Shaping Steps

This is excruciating. I wrote up a post, tried to save my work, and to my surprise got kicked out and lost it all. Urh!

What was I saying? Let me recall.

Yes, I am going back to Singapore in March en-route to India. So folks, do you need anything from this part of the world? Send me your wishlist and if it is within my means, I will bring the stuff with me. But I am so going to indulge in chicken rice and all the greasy, unhealthy hawker food and teh alia and visit the mom and mom-in-law. Of course. Not in this order of priority/preference so don't read too much between the lines please.

Other than that, life has settled into the humdrum cycle of normality. It is hard to believe that it has only been 3 weeks since the end of the long vacation as the tumultous thirteen. The daylight hours are beginning to lengthen and the days (and nights) are definitely warming up. Even the Man is feeling comfy - there is definitely less layering and a lot less sight of fleece. Hee hee. Last night, we even slept without central heating. BYY would definitely have enjoyed California more now.

But the days of trying to keep the tumultous thirteen warm in the freezing house are still showing up in my heating bills. They are in the several hundreds range. Ouch. I would have keeled over if this happened in Singapore. The bulk of the costs came from the gas fireplace. So this has put paid to the Man's theory that heating up with gas is probably cheaper than with electricity. The bills show otherwise. We definitely need to remember to keep the fireplace cold.

And this week, the team building workshop that I seemed to have spent an eternity organizing finally happened. I humbly declare it to have been a success. All the efforts spent planning, plotting and cajoling to put together a day offsite exploring ingenuity and innovation and just plain letting the hair down paid off. Not only did all my team members showed up (a rare occurence in the days before me, as I understand) but everyone had a lot of fun. Inviting the other half of the office to join us was also an unequivocal success. We shared, we bonded and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I am starting to feel like I am making a difference to the climate in the office and in shaping my team culture in a positive way. Wish me luck on this journey!