So many events have taken place in the past month. We have been busy and time has just positively flown by.

Work wise, the company has finally put pen to paper on a couple of major matters. Things we have been working on for many months have finally reached their respective conclusions. We now have a relationship with a major bank and programs are under way to implement that relationship going forward. We have also, at long last, signed papers to embark on a major underwriting automation project. There are of course, the business-as-usual initiatives and tasks which by themselves are always a handful.

Furthermore, things have not eased up with these major executions – in fact things will pick up considerably. I don’t know what this will do to my work hours and consequently, my home and church fronts. I don’t want work to take such a prominent slice of my time and life like it used to but it isn’t a balance easily achieved. On the other hand, I have settled into my present role such that I cant see myself doing anything else for now.

I caught up with Stephen (my uncle) in Sydney recently, when I was there in one of my recent meetings with clients. It was just before he left for Klang to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday bash. Tress and I caught up with the photographs put up in facebook by Joy. Grandmother looked well and happy. I think whenever she is not happy, it is because she misses her extended family. Kiddo put together a video clip with our birthday wishes for grandmother. Her work was terrific but probably because our 5-year old camera (a 4mp Canon) is a bit of a dinosaur and the clip was shot in our home at night, the video didnt have a quality look about it. Maybe I was just being self conscious.

A few weeks ago, my boss got married – up in Mt Buller in the snow. It was the first snow wedding for many of us. I made a day trip with 2 other colleagues. It would have been nice to stay through the weekend but as it was a Friday, kiddo couldn’t make it so Tress stayed behind with her and I decided to just make it a day trip. The drive to  the foot of the mountain was under 3 hours and it was a pleasant drive too, except during the return trip, when it was dark and raining. We got home however, just in time to watch the Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony, which was spectacular. It was disappointing however, to have found a few days later that the Chinese duped us – some of the show weren’t real, only computer generated images. Ah well – that’s China for you: always wanting to portray the right picture, and truth isn’t always sacred.

Kiddo and I have also taken up tennis lessons. I wanted her to pick up tennis because it is such an accessible sport here. I hope she picks up some basic skills and go on to play the game recreationally and for exercise, for the rest of her life.  The lessons are on Saturday mornings and they have also given us some time to chat about things. Taking the lessons together with her gave her some support and confidence (I think). The short drive there, the hitting around, the ball collecting at the end of the lesson and finally the drive home, all gave the both of us very focused time together and I’m very happy for that.

We also had a visiting speaker in church who came out to conduct a leadership seminar. Albert and Men Eng Tan stayed with TT and Maudrene out in Berwick, and some of us had to chip in to provide the taxi service, which is a good 30 minutes away. I guess as long as we know the way it wasn’t so bad as they’re really nice people and made for great company. Albert is a freelance trainer and “vision caster”. He didnt sound so bad – in fact he made a lot of sense and provided a lot of comfort that there are decent people – those whose feet are firmly planted on the ground – who can put together properly grounded messages instead of just flying off the handle with some stories about gold teeth and shot gun styled “prophecies”. So refreshing.

Albert spoke again to deliver the sermon on Sunday. After that the ladies had a meeting in Kristen’s home and I took kiddo out to lunch with Alex and his kids. After lunch we walked to Village complex, to see if we could catch a movie. Nothing was on so Kiddo and I walked to the station to catch the bus back – Tress had driven to Kristen’s. As we were making our way to Forest Hill, we decided to go bowling and I called Alex to let him know and asked him to bring his kids along to join us. We discovered we had left the house key in the car so we couldnt get home and had to wait for Tress. We made out way straight to FH Chase therefore, and met up with Alex and his troops there. We bowled, had some fun and finally went back to wait for Tress to get home while we mucked around in the park and on the driveway.

Tress finally came back with Li Har and we all went in and had some drinks and tidbits – I had spent the whole weekend without attending to any housechores whatsoever. I felt really guilty and the pressure of having unfinished work was even worse than usual.

I dont know why we feel that – the stress of knowing there is work waiting and we have not done it, for one reason or another. If alone we are able to sail along without worrying about stuff like that.

This weekend promises more of the same. Apart from our tennis on Sat morning, we would also be having a working bee in church, followed by lunch there. Kiddo has her tuition and in the afternoon there are more meetings in church – board and committees. Kiddo then has a concert in the city in the Vodafone Arena (renamed HiSense something recently).