Christmas 2006

Decided to have a quiet christmas this year with my hubby, part of the reason is that his parents are volunteering at the Christmas Festival in Orchard, his niece and nephew were down with chickenpox so we didn't have any celebration together this year.

As we were only back on 20th night, we had to catch up on our christmas shopping so we decided to just go out in a day and grabbed everything. Think this year we spent quite a sum on christmas presents, we bought a DVD recorder for his parents, adidas watches for niece and nephew, guess kids clothes for niece and nephew, disney bags and stuff for niece, sticker maker for another niece, a white gold pendant and mango blouse for sis-in-law and a pierre cardin key pouch for his brother.

On christmas eve, we decided to cook ourselves a christmas dinner. So we bought beef, assorted vegetables, canned soup and mashed potato.

We marinated the 1kg beef overnight and it took us about 36mins to roast the beef and it looks and tastes good. We roast the vegetables consisting of yellow and green peppers, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes. Heat up the soup and made the mashed potato. Results are not bad at all. We even had a 1/2 kg log cake and it tasted good. I ordered from my sister's colleague. Must tell her that it's good.

Cameron Highlands and KL

Hubby and I decided to take a road trip up to Cameron Highlands and KL for our 2006 year end holiday.

We started the day early around 5.40am as it takes 8 hours to go up to Cameron Highlands and that is if you drive non-stop.

The immigration was smooth and soon we were on the north-south highway towards Cameron Highlands. The journey was tiring and I fell asleep like 2 - 3 times along the way. I was responsible for keeping my hubby awake actually..hahaha.

We took the new route via Simpang Pulai to Cameron instead of the old route via Tapah. The roads were narrow and a lot of bends so you need to drive slower on these roads. We made it to the hotel at cameron around 3pm as we stopped a few times for toilet break and just to take some rest and we encountered a slight jam on the way up to our hotel.

The air was wonderful, fresh and clean although its drizzling everyday. Temperature never goes beyond 20deg celsius everyday. We checked into our hotel - Strawberry Park Resort. The room is big, with a common room, a kitchen, a bedroom and a big bathroom but its just not to my liking. I like places which are clean and although its pretty clean, it looked run down and old.

After checking in, we made our way to a town called Tanah Rata for lunch. It was a really small town with a few restaurants. We ate at this Mayflower Chinese restaurant and it was pretty cheap for a soup, veg, beef, fried rice and chinese tea. All these costs us RM30.

Dinner was just marrybrown chicken as we tabao back...had a late lunch so decided to keep the food till later.

We started the next morning with breakfast in the hotel and they served really really lousy breakfast. After that we ventured down to Brinchang area (the opposite side of Tanah Rata) and stopped by several strawberry farms, cactus farms and flower farms. We bought some cactus and several pots of plants.

We also stopped by a reputable tea plantation called Cameron Valley Tea Plantations and bought some packets of tea which costs us about RM70. We went back to the town of Tanah Rata and had some indian food for lunch. We had banana leaf rice and it costs us RM7 per pax. In the evening, we went to another chinese restaurant - Hong Kong Chinese restaurant for steamboat. The steamboat costs us RM17 per pax and it came with fixed items. Good weather to have steamboat.

The next morning, we visited the famous BOH tea plantation and hubby met one of his colleagues there as well. In the BOH tea plantation, we learnt about how tea are made through a factory visit and again we ended up buying more tea and that set us back by about RM120. The BOH tea plantation has a huge land mass and has a cafe that looks over the plantation at the top of the mountain.

After the visit, we checked out of our hotel and drove towards KL. We decided to take the old route (via Tapah) as we were told there are some waterfalls along the way. The old route is definitely more dangerous than the new route as it's really very narrow and more winding than the new route. But we did hit upon a waterfall, not a majestic one but not bad.

We hit the jam at KL about 3.30pm and eventually only reached our Hotel - Novotel Hydro Majestic KL around 5pm. The hotel is really new and although the room is small, everything is just to my liking. I forgot to take pictures of the room. Our hotel room has a view of the Petronas Twin Tower (just one tower though)

After checking in, we went out shopping, as its around dinner time, we went to a chinese restaurant inside sungei wang called esquire kitchen. Been to this chain of restaurant a couple of times, food is not bad.

