Yoga in a garden

It is a festival of colors today, and advisable to stay in. I decided to come to work to tackle and reduce the big pile of pending work.

Yesterday was my regular weekly yoga day. However, the venue was little different this time. The teacher and my friend, three of us went to a park (used to be a palace and beautifully maintained) to do yoga there and take photos of different postures. It was so refreshing to be in the open air, see beautiful flowers and blue sky. We did the whole round of poses and took turns to take photos. My teacher will make this into a CD. I am no model for some of postures that I totally suck at, but it was fun to look at the pictures. Maybe, I will post some of them on this site. Or, you can purchase this "instruction CD"..... just kidding, not sure what she is going to do with it.

The residue of the catastrophe is still in the air today, but I invited my good friends over to my place for dinner last night as sort of "yakuyoke". I made takikomi gohan, tomato& egg soup, hijiki and vegetarian chicken nuggets, and it was fun!

Life goes on

I had some catastrophic thing happened recently. I get so fed up sometimes with cheap dramas that happen to my life. I have made enough inventories of various experiences, and I hope that by now I have already paid my dues. Anyway, I will be fine, and I am quite impressed with myself as to how I manage things.

Today, I had my performance evaluation by the head of agency (1 of my supervisors) for my 2009 work. In a nutshell, it was very good and encouraging. I was starting to think that I was not performing very well and maybe the UN work is not for me, so it just made my day. He said I work very well with national colleagues and sort of bridge the gap (often there is a tension between international and national staff due to many factors). He told me that he appreciates my enthusiasm and hard work and my analytical skills. He said it is good to see my “quiet style”, meaning that I am diplomatic and not pushy or aggressive. He was thankful for all the work that I have done and I was rated fully proficient in all areas of competencies and he agrees that I am exceptionally proficient (wow!) in emotional intelligence, conflict management, negotiation area, which, I have come to realize, is one of my strengths.
So, in summary, I started the day in a shitty (excuse my language) way, have 1 very visible pimple on my right cheek and got completely soaked in water when I tried to put a water bottle on a dispenser in the office and made a scene, but it was sunny out and there are people who appreciate me a lot and the life goes on. It all depends on me how I want to take things that happen to me.

Weekend Trip

Some pictures from my recent trip to a little place outside of the city where they have a fish farm (rainbow trout). Since this is a landlocked country, and fish is not easy to find (some fresh water fish is available but I don't like the taste so much). The trout was cooked in various ways, such as barbecued, stewed and fried, and they were all good.
They catch the fish and cook them on the spot, so it is very fresh.


It was good to get out of the city as well.




Just one more picture of me, I am doing fine, so don't worry!

Visits to look forward to

Hello my dear frineds,

I am not even sure if anyone still checks this site, since I have not been updating so frequently due to my IT challenge....

I have two recently confirmed visits, and I am gearing up for them. One is my girlfriend from Canada will visit me 2 week in late March, and another is my parents (yes! it is about time finally!!) will come for a week. I am so excited. I am now studying guidebooks to decide where to go. I will be taking 2 weeks off in total for 2 visits. Finally, I will visit 2 major tourist cities in this country, where I am ashamed to admit that I have not been.

My parents have never visited me during my internatinal postings before (though Guyana and Malawi are not exactly popular tourist destinations...), so this is going to be extra special.

My supervisor just started her 1 month holiday, so I am quite scared of the workload....

Already February!

Dear friends,

Yes, as you can guess my Internet is still down! I am keeping really busy lately. I had maybe two weeks (!) when I thought it was more or less quiet, and it picked up again quite a bit to the extent that it is almost making me think that there was no down time....

I recently purchased a bicycle, and I enjoy riding on weekends, going to my yoga, grocery shopping etc. I forgot how nice it is to ride a cycle and it just makes me smile and happy.

The infamous load shedding (blackout) is getting longer and longer, so it requires a real planning skill to decide when to shower! (So that I can blow-dry my hair).

I received so many wonderful replies to my e-greeting card, but I still haven't got around to respond to them. Sorry, but I am thinking of you...