Work

I think my client jus complained abt me to my boss. he wants to see me tmr.

sigh.

i hate clients.

i'm disappointed.

im very tired now but i cant sleep.

sigh..

and i have a toothache.. i hate having toothaches...

sigh...

it's not as if life doesnt have enough problems.. work, life, love, money, work, love, food, health, work.. all got problems.. ta ma de...

life is jus like a pendulum isnt it.. up and down up and down..

of late, the downs happen more often than the ups.

im in pain.

no mahjong for so long some more.. keeve even has new tiles.

Interview with the Penguin

As mentioned in my earlier posts, we put up an ad for new people... some interesting ones came through, which really served to illustrate how small Singapore and my industry is...haha..

I had:

1. Some ex uni-mates coming in. One of them even nearly got an offer letter until my boss asked me what kinda person he was.. then oops... i guess that dude better not start packing his things from his old desk.. muhahahahaha

2. a junior whom i recently saw at a party... i kinda liked him and strongly recommended him..

3. a CPIB officer... wat???????

4. a primary sch classmate.. i was like.. waaaaaaat?????? when i went to open the door.. such a coincidence.. i dont think he's going to get the job la.. like not v suited.

i actually even interviewed someone cos my boss didnt feel like interviewing her... it was a vietnamese ger.. by the 2nd minute, i knew she was not suitable.. but then she went on and on and wasted 1 hr of mine.. and today she even dropped me a mail to thank me for the "most comfortable and interesting interview" she ever had. of course interesting and comfortable la... i wasnt asking the pointed questions..

shitfong, i think u can actually apply leh... as my company expands, i think we need a pantry assistant to do area cleaning n make milo for me..

Talk

I didnt wana reject my Prof outright on the speaking engagement, so i asked him what the topic is about so that i can just say that im not experienced in that area.

But.. it turned out to be my favourite topic.. ME!

He wants me to talk abt myself and my work and wat skill sets are required in my work and in the workforce..

So there's a huge chance i might take him up on the offer.

Life and Shoes

I was feeling damn shitty last night.

After a six hr flight to Beijing, my client's legmen came to pick me up. Two of them came. The driver went to collect the car and told us to wait by the roadside cos he said the car was far away.

we waited for an hour.

then he walked back.. said the car cannot come into this road..

"Wat the"

then he led us to the car...in 10 minutes..

"Wat the"

Not the brightest bulb in the box, this one.

then straight after i reached, the client gave me 10 minutes to wash up and whisked me to dinner.. nice roasted duck (Chuan Ju De) dinner la.. but damn tired.. then after that drinks and discuss abt their project.. by the time i got back to my room, it was 11pm. I had left my house at 7am that morning.. shacked..

then i got a nasty mail from another client asking me to submit something by Friday.. (tmr).. i sianz half and started to work... all alone in tianjin, with a bad back and a bad neck. i felt like crying.

and suddenly i dont feel like typing anymore.. bleah

Tianjin

I'm going to Tianjin tmr (Wednesday) and back on Sat morning.

Work..

Im sick from work.. literally. felt a little under the weather on Sunday especially after badm.. and my throat was totally sore with a slight fever when i wokey this morning.. bleah.. so i told my boss today that im going to stay home and work tmr..

yup.. so im happy.

my boss put up an ad for some time now to hire new people, since we are so busy. Shitfong smsed me on Saturday to tell abt me it and said too bad his england not powerful, else can come and be my ka kia.. muhahahah... he's been trying to get out of his job.

And today he smsed me again to tell me that his letter to his big big big CEO worked and he can quit... so he's free to leave after 5 July 2007. but he opted to leave in August 2007 so that he can claim pro rated bonus... im very happy.. cos he's going to give me and keeve a big treat with his bonus.

yup.. so im happy.

Back to the ad, some ple replied over the weeks and we interviwed a couple of ple..i then realised that someone like me is so hard to find.. tsk.. im such a rare talent. SO i emailed my professor back in sch to ask him for some students he can recommend.. he wrote back to say that have to wait for next yr's grad class. And then he asked if i wanted to give a talk at one of his lectures!!!! gosh.. i was so shocked i laughed out loud... im definitely going to reject it but gosh.. such an honor, especially since my lecturer is quite power one.. boy, this is going to make me more full of myself, if that's even possible.

yup, so im happy.

