at the crossroads

This is the longest break I've ever taken from blogging since I started this site. In this 5-month hiatus, I've made several major life-changing decisions which I will attempt to summarise here for posterity's sake. 

Sometime mid last year in 2011, an extended session at the doctor's confirmed a medical condition inherited from the paternal side of the family tree that I've suspected for a long time. The experts believe I wasn't anywhere near the life-threatening phase of the condition although I have had to accept the fact that I will be on medication for the rest of my life. Perhaps one day if and when I am courageous enough, I just might share more details with the world.

Then came a period of extensive soul-searching and self-reflection on exactly what I think my life should be about and how I should live it. Some people don't get their answers despite searching their whole lives. I don't dare to claim I found 'my destined path' so to speak, but I was sure the lack of work-life balance due to the hours and stress from the previous industry I was in and the unique management style of my boss then wasn't the way to go for long. I hardened my heart and tendered my resignation even though I loved what I did so that I may get some sort of sanity back.

There and then, I also decided to give my battered body and mind a good long break. I found that I didn't care that I wouldn't be earning good money and hence would have to sacrifice some material comforts. I also didn't care that people around me gave me weird looks when I offered the "I'm currently jobless" reply to that often-asked question that seems to be one of the most popular among most people's default ice-breaking lines. 

Lastly, I promised myself I would pursue all the things I love and had missed out on in my previous life when I'd been too focused on my career. So. From the time I left my previous employment until now as I type this entry, I have:

- flown back to Singapore to spend quality time with the family
- restarted drum lessons
- done some traveling around Asia with friends and family with whom I hadn't gone on holidays for more than 6 years
- started a little online gig that encompasses many of my interests (I will make a proper announcement of it very soon)
- rested well
- played hard

I have not looked back. I am happy and contented. There will be more to come, I promise.

april itinerary

17 April: Depart Sydney for Orlando, Florida USA via Los Angeles
18 April: Set up for event followed by factory outlet shopping
19 - 21 April: Attend the World Aviation Training Symposium (WATS)
22 - 23 April: Disney World (Epcot and Magic Kingdom)
24 April: Depart Orlando for Sydney
26 April: Arrive in Sydney

4 days in hong kong

I went on a four day work trip to Hong Kong in mid March where my Academy was a participating exhibitor and conference speaker at the Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium that was part of the bigger Asian Aerospace event. Being my first visit there, I had grand plans to stuff myself to death with yummy food but that wasn't to be. Because of the last minute crop-up of a Request for Proposal with a rather tight deadline, most of the free time had to be spent on the preparation of the business proposal. Here are two very rare photos showing me in proper boring business attire. We hates it. >.<



The highlight of the entire trip was I got to meet up with Madam J for dinner one night! I took the MTR Airport Express line from Asia World Expo to town on the second night where I got to wander around from Kowloon station to Hong Kong station to Central station on foot while waiting for Madam to get off work. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are designated 'Quiet Sections' in the train. Singapore should implement something like this on its MRT trains too.



After spending a few hours zipping in and out of shops in the heavily neon-lit shopping districts, I couldn't bear the hunger anymore and decided to grab a snack which turned out to be a full meal of prawn dumpling noodle soup in a hole-in-the-wall eatery. It was awesome! The noodles were extremely 'Q' (pardon me, my semi dead brain can't think of the appropriate English word to describe the noodle texture but my Tudi offered 'springy' and 'bouncy'), the soup very tasty, the prawns in the dumplings very fresh, and the chilli sauce perfectly mixed to balance the taste.



Check out the prices of the dishes in the noodle place - everything is so cheap!!! I had to take a long walk around town to try and get the food digested before having dinner proper with Madam.



Madam took me to Yung Kee Restaurant in Central because she's heard so much about this 1 Michelin Star restaurant. This award winning restaurant had entire pages - no less than five I tell you! - on the menu listing all the awards it has bagged since 1968. I was slightly astonished by the long queue that greeted us despite arriving past dinner time at about 9pm. We ordered a crispy roasted pigeon solely for the sake of me being able to finally declare to the world that I've been to HK and had this dish, preserved eggs (I loved this so much I regret to this day not ordering more) and some tofu dish that was very interesting.

