Skype Dad Skype!

I set up a Skype account for my dad over the last few days. And taught him how to use it yesterday evening. :)

All because my parents’ good friends are stuck in Vancouver for 2 months (to help their son look after his kids while his helper is back home in the Philippines to get married) and both couples miss each other quite abit. Right now they are only emailing each other and so when Auntie Mimi and Uncle Robert suggested that they Skype one of these days, my dad came to ask me how to do it.

Think I'll do another run through with him again this evening so he remembers how to do it.

I think it’s great that they are trying to keep pace with technology. Especially my dad. The only thing that I’m not teaching him is how to get onto Facebook lol.

Effort

Sometimes, when you’ve been around someone for too long, you reach a phase of familiarity where either party takes the other for granted, or both take each other for granted.

It happens all the time with family, between friends, with spouses and other loved ones. I am guilty of it, no doubt about it, and I’m sure many others are too.

I guess, it takes a conscious effort to remind yourself to be mindful of the other party’s feelings. I don’t think I’ve done well at this but I’ll keep trying. And of course, I’ll need to temper my impatience as well...

??!!??!!

There was a tense discussion at my desk over a paper my colleague and I submitted. And then the boss sort of threw the paper on my desk.

I was fuming inside. As a last response, I said…

“FINE. YA. Ya, Ya, I’ll change it LOR!”

Is that the best I can muster?? -_-

Sigh. When your boss is in a foul mood, it sucks when you’re in his radar.

Jason Mraz!!

When I told K yesterday that it was strange that I wasn't really feeling excited about the concert tonight, he said "oh, it'll come..."

And he's right.

The excitement IS building!! I've been listening to J Mraz's songs the whole of today and am counting down to 5:30 when I get off work! Woot! hahaha....

Boo-boos

The amazing amount of careless mistakes I am making these days is appalling. I don’t know if I am being complacent or it’s a result of too much multi-tasking.
I can’t believe I sent a contract to my Malaysian partner with 13 pages missing from it.
And I sent out another contract that day to a local partner with someone else's company name on it
I missed sending a letter of notification out to someone else as well.

Sigh. WTF is happening.

Here I am correcting my staff's careless mistakes and there I am making these mindless blunders of my own. These mistakes SHOULD NOT happen at all.

My bar is set high. And I just failed myself miserably....Sigh. 

I used to pride myself with my meticulousness....I think I need to pull up my pants a whole lot higher to be able to tell myself that again.

I see shadows

From time to time, I scare myself because I think a fly or an insect is flying right in front of me. Or I think a cockroach just scuttled over the floor. Or I think a bug is in a corner of the room. 

I see a dark spot here, or a shadowy small spectre there.

And then I realise, it's that dumb big piece of floater in my eye. Coupled with a few small ones.

Sigh.

I look a little silly sometimes because people and passers-by around me see that I duck at nothing or wave my hands in front my face for nothing or "siam" for nothing. 

:(

Great, now I can't go for another business trip. This time it's to Tokyo.
UGGGGHHHHH.

That issue

The contractual matter has been settled today. Finally. I am glad but why don't I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders? Hmm. In fact, there's a niggling feeling about the days going forward. The days of event preparation.

May the Lord help us put forth this event in the smoothest, most impressive and most cost effective way possible!!

Mr Mint

And this here is Mr Mint. From a teeny cutting about 15cm tall back in Nov 2011, he has grown to almost 10 times that height and now stands at about 130cm tall. New shoots are still growing everyday from each leaf node too. It's quite a joy watching him grow from week to week. (I know, I sound like I'm talking about my son.)

It's a hardy plant and has weathered many occasions of neglect from me (and haphazard care from my mum, the surrogate carer on days that I am away) with nary a withered leaf or a droopy stem. It never seems to be too thirsty, I can give it little water and still it survives. It never seems to reject too much water too, I can pour water till it starts flowing out for the bottom the pot and still it stands tall. I wonder how the root system is though. But it's beneath the soil so I don't think I can find out.

I have a confession. I nearly lopped off the top 30-40cm of Mr Mint yesterday. I'd intended to trim that portion off and transplant the cutting to another pot because it was getting too tall and wobbly. Even with support bamboo poles by the side, Mr Mint is in a really wobbly state. My trimming scissors was actually already positioned at a stem node and I was ready to snip.

But I somehow couldn't do it. So drama I know.

You can roll your eyes but it's the first time ever that I've taken care of a plant that has grown up so tall and so beautifully! Lol. I got sentimental about things and called a family conference. My Dad said not to cut. Ah. The patriarch had spoken. The scissors was banished back to its hiding place in the drawer.

And so Mr Mint still stands tall at 130cm (and counting) today. :)

Mr Basil

2 strong shoots are towering over the rest of the them. In a bid to encourage lateral and not vertical growth so that there's denser foliage, I decided to trim off the top 1/3 of the weaker of the two stems and transplant the cutting back into the pot. Before I could pot it, I had to remove some leaves from it first...

And voila, here they are. Some little ones and the rest are huge leaves. Yep, that's how big some of the leaves of my basil plant are. I crushed those leaves and spent the night smelling them haha.

