Hammering our way towards 911

The rainy season has finally come. It's come a little late for many farmers in Thailand, whose baby crops have already died before the heavens opened, but at least it has come. It's been raining mostly at night though, so I would like to call this a rainy-after-sunset season.

Unfortunately, my business is seasonal, and the lowest season arrives when the rain comes. Therefore, while being happy for the farmers, I am struggling to make ends meet for the company as a result. Thankfully, there have been small but consistent orders coming in, so the blow isn't catastrophic-YET.

Back to the main point. Though I am physically in Bangkok, my heart and mind are well and truly elsewhere these days, because I am tying the knot (I know, many "finally"s are ringing in your minds) soon and I am frantically trying to put together as good a wedding day as I can though I am not in Singapore and Malaysia, where I will be holding 2 separate banquets during back-to-back weekends. It's been mission impossible so far, but I have to make it work!

As a countdown to the big day, I shall bother my readers by preparing you guys towards the wedding itself, including some important information, pictures, updates and all. Come on, it's once in a lifetime for me, share this joy with me for the next 7 weeks ok?

Firstly, yes, my wife-to-be is the lady who has been supporting me through thick and thin for the past 11 years, Li Li, still her, and will always be her.

Secondly, for those who do not know, we have had our ROM on 14 November 2009. It was a simple ceremony and lunch shared with immediate family and close family friends, so it was quite a low-key event.


Thirdly, our wedding in Singapore will be held on September 11 at Peony Jade- Keppel Club this year (yes! 911! you can't forget now! you have to come if you receive my invitation card!), followed by another one in my hometown, Kuching on September 18 (the following Saturday).

So, we're well into preparations and I am sure it September 11 will be a great day for us and all involved. That's all for a start, more to come!

Because we're hammering our way towards 911!

Wedding trivia of the post:
My banquet location in Kuching is called Bangkok-Thai Seafood Restaurant, really apt man!!

Be Strong

Kelvin, I hope you remain strong, and pull through this unexpected ordeal. I am in Bangkok now and I cannot do anything, but you are in my mind all the time and I will give you moral and prayer support until you recover.

Everyone who knows Kelvin and is reading this, please pray with me for Kelvin's health, and for God to lay His healing hands onto him. Amen.

The Stranger in Bangkok becomes the HR-Guru

I am only in my second full-time job now. I really can't be considered an expert to advise you whether your job is suitable now. But trust me, I've been through my ups and downs in my short career so far.

Though I am definitely not the most outstanding, talented or brilliant employee a company can find, I always pride myself as one who gives more than 100% in everything I do, focusing only on the desired results.

Hence, having been through a series of mental and emotional roller coasters through the last 6 years, I shall share with you some pointers which I feel can help you identify whether you are happy in your job or not. Some points might look cheesy to you, so ignore them if they are, but if some points hit your heart or remind you of something, do know that you might need to do something about it soon.

There is something wrong if you:

- wake up at 9am and jumped out of your bed in panic, afraid that your superior might screw you up cos you are late, but at 0905 realised it was an offday when your pants are half-zipped, then pop back into bed realising you can never go back to sleep again

- dream of your boss/manager's wife smiling at you (come on ex-colleagues, you know what I am talking about)

- try to book the most expensive hotels and eat the most expensive meals when you are on a business trip, just because the company does not give you allowance but allows you to claim your receipts

- take the taxi to 5 (ok, 5 is ridiculous, 3) different places before going home, just because you think the company is not worth you saving money for

- report to work everyday only to look forward to 5/6pm, and do monthly reports just to get your paycheck after submitting them.

- can no longer summon the enthusiasm to do anything else after work, your life becomes overwhelmed with work, work, WORK, WORK!

- see loads of emails in your mailbox but just don't feel like replying them though you know you should, and they end up un-replied

- knock off, go to the supermarket to buy a can of beer, go home, sit on the sofa, open it and drink it all up without saying a word (this is not cheesy, I KNEW IT WAS THE END OF THE ROAD FOR ME WHEN I DID IT)

- only think about how to effectively train your replacement

- think that you are the most badly treated staff in the entire world when you are asked to return to work on an off-day without any additional renumeration, when you know deep in your heart that either there's no one better for this job, or really, this would all have been avoided if you had been more efficient the week before this.

