Busy March

*sigh* I have to begin this post with some depressing notion.

I don't know how I'm gonna get through the whole March, looking at my calendar and all I can do is taking a deep breath. I'm dragging my way from deadline to deadline and who could have foreseen that multiple projects sinking their deadline claws this month? Well, I gotta admit though that I was looking for this trouble myself… in a way. I'm a kind of person who got motivated and really working seriously if I'm literally hours away from deadline! I'm not joking. Even if I have some time to slowly clearing away my job tasks, I won't do it until very last minute. That's the only time where I can work nonstop, well, how can't I if deadline is only hours away? haha. I know this gotta change, can't keep living my job life like this. I mean, for the past few days, I dreamt about work, I was working even in my dream!! Crazy.

But then, there's always a light at every dark tunnel, isn't it? Well, well, well, in my case, that bright, shining light is the prospect of going back to Bali at the end of this month! On top of that, coincidentally, our very best family-friends will be in Bali as well. The last time I saw them was in December 2011 helping out in our wedding. Looking forward to having an awesome break with them.

Also, just this morning on my way to a client's office, I saw a poster of Russell Peters' show in Singapore on March 25, 2013. I mean, kyaa~!!!! Am such a biggie fan of his and never in my dream would I imagine myself watching him perform live. Hubby bought tickets for us and oh I can't wait. What an energy and mental booster that is. 

But then, even amid all this chaos both in work and private life, now and then there are great little things that bring joy back into our life. Those moments are like firecracker, small but powerful to lift up our spirit and I'm grateful for that. Small gatherings with friends, sharing and opening up are really making such a big differences in life indeed.

Okay, gotta back to work...

Breakfast after the Storm

Oh gosh, what a night! Yesterday I received a critical issue report and it was at 8 PM and that means only around midnight that we could do whatever things need to be done. And since it was midnite, no user was around to do live verification, and that leads to this morning' moment of truth. Praise the Lord, everything went back to normal.

So, this morning I deserved an extra special breakfast; lemon cream danish with Nespresso coffee and don't forget the ever favorite Indonesian instant noodle. Talk about moral and energy boost haha.

 

 

 

Mumbai: Lunch ala Indian

01 April 2011, Friday

Finally, my work's done here. It was kinda sad actually. I mean, I know I met my clients only for a short time - two days, but still, parting is never a happy occasion. They're really really nice people. They took me out to lunch and ehm... it was an adventure in itself. At least it was for me.


Well, we finish our first session for today at 2 o'clock and we headed out for lunch. Oh gosh, how I wished they took me to some restaurants upstairs (because earlier they mentioned they got restaurants upstairs). But instead, we're going out. Luckily, I was mentally prepared. Oh boy, outside was a mess, the road is small so we had to walk alongside and between the cars, motorbike, rickshaws and people! It was hot and windy which was a bad news, coz it only means more dust, more flying sands and smoke got blown by the wind. Anyway, I survived and we were in a first restaurant. There was a very long queue and we decided to try our luck at another place.


You know, walking in Mumbai is overwhelming. There were attacks to my nose. One moment, I could smell cow's poop; the next time, an incense burning smell followed by smell of spices and God knows what else. So here I was, walking while trying to avoid motorbikes and rickshaws only inches from me. I saw a car moving in a midst of pedestrians! Bottomline, I was beyond relieved when we reached the second restaurant. This restaurant called Mahesh and is specialized in seafood. We were asked to wait outside. I was like, what?! You freakin' got to be kidding me! But I guess I had no choice. We were sitting on a pedestrian walk (really, pedestrian walk and a road, I cannot tell the difference, there's no clear line here), cars honking nonstop, and finally we had a table ready for us.


