It’s been a hectic two weeks and I’m glad to be home. My freelance business is starting to get noticed by Singapore ad agencies and although it’s only January, I’ve already met 30% of my annual sales target and turned down a number of jobs. Anyway, here’s a round-up of what’s been happening the last two weeks. Singapore Fortunately, it wasn’t all work and no play. I managed to catch hold of my two very good friends for dinner. One’s an NTU roommate who’s working at HP and another’s a childhood friend, now a civil engineer. Me wife tagged along as usual for this trip. She met her own friends from SGH, saw the gynae and did a 3-D ultrasound scan - wow! We also managed to catch Chestnuts by Jonathan Lim at the National Library, which was funny as usual but I couldn’t catch some of the jokes because I didn’t watch 881. Btw, Joakim of Singapore Idol fame was also there and I have to say that he’s not bad for a first-timer. Louis Vuitton The only gripes I had about this trip was how things are getting more expensive everytime I visit Singapore. The same hotel that used to charge S$60 a night in October, is now charging S$100 a night and will be increasing the rates again next month. Cab fares are also higher and you can feel the difference even for short trips within the city. KL I met up with my ex-classmates too for dinner and some drinks over at The Curve in Damansara. It’s a nice place for food and drinks if you haven’t been there, and the crowd is younger and more fashionable. You also have Ikea, Courts Mammoth, Cineleisure, Tesco and OneUtama close by. HSBC - The World’s Local Bank. Really? Anyway since I was eyeing a property in KL for investment, I enquired about a home loan this week and again, found new challenges - this time because I’m a freelancer. It didn’t matter that I’m loan-free and had good monthly balances but I was rejected outright because I didn’t have a registered business. I couldn’t even pledge my fully-paid condo, a rental property, as collateral. Sigh! Chinese New Year Kudos to the state government, who did a really good job lighting up the town with red lanterns. The whole town’s jammed-up by the way, because of last minute shopping. People are also slowly driving back to their respective hometowns for the holidays and I’m expecting my relatives on Tuesday. ;) Well, I guess that’s the end of this long post and I’d like to wish everyone, especially fellow Pingsters, Gong Xi Fa Cai!
I was in Singapore for meetings last week, as part of my customary rounds with new prospects once every two months. I had the pleasure of meeting an industry veteran who gave me useful pointers for my business. I also realized that I’m going to need more networking skills as I move up the value chain because the group of people I’m meeting are getting increasingly senior and more angmoh. Oh, and I found out that some of these people actually read my blog so I have to be more sensitive about what I write from now on.
We also did some shopping and I finally got my wife a Louis Vuitton handbag as ‘compensation’ for her pregnancy. :) “Women can never have too many shoes or handbags”, so I’ve been told and by a woman, naturally. It was a strange experience having to queue at the shop entrance, especially when you had to pay something like an arm and a leg. The women folks didn’t care though, because they all had this huge, huge smile after getting the bags …the men mostly had opposite expressions. Anyway, this was what I bought - a Hampstead model from the Damier range:
After two days at home, I drove off again on Monday - this time up north to KL. The client’s an Australian-listed company, part of a bigger media group (publisher of Juice, Stuff, Supercars, Prestige, Ok!, etc.) and slowly growing into the biggest regional property website. We had been in discussion for a while and I’m glad to finally nail it, and will start work after the Chinese New Year.
Being in the minority has been really challenging. I remember when I deposited my first cheque from Google at HSBC, it was returned because it’s the bank’s policy to reject U.S. cheques for fear of fraud and money laundering. I had to explain to the bank manager what I was doing and who Google was (seriously) before they accepted my cheques. I mean, how do you call yourself ‘the world’s local bank’ when you can’t even accept overseas cheques?!
Due to the hectic pace the last two weeks, I didn’t have time to look for a tree for my plastic flowers like I did last year. It was a rushed effort but I’m quite happy with what I did with the main door and back garden:
(click for larger image)
