Tim’s Ramblings

Helloooooooooooooo readers.

Finally an update. And it’s already been a long long trip. It doesn’t feel like a vacation really…and there’s a reason for it…I was at the office all day yesterday, was up ’till close to midnight calling the home office, and I was up at 5:30am this morning to call to the office and have been on the phone off and on and I will have another call probably around 9 or 9:30 or so with the Japanese partners.

Wooo.

I love vacation…

*sigh*

But anyway, update…right. Well…the flight was long. Long long long. Felt much longer than usual this time around. It didn’t help that the 13.5 hour flight turned into 14.5 due to engine issues at Newark…something I could have lived happily without knowing. But in the end the flight was uneventful and fine…though alas, once again, no hot supermodel sitting next to me. Instead, as per usual, I had a middle aged guy who smelled a bit funky. *sigh*

Met mom at the airport and by the time I got to their apartment, I was already on the phone with our partner figuring out the current situation and what time I was going to make in the next day. Then after a few hours I promptly passed out.

The next morning it was my first long distance commute to work. Got in my suit and headed out around 7:40am. Earlier than I thought but I figured just in case. Good thing too… The bus was packed on the way to the station and once at the station the train was pretty damn full. After being crammed in for 20 minutes, I got out and moved on to the next station where I found out, much to my dismay, that there was a mechanical issue and the train was delayed. Not good. Especially since this is a rapid to Tokyo so it only makes 6 stops to Tokyo in about 30 minutes. Needless to say the platform was unbelievably crammed with people and the train conductors were out in full force pushing people into the already packed cars.

I got on and I was promptily crammed in with my arm in one odd direction and my other arm probably somewhere inappropriate against the woman next to me though who knows really….it didn’t really matter since it was hard to breathe anyway. And on top of it all, because of the delay, there was a ripple effect all down the line so on at least 3 different occasions the train had to stop to give space to the train in front…typically it takes only 30 minutes but instead I was on this train crammed like that for a good hour.

Then from Shinagawa it was onto another train which was not that crowded in comparison and then a walk to the office where I was there past 5.

Got home, (took 2 hours…), ate, and then started to do some work in preparation to the phone calls I had to make. Talked ’till 12 and then went to bed and got up at 5:30 to catch up on e-mail and then from there it has been steady phone calls. It’s past 10am now and I’m still in my sweats since I haven’t had time to even take a shower and I’m waiting for at least one more phone call before I can start the day.

It doesn’t matter since my sister hasn’t even taken a shower yet either. Eh…whatever. All I know is, I have been working for over 5 hours now on my second day of vacation. (well…3rd…but the first day was spent on a plane). Fun…. You know…this won’t be so bad if I could roll these days over to next year but I can’t…and I’m already burning 4 days anyway. Crap…. Oh, and I’ll be on a conference call most likely at the partner office next Thursday too….. I know this is just part of the job and thus part of my life but I can’t help feeling a bit annoyed. Oh well… :(

Well anyway, once this is done, this afternoon, my sister and I might do some sightseeing. Well…mostly for her since I’ve been to most places already but it’ll be nice. The weather is in the 50′s and cloudy but we’ll see how the weather holds up.

I will write more about everyday life once…well…once vacation starts :)

Sorry for such a downer or a post from Japan…I AM officially on vacation though…really…..

Sleepy….