Triscribe

Category: En route

  • 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….

  • 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.

     

  • NCAA?!

    Ok, so my brackets are now officially completely obliterated.  Last night, I had a feeling that UConn could be beaten by George Mason, considerating that it’d be hard to beat a Cinderella on a momentum.  And, wasn’t UConn beaten during the Big East conference tournament?  I had picked it as my Final Four and Final Final since I have a soft spot for the local team, but I just didn’t feel strongly about my brackets this year (considering that I didn’t follow any game during the regular season, sure…).  I had Villanova v. Florida, but man, ‘Nova couldn’t stay in there.  Anyway, who’s the prophet out there who picked George Mason?  Or LSU?

  • Curry Rendang

    Arrived in KL yesterday afternoon.  After a bit of a mix up with the pickup whereby the company forgot to inform the hotel of my change in plans, I finally got on the road back to the hotel.  Quite posh @ Le Meridien the newest member of the Starwood Hotel chains.  Racking up the loyalty points.  Even get free laundry service each day I’m here.  Service is quite nice, better than Westin Chicago and The Essex House (formerly Westin) and those were really nice.

    I relaxed and didn’t turn on the computer much but BlackBerried (I love verbing nouns) a couple of times.  Today, slept in, had a leisurely breakfast then headed over to Suria KLCC for some shopping.  Picked up a new navy blue slacks, a new billfold style wallet (to hold the extra large size HK dollars) and belts (buy 1 get 1 free).  In addition to that spree, I went to town on some books at Kinokuniya getting some English books for my English students and a couple of management books for myself and colleague.

    Came back and met up with some old M’sian colleagues and chatted in the lobby lounge.  Evening, went out for dinner with a PM e-colleague who I finally met up and another PM trainer colleague.  I always have a good time when I come back.

    Now I look forward to a hugely busy 5 day meeting fest with conferences, meetings, project planning and all fun stuff.  Going to be a long week.

    March Madness seems to have lived up to its namesake this year.  Good :).

    Cheers all!

  • TPE

    Unscheduled stop back in TPE. Fell sick to a stomach bug after eating some major fried, greasy but oh-so-good HK food near our HK office in North Point. So stayed back and cancelled my S’pore flight and Prince 2 studies. Oh the well anyways, because had to deal with HR issues, catch up on rest and prepare for week long meeting gab-fest in Malaysia next week. So much to do, so little time.

    Even missed my March Madness :(.

    One bright spot of the trip was to attend one of my staff’s wedding out in the New Territories places.  It’s a pretty big self-contained town which reminded me of how the US cities used to populate its urban areas.. large “projects” types of housing with surrounding shops for convenience.  Sunday we went to the local marriage registrar’s office and there was just a long line of couples waiting to get married.  Interesting stuff and then afterwards went to Tsim Sha Tsui for the banquet.  I got really trashed and barely staggered back to the hotel that evening.  Next day was pretty rough.  Too much fun perhaps leading to the stomach bug.  Well, have to watch out next time.

  • North Point!

    That would be Hong Kong and at the City Garden Hotel.  Just arrived this afternoon.  Surprising the trip from the airport to here took 1.5 hours by their shuttle bus.  There were 4 people ahead of me, me being the last stop but still… I think that was a bit long.  Anyways, didn’t matter, it was a nice sunny day and I felt I was doing the Gray Line city tour thing.  No hurries.

    Tired from all the work and more work next week and traveling to Singapore. 

    Came in early to get away from it all in a nice comfortable environment.  Hotel isn’t bad, but going through some renovations.  They apparently “lost” my reservation at the desk and took a little longer to check in.  Room is a bit small as compared to the Hotel Excelsior and the price not as cheap as was originally reserved for.  Will have to let my HK office sort that one out when I get back.

    Going to meet up with an BLS Alum here for dinner in an hour.  Then tomorrow, brunch and then a wedding ceremony HK style for one of the IT staff guys and then the dinner reception after that.

    I’ll enjoy while I can… it’s going to be a lot of work!

    All the best FC.

  • On and off

    It’s been a whirlwind tour of Asia-Pac via Cathay Pacific.  Last Thursday and Friday was in HongKong.  Seeing the office move to North Point while also in for some key meetings with my direct report.

    Then came back Saturday evening, then Sunday evening fly to Sydney for a Regional meeting.  It’s been great so far with BAT.  Learning lots, excellent and smart people, and having a great time on the company expenses.  I flew business class on Cathay and I do believe I will have hit my AA Gold/Plat Challenge with this trip… and I’ve got 2, maybe there more trips left next month to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and HK again.  It’s quite nice.

    Interesting thing at the airport though… waking up at 3:30am for a 6:25am flight and luckily I did because I found out that Australia requires US citizens to apply for visas to enter!!! So why are the Americans requiring Aussies to get visas?  So much for being friends and part of the “coalition of the willing”.  Crazy I tell you.  :O.  At least they make it easy and there’s an electronic visa application.  Cathay did it for me at the check-in counter and got it sorted out in 20 mins.  Whew.

    I never thought that I’d be back here in Sydney again since after 1994 I was here with my buddy Coops….. and here I am.  Just had dinner at Biondi beach at a place called Nicks.  Fantastic.  The BAT Aussie guys really taking care of us.

    So for now, enjoying it after a couple of lean years…. Life is an adventure. God is certainly giving me this.