Singapore: City State with Many "Cities"

It has been a week since my daughters, Sarah and Samantha, returned from Perth last Saturday. In that one week, though I am very pleased to see them, my routine and schedules have been changed quite a fair bit. We have to co-ordinate our schedules including usage of one car now very carefully, so that we can spend as much time as we can together as a family, while making time for our own friends and also time to meeting our other commitments - church ministry, condominium management, office "advisory" work (my staff still calls me for advice), etc.

Tomorrow, my occupation becomes "Unemployed" but I call it "Retired" or maybe "God's Servant". Now, how should I be filling up the Australian immigration form next Sunday when I fly off to Perth?

In the last 7 days, I have eaten a lot, walked a lot, shopped a lot, and tired a lot. It is really sheer endurance keeping up with all these commitments. My church personnel policies, third and final parts are sort of KIVed for the time being but I really would like to get onto them and over with. It is my nature not to KIV and leave things undone for even a short period - maybe overly responsible and it can be good and bad. Good as I will be deemed efficient and reliable; and Bad as I put a lot of pressure on myself - sometimes Iynee also add to it because when she gets excited over one thing, she will never leave you alone till it gets done. Over the long years, after 23 years of working and married life and 18 years of fatherhood, I am trained to "cope" with such pressures. This is how I am slowly building up my PATIENCE and GENTLENESS, two of the nine Fruits of the Spirit.

Over the past week, I realised that Singapore is a city state, nation or country with MANY CITIES within it - Suntec City, Raffles City, Ngee Ann City, Vivo City, Great World City and soon many hubs - Toa Payoh Hub, Ang Mo Kio Hub, etc. These cities are to many women and men, tourists, etc. shopping paradises. I learned about Mango, Zara, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Forever 21, Diva, Topman, Pullman and Bear, River Island and many others just walking (actually more like torturing my legs) though VivoCity. It is good for those with big wallets, no end to time to spare, good and sharp eyes and a good nose to spot a deal and the right stuff to buy for themselves. It takes much time to understand the psyche of how the opposite sex purchase their stuff. This is called passion in shopping plus many, many other things to be passionate about in shopping centres. Singaporeans are really a blessed lot, with shopping centres and restaurants opening late into the night every day of the week, unlike in Perth.

On my shopping trips with my family, I am more keen to understand the dynamics on how shopping centres work and appeal to shoppers, the concepts used, the creativity of some entrepreneurs and sustainability, the dining places and their design and environment, car park charges pricing and differentiation, and the product pricing and branding issues of the various retailers and dining outlets. Each shopping or dining experience is a good learning lesson. It is therefore important for me to use my eyes to see in such a way that I can also learn and use my heart to feel how things work and how people behave, after all each successful entrepreneur must have used these senses too to gauge on whether there will be success for themselves. They do not talk about failing until it happens.