That kind of time

By all accounts, this has been a fairly bad week. I'm getting bald, fat and grumpy....

Well, not really but it has been a lousy week starting from day one. Even before work started, I had a call from my boss, berating me for some fault or mistake that was somehow not mine.

Being in the midst of Monday blues and compounded by the morning irritation, I nearly blew my top when it was implied that everything was due to my incompetence. I barely was able to regain control when I tersely semi-shouted back through the phone. With that, the mood was more or less soured.

That same afternoon, I picked up an injury while doing work. I think I overstrained a tendon in my hand as I felt the twinge and till today, my middle knuckle still hurts when I exert it. Even the simplest force rendered from pulling something causes a sharp pain to shoot up the arm.

Then, it rained on my parade. Well, not literally my parade but you get the drift. I had been hoping to catch another partial solar eclipse but after bright sunny starts to the previous few days, it chose to pour on that day. I noticed that this tends to happen almost everytime there's something to see up there. I guess the tag of Rainman is not too far-fetched. I feel for those in Shanghai too.

Worse still, I just got notified that my income tax has doubled as compared to the previous year. This is in spite of my pay NOT doubling and no mid-year bonus to cover it. Plus now I'm saddled with paying the bills since my dad got hospitalised. At least his ok now and recuperating at a relative's place. Money goes out faster than you can save up doesn't it?

So here we are. Thank goodness it's Friday. I'm still feeling prickly and edging for a fight. Of course, I blame it all on a DVD marathon of House M.D. Season 3. So if you're at the receiving end so far, take this back with you: I can be a jerk to people I haven't slept with. I am that good.

The writer is currently in the midst of going through a fat novel with itty-bitty print. Season 4 of House beckons him from the corner of his shelf.

Burning red ears

It's not easy lending a listening ear, much less when you have issues of your own that's bugging you. For the past few weeks, I find myself sandwiched in the middle, Having my ears pulled and pulling someone else's ears.

Pretty much the entire issue has to do with the fickle-mindedness of a certain group of people (READ: WOMEN). For my own case, it's not so much any development or change in the status quo, rather it was my boss and the numerous schedule conflicts between my job and other "assigned" (arrowed) activities.

On the other side, I have a girl whom I met some time back from the online portal of the dating agency. She had just rebuffed a get-back-together attempt by, guess who, a former colleague of mine. Due to confidentiality issues, I shall not discuss this any further as it is against ethics to discuss personal issues of others in depth. The sharp knives would probably want to jump at the chance to draw parallels and cut me open anyway.

It was pretty straight forward at first until I was asked for advice. Not blowing my own trumpet here but usually I gave quite logical advice for various situations BUT for some unknown reasons, people tend to never take them. You can blame me for not taking my own advice but as of late, the last laugh seems to be from my end (metaphorically speaking of course, I don't laugh at other people's problems). Hey, if you don't want to take my advice, don't ask for it. If you do, be prepared to let me indulge in the "I told you so" moment.

Listening ears are hard to come by. I was lucky to have a good friend who takes it all in (and dishing some out). I can understand how frustrating it can be when you have to talk to someone and things are just too personal to publish online (even if access is limited). For those I do not turn to, it's not because of trust issues but more of the lack of situational awareness and interest I sense. To put it more bluntly, either you have zero experience to help, can't be arsed or can't wait to see me fail. I get emo, I feel angst, I'm still human. Thank you for all who cared instead of telling me to sod off.

The writer has managed to restart the rusty clockwork in his head of some future plans. He is looking forward to a trip that has been in the works for the last 8 years.