January 20, 2014

• Wet wet wet.

  It's been a genuinely busy last few months.  It has always been this way comes December and January.  This past December we (company) partook in a massive annual international industrial exhibition, held here in Jakarta, which we had not participated in since four years prior.  This got all of us in a hectic schedule trying to get everything done by November.  Then there was the preparation for company’s annual bonus, to go with the December salary distribution, by the end of the same month.  And then the holiday came.

  I took off right on the first day of our office closed for the holiday season.  I went to Hong Kong for few days to meet up with a bunch of mates for our second international gathering, trying to relive the excitement we had exactly a year prior.  This year I only got to spend an evening with them, unfortunately.  The whole group stayed in Hong Kong for the New Year’s celebration.  I flew back on New Year’s Eve, as work to resume on January 2^nd.  I figured that I could squeeze in a day of rest.  I arrived late, yet my exhaustion wasn’t enough to allow me to rest peacefully due to the constant noise of firecrackers in my neighborhood all night long until around 3AM.  Sigh…

  When I thought I could sleep all day on January 1^st, I was then reminded that I had promised relatives of mine to spend time with them.  One family from out of town, Surabaya, and another family came back from Paris, France, for the holiday.  Both supposed to fly back the next day on the 2^nd.  The fact that it was their last day, it beckoned me to kick away my blanky, got up, showered, and readied my tummy for another food-coma day.  And so we went all the way out; spicy South Indian late lunch, late afternoon dessert-wine at a lounge, Japanese soba noodle dinner, and then icy Taiwanese boba dessert elsewhere.  I think they went home satisfied.

  That was a decent day.  But the month of January didn’t exactly start off friendly.  We have tons of work ahead of us at the office.  What with the ongoing renovation project at our branch office which supposed to be done by December, AND a seminar event for our customers to be held later this week, AND 2014 new salary calculation to be effective as of this month.  My brain is in a constant pressure.  Not to mention the shareholders’ meeting come February.  There are many issues to be examined and debated internally prior to the meeting with the bosses.  As if the month is not short enough, Chinese New Year is coming up, in less than two weeks time.

  When I thought it couldn’t get worse, last week the rain fell.  And it poured HARD.  For days.  Relentlessly.  The city is now officially flooded.  Bangkok had its whole city paralyzed last year.  Now it is our turn.  Many homes are now submerged in waist-high murky water.  Last week was the worse, especially this past weekend.  The only good thing came out of it is that it allowed me to stay in and sleep all day on Sunday.  Not that I could go out at all.  Today the flooding condition is much more bearable.  But I worry the rain will continue to fall and delaying our whole schedule for everything.  Not to mention the chance of ruining our upcoming important seminar day.

  Oh yeah, I’m stressed out.  A bit.  This coming Chinese New Year better be good.  If I won’t be in a food-coma AND get lots of red envelopes, then you guys just have to deal with me complaining again.

  There.  Me ranting.  Get use to it.

  • 5:53 pm
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