Tag: Business and Economy

Sweaty weekend


There was a corporate team building event last Friday afternoon, as part of year end/Christmas thing for the corporate services team. Since a new executive general manager came in earlier this year (end March I think) a bit of reorganisation has come about and the legal department has moved from being part of commercial services (reporting to the CFO) to this new “CST” team, which also comprise internal audit, risk and compliance and some parts of project management.

The event was an “Amazing Race” type of chasing around the city. The company, Uplift Events, was the same joint which organised the same event while I was at AIA. To complete the trifecta, I had helped the company when it was setting up and I had helped with stuff like the shareholders’ agreement, web terms and disclaimers and participation forms and disclaimers and the like. To see the company grow and keep going has been a little pleasing.

So Friday I went home tired… but when I got home, the sight of a mound of mulch greeted me. 3+ cubic meters of stuff to be shovelled/raked/ barrowed was horrifying, especially after crisscrossing the city for a couple of hours earlier in the day.

Tress, Kiddo and I decided to just go out for dinner, and when we came back, we worked for about an hour, until it turned dark close to 9pm. I was glad we started as not only we did some work we managed to create a work system and momentum which we could then just pick up on the next day.

And so early on Sat Tress and I woke, had our coffee and toasts and then went to work by about 7am. Tim, who had provided us with the mulch, had also loaned us a large wheel barrow and a couple of shovels. One was a pitch fork which was certainly the right tool for the job. Before long, Kiddo joined us and after a few hours we managed to clear the mounds and spread the mulch through the areas which needed it. Around noon, after cleaning up, we went to Madam K and then off to the city to catch the King Kong musical at the Princess Theatre on Collin Street.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep momentarily a couple of times – the show was a spectacular one mechanical wise as the animation was surprisingly smooth and natural considering it was given effect primarily through cables and pulleys, worked by maybe half a dozen athletes. The music and acting was so so…but it was entertaining all the same.

On Sunday we went to church, went back to Madam K for lunch after that, and then off to some grocery shopping. Then after returning the tools to Tim we went to the Whitehorse Carols at the Whitehorse Civic Centre on Whitehorse Road. When we got home it was nearly 9pm and we had time to fix my lunch and I was so tired I could barely wake up this morning.

Christmas is only just over a week away and it was a busy weekend but best of all, it was loads of activities for the whole family right through the weekend.

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Short end of the bargain


I was at another CPD session yesterday but this time it was out of a work driven requirement. The ever growing need to reconcile corporate drivers (profit, margins, market share) with the equally increasing volume in terms of noises made, from the community perspectives. So a corporate entity seeks to report on its corporate social responsibility which was all the rage where I was some 5-6 years ago.

Apparently this has evolved and corporations are now required to report not just how it discharges its CSR, but also how its vision, mission, objectives, strategies, activities etc creates value not just for the corporation but also for its shareholders and all stakeholders at large.

That was why I rocked up to the session yesterday but as is often the case, the delivery was something else.

It was partly my bad however – while the promotional literature talked about “Global Reporting Initiative” and “Integrated Reporting” framework, the workshop was targeted at people who had to produce the report as a whole – albeit incorporating aspects of GRI and possibly, into the future, IR. Maybe the letters GRI and IR jumped out because I was looking for such material. I was possibly misled because of my own agenda and priorities.

Sometimes however, one is misled not because of undisclosed agenda or expectations. One is often misled because counter-party misled you. Tham Fuan Yee proclaims you are his first team, he publicly says things like it would be crazy for him to forge ahead without board support – it would be suicidal even, for him to proceed in this manner – yet actions and day-to-day words suggest to be his first team and to support him means no questions are to be asked. Any questions asked are interpreted as lack of support. That then gets communicated to everyone working for him. The Board is prevented from communicating to the same persons and so that miscommunication is never given a different perspective. Over time, the board is made to appear to be obstructive and unreasonable.

