Baby

One of my oldest friends in the world recently had a baby. I actually managed to meet up with him when I was in Singapore two weeks ago. A short but nice dinner at Nan Hwa Chang and then ice cream shake at his place. We discovered a new B&J flavour. His baby was due 1 May - Labour Day, Haha. Someone is trying to be funny. But i guess that same someone forgot to ask the baby to eat more because at that time when we met, baby was underweight. :( I was worried when i got back to Shanghai. I could see my friend was worried. But i didnt dare to ask much. To cut the long story short, I was glad that four days after I returned to Shanghai, the baby popped out. Just a few hours before he was supposed to be induced. I was more relieved than I thought I'd be. Phew, pregnancy is so stressful.

Money Money

I brought back all my money when I last went back to Singapore to deposit into my Singapore bank account and I was left with about S$500 for about 10 days. Usually, that would be enough but then a client lunch came up and I had to pay for it. Living on S$200 for 10 days is kinda scary.

Sushi Oyama

I thought I had mentioned this restaurant before but after some searches I realised I didnt. We found this restaurant in our initial search for good japanese restaurants in Shanghai. It was by chance we did cos it was on somebody's blog, which was in english, which is quite rare. Anyway, Oyama doesnt have a menu if you sit at the counter. It's RMB800 per person and he just makes whatever sushi he likes or you like until he thinks you have enough. If you know him better, his idea of enough can be altered. In any case, in our last six months here, with someone in and out of Shanghai, we have been there at least 8 times. Even when Im alone in Shanghai, when i feel alone, I'll just go there myself with my Kindle. I just went there again last Saturday. It was a cold cold night and Oyama-san gave me solace and raw fish.

Singapore Life

It isnt a surprise that when one is away from home, one tries to replicate his life as if it were back at home. For me, it's usually about the food. Chicken rice, carrot cake, mee pok. That's the usual Singaporean fare. There are a few Singapore restaurants here that are institutions. Institutions that every Singaporean who works in Shanghai will venture to at least one in his initial foray in the city. Frankie is one such restaurant. It's kinda far away but it's near where I play my weekly badminton so I go there almost every week. I recently found out that my colleague who's also Singaporean knows him so well that she and her friends gave him a plaque. It's so lame here that even ang ku kueh is so revered here. A lot of people I have spoken to rave about his ang ke kueh. I dont even eat AKK in Singapore but i only found out recently that the "ku" in AKK means tortoise. That's why the AKK looks like a tortoise. I never knew that! I told you I dont eat AKK. Recently too, we found out that there's a Singapore restaurant super near our place. It has an odd name. Orchard CRC. Decent food at exorbitant prices. Unfortunately, sometimes when there's a craving, price becomes secondary. What a sucker.

Bad Drivers

Maybe that's why the driving so so bad here. The decals are asking drivers to come nearer and nearer.

Left

My direct boss's last day was yesterday. I feel a sense of loss. From Monday onwards, I report to the President directly.

Jellyfish!

I saw this at the reception counter of a client's office the other day. At first i thought it was an LED screen depicting an aquarium. Then i realised it was too thick to be an LED screen. It was a real tank with jellyfish. I actually even thought the jellyfish were fake. You can never trust the Chinese to much. Isnt it pretty? I have begun my search on where to buy these. The client's based in Nanjing so that isnt much help.

Foodies

A lot has been said of Singaporeans being foodies but our experience in Shanghai also seems to indicate that there are a lot of greedy people here too. Here's a picture we took of a popular 茶餐厅 30 minutes after it opened. 30 minutes and there's already such a long queue. Thank goodness we were there five minutes after it opened so we manage to get a seat.

A Bit Ashamed

When I bought the heater to be placed in my office, I was the first and only person in the office to do that. I think some people scoffed that I'm this poorly-adapted Singaporean who couldnt take the cold. A large part of why i couldnt take the cold was because the building in which we are in hadnt switched to providing hot air at the onset of winter. But I was vindicated somewhat when someone borrowed my heater once when I was travelling cos it was just too cold that day. Now that winter is over and spring is here, the temperature is of course slowly rising. However, the building is once again slow in providing cold air on this onset of spring. So, there are days when I feel hot in the office. So, I ordered myself a fan. Hee Hee. However, I was a little embarrassed to open it. It's now left at the korner, until it gets too hot.

