"Pardon me for Babeling"

First day back at work. Dazed by the sudden change of environment. Numb from loss of my camera. Detached from a seemingly long separation from routine. Drowsy from lack of sleep. Unfocussed from my slight illness.

Yet happy to be back. Back to the comfortable group of friends at work, and to my team. To the girl for whom everywhere and nowhere is home, it almost felt like a home-coming.

It was a day for greetings, catching up, well wishes, questions, advice, laughter, and pranks.

Prattled on happily to different members of my team about my ski trip and the drama of it all. - My trials and tribulations almost seem worth it, since I managed to get a story out of them. Suggestions and anecdotes abounded from my seniors to my bosses:
"Ah... your first time. - Don't worry, it gets better."
"You can't let one bad skiing experience put you off skiing"
"Have you tried snow-boarding? It's easier to pick up."
"You can still snowboard when you're old. I have an uncle who's over 50 years old. He still snowboards."
"It's more difficult to learn snow-boarding initially, but it becomes easier after you get the basics"
"December? You'll have forgotten everything by then! You should go skiing in March"
"I had a relationship crisis when I brought my wife skiing when we first went out"
"I tried both, but I prefer skiing. Skiing is for adults, snowboarding is for kids"

Above all, today was a day for advice. Besides skiing advice, bizarrely enough, I also got love advice ("You'll see. Later on, many female bankers will quit their jobs to find boyfriends", "You can go for J!", "Don't marry an engineer"), and investing advice ("Now is not a good time to invest in property", "Investing in property is the surest thing, but you have to be in it for the long term", "You must take some risks and leverage up, but mustn't over-stretch to maintain flexibility") from people from three different ranks in the hierarchy.

The usual analyst lunch. A quick swing into Starbucks for coffee. My requests for hugs. A prank played on me by the analyst sitting next to me, who had started off stern and overly serious, but has been getting cheekier as time goes by.

Aye. I'm somewhat glad to be back. Kind of despite the hours. At least for now. I'll be crashing this weekend though.