Eccentric Me

This entry is a piece of self-reflection, a rare glimpse into what makes me tick.

For as long as I remember, I wanted to be a medical doctor, a surgeon to be precise. But I've come to realise that I may not be well-equipped enough to be one, emotionally speaking. Yes, my emotional quotient is quite dominant. When it comes to matters of heart, emotions rules and logic gets thrown out of the window.

What has this got to do with me longing to be a surgeon? Well, I am not so sure whether I can cope with the emotional baggage of having a life literally in my hands. One clumsy move and it's all over. One precise swoop and the patient lives. The difference between these two scenarios can be less than an inch.

So I ended up being an engineer. Ironically, my area of speciality is safety systems, where I evaluate and determine whether the system in place is adequate enough to cover the risks involved. I travel all around the world, much like a surgeon, looking at each installation (patient?) with a critical eye, determining precisely what needs to be done to correct any inadequacy (corrective surgery?). Again, to draw comparison, if I make a mistake, people can die, monetary losses will be enormous, not to mention the impact to environment (think Chernobyl - that's what happens if a safety system is inadequate).

In a way, I am a surgeon, albeit an engineering one. And I have been doing this for more that 6 years, with the proverbial Sword of Damocles hanging on my head. But I haven't felt the emotional baggage weighing down on me so far. True, there are moments when I am emotionally charged by my work, but thank God I can still live with it.

Hmmm, maybe it's time to take up medicine and retrain myself to be a surgeon then. Now that's a thought.....sounds crazy? Nope, just eccentric old me.....

Right, the "surgeon" is flying off to Kerteh then..... be back in two days' time!

Baby Ayrah @ 6 months old

Work...Cubed! (& Et cetera.....)

Ever since my secondment to the new organisation on 16th June, my workload have amazingly shot up like nobody's business. Nevertheless, last week I managed to take a weeklong leave to settle a few outstanding family errands (Ayrah's passport, family gatherings, shopping for my darlings, to name a few).

This week I was holed up at one of the floors of the tallest twin buildings in the world, chairing meetings after meetings for the whole week. Trust me, when you're chairing a meeting with more that 20 senior engineers to try and gain consensus amongst them, things can get really heated up. At one point, 3 hours were spent on discussing whether it is really required to install a pressure sensor on one of the gas lines or not - without any consensus reached. Talk about dissenting views!

And, I finally got my transfer letter to HQ, dated 16th August. So now I'm officially moved to the new organisation. Although, frankly speaking, it didn't matter that much to me nowadays - I'm travelling much, much more than before, which means that I'll hardly be in office anyway.

Word has it that I might be needed in Frankfurt, Germany sometimes in September for 2 weeks, so another overseas trip is in the cards for me. Maybe I'll get a chance to hop around Europe over the weekends there, at least to continue my tour of the Seven Wonders.

BTW, our KL abode is currently in a mess, due to renovation works that will effectively double our bedroom size. There goes my plan to relax this weekend at home.....and because of the renovation, they removed the Astro dish outside just now..... ARRGHHH!!! Bloody 'ell, now how am I suppose to watch the EPL this weekend then???