An end and a beginning

It has been almost 14 years (more like 13.5 years) since I joined my current company. This week will be my last week there. Finally, after saying goodbye to a lot of my colleagues, it is now my time to venture out. It is quite a long time to spend in an organization on the same team, even though we have had different managers, the teams have been merged, reorganized etc. The worst and some of the best years of my life has gone by during that time.  I have worked in 2 other organizations but only for a limited amount of time. I hadn’t made any friends there. Acquaintances…yes. Friends, no. This is the only place where I have made friends and have retained them too. I have people who care about me and help me whenever and wherever possible. Like any journey, I have had people leave and new people join. But the best part of it is the experience. The experience of seeing the organization grow, the successes and failures, the growth of the people involved, all of it. The end of my Vanvasam (reference to Ramayana, where Lord Ram was sent to the forest for 14 years), as my manager put it 😉 or end of my Vanvasam & Agnyatavasam (reference to Mahabharata, where the Pandavas were in the forest for 12 years and 1 year incognito) which might be more appropriate in my case.

Now to the beginning of a new age. Literally. The big 4 O. Even though I don’t feel it yet, it is still a fact that I just crossed the big 4. Nothing dramatic happened. Maybe just the weather which turned a bit dull and rainy but the sky is slowly clearing up. I hope when I am back from India in a fortnight, I will come to a sunny spell. It is going to be a very short and very hectic visit. Given that I have 1001 things to do and not have enough time to do it all, my blogging might take a hit.  I might have my usual weekly prompts scheduled in place, though. Hopefully, there won’t be much of dramatic changes in the world until I am back. Stay safe and Happy Blogging.

 

 

Off to trouble someone else today

I have never played Tennis in my life. Badminton, yes, when I was young. I got into the groove pretty quick when Mr. M and I started playing weekly Badminton here in the UK. I felt that I was OK, not professional in any way, but I got my workout done and when we had a couple of matches, I won 😉

Mr. M had played Tennis in his younger years. He was very keen on trying it out again. So we decided to invest in some good beginners Tennis racquets even though I don’t know ABC of the game. Last week, just before Easter, we played our first Tennis match. There were 4 courts in the ground. We chose the one with the fence on our right. Unfortunately, the court next to us was occupied by Tennis players who were trying to perfect their skill. This being my first match, I had to learn how to serve and all through the hour my serves and my shots were going into their court (there wasn’t any net or barriers between the courts as we had during in our badminton court). One time the fellow next court had two balls coming towards him and since the balls all looked very similar he wasn’t sure which one to hit 😆 I am sure they were frustrated after a while, but they carried on like champs and made sure to throw us our balls back every time it went to their court and it was ‘all the time’.

By the end of the hour, I somehow managed to find that grip that will not let my ball go over the fence (which happened twice) or to the next court. It was exhausting and it cost me double the effort I put in Badminton. But it was good. So we decided to torture another set of tennis pros today with my amateurish skills and test their resilience and patience 😉 Off we go to our second Tennis match. Weather is a bit cloudy and slightly windy so we can blame it on the weather if my serve sends the balls off to our neighbor’s courts.

Fingers crossed!

Odorless World

I saw an online article which resonated with me.  The visuals are stunning in this. It is called “Odorless world: what smell means to those who don’t have it ” I do remember having a sense of smell when I was young. But I don’t remember when I lost it or why. I can smell but very very few things and very feebly. There was once a gas leak in my apartment but thankfully my maid was there at that moment and she found it. Also, she would tell me if she was working at the time if the food was overcooked and was about to be burnt. I can never tell. I do get a little whiff of my lavender oil which I use for aromatherapy. And the petrol smell when we are the gas station. Other than that…not much. It is a good thing especially when you are in a crowded lift or if one passes gas next to you. It is a bad thing during cooking mostly. But do I mind about it now? No. I am used to it. I don’t care about it. Will it be good to have it back? If it happens on its own, yes. I ain’t going to get any surgery or treatment done for that.

 

The day that went by

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. Too many things happened. I get tired today thinking about it. All good news, though 🙂 I got a new laptop in my office because the old one was out of warranty. When I had to copy all the contents from the old one to the new one, is when I realized how much junk I have accumulated over the 5 years of using that laptop. Irrespective of the fact that most of the content are in their respective folders, there still were enough stuff lying around everywhere and I didn’t know where to categorize them. It was almost the same effort as vacating a house. I took three days to get things backed up, find out the programs I had installed and installed them in the new one, make sure I am set and nothing is left out etc etc. Phew! And then I realized that as of yesterday I completed 13 years in this company. Again, Phew! Looking back it doesn’t feel like it even though the journey had its own ups and downs. It’s going to be very weird for me when I leave it. But I have been here when I have to be, have enjoyed myself, worked smartly and hard enough. The journey will go on and it might even take me to more exciting places, who knows 😉 Am I looking forward to it? Of course, Yes!

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Post for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “yes.” Use it as a word, use it in a word, extra points if you start and finish your post with it. Enjoy!

SoCS Badge by John Holton@ The Sound of One Hand Typing

Adventure or Curiosity? IDK

With all the coffee related posts, I recalled a recent discussion that happened with my brother and his friend during their last visit to my place. For some reason the topic of Bali, Indonesia came up and we were discussing the places and things we did etc. I told them how I finally got around to taste the Kopi Luwak. My brother’s friend was wondering what was so special about that coffee. So my brother explained. After that he saw me all wide eyed and disgusted and asked ‘why would you drink that shit’? (well, his pun wasn’t intended, because he said that in my native language…but that is how it gets translated in English)

I had a good laugh because it is indeed that. For people who don’t want to read the Wikipedia because it is too much, here is the first line from that

‘Kopi luwak (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈkopi ˈlu.aʔ]), or civet coffee, refers to the coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet‘

Why would I do that? I honestly don’t know. And now that I have done that, I don’t know why I wanted to do that in the first place and what made me drink it when I drank it. I did want to know how does a world’s most expensive coffee tastes like. Now that I have tasted it, I can tell you that I liked the other flavor (Bali Coffee) that they served us as part of the tasting menu. True, that this Kopi Luwak was very strong and very bitter as any other coffee should be and since my olfactory senses have gone on a life long vacation, I can’t tell you about the smell of any of these coffees.

But did I get that as a gift to my mother when I decided to get her some coffee powder from Bali as a souvenir? Nope. I definitely know that she wouldn’t even touch it, so I got her the traditional Bali coffee 🙂 I could have fooled her but I would feel terribly guilty and would eventually blabber something about it. I don’t want my mom’s wrath descend upon me any time in my life. I have had enough of it. Now, I know that my brother wouldn’t also touch it, so wouldn’t his friend. Where is your sense of adventure, bro ? What about you? Would you try Kopi Luwak?