the first week

it's early monday morning now and i am still wide awake, the reason, i had the great luxury of taking an afternoon nap today, a sunday, what was used to be the first day of my work week. yes people, i am now officially UNEMPLOYED!!!!

it would be common notion that one shouldn't find such pleasure in the fact of not working, just that in my case, i have been trying to get myself out of work for the longest time. hence the joy. o unspeakable joy. after sixteen difficult months of toil, i am finally out of it. no more anxiety-filled calls, no more panic attacks, no more disgruntled clients, no more idiotic suppliers, no more MORE idiotic consultants, no more, no more. i can finally say, this is when i start living the life.

of course i should not really allow myself to get spoiled by being unproductive. to be honest, i spent the entire day pacing in my flat trying to find, er, productive, things to do. i cooked, i cleaned, i packed, i re-packed, and well, cleaned some more. i started working out again since i am now severely deconditioned from not exercising in a long time. i'm sorting out my clothing and have dry-runs in packing my things for my trip back home. o yes, i'm leaving dubai as well. enough of the desert for me, back to the tropics i go.

despite all things said, i kinda miss going to work on my first day out of work. i miss getting to work early and checking my mail while the office is still dead quite. i miss the sound of footsteps as my staff slowly trickle in. just recently, dima comes in first, heavy footsteps, quite unmistakable. then aimie and noreen. angelique follows closely, usually a couple of minutes later. then christine would peek her head in and say her "hellos" then invites angelique in afrikaans to have coffee. then ran would pop in, dressed to kill as always. then beloved surya with his trademark smile. i would then get sms messages from all the late comers and their reasons for tardiness. how they slept in, they cant find a cab or the wife is sick or they themselves are sick... my morning routine. i will never get to experience this again.

i wont get to hear the jingling of rosemary's keys when she comes in to her cabin. the incessant ringing of sherryl's phone from ppl in the building asking for directory assistance by mistake. the irritating cacophony of pop, arabic, malayalam, pinoy and opera music blasting from every CPU of my multi-cultural staff. the boisterous laugh of allan and the hi-pitched exchanges of jasleena with jeshit.

sounds i will never hear again. noise that made and started my day. now all i have is the silence of my flat with the occasional echoes that ring through the corridors. 15 days of this, 15 days i guess for me to get used to the silence, to reminisce about my sixteen months of chaos, of memories.

this is my first week. day 14 has begun.