The Team

There are three people in my team. I'm supposed to hire one more. As it turns out, two of them have the same first name and two other people in the entire shanghai office also share the name. Great job. Out of four of these same namers, two are in my team and one of them even has the same first AND last name as someone outside our team. I'm not sure if this makes sense to you. In any case, one of them is much older than me. I have tried to be open minded but with my various interactions with her, I think it'd be hard managing her. Because of her age, they call her 大大V. Then the other girls are called 大V，中V and 小V. 中V is my secretary. Fr the purpose of this blog, I shall call them Big V and Small V so that I don't have to keep changing to the Chinese keyboard. The other team member is P. We feel like a motley crew. I shall try to make this a well oiled business development machine.

Day Two

Days two, three and four were spent away from Shanghai as I had to attend an offsite conference by my new company. It was quite fun really. Meeting all the regional heads as well as our President from the US. China is going to be a focus of growth for the company after lagging behind the competition for years now. My AP president presented the strategy and called me out to introduce me as the one to be leading the charge. It was a proud moment but yet a little stressful because now everyone knows my KPI for 2013.

Day One

The send off was more difficult than I thought it would be. I thought it would have been easier as Someone was in Geneva on my departure date. I was wrong. It was tearful and tough and I was so distraught that I didn't buy some stuff that I needed to buy at DFS. Shanghai was its usual grey but this time it reflected my mood. The apartment was exactly how I thought it would be. Except maybe the living room was larger than I thought with a resulting smaller bedroom. But it's fine. The living room will be more used when Someone comes. As I laid in bed on the first night, the reality hit me like a ton of bricks.. This is real. I'm really here now. I feel so alone now. That's weird for me because I'm very used to being alone. Was it a right move to uproot our lives, abandon my weekly golf and badminton games, leave our families and friends, sell my new car in search for a better future? Was it worth it? In some weird way, I felt like my grandparents who left their hometown to come settle in Singapore. Lots of people work overseas. It should be fine. I hope.

Back!

I managed to get VPN! Able to access Facebook, YouTube, etc! W00t! I will be updating this blog with some of my musings in my early days in Shanghai on my laptop.

Farewell

In part due to my prodding, Someone has decided to go on her work trip to Geneva this weekend. This means that she wont be around during my last week in Singapore. This also means she wont be around when i depart for Shanghai. That means that when she returns from Geneva, Ill be gone. That's a depressing thought. I hate farewells. Sometimes, i think that cascades to how i communicate with people. In my whatsapps, MSNs, etc, I dont ever say bye. I just keep quiet until the conversation dies a natural death. I think farewells provide the people staying behind an avenue for them to say bye and grief appropriately. Sometimes, its more for the people staying behind than the person leaving. It's like a funeral. But sometimes, i really dont care. It hurts and sometimes I just want to grieve alone. It feels like I'm dying because I have been cleaning up my affairs in the last few weeks - closing bank accounts, cancelling credit cards, arranging for GIRO payments, etc.

Work Work Work

My new boss called me the other day and asked if I can start earlier in the Singapore office so that I can teach some of the people there financial modelling. Im a bit sian to cut short my leave but in effect, it's just working one working day earlier and getting three more days od pay cos I start on a Friday. So, I start work this Friday.

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.

Massage

I just found out my regular masseuse has gone back to China. I liked him because he studied TCM in the military and was very strong too.

I think I need to move to China to look for him.

 

Outlawed by Inlaw

I always thought that it was clichéd during thank-you speeches in wedding banquets that the newly weds would joke sheepishly that have to change mouth and call the in-laws “mum” and “dad”.

 

IT IS VERY DIFFICULT!

 

I have tried a few times but I have failed.

 

So I devised a plan, whereby instead of calling “Hi Dad and Mum”, I just say a very loud “Hello!”. I have managed to get away with you.

 

Or so I thought.

 

My mum-in –law just told my wife that she noticed I don’t greet them anymore.

 

Kwa kwa.

Socks

I have basically two types of socks for work.

 

Thin or thick socks.

 

Thin socks are for those shoes which are tighter and thick socks are for shoes which are looser.

 

That’s a no brainer you may think.

 

Once I decide on which sock to wear, I’d decide on which shoe to wear. And then depending on the color of the shoes (black or brown), I’d decide on the color of the belt.

 

Once the belt color is decided, then id decide on the color of my pants, then I’d decide the shirt color.

 

So, in actual fact, the choice of  my look, depends on what type of socks I want to wear on that day.

 

I came to this revelation a few days ago and I thought it was a little weird.

 

Parents

One small thing im thankful for of late is that my parents get along well with my in-laws.

 

My parents are nice and easy-going people and so are my in-laws.

 

But that doesn’t mean anything, especially when I sometimes hear horror stories about in-laws and expectations of their new child-in-law and I don’t take this harmony for granted.

 

It helps that both families like to eat, especially crab.

 

Now, all I need are my in-laws to know how to get to my parents’ place so that they can go directly to pass them things, rather than pass through me. Haha.

 

Looking Forward

Sometimes I think I cant sit still.

I must always have something to look forward to.

I must also look forward to something next to buy, some new event coming up, some new change. I just cant sit still. It's irritating sometimes.

Yet at the same time, it's exciting. What a dilemma.