Two weeks ago, we had a PE meetup in Singapore. :)
Singapore PE meetup, Jun 23, 2013
The turnout was great with 25 people attending! Thank you so much to all of you for coming. :D
Antonia, Celes, Alice, Le Leng. Antonia was my sponsored image coach back when I was doing my sponsored Lunch Actually service. Le Leng knew me from attending my talks in National Library back in 2009. We have since become very good friends! :D
Serina, Myself, and Mel. Mel attended the Halloween Meetup in SG last year as well!
Clarabelle, Wanxuan, Roxanne, Celes, Hendri, Hong Wei. The three beautiful ladies got to know each other from last year’s PE meetup and became very good friends since then! I love that the meetups have become forums to meet like-minded friends. :D
Serina, Ngee Key, Dolly, Celes, Ken. Serina is Ngee Key’s friend while Ngee Key and Dolly were participants of my passive income course last year. Ken is my then-boyfriend and now fiance. :)
The meetup was actually a readers meetup in conjunction with my 29th birthday celebration. For those of you who don’t know, it was my birthday on 25 June. I wasn’t expecting to get any gifts, so imagine my surprise when one-third of the people turned up with gifts. To those of you who turned up with presents–Le Leng Mama, Wanxuan, Roxanne, Antonia, Ngee Key, Serena, Sam, Hilda, and Wen–thank you so much! I can’t thank you enough.
Birthday gifts. Yes, that’s a very calorie-controlled piece of cake at the bottom of the image.
My favorite gift has to be the one from Ngee Key. It’s a Russian Doll which comprises of a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed inside one another. I like it because I feel that it is an object of symbols and meaning.
Russian doll from Ngee Key
This is Sam, a recent PE reader, together with me
Sam got me the most personalized gift I can ever ask for–he custom made a birthday card for me! I originally thought he bought it from some classy bookstore until I saw my face on the card. I thought, “That can’t be right! Why would a birthday card have my face?” Thank you so much for your card Sam–it’s so thoughtful and sweet! :D
Sam’s birthday card for me
Wanxuan, a long-time PE reader, got me a book–Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute. Seems like it’s a book on conflict management. I’ve never heard of it before but it sounds interesting. Thanks Wanxuan, I’ll surely check it out! :D
Gift from Wanxuan–The Anatomy of Peace
No birthday gathering is complete without the singing of a birthday song, so everyone gathered to sing a birthday song for me.
Singing birthday song
Making a birthday wish… I wished to always be happy and for everyone to always be happy too. :)
A production house working with MediaCorp was there that day to film me for an upcoming documentary, so cameras were rolling the whole time. To those of you who were at the event that day–I hope it didn’t disrupt your meetup experience!
Filming crew. That’s Ben and Sha.
After the initial ice breaking and birthday song singing, the attendees were free to mingle with one another.
Participants mingling. From left to right–Hong wei, Hendri, Wanxuan, Roxanne, Clarabelle
More attendees. We took up about half the cafe that day!
Attendees having interesting small group discussions :)
Filming crew getting in on the action during the meetup
Once again, thanks everyone for taking the time to attend. :) Some of you wanted to come but couldn’t make it; I hope you guys can make it for the next meetup then, whenever it is. :) Usually the meetup frequency is about once to twice a year.
(Images: Personal Excellence)
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Looks like so much fun – it would be brilliant to get PE meetups happening all around the world, wherever there are at least two of us PE people close to each other! You need a database we can all register on or something :)
Hey AnnaBee, it was indeed very fun! :D
That is actually an excellent suggestion. There have been local PE readers who have linked up with each other offline to meet up in their private time–Glenn and Charles (long-time PE readers) come to mind.
I think the PE Forums (https://personalexcellence.co/forums/) is an excellent venue to find local PE readers and pitch meetups with them. I’ll have to think about how to implement this idea on a larger scale though moving forward.
Wow that looks like so much fun! I’m so glad you had a great birthday! =D
On another note, I’m sorry about the waitress giving you a hard time. My only guess is what you’ve already said: she thought you were just going to use the space without ordering. Not saying that excuses her behavior in any way, but I could see why she might feel threatened by that, as it is her job to be a server for you guys!
Love seeing all the pictures, it looks like a lot of fun!
Hey Calae, thanks for your well wishes! =D
I felt her unwelcoming behavior was totally unnecessary because I’m a staunch regular of the cafe (or at least, I was) and she should know that because she has been working there for a while and she sees me there all the time. It’s just disappointing service at the end of the day; I expected better from a place I’ve been a loyal patron at and which I’ve been referring so many people to. On the bright side, it now creates the opening to explore new eateries/places because I had previously been “walled up” in going to just that restaurant only!
Hope to have a meetup in your neighborhood one day, Calae! :) Which state do you live in?
I live in Pennsylvania! =) That would be awesome to get to meet you some time!
Ah I was there two years ago! Though I was in Philly and I recall you live in the suburbs, outside the city area?
When I’m at school, I’m near-ish Philly! I can take a train to Reading Terminal Market from near my college, not sure if you were near there when you were in Philly! I had no idea you’d been here before, that’s crazy! It was probably before I started reading your blog. =)
Haha, I remember you mentioned this during a 30DLBL run last year, IIRC! It’s a pity we missed each other when I was in Philly, but you are right that I think it was before you even knew about PE. I believe you just came across the blog early last year?
Hopefully we can meet one day when I return to Philly, or if you ever come to this part of the world. In the meantime there is always PE connecting all of us! :)
It was around this time last year, probably May/June-ish if I recall correctly. I just remember signing up for one of your 30 Day runs in time for July!
I do hope we get to meet someday too, as I hope to stay and work in/near Philly if possible after I graduate! I’m sure things will work out somehow to ensure we meet, and like you said, there’s always PE!
Thanks Celes for the invitation and I’m glad to be there to celebrate your birthday and also to see your finance Ken :)
I’m glad you like the Russian doll too.
Really happy for you that beautiful things are coming to your way. Let me know if there is anything I can help out, including your bid day next June :)
Hey Ngee Key, thanks again for being there with me on my special day! :)
You are actually very cordially invited to my wedding next year, which also happens to be my birthday on 25 June 2014. :) Let me know if you can make it in this post: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/wedding-ceremony/. I’m giving you the heads up one year in advance! :)
What are friends for Celes… it’s so special to spend this day with you and the rest of your readers :)
Yes, your date is already logged into my brain. Let me know what I can assist you in your wedding… it should be interesting and creative :)
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