2015 is
coming to an end now and it’s time for me to blog my whole year’s entry. I find annual blogging really works for me, I can review my entire year, do some self-reflection and write at a very relaxing pace. I shall keep this up!
Work
Things at
work as changed for the better for me. For the first half of the year, work was
boring. There wasn’t much for me to do and my colleagues thought that I was in a
very pathetic position. I dreaded going to work, felt unmotivated and thought that
I’m highly dispensable in the company. I approached my friend who was leading the
diagnostics team and asked if I could tag along to learn some new things. He
welcomed the idea but my boss was against it as he thought that it would be a new arena for me and my learning curve would be steep. I reckoned he did not want the team to waste time on me. I carried on looking for new things to do
and tried to be useful. A few months later, I stepped into boss' office and told
him that I have the capacity to do more. So he asked me to take up a sales role
for some developing products. I took them on and started to do my rounds. I
realized the products have a very niche customer base and it would be very difficult
to get people to accept new technologies/products in the beginning. I told
myself that it is a normal process and it has got nothing to do with my sales capability.
Slowly, my boss gave me other products to sell, taking over some markets for
equipment. Equipment sales come once in a while but the figures are big. The
market that was allocated to me was very “cold”. It was a market that there
had been very few sales in the past decade. To my boss, he claimed
that it has a huge potential and we have yet to uncover it. I did my survey and I realized it had been cold because the products were not so relevant . I
felt sour because I thought I was given a slice of stale bread.
The turning
point came when there was a lead from Malaysia that required a piece of
equipment from a supplier that I have interacted before. I was trained in the
brand and no other people in the company has explored the Malaysian territory. I
was actively involved in the whole tender process and learned many things along
the way. I should say that my boss guided me along in every step. The entire
process took about 4 months and the rewards were great. Things picked up from
there because the year end is also a buying/enquiry period.
I was also
presented with many travelling opportunities, from training to sales meeting:
Jan: San
Francisco. Training. First time travelling solo, apprehensive, but made me
realized the joy of a solo traveler.
April:
Cambridge. Training cum sales meeting. Third time to Cambridge. A much safer
place to be alone. But I wasn't exactly alone, I got to meet a lot of fellow
distributors.
November:
Tokyo. Sales meeting. Looking forward to solo trip but ended up being with the
hubby. Glad he was there.
Jan 2016:
San Diego. International conference. Not exactly going into the conferences but
to the exhibition booths instead. Meeting some suppliers for business
discussion.
I feel
really lucky because for someone who has only joined the company for only 1.5
years, I get so many opportunities and my travel destinations are awesome. I’m
happy that my boss is slowly entrusting me with big things.
Looking
forward to an eventful and exciting year of work.
Family
Not much
changes in the family, which is a blessing. However, grandma recently got
hospitalized. I started this entry as I was sitting beside grandma’s bed in the
ward. It was her first time being hospitalized. It all started off with
shingles, which was pretty bad for an elderly. It affected her left eye to her
head. Her eye was swollen, she lost appetite, vomited and lived on Ensure milk.
She recovered under my aunt’s dedicated 24-hour care but she was hit with slight
pneumonia and UTI. That got her warded. Grandma was resistant to the news at first because she
could not accept the fact that she has to be hospitalized. It’s been about 13
days (it’s Christmas day today) since she got warded and she seemed to be
coping well now. She is in under rehab in the Integrated building at CGH. The
ward is filled with old people. Some of them have dementia. Thankfully, my
grandma is very conscious and alert. I guessed y aunt was really worn out in these
many years of being the sole caretaker, this incident offered her a good break.
As the hospital is just a 15-min bike ride to my house, I tried my best to
visit her every day or at least, make sure that there isn’t a day where no one
visits her. Her left eye is still under antibiotics but I’m glad that her
appetite recovered. Going to and fro the hospital made me discover a new route
to my house. It was a pathway meant for joggers, but it was under-utilized.
I did not
plan any trips with my parents this year because we are planning for one to Russia
next year end. Exciting!
Hubby and I
went to BKK this May. This was a full shopping trip, target destination was
Platinum mall. We visited the mall almost everyday before we realized the market
opposite was an even better bargain. Think both of us bought at least 30 pieces
of clothes EACH. But the hubby’s damage was twice as much. I’m glad to be born
a woman!
November’s
Japan trip was a 2-day business trip. Before I booked my tickets and hotel, I
asked my hubs if he wanted to join me. He rejected me 3 times. So I was looking
forward to travel solo and relax. Japan is a place I’ve visited so I did not
really have anything in particular that I really want to do. I made arrangements to
meet up with Yoshio and Yuki and a fellow distributor friend, Ayaka who would
fly down from Osaka to Tokyo to meet me. After I got everything settled, the
hubs wanted to join me. SO TYPICAL OF HIM. I ended up having to rearranging
things and source air tix for him. He left a day before me. I was a
little worried because he hasn’t really done a proper solo trip and I was the
one who planned everything to the very minute. I wasn't sure if he knows how to
get around the town with his inadequate communication skills. To my surprise,
he actually took the subway to Ginza and even explored Tokyo outskirts on my work days. He ended up being more familiar than me and I was very relaxed because I went ahead with no plans and no rush. I was glad that he was with me
because Tokyo shops closes pretty early, and we just kept walking round and
round the same area to past time. I think he was being his nicest self in all
these trips we had. I felt extremely 幸福。
Friends
I didn’t
officially “dump” any friends on FB yet but I think I’m going to do another
round of spring cleaning to rid some “friends”.