The first dish was, I think, a deep fried tofu skin with a chopped shallots. I'm a no-onion eater but I gave it a try. Hmm... quite tasty but I still couldn't get rid of the fact that it was shallots that I was eating. What next, happened quite fast. They served fried fish (I still could manage that), followed by dossa (thick rice paper) and some curry dippings. The waiter serve the dipping directly to our plate. He gave us each 2 type of dippings; more fish and chicken curry. I finished my third dossa and I felt like I couldn't swallow anymore. The spices were too strong and everything tasted strong it overwhelmed me. Then the waiter came with a rice. They said I, at least, gave it a try. Well, they were being so nice and I couldn't let them down. it would be rude. So I helped myself to one small spoon of rice and forced myself to swallow it. Then, one of my clients asked me to eat the black, deep fried vegetables. He said it was good for health. I just nodded and geez... how I wanted to correct him and said "Dude, you know anything deep fried ain't healty, don't ya?" The deep fried vegetables were coated in oil. They're shiny!!


After that, I just didn't bother anymore, I said no to everything they offered me. And how glad I did. Well, they asked whether I wanted to try butter milk, I immediately said no, so they ordered for themselves. Came the butter milk, and it was the colour of strawberry juice. They forced me again to take one gulp, and... oooh... I couldn't describe how awful and strange it tasted. It was salty but bitter, with a pang of sourness. They said one of ingredients is Tangerine. It explains. I.Don't.Like.It. And look at how they drank it. They finished it in one shot! It's good for digestion they said. Hmm... no wonder. I drink that and I'm sure my stomach cannot handle it.


But one thing that strikes me as funny, and the highlight of the day for me. It was hilarious. It's the way one of my clients moved his head. It happened after the waiter came with a drink. My client shook his head, the waiter took his diet coke can and opened it. Another head movement from him and the waiter poured the drink into the glass, one final move from his head, and the waiter stopped pouring the drink.No words spoken. Amazing. I was watching them in awe.


Overall, it was a unique experience, like, I'd never been surrounded by so many Indians before haha. They're generally very nice crowd.

Mumbai: Day 3

01 April 2011, Friday


09:00 AM


So today is my second day working in India. As I'm waiting in Fort House for the client to arrive, I'm reliving back the taxi experience I had on my way here. As always, I enjoyed the car journey while taking in as much I could the passing city scenery outside the window. India is no exception. I did enjoy the one hour journey. There's always something new about Mumbai but accompanied only by sadness and "skin crawling" sensation as I watched outside car window just now. If yesterday I saw cows, today I saw a women, barefooted, standing in the middle of what appeared to be a garbage dump just on the side of the street. This woman was holding a big garbage bin and pouring it over with her hands. With her hands! This happened in Mumbai International Airport area, North Mumbai, an area they claimed to be the most looked after area. There are lots of 4-5 stars hotels in this area but they look odd, standing proud and tall in the midst of what I say, a mess. A really big mess.


Other than that, once I was getting nearer to the city, there's a line of small houses. Gee, people wouldn't even call it a house. They are built with thin wood, in a size of a tent! And people living there are bathing outside their home, which means, on the road!! I cannot fathom it at all. And their clothes are hang on the roof - made of thin wood. All of these are in a city they call financial district. Mumbai is a financial district. My customer place is located in a famous area of the city, called Fort. And judging by the company name (it's a branch office of the biggest bank in Singapore), I expected to see a really nice and modern building just like its main office in Singapore. Well, no. Actually, all the buildings here are old, collonial style. I like the architecture actually, almost the same as what you'd find in Melbourne. It's just that they don't maintain them. You can see in many parts, paints are peeled, black moldings *gasp* and... dusty. It seems that all buildings, no, scratch that, all things here are covered in dust. Even Jakarta is wayyy better, and I thought Jakarta was dirty.


Modern buildings can be counted by fingers (I did count, from my hotel building and 20 more kilometres down to South Mumbai). I dreaded walking outside and yesterday, my client said they're going to take me out for lunch. Oooh... I mean, I'm grateful, really, but outside? Come on man...

Mumbai: Day 2

31 April 2011, Thursday
I woke up early today coz it took 1-2 hours driving down depends on traffic. Well, since today is my first day meeting the clients, I didn't want to be late. I stayed at Holiday Inn hotel located near Mumbai International Airport. This area is in North of Mumbai and my clients place is located in South Mumbai, more or less about 25 kilometres from my hotel.


