Making Globalization Work

I'm currently halfway through Joseph Stiglitz's latest book titled "Making Globalization Work". It is a very interesting account of both sides of the globalisation debate and provides a more balanced view than another interesting book I read recently called "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Globalization is a topic that affects everyone on a basic level and yet it is very complex. One of the big issues we face today is the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots. This is not only the case for individuals, it is happening to nations as well. Stiglitz does a good job of explaining how this is perpetuated by institutions such as the IMF and WTO. Another interesting fact is that developing countries such as China are effectively providing low interest loans to rich countries such as the United States by buying Treasury bills which enables the US to continue to live beyond its means. This situation is unsustainable and the only question is whether it unwinds slowly or whether it culminates in a massive global financial and economic crisis.

As I read this book I recalled reading books as a teenager such as "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler where (if I remember correctly) it was predicted that within one or two generations we would not have to work (unless we wanted to) because everything would be automated, life expectancy would exceed 100 years as there would be cures for all terminal illnesses, etc. These wonders (and more) have actually occured as predicted by Toffler, although unfortunately the beneficiaries are but a small percentage of the worlds population. The fact is that there are more people living a stone age existence today, without access to clean water, electricity, education and healthcare, than at any other era in the past. This is probably the most shocking future that hardly any futurists would have imagined without nuclear armageddon taking place, and sadly it is our reality.

"Making Globalisation Work" tries to address the big questions, such as how to break the vicious cycle of poverty and indebtedness, how to align the interests of the developed and developing nations, and how to address global issues such as climate change. These are the true challenges of our generation - challenges that if not successfully tackled will herald a new "dark age" for the world, with lower life expectancy, massive starvation, displacement of entire populations, the inundation of coastal cities, the list goes on.

I hope that in 30 years we will be able to look back and say we were able to rise to the challenge, realising today that the challenge is more difficult than it ever was (back in the good old days when two old men had the fate of the world in their hand in deciding whether or not to press the Big Red Button) and that paradoxically everyone holds the key to what the world will be like in the future through their individual actions.

Progress?

Being away for a few months, one becomes acutely aware of the pace of change we experience in KL. Even the view of the KL skyline from our apartment balcony has changed noticeably since we left in May. I got myself a new camera (Sony Alpha 100 DSLR) and have been playing with it, trying to take shots of Lucas (difficult) and the view from the balcony (much easier). I've managed to take decent pictures of Formula 1 cars whizzing by, but Lucas moves faster and less predictably! So I'll have to practice a little more. The shot here is a typical "just before the deluge" shot - the sky turns almost black as night, but the sun is still shining from behind (and 5 minutes later, the view is completely wiped out as the rain completely obscures the city). The twin towers stand out especially under these conditions.

I'm already experiencing a little buyer's remorse with the camera, but not because it's not good enough (it'll probably take me several months to even utilise it to 50% of what it can do). A couple of days after I bought it, Sony came out with a very attractive promotional offer that includes a lot more accessories (e.g. 2GB memory stick, free photo workshop, etc.) for less than what I paid. Also, I heard the new and better model (the Alpha 700) is being launched in November. Anyway, that's the pace of change thing again - one really should not fall for it. My 12 year old car and 15 year old TV set are still working just fine. Actually when I was buying it, the salesperson was trying to convince me to buy the Canon EOS 400D instead. So not only do we have "improved" models every year, we also have more and more choices of equally improved models.

Is this a good thing? Well - in my case probably not. I hardly use any of the features of all the new and improved models of phones, cameras etc. (I think I actually took my best pictures with my 20 year old Minolta manual compact). Unfortunately, you can't buy a 5 (or even 2) year old phone or camera anymore. It's actually quite difficult to buy a phone that just does calls and sms (and doesn't need to be "rebooted" every now and then!). Soon it'll be difficult to buy a camera that is not capable of inadvertently uploading your private pics to the internet!

That brings me to one unique thing about Malaysia that makes this such a great place - thanks to Proton (our very own car manufacturer), we can actually buy a 20 year old car factory new if we want to. None of the stuff that just causes trouble like computerised ignition, digital displays, ABS, airbags, traction control etc. Just a car that gets you from A to B, and it actually withstands floods quite well (except when parked in a basement car park)! Unfortunately, there are not enough people like me who just want simple, single function products and that's why Proton is probably doomed (and why people like me have a job)! Still, one would think that someone should be able to find a market for such "obsolete" stuff, given that 90+ % of the world's population does not own a phone, camera or car...

Back home again

Well it's been over a week since we got back and the time has passed in a blur of meeting up with family and friends, catching up at work and having all the great local food that we've missed (although I'm already missing those steaks and burgers after a week!). Malaysia celebrated her 50th year of Independence on August 31st, so there is a festive atmosphere and the city is beautifully lit up every night.

I haven't really had a chance to reflect yet on the experiences of the last 3 months, and it looks like I won't be able to in the foreseeable future. In some ways I feel as if I'm on a dysfunctional treadmill that is going so fast that I'll fall and hurt myself if I try to slow down or get off. Despite the "advantages" of jet-lag (being awake when no-one else is) I have gotten less than half of my to-do list done.

One good practice that we've continued over from the US is tracking our daily expenses. It is indeed shocking how much we spend every day, just on the bare necessities. I really wonder how people manage to get by on RM1000 a month (US$10 per day) which is the average wage in KL for unskilled or semi-skilled workers. It does put things in perspective though and I believe most people would have a much better chance of living within their means if only they took the simple step of tracking their expenditure.

Hello Goodbye

It’s our last few hours in LA and soon we’ll be on the plane, making the 10,000 mile journey back to KL. Yesterday we took one last walk around Old Town Pasadena, passing our “old” apartment on the way. I said to Lucas – “look, that’s where we used to stay”, and as I said it, I realised that it feels like a lot longer than 3 months that we’ve been here. Even Lucas was completely silent the whole way, taking the surroundings in like he knew it would be a long time before he returns to Pasadena.

In the Accenture KL office, up on the 66th floor of the Petronas Twin Towers, there’s a quote printed on the window – “Live as though it’s your last day, dream as though you’ll live forever”. I think that’s very good advice and if we are able to experience every 3 months as though it’s a year, we will “live” for several hundred years! My dream is that I will be able to keep involved with the project, maybe even be a part of the team that realises the vision and hopefully I won’t have to live forever to do so…

The reason I was thinking of this quotation is that I received the sad news yesterday that Robert Davies, the CEO of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) passed away last week. I only knew Robert briefly, having been privileged to spend a week touring India and Sri Lanka with him as part of the IBLF Tsunami Task Force 2 years ago. Robert is a person who embodied this quotation – every day with him was exhausting yet exhilirating and he pushed all of us to look at the world a different way and make a positive difference. Being part of the Tsunami Task Force and meeting Robert I think planted the seed for me to do this ADP project at World Vision.

