November Rain

Its November and thunderstorms are regular where I stay. I have a quiet little place, not too far from the seaside, so the rumble of thunder and the lighting is pretty apparent, having not to compete with the brilliance and murmur of a big city.

I am at work now, just after having lunch with my wife. She made an excellent "Bee Hun" soup, which is just what you need if you want a light, but satisfying lunch. A moment ago Iwas presented with some gift vouchers, which both my wife and I had won in a quiz held at the company where we work. Actually, there were 3 quizzes that we both entered, and we won prizes in three of them! Alhamdulillah.

I guess we'll be doing some shopping this weekend. ;)

Chiang-Mai

My wife and I just returned from a holiday trip to Chiang-Mai, Thailand. It is only the 3rd trip we have had as a couple alone since we were married just over a year ago. It was really good to spend time with my wife away from our routine environment.

We found Chiang-Mai to be a wonderful place. The people are generally very friendly and the arts and crafts are beautiful. All can be purchased at a pretty reasonable price as well. For us the highlights of the trip was the visit to the Elephant Training School and the hill tribes village. We took a half hour ride on an elephant through a hill path in the Thai jungle - an amazing experience, well worth the 1000 Bath (for two). We also visited the Sunday night market on Walking Street, which was just a great place to take in the diverse culture, arts and crafts on offer in this region. The tour Guides from Standard Tours took good care of us and were happy to respond to our additional requests. It certainly changed my perception about joining guided tours.

The flight there via Air Asia was very good as well. It was our first flight via a budget airline, but we were impressed by the service provided. In a way we were lucky that we flew on the new A320, so the new interior and leather seats was very clean & comfortable. The flight was perfectly on time to and from Chiang Mai, and the luggage arrived undamaged at the baggage claim in good time. You can't ask for much more when you are travelling by air on a budget fare.

Anyway, we hadd a great weekend, but its back to the grindstone now.

BOW-TIE?

I am sure many of you wonder what I mean by "Life is a BOW-TIE". Well its really quite simple. Every event (the knot of a bow-tie) in life occurs as a result of a confluence of causes and situations (one wing of the bow-tie) . Some situations we can control, and others we just have to live with. After the event, we have to deal with the consequences (the other wing of the bow-tie). Again, some consequences we can handle easily, while others will take a lot out of us. In any situation, we can affect some control over the outcome only by anticipating and planning what we do, and by being aware of the risks we are willing to take.

Philosophical? Not really. Bow-ties have been used in the oil & gas industry for many years to analyse health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) hazards and consequences. I loved the bow-tie representation from the first time I learnt it,and in my opinion, the concept is applicable anywhere and to anyone.

Anyway, I have no intention of giving lessons on the subject.... not yet at least.

My first blog

I should be thanking my lovely wife, Safura, for forwarding a blog address, of a common friend. He had written about us getting married and some of our experiences. As I have been meaning to write a blog for some time now, I thought I'd kick it off right away. So here I am.

I guess expressing oneself by writing a blog is in a way a therapy - a way to speak ones mind in a "public" place without really facing or choosing the audience. Anyway, I'll add more to this blog as time passes. Who knows, it might even get interesting...