Biking Days

We each bought bikes some weeks back.

Actually Someone bought them first. I was always going to get one so that we can ride together but was contemplating what sort to get. Foldable, mountain bike or racer.

I knew Someone always liked cycling. She told me that she can cycle without using both her hands and she used to be able to cycle downhill with her hands over her head. That’s just nuts.

I have always liked cycling.

My army friend had a bike during my NS days and he rode to camp. He looked cool and it was a cool brand but my mum didn't let me buy one because it was dangerous.

I finally did get a bike during my university days but just not much opportunity to ride.

Of course, in China, there’s a big biking culture. We went to quite a number of bike shops before I decided.

The weather’s getting better so we have been riding. It’s frankly a little odd that we just got a driver and then now we have bikes. It’s like we seem to be on a frenzy to acquire transportation modes.

Biking is an expensive hobby. I wouldn't call it my hobby just yet but there’s so many things to buy and change and upgrade. Blinking lights, locks, pouches, water bottle, water bottle holder, odometer, change grip, change seat…

Gone? Again?

I got news last week that my Asia Pacific President has resigned.

It was quite a shock really. One night last week, he called for a video conference the next day and then made the announcement.

With his departure, it means that the three people who interviewed me for this job has left/is leaving - Head of HR, Head of Development and President.

It's a little disconcerting to say the least. Now, I have to get to know the new boss again and learn to suck up to him.

This also means that in the last nine months, the President at my previous job as well as the Chairman of my previous previous job (also my mentor) have left their companies. In the cruel world of working, I know it's usual but because I am usually emotional and I usually have to like the people I work with.. so...

Then I had to make sure my team was ok and no one was traumatised.

I think someone in Singapore thought I might be traumatised because the head of legal called me and told me secretly who was taking over President and told me not to be rash and quit. I guess it's nice to know someone appreciates you.

Then he asked me about where to go in Taipei because he heard that I have gone many times. Haha.

Driven

Having a driver is damn song because now we don't have to wear the heavy and thick winter wear already because it’s just door to door. We just leave them in the car in case there’s an unexpected need to walk outdoors for an extended period of time.

YAY!

Up and Down

I saw this book on my secretary's table today.

She told me that she saw it at the bookshop and decided to buy it. I was proud of her.

Then later that afternoon, I was copied in an email she sent to a senior colleague which had a smiley in the second line. Diaoz. Dont think the book taught that.

Twisted

n a weird twist of events, Old Aunty has found employment in a headhunter firm. And this headhunting firm is the one we have been using to search for her replacement.

Gosh, that’s twisted.

The market is just so small.

Good Deed

I feel quite proud of myself.

It’s the time of the year where we decide the pay increments for everyone.

I have been wanting to give my secretary a pay rise. So even though my allocated range for her was 1-3%, I asked for a 8%. I even had to write a justification email.

"The reason for my recommendation is that ever since she joined the company in June 2012, the number of team members she supports has doubled in number, she has done a good job in ensuring that the business of the China development team goes on smoothly. That, along with her ability to create collaborative relationships has allowed intra- and inter-company communications to be excellent. It is in this same spirit that I will be nominating her as Employee of the Quarter for Q2 2014."

So with that, I have done my good deed for the year.

Squeezed!

Chanced upon this apple juice the other day.

At nearly S$30, they must really be squeezing you hard.

Giant Leap for Mankind

I am not sure if the female readers here have seen this in urinals.

In case you dont want what it means, this is encourage men to stand closer to the urinal and not let their pee drip onto the floor.

I guess it plays to the communists' desire to march towards civilisation.

This particular toilet also tries to appeal to men's desire to win.

Last Day Non Sequitur

A number of you have been asking me about Old Aunty’s departure.

It was a bit of a non-affair after all the hype that I inadvertently drummed up.

I didn’t say a single word to her the entire last day. That’s not a surprise because I haven’t said a word to her ever since HR told her about my decision.

