The past two weeks have been... hectic, to say the least. If I looked like I vanished off the face of the earth, it's because I was deep in the trenches with multiple things hitting me all at once — and not in the gentle, "ah, here comes a new challenge" kind of way. More like "here's everything, all at once, and also, surprise taxes!"

Web Development Mode: Activated

First up, I had two major web development projects that needed serious attention. Both were on tight timelines, with clients expecting everything to be done yesterday. You know how that goes. I was jumping between responsive design tweaks, backend logic, database integrations, and some fine-tuning of mobile layouts that just refused to behave the way they should. There were also the usual rounds of testing, bug-fixing, and "Can we just add this one more feature?" requests that always come in at the 11th hour.

The good news? Both projects are nearly there, and I'm genuinely proud of how they're shaping up. Watching something go from a blank page to a fully functional, good-looking site never gets old.

Office Work: Enter the E-Invoice

Now if that wasn't enough, office work decided to level up too. We've been knee-deep in the Malaysian e-Invoice testing phase — part of the country's push to digitize invoicing under LHDN's new framework. It's a necessary move, sure, but like all things regulatory, it comes with a lot of red tape, testing scenarios, XML specs, and aligning systems to talk to each other nicely.

What made this particularly stressful was trying to align our internal processes to match the government's guidelines, while still keeping things smooth for our finance and procurement teams. Fun times.

The Plot Twist: SST for Foreigners

And just when I thought I had a handle on everything, the government dropped a last-minute bomb — Service Tax (SST) on foreign services came into effect with very little breathing room. This one had me scrambling because it affects quite a few of our ongoing subscriptions and service providers from abroad.

Between understanding the scope, checking affected vendors, adjusting systems to account for the new tax structure, and coordinating with finance, it felt like an uninvited boss battle just when I was already low on HP.

Final Thoughts: Survived... Barely

So yeah, the past two weeks were a blur of browser tabs, code editors, Teams meetings, and policy documents. I definitely didn't have time for much else, and social life took a backseat (or maybe got thrown out of the car entirely).

But in hindsight, I'm glad I pushed through — progress was made, lessons were learned, and coffee was consumed in unholy amounts. Now that the dust is starting to settle, I'm hoping to get back into a more balanced rhythm.

Until the next surprise tax update, that is.