The day after...

First official day of being a ‘resignee’.

Don’t feel bad as much as yesterday, but still do. Think i will get over it.

Am obsessed about handling over my tasks and projects, but yet the management, ie my two managers seem so relax and unperturbed.

Resigned...

Today I resigned from my job.

It was a tough decision to make as I’ve yet to receive any concrete confirmation from the Japanese embassy, other than an internal-memo like document from Ms Goh. But I had to take the chance, else I wont make it in time for 1^st of Apr.

I called Allan after I’ve completed my daily server checklist. He was shocked. I followed up the phone call with an email, which in the same time ask to confirm my last day of work. Then I sms my colleagues in the team about my resigning. Around 9.15am, I told my Sophie about me leaving. She was equally shocked, but when she found out that I was going to further my studies and has gotten a scholarship for it, she was very supportive.

By right, I should be feeling ecstatic that I had finally hand in my resignation and will be off to Japan to pursue my Masters. But somehow I feel sad, bad and down.. Why is it so??

Am I feeling sad cos I’ll be leaving a bunch of good colleagues? Am I feeling bad cos they will have to take my workload? Am I feeling down cos no one persuaded me to stay on??

It’s so conflicting!!! These emotions are so strong that I felt like crying…

Good news?? 99% sure...

Received a call from Ms Hiramatsu of Waseda University just hours before I'm supposed to take a coach back to Singapore. Seemed like she had emailed me earlier in the week, asking if I require accommodation in Japan when I enroll in Waseda.

Frankly, I was very suprised. I was very 'disturbed' (in a good way) by her phone call, and many questions appeared in my head after the conversation. So, had my scholarship been confirmed and I will definitely be going over this coming Apr?? I have received no further correspondence from the Japanese embassy on the scholarship status since last Dec. So with this phone call, it threw up more questions than it has answered... On the way back, in the coach, I had all kind of scenarios playing in my head and all kind of feelings washing over me..

In the end, I had to wait till Monday to make a phone call to Ms Goh of the Japanese embassy to clarify. Seems like there was some delay with the documents on Japan side and the confirmation letters can't be send out as yet. But she was kind enough to fax me an internal record that shows my scholarship period. It is stated that my scholarship period starts Apr 2007 and ends Mar 2009. So it is almost 99% sure that I'll be going to Japan this Apr.

After discussing with Dad and Bro, I've decided to resign from my job tomorrow and start preparing to move back Msia, so that I can be ready to fly to Japan during the first week of Apr.

A new chapter begins...

Chinese New Year 2007

Went back for Chinese New Year on the 14 Feb, via MAS, from Singapore to Penang.

Had taken half day the day before to do some last minute CNY shopping. Didn't have any new pants to wear for CNY, so had to go find something. Went to Carrefour and saw that there were some jeans on sale. $9.90 for a pair of jeans!! I quickly tried them out and bought 2. Bought some undies too.. So at least some new wardrobe, although they are still jeans and t'shirt. At least I could wear them to work.. :)

Thought of resting and helping mum with some cookie making, but in the end, there was 2 translation jobs to be rushed, and one of them consists of translating 34 pages. So I was in front of the PC most of the nites. And somehow the PC at home acted up, refusing to boot up and had to be coerced into working properly with multiple reboots. In the end only managed to make some peanut cookies and fry some keropoks.

This year, we went to 4th uncle's house for reunion dinner on the 30th nite, as always. Bro managed to take leave and join us this year. Not all uncles and their family turned up. Uncle No.3, Auntie No.3, Tze Sen & Wife, Tze Chee & Wife, Uncle No.8, Auntie No.8, Li Zhong and Uncle No.10. Uncle No.7 and family came around 10pm. In fact, Uncle No.1, Auntie No.1 and Ming Hui drove up from JB. They reached Uncle No.4's house at around 10.30pm.

