A few days ago, we were officially here now for 4 months. Only 20 more months to go! Things continue to settle down and we continue to run around and find new locations (to shop, to eat, etc.).
A little over a week ago, I spent the day at a writers/publishers seminar. It was part of the weeklong Writer’s Festival here in Singapore. I think this was the third or maybe the fourth year. The day I attended, there were a number of different seminars covering writing a novel, working on biographies, legal rights in this self-publishing age, and quite a few discussions around publishing via the Internet on your own (Amazon, Kobo Writing Life) versus the traditional way of finding a publisher and putting your book out in print. The online publishers of course see bookstores going the way of Blockbuster or the other video rental stores you used to know but can no longer find. With the large amounts of iPads, Kindles, and the like, reading books electronically has picked up steam.
One of the authors at the seminar was Neil Humphreys who I have mentioned before. (http://www.neilhumphreys.net/books.html). Neil has written a number of books about life here in Singapore –from the ex-UK, ex-Aussie point of view. I was able to spend 10 minutes talking to him before his lecture and he really is an interesting guy. You figured he was more laid back that the rest when you saw him seated on the panel. The others wore slacks and button downs or even a sports coat. Neil was in older jeans and a t-shirt. The debate between him, preferring to work with a publisher and brick-and-mortar bookstores vs. a female author who has published exclusively online, was really heated. I won’t spend hours on this topic but if you are interested in writing and publishing online, even short stories, Kobo Writing Life is worth a look (http://www.kobobooks.com/kobowritinglife).
It was a fun day actually. I thought I would be fairly bored but the afternoon arguments…discussions around self-publishing were worth the day.
I won’t spend too much time here about work either. Not sure anyone is really that interested. However, I now not only do technical pre-sales, project management, and partner enablement, but now am I suddenly the lead salesperson for Southeast Asia. Not sure how it happened but I hope the Selling for Dummies book now sitting on my desk will help! I get leads through an internal system and then I have to call them to figure out there interest. I have one good one right now I am working with but this is all new to me. Likely the biggest challenge since trying to implement Lean in the hospital where nobody really cared! Always fun that one.
I am not even sure what else is new. It just seems to be a normal existence these last few weeks. We found another cool restaurant, Medz, which I will write about separately. We’ve been going out at night to the clubs on the weekends – well maybe not your idea of clubs but the places we go are free, have good cover bands, and offer really interesting people watching! Last week we tried Chijmes’ Insomnia which had a not-so-good cover band, a few working ladies, but was really small and boring. Yet we had heard Insomnia was the place to go. Not sure why!! We still are on our quest to find clubs with good music and no cover charge! Maybe I’ll add another blog entry about that. We are going to ZoukOut in another 2 weeks. It is the 2-day all-night rave party at the resort beach island here. No, we won’t last two-nights, being in our 40s, but we will last at least 1 night! I don’t think I have even been to a beach rave! I wonder what the dress code for that event is. We won’t have insomnia after that.
YAW’s work is still tough but I think it will work itself out soon. Next week is Thanksgiving, not a holiday here of course, but we found out the Fullerton Hotel, an 8-10 minute walk, has a Thanksgiving buffet on Saturday. There are some other Americans here working with YAW and we are going to go as a small group. That will be fun and I not only looking forward to all-you-can-eat pumpkin pie, but the ability to waddle home in a few minutes will be nice.
We are also addicted to the classes now at Pure Fitness at Asia Square, the one with the all black outfits provided. The classes are the same, many of them, as the ones offered by 24-hour Fitness or Bally’s in the US – i.e. Body Pump, but the class sizes are usually smaller. I was in one the other day with 12 women and me. That is the benefit of course of working at home and going mid-afternoon. I am not sure I stand out because I am the only guy or the only Ang Mo! Maybe both. On the weekends, we go together and that way when we both can’t walk after, no one wants to go to the crowded malls and we don’t feel guilty about being lazy at home.
Well it is Sunday at noon and we have to venture out today to one of the geek malls, either Funan or Sim Lim, to find some computer equipment. And yes, the equipment is for work! Strange I get to go shopping or work-related stuff. What happened to the guy tai days of lounging by the pool….