Triscribe

Author: Y C

  • Popping In ….

    Haven’t blogged in a while.  Last week was in London for a Global IT conference at the Riverside Park Plaza hotel.  Cost of the conference for two days was 1500 sterling.  Fantastically crazy price.  I’ve been spoiled with the relatively low cost of Asian hotels at 5 star levels.  Riverside Park Plaza was pretty crappy blah :(.  Have to say that the Cathay Flight on business from TPE – LHR was great.  Cathay is certainly a top airline without the BA or Sing Air pricing.  Just excellent! 🙂

    Tomorrow, on the way to Singapore and staying at the Shangri-La for Prince 2 training – Foundation and Practitioner.  Company standard.  Project Management is pretty common sensical stuff though.

    Summer has arrived in Asia and I’m glad no more rain.  The humidity though… oh well. 

  • Oooph-fast fast fast

    Hectic day…. actually since the past couple of days.  Yesterday I came in, bang bang, from the airport, having faced a bit of a daily at TPE.  Apparently HK was faced with a ‘red rain’ warning meaning the strength of the rain was very high.  Second level below the ‘black’ level which would’ve effectively shut down the city.

    Quickly stamped through, got onto the hotel shuttle bus and then hooked up with FC & P- to head over to meet up with my friends at North Point office for some great dinner. Pics forthcoming…

    Then headed out to LKF for some drinks at Balaikia (sp?) which is a Russian restaurant.  There shared a couple of bottles of Stoli with the gang and met up with a couple more friends from the office and got “warm” in the fridge.  Was cool :).

    Then after that, went to another lounge bar with KTV and drank some more whisky and then passed out around 4am last night.

    Wacking up to overcast skies looking into HK from the Sheraton Hotel & Towers.  Wonderful!

    Hooking up later with FC, P-, friend Wilfred for brunch here at the Sheraton.  Then my cousin from Dongguan will come in last this evening to join us.

     

     

  • My own Amazing Race ….

    Back in Sydney, yesterday flew the red eye from Taipei to Sydney for a quick project meeting.  Sometimes, in this line of work, f-2-f is the way to go as virtual working doesn’t work so effectively.  Back at staying in Sheraton on the Park and enjoying Sydney much.  People are just so nice, pleasant and down to earth to talk to, even over work issues.

    Ordered in room service, prime tenderloin, apple pie and cinnamon ice cream.  Catching up on my personal projects on the side, watching TV (I don’t have at home), and just chilling not dealing with all the work issues.

    Flying back tomorrow morning to Taipei, then on Friday I’ll be flying to HK and hook up with FC and P-.  I’m confirmed.

    Then my June month looks like 2 HK trips, 1 London trip, 1 Singapore trip, going into early July, one KL trip.

    Whew….

  • Fly away ..

    Catching up on some blogging now at the Dynasty Lounge in Jakarta international airport before heading back to TPE.  Been on the road now for 8 days, KUL -> SIN -> CGK (Jakarta Airport code).  Glad to have missed the Typhoon up north but the weather down here has not been normal either.  Lots of rain in the early and late mornings.  In Malaysia, flash floods due to heavy rains is a real danger on the road.  Hills around the KL -> Ipoh -> Penang highway get washed away forcing the road crews to rebuild around the clock.  Making it harder is the fact that the soil around Malayia is soft redish sand/clay like substance.

    It’s a lot of work traveling getting to know people and learning what’s going on.  Met a few really nice and smart people.  Impressed with the folks here in the Jakarta office.  Wish I had them.  Team and relationship building along with skills development are the driving forces now. 

    What I haven’t figured out yet is that although it’s only 1.5 hours away from Singapore, Why is Jakarta an hour behind?  I’ll have to take a look at the map again.  I thought they’d be in the same window.

    Jakarta is a city of 11 million people, sprawling megapolis and quite beautiful, even though areas of it area quite poor.  In between Manila/Makati City Philippines, and KL.  Food delicious and the people here are just so warm, friendly and welcoming.  Refreshing compared to Taiwan despite the Taiwanese reputation for being friendly people.  My colleagues took me to Hotel Borobudur Jakarta which is famous for its oxtail delicacies and boy, it didn’t disappoint.  I’d love to come back again soon.

    Not-so-looking forward to a busy travel schedule the next 6 weeks.  I’ll be headed back to HK a couple of times, KL again, London, Singapore again.  In between I’ll have to find time to move.

    Ouch.

    Happy trails folks and be well!

  • SQ876

    On the road this morning….transiting through S’pore Changi Airport via SQ.  Yes, Singapore Airline flight attendants are still the best.  Oh, and the flight isn’t so bad so far :).

    Nice long weekend in the hotel doing nothing, watch TV, be frustrated with Godaddy and my SMF website install having problems with the MYSQL connection. socket error connection #2 :(.  Will check again back in Taipei.

    B- and I had a big blowup and I think this one is the big one.  Such is life.

    I hope Taipei’s weather will be better this week.  Can’t stand the rain.

  • It’s rainy season all over Asia-Pac

    The rain in Taipei is killing me… whole week it was raining and this morning on the way to CKS airport, the down pour was relentless.

    Now sitting back at the Le Meridien in KL Sentral and the rain has come with me. Thunder added to the mix.