Tea

Got some 龙井tea the other day from a client. Actually strictly speaking, not a client but someone I have been trying to do a deal with. He's always very nice to send me stuff. I actually called him to thank him and said that I actually wanted to buy 龙井 in Shanghai but scared to kenna conned but yet too busy to go to Hangzhou to buy. He then said he would end me more next week. W00t!

Could Be Done Better?

In Sanya, near the hotel where I stayed, I heard there was a nice Chinese restaurant over the water. As I had some time, I thought I'd check it out. You need a buggy to get there. It looked promising from far. As I neared, I had this strong sense of foreboding. It was as if the entire place's mood/design was very heavy. When I got to the restaurant, I could tell that it consisted of wooden structures which really reminded me of old-school prisons in China. I have no idea what old-school prisons in ancient China looked like but these sure felt like it. I thought it was a pity that the design was like this. So raw and so unpolished. Tsk Tsk.

Diffused

I mentioned my diffuser in my room the other day. Someone bought some french brand diffuser thing when she was in Paris. We used one in the bathroom and it smells great. The one in my office ran out but I didnt bear to bring our french one to the office. That's why i hate to buy expendable stuff when im overseas. I'll be very stingy with it because I wont get to buy it as easily and that irritates me. But in the end, i thought perhaps I'll see if they sell these in singapore, so i brought it to the office.

Spring Time

I always wondered why people ar so happy about spring time. So many poems, songs and proclamations have been written to celebrate the onset of spring. I never knew why. Of course it's probably because Singapore only has two seasons - Hot and Hotter. But now that spring is here in China, it's far less grey and much more colorful. One's mood is certainly lifted as well. There are colorful little flowers by the roads and my condo even has some sakuras. I even hear people going out to some place one hour outside Shanghai to see sakura. I bet it'd be damn crowded.

Burden

The new girl I hired started work this Monday. I was a little stressed leading up to Monday. It's a rather heavy burden to ask someone to leave their job to join you in your crusade to do something special. I felt like i was... jesus. But obviously I know I am not, so that's why it's scary. Then it came to what work to assign on the first day. Was this too much or was that too little? Decisions decisions.

Long Time

Every time I take a long time between posts, I'd start off with an apology entry. I think it's getting stale. Work hasnt been exceptionally busy actually. Just more travelling which inevitably takes me away from the computer more. I was in Sanya one week, then Beijing last week then Nanjing for a day trip the other day. It seems like clients are more active here after CNY. No one makes big decisions before and immediately after CNY.

Elevan Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader

Read this article on Linkedin. Decided to post it here in case I need it again. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader: 1. Listening "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more. 2. Storytelling "Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers. 3. Authenticity "I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together. 4. Transparency "As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one. 5. Team Playing "Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." - SEAL Team Saying No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking. 6. Responsiveness "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization. 7. Adaptability "When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader. 8. Passion "The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line. 9. Surprise and Delight "A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." - Charles de Gaulle Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities. 10. Simplicity "Less isn't more; just enough is more." - Milton Glaser The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity. 11. Gratefulness "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note! The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.

Follow Up

I had mentioned here that my guy who I was promoting didnt think his title was "big" enough. In some way I agreed with him, so I wrote to HR to get them to change them designations for my department. "I'm writing in relation to XXX’s title after his approved promotion. When I requested for XXX’s promotion, the current structure for the Development team meant that the next step after Manager was Senior Manager. I recently found out that this is different for Sales or Global Sales in which there is an Assistant Director position. I’m asking if this can be applied for Development as well. The reason is that in a client-facing, sales and marketing oriented role like Development where we would typically meet decision makers and influencers, it’s highly beneficial that our representatives have a fancier title to smoothen the process and also give the other party the assurance that they’re talking to someone of some relative importance. I’m sure you can appreciate how important this is for the Development process. This is especially pertinent in a market like China where “face” and titles are so important. I imagine that this is the same motivation why Sales also has an Assistant Director position. Indulge me for a second because both of you don’t speak Mandarin. In Mandarin, people address us by adding a suffix to our family names. I’m addressed XXX VP and XXX would then be addressed as XXX Manager. An Assistant Director title would change the way people address XXX, whereas it’s the same for both Senior Manager and Manager. At least two of our competitors are doing it as well – XXX and XXX. I just interviewed a lady from XXX corporate Shanghai who was an Associate Director of Development. I understood that our company in the US also has an Assistant/Associate Director position as well. Having a better-sounding title would also improve our chances of hiring the right people for the role because we would then be in line with how talent in the market considers each move and its corresponding advancement. It’s at the same time a pride thing, which I'm sure you’d be cognizant of. My proposition does not involve the change in any pay structure (that’s a separate discussion in itself) but more a title change for external and client-facing purposes. I don’t see any downside to this financially. Moreover, we don’t yet have any Senior Managers in the Singapore development team that would require any changes on that front. Based on the above extenuating reasons, I hope you can consider changing XXX’s title to Assistant or Associate Director. I’m available for a call to discuss this further if you’d like. PS: I apologise for this long email. I felt strongly that the efficacy in which we did business in China warranted it. Thank you. " I succeeded.

