Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013

Year 2012 come and gone. Am I wiser? Am I happier? Am I healthier? What's good? And what's bad? What have I gained? And what have I loss? It's the time of the year to reflect upon 2012 and looking forward to 2013.

I have completed my 3 years of Buddhist studies. Am I a better person? A better husband? A better father? A better citizen? A better team player? A better superior? Most importantly, a better human being?... I am not in a position to judge for myself. But for sure, I am more conscious of my action, my speech and my thought. Constantly reflecting upon myself. And is much at peace and in harmony with myself. Appreciate life more. Thankful of what is given and done for me. Take things as I come and accepting any outcome. Learning to rejoice upon other happiness and achievement. I am still working on it. I confess that I still struggle sometime. But slowly and surely I will get better. Hopefully day by day, doing bit by bit to make this planet a much better, lovely and happier place to live, play, work and enjoy. And it shall start from me. Separately, at my age of 40, the calling to give back to society also get stronger. I am determined to make a switch into a career that I can benefit Singapore and the citizens more. A job that is centred on human beings and driven by 'heart-ware'. If there is a will, there is a wave. I am confident that I will succeed in finding my ideal job one day. I want to delicate myself to guide the young and vulnerable and/or to create an conducive environment for the old and fragile to enjoy growing old and enjoy their golden years.

I have completed my third full Marathon (2nd Dec'12) since I start participating it in 2009. I aim to complete my race within 5 hours. And have started my training 6 months in advance. I trained hard. Stretch my physical limit. Pay more attention to my diet. For this year, the race was much easier and pleasant. For once, I truly enjoyed the full marathon run and completed my race in 5hrs and 3 mins. I am happy with the result. I look forward to next year run. And preparation and training will start now. My aim is 4hrs and 30mins. It's a tough goal but I am confident that I will be able to achieved it. It's mind over matter. Hopefully, one day we can do the Marathon as a family. I will look forward to this day. Three cheers.

We did have a fair bit of travel this year as a family. In the mid-year, we drove to Ipoh and Cameron highlands in Perak, together with Steven and family. Ipoh is their hometown. A simple and peaceful town. Ipoh people is friendly and life is pleasantly slow. The colonial buildings are well preserved and maintained. And Ipoh food and coffee are world best. We love Ipoh and will be back for more. In late November, we also visited the new Legoland in Malaysia, Johor. We bought an annual pass and will plan more trips down the road. Cordelia loves it. She is such an adventurous and courageous girl. We went on the roller coaster round after round. We look forward to our next trip.

From 4th to 16th Dec'12, we flew to Vietnam. We visited the northern and central Vietnam. For the former, we toured in Hanoi, HaLong Bay and Sapa while the latter, we covered HoiAn, DaNang and Hue. Vietnam is a beautiful and safe country. Vietnamese is very friendly and happy though the country is poor and average people only earned 200-300USD per month. We earn more. We have better facilities and infrastructure. We have good and efficient government. We have cleaned water. Better housing etc. But are we necessary much happier? Having more and more is not naturally good. Only when we started to appreciate life and not taken it for granted will we be happier.

Traveling open up our horizon. We make new friend and learn new culture and tradition. The best thing is you do it together with your family and your loved ones. For me, I enjoyed the quality and uninterrupted time that we spend together. Every trip strengthen the family bond. And for this year, we make new friend from Denmark, Holland, Australia and of course our Vietnamese friends that we met during our stay. For next year, we might want to visit Laos and Cambodia, our next Asean friends.

Our girls do us proud again this year. Filomena was first in class and second in level. Cordelia was second in class and sixth in level. Both are promoted to primary 5 and 3 respectively in 2013. I believed the girls have put in a lot of effort in their studies together with the guidance from the mother. Thank you Sarah for taking good care of our children education and character building. You've done an awesome job. To my two girls, keep up the good job. Be humble and continue to strive for your best. Working towards your target of getting into St. Nicholas (CHIJ) secondary school. It's not a easy task, but the work start now.

What's not so good in 2012? My failed attempt in my interview for the HR manager post. My thinking is HR builds on Human Relationship. And the job should focus on the people. Serving the people. And be the voice of the people. This is the job that should be centred on human and focus on building/strengthening the human relationship within the company. But I was wrong. I was not only rejected, but ridiculed as being naive. My credibility and ability to lead in my field is also in serious doubt. But looking back at my life, I have done and achieve so many breakthrough in my field, groomed so many people in their career, and manage a happy family. Is this pure coincidence or merely good luck. I accept the outcome of the interview but no the remarks. I believe that if you manage with a heart, you will be successful in whatever you do, be it engineering or HR. And I have done that for many years. I am pretty sure that my talent and capability will be appreciated one day. It will not be with Micron, It'll be somewhere. It'll be some place where my heart truly belong.

Looking forward to 2013, my priority is to enable a mid-career switch. I want to build a career that I can constantly contribute till I am too work to work. Retirement is not in my dictionary. I always hope that my presence will benefit others. A catalyst to enable, influence and enhance other life.

I want to do more on charity. Volunteering my time and service to the less privileged and disadvantage.

In the coming new year, I wish everyone good health and happiness. And may the world has peace.

Cheers OKY, 2012