Memories... Experiences... Thoughts...

I'm leaving this place

2010-02-07T23:58:00.000+08:00

Another week to go before I leave DSTA. Had my farewell lunch today at the M Hotel. The mixed feeling got stronger. I am supposed to be relieve and happy and yet, there's a small tinge of reluctance.

Everyday, I can still hear the boss 'screaming' into the phone. The project obviously is not in a good shape. Already more than 300 million has been pumped into this project and honestly I'm not sure how much more it needs before completion. The vendor from country X, as usual, can't deliver and played with words on the system requirements. We got so used to all these nonsense that it becamse part and parcel of our work. A simple thing that should take just 2 days to complete will typically take 2 weeks. I'm glad I'm out of all of these.

On the other hand, I'm leaving a place of comfort. I'm leaving a place where the pay is relatively very good comparing to the amount of work, the level of staff benefits, the long lunch hours and the nice and easy going people. I'm leaving my comfort zone, and venturing to a place of uncertainty.

But.. I feel that I'm beginning to like that kind of feeling.. I managed to break free of the norm.

Whether I make it as a biz development guy, or make something out of my stay at my father's place, I'll just let fate decide. I have decided to believe that, sometimes, its not about what you do, but what is installed for you...

I quit my job

2010-01-30T01:02:00.001+08:00

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

2010-01-26T10:03:00.000+08:00

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

2010-01-18T01:22:00.000+08:00

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

2010-01-06T00:03:00.001+08:00

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

Wiping whatever you had in the CPF
Signing sheets and sheets of paper
Learning about all the bills I would have to pay
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

2010-01-05T23:00:00.043+08:00

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)

2010-01-03T00:58:00.053+08:00

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:

Completion of tutorstrade website
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...

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

2010-01-01T14:49:00.001+08:00

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.

Of course, not to mention the party that happens almost every night.

Wish I had more photos to put on this page, but guess we all partied to hard to forget to take the pictures. =P

14^th June – Ying Ying’s wedding and Pan Pacific. It’s good to see all the old WSC people gathering and to see an old friend tying a knot.

Got to break here before posting the 2^nd half review of 2009.

Christmas Day - 25th December 2009

2010-01-01T02:43:00.012+08:00

I can't have a better way to remember this Christmas, for today, 3 of my Koi fishes die and I have to bury them in my garden. It is kinda sad for the fishes have been with me (us) for the past 9 years....

The final resting places for 2 of the Kois

So, Christmas afternoon is spent cleaning up the fish pond. All the males in the house are involved - my father, my brother and myself. It is quite a huge project that requires, well, a lot of water and guts (it's kinda gross to move around in a slimy algae filled pond). Though this is a tiring exercise, it is also fun as everyone in this house is involved one way or the other. And my scarely cat wife tried to carry some of the water filter filled with fish dung for washing as well as helping my mum clean up the house walkway. =)

Me cleaning the filters

Dad Handling the Filter Chambers

Brother Helping Out

Total Mess at the Garden

Christmas night is much better. We have dinner at Valerie's house at Sunglade. And it seems like only yesterday that we had the same Christmas dinner at her place in 2008. This time round, Sharon brought with her fried Bee Hoon and a huge bag of Christmas present for exchanging.

The dinner spread looks great!!

Valerie and Gary (The host couple) prepared the Salad and the Hams

Sharon prepared fried bee hoon

Kelvin and Amanda brought curry chicken

Yogi and LiLing brought the Sheperd’s pie and brownie. And they brought little Kayli to the party too! She's already 6 months and I am captivated with her split seconds change of emotion - she can literally smile and laugh the next second after she cries.

Kelvin and Amanda will also be proud parents this time next year too for Amanda is about 13 weeks pregnent. Yogi is sharing much of his experience with Kelvin on the joy of being a father. I can see how happy this father is and how 'worried and yet expectant' Kelvin looks.

The gift exchange is the highlight of the day

I felt close to this group of friends even though I only met them briefly during my courtship with Sharon. The girls have been good friends since the university days and their relationship has never changed a bit even up till this day. Their husband are totally nice people and it is good fate too, that the guys can click together without much effort. Kelvin, Amanda and Valerie, are really helpful people. They offered to help us look for defects at our new place once we collected the key. I'm seriously touched by their gesture.

This holiday season, I am reminded of how blissful I am to be surrounded with so many good friends.

Christmas Eve - 24th December 2009

2009-12-29T00:17:00.000+08:00

I always love Christmas season, especially the Christmas Eve. Though my family don't really have that sort of celebration for this festive season, I have always associated Christmas to gatherings, romance, holidays and fun.

I tried to make it a point to recall my past Christmas Eve, and I have failed. I can't even remember exactly what I did for last year's Christmas Eve! So, this is why I should write down what happened every Christmas Eve from this year onwards.

It was raining in the morning. And I was 30mins later than my usual 'lateness'. But I guess it was ok because the Christmas mood was overwhelming my office. Sharon went to Vivo to buy the materials needed for making the Sheperd's Pie for our Christmas party later. I was a half day in office (I skipped the office Christmas Lunch) and I picked up Sharon and headed to West Mall to meet up with Steven Ng, Sharon's ex boss at SFMA for a drink and talked about career prospect at IE Singapore.

We left an hour later and went back to Bukit Merah where Sharon begain making the Sheperd's pie. It took her almost 3 hours to get it done. But the end result looks really good.

We reached Alvin's place at about 7pm for the Christmas eve dinner. And there was a quite a spread of dishes:

Here are the lovely people at the party:

Dinner was marvellous and we had lots of laughter during the meal. I thought we should keep this tradition going and I promised for next year's Christmas eve, it'll be at our new home @ Duxton.

Oh, it is no longer a secret at this point but Jocelyn is pregnant with a baby girl and soon, Alvin will be a father! So for next year's party, we'll have roughly about 10 adults + 1 baby!!

Reviving my blogging habits

2009-12-28T11:24:00.002+08:00

The last entry made to this blog was in 2006.

From 2006 to December 2009, it's about 3 years. After these 3 years, I decided that I still need an avenue to dump in all my memories, experiences and thoughts. There's only so much my brain can remember and I do not want to forget all those, that are worth remembering...

In quick retrospect:

2007 - I joined Finisar and went to work in Silicon Valley. It was a priceless experience and I can't forget how Sharon & I spent our weekends there and our disneyland adventure.

2008 - I got admitted to the Nanyang MBA program. Perhaps this is the start of a change to my career. I left Finisar in May and joined DSTA in the same month.

2009 - I'll blog about it on 30th/31st December 2009.