Back to work

Heh heh...not exactly back to work yet. I start tomorrow. It should be interesting and I'm looking forward to it.

Well, after helping mum and dad out with their shop in Kuantan, it's time to come back to Singapore. The trip was nice and their shop is looking good although the work is hard. I was looking forward to a little bit more of R&R but it was fun helping out in the shop too. *plug* BTW, if you happen to be in Kuantan, go pay them a visit and buy some stuff. :-) Their WOFS feng shui shop is in the Berjaya Mall which is sadly the only shopping mall that you can call a shopping mall in Kuantan. *plug*

The trip back to Singapore was arduous as usual. And it all started at breakneck speed too. As a precursor to leaving town, I HAD TO have one more bowl of my favourite dry noodles with laksa soup at my favourite brekkie place in town. Of course it's a Sunday and everyone comes out for breakfast around 9-11am on Sundays. I don't think I've gobbled down a bowl of noodles faster in my entire life! I got to the airport with 15 mins to spare and managed to catch the guy to check in as he was walking away from the counter. Whew! I just know Mr "You-have-to-be-at-the-airport-one-hour-before-the-flight-Ben" is going to have something to say. :-)
I had to fly from Kuantan to KL and then endure a three hour wait in the airport for the KL to Singapore flight because I chose to fly SIA. All-in-all, a six hour trip so I thought I'll be clever this time. For an extra SGD$67, I get to fly first class and enjoy the lounge facilities which I did. Sadly, the SIA lounge in KLIA really sucks. It has no showers, no TV (couldn't switch it on for some reason), no Internet access without my own computer (and I don't have one until I start work!) All they had were barely edible sandwiches and tons of alcohol which I know in most people's case might just do the trick but hey, it's 11am in the morning! Of course my prepaid phone ran out of credits, the girl didn't have change for the pay phone and the !#$%^ pay phone would not accept a toll-free number! ARGH!

And then I step out to look for change and next door is a general access lounge where if you pay RM$80 (Malaysian Ringgit if you don't know), you get to use all the aforementioned facilities on top of the food and drinks. DOH! I'll make a mental note to use them next time. RM$80 is equivalent to SGD34.45 so it's cheap as.

Once you're in the air, it's a whole new world though. SIA's first class is really first class. Like I said in a previous posting, I'm greeted with a smile from the moment I board the plane to the moment I get off the plane. The seats were really high-tech and I didn't dare fumble with the controls for fear of folding myself into the seat. The food was good even though it's only a 55-minute flight. We had a choice of beef on pita bread or smoked salmon on soba noodles. Of course I went the salmon and I think it was the right choice because the Japanese guy sitting next to me didn't like his pita bread. The dish came with a kind of wasabi type dressing/sauce too and it went very well with the salmon and soba. I couldn't take a photo as I only had my mobile phone camera. This reminds me of a website I once saw. Users will contribute all their culinary experiences on board airlines. I think they must travel a lot and are completely bored or something. Let me see if I can find the URL...ahh...there we go: http://www.airlinemeals.net.

Anyway...the rest is the usual, plane arrives, get off plane, go back to hotel...blah blah.

I'm also hungry now so I'll sign off here. I was going to whinge about Malaysia Airlines' stupid Internet booking system but it's just too long. Just remember not to try and book your flight on the day. It has to be 48 hours before and you have to go to the ticketing office to pick up the itinerary printout even though it's a bloody e-Ticket.

Till the next notable thing to write or culinary experience. Ciao!

chet

P.S. For those of you who know me, my Optus number is no more so don't try to contact me on that. Use the email address I've given you instead.