I quit my job

2 weeks into my notice period, 3 weeks after deciding that I should really leave the company.

Can't feel happier, more relieve, more nonchalant, riskier, more uncertain than this.. Other than having a tight Feb and March, followed by an equally tight April and May, I have no other concrete plans.

What could lined up for me after resignation:
1. Help me dad in the factory, try to revive the branding.
2. Work on Cherrie Hearts
3. Work out tutors-trade
4. 5 MBA modules to handle
5. Relax and travel, take part in competition
6. LOOK FOR JOB.

Which one to focus on?
Deep inside me "look for job", tell people "help my dad do business", scare of "5 MBA modules", looking forward to "Relax and travel" and unsure about "Cherrie Hearts".

Earthquake in Haiti

I usually do not pay any attention to any natural disaster, other than the Tsunami in end of 2004. Because it simply does not bother me. I have my own share of things to worry and I do not have anymore bandwidth to look at most other problems. I get the news only because the media is fervantly talking about it and people are talking about it.

Reflect, reflect... why is this so?

Its because, there's simply nothing I can do about it.I am not a fire-fighter nor a rescue worker. Other than knowing the painful truth from the news, why not stay in the blissful state of ignorance and continue to think that every part of the world is still doing good?

The Earthquake in Haiti is the latest incident to prove my ignorance. Other than the number of people who died from this natural disaster, I do not even know where Haiti is. I came across the news finally today and found out magnitude of this disaster. The situation, if the press did not sensationalise, is really bad. Or, it could be worst because the press could not cover everything.

I realise once again how blissful I am to be born here in Singapore. Yes, we have a "blood sucking"  government but I have learnt enough from my MBA course that what they do are necessary evils. Simply put, no matter how 'bad' nor 'authocratic' they appear to seem, the fact is they made Singapore into a first world state after ~40 years of independence. And yes, we are looking at a country with small land size, no natural resources and best of all, no natural disaster. Or else I will never get to live in a place call Pinnacles@Duxton.

People know this and yet people overlook this. We get so comfortable in life that we demand more and more. Probably this is the energy that drives our country's economy.


Regardless, I wish for all Singaporeans to be happy. If they are ever faced with a pitfall, stop and think about the people in places like Haiti, and be reminded about how fortunate we are.

Now, let us all pray (if it helps) for the best for the people in Haiti and may the international "powers" do something more quickly than to sit around a big table and talk

The lift has broken down... our society is also breaking down

I met Sharon at Everton road this after and we were going to do one final defect check on our unit.

As we walked towards the lift lobby, we couldn't help but to hear the incessant ringing of the lift alarm. We looked and saw that one of the lift was stuck at level 37. And there was a message asking people to call for lift maintenance service. At that point in time, there were 2 people at level 1.

Dude 1 was an old man and he walked to another lift, appearing to naturally ignore the alarm sound. Seeing us staring at that faulty life, he just told us to take another lift up.

Dude 2 was a hunter, a hunter looking for flat owners to strike a renovation deal. I brushed him aside saying I already have someone to do my renovation. Similarly, all this while, he was totally ignorant of the lift alarm.

I told Sharon we should investigate this and see if there were people stuck in the lift. I could have played dumb and be like either of the 2 idiots. But hey, 路见不平，拔刀相助 is my mantra for the day. If I didn't do anything, who would? We took a lift up to the 37th level and noticed the lift unit stuck in between level 37 and level 38. Sharon called the lift maintenance immediately and they dispatched help which could only arrive 25mins later. Meanwhile, I tried to get the attention of the people stuck in the lift, to assure them that help was on the way.

I thought we should go down and look for help from security. And when we were at level 1 again, there were 2 security guards trying to help. People noticed the lift was stuck but NOBODY asked anything more. Everyone assumed that someone had called for help, and moved away...The 2 security guards are my fellow heroes of the day, as they tried to ply open the doors (though they were not supposed to). Their reason is very simple: 30mins of waiting time, the people inside could be suffocated. Try to do something first.

Simple logic, albeit a dangerous one. No doubt they did not follow the 'safety procedure', you couldn't fault them for their mind was very focused on saving the people inside the lift. You can tell that they weren't educated from the way they talk, but their actions were far superior than many of the educated b*****d that our MOE factory had produced (myself included).

Help eventually arrived after sometime and the people were safe. They saw us and we very thankful for our help. But they didn't get a chance to thank the 2 security guards or saw what the 2 security guards tried to do to help them. We didn't deserve all the 'thanks' for what we did was to just dial a number and scream for help. I told them that there were 2 security guards downstairs and you should thank them too.

However, one of the victims was so engrossed in relating her experience about not being able to dial for help that I doubt everyone heard what I said. And needless to say, I was very doubtful if they eventually would say thank you to those 2 people who tried so hard to help them.

