Finding myself in the lost world..

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Free man..at last!!!

[3:15 pm]

Today is Day 7 of the organisation-imposed quarantine. After 1700, I will be a free man, freed from the chains that have bonded me to the cage for so many days. Yipeee!!!

Looking back the past 7 days, it has been a journey of sorts for me. Why do I say so?

For one, I managed to catch up with some of my long-lost friends over msn, besides talking to this girl, whom I shall call SS, on a daily basis. It was great knowing how life has been treating them so far. It has been so good catching up with them that we arranged to meet up over dinner and drinks next week.

But I will have to face the music tomorrow when I go back to work..the piles of over-spilling work will sure necessitate the need for long nights this week. It doesn't help when your scheduler calls you to take over someone's schedule as he has fever and has been quarantined.

Oh well, what to do?
Just suck it up and do it. Because, if you don't do it, someone else will have to do it.

So this is going to be an extremely busy week. Will update more when I have the time.

Till then, ciaoz!!

Labels: Grumblings

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Bored...

[7:17 pm]

Boredom has started to set in after 4 days of the "stay-home" instructions.

I have practically run out of things to do..short of examining my work documents..which I seriously should start to look into, to prevent another build-up of work. I think I will start looking into it tomorrow onwards..

On another sidenote, my mates from my detachment has been trying (read: coercing) to match-make me with the only girl in our detachment. All the mates have been egging me on, saying she is a good catch..haha..only time will tell. We have been chatting on msn everyday for hours. It's a surprise that we clicked so well even though we have known each other for less than a month and didn't socialise much during our time in Canada due to different work scope.

Perhaps its partly due to boredom that we are chatting so frequently. It helps that we share some common interests such as travelling, diving and photography. So that's why we have plenty to chat about.

But like my friend says, its a good start.

Meanwhile, a pal of mine is going to introduce his wife's friend to me..seems like of a sudden, people are matching-making me again..haiz..

Sounds good right? I really don't know...for networking, I think it's ok..if the feel is correct, then it would be good..if not, then it would be just friends. (i.e expanding my network)

Oh well, lets see how it goes.

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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Home at last..

[5:36 am]

After 3 weeks of overseas training stint, I am finally home...albeit after 3 hrs of flight delays.

To start off, my luggage was 30lbs overweight and I had to fork out CAD $75 for the excess baggage. And to make things better, when I reached Seattle, we were told that due to some volcanic activity over Russia, the flight will be making an unscheduled refuelling stop in Hawaii for an hour before continuing to Tokyo.

Yay!! Hawaii, here we come, or so we thought..it was just an hour's stop and we won't be alighting from the aircraft. But it brought us joy as we thought we may miss the flight from Tokyo to Singapore, thus staying overnight in Tokyo.

But sadly, the Tokyo-Singapore flight was delayed to accommodate us..damn..no Tokyo.

Hence, after a harrowing 14hr flight, I am back home. Time to go satisfy all my food cravings!! But sadly, we have to stay at home for the next few days to see whether we develop any flu-like syndromes. So, I am practically confined..can't go out eat all those wonderful food, with internet and tv as company. Heck, even my brother is sleeping in another room for fear of getting H1N1.

Now I am trying to get the jet lag out of the system (woke up at 0330H after turning in at 2130H)..I am wide awake now and trying to make myself tired so that I can sleep somemore.

But I miss my food..so hopefully after 4 days, if I am fine enough, I will go out and enjoy my food. Till then, don't call me out..

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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Homeward Bound

[5:58 am]

After 3 weeks of overseas training under conditions which we will never experience back home, I am finally going to embark on my journey home tomorrow.

It has been a mentally and physically challenging training stint for me as I had to perform tasks which was more challenging than the ones I did back home. Over here, I recovered 4x4 stuck in potholes using nothing more than chains and brute American 4x4 muscle power, drove on terrain that would put our Singapore off-country roads to shame, saw more black bears and deers that I did in the zoo, freezing my butt off under -2 deg while going to the latrine.

What more can I ask for?

Harsh conditions it may be, but I became a better person through those "oh-my-god" episodes which I will not elaborate here. But it does bring a laugh when I think back about it and earned me a callsign called "SNOOKER".

Now that its all over, I can finally look forward to my char kway teow, ba chor mee, orh luak, carrot cake, kway chap, etc. I am not going to touch beef, chicken, bread, cheese, yoghurt, pancakes, sausages and bacon for the next few weeks.

Singapore, here I come!!!

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Saturday, June 06, 2009

From the Land of Maple Leaves

[10:50 pm]

Finally, the weekend is here!!!

After surviving the harsh terrain and environment (read:below 10 deg everyday), I am still pretty much alive and full of character.

I must say that its not easy for tropic-acclimatised people like us to survive in the cold weather here. Everyday when I go out to the field, I am wrapped up like a dumpling..4 layers of clothes..and its not enough.

The cold Alaskan wind just slices into you like a knife..leaving me cold most of the time..its during this time I really yearn for a piping hot drink and food. Imagine the food getting cold within mins by the time we open the lid..which most of the time it happens..

Add to the long hours of debrief, by the time I reach my room, I just want to take a hot shower and go off to bed. I am usually off to a deep sleep by the time I hit the pillow..only to wake up by 0400 for the next day. That's the routine I am going through everyday.

I am starting to miss my ba chor mee, char kway teow, carrot cake, thosai and real coffee. The coffee here really sucks big time..it ain't enough to even jumpstart my system in the morning. Besides that, the time difference here makes it challenging to call home for when its my bedtime, its breakfast time over at home.

At least calling home and chatting with friends online via msn makes me feel that I still attached with home. Oh well, 1 more week to go before I fly home..hopefully we won't get quarantine as we read over the net that its getting worse back home.

Till then, watch here for updates and facebook for the photos!!

Labels: Grumblings

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