Sunbeam Orphanage

A few weeks late in writing this up but been a busy old week at the Big D again (when is it not?)

A few months ago an email came out regarding a Supply Chain Christmas Celebration; mindlessly I signed it up for it; basically if it's not in direct relationship with my job or the items I have to do on a daily basis the usual practice is I never have time to read it so I either delete it, archive it (parking it in corporate lingo) or I mindlessly accept / respond and in this case it was the latter.

On Friday 9th December the day was here, the celebration was here and we were booked in the morning for the 2nd Annual Big D Ethics Day - I won't bore you with all the nitty gritty details of this exuberant day but gladly it were only half a day and were scheduled to finish at 12. In the afternoon as part of the Celebrations we were booked to go to a Child’s Orphanage near the Malaysian Border called Sunbeam. I didn’t really do much (any) research on it and when the time came I used the usual excuse of I’ve too much work to take half another half day out but I didn't resist too hard and before I knew it was nearly 1.30pm and we were approaching the location for the day. 

It was a beautiful day in Singapore on Friday 9th December 2011; I jumped off the bus with the others and it was 32 Degrees outside; the sun was bouncing off the pavement and the place we'd been taken too were serene; akin to those really posh Garden Centers you see in the countryside of the UK. The itinerary for the day was basically to help bake cookies with the kids of the orphanage, eat with them, then a balloon artist and a face painting pro were coming in to entertain the kids this was then followed by a Big D only after work drink and mini celebration. Needless to say with my phobia of Children I was dreading it and  running through my head over and over again why I'd accepted the invite as it wasn’t even mandatory.

I was part of Table 5; when we arrived we were all assigned a specific child to sit with for the day. Mine was an 11 year old Indian / Singaporean lad called Gabriel and my first observation with this kid was his energy levels were through the roof and in comparison with some of the other kids close by I felt I was being punished for a conglomeration of past sins by being assigned to this one. He was loud, obnoxious, and rude and oh did I mention energetic? 

We started making the cookies and over time he seemed to rely on me for the complicated things; when I say complicated we had 4 ingredients and it was one of the easiest recipes in the history of mankind but he seemed uneasy with some of the tasks such as rolling out the final mixture for shape cutting etc. We worked together as an epic team and churned out a ridiculous volume of cookies which we sent off for baking to revisit later for the icing competition. I tried to be as friendly as possible so was addressing him as bro to which one particular comment he retorted "I’m not your bro, you're white and I’m brown" I had to struggle not to laugh out loud. So I switched the bro to dude and everything seemed more manageable from them on. The balloon artist came and the face painter and the kids had to queue for both. My kid was desperate for a balloon. So I decided to go queue for him; I asked him what he wanted for a Balloon and as if it was a magic lamp with three wishes these were his requests:

2 x Swords - I Purple and 1 Brown

1 x Train - Red and Blue in Colour with three x passenger cars and a cargo car carrying coal.

1 x Vacuum Cleaner

I managed to get him a train and an awesome one it was...

Thomas the Tank Engine - Or an attempt at it anyway;
this is a basic train and looked more complex that Astro Physics during creation..

On a side note; has anyone recently seen a balloon artist or magician or whatever the sugared job title is for them now? They're AMAZING to watch! It's akin to witchcraft I have to say...

I wanted to get my face painted into something sinister or maybe match the Spider Man T-Shirt I was wearing with some Spidey face paint but the queue was too long and didn't want to take the fun away from the kids.

On the way back from the balloon artists to my table; a few of the girls at the Sunbeam centre wanted me to sit with them and in fact told me I looked like Edward out of Twilight? They complimented me on my handsomeness and also on the fairness of my skin. Then I got very uncomfortable when they started asking me for face book details and to kiss them!! It was strictly communicated by those above beforehand that contact details were not to be given and I would have gone to jail for the kissing! A part of me wanted to say "give me a call in 10 years time" but I thought it wasn't appropriate so kept my mouth closed…I'm learning.

After the balloon artist and face painters it was time for us to decorate the cookies we'd made earlier. We got a selection of M&Ms and coloured Icing and basically just had to go for it to make the craziest shapes and colour combinations possible. Gabriel didn't really like getting his hands dirty so I took care of most of the icing for him (I enjoyed it perhaps a little too much). After the icing was done we gave out gifts to the children and said our goodbyes. 

For me it was a joyous day; a day I've never experienced before and my buddy Gabriel (can officially call him Bro now as by the end of the day there was a definitely a connection) he thanked me for my time and wished me a very merry Christmas and asked me to come back again someday. On my departure he gave me his balloon (pictured above) and one of his cookies.. I had to rush off into a shitty work call with Scotland and missed the actual waving the kids off but I felt extremely touched and in a potentially selfish nutshell felt like I had helped someone and done something worthwhile in my life. Even if it just was for an afternoon.

The epic Christmas Tree Cookie By Gabriel complete with missing M&M

Another lesson I learned this day; was how fortunate I was as a child; never wanting for anything and made me feel a bit ashamed of those tantrums I had thrown when I got the Die Hard Trilogy Game for my Play Station and not the Original Resident Evil game I'd asked for. What a douche I was as a child.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Jack

Doei Nederland, Hello-lah Singapore

It’s been almost a 5 month hiatus since I updated this blog, I’ve been meaning to do it almost every single week since my last update but as they say “time waits for no man” and it certainly doesn’t show me any favoritism. 

So, some big big updates since I last posted on this blog: What can only be described as an online diary; partly for my own entertainment and for those who are bored enough to read it or those unfortunate souls who come across it by accident.  

