One day, parenting expert Dr. James Dobson asked his radio listeners to call and record a message for their dads. He was unsure what would happen. Would they call? What would they say?

Here's what he found. More than six hundred listeners participated, but absolutely nobody - I mean, absolutely no one caller - focused on what their daddies did professionally. None of them said, "Thanks, Dad, for earning a lot of money" or "Thanks for the big house you provided for

If you ask a lot of people the last thing they want near five o'clock on Friday afternoon, they say, "Oh, a new job on top of unfinished work."

Yes, yes, I understand how it gets our dander up because I had that experience this Friday. I didn't know if I should carry on working late, after a whole week's busy hurly burly. "Wouldn't it be better to finish my presentation slides for the annual conference this Sunday?"

Love it or hate it, our child has her own definition of "parent-child connectedness." And if we don't accept that, nothing else would have worked either. Trust me.

When I took my wife and daughter for a boat trip followed by fine dining last Sunday - that's my wife's birthday - I thought it's quality time. To those who arrive at such a conclusion, I sound a cautionary note. My daughter rolled her eyes, "Mum, when can

Ideas for writing won't pop into our mind by itself.

We need fuel or a matchbox to kick off the writing. The fuel needs not be as big as a nuclear plant - in some cases, it may simply be four hours of train delay (if you were JK Rowling). That's what I shared with my daughter when we read the picture book Ralph Tells a Story during breakfast today. We learned that a great story can be about something very small ... as small as an

Ask anyone (yourself, quite possibly) who has to bring up a child and mentor a young doctor, and he'll tell you that they're somewhat similar. Oh, I was just reminded not to mix up the roles being a parent and a mentor yesterday during a sharing session on intern mentorship.

Still, I have to admit the same generation gap that exists between us - be they our children or younger interns. That means we have to rely on them to tell us how they feel, instead

I was having a good vacation, a great one, in fact. In case you thought I'll be on a hedonic treadmill where happiness boost doesn't last long, let me tell you my way of overcoming that "happiness set point."

I returned to work and came upon a gift right next to my workplace. That is a new public library where I can continue diving into the everlasting pleasure of bookshelves. One of my recent discoveries is the book Thanks for the Feedback.

Let's define

I'll admit it: changes often make us uncomfortable.

And that's one reason colleagues of mine don't like our recent switch from hospital pagers to mobile phones that much. We tend toward inertia; we need probing. But change we must. Always resist the status quo, I've been taught, and if pressed by inertia, unlock our habits step by step. This requires quite a bit of force, I know. Pacific Coffee has opened a shop in my hospital two months ago,

Before our Oki Islands adventure, we weren't sure if it's a good idea to bring the whole clan, kids in tow, to an area without tourist spots. How to beat the suck of wall-sized entertainment monitor at big city? How else to compete with the YouTube videos on small electronic gagdets?

How children get going on trips, perhaps, depend on their parents' personality, too. Our love for nature sets a tone and inspires Jasmine to savour the lesson on Oki salamander at the

Sometimes when I'm flipping through travel guides, I long for novelty. I want to be offbeat. I prefer exploration to staggering back to common routes. That's how Oki Islands flagged my attention when a South China Morning Post article mentioned this remote area, north of Matsue and in the Sea of Japan. Some months ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no ideas about Oki, and nothing about Yonago Kitaro Airport, I read about this destination in the newspaper magazine.
A destination unheard

Wouldn't it be nice for a doctor to take an occasional break and learn something new? Perhaps.

That's exactly what I've been doing these two days.

A course on leadership. Inside a classroom chock full of books to borrow and read. I am learning a little more each day. Some materials are a bit complicated for dimwit like me, I must say. One might be tempted to say that I am exaggerating. I am not. When our teacher showed me the four quadrants of