Wahseyy… 1 fine day.. (ok ok, on SUNDAY, happy? Lol), I decided to tidy up my room by removing that WATER POLO (lol…) luggage bag from my room floor…
I took a closer look at the tag that we have placed on our check-in luggage… and this is what I saw…
Wahaha!!
Then I remembered…
On that night, at the check-in counter, the person suggested that we tag our luggage, which we did. And then… he helped us put on the tags… and… well, that’s the outcome.
Hmmm… little things, to keep memories in. Lol!
[27-Sep-2009] Day 5
Alarm: 7am.
Check-out: 8am.
Airport: 8.20am.
Check-in: 8.30am.
Cleared checks: 8.40am.
Flight: 11.30am.
Verdict? We were @(##)@*)(!@!@#)#( too early!
We walked around, crapped around, stoned around, slacked around. All the way till 10.50am. The airplane’s UA879.
We were not next to each other for both the return flights, so each of us had some peace (or rather, she had some peace.. lol!)
The plane was a 777. In-flight entertainment: Zzz. In-flight service: Zzz.
Basically, in order to watch a movie, you have to do the following:
Basically, these are the problems:
And I managed to spill my cup of coke. Zzz. It’s easy. I just had to swing my elbow abit. Done.
Zzz.
[28-Sep-2009] Narita, 2.30pm
We were back at Narita! And this time, it’s shopping at all the little shops at the airport! I bought some keychains, and 1 magnet. And also, food! Yummy…
We had some soba at the food court there. Well… edible I guess.
And after that, we rushed to take our transit flight, UA803, back to Singapore.
We had no one sitting besides us for the flight home! And so, I could fully utilise both seats. I tried doing some work with the laptop, until I became a bit too tired. Tried to sleep abit. Just abit.
And I saw a pig sleeping at the back when I woke up to go to the toilet! And someone was saying that she’s going to read some notes… well…
[28-Sep-2009] Singapore, 11.30pm.
Welcome home.
And that’s the end. End of our trip.
[Trip Evaluation]
Overall, it was a nice experience. To be able to travel so far out for free, is something that I have always wanted. I dream of travel. I dream of working overseas, short-term. I dream of going to places that I have not gone to before. I want some new experience.
Minyan has been nice too. I hope I did not create too much problems for her.
And of course, I have my regrets. I have wasted opportunites to fully utilize my camera’s abilities. I have wasted chances to capture interesting shots. I have wasted precious moments. I have to kowtow to my poor camera, which had been splashed with a bit of rain, squeezed into my bag, roughly handled, and under-utilised.
That’s one of the regrets.
[Crap]
One might say, everyday, there are so many firsts, so why bother? But to me, every firsts, can most probably be your last. It’s always the ‘firsts’ that are more interesting. ‘Seconds’ might not be that refreshing anymore, and ‘thirds’ might just be too much.
Someone said something to me online, and my IDEA lyrics mode was activated. I just had to go into the emo side, and write this down while in my room at Honolulu:
难得一次的时刻 若把它推开 错过了 这一辈åä¸ä¼šå†ä»Žæ¥
ä½ æˆ‘çš„æ— å¥ˆ ä½ æˆ‘çš„æ„Ÿæ…¨ 也ä¸èƒ½å¼¥è¡¥ æˆ‘ä»¬æ‰€é€ æˆçš„伤害
难得一次的时刻 ä¸å¯èƒ½å›žæ¥ 错过了 è°ä¹Ÿä¸èƒ½å¤Ÿè¦æ±‚倒带
ä½ æˆ‘çš„çŽ°åœ¨ ä½ æˆ‘çš„æœªæ¥ å§‹ç»ˆæ²¡æ›´æ”¹ å°±å› ä¸ºé‚£ä¸€æ—¶çš„èµ°å¼€
Now I have to fill in the rest. Wait till I am emo enough ba. Lol!
Things don’t happen everyday. And things don’t happen according to what you hope they will. Things can heal, and they also can hurt. They might come, and might never return. Even if they do, they might be different.
Different.
Oh man, I have not been so emotionally disturbed for a long time…
[26-Sep-2009] Day 4
We had the whole day to ourselves! it’s a free day! We sent out the report early in the morning.
I got out of my room, and went out for a walk at 9am alone. After 3 days walking around the place, I could go out and walk around without getting lost.
Bought Coffee Bean, and some mini apple strudels for breakfast. The strudels were just too sweet.
And so far, the food’s still disappointing…
Bought a newspaper. Not much news in it. Lol.. It’s more about happenings around the island. I should have brought the paper back to Singapore. I think I left it in Minyan’s room after having breakfast there. Oh well.
There was some event happening on the road near the beach. I should have gone down to take some pictures.
I felt so sorry to my camera. I had not done justice to its power. I am so disappointed with myself also.
We went out for our jalan-jalan at [I forgot the time]. We walked all the way to Waikiki Beach, and had some shopping here and there along the way. Some things that we had bought:
The beach’s sooooo nice!! How I wished I could have a dip in the nice clear water!
We had Burger King for lunch. Interesting cups…
After that, we had more jalan-jalan-around, and then, we pulled ourselves back to the hotel.
