Author: CheckW

The Chinese New Year (CNY) dates are much earlier this year and it is just a week away on 25 Jan. So many things to do and so soon after we started 2020 and the finalization of new year resolutions.

We usually have at least 3 reunion dinners to complete. The first 2 with the extended families before the actual date and the last one on the eve of CNY at my place, where I would usually prepare a steamboat dinner. I totally enjoy getting things ready for the last one as I go to CNY warehouse sales shopping for frozen seafood a few weeks before.

This year will be a bit rush for me as I would have to get on my monthly business trip to Yangon on Monday, then to Bangkok for the annual Microfinance conference till Thursday. I will fly back to S’pore on Friday early morning, in time to prepare the reunion dinner.

A number of catch up sessions happened this week with friends and 2 items to note. A good friend had informed me this week of her divorce. This makes it 2 divorces for 2019 from people I know. One was because of a 3rd party and this one is probably because the couple has drifted apart over the years. I guess it is better for them to move on as it is no longer viable to remain in the past. When one door closes, many other doors will open in front of us.

I had read of this increased divorce rate phenomenon for older people in Japan before. Couples that had crossed into middle age or after retirement have decided to go their separate ways, as kids have grown and they encountered an empty nest situation to experience different second halftime journeys. Both friends I know did not have any children though.

Next item was an update into my investment in a new asset class last year. With all the hype on ICO (Initial Coin Offer) in early 2019, I decided to invest in one. I was always sceptical of this type of investment, having done some homework and attended an ICO seminar. They are a derivative of cryptocurrencies that spawn new wannabe cryptos. Most are created via the ERC-20 Ethereum platform. Investors exchange fiat or bigger cryptos for these newly created ones by companies that propose a new business idea.

These firms promise to create a new ecosystem where the new crypto would be widely used as a means of exchange. The other big red flag will be that they promise that the price of the crypto will rise. Creating an ecosystem is not easy as many have failed. Little transparency about what the firm does with the funds it has collected is another. What if that is being used to artificially support the price in a pump and dump scheme? Finally, the investors do not have an equity stake in the company – they have no recourse to any assets if things go south.

I invested in this particular ICO because of a number of reasons. Firstly, it was being run by people I know (a cousin and a prominent/successful classmate) and I was curious about the business model of capturing the huge Chinese tourist wave. My belief in investments has always been “you never know until you try”. Well, my cousin informed me this week that the project is being canned. They ran out of funds in Q3 last year before they could launch the ICO. Starting the travel ecosystem was much tougher than they envisioned. It was lucky that I decided at the start to invest in a lesser amount than I had originally planned. Guess I have to write this investment down to zero now. Learn learned. Lots of hype for ICOs and little to no success stories at all.

And to my last topic of the week: Trump. It seems like he has finally dug a hole that is too deep for him to get out of now. The impeachment trial in the Senate has officially started. More evidence is flowing out like a burst dam every day. If the GOP does not abandon the sinking ship soon, then they will go down with it. Like for Nixon, it seems like the strong political supporters are sensing blood now and fear for their political survival. Then again, I may be wrong too, as I have been saying this for the last 3 years 🙁    …

 

Our first Sunday of the year started with a long and nostalgic journey for me as I travel back 35 years in the time to when I was a young 18-year-old again.

We were bringing my younger son to the island of Pulau Tekong for his National Service registration, to be ready to serve the nation for the next 22 months. It is a compulsory rite of passage for every Singapore son since 1967. It is an Ah Boys to Men moment, where the young male teenager morphs into an adult over this period of time.

My older son had his moment here 2 years ago and we were all doing this for the second time now. We are more familiar with what to expect during this tour of the facilities, while the army assures the families that their sons and siblings will be well taken care of.

I guess the modern army is now so much more different from my time, where I had no point of reference as my dad did not experience NS during his time, before WW2. Even my older son commented that things are not the same after 2 years… I guess safety is paramount now after a spate of accidents and fatalities which had made all citizens stand up and question the training practises.

I wish my son a new journey where he will absorb, experience and enjoy the ride as he transforms into an adult. Mixing with people from all walks of life will prepare him for the future as he gains new friendships and go through physical and mental challenges.

