CPF

From last month, my CPF(Central Provident Fund) contribution would become 20% and the company side would become 13% as I have gained Singapore Permanent Resident status for 2 years. I'm not sure if this is something worth celebrating as I do have some extra funds coming in because of the higher percentage of contribution from company but that also means that I would have less disposable income as 20% of them would go into the CPF directly.

I actually do think of buying a place in Singapore if I'm going to stay for a long period of time, which I think I would need to decide these 2 years. The portion going into CPF and my current rental should be able to sustain a 3 bedroom HDB flat here which I would be able to do some investment with my CPF here and might be able to convert my current rental into some sort of investment.

However, this is still far from any concrete decision as I think I would need to go back unless there are some other unforeseen factors coming up these 2 years. Who knows?!

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Just came back from Ho Chi Minh this afternoon. This is my second time visiting Vietnam. My first and last time there was because of an exhibition in Hanoi. My company has been trying to establish overseas market so that we took up the exhibition and see if we can get some good partners.

However, the whole difficult part of recruiting overseas distributors is nobody wants to commit on a new brand to the market as it requires a lot of investment in terms of money, time and effort to build up a brand. For those distributors, they would rather look for the already established brands or those brands who are serious in entering the market and willing to invest in advertisement to build up the brand name. However, our case isn't like that. The management would not want to invest in big advertising budget unless we can really have some business there. I do understand the rational behind this as well as we do not have a lot of cash and it's very difficult to ensure this investment got real return. So we would need to look for other alternative way in terms of entering the market.

It's actually a dilemma for any markets. Without the investment, it's very difficult to build up any business but it's very difficult to ensure the return of the investment unless we really work on it. Therefore, I start to wonder what would be the result of the whole exercise. Unless I can get some magic formula, I do not see the possibility to start up any market like this, but what's the MAGIC FORMULA? The only way I can think of is to enter the market by ourselves or get serious partner to do some joint venture as nobody would be willing to invest in other people's brand especially a new and small brand.

Anyway, my colleague and I walked around the local market yesterday night after the meetings. To me, I find Vietnam very familiar as it's just like Taiwan when I was a little girl. To be frank, I felt the whole South East Asia is somehow quite similar. It's just at the different stage of development and I myself find it quite easy to adapt to the local environment because of the similarity. I always want to try some local food and experience how local people lives. So I'm always interested in exploring the local street side food. However, this time, I didn't really try it as my colleague might not find it ok. Hopefully, I can try some next time with some guidance from local people. Those road side food just looks much more interesting to me.



Actually, I did try some nice Vietnamese food this time as our local partners bring us around the city these two days, but I only managed to take pictures for the dinner that my colleague and I went for ourselves yesterday night. The famous beef noodle soup. It's really quite nice.

希望的火苗

隻身在外的生活總是會有點孤單
這些年來總以為我已經習慣了寂寞
但其實不然
過去的一整年
我才真正地過了一個人的生活

一個人逛街
一個人買東西
一個人煮菜
一個人吃飯
一個人看電視
一個人發呆

試著努力地工作
試著找事情作
就為填滿那空白無措的時間

我想一年前的我應該不曾想像這樣的生活
雖然有所遺憾
但我不後悔

或許孤單
或許寂寞
或許遺憾
或許無措

但我真的嘗試過
試著全心地去追求我想要的東西

雖然結果還是個未知數
但那希望的火苗還未熄滅
就期望那有心人能在它未熄滅前
前來一同守護

One Week in Singapore

I have been traveling quite a lot this year. So normally, I won't be staying at Singapore for the whole week. This might be one of the very few weeks that I won't be going anywhere as I have send my passport for visa application this morning. So that's to say I can't leave Singapore until I get back my passport. Yap, I'm quite happy about it as I can finally rest and relax a bit more at my sweet home. Besides, I have also decided to try to arrange all my trips during the middle of the week so that I can really rest during weekend. Don't think I can continue without proper resting. So in order to keep myself going further and further, I'm going to really rest from time to time.