It's been years since I caught up with Madam and I still felt instantly at ease with her such that I poured out my life story from where we'd last left off in our previous meet-up without much prompting. Because I was so engrossed in our conversation, I must admit I didn't pay much attention to the food so I can't really pass any judgement on whether the restaurant's Michelin Star is justified. All I remember when we left was that I wished we had more time. God knows when we'll meet again. Til then Madam.

one night in dubai

It was a last minute decision to do a one day stopover at Dubai for some work meetings enroute back to Sydney from Frankfurt. Due to the packed schedule, all I saw of Dubai was the airport, my hotel at the Millenium, my work meeting venue at the Emirates Training College and the Club Lounge at the Hyatt where I had more work meetings. The below photos are all I have to boast of my virgin trip to the Middle East.


An Emirates plane getting refuelled.


Waiting lounge at Dubai Airport.


One of the many wings at the Emirates Training College is built in the shape of a jet plane.


View from the outdoor dining section of the canteen in the training college. I can't help but get reminded of Singapore. Everywhere I turned, it seemed to be a duplicate of Singapore - the roads, city skyscrapers, high rise residential flats and apartments, road signs, trees lining the roads, banners on the lamp posts... Apparently Dubai was modelled after Singapore or so I've heard from too many sources.


I could watch the sky slowly turning dark as I was having the last of the work meetings at the Hyatt Club Lounge. I looked wistfully at the Spire wishing I had the time to at least venture into the city for a bit. No chance at all.


Left: the corridor leading to my room at the Millenium.
Right: the reading corner in my room. I love the richly coloured carpet and the super high ceiling.


I crashed into the luxurious bed and prepared to fly 17 hours back to Sydney the following day.

the princess met the pauper for a frankfurter

Work took me to a little town called Neu Isenburg, 10 minutes outside of Frankfurt, Germany in the middle of November. Besides the lovely flowers and chocolates that greeted me upon arrival at the hotel, the next best thing that happened to me in the short four days there was capturing the above scene when I was taking a morning walk along the main street - Frankfurter Strasse - outside the hotel. I chuckled at the contrast of the gleamingly well polished BMW convertible against the run-down shophouse sandwiched between modern apartments right there in the prime area along the busiest street named after my favourite sausage.

I named this picture The Princess and the Pauper. All other photos taken on this short stopover - which aren't very interesting - can be viewed here in my Flickr album.

Even spending half a day in Frankfurt itself checking out the Saint Bartholomeus' Cathedral and Museum where a baby christening took place under the watchful eyes of the many scary-looking God-related figures and taking a stroll along the romantic river Main where too many couples cuddled and kissed did not yield anything exciting enough to blog about.

Perhaps experiencing grey sleepy gloomy cold Deutschland (the weather sure didn't help, neither did the jet lag and fatigue, I guess; I could feel it in my bones a mega illness approaching to overwhelm me such that all my sensory receptors went into hibernation mode in preparation for the great fight against the viruses) right after taking in the colourful sights, smells and sounds of always bustling and filled-with-life Istanbul has in comparison paled the relatively more peaceful Frankfurt city and the sleepy town of Neu Isenburg in terms of the excitement factor.

Don't get me wrong. Frankfurt is a beautiful city with extremely friendly and helpful people unlike the cold and aloof Sydneysiders who I had the misfortune of meeting in my first days of working Down Under. I recall thinking as I was appreciating how clean and neat the streets everywhere were while taking the tram to the CBD and again when I was having the nicest schnitzel I've ever had in my life for dinner one night that I actually don't mind relocating to work and live there. In fact, it's worth some serious consideration if only the winter season is not so harsh.

jet laaaaaaaaagged

Saturday, I took off on an Emirates 777 at about 8pm Sydney time. Approximately 17 hours later, the plane touched down in Dubai.





