The road less taken

Who will be the one I'll think of first
to share my troubles with when I'm down,
to tell me her daily quirks & routines,
& to enjoy the fruits of my hard work?

This one person,
the source of much joy & pain,
the origin of many desires & thoughts,
torturous it may be, & I've tried to let go, but to no avail,
remains the motivation for me to excel.

Whenever I've problems which she knew of,
she'd initiate a chat or write me a message,

to which I'm happy & grateful to have such a friend,

but in her outstretched hand I found only bits and scraps,

never enough to fill my almost-empty soul.

Life's such a dilemma,
pining for her care & concern,
but when she does, albeit only sparingly,
I asked myself if it was better not hearing from her at all,
as it only brought further pain with no solutions.

Dejected, I trod forward indecisively,
Not knowing where the path leads ...

I hate the days of sitting idle and not be rushing over things, but there's only so much to do nowadays...

I've been contemplating taking a programming course for a while coz I've quite a lot of free time on my hands now. Stories of how Iphone program developers made their names (& big bucks!) really inspired me to learn it, coz with a little creativity it just might change someone's life forever. It's definitely not the next Google or Dell, which were also started from a dorm bedroom and basement garage respectively, but it would definitely help in contributing to the passive income.

ok shall pick up some brochures on where I could learn all these skills, or maybe I'll just start with the dummy book for programming first =)

Last year I was the aspiring young businessman/opportunist who thinks he has got the world under his feet, and looking to expand his ventures far & wide into different fields.

This year that wall of impenetratable optimism and enthusiasm has slowly been eroded by the surge from the effect of economic crisis. Cancelled long term orders mounted through the roof, and yet the cost prices have kept on increasing due to crazy buyers from Taiwan and Japan who kept on offering producers ever more money in the declining economy.

Hard times call for changes to be made, and the time may have come for me too. There's opportunity abound if I return to Indo, but yet I'm still mulling over the decision as I'll lose my Singapore PR status if I really do that. Better to be a successful businessman back home and make a comeback later, rather than sticking in a holed pit right? With the world economy not expected to recover within 2 years time, maybe it's time to start anew at indo and then revisit it in a a few years to come...

iStress!!

Dilemma dilemma!

Can't make up my mind on which ipod speaker to buy: this, or this ......

Review for the former seems pretty ok but it lacks the function of the latter (FM radio, etc). It looks more stylish than the first one too, don't u guys think??

Don't have a lot of option coz I wanna keep it under 200 bucks haha. Already used up most of the cash from CNY in registering my new trading company, so gotta be prudent or I won't be able to go on trips later this year!

Travel plans for this year (if everything goes smoothly):

February 3rd week: KL & Penang (Planned Biz trip)
April, May, or June: Jakarta + Surabaya + Bandung (Planned Biz trip)
June or July (probable): incentive trip to HK if drinks business goes well
September: Melbourne + Sydney!!!
October or November: Athens (Planned Biz trip)

that about sums up my plans for this year. There will be small trips to other cities at indo if situation calls for it, but they should be pretty short ones even if it does happen.

Can't wait to drop by at Melb and the visit to Athens end of the year! Gonna work hard for those much awaited hols!!

P.S. leave me comments & help me decide which speaker I shld get or I'll never end up gettin' one =)

CNY update!

I'm back from Indo finally! Apologies for the unreplied emails & abandoned blog, as internet connection at Batam isn't exactly available widely, and bro didn't install it at home. Had to stick to short biz emails as time was pretty limited because we had to visit relatives each day.

What was supposed to be a short 4 day trip became a full 2 weeks trip instead, and each day was filled with more or less the same activities: eating, eating... and more eating! That was really the first time I got sick of food, when normally I'd gobble up anything remotely nice on offer. I've never thought I'd get sick of seafood, but this time we had it for 4 days in a row! That's the craziness of having a large extended family I guess: Mom has got 3 sisters and 3 brothers on her side (7 altogether), and Dad has got 5 brothers and 6 sisters (12 all up!). So whenever there are any festivities, these uncles and aunts would take turn in treating us to feasts everyday, & those that are at Batam numbers around 10, so theoretically we'd have almost 2 weeks of foodie treats!

Did I mention my mom made some mean CNY cookies too? Her pineapple tarts are heavenly, and I swear I could finish it off by myself! There're also butter cookies, peanut butter cookies, & grounded peanut powder wrapped in spring roll (my 2nd fav after pineapple tarts!). I'd have put up some photos of it here, but they are now resting in peace in either my bro's or my stomach haha. I must have put up more than a pound of weight just by eating these stuff!

This year's CNY turned out to be pretty fun, & I received plenty of Hong Baos too. Sad to think that I will have to relinquish this God-given right and have the obligation to start 'spreading the wealth' in a few years time haha! For now though, I will put the money received to good use: there's an Ipod dock-cum-stereo set that I've been eyeing for a while, so I guess it's finally time for me to get that =)

How's everyone else's CNY????