Finally, the Pinnacles@Duxton

After all the hype, we finally collected the key to Pinnacles@Duxton on 5th January 2010, at HDB Hub.
The process involved:

1. Wiping whatever you had in the CPF
2. Signing sheets and sheets of paper
3. Learning about all the bills I would have to pay
4. Some level of anticipation

The end product which cost me S$504k, plus future months of slavery to money.
The front door

The door unit number, supposed to be good for us, as suggested by a friend of mine who is learning on Indian numerology.

The Living Room

View from my living room

The small walkway to the master bedroom

The first bedroom. We'll make this into a guest room.

The second bedroom. This will be the study room.

The master bedroom. With the bay window!

Window view from my master bedroom.

Small kitchen

Small area to hang clothes and an redundant door

Though 'small' was the most commonly pronounced word during that short 30mins walk through, we love the place at first sight (got to remind myself this place cost me 504k). Can't wait to get the renovation started, but I could only arrange Dave to visit on 6th Feb.

The much anticipated view from the sky garden

The REAL heroes behind this huge project..

The sky garden

1st January 2010

The first day of the year.. Usually it would be dreadful for it signified the end of the holiday season, and the start of another long year ahead. But this year, we still have 2 more days of break before work actually start on the 4th.

We spent the afternoon at Tristan & Esther's place and befriended their new toy - Wii!! There are more reasons to hang out at their place from now on.

Zhiwen and Meiyun joined us much later in the afternoon. We had a game where Sharon & I played against Zhiwen and Meiyun, which, we lost...

Obviously, Sharon & I didn't look like a good sport. Oh, Esther was there to make the picture look better. =D

I played a game of sword fighting against Sharon.

And I won most of the time...

We spent the night at Moonstone, to celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the meeting between GECS and CTMS. It was also the 5th year of my first meeting with my wife Sharon.

We look forward to many more fun times with this bunch of people... =D

2009 in retrospect... (second half of 2009)

July 09

2nd July –Yogi and Liling daughter Kayli is born at Gleneagle Hospital.

7th to 30th July – The dreadful IPT period, every Tuesday and Thursday

8th July – Photo taking session with Johnny from My Bridal Room. Tiring but fantastic experience. Both Sharon & I were worried how we’d look in the pictures but it turned out really good when we selected the photos on 11th July (Saturday).

24th July – MBA Orientation Dinner, to welcome the new batch of MBAs for AY 2009. Travelled all the way back to NTU for a buffet styled dinner.

26th July – Kayli’s baby Shower! The party was held at Yogi’s parents place, situated somewhere at Hillview street. It’s a pretty old apartment estate that kinda reminds me of my childhood days. I like the environment very much.

27th July – Start of my 4th MBA Trimester. Modules taken this trimesters are Sunzi Bingfa and Leadership & Organizational Behaviour. Sunzi Bingfa was a taxing module though the requirement is not steep. The individual report had given me considerable pressure. I enjoyed LOB very much because of the lecturers and my group mates. Both AP Prof Dennis and Beng Chong are pretty nice people who are very encouraging. That made their lecture on Friday evening much more bearable.

August 09

1st – 2nd August – Food Tasting in Malaysia. It was also the first time I visited my in-laws place at Muar. They’d bought a huge semi-detach and planned to use it like a holiday getaway once in a while.

7st August – Made a decision to join the MBA Exco committee. I couldn’t turn up for the introduction speech on the following week and asked Mayra to go on my behalf. I got selected in the end, thanks to her help.

9th August – National Day. I dun remember doing anything memorable, though I remembered vividly I didn’t watch the NDP Parade.

13th August – Visited the Mercedes Benz showroom with my in law. Daddy Harry was tempted to buy a new Mercedes, but Mummy Anne, Sharon and I dissuaded him =P

15th August – My Wedding’s briefing at Amara Hotel. Bought most of my brothers and sister a dinner then.

19th August – Met up with the Alumni Affair office at NTU to talk about the establishment of WSC AA.

25th August – Recorded my newest composition for my Wedding video montage.

26th August – 1st MBA Exco meeting at NTU. It was also the last as I decided to resign from the committee the very same night. I realized I couldn’t really click with the entire committee and what they discussed about doing for the MBA cohort was different from what I wanted to do. Oh well, on top of that, the key reason was the lack of time. I think I should really know my limits sometimes. =P

27th August – Had lunch with Nick from MBA office to convey my decision to resign from the MBA Exco committee.

29th August – Food tasting at Amara Sanctuary with both families. It was a great experience as Allan & Jerry from Amara Sanctuary made the evening enjoyable for us with great service and good food.

September 09

2nd September – Sharon’s birthday. We had dinner at Verve. Though it was her birthday, she bought me a pair of collar stand designed by Choo Yilin! Haha

19th September – Wedding rehearsal at Amara Sancturay with Kelvin & Cindy, Alvin, Guixiang & Gloria.