It was a perfect last day at work – the project team threw me a farewell tea party (US style with bagels and coffee) and we went to lunch at In ‘n Out – this time I got the Double Double with Animal Style fries (living like it’s my last day…). I had been wanting to participate in the World Vision Child Sponsorship program ever since I joined the project and amazingly, today in chapel there was the opportunity to sign up (a timely reminder!) so I did so right away. Lucas now has a big sister in Lebanon, her name is Mary Theresa George and she likes science…hopefully the last part will rub off on Lucas!

To all who have made our short time here such a great experience, thank you for everything you’ve done and I hope we will keep in touch. Taking my cue from the Governator – hasta la vista and we’ll be back!

Road trip - part 3 (San Francisco and back to LA)

I think I am more than a month behind on this blog now, I have not finished our Independence Day road trip report and now it's already coming up to Memorial Day (which we will no longer be here for, but instead we will be back in Malaysia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia's independence!).

So let me catch up with San Francisco - we stayed at the Hyatt Embarcadero because they had an Independence Day special deal and somehow the advertising implied that we could view the fireworks directly from the hotel. So it was a bit of a letdown when I checked in and they said that we would have to go to Fisherman's Wharf to see the fireworks. The room itself was nice for the price, and the hotel is very well located just by the Ferry Building and a cable car end station. We checked in around 5pm and started going to Fisherman's Wharf at 7pm. Good as SF's public transport is, it is not baby friendly. Strollers have to be folded up and there is usually standing room only in the trams and cable cars. It was pretty stressful trying to get on and off the trams carrying Lucas in one arm and a folded up stroller plus all his gear in the other arm, trying to find the correct change and having other people push by at the same time. We made it to Pier 39 in one piece, but there was a free rock concert going on right outside the Hard Rock Cafe and the crowd was building up. We had a quick dinner at Hard Rock (went to the front of the queue with my All Access card!) and by the time we came out at 8:45pm the crowd was so packed that it was almost impossible to move. We then decided that it would not make sense to stay for the fireworks with Lucas (everyone must have thought we were out of our minds to bring a baby there!).

Walking back to the hotel was fairly smooth as everyone was already at Fisherman's Wharf. We did in the end catch the fireworks from across a large parking lot near the hotel. I think we probably saw more of it than we would have from Fisherman's Wharf, since there were no crowds at the parking lot!

The next day we took the cable car to Chinatown - it was a smooth ride as we got on at the first station and it was relatively early in the morning. San Francisco has the largest Chinatown in America, and it was great having authentic Chinese food at reasonable prices again. I took the opportunity to get a haircut with shampoo for $10 ($6 for just the haircut, even cheaper than my haircut in KL!). Lucas also had his first haircut, which he was not impressed with. After Chinatown we tried to take the cable car again but by this time we had to wait about half an hour as all the cars passing by were packed. When we got to the end of the line we saw that there was a massive queue to take the cable car going up Russian hill (the steepest part of the line with a nice view, so very popular with tourists) so we decided to just walk back from Fisherman's Wharf (again) to our hotel. We went to the Ferry Building at about 8pm to try and get a nice dinner but all the shops and most of the restaurants had already closed. So apart from a couple of cable car rides and Chinatown, we did not really do much on this day. We ended up getting a sandwich from Subway for dinner - none of the restaurants near the Ferry Building are open for dinner, I guess they cater only for the office crowd.

Our final day in SF we drove to the Presidio and walked all the way to the Golden Gate bridge. That was very pleasant although it was cold and foggy - 59 Fahrenheit (15 Celsius) at noon! No wonder Mark Twain said that the coldest winter day he ever experienced was a San Francisco July day! However Lucas was very happy - he likes being outdoors and he is more into cold weather than warm. The fog never lifted high enough for us to see the whole bridge, but what we could see of it was very impressive.

We then started on the long drive back to LA - it took us about 7 hours as there was quite a bit of traffic leaving the Bay Area. What was interesting was seeing the outside temperature climb from 59F (15C) to 110F (43C) within a distance of 50 miles! We had to make a stop at a place where it was 105F and I don't think I could last very long in that heat. Las Vegas was over 110F that entire week, hitting 116F on a couple of days so I was glad that we decided to travel to the coast instead of Vegas.

We arrived back in Pasadena at around 10pm (and a very comfortable 71F!) and that was all in all a very enjoyable trip. It gave us confidence that we could have an enjoyable extended trip with Lucas as long as we plan ahead a little and we are flexible when conditions change. So watch out for more family trip reports soon!

Just 3 weeks left...

The time has just flown by - we’ll be flying back to KL less than 3 weeks from now and although it’ll be nice to be back home, it is with a twinge of sadness that we leave LA. Amazingly, this place has grown on us in a short time, much more than I could have imagined possible. Here are some of the things I will miss:

- The cool evenings sitting on the little balcony of our apartment (and Lucas calling out to all the dogs, babies and cars that pass by)
- Going to Lacy park in San Marino for Lucas’ playgroup (and gawking at the $2 million houses around the park)
- All the good stuff we can get at Trader Joe’s and Pavilions ($2 Charles Shaw wine anyone?)
- Ralph’s 10 for $10 deals (and double coupons!)
- Cherries, Strawberries, Rasperries, Blueberries (with or without ice-cream)!
- Decent sized parking lots (and free parking at the mall)
- Weekends at the pool or the beach (and the almost 100% reliable sunshine)
- Wednesday chapel at World Vision (very thought provoking and inspirational)
- Some great friends we’ve made both at work and outside
- Last but not least - In-n-Out Burgers and Baha fish tacos!

But at least we will have our nice memories (and photo evidence for Lucas), which reminds me that I need to finish my trip report of our road trip to San Francisco before it fades too far into distant memory!

Stewardship

One of Accenture's 6 core values is "Stewardship" (the other 5 being One Global Network, Best People, Client Value Creation, Respect for the Individual and Integrity). It so happens there is a library at World Vision and as I passed by last week a book with the same title (Stewardship, by Peter Block) caught my eye. I had not really given much thought to Stewardship and what it really means for an organisation and an individual before, so I thought it would be worth checking out.

First - Accenture's definition of Stewardship on the company website (I admit, I had to check to remind myself of some of the other core values!) is "Building a heritage for future generations, acting with an owner mentality, developing people everywhere we are and meeting our commitments to all internal and external stakeholders". I am sure this is a good definition and was well thought out and consistent with the way the leadership should act, but I always felt something essential was missing from the description. It is the sort of definition which one understands easily enough in a "OK, I can recite this to others" fashion, but what is really at the core of this that will ensure Stewardship is actually practiced?

