ADIML/GAMD: Macau, 23-December-2021
Friday, 24 December 2021 00:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekI couldn't really decide which day to do the GAMD this time. I wanted to do Christmas Day, but I had already done something similar last year, and then I had a lunch planned on 24th, but then it's just lunch at a fancy restaurant, so I didn't think it would be interesting... and then after Christmas it's the weird week that nobody knows which day is what... so... it shall be today!
Today... is destined to be a long day. I took the day off (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday are public holidays, so I guess half the town with enough paid time off balance would have taken Wednesday and Thursday off as well to make it a long weekend)
Woke up around 6.30am-ish. I got a new pillow 2 days ago and was trying it for the second night in a row, so my old pillow got dumped to the foot of my bed. The new pillow's good, so I will sort out the old pillow (stuff it in a tatty old pillowcase and then stuff it in a dog bed haha)
Menina snoozes on, while I check out my plants. The African violet in the middle is acting weird. It's getting patches of yellow leaves. I googled and it said it's either overexposure to the sun or the leaves got wet, but that I know of, that couldn't be. Anyway, it was originally sitting at the window in a hanging planter, I've taken it out and put it on the shelf with artificial light. See if it improves this way.
I had a case of gastroenteritis and hadn't eaten for 24 hours or even more by this morning, continuing to just have ion water or sports drink. I think I can stomach some food this morning.
Even after putting the harness on Sai-Lup, he's all "but 5 more minutes!!!!!!!!" LOL
Even Harley, warming his butt on the internet modem, is falling asleep LOL
Dogs go for their morning walk. Looks to be dreary day (and it proved to be so!)
Plants and dogs for your viewing pleasure :-)
Feeling conservatively adventurous (LOL), I prepare some oatmeal with oat milk (because, avoid dairy they say, right?) and a banana. Frankie sits so nicely so I give him a piece of banana.
While I eat, I stalk Goodreads to see what books I could "pilfer" to complete the 2022 Popsugar Reading Challenge. I've got my list 96%, the remaining three prompts are things like "the book starts with the last word from your last read book" so I can't really choose a book now. Also, I've only chosen the books, I don't know if the chosen books are readily available to me, or if I have to buy them. We'll see.
I had a mission this morning, so I left around 9.15am-ish. I walk past this board in my housing complex, it's new, and interesting, because some guy actually took the time to convince everyone to write Merry Christmas in their language. And when I reached the place for my mission (Mandarin's House), there was already a queue! So I queued... and many more people came after me. Today's mission really starts at 10am.
So I whip out my Kindle and read while standing around. Then it starts drizzling, and I wanted to put the Kindle away, but then I remembered, this Kindle is waterproof! Or water-resistant, whichever, I think it could withstand a light drizzle. So I continued to read.
The actual mission was to get a freebie 2022 calendar, because it is the Macau Cultural Institute's 40th anniversary, and the calendar design is really, really REALLLLLYYYYY PURREEETTEEEEEE. Anyway, after picking up the pretty calendar, I figured, I might as well visit the complex again. There would have been way too many photos if I were to post then separately, so here they are collaged. You can click to enlarge the collage if you want.
Here's the pretty calendar (the "calendar" part is behind each sheet). The thing that makes this more interesting is the top part, as you flip the sheet around you get a different image (like a building on one side but a bush on the flip side). It's all illustrations of cultural parts of Macau.
I don't know what we were waiting for, but since there was nothing really to do, I prepare my journal for the next few weeks. Dad comes home (apparently we were waiting for him) and I received a postcard from Czech Republic. This would be the last mail item for the week.
Frankie and Nutmeg being cozy on my bed.
I forgot to shoot a photo over lunch, because everything was in a big hurry. A colleague called me saying she had a super-urgent document and if I could please process it immediately, but when she heard I was off she was really worried. My dear friends, let me tell you one thing: Treat the Boss' Assistant well (be it Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant). For any other snobby colleague I would just say "wait till I'm back" (which I did say to some greenhorn that rudely "demanded" I get a few other not-my-bosses-up-there to sign by a set deadline), but this colleague actually treats me well, so I'm willing to move my schedule around. I convinced my parents to go have lunch at my workplace, so I could swing by my office while waiting for the food to arrive and sort that document out for her. After lunch, we drove up to the hospital quick to pick up some medicine for Dad.
At around 4pm I had a meeting that I wanted to take the chance to test my clumsy staff, so I said I wouldn't be attending physically, but would be attending by online conference (here we use Teams more than Zoom). She had already blundered the agenda in the morning. It's just the agenda. How can she blunder that when she's been tasked to do that for the past year. A bi-weekly meeting. 52 weeks a year, that makes it 26 meetings later, and she still can't get it right. And I'm not going to wait until she can get the agenda right. It's been 26+ meetings. She's got her first taste of hosting the meeting and taking minutes today. It's going to be a pain checking her minutes, I know, but hey, they need to learn too.
