TAN Kee Chor was born in Singapore on 24 June 1977.最近我正在收看百家讲坛钱文忠教授解读[三字经]，感触良多．[三字经]据说是宋朝以来传统中国儿童的启蒙读物．'人之初，性本善．性相近，习相远' 短短十二个字的开头就包含了中国儒家的深层思想．我们先不去争论这哲理是否正确．毕竟，千百年以来人性是否善恶各家一直争论不休．钱文忠教授将［人之初，性本善］论为我们对人类的美好期望的看法，我是非常赞同的．可是我也意识到人的善性是需要后天的教育方能展现的．
回顾我当初为善乐命名的时候，我就是希望他這一生萬事都 '以善為本, 為善最樂'．我們終究無法照顧他的一生. 我們可以作到的就是灌輸他正確的價值觀, 讓他一生受用不盡. 我們深切相信, 只要他能以善待人, 他會感覺他的人生是快樂的. 当初想法至今没变. 可是认识了[三字经]后让我更进一步的思考要如何灌輸他正確的價值觀. '养不教，父之过'. 把孩子生下来却不教育他, 是父亲的过错. 教育孩子可不仅仅是给与他知识而已.更重要的是灌輸他正確的價值觀.
在现今的教育制度, 重心是放在学习知识上. 正确价值观的教育则是次要. 因为我们国家的多元化, 国家教育对于价值观的灌输是相当敏感的. 必须提防以一个种族或一个宗教的观点来设定'正确'的价值观. 基本的是非对错事没什么敏感. 但其他的价值观比如[三字经]及儒家所倡导的孝悌就不一定是所有人所一致认同的. 对我而言, 教育的重心应该放在正確价值观的灌输. 既然校园注重于知识的教育, 家中身为父母的我们就必须加强教育孩子正確的价值观而不是一昧的督促学校课业的得失. 这是我的个人看法也是我对于善乐的教育方针.
要如何实践就得深思一翻了......
忙碌！进入任期的最后一年原本应该是可以从容的应付业务上的一切。没想到这第三年是如此的难熬。办公室的装潢工程已经展开，我几乎天天都得加班。周休二日也时常需要回办公室监督工程。能给与家人的时间越来越短。精力都投入了业务也无法提起精神和乐乐玩耍。回头思来，这牺牲是不是太大了？唉！多说没用，谁叫我是个尽心敬业的老实人 ;) 怎么说也不能辜负乡亲父老上司下属的重望吧！做不好我也没脸面对妻儿父母。业务虽然繁重，可是每当完成了一项任务都带来激励自己的动力。就这么埋头苦干下去吧! 总会有海阔天空，日出天明的一天。现在向往的是八月份的短暂假日让我回国稍微喘一口气。埃及还有许多景点我还没去。为了不留下遗憾，我必须精心安排安排，重点的尼罗河轮船古埃及之游我一定得腾出时间落实。原本想从埃及到不远的欧洲捷克布拉格度假。看样子机会渺茫的很。
乐乐随我来到开罗也有两年多了。他也快四岁了哦。说实在，我不该接着份差事。开罗的环境和严重污染对乐乐的早期成长必定有负面的影响。刚来到这儿的时候他还不到两岁。后悔莫及！这是他的命数吧。老天保佑，乐乐他也没有多大的问题，只是语言上迟缓了点。他还是相当开朗和讨人喜爱。幼儿园的老师和校长都很疼爱乐乐，说他每日都带着灿烂的笑容上学堂。除了会话，乐乐其他方面的发展都还算正常。我们也让他到特别学习中心上辅导课程，希望他的会话能力会得到专业的辅导。乐乐的进步虽然不算迅速，可是他现在已经开始领悟到会话的功能。希望他会尽快打开任督二脉，畅所欲言！
以下是我今年在Ｆａｃｅｂｏｏｋ写的唯一笔记。一月２１日======================================明天就要返乡过节了！
虽然业务压力依然沉重，向往与妻儿和家人及朋友团聚的我
这次回国的节目也是相当多。抵达国门的第一天就要到埃及
明天就要踏上回家的路！我的心今晚已经提前起程，飞奔十
在这儿和各位好友百个早年。祝大家牛年行大运，身心安康
Today is the Islamic New Year and a public holiday in Egypt. So here I am taking the little recious time I have to relook at my online presence. After logging into all my sites, Facebook, Blogspot and MSN Space, I asked myself why not keep everything at the same place. Well, the reasons for this decentralisation was mainly because the different sites serve my different needs The MSN Space is good for photos but not for blogging. Blogspot is good for blogging but not really engineered for photo albums. I joined Facebook much later and I thought moving everything over will be too much work.
