Reflection of Year 2010

Prologue:

Ok, it’s again the time of the year for reflection and some resolutions… :) Not my favorite part of year-end, but I guess I have to do this still… Say, as a gift for the “future Me” when she is old and want to know what she did when she was 23.

Start of Rewind:

I started the year wishing everyone a happy new year from a hotel in Taiwan with a bunch of best friends :)

Back to Singapore & work life, I took an interview for a new project within the bank, and I got in with PMO role. Not long after that, I received my very first promotion (and increment) after being with the bank for almost 2 years. I remember how I was so anxious about the promotion, much more than the bonus and increment.

CNY came and I went back to hometown for a fantastic family gathering. All my bro and sis (and their partner and their kids) are back home, and the home was merrier than ever. I can’t remember when was the last time we had this kind of reunion :)

Marching to march, I was sent to Germany for one week training on my new role. Well, I doubt that I learnt a lot about PMO in that short one week, but being in the head quarter definitely boasted my motivation and passion to perform (grin)

Right on April Fool, I declared being in relationship again :) Yes, I have fallen for him :) The theme song for Romeo and Juliet was playing on my mind “Love me, Love me, Say that you love me; Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me”…

May was a wonderful and hectic month. It was wonderful for parent’s visit & gathering, and hectic due to the house searching. Still remember how high all the offered rentals and those bossy owners. Duh!

June marks my move to Queenstown, which is conveniently located 15 minutes from my office. It also marks my first trip to India, where I traveled non-stop 9 hours in a car from Benguluru to Kanur for a friend wedding (and passed him a bottle of vodka under the table)

(OK I shall fast forward for the next half of the year)

July marks my first time to Philippines, August marks the independence days for Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore (wakakak), September marks the family trip to Japan, October marks my return trip to India, while November and December have been a peaceful month with a short trip back to hometown for holiday :)

End of Rewind.

Epilogue:
Whenever I wrote year-end reflection, I always feel that the particular year has been the most amazing year of my life, and start to be worried as I don’t have anything like that to look forward next year. Well, it turns out that I should just enjoy the present and let the rest flow by itself :)

Anyway, I’m still really scared of next year (sorry!). The year of my zodiak is coming up, and it’s a belief that you have to be extra careful, as it might be the toughest year of the 12 years cycle. Oh well, wish me luck!

And now… I’m ready to announce my New Year’s resolution: To be a healthier person! Here are the points to substantiate the statement:
1. Limit myself to 1 KFC / month & 1 Buffet / Quarter
2. Exercise (jogging / badminton / gym) at least 4 times a month
3. Participate in 10 KM run
4. Reduce Overtime… No more mails after 9PM!

Last but not least… a collection of 23 pictures to represent the 23-years old me :p

Framing 2010 – Main Pic credit to Helios. PS CS5 credit to Winson.

Embracing to the last day of the year,
ED

Merry Xmas!

After a decent dinner at Bukit Gombak during the Christmas Eve, we proceed to Teck Whye for the whole night card games. Seems like Teck Whye has unanimously declared as our new headquarter :p

There were 3 games available... but we only managed to played two: Saboteurs and Loot. It was lots of fun… we can’t stop laughing and making jokes… lucky that there was no one else in the house (except for Poor Julianto who was trying to get some rest and recover), otherwise we would have been kicked out. We played until around 1AM, then take train back home. Thanks to MRT late night extension, we didn’t have to try looking for taxi :)


Saboteurs: One of the rare times when Miners (good people) actually won

The next day, I slept like a pig until around 11.30 AM. My friend from Medan texted me, saying that her friend is currently in Singapore and she wants me to pass her iPhone to her friend… So I contacted her friend… and she wanted to meet at Sentosa.

Sentosa during Christmas was a nightmare for a courier like me. The 10 minutes waiting time for inbound train to Sentosa wasn’t bad… After passing the package to her, I had to queue for the outbound… which took me 55 mins! When I wanted to take a picture of how long the queue was, my SD card was suddenly spoilt. Ah! What a luck :(


Queue for Sentosa Monorail - after 30 Minutes.