Building a Championship Team

Read this article on Linkedin. Thought I'd post it here so that I can refer to it when I need it again. ***************************************************** It’s been a great year for sports fans here in San Francisco. The Giants won the 2012 World Series in baseball and the 49ers took their season all the way to the Super Bowl in football. These are two great teams that share one trait that has been instrumental to their success. The management and coaches of both franchises focused relentlessly on bringing in world class talent, nurturing their people and getting the best out of them as individuals, and more importantly, as a team. Winning, whether in sports or in business, always comes down to one thing: people. Hiring the right people and growing the talent quotient is therefore one of the most important responsibilities and might I add moral obligation for every manager in every organization. It is the one part of the job of every leader that will have the biggest impact in the long term. These are the eight strategies that I use to build championship teams: 1. Never stop looking • A pipeline for finding and bringing in top talent should be ongoing. There has to be investment in an ongoing process for continuously seeking and hiring the next star performer. This goes beyond your recruitment team - everyone in the organization should be empowered to look and incented to bring in talent. One of our best candidates recently came to our attention when a scientist from our team happened to see them programming in a local Starbucks. He was impressed with the code and invited them to visit us and meet with the team. LinkedIn is also an invaluable tool for our recruitment team to spot great talent. 2. Invest in the interview process • A typical interview is usually inadequate in screening the right talent. In the short amount of time allotted for interviews, a company has to decide on hiring someone they hope will spend many years working for them. It doesn’t add up. That means you have to spend the effort upfront and go where the talent is and evaluate their real work. Competitions at sites like TopCoder.com, American Regional Mathematics League, Google Code Jam bring talented people together where you have more of a chance to see what they’re made of. This is exactly the reason EA is hosting its first hackathon on March 16, it gives us a chance to get to know the talent pool better that goes beyond the short interview process would. 3. Hire for UNCOMMON strength • This is an old Peter Drucker principle that is an anchor tenet in my organizations. Most often interviewers try and hire for minimal of weaknesses, but everyone has their share of blind spots. Focusing on finding candidates who have the least amount of weaknesses will lead to mediocrity. Hire for uncommon strength and then put the person in a role that uses that muscle. 4. Don’t throw new employees into the deep end • As important as the hiring process is the onboarding systems of an organization. Many companies bring in new hires and after a brief orientation of the company policies and benefits, drop them into the deep end. It is expected that the new employees will learn on the job, or by working with an assigned mentor and by finding and reading anything they require. This is like hiring the best quarterback for the team and not teaching them the playbook. A structured onboarding process is instrumental to transform a new hire into a star member of a team. 5. SMART goals • Setting ambitious but clear and quantitative goal is helpful both to giving clear definition on what is success and removing any uncertainty on how it will be measured. Setting goals with the most clarity helps everyone in the team. We follow the simple rule of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Results Oriented, Time Bound) and ensure every goal is tied to the overall mission and objectives of the organization. 6. Empower • Empower employees to do what they do best. That doesn’t mean not to oversee or supervise their work. It does mean a healthy balance where individuals and teams can make an audible on the field of play so they can try new ways to do things better. Nothing brings out the best in a person then empowering them to dream and invent. 7. Respect • Respect different styles. Don’t mold everyone to be like you. Everyone has their own unique way of interacting and working. Respect and create an environment where this natural diversity provides competitive advantage to your team. 8. Make the hard call • No one bats 1000%. There will always be occasions when a role and the individual in it didn’t match well. Make the call early and help the person find the right position and fill the role with the right person. Prolonging this is harmful to an organization and all constituents. By creating an organization of world class talent, you’re creating a self-sustaining cycle because A-players hire and attract other like them. I use the term “talent quotient” as a proxy for the horsepower of an organization. I think of it as a simple equation to determine the health of a team – take the number of people you’d hire again and divide by the total headcount. This is TQ. I constantly do this math in my head to make sure I have a team of the best players and we are championship material.