Then I simply left early for the day. Not really to avoid her but I just felt like leaving early and didn’t want to stay back purposely to see how her departure played out. Plus I had a 7am flight to catch the next day.

Later the evening, I suddenly had a pang of anxiety – what would she do? Would she wreck the place as a final hurrah? Would she smear blood on my door? I figured when no one called me at 6pm, it was fine.

So there you go. A quiet departure in the sunset. Good riddance I say.

 

Conferences

The conference season has started again. I have two conferences in March, then one in April, then another in October and then another in November.

I’m on the speaking panel for one in March and one in April.

After my initial foray into this panel business in a conference last September, I wasn’t too keen on participating in another because no matter what the question was, the other panelists always managed to swing their answers to advertise their companies. I just thought it looked silly on stage so I’d like to think that I tried to answer the question straight. Another panelist, who was my friend, told me after that she could tell that I was trying my best and she did the same too at her first ever panel but after a while, she just got swept away by the tide eventually.

However, I agreed to be on these two panels this year because I thought it’d be nice to add these to my CV as part of industry participation.

I then heard that one of the conference also wants to give me an award - 新领军人物. Wahahha. I think they give it to everyone who’s new in China with a half decent title. I also agreed to receive it so that I can put it on my resume.

Song bo??!?

Defeated Again...

We were subdued here.

We promised to be back.

We went back the next weekend. This time, we had the benefit of a driver who we asked to wait while I checked the queue.

When I reached at 1120am, I saw the sign that showed the opening time - 1130am.

This was the queue at 1120.



At least 100 people!!! I scurried back to the car, with my tail between my legs. Sigh...

Cups Cups Cups

In my continuing fixation with cups, I got this new one.

Odd that the sticker's chinese message isnt the same as english.

This cup is for making Chinese tea. Here it is with all my other cups. Milk,  lemon mint tea and san cha tea. It's almost like a ritual.

Crazy Russians

Being here means we get exposed to a whole range of people we dont normally see in Singapore.

I realised that the sentence above sounds scary but all I really wanted to say that we recently got to know some Russians. First russians I ever knew. Both look pretty good and they actually look like spies.. but im procrastinating from my main point.

Anyway, they're here in Shanghai to learn Mandarin.

Took a look inside..Gosh.. not easy! Check out section 2!

Check out questions one to four.

Regime Change

I expect to be travelling every week for the next few weeks. Although they are short trips but it's just a pain to be rushing and waiting for planes and delays and all.

I have decided to take better care of myself so I have decided that I should move my exfoliating and pore pack and masking regime to be done on the road.

 

I cant believe that it has taken me so long to realise that doing this while travelling is much better because the exfoliating always dirties the sink with the sandy bits and masking means i cant snack which i often do while at home. I dont snack on trips so it's perfect!

Better late than never I guess. 

More Toiletries!

Somebody brought me to see some new hotels today.

I couldnt resist and took the soup from the washrooms. Haha. I cant believe I am so proud of it.

L00t

Here's me using my l00t!

Hee.

Yet Again!?!

I mentioned here that I have kinda had it with the Taiwan snacks.

Then a consultant sent this to me - pineapple tarts from Taiwan.

Can i request snacks from another country please? Seriously overloaded.

Bolstered

Another thing you cant buy in Shanghai is a bolster.

So we had to buy one from Singapore.

Turns out it weighs 2.3kg. Together with my luggage, it's just nice at 30kg.

Couldnt have planned it any better! Zhun zhun cha bee hoon.

Bursting with Goodness!

I long suspected that we are bringing food from Singapore faster than we can consume. This is especially so now that SQ increased baggage allowance to 30kg and sometimes we take business class.

We have so much food now that we have to store them in the wardrobe.

Angels and Demons

I just shared this line with my colleague to educate her on how she assesses deals.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

I thought it’d be nice to share with you all.

Rainy Days

I hate rainy days.

I hate rainy Mondays even more.

As it is, Mondays mornings are tough to get cabs. It doesnt help when it's raining.