I guess the biggest change in my life is that I moved, I moved from Diageo Brands BV and I moved from beautiful Amsterdam all the way to South East Asia on the next part of my journey. I’m sitting here typing this blog on the public transport system in my sunny new home town of Singapore. 

Let me side track for a second by saying highlighting the Singapore Public transport rail system otherwise known as the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) – try if you can to imagine being a sardine or an anchovy in a tin of the said fish you buy from the supermarket or even better imagine a packet of cigarettes, machine packaged into your little cardboard box, it’s just like that – and it’s like that pretty much every hour of every day. The Singaporeans in my new work team give me the condolences that “it’s better than Hong Kong” and maybe it is but I’m in Singapore and I f**king hate their public transport system. It’s not inefficient, slow, late or expensive – all the usual complaints us Europeans would highlight it’s just the fact it’s so busy all of the time!

Anyway…. enough of my complaints (for now), the Big D as I like to call it in blogs to try and avoid vindicating myself from negative comments I may be inclined to make have had a reorganization or a change of operating model; whatever corporate sugar you want to sprinkle on it. They decentralized their customer operations as part of the Supply Chain from Amsterdam into the respective markets and just my luck; Asia was the first market in scope. I remember hearing rumors back in May this year that this would happen after the first reorganization of the demand side of the business in Amsterdam and on a Sunny day in June we were pulled into a meeting room and given the “bad” news. The reaction as you can expect was mixed but surprised how tolerable the reaction was from those impacted; if it had been a room full of Mackems or Geordies it would have been very different; trust me. 

So not quite sure what I want to do with myself, with my career or my life I decided to apply for the new roles posted in Asia, pot luck really as I’ve made a few big mistakes in the early part of my career and surprised this was not held against me. To cut a long story short (and to remove all the BS) in the end I got the role and was the only person to move from Amsterdam over to Singapore in the first phase. It all happened very quickly and with rather lucky timing to be honest (Claudio my good Italian friend and roommate also moved over a week before me and our living accommodation had expired right on time). At the end of August, on a sunny Friday afternoon I said my goodbyes to my colleagues in Amsterdam (teary eyed as is usual practice for Jack in these types of situations) and on the 29^th August I took my flight from Schipol destined for Singapore.

The Boeing 737 taking me away from Amsty..

 I landed safe and sound on the sun scorched pavements of Singapore (my first time in Asia actually – quite brave / stupid – feel free to decide) happy to see some of the colonialist actions carried out by the British were still evident (driving on the correct side of the road was the first one I have to mention). I pretty much hit the ground running and started working the day after I arrived. The Big D had arranged for a rather nice studio apartment for me on the 27^th floor of a building close to work at a cost of 7,000 SGD (3,500 GBP) per month which I was very glad I didn’t have to pay – especially considering the place was 30m2 if that but my God It had one hell of a view..

View from the 27th Floor of the One North Bridge apartment building

The first month passed extremely quickly and of course; good things never last; the apartment rented for me was only for a month and post this month of holiday feeling I had to find myself a place to stay; obviously in true Jack style I left everything to the last minute and before I knew it found myself homeless in South East Asia. It was this point where I had to rely on the Italian, the tricolore, one of the nicest guys and epic friends any guy would be lucky to have. Claudio put me up for a week in his place him and his girlfriend were living in…unfortunately I had to play Gooseberry for a week but hey beggers’ can’t be choosers can they? 

During this period I was frantically searching for permanent residency, partly to held out Claudio as I didn’t want to impose on him and his girl any longer but mainly for my state of mind. I guess I follow the Maslow hierarchy more than I ever though and I need a permanent place of residence, somewhere to put my books and hang my coat in order to function properly. During this period of uncertainty I just wasn’t myself at work and was feeling pretty down in the dumps.

I eventually found an epic place; what they call a Condo Apartment here in Singapore, it’s basically shared accommodation in a semi-up market style (i.e. non Government buildings or HDB’s they call them here). It was in a place called Kembangang and had an infinity pool on the roof, a Jacuzzi and a BBQ pit for pleasure. The room was only 550 GBP per month and considering Id been paying 100 quid more a month back in the shitty place I was living in Amsterdam this made a fresh and delightful change. 

Unfortunately I lost out to a pair of boobs; trying not to be sexist here for the possibility of a wider audience but it was a single French guy renting out the place and If I was in his shoes I’d probably have done the same thing. Anyway two good things came out of this viewing; one I met a really cool Filipino guy (the guy who was leaving the apartment) called Oryx who has one of the most beautiful English accents I’ve heard for a non native, almost poetic with a twist of South African. The second good thing to come out of this was the fact that he recommended me to his two friends who were looking for a new roommate and alas this is the place I stay now, in other words it was because of this chance meeting that I’m now living in an epic condominium in a place called Paya Lebar (which means White Swamp in Malay), so if you’re reading this Oryx; thanks a million!

The epic Swimming Pool I have to put up with every day :

 I’ve now been living in this Condo for a couple of months now and I have to say I probably wouldn’t still be here in Singapore or at the Big D for that fact if it wasn’t for Oryx and this new place. I live with two American guys, well when I say American it’s in the most general tone possible – both have American accents but in reality one of them is Mexican (Enrique) and the other a French Canadian (Nico) both of whom are working for 3D Effects companies making and rendering special effects and animation for movies, video games, TV etc. One of those really cool jobs we would all love to do if we’d studied hard enough at school or had the dedication to go for. 

Ok so that’s it for now; we have an up and coming positively gonna be epic BBQ this Saturday (3^rd December 2011) at the BBQ Pits in the Condo with about 40 – 50 people coming. It’s going to be a mash up. Will keep you updated ;) oh and another thing – I must try and post more often to minimize the length of these posts – no one likes reading an essay right?

Peace,

Jack