Surviving India - Final Words

Spent the last day at the hotel ... negotiated half day rate ... successfully consolidated my two luggages into one ...

Come to think of it ... it was a good thing that I didn't get on the flight the day before ... otherwise I would not have been allowed to get inside the airport since I would not have remembered to print out the electronic ticket confirmation ...

I do have to say that the airport is quite yucky ... and from my being "lost" ... I think I ran over at least two guys' foot with my heavy luggage ... good thing that the India people are pretty "mellow". I'm sure if I was in Hong Kong, the guys would be yelling at me non-stop loudly for a long time (if you've been at MTR during rush hours ... you would know what I mean). I naturally arrived much earlier than I needed to ... and then found out there's no shopping or anything ... and the gate area's seats were quite yucky too, so I didn't dare to even sit down. Needless to say, I didn't stop by the ladies room ... and I was most certainly kicking myself for gobbling down 1.5 bottles of water when I found out that I could not take them past Immigration.

The flight back to Hong Kong was ok ... not as bumpy as the one going to India. When I stopped at the Singapore airport, I rushed to get a bottle of juice ... so nice and cool, haha (I didn't dare drink any even at the hotel). Singapore airport is really quite nice ...

Oh by the way, if anyone saw me on now.com or NOW TV ... yes, that was really me ... the silly person who has no idea what she's talking about ... on the new taxi pickup arrangement at the HK airport. However, since my response was not negative enough, I have a good feeling that it was not broadcast.

On final words ... it pays to be prepared. Just when I started thinking that I dragged that whole 1+ luggage of food and water for nothing ... I found out late last week that my customer from US who was there too ... got sick for 2 days after he got back ... spending most of the time in the bathroom. He said he almost went to the hospital ... hmm ... hehe.

LEFDSK

Have been working late late and late recently ...

And feeling so frustrated frustrated frustrated ... and sick sick sick ...

Since most of the work, I'm doing for others ... little time to do my own work ...

Not that I think so highly of myself ... at the end of the day, I'm just one ah4 ... cow cow ... soi person ...

but Harry comes to mind ... people just seem to think I can take out my magic wand and fix their problems ...

when can someone fix my problems ...

Boss ... please find me another account / project ... soon

this is starting to be more emotionally draining than anything ...

Surviving India ... Part 2

Today is the 3rd day in Chennai (not counting the night when I arrived) ... so far so good ... can't complain.   This is the first night I dined formally (although every morning I did eat breakfast at the hotel too) ... tried their Indian food ... ordered a mild chicken curry with naan bread ... not bad at all.   I especially liked the naan bread ... quite yummy!!

Haven't really done much during this visit except work, work and work.   Today, did spend most of the day in the car ... first to go to the customer's customer's office ... then a very very long ride to the Air France office (so that my colleague can change his paper ticket to leave today instead of tomorrow ... but unfortunately no such luck for me) ... and then another long ride back to the hotel to unload the very heavy thinkpad bags ... and then another long ride to the shopping place (two of them, so double the long ride) ... and then an even longer ride back to the hotel.   And by the way, I didn't get a thing.   I have to say that after seeing this "fancy" shopping mall here, I think New Century Plaza is a super mall.    It was already 8pm when we got back to the hotel ... everybody was quite exhausted.

An interesting note about the car ... my customer was joking about how he couldn't understand why his customer sent him the taxi rate info 3 times when he told him that he doesn't need a taxi from the airport back to the hotel.    Well, when we were on the way from Air France office back to the hotel, the driver suddenly pulled over ... and this one guy dropped him an envelope.   Needless to say, the driver didn't say a word about this, but we noticed that the envelope has my customer's name on it.   So, we immediately asked for it, and it turned out to be a taxi bill for 2 days.    We finally realized why the taxi rate info was sent 3 times ... it's because the customer's customer ordered the car for him, and thus was trying to tell him how much it would cost, haha.   Just don't understand why they can't just tell directly ... fortunately it wasn't a big bill.    My customer (one from US and one from Pune India) had to wait in the lobby to get the 3rd day bill (which took like 30 minutes) ... and it ended up to be around US$150.

Well ... I'll be stuck at the hotel tomorrow till my flight at 11:45pm.   I requested to extend my hotel stay (I ain't going anywhere alone for sure), and was able to negotiate a half-day rate.   Guess it'll be spam and cracker lunch tomorrow ...

Assuming I will not have any problems tomorrow ... I have to say this is much better than what my dear friends and colleagues have told me ... fortunately for me, haha.

Took some interesting photos ... will share later.

Surviving India ...

It was probably the most bumpiest (is there such a word?) plane ride I had go to India via Singapore ... definitely a competition for all those Disney rides ... there were quite a number of "wow" "ooooh" "arh" ...

The food and entertainment system at Singapore Airlines flights are actually quite good ... their movie system has so many good movies and choices ... and they are on demand too (can play, stop, forward, rewind, pause). The food from HK to SG was quite good ... the food from SG to India didn't fit my diet though ... spicy chicken or lamb ... I tried the lamb but couldn't continue after the 2nd small piece.

