Business Trip (3)

The first one of this series can be found here, and the second here.

 

- Fine Dining -

I actually struggled for a bit for the title of this section, wanted to just say expensive food but that doesn't sound too polished. =P

Anyway, the one thing nice about business trip is the meal allowance. Every single night I ate at one of those restaurants that normally I will only go once in a few months, and usually only on special occasions.

While some do genuinely have nice food, some are just plain expensive and not worth the money. The last dinner I had there before I came back tasted nothing special, but costed at least 20 days worth of my lunch money, and yes I am not exaggerating. Talk about low/no value for money! Good thing majority of the dinner was okay and above, and just a few so so or meh! =)

But it's okay, I didn't feel that guilty since it's company's money. Somehow I will feel guilty eating expensive meal that I know really does not deserved the price tag. It's to me simply a waste of money.

I do admit I have "cheap taste", hawker's food anyday! Good value for money and great taste, especially if it's Penang's hawker's food. =)

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- Eye Candy -

I guess it's a combination of a few factors:

- that I am a geeky dork that stay at home most of the time

- that I work at ulu place where majority of the females wrapped up like ninja

- that while on business trip, I stayed at the heart of shopping centres

Somehow, there seems to be a lot more eye candies in Singapore. The ladies along Orchard Road dressed in a pleasant to the eyes way. Many of them in skirt of dress instead of jeans.

And yea, wrapped-like-ninja population is significantly smaller there, so there were comparatively a lot more type of dressings and generous showing of long straight hair. I likey. =)

Majority of them have the right amount of makeup, some did have it a bit thick but since it's just eye therapy I did not try to imagine what the real look is without the cosmetics.

The thing is, most of them, and it's an alarming large portion, just got to ruin it by being a smoker. That is the free ticket straight to reject bin as far as I am concern.

Oh well.

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Tesco Tanjung Tokong

Tesco Tanjung Tokong, Penang, officially opened on Thursday, 23rd of June 2011. The business hours are from 08:00 to 01:00 daily.

Coming from town on Jalan Tanjung Tokong, the newly opened Tesco is situated right by the traffic light going into Straits Quay. Not the traffic light for Island Plaza, which can also lead to Straits Quay, but the one further down.

Really, it's hard to miss it.

Went there today for dinner and to check the place out. Good thing is it's not horror movie style flies infested like the Tesco in ulu place, thank goodness.

And the restaurants and shops in the building are more to my wallet range compared to the mostly no-value-for-money range of restaurants in Straits Quay. Those restaurants in Straits Quay are for rich people, and people who like to pretend they are rich, as well as teenagers who think it's cool to spend their parents hard earn money on a drink that costs three or more days worth of my lunch money.

Sakae Sushi, probably one of the more expensive restaurants in Tesco Tanjung Tokong, had it's opening ceremony this evening. Besides Sakae Sushi, there are McDonald's, KFC, Satay Hut, a Hakka restaurant, Swensen, Mizi bistro, and a food court. Knowing my memory, I probably forgot a few others. =P

The layout of Tesco hypermarket itself is similar to Tesco Jelutong. It's on the third floor of the building, the bottom two storeys are for shops, restaurants, and an arcade.

All in all a good addition to the northern part of Penang island. Barring the traffic, which is bad enough prior to the opening, it's now a lot more convenient for those who stay on the northern part of the island to do their grocery shopping.

I likey. =)

Gooder

While I was having lunch today, His Royal Highness Boy King Hsiang came into the kitchen after his afternoon shower.

Papa, what are you eating?

Noodle. You had noodle for lunch as well, right?

Ya, it's good.

Papa, you can put ketchup in the noddle, then it will be gooder.

Better, Hsiang, not gooder. Good, better, best.

Good, gooder, best.

Not gooder, better. Good, better, best.

Good, better, best.

That's right. Good, better, best.

Good, better, best.

Good boy.

that once a month thing

I bet women would like to be rid of that once a month thing, if it didn't affect their ability to bear children.

Well, effective immediately, I am rid of my once a month thing, and you bet I am very happy about it. =)

My monthly thing not the same as the women's monthly thing, in case you are wondering. =P

Manager announced yesterday in staff meeting that we no longer have to write our monthly report.

Rejoice!

< sarcasm >

I guess those bullshitters who routinely do nothing but handed in three pages  of heroic act every month may not like this change.

Since, you know, how are they going to show off their incredible exaggeration skill, their shameless plagiarism, and how can they tell you the sky would have fallen down if not for them holding it up this past month (and all the months before that) now? Huh?

