UnkStuff - PicooZ Kopter

I first saw this cute little mini-kopter at C's Xmas party.

And yesterday, C got me one as well. Bless him! =)) And I have been practising the whole of last night and today. Not easy!

Its made of styrofoam and tough propeller plastics so it will survive multiple crashes and wall damage.

Very very kewl and every self-respecting juvenile Unker should get one =))

UnkEats - Carnivore

Brazilian Churrascarias are not new on our sunny little island. Well at least there is one place out in Bukit Timah which I've heard so much about but have yet to go.

Churrascarias, for the bodohs, are Brazilian or Portugese steakhouses where waiters come to your table with different meats on giant skewers and they slice the chunks off with equally giant knives directly onto your plate =)) The meat is roasted 'rotisserie' style, that is skewered and then revolved around a heat source.

Anyway yesterday, we were feeling particularly carnivorous (not that I am usually herbivorous or anything) and so we mossied down to the very aptly-named Carnivore down at VivoCity.



OK so it was a pretty tastefully-decorated restaurant. And for 34 bucks, you can eat all the skewered meat you could stuff yourself with till kingdom come. Fantastic proposition really, beef is not cheap you know! Except that we did not count on an endless onslaught of animal flesh! =))

Beef (every blardy cut), Lamb, Chicken, Pork, Ham, Sausages, Ribs, Fish..blah blah blah. By my fourth slice of Hump steak, I wanted to call it quits and go home and do some humping of my own instead =))

Jelak lah! (Gosh what is the English equivalent for jelak...bloated?) Its a feeling you get when you've overdosed on a particular type of taste. Wadever! =))

It came to a point where for every chunk of meat I put in my mouth, I had to take a sip of my Chilean Santa Helena Cabernet Sauvignon =)) Either that or I had to have a slice of rotisserie pineapple to cleanse the palate abit. You know how sour things are a good remedy for jelak-ness =)) What to do no Sorbet what!



Don't get me wrong, there were good stuff on offer. The beef in particular was well-marinated, albeit simply in sea-salt I reckon, to bring out the full flavor of the many cows who had to die for this. But you know I am squeamish about blood and some skewers were literally dripping the red stuff onto my plate. Ewww =)) Too rare for comfort. Medium-well for me thanks.

There were misses too. Like the Butterfish which tasted, err, weird. And the chicken which a friend commented tasted too 'chickeny' =)) You see we bodohs are so used to commercial grain-fed chicken. Apparently free-range chickens taste different. 'Free-range' as in the birds are allowed to run all over the shop to look for their own stuff to eat and are not fed from a conveyor belt. Does Carnivore use FRCs? We forgot to ask =))



Service was good though with the Brazilian born-and-bred wait-staff prompt and polite. But I mean they were brandishing big knives and skewers, we really didn't want to complain about bad service =)) In my pathetic attempt to show I knew alittle about Brazil, I asked a short fella from Sao Paulo if he knew Rubens Barichello. He said he was already driving when good ole Rubens was on a tri-cycle =))

Anyway,

Food 6/10
Ambience 7/10
Service 7.5/10

So go figger out what the average score is for the experience =))

Menu

BEEF:
Rump/Hump/Rib/Tenderloin with bacon/Thick skirt

LAMB:
Fillet/Leg

CHICKEN:
Thigh/Heart/Breast with bacon/Drumstick with Cheese

FISH:
Butterfish

PORK:
Sausage/Rib/Shoulder/Honey Ham

OTHERS
Pineapple/Garlic Bread

Plus a decent Salad Bar with Soups and Sauces.

The 10-Minute Daddy

You know we work odd hours, RJ and me.

And so yesterday, in the middle of a rainy afternoon, the 2 of us had laksa in a little Community Club cafe out at ulu Sengkang. Afterwards we popped upstairs to pick his boy EJ who was having extra-curricular classes. OK so we looked liked a Gay Couple (haha), but that's another story =))

Anyway while RJ had a chat with the teacher, EJ and me watched a group of teenagers play basketball. A good ten minutes or so I reckon. I had to squat so the boy could talk to my face, not my pelvic bone =))

He mumbled absent-mindedly, eyes transfixed on the sweaty boys in singlets dancing under the hoop, "Daddy do you play basketball?"

