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Haul-Ass: My end-of-year chill just vanished in the breeze

The Boss yanked me into his office midday on Friday. It was very short notice, for which I had to reschedule a meeting.

I knocked and went in with some trepidation.

"Come in," he said. "Sit down."

So I sat. And for forty-five minutes we talked. He advised, I listened. I shared thoughts, he tempered them. It was good. At the end of it all, he said "OK, 1st of November. Make sure you close the loop by telling ______ and then informing _______. When you have done so, let me know."

And with that, I got up, thanked him, backed out, and closed the door behind me.

So yes, come 1st November, I am supposed to be doing a totally different thing from what I have done before. I was so excited when I walked out of the office that I could barely suppress a little scream of joy. The other overriding emotion that I could not suppress was terror. The learning curve will either kill me or make me.

In the spirit of MTV, "I wanna be MADE!".

21st century Elves

She's put into practice what I've always thought would happen if Elves from space took a shine to the catwalk.

Louise Goldin Spring/Summer '10

Bravo, Mark Fast!

This is a CRAAAA-zy show, y'all! See it, see it, see it!

Mark Fast Spring/Summer '10

And read Style.com's review. Man, even my post-baby body, less and less girlish by the month, would have a passing chance of looking 18 years old in those. Mmm.....

Beanneries

Woo. It's been a busy-bee month for my little Bean. Fourteen months now, and raring to go everywhere.

She points to where she wants to go, tells us things like "pwis" (please), "nannnnn" (nanny), "mimeee" (mummy), "bobok" (Indonesian slang for sleep), "more" (and follows it by opening her mouth wide - for food!), "hepp" (help me), "mak" (milk), "yum yum" (delicious!).....and reading from her word-books.

A wide variety of words from Robert Titzer's series, including "cat', "car", "bike", "up", etc.

Just this week she has finally worked up the gumption to let go of everyone, grab something, and toddle her way around. In the house, out at the playground, etc.

Weighing in at more than 13kg and um, taller and wrigglier than I can catch, she's easily bigger than any diminuitive 2-year-old. Wearing 2-3 year old clothing as well.

Hubby's really enjoying his time with her now, now that she's solid enough to wrestle into a pillow, likes piggyback rides, and generally cackles with mirth when he roughhouses with her.

.....her first pre-molar appeared 2 weeks ago......

Life after pregnancy

Oh yeah. And.....it's true what Mom said.

I did shrink back to my original clothing size. With the exception of the boobs. They're still a tad bigger than they were before, and in a different position somehow, although not really droopy or anything like that. And no stretch marks, thank goodness.

Might actually have to do some undie-shopping ;p

My Darling Bean

Just had to write.

I love my little daughter. More than anyone I've ever loved. To the extent that I'm not sure if I'll love another child as much as I love her. It's fascinating just how much paradigm shift one can have. All that stuff people say about someone being the centre of their universe.

Well, I finally get it.

And the rain shall fall....

Wow, it's the start of September! To mark the beginning of the northern hemisphere's cold time, today was beset with a huge tropical rainshower. I say shower instead of storm because there's none of that ol' thunder and lightning going on. Instead, sheets of continuous rain, hardly any wind at all, and quiet.

Went to lunch with a couple of colleagues today to discuss their thoughts about how to move our department forwards. In stark contrast to the rest of the contracted world, the healthcare sector - usually prudent - splurged greatly on manpower in the last 3 quarters. Industries hit by gloom yielded us many gems and talents, and we scooped them up by the handfuls.

Now that the economy may stay rallied, we need to hold on to them and develop them further. The resources that we have plowed back into our "business" is started to show. Little shoots of effort and teamwork are pushing up steadily. Well, in my realm of control anyway.

Stuff that I was tasked to do this year are starting to bear fruit. It remains now to see what the fruit will taste of. But no fear. No shortage of seeds here. In fact, although we have hired, there is still so much room for work and growth......if only the finances were sustainable.

I'm not talking about making buckets of moolah from people's ill health. I'm talking about making enough to cover the expansion or progress that is completely necessary in order to maintain a par level of health in the population. No point having dirt-cheap healthcare that goes belly-up and cannot look after you then, is there?