the infusionz blog

Although it really doesn’t make sense for me to even keep this blog anymore coz I rarely update it, it does have some sentimental value to me. Therefore, find me at

http://fissionz.wordpress.com

Between my schedule and this server being constantly down, I’ve not had the time to update in a while. One part of me wants to move this blog to a more secure server while another part is stopping me because I don’t even update that much anyway. Oh well, I’ll let my mood decide later on.

To make a long story short, after I left BMW, I got a call from a stat board asking me to have lunch with 2 of their guys. They were interested in what I could do for their organization but informed me that the clearance process and the final offer would take some time and that I also had to go through some interviews to meet the higher-ups. I didn’t mind because at that time, I already accepted the position with MOE for the contract teaching thingy. 4 months of ping ponging with the stat board, they finally offered me a position. I felt that it was something challenging for me and decided to take it up. So I left teaching and now in yet another job. Lots to learn and get used to but the challenges seem very errrrmmmm challenging. Haha.

More info for another time and (maybe) another space.

And so it goes…. I’ve resigned from my current job since 3 weeks ago.

First and foremost, the situation in the department was not getting pretty. A confirmed restructuring at the end of the year had created a situation where we had to either relocate to China or find our own position within the organization in Singapore or Europe. China is a definite no-go because I don’t think I’ll survive there. Besides, the package was likely to be unattractive. Europe was vetoed by TSO because she’s learning the ropes of a family business and needs to be in sunny Singapore. And no way am I relocating without her.

Then there’s the issue of people leaving. 1 of the junior execs in my department quietly applied for a position in another department and got the job. Since his role as an exec was to do up reports, presentations and other miscellaneous stuff, my purchasing boss (Boss A) needed someone with adequate PowerPoint and Excel jujitsu skills. Since there were only managers left in the department, and I happen to know IT, guess who got stuck with the exec’s work? Moi. So now I’m a manager cum executive all-in-one extraordinaire.

Then my direct boss (Boss B), who I honestly think is the best boss anyone can get, has been recalled back to Europe to take up a new position. Since I can honestly say that the reason why I stay motivated in this job is because of him, I don’t see any point in staying.

So….. I tendered and even asked for early release. 30th June will be my last day.

Then I’ll start my new job on the 27th of July. I will be taking up a very new and very different line of work. It’s one that I’ve tinkered with but never thought that I would do. I’ll be a ……… contract teacher! Teaching what you ask? Teaching PE and English. Yes I know…. hillarious. I think so too.

I guess the decision was made up for me. I did look around at the private sector but got either rejections or no response. Yup the market is horrible…. or maybe I’m just not employable. For my sake, I hope it’s the former.

So it’s a contract teaching stint for at least a year (I can quit anytime with 1 month notice) after which the principal of the school I’ve been assigned to will decide whether I’m suitable and recommend me for NIE to undergo a 2 year post graduate diploma in education and sports science. It works both ways of course…. I must also decide if I want to do it.

But there’s a catch…. if I do decide to go to NIE, I’ll have to pass a physical test (doing some basic gymnastics, badminton, swimming….). I went for the test in May trying to see how I would fare (the test results are valid for 2 years). I failed by 1 point. I think my badminton skills were not aggressive enough and my agility run was too slow. That sucks. Confidence sucker. Morale sucker. I think IPPT is easier. This test has no clear cut criteria as to how well you’ll do. There’s a judge who will decide how to grade you instead of a concrete physical criteria from which you can benchmark yourself on. I hate that! I wonder if I can pass the next time around. The worst part of the whole thing is that they only conduct the test 3 times a year. If I don’t make it by the time NIE starts in July next year, I’m as good as out.

But then again, will I forever stay out of the private sector? This teaching stint is something I know I want to try out because I do find it fulfilling to teach and I do have a passion/enthusiasm for health and fitness. But I might also be digging a hole for myself if this doesn’t work out because I might have shut myself out of the private sector for good with such a 360 degree career shift. Tough decisions I’ve had to make but made them I have. I just hope I haven’t shot myself on the foot with this.

I think I just messed up an interview. They kept on saying that they cannot understand why I would want to leave such a prestigious organization. No matter what I said, I don’t think they bought it. I meant every word I said when I said that I wanted something more fulfiling but I guess it’s hard for some people to look past those three letters and the blue and whites. Sheesh. Still keeping my fingers crossed

It’s been a while since I’ve developed any website but I’ve had some personal requests recently and so I developed these 2 websites over the past month. I was more or less given free reign in implementation in exchange for me doing it for free. Take a lookie….

Hearts @ Mind »

Country Concept »

For starters, here’s wishing one and all a happy new year. Secondly, if you’re reading this……. Thanks for dropping by despite my lack of posts. I’m impressed! =p

I think I’ll start off with 2 montages from the year before I kick off into droning mode.

Ireland – June 2008

I mentioned in my previous post about being in Ireland for some work… Well here’s some snaps from the weekend that I got to run solo.