Who gives a shit anyway? =D

< /sarcasm >

If you are wondering why a blogger who posts frequently is happy not having to write report again, then you have forgotten about the slacker part, hehe. =P

Slacker extraordinaire, while like to scribble and share random rubbish stuff here, does not like to write anything formal, like report, like thesis, like paper for publication.

They is no fun. (yes that's intentional)

=D

 

Business Trip (2)

The first one of this series can be found here.

- Dungeon crawl -

This was not a training trip, not a meeting trip, but a 'get your hands dirty' trip. I was there for one reason only: work in the floor, a.k.a. dungeon.

Trust me, I am not complaining. For I got on job training from the colleague flew in from The States. I am a lot more confident now handling any similar validation, debug or troubleshooting request compared to before the trip.

If only I had this experience before they sent me to Dungeon 2, would have settled the job in half of less the time I used.

Anyway, was in this foreign dungeon morning till late evening, including the weekend. In fact, we probably did longer hours than the supplier's employees in the first few days, including the weekend.

It paid off. We were a full four days ahead of schedule, and we didn't slow down either. We used the four days to get extra work done. Basically whatever we get done there at supplier site is workload off after the machine is shipped to our site.

Anyway, am really happy we got things done ahead of schedule and got the bonus work done as well.

Dungeon master level +1. =)

-----

- Recognition -

Funny how perspective changes.

Image, and how people think of me, used to be important. They no longer are, except to the scant few who really matter.

And I used to take myself rather seriously. I don't know since when, but I have learned not to take myself too seriously. Accepted who I am and just follow my heart. Life is better this way. =)

I don't really think much of those boastful people, simply because I truely believe that our good qualities should be affirmed by the others, not by ourselve. Else it's just bragging.

That's why saying how good I am or stating my strength in the yearly review is always the hardest part. On the other hand, stating my weakness is a breeze.

Let the others acknowledge our strengths, but always be mindful of our own weaknesses, so we can continue to grow, and be a better person.

Same with recognition of a job well done. I don't believe in those who asked for it, or hinted for it. In fact, that's just blatant infringement of the Code of Conduct. If you have done a good job, people will recognise it, it's that simple.

Well, it did come as a surprise when I received the higher level recognition for the dungeon crawling we did. It's the first time I received this level of instantaneous recognition. I guess the work must have meant quite a bit.

Well, this is just icing on the cake, for I was filled with a great sense of achievement when we got the job done ahead of schedule. That feeling is a lot more important to me.

-----

to be continued...

 

Durian Party

What is better than durian for a durian lover?

.

.

.

FREE durian of course! =P

It's departmental Durian Party today, I was at the designated area five minutes before it's scheduled to start. I was not alone in doing so.

If only we were all so punctual for all the meetings...

Branded durians were ordered by the organising committee, smart choice.

Of course I couldn't identify one from the other but I got to taste a few flavours, some are more yellowish, some are paler, some sweet, some bitter, some moist, some drier. I like them all. =)

My tank was full after 20 minutes and seven helpings, so I helped myself to a rambutan, a mangosteen, and a bottle of mineral water. One satisfied customer.

After washing my hands I headed back to stink up the office area while another colleague went back for second round after washing his hands. Why bother washing just to get dirty again? =P

I had a bit of discomfort sitting down with a bloated waistline, so I found it pretty impressive that colleagues who started gobbling up the durians at the same time as I did only returned a full 30 minutes after I was stuffed.

Respect!

On a somewhat related note, those of us who were at the durian party and then went to the badminton session today had with us our "secret weapon", muahahahaha! =P

 

Business Trip (1)

This is a series of random tidbits about my recent business trip.

- Background -

Company gave business to this Singapore supplier to build us machine, paying some large sum of money.

Then company sends own employees to the supplier site to help them on validation, check, troubleshoot and debug. Pretty much doing their job for them.

So, pay the supplier to do stuff, but end up with own employees doing the work, plus having to spend extra money to fund own employees' trip to supplier site to do the job the company paid the supplier for in the first place...

Does not compute? Well, doesn't make sense to me too, but that's how it is.

Plus the company is giving more business to this supplier, given the track record. I guess mere engineer simply cannot comprehend the working of the management's mind.

Those who talk usually are not those who do the work.

And that is how I ended up in this business trip, they needed someone who doesn't talk much but is used to getting his hands dirty.

-----

- Ever changing plan -

Initially, the plan was two working weeks at the supplier site. Meaning two sets of five working days with weekend back home.