After that, we went walking around for a bit more before heading back to the hotel. Started the next day late...woke up around 10am and finally dragged our feet to checking out around 11.30am. After checking out, we drove to KLCC and walked around and had lunch at Genki Sushi.

Wanted to buy christmas presents but nothing seem nice and even with Malaysia's year end sale, the prices were not attractive. Eventually left the place around 2.30pm and began our journey back to Singapore. Along the way, we saw some villages got caught in the flood and some children swimming in the flooded water as well. Just like what I always saw from the TV news.

Certain parts of the roads were blocked and were closed due to the flood so instead of a 4 lane road, it became one lane and caused a slight jam. We saw a rainbow on the way back to Singapore too. Finally reached Singapore around 7.30pm after making stops along the way for food and toilet breaks.

Now I am going to plan my next road trip..heehee

BEWARE of the MRT Molester/Flasher

Last weekend my sister and her friend were on a crowded train from orchard to plaza singapura around 6plus in the evening.

There is this guy who came in at the somerset station and was pressing himself against my sister's friend. My sister's friend thinking it was because the train was crowded so didn't really bother with it. As the train approached the station, she turned around and saw the guy with his hand in his pants. Shocked...she flung open his shirt and found him zipping up his pants.

So she started screaming at him but no one came to help stop the guy or whatever and when the train door opened, the guy ran out.
My sister then went to the control station to seek help but was slapped with a "bo-chup" station manager who says he don't know anything and just sat there without doing anything. My sister's friend went after the guy but couldn't find him anywhere.

This is when the gross part came in....my sister's friend found some sticky liquid at the back of her shirt. OMG.

That night, she lodged a report to her police station.

SO LADIES BEWARE!!!! Take notice of the person behind you in the train.

Parfait D'Amour

Dear friends and fellow bloggers,

My sister and I started this online shop that provides wedding gifts and services. As we are still in out infant stage, I would appreciate all kind support and feedback on improvement.

Please do help to pass the message around to friends, colleagues, neighbours, relatives etc if they need any services from us.

I have also attached a promotion leaflet for our opening special.

















Thank you very much. The link to our website is www.parfait-damour.com

My Cute Nephew

Have not seen my little nephew for some time and last sunday my sister-in-law brought him to my in-laws place when we were there.

He used to be very red when he was borned so now it has subsided and looks cuter. That's him with his sister in the pic on the right.

Busy Weekend

Hubby was away for a holiday with his parents and I had the whole weekend to myself.

My weekend started on Friday night where I met up with some of my JC classmates for dinner. It's been a while since we last met and now one of them is pregnant with the second baby.

On saturday morning, I woke up around 10am, I think. I am going for some aerobic classes in town and hoping to beat the ERP at 12pm, i decided to go out earlier but guess what? I made the wrong exit and was stuck in a jam and was hit with the ERP...sianz

I went for my first belly dancing class today, it was quite fun but being the inflexible me, I am still having problem trying to handle the moves.

As I didn't park in the building where the classes are held, I was stuck when it rained after my classes end. Heavy downpour. I was like standing there for a while before deciding to make a dash across the traffic lights to the other building. It was still early for my manicure and pedicure appointment, I decided to walk around and did some shopping. And in the end, I spent another $120 on clothes...heehee

I bought a chicken burger for lunch and thought of eating it in the car before going for my next appointment. But too bad, someone was waiting for my carpark lot so I had to pass on that thought and drove away. As I was driving and eating (I eat only when the lights turn red in case you are wondering if I am doing it dangerously), I missed my exit again. And I was caught in the jam again. It took me a whole 50 mins to reach my destination which could be accomplish in 20 mins.

My manicurist told me he has moved and as I was so used to going to his previous shop, I just walked there and when I am almost there, I realised I was going the wrong direction. That was so funny. The new place has a new name and a new decor theme and new staff.

As the place is sharing the space with a hair salon and me needing a haircut badly, decided to ask if I can have a haircut after my mani and pedi. And the owner says they are closing. They didn't want to do my business???? The moment I was there, the owner was sleeping all the while and she don't want to do my business? Then a caucasian mum brought 2 kids and wanted a haircut for the boy and owner obliged!!!! That's racism, so angry.

Never mind, I went to another hair salon a few shops down the street and had my hair cut. After the haircut, it was already around 8.30pm. I bought dinner and headed back home.

