Back from China!

I'm back!! HaHa. The China experience is quite amazing. I shall start from the beginning.

Day 1

Depart Singapore. Arrive Hong Kong. Didn't even have a chance to really take in the sights of Hong Kong before I found myself crossing the border to China. First time I've crossed customs so many times in a day.

After arriving in China, went to the factory and settled down in my room. Its pretty nice, check it out.

Double room occupied by 1 person (Me). Big bed, hot water flask, cupboard...

Day 2

Start work. Went on a tour of the factory to see how things work. Also got to know the people in the factory. Not bad, quite an intersting tour.

Went out to a local restaurant for lunch. Food is really oily and salty. But was already expecting that. Good thing its very cheap.

Day 3

Met up with the customers. Quite intersting experience. Exchange name cards and all. Heh...

My customer from Ecuador. Really nice and friendly guy. First time I've met someone from there. This seems like this is a trip of many firsts.

Day4

Work work work.
Meeting meeting meeting...
Oh well. It is a working trip after all...

Day 5

See above...

Day 6

Pretty intersting day. Had a meeting with people from 6 different countries. Ecuador, Isreal, Philipines, China, Singapore and Japan. Mini UN conference?

I think this fits very nicely with the IWA membership. Right Oyster and Penguin?

Day 7

Pack up and leave. Mad rush to change from mini-van to train to MTR (something like MRT) to bus to plane. Shack...

So there you go, 1 week in China. Think my Mandarin is now a little bit better. Heh...

Too bad I didn't have time to take as many pictures. So that's about all I have for now. I'm quite tired... time to sleep...

Hello from China

Yo!! How's everyone??

Just a quick post before I start work.

China's nice.

Food's a little salty and oily, but pretty good otherwise.

Been pretty busy with work. Meeting customers and all. But at least when I bring them out for meals, I get to eat some nice stuff.

Haven't tried the canteen food here though. Heard its like army food. So I guess I'll stick to the restaurants and such.

Alritey then, its back to work!! IUWA W4!!!! WA WA WA!!!

Pictures when I get back!!

PS: Penguin, I still meet the one post a week requirement. Heh heh...

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

All my bags are packed

Im ready to go
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin
Its early morn
The taxis waitin
Hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome
I could die...

Yep in 13 hours I'll be leaving on a jet plane to Hong Kong. Don't know why they don't book me on a direct flight into Guangdong. Maybe its cheaper to get to Guangdong via Hong Kong. *shrug*

Anyway, all my bags are packed. I'm ready to go.

Check out the travel bag I'll be carrying.

Marked with a yellow ribbon for easy identification. I think its pretty big (compare it with the chair) for five days. But its the first time I'm going there. So better to be more prepared.

Anyway, that's all for now. This is probably the last post before I leave. See you all when I get back!!

Flying Tomorrow...

Its amazing how much stuff I've to bring for a one week trip.

Clothes, shoes, slippers, handphone charger, toiletries, work clothes (which I hope won't crumple too much). And my notes.

Had to borrow a few suitcases to find one that fits. Was hoping to squeeze the stuff into a small travelling case but in the end had to use quite a big one. And there doesn't seem to be much room left...

Anyway, can't think of much else to post right now. Guess I'll post again when I'm back. Hopefully I'll have time to take photos over there.

Actually this post is to avoid the WA fine. Haha... don't think I'll post when I'm over there. Not sure if I'll have time to.

Oh by the way, WA has gone international. We're now IWA (International Workaholics Anonymous). Do find out more about this recent development on Penguin's blog.

China here I come!!

So today's my 7th day at work and guess what my B tells me.

B: "I'm going to China on Sunday. Will arrange for you to go also."
Me: "Err... OK!"

*Eyes brighten up, um cheo!!*

Woohoo!! So I guess I do get a graduation trip after all. Though its gonna be a work trip, I'm going overseas nonetheless!! And not just to Pulau Ubin!!

