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...