My Turn

Figured it must be my turn - Andrew has been providing you with restaurant reviews for far too long!

Today is a public holiday in Thailand, and so the office is closed. I've been hanging out working in the Exec lounge at the Conrad all day - they have mangaged to feed me complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner today. It pays to be in the right place at the right time. I'm currently enjoying the evening cocktails with 15- 20 hot and cold snacks. Plenty for dinner! They even have a georgous bitter chocolate mousse with sour berries - yumm.

My project in Thailand is going ok, but is suffering a bit from very slow testing by the users. The go-live date is looking at the moment like it will be towards the end of the year, with October being mentioned by all the big wigs. We shall see - they will really have to get moving if they want to achieve that date.

The constant travel is getting to be a bit of a drain - more from a feeling settled point of view than a physical exhaustion viewpoint I routinely travel to BKK on Monday afternoons, and then get back into Tokyo very early Saturday morning. Thank goodness for Business Class - I sleep very nicely and cannot really complain. Japan Airlines (JAL) is nothing to write home about - they serve exactly the same meal on every one of my flights, and it changes every three months, but they do provide the best timetable :-). Japan's ridiculous need to fill up most of a page in my passport with a sticker everytime I enter the country is a bit of a pain - the new passport I got in July last year now has less the 8 pages left (it started with 48). Time to get a new one I guess. One great discovery I have made is a thing called an APEC card. Basically it is for frequent travellers, and you get pre-approved for entry into different Asia/Pacific countries. You can then use the Diplomatic or Crew immigration lines. Saves me hours of queuing!

I tried working out of Japan one week not so long ago but just about went insane. The apartment was too quiet and there was no one interrupting me every five minutes. I have decided that working from home would never be my forte - I thrive on the stream of people wanting things from me. The cleaner who wanted to know if she could vacuum now just did not cut it... Once we see what happens with Andrew's job in October a decision will have to be made - I don't think I really want to be away from home most weekdays for too much longer. Please pray for us as we head towards October. Andrew's secondment to Japan is scheduled to end then, and we really do not know what is next. We have been looking at going back to the UK, returning to HK or trying to find something else in Japan, but really do not know what is the right thing to be doing, and where God would have us be next. The current global financial crunch does not make it a great time to be looking for opportunities in the Financial Service Industry, and the recruitment agents really do not seem to have a lot going on.

Holiday plans are also on our minds at the moment, and we are hoping to find a week or so that works for both of us to return to NZ in September. Andrew's contract includes one set of tickets home and it would be a shame not to use them! It is looking like maybe 15th September, but my advice is don't count on it until you see us :-). We would also really like to get up to see Evan and Kirsten in Edmonton in Feb/Mar when we head to the states for Paul's wedding. I am planning, Andrew is procrastinating.... Story of my life when it comes to holidays :-).

Nothing much else of interest happening. It looks like I'll end up in Melbourne rather than Bangkok for the week of the 18th August, but none of you are there so I don't guess you care. I had a great visit with one of my collegues from Melbourne here in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago. Penny was working with us in KL when we were there, and went to the same church that we went to. It was really good to catch up with her again. I miss some of the friends from the church and particularly the home group from KL.

Like Andrew said in his last update, we are off to Hong Kong for the weekend which we are looking forward to. Trying out a cheaper hotel option this time - hopefully it will not be too much of a dump - staying at the Conrad kind of spoils you for budget accomodation :-). We will head off to our old church on Sunday - they have moved to a permanent building since we left, so it will be good to see where they are now. Andrew also has interviews with a couple of different people at one of the other insurance companies in HK - please pray that these will go well. Other than that, I am sure there will be another restaurant review as we head out on Saturday night for Andrew's delayed birthday dinner. His theory is that with a cheaper accomodation for the weekend he can use the saved money on an exceptional dinner. We shall see.... Other plans for the weekend include a return to my more excellent nail lady, and some more highlights in my hair - some things just are not the same in Bangkok or Tokyo!

Till next time....

Sonia