Menina seems to be judging me as I frown at the screen when someone says something weird in the meeting.
After the meeting, I decide to chill and put on some Lo-fi (new to me!) and then yoga time!
Need to burn incense to make it match the whole yoga feel. How do you like my Buddha incense burner? I find it hilarious that the smoke comes out of the head. How can I chill and meditate when I am always laughing? LOL
Nutmeg is also not impressed with my antics.
Nutmeg is very hands-on and decide to guide me through my imperfect down-dog.
The only special thing about dinner was this yellow watermelon. I've heard it was a thing, but I've never seen a yellow watermelon before.
After dinner and after walking the dogs, I spend some time sorting out a donation list for the non-profit I volunteer for. It's getting up to here because the lady is always changing her parameters and moving deadlines. The kicker? She criticizes that my list is not complete, but it couldn't be, because I've checked through all the accounts. And then I ask the question, "is there another account that I don't have information on?" And you know what she answers? A resounding "yes". WTF. How do you want me to input information that I don't have into your shoddy list? Guess what, after I've completed this and sent to her (that was a few hours earlier) and NOW she's again saying she has a new entry, and if there's an entry for today, let's wait for all entries of today (i.e. wait till the report tomorrow) and she wants to change the format, and this, and language, and all that. I am this near to calling it quits.
To take my mind off things, I dress up and match up my outfit for tomorrow. I'm going to have lunch with my 2 besties. They are always very well put together and dress trendily, so I try to not be such a country bumpkin when I meet with them LOL. I don't have any extravagant brands fashion... with this weather, I think this hand-knit poncho would do well, and I have a pair of suede boots that match the color perfectly. If it continues to rain then I just need to spray that suede protection thing on the boots. Satisfied, I change back and start to work in the verandah.
Mom wants plants on the 2 sides of her TV, so my Sis and I had to find bushy plants (I don't know the name of this plant) and of similar height to get that done.
Getting really late into the night... still working.... Dad starts to work on his last batch of cookies. Since I bought the English version of his "Baking Bible", I flipped it around to see what he would need help with. Didn't seem like he would need much help. I guess he has enough help from Frankie and Sai-Lup hanging around in the kitchen, LOL!
Frankie hears Mom open a bag of snacks so he runs over there instead.
And after shower, I sit down to write in my 5-year journal, and once I finish this post, I'm going to sleep too. It' well past midnight. I might have gone overboard today haha. I'm really tired!
Today... is destined to be a long day. I took the day off (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday are public holidays, so I guess half the town with enough paid time off balance would have taken Wednesday and Thursday off as well to make it a long weekend)
Woke up around 6.30am-ish. I got a new pillow 2 days ago and was trying it for the second night in a row, so my old pillow got dumped to the foot of my bed. The new pillow's good, so I will sort out the old pillow (stuff it in a tatty old pillowcase and then stuff it in a dog bed haha)
Menina snoozes on, while I check out my plants. The African violet in the middle is acting weird. It's getting patches of yellow leaves. I googled and it said it's either overexposure to the sun or the leaves got wet, but that I know of, that couldn't be. Anyway, it was originally sitting at the window in a hanging planter, I've taken it out and put it on the shelf with artificial light. See if it improves this way.
I had a case of gastroenteritis and hadn't eaten for 24 hours or even more by this morning, continuing to just have ion water or sports drink. I think I can stomach some food this morning.
Even after putting the harness on Sai-Lup, he's all "but 5 more minutes!!!!!!!!" LOL
Even Harley, warming his butt on the internet modem, is falling asleep LOL
Dogs go for their morning walk. Looks to be dreary day (and it proved to be so!)
Plants and dogs for your viewing pleasure :-)
Feeling conservatively adventurous (LOL), I prepare some oatmeal with oat milk (because, avoid dairy they say, right?) and a banana. Frankie sits so nicely so I give him a piece of banana.
While I eat, I stalk Goodreads to see what books I could "pilfer" to complete the 2022 Popsugar Reading Challenge. I've got my list 96%, the remaining three prompts are things like "the book starts with the last word from your last read book" so I can't really choose a book now. Also, I've only chosen the books, I don't know if the chosen books are readily available to me, or if I have to buy them. We'll see.
I had a mission this morning, so I left around 9.15am-ish. I walk past this board in my housing complex, it's new, and interesting, because some guy actually took the time to convince everyone to write Merry Christmas in their language. And when I reached the place for my mission (Mandarin's House), there was already a queue! So I queued... and many more people came after me. Today's mission really starts at 10am.
