I LOVE (pleasant) surprises. And I absolutely love it whenever I get to my desk and I find some gift lying in wait for me. That definitely makes my day. Even a special note has the same effect.
Hence when I saw this on top of my desk when I arrived in the office, on a Monday morning at that, it definitely made my day. 🙂
Indeed, this is one thing to be thankful for. Was able to buy hubs this iMac as my Christmas gift. Thankful because back when we were planning to get married, we had our worries that I wouldn’t be able to work. But thankfully, I was able to. Hence this.
Hubs was teasing me though that finally, he can use the iPad as I’d be busy with Tofu – the nickname we gave our iMac. I always mistakenly refer to hubs’ old dog who died as Tofu instead of Taro haha thus he named our new iMac as tofu. It kind of stuck in. bagay 🙂
Winter is my favorite season. Don’t ask me why as I myself can’t really point a finger as to the exact reason. I can allude some reasons but I know they’d be not quite the full reason. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that it is a happy season for me which would probably quite sum up why I love winter.
The season is against my body makeup though. This season is just so dry you had to apply rich lotion every now and then or else your skin will be very dry and would crack. Moreover, around early february, nature would start gearing itself for spring, sending wind to carry pollens. Pollens being minute particles, along with dust, my nose would surely suffer from it.
Thankfully, the Japanese has found ways to alleviate the suffering of people like me and that thankfully, hubs is totally concerned with my predicament. Hence, hubs decided to buy us this portable heater (on top of the built in heaters at home) cum humidifier cum air freshener.
It comes with a jug of course to fill water in to help humidify the room. Thus addressing the problem of a very dry ambient.
This model is the nanoe model which keeps allergens from sticking into fabrics. What is nanoe exactly? According to THIS WEBSITE,
Nanoe are water wrapped long-life particles that can penetrate into fabric thoroughly and reach to every corner of the room to effectively inhibit allergens and odour in the air.
The Characteristics of [Nanoe]
Plentiful of Moisture – [nanoe] contain moisture more than 1,000 times to minus ion. Being wrapped in water molecules, it is long-life and able to retain its effectiveness even moving for long distance.
Microscopic Scale – [nanoe] are extremely small in volume size that can deeply penetrate into fabrics to restrain dirt.
So there, hopefully this does help with my allergies. It definitely helps with the cold. As for better-smelling ambient, hubs walked into the dining room (where we’ve currently placed our new gadget), and animatedly exclaimed that the room smelled much better. And now, even after only one hour and even with sitting in the same place, It does smell better. 🙂 thanks hubby!
We had our bounenkai till late last night; this time, it’s our project team’s year end party cum farewell party to those who are going back to Philippines after their Yokohama assignment and for a colleague who is resigning to go back to her hometown in Okinawa. With Hubs’ permission, I also went to the second party. It’s a Japanese tradition to have second parties, and sometimes 3rd and 4th parties(!) after the main party. Hence, I wasn’t able to blog, even the shortest bit. I’m trying to make up through this short blogpost; after all, there’s lots to be thankful for.
Thursday. Thankful for the gift of voice that was given to me. And I do hope I continue to make people happy and relaxed simply by singing. If truth be told, I tremendously miss singing! And yes, one other great thing. It warms me every time our officemates and also Hubs’ peers and elders tell me how Atsushi is such a kind person. Of course I know this for a fact. But it still gives me much warmth when somebody reiterates it. 😀
Friday. It has been a terribly busy week (and an emotional one at that!), with new deliverables suddenly popping up and with tight deadlines to boot. And of course since our bounenkai was almost like a required attendance, I have to do as much as I can within 8 hours. This week’s main deliverables, the Safety Narrative and Flare Report (with Cold Depressuring yet to be done) almost seemed like an impossible feat (and I had to add a new PSV at that, this late in the project phase!). Back when it was still Monday, I looked at my to-do list and the objective part of me told me it sure is impossible to meet. But I have no other choice but to work hard and finish it, and hope. And hope. The hoping bore fruit though. My boss was very surprised. I smiled, because he doesn’t know I have a bigger BOSS up there who helped me along the way. 🙂
Gotta hit the sack! Tomorrow’s gonna be hectic! Hope we’ll see more of the sun tomorrow.
In one of my recent posts, I mentioned how the bounenkai (忘年会) is the Japanese equivalent of thanksgiving party to celebrate the year that was.
I may be a bit wrong on this however. The last kanji, 会 (read as “kai”), means party. The second kanji, 年 (read as “nen”, means year. The first kanji, 忘 (read as “bou”) means forget. Hence, translation of bounenkai is really to have a party to forget the year that was.
And it comes off a bit negative, doesn’t it? Why indeed focus on the negative and forget? Why not on the positive and remember? My boss and I were talking about the nuance of bounenkai earlier, just before we ourselves were about to attend our department’s bounenkai. He said that it’s just part of the Japanese culture. And probably he meant that it’s just part of the Japanese culture to focus on the negative stuff that happened in the year and specifically make a point or an event – a party in this case – to forget about it. Sort of like officially get rid of it. After going through an anger-provoking meeting earlier in the day, I thought that if the goal of bounenkai is as we supposed, then it was just so timely.
But as I realise now, we may be wrong. The bounenkai can really be literally that: to forget the year that was. Full stop. Not just the negative but the whole year, positive or otherwise. Forget the year that was and start anew with the coming new year. If the old year has been a bad one for you, forget about it and exert tremendous effort to make the new year a great one. If the old year has been a great one for you forget about it, lest you enter the new year full of pride and be less attentive and so eventually rob yourself from the chance of working hard to make the new year another great one. And I’d say, I’d stick with this one. Yes of course we should remember and celebrate the blessings given us with the year that was. But it is imperative that we be mindful as well not to be too confident and hence let down our guard and not make good effort anymore in the coming year.
Your thoughts? 🙂
Thankful for the really delicious chahan (fried rice) that Hubs cooked for breakfast this morning. It was the kind that would really make you eat it slowly so as to savor the taste.
Although actually, the underlying blessing here is that I have a husband who is very understanding with my morning quirks and one who thinks of ways so that we will get to office on time.
Thank you Atsushi. 🙂