Tonight, I met Malcolm Groves (Regional Product Director, Asia Pacific, Borland Software Corporation) for beer at Penny Black, near Boat Quay.

Surprisingly, I wasn't drunk. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our meeting was 1800 hrs. Malcolm had emailed me 2 weeks ago saying that he'll be in Singapore this week, and would I like to catch up? I answered positively.

I turned up at Boat Quay around 1750 hrs and was walking around, when he SMS me. So, I went to Penny Black and looked around for him. Since I'm learning how to network and entertain, and he was drinking a beer, I had one too, to be polite. Since this is my first time drinking a beer, I had gotten myself prepared. I've learnt in the past that it's easy to get drunk if you've an empty stomach, so before I went, I took my dinner, around 1630 hrs.

We touched on a variety of topics, including how each of us got into software development, Delphi, our wives, language barriers with our parents, HDB flats, private condominiums. Of course, we talked about future career direction, and Borland stuff, stuff that I don't think I'll say anything on.

We had quite a merry chat for about 2.5 hrs, and subsequently, we parted. Before parting, Malcolm asked that we do this again the next time he's in Singapore, and I said "absolutely!" ;o)