2008 IN NUTSHELL....

It’s time to close down and wrap up the things for 2008. The year has come to an end. I’m sure you all did a lot of thinking to recap what you all were up to in 2008, recalling the good times and bad times. There were good times.. and there were bad times of cause. Even very good things and very bad things, indeed. Yesterday night, while lying on my bed, I was doing the same thing as you all.. recalling all the memories of 2008. Hmmm… let me summarize…

The year began in the most disastrous way for me.. I think you already know why. My best guy friend passed away in January, and I went through a tremendous pain to get over it. Still I couldn’t. That was the worst thing happened to me in year 2008. Then… the best thing about 2008. Well… It was getting to know my punching bag, my current best guy friend. He came to my life in a most unexpected way and he brought the light back to my life. My lady best friend, Konga.. and myself… we had our perfect friendship throughout the year as always… me helping her out in bad times, and she helping me out in my bad times. We went out a few times, had fun.. and I gave her a surprise on her b’day.. so did she..!!

The year was full of trips, outings and other functions. Gosh..!! There were SO many. Most of my friends got married this year, both from school and work. So.. there were so many weddings and celebrations. Of coz there were so many trips too. Another great thing was the formation of vClub… our circle of best friends from the office. The club activities are going on in full steam and all of it is so much fun… and most of all… I found a set of BEST FRIENDS from work.. Some of my very good friends left the country too, which was very sad for me.

Work wise, it was a very busy year. As my friends say, I get only the busiest and the most critical projects to work with. True enough..!! Even these days, I’m having a very busy time with work, since our product will be going live on 4^th of January. Then there were layoffs… The HR firing people…as the US economy crisis started… and most of the good people left the company… Bad things like that also happened. Ok.. it’s WORK…!! I don’t like to talk about it right now. Let’s skip that part..

Entertainment… A good topic to recap..!! I think I watched the most number of movies in my entire life in year 2008. I downloaded a countless number of movies… and it was definitely a movie year. Songs.. music… everything was up-to-date and well-awared. Made sure not to miss any of the good ones. I read quite a good number of good books this year as well.. and I think there are 2 more books to be read…. Part of unfinished business in 2008. I bought my loving Guitar… and was married to it for a while... Lost my phone, lost all my contacts, songs and photos in it and cursed the dude who stole it… in BIG TIME, that is.

Love and marriage.. Ummm.. Some interesting things. Most of the guys who asked me out were younger than me…(sigh..!!) That was early this year. I had a huge crush on Shayne Ward... and the crush is still there, I think. I didn’t want to get married in 2008… so; it’ll happen in 2009 for sure.

Well… 2008 was a good year for me, for sure. For the time being, I’m happy… but donno what will happen in 2009. I’m PRETTY sure that there will be a huge change in my life in 2009. Good or bad, I don’t know. But.. crossing my fingers and waiting till that moment comes. Last, but not the least… let me.. the girl on the move wish you a wonderful 2009, with all your wildest and sweetest dreams coming true, with loads of happiness and cheer throughout the whole year. Cheers..!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE...!!

Wishing you all a very merry christmas..!!

THE vCLUB....!!

This is something that I’m really really thrilled and excited about… Being a proud member of the vClub.. And NO..!! The name is definitely NOT related to the place where we work.. (“We” being most of the vClub members, that is)… It was just a lunch gang at first. I was good friends with Pavi. Then there was the punching bag… and he became my best friend.. Little by little, I became a part of them.

Thiloshi… Buddhini… Pandu.. Pavi…Kalpa.. Anusha and myself, we all work in the same place. Tharaka (Buddini’s hubby), Ravin (Thiloshi’s hubby), Sanju (Pavi’s hubby), Darshi (Anusha’s wife) and Jayamini.. who used to work with us (Kalpa’s wife).. complete our circle of friends. As FOOD is our eternal way of survival, we have a great sense of taste for FOOD. No matter who finds something tasty, we share them among us all. vClub is full of talented cooks..!! (Except me, that is..!)

Back to the story now. We started this monthly meet up a few months back. A pirith in Anusha’s place… Nuwara Eliya trip from our home… Lunch at Kalpa & Jaya’s place… Kaluthara Trip & visit to Thiloshi’s place…. Lunch at Anusha & Darshi’s place… Tea at Buddhini & Tharaka’s place… and finally… pirith at Pavi & Sanju’s place. It took place a few days ago. Now we’re planning the vClub activity for January. It is so much fun to be a part of it. Our friends are in the range of the age 26-29. And me and Pandu being the only singles of them all..!! Trips and events are not the only thing we do. We help each other in every way we can… You name it.. the vClub is there for anything..!!