Above pictures were taken in the 5 hours transit in Dubai as I awaited my connecting flight to Istanbul.

Another 4 hours' flight time and I arrived in Istanbul. After clearing the customs which took forever, an additional hour was spent figuring out where to board the free shuttle service to the hotel, making our way there, and more waiting around before finally reaching the hotel; it was exactly 29 hours after I left Sydney.

I was so exhausted that I passed on dinner and crashed into bed at 5pm local time only to wake at around midnight. I had to take some really super drowsy drugs to force myself back to sleep at around 3am.

Monday, I had to set up for the work exhibition, still jet lagged and extremely tired. I'm passing on dinner again and heading to bed at an unearthly hour of 8.30pm. I'm already dreading the long journey back home.

the wise man's fear

I finished The Name of the Wind in a week and am left wanting more of Kvothe. Sadly, the second book of The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear will only be released in March 2011. I am at a loss now as to what book I should pick up next, especially since I have got >48 flight hours to kill for the impending work trip that now has another sector added to it:

Sydney - Dubai (transit) - Istanbul - Frankfurt - Dubai (transit) - Sydney

I fear for my sanity if I can't find a good enough book to occupy me in the air. Any suggestions?

bowling challenge

For the second year running, my company had this bowling challenge event for our Sydney staff held at Manhattan Super Bowl located at the corner of Botany Road and Gardeners Road. Thanks to the generosity of the Chairman, we only had to pay half of the usual cost for two games of bowling and a selection of gourmet pizzas served on the lanes.



Below are the only two pictures I took with the girls courtesy of Mr Chun's Nikon dSLR. It's amazing how clear the photos turned out in the dim disco lights; it's something my standard camera package (EOS 450 and the 18-55mm lens that came with it) can't achieve. According to the photographer, it's all thanks to the speedlite flash and his newly acquired prime lens.





Here's part of the total score tally after the event. I ranked second out of 56 players, a mere 6 points behind the top bowler who happened to be a guy, and hence earned myself the Top Female Bowler award. If you look at the column 'HSG', I actually had the highest score for one of the rounds at 146; not too bad for someone who hasn't bowled since the last challenge a year ago but still miles away from my personal top score of 176 achieved a decade ago.



And I got this cute little trophy for the night's effort. ^^v

the coo pillow

I got this in the mail a few days after my birthday. It's a handmade little pilow specially sewn with love from Flyaway. I was so touched when I opened up the package. It's been such a long time since anyone made anything for me. And a pillow! I love pillows! It has been added to my collection of pillows and is now part of the multi-pillow formation set up every night before I sleep.

Can you tell that there are actually three alphabets sewn onto the white square patches of flowers against the yellow background of dragonflies? It took me a while to realise that Flyaway has added the word COO onto the cute little pillow.

She meant it as a congratulatory gift for a little promotion I got at work as well. Remember how a project I took on reached a major milestone earlier in May? I got promoted shortly after that. And yeah, my new title is called COO. No brownie points for guessing correctly what it stands for.

I only shared the good news with a very few people I was close to when I first heard it. I actually felt a bit embarrassed by the new title at first and I got so overwhelmed that I didn't quite know how to handle the new added responsibilities.

Things have stabilised a bit since but I am still terrified by the fact that now so many more people depend on me for directions everyday. I just hope I have the wisdom to make the right decisions.

video of the big surprise

Here is a short video compilation of the scenes captured by the HAH on the day of the big birthday surprise at work.

the eve of thirty

On the eve of the day of the big three-O, a troop of work colleagues stormed into a serious internal work meeting I was in with a cake and a loud chorus of the birthday song. It took me a few seconds to register that it was a pre-planned surprise for me; even the meeting was somehow part of the plan. They chose the eve of the big day because they somehow thought I'd taken the actual day off work. These peeps must be really pleased with themselves for executing a successful surprise finally after so many failed attempts on other birthdays previously. Well done!


The chocolate cake they got for me. Even huge chocolate fans like me found the cake too rich and sweet to have more than a little slice.


