Just saying Hi

Too long I have been away. I wish I could say that I am back for good. I am trying to find yet another place to live. This will be my third hunt in 4 months. So I guess I can safely say that I am not yet settled and happy in London. Its been about 6 months now.

As one of my colleague once put it, worse the time you are having right now, more interesting the stories you will have, to be shared among friends over a drink. I think I have a whole arsenal of interesting stories to be unleashed on unsuspecting audience. Actually, scratch that. I already have an audience, and it expects me to tell them more stories  (and yes, that's you, my friend). I just need time to unload the entire arsenal.

Let me just give you main highlights since I last wrote:

- I finally managed to go to India. The trip was long overdue. I hadn't seen my family for 4.5 years and with the year we as a family have had (my mom was on bed rest for 6 months, my brother got TB and had to quit his job due to that while I was stranded in Canada for 5 months due to visa issue), I had to visit them this year.

- I attended few courses, one of them being about improving personal performance. To my surprise, I have discovered that I can come across as a bit assertive/aggressive to other people. Aggressive is a word I have never associated with myself. I am a sweet little thing! No seriously. Apparently that's what rest of my classmate/course-mate also thought, till the facilitator pointed out that aggression has nothing to do with tone of voice or the body language but the fact that I am pushing my point across in that scenario. If I was a big guy, that would have been ,obviously, seen as an aggression. Since I am a small person and a woman with a pleasant voice, I don't come across that way to general populace. Hmmm, who knew being little and a woman had its advantages?

Anyway, that was not the biggest surprise they (the facilitators) had in their bags. According to them,  I, apparently, have a great potential for becoming a manager and rise up high in the organization. This, I definitely know, is not true. I am not saying I don't have any talent. I love my field and I am really good at it. I am not boasting. I pride myself for being brutally honest. According my own assessment, I will hire me in a heartbeat. But I don't see myself as a manager or some one with a great potential for being a good manager. Add to it, all the office politics. I really don't think I can handle that. Anyway, that's that.

- One of the worst thing about not being settled yet:  I haven't been able to pick up my camera much. Although I was actually more "unsettled" or rather on-the-move last year and yet I managed to take quiet a lot of pictures. My only anchor in those times was my camera.

I am missing my camera sorely, especially given how habituated I had become about carrying my camera everywhere. I think I feel even more unsettled now since I don't have my anchor any more. I need to get back my anchor. May be everything else will settle down once I have that anchor. may be life will be a bit less chaotic then. Just a thought...

- I still miss US. Actually, I have been missing it even more now than earlier. May be it has something to do with me not having a home here. I had a home in US. A place where I craved to go after a tough day.  I need to find that home. I don't think I can handle all the stress thrown my way unless I have that place. I think that's what is making it difficult to find a place. I have been looking for past 2 weeks or so and have viewed about 8-9 places so far. Hopefully I will find it soon.

- I am reading the Anita Blake series at the moment. Please don't judge me.

I guess that's all for today. Not sure when will be the next time I will write. But I promise I will.