Work & Play

My work trips are usually to boring places. I handle the Middle East, so my travel usually revolves around places like Qatar-Oman-Bahrain-Kuwait… places that you’d not normally want to visit unless you have work there. But once in a while, we have these team meetings and conferences that happen in cool places. Last year we were to fly to Barcelona, but unfortunately, none of us in the office got our visas on time from the embassy, due to which we couldn’t go. This time however, we got the visas done, and I’m all set to go.

I’m not really looking forward to the conference itself (I’ve several workshops I have to participate in and stuff to prepare for which I have yet to do!!) but after the conference, I’m staying back a couple of days to check out the place. I’ve never been to Denmark, so it should be an interesting trip.

I’m back on Sunday, probably sleep-deprived, hopefully richer by the experience.   Either ways, you’ll hear about it here. Cheers!

Incomplete Chaos

I had a baby shower to attend last Saturday. As you know, my work-life is crazy busy and threatening to take over the rest of it, so when I found out that the theme was ethnic wear, I panicked a little as I didn’t have anything I could wear for the occasion. I figured I’d have to buy something, but finding the time for it was the issue.

I got back from a business trip to Qatar on … Tuesday (?! I think!) and then was pressed for time as I’m usually running around from one meeting to another even when I’m in the country. So on Wednesday, when I realized that time was running out, I rushed to this shop I knew where they sold enthic wear and bought a dress in between meetings. I promptly forgot about it till Saturday, when I wanted to get ready and realized that the dress was still lying in the car. 

My friends were coming to pick me up, so I had to rush. I quickly dressed in jeans and a t shirt and decided I’d just take the bag from my car and dress up at my friend’s place, where the baby shower was happening. I got to their house, we walked in and realized we were the first ones there. Which was lucky I suppose, cos when I went inside to change, I realized the shop had forgotten to pack the salwar (pants) part of the outfit!!

There I was, walking around in indignation, in my kurta and dupatta and no pants! My friends were chuckling and sniggering away, except for the one guy who didn’t think anything was amiss and when I asked him whether he didn’t think anything was missing said ” Oh yeah! The sleeves?”  IT’S A SLEEVELESS DRESS DUDE!! *rolling eyes*

Anyway… I called the shop up, yelled “Where are my pants??!” to the delight of my friends who burst out laughing, and they delivered the pants to me in 20 mins ( the shop was thankfully very close to the host’s house). So tell me, is it just me, or do these things happen to everyone?!

Life Getting in the Way of Living

Let me tell you what my life looks like nowadays.

Take yesterday, for example. I got to work, which has been increasingly stressful for the last 6 months, with a lot of crap going on that I don’t think I should talk about here. Suffice to say I spent 10 mins crying in the loo, it was that bad. (I never cry at work. It’s happened ONCE before, and even then I was much younger, a rookie).

I left office early, at 5:30pm… only because I had a flight to catch to Qatar (for work of course! No one goes to Qatar if they can help it!) at 10pm. I got home. I was hungry, cos I’d only eaten half a sandwich (stress makes me lose my appetite) at noon for lunch, but I’d no time to eat cos the cab would come to pick me up soon. My day had started at 5:30am, and I’d not really been able to sleep well for a week or so, so I was exhausted and decided to take a 5 min nap. I woke up when the cabbie called telling me he’s waiting downstairs.

I jumped out of bed, packed everything in 5 mins and ran out the door. I got to the airport and got to the gate at 9pm, ten mins before boarding was to officially start. I saw that they were boarding people early, but I figured I had time for a quick bite to eat, so went to the nearby cafe and ordered a quiche. I sat down to eat it, and just as I’d put a forkful of food into my mouth, I heard the *final boarding call* for my flight. I was confused… cos my boarding pass said they would start … oh why bother! I discarded the quiche *sob* and ran (literally ran!) to the gate. That’s when I realized I didn’t have my laptop bag on me. I must have left it at the cafe. So I hauled ass back to the cafe, but the woman at the counter said she hadn’t seen any laptop bag.

There was a moment of wild-eyed panic cos I wasn’t sure where the hell else I could have possibly left it. I ran back to the gate and explained my predicament to the officer there. By now, people were starting to notice the crazy woman running to and fro between Gate 10 and Paul’s Patisserie. The guy who works those golf-cart type cars was parked there looking at me going back and forth like a ping-pong ball with a look of pity on his face that made me want to start crying all over again. The officer at the gate gave me 10 mins to retrace my steps and find my bag before he closed the gate.

I turned away from the gate wondering where to start when suddenly, the golf-cart driver beeped his horn, and when I turned around, I saw him driving to me with my laptop bag sitting beside him. Apparently the chef at the cafe found it and gave it to him. I thanked him profusely. But words like “thank you” seems strangely insufficient at times like this. I got to the plane, ate the crummy little egg sandwich and a sorry little cupcake they served and fell asleep watching The Big Bang Theory.

I woke up in Qatar, arriving at the same time I’d left cos of the 1 hour time difference, with only my body clock complaining confusedly. The line at immigration looked like it was inspired by Lucifer himself, serpentine and long enough to make me wonder if I should just kill myself then and be done with it. I finally got to my hotel much after midnight. But no, the night was not over, cos you see.. I still had work left to do before I went to sleep. I managed to send a couple of mails before I finally succumbed to sleep. I’ve been up since 6:30am, working. And I just realized I’ve forgotten my laptop charger.

Help!