After dinner, I did some ironing, watched some TV programmes and went back to bed.

Hubby coming back on sunday night so i spent the whole sunday relaxing and doing nothing...: )

Jakarta, Indonesia

My first visit to my Indonesia office. I keep hearing people say not safe in Jakarta, kidnapping etc, wonder how true that is.

Took a garuda flight as it's the company policy to take a cheaper flight. And it's only a S$12 difference between Garuda and SQ. I even offered to pay the difference but was not allowed to do that.

Luckily it's only a 1.5 hours flight. Reached the airport around 4pm and was picked up by the hotel's transport. Reached the hotel about 5pm, thank god no jam as jakarta is well-known for bad traffic.

Stayed at the Mandarin Oriental hotel and it's diagonally across the Grand Hyatt hotel. The security at the hotel is very tight, when you reached the entrance, there is another check just like the airport kind where you need to put your luggage and bags on a belt for scanning.

Then it started to rain and I could see the traffic starting to form from my room. Eventually, I went out at about 9pm to the opposite Plaza Indonesia (next to Grand Hyatt) for dinner. The hotels are located in a huge roundabout and I literally had to run across to the opposite side to get to Plaza Indonesia. Later when I am back, I was told that was a very dangerous act to do.

Plaza Indonesia is pretty much like our Paragon where big names such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo etc were there. Wanted to get some shot glasses from HRC for my sister so I walked and asked around where the place is.

Finally found it. The shot glasses are so expensive. About S$20 each!!!! After that I proceed to this place called Sari Ratu for dinner as recommend by a friend (Arifin: if you are reading this, the food is not nice). The moment I sat down, they started to bring out about 8 kinds of dishes such as rendang, ikan asem pedas, sayur nangka, gulai otak, ayam gulai, telor and some others which I didnt eat so I guessed not charged (i copy these from the receipts..hahaha), when I asked is this a set, the waitress don't seem to understand so I just say never mind and proceed to order some steamed rice to go with all the dishes. In the end, the whole meal costs about 75,000RP.

The next morning, I started the journey to the industrial area of Jakarta about 8.10am. Reached there about 8.50am, not bad, not much jam too. The meeting was good but we went past the time and by the time everything ends, its about 3pm and my flight is 4.30pm. I was so anxious as there was a huge jam, I kept telling the tax driver to hurry as my plane is flying off. Eventually reached the airport about 4.10pm, I ran like mad to the check in counter and was told that the flight is delayed to 5pm. Thank God...

I was like breaking into cold sweats throughout the whole taxi journey and I could feel myself hyperventilating and I almost vomitted. By the time I reached singapore, its almost 8pm, what a long flight....2 hours and I still have a concall at 11pm the same night.

Land of a Thousand Smiles

The last time I was at Bangkok was probably last year. So this will be my very first trip to the land of a thousand smiles this year.

This time round, my younger sister, my parents and my elder sister together with her hubby and their 2 little kids will be going along too.
It will be like a family event. Guess my mum got hooked on travelling after her trip to Hong Kong a few months back.

When the coup happened in Bangkok, she was like asking if we are still going as the news reported that everything is okay.

We made quite a last minute booking on air-tickets and accomodation. The accomodation was a headache, we tried so many bookings before we managed to get us any. We settled finally in Arnoma Hotel. A new hotel this time round. I usually stayed in Asia Hotel when I went Bangkok as it is very convenient but it was like fully booked after we asked around 1 agent and 3 websites.

Our flight was at 1.05pm and we took the SQ flight this time and it costs us $289 per pax. Usually we took Tiger Airways or Jetstar but the price difference this time round was not much and we get to have in-flight entertainment and food and not forgetting the kiddy package on SQ for the little ones. Look at the spongebob toy my niece is holding.




1st day in Bangkok
We reached the new Bangkok International Airport - Suvarnabhumi Airport around 3.30pm local time. The immigration process went on quite smoothly. The baggage collection was pretty good as well although we had to wait for the baggage. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the smooth immigration process after hearing stories of hiccups during the opening days earlier in september.
That's our baggage claim belt.

The airport is huge, it was like Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 combined into one. The only thing is we had to go down to the first floor to catch a taxi and it seems weird that the taxis were not located on the same level as the arrival halls.

