Chloe Turns Three!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Chloe!

I think 3rd birthday is a very big deal. I doubt very much Chloe has memory of her 1st and 2nd birthday. That was why we did not throw parties for her when she turned one and two. In recent months, Chloe became very conscious of her age, as we kept teaching her to say: "I'm coming to three years old!" For a period of time, she only managed "I become-the-three-years-old!", which was so funny!

Last year, I took her out of childcare on her birthday, brought her to the zoo and had a family celebration at home. Seeing how she loved attending birthday parties of her classmates at her childcare centre, we decided to throw a party this year. I'm sure by this age, the memory of her own party will be etched in her mind. The theme will be her fav BARNEY!

We ordered 2 birthday cakes for her - one for school and one for home. As Barney is a licensed character, the confectioner required us to provide the Barney and friends cake-toppers, while they provide other peripheral decorations. 

I launched into an online search for Barney cake-toppers, and to my horror, they were not readily available! I searched recommended birthday party sites, local and international, eBay, Amazon - you name it. While there are plenty of Disney Princess, Dora, Toy Story, Minnie Mouse, I could not find the purple dinosaur! I panicked big time because we promised Chloe a Barney cake, so it should not end up looking like Winnie the Pooh. Eventually I found a home baker who made Barney, BJ and Baby Bop with fondants, and I called her up and begged her to make them for me. This was the end-result... aren't they cute?!

Next comes the party favours. Again, Barney stuff are not available at shops. I had to purchase them online and travelled great distances (I mean, I took the bus to Sims Ave) to self-collect the items. We're all set for the party with Barney paper plates, tablecover, birthday treat bags, stationery set....

And finally.... here are the cakes!

The birthday cake for school.....

The birthday cake for home.....

We recycled the Barney cake toppers for both cakes. This was the first time I bought 3D cakes, and they are really lovely. I was such a joy to see Chloe's face light up with pleasant surprise when she saw the cakes! Anything for you, my darling Chloe!!!

My Emergenetics Profile

I am finally about to have an answer to my 'career inclinations'. I had commented on Facebook before that half of my friends think I will do well as a Relationship Manager (RM), and the other half think I make a good Regulatory Compliance person. These two career paths are almost divergent in nature, in my opinion! Their views about me are so strong I am sometimes confused about what I really am like.

Recently, my aunt, who is a qualified Emergenetics Profile coach, spoke to me about Emergenetics, and I requested for a profiling to be done. The last personality profiling I did the DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientious) profile some 10 years ago. My profile then showed me as a super high "I" person [ = influence others through talking, are enthusiastic, persuasive, warm, trusting etc.], and that probably explained why my friends think I will excel as RM? Anyway, in short, Emergenetics is a combination of a person's characteristics that emerge from life experiences plus the genetics with which he is born with. It profiles his thinking attributes and behavioral attributes. Although my friends keep saying I should consider a career change to be a RM, deep inside me, I feel it's not me. Finally I can vindicate my feelings!

The moment of truth......tada!!

I knew I'm not all a social animal! Ok, there's lots more to the interpretation of the profile, but in general, it shows I have a preference for structural and analytical thinking (heh heh, my friends out there who think otherwise, does this make you flip??).

Reflecting on my profile, I am quite sure my 5 years as a banking regulator/supervisor had moulded me into a structural thinker (c'mon, 5 years of training to draft proposals in rigid format and lingo would surely do some damage to creativity?), and my last job as a regulatory consultant should have brushed up my analytical thinking. I can't agree more with this profile. And whatever happened to the high "I" person years ago?!

There is another portion on the profile of my behavioral preference which I'm not sharing here. I don't quite agree with that, because it shows I'm not a very expressive person (??). This does not gel with my family members' and even my bosses' views, who think I can't keep my emotions to myself and my face is an open book to my heart and mind. 

Anyway, am glad I completed the Emergenetics profiling exercise. Now I can choose Compliance as a career with greater confidence. I am always comfortable working with laws and rules, and I like to think through issues and find substantiation (almost in a kia-si fashion) before proposing a solution. I apologise to my friends out there who have millions of dollars waiting to entrust to me when I become your Personal Relationship Manager. 

Moving On.....

I wanted to pen this entry some months ago when I first broached the idea of quitting my job, but was just too busy to get to it. Before I know it, I've come to the end of my notice-period and here I am, with all the free time on my hands to blog!

Nine months on the job and I still couldn't quite lay a finger on my feelings about it. It's almost like a dream. It took me a few weeks to settle in and embrace all about the new job. There was of course the initial euphoria of the new environment, the sense of progressiveness being in the private sector, and the exciting and enlarged role in a leadership position. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out for me. I can only say I'm not cut-out to be a entrepreneur, and lack the capacity to manage the practice like it was my own. I could not find much enjoyment managing client relationships, delivering the work, being mindful of revenue and recovery budgets, working through the billing and tonnes of paperwork. I finally understood that I prefer to just focus on the "work" part. So I made the almost impulsive decision (again?!) to serve notice, without giving much thoughts.

I do miss my colleagues. First of all, my boss is such an understanding and reasonable person it was such a joy work for and with him. He made me laugh all the time (and vice versa) and was more like a friend to me. My immediate peers were my ex-colleagues - superb teamwork there. The more junior staff are ALL such cooperative, cohesive, obedient, intelligent, hardworking and fun people it's hard to believe such workers exist in this present time!!

On my last day last Friday, my staff surprised me with a farewell party when I was only expecting a goodbye-card giving ceremony. They threw in a larger than life card with touching messages, 2 awfully chocolate cakes, gift vouchers (they heard I'm a shopaholic) and video-d my 'farewell speech'. 

Instead of "Goodbye Janet", the cakes said "Thank You Janet". I suppose I did do something good during my tenure there.

Someone even handmade cookies for me! Aw, how sweet!!!

Thank you my dears, for making my 9 months there so memorable. We promised to meet up for lunch and catch up occasionally. Till then, take care!!