Old Man Morgan

Every day I keep hoping that things will return to normalcy …. yet that “hope” seems to be an illusive concept. I came into the weekend tired from work and way behind in many personal matters. My mom and Decy went to Bandung early Saturday morning, while I stayed home and “minded the shop” as well as tried to catch up.

Saturday was a bit of a blur. Got up. Did some work. Had a massage and then did more work until about 10pm. Some of the activity included working on my income taxes – other was company work-related. Woke up early Sunday – did a 16.3 km jog on the treadmill (in my 100 minute time limit: 29 minute, 32 minute, and 31 minute split for each of the first 5 kms) and then did more work. At 230pm I went over to Terry and Samantha’s to enjoy the afternoon and participate in a belated Thanskgiving Dinner. Decy and mom returned from Bandung around 4pm … and Decy joined me at the McPhail house for dinner. We had a great traditional dinner and a wonderful evening. Got home around 1015pm … and up (as usual at 315am).

This week will be full of many challenges as we move towards our accounting close. I am cautiously optimistic it will go well. But, I know we are faced with many challenges – with the next 12 days the longest and hardest days of the SAP startup. And then, while I am still in this peak workload, Decy and mom head to Singapore (9th of Febr) and then on to the US.

As for Bandung, I understand that Decy and my mom had a great time. First, they went up to Tankuban Parahu …. a volcano. They overlooked the crater … and then took a 0.75 mile hike into the jungle to a steam vent. There they boiled eggs in the hot spring and had a mud bath / massage on their feet. Afterwards, they put mom on a chair and 6-10 guys carried her up out of the crater. And, then they put her on an “ojek” (a motorcycle taxi) that carefully took her back to the road.

I understand they also visited the tea plantations, strawberry farms, ate lots of great foods (Chris, Paul, Courtney, and Stacy will remember the outdoor restaurant where we sat on the floor and Kampung Daun (the outdoor dinner restaurant with the stream running thru the middle), and did a bit of shopping.

On a different matter, it has been raining a lot over the last 2 days and especially so since about 9pm last night. Our swimming pool is full to (perhaps) overflowing and it has been raining all night. Not sure how the rest of the city is. But, based on the view from coming home last night – it probably isn’t very good. If it rains much more today – its going to get really ugly here.

With the above “positive note” (Not !). I will close.

ciao ciao