Touched down in Dhaka half past twelve SG time, or half past ten Dhaka time. A Beximco employee with my name on a placard caught me as I was walking through the aerobridge out of the plane, still within the restricted section! Amazing. key takeaway: flying into a foreign country, get a seat as far forward as possible so as to clear customs first.
Anyway, I got directed to a special queue for diplomats, officials and foreign investors that had a lot fewer people and was able to clear the line pretty fast. In total, from touch down to the hotel took me around1.5 hours!
The room isn't as good as Lakeshore Hotel's room though. Had to stay late to finish something's before knocking off, bed was big as usual for a hotel room. What's in store for my first full day? I've no idea yet haha!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Goodwood Park Hotel
Another wedding post.. Haha!
Meihui is my TJC classmate, whom together with Minqing were my Erjie n Dajie respectively, in reverse order of age haha. I still vaguely remember chatting on IRC with the two of them, arguing on who should be the "da ge" or "da jie".. So long ago!
Anyway, our paths diverged in uni; I had visited them once or twice in the NTU halls while they were staying in, and more or less lost contact when I started SMU. Lo and behold, we ended up in the same firm, though they were in tax and I was in audit.
To cut a long story short, Dajie got married after me, and Erjie was next this year. So happy for both of them, to also have found their life partner!
Here's to a long life together, and family of kids to grow old with!
Meihui is my TJC classmate, whom together with Minqing were my Erjie n Dajie respectively, in reverse order of age haha. I still vaguely remember chatting on IRC with the two of them, arguing on who should be the "da ge" or "da jie".. So long ago!
Anyway, our paths diverged in uni; I had visited them once or twice in the NTU halls while they were staying in, and more or less lost contact when I started SMU. Lo and behold, we ended up in the same firm, though they were in tax and I was in audit.
To cut a long story short, Dajie got married after me, and Erjie was next this year. So happy for both of them, to also have found their life partner!
Here's to a long life together, and family of kids to grow old with!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wee n Joyce
Finally, two of my closest friends got married last Thursday! Had a comedy of errors leading up to the day though..
Firstly, I had gotten the time wrong, and was unaware of it till I mentioned it casually in our joint chat.. That was when I realized that I was an hour early!
That led to mistake no 2 as I had planned for a conference call at 330pm, thinking that I would make it back in time. Lo n behold, the actual start time was 3pm n not 2pm!!
Mistake 3 was then to allow myself to get caught at 230pm, just before I was about to leave for the ROM. My partner spoke to me all they way till 3pm afterwhich I literally threw all that I was carrying onto my table and ran for the taxi stand.
Having faint hopes that I could still catch part of the ceremony, I called Bobby only to realize that they had started early and was now having the photo taking with friends! Zomgggg...
At this point of time, I was wondering if I should just get the uncle to turn around so that I can reach office in time for the conf call. However, I decided to just go down to see them, as I had known both of them, especially Joyce, for the longest time.
It was like the divine timing.. As my cab turned in, they were getting out of the entrance with the well-wishers and family, and I was able to get a photo with them.
That was all I managed to get; they had to go off with their families to wait for the celebratory dinner..
All in all, I spent the following:
Conf call on my Hp (on my way back to office) : $3?
Cab both ways: $20
My charge out rate for the hour away: $270
1 min of meeting them: Priceless
somethings are just worth the cost.
Firstly, I had gotten the time wrong, and was unaware of it till I mentioned it casually in our joint chat.. That was when I realized that I was an hour early!
That led to mistake no 2 as I had planned for a conference call at 330pm, thinking that I would make it back in time. Lo n behold, the actual start time was 3pm n not 2pm!!
Mistake 3 was then to allow myself to get caught at 230pm, just before I was about to leave for the ROM. My partner spoke to me all they way till 3pm afterwhich I literally threw all that I was carrying onto my table and ran for the taxi stand.
Having faint hopes that I could still catch part of the ceremony, I called Bobby only to realize that they had started early and was now having the photo taking with friends! Zomgggg...
