business trip to spore
i was in spore for a business trip a few weeks back. left the our island tuesday night and left spore thursday night. it was an extremely rushed trip. to make matters worse, i thought the flight was 1845 when it was actually 1805. i found this out at 1700. well, made it to the airport on time and was one of the last people to board. saw thewife's eldest sis on the same flight as well. she was going to spore for a training. Didn’t have time to talk to her though.the flight was ok and the hotel room was nice but i just could not sleep at all.was struggling everynight to fall asleep. was up til 3am on the 1st night.i even got calls from thewife and theson as well. they also could not sleep. i missed them a lot as well.
anyway, as soon as we touched down in spore, my 2 colleagues took me out to have a sri-lankan crab dinner, black pepper style at the east coast seafood centre.the crab was huge and very fresh. the flesh was very juicy and firm and not like the lil critters we have back here. the black pepper sauce was also excellent.i'm amazed that i have been to spore so many times and no one has ever taken me for that kind of crab. well, it was expensive. crab, prawns and asparagus which was $95 for the 3 of us.
woke up early the next day at 7am. Was picked up by a MPV cab and we stopped at another 2 more hotels to pickup another guy and the US folks. It was a 30min cab ride to the subcon office.The running joke was that it was 30min to get anywhere from wherever you were since spore was so small.was in the subcon house by 9am. meeting people, looking at ppt slideshows, getting updates and setting expectations. very hectic and mentally exhausting.
for dinner, we took a cab to the esplanade for another seafood dinner. this time it was chilli Crab, bamboo clams, prawns, stir fry kangkung, satay, fish stuffed eu char kuey & 2 bottles of wine.(note: didnt even touch a drop the wine. the crab was enough damage for me already. i'm already suffering the effects from the crab as I write this but it was all worth it.)Chilli crab was not so nice. The black pepper we had the day before was way much better.our table was directly in front of the merlion statue. i could even see my hotel from where i sat and it was an excellent and beautiful view.
after the crab dinner, we walked back the the hotel. well, i walked “towards” the hotel but detoured into the shopping mall next to the hotel.i looked and assessed. its was 830pm, there are 3 floors of shopping and i have 1.5 hours to walk and shop.so, there shud be enough time right?.. wrong!!spore shops start shutting down at 915pm.i walked into the"John little" and got the avent stuff for baby#2 and the thomas-train stuff for theson. then i sped off to “times” and spotted the 3rd part of the pendergast trilogy. so thats for thewife.mission accomplished.all done in 45mins. couldn’t decide on buying anything for myself though.then i loitered around and in the final closing moments was in a 7-11 to buy chocolates and a coke for later.walked back to the hotel and struggled with sleep til 1am.
woke up early again the next morning and checked out. It was Raining lightly.Had a few more meetings with my counterparts, mostly Filipinos. Hardly saw any Indians or malays actually.Took another cab to the burn-in house at 2pm and finished that tour in 3omin. By this time I was just pooped. Fell asleep in the cab actually. We left the burn in house and went to have a cuppa coffee and some crepes with the US folks before our flight at 1645.was at the airport by 1700. checked in and walked around terminal 2. Called thewife. Bought a bottle of baileys, some chocs for the folks back home and bought myself (finally…) an o’briens sandwich for dinner (which I only ate 3 hours later at home. Regret that I did not buy another sandwich.)Plane landed at 2000 and thewife and theson was there to pick me up. Yay…!!!! And back at home by 2030.
Observations:
Airplane food portions seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Air stewardesses always seem to have the standard smile that I find so fake. (well, as long as no one bugs me..)
The people in the subcon were very efficient.
the sales people in the spore shopping malls were very polite and helpful.
I cant sleep comfortably away from home.
anyway, as soon as we touched down in spore, my 2 colleagues took me out to have a sri-lankan crab dinner, black pepper style at the east coast seafood centre.the crab was huge and very fresh. the flesh was very juicy and firm and not like the lil critters we have back here. the black pepper sauce was also excellent.i'm amazed that i have been to spore so many times and no one has ever taken me for that kind of crab. well, it was expensive. crab, prawns and asparagus which was $95 for the 3 of us.
woke up early the next day at 7am. Was picked up by a MPV cab and we stopped at another 2 more hotels to pickup another guy and the US folks. It was a 30min cab ride to the subcon office.The running joke was that it was 30min to get anywhere from wherever you were since spore was so small.was in the subcon house by 9am. meeting people, looking at ppt slideshows, getting updates and setting expectations. very hectic and mentally exhausting.
for dinner, we took a cab to the esplanade for another seafood dinner. this time it was chilli Crab, bamboo clams, prawns, stir fry kangkung, satay, fish stuffed eu char kuey & 2 bottles of wine.(note: didnt even touch a drop the wine. the crab was enough damage for me already. i'm already suffering the effects from the crab as I write this but it was all worth it.)Chilli crab was not so nice. The black pepper we had the day before was way much better.our table was directly in front of the merlion statue. i could even see my hotel from where i sat and it was an excellent and beautiful view.
after the crab dinner, we walked back the the hotel. well, i walked “towards” the hotel but detoured into the shopping mall next to the hotel.i looked and assessed. its was 830pm, there are 3 floors of shopping and i have 1.5 hours to walk and shop.so, there shud be enough time right?.. wrong!!spore shops start shutting down at 915pm.i walked into the"John little" and got the avent stuff for baby#2 and the thomas-train stuff for theson. then i sped off to “times” and spotted the 3rd part of the pendergast trilogy. so thats for thewife.mission accomplished.all done in 45mins. couldn’t decide on buying anything for myself though.then i loitered around and in the final closing moments was in a 7-11 to buy chocolates and a coke for later.walked back to the hotel and struggled with sleep til 1am.
woke up early again the next morning and checked out. It was Raining lightly.Had a few more meetings with my counterparts, mostly Filipinos. Hardly saw any Indians or malays actually.Took another cab to the burn-in house at 2pm and finished that tour in 3omin. By this time I was just pooped. Fell asleep in the cab actually. We left the burn in house and went to have a cuppa coffee and some crepes with the US folks before our flight at 1645.was at the airport by 1700. checked in and walked around terminal 2. Called thewife. Bought a bottle of baileys, some chocs for the folks back home and bought myself (finally…) an o’briens sandwich for dinner (which I only ate 3 hours later at home. Regret that I did not buy another sandwich.)Plane landed at 2000 and thewife and theson was there to pick me up. Yay…!!!! And back at home by 2030.
Observations:
Airplane food portions seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Air stewardesses always seem to have the standard smile that I find so fake. (well, as long as no one bugs me..)
The people in the subcon were very efficient.
the sales people in the spore shopping malls were very polite and helpful.
I cant sleep comfortably away from home.
posted by thehusband at 8:33 PM
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