We had to split into 2 different taxis on our way to the Hotel. We reached the hotel around 5pm but the rooms were not ready so we left our bags with the hotel and went to Central Zen (used to be called World Trade Center). Went to Naraya and Isetan and bought quite a bit of stuff.

Went back to the hotel thereafter.The room was ok, not fantastic but looked pretty alright. We took a little rest and quickly went to Siam Square where we headed to Macway's tailor to custom make some shirts and pants for hubby. My Dad made 2 pair pants, my sister made 2 shirts and my brother-in-law made 3 pair of pants and 3 shirts. These are the shirts and pants I ordered for hubby.

We ended the night with dinner at the food court at MBK 5th floor. The food court concept was like Marche where each of us has a card and paid for our food using the card. Look at the food we had.



2nd day in Bangkok
We started the morning bright and cheery with breakfast at the Hotel. The spread is pretty normal. Today we brought our parents to the Grand Palace. It was a really hot day. We took the taxi to grand palace and our taxi went a long way and via the expressway and in the end, we paid twice than what the other taxi paid.

After the grand palace, we decided to walk to the Reclining Buddha which is supposed to be 10 mins stroll from the grand palace. But it's so hot and we couldn't see the place after walking for a while that we decided to give up and head to Chinatown.

An "artistic" photo i took of a flower pot in the grand palace.

Wanted to go to Canton House in Chinatown but couldn't find the place so we ended up at Hai Wai Tian for lunch with sharks' fins and birds nest. The portion at Hai Wai Tian has shrunk so much that it's really no longer worth it to eat there anymore. After lunch, we went to Sampeng market where i picked up some earrings.

At Chinatown, there were some celebrations going on which I believed is some celebration of the ninth emperor in heaven or something like that .

We went back to the hotel after that where the kids slept and my sister and I went to MBK for more shopping. We met up later and went to a restaurant called Thai Thai near Patpong for dinner and thereafter went to walk a bit at Patpong and then to Naraya again to buy stuff we can't find in the Naraya at World Trade Center.


3rd day in Bangkok
My sister and I started the day early as we wanted to go to Chatuchak market whereas my parents wanted to go to the Aquarium with my elder sister and the kids.

We reached Chatuchak around 9.45pm and within an hour, we already grabbed jeans, tees, shoes etc. We eventually left the place around 1pm and rushed to the tailor for my sister to do some fittings for her shirts. The guy at the shop told us that the temperature is about 38deg cel these few days. Very hot. Had lunch at MBK at my favourite restaurant. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but they served the streetside food in the restaurant. You can always see those stalls selling "fishball" noodles and they have that too in the restaurant. Its located at the end of MBK at basement near the cinemas side.

After that, we went to Platinum Fashion Mall where I bought some accessories and then to City Square where there are wholesale clothes for sale. The bad thing is I can't find anything suitable.

My feet are killing me and we headed back to the Hotel where the rest are leaving for dinner. I just had to rest my feet and didn't go for dinner with them.


Fourth and Last day in Bangkok
After breakfast, my sister and I went to do some last minute shopping at Big C whereas my parents and my sister's family decided to go to Central Chidlom. I bought a skirt and pants followed by foot massage. Finally letting my feet have some relaxation. After checking out, my sister and I went for lunch and had roast duck rice, shrimp dumpling soup and siew mai with drinks and all these for just 200 baht.

After that, it's time to head to the airport. After checking in, there are quite a number of shops in there and we spent the time walking around till it's time to board the plane. There is this grand centerpiece in the airport after clearing the immigration. I have no idea what it is but it looks pretty nice.

Good bye Bangkok and I will be back....perhaps next year.

Finally

Finally I updated my year long blog...frankly, i backdated all my blogs here as I have no time to write so many stuff and upload the photos after every event. So i painstakingly do it over the weekend when i am down with flu.

And please visit the link - Parfait D'Amour. It's a little web shop I set up with my sister to provide wonderful, beautiful and meaningful gifts to wedding couples. Please help to spread the words around.

I sprained my ankle

Went gym a day after I got back from China and fell down when walking down the stairs after gym.

Initially, i thought it was okay and went to play some pool. The next morning, it was hurting so much and swollen.

Went to a chinese physician and had my ankle all bandaged up.

My Second China Trip

My Second China Trip with the company. As the meeting is starting on Monday, I flew to Shanghai on Sunday morning.

