Greatmall : Part 2

Today, after work, we decided to venture of into the unknown by ourselves with nothing but a car, a map and a whole truck load of gut. Ok, it's Greatmall again but the difference this time is my colleague and I are going by ourselves. The journey there was somewhat smooth. We got there, we found the place..yippee. Shop shop and shop then got ready to get back to the hotel.WE GOT LOST! Somewhere along the way, we saw Lawrence Expressway. That's good, means we are near. So I took the turn but as I drove on...I didn't see anymore signs which says Lawrence Expressway. We started to see Mountain View, El Camino Real and some other street names and finally, we knew we were lost. Oh god..panic started to kick in. We stopped at a Baskin outlet to ask for directions but they didn't know where it was and I thought "Shit, are we so far that they don't even know how to get there??!!" Uh oh. Finally we stopped at a mini market and I went down to ask this guy how to get back. He was like "Lawrence Expressway?? You are very far from there!" I looked at him, dazed. Fortunately, he said the magic words, he was quite well-versed with the directions, which was good for us. Thanks to him, we found our way back and whew..that was close shave from ending up in nowhere land. Yippee!

Visit to Greatmall, Milpitas

Monday morning started off with a BANG! No la...I just thought it sounded nice to say that. It was actually quite cold and then we had breakfast then set off to office. AMD was just less than 5 minutes drive away. My friend took us for lunch at Tofu House along El Camino Real. Their dishes are all tofu (beancurd). It's beancurd in a claypot of different flavours served with rice. I took the seafood beanfurd pot and it was quite delicious and affordable too. Fast forward through the day, we left work and my colleague's brother took us to Greatmall at Milpitas for some good 'ol shopping! That place is full of what we in Penang would refer to as branded outlets. Guess, Levis, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike, Timberland, Dockers and many many more. It was definitely jaw-dropping cheap in comparison to Malaysia. I mean in US, let's assume they make like USD3000 a month for their salary. They only need to spend USD20.00 for a Levi's jeans or USD40.00 for a pair of Guess jeans. We make let's say also RM3000 a month in Malaysia and we have to spend RM300.00 for a pair of Levis or Guess jeans. Absurd isn't it? The cost of living in US (for people who work and live there) is SO LOW. A BMW costs USD50000 in US and it probably cost like RM200000 and above in Malaysia. *gasp* Even vitamins are way cheaper. *snort* Well, the shops close at 9pm and we shopped till 9.01pm and left. To be continued...

San Francisco

In California, we are 16 hours behind Malaysia but somehow I didn't feel the jetlag that people always talk about. I don't know why. I kind of want to know how that feels but I didn't really feel sleepy during the day and awake during the night. It was just normal for me. Today, we went to collect our car at San Jose airport. They gave us a Hyundai Sonata which is quite a powerful car and spacious too. After that, my colleague's brother took us to San Francisco. It was about a 40 minute drive to reach there. The temperature there was much lower that Sunnyvale so we had to wear thicker jackets. One of the place that we stopped over in San Francisco was Lombard Street. It's a really beautiful, curly, curvy and steep street whereby if you look from bottom up, it's simply captivating.

After that, Ivy and I dragged our butts up to the top and to take photos from top down this time. We are just too free! The houses in SF are cute and cosy looking. It's so full of hills there that most roads go up and down..up and down. Such a beautiful view. We also went to see the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz from afar and took a couple of photos amidst the windy weather. During the trip, we stopped over at IHop for some light snacks. It's quite a famous pancake/waffle diner-like place. I say it's famous because it was full to the brim. Later on, we visited the Exploratorium. Not inside. We took some photos of the landscaping there and set off to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Now, that place is hip, hop and happening! So many restaurants, so many people. Very interesting place. As the time ticked away, day turned into night and we set off back to Sunnyvale and to get ready for the next day.

