FIRST STEP INTO THE WORLD

Beijing Trip Day 4

2008-02-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

164 days in Shanghai (10/02/08)

Woke up to pack our things and by the time we were ready, it was 10.30am already. Left our luggage at the lobby and went to 天坛, the temple where the emperor prays。

There was a performance today and as usual, it was some boring Chinese Act. Had a 2^nd look at the place and I became the tour guide for the day.

Reading the guide book and recalling what the tour guide told me the last time I was here, I gave the rest a very fast tour.

After that, it was to Silk Street, a place that is similar to Qipu Rd in Shanghai. Did some shopping there, bought some wallets and bags and the guys were to bored to continue shopping.

Went to Wang Fu Jing again as Jie Ying wants to get Fu Ling Bing for her family and her Shanghai’s colleagues. Slacked at this drink store while waiting for Jia Wei’s friend to come.

Wanted to go back to the hotel, get our luggage and head off to eat steamboat but as time restricted, we went to one of the restaurant opposite the apartment and settled dinner there.

All the food came quite slowly and when it was 6.10pm, we thought that one of our dishes is not here yet and decided to cancel the order. Then we realized that we didn’t even order that dish cox we ordered another one instead. ARGH!!! Stupid!!

Headed off to the airport, checked in and all of us got super separated seats.

Reached back Shanghai and back home.

Oh, today is the 4^th day of Chinese New Year and there are still a lot of people playing with fire works and fire crackers.

Esp when it was near 12am, when the chinese have the saying that during the 5^th day of Chinese New Year, it is the time to lure the god of fortune out, there were a lot of fire works and fire crackers around and the whole area is damn noisy. Fire works are very nice but fire crackers are just plain irritating.

And I guess I have seen too much fire works that I won’t feel so ‘WOW’ anymore when I see it in Singapore the next time.

Beijing Trip Day 3

2008-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

163 days in Shanghai (12/02/08)

Woke up at 7.30am to get ready to meet our driver at 8.45am and all of us started slacking until about 8.20am, when Jie Ying on HP and realized that the driver actually messaged her informing us the change of time (meet @ 8.30am, the timing Yu Hong requested the previous day but the driver said that he couldn’t make it at first)

All of us started rushing, changing our clothes (winter time so we have got a lot of layers to wear), preparing to go out.

Set off to the Great Wall of China and we went to 幕天玉, one of the more famous tourist sites of the Great Walll.

Had a 1½ hour car ride there and we bought students tickets =)

Took the cable car up and started with the Great Wall Climb. The scenery is so much nicer then the one I went to last year and the weather was just so right. Clear sunny blue sky. Just the weather for outdoor activities,.

Took lots of dangerous photos where we started to climb on the walls to take nicer shots, standing at dangerous spots just to get a nicer view and etc.

By the time we finished out Great Wall hike and crazy photographings, it was near to 2.30pm already. Had a quick lunch at the foot of the Great Wall (just a bowl full of noodles when it is supposed to be minced meat noodles) and headed off to Summer Palace, 颐和园.

Took us another hour to reach there, bought our tickets and this time, there were a lot of tour guides asking us if we want them to explain the history and etc to us.

When we were at the entrance, the fee of the tour guide was RMB 30per person and we rejected all of them. Then when we went in, the tour guide rate drops to RMB50 for the group and we bargained till RMB20 for the group.

So, this lady guide started bringing us around Summer Palace, telling us some of the history about the place and I am so not interested in it.

Walked to this Kun Ning Lake, which takes up almost half of Summer Palace and the entire lake was frozen. A lot of people were walking on the ice and when we want to go to the lake and play, the lady guide didn’t want to allow us as she wants to finish off her guide as soon as possible.

And as all of us weren’t very interested in what she was saying, the tour ended shortly and we heading off to the frozen lake.

We were supposed to walk straight to the entrance that we came from but Yu Hong want to take a look at the bridge right opposite the entrance. So, all of us headed there and by that time, it was near 6pm and the sky was dark and no one else was on the lake except the four of us.

And since it was freezing cold, both jie Ying and I can’t wait to get out of that icy lake. Searched for the stairs back up to the pathway but couldn’t find any and by that time, there were totally no one in the lake and people are starting to shout for us to get out.

Saw this small little platform and the only way that link up to the platform was a pile of ices; not sure if they were stable a not but confirm they are slippery.

Yu Hong tried climbing up first but got stuck halfway. Lucky there were this few people that walked past and offered to help us. They pulled Yu Hong up to the platform and went off as he said tat we can settle on our own.

So, I was the next to climb and that piece of ice was sure slippery. I almost slipped and fall into the crazily cold lake.

Before I can even get myself ready and stabilized myself, Yu Hong and Jia Wei kept on pushing me and all the energy I have was to start laughing and grab on to Yu Hong’s leg like a tree trunk.

Not long later, all of us managed to climb up to the platform. Called the driver and asked him to drive us to紫玉饭店 for dinner. Angeline and Kelvin strongly recommended us to this place to try out their Beijing Duck.

Jia Wei’s friend joined us and when it was only supposed to be one of them, it turned out to be 4 of them joining us.

So the table turns out that we became the minority like from they join us for dinner, it has became we join them for dinner -_-.

After diner, it was back to the hotel to slack and we went out again to 天安门for some night shots.

Spend some time along the streets taking photos and we ended up in Wang Fu Jing’s MacDonald’s again.

Then there was this 2 young boys that started talking to us asking where are we from and etc. Guess they are from some orphanage and the care taker brought them out for dinner. Yea, it was late at night and they brought 2 10 years old boys out for super.

These boys are quite cute and it seems that they have a sad family background. Chatted with them for a while before heading back home to rest.

Beijing Trip Day 2

2008-02-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

162 days in Shanghai (8/02/08)

Woke up at 6.30am to get ready to leave the house at 9am but in the end, we slacked till 9.30am before heading off to the Forbidden City,故宫.

Reached there and thought that since it was the 2^nd day of Chinese New Year, there shouldn’t be many people there but who knows, there were more people then usual I guess; at least more people compared to the last time I was there.

Spend the whole morning exploring around and took lots of photo. Everyone there told us that when you are in the Forbidden City, 70% of the time should be listening to the history and 30% seeing the palace.

But we were there 100% viewing the palace and taking photos =)

After Forbidden City, we walked all the way to 王府井 for lunch at Macdonald’s. Wanted to go to the Beijing Zoo to see Panda after lunch but since it was 3pm by then and the Zoo closes at 5pm, we decided to go to the Olympic Stadium to look at the ‘鸟朝’ and Swimming Pool，水地方.

And unknowingly, we took a 黑车there which cost us RMB90 (when I think it should cost us less then RMB30 -_-)

The Olympic Stadium was near one of the expressway and since it is still not open to the public, there were a lot of people along the expressway taking photos of the stadium.

The whole stadium was fenced up and no one is supposed to enter. And from what Yu Hong knows, the swimming pool is actually opened to the public already.

So being not satisfied of being cheated by the driver and not able to enter the stadium, Yu Hong finds all ways and means to enter it

He tried to unwire the fence but they were too tight then Jia Wei found this fence with just one truck tyre blocking it (remove the tyre and there will be a hole to get into the stadium).

They pushed the tyre away then all of us went in. A lot of passengers saw us and followed us into the stadium.

Walked down towards the swimming pool and realized that there is actually another fence that restricts people from entering. And this time, the fences are connected (like those fence that surround schools) and Yu Hong wanted to use a ladder to climb into the swimming pool.

Walked around and after figuring, we decided to lift up the bottom part of the fence upwards so that there will be a small space for us to crawl in. After hesitating and looking out for security guards, all of us entered the swimming pool boundary.. yea, after much climbing and crawling….

Wanted to enter the swimming pool and was stopped by this part time security guard. The whole conversation was like this

‘你们不可以进去里面’

‘为什么？我们看了新闻，他们说这里以经开放了。’

‘是吗？没有啊。他们骗你们的啦。’(with at smirk on the face)

‘骗我们？哪里可能啊？是新闻啊。那里可能会骗人？’

‘可是你们真的不可以进去。新闻真的骗你们啦。’

‘我不管啦。外面好冷我先进去了。’

‘真的不可以啦。你们是怎样进来的？’

‘走进来的啦。用脚走的要不然爬进来的吗？’

‘是吗？可是你们不可以进啊。今天只有搞卫生的员工才可以进来。’

‘不管了。进去咯。外面好冷！’

Then we went into the swimming pool and we only managed to see one of the Olympic pools there. The part time security guard went in with us trying to stop us.

‘让我们拍一张照片就好了啦。’

‘不可以啦。快点走你看那里还有很多报案。走啦走啦。’

‘好好好。我们就拍一张好了。你跟我们一起拍吧。’

‘不好不好。上面有摄影头。。。快拍就走吧。’

‘好的。一二三。Okie! Let’s go’

So in the end, the part time security guard had no choice but to take the photo with us too =) and we managed to see the pool too, although I think that is not the main swimming pool used.

Went out and we started to take a lot of photos. Even when the other security guards saw us, they didn’t bother about us. Maybe it’s because we are inside already and they thought that we are some staffs or media (coz of Yu Hong’s SLR camera).

Yu Hong said that we might be the fist Singaporean that took photos with the Olympic stadium =) cool huh!?!

Took plenty of photos then headed to 王府井 to try out this dumpling store that Denis recommended.

It was beside this church and the night scenery of that church is just damn. Look around the area and found a few dumpling stores there so we just went to one of it and yea.. the dumplings are good and cheap.

Sister called me and the entire family is at home eating steamboat, having their Chinese New Year gathering…

After dinner was back to the apartment and rest.

Beijing Trip Day 1

2008-02-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

161 days in Shanghai (7/02/08)

I woke up at 5.30am to get ready for out Beijing trip. Leave the house by 7.45am and took a cab down to Pudong Airport.

Reached there an hour earlier, e-checked in and had KFC breakfast.

Went through the boarding gate and we have got to take a bus down to the airplane. It was quite cool cox it was my first time taking a bus before boarding a plane. Heard from Yu Hong normally budget airlines are all like that. Got to take a bus down to the aeroplane.

The moment I went on the plane and reached my seat, I went off to lala land; all of us were so damn tired cox we slept quite late the previous night.

And although it is only a 2 hour plane ride, Air China still served us breakfast. Their service is also quite good, much better then China Eastern =)

Reached Beijing, took a bus down to the terminal and get our luggage. Once we went out of the terminal, there was this driver that asked if we wanted a ride and we started bargaining the price from RMB160 to RMB100.

Was quite surprised that along the way to the apartment, there wasn’t any sight of snow. The driver told us that Beijing only snowed a few times this year and it was all those small ones. All the snow has already melted. =(

(Thought that the main purpose of coming to Beijing is to see snow.. and I get to see it in Shanghai rather then in Beijing…)

Reached the service apartment and realized that the place is actually quite near. We reached there in 30mins and wanted to bargain more with the driver. But Jia Wei just gave him RMB100 when we alighted.

Went to the check in at the counter and something happen that almost freaked me out. The counter got to photocopy our passports as reference and they asked me and Yu Hong why we didn’t have our passport stamp at the immigrant counter.

So, without the stamp that shows that we leave Shanghai and come to Beijing, it actually means that we are illegal immigrants to Beijing.

Then while I was thinking if the immigrant person actually stamped on my passport, Yu Hong said that within domestic flights, stamps are actually not required as we travelled to HangZhou, Suzhou and ZhouZhuang without the use of our passport. So we have got our 180 days visa on China is actually sufficient.

Only then I got relieved and the front desk person also agreed with it. Phew!

Reached the apartment and it has got a living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms (one with a queen size bed, the other have got a single bed) and one bathroom. Snatched our rooms and slacked for the rest of the afternoon watching tv and sleeping.

Went out at about 5pm for dinner at this tofu restaurant (found in the map) and headed to 王府井 after that for night window shopping and night views. Tried out some of the road side food and ate mac ice cream in the –degree temperature out there.

We walked for awhile till about 9.15pm before taking a cab back to the apartment.

Chinese New Year Eve!

2008-02-06T02:04:00.001-08:00

160 days in Shanghai (6/02/08)

Plan for the day was to leave the house at 9.30am to Qipu road for more shopping for Jie Ying and Jia Wei.

In the end, all of us work up late and we left the house at 10.45am instead.

Took the cab down and shopping starts. And I hate shopping for shoes first coz it is damn hard to find anything that I will like and all the prices they code are just too unreasonable to bargain.

In the end, I didn’t get to buy my boots (wanted to buy the same black boots that look like those army one as the one I had have spoiled (turn into crocodile) but got myself a bag handbag, 2 small sling bag and 4 wallets. (Most of them are for friends. Hehe)

Jie Ying and Jia Wei got quite some stuffs too.

We cab down to 八佰伴after shopping for lunch at this Japanese restaurant. They went back home after lunch and I took a small scroll around the area before heading back home.

Went to 家德了to buy some ingredients for the Laksa we are going to have later tonight. Chinese New Year Eve eating Laksa.. hmm not interesting huh. Haha

Haiz.. this is the first time in my 20 years not having my reunion dinner with my family. This feeling is so weird.. like I totally don’t feel the new year mood!! I DON’T LIKE IT!!!

Anw, I am going to Beijing tmr and time is going to past very fast. Not long later, I will be back in SIN with the super killing weather. (Joanne just called and remind me to enjoy every single bit of coldness in China coz SIN is crazily hot and stuffy!)

Reached home, slacked a while and started using the internet. And it has been very long since I went online and chat with people. Haha

I used the internet, chatted with sis, dad and some other friends before getting ready for dinner. Sis and dad actually asked me if I have got a webcam so that they can conference with me and let me see what they are eating -_-.

After dinner, although we can hear the noise of the crackers at home, we can’t see it so we decided to go down to the neighborhood and light up the remaining crackers that Kelvin leave for us.

When we reached downstairs, all the fire crackers that everyone else are lighting up is damn nice and big that we didn’t even want to light up ours.

But well, anyway the crackers and fireworks are all damn nice. Nicer then those that Kelvin bought. It’s like during national day what we saw at the stadium. And over here, the fire crackers and fire works are just right in front of you.

In Singapore, everyone got to go to a certain place and wait for a certain time until they can get to see those fireworks. Over here, everywhere I go or turn to, I get to see it. And it is just damn beautiful.

And it wasn’t expensive buying those fire crackers. RMB100 plus to get a small one and up to RMB 1000 plus to get those really huge and nice one.

Went back home after that, did some last min packing then went off to bed. Got to wake up at 5am to get ready to go to the airport for our Beijing trip =)

Think the next time I will blog will be when I am back in SIN. Or hopefully when I come back from Beijing. =)

Finally a day to rest and stay @ home!

2008-02-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

159 days in Shanghai (5/5/08)

Woke up 9.30am and started backing up the room. Helped Joanne with her luggage and went down to the photocopying shop to get our report printed out.

The whole morning was then Kim packing up all the last min stuffs and clearing all the rubbish.
Went back to the photocopying shop to collect the report and YES! Finally the report is done =) Hopefully I can score well in this report..

Jia Wei and Yu Hong came over to Jie Ying house to stay so that it will be more convenient when we go to Beijing.

Helped Kim move all her luggage down and then was to bid goodbye.

It’s so sad man! All four of us came together and now, all of them have gone home leaving me going to Beijing with Jie Ying, Yu Hong and Jia Wei. Went back to the room and suddenly, I feel that the whole room looks so empty.

Both the cupboards are empty, the shoes rack is empty, the clothes rack is only left with my stuffs, the toiletries are left with one bottle of facial wash and there is only one toothbrush in the cup.

But still, although they have all went back, they left a lot of things behind for me; chocolate biscuits, Milo nuggets, Oreo, BBQ Pork, drinks, many pairs of slipper, crackers and etc.

And now, after so many days of rushing projects, doing last minute shopping and few hours of sleep only, I can finally have get to rest at home one whole day.

Here I am, updating my blog that has been missing for one month =)It has been so long that I stayed at home one whole day.

Time is passing so quickly here! 5 months just flew past like that and a week later, I will be back in Singapore too.

I am so damn going to miss this place!!!

So, slacked at home the whole day using internet and while I was doing that, Jie Ying was rushing her report and both Yu Hong and Jia Wei went to Shanghai Science Technology Park and then to some wet market to buy some stuffs to cook for tonight’s dinner.

Dinner was spaghetti and some fried fish in tomato sauce. So, the guys done up the dinner and we girls are supposed to wash everything and DAMN IT!! The whole kitchen is just so damn messy.

After dinner was back to slacking- watching DVDs and then head off to bed.

Last Shopping Trip for Kim & Joanne!

2008-02-05T01:48:00.000-08:00

158 days in Shanghai (4/02/08)

It’s the last day in Shanghai for Kim and Joanne and we really have got to very stingy with time. So, we woke up super early today to get ready and leave the house at 8am to Qipu road for the last min shopping.

Reached there and all I shopped for was clothes for my brothers only. Okie, I bought myself a pair of heels =)

By the time we were done with shopping, it was 2.30pm already. Cabbed back home and we ordered delivery coz all of us were crazily hungry.

Finished up all our report and started packing up everything. All of us still have got so many things when all of us have actually sent back at least one big bag of things to Singapore already.

Called up Kelvin to ask if he can help us bring back some stuffs since we know that he is a super light traveler. Got him 3 big plastic bags full of our stuffs when we go to his house to 放鞭炮. =)

It was damn fun man!! What we did was going to one location, making sure that there is no police or security around then light up the fire crackers. We went to a few location and some of the fire crackers are damn nice. We played with a few different types like 蛋糕，两千向, 双响炮 and etc.

There was one time when we placed 4双响炮 a row and light it up. So when Joanne and I got our crackers’ line lighted up and Kim and Yu Hong was still trying, the cracker started exploding while Kim was just beside it. I guess she got shock out of her life.

After all the exploding, it was back home and we ordered a lot of 烧烤and 麻辣烫. So much that we couldn’t finish all of it. Anyway, it will be the last time eating 麻辣烫as the stall uncle is going back home for chinese new year.

After eating, I was super tired and went straight to bed.

More Shopping today!

2008-02-05T01:45:00.000-08:00

157 days in Shanghai (3/02/08)

Woke up at 10am to do my report then meet up with Yee Hui, Kelvin, Maxim and Angeline to have lunch at Tang Gong.

Ordered Dim Sum and they started telling me all the nice places to go in Beijing and I doubt I have got enough time and money to go there.

After lunch, Kim and I went to pick up Jia Wei to go Cheng Huang Miao while Joanne went home to finish up her report.

Bought facial stuffs for sister and Kim bought RMB 210 worth of preserved Cherry and both of them did their chinese name stamp.

And while we were there, both Kim and I were considering borrowing money from Kelvin since he keep on asking us to borrow and we both are quite broke. I decided to borrow RMB500 from him in case I really got to survive on snow everyday in Beijing. hehe

Cabbed down People’s Park and have dinner at Papa Johns. Went to Di Mei after that as Kim wanted to do her nails and I wanted to buy sun glasses. And today was the first time I went there after so many months.

Bought my sunglasses and while waiting for Kim to finish up her nails, we went to Haagon Daiz =)

She got her nails done and while I went home, she went back to the salon shop to re-dye her hair as she wasn’t satisfied with it. So for the last few days in Shanghai, she spent all her nights doing her hair… That shows how important her hair is to her. Haha

They started packing their things and the house is messy like crazy now.

Goodbye to Angela!

2008-02-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

156 days in Shanghai (2/02/08)

Today was the day Angela is going home.

Woke up at 9.30am to get ready and at 10am, we send her down to meet up with Edison, one of her colleagues to send her to the airport.

Time passes so freaking fast for the past few days and now, she is going back to Singapore already. 5 months just past like that!!!

Went back home to get ready to meet up with Dennis and Raymond at GHL for lunch. Lunch was too bad and after that, I went to make spectacles. It was so super duper cheap there as it was supposed to be like some spec warehouse there.

Bought one spec and the lens is super thin (the last time I got thin lens was like when I was in pri school when my degree is just 200??). The technology there seems to be better then the one is Singapore.

Contact Len are also super duper cheap too. Sis, u definitely got to go there the next time we are here in Shanghai.

Spend almost the whole afternoon there as all of us bought something, esp Joanne. Even Kim, the perfect eyesight girl bought a Levis Specs.

After that, took a cab and drop Kim and Joanne home first before going to Ba Bai Ban to collect my jeans.

Bought KFC home for dinner, continue on my report and went to the salon shop at about 10pm to accompany Kim as she wants to straighten her hair. So in the end, I had my hair trimmed too after much consideration since yesterday.

So, after Kim straightened her hair, her hair dye seems to have all faded off and the boss was nice enough to give her a free red highlight.

The staffs there were also all very nice. So nice that we got quite pai sae. They are supposed to end work at 11pm but because of us, they ended work at around 4am. Crazy huh.

So, most of my time now was planning for the schedule on where to go for the last few days in Shanghai and doing my stupid OIAP report..

It has been so long since I wrote something and now, I am supposed to write a 3k words report. Yea, 3k isn’t a lot but then, it’s the brain that is not working now.

LAST DAY OF ATTACHMETN!

2008-02-05T01:34:00.000-08:00

155 days in Shanghai (1/02/08)

Today was the official day we end our attachment. Like finally!!

Headed down to Lu Jia Bang to collect our suits before going to the hotel to do some admin stuffs and bid the rest goodbye.

Reached the hotel at about 4pm and I realized that I lost a lot of things; hair clip and the employee’s handbook. Lucky I got the hair clip from BQT office and Yu Hong has got an extra handbook to rescue me from paying some money.

Went to HR and things starts to get a bit irritating. They gave us this whole list of things that we got to return and do. Like returning of the locker keys, name tags, going to the various department to get some stuffs checked and sign.

Everyone got quite pissed off as some of us have got to go to finance to collect our extra pay and the general casher close at 5.30pm when we have got a lot of running here and there to get things signed and everything.

By the time we reached back HR office to let them sign the final slip, it was already 5.30pm. Lucky they told the general cashier to wait for us.

Anyway, got our money and we got our BONUS too=)

Met up with Jia Wei at Zhen Da for dinner and shopped for a while before heading back home.
Went to the hair salon opposite our house to have our hair done as Angela is going back home tomorrow.

Myself- had my hair highlighted red
Angela- got a hair cut and red highlight
Kim- got a haircut, jet black dye and red highlight
Joanne got her hair perm and red highlight.

So in the end, all of us have got almost the same colour. Joanne was the last one to get her hair done and all of us were eating Mala Tang while waiting for her. The boss of the shop was very nice =) We left the shop at around 3am.

And the snow today was super huge (bigger then the previous one) that we started to play with the snow on the way home.

Early Chinese New Year Celebration

2008-02-05T01:25:00.000-08:00

154 days in Shanghai (31/01/08)

I realized that I haven been blogging since long long ago so I decided to start typing again before the whole attachment ends.

For the last few days, I have been involved in this Sabric Event, supposing selling hotel’s restaurant outlets to the delegates but in the end, all I did was seating at my desk chatting with the staffs for 3 hours before going back to the reservation office or home (worked half day)

So, that was how I spend my last few days in the hotel. Oh no, I did more reservations too. Today was a damn busy day and the total amount of reservation I have made today was more then the amount I made for the past few weeks in the department. Sounds crazy huh.

Work ended at 3pm today, went over to City Shop to help Kelvin buy coconut milk; he invited us to his house for curry chicken and steamboat-mini early chinese new year celebration.

Went back home again, slacked for a while then meet up with Jia Wei for dinner as he is here to Shanghai for a visit before heading off to Kelvin’s house.

Reached Kelvin’s house at about 7pm and stayed there till 12am before heading off to G+ with Tracy, Salex and Joanne for some night life.

Snowing again =)

2008-02-05T01:22:00.000-08:00

149 days in Shanghai (26/01/08)

Woke up in the morning and when I opened the window to see if it is snowing, the whole floor on the playground opposite my house was filled with it.

The snow today was one of the heaviest ever in Shanghai.

Got ourselves ready and went off to work. It was just so damn cool to walk in the snow that is about 2cm deep. The whole street is full of snow and it was still snowing. Took some photos on the way and played with the snow.

Snow is really white and beautiful but when it gets polluted, it is so damn dirty and disgusting.
Reached the hotel and work is so boring as usual. Worked, or rather slacked for a few hours until our 2 hours break then we went out for lunch with Maxim eating Japanese food.

Helped out Alice with some laminating stuffs and went to join Joanne at her booth in the lobby, trying to sell restaurants to the customers.

Work ended at 9.30pm, changed our uniform and walked back home.

Last week of work and it’s the end of attachment. Time is just passing too quickly over here.. Damn it!!

UBS Event

2008-02-05T01:20:00.000-08:00

145-146 days in Shanghai (22/01/08-23/01/08)

This 2 days I have been involved in the UBS event under the F&B reservation department and what I was supposed to do was just be stationed at China Hall at the Concierge area and stand by if any one wants to make reservation.

So During coffee break, what I need to walk around the foyer and promote the restaurants to the delegates.

So all I did for these 2 days was standing there doing nothing coz everyone at the foyer will be taking to their own business partner and no one is going to give a damn on me.

And most of the times I will go to the UBS lounge to find Joanne as she was stationed there with the same job scope as I have, which means nothing to do as well. =)

This was how these 2 days was spent. And oh, having been eating 烧烤for the past few days and I am getting immune to the spiciness already.

Tailor made clothes from Lu Jia Bang

2008-02-05T01:17:00.000-08:00

144 days in Shanghai (21/01/08)

Today was supposed to be my off day but I guess it turned out to be my sick leave. Have been caught a flu for quite some time and hopefully it will recover before I go over to Beijing.

And today was the first time when Kim woke up earlier then me during our off day. Got dressed up and meet up with Joanne for lunch at the Japanese restaurant for the RMB30 set lunch.

Headed to Lu Jia Bang after that to collect Kim’s friend’s suits and make our own suits. Looked for the place her friend did her suit then searched for the place where Yee Hui made his and so coincidently, we saw Jie Ying and Chang Fang there. Who the hell say that Shanghai is BIG!!! This world is just so small man!!

Looked at the material and stuffs but we were so clueless of how to chose and what design we want. Started flipping through the magazines and ask for advice from the lady boss.

Got my design and had my measurements. Guess it’s going to be not bad. Black colour suit with pocket inside and red colour base inside. One suit with pants coz RMB380, S$76. Is it consider cheap???

Went to another stall to make shirts and I tailor make one short and a silky dark red shirt. Hopefully it will look nice =)

Done with our suits and Kim got to head back to the hotel for some briefing. When to KFC with Jie Ying and Chang Fang as they wanted to have dinner there before heading back home.

And after spending money in Lu Jia Bang today, I am officially broke for the month. Hopefully I will have enough money for my Beijing trip next month. Damn!!

Shopping for friends =)

2008-02-05T00:55:00.000-08:00

140 day in Shanghai (17/01/08)

Woke up early in the morning coz Kim and I plan to go Qipu for some shopping. And this time, it’s quite similar to the previous time: shopping for friends.

