Happy New year

People getting the karaoke ready for the party. For the first time this year, the condo management decided to have a party by the pool. We're here early. There's a very long buffet train, and the crowd is beginning to build.
I hope it will be fun. This is an opportunity to get to know my neighbours :-)
happy new year, everyone!

Happy birthday ariff

It's ariff's birthday! Happy birthday dear son. We all love you.

Tropical holidays

Lazy days and lazy ways. Thats how i'd describe this resort. The sun is blazing hot, but we're cool with haagen-dazs in the shade :-)

Solving problems or seeking solutions?

It's coming to the end of the year again, and, for what has almost become clockwork, the amount of work to be done begins to ramp up. It's almost counter-intuitive; you'd always expect end of year equals down time.
For where I work end of year is the company's second quarter and is also Annual General Meeting time. On top of that, its also the time when the budgets are still hot, the print on annual plans still steaming and naturally, everyone is gung-ho about all the things that need to be done. This is also the time when my group of people are fully occupied, facilitating sessions and implementing change.
Usually, though, as we course through January through March, through New Year, Hijrah, Chinese New Year, Thaipusam, we begin to lose steam. And as new issues arise, reality begins to bite and the pain begins to slow things down. And we start to begin planning for the upcoming year, a new determination conveniently forgetting the things we've overlooked and not completed.
It's a self reinforcing cycle that's hard to break.
Over dinner about 10 years ago, sitting with a bunch of HR practitioners, this topic came up. And one of them, looks at me squarely in the eye, and says," You know what the problem is? You're always looking for the problem!"
"Look for the problem and problems are what you find. Look for solutions, then everything you need will be there"
No doubt there may have been a tinge of alcohol in that statement, but there is some truth there. Have a safe Aidil Adha.

Grey Clouds Over Ramadhan?

It's the fourth of Ramadhan. Time really flies!

Things are different for us this year, as we are doing it ourselves without our maid. Its been fun so far and I really hope it will continue to be so.

As is our tradition, I stopped by the bazaar Ramadhan to get stuff to brighten breaking of fast. Surprisingly I could get parking so easily and I found that there weren't too many people there. There were some variety of food, but I felt that it wasn't to what I remember it to be. At the mosque, I found that that there were very few sponsors for the iftar, a far cry from last year when I couldn't get a slot to sponsor even though it was not yet the fasting month. And someone did mention that the iftar at the mosque was rather subdued compared to previous years.

Are we feeling the pinch now?

Let Go!

Just before the weekend, I ran into someone who mentioned that I haven't updated my blog for a while; how true it was. No excuses for not writing, and it is nice to know that someone some there appreciates reading what I write.

Recently I let things take their course and we let someone take the lead in one of our workshops. I must say he showed us that our judgement wasn't in error; and he did give quite a good account of himself.

The episode has given me some things to mull over, though. When we let other people a chance to shine, many times we measure it in terms of ourselves; we forget that everyone approaches things differently and we follow them step by step, expecting them to do every single thing the way we do it and at the slightest deviation, we are ever ready to pounce on them and take over what needs to be done. In the end, we bash the slightest bits of confidence they may just only be nurturing, and kill what ever enthusiasm they may have.

In all honesty, I must say that what matters is the outcomes. As long as the outcomes serve their purpose, then let others seek it out themselves. We have to let them sing with their own voice, run in their own shoes for as long as the outcome is the winning.

Yeah. I guess that's how champions are created. In the words of Judy Garland, its always better to be a first rate version of yourself than to be a second rate version of somebody else.

Go forth, my friends, and seek out the world.

About green technology.

I chanced upon a tweet that said, " If we are really serious about green technology; why not remove duties and taxes for hybrid and alt fuel vehicle?"

How true it was, too. Around 40% of our energy consumption comes from the transportation Sector which is nearly 100% on fossil fuel. Electric/ petrol hybrids aren't popular here as they cost Rm 200k to own.

Why not help bring down the price so its within reach of the ordinary masses?

2 very big contributors to that 40 percent sector -non luxury family cars and mass transit and goods transport.

What do you think?

Bliss

Maybe I'm getting old, maybe its time to start slowing down.

2 weeks went by in a blink of an eye. It started with a drive up Gunung Jerai followed with a drive to PD, a series of back-to- back meetings and 2 weeks have gone. A long holiday weekend is here and I'm once again looking forward to recharge.

I took the opportunity to spend some time out, before I even reached home from work, meeting up my wife at the mall. we walked, casually browsing the stores, stopping for a cup of mocha and a sandwich absorbing the music around me from the sidewalk band, from the overhead speakers.

I feel good slowing down like that. No deadlines, no reports, no phone calls to make. Nothing to distract me from experiencing "now".

Its the weekend, and I've been up since 5 am, alone, all by myself doing what *I* want to do, experiencing the moment. I'm gonna enjoy this bliss, make the most of it with all that's most important to me.

Enforcement? Bring it on!

I came out of the curve today and found several (not one or two, mind you) policemen going from car to car putting tickets on windscreens. About time, too!
The curve has its own little street that runs parallel to the main road. This way the flow of the main road is not interupted by slow cars making their way to the pick up points or to the parking lot entrance. Its a good idea by the town planners. But malaysian drivers saw it as an opportunity to save on the RM2 daily rate. As a result, people park on the slip road and the main road, leaving the slip road with one car width. To prevent people from parking there, a whole row of no parking signs, chained together, were placed on the side of the road, contributing to the very problem it was supposed to avoid.
To me the answer is in enforcement. Once people know that there's a penalty for not following the rules, then there's a reason to obey.
There's no point having rules when it's ok to not follow; lesser point when not paying the penalty results in being given a discount.