Water

I have mentioned some time back that tap water isnt safe to drink here. That's pretty obvious. What people usually do is they rent a dispenser and then order a big water tank monthly to invert over the dispenser. Any hot water you need can then be boiled with a kettle. That's pretty standard really. I personally find that even this practice has some loopholes and areas that can be improved. For example, there's no way to clean the internal pipings of the dispenser and who knows how many people have rented it before you? Then the big water tank? You usually return it after it is empty, exchanging it for a new one. How clean do you think they wash it? So we get them to deliver individual four-litre mineral water to be safe. We think it's safe, until you start talking to other Singaporeans. Everyone has differing levels of hygiene standards. Some people think that even when cooking the rice, you need to use mineral water and not tap water. Then how about washing the rice? Then how about washing the dishes? Some people install a filter on their tap to get rid of some sediments. Then some people add an entire water filtration system beneath their sink. Then some people buy the Hyflux filter jug to filter it one more time. It's rather endless. If you want to incorporate everything that people use, and that's only from people we talk to, I wonder how much of usable water we would yield from inputting one-litre of water. Very soon, I'd need set up a water treatment plant at my balcony because I'm sure at some point it'd need some sun. I'd also have to hire a maid just to come in every other day to run the plant for me so that we have water to wash rice, cook rice, wash dishes and gargle. *sweat*

Promo or Slow-mo?

I had mentioned here that I wanted to one of my guys and he performed quite well in his annual review. What I didnt follow up to post was that the approval to promote came one day before I left Shanghai for Singapore for my CNY holidays. I was glad to be able to give him the good news of the promotion before he went back home for CNY. I was also happy to do so, so that he can be proud in front of his family with pay increment and promotion. What I wasnt expecting was that he felt that the title wasnt "big" enough and asked for another title. He also felt that the bonus scheme that he was on wasnt too fair. In some ways i agreed with him but that didnt mean that I wasnt disappointed that he wasnt as happy as I was for him. Im glad he wasnt too adversarial. So it's back to the drawing board to write another few papers. Partly because I somewhat agree with him and partly to maintain harmony so that he will be a happy worker.

Hesitant No More?

My secretary always ends off her emails to me or to external parties with "Pls do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further assistance." I asked if this was in her email signature. No, it wasnt. So I told her, first of all, use "Please" instead of "Pls". I hate short form. Then I told her there's no need to include this line when she emails me. Because, I definitely wont hesitate to come to her if I need anything. It's all about communicating in a more real and sincere manner, than boiler plate "nice-sounding" text. Hope i dont come across as too dictatorial.

Pick Up

Taxis here are relatively easy to get, which is why we dont think we will be getting a car. Plus our condo helps us call a cab when we need one and it comes quite quickly even in the mornings. The apartment is quite high-tech for China. There's a system to communicate with the guard downstairs and he will call us to come down when the taxi is here. Except when it rains. I waited more than an hour the other day when it poured in the morning. Waited at the lobby, surfing around and playing games and there was another girl waiting there as well. I could tell she was from Singapore when she spoke on the phone and then she heard that i was from Singapore too when I called my office. She then spoke to me to ask about my cab situation and made some small talk. She was actually quite pretty and presentable but because I was ahead of her in the queue, I didnt want to be "familiar" with her lest I feel obliged to be chivalrous and let her have my cab. But then, she spoke to me first. My cab came and then I made a split second decision to let her share it with me. Split second decision was made so that Someone will know someone else in the building so that in future, she will have a 照应 when I travel. There you go, picked up a girl for the first time in my life and it was for Someone. I feel so noble at times.

Crowds Crowds Crowds

There have been many posts here on how crowded it is here in Shanghai. I think I have stopped saying "This one takes the cake" because I think one mountain will be higher than the other mountain. We saw this crowd of people waiting to go for dinner at 4:30pm on a Sunday outside a restaurant serving Xinjiang food. Most of them were looking expectant and poring through the menus. Probably need to try there some day since Xinjiang food is mostly meats.