Got my friends some bags and myself a pair of heels. Had a very fast shopping pace that day and it snowed very lightly that day.

Spend only about 2 hours there and we are done with our shopping trip. Bought roasted potato and headed back home as Kim got to get ready to go back to the hotel for some training.

Out with the managers to Fushion and Club 88

2008-02-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

139 days in Shanghai (16/01/08)

All the four of us were having our off day together again and all of us just slacked at home the whole day till evening time when we started to get ready to go out for dinner with the managers at the Penang Restaurant, Fusion.

Reached there at 8pm and we were like 1 hour early. Decided to order some food first as all of us were hungry and it wouldn’t be very nice to wait for them without ordering anything.

Yu Hong came shortly followed by the managers. Everyone ordered and shared the foods. Dinner was very full and this time round, was the time we treat the managers =)

After dinner was to this place call Club 88. The whole concept of it was like those Olden Shanghai club ‘液上海’ that kind.

They have got performance there like those aerobics, singing, and comedian. The singing there are all the old songs in the 70s-80s but some of are quite nice.. like those very high songs.

Stayed there for quite some time till 12am before heading back home. Not too bad an experience there but well, maybe it’s not the kind of place I will go but I bet my parents will love that place =)

Staff Party and My first sight of snow!!!

2008-01-14T04:54:00.000-08:00

136 day in Shanghai (13/01/08)
Everyday seems quite boring ever since I start working in F&B reservation. Work starts at 11.30am and ends at 9.30pm with a 2 hour break in-between.

Not learning anything much from this department coz everyday, what I am doing is just making some reservation for people and greeting guest when they arrive.

So, the hotel had this staff party yearly and this year, it’s today and tomorrow. Mine was today and so, after working for a few hours till 2pm, we went down to change our clothes before going for lunch as we know that we won’t be coming back until 5.30pm when the party starts.

Had this Japanese set lunch then Kim came to find us after she cut her hair at Toni & Guy and she had quite a short hair cut this time.

After lunch it was Joanne’s turn for her hair cut. Wanted her to cut her hair short but in the end, she still got her hair long.

Waited for an hour plus till her hair was done and we tried to get a glance of 罗志祥 when we were walking down back to the hotel as he was here for some autograph session. There were tons of people and I think it was so crazy. He has got so many more fans compared to Jolin蔡依林 who was here yesterday.

Went back for the staff party and the food was super normal.. We weren’t very hungry so we just sat there and watched all the performance. Half way through, Yu Hong called me and tell me that it was snowing outside so all of us rushed out but at that time, there weren’t anymore snow. It was just little snow flakes falling from the sky.

Then it was the lucky draw and I got a RMB600 worth of hair salon voucher. Might be going to have another haircut soon =)

Initial plan for the night was to go out after the dinner so we went to queue for the cab and as we were waiting, I realized that the raindrops shined from the lamp post seems to be very big. Then after a while, I realized that it was snowing.

So Joanne, Angela and I ran out to the pathway and we started to get super excited. This is the first time in my life saw it SNOWING!!!

We started calling Yu Hong, Kim and some other Singaporeans to come out to see the snow. It was so nice and all of us were like crazily screaming and shouting.

All the other locals were just staring at us thinking that we are like some lunatics.

Oh well, I think snowing is really beautiful and I feel really happy when I see those snow. Hahaha HAPPINESS =)

Too bad Mr right wasn’t with me yesterday. Haha

It was so super cold outside that by the time we reached home, we were all super hungry. Went to buy Ma La Tang back home and I guess that is one kind of you got to eat out in the cold coz when we eat it at home, it was way too spicy for both Joanne and I.

Dinner with F&B reservation boss

2008-01-14T04:46:00.000-08:00

132 days in Shanghai (9/01/08)
Work up late today, slacked at home till 3.30pm before heading off to Qipu road with Joanne. Wanted to take a cab there but when we board the cab, the driver told us that it take us about 30 mins there and got to pay about RMB30.

We looked at each other and started quarrelling with the driver saying that it normally takes us only 15 mins to reach there and it cost only RMB20+.

Alighted from the cab after he drove us 400m and we paid him RMB5 -_-

Took the train instead, reached there and we started shopping. So, today’s shopping trip wasn’t for me but for my friends =)

Got some bags and we randomly know 2 guys there. One from the US and the other from Sweden.

After shopping, we went home to put our stuffs first before heading off to 正大广场 for dinner with Angeline, F&B marketing manager, our F&B reservation boss.

She treated us Saireiya and we ordered a lot of food; salad, pizza, pasta, soup, grilled chicken and fish.

After dinner, meet up with Kim and we went to Attica, one of the better clubs in Shanghai to meet our 2 new random friends. Searched for super long and we even got lost finding that place. Attica seems nice and the music was good but there weren’t many people around so we decided to change a place after using their toilet.

One of the guys recommended us this Mexican pub, Zapata’s. There were a lot of foreigners there and the whole place looks very Mexican but it wasn’t really our style so in the end we ended up in Babyface again.

Went for super before heading back home.

Family is here in Shanghai =)

2008-01-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

It has been super long since I last blog and I think I should just get my hands back on the keyboards again and continue typing before I get ready tired and abundant the whole blog.

So, this past 2 weeks has been quite busy for all of us, which include Kim, Joanne, Angela, Jie Ying and myself coz in this 2 weeks, either our family of friends are here to visit.

My parents and sis are back in Shanghai on the 21st December till 28th Dec and I took 4 days off to accompany them.

Met them my 113 day in Shanghai, 21st December to watch this acrobatic show and I have got to find my way there myself. I almost got myself lost and my sis came out to find me. =)

Wasn’t too bad a show but since I have seen my sis for almost 4 moths, we started chatting instead of watching the show. My mum told us to shut up for like more than 4 times.

So went back to the hotel, started chatting and went to bed.

Woke up the next day and it was the start of our own Shanghai tour.

So, instead of me bringing my parents and sis around Shanghai coz I have been here for 4 months and should know the place better, my dad was the one that brought us around (most of the attractions I mean, obviously I am the tour guide for all shopping areas =)).

Went to a few attractions like Zhou Zhuang, Shanghai Botanical Garden, Jade Buddha Temple, Cheng Huang Miao, shopping areas like Nanjing road, Xu Jia Hui, Huai Hai rd, Qipu rd, and ate cuisines like Beijing Duck, Xiao long Bao, Sheng Jian Bao, Smelly Tofu and Shao Kao. Bought my sis to some night life places like B.A.T.S, Babyface and Muse.

114 day in Shanghai (22/12/07)

Woke up in the morning, had our breakfast in the hotel and headed to Luxun Park as my dad just doesn’t get bored over parks. Spend some time at the luxun museum reading his history and stuffs and we headed back to the hotel.

Packed up all our stuffs, bid goodbye to their tour mates and moved their luggage to Motel 168. By the time we reached the hotel, it was 2pm already and Motel 168 is having a blackout.

Brought them to eat Lan Zhou La Mian but I think my parents just cant get use to eating those kind of food. After lunch we walked to Oriental Pearl Tower as dad want to get tickets to see this Chinese olden days fashion show.

Went to Zhen Da to shop and ate dinner before heading back to the theatre to watch the show. The whole place looks quite nice and very new. After the show was to Huangpu Jiang to see the view of the bund.

115 day in Shanghai (23/12/07)

Woke up early as my dad wanted to go to Zhou Zhuang. Headed to Shanghai Stadium to catch the coach there and by the time we reached there, it was 9.50am already. I thought that the last coach has gone but lucky there was another coach at 10am and this time, we have got a tour guide with us.

Went there the 2nd time so nothing much to blog about it. Reached back Shanghai at abt 6pm and we went to Xu Jia Hui as dad wanted to eat at this restaurant ‘Ya Wang (Duck King)’

Went there the previous time I was here in Shanghai 2 years ago and it was quite nice so he deiced to have it again.

Shopped around there after dinner before heading back to the hotel. Brought sis to get a haircut and went back home to get some clothes. Stayed there for some time and sis bought some Shao Kao to eat on the way home.

116 day in Shanghai (24/12/07)

Headed off to Shanghai Botanical Garden in the morning, one of the kinds of places my dad loves.

That place is not comparable to Singapore Botanical Garden I must say. That place is so damn far away from the train station (30 mins walk) and the people over there actually said that it is very near and walkable. (Yes, I know it’s China and so the mindset of distance is definitely different.. but still.. -_-)

Reached there and we have got to pay RMB40 for the entrance fee. And I think because they have got a too big space there, they can’t be bothered to do maintenance to the whole place. The whole place is quite big and we have got to cover 4 different parts/places before my dad is willing to come out from there.

Not a very garden person so I didn’t really enjoy myself there but I have got to say that some of the sceneries are quite nice. Photos shows =)

After that I got to head back to the hotel to work for Christmas night, ‘Merry Christmas with Gigi Leung’ while they went to eat Jia Jia Tang Bao (very famous Xiao Long Bao shop in Shanghai). Waited for very long for this event as I so wanted to see Gigi leung in person haha. Saw her on stage and she sang 7 songs.

After the dinner, it was to B.A.T.S for Christmas party. Met up sister at the lobby and we went there tgt. The party wasn’t that fun as there wasn’t a lot of guest there and the whole ambience is quite dead.

Wanted to leave early and go to some other clubs but didn’t know how to tell Nick (the manager) that we wanted to go off. So in the end, they started counting down when we were half way going out to the exit. And we just like so stupidly standing in the center counting down.

Went to Babyface with Joanne and we have got to pay an entrance fee of RMB80. Lucky the music that day wasn’t that bad after all.

117 day in Shanghai (25/12/07)

Woke up at 10am to get ready and I went back home first to wash my clothes. Sis started cooking Maggie for lunch. Went out at 1pm, opened the letter box and realized that there is this parcel we have got to collect.

Look for the place and collected the item; it was a birthday present to Angela from some friends. After that, we took the train to Qipu rd and started out shopping trip. Sis bought 3 pairs of shoes and need her nails while I got Gina’s accessories.

After shopping, we met up with our parents for dinner at Nanjing rd in this restaurant. After dinner was shopping around Nanjing for a while before I bring them to 八佰伴area for some road-side shopping. Brought my parents to eat Shao kao for supper after shopping.

118 day in Shanghai (26/12/07)

Went to the Jade Buddha Temple in the morning and I thought that I will spend a few hours there but we ended up exploring that place in just an hour.

It wasn’t a very big temple but there was this particular room that placed the jade Buddha. It looks really beautiful but no photos can be taken there. One of the monk was cleaning the jade Buddha at that time and he was the only that can touch the Buddha. Inside that area, there were 2 more male workers cleaning and wiping the glass container that keeps the Buddha and both of them cannot touch the Buddha at all let alone females.

After that, we headed to the hotel for lunch at Yi Café for their buffet lunch. Yi Café is one of the famous buffet restaurant in Shanghai where it has it’s own buffet concept. There are a few different counters in the buffet restaurant; Western, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Dessert and pastry counter.

In each counter, they will have their own chef in the counter to explain their cuisines to the customer that’s why there isn’t any food tag on the counter.

It was quite weird eating at Yi Café as I saw a lot of managers that day and they will come forward and greet my parents. But well, I still enjoyed the lunch. And since it was my dad’s birthday, they gave us a birthday cake.

After lunch, I accompany Joanne for lunch while my parents and sis went to shop around Zhen Da. By the time we met up again, it was near 4pm already. We went to Xin Tian Di, Huai Hai rd and Cheng Huang Miao after that to look at the night sceneries.

We had dinner at this Chinese restaurant which is one of the best restaurants in China. If I am not wrong, a few president and big shots have gone there for a meal before.

Went back to eat Shao Kao again for supper before sis and I met up with Joanne to go to Maxim’s birthday party at Muse. Music was great that night =)

119 day in Shanghai (27/12/07)

We went to Cheng Huang Miao again in the morning to Yu Yuan, one of the famous gardens in Shanghai. Stayed there the whole morning and went for lunch in the same restaurant we had for dinner the previous day.

Shopped around there for a while and I found another warehouse place that sells all those accessories. Think I will be going there quite often to get more stuffs when I am going home. =)

After that, we went to Wu Jiang rd to eat all those road side food like Sheng Jian Bao, Smelly Tofu, Shao Kao, etc.

An incident happen on the way to Wu Jiang rd. From our hotel to Cheng Huang Miao, it cost only RMB14. When we took a cab from Cheng Huang Miao to Wu Jiang rd, which has almost the same distance as from the hotel to Cheng Huang Miao plus a bit of jam, it cost us RMB50. So obviously, that was a ‘black’ cab. Had quite a big quarrel with the cab driver and in the end, I just gave him RMB15.

Went to Raffles City as my dad want to eat some dessert then headed back to the hotel. Went to foot message with sis while dad went to eat Shao Kao.

120 day in Shanghai (28/12/07)

Today is the last day of the tour with my family. Woke up in the morning to pack our bags. After packing, I have got 3 bags of things to bring home. After that, we went to Huangpu Jiang to look at the scenery before going to Zhen Da for Dim Sum.

Went back to the hotel to check out and headed to Longyang Rd to take the maglev train. Reached there at 1.45pm and they have to check in their luggage already.

Walked around the airport for a while before I have got to bid them goodbye and they have got to board the plane and go back to Singapore.

Took the maglev train back to Longyang rd and went back home.

Photos to be uploaded in friendster and facebook =)

Angela birthday dinner @ Fusion

2007-12-20T22:10:00.000-08:00

112 day in Shanghai (20/12/07)

Today is the 2nd I haven’t been doing anything at work. Yes, totally nothing. All I did was just reach office, check my mails, chat on msn and phone, play Friendster and Facebook’s games.

And it’s not that I didn’t do my work but they have got nothing for me to do. I am supposed to be doing GDS this week but because it’s Christmas period, the occupancy rate is very low and they themselves have got nothing to do.

So in the end they just did the GDS I am supposed to do.

After this week, I will be spending one week with my family and then back to F&B department on 31st dec… last day of the year.

Might want to go to B.A.T.S, one of the restaurant bar in the hotel but got no idea if the training manger allows me to go there together with Joanne.

Anw, after work together, I went over to the Lujiazui train station to buy my Nokia phone batt as the old one has got something wrong with it.

After that, went to 正大广场 to look for Joanne and Angela as Angela is having her 4th haircut in Shanghai at Tony and Guy Academy.

Met Yu Hong back in the hotel at 7pm and we headed off to HuaiHai road to this penang restaurant, Fusion.

Thought that it is a buffet restaurant as Angela had buffet the previous time she was there. It ended up to be A la Carte.

Was quite disappointed as all of us were already in the mood of having buffet, eating all the different dishes they have.. plus we were all supper hungry. So we were thinking of changing a place for dinner to celebrate Angela’s birthday.

But the service was very good and the waiter even allows us to have their set-lunch as a set-dinner.

So in the end, we decided to stay and all 5 of us ordered 5 different main dishes; Prawn Noodles, Curry Chicken Rice, Mice Meat Noodle, Mee Goreng Fried Kway Tiao plus one Malay Gangkong, 2 and us ordered different dishes to share Curry puffs and Spring roll.

Kim, Angela and Yu Hong ordered teh tarek and both Joanne and I ordered fresh orange juice.

Was super satisfied and all of us were darn full after dinner. We still thought that we wouldn’t be that full at first and wanted to order Nasi Lemak too.

And although the food wasn’t really that fantastic, it is much better then Crossroad in terms of the food and service. Heard that the chef is a Malaysian.. Maybe that explains =)
Thumbs up =)

After dinner, took a walk all the way to People’s square (one train stop away) to digest a bit and window shopped while seeing the Christmas decorations.

Walked pass one tunnel while going home and at first, I saw some people laying things on the floor. I thought they are those roadside seller so didn’t really bother about them.

Then when we walked pass the tunnel again because we went the wrong way, I realized that they are beggars that have no home and they are laying their blankets on the floor getting ready to sleep.

And the place gets smellier when they start to open up all their plastic bags taking out the blankets.

I think this is the first time I see a group of beggars together getting ready to sleep on the floor along the tunnel (like those I see in TV shows). Normally I will only see a few beggars sleeping on the benches etc…

Found our way and took the subway home. And while walking through the tunnel towards the train platform, we saw some people started running like chasing after the last train.

‘I don’t think it’s the last train. Maybe they are just wanted to catch this coming training. Chinese people very kiasu one what. Like Singaporeans.’

‘Yea, but I think Chinese are too kiasu that kiasu this term doesn’t suit them anymore’

hahah. I think it’s quite funny when Angela said that.

And in the end, we started becoming kiasu too and ran to the platform as Joanne thought that it was really the last train coz we saw 2 elderly running too. Haha (we didn’t realized that elderly people can also be Kiasu)

Reached home, washed my face and headed off to lala land.

Hotel's Staff Outing

2007-12-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

108 day in Shanghai (16/12/07)

The initial plan was to sleep for 2 hours before waking up at 5.30am to get ready for the hotel staff outing. But in the end, both Kim and I got up late and we got to rush out of the house.

Walked a few levels down the stairs and I realized that I should bring my employee card so I went back home, got Jie Ying’s house key, went into her house and get my card.

By that time, we thought that we were super later already and started running down the stairs.

The moment we reached the street, it was empty. Not a single car or taxi. The only vehicles we saw were a few buses passing by. Walked out to the main road at a very fast pace and the moment we saw a cab, we ran all the way to catch it.

It was like some morning exercise. Got quite hot when we reached the hotel when it was supposed to be freezing cold.

Got to find the coach we are boarding where they paste a ‘name list’ on the door. Went coach to coach to find our names and we finally found ours; Bus 1

Board the coach and waited for the rest of the staffs to arrive. While waiting for the other staffs to arrive, I realized that the hotel’s welfare is quite good.

Firstly, the hotel made an effort to come out with this outing for her staffs, and then there was a coffee and tea booth at the entrance for the staffs (it was freezing cold so I think by providing hot coffee and tea a a very good ides)

When all the staffs board the coach, breakfast will be distributed. Everyone will get to have a bun, a hard-boiled egg and yogurt in a plastic bag together with a bottle of water.

Journey started off and it takes us about 1½ hour to reach Ting Lin Yuan, some attraction in Suzhou.

Slept all the way, reached there and it was toilet break then team-building activity.

We were all told to gather at the field and put our bags at one corner. Thought that it was totally stupid to be involved in the activity so we decided to just carry our bag and not be involved.

But in the end, in order to get warm, we decided to just join in the activities. At least there is going to be some jumping and moving around.

Every one of us was distributed with scarf. They have got 4 different groups so each group will have a different color; Grey, blue, red and pink. Ours were dark blue.

And although the scarf was just to differentiate the different groups, I think the quality is quite good. (Another welfare from the hotel)

Played a few activities and it seems like we are back in primary school; rabbit dance (shall not explain), passing the hula hook using your head/body and finishing a race by jumping (jumping to the other end and the last person got to ran back, hit the palm of the next first person of the next row and the race continues)

Had some fun there because it has been ages since I last got involved in all this kind of activity: team building. It’s really like back to school days.

And well, at least we weren’t that cold after the activity.

Having some free time after that, we explored the garden, took some photos and started cam whoring.

Find our way back to the coach and the next stop was lunch.

Lunch was at one of the restaurant by Yu Chen Lake. All of us have got our own private room and both Kim and I were to seat with the reservation people (just nice 10 of us)

Cold dish was there already then came the prawns, some seafood with shell, vegetables, fish, egg, noodles, chicken soup and the most important item; hairy crab =)

That was the first time I tried hairy crab and have got no idea how to eat it. Rainbow, one of our colleague started teaching us how to eat the crab; differentiate between the male and female, the difference between them, how to peel the crab open, which part can or cannot eat, etc.

Started eating the crab and vinegar was the sauce to it. I ate the crab the way I eat it at home; peel the meat out, dip in the sauce, etc but the locals here don’t eat them the way I do.

They will dip the whole crab into the vinegar and suck the meat out. I tried doing that but nothing comes out of the shells.

We took a super long time to finish eating it and when we went out to wash our hands, all the other private rooms are not only empty, the dishes are more or less being cleared away already.
Which means all the other staffs have finished eating and went out like long time ago?!?!

After lunch, boarded the coach and we decided to go back out along the street to see what the locals are selling.

Chickens, crabs, eggs and vegetables are sold in almost every store there. We even saw one of the workers skinning off a chicken. Kim took a video down and I think it is totally disgusting.

Headed back to the hotel and it was another 2 hours sleeping time on the coach. Reached back Shanghai and since it was too cold to walk home, we took a cab home from the lobby.

Reached home at about 4.30pm and I started finding food the moment step into the house coz I wasn’t full at all during lunch.

Watched Prison Break until 11pm before heading off to bed.

The Family is here & Dinner @ Gintei

2007-12-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

107 day in Shanghai (15/12/07)

After waiting for 3 and a half months, my parents and sister is finally here =)

Woke up at 9am and while still deciding if I should take a cab down, Jie Ying offered to lend me her Big bag: orange in color.

Borrowed her bag and although it is still very big, it is better then what I have initially; my own big blue bag, one plastic bag for the coat and one more light blue (Hong Thai agency bag) ugly bag.

So in the end, all I have got is her big orange bag and a plastic bag.

Started watching my HK series show till about 10.30am and got myself prepared to meet them to pass them some scarf, hats, SIM card, etc…

Took the train to LongYang station and transferred to the Maglev Train (Bullet train). Bought the round trip tickets which cost only RMB80; I thought that it was going to be at least RMB100 as I have got no air tickets.

And luckily I took the Maglev train as the train wasn’t crowded at all and everyone got to have a seat (comfortable kind) and the best thing is that it is super FAST. It’s like the feeling of a plane taking off (that kinda speed).

It takes only 30 mins to reach the Airport from my house and it is going to take me an hour plus which cost RMB130 if I take a cab.

Reached the airport and just nice, the announcement made that SQ826has just touch down. Waited very eagerly for them but after 10 mins, I still didn’t see them. The excitement went away for a while and soon, I saw my sis walking out from the arrival gate.

The moment I saw her, I ran and gave her a hug. Both of us got so excited and crazy. It was like ‘OMG!! I finally get to see u again!!! After 3 months!!!’

Went to one corner and we started like exchanging ‘gifts’. I gave her their stuffs and she passed me my Pandan cake, kuek, hard disk, hand phone and laksa paste. (They didn’t bring Ondeh Ondeh coz dad says that it is made of coconut and cant last overnight. So he ate it all at home yesterday!!! ARGH!!!)

Repacked some of the stuffs to make their luggage lighter and quite long later, I finally get to see daddy and mummy.

Walked them to their coach coz they still have got a tour to follow before coming back Shanghai and spend a few days with me.

Chatted with them for a while (5 mins?!?!) from the arrival hall to the coach bay.

Headed back home, ate the kuek, changed my phone, try out the hard disk and edited some photos before going out again to meet Yu Hong to go for the dinner with Maxim.

Reached the Japanese restaurant, Gintei and it is Tepenyaki buffet style. Ordered a lot of food; beef, chicken, fish, sashimi, sushi, tempura, etc..and the food taste real good.

Was half full already when Kim, Joanne and JieYing came after their shopping trip without me=(

And that place wasn’t cheap at all!!! RMB179 and I got to pay myself!!!

ANW, after dinner was to Babyface as we wanted to drink finish the half bottle of Chivas left there the other time when we were with Raymond and Denis.

And sad to say, our trip there is getting from bad to worse. The music sucks totally and I got hell no idea how the locals can dance with those kind of music. So not only we cant get the drink coz it’s a weekend, we got pushed hell lot of time in the dance floor as it was super duper packed in there.

And because Kim, Joanne and Jie Ying were too full (had 2 buffet in a day) to dance, almost half the time we were just standing at the center of the dance floor.

Reached home at 2.30am and I have got to wake up at 5.30am cox there is this hotel’s staff outing.

Lunch with the big bosses

2007-12-11T22:31:00.001-08:00

104 day in Shanghai (12/12/07)

Today was another day of stress lunch. WHY?? I had lunch with my BIG bosses again. The last time was on Monday where we ate lunch at this Hong Kong restaurant in 正大广场.

It so happen that when Kim and I wanted to go for lunch at 正大广场that day, we saw them (Mr Pow, Raymond and Andy) at the lift lobby. Went off first as they were waiting for some other friends and we saw them again while waiting for the lift.

Mr Pow asked us to join them for lunch. Ate with him, Raymond, Andy and 2 other Chinese colleagues, Linda and Angel. And the whole lunch was quite weird but still not as bad as today’s.

Denis messaged to ask if we want to have lunch together. Met up at 正大广场and headed to Saizeriya, the cheap pasta café.

He was alone when he meets us so I thought only Raymond would be joining later. Went in and took our orders.

And after a while, Mr Pow, Andy, Raymond and Sharon (don’t really know her post but is quite high) came in to join us. Joined 2 tables together and we sat together. Linda and Angel joined us later on.

And all along, as expected, they were saying how cheap the place is; one plate of pasta for RMB 9 and pizza for RMB19. They called that place ‘9 dollar pasta’.

So because it was too cheap for them, they started ordering a lot of food!!! (Something like ‘I want this this this and that’ that kind?!?!)

Not long later, the whole table was full of pizza, pasta, salads, soup, chicken wings, sausages and pork rips. I think I tried almost everything in the menu. We even take away a plate of mushroom pasta and a plate of chicken wing.

The dinner was quite stressful coz I know that I am like a super small fry here with all the big big bosses around me. And when they start to joke, you know you got to at least smile even though u don’t know what is going on that kind??

Eating with Big bosses is just so uneasy (at least to me). Raymond told us that all these are part of networking and these are the people that I may need help from in the future.

And this Friday, there will be a Karaoke session with them and I think I cannot not go right?!?!

Well, at least I have got like mushroom pasta and chicken for dinner later??

When we get back to the hotel, Raymond and Denis even went in to RSVN with us as we overshot our 1-hour break and they wanted to explain to Nancy that we were having lunch with them.

But well, I doubt they will really do that and lucky Nancy wasn’t around.

Sometimes I think that we are just lucky to meet them. (I think more or less influential people in the hospitality industry)

F&B finance training. Shopping!!!

2007-12-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

103 day in Shanghai (11/12/07)

Today was another training for the Singapore Interns and this round; F&B finance conducted by Maxim.

From 3.30pm till 5+pm, he told us things like budgeting, forecasting, Actual, P&L, etc about the hotel’s F&B department. The whole training was about figures and number. Got quite bored after awhile coz whatever he told us, we learned before.

It was near 5.30pm when the training ends and Kim, Joanne, Angela and I decided to head to Yi Café to steal some Fruit tarts =) their fruit tarts/desserts are just so nice!! Can’t wait to go there on the 26th (daddy’s birthday) to have a proper meal there!!!

After that, we went to look at the new F&B reservation room, the place where Joanne and Angela slacked most of the time.. haha

Stayed there till 5.45pm and it was back to RSVN to get our bags and end work =)

Head to CA go buy a turtle neck top for RMB 99 and accompany Kim to Tony & Guy Academy as Angela, Joanne and her wanted to book sessions for hair cut.

