To be vegetarian and not to fly for a while...

I decided I should not be flying and also need to turn vegetarian for a while.

So I innocently rushed to HK airport just now, top on my head is whether I can find the Krispy Kream store and buy loads of it home.  The check in counter staff told me that the flight is full and I need to be bumped off, again.  Yes!  NO!

After I threw a hissy fit and escalated to supervisor level with my hysterics, I was reinstated on the flight.

Happy, right?  No.

They lost my luggage.  It's still missing.  Didn't fly in with me, didn't fly in on the next flight.  Changi's SATs staff (very nice, very professional, very patience) are tracing. 

Cathay Pacific, YOU SUCK!

Oh, and I shouldn't fly for a while, too suay these days.

First business trip with Motorola

I traveled a total of 17 hours over Thu to Sat!  I'm pretty sure I have DVT!  I miss those Taipei foot reflexology places.

Learnings :

- visited a factory building walkies, different from PCs for sure...  way lousier conditions, but nontheless a big eye-opener

- sat through a price re-negotiation with an OEM (so famililar, the same excuses even!).

- revisited HK after Cal moved back in 2002.  Long time since I came back.  HK looks great, I wished I had more time around town

- business travels in Asia is nice - nicer hotels ;) Sheraton rocks!

- I hate making small talk.  The 2 Irish colleagues I'm with are interesting.  Been in Moto for 20-ish years, got loads of experience but they are also talkative (ironical, work for walkie-talkie), talk non-stop for 4hrs over dinner.  There's a story for everything... Groan.  E.g. what do you do for sports, oh, I run... He goes, oh I know this Olympic runner...

The road crossing from HK to Shenzhen... when I took this picture, my Irish colleague went 'there goes felicia, hell bent on getting  us all arrested'.  they are so funny!

The view from my room in the Sheraton Shenzhen... wonderful ain't it ;)

When shit hits the fan...

2 weeks after the Jetstar bumped me off the return flight incident, I have neither heard from them nor received any of the promised compensation.

Thankfully for me (because I've been focussed on the new job, finding a car etc), my fellow irrate passengers were not similarly de-focused.  In fact, the guy that tried to pick Rae up (his name is Matthew) has been rather busy complaining to the local forums and media.

He finally succeeded when The New Paper published the story on front page yesterday!  Cool!  It's also on AsiaOne today - http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/420712/Jetstar_apologises_for_not_flying_some_passengers.html

I met Chris Ee at the rockwall at Yishun Tue night as well.  He now works for Jetstar's sales department, but was nice enough to get the customer support folks to look at my complaint letter on their website.

It'll be nice if I got something out of this, but I'm not optimistic.  It is afterall, budget travel.  El-cheapo people cannot be demanding people.

Already itchy?

Week 2 of Motorola
I discovered,
- there are thousands of people doing walkie talkie here!
- walkie-talkie technology antiquated though it may be, is pretty sizeable and complex.
- boss is a kancheong spider.  He made me do slides on my 6th day of work and I am traveling to HK tomorrow.  I barely know what I am talking about here!
- enterprise business is boring

So yesterday while packing up (Zi was on her way to pick me up for climbing), I received a call from a very Brit guy.  I thought it was my counterpart but it was a Nokia HR guy with a pretty interesting job but based in Farnborough, Hampshire in UK.  I can imagine having cows moo-ing me awake instead of an alarm clock. 

But nontheless, I updated my CV for Nokia and while I was at it, I also updated my CV into Monster, JobsDB, JobStreet and LinkedIn. 

There, all done.  Ready.

And I have cable...

Got cable TV & cable modem in the house.  Still short of a home use computer & a adapter for my wireless modem to complete the job.  Mom seems happy with cable TV back in the house.

I got to test drive the first Toyota Rush.  This one, despite the bright red, had prefered black.  But it's very low mileage and seems well maintained on the inside. http://www.sgcarmart.com/used_cars/info.php?ID=113898&DL=1050  Bargained with the dealer for a long time, but we stalemated over S$500.  Sigh.  Cars are so expensive these days.  Guess I keep looking and test-driving and keep riding the bus in the meantime.

New experiences

To new experiences :
- taking bus everywhere (is a drag)
- searching for a used car on sgcarmart over my lunchbreak
- breaking into a new work environment
- getting into a near-death on the NS highway in Malaysia

Thinking positively, new job, new car (soon I hope) and a renewed trust in our Lord.

Welcome home to Singapore!

Leaving Singapore, there was a little hic-cup.  Jetstar bumped me off the flight (2nd time in my life) and after much arguing, and hassle, I eventually flew home on Eva (got to watch a movie too!).  I must say the eventful departure made me realize my friends (Rae, Elmo and Luca) were great.  Stuck with me, really concerned for me.  Sigh... I want to cry now.