So I took a cab and payed about 700 rupees one way. And man, if I wasn't really awake before hopped on a cab, the taxi driver did definitely wake me up. We were almost get hit by a bus! We were spared just by inches!!


Oh Mumbai. One comment from me. This city needs a huge splash of water from above. Everything here is so dry and dusty. I heard that they don't have rain in 6 months.

One Classic Concert and a Present

Finally it's Friday again! this week passed by pretty fast. Soale many events took place this week, biasa lah klo banyak yg di expect pasti hari-hari jadi kerasa cepet hehe. Hum Rabu Dec 09 kemaren pergi ke Art House buat nonton Classic Piano and Violin Concert. Eventnya diadain ma Italian Embassy, so you can guess who performed.. none other than Italian pianist and violinist sisters. Yg dateng jg almost 90% Italian. We arrived there a bit early, they were still serving cocktail and wine. That was my first visit to Art House, dalemnya keren euy, kecil sih tp architecturenya gaya colonial tempo doeloe gitu. Mulai concertnya jam 7, trus kelar jam 9an. Pieces yg dibawain jg enak-enak, ga gitu berat ditelinga. Yg senengnya itu, mrk bawain piece by Brahms buat encore nya. Overall it was a great concert. Oya sebelum pulang mampir ke mall deket City Hall situ, nemu toko scrapbook... lucu2 d, jadi pengen nyoba scrapbook, but knowing me, it probably won't last a month. Jadi kemaren uda nahan2 buat ga beli scrapbook kit nya... oh what an effort.

That was Wednesday. What happened on Thursday? I didn't expect much on that day, and to be honest I was a bit irritated over work after lunch. So I expected it would be like any other long Thursdays, coz every Thursday is scheduled for our team's weekly technical meeting... and it was! No canceled meeting whatsoever. Tp yang kagetnya itu pas mau mulai meeting, boss gw tiba-tiba bagi2 kado *oh what a surprise*. What touched me most is not the gift itself. Pertama kalinya gw ngerasain kerja ditempat dimana you can work professionally and they expect you to perform at your best but at the same time, amidst all the hassle of everyday fast and stressful working environment, you can feel that you're still "human", still sane. And they make you feel that. Jadi kerasa kayak long-time friends. Oya, trus ceritanya gw dikasi kado tas, haha yg lucunya mrk spent quite some time katanya cari kado buat gw, berhubung yg cewek cuman gw sendiri di team ^^ So, I really appreciate it guys...

As for tonight's plan, hum ke Dhoby Ghout, mau dinner bareng cell group ^^

Yeah!!!

Hm akhirnya bisa ngerasa lega, free. Now, I could leave Japan whenever I want. What surprised me most; I didn't feel down. I just couldn't help smiling when I heard the news. Like a huge burden is off my shoulders. Skrng, klo aku mau, bisa langsung pulang ktemu mama papa, temen2, bisa ke jkt lagi, bs kerja di other country. Abisnya klo ga gini, if it was up to me to decide, aku ga bakalan bisa mutusin tuh kontrak, kemaren2nya malah sempet mikir klo august ntar mo perpanjang lagi... hmm weird I thought, pengen ganti suasana baru eh tp ga bisa bener2 ngambil actual step-nya. So, today, He gave me the answer. Thank you... dearest Lord. Now, I could really fly.

Hahaha duh pengen ketawa, pengen scream on top of my lung how much I feel so free, so peaceful right now. But next plan??? I still don't know

