Couplehood

Packing for the Honeymoon

Awesome Folding Technique

Packing For The Pack Rat
Well, since we're going off on that honeymoon in Tasmania and all that, I've been on the lookout for good packing tips to put as much into as small a luggage as possible. While my  time in the army had me vacuum packing my belongings in Ziplock bags (I'm so past that), I'm looking for more efficient ways of putting holiday items together.

Here's some resources I found on the 'net (I love the bundle one):

• Youtube's Japanese Clothes Folding Technique
• One Bag's Bundle Packing
• The Rest Of One Bag's Packing Page
• Travel Sense has Nice Tips
• Rick Steve's Site
• Rick Steve For Ladies

Has Work Taken Over Our Lives?

I was catching up with an old buddy yesterday over a quiet dinner at a café near his place. Like me, he had just left his first job, and somewhat eagerly anticipating the new one. Inevitably, we were soon chewing the fat on "life and work in Singapore".

Work-Life Imbalances
As we waxed philosophical on the importance of work-life balance, we talked about how many of our contemporaries (ourselves even) had fallen into the "work trap". Apparently, some of our ex-schoolmates were pulling long hours well up to midnight, with work left to spillover to the weekends. Ouch.  

Everybody's Into The Long Haul 
Name the job - Teachers, Copywriters, Journalists, people in Finance, staff at MacDonald's (now 24hrs) - in less than a generation, extreme working hours have become commonplace. There's hardly time for anything else apart from work or  recovering from it.

Some Simple Maths, If You Please
Let's look at a typical week of some friends of ours:

Activity	Time Spent	Percentage of a Waking Hours (24hrs x 7 days = 168hrs)
Working Hours	12hrs x 5 = 60hrs   Or   12hrs x 6days = 72hrs	36%         43%
Showering /Dressing up /Cleaning up	1hr x 7days = 7hrs	4%
Traveling (work or play)	1.5hrs x 7days= 10.5hrs	6%
Meals	1.5hrs x 7days= 10.5hrs	6%

That leaves about 47% - 40% of the week to do everything else including sleep. In actual hours, that works out to 68 - 80 hours a week, or 10 - 11 hours of "free" personal time a day. Clock in your 8 hours of sleep, and you'll be left with about 14 hours weekly, or 2 hours daily on average. Oh wait, that also includes the weekend break of a day (if they allow themselves that luxury) which works out to mere minutes of free time on the weekdays.

Feeling tired yet?
I was. For almost 2 years, when I was in my previous "high-tempo" job, I had to pull those same hours. So, I speak from experience - if you're working hard to build that career (and I trust you have good reason to), I hope you took all the risks into consideration - be it your health, the spouse, the kids, or your sanity. Take time to settle your priorities, because if Dr. Covey is right, then "Nobody on their death bed wished they'd spent more time at the office" - something worth thinking about when you're in your cubicle at 11:30pm.

Links:

• How Many Hours Do You Need To Sleep?
• Wikipedia's Entry on Working Time
• Working Long Hours And Health Children Spend Less Than 20mins with Working Parents Daily
• Do Long Hours Contribute To Divorce?

Technorati Tags: life, over time, office, time management, work, work life balance

Hmong Outreach Effort: Fund Raising Bazaar

Tanglin Mall, This Coming Saturday

Dear Readers,

As you may know, I'm helping my friend, Eugene Wee, on his effort in reaching out and providing relief aid to the Hmong in Thailand (my previous post covered the recent repatriation effort by the Thai Government). He's still up in Thailand coordinating the effort, supported by dear family members and friends here in Singapore.

There's a bazaar this coming up this week to raise funds for Milk money. If you are available, drop by to have a look if you would like to have some very wearable pieces of clothing. Else, drop by for a good time with the folks there, they'll be more than happy to share their burden for the Hmong with you.

There may never be another chance to help these people again.

Blessings,
~Adrian.

Technorati Tags: bazaar, blogs, fundraising, hmong, milk, relief, support, fund, tanglin

NewsFlash: Deteriorating Hmong Situation

A Hmong Boy Behind a Barbed Fence

Dear reader,

I'll depart from the usual blogfare for the moment, to report on something that's close to my heart.

Two days ago, the Straits Times reported that the Thai government have started on long overdue plans to start screening the Hmong for a possible repatriation to Laos (see the report here). This is bad news, seeing that they are likely to be massacred in a form of ethnic cleansing should they return to face old enemies in Laos/Cambodia.

Starvation
These people are living in a deplorable state, in refugee conditions and having nearly no source of sustenance outside of foreign aid. If not for the intervention of little known Relief Logistics International in 2005 to 2006, the Hmong may have starved to death. Due to their working philosophy, RLI managed to activate funds and logistics to minister aid rapidly and sufficiently.

