the tour

Mobile blogging. That's the only way to do it for me. Today is globe trotting day. 3 countries in about 7 hours. No, it's not one of those wussy transit flights where you don't actually leave the airport. Heck, the whole of Singapore is one massive airport :) I also have a "please cut my line” pasted behind my back today. It all begun early in the morning. And I thought my country law men are doing me justice. I was at the gate to the immigration, and this Malay cop was giving some Chinese national a hard time over oversized hand luggage. "That looks fine" Maybe he's just Chinese, and If it were an Ang Moh carrying that bag, the cop will just let him through. But i held that though back for a while, and let the cop process the guys. That helped to build up quite a queue at the line. Then it came my turn, and suddenly this Caucasian guy cuts me abruptly and VIOLA! the local cop attended to him first! I was stunned and I said " Hey I was here first". to the cop who obviously ignored me and let the angmos in first. Then i read out his name. Andarin or something like that. He looked at me straight in the eye, and i gave a disappointed head shake and joined the other line.


Part 2 of cut my queue.
Singapore immigration. I was in line and there was a small gap between the guy in front of me and myself. And suddenly, this Bangladeshi guy conveniently cuts my line, parking comfortably in front of me. OK la. I didn't wanna put in my 2 cents worth of telling this kinda pple off. But seriously people.. We must be courteous. Why cut other's line? Just wait lah.. the plane is not going to leave without you. Ok it will, which is what almost happened to me today.


The plane that nearly got away
Terminal 2 of Changi serves major carriers (SQ, MH) and terminal 1 is for smaller carriers, aka budget airlines. I flew to Hat Yai on Tiger Airways, which i though was Thai Girl airways (fat hopes) This is my first budget carrier trip in Singapore. After paying 185 SGD for excess baggage, I decided to tour this terminal a bit. Found a nice sushi bar with lovely sushi ........ I shall not describe food. Too much details.


To be continued. Flight Thai-Girl Airways is calling....


A few days later....


I am glad I am going back. That's 4 countries in 8 days. Offshore was interesting. Was given skeptical cold welcome but a hero's return. It's not funny when you asked if you can swim back to Songkhla. Slept in the chopper. Yes I know, I know.. How can I sleep in a chopper.. But everyone else was sleeping. It was a Russian made. I think it's at least 20 years old. But Thai ingenuity, paint and cheap labor made it look all good. How do I know it's 20 years old? easy. from the gooffy hairstyle of the safety video played at least 4 times. Twice in English and Thai. We had ear plugs then.


The chopper ride took about 1 hour. First thing in my mind when I saw the barge was. Oh my. that's a big boat. True enough, It's big. It's fun walking up and down the decks, walking by the 2 galleys, One for expats and the other for locals. Guess which galley has an ice cream maker?


Total trip was4 days. 2 on and 2 offshore. Total Thai massage was 2hours x 2.
Cost of Thai massage: 240baht for 2 hours(thats not even 10 US dollars, people!!!)
Having your back massaged by a Thai girl in the vicinity of your own room : +30baht
Able to watch Cold Mountain while getting a massage: Free
Able to keep you dick in your pants while she massages the near sensitive area while smiling: Priceless
Church keeps trouble at bay. For every temptation, there's God to keep you steadfast.
Now, doesn't that sound like a credit card advert?



Got back onshore. "work is done" I thought, Back to KL. That wasn't on my boss' mind. So I took a flight from Hat Yai to Singapore and 5 hours later I found myself on a flight to Jakarta. Flight was good. Met this sweet but happening Vietnamese girl who works for a major tooth paste company. Had dinner with my new found friend, and she thought me how to say "Hom Vet Long". Which is "oh baby, that feels so good" in Vietnamese. That was a joke, mind you. hom vet long is the egg with an embryo inside it. Which is a delicacy ONLY in Vietnam(Thank God).BUT recently, I hear they have the same sick eggs in the Philiphines, it's called BELUT. Eww. The name is enough to irk me of it. So I guess bird flu is the chicken's revenge for people eating their un hatched semi developed young. Cruelty in it's best definition. Just like abortion. Cruelty is also, staying up intil 1am after getting only 4 hours of sleep on the previous day, knowing that you have to work the following day.


Jakarta is like what you see on TV. The gaps of poverty and wealth is extreme. You can see jobless guitar wielding shirtless men on the street while the car showroom displays Hummers and Ferraris. I liked my hotel. It's a Marriott!!. what's there not to like in a Marriott?? Lack of entertainment I'ld say. No in house bar, just a big big bed with fluffy fluffy pillows. Makes you wanna sleep the whole day and watch Jakarta go by from the 23rd floor.



