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Casino cities, Creativity templates for innovation, innovation in education, London, Macau, Malaysia, Penang, The Sraits Settlement, Travel
Segment 2 – 21st Century Don Quixote
Gambling at the casino can result in excruciating painful loneliness in a crowd of restless gamblers. Leave the forlorn to lick after their own wounded wallets, themselves. You ought to smell the roses during “pauses from wagering” and if family members or close ones are with you on your casino fun excursion hold court as a holiday merry-maker and spend bonding quality time with them, frolicking in the gardens of your particular casino excursion city.
Nothing compares with window shopping and occasionally throwing money in the wind. In Singapore circa 2011, I once tagged along with my son, JoJo to the Lucky Plaza, not far from The Cathay. Fun shopping boils down to cunning haggling over a mesmerizing choice of merchandise. I picked up a Pierre Cardin pouch bag. I also discovered that the Lucky Plaza has a hell of a lot more character than even those back home in quaint Melaka city.
. . . Frolicking in the gardens whilst in London included the tourist-friendly bus trip around the prominent spots of London. Managed to take a souvenir ‘Rain Poncho’, a courtesy of the Big Bus Company, we still have it on our store shelf at home. Conveniently also we opted to survey a flea market along the easy to hop back route. We tasted local jelly beans and sugar floss as happy naive tourists in wonder-land. But the trophy was the salted beef sandwich. Feasted upon one and paid for another to – go. We had waited an hour for the restaurant to open and it was worth its salt.
. . . Frolicking in the garden whilst in Macao would also mean taking a ferry ride to Hong Kong. Fancy Bogy diving or rather a soothing cocktail at Tsim Sha Tsui? Apparently in London you “aren’t seen nothing” unless you have experience the underground rails. Don Q gotten used to it very quickly but not so for the subways of Hong Kong circa 2010.
Still, for JoJo the Hong Kong trip was never complete without a purchase of strawberry shaped jelly beans at the Peak and traveling up by the very efficient tram. Its sweet-sour flavor is not gotten in other jelly beans. Without exception it’s the usual four packs routine, purchasing for home consumption half a kilo per pack for easy storage in a cooler box.
On one trip we caught up with a niece named May to treat her at an Indian cuisine restaurant. Later in the evening we had the good fortune to have an uncle who treated us to a lavish uptown Hong Kong Chinese dinner. May must had pestered him to make time for the shin dig. Just as the time spent with Andy – the nephew in London, JoJo became enveloped with his dad’s funny side.
At times it takes a third person’s company to foil the father-son usual protocols. It isn’t a sham to say that our casino excursion trips were invariably more colored with nephews and nieces in cahoots. So who didn’t tend to be a somewhat hokey hunk who loved telling jokes?
Excerpts on Penang:
Trust this passed sixty years old “watcher of repose bearing” to still savor the primrose among thorns. Having Sherlock Holmes antennas to churn butter out of common cream scenarios we are about to ignite the mundane Vistana hotel cafe at the rear end of the unspectacular lobby. Are we to remain stranded as in stretched outright state and miss out on the glitter of the commonplace wonders?
There we were staring at the iconic “Line Clear Nasi Kandar” eatery along the daunting Penang Road in George Town. The queue this 25th December extended to the main road and enveloped the nearby Sam’s Batik House entrance, two shop lots away. But it’s not for us. There’s the hidden “nasi kandar jewel” located at Jalan Burma called NS Nasi Kandar. Sited opposite to a “seven-eleven” store at a traffic lights junction, the cafe serves the best beef culinary dish which must be savored together with soften marinated ladies fingers and triple high cooked onion omelets.
Chapter 4 extracts:
In George Town, Penang, Malaysia there is a coffee shop next to the “One Hotel” at Transfer Road. You will notice how the dish washer (circa 2016) engages the cleaning routine very methodologically and takes joy from constantly maintaining his work area neat and “in perfect order”.
The Don would dare say the outcome of cleanliness and having everything – the cups and glasses, saucers; cleaning paraphernalia all in their set places is superior to any done in any household. That’s vocation in the truest sense.
He was especially impressed that he appears to be glowing each time he douses a cup or glass after its first wash into a vessel filled with water saturated with a cleansing agent. He lets the cups and glasses in the vessel rest a while and then removes them for rinsing with fresh running water under a tap.
The worker is unaware of the sum of the attractive or repulsive forces between water and dirt molecules nor has he heard of Van der Waals but he knows that running water is more effective for cleansing than the stationary water in a bucket.
After he wipes them dry and places them neatly on the shelf space earmarked for them he beams with inner satisfaction of a task well done. Don Q was sure he does not dread each morning needing to spend hours at work. He will be dismayed if he missed out on the elation of dish washing.
. . . The size of our circle of competence must not distract us in pursuit of an abundant life. Like Warren Buffet said, knowing its boundaries is vital. If you are restrained (perhaps due to lack of intellect or just being disabled) focus with ferocious intensity on something simple (yet noble) which is within your capacity to excel – and spare not your basic capacity (‘ro’usu’ which also relates to “of your wealth”) until you yourself are satisfied that you have reached your forte in life, within your skills range.
Each person’s “skills-range expertise” sets him ablaze to play his role in God’s grand scheme of things. One’s life is uplifted. With concerted discipline and proper organization of tasks even washing dishes can be a meaningful vocation.
. . . Teaching can be a vocation of the highest order but most take it as a mundane job and they are teachers by default, not for the interest or love of it. Oh how uncommon it is to find a teacher whose face is always radiant from dedication to the role of educating youths, winning the crowning adoration of students. Perhaps all they need are the creative tools of the trade and a focus on innovation at the workplace. Read more in Addendum E if this subject is your cup of tea.
Author’s post-preview comments:
A fun novel with a twist on ideas and anecdotes for small business pitching – “Man from Quaint City” was published in 2016. Rehashed as “Don Q” in July 2017, it is about a professional quixotic character immersed in living life to its fullest yet in passive enthusiasm he churns up situations where commoners can excel in their role of fulfilling their obligations to their maker.
Updated and published in Kindle eBook format entitled “Rogue Windmills”, the Don Q atypical anecdotes provoke the layman to view the scriptural philosophy beyond dogmatic religious notions. Using current world events and high profile recalcitrant characters involved in new world reform to illustrate the mild epithet of fighting rogue windmills, the peculiarly startling efforts of real world leaders will raise standards of living for the abundant life.
Once known as the The Pearl of the Orient, Penang – the first of Straits Settlement cities before Melaka and Singapore draws the Don to spin astute observations on some commonplace scenarios.
Teaching can be a vocation of the highest order but can a simple dish washing job take the cake? What’s next in 21st Century Don Quixote is placing our “skills-range expertise” in the forefront of God’s grand scheme of things for everyone. In addition Don Q contends that if we view creativity techniques as a process we could employ various steps and any teacher, for instance can excel. Creativity for innovation in any workplace can be juggled and combined.
Createspace book preview gallery:
Segment 1: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1247656
Segment 2: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1247722