Job Satisfaction

Bala was very enlightening during another KLOSHC session. It was about road survival and how to deal with every day traveling. Taught by all kinds of experiences during crash rescue missions and accidents, he’s incredibly knowledgeable, charming and comical. With that many amusing stories to tell, I saw a natural comedian performing right there. Another funny person I’m becoming more acquainted with is Ustaz Dzulkarnain Hamzah. During a UN peacekeeping in Cambodia several years ago, he served our country together with our military, providing spiritual support to our troops there. He told great stories and with funny remarks of his, audience was fully captured. This is another reason why I like Friday - I get to listen to longer Tazkirah than any other day.

My superior came by, surprisingly, to have a chat before raya. The session I’d been asking for was granted, finally, for several minutes before office hour ended. Even though his questions in going about the project enlightened me, that was the technical part and everyone else should have also known the incompetence of someone new. What I expected was more on the recognition that I’ve put a reasonable effort to learn as much as possible in such a short time. If only he’d known how much effort I’ve put to gather information and technical expertise from technical advisors and the people around me who happened to be so stressed with workloads, I would’ve slept better at night. I’m not sure if he knows. He probably does. But HE knows.

I met Abi, a US-raised Indonesian friend at Masjid As-Syakirin for Iftar. He’s supposed to start his job in Jakarta the following Monday so before all the mess set in, he’d like to have a Malaysian visit. Besides, his sister is a Schlumberger boss here in Malaysia. We walked to a nearby Sushi restaurant and caught up with the latest stories. The best thing for me, well, besides catching up with an old friend, was to speak American English again, after a while. I almost lost the accent.