Location: Office, KB, Brunei
Time: 3pm, Friday (omg 3 more hours to go...)
Feeling: tired and bored - contemplating rolling under the desk for a quick power nap but i've been told there's a rat called "mickey" running around the ground floor. ewww.

And here are some monkeys going through garbage on one of the main streets in Bandar Seri Begawan (capital of Brunei) - you can't see it on pic, but there's a whole bunch of them in the trees

On to Miri

Location: "Sky Top" Room at the Client office, Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam
Time: 6:20pm, 29 March, 2007. Thursday (It should be farken friday, geesh how much longer can this week last?)
Feeling: tired. need holiday. liking people on the job.

Waiting for an appraisal call in a quiet room at the client. Man... I feel like I spend more time waiting for the calls than actually doing the appraising on the call. Why don't people ever call on time?? Far out. Am going to call one more time and give up.

I feel like this week is neverending. Monday should have been Friday. Tuesday should have been Friday. Ditto, Wednesday and Thursday.

Going to Miri (across the border in Malaysia) on the weekend. Just for a decent hotel really. Going to lounge around and do nothing in a nice hotel rather than here. There's gotta be more to do there than around here. It's just not possible to be otherwise. Unless it happens to be a fucken desert. Unlikely.

another day

Location: Rm 402, Riviera Hotel, Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam, located on the island of Borneo which it shares with Malaysia and Indonesia.
Time: 11pm, 26th March, 2007. Monday (I think)
Feeling: in dire need of a holiday

Well, writing a self-assessment for my 4th appraisal in 2 years has forced some introspection. It's been a while, I have to say. Except now I'm too tired to write down my thoughts coherently. Too tired to even think, let alone coherently. I am just going to upload some photos and let that speak... Mind you I'm selecting only the most interesting ones - so don't let them fool you into thinking there is stuff to do around here! There is nothing, NOTHING, I tell you!!

And this is a village on water. Approx 30k people (out of total population of 350k in Brunei) live in these villages . I still don't get why. It's not like land is over-populated... I must be missing something here...
And a famous mosque... that the Sultan built....

Oh yeah - had a chaotic week last week when my laptop (posthumously named "Fluffy") died while I was in Brunei. Joy and happiness. Ended up getting a replacement from the IT guys in Sydney who couldn't fix my old one and have been hectically trying to clear the backlog of work since that time.

News bites:
Saw ballet Don Q with that guy from Centre Stage (Ethan Stiefels or something) - mmm. very nice. Beautiful production actually.

Was at home for one night - ONE night and one of the roommates (remaining nameless) barged into my room at 3 AM in the morning, waking me up. Says she didn't realise I'd be home. I said "imagine that, I only live here. In my room". Response was "but you're never here". Should I just give up and move back with my parents?
And lets not even go into why she was going into my room at 3 am in the morning.
And I had a flight to catch in the morning.
Whinge whinge.
Anyway, moving onto the pictures....

[la la laaaaa la la]

Location: Blue Room, Penthouse, Riviera Hotel, Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam (it all sounds better than it really is...)
Time: 10:30pm, Wed (I think), 21 March, 2007 (I think. I also have this nasty feeling its someone's birthday around this time...)
Feeling: uninspired. I think some may call it flat.

Thought of the day: why can't clients EVER do what you want them to do? And why can't they just do what you tell them to do? I don't know but geesh it's a waste.

Brunei top 3 and bottom 3 list - obviously work in progress and to be updated
1) Cheap CDs and DVDs
2) It is not Canberra
3)

1) Nothing. There is NOTHING to do here. Good thing I'm a homebody who likes to sleep and read. Not that I have time for that.
2) Food. Is crap. No matter where I go it just seems so average. I'm over and my internal organs agree.
3) Absence of maps. I can't even confirm my overwhelming suspicion that there is NOTHING around here. God knows I drive around a lot when I get lost (without a freaking map) and see NOTHING.

[no title]

Location: Client HQ, Kuala Belait, Brunei
Time: 10:42am, Tuesday, 20 March, 2007

Actually made time to read this really good article http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2369574.ece


Hmmm. Yes

ps and this where I am not...

:( i need a holiday

Location: Riviera Hotel, Kuala Belait, Brunei
Time: 9am (local time), Sunday, 18 March, 2007
Feeling: tired and sleepy

Yeah.... I am over it. Need a holiday. Dunwanna work. Have heaps of stuff to do before tomorrow and also write a self-appraisal. Did take time off yesterday and went to Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital). There's not much there, I have to say. I saw the villages on water (pretty cool), a bunch of cool mosques and the palace. I was done by 4pm. I only got there around 12 (after getting lost driving down - because no one has a freaking map of the place!). It was SO hot, I pretty much drove back and passed out. I thought - "just a quick power nap and then I'll get up and do work". Woke up at 1:30am and thought there's no point in getting up.

