Year 2019 - A Very Eventful Year, Good and Bad

2019 is a really eventful year to me. Lots of things happened especially in my career. There's good and bad things.

1. RDRT Finance to Lombok (1.5 months, Feb - Apr'19)

First time in my job to be deployed overseas. Lots of first time experiences. 

Went to Singapore on a one-day trip to process Indonesia visa. Went to the Botanical Garden. It was a very nice solo trip. Made up my mind, wherever country I go, I must visit their botanical garden.

Indonesia mission was an eye-opener to me. Made me realise that there are lots of processes in my company that I don't know. And I have the opportunity to work closer to other departments as we interact more frequently (we have weekly meeting with everyone involved), unlike in the regional office, only Head of Department attend meetings. And the topics discussed are closer to the community, unlike in regional office, topics are "higher-up", more on coordination, policies, aims, etc (which I always fell asleep even if I try to stop myself). This was certainly a steep learning curve for me, which helped a lot in laying foundation for my role in Finance Analyst and Senior Finance Officer later in 2019.

Met lots of people from different countries. We went to cinema, karaoke, one-day trip to Gili Islands (snorkelling, island hopping, and got sunburnt where my skin could be literally peeled off). Went hiking to a waterfall also with 2 other Finance colleagues. And we often have dinner and went shopping for groceries together. I missed the times 3 of us discussed any topics that crossed our minds. It was nice to be exchanging opinions in an open way. 

Staying in hotel was a nice experience. Free brakfast, room service, air-cond and comfy bed. The first thing I missed when I stepped into my home back in Malaysia was, the tidied hotel room in Lombok. Haha!

After that, due to visa issue, we had to go to Jakarta. Met colleagues in Jakarta office, and also the national society. Luckily we switched hotel as the first one is carpeted, which I don't really like. The 2nd one is close to office too, we can walk to office.

The traffic is really bad in Jakarta. I was so afraid that I might missed my flight, kept praying hard in the taxi. But later, received whatsapp from Anna that my flight was delayed. 

2. New phone - Huawei P30

Got a new phone for my birthday!! 

My previous phone - Xiaomi had some problems during the last few days in Jakarta. It could not be charged and could not be turned on. But when I reach Jakarta airport, it could be charged and turned on again. 

3. Lost World of Tambun

Four of us had a small family trip to the Lost World of Tambun in Ipoh in May'19. Only me and KW went in the Lost World as we had only 2 tickets. Ours were night tickets. We visited the small zoo, and took a story night walk. Then there's fire performance. There are different temperature of hot spas to soak in. Tried the water slide a few times. I think I'm really scared of slides,scared of being pulled down by gravity quickly... 

4. Hiking at Pine Tree Hill

26th May, joined Wei Gie and his friends for hiking. It was a very loooong hike, around 8 hours in and out. And driving up to Fraser's Hill is also a long-winded road. 

5. Futsal competition - MRCS, IFRC, ICRC

26th Jun 2019

6. Finance Analyst

Covered for Rani from mid July - mid Sept (2 months) as she wemt to Geneva to cover for another person. I was in charged of Pakistan, Indonesia, and PNG. It was a good experience, felt like I was working very closely with the country office's Finance, like we are sitting face-to-face, but actually we were talking through Skype messages and sometimes phone calls. 

Not much things happened when I was in charged, mainly doing SOSC for year 2020, changing of bank authorisers, cash requests, generating and validating financial reports, and document checks. Luckily no launching of DREF or Emergency Appeal, but I don't get to learn about them. 

Mehar started covering for me. It was chaotic at first as we just started Apple Purchase Invoice in mid-June, and she didn't know anything about our financial system - budget codes, budget holders. 

7. Senior Finance Officer
Khairi had a motorbike accident and broke his left hand's bone. I covered for him from mid-Sept to early Dec (2.5 months). This is the bad thing happened in 2019. :(

As I'm not really familiar with his work, had to OT many times. And had to chip in USD 50 also as petty cash did not tally. Mahbe I accidentally gave extra to someone.

8. Staff retreat @ The Orchard Wellness and Health Resort
First time took part in staff retreat because since I joined in 2017, this is the first staff retreat.

In the bus. 

Reached after about 2 hours. 

Lunch when we reached. 

The pool. Had lots of fun during Amazing Race here. And the second day was free time. I swam and played water basketball here with admin and HR. The went cycling with Fairuz. Didn't manage to go to spa as we had only half day for the secon day. 

The EEC team. We had a dance performance! :D

Everyone, before/after Amazing Race? I forgot. 

My team for Amazing Race. Missing Mohammed and Viviane. 

People who stayed overnight. Dinner party~~

December went to a really big and expensive trip to UK and Switzerland with KW. You will see it in another post, if I am hardworking enough to write a post, as it's going to be looonggg. ;)

Year 2020 have a not-so-good start. Grandma passed away, Wuhan coronavirus and Kobe Bryant passed away. Hopefully the rest of the year is going to be GOOD!!

Let's end this post with a happy and colourful picture and hope all is well for 2020!

Deepavali celebration.