- can't help saying names and negative things about your manager or your company when you are off-work (or on-work too, if posting negative statuses on Facebook counts), and can't think of anything good to say, no matter how hard u try.


Ok, I do not know whether I have hit the jackpot, or managed to pass myself off as a ridiculous idiot who thinks he's a job guru, I only know that I have a sudden urge to share this to my very few blog-readers. Remember, if you are not loving your job or respecting your management, you will not be effective and therefore it's a lose-lose situation. No job is perfect, neither is yours. If something can be done to rectify the situation, be sure that you go about doing it and not let it manifest and make your life miserable.

Sorry for the lack of activity guys, the World Cup is killing me, I'm so glad it's gonna end soon. Go Uruguay!

The Simple Enjoyments in Life

Updated 9th December 2017

I re-visited the rustic Thai night carnival last week, something that made me really, really happy once upon a time when I first came ploughing the lone furrow in 2010.

Lonely no more.

7 years on, much has changed. My visit was less lonely. It was a bid to introduce this simple enjoyment to my little ones, to tell them life's pleasures can be uncomplicated. The games were largely similar, but seemed a little harder to win than before. Nevertheless, it's all for the fun of it and not whether you win or not, right?

Not as easy as it seems.

If there is anything I can advise after 2 visits to the Thai carnival, is that if you are aiming to give your kids a present, buying one could be more efficient that winning one. The games are deceptively-challenging, but extremely good fun at the same time.

Enjoying the novelty of playing the Thai way.

Some things never change, and it's better that way, isn't it?

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One of the biggest things I have understood after nearly 1 year in Bangkok, is that life can be very simple, and a simple life can also be just as enjoyable as a complicated one.

Since I've been here, I've done my very best to live like a local Thai. There are many people here who are struggling to make ends meet, and their salary is just a small fraction of what we are getting in Singapore, but alas, they have no complaints at all. They organise their own field trips, they have their own celebrations, their own feasts, their own holidays. Having grown up in Singapore, naturally I am more realistic and materialistic, therefore it's been very enlightening to see and feel the culture here and be less concerned over the superficial material joys of life.

I have sat by the beach to paint clay figurines, celebrated the King's birthday, went shopping at 2am at the local garment wholesale market, went to a cattle ranch that conducted its tour in Thai, made friends with the stray dogs in my neighbourhood, and this time, I am gonna give you snippets of my visit to the temporary 'funfair' currently held near my office.

I do not know whether Bingo is considered gambling, but if it is, I have completely experienced the devil, because with my 1st ever game (that costs 20baht), I bingo-ed! My staff/friend Rit also bingo-ed a while later, and he said it was the 1st time in his life he won something, so I guess it's not that easy to win. Talk about the evils of gambling.......

This next game I am going to introduce was something I have never seen before. First you pay 20baht, and you pick 9 out of this mess of hidden numbers.

Like what I did here.

Then you go to the back and you open every number to tally with the numbered prizes. When the number tallies, you bring it home!

After a good 15 minutes of hot sweaty searching, I conclude that my luck has run out.

However, by this time, the little boy in me has jumped out to take over my clumsy lanky adult body. I continued my mad indulgence in the carnival by going on a bumper car ride, cheered Rit on as he threw darts at balloons to win a stuffed frog for his wife, and went rifle shooting.

The grand finale came when I bought 5 paper fishing nets to catch fish. I've never seen this game before in Singapore, but maybe there is. You can keep the fish you catch, but the big ones would most definitely break the paper nets with any bit of acceleration.

We ended up with 8 small fish, but we returned them to the owner as we just wanted to have some fun.

Once again, I experienced how the Thais enjoy their simple life, and I realise that happiness is not proportional to our standard of living (I agree with you Wenguang). I believe this kind of simple enjoyment is possible anywhere we are, it is whether we are willing to slow down our pace and look around, and not be so bothered over the unimportant things in life, which we are blindly chasing everyday in a bid to make our lives "better".

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Anyway, congratulations to the grand opening of the Marina Bay Sands, and while we are drooling over the architectural brilliance of the 3 towers which has become a companion on Singapore's coastline along with the Singapore Flyer, let me share with you a conversation I had with my staff over this puny little Ferris Wheel (the picture above, at most 2.5 storeys high) that was the highlight of the funfair.

