Author: Wilfrid

Officially passed the 2-weeks point whereby a good majority of people by now have forgotten and put aside what they set out to do in their New Year Resolution (once again quote from Reader’s Digest). Having developed a Personal Scorecard, I found myself very focused these days on what I want to achieve. Just to give you an idea, I have consciously cut down on my gaming hours. I have clocked in 20.5 hours so far and it should not be a problem not exceeding the target of 40 hours a month as set on New Year Day. I hope that the new World of Warcraft expansion that is due to come out this week will not ruin my plan.

Avid readers of my website probably know by now I have put in a lot of emphasis in achieving my exercise hours target. I still fall short by a great deal and the idea of revising the targets has crossed my mind. But I must practice what I preach: scorecard is not a report card. The aim is not to get green lights at each reporting period but rather to highlight areas of improvement. I still think 8 hours a month is the right thing to do. I may not hit the target this month but I should get closer the month after.

And when I look at my measurements, it does have causal relationships like corporate scorecards. If I free up more time from gaming, I will have more time to do other things such as ideas on book publishing, practicing for my upcoming-yet-to-be-organised gigs, money matters, and etc. And if I wish to fully realise the benefit of all the exercise hours I have put in, I better stay away from alcohol and eat healthily (the other two measurements of mine). As for the healthy eating department, we have home cook food more than 50% of the time so far and I hope to see another measurement hitting the target.

In the medium term horizon, I do have some quarterly targets to achieve. I have public performance to think about and as the very first step, 5 songs are selected and day-in-day-out I have been trying to memorise them. As for the travelling budget, Cynthia has already picked Australia as our next destination. How about “extraordinary projects”? I have something in mind but it is probably too early to talk about it now. Last but not the least, I have already set up 2 private forums in this website as part of the collaboration effort in co-writing some books with my friends.

There are still some measurements I have no clue in how to tackle. By and large, I think I am in for a fruitful 2007. How credible is that statement? I am not sure but I hope that this Personal Scorecard will take me where I want to be.

People usually comment that women love to spend time in shopping and men shop with objectives in mind – just zoom into what they need and hit home run. I had my mother and sister’s jaws dropped when I walked straight to the pillow section of a departmental store and grabbed two of them in less than 5 seconds. These days, I am a changed man. This money saving mode has definitely lengthened my wish-list in every possible ways. And the real fun of shopping is to know that I have made a wise decision after exhausting all available options. Because of that, I was stuck in City Hall way longer than I have – how time flies when you shop! – and got Cynthia kept texting and calling me as subtle reminders. Look, it is really rude to pick up a call in the mist of an … engaging conversation with a salesperson, no?

Actually, I did have objectives in mind – besides the box of brown sugar and the can of WD-40 that I have conveniently forgotten – I needed a pair of goggles for my swimming and a pair of running shoes too. How else am I to hit my target of 8 hours of exercise a month when so far I have clocked in … ahem … half?

My buddy TK recommended Running Lab at Funan Center and indeed, I must say, these folks are professionals. This specialist Marc first asked me to take off my shoes and socks, roll up my pair of jeans, and he gave me a concise introduction on what we would be going through. Had he not told me so, I would have screamed: dude, take your hands off my feet! And when he ran his fingers along the sides of my feet as part of the diagnosis, I tried so hard not to giggle (yes, I am ticklish). After which, he asked me to run on treadmill and I gasped and told him that I have never run on a treadmill in my life!

He nearly gasped and put me on speed 2. I asked him what sort of speed do people usually run and he said 7 to 8. Okay, that hurt my ego a bit. Nevertheless, I did my best on speed 2 and he was observing how my feet landed on the treadmill. He kept asking me to run normally and … I really did my best to act like running on speed 2! I mean, it was sort of slow you know.

His diagnosis was that I need extra support on the inner sides of my feet. I countered that from the wearing and tearing of the heels of my shoes, I may need support on the outer sides instead. He counter-countered that from his observation, my feet landed on the outer side of my heel and then they curved inwards. Alright, sold! Extra support on the inner sides then.

