JonesLiew.com

OH OH, 15 days without a post, that’s means I had broken my commitment of 2 posts per week BIG TIME!! It also means that I am at least 4 posts short to my agreement. Haiz…. So much so, for the big talk by me back on 20th October 2008 that I told myself that I will keep my focus and discipline to maintain my posting frequency. Guess in the end, I just not as focused and discipline that I will like to be.

Well, but then again, one thing that is different this time round for not posting for the past 2 weeks, is that I’m totally aware that I didn’t post any article and I was totally aware that I had broken my agreement and commitment. Yes, I was totally AWARE!!!

So, the question for myself is that “since I was aware that I didn’t write any post, then how come I didn’t make the effort to write something and post it anyway?”

And the answer to the above question is really very simple, it is that I really got no ideas and no inspirations of what to write on!

For the past 2 weeks, I had been busy with work and I was feeling really tired after every program, and during that period, my life had just revolved with just work and work. From 16th -21th November that week, nothing really interesting went on in my life beside work (I was in a 4days 3nights camp once again but it was held in our training center in Singapore) and I really had nothing to write.

In fact, even though I’m aware that I need to write something for that week, I refused to write and that was because I really got nothing interesting or anything that can make me excited about to write on.

Another reason, was that even though, I had once again learned and experienced a lot of new things during work, I just didn’t want to write another post talking about my work again. So people, believe or not, It was a conscious effort to decide not to write.

For me, I don’t want my website to just talk about my work alone as my intent of JonesLiew.com is that I really want it to be a compilation of post on all the aspect of my life events and experience. Plus, with every post, it should have a certain learning value, a thought provoking situation or a message to be sent out to the world. So, unless I can be sure that my post can add value to my readers and friends, then I will write, if not, and even if I know I will be breaking the 2 post per week agreement, I will refused to write.

What I had learnt from this episode of mine was that I had learnt that if I want to do something, I will want to do it well, even if I am uncomfortable, I will give it my best and do it. I had also learnt that, if I really do not have the confidence or I’m really do not know and do not want to do then it will be better to choose not to do, I will rather refused to do then forced myself to do something that I do not know how to and don’t want to do. As the saying goes,

“DO NOT DO THINGS FOR THE SAKE OF DOING, DO IT ONLY WHEN YOU REALLY WANT TO, ONLY THEN YOU WILL BE SURE THAT YOU WILL BE HAPPY WITH THE THINGS THAT YOU REALLY WANT TO DO”.       

The above statement is really the main reason why I didn’t post anything for past 15 days.

I want to thank some of my friends who had reminded me that I had broken my agreement. Thank you for keeping track for my post. All I can say now is that, I’m back here writing, and be rest assured, I had came back with more interesting life experience and personal thoughts to share with you all.

And that is because for the days from 22nd -29th Nov 2008, it was slightly different, a lot more interesting things happened, I had a few social gathering with some of my friends during last week and yes, I was at work again, another 4days 3nights training but this time, it was held at Kota Tinggi Waterfall Resort, Malaysia. It was really a nice trip up north.

Yuppie yup, I had gained some nice experiences as well for the past week and i’m going to share it here at JonesLiew.com. For the next few days, I will ensure the number of post that I owed will be back to mark.

So stay tuned, people! and remember ” never do things for the sake of doing”

HO Ho HO!! Is early Christmas for me man!! Why? That’s because, I bought myself a gift! Ha! and it is a new puma titanium frame spectacles with the authentic Transition Lens!! It costs me a total of $350!!! this is my most expensive spectacles ever!! Whoo, can feel the burn in my wallet and the hole in my pocket man!!

Well, actually, is not really a gift lah, and I really need a new spec. and that’s because just a few days back, my old spec broke and I do not have a spare one, Therefore, I have no choice but to make a new one ha!(perfect excuse!! )

Of cos, I know that I don’t need to buy such an expensive spec, but then again I’m used to wearing transition lens and this time round, I was looking for a light weight and sporty yet smart looking frame… So i went to my fav. spectacles shop (Precious Eyes) at my home area to look for my new spectacles. I always loved to go there as the service is always tip-top, the husband and wife team also make you feel at home and they will always do a fact-find first before they make a recommendation. As usual, when I was there, the lady boss will start to ask for my requirement and expectation and after hearing what I say, she introduced this puma design to me.