You don’t meet good friends like them everyday.. or everywhere… specially at work. What we do is so much fun and you always have this great feeling that you are surrounded by such good friends. It’s a great feeling, you know. My parents let me go anywhere with them, cz they know how reliable and good my friends are. I’m proud to be a part of the vClub… and I’m thinking how lucky I am to have them as my best friends. Year 2009 is on the way, and I’m pretty sure… vClub will have so many exciting plans for the coming year. Can’t wait…!!

KICKED OUT...!!

It has started AGAIN…. A couple of months ago, the place where I work, (I’m not gonna refer to it as ‘my company’ ok?)… yeah.. the COMPANY fired a couple of hundred people, as the US economy was having an outbreak. All of a sudden, people were called for a HR meeting, and while they are away, the IT team comes up and remove their PCs from their cubicles. That’s right… The layoff… I called it “The mass massacre” at that time. People were crying.. jobless…. Nowhere to go. I don’t think I have to explain the situation to you.

Things started to quiet down a little. Now it has started again. But this time, it’s happening in a very hush hush way. They give various reasons for why they’re firing you. Some of them are actually silly and stupid reasons. The layoffs are happening all over USA. The place where I work gets a huge impact from the US economy. Our jobs are at a high risk. We don’t know when we’re gonna be fired. It’s a known fact that the IT industry in Sri Lanka is going for a downfall because of this financial crisis in US.

People are leaving the company everyday. The HR doesn’t ask why they’re leaving, as they used to ask. Instead, all they ask now is “How soon can you go?”. Don’t have any idea what’s going to happen next. Sitting and waiting won’t do either. Hmmm…

HOW TO SPEND A DUSTY WEEKEND....

Weekends are supposed to be fun. Spending an entire weekend at home, relaxing is a lot more fun.. At least.. it’s suppose to be… My last weekend.. which I spent at home-sweet-home… turned out to be HELL…. Our house is on colourwash…!! As the term applies, colour is everywhere.. plus.. DUST… Jeeze..!! I’m too allergic to dust, and I caught colds twice within the past two weeks. Right now, today being a good Tuesday, the cold is still hugging me in big time. As I tell my friends, I feel like there’s this big white silkworm crawling inside my nose. Yuck..!!

I wish the last weekend never happened. You can’t just walk around the house since there’s dust everywhere.. and you can’t do anything at all… I had to stay inside my room the whole two days with my cold and the runny nose. Horror movies was the only thing suited for the dull weekend.. so I watched a couple of them. See No Evil… House… 100 Feet… Dark Floors… The Strangers… and finally Blair witch Project. Typical dull horror movies, they were. The medi I took for the cold made me sleepy and it didn’t let me finish the book I was reading.

Well… I don’t know why I’m writing this on my blog. Maybe because… I want to tell you.. when construction is happening around your house.. and you’re allergic to dust…. Go somewhere else and stay.. Please do that….!! Look what happened to me. I’m so miserable..!! Otherwise.. you’ll end up looking like a pathetic sneeze ball like me.. Hehe..

WHEN RELATIONSHIPS TURN SOUR.....

You meet a charming person. You become very good friends with that person. For how charming he/she is, you end up falling in love with him/her. Days pass… and you realize this particular person is not exactly the person you thought he/she was. Friends? Yes.. The same scenario happens. This is a universal truth we all face. This is the general theory of every relationship. First you don’t see the true self of that person, maybe you don’t want to see that, because you’re so busy admiring how charming he/she is or the other person doesn’t show you his/ her true self. But as the time passes, you slowly realize and see who exactly the other person is. Slowly, the true nature of the other person is revealed by himself/herself too.

This is the point where the true value of a relationship comes. Doesn’t matter if it’s a love affair or a friendship. We just fall for the other person for the charm, and when his/her true identity gets revealed, the things become sour. Each and every individual are not perfect products of heaven. Making mistakes comes with human nature. Fault-free is a big NO for humans. What matters is how capable we are to identify the true self of a person and love and value him/ her for what they really are. That’s the most challenging thing, as well as the turning point of a relationship. It’s hard, but it can be done.

Me and my best friend from school…. We have such a good understanding about each other. We’ve known each other for 16 years. We know that we were never and we will never be the perfect duo. Sometimes we have these little annoying things. But in the end, we know that everything will be OK, since we KNOW each other very well. Sometimes we talk about how good we are, to have such a good understanding about each other. What matters is understanding the other person for exactly who he/she is. It requires a little bit of patience… and it takes some time. But it doesn’t matter at all, because in the end… you truly know the other half… and you’re actually with the other person, for who he/she really is…. And NOT for the false charm. Something to think about….