Times like this, I have to walk to the MRT station. That walk is rather short - 10 mins. Ride is also quite short - 15 mins. It's the walk from the station to my office that is long - 30 mins. Again, the rain doesnt help especially when I dont bring an umbrella.

I found a RMB10 note on the ground when I was walking today.

Not bad.

BOOM!

I have a Singaporean friend living in the suburbs of China and on 元宵, he invited us over to let go some fireworks.

I am actually not a big fan of fireworks because they're loud and dusty and just a few minutes of lights. Quite literally blowing your money up in smoke.

Plus, how spectacular can they be when you can buy it for home consumption?

However, Someone was very interested so we went.

My friend, on hearing our interest, went to buy more powerful ones. Haha.

The two boxes thingy are the fireworks and the long one is the firecrackers.

In the end, I was very surprised the fireworks was too good!

Flew up in the sky and BOOM!

Whatsapp me if you'd like to see the video.

Driver!

After much deliberation that started even before we moved to Shanghai, we have taken the plunge to get a driver.

The driver's first day is today! Quite excited!

I have so many plans and ideas. We can have a wireless access point in the car so that we can surf the internet all the time.

We can leave our badminton gear in there after games and then head to lunch without lugging the bags.

I can then go to golf more often.

I'm actually thinking of picking up yoga. Wonder if it's too gay.

If we see the need to, we will buy a car too. I have a friend who has been living in Shanghai and he might be leaving at the end of the year. Maybe will take over his one-year old C-class if we see the need to.

w00t!

Home-Made Soya Bean

While I often eschew meeting up with friends over the weekend, opting to stay home for TV instead, one good thing is to see how people live. Almost invariably, we would see something interesting that we can buy that'd enhance our life.

This time, it was a soya-bean making machine. According to my friend, it's rather simple to make. She actually made it and then boiled some sesame tangyuan (frozen kind) and it was great!

Decided to buy it and try. Turns out the box is huge. Have to wait till our driver starts before I can bring it home from office.

Ill keep you informed.

Taiwan Snacks Again??!?

One of two new team members I hired last year is a Taiwanese and when she came back from her home town over CNY, she brought me these.



Overload of Taiwanese snacks now.

From only going to Kaoshiung in 2000, my first trip to Taipei was 2013 and we went three times in 2013. A little bit sian already. Not going to spend anymore leave in Taiwan anymore.

COLD!

It has been freezing ever since I came back from Shanghai.

The weather has been erratic with bursts of snow, then sunshine, then snow again, then rain then windy in between. However, throughout it all, it’s just been cold.

I took a pic from my office of the snow.

Then it stopped snowing 15 mins later. See how I took special effort to take from the same angle to demonstrate the difference?

During this period, my trusty under-table heater has been put to good use. In fact, I used it the other day to warm my cookie. Hee hee.

Subdued

If there’s any doubt that Shanghai is too crowded, we confirmed this last weekend.

We wanted to go to this korean chicken restaurant that a friend recommended the other day. For some dumb reason, we didn’t know this was located in Korean town. By the time we got there, we saw queues and queues of people queing at other restaurants even before we found our restaurant. I knew then that it was going to be futile because if the restaurant is as good as they say it is, the queue will be crazy too. Plus it was 5:45pm on a Saturday. Still kinda early but Shanghai people eat early.

I was right. By the time we found it, the queue number was #677. They were serving #190 at that time. Diao. We decided not to wait.

It’s true, at least for me, that when you can get something, it makes you want it more.

So, we decided to go back the next day. We thought that if we went after lunch, we would have a good chance of having the supposedly delicious Korean chicken for early dinner.

Hmmm.. it was raining. Does this mean that there’d be less people queuing?

This sight at another restaurant along the way didn’t bode well with our prospects.

 

DAMN. It’s just as crowded. Queue number was #122 and we got #289. 

Since it was early (3pm), we decided to wait. And since it was raining, we decided to wait indoors in a café.

The café was super crowded. I guess everyone had the same idea.

The queue to order drinks at the café was about 40 mins and the time for the orders to come was 20 mins. So that was an hour gone.