26th September – Our Chinese Customary. The biggest event for both of us in 2009!

I’m the 3rd of the 4 musketeers (Guixiang, Alvin, me and Kenny) to get married. The picture is the 3rd of the collector series. I hope we all dun have to wait too long for the 4th picture. =D

October 09
3rd October – Our wedding dinner in Malaysia. We spent the morning outdoor taking some ‘cheesy’ wedding shoot. But I thought it was quite… fun.

23rd October – MBA Graduation Party at DXO. It marked the end of my 4th trimester in MBA. Met an old WSC friend Jeremy at the event and he turned out to be the HR person representing Citibank. Could still remember him saying “Oh, so this is the MBA thing you are talking about..” =D

This party would be the last for some people while the first for others. It gave me a slight sense of nostalgia as I knew I probably won’t see many of them around anytime soon. Many lamented about the job prospect after the graduation, but they did not want to talk much about it and decided to just enjoy the night and left the worrying till tomorrow.

27th to 31st October – One week course on Value based Innovation Based course with Professor Shlomo Maital. Really enjoyed a week of no work and study. Our project, V-La, a cultural based theme hotel won the 2nd spot as the most viable business idea.

27th October – Andy’s brother gathering. It was at this gathering that I got the news of Kevin’s breakup with Cecilia. The truth is unsettling even though Sharon had warned me earlier about this. This couple had always been one of the most fun people to be with, and I thought they were a perfect match. I felt bad for him and felt almost the pain he had to go through, when he made his decision. But no matter what, as long as he was clear of his choice and was happier at the eventual outcome, I’d stick by him.

30th October – Andy and Agnes customary wedding. The couple was one of Sharon’s longest friend. I could click with this pair pretty well from day 1 when we met. This is also a perfect match couple and I not only had the pleasure of being Andy’s brother, both Sharon & I were their MC for the evening.

November 09

7st November – Birth of Tyler, baby boy of both Paul and Yvonne!

9th November – Start of my 5th MBA trimester. Modules taken in this term are Strategic Brand Management, Management Accounting, Global Business Environment & Cross Cultural Marketing. Among this, Management accounting is probably the toughest. The 2nd 50% of the course is where all the deadlines are due. Not looking forward to it at all.

21st November – Koon Rong’s wedding at M Hotel. Realised his deep talent in comic drawing when I saw his wedding montage.

December 09

4th December – Interview with BDO Raffles. This was my first interview as a prospectus MBA graduate.

5st – 12th December – Another of the dreadful trip to Israel. This trip was the most memorable in a way how the management politics got onto me and my team. This was point that made me think of whether I should continue at this place.

12th December – Tristan and Esther’s customary wedding. This is another great couple and a great joy to be with. I touched down Singapore at 430pm and rushed to the hotel and made sure I was on time to be their MC for the dinner.

13th December – Our godson Dominic’s birthday party. That little rascal is 1 year old already! And he’s grown up so much since we last saw him. Finally I got my chance to carry him around =D

24th December – Christmas Eve!!

25th December – Christmas Day!!

26th December – Yeok Hui’s wedding at Crown Plaza Changi Airport. A new chapter for her and Caoliang. The wedding was simple and yet cosy. Sharon and I enjoyed the food there, and oh! We made some new friends too. Incidentally, we befriended the boss of this shop http://www.totallyhotstuff.com/

Night time, we met up with Sharon’s JC friends, comprising of Weixin, Elaine, Deborah, their husbands and friends, at St James. We hanged out at Broilers room and it turned out to be quite a terrible night. I was made to drink lots of alcohol and got quite drunk after a couple of hours. I had to be dragged home by Sharon. This was the first time in my life that I got drunk…

And the feeling was quite terrible… =|

31st December – A quite event for both Sharon & I with friends. We first had dinner with Weixin and Elaine and their husbands at Brussel Sprouts. I would say the discussion topic of the dinner was quite unconventional and I could hardly chip in the discussion. So I spent most of the time being the listener. We had to transit to M Hotel to join my army friends for the countdown. But when we got there, we decided to just stay in the room instead of going out and mixing with the crowd.

So, 2009 comes to an end. The year has been eventful, maybe somewhat exciting and yet boring. Goals have been met and missed. Two he goals which I set out to accomplish in 2009 have failed terrible. They are:

1. Completion of tutorstrade website
2. Develop some prototypes for Chrisnning.

I won't want to make the same commitment for 2010, but I'd definitely want to see them go somewhere. My over-commitment has been my greatest undoing and I believed I have disappointed some of my friends. I need to do some self reflection on why things fall short and make sure I do better in the following year.

So, in 2010, it shall be a year of change...