Arrival

In the hustle and bustle, i flew to the maldives. Since i was going alone and i was going to reach at 11pm at the resort, when i probi opted for a very casual look. a polo tee, surf shorts and my new white birks.. quite cool i thought. my mum, who always thinks that airplanes have a dress code doesnt really approve of it. i gave her the look and i left..the plane ride was ok. i opted for a window seat and asked that no one be placed beside me if the plane isnt full..

and so i arrived..still feeling very proud of my white birks.. someone's standing there with my name on a plaque.. the guy said there were more ple.. cool.. i was kaypoh and asked who else.. he said "oh the owner's wife and the resident manager"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

im underdressed. definitely underdressed to meet the wife of the owner..

i pretended not to look at them but im pretty hard to miss cos i had my lappie with me and no one goes to the maldives with a lappie..(and also i had my striking white birks)

we took the speedboat to the island in silence..on the speedboat, i was told to remove my footwear cos they have this "No News No Shoes" policy on the resort.. means no one shld wear shoes on the island and they also dont provide newspapers..there goes my chance to show off my new birks.



when we got to the island, the whole bloody management team was there!!!!! The general manager (whom im supposed to meet the next day), the financial controller (whom im also supposed to meet), the f&b director and sales director.. all there.. not to welcome me of cos but the owner's wife.. but since i was there, then 顺便 welcome me also.. "damn, i shld have worn something more appropriate"

i was introduced to my "Mr. Friday". he said he'd take care of my every need.. he brought me to my villa.. smashing.. it's too dark to take pics..

Some Pics

Some pics i got in the mail.. im bored here.. waiting for my tics to come.. then i have a meeting at the airport at 4pm then i have to be at the airport at 7 for my flight...

*yawn*

Confirmed

It seems like my previous post wasnt very coherent.

in any case, ill be flying to the maldives tonite and returning on monday morning..

Yes.. tonite..

i found out that aaron, CPF audrey and adina all going to bangkok over the weekend. gosh, bangkok mus be getting rather crowded..

MOVE!

Gosh.. it seems like i'll be going to the Maldives TOMMORROW!! gosh.. cos the resort fully booked from 26 to 8 Jan.. hiong leh.. if not tmr then i'll go on 23rd Dec.. which means i'll spend xmas over all alone on an island in the indian ocean..actually i dont mind la.. this way i dun think to wallow in misery at home with no parties or wat... but i think my boss didnt like that idea..

i act dont mind going tmr also..but but but.. for like the first time in many weeks.. i actually have an appointment ! with two gals some more... gosh.. of all the weekends, i have to travel on the one weekend when i have an appointment... *bleah*

we'll see how.. if im not blogging tmr nite.. means im on the red eye to the maldives..

Leave Cancelled...

it's official.. i cancelled my leave so that i can go to the maldives.. beautiful sunny maldives.. aaron went to the resort before n he said the ple there played his backside, which is actually pretty scary.. *sweat*

Im leaving on Boxing Day.. which means i'd carry over a whopping 12 days over to 2006.. and in the first week of Jan, i'll be going to Indonesia..

my office got a christmas tree this year.. we didnt get one last yr cos it was simply too cramped... n this year bought one for a good xmas cheer.. it's a real christmas tree.. not the plastic kind.. i heard from my ang mo colleague that they chop off the top part of a real tree to make this xmas tree n by the time next year.. the real tree will grow back the top to be chopped agn next year.. amazing, i didnt know that.

the tree (or rather the top of the tree) has a smell.. a nice tree smell (DUH!!) which permeates the office... and it actually smells christmas-y. i never knew something can smell christmas-y . i mean, u can sound christmas-y and look christmas-y but yeah.. it does smell christmas-y...

it's my first real christmas tree.

Morning Find

I was in the office early this morning.. and guess what i found on my table..

My Birks!! which i ordered through my colleague's friends has finally landed from Germany.. soo cool.. waited for a long time liaoz.. since before i went to china.. finally arrived.. phew.. so cool right?

ok the excitement jus died down..

here's a pic of it..

