2021 in numbers

2021 was to me, a year of primarily working from home, and unprecedented number of overtime. Covid-19 continues to threaten the lives of everyone in the world, and people adjusted to the new normal. Some simply do not care anymore.

Here are the 2021 numbers:

125 blog entries. Consistently 14th year in a row. This is something I am proud of, a testament to my self-discipline and persistence.

16 days of commute to work recorded, which covered 592.6 kilometres, giving an average of 37 kilometres per day.

2 petrol filling recorded. My three years old Civic is doing an average of 12.4 kilometre per litre of petrol. Significant drop in fuel consumption efficiency compared to last year, not sure if it's the small sample size or it's actual drop in car performance?

21 days of leave taken. 2.8 times the previous year's. This is a healthy trend. =)

162 days of worked till overtime-worthy late, a 31.7% increase from last year. This is horrible. Of these 162 days, I have duration record of the last 158 days, meaning I started recording after the 4th overtime. From the record, the average overtime duration is 2 hours 46 minutes and 5 seconds.

Putting the overtime count into perspective: 52 weeks of 5 working days = 260 working days. Take away 17 public and replacement holidays, and take away 21 days of leave I had 222 working days. Out of the 222 days I worked overtime 162 days, that's 73%. This is absolutely mortifying! >_<

0 days on business trip. =)

13 tabletop gaming sessions held. Thanks to an online platform, tabletop gaming with colleague friends is feasible again. ^_^ We played 5 board games this year, many more to explore and try.

25 novels read, a mixture of new books and rereads, average of 14.6 days for a book. Read rate is a bit slow, I am trying to maintain a two weeks per book rate.

1 patent filing. Decided to use the reward money as fund for charity, a birthday gift to myself and a motivation to continue innovating and inventing.

44, 17, 14, 12, 3 for my own reference.

Happy New Year dear reader, wish you a fulfilling 2022. Covid-19 is not over, don't let your guard down. Stay home, stay safe.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Rotten potato

Potato mode is going horribly bad.

Four days into my break as of today, and only one day out of four that I didn't work overtime.

Actually I did work overtime as well in that one day, just that it's under one hour so I will pretend that it didn't happen.

Potato mode is supposed to be for me to be, erm... potato. You know, like, couch potato, just chill and definitely not doing work.

I am suppose to grow mushroom and spider web and all that fun and relaxing stuff. Sleep, read book, play computer game, nap, watch movie, eat junk food and drink Coke.

But so far I am just being a rotten potato. Epic fail.

Other |wretched workaholic| category entries.

Potato mode on

Annual leave count at maximum allowable and will start to burn. Probably already burned...

Anyway, taking four days off next week, coupled with weekends and the replacement holidays for Christmas and New Year I will have ten days off.

So potato mode is officially on. =P

Though I still have to get some work done on the ongoing thermal simulation cases, and to complete and send out the draft of the innovation idea to other colleagues. So I still need to work overtime.

Hopefully can settle those tomorrow and limit the overtime to just a single day. One can hope.

Regardless, please do not disturb my leave, all work related stuff can wait until I resume work. I am not that important.

It has been a long and tired year, I need the break.

Let the chilling and relaxing begin!

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

聚一聚（二）

今天，和前部门那几位同事朋友，又来了一次久违的下午茶时间。

犹如以往实体面对面下午茶时间的长度，这次也是半小时左右的网上聚会。

上次的网聚，已是三个月前的事了，真的光阴似箭…

同样的就是谈笑闲聊，保持工作和生活的平衡，和维持友情的经营。

大家都有各自的忙，能这样留出时间来聚一聚还真的很难得。

真的，到了这样的年龄，给予别人我们的时间是很珍贵的礼物。

感觉很好。

随兴随想 |系列|

酸痛

昨天情人老婆仔帮两个瓜理完发后匆匆外出去巴刹拿预购的蔬菜。

通常剪完孩子的头发都会冲洗下厕所的，清理掉那些头发嘛。

我想她应该是要出门回来后冲凉时才清洗厕所，但我趁她出去时就先清理了，呵呵。

那是家里主要的厕所，冲凉区也有点脏了，所以我决定做全套：洗浴室的墙和地，洗手区（剪头发的地方）的地，和马桶。

原本以为可以在情人老婆仔回来之前完成的，结果她回来了我连第一样浴室的墙和地都还没洗完…

应该是我很慢吧。因为我暂停让她冲完凉后继续清洗，但到她连午餐都煮好了我还是没有洗完。他们都吃饱了我才完成。

蹲着洗刷对我的老腰很伤，蹲着移动对我很久没有运动的腿也很伤。

所以今天我腰酸背痛，大腿的肌肉也酸痛。

就是洗了个厕所而已。唉，人就是不要老…

随兴随想 |系列|

慢

这星期工作效率低了不少，进展很慢。

总是很累，没有精神。

星期一下午需要我做分享的会议，我喝了罐「红牛」才撑过去。

应该是近来睡眠素质很差的缘故吧？

没什么动力，都不知道是因为忙了很长一段时间心累了，还是年尾了心散漫…

人感觉很散，步骤感觉很慢。

但其实，生活节奏慢点，也何尝不是件好事？

就是不喜欢那整天都觉得累、低能量的状况。

随兴随想 |系列|

I went out (13)

Since the previous entry of this series, I was out of the house twenty six times, so my total out of the house count stands at 100 as of today.

75th outing: went out on 24th of August to drive the car around for a bit to keep the battery healthy. Took the opportunity to buy dinner home.

76th outing: went out to takeaway food for dinner on 28th of August.