In the end, I was late half an hour for the KTV session T_T. Without further ado, I start with some food, while most of the group were still singing :p Kudos to Henry for organizing the KTV and buffet session :) The time passed quickly… it was 10pm before anyone realized it. After taking some pictures at Marina Square, we went back home.


Marina Square, after the KTV + Buffet Session

The next day, most of us went for Badminton to redeem ourselves from all the calories we had during Christmas. After the 2 hours badminton session, we had lunch at Sumo House, Clementi, which served the best value-for-money Japanese lunch. Where else can you get a full lunch set meal for 2.9 SGD? On top of that, they have free flow of Green Tea…. And since we all look like students (with all those freebies t-shirt), they gave us couple of plates of chicken teriyaki… for free!! Man I don’t know how they make money.

Here is the website incase anyone interested. This is too good to be kept secret :p

Back home, I did my weekly laundry and room chores. Now I’m just playing some Restaurant City while waiting for dinner time to come :)

OK, I desperately need Adobe Photoshop for my Mac :(
ED

Christmas Eve!

Happy Birthday to my dear roomie!! Christmas Eve’s Girl! Haha… Doesn’t it feel good when people around the world are actually celebrating your birthday every year? :) Even 2 months before the birthday, people will start putting decoration, giving discount, planning for celebration… this year, most of the offices are even giving a whole day leave on 24th Dec.

Unfortunately, my office is not in the list of those compaines v_v but I was enjoying myself earlier :) People are distributing candies and chocholate all days long… and no one seems to really be working anyway :p Later at around 3PM, our Managing Director actually sent an email to us and said that we can leave at 4PM for Christmas Eve. Yay! I love you, MD! Hehe…I went out from office as the clock hit 4pm.

Back at home, i was addicted to the new game in iPhone: "Cause of Death COD". Its the digital version of something similar to "Goosebump pick your own adventure". I love the way EA made the graphic. Sharp and nice. Best thing? it doesn't require internet connection throughout the game.. so you can play it without disturbance in mrts :)

Now is 5.30 PM... the weather outside looks like it's going to rain pretty hard... but I never see Christmas eve in rain before... and I believe the cloud will go off somehow :)

Ok, time to prepare myself to go to the west for a dinner and some gathering :) After that, I will find some time trying to understand my Macbook better.


Pink Theme Christmas @ Taka

Happy Holiday, everyone!
ED

2 Days to Christmas

I went to Sakuraya, Anchor point for a fulfilling lunch; and pizzahut, Sakuraya, for a splendid Cheesy7 pizza for dinner. I have no right to ask why my weight just kept going up T_T I feel ‘slightly’ guilty when I back from the dinner, knowing that I will have another big buffet coming this Saturday. But well, it’s Christmas! Time to rejoice! :p

Anyway, rejoice was all I did for the rest of the week in office :p

17 – 23 Dec

I think I can summarize this week in office into one short paragraph. Time for long lunch, catching up, and having some fun in office =) Boss, Big Boss, and Big Big Boss are on leave, and even my colleagues have all disappeared in the week of 20 Dec. Trust me, this is the best season not to take leave. You are having holiday in the office anyway :)

Of course, there were still some calls to be attended, as apparently none of my Germany colleagues are taking leaves. The work for the week is more on preparing some year-end report, cleaning up some documents, and planning for 2011. All these are completed faster since there was no phone which kept ringing every 5 minutes or so.

And surprisingly, I wake up early everyday and reached office at around 8.15 AM =.=’ That’s how people are, I guess. Like when I was a kid, it was very tough for me to wake up for school; but when weekend came; I could wake up as early as 6AM to catch some animes. I spent peaceful time in office and left before 7pm. One of those rare moments where I can actually see some sunlight when I left!