Farewell v.s. Gathering

Was back in Taipei last week for Computex. This event has been a small gathering as I got quite a number of friends in this line, too. Besides, this trip was quite special.

First, Michael had his farewell party last Sat as he would be leaving for Harvard for his MBA this coming July. There were quite a number of people because it was the farewell and birthday party for another two friends. It's my first time to visit such a big room in KTV and that place should be able to house 100 people at least I think. It was quite interesting to catch up with quite a number of old friends there though I didn't got chance to enjoy singing.

Besides, I got another small gathering with my close girlfriends finally. We have been at different places because of study or work. Finally, we are all back for a short period of time. Things have changed quite a lot with each of us, be it study, career, or relationship. However, I believe we all have grown up along the way and we would finally got what we want in our lives. Add oil la!!

I miss you

Me too...

The French Stall

Have been talking about visiting this famous "The French Stall" for a long long time as it's quite famous and near to our place. Finally, we made mind our mind these few days to pay it a visit today. Was thinking to go over around 6:30pm as we heard it's very full most of the time and no reservation is accepted. However, the whole thing got delayed because of the stupid air con problem at our new place. The air con here has been more than 10 years and it got problems on and off. So we encountered our first problem a few weeks back after moving in no more than 2 months. I do understand that the landlord was trying to save money and to push responsibility to us but it's too obvious that it's hardware problem as it's so old. At the end, he just insisted to repair it instead of changing the whole thing. Hopefully, this would last for at least a few months more. If not, we may really need to "argue" with the landlord to fix this thing or find ourselves another new place.

Anyway, it's really great to have such a nice meal after this long argument over aircon and to be frank, the food there is really great and delicious. The most important thing is it's very affordable. It cost us about S$30 per head for a full three courses French meal and all four of us are very happy about it. Guess we would drop by quite often from now on as it's really cheap and good. ; )

Match Point

Discovered a convenient DVD renting machine, Cinenow, nearby my place and watched my first movie, Match Point, by them this morning.

The introduction said "This whole movie is about ambition and obsession, the seduction of wealth and the discordant relationship between love and sexual passion. Perhaps most importantly, however, the story reveals the huge part luck plays in the events of our lives, refuting the comforting misconception that more of life is under our control than really is."

And the opening really put me into thinking and wondering. It said "The man who said "I'd rather by lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose."

The guy murdered his coquette in the end because she got pregnant and wanted him to devoice his wife who's the source of his wealth and comfortable living style. So he killed her and his baby in order to keep this thing covered and lucky him that the police did not discover the truth.

I can't believe that people would do this but I guess that's what happened in the real world. People is willing to do anything because of their obsession of wealth or the so-called high social class. Guess I won't as I have been taking "money" quite lightly and I believe I'm willing to look for other types of fulfillment in life say career, family or children to exchange the so-called fortune. I believe I don't need TONS of money. Sufficient is enough but my standard of sufficient might be quite high also.

The Happiest Thing is No More Than Meeting Old Old Friends

OH MY GOD!! That was the only words that I could say yesterday morning when I saw Yun Li's message on my blog. We were junior high school classmates back in Taipei which was more than 12 years ago. We last met at somewhere near home before I left for Singapore. After that, I have never heard of her. She found me on line by typing "Jenny Yang" which lead her to my blog. Heard one of our another classmates found her via internet also. Just one morning, I found back two of my old old friends.

