Business Training Trip to the Lion City Part 1 - April 9th 2006

I was in the Lion City for a week, from April 9th- April 14th 2006 for my training; a vendor/third party software tool training. Of course, due to its nature in relation to my current job scope, it is technically a business trip and not much to hope for some personal travel or sightseeing until the last day :p
And not to mention; this is my second business trip but definitely one of the very first which I have to travel on my own. Of course, the return trip from Shanghai does not count since it was just one way where I had to fly back to Malaysia on my own. Anyway, this time, the destination is not as far as China but I was entirely on my own for the entire trip; from the departure from Penang to Singapore.
The trip was pretty cool (I've always liked Singapore anyway *wink*) ...I enjoyed my stay in the Lion City and as I've mentioned, I liked this country and am seriously considering the migration there..haha; much to some displeasure from certain parties (of course!).

Okay, back to my hotel, I stayed in the highest hotel in the city; with 72 storeys high and the unique features of this hotel include its circular structure; yes, the rooms were actually situated in a circular manner. However, if I were to compare the rooms and the facilities provided; I'd say the hotel I stayed in Shanghai any time of the day..hehe:)

This is the view from the main entrance














This is the mini bar.

















The view of the bed.

As I've mentioned, the unique part of this hotel is its circular structure; you feel like you are walking in a rotation; of course, from the room standpoint, it's semi-circular :)
Enjoyed the nice view of the city from my room; which is actually on the 40th storey of the hotel...pretty high ler *wink wink*















View of the city from the balcony of my hotel room; 3 different angles; left, center and right from the balcony angle.
And, if you are thinking that these are pretty common pictures of the city, well, these are to be expected when you are in the Lion City itself.








To be frank, I've always been in awe and admiration for this dot of a country on the globe; I mean, it's practically nothing next to its huge neighbour which is one bulk of visibility above it - referring to Malaysia. However, comparing the reputation otherwise, Singapore goes way above Malaysia....and this is the deserving point..basically, this country's also famous for its strategic location as an international stopover; most of the traders would have to pass by this spot before moving on to Malaysia or Thailand, China, India, etc (If my Geographic knowledge still doesn't fail me...hehehe:)
Development's pretty ongoing in Singapore..I saw construction and buildings here and there. So this country's definitely not resting from development and progressing in a pretty aggressive direction.
Now, that's part 1 of this Lion City trip; will update on the training and the places visited in the next entry.

Sepang Circuit June 2005

This is not taken during the recent F1...hehe; in fact this was taken during last year's Japan GP where I had this privilege to attend and also to go to the famous Sepang circuit :)

It's a little sunny, I know, but since this is a nice and panoramic spot for the capturing of the picture, the candle princess has to grit her teeth and get herself there:)

This is my beloved family...*aww...I do MISS them so much*.

We had this VIP room where we had the nice view of the racing track and were served on hand and foot; with a well-laid lunch and hi-tea buffet.

Kinda royalty sort of treatment huh? *winks*

It's really fun...we spent the whole day there actually :)

Made a new friend; Josephine there.

A Chemistry student from UPM; bound to graduate soon :)

Constructive Confrontation

I attended this class today; which was scheduled to be on Monday but was cancelled due to poor attendance which was also partly caused by the bad weather; it was raining very heavily on Monday morning.

Well, guess there's always a silver lining beneath every cloud...this class was definitely fun!!~ The instructor was so cool...basically added to spicing up the class teaching and learning environment. They should definitely have more instructors like these; gets the class going and makes everyone eager to participate in the sharing and discussion. Sometimes it's just the little things that gets a person or a class going:)

Now, constructive confrontation basically revolves around the process of making yourself heard and how to confront a problem or to talk to your peers and superiors in an effective way, making yourself heard and at the same time, not offending others. This particular instructor is pretty funny and I find it amusing that he used the examples of couples; somehow the men and women relationship topics always works in attracting the attention. Pretty interesting and hilarious....he brought up this issue of a married couple; an accountant wife and a civil engineer. The wife vowed to be a good homemaker and thus prepared the meals for the husband daily after work. However, one day, the light bulb in the kitchen broke. The wife, on the other hand decided not to tell the husband and cooked under the dim light. Her intention? To test the husband's sensitivity to her and how much he cared about her.

To her dismay, she ended up cooking under that condition for a month. Finally, she resorted to directly confront her husband and to question his ignorance to the matter. So, this is where we have to think; why do these 2 people have such difference in their thinking?

There were all sorts of answers coming from the class(of course); one being that women always make a big fuss out of little things, family background or upbringing environment, men tend to be more direct and straightforward while women prefers the beating around the bush approach, the husband does not go to the kitchen( conservative values), etc etc.

The answer? (This is based on a real-life situation) - The husband was brought up in a single parent environment with a widowed mother who man handles all matters at home and her main focus was on the kids to be equipped with the proper education for a bright future ahead. As such, they do not meddle with the little chores at home which will be handled by her. With the cultivation of this mindset, it is of no surprise that the husband only prioritizes on his career and achievements and does not put his mind and finger to the matters at home since he was used to his mom taking care of matters like these.
The wife, on the contrary, is brought up in a conservative environment and thus had the mindset instilled that men are to do all the hard work while women do all the cooking and washing.

So, you can see that this all actually attributes to the environmental effects and also the culture.
Confronting sometimes may not be rude or loud; it's actually a channel for communication. When we confront, we are actually letting the other person know what we think or how we feel instead of assuming everyone knows.

Besides, to be able to communicate is better than not....so who cares about arguments and quarrels?
I still remember back in high school; the motto that the scouts held was "Never argue; nobody ever wins an argument"....hahaa....maybe they should take this class....if you never argue...you'll never know:) Most importantly, argue with an objective and know clearly what you are arguing about...else, why waste time?