So they say:"Video kills the radio star", then what kills a selection of good dishes at a good restaurant that translates into a good meal?

Bad service, that kills it.

What does a it takes to have a good meal that is not only fulfillling to our tummies, it fuels also our spirits to go through the day, doing the things that we set out to do. And how many steps does a good meal consists of?

Here's my round-up for what I think are the steps to a good meal:

1. You discuss what to eat
2. You weighs the options that you have ( types of food, kinds of restaurants, locations, timing, price range, etc.)
3. You decide on the restaurant
4. Reach the destination
5. Scour the menu from cover to cover (sometimes looking around the restaurant to get a feel of what's good, sometimes you ask the waitress/waiters for chef's recommendations)
6. Discuss with your meal partner
7. Order
8. Wait
9. Starts eating
10. Finish eating

For a foodie like me, I will try to do all the steps above with due diligence and respects to ensure each step will lead and contributes to a good meal.

Provided that all the above steps are all good, although sometimes you may have to compromise on some of the above and not let it affects the overall experience. Then you asks for the bill.

The girl at the counter diverts her attention from your raised hand asking for the bill, she looks to her left, down, at the cashier screen, then back at your still raised hand, without so much of an acknowledgement to you, she asks the other staff on her left to get the bill for you, then she never looks back at you again.

Now, the girl who brings you your bill puts the bill down on the table, saying only how much is the total. You pay her, she calculates your balance in her head, gets your change, dropped the crumpled notes on the table (if you playback the scene in a slow-mo you may argue, theoretically that she was in fact, chucked your change on the table)

Then, you're fucked, just like I did this morning. All the above, the 10 steps, the filled tummy, the recharged spirits, bla bla bla. All gone. Poooffff! Just like that.

The lesson from this? There is no lesson to be learnt from this, only a strengthened determination. And the determination is this: " Our future staff will all be elites that shows these losers of what does it mean to be in service industry, especially in food services! "


Cheers,
Ahtiow

Talk about taking things for granted

We all have the habit of taking things for granted.

Have been a driver for years but never have once I known how to check the engine oil, water level, tyre pressure and other maintenance stuff. I can give an explanation to these lack of knowledge: I havent been driving consistently for a long enough period of time to know all these stuff. Always been away at uni and work that I only get to drive when I go back home for holiday.

The explanation can be an explanation and also be used as an excuse. As a guy, I do think its humiliating for not knowing cars. But fact is, I don't know much. Yet, I could overcome these by learning more from time to time or even before I acted on checking the engine oil and added the engine oil of the car we are driving now. Luckily we haven't been driving it out since we added the engine oil, or else we could have risked spoiling the engine. Yes, I added too much engine oil cause I mistaken the high level mark to be the other mark on the dip stick (we still havent figure out what the mark is there for!)

And as a result of that, we pissed Liyan's father off. Big time.

Sien.
Tiow

"Not all wanderers are lost"

A morning call before breakfast that made us stand on our edges. But its no reason to be disappointed or mad. It only brings to point that as easy and/or as good the earlier parts of the endeavor were, for all the more reasons should we not ease up and/or believing that the rest of the journey will be smooth sailing. And for that, we should be ever more vigilant. The real and hard works starts with the phone call.

Come what may, we're making the project works. We'll show the sceptics we're not daydreamers. We knows.

Not all wanderers are lost - J.R.R. Tolkien

Musings for the past weeks

Every action have an equal and opposite reactions.
Cause and effect.
Fate.
Destiny.

Big words, big meanings, comprehensive yet sometimes hard to comprehend, those words and sentences above. We're all bound by them, believe it or not, like it or not. We all are.

Been contemplating the above for the last few weeks.
Remember there was once when Liyan's dad asked me why did I stay so long at Singapore with a pay of SGD 2k? I know I was going nowhere with the pay I was getting. I did not know how to answer him, I just answered: "My family was there, plus there were some problems going on with some of my family members" Fact is, now that I think of it: I stayed there so that Liyan could start her attachment program at UWS and so that I could mutter enough confidence to start seeing someone. She always says how she hated me for not taking her hand earlier, well, if I took her in earlier, I might still hold back some of me and it will not be the whole me. See, cause and effect, some people liked to think of that as fate, some destiny.