Fly to Hong Kong, then train to Dong Guan, Guangdong. So I get a 2 city tour with accomodation and food provided. How cool is that!! Wahah...

I'm sure all you seasoned business travellers are probably yawning in boredom, but its my first business trip!! So give me a break!! Let me savour the novelty of it all!!

Not sure how much time I would have to myself. Guess Monday to Friday would be work and entertaining customers. Then I'm back on Saturday.

But I think I might have a few hours to spare in the evenings in Dong Guan. And a few hours before I fly back in Hong Kong. Will try and do some touristy stuff then. Like photos and stuff!!

So I guess I'll stop here for now. Gotta go sleep. Tom's gonna be another day.

PS: Will be checking results in China! First time I checked results in NUS I was in Vietnam, last time I check results in NUS I'll be in China. How cool is that!!

Fishy Day

Was a really fishy day today.

First up was lunch at Fish and Co Suntec with Fadz, Zhong and KT.

Food was sub-standard. Waiter speaks too fast. Table stinks of some rancid stuff. All in all, I guess I won't be going back there unless something changes.

Dessert after lunch was better. We went to Andersen's of Denmark where we had the Family Fondue. Check it out.

Family fondue.

Cookies, cones and marshmallows.

Fresh fruits.

Ice-cream.

Zhong, Fadz, me and KT.

Was a good catch up session for the four of us.

After that, was dinner at Manhattan Fish Market with Cupid, Howard, Penguin and Weiyi.

Guess it was a good way for me to compare the two places and see which was better. Wahaha... So here's what was on the menu.

Baugette with garlic butter sauce. This is nice!! Love the garlic butter sauce. Though its probably extremely rich and sinful.

Grilled platter for two. This is nicer than the fried platter. The stuff is less oily.

Fried platter for two.

After dinner, went shopping for drawers at Carrefour. Apparently Penguin is facing a turf war for bench space in her lab. So she needs to get drawers to organise her territory!!

After that, went over to TCC at Selegie to meet up with Angel and Weihong for coffee.

Angel, Penguin and Penguin Jr.

Took Twins photo again. Heh heh...

Anti-Social couples reading newspapers... Tsk Tsk...

Just two photos to show the Evaluative White Balance function that Hucks taught me a while back.

With auto white balance.

With evaluative white balance.

Quite an amazing difference. Thanks for the tip bro.

More photos can be seen here.

Teochew Dinner

Had dinner with my family at this Teochew Restaurant in Amoy Street. Was a Mother's Day celebration of sorts with the GoH being my grandma.

Just some pictures from dinner.

Goose meat with dau guah.

Oyster omelette.

Ngor hiam and other assorted fried stuff.

Was having fun with my cousin. Wahaha... monkey faces and ghostly eyes!! Check it out.

The little fella.

Normal shot.

Piggy faced...

What stinks??

Ghostly face.

Cute?

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

Cable Ski !!

Its the long weekend!! Woohoo!! All weekends should be long!

Anyway on the first day of the long weekend, I went to cable ski at ECP with Shuying and Derrick. (Hope I spelt his name correctly!)

Derrick, Shuying and me.

I tried out the real wakeboard and attempted to do some "stunts". Heh... Simple stuff like jump starts and jumping in the water. Check out the video below.

Camera woman - Shuying.
Music - Hucks. (Thanks bro, your recomendations rock!)
"Stunts" - yours truly.

The weather that day was great also. Bright and sunny. Fortunately I had my SPF 130 "gu niang" sunblock. So I didn't get roasted!

After 2 hours of arm-aching fun, we headed to the hawker centre for a feast. On the menu...

Chicken wings.

Satay! There was more stuff like sotong and sting ray, but was too hungry to take photos of those.

Good lunch after good morning of fun!! Good times!!

Catch the rest of the photos here.

BBQ Photos

As promised, here are the BBQ photos. Enjoy.

Sucked In...

I got my first taste of being totally sucked into work.

