I have had 14h workdays since I started in my new department in January. I enjoy the work because it is far more challenging and I gain more product and business knowledge. I enjoy solving issues and the sense of achievement when I get to the bottom of the overlimit. I do not even mind being scolded by bad-tempered traders. It is just unfortunate about the long working hours and that I have not had a weekend for myself since. Not even during Chinese New Year because I was supporting Australia and I had to work on Monday and Tuesday.

I feel that I do not have time to breathe and spend time with myself. It is just work, work and work everyday (weekends included). My favourite pet phrase became "I have a backlog"; which depressed me because I worked so hard and yet I still cannot complete my work. Hopefully, things will get better by March because my managers are looking into this resourcing problem.

Besides work, there has been interesting stuff going on in the office. I have had lunch with my #1 shoe fan last Thursday. I was glad to finally have a chance to know him better as a friend. He is humorous, witty and in general a really nice guy. I had a small crush on him back then but realised now that he has a girlfriend. Still, I think he is a good friend to have and I would want to know him better.

Then there is another guy who has been calling me every night. He is from work and based in Hong Kong. It is really strange how well we hit it off and have pretty similar interests. The way he knew about me was really strange too. He actually found out about me from a colleague and saw my picture from last year's Dinner & Dance. So we had a chat on SameTime (my company's internal chat program) and just did not stop since.

I have a happy feeling.