I think I found an answer in Peter Block's book, which essentially says that Stewardship is acting out of a will to serve rather than out of self-interest. It is giving up control without abdicating responsibility and accountability. It is partnership rather than parenting. This is what would enable individuals, and by extension the organisation to build a heritage for future generations, act with an owner mentality, develop people and meet commitments to all internal and external stakeholders. Now I can see why this definition was not chosen - it would require a total revamp of the organisation (not to mention human nature). It would mean the higher up you go in an organisation, the more people you are serving (not controlling!). It would mean everyone acting in the best interests of other people, not their own best interest. It would mean an end to a sense of entitlement, because stewardship means not being entitled, but still being accountable.

I am wondering how many organisations are ready for this kind of a revolution? By the way, Peter Block's book was published in 1993 and if anything, stewardship and governance have declined in the following years. Maybe it is one of those aspirational concepts that everyone agrees with in principle, but very few are willing to make the necessary sacrifices for.

Road trip - part 2 (Hearst Castle to Monterey)

We got to Hearst Castle around 2 in the afternoon and booked a tour for 2:40pm. It's a 15 minute ride in a bus to the top of the hill and along the way you can see zebras and other exotic animals if you're lucky (we weren't). As there are lots of steps to climb and strollers are not allowed, I picked up a "baby backpack" to carry Lucas on the tour. That makes for a good workout! It was pretty hot up there (we find it very strange that the higher up you go in altitude in California, the hotter it gets - this is the opposite of most places we've been). Hearst castle is quite impressive but somehow feels out of place compared to all the castles and palaces in Europe. I also tend not to like the super strict "conveyor belt" tours where you're not allowed to stray from the path (there's actually a second "guide" following us from behind who's more of a warden to make sure you don't "get lost"). I must say if not for that I might have tried to sneak a dip in the beautiful pool!

After the tour we watched a 40 minute IMAX movie at the visitor center which detailed the inspiration behind Hearst castle and how it was constructed. This was Lucas’ first time in a movie theatre and he was very well behaved and even seemed to be watching the movie. It seems William Randolph Hearst was so enamoured of Europe from a trip he made there as a young boy that he tried to replicate the architecture he saw there 50 years later – I wonder what will come of Lucas’ experiences in California! Will he build a replica of Disneyland or Universal Studios in the hills of KL?

We then took a short drive to our stop for the night, the Fog Catcher Inn in Cambria. The Inn is right by the beach, and there are sea otters (or seals?) basking on the rocks right in front of the board walk by the sea. We had a very nice dinner at the Sea Chest, a seafood only restaurant just a couple minutes walk from the hotel. This was a very relaxing place and it would have been nice to be able to stay an extra day.

The most scenic part of the coastal highway is the stretch between Cambria and Big Sur. The road winds and curves climbing high into the cliffs, and there are spectacular views of the ocean along each turn. There is also a place where elephant seals gather, and July is the best time of the year to see them. It's a good thing that we gave ourselves a lot of time for the drive - even though the distance covered was less than 100 miles it took us about 5 hours as we stopped frequently to enjoy the scenery. We took a late lunch break at a place that claimed to have "the Top 5 rated Fish and Chips in the USA" - well the fish and chips was so-so, but the location was amazing. Just off the highway high up on a cliff, with views to die for.

We finally got to our stop for the night (a free stay on points at Holiday Inn Express in Monterey) around 6pm after getting lost in Monterey's one-way system for half an hour. We missed a left turn to the road that we needed to go to and had to drive all the way out of Monterey because left turns were not allowed on any of the 10 following intersections! The annoying thing was that we had been within 100 meters of the hotel when we first drove into town but we did not know how to get to the next parallel street. That kind of tired us out so after a quick walk around Cannery Row - all those sardines in tomato sauce I used to like when I was in school were probably processed in Monterey - we skipped dinner and had an early night.

Road trip - part 1 (Santa Barbara and Solvang)

Last week we went on our most ambitious journey since Lucas was born - a 6 day road trip up the Pacific coast to San Francisco, driving a few hours each day and stopping at various interesting places on route. We started off driving towards Santa Barbara, which of course meant that we dropped by at the Camarillo outlet mall on the way. Santa Barbara is very pleasant, with a Mediterranean feel due to the architecture. We had a simple alfresco lunch which was surprisingly good - it was a fast food burger place but they had caesar salad with grilled albacore (white tuna). The burger was pretty good too! There was a live band playing at the posh restaurant next door so we got free music. Lucas was in a good mood throughout and we had a relaxing stroll down the main street to the pier. Santa Barbara is a little like Rodeo Drive, lots of nice cars and Harleys and people who look like they just walked off the set of The Bold and the Beautiful. We could not get a reasonably priced hotel in Santa Barbara (even Holiday Inn Express is over $200!), so we took a 45 minute drive to our destination for the night, Solvang.

Solvang was started about a hundred years ago by Danish emigrants from the Midwest and all the buildings without exception look like they were transplanted from Denmark. It is quite a sight, in the middle of California wine country! It happened to be quite chilly when we arrived so that added to the impression that we were in Scandinavia. Just as in Europe, all the shops were already closed by 6pm and we were lucky to find a restaurant that would still serve us dinner at 8pm! It was actually enjoyable for a change to be somewhere that is not on the go 24 hours a day.

The shops did look very interesting though (all family run businesses, no chain stores here) and the next morning we went to check them out - there was a "Christmas shop" selling Christmas tree ornaments and decorations, which even had hard-to-find wood carvings from the Erzgebirge (a region in Germany bordering the Czech republic which not many tourists have been to). There was also a shop selling cuckoo-clocks and beer steins - more Bavarian than Danish but I guess there's a big demand for these items. One of the beer steins was about 3 feet high and cost $1600! Anyway, it's a good thing we had no more space in the car (partly because we had bought stuff again in Camarillo), otherwise I might have been tempted to buy something that would only end up gathering dust at home.

From Solvang we drove on the 101 through wine country towards Cambria and Hearst castle. If you've seen the film Sideways, you'll recognise a lot of the places we drove through. Unfortunately we did not have enough time for any wine tasting, but since it's only about 2 hours drive from Pasadena we can always come back (I know writing this that we probably won't - not because we don't like the place but somehow we always end up going somewhere else instead).

So we survived the first day of the trip quite well and covered quite a bit of ground, considering that we had to stop for feeding and diaper change every now and then! Just a few months ago we couldn't imagine going on a trip like this with Lucas, but it was actually quite enjoyable (for Lucas as well). Everytime we think it's difficult to travel with a baby we just think of how do parents with 2,3 or even more toddlers manage. I guess we'll start to find out once Lucas learns to walk...

Independence Day

July 4th was Independence Day in the US - it's hard to imagine that the world's only superpower was not so long ago (relatively speaking) fighting for its own independence. I was actually intending for this blog to be about our road trip up the coast to San Francisco but we somehow found ourselves at an Independence Day parade in Monterey and we were reflecting that we never attend these parades in Malaysia (at least, not since we were forced to in school). It was an enjoyable small town parade complete with dancing Aztec warriors (see pic), girl guides and the bookmobile (mobile library), and after the parade many headed out to Fisherman's Wharf for some clam chowder or ice cream.

