On Hitting a Major Work Milestone at Circles.Life and Turning 27

Hey folks, just thought I’d do a quick personal post. In a blink of an eye, yet another month is about to come to a close. Unbelievable that it’s only eight days to the end of May. This month was out of this world.

Werk, werk, werk, werk, werk at Circles.Life

At the start of May, I launched Singapore’s first digital telco, alongside a remarkably tight and diverse team. It’s not on my bucket list or a dream of mine to work in the telecommunications industry, but I was compelled to give the crazy start up life and David v.s. Goliath challenge a go after meeting with Circles.Life co-founder, Rameez.

Yep, launched a telco alright.

I just have to say, bad idea wearing those heels, because I was on my feet all day on launch day.

In the few meetings we had before I made up my mind, he openly shared his motivations for setting up a telco in a market that hasn’t seen a new player since 1998 (not including the short-lived Virgin Mobile-Singtel joint venture) and also about the product that would be launched. Just from those meetings, I had this strong gut feeling that this was the right move and that Circles.Life was a company I wanted to work for.

With Rameez addressing influencers at the launch event

When I heard about how the Circles.Life service would allow me to customise my plan every single month without any admin cost, boost data when I was running low in small increments that wouldn’t burn a hole in my pocket ($1 for 100MB, $2 for 250MB, $3.50 for 500MB) and allow me to manage everything through an app they developed, I was sold. “Whether I get the job at Circles.Life or not, I am getting myself on that service,” I remember telling myself. I couldn’t wait for it to be launched whether I was a part of the team or not.

What do ‘ya know? Here I am… I’m the friendly person answering comments on the Circles.Life Facebook Page till late, rolling out social media posts, churning out content, trawling the web for mentions, organising community events, meeting with influencers and working closely with our Happiness Experts in the Customer Service team. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s intense AND keeping me real busy.

How I forgot my birthday

On the personal front, I just turned 27 a couple of days ago!

Oh hey, I’m 27.

I was so busy, I actually forgot it was my birthday. I knew it was this month, but I just lost track of time and when it rolled around, I was in a fix. I actually agreed to head to a friend’s “Hen’s Night” on my birthday. Thankfully, the F Man, being the world’s best boyfriend (yes, six years running of winning the award), reminded me of my own birthday and his dinner plans for us a day before, so I had time to say my sorries. Opps!

So friends, you really don’t have to feel bad if you forgot to wish me a Happy Birthday until you saw a birthday notification pop up on Facebook. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the F Man, Facebook would probably have notified me of my birthday too.

Best boyfriend of the year as nominated by my BFFs (again)! Give this man a Tiger Beer.

I was also too tied up with work and assignments to really give the F Man any ideas for where to go, but I think he did a pretty goo job of figuring that one out.

He brought me out for a simple candlelight dinner at this little cosy restaurant called Fosters Steakhouse, apparently around since the ’60s. Okay lah, the candles are the regular tea light types, but since the lights were dimmed down quite a bit, I think it totally counts as a candlelight dinner.

Tadah! Candlelight dinner!

Birthday dinner at Fosters Steakhouse

Nothing too fancy, we took on a three-course set dinner each. Soup, mains, dessert and a iced tea for the both of us came up to around $100 with taxes included.

It was obviously a steak for me (because all celebrations in the name of Carrie should always involve red meat) and salmon for him (because he is beef-adverse).

This place is so darn cosy and warm.

Everything was really quite good. Food was good for the price, but what really stood out was the ambience and service here. The service staff working the floor were Singaporeans and the way the service was done, just felt so familiar, warm and “homely”. I guess this is getting a little rare in Singapore these days. I have nothing against foreign service staff and they can be such darlings as well, but it doesn’t really feel the same.. It reminded me of a time when the restaurants and shops were still staffed by a mostly local crowd.

There was also this one cute auntie that came over and sang me a birthday song with such gusto and excitement. I didn’t know what to do other than awkwardly clapping along and grinning. For someone fairly confident, I do still let my inner weirdo out in the open sometimes.

Resting bitch face is back. I was actually happy okay.

Anyhow, I did share my thoughts on turning 27 on my personal Facebook account and I’ll just recap it here because I think it’s really important to me.

Seth Godin once said (or at least he’s often quoted),

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.

I am truly blessed to have a job I love such that every challenge is never too hard to find joy in, a family that cares for me in their own little ways, great friends (both online and offline) who bear with my schedule malfunctions and idiosyncrasies, support in the form of superhero, The F Man, and a group of solid besties who are such constants even in an ever-changing world, keeping me grounded.

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