I'd planned to take a week off the first week of August, head to Hong Kong to do the shopping thing, the eating thing, the hanging thing with friends. Then I get notice that I have a business trip to Hong Kong in September. Hrrrrm. No point wasting money on a destination that I'll be heading to anyway right?

So as I'm trying to think of a nice substitute that's near by, I'm informed that the new boss is heading out here for a visit. Drats. Right in the middle of the week no less. There goes my week! Harrumph.

And you know what's kinda sad? My holiday plan is in part driven by the fact that I have frequent flyer miles expiring soon! Gotta use 'em up by the end of September.

Where to go, when to go.... such dilemmas. Pfft!

And when it rains, all you want to do is stay home, hide under the covers, and watch DVDs or read a good book.

And hot chocolate. Hot chocolate, yum.

Dear President Bush:

This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor. It has been a great privilege, indeed, to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms. I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure.

Sincerely,

Sandra Day O'Connor

Complete NYT coverage

I am still digesting this. I didn't think that O'Connor would retire so soon, and on Republican watch. The latter is perhaps wishful thinking. Afterall O'Connor was named to the Supreme Court by the poster-boy for modern day Republicans - Ronald Reagan. Hard as it is to accept that she would leave GWB to appoint her successor, I suppose it is harder to imagine her letting a Democrat do the honours.

To think a few years ago, there was speculation that O'Connor could not only be the first female supreme court justice, but the first Chief Justice as well. Who would've thought that she would retire before William Rehnquist!

I'll definitely be following the pundits real closely on this one. Here's hoping that her replacement is not some mad right-wing ultraconservative.

Damn. It took Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement to rekindle my politics addiction. I may just log back onto my politics mailing list just to commiserate and speculate with the other junkies.

Got the dreaded tag from e_rambler. Cannot escape. Got nagged via MSN. So diedie must respond lor. Otherwise bad luck may befall me and I will break the chain of good fortune for all those upstream - oh wait. That's for chain letters... silly.

Anyhoowaddy. My five ways of de-stressing myself:

1. Hanging out with friends - which I do not do enough of to have achieved a state of divine destressage

2. Watching movies/telly - yes, e_rambler, I do watch movies, just not as mad often as you

3. Chilling at a café, watching the world go by - in Singapore, too damn hot half the time unfortunately

4. Vegetating and reading cheesy mags and cruising the net. General loafing I suppose.

5. Teasing the cats mercilessly.... bwahahaha....

Oo-er. I was telling myself to update LJ soon so that it wouldn't be an embarrassing three months since my last update. And yet, I still manage to miss by a day. Phooey.

Things have been madly hectic these past months. I am teetering at the brink of calling it off and taking a time out for a few months. I think I wrote about this some time ago, which is quite depressing in a way, that my mind inevitably wanders around and back to the same things over and over. Time out, take a class, dabble in a few projects, detox and unwind and disengage from mindnumbing corporate frenzies.

That said though, I'm incredibly happy and proud of the team that I have. They have been absolutely key in keeping me sane and engaged of late. I feel guilty when I don't put in the effort or commitment because I don't want to let them down when they've been working so hard. So I trudge along and ignore the crazies from up above because I feel very protective of my team. I want them to succeed and enjoy working with me, with the company.

But enough about work.

I used to think that going on multiple holidays a year was some uber-luxury that only the decadent engage in. Now I know better! I admit, though I just had a great break in March, I'm feeling the mental and physical exhaustion that comes from change and travel and people management. I hope to take a break some time in the end of July, to Hongkers with my friends here, and probably an extra few days to hang out with JT. Looks like timing-wise I'll miss the pro-democracy march that I got to attend last year. Ah well. I'm sure we'll be able to find something just as seditious to get wrapped up in!

Later in the year, some other friends want to go to Bali. The last time I was there was almost five years ago for a business trip. Which meant that though we got to stay in a nice hotel, we hardly go to enjoy Bali for Bali. Such a pity. I'm definitely looking forward to that. I've become such a beach addict after having two trips to Miami recently. Gotta get my sun and surf fix!

And finally, some time late late in the year, I hope that JT and I can cobble together something. We had wanted to go to Bhutan last year, and I'd even started doing all the research. But we couldn't get the timing right, so in the end abandoned the idea. JT makes it a point to arrange one major vacation a year, usually in December because of her work. I haven't been able to join her on a single one, the closest I got was for a 2.5 week trip to Yunan, travelling from KunMing to Deqin right on the border with Tibet. Unfortunately, I was forced to cancel with less than 12 hours before my departure. It was one heckuva lousy feeling, but it had to be done. I've warned JT to never show me the pictures from her trip. I have however saved the itinerary we drew up with her travel agent so that one day, I can perhaps organise it for myself and friends.

I don't think we can ever do Bhutan together since her timing doesn't suit the weather conditions there. We've been talking about a possible trip to India - Goa, Kerala, etc. Time for me to drop her an email and bat some ideas about.

I was on leave today. First call comes in at just after nine, which disrupted my attempt at sleeping in. Next call comes in at 930am or so. Again, I silence the phone. Another hour later, an SMS. End of the day, colleague calls to say that she'll be stopping by with a document for me to sign.

Which part of "I'm on leave" don't people understand?

And to top that. I just fielded a call from the US. At yes, 1:52AM in the bloody morning. I'm up, so that's fine. But the stupid woman calls me without first checking the time difference? I told her it was 2am in the morning and that I can only send the materials over to her the next morning. Then she actually asks why I was up so late. I snarked that I was waiting to get her phone call.

Unreal. UNREAL.

It's been a verily long while since I updated my LJ or commented in anybody's for that matter. Sometimes things in life just get in the way and motivation becomes a little suspect, not that it's much of an excuse.

Anyway, work has been really busy and I've been travelling quite a bit. Which is a good thing in the grand scheme of things but then once in a while, I catch myself thinking back to the days where I was just a simple associate. Things were easier then, no huge responsibilities, I didn't have to manage a group of people, I didn't have to worry my silly head over major decisions and juggling competing priorities. Not that I was necessarily happier then, but I do wish I could have been satisfied with that kind of a life. Normally people stay an associate for years before moving up, and some make a lifetime career out of it. I just didn't feel challenged then, and boy, am I feeling challenged now!

Be careful what you wish for, for it just might come true.

No regrets though. Never, ever.

Muy neato bandito



More here

Because e_rambler made me do it.


You're orange. You're strong and have the reflexes
of a tiger. You're overly protective, and
those skills come in handy... You're a natural
person, with a taste for natural foods (I mean
organic, here.). Well, that's not true.
...Just food in general! You're as
quick-witted as your reflexes, and sometimes
painfully logical. You love wild animals and
pets. (Preferably wild animals!) You're a
natural person, and a true child of Gaia.
You're a stimulating, and outgoing person. You
enjoy making people think, especially with your
infectiously spontaneous attitude. You're a
generally optomistic person, with a love for
showing off all of your good traits. Although
many people may see you as strung-out, or just
plain weird, you're very down-to-earth and
humble. You're incredibly sweet (as this
color's other name!), and you care about people
in general. As this color would describe,
you're energetic beyond all human
comprehension. You've got a nack for drawing,
and you enjoy it, too. When it comes to
school, you're a good listener with an even
better memory. You're studious... At least
when you need to be!


What color are you? (Amazingly detailed & accurate--with pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Okay, so it's a little late. But this really made me smile.

http://home.datacomm.ch/marco.fernando/fla/bozzetto/olympics.swf