After awhile, we were out again! To the mall to do some last-shopping.
We had some jap food at some jap restaurant at the mall. Ok, tasted slightly better than the previous days…
And then, we were back in our rooms, packing, and getting ready for the next day’s flight out of Honolulu…
[To be continued]
[25-Sep-2009] Day 3
Day 3’s the last work day! Yay!
We went through most of the things, and most things worked quite alright.
Yay!!!
My code worked.
Yay!!!
Met some big shots here and there.
Yay!!!
Had lunch at a place that serves breakfast all day.
Well… Lol. Yay!!!
And then, it’s the end of the day.
Yay!!!
In the evening, we had more shopping to do. I forgot what we did, but we ended up at the Japanese Restaurant at the hotel for our dinner. The food’s still disappointing.
And then, more reporting to do. But we decided to send it out the next day. We were just too sick of doing reports.
The next day’s plan: Waikiki Beach.
Oh well, my updates are getting shorter and shorter. I cannot keep on writing in detail about shopping.
[to be continued]
[24-Sep-2009] Honolulu Day 2
Woke up at 6am, and the sun’s already out. Ahhhh….
I did not manage to take any nice photos throughout the trip. Wasted. Maybe it’s due to the work.
We had some sushi for breakfast! We bought the sushi the night before, at the supermarket. We bought some cheesecake too. Hmm…
Met Ed at the lobby, and off we went…
Nice morning, with a bit of dark clouds overhead. Felt a little bit unrested. Might be due to the writing of the report, which we submitted after 12am. Zzzz…
Ok, worked with Michael’s software for almost the whole day, leaving Minyan with her own work. I almost fell asleep while looking through my own codes. I did not know why, but I just felt sleepy. Perhaps it’s due to the aircon , which was not working for the whole morning.
Never look at codes when you are feeling sleepy. It’s just a waste of time.
Eventually, I managed to get things done, and went down for some fresh air.
And, I forgot what we were doing, but I think we went out for a spin.
And we were back. And then, it’s almost time to go.
End of work!
For Day 2, we went for more shopping! Actually, it’s the same thing again, cosmetics, watches, etc. Again, I had nothing much to buy. We had some thai food. I had some brown rice with green curry, and papaya salad, and she had pat thai and tom yum soup.
The food’s disappointing so far.
Bought some things. I forgot what they were. I think we went to another supermarket, and bought lots of sweets and chocolates to be brought back to Singapore.
Ended up doing that @*(#&!)(* report for the night once again.
Somehow, we had to end everyday with that @(*#@)!( report.
So boring.
How come I am having this kind of strange feeling?
I am not too happy, not too sad…
I…
I really do not know how to explain myself.
Why?
Bought a Nescafe Latte just now. It’s a kind of reflex action. It’s a habit. When I am feeling kind-of strange, I will get myself a Latte, and ponder over it.
Why?
I have no answers.
What is that feeling? Why am I feeling so empty?
I guess, I am just… hopeless…
[23-Sep-2009] Honolulu Day 1
OK, start of work! Day 1! Before we went over to the workplace, we bought ourselves some ice blended from Coffee Bean! Slightly different from what one gets from Singapore, but more or less the same.
Hmmm…. we got lost trying to find a taxi. In the end, we ended up back at the mall. So many taxis there. Duhz.
We got on to the taxi driven by an overly-cheerful looking lady. She was practically smiling throughout the journey. And she was not very proficient in English. But it’s somewhat interesting, when we were nearing our destination, she kept laughing out loud. Like… suddenly, she would say, “Pier 41”, and then end it with a “Haha”…
Well… Hawaiian life… wow… relaxing… Lol!…
After getting off the “Haha” ride… we started our day at the workplace.
[Work cannot be discussed here in detail]
And then, in the evening, we got ourselves free transport for the next 2 days! One of the 2 people who were there with us, drove, and was staying in the same hotel as us! He kindly offered (or rather, we somehow requested from him) to bring us back to the hotel. Yay… Thanks Ed. Lol…
Well, Ed liked to look and talk to Minyan at the same time, and so, while he drove, he kept turning his body to look backwards to talk to her as she’s sitting in the rear seat. And then, I would be at the front, seeing the vehicle drift a bit to the left, to the right….
Well… Lol! It’s really interesting la… *turns head to the back* wahahaha!!!
That evening, we went back quite late. We somehow dragged ourselves to the mall to have dinner and to do some shopping. Minyan had cold soba ( I think), and I had hot soba (I think). Well… The food’s not that impressive, therefore, there’s not much memory about it. Lol!
Then, it’s shopping… shopping… shopping…
Er… Actually I had nothing much to buy. I just followed Minyan all over the place, from cosmetics to skin care products to soaps to watches to more cosmetics and more skin care products, etc…
Seriously, I simply cannot start buying things.
I managed to lock myself up, and prevented myself from getting a Fossil watch. It’s a metal piece, with black and red clock face. Well, what to do, black and red just happens to be my favourite colour combination.
No buying!!!
I have a watch that I seldom wear. I think I will do likewise if I had bought that watch.