On the following day, I concluded my last workday with Deloitte as my subcontract ends. The Digital Bank consultancy project with Grab ended more than 2 weeks ago. I had to return my laptop and passes to the client’s office as well as to the consultancy firm. This has been an enriching experience for me, to eat and breath in a Fintech environment for a short while. Hopefully, it opens up more consultancy opportunities for me. I will be reconnecting with another local consultancy firm again later this month. I have also put my hand up for the 6 months treasury consultancy role which the client would be hiring to support their new CEO for the digital bank. Let’s see how this will turn out in 2020.

Midweek onwards were catching up sessions with old friends over lunches and dinner. I had back to back meals from Wed lunch with an ex-colleague and then dinner with ex-colleagues who were all still at Citi except me! Then Thurs lunch with my usual group of buddies. Again, too much good food and drinks. A total of 8 bottles of wine consumed for dinner/lunch! No wonder I was flat out by Thurs evening. This uncle forgot that he has a 50+ years old body and not young anymore 😉

I also had a chance to meet up with the second mentee I had connected with for my 2nd year of participation in the NUSS Mentorship program. It is always refreshing for me to meet undergraduates to listen to their dreams and aspirations. I hope that I can add value to them by sharing my work experiences and help guide them along with their careers. I want to pay it forward as I have been given opportunities in my career.

For this year, I have decided to take up 2 new mentees while I am still in contact with the one I had last year. I wish I had a mentor during my uni years to provide advice and direction. But maybe I can change this now by doing my part to providing it to students who have like minded interests like me.

In my halftime journey, I do think a lot about how I can move from success to significance, to give back to society. Doing my Myanmar job is satisfying and getting more consultancy jobs fills up my time. Continuing my life long learning journey will also keep me busy. The halftime journey is shaping up…

It has been an eventful week an the turn of the year for me as we got into a new decade. A number of things happened, planned and unexpected.

My wife had lined up 2 dinners on Sun and Mon to catch up with old friends. They were enjoyable as we have good company, nice wines and food. On Tues (eve of New Year, 31st), it was lunch at a well known Italian establishment with my group of good friends to celebrate the end of the year.

Shortly before that lunch, I learnt from my sis that my mom has had a bad fall overnight while overseas. She had travelled to Malaysia for her annual trip to Ipoh with her regular group of seniors on Sun. There were little details then except that she was warded into the A&E hospital department and awaiting the results of a CTI head scan. A friend will take a flight back with her that evening if possible. For a senior of 85 years of age, a fall could be very harmful.

I was on a number of calls during the whole lunch as we scramble to make sense of it all. The senior doctor later determined that there was blood in the scan and advised her to spend another night in the hospital for further observation. Her fall was on Monday night after dinner and she had vomited a few times after the fall. She had hit her forehead against the door and then fell backwards, landing on her butt before the back of her head contacted the floor.

We decided that I should fly to Ipoh on the next available flight to oversee things as it was crucial to have a family member on the ground. It was late afternoon by then and the next direct flight was the following morning, hence there was nothing we could do but wait. I attended our regular annual year-end party that evening with a knot in my stomach the whole night, wondering if there was anything I could have done better and how her condition was developing.

On the first day of the new year of 2020 morning, I went to the airport to take a flight to Ipoh. I did not have any sense of expectation on how things will turn out. Landed at 1135 and her friend plus a couple based there picked me up to head directly to the hospital. Visitation hours were from 1230 and so we were just in time to follow the rest of the visitors to the wards.

Upon seeing my mum in person, I had a sigh of relief to see that she looked physically alright except for some bruises on the face. The doctor on duty had determined that she could be discharged immediately and gave his approval for her to fly home. I immediately booked the 5 pm flight that evening (only 8 seats left) and we settled the hospital bill before heading to the airport. We landed home safely at 1835 and went back for a quick dinner before getting her to rest for the night.

The next day, we brought her to the clinic to see her regular doctor who could do an examination of her. The doctor said she was ok and that a blood test can be done the following week to check on her sugar level. The 48 hours ordeal finally came to a close positively. We will watch her closely over the following days to ensure that there are no delayed reactions to the fall.

