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Life in Another City
I guess I should update about the various stuff that happened during the half year hiatus from blogging.
First, I went back to my old workplace after my friend asked me to go back. And now, nearly 8 months down the road, I think I should have followed the Chinese saying "好马不吃回头草". Different team, a better boss, but the work still sucks.
But at least I got a chance to work overseas for one and a half months. Nowhere fancy, just to Suzhou, China, but hey, at least I got to travel for free and experience a different culture. ;)
My colleague went with me for the first two weeks, and the first day we were there, we nearly wilted under the summer sun. I never thought summers in the northern hemisphere would be hotter than what we experience in the tropics. Boy, was I wrong. Not only was it hot, the air was also dry, and the sun felt like fire on the skin.
The season change took place much faster that I'd expected. I was there till mid-September, when summer ends and autumn takes over. Still the stifling heat at the end of a week, and then suddenly, the weather started to turn cold. And silly me thought I would be back home by the time the weather starts to turn cold and so I got my boyfriend to take back one of my jackets when he come to visit me.
BAD decision. I didn't realise how bad a decision it was until I was freezing in the rain trying to catch a cab after work. The wind was so cold and strong and kept trying to blow my umbrella away. Thank god I had another jacket with me.
Damn, the post seems to be getting drier and drier by the minute. Maybe I should just shut up and post some pictures instead. (Actually, I have soooo much to say but I'm too lazy to write them out. Hee.)
The hotel I stayed in for the six weeks in Suzhou. Situated in their city area, it was about ten to fifteen mins walk to their shopping area.
Guan Qian Street (观前街) - their shopping district, something like our Orchard Road. Bustling with people and activities on a Sunday afternoon.
An interesting sign I saw while walking around Suzhou.
Quite picturesque, don't you think? Credit for this pic goes to my trigger-happy boyfriend.
Food food food! My colleague and I have tried out many sumptuous dishes during his two week stay there, so when my boyfriend came to visit me after that, I took him to eat those especially nice ones. The first day I took him to eat Pizza Hut. Did you know that the Pizza Hut in China is much nicer than the one in Singapore? And cheaper too! (The Chinese name for Pizza Hut is interesting too - 必胜客. Well, it sure wins its counterpart in Singapore. ;p )
The second day was Peking duck. We ordered an entire duck and had a hard time finishing it, even though it was delicious. Swore not to eat peking duck for the rest of my stay there.
Yummy!
The third day we went on a one-day trip to Shanghai. So sad, I wanted to eat the famous Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao that everyone kept telling me about. But I kept getting the fake ones instead. And that happened both times I went to Shanghai.
:(
*pouts*
Next up on the yummy list was lobsters. Not those big ones, but those small ones that can fit on the palm. Very, very, very delicious.
Smells wonderful! A tray full of lobsters.
A single lobster. Taking the meat out of the shell is an art. Thank god my Suzhou colleague showed us how to do it the first time we ate lobsters.
The end product. Looks just like a prawn without its shell, but a thousand times more delicious. *Drool*
The restuarant serving great lobsters.
The last day was a sushi place near my hotel. It was an all-you-can-eat ala carte sushi buffet for a mere 20 Sing dollars. All their seafood was so fresh, we don't get that in Singapore. Not for 20 dollars anyway.
Spent my birthday alone in the hotel room in Suzhou, and felt so lonely. I got a pleasant surprise when the hotel manager came to my room with a birthday cake. They even sang the birthday song for me! Talk about great service.
I couldn't finish the whole cake alone.
Ok, ending off this post with a few pics taken in Shanghai. Actually I have loads more pics to share, but taking into consideration the bandwidth limit and the time needed to edit those pics, I think I shan't post anymore.
Raffles City in Shanghai! Overheard from the cleaner in the washroom that she had to keep the toilets super clean or else the "Singapore bosses are going to get angry". Hmmmm...
Cheng Huang Miao (城隍庙）- Famous temple in Shanghai.
They have many such statues on the top of the roofs.
This building is pretty.
I like this pic. Kinda proud of myself for taking this, haha.
Paper Pushers
I'm not supposed to be blogging now. I have loads of stuff waiting for me to do right now, but but, I'm sick of working and I need a short break from work before I go crazy. Might as well make it useful and update my blog now so that I'll be one month free from nagging. Hehe. ;p
I'm wondering who the hell invented paperwork/documentation and the audit job in the past?
I would LOVE to push that genius off a cliff.
Why is there a need spend more time updating documents that will do nothing but collect dust and will never be never be read by anyone else except the "beloved" auditor?
What a waste of time.
If there's a fire, guess who's gonna be the first to perish cos he's too busy updating that "a fire has occurred at xxx place at yyy time"?
P.S. No offence to those who make a living as auditors.
Dead? You Wish (Or Rather, I Would)
No, I'm not dead yet.
Neither have I suffered from any life-threatening illnesses that took away my ability to blog.
It was, purely, laziness that caused this blog to remain stagnant for more than half a year. And it would probably continue to remain stagnant if a certain someone has not been nagging me about it.
So here I am, back with a very short post because Sunday is fading away fast, Monday is rushing towards me like an out-of-control bulldozer and I have absolutely no mood to do anything except mope around depressively.
Hopefully, hopefully, this will be the first of many other posts to follow.
I wouldn't bet on it though.
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Saturday, November 25, 2006
