A strange thing...memories

Memories. This is a strange thing that our brain possess.

For some reason or another, you can remember things 30 40 years ago and not something last week. Age?? Maybe. My mum had asked me quite a few times over the years if I could find an old school buddy of mine. I had gotten into an accident and got hospitalized with compression fracture of the lumbar and this schoolmate of mine had to go to the house I was staying in to inform my mum that I had been admitted to hospital. Over the years, I had heard that YNC had gone to Singapore and then later became a lawyer. I had made half hearted attempts to locate him but to no avail.

Then last week, my in laws in China (my wife's half brothers and their family) started sending many emails over. They had discovered the internet!!! As I setup an email for my wife as well as a facebook account for her, I thought I would try to google for some of my school mates or 35 years ago when I was in Secondary 5. First name that popped into mind was YNC. And the search returned success!!

Called him and found he actually had 2 practices - one in Singapore and one in KL. As he said, lawyers needs a lot of practice because they can't get it right! And from this, I now find a whole bunch of old school buddies on FB today. Many I remember their names and some their faces.

This is turning out to be an interesting interaction. One of them is even a grandfather and he's my age! The power of social networks!

How time flies!!!

The past week, Lab Asia 2009 was held in Putra World Trade Center(PWTC) in KL and Agilent had a booth there to show off some of the latest technologies and instrumentation. I volunteered to help man the booth for all 3 days as well as to document the event through photography.

A few key lessons could be gleaned from the event.

First lesson, as we age, we build relationships and networks. They span the range of the good, the bad and the neutral. I am glad to say that most of the lasting relationships and networks that I have built up over the years have been more good than bad.

During the event, I met up with so many people whom I have not seen for quite a while. There was Mr. Ooi from Chemopharm, who now have Khoo Teng Liat and Lim Teck Thai working with him. Khoo was instrumental in hiring me into HP back in 1981 and Teck Thai was a Pengarah (Director) of one of the departments in Chemistry Department then. 1981!!!! That's like a millenia ago!

There were ex- staff who continues to move around in the same industry and circles. Lip Woon Thiam and Teh Teong Soon still work with us. Koo Siew Ling and Dr Law Khoon Huat work on the competitive side and some are kind of neutral.

There were the customers who have gone from being students - like Dr Tan Soo Choon ( in 1981 when I first made his acquaintance, he was studying for his Masters in NDRC, USM) to being key customers who can influence purchases.

There were many whom I have not met for more than a decade since I no longer work directly with the customers in Malaysia, who still remembers me clearly as the engineer who can lift the GC by himself from floor to table during installations. The ones who came by the booth were people like Mr, Jeevan who heads the chemistry dept now, Danny Daulan based in Kedah and a bunch of ex Petronas people who are now in different companies.

Secondly, such events provides the opportunities to work with your colleagues from different countries and fucntions. I mean, one knows these people, but in the normal course of work, you normally do not interact with them in any significant way. We had our Marcom ladies Lynn and Sirada. The AE manager Hwee Sian Rob Solazzo, Miji Lee and so on.

Third key lesson of such events - you can still make new acquaintances despite being around for dinosaur years. As I look at the other booths, I see many are manned by much younger people whom I do not know.

It's time to turn on the charm!

Another ex HPSM colleagues get together

Another ex colleague from HP days decided to drop back into Malaysia for a visit, along with his wife and son. I have not seen Tuck Choy for at least 9 years (since the days we spun off from HP). And of course this was as good an excuse as any for all the ex HP (and quite a few current HP) people to get together.

Mei Poh started the ball rolling by emailing a bunch of us (I suspect the list was the same as that from Ah Luan's visit a few months back). Some of us (yours truly included) then forwarded the email to others who were not on the list and before you know it, at least 15 of us were committed to have dinner with Tuck Choy, Rebecca and Matthew.

As with Ah Luan's visit, there were quite a few people whom I have not met for almost a decade!!. Some have aged visibly. Hair were greying, waist pouch were showing but none were unrecognizable. A couple of them even look about the same as they did ten years ago!.

Dinner was at Marche @ The Curve. That was a good choice by Mei Poh as it allowed everyone to come at their convenience and eat whatever they wanted. The only thing that kind of spoilt the evening was the aircond was not working. The early birds like Kuen Kuen, Ah Key and myself started about 7pm and by 8pm, I was beginning to ooze oil and sweat!. Marche's staff claims that the aircond was centralized by the management of the Curve. The least they could have done was to have scrounged around for some stand fans. No such luck.

There was a lot of info exchanges (where are you now? How's the other half and kids? Where do you stay? etc..). It was a great evening of camaraderie and friendship.

Jessie suggested that we make an effort to get together again ASAP. The next excuse - bowling!!

Ex HPSM get together 23 Jan 09

Having worked for more than half my life now, there are many people in the past who never fade away. Their paths and mine will cross, either intentionally or accidentally. This Thursday night, I accidentally on purpose got invited (gate-crashed??) to a gathering of ex HP Sales Malaysia gathering. Ah Luan from Finance (still with HP in Australia) was back for a visit with her fiancee and Mei Poh organized a get together to meet up with her.

Dinner was at Duck King in Jaya One. Even that was not confirmed until Wednesday morning. Maybe it's all the preservatives that we eat in our food. Maybe it's the good life that most of us live. Maybe it's just the humidity in Malaysia. Whatever it is, the faces looks almost like the ones I found in a 20 year old photo. 2 of them (Ah Luan and Eleanor- circled above) were present tonight. And Malaysia being the place for food from all cultures meant that for many of us, the body from the neck downwards could do with a little bit of help to get toned up and slimmed down.

The ones who could make it for this get together were (Back L to R) Marion, Soo Han, Mei Poh, Ah Key, Ah Luan, Paul. Front (L to R) Yours truly, Kuen Kuen and Eleanor. Ah Luan's fiancee, Paul was here with her to celebrate CNY with the Malaysian relatives. So we had 2 roses amongst the thorns.

Ducking seems to specialize in duck dishes, but the only duck dish we had was a roast duck. Not many people fancy duck. We started off with a salmon Yee Sang (2nd one in the day for me). The one at Oriental Pearl in Mont Kiara tasted better. That was followed by a sour spicy steamed fish, the roast duck, a special tofu dish with mushrooms and seaweed, a green vegetable (supposedly dragon's tongue and something else), steamed chicken and topped off with a sweet dessert. While chatting with the ladies, I forgot to photograph much of the food until they were almost all eaten up!!.

There was quite a bit of catching up with these ex colleagues of mine. For instance, Soo Han is back in the workforce after a hiatus of 10 years. She works for IBM now. Some, like Marion has her own business. Many of them still work for HP (and it looks like they will retire from there too). And of course there are the Tai Tais who has retired from working (not that they are old - just that they can afford the retirement).

Eleanor - thanks for the dinner. And it's great to meet up with all of you again after so many years.