Dark Times Ahead
Since then, the continuing work of other international relief agencies from the UN and others are ensuring the survival of the Hmong. But that may not be the only concern for the 8,000 odd Hmong who may soon have to fight for their lives. All this because their people were resistance fighters to the communist regimes in Laos and Vietnam.

More Links on the Hmong People
Should you be moved to find out more about these dear people, take the opportunity to view some of the material linked on this post. A few organizations like Mount Alvernia Hospital and Salvation Army  have rallied to provide some aid.

• A History and Account of the Hmong
• A Video Clip on the History of the Lao-Hmong War
• More Video Clips From a Feature Produced by Sommerfilms, "Hunted Like Animals"
• Relief Logistics International
• New Life Outreach's Mission Effort

Please email me at adriankoh@gmail.com if you would like to find out more on how to help the Hmong.

 

Technorati Tags: aid, donations, Hmong, lao, logistics, missions, relief, care

Parent/Teachers Tip for Fidgety Children

I can't remember if I've talked about the "STING" method, and the tips I have on beating procrastination (especially good on inert dyslexics like me). That could be for another post, then.

I saw this method on getting kids to work (actually, it'll work on adults too) which involves a stopwatch with a "ding" timer. It trains the child to go at a task for a certain period of time, and keep going at it while the timer was running. They would only be able to stand up to do other things like take a drink of water, visit the loo, etc after the time was up.

You can imagine stretching the "period of focus" to eventually train the kid in concentrating on tasks for longer periods of time.

Interesting concept, I wonder if it'll work on me.

Technorati Tags: gadgets, preparation, family

50 Tips for Living Frugally: A Little Cheap-Skate-ly

I am constantly looking for ways to save money, especially after being near cleaned out from the wedding (and it's not even over yet!).

If the lifehack guru at zenhabits has anything to say about it, there are 50 ways to do it. There's even something for homemakers for managing the cleaning up of your house. Did I mention that I love this site?

Some tips that I think are really worth repeating here, for instant application:

1. Stop using credit cards
2. Stay home
3. Save money on food (by eating at home, less eating out)

Technorati Tags: adrian and angela, life, opinion

Mum's Birthday

My mum turns 55 today. Amazingly, she's doesn't look her age; this I believe has something to do with the power of Middle-Eastern Mud soaps and creams. And, she is partial to the regular hair dyeing. My mum's self-admittedly vain, but, she deserves to pamper herself once in a while. Don't all Bibiks?

Anyway, I decided to take her out on a wallet-burning meal at Le Tonkin, a Vietnamese-French fusion restaurant along Mohammed Sultan Road. Dinner was fun, and we ordered some familiar favorites and some really strange sides like fried cheesy wantons. I'll stop talking about the food now before someone mistakes this for "Yet Another Singapore Makan Blog".

Besides, I've already got a MUP for that.

Mohammed Sultan, once famous for young drunks and Ecstasy, has turned into a veritable "Little Tokyo". You won't see it until you walk past Robertson Quay (which has a few Japanese Eateries as it is), but there's a small area just at the Quayside where there's some Nippon subculture going on, and lots of Nihon-ites hanging and chilling out there. How else can two Ramen restaurants survive side by side!

I think the nicest find was that small Japanese bookstore/restaurant that was really Muji-esque and cosy looking; plus, it was far more culturific than any of the new places that have sprung up in the area. And that includes the arty Coffee Bean place up the street.

Happy Birthday Mum! Perhaps if you're blessed enough next year, you'll be having Sis' kids saying, "Happy brithday GrandMA!" Hahah.

~A.

Technorati Tags: birthday, dinner, life, opinion

I Had To Blog This, My Childhood Dream Compelled Me To

 I'm not sure if I told you this, but I've always wanted to be an astronomer. But poor physique, bad eyesight, a low-capacity brain and a bad back have since dashed all remaining hopes of being one - except one. The last hope lies in abandoned Russian spy planes that cost US$25,000 per trip, to fly in a MiG-25 Foxbat, but I've got to get married to a lovely woman this year.

Well, this is the next best thing is Google Sky. I wonder if this works much like a backyard astronomer's software I used to have. But from the looks of it, it's pretty close.

 

Technorati Tags: funny news, life, opinion, google

Destroying Childproof Caps: Finally, Solutions.

To think that disabling the childproof cap was just a clipper, thumbtack and some finger dexterity away. I've never liked the things, and felt that they were unnecessary features that we forced on adults by litigation-paranoid drug companies.

Anyway, for those who are responsible enough to keep poisonous things like, everything that's made in China, here's the link.

Technorati Tags: adrian and angela, funny news, opinion

Best. Bed. Ever.

I'm sad I already ordered my wedding bed! This has to be the coolest bed EVER. If nothing at all, it will make for some of the most interesting party/house warming conversations you'll have for years to come.

Or maybe it's just my Transformers Geekboy tendencies firing up again.

But hey, if you're like me, you're going to want to see how you can buy one here.