Wednesday, July 31, 2013

How to be a great communicator


Some points I copied from the internet.
  1. Be impeccable  with your word
    1. Speak with integrity
    2. Say only what you mean
    3. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others
    4. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love
  2. Don't take anything personally
    1. Nothing others do is because of you
    2. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream
    3. when you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering
  3. Don't make assumptions
    1. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want
    2. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama
    3. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life
  4. Always do your best
    1. Your best is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick
    2. under any circumstance simply do your best, and you will avoid self judgement, self-abuse and regret. 

Hunting property in JB

A text from chai ann asking me to join a property trip in JB last Saturday.

I had breakfast with Miss J at Tan Tock Seng coffee bean that morning, we were sharing about funny stories, and also a little about ourselves over coffee bean tea. We talked about how many people were chasing after miss J during this period of time and how special I am. I was over the moon, I must admit.

However, I must remind myself that, being able to spend time with Miss J is something I would treasure. I guess, it really doesn't matter to me on how many other potential candidates are there.

The breakfast was rather brief one, around 12 o clock, we were holding hands and walked towards UOB bank in novena square to meet Chai Ann.

I am going to JB that day to learn  a little bit about property.

After meeting chai ann, Miss J left chai ann and I and went for her zoo trip with her friend.

Chai ann and I went Cedele for lunch, it was a scrumptious meal. Especially when CEDELE got free baguette for patrons. I ordered earl grey lavender, a salad while chai ann ordered a thins and a glass of latte.
It was a good catch up session with her. I guess it is very important to catch up with friends once in a while as I have been overwhelmed with my work recently.

After our catch up session at CEDELE, we went to sembawang to meet chai ann's friend. His name is called Alan. He picked us up from the station and went straight to JB. I was sleeping in the car while chai ann was catching up with Alan along the way. I somehow joined their conversation while half sleeping all the while.

Upon reaching the season show room, we were  ushered by a very young lady with bracing in her 20's. She got this typical Malaysia ascent, which I could clicked comfortably immediately. She brought us to all the show rooms and explained about the development to us.

While we were looking at the 3rd room, chai ann's cousin came into the show room and looked for us, she is currently working in a architect firm in Singapore and stayed in Johor. I am keen to know about people commuting on a daily basis from Johor to Singapore for work. I wanted to know more about their life style.

Basically, she wakes up about 6am in the morning and car pool to Singapore, she said she would reach Newton MRT station around 830am and take the MRT or bus to work. She would reach office around 9 o clock. In the afternoon, she would leave the office at 530pm sharp. and reach home around 730 or 8 o'clock depends on the condition of the traffic. She said sometimes she would have some food in singapore before travelling back to Johor. I guess in total is about 4 hours of commuting on a daily basis. The good thing about this is that she works 5 days a week. I guess this would leave her a lot of recovering time at home during the weekend.

The expenses in Malaysia is rather different than in Singapore, as she needs a car and a house there, mortgage is about RM3k a month, car loan is about RM1k and other expenses is another RM1k in order to life comfortably in Johor. Perhaps, the commuting time is worth it after all, at least she got her own place in the end.

After our short visit in the show room, she brought us to her condominium in larkin, a place she rented for about RM1.3k for the whole unit and share between 4-5 people in total. The place wasn't fantastic, it was rather old and the maintenance doesn't look awesome too. On top of that, the pool is quite crowded with kids. I was rather shocked when I heard that the condominium is just only 4-5 months old, because from what I can see, it looks like a 10 year old building.

Thinking back to our conversation, if inflation is around 4-5 percent in Singapore, which way higher than our annual increment in Singapore. Eventually, in the next 5 years, I would have to stay further away from the city or in a smaller room. I guess this would not be ideal, really need to think of a way to work things out.




Monday, July 15, 2013

Dessert with Miss J at Bugis

I had a few rounds with my client representative near my work place after work. I had a date tonight with ms J. We are going to Ah Chew Dessert for dessert tonight, I ordered red bean while Miss J ordered her favourite green bean soup, she wanted a cold one.

We then started our conversation for that night. We talked about things like work, boss, friends, life and all sort of stuff. 

I think being able to understand and communicate with each other is really important. At least, I am emotionally comfortable to share my life stories with her and the fun bit is that she is very interested to listen to my stories. 

I am practising my story telling skills whenever I am with miss J recently. This is part of my personal development and one of the key skills I would like to learn and improve. At least, to be more confident in expressing myself and at least to communicate with others. 

From my observation for a period of time, Miss J somehow is a refined and sensitive person, she can read my mind very well. Partly, I am telling her how my mind works, that is why sometimes, I feel I am naked as I couldn't really hide things from miss J

Back to our ah chew dessert shop, the ambiance is comfortable. However, due to the place is rather crowded, staying there for a long time somehow doesn't feel right. 

After we finished our dessert, we walked towards Chijmes and went into a bar with live band called Insomia. I ordered one glass of cranberry juice and one orange juice for us. Miss J doesn't fancy alcohol weekdays. we chatted a little bit until the band is too loud.

We went for a walk, grabbed a taxi and she went home straight. 


Friday, July 12, 2013

Birthday 2013

I know this post has been delayed, my birthday is on 30 June and I only got time to write down them all today. This is because I have been busy with my work in that period.

"I just landed" a text from Miss J.

I was smiling mhyself when I think of Miss J changed her flight ticket just to come back Singapore to celebrate my birthday with me.

" Happy birthday" it was 00:06 when she text me. Again, I was smiling when I was reading the text. But because my phone was dead, I can only read her text on the next morning.

She then called and said "Good morning, in her Cantonese ascent and said Happy birthday to me!"

Before I could even open my eyes completely, I started to smile and replied " Thank You, it is very nice to hear your voice in the morning."

We chatted for a while, and she invited me for an impromptu brunch with her. I didn't hesitate and get changed immediately. I then took the MRT to Novena, and walked to her place.

I was standing in front of her place while she is preparing herself for the day. When we met, we hugged each other and grabbed a taxi from Akyab road to Keppel Bay Prive for brunch. The place is famous for its ambiance, eggs benedicts, brunch at reasonable price.

After our beautiful al fresco brunch at Prive, We then go the nearby vivo city to shop for a pair of shoes. I had been looking for a  pair of Rockport a week before my birthday but would like to bring Miss J to choose for me.She chose a blue colour one for me. Obviously, she likes blue a lot, I guess soon I would have a new spectrum of colour in my wardrobe.

We went to haagen daz for an ice cream, I ordered one ice-cream, flavour we really like, we shared the ice cream together and had load of conversation from then. I think the trick to really make Miss J happy is to bring her to ice cream parlour. I always got chemistry with her when we were in an ice cream parlour.

After our ice cream session, it was about 0610, we then wanted to take the MRT to the catalonya, a restaurant headed by a team who have worked with a 3 Michelin starred chef in Spain, Ferran Adria, whom is famous for its molecular gastronomy. One of the dish I liked particularly is the spherical olives. It was a special one.

After our meal, we went to lantern, a bar on top of one Fullerton, to bask in the beautiful view for the rest of the night.