ASHLY and
FRIENDS has reached our 20th anniversary! Only 4 of us ended up
doing our anniversary trip #DAMN20 in Melbourne. It was a long story why, of
all places we landed in Melbourne. Nonetheless it was an awesome and relaxed
trip.
Fished out
some friends amongst my colleagues. Really lucky to find friends in colleagues
and I’m looking forward to have a blast in our coming years together.
Managed to
maintain the friendships with Liqi, Weijie, Lide, my Takeda colleagues, BRC
colleagues and my NUHS colleagues. Maintaining friendships are not as easy as
ABC. It takes both hands to clap, you need efforts from both parties to make
time. Along the way you find that there are some people who do not initiate
meet ups, but they will be there should you shout for SOS.
Although
Win M is not staying with us anymore, we do keep in constant contact. She just
broke up with her longest-lasting bf and I was happy to keep her company over
Christmas day. She is also someone who will rush to you help in time of need,
although I’m lucky not to encounter such times of distress. We managed
to do a trip together to Langkawi. It was a really nice and quiet place, lots
of wildlife to uncover. It was a trip filled with activities and relaxation.
Trips with girlfriends are entirely different from trips with the hubby, and I
wouldn’t trade it with anything else. Win M is a fun travel buddy who looks out
for you.
Kids
Haha, no
kids still. I tried some TCM for 2 weeks, ovulation kit for 1 month and that’s
it. I’m really not that keen after all. I’m happy to stay status quo. Recently, I heard mums telling me that having kids are overrated. Frankly, I don’t know
why I was to try hard to get kids when I’m not even a kid’s person. I just
wanted to be like the others, to experience life like a woman. However, I
believed that everything happens for a reason. If I were to have kids now, I’ll
not be able to visit and care for my grandma as often as I’d love to, I wouldn’t
be able to travel as much and I wouldn’t be able to keep up with my friendships
like now. These are the things I’m not prepared to give up, let alone making
plans to give up. If it comes my way, so be it, but if it doesn’t, it’s good
news too Hanging with out with Mum or mum’s-to-be do give me some kind of
pressure, but I think I do possess things that they yearn to have as
well--freedom.
I’m contented with my furkids and I recently discovered their indispensable role in the family:
Ah tzu, the Door bell
Ah boy, the Pest control
Xiaowa, the Affection giver
New toy
My big new
toy for the year is the Yamaha Clavinova white piano. It’s a gorgeous piano and
it was love at first sight. I wanted to get a 2nd hand digital
keyboard because I always felt that my acoustic piano was too loud to play
with. The digital piano comes with a headset, with that I would not be limited by the time and the
people at home. I looked around all 2nd hand pianos and nothing
impressed me. I hesitated to buy this Clavinova because of its hefty pricetag,
$2800. I did not want to invest too much on something that I could not commit.
I only play when the mood comes and I have stopped playing for the past decade.
I went home
but I could not stop thinking about the gorgeous white piano. Hubs said he would subsidize part of
it but I still do need to fork out at least $1800. I began to surf the net and
came across a big sale on Rakuten for this white baby for $2100. I couldn’t believe
my eyes and it would be an unprecedented online purchase as I had not bought
such a big value item online before. Anyway, I went ahead and the piano arrived
a week later. I sold my acoustic piano for $500. When I got it sold, I felt guilty
because my dad bought it for me. Although I kept it for 20 years, it was underutilized.
I gave back the money I got from the sale. As promised, this new piano was subsidized
by hubby 50%. He always believed that you should get something you like and not
be too restricted by the budget, so he was very supportive of this purchase. I’m
glad that both my pianos are funded by the 2 beloved men in my life.
2016 plans and goals
Travel
Jan: San
Diego (Solo)
Apr:
Company retreat
May/Jun:
Cape town (DAMN20)
Nov: Moscow
(Parents)
Trips with the hubs is usually planned last minute.
Trips with the hubs is usually planned last minute.
Work
Draw out concrete workplans, sales and targets. Develop new businesses.
Friends
Not to be
too limited by budgets for presents. I see so many things that I’d love to get
for people, but always limited by budgets and events (no event to give).
Parents
To increase
their allowance by 10%.
Bring mum
out for movies at least once every quarter. It sounds measly but I do not
frequent the theater often and more so after we got a movie box. I’ve also been
able to catch up on movies in-flight these days.
Philanthropy
I’ve been wanting to join this charity to cook for the needy. But the timings were too early (5am)
and I keep giving myself excuses-lack of transport, too early etc. I have to
make a point to get there once.
Wellness
Get back in
shape after months of pig out and sickness (incessant phlegm production). I’m
in the wellness/welfare committee at work and we plan to roll out a series of
activities using the Workplace Health Safety Grant.
Signed up
for the step counter from HPB so counting steps should be part of my daily
regime!
Run, start
running and do at least 2 runs in San Diego.
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