expired

one of the testers in india was off today without any notice. his direct line manager, the same. so when i tried to trace both of them, i got the following reply:
‘his grandfather expired during the weekend, as such …’
i burst into laughing and turned to my indian colleague (who, surprisingly was not asleep at that hour) and asked him:
‘is this a common way to say, in india, when someone has died, that he has expired?’
apparently is not only common, it is actually very polite to express it that way. i was still giggling when i wrote how sorry i feel for the unfortunate event. which i do.
in my culture, saying that someone has expired would be taken as joke with an offensive edge, even.

another unfortunate event, that one today. finally my indian colleague that naps at work (and i’m not talking about the napping during lunchtime, or ONE nap during the day that will reinforce his spirit and willingness to actually perform a useful task by himself). so, my indian colleague that barely stays awake throughout the day finally hit his head on the keyboard. an event i have been expecting since november last year. and i wasn’t in the office to actually record this great moment. i was informed by other inhabitants of the same office.
but i hope i will be present to face the great moment when he will hit his head so hard that i will be able to actually read the keyboard letters on his forehead.

lights out friday

a new policy at my workplace called lights out friday. it implies switching off the electricity where not needed, where unnecessary. this means i get natural light.  comes with lots of disclaimers. almost ‘it may contain traces of nuts’.

someone brought at work her hen party cake. one can only imagine what was lying on top of it. it stood in the kitchen the whole day, hr knew about it (it was in an  ‘all stuff’ email). hr did nothing to make the person remove that disgusting, offensive thing from the kitchen. monitoring my dressing code must be their highest achievement yet to date.

a day at work

2 (false) fire alarms only yesterday, 3 in the last 2 weeks.

successful blood donation in the company yesterday. the lady (the ones in all my work-place stories) that organized it sent out a thank you email similar to:

‘great job! we have donated 30 bottles!’.

my stomach still shrinks when thinking of bottles of blood.

Earthquakes on Wednesdays, Tornados on Fridays

So much for the quiet life of Cyprus.  A pretty strong earthquake on  Wednesday and a tornado that ripped trees and smashed windows on Friday.

Obscene amount of work at present. I like my current job (yet still, just a job), but we are under-resourced, a fact that it’s taking its toll on me. At least, working with contractors improved considerably. I probably had the chance to collaborate lately with the ones that are remarkably capable.

Still negotiating with the one in the photo petting allowance. I have started making friends with the neighborhood cats.

Oana is right. I should not close the literary site. Once in a while, expressing an opinion should come naturally.  Why put down the site.  Better keep the activity at a slow, comfortable pace.

on books

i even put up a site dedicated to literature, only to realize that i actually have no interest in writing about it. another chapter that i feel i have to close . bitter chapter, considering that i have invested effort into it.

research and reading for my own pleasure should not be shadowed by the idea that i have, later on, to write about what i just read, like a school child passing an exam.

and i should concentrate more on my own writing.

cats of cyprus

the bestof the island’s inhabitants

proud agya napa kitty

ha ha! not in focus

post pentru oana

girl stuff.

ha

24 hours self video

seen straight story. a greek movie  settled in a world where gay is the normality and straight is the ‘anomalia’. fun, quite catchy here and there, saucy european humour. the end was predictable. it was easy to realize from the very beginning that the movie is about raising awareness on the gay community.

seen choke. i’m in a bad mental shape if i feel like losing my memories at the movies. choke was supposed to be a comedy, but it was damn serious and depressive for my state, yet very well composed.

toys for boys