The Craftsman’s Forge

Its been a really really long day. Woke up bright and early today and got ready to head to the airport. My flight from Sydney to Singapore was at 11:30am, which meant I needed to be at the airport at 9:30am. With the heightened security at all airports now due to the higher level of alerts at airports because of terrorism, airlines usually now request travellers to arrive at least 2 hours prior to flight.

Being me, I got out of The Sebel at about 8:30am, giving myself a buffer of an hour to get to the airport, just in case we got stuck in a jam. In the end, I reached Sydney International at 9am.

I already checked in a day earlier via the Internet, and I just headed to the SIA First Class counter to get my boarding pass. This was quite painless, and I passed customs into the transit area within 5 minutes.

I got a wonderful seat in one of the cafes overlooking the very gate I was boarding at. The 747 Mega-Top was just berthed within 50 metres from me. It was magnificent.

I must have stayed there for quite a while. I bought a coffee, and sat down with a book to read while the ground support crew got th eplane ready.

For the first time, I saw how the catering services crew got all the food and stuff into the plane. I shot a video of the process.

I also noticed this truck…. hmmm….Aircraft lavatory Service…. Since young, I had always thought that when you flushed in the airplane toilet, all of it gets dumped outside the plane, and that it evaporates into the air. ha ha ha ha ha…. so dumb. I don’t know why it never occured to me that it was a ludicrous notion even when I’m older. Today…. that has finally been put to rest.

I touched down at Changi at about 5:45pm, and headed to the lounge, and I’ve been here eversince. I’m heading out to Seoul tonight at 11:50pm, and will only be back on Friday night.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Sydney, Australia, Seoul, Korea, toilet,Craftsman

This morning, I woke up in a nice and warm room. Ahhhhh… the beauty of heating. I headed again to the cafe for my coffee and a butter crossiant to take along with me to the office as I had quite alot of things to do today.

This is the view from the room they put me in.

I had a splitting headache this afternoon, and headed to Coles to get a box of panadol. The Panadol Rapid that i got myself worked wonders, and it was indeed extremely rapid, and the paid was gone in 10 minutes.

By the time I left the office at 6:30pm today, there was NOT A SINGLE person in the office! Goodness me!!!! This would never have happened in Singapore! Ha ha! :). Again, all the shops and the malls are closed.

I went back to the hotel, and decided that I needed a quick break from the office. I really just needed a good dinner, and a break away from the real world. So, what better place to go to but Hoyts?

This is the Hoyts at the Westfield mall.

As the mall was closed, they have this really really long escalator linking the street to the cinema on the 4th floor.

I caught X-Men - The Last Stand. My verdict? well it was certainly ALOT better than The Davinci Code, which was a joke!

I have to add that Famke Janssen was a joy to watch throughout the movie.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Sydney, Australia, Chatswood, Hoyts, X-Men,Craftsman

I got up bright and early this morning, and I remembered why I hated winter SO MUCH when I was last here studying in Perth. Brrrgghhhh…. it was freezing, and the toilet tiles were so cold, the toilet seat was so cold, and I was literally shivering from head to toe.

What really got me riled, was not the cold weather, but rather that I found out I slept a night without heating, when the room I am in had heating all along!!!!!! Wah lau!!!! So Bodoh man… must be getting old.

After I showered, I dressed up and headed to the Mezze cafe down stairs. I had asimple toast sandwich and a skinny latte. Ummm….. beuwdy mate.

I saw this really funny picture on a magazine which reminded me of a colleague.

I was practically stuck in the office today. I had a brief respite for lunch, but even then, I rushed back to the office to get stuff done. In fact, I just finished my work at about 9:30pm tonight. I hope it will be a little better tomorrow.

The office is located in Chatswood, about 15 minutes drive north of Sydney City. This is the view from the office.

By the time I got out of the office at 5:20pm, I headed out to the mall which is just opposite the office, and this is what I saw.

Everything was closed…… Wah lau….The Aussies have not changed a bit! Even after so many years, they only have one late night shopping a week! Man… it was barely 5:20pm, and everyone’s gone home!!!!??? Goodness me.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Sydney, Australia, Chatswood, Craftsman

I touched down in Sydney at about 7:15pm local time, and whisked away to The Sebel Residence in Chatwoods. Its sort of like a home coming for me. I’ve not been in Oz since 1999 when Chris and I were in Sydney for our Honeymoon.

The prospect of touching Australian soil again gave me quite a tingle on my skin really. When I stepped out of the airport, with the cold wind on my face, the reality that I am “Back Home” hit me.

This was a country I called home for three years of my undergraduate life in Perth, western Australia. I loved the weather, the people, the culture and the spirit of Australia. At the end of my university degree, I actually contemplated not coming back to Singapore. Serious! But… thats a story for another time.

