will i am's delayed diary

Went to work as usual although it was my birthday. No reason to as there were no special plans. KH wasn't in KL too, he was on another continent. Arrived at the office, and before I started tucking into my breakfast, a delivery guy was at the door. It was a cake delivery for my colleague, which I found really weird cause it was really early, and I couldn't brain getting a cake delivered. But anyway, she signed for it then brought the gianduja cake to me, declaring that it was from KH ( he's super sweet! )! I was REALLY surprised. Luckily it could fit into my colleague's mini refrigerator. My colleagues treated me to a birthday lunch at Brewhouse , TTDI. We brought the cake out as well. I had mixed feelings about their signature charsiew rice bowl. On one hand the charsiew was good, but the charsiew sauce kinda pulled it down. After we had all eaten, we brought out the cake, sang a song, blew out the candle, and brought the cake back to the office unmolested! Lo

Suddenly Singapore. That's the only way I can describe my day ( work ) trip to Singapore. Management suddenly wanted someone to standby in case there were questions about our cloud architecture. At T1 arrival hall, I had the opportunity to take a quick look at Jewel, and it's famous Rain Vortex, the artificial giant toilet in perpetual flush. Hehe. We arrived in the city a little before lunch, with enough time the for a quick bite. I chose the lei cha at Lau Pa Sat ( forgot to bring my Kopitiam card ). Unfortunately, the kopi quality had sunk very low. The presentation was at an office building nearby. Very modern with a cafe-like eating area for their staff. The whole meeting went without a hitch, and I didn't even really need to open my mouth. Money well-spent. With no work engagements left, I left for the airport really early to meet Tater. He looked great and refreshed. He treated me to a vanilla fig latte and a banana chocolate cake at Starbucks. It was gr

For four days, I skipped work and went to The Gardens Boulevard for training~ "AWS Tech Essentials" and "Architecting on AWS". Covered hundreds of slides and a dozen hands-on lab work.  And of course, there was no lack of food. The training went pretty well, and picked up the necessary understanding to work in the cloud. But nothing interesting about my training really. I was just extremely surprised that it made more sense ( read: sens ) for my HR to send my Singapore colleagues to Malaysia for the same training. Training cost in Malaysia + flight tickets + 4 nights of hotel + airport transfer + per diem  costs less than Training cost in Singapore? Biar betul ni!

Piles is quite a common problem these days. I went to see a doctor about it a few years back and medication seems that have controlled the situation. Recently, mum starting complaining about it. The pain made her really irritable. The GP didn't do much for her situation. The suppositories were expensive, yet useless. Before the problem got worse, I made an appointment with a specialist at Sunway Medical Center. At 8AM, we were the first in line. The good doctor arrived 2 hours later. He did a quick scope to assess the situation and gave mum some options. We went off with two boxes of Daflon. Coincidentally, mum also had a quarterly follow-up with the gynaecologist, so I drove to Bandar Puteri Puchong. Just a very short visit. Finally we could have breakfast. Tried YOU Fishball Noodles, a shop specializing in well, fishball noodles. The soup was piping hot, truly a breakfast that warms the belly. Simple but satisfying. In the afternoon, mum went out to her society meeting

Unexpected things always crop up at work. Just a few days before my pilgrimage, I suddenly needed to fly to Penang for a meeting with our technology partner. Took the evening Malindo flight there. Realized that is my first time flying out of KLIA2's domestic terminal. Another horribly designed super long terminal. Malindo's plane was clean and had decent leg space. Upon arrival at Penang International Airport, I took a GRAB to Vistana Hotel Bukit Jambul. Lucky to have been given a Club room, but I only had one night to enjoy the suite. Discovered that hotel guests needed to pay MYR2 to the Penang government now. The executive lounge had closed so I walked out to find dinner. Did not feel like having Original Kayu Nasi Kandar, so I walked a little further to Kompleks Bukit Jambul where I had roast duck noodles at H.K. Gourmet Kitchen . All of their pork had sold out by 8 PM, so they must be really popular. The roast duck was good, but its weird that they provide a dried ch

On a whim, my CEO suggested that we should make a trip to Singapore to attend the AWS Summit there. It was actually a three-day affair with partner and networking sessions, but I didn't have time to spare for that. I registered for the last day of the summit. According to the schedule, registration started at 7:30 AM, so the coordinator suggested that I fly in the night before. I packed an overnight bag, and went straight to the airport after work. Ate my dinner at Plaza Premium Lounge, which was a bit stressful because they were operating over their capacity due to renovation works. It was a constant battle to keep my seat. While waiting for my gate to open, I spotted Peng Joon, some motivational speaker whose sponsored FB ads often pop up on my feed. Malindo delayed my flight and by the time I landed in Changi T3, it was nearly 10 PM. Surprised that upon arrival, we were herded through some brand new 3D security scanners. Luckily that didn't take long. Immigration clearan