After using up all my lives in Candy Crush, it was 540pm. We have waited a total of 2.5 hours by then.

Checked the queue number - #227.

By simple extrapolation, the queue moved 100 places in 2.5 hours. That means that it’d be more than an hour before our turn.

Regrettably, we decided to give up. We are disappointed, because after two failed attempts, we didn’t manage to subdue the queue.

We vowed to be back.

End of Days

It's Old Aunty's last day tomorrow.

I actually cant imagine how it'd be like.

In my previous previous job, I had witnessed people literally tearing as they packed their belongings into a box.

In the days leading up to this last day, I have had mixed feelings. I sometimes hope she would just leave quietly at 6pm without any fanfare. Perhaps she will come by and say bye and thank me for my guidance, although it's unlikely. Will she kick up a ruckus?

I also contemplated being nasty and telling her that Im glad she's going and tell her it's not just me who wants her away. Everyone, including President, wants her out and blames me for letting her stay so long.

Just the other day, I chose the high road and decided to be nice.

Until...

I saw that she left the Valentine's Day snacks that I bought for the office on her table, untouched and uneaten, after she has gone for the day. It's not like the snacks were forced onto her because the drinks were all individually ordered and you could refuse the cookie.

Bitch.

So now, I am back to being undecided on how I should act on her last day.

Stirred

We went to Macs several times during my time in Singapore.

Various reasons really but primarily because it's a convenient snack between mahjong sessions or just not having enough food from a relative's.

On the breakfast Macs with my family, I found out that Macs has a new stirrer. I kinda like it. It has the nice length, nice look, flat so it's easy to store, hard enough so that it stirs properly, the list is endless. As you may remember, I'm on a constant search for stirrers for my daily hot drink in Shanghai.

Therefore, in my numerous trips, I have pilfered quite a bit of these stirrers. Did a rough calculation. I think if I used a stirrer a week, I'd have enough for three years. Haha.

Valentine's Day

I decided to do something nice for the office on Valentine's Day.

Decided to buy everyone tea and cookies.

I ordered this:

 

Not really tea but at S$2.40 inside got real pear. Quite nice and refreshing. 

Of course, all the greedy Chinese staff were very happy. They took a while to decide where to order the drinks from.

Hopefully it sweetened their day. I understood that there was a few single girls in the office feeling sian. My secretary even asked me if I knew any guys to introduce to them.

Satay Fever

One of the foods I missed most was satay because there isnt any chicken satay in Shanghai. It doesnt help that it is my most favourite food.

On this trip, I didnt manage to eat any satay until the last day when we had a family dinner at my sister's.

Took the opportunity to buy carrot cake, bak cho mee, hokkien mee, chicken wings and of course satay from Blk 85.

These are the stuff dreams are made of. 

Hmmm

It's kinda odd that this trip's stash didnt fill up the entire table like the other times. 

I think it's because the table here is bigger than the other apartment or perhaps I brought back heavier stuff this time.

It was a rather disappointing trip on the shopping front on this trip. I bought stuff for Someone and my mum and my nephew and gave out so many angpaos but tried as I may, I couldnt find anything to buy while in Singapore. Even a last ditch attempt at the airport before I left yielded nothing. :(

Looking Forward

I was actually looking forward to coming back to Shanghai.

After the Taipei holiday, then Singapore trip then 13 days in Shanghai, Beijing and Sanya then Singapore again, I just feel kinda unsettled living out of my suitcase.

In fact, I feel kinda dirty after my trip to Singapore. I didnt have my nail clipper and my nails were long and I didnt get to exfoliate. My face felt caked even.

So those were the first things I did. Of course, I did these after I unpacked everything because that's the subject of my OCD.

So with that, I am now ready for the year of the horse.

Sick :(

I have been sick the few weeks leading up to my Singapore trip.

I wasnt getting better so we went to the doctor to get it straightened out as well as stock up on meds.

