You made it :)

"There are no strangers in this world, only friends whom you have not met."


The day started terribly from last night, when my laptop simply failed to boot up ( i finally knew it was a harddisk problem). I had to spend my last day at the desktop behind Noor and spent a heavy day there, closing a UAT, briefing with Venki/Andrew and the rest of the time with Sook Fun on the SE handover. Finally at 5, i was free to collect the inevitable signatures from the different department.

The best moment of the day is not one of completing the signatures but when going around talking to each member of the team. How many times will one have this kind of chance if it's not the last day :D....

I see today another day of 'graduation', just like the same feeling when i leave my Polytechnic, days in QUT, going to ORD, leaving Turf Club, moving to a new home etc... ... not one of sadness but one of a great journey taken in this life, and this 5 years i will not regret.

The Memories Remain

"Life matters not the end point, but the journey travelled."

Thank you and Goodbye.

"Those unfortunate cannot come to us therefore we the fortunate ones should go to them."

And so it happened. 'Another' one leaving NCS. There is no particular push factor but it is just a fact of life that people come and go for 1 reason or another and I am no different today.
5 years is probably not a long time for you but my first job only lasted One and a half, so i thought it would be a waste not to pen down how life here unfolded during my stay.

For some boring story on how i began in NCS, see here;
http://mylifeinncs.blogspot.com/2007/02/next-stage.html

I have many fond memories which will ensure that I leave NCS a 'rich' man and in days to come I will look back and remember all the unforgettable memories I have had...

• My first day in NCS, going straight down to MND for meeting and lots of FS editing to do, reaching home only after 10pm. How was that for a start to a new company, still needing plenty of time to fit inside.
• My Wedding, attended by many good and closer colleagues/friends/relatives in a cruise. Sioh Hoon and Lin Yen were the two who probably enjoy it least, with a lot of vomitting during the course of events :D
• My driving license, which i got it as well here, thanks to hub being just beside the driving school and enabled me to sneak out 1hr (actually slightly more) each week to learn driving.
• The WarRoom, during roll-out. First at MND and then at MOE. Somehow it was a rather fun experience.
• The pubbing days, though few and far between, was largely very enjoyable, Devil's bar and Bar None are some of the places I've been together with sporty folks like Alan, Hungee, James etc.. and of course Joyce (Tan Li Ping). Although an 'old' man now, i hope to have the chance for another such outing again.
• The KTV session, most memorable IMHO. It was about a week after PM2S gone Live and Garry, despite undergoing stressful period trying to keep the project alive with 6 miserable members, managed to summoned us for a Karaoke Session. Thank you Garry! We all appreciated your effort and Kudoes to you.
• My farewell lunch. Thank you Sunil, the food at Anjappar was really good (no bullshit) and why cant future PM2S farewell/celebrations etc be at an Indian REstaurant. No more Sizzler please :)
• Payroll run, twice a month. It somehow reminded me of the Guard Duties during army. 1 is physically demanding while the other is mentally challenging. Fortunately there will always be 2 fellow Operators accompanying me and the greatest comfort? I get to go back earlier than them.
  

I believed I have played a unique part in this project, having the opportunity to work with all parties in the ground, from fellow consultants in hub to the entire team in GDC (operations, helpdesk, Basis). I thoroughly enjoyed working with people and this is 1 reason i have 99% of the time never having the difficulty of waking up each day preparing to go to work (ok, besides the need for money).


Meanwhile, I want to thank you if you have been part of my lifein PM2S (whether you have made it better or worse) , afterall this is the one and only project i have been in. For friends who deserved special mention in no particular order

1. CJ - A intelligent man who have taken great care of me in the team and unselfishly providing invaluable advise and technical knowledge to me during implementation period. Even after having left NCS, he has repeatedly helped me each time i needed it. He has since left NCS.

2. Oloan Manurung - Another Team lead of mine (At time of writing, his last day is earlier than mine) after the departure of CJ. A good colleague and friend to work with, with excellent knowledge in SAP as well. Well, what calibre do you expect from someone working under Geok Hwee anywayz :D

3. Sunil Varghese - My current and last TL in NCS. Technically very good and is also considered by my users as a good Team Lead, he is a real Hands-on master who doesnt mind dirtying the hands when it matters. It doesnt matter if you are a TL or a TM, Sunil shows that he will do what it takes to move the project and ease the burden of his members.

4. Vivek - A fellow TL during implementation and later took the role of PM (and still is today). I appreciate the patience he has given when discussing work with me. I have to highlight that in the process of discussion he always tries to teach us things at the same time and really appreciaet it.



This is one food i'll surely miss *drool*

The Beginning

"Great it is to believe the dream,
as we stand in youth by the starry stream.
But a greater thing is to fight life through,
and say at the end the dream is true."

