Summary of 2012

There are only a few more days before the end of this year. I realised I have been very busy trying to cope with marriage life and have not been updating my blog frequently. It is difficult to balance work and marriage.

There is less than a week's time before 2013, I didn't take time to reflect what I have done this year during my birthday, so I am going to do it now and give myself a few days time to think of my new target for 2013.

I have been travelling a lot this year, visited 6 countries this year and revisited half of them again within a year. The travelling schedule was especially hectic over the past two months. I visited 5 countries over the past two months, spent 3 weeks of November in 3 countries. It may sound odd to many, but I really don't want to board a plane to anywhere now, not in the near future, neither work nor leisure.

Other things I did this year:
... Started picking up readings again, and found a few good books. (刘墉 《我不是教你诈》系列、禤素莱 《战地情书》、Clayton Christensen "How will you measure your life?")
... Went to Siem Reap and was amazed by the life of history. It was my first time to Cambodia.
... Visited Korea for the first time, and managed to visit again late this year, which I managed to spend a good day in a palace in Seoul by myself.
... Went to Bangkok shopping trip for the first time.
... Conducted product commissioning for the first time in Philippines. It was my first time to Philippines too.
... Conducted vibration diagnostic on a finished product for the first time on my own in Taiwan.
... Attended government organised marriage workshop, it was pretty informative but too bad my husband couldn't enjoy it due to the language barrier.
... Got my father an iPhone.
... Brought my mother to remove her cataract.
... Secured over USD 1.3mil sales in my first year involvement in sales activities.
... Received silver star award for my contribution to the company sales.
... Celebrated Chinese New Year the first time as someone's wife, and was shocked by my husband's extended family members that visited them on the first day of the new year.
... Called a stranger for the first time to chase for money.
... Was tailed by a road bully in a morning due to protesting his reckless and unsafe driving. I saw him again later this year on my way to work.
... Discard the use of handbag and changed to a small purse to avoid unnecessary attention from snatch thieves.
... Experienced the longest traffic jam (3 hours) in my life so far, due to the rainy Ramadan after work rush hour.
... Late for work for the first time, thanks to the flash flood. It took me over 2 hours to get to work as I was stuck at less than 2km away from the office for over 1 hour.
... Late for flight for the first time, due to the lousy traffic planning for the Sepang International Grand Prix. The traffic craw started right after the toll house and it made me craw for over an hour to the airport, it was about 10km distance. The traffic police did nothing to ease the scenario.
... Argue in public for the first time with the AirAsia ground crew due to their rude attitude. I was not allowed to board the flight after my luggage was checked in. (I arrived at the gate just when the the gate was closed). The ground crew manager, who dare not even show his name, told me, "In here, you listen to me, not I listen to you!"
... Faced a difficult "Mat Saleh" customer in Taiwan.
... Challenged the management and fought for my rights when bullied by the managers.
... Got my company phone upgraded from Nokia monochrome GSM candybar to Samsung Galaxy Y.
... Finished paying my car loan.
... Fell down on the tar road when walking a dog.
... Re-organised my messy bank accounts.
... Enrolled into a Korean Language class which starts next year.

I think I have completed or almost completed the things I planned to do in 2012:

1. Finish moving and unpacking my stuff.
I have bought a cupboard from IKEA in August and unpacked most of the stuff. There are still some minor things in boxes, which I was thinking if I should just throw them away or find space for them. It is hard to throw your memories away.

2. Find a new career.
I am still struggling on this, the newspaper job adverts are getting thinner and thinner these days.

I applied to a few companies, one of them was pretty interesting but their 3rd party recruitment agent kicked me out because I couldn't fit in all their check boxes.

I went for an interview with another company this year, it was a second interview with that company. There was no response from them after that meeting. I called their HR to follow up, but their HR avoided my call. I thought that was pretty rude, as one should at least give the two finalists an update call or email. After all, we took our day off to participate in the interview, and they even knew I cancelled my honeymoon flight to attend the interview.

I need to find harder in this new year. If you heard to two-factor theory or motivation theory by Frederick Herzberg, the hygiene factor in the office is getting worse by day. The MD's contract will come to an end soon, he has been getting very desperate hygiene factor is the least of his care now. He may get his extension, but he has gotten into the dynamics of pointing the fingers to others.

3. Take care of my own donation accounts.
I have took care of them, and wonder if I should increase a few more donations.

4. Participation in charity work.
Well, I have not been participating over the past few months due to all the travelling.

5. Exercise 3 times a week.
Hard to keep it, I don't get to leave the office sharp 5pm everyday in order to arrive home at 6pm to exercise. Leaving the office 5.30pm means I arrived home around 7pm, which would be too dark to jog around.

I can't exercise in the morning, because I leave home around 6.15am in order to avoid the traffic. There isn't much time for me in the morning.

I wasted a lot of time in the traffic jam, a normal single journey takes 1 hour. It would extend to 2 hours if it rains. If it were the Ramadan month, the day before and after the long weekends, first day of school, a single journey would need twice the amount of time.

6. Keep in touch with my friends.
I met them a few times this year, but mainly organized by one of my old friends. I didn't take initiatives in calling them up.

7. Visit my family once a month.
Have not been visiting enough due to the travelling schedule and works at home.

8. Rewarding myself once a month.
I took a few days off work in November to rest from the hectic travel, and made use of my replacement holidays in December to do nothing but stay at home.

I saved some amount over the months and blown all of them in the shopping trip with my friends in Bangkok in October. Not to mention that I have bought a few polo-shirts that shrunk 2 size after washing.... *frustration*

9. Start growing my own vegetables.
My baby leeks weren't doing well, I transferred them to a pot and put them under the sun. They are growing ok now, but the quantities are not enough to make a meal for the family.

The passion fruit plant was badly damaged when the residential contractor installed the barbed wires along the fences a few months ago. We were forced to cut away majority of the plant to let it grow again. It is still recovering, it produced one fruit since then.

My sugar cane was chopped away recently by the residential contractor too, when they came by to cut the grass in the neighbourhood. They mistook the sugar cane buds as wild grass, it was about 1m tall when it was chopped away.

In fact, they cut away my baby leeks previously too, they seemed to mistake everything as wild grass.

I brought two more branches of sugar cane from my parents' house to grow them here, and put little fences around them this time. Hopefully they won't get chopped away again.

I would like to grow some aloe vera and papayas in 2013.

10. Went for Siem Reap for honeymoon, it was a great place.

11. My world map project has yet to start. My fridge magnets continue piling up.

I need to think of some better targets for 2013.