The repeat of the same incident in less than 6 months. Sometimes you wonder whether people take the meaning of life seriously. Do anybody ever wonder how their family will feel?

As you pen down these thoughts, you are filled with disappointment and sadness. In between your fighting the strategy war and trying to complete your assignment for submission on Monday, you are dealing with this unfortunate incident. 

It drains you totally as you make the necessary call and dictate the actions to be adopted. You wonder why your immediate superior could be so aloof to these and not be pro-active in driving these efforts. You finally understand why your department has never been held in regard by the rest. 

Despite the feelings of disappointment, you stay positive and tell yourself that in the face of adversities, you have to be strong and demonstrate leadership to your team. But you can only hold for so long for there's no abyss in anyone's tolerance. At times like this, you wish that there would be someone to share these woes with, to have someone to give you a hug to tell you that everything is going to be fine.

But alas, you choose not to burden anyone with such trivial issue for everyone have their own problems to handle. You choose to numb yourself by pumping iron and drinking. Perhaps by doing so, you will tire yourself out and forget everything. For the time being. 

With the recent tumble in the oil prices, it's no wonder that the entire world is suffering from a prolong cold, especially in the Oil and Gas (O and M in short) industry. Indeed this episode is a classroom training by itself as you see what you have learnt coming alive. 

From the Strategic HRM perspective, downsizing has already occurred in your competitor's company as they struggle to stay afloat. In your classmate's company where merger and acquisition (M and A) has happened, it doesn't take much to figure out when it would be your fellow Strategic Business Unit's (SBU) turn. Given that un-named sources have mentioned that a potential takeover may be possible, it doesn't take long for anyone to figure out what will happen if they come back to the parents' fold as a 100% owned subsidiary.

Massive Organization Business Process Review or better known as Restructuring.

You worry about some of your friends, including J's him, who are working in that SBU. Would they be made redundant like their compatriots in the competitor's company? At the end of the day, it's a just a matter of time. It's simple maths. In order to stay afloat, it's either, downsize, freeze all wage increases or cut the monthly variable component. 

You remembered what your lecturer once said; The longer one stays employed in the company, the lower their employability would be. From the Industrial Relations perspective, they are only eligible for limited representation by the trade union as they fall under the PMET umbrella (pay more than $4500). 

The episode in the SBU has served as a timely reminder for your own SBU as its something which can happen if the rate of change within the company does not match the external environment's dynamic change. From the Organization Development (OD) perspective, human behaviour and culture plays a part as they are resistant to change. It's only through crisis where people get shaken up and are forced to adapt.

And adapt to the constantly changing environment one should, as they seek to stay relevant in today's economy. Through re-skilling or multi-skilling, one would be able to start in another industry. Even if the pay may not be as high as one may expect, staying employed beats staying at home watching the money dry up. 

You know how difficult it can be, for you went through that and even took a massive pay cut in order to get a job. But at the end of the day, if one perseveres, nothing is impossible.

2 Individual Assignments due at the end of this month for continuous assessment..

2 Strategy Papers due at the end of this month for Board presentation..

喘 is the new norm..Such is the fact that time has become a commodity which you are rationing carefully these days. But staying busy is good for it focuses your mind and stops it from drifting towards the memories of the past. Just like what you told a friend that positive reinforcement through positive thoughts will make one a happier person, you are conditioning yourself to do so.

In addition, with the lacklustre market performance these days, it's an opportune time to shop for stocks or invest in FOREX to build up more financial wealth for the house and other big ticket items for the next 2 years. With all the financial planning (including the types of housing loan) completed, all you need to do now is to continue saving up and execute the phase 1 of your master plan by the end of the year.

You parked the car and gazed towards the apron where the gleaming private jets stood in silence, the turbine blades wind-milling in the breeze. The peaceful silence was broken by a single-engine general aviation aircraft taxiing onto the active runway.

Tower: "Echo Victor Alpha, Runway 03, clear for take-off"
You: "Runway 03, clear for take-off, Echo Victor Alpha"

For that moment in time, you were in that cockpit, hands on the throttle and yoke, eyes alternating between the instruments and runway, feet on the rudder to counteract the propeller's torque as you sped down the runway.

"Airspeed alive, all green."
"60 knots, rotate."

