这周的点点滴滴

In the cool and quiet of this Friday night, I sit down, and was still, for a while. :) Finished a beer, and a chat with my dearest friend Sabie, and we talked about how the 80-100 years here are to be well-lived, and yet, there's eternity ahead, and about our thorns in the flesh. 

Super love you, Sabie. :) For the gift of friendship and love. I have my Lebanese Almaza and you, your water in Hello Kitty. 

I am super thankful, again. 

Starting in DED

Week 1 in the new role, has been, a little frustrating at times (setting up the IT, admin matters have been a little unwieldly), but thankfully, I'd say it's been sorted out, and with some sorting left to do. There are some gray areas with my current boss leaving, and with organization transformation and restructuring, and I'll have another new colleague joining in soon, in July. While there are uncertainties, it's part of growth and transition. I look forward to this new area of growth, challenge, learning, teamwork and leadership journey. 

Thankful for the work chats this week, different colleagues popping by to say welcome, and send regards, my new office, and the most amazing tea boys - I have heard about this from Steve, where the tea boys serve coffee, tea, and even bring the lunches, and finally, I must say they are pretty amazing folks. Every morning, I have coffee (x 3 cups a day), and then karak tea, etc, etc. 

Week 2 will be one where I'll meet the various stakeholders and also evaluate how to further strengthen components of the LLLP. And then - of course, I need to buy more clothes. :))

And the office has a familiar SSG colour tinge and open space. :))

 العربية مومتاز (Alarabia Mumtaz - Amazing Arabic language)

So, with the end of the first work week, I had to sit for my Arabic test. 

I... was not so prepared. The group chat was abuzz with the different ones studying, sending notes, and I certainly did my best to revise too, the day before. I mugged at Costa, and reached the school 1hr earlier to go through the notes. :)

Late night biah at Costa - I think I really concentrated for that 1hr. 💪

The class has been most enjoyable, fun and rewarding. 1.5 months really just flew by in a twinkle of an eye, and it would have been a compact 1 month, if not for the fact that our instructor was covid-positive for a period. The SG friendships blossomed, and so did our bonding with the American Alex and our teacher Amal. Most of us would continue to the next course, hopefully all - Jerry さん、どうでしょうか？

And a beautiful hand-written note from Amal to each of us, detailing her impression through our class interactions. I am creative and beautiful. :-D

To be honest, I haven't yet felt that kind of heart-stirring passion equivalence in learning Arabic, as compared to when I was learning Japanese. Then, I was so determined to be able to live normal daily life in Japanese fluently, and I wanted to be able to preach in Japanese as well. And I was 無我夢中  in it. For Arabic, I hope that stirring would come soon too. For now, I am just glad that I managed to learn the basics, the Arabic alphabet, the greetings, the simple conjugations. :) I think we were all just so thrilled to complete this course, and pass it. 

So, of course, we had to end the first course winner-style. Last night was such a blast - we celebrated at Lawrence's place after class - and had local SG congee, Thai fried chicken wings, and drinks. It was just awesome. Laughed so much, and ate and drank so much. And the رجل رقم ست (rajul rakam sitta - man number 6, and see the empty seat "bayna" Alex and Law) - as we talked about the ang moh ghost vs chinese ghost. OMT. Unbelievable. 

Beautiful Saturday Morning

Haha, and first, an au-naturel shot that turned out quite nice. 

The highlight of today is the tiring "headwind-ride" to Hudariyat, and around the island. I felt tired... and it may be attributed to the drinks and food last night? Or maybe not - could be the real wind resistance. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful beautiful Friday morning today. Super love the ride, and the beautiful beach calm. And then, the brunch thereafter, and then the afternoon nap - how precious and how awesome to just curl up in mid-day to nap. Naps are luxuries now, and why did I dislike naps when I was young? Strange me. Haha. 

Thank you GD, SY 💓

And then, today too, I had so much fun buying my own gift - the drinks from "the GD and SY". haha. So much love. Thank you so much @PC, @SY. I had so much fun browsing the store, using Vivino, choosing the drinks - and somehow managed to get a steal - all in all, SGD $184 - and plus a Henri Abele champagne too. I am looking forward to the catch up together!! 💓

****

And now, the world has almost come to a standstill. Steve is sleeping as he prepares for his AM shift. Behind me is the curled up Kenji - also in lala land. Seems like the night is still young. So glad for pockets of me-time like this. :) I'll also curl up to read, and perhaps one more drink.  

Yiistiraaha (يستريح)

Yiistiraaha (يستريح) - Rest 

My last 2 months passed by in a whirl, and I am in the midst of a 2-week break before a new chapter here in Abu Dhabi, and the only words that I can describe my current phase is - thankfulness and gratitude. 

This beautiful morning, I woke up refreshed, and did a swim. Recalling the recent conversations on mindfulness, me-time, solitude - all so timely and good. In the midst of the busyness, the time-out and the space to myself is so important. 

