My last entry as a bachelor

About 2 weeks has passed without me posting anything new or worthwhile on my blog and I believe this will be the last entry made by me as a bachelor or some would say as the most eligible bachelor =p. Its been super hectic with the past couple of weeks, my time management skill is tested to the max, first of all I have to sit for an exam, study for it, attend whole loads of meetings, resolve issues that could potentially imploded on my face, take part in crisis management meeting, beat dateline and all of these are carried out in parallel with the wedding preparation and all the family discussion to be attended, opinions to be weighed out and of course some of it will be discarded. Suffice to say, I feel like I'm multiplexing my resources to the brim.

Oh, the solemnization ceremony is approaching and it’s already less than 48 hours away, the feeling of nervousness starts to encroach into my gut, but it is still bearable. I still couldn't tell which one is more nerve wrecking, the all important vow and nod from solemnization witnesses or the mystery questions that will be asked by the district kadi.

In a totally unrelated news, unfortunately my honeymoon to Beijing has been canceled due to the fact that the travel agency couldn’t find 10 people to fill the minimum quota for their operation team to give them the green light to go ahead. Frankly, I'm quite frustrated with Reliance level of service and professionalism, they waited until the very last minute to cancel the tour and inform me. Luckily my boss was kind enough to allow me to change my annual leave application form so I can move forward my leaves.

Aftermath of the tour cancellation, I decided to book a flight to London for our honeymoon, hey! Why waste 10 days of leave that's very hard to come by? Then Reliance proceeded to screw this up again, the original price they quoted to me and the final price quoted difference is quite huge, the difference is about 1.7k. I'm not talking about additional taxes or anything which could be quite complex to be calculated but the flight ticket and hotel accommodation disparity will be a astounding 1.7k. Anyway after all of the things that has been said and done, I decided to book it, my only concern right now is on the subject of the London tour is about the fact that London is one of the most severely hit Capital city with H1N1 virus. Hopefully the health authorities won't cancel the trip or impose any travel ban to countries that are critically impacted by H1N1. By the way, our hotel will be quite near to Stamford Bridge and I must say although I'm not a Chelsea fan, couldn't wait to snap pictures there. Maybe I will even share some of it in this blog. Hopefully no more cancellation from Reliance or any travel restriction imposed during our honeymoon.

Just a quick update on my exam, I barely pass the examination and I managed to scrape through by just 4-5 points margin. I didn't expect to be questioned on EMC Symmetrix or EMC Celerra, for god sakes! The exam was supposed to be Backup and Recovery design, what has Celerra Gateway got anything to do with it? Granted, they wanted us to know everything but at least have the decency to highlight what should we expect from the exam. Nonetheless, I will be taking my final exam for Technology Architect Track after my long holidays, just couldn’t find the time to squeeze in another exam and the preparation for it before my wedding.

I wish to advice any future bride or groom to be, please start saving your hard earned salary from now, you may think you will have ample time to start saving but it will too little to late once reality starts to kick in. Just imagine all your moolah will start vanishing from thin air in a heartbeat.

Wedding preparation wise - I think I got it all covered - but of course with a few minor hiccups here and there, but not to fret as nothing serious has actually transpire so far.

I will be updating this blog once I cross the bridge to the other side and become a husband.

I’m in a joyous and elated mood and it’s hard to think straight when you are in a stupor

Regards,

MARK