31 Jan: Random Rant

Last day of the month, so fast. Another 18 more days and it's CNY!

Shucks, I only managed to buy tops for the new year, no bottoms, how ah? Was thinking of either pairing them with my old jeans or culottes/berms will do, save all the trouble to hunt. And I can't wait to wear my new Guess watch, a gift I bought for myself, only cost me $70 after using the free vouchers and redeeming my credit card points. Happiness.

The weather has been so good lately. Hate to wake up to a bright and cooling sunny day where I have to head to office and can't do my laundry. My smelly jeans and jacket are rotting in the laundry basket now, after I came back from the India trip. *yucks*

Met up with a financial planner last evening with the hubby and MIL. We are planning to pool our money together to do some good investments together. What equity funds, unit trusts, dividend funds, my mind immediately switched when I heard these unfamiliar terms. All I know is that I have this amount of money ready for investment, so shall leave it to hubby's decision to see how he wanna grow it.

And I'm so jealous. The sister is bringing the entire family (without me!!!) to BKK in March. They have confirmed the tickets using my BIL's mileage and all ready to go...I is pouting now cos' I don't have enough mileage to redeem any tickets! Boo-hoo!! How could they??

Next Bollyhood Billboard Charter

Unconsciously, I found our that I have the talent of composing a song.

Not only the lyrics, but also the music. I is so proud of myself.

It happened when I was walking down the Cochin beach (beside the Taj Hotel I was staying) with a colleague on our last day there. One particular shop was blasting deafening Hindi music, and suddenly the inspiration juz intrigued and soon I was humming something good under my breath.

Here it go, lyrics are copyright, so dun you dare!

(Song to be sung in high-pitch):

"Come and come and..come and catch me...
I am standing underneath the tree..
My boyfriend is fishing in the sea...
I want to ask him to marry me...

Ahhhhhhh....Yayayaya........"


This's just the first par, the inspiration has since vanished when I'm back.

Till then, when I return to the neh neh land again! I think it's August? Yeh, I deserve a good break.

Talk to the Chi Chi

Was in the pantry this morning, the blue gals (colleagues from the production dept) started to bombard me when I'm going to get preggy. I lamented that I've been trying but with no luck and one of them, a mother of 2 boys exclaimed that I should "communicate" with my "chi chi" (ermm..vaginal..) so that it will listen to me and I have better luck in trying.

So funny.

I asked her for the "script", I mean..what am I supposed to say to my "chi chi"??

Like.."Chi chi ah...pls be good, when you meet the gu gu, remember to send all the spermies in when the gu gu erupts ok?"..

Duh.

I already gave up hope. If it comes, it comes. If not, I'm juz as contented to spend my life with hubby goh alone. We spoke sometime before and I suggested why not we juz forget about the baby plans and just save the money and go for long and fruitful trips together every year? He's doesn't buy the idea and reprimanded me for giving up so easily. He said we are still young and healthy, so why not try till we strike? Young? I'm not...I'm 32 this year, I don't think I have the energy to run after my kid when I turn 40. And healthy? Not sure how true. If healthy, how come we still have probs conceiving?

Anyway, I have already stopped dwelling on this. And I hope the family and relatives will stop harping on this during CNY. Gimme a break people, stop giving us further stress. So what if I have a baby or not? As if you care..

Nightmares

Been having nightmares lately, not sure why.

Just yesterday, I woke up breaking in cold sweat in the morning, relieved that hubby goh was sleeping beside me. I dreamt of bumping into him at a food court where he was holding to a gal's hand at a food stall, ordering food. He was holding her hands real tight, and when I approached him and told him to let go her hands, he refused and shoo-ed me away furiously. I cried and cried and ran away but he juz didn't bother to chase or call me. And back at home, I was waiting for his return and when he eventually did, I confronted him on that gal and he told me that he has been actually seeing "Yizhen" for quite a while but he is willing to give up that affair and come back to me. Yes, I remember so clearly that the name is "Yizhen". I broke down again and shook my head, cos' I know that once a strayed man, is always a stray man. I know that I will not trust him again and there will be no point of getting back together. Then I keep crying and crying...and I could feel the heartaches and wrenches....it seems just so real.

Sad eh? I know.

I'm crossing my fingers that it's just a nightmare. Hubby goh called me silly when I related the nightmare to him. Haha...it could be I missed him too much when I was in India. *blush*

Anyway, been troubled by something lately. Some disappointment. And I'm going to get a confirmation/answer this Friday. I hope everything is fine so that I can see some light and pursue again. Pray hard for me yah?

