Standard rant

I hate wasting time.

I really really hate wasting time.

I'm the type of person that would get to the airport 5 minutes before check in closes. Or 3 minutes before last call. Or submit assignments 2 minutes before the deadline.

I hate waiting around. I hate lateness.

So imagine the boiling rage that I was in for having had to wait for a bus in the bitter London cold for over half an hour, just to get off after one stop. I could have walked it in 25 minutes. But it was too cold and dark and I was expecting the bus to come in 10 minutes because that's what the timetable said.

I hate inefficiencies. I can't wait to move to Tokyo where precision is a given standard, not a luxury.

Lines

Where's that line between "you're still new" and "OK now you should start being useful"?

Where's that line between being a "good sport" and "actually she's outright crazy"?

Where's that line between self consciousness and paranoia... 

Minimising output

My latest inspiration - to reduce and recycle and upcycle and live like this girl

https://collectively.org/en/article/lauren-singer-zero-waste-life

her blog: http://www.trashisfortossers.com/

...although I'm not sure if I'd be keen to make my own toothpaste just yet. Baby steps.

My first baby step is bringing my own hanky to dry hands rather than using paper towels in toilets. 

Uh oh

So many expectations to live up to....

Airport diaries

Eighth flight in 19 days. I am so happy to be home (or too numb from the commute) (or too tired from the week) that I'm not even bothered by the annoying obligatory Chinese New Year music being played in the airport while waiting for my luggage at a very crowded luggage belt.

My eyes are square from watching too much TV. My knuckles dry and cracked from airplane heating.

But I'm very happy to be home for Chinese New Year. And it's 22 degrees celsius.

Humble flights

Currently waiting to takeoff on my 5th flight in 15 days, Tokyo-bound.

But please don't call me a jet-setter or globe-trotter or one of those silly pseudo-admirable names...When you're a terrible sleeper like myself and a person that leaves packing til the last minute, this is tiring.

I will, however, admit to being a silent complainer of "first world problems", when, in my last flight, after I had settled into my carefully chosen window seat in a quiet corner of the business class cabin of BA's A380, I was asked to switch to an aisle seat right behind the galley, reducing the possibility of getting any sleep to a definite zero.

But I also knew that being staff, I'm just a small pawn amidst a sea of £xxxxxxx-paying customers.

Business class can be a humbling experience too.

(Don't hit me.)

Newb cheese among big cheeses

On your first day at work, hop on a flight to Tokyo please.

A rather atypical start to a new journey.

I was forewarned about this "baptism of fire" by my boss-to-be before I started..now I'm in day 4 in Tokyo / job and it all went by like a dream involving a rather noisy and fast-moving freight train.

In the last four days, I met about twelve dozen people, learned and forgotten many names, sat in meetings and taxis with managers and senior managers and directors and chief somethings and vice president of somethings, ate too much and drank more than usual with the boss and boss's boss and boss's boss's boss, as well as all their partner-airlines counterparts... To say "it was intense" would be rather an understatement.

Tomorrow morning I fly home.

And Sunday night I'm off to London for a week of education at the much talked about Waterside - HQ - as well as to meet a few dozen more people and collect another stack of name cards.

Can't complain though - I get paid even at this learning stage, I get to fly business class and expense all my overseas expenses, and I get to travel.

The only regret is not doing more shopping while here in Tokyo. But at least I'll be getting my St Marc chococro for breakfast tomorrow. #joysofjapan