Ha, it was a great recommendation man, I will say. The frame feels damn light lah, it is also very comfy and furthermore, the design is simple, sport yet smart and is straight to the point, no complicated design. Ha, so it didn’t took me quite long to decide on this design and one of the main reason I think is that this puma spec fits all my requirement except for the price of cos, but then again, this is a once in a blue moon kind purchase, and since it also make me happy, so why not, right?? 

Hahaha, Yup, so that’s my latest prized asset ha, and from today onwards, you will start to see me wearing my new specky liao!! Cheers! 

Hahaha!!! This is so fun!! What a way to start my weekend!!! For once, I became like a small boy again!!( k, I know, for some of you, I still a small boy, hahaha )

Yeah!! this morning, I joined a group of nice people to conduct a mini family science fun workshop for about 100 children plus their mummy and daddy, ha and the science experiement was about making ICE-CREAM!!

Ha ha, it was so fun, and it was really really easy to make your own Ice-cream ha! All we need are just milk, sugar, some vanilla essence and then you shake it with some ice cube and salt, and after a while, VIOLA!! you get yourself some VANILLA ICE-CREAM!!! and of cos you get to eat it too!!! CoOL STuff!!

hahah, OK, I know, the ice-cream will not be the same standard as the Haagen Dazs or the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, but still, it is your own self-made ice-cream!!! What’s more fun was that it is an activity that you can do with your friends and loved one.

You know, as I mentioned, this was a family fun day for the children and parents, I personally find that it is a great way to spend some great bonding time between the parents and their kids!! You get to learn new things together, get to play and yet get to create an item called ice-cream that is love by all ages, what a way to spend a saturday morning!

Well, you know, nowadays, it is so easy for a mum or dad to just buy things or to bring their kid out for a meal and then that will be their so-called bonding time. If I’m the kid, I will be happy too as most of the time, they will bring them to the kid’s favorite restaurants. However, if I can have a choice, I strongly believe I will rather have an activity where I can have fun with my parents, laugh and play with them, rather than just go to a restaurant to eat. Like for this case, we can come and have some fun, make some ice-cream together and then share it with each other. Wow, can you imaging that image now??

Oh well, you might think that, “Aiya, we are too old for this kind of things liaos…” or ” where got time for such thing” if that what’s you are really thinking, I will say “Is that really true??” and then I will ask you to pause and really, think back, when is the last time you have done an activity that will bring laughter and joy to both your parents and you or an episode where you have laugh till you cried and have your parents behaving like a kid again? When was the last time you really have a bonding session with them?? or all this while it has just been dinner after dinner and dinner after dinner?? Is that what you call a bonding time?

For those who are married with kids, are you doing the same thing, too?

Well, there are no right and wrong about it, is just that for me, in this morning activity had taught me that, the family fun science day conducted today is really not just about making ice-cream only, there’s more things we can get out from it than just making vanilla ice-cream, don’t you think so too??

OH YEAH!!! A few of my colleagues and I had just returned from Bintan after running a 4 days 3 nights leadership training program for a local secondary school.

Once again, it was a great training and I strongly believed that the 41 youths and the 4 training staff(me included) had gained valuable learning from one another. Well, It’s really hard for me to put the learning down into words in a single post here, reason is that there are really just too much learning going on. 

All I can say is that the program that our company conducted is really about making and providing a safe environment for one to step up as a leader, learn to build and to lead a team of leaders where they can achieve and create results. You can be assured that the training allows participants to lead and challenges each other to the next level of excellence.

Oh, for those who are still not sure what am I working as, I am currently working as a trainer that creates leaders for now and the future! he! he! 

Ok, the the main aim of this post is not about my work, the real aim is to really share with everyone about the beautiful place that I had just spend 4 days on. and the name is LooLa Resort, Bintan.

It is really a great place to spend a few days of your life, as for once you are back with the nature, away from the City, the workload (Hmm not for me, I was there for work purpose yikes! ha), the fast pace society and it is also a chance for one to really sit back and enjoy the natural breeze, slow tempo life styles and some local delicacies.

