i am a lazy person. or rather, i am a busy person, especially over the past month or so. life has been very hectic since i took over leadership of my set-up on 1 dec. and i have been superbly busy since as i had also to oversee my previous 2 portfolios until such time the replacements are found/ the new incumbent is sufficiently run in... as such, i had forgotten to reflect on my past year. something that i would do as a routine every year. and yes, i always have to think very hard what descriptor i would use for the year. i had wanted to use the word "work" as this was the one big thing that dominated my year. becos of the time and energy committed to work, friend-time, family-time, etc was decreased. then again, i thought, there were also other parts not pertaining to work that happened. so... thinking deeper, i thought the word "progress" would be more appropriate. so, let me begin writing about my last 12 months.
family
since i started work, time with my family, or more specifically my mum, had been mainly restricted to saturdays and sundays. my family's life has been rather smooth since my dad passed away. relationship-wise, despite inter-siblings tensions that continue to exist, the relationship between me and my brother progressed a notch higher. after his marriage last year, his wife had given birth to a baby girl. and that, i supposed, was the high point of this year. the birth of my niece brought our relationship closer. he even consulted me about the baby's name (given that i am the tua pek). and these days, he would also cook for me on weekends when i visit my mum. as for me and my 2 other sis, well, things had remained the same as previous years. as for mum, frankly, i had previously thought she wouldn't survive this year given her rapidly deteriorating health. similar to last year, she was warded a couple of times this year for respiratory problems, pneumonia, blood poisoning associated with constipation, etc. after observing her conditions and trends of issues when she got hospitalized, i eventually managed to deduce that her health was screwed-up becos of the use of morphine. and after her morphine intake was stopped, her hospitalization also stopped.
and talking about family, it would not be complete if i did not talk about
sapphie. hmmm, i think this is probably the first time i am dedicating a paragraph to her in my several years of writings!
sapphie turned 10 this year. that is equivalent to 70yrs old when measured in human terms. so it would be accurate to say i actually have 2 elderly females close to me - my mum and my dog... hahahaha... well, most people who say it is not a very nice thing to compare my mum to my dog, but well, as a dog lover, dogs are like human to me and so from my perspective, it did not sounded very inappropriate. heh heh... ok, back to sapphie. her energy levels had dropped and these days, she could hardly run nor walk long distances. she got tired easily and also tripped over herself freuqently. nonetheless, she remained active and playful as a puppy! such an adorable doggie! as for her skin conditions, it had been kept under control despite the occasional flare ups this year. and for the first time in her life, i have allowed her to walk into the room by herself and sleep in the bedroom. let's hope she has a few good years more to live!
relatives
my relatives drifted a bit away from me this year. there were some tensions between my brother and my paternal-side relatives (well, nothing new for my borther, it is just his temper) such that he now refused to talk to all of them. as such, i became the only point-of-contact between my family and my relatives. and it certainly was not easy when they kept asking why my brother behaved like that... sighs. the last time i met them over a dinner, i was very surprised and glad to know that there had been a couple of new babies in my extended family. for one, my cousin (the youngest male member that carries my family name) is now a proud father! and another of my cousin is now a grandmother. and that made me a granduncle! talk about feeling old... hahaha!
friends
my relationship with my close friends continued to remain constant this year. the usual birthday dinners and meet-ups continued with the usual group of people. but somehow, i sensed that everyone seemed to be slowly drifting apart. or perhaps i was just sensitive. well, whatever... then again, i guessed everyone was simply too busy to catch up. and this year was a little more tricky cos i had started on a new employment and the meet-up sessions dwindled as i was usually the one previously to organise get-togethers.
other than that, my relationship with my 2 lifelong friends - larry and bs - progressed well too. for larry, the interactions increased tremendously. we were buddies since secondary 2 and had kept in contact regularly since. he is now a multi-millionaire. then again, towards me, there is that familiar person who doesn't show any airs (well, i am not sure if that is the same to others). and as far as i am concerned, i couldn't be bothered about the fact that he is rich. perhaps that is why we continue to be best of buddies. as for bs, well, perhaps it was due to distant (he now lives with his family in the states), although we do email to each other once a while, the topic seemed to have dwelled on very superficial stuff these days. and heh heh... our emails frequently cover questions like "how was the weather there"... and when two friends start to ask about weather, you know how the far friendship has gone (it can be up or down depending on perspective!). then again, the warmth and the familiarity remains although i am not sure if in our interactions, we were assuming we were interacting with our previous personalities or were we really interacting with our present selves. anyway...