Travelling

The price of four consecutive weeks of travelling:

1. Neckache
2. Backlog of work
3. Dark eye rings
4. S$900 worth of handphone bills.

Shocker.

Chiang Mai

Before i went for the trip, i already knew it was going to be a beautiful hotel.. but gosh, i didnt expect it to be THIS nice.. *phew*

This is one of the best ones i've stayed in for a long time.

Check out the spacious room...







And the open toilet concept...





And the cool balconey.. but it's nice to look at in the day time.. but at night, there's no light in the balconey.. jus a candle.. i actually wanted to do some reading there but too dark..





And here're the other buildings..





I fully utilised the room cos i was in there almost the whole time i was in Chiang Mai rushing some work.. but it's a good room to be cooped in, so it was fine.

But of cos i had to go do some work.. checked out some hotels..this is the newest one in Chiang Mai... Lanna culture.. means in the middle of the hotel, u have people growing paddy there.. and u wake up to a waterlogged field and lotsa dragonflies.. the price of one night of such luxury - US$700.. gosh.. so many ways to con the rich.. im certainly no fan.. quite nice la.. but not at that price..my boss says it's cos the rich thais grew up here.. and then they got rich then wana retro..







Other parts of the hotel..







phew.. that's all for Chiang Mai... ladeeda..

Phuket

This trip to Phuket was my 2nd in this year so there wasnt huge jubilation and all.. jus another trip lor..

here's where i stayed.. quite nice really cos i didnt expect the room to be so nice for sucha cheap price..





not bad toilet also..



Pool area... though no time to swim




too busy to go out much la.. but here's the nice pic i took while at the top of a peak..











i ordered room service one night.. ordered some kway tiao and tried to order some delicious fish cakes that i had during lunch.. but told him i wanted 2 pieces instead of 4 that usually comes in a plate..

then he came with.. TADAAA!! my kway tiao and 2 PLATES of fish cakes.. so i had 8 pieces instead of 2. suffice to say, it was a full night.



actually that's abt it...nothing much happened... stayed in my room mostly to do work.

The Day at the Fish Market

The next morning after my birthday, i woke up at 5:30 am to go to wholesale fish market. This was the place where all the fish that are caught are auctioned and sold off and then brought to their respective shops and restaurants to be sold/eaten. It's supposed to be damn interesting to see the bidding process so i decided to wake up early early.. 5am!!!! (4am in Singapore) to go see..

Actually i got lost for a bit and reached at 6:15am.. so the bidding process over liaoz.. so i was quite sad..but i thought since i was here so just hang around lor...

the first fish i saw was this.. humongous man! looks like salmon.. but it's all frozen so i duno...



i followed the salmon and found that they were sawing the frozen salmon into pieces... and each was damn heavy that it needed 2 or 3 men to carry one.. here's a vid i took.



Then i came to this corner that 2 men were chopping some fish up...quite gross really so i took a vid..



See.. one guy chops the head and the tail of the fish, which is still alive.. then passes to the other guy, while the fish is still semi-alive also.. then the other guy takes this long metal thingy n sticks it through the fish from what used to be the head portion and then the fish is officially deaded... gross man..the end result..


here're some pics of the fish market... very clean and believe it or not, there's no stench in the air... only when u come close to the first then can smell their stinkiness, else there's none in the air.









this dude is shelling huge ji hums... so so bloody and yummy!



i think this is the place where the bidding process was held. of cos it was over by the time i got there... but check out all the huge huge fishes!!!!! and they're marked.. that's why i figured this was the bidding place..











some shellfish shop



the mother of all salmon i saw that day. or is it tuna... i think maybe tuna.. cos in the same shop, it had the chopped up version, in the next pic..



dark red color.. shld be tuna i guess.



then i saw this guy shelling scallops... huge sia.



of cos no trip to the fish market would be complete without a visit to the sushi shops there.. all the shops are damn small... all counter types and had to squeeze. in typical Cornball common sense fashion, i chose the busiest shop to go in. and since i was just 1 person, i got in immediately.. this is how small the shop is..



there's an old japanase woman sitting beside me.. like machiam "Ah Xin" from the old jap series last time like that.


