Own Time Own Target

it started with a scratchy throat on wednesday, and steadyly developed into a full-blown sore throat today with hoarse voice. One thing led to another over the weekend and didnt get a chance to see the doctor.

And now I'm in the office rushing thru last min and urgent stuff and to leave soon for my flight.

i hope i dont have to pay too dearly for not seeking medical attention in time.

Labels: to Despair

Okay... another trip. Finally nailed down the itinerary with all parties concerned.

i'm all breary-eyed, stiff-necked and frozen-shoulders. eaten too much chocolate and drank too much tea.

and there's still more work to be done, both to prepare for the trip and to clear and instruct before i go, i cant even think about the work waiting for me when i come back and those that i'll be carrying back with me.

i'm not relishing my work in BKK, exciting tho the stuff might be. safety concerns. but work must go on. i can only pray that i get them done quickly and escape in 1 piece.

in the mean time, lets try and clear at least 2 reports before i leave, ok?

oh gosh, i forgot, still got to go Vietnam in August. its alright, just breath.

Labels: to Travel

Received the invites from Leng!

A break! A drinking break! A drinking break with Friends! YAY!!!

Had dinner with Leng and DD and Leng's friends at Great World City. Good was the food and the company, bad was everybody else were so late that we finally started eating at close to 8pm. A hungry (wo)man is an angry (wo)man, but i was in subdued mood with visions of free booze swimming in my head.



anyways, we got to Velvet Underground only at 930pm. The event was Hennessy's Discover Music presenting Bristol Beats. I've never heard of them before today. :p band consists of a girl vocalist and 3 guys. the drummer was the best, the beats were hypnotic, you cannot not move to them.

the crowd was a good size for the hour. and drinks were free flow: Hennessy Shanghai and Hennesy New York, which were Brandy Ginger Ale and Brandy Coke respectively. NY was too sweet for me, and Shanghai was better. The drinks were generous, but we had a bit of trouble getting the waiters' attention to serve us, so in the end we ordered 10 at 1 go :p i think i accounted for half of all the drinks that we had that nite.

We were more than a little tempted to bring the cute Hennessy glasses home, but Leng said nooooooo.... so we didnt. really. really didnt.

toilet at Zouk was terrible as usual, just 2 cubicles for easily a thousand girls passing through in a nite, thankfully cleanliness wasnt an issue. tho it was a good 20min wait to use 1. :dead:

our pass allowed us free access to Zouk's various locations, but it was just too crowded, especially Weds being mumbo jumbo nite. we gave up by 2am, and headed home. fun nite nonetheless, half of it from the company :)

The next event is 6 weeks later, lets see if i can score a couple of invites then :D

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

After the late notice to fly in less than 24 hours, screwing up my schedule for work flow and having to reschedule meetings for the whole week, I got a call late last nite that we shall be flying on next Monday instead.

mad.

mad as in crazy, not in angry.

too tired to get angry.

gotta reschedule all the meetings again...

at least i get to go to the girls nite out session in its entirety from dinner to party this weds.

baring any MORE CHANGES, that is.

help.

Labels: to Work

Labels: to Despair

I received the direct mailer for SCSM 2006 with a discount code for finishers from last year. Promising to be the biggest and most, being the 5th in the series.

Registration starts 21 Jul 06.
Race Date 3 Dec 06.

i want to run, but i dont know if i will be able to then, and i dont want to register and then not show, thus depriving another of the chance to run...

how how how?

