2005: The year that was (Part I)

Wow, 31st of December ALREADY?!?!?!?

Alright, room cleaned (not really, just a bit more tidier), desks wiped and rearranged. Bring on twenty-oh-six :P

So, the year that was...2005 was big in so many ways - I got a job, juggled that job with uni and church activities, met people from all ages and different background at various events, a death in the family and one broken heart.

I secured my work experience placement at TCI in Feburary and it was really by God's grace that I got it. I had been trying towards the end of 2004 to find a place that would take me but without much success. Then during the summer break, someone from EFC Livingstone visited us and we became quite good friends (Thanks Jack!!). Turns out he does Telco Engineering as well and been working at TCI for a while. So he passed on my resume to his boss and about 2 weeks later I got a call for an interview. Yay!! Because they said they were looking for people I thought the interview was just a getting-to-know-you kind of meeting and went home waiting for the call telling me when to start. But I was shocked when I got an email telling me they don't need people anymore. WHAT THE?!?!?!? They didn't even have the balls to call me?!?! I was devastated and was preparing to go back to uni when they called again early Feb saying their other project is looking for people urgently and that's how I got into the Vodafone 3G project.

Now I'm the first to admit the pay was low. On a hourly comparison, my pay was slightly more than the 'lollypop people' (those who carry 'stop' signs around primary schools during school hours) but when you work for 10 hrs a day, 5 days a week, it was still substantial from my point of view. Besides, it was my first time working full time so it was good seeing the bank account increase every month even if the increase was jack-all. This low pay was offset by Vodafone's treatment of their partners. We were SPOILT. Weekly Friday afternoon tea (more like dinner), monthly complimentary massage, VIP functions...it was DA BOMB!!!My first five months there were awesome. The next five weren't as bludgy. I had to mix it up with uni and given a few sites of my own to handle, had to go to differnet places so overall it was pretty demanding. I am now done with industrial training so no more massages, no more afternoon teas and no more pay. Must go back to stingy spending (That will be a challenge for 2006).

On a sad note, my grandfather passed away this year, a week and a bit before Christmas. He was diagnosed with cancer in Feb and doctors only gave him half a year. I went back to HK twice to visit him but they were contrasting visits. In July, I took two weeks off to see him. He lost alot of weight and hair from chemo but not the humour. We spent alot of time together and he was still very active so that was pretty cool. November though was different. He went into a coma at the end of Oct and mum and I rushed back to see an old man all wired up with a breathing machine supporting him. How things can change so quickly in a matter of months. We went to the hospital everyday, calling him, hoping he would open his eyes and wake up again...

By the time I left, a week before my exams, he was still in what the doctors called 'critically stable'. I observed something in all of this. Twice the doctors underestimated how long my grandad would live and I think God is the only one who call the shots on how long a person would live for.

Then one sunny December morning, my mum called me at work saying grandad is no longer with us...