So here I am. Pile of work. Man, this post is so boring - I'm boring myself writing it. That's it. Am finishing. Maybe I'll post some pictures later to make it less of a drainer to read it...

But I am just so BORED. Is there ANYONE out there?!? I am not sure... I think this little oil town empties out on Sundays - not that there are a lot of people here during the week but a lot of contractors tend to congregate around here around nighttime after they get back from the rigs.

Location: Client HQ, Kuala Belait, Brunei
Time: 12pm local time
Feeling: Stressed, a bit flat, could use a nap (as usual)

Oh man this project is busy. Everyone is running around at 200km/hr. Which is a great achievement given all the safety regulations in place - this is an oil and gas company, so everyone walking on the stairs has to hold the handrail, walk on the left hand side, not hurry, etc.

There is a lot of lingo to learn - hoists, CTU, nodding donkeys, turnkeys, wildcats, NPT, RDTL, ILT, GWDP, STL, maaaaaan. It's a different language.

The politics in this place...

Other than everyone speaking English (nice change), I haven't really noticed much difference to the BKK. It's been pretty much hotel-office-hotel for me - so that part hasn't changed much. Except that hotels here are sh!te. There is no customer service, people are hopeless and frankly just don't give a fark. I can't get room service (there is no food) at the hotel. I was so confused I had to check with reception. And at 5am there are loud prayers coming through the loudspeaker on street that wake me up when I don't close the window. Other than that, all you notice is lack of people. Or buildings. Really - there's pretty much NOTHING in KB. I'm going to check out the capital Bandar on the weekend - they made it look good in tourism brochures. Will see.

Also all the food here is halal (no pork) and there are no dogs on streets. Only cats. Both, pigs and dogs, are considered to be too dirty for muslims (I've been told anyway. Please correct me...) But apparently, they are not allowed to touch dogs or pigs. So when they have a dog on the police squad (eg drug sniffers), they have to get a Chinese person to be the dog handler.

*Sigh* Have to pretend I've re-grouped and get back to work.

Preparing for departure

Location: Latrobe St Home, Melbourne
Time: 1pm (Melb time, I think)

Well, after managing to lock myself out of the apartment for the better part of the day, I am a little bit stressed. Must unpack. And then pack again. Make sure I don't take anything pink to Brunei and only take ugly underwear (items pink or feminine get stolen by the hotel laundry people. I have to lock my bras in a suitcase when I leave the hotel).

Anyway - must still finish off the old project, start on the new one and write my self-appraisal. Having managed to get into the apartment just after one pm it sounds like a piece of cake... not.

another day

1:30pm (ish) 8 March, 2007
Location: Client office, Rama 3, BKK
Feeling: tired, bored, needing a holiday

Sigh. So yes - Brunei it is on Monday. Have booked my ticket. I don't really want to go. I kind of got comfortable here - finally got my client counterpart to (more) comfortably blab to me in English and become less scared (he seems a bit shy...) and now I have to move countries, move clients, move project teams. I dunwanna go. I have to be nice and make friends and build trust, respect and blah with the client, gotta make new job manager comfortable with my output, learn and adjust to their style of working and managing. It's all too hard. I wouldn't mind staying here where I know everything, everyone and how it all works. I am not bored yet... I think. (Well apart from today. Actually, if I see one more process map I may vomit...)

I can't seem to make myself do work today/yesterday. I have HEAPS to do but I can't make myself care... That's baaaad. I can see myself finishing work off for this on the flight home from BKK.

Other news... getting appraised again. Have to write a self-assessment.

Had a client function yesterday which finished late... Have a firm function tonight which will probably finish late. Sigh. I just want a nap!

Other topics I want to write about later (as I have to go and pretend to do work now...):

1) FFF (farken fitness first)
2) Post photos of the night of that incident (where they wouldn't let me into a bar because i was a female alone) and vent some more about it.
3) Umm. forgotten for now...

Item #2 - Photos from the night at Barsu (bar that opened at Sheraton Sukhumvit) - where door people discriminated against me in such a manner that ended up costing them about 6-7 bottles of French champagne, numerous Cuban cigars (see below), dozens of cocktails and fingerfood for 8 hungry people. Geesh, I should complain more often. However, I am still fuming and totally holding a grudge.

'Tis Lillian and Kareem smoking the free cigars and spreading the love. Also free.



Tis myself with Arthur and his wife, Barbara on the left. Arthur = boss on project (kind of) and has relocated to BKK with family for a year or two.


James, Barbara and myself...


Just me...

omg

10am ish
One word to describe how I feel this morning = aaaargh! 15 maps to do today! Cr@p!

4:30 pm ish (BKK time)
Hmm. Looks like I might be off to Brunei next monday. Where there is no beer and I can't wear my new bikini (no causal relationship there, btw). Argh!

Back to process maps, oh man...

PS just added a random picture of Thailand to see how it would look in this thing...