SimonSimple

Hi People

Last night my wife and I were awaken by scratches on our bedroom door. It turned out that our 11 year-old dog (that’s 77 in dog years) was trying to alert us to the mess he had just created.
Perhaps disoriented in the night and not able to make his way to the backyard, he had pooped just outside the toilet. My wife was kind enough to get up and do an immediate clean up minus any harsh reproof of the culprit, an obvious victim of stress incontinence due to old age (er, I mean the dog not my wife). After all the poor dog had repented by his immediate admission.

Guess what? On the same day a similar situation transpired in the office. There appeared to be some finger pointing over some oversight in reporting some data. I am glad I saw my manager quickly owning up to the mistake and giving her explanation as to what might have lead to it. I am proud to see that as her maturity and not an attempt to be defensive.

In fact I see that in my family too, whether it was from any of my children, even when they were very young, it pays to own up and fast. There was a time I ‘caught’ one of them playing truant. Instead of being at some class on a Sunday afternoon, my child had managed to convinced another child to visit a games arcade. Somehow I had a hunch that a misdeed had been committed but instead of jumping to a hasty conclusion and acting like “Justice Pao”, I met the wrong doer at the gate and coaxed a confession. For the self-confessed admission, we agreed to a suitable punishment for the misdeed.

It is with a glad heart that wherever I am placed in a position of influence, be it at home or at work, my people know that I can tolerate & understand that we all make mistakes. What I cannot take too kindly is when one becomes defensive and not “man” enough to admit a wrong.

We all can learn and grow if we are teachable. A wise saying goes like this…”You cannot teach an old dog new tricks”. A new saying may well go like this…”An old dog can certainly teach us new tricks”.

Hi People

Once you pop, the fun won’t stop. Can you guess where this jingle comes from? It’s from Pringles!

Another POP went off in the family last Wednesday. In fact it went off at Tekong. My wife and I, together with our eldest daughter were present to see our boy graduate from his basic military training -at his Passing Out Parade. We asked our daughter why she bothered to take leave from work to witnessed this occasion and her answer? “I have only one brother!”

A while back on the subject of using her father’s CPF money to fund her siblings education, her answer was equally unequivocal - “No, cannot! The money is meant for daddy’s retirement.”

Recently I sms her to say I was proud of her, for contributing towards some funds I sent over to Sri Lanka to help a family hit by the Tsunami a few years back. Her sms reply - “Love you dad. Every good part of my heart and spirit comes from your good example.” I find this both awesome and onerous.

What our children see in us now, we will see in them later. My other daughter could not make it though she did sent her brother off to Tekong in January. She is right now in Australia. She passed her handphone to her mother to use as a spare. My wife teased me and said there are so many lovey dovey messages from a guy called TOM. Terms of endearment like darling and love you lots and love you much and miss you so etc etc. I thought how could this be so that as a father I did not even know she has a special someone?

Turns out TOM was her abbreviation for The Old Man. Those messages were from yours truly himself! She had kept scores of sms from The Old Man. I wonder what part these encouraging words of affirmation have kept my loved ones safe & sound? It is a wonderful feeling to feel love from within the family. Again I reiterate this truth - the Power of Showing Love & Encouragement! I am told that it is a hidden form of verbal abuse whenever we fail to speak words of love and encouragement to those around us, especially our family members.

So to all the TOMs and TOWs out there - never mind what names you are called - if your PSLE score is A-star - trust me, those could jolly well be terms of endearment.

Hi People

The week past is best remembered by 2 lucky people in Singapore. They struck it BIG with the winning TOTO numbers in the annual Lunar New Year grand draw - S$10 million prize money. I cannot remember the numbers because I did not record them down. But let me give you some special numbers that I did record way back in June 2004. Here they are:

4654
2691
6988 - 4 times
7642
9877 - 3 times
3762

Why were they special? Special because back then I would wake up at 4 am in the morning to see my young daughter safely into the taxi and note down those licence plate numbers. She was doing her internship with MediaCorp and I wanted her to know that her daddy cares. Fast forward 3 years on and now she is in Sydney and I am in Singapore. I cannot watch over her all the time, except in my thoughts and prayers. Always Affirm And Bless…and let God do the rest.

Mid week saw the safe return of my eldest daughter from her short Vancouver holiday. While she was there, I was in Singapore. All I could do was to Always Affirm And Bless her…and let God do the rest.

Last week also saw the release of the A level results. As any parent would feel I was anxious to know the results when I dropped my son off at his junior college. And as any 18 year old boy would do, he said he would tell me when he returned home.

Let me do some ‘front loading’ for you. My son is the ‘enjoy now, enjoy later’ type of person. In his room he has a sign that says ‘Miracle in Progress, Completion Date: End November 2006′. Having him live with us for all of his 18 years we were indeed counting on a miracle to happen. So what were his results like? Did he get straight A’s? Like I say of all our 3 children: Always Affirm And Bless…and let God do the rest.

At 2 pm today, he was meeting his mentor Mr K from his secondary school days, I suppose to catch up and and seek his advice. I know he has done that on many occasions. In his primary school days there was a Miss I and my son used to drop by the primary school for many years on Teachers’ Day to say hi to Miss I.

In his junior college years there was a Miss M. She was not teaching him in any particular subject but somehow my son looked up to her. On a particular matter when it seems no one believe in him, she did. I believe that made a great impact on his life.

There was another officer in the Boys’ Brigade, Captain A, who singled him out and encouraged him along. He too believed in my son and mentored and guided him into attaining the highest award any BB boy could achieve in the land - to be one of the President’s men.

In our family, we are proud to say we have always believed in our children. It is not enough to remind our children to believe in themselves. We as parents, as teachers, as mentors and guides by the side (not sage on stage), must believe in our charges.

What is my message? Always Affirm And Believe in your charges, at home or at work. God bless you all.