Christmas 2003
25/12/03 13:40 Filed in: Christmas Letters
Looking back at what I had written last year, once again, I thought I was going to be very early with my Christmas letter this year, and once again, I'm late!! Again, looking back at what I'd written last year, gee, my life hasn't changed much!
This year, generally, hasn't been very good to me. Definitely has room for improvement. My work sucks even more than last year, due mainly to working with this very big pharmaceutical company who can't decide what they want and tried to lecture me on what 'Requirement Specs', 'Functional Specs' and 'Technical Specs' are and how I should write them and do testing (this is the customer telling the consultant how to do what they're consulting us on). The last month or so though, it's gotten a bit better. Maybe it's due to the fact that we're trying to sell to a few prospects in Taiwan and the boss needed my Chinese language skills (and also the project with the pain-in-the-butt customer coming to an end - for now). He's even a little more friendlier after our two trips to Taiwan last month. Gee, just today, being my last day at work before going on holidays, he actually gave me a Christmas present! First time in 3 years I've been working there!
Oh, by the way, if you cannot hear the music that goes with this letter, please visit my website on http://members.optusnet.com.au/bevan/Archives/Christmas2003.html
Speaking of Taiwan, I went to Taipei in October and November for three days each visit. I had a ball the first time and a cough the second, though thank goodness it's not SARS. My first visit to Taiwan after I last visited it in 1978 was highlighted by meeting up with my aunt (my dad's sister) and uncle, whom I haven't seen in more than 20 years. They happened to be there for business as well and were actually staying at the same hotel as I was! My uncle is Swiss and when I last saw him, all I could say was basically 'Hello Uncle Jimmy" (for those who don't know, I didn't really speak conversational English until I arrive in Sydney in 1981). 20 years later, I'm very pleased that I could actually hold a conversation with him in English for more than a few sentences. Actually, who am I kidding - I was the one mainly doing all the talking, as usual! We met for a quick breakfast and had dinner together. Being in a country you're not familiar with but can speak the language is (I feel very at home in Taipei) nice. Being in a strange country and meeting up with family just makes it so much more special. It was great spending time with them and catching up after all these years. Many years ago, when a few of my uncles came out from China to Hong Kong, my dad and his other siblings overseas went to Hong Kong for a big reunion (after about 30 years of not seeing each other). I wasn't there, but I have always wondered what it feels like seeing family after all these years. Well, this is as close as I'm going to get to feeling it. It was definitely the highlight of the trip.
Toastmasters wise, I also had a not so good year with my TM club. I'm still Vice President of Education of my club, but this July saw a new Executive Committee came in and sorry to say, a few of them are absolutely clueless, especially the President (her memory is absolutely hopeless!). She really got on my nerves. Funny thing was, rather than trying to concentrate on doing their job, they want to learn about mine so that they can help me! As a result, the one source of 'fun' place I had became a place of angst and disappointment. Add to that my situation at work, and a couple of disappointing news regarding some of my close friends, I really felt that I was losing it (mentally). But no, I'm not writing to you from the funny farm, though people say I *twitch* tend to twitch my head when I *twitch* talk now and have a silly grin *twitch* on my face.
On the more positive side of things, I won the club-level "International Speech" contest in February with a speech titled "Dare to Dream", in which I used the Korean, English, Irish and American football (soccer) teams triumphs and disappointments at the last World Cup to help illustrate my point, that one may not always realise one's dream, but one may end up getting closer to it than expected. I came second place at the competition next level up. The guy who won had a concerned look on his face when I was giving the speech and acknowledged later that he was very worried. I have lost a few times to this guy in competitions, but I'd say I've gotten closer to getting to beat him this time than previous times - thus my speech.
From the beginning of the year, I've thought about setting my own business and being my own boss. My dream is to set up a company where people have fun coming to work and not just because they need money to pay their bills. I had visions that it'll be a small company, but people will work hard and play hard. But I don't have a product or service in mind. So I spoke to a few friends. One suggested Ella Rouge Beauty, which I didn't follow up (what do I know about cosmetics and women's beauty products?) and guess what, one opened in my local shopping centre. I had an idea for a coffee shop and actually looked into it, but I don't have the money (the banks don't want my DVD collection) to open one. Guess what, Starbucks opened a few weeks ago in my local shopping centre. I did email Victoria's Secret in the US to ask about opening a store in Sydney. Women's beauty products I may not have an interest, but lingerie - I can be an expert in no time, especially if I take a hands-on approach to things! I can just see my new business card: "Bevan Ting, OBF" (Official Bra Fitter), but they said they are not interested in expanding outside the US. Bummer!
A few months ago, as I was lying in bed surfing the channels after another disappointing day at work, feeling miserable, I came across one of the 'infomercial' channels and Anthony Robbins was on, talking about his latest tape programs. Something snapped inside me, and I figured that rather than just being unhappy about my situation, might as well see what he has to say. So I bought the CDs. Well, this guy is good. He's got a great sense of humour and very easy to listen to. I haven't done all the exercises in the lessons, but I've done some. It also reminded me of my own 'Dare to Dream' speech and I figured I can't be giving that speech to an audience and expect them to buy it if I am not practising it myself. Anyway, maybe next Christmas I will have some good progress to report. For the moment, I will say that though I'm behind schedule in what I'm planning on doing, I'm still moving towards my target, which is better than not moving at all. Anyway, I feel much better now (mentally).
No change on the home theatre side, except that the number of DVDs continue to grow. I'm into collecting British comedies and TV series (American and British) at the moment, so I have "'Allo 'allo", "The Vicar of Dibley", "Yes Minister", "Yes Prime Minister", "24", "Spooks", "Alias", "SWAT", "Battlestar Galactica", "Law and Order" etc. I like "Yes Minister" very much...if my command of the English language is even half that of Sir Humphrey Appleby's, I'll be a very happy man.
My home network has been expanded to include wireless coverage. I now also have Xbox Live, connecting to the Internet via my wireless access points. So far, I haven't done any multi-player game or trash-talk with others (don't want to be beaten by some 13 year old kid!), only download new content for games. If any of you are on Xbox, let me know because I'd like to try trying playing games over the internet. Oh yeah, I now get about 300 emails a day. Of that, 270 are SPAM. If you are looking for a good spam filter, let me know. This one I'm using filters out 99.99% of spam, and it's free.
The rest of the family is well, though dad's not very mobile at the moment. He and mum had planned on this big trip in September which will take them to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and mainland China. Well, they went to KL, went back to Singapore, about to leave for Hong Kong, when dad had a fall at one of the shopping centres. Cutting a long story short, he broke one of the left thigh bones. Recovery is slow, and will need another few months. But thank God he's ok and his left leg, albeit slow, is regaining strength week by week. It's a bit of a not-so-smooth year for them. They originally planned to take their trip back in April, and 2 days before they left, I just happened to see the newspaper online about this mysterious flu killing people in Hong Kong. So they called my aunt in Hong Kong and she confirmed it, while my uncle in Hong Kong was saying "nothing to worry about" - yeah, right. The following week, it was big news. After SARS was over, they thought they could now do this big trip, and then my dad got hurt.
But anyway, it's almost Christmas. Despite all these events, they are just slight inconvenience in the scheme of things, compared to the more important events around the world. I thank God that I'm mainly healthy and my family and close friends are well. Everything else, we can handle. And there's always next year anyway.
May this letter finds you safe and well.
Merry Christmas.
Your friend,
Bevan
