Chinese New Year Holidays

I wished I had booked a longer trip back. It just felt so rushed. Good thing was, I got to enjoy Michelle & Ian's new place longer. Played with Kino more too - he's cute.


Being back with family always feels good. Nibbling on the 'minimal pineapple' pineapple tarts (thankfully I didn't have to be around to help out), dozing in the tropical heat, well perhaps not quite the heat.


Then there was the annual climb trip to KL. This time we did a longer trip, from Thu to Sun and managed to hit 2 climbing gyms : Camp 5 & the new Putra gym. Climbing, it was excellent as both gyms were designed/built/operated by Blocx and these guys are really good. Truly world class climbing. Suffice to say, it was very satisfying, climbing wise. I wished things were smoother in all aspects.

And before I knew it, I am back in Taipei, back to work. Back to being lazy, the weather this weekend was unbelievably beautiful, sunny yet cool 25degrees and couldn't make myself go out for a run. Sigh... Oh well, as I've told everyone, my diet starts in March, and it ain't March til tomorrow. I need to eat a steak now, excuse me...

Thoughts about home

In the 2-ish years that I've been out of Singapore, I've had to experience the recent transformations of the land of my birthplace.

The most obvious being the people of Singapore. We've gone back to our immigrant roots!
Our malls/stores are now mostly Filippino service staff.
India nationals are in our offices.
China nationals are everywhere else, from our hawker center stalls to petrol kiosks.
Even my church has turned Indonesian - both pastors and church members!

The positives of this transformation are visible: higher service levels with a smile, a genuine diversity and a thumb's up that our multi-ethnic/multi-language society is a success.

Economically, we now have 3 new gleaming malls in Orchard, casinos about ready to open and an optimism in the air that is undeniable.

To the new Singapore, gong xi fa cai! And please do not change too much...