Last night

Had dinner with sis & the cousins last night. Good food and lots of catching up.

Yep, needto do this more regularly.

Delain

As I had mentioned, I have a new job post now. And each day, I have to cross the length of the island, from East to West, to get from my home to my workplace. When evening falls, I have to make the journey in the other direction, to reach home. Needless to say, it has been a trial, and were it not for the fact that I have some music that I enjoy, accompanying me on my long, long drives, I would have gone off the deep end some time ago.

Just to share one of my latest addictions, here are two albums that I have been listening to of late:





Good for a long drive home.

Update

It has been a while since the Missus left Llyonesse, to carry out her duties in the Great Southern Land. During this time, I have been effectively a single parent, to keep the Daughter in line, so that she does not suffer from the lack of a mother. Needless to say, the schedule has been demanding. And together with the fact that I had recently been transferred to a new, and very different, post, there were a great many changes that I found myself embroiled in.

Work is very different from what it used to be, when I compare it to my days in the East. First of all, my new post in in the West, and the traveling time each day is preposterous, to say the least. Despite that, the position is more comfortable and makes greater sense than the one that I was holding previously. I am also surrounded by people who appear to understand the World as I do, which allows me to communicate and work with greater ease. All is good; or at the very least, tolerable.

Which leaves the Home front:

The Daughter has yet to comprehend that her promotion to her new grade comes with more work, and her grades had dipped over the first quarter of the year. Thereafter, after repeated tellings, she has begun to grasp the fact that she no longer has as much free time as before, and must truly work at her subjects in order for her to maintain her good grades (such as they are)! This has caused some amount of consternation in her, and she reacted with the usual pouting and mild temper displays. Yet, after a few stern talks, and an explanation of the situation, she has come to accept the concept.

Not that it stops her from trying to get around the extra exercises and schoolwork, in favour of more play- and TV time. Fortunately, most of her tricks are not too innovative compared to my own childhood, and I have been able to make certain that she devotes sufficient effort to her work. Sigh. Which meant more work for me!

Well, it is that time of the year again, when she must ready herself for the Semestral Testing. She should not have difficulty clearing the Assessment, of course. But what will her grade be, remains to be seen.

Onto Domestic matters:

It appears that my funds shall be seriously depleted in the coming month: my home computer has been giving me trouble and I have been planning to get it replaced. Yet, with the Missus out of the country, I have been rather cautious about spending the coin, in case something occurs and my treasury has already been drained. Hence, I have been putting off the purchase until after her return (some time at the end of Mai).

Then the TV in the living room has begun to develop problems of its own. And I find myself looking at its replacement as well! Bleeding Hells! That was unexpected, although I will admit that it has been close to seven years since I bought that thing. And since my daughter loves watching her cartoons, I shall inevitably be receiving some protests from that end. Sigh again.

The month of May shall not be so merry this year, I fear.

Posting

Well, it has been two years since I've started working here in the Eastern Straits, and time has finally come for me to leave : )

Off to the Western half of the Isle, where I shall be cracking whips over the heads of the newly inducted. Bwa ha ha ha.

Or something like that.

Birth (part 1)

This morning, there was talk over the radio over the matter of the birth-rate, and why people were unwilling to have children. And, of course, what could be done to 'encourage' them to start conceiving. Fortunately, I arrived at the place where I am employed before the end of that program. I say 'fortunately' because continuing to listen to some of the 'excuses' offered would have raised my blood pressure to dangerous levels, so I should be glad to have missed the ordeal. Yet, in response to what I had heard, I felt compelled to put this down at once. Note that I am only putting down my own thoughts on the matter, and not trying to force my readers to go one way or another. Family-planning should remain the purview of the family members. For those who would feel offended by encouragements to have children: STOP READING! Most of the complaints that I heard this morning dealt with the two following aspects of fathering/bearing children: time and money. Given the situation here, I do not disagree with them. These two aspects of childbirth do deserve a good, hard look: First, money. Having a child costs money. I have friends who are blessed with three or more children, and I can see that they are concerned with the financial conditions involved in raising the same. So, yes. In cases where one's cash is strapped, having children becomes secondary, compared to keeping one's heart, mind and body together. But how much money is enough money? How much does one need to start a family? Ask that question of a hundred people, and you'll get a hundred different answers. There is, apart from the initial cost of bearing the child, the additional monetary output required to get her/him ready for adulthood, according to some. And more is needed to prepare the same for society, especially if one wishes one's offspring to ascend the social ladder. To all these dreams and their dreamers, I would only say that I have never seen my own father's wishes as something that I need to fulfil. And if he can't accept that, it's his bloody problem, not mine. As for my daughter, I do not believe in setting any special goals for her. In fact, she shocks me with her answers each time anyone asks her what she intends to become when she grows up! A good laugh too, if one lets go of the blinders that one has on as a parent. So, the money issue is something that we should set into perspective: if one can spend $100,000 or more on a vehicle, couldn't that sum be used to have a child instead? There is no such thing as a child budget. The hundred different answers that I mentioned above are all correct in one way or another. If one truly intends to look at the issue, then sit down with your spouse and work out what you can afford, and what you need to have child. And remember to leave out those things that you can do without (such as that new mercedes!). If the former exceeds the latter, then you'll know that you can afford to have a child, don't you? And you'll also know what you'll be 'sacrificing' to become a parent as well, won't you? Then the decision becomes more obvious: are you willing to give up those material things that you desire to become a father/mother? Or will you hold on to these objects of desire instead, knowing full well that you will leave them behind when you go into the afterlife? Knowing full well, that these objects will not grow, will not give you headaches and heartaches? That they will not leave you crying from despair and from joy, just by watching them? It remains, after all, your own choice.

Feelings of Abandonment

It has been more than a month since my last post. And I lay this fault, without reservation, at the feet of my missus. It has been a very difficult time indeed, during her absence. Looking after one's daughter when one's wife is overseas has proven a time-consuming, nerve-wracking, and patience-draining experience indeed.

One might point out that I should have expected such an arrangement, given the fact that my wife heads overseas for work every so often. True enough. Yet, no one could have warned me that my daughter would choose this same period to display an independent streak, coupled with a mild defiance of the carefully laid plans that her parents had made for her. Needless to say, her performance at school has gone down, and her behaviour at home has been less than exemplary.

Normally, I would simply give her a swift whack to her backside, followed by a sound scolding, to make her mend her ways. However, with the absence of her mother, who usually gives comfort and an explanation of how she had gone wrong, meant that those duties fall to me as well. Without going into details, I can honestly say that this does not work as well.

Well. We'll see what happens when her mother returns at the end of next month.

Sigh.

Mournings

Of late, there has been many disappointments.

First, there was the plan to drag the daughter along with me to visit her mother in the Great Southern Land during the former's school break. Unfortunately, her mother's work schedule had her going North this month instead of South. So that plan evaporated swiftly.

Secondly, there was a plan for some of my fellows to travel to the Pearl of the East, to study some of the methods in use by our colleagues there, against their foes, so that we may apply some of their lessons learnt in our own arena. Unfortunately, due to the events that just took place here last week, many of these plans had to be shelved, in order for some of my fellows to deal with the situation. Hence, this plan too, was held in abeyance.

Thirdly, there is a plan for me and some of my colleagues to skip North at the end of our workday today, to learn what can be found in our neighbour's. Hopefully, this last, simpler goal can be fulfilled.

Sigh. It is hard to work with one's fingers crossed.