The immigration was terrible.I waited for more than an hour just to clear the immigration and it took another hour to get to the hotel from the airport. After checking in and resting for a while, I headed out to this Teppanyaki restaurant next to the hotel. It costs RMB150 per pax and the food is free flow. It was really good and I love the beef teppanyaki.

After that, I brought my vendor who came from Singapore with me and who was in China for the first time to the Bund and Nanjing Road.

Met up with two other Netherlands guys from my vendor company on Monday and brought them to Xin Tian Di and had dinner at the Din Tai Fung. The dinner was not cheap. It costs like RMB620 for the 4 of us.

The next morning we started early as we need to go to the Suzhou Plant and it was a 2 hours drive from Shanghai. When we reached there, we start off the meeting with a tour of the factory and understanding how the production works etc.

The site manager took us for lunch at Yang Yang Jiao Zi Guan and the lunch was nice. We tried this fish that was only found in the River Hwang. For dinner, I brought them to Guan Jian Jie and had dinner in this "Pink-lighted" restaurant. The food was pretty good and it was really cheap. It was only 170RMB for the 4 of us. Next, we proceed to Haagen Dazs for ice-cream and then had some coffee before ending the day with a glass of mai tai for me at the hotel lounge.

The next morning I went and bought 2 boxes of Moon cakes from the Hotel and it has the normal white lotus flavour as well as the XO flavour mooncake. After that the company driver took me from the hotel to the Shanghai airport where I departed to go back Singapore.

Beautiful Bali

After talking so much about Bali then came the bombings and bird flu and tsunami, we finally decided to go ahead with the trip.

We will be spending 4 nights in Bali - 2 nights in Ubud and 2 nights in Kuta.

Tried to get the SQ tickets but after being on the waiting list for such a long time, we decided to go with Garuda. It was a bad choice. We need to transit in Jakarta airport and the flight was delayed for 2 hours. There was absolutely nothing in the Jakarta airport. Just sit around and do nothing.

The flight was scheduled to reach Denpasar at 2.20pm but we touched down only at 4.30pm. It was an hour's drive to the Ubud resort. We will be staying at the Tegal Sari Accomodation. http://www.tegalsari-ubud.com/

Wanted to book the Duplex but it was taken so we took the next best one which is the super deluxe room. Was pleasantly surprised at the hospitality of the staff. Our room is situated right at the end of the whole place. The room was clean and neat,much to my surprised. That's our unit, first one from the left.

Look at the people working on the padi fields just right in front of our accomodation. Cool,isn't it?









Take a look at the pictures. There's even a sitting area, isn't it spacious?









We went to this famous diner called Dirty Duck Diner. The place is nice. There are a lot of pavilions surrounded by little ponds and stone sculptures. Tried their famous crispy duck. It was nice but the portion was a little small. I tried their rice wine drink with barley but it tasted horrible. I ordered another coke instead. The picture shows the surroundings of the diner.









The meal was not cheap. Costs about the same back home. Took a leisure walk back to the Hotel after the dinner. Started the next day with breakfast at the hotel. Philip took the Mie Goreng while I took the pancakes. It was not bad especially the Mie Goreng. We scheduled a spa session for today at the Ubud Sari Health Resort. http://www.ubudsari.com/index.html

We took a package that comprises of Traditional Bali Massage, Candlenut body scrub, Flower Bath, Steam Bath, Jacuzzi and finally Bali Facial. It costed us US$33 each. Was that cheap or what? The environment was nice. It was set in nature surroundings. The ginger tea served by the resort was very nice too considering the fact that ginger was never my favourite.

After the spa and feeling rejuvenated, we decided to walk back to the hotel while enjoying the various sights and shopping along the way. Outside the spa, a stone carving of monkeys was in progress. Look at the picture. Pretty amazing,isn't it?

Ubud is famous for its arts and cultural activities. We walked into Ubud Market and you can find stone carvings and various oil paintings etc. We bought 3 oil paintings in total and continued on our way to the Ubud Palace. There's basically nothing much in the palace but interestingly, there are people living there. Besides the palace, there is this stall that sides suckling pig or Babi Guling. It's supposed to be a famous stall but as we saw the queue quite long and I wasn't sure if I could take roadside stall. We decided to give it a miss which we realised later that it was clean and good. Well, an excuse to go back Bali again. Hahaha.

