A little bit of Southeast-Asia in Scandinavia

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Having a morning cuppa in a light blue Terengganu, Malaysian made sarong.

The sarong as a garment is part of Singapore’s fashion heritage, where most ethnic groups in Singapore (the Malays, the Peranakans and the Indians) have in their basic wardrobe, a form of the sarong. Although sarongs are made in China, Japan and in Africa, the batik sarong in particular is intricately linked to Southeast-Asia and it has been a part of my wardrobe since I was a little girl.

Sarongs can be worn in a variety of ways, the most common would be to wear it tied around under the arms, as I have done in the picture above, or tied around the waist. The batik sarong is opaque in material, usually cotton but sometimes silk or linen and when tied around the waist, it can be coupled with a regular t-shirt (for home wear purposes) or with a hand-embroidered Nonya kebaya (for festive occasions).
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Swedish management: its research beginnings, characteristic traits and style

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Field in Mölle, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014

The Swedish management concept made headlines in 2001, as only sports news can do, when the BBC news reported that Swedish soccer manager Sven Goran Eriksson took England to the top in the World Cup qualifying rounds using Swedish management ideology.

As a field of research, studies on Swedish management is relatively new, beginning in the 1980s with research in the area of Scandinavian management. A prominent piece of work in the field at that time was Skandinaviskt management i og uden for Skandinavien by Geert Hofstede.

And in 1985, Jan Carlzon’s success as CEO (1980 – 1993) of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) led to his book entitled Riv pyramiderna!, which mapped SAS’s winning management strategy under his leadership. His success and work gained much media attention and created a Scandinavian leadership ideal. Carlzon’s main idea was to lateralize hierarchies and decentralize decision-making within the organization, which empowered employees further out in the service line to serve customers better. With decentralization, employees were given the power to make decisions on the spot, without having to go to their managers to ask for decision approvals. And since they knew the customers better, Carlzon was convinced that the people ‘out there’ would fit best in making the right decisions regarding their work situations. The lateralization process had its problems and hiccups, one of which was the consequence of making middle managers feel rather redundant and had to be reassigned duties.
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Sweden’s growing trade with Asia and it’s trade presence in Singapore

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A view of the Merlion at the Esplanade, Singapore.

An interconnected world

The world is becoming an increasingly small place to live in, we can feel it in the pace at which the world economy runs these days. World trade is much larger, faster and more intense than what we knew even from 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore as a trade entrepôt. Many organizations today are multinational in nature in order to compete on the global scene. Employees in such organizations are often located away from home countries in order to continue the work of the organization on a global scale, contributing to the existence, expansion and success of the organization.

Organizations going global would also mean that their people would be working on a global stage, having colleagues from foreign countries. It would mean working with someone who not only looks physically different from yourself but who share a different set of values, taken-for-granted assumptions and collectively shared beliefs, in other words, a different ideology (Simpson, 1993).

These collectively shared beliefs or ideology, stem from their own socio-cultural and political background and working together would mean communicating on a daily basis about work projects, negotiating meaning with each other so that each one understands what the other wants, the aim of which is to push the organization forward in reaching its goal.

Individuals who are often deployed to an overseas organization affiliate from their home country would often possess specialized knowledge, expertise and leadership skills, so that they can help set up and steer the affiliate organization in the new country.
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Summer in Sweden – Strawberry and red currant pie in the sun!

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A strawberry and red currant pie.

Today’s sweltering heat of 28 deg C in the shades just wouldn’t allow a heavy meal to sit in the stomach. Snuggling up in the shade of the red currant bushes, plucking red currants in the garden also felt an inviting activity in this summer heat, and so a light strawberry and red currant pie was on the menu for lunch!


Good sun and an occasional summer drizzle is enough to give a generous harvest of red currants. Their fruits ripen around mid-July.

The currants are rather delicate and tend to squish at the slightest of touches. Still, it’s fastest in harvesting by running the stems of the currants between the fingers, so that a dozen land in your hand all at once each time.
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Revisiting the one piece swimsuit

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The Agua Preciosa, a young, fun, one piece cut out crochet top and multi-coloured bottom by Agua Bendita.

It seems that 1951 thereabouts was the last years in which the one piece swimsuit was seen as ‘tasteful’ for young women to don, after which a bikini clad Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu… créa la femme (1956) and Brian Hyland’s song, Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yello Polka Dot Bikini (1960) created a locomotion for the two piece so strong that even the Vatican’s denouncement of the garment in 1964 did nothing much to slow down its popularity. Today, a search for “one piece swim suit” will currently render 1,472 hits on the US ebay site alone in the women’s swimwear section, whilst that of “bikini” renders 17,320 hits on the same site. From the two piece’s popularity, it seems the two piece (and its micro version) are most vogue these days on beaches around the world.
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Florals on black and the 2.55

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Floral dress, Cubus. Black weave belt, Cubus. Sunglasses, Christian Dior. Chanel 2.55 bag in straw. Seashell ear hoops.

