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What a tiring  training program, for the past 4 days, it was really a physically and mentally draining time for me, in fact, it was the most demanding program I had ever had in my whole life!!

Everyday, was a “war”. Everyday, there were “fights”, Everyday, there were “confrontation”, Everyday, there were “disagreement”. Everyday, there were “arguments” and Everyday, there were “crying”.

It were those non-stop “action” that really made this program so demanding and yet at the same time making it one of the most meaningful, worthwhile and mind-reflecting program for me.

This program was “special”, “special” in a way that the participants are not your normal mainstream students, “special” in a way that the teachers were a bunch of passionate people, “special” in a way that the training team were a bunch of committed and determined people.

The program was SPECIAL as it had able to create a big positive difference to all the people in this program. Well done, people!!!

Thank you once again APS, for the 4 days of emotional roller-coaster ride that’s comes with great life-experiencing learning.

*Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder diagnosed among children who exhibit severe social and communication dysfunctions and repetitive behaviours.

**Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulties in reading and spelling.

***ADHD children always seem to be in motion. They dash around, wiggle, squirm, fidget and talk nonstop. They are whirlwinds that leave messes, throw tantrums, start fights and act obstinate.

The weather for past few days were really crazy, it could be sunny and shiny for one second, and the next moment, is pouring like no body’s business. It was not just a normal rain but a thunderstorm for the past few days, the thunder and lightning was so furious to a point that it even struck on our Singapore icon, Merlion’s head. Poor Merlion, not only it lost some of its mane but its left ear as well.  

Man, for me, it’s really a love-hate relationship with the rain. I mean, I love it when it is a thunderstorm, especially I want to stay and rest at home, the cold yet comfortable and dark feeling provide the best enviornment for me to take a good nap. However, when it comes to having activities to do, I hate it when it rains, almost 100 percent of the time, you will be trapped indoor with nothing much for you to do.

I don’t know about you, but it happened to me alot time and most recently, I was trapped by the rain again. This time round just a few days back  I was trapped once again in the evening, luckily, I was trapped in office which is still not so bad, at least I can stay back and still do my work.

Frustrated at first, as it was already late in the evening and I’m trapped and doing some stuff that I didn’t want or didn’t plan to do. The mood I had at that moment was exactly like the weather, DARK, CLOUDY,RAINY and HEAVY. 

Guess without much choice, I found my energy back and focus on finishing  a clients’ video that I had started doing on that day itself, and soon without much of my realisation, an hour went by and the rain had stopped.

And surprisingly, I had just finished my video clip. Ha, decided that since I was “trapped” for more than a few hours(including office hours) becuase of the rain, I went out to take a breather… and below was what I saw….

And Yes…IT  was a “WOW” a rainbow…. it was the largest rainbow I ever saw in Singapore, and my mood just changed in a instant. Suddenly, my cold, cloudy and heavy feeling was replaced by the warm, shiny and beautiful rainbow and it made me felt so light, calm and peaceful. “Ah, that’s is so nice” I talked to myself as I looked up onto the rainbow, “Guess it’s not a bad day after all….” and soon, I packed my bag and was on my way home.

Come to think of it, it was such a interesting evening for me, at one point Iwas grumbling about being trapped and had to stay back in office and did some of my work and not long after, I was a happy man, with my my video clip done and enjoying the beauty of the rainbow. Such an irony.

Well, I guess that’s life isn’t it, at one moment, it can be dark and cloudy and at the other moment, it can be bright and shiny with a rainbow beautifying it.  

Just a note to end this post off, remember my friends, life is much like a rainbow, you need both the SUN and the RAIN to make the RAINBOW appears… so learn to learn both the “SUN” and the “RAIN” so that your RAINBOW can appear…

Gesh!! oh boy, once again, is been at least 2 weeks since my last post. Very bad Very bad…. but still, I not going to condemned myself for the lack of post again. That’s because if I go on again, I will sound like a broken record..”singing—–”see I missed the quota again, lack of discipline lack of commitment, blah blah blah”…”

Guess I had enough of that already, blogging is surely and just not my top priority and I guess right now my top priority is still work….  followed by my family(at least for the month of Jan and Feb as my Dad is back for holiday)

I had been really busy since the Chinese New Year till now, starting from the reunion dinner to new year visiting to organising my annual TPSS gathering, and then followed by camp and more camps. and in fact for the last 3 Saturday I have been working as well!! Not that I’m complaining, I just amazed at how I managed to survive thorough all this work and activities.