Positive Influence

I like nice-smelling rooms, so i bought this diffuser for my office when I first came. It's at the top of one of my cupboards, near the vent. Then the other day, I saw this on top of my colleague's cubicle. Exact same brand but different smell! I'm pretty amazed it's the same brand because I bought mine at a tiny little shop. I'm a little freaked but they say imitation is the best form of flattery.

Back!

I find myself increasingly apologising for not updating my blog more often. It has been rather hectic here after the CNY break. Clients are back to work, colleagues are back to work. I like it like that. I hate it when things need to be done and stuff need to be approved but someone is on leave or whatever. Very disruptive for work. In any case, Someone followed me back to Shanghai this time for a month. So it’s a month of home-cooked food (yummy!) and doing dishes (boo  )

Recruited!

YAY! The person that I had been hoping to hire signed on the dotted line
the other day.



I actually pulled her from my previous company. I'm now waiting for her
to inform them where she's going and I'm going to get an earful from
them. Haha. Oh well.



Did I mention that I was looking to hire two people? One down, one more
to go.

Spicy Mummy

I sometimes thought why would people buy kaya from Yakun and chili from Pu Tien. That revelation struck me when we were eating at Pu Tien when I was back in Singapore. The chili there is to die for and chili is super hard to find in Shanghai. We bought a bottle and trotted it back. I never knew it's called Spice Mum until i took a pic of it. I have already ate it as a complement to a couple of meals already. Very yummy and in some ways it reminds me of home.

Expired

Cooked some instant noodles when i was back home in Singapore. We ran out of our usual indo mee but i found some knock-off OEM versions and made two packets to share. It tasted a little weird but I still ate my share, which was the bulk of it. Someone took over and thought it was super weird and wondered how come I can finish so much of it. We went to see the expiry date. Turns out that the noodles expires on the very same day we cooked it. We have so many things inside our food cupboard that it's rather scary at times. Now that most of our operations has moved to Shanghai, we now have two cupboards full of food. Scary!

What a Tool!

Someone saw this in her travels.

Signs

I had mentioned here that I was participating in an interview for another department. I managed to interview one of them before i fell ill. I'll say more about my interview techniques in another post. Back to the one I met, towards the end of it, he asked me what zodiac sign i was. I told him and then he said he was a very suspicious person and there are some signs that he cant work with. Apparently, I belong to the group that he can work with. *Rolls eyes* I wondered for a second if I was the one being interviewed. I tried to press him to say what would happen if I belonged to the group that he cant work with but he kept avoiding.

Down

Back at work and by that afternoon I was feeling a sore in my throat and then feverish. Was shivering badly the whole night and got two days MC the next day. There you go, that's how I started my Snake year.

Have you ever wondered...

..why no one talks about the hassle of coordinating the schedules for multiple families to arrange for a CNY gathering? No one mentions on FB how tempers are sometimes frayed when different people have different ideas that they want to celebrate CNY. Or how when people are eventually able to meet up, they get updated on your happenings that they either take pity on your shitty life or wonder how come your life is so shitty? Am I making sense?

Roller Coaster!

It didnt start out as a roller coaster day. Just one meeting in the morning and one in the noon and then I was headed to the airport at night to pick Someone up. She was coming to help move our stuff from the hotel to the new apartment. Then out of the blue, an important lunch meeting popped up between the two meetings. It was going to be tight but what the heck. So three back to back meetings. Towards the end of my third meeting, both my personal and company phones just kept buzzing. I kept rejecting the calls as I was still in the meeting. I sneaked a peek after it continued for some time after i realised that my President in Singapore was trying to get me and the whole Shanghai office was trying to get me to call him. In fact two of the calls were from him directly. I hastily called him back after my meeting. As it turns out, my direct boss, based in Singapore has resigned and my President wanted to tell me personally before the official announcement goes out. The news hit me like a blow to the stomach. All that happened before I came back to Singapore for CNY. As a result, the head of HR met me for lunch to see how I was and then my President too, to discuss the plans moving forward.

Gifts?

i came back to the office after being out for almost ten days. Saw these in my office. I was wondering who thought i should get a whole bag-ful of polos and why anyone would give me Ikea crockery. Then i remembered that we are hosting some people in the office soon and I told my assistant to buy some nice crockery and some international mints, not local mints. Hee hee. One of my guys went back home in the north-east and bought me ginseng. No idea how Im going to cook it though.

W00t!

Back to China and back to the delivery culture. A router for my home's internet. I was back in Singapore downloading stuff and realised that my internet in Shanghai is faster than in Singapore. Odd.