In the end, there weren’t any more slots during weekends and we only managed to book one session for Angela.

Went to H&M after that and I bought a new blue bag. Wasn’t really my kind of bags (got no compartments at all!!) but because Kim used her pink bag (same design) until like very convenient (throwing all her shopping bags inside it so she don’t have to carry anything on her hand), I decided to just buy it too since I have been searching for a big bag but in vain.

After H&M, the plan for the night was to go 八佰伴 for dinner at Papa John and shop at the roadside stores after that.

But since Kim wants to go to Citigroup building (just beside the hotel) to check out the air tickets availability, we decided to get Subway for dinner.

Helped Jie Ying to buy Jiao Zi on the way home and we started chatting with the fruits uncle while waiting for the Jiao Zi to be ready. And we can really crap with them. Haha (we are regular customers of the fruit stall).

And during the chat, I realized that we are the only ones that bargain with him on the price of the fruits. Haha most of the customers just take the fruits, pay and went off.

Reached home, had our dinner and went out again at about 9.30pm. Shopped along the street and bought stuff; a bag, a turtleneck, 2 earrings and 2 rings.

And now I am thinking if I should buy more stuffs back to SIN and start selling online because some of the things are really nice and it seems like it cost S$50 when it cost only RMB50.

Oh, and I guess both Kim’s and my bargaining skills improved. Haha. We started to talk nonsense like (in Chinese): ‘ it was fate that brings us to the store you know. Out of so many stores, I came here and pick up this item. It shows that I got fate with the item. So just sell me at a cheaper rate can?!?! I am very sincere to buy this thing. Blah blah blah’

Cool huh. Hahaha But I think this is how the Chinese talk. They always talk about fate and stuffs. Ha So I will just use back their style on them. Haha

But well, I will only use this when the seller don’t really allow people to bargain (some stores can’t bargain at all because their selling price is already quite low).

Another funny incident. Kim wanted buy 2 wallets for her aunts and when she asked the seller how much was it. Conversation goes like this (in Chinese)

‘How much is this??’

‘RMB180. But I can give u at RMB160’

‘Huh, so expensive. Forget it’

‘Then u tell me how much are u willing to pay?’

‘ Er.. I want 2 wallets. RMB 50 for 2. can?

‘WHAT!! Sorry cannot.’

So we just walked away

‘Miss, what about RMB250 (or sth like this) for both’

‘No. RMB 50 for both’

‘Oh, then too bad. Sorry cannot’

So we walked away again and he called us back again.

‘okie okie, y not 2 wallets for RMB220??’

‘No. RMB 50 for 2. Highest I can give is RMB 60 for both’

‘Oh, then sorry cannot. Byebye’

So we went off again and he called us back again. And this repeated like 3 or more times. In the end, he sold Kim at RMB 60 for 2 wallets. Bought the wallets and we went off. He then came chasing after us wanting to sell us another wallet

‘Miss, this is a better quality one. Just RMB500.’

‘Huh, siao ar.. I bought 2 wallets for RMB 60 and I think that it is expensive already.’

‘No no, this is very good. Looks exactly like the real one. Look at the quality blah blah.’

‘It’s not I don’t want. I got no money how to buy from u. I RMB30 for one wallet already bargain until vomit blood.’

And both of us went off quickly. I think that guy is just so… I don’t know use what word to describe. Haha. Telling us ‘bye bye’ already then coming after us again to ask us to buy.. it’s just his attitude I guess..

Headed home after that, packed up a bit, settle money and off to bed.. I think I am going to be broke again.. OMG!!

2007-12-09T18:53:00.000-08:00

101 day in Shanghai (09/12/07)

Woke at about at about 11am with the plan to meet Joanne and Angela for dim sum during their 2 hours break time. Reached 正大广场 at about 2.25pm and the restaurant was packed with people. We have got to wait for i think 20 tables before us???

The queue was quite fast and soon, we were inside waiting to be served. Ordered a lot of food coz the rest were very hungry. After the lunch, we just sat there and started crapping about guys, dreams, future, being tai tai,which uni to go to, blah blah blah.

Then Joanne suddenly started laughing saying that we really look like some tai tai eating dim sum on a Sunday, seating around the table after lunch talking NONSENSE. haha

OMG!! i so love this kinda life. Being a tai tai. hehehe

Anw, i got to look for a hard disk by this week coz if not, i got to ask sis to get it for me from SIN. My laptop has got super limited space already due to those videos and photos and movies...

Heard that there is this Mall near 八佰伴 that sells computer and electronic stuffs so Kim, Jie Ying and I decided to take a long walk down. Reached the place and with 3 computer/electronic idiots looking for a hard disk, we didn't know how to bargain.

One funny thing was that they sell the hard disk and the cover separately. I didn't know that the cover and the hard disk is 2 different thing and i told them that i just wanted the hard disk (which is the board..er. understand?? haha) Then one of the person was like u don't want the cover then how are u going to use it.. -_-

Started calling YuHong to ask for the pricing and stuffs. He said the the highest we should pay is only RMB550 but my budget is like RMB500. And no shops are willing to sell me at that price.

Started calling my bro to ask how much a hard disk cost in SIN blah blah blah and he said that SIN only sells it at S$80??? How can it be cheaper in SIN when it is made in China?!?!?! but will.. who cares since they say they are getting it for me =)

After the tiring bargain with no outcome, we went out to shop along the road side. Bought myself a glove and my parents and sis their hats =) Bought their sim card too.

By the time we reached home, it was 9+ already. It has been a long time since we shopped there and walked for so long. Since 4pm.. so we walked for 5 hours without resting.

Started packing those stuffs that i am supposed to pass it to them next sat, the day they arrive for their tour =) Some winter hats, scarfs, long john, tops, Pocky, nutriact...

Kim went to meet up Joanne and Angela again coz she still wants to shop but i was tired already and plan to stay at home to watch my new HK series show 'To Grow with with Love'.

And omg.. it makes me feel scared of getting fat.. maybe i shall start to diet soon. hehe (like yah right.. haha)

Oh, and kim came home with LOTS of stuffs!!! jealous jealous haha

100th day in Shanghai

2007-12-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

100th day in Shanghai (08/12/07)

Today is the 100th day in Shanghai and here i am, slacking my ass off at home.

Woke up at 10am and started watching my HK series show. Kim woke up and we started clearing up the house/room. And i think the pollution in Shanghai is really bad. We seldom open our window and the most, we air the room for like 1 hour and close the window (coz it is too cold). I have got no idea where all the dirts in the room come from. It is like SUPER DUSTY!!!

After sweeping and mopping the floor, we cooked maggie and started watching the last epi of Heroes season one. (We watched until the last epi last night but was too tired to continue.)

Finished watching and i continue watching my HK seires again. Boy the whole day was just watching tv. After finishing watching the last epi of my HK series show, we started on Heroes season 2...

I just love my Weekends where i can just slack at home and not doing anything..

Damn it.. i so miss School Holidays!!!

Bad Day at Work???

2007-12-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

99th day in Shanghai (07/12/07)

After today, i finally understand what it means by 'Bad Day at Work'.

Working is totally quite sucky today. It seems like i have met all the bitches in China in just that few hours working.

I was supposed to call for arrival time and almost every call i made pissed me off. Either they cannot hear me, i cannot hear then, too noisy, they don't want to give, they scold me for call too late saying the their company is very big and so by stamping the company stamp to guarantee needs a lot of days to procedure or bla bla bla.

Damn it!!!

After making a few calls, I got so pissed off that i started losing my temper too. Okay, i know i shouldn't but well, at least i didn't scold the guest. But just grumble(curse) a bit after putting down the phone. hehe

And so the first time in the last month, we ate in the staff canteen. Reason?? because it is too cold for us to go out already = it's finally winter time!!!

At about 5pm, when we were getting ready to end work (since Nancy said that we can end work 30-45 mins earlier if we finished what we have on hand for that day) another bitch asked us to finish doing No-show before going home.

No-show is just some data base thingy that we have to key in to the computer on those guest that didn't turn up to the hotel and either we charge or don't charge these guest. And the worst part is that the value got to match (kinda complicated to explain so nvm..)

Spend the last hour working on that stupid thing and we even went home later -_- Left at about 6.15pm in the end

After work was to Lotus... to buy more POCKY!!!

What happen was yesterday after work, we wanted to go to Lotus to buy some Rose tea as Jie Ying said that Lotus is have a discount for it. Couldn't find it but instead, we found the mousse pocky for RMB4.90. If i am not wrong, it cost about S$3 per pack. So i decided to buy some home and after trying it on the way home, i think that it is very nice and decided to get more of it.

In the end, i stocked up about 10 packs of Pocky at home with flavors of tea, chocolate and mango. Going to give some to my sis and daddy when they are here to visit me =) (are u happy sis???)

Went back home and started watching Heroes. Got addicted to it and i think i am started to like English shows?? haha i seldom watch them.

Dinner @ Thai House

2007-12-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

95th day in Shanghai (03/12/07)

I have got a whole list of events going on today.

Early in the morning, Both Kim and I went to the post office, as we wanted to post our multimedia project back to Singapore.

Reached there and the lady employee asked if we want the post to be fast (3 days) or slow (15days), and since Ms Ho said ASAP, we asked for the fast post.

Filled up the details on the envelope and pass the lady the envelope.

‘RMB 100++ thanks’

‘HUH!!! SO EXPENSIVE!?!?! Err.. how much is the slow post??’

‘RMB20++’

‘Er.. Does Ms Ho really need it that urgently??’

‘ASAP leh’

‘But expensive luh’

‘… Err, we want to change to the slow post can??’

‘Then why didn’t you say just now!!’

‘You didn’t tell us the price just now…’

How poor are we right?? Haha

Anyway, while the lady was changing the envelope (From those nice nice one to those super lok pok one -_- ), this 2 guys started shouting/talking very loudly in Shanghainese behind us.

And before we know, the 2 guys started fighting with each other and they actually bumped onto Kim and I.

We quickly dart to one side to watch the free show while waiting for the lady to finish packing our stuffs. And that stupid lady was actually watching the free show as well when we were already late for work.

Some of the security guards went to separate the 2 men and when one of the guys picked up his specs on the floor, there is a crack on the len. And I think we were the one that damage it while saving ourselves from the violet fight.

Cabbed to work and work was boring as usual.

The initial plan for the night was to go to People’s park for a walk before meeting Kelvin Tay, director of wine and the rest for dinner at 9pm at this Thai restaurant.

Last minute changes as he asked us to meet him at the F&B office instead so that he can bring us there.

Work ends at 6pm, which means that we have got 3 hours to spare before meeting up the rest. Went to the bank to see if our pay is in, and since we have got our pay, it is time to spend some $$$. Haha

Wanted to shop in H&M but since it has been a super long time since we took neo print and Kim got the urge to, we headed to the neo print shop.

Spend some time there and I think the service was quite good (maybe because there wasn’t any customers there). They given gave each of us a ‘cute’ pen as Christmas gift.

It was only 8pm after wasting so much time here and there and we decided to go for manicure =) My nails has been super ugly/dirty every since I took out my fake nails last month.

Service there was good as well and it cost me only RMB78 to have my nails done (including all the shaping, buffing, moisturizing, removing dead skin, nail colour, etc..). Kim did french manicure that cost her RMB 98 only.

By the time we finish doing our nail, it was near 9pm already. Went to F&B office and duh, got to wait for the rest to be ready..

With all the waiting, catching the cab, jam and stuffs, we reached the Thai restaurant at 10+pm. The restaurant, Thai House is own by a Thai couple and heard that it is one of the recommended places in the travel guide.

Waited for a while and all the food started to come in. YUMMY YUMMY!!!

First was the pineapple rice, followed by the fish (super sour super nice), then the Papaya Salad, Green Curry Chicken, Tom Yum Goong, chicken slice with chili and another bowl of soup (cant remember what it is). One word to descript the meal ‘FANTASTIC!!!’

It satisfies all my Thai food cravings. And most probably I will go back there again =)

After the dinner, thou it was quite later already, we went to foot message near Kelvin’s house. Message was comfortable as well.

By the time we reached home, all of us were so tired that we just changed our clothes, washed our face and ‘snap’, to lala land.

The night was really comfortable: Pretty Nails + satisfied stomach + relaxed feet + warm room + super tired = comfortable sleep =)

Zhouzhuang

2007-12-02T22:18:00.000-08:00

94rd day in Shanghai (02/12/07)

It was Sunday and I got to wake up early as Kim, Jie Ying, Yu Hong plan to go to one of the attractions near Shanghai, Tongli.

But almost everyone got up late and by the time we reached Shanghai Stadium to buy our tickets, it was 9.30am already. The last coach to Tong Li has left so we decided to catch the 9.45am coach to Zhouzhuang, a place similar to Tongli.

Heard that Zhouzhuang is the original place and Tongli as a substitute but nicer place.

Bus ride there was about 1½ hour and I slept throughout. Reached there and the first thing the girls need to go was to go to the toilet.

Rushed in but came running out again because the toilet was JUST TOO SMELLY!!!

I almost started puking but lucky I haven't had anything for breakfast yet. And looking around to see if there were other guys around, Yu Hong asked us to use the male’s toilet instead as it wasn’t as smelly. (male’s toilet cleaner then the female’s??? OMG!!!)

Went into the male’s toilet, closed the main door and OMG!! That was the first time in my life using a male’s toilet!?!?!?

Started exploring the area and the first stop we wanted to go was to have lunch (to have the energy taking photos =))

There were a lot of restaurants around and we didn’t know which one to patronize when we saw this restaurant’s name on the maps and signboards. Our First mentality was to think that the restaurant is not bad and recognized.

Went in there had lunch and even though the whole meal coz only RMB 84, I think it is very expensive considering the living conditions and the cost price of the food.

Gave the waitress RMB100 and she returned me RMB 20 saying that they didn’t have any small change so they discounted us the RMB 4. Er.. so I can actually bargain on the price of the food we ordered???

Our Zhouzuang journey then started after lunch. Didn’t really know how to look at the map coz it was quite messy.

Looked around the whole area and it doesn’t look like Zhouzuang at all. WHY?!?! As all the houses look nice and newly renovated with no river, unlike what they show in the photos; old and rundown and dirty along the riverside.

That area was the newer and more commercialized place and I think they haven’t even officially start business; it looks like some ululated location. Walked for quite some time but we didn’t see any tourist around.

Reached a junction and decided to ask the policeman how to get to the ancient town (with the old and rundown house and along the river) and apparently we walked the opposite direction and got to U-turn back. It takes us about 30min to reach ‘Zhouzhuang’ (So we weren’t in Zhouzhuang for the past 2 hours.)

By the time we reached there, it was 1pm and we have got only 3 hours to walk around there as the coach was leaving at 4.20pm.

Thinking that we wouldn’t have enough time finish exploring the place, we rushed from one destination to another taking photos and seeing the scenery, although almost everywhere look the same to me; river + old shop houses + bridge + boats.

After 1 ½ hours, we explored/rushed though the whole place and all of us were quite tired already. Had some small scrolls around and tried our some of the local biscuits there.

Ate malt candy and it sucks totally. It got go hard and lumpy that I threw away the whole thing after licking for like 3 times??

4pm reached quickly and we went back to coach area.. And oh, Yu Hong’s camera went out of battery when we just started to get high to cam whore!!! ARGH!!!

Reached back Shanghai stadium and had our dinner at this restaurant, ‘Hao Xiang Lai’. Pack like nobody’s biz where they ran out of chicken and pork -_- the 2 most basic type of meat you should have in a restaurant.

Walked back to the train station and we saw IKEA sign. Decided to have a walk there since it was still early. So in the super duper cold weather, we walked about 400 metres and by the time we reached there, my hands and face was numb.

The moment we enter the building, we smell IKEA. Duh!! haha

Since both Jie Ying and I didn’t have a very full dinner (1 ½ piece of sushi, one lotus rice and Chicken's Feet - Golden Phoenix Claws), we ate hotdogs there. RMB 5 for the hotdog and a refillable drink. CHEAP???

Wanted to eat the meatball but we were too full to try it out.

Shopped for a while and almost everything in there is the same as Singapore; the structure and the layout. It makes us feel back home. =)

After 3 months staying in Shanghai and surviving without a bowl and a clock, Yu Hong went to buy them just to use it for the last 2 months

We bought a bathroom mat and a shawl (not really a shawl but a big piece of cloth made of polyester) to keep ourselves warm at home.

Took a cab home after that and settled money. Watched HK series shows and ate orange before heading off to lala land.

Pirelli

2007-12-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

91th day in Shanghai, Pirelli (29/11/07)

Work started at 10am supporting for the event Pirelli. The event was the launch of the Pirelli calendar 2008 @ China Hall.

Called Yee Hui and he told us to report to Johnny, one of the BQT manger at the backstage of China Hall. By the time we reached there, they were having a row call already.

Saw Goh and he told us to go down to the laundry to change our uniform. And the first thought that came into my mind when I saw the attire was Oriental Hotel; Black Shirt + black pants.

Changed our clothes and reported back to China Hall. So the attire for today was a little different from usual. It was all according to what the organizer wants.

For the girls, we got to have green eye shadows, wear a pink hair Band and 2 pink clips at the side of the sleeves. For the guys, they got to put a green cloth around their waist. Everyone look almost the same.

This was to make our attire look a bit French and retro (The theme was chinese retro I think: Agogo Era)

We refused to wear the hair bands coz I think that it is totally disgusting to wear it. So while trying to wear the hair band in the nicest way, Goh asked us to change back our uniform as he said that there might not be enough accessories (hair bands and clips) for the other waitresses.

Spent 2 hours changing our clothes and went back to China Hall foyer to help out with reception. The whole foyer was places with full of sofa, beds and some treasure chest filled of all the oldies stuffs. The whole theme looks very lively and young with combinations of green, pink, purple and orange.

Was supposed to have lunch with Kelvin and Yee Hui but couldn’t find them so we settled our lunch at Saizeriya and had a pizza that cost only RMB24 for a Hawaiian pizza, a soup and a salad.

Went back to China Hall and helped them turn over the hall to dinner set-up for the night.
And since this dinner was special enough where the staffs got to wear either hair bands, clips or waist bands, the tables set up were special too.

Pirelli provided us with their own chairs, table clothes, napkins and menus (all in the 4 different colous). And because of the colour combinations, it was quite troublesome during the set up as different colour table clothes got to match with different chair colours.

Throughout the whole set up, it was double-checking all the colours set-up, re arranging the tables coz there were a lot of last minute changes (from 10 seats to 12 seats table)

After the set-up, Yee Hui asked us to change back to the BQT uniform as there weren’t enough staffs to serve the guest and we were supposed to serve the VIP table.

Changed and reported back to China Hall. Look for Tracy to get the green eye shadows and those pink hair band and clips (to match the theme).

Dinner is going to start in 2 hours and all staffs were to report in China Hall. The event organizer, some very famous French organizer asked all the staffs to go up on the stage to check every single one of our attire to make sure that everyone looks neat and tidy.

Perfectionist!!! OVER???

Cocktail reception started at 7pm and there were still some changes inside the hall; the organizer wants all the cutleries to be placed very orderly and some changes in the position of the cutleries.

At 7.45pm, when the door was opened for the guest to enter, the organizer came over and said that the VIP table will need another 3 more people. So we will have to add another table with the same table clothes, chairs, napkins and menu of the same colour theme. Everything got to be done before the VIP guests arrive.

Everything was in a rush but we got everything done on-time. Increased in the number of guests and there will be a change in plan in the people we serve.

Today’s dinner was a 4 course western dinner with appetizer, soup, main course and dessert. So when it was time to serve, we got to go to the kitchen, queue up in a row to take the food and since we were serving the VIP table, we are the first to take the food. One person is to carry 2 plates, serving 2 guests.

I think it was quite a good experience where I get to see how the system goes.
And throughout the dinner, there were a lot of tall, skinny and pretty babes and handsome hunks around. Haha

Saw Sun Zhong Sun’s granddaughter, Nora Sun again and supermodels Gemma Ward, Du Juan and Mo Wandan in the event too.

There were some performance after dinner by some famous dancer and after dinner, it was the party at the foyer. They turned the whole foyer into a mini bar.

Helped out at the bar counter and the whole night was quite happening; the music, the people and the lightings.

Champaign was the main beverage but there were also other drinks like orange juice, vodka, whiskey, wine, etc…

And some of the guest drank a lot and got a bit too high that they started dirty dancing IN FRONT OF US.

There was this French lady that started French kissing with a few guys and she is actually a lesbian and got a girlfriend. She was even making out with this other French guy on one of the beds.

One of the guys got too high that he start dry humping himself and the organizer came over to ask him to leave as he feels that the guest went overboard.

The whole party was quite cool and working in the bar was damn tiring. Everyone is taking the drinks and we got to be fast enough to pour the drinks.

The party was supposed to end at 1am but by 1.30am, there were still a lot of guest around and the music started to change (boring/oldies song).

By 2.15am, the music stops and the lights were turned on. Everyone started packing up and tearing down all their stuffs.

Was too tired to stay behind to help them clear up and left at about 2.30am. Took a cab home, washed my face and went to bed.

Lucky work was at 2pm the next day.

Xu Jia Hui

2007-11-26T00:13:00.000-08:00

86th-87th day in Shanghai(24/11/07-25/11/07)

Saturday was a day to do project!!! OMG!!!

Woke up at 10am to return the sofa bed to CF’s room as her parents came to stay with her.

Oh, Angela’s aunt and uncle came over and they bought pandan cake over!!! YAY =) I cant wait for my parents to bring all the Bengawan Solo’s kueh over!!! Sis, if u don’t know what to buy over, you can just buy everything that is in this page =) Bengawan Solo

Jie Ying came over to do project with us. She got her interim report and we got our multi-media project.

Slacked a bit and finally got all my photos organized.

Started project at about 1.30pm and by 5pm, all of us were super dead. Ordered MacDonald for dinner and slacked the whole night after that. That is so what I want in my life =)

Projects!!!

3 monkeys!!!

Woke up at 10am on Sunday morning with the plan to get out of the house by 1pm to some new places in Shanghai. Jie Ying and Joanne was supposed to go to one of the café nearby to write their reports.

In the end, Joanne, Jie Ying and I got addicted to my HK series show ‘The Dance of Passion’ as it was the last few episodes, which are also the most exciting episodes.

Watched until 4pm and in the end, we got out of house at 4.30pm. Jie Ying and Joanne decided to just stay at home to do their reports.

(Kim slept for a few hours waiting for me.. opps!!)

So, Kim and I took the train down to Xu Jia Hui, one of the shopping areas in Shanghai.

Decided to go to that place as my dad just reminded me that there is such a place in Shanghai after chatting with him online yesterday and he was telling me about the Peking duck we ate the last time we were there.

I remembered that Xu Jia Hui was quite a big place and decided to go there for a walk.

Some how, I think the structures/layout there are a bit weird. They have got all the departmental stores at one side (with a few fast food restaurant) and all the food areas at the other side.

Went to almost all the shopping malls to have a look and the whole feeling is that I am in Orchard. I think I will prefer that place more then Nanjing rd as Nanjing rd is too touristy already.

And we went to this small little shopping mall that is only 2-storey high. The whole feeling of it was that I am back in Far East mall. Just that the structure there is more fashionable then Far East Mall.
Or rather, that place seems to be a more high class Qi-pu road where most of the good are from Qipu Rd. Just that I think we can’t bargain there.

Got quite hungry and we got to search for quite awhile before we can find some proper food to eat. Ended up at this Chinese fast food restaurant eating Fried Rice.

Explored a few more shopping malls after dinner and we went to Metro (Mei Luo Chen). Didn’t know that Metro was a Singapore brand until I saw a breadtalk outlet there and that the basement was a food court selling all the Singapore food. They have got fried prawn noodles, laksa, Toast Box, curry puff, etc… And we saw 3 Singaporeans seating at the Toast Box area drinking coffee chit-chatting.

Took the train home and the moment I got into the train, I heard Familiar voices… We stared at each other ‘Singaporeans!!!!’

There was this big group of NTU student in the same cabin as us!!! They were here for study-attachment trip for 6 months.

At first, Kim was like STARING at them and I was just looking around. Then when I turned to her and asked why was she STARING at them, one of the guys was like ‘NTU??’ That was how the conversation starts. Haha

Then we got off the train and got excited about how coincident and how small Shanghai is and when we turned behind, we heard familiar voices again… ‘Singaporeans….’

In just one day, we met 3 different groups of Singaporeans at different places.

And I think the most unique/amazing thing is that we Singaporeans, from a super tiny whiny city, do actually have our own identity.

Most of the time I will think that most people wil refer us as just from one of the bigger Asia countries like HK, Taiwan, Malaysia. But the moment we open our mouth and talk-Singlish, immediately, we can identify our own people. I think it is quite amazing.

And I am also quite surprised by the number of Singaporeans in Shanghai, let alone in China. Before I came here, some of the lecturers were telling me the amount of Singaporeans here in Shanghai and I was still telling myself ‘are you sure you will get to see other Singaporeans around??’

But true enough; I will meet Singaporeans almost every time I go out for leisure.

Maybe this world is just that small.

Hunan Cuisine and The Bund

2007-11-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

85th day in Shanghai, Out with the expats (23/11/07)

Finally it was the last day of the week. Everyday seems to pass very fast now. Maybe because we have got things to do although it’s like a routine.

Met up with Denis and Raymond, managers of F&B Shangri-la hotel and resorts, China (Big shots huh!!) as they wanted to bring us out for a dinner.

Took a cab down to this Hunan restaurant (spicy food) for dinner. And while waiting for the food to come, Raymond opened 2 bottles of white wine for us to try. Too bad we weren’t wine drinkers coz apparently he told us that one bottle of wine cost RMB1000+ (S$200)

Hunan Restuarant

(We went there for 2 reasons: They wanted to bring us out for dinner plus they were planning to have a business proposal with this restaurant to set up the restaurant at some of the opening Shangri-la in China)

After awhile, Mr Sunny Pow, VP of marketing Shangri-la hotel and Resort, China together with the VP of Assort (ex GM of Swissotel, Singapore) came over to join us for dinner. (A table full of Singaporeans)

So this whole table was filled with half Super rich expates (them) and half super poor interns (us).

The food there was supposed to be very nice but it was just too spicy. The only thing that I really like there is the fried rice coz that is the only thing that is not spicy.

Some of the dishes are quite unique where there is this bun with an arc at one of the side to put some meat fillings in it (which is super spicy)

Another one was tofu plus crabmeat and egg. The egg taste was quite strong and thick but I can still taste the crab. I think it is quite nice.

Some other things that we ate were pork ribs, sweet lotus with sweet glutinous rice in-between the holes of the lotus, some super spicy fish (after eating the fish, the waitress will put in the noodles which will be soak in the gravy. Super nice but super spicy), cucumber with some type of peanut/sesame sauce, Chrysanthemum cake and some others that I cant really remember.

And throughout the dinner, Raymond made us drink 3 cups of rice wine (48%alcohol) and a lot of white wine. So even before the dinner ends, Angela and Kim was like half dead.

