The One about December plans

It's almost been 2 months since i last posted something here. And it's basically my fault for not wanting to/having the time to.

It's been quite a busy/eventful few months since the last time i posted. I've upscaled myself at work, learning things through mistakes [loads of them] and also just generally getting more used to the work I do. I am glad to have the opportunity to learn, no doubt, and working with key stakeholders and an inspiring team has always been a part of the dream job that I have so endeavored to attain. I'm glad to be given responsibility too and trust with what I do but sometimes i really feel like i'm not growing fast enuf or i'm not doing the best job i can. And really, sumtimes if i were my manager, i would be quite annoyed at myself coz i really dun get some stuff... but it's a learning process and i'm gonna try to do my best.

Enough about work though. OCF has been really good this year. my group has been one of the key factors for that. For some reason, E.Brodie and myself just click and work well together. But we don't really know what is making this group tick and stay ticking so strongly. It's seen in the attendance on Friday nights, the prayer points they share and the emails/smses that go around during the week which aren't even initiated by us... I would say that this group has really shown the Christian love in Acts and to me, as a person who loves fellowship and people bonding, it's just heaven to be in this group. they've taught me so much.

Now that OCF has wrapped up and closed, so has english class... which also means i'm suddenly 'given' 3 weekday nights back to me... and every weekday night now is free. haha so i have to plan up stuff like dinners or activities that keep me busy and happening otherwise i'd prob die of boredom. :) yeah, that's me... deal with it. haha... which leads me to my next point....

People have been going back to Singapore/Malaysia/Brunei... wherever and they're slowly leaving one by one. kinda sucks coz i'm 'stuck' here in melbourne while everyone goes back to family/friends/food/fellowship.... and i'm here working and living out the days... haha... but thankfully it's not ALL that bad.. there are some who will be here with me... and i'm heading to NZ for about 4-5 days in december as well so that'll be quite fun. :) going there with parents and family friends... looking forward to the getaway i suppose. :)

Other than that, nothing much to update really. :) been ok on the friendship and r/s side of things [well, no r/s so of course ok lor hahaha] and i'm pretty content with my life right now. i think it's a good balance [well, when ocf was still around] and God's placed me in a comfortable spot... and i'm quite happy! :) but then again, u never know when things can jus turn around and everything starts to get complicated or messy. :) it's about managing expectations really... and making sure that you draw your lines and keep to them.

But looking forward to Christmas/end of the year... and as we wrap up 2011, I thank God for the many blessings and friends He's brought into my life this year. :)

The One about expectations at work

It's not like I haven't been here long enough to know things... but i feel like i still don't know anything and i'm expected to be on par with people who have been here for a year or there about.

I can't deliver the same things they do nor can I expect to reach standards of excellence that they maintain on a daily basis.

I can't keep going into meetings thinking I am quite comfortable with where I am and then having gaps pointed out by the dozen and having a whole list of things to read up on and ammend straight away.

But most importantly, I can't let this stress get to me. Because deadlines don't move, stakeholders don't change and work doesn't do itself. Lord, help.

The one about Patience, Trust and Self Control

It has come to my attention once again that these 3 areas are one of the key points of necessary development for me. I need to trust God and have the patience to know that He has my life, my future and my plans in His control and He will give me what I need, when I need.

But to bounce off that, I have to exercise self control and understand that although it's great to bless people and encourage them, I gotta make sure i don't overstep the line and give off either the wrong vibes/signals or that I personally don't end up giving myself an excuse/free reign to shower someone or some people with 'love' and then end up getting into complicated situations coz i didn't set boundaries.

It's hard to summarize that but that has been my thoughts the past 2 or 3 days... But I'm really thankful for Christian brothers and sisters who have given me nuggets of wisdom and words of direction that have helped me not only understand my situation better but also how to continually work on self improvement and glory to God.

I thank God for friends here... the ones I can share everything with and find the support I so need being away from my home. Seriously.

And work's been tiring and just a SLIGHT bit stressful, but i'm managing that well!... for now. :) heh.

