I've been called many things in my life. For most part the 2 things that annoy people about me are:
1) My tendency to whine: I am gifted with the ability to whine about the smallest of things, sometimes putting a negative spin even on a positive thing!!! It's only having some truly sunny optimists for friends that has made it better in the recent years.
The day someone calls me a sunny optimist will be the day I ... well ... err...
See I never anticipated it. So I haven't quite planned it out (and won't need to!)
2) My inability to keep a straight face through an intense emotion: Anger, Sadness, Frustration, Happiness, Glee - be what it may, you can ALWAYS see right through me. Calling a spade a spade is the ONE thing I used to be (in)famous for.
And today a woman I work with very closely told me that my diplomacy is inspiring her to turn more tactful as well. (This can also be construed as a well placed slap to my face - an insult rather than a compliment, but lets not put a negative spin on everything?)
Not only was I flummoxed, I also almost fell down from the massive realization that after 4.5 years of working at a job where sugar coating is a way of life, I have, in fact, gone over to the DARK SIDE. Sigh :(
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Comeback
What do you call someone who ran away from posting on their blog for 2 whole months? Lazy? Busy? Disinterested? Unmotivated?
How about plain happy?
Mid December saw the grand moving in happen to a new place. The new house is on the 9th floor, is blessed with 24*7 breeze and natural light aplenty. It's a blessing to come back to at the end of a long hard day at work.
End December saw me meeting the husband (P, as he is usually known) after 3 months of living apart post the wedding. As if it wasn't bad enough that we'd been apart so long, and as if I wasn't already acting like a giddy teenager thinking "YAY i'm going to see him!" every single day, his airline decided to act up and bump him off his flight when he turned up to check in. Bastiges.
What followed was an intense 8 hours of him and me coordinating on google talk to find him tickets to India that did NOT go through Europe to avoid a rehash of the "We have so many cancelled flights from the bad weather, hence we will proceed to give stranded passengers your seat without warning you in advance" situation. Finally found the last economy ticket on a Middle Eastern airline that got him to Madras 1 day AFTER Christmas. By which time the wine and vindaloo had been devoured and much family fun had already occurred.
Not to worry, though. P's aunt left some aside for him.
Did I mention the airline refused to refund the ticket cost? Knowing that this was one passenger leaving the country on a one way ticket, and hence would not be back to fight with them, they refused to pay up.
First, he was asked to shuttle between Expedia (the online agent) and the airline (should I, should I not mention?) for about a day. Then he passed on the baton to the very kind and capable Mogambo who pursued the bastiges for us (coz P was, by now, on a flight to India, remember??). Mogambo was served a series of delightfully inconsistent excuses that ranged from "Of course he was on the flight. Our records show that he landed in India just now" to "He never showed up". All this after the airline mailed him saying "your flight has been cancelled".
Mogambo then suggested that nothing would come out of this haggling (P, by now, had reached India) and perhaps we could consider not paying at all? (Credit card payments aren't authorized by you until you've seen your statement no?). This idea was looked upon very favorably by P's many family members who had already expressed their deep grief at the loss of so much money to a cheating airline.
I'm glad to report, the credit card company with their ample resources managed to refuse payment to the airline and in due course (2 days ago, to be precise) credited the money back to him and we did a little jig of happiness before telling all our well wishers, the money was indeed back.
Of course, P's arrival in Singapore is an event one must not gloss over. As we got off the taxi at our condo, we noticed some familiar faces hopping off taxis before ours. Apparently, the Penguin, the Viking, V&D had planned a breakfast to welcome P to the country. Hot home made Dhoklas.
(I have to say at this point, that I have never received such a warm welcome despite having known all these people for about 4 years now. Such is P's luck or P's magic. One will never know.)
The last few weeks have been the beginning of what they call 'married life'. It feels like anything I say at this point would end up sounding cliched, so I'll avoid detailing what it's been like.
Let's just say coming home to someone who loves you and wants you there is a one of a kind brilliance. I'd trade it for nothing in the world at this point :)
More later ....
How about plain happy?
Mid December saw the grand moving in happen to a new place. The new house is on the 9th floor, is blessed with 24*7 breeze and natural light aplenty. It's a blessing to come back to at the end of a long hard day at work.
End December saw me meeting the husband (P, as he is usually known) after 3 months of living apart post the wedding. As if it wasn't bad enough that we'd been apart so long, and as if I wasn't already acting like a giddy teenager thinking "YAY i'm going to see him!" every single day, his airline decided to act up and bump him off his flight when he turned up to check in. Bastiges.
What followed was an intense 8 hours of him and me coordinating on google talk to find him tickets to India that did NOT go through Europe to avoid a rehash of the "We have so many cancelled flights from the bad weather, hence we will proceed to give stranded passengers your seat without warning you in advance" situation. Finally found the last economy ticket on a Middle Eastern airline that got him to Madras 1 day AFTER Christmas. By which time the wine and vindaloo had been devoured and much family fun had already occurred.
Not to worry, though. P's aunt left some aside for him.
Did I mention the airline refused to refund the ticket cost? Knowing that this was one passenger leaving the country on a one way ticket, and hence would not be back to fight with them, they refused to pay up.
First, he was asked to shuttle between Expedia (the online agent) and the airline (should I, should I not mention?) for about a day. Then he passed on the baton to the very kind and capable Mogambo who pursued the bastiges for us (coz P was, by now, on a flight to India, remember??). Mogambo was served a series of delightfully inconsistent excuses that ranged from "Of course he was on the flight. Our records show that he landed in India just now" to "He never showed up". All this after the airline mailed him saying "your flight has been cancelled".
Mogambo then suggested that nothing would come out of this haggling (P, by now, had reached India) and perhaps we could consider not paying at all? (Credit card payments aren't authorized by you until you've seen your statement no?). This idea was looked upon very favorably by P's many family members who had already expressed their deep grief at the loss of so much money to a cheating airline.
I'm glad to report, the credit card company with their ample resources managed to refuse payment to the airline and in due course (2 days ago, to be precise) credited the money back to him and we did a little jig of happiness before telling all our well wishers, the money was indeed back.
Of course, P's arrival in Singapore is an event one must not gloss over. As we got off the taxi at our condo, we noticed some familiar faces hopping off taxis before ours. Apparently, the Penguin, the Viking, V&D had planned a breakfast to welcome P to the country. Hot home made Dhoklas.
(I have to say at this point, that I have never received such a warm welcome despite having known all these people for about 4 years now. Such is P's luck or P's magic. One will never know.)
The last few weeks have been the beginning of what they call 'married life'. It feels like anything I say at this point would end up sounding cliched, so I'll avoid detailing what it's been like.
Let's just say coming home to someone who loves you and wants you there is a one of a kind brilliance. I'd trade it for nothing in the world at this point :)
More later ....
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