Anyway, watching the parade got me thinking about the nation state, independence and patriotism and why people should have allegiance to the place they happen to have been born in. Surely in terms of natural beauty, climate, culture etc. every place has its attractions. After all, California and Saudi Arabia probably look quite similar at first glance, especially when the sheikhs are out shopping on Rodeo Drive. What sets them apart is the political and economic system. Maybe that is why Americans tend to be more patriotic - many of them deliberately chose to emigrate to the US, whether it was their ancestors a hundred years ago or themselves more recently - they didn't come because the weather was better, or the culture more interesting, they came because the system allowed them to come and seek a better life.

I can therefore appreciate why people in the US think that they have the best system and yet why the US is viewed with such ambivalence by those from abroad. People in other countries admire the US for what it has achieved, but at the same time they are envious and perceive a certain arrogance in the way the US conducts its affairs, especially in dictating that democracy is the only acceptable form of government for all nations (this is itself a contradiction!). However, viewed from the perspective of those who live here and have fought to preserve The American Way of Life, and those who struggle everyday to come and live The American Dream, it seems self-evident that any system that does not allow the people to determine their own ruler by choosing their government and replacing it if necessary cannot be superior to one which does.

However, a lot has changed in the meantime. The US no longer welcomes the tired, the poor, the huddled masses with open arms. So the poor no longer benefit from being able to emigrate to a nation where they can gain upward mobility (ironically it is those who successfully transformed themselves from being the tired, the poor, etc. who most vehemently oppose letting more aspirants in). The rich, on the other hand, need have no allegiance - they can pick and choose where they live, make money and spend it (making sure they get the maximum of services for the minimum or no tax). Perhaps, therefore, instead of trying to impose democracy on other countries, the US should open its doors once again to all comers – after all, isn’t this what made the US great in the first place? If the US is indeed intent on spreading democracy, perhap the best way to do so would be by letting all people, not just the well-to-do, vote with their feet!

I guess that’s just my crazy idea of the day, after reading about how much the war in Iraq or the war on terror are costing it seems it may be cheaper and more effective to support a few million extra people who actually want to live the American Way of Life rather than trying to impose it where it is not wanted.

Otherwise we can just wait one or a few hundred years until the concept of the nation state fades away on its own (after all, many of the countries we know today did not have their present boundaries and were not known by their present names just a century ago). Perhaps then there will be less wars and the flags of each country will seem as quaint as medieval royal emblems today seem to us.

Living in America

It has been a month and a half since we arrived in LA, about midway through our stay and perhaps time to put down some thoughts about what living here is really like. A lot of people think the grass is greener on the other side, and USA (especially California) is seen as paradise on earth by many. One can certainly appreciate the great weather, the availability of all kinds of goods at ridiculously low prices (especially for those who earn US incomes), the public facilities (free beaches, parks, libraries etc), the 500 TV channels, and the general convenience of being able to do almost everything online. And yet something is missing and it is difficult to pinpoint. Despite having more control of my time I feel that I have less time to think. Despite having opportunities to achieve more I feel I am achieving less. Despite having all the facilities at my fingertips I feel I am not sufficiently making use of them. Despite having more people around me I feel I am not able to really connect with them.

It is difficult to explain this because it is a state of mind and not necessarily a characteristic of the geographic location. Maybe it is me holding back because I know that our stay here is temporary. Maybe it is a search for quality over quantity. Maybe it is just plain laziness. I feel that I am surrounded by people who somehow manage to have gone to the gym, thought deep thoughts and put in an hour or two of meaningful work by the time I drag myself out of bed each day. Maybe this is the difference - there is an abundance of choices and opportunities here that makes me feel guilty living at the pace that I'm accustomed to. It's like being told that this is my last day on earth and still choosing to spend a third of it sleeping.

Maybe the grass is indeed greener here (well, the sprinklers ensure this!). But it's also more artificial - there would be no grass at all if it weren't planted and irrigated. So perhaps the question I should be asking is "do I like grass and is green my favourite colour?". Thinking about it in this way may give a very different answer. Maybe in a very roundabout and unnecessarily lengthy fashion what I'm trying to say is "less can be more". And perhaps the most important thing to appreciate is that not many people get to try living on both sides of the fence before finding out which side they prefer.

Long Beach, Universal Studios and Rodeo Drive

This is a catch up post covering 2 weekend outings - continuing with our goal to eventually cover all the beaches within an hour of LA we went to Long Beach and made a quick stopover at Redondo beach on the way back. Long Beach has a lot of attractions such as the aquarium, Queen Mary, a mall and of course the beach itself. We did quite a bit of walking, all the way from the aquarium parking lot to the beach (we decided to skip the aquarium itself since it was perfect weather outside, OK - actually because we were too cheap to spend $20 on a ticket!). Anyway, it's a good thing that Lucas still enjoys all the free things (like sand) more than expensive stuff...that will change so we're taking advantage while we can!

On the way back from Long Beach we decided to check out the famous Pacific Coast Highway or PCH as the locals refer to it (reminds me of Singapore, all the roads there are 3 letter acronyms as well). Unfortunately we chose the section of PCH that is nowhere near the coast. So it was quite a boring drive through a series of strip malls and tire shops until we got to Redondo beach. This takes our "beach count" to 5 now, so we decided to take a break from the beach the following weekend.

Instead we thought it would be time to be tourists and go to Universal Studios Citywalk. Again, we were too cheap to actually go in ($60 per ticket!) but we got our free souvenir photo outside the entrance :-)

Actually we did have a reason to go to Universal Studios without entering the theme park - we collect Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses everywhere we go, and HRC in LA is actually located in Universal Studios Citywalk. So we paid the outrageous $10 for parking (not to mention sitting in a jam for 20 minutes to get into the parking lot) just to get our shot glasses! Well, mission accomplished and next stop Rodeo Drive!

What a fantastic place! While Yean Lin went window shopping, I just feasted my eyes on the road. Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars, a procession of luxury cars cruise by. Mercedes are a dime a dozen here. Our Pontiac certainly is out of place and safely hidden from view on a side street (yes - we managed to get street parking!). Anyway, while I'm ogling the cars, a white Range Rover parks right in front of me and a little lady emerges, who turns out to be Paula Abdul! I know this is the real Paula Abdul because it took her 5 tries to park properly and she's tiny! So that's my first LA celebrity sighting!

Business is mission

It's been a long week on the project, with several full days of workshops - there are some difficult decisions to be made which have a high impact on the shape our project will take over the coming years. Without going into details, this is really about the vision that World Vision has for their people as well as for the communities in which World Vision is "invested".