We have sort of a bunch of classmates in junior high and we went to the same tutoring centre back then. However, we sorted of losing touch after we entered senior high. I can't describe how surprised and happy I was yesterday morning. Got to meet you guys again either in Taiwan or any other part of the world. ; )

藥罐子的生活

這幾年身體都不怎麼好
可能是之前的底子就不好
再加上這幾年來隻身在外
生活跟飲食都不太正常
這幾個月益發嚴重

上個禮拜決定開始我調養生息的計劃
因為狀況真的不太好
第一個就是開始看中醫
基於我之前的就醫經驗
我應該是全身上下都有病

然而這個醫生還頗有趣
我進去坐下他第一句話就是"你很有自信"
可能是我那種處變不驚的態度讓他講出這樣的話
然而開始把脈後的第二句話就是"你不常跟人講出心裡的話"
第三句話是"你很強"
倒還沒有醫生注意我這一面跟我講過這些話
看起來這位應該是算命師而不只是醫師吧
不過我還是把這些當作是讚美

不出意料之外
我肝, 腎, 脾, 胃, 心, 子宮都有問題
而且工作跟生活的壓力及不良的睡眠品質讓情況加劇
老實說我倒不覺得我的壓力真的很大
畢竟大部份的壓力都是自己給自己的
不過醫師讓我警惕的一句話卻是
"你這麼強卻把自己的身體搞成這樣以至於力不從心"
我才警覺到我其實是可以做得更好
不過沒有健康的身體是萬萬不能

所以我也就下定決心開始好好調養我的身體
不碰生,冷, 酸, 辣, 茶及其它刺激性的食物
這應該會是個長期戰役
不過我相信及早開始是對的
所以以後要是聽到我不能吃這個那個的也請不要訝異
希望我會有個更健康的身體來接受未來更大的挑戰

Man of Letters

Went for Man of Letters yesterday and it is local musical presented by NUS Centre for the Arts. One of my directors passed me two free tickets the other day and I did want to relax a bit in Singapore these two weeks before I start my next traveling again.

We actually got a bit of lost as I made a mistake on the exact location so we were late for about 30 minutes. The show was really quite good and better than what I expected originally. The music is quite nice and they used some Singalish as the background was Singapore back at 1950s. The whole thing turned out to be very entertaining. To be frank, I was quite surprised at the end of the show. Now, I'm much more interested in the Forbidden City which would be held again this Sep. That should be even better I think as that's more professional.

希望酷刑

對喜歡自己的人
最好的回報方式是也能喜歡對方
但是當所有的情況都不允許的話
那就應該要明確的拒絕
因為任何一絲絲的希望
都會變成無止盡的酷刑
而那就叫希望酷刑

很難斷定我現在是不是在這個酷刑裡
但我相信我不會讓自己難過下去

我也不會讓其他人因我而承受這個酷刑
如果沒有明確的心意
就無需浪費人家的時間跟心力

年齡的增長與歲月的洗禮應該讓我成熟許多
而用更負責任的態度正面的面對我的人生

House Warming

Only had our house warming on 29th April though we moved in early April because Ceci and I were quite busy in April. So finally, I got time to prepare some home-made Taiwanese food and invited some of our friends and my colleagues over for dinner. I did cook quite a lot when I was here the first year as we got a group of people staying at the same flat and I was not as busy at that time. These 2 years, I only managed to cook like this 2 to 3 times per year as I'm quite busy and it's not easy to get everyone together. Hope everyone enjoyed the dinner and hope I would got more time to organized event like this and cook for everyone. : )

Going Back Home

I flew back to Taiwan last Thursday evening because my dad went for an operation that morning. Actually, I knew that he was doing some check up in the hospital and may need to go for some operation. I thought it might be this week and I did plan to fly back last Saturday. However, he actually had the operation on Thursday morning and originally they didn't want me to know. I called back last Thursday morning and I felt the way my mom talked was a bit abnormal. Then I called my cousin to check out what's happening and realized that my dad was in operation already. Immediately, I decided to flew back though I know that's not a big operation. I just didn't want to leave my mom alone to take care of my dad. I never knew that my parents have such a big influence on me because I couldn't think of anything else after knowing this news. At that particular moment, I knew it's time that I need to "GO BACK HOME" after almost 5 years outside.

