splashing its contents all over my face, shooting up to the ceiling and messing the place all over again!

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Then as I thought the worst was over, a bottle slipped off the fridge and smashed itself into bits, as I was trying to make space there. What a mess!

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What went 'wrong' was that I had followed the recipe without understanding the reasons behind each step properly. Stirring the ferment every morning is to allow the resulting carbon dioxide to escape and not form pressure in the fluid. What I didn't understand was that besides tasting the fermenting wine, I should also be checking the effervescence in the fluid, to judge if they are ready to be bottled. And so, I had foolishly loaded the fluid together with the residual sugar waiting to convert to alcohol and carbon-dioxide that was to blow up its vessel.

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The second lesson I learned from the incident is that no matter what, I should not to be stressed up. If I had been more relaxed and mindful, I wouldn't have let the bottle slipped from the fridge and smashed up on the floor. If I had been cool about it, I could have even taken some pixs for this blog post before cleaning the mess up. It was quite a scene and would have made fascinating photographic material. :)

Side notes:

Brewing wine is fun! Witnessing, tasting and understanding the fermentation process first hand is fun!

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Like human beings, different types of fruits have different nature and therefore behaves differently though put through the same process. Some become explosive faster while others have gentler ways of dissipating pressure.

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In other words, be mindful and know what you are brewing everyday and remember to stay cool so that you can enjoy the fruits of your harvest. It applies not only to making wine!

Technology - The Straggling Bus and a Non-stop Express Train

Innovative proposals from China...
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No time is wasted. The bullet train is moving all the time.

If there are 30 stations between Beijing and Guangzhou, just stopping and accelerating again at each station

will waste both energy and time.A mere 5 min stop per station (elderly passengers cannot be hurried) will result in a total loss of 5 min x 30 stations or 2.5 hours of train journey time!

The Chinese are innovative enough to come up with a non-stopping train concept. When the train arrives at a station, it will not stop at all.

The passenger at a station embarked onto to a connector cabin way before the train even arrive at the station.

When the train arrives, it will not stop at all. It just slows down to pick up the connector cabin which will move with the train on the roof of the train.

While the train is still travelling away from the station, those passengers will board the train from the connector cabin mounted on the train's roof.

After fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof.

When the train arrives at the next station, it simply drops the whole connector cabin at the station itself and leaves it behind at the station.

The outgoing passengers can take their own time to disembark at the station while the train had already left.

At the same time, the train will pick up the incoming embarking passengers on another connector cabin in the front part of the train's roof.

So the train will always drop one connector cabin at the rear of its roof and pick up a new connector cabin in the front part of the train's roof at each station.

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The Thinking Chore

Haiz. All these dishes to clean. Isn't thinking about it more painful than the doing? Suffering comes from the thinking.

A Happy Party

I was invited to a party last Saturday.

Everyone there was so happy and smiling. They even lined up to greet me. What a lovely reception!

Some may have disappeared into the background, but still smiling and always maintaining eye contact. Not a moment were they busy on the phone or sending smses.

There are some cute little baby ones like this...

... or famous ones like Elmo.

Minnie Mouse was also there. She was searching for Mickey...

Mickey had the cheek to show us how much he ate...

... but not as much as Winnie... he helped himself thoroughly.

There is also a sexy one lurking by the couch...

... watching me...

... hmmmm...

... and finally, the birthday cake! A labour of love!

Yum!

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A Tale of Two Indians

The Roti Prata shop two doors away from our regular table has closed itself from business. It used to our regular Prata shop.

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Their final closure is not a surprise. When we used to frequent that shop, it was beaming with business. Often, we had to wait for a seat. The food was okay, but the service was virtually absent. There were two waiters, but they seem to develop a skill of standing in front of the shop staring into space. No frantic waving for them would get their notice. In other words, they conveniently choose not to see us.

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Then one day, as we could not get a seat, we wandered over to a similar shop two doors away. There, we were instantly greeted by a smiling waiter. The food was great and after we finished, they thanked us and told us they hope to see us again. It was a huge contrast in service, and since then it has become our regular Prata shop.

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Then over the weeks we saw the number of customers in our newly adopted Prata shop increasing, while the other shop that we frequent previously dwindling. By then, we were treated like 'members', as the waiters even remember our names and our choices for their dishes. Each time we went we were always greeted with "How are you today Sir?" Many a times, we made even unusual requests, like shifting our table into the open air, asking for fish curry instead of the usual lentil curry,...etc, and got promptly served. Nothing seemed too difficult.

As time goes by, about two years, we saw the previous shop we frequented gone worse and worse, and eventually, closing for business.

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The two shop sold almost identical dishes. Quality of food is about the same. The difference is in the service. The second shop showed they care - and that's what made more customers coming back.

Teamwork

The Japanese has such great teamwork. The other day as I queried about my credit card refund with the hotel receptionist, her colleague at the far end came over instantly with the documents without her prompting. It is as if they are telepathic.

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Teamwork is natural to the Japanese as they spend countless hours in 'group-work'. Hardly any work gets done without first having a group discussion and consensus. This however, takes a lot of time. Something which typically takes 30 minutes to complete may extend to 6 hours in a group. But to them, it is not a drag. This is the way things have been done and it is the way it is. To an outsider like myself, I find that difficult to understand.

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There is no absolute answer as to whether individually completed work or group work is better. I feel that sometimes, we should honour individual work, and at other times, group work -depending on the context and urgency. Group work takes up more time and not always better quality work. Also, work-life balance is also important. It is senseless to have strong teamwork in the company and broken relationships in the family.

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