Thinking again, I do not really have to "move" everything over. I just have to set a cut off date and start blogging and loading albums on Facebook from then. My old blogs and photo albums can remain where they are in Blogspot and MSN. There are already links to them from Facebook so my friends will still be able to dig up my past quite easily.'
So, the day for consolidation has arrived. All eggs in one basket. My slavery to Facebook is now complete. It's quite scary coming to think of it. If Facebook unplugs, I am gone as well. I hope that there are ways to backup my stuff on Facebook. This is what I have to find out next.
Anyway, this is the last blog I am posting on Blogspot. Go to my Facebook for the next posting.
It has been almost nine months since I arrived in Cairo. This is probably the longest single period of time I have been away from Singapore since the first time I flew out from Singapore to Taipei in Feb 98. This outpost period will be just over ten months by the time I return to Singapore for my first relief break in late Jan 09. I yearn for the day to come soon to rejoin with my family back home.
Time is passing fast in Cairo and work never ends. Tomorrow is the Eve of the Hari Raya Haji (Eid Al Adha or Greater Bairam) and the start of a week long holidays. While my office is closed, I will be going to work like any other day. Without the day-to-day disruptions and slew of fires to fight, I should be able to work on some of the less urgent more certainly more important long-term issues. Otherwise, I really do not know what to do over the long holidays alone other than to stay at home and rot in front of the TV or the PC.
I am easing out of my culture shock well and I felt I am in better control nowadays. There are many challenges at work and sometimes I still get the sense of being overwhelmed by demands from all directions. Fortunately, lady luck has followed me to the overcrowded and polluted Cairo and I am getting lots of help and support from everyone that I worked with. On the whole, I can say that I have passed the crawling stage and now beginning to walk briskly. Hopefully, I can start running soon before I end my posting in 2011 with a final 100m sprint.
泪在眼眶里打转。我以忘记曾经何时感受过同样的没落。今天我目送着妻子和儿子进入登机门内，千万的不舍涌入心头，泪水几乎夺眶而出。这次是奕云第一次独自带着我们两岁大的儿子乘坐长途航班。希望她能应付得来。他们现在正在飞往新加坡的途中。一个钟头内就要落地了。要不是迫不得已，我真的不希望一个家人分居两地。可是乐乐的近来状况真的不是太好。三个月来他不断的生病，令我好难受。看他瘦弱的身躯和暗淡的脸颊，最明智的决定就是提早让他回国，在他祖父祖母们的呵护下好好的休养生息。唉！这几个月好不容易建立的一丁点父子之情又要受到岁月无情的啄食。希望明年我回国度假一家团聚时，乐乐他还会记得我这个父亲。
It has been almost two years since I started this blog on 8 October 2006. That was about 10 days before the birth of my son, Shanle. This life altering event prompted me to blog and to share my joy and thought with my friends near and far.
"Living a nomadic lifestyle, I have more friendships than the time I have to nurture them. I hope to keep my friends abreast of my life, share my photo albums, videos and the little things happening along the way before we next meet."
The above is the first paragraph of my first blog post and it is still the primary motivation that keeps me blogging. The number of posts has dwindled over the years but I try to blog at least once a month. Sometimes, I wonder how many of my friends are reading my posts and what are their thoughts after reading. Feedback is very limited but occasional words of encouragement from friends who read my blog really brighten up my gloomy days.
This 100th post came at a very trying time of my career. I have passed the "honeymoon" of my posting to Cairo and now I am still in culture shock. It is really challenging to operate well in this part of the world where uncertainty rules the day. Nothing is for sure and contracts are just for reference. Reliable information is hard to come by and no operations go as planned. I have yet to find my groove and I can't help but feel defeated when things go wrong. I think it will take a while before I get used to the way things get done here.
Life is full of ups and downs. My life so far has been quite smooth sailing so I guess it is time for the down swing. I will have to brace the fall, bottom out and find the right momentum for the next upswing.