This few weeks has been rewarding, in terms of families time, it was great, with Dad around, there were more family dinner time together then before, and it was always full of fun and laughter and in terms for work, it was fulfilling too, even though, I didn’t lead any program for the month of Feb, I was still involved as a facilitator which offers more first hand experience and contact with the participants and once again I glad I was able to make some else’s day when they were assigned to my group. Be it, is a he or she, adults, youth or children, I believed they had gained certain life learning values from the training we provided, and I glad that I was part of their growing and development process. 

Another reason for despite the business, it was still time well spent. I’m happy that I’m able to be around to do what I like to do which was to put a smile to whoever that had crossed my path and for the past few weeks and I believed I had done that successfully and happily.

So smile, my friend, it is always nice to see a smiling face than any other facials express. I hoped your past weeks were as meaningful and smily bright as mine too. 

OH boy, what a girly title, hahahaha can’t believed I had actually thought of it and put it down some more, wahahah!!!

Anyway, yup yup yup, is about FIREFLIES!!! Man, as you know (OK not all are aware), recently I just came back from a working trip at Kota Tinggi Waterfall Resort, Malaysia. I was conducting a 4 days - 3 nights Training Workshop for a neighbour school. One of the night was actually spend on going on a Night Fireflies Cruise.

We were in a small boat that can hold up to 20 people and  the boat owner was the guide of the cruise. So with our life jacket on and comfortably seated, the whole group were off to see the fireflies.

Well, it was not the first time I saw fireflies, the last time I saw it was many years back when I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we were in a village sitting at one of the high points, and right in front of us, was a big group of fireflies blinking and shining at us, some even flew past us, it was such a lovely sight.

This time round, it was slightly different, we were on the boat and we were cruising along the Johor River. I was hoping the sight we were going to see, could matched what I saw in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

After about 15 mins cruising down the river, the “ah peK” the captain and owner of the boat started to shout in mandarin”OK, people, stay silent and switch off all the camera light we are approachingthe fireflies real soon”, With a right turn of the boat, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw a magnificence sight,  the river banks on my right was suddenly brighten up and blinking at us, it was like the whole forest were being decorated with Christmas lighting, it’s like walking down Orchard Rd with all the lighting blinking and shining back at us. There were easily thousands of them covering the forests. As we cruising along, they were more both on the left and right at the river banks. 

It was really beautiful, as the cruise went on the mood of the crowd were starting to change from an initial of pure excitement to a form of quiet, smoothing admiration of the beauty of the mother nature.

this was when my head started thinking, I was like “Wow, this tiny insect that’s gives up light can actually brighten up the darkness and create a beautiful sencery with its lights, what an amazing creature” and to know that fireflies doesn’t really live long, some people said they only last for about a week - 2 months and some only last for a few hours make me even wonder more, “why even create this insect, what was its purpose to be here, was it just to give up lights or were they here to send us a message?”

Hahaha, somebody say i always think too much, and probably that is true. but really, I can’t help it, i was thinking if I’m the firefly, why live? When I know that I don’t live for more than 2 months, what’s the point and all I do is to give out lights?? I might as well just die. 

Ha, but the other side me me is telling me that if I’m really a firefly, and I do know I have only 2 months to live, I will guaranteed that I will give out more of my light and shines even brighter! and the point  I know that my light can lit up darkness and it can offered a beautiful scenery for others to appreciate. I know that my light can make 20 people on a boat to go “Ahh… that’sso nice” and I know that because of my light, the “Ah Pek” can earn his living by bringing people to see my light. And that’s why, If I’m really a firefly and have only 2 months of lifespan, I will LIVE and SHINES!!

What about you? if you are a firefly and have 2 months to live, will you just wait to die or you will LIVE and SHINES! If the answer is the latter, then who and what is your light shining for? Is it for your loved one, your family or even the community. Can you be the light that lights up another person’s darkest moment?

I know I can and I know who and what my light is shining for and Yes, I will live and shine bright, and I want the people around to shine too and that’s because, it is not the effort of one firefly but the efforts of thousands of individual shining firefly that can create the full strecth of riverbank that’s blinking and shining bright in the darkness of the forest. 