Within moments, you lifted the aircraft off its earthly chains and soared into wild blue yonder. That exhilarating feeling of being back into the air again!!

But a shout from your friend brought you back. For a moment still an alien, still a stranger to the ground, you are home. The longing eyes followed the aeroplane until the drone of propellers disappeared, returning the airfield back to silence and you went off for the morning breakfast.

  

After looking at the organization's earnings last year and coupled with news that your oil & gas counterparts are not doing well, it doesn't take a genius to decipher that the quantum for this year's performance bonus would be reduced.

It's disappointing when you have put in so much effort only to take a reduced quantum because of the need to take one for the TEAM. Like the rest of the colleagues in the know, you wonder on a personal note why this is necessary as they have not always been a team player. In fact animosity runs deep between the various elements as both are separate listed entities yet under the same umbrella. 

Unfortunately, these politicking are beyond your pay-grade and the decisions made by the senior management would sometimes be an insight of the things to come. In your own view, its just a matter of time before across-the-board business processes review takes place and redundancy exercises are executed. The only thing one can now do is stay relevant and employable through constant skills upgrading.

Setting up your own pad is considered one of the important milestones of your life. With the eligibility dateline getting closer, you have become more excited at the prospect of it. A house of your own!!

While the inability to share the costs by name can be financially challenging, the flip side is that your future other half can purchase another property for investments without worrying about the Additional Buyers Stamp Duty (ABSD). 

With the required list of electrical appliances and furniture incorporated into your fittings budget plans, you have started checking out the pricing data in order to build an accurate picture. While the renovation budget in still in progress, you are confident that it would be close to your budget given your pricing knowledge, which has been garnered from 1 year of work in the industry.

Talk about long term planning. That's always been your forte. Even if the plans may deviate, it shouldn't be an issue given your propensity to fight fires. Trained fire-fighter you are...

The need to cultivate inner peace and discipline takes on a bigger meaning when the mind runs wild from the demands of work and studies. You feel your chest stifling, your heart-rate goes up and the head is clamped in-between a bench clamp with every turn of the screw making it equally stifling.

It's not desirable as your sleep is affected and fatigue permeates through the body. You know that you are under plenty of stress and you need a systematic approach to reduce it. But yet you are applying a short-term solution to a potentially long term issue by relying on loads of coffee to fight it. At this rate you are going, you wonder whether your health would be affected given the amount of stress you are under.

You can't afford to have any major component within the body to break down as it would be detrimental to your ability to fly. Remember the saying: A pilot who can't fly is as good as nothing. Even if you are one of the many few who have dropped out from the aviation community due to work and financial commitments, the ability to fly is all that you have to remind yourself that you are of a different breed. Looking at the recent health scares which has affected those close to you has reinforced the fact that you are no longer as fit and young as you once were. Hence you would have to force yourself to eat healthy, exercise MORE frequently and keep yourself in a fighting fit condition. (Note to self: Time to schedule yourself for a pilot medical in the middle of the year to prepare for flying again).

Despite addressing the physical needs, nourishing the emotional and mental needs remains a challenge to resolve. Sometimes the need for that warm and emotions-laden touch/hug/cuddling which somehow assures you that someone is sharing your woes and joy can be overwhelming. But you try your best to adapt, focusing those nervous energies on books and work. Despite the temptations to seek transaction-based gratifications, you know that the time and finances can be better utilized to seek more meaningful things.  

But having been rejected and ghosted in favour of more stable options, you are apprehensive about walking into that minefield and getting blown up again. While close friends and their spouses have urged you to take that leap of faith again, deep down, you are fearful of the same scenario happening again. 

Being blown up once is considered careless.

Being blown up for the second time is considered thick-headed. 

But getting blown up for the third time? Totally foolish.

You do not have much left to be blown up and if you continue this way, the only thing left would be bits and pieces of you, which can be blown by the wind. So its better to cultivate that inner peace and discipline.

Late nights spent in school and work is starting to define 2016 as you start off the week.

On school, the new lecture on Organization Development is an interesting one, albeit long-winded one with plenty of story telling. And it's also during the first lecture that the lecturer dropped a 2000-pound bomb on everybody; Individual Assignment is due on 1 Feb 2016.  Counting back the timeline, one can safely say that it's less than 4 weeks.

