2018 Week 43 Update

This was a pleasant week for me. If you remember, I mentioned about an organisation where I met people with whom I was not comfortable with. There was a sense of unease that I had which I decided to heed. I then set some conditions to them which I knew they will not accept and it happened as I expected. They let me know they will not be pursuing this further and I danced a little jig when I saw that email. I am glad I didn’t reject them off hand as it meant i would be burning some bridges.

Over the weekend, we made a day trip to Johor Baru to shop for clothes for the children for Diwali. What should have been a 30-45 minute trip, given that we stay a 10 minute drive from the causeway in no traffic conditions, this turned out to be a 3.5 hour drive to the mall! We spent more than 3 hours battling traffic! The drive on the way back was marginally better at 2 hours and 15 minutes, but the bumper to bumper traffic is so bad that it’s making me think twice about driving into Malaysia! I seriously hope the two governments do something about this. But we had a good time shopping with the children and hopefully the next time we drive in, the traffic is not so bad!

This week shows to be a hectic one with my Diwali preparations starting from today. I plan to start making a bit of the sweets and savories each day so that I am not overwhelmed.

Have a wonderful week folks!

2018 Week 42 Update

Last week was quite a boring and unproductive week for me.

I did meet one organisation, whom I first met during the networking event during my back to work programme. The meeting went well, but the process is a long one, I will know if they want to meet me again only around 3 weeks later. Another place, where I met people want me to work on a six-month trial basis before committing to the role on a full-time basis. The role is basically a hardcore sales one, a role which I am not very comfortable with to begin, so I have asked them to wait a month or so till I hear back from the organisation I met with earlier. I have yet to hear back from them on this request of mine, but if it doesn’t work out, I’m okay with it since it was a role I was not very interested in, to begin with.

In other updates, the children end school this week and I have plans for them, not just with school work, but also want to involve them in the housework a bit more. S and I are also planning to give them a set of the house keys which will eliminate the need for someone to be at home when they are back from school. Hopefully, this will make them more independent and responsible.

Have a wonderful and productive week folks! I am hoping this is true for me too…

2018 Week 41 Update

Last week has been a productive one for me with regards to my job search. Due to the networking event, I attended the previous week resulted in some interest from a couple of organisations. I am meeting one of them later this week and another who wants to see me on a more formal basis is travelling, so that will be moved to the beginning of next month.

I also met another organisation, but am planning not to pursue this further because the job that was told to me in detail during that meeting is not something I would be very comfortable doing. I am meeting them again this week, so let’s see where this takes me.

Navratri is on-going in full speed and every day I am making some offerings to the Goddess. It will end at the end of this week and we can start regular programming, albeit one where we will start planning for the next major festival of Diwali.

I hope you all have a great week ahead!

2018 Week 40 Update

This was quite an interesting week for me. I finished up the back-to-work programme I mentioned earlier, and we ended the programme with a networking drinks event. I also made friends with the other ladies in the programme and we’ve decided to keep in touch even afterwards to give support to each other and also coach and help the others. We’ve planned to meet for lunch or coffee perhaps at least once a month and the person who gets a job will have to treat the others!

During the networking event, I was asked for an introduction by a couple of people from companies that sound interesting. I’ve also asked to be introduced to organisations I was interested in and have sent my resumes to those who have asked for it. After a very long time, I feel optimistically cautious!

On another note, given the programme I was on, I feel I owe it to myself to give myself time till the end of this year to focus on getting a new position. I want something bigger than what I am doing and will focus on this for the next three months, after which, if nothing comes up, I will switch to an entrepreneurial mindset and start working on growing my business.

Please send a small prayer my way (or if you are an atheist, send me some good luck) for the next few months to be great!

2018 Week 39 Update

Another hectic week! I’m strange right, when I don’t have anything to do, I complain about that and now that I am really busy, I am not too happy about that too. Actually, I am not unhappy about being busy, but I just wish I am busy doing something I really enjoy doing, not something I am doing just for the sake of it.

My freelance work is now taking up a lot of my time, some days I am doing it even for more than six-seven hours a day. It is slowly becoming a full-time job, but with a quarter-time or less than that salary. I am going to keep a close watch on the hours I am spending on it and maybe after around three months time, I will go back to the people I am working for and see if there could be more money in it. I am also hoping that the back to work programme I am doing will result in a good and interesting position and soon.

This week is also slightly more hectic than usual. I have my last back-to-work workshop and a networking event after that. I also have a hospital check-up scheduled this week for my eyes. This is a follow-up from last year when I was referred to the hospital for some possible complications due to my diabetes. After a couple of visits, it was determined that nothing was wrong with my eyes at the moment, but given my chronic condition, I was asked to come back for a follow-up after 18 months. I am also going to ask about the frequent tearing and redness in eyes.