After the dinner, Raymond and Denise bought us to the bund. Like finally!! After almost 3 months in Shanghai, we went to The Bund.

And I found out something new. The bund is only in Pixi. All along, I thought that the bund was that 2 stretch of road along the Huangpu river. Then I realized that they always show the picture of the pearl tower and the view at Pudong side as the bund is to show that that is the view you can get if you are at the bund.

We took the cab down to pick up Joanne first at Shangri-la and headed to #3 on the bund, Laris to look at the view of Pudong at the balcony. The view was really nice. Is exactly like the view you get from buying those postcards.

The restaurants there look really nice and super high class. I think one dinner can cost a few hundred SIN.

Next, we went to #5 on the bund, M on the bund, rated #3 for all Shanghai Restaurants. A fine dining restaurant there, we went to the bar just one floor lower, Glamour Bar.

The place was quite nice-high-class. Came beside the window but the view wasn’t as nice as the on at Laris maybe due to all the window frames.

And Raymond was quite a killer. He would make every single one of us drinks. Drank quite a bit and have some small chats with them before we head off to #18 on the bund, Bar Rouge.

Bar Rouge is one of the most popular pub in the bund. Wanted to go up and have a look but it was so popular that people got to queue up at the lift area just to get up to the bar. We didn’t want to wait so long and decided to head to Baby Face since Raymond and Denise haven’t went there for a very long time. (not very their age to go there=))

Reached babyface and it was quite weird at first. Like it was super not their social class to go to such places.

Comparing bars at the bund and Baby face, I would say it is heaven and hell. The feeling... no, environment is so much different.

Stayed there for a while and went to eat supper at this Hong Kong restaurant beside it. And surprisingly, this restaurant’s Pork Bun is like damn nice.

After a long night out, we didn’t spend a single cent. Even the cab home was paid by Denise =)

Very good experience for the night I guess as I get to go to all the places where I don’t think I can even afford to go now. (Maybe I will go but not to spend money there but just to look at the different structures of the restaurants/bars there)

Happy Birthday =)

2007-11-21T22:01:00.000-08:00

83rd day in Shanghai (21/11/07)

This few days wasn’t very pleasant for me coz I am feeling a bit sick due to the change in weather.

So, have been taking cab to work for the past 2 days as both Kim and I got lazy and wanted to slack a bit at home first before heading to work.

And for the past 2 days, I have been dozing off during work coz work is way too boring.. Imagine I got to face the computer from 9am to 6pm keying in data (okie, I do surf the net sometimes but still, it is way too boring… I am so not office girl type).

But well, today is my birthday =)
Went to work as usual, surf the net for one hour before they got DGS (Global Distribution System) for me to key in. After awhile, I heard someone quite far away saying ‘Happy Birthday’. I raised my head and realized that it was Nancy’s birthday too.

Wow.. I got the same birthday as my boss…

Waited very long for lunch time and we went to Zhen Da in hope that there wasn’t any queue at the Chinese restaurant coz we wanted to eat congee. But bad enough, there will always be a queue esp during lunch time.

Headed to level 8 to try out this pasta restaurant, Saizaiya which was strongly recommended by Joanne and the food there is just CHEAP!!! One plate of pasta cost RMB 9. The serving is quite big and best of all, the food is nice =)

I can’t even get a plate of pasta for $3 in the hawker back home let alone in a restaurant. Both Kim and I are so going to be regular customers there.

Went back to the office, ate Nancy’s birthday cake-fruitcake and waited even longer for work to end.

Finally 6pm reached, went to change out and met Joanne on the train. And again, it was the super peak period where everyone will just squeeze into the train. (it was my 3rd time taking the train during peak period???)

Met Jie Ying at Raffles City to try out this Brazil Restaurant, serving meat buffet. But the dinner was super disappointing.. Compared to the one at Sixth Avenue, Brazil Churrascaria, this meat buffet is super sucky. The meat was tough and dry, the service sucks like hell, the variety was super limited, the pineapple wasn’t gilled, etc…

There is this incident that totally pissed me off. So in this restaurant, they will clear away all the dirty food on your plate so that u will have the space to put more meat. In other words, they do not change a new plate for you.

So while the rest went to take deserts then one of the waitresses came to clear the plates (in Chinese)

‘excuse me, can I clear away the unwanted food?’

‘yea’

(she was putting all the unwanted food on another plate)

‘er, why not just give her a new plate’

‘oh, our restaurant do not change plates for the customer. We just clear away the food’

‘then the plate is so dirty already. How do you expect me to eat it using that plate??’

‘er.. okie, I will go and change it. Do you want me to change all the plate?’

‘forget it’

Then she came over to my seat, took my plate to clear away all the unwanted food. I have got a lot of food on my plate coz the food was quite terrible for consumption.

And as I placed my folk and knife nicely on the table, she can just happily take my folk and use it as a wiper to sweep all the food on my plate to the plate of rubbish.

‘Excuse me, I still want to eat with that folk. What the hell are you doing?’

‘oh, I know. I am removing all the food from you plate so you can use the pate.’

‘And do you expect me to use the folk again?’

‘er.. because there are a lot of food of the plate so…’

‘so am I suppose to use the folk that u are using to sweep away all my unwanted food to the plate of rubbish??’

LIKE WHERE THE HELL ARE THEIR BRAINS LAH!! OMG!!!

‘nvm, get me a new one.’ (rolling my eyes already)

I really don’t understand why do they even have customers patronizing their restaurant. They hygiene level is near negative already I think..

After the disappointing dinner, I wanted to eat ice cream so we ended up at this Haagen Daiz shop nearby. Eating ice-cream in the cold!!! SHIOK!!!

Waited for Angela to come and join us before I cut my birthday cake=)

While eating the ice-creams, there were a lot of beggars that came over to beg for either food or money.. One of them was even carrying a baby boy. How idiot can all this people be?? All of them have got their limbs and there they are, not working but begging for money!!

So as I thought that the place was very near Nan Jing Dong Rd, I took Angela to give me a call when she reached and I will go and find her. Little will I expect that the Train station is like 300m away from Haagen Daiz.

Found her, went back to Haagen Daiz and cut my birthday cake, Black forest =) one of my favorite cake hehe

My Birthday Cake!!!

Thanks Girls =)

Making a wish =)

Jie Ying said that the cake was freshly baked coz when she went to buy it, the cake was already sold out and she got to wait for 20mins for the pâtissier to bake one (I think just assembling everything together coz all the ingredients are ready already).

Super fresh cake=)

By the time we finish eating and crapping, it was near 11pm already. Wanted to go to some clubs but since Jie Ying was in the wrong attire, Kim’s shoes lost it’s rubber and Angela wasn’t feeling very well plus I am quite tired too, we decided to give a miss.

On the way home, as i was holding on to the left-over cake(for tomorrow breakfast) that we cant finish, there was this lady beggar holding on to a small boy came begging for the cake. The little boy wanted to snatch the cake from me and that lady, which I will assume is the mother kept asking him to say 'thank you jiejie. I very hungry can give me the cake?? (in chinese)'

Like why on earth will these parents be so irresponsible towards their kids?? Teaching them how to beg.. SHit them lah!!!

Reached home, slacked till midnight before heading to the bed.

And I am quite happy to receive all the birthday wishes from emails, Friendster, Facebook and even phonecalls from family and friends =)

Far away from home and I can’t celebrate with them.. But well, so gleeful that they still remember my birthday. Thanks guys!!! for all the wishes =)

Late Nights out + Joanne's bdae

2007-11-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

79th & 80th day in Shanghai (17/11/07&18/11/07)

Finally, after one day of cold water, we got our heater back yesterday=)

And it’s a brand new one so I can’t be bothered anymore since I got my thing back without paying a single cent. But my house is still without a stove.

So, this few days have been doing a lot of late night activity.

After 5 long days of boring work, it was finally Sat, the day we plan to go shopping!!! But in the end, Kim, Jie Ying and I got too lazy to get out of the house and we stayed at home the whole day watching HK series show.

So after my dinner, which was eating a banana and some snacks at about 9+pm, Joanne called to ask if we want to go to this club call Muse, opened by the HK actress Carina Lau.

Was hesitating if we want to go and Tracy called and asked if I want to go to Paparozzi, another club in Shanghai

Was super lazy to get out of the house already but since everyone seems to be going out to party, we didn’t want to miss out any fun so all 3 of us decided to cab down to Muse, since it was Joanne’s birthday after 12am (sort of celebrating her birthday).

Reached there at 12 plus and the place is quite nice. Don’t really like the music but this time, at least we have a table coz Jason was paying for it.

Started off with playing dice and we went to dance for a while.

Went back to play with dice while Joanne and Jie Ying continue dancing. I think I drank too much and too fast that I started puking in the cups (was waiting for Joanne and Jie Ying to come back so that we can go to the dance floor tgt so that I can sweat it out but they came too late. I was already puking)

Oh, at that time Kim was already half dead.

Felt much better and we went to dance for a while before going back home.

Took the cab and I was so worried that I will puke in the cab so the moment we reached home, I hurried Kim out of the cab and the first thing I did was became Merlion for 3 times.

Vomited everything out (the drink and my dinner-tidbits) and went back home, continue puking my gall juice out.

After feeling so dead from all the puking, I still managed to find the energy to bath, washed my face and blowed dry my hair before going to bed (this shows that I am not drunk and I am still clear of what I am doing.. some ass kept insisting that I am drunk.. stupid ass)

Some of them cant be bothered and just went to sleep..

Slept at about 4am and woke up at around 7am when Yu Hong woke up and went home. Then woke up at 10am when Angela woke up and get ready to meet her aunt for lunch. Rushed to the toilet the moment she came out and started puking again (almost nothing came out. There wasn’t anything left to vomit out already)

My whole stomach was so uncomfortable. Was super hungry but didn’t have the appetite to eat.

Then all I feel like eating was congee and not knowing where I can get congee near my house, we decided to go Zhen Da for Dim Sum (coz that is one place I know confirm got congee and will be nice)

So we had our lunch at 4pm in the afternoon when we are meeting the guys for dinner at 8pm. How great!!!

After the very satisfying lunch, we headed down to Ke Ji Kuan, Shanghai Science Center shopping area, which is known as the New XiangYang Market, planning to get a jacket.

Saw a few coats that I like but decided to get the cheaper one since I am going to wear it for like 2 months only. (Saw a red color one and I think it is super duper nice but the auntie won’t sell me no matter how much I bargain. She coated me RMB500 and I think it is too expensive!!!)

So in the end, I bought another black coat. Met up Angela shopped a bit more before heading to Shan Xi Nan Rd Metro Station to meet the guys.

And since we were not very hungry, we went to Crossroad to eat some Singapore Snack.

Ordered a lot of food like Mee Goreng, Singapore Fried noodles, Rojak, Vegetable, duck, Curry Puff and Laksa. Everything there is not too bad except for the Laksa that sucks like hell. Totally disgusting!!!

Bought a cake for Joanne and we took some crazy photos outside the restaurant. And oh, the service in the restaurant is totally sucky.

Joanne's cake

There were a few incidents, which make me think so:
- when we need to call for a staff, none of them were around on stand-by
- when we call for them, one of the staff was still talking to the chef, EATING!!!
- when we need the staff to bring the cake out, the one and only staff we saw was combing her hair getting ready to go home!!! (it was only 9.45pm only!!)
- when we need the staff to refill the water, they actually said ‘again (in Chinese)’
- when it was at about 10pm, the time they are supposed to close shop, we were still eating the cake and one of the staff closed most of the lights in the shop.

Their service is just… CANNOT MAKE IT!!!

After the dinner, we wanted to try out the club G+, one of the more famous club in Shanghai and Tracy strongly recommend that place. So besides Angela and Kim that didn’t want to go, the rest of us took a cab down.

Reached the place there were very little people. Stayed there for a while and we decided to head to Babyface which seems to be more happening.

And when we reached there, for the first time someone approached us to ask if we were Singaporeans.

Made new Singaporean friends, partied for a few hours until 1.45am before heading home to rest for work later on.

Reached home, washed up and wash my clothes (putting my clothes in the washing machine) before heading to the bed.

FHC China + my house has been openly robbed!!!

2007-11-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

77th day in Shanghai (15/11/07)

My house has been openly robbed!!!

WHY?!?!?!

It all happened in the morning when I was still changing my clothes when the doorbell rang.

Kim went to open the door and saw 2 guys standing outside. The whole conversation is somewhat like this (in Chinese)

‘yes? Who are you guys? I don’t know you’

‘The landlord asked us to come maintain your house water heater and stove’

‘No, he didn’t tell us about this. Come back when he is around’

‘Your landlord is Mr Weng right? You guys are Singaporeans and u stayed in the house beside before right (that time when we stayed in Jie Ying’s and Chang Fangs house). They are also Singaporeans. He told us to come for the maintenance of the water heater and stove.’

‘Er.. hold on, my friend is still changing.’

(At that time, both Kim and I thought that it was quite weird about the whole situation coz why didn’t Mr Weng call us and tell us about it first. Both of us were thinking whether to call Mr Weng first but it’s like they seems to know a lot about us. Our landlord’s name, we are Singaporeans, our neighbors are Singaporeans, etc… and we thought that Mr Weng would have called Joanne or Angela and told them)

‘Okie, you can come in already’

So they took away our water heater and stove and wrote us a receipt with his name. And he even asked us to see if the name on the receipt is the same one as in his IC. So I thought that maybe China got a lot of swindlers that is why they want us to confirm that they are not, something like that…

After removing the heater and stove, they asked us to move the tap to the ‘hot’ side and said that there will not be any water for the time being until they return us the heater in the evening.

After they left, I was like ‘they just remove the heater, why will the water supply stopped?’

But we were already late for work so didn’t bother to think much.

So while going to work, a few things really irritates me.:
-While wearing my boots, I realized that my tights got a hole on it and I got to change out.
-After changing to a new one, I realized that it is a bit too big.
-After wearing my boots, somehow, I feel very uncomfortable. It’s like the boots became smaller

Today is just so not my day!!!

Didn’t think much of what happened and when I came out of the locker room walking toward my office, Mr Weng called me and asked if there was a few people that went over to our house and besides the heater, what did they took.

Told him the whole story and he said that he didn’t know these people and they were all cheaters. And these cheaters contacted his father and not him.

And the weirdest thing was that Mr Weng said that these people who took away the heater and stove went to extort money from him. I mean how much can a heater and stove cost and why the hell did they get those things to extort money. There are more valuable things like television, washing machine, and refrigerator.

Don’t they realize that Mr Weng can just buy a brand new heater and stove for a cheaper price compared to being extort by them. Are they really that stupid or do they think that we are dump.

So after hearing what Mr Weng told us, I just couldn’t believe what happened. It is just so unbelievable. Extort someone using a water heater and a stove???

And Mr Weng was saying that they didn’t want much money but just a few thousand dollars, which is only a few hundred SIN bucks.. Like HELLO!!!! U are risking being caught by the police for that few thousand Yuan?!?!?!

But well, heard from some of my friends that a few thousand Yuan can mean a lot to them esp those village people.

And somehow, I find that the 2 man that came over to our house look quite familiar.. This whole thing is just so fishy.

Anyway, work was quite slack for the way coz we are working half-day =)

Told Nancy that Raymond and Denis, Pudong Shangri-la manager of F&B China asked us to go and explore this event/exhibition, FHC China at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.
This event is introducing more suppliers to the food and hospitality industry in China.

Was supposed to leave at 1230 but she wants us to finish calling one whole list of people who are going to check in the hotel today, asking for guarantee.

Left at 1pm in the end and headed to Zhen Da Guang Chang for Sushi =)

Was hesitating if we should go home and change coz we weren’t quite appropriately dressed for the event. Yu Hong told us that people there were dressed in smart casual.

Cant be bothered in the end and took a cab down. The whole expo is quite big and we got pass the registration area quickly.

Went into the hall and look for Yu Hong and Gabriel at Kelvin Tay’s Wine speech. It was like a private room where they are introducing New Zealand’s wine.

There were a 9 different glasses of wine placed on the table for us to taste.

Saw Denis and some other Singaporeans working in Shangri-la and had some small talks with them.

Denis told us that it wasn’t as grand as what he expected coz a lot of suppliers didn’t dare to invest in China due to the high rate of duplication.

Isn't it cool!! It's all chocolate

All these are just free =)

Walked around the hall and tried different types of ice creams until about 5pm when we met some of the hotel chefs and took the hotel van back together.

Walked home after that and when we reached home, after seeing the empty cupboard without the water heater and a hole at the stove area, we started screaming and laughing about the whole situation. DRAMA!!!

Called the man that came in the morning and told him that he can bring back the heater and stove but he said that he haven maintain finish and got to wait till tomorrow. We then started screaming and shouting at him but failed to get him to bring back the stove.

(they can be so unreasonable at time.. he said something like what if the heater explode. Like WTH!!! After 2 months of using it, you are telling me something like this!!!)

Called Mr Weng and continue quarrelling as he said something like we need to pay part of the cost for the new heater and stove coz we are the one that open the door for that STRANGERS!!!

But the thing is how the hell will the STRANGERS know that we are Singaporeans, our neighbors are Singaporeans, our landlord’s full name and everything. Everything became so suspicious!!!

CHEENAS ARE SERIOUSLY NOT TO BE TRUSTED!!!

Some how Angela told her manager about it and her manager called our landlord and somehow, the thing is like half settled?? Like we don’t have to pay a single cent???

Oh, and apparently when Kim tried to use the tap in the toilet again, it works and we tried the other taps, there wasn’t any running water.

I think it is so super weird that while running the water, I started turning the tap from the ‘hot’ water the ‘cold’ water. And when the handle is turned towards the hotter side, the water stop running.

So conclusion is that since there is no heater, obviously there will not be any water running out of the tap when the handle is turn to the hotter side.

No wonder they asked us to turn the handle towards the hotter side in the morning.

OMG LAH!!! Do they really think that we are dump or what!! Something seriously fishy is going on…

This whole story is to be continue…
*seriously got no idea what will dad and mum say when they know abt this…

Baby Face & Cheng Huang Miao

2007-11-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

71st - 73th day in Shanghai (9/11/07-11/11/07)
Have been going out to new places this weekend. Like Finally!!!

Waited for 5 days and at last, it was Friday and the plan for the night was to go G+, a popular club in Xin Tian Di.

The club is quite different coz it is at level 5 of a shopping mall (seldom do I see a club inside a shopping mall)

Reached there and when we wanted to go in, they say that we got to buy entrance fee of RMB 50. And this doesn’t include any free drinks or what-so-ever.. It’s like EXPENSIVE!!!

Found out that there is only entrance fee on weekends and decided to go there on weekdays (like the next day we can just go work with panda eyes)

Thought of going to some other pubs/clubs around but most of it seems quite boring/fullhouse/for older people. (It was only 11pm and everyplace seems to be pack.)

Called up Vance to see if there are any more seats in Face Bar and apparently it was full already. He told us that Baby Face is not too bad and is quite near Xin Tian Di.

Confirmed with Joanne’s manager that there is no entrance fee and took a cab down.

Reached there, went in, put our bags in the storing room and went in. At first, we were so super lost coz there wasn’t any tables for us when we went in (there will be a mini charge of RMB 600 for the table) and the bar counter was already pack with people.

So we started walking around the place, to the dance floor, toilet, and tables’ sections and we still didn’t know where to station ourselves and get a drink. Then Joanne hurt herself and we got to go out to the store to buy plasters (her hurt was terrible.. the whole skin came out and it was bleeding like crazy)

Thought that the night was wasted just like that coz we were lost, the music suck and Joanne hand was hurt.

Decided to go in again and this time, some of the people approached us to ask if we want to join them. So at that time since we got no tables and drinks, we joined them for a while but it was quite weird after a while and left.

Headed to the dance floor after that but all of us just couldn’t start dancing coz their music was so wrong. It was only at about 1am when the music starts to change and our mood become high.

And we saw this Philippine girl that was obviously going there to hook on some rich guys.
The first time I saw her, she was in the toilet dancing in front of the mirror, looking at herself to see if she is sexy enough -_-
Then the next time I saw her, she was taking her bag from the storing room, her skirt was damn short (just enough to cover her butt), she was exposing here boobs and she purposely ‘jiao’ her butt and shake when she left.. And the way she walked was like ‘I want to make sure that every single guy out there is looking at me and have a bleeding nose’ (sicko bitch!!!)

Got crazy till about 3.30am and headed back home. Reached home and while waiting for the rest to bath and I watched my HK series and fell asleep on the floor. Woke up at 5.30am to bath and slept at 6.30am.

Woke up at about 1pm and slacked the whole day at home that day. Went out for dinner in our sleeping clothes (long pants and those think tops) and headed back home again.

Another day wasted in Shanghai =(

Got Jie Ying hook up on HK series and she watched like 5 episode with me until the last episode at 2am before going back home to sleep.

Woke up on Sunday and today, we finally decided to go somewhere else besides Qipu rd, Ba Bai Ban and NanJing Rd. We went to another tourist attraction, Cheng Huang Miao.

The whole trip was a spoiler coz of some bitch. Don’t really want to explain much but that freaking bitch is seriously pissing the shit out of me..

Had Xiao Long Bao there (tried it before when I was there 2 years ago) and realized that we got to dine in the restaurant to really taste the food. But there was a minimum charge of RMB25 per person if I am not wrong.

If we were to eat the da Bao one, all the Xiao Long Bao will be lumped together and some of the skin will tear losing the soup in it.

But still, I think it is better then the one I ate 2 years ago. Had smelly tofu too much it was too salty. Think the one at the WuJiang rd one is better.

Went to took a Tu Lun home for RMB0.50. It is quite cool coz it is like some cargo boat, where people can ride their moto bike/bicycle in. It is just a boat that transport people from pudong to puxi and vice versa. Then i realised that we are actually staying quite near to Cheng Huang Miao. Like walkable distance...

Reached home, settled money and watch a movie ‘Shortcut to Happiness’ Not that nice and I fell asleep after watching ¾ of the show. When I woke up, the tv screen was black and Jie Ying was sleeping too.

Photo’s tp be uploaded again.. haiz….

Yu Hong's Birthday @ BlueFrog

2007-11-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

69th day in Shanghai (07/11/07)

Today was the first time I went to work alone ever since we went to RSVN cox Kim took off to accompany Jun Wei.

So, the whole of morning, I was thinking who to call for lunch coz no way am I going to the canteen alone. It’s just weird to eat alone.

Msged Yu Hong and there wasn’t any reply for him and decided to go for lunch at 11.30 when she call me.

Was about to leave the office when Yu Hong called to ask if I wanted to have lunch at 1230. Rejected Angela and agreed to have lunch with him. Felt quite bad but I would prefer to have lunch at 1230 so that after lunch, I would need to spend so much time in the office.

Went to find Yu Hong at China Hall and waited for Goh to finish his discussion with the chef first.

Headed to Zhen Da after that and thought that he wanted to eat Burger King again. But he just went into a Korean restaurant and asked for a table for 3. =)

So I had Korean food for lunch and it’s free =)

Headed back to work, or rather, slack (coz I finish all my stuffs in the morning already) until 4 plus when Yu Hong came up to use the internet and we went down to finance to submit our photocopy bankbook.

6pm came very slowly after that, went to change my clothes and went to Zhen Da to shop around while waiting for the rest to come to celebrate Yu Hong’s birthday.

It has been quite some time since I shopped alone. Almost bought a dress but was having 2nd thoughts when Angela said that it wasn’t nice at all =(

Had out dinner at around 8pm at this bar restaurant, Blue Frog. And apparently this restaurant is quite a famous place. It is one of the recommended places in the travel guide. (Went to 2 recommended place already. Face Bar and Blue Frog. Yay=))

Dinner was not too bad and the service is good. Up till now, this is the first restaurant I went to in Shanghai that asked their customers for feedbacks about the food, ambience, etc…

Yu Hong wanted a cake so both Jie Ying and I went to find one for him. Went to 2 bakery shops and realized that they sell very limited cakes. Both shops only display 4 different cakes.

Bought a cheese cake for him and we got to wait for 15 mins for the baker to decorate it. When we got back, Angela and Chang Fang went off already coz Angela need to wake up early = sleep early and CF accompany her home.

Waited for Joanne to come before cutting the cake. She was super late. She is supposed to reach at 9.10pm but she reached at near 11pm coz of work)

She came, took some photos, ate the cakes and we still left with half the cake. Yu Hong wanted to give it to Gabriel so all of us went up to Yi Café.

It was quite weird coz they were already cleaning up and everyone seems quite busy and we just went in the café in our home clothes.

Didn’t stay long and headed back home. By the time we reach home, it was 1am already.

Singapore Food!!!

2007-11-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

68th day in Shanghai (06/11/07)

Work started at 9am as usual, and as usual, we were 10 mins late.

So while doing the boring routine of calling for arrival time, Yu Hong called me saying that one of the function rooms got a lot of pastries/food and asked us if we want to go down and eat.

Told Kim and she immediately replied saying ‘YES’ without realizing what excuse can we give to leave the office (go to the toilet?? No way man. Coz there is one in the office
-_-)

So I just anyhow take a book and act as if I need to look for someone and leave the office for the foods =)

Spend almost 30mins there eating and getting some notes from Yu Hong before going back to the boring city.

Halfway through the day, I got this craving for Singapore food. Then I remembered Vance told us that Parkson got this Singapore restaurant, Crossroad that is not too bad.

Msged Joanne and the rest to see if they wanna go and try out. So after work, Kim and I meet up with Joanne at the train station.

And like what we use to do in Singapore, I will wait for Joanne to call me and I will board the train when it arrived.
And because it was peak period, there were like ‘thousand’ of people in the station. We practically got squeezed into the train. Kim almost couldn’t get in and I got to pull her all the way in. Everyone was like packed together.

And I think like Singaporeans, when the door opens at the next stop, people that don’t want to alight will just stand there, not giving way to the people that needs to get out and those people will then need to squeeze their way out.

So through out the whole journey, with the coats in our hands and the thick clothing we were on, it was so super stuffy and hot.

Imagine during the super-freezing period where everyone is with his or her super thick coats. How stuffy can the whole train be when they turn on the heater.

Okie well, we alighted at the wrong stations and to not squeeze and be stuffy again, we decided to take a cab down.

Reached there and both Kim and I wanted to order like lots of food coz they have almost everything. Curry Chicken, Rojak, Mee Goreng, Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Chilli Crab, Ice Kachang, BoBo ChaCha, etc etc…

But the sad thing is that they don’t have Tao Suan. I am so missing it!!!

In the end, we ordered Mee Goreng, Nasi Lemak, Curry Chick and TaoFu Goreng. All the food was that bad but can’t be compared to Singapore’s one. But at least, the taste is there.

Finished almost everything we were super full after that. Walk around the area and that place is so expensive. Went into some of the boutiques and I got shock by the pricing. One normal top (quite nice) is about RMB500. That is so crazy lah.

With RMB500, I can buy like lots of stuff in Qipu rd. That was then I realized that Huai Hai road is full of all the super rich people. That is the place where I can see all the real rich Shanghaiese. The cars they have are really nice too.

