I’m glad it’s the weekend. The past week has been tough with annexitey and stress mostly, which hasn’t been cool. That’s all - nothing else to write!
After 35 years of service,DD took an early retirement as of July 31st,2017. I went to say good bye to him on his last day in office.
It was fun being able to accompany Stephie to IKEA this morning. It was extremely hot morning though. We got a few room funishing stuff for Stephie's room at home. One thing, I have always silently admired, she has always been very mindful of managing finances and never let overspend for anything. It was the same while shopping at IKEA. She bought what has planned to buy and only what is absolutely needed. I'm pleased that we had time out together ?
After a few weeks I was fortunate to being able to spend some time back in the Kitchen. I hadn't planned to go there this week,as it has just been two days since I got back to work after week's vacation leave. Any how, at around 0745 in the morning, we had a phone call from our Duty Officer to inform of a crisis situation in an overseas kitchen who supply to us and quick arrangements had to be made to carry catering from the origin to cater to the return service. One out of Three daily services to the destination was already Enroute the destination, whilst another was still on ground 20 -25 minutes to the scheduled departure. The scheduled departure of the 3rd daily service was in the afternoon. As a matter of priority to deal with the immediate departure service and to coordinate with the local Supplier, I rushed to the Kitchen. Before leaving the HQ,had to respond to a typical question that is asked in these circumstances from HQ Operations guys "how long will it take to load catering for return service.." Without being present in the actual venue activities are taking place - in the local Kitchen, it was rather a difficult question for me to answer. That's said,after a quick analysis of the volume of product and activities involve in such situations with very short notice, I responded with estimated time duration it could take - two to two & half hours, which was accepted by the HQ Operations. Soon after that I rushed to the Kitchen to oversee the handling of the immediate departure. I have to say all in all the kitchen did a fabulous job by completing all the activities within 2 hours of the intimation of return catering. There you go, my estimation of the time duration was not bad! Moreover, I'm pleased that I had the opportunity for being present at the actual happening place and make things happend in collaboration with the others. It was a good day indeed, which I'm very glad.
After a few weeks I was fortunate to being able to spend some time back in the Kitchen. I hadn't planned to go there this week,as it has just been two days since I got back to work after week's vacation leave. Any how, at around 0745 in the morning, we had a phone call from our Duty Officer to inform of a crisis situation in an overseas kitchen who supply to us and quick arrangements had to be made to carry catering from the origin to cater to the return service. One out of Three daily services to the destination was already Enroute the destination, whilst another was still on ground 20 -25 minutes to the scheduled departure. The scheduled departure of the 3rd daily service was in the afternoon. As a matter of priority to deal with the immediate departure service and to coordinate with the local Supplier, I rushed to the Kitchen. Before leaving the HQ,had to respond to a typical question that is asked in these circumstances from HQ Operations guys "how long will it take to load catering for return service.." Without being present in the actual venue activities are taking place - in the local Kitchen, it was rather a difficult question for me to answer. That's said,after a quick analysis of the volume of product and activities involve in such situations with very short notice, I responded with estimated time duration it could take - two to two & half hours, which was accepted by the HQ Operations. Soon after that I rushed to the Kitchen to oversee the handling of the immediate departure. I have to say all in all the kitchen did a fabulous job by completing all the activities within 2 hours of the intimation of return catering. There you go, my estimation of the time duration was not bad! Moreover, I'm pleased that I had the opportunity for being present at the actual happening place and make things happend in collaboration with the others. It was a good day indeed, which I'm very glad.
Those who read my blog 1 must have seen my yesterday's post, in which I winge a little bit during my day in the HQ. But as one can see here, everything changed in 24 hours and I had totally different experience!
I don't really expect it to be many
After a week's leave away, I got back to work this morning. Though I would've preferred to have gone straight to the kitchen 1 I decided otherwise and clocked in at the Headquarters. That was with the hope of getting along with my own work that I had to be catching up at one week's leave. Though I managed to sort out a few emails to chase up responses from other people, most part of the morning I spent time to chase for the process of some of the work related tasks that have been assigned to some of my people before I went on leave. It was quite unfortunate that either assigned tasks weren't completed at all or incomplete. A fair amount of time was spent trying to explain the importance of applying structured method of completion of tasks in question.
Then later in the morning, had to deal with those emails, people just keep sending with whole lots of other people in copy to impress. Then there were people who conveniently trying to pass the buck to me, just because their incompetence.
It could've been a better 1st day at work !
I haven't been able to spend a complete work day there for about three weeks
After very long time, I experienced the best customer service ever, when I visited a local mobile network service provider here. I keep a pre-paid SIM card in a local mobile network for use whenever I visit Sri Lanka. Yesterday morning, when I wanted to insert the SIM into my smartphone, I did not find it inside my shoulder bag. Either I have lost it during my travel or left behind at home. Before I could proceed with any other tasks for the day, the first thing I had to do was to get a replacement SIM card. Fortunately, there is a Customer Service outlet of the mobile network service provider 15 minutes away from parents' home and I headed there in a taxi around 0930 in the morning.
As I got there I realised, the place has much improved interior decor and well lit, since I last been there. On my arrival, a young gentleman approached me and politely asked me of my requirement. He then got me a token from the Q-machine and asked to wait. In about less than 5 minutes, a young lady came to me and accompanied me to her service counter & offered me a seat. She then asked me the how she could help me and after mentioning to her that I needed a replacement SIM card, she asked me a couple of questions to confirm the authenticity of the transaction. Funny thing was, when she asked me whether the SIM was under my NIC1, I got confused a bit and submitted my Passport for verification of identity. After checking my Passport, she pointed out my National Identity Card Number, which is mentioned in the photo page of the Passport and handed it back to me. As she was processing my replacement SIM card, she politely mentioned to me that it can take any time between one to two hours to get the SIM card to be activated. Now, that wasn't any good to me as I wanted to use my local phone number immediately to book a taxi to proceed with my tasks for the day. So, I said to her that I need my phone to be working as quickly as possible. In response, she said, she will activate the SIM as it was being processed. What I like was, she was very positive and re-assuring, instead saying let me try, I will see, what I could do etc as we often hear in transactions of this nature. After processing the replacement SIM, she even made time to insert the new SIM into my phone, configuring all the settings & the like. I also wanted to top-up my data package and asked her about the options available. She explained to me all options available clearly and concisely. I handed her the required payment which she her self went to the cashier to make the payment for me, which I thought very kind of her.
I have to say, brilliant overall customer service , by promptly responding to all my queries, with all available options & solutions by the young lady. Unfortunately, I could not make a note of her name and if I had I could've dropped a note to her leadership team with complements. Kudos to the young lady ???
National Identity Card
A little bird seems to have a selected our garden umbrella in the backyard to build a nest. The daughter was the 1st one to spot it and shot a video clip about it last week.
After five days break, I did 4.3 kilometres as one can see below 
So there's is thing I spotted this afternoon while waiting to park the car at MOE. It confirms the arrival of Tesla here…