My big boss was actually returned to office on Tuesday (despite him being on leave until next monday) and he called me up to his office. I was already having a bad mood that he is going to give me some work... but then... he presented some gift instead! A Tea Towel from Australia. Thank you so much :D And I am one of the first people to choose from bunch of designs. Yay~

I guess I enjoyed the time to the max… and I’m much more recharged for a new battle in 2011. Thanks for those who actually start the trend of taking leaves on Christmas :p

On Saturday, I went to Bugis for a meet up with Citra and Ari :) We had lunch at Soup Spoon, dessert at Shaw Tower, then walked to Funan to get some cloths for my macbook pro (read: protector)


Cit and I @ Funan

And oh! I went to Singtel on Sunday and complained about my iPhone’s home button being not so responsive.. Guess what, they did an one-to-one exchange for me!! Right on the spot. I was totally stunned. It was 11 months 5 days on my warranty and they gave me a new phone! And they give me additional 3 months warranty for that :) Thanks Singtel for the Christmas Gift.

After that, Winson and I went to watch Rapunzel at Cineplex… It was amazing how Disney have improvised from the original version of the story. I love the movie a lot. Handsome prince and lovely princess~ Thanks Winson for the movie treat :) It was a weekend nicely spent!


Love the movie~

To be continued,
ED

3 Days to Christmas

This is my first time went to a Christmas celebration at a church… and I must say that I quite enjoyed it :) The church is located near Braddell MRT, and I reached there just nice before the performance started at 8PM. That day the performance was about a true story from one of the followers, of how she found peace despite all the incidents happened to her. I guessed it’s true that people will be strong, so long as he / she has some hope.

After the performance, I was invited for the supper. Oh my… the supper was beyond my expectation. This was the best spread I ever see (for, er, free supper). They have everything from éclair to rojak. After having some food and chit chat, I left at 10.30PM. Thanks Maria for the invitation :)


A very well organized church performance :)

The same day, I went for a 3 hours lunch at ORQ (I hope no one from my office read this T_T). One of my previous colleagues came back from HK, and I just missed her so much. She didn’t change a bit, even though my other AM friends have transformed quite a lot. They all look like professional working ladies now. I told them of what am I up too, but it seems like IT and front office just differ too much. The only IT team they know is the IT helpdesk =.='

It has been a while since the last time I went to ORQ... and gosh it has changed so much. There is now a link to MBFC... which stands for Marina Bay Financial Center (only knows about it after doing a quick search) and there are lots of new restaurants already operating, comparable to those restaurants in malls.


The ladies @ Paradise Inn, MBFC

Oh right, before I closed the blog, I shall continue with a short overdue story…

12 – 16 Dec

These were the remaining period where I actually “work” in office. After the go-live, I had to be on stand-by on Sunday, just in case they need to arrange some call. Monday was the last day before my boss went for a long leave, so I tried my best to get clarifications for all the pending items. I think I pressed him too much, because in the end, he quietly run away when I was on conference call =.=’’.. That was unfair! But he was kind enough to still pick my call… even until the time before he actually boarded the plane. Heh.

For the rest of the week, I was busy with coordination for IT Stakeholder Forum, presenting for the first time (to around 50 unknown people on the call), and run the last team call before Christmas. Thursday was the last day where I had to stay late… and things only gets better after that :)

And oh, I baptized my Macbook Pro on 12 Dec. It was born on 31 Nov… but due to all the holiday and craziness in office, I only unboxed it on 12 Dec.


