Wow, I really suck at this regular update thing!
Last weekend I was in Shanghai, it’ll get it’s own post in due course, although I have to confess I wasn’t at my best. Just back from China and on the back of several big nights out (courtesy of various visitors to the office) I was feeling under the weather, generally worn out and arriving in a foreign country after midnight (breaking one of my self-imposed travel rules) just wasn’t the best feeling. Made worse when the taxi pulled up to the hotel to reveal an entrance that was properly shut and chained — fortunately the real entrance was round the corner but it’s still not the sort of thing I wanted to deal with at that point in time.
Sitting in the hotel I questioned my sanity for shoehorning this trip in, I actually wanted nothing more than to be in my flat in Manila. Sleeping. Which, given my love/hate relationship with Manila this year, was a pretty interesting feeling. Still, I made the best of it and discovered some cracking places in Shanghai, details soon.
But a weekend of sightseeing (and occasionally drinking) really didn’t help my overall wellness, and I was even more worn out by the time I got back to Manila. So I’ve spent the last week and a half sitting around watching TV and sleeping.
I feel pretty much back to normal now, which is good since I head to Sydney in two days! I still really can’t get my head around the fact I’m going, it’s been booked for so long that it’s just been a ‘thing’ and now here it is. I’ve done hardly any of my normal research for this trip, but that doesn’t matter, it’s not a flying weekend visit. There I’ve got plenty of time to settle in, look around and decide what to do. Plus I have friends around Sydney so I know I’m going to be getting at least some guidance while I’m there.
Even better is that this is a proper holiday, previously I’ve been darting away for the weekend or cramming in some travel during work trips. So I’ve had my work laptop and pretty much been ‘on-call’ but this time, although I’ve agreed to ‘keep an eye’ on my e-mail, I’m officially out of the office and out of contact. It’ll be an interesting feeling, I hope I can let go.
Of course that just means I’ll have a pile of work to return to and it’ll be just under three weeks before I’m away again. But I’m enjoying my work, I’d rather be busy than bored. And I’m more busy than normal because, although neither my salary or my official job title has changed yet, I’ve been promoted. I’m now looking after a team of fifteen people, which is a little scary and also means that the last flicker of a chance of me doing any proper engineering has pretty much died now. I’m sure I’ll find a way to keep my hand in — I have an evil plan.
Overall, despite my body’s protests and my insane schedule, I’m having fun. To go from, earlier in the year, wondering what I was doing in Manila to, on my last trip, not being able to wait to go back means that something must be going right over here.
Hopefully I’ll be able to throw something interesting up here when I’m in Sydney — otherwise I’ll be playing a bit of extreme catch-up when I get back.