Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dear friends,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! May every cake you bake turn out beautifully, your tummies always full, and a prosperous year ahead!

Wok About, Knoxfield

Wok About is a small corner shop in a nearby neighbourhood shopping strip. It's run by a M'sian couple. It's a very homely store, serving only a small selection of dishes such as prawn noodles, nasi lemak, fried rice, dried style won ton noodles etc. Another one of their distinctive marks is that they use Corelle servingware! It shows to me that they're willing to spend more for quality, which speaks the same for their dishes.

Nasi Lemak - the curry chicken was delicious. The patron next table kept complimenting to his guests that he had two plates of nasi lemak the last time he was there because it was so good. He wasn't wrong!

Prawn Noodles - fresh prawns galore! The stock is made with fresh prawns, probably from scratch. How do I know this? Because it gave Gaz an allergic reaction!

Update: This restaurant is now closed

Yes Sushi

Yes Sushi may be a very small place - counter seating for 4 people, but serves very fresh sashimi. We first went on a Thursday and the sashimi was a good serving size and flavourful. We went again the week after on a Wednesday but the fish was not as flavourful as the first visit. I suppose Thursdays are when the restaurant gets it's fish therefore was fresher and tastier during our first visit. Nevertheless, this place is highly recommended and it will be one of our fave haunts for sashimi.

Sleep

If ever there was a prize to be won for the ability to sleep anywhere anytime, I think I will win it. It's nothing much to boast about, but I can sleep almost anywhere, anytime. On a table, in a different bed, on a chair, in a train. My favourite time to sleep is when I'm studying - I remember giving myself 10 mins break between text book chapters and waking up the next morning wondering where the time has gone.

Uni was fun... no one ever dictated whether you should go to class, so I sometimes skipped classes. Not to go partying, not for socialising but to sleep. In fact, I slept through Uni. A lot of my time was spent in my warm dorm room (Aust weather was cold for me back then) snoozing. No wonder I didn't do very well...

Now, I find myself with less and less time on my hands. It's already hump day tomorrow, and it seems like the weekend had only just passed! Rushing to work, working late catching deadlines (they're called DEADlines for a reason... by time the you manage to meet it, you're dead) all plot to snatch the sleep away from my eyes.

I sleep at 11pm these days, and even then I don't feel like I get enough sleep. On Saturday I fell asleep during a symphony orchestra concert. Gaz will tell you it's because it was boring. But I'm telling you that I was lacking sleep. So there!

Meeting New People

When was the last time you walked up to a total stranger, engaged in a conversation with the view of walking away with something you wanted from him?

Tonight in a training environment, I did just that. It wasn't easy. I am attending a two day course aimed at imparting networking skills. To put our new learnt skills to practice, we 'hosted' a business seminar for some 'customers'. Of course, these 'customers' were really just managers in disguise. My objective was to go up to at least three of them, engage in small talk and move progressively to some serious business conversation ultimately walking away with their business card and agreement to tee up a meeting later on during the week.

Oh man... it's the most difficult thing to do... this walking up to a complete stranger business. Sometimes I encountered periods of silence where my mind went absolutely blank for want of new questions to ask. One time a customer was talking about exporting his goods while I talked about importing. Another time the 'customer' had to throw me clues about what else to talk about.

Thinking back, I've been doing this my whole life. Sure, not in a polished way and not always for the same objective. Nevertheless, we've all done this. Starting from first day at kindergarten - striking up conversations with complete strangers for friendship, at school, at uni, at work. Making new friends, asking for information, etc. But boy, it doesn't get any easier.

I succeeded in reaching my objective, and learnt a couple of things during the exercise.
1. The person talking to me is probably as nervous as I am meeting them for the first time. So, relax...
2. Wearing clothes that have two pockets is easier - you can use one pocket for storing cards received, the other for your own business cards.
3. Engaging in a networking conversation is never just a 'go with the flow' exercise. It involves some planning, strategy and practice.

I never anticipated tonight to be a fun night, but it was!