100th day in Shanghai

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???

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

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

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

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.