Labels: to Sweat

the course finished at 5pm sharp as the instructor was mistakened that it had to end on time LOL. past sessions used to end closer to 6 or even pass 6.

walked over to Bras Basah Complex since I havent been there in ages, and checked out

1. a shop selling chinese caligraphy stuff
goodness, i just love the smell of 墨硅 (chinese ink blocks), the texture of 宣纸 and the feel of holding a brush... one of these days, i'll quieten, memorise the 心经 and practice caligraphy on it. :)

2. Pop @ central
which is Popular the bookshop in a 4 storey unit with industrial designs of concrete screeting floors, aluminium lamp shades, wire handrails and even a cafe at its level 2. An interesting assortment of books, with a good section on arts & design, chinese arts, classics, comics + manga and not forgetting the usual suspects of text books and workbooks, toys and stationery. Couldnt resist and bought 3 books for $24 :D

3. Dinner at 天津馆
we had
- Steam meat dumpling 三鲜饺子 Good thin skin, but pity it wasnt the version with 韭菜, next time i'll just have the veg dumpling version. 12 pcs
- Pan fried meat dumpling 三鲜锅贴 This was to die-for! crispy, just slightly burnt, thin skin, juicy meat, and dipped into a chili oil + vinegar sauce + sliced ginger. YUMMMM.
- Fried Spinach 炒菠菜 okay. fresh veg with lots of garlic and a sprinkling of dried ancovies which was a nice touch
- Drunken Chicken 醉鸡. A cold dish and it came with a wine broth! i was so surprised. nice chinese wine taste and smell. hick*
- Fried glutonous rice cake 炒年糕. A little too oily for my liking and the prawns was 画蛇添足, adding nothing to the dish and absolutely unnecessary other than bumping up the price. IMHO, the dish should be simply made with the rice cake, cabbage and thin sliced pork.

Just $43 for 2 px, tea and towelettes. good authentic comfort food at reasonable price. cant ask for more.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party, to Read Think

2nd session within a day, since both on 17-07-06...

start 1135pm, 17:00 min, 1670 strides, 316 cal. ended with stretches, push-ups and sit-ups.

dead tired.

Labels: to Sweat

okay, feeling guilty over too much drinking from the KL-BKK trip, and a HUGE dinner at Chef Kang on Sunday nite with the family.

so the logical thing to do is to restart my exercise regime:

start 135am, 10:03 min, 1060 strides, 207 cal. ended with stretches, push-ups and sit-ups.

yup. 135am, my body clock has gone haywire from the late nights throughout the trip. and just 10min to test my ankle. they held up, thank goodness.

a small start. still a start, nonetheless.

Labels: to Sweat

random ramblings from too many days in BKK

KL to BKK
It was the worst airline food i've had in awhile for my flight from KL to BKK. I chose chicken with ginger in rice and it was almost inedible, kinda reminds me that all airline food used to taste this bad. The only thing i finished was the water and the bread.

Massage
Since we had time to kill before dinner, we went for a massage at Chaophya Vej at Chaophya Park Hotel. Only THB 500 for a 2 hour session (whole body + peppmint oil for head masage), and THB 200 for 30min foot massage. satisfying! so good that i tipped the messuer THB 200 and she gave me the brightest smile :)

Dinner at Scala, China Town
After an insanely long hotel check-in, we took the subway to the end and cab to China Town, and had dinner at Scala, where they served the tiniest suckling pig i've seen, maybe a 20 day old suckling... the rest of the food was ok, but if you are having your dinner at 9:30 BKK time, everything taste good.

New Business Opportunity
The original work stuff was supposedly check subsi accounts, clear out some imaginative accounting, tie up loose ends, and settle some Vietnam new venture issues.

Surprising the most interesting bit came up when we had dinner with someone very influential ("SVI") who has connections on both sides of the law. Almost sure fire way to make money, and we managed to get the distribution rights in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan and Korea. The details having been hammered out in a KTV, as usual.

We'll "just" have to go through the contracts (when we do receive them) with a fine comb with our lawyers to make sure that everything will be above board and nobody will be going to jail, for whatsoever. If it moves, everything will be up and running in 3 months, with the next trip to BKK in 2-3 weeks to meet with Thai officials. Then a business office in town, publicity blize galore, and cash register ringing.

Exciting times this is.