We stopped by at one restaurant for lunch and I had Nasi Goreng while Hubby had Nasi Campur. I loved the Nasi Goreng in Bali. Really tasted good. In the evening, we went to the Bali Kacak Dance. I realised that I have actually seen it before in Singapore WOMAD. Some pictures of the Kacak Dance.

3rd day in Ubud and it's time for us to say farewell to Ubud and contiune our journey to Kuta. The journey from Ubud to Kuta takes another hour as well as Kuta is pretty near the airport. The hotel we stayed in Kuta is called Ramayana Resort and Spa. http://www.ramayanahotel.com/

The hotel looks nice from the exterior and even on the way to the room. But the room sucked. Pardon my language. It was run down and old and falling apart. Never will I stay there ever again.

Ventured outside after checking in for lunch. Had lunch at this asian restaurant. No nasi goreng but it's ok. Hahaha. Walked along the street and went into this huge shopping center. Nothing interesting. Just another shopping center kind.

In the evening, we went to HRC for dinner. The portion for the food was huge and we can't finish it. Bought some stuff from the store and walked back to the hotel.

We went for another spa session again. This time the place is called Secret Garden. http://www.secretgarden-bali.com/. This time round we had java lulur scrub, followed by a massage, Flower Bath, Facial, Mani and Pedi and ending with a hair cut. All these for about 620,000Rp for both.

After the spa, we walked to the beach. The beach is not crowded at all.

We had lunch at McDonald's which is pretty standard and normal.

For dinner, we went to another famous restaurant called Made Warung which is opend by a Balinese and her dutch husband. Guess what I had? Nasi Goreng. There's a long queue and we had to wait for some time before getting a seat. After dinner, we walked back and stopped for Haagen Dazs ice-cream. It's expensive. We bought some chips and Bintang beer from a convenience store outside the hotel.

The next morning after breakfast, we checked out around lunch time and did some last minute shopping for sourvenirs. We took the hotel's transport to the airport and as we need to do a transit at Jakarta, the driver took us to the domestic airport. The counter personnel told us we need to go to the international airport and we had to walk to the international airport. Thank God, it's not that far.

So it's goodbye Bali. The airport in Bali had so many stores,unlike the one in Jakarta which is pathetic. It was a relaxing and interesting trip. Will definitely go back again....for my Nasi Goreng and the Babi Guling that I missed. I must also remember to buy back some pre-packed Nasi Goreng mix as well. Hahaha.

My China Trip

My first business trip to China with the company and my third time to China.

Reached Pudong airport around 1.30pm and quickly hurry through the immigration as I happened to be on the same flight as a colleague so we are taking the company car to Suzhou together. It's my first time to Suzhou and it's a 2 hour drive from Pudong airport to Suzhou Hotel.

We will be staying at the Sheraton Suzhou which my colleague says it's a very nice hotel and indeed it was very nice. It's like a mini forbidden city or the Yu Yuan in Shanghai.

Look at the pictures. Isn't it nice?









This is the view from my room.









Walked around Suzhou city on the day of arrival. Went for dinner with the site manager, his family and my colleagues.

Meetings start early the next morning at 9am. No time for lunch and had to eat take away in the meeting room and continue with the meeting at the same time. Ended the evening with a dinner with the financial controller and my vendor.

The next morning we took the car to Shanghai office for meeting. Again, lunch was taken in the meeting room again. But it was a good trip, meet up the users and conveyed the message to them.

Checked into the hotel and the hotel really sucks. Will never go back to this hotel ever again.
Went for dinner in the evening with my vendor. The whole place was in smog. Look at the TV tower.












The last day in China. Went to the vendor's office, did some last minute shopping and rushed to the airport. That concludes my China Trip.

My Dream Home....a year later

This is my place...almost a year later. All the messy bit starts to kick in..hahaha

This is my dining area. My luggage is there because I am packing for my business trip to China the following Monday.

Second pic is part of TV console. I am trying my new Lumix camera...heee

Third pic is my TV console taken at night and the last pic is the view from my living room.

Land of Tulips and Windmills and SEX???

My first business trip with my new company. This is supposed to be a team building trip with my team as well as the vendor and then a series of meetings are lined up as a form of introduction to the way things work in Netherlands.

