"The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 26 - 31

*din record the the previous few days 

3 Gratitudes for Day 26 - Mon
1. Finishing my Outlook Article
2. Being able to visit legion meeting
3. Attending mass

3 Gratitudes for Day 27 - Tues
1. For the gift of health - was sick!

3 Gratitudes for Day 28 - Wed
1. For being able to ear - left ear is painful. infection...

3 Gratitudes for Day 29 - Thurs
1. That I saw a doctor before things got worse!
2. Got pampered in office
3. Slept early - no choice

3 Gratitudes for Day 30 - Fri
1. For good faculties. Can even drive despite my condition. Thank God for good roads. 

3 Gratitudes for Day 31 - Sat
1. Slept in!
2. Did NO work at all
3. Revisited playing some nice games :)

"The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 19 - 21

3 Gratitudes for Day 19 - Mon
1. For a new exciting week!

3 Gratitudes for Day 20 - Tues
1. An awesome day at the airport
2. SQCPT 20th anniversary
3. Meeting 3 PPS

3 Gratitudes for Day 21 - Wed
1. Being on leave at home
2. Eating KFC for lunch
3. Seeing my family over SKYPE

"The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 14 - 18

3 Gratitudes for Day 14 - Wed
1. A productive NSM
2. Having a confirmed flight back to Cape Town, though it was really late
3. For a really nice bed that I can sleep in

3 Gratitudes for Day 15 - Thurs
1. Did most planning for work's 20th anniversary
2. For a nice boss who asked how you are
3. That I had a crazy but fruitful week

3 Gratitudes for Day 16 - Fri
1. Cleared most of my reporting!
2. It is public holiday :):)
3. Did housework and feel that the house is nice and tidy

3 Gratitudes for Day 17 - Sat
1. Cooked onion/potato soup + rosti. The latter was terrible despite my 2nd time. Wonder what went wrong
2. Spoke to family!
3. Rested the whole day!

3 Gratitudes for Day 18 - Sun
1. Went for ACIES. Felt so moved. :)
2. Entirely saved tons of $$ this week because I am trying to clear the food in the house. Waste less. 
3. Generally for the gift of faith

"The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 8 - 13

3 Gratitudes for Day 8 (Thurs):
1. Going for an Indian Fashion show
2. Meeting some Taiwanese friends
3. Had a nice long walk

3 Gratitudes for Day 9 (Fri):
1. Being able to get away early 
2. Visiting the convention centre :)
3. It's the weekend!!!!!! 

3 Gratitudes for Day 10 (Sat):
1. Going out for a long walk again and nua-ed most of the day
2. Attended mass
3. Discovering a nice game on facebook. hehe.

3 Gratitudes for Day 11 (Sun):
1. Completed a decent amount of work
2. Stuffed myself silly
3. Being able to talk to imm imm for some time

3 Gratitudes for Day 12 (Mon):
1. Finally settling my new accommodation in Cape Town!
2. Coming more to terms with the things i cannot do
3. For the gift of kids!

3 Gratitudes for Day 13 (Tues):
1. Managed to come to JNB for meeting
2. Able to meet Richard and gang before they flew off (nice that my flights were delayed!)
3. Having a good talk on work with my boss

"The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 6/7

3 Gratitudes for Day 6 (Tues):
1. Being able to sleep early and feeling rested the next day
2. That my kids are doing well at home
3. For being able to accept that things that will almost never go my way.

3 Gratitudes for Day 7 (Wed):
1. Having my hair cut at a good rate
2. For having the ability to buy people lunch
3. Otah for dinner!

"The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 5

What a day today. 8.5hrs straight non-stop but it was good.

Trying to put into practice the 4-hr work week principles and check emails only for 2 times a day. It's sure hard when people are asking you to do things. Perhaps I have to tell people about my new practice as what the book recommends.

Whilst I am fighting my battles here, Wifey is also fighting her own battles at home in Singapore. I mean, with the 2 young kids, things are not easy at all. I guess the main thing is that you cannot choose when to switch off, because parenthood is 24/7. And it is nearly like single parenthood for her. For me, I can still come back home and "switch off" when  I cannot take it.

I miss the kids though. Koko is extremely cute!

3 Gratitudes for Day 5 (Mon):
1. Setting out clear plans for the week ahead!
2. Stumbling upon my 4hr workweek book
3. Knowing that I always have food on the table.