Labels: to Travel

Bliss is the day that i do not have to go to the 2nd round after dinner. I have met the girls in KL KTV and i dont like them (and i suspect that they dont like me too, probably they cant figure if i am going to take away their business... ) and i dont want to be there again.

so i find myself back in my hotel room just after 1130pm. YAY

the usual hotel that we go to is fully booked, so we are here in Parkroyal and booked into the club floors, and for RM350++ with breakfast, internet access etc, good deal!

plus i like the room and facilities and i finally get a chance to use them instead of just for zzz

tasteful and understated design. So understated in fact that i had trouble finding the cupboards, which is in the far corner of the picture with 2 discreet pull handles :D

and i like the non-glare elbow bar designed table lamp, the hidden power plug in the desktop and high back leather chair. yup, that is my fujitsu baby :)

a nice cup of hot chinese tea, mask on my face, and surfing the internet on free broadband service.

i might watch a dvd or read a book, or 2 when i'm done surfing.

bliss.

Labels: to Travel

Revised 17-7-06

Went dinner at Gonbei at Star Gallery, Starhill KL. Only the most expensive Jap restuarant in the most expensive shopping centre...

The restuarant was located at "Relish Floor", the 5th floor for the uninitiated, cos all the floors have names in Starhill but not numbers, "Pamper Floor", "Imagine Floor" etc. How about "WEIRD" ?

we asked for smoking area, and waiter told us that everywhere is smoking area :) and best of all, "anyway, there are screen partitions, the other pp cant see" LOL

anyways, the food was just so-so, fresh sashimi since the shipment only got in 5pm the previous day, but for the money, we had expected better. The snail was cubed and cooked in broth in its own shell, and yuck. Nabe pot was ok. Grilled scaloop on shell was sweet and fresh. everything else unmemorable.

7 9 pp, food + 1 2 bottle santory whisky + 2 750ml bottle of sake = RM2,600. RM4,700 OMG, I just saw the claim from my colleague. Good Grief. we better get the order. *mutter* * mutter*

not going there again

unless of course the VIP asks for it again...

Labels: to Eat Drink Party, to Travel

what do you do if you go to a seminar and talk to a few fellow attendees, exchange some namecards and information...

and then to have a quite big-shot mature man start calling you persitently for friendly chats where you are unfailingly polite (i mean he's old, must 敬老尊贤 what) and trying to set up lunch appointments where you keep telling him that you dont have time for executive lunch or be able to travel far? despite having informed him that you have 2 kids, almost never go to town (hence difficult for a meet up) and very busy at work?

is this networking?

what kind of networking?!!

i'll freak if i start getting flowers.

ewwwww

Labels: to Despair

Good grief. another one. at least it is a 2-in-1, and i can skip HCM for now.

Labels: to Travel

Ever since the Hainan Beef Noodle moved away from Ghim Moh then to opposite Clementi Interchange then to IBM Towers and then to i heard somewhere in Marine Parade but dont really know where, I have not had any beef noodle that's up to the same standard...

Oh~ i'll still have them, it being such a comfort food for me.

so i go to the ones at
- Scotts Picnic foodcourt - passable but stingy portions of slice beef
- Emeral foodcourt - not so bad chili
- Jurong Point B1 foodcourt - nearest and easiest

but the one in JP has been replaced by some other store. 1 more bites the dust. :(

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Borders had a sales last weekend, and as I was behind on newspaper reading from work trip (yes... i compulsively read everyday's newspapers even when the news is old... the worst catch up was 2 weeks' worth), i only got to know about it on Sunday, the last day.

The sales went like this:
- 25% off all full-priced books when you buy 3
- 30% off when you buy 4
- 35% off when you buy 5 and above

so obviously, i bought 7

and that's after exercising self-restraint.

or i would have bought the Nick Horby bundle of 3 books at $33 too, but i've decided to borrow these from the library (since these are books that i am not likely to want to read again).

or the books from the only Playboy literary contributor from Singapore, like "In Lust We Trust", I've decided to buy and sell back to a second-hand bookstore. Since the library is unlikely to stock these books...