It is also a great place, to take a time break and sit down by the seaside watching waves hitting the shoreline and seagulls guiding through the blue sky. And if you have the mood, you can do a personal reflection too, you know that kind of reflection on whats life is all about. Well, not sure, if you have this set of questions before especially when you are in a place where life is slow and simple, they sound something like “Wow, this is so relaxing here, why can’t I have this feeling back in Singapore, how come I can feel relax here and so tense and tired back home? How come it feels like I always don’t have enough time back in Singapore? What am I really busy with all this time and what is for?”   Do, you people have that before too?

If yes, great, I hoped you have some answer to it, If Not, maybe is time to give yourself a break and go to some place like LOOLA and really, just go there and do the two Rs, that’s  to “Relax & Reflect” and maybe, just asked yourself the question ” What does LIFE really means to you?”  and see what you can get out for yourself ha.   

Below are some pictures to share, enjoy!

Welcome To TANJONG PINANG (BINTAN)!!

LOOLA Resort

SUN~RISE @ LOOLA!!

BoOm~NeTtING & KaYAkinG!!

FLyinG FOx INto the SEA!!

JOuRNey BAck HOme(Singapore)

 THe END….yeah!!

Ya hoo!! ha ha ha, never did I feel so happy when I see that there were little money in my bank. Yes, there are lesser money in my bank than before but I am happy!!!!!

Ok, before you are thinking that I going nuts, I want you to re-read my post title again, It reads “It’s time to repay my debt II” Yup, Yup, this is an updated post on my committment to repay my debt. 

The last time I wrote about my debt was on the 6th Oct 2008.

Today is the 9thNov 2008, which is almost a month plus later, I had once again taken a portion from my paycheck to clear my debt. As per mentioned before, the commitment was to use minimum S$500 dollars from my paycheck to repay my debt every month. However, what makes me happy this time round is that I able to give a little more, ha, don’t worry I still have enough money to be used for my daily allowance, transportation, food, insurance, bills and not forgetting some entertainment fee too. 

Have to keep some money for myself to spend lah, if not it is very very demanding and stressful to see all my hard-earned money to be used just for clearing debt. I hope my creditor will understand my situation I still have a life to live… oops!  

Anyway, I just know that I’m very happy that I’m doing my part to ensure that I will be debt-free by next year Children Day haha, remember to celebrate the day with me ok!!

(Total Amount left to clear: S$8450)

The title of this post was a quote said to me by one of my participants in a recent training camp. He said that, the statement just came to his mind when he was thinking how to summarise his learning from the camp. Kudos to him, as for me, this quote “Fate, doesn’t lies in the stars but it lies in you. You choose your Fate, nobody but you” really struck me big time!!

It just make me realised that whatever you do or where ever you are now has little to do with Fate but it got everything that is to do with yourself. Where you are or what you are today is hugely due to the choices you had made in life and it had nothing to do with Fate… just use my current situation as an example, it is not Fate that make me working as a trainer now, it is not fate that brought me a degree, it is not Fate that fails my business venture and it is not Fate that I am who I am today.

It is me, myself that make who i am today, Why?  this is because, at certain and different points in my life, I had decided to make a choice and made a decision and stick to it. Regardless, the results of the choice is positive or negative, I am the one that create my own results and I will be responsible for it .

When we are talking about choices we are always talking about options too, in any situations, there are plenty of choices and options , however, the challenge is, are we able to see them or not.

Many of time, people fails to be aware that they are the one who got themselves into certain situations, hence they seldom will take responsibility to their own life… and more often than not, they will push everything to the Fate, saying things like.. “this is destiny,i can’t change it, i’m fated to be like that” etc, etc.

Guess what, for people who always says those above-mentioned statements, things will never going to change for them, and that’s because they had leave everything to Fate, there is no need for them to take any form of action because they believed that whatever is going to happen to them is due their Fate! And not long from now, they will also forget that they actually can have choices to make a difference to their own life.

The good thing now is that I’m aware that I have not allow myself to let fate to decide who am I and what am I, I’m really happy to understand that where am I today is largely due to my choices that I had made in the past. I will not blame Fate for my downfalls,nor will I use Fate as an excuse if things are not moving smoothly for me.

I’m so glad that I have the awareness that indeed “Fate, doesn’t lies in the stars but it lies in you”, and because of that, I am able to be more clear of what I want and what are the choices and options available to me.

Now is really the time to take responsibility and ownership of my own life, so that I can design my Fate and not let Fate design me.

