Out of Body Experience

Sometimes when I walk to a quieter part of the office, it feels like I am back in Singapore.

Then I hear some colleagues speaking and then I'm transported back to reality.

Then I feel all surreal. Is this true? Is this real? Am I really working in Shanghai? It’s more than 18 months since I have moved here and it’s probably odd to ask that question now but time has passed so fast that it certainly doesn’t feel like 18 months and certainly still feels like an out-of-body experience. It’s like.. I’m viewing and observing myself as a third party. That’s pretty weird. Does this mean I’m going to die?

I hope not. I already booked my tickets for Paris. Hotels too!

Ebb

I have been on a creative ebb recently.

Actually, no.

I just wanted to use the word "ebb".

I dont really need to use creativity when I blog.

It's just a matter of recounting what happened to me.

These days, life seems to be on autopilot. Work, dinner, tv, sleep. I travel almost every week now. Flying is literally autopilot. Haha.

Ok, nothing left to say. That's what i meant. Ebb.

Movie Date!

It's of course the season of summer blockbusters.

After the excellent first movie experience we had, we decided we want to do another. This time, however, we thought it'd be nice if we brought the kid (and his mum) whom we are sponsoring along too.

I am actually rather uncomfortable to spend that much time with them because the mother always seems very... thankful. It just makes me uncomfortable because we just want to help and not really looking for anything else.

In any case, we decided to go pick them up because the cinema is a little far from their house.

As it happens, the kid's grandfather was visiting and he was waiting with them for us by the side of the road. When he saw me, he couldnt stop thanking us and the look of gratitude in his eyes... heart wrenching.

We decided to go Macdonald's first to chill before the movie. His mum told us that he has never eaten Macs before. That was a little odd for me that a seven-year old child has never been to Macs. *shudder*

Kid was a little fidgety while we were waiting for the show to start. I kinda regretted bringing him at that point. Thought it might have been easier to buy them the movie tickets and let them watch themselves, but that would be quite heartless and quite absent-father-like. But.. Im not the father....

The movie started pretty soon and he was silent for quite a while presumably overawed by the 3D effects. In the middle of it, he leaned over and said he needed to go to the toilet as he wanted to poop. POOP?!? I asked him to ask his mother who's on his right. Haha.

Thankfully there wasnt anymore shenanigans after that and I was free to watch the movie. Too bad Gwen Stacy died.

Growing Up

Sometimes I feel that until you're a parent, you are still a kid. I guess up until you're responsible for someone else's life, you're still basically a child.

Another odd gauge I have as to whether you're an adult is if you buy shares in the stock market. Haha. I know it's rather odd. We decided a couple of weeks back that we should make our money work for us since it's very difficult for us to buy another property to earn rent. No idea if the money we earn from stocks (if any) would be enough but I guess it's a start. So I filled up a ton of forms and got my visiting friend to bring it back for me. I wonder what my first stock will be.

Yet another more adult thing I did recently was to subscribe to the Economist. I have been wanting to utilise my ipad more other than to watch TV. I used to subscribe Time magazine when I was doing NS. At some point, the weekly magazines were piling up faster than I could read them. I wasnt sure if this would happen again. To prevent that from happening again, I decided not to subscribe Time. A year of 52 issues of the Economist costs S$350. That's almost S$7 per issue! Oddly, when I changed my country to China, it became S$80 per year! That's just 25% of the price. I quickly whacked it in case there was a mistake.

I guess with all these, I feel more like an adult now.

Linked

I get a lot of invites on Linkedin everyday. Sometimes it's interesting to see how people present their experience, sometimes it's just fun to see their pictures. It's like Facebook really.

Sometimes I get direct job applications like I did yesterday:

"Subject: I will not waste the opportunity

Dear Cornball

I address this email to your attention due to I am really interested in joining a global company such as XXX

I would be really motivated to work under your supervision, and open to study any opportunity related with: Business Development, Corporate Operations and/or Manager of an interesting project.

If you believe that I could add value to your firm, I will not waste the opportunity.
Give me the most difficult challenge, and 1 year of time.

I look forward for your comments and ideas.

Thank you very much for your time and interest."

I usually reply my emails fast but I dont know how to reply to this one. Oh yes, I forgot to mention he's spanish so I have to think how to convey to him gently that if he cannot speak mandarin, he wont be in the consideration. In any case, I dont have a job for him since hiring is all frozen. Gua gua. 

IT W00t!

I have mentioned a few times before that the Chinese software here is so advanced sometimes that I am pleasantly surprised.

We recently managed to set up an account that allows us to deposit money into it so that we can do web transactions. It’s like an e- EZlink card that we can use to pay for stuff and buy coupons for food discounts but it’s relatively safe because even if someone hacks into this, all you lose is the money inside, rather than everything in your bank. Because we didn’t have these, we had missed out on vouchers and the ability to buy cheap movie tickets via the apps.

