Some Stability

A second week has come and is almost gone. It has been a much better week. We checked out of the Sierra Suites on Saturday morning and moved into the apartment at Promontory View. It was deja vu. I was in the same apartment complex three years ago almost to the day when I was assigned here for 5 months. Except this apartment has only one bedroom and 1 bath while the previous one had a bedroom, a study and 2 baths. But I was contented because the address was what I wanted to get Ryan into Iron Horse. And the apartment came with a stock of daily necessities like groceries that should see us through a week or so. Very thoughtful. And a service person came soon after to ensure we were OK and asked if we needed anything else. We asked for more hangers. It was just such a relief to be able to unpack our luggage and hang up the clothes and have a bit more space to live in.

The next day we spent roaming looking at houses Bert had picked out from his internet search and we went shopping for school supplies. And went to Fry's to look at PCs and came back with a rice cooker :). Ryan, chinaman that he is, has been clamoring for some good old fashioned rice for dinner.

Monday was start of school for Ryan. Daddy went with him. And he came back with a bunch of memos from the school outlining the school and teachers' expectations from both student and parents. And I had a homework assignment from the band teacher! She wanted parents to tell her something about their kids so she can understand them better and she promised a great year for them. I had never had homework from my children's teachers before. Ryan would not let me proscratinate beyond a day or two so I was nagged into completing my homework. I wrote an essay which wow'ed Jeanette Brown with its verbosity :).

At the office, it was a week of information download. My supervisor made a lot of effort to onboard me, and brought me along to several meetings introducing me to various people so I could start making connections and understand some of the priorities of the business. I really appreciated that. And the admin arranged a cake and cookie afternoon inviting staff to drop by my office to say hello and chat with me. That was nice too. Some of my new staff were curious to see what I look like. The office had been half empty - many of the cubicles were empty so I never really got to meet all of my new team. But for Week 1, hey, that was OK.

Now my office. It is NICE. I had been sitting in an open office in Raffles Place for the past two and a half years and got used to having very little space, old furniture and no privacy. But here, I have a nice sizeable room with good ergonomic furniture, including a closet to hang my jackets, a whyteboard, and a brand new T60 Thinkpad with a 19" LCD. And lots of windows so the room is bright and cheerful. Except it gets rather hot in the late afternoon when the setting sun starts streaming in through the windows. So I had to close some of the blinds but it is still heaven compared to what I had.

Ryan seems to have fitted well into his new school. He tells us he has made 6 new friends, including 2 from China. And he has been getting 5 credits daily. The school awards credits to encourage the desired behavior and these can be used to push up grades later in the year. So I asked him whether 5 credits is good relative to the rest of his class and he cheekily gave me the thumbs up. So I guess that means he is doing well. He has been completing all his homework punctually and that to me is a real surprise considering how laid back he was in Singapore. I am waiting to see whether this lasts. School ends around 2:50pm and father and son go off to the community library to spend the hours till 6:00pm before picking me up from the office.

Except for finding a home, we are beginning to settle into some sort of routine which we badly need. And our realtor quitted on us yesterday. Coppergate sent me an email yesterday to inform me and immediately assigned another realtor to take care of us. I was shocked to say the least because the night before we had been chatting to him on the phone. Guess our requirement for a house with the main door facing NNW just freaked him out. Anyway, in my opinion, he wasn't doing that great a job. Rather laid back.

This is a long weekend - it is the Labor Day weekend. We should be going south to the Santa Barbara area to meet up with George and hand over the packet Doris wanted us to give to him. Maybe spend some time with him and meet his mom and brother.

All in all, an uneventful week compared to the adrenalin rush of the past month. But so good for the nerves. The long lazy days of summer are still here but you can start to feel the days shortening and the nights starting to cool a little. Which reminds me my two men need jackets and some warm clothings. The clothes of Singapore will not work for the winter days here... We just called Carynn and Ryan is right this minute letting all the cats out of the bag.