December has mostly been "Out of Office" for me; I took a total of 3 weeks off, which is practically my whole leave quota for the year. The pace has slowed down a lot for sure which is a very welcome change, although I can't say the same for Kuta Kute in Batam.
After I returned from our Japan holiday this year, we had a team lunch at M Hotel City Centre. My lady boss arranged a Nonya buffet lunch for the team which turned out quite nice.
 |
| At M Hotel Looking at The Lobby - Galaxy S23+ |
This year's Japan trip was good for sure. Ironically because I didn't bring Lincoln along. I had been firm with him, if his grades didn't improve then he can forget about going with us. And by mid-year I didn't see any improvements in both his grades and attitudes and made the call to leave him behind. As usual he never proved me wrong when he got 31 points for his L1R5, even making excuses to avoid taking the report book home. In any case..... this year's trip has been more satisfying for sure too. I covered most places I want to visit in my itineray and I didn't lose temper at all from having to deal with that boy.
 |
| Lindsay Enjoying Her In-flight Entertainment - Galaxy S23+ |
We started November with a short trip to Batam again. This time the missus brought me to Pasir Putih to explore new breakfast hangouts.
 |
| Pasir Putih Market - Galaxy S23+ |
A month has passed and I have somehow patched things up with my wife over what she did. We went out as usual going about our routines and all. But deep down I still find it very difficult to trust her again. A part of me still questions, how far would she have gone with the other guy had I not caught on to what they were doing. And most of all I don't understand why she would even give this guy a chance to talk to her so intimately even after knowing he likes her. I mean, if she had respected our relationship, she shouldn't even allow someone with such intentions to get close to her. I always believe that when you play with fire, you'll eventually get burned too. At times I feel like I have failed at both my marriage and work lives, I really don't know what have I done wrong. I love this woman with all my heart and still, I can't believe how she could have constantly given a chance to a man who likes her to get so close to her. I feel so tired both physically and mentally, it's as if I need a factory reset.
 |
| Dinner in Batam - Galaxy S23+ |
September is supposed to be a month of celebration for me, and perhaps abundance too... but the truth couldn't be further than how I wish things should be. We started the month celebrating my birthday. I officially turned 44 this month.. A year older but with still so many unfulfilled wishes.
 |
| Beautiful View From Angus House - Galaxy S23+ |
A lot of things transpired in August..... My colleague who's transferring out of the department finally got the conclusion he's been searching for, his last day with my friggin' team will be on 30th September and he'll move to his next team from 1st October onwards. I'm happy for him, but that also means I'll be left alone to fend for my own. So I'm taking his departure really hard...
 |
| What Kind of Ass Is That - Galaxy S23+ |
July has mostly been..... Well I don't really know how to put it. A mixed bag of sorts... I started the month by accompanying my staff from Batam for a fair in Jurong Point. It's been ages since I last visited Jurong Point for sure. It didn't really bring back memories since the new Jurong Point is an almost completely different maze from the one I remembered during my NTU days.
 |
| A Remarkedly Different Jurong Point - Galaxy S23+ |
The kids' mid-year break kicked into full swing this month. It was a time to slow the pace down a bit, although for Lindsay this period meant she has to catch up on her work as PSLE prelims will start on the 3rd week of July, which is not that far away.
 |
| Beautiful Sunset in Harbourbay - Galaxy S23+ |
May has been an awful month where work is concerned. The SAP integration project went Live on 26th May, however I had overlooked one issue related to displaying the dispute intent on the chat menu and another issue on an onboarding setup for China.
What upset me most was that the manager just took me off the onboarding process and asked the obnoxious asshole to take over, I felt like I haven't been given the chance to fix my mistakes. I was extremely upset, even coming to the verge of wanting to cry. As that asshole took over the onboarding activities, he started asking questions that made me feel like I haven't done my work. Well.... The miss on displaying the intent on chat menu was because he said we just need 1 user story and the different teams will work from that user story. Guess what... the other team didn't come in at all. I had asked if I need to create another ticket and he said "No", so I had assumed that the other team would come in by themselves. Man... it was such a big mistake to just trust him, although I was also at fault for not performing the check on Live environment. To make things worse, the China team came with a last minute request on Friday to update the queue setup for the web channel. I was so pissed off, they didn't respond to my inquiries timely, so I fixed the onboarding setup for them, and then at the eleventh hour they mentioned it is not what they want.
 |
| Unceremoniously Taken Off The Project |
April's pace has been picking up again, it reminded me how last year I wrote about my wife being let go by her company, this year's April is just as arduous as last's.
 |
| Stinking Work As Usual - Galaxy S23+ |
March has been an eventful month. So many things happened on and off work, some good, some bad... some disappointing ones too.
 |
| From ION Level 5 Carpark - Galaxy S23+ |
 |
| Picking Up Good Food - Galaxy S23+ |
So January started quite OK so far. We had the new year lunch at East Coast Park on the 1st day of the 2025 with my parents, my sister & her husband. We went all the way to Long Beach seafood although I was not too wowed by the food. But at least it was a gathering all the same.
 |
| Wavy Seas at East Coast - Galaxy S23+ |
From white snow land Furano, it was time to trade serene white sceneries for the vibrant and glitzy lights of Sapporo which is the final leg of our Hokkaido expedition. The missus was getting better, but not 100% yet, same as me, runny nose and coughing still by then. But I fared better than her for sure. The cold seemed to have struck her quite hard.
 |
| On Local Train From Furano to Takikawa - Galaxy S23+ |
After our extremely short stop at Otaru, we made our way to Furano next. The journey to Furano is more difficult as on the last leg we could only ride on the local train without any reservations and only 4 trips a day. Fortunately I decided to send 2 luggages to our last stop in Sapporo, but it didn't make our journey any simpler as on the train we bumped onto many similiar travellers like us, so the train was quite filled up with luggages. It was just a one car train, strangely.
 |
| The First Leg of Our Journey to Furano - Galaxy S23+ |
From Hakodate it was time to go to Otaru next. The journey to Otaru was quite convenient, the first leg was a Hokuto ride to Sapporo, then we switched to the airport rapid train (at least that's how I remembered it).
 |
| Departing Hakodate on Hokuto - Galaxy S23+ |
As we finished our exploration of Tokyo, it was time to make our move to Hokkaido, the most important part of our itinerary. From Disney Ambassador Hotel, we took the airport limousine to Haneda.
 |
| Waiting For Our Airport Limousine Bus - Galaxy S23+ |
I can't possibly skip Tokyo Disneyland if I visit Tokyo can't I? And while at it I must visit Disneysea too! And that's exactly how we ended up in both Disney parks 2 years in a row. I absolutely love it! From Disney Ambassador Hotel, we need to take a shuttle bus to reach Disneyland, which we did promptly to best utilize our Happy Entry. The moment we were allowed into the parks, I was ecstatic.
 |
| Run Run Run! - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
 |
| Let's Go! - Galaxy S23+ |
