Flight Back
I didn't use to fly this often. Now, I'm starting to hate it. The cramped seats. The aching ears and butt. The cold airconditioning. The bad movies. The awful food. Most especially, the fact that it just takes too darn long.
Then again, I've found out (once again) that listening to Sitti on the in-flight radio makes flying much better. My favorite from her debut album is "Hey Look At The Sun". Enchanting voice.
Astoria Park
After the flight, I headed for the baggage collection belt, picked up what's mine, walked casually through the "nothing to declare" customs lane and headed for my new home in Astoria Park condominium. Changi Airport Terminal 2 has the MRT station right below. Four stops from Changi Airport is Kembangan, which in Malay means "expansion". Right outside the MRT station is where our flat sits. Pool. Gym. Thirteen levels up. Great view of the city. Breezy. All worth the extra cash we chip in every month for a year. When I arrived, it was just my IKEA Aneboda bed set, the ref, washer, and iron inside. In the next few weeks, we'll slowly complete the furnishings. and then some.
MRT vs Bus
Being in Treetops in June, I got used to the 10 minute bus ride to the office. In Astoria Park, it's a three minute walk to the MRT platform, then an estimated 25-minute train ride to the office. The trains are quite packed during rush hour. Saka, alam niyo na, marami DIYAN mga may putok. Lalaki, babae, matanda, bata, maganda, pangit, matangkad, maliit. You can probably guess what sort of experience that's like.
The train ride home takes roughly the same time, and the rush hour crowds are still heading home East. I once tried taking the bus. I saved 1-cent, and spent 20 more minutes. But I at least got to sit down and read the newspaper. Every once in a while, I might try taking the bus home, just for kicks.
The Sovereign
Went to Joey's cousin in Meyer Rd. in an apartment called The Sovereign. Wow. Now THAT is an apartment. Very luxurious, and comes with its own elevator. Nonetheless, it's not so commuter-friendly but that's understandable as most of its residents drive cars or take the cab.
Had salad, spinach lasagne and various kinds of pizza. Stuffed myself, as usual.
Move to 4th Floor
When I got back to work, I spent around thirty minutes reading backlog e-mail before I got to the email which said that our team moved to the fourth floor from the eighth. I got my mail anyway, including my very own ATM and credit card.
The fourth floor in The Atrium@Orchard, where I work isn't as good as the eighth, as we all found out. First of all, there's less space, ther's no TV, the vending machine doesn't give out Milo and softdrinks, the chairs are less ergonomic AND, get this, the rest rooms have access codes(!) As to why we need to key-in the four-digit pass every time we want to take leak, who knows, really. I learned that we might need to move somewhere else as our team is growing and growing by the month.
But for now, our office sits opposite MTV Asia/Singapore studios. So every once in a while, we see Denise Keller smoking outside the ground floor lobby, going to the restroom, and such. Go Google her up, if you don't know who she is.
Credit card
Of course, one of the best "welcome back gifts" I received is my very own credit card (this time with ample credit limit). So since I got it, I charge almost everything I buy. Rewards Points galore. Also helped me purchase my laptop at 0% for 12-months.
Citibank
The thing with banking with Citibank is that they LOOOVE to send out letters. New PIN. Letter. Logged in for the first time. Letter. Activated this. Letter. Used our ATM for the first time. Letter. Walked in front of the branch. Letter. Hehe, kidding on the last one.
I conclude that they hate trees.
Dell XPS M1210
As I mentioned, I got myself a slick Dell laptop with 12.1" screen, 2.0 Ghz Core Duo, 1GB RAM. 12 months to pay at zero interest. Sweet. We also got ourselves Starhub broadband and Cable TV. I'll be online almost every night, and sometimes in the morning when i'm working shifts. We set up the wireless network here at home and secured it, of course.
Pirates
We managed to catch Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (with Chinese subtitles) at Suntec City. It's fairly entertaining in some parts, and bits of comedy here and there. I felt that it was quite long, which means that they spent too much screen time on useless things. While it's nice to see the old cast back, the movie is still no match for the quality of its predecessor. After the first time I watched Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, I thought that it was truly a value-for-money movie, funny and engaging all the way and in the end, you wanted to be a pirate.
Drrrinks-ah
My drinks of choice when I eat at the Hawker centres or Kopitiams are cold soya milk, White Grape soda called Qoo, or good old Horlick's. When you guys visit, have a taste of some of these.
Of course, there's the old Iced Lemon Tea, Iced Peach Tea, Iced Green Tea and other Iced