In a typical organisation, this decision is not easy, but there are standard measures that can be used to guide the decision such as financial impact, risk, availability of required inputs such as infrastructure and skills, etc. However, for World Vision there is another aspect to take into account which is that of ministry - does this strategy benefit the people that it impacts directly or indirectly? For example - if we were to build a capability in a remote village which requires us to build infrastructure and train people in that location over the long term, is that preferable over building it in a location where the required skills and infrastructure already exist, leaving more money to help the remote village in other ways? It all comes down to what the vision and mission are, and that is what we have been trying to get clarity on this past week.

Another interesting aspect of working on this project is the element of faith. In coming to some of these difficult decisions, there is a recognition that us mortals will ultimately only succeed if God is with us (I am paraphrasing here, you can substitute God with a higher power or destiny) - meaning that in the end there is no right or wrong decision, just the best decision we can make based on our abilities and that we need faith in God/higher power/destiny to succeed. The concept of business is mission is that faith and money in themselves are not "good" or "evil", they are just different sides of the coin. If your business is to help the poor, and you need money to do so, then being "business minded", i.e. acting like a for-profit organisation is part of your mission because you will be more effective in helping the poor by being effective in making money.

I find this a difficult concept to wrap my head around because in history this has been subject to a lot of abuse. It is impossible to tell the difference between pure good intentions and greed in subscribing to this concept of business is mission as the visible actions arising out of these opposing philosophies may well be identical.

The other highlight of the discussions we've had in the last week is the concept of "the tyranny of or, and the brilliance of and". In all business decisions, there is a trade-off between different options and ultimately there is no perfect solution. However, this has been challenged - if one goes into a decision saying that there will be no compromise or trade-off, that is, we will not sacrifice one benefit for another, what would the solution look like?

Certainly it has been enlightening and I find myself having to consciously keep an open mind in order to prevent my 20 years of university and business experience from rejecting these concepts out of hand!

Camarillo and Ventura

Last weekend was our first weekend at Pasadena Gateway Villas (our "permanent" home) so we decided to stay in on Saturday and enjoy the pool and jacuzzi. We bought Lucas some "swimming pampers" (the things they have here!) and he had a great time in the pool - I think he is going to enjoy swimming, he already does a pretty good dog paddle.

On Sunday we then went our most ambitious outing to date - a full 8 hours trip to Camarillo outlet mall and Ventura beach. After trying to live frugally on $50 a day for the last 3 weeks, we kind of went crazy and spent about $800 in one day - of which $600 were gifts and a suitcase to put them in. Our rationale for this was that everything we bought was so much cheaper than in KL, especially things like dinner sets and childrens clothing.

We're finding that goods are very competitively priced compared to Malaysia, as per the following list (admittedly most of these are considered "luxury goods" in Malaysia):

Item	LA price	KL price
Tropicana Pure Orange Juice 1.9L	$3	$5
Haagen Dasz Ice Cream 473ml	$2.50	$8
Local beer per can	$0.50	$1.20
Import beer per bottle	$1	$3
Villeroy&Boch 16 piece dinner set	$100	$300?
Toyota Camry 3L engine	$17K	$45K (2.4L engine)

Unfortunately, what happens is we end up spending more because we drink a lot more OJ and beer and eat a lot more ice cream compared to when we are in KL!

The flip side of the above is of course the high price of services here compared to KL, e.g. eating out at restaurants or getting a haircut is 3-4 times the cost in KL. So you will see that our hair is growing wild here...

Anyway, back to Camarillo - it seems there are people who actually fly from Europe and Asia just to come to Camarillo and stock up on reasonably priced branded goods, to the extent that they "save" more than their airfare and hotel costs. Spend to save! It was a very pleasant shopping experience and definitely a place to take our visitors (if we get any) to!



From Camarillo it was a short 20 minute drive to Ventura beach. The 3rd beach we've checked out and all three have such a different character - Santa Monica was a typical holiday beach which good clean family fun activities at the pier and upmarket hotels and restaurants, Venice was edgy and trendy with tattoo and piercing parlours and lots of street vendors, and Ventura beach was pretty deserted for a Sunday afternoon. This is a purist's beach, no shops and restaurants to distract from the sand and waves. We also went to the harbour which is very pretty and we went for our first "posh" dinner at a restaurant since arriving in LA - we had a lobster dinner at a seafood place by the harbour, and Lucas allowed us to enjoy it!

Moving day again!

On Monday we moved to our "permanent home" (well, 3 months, which feels permanent after staying for 3 days at the hotel and 17 days at the Fuller Guest House). It is very nice and Lucas was of course very excited to be someplace new again! Our apartment is fully furnished and even has a DVD player, stereo system and around 500 cable TV channels. There is a TV set in each room, microwave and dishwasher, all of which we don't even have in our apartment in KL!

You may be wondering what one would do with 500 TV channels - after all, even channel surfing 5 seconds through each channel would already take more than an hour and a half! Well, this is what I learnt yesterday just by surfing channel no.900-950 (music channels) - I now know that:

- Franz Shubert was born on January 31, 1797 in Vienna
- 288 million CDs were sold in the US in 1990
- A popular early synthesizer was the Moog, named after it's inventor Robert Moog- Contralto is the term given to a female singer with the lowest voice range

All this while listening to the related genre of music!

On the project, our team is growing - we are now 3 strong (welcome Emily!) and in a couple of weeks we will have a fourth member. Dan brought a French press today and we had some incredibly strong coffee. We also attended the weekly chapel session at World Vision, and it was a better experience than I had anticipated. There was a lot of humour, including this joke, and there was also a very moving service for a member of WV who had passed away last week. I found it very touching that there would be a eulogy performed at the workplace for a departed colleague. The eulogy itself was very well delivered, and the key message was that the most important inscription on a tombstone is not the date of birth or the date of death, but the dash in between - for it is in that dash that the person's time on earth and all the moments of his/her life are captured.

The other key point I took away was that wherever in the world you live, you can make a difference in others lives, and you don't need microwaves, dishwashers and 500 TV channels to do so!

Lucas has certainly been making a difference in our lives, and we hardly remember what things were like before he came along. He turned 8 months old yesterday (sometimes it feels like 8 years!) and I am quite sure he will be walking before we know it. He is developing his character steadily - he is very curious and determined, and he loves apples but will not eat peaches. He hates bedtime because he thinks we are doing exciting things when he's asleep (haha - if only he knew!) and he has the willpower to keep himself awake until we fall asleep first! He is also very friendly to strangers and knows how to show off to them, so no one believes what a little rascal he actually is...and amazingly, I wouldn't want him to be any different (I just wish I was able to survive on less sleep and keep up with him)!

Monrovia (and Hollywood again!)

Our second weekend in LA we again kept to our formula of the previous weekend - spending some time in the town (Monrovia), the hills (Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon) and the beach (Venice beach). Monrovia has a charming town centre, what I had typically associated with small town America, with small family run shops and American flags on each lamp-post. We had planned on just doing some grocery shopping, but we ended up spending a lot more time (and money) there. It was worthwhile though, because I think we will have a nice memento of Lucas as a result!