The Chennai airport was quite packed ... took quite a long time to get passed Immigration ... and even longer to wait for my bags (and I have two with one of them all filled with water and food). I couldn't believe how many big luggages each family had ... this family of 5 who was pushing me out of the way at the luggage belt much have at least 10 big luggages ... the wife and son kept bringing over a new cart and the dad kept picking up yet another big luggage from the belt. I was a bit worried at first that customs may want to open my bags since I have two big ones for just a few days visit ... but seeing them, I realized that I'm just a little "mo" compared to them, haha.

The hotel car driver was waiting for me already at the end of a long line of people waiting to pick up someone ... the first thing he commented was whether my flight was delayed. Well, I guess that's a hint for needing to tip him ... which I did. The roads were still crowded even though it's already 11:30pm at night ... the scenario reminded me a bit of some back streets in China where you have all these little shops and people all over the place ... but then you turn into another street and then you see a few of those nice big tall buildings. The hotel is one of them ... the rooms are quite big although a bit old. After following all the hints and tips from my fellow friends and colleagues who've been in India ... I finally was able to slip into bed after 3 hours.

The buffet breakfast at the hotel was fine ... and the driver was already waiting for an hour when we finally left the hotel (somehow the driver came at 8am instead of 9am). The meeting started very slow ... we didn't really start till like 11:30am ... the customer ordered pizza for us ... the cheese pizza I had was actually not bad. The people here are quite nice ...

By the way, it's past 7pm already ... and I'm still good ... haha. But I think I'm getting a slight rash ...

I'm eating Nissin Demae Ramen with Hormel Vienna Sausage now ... can't say it's great but good enough lah. Tomorrow will probably have to dine out with the customers ... but today better stay in to finish some work.

Good news is that I can leave a day earlier ... no meetings on Saturday ... bad news is that no seats available ... on waiting list now. Come to think of it ... I would have nowhere to go to if I have to say another day ... yuck yuck

By the way, haven't really seen any mosquitoes or flies ... although quite a few cows lying around in the middle of the road ... too bad I didn't bring my camera!!

Lastly, it was quite a sunny day when we left the hotel this morning ... but then it was pouring when we were coming back ...

Tokyo - Day 4 and Day 5

Last time in Tokyo ... we went to the famous fish market and had great sushi at one of the little sushi place ... it was raining a bit and we stood in line for an hour to squeeze into that little place.    I had one of the best sushi I ever had (and I don't have much since I'm not a big fan of raw fish) ... it was quite funny when the bill ended up to be 7777 yen ... scary.

So, this time, we dashed out of the hotel early in the morning and went there again ... this time though, we didn't go into the "inner streets" but went to a tour book favorite sushi place "Sushi Ching".   The sushi wasn't good for our taste though ... and they didn't have some of our favorites either.   Mo complained about the sushi rice too ... which had too much vinegar for our taste.   So, we only ate a few pieces and left ... and ended up at the same sushi place (as we went to on Saturday) at 5pm ... this time it was a much shorter line, and we were able to get in by 5:30pm.    We ordered one of the sets which had 14 pieces under 3000 yen.   They were really good value for the money!!  Next time though, we should order a even smaller set and then order our favorites individually.

After dinner, we dashed to Isetan to pick up two bottles of sake Masumi Yumedono.    This is the really smell good taste good sake that toto introduced us to at that sake festival at Citysuper last time.    Since it's like 40% less in Tokyo ... we thought it's worth the trouble.   Well ... see Mo's blog for the end results ...

Day 5 ... time to bid farewall to Tokyo once more.    As we had to take the 1:00pm shuttle to the airport, we didn't have much time except to go shop shop over at Takashimiya and Tokyo Hands ... and then picked up some lunch from the gourmet supermama ... which by the way was not cheap at all.

To wrap up ... just a tip for those who are trying to buy something at the airport ... at least at the terminal where Cathay is ... there's not much to shop post-immigration.   If you want something, better to pick up before you go in.   However, you don't get the duty free benefits ...

Being Good is Bad?

I'm in this "war" with my customer's supplier management team. I followed the rules and did a proper change request ... and ended up they're going back to challenge me on the entire SOW on the portion that didn't change. After two IT directors told them to go away, they still won't go away and still insisting that I explain in detail on what was performed and why they should pay us.

I asked once who this guy is ... is he some big shot? Turned out he's just a contractor ... reminds me of those damn contractors working for HKSAR government who's sole purpose in life is to stir up trouble so as to demonstrate value.

Tonight, I had another worthless conference call with them again ... why I bothered? Because the IT Director said he would join the call ... but then he flew me airplane. So, I faced the devil on my own ... and as expected, was just talking to a wall. The guy even dare admitted that they screwed up at SOW review so now they're just "doing their job". I was so pissed that at certain point, I couldn't speak because I knew I would say something very nasty if I opened my mouth. After the call, I sent a complaint note to the Global Business Office ... knowing very well that they would ignore me ... or worse, tell me that I'm wrong. I almost wanted to send a note to the IT Directors to tell them I quit. And it would be good given that they are sending me to India next week.

Still quite pissed after 2 hours ... but then I read this at hocc' blog:
"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you are playing by the rules"

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!cKkIZPuaHxTOhCXELUxIt4m909E.GUCY

That statement is so true ...

So, on Monday, I'm going to draft up this list of activities per their request ... and I'm not going to play by the rules ...

In any case, from now on ... no more PCRs ... if we can ever get away with it.

It's so sad ... since I've always been a champion for process ...