Goodbye ADL!

Christmas cheers and a farewell bid were what I received yesterday at work. It was my second last day with Arthur D. Little, one of the world's oldest management consulting firms. Looking back, I recalled I had only one mission in mind after my graduation and that is to join a management consulting firm. ADL is the first company I worked for right after school...

We had a Christmas cum farewell lunch at Mandarin Oriental's Lai Poh Heen restaurant yesterday. Thanks to Patt's good taste, we were served with yummy-licious chinese food...Being lunch partners for a year, she knew just what to order for my farewell lunch…

What makes ADL memorable for me is the many friendships that I have made here...Each of them has a story to tell and each of them has taught me a thing or two about work and life... They are all gifted and are an extremely intelligent breed of people.

Thank you to all and I will miss all of you...

Some moments captured yesterday…

Ramlah- I will miss her and her laughter

From left: Ramlah, me, Glen, Younglee (standing), Johan, Patt and Shekhar

The wise people of ADL

Seated on my left is Etienne, my 'ang moh' manager who speaks better Mandarin than I do

Eugene: My street-wise manager who helped me to cross busy roads

Younglee: You will not be forgotten

Patt: It has been a pleasure knowing you

Rikkya, my last case leader in ADL

In case you are wondering how Mr. Little looks like...

Going for looks may not be that shallow after all....?

Yeah, you probably have heard / read about it. Being attractive in your outer appearance or physical looks does help you get to somewhere... and you probably have read from somewhere also that good looking people have better job opportunities etc etc

You might have also heard or watched the American Psycho where they mentioned about beautiful women can't be smart because they can easily get people to do things for them and they don't need to use their brains. Hence, overtime become less intelligent. And the not-so-attractive ones have to work hard to get things done on their own, hence more intelligent.

I read an article on BBC today which I thought was interesting. It gives a fresh perspective about looks and success...

A researcher in evolutionary anthropology, Professor Ruth Mace said, "But it suggests that how attractive you find someone is governed partly by how likely you are to be successful."

Haha....


Hmm....thoughts anyone?

Moments

Here are some moments I had before I went to Sarawak, Sarawak, and post-Sarawak which I didn't have the time to put them up. So here they are:

The Korean dancers from one of the biggest churches in Korea performing in our church...

Truly impressed with their musicians...

The crab Kah Hing and Julie caught

Kuching and her river, sunset

Me and the lovely girls at Port Dickson...

Sarah trying one of her daring stunts, going down the slope

Eileen and Caithlyn and Alexis Gurlz' Nite Out

My Conservative View on Marriage

Will I be willing to give up my career and dreams for my husband?
Yes. I believe in submitting to the leader of the home and the man of my life.
Career and my dreams are something valuable to me but I am willing to give both up if need be for some things more valuable and important.

What if you married the wrong guy and your husband is cheating on you, jobless, or plain lazy?
I trust in the Creator God. It may sound naïve (actually, it’s not naïve…it’s just plain and simple), and sometimes sophistication doesn’t help you solve any problem.

I think being a thai-thai may not always be a bed of roses. I also think that marriage is not a legal paper signed and then when things don’t work out, you can just tear the paper. After all, it’s only a piece of paper. Marriage is a covenant. It is a covenant made with God and man - a covenant in which God is present and is the witness and the binder of this covenant. A covenant that transcends all difficulties in life, including being a financially poor thai-thai.

So my idea of a thai-thai isn’t always about having a comfy lifestyle with spa and facial sessions. But if need be for me to wash toilets, clean the waste, or even attend to your sick, paralyzed husband, I will do it. That is what it means by “I take you as my husband, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health…”

Conservative eh?

Yes, old fashioned Janet…

My ambition - A Thai Thai

“I’d like to be a Thai Thai!”, I exclaimed to my aunt’s horror. She replied, “Your mom, myself and also your dead grandmother wouldn’t allow it”.

“You? Thai Thai…? NO way…I don’t think you’ll last longer than a few months”, remarked my uni mate, Gim Han and later I found out Jeff agreed to his comment as well.

Sigh…

I thought everyone would agree that a Thai Thai’s life is a sought-after vocation. I was wrong.

