Motorola

I was at Basingstoke , UK for the last 10 days for business trip. I need to pick up my new role from existing support which is being provided by counterparts in Europe.

A380

My first time experience with A380. Huge plane, double deck. And i was lucky that the flight to Heathrow was relatively empty. And that allows me to occupy the seats on that row ! There isnt any good movies to watch on the plane. That is sad. But luckily I have my ipod and my own videos with me.

*saw this long limo truck on the road *

London

I spend the weekend at Bicester Village and London. The rail system are as effective as those in Switzerland and I have no problem figuring or adventuring the streets of England on my own. Bicester is a outlet village and some of the shops are selling things REAL cheap. No point getting US brands like Polo , CK here since it is expensive. Abercrombie has a store in Central London and the polo tees costs 60 pounds!!! ( US is selling for 60 USD and i already find it CRAZY )

*London Eye

And I love Convent Garden. There are many interesting things to see and explore especially during the weekend. Just like the one below…

Basingstoke office

Office is beautiful. I love glass buildings. But it is kind of sad the buidling are virtually empty. It used to be busy. ( thats what i learnt, you dont say crowded, you say “busy” ). But the retrenchments in 2009 reduced the workforce in the site to about 70 people.

* Basingstoke Train Station

Food

* Fish and Chips, England signature dish

I still prefer Asian Food. Singaporean food to be exact. English food is not for me. Amazingly, I have yet to try the Macdonald here.

Overall a fruitful trip. Jill and Mike has been very helpful. More work for me when i go back. And I am ready to take the challenges ahead.

Ah.. i forgot to post this in January

My new role in Motorola is call Central Services Manager. Probably not used to doing work in a new environment because doing work in a new environment requires you to learn everything all over again. Being a manager with direct reports now who knows MORE than i do, it makes the pressure to pick up the skills even more critical.

Of course , that is probably the reason why this role now is challenging and exciting.

Tons of stuff that i need to do besides work which I havent do yet.

I need more time!

On a side note, I promised myself to clear one room a day and i really managed to do that. I cleared the mahjong room and decided to put all the items on sale on Facebook and managed to get a couple of items sold off. Haha. This weekend i must start packing and clearing stuff in the kitchen and living room. The study/bedroom will be the LAST and most challenging!

No . There is nothing wrong with my maths. If you follow my last post, I extended my last day of service with moto till end of the year.

Been playing with IpodTouch, Android, 1.5 Cupcake, 1.6 Donut and Moto BLUR last few days. Is Fun!

Now in taipei, there is a 3 days workshop. I cannot remember when was the last time i am at Taipei. Anyway the flight yesterday was relatively empty. Probably because it is already late week and school holidays are already over.

One of the senior stewardess saw me watching my movies on my ipod Touch and came over to ask me how i did it. I explained to her in a diagram and also provided her my contact. Service on SQ still tops in my opinion.

Watched The Proposal on the plane. Romantic  comedies are always one of my favourites. I particular like this one because of Sandra Bullocks!

NZ and WF are also here. even though they have less than a week with the company they have stayed for almost ( or even more ) than 2 decades.

Next week is going to be a gloomy week……

The Day I Bang my Car @ Motorola

If i can remember correctly it is probably the 2nd time i bang my car . It was a rainy day and the carpark was slippery. I had a urgent Nature’s call and was on my way back from Lunch with a guildmate @ Turf City ( got 50% !! )

I didnt remember when was the last time I change my car tyre, i think i have never change it before. I blame myself for trying to act like a F1 Racer , and also blame myself for not changing the tyres when the mileage hits 30k. The car skidded when i make the turn in the carpark. As a result, the front left hits the wall where all the motobikes are parked. I was damn lucky there IS NOT A SINGLE bike there. The car hit the wall with a BANG… my Nature’s call is gone.

I alight from the car and to my surprise, there is no Dent!!! just some scratches on the bumber and the front body which I think i can bear to live with it till further damages.

Thank Goodness

After this weekend,  The next working day , we will be stepping into the final month of our career In Moto. Time flies, everyone cannot deny that. It was just like a few days ago when we all wear Black to receive the news of the site closure on Jan, 15 2009.

Though there are rumors that there could be an extension due to the current projects we have with our new vendor. We are not pinning a lot of hopes on it as it probably will end up like a 3 month contractual thing. There will not be any discussions on promotions or performance appraisals.

I am enjoying and appreciating every day left here in Moto.  Given an option, I will definitely continue my career here. But if i need to pursue my career elsewhere, i guessed i have to go elsewhere then. It will naturally means everything got to start from scratch again.

I am currently waiting for a job offer opportunity from another MNC. Some terms and conditions are not able to be met and crossing my fingers , I hope everything will turn out just the way it should be.

Is it 47 days or 47 + 90 days?

Lets see….

Just when we are all mentally prepared for the Sept 30 date, the new projects from a new ODM starts to flood in and we potentially need to be extended till year end. Is that good news?

Well , to most it will be. If you got another job offer, then is a tough choice to make but something that you can spend some time to weigh the pros and cons

Well the really bad news is we can only keep about 6 people. We have 30 now.. sighz

70 days left in Motorola. About 20% of the team has found their next career path and we are seeing more and more people being released early . We did a headcount check and we are supposed to have about 30 people still left around, but looking at the office conditino, we probably have a handful less than 10. haha.

Anyway, there is a new vendor call TCL who has 6 ODM projects that Cliff took up. Nz requested us to get invovled. The timeline for this projects are very short. About 10 weeks each. We take a look at the resources and basically thinks that we should have enough people to cover the work . However, more details is required before we can commit i guessed. Thats probably what my boss is going to work out. If the project cannot be completed before Sept 30, then there is really no point doing unless they can give the team some form of agreement to have an extension and complete the project first.

Suddenly, i dont know why i cant wait for the Sep30 date to come. I need more time to do my own stuff!!!

9.30 in the office

and one American walking round and round the cubicles machiam doing F1 Racing and talking on the phone for the last 90mins