And the coolest thing is that most of the drivers are young ladies!! They are just so cool man!!!

But that is just so not our place once we went to Qipu rd. And besides, the pricing is way too expensive. (so much more expensive then Singapore)

Took the train home and walk around Ba Bai Ban area and yes.. That is then our paradise =) hehe.

Meet up with Jun Wei and his family and we walked along the streets together. It was quite funny at first coz it really a big group. It’s like bringing a tour group there to shop.

So Joanne and I decided to just walk in front and not follow that big group.

Went there the 3rd time to find the lady that sell my lost ring but still couldn’t find her =(

Went back home and then to Jie Ying’s house again (I went over yesterday to talk and crap with her for a few hours) till about 1.30am before going back to slp.

My new Hair =)

2007-11-04T22:09:00.000-08:00

66th day in Shanghai (04/10/07)

Woke up at 10am to get all our bed sheets, pillow covers and blanket cover washed.

And finally, after so many weeks of saying it, I clear up my curboard =) Kept all the summer clothes and replaced it with all the winter wears.

Watched Joanne series show till about 1.15pm, met up with Jie Ying for our hair cut =) Was quite excited coz I know that I am going to cut short and it has been super long since I last have short hair.

Wanted to cut short coz I am so sick of tying up my hair everyday and my hair is so out of shape already.

Angela and Kim went with us coz they want to go SHOPPING!!

Reached there and the hairstylist came in. At first, when I saw my hair stylist, I thought he was a trainee and was quite worried. He wanted to cut like super short but I done really dare to. Never have a good short hairstyle before.

Washed my hair first (the seat was super uncomfortable) and he started cutting my hair. I think he wanted to try something new too and after a while, I feel comfortable for him to cut my hair. Maybe it’s the things that he said and stuff. Sounds very professional. And I found out that he is a professional, not a trainee. hehe

When he was cutting, I was like ‘omg omg!! So short!!!’ They cut super slowly. They make sure all the alignments are right and everything.

Half way through, some of the trainees will actually come in and see how they cut our hair. And I think because my hair is super thick, he got to do a lot of layering. And my layer is damn short. But it is quite nice. The layers will slant from short to long at the side. (well, I think you wouldn’t know what I am talking about. Haha)

One of the trainees even came in to ask him for advice on how to cut his customer’s hair and he started fidgeting with my hair, teaching him.

After cutting, he rinses my hair again and got to blow dry. He taught me how to blow my hair and I think I am going to get a hairdryer soon =)

One of trainee wanted to try blowing my hair too but he didn’t allow, saying something like its not easy coz of the many layers and stuffs (and he expect me to blow dry my own hair everyday.)

After cutting, both Jie Ying and I were so excited. Cox I love the hair style.. But I think I cant mange it everyday. Imagine styling it everyday before going to work. I think I will give up soon. Haha

We were so excited that we laughed super loudly while walking to a Chinese restaurant to meet Kim and Angela for Dim Sum.

Had Dim Sum and I think it’s not too bad. Jie Ying got to meet up Chang Fang and the rest of us went to H&M to shop.. bought a dress and a top =) Crazy Kim spend thousand yuan there.

After shopping, we went back home to put our stuffs before meeting Jie Ying for Shen Jian Bao. Angela is missing it, Jie Ying and Joanne wanted to try.

And we tried other food there too. I ate smelly tofu.. It’s really smelly. Angela bought it and we ate it beside the store. It taste not too bad. The smell wasn’t that strong but because we ate it beside the store, it made it super duper smelly.

Went back to Dong Chang rd and since Kim wanted to shop at the rd stores, we met her at the station (she got some family meeting online so didn’t join us for dinner).

Did some shopping and headed back home. Got to work tomorrow.. OMG!!! How boring can my life be =(
And I wanna buy wax for my hair!!! =)

NEW HAIR STYLE!!!

2007-11-04T07:42:00.001-08:00

Got a new Hairstyle!!!! and since i promised my sis to upload my photos, i shall upload now and blog later,, er like maybe 2 days later??? hehe =)

The process My New HairStyle =) He did it =)
Image of the day
Jie Ying did her's too and she fell in love with curls =)

He did it for her =) and he is quite cute hehe

2 satisfied girls =)

Worst shopping trip; Crowded Qipu but good pubbing trip; Face Bar

2007-11-04T03:30:00.000-08:00

65th day in Shanghai (03/11/07)

Couldn’t get a lot of sleep and woke up at abt 9.30am to watch my HK series shows.

Kim went off to Tony & guy to have her hair cut at 9.55am but I didn’t want to go coz I heard from my friend that she will be seating in a classroom and a professional will be cutting her hair with a class of students watching.

Tony & Guy Academy is giving free haircuts for their customer as it is the students (soon to be hair styler) that will be cutting their hair as a practice. Either that or the teacher will be cutting and a class of students will be seating in to see how the teacher cut.

Met with Jie Ying to meet Kim after her haircut (not too bad) and went for lunch at a Korean Restaurant. After lunch, I went up to Tony & Guy Academy to make an appointment coz I also want to have my hair cut.

(I have registered my name but they didn’t call me. Kim helped me check and found out that my number that I gave them was wrong. So they couldn’t contact me =( )

And lucky us, we can get our hair cut tmr coz one hair styler wanted to practice cutting hair. (Occasionally, they will want to practice cutting hair. In the Salon, they got to cut very quickly. But in the Academy, they can take their time and cit it very slowly, to see the alignment and stuffs.

Headed to Qipu rd after that and when we reached there, the whole place was crowded with humans!!!

Maybe it was near winter and everyone is there to buy their winter clothing. The crowd is like during CNY eve, the Chinatown crowd. It was super crazy.

We shopped until pek sek cox it was stuffy inside the mall, people squeezing through the crowd, shouting and everything.

It was the worst trip I ever have compared to the last few when I went there. But still, we manage to get some stuffs =)

And with the many things that we bought, we got to walk all the way to the Train station, which was like 300 metres away.

Went back home slack for a few hours and Jie Ying, Joanne and myself head to Face Bar, a place Tracy recommended.

The place is actually quite near my place but still; we got to take a cab in coz it is quite deserted; The place is at the mansion area where it will enter one gate and it’s like a house on it’s own.

When we reached there, someone open the cab door for us and I was like ‘oh, not too bad. Some one actually open the cab door for us. ' (well, normally it’s only at hotel that u get this kind of service. Not when you go to a pub right??)

One look and I feel that the place was quite classy. The structures, the displaces, etc…

Since Tracy told us that the manager, Vance was a Singaporean, we decided to look for him. But he was busy at that time. And the funny thing was that no on entertain us when we went in. We got to ask the staff if there is a table for 3 before she bring us to our seat -_- Bad impression…

And the table was outside the bar. The whole ambience was very quite.. Not very pub that kind. Haha

Ordered our staffs and Vance came over to look for us. He helped us arrange 3 seats at the bar counter and had some chats with him. It was then I realized that Face Bar is actually one of the famous bar around.

It is one of the recommended bars in most of the famous Travel Guides and is very popular among Caucasians. The whole place look pleasant. I like it =)

He was nice enough to tour us around the place. They had 2 restaurants, selling Thai (which was the most expensive Thai restaurant in Shanghai) and Indian food.

Their toilet is quite cool too. They got this mini bed inside it.. So the first thought was… hmm… But Vance told me that that place used to be a hotel, so the mini bed used to be a bathtub. And yea, they don’t allow 2 or more person in the toilet at any time. Haha

Had a long talk with him till abt2+am till the place close. And I think we were the last customers that went off so there wasn’t any cab left for us. Got to walk all the way out to the gate to catch the taxi.

Reached home at 2.50am and lucky for us, there were still Shao Kao (Joanne’s craving came back).

Slp at 3+am and got to wake up early coz we got to clean up the hse and go for our appointment at 2pm.

IBLAC

2007-10-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

59th day in Shanghai (28/10/07)

Today was another long day of work supporting BQT for the event IBLAC (International Business Leaders’Advisory Council) for the Mayor of Shanghai

Work start at 7am, the earliest time ever since attachment started. Reported to Yee Hui and he asked us to look for one of the manager, Johnny at China Hall.

Saw Johnny and since he got nothing for us to do and we haven had our breakfast, he let us go for our breakfast break =)

Went back to China Hall to see the setup of the hall. The whole place look damn nice with classroom settings at the 2 ends of the hall and a circle set up in the center.

This event is very important as it involves all the big investors that contribute revenues to Shanghai. Most of the participants are either CEOs of big company or Chinese Governments.

And I think the coolest thing was that I saw Sun Zhong Shan’s granddaughter, Nora Sun. Wanted to take a photo with her but I think it’s quite weird and skipped that thought. In the end, I just said ‘Hi’ to her.

So the what we did for the morning was waiting for their coffee break time and lunch time and we will refresh the meeting hall by throwing away their used Evian bottles and replacing it with new ones.

It was then lunch time and Goh asked us if we want to have lunch together at Burger King in 正大广场.

So we went down to BQT office to wait for him and while waiting for him, we taught Tracy some Hokkien sentences (Almost all is vulgar one) and she taught us Shanghaiese (I leaned another language to sold people =)).

After quite some time, feeling freaking hungry already, we decided to walk around level 3 to see if he will be at the Ballrooms. But still, we didn’t see him.

Went back down to the office and gave him a call. He said that he is at Burger King already and asked us what meals we wanted. So since he asked that question, we assumed that he is going to buy back for us (Yu Hong asked Goh if he is going to buy back for us but I think he didn’t reply or whatever)

So we went to the back of the BQT office and help Niki and Dora to do up the menu for tonight’s dinner while waiting for our lunch.

After about 15 mins, Goh called Yu Hong and asked where we are. We were like ‘I though you are going to buy back for us?’

And apparently there was some miscommunication. Goh asked us what we wanted cox he was at the queue already and he bought our food first so that by the time we reached there, we don’t have to waste our time queuing up.

By the time we reached Burger King, our fries were cold and soft already =( and they have already finished theirs. Anyway, they waited for us to finish up and went back tgt.

Went back to BQT office coz Yu Hong bought egg tarts for some of them and we started slacking in there again.

Went back up to China Hall to see if they need any help there after walking awhile, we got tired and went back to BQT office. Nothing much to do there, we went to the back and started slping for at least 20mins.

Realized that BQT office was very quiet, went out to take a look and saw Cherry, Niki, Dora and Yu Hong changing the menu coz some of the words were keyed in wrongly.

Went up to Grand ballroom and they were having roll call; no one inform us about the roll call which means that we were not assign to anything to do =)

Helped Cherry to put the menus on the tables and arrange the chairs neatly, etc…

Reception starts shortly and we just walked around to see if they need help anywhere.

Went out to the cocktail garden to feel how cold the weather is already and the wind was so super strong that it blew down a glass of water. And with a very loud clash, the normal reaction for us was ‘OMG!!’ but to them, it seems to be very normal that a glass broke so loudly.

Dinner started and we started pouring red wine for the guest and at some point, helping the food server clear away dirty plates.

Time always past very quickly during serving time. After the whole dinner, we steal some food to eat; fruits, coffee cheesecake, etc.. (there is this secret place where the staffs will secretly eat the food) and there was this final roll call before everyone starts to clear away everything; the cutleries, table clothes and chair covers, etc…

By the time we end, it was near 9pm already… 14 hours of work!!! And some of the BQT staffs got to work more then that. Some of them ended work at 3.30am the previous day and started work at 9am today till they remove all the settings. And some of them didn’t even have their lunch and dinner. Poor thing!!

So super tired already, we still walked back home. Wanted to watch a DVD but was so tired that after watching 10 mins, I went off to lala land.

Until now, I have already got 2 days off from RSVN =) which means that I just got to support for another 2 more time and I can get 4 days off to accompany my parents when they are here this Dec =)

Singapore Evening

2007-10-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

57th day in Shanghai (26/10/07)Today was a very long day. Worked from 9am till 11pm, the longest day I had ever since attachment started

Reported to work at 9am in reservation and started calling for arrival time. Wanted to tell our RSVN manager that we got to support BQT for the event Singapore Evening at 12pm but she said that she need to give us training first and we can only support at about 3-4pm.

But well, I think she is quite nice as she told us that every extra hour that we work, be it in BQT or in RSVN, we can claim back the day-off. So I plan to work a few more extra days so that when my parents come, I can take off and accompany them=)

So during lunch, we went to find Yee Hui and told him that we can only report at 4pm but he said that row call is at 2pm and asked June, one of the AM to call up to Nancy.

But in the end, we still can’t go down at 2pm coz Nancy said that if she can’t give us training today, she will have to wait for another week before she got the time for us.

So training today was all about the Global Distribution System (GDS) booking. And to handle all those booking, we got to apply what we learn in school into practical; using the OPERA system.
One of the leaders, Lily gave us the training and we recapped how to use the system (it was barely a few months since we learned it and we forgot some of the steps already)

So from Monday onwards, we will have extra jobs to do; make new reservation, edit changes and make cancellations.

After the training, it was near 5pm already and we got to report to Yee Hui straight to ask him for our roles for Singapore Evening. And at that time, both Kim and I were super hungry already but we can’t go for dinner cox dinner was starting soon.

Singapore Evening was an event to introduce Singapore into China. It shows Singapore’s culture, cuisine, etc during this whole event. The whole set up at the reception was super Singapore. Clean and green with a few lions around.

Before the event starts, I became a mini tour guide for Angela and Joanne. After touring Angela around, she needs to go back to work and Joanne came up to find me. So I toured her around too.

Then we saw Tay Pinghui and wanted to take photo with him but all of us don’t really dare to ask him coz he was rehearsing his MC speech with Dong Suhua.

Not long later, SM Goh came and he was surrounded with tons of reporters and security. Then I realized that it was a super VIP event where there were quite a number of ministers and big shot (rich ppl) that went to this event. The managers were making sure that nothing goes wrong during this whole event.

So Kim, Yu Hong and I were supposed to be in charge of the drinks for 3 different sections and I was in charge of the whole area where SM Goh was seating. Then I managed to talk to Mrs Goh as Cherry wanted me to ask her if she eats beef if not, she can have a choice of chicken or fish.

It was a super busy night and I think that my whole section lack of drink server. So for the whole night, time past very fast coz I was pouring drinks non-stop and helping the food server clearing the plates.

But well, I still manage to watch the performance; they got fashion shows, Malay dance and Sun Ho was here to sing some songs =)

After the whole event, we started taking photos with a lot of Singaporeans and make new friends around. We didn’t feel very comfortable taking photos at first cox we were working and if we take photos in front of the staffs, it feels really weird. But in the end, we can’t be bothered and took photos with a lot of people. . And most importantly, took some name cards from impt ppl =)

Photos are still with Yu Hong =(

And almost everyone said that the service in this hotel is so much better then the one in Beijing. Everyone was so glad to hear that.

Bought home some goodie bags (they gave real good stuff) and they gave us a lot of free Yeo’s water chestnut drinks. Singapore production=)

I think we are quite lucky to be involved in this event as we get to see a lot of Singaporeans working, having their internship or exchange programs here. And besides, we saw a lot of Singapore’s big shots (real rich people).

I can really see how much Singapore wants to be recognized in China.

Good Buys real near my house =)

2007-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

55th day in Shanghai (24/10/07)

Since Sunday, we have been going to the street along 八佰伴 for night shopping.

It was on Sunday night when Joanne and Kim wanted to go window shopping. What happen was they told me that they wanted to go to the Beef Noodle store for dinner, repair their shoes and walk around at八佰伴.

But after 1 ½ hour, they came home with some shopping bags and their repaired shoes.

‘why you guys came back so early? Nothing to shop there?’

‘no lah, we just came back to put our stuffs and we are going out again. We only shopped at the road side stores outside the train station area and we bought 2 jackets and 2 bags.’

‘HUH!!! You guys buy so many things!!! I also wanna go!! But very lazy leh..’

‘Faster lah. Want to go a not? If you are not then we are going off already. Don’t get jealous when we bring back STUFFS!!! Hahaha’

‘okie fine. Wait for me. I go and change first.’ (Changed my clothes and went out. I think I didn’t even comb my hair. Hehe.

They have a lot of stores around that area selling all sorts of things. Went there for the past few days and I will buy at least something every time I shopped there.

It’s kind of weird actually. The area八佰伴have a lot of shopping malls and the things that they are selling are quite expensive and just outside all these shopping malls, there are a lot of road side stores that are selling real cheap stuffs.

So every time we go there, we will just shop outside all those shopping malls and every time, we will buy something.

Things I have bought from those road side stores; boots, bag, bracelet, earrings, fragrance pouch, hat/cap, leather watch, socks, etc…

Then on Monday, we went back to the street and we saw some police that came and all the sellers started running away from them. And in seconds, the whole street can be super quiet.

I think the next time I want to go shopping, I don’t have to go all the way down to Qipu already =). I can really find good buys there =)

Enough of all the shopping, back to work. Have been in reservation dept for a few days and besides filing, keying in data and be shoppers (calling competitor hotels on their rates), we started calling guests for their arrival time to the hotel and checking emails.

It was quite tough calling the guest at first coz most of the time; we got to speak in Chinese. And sometimes, when they use more difficult terms, I wouldn’t know what it means.

Some of the guest can talk real fast that I can’t catch a single word they say and when I asked them to repeat, they seems to get frustrated.

Well, I will got to do this for the next 3 months I think.. The only lucky thing is that I can still be involved in all big events with BQT=)

Opera Night

2007-10-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

51st day in Shanghai (20/10/07)

Work start at 2pm in the afternoon and when we reach the locker room at about 1.45pm, we saw a lot of BQT staff helping one another putting on makeup (apparently some of them don’t know how to put on make up)

When we went up to the BQT office, Tracy asked us to go down to Grand Ballroom (GB) for roll call. When we reach GB, we saw a lot of staff there and the directors were checking on their grooming. Even the team leaders and managers are polishing their shoes.

Today was the first time I saw so many staff in a ballroom. I think there are more then 60 staffs including all the supports from other outlet. The most impressive thing was that the whole HR dept went to help out as support too.

I was quite shock when they told me that the HR staffs will be serving the guest as well. I knew that they will be helping out but didn’t know that they will be helping out as service staff. Even some of the managers have to be server. I just feel totally weird to see the HR managers doing waiter/waitress stuffs.

(I feel that if the hotel know that they dun have enough staffs, then don’t run 2 major events concurrently. And since Opera Night is an internal event, can’t they just change the date to some other days??? It’s so weird to ask people not from the F&B dept to come and help out. And worst still, asking managers and asst managers to be waiter and waitress. Maybe it’s the profit that they are looking at. )

All the staffs were deployed to different groups (5 staff per group) and they were suppose to have a rehearsal on how they are going to serve food to the guest

(it’s western style so each server will hold on to 2 plates and serve the guest individually. One group will serve 3 tables and there is a total of 50 tables plus another 70 tables from China Hall ballroom. So imagine the number of staff they need)

So after deploying all the staffs to food server, they still need staffs for drink server. So in the end, Kim, Yu Hong, I and some other BQT staff and HR staff became drink server.

Before dinner, everyone one was supposed to change to the BQT uniform and the whole laundry area was packed with most of the HR staff as they were all wearing their blue suit uniform.

Kim, Yu Hong and I got to change out uniform too. Somehow, it feels like being demoted coz from wearing a suit, we got to change and wear the BQT uniform. But when I realized that even the HR managers are wearing the BQT uniform, I know that I shouldn’t think that way. Everyone working in the hotel is a team trying to provide the best to its customer regardless of what uniform you are wearing.

The whole event runs quite smoothly and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was supposed to be drink server for 4 tables but in the end, there seems to be a lot of additional drink server and I didn’t serve a lot.

After the dinner, it was performance and since we got nothing to do already, we started listening to the performance. People spend thousand over RMB to listen to the opera and we listened for free (for exchange with our hard-work).

After the Opera was a chocolate buffet at the cocktail garden. At first, Kim, Yu Hong and I were attached to 3 other girls and they were supposed to walk around asking people if they want to drink cognacs. So the 3 of us were supposed to tell the guest what cognac it is when they ask.

In the end, we realized that no one asked and Kelvin told both Kim and I to go outside the cocktail garden and serve wine at the bar (which was suppose to be a display bar only)

When we went out, we realized that there weren’t any glasses for the wine and I went to find Kelvin. So one of the team leader, Ven together with Kelvin and I rush into the ballroom to look for clean glasses on the tables.

Brought those glasses out and started serving the wine at the bar. It was so freezing cold. The white wine bottles were placed between tons of ice and it was icing cold.

But it was quite fun cox we started crapping with the staffs there and some of the guest were quite fun to talk to as well.

At about 10.30pm, the event ended and when we went into the ballroom where all the other staffs were, forgetting that we were wearing our BQT uniform, I sat on the chair at the table where Yee Hui and some other managers were seating. OPPS!!

Went down to BQT office to help Kelvin and Yee Hui put some staff and went back to the ballroom. Reached there and all the other staff have went off already.

Yee Hui asked if we were going to walk home and I asked if he can to send us home since he is going to take a cab anyway. Cherry offered to send us home as well since she is driving =)

So after all the guest went off, we started eating those chocolate from the buffet and I think it was too sweet.

After that, we went to change our clothes and Yu Hong told us that Joanne was at the BATS, one of the bars in the hotel for Alan’s farewell party.

So in the end, Cherry didn’t send us home cox we went to the BATS but by the time we reached there, Alan went off already.

Stayed there for a while and try looking for Alan cox both Kim and I wanted to take a photo with him. But we can’t find him =(

We decided to walk home since the weather was quite cooling. It has been a long time since the 4 of us went home together.

And I think that we are quite lucky to be involved in this event ‘Opera Night’ cox it is considered a very big internal event to the hotel where it portray the image of the hotel to it’s guest. I really get to see the whole hotel coming together organizing and running the event. Even the GM and all the directors are involved.

Great experience from there and I can’t wait to be involved in other major events!!!

Change of job!!!!!

2007-10-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

50th Day in Shanghai (19/10/07)

Have being transferred to Reservation department since Tuesday and all we did was just filing, keying data entry and sending emails to customers.

HOW BORING CAN OFFICE JOB BE!!!!!

It was never being one of my ambition to be an OL and now, I got to be one for the next 3 ½ months!!!

So what happen was on Monday, 15/10/07, there was an ‘Opera Night’ meeting and Yee Hui asked us to join in. So when the meeting started, almost all the seats were occupied (we were seating at the main table and there were some extra chairs behind us in case there wasn’t even seats for all).

Half way through, the GM came in and when he saw that all the seats were occupied, he sat behind us at those extra chairs. I wanted to give up my seat for him but I think I hesitated for a while.

So when I offer him my seat, he rejected it and said that he is fine seating behind. That that point of time, all 3 of us; Kim, Yu Hong and Josh, were super awkward. It’s like we are occupying his seat cox in actual fact, we are not needed in the meeting. We are just there to see how they plan the event and how they conduct a meeting.

So after the meeting, Yu Hong said that he hear GM asking my F&B EAM, Mr. Thomas ‘how many interns do we have? Singaporeans’

At that time, I can sense that something bad is going to happen to us.

Not long later, Yee Hui received a sms from big boss asking him to send the 2 girls’ (Kim and I) name to Mr. Thomas. He then received a reply saying that the 2 of us will be transferred to the Sales & Marketing dept after an interview.

When we told other staffs abt the news, they started saying how terrible it is to work in S&M esp under that boss. They told us that MICE and Events will be better compared to sales so during the interview, request to go to either Events or MICE.

So after hearing that, I felt quite relieved cox I am quite interested in Event and MICE.
At the end of the day, we still didn’t receive any news from the GM and when we were about to end work and go home, Yee Hui received a call asking Kim and I to go to the Reservation dept for an interview.

Went for the interview and it seems like we don’t have any other choice but Reservation dept. (They make it seems like an interview but in actual fact, we are suppose to work there no matter wat)

So we got to report to reservation dept next day. It was quite rush and Yee Hui said that he can’t really do anything coz it was the GM that want us to go there!!!

Reported to reservation on Tuesday and what we did was just doing filing of some overdue data and updating data entry. On Wednesday and Thursday, we started sending emails to the guest asking for their ETA to the hotel (a standard email is given and we edited the whole email cox it just sound so wrong. What we need to do is just to change the date and name of the guest=no brainer’s work)

We got so bored today that we asked Tracy to call Reservation Office and request us to go down to BQT for support.

But in the end, when we went down to BQT office, there wasn’t anything much for us to do. All we did was slacking and chatting with Tracy.

Then I realized that time past super fast in Reservation dept coz at least we got things to do; although it’s super boring and I think I will miss a lot of fun from BQT.

So in order not to miss out too much fun from BQT and not slacking too much for this attachment, we told Yee Hui that for all big events, we request to be support.

It’s like one stone killing 3 birds =)

Firstly, we see the whole event and learn something, Secondly, we will not miss out all the fun in BQT (still part of them), and lastly, we can still learn new and more things in Reservation dept and not slacking too much in BQT.

Hopefully Reservation dept is as fun (but I doubt so) and I can learn a lot of things from there… I wanna answer phone calls!!!

Went to H&M after work cox they have got summer sale!!!! Bought some clothes there and the quality is much better than those in Qipu. Maybe I should just spend more money in those proper shops than in Qipu…

Went to Lan Zhou Beef Noodle store for dinner again and I think that was the 3rd time I went there this week. We became regular customer there already; they can recognize us and know what we want to order.

But well, I think the food there is nice.. esp. with vinegar =)

Lu Jia Bang & outdoor catering along huangpu river

2007-10-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

45th day in Shanghai (14/10/07)

The day passed quite fast today.

Reached the hotel, looked for Yee Hui and we did the daily routine again; walking around the function rooms to check that everything is going on well (routine check is 3 times a day)

Today wasn't a busy day and there wasn’t anything much to do as well. So Yee Hui decided to go and take his tailor made suit from Lu Jia Bang and asked if we want to go with him.

So after lunch, we went to look for him and headed to that place. It look like a tourist attraction cox there were alot of angmors. The whole place looks like some warehouse where i think there is place for bargaining. haha.

He took he suit, got his shirts and next time, I know where to make mine =) There were alot of tailor shops there and next time, i can try out the different shops to see which one is the best.

And apparently the quality of the clothes are quite good and they and do up the clothes in less then 2 days if you request.

SIS: bring more magazines here when u comes and we can go tailor make it. cheap and same

Today there was this site inspection. It's about some important potential client that comes to the hotel and look at what are the type of functions the hotel is able to provide them.

So one of the function room was prepared for this site inspection and they actually had this station in front of the main door that show case beautiful 'mouth bite' chocolates.

The whole thing look quite grand where it looks more like a jewelry show case than a chocolate show case. Too bad I forgot to take a photo of it..

Tracy told us that after the site inspection, we can try out the different chocolates. So, both Kim and I waited for the site inspection to end (it ends at 6pm when we ends work at 5pm so we waited for one hour for the Chocolates).

While waiting for them, we went to look for Joanne and she show us this very cute mix-blood baby. He is 5 months old but his features are a lot more matured.

