When I was in the UK...

There are some things I miss about Singapore.

• Long opening hours for shops
• Cheap yummy Asian food (I pretty much had bread/salad everyday!)
• Cheaper transport fee (Especially in London! Not that Singapore is getting any cheaper though!)
• Not being able to wear rings (with gloves on!!)
• Flip-flops anytime!
• My family and friends

There are also many things I love about UK.

• The liberal TV programmes, where sex is discussed openly and not frown upon like in Singapore
• Cheap chocolates (Something selling for over S$12+ costs only approximately £2 there)
• Cold weather
• (due to the above) Ability to accessorize with scarf, coat and boots
• The eye candies (fashionably dressed people) everywhere
• The abundance of markets, I never will be sick of them
• Vintage stuff that would cost a bomb in Singapore
• Winter sale that has done a big hole in my pocket
• PAUL, my favourite French bakery is now all over London
• TK Maxx - where designer labels go cheap :D
• LUSH - handmade cosmetic
• My BFF and doing things together in London
• Very good lemonade (and I don't mean sprite, real lemonade)

Hello Aberdeen

I shall write a little summary of my trip to the UK, as it was a business trip, there wasn't much I did in Aberdeen really... In London, I met Angela, my BFF and we spent some good quality time together, I shall share about this later on.

Aberdeen, Scotland's 3rd most populous city, is truly scottish. I think I can really tell the Scottish architecture apart from the English, they are so different, it reminds me of Edinburgh, not quite but some resemblance. As Aberdeen is near the coast, many would expect it to be colder but it's not. In fact, the winter was quite mild when I was there, it was always about 6°C and only when it rained, it was a bit harsh. But otherwise, I quite enjoy the weather. Aberdeen is also well known as the Granite or Grey city as most buildings were made from granite, and thus a little grey. It is also increasingly becoming a popular place for business because of its reputation as the Oil Capital of Europe since the 1970s.

As I was staying near the office, everywhere I went was on foot, even to the shopping district which is not far away from our office. The shopping wasn't great but it was good enough for me, I found more good buys than I did in London where everyone was competing with you for the winter sale.

The working hours in Aberdeen is also much better than Singapore's, there they do 7 hours daily whereas we do 8.5 hours here (crazy!!). I should try to find a chance and land myself somewhere in the cold ;) My team is a bunch of easy-going people, and they did make my life easy over there :) My extended team too, everyone else in the Web Application team are quite fun-loving and I realised that on the Dinner & Dance night in Aberdeen.

Thanks to Gordon, he was very patient teaching me my very first Scottish dance, I think I almost stepped on his foot a few times... but I was quite a quick learner, in no time, I have memorized the steps and I was actually enjoying it! Also Kristy, whom has been a really great friend to hang out with, she took me on a daytrip to see New Slains Castle outside the city, and also with James (with his cutie pie, Rosa) to see Haddo House and have a lovely tea there.

My boss (from Singapore) left earlier to see his family and headed back to London and Singapore. It was a weird feeling, as I have always been an independent traveller, but once on business trip, I actually felt a little handicapped. LOL. But I got used to it pretty soon; solitude and Blackberry (fortunately with data plan) were my best companions. I also got to meet my boss (based in London) as he was in for 2 days.

Everyone had a great laugh with the durian sweets experiment. In fact, no one really liked it except for one lady whom said she actually enjoyed it. Most people spat it out in like 2 seconds. I felt a little guilty introducing them to something they didn't like... LOL. Hopefully I have compensated that with the other stuff I brought.

7 nights passed by in Aberdeen real fast, I was feeling reluctant to leave on the last day but I had to as I was going to see my best friend in London. But I felt so relieved to be out of the hotel (read about my complaint on the earlier post)!

Just in case you are wondering, the Aberdonians' English isn't anything like those in glasgow, I managed to understand them without much difficulty (unless they're drunk!). They don't have a very strong Scottish accent, fortunately ;)

Forgetful I

Strangely, I managed to get to bed at 1am despite a long sleep on my flight back to Singapore. I'm adapting well ;) except for a head that probably hasn't quite woke up. 130pm, I am yawning. It must be about 530am there in UK right now.

This morning, I happily went to a cafe and ordered toast and eggs before I realised my wallet is not with me! It was embarrassing and I had to cancel it because I didn't have a cent on me to pay for it! I hope there's not a second time... And I had to borrow lunch money from colleague today. Argh.

Edited.

Kaoz, I actually forgot it's Tuesday, not Monday, damn.

Ridiculous service @ Park Inn Aberdeen

Below is the review I wrote for Park Inn, the hotel I stayed in Aberdeen (pardon all the grammatical errors as I wrote all these off my head and has no time to amend before sending it in).

Rubbish hotel

"The 1st night, everything seems perfect except for having a sandwich which said to have avocado (my favourite) in it but turned up without it! I was put up in the Business room for 7 nights (which appears like a normal room to me) but is an okay size for me since I was there alone. The location was great as it was near to my office.