Regret?... Sort of

Lately, there seems to be more people from Yokogawa show up at Hachiouji. Really annoying *excruciating would be the exact word* It's not the people, mind you, it's.. well it's me! I envy them. Looking at their laptop with Yokogawa sign on it, all the software and applications that I'm *still* familiar with. For a split second the most stupid thought even crossed my mind, uh to apologize sincerely for quitting in the first place and to ask whether they have some tricks up their sleeves to get me back there. Pretty stupid huh?! Who whined months ago that she had enough? Who said repeatedly to herself that she deserved something better? And now when the chance is on the plate, am I going to throw it away just because the mere sight of ****ing company logo?? Hell no! Huahahaha so yeah, I made my choice two months ago and am gonna stick with it. But you see, even if I were to change my mind and beg my Eigyou-kata, I couldn't get my old job back that easily. Indeed, they made it pretty clear b'fore, no turning back, no stepping foot even in other division. So... I guess I should thank God for making this one way track only *grin* I ought to step forward no matter what.
But he's sitting in front of me now, a guy from Yokogawa. Typing ever so fast, and oh look at that label with an application name written on it... I KNOW THAT APP! That one's unmistakeably the last app I was working on before I walked out. Eww *wince*... as silly as it may sound, I MISS MY OLD JOB!!

:: Shikkari shite!!! ::

S***** meeting *hmph*

Another Hachiouji branch meeting in Saturday *why??*
This time it was held in Kokubunji at 1:10 pm, but before that I had to show up earlier for medical check up. Know what, I got lost!! old story for me *sigh* The map they gave me? Well useless. I don't know how to read map, I just can't! Right there in front of the station, a map in one hand and a blank look on my face, I tried to figure out where I was on the map. After spending so much time standing.. looking to the left.. to the right.. eyes to the map.. to the street..to the left again... that was it! I gave up and asked a very kind policeman for direction. He, laughing, said that I had to rotate the map 90 degree to the left, then there you go, just followed the road! Oh okay, so I got it turned up-side down, great *how should I know?* and I had no more than 4 minutes left for medical check up appointment.

You know that Japanese are so damn nuts *please note: in a good way* about being on time right? So I freaked out, then... I got lost *yes yes I know, again* ended up asking for direction. I ran and... I met my Branch Manager, he said few things I nodded and I ran again! Gosh... I didn't salute him properly, oh well, screw him I then asked another person, past a tall building *I didnt know that THE building was the "it" building*, after a while decided to come back to the building, hesitantly went approaching a man wearing a doctor-like suits, and the first thing he said to me before I had a chance to open my mouth was this: "Medical check up? Please go inside, the room is in the basement." Eureka!! I found it! A huge grin on my face. But hmm.. this was written on the map: "Only 5 minutes walk from the Kokubunji station" and I was like, what, 20 minutes late?? Just great!

Yokogawa farewell party

So yesterday was my last day working for Yokogawa. Me, Adachi-san, Hamada-san, Kikyouhara-san, and Manji-san had a ridiculously big portion of lunch in this lovely bricked-wall Italian restaurant. From Kikyouhara-san I learned that Endou-san, my branch manager, had said a few things about me. She overheard him saying that he was glad having me work with them. That was before I said I wanted to quit. Ugh... I didn't know then what to say. Of all people I worked with, he's the most unlikely person to say those things. And all of a sudden, I felt bad.

I guess we never know how human heart and feeling function, do we? I mean, there I was, completely eager to end the day and the next thing I felt was this I-wish-I-had-one-more-day-with-them kinda feeling. Geez! And the same thing happened today. Now that I've quit, instead of having a good mood I wake up and had this horrible.. horrible feeling. hhh I do wish I could go back home soon and start a new life somewhere hmm preferably australia ^^

Ow btw, I took picture with them after farewell party. It's only for 10 months thus, never been really good friends but somehow I miss them already. Wish you all a great success. You are my first colleagues... so you'd better be honoured with that very fact huahahaha

♪Let me introduce, Yokogawa Information System - YSL2 group! ♪

~Flower bouquet from my senpai~　　　
arigatou ne minna...

:: Getting cold here, the beginning of autumn. It's this season already... time goes by so fast indeed ::

thank you

Since I will not be working in Shinjuku again next month – which is less than 3 weeks - I thought it would be nice to post something about people I met at work who - even though they didn't know it - have occasionally made my days especially in those darkest days ever in my whole life. In the list are Tsuda san and cleaning service oba san.

