I'm on Sick Leave

For the first time! I always boasted that inspite of my underweight, skinny physique, nobody could really charge me as unhealthy. I was never sick... till today.

In fact, I was already feeling heavy and exhausted since last week (I was still in the Philippines then). Blame it to too much work. I was obliged to shrink all the jobs I had to accomplish in the Philippines in 5 days instead of 6 - and that included auditing our sister company's machine and process, training their engineers and auditing formulation procedures in our company. Yes, I was in two companies at the same time - all in one week. Top it with jetlag and yes, I was dead tired.

A friend of mine warned me against burnout, but no, I'm not yet at this level and I won't allow myself to fall in this trap. I'm just tired and a little stressed out, me thinks. The fact that I was asked to work with our sister company wherein big bosses (from both companies) held high expectations from me was quite a challenge. Though I worked normally without really trying to gain their wows, I nevertheless 'extremely impressed' (got that straight from the director's email to my boss) the Plant Director who openly expressed that my results and proposals, though showed a big drift in their process, would definitely help them improve their productivity. I even heard that he would again ask my boss for my assistance once they start a new process. I just had to warn them na malaki na ang talent fee ko by that time hehe.

At my last day in the company, aside from the engineers and technical managers who wanted to wish me bon voyage, the HR and Training Managers wanted to meet me in person to express how happy they were to meet me and that they've heard good reviews about me. I was tired but I was smiling up to my ears.

Arriving here in France, I went directly to Dijon because I had an important meeting the next day. I just can't be absent in that meeting because I'm the project manager and I just can't say I still have a jetlag after missing 2 or 3 meetings already.

Louna and Frenchguy were still out when I arrived. Louna was on vacation at her grandparent's place while Frenchguy was on a business trip in Boston. They just arrived last night when I was already zombie-like because of fatigue.

I had a medical check-up this morning and of all the things I should forget, I forgot to ask for a medical certificate. Darn! It just shows how newbie I am when it comes to sick leave. Kainis.

Tidbits: I was carrying some measuring instruments (one with some chemicals which produces smoke at the contact with air) when I went to the Philippines and I was so nervous that customs might stop and question me. Arriving at the airport, waiting for my only luggage, I heard my name being paged, asking me to go directly at the right side of the arrival area. I was already imagining the worst scenario, convinced that it was because of the instruments in my luggage. But in fact, it was because it was my first time in the hotel where I was supposed to stay and they thought I didn't know where hotel counters were. Naman, ninerbyos kaya ako dun!