When Yee Hui, Cherry came out of the room, we wanted to go in and eat but Yee Hui asked us to go to an outdoor catering to have a look.. BOO!!! which means we cant get to eat the chocolates (well, we only get to eat one passion fruit favor and it was NICE)

But well, Kim said that she heard Tracy asking one of the manager to put the chocolates into a container and put it in the freight. So we went to the outdoor catering which was just a 5 mins walk away from the hotel located at the bund.

The client actually booked one part of the pathway along the bund for the dinner for 200pax. (It's some Shanghai Stock Exchange event=Rich People) and Ms kim asked this question

'is it very expensive to book this place???'

Everyone was like

'DER!! This is like the main part of Shanghai and they are occupying this whole area (no one was allowed to walk pass it and the only was to cross over is to make a big turn from the back)!!!'

How cute can she be right? haha The whole set-up look grand with a big stage, lightings, cocktail area and buffet spread. Imagine the huge amt of space they are using!!

So the weather at 6pm was dark and cold already and those waiter and waitress got to standby their tables to serve the customers.. They were just wearing their simple BQT uniform.. I feel so COLD for them!!!

After a while, both Kim and I cant take it anymore and went back to the hotel. We went to find our chocolates but there wasn't anymore left. So both of us just sadly changed our clothes and went out.

For the first time in this 1 1/2 month in Shanghai, we went to the Pearl Tower cox heard from Jie Ying that they sell subway there. So we went over to look for it and YEA!!! we saw it.

Had subway and went back to the outdoor catering as we wanted to watch the performance until 8.30pm so that we can take the shuttle bus home.

But well, with 2 girls wearing their own casual clothes in that area (everyone else were in uniform or at least formal clothing), we left totally left out. So after watching one performance, we decided to leave the place and walk home.

Bought a few more DVDs =)

First dinner feast in China

2007-10-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

44th day in Shanghai (13/10/07)

Work was kind of boring today. Reached the hotel at 8am, had our breakfast and went to find Cherry. Check the schedule of the day and there weren’t many events. All there was were some set-ups and a few small meetings.

Today was the first time out of this 2 ½ month that I feel that someone is showing authority towards us.

So, what happen was we got this new big boss, and he made both Kim and I do things that we thing is stupid. Firstly, he asked if we would want to be his secretary for the day. And since we got nothing to do, we agreed with him.

So, the first thing he asked us to do, was to ask us to go to the Banquet Office at B1, use his computer to print out this email draft that he wants to sent out as he wants to edit things from it (we were at lvl 3 at that time, quite far away from the office).

And after bringing the hardcopy of the draft to him, he edited it and asked us to edit it to his computer. So we went to B1, edited and printed it out, we went back to lvl 3 to show him the update draft. He edited again and asked us to go back to B1 to edit it again.

So after editing, we just stayed in the office. He came back a short while later and started saying that he has got tons of emails to reply. So what he did was he started telling us what emails he need to reply and tell us the details that need to be in the email and we are suppose to type it out for him using another manager’s computer and using that computer, sent an email to his account for him to check and sent out the email.

I mean I think that it’s totally weird and dumb. Can’t he just type it himself or wat??? (oh, his English sucks…and well, his Chinese suck too… opps)

So after helping him with all those email, we slacked in the office talking to Tracy and another BQT staff.

All of us were planning to leave at 5pm as there was this BQT dinner (the dept has got extra funds/incentives so they are using the money to treat the staffs) at 5.30pm for all staffs.

And apparently this Big Boss doesn’t want to go and since he doesn’t want to go, he has got tons time to waste.
So at 5pm, he walked out from his office

‘Let’s go.’

(Both Kim and I looked at each other) ‘Who let’s go? Us?’

(pissed off tone) ‘yes you. Let’s go’

We were like HUH!!! We are supposed to end work at 5pm coz we start at 8am!!

But well, we followed him and once we reached the ballroom, he like totally ignored us. And after awhile, he just asked us to go into the VIP room and take out 2 chairs coz there wasn’t enough chairs outside for a small meeting.

Then we went to find Cherry and told her what happen and she just ask us to go off. So we came all the way from B1 to level 3 just to bring out 2 chairs from the VIP room for him.

Well, and apparently he didn’t ask anyone about where were we after we left. We were just too insignificant!!

So it was then to the Dinner at this ‘Yue Ming’ restaurant’. Dinner was supposed to start at 6pm but it was extended to 8pm coz most of the staffs were being held up at work by Big Boss.. Hmmmm…..

Food there wasn’t too bad but too bad there wasn’t any photo coz when the food came, everyone was like hungry ghost eating up all the food.

The dinner was quite fine and it was quite an eye-opener. I see the way how the locals behave and everything. They smoke and drink like no body biz.

There was a total of 150 bottles of beer and all were cleared. Imagine how much each one of them (esp the guys) drink when there were 10 tables, one not occupied, one table didn’t drink at all and most of the girls didn’t drink.

It was very fun when you see how they behave and talk. I think all this hardly happen in Singapore. Normally after a dinner in Singapore, everyone will just leave and go home. But here, there will stay and make sure everyone drink with them. They will just go around drinking with anyone. It’s like those scenes in those HK shows.. Quite interesting..

But well, some people were quite a wet-blanket.. oh well, don’t wanna talk about it anymore.. In anyway, I think I enjoyed myself… quite an experience =)

The early wake up

2007-10-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

42nd day in Shanghai (11/10/07)

For don’t know what reason, I woke up damn early today.

Work starts at 10am and I should wake up at 8.30am. But in the end, I woke up at 6.30am.
Washed up and put on my make up super slowly but I still got plenty of time. So I watched a DVD but in the end, it’s in French with chinese subtitle. Gave up and here I am, blogging on what happen yesterday.

Oh great. Time now is 8.54am and I think I start slowly started packing up for work. I am still wondering what I will be doing today cox both Cherry and Ehui is on left which means that I got no one to report for work today… Going to be another day of … learning nothing????

Work is becoming more and more boring!!! HELP!!!! I cant wait till next week where hopefully, we got more things to do.

Okie, so went to work and things wasnt that bad. Yee Hui worked today and what we did wat planning the Opera foyer layout (that was suppose to be Yu Hong jobs but since i was bored too, i did it with him)

So after a 'finally busy' day at work, we left the hotel at about 8.30pm and i accompanied Yu Hong to Lotus as he wanted to buy grocery.

And since it was 8.30pm already and Joanne ends work at 9pm, I called her and told her that I am going to meet her to go home together.

So I waited her from 8.40 to 9.10pm. There wasn’t any call from her.. then I continue waited for another 30 mins till 9.45pm. Got quite pissed already by that time as I gave her a few missed calls and she didn’t reply.

At 9.50pm, she finally called and when I asked her if she know what is the time, she totally forgot about it. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

Waited another 20mins for her to come out and she told me what happen. Okie, so apparently there is this important guest (sort of old and popular celebrity) wanted to have his meal at Yi café. And since he is a celebrity, he would want to have his own private room and stuff (every time he patronize Yi Café, he will have his own private room).

This time, one of the hostess forgot to book a private room for him and when he reached the café, there wasn’t any private room for him. He was quite unhappy and since Joanne got some interaction with the guest before (by trying to sell Opera tickets to him) they asked her to try to calm him down.

She managed to calm him down and forgot all about the time.. so okie, well, and since she said that she will treat me to ‘Shao Kao’, I forgive her. Haha

So while walking home, we saw 2 YiCafe’s Indian chefs and their house were real near to ours. So we walked home tgt and when we were going to reach out house, we asked them if they wanted to eat Shao Kao too and they were fine with it.

Reached the store and we saw Jie Ying. So 5 of us started eating Shao Kao and that was the first time I ate so many sticks of it.. It was so crazy.. we drank quite a lot too. Quite a fun night out=)
By the time we reached home, it was near 12 already.. and OMG!! I am working at 8am tmr!!!

Another Qi-pu trip =)

2007-10-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

41st day in Shanghai (10/10/07)

It’s the last day of my ‘4-days’ off and what I did the whole day was watched DVD, eat, shop, eat and watched DVD again.

Woke up in the morning at about 1030 to wash up and to get ready to go Qipu rd cox Kim wanted to buy some winter stuffs there.

So after washing up and while waiting for Joanne to get ready, we started watching Good Luck Cluck. Not too bad a show but I think some parts are quite porn..opps

After watching, we went to the Lan Zhou Beef Noodle shop for lunch and headed to Qipu rd.

On the way there, 2 things happen to me.

While walking across the overhead bridge (there wasn’t a lot of people at that time), I felt that there was someone behind me so I turned over and saw this guy suddenly turned away and behave very weirdly. So when I look at my handbag, I saw the last button on my bag open (but lucky I don’t put anything there). The man was still behind me at that time and I so feel like beating him up and send him to the police..

But then I realized that I shouldn’t do such thing cox it will be a waste of time and there wasn’t any evidence.. Besides, I believe that there are plenty of pickpockets around here and I don’t think the police will even bother.

Okie, so after I reached the wholesale mall that we frequent went (FREQUET?!?!?! Which mean that I have been here a few times spending a few hundred dollars each time already???? Okie doesn’t matter, that’s not the point), there was a motorcycle that was coming towards us and in order to give way, I step on a staircase slope.

And because my stupid slipper got no more friction already, I slipped and fell down. It was like SUPER EMBARRASS!!!! I was holding on to my papaya pineapple juice (left 1/10 of it) and when I fall, the drink splash on me.

So in the end, I got a few cuts on my leg and I got to shop with this papaya pineapple smell on my shirt. (SO YUCKY!!!!!)

But well, doesn’t matter coz in the end of the day, I bought what I wanted =) Bought my winter jacket, a leather jacket, a thick top, a red button shirt, a boot and a black shoe.

And I managed to exchange my spoiled top that I bought the other time with the same shop owner. What happen was while I was trying to find which shop it was, we went into this shop and look at the clothes, then the whole conversation was like this (in chinese)

‘Hey, I remember you guys. You all came the other time and bought some clothes from me. Remember? A jacket and 2 white top’

Then I got excited.

‘YES!!! Of course I remembered. The top that u gave me was a lousy one. There isn’t any button on it.. I want to exchange. Can i???’

‘okie, why not I cut out the button from another top coz I don’t have any more supply for the white one already.’

‘er.. so I have to sew it myself when I go home?'

‘Yes. We don’t have any needles and treads here.'

‘Well, then forget it. I will just exchange the whole shirt. I think this color isn’t that bad too’

‘Okie sure’

‘thanks’

I think I am just lucky. If the owner didn’t say that she recognized us, I wouldn’t know that that was the shop I am looking for.

So after shopping for quite some time until evening, we headed back home. Feeling hungry, we meet up with Jie Ying and went back to the Lan Zhou beef noodle shop to eat again. I think we are going to be regular customers there soon coz the food is nice and cheap =)

Went back home and Jie Ying came over and we show her what we have got. She can’t wait to go shopping with us haha. But I don’t think it will be any time soon coz I am super duper broke here!!!!

Watched The Game Plan and off to bed.

stupid computer

2007-10-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

40th day in Shanghai (09/10/07)

Argh!!!!!!!!!! I feel so stupid now!!!!! The stupid laptop is irritating the shit out of me!!!!

Tried using Skype taking to my sister and she said that she can’t hear me… So I tried solving the problem by clinking around some of the system and software. And in the end, I stupidly deleted my audio system from the control panel… OMG!!! How stupid can I be.. So now, not only I cant talk to them, I cant hear them as well..

And I got no idea how to fix this stupid problem. I know I need to get a software but where the freaking hell am I going to get it!!! Damn it!!!

Okie, anyway, since I cant listen to my music or chat with sissy, I shall just continue blogging.
The whole day was just spent slacking.. Woke up in the morning and went to 正大广场 with Joanne., Wanted to accompany her to buy some hair accessories but in the end, she doesn’t have to use it.

Asked Kim and Yu Hong to meet us at Burger King for lunch and after that, I went to Lotus myself to buy some grocery.

Shopped there for quite some time and bought quite a number of heavy stuff. Wanted to take the shuttle bus back but I was think that since the weather is so cooling and I haven’t been exercising for quite some time, why not walk home (with I think a few KG of stuffs in both my hands)

So by the time I reached home, my hands were breaking off already. Reached home, do some laundry, watched Evan Almighty and I fell asleep on the bed. Woke up at 4+pm when Angela called me and started using my computer till now….

Had Maggie for dinner and I hardy finished it coz I am so sick of the taste already..

ARGH!!! The computer is irritating the shit out of me!!!!

A freezing day out

2007-10-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

39th day in Shanghai (08/10/07)

Today is the 2nd day of my ‘4 days’ of offday and I practically stayed at home uploading all the photos and slack.

So after Joanne woke up at 6+pm, she said that she dun want to stay at home the whole day and wanted to go somewhere. At the same time, Jie Ying msged to say that she needs to buy a blazer so the initial plan was to meet her at八佰伴 after her work.

But until 7pm, she still didn’t called back and after a while, both Chang Fang and Jie Ying reached home. They looked sick after being drenched in the heavy rain in the morning and stayed in the air-con office for 8 hours.

The weather was really bad the whole day. It was raining and the wind was super cold. I was at home and Joanne was feeling cold.

Since the weather was still so bad at 7pm, we decided to just go down to one of the shop to eat and ‘da bao’ for Angela.

Even before reaching the first floor, we can feel the cold wind. And wat we were wearing were t-shirt and shorts plus a jacket. At that time, we were deciding if we want to continue gg out.
In the end, we still went to eat, after eating we plan to look for DVDs but couldn’t find any,. Then we went to the train station cox we wanted to buy egg tarts.

The whole trip was super fun. We kept laughing for the entire trip. Chang Fang said that the heavy rain was cause by the typhoon that might be coming again in these 2 days.

So throughout the trip, which was like there was a mini tyhoon, we saw people’s umbrella spoiled, holding on to their umbrella super tied and holding their umbrella right in front of them to block the wind (this was what we did too).

We keep taking photos of these shots and when we came out of the train station empty handed because the egg tart shop was closed, we walked pass a shop that sells ice-cream. I look at Joanna and asked if she wants to eat ice cream.

So the 2 crazy girls started licking their ice-cream in the middle of the street during this freaking freezing day and everyone along the street were staring at them like they were some abnormal creatures.

That was really crazy but it was fun. We went out for 1hour but it seems like 5 hours have passed. It was very tiring coz we were cold, we walked a lot and we laughed a lot. I think it was a good experience..

The Quiet Night

2007-10-08T02:33:00.000-07:00

38th Day in shanghai (07/10/07)

The night was very quiet.

WHY?!?!

This is the 4th day the 2 little puppies stayed in our small little hse. And sad to say, it’s their last day.

The story goes like this. While walking down the street on Thursday night to 八佰伴，there were a lot of puppy sellers along the street. They sell puppies for a few hundred RMB and a lot of people were playing with those puppies.

Both Joanne and Kim loves the puppies a lot coz they were like super cute. They spend a freaking long time playing with them while both Angela and I went into the shopping mall to shop first.

Okie, so after walking for quite some time in the shopping mall, we went around the area to see what was for dinner. And when we went back to八佰伴, there was this female puppy seller just outside the main door. Both Kim and Joanne were attached to the puppies again, and this time, the lady was selling the puppies for super cheap.

So, the 2 girls got so excited over the puppies and they decided to buy it (cheap, cute, lovable.. who will reject right?? w/o realizing the after-effect and consequences of owning a puppy).

They were worried that I will reject it but well, I got soft-hearted and said ‘okie’ but state that I wouldn’t help them look after the puppies. (and I did asked them qn like what will happen to the dog after 5 months, etc…) and they seems to know what to do so yea, they bought back the puppies.

So, they named their puppies Sushi and Latte and had a fun time looking after the puppies for the first night. Cleaning up their waste dun seems to be a chore to them.

And then it was the 2nd day. Joanne had some Shanghai friend over here in Shanghai and when she told them that they bought a puppy, they were quite worried. And they asked her this qn (the same qn that I asked) ‘Didn’t u realize that no one in the street buy those puppies?’

And apparently these puppies got some illness. I dun think it’s illness(like they are gg to die after a few days. They were energetic because the sellers gave them some injection that can last for a few days) but these puppies are not well taken care of since birth.

All dogs need to have some injection when they were born after the first 2 weeks and I heard that there are a total of 7 injections.

Both of them were quite worried after knowing that but well, they were deciding if they should bring them to the vet or sth. Things were fine for the next 2 days. The puppies were energetic; they can play, run, make noise and everything. It was until today, when things get a bit wrong.

It was in the morning when I woke up and saw the shit on the floor and woke Kim up to clear up the mess. The shit was still solid at that time.

Then after awhile, I think they shitted and pee again and Latte vomited. Poor Kim got to clean up all the mess. Then the 2 puppies were making so much noise that I got damn pissed off and ask Kim to put the 2 puppies outside but they can still continue making noise and irritate me.

So I pushed it further away from the hse and all of us ignored them. After awhile, they kept quiet.

At that time, Kim screamed for me. It was the toilet. It got stuck!!! I was like OMGOMGOMG!!!! The whole hse is damn smelly coz of the puppies waste and their smell and now, the toilet is stuck.

Called for the landlord for help and went to check out the puppies. They seems to be very sick at that time and I tot that they were very cold. I think Latte vomited again.

So, I bring the 2 puppies in the hse again and Latte made some noise. Kim let her out from her cage and immediately, she ran into the room, seems to be searching for sth, and then stand at a corner and started shitting. And this time the shit was semi-solid.. I was like "OMGOMGOMG!!!!!! Get rid of the dog IMMEDIATELY!!!!"

Kim got to clean up her mess again and after putting Latte into her cage, Sushi starting pooing too. And she asked me if I wanna clean up for her (cox she was holding on to sushi) and I said a straight no. Okie, very evil but from the start I already said that I am not gg to look after the puppies.

So I hold on to sushi and she started clearing up the mess again. And after placing Sushi into his newly placed newspaper cage, he started pooing again.. At that time, I know that kim is gg mad already.

So, after the toilet was fit and the dogs were settle, Kim went to take her bath and asked me to help clean up if any of the puppies get dirty again. I was like.. ‘er.. I try…’

And lucky worst… When she was bathing, Latte shitted again, and this time, it got worst, it was liquid and super duper smelly. I couldn’t take it ad knocked on JieYing’s door for help.

The moment she saw it, she couldn’t take it too.. I was screaming at that time already.. I cant let myself near the shit at all. (and the next few days is my off day. And I was telling myself that I am so not gg to look after the puppies for them and not gg to clean up all the shits…)

I couldn’t take it anymore coz all the shits and everything is driving me crazy. The whole freaking hse is damn smelly. I went over to Jie Ying’s hse to stay for awhile, I almost vomit too. I got so angry with myself for not being firm enough of not allowing them keeping the puppies.

Kim couldn’t take it as well (she is worst coz she got to clean up) and wanted to get out of the hse so badly. Her puppy has been slping, shitting, vomiting, urining the whole day and she look super weak.. at that time, kim was deciding wat to do to her Latte.. She dun want it anymore…

And while we were abt to go out of our hse, Latte gave a very weird sound that freaks me off. Then she suddenly started vomiting.. and this time, I almost went crazy. In her vomit, there a worm that was crawling around. I was so totally freak out that I dun even dare to go near her.

This is like so DISGUSTING!!!! And I heard from Chang Fang that there might be a lot more, maybe hundreds in her stomach. That was so crazy.. And we were deciding if we should just bring her to the vet. But Kim said that if she is giving away the puppy, why waste the money to see the vet.

So, in the end, we just went out and left the 2 puppies with Angela.

Went to find YuHong and bought a lot of things from Carrefour. And finally, we ate subway =)

On the way back home, Kim called Joanne to ask her some stuffs and she said that Latte vomited again and this time, there were 4 worms.. I felt really disgusted… If they dun get rid of the puppies by today, I got no idea how I am gg to survive with them tmr.

Reached home and heard from changfang a lot of things. Things like illegal to buy puppies on the streets, some licensing and stuff.

So in the end, both Kim and Joanne decided to give away their puppies. And another problem appeared. Who are they suppose to give??? The puppies’ seller wouldn’t want them as they should know the condition of those puppies, they dun wanna just leave the puppies on the road side, etc…

In the end, they decided to just leave the puppies outside an animal hospital.
So at 11pm, we took a cab down to one animal hospital (Joanna friend gave her the address) and they just put them out the shop, hopping that they will look after the puppies.

In the cab, when I look back at the 2 puppies, they seem to know what is gg on. Latte eyes seem to be teary and the 2 normally very noisy puppies became very quiet. She just lied at the corner in her cage, keeping quiet, looking down. Sushi was under Joanne arms and he didn’t fidget at all.

When we reached the place, when Joanne wanted to put Sushi back into his cage, he kept on fidgeting, which seems like he know that if he get into the cage, his fate will be different again.

And imagine the whole scene. The 2 of them were very sad, it was raining quite heavily and the taxi driver was waiting for us (to drive us back home; he was staring at us). And when they placed the cage on the floor, I can feel the heart pain from the 2 girls.

The trip to and fro was super quiet.

Well, in the end, I can just say that dun do things impulsively. One impt thing abt making any decision is to be able to bare any consequences.

I believe that they haven gave enough thought abt having the puppies which lead to all these… unhappiness within themselves.

In any way, hope that it was a lesson learned. Be it to them or to me.

Sometimes humans can be just so selfish… I got no choice but to think this way…

Hangzhou Trip =)

2007-10-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

31st - 34th day in Shanghai (30/09/07-03/10/07)

Went over to Hangzhou over the Golden Week and the places that we went wasnt that nice... but well, sometimes it's the company that counts =)

Dun feel like writing alot of words coz there were alot of things tat happen. and the highlight of the trip was that we quarreled with at least one person every day.

Anyway, photos seems to be more interesting =)

Day one.

Went over the train station to buy tixs and only 'no seats' tix are left available so we got to stand for 2 freaking hrs.

Waiting to board the train.. Tons of ppl

on the train

Got to stand for 2 hours and some of us cant take it, we decided to seat on the floor. And when we reached therem without booking any hotels, we started searching for hotels. From calling back to ask my manager to looking at the tourist guide book of hangzhou to asking help from Hangzhou Shangri-la lobby staffs. How great can we be!!!

Day 2.

Went over to Xihu and spend half the day there. Scenery wasn't as nice as the one I saw when I was there 2 years ago. Flowers were super limited.

I think these 3 photos are very nice!! all thanks to yuhong for his SLR cam =) We started climbing trees to remain energetic!!

Went on a boat ride to kill time=)

Some plants Yu Hong took..

Next, we went to Lei Feng Tar. Entrance fee was 40 RMB and we realised that people can just enter from he exit gate.. Argh!! Wasted money..

After that, we head to the bus station to get our return tixs. And the whole place was flooded with people!!!

Day 3

Initial plan was to go over to Long Tea plantation, xixi wet land and to watch sun set at Qian Tang Qiao. But in the end, we missed the sunset coz of the stupid xixi wet land.

Long Jing plantation

Saw this match maker and i think it's so cool. haa see the 'mei ren zhi'???

Went over to xixi went land and it was a total flop. The whole place wasn't fun and there wasnt any scenery at all. We bought students tix into the place which cost 40RMB and when we went in, the person recommend us to take the boat that stops at different stations which coxt 60 RMB coz if not, there is hardly any thing to see.

So, we got the tixs and took the boat in hope to see nice things. But in the end, we saw NOTHING!!! we practically took one round around the place and that's the end. We wanted to go to this botanical garden which was at one of the station and told the tour guide to inform us when the boat reached the station.

But in the end, she didnt tell us coz of the reason that there were too many tourist and she forgot abt it, and besides, the boat got into a little accident where it bang into another boat. Because of that, the speed adjustment of the boat spoiled and it got to bang into the shore in order to stop.

The stupid xixi wet land

Went to complain and demand for a refund and after much argument and quarrel, the person refunded us the money.

There was this sentence that the bitch made me pissed off. She told us to write in this piece of complain letter abt the whole situation and we got to write it in chinese. When we asked if we can write in English, she said this (in chinese) '你们不是华人不是中国人么？? 怎么不会写华语呢？' When we shot back that we are Singaporeans and not Chinese, she shut her stupid mouth immediately. that was then she refund us back the money..

In the end, we watch sunset at the entrance of xixi wet land...

After taking the money, we wanted to take a cab back to the city area but none of the cabs allow us to board coz we got 5 people.

So in the end, we boarded a '黑车' and it was actually quite cool..

'黑车'

Took a photo from one of the overhead bridge.And this is wat we ate for almost every night

Last day

Everyone woke up late and we got to check out by 12nn. Plan for today was just to go around Hangzhou looking for good food. In the end, we just came to this 'food court restaurant' for lunch. Heard from the cab driver that this place is quite famous but the only thing i like there was the Ja Jian Mian .

Lunch for the last day =) look at the crowd!!!

After lunch we got nowhere to go and decided to go Carrefour again (why again??? coz we went Hangzhou for 4 days and we were in Carrefour shopping for grocery for 3 days.. crazy huh!!)

Went to KFC and i felt asleep there..

And we had Singapore food there.. At last, after 1 month in china, i get to get Singapore food. Not very nice bit still acceptable.. And I didn't realised that Singapore food is so expensive.. =(

After dinner, headed to the bus station and waited for our coach. And that was how I spend my 4 days 3 night in Hangzhou..

Took some photos to entertain outselves while waiting for the coach.

PHOTOS!!!!!!

2007-10-06T20:49:00.001-07:00

I realised that i haven upload any single photo ever since i was here.. so, here i am going to spend half my day at home uploading some of the photos =)

WE PASSED=)

What we did on the first day.. after so many things that happen. We were in one of the training room.. opps

Our attire for the first 3 weeks. BQT/in-room dining attire =) Part of the team in in-room dining

Some of the things that we should learn in In-room dining:

set up room service table

Ans calls for any in-room service (which we nv had a chance to do so)

Some of the things that we did

cutting lemons

clearning the dirty tables

Then we changed our department to Event Concierge

our new attire

Directors of BA and Sue Tan came over to find us =)

Introduce them to our job scope and our boss

See the view of the bund every day =)

We were told to read up mpre at the hotel and the banquet system (need more hotel knowledge before meeting clients)

Went to an event that was outdoor catered =) Took a bus and it was like an excusion.

Cherry briefing us on some things

And beside work, we got our FUN too!!!

Shopping was the best cure for any unhappiness. After the terrible day 1, we went to shop on day 2 and all of us were feeling so much better!!!

When we get too stress (okie, bored) we need to have some self entertainment...

This is wat we do to help Aaron quit smoking!!! And we got happy hours too =)

We get too bored of chinese food sometimes and we will just eat bread...

We went on some food searching too. NICY FOOD!!!

Jia Jia tang baoSheng Jian Bao
This 2 food is the better tasting one i have found. Wil continue searching =)

Gina and Xinghui was here =)

2007-10-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

28th - 30th day in Shanghai (27/09/07-29/09/07)
Finally, after 1 month, Gina and Xing Hui were here to see me =)

They were on a Jiangnan tour and their last stop was in Shanghai. So I took a day off today to accompany them.