At the present time, I am..
enjoying my cold caramel macchiato
digesting my spinach quiche
waiting for my flight
wondering who Radja is in Indonesia ( Some band who had a function at Hard Rock Jakarta)*****
feeling cold
turning a deaf ear to the people around me( except for flight announcements)
understood that 10,000 rupiah is 1usd
getting my ass off to board the plane.



That’s it. This is getting to long. I’ll blog bout my Dubai trip, when I have the time. Cheerios people.

You know you're it..

I am feeling unusually happy. Not ecstatic, just calmly happy. All looks good. I, however dread tomorrow. Hard manual work coming my way. I had a thought while i was in the cab from the office. You know you are, if you....that's exactly what I'll blog about.


disclaimer:
(some assumptions are a bit blown out of proportion)


You know you are on a perpetual diet if you watch your carb intake and consume less rice than your date
You know you are a workaholic if you wish you are at work on a weekend
You know you are a miser if you eat economy rice everyday and think twice about Mc Dee's
You know you are a hopeless romantic if you sing along to Frank Sinatra
You know you are a shopaholic if you have to walk in and out of a shop just to decide, and end up not buying
You know you have expensive taste if you know what A|X is
You know you are spoilt if you refuse to take the bus
You know you are a shoe freak if you have more than 9 pair of shoes (applies to guys only)
You know you are metro sexual if you tried out at least 2 shirts before finding out that the colors won't match your shoes
You know you are good looking if guys(gay ones) check you out. Either that or you are wearing an incriminating T-shirt
You know you are an Ah Beng if you can fit a cat in your car's exhaust
You know you are mommy's boy when you call your mom asking "what is cukai pintu?" or how to cook laksa
You know you are a geek when you start talking tech jargons and only an "elite" few understands it
You know you are of mixed parentage if people start talking to you in anything but english
You know you are a workout freak if you do push ups and sit ups in the hotel room
You know you are a net addict if you get pissed over revoked complimentary broadband access
You know you are in love if you just think about another person (has not happened yet, or has it?)
You know you are a dreamer if you plan on what car to buy next, but you can't decide whether to get a 2 door or a 2 seater
You know you are a Christian if you think twice about doing something sinister, and you sincerely TRY to live like one
You know you are a good son/daughter if you call your parents just to say "Hi" once in a while
You know you are in bad emotional shape if you listen to Damien Rice and find the lyrics relevant to your life
Yon know you are human if you feel pain, and you bleed.
You know you are Christian if you believe that Jesus is Lord, and he has the last say over everything (d'uh isn't it obvious)
You know you are a blog addict if you are blogging offline via Eudora, waiting to upload the blog when you get back that precious precious Internet access.





Below is the most beautiful box I've seen. Why? same prints will be on me, God willing. The box next to it however, reads "Italy". I wish for that instead.

Bloggy weekend

When bored, one gets restless. When bored, I surf friendster and blog (new found hobby). I slept most of the weekend, recuperating, as I may call it. Other than that, I met up a friend who kindly bought me dinner and I did some shopping. Bought something that will keep me company for a few days or so.

Today is Sunday, I didn't go to church. Don't know where is the nearest church here is, and I woke up at 11.30am. Went to my favorite supermarket in the whole of Singapore, Mustafa Centre. It's like being in India I tell you. Not to mention, It is located in Little India. What's so little about it? It's huge and there's lots of (d'uh) Indians and Africans. I feel so out of place here. I just take my meals, buy what I have to (this round was sinful mars bars and 1 litre of juice) and just retreat to my room. Ewww.


I look anything but chinese, and people speak to me in anything but english. At lunch I approached my regular Thai stall in a food court in Orchard's. Sawadee Kha, greeted the nice lady. I replied back, naturally, Sawadee Khap. Then comes the tricky part. She continued in Thai, which i think she's trying to get me to try the basil chicken, because I know "kai" in Thai means chicken. I just nodded and said "Basil Chicken please" Then comes the actual purchasing moment. Lady goes "4.00" in Thai. Ok, I was left in a daze. I was like. "er, huh??, Sorry. mai dai phut Thai, kap" which she quickly replied (in thai) If you don't speak Thai, why are you speaking it now?, and laughed. I pointed at myself and said. Me, from Malaysia, gave her 10 dollars and politely thanked her in Thai.

This has happened a few times, Once in a Burmese shop and another in a Vietnamese restaurant. Not to mention, i was warned that the omelette had pork prior to eating it and the nice Indonesian chef at the galley panicked as i picked up a piece of pork chop.

