Hit the Ground Running

I start work on 8 Oct in Singapore then i fly to Hong Kong on 10 October for a conference. I return to Singapore on Friday 12 October before flying to Shanghai on 13 October. After one night in Shanghai, I then take the high-speed train to Wuxi for a management conference on 14 October that stretches till 17 October. It's going to be a fast two weeks! It's quite coincidental because when i started with my previous company, I also started in the week they had a management conference in the US. Hope it's fun!

Overkill

If there's one thing i hate more about waiting, it is boredom. This is the amount of things I brought to keep me/us occupied during a one-night stay at the hospital. One Macbook Air 2 iPads One Kindle One Bose noise cancelling earphones

Excited

While im relishing my break but yet not really looking forward to being away from family, im also excited about the new job. There are of course the shallow things like new laptop, new blackberry, new email address, etc. I was curious to know what my email address will be. So i emailed myself using different permutations on my name. I now know what my email address is. I know it's the one because when i did this some time back, the email bounced back but this time it didnt. I will also have a team to manage. It's been some time since I have to manage people. Indeed, I left my first job because I didnt want to manage a team of fresh grads. I think I got more than what I have asked for because now the team is bigger with one manager and one director and one assistant. Im supposed to hire one more director and one more manager when i come on board. That'd be exciting. A little potential bump would be that one of the existing director is born in 1960. I wonder how it'd be like managing an older woman. I even manage to find out that I'll be getting a room there. W00t!

Busy Busy

So many things have been happening in my life recently. In the last 15 months, we bought an apartment, we embarked on our first time renovation project, then we decided to get married, then marriage preparations. We havent yet made the bed warm before I made the decision to relocate to Shanghai. In an odd way, these various events gave me the opportunity to connect or re-connect with friends - from informing friends of my newly renovated apartment and inviting them over and of course inviting friends to my wedding to meeting up with friends before I leave for Shanghai. Oddly enough, I feel more and more like a recluse of late. I never did had many friends over my new place. I also kept my wedding invite list uber short. As for catching up with friends before I leave, in some ways I feel lazy to meet. In some ways, if people dont contact me with a suggested date, I usually would just ignore it. I have no idea why. I have mentioned in a very old post here that Im bad at keeping up with relations and more so for friends who live away from Singapore. I'll probably end up with no friends in Shanghai really. Haha. Sometimes i think that i only want to meet people for golf and mahjong. Other than that, Id rather be home watching TV or reading. I think i inherited my mum's hermit personality. Well, at least there's cheap DVDs in Shanghai.

Ancient

I also returned this ancient blackberry that my company issued me on the first day i started in 2008.

I only used it for a short while before I got my own BB Bold, BB Bold 2 and now BB Bold 3. Trading in my BB 3 now. I heard that my new company has already purchased my BB with a local Shanghai number and has passed it to my new boss to bring it back to Singapore. My name cards are also already printed. I like such efficiencies. I hope this isnt just at the onset.

Best Leave

I have always told people that the best sort of leave is the leave that you take in between jobs.

Your previous job wont bother you. Your new job has nothing to bother you.

All this time you're getting paid for clearing leave.

I have a month of this sort of leave but it's a pity that there's so much things to do and pack before I leave.

Yawn.

Final Word

Here's another farewell that I sent out - this time to my colleagues. Sometimes I surprise myself with the words I come up with. 

Hi everyone

It’s been a great honour and privilege to have worked together with you during my time in XXX.

From the time I joined the company when it was just boss and I, then another colleague coming on board shortly, we have now grown in terms of family members to number of projects.

Our Chairman told me once that he thinks a “decent-sized” company should have at least XXX projects. That’s the reason why I have a running list at the back of where I sit. The number stands at YYY now. We are YYY projects away from being a “decent-sized company”.

Regretfully I won’t be around to push on for this effort. I'm sure you will support my replacement as vigorously as you have with me in order to meet this target.

Stay well and work with integrity and don’t be a stranger.

Yours

Cornball

Last Day

It was a rather emotional goodbye on my last day. That was a week ago. Immediately after my last day, we went to Hong Kong for a holiday. That explains my silence on blogger.

Im not sure if everyone faces this on their last day but there are always different groups of people to whom you'd want to say different type of good byes. I sent this to my bosses and their family members:

Dear members of the XXX family

Today is my last day at YYY.

It has been a huge pleasure and even greater privilege to have worked together with you in the last four and a half years.

I leave with a tinge of sadness today because of the bonds we have formed during this time but at the same time, I leave with the blessed assurance that we will keep in touch and our paths will cross.

My personal email address is cornballz@gmail.com and my cellphone number will remain at ZZZZ ZZZZ.

Thank you again.

Always

Cornball

And on my last day, this is all i took back. This NTUC bag of stuff. Haha. 

End of Days

This coming wednesday is the last day at my job.

I dont know how I'd feel really. On one hand, I'd feel a sense of relief and on one hand I'd feel a tinge of sadness.

Sometimes I think i put in too much emotional capital into jobs, so much so that i develop an emotional bond to the job. But maybe that's what makes me good at my job.

I've always thought that resigning from a job implicitly says to your colleagues that "Ive found a better place to go to every day. Better place, better pay and probably better colleagues."

With that in mind, the relationship just changes immediately after you tender. It's like breaking up from your boyfriend/girlfriend. Something isnt quite the same again.

But nonetheless, I have one more month before i relocate to Shanghai. I hope that's exciting.