So why can’t I be one?

I enjoy playing golf, and then maybe learn Salsa and then when it’s time, drop my kids at their piano class, violin class, etc etc. Then move on to SHOPPING and then to buy loads of books because I simply have the time to read them. Once awhile, I’ll go visit some friends, catch-up, some jog and swim and then learn how to bake! Sounds great!

Above all, I love children and I want to be with my children as they grow up. More importantly, having been through life myself…I would want to impart in them the love I experience from God and pass on the stories of how loving this God has been to me in my younger years and how He will be to my children and my children’s children if they stick close to Him. Nothing thrills me more than to wait for that time to come when I can do that to my little beings.

OK…but what about your career? Don’t you have dreams? What if you’re earning a lot? You mean your parents funded your education for nothing? What if your husband is abusive, infidel or even plain stupid?

I will answer that in my next post….


* Thai-thai – A Cantonese term for a comfy home-maker. (Is my translation correct?I think it is as far as my broken Cantonese is concern)

Pictures of David & Grace's wedding and a word of thanks

My church member who reads my blog, told me I have a tendency to make promises on my post and not keep them. So here am I attempting to keep the promise I made in the last post about posting photos of David's wedding. Here they are:

Baby Lauren

David's wedding was superb! He sang a lovely song for his wife and took us all by surprise. I must admit he doesn't sound, one bit of him in karaoke...seriously good. Woo Hoo... good job, David!

What I like most about the wedding, is the lighting of candles - a symbolic sign of the union. Very meaningful moment when two mothers (bride and the groom's mothers) held each other's hands as they walked up the stage and then parted to light the candles. That moment was captivating.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank David and Grace for inviting me to sing on their wedding day. I hope the song has blessed you both.

Thanks to Elaine, Evonne and Aunty Carol Siew for helping me with the Mandarin speech. I was too nervous that I lost my lines. I promise to do better the next time by trying to sing more Mandarin songs in Karaoke.

Thanks to Julia, for helping us with the vocals and to Yee Voon for a good duet with me.

More pictures later when I get them from others.

Two hearts, One love

"Love is the melody played by two hearts joined together as one by God"

Those were the words written beautifully on the guest's itenery card of David & Grace's wedding....

I'll like to believe the person who wrote this is a musician!

All musicians understand and treasure the harmonising tune that comes from just 2 seperate instruments or 2 seperate notes or 2 seperate voices such as Soprano and Alto. When played or sing well, they can be so soothing unto the soul. They harmonise so well that the 2 instruments or voices sound like One soothing music.

Two different hearts joined together as one by God... I can't imagine how beautiful that tune can become...because I also believe God is the great musician. He created music and He also created love....

Two hearts, One love....

I love that song One love...

Time to sleep, will blog more about tonight's beautiful wedding with pictures another day...

Good night...

18th September, 2006

It's 11.48pm now...in a few minutes, 18 is over...

So?

So getting more nostalgic...

It's my 1st anniversary in ADL, and also my first year in the working world.

Here are some moments I had in ADL:

I enjoyed the train rides with Alain and Y at the beginning of my early months in ADL (Since I know alain is gonna be reading this...i will add more: He's also a very good friend, one of those funny and smartie ones)

The ADL ladies

With Ramlah

First few moments in ADL:

Mazura introduced the office and all the rules to me, passed me the necessary documents, notebook etc




Y walked in, greeted with his very warm and charming smile....




Alain introduced himself and YY too...







WK introduced himself and asked me a couple of questions...






The last few moments of 18 a year later:




Glen and I laughing over me mixing up my hotel room number... (I couldn't find my room because I forgot my room number)




Met a new colleague with the name of "Casanova"(yes it's Italian but he's french, a good looking french)




Domingo teasing me about my Mandarin...




Etienne speaks better Mandarin than I do, although the locals refuse to listen because he's European




I was laughed at by Etienne when the coffee shop thai thai spoke to me in Mandarin and I looked puzzled. She turned and asked Etienne if I am Chinese... (????!!!)




Hardly had the chance to speak to Patt, but feels good to have a girl colleague around...