My last 2 weeks

After the letter has been laid and the persuasion given by my boss, my decision to leave here after 5.5 years has not waiver.

Indeed, I am sadden to leave. I have made plenty of frens here and get along well with most people. There is indeed some emotional links that has been rooted deeply. But I know I have to unplant myself and move on. (Ok too much PvZ has lead me to link to plants)

I am a little curious on what the private sector is like. Words has it that its frightening and the FT would do the same for half the price. I guess I would have to see it for myself.

For those who knows me well, I aint keen on being an employee for life. I have aspirations to be my own boss one day. This has been my life long dream where I get to run something. Perhaps it may be a F&B, where I be flipping pratas. Perhaps it may be me setting up a prawn shop (not porn or pawn). Perhaps it may be me running a team with 10 others, aiming to rob a casino with muscle cars. Yep, it could be anything and that day would come.

I shall enjoy the last few weeks of work while I can. Very soon this would all become a past memory

recycle me?

Just this afternoon, I was heading towards the MRT with my dear wife. We spotted an empty plastic bottle with a giant tag that says "Recycle Me".

Pretty interesting I tot. A bottle was certainly looking for some attention. Or was it something more.

I spied around quickly and notice a dude sitting not too far away with those giant inflatable clapper. And to my right a bunch of teens at starbucks staring at the bottle with clappers partially hidden.

I could only imagine the outcome when someone pick up that bottle. These little guerillas will spring into action and scare the person who is trying to do something noble.

This is perhaps why there will always be litter lying around. For we all would fear being single out for doing something that was right and natural.

My wife din quite believed me on this. I dared her to pick it up and she dared me back. Instead we walked away to get some snacks that we so hungrily needed.

blank out shades

Now I find this is pretty useful .... for a shameless politician that is

My last 5.5 years

Its been a great 5.5 years where I am now. Looking back, I could not have possibly imagine that I have stayed this long.

After I left school, I am driven to strive on an engineering job. Something that allows me to put what I learned to good use. Its was a turbulent year in 2005. Economy was getting back on track yet jobs are not readily available.

Armed with only a technical degree and no real working experience, I flipped through many pages of the Recruit and highlighted stuffs that interests me. Over 20 applications were sent in my first month alone. With no replies coming in, my desperation grew along and my preference drop. I began to pick about anything that I could get a reply from.

Just then I gotten a friendly email. Its from my current company and they are keen to schedule a meet up. (Interestingly, I applied for 2 jobs here and both call me up within 2 hours)

I put on my best shirt and tidied up my resume. Met up with 2 interviewers, one is my former boss and the other is my current. We had a good round of discussion and my previous boss highlighted this. This aint an engineering establishment, we do Project Management. I aint entirely sure what this meant back then. Aint Project work similarly to engineering?

They must have liked me. For within a week, I gotten a confirmation and I came down to sign my soul away. A contract term of 3 years was given and I happily accepted. I started work and was happy to learn that most of my colleagues are fresh grads as well.

I was given a big project and gotten acquainted with my new team mate. Soon I began to understand what is project work. Its about time management, resource management, people management and budget management. In short we make sure our supplier is able to deliver the end product to our customer.

There was barely any thing engineering about what I do. And frankly I was disappointed.

I carried on with my work and lasted till the 3rd year mark. I was keen to complete this big project and leave on a good note. Just prior to that, I was informed that I be transferred to another division at the end of the milestone. It got me thinking. Perhaps I should try out another year in this new role before leaving.

That is to be my current role and I survived in it for 2.5 years now. It became more or less like a maintenance job. But once again, the actual work is done by the maintenance agency. I just managed them.

I had planned to leave in 2009-2010. Sadly it was the same situation out there as it was at my beginning. Jobs were few as the economy was hit by the US bad debts.

However, now I gotten an offer. And I am not looking back no more.

(PS. I din expect this post to sound so seriously boring)

Impulse buy

For the longest time ever, I been searching for a decent skeleton watch. I completely din expect to find it at a factory outlet.

It was to be an unexpected find. I brisked into the Fossil outlet with only mins to spare. We had to meet the flight time and were only given 4 hrs to shop. This includes having our lunch as well.

We know from the start that this would not be enough. There were 160 outlets arranged as boutique shops around a massive land area. I estimate that its 50% larger than Vivo.

We were down to the last 30 mins and we have a few more targeted shops to visit. I walked into Fossil for a quick look. Just to be sure that we din miss out on any gems.

Its then I saw this beauty. A round peg in a square hole. A skeleton body with brown strap. An automatic movement. I knew I fell in love and nothing else in the shop matters.

I asked the staff for a closer look. It had a thick body and it was rather large on my skinny forearm. And despite these, I din need to consider again. I want it.

They placed it in a box and gave me the VAT and I made my purchase. I placed it in my bag and endured the long wait on the flight. Its to be a long wait before I could bring it back and wrap it around my wrist.

Its been 24 hrs and the infatuation has not ceased. And it has barely left my wrist alone.