Tired

The 4.5hrs trip back from Cochin was super tiring. First, there was a major accident on the way to airport. Our car was practically inching its way on the road, the 2 lane road suddenly splitted into 4 lanes (cos' the road doesn't have any lane markings!), all the motorists were getting helpless and impatience, everyone was rushing home for dinner. It turned out that a motorbiker has clashed into a big red truck at the junction, the policemen were trying to tow away the wrecked vehicles from the other road, and by the time we passed the accident site, there were only shattered glasses all around and passer-bys trying to figure out what had caused the fatal accident.

Anyway, when we reached the run-down international airport, we were horrified to find out that our Silkair flight was delayed by a freaking hour! There were no DFS shopping, no cafes, no bookstores, only chairs and a miserable stall selling snacks and drinks. We fretted, chose a comfy seat at one corner and tried to take a short nap while waiting for the plane to arrive.

The plane finally decided to arrive only at 12.30am and we were all being scoot off to the plane very fast. It was not the final peace I tell you. People were coughing, sneezing..and there was this particular wailing kid who cried non-stop during the 4.5hrs flight. I is nearly wanted to tear my hair off and kill myself. Sigh...kids.

Am so glad to be back. Been sleeping alot yesterday but still feel ever so tired. Nope, I should get washed up and do some shopping later. I DON'T HAVE ANY NEW CLOTHES FOR CNY!! *panic*

Time to spend money!

Greetings from India!

Nameste!

Just touched down Cochin this morning. It was the first time flying in a propeller jet, so teeny weeny, so cute! Risked my camera taking a snap of the jet, hahah...couldn't resist, will post it the next posting.

Cochin is having a motor strike today, to protest against the hike in the motor insurance premium. The public transport halted service today, no buses, no cars. We were even chauffeured by a policeman in our airport transfer to ensure safety. Now, I'm just worried that this stupid strike will cause poor attendance to my event tonight. Spoke to the hotel personnel and they assured that the strike should be over by 6pm today, so we could still expect our crowd. Am crossing my fingers and toes.

It's 1.5 hrs to my event..nua-ing in the room and doing some last minute preparations. So tiring..it's always not fun doing roadshows here, esp when the sales team doesn't lend a hand and expect you to run the show alone. Lucky this time I have my buddy colleague to help, but he's one cumberson man also, doesn't seem to make the effort to remember our flight itineraries and depended me for all the details. I'm looking after 7 big men in this trip, can you imagine?!

Alright...gotta go...more details later!

False Alarm

Well, so it turned out to be a false alarm. Good, so now I can leave for India at ease.
Way to goooooooooooooooooo!

Good news. Got my variable bonus today. It was slightly more than what I've expected. Happiness.
Also got a pay increment. I'm quite pleased with it. Double Happiness.

Hmm...how should I reward myself??

Eating Like A Pig

Recently been having hunger pangs frequently. I think I'm beginning to be like a pig. People eat to live, I live to eat..haha.

Dunno why these hunger pangs occur so often, my stomach starts to growl almost every 4-5 hours. I'm not usually like this. Like on weekend, I could have a hearty breakfast, skip lunch and only feel hungry at abt 6pm. Now I can't. Like yesterday, I made breakfast, we took it at 11am and at abt 4+, I got so hungry that the gastric started to attack. What is so wrong? Sigh..must be the heavy workload that got my system all screwed up now. *fret*

I don't want to usher the new pig year acting like a pig. Snort snort.

Bleah.

You Speak the Loudest

How would I know you have screwed up internet access there?
You said you're catching a flight soon, how would I know you are still checking emails?
25mins to download an email? You could have juz delete it away using web mail! Still download for what?

I is pissed..

It doesn't pay to do the right thing.

You have a bad day doesn't mean you can jump on me for the slightest thing.

WTF.

HCM: Day 2 & 3

Day 2, off we went to Mekong Delta River Cruise.

It was a long long journey, longer than going to Cu Chi Tunnel, about 2 hrs+ ride from District 1 we were staying. Halfway, Ah Sam suggested going for a toilet break and sample some local brew coffee. The coffee was aromatic, but I is not a coffee-drinker, so I stuck to their local coconut drink..hehe. The boss said that she's not used to their coffee cos' it tasted more like almond nut, and it was super sweet too. See, coconut is still a wiser choice.