Many left well wishes and funny messages for me on the card, including JJ and Tres from Pablo's Cafe. Apparently, the Hokkien Aeroplane Housemate (HAH) took a long time to practise drawing a monkey for decorating the otherwise plain white envelope for the card.


Here's me cutting the cake.


Checking out the cool 'thirty' card and opening my present.


The HAH started a 'retro-rose-tinted-with-gold-frame-Ray-Bans-for-the-MCP-fund' and managed to pool together enough money to get me that much coveted pair of sunnies I blogged about last X'mas.

I must admit I looked rather hostile when the gang swarmed into the small meeting room. I was focusing very seriously on the work meeting and was about to blast at whoever was interrupting the meeting until I finally discovered the scheme. Not that I am rude but it really was a shock for me! Albeit a very pleasant one. There were a few videos taken which I will share when I've had some time to do some editing.

That same day, I was chauffeured to a candlelit venue for a homecooked dinner of lamb racks cooked to perfection. As part of the pre-birthday celebration plan, I got to participate in the making of a berry meringue which turned out super yummy for a first attempt.


Left: Candles were everywhere.
Right: Entrée - smoked salmon, olives, pâté and crackers.


I had a very generous serving of the lamb that was cooked to perfection with some mushrooms and sweet potatoes on the side.


Dessert - berry meringue. It was hard work beating up the egg whites until they were huge mountains of white fluff before folding the berries in. My virgin attempt that turned out better than just being edible. It was delicious.

I got to open up more presents after the sumptious dinner. More of things I'd been wishing for! I got a Crumpler seven million dollar home for my camera gear and the Diana F+ set complete with all the lenses. Woohoo!!!


The bag in a cool grey colour with red trimmings.


This is like a giant plastic toy set.


I had a fun time opening up the Diana set and checking out each little plastic part that came with it. Now I just need more time to actually play with it.

All these even before the three-O hit! More to come!

words of appreciation make a difference

For the first time in weeks, I had a well rested night last night with 13 hours of sleep. I took a short stroll to work from the nearest bus stop (because my car battery went dead on me again) while listening to my current favourite korean songs on my mp3 player and admiring the small fluffy balls of cotton in the sky.

To my absolute surprise, a bouquet of golden sunflowers greeted me at work! For a moment I thought I have a secret admirer in the form of a tall, dark and handsome knight. It turned out better than I thought when I read the card and realized the bouquet was from a whole bunch of beautiful people on my project team.

This project I took on in March 2009 finally reached a major milestone yesterday. It was the construction of a brand new live-in campus for our pilot training academy in Wagga Wagga. We obtained occupancy for Stage 1 construction in the first week of May and had our official opening yesterday. It was an amazing feat by the entire team to get the premises presentable enough to receive about 150 guests including government officials and international dignitaries in just three weeks from the time we took over the buildings.

I had been working crazy hours for weeks and nearly walked out of my job a few times due to the frustration and stress I faced trying to complete the project to the expectations of the higher powers. I felt unappreciated for my own efforts and sacrifices. But seeing the hard work put in by so many other members of the team, and not being a quitter myself, I just had to grit my teeth and get whatever needed to be done, done, so as not to let all the others on the team down.

Receiving my favourite flowers and a thank you email (reproduced in part below in italics) made me tear a bit and retract what I said and thought about being unappreciated.


"Jac,

While I know I have said this privately to quite a few people in the past eight months, but certainly on behalf of myself and all the staff and Directors in our company, we wanted to say just how totally blown away we have been with the way in which you have dealt with all of us and the construction process.

We were all left totally astounded by your ability to come to grips with Architects, Interior Designers, Construction Managers, Builders and more importantly computer tech people (although we're fairly sure that the latter will not be on your Christmas card list). Your queries were insightful and always intelligent ……………………and all this from our diminutive Corporate Services Manager (--> he's referring to me; why am I diminutive?!).

We will miss our little luncheon sessions at the Airport café where you attempted to eat your way through the meat pies and sausage rolls.

