Mad Month

So the first month of 2011 is almost over. It's been a little crazy - both the Dodgess and I have had some very late nights.


The Dodgess has been playing with SLO - doing Carmen. This has meant that for the past three weeks she has had rehearsal or performance every night on top of all her normal work - itself quite a busy week. The result is that we had grabbed dinner together at 6ish every night, and, in order to try and get my work done, I've then gone back to work on several nights at 730ish, and worked on for an hour or two.

It's not the first time that I've only seen my home in the dark - but it has been one of the most draining. Partly because as well as a crazy month here, I've been helping out with my Mother in Law, who has been having her house refurbed - 2 nights at IKEA, and numerous hours lending muscle. Still - it has been a while since I've been able to help with muscle once again.


The Dodgess did treat me to a night at Carmen. I don't tend to go for opera that much, I find the stories a little exagerated, and for every moment of world beating music, there is an hour of so-so music. Carmen is generally superior, and I really enjoyed it this time, in spite of some slightly weird staging - the last scene felt as if Carmen could simply walk away from Don Jose - in fact I wondered why she didn't!!


Next week is the Lunar New Year. It's kind of like the Asian version of Christmas - I get to work half a week at work. Good - a chance to catch up with sleep. It really is like Christmas - most Singaporeans have a whole list of Reunion Dinners. The Dodgess and I will also have a few - probably not as many as most, but they'll still be nice.


Looking forwards to the year of the Rabbit I think there is a lot to look forwards to. We have a new project at work - some Tunneling work I believe. So I will have a new challenge in a new field of engineering. I hope that I can do some alignment design for rail, and the tunneling will be fun to learn I hope. We also have the tender for our viaducts - We're just closing out the design, and I went to have a look at a model of it last week and it looked very neat.


The Dodgess and I hope to have a look around Asia a little more - a few days in Bali, perhaps some in Malysia, a proper holiday trip to Hong Kong. We're saving a long trip for 2012 when we'll head back to Europe - probably in the Summer for my younger brother's wedding.


Lets hope that the Rabbit bounces high - Gong Xi Fa Cai