There was a period of time that lasted for more than a month when Liyan finished her study and moved back here while I was still in Singapore, we quarreled so much about me wanting to stay a year more in SG so that I could save up more before I move to China. While we all wanted her to look for a job when she herself couldnt ever picture herself working for others if the job is not something that she really wanted. And all she really wanted was to work on a career that she started her own. The fights were so intense that I never knew I could fight that well and that much. It hurts so much back then. If we did not insisted on both our insistence (me: To stay until I get the bonus, her: Not to settle on any job that she do not really like), I might have moved here earlier, or we could have started something else in Malaysia. If we did any of those, we will not have worked on our current project which is something that we both liked and so excited to work on!

If not for the above, I would not be so mushily holding on to her and pressed my face on her back while she brushes her teeth and I smiled endlessly and she giggled so hard and struggled to finish brushing her teeth. If not for the above, I would not have stayed up and wrote this and you would not be reading this.

So, to all my dear friends who reads this: Cherish the present, be good always for you will not know how it will affect the outcome and when the effects will take place. And do not ever, doesnt matter how much you got hurt, to do or say something to purposely hurt the people who cares for you and whom you cares, for you will double the hurt, says Newton's 3rd Law.


Hugs,
ahtiow

p/s: Luo Er, thanks for the FB chat! You rocks chatrooms!

Yay!!! The long awaited confirmation email!!

Yay!!!! Have finally got the long awaited (so long that we sometime thinks, without saying it out loud, that we did not get the tender) email that confirms us as the operator for Mr Bean Singapore's outlets in Guangzhou!!

Yes, Mr Bean has been our project for the last few months, they're expanding their operations in China, after the success in Japan.

This is officially the big turning point of my life book's chapters. That marks the transition from me working for my bosses, this time around, I'll be working for my staff! And together we'll introduce a new revolution that will see the everyday scene of the locales having a bubble tea drinks in their hands while walking the street to a Mr Bean drink in their hand and to have them acknowledge the change as being a change for the better!

Am excited much!


Hugs!
Ahtiow

Whew!!!!!

...in continuation of the last post regarding the waiting for the email:

Received an email from them, and as expected, it is not the email from them that finally tells us that we have been confirmed as their partner here, it is an email that tells us that they are having difficulties getting their raw materials into China. This came as a relief and also as an explanation why there was no words from them for almost 2 weeks since the last meeting we had with them that went well.

Well, guess we'll be waiting for some time more before we can kickstart the plan.

Till then, will tell you guys what we have been working on since I moved here in May. =P

Don't be surprised if I am still 'jobless' when I meet/talk with any of you guys. It's ok to wait, cause its not an easy thing for a foreign company to enter China market. Most important is, it's ok to wait on a project that all of us feels so good working on it and so comfortable with the partners whom we'll be working with.

It's easier to decide, its the wait that's hard.

Am still going strong here! =)


Hugs,
ahtiow

The wait

Just when things starts to looks as if its gonna happen for real, there gotta be a pause - a period of blackouts where you are put on hold not knowing what to expect. The actions and reactions contradicts the expectations and things that actually do happens.

I need to have an answer soon, the waiting has started to creep on me and I'm starting to question things. Jumbled.

I am now almost always checking my mailbox for a reply from them. No I am not expecting a final yes, I am expecting a mail that shows that I am still in the run as a candidate.

I want to know that the unreplied emails are only to be replied once they have firmed up the next steps for our partnership.

I am not losing it, I am standing on the edge and the pedestal on the edge is not normally wide enough to be comfortable to stand on and its usually windy and wobbly.



I need some distractions, really.


Hugs,
Currently Entrepreneuring Ahtiow