Restart For Lent - "The Happy Secret To Better Work" - Day 2 - 4

3 Gratitudes for Day 2 (Fri):
1. Meeting Mrs Sugie for lunch
2. Coming to terms that there is so much I can do
3. that it is the weekend

3 Gratitudes for Day 3 (Thurs):
1. Meeting Richard and his singaporean friends for lunch
2. Rediscovering the wonders of ipad
3. Talking at length to wifey

3 Gratitudes for Day 4 (Thurs):
1. Being able to sleep in till 11am!
2. Having an awesome dinner of ba zhang and har kow
3. having me-time today

Restart for Lent - "The Happy Secret to Better Work"

44/365: bringing in the lenten season (Photo credit: Jess Gambacurta)

Been long since I posted on this blog again. Never seem to have the time or energy. Last post was nearly a year ago :)

Many things have changed. Including moving from one country to another, having another kid and taking on a new role.

3 Gratitudes for Day 1 (Thurs):
1. I had more energy for work
2. Met up with some awesome people wanting to collaborate with me in my work
3. Being able to restart this again

Exercise : Yes

Random Act of Kindness : Bought colleague lunch!

Day 24 - 26 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 24 (Thurs):
1. That my parents arrived safely in London!
2. To have my parents be with me and being able to enjoy travelling overseas
3. To have a decent day to focus on work

3 Gratitudes for Day 25:
1. To have completed some of my stuff... more to go!

2. That it is Friday and looking forward to the weekend

3. That my sore throat is slowly curing and that the new lozenges works! 

3 Gratitudes for Day 26:

1. To go out shopping and showing the places to my parents

2. To have nice asian food for lunch

3. To have rested well

Day 19 - 23 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 19 (Sat):
1. To have a car that I own and can drive
2. To be able to be on a road trip to see Rina and family
3. To have had an awesome Chinese dinner! 

3 Gratitudes for Day 20:
1. To be able to feel good enough to drive back to London

2. To attend mass at a nice place

3. To have visited Liverpool

3 Gratitudes for Day 21:

1. To have humbling experiences 

2. To be able to be stretched and try my best

3. For good health

3 Gratitudes for Day 22:
1. To go to Bayswater with my family

2. To be able to afford the little pleasures in life

3. To see my son growing up slowly

3 Gratitudes for Day 23:
1. That my wife cooks and does housework for me

2. To have a nice warm house

3. To enjoy the simplest food

Day 17, 18 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 17:
1. That we have a great pope who is stepping down
2. To see friends happy
3. To have empowerment tools like whatsapp that keeps me close with people far away

3 Gratitudes for Day 18:
1. To feel that i am better at my work

2. To have gone out in the evening with family to shop on a weekday!

3. To know that the weekend is nearly here

Day 14, 15 ,16 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 14:
1. To have reached UK safe and sound
2. To manage to find strength to go for mass 
3. To have my family under one roof again! 

3 Gratitudes for Day 15:
1. That I cleared 70% of my emails 

2. To manage to go home pretty early at 7pm

3. To enjoy my wife's cooking and family time

3 Gratitudes for Day 16:
1. To have caught up with my emails and now onto the follow ups I owe people

2. To have a pretty firm grasp of my work

3. To be able to get home earlier than yesterday! 

Day 11, 12 ,13 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 11:
1. Meeting up with Mun, YY 
2. Being able to wake up later
3. Lunch with Gugu and buntie! 

3 Gratitudes for Day 12:
1. That I saw my 2nd child!

2. That I met up with my colleagues in DS, hopefully can push for more things after!

3. I ate my roti prata

3 Gratitudes for Day 13:
1. That my boy is exactly 18months old today. It has been a journey

2. That I am all well prepared to go back to UK to work my guts out and practice work life balance! (oxy moron?)

3. That my week has been fulfilling meeting as many people I can meet as possible

Day 8, 9 ,10 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 8:
1. That I managed to go for legion meeting

2. that i spend a nice afternoon out with addy

3. that i managed to have a nice haircut at last!

3 Gratitudes for Day 9:
1. that i had a nice facial tho it burnt a hole in my pocket

2. that i managed to eat a good meal of claypot rice!

3. that the day was good with sufficient rest

3 Gratitudes for Day 10:
1. having met mark and catching up

2. eating bak kut teh with my in-laws

3. staying over with addy at my in-laws place

Day 5, 6, 7 To Better Work

3 Gratitudes for Day 5:
1. that I earn enough now for my family
2. that the last day of work went smoothly
3. that I could get a cab in time for the airport!