Anyways…. the taxi driver got me to Chatwoods in one piece, and and I realised that “The Sebel” is a service apartment. The room I have, is actually a 2 bedroom, 2 toilet, 1 kitchen, 1 laundry room, 1 dining room, 1 living room service apartment!

But… the most important thing they dun have!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t find a RJ45 broadband Internet cable! I called reception to find out more.

Paul: Hi…. I’m calling to find out about whether you have Internet access in the room.

Reception: Yes, we do.

Paul: ok. Thats great to hear. How do I connect?

Reception: We don’t have broadband. You will need to dial in.

Paul: (Aghast!) Uh.. how do I do this? Is there a number I can call?

Reception: You will need to head to Seven Eleven just round the corner to get a dial-up access pre-paid card.

Paul: ………

Man….. I don’t know man…. In this day and age….. how one can not have Internet access in a service apartment or hotel. Anyways… I headed back out to Seven Eleven to get my pre-paid card. I paid Aus$14.95 for 10 hours worth of access.

After I bought my card, I got distracted, and headed for dinner, and also Hoytts Cinema to catch The Davinci Code. A real disappointment though. The movie was a real let down.

Anyway, after the movie, I got back, and tried to dial-up, except that there was no dial up number on the card (or receipt). To cut the long story short, I called the Optus tech support, and got my dial-up connection details.

That was when I realised that there were so many wireless access points at The Sebel, that I really didn’t need the dial-up! Blardy Hell… (Oops… pardon the french) But you know hor… it gets really frustrating when this type of things happen.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Sydney, Australia, Optus, Craftsman

Believe it or not, I’m now blogging from Seat 38H on an SIA 747-400 Megatop. SIA, or rather Boeing provides a wireless Internet connection service for a small fee. I thought quite long about it before deciding to purchase an hour’s worth of access. Theres some e-mailing to be done, and I’ve just completed that. So now.. its fun time.

I’m on my way to Sydney via the SIA Kangaroo route. The flight is almost full, but I was lucky to get a seat next to a vacant seat. Ahhhh…..these little pleasures may not seem much, but really becomes important on flights like these that are over 4 to 7 hours long.

They’re now serving lunch, but the trolley hasn’t come to me yet. Lazy buggers… everyone just went to sleep and hibernated before the stewardesses turned on the lights. Me? Well… I was working away on my laptop on some urgent e-mails that need to go out today.

I left Changi at 9:30am this morning, and will reach Sydney at approximately 7:15pm Sydney time. Sydney, is 2 ours ahead.

This week is another punishing week. I am scheduled to be spending some time in Sydney to get the IT infrastructure all tied up nicely. Then I’m off to Seoul to do the same from Thursday to Friday.

By this weekend, I would have covered all 11 countries in the region, and also a total of more than 25,000 miles! They’re gonna send my Krisflyer Elite Silver to me next week. At this rate, I’ll get Gold by the end of July.

OK. Will sign off now. Lunch is on my lap now.

Dad was discharged yesterday. I picked him up form the hospital at noon, and went through the logistics of getting his medicine, etc ready. Yesterday evening, I brough the kids over to dad’s place to spend some time with him and mum, both of whom have not spent quality time with the kids for over 2 months now. From the pictures here, I know that dad’s really happy! You can see that he has lost quite a lot of weight. Well…. never mind. I’m losing the weight with him.

I’m a little late with this entry. I’m actually back no in Singapore, and will be flyign off to Sydney tomorrow, but thought that I shoudl upload an entry to close the entry on Ahmedabad. I spent just two nights in Ahmedabad, and flew back to Singapore on Thursday morning. I had to fly to Mumbai first, and transit from there to Singapore, as there were no direct flights from Amedabad back to Singapore on Thursday. On the whole, I was fairly pleased with my trip there, as I had achieved what I wanted to do.

But for the more important thing….. Ahmedabad is a place which you will find very interesting. For starters, did you know that Ahmedabad as a city does not condone liquor? It is a legal offense to bring any liquor into Ahmedabad! There is not a single drop of booze in this city. This also translates to an equally low crime environment. I was told that it is very safe on the streets in Ahmedabad, even during the night.

The India office is very interesting. Firstly, it is not in a CBD location, nor is it in a high rise building. It is in fact, a Bungalow, and it nests right behind a small children’s zoo! The road leading to the bungalow, is small and dusty.

This is the bungalow the office is in.

The interesting thing about having the office right behind the zoo, is that there are alot of wild animals that come a knocking (uumm… or flying to the office). In just a 5 to 10 minute walk around the office premises, I saw babblers, 2 Oriental Magpie Robins, 4 Peacocks, countless squirrels, fruit bats, etc!

