2009 ... Mid Feb already

It would be a rather good guess that i have not been blogging lately. Well... obviously lots of stuff have happened over the pass few months.

Work wise, i guess i have been pretty busy and have been to Middle East for the 3rd time in my life. Met more people and get to know a few of them better. =) Job performance would be still ok as i am still around. just got to realise that others' expectations of me is pretty high and they are pretty confident that i can continue to grow and .. well... learn and excel.

Just wondering if i am getting lazy or too comfortable in my job.... hmmm.. which i feel, however unfortunately, i have not. Still too many things to learn and the more i learn, the more areas i have to look out for. In terms of both opportunity and areas to save or make more money for the company.

Better slowly up my tempo... before shit hits the fan if i sit on my own development for too long. Being in the rat race means once i stop....i fall behind. =P

Life wise.. rather good. Went to Vietnam the week before CNY. Fun and exciting, and got to climb mountains.. yes, not the puny Bukit Timah hill in Singapore, but the Sapa mountains. Exaggerating? Of course i am. =P Just took a moderate 5 hours trek with Wheng, her sister Constance and their Canadian friend Pat. It was fun, full of adventure and very very aching legs after that. And oh... it was freezing cold as temperature dropped to about 3~5 degrees C from evening to morning. burrrr...

I guess it is a good time to catch up on stuff. Especially since i probably have about 3~4 days of leave to clear before 31 March 09, so will be taking leave for me to take a time out to 'find' myself, prioritise and probably search for the answer to how the universe was born, if it born. =P The chances of me succeeding would be roughly the same as predicting the numbers for the coming toto later today (thursday). Hmmmmm... given my sucky-ness in Math, i think i prefer to predict the toto numbers correctly. =D

Till the next time, hopefully wont have to wait this long though. =)

In a Korean cafe for breakfast

2 trips coming up!

In a flash, one month had flashed past. And in my birthday month, i will be heading out for 2 trips, to Seoul next tuesday and to middle east on 22th Nov. Exciting? Yes. But rather unprepared is the word.

Just went to buy winter clothing today, 2 pairs of thermal wear and gloves and stuff. Quite a fair bit of stuff actually, and still lacking one Gore-tex material to wear over my suit. Good quality wind breaker will be nice cos a coat will be wasted when i am back in Singapore.

No time to plan where to sightsee or visit as i will be in Seoul during the coming weekend as i am taking the Sunday afternoon flight back. Maybe pop over to the library to borrow a couple of books on Seoul. Definitely going to the casino though. =P Hopefully it is non-smoking, but oh well... Will have to read up on this. =)

Work wise is rather fast paced, not a lot of time to rest and relax as matters crops up every other day. Either it is an expected interuption, or unforeseen opportunities which requires quick response to make the full advantage of it. Lots of stuff i wanna do to improve my efficiency and work flow, but not really have the time to do so as we are required to cross-cover for each other during leave, reservist stints and overseas trips. xP

Well, need to spend more time to fine tune my stuff so that i will have more time to start off on the aircraft design, planning and construction. Still not managing my time properly. Actually thought of taking leave to do that. hahaha.. think the impression will be that i am mad, but i guess i dont mind cos i enjoy my job, so taking time to create and fine tune a better system of work will work wonders.

Having said that, i also need more discipline on this too! Having it in my head wont really help much, will it? =P

Re-starting work in progresses

Have yet to discard my habit of procrastination. Time to restart quite a few ideas of mine and I better continue my work on them soon.

While waiting for myself to settle in, of which I think I have still much much more to learn, I will need to have better time management. No excuses, but just plain lazy of me. =P definitely not enough time to do up the projects I have. So I guess it is time to free up more time. Heh heh.

Targets to reach: Book and exercise

New target to include: the flying machine project.

F1 is over, whats next?

My F1 experience would usually be of the 'wait for results' mindset as I look forward to Ferrari winning as V-power will be on discount when that happens. Didn't want to spend the money for the world's first night race but got to know of a spot to hear the screaming engines and a split second look at the speeding cars.

Came across it by accident as I hitched a ride in my colleague's car back on Friday night and traffic slowed to a crawl on the shears bridge and I caught sight of the speedy cars as the loud whines of the racing machines echoes from the underneath the bridge. Thus my cheapo plan was hatched as we went to Queensway shopping centre to look for Wheng's running shoes.

While fen and david headed for the race at 545pm as they had the walkabout tickets and Yongxi went for dinner with his family, wheng and I went to Vivocity for some shopping. But I only found one item out of 3 I was looking for. Hiaz. On the way back, I took ECP on the left most lane and wheng got a chance to hear the roaring of the F1 engines and the noise from the huge crowd. That would be the first few laps, and by the time I reached home, hiaz, Ferrari had crashed out of the race. From leader to last position. Sad. No discount for V-power next week.

Now its back to normal and I guess the effects of the financial crisis in US is snowballing down to Asia. Enroute it is taking out European banks and should be soon before Asian banks also take a hit. Life is all about cycles, without world wars to destroy buildings, lives, economies. I guess business cycles become more prononuced as economy becomes more interdepentant. Would be in the down cycle soon, so I guess it is time to save up and possibly look for bargains, maybe not the time yet. With US in recession, very soon Europe and the rest of the world will follow. This will be a time for re-balancing of fortunes and possibly of World power as Russian and Chinese military might builds up.

I guess the world can't be united as one unless we face a large threat from outer space, and even if such threat arises, there won't be much we can actually do. =) maybe....

Progress

3 months into the job and I find myself staying above water. Probably okay performance and looks like I will have to put in a bit more effort into doing better. Also need to start exercising again to keep healthy.

Another year is about to pass, 3rd quarter is coming to an end and trust me, 2009 will be poping by in a rather short while. I am rather caught up in a few things, maybe it is time to sit back and relax a bit as a watched pot never boils.

Time to boost up my knowledge in oil trading and operations, the contracts and what not. Looks like knowing just enough is obviously not good, but will have to spend more time reading up on it during my 'free' time as being on call 24 hrs gives me lesser free time.

Will have to manage better from today onwards. Since anytime is a good time to start, let's up one level from today onwards. =)

Echo test in Nov

Went through the ECG yesterday as I went for my first appointment with the cardiologist. Was not very prepared as I had forgotten to check with her if I should continue to exercise. Hmmm. But I guess I will continue to do so anyway, just watch my level of tiredness and do exercises moderately.

Challenging to get my body into good shape. Think I am back to 76 and probably up to 78 kg liao. Jogging is definitely in the cards and also contemplating to buy a heart rate monitor watch to help me keep track of my heartbeat during exercising. It would be a 150 dollars investment, so time to do some shopping. Online shopping for information actually. Heh