3 Gratitudes for Day 6:
1. that I met WLIA Eric Ong on the flight and had fantastic crew onboard
2. that i met my family after a long while
3. that i saw godpa and he was alright

3 Gratitudes for Day 7:
1. to have gathered with the mexican family
2. to eat uncle's kway teow
3. to go for mass with my family

Positive experience: Just wanted to list one for the past 3 days that coincided with my random act of kindness. I opened up to the cab driver on the way to the airport to fly back home on Day 5. His name was Ahmed and works as a private cab driver. Sole breadwinner of the family and has 3 kids. Not an easy life cos he does not earn much. He shared about his experience as an airport staff before switching to this line to better cope with lifestyle and family. His story is one of working to earn a living and not to pursue a career. How fortunate I am to even be able to consider progression and climbing the ladder. I remember the conversation heartfelt. Wanted to tip him but gave him a M&S chocolate basket for his kids instead because I thought that would mean more. One less for my family and friends but figure it would be more for such as he.

Popped by the airport operations to say my hellos too.

Day 4 to Better Work

My 3 gratitudes today:
1) that I managed to clear quite a bit of work today!
2) that I am going back home tomorrow
3) that the weather was so good today

My positive experience today was about finishing a report which I took really long to do because I did not know how to pull out the results and verify that they are correct. But today made me feel like I am getting better at it and slowly and steadily, I hope to contribute better and at a faster speed! 

Day 3 to Better work

My 3 gratitudes today:
1) that I have awesome parish priests who stand out in the cold after mass to see their parishioners off
2) that boss is back in office
3) that I live so close to office that I do not contend with bad traffic

My positive experience today was Ash Wednesday Mass.

Day 2 to Better Work

gratitude. =) (Photo credit: camerakarrie)

My 3 Gratitudes for Today:
1) That I am in London
2) That I have work
3) That I am learning a lot

Random Act of Kindness - sharing my passion and knowledge with someone today

Positive Experience: 
Sitting down with the guys today to come up with the department action schedule for the year helped in developing a greater clarity of what we do and how we should move on in the year ahead. Things are still a little vague but at least we know what goes where and when we have to do them.


Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. The typical kiasu me + Catholic blood made sure I stuffed myself for dinner before the impending 40 days of fasting. Not all 40 days I guess because I am sure going to be stuffed with food when I am back in Singapore for a later CNY celebration.

Boy I miss my family and friends.

The happy secret to better work - Day 1

Gratitude (Photo credit: justOneMoreBook)

I have come across Shawn Achor's video in TED. His talk was one of the best by far I have seen and I do feel inspired.

His key takeaway to rewire oneself to create lasting positive change below:
1) List 3 gratitudes daily for 21 days
2) Journal-ling 1 positive experience everyday to relive it
3) Exercise to teach the mind that action matters
4) Mediation to focus
5) Do randoms act of kindness to enforce a consciousness of positivity

So here I am on Day 1. Hopefully for many days to come.

My 3 Gratitudes for today:
1) that I have awesome colleagues
2) that I can savour my fish and chips
3) that I can be warm when it is cold

Random act of kindness - give away oranges as part of CNY and treat my colleagues to lunch!

Positive experience:
I spent one whole day on a report, generating the data from scratch. It was indeed a struggle but every bit goes into reinforcing my learning and a firmer hold on the concepts. My learning is like an exponential curve. Very slow in the beginning, but once the momentum gains traction, I go on quite speedily. Now i am just in the painful part. I take it as a cross to bear - trying to acknowledge that I really don't know a lot and to accept that I am not as smart as others. God has a way to make one swallow pride.


For those who are interested in Shawn Achor's awesome TED video, it is embedded below.

His book that I intend to read

Shopping for childcare

From Feb to June 2012, we made some trips to the respective childcare centres, here are some of them:

Bethel Day Care Centre
12 Jalan Lateh. With transport.
$370 after subsidy
Tel: 62885078/62823121
We quite like this area and like the idea that Imm can be exposed to a Christian environment.


Bright Juniors @ SC Pte Ltd
Blk 255 Serangoon Central Drive
Tel: 62811173
$420 after subsidy
This place is very convenient as it is near to our parents place. Our parents can drop by to sneak a peep at Imm anytime :P


My First Skoolhouse at Serangoon Ave 3 (NTUC)
Waiting for their reply. Also a convenient area and the place looked nice and clean.


Bethany Child Care Centre
Blk 127 Serangoon North Ave 1.

Not really what we wanted and there was no transport.

School house By The Garden
12 Phillips Ave
Tel: 62808562
$580 after subsidy
It is situated in a terrace house, place is very bright and nice but a little cramped.

Preschool by the park @ Li Hwan
2 Li Hwan View
$850 after subsidy, no transport