So I whip out my Kindle and read while standing around. Then it starts drizzling, and I wanted to put the Kindle away, but then I remembered, this Kindle is waterproof! Or water-resistant, whichever, I think it could withstand a light drizzle. So I continued to read.
The actual mission was to get a freebie 2022 calendar, because it is the Macau Cultural Institute's 40th anniversary, and the calendar design is really, really REALLLLLYYYYY PURREEETTEEEEEE. Anyway, after picking up the pretty calendar, I figured, I might as well visit the complex again. There would have been way too many photos if I were to post then separately, so here they are collaged. You can click to enlarge the collage if you want.
Here's the pretty calendar (the "calendar" part is behind each sheet). The thing that makes this more interesting is the top part, as you flip the sheet around you get a different image (like a building on one side but a bush on the flip side). It's all illustrations of cultural parts of Macau.
I don't know what we were waiting for, but since there was nothing really to do, I prepare my journal for the next few weeks. Dad comes home (apparently we were waiting for him) and I received a postcard from Czech Republic. This would be the last mail item for the week.
Frankie and Nutmeg being cozy on my bed.
I forgot to shoot a photo over lunch, because everything was in a big hurry. A colleague called me saying she had a super-urgent document and if I could please process it immediately, but when she heard I was off she was really worried. My dear friends, let me tell you one thing: Treat the Boss' Assistant well (be it Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant). For any other snobby colleague I would just say "wait till I'm back" (which I did say to some greenhorn that rudely "demanded" I get a few other not-my-bosses-up-there to sign by a set deadline), but this colleague actually treats me well, so I'm willing to move my schedule around. I convinced my parents to go have lunch at my workplace, so I could swing by my office while waiting for the food to arrive and sort that document out for her. After lunch, we drove up to the hospital quick to pick up some medicine for Dad.
At around 4pm I had a meeting that I wanted to take the chance to test my clumsy staff, so I said I wouldn't be attending physically, but would be attending by online conference (here we use Teams more than Zoom). She had already blundered the agenda in the morning. It's just the agenda. How can she blunder that when she's been tasked to do that for the past year. A bi-weekly meeting. 52 weeks a year, that makes it 26 meetings later, and she still can't get it right. And I'm not going to wait until she can get the agenda right. It's been 26+ meetings. She's got her first taste of hosting the meeting and taking minutes today. It's going to be a pain checking her minutes, I know, but hey, they need to learn too.
Menina seems to be judging me as I frown at the screen when someone says something weird in the meeting.
After the meeting, I decide to chill and put on some Lo-fi (new to me!) and then yoga time!
Need to burn incense to make it match the whole yoga feel. How do you like my Buddha incense burner? I find it hilarious that the smoke comes out of the head. How can I chill and meditate when I am always laughing? LOL
Nutmeg is also not impressed with my antics.
The only special thing about dinner was this yellow watermelon. I've heard it was a thing, but I've never seen a yellow watermelon before.
After dinner and after walking the dogs, I spend some time sorting out a donation list for the non-profit I volunteer for. It's getting up to here because the lady is always changing her parameters and moving deadlines. The kicker? She criticizes that my list is not complete, but it couldn't be, because I've checked through all the accounts. And then I ask the question, "is there another account that I don't have information on?" And you know what she answers? A resounding "yes". WTF. How do you want me to input information that I don't have into your shoddy list? Guess what, after I've completed this and sent to her (that was a few hours earlier) and NOW she's again saying she has a new entry, and if there's an entry for today, let's wait for all entries of today (i.e. wait till the report tomorrow) and she wants to change the format, and this, and language, and all that. I am this near to calling it quits.
To take my mind off things, I dress up and match up my outfit for tomorrow. I'm going to have lunch with my 2 besties. They are always very well put together and dress trendily, so I try to not be such a country bumpkin when I meet with them LOL. I don't have any extravagant brands fashion... with this weather, I think this hand-knit poncho would do well, and I have a pair of suede boots that match the color perfectly. If it continues to rain then I just need to spray that suede protection thing on the boots. Satisfied, I change back and start to work in the verandah.
Mom wants plants on the 2 sides of her TV, so my Sis and I had to find bushy plants (I don't know the name of this plant) and of similar height to get that done.
Getting really late into the night... still working.... Dad starts to work on his last batch of cookies. Since I bought the English version of his "Baking Bible", I flipped it around to see what he would need help with. Didn't seem like he would need much help. I guess he has enough help from Frankie and Sai-Lup hanging around in the kitchen, LOL!
Frankie hears Mom open a bag of snacks so he runs over there instead.
And after shower, I sit down to write in my 5-year journal, and once I finish this post, I'm going to sleep too. It' well past midnight. I might have gone overboard today haha. I'm really tired!