He took out a couple of his recommendations that ranged from S$169 (gasp) to S$269 (gasp to the power 2). I chose the cheaper ones and we narrowed down with two models. I recalled that Marc did mention something about being able to try those shoes on the treadmill and hence, I asked if I may. Marc hesitated and said: you know, since you have never been on a treadmill before, it is rather dangerous for you to do so. But … this month’s motto is “nothing is gonna stop me!” … so I begged and he conceded. I did a speed 8 – proudly – and how I love those shoes! Still couldn’t decide which one to go for and he took out … an orange one. The orange one looked (still do) absolutely fabulous. He touched the heart of a customer and I fell in love with the orange one instantly. At that moment, I didn’t care which brand is which. He surely knew how to help me in making decisions.

So … a pair of orange running shoes worth S$169 … a pair of goggles worth S$30 … two CDs from HMV and an accessory (don’t ask) worth S$45 … BreadTalk snacks worth S$11 … guitar strings for my 12-strings worths S$13 a total of S$268!

Gasp! I really should have stayed at home.

Edit: Thanks to Tong Kiat who pointed out that my pair of running shoes cost S$169 instead of previously written S$269. Dude, you are good!

Edit: I have forgotten that I have bought guitar strings … till I emptied out the plastic bags.

Thanks to my VCR that has proudly served me well for 8 years and recently went out-of-order, I have finally set my feet onto the brand new Courts Megastore and the famous 24-hrs Mustafa.

Getting to Courts Megastore was not as easy as I thought it would be. Though I saw the huge buildings (the brand new IKEA is right next to it) on the other side of the highway, it took me a few maneuvers to reach it. Suffice to say, Courts Megastore is huge and spacious, but I have my doubt over the variety of goods. Identical to IKEA, Courts Megastore dictates the flow of the human traffic. You are advised to start from the 3rd floor via the escalators and work yourself down. Of course you could take the lift and get to whichever floor you want. However, they do encourage you to shop in a clockwise direction.

I asked for a Hitachi Plasma TV and they don’t carry Hitachi brand (huh?). I needed some advice on DVR and the salesmen of Courts are as useless as ever – just reading off labels.

Complains aside, it is a wonderful place for me to spend hours inside trying out new stuffs (I didn’t as I have to make a dash to VivoCity shortly after). I love the XBox 360 corner. There are huge LCD TVs and sofas for you to try out some of the games. It has been a really long time since I have played console games and gosh, this XBox racing game is brutal. Not only do I need to take over other cars, I need to “take them out”. If I was to play that game for hours, I wonder how would my driving habit be changed.

Getting out of Courts Megastore is a nightmare as there are no road signs that get you back to the highways. Having absolutely no idea as in where I was heading, I got onto Tampines Avenue 10, followed the road to a nice smooth and new flyover, and into … Bukit Kaki. Where on earth is Bukit Kaki anyway? It seems like an old industrial town with narrow streets (sorry if you are an elite resident of Bukit Kaki, it’s just my first impression). I kept going straight and I saw signs saying “Eunos”. I punched my fist in the air (YES!), happily got myself into the highway PIE – though, I must say, not without hair raising moments cutting through a jammed traffic in rush hour gambling if the highway entrance of the correct direction was to the left or to the right – and arrived at VivoCity on the dot.

I thought I have traveled lots of extra miles but I did a check and realised that going through Bukit Kaki was the shortest route in reaching the highway PIE to the city direction from Courts Megastore. Moral of the story? At times you feel lost, just keep going straight and keep an eye on your surroundings. You may find yourself better off in the end.

Mustafa, on the other hand, is the opposite of Courts Megastore. It has a wide variety of goods and it is one of the favorite shopping places amongst the Indian community. I can find hundred and one types of can openers inside. There is a floor full of jewellery in gold and there is a floor full of jewellery not in gold. There are so many entrances guarded with 2 to 3 Indians that I did not know which one to enter. I asked one of the guards for electronic goods and he pointed me to basement 2. I thought he thought I was heading to the car park and when the life door opened, lo and behold, a huge floor cramped with all sort of electronic goods. They even sell electronic pets inside.

I did not get anything from Mustafa but it was certainly an eye opening experience.