The one about similarities

I had an awesome weekend that felt too short. Saturday was the 2011 afl grand finals and my team was playing. It was quite an epic match that was pretty close till geelong took the lead and took it by leaps and bounds. Heh. In the end, geelong took home the victory and we were all celebrating... Most of us. Haha.

We had a BBQ at Jason's house and it was an awesome feeling just hanging out with OCFers and watching footy. Heh.

Then Sunday was church and then captains ball at princes park. That was great too. It was a lovely weather for sports which ended in dinner at this place in footscray called thien an. It serves Vietnamese and Chinese food. Stacy, Charles and I shared a broken rice double pork chop plate and then the three of us had our own pho on top of that. We were so hungry. Heh.

After that, sent a few of them home and then ended up parked outside my friend's house for like almost 2 hours coz they were too lazy to step out of the car and we were all quite reluctant to face the work/ school week. So we started talking and ended up talking in the car for almost 2 hours...

I can honestly say that the chat in the car was so... Intriguing. I can't and won't share what we talked about but I was very interested in it because thru it, I realized that one of my friends and I have very common views and outlooks on certain things. It also felt like my friend was taking the words out of my mouth. Quite scary at times because it's almost what I would say in my own words.

But yeah, that session reminded me to never take a person's outlook always as a reflection of how they're doing because a lot of people have baggage or hurt that they don't want to show. :)

I'm just praying for strength and patience. I have to really focus on not thinking too much sometimes and get lost in my own thoughts. :) be still my heart.

I am so thankful for friends here in Melbourne who are making my life here so enjoyable and they really give me something to look forward to at the end of every work week and something to live for. :)

The one about the first few weeks of Deloitte

so it's been quite a while since i updated. mainly coz i've been busy settling down in my job at deloitte... so many things to update on... but i'll try to summarize it.

I spent a week in the office at Deloitte HQ doing admin stuff and waiting for an assignment. Then i got 'kinda' assigned as a free-resource to Defence where i supported a great team there for about 4 weeks... miss them now coz they were an awesome bunch and if i could, i would have stayed there... but i can't coz i'm not approved to work at defence being a PR and all... so was then shipped back [and this was like super rushed] back to the city office for 3 days of work with a real small project. then finally shipped to the Big T.

The Big T being Telstra... i've been here for 2 days now. the team here is big... 8 of us... and the project is MASSIVE. so i think i'll be here for a long time to come. that's what they all say though. once u get into telstra, u stay in telstra... so we'll see what happens. pros and cons... but i was hoping to travel around to more clients before i get 'stuck' in telstra... but it jus means there's so much to learn, so many things to do and the work never ends... which could be good. :)

Yeah, other than that, my service and time in OCF has increased and i'm really glad to be involved in it... looking forward to seeing what the future holds in terms of ministry in OCF and what the next few months will be like considering how some impt people might be leaving ocf for good to go back home. In my opinions, that will shake and rock some core functionalities that ocf is doing now so jus gotta make sure that the transition is handled smoothly and that the change is seamless... but we'll see.... gosh. i jus realized how much that ocf change sounds like the work i do as an IT consultant. haha managing change and pre-empting potential conflict areas. :) lolz.

But yeah, other than that... major updates would be that i have settled down quite well in melbourne's permanent life... got a 2nd hand car and loving it... but making sure that my car's used to give lifts to his servants and children as well as help out with whatever i can. giving lifts to friends is not just sending them from wherever to home, it's a chance for ministry along the way too... and i always think that having that, is much more impt and valuable than like... chatting online or whatever. :) so i'm glad for that too...

I'm just thankful to God for always providing for me. in terms of friends, in terms of guidance with things i worry about and in terms of many other aspects of my life. I still fail many many times, but God's always gracious to not rain fire and brimstone upon me... and He teaches me thru punishment as well as blessings... so that's just awesome to have a loving God who still detests sin. :) Humbles me really.