匆匆的一个月的时光飞逝，真的是岁月不饶人啊！最近我经常感觉有千斤重担日日夜夜压在心上，有种千头万绪，不知如何应对的挫折感。每天早晨一苏醒，我的胸口就感觉到无形的压力，神经紧绷，呼吸不顺。胃口很差而且有作呕的感觉。心中一直反复思绪堆积如山的工作和问题。天天都处在危机当中，身心相当疲惫。从上任到今，我已经瘦了五公斤有余了。回想起来，这是我从来未有的经历。
其实，我心里很清楚其中的原由。离乡背井，新的生活和工作环境，文化的差异，语言的隔阂，家庭的负担，缺乏固定的运动，等等。这一切综合在一起，同一时间，是会产生相当大的压力的！这是对我抗压能力有史以来最大的挑战。目前为止我还没有想出一套妥善的作战方针。
不过，我想现在的当务之急就是把身体健康照顾好。唯有强壮的体魄，才能应付所有的挑战。所以我打算每一个周末都要去俱乐部运动，打打高尔夫球，上健身房还有游泳。由于开罗的交通十分拥挤和混乱，周日是没法子到俱乐部运动了。每周两日的运动要比完全没有来的强吧。
接下来就是要逐一的排除工作上最紧要的问题和巩固管理系统。要在这第一年内把基础打好才可在接下来的后期有所作为。下定决心，排除万难！
I have arrived in Cairo for over three months now with my family but I still cannot say that we are well settled into our new home. Reason is that I am still waiting for my car to arrive. Moving around Cairo is not an easy task, especially if you are not sure how to say where you are going in Arabic. Forget about the unmarked micro buses plying the busy streets. Not knowing your destination in Arabic means that you can forget about taking taxis too unless you want to risk a merry-go-round and get ripped off. To have a decent life here, you need a car to move around and better still a chauffeur so that you can also forget about the parking problem.
I placed an order for a brand new Opel Vectra last month and I am now in the final stage of clearing all the paperwork. Hopefully the car can be delivered before the end of the month. This is a huge purchase for me and my first car. I thought of buying a cheaper Japanese or Korean car but they were mostly locally assembled and I do not find them tough enough for the harsh roads of Cairo. The Vectra is assembled in Germany and it comes with 6 air-bags and a whole suite of state of the art features like Easytronic transmission, a hybrid of automatic and manual transmission. Bottomline, Vectra is a very sturdy car and I really feel safe in it.
I also considered buying a second-hand car from other diplomats in Cairo but I dropped the idea. I just want to have a brand new car with warranty, no hidden history and no nasty maintenance problems. Also, I did not come across any suitable cars since my arrival. I am ready to bear the depreciation for the first few years so buying a new car is a natural choice. I am starting to read up about cars and I'm feeling excited about driving in my Vectra. Only then I can truly start to settle down to life in Cairo.
I have not uploaded new video clips and photos for quite sometime now. Here are the three recent videos I have uploaded on my Youtube channel and a new photo album on MSN Space. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_UKodBWJDs
开罗就快开春了。不在感觉到那寒风刺骨也没再下那冷酷细雨。我要回家了！和家人离别已有四个月了。不知道我那年幼的孩儿是否依然记得我这个爸爸。为了这次驻外的机会，我的牺牲不小，错过了我儿子初学逐步的宝贵光阴。现在他走路已稳健了不少，不再摇摇晃晃招人欢笑了。可惜呀可惜。他最近生病了。病得不轻以至在医院住了三天。到现在他还没完全康复，叫人牵肠挂肚。初尝为人父的酸甜苦辣的我心里五味杂陈好不难受。真希望能在他身边用心呵护。这几天来也苦了孩子的妈了。我于心不忍却也无可奈何。回家团聚后我必须好好的补偿补偿她的辛劳。我要回家了。下个月，家就会暂时迁移到开罗了。到时候，我就能天天回家了！
I have been in Cairo for over six weeks now and I finally got myself a badly needed haircut at an egyptian barber a stone throw away from my apartment. While I don't really find the outcome desirable, I quite enjoyed the service provided. The barber gave me a quick wash first and brought me to my seat and offering to serve me a cup of hot coffee or tea.
