Equatorial Musings

Last Friday, which was supposed to be my last work day, my officers and some of my friends in the office gave me a pleasant surprise. And it was not just the Raoul vouchers that got me going ga ga . It was the fact that they took the trouble to get people in the office to write their well wishes on post-it pads for my up-sized farewell card ; ) And this was not all - before the pads were put onto the card, they were all over my car. Yup, you read right. They were all over my car at the multi-story car park in MINDEF . Upon closer inspection, the pads not only had well wishes. They also had lipstick marks on them, and not all were from the gals!!! I saw the car because we were supposed to head out for lunch, so it was quite a shock initially to see my car plastered with small pieces of yellow papers. But the sight of Mei Ling, Pei Fen, Siok Ling, June, Eileen and Jason immediately brought a smile to my face. Here are the pics from Siok Ling's facebook if you're keen to tak...

As part of my farewell, my officers and some of my friends in the office have arranged a series of dos, most of which involve drinking, to pave the way towards my final day at work. I must say I'm very touched by the attention and I really appreciate all their efforts. Its an understatement to say that I'll miss them and their friendship. To start the ball rolling, we were at Timbre at Old School last Thursday. We arrived at 7.30 pm and didn't leave until 12 am. We had a roaring good time, what with beers, wines, cocktails, shots and all. When the first tray of tequila shots came, I had to down 3 at one go. And this was after 1 pint of beer, half a glass of wine and not much food. For those familiar with the properties of tequila, it has the ability to knock you out when you least expect it. Throughout the rest of the evening, I had 2 shots of B52 and sea breeze and God knows how many other shots of whiskey, courtesy of my friends buying a whole bottle of Chivas Regal. Of c...

For those who know, these are the evergreen lines from the chorus of one of the songs from " The Sound of Music " soundtrack. The reason this entry is so titled is because I'm bidding farewell to my colleagues, bosses and friends in less than 2 weeks' time. I've been with my current employer; MINDEF , since 1996 - a good 13 plus years. In that time, I've had the benefits of meeting good colleagues who became friends and nurturing bosses who were leaders, some of whom became mentors. Admittedly, there are more in the former than in the latter category (and I've talked about them before in my other entries). But I'm still grateful to all my bosses for their patience and kindness during their time with me. Since I'm leaving MINDEF , I don't mind saying that I'm thankful for good leaders (and not just bosses) like BG Yap, Chuan - Jin (who's also a BG now) and Mun Kit who helped me gain a good grounding in strategic defence policy work du...

I'm not sure if my friends are into Korean singers and songs, but I recently got hooked after one of my friends in the office, Siok Ling, introduced me to this amazing quintet of Korean girls who belt out this catchy hit song "Nobody" with equally catchy moves. In fact, the 'Wonder Girls' as they're called, are so big that there are performances in local clubs mimicking their sleek and sexy moves. I've also been told that there are dance classes teaching those interested how to dance the dance. The other day I was watching the MV of the song and my niece happened to be in the room. And she took an instant liking to the tune and started following the moves. I was like, my God, kids are so happening nowadays. She was so into the song that she told me to join her. And this from a 5-year old girl! I can tell she's the type who relishes attention in school. Looking at her, I won't be surprised if she grows up breaking many boys and eventually men...

I'm sure most of my friends know what's a social contract. Essentially, its a broad class of theories that explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order. But the question is whether the same applies to relationships. By that, I mean relationships we willingly enter into, i.e., not those of the familial variety. The more I think about it, the more I think it does. Every relationship involves giving up some rights to the other person. By partaking of a friendship, you essentially agree not to disagree with, discourage or diss your friend. Not only that, you've to be supportive and sensitve to him or her. If not, we shouldn't be surprised if he or she stops talking to us. However, if you watch 'House' the series, you'll realise that he doesn't believe in a social contract...

I've recently been reading a fair bit about employee engagement because I'm moving to another job overseeing this for my new employer. I know some people find engagement somewhat fluffy, but there's been enough research to prove that engagement is important. Engaged employees care about the future of the company. They are involved in and are fully enthusiastic about their work. They feel a strong emotional bond to the company and will recommend it to others, thus enhancing employer branding. Committed employees perform better, are more productive and are less likely to leave the organisation. It has also been shown that high employee engagement scores have a positive impact on customer satisfaction results. So does it mean I'm not longer engaged, hence my decision to leave the current job? Well, its not that simple. Suffice it to say that its time to go after more than 13 years with my current company. When I interviewed for my new job, they asked me to do an essay abou...

I was inspired to pen down my thoughts after watching an episode of Commander in Chief; the series starring Geena Davis as the first woman President of the great US of A. The one I caught involves President Mackenzie Allen's first state dinner with the President of Russia. During the press conference, the Russian leader talked about the challenges of running a democracy and insinuated that President Allen should know as several of her Cabinet members had resigned that very day. This was 2 weeks into her presidency, which she took over as Vice President after the elected President died, and she was fighting a belligerent Speaker of the House played by Donald Sutherland. What I liked about the show is the fact that Allen is a woman with strong moral courage who is not afraid to speak her mind. Of course, there are constraints in doing so in public, and she has to learn to navigate the treacherous waters that is Capitol Hill. While I've my misgivings about the self-righteous, bea...