He will provide

I've been halfway around the world in the United States for the past few days, counting down the days til my big bro's wedding. Of course, I'm really happy to be here to celebrate with him, to finally meet his fiance who is a really cool chick, and of course I have photos of us and our respective mums who are here going to visit some fun places in the first few days. I haven't edited the pics yet though, and I'm saving it for next time, as I have other stuff to blabber about that I haven't had the chance to do til now.

I've resigned! AGAIN! I didn't really intend to do it so soon, at least not til after I returned from my trip, but something happened a couple of days before I left that made me decide enough was enough. Won't go into the details of that coz' as fun as complaining is, I think I've already done enough of it to anyone around me who was willing to listen and I don't feel like I need to add any more to the plate. It was a very tough and rather bittersweet decision for me. Tough because resigning means giving up pretty good benefits, and now with the economy kind of in the pits, it's not really a good time to be jumping ship. And there's no guarantee that I won't have a fresh bunch of problems in the next company I join. Also, while I relish the fact that I am now *almost* free (still have one month's notice to serve. Ugh) from having to put up with the company's crap, I've also gotten quite close to some of my colleagues, and I regret that my leaving means they will have more work to do. And right now, they already have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately for them, staying in a company for the sake of my colleagues is a lousy reason to stay. But still, I had a lot of things to consider when making this move.

Something I didn't really tell anyone (probably coz' I was too busy complaining about my company) is that after the first incident in November 08 when I got sooooo frus that I told my boss I was going to resign, after cooling down and considering the points above, I was having second thoughts about whether it was a good idea to resign after all. And I was worried that my chances of getting another job offer now are low due to the bad economy. So I really prayed about it and ended up being so unsure of what to do, that I just did up my CV and sent it out to four different companies and asked God to decide for me. After all, if anyone knows what's best for me, it would be Him! Basically, I asked Him that if I am to stay at my company now, then keep the doors shut, don't let me get any job offers, and puh-LEEZE don't let me go through any more crap with my boss. But if I'm meant to leave the company, then I prayed that He would open the doors and I would get at least one good job offer.

Since then, God has opened the doors wide and I have not just one, but two other companies wanting to hire me. One is a German certification body, doing environmental auditing, such as I what I do now, and they need my experience in a specific area (Ceh-wah! ;P). I went for two interviews, one with the director who is a German dude, and the other is a manager and my future immediate boss, and both interviews went super well, so they're going to make me an offer. And the office is only 5 minutes away from my house! How cool is that??

*Ahem*, anyway the other company was one I didn't apply to...but a very interesting one nonetheless. My old boss at Mad Science heard that I wanted to leave my company now and asked me to meet him up to discuss whether I was interested to return to work at Mad Science. And as he thought I did a very good job when I was working there previously, he wanted me to return not just as a normal instructor teaching classes, but in a sort-of managerial position where I'll basically be running the whole company in my boss's absence (and he's away, like, ALL the time). Needless to say, I was like "Whoa!". The prospect of being the manager of my old company and having a lot more freedom to do things how I would like is... pretty cool. But it is also very daunting, coz' there are a gazillion challenges, like I would have to deal with a bunch of issues going on at the company now and I would have to handle EVERYTHING from planning events, HR issues, bringing in more business to the company on top of teaching classes. And right now, the benefits are still blah, which is why I left in the first place. BUT if I am miraculously able to handle all this and the company does very good business later on, the benefits will definitely come then. But that's a big IF... this company is basically still a small business, and running small businesses are always risky.

Nevertheless, my old boss is still going to make me an offer, and then I will have to decide between two job offers... most likely going for the German certification body that's only a heavenly 5 minutes drive from my house (petrol not cheap, MAH). Even then, with two prospective offers, I still wasn't totally sure if I was supposed to leave my company now, and I asked God for another sign... This time I really had no idea what kind of sign He could give me, so I just prayed that if I'm supposed to leave the company, that my boss to do something else really unreasonable to push me over. Something like refusing to approve my leave for the US, which I applied for weeks ago. I didn't think it would actually happen, especially since my other superior was ok with me taking my leave, but lo and behold, two days before I'm supposed to go, I found out he actually didn't approve my leave. Again, long story, don't feel like explaining the details, but it was enough for me to finally decide to fly the coup. And that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I guess it sounds pretty dumb to resign before I've even gotten the job offers in my hand, but after all this, I do believe all will be well. My church is repeatedly saying that even though many people predict 2009 will be a bad year economically, we should trust and believe God will provide for us. From what I've experienced so far, I'm pretty sure of He will.

Did I forget to say Merry Christmas?

Oh yeah, I did! Sorry all, had a super busy Christmas Day and also going through one of my blogging PMS stages now (as in, I don't feel like blogging).

Anyhow, hope you all had a great Christmas and will have an even better new year 2009, full of joy and prosperity and all that good stuff. And my dog wishes you a belated Merry Christmas too.



Aahh, just gotta love them Santa hats.

Doing my bit for shameless advertising

It's 1.30am and I have to wake up early for work tomorrow but I'm not sleeping yet coz' I have an insanely busy week of travelling all over the place and I have yet to do my bit of shameless advertising for THIS.... our CBC Christmas Carnival! It's happening this Sunday, 2-7pm and SS14's school field, and we got food and games and all that other fun stuff. And of course, this would all be meaningless during Christmas if it was not for charity! We are raising funds for WAO's home for children from abused families... the kids need funds for school equipment, clothes, etc, etc... so you get to have fun and eat food while helping these kids get the things they need for the new school year. Everyone wins! Woo hoo!!! And we have flyers! Aren't they cool??



Alrighty, I'll stop writing Kim KARdashian-style now and go catch some zzz's. Hope to see you guys there. :)

Monash Alumni Gathering

Oh cool, there's a Monash article with my name in it on my old uni's website. Coz' I went for Monash's Alumni Gathering a couple of months back and they invited me to be on the panel of speakers at their forum, to share with the students and alumni on our working life experiences. It was quite fun, really... having to look and talk all professional-like while answering questions from students, when all the while I was quite tempted to say something like "Forget about finishing your degree and joining the boring working world! Go out and become rock star! Kekeke....". I highly doubt I would be invited back for next year's gathering if I had done that though, but it sure would have been funny.

See if you can spot the Carol in the immensely small group pic. Coz' I sure can't. Lol.

The disappearing blog post

After some advice from a good friend, I've decided to remove my previous post about my tales of oppression. Unfortunately, for every person like myself who just loves to tell things like it is, there are also people out there who just can't take it like it is and would make it their life mission to get the people who tell it like it is into trouble. And while I respect people like an a certain infamous bald blogger who will not back down from telling it like it is, even they it gets him into hot soup... I'd rather save myself the drama. It WAS good advice from my friend though, so thanks to you, you know who you are. :P

However, if you didn't get the chance to read my previous entry and you're dying to know what it's all about, I saved my story and can send it to you. Provided, of course, that I know who you are and I trust you enough not to abuse it. Heh. Just gimme a holler.