Meet them up on 27th September night after celebrating Kim’s birthday at hong mei rd, xiao nan guo (which was said to be quite famous and expensive. But well, sue tan was paying for it so =))

Stayed over at their hotel and they showed me all the things that they have bought (it’s so typical first time tourist in China haha; bought tea, pearl, jade blar blar blar)

Slept quite early as we were all tired and I have got a whole day plan for them the next day.
Woke up at abt 8am in the morning to clean up and get ready to go out. First, I brought them to ‘Jia Jia Tang Bao’ for lunch then of to Qipu rd for SHOPPING!!!!!

We planed to shop for half a day till 4pm and head off to ‘Chen Huang Miao’ but then, we ended up at Qipu till 5+pm.

Gina bought hell lot of things from clothes(although it’s mainly winter clothing already to shoes to hair accessories to miscellanea (I think she spend like a few hundred SGD there) and we got our manicure there =)

Stupid thing I did: I got work the next day (I am working alone for an big event I am in hotel line=service) and I did manicure too. I think doing French manicure is okie but what I I did was the crystal one (which was quite long) + Some flower patterns and silver crystal on it.

So if I am to serve the customer of client with those fingernails, I would predict that I will get bad impression. So after reaching home, I went to cut off half the length of my fake nails. ARGH!!! How dumb!!!

After shopping for a long time, we headed down to meet Kim, YuHong, Angela and Hans for dinner. We had Sheng Jian Bao again =)

Another stupid thing: As Hans was driving the rest down to WuJiang rd to meet us, there was a bad jam in the tunnel linking Pudong and Puxi. They told me that they will reach in 1 ½ hr later and asked me to wait for them there. With those freaking heavy stuffs that we were carrying, I didn’t want to bring it all around.(yea, we can actually put the stuffs in Hans’s car boot).

So we wanted to go back to Gina’s hotel, put the stuffs and meet them up. But we couldn’t get a cab after waiting for freaking long and decided to squeeze in the train to go to my hse instead.
So the whole thing goes like that: go to my hse to put our stuffs, meet up the rest at WuJiang rd for dinner, went back to my home and had our hair washed at WenFeng, back to my hse and then to Gina’s hotel.

Did we like waste a lot of time travelling???

Reached back to their hotel at abt 11+pm and we were all so tired and both of them have hell lot of things to pack.

And another stupid thing that I did: their flight for the next day was 10am and they are supposed to wake up at 5am to wash up and stuffs. So if I am to stay over at their hotel, I got to wake up at that timing too…. But well, since they came all the way here to find me, I think I should just acc them.

So in the end, I woke up at 5+am, and took a cab home at abt 6am. Reached home at abt 7am and continue sleeping till 10am.

Another stupid thing I did: As my phone spoiled (the screen has got no lights so I cant see what is on the screen) and Hans lend me his. But it was a PDA phone =BIG and my pocket is very tiny winy small so I wanted to change it with YuHong (he want that PDA Phone as it can hold 2 SIM card)

Took the bus for the first time with kim and it took us 40mins to reach his house. Had our lunch and I need to go back to work again (which is another 40mins ride back) Thought that I would be late but in the end, cherry called to ask me to ‘take my time’. SO in the end, I was 15mins late.. opps.

My first event!!!

Reached there, she told me the schedule for the event for ThyssenKrupp and then.. she said ‘actually I also duno you come so early for wat coz I got nothing for you to do’
OMGOMGOMG!!!! I think I am still not getting wat is my job scope!!

Got back our passport form HR so that we can book a hotel when we were at HangZhou during the Golden week-China national day week. And it was a Saturday so I was lucky enough to see one of the HR staff to help me take my passport.

Had a short meeting/briefing with all the banquet stuffs and cherry toured me around the 2 event halls. One for Fifa women at grand ballroom and the other was for ThyssenKrupp in China Hall.

Had my dinner with Joanna and by the time I went back to the ballroom, it was cocktail already. Cherry told me to walk around to see if anyone needs help, etc.. But in the end, I was just practically standing there doing nothing.

Then it was the gala dinner. There was quite a few incident that happen during the event which gave me a few perception of people:

People tend to just listen to what they want to hear, assume and predict the meaning and ignoring the rest.

What happen was that there was this angmoh guy that came out to me and told me that he was feeling uncomfortable cox the fan was blowing at him. When I asked if he was feeling cold, he is no but it’s the fan that makes him uncomfortable so he wants us to change the direction of the fan. (Which cannot be done unless the air-con is switched off)

The organizer saw it and asked me what happen. And before I can finish saying the situation, they kept on assuming what the guest wants. So, after assuming that the guest is just cold, they went to lower the air-con temperature. So after a while, the guest came out the second time to complain. And then the 3rd time he came out; he started getting agitated and demand the air-con to be off. They were left with no choice but to switched off the air-con.

Some people ignores the feeling of others in order.

One of the organizer/guest was feeling quite cold and while one of the staff was taking a scarf for her, Cherry asked me to take off my suit for the guest and go to one of the meeting rooms to rest for awhile until the scarf is here.

In the end, I didn’t lend her coz I said that it’s going to be weird if I take off the suit there or if I go to the meeting room to take off, who is going to bring it to the guest (well, dun expect me to walk around without my suit off right?) and by the time I reached the meeting room, the scarf might already be there.

Well, somehow this 2 incident give me a perception of people. Some people might be just too eager to solve problems that they just whack in any solution before knowing the whole situation and some ppl might ignore the feelings of others in order to get things done.

Well, after the event at abt 2230, I went over to Yi Café to find Joanne cox she was working afternoon shift too. But in the end, I waited for her for 2hours till 0030 before she ended her work..

OMG!!! So freaking tired and I still duno if I am going over to Hangzhou over the Golden week.

After MIAing so long =)

2007-10-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

Okie, I haven being blogging for a super long time and I decided to be determine to continue on my daily blog if possible… so,

20th day in shanghai (19/09/07)
Okie, so when we woke up in the morning at about 6 +am, it was like ‘fine and sunny day’. There wasn’t even any sight of clouds in the sky.

So we decided to call Hans and ask him not to fetch us to work. Coz we can all slp for another 1hour plus. I feel so damn thick skin then…

Reached the hotel for breakfast, we saw him and all of us were like super embarrassed.

It’s the 3rd day of orientation and there was a test for us to complete at the end of the day. Everything taught by them for the past 3 days will be tested and we got to get 80% correct before passing it…

So, during lesson that day, we were given a chinese booklet and we were supposed to fill up some blanks in it. It wasn’t very interesting and all of us just fill in the blanks to keep ourselves awake.

So, after lunch, the speaker taught finished everything and gave us some time to revise through. All the chinese staffs were like damn hardworking studying for the test while all the 7 of us plus the Australian guy either talked or slept in class.

But well, anyway, we have got 8 brains to think and do the qn tgt.. so y worry =)

Then it was the test. The paper was still in Chinese but we can ask them to help us translate or explain the question. The questions asked are actually quite stupid. Questions like how many levels are there in the hotel, who is the founder of this hotel, the history of the hotel and stuff..

The lucky thing was most of the qn are either multiple-choice or true/false and we can write in English for those short-sentence qn.

Anyway, I think we got like 100% for the test coz it was actually quite easy.
After the test was a tour around the hotel and we manage to skip it coz we have toured the hotel like 3 times already…

Headed to the laundry after we ended coz Kim, Yu Hong and I need to change our uniform.
WHY???
Coz we will be transferred to event concierge and we need to wear SUITS!!!

The happy things is not really abt wearing suit but going into a department that I am interested in.. EVENTS.

So, when we reached the laundry and tried out the clothes, the manager wasn’t really cooperating with us.

After trying on to our new attire, all of us were not very happy with it. It’s either the sleeves are too short, the skirt and pants are too tight or the pants is too long.

When we asked the manager if we can change our bottoms/top, she said that she dun have anymore extra clothing for us. I presumed that she didn’t want us to change as she didn’t want things to be so troublesome and asked us to bear with it until we get our new attire.

Apparently the suits that she gave us belongs to someone else coz their suits are all custom made and therefore, there wouldn’t be any extra one or what-so-ever.

We gave the manager a few solutions on how she can help us make our attire more comfortable and she said something like ‘I am speaking normal chinese. Cant you guys understand?’
All of us got so damn angry that Yuhong went to call our manager and told him that the laundry manager was giving us a hard time.

Not long later, a phone rang and the manger was called up to meet someone, which apparently is my manager.

The moment she came down, she allow us to change into something we are comfortable with =) we won the war.. haha

Once we were done, went to our zheng da guang chang to wait for joanne and Angela to finish their dinner in the staff canteen before going home tgt.. (we ate burger king =))

So in the windy and rainy night, we decided to walk all the way back home (we missed the shelter bus and wanted to save some money from taking the cab plus our landlord is waiting for us so we cant afford to wait for the next bus or wait for the rain to stop)

Got home and my whole leg was WET!!

Reached home, watched Dr Doolittle 3 and I fell asleep half way through.

I wonder what I will be doing tmr.. hmmm

21st day in Shanghai (20/09/07)
Today didn’t start off good=(

I FORGOT TO BRING MY LOCKER KEY!!! AND I GOT TO PAY RMB 20 TO HR SO THAT THEY CAN LEND ME THE SPARE ONE… BOO!!!

And when I went into the locker room, I realized that the key I borrowed was wrong and I have to go back HR to change it..

All this made me miss my breakfast!!! BOO

Work was supposed to start at 9am in the morning at the event concierge counter reporting to our manager, EHui and asst manager, Cherry.

But they were late so we decided to go to QingDao Ting, the mooncake room to look for people to chit chat with.

So, meet with with cherry and all we did for the whole day was quite simple;
Cherry toured us around all the function rooms and ballrooms, to allow us to locate the rooms and know the function of each room. By the time she finish touring and explain some things to us, it was already 11am and both Kim and I were super tired coz we skipped breakfast.
Had our lunch and after that, Cherry gave us some time to snap photos around the function rooms.

So when we took the lift, we saw our HR manager and she told us that she is meeting our lecturer, Mrs Tan and BA’s directors. (We know that they were coming but didn’t know what time coz we didn’t have their china no and couldn’t contact them.. it’s so coincident to meet our HR manager in the lift)

Met up with them, chatted for a while and we told them we need to go back to work. We headed to the function rooms and on the way, we walked past Yi Café and saw Angela there. So we started telling her that the Mrs Tan and the directors were her.

At the same time, the HR manager and the 3 guest appeared and our training manager happened to walk pass.

There was like a small little gathering just outside the door of Yi Café. Then we went to asked Nick and Gabriel out so that we can all take a group photo with the Managers.

After the mini gathering, we went back to work; snapping photos and reported back to our New Manager. Told him that our lecturer was here and we went over to Yi café to look for them again.

After meeting them, we went down to banquet office and he took out some files for us to read. Some ‘banquet bible’ that we were supposed to read finish in 1 hour.
Our manager left for lunch while we went to ‘study’

After an hour, they asked the 3 of us to follow them to the outdoor catering site.

It was like an excursion to us. We took a coach out, sat by the window side, feeling so excited…
The site was at a museum and it’s some successful business award event.

Went there and I think we learned/applied a lot of things. Things that were taught during CEM in year 2 were applied there. How things were planned and schedules, how things were organized, how manpower has being deployed.

Although I worked in banquet before, I wasn’t given a chance to view things the way I am able to view now. I am viewing things as the planner, as the organizer now. It’s quite cool.
We toured around the place for awhile before cabbed back to the hotel with Cherry. Reached back at 4pm and ended work =)

Since we were meeting Mrs Tan and the directors for dinner, we were still very early and decided to go to in-house dining to slack for awhile.

Planned to stay there for ‘awhile’ but ended up chatting for an hour plus there. Met up with the rest and headed to Puxi to some chinese restaurant in some high-end shopping mall for dinner.

Both the dinner and the company was great. It’s just a few weeks in shanghai and we have like got endless things to update them; lots of experience, incidents, stories, etc…. Dinner lasted till 10pm.

After dinner was to Xin Tian Di. Calling for a cab was quite terrible there. We either got cabs that doesn’t want to fetch 5 customers, cabs that don’t stop for you, meet cab snatcher and many more…

After a lot of cabs went pass us, we finally manage to get a cab. By the time we got there, it was near 11pm already.

And that place is totally no fun.. I dun understand why it was a recommended place to pub/club. The place is actually quite boring (at least me)

Thou it’s not that fun, we managed to stay there till 1.30am in the morning. Cabbed back home and yuhong and jieying stayed over our apartment.. coz both of them got no keys to go home..
Washed up and headed straight to bed… Everyone got to wake up early coz all of us are working in the moring!!!

22nd day in Shanghai (21/09/07)
It was the last day of Orientation and it was about some food hygiene and safety lessons. It was so super boring coz most of it I had already learned in my f&b module in year 2.

So after the whole lesson, we got to take this chinese test before I complete this orientation. And in order to pass, I need to get at least 80% or more.

The speaker seems quite fierce and all of us didn’t dare to talk/joke to each other. But apparently he isn’t as fierce and strict as we thought he was.

The whole lesson lasted for about 2+hour an d we went for our lunch. After lunch, we have like got 2 hours to revise on the test ourselves and none of the 7 of us bothered..

During lunch, we went over to the mooncake room as we need to help Mrs Tan buy some mooncake and Kim wanted to buy some too.

The test was not easy, but it was a open book test. He wrote the question on a mahjong paper and gave us white paper to write our answer . And I think all of us got 100 marks for this paper too?

we all wrote in English with like messy handwriting so hopefully he can understand what we were writing about.

After the test, we were all dismissed and we went to collect the mooncakes. After collecting, went to in-room dining to slack and chat with the people there till about 6+pm before going home. (At the start, we wanted to go home earlier but now, we want to stay longer to chat with the people. Hmmm)

Walked back home and tried out beef noodle in a small restaurant. I got quite pissed off with the waiter there coz when I asked for recommendation, he wanted to say every single thing from the menu. What he did was like flipping the menu page by page, telling me what is in the menu..
And what I asked for was RECOMMENDATION!!!

Went home and headed to Jia Der Li to buy mineral water, some chip, broom and dustpan.
It’s off day tmr. Like finally!! After 10 days of work!!!

23rd day in Shanghai (22/09/07)
It’s my off day and I am still waking up so early in the morning.. WHY???

Coz we plan to go huanghe rd to eat their famous jia jia tang bao =). And if we go late, we might end up queuing up for very long or it might even be sold out.

So, we met up Yu Hong at 10am at ren ming guang chang. By the time we met up, it was 10.15am and we headed off to that place. Reached at about 10.30am and we were lucky that the queue wasn’t that long yet.

The xiao long bao there is nice.. I think can fight with the one at tanjong pagar;chinese pizza. Compared to many other that I have ate, it is really one of the better one.

After the meal was to Qipu Rd =) for more shopping. And we decided to walk there.
And our dear Joanne was damn cute. She didn’t know how to read a map. She dun even know the use of a compass haha.. the conversation started when YuHong say that it will be better if we have a compass.

‘why need a compass?’
‘it will be easier to read a map.if not it’s quite hard to read it’
‘Y hard to read?’
‘coz you need to locate your direction first before you can find your desitnation’
‘how do you locate? As in how the compass knows where is north?’
‘then where is north now?’
‘in front’
‘why?’
‘coz I am facing the front.’

OMGOMGOMG.. she is just damn cute pls.. so in wat ever direction she is facing, she is facing north..

So we started teaching her how to read a map and she lead us all the way to Qipu rd.

We did some shopping although my mood wasn’t really there at first. *to prevent this, never to shop for bags and shoes first.. always start off with clothes!!!

Headed to the clothing area and when the mood is coming, Kim got to go and meet Jun Wei in the Airport.

Took the train home tgt and Joanna, Jie Ying, Yu Hong and I meet up with Hans for dinner at the museum-the place we went for excursion.

Had our dinner at one of the café and heard from him that some of the stores in Xiang Yang Jie were moved to that place so we decided go there and take a look.

Quite a disappointment thou.. I still prefer my Qipu =)

After shopping around w/o buying anything, we decided to go to somewhere to chill out and play cards. Went to Da Mu Zhi Guang Chang and found a nice pub.

We stayed there for like freaking long, from 8+pm to 1+am I think. All we did was playing cards and true and dare.

Quite a fun night with them. Yu Hong came over to our hse again coz I think he dun have his key with him. And poor Joanne got morning shift the next day.

By the time we washed up, look at photos, etc, it was 4+ in the morning. Went to bed and I think I sub consciously continue taking to them, haha

24th day in Shanghai (23/09/07)
I practically slacked at home the whole day!!

Woke up by Yuhong and Kim’s laughter at 9+am in the morning and I have totally no plans for the day,

Wanted to eat Sheng Jian Bao at Wu Jiang Rd but I think time was quite rush. I want to do some house work, Yuhong going home to wash his clothes, kim going out with her friend and Angela to the Church.

So in the end, I am alone in the house watching my HK series show.. And my lunch for today was a pack of lays, ¾ of a mooncake and a few cookies…

What I did was wash my clothes, slp the floor, watch the tv and watched till I fell asleep. OMG!!! I love just days!!!

But I got to bath and get ready for the dinner with the other OIAP students and some study trips students that are here in shanghai and the lecturers and directors at 5pm. So I got myself ready at 3+pm, took a cab down with jieying to meet up the rest of them first.

The dinner wasn’t too bad. The food was okie but the company was..er… abit dull. After dinner was back home again and I started watching coffee prince (fell asleep half way through)

Got myself washed up and was ready for bed when sis called for a chat… Then Gina msg me and I called her back..

Finally, I know where she is!!! IN CHINA!!! YAY so I am going to see her on the 26-28 of sept!!!!

At least I know that she is still fine is China coz I lost contact with her ever since my internet went missing.

Chatted with her for quite some time and the phone suddenly cut off… Called back to check my phone value and realized it’s negative 13+++.. OPPS!!!

Cant wait to see her on the 27th sept and which friend she came with =)

25th day in Shanghai (24/09/07)

Woke up at 7.30am without Kim waking me up (coz she is not at home.. hmmm)
Got myself ready and went to woke alone. This is the first time in the 3 weeks I went to work alone.

Had my breakfast in the canteen and was to work.

It was the 2nd/3rd day of my training in event concierge and there wasn’t many things for us to do.

Cherry bought us to some of the event rooms that are setting up for the later event. One of the events was some official government and business partner meeting.

Meeting was in China Hall with 450 guest and I think it’s quite a big event coz a lot of sales, event and banquet managers are up there in the event organizing it. Some of the clients are quite old and can be quite hard to handle.

One of my managers told us that never to offend Chinese officials’ coz you will never know how much impact they can make on the company or any other country’s economy. Imagine the amt of $$$ you can dig out from there…

So, after viewing the event set up, we went back to the office and Cherry started planning our off-day for this week and the golden week while we went for our lunch.

On the way for lunch, we went to look for Mrs Tan and the directors as they wanted to meet up with our F&B director. And I think we dun really have a very good feedback ???

Back to the office after lunch and Cherry told us our off days. Off days are from 28th sept to 5th of Oct. 8 days of holiday seems COOL huh.. but I think it’s very good coz it’s during the Golden week.. And if we go out during that week, it’s going to be super duper crowded.

So we are planning to go over to Hangzhou from the 29th-2nd Oct. Hopefully, it is still not that crowded when we go there.

Then we had a meeting on HACCP, sth on how to prevent more damage to the hotel property. The speaker was the EAM of F&B (biggest in F&B dept) and although the talk wasn’t that boring, I was so tired that I almost fell asleep… and I was sitting at the first row…

It was after the meeting when the asst director-in charge of banqueting came in to elaborate on some points that was funny and kept me awake. The way he talk and his actions are just damn funny…

So after the meeting, it was 4+pm and Cherry went for ‘lunch’ and she got a meeting at 5pm. Which means that we got no in-charge already + there is nothing to do already.

Went over to In-hse (again) and chatting/argue with Hans. And he called Cherry if we can leave first coz he wants Yuhong to accompany him to buy a new camera.
(Apparently he was stupid enough to drop his camera into the river.. while figuring out how to change to camera lens or sth..)

Went to this place that look like Sim Lim/Funan but he couldn’t decide his mind on which camera so we decided to go for dinner. I was so super hungry already at that time.

Went to Wu Jiang Rd to try out Sheng Jian Bao and it was NICE!!!!

It was pan-fried and they added some sesame on top of it I think. There is soup/gravy in the bao itself. It’s like a fried version of xiao long bao. Who ever comes and find me in Shanghai I will definitely bring him/her go to that place =)

We ‘da bao’ it and went to a nearby restaurant to order small other dishes.. All of us couldn’t finish the food and we were so damn FULL!!!

Went to the shop that Hans did his tattoo coz he wants to amend his (the color starts to fade off after 2 weeks)

He didn’t amend in the end coz the person told him that his skin hasn’t fully recovered and need to wait till next week.

Didn’t know where to go after that and he drove us back home…

Went to buy my top up card first and I asked the uncle to top up my card first before I gave him the money. =)

Last day in In-house dining

2007-09-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

17th day in Shanghai (16/09/07)

Today is the last day in in-house dining. And it’s my busiest day since I started working… *by the way, I ate 饺子again for breakfast =)

WHY???

Cox Kim, Yu Hong and I were called over to help out in packing mooncakes by pacing all the boxes into the paper bags..

We went over to the room at about 10am and not long before we realized, it was 11.30am already. It was very fun coz we crapped and joked a lot.

Joanna called to ask if we wanna have lunch with her. Met her up at 12nn and went back to the room to continue packing…

After a while, one bad thing happen (where I tot it would be good at first).

The supervisor asked kim and I to go down to the finance office to do some stamping on the mooncakes’ voucher, to indicate that the voucher can be redeemed.

So, I tot that it would an easy job for us coz it’s just stamping… BUT, there is like a whole box of few hundreds vouchers for us to stamp!!!!

We stayed there like 1 hour plus stamping the vouchers with no air-con. And my whole hand was like breaking off and it was so super boring!!!

After finishing one box of voucher, the person told us that there was another box of it.. I was like ‘forget it, I am not going do it man’.. And she told us to call another 2 other stuffs to do it.

But in the end, we couldn’t get anyone up and (NO, I AM NOT GOING TO DO IT!!!) we just couldn’t be bothered to tell them. Opps…

Continue packing the mooncakes until abt 5pm before we end work.. Today ended super quickly and fast =)

Headed to 正大广场 for dinner coz both Kim and I cant stand the food in the canteen already… Yes, I know that it’s like the end of the 2nd week only……And I got another 5 months to go!!!!

Had Pizza Hut and we ordered super supreme but It’s not as nice as the one in Singapore =)

Went to lotus and finally, I bought some fruits for myself =)

The next week is going to be orientation (yea, only after 2 weeks of work, it's orientation) followed by another week of banquet training...

And Gina is confirm coming on the 28th sept.. YAY!!! i am going to bring her to Yi Cafe for buffet lunch =) cant wait for her to come =)

Waste of time???

2007-09-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

15th day in Shanghai (14/09/07)

As usual, work doesn’t seems like work coz we are still not doing anything much.

And since it’s the last few days we are in in-house dining, we decided to take some photos related to in-house dining. Went to the laundry, the stewarding, etc…

(we were using our manager’s camera and planned to use Yu Hong’s SLR cam the next day coz the quality will be better =))

After work, meet up Jie Ying to go gourmet, a bakery in the hotel I am working in to buy some breads (the breads are damn big and nice. And they are all damn cheap!!! It cost only RMB10 for one and it will be of half price after 6pm.)

After that, it was to our apartment for some gossiping/chatting/chilling session. Chatted till 12+am and poor Yu Hong got to take a cab home himself ( which cost him RMB40 for a 30 mins ride)

16th day in Shanghai (15/09/07)

Woke up in the morning with a very bad sore throat =(

Today is another day of ‘doing nothing at work’.

I am getting pissed with myself of being so useless (not learning anything) and wasting my time there. Haha

I so can’t wait to go banquet as the event ‘coordinator’/ ‘communicator’. It is going to be tough, but at least I am doing something more meaningful and I can learn and gain experience from it..

I just feel that I have wasted 2 weeks of my attachment here…

Anyway, went for food message again =) and ate 饺子for dinner again =) (I had it for breakfast too)

Finally got into contact with Karen and webcam with her =) glad that she is doing fine and we are all doing well.

Tomorrow is going to be the last day of work in in-house dining. Next week is going to be another week of training for I duno what HR program. The following week will be orientation cum training for banqueting and my first month of attachment is gone..

Time is passing so quickly…

*I duno if it is good or bad.. But I just feel that I dun like it…

Change of job!!!!!

2007-09-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

14th day in Shanghai (13/09/07)

It’s the end of the 2nd week here. And as usual, woke up at 0730 today to get ready for work.

Had breakfast and continue slacking when we got to the department.

After slacking for 2-3 hours, it’s lunch time. Went for lunch and got back to the dept to help clear up some stuffs.

Next, Kim and I went for this make up training that was lectured by this China lady. This is like my 3rd make up lesson in my 3 years in poly. And this time, everything is in chinese.

The lady was quite nice and friendly but I just got too tired (everything that she taught, I know it).

Decided to go to the washroom to wash up but ended up celebrating my manager’s birthday.
What happened was that today was my manager’s birthday and he is involved in some training lesson.

And so when both kim and I reached the washroom door, which was just in front of the employees’ lift, all the in-house dining people came out of the lift with trolleys filled with plates of foods and a cake.

They planned to give him a surprise and we just coincidently saw them on the way. So, we followed them into the training room and celebrated his mini birthday party tgt.

By the time we are done, it was more then 15mins already and both Kim and I were planning not to go back to the make up lesson. (but her HP and my keys are inside the room so we dun really have a choice. Plus, even if we dun go back, there is nothing to do in the department)

Went back to In-house dining department and they said that Alan-the 2nd man in F&B dept, wants to talk to Kim, Yu hong and I. (We all guessed that the reason he wanted to see us is because he wants us to be in banqueting.)

Went to look for him and he started asking us abt our work in in-house and did we learn anything…blar blar blar…

So.. after the long conversation with him (dun wanna go into detail coz there isn’t anything much too), it is confirmed that all the 3 of us will be going to banquet.

HOWEVER, we are not going to do waitressing but ‘coordinators’ between the guest/organization and the hotel.

This may seem fun coz basically our job scope is that each of us will be assigned to different events, and for each event, we are to communicate between the guest request and the hotel (and sometimes, we got to be translator!!! Hope I dun fail!!!)

So from next Monday onwards, I will be having another 5 days of training and then my attachment will OFFICIALLY START. =)

And yea, I can view blogs already =) thanks to KELVIN!!!!!

Becoming a translator!!!

2007-09-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

12th day in Shanghai (11/09/07)

Another day to settle all our apartment stuffs.

