Surprise gifts that are connected to nothing

"Why a husband never give surprise n gifts for all occassions to the wife?" This questions was posted on Yahoo Singapore Answers.

I think it refers to surprise flowers or gifts that are connected to nothing but the desire to surprise and delight. Giving our loved one surprise flowers - or any thoughtful gift - is an unspoken message that lets her know we are thinking about her, and that we went out of our way to please her, and that she is special to us.

Many men give flowers after doing something stupid. Can you spell "i-d-i-o-t"? Although buying flowers to emphasise an apology is not a bad idea, we don't want to inextricably connect flowers to acts of stupidity.

Guys, in a world where so many relationships fail, doesn't it make sense for us to do the thoughtful little things to tell them in a 100 different ways that they matter to us?

Children mirror their parents

ACE and his friends got together to de-stress after their mid-year assessments last Tueasday.

As the twig is bent, so is the tree...and so they say. It is interesting, when one sees children, to speculate from the way they act as to the kind of homes from which they come. I think, as one can judge the vitality of a tree from the fruit it produces, so one can tell the character of the parents from their children.

from left: John, ACE, Kenneth, Gerald

Customers are our best salespeople

"We lost US$27 million in Australia in Q1 because of IT problems," Steve revealed. "Thankfully, we have a few customers who spoke up on our behalf."


I have organised events where our existing customers mixed with prospects. A customer bragging about our service/products beats our salesperson's presentation any day.

front row from right: Natalie, David

back row from right: Chloe, Albert

Liking is key in making relationships last

"How much do you actually like your partner?" Sarah asked .

Like seems a rather weedy emotion compared to love, but as Sarah explained, it is one of the most important components in making a relationship last. It might seem surprising, but Sarah argued that some people fall in love with partners they don't like very much.

Complex, though it may seem, I tend to agree with what Sarah said. If two people enjoy each other's company, find each other interesting, approve of the way each other thinks and behaves, they might fall in love. But eventually the "in love" feelings would pass. If there are things that irritate or bore us about our partner, or which make us feel cross or comtemptuous, these will matter more once we have stopped feeling madly in love.

The ultimate question is: would I want to be friends with this person if we weren't in love?

Preparing for battle

Sir Alex, sharing in the 19th title celebrations, is already thinking of ways he can improve his squad or extract better performances from those already in his ranks.

Many leaders mistakenly believe that their primary responsibility as a coach is to provide feedback and encouragement. I personally believe that prior to doing all that, a leader/coach's responsibility is to prepare his team to compete.


Preparing the team for battle would mean to ensure that we have the right people in the right positions, with the right skills, at the right time. It also means that all team members are properly trained for the mission and also have the tools, equipment, information and resources to get their jobs done.

The many faces of mum

Today is mother's day.

Mothers are often taken for granted. In truth they work so hard to accomplish so much. Among a mother's roles are: head chef (prepares food), hostess (serves food), caretaker, teacher, Miss manners (monitored etiquette), moral guardian, social secretary (juggles child's social schedule) and manager. It is breath taking when we contrast with Dad's two: conversationalist with wife and play buddy with son.

Gift from God

ACE is 12 today. We have to pay full adult price for him at buffets from today onwards.

Parenting isn't a science. In a lab, we get to control all the variables. At home, we are lucky if we get to control the TV remote.

"Children are from heaven," so wrote Dr John Gray. I agree...ACE is a gift from God.

He can be exhausting, maddening and irritating - but he is still a gift. He can be funny, endearing and lovable - and truly feel like a gift. He can wrench my soul and break my heart - precisely because he is such a precious gift.

And to top it all off, he is a gift that comes with strings attached.