SONG AH!

Everyone in the Shanghai office got a S$200 Carrefour gift card for CNY from the office. SONG AH! I wonder what the Singapore office got for Christmas.

Back

Ahhhh... back to my usual blogging spot at home.

Blessings

After some deliberation and asking around the market, I decided to give my subordinates angpaos. This is probably the first time I used subordinates to describe them because this was my consideration on whether I should give them. Two of them are older than me and are married so I was wondering if I was just trying too hard to be senior and give angpaos. But then I thought this could be a nice gesture and be a blessing. So there you go, three angpaos from the RMB6 per plate sushi place I have frequented at least 15 times since I got to Shanghai.

Another Form of Cupping

Bought some rather expensive cupcakes the other day but never got down to eating them until three days later. Couldnt bear to throw it away. It's freezing cold in the office but I dont know how to use the microwave so I had to get my assistant to help me. We never had a microwave at home. My mum never liked it and even though my dad bought one, we never ever used it. That's the extent of her stubborness. Therefore, I never learned how to use one. It's like an emotional scar.

Cupping

I might have mentioned this before but I love to buy cups. Bought another one the other day to drink Chinese tea.

Milk Tea Politics

The atmosphere within my office is rather good. Of course the majority are locals so they're the more simpler ones. The minority are the foreigners. There arent many of us. It's a rather familial environment and everyone just loves to snack and of course drink bubble tea. So once in a while, some mid-level person will decide to buy milk tea for everyone. As I have mentioned before, everything can be ordered here. So the receptionist takes orders and the bubbles come in the noon. In an attempt to buy popularity and also celebrate some deal signings, I wanted to treat everyone once in a while. But i was told there was a waiting list of people wanting to treat. So I have to get on it and wait my turn!!?! Amazing!

Trying

You try so hard sometimes. It is so difficult all the time. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail. It's so difficult to eat less carbo, it's so difficult to pull away from the bubble tea shop. Sometimes when you feel down, you just want a nice sweet drink to perk your day. So you decide on a rare 许溜山. Just a rare treat once in a while. But then temptation strikes when they tell you it's 50% for the second cup. 50% leh!!! I am weak.

The King's Speech

My President asked to see me when I was in Singapore last week. He asked me how things were and my feelings and also what's wrong with the company. I gave him my frank opinion and then showed him a presentation of what I have done so far. I actually wondered halfway if I was too brutal, as I tend to be at times. He smiled and said he gave his boss, our global President, very similar comments and observations in the first month of him joining the company. So what i had said was "music to his ears". After my initial relief, I began to think to myself "So how come im still feeling the same way he did even though he joined two years ago? Was nothing or not enough done?"

Names

Another department in the Shanghai office is hiring someone and they asked me to conduct the second interview for the person as well to assess her suitability, if she passes the first round. Because I was eager to have the added resource, I replied them to ask them to be lenient because "I like the candidate's name". The candidate's name is Wu Qiong. Of course, there was a flurry of names amongst the angmos to my statement. My reply was: "Sorry I should have been more clear. The word "wu" means "no". Assuming this is her surname, she obviously cannot change it, it is a difficult surname to suggest a first name because any auspicious first name would be "negated" by the "Wu". "Qiong" means "poverty". So her name has two negatives, thus making it a positive." Hee hee. I just found out the name of the cleaning aunty for my new place - 胡丽琴!!! Where do they come up with such names???

Autocratic No?

It seems like in a place where the grasp of the English language is weak, people tend to reply with "Received with thanks" more often. Many people I know seem to snigger at this but it always still remains like a private joke. No one ever tells the offending party that "received with thanks" or its more polite and emphatic variant "well received with many thanks" is just not cool. My secretary uses the former more. I asked her what she means what she sends messages like that. She said this is how they're taught. I finally know the origination of such a blasphemy of non-committal replies. I know her that I dont want her to reply me in such a manner in future. Her replies to me has to mean something and/or less robotic like "Got it. Thank you." or "I'll look into it." or "I'll act on it." Im such a tyrant sometimes.

UGG!

Shipped these babies to Singapore and picked them up when i was home. Saved S$100 doing that, rather than buying in Shanghai. So comfy and so warm. Very song.

Rural Living

Sometimes it's true that China is still a rural and largely agricultural country. I got these as gifts from my badminton kaki. He's Singaporean. Shandong pears and eggs and gingko nuts. Haha. Weird.