Japan – October 2008: Tokyo and Kyoto

TSO has been wanting to go to Japan for a holiday and has been bugging me since the time we were in Europe. I finally managed to clear a block of leave in October to take her.

So we finally made it there for a 9 day holiday which was an absolute blast. I was there a good 10 years ago and since then lots of things have changed. For one thing, the train stations now have "Romaji" or Romanized words for the Japanese characters. That made getting around a breeze.

Anyway, we covered 2 cities: Tokyo and Kyoto with a quick hop by to Nikko. I love how Tokyo doesn’t have a city centre per se; but is instead a cluster of city "centres". So we covered the normal spots in Tokyo like Shibuya, Harajuku, Ueno, Odaiba, Shinjuku, Akihabara and Roppongi Hills. As for Kyoto, we covered Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji and the shopping district there as well.

Armed with 2 DSLRs and 1 compact, we took a grand total of 7GB worth of photos. Here’ re some of them presented in a space saving collage.

I promised droning and droning I will deliver!

It’s kindda hard to sum up 2008 because the current world situation overshadows everything else for me. It’s a real crazy world out there. Even the US presidential race which I followed closely seems rather distant in my mind now. For me, the year started out mundane and ordinary with normal levels of stress coming from work and life. Mid year saw a slight shift in my professional life as I took on additional responsibilities and juggled the office’s international politics. The mid-year slew of job lay offs in my company did not affect the Singapore office too badly but it was shaken to a certain extent.

Then the shockwave came with the global financial crisis, problems in the automotive industry, profitability, etc etc. Loads of shit flying everywhere. So far, my department has come unscathed though threats of relocating our operations (read: shut down our department and set up office somewhere cheaper) are still making its runs through top management.

Honestly speaking though, I’m not overly bothered if I lose the job because there are many things that I wish try out before I hit the big Three-O. Things like IT, Consultancy, Systems/Process Auditing, Marketing, Web Design and even entrepreneurship still interests me a lot and I do intend to explore these things with different organizations when the time or opportunity (not forgetting money) is right. And I think I do have the academic qualifications as well as the capability to do so. But what bothers me is the crappy job market and my disconnection from these core industries for the past 2+ years which has inevitably created a lack of practical experience in these areas.

But well, I’m keeping my options open now while still doing my best in my existing job. Let’s see how 2009 unfolds aight?

My relationship with TSO has been more or less the same which means that things are great between us. I love that woman to bits and you know what???…. I’m pretty sure she loves me back exactly the same way I do. =)

She just tendered her resignation from the iron rice bowl of the gahmen. As much as her job was secure and that she received 2 generous increments over the year that she worked, she did not enjoy it due to the fact that she has to work long hours during the weekends and not having enough time to claim all the "time-off" that she has chalked up. And she has a crappy boss. I must admit that It’s not exactly the best timing but I think her happiness should take precedence over everything else.

She’s exploring some options right now including working for her dad to subsequently take over the business but again… let’s see how things unfold. I’m curious myself =)

Have a great 2009 everyone. Stay healthy and happy….. everything else can be managed if you’ve got those 2 in tact.

Sometimes, the places that my job takes me to really surprises me. Considering that the countries I cover are SEA, S.Korea, Australia and Taiwan, I find it strange that I’m now in Europe which is totally out of my portfolio. Well, as part of my transition to parts quality, I had to take part in an audit in Ireland. Yes, Ireland. I didn’t even see that coming for myself until my boss broke the news to me. So it was a couple of days in a super ulu town of Ireland called Tuam in the city of Galway after which I’m now in Dublin for the weekend. I’m taking advantage of the time here to see a bit of Dublin as well as the famous filming location of Braveheart i.e. Glendalough and County Wicklow.

Had a look see around Dublin today and it kindda bored me. In my opinion, this really isn’t that interesting a city. Visited the Guiness Storehouse, Christ Church, Temple Bar, Dame Street, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Old Jameson Distillery etc and wasn’t particularly impressed by any of them. But I guess Ireland’s charm is really in the country side. Galway was beautiful though I didn’t get to see the Cliffs of Moher (was on business so lan lan). Hopefully Glendalough doesn’t disappoint.

Oh and the weather here’s kindda gloomy with dark clouds always threatening to bath the skies.

Next week I’m in Czech Republic for a few days for work and then off to Munich for another week. 3 weeks away from TSO. She’s not happy and neither am I. This can get really taxing!

Hang on for a second while I blow the cobwebs off this blog.

.. deletes
… spam
…. comments

Now that’s better. Hehz.

Life for the past few months has been nothing short of a whirlwind. I’m gonna try to recount some of the stuff that’s been going on.