It isn’t always that one gets a chance to don chiffon dresses in Sweden, even in summer. But this year’s warm summer allows for some light, romantic dresses in sheer fabrics. The florals on black dress on is from Cubus and is possibly inspired by the florals of Dolce & Gabbana s/s 2008. H&M also carries some D&G inspired mini ruffled, tiered skirts with florals on black (or cream) this spring / summer season in light chiffon material. The black weave belt is also from Cubus. Continue reading “Florals on black and the 2.55” →

All things Pucci in summer

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Emilio Pucci ad campaign s/s 2008. Malgosia Bela by Juergen Teller.

A pick-me-up designer label for me is Emilio Pucci. The ad campaign above is what closest describes my view of all things Pucci and that is, a burst of colours when all things are bland, a burst of energy when you need it most. A nobleman by birth with a fascinating biography, Emilio Pucci (1914-1992) would spend most of his life at the Pucci Palace in Florence, Italy. Most of us would recognize his signature geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours.

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Ice-creams in high summer

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A picture of some home made ice-cream by Keiko, writer of Nordljus. More recipes and all about food can be found at the beautiful blog, Nordljus.

Come spring in Sweden and the newspapers begin to review the upcoming launches of new ice-creams for the summer, everything from tub ice-creams, ice-cream on sticks to ice-cream in cafés are reviewed, to get to know the crème de la crème of ice-creams for the summer. It’s high summer and I’ve been doing my fair share of ice-cream epicureaning, well alright, more like devouring. Continue reading “Ice-creams in high summer” →

All-American bacon and cheese burger at Chili’s, New York

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Nibbling the big apple XII

A farewell all-American bacon and cheese burger, at Chili’s in New York, served up with a tequila mind boggler!

It was during the 1980s that the catch phrase, “Where’s the beef?” became popular in the United States and Canada due to the television commercial for Wendy’s hamburger restaurants, by Joe Sedelmaier. Since it was first used, the phrase has also become an all-purpose phrase questioning the substance of an idea, event or product.

Well, when in New York, we never got the chance to visit Wendy’s, but we did go into Chili’s at the airport just prior to taking off, where we had our very last all-American bacon and cheese burger.

If Singapore has its chilli crabs and chicken rice, Sweden has its meatballs and lingon berry jam, then the United States has its beef burger – in all variations. We ate burgers for most of our meals in New York and when we deviated from the burger, we found that the meal hadn’t satisfied all that much. It was a quaint realization that the all-American beef burger, with all sorts of toppings, was my favourite meal when in New York. We even had burgers for breakfasts.

My absolute favourite burger served is found at Michael Jordan’s The Steak House NYC, along 23 Vanderbilt Ave, New York 10017, at 44th St – Grand Central Terminal. They served up 10 oz (283 g) burgers and 14 oz (396 g) steaks that were grilled to perfection! Being a beef person, Jordan’s Steak House made it an even easier choice of a juicy beef steak over fish anyday!

The classic burger.

We’re not letting go of our burger experiences and here, you’ll find a favourite breakfast burger recipe that is quick to prepare and beats fast-food burgers:

170 grams of ground sirloin beef meat mixed with some salt and black pepper.
Slow fry in butter until as rare as you want it.
Put on toasted hamburger bread on a bed of salad, tomato slices and a pickled cucumber.
Add a helping of melted flavoury cheese (Gouda or Cheddar) on top of 4-5 slices of crispy fried Bacon and a pineapple slice. Add a helping of mushroom stew. Serve with deep fried potato wedges on the side and maybe a fried egg.

Serves one.

Coke or a cold beer on the side.

Should keep you warm and fuzzy until lunch.

Rockefeller Center: the Eiffel Tower of New York

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Nibbling the Big Apple XI

Though it’s not yet Christmas, it’s all the same magical, to view the Swarovski Rockefeller Star topper that adorns the Rockefeller Christmas tree each year.

I hadn’t expected the visit to Rockefeller Center to have been any different from the visit to the Empire State Building. But it was. For one thing, not all visitors were forced to have their pictures taken for souvenir purposes, and one could choose to by-pass all picture taking and head straight to the top.

The weather had let up some and the skies though cloudy, were azure as the eye could see. The view from the Observation Deck of Rockefeller Plaza or the Top of the Rock, proved more beautiful than that of the Empire State Building, with a more open, less cagey design. There were friendly staff on the Observation Deck to help with your queries and take pictures for guests at a minimal fee.

The Observation Deck, at Rockefeller Plaza.

Wooden benches with name plaques engraved with names of those who donated the benches, were placed alongside the wall of the Observation Deck. And because it was such wonderful weather, we took the opportunity to sit, relax and simply enjoy being at Rockefeller. It wasn’t as if there were no others there, but the generous layout and space around the Observation Deck meant that one could have their privacy to take a languid unwind, as others walked by. Continue reading “Rockefeller Center: the Eiffel Tower of New York” →