"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go."
Herman Hesse

The experience of a lifetime

It's my last day of work today. A rather relaxing day actually given that I had expected to be overloaded with a multitude of tasks to finish before I left my position. In the end, I will most certainly miss this office. Not so much the actual job but more so the people. My supervisors have been most understanding and patient whilst walking me through the learning curve and I have learnt far more in the last two weeks than a year in school. Strange how when you are given full responsibility for something, you tend to put more effort into it. I was never this attached to my homework during the school years. And the sense of achievement when you finish something is just amazing. When a task is almost done, one that's taken you days, you're just so happy to finish with it that it really motivates you to work harder to make sure it never comes back to you again. :)

The teamwork in this department is brilliant and I've been very lucky to be able to experience it all. Although each has their own tasks, there isn't too much politics involved which makes it all a much nicer environment to work in. It is my hope to be able to work in a company with a similar positive working environment in the near future. As for now, it's time for me to move on. Finding one's own destiny is never easy but it must be done. Determination is Key! And so the hunt continues...

Delayed resolutions

During the last few days, I keep telling myself I'll blog today but by the time I make it to the computer, I've already forgotten about my resolution to do so. Silly isn't it? On the spot of an event, I'd think to myself: I have to remember to blog this. When I get to the blogging, I've pretty much lost interest, enthusiasm or even the willpower to recall the memory enough to write about it. When I force myself, the script comes out mundane - no one wants to read something which lacks passion, life behind it.

So we end up here. Months after my last blog with very little to say except, I've been busy trying to pack. It's such an evil, never-ending chore. Packing for a short trip is easy enough but when it comes to packing for good, it gets so painful. More often than not I find things that I haven't seen or used in ages - things that I have forgotten about. Mom always told me that if you never needed it, you don't need it now but there's always this reluctance to let go. Somehow, I always seem to be able to convince myself that I'll need it later which is precisely how I manage to accumulate so much crap. Oh how I wish Edeline was here. She must be magic. I have no idea how she does it all the time. Instead, I find myself doing the sudoku in the daily paper and watching amusing standups like Dylan Moran. That man is a god. Being Irish, he has this really adorable accent and underneath it all, I think he might be a romantic. It's so cute how he refers to children all the time. More often than not though, it comes out as fairly accurate if slightly exaggerated.

I have three days left in Manchester and another two in London. Everyone else seems to feel it more than I do. People telling me that they miss me, people telling me that they regret not meeting up before I go. Most of all, people telling me that time really flies and that it seems only yesterday when we graduated. I will miss them all. That is true. Some more than others but nonetheless, buried deep inside is the innate knowledge that I will see them again. This little gem of information is what allows me to leave with a smile each time. The world is growing smaller with each passing year and technology brings us closer together with every tap on the keyboard. Hopefully soon they'll be able to shorten flight distances so I don't have to spend 13 hours on a plane! :P

Life and its wonders

I was asked earlier on this week: How do you know when someone stops loving you? Or loses interest in you? Being the women that we are, we all sat down and picked apart every conversation, action and reaction between two people. The analysis went on for a while and in the end, we decided that the best course of action was for both parties to talk it out. Han came up with an interesting view at this point - honesty is the best policy when it comes to relationships. That got me thinking. It wasn't that I didn't agree with her for if someone I was attached to started lying to me, they'd lose my trust. But then again, what about those little white lies that everyone claims you're better off not knowing? And how does one decide whether it's worth telling? The answers obviously depends on each situation so let's take a common example. Say two of your friends are going out and one cheats. Do you tell the other? Where does your loyalty lie then?

Most I know would approach the cheater first and give them time to come clean. But what if it was a one off. So called "drunk happenings." If I was the oblivious party, I would prefer not to be told because once I did, nothing could ever be the same again. Unfortunately, I'm not as forgiving as I'd like to be... Maybe it's the fact that being a woman makes it harder to let go once an emotional attachment has been formed.

Venice briefly

It has been such a long while since I've updated my blog that I really have no idea where to start. Nonetheless, let me just say a very belated Happy New Year to one and all out there. I hope your winter holidays were as good as mine.

We spent Christmas in Venice. I was in awe... and perhaps slightly sea sick towards the end of it. I haven't had the pleasure of spending that much time on a boat before so it got to me a little. Guess it didn't help that our hotel was 10 mins away from the main island by vaporetto. :) That minor detail aside, I had a magical time. From the shopping to the walking in empty streets, Venice was beautiful. Absolutely freezing but still beautiful. My favorite part of the 5 day trip was the Gondola ride. Our gondolier was awesome - easy on the eyes too! He even started singing towards to end of our tour. Dave was really pleased about that.

In all honesty, I was in Venice for the food. Most of the historical sites were churches and while I wasn't so keen, we still visited a fair few. Apparently, our gondolier told us that there are more churches than islands in Venice. How crazy is that? Talk about devout to the extreme huh? The food was amazing. We found a lot of the restaurants listed in the guidebook despite the confusing streets and dark alleyways and most of the recommendations were pretty sound. The scariest alleyway we ventured through was to Corte Sconta. The food there was amazing. The seafood was incredibly fresh and while neither of us ordered a main dish, I ate so much I could barely breathe by the end of it. Didn't even order a Tiramisu by the end of it. (Oh the shock!) See, I was stuffed! All in all, it was a wonderful trip. The only downsides were the weather (which wasn't so bad, just a little too cold for my liking) and the Treviso airport. But then again, you can't really complain about that since they are budget airline caterers.

My conclusion? It was beautiful. I loved it. I think I can wait to visit it again. After all, there's much more to see before a second trip to Venice. If it were up to Dave, we'd be flying to Egypt already.