Macbook Pro 13", SGD 1,680.97

And (looking at the calendar) it has been 12 days since baptism, I’m still struggling to do something as simple as locking a screen T_T If you notice something weird in the blog (funny picture color and sizes and font), blame it to my Macbook Pro! Hehe. Ok, I’m learning... I will learn to understand you T_T

To be continued,
ED

4 Days to Christmas

I intended to cover more story in my previous post… unfortunately I was addicted reading online manga “My Barbaric Girlfriend” and the time was 1 AM when I finished it T_T

So here come the 3 most critical days of the year for my project (and the 3 worst days of the month for me :p)

9 – 11 Dec

After the one-week break, I went to office at 8AM on Thursday and tried to clear my 300+ mails. I met some people in the pantry and they were all asking why was I coming back where the battlefield was so hot. Yes, it was 3 days before going live, where all the actions and escalations were at the max level. Even before I could skim through all the mails, the migration team lead already asked me for a meeting and dictated all the calls I have to chair and minute for the next 3 days. Still lost in the sea of information, my bosses came and start to tell me what are all the financial deadlines we have for the next 3 days.

At that time, I wish I could split myself like the flu viruses that were happily living inside me. I tried to explain the conflict of priorities I have, but they insisted both are equally important. Oh well. For those 3 days, I pronounced the office as my first home. Calls, meetings, reports, escalation, follow up… I couldn't tell the difference between lunch and dinner anymore. Everything went so fast… until the H date.


Friday Team Lunch @ Hosted. The only time I had food other than Pizza for that week

Sat, 11 Dec. I could hardly sleep the night before. It seemed like even my boss had had enough of it. There were 3 meetings to be chaired that day, and he requested me to handle all. I was already not in a very good mood, for the 8 AM meeting has been changed to 11 AM and he didn’t tell me a single thing about it. I slept at 2 AM the day before, OK. Would have really appreciated it if he can at least tell me that the meeting got rescheduled based on the 3AM call :(

Anyway, the rest of the day went fine…. After the 2PM call, it was confirmed that we went live successfully :D

Bottles of champagne were popped in Abu Dhabi and Singapore. It was a joyful moment where everyone was cheering like never before, despite deprived from sleep for the last few weeks. I’m impressed with their spirits. Suddenly, I felt embarrassed of being so calculative for all the additional work… where the rest have been giving their best without being grumpy at all. Well… can I blame this one to the woman’s emotion-dominated nature? :p


The Champagne, the celebration

The meeting room, the home of many for many weeks

I went off from office at around 6PM and then went to the west for early Christmas celebration with friends :) Oh how I missed them… I had the yummiest black pepper KFC, then followed by card games along with some snacks and log cake :)


The Black Pepper KFC, my own way of celebration :)


The gathering @ Teck Whye

That wasn’t my typical disturb-less gathering. I got so many calls and have to snatch Tomy’s laptop to login to office so many times. But I’m still glad that I didn’t miss it totally. To be honest, I normally felt very restless if I have to receive office call when I am not in the office. That time around, I continued playing card the minute I end the call. Maybe I have improved my ignorance strength.

Alright, the go-live mark the end of all the climax... and things were getting (slightly) better afterwards :)

To be continued,
ED

5 Days to Christmas

See, it’s true that happy time travels fast. I was so looking forward to Dec in previous post, and now everyone starts to count down to Christmas and New Year. Yuck! I’m not ready for New Year resolution and reflection time!

Anyway, lets rewind of what happened after I left Changi.

1 - 8 Dec

I reached Medan smoothly at around 8.30PM. Picked up by my brother-in-law, he then started to pamper me with local foods: Nasi Padang and Sate Padang (should I put the pic? No I shouldn’t, I will start drooling myself). After the fulfilling dinner and nice chat with my sister, I went to sleep.

The next day, I took the morning cab (5AM) back to my home sweet home. Reached back home at around 9.30 AM, just in time for brunch before lunch :p The next couple of days in hometown were spent eating, napping, chit-chatting, nagging, watching Taiwanese series 夜市人生 (the direct translation will be “The Night Market Life”), and… guess what? Reading comics! Huahahaha (contented with myself) One of my cousins opened a comic rental business and I… supported her by grabbing free comics home :p


A comic fan never grows up

After the nice holiday in hometown, I went to Medan for shopping, meeting up friends, and of course, attending a wedding ceremony of my cousins :)


Liza & Anita @ Black Canyon Cafe, Cambridge, Medan :p


The groom and the bride!

