In Which Some Events Transpire, and Other Events Do Not

First I promise: this post will be decidedly more upbeat than the last post.

To paraphrase a John Wayne phrase: To the rat killing!

So some things are new: I now have a vacation for the 19th through the 26th of March!  A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my manager and requested (since we will be busier in April and May) to have 7 days of vacation over Adam's spring break. He said that was fine, depending on where I would be (ex: if I went to America, no vacation). And as America fell tragically through my fingers and it seems I am now staying here, I brought the subject back up earlier this week. I asked for his advice on whether it was still advisable to buy plane tickets for the event, since I am supposed to be going to a rig sometime this week. He said, "Why not? It's a land rig, and they'll be drilling til the middle of May, so you've got time. Go ahead and order your tickets." So I excitedly shared this with Adam the next morning (his time) and we set about deciding where we wanted to go. Tropical is fun, but I already live in tropical, neither of us wanted cold, and we both think Africa is a bad idea for the time being. So, we looked at European countries. After considering the Ukraine, Germany, and Greece, he suggest Spain and it just clicked! The weather is nice, it has good food, history stuff, and is relatively warm. Then we looked at cities in Spain and Barcelona seemed like it would be so much fun!! So we booked hotel, his ticket, (and finally today!) my ticket. I am pretty excited :) I don't remember Europe from when I was a baby, so it will be fun to officially visit it as an adult. And, along the way I get to fly through Singapore :)  As for activities, we are looking at a bike tour of the city and visting a castle that has been turned into an art museum. Promise, pictures will be taken.

The rig business has not changed. I was supposed to go out on Monday of this week, and then possibly Thursday, and "definitely" by Friday, but there is nothing confirmed yet. And regardless of when I go out, I am definitely coming back next Friday in order to fly out Saturday morning. Its kind of a convoluted mess, however, they have had 8 months to get their business together so at least it is a convoluted mess that isn't my fault.

While waiting for life to sort itself out I have been busy. I have made several batches of cookies and given them to the techs, my other coworkers, my managers, and the Chinese shop keepers across the street. Though they are not amazing, they are much better than Malaysian cookies (which tend to be hard and crusty) so I think if this job doesn't work out, at least I can open up a cookie shop here. I will be rich!

Also, in the last week my the video and wireless cards in my Dell Malaysia computer have completely gone out causing me to be unable to access the internet/skype from it. I am currently waiting on a Dell Malaysia employeed to get to Labuan so he can work on it again (he previously replaced the LCD screen/cable 1 week ago).

I am also having fun being kind of pushy (My catchphrase:I want to speak to your manager. NOW.) to the Post Malaysia (postal service) and Customs employees here. I am waiting on a package containing yarn and it is currently in no system that anyone knows of, but we do know that it has gone through customs. So I talked to several managers today and said that they need to stop blaming the other organization for their inability to know where it is, and that it needs to be found. NOW. I am supposed to get an answer from the manager in Customs, tomorrow morning, and Post Malaysia, on Friday.

Update : I just called the Post office 5 minutes ago and the package has magically appeared in Customs computers again. However the guy in the office won't answer his phone. I will prevail! Or just alienize those working the public service sector.

Next up: I have ordered an iPod Touch. "Why?" you ask. Well, because it can access iTunes as well as skype, so as long as I have a wifi connection I can skype on that instead of dragging out my PC, which is currently not working. It should be here between the 11th and 16th. I am pretty excited for its potentially getting here!

Tonight we have another calibration, I think, so that should make life interesting. We are not sure when/what time it will occur, but I am hoping for sooner rather than later. I hope it goes smoothly! Or else, I will still be up at 1 pm your time :)

Have a good day guys.

Becca