I have so many things to be thankful for. 

My work
And finally, after I sent the email out to colleagues and friends, I found myself just tearing. It almost felt like it signified the closure of one beautiful work chapter, and the start of another. I didn't dwell on it for very long, but it was just a beautiful moment. I have not imagined staying on in SSG/WDA for more than a decade, about 12 years, but I did.

(https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6805423177133543424/)  

My finally tidier work station

Memories of the past 3.5 years full of work, captured into notebooks and folders. :)

And then, a whole cleaning up of the workstation, to usher in the new. 

It took me 4.5 hours on Saturday, and I was so glad to be done with it. It's the readiness feeling. 

The Kaypoh Kenji peering into all my notes and files, and thinking this is his hideout. 💓

A new, expanded social circle here in Abu Dhabi

I've never really been very adventurous here and made a lot of friends here, possibly because of the frequent travels back to SG, and also due to covid year. However, since March this year, I've gotten to know so many different ones. It almost feels like I'm re-discovering the newness here. With the new friends like Ildico and family, Nader and family, Joann-Andy and boys, Lawrence, Zann and Jerry and the arabic classmates, I really felt like I am re-discovering some of the newness here. Am so blessed truly, not just with the conversations and the getting-to-know, but also, the food and SG makan that comes along with it. :)

My Arabic classmates - and Amal (also means Hope), our instructor from Palestine

We would be continuing with this Arabic class. 

It's been pretty intensive, 3 times a week, and I'm so glad I joined this class. Never too late, though it's 4-years late. 😅 The rest of them are like 1-month to 1-year. :-D 

The class is also fun because of the class spirit, and all of us became friends - makan and drinking friends, sports friends. :D

I felt I learnt, though I must say I could do more with practicing and revising. I think I would be able to write a simple composition, and will endeavor to try it soon. For now, الدرس ليس سهل. --> Arabic is not easy. :-D We are learning how to form words and sentences. 頑張れ。

Me and my monster

When I first came, I always joked that the cars here are monsters, because they are so huge. After a while, they do not seem that huge any more, because everyone seems to be driving monsters - like the Nissan Petrols, and Sean drives a truck?! We recently got a Honda CRV as I'd need to commute for work, and I'm really liking it. I had thought of getting a mini - haha, but, now, I think a monster is good. Bigger presence, feels safer on the road too. 

And - this is my monster. I thank my steveywonder very much - it is he, who does all the research, the finding, the buying. 

A short adventure for Kenji

He was perplexed. 2 weeks back, with the Vesak day PH, we did a very short staycay here, at W hotel - the only hotel that allows dogs. He was so unsettled, and I never heard him bark so much in a night before. He kept prancing around the room, sensing the place, trying to understand why we are in a different environment. To be honest, I was glad to be home after the 2 nights. Exciting as it might be for a while, for K, home is still best. :) Still, we had some fun at the hotel, which is just right at the Yas F1 track, and we walked a different route. 

One of the nicest things about a staycay is 随心所欲。I can just decide how long I'd like to spend at the breakfast table, what to do on the spot. It was nice - to just chill. 

Was also contemplating if we should do one more staycay these 2 weeks, but then, decided that home is still the sweetest and the best.

Sports Galore

And because I had always told myself that for every non-working day that I should weave in some fitness activity, I've tried to keep to that. So almost daily, I do some sports I enjoy. And, I have, in the past 1 week, gone for swims, did crazy runs to explore the place, played badminton, cycled, played tennis. :) It's been just good! While the temperature has gone up to a searing 50deg at its hottest, thankfully, I like the sun enough to enjoy the outdoors still (but at a do-able temp). So much fun. One of the best was the impromptu run on Sunday to Al Seef, and then to eastern mangrove, with Lawrence. I thought it was going to be just 2.4km to his place, and it turned out that it was 5km. Haha. And then, the soaking-wet tennis sessions, and the cool-mindfulness water swims. :) Soooooo good. 

As I've said - the best is with my 小红。 The bike rides to explore the place - ممتاز ! (Mumtaz - good!)

Beautiful Bike Ride at Hudayriyat - it was just so refreshing to be up early, to ride as the morning awakens. :)

Nice Evening Chill Ride - and the feeling is different. Watching the whole island turn from light to hues of orangish to blusih-grey. And then darkness. 

Looking for milk cakes

And @Steveywonder now has a new passion - for milk cakes. We've been scouring different places and trying the various milk cakes. Basically, they are chiffon cakes, drenched in milk. At first, the thought of MILK cake was squeamish for me... but then, after I tried it, it was actually quite quite nice, albeit too sweet. Still, I am more open to trying new things, and have really enjoyed the different textures of the milk cake. The pistacho milk cake is my fave - not too milky. :)

And next up, I'll continue with my shopping spree, meeting with friends, reading and getting NF doses, and all of the above, plus endeavour to write my own mini Arabic composition. 

It's been a super good 1-week plus break!! 💓