It's a shame that Lucas isn't just a little bit older (although he's growing almost too fast for our liking) - he's too small for most of the attractions and he won't remember any of these experiences when he's older. We went to the old merry-go-round at Griffith Park but did not take a ride, and we also decided not to go to the LA zoo at Griffith Park as Lucas was asleep when we arrived there. With kids his age, one just has to be flexible! So we kept on driving, somehow ended up at the eastern starting point of Mulholland Drive, and Lucas woke up just in time to take in the close up view of the Hollywood sign. Then we took a long walk with him down the Runyon Canyon dog walking path, which turns out to be very scenic and we got nice views of the mansions with their swimming pools. Strangely enough there were no people lounging by any of the pools - I guess they were all at their summer residences in Paris, Sydney, Hawaii etc...

Today we got a late start as Lucas had a nap until 2pm, but we still decided to go to the beach since he liked it last week at Santa Monica beach. Unfortunately we got caught in a traffic jam and it took one and a half hours, with the last 45 minutes a tortuous drive due to Lucas' incessant crying. Unfortunately here in the US, there's nothing one can do but drive on - taking the child out of the car seat is a big no-no. Lucas will just have to learn to respect the law here! The moment we finally got to Venice Beach he was happy. Maybe we will have to relocate to the beach in the future.

Hollywood Stars!

Look closely for the Hollywood sign...

Sorry for the delay in posting - things were a little busy at work after the Memorial Day holiday. Anyway, on Sunday we decided to really go to Hollywood this time (we were sidetracked on Saturday and ended up at Santa Monica beach!) - we still took a very roundabout way, going on the Ventura freeway, getting off at Mulholland Drive and going via Beverly Hills to Hollywood. It was, in fact, a very scenic drive and I continue to be amazed at how hilly and wild some parts of LA actually are.


Anyway, from the wild canyons to the houses of the megastars to tourist central took a mere 15 minutes. Then we were at Grauman's Chinese Theatre mingling with the stars (actually stepping all over them!). We knew we were at a touristy place because we had to pay to take pictures! So I am putting this pic below because it cost me $2! It was still a relatively cheap day out because we got $2 parking for 4 hours at Hollywood and Highland (where the Kodak Theatre is located, venue of the annual Academy Awards and of course, American Idol). All you have to do to get the $2 parking is validate your ticket at any of the shops in the complex, so we went for an LA invention - the French Dip sandwich. Apparently a roast beef sandwich was accidently dropped in a pot of au jus, it was found to taste rather good (if a little soggy) and voila! The French Dip was born.

We drove back to Pasadena via the Pasadena Freeway (State Route 110), the first freeway built in California in 1940. It is very nicely landscaped and "only" 3 lanes each way, making it a small road by LA standards, but it is a nice drive - I could imagine a Formula 1 race on this road - lots of curves, hills and tunnels.

On Memorial Day itself we decided to take it easy (I had an 8 hour marathon call for the annual performance review session in the middle of the night to Memorial Day - the disadvantage of being in this time zone is that work typically starts on Sunday evening for me). So we just went to Memorial Park in Pasadena (how fitting!) and then took a stroll around Old Town Pasadena. In keeping with trying out all things invented in California, we decided to buy some dessert from the Cheesecake factory. I made the mistake of buying 2 slices - one Godiva chocolate cheesecake and one White Choc Raspberry Truffle (sorry no pics!). I say mistake because it took the two of us 4 days to finish those 2 slices of cake!!! Anyway, that's value for money!

Well that was the Memorial Day weekend and we certainly managed to cover a lot without getting too stressed out! With Lucas we can't really stay away for more than about 4 hours before he gets tired and grouchy, so we have been tackling all the sights in bite-sized chunks!

Mountains and beaches

It's the Memorial Day weekend, and we are finally settled in well enough to go on our first road trip! We decided to check out the claim that you can go skiing and surfing on the same day - we went to Mount Wilson and then to Santa Monica beach. It is entirely possible to do this in one day, however we decided to take it easy and go on two days, since it's a 3 day weekend.

Navigating the LA freeway system is no problem for those of us from KL - it's just the same except that making mistakes here does not cost $$$ in extra toll! Just like KL, LA has a multitude of highways and many ways to get to each place. In fact, we found a lot of similarities between KL and LA:

1. Both cities are referred to by their initials.

2. Both cities are located in valleys, with mountains to the north-east and coast to the south-west.

3. Both cities suffer from frequent hazy spells.

4. Both cities have lousy public transport systems, with mickey mouse Light Rail transport that does not reach most of the densely populated areas.

5. Both cities are notorious for traffic jams.

6. Both cities have terrible drivers and a common habit of cutting into other lanes to get ahead.

7. Both cities have a large migrant population from a nearby country.

8. Both cities are great places to live once you know them a little better.



Anyway, we took a drive to Mt. Wilson observatory which I learnt was the leading observatory in the world for several decades, with 2 of the largest telescopes in existence at the time and where many astronomical discoveries were made. Unfortunately Lucas was not so impressed (I guess his future is not in astrophysics), and also the view down to LA was obscured by fog/haze, so we didn't spend that much time up there. However, it is definitely worth a trip up, and I intend to go back when the weather is clearer and when the guided tour of the telescopes is on.




On the next day, we headed for the beach at Santa Monica. This was more Lucas' cup of tea! He enjoyed the swings and the fresh sea breeze, and was in a good mood throughout. It was fascinating seeing the people on their rollerblades and Segways, and practicing their yoga and acrobatic moves in public. Unfortunately it was still a little cool for the Baywatch set, so we had to content ourselves with watching the fishermen on the pier instead of the bikini clad babes running in slow motion!

Next we'll be heading for Hollywood, and perhaps fame and fortune for Lucas...

A quick trip to Washington DC

My first Sunday in LA was already a travel day - I was signed up for the compulsory 2 day ADP training program which was held at the Accenture office in Reston, Virginia. I found out that a cab from Pasadena to the airport would cost about $80, and since I was travelling alone, decided to try out LAs infamous public transport system. I took the Metro Gold Line to Union Station and from there got a Flyaway bus straight to the airport. Total travel time was about an hour and fifteen minutes, and it was a very comfortable ride both on the train and the bus. Total cost was $4.25 and I had a much improved opinion on getting around without a car in LA!

So I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare for my 12:45 flight to Washington - then they announced that the flight was completely full and they would be giving free tickets to volunteers willing to be bumped to the next flight. I decided to go for it since the next flight would still get me in at a decent hour (just before midnight Eastern time), and so got a middle seat in the back for the next flight 3 hours later and my free ticket for a future flight to the destination of my choice within the 48 states. Flying domestic coach in the US is really no better than taking a Greyhound bus - I'm not sure if I really want to use that free ticket after all!

