A More Than Normal First Week

Looks like I haven't really been living up to my blogging commitments.

By the way, there's a guy singing in some neighbouring block. Pretty loud karaoke. He isn't too bad, just that it's almost two in the morning.

And someone else just sneezed. Think it's from upstairs.

The first week of work hasn't been remarkable in any respect. There's work and it feels like 2008 hadn't really ended. More like 2009 just took on the baton without missing a beat. It's sort of the first time I think that's happened. There was always some subconscious recognition of the year change but this time it was just work, holidays, and work again. An unremarkable new year.

Though at the about the stroke of midnight on Jan 1, I could hear the fireworks from Johor Bahru. I couldn't see anything because of the direction my living room windows face and the inadequate height of my apartment, just echoey booming noises in the background to my third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series running on Star Movies. I hadn't really seen any of these modern day classics so I promptly plonked my aching left ass on the sofa and made like a potato till one-ish in the morning.

I didn't go out on New Year's Eve because history dictates that there be a human mess sprawled across town, inebriate but conscious enough to dial and wait for a pickup to a Taxi hotline. Finite number of taxis to an amorphous mob of sloshed partygoers roaming about the streets isn't my kind of odds. And it would have been expensive. We did get sparkling fruit juice from the nearby supermarket to pop and dish out at midnight. Whoopee.

So back to the normal week at work. I had goals for 2009 to key into the company system. Most of the department was quite tense about this. So the boss did her thing, shared her expectations, my boss did his thing and shared his success measures and I did my thing 2 hours before the deadline putting my 3 main goals and hoping for successful submission to a system fraught with delays and slow reaction. The other 'big' thing that happened at work was that my ex-employer is now my current agency which sort of made things interesting. So far so good.

I went to see Uncle Tong today to make adjustments to my spine to correct my recently inflicted back pain (refer to previous mention of aching left ass). He is a miracle worker. Snapped, crackled and popped my vertebrae, hips, head, and legs into their right places. Felt like a million bucks almost immediately. He told me "When you come here, you must learn to relax. Or else I cannot help you." I could feel my body tensing up as he put in the acupuncture needles and he could tell too.

On Friday, I discovered Oosters at Suntec, a Belgian beer place that serves mussels by the bucket and lovely french fries. Even the salad looked awesome, all served in large white porcelain bowls. I dunno but there's something about simple, white porcelain that turns me on about food, which I didn't get to try by the way. Just watched it served out to other patrons. But I did steal a menu. So we are going back there to ensure the theft wasn't in vain.

I got home early and watched a strange film on TV called No Such Thing. It was about this orphan journalist who chooses to be sent to Iceland to find out what happened to her fiancee and his 2 TV crew friends. There are different things that happen to stop her making her destination - even her plane crashed into the Atlantic. She eventually finds out about this "monster" who eats people and breathes fire and drinks a lot. The monster spoke fluid American English complete with swears. Strange and funny film. No she didn't get eaten.

A dog is barking now. It sounds small. Yelp, yelp. The singing's stoppped.

Alright, that sums up week 1. 51 more to go till the end of the O series.