Another weekend in Kl..

Yes, I am back in KL. Life has been generally stressful, polluted and a bit tiring since I got here. Stressed 'cos I have more work than I bargained for, polluted because of the smoke haze from the Indonesian bush fires, tired becuase of more drinking and less sleep. I am experiencing the haze for the first time but I beleive this is a yearly occurence and it goes away only once the rains come back. Office staff were distributing face masks in case it gets worse. Word on the street is that the government does not do anything about it because the fires are caused by Malaysian businessmen burning their plantations in Indonesia for the replanting season. I beleive expats were evacuated in '97 because of the haze, perhaps also due to the asian crisis. Priya is writing exams next week, exams to officially recognize her German speaking abilities. In my case, the shame meter continues to rise because of my diminishing ability to speak german, so much so that I have put it as one of my targets in employee review for next year hoping that will take me off my lazy ass. I am also contemplating taking a few weeks off to pick up the language but so far the schedule for the next 6 months looks tight. I am reading an interesting book, From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman, recommended by Anand. Gives some insight to seemingly unsolvable issues of the middle east, also is a good example of how barbaric we still are. On my flight here, I unwilling gave up my aisle seat to an older lady who wanted to sit next to her husband for a middle seat, but was pleasantly suprised when the cabin crew gave me a bottle of Champagne at the end of the flight for my inconvenience. I must add also, it was a very expensive bottle so perhaps there are still service minded staff on Lufthansa. This was also another deja vu story since one of the passengers on my previous flight was also requested to move which he impolitely dinged, so perhaps self conscience played a role in my submission to the request. Another random thought, out of the blue the other day I mentioned an old classmate's name to Priya saying that I have no idea where he is, could not even remember his first name etc etc. So I was pretty shocked when I got a linked in invitation in my email the next day. Power of the mind perhaps? Oktoberfest pics are up, click on the link in the sidebar on this page.