How long does it take to get boring?

When I was a teenager, IBM was going bust, a senile old man surrounded by the young turks like Intel and Microsoft. Well, except Intel had been around for an age, and Microsoft never felt young and exciting. But what do adolescents fed on overcaffeinated beverages know about anything?

Back inside

I woke up at six today, feeling refreshed and happy with life. No longer was I so exhausted that all I wanted to do was cry. I was alive again. Hurrah!

So I went out for a run, and got ten yards down the street before I realised that I'd left my gloves and hat behind.

Tranquility

I went to the office at 8:30 this morning, and as everyone else was in Kuala Lumpur, had a day sat alone in a massive room, occasionally swearing at the haunted air conditioning units that revved themselves up whenever they felt like it. I got a lot done: not as much as I'd hoped for, and I still have 300+ emails festering in my inbox, but at least I've made inroads on the work that was waiting for me.

Chicken or beef?

Today was another wet day in Kuala Lumpur; I spent the morning in a freezing cold conference room, the afternoon in a hotel room, wrangling spreadsheets across a spotty wifi connection, and the evening in a club beneath the Petronas Towers, at a team-building evening that made me want to quit the company. I know if it’s too loud, you’re too old, but what does it say about your age when you’re bored with a screeching five foot drag queen yelling at you to have fun, from a stage filled with directors of the company, dressed up as ‘Malaysian super heroes’? Was that somebody’s idea of a fun night out for everyone? Or did I miss out on the memo about accepting cultural differences and terrible nightclubs?

Perhaps it’s just ennui from not enough sleep, accompanied by the petty annoyance of a diet of spring rolls and badly cooked noodles. Or perhaps it’s something else.

Edging into Darkness

I didn't leave the office at all today, which I think was a mistake. I try to take a promenade around the building at least once a day, to stop my mind and body seizing up, but I was too busy today wasting energy on arguing the toss about spreadsheets, and not spending enough time justifying my existence.

Last day at the office

The last day in Bellevue passed quickly. I woke up at 5, couldn't sleep, got out of bed and ran at 6, got back to the hotel, fought my luggage for an hour, went to the office.

I had meetings, ate doughnuts, avoided coffee, had possibly the worst Thai food of my life, went back to the office, formatted spreadsheets, deleted emails, considered the bleakness of my existence, drank three cans of Talking Rain, modified a powerpoint presentation, left the office. Much as per usual, I guess.

I'm staying with friends in Issaquah tonight and tomorrow, a small enclave of houses on a mountaintop, complete with what looks like a fortress wall around them. In case the 99%/the 75%/the 50%/the zombies attack, I guess. There's also a bear that wanders the streets up here, which will make for a fun run tomorrow.

We went for Mexican food tonight, about a mile from the house. Didn't see any bears. Drank much too much. Came back. Watched Tucker & Dale Vs Evil. Now I'm in a 17 year old's bed. Thankfully, he's sleeping somewhere else tonight or it would be very wrong.

Long day

Today was another long day. I got up at six, jogged slowly round the block and then ran up the hill away from the freeway through Bellevue. The hills in Bellevue are a bit bigger than the ones in Singapore, and having to do six repetitions of this was tough. By the fifth time up the hill, I was feeling beaten, and on the sixth my legs felt empty, devoid of strength. I got to the top of the hill but I was a busted flush; I trundled back down the hill, did another lap of the block to warm down, and then went and cleaned myself up for the day.

I know that running up hills is good for me, but it's hard that they have to be so hard. I suppose it woke me up.

Cold Comfort Air Conditioning

Today I walked to the office, my laptop and a heavy zoom lens in my backpack, and although it is no more than 10 minutes door to door, by the time I arrived at my workplace my shirt was transparent with sweat. I'd got up early because I had a phone call with Seattle at 8am, so it wasn't as if I'd been horsing about in the noonday sun. Singapore is just a bit hotter than perhaps my standard operating temperature range allows for.

