Three sessions today

It is fourth day of Chinese New Year, and I was working. Since it is Saturday, my working hours for the day was from 8.45 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Including myself, there were only three staff members on duty in the office today. This is the usual staff strength on every Saturday ever since the office decided that each staff will only work one Saturday per month.

I was not supposed to be on duty, but I agreed to swop with one of my colleagues so that she could enjoy a long weekend. She was one of the folks who took leave yesterday. She took time-off on the eve of Chinese New Year. If you were ever interested to count the days that she was free from work, this would be from 8 to 13 Feb. Anyway, I gladly swop with her since I do not have much plans to visit anyone else after the second day of Chinese New Year. I am not quite in the mood for Chinese New Year celebration either.

I was the only Chinese in the office today. The two other colleagues who were on duty were Malays. Like myself, they were not supposed to be rostered for work today, but they swopped with other colleagues who were Chinese.

Jokingly, I could say that I must have been the most workaholic Chinese in the office. The facts seem to support this statement of mine. Firstly, I was the only Chinese on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year. Next, within a span of three hours and fifteen minutes this morning, I had three sessions with three different clients. The first session was an hour long. The second was half-an-hour long. The third took about 50 minutes and by the time I had finished the third session, it was already 12.10 p.m. This was ten minutes passed my official working hours. Anyway, perhaps that spirit of workaholism was still lurking in me at that hour of the day, I continued to stay in office to write one of my case recordings for one of the sessions. Then I took some time to scribble down some notes for the two other sessions that I had conducted today. This is so that when I returned to office next Monday, I could better recall what has transpired during the sessions and could easily write out my case recordings then.

At the same time, I have learnt that self-care is important. So, at 12.40 p.m. when I felt pretty hungry, I decided to call it a day for work. Before I could do so, I had to lock up the entire office.

Before I end this post, a side note: None of the clients that I saw today was Chinese. I think unless there is an urgency, most Chinese in Singapore would not have agreed to see me for session on a weekend that falls during the Chinese New Year period (which is actually fifteen days long according to the Chinese customs). I would suppose that aside from the first two days of the Chinese New Year, weekends during the Chinese New Year period are the next most convenient days to visit one's relatives and friends during the festive season.