drive around in motorhome still can go shopping! though it can sleep 6 inside, it also parks like a normal car in the public carpaks.. you dun need a bus bay.

last weekend i drove to a little town called cowra. its west ward from sydney towards the interior past the popular blue mts. i read about this town, significant for having a japanese war cemetry as it had aPOW camp there in second world war . historical. it now also has a beautiful jap garden there as a symbol of post war reconcialiation. while we were there they were screening old movies under the stars
in the jap garden. i drank a beer while sitting on the grass watching an old cult movie, rocky horror show. fun.

Ok, gathering dust again. Been busy with holidays! spent 11 nights in a motor home in NZ's south island. Went to most of the popular tourist spots but some how travelling in the motor home is an entirely new experience and made the trip memorable. The routine of setting up the vehicle for sleeping, for dvd sessions at night, packing up to drive off, finding holiday parks for overnight stay, plugging in the power for the microwave and tv to work, cleaning out the toilet , filling water , cooking in the communal kitchens, running from toilets to motor home in the cold etc. You all should try this. And NZ is as beautiful as I ever imagined it to be. its got everything from tropical rainforests, snow capped mountains, stunning coast lines and beautiful fiords.

on the work front, things are good, enjoying my time here in sydney and we were just visited by our regional citiphone head.. good old lawrence.

hello, just received some comments that my blog is gathering dust and cobweb. this is a good time to update. Sep 1 was my anniversary on leaving citi S'pore. In the last one year I had stood under a puffing volcano, went laos with wife on my 50th birthday, backpacked with my daughter, swam with a whale shark, trekked in a tiger reserve protected by a rifle armed ranger, attended an indian wedding in india(real stuff), sat first class train for 13 hrs, and of course lived and worked in a foreign city. Not bad.long san , my good fren commented that how much things can happen in one year,but in one year some things also never change.. he is still typing on the same key board, drinking from the same unwashed coffee mug in his office and still doing rainbow. ha.. he quite chim.

so june and andrew has moved on as well. good for them, good for renewal process in citiphone and ops!

I just went for a week's holiday in Australia's red center.. right in the middle of the continent where ayers rock (uluru)is. Beautiful and magnificant. Dont ask for photo, go goggle it.. there are some real good pictures. you have to see the real thing to believe that the striking colour of the rock at sun rise and sun set is real.The thing about ayers rock is that its more expensive to fly there from sydney than it is to fly to NZ from sydney! that shows how big australia is.how do i know? cos i already bought tickets to NZ.. cost only 300 return. hired a motor home and will drive around south island for 12 days.

And yup, looks like i will be staying in sydney till christmas.

hi, I'm now in manila, helping the australian business to front the audit. they outsource to manila their citiphone but there is a compliance day 2 review and call monitoring group there that reports to sydney. The manager fell sick the weekend before audit and i had to cancel my ayers rocks trip to fly here. arrived last sunday and was in office 6am moday morning !! lots of things to do to prepare for audit. everyday work 14 hrs. this part i never bargained for, certainly, i thought i never had to go through another audit, now i have to!!

by the way, met up with josie and her husband and kid in sydney recently. we had greek food, mexican , chocolate mud cakes in my neighbourhood cafe. and did some weekend markets together. its nice to catch up .

hi hi. sorry for the inactivity and getting no-life people like jensen totally bored.
I 'm staying on for another 3 months, meaning a 6 mth contract. Cannot really see through all my work in 3 months.working on the AVR and ECCMs equivalent now plus some audit things.

I'm also moving to a smaller but much newer apt next week. This one is in CDB, 4 min walk to office, 10 min walk to china town. never lived in CBD before, so thought it might be good experience.

Called toll free phone home the other day and spoke with jo seah . plus passing messages to all the 7am aunties who were on duty!

Manila was good. But I took the week end off and flew off to swim with whale sharks in donsol, an hour flight from mnl. manged one encounter.. with a 13 footer. swam with it for almost 5 full minutes. it was a great experience. in the info center, there was a poster asking us to petition against sentosa resort world for wanting to get a whale shark in the marine world. of course i did not tell any one i was s'porean that day.. i petition too. after that encounter, i know no glass tank, no matter how big, can contain a fish that can grow to the size of 2 buses and migrates thousand of miles every year.

after i move apartment next week, i willprobably take a few days off, may go to ayers rocks in central australia, where they call the red center. think it will be very cold then! now already in sydney its very cold.out in the desert will be unbearable. but its one of those gotta do stuff!

time flies too. june soo just reminded me the other day that i handed in my resignation letter last june.. june 6. almost a year now.

I'm into my 7th week in sydney. work is fine. trying to work on some initiatives that can help improve CSLM and productivity. Been talking to lawrence low on the phone quite a bit. And Ranga was here last week doing a biz visit. The guy is still so sharp and can remember so many CitiPhone stuff. Lucky I prepared for the meeting, if not get sent home on next plane.

My daughters have gone home last thurs. they were here with me for 6 weeks. It was good and now apartment is really quiet w/o them. Both me and wife going thru next phase of parenthood.. the one where the kids leave home. Except that in my case its the parents that left home, kids still at home in SG.