The pot attracts some ants from time to time as well. Wonder if it's because of the herb fragrance.

trips

Will be missing 3 work trips this year....:(

1. Costa Rica
2. Prague
3. Brunei

But am looking forward to the following:

1. Personal trip to Bali in August!
2. Work trip to Toronto in October!
3. Work trip to Brunei in November!

为什么这件事还不能解决？

For every day that this contractual matter drags on, I feel more and more frustrated and more and more constipated.

I really hope to see this conclude asap but why are we faced with an obstacle at every single turn and with every single step? Everytime I think the episode can be concluded, something else pops up.

Swarmed with things. Nearly lost my cool just now. My boss could tell I was frowning like an angry cow when he came to talk to me.

Why is every year's May and June so hectic? Sigh.

Random

I think I actually have quite a number of tops and some dresses which can double up as maternity wear. Hmm...lol. Mentioned to K the other day and he rolled his eyes.

Brainy stuff

Was at the derm doc appointment this morning. He wondered aloud if he should put me on some mild medication and also wondered if I would have any side effects. So I casually mentioned to him (a new doc I've never seen before) that I've a long medical history.

He: *leafs through my med file*
He: oh you had an aneurysm!!! Wah!
Me: ya, a cavernoma as well.
He: in the brain??!!
Me: err ya.
He: Wah!! But but. You look so normal!! The surgeons did a good job of clipping the aneurysm and sewing you up!!
Me: errr....??!!

Wonder what that comment of his meant man....

*whimper*

I can't remember when was the last time, if ever, that I felt so stretched. 4 policy papers by mid next week for a consultancy project to another country. Not just any policy paper touching on some small project, but papers recommending frameworks and policy structures impacting a part of that country's Internet arena.

Plus all the event things
Plus the contractual issue which has not been settled
Plus board minutes which have not been written
Plus 2 reseller transfer cases
Plus 3 resellers waiting to be accredited
Plus site visits next week
Plus a stupid work dinner meeting on Sunday
Plus ......

Oh yes
Plus wedding

*pulls hair*

Yummy Munchies

I guess I really do enjoy cooking. And I've a better affinity with savory foods than with the sweet stuff haha. I'm not that good a cook yet, compared to all the other female Cantonese and Peranakan food maestros from both sides of my family. Hope I can hone my skills over time and pick up more Peranakan recipes too!

In the meantime...Sat's attempt at using Ally's Happycall pan to cook butter herb chicken was a success! Coupled with her butter raisin rice and wild rocket salad, it was a lovely lovely meal!! :) Think I shall replicate the whole meal next time again :p

Of ducks and....ugh.

I left DUCKtours 8 LONG years ago. In fact, almost 8.5 years ago. That's close to a decade.

I find it only very slightly amusing that some people still associate me with that company. One senior from hostel who has not contacted me for at least 5-6 years suddenly called me up out of the blue.

Just to ask me how much is the ride, what is the best time of the day to go for it, and what are the peak hours of the ride. Because "I want to bring my son there".

?????!!!!!!!!!!

Like hello?!! zzzzzzzzzzzz. The company has a hotline. Couldn't you have called the hotline? They'd be the best person to advise you right?

The call lasted less than a minute. There were no pleasantries. It felt like a business call. Hello, what is this, what is that? Ok, thanks, bye. We've not spoken in years, the least you could do was to ask how are things?

7 July's a really good date

7 July is an auspicious day. We were supposed to have the wedding on that day but could not manage to find a suitable hotel venue. So 7 July became our Guo Da Li day instead.

Turned out that my cousin picked 7 July for his wedding day and he managed to get a venue. We've been waiting for each other to get married for a long time and then now we can't attend each other's wedding. :( Because of the Chinese pantang thing of "2 happy occasions" cannot clash.

A long time friend, Patrick, called me 2 days ago. We don't keep in tiuch very regularly, only once in a blue moon but we're good with each other. Chiewz and I have been waiting for him to get hitched for the longest time and then voila, he had to also pick 7 July for his wedding date too. So now I can't attend his wedding too :((((

*wails*

YAY!

真的感谢YL。上个星期五她跟我说她会跟新公司谈一谈， 看她能不能够迟一点才飞去香港受训。 她真的做到了！ 公司让她在23July才飞， 原本是16July的。

Feeling really grateful. Hope she doesn't feel too tired out though for she'll be busy almost the whole day on 22 July and then she's to fly in the early morning of 23 July. Feeling a little paiseh now too though.

嗨。。。

我是不是真的该去冲花水？刚接到消息， 其中一个姐妹(for the wedding)有可能不能当我的姐妹了。 她刚换了新工作， 公司想派她到香港受训三个星期。我的婚礼也刚好在这三个星期内。

原本就少了两个姐妹， 如果现在又少了多一个， 我觉得我会挺失望的。而且， 这个姐妹也刚好是我的司仪。。。

sigh. things don't seem very straightforward and easy this year.

为什么呢? 我以为猴子和龙在生肖里是好朋友， 今年对我来说应该是好的一年才对啊。 为什么有那么多这些大小起伏?