It just never stops amazing me how much moods can swing during a single day. In the morning I was battered, tired and down, mainly due to the flu I had the whole last week. No appetite, no energy to do anything, and certainly no ambition to dig into the heap of mail that was waiting at work.

And whad’ya know…

I got the SIM card I had been waiting for, so now I can make calls again.

And halfway through the heap I found my pay slip for May. 5 figures.

After a nice lunch, some meetings with people and a good afternoon rest I went downstairs for dinner. I was prepared to wait forever, especially since I ordered a steak, but the chef was fast as lightning today and the whole visit took me less than 40 minutes. Seems like the universe knows when things should go smoothly since I found myself chuckling uncontrollably under my beard.

What the hell just happened?

Tags: flu, food, it's good to be me, money, oh bugger, surprises, work

As I previously wrote, my holiday in Malapascua could have been even more of a success. The cold I caught on the way there got worse on my way back, thanks to the overenthusiastic air conditioning of Dragonair planes – the reason I got ill in the first place. Next time won’t be operated by Dragonair, thank you very much.

It’s really hard to find positive things to say, so I’ll let the photos speak for me. This was my first time with a waterproof casing on my Ixus 80, but I still managed to catch some nice ones:

Yes, it is exactly as much of a paradise island as it looks like.

This photo is taken from the Tapilon wreck, a cargo ship that was sunk by a torpedo during World War II.The wreck is badly damaged and in several pieces, but some of the cargo and even a couple of arm bones are still recognisable in the bottom.

Lionfish are abundant in Malapascua, but still a bit difficult to spot from time to time. Better be careful since they are poisonous.

Malapascua is known to have a lot of nudibranchs of different colors.

Starfish are also plentiful, but these red ones are a little less common. I remember seeing maybe two or three among the dozens I spotted in total.

Boxer shrimps are a pain to photograph because they are small but with a lot of long extending parts. It took me tens of  photos to get a decent one among them.

White tip sharks are one of the best attractions in Malapascua: fascinating, relatively easy to find and sleeping in the daytime. I wonder if they ever wake up when people flash lights at them?

The last full day started with a thresher shark dive at five o’clock in the morning. Unfortunately the sharks weren’t informed and only one dared to show up in the distance.

And just for the record, being here alone, homeless and ill creates a huge vacuum around gluteal muscle area. I miss my wife like hell.

Edit: this is just a small sample of the pics. A larger sample can be found here and I hope to upload even more (but not so good) photos in the near future.

Tags: flu, holiday, natural beauty, oh bugger, photos, travel

Malapascua was just fantastic, but unfortunately my health wasn’t. During the first flight I caught a cold of some sort and spent the rest of the trip more or less moving by ibuprofen ja adrenaline. I couldn’t just let the opportunity pass and skip the diving while there, so I chose medical CPR instead and did 17 dives during the past seven days.

I’m writing this in one of the pay lounges of Hong Kong international airport since our trip arrangements are a bit less than efficient: the flight from Philippines landed at 15:10, while the connecting flight leaves around 22:20 – more than seven hours later. Not having to spend all that time on the benches near gates was well worth that 500 Hong Kong dollars (around 40 euros). Nice armchairs, electricity outlets, free internet access, drinks, food, showers and massages should make the wait much less painful.

I’ll post some photos later, but here’s a teaser:

I think it’s a sweetlips, but I may be completely wrong. Please let me know if you can identify the species

Edit: my second guess would be striped dogface pufferfish, but still not sure. I’m not exactly brilliant in biology, so help me out.

Tags: diving, flu, holiday, let me know, natural beauty, oh bugger, photos, travel, waiting

Now this is something I’m not used to. I have been sleeping for ten to twelve hours a day since last Tuesday, which obviously made my internal clock go crazy and I woke up at 4:40 am. It also seems to have cured the flu quite well, so I should be in shape to travel.

Not that I’m complaining: it’s already half past eight in India, meaning that next Monday I will have to wake up at this time anyway.

I just hope the Corporation hasn’t set a travel ban due to the incidents in Mumbai.

Tags: flu, sleep, time, travel

Seems like the cold is giving up a bit. I had to visit occupational health care today and got a short prescription of Duact to reduce the swelling of the mucous membranes. The nurse was quite optimistic about my chances of getting better before next Thursday, which was nice to hear. All I have to do now is to rest and drink as much tea as possible.

I tried to find an option to hide all comments for this post in order to collect souvenir wishes and addressess for post cards, but in vain. You can either comment on my other blog or drop me an e-mail. The address is under the cat.

Tags: flu, let me know, medication, oh bugger

Now this is something to create a huge vacuum around someones rear end. I caught a cold.

Occupational health care nurse told me that it is a real epidemic around the office. The warning signs were all there already, but still some people had the nerve to show up, coughing and sneezing around the office. Why can’t Finnish people understand that they will infect the whole office instead of getting a medal for working when they are sick?

I should be going in a week. Oh bugger.

Tags: flu, oh bugger, ways of working, why I wanted a change