I said yes, Uncle did a long time ago after school, and I used to elbow people in the face =))

Then I felt bad telling the young'un about such unsportsman-like behaviour. The next time RJ gets summoned after EJ gives someone a black eye on court, he will know who to blame.

Well the little conversation got me thinking, if ever I become a real Daddy, what kind of Daddy will I be? I was tempted to borrow one of a few extra basketballs that were lying around and let the boy shoot a few hoops, perhaps with him on my shoulders. And tell him all about the players of 'my era', Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, et al.

This month, all the Fathers in my work unit get a day off to accompany their Primary-school-going children to sekolah. A new government initiative it seems to promote Father-Child bonding. And because I have about 30 such daddies, I had to roster them about 1-2 to go per work day. Although my deputy (who is unmarried by the way) was swearing at the shortage of manpower, I had to tell her frankly that moi thought it was a great idea.

RJ said again yesterday before we left, "Don't have kids!".

But I know deep down inside he doesn't mean it...=)

The Feng Shui Man Said: A Short Story (Chp 7)

(NOTE: You probably need to start at Chapter 1 again, like i did!)

The following story is fictional, or not. The characters depicted in the story are also fictional, or not. The events described in the story did happen, or maybe they didn't... I will write it over a period of time... you decide if its true or not..

Click the following for previous chapters:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

The Feng Shui Man Said

Chapter 7: Feng Shui Again

I didn't inform Michael that I had changed the return date of my flight home. I don't remember much about the flight, apart from the fact that they had run out of Gin 3 hours into the flight, and that I had been the only passenger drinking Gin.

"It is a morning flight", the in-flight supervisor explained, "and Gin is not usually consumed on this sector".

I decided to sleep for the rest of the journey, and arrived at Kuala Lumpur International refreshed and quite sober. The limousine queue was impossible so I decided to take a coach instead. I was not ready to face my life again, I suppose, and was delaying the impending arrival to my empty apartment. To get to the City buses I decided to take a short cut through the parking lot. As I approached the exit at the far end of the building, I heard a woman's voice coming from behind a large pillar.

"Shit! Fuck!"

Her voice was familiar and I stopped. Leaving my luggage in the middle of the concrete driveway I walked around the pillar. A well-shapped woman in a flight stewardess' uniform was jiggling the door of a car. It was a Honda Accord. I guessed it must have been the current model, as it looked brand new, apart from the fresh scratches I could see around the keyhole. She was holding a black hair pin and I assumed had tried to unlock the door. She must have left her keys in the car, I thought as I called out to her.

"Can I help you?".

I must have startled her because she dropped her handbag and the black hairpin and spun around, almost losing her balance in the process.

My heart nearly stopped. It was Irene.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror...

in the january 2007 issue of the harvard business review, the focus of the articles is on leadership. one of the articles (titled the same as this post) by Robert Kaplan is about stepping back and asking yourself a few questions to gauge how you are doing as a leader. there is a list of 7 sets of questions to ask. the point is that having all the answers is less important than knowing what to ask.


1. Vision & Priorities

How often do i communicate a vision for the business or for the employees?
Have i identified and communicated 3 to 5 key priorities to achieve that vision?
Will my employees be able to articulate that vision and key priorities to others?

2. Managing Time

How am i spending my time?
Does it match my key priorities?
How are my staff spending their time?
Does it match the key priorities of the business?

3. Feedback

Do i give people timely, direct and actionable feedback?
Do i have subordinates who will tell me things i may not want to hear but need to hear?

4. Succession Planning

Have i (at least in my mind) picked one or more potential successors?
Am i coaching them & giving them challenging assignments?
Am i delegating sufficiently?
Have i become a decision-making bottleneck?

5. Evaluation & Alignment

Is the design of my company still aligned with the key success factors of the business?
If i had to design the business from scratch how would i design it?
How would it differ from the current design?
Should i create a task force of staff to answer these questions and make some recommendations?

6. Leading Under Pressure

What type of event(s) create pressure for me?
How do i behave under pressure?
What signals am i sending out when under pressure?
Are these helpful to my staff or will they undermine our success?