Towards the end of March, my CEO called for an annual town hall, annual dinner, and team-building. The town hall laid down a lot of plans that my CEO wanted to see implemented in the coming year, and I was put on the spot. The product I was working was supposed to be delivered soon, but I had to announce a one month delay. But that didn't stop the marketing machinery from chugging along. As usual, our annual dinner was held at Tropicana Golf and Country Resort . An improvement from last year because we had leftovers this year. A few days later, we had a team-building session at Colmar Tropicale . Donkey years ago, I also had a session in Bukit Tinggi. I remember that my trainer wore a bow tie and we were cooped up for two days. Nearly went nuts. This was just a day trip, and the activities were quite physical in nature. Although we were indoors, there was lots of  running around, and moving about. We did have one outdoor session that involved a giant beach ball. Brought out some

The meetings continued for another two days. More meals at Burger King and Chinese Dragon Cafe. So close to the famous Ministry of Crab, but pigs would fly before my bosses would treat us to a meal there. On the second last day, my CEO arrived and we had a lunch meeting with him at the posh Cinnamon Grand Hotel along Galle Road. The 5-star hotel is popular among tourists and business travelers, and is connected to the Crescat Boulevard Mall. For the same reasons, it was the target of suicide bombers during the Easter attack of 2019. My CEO asked my GM to decide on a lunch venue, and he seriously considered the Crescat Mall food court. In my mind, I was slapping my forehead repeatedly. Thank goodness my CEO vetoed that idea and we headed to Chutneys , an Indian restaurant in the hotel. On the way there, we passed by a posh wedding banquet held at a large dais beside the lobby. Huge gap between the rich and the poor. The thali set that I chose was delicious. During our last

Since no breakfast was provided, we had to find our own. The nearest option was Burger King. The man behind the counter was another example Sri Lanka's excellent service standard. Orders were piling up, but he couldn't properly help the kitchen staff. Even picking up the bacon from the fryer was obviously a challenge for him. By the time my order was done, he just blankly stared at it. A simple breakfast bun with scrambled eggs. From the hotel, we took either Uber or PickMe to our reseller's office. Since the managers will just wait to be ushered into the ride, I had to settle all the bookings. Thank goodness for the hunky surfer dude at the lobby who kept my mood up. Noticed that the Suzuki WagonR is the most popular choice among ride-hailing drivers. A small, squarish vehicle that can can't seat more than three passengers. In order to fill up the proposal, we were holed up in the conference room the whole day with another partner from France. A truly draining ex

The last time I was in Colombo was during the third quarter of 2017. A quickie. That initiative ended as quickly as it started. And in 2019, I find myself back there for a government RFP and a to build a relationship with a Sri Lankan reseller. Followed a bunch of new colleagues who joined us in 2019. They were no strangers to Sri Lanka as they had a project there a few years back. Flew there with Sri Lankan Airlines where the air crew greet everyone with "ayubowan", which is a greeting of long life. I got a seat near the emergency exit with super leg room. Bandaranaike International Airport was a little different from what I remembered as the renovations had been completed. First order of business was to get a local SIM card at the arrival hall. Then we wasted some time trying to secure an airport transfer because they couldn't get us a big enough van. Our lodging was at Fairway Colombo, a small business hotel located at a narrow street behind the Dutch Hospit

Our flight out was in the afternoon, so we had some time in the morning to do some sightseeing. A local partner mentioned that we can catch the tail-end of Sakura season in Qingdao, so we decided to make a trip to Zhongshan Park although it was drizzling. So different from the several days we spent cooped up indoors. The irony of it. From the hotel we walked to Renminhuitang Metro Station. The Metro staff actually stand at the entrance yelling warnings about the wet floor, and hand out plastic bags for umbrellas. Down in the station, passengers and bags need to go through security screening. Interesting to note that their restrooms are actually on the platform! The park was just a short walk away from Zhongshangongyuan Metro Station, but when we arrived, the drizzle had intensified. Much to our disappointment, the cherry blossoms along the so-called Sakura Road had mostly ended up on the ground. The rain had killed whatever was leftover. Many a plan was dashed by the sudden d