Bit of roller coaster this month in the sense that I got my hopes up and excited about something, then only to be brought back down to earth. But it’s okay I guess, coz there’s something to look forward next month again. 

So between the last post and this, well I went for my annual trip back home. These days any time away from work is always welcomed and while there’s obligations as usual, I think they are more spread out and less intense, maybe it helped that calendar is such that I only appeared on the last couple of days so that minimizes my involvement (and effort). So rightfully I had more time for myself but I ended up catching a cold right after the event which meant I spent a few of my precious leave days trying (and failing) to suppress it, and recovering from it. Which was annoying but oh well it is what it is.  

Then the roller coaster. So I got very excited when I was notified, not very long before my trip home, that I was to join in a study trip by our sister department, to Europe no less. The original dates were right before my own Europe trip (like I was to arrive in Sg, then fly off the next day for my own trip lol) which I had some reservations if I should 做傻事 because it looked like a very packed schedule and I think I would just crash during my own trip which I meant to enjoy. And of course paperwork when we return though it was never something I minded much. But my sister and some colleagues told me I should (“you can just continue to live in Europe time zone!”). So I accepted it.  

Then the dates got shifted to one month before which works out in my favor, and got extended even to include one more city. But somehow the pace on trip planning was slow (engaging the various agencies and hosts to plan out a program), and I was expecting a lot to be settled when I was away at home but I came back and pretty much nothing moved. And the budget ain’t looking pretty coz the two bosses leading the trip were entitled to business class seats and boy, they were 5 figures coz of how last minute this trip is. 

So there were definitely alarm bells and when it finally rang loud and clear, I got axed from the trip in a bid to bring down budget. And in the end I wasn’t super upset about missing out on the trip (definitely not gonna miss the work) but I was annoyed about two things - for one, there are much better ways to bring down costs (those business class tickets!) when axing me only moved the needle by a bit coz I only made up like 10% of the budget at most. Secondly, why was I the one axed when people who are less relevant to the program are still going for it? And it left me shaking my head at this particular leadership thought, technical or not. 

Though I was promised that I will be considered for the other trip to Asia (which are also all the cities I liked, Tokyo Seoul HK) but that has little relevance to my line of work and lesson learnt to not keep hopes high so yep totally no expectations there. 

So I got over this disappointment relatively quickly (even if I can’t help complaining about it once in a while) and instead channeled my anticipation towards my next trip in Oct. Which was one year in the making! 355 days to be exact but yeah. I think that alone deserves a post (and more) on its own. 

Till then.