I had lunch with my administrative supervisor today. Told her about my New Zealand work holiday plans, and then requested for 1 year unpaid leave. She was very encouraging, telling me that it's a good opportunity to explore while i am still young. Nonetheless, she will still need to talk to the AP Zone Sales manager about this (cause she "owns" my career and i am an AP resource), and also to HR. She also advised that i should not state the "work" part as the reason for my unpaid leave during my application to HR. Not surprisingly, most of my benefits of an employee will be suspended during my one year unpaid leave.
We continued to talk further into our lunch, about life, about various seminars and life-changing talks we had both attended. Apparently, we both share an interest in attending talks given by established people, to learn from these people who have made it in life, who have been there and done that. She shared with me about this marketing seminar she attended on the globalization of marketing. How this man who worked for Laurel-Palmolive had to market Laurel sanitary pads in Japan and in Singapore.. How he was tremendously successful in Japan but not in Singapore. He realized he had to try the product he is selling before he can find out the cause of its failure. So he, a grown man wore sanitary pads for the sake of his job (and passion!). And he realized that the pads made for Japanese women (who sits with their legs closed) were not suitable for Singaporean women, who like to sit with their legs crossed, thereby causing leakage. And so he changed the product design to tailor to the target audience needs, and thereafter began to see results. Interesting story.
K and I went to watch the 13 Academy Awards winning film: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I love this show. It has a very thought-provoking plot of how a man is born in his 80s but in a baby's form, and then starts to age backwards physically as he get older mentally. It is so ironic how much similarities one can find between a human being who is just born, and one about to die. We just use different terms to describe them. Firstly, both have no recollection of the world around them, or their loved ones. Just that the baby is said to be "unaware" because he just came into the world and hence naive, and the dying person is said to have "forgotten" their past and "losing" their memory due to dementia. And both don't have much mobility. A baby cannot walk and talk properly because they haven't "learnt" how. Whereas an old dying person cannot walk and talk properly because they are "losing" the ability to do so.
I know this sounds cliche, but Brad Pitt still looks drop dead gorgeous. I love the part where he was in bed with his childhood love, whom he had met when he was in his 70s (physically) and she in her teens. The girl asked him: "Would you still love me when i have wrinkles?" And he replied: " Would you still love me when i have acne?"
I just visited the movie website, and saw another thought provoking phrase in their thriller: "Life is learnt backwards, by living forward." How true. Some people may think that I am a curious case too. Doing all these things that most wouldn't do. K says sometimes it can be tiring explaining to people who simply cannot comprehend why we do certain things that we do. Especially those who, when told about my plans to go New Zealand, would react almost immediately and say: "Are you crazy?" I just hope i don't become one of them. Ever.
We continued to talk further into our lunch, about life, about various seminars and life-changing talks we had both attended. Apparently, we both share an interest in attending talks given by established people, to learn from these people who have made it in life, who have been there and done that. She shared with me about this marketing seminar she attended on the globalization of marketing. How this man who worked for Laurel-Palmolive had to market Laurel sanitary pads in Japan and in Singapore.. How he was tremendously successful in Japan but not in Singapore. He realized he had to try the product he is selling before he can find out the cause of its failure. So he, a grown man wore sanitary pads for the sake of his job (and passion!). And he realized that the pads made for Japanese women (who sits with their legs closed) were not suitable for Singaporean women, who like to sit with their legs crossed, thereby causing leakage. And so he changed the product design to tailor to the target audience needs, and thereafter began to see results. Interesting story.
K and I went to watch the 13 Academy Awards winning film: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I love this show. It has a very thought-provoking plot of how a man is born in his 80s but in a baby's form, and then starts to age backwards physically as he get older mentally. It is so ironic how much similarities one can find between a human being who is just born, and one about to die. We just use different terms to describe them. Firstly, both have no recollection of the world around them, or their loved ones. Just that the baby is said to be "unaware" because he just came into the world and hence naive, and the dying person is said to have "forgotten" their past and "losing" their memory due to dementia. And both don't have much mobility. A baby cannot walk and talk properly because they haven't "learnt" how. Whereas an old dying person cannot walk and talk properly because they are "losing" the ability to do so.
I know this sounds cliche, but Brad Pitt still looks drop dead gorgeous. I love the part where he was in bed with his childhood love, whom he had met when he was in his 70s (physically) and she in her teens. The girl asked him: "Would you still love me when i have wrinkles?" And he replied: " Would you still love me when i have acne?"
I just visited the movie website, and saw another thought provoking phrase in their thriller: "Life is learnt backwards, by living forward." How true. Some people may think that I am a curious case too. Doing all these things that most wouldn't do. K says sometimes it can be tiring explaining to people who simply cannot comprehend why we do certain things that we do. Especially those who, when told about my plans to go New Zealand, would react almost immediately and say: "Are you crazy?" I just hope i don't become one of them. Ever.
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