Christmas prayer answered...

My prayer has been answered; praise God, the husband is highly likely to be home in time for Christmas. However, this also means that we'll be having to iron out many thorny issues that have been festering for as long as his training has lasted.

Diaper-free shopping trip

The week flies by in a whir and it's Friday again. We had a good and tasty dinner today after a nice walk in West Mall in the afternoon. My Christmas present for my parents is finally settled. Jonas behaved well and it was the first time he went out without diapers - yup, and there are no piddling accidents today. Thank God. I realised today that he's scared of going to the public loos because of the hand dryers; the noise drives him nuts. But we managed to overcome that today in West Mall.
I even got to enjoy a single scoop of melon+yogurt ice cream from Prefere (Korean) while my MIL shopped; Jonas was too busy arranging and lining up the colourful IKEA stools in the ice cream shop. Oh, and today, when he woke up, he told me, 'I want to see snow... (in) Japan.' I think that's for Daddy to hear.

Year end

December is always a good time for reminiscing.

I still think back fondly on Christmas celebrations at Richard's office. I'm not sure if they still do it but the vibes there are definitely so much more positive; it was quite like a family and it made us more willing to put in time and effort.

We're playing Kris Kringle in office starting today, courtesy of my Filipino colleague; strangely enough, the name I picked today to whom I'm going to be his Secret Santa is the same that I had a hunch about some time back. I shan't say more in case he chances upon this post but I think it is quite a divine opportunity, this.

A couple more months and Jo's godma will be leaving for Brazil to join her hubby; the group started to break up when some of us started getting hitched, and then Lulu went to KL to be with Alan for work, and now Dot too. We don't really meet up often enough, which is quite sad. Jo talks about his godparents sometimes; I wonder if he will still remember them when both will be away for such a long spell.

The world's a global village, but it seems that we're all growing further apart. It rents us asunder, splits the world up, breaks up my life, and drive us nuts. The global culture has taken over the local; now we all dress the same. The teens share the same idols most of whom don't deserve celebrity status. I don't know; this global village is a ticking timebomb.

For the first time, but not the last

The first day of December and the first day of the work week and the first time everyone saw a dear colleague in such a terrible mood. He's never had something bad to say about others and he's never raised his voice at others, even when he was being scolded by the bosses; in my impression he's always very collected though not quite as firm. I guess that's why he always bears the brunt of the bosses' frustration even if the mistake he makes usually don't deserve such outpouring of verbal nonsense from the 2 bosses. 

Today he finally blew but unfortunately, the bosses have gone out already. It would have been good for them to realise that they can't go on pushing his buttons, even though he doesn't retaliate most of the time. Well, it's time he has to stand for what he wants, including not getting pushed around. 

This month is going to be quite hellish for all of us; there is going to be tonnes of overtime work to do and I guess we are all willing to do within reasonable limit. However, the bosses have a tendency to order you to come in over the weekend and wait around for work to do. That's brilliant stupidity and what a waste of time and resources. They are always so busy controlling all the minute details that they don't have time to delegate work to their employees. We're always having to wait around for work to do and in the process, we don't work during working hours but end up working overtime.