7. Staying True to Yourself

Is my leadership style comfortable?
Does it reflect who i really am?
Do i assert myself sufficiently, or have i become tentative?
Am i too politically correct?
Does worry about my next promotion or bonus cause me to pull punches or hesitate to express my views?


All leaders (even the most successful ones) sometimes have periods of their careers when they may struggle. Developing some sort of self-questioning process that you make yourself go through periodically will be a useful tool.

Unkers@TheTheatre - Forbidden Chestnuts

Wikipedia says a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject.

Jonathan Lim, artistic director of theatre group Stages, has been with the Chestnuts franchise for a decade. And so last Saturday, we trooped down to catch his 10th 2-hour parody-party at the Drama Centre located within the new National Library. Our third Chestnut in as many years.

Verdict. A laugh-a-minute orgy of spoofs that left us kinda..err..brokeback in our seats =))



You know its not easy to do parodies. You want your audience to know what you are imitating and yet you need to get the message across in a not-so-obvious way so as to maintain that somewhat satirical sting at the end. Plus if you want them to laugh heartily when its over, the comic element has got to be done with some deadpan panache.

To this, Jonathan and his newly-formed comic threesome, do it with suitable aplomb.

They poke fun at, through a tightly-paced series of skits and sketches, everything from Dick Lee to Ang Lee, Geishas to Gigolos. That gay cowboy show Brokeback Mountain expectedly receives alot of attention, and so does Memoirs of a Geisha which was spoofed so expertly warped, it left most of us in nipponese stiches. Singapore Repertory Theatre's Forbidden City (Forbidden Kitty in Chestnut-lingo) was also poked fun at no end.



The sets were of course really nothing to crow about, cheap even. But this was made up for by generous dollops of risque humour and naughty naunces that really brought out the silly side of many of 2006's offerings in local theatre and Hollywood cinema. I mean taking a 'maritime tragedy' like the Poseidon Adventure and turning it into a hilarious Wayang Kulit performance complete with funny Malay accents and Gemelan music was a masterstroke in simple creativity. The show is Restricted Artistic 18, by the way =))

So to Jonathan, Hossan Leong, Rodney Olivero and Judy Ngo, I say well done.

And keep the Chestnuts roasting.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY...

"The quality of the show was just overwhelming ... the show shines ever so brightly. I can honestly say that I haven't had this funny a night out in a long time ..."

- Adi Soon, The Flying Inkpot

"The show is very funny and I enjoyed it very much. I'm definitely looking forward to next year's show."

- Glen Goei

"CHESTNUTS is definitely roasting on an open fire - and it has been getting hotter with each year."

- Zhou Junli, The New Paper

"Why has it not been banned in Singapore ?...an evening filled with paroxysms of laughter. Guaranteed your guts will bust..."

- Kenneth Lyen, http://kenlyen.bravejournal.com

"...a massive truckload of funny...In the spirit of unforgiving CHESTNUTS humour, no one was spared in the quest for comedic truth-telling."

- Deanne Tan, The Flying Inkpot

"...spot on and deliciously satirical..."

- David Chew, TODAY

Drama Centre
Jan 10 to 20, 8pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays) and 3pm (Saturdays and Sundays)
No shows on Monday and Sunday evenings
Tickets at $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50 from Gatecrash (tel: 6222-5595, www.gatecrash.com.sg)

perspectives on promotion - part 2

here are a couple more thoughts on promotions. continued from here

4. Try to get a mentor (or some sort of coach)

some organizations have formal mentor-mentee programs. try to get signed up for that. if not, have a chat with you HR & Manager about having an informal mentor as part of your career development. mentors are people who can help you negotiate the organization (more from a political standpoint, as opposed to from a how to do your job point). for example, a mentor can tell you all you need to know about the manager who is in charge of your career and promotional path. sometimes knowing what they like and dislike will help you position yourself correctly.

5. Always have 2 or 3 people sitting on your 'bench'.

often, a promotional opportunity comes along, but you aren't selected because the organization can't find someone to fill your critical position. so... always make sure you you have a handful of people who can easily fill your role at a moments notice. this can be in formal or informal arrangement. and make sure your bosses know they exist! for example, get one to stand in for you while you are on vacation or involve them in major projects to give them visibility. and, of course, be a mentor and help them in their career journey.

good luck!

