Completed!

I have completed my MBA studies with the final exams and submission of the final capstone project over the weekend. I was totally exhausted after spending 16 hours on the final paper and the worst thing was I couldn't sleep after that! It was 5+am and I was having such terrible heartburn that I had to sit up the whole time in bed and even vomited gastric juice! I guess either I was too tired or I was too hungry...Anyway, it's all over now and I should get my results by mid-February. Then I will need to decide if I want to get the University of Melbourne transcript or the U21Global transcript...Oh well, will decide later.

Went for a checkup with the gynae and was told that the baby is quite big. In 3 weeks, baby has put on 700g and I am now in 33 weeks. I will see the gynae again in 2 weeks and we will see how fast this little fellow is growing inside me. I think he is in a hurry to come into this world to meet daddy and mummy and the rest of his family! He is so active! I did a calculation and decided that he should probably be induced in week 38 or early week 39 so that he won't get too big for me to handle. Anyway, I just pray for a smooth delivery to a healthy and strong baby!

Going into week 11

Going into week 11 now but still very sleepy at the office...In fact, I was so sleepy yesterday that I couldn't wake up in the morning and had to go to the warehouse late...reached around 11:20am. I have been having these weird wild dreams lately. Dreamt of swimming, eating really bland-tasting foods that my MIL made for me and also dreaming of having another poodle to mate with Coffee...I would wake up in the middle of the night and when I fell asleep again, the dreams would sort of continue from where I had stopped. Funny.

I am also having this very painful ache at the tailbone since yesterday. Couldn't sit down at my desk for long, had to stand up and walk around every now and then...awkward. S gave me a link to a Pilate instructor's blog and she had a couple of exercises that pregnant women can do from the 2nd trimester, so I think I will start on that once I am into my 13th week. I think it will be good for me. I have gained 5kgs so far and my appetite is really good. So at this rate, I think I am going to be overweight very soon if I don't look after myself. I definitely don't want to be more than 70kgs at the end of it again!

Oh, the grade for my 13th subject was out, I have mananged to score another B+ which is good enough for me. My 14th subject's final exams will be this weekend and I hope to get at least another B. I am currently also studying Supply Chain Management and will start on Corporate Social Responsibility in Sep. Then if I start the 17th (Management of Services) and 18th (Capstone) subject in Oct, I will be able to finish my MBA in Jan 2011, before the baby arrives! It will be really tough but I guess if I were to drag until the baby comes along, it will be even tougher...so *sigh* I hope I will be feeling energetic in my trimester so that I can deal with it.

Weekend Update ~ Operations Management Final Exams

Completed my 7th subject with the final exams for Operations Management and I have 11 more subjects to go. I was kind of disappointed with the exams question though because it was a really stupid question. Instead of requiring me to write a report using the concepts and theories that I have learnt in Operations Management, it asked me to find data on the trend of Toyota's recent recalls and from that information, find the root cause to the quality issues and recommend some quality management program to Toyota. Most of the theories and concepts we studied in Operations Management comes from Toyota and now for the final exams, I need to recommend Toyota something new? It's ridiculous!

Anyway, I downloaded the question at around 9pm on Saturday night after coming home from dinner with hubby and basically got so fedup with the question that I slept through it. I woke up at around 7am to do the paper and submitted by 1pm. I don't know how but I managed to squeeze 1900 words out and after that I was totally drained...

Who will emerge stronger?

I have just been through a week of intensive discussions that turned into arguments from one of my online classmates. I used "from" and not "with" because I did not argue with him and neither did any of our other classmates but he kept sending us argumentative statements whenever we gave opionions different from him. *Sigh* Some people just cannot take differing opinions...

I am doing "Managing International Business" and the first topic for discussion that the professor put up was "Where do you think the next generation of world-class competitors will come from and why?" That classmate of mine immediately mentioned China, India and Brazil with "supernatural" confidence that China will overtake the US as the world's leader by the year 2030. A few other classmates and I commented that we are not so confident about that due to the economic crisis that the whole world is facing right now. China who is the factory of the world is definitely not spared, the economic tsunami is sweeping down many factories in China. Many people are out of job and many more will soon be. Fresh graduates can't find jobs and the next batch will be out in a few months. According to the estimation, more than 6 million jobs have been lost last year in China and I wonder how can China create so many jobs for her people if foreign companies are not investing in China anymore. Many nations are giving tax breaks to attract firms to remain in their home countries so that their people will have jobs. In this economic siuation, it's only natural to practice Nationalism.

Example from my own company, I was asked to cut heads and the first target naturally went to the contract staff instead of the permanent staff. Then the other departments also started to lay off staff and the local staff were sacrificed. Yesterday, 12 local staff were laid off and it was really kind of sad to see it happening. I doubt that they will be able to find jobs any time soon in this economic situation. I just hope that all of them will be ale to ride it out. The Japanese expatriates however, are asked to take unpaid leaves but their jobs are secured.

