Wednesday, 30 July 08, 04:46 PM
Its been so long, its hard to remember the exact dates of the events that I am going to mention in this post. But have to start from some where so here I go.
You must be wondering what the devil this topic really means. Superlatives that come from the name of the man that is Cesc Fabregas should not be a surprise nowadays and indeed not in the coming decade too. Last month or so has been fabulous fabregas for both me in many ways as well as for our very own Cesc. For the first time in years I saw a football team that won a major trophy and that in beautiful style, deserving every bit of it. Yeah, I'm talking about Euro 2008 and Spain's victoy. They deserved it through and through especially Cesc whose inspirational performances translated a lot into Spain's victories in the tournament. It was great to see a victorious smile on Cesc's face and I hope he can win something with Arsenal too.
Talking about Arsenal, this has been one of the worst silly seasons ever. Dont want to talk about it too much. Long awaited transfer of Samir Nasri touted as the next zidane, finally happened. Alex Hleb left for Barcelona and then spoke all type of sh*te about the club. Adebayor was too noisy about his demands for a better contract and earned nothing but fan's disrespect. No pay rise, no new deal, no move to barca or milan. Arseblogger summed up his situation relaly well
So Adebayor may find himself in the very uncomfortable position of having agitated all summer for a move away from Arsenal but with nobody out there to buy him. Interestingly El Mundo run a story saying Barcelona want to sign a 'mega crack' (superstar) with the money raised by the sales of Ronaldinho and Eto'o but Adebayor's name is not mentioned at all. Another article says that Barcelona fans would prefer to keep Eto'o than spend money on Adebayor. Ooooops. Egg on face, tail between legs, and Mr Unpopular with the fans. That's a good summer's work for a player who should have just kept his fucking mouth shut and thought about his career rather than his retirement.
Players have started pre-season training and have also played a few friendly games. Tougher pre-season games are coming up in the form of Stuttgart, Emirates Cup and the Amsterdam Tournament. Should be a nice and healthy warm up for the lads and should put them into the right shape for season starter on 12/13th August, the champions League 3rd round qualifier. I am really excited to see Samir Nasri and Carlos Vela in action. They are great prospects. Go Arsenal!
On 26th of June my three months with the company were completed. It made me eligible for recieving a stipend worth Rs 18,000 from PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) I applied for the stipend but I am still to recieve my cheque. They say the process of fund releasing is complex and it involves my papers moving to ministry of science and technoloy and blah blah.. Before this I worked for a govt. University for two weeks in February I am also yet to recieve my cheque from there. In total, Govt. of Pakistan owes me around 22,000 Rs. now [:D]
On 28th of June I opened a PLS savings account in MCB (Muslim Commercial Bank) near my living place. On the same day I applied for a new PTCL landline telephone connection. Since the other landline fone at home is official (through my father's office) I was unable to get a broadband connection on that line. Hence the new application. It took two weeks for them to install and activate the new telephone line. Once I had that, I applied for PTCL broadband DSL on 12th July. Sadly, on 14th July all the PTCL workers went on strike. Finally today they ended their strike and when I enquired today, they tell me that it would take 2-4 days and my broadband will be done. Apparently it will be really helpfull when there is no tv channels in Pakistan telecasting a live match of Arsenal, also it will help me talk to the relatives and friends abroad for free. Downloads are always fun to do :)
Quite an unprecedented incident happened at the office last week. It involved junaid and one of our female co-workers at the office. I really hope she never reads this because it may be kind of awkward for her to read. Junaid and that girl have been working on a project together for last two months and fair play to junaid, he has done the most amount of work on that project. He even did her share's work for her. Then one day when Junaid was busy with working on a module that was actually responsibility of the girl, she told the boss that my work is finished and its only bcz of junaid that project hasnt finished because his work is pending (well actually these were not her exact words but gist of her conversation was this). junaid tols the boss that I will complete it very soon. junaid was absoloutly livid with her. But instead of saying anything to her he opened my msn window and talked off his frustrations. Its not a good thing but me and junaid have named almost every one in the office. Incidently her name happened to be one of the most hillarious ones. In the msn, instead of mentioning her real name, junaid mentioned her alias that we use for her in private. it is said that the moments of rage are often the moments of madness as well. That was not my chat window. Junaid had accidently opened the chat window of that same co worker he was talking about and sent all that rubbish to her. That was unexpected, uncomfortable and downright hillarious. Since that day that girl has talked very minimal with everyone at the office. Every cloud has a silver lining and silver lining with this incident was that Junaid no longer has to leave his seat every 10 minutes to assist someone in solving a trivial problem, someone who is at a higher wage than Junaid himself.
In the first week of July I was assigned a new project. It was the type of work more related to documentation than programming, something that is boring and uncomfortable to work with. Still I put my head down and started working on it, it was boring to the core. Then one day, when I was extreemly bored in the office, I was starring at my monitor, my elbow on the table and my hand on my cheek. A msn alert popped up saying you ahve recieved a new email message from xyz person. To read that name I was surprised and I was surprised further to read the contens of the email. Apparently I had got a job at Ultimus. A job that I had applied a few months ago and untill that time, I had almost forgotten about it. To work for a company such as Ultimus, it is a privellege and only a lucky few get to work in this company. I never needed a single moment to think about leaving the current job. I was leaving for Ultimus the moment I read that email. Only drawback was that I was leaving the company of my beloved and very good friend Junaid who also has to do that boring project now. I signed the official contract this monday will be joining on August 01. The icing on the cake is that my travel time to work place will now be reduced to only 30 minutes (before it was two hours) and my salary will be more than the double of the previous one. Boy! Life's Good!
Just 2-3 days before getting this new job, I had opened a new bank accoint in NIB bank just next to the office. Too bad it lasted only a week :D I think now that I am no longer the part of that Office I should not write the details of how a co-worker spoiled three plates of biryani just out of nothing. What I have written just now should be enough to remind me of the incident in the future. It was a disgrace really.
I would like to pay a mini tribute to my now ex-employers here for being kind cooerative and understanding with me during my short stay at the company. Especially the boss who, in my opinion is one of a kind. A true gentelman and one who deserves so much good things for his nice and gentle attitude toward the entire human race. May God bless him and his company with happiness and all the success in the world.
With much more money now at my disposal and a very respectable job, a thousand thoughts have already crossed my mind. One of them is my lifelong dream of owning a beetle car :D Yeah, you heard me right, its wiered but that is how it is. Other wishes have been quite random, some good and some not so good. I pray to God that he gives the right kind of wisdom to use that money and keeps my feet firmly on the ground. Money is a tough tests and most people do not withstand it. I hope God has given me the resources to ward off the evil temptations.
I felt proud when I came to know that another one of my friends has now read Angels and Demons and liked it quite a bit. The Da Vinci Code is next. "And the end is near" :D
till next time..
On Ali Azmat is a Freemason