Then it became two working weeks plus three days. The three days in the week before the start of the initially planned two weeks.

Three days over, backed for the weekend. Said goodbye to wifey and sons as they went to the inlaw's to spend the school break. Oh well, guess it meant I won't be seeing them when I am back during the in between weekend then.

Start of the first five days stretch, got an e-mail late in the evening from those who talk. The message is simple: "stay and work through the weekend".

So instead of two five days work weeks, it's now a twelve days stretch.

...

-----

- Laundry at Orchard -

Having only prepared five sets of clothes, laundry became a necessity after the change of plan.

The poor man in me simply could not bring myself to use the hotel laundry service, even when the company will foot the bill. I mean, come on, such ridiculous prices!

SGD10 per t-shirt, SGD5 per underwear, SGD5 per pair of socks... 0_o

And the hotel is too high class to have a self-service laundrette, bummer.

Exercising my google-fu resulted in two nearby laundrettes on Orchard Road. I am sharing this information here for anyone who is interested for any reason.

In the basement of CentrePoint is a laundrette named Laundry Club (not very creative is it?), it opens from 10:30 to 20:30 hours and charges SGD6 per kilogram of clothes. There is a minimum of 5kg so basically it's at least SGD30 per wash.

I ended up using the service of another laundrette called Laundry Day (seriously these people need to be more creative...), which is located in Cuppage Plaza. Business hours are 10:00 to 19:00 weekdays, 10:00 to 18:00 Saturday. Cost is SGD4 per kg, minimum of SGD12 (3kg).

This information is of course only up to date as of early June 2011.

-----

to be continued...

Gathering

Initially, the plan is to start sharing the tidbits of my recent business trip. A few things happened yesterday which resulted in this entry instead.

Firstly, I slept till noon. Own bed is always the bestest. =P

Secondly, while I was having lunch, I got invited to dinner and gathering with a bunch of my old close friends, meaning I won't be able to blog in the evening and probably most of the night.

Thirdly, after lunch I read a novel on my bed and took a nap. I woke up at about 16:00 hours.

Fourthly, I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on online forums (or fora), which I didn't have time to follow while away on business trip.

Fifthly, the dinner and gathering lasted three rounds, the last round being in my house and ended around 03:30 hours in the morning. And really I like to share about the gathering as it matters to me more.

What a gathering... I was rather surprised when I got the invitation, have always felt that the distance is widening among us, that I am no longer updated on the recent happenings among this group of old friends.

I probably have myself to blame since I am borderline anti-social and I do not enquire much. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I like to think that my friends will share if they wanted to. Though honestly I should have known better, not everyone "eat full so free" to blog and share stuff like I do. =P

Tell when asked is more of their modus operandi, for those who don't mind sharing that is. Some simply do not share even when asked. Each to his or her own, gotta respect that.

Anyway, it has been a fantastic evening. In this one night I have catched up on so much, I felt the links reconnected somehow, and that's a wonderful feeling.

Among us, there will be three weddings in the remaining of this year, imagine that! There is a fourth as well but from what I gathered, it will be a family only affair, the bride-to-be was not among the ten of us present so no confirmation.

Reminiscence of old times brought back fond memories as well as new sharing for those who didn't know, mainly me. Learned of much that I have been left out of.

Not sure why some of them thought of me as a standard of some sort, not really comfortable with that. I have so many flaws and made so many mistakes. Oh well, can't control what the others think.

If only we had more of this kind of gathering, and everyone could just share freely and willingly. Wistful thinking I know.

Just want to reiterate, it has been a wonderful night. And I really should go to sleep now...

五年记

嘿，小天使

又一年了

你还好吗？

你的大弟弟开始上幼儿班而且会顶嘴了

你的小弟弟则仍是对爸爸妈妈爱理不理

有时真拿他们俩没办法

你会在天国看顾着他们吧？

乖乖了小天使

爸爸会想着你的

I really don't understand you

After seeing His Royal Highness Boy King Hsiang intentionally breaking stuff (again), my exasperated wifey asked him,

"Why do you always have to destroy things? I really don't understand you, Hsiang Hsiang."

Which he answered,

"I also don't understand you, mama."

=/

+1

First foreign dungeon boss slayed after three days of trying (and wiping).

Level +1

Battered armour and notched weapons, party of two trudge on to the next challenge.

Bring it on!

-----

If you understand what I just wrote your clairvoyance level must be real high. =P

Basically, after three days of banging our heads against the wall getting no where, we finally made some real progress today in our work here at the supplier site.

It's about fish-and-duck-king time.