..but I'll be back..!

a signboard in surburban chicago

I have tendered my resignation last week, with one month notice, effective 30th May 2007.

My last day at the office would be on the 29th June 2007, if you exclude the Saturday, 30th June. I am preparing a presentation for a project I am working on, mainly busy preparing for the materials and rushing to get it done with the proper v0lumetric calculation ..

It was not easy making the decision to move to Sudan. It wasn't easy either to tender my resignation, even harder to actually tell my bosses and my all dear colleagues that I am leaving. Even so it is for the sake of my family. I had a great time working for this company, surrounded by these warm, ever-friendly, good people. When I first joined this company, I realized that I'm about to work with some of the legends in the 0il & gas industry business. I was nervous when I was introduced to all the very familiar names I have heard over and over again, from former colleagues, even from DH, and in my busy mind, I was having things like: "Oh, so THIS IS so-and-so, or "eh, he's not like what I imagined him to be", or the :"he looks younger than I thought" or the reverse: "hmm..never thought that he looks this old"..heheh..

Being given the opportunity working with the experts, (some with 30-year-experience, with local and global technical expertise and recognition), I would say that I'm lucky. I'm grateful, very, very grateful.

It's funny how the gap between the very expert senior people, compared to the juniors (me included!). When we moved from U0A building , to the legendary Menara Promet in Jln Sultan Ismail, we, the green ones, had so many boxes, of print-outs, maps (isopach/sructure, time map, correlation ), ( and I thought we are in the digital world; paperless la sekarang wooiit!), books, references: journals, all sorts of blletin, etc.

The expert? Needles to say, they have everything inside their brains! They just get up, walked out and then in, to the new office.Talking about mobility here!

I can see my hope of achieving that level of seniority and expertise crash right away when I decided to quit. Not working, means I will loose my seniority, and perhaps by the time I'm ready to get back to work in a few years time, I'll be interviewed by the at-present-internship-students who have just came in this morning. They will be my future bosses, no doubt!

Oh I see them already, better go and ask them if they need anything! *wink*

how do you like africa, maam?

I hope that when i am asked this question in the future, i'll be positively answering it with : "O' I love it very much, can't wait to go back there!". Before I can answer that question, I guess, I have to be there, live there?! Yup! You are right, my friends! In a few months time, I will have a world map poster on the wall, and the tag "YOU ARE HERE"" will be pointing right on Khartoum, Sudan .

I am in between, can't really decide whether I'm excited ( to be able to be with DH ) , nervous and worries after warnings, after warnings, after warnings from everybody ( well, almost!). But, thanks to a few friends who have given me some very sound advices about raising children in such condition, I am,.. well, a bit calm..

* my busy brain is asking these questions: how do i pack my things, what to pack ( DH said, bring almost everything?, huh?, how to buy milk powder that will last for one year? where to get it? where to get it at a cheaper price? diaper supplies? if current maid cannot follow, so how?, is it easy to get a maid there?, stocks of medicine for the children?, what dried food to bring? how about our current house?, what will I do there? will I be okay? will the boys be okay? will I be okay if the boys are not okay?, will DH be okay if I'm not okay?, should I be bringing all my books, take with me as many books as I can, any book shops there?, if I order online, how sure it will reach me? UKS will send to sudan tak? , hehe.. what, what, what...*

in the news

i got the news that a group of employee (4 of them) from my previous company were abducted from their office! *gasp*. This is in one of the African country, where there's a lot of chaos, and marked as red zone. I know one of them, we worked together once, he's of different nationalitiy, though. I hope they will be ok, i really hope they will get all the help they need.

all in a days work

There are many, many things that need to be done. From the official task to the personal mission that become myresponsibility, by default. That includes checking with the travel agent to see that we get the front seating , where bassinet would be possible for the convenience of baby Lutfil during our trip in March. And yes, the maid's visa has to be renewed as well. That means calling the maid agent and see how that could be done..

This is what I learnt today, from Sifu Morine. The below caption is the concept that I should be familiar with, or so, says my sifu, hehe
I think I grasp the whole concept, it's just that I stumbled upon some terminology/technical terms , which mostly depends on which clients you are dealing with.
Well, I just hope my P90 will make them happy, and beaming with smile..