I have joined this company for 7 years and I have been hearing from those staff who have been with us for much longer that this company do not lay off staff. We have been growing steadily in Asia from the 80s through the 90s and then into the 21st century. Despite the 1997 Asian econimic crisis and the 2003 SARS outbreak, we continued to grow. However, this economic tsunami seems to have rocked us now. When will the situation become better? Which nation and which company will emerge stronger?

I believe those countries with rich natural resources, good infrasture, smaller but better skilled working population and a strong government will emerge from this situation stronger. What do you think?

2 down and 16 more to go!

I have just received my final score for my second subject on Managerial Economics. Final exams score 79 and overall score 85! *Phew~* Thank God! And thank you, hubby!

The day of the exams, which was just 4 days after my discharge from the hospital for viral infections, I was still very sick from taking the dosage of anti-biotic prescribed by the stupid doctor. The anti-biotic was so strong that it was not only killing the virus but also killing whatever good cells I had in me too, I think. I was so weak and in so much pain that I couldn't sit up for long. It was like every half an hour I sat up, I had to lay down for more than an hour to recuperate. Luckily for me, hubby helped and I am more than grateful with the final outcome! 2 down, both scoring 85 and above, what more can I ask for?

I will start my 3rd subject on Marketing Management on the 15th December and then the 4th in February 09, 5th in March 09, 6th in May 09, 7th in June 09...at this rate, I guess I will really need 3 full years to complete all 18 subjects. Unless I squeeze in 3 subjects at the same time? Hmm...

1 down and 17 more to go...

Sorry for not blogging for so long, folks. I have been really really busy with my studies these days. I have just completed my 1st subject on Organisational Behaviour and had my final exams over the weekend. *Phew*

It was an open-book exams, fully online and I have exactly 24 hours after downloading the exams question to submit online. I really love studying like this, I woke up around 11am on Saturday, made myself some nice hazelnut latte, log-in to U21Global campus and started to download my exams paper. It was very relaxing, definitely much better than having to go to a venue for the exams. The best thing about it was, I didn't have to worry about getting to the venue on time, no worry if the place will be overly air-conditioned like most indoor places in Hong Kong and I didn't even have to worry about having to do my make-up and hair! I was still in my pajama when I started to work on my paper. :D

It was quite a long paper, I had to give a proposal as an organisational change management consultant to this imaginary large IT firm based in New York who have just acquired an Indian IT firm and was facing many challenges both internally and with the workers union in the US. I was expected to give the CEO a coherent change management plan to help him solve all the problems that his firm was facing and get the firm back on track for revenue growth. Open-book as it was, the paper was not easy. I was expected to submit a proposal within 24 hours with standards comparable to a team assignment with long deadline. I worked through the day, stopping only for meals, shower and I worked through the night. By the time I completed my proposal, it was 18 hours later! Yes, I worked til I saw day-light at 6am the next morning...

Hubby was sweet, he stayed up the whole time just in case I needed help from him with the PC, made me coffee late in the night and ocassionally gave me kisses for "mental support". He also helped me find the perfect coverpage for the proposal from Office 2007 templates.

*Phew~*

I have just completed my 1st draft of the team assignment on Managerial Economics and posted up for my team-mates to comment. I am the last one to contribute so I was actually quite anxious. I was even thinking about the assignment in my sleep last night! I am a little relieved now...*phew~*

The rash all over my body has more or less subsided but I am experiencing very dry skin now. Some of the areas where the spots have subsided are starting to peel a little. I think I may be moulting...will my skin be baby-smooth after that? I certainly hope so! :D

The stock market is still in chaos but I don't really care. I don't buy stocks, not anymore. I have lost like about SGD200K during the 90s and I have since refrained from trading stocks. I have no luck to make fast money, it's my life, I have to work for my money and I consider myself lucky that I have enough to live comfortably.

A typhoon is approaching Hong Kong again and we are expecting that the Observatory will put up a Tropical Storm Warning Signal 8 tonight. Many colleagues are hoping that the signal will be up tomorrow morning instead so that we don't have to come to work though. For me, as long as I have internet connections, I don't really mind where I am, at work or at home. These days, I am practically studying online like that of a full-time student. I am either reading my textbooks or online course materials or reading my classmates' posts and responding to them. I am actually kind of addicted to this kind of online learning. I log on everyday! It takes quite a lot of discipline of course since there's no real classroom to attend. There are times I wish that I don't have to study but the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment after I submit my assignments is really overwhelming!

*The sweet after the bitter really tastes SWEETER!*