I was due to take the plane on 25th March, 11.30pm flight, am taking KLM and will reach Schiphol Airport on 26th March at around 7am. The flight is about 14 hours and I thought I could spend my time on the plane watching movies but guess what? The in-flight entertainment system was spoilt...and only in the business class. So i have to spend my time playing with my puzzle book and trying to sleep.

Finally reached the airport and waited for my boss's flight. His flight was delayed for 2 hours and I was practically doing nothing in the airport for over 3 hours. Walked around and had some food at Burger King. I had some nuggets and a coke and that costs me Euro6. My goodness.

One of my colleague came and picked us up from te airport and we travelled to the hotel where we are going to have our team building. It's the Hilton Hotel. http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml;jsessionid=5SS4OO0QEPGJ4CSGBIU222QKIYFC3UUC?ctyhocn=SPLSOHI

The hotel seems nice on the website cos' it's summer time then but when i was there, there is no green grass, even the golf course is brown in colour. Checked into the Hotel and had lunch at the hotel. Ther service there is really really slow.

After that, we decided to drive to Amsterdam. The roads there are like stone roads and my poor shoes spoilt just after one day of walking there.

I saw the largest bicycle carpark ever there and it's like 2 storey high. The roads are pretty inaccessible and cycling is definitely better.

Bought some sourvenirs and stopped by a pub for some beer. Ventured into the "red light district" of Amsterdam but it's only 4plus in the afternoon so the curtains are all drawn.

Don't go into a "coffee shop" in Amsterdam as it's a place where people smoke port etc. Drinking joints are called cafes.

Went around some churches and some streets along the river. Some of the houses there are crooked and slanted to one side. Interesting.

27th March - Start the morning with breakfast and got to know some new faces. Finally met my team as well as my vendor's team from USA and Netherlands. Definitely good to put a face behind the voice. I was the only asian and chinese girl there. My current boss is a female but will soon be replaced by a male one and I will be the only female in my team. Meals were organised in the hotel and it was quite an enjoyable time.

28th March - 2nd and last day of team building. Had more work to do today as we had discussions on the way we are working now and how to improve on things. However, it lasted only half a day and we left for Noordwijk in the afternoon.

The hotel in Noordwijk was near the beach and it was a really nice hotel. We had mexican food around the place and after dinner, we walked around the beach. It was very very windy and freezing but really nice. www.hotelsvanoranje.com

29th March - My first day at Sassenheim office. Hmm...there is no common office area where we had in Singapore or China. Everyone has a room of their own. Cool,isn't it? Went for several meetings today and trying to get to know more people in the office as well. Left office about 5pm and went back to the shopping area near my Hotel for some shopping. The shops closed at 6pm. Bought some more sourvenirs and cheese too.

That evening, my future boss brought us all to his hometown for dinner. We had indian food at a restaurant and it was quite nice.

30th March - More meetings today and had a major problem with China while I was there. This evening my colleague who lives in Amsterdam has volunteered to bring us for a canal cruise followed by dinner.

The canal cruise was interesting. Went past the science centre, some nice bridges, maritime museum etc. Went for a beer before our dinner with 2 more colleagues. Then we drive to the new part of Amsterdam and had dinner at a restaurant called Blok 4. The menu was all in Dutch. When we finally finished dinner, it was almost 11pm. We were then arguing whether to go for some drinks. Finally decided to do so. We drove back to Amsterdam to a place near New Church Street. Had a drink for me and a couple for my other colleagues and eventually went back to office to pick up my colleague's car before heading back to the Hotel. By the time, i washed up and got ready for bed, it's like 2am.

31st March - Last day in Netherlands. So far didn't really see much tulips blooming as it's still very cold. About 8deg celsius and not many windmills too. Had a meeting early in the morning and then back to office. Brought my luggage to the office as I will be leaving office for the airport.

Left office about 5.30pm to go to airport. Walked around the airport for a while, had dinner at Delifrance and then my boss and colleague left. My boss is scheduled to fly back tomorrow. I can't get any flight for the next day so I had to take this early flight. My colleagues keep asking me to extend my stay or come early next time.

Was at the lounge area where there were drinks and food available and i nearly missed my flight. I think I was like the last one to go on board. Thank God, there's inflight entertainment this time. I nearly don't have it as someone was sitting at my seat when I was there. And his seat's inflight entertainment system was down.

Finally back to Singapore on 1st April. It was a good trip in all.