Weekend of eating and singing?!... 2 days of work

I had another busy weekend. It's not something I plan for but it just happens.

On Saturday I met up with some friends for a greasy fry up for lunch! Something we do once a month just to catch up, but this time I had to help my recently made redundant friend to write his CV. It's quite challenging to write a CV for someone as you do not know their experience in depth and this was made more difficult when my friend could not provide anything positive to say about his last two jobs! But we did what we could and dressed it up without too many white lies...

Afterwards I went round to my uncles where I stuffed my face with salmon sashimi! I also played a couple of hands of poker with my cousins and trained a little on my arms. It was a bit of a big gathering actually with many friends of the family visiting too. Late on in the evening the karaoke machine was turned on and we spent the rest of the evening shouting out power ballads and losing our voices! It was great fun! From my 7 year old cousin through to her 40 year old dad... we belted out some classics! LOL

Sunday was much more laid back. It was spent round my friends house where we were celebrating his son's one month birthday. All I did was eat and watch TV. It was nice to see some old faces too and it's quite amazing how my friends of nearly 10 years are now fathers! I wonder when my time will come....

The weekend came to an end and I have been back at work for 2 days now. Monday was a fresh start with a new manager. It is going pretty well with more direction and focus. However today was a nightmare! And it started off so well! In fact I have been pretty happy at work for one and a half days just from talking on MSN to a friend... But like I said, it all came tumbling down today. For some unknown reason I lost the ability to update information on the company database! It just meant I could not do ANY work!! Really pissed me off and it's amazing how quickly you can fall downwards in a destructive cycle! Fortunately the database 'fixed' itself and I left the office knowing I can go back to work without any issues the next day!

I have next Monday off to meet a friend.... should be fun (or interesting at least!).

Been a busy week...

After recovering from my bout of flu in record timing I was back at work and in full swing. This week has been particularly busy with the celebration of Chinese New Year, meeting an old uni friend and also a friends birthday. Not to mention my ritual kick boxing!

But it's a good thing. The quicker the week passes the quicker I am into the weekend which promises to be even more packed! Firstly I NEED a haircut! I actually wanted it done last week, had I not been ill! Then I am booked up all Saturday working on my friends CV after he was made redundant last week! And then in the evening I will be round my uncle's house for dinner. And Sunday it is round my friend's house to celebtate his son's one month birthday. I don't even have time to breathe!

So what else have I had time to think about this week? Seeing that it is Chinese New Year I have been thinking about tradition. I find it very comforting that for my entire life our family has been very close. More on my mum's side of the family than my dad's. Nothings perfect in this world. But to have such close relatives and for all the cousins from my age down to a 7 year old to get on so well I am very grateful.

The tradition in our family for most celebrations and events throughout the year revolves around eating and talking followed by many rounds of mah jong for the oldies, whilst us younger family members are usually going out to play snooker, chatting or more recently, playing a couple of rounds of mah jong ourselves.

It has not been like this as the uncles and aunts were all pretty much working hard during the early periods of life. It is only in the last 10 years that we have really come together as a family and been able to enjoy life without the pressure of work. I guess it is down to the children growing up and relying less and less on the parents.

It won't be long now before my generation of cousins start families of their own with my cousin getting married in May and another planned for next year. It is exciting times and our family is due to grow again! At the moment it takes a mini car park to accomodate the cars needed to transport all the relatives to a restaurant and it won't be long before a family get together requires the booking out of an entire restaurant!

Anyway... I hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating Chinese New Year with their family and friends and may this year bring everyone all that they want through hard work and laugher.

Feeling bad....

What goes up must come down....

From feeling great I have fallen victim to the bug that has been floating around recently. Knocked me out for nearly 2 days but luckily I seem to have a fast recovery rate. I woke up feeling shitty on Friday morning and by the afternoon I was knocked out. Over 30 hours spent sleeping, only waking up to take some medicine, by Saturday night I was feeling a lot better. But I did lose 5kg in weight!

It's only when you can compare the tough times with the good that you truly appreciate how good the good things are. I think, as people, we are always seeking to be happy when that is not possible. We look at the difficult times and question why we have to put up with it. Everything is relative. The good must come with the bad. We just have to be patient during the tough times and enjoy the good times when they arrive....

Being good

From my last blog of telling you how good I feel, I think it should be noted that it comes down to being good.

To kick things off I stopped smoking at the beginning of the year. On hindsight it's strange that I was ever compelled to smoke in the first place. It is such a distant memory that it requires thought to realise I used to smoke!

Secondly I have maintained a consistent regime of exercise comprising of kick boxing, going to the driving range and a bit of weight training at home. I am now looking to join a gym to increase my work out and regain some fitness that I once possessed! In terms of sleep I seem to be coping pretty well on 5-6 hours per night during the week days and having a full 8 hours over the weekends.

Finally, I have been lucky to find myself in a job where the people I work with are great. The work itself is very much within my capabilities and I could even take on more responsibilities really. And I find myself wanting to wake up every day and looking forward to going in to work!

This positivity has led me to being a lot happier than I have been before... and of course there has been some external help too! Which brings me back to the subject of being good. So I am being good to myself for once and looking to put myself first!

But then I was talking to the my not so familar friend, who I have only really seen twice and talked a bit online, and she said that I was a nice bloke. Obviously flattered, but also concerned that a girl can believe a guy is nice on the basis of two meetings... of limited time too! I wonder sometimes if it is possible to 'see' good in a person? Am I that different to anyone else? I tell people that I do good things, but how do they know if I am lying or not?