And so, I ended up busy “psycho-ing” her to buy this and buy that, to help boost Hawaii’s economy…
Lalalala…
And then, we went back to our rooms, and started doing the @#@#)(* daily report…
[To be continued]
I was looking at the 4 ticket stubs on my table, and was wondering that the first ticket looked kind of familiar.
And then, I remembered.
NH 0902…
0902…
Isn’t that my birthday? Wahhaha!!!!
Duhz…
OK, let’s continue with the story.
It’s a strange thing, but everywhere we went, people were talking to us in Japanese. Maybe we looked Asian, and so, they just assumed we were from Japan. Or maybe that’s another frequently-used language in Hawaii. Sad, but my Japanese skills were not that high a level, I usually could not reply back in Japanese. Lol.
Which was a good thing, in case I said the wrong thing. LOL!
And yes, we were on Business Class!
We had quite a good rest before reaching Honolulu, and so, we were almost ready to go on arrival!
But of course, we had to go to the hotel to put down our stuffs.
We were staying at Ala Moana Hotel, in Waikiki Tower, high up, at the third-highest floor: 34th floor.
We had a nice view!
And this’s my room!
Yes, 2 beds… but no. We had different rooms ok. LOL! Here’s her room.
Wahh…
LOL. Ok we were not there for a holiday (even though, it’s really a holiday). We had to work for the 3 days. Exclude the first day, we worked from 7am to 6pm. That place starts work at 7am, so… since we were there, we followed their work times. Heh.
Interesting…
[To be continued]
[22-Sep-2009] Singapore
Well, we only confirmed that we are leaving tonight! There’s some hiccup at the travel agent’s side, which said that our original flight, which is to take off tomorrow morning, has been overbooked. They asked if we were able to fly tonight.
Of course, they have to hang some carrot in front of us…
If we fly tonight, we will reach Narita Airport by tomorrow morning. They will offer us free accommodation at Narita Excel Hotel Tokyu, until our transit flight to Honolulu, which is at 7pm. They also have a big gift for us: a free upgrade to business class on our flight to Honolulu!
Such a good offer, I rather rush home to pack, and get ready to fly tonight! Minyan has agreed too. Yay…
I was still in office at 7pm. Duhz. My flight is at 11.30pm. We have agreed to meet at the airport at 10pm. Rush!!
Reached home, packed the last few items, ate, bathed, stoned, and out I went, to the airport on a very very fast taxi…
I was earlier than Minyan. She arrived slightly later, with her parents. We checked in, said our byes, and in we went, past the gates.
We were quite early actually. And so, we sat at one of the many seats all around the airport, and wait.
We talked crap now and then…
Hmmm… I was wondering, my first flight, my first overseas assignment, and my first overseas trip, with a girl. How interesting.
So many firsts with her. Oh well. Lol!
We flew off at around 11.30pm SGT, on NH902.
In-flight entertainment was alright, with some latest movies available, and some games here and there…
[23-09-2009] Narita
We got out of Narita Airport by 8am. Wow, the weather’s cool! Felt like Genting. Lol. We did not really have a good sleep on board the plane, as the seats were, well, simply not suitable for sleeping.
We took the free shuttle bus to the hotel and stoned there. Heh. After a while, we decided to go jalan-jalan! We got all the time!!!
We went down to check with the information counter. That friendly guy recommended us to visit Aeon Mall. And we were just in time for the shuttle bus!
Things that were good about the buses: not crowded, clean, and really very very very very on time! With the bus schedule table, it’s impossible to miss the bus!
And ok, we paid 200 yen each for the trip to the mall. Decided to eat at the mall’s food court. We had jap food (of course). She had cold soba. I had hot soba. Heh.
And 1 thing I would like to comment: The Mcdonald’s ad for McFlurry certainly did not look that much yummy. It’s looked… BROWN… Duhz.
Then we went walking around the mall. It’s big! And lots of things! But we did not have much time. Heh… Aw…
And guess what? I did not have any yen on me! Lol!!! Damn… I had to borrow $$ from her first. Aw… Last minute plan.. what to do. Lol…
We went to the bookstore!! Bought Jeremy’s favourite book! She also bought one for her mom. I bought… nothing. Lol…
I was conserving money you see… lol…
Anyone who knows me will know that, once I start spending, it’s the end…
We went to the supermarket. Food time! Bought some tidbits…
After that, we went back to the hotel to stone more…
Comments about Japan: Many things are automated! They have money exchange machines, dispensers that sell almost anything, and even their cashier does not need to count the change for the customer! It’s all automated. Wahh…
And the smoking room. They even have rooms for smokers!
Wahhh…
Can I go back to Japan again? The short few hours… is just NOT ENOUGH… And also, due to the rushed time, I did not manage to fully enjoy the short Narita stay.
We set off for Narita Airport again, at around 5pm. We flew off to Honolulu, on UA880. Business class!!!
I love business class! Nice food, nice seats, nice screens, everything is nice!!!
Hahaha!!! And we can even transform the seat into a bed… it’s soooo good to sleep…
We were both first timers on business class! So lucky! Lol!!!
[To be continued…]