Vietnamese love hammocks! Everywhere you go, you see them string the hammock across any tree trunks they can find. Even kids are rocked to sleep in the hammock!

At the jetty, taking the ferry to My Tho island.

There we see women busy hand-making sweet snacks from coconut...

then we sat down to have a Fruits Feast...the chikus and papayas are sweet sweet sweet!

The entire tour ended with a cruise down the Mekong River. Ermmm...actually nothing really fanstastic, the two sides of the river were surrounded with swampy plantations (mainly sea coconuts) and the river water wasn't exactly clean too. But the thrill of the ride was sitting on the sampan and wearing the pointed top hat. The thing about Vietnam is, you tip everywhere you go, even for the sampan rowers, we have to tip them cos' they row for a living and depended on the tips to survive.

So much of the river, we came back to the city. We took a glimpse of their City Hall when inspecting the nearby Rex Hotel.

The infamous Ben Thanh Market. Lots of bags, shoes, dried food, tee shirts, chiong stuff...

Shoes shoes...lots of shoes!

I made frens with the shops assistants...haha. This shop sells the most variety of bags and we bought most of our loot there. They say will give me VIP discount on my next trip with the tai-tais!

The busy road outside the market. The people there commute mostly by bikes..got special lanes for the bikers somemore. It's amazing how these people can drive around cos' most of the roads don't have lane markings and those single lane roads allow 2-way traffic, causing severe jams at the time.

The last day of the trip was spent on checking out their top 2 golf clubs. The weather was so scorching hot that I developed a headache all the way back to S'pore!

Thank god, I'm back..

HCM: Day 1

The flight was slightly delayed so by the time we reached HCM, it was nearly 12-ish. Our local guide was Chinese Vietnamese who can speak fluent Mandarin, Canto and of cos' Vietnamese. He was a little on the feminine side, so we 2 bitches suspected that he was gay, but turned out that someone has model gf and getting married next year! Yay...

We were famished, so the guide (Ah Sam) brought us to this run-down restaurant for a bowl of authentic Pho. Once you had this, you wouldn't even want to eat those in S'pore. They use real bones and natural ingredients for the soup so it was super tasty and yummy...but it's kinda wierd, they eat the Pho with you tiao?!

They serve us one big plate of mint leaves, rosmary leaves, to add into our Pho. So healthy! No wonder they are so slim...hardly can spot any obese around!

Next destination: Cu Chi tunnel. Took abt an hr plus to reach there, had a little backache cos of the long journey. The guide forced us to watch the intro video, aiyo...the video was in ancient black and white, the shooting was so bad that I ended up feeling goggy after watching it for 15mins.

Then we proceed to take a walking tour to the site..

Now you see it..

Now you don't! It's a trap la...once u stepped on it, you will fall into this hole with sharpened wooden sticks slapped with poison to kill the US army back then.

Making shoes from tyres...the soldiers wore these shoes to prevent from stepping on debris during the war.

Cute huh! they are for sale too!

See how small the tunnel is? Ang moh still wanna go in...I tried, but u-turned cos the tunnel looked scary!

The bigger sized ones had to crawl inside the tunnel...ewwwww.....

After crawling, you are treated with a plate of freshly steamed tapioca, the stable food for the soldiers during war time. No wonder they ended up so small size and no strength to dig the tunnel bigger!

Mr and Miss Soldier...they differentiate themselves with different design scarves around their neck. These 2 from the same platoon...so kinky!

The empty shells of the bombs found after the war ended.

After Cu Chin tunnel, we went back to the city for more sight-seeings. First stop was Notre Dam Cathedral Church.

It was Sunday, they were conducting a mass when we visited it. So crowded can? Some simply stood outside and mumbled prayers to Virgin Mary.

Nice huh!

Next stop: Saigon's General Post Office. Nothing to shout about, just that it's colonial architectural is impressive. More for stamp collectors and those who wish to make trunk calls back to love ones.

The painting of their great founder..

Last stop: Dinner! There were so much variety so we settled for French-Viet, recommended by Ah Sam. It was packed to the brim at 6.30pm, but Ah Sam knows the owner so we managed to get a seat somehow.

Fresh prawns in coconut husk. It tasted just like normal prawns, not sure what's the logic of frying the prawns in fire..

My favourite scallops! Done ala french style...I had three!

We wrapped up the day with a massage next to the hotel. Cost 210,000 Don (app S$20) for a 90mins session, with fresh cucumber facial, foot spa and massage, back massage and face massage. So damn cheap! The boss went into deep sleep during the foot massage..haha...and SNORED! gosh...