Off to USA

I have to catch my flight at 10.30 am to Singapore and from there to Taipei and finally to San Francisco on business class. To cut the story short, I missed all of that except the Penang-Singapore flight. Not my fault. All SIA's fault. That flight was delayed by an hour and a half. I don't even want to dwell on that matter here because it pisses me off. Anyway, we finally got a flight to San Francisco which transits at Hong Kong. We reach San Francisco at 7pm on 28 October US time of course... :) time travel huh? It's funny when I think of it. An airplane is like a freaking time machine. Well, the one bad thing about this journey is the delay and the fact that we were forced to take economy class on the alternate flight because everything was fully booked. I was so freaking pissed. I argued with shitty ground staff at Penang airport and the only thing they can say is "Oh, you'll have to work this out with the staff in Singapore and they'll arrange something for you". Arrange their ass ok! I got there and i went to the transfer counter and started proclaiming that this is all absurd and I'm not flying economy. Well nothing worked, the only thing they could do was put me on standby for business class. Crap! That's like saying no chance ok? If it's so full, and that they committed that I will get priority standby for business, why is it that another passenger who didn't even insist on getting priority standby be moved to business class when we reached Hong Kong? This is absurd. I was so pissed of at that passenger because he did nothing but stood there and took the freaking credit when I was the one arguing for my business class bookings. By the way, during the flight, I was sitting at the window seat and next to me was my colleague and next to her on the aisle seat was a freaking log. Tree trunk. Pillar...whatever you want to call it. That bitch just sits there and sleeps like a piece of wood. Doesn't budge and the whole 15 hour or so flight, never once did she get up to go to the washroom. I don't know what's going on but I think she's got a gigantic bladder. My colleague and I had to go out a couple of times to walk around and to the washroom and it's so hard waking that tree trunk up. What a bitch! I go to the washroom for a minute or so and I come back and there she is, sleeping again and didn't even have the courtesy to stand up so that I can get in easier. She's a freaking wood with the expression as if her dog just died. Screw her! All Anyway, I reached SFO finally. My friend picked us up and we checked in to the hotel. It was chilly in Sunnyvale. Quite a change but I like it. Later on, we went for supper and finally settled in around midnight. Next day, off to San Francisco for a tour!

Save me from myself

It's been hell of a long time since the end of MBA, yet it was just a month ago. I haven't achieved much truthfully, none of the 'having fun', 'celebrating freedom' or 'feeling light and easy' happened at all. In fact, the past 1 month has been filled with problems and issues right from 1st Oct onwards. I came back from Singapore on 13th Oct after a week there for training. Can't say it was exceptionally fun. It wasn't. A chance to travel is a good thing but if we're travelling on business trips...it ain't fun. It's stressful. I'd prefer to travel on holidays rather than travel on business related ones, coz then we won't be able to fully enjoy it. I'm off to US next week for the first time for 2 whole weeks. I'm kinda excited about it but yet I feel upset and a little down about it because it's a business trip, not a vacation. Speaks for itself. I hate packing, I hate trying to figure out how many clothes to take (too much is too heavy, too little is not enough %#$#@!!!!) These past 2 weeks has been full of rushing and moody blues week and sometimes I just wish I could have a break. Year ends are always hectic times...for some it's hectic partying season, for me, it's times of depression and agony. :) Why moody blues? Maybe overwhelmed by the upcoming US trip and I just wonder when I'll get the chance to just sit in front of the TV and relax. Trust me, I've been sitting in front of the TV for the past month but my mind has been constantly worrying about work. Gosh...I wonder how it would feel like just to take a really long vacation away from it. I can only dream about it.

Anyway, 2 weeks gone from home, half the world away. I'm gonna miss everything about it and everyone. I do hope I can at least enjoy a little bit of the trip, excluding the work related times. Ding, please don't get anymore M fever. :P

food for thought

This article on today's Star newspaper (22 October 2006) under StarMag section, page 5, entitled "You left, We stayed". It's about people who migrate overseas and constantly blabber about how great life is there and indirectly indicating that 'losers' stay on. I like that article. We choose our own lives and we make the best of it. No where is perfect...but in the end, no where is like home. Cheers to the writer!

4 days post-mba

It has been almost a week of sorts. I spent last Saturday afternoon completing my final of all final exams of MBA. Alas! After 21 months, I have closed another chapter of my education life. The next day, I went down to KL for a one day trip and Monday night was a very fun night. I went for a company dinner and my colleagues and I had loads of fun, dance and great music. My Tuesday and Wednesday was usual with nothing much interesting going on except that I can proudly declare that I managed to do 2 things that I wanted to do.

1. I brought out my dusty 5 year old guitar and tried to play something. I guess a few notes from Johnny Cash's Walk The Line was reasonable enough to call an achievement...I mean, despite the fact that I suck at it. Come on! it's not that easy to learn ok!!

2. Finally, applied for an MPH readers club member card. I know...I know, I listed a whole load of crap that I wanted to do in my previous post but I need some time to do that, especially the part which involves cleaning my room. :)