===============================
Disclaimer:
Of course, there are other people too, and not mentioning them in the list doesn't mean i intentionally reduced their significant kindness, but rather, it's simply due to the great amount of length this post would take if I were to write down all of 'em.
*hey me, cut it out already, jeez…* >.<
===============================

Now, where were we? Oh right, the list. Ookaayy, first on the list is our cleaning service lady. I met her months ago, when I still saw everything a dull gray. My first encounter with her happened when I went to the other room on the back to get myself a hot water for my coffee. I had never seen her before. Or so i thought. I guess I took everyone for granted before. Anyhow, she was there, cleaning the basin, and I just walked in and started filling my cup with hot water,
staring at it. Now that I recall it, maybe I did look like a complete idiot. At least I felt like I had been trampled and a huge "hopeless" was written on my face. It was so real at that time. That's being the reason or it's indeed her nature to be so warm towards other people that she stopped at what she was doing and looked at me straight in the eye, smiling and said this "What a cute
cup you have there." I had to fight back emotions that I'd been desperately locking deep inside so it didn't surface. After all I was in the office not in my own room. Hell that was hard.

I almost didnt believe it myself how just a small remark brought a surprisingly big impact on me. Okay, at this point you are allowed to roll your eyes and say “Oh honey, she was just being conversational and you got pumped up over nothing”. True, maybe I overreacted. But then again, considering the state I was in at that time... warmed my heart, alot.

..... ehm, let's move onto next person. Tsuda san.

As for Tsuda san *btw, he's around 60s*, just looking at him makes you wanna smile. He has certain quality in him that attracts people. When we reach office at the same time *which is so often*, he will make random short comments about almost everything. He's a blast! Given the fact that most of my colleagues here are living rocks and dont talk often, hearing his comments for the first time I was uncertain if he was actually talking to me..oh stupid me. Anyway, being my boss and all certainly doesn't draw him back. Way to go sir!

Do you believe that God sends his angels in the form of unlikely person to brighten our days? I do believe it now. I mean, there I were, completely drained, having nothing to hold onto, and I must admit to you, I felt a little suicidal *I know this might offend you, sorry, but I wanna be honest about it*, and at that particular time, these people just came to me, said a couple or two and zapped!! As simple a conversation as you could think of, amazingly it mattered like huge to me. You won't believe the effect those brief convs had on me. Other colors started to fill the picture, transparent at first but gradually increased their values.

What im trying to say is it's amazed me how even the smallest gesture of kindness and the slightest attention could bring a year worth of warmth. You will never know whose heart you touch simply by giving a smile. Let's do it whole heartedly friends!! ^^
*Gosh, I do feel like a million years old talking like this, oh well whatever wakkakaka*

Hell, I KNEW this would be a long post afterall.

no more, please!!

He came to the office today, eigyou-san. He chirped bullshit and I.. well I was like "whatever.. please take your time but I'm not going to change my mind". It really struck me. I was too naive to think that he'd let me resign easily. Telling me that it's harder now to find a new job and so on. Said that with a sympathetic face *sigh*. Still, I felt like he took a great joy in threatening me like that. Maybe he was saying the truth when he said that it is for my own sake, but I guess I've had enough of this already that I'll no longer allow myself to get carried away.

PS:
hey...
it's the same as before, I mean 6 months ago, when he told me about the contract. I told you how I felt back then remember? And now... wish I still could talk to you, but... you'd tell me not to quit, right?

uh-oh

eh lah kok??... piye toh?! why am I still assigned projects scheduled for September?? doh eigyou san gw.. looks like he hasn't dropped the bomb yet haha ya itu, pas kemaren lusa meeting, kaget aja, pas dikasi projects buat bulan ini, bulan besok ma bulan besoknya lagi. Hiks mana gw dikasi 3 solo projects pula, huhu I'm so sorry, such a dilemma. It never crossed my mind before, even the faintest idea that I would feel sorry like this. I mean, I've been counting day after day for Sep 3 to come, and finally when I'm getting near to it, I'm having this pretty much disturbing feeling.