Home

I had a late nite conference call last nite in the office.. 1130pm till 1230am.. *sweat* all alone in the office in a rather bo liao call. I was half doing my report and listening on skyps on the nonsense.. then i heard my name..then.. oops.. kenna arrowed... bleah...i actually have no idea what arrow i kenna-ed. i'd need to find out..and all this while.. RD and noah kept msging me to go for supper with them, due largely to the fact RD wants to get his Absolut Apeach from me..



according to changi airport, they're the first airport in the asia pacific to carry this flvaour.. u cant even get this on the street i heard.. oh well..

my throat was killing me this morning and i called my boss to ask him if i could work from home today. he said sure! then went on to tell me he was packing his house till 3am last nite.. i told him to take the day off too on my account.. muhahahahahaha

so there i go.. im home today.. it's 4pm now and all i did was watch the Amazing Race finale...replied a couple of emails, surfed the internet and played warcraft.. so much for working at home.. muhahahah

oops.. i jus got an email from my boss.. (i guess he didnt take the day off like i instructed him to). he asked me to update my CV.. to include the various projects that i've been involved in... hmm.. maybe he's indirectly telling me he wana sack me and telling me to update my CV for further job applications..

i'd better get back to work.

CPF Audrey

i bumped in Audrey today.. not that audrey i always mention in my previous entries.. but another Audrey.. let's call her CPF Audrey.

it's funny that i'd bump into her.. i was at amara food court when i thought of her.. im serious. i thought of her and wondered if she ever came to this food court.. a bit far for her la i thought.. but it'd be cool to bump into ple u actually want to bump into.. im quite anti social at times. if i see a person, i dont feel like talking to from afar, i'd jus take out my hp and gey siao.. keke.. it definitely helps if im wearing my sunglasses... i mean of cos most ple would try to avoid talking to ple they dont feel like talking to but i somehow think i have A LOT of "such people" that i dont feel like talking to.. duno why.

Anyway, bumped into her.. kinda freaky cos i jus thought of her.. and i told her that. she didnt seem too impressed. she said my sis asked her out for lunch today but she had already eaten and she was at amara cos her colleague hasnt eaten... so weird.. she's kinda weird really. she asked me when i was travelling again since vietnam.. i said i might be going maldives next week.. i told her im really tired la.. then i motioned her to repeat my words louder cos my boss was jus behind me.. and she did..,"YA LOR YA LOR.. TRAVELLING A LOT VERY SIAN HOR!!!".. haha..

some worthless conversation went out in between and i mentioned that wah civil servants getting 1.75 mths bonus hor.. shiok leh.. then i motioned to her again to repeat loud loud.. and SHE DID!!

haha.. hope that works..

Leaf or Leave

My MSN nick read " Four reports within a week and on leave till next year." today.

well, that's technically true.. cos i have tons of leave to clear.. even if i dont go to work from next week. I'll still only expend 9 days of leave with 5 days to carry over.. which is the permissible number.

but then my boss said everyone so busy leh.. got more jobs coming in some more.. 1 to maldives, 1 to korea and 1 to indonesia..the maldives one is to a property which is like the 2nd best in the maldives and i think he wants me to go since i got some experience there. and he also would like me to go indonesia to gain more exposure there.. i certainly would like to go to these places..

i told him i dont mind cancelling my leave since i dont even wana take them anwyay. i only took cos i needed to clear them. i told him.. "show me the money!!!! show me the money and i'll go to the ends of the earth for you..."

no la.. i said, if u let me carry over more than 5 days over to 2006 or let me encash it, then ill go lor.. he said " Cornball (of cos he didnt call me Cornball but yeah.. u get the idea), if you're willing to stand up for the company, the company will take care of you."

we'll see how that goes.

Comfort Foods

One of the perks of having a sore throat is that i can eat ice cream without guilt.. not that i ever feel guilty for eating but eating ice cream during a sore throat is something my mum advocates.. she says it soothes the throat... so yeah..i ate this



then there's a whole big bottle of water, chrysanthemum tea and grapes..not the batteries..



gosh.. i got russian grapes!!! HUGE!! it's as big as the battery!!

Yet Again

Some of you have asked if i have pics of the russian gal..i bet some of you doubt the authenticity of her chio-ness or even her existence... haha.. yes, she exists but she doesnt like her picture taken.

keeve says it's cos she's really a KGB agent n so dont like her pictures floating ard.. that can be true too.. but oh well.. no pics..

if u want pics, here're some pics of the plane i took back to singapore.. i hate those flights that u have to walk to the tarmac.. very dingy feeling..



here's another pic..taken when i was waiting to board the plane..



talking abt KGB and all.. i was telling her that russia freaks me out..all that i know of russia is the Cold War in the 1970-80s, exile to siberia and extreme atheletes.. and all the russians i've seen (on tv) are big, brawny and have white beards (think Sean Connery in Hunt for Red October). it's funny how hollywood also keeps up with political developments.. last time the bad guys in movies are always the russians, then after that the Chinese gave the US some probs then all the movies had chinese as bad guys.. nowadays it's koreans and middle eastern dudes..

in any case, she reminded me that some russians are pretty too like Anna Kou..watever..and Maria Sharapova

More Food

here're more food i ate on the trip... on my final meal with russian babe before i left..oh yes, i requested for her boss to get her to show me ard the following day.. we were done in abt an hr really and had lunch for 3 hrs... try this restaurant Vine when you're in hanoi.. it's great!



i took a pic of this before i left.. seems like even the vietnamese knows abt us..