Personal Life

Non existent! Haha. Seriously though, my married life is such a blast that whatever lack of personal time is more than compensated for by all the laughter she brings to my life. But she has been bugging me to get our own place. Not that I don’t want to. I desperately want to move out and have my own place. Having all our junk in our room and not having the privacy to do whatever we want bugs me to no end. But jumping into the now cooling property market by just “settling for anything” is quite foolish I think. So I wanna wait a few more months to see the market trends. I suppose if no other alternatives show itself, I’ll have to settle for something less than ideal but that’s a situation I’m trying to avoid.

And a note to all, beware of Barang Barang furniture. TSO and I bought a relatively pricey bed frame from there and 5 months down the road, the side frame collapsed. Come on man, these things are supposed to withstand all the monkeying around that we can throw at it but just 5 months worth, and it collapses. Sheesh. Thank goodness it’s still under warranty. The side frame collapsed on Saturday but the servicing people are only coming tomorrow. 4 nights/days/afternoons of having the bed supported by plastic boxes and having to tread gently while doing the horizontal tango….. grrrr. Not good.

TSO and I have been dying to get out of the country but things always presents itself such that we have to put it on hold again and again. Like my sponsored Bali trip had to be postponed coz I had to get things in order when I just got back from Munich. Now I’ll have to wait a couple of months before my contact is free to make some arrangements for me. Then there was the trip to KL which was also cancelled coz last minute standing orders from my in-laws stated that we MUST attend some CNY visits. Then there’s all those last minute travels that I had to make for work that killed some potential holidays as well. We’re really trying to find a slot to block out now. It’s for our sanity from living with our parents for too long. Haha

Work Stuff

On the job front, the whole organization is restructuring from HQ down to all of us small fries. It’s all over the news so nothing hush hush there. So fighting with HQ for projects (i.e. fighting for my existence) has been a feat in itself. I’m ‘this’ close to closing a multi-million dollar purchase with multi-million dollar savings after which I start fighting for more projects again. And then there’s this lateral shift that I’ve been selected for; i.e. to move from purchasing to quality management (of suppliers and purchased parts). They figured that my knit pickiness in selecting suppliers made me an ideal candidate for the job. Haha. But that means, I’ve just been piled on with additional responsibilities and am having more hats on. Luckily, it’s a temporary transitional phase.

I just got myself ISO/TS16949 (it’s like ISO 9001 but for the automotive industry) certified as a lead auditor and I’m wondering how much value that adds to my market worth in the open job market. Then there’s talk of shipping me back to Munich for a few weeks again to “network” with quality heads; thereby inaugurating my entrance into quality management. In between my regional fire fighting, sourcing activities, intra organizational politics and this, my head is beginning to spin. I hope that my transition to quality management happens more quickly so that my world stops spinning so much. Haha. On the downside though, it’ll involve longer durations of travel for me as auditing requires a longer time. TSO definitely isn’t happy with that.

Speaking of TSO, she landed a job in a stat board aka civil slave. Keke. The bad thing is that she sometimes has to work weekends but the good thing is that her working times are flexible. Being able to stroll into work at 11am and leave at 4pm or so is definitely a good thing for her considering that she was leading a tai-tai life in Europe and waking up at whatever time she likes.

I disgress. So if and when the whole quality management thing works out well, I’d really have to figure out whether IT, Purchasing or Quality is the route for my career and possibly plan out my future be it in this company or another. On the one hand, I still love IT especially in the areas digital advertising, web design and development and IS management. On the other hand, it’s quite a saturated market and the niche could really be in either purchasing or quality. Heck maybe I can be in IT purchasing which involves vendor selection and quality management of the product/service. Sounds like a perfect role. Or I could set up my own business. Haha! Blegh… only time will tell.

Car Stuff

My family has been on a car craze for the past few months. For starters, my dad bought a Honda Stream and I ordered a 525! Haha. Shocked you there huh? But this one’s not for me (I’m more inclined towards the 325 or 335). Well the whole employee benefits thing is a little complicated but let’s just say that the car is ‘almost’ free for a year (not inclusive of insurance) after which I’ll have to sell it off and, if I want to, get a new one. I’m getting this one for my brother in law (he pays for the non free aspects of it) so that I can chalk up NCB for this first year (previous car was under my dad) and when the discount sets in, I’m considering a 325 coupe for myself. But a lot of my family members are vying for my discounts like my parents in-laws who are considering either the Cooper S clubman or convertible. But I can only have 1 car at a time so they’ll have to wait for about a year before they can get it. So my father-in-law bought a Mazda 2 which is indeed a decent ride with pretty good handling. But in terms of power and space, it’s a little lacking. As for me, I got myself a simple Honda Jazz for the time being and I’m definitely enjoying the excellent consumption that it’s giving me.

it’s snowing….. I can’t believe it. *shakes head*

Sheesh!

On nights like these when I’m all alone in foreign country, on a Sunday night, outside temperature so shitty (see above graphic) that you don’t even want to walk around, knowing that there’s still a good week that you’ll be away….. and yet have a spectacular sea view from the 34th floor hotel room but without the person you want to share it with; I wonder…

What did I get myself into?