Salah satu solo project yg diserahin ke gw, project yg pertama buat mrk. Blom ada org yg test tu application before. So it's kinda huge. Sebenernya gw uda dikasi projectnya berbulan2 yg lalu, pas march to be exact. Tp baru aja bikin test case-nya uda di-stop, soalnya ktnya mo direlease version baru jd drpd nge-test dua kali mending nunggu yg baru skalian. So it was stopped half way. Waktu itu, gw cuman jd supporting tester doank, jd cuman bantu2in senpai gw. Nah skrng, that halfway-stopped project itu diserahin ke gw. Seneng sih, soale itu kan like debut project buat mrk n it's a challenge too for me. Ga da sample test-nya gile, gw mesti bikin dr scratch. Berat sih tp drpd gw ngantuk hayo huahahha Tp sayang, project nya di-scheduled buat September hiks Buat bulan ini ma august, I've got my hands full hoorayy seneeng, jd ga sempet mikirin yg aneh2 bin ajaib.

Duh tp ya itu, klo gw masi dischedule-in buat sep, berarti mrk still have no clue whatsoever klo gw mau n harus cabut dr sono. Bener2 ga enak gw jadinya, yg paling gw takutin tuh klo nanti dipanggil trus ditanya2in hiks gimana doonk?? gw tuh paling ga bs di-confront kyk gitu. Klo isa milih sih maunya langsung cabut diem2, ga usa ngomong apa2 hahaha duh jd ya skrng gw tinggal pasrah nunggu dipanggil boss. Yg bikin gw kesel tuh si eigyou san napa ga kasitau mrk jauh2 hari coba. Kan at least mrk bs nyari org baru lg, trus ga usa repot2 bikin schedule buat gw hhh Tambah ga enak lagi ya itu td, mrk kyknya dah percaya ma gw, ampe dikasi banyak solo projects (including lead rapat2nya jg, I hate this part ngomong jpng aja masi belepotan lah ini disuru lead meetingnya *panic* ) I think I'll just have to face them when it comes.
If I think how am I gonna go through the upcoming months, it gives me chill literally. There's so much to give up and I don't think I'm ready yet. Kyk soal kerjaan. Takut aja, ntar klo mesti nunggu berbulan2 lg gmn? that and other things too. Ya tau sih tau klo those are for the better. tp iyaa klo better klo worse piye??? aaargh!!

Sounds simple for everyone else I guess, but yeah I'm different, I'm weird and I'm umm not proud of it *grunt* yaa coba klo gw bisa take it easy kyk org lain. Huaaa life would be soo much better.
uda nyoba sih tp ttp aja ga isa, ee bisa ding cuman dikit. Step by step kali yee Kadang suka iri ma org laen, contohnya klo soal kerjaan, segimana ga enaknya masi isa dibawa ketawa, trus ga dipikirin terus. lah gue, sekalinya ada masalah ja, mo mandi makan jalan2 tidur pun gue pikirin. hegh.. Eneg gua. I tend to overthink everything. Huh my nature. !#$%#!

a stunning view

You know that i hate my job, right? but there's one thing that i know I would miss badly if I stop working in shinjuku. Morning view, that is. Especially today. Just one block away from my office building, i was mesmerized by this particular building far away. An ancient, castle-like building. I didn't notice it before, or else, maybe i did see it but looks like it appeared as a mere building like any other building in shinjuku. So what makes it special today? Well, yesterday Tokyo had an all day shower. As for today, it's not raining, but we have a cloudy, "gloomy" sky. Very solemn haha And apparently, yesterday's weather and today's greyish sky added something to that building.
I saw a fog covering the top of the building, and black birds flying... hovering, also near the top. Can you believe it? With all the fog, greyish sky, black birds, it was almost like being transported to Transylvania and gazing at Dracula's castle itself *um okay.. exaggerating a bit ^^*
But yeah... that's what I thought when i saw it, but of course i had to throw the people around me out of the picture first hihi
hhh i wish i had my camera with me. That, certainly, would make a great picture.

:: back to work... sleepy ::