SICK?

i'm sick.. other than in the head, of cos.

I've a sore throat and fever... and it's a saturday. not that i have anywhere to go on a saturday.. but it jus makes it a tad bit gloomier, i think. i hope i didnt get the bird flu. i made it a point not to eat chicken while i was in vietnam. not that it needed much effort cos the gahmen in vietnam banned all poultry.. so i ate tons of seafood really..

here're some pics..im sorry this blog veered towards food again..



i ordered room service the first night i was in Ho Chi Minh... so hungry.. i was acutely aware of my self imposed poultry ban.. so i ordered seafood spaghetti and seafood pizza..



this was taken in sheraton ho chi minh city...i was damn hungry after walking ard and thought i'd whack a buffet.. keke.. on the right plate, there're 3 kinds of prawns..one type is the sushi kind, one type is the tom yam and sotong kind and another is some sweet sauce kind.. on the left plate is seafood pasta with erm.. seafood..and in the far front, there's an unagi sushi..

there u go.. lotsa seafood..

russian babe told me she doesnt eat unagi when we were at the jap restuarant.. she says she's seen eels being caught before..

wana know? press ctrl-a to see the hidden text...

she says that eels are caught using a dead cat u catch on the street and putting it in the water for an hr and oulling it up... u'll find the eels gnawing on the carcass of the dead cat.. not really very gross la.. but jus a new fact...in fact i ate unagi yesterday.. hahah..

I realised that the past few posts were all about the russian gal.. oh well.. it was perhaps the most exciting thing that happened to me during the trip lor.. i was dying to come home already..esp with my computer dead..

*oh ya.. on a side note, my sis msged me halfway thru my jap dinner that aaron came over our house to pick up something n then my computer was well again... amazing eh? so that night was doubly good*

anyway here're some pics of Hanoi...

I later found out that the lanky eastern european gal is actually RUSSIAN!! gosh.. so cool right? she was tasked to show me around town cos i need to see some other places for my report...

on the trip, i found out she's been living in hanoi for 5 yrs now and she speaks russian (DUH!), english (DUH!) and vietnamese..(small duh!). i realise that europeans speak a lot of foreign languages.. ask singaporeans to learn chinese they kpkb...

for some reason, she thought i was educated in california.. i have no idea why.. she says i speak like a californian... she was able to guess my exact age too.. amazing really.. considering how chao lau i look.. haha... but i wasnt able to guess her age.. i committed the cardinal sin of only subtracting 2 yrs from wat i actually thought and i guessed 24... she turned out to be 20..amazing... i felt like an uncle immediately...

i asked her where i shld go eat that night.. i usually like to choose the nicer hotels and eat there.. company pay mah.. might as well whack right? she said it was soo touristy to go to hotels.. i was like.. erm.. DUH.. im like a tourist..she introed me to a jap restaurant.. non-hotel one.. i find it like weird to eat jap alone so i invited her to dinner.. company pay mah.. jus invite lor..

ok.. that's how i got a dinner date with a russian gal..

the dinner was great and i made helluva many jokes abt the KGB, exile to siberia and vodka..We went for drinks later.. i was back like... erm.. duno wat time.. was it 2am or 3am.. i cant rem which time zone my laptop was in when i looked at it..

I woke up with a headache.. bleah.. it's freezing cold and i wish i can sleep in..

it's my sister's bday today.. i smsed her a greeting asked her to think of a place where we can all go have a family dinner on sunday..1 wondered to myself if she'd like the gift i got her..

the general manager told me he'll be in a meeting and that his sales guys would bring me around.. i entered the office and said " Im here to see Kelvin.. i know he's in a meeting..but he said someone would show me ard..."..

