Family in Singapore

So, the family has arrived.
We have spent the last 3 days in Singapore and have now checked into our hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Hotel life is great!
Here's a few photos from the past couple of days:

Allison "What? Don't do that. I say hi to everybody in London" (It took her a little while to figure out that I would type what she said.
Jeremy (Pensive look) "Life is good"









Yes I know it's sideways.

Sad but true

So, I just had to make a comment on this.

I got my final pay cheque about 30 minutes ago and went to the bank to cash it. While I was there I saw an advertisement encouraging people to sign up for accounts. It promised a free value meal at McDonald's in exchange for opening an account.

If Michael Moore had a great time with the bank that gave out guns, imagine how much for Morgan Spurlock could have with this.

Last Day of Work

Today is my last day at work.
I can't believe it has been three and half months already. It's amazing how quickly time passes. I have to say that I am rather glad to be finishing work and I'm looking forward to the coming months of travel. My rough itinerary:

Tomorrow: Mom, Dad, Allison and Jeremy arrive
Our trip: Singapore --> Kuala Lumpur --> Taman Negara (National Park - Rain forest) --> Langkawi (island off the West coast of Malaysia) --> Singapore
- Family flies home.

May 12 - 19
Visiting Bali with my friend Shawn.

May 20 - June 20
Unknown parts of Southeast Asia - likely Laos, Cambodia, Thailand.

June 20 - 27th
Dubai

June 28th - Late August, Early September
Europe - somewhere

Late August, Early September - 30 days
Zambia

October/Early November
Zambia

November 10th
Fly to Toronto

I'll post more pictures as in the near future. Sorry for the text only updates.

Mike

Batey

The way I see it, the purpose of an internship is learning. With this in mind, about two weeks ago I asked if I could have an hour of Ian Batey’s time. Before I begin, I suppose I should give you a brief on Mr. Batey’s background.

Mr. Batey is the founder and Chairman of Batey Pte Ltd, the Asian branding/advertising company I currently work for. Although he hasn’t played a managerial role with the agency for about five years, about twice a year he comes back for a couple of weeks, terrorizes the office, and energizes the whole group. Mr. Batey’s demanding personality is only matched by exuberant energy.

Today, on his last day in Singapore, I sat down for an hour with Mr. Batey and talked to him about his experiences starting a successful company in Singapore. Here is what he had to say:

Business success is largely to do with circumstances, luck, and the ability to adapt. Sometimes success, or a promotion, is as simple as being in the right place at the right time; there are no magic formulas or rules that you can follow – despite what Trump may try and sell you. However, sometimes you have to be able to look around and realize that you may not always find the opportunities you’re seeking, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any options. You have to be able to work with what you have and make the best of it. Often, it’s better than what you originally had in mind.

As far as running a business, there are three elements that are vital for success. One person can be two of these elements, but most commonly they are three different people.
1. The administrator – The person who can setup systems and promote efficiencies.
2. The aggravator – The negative force that will be the voice of caution, reality, and the devil’s advocate (most often, but not always, the accountant).
3. The Entrepreneur – The creative dreamer who charges forward with reckless abandon.
The absence of any one of these three forces will doom a company to failure. The three must balance each other out, each taking a lead at a different point, but all three must co-exist.

The second lesson is that you need world class people to produce world class products. Many people and organizations say this, but it is another thing entirely to actually put the time and resources forward to recruit people who may be reluctant to leave their home cities. Mr. Batey did this by attracting top people as freelancers for short periods of time. He brought people in from New York, Milan, Paris etc., set high demands, and expected the permanent staff to challenge and learn from the freelances. Often he couldn’t convince top talent to live in Singapore forever, but a few months or a year was doable.

Finally, if you want to differentiate yourself you must be fast and deliver more than you promise. Delivering something that’s top quality but late is of no value. Consistently exceeding your promises keeps clients gives the work more meaning for the people producing it.

Random Paper

Publish Your Own Paper
I read an article today about three M.I.T. students that created a website to randomly generate an academic appearing paper. I figure I would give you all the opportunity to try this out. My paper was titled "A Refinement of Redundancy".

Enjoy

A tale of two tastes

I realize it's been a while since I've updated you on the Singapore going ons. To be honest, not too much out of the ordinary has been happening. So, instead of boring you with my weekend at the pool (surprise surprise), I figure I will tell you about my meals over the last couple of days. Dinner is supper. Supper is dinner. Let's not get too caught up in the details.

Sunday, April 10th
Dinner: Two delicious flour tortillas wrapped around succulent beef and chicken roasted on an open spit. The flavours are enhanced by melted cheese and a sweet, but spicy, chili sauce.

Monday:
Breakfast: Fresh selections of mango, dragon fruit and papaya.
Lunch: Fried Kway Teow with chili. This is a fine rice noodle stir fried together with tender morsels mixed bits of egg. The meal is fried in a spicy chili sauce and sprinkled with lime prior to eating.
Dinner: Salmon sashimi with gyoza dumplings and tuna rolls.

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Fresh selections of papaya and dragon fruit.
Lunch: Wanton mee noodle. This noodle dish is served with thin noodles, small wantons, and comes with a spicy chili sauce that is added for flavour. Almost every meal from the Hawker centers come with complimentary fish or chicken broth soup.
Dinner: Japanese all you can eat buffet. This three hour meal consisted of the following: baby octopus in a sweet red sauce, salmon and tuna sashimi, shrimp, salmon, and tuna sushi, salmon belly, barbequed eel, soft shelled crab, shrimp tempura, fried chicken, beef and chicken teppanyacki, chicken yakatori, baked lobster tail, and ice cream.

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Fresh selections of papaya, pineapple, and mangostene.

This week has been heavy on the Japanese food, which is actually quite rare in Singapore.

Until later,

Water Aid & The Red Party

First, my good friend Ryan Sanders, who works for ICLEI, sent me a link for raising money to a clean water project in Ethiopia. You click on the link and the European plastics industry will donate 10 cents to the project. It seems pretty fair to me.
http://www.aquaplastics.org

Second, this past weekend was pretty quiet. I spent most of my time at the pool or hanging around campus. The only exception to this was a trip to the Staff Club. This is the on-campus bar, of sorts, that the international students take over. We had a big "red party" where everybody had to wear something with read in it. There were red filters in all the lights etc. It was quite fun.

Here are a few photos courtesy of Shawn: