Attrition and Anxiety

It is getting painfully clear that I am really in no shape to start planning for the relocation. In the office, I still have a full load of work in my current job, including trying to figure out how I am going to fill a large gap because a new contractor I hired not 2 months ago has decided to resign. He was un-nerved by the news that I was moving to the US with no certainty about who would be replacing me and where this person is going to be based. Unfortunately, because I downsized my Singapore based staff so radically recently, I have no one to take over the critical function he is performing and must now strategize what to do in the remaining weeks he has with us. Moving the work he is doing to my team in Manila is one possibility and it actually makes quite a lot of sense because the application he supports is most heavily used by the Manila staff. Sometimes, I surprise even myself. Or moving the work to one of my very reliable and resourceful contractor in Cape Town. I know she can and will do a very good job. Adding to this unwelcome pressure is the need to travel to Bangkok twice in the coming weeks, the first to conduct a session in a workshop about our fuel management solution and the second to attend a people leadership training. Urgh!

I must also start learning about the new job and I have my other half nagging me about this that and the other over the move - have you checked this, did you ask your company counsellor that, what should we bring, should we ship our furniture, have you sent in the documents for the visa...??? And I have not been getting enough sleep. All these, I firmly believe, are conspiring to make me age faster than I already am. But I seriously need to start planning. Schools in the SR area start August 28. So today, I shot off several emails to ask about school registrations to various people. Hopefully I get some responses.

The kids are coming round to the idea of moving. At dinner, they seemed to be in a good mood, actually having quite an animated conversation and laughing at each other's jokes! Instead of snarling at one another. Phenomenal. And Ryan went to bed early, instead of complaining like he usually does. Phenomenal. And Nic went quietly to her room, presumably to study, instead of hogging the computer. Phenomenal. And my blog suddenly seems to be properly aligned - the sidebar is no longer down below the main body. Also phenomenal. I think my guardian angel (if there are such for oldies) is finally smiling down on me.

So over the weekend, I was very busy with Doris' house move. Saturday, we went to pick up all the traditional things to "cleanse" the new apartment and on Monday, we put them to good use. Rough sea salt thrown over a fiery charcoal stove makes for a good fire-cracker substitute and the water used to bless the house left lots of stains on the walls because of the tea leaves. Doris was very enthusiastic in her watering ceremony and the poor contractor who came later thought his painters did a bad job and promised to rectify the "defects". Hee hee. It is getting late and I need to catch up on the sleep debt...