With the movie apps, movie tickets are less than half the price than if you buy at the cinema. At the cinema, it’s RMB120 and with the app, it’s RMB 55. Plus with the app, I can choose cinema, choose seats and pay with the account and BAM. All settled in 5 minutes. Then all we need to do is to go to a machine at the cinema, scan the QR code and BAM! Tickets come out. So easy. When I was in Singapore, there wasn’t such technology. When I spoke to a Singapore friend (the Laundry guy), he told me you can do it in Singapore but it costs more. To me, that makes more sense. For the ease of booking, you have the reason to charge more. The odd thing is, here in China, the more convenient option is cheaper. Lopsided.

Another thing that has added convenience is the web Wechat. There’s a function on wechat where I can scan a QR code on my computer then I can chat with my wechat contacts on my computer. Makes it much easier with my keyboard and also no one will know I'm chatting. Haha. W00t!

??!?

Last week I mentioned that my friend and his friend are coming to Shanghai to recce his potential new workplace.

I am typically more passive about asking if they need any help. But this time because he’s an old friend, I asked him if he’d like me to help with hotel bookings, arrange pick-up and also told him Someone and I are available for a meal to share our experiences in Shanghai to aid his considerations.

I mentioned this twice and stopped at that because he said to confirm later. I wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want to bother me or he had other plans.

Then one evening before his scheduled arrival, my friend told me that he’s at the airport liao. Change of dates. He will come first and his friend (the job seeker) will arrive the next morning at 7am. He’s going to stay at a hotel he booked. I checked. It was a shitty location hotel.

I was like.. what?

He could have stayed at my place or I could have gotten him a hotel booking. I confirmed later that the hotel price he paid was twice as much as what I could have gotten him at a better location and with free internet.

I asked later why he didn’t ask me for help. His wife asked him to ask me. His cousin asked him to ask me. In fact, his cousin asked me to help him with hotel bookings before and I barely know the bugger.

I guess that’s all one can do at times. You can offer and you can ask, but the other party has to be a willing recipient.

It’s odd that people I’d love to help, I end up not really helping much. And the people I'm not so inclined to, I end up letting them and their brother stay for a week and also do laundry for others.

Lifestyle

When we met my friend and his recce friend when they were here, we gave them a low down on our lives here.

• Badminton sessions twice or thrice a week and I played three consecutive days during the May Day holidays. (They both play badminton)
• Searching for good food haunts. 
• Good shopping places.
• Cycling around the city

Before I could list some more, Recce friend cut me short and said these are only applicable for people without children. He has a seven year old and a nine-month old. Frankly, I have no idea why they're considering a move to Shanghai with so young children but that's another entry by itself.

That got me thinking. How would our lives be changed if we had kids? Would we be this carefree? This topic weighed on my mind for quite some time and is actually still on my mind once in a while.

Battered!

Saw this delivery motorcycle down my block the other day. Gosh the Nepresso box is all battered up, it’s not even funny.

Where to stay?

Holidays are such stressful affairs.

I mentioned earlier about the stress of work leading up to the holiday.

With the flights all booked, now comes the stress of where to go and where to stay.

I cant remember a time when I have been to a non-English speaking place for the first time.

It must have been Tokyo in 2002. Gosh that’s a long time ago. Back then, I was a student so the choice is simple. Choose the one you can afford.

France, new country, new continent, new language. No idea where the happening places are and very afraid to end up staying in the equivalent of Tuas in Paris.

Someone was in Paris a little over a year ago for work so she’s a little in the know.

But with so many websites to book, to read reviews, to ask around, it’s a mind-numbing exercise of information overload. At some point, I was tempted to just pay more to stay in a nice hotel and nice location and not waste so much time to research. But I guess there is some fun in researching. The stress comes in the fear of whether the eventual decision is a bad one where we have to lug our luggage to change hotels. That happened in a lesser degree when we went San Francisco when my friend who stayed there before told me that the hotel we booked was in a ghetto neighbourhood and we had to scramble to change hotels. Thank goodness we found this out before we flew. Then when we eventually checked into the new hotel, we found that the bed was too small and we had to pay more to change rooms. I should have known better about the bed sizes since I live in hotels all the time. Haha.

So as part of the research plan, I have asked one of the girls I have been interviewing for her recommendations on where to go and where to stay, because I remembered that she used to study in Paris and her husband is French!

Hopefully that works out.

Visitors Galore

I think it’s due in part that Singapore Airlines has a promo fare now and also in part it’s the school holidays, we have a whole line-up of visitors these few weeks.

First is my friend’s friend coming over to recce.

Then my in-laws coming over for a little more than a week. Actually quite looking forward to showing them around but yet at the same time, I am not sure if I should be looking forward to it. Maybe I should arrange for a work trip in the middle of their stay.

