Hazia’s Reflections

On Sunday morning, I had to be at the office by 8.30am to finish off our fruitless retreat discussion. A few of us were shocked that no 1 wasn’t joining us. Anyway, IS surprised us by being prepared. He actually had all the issues & tasks written on small pieces of manila cards to stick onto a black cloth on the wall. Then, we just added on and arranged and re-arranged the pointers until we were satisfied. That was to discuss big picture only, details would be discussed during the next retreat next week.

I realised something. I’m joining this company at a crucial and interesting stage i.e re-alignment. I’ve always done ‘Sustaining success’ - going into establised companies and maintain the good work. ‘Starting up’ stage is too much work for me and `Closing shop’ stage was something I won’t even go near. I’m going to learn a lot from this whole restructuring exercise.

The discussion finished at 12.45 pm which meant that I could still join my parents for lunch at my brother’s place. It was refreshing to see my nephews again. The 4 year old is a champion in thinking out of the box. For instance, I asked him to a game of snakes and ladders. Guess what was his strategy to win? He gave me one board and he took the other board. With all the soldiers being his, of course he would definitely win. LOL!

It was fascinating to watch him ignoring all the rules and creating his own in order to win. Wonder how he would approach life when he grows up. When I was a child, I was a goodie 2 shoes, did everything by the book. LOL!

His 1.5 year old brother was really funny. He saw us eating apples, so my mother gave him a slice. He wanted the one I was eating too. After digging into the white flesh with his finger and tasting it, he decided that he didn’t like it. So, he laid the 2 pieces neatly on the carpet. Then, he got up from my lap and stomped on them with his small feet. Seemed like he was saying ‘This is what I think of it! I hate apples!’ LOL!

The night before, I attended my cousin’s wedding. We got home after midnight, so imagine how tired I was. My other cousin who divorced his wife and remarried turned up with his present wife and 2 teenage children (adopted during the time when he was with ex-wife). Interestingly, his ex-wife turned up too. The 2 women were glaring at each other. Pity the ex, she had a stroke not long before the divorce. She also gave up her job to marry him. She had always been thin but that night, she looked worn out. Her right shoulder looked ‘fallen’.

The older female relatives asked to boycot the new wife. The adopted daughter ran away from home, something about her being ‘a child of uncertain origin.’ But the new wife managed to ‘tackle’ her and she is now staying with her father and step-mother. It was sad to see the 2 children sitting down to dinner with their father and wife, and their mother was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, before the evening was over, wife and ex were seen talking nicely to each other:)