Emotional Buying

Flight delays in domestic travel in China is so common that you kinda expect it. But once in singapore, I take it for granted that it wont happen. Of course, I forgot that the flight to Shanghai has to first come from Shanghai. Delayed by 1.5 hours. I have never had a flight delay flying out of Singapore I think. Of course, most of the time, I take SQ.

Ever since I moved to Shanghai, i take China Eastern whenever I come back because their business class ticket is the same as the economy for SQ. All i need it the bigger seats, I dont even care for the food or entertainment. I bring my own. Hee hee.

With the flight delay, the only thing to do is to shop. Changi is a bad place to have too much free time on the air side. Bought some shirts that I won some Adidas water bottles.

Emo

It's always emotional leaving Singapore and back to Shanghai.

I or we would think of the next time we would be back. The current plan was to be back next CNY because the next long holiday is the Mid-autumn and National Day holidays and I was going to expend my leave for us to go for a European honeymoon. But somehow the emotions take over and then now we feel like cancelling that to come back to Singapore then.

Thinking this through on a level mind would be more prudent.

Intern

I have an intern coming next week. This adds to my ever-growing team but with this person comes another form of pressure.

The intern's parents are family friends with my CEO in the US. Intern wants some China experience and therefore she's coming here when she graduates from Princeton.

I need to give her some constructive things to do else she might report back then we are slacking over here.

Taipei

Im in Taipei this week. Taiwan suddenly became under my care and I am not sure if it's because my team is bigger than the Singapore team now or what.

But i guess being in charge of a bigger geographic area means more potential for more deals, which can only be a good thing.

I realised I have never been to Taipei before. There is a certain level of excitement visiting a new city. I havent visited a new city in ages.

Perks

One of the benefits of being ill was that i got 7 days MC and got to stay in Singapore for 7 more days.

Downside is that even after more than 10 days after I got hit, I am still feeling a little weak. Bleah.

Another First

The fever debacle also meant that it was also the first time i got dripped.

I had thought that it'd be quite painful. The insertion wasnt that painful than so much of having a needle inside then I had to be careful of my movements.

This was the first time in my memory that I had such a high fever. In the three hours that I was on drip in TTSH, I was afraid that my brain will be damaged. I actually did mental sums in my head to keep it going. Haha. Silly as it may sound now, but I was really afraid then.

Down

At 33 coming 34, I knew life was going to be filled with more new experiences. However, I never expected that 12 hours before I was supposed to depart Singapore, I was cruising down the expressway in an ambulance. It all started that morning with a 39.8 degree fever that I thought I should go see a doctor for. At first there was a fear that I had dengue, then because I just came back from Shanghai, they feared it might be H7N9. Hence, the ambulance ride for me. They even used the sirens. Amidst my delirium, i managed to snap a pic.

 

An ambulance is really zippy. My only complaint is that because they put me facing backwards, motion-sickness-inclined me got a little more dizzy.

Nondesript

Im sure some of you have been quite curious what 华佗's shop looks like. Here it is. It's between a fruits shop and a man tou shop. Like i said, just a regular shop like you'd find in Toa Payoh.

 

Overflowing

There is so much roe in Shanghai that they just dish it out more than the rice. 

Serious Business

I flew back to Singapore last week for a short holiday. I made an appointment to play with my usual badminton kakis for a game. Although I usually bring very little things back from Shanghai because i usually lug back a lot of foodstuff back from Singapore to Shanghai, I wanted to bring my racquet back rather than to borrow from my friend because I wanted have my familiar racquet. Apparently, this passenger beside me on the plane had the same idea because she was also travelling with a racquet and it's the same model as mine! Haha.

花痴？？！

We had a team lunch yesterday to celebrate my member's birthday.

It was a rare occasion that we could sit down and let our hair down and just chat about personal lives rather than work work work.

We were talking about partners, girlfriends and boyfriends etc and those Chinese matchmaking shows.

Most, if not all, shows are for ladies looking for men. I heard that single women outnumber single men 4:1. That's a little off but that's what my colleagues say.

Men who dont get chosen will have their contact details pasted at the bottom on the screen.

I heard that one girl from another department actually thought that one of these guys was cute and contacted him via his contact details on TV!!?! And now they've been together for 4 months! WOW! Haha. Amazing.

Another colleague (thankfully from another department) signed up to be on one of these shows! Haha.

Connected?

This isnt really part of the Connected series but have I mentioned that one of my team members' birthday is the same as my sister and the other is the same as my mother.

Today's my mum's birthday. I dont think it's the first time Im away on her birthday due to my travels but this is more extended.

Feels odd.

Oh Yum Ah

I want to dispel the myth that I only eat expensive sushi. I also eat the RMB6 per plate type as well. My kindle follows me there too!

 

Fly Buster

Summer will be upon us very soon. The office is expecting there to be a lot of bugs so everyone is given a bag of herbs that will stop them from coming. Nothing special except that it smells... herby. It still surprises me somewhat that there are so many changes and adjustments to make in their daily lives on top of just dressing thicker than usual.

More Haste Less Speed?

Saw this at the Shanghai Hongqiao airport the other day. Picture is blurry because I took it on the elevator. 

  

At Changi Airport, they tell you to make time to get to the furthest gate. Here, they tell you it's just 8 minutes. Im not sure if the main intention is for the bloody chinese to stop rushing and squeezing and pushing their way around but it sure isnt working.

Cleared Out

The economy in China must be in a bad shape. I went to withdraw S$20,000 but they said they dont have enough money!! Only managed to withdraw half and had to go back another day. The silly thing is because the largest denomination for RMB is RMB100. Therefore, S$10,000 makes it a huge stack! They give us a paper bag which looks like one for sandwiches and their logo is very prominently displayed. It was a little nerve wrecking for me stepping out of a bank, holding paper bag from the bag which looks very filled up.