That evening, I had a small primary school classmates reunion of sorts which was planned a few weeks ago. Only 3 out of 5 turned up, but we still had a good time talking about the old times more than 41 years ago…

The week turned for the better as we head to my younger son’s school on Friday for his IB results. Though he was not his usual self and feeling nervous the whole morning, the final result was better than he expected. We are so proud of him. This stage of his life is over and he will be moving very quickly to the next stage very soon on Sun as he enlists for his compulsory national service in the army over the next 22 months.

He just had his Kojak haircut moment this afternoon and is getting all his stuff ready for tomorrow. It is nostalgic for me as I see myself in him 35 years ago as I was getting ready to do the same too as a young 18 year old…

 

 

 

 

Yes, it is that time of the year to make more daring and YAHOO (“Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle”) new year resolutions and see how long they last…

I did a list last Dec and pasted a hardcopy on my PC to remind me every day on what I had promised to do and where I am now. Below is a recap and progress report:

1. Do videos – Fail. Suppose to catch up and do my MTVs of the family videos up to the present year. Was too lazy and the latest Muvee software wasn’t as easy to use as the ones I had been using for the past 10+ years. Have to do better in 2020. Grade: F
2. Fly drone – Not good too. Had a spurt of enthusiasm in mid-2019 to play with my DJI drone to try to capture better aerial photos and videos which lasted all of 3 weeks. Not as user-friendly as I thought (another excuse)and the 21 minutes battery life was a downer. Grade: D 
3.  Do 10 MOOC online courses. Managed to do 6 : (1) Drone and photography – Udemy, (2) Intro into Fintech – HKU, (3) Intro to AI, Data Science, Big Data, Deep Learning – Microsoft Fevaworks, (4) AI in Finance – NYP, (5) Industry 4.0 – TP, (6) Digital Transformation – Boston U. Grade: C
4. Be more aggressive in Investment. I explored new asset classes like ICO and Angel Investing and finally did invest in them. At the same time, I was quite concerned that the stock markets were getting a bit too bubbly for my liking and so I increased my cash position by liquidating some of my portfolio holdings. Amazingly, the equity market continued to rise, right into the year-end. Biggest regret is on my Apple shares, with a current opportunity cost of $85 each for the 500 shares I sold…  Grade: B
5.  Learn new skills. It was an interesting year as the company I was working as a bank consultant embarked on a Digital Transformation strategy. We are going into Fintech to enable us to have a quantum leap into client acquisition and risk management. Dynamic credit scoring, chatbot and epayments are some of the new learning I am going into. At the same time, I started work at Deloitte as a bank consultant to advise a Fintech client on the digital bank application process in S’pore. It was a great experience for me to work with the biggest South East Asia unicorn company for a few months, to feel their dynamism and energy as they constantly seek to change the norm. Their CVP (Client Value Proposition) strategy to disrupt the SME sector will really rock the incumbent banks here. Grade: A
6. Give back to society. I had a relatively successful conclusion to my first year as a mentor in the NUSS mentorship program. Managed to get an internship for my mentee and met monthly to discuss his goals. I have just started my 2nd year in this program with new mentees. My Myanmar microfinance involvement continues into its 24th month and I am proud of their achievement as well as the Treasury person which we had hired in Apr this year. Her contributions are much better than we could have expected and I hope that my guidance would benefit her career growth. Grade: A  
7. Read 10 books. I managed to complete only 8 books. Still spending most of my time reading newspapers, online news and magazines (my weekly BusinessWeek). My friend introduced me to the app OverDrive earlier this year which really blew my mind – he managed to read 40 books last year and does a short summary of each one after reading them. I have since shared the power of this app with many people. It links me to my National Library account which allows one to borrow up to 16 ebooks at a time. The ebook is automatically returned to the library when it is due. NLB has all the latest books available for lending. No more excuse for not reading more. I have to do better in 2020. Grade: B 

So what new year resolutions should I set for myself for 2020? More of the same and higher goals? I still have a few more days to 01 Jan, so below will be my preliminary ones for the moment before I locked them in on 31 Dec:

1.  Read 15 books and have short summary for each one that I have finished reading
2.  Get up to date with my personal MTV video editing from the outstanding raw video/photo data collected so far
3.  Do 10 MOOC courses that could include at least 3 Skillsfuture related classroom ones
4.  Use DJI drone to produce awesome aerial photos and videos
5.  Get more consultancy jobs – aiming for a long term career pivot
6.  Have 1 new hobby
7. Look to restructure my portfolio?
8.  Continue to try to stay happy and healthy

I still have a few more days to chew over my more ambitious 2020 resolutions. Like I said before on one of my purposes for writing a blog – no more NATO (No Action, Talk Only), put to do things down for the world to see and then your ego will not allow you to slack…   hahaha  😉

 

 

I just spent almost 3 weeks in Japan for one of the longest vacations I have had for a long time. We travelled to Kyoto, did the Kumano Kodo hiking trail and then to Osaka with a group of good friends we have known since Uni days. Then off to Tokyo to meet our 2 boys for a few days before spending a few nights outside Tokyo and finally another 4 nights in Tokyo again.

Our group of close friends have been celebrating our 50th birthday milestones over the last few years, the last one being in Macau. This time, the 2 youngest ladies who crossed their 50th decided to be more adventurous and embark on a self-guided 4 days trekking holiday over the famous Kumano Kodo trail.

We arrived in Kyoto on 26 Nov and spent 2 nights there doing sightseeing, lots of eating and photo taking. We even had kimono dress up to run around the temples to take memorable group photos. We did all the touristy stuff before moving on to the real highlight of the holiday.

The good thing about the hike was that it was the first time for all of us, so we really didn’t know what to expect. The bad thing was that it was really much harder than we thought for city dwellers like us. It did not help that we were constantly reminded of the shrines along the trail that indicated that many have died trying to complete this religious trekking path over the centuries. Being self-guided means that we were totally on our own in the middle of the forest, just the 9 of us.

Given that the sunset was much earlier at 4.30 pm, there were not much sunlight hours to complete the walk every day. On the first day, we made the mistake of having a sit-down lunch before starting our supposedly 2 hours short hike at 2 pm after taking some time in the morning to arrive at checkpoint 1 from Kyoto. The other thing was that since it was our first hike, we tourists stopped multiple times for photos that took up more time.

It was almost pitch black by the time we reached the last 30 minutes of the 1st day of the walk as we had to arrive at the small village where our traditional ryokan was located. It was run by a family that had been managing the accommodation for over 90 years via 3 generations. They had 6 rooms upstairs with a common toilet and dining room plus kitchen on the ground floor.

Maybe it was to manage our expectations, but the first night was at a really traditional ryokan and the accommodations got better over the next 2 nights. This one was very rustic and it was just like our kampung days. Just going to the shared toilet in the middle of the night was challenging as it was almost zero degrees in temperature in the middle of the morning. I still had my banking consultancy job to do and replying to emails at 5 am in the toilet while freezing my butt was a bit of a stretch 😉

The 2nd day was a 4 hours walk which we took almost 6 to complete with sightseeing, photo-taking and a bento lunch break in between. Two persons in our group took the shorter 2 hours trek for medical reasons. We had a relatively modern ryokan that night.

For the final 3rd day hike, we all decided to do the 2 hours leisurely walk instead of the robust 6-8 hours one. The last night was at the biggest and most well-established ryokan before we headed back to city life in Osaka.

Wife and I then left our friends to take the Shinkansen to Tokyo to meet our 2 boys. The younger son had arrived there earlier for a grad trip with 8 friends while the older one just flew in that day. We regrouped for 4 nights there and got to know the city very well before we moved to the outskirts of Tokyo (about 2 to 3 hours outside) for another 4 nights.

We did a Glamping one-nighter which was my hightlight of the trip. It was a very relaxing camping compound where we were allowed to harvest our own vegetables (large daikon and cabbage) which we used for the hotpot within our own wooden cabin that night after a nice onsen dip. We even had a nice campfire where we roasted marshmallows and drank hot soup in the cold autumn night.