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!!

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……   

Wow…. In a week, I had completed two training program with two groups of Normal Technical Stream Students from different school, normally known as the the N.T. Students, or put it blatantly they are the 3rd tier of our Singapore Secondary Education.

They are also commonly labelled as the “cannot make it” or “the notorious one”. And as usual, before the training starts, some of the school staffs will definitely approach us and warn us about the students’ behavoiur and want us to be strict and firm with them, telling us don’t need to give them too many information or learning nor go too deep with them, as half the time they will never understand….

Man, do you know that almost every time I will be super turn-off by their comment. In my head. I was like… “Hey, aren’t you guys suppose to work with them and guide them to where they should be and not like now spending energy on complaining about them and putting them down?” Really, Sometime I just don’t get and it doesn’t surprised me why the students are not responding to some of them.

Just ask yourself, will you still be in good terms and will like to talk to people who also tell you that you are not good enough or you are just useless and nothing can save you…. This is crazy man…

Anyway, all I know is I will just do my part to connect with them and see how much I can be-friend with them and see how I can assist them to get whatever they want. Heard me LOUD and CLEAR, is Assist and not Help, they don’t need help at all. From what I see they just need someone to trust them understand them and believe in them. So all I wanted to do is to really connect with them and you bet, connected, we did.

We had an activity that will help us zoom into what are the things we want it can be short, middle or long term, and in the training we had the activities with the N.T. Students. And the Results, I get?? Is Inspiring man!!

I have a girl, that want to take over her parents biz so that they can retired, 2 boys that want to go into aerospace industry, 1 girl and 1 boy wants to be an accountant, 1 girl want to be head-nurse, 3 boys to do automobile engineering, another one want to be a chef, 1 girl want to work in the hospitality line, and many others wanting to do different things like 1 girl just want to be promoted to NA and then Express. OH, in case you forget, there are still our N.T. Students.

Now, I just want you, the readers, to be aware, what was your first thought that came to mind when I shared their dreams and ambition with you?

Was it “Okay, they are dreaming too big, Dun think they can make it” or was it ” Cool Stuff, I hope they will achieve what they want” Well, no right or wrong, is just a thought.

For me, upon hearing all that, “WOW’ was the word that came to my mind. It is like, this guys has big dreams man, and the next question that come to my mind was. “OK, Now I know that, how can i assist them to get what they one.” So as a facilitator, where I suppose to facilitate learning and at he same time, I don’t want to give a false hope, I decided to bring them back down on earth and give them their reality check. I told them that “Look people, great that you guys know what you want now, But do you know how to get to what you want?” 

Silence, was the next thing I heard from them, and that Silence let me realised that, “Hey, this bunch are actually quite lost, they knew what they want but they are unclear or unsure how to get there.” and thats whats was worrying me, hence I continued, “Study dude, Study, I know you don’t like to study but hey, this is Singapore, You need to get that piece of paper to start with man. Regardless of where you want to do in the future, be it Nursing, now you are in N.T. make sure you go ITE then go on to Nanyang Poly and get a Diploma in Nursing. Same thing for you, young man, Aerospace right? Make sure you go into ITE, then aim for either Singapore, Nanyang or Ngee Ann Poly and get a Diploma in Aerospace. Young lady, you too, Hospitality, Right? Heard of Shactec? No, go find out, if not, make sure you can go to poly too, Temasek poly and Ngee Ann Poly has Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism. Guys, If you are not aware of this possiblity, I can tell you, you can kiss your dreams and ambitions, GoodBye!” ”So people,  Studying is not only about making other people like your teacher, your parents happy, it is more of making yourself happy!! Studying is one of the fastest way to get what you want in life and to be who you want to be. Treasure the opportunities and work hard guys, and soon you will be living your dreams and ambitious. If you really want it, we are here to support you”  

Yup, that’s what I told them, well I don;t know whether it will give them some lights but based on what I saw on their face, I’m sure some thoughts are going through their minds and I’m happy to see the “deep-thinking process” mood on their faces.

Ha so Dreams and Ambitions huh?, what was yours back in Secondary School? Are you living it now? or do you have one in first place? I didn’t, but is okay, the more important is I have it now and the good news is i’m living it and building on it as well. Are you?