Stacked

Im going to pay the first month rent and two months deposit for the apartment and also sign the contract today. I hope nothing screws up. I guess it's true that most things here are done by cash. So I had to withdraw stacks and stacks of money. This is only half with the RMB20,000 limit per day. It scares me to carry so much money around.

Good Review

This blog took a short break last week and I didnt manage to post about a follow up from the Bad Review entry.

After the bad review I had with one of my team members, I was expecting a much easier time with the other. This was the one whom I wanted to promote. There was so much paperwork to do that my recommendation to promote hasnt been approved so I couldnt tell him. Towards the end of his review, he pulled out a document. A document that listed out his accomplishments for 2012, including how much revenue and potential income and also how much he expects to bring in in 2013. Wow! I was impressed! I really was! Here was two diametrically different Chinese people in my team. All i could tell him was, leave it in my hands.

Dont Want to Miss a Thing

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you're far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Where every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure

Don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
Cause I'd miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing

Lying close to you feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes
And thank God we're together
I just want to stay with you in this moment forever
Forever and ever

I don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
Cause I'd miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing

I don't want to miss one smile
I don't want to miss one kiss
I just want to be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just want to hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And just stay here in this moment
For all the rest of time Yeah yeah yeah

I don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
Cause I'd miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing

I Don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
Cause I'd miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you babe
And I don't want to miss a thing

Don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
And I don't want to miss a thing

What's Missing?

Sometimes you dont know what you're missing until you get it back. Then it hits you like a heavy object hitting you.

Coming back home the other day and smelling how new my house is just reminded me how much I miss it. How big it is and how clean it is and how my light switches are all beside my bed.

The air's much fresher too, but surprisingly I dont miss the food in Singapore that much. Odd.

Bad Review

Me and my boss gave one of my team members a bad review.

She's so bad that I really wish I can sack her. I don’t think that it’s a realistic course of action I can take so I thought that giving her our thoughts on what we really feel and how we can help her may help improve things.

Needless to say, it was a tough review. She pushed back on our comments and went into shutdown mode. It’s ironic that one of our points was that she needed to listen more.

Damn, I knew that having a much older woman working for me would be tough.

HR

Because we have an aggressive target to meet this year, my President keeps chasing me to fill those two vacancies in my team. It’s funny cos in my previous company, I’ve been clamouring to add people but we didn’t have the budget and now I'm being pushed to hire.

There’s so much paper work to fill to justify the positions it’s not even funny.

In any case, I managed to find one candidate from Linkedin and thought she was pretty ok. Hopefully she passes muster.

Bread Talk

I now think that taking pictures of food before you eat it is rather lame but I thought that this carrot soaked bread thingy looks rather interesting.

There are a lot of good restaurants in Shanghai.  This one is called Mr and Mrs Bund. Hopefully we wont run out of trying them all.

People People Everywhere

During weekends, it’s just impossible to find a place that isn’t crowded with people.

This is a scene from this normal looking shop that sold food.

There’s nothing much on sale but everyone’s just packed in like a Robinson’s sale!

 

Sick

Someone was sick from the minus 20 degrees cold in Beijing. Cough and runny nose. I was fine all the way till she went back.

Then I spent 4 hours sitting beside my colleague in a meeting who was coughing and wheezing all the way.

Now Im sick. Sore throat and cough and fever.

It sucks to have a fever in the winter. I dont know if I feel cold from the weather or the fever.

Break?

I havent been blogging partly because I have been crazy busy recently, partly also because somebody verified that people havent been talking to me to find out how I have been because they can read it from my blog.

That's kinda sad.

Brrr

Sign of the times..Brrr..

Entrepeneurs

A lot has been said about China being messy and unregulated.

A lot of this is true. But at the same time, the Chinese are good at finding shortcuts to get their way.

This was again evidenced when i saw this outside the Apple Store in Beijing. I think this was the heavily publicized one when it opened recently.



A whole line of them are standing outside the Apple shop, selling screen protectors, iphone covers, ipad covers. One of them was even holding a micro-SIM card cutter.

Beijing Adventure

Because I had to go to Shenyang for a work trip, Someone decided to go to Beijing for a short trip to meet her friends. I also swung by Beijing after Shenyang to spend the weekend there.

