A hectic two weeks

So where do I start… I was sent to Mexico on a business trip early this month. The trip was confirmed on Thursday (there was talk about it earlier that week, but somehow I thought it wouldn’t happen because of budget concerns), and I was immediately checking flight schedules. On Friday I booked the flight tickets and was scheduled to fly on Monday, which happened to be a public holiday.

I arrived in Mexico on Tuesday, worked Wednesday to Wednesday, and flew out early Thursday morning (and by early, I mean 6am). I arrived in KL late Friday night (around 11:30pm), spent the night in an airport hotel, and flew back to Penang early Saturday morning (this time, “early” is 8:05am).

My flight arrived in Penang at 9:05am, upon which I went directly to the badminton hall where our company’s internal competition was being held. They call it the MotoWellness tournament because it is in a series of tournaments for different sports under the MotoWellness programme, something that they started last year.

I had already joined a team earlier on, but because of the sudden business trip, I only practised with my team once (I missed only one practice session though…they didn’t have a lot :P ). So I decided to rush back to help my team, expecting that even if I was tired or jet-lagged, I could still play better than the least-skilled female player in our team. (If I didn’t need to get back so early, I could have taken a later flight that morning - or even afternoon - to make full use of my hotel room.)

Our team had good luck in the draw, and easily made our way to the semi-finals, where we unfortunately lost (even though I won my match). After that we won in the third-placing match. I am happy that I didn’t lose any matches, with thanks to my partners. My game was definitely not as good as usual, so I told our captain not to put me with the weaker male players, since I would not be able to cover for them. (Note: The game format this year was five pairs of mixed doubles.)

Although it seems that the result would have been the same if I hadn’t come back to play, in a way this gives no regrets, because if I hadn’t come back, the question would be hanging on whether we would have made second place with me around.

So here’s a picture of our bronze medal:

And a team photo:

Last year my team came in 4th place, and we also received a bronze medal (because all participants received one…haha). I realized I didn’t post about the tournament last year, so here is a photo of the medal:

Last year the medal was a lot lighter. The design was also a lot simpler. I like this year’s one better!

As for stories of my trip, as you might have guessed, they will come later in bite-size portions. ;)