I ordered room service a couple of times and they were pretty efficient, also the breakfast in bed was delivered on time - impressed with this one. But after one time of breakfast in bed, housekeeping never seems to replace another door hanger for me to request for other occasions. I didn't mind going down for breakfast as the food is always nice and warm, but there wasn't a varied menu for 7 days.

Not to mention that I am in a business room and complimentary water was not replenished on a daily basis. I don't mind if I have some water left on some days, but I am AMAZED at how terrible the housekeeping service is, they left my EMPTY BOTTLE there and never bring up a new one. On two occasions, I have to ring up for water to be delivered to the room. I have to say I have never been to a hotel that never replenishes drinking water - even if you have not drank the ones in the room, additional ones are always put in the room on a daily basis. Also complimentary tea bag, coffee or hot chocolate packet are not being replenished in the room. BUSINESS ROOM but crap service!! I have to also say once when I rang up reception, and was transferred to room service, no one actually picked up the phone!

I saw a sign that says put the stuff on the floor in the bathroom if you want them changed, so I left the towels and bath robe one of the days. To my HORROR, they hanged back the bath robe (without replacing a new one), though they did change my towels. I have to say I'm very pissed with such service. How can you not take it away for me??! I was presented with 2 bath robes when I checked in, they could have just taken the dirty one away, I do have another spare but instead they put back the dirty one for me. This sucks.

On the weekend (saturday morning) where I slept a little longer (about 9+am), I was awaken by noises of someone dragging the furnitures around. This is not good!!!

The worst experience is they never pick up my laundry. What's the point of having a checklist, laundry bag and drawer for laundry in the room when we actually have to bring it down (later the manager told me)?!! As laundry was not available during the weekend, I packed the stuff for it to be done on Monday as I was checking out on Tuesday. When I got back, it was to my DISBELIEF that the laundry bag is still there! I even left a note to say I have to get it back before I check out. Is the housekeeper blind or just didn't bother - what customer service is this?!! Even if we were to bring it down (we weren't told), someone cleaning the room would have spotted and if the service is that great, they would kindly bring it down. But no, instead, I came back to a room with dirty laundry, dirty bathrobe, empty water bottle and complimentary tea bags/coffee that wasn't replenished.

This is one of the worst stays I ever had, I would not recommend it. Maybe for 1 night if you're in town for business, but anything longer it is a nightmare. My boss wasn't impressed with them too. I don't need a reply to re-assure me of the bad service, please look into your lousy housekeeping, maybe you need to change/train your staff."

1st Business Class flight

5 years later...

I am coming back to United Kingdom again. How odd is that? I wonder how much has changed over the 5 years and how are the people I met 5 years ago. I am 2 hours away from Heathrow, sitting comfortably in my business class seat in a SQ flight. It was ages ago I flew with Singapore Airlines, that was to Bangkok. Since then, I never had the luxury to do it again, I always opt for the cheaper and better option and flew with many others. In the recent years of travelling in Asia, I can almost see most of my flights were with budget airlines, with a few exceptions like Silk Air, Cathay and Garuda.

Honestly, sitting in the business class makes me feel like an inpatient, I get served and I can order things while laying on the bed. The service was very personal, at least one of the stewardesses remember my name and I always get addressed politely; but not very efficient, I pressed the "assistance" button a couple of times, and I think they were having a break and I wasn't being attended to. The meals were in a few courses, and they really got me stuffed. I had a cocktail named Skyhigh which got me high and gave me a headache, then I managed a short nap. I didn't manage to get much sleep, as I'm still living in the Singapore daytime, it will be hard when I arrive and have to keep awake! The boss was sitting behind me...

My lack of sleep is however compensated by a couple of good movies which I wanted to watch! I managed 3 of them in the 14 hours:

Night at the museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Still as entertaining as the first two episodes and bringing in more characters which came to live, it ends off with the night museum being open to public and the live characters telling the stories themselves. So cool!

Eat Pray Love

Oh... all the women should watch this! I really like how she went around the world to find herself back, which a lot of the women lack the courage to after leaving a relationship. It reminds me of friends whom jump into another one almost immediately. I suddenly feel I am doing the right thing!

The Social Network

I wanted to catch this, and now I did. It's not how I expected it, the whole plot was getting a wee bit boring focusing on the law suit against Mark Zuckerberg. I guess, it's more a reality-turned-movie thingy, so can't expect them to spice it up too much.

When I finally arrived at Heathrow after 14 hours, the sound of English accent made me smile. Scottish accent's all right but English's somehow more charming. I was greeted by a beautiful sunset in the shuttle bus to Terminal 5 where we had to transit to get to Aberdeen. It was lovely, so mesmerizing but I couldn't snap a picture!! After a short wait and a little browsing in the departure area, we went onboard BA heading to Aberdeen. I fell asleep on the 1.5 hours flight, I was knackered. By then, its was like 2am Singapore time, we had been travelling for almost 18-19 hours!

