Backup

It was another very busy week. I was so busy that by the time my business partner said goodbye to me through the glass wall of my office on Tuesday evening, I had no idea he was taking off for a short holiday. I planned to do a number of things for the rest of the week, except that by the week's end, I was only half-way there. Friday evening Jake and Ryan came to my office at about 5 pm because they needed some advice from me. By the time we finished, it was after 6 pm. They waited for me at our reception while I got changed. Meanwhile, Phil met up with us there as well, so the four of us went down and walked to the cinemas together. As usual, after we got our movie tickets, we went to Grill'd for dinner. Sam showed up not long after we sat down. It was a bit weird to turn our conversation from a business to a social one. After dinner, we loitered around town as usual. There were more people hanging about than usual because of the whole lighting up of the Christmas Tre...

Last week was challenging. At one point, I felt like I was getting to the end of my tether. It all started with a call when a business contact asked us to check something regarding a mutual client. When I did, I found that something slipped through the cracks and the client had been exposed to a risk, even though it was small, but being the conservative person that I was, I found myself obsessed in trying to solve the problem. When I went to bed that evening, I couldn't really sleep well because my brain was still trying to attack the problem from different angles. In addition to that, I had a set back with one of the regular assignments I had been doing for a client. I knew it was nothing personal but that didn't stop me from feeling a bit disappointed. Together with a relentless flow of demands from various sources, I was feeling quite overwhelmed and a bit down by the week's end. On this note though, I just want to say I am always amazed by the providence of the univ...

It was a weird week for me. Bright and early on Thursday morning, I drove all the way to Noosa to attend a work conference. The traffic was quite good, so I made it all the way up there just before the conference started at 8:30 am. A few of my colleagues/mates were there as well, so it was a bit of a junket really, especially given that we skipped all the workshops and went to have coffee instead. :P The conference organisers should really have a good think about the timing of their conferences. It was very hard to get accommodation. I ended up booking a half-decent place on the other end of Hastings Street and that cost $429 per night! I would have put up with the price if the place was a five-star hotel but it was kind of old and a bit tired. The good thing about the conference was that I had my lappy with me, so I was half working and half listening. I was able to respond to client emails straight away, which meant that I was not letting emails built up over the two days tha...

I thought I would leave a blog post because I don't get shocked by many things. But I am genuinely shocked that Trump is winning the election. When I get to the core of it, I am fearful of how the world has become so motivated by fear in the past year. First, there was Brexit, which was mainly caused by the far right's fear of immigrants; now Trump's impending victory is also a product of fear that the world will be taken over by Muslims. It made me even more sick to see a photo in the news of Pauline Hanson and her cohorts sipping champagne to celebrate Trump's win. I am totally incoherent and feeling quite revolted right now, so I am going to stop here.

Last week was absolutely crazy.  I had one of the hugest weeks ever,  especially on Thursday (after an AGM I chaired the night before) when I started early to teach a 4 and a half hour course, followed by getting back to the office, trying to catch up on the 40+ emails that came in while I was teaching, and finished the day at a client's board meeting, which went from 6 pm to 9 pm! It was intense. Even so, I must admit I felt very accomplished and even after the long day, I took control over the board meeting and added good value to the discussions. Just as well this doesn't happen every week, lest my life would substantially be cut short. I was actually quite pleased with how I performed at the course I taught. All the stars aligned and it  unfolded without a hitch. I thought it was the best one I had ever delivered yet, so I am anxious for the participant evaluations to come in to see how I scored. Friday evening Thankfully, the weekend came a tad earlier as we ha...