12:50 Wednesday 12 August 2009
Back Seat

First blog post for my tiring 5 hour journey to china. I finished watching xmen-wolverine origins and xmen-1. Woke up restless from a 10 min nap. And guess what only 90mins to go before we land. I’m suddenly overcome by anxiety. That has been giving me a sick feeling in my stomach for the past few days.

I caught the trend, searched for my carbimazole tablets and they were yellowed and expired! I guess I don’t have any help to calm my nerves. It will be a tiring 5 days. And I can’t seem to get any sleep. The plane has been shaking ever since take off. Perhaps I can finally experience a crash?! This is the horrible-est flight I have been on!

Brian mcknight music and blogging on my mac book on a plane. Free breakfast in the silverkris business class lounge. The steward who calls me and my colleague by name. what can be better than this? without fail to mention economy class and the back seat. Row 55! That’s the last 3 men row, right before the loo, and I keep picking up a smell. Eeww… I couldn’t stop looking out for him in the lounge, hoping he could coincidentally be on business trip as well.

Despiite the back seat, I should be feeling very happy now, but my thoughts scatter, become reminiscent. I heard a radio conversation. It basically asks who you’ll like to go for a 10 day holiday with. I mentally voted for family. And the results say that im sick of my double life- the pretence at the work place, fending off daggers, and I just want to be myself.. How true, I enjoy my job, but im getting sick of it..

I suddenly smell it again! It’s that guy 2 seats away, he keeps burping and it stinks.. he can’t stop asking for snacks, drinks, and goes to the loo often.

The turbulence is making my macbook violently whack the cup holder. I should turn it off and get some sleep.

23:05 Wednesday 12 August 2009
First Class

Woah.. it was a tiring day and tomorrow is promised to be worse. Westin hotel surprised me with a free upgrade and personal meet and greet. This was not the usual bowing and politeness. It was far better! Once I said I was jodi, the manager ran out to greet me. So then a handful of people offered to carry my luggage up. I had dinner and a nice bath and now im in the oversized armchair in the master bedroom of my executive suite. This suite has 2 bedrooms, 3 beds, 2 bathrooms, 1 powder room, one hall, dining, and study. Woah. My master bathroom sure is impressive! Yay! Im so blessed…

I’m paranoid I’ll lose things, so I kept in mind to put everything I have in the master bedroom. Even if it means I only have 2 power points and 3 items that need to be charged.

01:01 Friday 14 August 2009
Foreign

I can’t believe we managed to survive at the work site with aircon with the temperature at 39.c on Wednesday and 40.c on Thursday! Everyone said we can at the last few days of summer and the hottest ever..

It was a busy day.. climb lots of stairs, lugged my laptop and backpack. Moved furniture. I was mostly slacking, Kenneth did soo well. i felt everyone at this jobsite was a friend! Although I had to be mean to them because of work, at the end of the day, we could go for dinner together and drank and laughed. J it was a tiring day.. and the thought on my mind now.. the carpet for the whole project is soooo ugly.. sigh.. I hope that once the furniture are in to cover the majority of it, the place will look good. It seems the first few levels and guestrooms looked great. Those were the areas my bosses were involved. Then they slowly lost interest and now.. I feel the other areas don’t look good.. sigh. Im so demoralized.

Dinner at famous Ghost Street was ok. The food was similar to the ones we have at home. I especially liked the pear slices with ‘shan char’ sauce. I’m getting sick of roast duck. I loved the “Da Bai Chai!” Didn’t not it can be so good!

The full body massage at a sleazy Chinese spa- with 3 basements was not very helpful. I could still feel my arm aching during the massage. And now, my whole body is still aching.. im hungry and tired. Gonnna grab something from the minibar and sleeppp… good night!

00:04 Saturday 15 August 2009
Chinese Food Makes Me Sick

Roast Duck, more roast duck and finally mcdonald’s! Chinese restaurant, Chinese restaurant and more corporate dining, finally- freedddooomm!! This few days have been 38, 39 and today felt like 40! It’s been so hard to pull thru. One woman with 15 guys at any time on site. Every action I make to relieve blood pressure in my legs, commanded laughter from the man. Then slowly, the men slumped on to the floors.

I made friends.. Jiang, We could communicate very well and he helped me to express my comments. He even wanted to take my bag by force. He’s constantly helping me along the way and laughing all the time at the dining table! I almost cried when the 2 feet lobster came on the table, the head staring at me.. Wang, he’s a chubby, loud spoken, contractor boss, he is hilarious! Everyone knew who I am, and I didn’t even know their names. I was rumored to love sports. HAH! The client has been telling the 50-odd consultants stories about me… tsk. The contractors were nice.. everyone fought to take us out for meals. We took photos like friends even though there had been so many quarrels, finger pointing etc.. it was such a good feeling.

My flight is in 7 hours, I will need to get this 5 hour rest now. I’m really glad I brought along my sandals! My feet are dying..

01:16 Sunday 16^th August 2009
What?!

I obviously didn’t join in “The Great Westin Run”. Let’s just say the odds are against me. Weather, the nature of the sport itself and the scorching sun. Just because they upgraded me to the executive suite, I have had super VIP treatment my 5 days here. Hah!

Today was manageable, abit of climbing at the Xi an City Wall and visiting the Terracotta Warriors and Horses. It was cool! Kenneth was a great company together with the tour guide and driver. 38.c sustained through 6am in the morning to 10pm at night. It’s cooler now, finally. Sweeny Todd is on now, but im too tired to watch it. Bought souvenirs. Feel cheated cos I bought a set at 60 sing dollars when I saw 20 other shops selling them at one tenth of the price! According to the tour guide and the sound of the metal body, the one I bought was of premium quality. Right. Anyways I ended up buying a 10 dollar set at the airport for a friend. Argh…

So then i went to Kenn’s room to get photos. And now my freaking macbook doesn’t read or write the external hard disk.. ah!!! I need to figure something out tomorrow. Yawn.. time to sleep! My gastronomical and retail journey starts in 7.5 hours.

15:07 Sunday 16^th August 2009
Home

Stuck in an internet lounge with expensive food and the chair that requires efforts in order reach to the table, that doesn’t even have internet! Stupid LAN cable.. Boarding time is in another 20 mins and I’ll be out of the land of the great panda. J So now, im just gonna enjoy my hotdog sandwich, and pray I have enough cash in my wallet! If not, oops, gotta find a Bank of China ATM in this vast… environment.

I got to the gate at 1630 hoping to make a smooth entry (and risk missing the flight. as always) and the boarding time has been delayed twice. Expected boarding time is 1615 and departure 1645. This means I will land at 2300! Argh.. it’s 1600 now and the plane is nowhere in sight.. I have an hour’s battery on my laptop left. I guess I should be thankful!