But yeah, that's just an update... right now, i guess i'm in a position in my life that i'm stil changing [transition between school-unemployment-work] and getting my head around all of that... :) i'm glad that everything else is relatively running smoothly and cruising along at a manageable pace.. and i'm glad for friends who support, encourage and pray with and for me through this journey. :) you never know who He sends till He sends them and it's amazing sumtimes when God brings u in a full circle to work with those people u enjoy working with so much. :)

Just thot i'd add a pic at the end too... we celebrated mooncake festival on monday night and it was so fun. :) here's a snap shot of it. more pics are on my fb. :)

More photos here

The one about the first day at Deloitte

Today was my first day at Deloitte.

I prepped everything, ironed my clothes, packed my bag and basically got ready to go to work a week in advance. :) So waking up today was quite a relaxing thing. Just had to will myself out of bed... today was So cold! 6degrees when i woke up and like 8 when i left home... and it stayed cold. ANYWAYS...

Reached office [OFFICE OFFICE I HAVE AN OFFICE!!!] at bout 8.40am... which was awesome time coz i planned on reaching there at 8.30 knowing i only needed to be there at 9 but wanted to make sure i had buffer in case trams were slow in the morning [which they were... point noted] :) so yeh, reached there and met Meliza at the reception floor coz she was on the way to work too so we arranged to jus say hi... and it was nice seeing a familiar face on the first day of work.

My buddy Mel [yeh, another mel] came to the reception level to pick me up and basically took me to draw my own Laptop and apply for an Access pass. Gonna be taking a photo for my access pass tomorrow. Was kinda disappointed coz i dressed in Deloitte colours today and made sure i looked nice today but i guess i can do the same thing again tml, of course with a diff shirt la. hahha. :) but yeh, got my desk and then she briefed me thru some stuff before she had to run to a meeting. But not before she walked me around to get me introduced to some people and get me settled down.

After that, I did admin and read up on stuff while she was at her meeting and all. Then she came back, intro-ed me to more people then we went for lunch. Went to Cafe Vue [not cheap i'm sure coz Bistro Vue is supposed to be ex!!!] for lunch and it was quite a yummy meal!!! pic is on FB... okok FINE i'll put it up here. :)

That's a super yummy chips and dips [SO GOOD], pasta, roast beef wrap and a delish chocolate muffin.

There you go, looks like nothing much but it was quite filling and the muffin so small but woah, it was packed with walnuts and flavour and all. :) yumz. :) After that, went back to the office for more admin, more meeting people and more struggling to stay awake [after lunch and nothing much to do]... My buddy sent me an email with some questions for me to answer about myself so that she could introduce me to the whole of the Consulting team in Melb... and that went out as an email a bit later on with a nice picture of me. Just minutes after that email [might i say was such a nice initiative Deloitte does] went out introducing and welcoming me, i get replies from people in other departments welcoming me and saying how great my intro answers were... It really made me feel like i belonged there and that they took a genuine interest in me. So i replied the ones that sent me personal emails and I just thanked them for taking the time to say hi and promised to chat with them if they bumped into me around the building. :)

After that, more admin and then finally 5.15 where my buddy ducked out of the office and i followed suit. I actually left before her coz she went to speak to our Partner before leaving so i said bye to them both and left... :)

Overall, awesome day. i LOVE my corporate email address. [email protected] [HOW SICK IS THAT?!?!?!] :)))) They take the first 4 letters of your name and then ur surname... I LOVE MY PARENTS FOR GIVING ME A 4 LETTER NAME!!! :) haha... also, i made my Business Cards today... designed it from a template and saw how the finished product would look like [on screen]... can't wait for the 250 cards to come!!! :) i'm gonna go around giving it out when i get it. ahhaha so awesome. :) but yeh, great first day. As i continue to scout around for a good counselling manager, i pray God will continue to bless me with great opportunities to meet people and get myself acquainted with fellow Deloitte-ians before work load goes all crazy... and i heard it's gonna be busy. :)

The one about getting my dream job... finally.