Early closing...

Thursdays' regular hours are over earlier than usual and I encouraged my staff to leave as early as possible as we had plenty of work tomorrow, saying goodbye to another day off.
I even took a short nap in the evening before dinner and tried to improve my physical condition.
But that just made the day pass by like lightning...

PS
It started raining...

hmm... the weather is quite unstable recently...

Too much sleep!?

I woke up at around 3:30PM... My wife was alongside me and we both admit we slept too long!
At nighttime, I went downtown to meet a Japanese expert visiting Iran. The day went by too fast. Too much sleep... but I couldn't help it. I was too tired!


nothing on the calendar for a while...
(PS: Ramazan is not from the 19th, but from the 22nd...)

Let the fight begin...

Today it was the start of many things. But before that, we attended an event at the Imam's shrine in the south and since we started from 6:15AM, I was very sleepy when we returned around 11AM... I was actually asleep on the way back...

The fight I had to face is something I would never want to start, but a very important one that if I don't put my full force, it will be a breach of trust. I think I've used days and hours to get ready to talk... It was about the salary raise of my staff I've mentioned before here, and thinking about the talks had given me the worst worries after coming here. I had to convince my staff to a very low raise even with the announcement of inflation rate that stands at 25.4% annually which is probably unheard of in other bureaus of the world.

I was so depressed after the talks but I can't escape taking a "runaway" ticket, so I just have to think of ways to convince both my staff and Tokyo who has the sole right to approve any salary raises... What if it doesn't work!? It would be much easier if they just cut me from this job and let me go back to a job where I can concentrate on gathering information and writing stories, which I thought was the essence of my work!

PS

at least a nice meal made by my wife gives me relief...

The next plane after 24 hours!

We arrived in Tehran at around 4AM... Getting back to our office at 5:30AM, I finally went to bed at around 6:30AM...

I was very sleepy and I wanted to sleep all day, but I couldn't... It was all because I took a vacation, so it was even inappropriate to, as it was just a regular weekday... It was also inappropriate that I only had today to get ready for a business trip to Europe and I had to make the major decisions for us to get us on the plane without any problems!

The day passed by so quickly and I only had time to sleep less than an hour and a half... I first thought of sleeping on the sofa, but I decided to take a nap on my bed...

PS
There were lots of people at the Imam Khomeini International Airport, presumably filled with people returning back home from Nowruz vacations!

Burnout Syndrome!?

I think psychologically, I'm experiencing a "Burnout Syndrome". I see in wikipedia, reporters are included as the more prone to burnouts! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_(psychology))
Sadly, concentrating on big projects and returning to normal times is what I've continuously done for perhaps the whole 14 years as a reporter. The first year being posted in Kobe right after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the big issue of a 14 year old murderer in Suma Ward of Kobe in 1997, the development in the Air Pollution Lawsuit of Amagasaki in 1999-2000, the murder of 4 innoncent family members in Setagaya Ward of Tokyo in then end of 2000, and in the five years as a member of the disaster coverage team, the earthquakes and floodings... covering the Self Defense Force dispatched to the Middle East, the Horiemon and the Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit while working at the court... the three long trips abroad in my first year as an international correspondent... All has caused a burnout effect on me and I've went through them luckily with the help from God that it was not followed immediately with a greater topic.
This time the Presidential Election of this country is still four months away and though I have to seriously get ready from around April, there will be the Nowruz (Iranian New Year) vacations in late March and my wife is planning to join me at that time... So please... I'm seriously hoping a great issue will not bother me for a while... please...

Relaxing at nighttime finishing off earlier than usual...

having rice is one of the luxuries... a humble and modest luxury...

Time to rest... right!?

Waking up at around 6AM, it was time to finish the job. With my colleagues, we went off to the studio to finish my live coverage! It was the last one for the series: the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution...
I was so sleepy and I really wasn't satisfied with the quality of the work, but I was relieved everything was finished...

So I went out to finish some of the payments due...


going out to the exchange shop first!


oh, hello! an alien friend on the way!


a sunny and nice day!

And I took my colleagues out for lunch...
and my choice was of course...


meat!!

After my colleagues left the office, I once again fell asleep on the sofa of my office... Oh, I can really sleep tomorrow... right!?

Day to rest...

I had some work to do... to get ready for a live broadcast I have on Thursday... but after waking up once in the morning, I went back to bed...
I slept for more than 10 hours today... Still I was so tired...

My staff's friend brought me some "Imam Hosseini lunch" you can get in the streets like you can on Ashura Day, as today was another important holiday called Arbaeen. I didn't have the strength to call on my staff to work today to cover the event so I missed the event that should have taken place outside...

I had the lunch...

let's see...


not bad!

I went outside for a walk...

just to Vanak Square...


A RARE VIEW!
no cars today... empty streets!

I walked only for an hour and I was so exhausted... I'm still so tired!

Washed out...

I surely would have looked all washed out... I really didn't want to do anything though in the morning I did participate in a meeting organized by a Japanese organization. After staying at the conference hall for about three hours, I decided to return to our office.
After that, it was a long day. I tried to work on some of the paperwork, but I really didn't want to work. I understand I need some rest, but the weekdays are here as usual.
Luckily, tomorrow is a day off and I hope I can rest a little... I hope...


a view from the venue... a smoggy day again...