It feels like a dream, I think the reality will hit me when I get to London!

p.s: Those colored are written onboard my SQ flight.

You've been warned

Like the "anonymous" mentioned, there are indeed many rude Singaporeans in Singapore and I do not deny that at all. And also my post on one Ang Mo IS NOT MEANT to generalize the whole population, I hope you ("anonymous") understand when I stated  "Ang mo like these" and not "All ang mo". Anyway, I know who you are, so BP, just sign your name off next time :)

Today, thankful for the rainy day, I had an umbrella to wack this b*tch. We were queueing at the ATM, there were 3 lanes, she was on the last while I stood on the middle one seeing that there was no queue. Admittedly, she was there before me, but she WAS NOT queueing on my lane, when the person finished, she just cut across! I was fuming, but I closed an eye since I didn't want to confront her and made a fuss on a Monday morning. That's not the worst! When she was done, she deliberately pushed me, she knew I wasn't too happy about her cutting my lane (by her own conscience). I know most people would not but out of retaliation (to top it off that she cut my queue without any sign of apology!), I wacked her legs with my umbrella. Everyone was looking, I seriously don't care more because it was all recorded in the CCTV if anyone wanted a re-enactment. I swear I would pick up a cat-fight if she did come back asking for more. B*TCH!

I can tolerate but don't push things too far.

Running outta time

After visiting the doctors twice... a lot of pills swallowed, I am finally on the mend and ready for what the upcoming 3 weeks bring!

Today, two of my BFFs set foot back in Singapore (as they are living all over the world, 4 of us are always in different places since a few years ago!), one more in the coming week. Then we will attend one's wedding in Sabah. What a timing! Especially with a business trip right after the wedding, I will be losing time catching up with most of them, but I will see one of them in London. I hope the other will be back in Singapore soon and there will be time to catch up! However the distance didn't deter our almost 13 years of friendship, thanks to internet (that explains why I need it all the time!).

I will write more when I get time... Now I have to think about packing for two different trips before the week starts!! Headache!

遇见怪脾的人 (17) - Having a beer belly is pregnant?

Ang Mo like these made me feel like going up to them and say, "Sir, where are you from? You should go back to your home country instead of being another disgrace to Singapore." So what if he's ang mo, that only means he earns more money and should be able to afford a taxi, right, since he doesn't even know what "considerate" is. He doesn't even look old enough to have brittle bones, and yet he acted as if he's blind to the pregnant woman standing right in front of him. Please lah, we need less of your type of species here to add on to the already kiasu Singaporeans.

p.s: If he happens to be your boss, please ask the company to send him back home!

Busy like a bumble bee

5 years later... and winter once again.

I'm so looking forward to the cold (just hoping not to fall sick then!!)... What a weird thing to say, I know, everyone there is dreading the weather but I'm the exception. Boss came back to work today after a wonderful trip to India with the wife... and now he's looking forward to UK (I guess because he gets to see his family!). Such a traveller, isn't he! Then he will rush back to go on another holiday with the wife to NZ. Bliss. I will be stuck alone up there ;) Bliss too.

I'm so not prepared. I need to dig up all my warm clothings, my winter hat, socks, gloves and scarves. I need to get money changed. I need to prepare for Sabah before that, and what more, I am giving a speech and I have to prepare that as well. Two of my BFFs are back next week, in fact one is back this weekend. But I just don't have the time to catch up with them, we will only spend time at the wedding it seems.

忙忙忙。。。

老了，病多。

After an afternoon of shopping with my Japanese friend whose in town and a quiet NYE countdown spent in bed, now I'm falling sick. This Japanese girl is a friend of my best friend and somehow we get along great, so everytime she's in town, we would go for lunch. We spent the time eating, shopping and having coffee and the usual girls' talk. It was raining heavily that afternoon, we weren't caught in the rain but somehow I have to fall sick :( As we get older, why do we get more vulnerable :(

As I'm writing, my bad headache which has persisted the whole afternoon seems to be diminishing. Panadol Extra does help. My bodyache is also better after my sister gave my back a little "punching". It all started on New Year day and I was supposed to take a tourist out for dinner (Dan's friend), seems like I get to be a tour guide pretty often in Singapore these days. But it didn't work out as she arrived so late and I wasn't feeling well by then. My chest felt stuffy, the throat became dry and the nose was hyper-sensitive. I fed myself with lots of Vitamin C pills, then Eno, then my sister got me some herbal tea, all these did not seem to help until I popped the Panadol Extra.

Well I say, better sick now than later when I have to travel... Praying hard that it won't come back so soon!

Great, what a start for the new year! Brrrrrrrrrrr.... I'm so not looking forward, I don't feel like taking MC. I don't even have the strength to iron my clothes, let's hope I find something to wear for the week!