The first day of the lunar new year, we were treated dinner buffet at the Renaissance Hotel by Uncle No.7. Auntie No.6, Wen Wei, Uncle No.9, Auntie No.9, Jie Fang, Jie Ming, Uncle No.11 and Auntie No.11 were all present. In total, there were 29 of us. It was a rare to have so many of us present. The only ones absent were my Sis, Ying Wei and Auntie No.5 & family. After the dinner we went back to Uncle No.7's house to chit chat. The kids were dully entertained by the Nintendo Wii that Tze Chee brought from US. While the adults chatted and laughed. We must be very noisy.. Imagine 29 person in one house, all talking and laughing at the same time.. :)

The second day was slightly slower. We didnt go anywhere during the day. Dinner, as usual, was a banquet hosted by Uncle No.8, with Auntie No. 8 being the chef of the day. Her cooking was not just delicious, but very well presented too.. Again, we all chatted and laughed.. It was really a bonding session....

The 3rd day, we had to rush back to Taiping and then to Bukit Merah, cos Uncle No.1 (mum's side) was having a get-together makan session too. After missing several years of his makan session, with Bro back from Japan, there is no excuse for us to miss this year's makan. So we made it to Bukit Merah. And frankly, it was about time for a meet-up. All my cousins have grown so much that I could barely recognise them!! Especially those in their teens. The last time I saw them, they were still kids running around, and now, look at them, all grown up, some already finished their secondary education!! Time really flies.

4th day was madness. As Bro had to catch his plane back to Japan at 11am, we had to be in the airport by 9am, that means we need to drive down from Taiping latest 4am! As we reached home from the makan session the nite before rather late, we barely had 3 hours of sleep!! In the end, we made it safely to the KLIA and sent Bro off. Then we had to make a trip to Uncle No.4's house to pick up a relative who just arrived from China and sent her to another relative's house in Taiping. It was very trying and tiring time.

Day 5 and 6 was spend recuperating, before I headed back to Spore on the Nite of the 6th. Reached Singapore safely at around 5:30am of 24 Feb. And that is the CNY 'adventure' of 2007...

Misc thoughts...

Question:
How can a manager manage properly/effectively when he/she delegates everything out, not involved in daily tasks, only care about covering his/her ass, wants to look good in the eyes of his/her superior??

Answer:
He/She can’t be hands off and yet wanted to be on top of everything.

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09 Feb
10am
Don’t know why, but I feel very down today… Cant seem to cheer up.. Damn! What is getting into me??? Has the bloody long waiting for news caused this feeling of gloom??

2pm
Still feeling depressed. No idea why.. Even after a good 30min run which I covered almost 4km did not help… 做任何事都好像力不从心，情绪特别地down。。同事间的讨论也无心参与。。

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Why do we need to keep the Operation Command Center cold? That is the place for people to work, not for machines. So the rationale behind it?? Humbug!

Hooked on 24

In order not to feel the withdrawal syndrome of WOW, I started watching the TV series “24” and I’m hooked. Finished watching the entire season 1 within 2.5 days.. Started watching on Saturday evening, didn't stop until almost 4am, continued on Sunday from 2pm till almost 2am. Left with 2 episodes, and would have continued watching if it was a Monday the next day, and I had rushed home straight from work to finish it..

Ha, seems like I’m easily hooked on almost anything except work!! Things at work are getting dull and unexciting, and the thrill of playing online games and/or watching TV series overruled it by many times over.

Girls' Nite Out

Had dinner with Henny. Her hubby had a company function so she was free tonite, so she asked me out for a dinner. Edmund supposed to join, but he got caught up with some admin work last minute, so it was the girls’ nite out… Fitri couldn't make either. So it was only the two of us.

Went to this restaurant called Surf n’ Turf in Suntec. The food was not bad. Was there once for one of the alumni meeting when Voone was back from Australia last year.

Two of us ate and talked about everything. It was fun talking to someone who is of the same wave-length. So far I can 'click' with Taurus very well, all except my bro... hahahaha..

Leaving Azeroth...

Suspended my WOW account. Last day of play will be 10 Feb. Plan to take a few weeks leave from the game. Since I will be home for CNY from 14 Feb and will be back only on 24 Feb, that’s almost 10 days of no playing. So I rather suspend the account then wasting those 10 days.

I will be back to explore the fantasy realm of Azeroth after Chinese New Year...