I was in department so large i would have taken 5 minutes to walk around it. But yet it was empty at the same time, many seats unoccupied, which seemed foreign to me as I was used to seeing each seats occupied at Turf Club. That was how it all began. In the morning, Joyce Tan passed me a lousy Toshiba Laptop and in the afternoon i was off to MND with William, Miranda and Geok Hwee. I found myself trying to understand the Leave requirement studies and at the same time trying to figure how the day will end. That day i left MND at about 10pm, after having helped William (Ng) fixing some diagrams on the Functional Specs. It was a tremendous change for me compared to Turf Club where i read Manuals after manuals for a few days straight.

A few days later i had my own team. I have Leonard (Leong) as my team lead and Ben Hoh as my teammate. In the beginning i felt good in the team because everything was new and both men seemed good to work with (individually). Later down the road, the 2 of them didnt quite meet eye to eye either with work or the attitude towards life in general. Leonard was more practical while Ben always tries to make complex things look simple.
Later on we had another teammate called Fritz, who is a mild mannered gentleman who later got bullied when he went to another team.

After the original team was 'disbanded', I went to the team of a few quite brilliant teammates and TL. I had the honour of working with Davinder. He showed me qualities that he had and i knew that he is destined for greater things in life (and yes he has left for his MBA). At the same time, i had my TL called CJ. He is one of the best TL i think anyone could have. There is a chinese saying that a mountain could not hold 2 tigers. Internally both could also not see eye to eye and ultimately they were 'separated'. My team mate was Boon Guan whom he passed the Exit module to me at that time.
The toughest days in this team was probably a week or 2 before roll-out, which CJ and I had some sticks from the user regarding the Security Authorisation templates. There are many discrepancies. The positive out of this was that CJ and I worked hard at night and on weekends to resolve these issues.

Then PM2S went Live. I remembered the inauguration day where we were at MND, but we could not touch the food until the VIPS and Users have started. I felt rather disgusted but then afterall they are responsible for our Bonus, what to do? *sighz*.
What followed was so-called 'war-room' support, in which some of us are stationed at MND to answer problems associated with the system. It was quite fun to me, having colleague sitting all around the table and busy with each of our work.

Finally the Application Support team was chosen. It began with 6 with GArry Ng as the PM. But soon enough it was apparent that the 6-men team with a new manager to PM2S is not going to keep the project alive. Even though the REAL reason of Garry leaving may never be known to us 'members', given the limited manpower and time to adapt to the monster size pm2s, either he had to go or asked to go. I would rather it was the first reason. But who planned the 6 man team in the first place i ponder. The bottom line for me is that he makes a good PM, at least for the members as he could click with us and still stayed in touch till today.

=====================^_^====================

The Road Ahead

"When there is light, there is hope."

One need not be reminded that all good things will come to an end. 2 months to being Five years in NCS, i have decided to take the next step out of this place, a place which i have stayed for as long as i had in Secondary school (I spent 5 years in Mayflower Secondary School). Damn, that's pretty long isnt it.
There is probably little element of surprise to anyone reading this, especially if you were in this with me for as long as this project. I have simply lost count on the number of farewell emails i've received and lunches i had attended. Since change is constant, there will come a day which you will move to the next stage, whether it's a job hop, retrenchment or simply retirement.

I feel deeply gratified (An(1) Wei(4) in chinese) that in the course of my life here, I have the good fortune of meeting countless good souls, including brilliant ones like Davinder, Shishir, CJ etc (the list goes on) whose aspirations is admirable.

As revealed to some of you, I will still be doing SAP but more audit related. Perhaps it is not within the culture of certain companies to be too open with your salary, your grade or the $ of allowance, i guess i can throw them all out of the window because i am unemployed now :D

Ok lah, in order not to burn my bridges i guess i should still be sensitive a bit. By now, some of you may already know where I am going. I have chosen a path which will not be any less challenging than in NCS. In fact it is a different (audit) environment which i foresee (And also heard) that the pace will be faster and more demanding than before. Salary wise, it's hard to compare.. roughly 16% increase but note that there is no AWS in audit company. So if you try to be calculative, the increase per annum isnt that great, but to hell with it because i really like the job scope therefore the Pay and location need not be FANTASTIC.

I will end this by saying that the world is too small for us to say goodbye. Yesterday we were colleagues, today we are friends but yet tomorrow we may work together again. I have learnt never to say never because nothing is certain in life and we must try to treasure and enjoy the good times while we can. So till then, look for me if you are into the following stuff; xbox360, ps3, SAP Security, Cats, Tarots, coffee, soccer, bowling, Standard CHartered Run 2007, farewell lunches ^_*. Please catch me at peterkohbl@yahoo.com