What was shocking was that the doc said that it's an allergic reaction in my sinuses probably due to the bad air and then he looked into my nose and said that based on what's swollen inside, I should have had difficulty breathing for the last 20 years, not 2 weeks!

It's kinda shocking but I am not entirely surprised because I think I have a very high tolerance so I guess I must have lived with it all these years.One thing I have noticed over the years is that I started to breathe through my mouth and my mouth will open when I'm not paying attention.

So now I'm supposed to do nasal sprays every night and hope I get better else it may be surgery time.

So there we go..... more than $600 worth of meds.

Rolling Rolling Rolling..

I saw this picture in my phone and wasnt sure if I mentioned this.

Our nice friends in Taipei gave us these egg rolls before we flew.

The last time we went to Taipei in September, he gave us pineapple tarts which was da bomb! So i was mildly disappointed when it was ONLY egg rolls.

He said that these egg rolls were "有钱也买不到". I was a little skeptical because if that was true, then how did he get it.Plus they look like this:

Doesnt look too appetizing.

We didnt eat it till some time after we got back. Someone showed me the website that talked about the shop. I didnt read through it except that I heard that there's a waiting list of at least a month and it's in some small town I think. Our friends pre-ordered three months ago!

We tried it eventually and gosh.. it's pretty mind blowing for such an ugly thing.

Language Barriers

I mentioned here that I have become china-tised.

This point hit home when we were having dinner with my in-laws at our favorite frog leg porridge place in Geylang.

The PRC server asked something and my in-laws didnt understand her, but I did.

This is serious stuff because my in-laws are Chinese teachers....

Macs!

It's almost a family tradition when we were younger.

We would go, as a family, to Macdonald's for breakfast only one time in a year and that'd be on CNY Day 1. That's the only place that's open this early on this day that's fairly decent.

We havent really done it in recent memory but it was quite nice to do it this year - my dad, my mum, Someone and I.  The only downer was that my sister couldnt join because she was nursing at home. 

In our typical efficiency, we went early to beat the crowds.

Here's me with my big breakfast deluxe. So many permutations nowadays. My mum reminded me that my sister and I used to get a headache after eating the honey with the hotcakes. I was surprised she remembered. Haha. Yes, it's kinda weird but we did used to get a headache after eating hotcakes.

Help!

One of the more meaningful things we decided to do recently was to "adopt" a disadvantaged child in Shanghai to sponsor his primary school education until he graduates.

I had heard about this boy whose father abandoned them when he was very young and the single mother has to take care of the boy when at the same time, she found out that her own mother was diagnosed with cancer. They didnt have enough money for treatment and therefore, she is now waiting to die. I cant think of another way to phrase that.

Because the single mother had to take care of both of them, she couldnt find a proper job but to find out that was flexible and didnt require travelling. So she ended up as a social worker for disadvantaged children.

We decided to choose them because of her plight and also because as a social worker, she couldnt put her own son up for official help. It's kinda complicated.

She and her son came by my office the day before i left for Singapore. They kept emphasising they dont have anything to give except some couplets that he wrote.

Beautiful eh? He turns 8 this year.

Some of these kids' stories are rather heart-wrenching. We are still on a look-out to find one more to "adopt".

Open or Closed?

Remember her?

I found out that she's pregnant! I hadnt realised she got married and I asked my assistant. She said the girl got married a few weeks ago after they found out she's pregnant. Chop chop sia. Got hitched in Feb 2013 and then pregnant in Dec for a January 2014 wedding.

I must say I am a little shocked that I hear more and more girls getting pregnant before getting married. I know of someone else who announced at her own wedding dinner that she was going to give birth in six months' time. I dont consider myself a prude by any measure but I had thought that China was still a rather conservative society.

Shocking!

Mahjong Comatose

Someone picked up mahjong while in Shanghai and therefore, during this trip back to Singapore, we played mahjong. In total, we played a total of six sessions. Nearly to a point of overdose but it's always a good time of catching up and joking around.

