Busy fortnight

Spent most of the last two weeks working late (up to 5:30am) in order to talk to the techie in Sao Paulo. 12-hour turnaround time for questions just didn't cut it, especially when getting one question answered produced three more, so staying up for interactive real-time-ish conversation seemed like the best thing to do.

This week in particular was extremely hectic. Raced to meet the Thursday deadline with stumbling blocks popping out of nowhere on a daily basis. Barely made it, with the extreme fortune of catching a US-based tech online on Thursday itself (and at the most improbable hour, too) who fixed a major roadblock. I discovered then that there was no way that I could have fixed the problem myself by fiddling on my end. It's not entirely over yet, but at least the initial heat is off, and I can actually relax a bit this weekend.

In a bid to stay lively during the wee hours of the night/morning, I half-searched, half-stumbled upon kawaii-radio.net, whose constant stream of Japanese/Anime music kept me going for quite a bit. It's currently my favourite internet radio station. Nothing quite like nice music in a language that I don't fully understand, subconciously backgrounded to concentrate on work, but engaging enough to keep me awake.

Of repairs and recompense
The workshop had managed to track down Kevin Chang's insurance company, so I sent the MINI down again today for their surveyor to take a look at the damage.

The surveyor was a nice old man who went about his job in a very professional and experienced manner. As he ticked and scribbled across the damage quotation, I realized that I'd still have to foot a major portion of the repair bill. The most they'd compensate for labour would only be 67% of the amount, and just 50% tops for the respraying. And that's before the insurance company starts to bargain.

At last, some restitution is headed my way. I hope Kevin's future premiums shoot through the roof. Spiteful, ain't I?


My car's radio panel

Of departures and deals
After the damage inspection, I headed down to J's workplace to pick her up. The plan was to have a quick lunch, then have J drop me at work so that she could have the car to attend a company function later.

My brother called from Melbourne halfway through lunch. His girlfriend's mother, who'd flown over from Indonesia for treatment just days earlier, had passed away in Mount Elizabeth Hospital earlier this morning. Calling back to our respective offices to cancel all appointments, J and I rushed through lunch and hurried down to meet my brother's girlfriend, EC, at the hospital.

Spent the whole afternoon dealing with the funeral arrangements, death certificate registration, arranging flights for EC and the rest of the family, and basically doing a lot of running around. And dealing with a particularly annoying busybody "aunt" who appeared from nowhere and stepped in to make all of the "right" decisions for EC. She was the sister of a friend of EC's mother, or a friend of EC's mother's sister, or something along those lines. We couldn't figure out exactly which.

To cut a long story short, J was hopping mad with the "aunt", whom we suspected of conspiring with the funeral service behind our backs to make a profit. But there was little we could do except to tell EC to be careful and to check everything, lest we be seen as "meddling outsiders" and have the tables turned.

I really hope EC doesn't get swindled out of her inheritance back home.