2013 Christmas Letter
24/12/13 17:22 Filed in: Christmas Letters
I thought I’d do it a bit differently this year, so I am started writing this at 37,000 feet in the air, on my way back from Hong Kong to Sydney.
What can I say about this year? Well, it was a bit on the low side for most of the year but luckily, it picked up in the last quarter and looks like ending on a high.
Quick recap: 2012 ended with me without a job, as well as my best friend losing her other cat, Mischief, just before the new year. It was heart breaking accompanying her to the vet.
Mum also had a bit of trouble with her right leg for a couple of months. She could have been walking normally within a week except every time her leg got better, she started working in the garden again and wondered why she had leg pains and had trouble walking. After quite a few sessions to the physio later, she’s now able to walk normally (albeit much slower than before).
That pretty much sums up the bad news. Now onto the good news.
First up: I got a new job! Thank God (and I’m sure Dad up there put in a good word), I was offered a job in late January. It’s an Australian company with its head office in Melbourne and I’m the territory manager looking after New South Wales.
So what do I do? Basically, I go visiting medical practices and flirt with the Practice Managers (the female ones). It is part sales, part customer relationship building and part technical role. It’s definitely not as complicated as my Oracle job, where I could spend days or weeks trying to figure out a technical problem. With this job, I could turn up, install and leave the medical practice in under 15 minutes.
It gives me quite a bit of freedom. I often have to drive around but because of that, I’ve discovered suburbs I never knew existed. I get to meet a few doctors a day – so the perk of the job is never having to worry about getting sick while at work – there’s always a doctor there who can help you!
The good thing is no more overseas conference calls etc any more! I pretty much clear my workload every day. It keeps me quite busy but that ties in with my pay – work more, pay more. I think that’s fair. I work with a very nice lady and we make a good team. For sales and technical installations, NSW is leading the pack! And people say I’m not a team player.
My favourite model Kate became pregnant early in the year so I learnt to photograph a pregnant woman – it helps to expand my repertoire a bit.
I saw a video online talking about lighting a photo shoot and I thought what they used for the exercises was a great idea - so I got myself a mannequin.
Since getting the mannequin, I haven’t gotten around to practising my lighting techniques but I had a bit of fun buying clothes for my mannequin including a funny story buying her some underwear. I won’t repeat the story here but contact me if you are interested.
Kismet continues to provide entertainment for the family. She is so funny. She wants to go out in the morning but I’m still in bed, so she sits outside my room, waiting and looking to see if I’m awake. See photo below on the left.
I was lucky to be invited to a special lunch event on board the ms Oosterdam in February. The company that owns the ship, Holland America Line, works with various cancer council / cancer society around the world to help research to fight against cancer. I was inspired after discovering what the Cancer Council NSW does, not only for cancer research, but also for cancer patients.
For the first time in my life, I was inspired and decided to be a volunteer: I volunteer to take photos for them at their events. I’ve done two so far. It was scary at first as my biggest fear was that all the photos would come out all blurry! But they didn’t (only a few) so my confidence is building. It’s probably a bit of therapy for me too as I see families remembering their loved ones lost to cancer and I thought of Dad. Six and a half years on and we still miss him.
In October, the whole family went to Taipei for my birthday. I had asked for my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Peggy to join us there. I haven’t seen them in person for 32 years. They obliged.
We had a tonne of fun in Taipei playing catch up. The part I enjoyed the most is sitting in the lounge having tea / coffee and just chatting. My uncle has plenty of jokes and stories to tell and it was just like the good old days back in Singapore.
My favourite hotel also gave me a surprise birthday party so all in all a great birthday present. It is definitely a birthday I won’t forget!
In December (4 days ago), we went to Hong Kong to attend my cousin Ken’s wedding. It was an opportunity to meet up with many of our cousins again, as well as meeting some new ones – mum has many siblings (and half-siblings) so there were quite a few which we haven’t even met.
Photo opportunity-wise, it was also a rare chance to take photos of mum and her remaining siblings.
An unexpected outcome of this trip was one of Ken’s nieces, 6 year-old Dorothy, was one of the flower girls who took a shine to me: Every time she wanted her photos taken, she’d just come tap me on my arm. Quite funny.
The Chefs at the hotel also produced dishes I specially requested and they were very good. I stuffed myself with so much food!
When not attending the wedding, my other project was to take photos of the lovely ladies from the Guest Relations team at the hotel. There was a big Christmas tree in the lobby so we used that as the backdrop and took group shots as well as individual portraits.
It was a quick 3-nights stay but it was another highlight of the year.
Our year will finish with my cousin Eugene and his family coming from Singapore for a short visit after Christmas. I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun too.
That, as they say, was the year 2013 for me.
Merry Christmas.
Your friend,
Bevan
p.s. For the music this year, I’ve decided to stick with Mario Lanza with his rendition of “The First Noel”. Enjoy.
