一週間

So almost a week has passed. Time just slips by so fast when you are enjoying it. Although it wasn’t really easy with the course that I was attending here and most of the times I wished it was already over, I’m still quite unwilling to close the chapter.

There’s still about 2 days to go before flying home but I’m feeling all sorts of unwilling.

It seemed just like yesterday when I was still rushing about after getting home from Manila, heading back to the office for a day and then making a mad rush for prepping for the trip. All these will trying to spend some time with family and friends.

Sunday. Arrived in Tokyo feeling utterly tired and instead of getting rested, I dragged my friend to a concert that lasted 4 hours! Spending that kind of time in an arena without much heating is a challenge but the adrenaline helped to keep us warm. Although the aftermath of it, travelling back to the hotel, was when the cold started to bite. And the next morning was when my class started.

I’m glad I came on this trip though, despite if I’d made any progress with the course. I caught a great concert, got to spend some time in one of my favourite cities (which could be a little warmer and better), and got to know 2 new friends!

Right now, I’m actually a little burnt out. Tired, but happy. I fell ill along the way and am still not well, but everything is ok. I shall try to go get some rest for today and continue tomorrow. Goodnight world!

happy new year!

No particular reasons and no specific directions. Back again where I’ve missed. They think I’m crazy or I’ve a frivolous life they would like to envy but probably despise. Yet… why should I even worry about judgments that aren’t important?

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finally!

After much procrastination and much trouble in checking for available stocks at the SingTel shop, I have finally gotten my new phone!

Just before I went off to Manila for work a couple of weeks ago, I was rushing around various shops in town looking for the phone, and because I was going to port my number I was only of course going to the shops of the telco that I wanted to port the number to.

As luck would have it, all the stocks for every single model was sold out that entire weekend so I was really annoyed that to buy a phone I had to go through so much effort. I left Singapore without a new phone.

This weekend, surprisingly I was told by my bro that there were stocks at various of the shops that he passed. And so yesterday I went down to one of them in town and got the phone! Yay.

I know how some friends have already jumped off the Apple bandwagon in favour of other smartphones like the Galaxy S2 or even HTC, those which I would really consider are more sophisticated than the iPhone, but I’m quite resistant to change sometimes. Especially where technology is concerned. As it is, right now I am still trying to get everything in place and it’s already proving to be a little bit of an annoyance. I hope I can get everything sorted out and settled by today because tonight I am going to be off again!

Happy Chinese New Year to all! Have a prosperous year!

I checked my TOTO numbers last night and sadly I wasn’t one of the lucky ones to get any share of that $7m jackpot prize. Oh well, there goes the lofty dreams! Haha.

what makes you happy

Or rather what makes me happy.

This is just really random. Because I have trouble sleeping. Last night being the last day of our work here in Makati, we went out for dinner at this place called Wine Depot. It’s similar in concept to some of the wine places we have in Singapore like Wine Connection and the likes, but this is like a cross between that and maybe Jones the grocer. I really liked it for its chill-out atmosphere and definitely it is more spacious with much lesser tables as compared to where I’ve mentioned above. And the wines they have are affordable too; from what I was told they cost probably 300+ pesos per bottle for those that we had, which equates to about maybe S$10. These were rather good reds too, coming from the colleagues who apparently are quite in touch with wine tastes and the likes. For me, I just take care of drinking them.

Food is very good too, from the baby pork ribs to the buffalo wings to jalapenoes, shrimps and the panna cotta, they were really awesome. We spent a couple of hours there and it was a quiet enough environment to sit and chat without too much noise.

So I got back say around 11pm, showered and started packing amidst web-surfing. Then I wanted to sleep at about 1am but had difficulty falling asleep. Usually I have no problems going to sleep at all, especially after taking alcohol but these few nights I just can’t. I don’t know what time I finally fell asleep but was woken up in the middle of it by some messages on Twitter, and then way before my alarm was set to go off, I was already awake and couldn’t get back to sleep.

Anyhow, back to my post title. While I was languishing in bed just now I was thinking how all of a sudden I felt happy, because I was heading home. That is usually how I feel at the end of a business trip on the night before I was due to fly home, knowing that the next time I awake I’ll just be preparing to go home and not having to go in to the office that day. As much as many people have this perception that I’m the last person you’d think of as homely I do miss home on and off, whether it’s the people or the convenience and familiarity that is home.

So what makes you happy?

Hearing my favourite songs being played unexpectedly. Getting to know new people. Enjoying a aromatic cup of coffee leisurely. Travelling to places that I love such as Tokyo! It doesn’t have to be something epic. Sometimes the smallest things can make me a very happy person. Don’t you think so too?

tinted glasses

It gets frustrating to say the least, or annoying, when the only thing anyone cares about all the time is where I am travelling to next. I know it’s human nature and yes I also have friends who travel for work and I’d ask them too where they are heading and so on, but we talk about other things too.

I know it’s really none of my business if they are going to feel envious but it really is not a bed of roses. The truth is that sometimes it sucks to travel for work. Most times, actually.

Perhaps the impression that most people get about business trips is an image of premium travel and accommodation, a glitzy high life enjoying the best of the most popular cities. That can’t be further from the truth, if you have heard the barrage of complains each time I talk about my job. You’d ask, why then would I want to do it if I really don’t like it that much? Frankly, I don’t have the answer. Or maybe in reality, it’s a job; it’s work that I need to do in order to make a livelihood, and because this was where I’d started out and the (mis)calculated steps that I’d taken after that, I am a little bit stuck if I don’t want to have to make too big changes that won’t throw my other plans out of the window. Don’t we all have issues with our jobs but we still do it anyway?

For the record, I don’t travel on business class, so just go figure how lousy I felt when I had to be on the road for 30 consecutive hours to get to a place so far away that there were no direct flights, and I had to do a stopover followed by a transit before finally arriving when everyone else in the city was fast asleep at 1am. I suffered jetlag and couldn’t work or sleep properly, and when I worked I had to do up to 16-hour days. Travel time usually means burning of whole weekends especially if the cities are further away, meaning that I have to either take a late Saturday night flight or early Sunday flight, and when I return, typically half or the whole of Saturday would be gone. And I don’t stay in fancy hotels. Have you already heard of my experience with a gecko in one of the run-down hotels I stayed at for 2 weeks?

When I got to Makati two Sundays ago, some things screwed up and I was in such a bad mood that I was very rude to the people who were arranging transport. It wasn’t what I did but what I didn’t; I couldn’t even manage a smile at them when they spoke to me but just glared at them all the time for the screw-up that probably wasn’t their fault at all. I felt very bad for that because I’d worked in the service line before and I know how it can make a person’s day to have a nice, polite and friendly customer. But I just couldn’t because when everything seems to go wrong, there are those days I cannot just suck in a deep breath and tell myself that everything is going to be ok.

I have a friend who travels more than I do and I always envy her because she gets to fly business class and stay at good hotels, going to the nice cities that I’d always wanted to go. But we’re always frank with each other so I also know of all the shit that she has to endure in her work, for which I will never wish to be part of. So it is always with a filter that we are seeing someone else’s life and thinking that it is much better than our own. That saying that the grass is always greener on the other side is something that describes a lot of us to the T. We always think that life is better for someone else, but actually we don’t know enough to make a sound judgment.

Maybe this entry comes across as angst-ridden. But it was just something I’d always want to get off my chest somewhat. Fortunately for me, I do have some friends who are interested to know more than “So where are you off to next?”

Thanks guys, love you lots.

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