It was 7.30 pm on the eve of a public holiday and I was still in office. Trying to figure out how the hell to solve some problem.

Well 7.30 by some people's standards is early, but not where I was today. The whole office was empty except me and another person.

Kinda demoralising... Especially when I was being held back from a wonderful BBQ with the EA lvl 2 ppl.

Anyway, enough about work. The BBQ was great. Took photos as usual. Though not as much as I would have liked to.

I was late getting there despite taking a cab down. Last to arrive. Lucky there was still food. Lots of it...

Will upload photos shortly. Once I transfer them out of my camera....

It's been a while...

My last entry was May 4th. That's abt a week ago. Can't really remember what happened between then and now but I shall try.

I remember going to the cable ski park on Friday. Went with E Hunt, Lipien and her brother. Was really cool. Tried out the pro board this time round.

Was a little heavier. But I think it was more stable once I got going. Plus, I did jumping starts!! Looks cool but actually its just a very simple trick. Haha...

Oh and I think I managed to jump on the go. But most of the time, that lands me right smack in the water, knocking the wind out of me. I think I probably banged my head up quite a bit. Note-to-self, use a helmet you dick...

Saturday, voted. Then supper with Hongjiang, Xiumei and Prissy.

Think that's the evil eye she gives her students...

Sunday was ECE teambuilding day. After a quick lunch at Parkway, we headed over to Grand Link Square where we spent the afternoon of my last day of freedom fragging each other silly.

DOTA is really fun. And we managed to get Jerry, Kenny and Qingwei hooked on it.

Jerry's supposed to pass me the CD so I can install on my laptop and we can play over the net. But I think with the practice he's been having, he's gonna go on a KILLING SPREE!!

And so comes Monday. First day of work!! Its quite intersting. The job didn't quite turn out to be what I thought it would be. But I think this is better. I think i'm gonna learn a lot more from this.

And today, third day of work. Made a few long distance calls to China. Called up my customer. Call China again. Email Email Email. Tonnes and Tonnes of emails... Wonder what tomorrow will bring. Shall go sleep and find out in 6 hours...

The last few days...

I realised I haven't been blogging for the last few days. So here's an update (as per WA requirements).

The last entry was about Saturday, so I guess I'll start from Sunday when I went to Ubin with Von to go take pictures. Here are some of them.

One of the first few things we saw. Something rotting. Think it could be a fish or something. Lots of flies all over it. Penguin, this one's for you. Another disgusting photo to go with whatever you're having for lunch or dinner.

Saw this lizard while resting at one of the huts. Managed to get quite close to it. But not as close as I got to the next one.

Managed to go right up to this one. Enough for me to stroke it on the back. Not with my hand though. Still want my fingers. So I used a stick to stroke it on its back. It started hissing and kind of flattened itself out a little.

Was pretty surprised it didn't run away. But when I touched its tail. It scrambled away surprisingly fast.

Quite a big grasshopper. Compare it to the mountain bike tyre.

That's lunch. Potato salad, hotdog, tuna and bread.

Had fun and donated blood to the mosquito population at the same time.

Monday. Went shopping for work clothes. Managed to settle most things except a pair of shoes. Spent quite a lot but at least most of the items were discounted. Heh...

Tuesday. Back in school to do the **#%!#*$_!(*$ paper. To put it mildly, it's F**KING IRRITATING.

Met Angel and Penguin for dinner at Cafe Cartel. Penguin's hair is now shorter than mine. We need another twins photo, Penguin. Was a good dinner. Nice food, good company.

Wednesday. Back in school AGAIN!! &&**$%&#$*%*(#

Went for dinner with E Hunt at HarbourFront. Went for a drink at Harry's after. We've been talking about going for a drink for months. Haha...

That's pretty much what happened the last few days. Well its also the last few days before I start work on Monday. Been trying to plan it more fun stuff. Wakeboarding on Friday, LAN on Saturday. Maybe Sentosa on Sunday. Sounds good... :)