End of Summer

It's Monday night and I really want to get to bed early so am literally going to write this in 5 minutes. No more. Starting now...

Update, right...work has been ridiculously busy and I'm a bit over it. The whole thing. May just quit and go traveling...oh, wait. I already did that. Yeah, so anyway, work is busy but good, I guess. I am going on vacation in 8 work days (yes, I am counting) which occupies most of my day dreaming time. Beach, sun, spa, cocktails, and maybe a little diving...will be bliss. We are spending a weekend in Kuala Lumpur so I will be celebrating our nation's independence in the heart of Asia. Can't wait...

It appears that another good TK friend is moving on shortly which is a huge bummer...hopefully, I'll be the one having a sayonara soon rather than going to one! My visa renewal was accepted so I could stay on for another 3 years if I wanted to.

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Fast forward about 2 months...I wrote that on June 23rd or something and never finished it. I do have good intentions but just suck at following through! Let's see what I can update you all on...or the 2 of you who have an RSS feed set up on this site...because I'm sure everyone else has totally given up.

It's Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, well Labor Day weekend for everyone in the States. For me, it's just a Sunday night. I am off to dinner in about 30 minutes. I am supposed to be on the wagon but we'll see if that lasts! I decided I needed to just dry out for a week or so, back to school and all. ;-) I just got back from a trip to Manila and Hong Kong this past Wednesday which completely exhausted me. I don't know if I'm just getting old but it took it out of me. Manila was a great week, work-wise. I can't say I saw much of the city other than the airport, the hotel, the office, and the bar. The point of the trip was to meet our offshore team at Accenture. There were lots of Tiger Woods jokes. In fact, the executive partner even wanted to take us to play golf, which had I brought appropriate gear, would have been psyched about...but Dave, my colleague from London, was less than thrilled. Lucky for him, there was no time for golf being a busy week and all. I managed to avoid Typhoon Nuri that was supposedly "crashing down" on Manila while we were there (it wasn't) but did really give Hong Kong a run for it's money. My flight was about 2 hours late leaving Manila which was ok with me...I was flying Cathay and was on one of their new planes with sweet, diagonal seats in business class. Hong Kong was fine when I arrived, sunny even. Spent the weekend shopping and catching up with friends...had plans for the buddha on Lantau Island but sort of lost the tourist bug in favor of Sunday morning with the paper, TV, and more shopping to be done.

What else...been playing more golf here which is making me very happy. The golf here is awesome...remote controlled golf carts, sit-down lunch at the turn, beautiful fairways, and onsen afterwards. I joined a group of gaijin golfers and they all seem nice. I haven't played with them yet and am thinking they are probably mostly charisma men but will see...you never know! A few of us from work played on the 2nd of August which celebrated my 3rd year in Japan. Yikes! It was a great day out and Nicole had a dinner party at her place that night to celebrate her 5th year and my 3rd...perfect way to celebrate.

Gemma left Tokyo back in July (right after we got back from Malaysia) and has moved on to a 3 month stint in Jakarta. It all sounds very exciting...she has a driver and a secure apartment. I can only imagine how much it's NOT like Tokyo! We are planning a trip to visit her in October assuming I can get around work. There is a Buddhist temple on Java that I want to see so hoping we can get to see her digs and life in Jakarta and then go do some adventuring. Seeing Borobudur means flying Garuda (which is currently banned from flying to the EU and has no flights to North America) so I reckon the adventure will start as soon as we get on the plane!

I'm sure there is lots more but I can't think of it and I'm about out of time. I hope everyone had a great summer and is enjoying the long weekend. I miss you all and can't wait to be home for good!!