Woke up at 9+ am coz someone was here to fix the washing machine after which kim, Joanna and I started watching Perfect Stranger. Not too bad a show…

After watching the show, it was near 12nn and we started sweeping and mopping the floor, washing some other bed sheets and clearing up all other stuffs.

By the time we were done, it was near 2 pm when the landlord came and helped us settle some internet stuff.

Decided to go for a hair cut and asked the landlord if WenFeng is good, he said that that was the worst salon he ever seen (opps, although I thnk it’s not bad already..). The hair cut isn’t that nice and it’s expensive plus the workers are mainly students/interns.

So he brought us to another shop (just opposite my block) which he said was recommended by his friend. Hair cut there is only RMB25 (wenfeng’s is RMB50). Tried it out and yup, think it’s not bad =)

After the haircut both Kim and I went over to some shopping area (I think is NanQuan rd) in hope to buy some stuff for our accommodation (clothes rack, floor mat, basket, etc…)

In the end, we only managed to get 2 things from the road side stores; a box to put my make up and a basket to put our dirty clothes in it. Plus duplicate our main door keys

Decided to cab down to Lotus ( a place like Giant) at ‘Zheng Da Guan Chang’ to get rest of the stuffs plus more junk food. (Forgot abt the keys!!!)

Cabbed back home to put down all our stuffs and headed to buy Kim’s bolster and exchange a pillow cover and to get our keys back!!! On the way there, there were a lot of road side stores and we started shopping around there. Kim and Joanna got themselves new branded wallets (hmmm). And Kim and I got some pretty umbrellas (rainbow color =))

Went to collect our duplicated keys and headed back home. Kim and I decided to get some dumplings (just beside my block) for dinner and it tasted not bad (but we had took away so all the skins stick tgt by the time I reached home and start eating…)

After dinner was settling money stuffs again and OMG!!! I realize that we have been spending quite a lot on this hse (although split by 4 of us) and I thnk there are quite a number of things that we wouldn’t bring it back to Singapore.

Watched Fido at night and that show was BORING!!!!

13th day in Shanghai (12/09/07)

Work finally started after 4 days of off-days…(this 4 days has past so quickly!!!! Coz of the new hse!!!!)

Work up at 6am and it was so super bright outside. I thought that I was so super late that I jumped up of bed and stretched out for Kim’s HP. But my hand was too short that I dropped it… OPPS!!!

Had our breakfast before reporting for work. Reached the work place at 9am and continue to rot as usual… And when it was only 10.30-11am, the asst manager asked us if we wanted to go for our lunch.. OMG!!! There is really nothing for us to do!!!

Went for lunch at 11.30am and when we went back, one of the staff asked us to help her typed an email..

FINALLY WE ARE NEEDED… OF GOOD USE!!!!!
We became TRANSLATOR!!

The lady told us about the entire story in chinese and we would translate it to English and typed it out in the email.

After which, the manger came in and asked us to help him typed out emails. We translated about 5 or more emails I think.

I am so so glad that we are bilingual and we are able to understand both languages well enough.

It’s so cool helping the manger typed his email as we are the ones getting first hand information too. And I think that he is quite amazed too.. He said something like ‘Now I know that you guys are not paid that highly for nothing..'

After typing all the emails, it was a meeting for all the in-house staffs and all issues are regarding the emails that we typed.

Hopefully for the next 2½ months, this will be our job scope; translator!!!

And my chinese is not that bad!!!! I am able to understand 90% of the things that they said and I dun really have a problem translating.. =)

Finally got my apartment settled!!!

2007-09-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

9th day in shanghai (08/09/07) The day of adventure

Accommodation settled =)

Gonna be neighbors of chang fang and Jie ying.

So, in order to save some motel money (coz we can only move in either on Sunday or Monday, which means that we got to spend more money on the motel over the weekend), we decided to move Into Chang fang’s apartment for a day or 2.(she got this freaking small room available)

So early in the morning 9am (we got to check out by 12nn), the girls started packing up their luggage. What most of us did was putting all our moisturizers and toiletries into one big plastic bag so that our luggage wouldn’t be that heavy.

After everyone finished packing, our average no. of bags to lug over to the apartment was 4-5;

Kim got her handbag, a big luggage, 2 medium size plastic bags and her laptop

Joanne got her handbag, a big luggage (those hard cover type where she couldn’t put her hand luggage on top of it), a big hand luggage and a medium size plastic bag

Angela got her big handbag, a big luggage, and a 5L mineral water to carry.

I got my hand bag, a big luggage and a big hand luggage and my laptop.

So, the mission started the moment we leave our hotel room. We waited for a lift with no one inside, and then squeezed all our stuffs into the empty lift. The moment we reached the lobby, I could see eyes staring at us.

Checked out, and the mission officially started. As the apartment is very near our motel (abt 200m away) we decided to walked all the way to save some money and we doubt any taxi would want to drive us too.

We didn’t want to trouble the guys for help (they live super far away) so we did everything ourselves. We were like ‘okie, today we are going to be superwomen. Independent girls dun have to depend on guys and yada.’ (yea, lugged all our luggage down the road at 10am in the morning)

So how things go was like we lugged our stuff in one row, me being the first and kim was the second followed by angela and joanne. And after 5m, Ms kim said that she was tired already..

The entire trip was dam funny. We keep laughing and joking. Super tiring but fun.

Reached the apartment and that wasn’t the end. We got like 5 storey high of stairs to climb.

So, all the pitiful girls started carrying all their barang barangs up slowly. It has being like super long ago since I did hard labour. Super tiring and we were all sweating like hell….

Reached the apartment and most of us were drained out. Angela went back to WenFeng for a hair cut and the rest of us decided to have lunch at McDonald (not craving for Singapore food but western food haha) but ended up in KFC..

Met up with angela again and off we go, the 2nd shopping trip =)

Back down to Qipu road. We boarded the taxi the uncle said that it would be better to take a train down coz there will be a jam somewhere along the way.

So we decided to follow what he said and took the first train ride in Shanghai (which means that I have either being taking cab or walking for that past 7 days in shanghai). Reached Nanjing north station and got to walk like 10-15 mins.

So, our plan was that since we took a train down, we will take a cab back home.

Reached Qipu Rd and this time, we went to the correct one; Lots of things, lots of people. Unlike the previous one with limited people and stuffs. All of us did crazy shopping there (coz we know a new strategy of bargaining, haha wanna know? Go shopping with me the next time =))

And with the whole lots of stuffs, which was like 1 super big bag full of shoes (10 shoes I think) and 3 other super big bags of clothes (about 30 of them), we decided to go back home (not because we are done, coz we all have no $$ with us already. Hah. I think if I go back a few more times, I will just spend my entire earnings there..)

Tried to hail for cab but there dun seems to have any and we decided to walk all the way back to Nanjing north rd (Which was like another lugging of stuff, and this time, much further) to meet up jie ying for her to pass me the keys.

Got the keys and we got to go to the main road to call for a cab. This time,, another joke happen. We saw a cab that was empty and joanne started running towards it. And suddenly, her big plastic bag full of clothes broke and all the clothes start falling off.

She and kim started screaming and laughing. It was real damn funny. And the cab obviously was taken by someone else already. All of us continue laughing so loudly while picking up the clothes that the security guard started staring at us ( I think is the same one we asked for directions earlier in the day)

Finally got a cab and reached the apartment. And we have got like 5 storey high of stairs to climb again… Plus all those big bags it was like crazy.. (but still, cant be compared to the one in the morning)

After putting all the stuffs and everything, we decided to go to the supermarket to buy some cup noodles for dinner (super broke already) and some tidbits. So, climbed down the stairs, went to buy the foods and climbed back up the stairs again…

Had the most adventure today and it was damn fun=)

Starting to like the environment and accompany here. =)

10th day in shanghai

Finally, we have moved into our new apartment.

After waking up at 9.30am in changfang’s small little room because of some loud china people talking super loudly, I slacked in the house blogging and watching DVDs with the rest. We couldn’t really go out of the house as there were some people in the house trying to fix in the internet connection.

And we were so lazy to go out of the hse that we decided to call for delivery. But I think shanghai is just too big that they decided not to deliver it to us coz our place is too far away. So, we called our landlord, mr wang to buy KFC back for us=)

Continue slacking till abt 6pm and after Mr wang confirmed with us that we can move in to the apartment for the night, we headed to Jia Der Li, the supermarket nearby and bought all our necessary stuff; quilt, quilt cover, bed sheets, pillows, detergent, pail and etc…

We got like a lot of things and have to lug everything back to the hse. (we have being lugging things for the past few days.. I so feel like hard labor…)

Chang fang cooked curry for our dinner and there is a price to pay (shall not elaborate coz I will get pissed off again…)

After dinner, we got to carry all our stuffs from jieying’s room into our apartment. Got a hell time doing it and the whole room was like super messy. Decided to pack up everything before going to bed and yea, we spend like hrs cleaning, shifting, transferring, placing, and organizing our things into the ware rope and drawers…

The whole room is so clean now (except of Angela’s cox she is having morning shift later and cant afford to do it with us) and I am so satisfied =)

And it’s 10th sept, 1.19am already!!!

11th day in Shanghai.

3rd day of off-day and we didn’t do anything much too…

Kim, Joanne and I woke up at 10+ am and we realized that all of us were covered with dust/dirt. Maybe coz we didn’t really clean up the room and didn’t wash the bed sheets and the quilt cover so we started cleaning up the entire room. Sweeping, mopping, washing up our clothes (for 3 rounds including our bed sheets and pillow covers).

After clearing up, all of us did our own stuff (watching dvds) while waiting for the landlord to come and settle the curtain, tables, chairs, etc…

Helped up a bit and we went out for less then 2 hours to duplicate the keys, buy some more necessities and back home for dinner (Maggie=()

And finally, I can get to slp comfortably with my winter quilt (although its still quite hot here..)

And I am so glad that my hse is 90% complete. The only thing missing now is the freight and the washing machine.

We even bought a DVD player coz I think we will spend a lot of time washing dvds here.. (coz the DVDs here are like damn cheap. Average one person has already bought like… 4-5 of it?

I thnk I am going to miss this little home badly after 5 months. It’s small but comfy =)

*gonna come out with some house rules. haha

work has started...

2007-09-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

8th day in Shanghai (07/09/07)

Work somehow started officially and somehow, there wasn’t anything for us to do. So early in the morning, our manager told us that the banquet manager needs more staffs and was asking him to realize 3 local staff to them as In-House service got 3 additional staff; kim, yuhong and me.

We were like OMGOMG!!! NO PLEASE!!! Coz banqueting is going to be tiring, tough and our off-days and shifts might all be different. And I had work for banquet before and wanna try out some other departments…

So lucky to have a nice manager, he told them that he couldn’t realize us cox of blar blar blar (some excuses. Haha)

So, today we made ourselves very busy to show that we are needed in In-House service so they wouldn’t want us to change dept again.

But I think we were too efficient that we always finish our work so fast that they got nothing for us to do. (maybe they are just too slow.haha). all we did was clearing away all the dirty cutleries and rubbish on the room-service trolley (those trolley that place the food ordered by the customer for room service) by placing/throwing them into the containers/dustbins, wiping clean the new cutleries and sorting out some recycle paper.. (quite meaningless huh..)

Then one of the staff brought us to the laundry area (we volunteered to go with him so as to kill time =)) and their laundry is damn big.. We applied what was in theory into practical. We see how the staff sorts the cloths, washed them, spin dry them, iron them, dry clean them, store them and etc…

Then it was the spirit lesson again at 3pm. And I think the speaker knows al the 7 of us are Singaporean and we speak English coz the first 6 or 7 questions that he asked, he asked us directly. Haha Maybe he heard us speaking English of something =)

Lucky we didn’t throw our own face coz we got all the ans correct and I think he was quite impressed too..so that’s good.

Had Singaporean sling and it wasn’t that bad after all.. I remembered the first time I drank it was when I was on SIA to Perth… and the drink sucks like hell.. hmm, maybe is the person that made my drink the other time was lousy. This time, Gabriel did it and it was quite nice… (the bar manager said that this Singapore sling was the best he ever had, better then the one he made it himself coz there is a Singapore touch in the drink. LOL how real can it be…)

I think that this lesson is real interesting and useful to me, better then the wine appreciation course I had in school. I get to see how he made/shake the cocktail or stir the martini and stuff.. I so wanna work in the bar!!!

After the lesson was to dinner in canteen and home..

Now my accommodation is abit troublesome…

Is money an issue??? Is money an impt issue?

ONE WEEK IN SHANGHAI!!!

2007-09-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

7th day in shanghai (06/09/07),and it’s the FIRST WEEK here…

Things are still going smoothly=)

So, today we were all deployed to our departments; Kim, Yu Hong and I were to the in-house service where we take room service and stuff (which is like practically doing nothing coz the manager say that with or without us, it wouldn’t make much difference to them even when it is very busy except that our English is better…??) and Angela, Joanne, Gabriel and nick is in Yi Café doing either hostess or as the bar tender.3 months later and we will switch roles =)

And since today was like the official day we start work, we got nothing to do. So the manager just gave us a short tour around the hotel, showing us the different depts in the hotel (like we are some big shots going around where he introduces us to them. Haha)

Saw some interesting things today:

1) This French manager communicating with this chinese manager(who is in his 50s and I think he cant speak and understand English) using their hand gestures and they actually understand wat each other is trying to say. (thou there is this ‘know-a-bit of English manager’ as their interpreter.)

I think this made me realized how lucky we Singaporeans are. We are bilingual and have totally no problem communicating with anyone. We thought that our chinese is bad but almost everyone there say that our chinese is GOOD. (Very few people in china or Asia can speak fluently in both English and chinese)

2) On the way back to the Hotel (I went to wash my hair again.haha) at about 6pm, which is the timing where workers end their work too, I saw this old bus drove and parked at the side of the road. And then, the next moment I know, all the construction workers who were waiting for the bus ran towards it and most of them actually CLIMBED INTO THE BUS THROUGH THE WINDOW as they were so scared that they cant get a seat.

Meet up with Kim’s aunt colleague, uncle albert and another of his friend and they brought 2 of us for some good dinner, some shanghai food.. The food is like SUPER OILY… I shall just upload the photos the next time.. =)

Next was to Xing Tian Di, a place like clark Quay in Singapore. Both of us were like wearing some basic tees and shorts which made us look like super lok pok there.. Went to Ven-Ice for some ice-cream and headed back to the hotel =)

I think my life in shanghai is going to be more and more interesting??? Haha

And most prob my accommodation will be to the new apartment=)

getting use to life in shanghai =)

2007-09-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

5th day in shanghai (04/09/07)

First half of the day was just seating in the training room listening to the training manager (I shall not say the name) telling us all about the history of the hotel, the vision, mission and blar blar blar..we were all so damn tired that all of us almost fell asleep.. (he did say sth about f&b stuff but still, the lecture/training is so damn boring)

After which we had our lunch and then was to an outlet called yi café to see how the service system work. (it wasn’t to much help as all we did was like seeing how the waitress and waiters clearing up the plates and setting up the table.. which I know how to do it since like 4 years ago…)

Both kim and I were partnered tgt and we were told to try clearing up the plates. Haha I think they treated us like really some newbies that knows nothing.. I mean, I remembered the very first time I started working as a waitress in Singapore, on the very first day of work, they just started asking me to clear plate and stuff.. and over here, we were told to SEE how they serve and TRY clearing up the plates… hmmm.. maybe that’s good in a way.

Then it’s the craziest thing that happens. So, what happen was: Yi café is this super big buffet restaurant that sells international food and there are several stations (10 to be exact) that specialize in certain cuisine like there is western station, japan station, desert station, asian station and chinese station. There wasn’t any food tag on each station as the concept was to allow the chief to interact with the guest.

So what the training manager asked us to do was to write on a piece of paper exactly wat each station sells; the food, the ingredients in it, the condiments, the sauce and etc… That was like crazy coz there were so many things and there were a lot of terms that I haven never come across (coz I dun cook at all..) and it’s either most of them don’t understand what I was trying to ask or I don’t understand what they are talking about. (its like I ask them in English coz I have got no idea what’s the chinese word of the item and they would like reply in chinese the ingredients name which I know nuts about it.)

In the end of the day, once the manager said that we can go off as he had a meeting to go, all of us just cant wait to get out of that place..(our legs were like breaking already)

After work was to this feet massage place near out motel.

The service is like damn damn good.LOL. I realized that china service is all very good but obviously got to go to those decent shops. Singapore service standard really can’t be compared to them. I think they are all very sincere (thou yea, they wanna earn our money..but still, the service they provided made me very willing to pay the money.)

Had our dinner at this road side store and when I was going to take my first piece of food, someone said very loudly(in chinese): ‘there is a rat that ran across my legs’. All the girls that heard it screamed and my leg immediately went onto the chair.. This is like so damn scary..my legs was up on the chair for the entire stay there.

And the funny thing was that after the meal, we quickly went out of that shop and as I was thinking to myself that I hope I wont ran into a rat, kim started screaming and holding on to my hand. And I could just took a glance on this small little mouse, kim starting pulling my hand and ran all the way to the end of the street.. that was like damn funny…

Went back to the motel and we actually went the wrong direction.. but anyway, we brought sth along the way =)

6th day in shanghai.

Today wasn’t that bad. The whole day we were practically seating down for lecture or doing some odd jobs.

Went through the homework we did yesterday (the one that we got to note down all the food and ingredients and stuffs) and I think I failed like terribly coz majority of wat the employee told me was like wrong.. I think they just guessed it and bluff me…

Set up the training room (fish bone structure) for this spirit lesson, waited for lesson to start and it was like damn super boring..

So, I am going to know where I am going to work already soon =) It will be either hotel hostess or in house service. So at least I am not clearing plates or what so ever =)

End our day after the lesson and headed back to the motel… reached back by like 6.30pm, the earliest timing ever since we were in shanghai I think.

FIRST DAY OF ATTACHMENT..

2007-09-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

4th day in Shanghai (03/09/07)

But it doesn’t seems like its attachment coz all we did was waiting for someone to entertain us while waiting in the training room, trying out our uniform (banquet uniform for like 3 days only cox that’s the attire for orientation.. we got to change it once we got our confirmed outlet), get toured around all the f&b outlets and the meeting rooms there and it’s time to go home.

All the outlet seems very nice and yummy!!! I so can’t wait for each and every one of our birthday to come so that we can TRY it out at HALF PRICE!!! (all 7 of us are spending our birthdays here!!!!)

And this world can be so freaking small!!! I am in shanghai and I actually saw 2 of my ex so-called boss. Two managers in the hotel are actually from the hotel I used to work in in Singapore (swiss hotel). I think they could recognize me too but we just couldn’t remember each other’d name. GOOD.. get to know more Singaporeans already.. =)

Sis, is Alan and ‘kee wee’ I think. Haha so coincident!!!

After work, we went to ‘zhend da guan chang’ again for dinner. Did our bank account (bank of china) and atm cards(i feel safe now haha) before meeting up with Chang fang and jie ying and had our dinner in this chinese restaurant.. Xiao long bao there wasn’t too bad but I think the skin was too thick.. The one in Singapore selling chinese pizza is still the best =)
Had our desserts in this dessert shop that seems to sell real nice food.. But in the end, it was quite a disappointment!!! =(

Headed to the apartment where Chang Fang and Jie Ying is staying as she said that her neighbor is moving out/renting out his room (he is the landlord and is renovating the room into brand new!!!) Had a look at the room and it’s like perfect.. It’s super near to motel 168, the place I am currently staying. The place is near the hotel, near to the city area, near to the shopping area, near to the shops, just along the road side and best still, the house got a washing machine, stove, internet, sofa bed, queen size bed, air con, tables and a freight.

Well, got to check out the new accommodation (if it is save, fun and etc…) before I deicide to move to that apartment which I think is damn good.. and I can save so much money compared to staying in a hotel.. hostel can be quite fun too. And I so dun wanna miss out any fun!!!

On the way back, Angela wanted to cut her hair and we ended up at this salon that I think is quite well known in Shanghai coz it has got abt 300 branches across.. I ended up washing and drying my hair coz it’s too cheap to resist. Haha it’s like S$4 to wash and dry it, and they did it in such a professional way.. the head massage (abt 15 mins) was damn comfortable and the person that hair dry my hair styled it like I am going out for some fun afterwards when I am actually going back to the hotel to slp…

Cant really remember wat’s that shop name but its so damn near the place that I am currently staying that I think I will be a frequent customer there =)

Getting use to the life here already and I think my chinese is improving. That’s so great=)

First shopping trip =)

2007-09-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

3rd day in Shanghai (02/09/07)

Today is such a great day… WHY???

Coz what we did was SHOPPING!!!!!

So, the day was planned by first walking to the hotel to familiarize ourselves with the area, then down to Qipu rd to check out the place first (so that I can bring Gina and sis there next time) and to Nanjing rd and the bund for some night scenery and views.

So, after walking down to the hotel, we went into the shopping mall beside it called ‘Zheng Da Guan Chang’. Had our lunch there (burger king!!! OMG we are in china eating burger king and not xiao long bao!!!), check out the movie tix (which is surprisingly more expensive compared to Singapore. The English movies are all 70 yuan!!! and the chinese ones are from 35 - 60 yuan) and headed off to Qipu rd.

Met Chang Fang and Jie Ying in the shopping mall itself (the world is so small.. shanghai is so big and we met each other). Maybe there is another alternative for my accommodation =)
Went to Qipu Rd with the intention of just checking out the place coz we wanted to see how that place looks like. Thought that we wouldn’t buy many things but in the end, WOW…. Hahah (u know what I mean =))

Hope that I am getting use to life here already = )

first 2 days... and drained out..

2007-09-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Reached shanghai at 5.55am yesterday and the whole day was damn damn long… Meet up with our host, ying lao shi and she accompanied us for half the day to do some official stuff.

Things that I have gone through on the first day (31/08/07):

-China Eastern airline suck totally
Its like going into a sauna. I was sweating for almost the entire journey.. which coz me not slping throughout the whole night…

-went into the accommodation provided for us
That place sucks like hell. Firstly, it was to carry our super duper big luggage up to the 6th storey high apartment (yea, they dun have lifts and we stayed at the highest floor!!). Reached the small little room meant for the 4 girls- and although it’s a little better then expectation (cox my expectation was like negative already)I still cannot take it; the room stinks of new/old wooden smell, no fan nor air-con, the beds look like thousand of people have slept on it before, the floors were dirty (imagine wearing your shoes into the house and walk around. This is what they do!!

The toilet looks like those in the prison, and I think our room mates were like super dirty (empty bottles were all over the floor.. and its not like one or 2 of it, but 15 or more of it!!!)

And all those were only the apartment itself. The apartment is like a 1 hour bus ride away from the hotel I am working for and the whole place is damn deserted (after alighting the bus, I think there is still a 20-30 mins walk in).. there were no shops (that sells national brand), high rise buildings or wat so ever.. and the apartment that I am staying in seems to be surrounded by a lot of men. And worst still, there wasn’t any lights there at night!!!
It’s so dangerous and insecured!!!

Then it was to the guys apartment which is big, with new bed, nearer to the road/gate with gym and some other facilities I think.. and they stay in the 2nd level.. everything seems so much better there…

-medical check up
Then it was to some medical check-up (the girls were already deciding if we wan to either more in with the guys apartment or to a cheap hotel)

First, they gave us this Chinese form to fill in.. (all 7 of us just suck in Chinese.. ) and as we were filling up the form, we saw things like anus check, liver check, blood test and stuff. All of us (esp the girls) were so freaked out.. ANUS check. What the hell was that.. some of us got too scared and started crying.. and I never have a body check up before!!!!

I was so nervous and stuff (lots of ppl say that china clinics are not very safe to go to) and after a whole mess, we completed all the stations of check up and there is this Chinese test to complete (a 6 plage chinese comprehension) and I think we got to get 100 marks to considered it as passed. All of us didn’t even bother to read the passage. We tried copying from others and getting ying lao shi to do it for us. (she did all 7 of it and so all the papers were of the same ans..)
By that time, all of us were like hungry and stuff and after taking the blood test, my whole went so numb and tired.. I think everyone almost fainted…

-lunch at Shangri-le hotel (still deciding on the hotel.. )
Went to the staff canteen for lunch and food wasn’t that nice.. but I think the canteen is so much better then the ones in Singapore.

We felt like some pola bears coz everyone is starting at us and stuff..Then we started slacking (for 1½ hours) in this training room while waiting for their ‘family event’ to start. All of us just slept in the chairs like no body biz.. until someone entered the room.

Their employee welfare seen quite good.

Then we felt that we were all transparent coz no one is bothering abt us..
Had a short tour around the motel and we continue slacking in the hotel to wait for Linda Xuto settle some stuff for us (confirm going to stay in a hotel already…)
Went to the hotel for check in (4 girls in one bigger room) and I am so so happy with the hotel. I got a proper bed, air con, proper toilet, internet connection, shops around the motel, supermarket nearby. I feel so save here =)

By then, everyone were emotionally and physically drained out…
I cant wait to just slp on the bed. Went back to Shangri-la and the guys were nice enough to go back to the old accommodation and help us bring over all the girls luggage(which is 4 big one and 2 small one). They almost went crazy over it.. coz they lost their way, and had a dirt shirt time finding the apartment. Thank goodness we moved to the hotel….

By the time we settled everything. It seems like a few weeks have gone. Every min seems like days… I just hope that my life here wouldn’t be hell anymore.. day 1 is bad enough…
Had a very late sleep but by the time we head of to bed, my mind went shut immediately once I was on the bed all the way to 12pm the next day.

Second day (01/09/07)
Woke up today at noon and by the time we went out, it was near 2pm already. We spend the day very relaxingly.. All we did was went for lunch, took passport size photo, buy our sim card and IP card and walked around our neighborhood. Had our dinner and headed back to the hotel.. reached back the ,motel at around 8pm..

Tmr will be a day to go some roaming and shopping in shanghai and OIAP will officially start. Just hope that I wouldn’t get hell…

And yea, shanghai stuff are still CHEAP!!!!!

I am going to survive through!!!!!

Preperation

2007-08-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

Exams are over and I have got to prepare all my stuff for OIAP. Coming out with a check list soon so that i can buy the necessary stuffs over. A lot of people are telling me that the products there aren't that good as the one here thou they are of the same brand and stuff.

Certain important documents that need to be done have been done:
-Visa requirement
-Air ticket bought
-registration in MOF
-Company's confirmation letter

Hope that i wouldnt have a lot of things to buy and bring over.

pre-journey

2007-08-21T05:49:00.001-07:00

I have decided to set up this blog so as not to clash with my personal one.

Basically, this blog is set up to update myself, my 5 mths best friend(LO), friends and family about my daily, or weekly life in Shanghai. People that know me should know by now what and why I am doing in shanghai.

So, to prevent myself getting into nonsense trouble, I decided not to state any hotel names or anything related to the hotel itself be it events or activities held in the hotel.

If you know me and understand me well enough, you should know what I am talking about.

If there is a need to really bitch about anything, i will do so personally to the person I need to =)

Attachment will start on the 3rd september till 1st february.

So i wouldnt touch on this blog till then

wish me luck till then...