The people who read this and know me, also know I am not a liar and I do try to be nice to people. Sometimes to a point that my close friends feel I get used. And not in a good way! LOL But then I am not too bothered, those who are users will ultimately expose their flaws and I probably won't be seeing them very often... if at all. At the end of the day, what do I lose for being nice to strangers a couple of times? I get to find out their personalities, I spend a bit of money.... maybe on food, maybe on travelling or maybe I lose some time... but after that I know exactly what kind of person this new 'friend' is. I think it is a sacrifice worth giving. Don't you?

So.... I guess that being good to myself and to others is making me a happier person. I recommend that you try it and see how you feel....

Feeling good

For the past month or so I have been feeling pretty good! I was quite surprised and really didn't notice it until someone asked me how I was. And I replied that I felt great!

Now it's a late Friday night and early Saturday morning and I have been awake for 19 hours! But I still feel great. Maybe it's because I haven't smoked for over a month now. Maybe it's because I feel great from kickboxing last night. I really cannot pinpoint it.... but I really did enjoy and have been enjoying kickboxing a lot recently. I find I am getting pounded quite a bit as I am a bit violent...in a controlled manner of course.... and getting hit a lot, but also landing a few shots of my own. I can feel the pain in places where I have been hit although there's no physical evidence to show for it!

Other than living a healthy lifestyle now, there is one other factor that might be the cause for this feeling of contentment and satisfaction... a person... more specifically a girl. OK.... nothings happened and somethings might never happen, but she has made me feel things I have not felt in a long long time! The quickening of my heartbeat when her name pops up on MSN. The excitement of seeing an email sent by her. The tingle in my ear as I hear her voice on the phone.

Admittedly this may be very one directional, and the fact there are 'complications', and I may be making a fool of myself... but hey! Who cares? I haven't felt this good in such a long time I'm not going to be bothered by what people have to say. I guess I have to look back at my previous entry and remain patient. I've been single for over 2 years now... I can wait a bit longer... I think?!

Anyway... moving on! Work is going quite well. I am getting to understand the company a lot better in terms of strategy and hierarchy. My work load is very manageable and quite pressurised too at times. Having to work in between 6 different time zones can be a challenge, but I enjoy it at times.

Within the family, my dad went in for a minor operation on his right shoulder. He had an 'aching' pain inside and the doctor performed arthroscopic surgery on him to alleviate the pain. He is now back at home and has made a good recovery so far. As will pretty much all operations around joints, there will be a requirement to undergo physiotherapy to ease the shoulder into motion again.

This year has been pretty good so far and it has been down to a number of things that I can physically see or do. But I think the main change is in my mind. Where I used to be very impatient and often looked for the 'short cuts' I am now enjoying my time and I find that time passes even quicker when I am being more patient. Weeks are flying by and I do not look too far forward now. I just try to live each day being happy and getting things done.

Life is quite simple really... it's all in our head the way we feel. We have a choice of how we want to feel and we know what we need to do to make ourselves feel a certain way. It's just a case of doing it.....

Arghhh..... and a long weekend

For the last 4 days I have been in pain. My back is aching, my neck hurts and it pains me to eat due to an inch long ulcer along my bottom lip. Why am I in such pain? Kickboxing!

It's probably my fault really. I had been sleeping very little prior to training and I was lethargic even before we started the class. I thought that once I had warmed up and got into full flow I would be ok, but I was shattered throughout! Even the warm up near enough wiped me out! But the worse part was when we started to spar. That was when the tiredness really came out and I could barely defend myself, hence an inch long ulcer from a cut after being punched in the mouth.

But I also managed to dish out a little pain myself too! I was about to be selfish and just take, take, take! I landed a few good punches and a decent kick into someone's ribs! That was Thursday night... and I was also surprised with an exchange of text messages throughout the night! And though I wanted to go to sleep early, I ended up on the phone to m friend for an hour!

Friday was very uneventful as I was in extreme pain and I really couldn't be arsed to do anything strenuous. I had a pretty quiet night in and just rested.

Saturday and Sunday were the busy days! And for those two days the only time I was really at home was when I was sleeping!

Saturday I took my dad to Hampshire Clinic where he is due to have arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder next week... followed by taking his car into Mercedes after his battery warning light came on. That was most of the morning over followed by loading some furniture into my car to take round to my uncle and celebrating my cousins 13th birthday AGAIN! The night ended after popping by a friends house to watch a DVD and by then it was 3am... by the time I got home and into bed it was past 4am...

Sunday I was up by 10am to go out to London to meet a friend for yum cha. The strangest thing happened on my drive when another friend I hadn't seen for a long time overtook me and waved! I met up with him and his wife and daughter briefly. One year olds are really cute! LOL

Anyway, I went to meet my friend for yum cha, did some baby clothes shopping for my other friends newborn son and then had some ice cream. I tried to get some sushi, but failed and my friends left to go home. I wandered around London trying to kill some time before meeting some other friends for a belated birthday dinner... but it was worth is as I haven't seen them in a long time and just had a good catching up session.

On my way home I dropped by my friends house and gave him the baby clothes. Stayed chatting to him for a few hours and finally got home around 1.30am! Slept for about 4-5 hours and then woke up to go to work....

Why do I punish myself so much!?!?

I guess I can still live with it now.... might as well put up with it whilst my body can still take it eh?

No pain, no gain....