Bangkok Rest

I am attending the training on the new software that will be deployed soon. A good time to rest during my stay here in Bangkok. I brought some reading materials and CDs to listen to in the evening at the hotel. But I am often distracted after office going out to dinner and seeing the place. But I have been to Bangkok many times that there are few places here that are new to me. Bangkok feels sometimes like returning home - a familiar place, with friendly people and a unique, exotic culture.

I have been coming here for the past decade. In the early years, it has been a mindless, frantic search for fun. Now it has been more calm and relaxed. No mad dash to some place in the night to shop, eat and look for DVDs. I now prefer to stay in the hotel to catch up on my readings and work. For this trip, I may have brought more reading materials that I can manage. There are some activities planned this weekend and I may not go as been there to the places being planned. I think I will relax, go to the gym, swim and visit the place I like. I may buy also a luggage as my luggage was broken in my last trip to China.

My grandma was buried yesterday and did not have a chance to talk to my family back home. I failed to observe some solemnity the other evening but stayed in my room last night. A lot of office mates here in Bangkok during this week. Most stayed at the same hotel. I have been up early most of the time and going to the gym. It is a more sedate and relaxed. It is closer to the office. The project is going well and need a lot of coordination from different people. But it is moving well.

Good-bye Grandma

My grandmother died yesterday in the hospital. She was confined for 3 weeks before succumbing peacefully in her sleep. She wrote a note to the person watching her, thanking every body for their effort. She had a stroke about 8 years ago and she could not speak since the stroke. But her mind has always been alert and she sometime reads books. She had pneumonia and triggered her decline a few weeks back.

Her burial is three days from now but I cannot attend. I will pay my respects next time I visit my home country. I prefer to remember her at her peak when she was always smiling and it seemed that sunshine was always behind her - illuminating her radiant personality. Now she is gone and I think she is now reunited with my grandfather who died long ago when I was a teen. I think they had a special kind of love that harks back to the old traditions when things where simple. They both endured the hardships of war and endured the loss of one of their children. So I think they will be reunited and remember those wonderful times when they both started a school and taught many children.

I feel that I should go back for the wake and the burial but I cannot with all the engagement planned. I will be leaving for Bangkok tomorrow and my wife has been sick for the past 3 days. It is a difficult time for me. But my mom said it was OK and that grandma would understand. Now the problems on the inheritance would come and hope things would turn out well.

Second Life

I think I may have missed an opportunity to learn about the outsourcing exercise. The immediate reaction is the fear and anxiety of losing my job. But there is actually a lesson to learn. It is how a company outsources it's functions to another company. I suddenly realize that outsourcing entails a lot of detailed and careful work. There are plans, workshops and meeting and processes involved to carry out this exercise.

It would be interesting to know how this process comes about. I suddenly realize that I am missing out on a significant learning opportunity. I think companies in the future may need to know about this process of outsourcing to undertake this exercise. So it would need people who understand the needed things to do. So I have been reading a few materials about outsourcing and observing how this process will come about. Of course, the affected person will be me and my colleagues who will lose our jobs.

Watching the events unfold with clinical detachment is an interesting thing. Perhaps it is like smoking - enjoying the thing that will eventually kill you. Joking aside there is an art in this process: negotiating, ironing out service level agreements, planning for the affected workings, defining metrics to monitor and control, using function pointing to understand the applications to be supported by the outsource and other such activities. Also, organizing workshops to plan for the transition of work to the outsource. So it is an interesting project to observe and learn from.

I have downloaded a few articles from the Internet about this subject and intend to learn from it while observing the actual event. As for myself, I hear conflicting news. What is sure is that the transfer to another country does not seem to an option. More of early retirement or transfer to another department. The project is again delayed and as I am involved in a few projects, may stay until the end of the year. Probably. Will be in Bangkok next week until May. It will be a good time again as usual in Thailand.

Walking Dead

An announcement will be made tomorrow afternoon on the status of the outsourcing project. We heard that the announcement has been made in the other countries and regions already last week. But the communication package needed to be translated to English so there is a delay in our shores. But the fate is inevitable - more of announcing the day of the funeral so to speak. Hence, all our foreign colleagues already know our fate before us as basically the department will be moved out of this country.

This makes me feel surreal in the current project I am working on. My colleagues at the head office in Europe know our fate already. Similarly, our project team members in Thailand know as well after word I am sure will leak out from their expatriate bosses. So I feel that in our communication with each other by email is a bit restrained as they know that I may be leaving the project soon despite being the project leader for information systems. So it feels like being like the walking dead, where every body knows that your days are numbered but keep the pretense that all is well in the project team. Of course, I can't blame them because it's none of our control or fault.

Perhaps it is just a hope that all will be like they are. Anyway, tonight I will be attending a free course on foreign exchange trading. I guess this is the fate of those who may be job less soon. Trying to look for some easy buck with the promise of untold riches. So the stock market and foreign exchange market seem like some mystical river of money where one needs to tap the riches by learning some special secret. At least it is a welcome distraction for me to learn something new in the meantime before the ax falls.