Then it was onto 2 nights in Hakone before another overnight stay at a renown onsen called Takaragawa. We decided to skip a night at Nikko city and headed to Tokyo a day earlier as the boys wanted to do a day trip to Disney Seaworld. Thereafter, the last 3 nights in Tokyo was spent doing last-minute shopping and more eating.

It was a great vacation with close friends and then the whole family. The last one in the UK was 2 years ago before older son went into the army for National Service. It will be the other one’s turn next month, so the chance of a whole family long vacation for the next 2 years is low. Also, the older son is going to the UK for his university in Sep 2020.

While Japan still looks exotic even for us Asians, I feel that it is less vibrant now as the population ages. Others like China and Korea are more “happening” now. Japan has been in a slowing economy since 1990, being propped up by more and more government spending. I pity the younger generation there who seemed a bit lost as to where the future lies. Coupled with the recent natural disasters, it is quite disheartening.

There are still so many places there for return visits but other parts of Asia are also calling. I think I have enjoyed enough of Japan, for now, to last me quite a few years before returning back here again.

 

These 2 themes have been circulating in my mind for the last few weeks. I see them as new megatrends that are unrolling before us which will have a huge impact on whatever we do in the near future. How can I translate them into actionable plans for my benefit remains to be seen as I ponder over them for a while longer.

In late Oct, I attended an Asia Pacific Microfinance Forum as part of my Myanma bank consultancy role with the CEO. We wanted to reach out to potential lenders who might be attending and connect with them. In the previous one we attended earlier this year in BKK, it resulted in many warm leads which helped us achieve new funding facilities over the course of this year.

This forum was a bit unusual this time. Surprisingly, there were more than the regular representation of FinTech related companies in attendance. Over the 2 days, a light bulb was turned on for me. Fintech firms have been trying to change the world via technology innovation. Their success rate had been patchy as it is tricky for them to manoeuvre within the organization of the global banks. They are more likely to die a slow death as they are integrated into the acquiring bank due to red tape and the silo mentality within banks.

On the other hand, microfinance companies are also trying to reach out to the unbanked, to help elevate the less fortunate out of the poverty trap. Most of what they do is labour intensive and requires a lot of credit reviews which are static in nature. While there are always clients out there, the firm may not be able to handle the increased workload.

Our Myanmar company had discussed about a Digital Transformation strategy blueprint this year which may allow us to experience a quantum leap in our portfolio through technology. We believe that by optimizing new technology, we will be able to service a much bigger group of clients without sacrificing service standards while keeping the portfolio risk profile low.

This is why FinTech and MFI (Microfinance Institutions) are ideal partners. Both have the noble goal of making the world a better place for everyone. Both want to help change the way things are currently being done to boost productivity. Both have limited resources to utilize and hence need to optimize each and every asset they may have. We also attended another talk which our CEO had participated. It was to discuss how FinTech can help Agriculture related problems.

Things begin to click for me as I realise that these 2 parties of MFI and FinTech have so much in common and to offer to each other. The payout may be in various ways which the world has yet to discover. Dynamic credit scoring using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning is one topic that comes to mind. Using a chatbot with AI to interact with customers through their smartphones is another. Using eWallets to transfer cash instead of using physical money will help reduce fraud. There are many possibilities which can be explored.

The recognition of both these sectors to want to create a symbiotic relationship will certainly be an exciting initiative in the near future. I am lucky to be able to participate in this transformation in my small way via our MFI.

The next thing that made me excited was the announcement by Alibaba on their introduction of the Alipay Tour Pass which WeChat followed soon after  https://www.ttgasia.com/2019/11/21/alipay-wechat-pay-now-open-to-international-tourists/  Nationwide, China had been able to go cashless because of Alipay and WeChat, using QR codes to do everything. They are way ahead of any country in the world in this area and 400 million of their citizens are already buying things on the internet.

But in order to ensure the integrity of the system, they have tightened the process to allow only recognized real persons to use the ecosystem. Onshore bank accounts or phone numbers have to be used to open an eWallet account with them. Therefore foreigners are literally unable to get into this ecosystem to benefit from the ease of use.