One feels betrayed and short changed. To be treated this way by a pastor hurts immeasurably. The damage is far more destructive than a day lost in mismatched training. To this day, our church life suffers and I feel like a homeless potted plant seeking to be part of a productive plot. Thanks Tham Fuan, for the continuing damage you wrought. Thanks to your harsh words and inexplicable nonchalance for so long, I continue to wander. Instead of gathering like a godly man would, you have succeeded in scattering. Tham Fuan, do you know how that is?

Cape Town Commitment


The Cape Town Commitment is set out in a 49 page document, something many of us struck with the modern disease of not reading anything more than 120 characters, would probably find a tad too long to plough through.

Perhaps for this reason this summary has been produced and at the least, all Christians, particularly leaders, ought to read. Hopefully we get to the full document as well but this should be the very least start.

Like many Lausanne Movement statements however, this commitment struck a chord with me in every single statement professed.

Why then hasn’t it had more traction here in Australia? Is it because our church scene mimics the American scene somewhat and our idea of global Christianity is really more American/UK/Australian Christianity?

In the context of the diminishing importance of the Christian faith to the society in these countries, this would be most ironic. If we really are attuned to what God is doing in this world today, the Lausanne Movement must be heeded ever more closely than before.

Scot McKnight thinks American churches have become tribal – only thoughts, movements, trends, people who emanate from America mattered to American churches. I often think Australian churches can be equally “tribal” in our ways.

Coming to terms with my new world


After over a month’s hiatus, I was back at the MST library on Sat morning, trying to work out the research load for the essay for this semester. It was good to be back researching something to write about again. Later that afternoon we went about our usual chores and errands before visiting a mate’s home for his youngest’ 2nd birthday.

On Sunday, after church and lunch thereafter with a bunch of people including pastor TF, Tress and I went back and attacked the house cleaning tasks, hoping to make it a touch cleaner before the home group meets later in the week. When everything was done it was close to 6 and I was just settling down on the couch for a breather when I was letting out choruses of snores within minutes. It was just for a few minutes before I woke to fix kiddo’s dinner.

Earlier this arvo a mate texted me to say he was near my office so I ducked out for lunch with him and his family. It was the first time I visited this place although it’s just a minute away (across the street from the office).

It has been a really busy but strange day in office – I was the only one there. In an office of just 3 full-time employees, it is easy to have days like  today but when it happens, it’s a strange mix of being busy with loads to do but being all by myself. Thankfully there weren’t any tricky tasks – just loads of little things to do. I had to put up little notices on the door a few times today, when I had to duck out for something and leave the office unmanned. I remain happy and satisfied with work however, and am very grateful for this.

It’s a different world for me these days…

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Through the roof…


We recently had our roof repaired. We bought a renovated house and being novices in home construction matters we didn’t pay much attention to the roof except the timber work near the gutters and the gutters themselves. As long as the gutters seemed ok and there were any shattered or broken roof tiles we didn’t know what else to be looking out for.

The roof was still alright but recent storms and heavy rains have showed up the weak work done on the roof and a couple of damp spots were showing up on the ceiling and we could hear water dripping onto the ceiling.

So about a month and a half ago we got some roof experts to come in and our roof looks much better now. Broken roof tiles were replaced, improperly done work was rectified and old timbers were replaced. The roof tiles were then given a couple of coats of sealants and a couple of coats of paint.

We have a properly maintained roof now and Tress and I worry less whenever there is a storm or heavy rains. The roofing episode sort of brought home to me again, the costly business of home ownership and living in general… everything’s so costly now.

I have taken to listening to talkback radio while cooking dinners and the other day someone said the new electricity smart meters have caused their electricity bills to skyrocket by 70+ percent. I was looking at my car registration and insurance renewal just last Friday and the premium has gone up quite a bit too, and with that the stamp duty. I was shopping to cook for a potluck at Alex and Li Har’s last night and the tomatoes were between $7-8 a kilo. Kiddo was starting to look at some organic stuff and the like and the general idea that such things were more costly suddenly came sharply into focus. Tress was getting some dental work done these past few weeks and the cost of these treatments were as always, a shocker.

So why is it that when the cost of so many things are literally through the roof, have I started a role in the public sector with a painful pay cut… it’s like another double whammy for yours truly…

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