I think this is a babbler.

Many squirrels like this one.

The ubiquitous Oriental Magpie Robin! So rare in Singapore, but all over the place here.

Then, of course, the many peacocks that make the roof their homes.

During the afternoon, Saikat M, a project manager in the office, kindly brought me to the children’s zoo to take alook at the wild life there. I thought… “Might as well” since I had already completed my stuff, and was waiting for ML to finish his areas. So, SM brought me to the Sundarvan nature discovery centre.

It was also here that I saw clusters or schools of fruit bats!!!! Amazing!! They are wild by the way.

After ML had finished, AN, asked BS to bring both ML and I shopping. I tell you…. the hospitality of these guys are simply amazing! Apparently, ML told AN the last time that he liked the mangoes. Guess what I had to lug home with me on Thursday morning? Yeah… you guess right if you thought Mangoes. 1 BLODDY carton of the “BEST” Ahmedabad MANGOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 Kgs worth of extra luggage! Its all ML’s fault…. I’ve toldh him.

Ayway, I digress…. BS brought us to several places, handcraft stores, fabric stores, shopping malls, the Samsonite showroom, etc.

This place had an amazing range of handcrafts. In fact, I spotted something I liked, a brass bust of the Sphinx. But, alas, it was too heavy and large to bring back to Singapore.

Then, after the shopping, AN invited ML and I over to his house for an authentic Southern Indian vegetarian dinner. AN’s wife, Annul (I think) kindly spent a better part of her evening preparing dinner for all of us. She is a university Physics lecturer, and I found her and AN extremely engaging and friendly. The first course of appetizers was served.

I don’t know what they’re called, but they were excellent! Not to forget the various chutneys that Annul made. Wow!!!!! Just simply out of this world!

Annul also prepared a glass of Mangoe drink for us. It was heavenly!

The main course was several servings of chickpeas, Chutney, Mango puree, some type of unleaven bread (like nunn), Curdled Milk in Mango Puree, and curdled milk in Yogurt… I may very well have left some things out. But, all in all, the meal was excellent. Coupled with the company, it was extremely enjoyable. By the time I finished, I was soooooo full, I was actually quite mad at myself. I had countless e-mails to rely that night, and I was simply not going to be able to stay awake. The jet lag was heping either.

Anyways, I made it through the night, and flew out of Ahmedabad the next morning. I think it will be quite soon that I pop by Ahmedabad again for work. I’m looking forward to the Chickpeas! Hah!!!!

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Ahmedabad, India, SQ, Craftsman

I touched back down in Singapore from Shanghai at about 3pm yesterday, and then spent the rest of the day in the airport, getting my transit done, transferring my luggage (which I regret, and I’ll tell you about it later), and then bought some gifts for the country head of the Indian operations while I waited for my CFO for dinner.

I hope AN will like the local Kaya and the Pineapple tarts I bought him. He has kindly invited ML and myself for dinner at his home after work today. I also chose a culturally sensitive Indian designed card i found at Changi for him.

The flight to Ahmedabad was at 8pm, and I had the first row seat. I later found out that there was nobody next to me, and I had a wonderful time taking up both seats. The beautiful Indian stewardess was also very nice, and we chatted for a bit. She started the conversation by the way….

My fairytale ahmedabad trip came to a rude end when we touched down. When I came to the exit of the plane, I realised that there was no Aero-bridge linking the plane to the main airport building.

Instead, we had to walk down to the airport tarmac, and buses were sent to pick us up from the plane to the airport building.

The bus was dark and dusty, and I also discovered that the locals here do not have a sense of personal space! My goodness…. I was like their long lost friend. The people behind me kept coming so close I could smell what curry they had the day before!

The airport itself is no better. As of last night, I have relegated the manila airport to second place on my list of worst airports. The Ahmedabad airport has got to be the worst ever! There is only one gate, and only two baggage belts.

On top of that, I regretted immensely my decision to transfer my luggage to my Ahmedabad plane. I waited a really long time for my luggage to come out. By the time we got to the hotel (The beautiful Taj Residency Ummed), it was already close to midnight (Ahmedabad time). It was already somewhere past 2am Singapore time.

A good thing the hotel room was beautifully appointed. Ah….. can relax at last….

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Ahmedabad, India, SQ, Craftsman

I finished work earlier today, and decided to make a quick trip out to the famed Xiang Yang Road market. Here, I am told, you can get excellent copies of original goods such as Nike, Adidas, Mont Blanc, Rolex, Samsonite, etc …. you get the picture.