Overworked

After spending all day in an air conditioned hotel, I took a taxi (lamentably unterrifying this time) back to the airport, checked through Immigration and hung around for two hours in an air conditioned building, before getting back on a plane and returning to Singapore. The only exotic part was the air conditioning on the plane on the way home, which managed to be even colder than the conference room yesterday. And there were all those scientists thinking you couldn't go below absolute zero. None of them work for Singapore Airlines, or in the Thai hospitality industry.

Sisyphean exploits

Today, for no particular reason apart from wanting to create another online identity (it’s not like I have enough already) I registered AnotherSisyphus on Twitter. I imagine I’ll be happy with only ever updating this with “Rolling a stone up a hill” once a day.

The Office

Today I had to go into the office to get some work done; I didn't really feel like breaking my holiday up, but with some urgent deadlines at the start of next month I needed to do something, rather than risk the chance of standing next to a smoking crater with a guilty look on my face in two weeks' time.

Wintermission

The snow continued to fall today - we were promised nothing but warm(er) rain, but instead there was pretty snow bedecking all the buildings. Cajoled by a colleague, I went to the office, to find a ghost town of abandoned cubicles. Every meeting was cancelled, something that provoked me to paroxysms of rage. It was as if nobody else had ever thought of using the telephone to communicate: like emus, if they can't see you, some people in the office think they can't hear you either.

Snowing, working and sleeping

Today I looked out the window, to see snow, glittering on the trees outside the hotel. I had my breakfast and then got driven up to the hotel, with the dread warning that there would be no car to ferry me home in the evening, because of the snow.

You can't hide the knives

We have two very nice Japanese knives, one big one for doing stuff with, and one paring knife for doing stuff with, when the stuff is small enough that the big knife becomes unwieldy.

Unfortunately, over time the edges of the knives dull. I purchased a whetstone when we bought the larger of the knives, and tried to teach myself to use it via Youtube videos. These may well be a good teaching resource, but it's hard to test, because if you start off with two blunt knives and sharpen one, you may get some comparative improvement without ever sharpening the knife properly. Or you could sharpen both knives (badly) and still not know.

Fed up and drugged up

This evening was the Christmas office party, an excuse to wear silly hats and drink and eat too much. And we were fed as much as we could possibly eat, and more. And so much more.

Work, life, no balance

I'm not well equipped to drink three pints of IPA; I've neglected my booze training for a long time, and so I no longer have the sturdy, hardened liver of a career drinker. Long gone are the days when I could drink five pints, half a bottle of wine and that bloody-awful-stuff that comes with almond biscuits and brainwipes you so hard that you get lost on the way to work the next day. Ah, yes, sweet Amaretto, architect of a thousand downfalls.

People talk about having a work-life balance. I doubt they mean a see-saw where on one end you put a twelve hour day fighting spreadsheets, and on the other end hobbies like "drink so much you sweat beer all morning". So I expect this decade, where my body isn't under the alco-hammer every night, is probably better for me than what went before, but this week feels like a lot of lurching in opposite directions.

Down about getting dressed up

Dread news came today while I was in a meeting: the details of the company off-site in Bangkok next week.

Interview questions

Today I had an interview for a job at the company where I already work. Luckily, it's for a different position to the one I currently occupy: it would feel a bit harsh if they made you reapply for your job every so often.

Looking for the buzz

A long, long time ago, when I worked for a small start-up in London, I came into work one Monday morning and read a strange email.

(Most emails received while working for start-ups are alarmingly prosaic, concerned with sour milk in the fridge, smoking bans, and ever-so-occasionally everyone-clear-your-desk-you're-fired. I suppose variety is nice.)

Too much Japanese food, too much information?

This evening I went out to dinner with the rest of my team from work, to Haniguchi, a Japanese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong.

It's in a rather unfortunate location, next to the fake Irish pub, and in Lan Kwai Fong, although that's slightly less oppressive now half the bars have shut while Alan Zeman turns the whole place into a corporate hell-hole of Hard Rock Cafes. (I wonder if there's space for a Planet Hollywood too, to really demean everyone drinking there.) A year ago, LKF would have been rammed full of drunken gweilos, but on a cold Thursday in February, it's eerily deserted. Perhaps the Rugby Sevens will bring the drunks back. I hope so.