At this point of time, I was wondering if I should just get the uncle to turn around so that I can reach office in time for the conf call. However, I decided to just go down to see them, as I had known both of them, especially Joyce, for the longest time.
It was like the divine timing.. As my cab turned in, they were getting out of the entrance with the well-wishers and family, and I was able to get a photo with them.
That was all I managed to get; they had to go off with their families to wait for the celebratory dinner..
All in all, I spent the following:
Conf call on my Hp (on my way back to office) : $3?
Cab both ways: $20
My charge out rate for the hour away: $270
1 min of meeting them: Priceless
somethings are just worth the cost.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Sick Liora
Got a call from home a few days back informing me that liora was struggling with fever, and immediately was thinking about possibilities of dengue as she had just been bitten multiple times two or three days back when we forgot to switch the electric liquid repellant on.
Having had gone though a mild dengue fever late last year, I was praying hard that she will not have it too, and my (preliminary) conclusion after reaching home was that she should be ok, as her fever had already went down. Will just have to keep monitoring over the next few days. Also, she had been having diarrhea so will bring her to e doctor together with the maid in the morning, who is also having some cough issues.
Having sick children is no joke.. Hope it's nothing serious for Li'ora!
Ps.. This post is one week late, she has fully recovered by now lol
Having had gone though a mild dengue fever late last year, I was praying hard that she will not have it too, and my (preliminary) conclusion after reaching home was that she should be ok, as her fever had already went down. Will just have to keep monitoring over the next few days. Also, she had been having diarrhea so will bring her to e doctor together with the maid in the morning, who is also having some cough issues.
Having sick children is no joke.. Hope it's nothing serious for Li'ora!
Ps.. This post is one week late, she has fully recovered by now lol
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Going to Bangladesh
I had the opportunity to go to Bangladesh recently, as part of a two man planning team for a certain job (audit terminology for client). It was really an eye opener as it was one of the few undeveloped countries that I had ever been to.
Surprisingly, SIA has a nightly flight there that was 3/4 full on the way there and fully packed on the return trip. Havent taken SIA since i was 16, so it really was a luxury to take it again. Caught 2 different movies on the way there, and had Hagen Diaz ice cream for dessert lol..
Anyway, don't want to say too much too, here are some photos from my time there.
Also, on the flight back, there was a whole bunch of bangladeshis who looked like foreign workers, and without wanting to sound racist or anything, the foremost thought on my mind was trying to figure how they can afford to fly SIA. Maybe they will be forced to work off the airfare tickets in Sg, like how maids' pay are cut when working for the first few months. All for the sake of a better life!
Surprisingly, SIA has a nightly flight there that was 3/4 full on the way there and fully packed on the return trip. Havent taken SIA since i was 16, so it really was a luxury to take it again. Caught 2 different movies on the way there, and had Hagen Diaz ice cream for dessert lol..
Anyway, don't want to say too much too, here are some photos from my time there.
Also, on the flight back, there was a whole bunch of bangladeshis who looked like foreign workers, and without wanting to sound racist or anything, the foremost thought on my mind was trying to figure how they can afford to fly SIA. Maybe they will be forced to work off the airfare tickets in Sg, like how maids' pay are cut when working for the first few months. All for the sake of a better life!
Monday, September 12, 2011
So many weddings!
Whoa I guess it's that time of life, where the people are me are of the marrying age.. Haha.. We're deluged in so many invitations, close to at least twice a month up to December!
I've also been asked to replace a MC for one of the marriages, so hope I don't blow it for them, haha.. Thinking of some jokes to share during the lunch lol. Maybe the "short joke, long joke" classic? Or something to do with husbands hiding under the bed?
I've also been asked to replace a MC for one of the marriages, so hope I don't blow it for them, haha.. Thinking of some jokes to share during the lunch lol. Maybe the "short joke, long joke" classic? Or something to do with husbands hiding under the bed?
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