But, of course, there’s still Stage 2. For now, rest and breathe the air. We hope that, come bonus time there will be a big payout to you for all your efforts (and if not, give us a call and we’ll come down to your office to have a little talk with your boss --> HAHA! This is funny! I'll hold them at their words!).

We say well done Jac and I hope you didn’t down the bottle (they gave me a bottle of whisky post the opening!) in one session.

Regards,
SC"


Well I hope all those on the team have a good rest this weekend before we start the next round of madness!!!

"harry panic"

I have been travelling to Wagga Wagga (located midway between Sydney and Melbourne) for work a fair bit in the last one year. The original inhabitants, the Wiradjuri were the largest Aboriginal tribe in New South Wales. In their language “Wagga” means crow and repeating it means the plural ie. Wagga Wagga means “the place of many crows”.

Now, I call it the "Land of a thousand crows and tumbleweeds". This winter sees Wagga Wagga half buried in these yellow stuff that clings to you. An entire house can be totally engulfed by them in just under 45 minutes. The locals call it the "Harry Panic", I wonder why.

A work partner finds it so fascinating she has to dive into a pile every time she visits Wagga. Here are a few snaps of her having the time of her life.

venturing into china

I scooted off to Shanghai for three days for a work conference towards the tail-end of my trip back to Singapore. It was my second visit to this largest city in China; the first was also a work trip about six years ago.

I wasn't impressed on both visits. The air was so polluted my eyes, throat and lungs reacted almost instantaneously the moment the aircraft landed at Pudong International Airport. I seem to recall that it wasn't as bad in 2004. In fact the smog was so bad this time round that I didn't see the sky or sun the entire time I was there. It didn't help that the weather was cold and dreary even though winter had supposedly ended.

I was, however, pleasantly delighted by the hotel room - The Longemont Shanghai, particularly the oversized bathtub set right in the middle of the room with a totally open bathroom. In my two nights there, I would watch the news while taking a hot shower in the cylindrical glass cube before settling into a luxurious hot bath reading a book. And there were four elongated soft pillows and four smaller sized cushions on the king-sized bed! Oh my! I felt really pampered. To top it all up, I indulged in a 90-minute private spa massage in the room on the last night to relieve the tension built up in the previous days.


Left: one minute it was empty...
Right: and full of foamy bubbles the other.


The king-sized bed in a room on the 42nd floor which would have offered a fantastic view if the air wasn't as polluted.

We were the Official International Partner for the Aviation Education and Training Summit. Besides sponsoring the executive luncheon and having an exhibition booth to manage, we had a key note address and presentation to deliver, endless private meetings lined up and corporate dinners to attend. We also had a last minute drama to sort out on the last day which almost caused me to miss my return flight to SG. All in all, it was a hectic and very exhausting work trip. It was probably 3x worse for my other travelling companions who had to extend their trip to detour to Szechuan for an adhoc meeting with just an hour's notice.

Well, no work, no gain. On the whole, it was pretty good exposure for our Pilot Academy.


Stage set-up.


Our fancily dressed up exhibition booth; I said fancy because we didn't go with the standard booth provided but instead lugged a 30+kg mobile booth display unit all the way from SG for the set-up. The two aircraft models on display attracted quite a bit of attention. Many actually came up to ask if they were being offered as free gifts. Duh.


Left: networking in speed dating style. I like the ceiling design and the golden chair drapes.
Right: Luncheon set-up.


The VIP table for us the luncheon hosts.


We just had to place a small aircraft model there. There was a little drama with the hotel staff afterwards where they threw the aircraft model away when clearing the tables because 'no one took it away'. It didn't occur to them to return it to the organisers who would have quickly identified the owner.


Left: I ordered a Tsingtao beer at one of the corporate dinners. Have never seen this packaging before. Have you?
Right: The ten course menu for the luncheon.

Shanghai again anytime soon? Maybe not. Would prefer to visit the other less developed parts of China if possible, before they all become another smog-ridden city.