Comfort

Between our palace in Shanghai, parents' home in Singapore and the usually-decent hotels I stay for work, my parents' home in Singapore is comparatively the most run down. Shower water pressure isn't great, no duvet on the mattress, no light switch at the side of the bed, no cable tv in the room.. The list can go on.

But yet, as you can imagine where this is going, this is home. Home, where my mum would prepare a bottle of water everyday placed by my bedside. Home, where the mattress is a little too soft my liking physically but yet strangely comforting emotionally.

Home is proverbially where the heart is. Sometimes, I cringe a little, just a little, when I'm out in shanghai and say I'm going home (referring to my shanghai apartment). That, in that context, is more of a reference to where I stay rather than where I consider home. 

Do..Do..Do.. Donuts

Faithful readers of my blog know of my earlier obsession with donuts.

Krispy kreme used to be the poison of choice but I have since stopped craving for it.

Maybe it's because there's a KK in Shanghai but also maybe because KK doesnt taste as nice in Shanghai.

I read with much amusement when Singapore welcomed her first Krispy Kreme. All the queues, all the excitement.

We passed it by the other day. Couldnt help but to queue and buy a couple.

Mmmm... but at S$2.60 for an original glazed, very expensive!

Dream Come True

You'd have heard me talk about Sushi Oyama in Shanghai all this time.

I am not sure if I had mentioned where we eat when we are in Singapore.

My cousin, the same one who found Sushi Oyama on a blog and asked us to go, introduced us to Ki Sho.

We would go to Ki Sho with her when we have time in Singapore.

Ki Sho is better than Oyama in that it has better dessert and because my cousin is a big regular there, we get better and more stuff. We always end up very full and sometimes even dabao dessert. Haha.

We went Ki Sho again on this trip back. Upon arrival, we found out that my cousin was actually under the weather but she didnt want to cancel last minute on the account of respect for the chef.

Behold the beauty of the magnificent otoro who gave up his life for our enjoyment.

Cousin isnt always the nicest person but with her under the weather, she wasnt in a mood for much talking and after 90 minutes, she decided she had to leave. She said we could carry on eating. I  was glad because I wasnt even half full yet.

It was at this time when things got surreal.

The chef, whom we have met probably five times now, then said to me.

"I need your help. We need to clear our fish because we are closing for a week for CNY."

I..I couldnt believe what I was hearing and asked him to repeat.

Yes, he needs us to finish his otoro and kinmendai and saba and butan.

I felt obliged. I felt that I had to help him in his hour of need. It's really a dream come true. We always joked at Oyama that if he needed someone to help clear his wooden box of fish, we'd gladly eat the slab of fish like a slice of cake.

Now, we have the opportunity to help someone finish his stock.

We just whacked. Otoro, chutoro, otoro, saba, kinmendai, otoro... In between, I kept asking him if he was joking.

No, he wasnt.

So we continued.. until he said stop.

Stop, because he was running out of rice.

Someone, never missing an opportunity, quickly told him that I love rice. He said he knows.

"Because in the 1.5 years we have been open, we only ran out of rice three times and he was here for two of them."

These words would forever remain in infamy.

With that, he used the remaining rice to make this:

After that was dessert, which was fabulous as usual but i was too high to take any pictures. We went back stuffed, still unable to believe the night of our lives.

Snip Snip

I was at Parkway Parade looking for a hairdresser to look my best for CNY.

I was too lazy to go to my usual place in Marina Square (S$28) but yet I was apprehensive of what I could give at Parkway in terms of quality and also if they'd mark up their prices due to CNY.

I was right.

Supercuts and one other place wanted to charge me S$50 - $60. That was nuts. Im now married. I dont need to pay more than S$30 for a haircut.

Then i came across this one in a small korner.

I havent been to this types in ages. I'm not sure if I am ready. I'm not sure if they're ready.

I went in and inquired the price. S$12 plus $2 mark up. Fair enough, since I'm on austerity measures.

As I sat down, I realised that places like this doesnt provide wash hair service. Gulp. I hope they dont leave too many stray hair around.

In the end, it was quite good! Someone actually even said it looks better than usual. Diao.