Oh boy, finally, I’m home again sleeping on my own bed after spending 3 days 2 nights at my workplace. Why was I there?, Ha, that’s because, from Wednesday (29th October 2008) till Friday (31st October 2008), I was working as a facilitator for a camp organised by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) called CAMP EVO II, this is the 2nd year that they had organised it and I’m honoured to be part of it, as I went through an amazing learning journey in this 3days 2 nights facilitating and taking care of 14 young secondary school students that are totally different from one another and I really meant that they are really different..

You see, this is an unique camp where we had 98 students coming from all over Singapore, coming from different school and  the unique part was that half of them were student leaders, who were often deems as the elite of the school and the other half were the exact opposite, who are deems as the troublemakers or the youth-at-risk. There were students coming both from school that are in the top 10 and  the bottom 20, can you imagining that kind of combination? If not, just imagining putting a groups of students that can score 10 As for ”O” level student with a group of students that are on the verge on getting expelled!! This camp actually put both extremes end together and then still ask them not to only just work together as a group but also asking them to befriend each other!!”  Sounds like disaster to you? but to me it sounds definitely interesting and challenging infact, the word should be AMAZING!!! 

You can never imaging the magic of this training camp, at first, what you could see on first day, was that the ”GOOD” students was shock that they were exposed to the group of “BAD” student and i mean really “BAD…!” as we are talking about Students that had been in and out of Boy’s home  aka “the youth prison”.

And you can clearly see that the face on the “GOOD” students goes something like” OH MY GOD, WHY ARE WE GOING TO A CAMP THAT ARE FULL OF THESE ”CANNOT MAKE IT STUDENTS”!!! THIS IS CRASY!! NO WAY I”M GOING TO MIX WITH THEM!!”  and on the face on the “BAD” students, it says something like “F#$K MAN, WHAT IS THIS, BORING MAN, WHY ALL THESE NERDS ARE HERE?? ASK THEM GO BACK AND STUDY LAH!! THEY BETTER DON’T GET INTO MY WAY AH!!” Yup, that was what the first day of camp sounds like.

However, on the last day of the camp, the faces on both sets of students were saying something like these “ NO… PLEASE LET THE CAMP CONTINUE, I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME YET, I STILL WANT TO HAVE FUN WITH ALL THESE GREAT PEOPLE!!! IT IS CLEAR THAT WE ARE DIFFERENT, BUT I LOVE THEM!! I DON’T WANT THE CAMP TO END!!!” Impossible??? Was that what you were thinking? Well, sad to disappoint you, the camp did really end in this way…

Ha don’t ask me to write out what went on in the camp that made these drastic changes, all I can say is that it was amazing, and if i really want to write, it is going to take me hours and hours to pen all my thoughts and learning from this camp in here…. 

Well, nevertheless, If there is just one learning or message that I want to send out with this post, I will definitely share the next two words with you, and they are “Acceptance” and “Choice” 

In just 3 days, these Youths from different family backgrounds be it happy, unhappy, good, bad, rich or poor,  these Youths from different study environments be it in Special,Express,Normal Academic or Normal Technical, these Youths from different living condition, be it able to have anything in the world or as fighting to just to have the stomach fill, these Youths from different life challenges, be it loneliness, parent abuse, gangsterism had all came to understand and learn to accept that each individual are different and they learn to make a choice to embrace the difference and then make a choice to respect and love a fellow human being regardless who and what they are.

It was a moment where true love, care and concern were showing up, and it had brought students from different extremes to put all prejudice and judgment aside and to love each other like true brothers and sisters.

And mind you, not long before, they were just students living in their own “World” where the elites were kept in a safe environment while the opposite were in a challenge environment and in no way, will they mix with one another, but in 3 just days, they can put all aside and put their arms around each other shoulders and says, “IT WAS GREAT KNOWING YOU AND MAY THIS FRIENDSHIP CONTINUES”

So, my friends, are there people around you right now, that you thought that you can never accept them just because they are different from you? Are there someone that you will never even want to talk to just because you don’t like them? Or are there somebody that you will never thought you will go and make friends with just because of who they are and what they are?

If the answer is YES, then my dear friends, is time start to learn to accept and love who and what they are…. So that the world of yours and mine will no longer be filled with prejudice, racism, discrimination, narrow-mindedness and to be filled with genuine love, care and respect for yet another human being……