As an ever-green program, there will be new students every semester and this semester is no exception. Surprisingly, the majority of them are from the public sector with one of them from your former organization. Unfortunately, you didn't have a chance to strike up a conversation as you were late for class. Perhaps the next lecture you will attempt to make conversation to find out more and network.

But that aside, there are some new students which you potentially would network with in order to further the professional work relationships. You always believe in networking and building personal relationships in order to make it easier to get things resolved before the need to make it official pops up. Indeed, the useful mess culture where business can be resolved over a mug of beer has equipped you with these inter-personal relationship skills and come in handy in the private sector.

While school promises to be an exciting one, the work is becoming more challenging as you developed a KPI framework for the department and pieced all the data in order to analyzed the trends. It's not easy given that no one has done it before and you are practically applying the knowledge gained from the classes to design something from scratch. But it's an interesting experience and being able to be part of the strategy team and translate it into functional plans is something that makes the job satisfying.

But is that comparable to having a view of the heavens at 35,000 ft and watching sunset/sunrise while flying a jet? Definitely not. 

It has been a fruitful long weekend as you caught up with the ex-squadron mates, getting some office work done and kick-off the budgeting process in the areas of furnishings and appliances for the new house. Unfortunately, time is never enough and you never had enough time to catch up on the reading.

But one thing has indeed changed; you have lost interest in those sleazy and dark watering holes, preferring those relaxing drinking places with a good live band (i.e Paulaners). Not only have you outgrown these places which were defining moments in your younger years, you are starting to feel the after-effects of late nights which you makes you lethargic for a few days. 

With 2015 gone and the long weekend over, it's time to start off the new work and schooling year. Like all students, you are headed back to school tomorrow to complete the final semester of your graduate diploma program. And common to all students, you always hate the first day of school where you have to jump-start the mental engine which have been left dormant after the exams. But you are also looking forward to school; to absorb new knowledge and to catch up with your classmates.

And of course, you are also looking forward to a big variable bonus payout, which you hope would be substantial as your appraisal has been good. Yet by looking at the economy and low crude price, you just hope that it would not be too disappointing. 

1. Stay away from J's life as much as possible. She has already chosen the safest and most secure route where predictability and stability is the cornerstone of her relationship goal, one where she can stay in control of. All you can do is silently cheer her on and wish her the best. <<Looking good so far. As far as you are concerned, you will not and would not do anything to jeopardize her current way of life>>;

2. Train for and obtain that elusive IPPT Gold. <<Not achieved due to back injury>>;

3. Proceed with your 5 year plan of saving and investing aggressively for that house and car that you have set your sights on. In between this, you will continue on your quarterly holiday breaks to recharge. <<On track. Still striving to save even more money.>>;

4. Pick up diving after a hiatus of 2 years. It will be integrated as part of the quarterly break. Time to take out the regulators, BCD and wet suit. <<Haven't been diving at all due to time and according of priority to saving up>>;

5. Head back to school for a certifiable skill set, which in this case, is that Graduate Diploma in HR. <<On track. One more semester and you would be graduating from the program>>;

6. Study and attempt that 14 ATPL exam papers.<<Not achieved. You decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach until you land the pilot job>>

Besides the above-mentioned hits-and-misses, one surprising thing to have happened was to have your photo published in a commemorative book by Chevrons. While it may not be those award-winning photos in National Geographic, it's a recognition of your photography ability.

Moving forward, you are going to make sure that 2016 is going to be a good year. Your resolutions for 2016 are;

2016 Resolutions

1. To take to the skies again and regain your flying currency;

2. To go for a long trip at least once a year. <>

3. Start hunting for and get the house which you have yearn for.

4. Start doing long runs again.

As for the relationship department, while you hope to find a partner-in-crime, you are still apprehensive about giving your heart to anyone. Like how the BFF's wife put it, you have to learn to let go of the past, one which you are slowly learning to. When asked which type of girl you seek, its nothing more complicated than someone who is compassionate, accept you for who you are, outdoor and sporty person.

While 2015 has plenty of ups and downs like the stock-market, 2016 will be better for you are the one in control of how you want it to be. And to you, the best is yet to be.