They took a while to get the much needed hot tea to me, I appreciated the warmth the tea provided in the cold evening. Like all barbers I have been to, he wrapped a small towel on the back of my neck before pulling the cover over me. I was prepared to head straight home to bathe after the haircut as I expected bits of hair all over my body. Surprisely, that did not happened and I did not find a strand of hair slipping through my neck during the haircut. This was mainly due to the piece of disposable elastic band the barber used to secure the cover around my neck. Unlike the barbers in Singapore who use clips to secure the cover, the elastic tape works wonders without subjecting me to suffocating clips.
The barber only used scissors on me, no cranky electric shavers at all. I am not sure if he just wanted to impress or it could be due to the texture of my hair which is quite different from the natural curly hairs of Egyptian men. He did however used the shaving knife not very skilfully though. This is my main complaint as the process and the immediate after effect were slightly painful. No shaving cream was used and the barber basically scrubbed off the edges without really understanding my discomfort.
Well, I quickly forgave him after experiencing the quick facial he rendered before the whole visit ended. He sprayed a cooling liquid cleanser over my face and followed by a nice facial massage. Then, a hot towel was pulled over my face for minute followed by a cold one. I was completely refreshed and I paid the 30 LE (S$8.00) for the haircut happily. Surely I will not wait long before going for my second haircut but I will probably try out another barber further down the street.
离乡四度，心境异呼！我正在埃及开罗的租屋中回想我近十年来离乡背井的心境之差异。
第一次离乡是在我二十岁服役时外派到台北。那时的我只想着国外多姿多彩的生活。当时，我的心在飞机起飞前早已飞往台北了。我一去就是一年又九个月。
第二次离乡是我加入外交部后一年半后被派到柬埔寨金边实习兼顶职。那时总部虽然只给我不到两个礼拜的通知，我义无反顾欣然接受任命。毕竟，外派是我加入外交部最大的目的。和第一次一样，我的心也是提前起飞的。我在那儿住了短短的四个月。
第三次离乡是故地从游回到了台北。和前两次不同的是我的心并没有提前起飞。因为在上任前不到两个月前，我邂逅了弈云并在短短一个多月内死缠烂打后成功虏获每人心。结果，我准备提前起飞的心被这旋风般的恋情缠住了。可能我们的感情还嫩，我的心还是随着我的人飞往了台北。不过，它还是时不时的偷偷溜回了新加坡。这次驻台三年又九个月。不过，弈云在结婚后随我住在台北半年左右。
第四次离乡带我来到了神秘国度埃及的古城开罗。我独自到这儿已将近两个星期了。我的阿拉伯语的课程为期四个月到明年二月中旬。之后，我会回国一个月然后带着妻儿在都会来开罗正式展开三年的任期。这次和以往大不相同。结婚了，生了个超可爱的男娃儿，我的心到今天还是停留新加坡妻儿的身边。这两天因为天气燥热我生病了，加剧了我思乡，思念妻儿之苦。我希望尽快完成课程回到家人的身边。
Today is the 1st of November 2007, the start of the second week of my stay in Cairo. I am now blogging away in the comfort of my temporary home watching Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets on satellite TV. My nice landlady, Mrs Nadia, helped applied the ADSL connection for me and it comes along with a wireless router providing a 512kps download speed. From now on, I will not need to take the long march to my office everyday to video call my wife. Hoo haa!
This morning, I took my sixth lesson in Arabic and I am half way through the level 1 text. The going is tough and learning Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) concurrently can really be quite confusing. While both are Arabic, the description and pronunciation of many things are different in MSA vis-a-vis ECA. My strategy now is basically to focus on reading and writing for MSA and speaking for ECA. It's very much like learning Chinese for reading and writing and Hokkien for speaking.
So far, my progress has been quite good according to my tutors and Mr Raafat, the Managing Director of Kalimat. The plan now is for me to sit for the Intermediate Level test in early Feb 08 at the end of my language programme. For MSA (also known as Fursa), I am now able to recognise the alphabet in words quite accurately and I am working on the voweling, which can be quite complicated. I need lots of practice in writing and reading as well as building up my vocabulary quickly to enable me to move on to more meaningful Arabic reading.