Beijing is an odd place to consider for a stop-over weekend. But we also spent a short stopover a Beijing in Dec 2009, almost three years to the day.

Beijing has lots of good food, decent shopping and it was minus 20 degrees there. That was pretty crazy.

But all that was nothing compared to the ending part which i was looking forward to. We decided to take the high-speed rail from Beijing to Shanghai just for the experience. It's a five-hour journey but if you factor the one-hour journey to the airport, 1.5 hour wait at the airport, two-hour flight, then one more hour from Shanghai airport to home, the train journey isnt that long.

In any case, we decided not to do second class, not to do first class, but to go for business class. Cost us S$340 per person for a one-way trip but it was pretty fun!



Flat bed, food was provided, excellent service.

VROOOM!

海底捞

A lot has been said of the bad service in China that it's getting a little stale.

Therefore I had some skepticism when i heard about 海底捞 - a hotpot place with a much vaunted service.

We decided to try it one cold winter night.

Ok, there was a line of 10 pairs at 5:30pm on a weekday night at this branch which is in the middle of nowhere.

While you're waiting, they have seats and tables and they serve you snacks and drinks and paper to fold origami and chess sets too.

Once in, there were two dedicated servers serving about five tables. Not a bad ratio. They smiled a lot, which was a good, but yet not extraordinary thing.

The weird thing happened when during the middle of the meal, one of the two asked us if we wanted to drink the soup. When we said yes (i said "Duh" in my head), she went to a nearby cupboard with two bowls, threw in some spring onions and minced meat, came back to our table and scooped the soup for us. WEIRD! It's like some secret ingredient! She only did it once!

A while later, the other one came over, and started scooping off the excess broth and oil from the soup! Did you read what i  just said? The server came regularly to scoop the excess broth!! Amazing.

Someone ordered noodles and I ordered rice. They said noodles will be served immediately when we wanted it. When we indicated so, a different server came up to us holding a ball of dough and flour in his hand and immediately started to 拉the面on the spot!! He was pulling and twirling like making a pizza and turning and swirling like a dancer. It was a little weird to see him put so much effort in the cramped space for a S$1.20 noodle. But he did. I wanted to clap but didnt for fear people knew i was a foreigner.

About three quarters through, they saw us (no idea why so late) dipping and holding down the beef. They brought us a little cage-like thingy that can soak the beef.



Someone's only gripe was that this came so late. *Mumble*

The odd thing is they saw that we were some young couple and made a special dish for us and asked us to guess the name of the dish:



情侣菜. That's the name of the dish. Not very creative I know.

And they charged me for it. I cant remember if it was RMB1 or S$1. That was odd.

I later went online to read some reviews on this chain of restaurants. Everyone loves the service. Someone even said they didnt dare go back. 受宠若惊it seemed.

Chopsticks

Another Jap restaurant we went to gave us options for chopsticks. The lengths restaurants go to in order to make you feel special. I actually thought can keep the chopsticks. I was wrong.

But since I have been in a tourist mood, I took a picture:

Receipts

Some people have asked me why my secretary does my personal receipts as mentioned in my "Lazy Japs" post.

When i negotiated the package for my job, they told me that all unused housing allowance (i.e. i rent a place at a cheaper price than my housing allowance) will go to my salary, of which I will be taxed 40%. I resigned myself to getting less of my housing allowance because of the tax or just spend more on rental.

But after i came here, I found out that i can actually claim all my personal expenses as housing allowance to reduce my tax burden.

All i need to do is to give all my receipts to my secretary every month.

Kio dio!

Peppered

Sometimes I think we use different phrases differently as the Chinese or do they simply have bad attitude.

We asked for pepper at this fancy restaurant the other day. It's fancy and popular cos although it costs us S$100 for just two of us, the place was packed at 5:30pm on a Thursday night.

Well, we asked for pepper and we sure got it:

Internet Internet Everywhere Internet

I bought this gadget today. It is a Huawei device that allows you to slot a SIM card in there to create a wireless hotspot on the go. There's probably a shorter name for such a device than what I just described.



Sometimes I wonder if there's too much internet in my life.

But sometimes it's agonising when you need to send an email with an attachment but you just cant do it with a Blackberry.

There is a USB option which is a stick where i can stick my SIM card and then stick it into the USB port of my later. But then my ipad how? So i opted for the wireless one so that when Im on the train, I can surf using my laptop and ipad all at the same time.