Everything was perfect… until…


The unexpected SMS

I received a text message from Jetstar that my Thursday morning flight got cancelled. The next flight is Friday night. I supposed to be in the office on Thursday morning! It startled me for a while really.

Backtrack a bit, I was actually taking leave only until Wednesday, even though my flight schedule was Thursday morning. My initial plan was to pretend that my “Wed’s flight got cancelled” and hence taking the “Thursday morning flight” and be in office “2 hours late”.

Now… my flight really got cancelled and I don’t know what to do. I can’t call and tell my boss that “sorry my Wed flight is cancelled and the next flight is Fri night.. so I see you next Monday!”… I will get killed.

In the end… I make a heart breaking decision to change my flight to one day ahead… Wednesday night… and skipped the wedding dinner :’( Hate you, Jetstar! I should have booked Silkair I guess… it was SGD 30 difference but I never though about this risk… oh well.. maybe it’s just my karma because I have the intention to lie to my boss T_T

Me not attending the party wasn’t the end of the story. After my family sent me to airport (then they proceed to wedding reception.. urgggg), I actually checked in and get into the aircraft. Guess what? The flight was delayed for 70 minutes!!! I was stucked in my seat while my family were in Taipan enjoying their sumptuous food… I must have done some bad karma, really T_T

Anyway, I touched down Singapore at 12.00 AM, get into the taxi with 50% surcharge, and reached my place at almost 1 AM on Thursday. It wasn’t the perfect holiday, but wait ... the worst is yet to come!

To be continued,
ED

PS: A tempting food picture to add to my sin list

Uda Sayang, Medan

Hellow Changi!

It has been quite a while since the last time I blogged before flying off :) Either I was running late, or I had tough decision to pick between airport lounge and free internet.

Changi, as always, has decorated itself with Christmasy stuff. Joyful music is playing all around (as I'm typing, "Let's it snow" is playing in the background)...

In another 3 hours, I will be in Medan :D In another 24 hours, I will be at my hometown :D :D... Such a different mood now compared with 12 hours ago. Yup, this holiday didn't come easy for me. I was in office until 5am in the morning. I'm totally not proud of this... but I don't know why it's so hard for me to just hit the log-off button and leave everything behind... Maybe I'm just selfish. I want zero all from office during my holiday. I don't want my boss to call and ruin my mood for the next 10 days... :p

Apparantly, one of my team member in Germany can't stand it... I don't know if he was irritated or pitying me... but after my mail at 5am in the morning, he pinged me and begged me to go home. He promised to take care of the things while I'm away... oh well T_T I hope I didn't just insult him... :( I definetely didn't mean to say that I don't trust them... Thanks guys, for all the well wishes :)

Back home, an DHL delivery note was waiting for me. Yes, it's for the delivery of... *drumroll please* Macbook Pro!! my very first Mac :D Unfortunately it was an unsuccessful delivery notification T_T Huh.. It supposed to come on the next day... when they suddenly deliver it one day it advance T_T

The next day, I slept until 10am, woke up, called DHL, took lunch, then wait patiently for the Macbook Pro to be delivered at 3pm. Hahaha.. Amazing how I spent one day of my leave just for a Macbook Pro delivery XD... Only after I got the package, I realized that it's 3pm and I haven't packed a single thing! So there I go... After one hour packing my luggage (or throwing things to bag) and my old laptop, I leave for Changi.

I don't really know what I have packed, but I stopped 5 times to rest only to drag it from doorstep to MRT. The MRT was surprisingly crowded... at the timing of 4.30PM? I don't understand... people leave office that early? I think I have been going through Romusa without knowing it.

So I reached airport at 5.30 PM :) The check in and all are pretty painless (my luggage was 23KG!)... As I have time until 7.30, I decided to log in on the free 15 mins and note down some stuff :D Now that the 15 mins almost gone, time for some light shopping & photos before flight.

Wish everyone a nice holiday month ahead!
ED