Perspectives on Promotion (part 1)

"i am pissed off! i got passed over for promotion. what the hell man, i work long hours, i work hard. i am a good employee. why don't they promote me?"

sound familiar?

its the time of year when people are looking for jobs, or promotions or taking stock of their lives, and the topic of 'improving one's situation' is usually high on the list of things to think about at the beginning of the year.

here are some perspectives on (self) promotion from a unker who has been there and done that.

firstly, just working hard and turning up everday is not a guarantee of being promoted. working hard and turning up are pre-requisites for promotion. heck, these are pre-requisites for keeping your jobs.

secondly, if one is serious about promotion, one must be active and practise 'self-promotion'. make sure the powers that be know what you do and how you are contributing to the success of the business (or govt department, or school, whatever, fill in the blank)

here are some pointers that might help germinate some ideas on self-promotion for promotion!

1. Simply put, PROMOTE YOURSELF!

i think its an asian cultural thing. we tend to downplay our successes and usually have nothing to say when people ask us what our strengths are. but when they ask about weaknesses, there will be a 10 page laundry list!

sometimes, you have to tell them what they need to know because they don't see it for themselves. tell them how good you are and that you intend to get promoted. make your intentions known.

talk about your strengths and achievements when opportunities present themselves.

for example, you walk into the lift and the department head is in there already. you have about 30 seconds to make small talk - make big talk. say something like, hi boss, good morning. did you see the market share report we received on monday? my department has increased share 3 points year on year while cutting our budget by 50%. thank you for supporting project X. that really helped us make that happen.

ball-licking? you betcha!


2. Tell your boss what you are going to do and don't just do what your boss asks you to do!

of course, you have to do the stuff that you are hired to do on a day-to-day basis. i mean set objectives or goals and put projects in place to achieve them. that is a great way to show the bosses what you are made of. and don't set sissy objective like 'i will turn up by 9 am every day and only leave at 9 pm'. be specific and brave. take a risk. make it something like 'i will execute project a & b to answer question x & y, which are the two most important obstacles preventing us from taking more market share from competitor q and r'.

set the objective and get the agreement from the bosses that that is what you will focus on. then, get the job done!

3. Overachieve

be it in the goals you have set yourself, or the targets set by the boss, always strive to overachieve. just meeting them is fine, but overachieving them will give you more stuff to talk about when doing self-promotion (see point number 1)!

this can also be in the form of taking on more responsibility beyond your job scope. volunteer for cross department projects (and in some cases, initiate cross department projects that will place you in the driving seat, and give you visibility across the organization)


to be continued... here

Push And Pull

I can't say we didn't see this coming.

The economy's doing pretty well and its very much an employee's market out there. But when you're barely into your 2nd week of the new year and already have to deal with 6 resignations, surely there must be some questions running through your mind.

Well they all cited a change in environment, further studies and better prospects elsewhere as reasons for quitting. But still it is a good time for a little reflection. I am not so concerned with the external pull factors, I am more interested in the internal push.

Like if I've been a good, listening boss. Or do I expect too much from some people too soon? Maybe I don't communicate my expectations clearly enough. Or perhaps I should have tried to built more challenges into their daily routine. Have I been too demanding? Arrogant even, when I dish out stretch goals. Has too much emphasis been placed on discipline instead of development?

They didn't really tell me. Trying to be polite and diplomatic I suppose. But surely, a few of my managerial shortcomings would have featured as one of the reasons to leave? The tricky bit is finding out which one so I can tweak it.

I mean I didn't have to spend like half an hour interviewing each and every resignee, making sure they have put enough thought into bidding a 'fond' sayonara. I could have just said hello, sit down, ok why are you leaving, good luck and good bye. All over in 5 minutes. We recruit more than what we lose to resignations and retirements so I could fill up the vacated positions easily.

But that's not the point is it?

The boss asked me to participate in his 360-degree appraisal the day before. That is, his report card put up by our big boss, a couple of his peers and a couple of his subordinates (i.e moi as one of 2 'lucky' minions).

I think before we get too deep into the new year, I should be asking for a three-sixty myself.

Just to be sure.

Pen To Paper

I want to write a book.