My parents aren’t planning to come visit. I'm not sure if it’s because they’re happy to stay home to play with their new grandson or they just don’t like to fly. As I type this, I'm trying to think of a time when my dad took leave to go on a holiday. I cant even remember when. Our family trips usually circled around the places he traveled for work. Hmm.. maybe that explains why I am not really a big wanderluster.

After my in-laws, Someone’s friend is coming over to stay as she’s here in Shanghai for some stuff and extending her stay in Shanghai to hang with us/her.

Looks like itd be quite some weeks before I can sit down on my couch in my undies and watch TV.

Laundry

A friend of an old friend is considering a move to Shanghai. He is coming next week to check out the city and working environment to see if it’s suitable.

My old friend is tagging along as well.

I hope we don’t end up doing their laundry. Haha.

Holidays

After almost two years of marriage, we havent gone for our honeymoon yet.

After some procrastination and checking on availability, we finally decided on Paris in September.

Fly back to Singapore first then onward to Paris. Redeemed some serious miles for business class to Paris. We got a lot of miles from the wedding banquet so i guess in fact, the plane tickets were paid for by our guests.

I am always a klutz with booking tickets so that has been a stressful time for me. Unfortunately, I made a booboo for the flight booking from Shanghai to Singapore and booked a day earlier. So while going back a day earlier is fine, but it means I have to expend one more day of leave.

One thing I hate about holidays is the fear that something at work will crop up and then prevent me from taking. The apprehension in the months, weeks and days leading up to the departure date is super scary. It doesnt help that it is quite a few months ago. Urgh. 

Farmers Market?

I was invited the other day by a client to attend a signing ceremony. It was a little bummer because it was a Sunday but hey, it got me an extra off-in-lieu, which I need more of for my year-end holidays so I just went.

Dinner was an early one because the event was at night.

Dinner was on a boat. I usually dont like boats because they give me motion sickness but this one was big so it was rather stable.

Only a few people were invited to the dinner as it was quite high level and some government officials. Or so I thought... until i noticed the guy beside me.

I didnt realise it was a dinner for farmers. I was the only dumbass in a suit and tie. Kwa kwa.

Bad Shape

For the last two days, my secretary looked like she was in the pits. Her face as pale and she had this perpetual grimace that made her eyes small. I asked her into my office the other day to ask how she is and she said she felt nauseous and lethargic all the time. On top of that, although it’s a little nippy in the office, she wears her down jacket walking around like it’s the height of winter. Not a good shape.

The more I think of my pregnant secretary, the more worried I am. When the time comes, I’d need to get a replacement secretary  On top of the usual office stuff, here’re the things she does for me:

1.    Book a car to pick me from home to the airport for work trips.

2.    Book a car to pick me from airport to home for work trips.

3.    Boil water with the office in my office in the morning.

4.    Fill the humidifier in my office with water very morning.

5.    Helps me print stuff when Im too lazy to go to the printer.

6.    Helps me make calls to people when im feel lazy to press the long numbers.

I have now started to fill my own water once in a while so that I am more active in the office rather than sit on my butt all day in front of the computer. I actually asked her if I should get the team to paste their own expense receipts on pieces of paper so that she doesn't have to do it but she said it’d easier if she did it herself. Odd.

Treasure!

Im not even sure if we ever went to the butcher’s when we were in Singapore.

As I type this, I remembered that we did. Probably once I think and we cooked steak with our Happycall pan.

Steak here in Shanghai is expensive and not that nice.

A Singaporean friend here said he could teach us how to do it easily and cheaply.

Brought us beef shopping the other day.

Actually the beef buying wasn't that interesting other than it was cheap. 400g of rib eye cost us only S$16. Im not sure if I’ll ever go to a steakhouse again.

What was more interesting on that trip was this grocery shop across the street from it. We have heard about it for a long time now. The Avocado Lady.

However, that isn’t the real name of the shop. The shop was given the nickname because for a long time, the angmos here couldn't find good avocado, and this shop had the lobang to get them. Before long, the shop became the purveyor of things that angmos like but yet set in a very lok shop. It’s a bit of a sight so I stood there taking pictures. Haha. High proportion of angmos here.

Look at this, It looks just like a regular Sheng Siong in Ang Mo Kio. Im hesitant to say that there is a lot of treasures inside but these are rather common place stuff in Singapore but rather scarce in Shanghai. 

Thermos!

In a continuing saga on my further domestication, I recently found out this rather amazing appliance from some Singaporeans here.

I don't know what it’s called really but I think it’s a Thermos Pot.

Firstly, I didn't know that Thermos was a brand. I always thought it was a technology

The Thermos Pot contains an inner pot and an outer pot. The inner pot is where you put your raw food inside and then cook it over a stove for a short time and then place said inner pot into the outer pot for about two hours! Then the food will be cooked and kept warm! Amazing!

We bought one the other day. 

On the same trip, we saw this. Absolutely need to get this. Looks so cool. It's that brand with the elephant and starts with a "Z".