4.04.2003

 

[assorted thoughts]

wow. been away from blogger for close to 3 weeks already.. it's a wonder how i did it. so many things have gone by, and as usual, 1000s of half-baked ideas for posts. any hope of blogging at work, or at least digitally writing in my blog and posting later, have been dashed by the heaps of work that landed rather suddenly and unexpectedly (though to be fair i should have seen it coming... repeat after me: should have seen it coming)

mess init has come and gone.. surprisingly i went through without much alcohol (half mug) and substituted the rest of the night with water, 'ribena' (very dilute punch) with raw egg.. although its not exactly palatable theres just something strange about drinking and then having some runny yellow blob slip down your throat. almost got a question correct.. almost made my boss drink instead of me.. but i slipped up cos of wrong numbering (001-064, wrong, vs 000-063) anyway he may think i purposely slipped up so he wouldnt lose face.. that i really dunno. heh. wound up singing a horrible and very out of tune wonderwall, though on hindsight it was the best of all the performances that night. that doesnt say very much about the standard, now does it? and after the thing was over it was time to pick up the stragglers, the absolute flat-out drunks, send them back to bunk, then set about cleaning the phenomenal mess. you can take that both ways. anyway when that was over and done with it was karaoke time. that will probably be the last time i attempt to pull off vertical horizon's "everything you want".. which some will recall i was very fond of. and i couldnt set about loading the jay chou karaoke vcd into the hulk of a vcd changer they had ("warning: do not open!") so that went unsung.. incidentally this also caused a bit of confusion (that was completely unintended, i swear), for those in the know about the [volatile?] team dynamics in here.

mess init also provided the excuse for me to finally go buy some cds after a hiatus of almost 3 years+. the cds that come with muzik and Q dont count, since im paying for the magazine (technically. or rather, legally).. cds that i was techincally capable of singing: totally flat tune throughout. heh. walked out of borders with the elvis #1s album, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps, the collection of oldies that happens to include the eponymous Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps last heard in a Soo Kee jewellry ad, and Beth Orton's Daybreaker as well as the single of the Pet Shop Boys' Home and Dry.. liking it every bit as much as calvin. anyway based on listenings along beth orton seems to be the most satisfying of the cds.. although im not quite capable of funding such cd-buying sprees in future. Bjork's Greatest Hits will just have to wait... sigh.

waist-deep in SARS work now. its almost unbelievable, the stuff i have to do.. initially tasked to give a presentation on SARS. sure thats ok. then as i was going home yesterday - after cleaning out the bunk in preparation for moving in.. we're being chased out of our old bunk - i suddenly hear somebody shouting my name from my office. i look up and one of my clerks frantically waves saying theres a CO meeting (CO means... the head honcho of my unit. bigger than my boss even. my boss is technically 3rd in charge, but practically speaking 2nd in charge) in the conf room.. and im in a very very dusty set of singlet and shorts (cleaning out the room, what would you expect? my newfound vacuuming skillz came in handy..) so i run back to my old bunk change and run back. burst thru the door. "sorry im late sir." sweat drips. bracing myself for the inevitable. all sorts of funny images run thru my head: extras [extra duties], vehement scolding, ... "what are you late for? are you supposed to be here? as what, the MO [medical officer]?" at which point i silently go... *slaps head*

that ad-hoc meeting (its actually normal, mind.. doesnt remove the ad-hocness any, though) ended 1930, which is awfully downright uncharacteristically early. bear in mind that i hadnt had dinner yet and hardly ate lunch. so by right i can go home... but cos of the meeting my work has just quintupled and the stuff was due the next day [today actually!].. so i wind up packing up my new bunk nicely, get my frens to buy back a long john's meal for me [the only cheap thing to eat im afraid] and proceed to work til 0200. crash in the office - not at my chair, thankfully, in the DO room which always has a spare bed. wake up reluctantly at 0730 and jump back to work. anyway at 0800 we have another discussion/powwow and most of what i spent the night doing (a flowchart) is drastically overhauled in the first 5 mins.

there's much more than just that but i think the point has been made.. ill stop complaning right about here. developing the flu, actually ive had it for quite a while already and no symptoms of sars, so crossing my fingers that everythings ok. a public health situation like sars actually depends very much on social responsibility.. and that is a very demanding thing to ask of people.

many many more assorted thoughts - but they have to wait. i need to sleep, to recuperate - theres still a long run far far away from home really early tmr. life doesnt suck.. its just bemusing, in a mildly trying way.

timestamp: anonymous 14:47 0 comments