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Rit : Eddie, have you ever sat on the Ferris Wheel before?

Eddie : Yes, of course I have, there is 1 in Singapore, it is the largest in the world. This is very small compared to the one there.

Rit : (looking bored)Oh...

Eddie : What about you? Have you sat in 1 before?

Rit : No, look (pointing at the top of the mini Ferris Wheel) I think it is so high, I am afraid.

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Is it really important to have the BIGGEST Ferris Wheel in the world?

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Nah, I don't think so.

Salad stripped down to its bare essentials

It's been an eventful week.

I welcomed my first 2 visitors from church, saying hi to them at the airport when they were brimming with healthy smiles on their faces and ended up waving goodbye to them 3 days later both struggling to consume anything after spending the weekend emulating Merlion. I hope they enjoyed their trip though, Sigh.

I also waved goodbye to my dear fiancee, who had been here for nearly 2 months, accompanying me through easily the most politically chaotic time I have ever experienced. Was really difficult to send her off, but oh well, hope she'll be back in no time.

Anyway, I realised that my previous pumpkin salad was a little complicated, simple, but needs many steps. It's not suitable for beginners to make. Now, I shall take away the oven, the lemon-squeezing, the pumpkin-hacking and teach you the EASIEST (yet relatively tasty) salad you will ever make.

The only ingredient, cherry tomatoes.

Cherry tomatoes because they are sweet, sour (so you can take away squeezing the lemon), doesn't need cooking, look really pretty and are easy to process. Of course, if you do not like tomatoes in the first place, then you can forget about this post, though I suggest you pay attention if you hate tomatoes but love ketchup, because I'll convert you soon. You need as much as you need to eat, wash them thoroughly and halve them.

To dress the tomatoes, you only need 4 ingredients. 4! Freshly ground black peppercorns (I insist on freshly ground), dry/fresh oregano, salt (oregano + tomato + salt = paradise) and good quality extra virgin olive oil.

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You do not even need to make the dressing separately. Just dump all the tomatoes in a mixing bowl and season with a nice pinch of salt. Let the tomatoes sit for 10 minutes to let the salt draw out their delicious juices. Once this is done, glug in a good amount of extra virgin olive oil (for the shown amt of tomatoes, maybe at least 2-3 big tablespoonfuls of best quality oil) and toss the tomatoes, finishing off with some freshly crushed black pepper and a nice sprinkle of Oregano.

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You're done! Tuck in!

For tonight, I baked myself a handful of Enoki mushroom to go with the tomato. Just add a teeny bit of butter, Kikkoman Japanese soya sauce and black pepper onto the mushroom and put them under 200degC for 15 minutes and it's done.

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This has no relation with the salad though, I just like some fusion in my meals, like this oriental tasting Enoki vs the angmo-style salad.

I am not saying chips and beer are replaceable as snacks during football matches now that the World Cup fever is on, but having some delectable home-made salad for dinner or a starter to a meal would give you the nutritional balance you BADLY need during this body-destroying month.

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Forget about the expensive jars of dressing you find on the supermarket shelves or the typical unhealthy mayonnaise and thousand island, you can actually make salads from absolute scratch. This tomato salad has been stripped down to the bare essentials and it is the minimum I would expect from you if I manage to see you next time!

Taking a walk in the vineyards on a sunny summer afternoon

So our trip to the cattle ranch was done and dusted. We had to quickly rush our way to the PB vineyard around 40km away, and we were lucky that we went early, because we had a real difficult time locating it.

It was quite hot, and there are usually no grapes to see during the summer, as all the grapes would have been harvested by the end of February, but we are determined to have a look anyway, and what a view we saw when we arrived. If it was a little cooler and we could have a glass of cold grape juice under one of those umbrellas, it would be one of the simplest yet most satisfying enjoyments of life.

Thailand is not the most well-known country for wine-making, but over the last decade or so, there have been many vineyards popping up in different regions of the country. The weird thing is, the government charges 60% duty if the wine is sold locally, so you could have the same Thai wine cheaper in another country than in Thailand itself. That's really spectacular, but I don't think it is doing any good to the local wine industry.