other than that, i had made some further inroads with some friends due to increased contacts. these would include thomas as we do occasionally meet up for lunch now that my workplace is very close to his. also, i had made some new friends. there is probably nothing much to write about these new friends considering the short span of time i know them. but certainly, new friends, both real and online, add to the colours of one's life. it is always interesting to know people, how they relate to life, how they view life and so on. and to these people, i thank them for their sharing. some of the nicer people i got to know this year include jason, tim, and of cos, sam. other than tim, i had met up with sam. in time to come, hopefully, i can also meet up with tim!
health
compared to last year, my health this year was rather stable and uneventful. of course there were signs of wear and tear and aches here and there. but other than an increased level of cholesterol and signs of fatty liver discovered during my regular medical check ups, i was generally healthy. in the later half of the year, i came down several times with flu and i suspected they were all stress-related. so i think i need to learn to better manage my stress-level.
work
like last year, work was the main highlight of the year. the management consultancy that worked with me managed to get a job placement for me in apr this year. and after a month of negotiation, i signed the letter of acceptance and started a new phase in my career life in jun. it was one helluva super hectic for me from then on. well, apart from a steep learning curve, the position i occupied covered three major areas, each dragging me in different directions and demanding a lot of my energy. it was certainly a huge challenge as these three different areas were also the three foci of my three different bosses - read this, my boss, my boss's boss, and my boss's boss's boss. and given that my boss and his boss (and my boss's boss and his boss) do not see eye-to-eye rather often, i ended up walking on a tight rope and even risking getting trampled by all three elephants. and needless to say, work politics also set in and often things got highly politicised so much so that even the smallest issue became a huge challenge. but to be objective, i learned quite a bit from them. each had their own idiosyncracies and their own ways of working but once i got used to them, i thought i got by rather ok.
as for the work itself, it was certainly a steep learning curve for me. there was quite a bit to learn. culturally, it was not much of an issue and i did not find it difficult to adjust. i supposed i've all along been an easy going and adaptable person. so, moving from my previous organisation into this current one was not difficult and i guessed my 9-month break had also helped me break my uniformed organisation mindset faster (if any). i was also lucky to have helpful colleagues who helped me through. mostly importantly, i was blessed with 2 very capable managers who understood what i wanted and delivered the results i asked of them. it was rather regretful that i had to let one of them go by the end of the year due to company restructuring, not that i had a choice anyway. i wish him well. i really do. and hopefully in the near future, we can have the opportunities to work together again.
other than my bosses, the people factor was an interesting one at work. i had the chance to interact with people who were very helpful, downright bitchy and selfish and everything in between. i can list all sorts of adjectives to describe the people i have experienced in my 6 months with the company and these include insecure, egoistic, unfriendly, bitchy, temperamental, happy-go-lucky, political, bo-chap, la la la... very colourful right? well, it made my life interesting. very interesting indeed although at times it was a tat too much for me.
in my short stint with the company, my position had been changed twice. i have three different namecards with different titles during this period. it was probably a record for anyone in the company. in a large way, my steep learning curve and constant stress was due to this change of positions and new responsibilities given to me. i supposed i had met the management's expectations for i was confirmed 2 months ahead of the usual 6-months required and by the 6th month, i was promoted in grade and in position. again, this was supposedly a record for anyone in the company. have assume this new role in 1 dec. and as of now, it is still very choking because of people-factor. but hopefully in the next month or so, the people factor can be resolved and things will be easier.
in short, my 6 months of employment had been nothing short of exciting and at the same time, stressful. i had progressed very fast during this period and had moved from middle management to senior management. the expectations now would be a lot higher and the stress would likely be even more. nonetheless, i look forward to an exciting workyear ahead!
personal life
on the personal front, the key highlight this year was volunteering to teach dharma and taking buddhist classes at the temple. i started teaching from the middle of the year and the whole process was certainly an enlightening one in itself. the teaching and sharing of my dharma knowledge also gave me a deeper insight into the dharma. and as a part of my learning process, i also enrolled myself for buddhist lessons. frankly, i thought the course was a little simple although i did learn quite a bit of stuff during the course.
as for bee and i, we are now heading into our 6th year. things continue to be very stable. and for the first time in our years together, we did not go for any annual holidays. this was largely due to our commitments to our jobs. i thought we supported each other rather well over the year. for me, he was very encouraging from the moment i started looking for a job to the times when i went through the stressful periods of my employment. as for him, things were rather routine at the start of the year but towards the end of the year, things got a little tough due to challenges in his business. he eventually closed his business (with his partner) and re-entered into fulltime employment. it has been almost a month and things seemed to be stabilizing well for him.
conclusion
overall, i thought 2010 was rather smooth. despite the occasional downs, on the whole, i thought it was rather good. things had progressed for me on almost all fronts - from work, to family, to friends and personal life. and for these reasons, i christen 2010 the year of progress!
i look forward to a new year that's happy and healthy. happy 2011 everyone!
:-)