So how? Wanna go?

Will update Day 2 tmr...too many pics liao!

Trip to Saigon

It's always good to be back home, back to homeland =)




The trip with the boss alone was not as bad as I've expected. Except for the occasional coughs (early in the morning when she wakes up, during the day, and before she sleeps), it was quite fun traveling together. I hope I didn't get her cough virus after bunking 2 nights with her though. She's on MC for these 3 days, so I hope I'm still ok and well enough to fly to India next week *touch wood*



Me in the sampan cruising along Mekong River. HCM was fun, but not as exciting as will tempt me back to the city again. If wasn't that I have to bring my VIPs back for the incentive trip next month, this trip will seal as my virgin and last trip to HCM. You know, the "been there, done there" sorta trip...shall post more details in the next blog..busy clearing emails and work now.

Tata!

HCM: 14-16 Jan! India: 23-27 Jan!

It's a traveling month for Jan 07. Leaving for HCM, also known as Saigon this Sunday for a site inspection trip. Will be my first to Vietnam land, wonder how will it be like?? Lorri said crawling inside the smelly Cu Chi Tunnel sucks big time, my agent even aggravated that he has skin allergies after the crawl. Cow! I is so big size, how to fit into the tunnel? Maybe I should make a pass and head to Mekong River and Ben Thanh Market instead. Haha..shopping again..I like!!

After back from HCM, it's heading back to the Neh Neh land again. This time to Chennai and Cochin, 3rd tier cities, I hope I won't fall sick on this trip, choy choy choy *touch wood* !! My buddy colleague is coming along too so I have an extra pair of hands to help out at the event, I is happy! We can go snort at the ah nehs together and I can run for my life with him kena bashed by the Indians...muhahhaa..

On the flip side, I is hate to fly in a group. The ngeow koo company likes to purchase promo air tickets to cut cost, and promo tix dun get to earn mileage. Damnit...uncle CC is already Kris Flyer Gold lor...me still can't get silver. I hate him!

BKK Pics

Actually I didn't take much pics lah...just took some when I was bored, like waiting for food to be served, or when they guys were tailoring their shirts..etc.. Half of the time I was either shopping or stuffing myself silly with yummy Thai food... so yeah...enjoy these limited pics:


The menu looked scary! What "offensive odor"? You mean they purposely didn't wash the chicken/pork so that it will stink when fried with rice? omg...how to eat with meat with "offensive odor".....odour also wrong spelling...aiyo..


Here's another one: Fried rice with Shrimp's brain/ Crab's brain? I didn't know crab or shrimp has a brain!! *scratch head* No brains for lunch, so we ended up with juz the thai chicken with fried rice


Our 2nd day's seafood dinner. Nam Sing's rival, can't really recall the name of the restaurant, but they serve sharksfins with abalone..so sedap! Actually Nam Sing's sharksfin soup still no fight, the soup is more tasty and they are more generous with the fins...bagus!


Morning scene of Siam Square..


Cam-whoring while waiting for Jorene and Chee Seng. These two are always late lor *shake head*


Our mode of transport most of the time..they are fast and sharp, juz that at then end of the day, your pi sai will get as black as the diesel and face covered with grime and dirt *hee*


At the tailor. Most of the tailors there are Indians. Quite cheap know? Cost about $30+ to $40+ per shirt, depending on the material. Service is very speedy too..they only need one day to complete all your shirts!


Jorene getting bored...and me too..


Hubby Goh getting all chirpy after tailoring 6 shirts! Cheap cheap, he said!


Ewww.....the nice mani/pedicure place at Siam Square...it was abt 8pm when we reached but they didn't turn us away.


Check out their ceiling design...we felt so chi-chi there!


Doing the foot spa...so relaxing after a day's long of shopping!


My pwwweety nails...apparently they charged nail art separately..chey..so to cut cost, i juz told them to french it with silver sparkles..turned out to be quite nice.



They did my 2 toes for free...haha...after much bargaining..



The new airport...gotta long name which I simply can't pronounce or recall. It's huge...with numerous shops and restaurants that stretches all the way near the gates.

See the design? I think it's not feasible cos' the sun starts to shine in through the glass panels in the afternoon and heat permeates in making the entire airport so stuffy and hot. And they also ngeow ngeow, never full blast their air-con...

So you tempted to go BKK now? Hee...I can volunteer to be your free local guide if you buy me the air ticket and provide free lodging *LOL*