Since the last newsletter, it has been an avalanche of activity at my end. Literally a few hours after writing that, I was watching the fireworks, then packing, then flying to Norfolk, then starting work, then fielding what I thought was a scam call, then hopping over to Singapore and SO much more…
New Years Eve
This was the first NYE that I spent with my family and in-laws. I suppose it’s a sign of everyone getting older that having a dinner party and then convincing people to stay up to watch the fireworks is the “fun” thing to do. But fun it was actually in that it was a small group and it wasn’t too stressful (except for the dinner part).
This was also the first time we could see the fireworks from our new place and it WAS STUNNING. There’s something odd about seeing fireworks at eye level. I’m so used to craning my neck up to see the lights in the sky, but not this year…
Norfolk Island
Straight after the fireworks, I had to drop my parents home and then rush home to pack! I had a flight to catch at 6am and it was waaaaaayyy too late at night to sleep since I’m sure I would’ve missed the flight.
A few delirious hours later, I was in the tropical island of Norfolk which is about 2.5hrs east of Sydney. The closest “capital city” is Noumea at 750km north or the tip of New Zealand roughly the same distance south.
It was just what I needed since the whole place subscribed to island time: things happened when they happened and going to the beach or relaxing on a nice day was always the priority…
Scam call?
After coming back from the trip nice and relaxed, it was straight into a heavy week of work and trying to muster up the tradies to finish off the renovations in said new place that we’re planning on moving into soon. (Fun fact, we thought we would’ve moved in over 8 months ago!). In between calls one day, I received one that sounded very much like a scam: “Hey, you’ve won a trip to…” *hangs up the phone*
After about the third attempt, they asked me to stop hanging up and sent me a message in the actual Samsung app saying that I was one of the 2 people from Australia selected to attend their event in Singapore!
Now, I tend to go over my bucketlist every year and one of the things I added at the end of last year was to attend a tech launch event just to see what its like. You can’t buy a ticket: you either need to be media, brand ambassador, influencer or something like that to go. My main curiosity was this: ever since Steve Jobs did his presentations and you saw fans cheering and waving, I wondered if all that these days were genuine excitement or just people cheering because they should?
Looks like I was going to get my chance to find out… if I could get leave from work. 🤣
Singapore
Thanks to some lovely folks at work, I got the necessary days off and managed to tick off a bucket list item! 🎉🎉🎉
This was the biggest prize/sponsored thing I have been fortunate enough to receive to date: flights/accom/food/activities for 2.5 days in Singapore! And during the week of CNY as well!
Samsung gathered about 30 people in total for the launch of the new S23 Ultra. I have been using Samsung phones for a while and watched the events on Youtube. This was going to be a first to be there for the regional launch.
The presentation was attended by local and international influencers, exec, media and more and while some were clearly there just because they had to be, the vibe in the group I was with was genuine excitement: we had the engineering samples of the phones just released in our hands and were experiencing the latest and greatest nice and early!
The next 48 hours were essentially a whirlwind: Samsung SG were just so hospitable and filled every moment with activities or food. The days were 12+ hrs long with creative challenges thrown in too.
It half reminded me of being back in school with a strict timetable where you saw the same people for an extended period of time. It also meant, that just like in school, you actually made friends! The bunch that Samsung managed to gather including the staff running the show were just awesome. There’s a group chat that routinely buzzes still, I still message both the local and the SG staff. We’re actually planning to catch up when they’re next in town!
I could just keep posting photos from the trip because… well, that’s what we were there for! Needless to say, the phone has an amazing camera that isn’t just an incremental update like I was expecting. The night shots especially are just phenomenal as is the quality of the video now. These were probably one of the few weak points in the previous generation that have improved so much in 1 year that it’s astounding.
Samsung also took us to 29 Rooms: a modern/instagrammable art installation that only just opened 2 days ago. We got to explore before the public was allowed in for about 2 hours (that’s where we took the photo with Sangho).
The other thing was food: the SG staff took us to some pretty awesome local restaurants that were delicious and also some that were so new that even my foodie friends in Singapore hadn’t heard of them!
After coming back to Melbourne, it felt as though I had been gone for way longer than 3.5 days. It was jam packed and I had an absolute blast! Thanks Samsung!
Coughs galore
Whew after all that, the dust was starting to settle and we were starting on a new medical year with rotating junior staff. Every year I’m reminded of how old I am now: people that were not even in the specialist training program have just or are about to finish…
I’m not sure if it was all this jam packed activity or if even after reducing my clinical work load, I’m at a load that STILL too high, but for the past 5 days, I’ve had the worst sore throat and cough. It’s delayed a bunch of things including writing this, doing a competition for some of the left over 2023 calendars that was meant to have been done by now and more.
Looking back, this last year I’ve been unwell with coughs and colds wayyyy more than anytime in the past. It’s like my body is determined to tell me to slow down. Even after 5 days of rest, I’m still coughing up gunk and I’m not sure I’ll be ok to go to work tomorrow 🤯 This has been the single longest stretch I’ve had off bar knee surgery years ago.
Whew, with that, I’m going to bed and hopefully shaking this off. If you haven’t already, please do fill out the link (https://forms.office.com/r/fe8JW52gqZ) with regards to the newsletter and I’ll see you in the next one!