However, after almost 10 days in Taipei, I realized that I'm not used to the life here already as I do not have my own space like what I do in Singapore and the lifestyle is very different. Guess the biggest challenge I got right now is to maintain the lifestyle I like and want in either Singapore or Taipei as well as to spend more time with my parents and take care of them.

Love Book

終於有空著手整理我那一堆書
剛好翻到了我去年在台灣買得一本書
書名叫Love Book而作者是位日本女性 廣瀨裕子
它還有本姐妹書叫Heart Book
越翻這本書就越有感想
就挑幾篇跟大家分享

單純的思念
Just by thinking of you
因為喜歡所以在一起
所以希望能陪伴在身旁
會有這種感覺是很自然的
但是就算無法陪伴在一起
就算相隔兩地
喜歡的心意還是可以存在
喜歡的形式分很多種
單純思念的喜歡
放在心底不說出來的喜歡
如果會傷害到某人或是心上人的話
那這份喜歡就化為單純思念就好
只要單單想起喜歡的人
就會產生力量
喜歡的人如果幸福就滿足了
這個世界上
單純思念的喜歡也存在著

無法比較
As precious as love
喜歡的人如有工作或者是有想做的事
甚至是必做的事時
往往就無法見上一面
就算約定好了也有可能作罷
這個時候
很容易就會將其陷入和自己的比較
自己和工作, 自己和想做的事
到底對這個人而言何者比較重要
但是這兩者是無法比較得
因為二者原本就不是能放在互比的位置上
見不到難免會感到不安, 寂寞
但偶爾也會有無法見面的時候
就像自己也有最重視的事情一樣
喜歡的人也有重要的東西, 必須做的事
這就是他的工作, 他的理想
如能這麼想就能了解比較也沒用
哪一個重要或不重要
並非是由比較所決定的

Hot Yoga

Thanks for Ying's birthday gift book to me, Singapore CityScoops, and Celina's recommendation. I had my first ever Hot Yoga at Yogaffinity this evening.

I have started practicing Yoga early last year and been reading some articles about Hot Yoga but it was only available in Taiwan at that time. Late last year, Celina told me about Yogaffinity in Singapore and happened that it was mentioned in the book, Singapore CityScoops, also. So I have been thinking of going for this Hot Yoga for a long time.

I have been very busy with work, study and traveling for the first three months o this year and didn't really have time to relax and enjoy my free time. I finally finished MBA courses and one of my major exhibitions this year last weekand so that I can really spend more time with myself and decided to resume my regular yoga class.

Basically, the postures are very similar to the regular Yoga that I have been doing but the heating environment makes quite a lot of difference. Firstly, I really sweat a lot and I think that's the key part of the whole exercise. The postures are actually not as intensive as what I have done but the whole effect might be greater because of the detoxing effects with heat.

Guess I found something new again in Singapore and this should keep me busy for a while. Besides, I also decided to spend more time exploring this island as I don't think I know it good enough. It might be a good start to visit those interesting places on the book.

Sentimental

Just realized I can be very sentimental. I had one of my worst days 2 days ago. I was feeling very ill and even being send to clinic for injection by my colleague from office. I can only say that's "wonderful injection" as it released the pain immediately but you can also tell how bad the situation was.

We normally would only realize how lonely and maybe helpless we are when we are really sick. I was send back home after the injection in clinic by my colleague. Then I just knocked off totally. By the time I wake up again, it's about 10pm. I was feeling really bad that night when I was trying to cook something for dinner. Can't really figure out why I was alone here and suffering all these at that particular moment. Anyway, couldn't really think too much as I was sick enough to ignore most of the things.

The uncomfortable feeling has been going on these 2 days and I still need to need to finish the planning and preparation for my next fair in KL this Friday. Yesterday, I just wanted to have some Chinese herb soup for dinner as I think I need nutrition to keep me going through this weekend. The funny thing was the first person I though of was my ex-boyfriend. He might be one of the very few people that I considered family or close friends here, but the response I got was just a simple message that he had dinner appointment with somebody else. Can't really blame him as I was the one who decided to end the relationship as I think I don't really need him.

