Arriving Upon Easter With My Penance Done

This week the universe seemed to be conspiring to keep me off my usual chores. While I was preparing myself for an introspective Good Friday and joyous Easter Sunday – striving to dodge the consumerism that has been permeating every aspect of the season – even the simplest of daily tasks turned suddenly impossible.

The first thing that seemed worst than usual was the infamous Sao Paulo traffic. I don`t know how many of the readers have ever been to Sao Paulo, but the first thing one learns upon venturing into the grey vastness of this metropolis is the hardship of traffic. Disobedience to traffic laws abounds and one is constantly assailed by motor-bikers flashing by in between the cars; often nicking your paint job or knocking off your side-view mirrors. One takes up to 4 hours to complete a 30Km route.

Along the road to my office there is a section where 6 lanes turn into just 2. This is where bikers exit their lane altogether and take to piloting in the wrong way of the street; shouting insults at whoever is prudently driving in the correct direction. Needless to say, this practice often results in disaster. This week saw a sudden increase in the hostilities between bikers and drivers. Now, they kick-in your car’s doors as they pass you by coming the wrong way. Mine was kicked-in this Monday.

The next disruption to my working week came in the form telecommunications troubles. The local infrastructure is extensive and very modern, but interruptions are commonplace. Our company website was down for a full day on Monday and the e-mail servers on our host were “updated” over the weekend with protocols that simply interrupted the flow of e-mails from Monday to Wednesday afternoon. If that wasn’t enough, my office was left without phone lines for 4 hours on Tuesday because the phone cables were quite literally stolen from the public poles. Again, this was nothing out of the ordinary, but it didn’t make me a happy businessman.

Wednesday started with the unexpected arrival of a good friend from South Africa. He dropped in just as I was leaving to go to the office, only lacking of 6:15AM. I was surprised to see him that early in the day and even more surprised to learn he would actually be crashing at my apartment. Seeing as I had no telecom at the office, I decided to work from home to keep him company. It turns out he needed advice to sort out personal issues motivating his trip, and I was glad to be there to provide him with some insights. Yet, to my discredit, I must confess I was just as happy to see him arrive as I was glad to see him off to a hotel on Thursday morning. It's just that given my present scenario, I had no time at all to entertain.

Thursday saw the return of our e-mails to working order and I actually managed to arrive at the office unscathed and within a decent time-frame. I was happy at the perspective of getting some work done. Yet, to my surprise, I had to work out of the netbook because my brand new Hewlett Packard workstation has been acting out and finally collapsed. No hope of tech support from HP...

It’s as if nothing works properly in Sao Paulo, but the bright side of all this was that I was left with extra time and motivation to philosophise on my blog; so at least in this sense the week was productive. Nevertheless, I`ve very few times looked forward to devoting my Good Friday to some quiet soul searching as much as after this week. It seems I'll arrive into Easter with my penance well under way.