Of the two, ECA (or Amaya) lessons are relatively more lively and fun with many exercises and conversations. To date, I've learnt basic greetings, some vocab, days of the week, months of the year, time, money, directions, prepositionsl, numbers and sequence, just to name the key ones. Yesterday, I managed to apply the 'taxi language' I learnt at class by directing a taxi from office to home. Tomorrow, I will do the same when I make my way to the Metro station nearby enroute to the Carrefour in Maadi. I will also try to call the laundry shop and get the man to come over to my place to collect clothes for laundry. I blog about my experiences along the way to share with everyone. Check out my Facebook photo album of Cairo for new photos.
PS: Please note that my transliterations are not the conventional ones commonly used.
Today is my sixth day in Cairo and I have found myself a nice apartment to stay for the next four months. Over the weekend, which is the Friday and Saturday in Egypt, I moved my stuff from the Nabila Hotel over to the apartment with the help of my property agent Tarit. Although the apartment is quite well furnished and equipped with crockery and utensils, I still need to get my daily essentials such as shampoo, soap, dish cleanser, bottled water and sustenance like bread, biscuits and jam. So I was running to and fro the Metro Supermarket nearby to get things ready.
I must say that I am quite lucky to find this apartment. It’s located at the junction of Mahruqi St and Gol Gamal away from the busy roads jammed with honking cars and yet it is only about 10 minutes walk from the places I will need to frequent – the language centre, supermarket, laundry shop, computer mart etc. While it is quite a walk from my office, about 30 minutes walk away, I can easily commute by taxi. Yesterday, I finally took a taxi by myself and I managed to get home simply muttering out “Gol Gamal” and “Muhruqi”. I don’t think I will have a problem flagging taxis along the roads as long as I can name the place I wish to go.
Besides the convenient location, I also have a pair of really nice old couple as my landlord. The landlady, Nadia, speaks some English and we were able to make some interesting small talk. I believe that in choosing a place to rent, the friendliness of the landlord is also an important factor to consider. If you get a good landlord like Nadia, or my landlady for almost four years in Taipei, you will have a blissful stay. Nadia helped me called up the laundry man to pick up my clothes, got her driver to show me to the laundry shop, asked her son-in-law to subscribe a broadband line that will be ready in two weeks time, referred a part-time domestic help to come in once a week to clean up the place for EGP40 (about S$12) and even buy me brand new frying pans. Here are some photos of this nice apartment to share. I will find an opportunity to take a photo with my landlady and post it on as well.
Now, my one and only goal is to learn Arabic as quickly as I can so that I can converse with Nadia in her mother tongue and perhaps have a few exchanges with the taxi drivers during my rides around the city. The second day of my lessons will start in about two hour time. I have a lot to memorise and practice so I will end here for today.
Today is Friday, the start of the weekend in Cairo, and my fourth day in Cairo. Over the past few days, I have been walking quite a bit, from the hotel to the language centre to the office and back to the hotel. That's about 1 hour and 20 minutes of walking per day along the dusty roads of Cairo. I have read about the infamous taxi rides in Cairo. Since I landed, I was not brave enough to hail one down. Fortunately, I experienced my first ride with an Egyptian real estate agent and I think I will be game to take one on my own soon. Here is a video clip taken during the bumpy ride.
The taxi ride was taken on my way to see an apartment that I will be renting for my four months of stay in Cairo during my language training. Compared to the four apartments shown to my back another agent the day before, this apartment is a godsend. It's clean and bright with three big bedrooms and a nice kitchen topped with three balconies. Seriously, I don't need such a big place but this building is just five minutes walk from the language school. The others I saw were a good 30-40 minutes walk away. While this apartment will cost more but the premium is very much worth it considering the savings in walking time. I will be signing the lease later this afternoon. I will post some photos after I moved in and settled down.
I started lessons yesterday at the Kalimat Language & Cultural Centre. Two hours of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and two hours of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA). MSA is for the read and write while ECA is for speaking. They are quite different but yet similar. If you know Chinese, MSA is like the Chinese writing while ECA is a local dialect such as Mandarin or Cantonese. But unlike Chinese, Arabic words are formed by alphabets which is similar to English. I basically need to memorised the alphabet and the pronunciation and script of each alphabet. It's quite a difficult language for me as there are sounds that I have not been using like "Rrrrrr" and "Kh". I find the lessons very interesting and challenging. For a moment, I felt like a kid learning ABCs, very refreshing indeed.