The other problem is also that only RMB is allowed in this system. I am sure that both companies have been trying to go global by allowing other currencies to be used. But it is highly unlikely that the Fed or ECB would allow them to use USD or Euro in a Chinese controlled system.

This brilliant masterstroke of allowing foreigners a 90 days access will basically solve the above 2 problems I have stated above. Having the ease of using an eWallet, I would gladly sign up for temporary access into their ecosystem. It is almost like internationalizing of the RMB.

Very soon, everyone in the world will have an RMB eWallet which is convenient, as most places around the world (eg. S’pore’s 711 convenience stores, airport tax refunds in Korea) already currently accept Alipay payments. That will be another barrier removed and the Chinese internet companies can now go and conquer the world. For the rest of us outsiders, once we get a peek into the super App and the ecosystem inside, we might not want to ever leave it.

The Alipay Tour pass is now for only 90 days and any balance left will be auto-credited back to your card. It has a limit of RMB 2,000 cap at the moment. But once this gets popular, the 2 restrictions can easily be changed. Then RMB will have a chance to replace the USD as the preferred currency of choice to travel the world instead. Most Chinese tourists travelling overseas are already doing so, using Alipay for most of their purchases.

The above 2 trends are likely to have a big impact on how things are currently being done. They will innovate and revolutionize existing methods and jump-start many interesting by-products and new job roles.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not write my weekly blog last week as I was in China for 6 days. It was a meaningful trip for me, even though it was a pretty chill and relaxing semi-vacation.

This trip was not planned. Dad called me and my youngest sister about 2 mths ago and asked both of us to accompany him and mum to Hainan in Nov. It was more like an order and I originally resisted, citing work commitments. My dad is 90 this year and mum 85. While active, they have slowed down considerably. His only overseas trip nowadays is to visit his hometown in Hainan. Sis and I eventually figured that we should spend more quality time with our parents, given this opportunity. My brother in law decided to follow us too.

The trip also coincided with my other brother in law’s yearly charity medical mission. He brings a large group of 50 doctors and nurses to the town of Chengmai in Hainan to provide pro bono operations and aftercare services to children and young adults with cleft lip conditions. He has been doing this for the last 10 years. A trip is done in Apr every year to access the total number of cases to manage the logistics in Nov when the main group arrives to do the procedures.

He is affiliated to the S’pore Hainan association where he raises funds yearly to sponsor this mission. It started when his firstborn had to go for cleft lip surgery as a baby and he got to know Professor Lee very well. With his close links to Hainan, he decided to organize a medical mission in 2009 with the doctors and nurses from the S’pore General Hospital who all worked for free and normally apply for leave to join these annual trips. Slowly, the medical group grew to its present strength of almost 50 persons that also included speech therapists and plastic surgeons. We even had a famous plastic surgeon Woffles Wu joining us this year!

Given its limited resources, the medical mission targets children and young adults who still have their lives ahead of them and are most likely to recover well from the operations that require multi-year follow-ups to make it a successful process. This year, they managed to operate on about 40+ cases and usually finishes around 10 pm on most nights. In total, about 150 cases were reviewed. Most patients needed speech therapy or minor plastic surgery in the later stages of the process. There were also a lot of walk-ins as more people hear about this service over the years.

It is heartening to hear of stories of some families who needed to borrow money to bring their kids to the hospital for the ops, which normally would cost at least USD 20K. This medical group gave their services selflessly and without any payment required. It is indeed an honourable endeavour and kudos to Richard, my brother in law, for his perseverance over the last 10 years to enrich the lives of impoverished children in Hainan.

My parents, sister, another brother in law and I spent a day with the medical mission before we headed off to our hometown for the next few days. We parked ourselves in the biggest city of Wenchang (population 500,000) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenchang which was near our village. The hotel was decent and it was only about USD 20/night!

A related cousin who rents his car for hire was our go-to person for all transport during these 5 days. On the following morning, we headed back to our village to visit our ancestral home. We had a simple ceremony within the old house that Dad has a title to the property too. No one is currently putting up there as the previous couple who were helping us take care of the property had already passed on a few years ago.

