Happy punters

Today I was reprimanded for not blogging since the 25th. I shall respond with a multitude of blogs to rectify the situation. First the good news. My vaguely schizophrenic frenzy of work over the last few days (14 hour day on the craziest) I seem to have got the CD from a menial limp on to a full blown roll. My boss, who returned to work today after two days working at home, seemed extremely pleased with my design work, commenting on its professionalism.

I must admit that I did fall foul to a slightly smug glow for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I can get too excited yet as the Big Cheese (a very friendly but extremely astute Australian businessman who appears to have my CV imprinted in his brain) will be back from a two week vacation on Monday, so fingers crossed he'll like it. He didn't seem all that impressed with me at the start as I fumbled around trying to master three new computer programmes, so hopefully what I've done to date shall prove my worth.

Not only that but it looks like the CD is on track to be completed by the deadline of next week. If so, I shall have an entire product which I designed and in effect sold (I'm being paid to do this) and so begins my career in communications. It will certainly be a great product to show people at interview, if I do say so myself.

I do worry myself at times. When I get involved in a project I become obsessively focused and barely eat or sleep...ok that may be a slight exaggeration, but I do seem to have a slightly obsessive-compulsive tendency when it comes to work. I call it perfectionism. Not all work, only that which I feel passionate about. It seems that this time round I'm passionate about fish ...a step up from parasites I suppose.

So apart from being an obsessive computer geek for the week, what have I been up to? Saturday night I went out with my American friend Shane. We had freshly grilled fish by the river and chilled out there for a couple of hours. We then met up with his friend and his Lao girlfriend. I'm not one for judgments :), but she had the air of an empty-your-wallet break-your-heart type. Apparently Shane's mate had already bought her a motorbike. Hmmm. I reserve judgment. Hopefully I am wrong and they will live a happy life.

On Sunday I met up with Shane and got picked up by Tim a Son (I really should find out if her name is spelt like this) and went to their house. It's Son's family house actually, a beautiful old, wooden and surprisingly large Lao house on stilts. It is absolutely stunning. At the moment there are three generations of Son's family living under the same roof. Her mum, her, her sisters and her nieces and nephews. Son and her sisters cooked us a superb Lao meal. We had delicious little pancakes filled with coconut to start, then fish laap ( a spicy fish dish) and grilled fish which we ate with sticky rice, noodles and veg. Sticky rice is seriously sticky...nothing like the rice we have in the UK. You roll it into balls and scoop up sauce with it, no cutlery allowed. We spent the entire afternoon there amongst family and about 6 dogs. It was great.

Last night, I gave up on work. I was supposed to meet up with Shane but we managed to miss each other so I sat by the river, watched the sun go down and read for three hours. It was an extremely chilled out evening. Unfortunately, 'Stories of Sickness' is not the most exciting read, but I'm sure it will be of great use when I finally put pen to paper and write my dissertation.

Today I'm working late, but tomorrow night, it'll be Friday night drinks with the expats I imagine!