Being multi lingual is useful. Spoke my broken mandarin today to get food. I speak mandarin and Cantonese just to order food/get something done, and sound cute in front of Chinese chicks. I think chicks dig people who try learning local languages. Won't you love it if an Ang Moh spoke Malay to you?, Ok, I know... that was a turn off. But hey, try broken Thai in Thailand. It's bound to get attention.

That's it. nuff blogs for the weekend. 3 entries. that's a new record.

Reaction crtical

Right. I am back. This time I am online in my crap-of-a-hotel room. I have given this hotel a -4 star after they have revoked my cooperate rights to free Internet access. I am actually paying for this connection.

In case you are wondering, what does the picture have to do anything? well, nothing really. I wanted to put the caption "Ah beng's ultra fast stickers gave him uncontrolable speed". No ah beng was hurt in this incident, Thank God.

Why am i sitting my ass down in my room on a Saturday in Singapore? Why am I not out shopping? Cos i am too broke to get my ass out (i am just kiamsiap la ok) and I am suffering from multiple body aches after the acrobatic stunt i pulled off at work. So i've decided to just relax, go online and voyeur into people's friendster. Now that I am all alone in a private room, i shall strip bare and.... *ouch* just kidding. Sorry for the bad bad mental picture..

My camera won't link up with this ancient notebook. I went down to get a CF card reader but the shop is not open yet. I'll be getting it later. Hopefully i'll add some pictures to this all text blog.

Which reminds me. How to react to a compliment.

You look good.
Actual verbal reaction: "No lah, I am fat-lah"
Mental reaction: "Why thank you, i've been working out. thanks for noticing"
Wishful reaction: "Yea, feel my arms, feel my arms, I'll flex for you"
Correct reaction: Acknowledge the compliment, and return a sincere compliment. eg: "why thank you, you look great yourself too!"

Many times i've reacted, "No-lah I am fat" which I have noticed to be such a turn off, when in actual fact, my gym person has give me a green light on my body mass index. It's probably an Asian mentality. Let's face it. Asians do not react well to compliments or praise. We deny it with our words, but deep down it feels good. Are we on the same frequency here? If I were to tell a Asian girl, (sorry to generalize) "hey, you look great! I like what you did to your hair" her reaction would probably be "he-he (blushes) No lah, it's just the shampoo I used" but in actual fact, she has just spent a few hundred bucks on rebonding and straitening. Next comes the mental reaction. If the guy is good looking, girl would probably think"oh gosh, he likes me".

But how sincere is a compliment? I know for a fact that we (Asians) do not compliment or acknowledge people's effort as much as others. A good work done for example, should be acknowledge, simple words like "Well done" or "Good job" is simply uplifting. It tells the person that his efforts are recognized, and It should motivate the person to work better or at least, prevent him/her from slacking off.

Getting appreciating "speeches" from your superior is a good thing. Fishing for one is a different thing all together. *frown* Reacting to a compliment is critical. You have only .5 of a second to react and if it's the boss you're talking to, it better be a correct reaction.

Check out this instance...

Boss: (in the lines of ) you're a fast learner, usually people are not capable of doing this is such a short time
Kuli: (finding hard to not smile) Oh, really? It's not too hard, I've done this before prior to this.
Boss: Well, keep up the good work, I really appreciate you doing this
Kuli: No problem.

Now, let's analyse that crap-of-a- reaction to a compliment. What Kuli should have said was " Yes Sir, I put in extra effort to learn and get the job done right, I really appreciate you noticing my efforts, now give me more pay" the pay bit was a joke, mind you.

See? sounds all to familiar? Please don't let it happen again. Now that you've reading this. Being overly shy over compliments will shy you off your well deserved pay increment. (RIGHT)


The best compliment you can ever get and probably react genuinely to it would be compliments from your loved ones, family etc.

I can only imagine how mom would feel if we were to tell her " mom, nice la your curry. It's the best in the world!" or "Dad, I love you. you're the best!" hmn, ponder ponder. yes, I must say. this would be the best form of compliment on earth. I am going to make this sound like a government family bonding campaign. Remember to thank your loved ones, and appreciate them. Now go on, pick up that phone and dial 1-800-PARENTS to tell them how much they mean to you. Now I am feeling blue, I am calm, yet blue. I shall call my parents in a bit..



"well done my good and faithful servant" would be the ultimate reward/compliment I would wanna hear. when and how, I do not know. right now, i am more worried with how am i going to achieve that. How-ar? comment me some tips please.

Now, my reaction to that will be ..... I don't know for sure, but I won't say anything silly to Him. Would you??? . there. thought so.

Man, this is a depressing entry.

Oh by the way. i am a proud owner of an all in one card reader. Now i can upload my pictures.