will i am's delayed diary

On the last day of the conference, my GM did his presentation. Pretty interesting because it was the first time I ever heard him do a business pitch in putonghua , and I must say that its better than his English! Everything was wrapped up, and they closed with a dialogue with the customers regarding products that had caught their interest. So that was it. My only purpose there was to smile, nod my head, and 'look pretty'. Zzz. We had some time to kill before dinner, so we had a little walk outside. Walked along Taiping Road, going as close as possible to the Chinese Naval Museum to get a better look at the submarine. Walked past some heritage houses and the Tianhou Temple which had a giant sculpture of Chinese cabbage at the entrance. Also had a look at the People's Hall which tries to emulate its grander twin in Beijing. There was also a small park with some colourful blossoms, and vendors selling seashell crafts, and roasted sweet potatoes. On our way back, we stu

Finally it was showtime. The event was held at the function hall in the basement of the hotel. The tables were arranged in a very "meeting style". The hosts sat at one end, while we sat with their customers at the other end, facing each other. In the middle ( at the far end ) were the senior management of our hosts. Very surprised that the CTO is actually a woman. Something rare. The whole event was set up purely for the benefit of their customers who numbered less than 8 persons. One by one our local partners got up to give very impressive presentations. I noticed that they could really weave stories naturally and talk and talk and talk non-stop. All in putonghua of course. These were the same people who worked late setting up the venue, managing the logistics, and entertaining the guests. Talk about efficient multitasking. Hot tea was served along the course of the day. One Singaporean colleague was Indian, so he needed a translator to assist him. Whereas the other Singa

The room they gave me had a pretty decent ocean view. From the window, I could see tourists thronging the rocky beach right in front of my hotel. Further out was Xiao Qiangdao island, a restricted military area until 1987. On the left, I could see a decommissioned nuclear submarine that's a part of the Qingdao Naval Museum. On the right was Zhanqiao Pier, an unofficial symbol of the city. The pavilion at the end of Zhanqiao pier is featured on the logo of the famous Tsingtao Beer. The room was spacious, with a work table that came with the most complete set of stationery that I ever saw. Which hotel provides scissors, ruler, gel pen, magnifying glass, and paper clips? On the coffee table was a teapot with a jar of tea leaves and chrysanthemum flowers. The breakfast spread at the hotel was pretty decent. A whole lot of porridge -- some like it white, some like it black, some like millet, some like barley. Also some Western choices for the angmoh . No activity was planned for t

Work gave me a chance to visit China in mid-April. It was my maiden trip to the 'motherland'. Never had I considered travelling to China on personal trips. Due to a recent investment my group chairman made in a Chinese IT company, my company was roped into some engagement activities. So for a whole week before the trip, I had to compile pre-sales materials, and some of my colleagues had to help out with the translation. Truth be told, it was practically useless for me to be in an IT product conference in China since I could not read nor write, much less do a presentation in putonghua . And yet, I was flying there with my GM to be a 'unqualified vase'. LOL. And at the last minute another colleague actually pulled out with a doctor's letter claiming sinus problems. Alamak . Regardless, I proceeded with the flight tickets and visa. Two other colleagues would be flying from Singapore. My ticketing department got us 'great' tickets from Cathay Dragon where

For six months, we had mostly been left to our own devices. Then my CEO called for a town hall meeting to announce how much money we had lost, and outlined the way forward. Yikes, yikes, and yikes. Still have a job, but its gonna be way tougher. That revelation was followed by our annual dinner ( yes, we still have money budgeted for food ) at Tropicana Golf Club. The great thing about the evening's event was that it was graced by my group chairman who gave a short speech, and handed out certificates to staff who had been given recognition by the management. Of course the certificates didn't mean much, but how often does one get to shake hands with one of the richest men in Malaysia? Following that, we had a team building at Selesa Resort. A double-decker bus picked us up from the office early in the morning and we were off. A short registration later, we went to the coffee house for breakfast. Right after a quick ice-breaking session, we were sent off on an Amazing Race

A client of mine in Brunei was very pissed with a bug in their mission-critical system. The problem was related to bad code on a poorly-maintained database that was shared by many others. My CEO got so pissed with the overall architecture that he convinced the client to let him carve it out. Once we got the green light, I was at the forefront of the internal resistance to the change. Since the owners of the problem were reluctant to do it, we had to drive it. I kept documenting all that was needed to be done, and circulated the proposed design for discussion. Most of the time, I was greeted with silence. I pushed on anyway. In the end, we got the owners to endorse the solution and implement it. We pushed it all the way to the UAT cycle where our client took their sweet time to test. They had already missed two so-called unmovable dates to sign-off, so when the third date came, it was firm. On the day I arrived in Brunei, even the items that could have been done weeks before were no

For the second time, I was part of a task force to dissect the problems being faced by my client. What's the difference with the first time you may ask? The whole exercise was spearheaded by someone with different expertise and covered a broader scale. And of course, the ulterior motive was also different. The funny thing was, the first task force wasn't even closed yet, and here we were, part of another. Troublemakers coming in to 'save' the day. Anyway, the original schedule was two weeks, but we finished it in half the time. I was supposed to stay on anyway, but my CEO suddenly didn't like the idea of me being there. In my mind, its probably for strategic and budgetary reasons. I applied to get my ticket changed pretty late on Friday afternoon, so the ticketing department basically just ignored me. But my amazing GM actually managed to get things done. Believe it or not, I received my ticket after midnight. They must hate him so much. Since it was so late, my f

Out of the blue, I was summoned to Singapore for a meeting with several of my colleagues. It was about some demo for my Brunei client. The partner's office was in Singapore, so we went down there. Arrived at KLIA2 bright and early. I didn't feel like McDonald's that day, so I went to ToastBox instead. I swung my teaspoon against the large soft-boiled egg and the whole thing just disintegrated in my hands. The table was a mess! Big eggs, VERY thin shell. The flight was uneventful, which is of course desirable. The immigration counter was kinda swamped at Changi, and it was partly due to a whole bunch of Korean tourists who did not know how to fill in their arrival cards. Since the last time I came to Singapore for work, the office had moved to a different building. All glass and modern furniture, with a pantry that looks like something out of Google HQ. The meeting went well and by lunch time it was over. My CEO took us to lunch at .... wait for it .... wait for it ..

On my last day at Colombo, I finally had the chance to have a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. My bosses were having a breakfast meeting with my client's senior management, so I was excused. Tried the Sri Lankan hoppers ( apam ), and milk rice ( kiribath ). Outside the restaurant was a nice pool with swans, ducks, and koi swimming around. Later in the morning, we met another two project counterparts for more fact-finding. Had a quick lunch at Taste of Asia -- local mixed rice. A very peculiar short grain variety of rice was used. The spices used were really alien to me. Our afternoon was spent at the client office again. Tried to retrieve whatever documentation they promised to give us. We waited and waited and waited, but didn't get much. The main contractor met us up for dinner again. We had wine and finger foods at the Colombo Hilton executive lounge. My CEO gave him a summary of all that he had gathered. I sat at the next table, just enjoying the chicken skewers an