聚餐

运动会后，丰富的一餐。。。吃的饱饱的。。。当然，沸腾，香喷喷的阿三鱼头成了餐桌上的焦点。。。

天下无不散之筵席。。。没用散，又哪来的聚？

Restaurant - Deco Concept

Came across this restaurant in City Square (at Kitchener Road) - 南翔
Thought that the concept of the restaurant is pretty interesting :D
Of course, at a look, what is the signature dish that we'll associate with?

清明时节雨纷纷。。。

一年一度，清明节，一家到碧山亭去拜拜，去看看爷爷奶奶的时候。。。那是每年都会做的事。

记得小时，还住在劳明德路时，扫墓总是一桩大事 - 大伙（包括伯父们的几个大家庭），一起乘着租来的大罗里，二三十人，浩浩荡荡的上山扫墓！小孩子们都乐透了，因为，不止大家可聚在一起玩，一路上有说有笑，有得玩，也有得吃，就好像野餐似的。尤其是到了最后的一卦山，就是爷爷了，大家在那里呆得最久的。。。
当然，自从政府征收回土地后，所有的扫墓活动，也简化了。。。



这里不是碧山亭，是光明山。这些龟 - 并不陌生；都是从莲花池那里迁过来的。。。

High-speed train riles Russians on wrong side of tracks

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/lifestylenews/view/1052294/1/.html
Posted: 24 April 2010 1145 hrs

I thought it's good news! The high-speed train between Moscow and St Petersburg is going to save lots of time for the road! Good news to travellers! indeed.

Any improvement to the local transport system is a boon to the commuters, isn't it? Saving cost and time (in fact, time could be translated to cost!). As I read further, I'm amazed! It wasn't a welcome act by the locals! Why? The locals are not ready for the change (for the better?!) I think, that tells 2 things:

• By surface, it's assumption that any 'improvement' is a welcome act. Yes, though to foreign travellers like me. But it's not necessary to the locals - because of other changes that come along had made an impact on their routines, perhaps in a less desireable manner.
• This brings to us to another point, the readiness of those who are directly impacted on - have the affected areas being looked into? Or it's an assumption that people will 'automatically' understand the intent and accept the change?

So, what's the moral of this incident?

For any good intended deed, apart from looking the benefits one could reap out of it, it is necessary to look into the environment (especially the people elements) - the preparation to level up the readiness so that the intention meets its intended impact and outcome :D

Mandala... a visual representation of reflection... relationships...

This caught my attention... it's on one of the noticeboards along the corridor at ISP.
Mandala, what a familiar word... hm.. isn't it got to do with religion or some kind of belief? It's pretty interesting in the way that the 'task' is being crafted... something to do with SELF... and RELATIONSHIPS! for Grade 7 students... isn't that equivalent to our Sec 1 students?

Perhaps it's a good reflection tool that's not just applicable to 12-13-year-olds, but also adults!?

What matters?

At last, picked up the Sunday times after 2 weekends being away from home. Am a fan of Lee Wei Ling, and automatically got drawn to her article in A35. However, the 'street view' column on the right of the page distracted me... it said, "As a Singaporean on board an SIA flight, I felt embarrased about the imporoper pronunciation and inability of the crew to communicate the basics". Well, I didn't know what was the background of this, but went on to read what others responded.

Well, I agreed with one of the respondents who said "... we should not generalise...". Indeed, the reaction got to do with 2 things:

• Is it a trend? (i.e. you simply happen to see and hear from not just one, but 2, 3, 4, 5... crew members?)
• Is the reader having overly high expectation of our Singaporean crew members and hopefully they speak with the American/Australian/ British slang? Ha! that would be terrible to our ears!

I think what matters most to me... is the EXPERIENCE... of course, being able to be understood is one aspect of it. Over time, as I travelled, I learnt to see flight service as a whole package - not just the contact in the air. Perhaps you may turn to me and say, I'm demanding! But, that's what make my choice of airline when travelling (of course, I've no choice if travel in a tour group).

The experience starts from checking in... I took for granted good services (yes... I always did until I encountered what I think is unacceptable) until a few years back when I travelled on my own with an airline (because of the cheaper tickets, but not budget) to Beijing. The ground crew's service was not customer-orientated at all! The minimial is being attentative to the needs when someone enquired or asked for assistance! Well, that experience opened the first 'chapter' (blog post) of the journey.

To-date, SIA is still my number one airline... of course, it comes with a certain price tag too... But really, it's the attention the crew give that matters, the warmth you get when in no-man's 'land'... It's also my number 1 local product that, as a Singaporean, am proud to have :D