The ADP training the next day had 7 participants - 3 going to a project in New York, 2 based at the Reston office, myself and Jeni - the only participant who is actually doing a project in a developing country! This is ironic as much of the training is cultural, health and security awareness training geared at those from developed countries working in not so developed countries. Still, it was good fun and great meeting my fellow ADPers slumming it in those not so developed places called New York City or Washington DC! We did some interesting role plays (I really liked the game which simulated how the playing field is skewed when it comes to trade between nations and interactions with the global institutions such as World Bank/IMF etc.) So, despite the fact that I am not going to the field, I got a lot out of the training and it was well worth the long journey.

The 2 days passed by very quickly, and then it was time to experience the delights of flying in the US again. This time the flight was just delayed an hour, so no free ticket and the delay was just enough to make me miss the last Metro to Pasadena. The training came in handy though as I was on full alert state walking around a deserted Union Station in LA at half past midnight. I distributed my cash to various places so that even if I got mugged I would not lose it all. I tried to look like I knew where I was going (unfortunately not very successfully) and finally found the taxi line and paid $33 to get home. That $33 could have sponsored a child for a month, and everytime I take out my wallet to pay for something nowadays, I think in terms of how many months (or years) a child could have been fed, clothed and educated. It is an unfortunate feature of the world we live in that life is so cheap in some parts of the world and yet it is such a challenge to eliminate poverty.

Another day, another place

On Thursday we moved from the hotel in Arcadia to Pasadena, where we have a large 2 bedroom apartment. Unfortunately we will only be able to stay here for 2 and a half weeks, as it is actually student accommodation and it will be fully booked for summer school starting in June. So on we go with our nomadic lifestyle...

I picked up our rental car also on Thursday, at least now we are somewhat mobile. In a short 3 days we became known in Arcadia as "those strange people who walk"! It was really funny when we asked directions and they would always say - "Oh it's just 2 exits away on 210" or something like that, and when I said we're walking they'd give me a strange look and shrug their shoulders! The rental car is a new Pontiac Grand Prix, the most powerful car I've ever driven (and this is an "intermediate" car according to the rental agency). Anyway, it's got a 3.8L engine with 200 horsepower, looks pretty sporty but still has plenty of room in the back for Lucas as well as a big boot (have to say "trunk" here) for the groceries. So basically we have a car for the entire duration, but a place to stay only for a couple of weeks at a time - we are surely living the American way :-)

We've now been here 5 days but still have jetlag and have not really been anywhere except the office, supermarket and department store. However, today is Saturday and hopefully we'll have the energy to check out Old Town Pasadena this afternoon.

I've also learnt a little more about what World Vision does - it seems I knew less about it than the average person when I signed up for this project! Some of my friends actually sponsor kids under World Vision's sponsorship program, and most of them knew the connection with Bono (a few said before I left, "Get Bono's autograph when you're there" and I was thinking "Huh?"). Now I know how Bono is connected with World Vision, and what the "One Campaign" is all about.

Working with an organisation like World Vision, where every dollar that you save on the project can directly help a child or family somewhere, makes one think twice before taking a taxi or booking that hotel room when a motel is good enough. That extra 30 bucks can keep a child fed and clothed for a whole month! I shall attempt to do my part by taking public transport to the airport tomorrow, as I have to go to Washington DC for a required training program on Accenture Development Partnerships.

First impressions

The hotel we are staying at has no restaurant and so after catching up on our sleep we went in search of a proper American breakfast - the picture shows the kids portion at Denny's (just kidding, it's an adult portion, but it filled both Yean Lin and me up for the whole day!).

Later I met up with Dan, my colleague on this project who has been running the show on his own for the last month while waiting for the rest of the team to come onboard. Apart from helping me get all the essential supplies for our first few days, Dan also briefed me on the project and the people involved. It sounds like I'm getting in to this project at a good point in time as no decisions have been made yet and the visioning workshop only takes place next month. This is something different for me as all my previous projects at Accenture have involved implementing an existing strategy rather than starting from scratch.

Today we started off at 7am (this is the problem when you are in a timezone behind everyone else - the day starts early and ends late, it's now 10pm here and I am in the middle of the Malaysian working day!) and I've already met some of the client team leads. A pretty international bunch - 2 from the UK, one from Australia and one from South Africa. So far, nobody who's actually from California except for Dan!

OK, American Idol results are up now - gotta run...

Jetlag

Jetlag usually hits me on the second or third day after arrival - the first day I'm usually so exhausted that I manage to sleep through the night. Today, however, I woke up at around 1am and I'm not able to get back to sleep. So I might as well be productive!

On the flight over, I was reading the current issue of the Economist and Accenture had inserted in there an excerpt from Outlook (a journal of high-performance business and thought leadership) with the title "Changing ahead of the curve". It gave examples from several companies such as Toyota that were already doing very well but still decided to transform the company to ensure that they would remain ahead of the curve. Reading this, it seemed to me that this must have been the inspiration for Accenture's own transformational program called Horizon 2012. I think the key takeaway from this is that changing before you are forced to change is the only way that you can control your own destiny. Accenture has done this several times already, for example going public at a time when the firm was in a position of strength, changing the workforce model, and aggressively building up delivery centres all over the globe are just 3 key examples of changes that were made before they had to be and as a result putting Accenture in a very strong position, not just in traditional high-value consulting but also in outsourcing and in systems integration.

So with this experience one would expect Horizon 2012 to be a success as well. At the moment there is still a lot of chaos and uncertainty though, which begs the question - why are we so strong at delivering transformational programs for our clients but we can't do the same in our own organisation? Perhaps we should follow our own advice from the Outlook article referenced, which is that up to 30% of the management team to drive the change must come from outside the company...

The journey to LA

As you can see from the pictures, Lucas is quite an accomplished traveller! We were very lucky indeed to have an entire row to ourselves for the long Taipei-LA leg of the journey, and even with this we only got about 2 hours sleep over the whole journey. This is mainly because Lucas was so excited to be on the plane that he refused to go to sleep. We were wondering what all the other parents fed their babies - they all appeared to sleep through the entire journey! Apart from this, however, it was quite a pleasant journey. I think Lucas is the only person in economy class that was referred to by name by all the stewardesses!

We flew on Malaysian airlines, which has a well-deserved reputation for being baby-friendly (we can certainly confirm this), and also it was the shortest flight duration, with only a one hour stop in Taipei. We made use of this time to give Lucas a bath - he had already managed to use up 4 diapers in the short 4 hour sector to Taipei!



Even though we landed early, we had to wait for 20 minutes to get to the gate. Then there was a long queue at immigration, with several flights arriving at around the same time. The immigration officer was very nice, and also called Lucas by name - he's getting all the VIP treatment!

