Review of 2009

2009 came along and then went by in a flash it seemed. There are many things that happened around or to me in the past year and in this post, I'd try to re-collect my 2009....

January :

A new addition to the family as Hero's PA, Zarah arrives from the Philippines. Hero's had been pretty much a changed person since his surgery in Nov 2008. Having her around, the house is now in much tidier condition, the fridge is stocked with much more food, much of the manual chores had been freed from Hero and me.... Not that we're abusing her, but having an extra pair of hands really DOES make a difference.

Meanwhile, my brother had moved in with us as he's new house isn't ready yet. Its a long time since all the rooms in the house is occupied and the noise level being somewhat higher and that is due to his very own 'new addition' to his family back in December 08, Baby Elkan!!

February :

I've always loved February for the very simple reason that it's my birthday month. A certain Ms Wu from the gym had taken up a challenge I threw her to convince the instructor to play my All-Time BC Favourite Tracks on my birthday, which she easily accomplished. Kudos to her for that. THANKS RL!! It was certainly an un-forgettable birthday present from you. :)

March :

I attended my VERY FIRST BC Launch ever! I've never been able to attend it in the past for somehow, there would be something hindering me on launch-day :( However, for BC39, there's nothing to stop me from attending the launch classes, 2 to be precise.

My brother, who had been living with us, is moved out and into his own house since the renovation's completed. With his moving out, I can now move back into my original room, the Master's Bedroom, which I've been occupying in the past until my bro's moving in with us. I let them have the room as the attached toilet would come in extremely handy for them, especially with Baby Elkan around....

Moving back into my original room, I took the opportunity to change out the old Single bed and replace it with a bigger Super Single :) I've initially wanted to get a Queen but that would mean a very congested room with barely enough space to walk.

April :

Most of April was spent arguing with M1 over the speed of my Mobile Broadband. Well, I've signed up their fastest plan at that time, 7.2Mbps at 50% off during the PC Show last month. Despite the bandwidth supposed to be 7.2Mbps, actually hitting that speed would be a fantasy. A more realistic speed would be in the region of 4-5Mbps. However, day in day out, I'm getting speeds of barely 2Mbps and it's totally un-acceptable!! As such, I've been complaining to M1, doing speed-tests and haggling with them over my service expectations and the likes....

May :

The long awaited confirmation of my department's re-org finally came. And I'm finally saved from hell and put into heaven (or so I think, back then). I've been plucked from under that Piece-of-Shit's team and transferred over to the IT Security team, boosting the latter strength to 3.

June :

This month, there's the annual Mega Combat held at the Fountain of Wealth, Suntec City organised by the gym. This event was held by Planet Fitness previously before its acquisition by the True Group. The 4 of us, Garion, Alan, Shaw and myself, besides being dressed in the event top, also made ourselves the 'xmas tree' of the events by dressing ourselves up with some Muay Thai gears.

Hero's not been the same since his operation, this we all know. But one particularly worrying sign is that he's been easily agitated since. And he isn't ready to listen to reasoning. To him, his reasons is the way to do things. As if it's not hard enough to live with him, now, it had just gotten harder....

H1N1's been all over the papers recently and the population's pretty much on high alert. What I've heard and read so far are from the news and papers about the fight and how to be socially responsible if you're one of those who had been in close contact with an infected person. It wasn't until my potentially close brush with one infected person who had visited XXX that reality sunk in on me about the who H1N1 thingy. It got me all fearful and helpless now that I could potentially be infected. Well, from this incident on, I paid full attention to all related news and broadcasts from the authorities. I wouldn't want to be 'caught out in the rain' again.

July :

Having been with the IT Security team for the past 2mths, I'm starting to get the hang of the job although might be abit slow in picking things up. It's with much help from one of my seniors in the team that I was barely able to catch up on the Ins & Outs. He's the kind of person who preaches passion for IT Security if you want to succeed in the role. This, it seems, is my biggest problem. To him, IT Security is a passion while to me, its only a job....

August :

This month can be considered the most significant month of the year for me because it is in this month that my BC journey takes itself to the next level. The level where I transit from being a mere member to a member who had attended the BC Instructor's Training. Nevermind about not being able to cut it as an instructor. The mere thoughts of being eligible to purchase legitimate BC DVDs, attend the quarterly workshops and other instructor-level activities suffices for me. And that's not even mentioning about my improved techniques and better understanding of the program.

September :

Hero's oddity continues as he initiates the removal of the Deity's portrait and also the tablets of both my Mom and Grandma from the altar. He had been the staunchest of Buddhist for the most years of his life and to 'U-Turn' now seems really odd and surprising to everyone of us.

October :

Learnt a good lesson this month : If there are a few windows of opportunity to execute a plan, please execute it at the earliest possible window so that in case that chosen window doesn't fit in, you'd still have the remaining windows to execute. Do not be a goon like me to wait until the last possible window only to be thwarted by the STUPID WEATHER!!

November :

A friend of mine's mum is in hospital, SGH to be exact. I tried to visit her but she doesn't seemed to welcome visitors. So I sat in the lobby, waiting for my friend while she spends some time with her mum. As I sat there waiting, sad memories of the past started flowing back from the deepest corner of my mind. Memories which had been buried deep down in that corner for the past 21yrs somehow just floated to the surface once again. The amazing thing is that those memories are still SO FRESH in my mind as if they had just happened 5mins ago. And did I forget to mention that those events took place while I was only 8?

December :

This month marks another first in my BC Journey for I've not only attended my very first Les Mills Quarterly Workshop, but I've also met up with the 2 Program Directors for BC in KL when they were there for it. My decision to go up to KL for the workshops is based purely on meeting them 2, otherwise, I'd probably give it a miss. The trip's a pretty insightful one all thanks to Irene for showing us around!!

This is my review of 2009. Going forward, I hope to be able to do such reviews yearly if I'm able to.