Next, we went to our main village (BoFang) to meet the mayor and others. Dad, as usual, generously asked a relative to set up 6 tables for a grand lunch feast. It was a big lunch gathering and most people we knew were there. The mayor had 3 sons whom I first met during my first trip here in 1990 when we were just young adults. Now, the eldest is already a grandfather at 57. The youngest son (our driver) was a teenager then and now 47. He has just started a new business by renting shop space in Wenchang to sell provisions.

How did the last 30 years fly by so quickly? The village has modernized over the years and life quality has improved dramatically. We used to keep our old clothes to send back to them and 3-in-1 coffee was a luxury item then. Now thanks to the internet, everyone has a smartphone and car/motorbike.

We spent good quality time with mum and dad, taking things easy most of the time as they tire easily nowadays. The next few days were packed with activities in the morning while afternoons were spent in the hotel room resting. I had to do conference calls for my consultancy work too.

Too soon, it was time to return home after 5 nights in Hainan. We reached S’pore on Tues afternoon, tired from all the travelling. I believe that Dad did enjoy himself during this trip. I was glad to have spent quality time with him and Mum. They have aged gracefully and I hope I can follow in their footsteps too.

The week passed by relatively fast for me. Monday was a public holiday but I had to go for my monthly Yangon trip as the flights were booked months earlier before they also declared that it was a Diwali holiday there too for the first time. We had a great lunch and dinner with the CEO that day, before having a long day of meetings the following day. Managed to also have my regular Deloitte conference call too.

I am so amazed by the capabilities of modern-day communication tools like Skype and Zoom which allows anyone to have a meeting anywhere in the world, sharing presentations and removing the need to be in the same room. Global road warriors can maximize their efficiency and multitask effectively.  We have had regular calls between 3 parties that span the world (Toronto/NY, Asia and Europe), done training sessions and sorting out lending facilities over the months using these tools.

Back to S’pore from Yangon on a Wed morning flight after another training session call and caught a lovely feel-good movie (Yesterday: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_(2019_film) ). Got back to work in the late afternoon till night time. Then full Thursday at client’s office to sort some things out till late evening.

Friday morning was more back to back meetings which turned out better than I imagined, before joining my regular lunch buddies for an intense lunch of Korean BBQ and lots of alcohol. Had to sober up for another conference call at 5 pm before dinner with family.

Though it is into the final quarter of 2019 and one expects things to wind down into year-end now, it just doesn’t seem so. For me, things are getting more intense as I juggle a number of things together. It is challenging but yet satisfying. A lot of quality time and new experiences ahead for the final 60 days of 2019.

One year end firework that is coming? The impeachment of Donald Trump. Things are moving up a notch into a faster gear this week. Pelosi got her majority vote to shut down another complaint from GOP that it is not legal. Next, the public hearings will start by mid-Nov which will boost TV ratings to a new Dec high.

Trump seems pretty cool about it all. He might have drunk too much of his cool-aid or decided that they will not be able to get the two-thirds majority in the Senate to go through the final step anyway. The evidence is piling up on him every day as numerous new witnesses collaborate the story against him. GOP loyalists are just toeing the line for now until the ship sinks and all will bail out at the same time. The country is so polarized at the moment that there are 0nly 2 equal sides and no middle ground. All the news media can talk about is this topic and nothing else.

Next week will be my Hainan trip which my dad had asked me to join him. It is also for the Project Smile cleft lip medical mission, where my brother in law has been organizing for the last 10 years. He brings a group of professionals who work pro bono to operate on children with cleft lips at a local hospital. It is a very noble charity trip where a group of doctors and nurses operate on these kids.

It has been running for the last 10 years where a trip is organized in Apr to assess the list of possible patients to operate on and then come Nov, the medical team will arrive to perform the ops non-stop for a few days. They will also train the team at the local hospital in Chengmai. My family joined them in 2015 and it really felt good to be able to make a real-life difference to families who even have to borrow money to bring their kids to the hospital for this free procedure that will hopefully improve their chances with life.

So many things happening for the next 60 days from now till year-end!