Food Poisoning

It just had to happen - just a matter of when.

IT being "food poisoning". Just came back from India and WHAM....was racked by stomach spasms whole afternoon yesterday.

Now I am still weak like anything...jesus christ.

Signing off....this is really a bad time

Eye problem

There is a spate of unlucky events in the last few weeks.
Foremost was my father-in-law got his retina detached like me. Problem is - he got 12 tears and the centre detached. From what I know, this is damn serious shit - there will be a lot to adjust to after the operation and he has to face down for 4 weeks!
Jesus Christ....I thought we had the feng shui stuff protected and all.

It doth be a trying times - especially with some of the renovation results not exactly turning out well - guess everyone will be in a pretty dour mood.

I remembered when Wabe and I were getting married - god...I think we had to survive on 200 bucks per person per month - that's how thrifty we had to be - of course we had to...my parents had openly asked me "So how do you plan on getting married / house?" - meaning to say "Don't even think of asking us for money". That avenue was closed - I knew I had to depend on myself. Which makes it all the more sweeter when we built it up step by step. I only regret Wabe has to suffer with me during the lean time but she said then it was a very sweet time for her though we don't have a car....we don't eat in restaurants every week...we wore cheapo bought from market apparels:)

But I guessed the whole process is designed to make us all grow up and view life in a different light.

We have after all just made a commitment to spend the rest of our lives together and this commitment requires a certain discipline to look at things from a different perspective. We had mountain of debt to clear then so our priority then was not to have the best of everything but to channel resources to fix the most pressing.

Remember, it is not what you earn BUT what you save that maketh a rich man.

Sam

Siak's Wedding and How to break bad news

In case you are wondering, the 2 events have absolutely no connection to each other :)

Today is Siak's wedding - I met up a lot of old comrades from Accenture and HP..even Foo Lin whom I worked with in Virgin Mobile in ...2002?
Lots of laughter and back slapping belies the underlying mellowing of charactors - I can see nuances of subdued temper...laid back air...no longer the youthful exuberance of the old days. We have all travelled extentively for some of us...sharing the funny stories...

It was a good session - I am glad I did not missed this night.

Congrats, Siak - welcome to the club:) And say goodbye to drinking days :)


Next topic - my boss gave me the task of breaking a piece of bad news to a important customer.

I pondered over it - his exact words were "You need to prove you can sell ice to Eskimos"

Well it was a direct challenge - I do not usually back down from one - so I spent the afternoon crafting the entire battle plan of how to tell the news to the customer that he is not getting the fix from us in time and his timeline is screwed and yet at the same time, maintain the moral highground and walk out a winner.

I decided on HONESTY.

So Mr Customer, we goofed.

But...here's how I think we can mitigate this....etc etc

Status update 6 hourly....etc etc

Assurances on changing the process to ensure nothing like this will happen etc etc


..........3 calls....he said ...busy call me later

I persevered.

Then....bingo. Delivery time.

What do you know?

He thanked me for my effort in helping him mitigate the risks and thanked me for working on my public holiday to help him. !!

What do you know?..ahha sometimes...not winning the battle does not necessarily means you do not win the war.

Excellent lesson.

Signing off.
Sam

Poor Dado

Dado went for a massage at Jurong East yesterday and my god, his condition is terrible. He had just so many spots that are so "red" which signifies "wind" and fatigue and lack of rest. I counted, there are at least 20 of these.

And while going for the massage, i told him to park near the rubbish chute and guess what, his car was knocked and there was a big dent. I can see that he feels upset about it but he does not want to tell me.
I woke up early this morning to search the web for nearby repair shops for dent. Hope they will be open today. The one at Capitol Building does not open on Sunday.

Poor dado even had to work today. Felt so bad about it. Am I not taking good care of him? He is so tired and yet I always call him to do this and do that. Hmm, will do things myself next time. The night before, he was doing work until past midnight.

Let's hope he will have a good day today and both of us are not working tomorrow, hurray!

Had not seen him working so hard except during those times in SCO...thereafter, he has always compare the rewards to effort before he will work hard. He has changed...and I like this change in him!

Ode to my Wabe

To the Greatest Wife

Sometimes, you forget to notice the most wonderful things you have in life - because you are so used to them and you take them for granted.

To my wife Wabe, thank you for being the greatest wife.
don't forget when we are retired, I am going to hold your hands and go to Genting again...exactly like the first trip we made together - remember the frantic search for the red haversack before we board the coach? :)

So between now and then, let's continue to remind ourselves of how important we are to each other and to Yang:)

Sam aka Dado