All for $107+, a savings of close to $60. All books that i want to read and keep, and books that i've read and want to keep.

- Chasing Daylight - The memoir of the last 3 months of KPMG chief. It is slightly macabre, but I'm fascinated by these things.

- 1984 - I'm going to be reading this every 5 years and see how much or not the world has changed.

- The Great Gaspy - supposedly a great classic...

- Plato - My first foray into philosophy, I could have gone socrates or Aristotle, but this seem "easier" and also a classic. These series btw features classic books from different genre in small hard cover, onion paper, small print and book jacket for very reasonable price.

- Clerkwork Orange - Supposedly another classic, and was supposed to have inspired one of the most disturbing movies of the last century. I dont know which one, i will find out.

- Gone with the Wind - 60th anniversary... of the movie? did the book come first, or the movie, or was there never a book before the movie? supposedly good writing....

-A History of Nearly Everything - kinda a history of nearly everything for a dummy that is not so dum...

Labels: to Read Think

goodness, i really am getting old.

a 2-day trip + sick kiddo + world cup viewing + a course + a wake = zombie at work today.

could hardly work. cant even organise my to do list, and was so irritated that i turned off my desktop task list.

Strong chinese tea didnt work

Strong coffee at lunch didnt work

It is thus.....

Red Bull to the rescue!

my old standby from uni days.

i can feel the caffein rush already

but am i going to work? lets see :D

Dont want to talk about the work, it went well, issues settled and they will get done, hopefully sooner than later.

but i had the most glorious meal that i've had in, i dunno, almost a year? (the last 1 in Raku)

We had dinner at Overseas Chinese Restaurant at Jalan Imbi Golden Triangle near KLCC. It was a restaurant housed and and taking over an entire 4-storey building, with metered parking right out front. But you can ignore the meters and park with the Indian Jargahs, who will guard your car against crimes, take care of the meter (put in money only when the patrol show up) and stop traffic for you to park/ leave. All for RM5.

We got a private room cos we made reservations a day before, and since there were 6 of us, we could afford to order more dishes to sample.

Our Menu after consultation with the captain:

1. Braised Pork Trotter
Heavenly!!! We had spied other pp having this dish the last time we were here, and had remembered to order it this time :D Great great great stuff. The skin was soft melt in the mouth, the cartilage bits were softly chewy, the meat while not alot was tasty. Together with a dip in soy sauce and sliced chili and minced garlic... YUM YUM YUM

2. Stew Turtle Leg
This was a special, not often on offer dish, that the captain recommended. It was fantastic! The skin was like warm jelly and the cartilage just the right gellotin consitancy, and your lips absolutely get smack-sticky after the dish with all the collogen. It was stewed simply and served without much suace and no overbearing herby smell. YUM YUM YUM

3. Farlang Pot
Basically salted fish and fatty pork strips in black sauce served in claypot, and a staple of the resturant, cant do without it, no matter how small a pot. You can have 3 bowls of rice just with this 1 dish. Fragrant and salty and lightly burnt and sweet. YUM YUM

4. Chicken soup
Errr... ok, it was a clear soup with chicken, and some herbs and veg. it felt nourishing, especially since it was the 1st dish served after an almost 30min wait, at 8pm. i had 2.5 bowls. :D

5. Veg
unmemorable, oily fry. 'nuff said.

6. Steamed batang fish in minced garlic and ginger
Fresh river fish, lots of meat, and lots of bone too. but the flavour combi of fish-garlic-ginger was oh-so-right. I took 1 eye too. YUM YUM.

7. Asam Prawn
Tart asam prawn with pineapple, was good. but it was also the last dish to be served, and by then i was so stuffed that i could only sample it...

We were were all so full that we couldnt move and could only cram a mug of beer each (er... the weather hot mah).

The bill came up to only RM338 including rice, tea and drinks, best meal in a long while and cheap (each beer was RM8) too.

when's the next KL trip? :)

Labels: to Travel