By the way, back to the winery tour.

One thing that impressed me most is the filters/sieves. The grape juice gets pressed through this entire row of European-made filters to ensure the wine is sparkling clear, clean of any bit of residue. Isn't it unbelievable, the work that they go through, there must be at least 20 layers!

Without going through the details of wine-making, which I probably have forgotten most of by now, I believe the picture above can show you the sheer size of the tanks in which the wine ferment in. This is no joke, it reminds me more of an oil refinery than a winery, ok, now I realise they sound almost the same.

Then the wines get to age in these oak barrels under a controlled low temperature to slowly develop their woody tones and make them yummy. I am no professional wine drinker myself, but I really am starting to develop a taste for them and I hope I can slowly become more sensitive to the subtle differences between different wines.

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From an article on Bangkok Post, it says that Thailand is better known for the quality of its white wine, and true enough, after a round of wine tasting, Li Li and I decided on carrying a bottle of Chenin Blanc home. This was a real surprise to us as well, as we have always been supporters of the red breed.
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Being here in summer gives us the perfect opportunity to have a look at the grapevines in 3 stages. The above, when it has just been harvested and completely trimmed. It looks great with the blue sky and mountain backdrop, grape or no grape.

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Grape vines with a small amount of leaves sprouting out.

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And last but not least, grapevines at their most luscious green.

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The only thing missing now before we call it a good day is the grapes. Fortunately for us, PB Valley is considerate enough to grow some table grapes so that visitors who came from thousands of miles away can see real grapes hanging from the vines all year round, and for a cityboy like me, I was obviously excited to take a picture with Mr Bunch-of-Grapes.

Ok man, mission accomplished.

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Now, I will open my beautiful bottle of clear white Chenin Blanc and savour my walk through the vineyard once again.....

Where Cowboys still thrive and visitors go Ummm...Milk!

During the Vesak day weekend, Li Li and I decided to go to another one-day weekend getaway! As we are in the exotic Thailand, we really want to do things that Thai locals do, and that typical Singaporeans do not have a chance to, therefore we hopped onto our black mafia Fortuner and spent a day at a cow ranch and a winery (ok, maybe 2 wineries)!

Farm Chokchai is the largest cattle ranch in Southeast Asia, and it has always been very popular in Thailand for its milk and delicious original milk ice-cream. The very interesting thing about it is that it has sold its brand "Chokchai Farm" years ago and now brand their dairy products "Umm...Milk!". Don't buy Chokchai Farm milk, it's fake!



This is not Texas, but this is where cowboys are still alive, probably the only place in the region too. The 2.5-hour tour was conducted completely in Thai, but they are starting to warm to foreign guests like us by putting English subtitles on all their videos and giving us a handbook in English which we can refer to along the way when we feel lost.



After the introduction video which shows the ranch's history, the tour started off with demonstrations on how they milk their cows. For some reason, I feel this sight of a whole row of cow's butts very amusing. Maybe I have been a cityboy for too long, and now after almost 29 long years, I finally get to enjoy the things little boys deserve.

In the middle of a cattle ranch, a dragonfruit orchard with the blue skies and the mountains as a backdrop.

Stacks of hay that are way bigger than anything we have seen before, the farm does this to preserve some food for the cattle when the going gets tough.

How about this for a cowgirl to bring us around the place.

There were 2 very interesting shows during the course of the tour: A cowboy show and an animal show. Li Li munching her favourite original milk "Umm...Milk" ice-cream while waiting for the cowboys to start strutting their stuff.

The best sideshow was actually when our tram suddenly stopped and there was a herd of funny-looking sheep getting chased onto the back of a lorry by a shepherd dog. It was real good fun and made me appreciate the awe of nature, where there are dogs "created" to love chasing after sheep and sheep "created" to shiver in fright when they see that specific breed of dogs. Incredible.

To make this a complete family experience, we got a taste of feeding various animals like deer, rabbit, sheep, even camel. They rounded the whole tour off with a hilarious animal show. It was in Thai, but we laughed all the same.

Any visitors in Thailand, if you have time you do not mind a 2 hour journey to and from Bangkok (4 hours in total), I think this cattle ranch experience is not to be missed.


Stay tuned for the winery experience.