They asked me to have a seat..

my sis replied.. u might not want to eat w me.. ur computer cant be switched on and when it is able to, there's not internet..

my world shattered...

i see a tall ang mo gal rise up and walk towards me at the corner of my eye.. "she's TALL," i thought.

she said she'd show me ard.. i said i wanted to see the rooms, the AHU, the sprinkler system, the back-of-the-house areas.. she gave me a blank look.. i told her "im not here to book an apartment.. so u dont have to give me the marketing jargon.. save ur breath.."

she seemed miffed and said " just let me do my marketing thing..." she smiled..it seemed quite fake but well..halfway through the showing ard, she got a call and apparently her boss is ready to receive me... she seemed jubilant.. in fact she even asked me if shirt was from Raoul... that was weird... here's this eastern european gal asking a singaporean guy in a lift in vietnam if this shirt is a raoul.. i raked my brains hard to remember if raoul is a singaporean brand..ya wat.. it is..

i answered no.. i stopped buying raoul after i found Daniel..

Russian Molotov Cocktail

Some of you have asked me how i knew the Russian connection...

I arrived in hanoi half past midnight.. im pissed cos the plane was delayed by half an hr..im pissed cos im underdressed.. in a shirt and a suit, im still freezing.. every breath i make has those vapour things.. there's no where in south east asia that's this cold i think.. as i wait for my driver to pick me.. he's late as well..

i reach the hotel... restaurant's closed.. im hungry.. and therefore pissed... hmm.. no one seems to want to take my bag to my room... that ires me a little but it's fine.. as i drag my bag along the ceramic tiled corridor, i rue the dumb ass design which makes so much noise for the neighbours...

the apartment has 3 rooms, 1 kitchen and 2 toilets.. HUGE!! for some reason, there's no television in the master bed room.. bloody weird design.. there's no broadband internet here.. only dialup... bleah..

here're some pics..







i decided to sleep early that night.. i have a meeting at 8am in the morning

What a bore

As expected, vietnam aint the most exciting place in the world and internet connectivity isnt the best..so oh well, i havent been updating the blog..

managed to get some internet time now so jus thought i came in and let everyone know im fine..limited air time here so the boring pics will have to wait..

i'm meeting a russian gal for dinner tonite.. gosh.. so exotic... she's the first russian i know.. i hope she doesnt assasinate me with a siberian tiger claw or a moscow..erm.. watever moves the russians have...

New Computer in da house!!

After an initial rough start, my new computer is finally up and running.. phew.. *sweat*. Without going into sooo much details, it has been a trying time and many sleepless nights with listless meals,which also included me using toothpaste as shower foam, it's finally up and running and I SIMPLY LOVE IT!!!

Now i can play any games i wana play.. WOOHOOOOO!!!

here're the pics..













my office laptop there... and both my handphones are there.. and there're three mice on the table.. gosh.. it's like a geek's wet dream... i'll take more pictures when things are more well organised...

i wana thank keeve, jen, lefei for their immeasurable help in trying to solve my problems.. *bow*

Noel

Nope.. not the hamper company... Noel.. which refers to the day before christmas.. i.e. 24 december.. for the uninformed.

Noel is a movie i watched today with Adina... 95-minute long, it's a collection of short stories of the lives of a few New Yorkers and how their lives become inter-woven etc.. you know those kind of shows.. she didnt know wat the show was abt and all i read was a short synopsis of the show on the GV website.. i tot quite ok la... feel-good kind of show..

it was a good show.. i nearly cried at certain pts of the show.. heng they switched the scenes fast else.. :~~(

in one of the scenes, someone said, " love is so hard find.. if you find someone you love, hang on to it tight.. put up helluva a fight to protect/preserve it"

i thought it was very true... so you guys, FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

We passed by Indo-chine where a live band was playing. three guys.. with acoustic semi-guitars.. they started to play "Hotel California". One of the most popular "guitar" songs till this day, this song is like the must-learn for all guitar rock enthusiasts....i kinda refused to learn it at first.. partially cos it's supposed to be satanic.. partly also cos i didnt wana conform to the norm.. haha..but i digress..

i was gaping as i watched them play.. and everyone was cheering when they got to the solo part.. and i told adina... "isnt it sucha nice feeling when your ability can please SOOOOOOOOO many ple.. " Not that playing Hotel Calif was easy, but u jus have to practice big time and it'd man, u got so many ple cheering for you. well, the emphasis is not on the cheering but so many ple liking what u do. i thought back abt my job.. maybe a few ple care how fast i can run the numbers and how well i can write that report but it certainly doesnt make that many ple yell in ecstasy to read my reports.. sometimes u wonder why u work so hard hor...