77th outing: went out on 11th of September to drive the car around for a bit to keep the battery healthy. Took the opportunity to buy lunch home.

78th outing: went out on 19th of September for mooncake delivery and to buy dinner home.

79th outing: went out on 24th of September to takeaway lunch and to collect road tax document.

80th outing: went to office on 29th of September to work.

81st outing: went out on 3rd of October to chauffer wifey and elder son for elder son's Covid-19 vaccination, first dose.

82nd outing: went to office on 5th of October to work.

83rd outing: went out on 8th of October to send Snowball to cremation. Goodbye Bally, I will miss you. =(

84th outing: went out to purchase a hamster as Young's birthday present on 10th of October. Took the opportunity to buy dinner home.

85th outing: sent car to service and repair on 22nd of October. Took the opportunity to buy lunch home.

86th outing: went out on 31st of October to takeaway dinner.

87th outing: went out on 4th of November to takeaway lunch, to make a cake out of chicken rice with chicken wings as topping.

88th outing: went out on 5th of November to chauffer wifey and younger son for younger son's Covid-19 vaccination, first dose. Took the opportunity to buy lunch home.

89th outing: went out on 14th of November to chauffer elder son for his archery training.

90th outing: went to office on 15th of November to work.

91st outing: went out on 21st of November to chauffer kids for their archery training. Took the opportunity to buy lunch home, as well as a rose for anniversary.

92nd outing: went to office on 22nd of November to work.

93rd outing: went to office on 24th of November to work.

94th outing: went out on 26th of November to the bank. Bought cake and lunch home.

95th outing: went out on 27th of November to show wifey and kids where to pick up and drop off for school. Took the opportunity to buy dinner home.

96th outing: went to office on 29th of November to work.

97th outing: went out on 3rd of December for my Covid-19 vaccination, booster dose. Also went to the clinic to check out my skin issue.

98th outing: went out on 5th of December to chauffer kids for their archery training.

99th outing: went to office on 9th of December to work.

100th outing: went out on 11th of December to chauffer wifey for passport renewal. 2.5 hours of weekend traffic.

As of 11th of December 2021, 633 days have past since the beginning of Movement Control Order on 18th of March in 2020. I have been out of the house 100 times in 90.4 weeks, so about 1.11 times per week on average, or about once every 6.33 days.

Here are the main reasons I went out:
- drive around to keep car battery healthy: 20
- work at office: 32
- bank: 2
- grocery: 1
- takeaway meal: 14
- dine in restaurant: 1
- clinic and vaccination: 3
- customer service: 1
- car service: 3
- pet shop and pet clinic: 3
- chauffeur duty: 18
- law firm: 2

I know people are out and about leisurely nowadays, all I can say is: stay home, stay safe.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Breaking the streak II

Six days. I kept the not working overtime streak for six straight days.

Then a four days working overtime streak.

Breaking the overtime streak again today. Even had time to go for a 30 minutes brisk walk.

Go me!

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

生日礼物

今天看到银行过账新的数额了，才想起要记录这件事。

我有心无力，所以总是拒绝每年都会接到几次，那问我可不可以增加捐款数额的电话。

已经很多年了，我每月由银行自动过账捐款给 Makna 和 Unicef。

不喜欢外出或交际的我，这是我对社会的一点贡献。做人就应该在自己能力范围内行行善，积点功德。

今年生日的月份， Unicef 又来了通电话，我想想那笔专利权的奖励金，就当作为善的资金吧！所以答应了增加捐款的数额，当作是给自己的礼物。

当然说出来了就不再是阴德，但我真诚的就是要记录这件事而已（毕竟这部落格是我的记忆本，呵呵！），而且反正也没人会看到，所以不算是阳德吧？

行善是快乐的，所以这是一份很好的礼物，也激励自己每年都要努力得到至少一份专利，来确保一直有为善的资金。

心语细述 |系列|

Feeling rubbish

Went for my Covid-19 booster shot yesterday, also took the opportunity to go to the clinic to check out the skin issue on my right lower leg.

Tried a few times to go to the clinic prior to yesterday, but there's always something that made it not happened, like taking leave a day after Deepavali to go to the clinic, and found the clinic also took the day off; like taking a day off to celebrate wifey's birthday, to be out and about to get cake and meal and such and also squeeze in the clinic, only to have to cut the leave short to half day as there's teambuilding event in the second half, and the visit to the bank to sort out stuff took most of the morning.

So the clinic visit finally happened yesterday, but felt like a white mouse for the doctor to test out stuff and expense as much as she could since I am on company's medical insurance. I have no confidence on what's prescribed to me.

Oh well, this entry is supposed to be about the vaccination shot. I had Sinovac for my first two doses, the booster shot yesterday was Pfizer.

Either my health has deteriorated in the three months since my second dose, or the after effect of the Pfizer vaccine is stronger compared to Sinovac's. By the afternoon I was feeling tired and the muscle ache on the left arm where I was injected was uncomfortable when I tried to lift my arm above shoulder height.

Couldn't sleep well yesterday night, was not able to sleep on my left due to the muscle ache, but that's probably not the only reason. Had very poor quality sleep yesterday.

So today I woke up feeling rubbish. The muscle ache is still there, and I am tired.

Going to be another low battery day.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Breaking the streak

On the last day of November, I broke the continuous since 26th of October working overtime streak, success!

And so far I am maintaining a not working overtime streak, 3 days so far. This is a bigger success. ^_^

Hope I can maintain this streak. Hope December onwards this will be the norm.

It is good to have the life part of the work/life balance back.

*Fingers crossed*

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.