Apparently, it was a sticking point used by foreign governments on China’s blatent disregard to copyright laws. So… because China didn’t want to be snubbed (In particular with China’s bid to be part of the WTC), they decided to close the entire market. By June 30th, the entire market will be closed. Not sure where the vendors are going to go to. But I’m sure they will turn up somewhere.

I really had no idea about how good this place is. When I reached there and saw the quality of the merchandise, I realised that this place is 100 times better than Woman’s Street in Hong Kong! No kidding.

This is the market. Be careful… there are pickpockets here.

The only thing I don’t like are the touts. When I say they are insistent, they are REALLY insistent. They don’t take no for an answer, and the can trail and follow you for 20 to 30 metres. It really takes quite alot of shake them off.

As you can see, I got myself quite a haul. I bought two dri-fit shirts for myself. One Nike and one Adidas. Can’t tell the difference between original and fake. Apparently, they are from the same Nike/Adidas factory in Shenzhen. Also bought two polos for Chris, again, one Nike and one Adidas. Great stuff. This cost me about S$11 each.

For the kids, I bought a small Polo Ralf Lauren Polo for Elkan, a Strawberry shortcake shirt for Ariel, and a Gymboree t-shirt for Kyla. All for S$18.

Then, I bought a pair of Mont Blanc Cuff Links for S$6, a light weight walking stick for dad, also for S$6, and 5 DVDs for S$6.

I headed back to the hotel to drop off my treasure, and then headed out to look for dinner. I wasn’t quite sure where I walked, but I ended up on this really massive shopping mall.

I walk around abit, and am really amazed with the cosmopolitan makeup of Shanghai’s population. Look at this huge Coke bottle advert!!

Theres this shop just for kids!!!!! I think Kyla, Ariel and Elkan will go crazy in here!

I finally entered an Ajisen Ramen restaurant for my dinner, and I had a wonderful braised pork ramen with pork wrapped around straw mushrooms.

Finally, on my way back, I stopped by a road side “satay” shop, and bought two sticks of the skewered meat. No idea what it was until I ate it. It was alright… not as nice as our own satay. It was roasted Lamb by the way.

One things for sure… shanghai is a very interesting city.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Shanghai, Xiang Yang, Dinner, Craftsman

I arrived last night, and SX put me up at The Bund Hotel, a 4 star executive business hotel. It sounded wierd to me, but I realised why “The Bund” after spending about a day here. “The Bund” refers to a symbol of Shanghai and an epitome of Shanghai’s modern history.

An excert from the tourist guide I got my hands on: “On one side of the broad highway stand 52 blocks of tall, magnificent buildings with different architectural styles, which can be called a museum of modern world architecture. on the other side is the wide embankment, where crowds of visitors can cme to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the Huangpu — mother river of Shanghai.

This is where I stayed…

At noon today, I had originally wanted to make a short touristy trip to the Bund, to … well…. do some touristy thing…. BUT…it was raining. It appears that the monsoon season with the typhoon over the last weekend had not completely dissipated yet. So, I had to shelf my trip to the Bund.

I decided to have a quick lunch and then head back to the office. The ground floor of the office at Ocean Towers had a number of eateries, Subway being one of them. I confess that for a split minute, I actually entered Subway, wanting to buy my lunch before the realisation of stupidity hit me hard in the head. “You’re in Shanghai, and you want to eat lousy imported American food??!!???” (Sorry to my American reader friends. No offense meant)

I quickly walked out of Subway, and went back to the office and borrowed an umbrella from SX. She passed me hers. This is the sissy umbrella.

I tried being a little adventureous, and headed out to the unknown….the low rise area surrounded by all the other massive buildings. This is where old shanghai is. Not that its really that old. Probably built above the older ruins.

I walked into a nice little restaurant, and had roast goose with BBQ pork rice for lunch, washed down by a can of sinful caloric imported Coke.

By the way, this is how they marinate their goose.

This beats Subway any day!

After lunch, I took a slow walk back, and peeked into the legendary back alleys of Shanghai.

I’m now back in the office, but plan to visit the Xiang Yang night market later on. Thats where I’m gonna try to get a couple of DVDs. I just heard that the Chinese government in wanting to get on the good side of the Americans, have decided to close the Xiang Yang market for good from June to get rid of the flourishing pirated market. Looks like I’m lucky to catch it for the last time. I hope to have some photos for tonight.

One more thing…. the wordpress URL is NOT accessible from Shanghai AT ALL. This would obviously be the ubiquitous work of the large Chinese Internet firewall and proxy which tirelessly disallows objectionable sites to local Chinese. But…. wah lau…. I’m not a Chinese national what! Lucky never block my site. Ha ha ha

Technorati Tags: Singapore, Shanghai, The Bund, Lnuch, Craftsman