Have not been to hunter valley yet as rec by florence. I will some time in near future. But have been to blue mts and up north to Forster - great lakes area. One nice thing is close encounter with wild dolphins.. they were swiming less than 20 m from us.. but we could not go out further cos current too strong and water too cold!

next week I'm going manila to work with the australian ops there. will probably transit at changi .. got time for a bowl of laksa and bak chor mee.

Hi all, I have been in Sydney almost 2 weeks now. Arrived on Mar 8, moved straight into my apt and started work on the following day. Wearing tie and leather shoes take some getting used to, and the other day, my fingers got sore from too much email typing. Things here are good. The Ctibankers here are nice and like Citibankers all over the world, work rate is high. We push hard during the office hours and try to get out without too much OT.

Running culture here is much stronger than in Sg, so I'm happy. We even have a nice gym and shower/locker facilities. I took a run through the CBD and inti their botanics garden and opera house. Then got back to shower and put in some more work.
On days I leave office early, i even take the scenic route home.. take train, ferry and bus to get home.I stay in the north of Sydney, a place that is very much like our Katong area, residential, low rise and lots of makan place. Even got a S'pore restaurant that is featured in their makansutra equivalent.

on weekends , I play tourist.

am still trying to understand the CitiPhone set up and processes here. They are structured differently and some of the processes are just so different. I wont replicate our CitiPhone here, it wont work. Just need to see what fits here.
My citi email is back on, you can look for me there!

facebook is a very busy channel.. blog is better since i get to control how much time I want to put in it. Been overwhelmed by all the invites and confirmation to add as friend etc in facebook. But then, it really nice to see so many of you and your pictues, from ex cpos to present ones and from both MT and CSOS.

Ok, I may grumble a bit, but its really nice to be in touch with all of you.

My visa to australia is approved and I will be flying over on this saturday.
Will start work on monday Mar 9th. 3 month contract, time will pass quickly.
Will be back before you know it.

Hi. I have finally succumb to pressures from all of you to open a face book account.
The last straw is someone telling me that even her grandma and Cecilia Eng have face book accounts. So i have just opened one.

I'm still waiting for my work visa to be approved before going to Australia.

Hi all,
happy belated chinese new year.
Heard news that S'pore CitiPhone is one of the top 5 centers in our global ranking for 2008.Congrats to all of you on a job well done! In 2007 I remember we were short listed in the top ten in Sep 07, but we did not do too well in Nov and did not make it into top 5. I did promise Jonathan we will get top 5 in 08. Unfortunately or fortunately I left by Sep but you guys continued to push for good results and now you have won it. I'm happy to see this result. I didnt think we pushed for the good results with this in mind. I for one, must have forgotten about the promise and i certainly did not remind June etc about the promise to jonathan when I left.

So, you all must have gone for the good results for the sake of providing good service and for the pride in your work . Thats good. Getting such an award is a bonus.

I met with some of you over the CNY period and I hear that our service levels have been very good. Single digit ASA on many days . Thats really really good! Keep the good news coming.

I did not travel in Jan. Was at home eating healthy food and doing home improvements
chores. And was also doing some consulting jobs.. paid by the hour and for 3-4 hours a day type. I connect more with our PPTS now.. just realised what a wonderful PPT existence is. We should all work towards PPT existence!

I'm also now finalising a 3 month contract in Australia to do some call center work
there. Taking a break from my home improvement chores. Promised wife I will come back to it after 3 months and she is going along to make sure i come back!

Ok, will keep you all posted on whether I do end up in australia eventually. In mean time, keep the ASA in single digit!

Hi all, happy new year. My best wishes to everyone at citiPhone, past and present.

Henri, Jo, Claudine, thanks for your comments.We can certainly do a jungle trip for those interested but it should be after March. Rainy season now not good. If we go, sure to end up with more leech stories.

My trip with Kelly went well. We took a bus to KL and walked into china town looking for a hotel. Found one, pretty decent except toilet walls not very sound proof. Can hear neighbour's toileting routine in the morning. We came back to same hotel on our return and got a better room. First one was RM80, second one was RM100. World of difference, toilet walls thicker.

From KL we took a bus to Lumut and from there a ferry to Pangkor island. Its still very rustic and i find the beach better than penang and langkawi. A smaller, cheaper version of phuket even. Bus from KL there costs only 20+RM. and we stayed in budget hotel (got air con, got toilet attached)at Nipah bay that has lots of backpackers and nasi lemak warungs overlooking the beach. Cheap accomodation and cheap food. But we also had a nice dinner at a restaurant whose tables are all set on the beach at night. good mix of fine dining and warung dining available.Sea activity also good. nice snorkelling on nearby islands and we even kayak across ourselves and though its full of local tourists, we still managed to find some secluded beaches around the two islands opposite nipah bay.

Comes back to my belief that there are many nice getaway places nearby and sometimes we spend too much money and time going to more high profile places when there are nice places in our own backyard.

Have decided to stay in s'pore for rest of Jan. home needs maintenance work. My pond leaked, so have to do some major repairs. And the garden and garden patio also needs maintenance work. not to mention the big red ants making their home in my garden. the fun part is burning their nests. smell of roasted ants quite nice.

Oh ya, i also managed to join the managers for the farewell dinner get together for Cecilia Eng. Now that she is retiring, we can expect her to look more radiant, have rosier cheeks and looking as succulent as ever.