This is a huge catholic church opposite the cable TV customer service counter.  I went there just before leaving for a cash refund of the unused portion of my bill (we pay 2 months at a go in Taiwan).  The last of the free cable tv, only in Taiwan do you get 100 channels (including 4 movie channels) for the equivalent of about S$28.

Church somewhere in Taipei.

Since being back, my daytimes are occupied by work.  Still trying to figure out internet connectivity for home, buy a car (with rising COEs, not aiding my cause), buy an apartment (still so expensive) and try to hang out with friends.  It's actually a fun time, so I'm trying not to let everything overwhelm me so I get to enjoy this process.  Me at the Volkswagon showroom over the weekend. 

Blow the winds away please!

Going home, but there's a typhoon in my flight path and I'm flying Jetstarasia.  Help!

Countdown - 2 days!

House is so empty that there's an echo upstairs of the loft.

Tomorrow, folks will come for the 22" LCD & my tv set. Sigh...

I want to go home, I'm happy to go home, but still can't feel a tinge of nostalgia...

Stuff ship back today, d-day countdown - 5 days

After the last 3 days of putting my stuff into boxes, Fedex guy came to take them away.  I estimated 50 to 60kg.  Total weigh in today, 109kg.  Hmm...  Guess that's my life in 109kg.

Tried to tip Fedex guy, he said he'll be fired if he took my tip.  2nd time I tried to tip someone in Taipei and it got turned down.  Sigh.. I will miss this city.

I could bitch a little about Derek, as much as I planned and timed my schedule/dates, he has procrastinated/delayed/dragged out what he wanted to buy from Giant.  If I could blame it on my poor planning, I'd feel better.  But despite the last 2 weeks email/text/calling him, I finally went down to the Giant shop last night, called him on my cell, passed the phone to bike shop guy, for him to decide.  Unfortuately they don't have stock of what he wants, his orders arrive Wednesday, so it will miss my shipment, I need to hand carry back.  Hate poor execution to a plan.

I should be happy though.  Boxes to ship back - check!  All that's left are the admin matters like bank, cell phone etc. 

Packing - day 1

Packing - final day

 

Packing is a real chore

I'm pretty sure unpacking is a bigger chore.

For the last 2 days, I have been waking up, pack a little, go to a farewell lunch, overeat, go to the office for a little bit, go home to watch TV all night.

Not a bad life.  Guess I am max-ing out my last days of freedom since I am going home to mom. 

How to write a farewell email

I was surfing for standard politeness in a farewell email...  And this absolutely killed me. 


Dear Co-Workers,


As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type "Today is my last day."

For nearly as long as I've worked here, I've hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.

I would especially like to thank all of my managers: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake – it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.

Over the past three years, you have taught me more than I could ever ask for and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects – an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.

Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, “mostly satisfactory.” That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after even a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of mostly satisfactory scotch.

And to most of my peers: even though we barely acknowledged each other within these office walls, I hope that in the future, should we pass on the street, you will regard me the same way as I regard you: sans eye contact.


But to those few souls with whom I've actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:

To Rudy: I will always remember sharing lunch with you, despite having clearly labeled it with my name.

To Steven: I will miss detecting your flatulence as much as you will clearly miss walking past my cubicle to deliver it.

To Eileen: Best wishes on your ongoing campaign to popularize these "email forwards." I sincerely hope you receive that weekend full of good luck, that hug from an old friend, and that baby for your dusty womb.

To Felix: I left a new wristwatch on your desk. It is so that you might be able to still tell time even without your hourly phone call to let me know the copier is jammed. (Call Steven he'll come by.)

And finally, to Kat: you were right – I tested positive. We'll talk later.

So, in parting, if I could pass on any word of advice to the individual who will soon be filling my position, it would be to cherish this experience like a sponge and soak it up like a good woman, because a job opportunity like this comes along only once in a lifetime.

Meaning: if I had to work here again in this lifetime, I would sooner kill myself.

Very truly yours,
Chris Kula


PS: I will be throwing myself a happy hour farewell party at the burnt-out bar in the sub-basement of the bus station. Please do not stop by.

Packing

Now this is the hard part.  Giving away/throwing away stuff that are perfectly good all because shipping stuff home costs too much.  Sigh.

New style of handling emails

1 word - delete.

Our God has a sense of humour

I've always known that the good Lord has a great sense of humour... But in recent years, He has not (or perhaps I just wasn't open to see) provided much laughs.

But He truly does.

When the mercury hit past 30degrees C for the first time this year, I complained on Facebook about whether I can re-adapt to sunny Singapore.  I really should learn to keep my big mouth shut.  So guess what.... I get adaptation phase here.  On Saturday it was 38.6degrees, yesterday 37.1degrees.  Guess what the forecast is for the rest of the week: beyond 34degrees. 

Nice.

Be careful how and what you whinge about.  Our God listens and He being omnipotent + a keen sense of humour = Felicia sweating and adapting to more hot days.