donger need food.

Change Management

For some, change is something to run away from, something to despise and loathe with every waking breath. It’s something that causes them to tremble in fear and lay awake late at night filled with worry. Not for me. It’s what makes life worth living. Despite the temporary trepidation that change would bring me, I don’t turn my back…instead, I embrace it. And as a manager, one of the “soft skills” that you get paid for is the ability to manage change: things like getting employees to perform better, dealing with shifting project deadlines and slipping schedules or maybe ensuring that the team remains productive in the midst of ever changing company directions. Thus was one of the themes for this sixth or so hop over The Big Pond. But as much as I look forward to dealing with change as part of my job, jetlag is something that I still can’t seem to deal with. I absolutely dread that eastbound lag that leaves me in this zombie-like state. And so here I am, halfway into this 12 hour flight, somewhere over the middle of the Pacific; it’s 6:30 in the morning and I just spent the past 4 hours tossing and turning in a futile effort to kickstart my body into the right timezone. So I’ll pop in Fake Plastic Trees on repeat (for as long as I can stand it) and jot down some little tidbits for this old man to look back on, years from now, and get a little snapshot on what life was like in the last week of July at 37 years old…

Singapore is a wonderful city to live in. One of the things that I’ve wanted to experience was fresh Durian. (In the states, you can only get it frozen) So my gracious host took me to Geylang where (among other – cough – “activities”) they have this large Durian stand on the side of the road. It was a unique sight. It was about 11 at night, and in the middle of this business district glowing under the bright fluorescent lights was a wall of Durian fruits. Approaching the stand from across the street, the smell was quite abundant. However, it wasn’t as repulsive as I had hoped…it was a subtle, tropical aroma. You simply walk up and ask the guy to pick you one. He cracks it open expertly with his knife – watching him, I realized that you only need to make a circumferential incision, splitting the fruit in half instead of slicing open each chamber as I do – and you reach in with your finger and have a taste. If it’s suitable, you bring it out to your table where you eat it. That’s right, just like your local Alberto’s or the neighborhood Denny’s. You sit there, picking at your “King of Fruits”, with cars whizzing by and a gentle cool breeze easing the humidity along. It was awesome. And even better, I was introduced to the Mangosteen fruit (“Queen of Fruits”), the natural complement of the Durian. You peel away the thick purple rind (don’t wipe the juice on your clothes, you’ll never get rid of the stain!), exposing these soft white chambers resembling garlic cloves. The Durian was surprisingly bittersweet, and the Mangosteen countered this with a cool, almost sour-like taste. I can’t explain it – just that it was a delicious and unique experience. It totally explained why the locals refer to the Durian as “heat” and the Mangosteen as “cool”. That is the one thing that I found surprising…the Durian fruits that I get in the states were extremely sweet, almost like eating pure caramel syrup. But these roadside fruits had quite a bitter kick that was backed up by a subtle sweet undertone. I was told that there were different types and gradings of the fruits. The ones we had were graded “D-4” whatever that means. I wonder if it’s because the ones we get in Ranch 99 were from Indonesia? Regardless, I was able to check off another box on my list of hedonistic desires: eat fresh Durian.

(It’s time to move on to another audio track....man, The Bends is actually a pretty decent album. Wonder why it took me so long to really listen to it)

And I actually like the humidity. For some reason, it isn’t unbearable like that nasty, sticky grimy stuff that I went through in a hot New York City July several summers ago…no, it’s a bit different here. My skin was soft and supple; that dry itching eczema was non-existent. But I did sweat a lot. A 20 minute walk from the hotel to a local Hawker center at 10PM had my grey t-shirt soaked in sweat (bad color choice to wear, by the way – you could see the pool of sweat clingin’ to mah fat ass).

The one thing that is the absolute deal breaker for me is that a car is a prohibitively expensive luxury. A Subaru WRX: SGD120,000. A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: SGD180,000. A Honda Civic 4-door: SGD70,000. Since Singapore is a tiny island, the government puts strict controls on how many cars are on the road. The way they do this is through high prices, high taxes (you are taxed on engine displacement – which explains the prevalence of BMW 7-series cars equipped with the tiny motor and the absolute lack of the 760Li). In addition, you can only drive for a maximum of 10 years. After which you have to reapply for a license, with its associated fees (I forget how much, I think it was SGD10K or something like that). Also, being a small island, there roads are few and far between, under heavy enforcement through speed cameras and such.

If I could manage to deal with not having a car, it is a decent place to live. They have schools populated by children of “ex-pats”. The public transportation system is superb. The city is amazingly clean. (Imagine sidewalks and streets with no gum!!!) There are no homeless people on the street. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, are all close by. (One of my co-workers spent 6 years there and was able to take his entire family on visits to all of South East Asia)

And then there’s the food. Singapore is a city that obviously cherishes food. It’s amazing…they have everything. Literally. And they range from the ultra cheap to the ultra swank. My favorite dishes: Hainanese Chicken, Char Kway Teow (when done right), Singaporean Chili Crab, and Otak-Otak.

Too bad I wouldn’t be able to drive a car there.

Sydney has quite a strong resemblance to two of my favorite cities: San Francisco and Vancouver. The way people dress, the diversity in cultures, and just the overall “vibe”. The only thing that is noticeably different is that it seems “louder”. It could be the narrow streets and tall buildings amplifying the sounds. Or it could be the prevalence of some really cool cars (like the Nissan Skyline and those Holden/Commodores with the rip-roarin’ V8s). Whatever the case, the city was small, with all the big tourist spots within walking distance. 3 days in the town crammed with a busy work schedule filled with meetings was barely enough time to get a sample of the city. I definitely need to come back on a non-work-related trip and truly explore Australia: climb the Harbour Bridge; explore the Blue Mountains; drive the Gold Coast… And I have to come back when the US Dollar has a bit more value behind it. Everything was really expensive in Sydney.

Though my visit was brief, I was able to enjoy some amazingly good seafood. At the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant, they brought out the seafood in plastic bags to your table for you to approve of their choices. The Parrot Fish was still flipping and the lobster was still moving. And the abalone was huge. Although the seafood was cooked in heavy sauces, they did not overpower the flavor. The restaurant was extremely expensive (lobster was AUD175/kg!) so I assumed was strictly for special occasions – Happy Birthday blared loudly on the overhead speaker several times through the night we were there. On the other end of the spectrum was The Fish Market, where fresh seafood was abundant. You simply picked out your food, and it was prepared to your liking (the oysters you ate raw). Prices were much better at this place, with lobster at AUD50/kg and oysters at AUD20/kg. Although in most major coastal cities you could get fresh seafood that tastes as good, you just can’t find it anywhere else presented in this unique fashion.

Other tidbits:

• Water drains counterclockwise out there.
• G’day Mate sounds like G’day Mike. (and no kidding…everybody says it).
• The co-workers in the office kept cracking me up when they would say “Way way way way way way” a-la the seagulls in Saving Nemo randomly in the middle of a conversation.
• I spent half an hour watching a game, but I could not figure out the rules for Australian Rules Football.
• If there’s one thing that is common between San Francisco and Sydney, it’s just how many people ignore the pedestrian controls…everyone crosses streets whenever they feel like it, refusing to wait for the signal to walk.

I really had high hopes for this post, somehow tying change management into some insightful observation about life. But instead it just turned into a rambling account of my past week... Oh well. It’s 10 to 8AM and I touch down in about 3 hours. I might as well try to get some sleep before they serve breakfast.

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:13 PM

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