Today, I finally submitted my binded thesis and it's really the end of my MBA course. Suddenly, I wanted to talk to people and share my happiness and relief so much but I can't really think of anyone other than my parents. Their response was just simple also as they were too far away to really sense how I felt. Wanted to share with another friend but guess he was busy with work & traveling and won't have much time to care about this also.

Guess I'm really sentimental now as I'm sitting at the living room of my new place and wondering what's the next for me.

P.S. This is the result of three months hard work. Can't believe I really finished it.

Women On Top

There was an interesting article on Sunday Times last week, Women On Top. It's talking about the so-called "successful and confident" women in Singapore and how they look at relationships. Women who are educated, successful, high-earning and confident are called "alpha women" according to this article. Traditionally, men tend to marry "down" as they prefer women who are less educated. So there is a saying that more and more men can not find suitable partners locally so that they would have to look for their brides from other countries. I don't really agree with the idea of finding brides from other countries but I do believe that women want to marry "up", too, as we are looking for partners who are better or if not at least on par to us.

In my opinion, the modern women like us are looking for lifetime partners or so-called soul mates as what we really need is those mental stuff. We can afford most of the material needs as we have enough income. We don't really need people to perform the "traditional" roles that boyfriends or husbands are doing such as drivers or bread-earners. To me, I'm looking for a partner/good friend that we enjoy spending time with each other, inspiring to each other so that we can achieve much more than when we are left alone. Normally at this kind of case, this person needs to be more outstanding than I do in some ways so that I would be inspired to go for a bigger or higher goal.

Lately, a lot of friends are either getting married or having babies. I really started to realize that I'm stepping into a different stage of my life now as I'm also thinking of having babies. : ) I do believe having a happy family and kids are also another kind of achieve and sense of fulfillment other than work. Maybe someday I would become full time housewife and mom as I find that much more challenging than working, but some day maybe. May need to find this partner and get married first. Seems I'm not that un-traditional though my mom was trying to persuade me to buy sperms as long as the guy is smart, tall and handsome enough. What an interesting and different mom. : )

Happy Birthday to Jessica!

Happy Birthday to Jessica!!

We have been spending quite a number of birthdays, valentine's day, Christmas, new year and a lot more countless festivals together. This year, we went to both our favorite place, Skyspace at Swissotel Hotel, to enjoy the drink and the city view of Singapore. I didn't really have time to prepare anything. So I just checked with the waitress and see if they can serve some cakes, but they suggest their strawberry plates which turned out to be an excellent present together with the nice live birthday song. : )

Don't really want to count the number of years that we have known each other. It would only show how fast time passed. We don't really have many chances to meet up though we are all staying at this tiny Singapore because we both are terribly busy and traveled quite a lot lately, but it's always good to spend this kind of significant dates with old friends. Guess we would have a lot more to go these 2 years. : )

I Made IT!

I MADE IT!!

That was a challenging week last week. Firstly, I finished my thesis last Friday and this is the last part of my entire MBA course, which means I finally finished these tough two years. The graduation ceremony would be this July and that would my parents' first time visiting Singapore after almost 5 years. Haha.. There is no more excuses for them.

Besides, Ceci and I also moved to our new place at Boon Keng this Saturday. Both of us can't really believe that we "ACCUMULATED" so many things during our 2 years in Potong Pasir. It took us 5 rounds to move everything. Thanks for the help from Ceci's great colleagues. : )

I really like our current place. It's really homely to me as the place is well decorated and maintained. The whole decoration is very comfortable and cozy. Finally, it's really like our "HOME". Would be organizing some house warming thing after I finish the exhibitions in Malaysia. Let's celebrate a bit as I have been terribly busy with both work and study previously. Haha.. : )