Of course our old japanese colonial masters did not learn much singlish from us when they were "passing through" south east asia so they had a menu that jus had pictures so that was very convenient. there was a set meal and there was an ala carte.. i decided i couldnt eat so much la.. it was jus 7am in the morning.. so i went for ala carte

i ordered my favs.. scallops, tuna, yellow tail... in that order as shown in the picture from left to right. there're no plates or conveyor belts... jus one common kounter.. so authentic.. so cool!

i ate the tuna.. gosh it was HEAVENLY!!!!! absolutely man.. so fresh and so yummy.. and the feeling as it slides through your throat.. oh gosh....



But after the first one, i felt something missing.. oh yes.. no wasabi!! gosh.. such heresy. and i saw that there wasnt bottles of wasabi moving around or being passed around so i asked the chef.

He looked at me, with some disdain..then stretched his hand towards me.... and lifted the piece of fish that was above my sushi.. lifted it up and revealed some wasabi in between the fish and the rice of the sushi... oops... so malu..

the "Ah Xin" beside me laughed...

to give me the sense of the deviant eating culture that the rest of the world has bastardised japanese food. he pulled off some wasabi from his kounter like plasticine and placed it on my portion of the counter. there you go.. u see the little mound of green goodness?

the orange thingy on the left of the wasabi is sea urchin.. yummy.. very swet and very fresh.. but that baby cost me S$10 just for one piece.. then on the right, on a dish, is unagi (eel).. also very yummy.. i ordered one more of that subsequently...and actually a lot more of others too.. hee..



so after getting my wasabi, i still felt something amiss... oh ya.. no soy sauce..i looked around but didnt see any dishes or soy sauce leh... Ah Xin looked at me.. then she flipped this cover thingy that was in front of me and it turned out to be a dish!!!!! i thought it was a coaster!!! muhahaha.. then she pulled a bottle of soy sauce from duno where and poured some into my dish..so sweet of her...

and so my meal was complete..

here's a shot of wat i'd have gotten had i ordered the set meal



the Chef



After eating for a while, the sweet familiar sound of singlish permeated the air.. i see singaporeans.. cool.. i asked them to ask a pic of of me and i did for them also... but cos the shop was so small and thus he was very close to me, the pic made me look fat.. so im not posting it here... hee hee

here's a sense of how small the shop was. the bespectacled man and the girls beside him are the singaporeans



the breakfast cost me S$60. but it was well worth the experience.

More Nippon Pics

aiya.. so busy that i come back so long havent posted the rest of my Tokyo pics..

here are some pics of Tokyo..this is a nice hotel in the middle of Tokyo.. spectacular views..
























then i had lunch there.. ate an entire pizze by myself... *burp*



This is Shinjuku... i was actually here back in 2002 with Audrey.. it's apparently a nice shopping place.. and i remembered eating some nice tempura here... using a vending machine one









Can u believe i actually found the exact same shop that we had tempura 4 years ago???? Shinjuku is so so so huge but i still managed to find it.. amazing.



here's the vending machine..u put in ur money then choose the dish and then it gives u a ticket. then u bring ur ticket to the counter to collect your food.



the counter with the wonderful tempura.. *yummy*



one of the best tempuras ive ever eaten ....and it costs abt US$6.



My client intro-ed me to this hot springs place and so i went at night...it's supposed to be a real authentic jap hot spring with some ancient culture or watever.. here's a pic of it from the outside.

anyway, i decided to come cos it was my bday that day and i wanted to treat myself.. felt a little shitty to be all alone overseas...and it wasnt entirely a great day the entire day.





obviously i cant take any pics inside but everyone is made to wear the traditional clothing.. cant rem wat it's called now.. like a robe thingy.. inside got food court, shopping and of cos hot springs.. and cos u have no pockets for ur wallet and money, they give u a locker to put your things and a bar code wrist thingy so that u can pay for watever u buy or eat there.. quite cool to see EVERYONE shopping in their robe.. My robe was totally loose cos i didnt tie the belt properly so i was revealing lotsa chest... which wasnt good.

anyway, when i got back to my room, i was pleasently surprised to find a packet of butter cake in my room. seems like the place where i stayed knew my bday... awwww.. so sweet..there's the lil carton of pineapple juice to treat myself for my bday.. so that was it. my 27th birthday... spent in a hot spring and a lonesome pineapple juice. plus some work at night.