    Hooking up later this evening with my bro-in-law. Hope to get some R&R away from Taipei. Need to bring up a SMF site by this weekend. Let’s see. Should be nice and comfortable here.

    Big holiday across Asia-Pac, May 1st being many country’s Labor Day.

    Oh, a funny thing happened on the way from KLIA Express terminal to the hotel. Stopped by Mainland Chinese tourists who ran out of money. This was my 2nd experience. There was 3 people here. It was the exact same routine that happened to me at HK Airport a month ago but that was an elderly lady. Both claimed that they were on tours and ran out of cash. They promised me they’d pay me back, contact me, etc and give me their business card. I’m like uh, flashback to the hustlers on NYC Subways…. anyways, I gave the three women RM500. I don’t think I’ll hear from them, but it’s ok. It bothered me last time I couldn’t help that elderly woman in the middle of HK airport, even though my spidey sense was tingling that it was a scam and not to do it.

    Enjoy the weekend folks….

  • Firefighting and the thing everyone has….

    Been a really tough week.  Long hours and late nights … hard to keep the eyes open.  We pretty much finished up the final round of divestiture of our area business unit.  Was so mentally fatiqued that I lost my mobile phone and some minor computer accessories that I’ll get the next time I’m over there in HK.  Although not sure when that’ll be.

    During these times of clean up and being new, you see stuff that just is all wrong and need to fix it up ASAP.  Joking with my team, I don’t mind wiping people’s asses as part of my job, but please… please…. one ass at a time rule, TYVM!

    From now on, that’s going to be my SOP rule, “One Ass at a Time”

    Starting next month, I’ll be on the TPE -> KUL, TPE -> SIN shuttle more often as my roles and responsibilities shift to other areas.  I should be flattered but the time cost is pretty high.  I just hope is going to pay out for me in the long run.  I just want a retirement home somewhere ….

    Relax today, get my new phones, maybe play some hoops and then teach English tonight.

  • On the road, jack….

    Just finished packing for a 2 day trip to HK for another set of meetings. Before that, had dinner with some Canadians, one Minnesotan and one Croatian at TGIFs. Talked about a lot of things like jobs, future, careers, exit plans, life in Taiwan, life after Taiwan, retirements, pensions and all the things “adults” worry about in life. Gee, I’m an adult now and before that I was thinking I could just play and run around the world, pretending I’m responsible and working.

    Funny how one gets to a certain age and “parental” topics come to the fore. I guess play time is over. Time to figure out how to live one’s life over the next 25 years because…. well, that’s what I’m working for now. 65, retirement, what’s it gonna be?

    Happy Easter everyone.

  • People

    Busy weekend this HK.  Rugby Sevens happening and folks flying in from all over the place.  Still, it was efficient from the airport where they commandeered another bus to shuttle the folks to their hotels as they ran out.  I suppose one of these days I should be less lazy and just take the MTR to Hong Kong Station then transfer to the Fortress Hill Station which then is a 3 minute walk to City Garden Hotel.

    After checking in, I took off for dinner at Times Square near the Causeway Bay MTR station. My coworkers and I ate at a Japanese place called Japanese Dining Sun which was quite nice (shop 1304, 13/F, Food Forum, Times Square, 1 matheson St, Causeway Bay, HK, +852-2506-1838).

    3 of my staff and I ate dinner and chatted about the changes at work and me trying to understand what it is that they are thinking, worried about and like to change.  Of course going direct to the source to the people actually doing the work is the best way but at the same time, it seems that my managers are the ones who should be doing this.  All the same, I find that managing people, not the daily day-to-day stuff is the most difficult of challenges.  No longer am I doing hands-on work but concern with staff welfare, problem solving, lots of delegation is what preoccupies my time.  Bottom line is one can’t overcommunicate enough, to help morale during times of great change and ease consciences.

    Now I’m on to the real work but I’ll try to wake up early to deal with it.  I think my days of working to 1 or 2am are coming to an end.

    Good luck and good night.

  • Airport living

    No, it’s not that bad.  But it seems that I’ll be maintaining the 50% flight time over the next couple of months.  My KL trip is concluding with this little blog from the KLIA Plaza Premier Lounge, courtesy of EVA.

    It’s been a good trip: managed to get a lot of work, socializing, meeting new colleagues, reacquainting with old friends/colleagues, and enjoying all that KL has to offer.  A few comments from new colleagues have been amazingly supportive and complimentary.  I dunno, when people are this positive, I always wonder when the other shoe is gonna drop.  Meanwhile, I take it one day at a time and enjoy it as much as I can.

    Going back to Taipei then flying out again to HK for two days then we’ll see what happens.  Next month, back to HK and KL again for sure.  Moving to a new apartment in early June.  About the same size, slightly more $ but it’s fully furnished and has new fixtures.  A huge upgrade over my current conditions due to the major leak damage from upstairs pretty much ruined the apartment I’m staying at. 

    I think my goal is to get 100,000 miles on Asia Miles and Evergreen (EVA) this year.  I’m just about half way there on both and I still need to follow up on the AA Gold/Plat Challenge to see that they awarded my AsiaMiles to OneWorld/AA.

    Luckily this afternoon the weather is clear, but typically at this time and next month, lots of rains come right after lunch hour.  Get on the ground, meet up with my friend Steve from Maine for dinner when I touch down.

    You go get them FC.