We finally arrived at the Extended Stay in Arcadia, our "home" for the next 3 days at 4pm local time, almost exactly 24 hours after closing the door of our apartment in KL. We will transfer to our more permanent (well, it's for 3 weeks at the moment) home in Pasadena this Thursday, and we will also be picking up our rental car then.

We were so exhausted from the journey that we all fell asleep at 5pm local time and when we woke up 6 hours later there was no place where we could get food. So we decided to have a 24 hour fast (not Lucas of course) and that was good as we needed to be hungry for the American sized breakfast...more on this in the next post!

Some thoughts on career models and compensation

Warning serious rambling post (you will recognise these by the absence of a picture to start the post!)

Last Friday I attended the KL office Partners (now called "Senior Executives") and Managers meeting and a fair portion of the discussion was our compensation and the Senior Executive Career Model. One of the challenges facing the firm is that it has become more difficult to make the jump to Senior Executive whereas the relative compensation of a "Junior" Senior Executive is not really much different from that of a "Senior" Senior Manager. The question then arises whether it is worth it to make that jump at all. Accenture used to be a private partnership (hence the term "Partner") and making it to Partner was a really big deal, as you were then a part owner of the firm and you collectively made decisions on the future direction of the firm without having to get the approval of external shareholders. Now, however, as a public listed company with over 150,000 employees, making it to Senior Executive (SE) is really not the same - you have all the additional responsibility, but you are still just another cog in the wheel.

All this would not be an issue except for the following feature of career progression in Accenture's consulting workforce, which is that rising through the ranks from analyst to consultant to manager to senior manager (SM) is fairly automatic (you may be a little faster or a little slower than average, but you'd have to be seriously flawed to get kicked out - most people leave on their own due to lifestyle choices or better compensation as a contractor). Then you have this huge barrier from SM to SE, which involves being responsible for several million $ of revenue on a sustainable basis, amongst other requirements. That used to be worth aiming for back when the firm was a private partnership, however the targets and expectations are now no longer commensurate with the package, at least at the lowest "level of responsibility".

So what seems to be happening, at least in Malaysia, is that everyone is making it to SM and not really seeing an attractive proposition after that. The revenue for the Malaysia office can only support a limited number of SE's and even if we achieve our growth targets there will be quite a lot more Senior SMs qualified for promotion than promotion slots according to business need. Managers and SMs seeing the writing on the wall are leaving the firm as a result.

I think several things need to happen before this situation can be improved:
1. Think about making SM a landing point - or else do away with "automatic" promotion at levels below SE.
2. Start having an equity portion of base compensation, not just at SE level but even at M/SM level.
3. Start teaching even analysts and consultants about the revenue requirements and get them to understand the P&L for their projects.

All three of these points above are really meant to make it clearer to all consulting workforce employees (not just SEs and SMs) what makes the firm tick and instill some ownership mentality even amongst the ranks of analysts and consultants. Otherwise there will be 2 Accentures - one for SEs and one for everyone else, with the non-SEs not really sure how to get to SE and why they should want to.

Last day in KL

Less than 24 hours to go before we start the long journey - Lucas' first flight and it is 17 hours in the air! About four and a half hours to Taipei, an hour layover, and then another 12 hours to LA. Just hoping the flight is not too full and that we will have some empty seats next to us. This is unlikely though, as it is the bulkhead and the only place where they can fix the bassinets - well maybe Lucas will have a new friend to play with!

I am glad that I changed our flight from Friday to Monday - the original plan was to wrap up everything in KL and then spend the first couple of days in LA (the weekend) acclimatising. Then the company decided to have an office-wide partners and managers meeting last Friday and I thought it would be good to attend this before going off (at least so that my colleagues know I exist!) - I have not been based in the office for the last 3 years! Turns out that this was a good decision as it is the last bit of packing that always takes the longest - this involves ensuring that all the cables, adaptors and batteries for all the equipment we are taking is not forgotten, looking for all the various membership cards that I use to get discounts, upgrades, etc (those of you who know me from projects know that I have not paid for any vacation flights or hotels in the last 3 years, instead using accumulated points for everything!), and most importantly, getting our last taste of good Malaysian hawker fare before leaving.

Yesterday we had Sarawak Laksa and Chee Cheong Fun for lunch; and Satay for dinner - both at our favourite places in Lucky Garden. Today we just got back from lunch with Yean Lin's family at Extra Supertanker in Damansara Kim - they have some pretty unique dishes there - if you want to know more about this place, click here. The food was good as usual, but the service was very slow today, probably because it's Mother's Day and everyone decided to take their Mum there! I guess tonight's dinner is a toss up between banana leaf rice, tandoori or if we can't make up our mind, maybe this. As you can see from the picture on top, Lucas enjoys his food as much as his parents do.

So it's not been too stressful as we have 2 full days to pack, say our goodbyes and fill our tummies :-)

Update @ 10pm: we decided to have Roti Canai and Paper Hat Thosai for dinner at Devi's Corner. I think we covered most of what we wanted, and now we are looking forward to some giant steaks and I heard the sushi in California is pretty good (wonder what the "real" California roll tastes like...).

Preparations and packing

This is the view of downtown KL from our balcony at sunset - we're going to miss it! But I'm sure we'll have a nice view of downtown LA from the foothills as well... we will be staying around Pasadena, and looking at Google Earth, it's just a short drive into the hills.

It's now less than two days until we leave and we've completed most of the preparations except for the actual packing (more on this later).

This is the partial list of stuff that we've had to take care of in the last couple of weeks:

- Assign beneficiary for Employee Provident Fund
- Buy travel and medical insurance for the duration of our stay
- Renew car insurance and road tax
- Send car for servicing
- Transfer enough money for next 4 months mortgage payments
- Pay bills for next 4 months
- Get international drivers license
- File income tax forms
- Apply for US visa (involves lots of paperwork, payments, interview at US embassy, collection)
- Stop all subscriptions (newspaper, cable, phone)
- arrange flights, accommodation and rental car

This is apart from wrapping up all project work, ensuring a proper handover to the client and my project team and taking Lucas to the hospital a couple of times including 1am on the Labour day public holiday as he was running a fever of 39.5C (103F).

Then there's our packing list. The recent restrictions on taking liquids and gels on board aircraft are a real complication - we won't even be able to take hot water to prepare Lucas' formula. Anyway, we will only take what we need for the journey itself, i.e. bottles, small can of formula, lots of diapers and a few changes of clothes. We decided not to take all the other things like playpen, high chair, infant car seat, even toys, as we will be moving around and are not sure whether we will be in the same apartment for the entire duration. Right now it looks as though we'll fill 3 medium-large suitcases and have 3 pieces of carry on luggage plus the stroller - not bad for a family of 3 away for 4 months! So we will live like nomads and buy whatever we need over there. It's a good thing that Lucas' favourite toys at the moment are remote controls and newspapers, both of which we can get on the plane. Although knowing Lucas, he will successfully press the right buttons on the entertainment system to make a satellite call :-)