And I need suggestions for a good plot and storyline.

When I was in Primary 6, my compositions were put into a little publication for my schoolmates to read. I want to re-discover the joys of being a 'published' author again.

Although I now have to turn overbearing criticism into an objective critique of life as I know it.

Pen to Paper. Thoughts to Words.

Anybody?

House Hunting

Yes, again.

But this time, we want to buy a place. And the prospect of discarding the life of wondering nomads excites us.

But being the fusspots that we are, we'll probably find something we like by Christmas if we start looking now. The good thing is, having moved from apartment to apartment more times than some people have done in 20 years, we sort of know what we want.

Like...

A location on the outskirt fringes of town.

A powerful Rain-shower in the bathroom. Not the usual shower-head from the wall you know. Those things that pour water from the ceiling. Therapeutic I swear after a sweaty day in the office or gym.

An island-top in the kitchen. You know, a stand-alone workstation, not the glued to the wall cabinets you see everywhere.

His and Her's Walk-in wardrobe with a built-in shoe rack (for me LOL).

A small patio where we can have a little herb garden and deck chairs for puffing and expresso-ing.

A scenic jogging track or beach where we can go for long evening runs or run the dogs.

A competition-sized pool to do decent laps in and for sun lounging.

A well stocked out gym.

Sufficient covered parking for 2 cars per household. And not having to bid for your 2nd car label.

Concealed air-conditioning and none of those ugly blowers.

Lots of greenery in the estate. Plus a place for the doggies to go about their daily business of poop-ing and pee-ing.

Some things to start us off. To be added along the way =))

My Belated New Year Resolutions (or Goals, Wadever!)

Yes I know. 3 days late. But better late than never no? =P

At 33, I need time to think. And the Christmas turkey and egg-nog have to be digested before the blood can flow against the pull of gravity from the intestinal cavity to the brain again.

1st Goal - To spend less and save more. And by that I resolve to have at least 3 home-cooked meals a week and save the restaurant thingy to weekends and special occasions. Also to wear my shoes for at least 6 months before buying another pair on a frivolous impulse. Ditto for clothes.

2nd Goal - To spend less time in the gym and more time on the track/road. And by that I resolve to run at least 3 times a week to really build on my aerobic capacity.

3rd Goal - To smoke only after meals and when I am out drinking with the boys (coffee included =P). I want to say 'quit' but shall refrain from making good-to-hear, motherhood statements. And by that I resolve to wear a nicotine patch if neccessary.

4th Goal - To be the good husband I hardly ever was. And by that I resolve to worship myself less, to listen and count from 1-20 before shooting my mouth off and to love and cherish, not only in times of panic when you realize who could lose someone so dear forever.

5th Goal - To review these 4 Goals in mid 2007. And by that I resolve to kick myself in the groin if not enough progress is made by 30th June =))

So there! God (or any other benevolent diety) help me.

Confessions Of A SneakerSlut 3 - New Year Waffles

Take an iconic design, however old, give it a modern-day twist and Voila!, you con a whole new generation into believing your designers have come up with something hip and chic.

Design-centric companies the world over are jumping on this bandwagon of back-to-basics, retro style. From furniture to cars to apparel. And so it should come as no surprise that sportswear giants Nike and Adidas have been riding this down-memory-lane wave for the past 2-3 years.

Something like Robbie Williams doing a Sinatra =))

The Nike Waffle running shoe came about when Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman poured rubber into his wife's Waffle iron in a desperate attempt to find a running sole with maximum traction and performance way back in 1972. A waffle iron, for those who don't know, is a contraption you use to make, lets see, waffles.



The modern interpretation of this is the Nike Oregon Waffle trainer which comes in synthetic or leather. I couldn't resist this olive green one with yellow swooshes below. Its the leather version and hell I'm not wearing this for a jog, no. Looks fantastic with a pair of military-inspired cargo jeans though =P



But thankfully, there IS a more sporty 'runnable' interpretaion available in the Waffle Racer II. Just as cushion-less but with the front portion of the sole in a more wrap-around position around the foot. This one I don't mind pairing up with my running shorts and singlet. But doesn't it look great with a pair of white-washed, blue CKs?



Yes I know. Slut =))