Memories... Experiences... Thoughts...: 2009 in retrospect... (first half of 2009)

Looking through what are the key happenings in 2010..

January 09

3^rd January – Guixiang’s Wedding with Gloria. The first of the 4 musketeers to officially get hitched. The dinner was held at Holiday Inn Orchard. I could still remember how I had to speed between Bedok and Woodlands for the morning portion of the ceremony. But I enjoyed it thoroughly and it was a great way to start 2009.

15^th Jan - Got our flat unit at Pinnacles@Duxton. Unit number is 32-01!

February 09

2^nd – 13^th February 09 - My unit’s 7^th ICT. Can’t forget the ATEC Stage II from 9^th – 12^th February. Going for a 4 days outfield exercise so many years after my active NSF days, is really unthinkable. Took at snapshot of morning sun at one of the deployment site at Seletar.

21^st February 09 - Barbeque at Tomi’s house at Tessarina located at Bukit Timah. That’s when I get to know folks like Mayra, Levent, Johnny, Alice, Susan etc from my MBA course.

22^nd February 09 - Alvin Tan Teck Siang’s wedding with Jocelyn. The second of the 4 musketeer to get hitched. Another eventful and memorable wedding where Sharon and I were closely involved. We remembered waking up at 5am in the morning to reach Alvin’s house in Woodlands at 6am. The day involves lots of driving, between Woodland and Taman Jurong, photo taking at Singapore Art Museum. Dinner was held at Grand Copthorn Waterfront.

20^th February – Ended MBA Trimester 2 (taken Marketing Management & Financial Accounting) with MBA Party at Asian Civilization Museum to celebrate School’s Global top 25th ranking.

24^th February – Finally bought my long desired IPod Touch

March 09

2^nd March – Start of MBA Trimester 3 with Merger & Acquisition, Economic Analysis and Emerging Technology in Business modules. Another tough 12 weeks. Really enjoyed M&A with Professor Boyd but the project gave us considerable stress. =)

6^th March – HDB First appointment for down payment of Pinnacles@Duxton.

April 09

18^th - 29^th April – Trip to Israel. Expected to be a tough 8 days trip but turned out to be ok. I tagged along with the team to travel to the Dead Sea area and visited Masada, an ancient city. Took this picture on top of Masada and made a phone call to Sharon (it was late afternoon in Singapore at that time). Returned to Singapore on 29^th April (Wednesday) and headed straight to my M&A class at NTU after returning from the airport.

May 09

1^stMay – Labour day. Had a networking session at Little Part 1 Café. Mayra brought some visiting MBA friends from Portugal for interaction.

3^rd May – Dreadful Economic Analysis quiz, on a SUNDAY. Literally have to ‘copy’ answer since I didn’t study at all. After the quiz, I had to rush down to Home Team Club at Whampoa to attend Dingwei’s son Ryan’s baby shower. He’s the first of the army guys to officially become a father!

13^th May – My brother returned from US after 3 years of study at Duke University, for a 1 year attachment at A*Star.

29^th May – End of MBA Trimester 3 with Economic Analysis exam.

31^st May – Phong’s wedding. But I missed my good friend’s wedding and I couldn’t be his brother. The date clashes with BSM. This is really a biggest tradeoff made in 2009.

June 09

31^st May to June 7^th – Business Study Mission (BSM) trip to China Tianjin and Beijing. I would rate this as the best occurrence of 2009!

The guys had lots of fun there (mainly after the official hours). And the trip brought me many good memories with some of my fellow MBAs.

I really have to marvel at the speed of Chinese development and the determination of the government to progress the country. In Tianjin, we see development of astronomical scope almost everywhere. What Singapore has achieved over the course of 40 years, the Chinese wish to emulate that within 10. Singapore really has something to think about now. So like it or not, Chinese is going to be an important language of the 21^st century. To those people who use to mock at ‘chingchongs’, maybe its time for you to wake up.

The most remarkable portion of the trip was during our industry visit to Mr SunDian Yong’s Chemical plant. The Chairman of the company has greatly humbled us with his presence and our 3 hours discussion with him offered us many learning points – towards life, career and family. Being able to meet with him was our greatest priviledge during the trip.