Country road, take me home...

I'm finally heading home soon. The battles fought over the last few days are over. It was a time of total stress, late nights n complete exhaustion. I'm so tired. Slept at 3+am this morning, woke up at 6.30am cos of the silly elias CC pple calling me to talk nonsense. Dun even recall wat they said.

I miss dim sum. The first thing i'm going to eat when i'm back in singapore is... DIM SUM!!!

I believe I can fly...

Woosh! I sat the helicopter for the 1st time today! I mean, flying up in the air. Sat rite in front, next to the pilot, since it was jus him n me. Circled around gold reef city basically. Not a long ride, but still an experience.

This morning, i went for church service again. Then headed down to soweto with amit n my driver. Visited yet another church that had bullet-holes in the ceilings n damages from the police during the 1976 students uprising. The visit to the apartheid museum after that stirred up even more poignant emotions. Just hate oppressions n mis-treatment of any kind.

Visited my driver's home too. He lives in 1 of the matchbox-houses in soweto - biggest township of the blacks. Talked to his family there. In the evening, we went back to montecasino n played arcade games again. So fun!!!

I'm feeling so sleepy. Slept at 3+am this morning from the call with evelyn, then waking up at 8am for sunday service. I need my sleep now n JC's coming over tomorrow. Shit, i still hv my work outstanding!! :(

Knock! Knock!

Ok, it wasn't just 1 president staying here after all. I realised tt many presidents of africa are staying at hilton hotel. Think there was some presidential roundtable meeting or something. At least i'm seeing the police doing proper work for the 1st time in SA.

This weekend is partially made up of work. :( I've set aside today to work. Woke up at almost noon, soaked in the hot bath before finally psycho-ing myself to start work. Plans for tomorrow look better. If i can wake up early enough (i.e. 5am), i'll go sit the hot-air ballon. Then church. Heading to soweto after that, n aparthaid museum then gold reef. Sounds like a busy day tomorrow!

Wah.. i really can't stand the housekeeping pple here. Just now this guy just barged into my room without knocking. Fortunately, i was dressed in my bathrobe.. n i gave him a piece of my mind too. N he probably knew i was pissed off, cos he got someone to deliver some fruits over. Reminds me of the last time someone barged into my room in taiwan. That time was worse as i wasn't even dressed! But yeah, maybe i shld really double-lock n latch my door all the time huh?

Wake up for work!

I'm so stressed up by my work. Think i may need to extend my stay here after all. :( I'm still targeting to be back in singapore before May 1, otherwise i'm going to miss my 1st aid course!

Anyway, i overslept this morning. After amit, my driver n another guy waited in the lobby for me for half an hour, amit decided to call my room. That was when i woke up.. I'm so tired from working too hard every nite i guess. Really!!

Oh yeah, the president of some african country (starting with letter T, can't remember the name) is actually staying in the hilton too. So in the morning, i see lots of mercs convoys at the porch. They quite kua zhang oso lah. Then again, everything in africa tends to be exaggerated.

Picture update

A couple of pix from my easter weekend..

My face painted at the Moyo village, tradition from the Xhosa tribe


At the top of table mountain.. finally!

Cape Adventures

I'm finally back in good ol' joburg aka jozi. My capetown escapade reminds me of my HK trip last yr... freaking tiring! My legs are coming apart.. Yeah, it was mountain n hill climbing once again.

On the 1st day, we headed to table mountain n were caught in the rain. Fortunately, the rain became heavier so i made the decision to abandon the mountain n take on the wine route instead. Otherwise, we would hv climbed up the mountain in the rain, which really wasn't the wisest thing to do as the path is precarious, claiming 14 lives a year. Of cos, we didn't know tt then. Loads of wine tasting along the wine route. Played with an adult cheetah. Ok, just stroking it. Pity there were no more slots for horse-riding, once again dashing all my hopes.

2nd day was wonderful weather for mountain climbing. This was when we realised how dangerous the route was. There were 2 routes n amit just had to choose the more "challenging" one. After an arduous 3 hours (i really hv no stamina), i miraculously made it to the top! I tell u, it's really BEAUTIFUL. From the top, i could see almost everything in capetown. The 2 oceans, 12 apostles, etc. Was intending to abseil 110m down the mountain, but my legs were telling me otherwise. Especially since it would only bring us down halfway n i've gotta slog the remaining mountain trail! So we gave up the idea n took the rotating cablecar down. Looked for water-sports but with everyone giving us wrong information, we couldn't find any. So from the waterfront, we walked back to the hotel.

I was intent on just sitting in the car the entire 3rd day. My idea was to drive down to cape point n cape of good hope, stopping at a couple of beaches along the way. Guess what? Stupid amit tricked me into climbing up cape pt n cape of good hope. There, we did dangerous stuffs like going off the track, wandering thru the weeded fields n climbing all kinds of rocks n caves just to be rite at the edge. We were at a few edges where a portion of our bodies were probably off the edge. A wrong move would mean the descent of our bodies down the >100m cliffs. N before we left, we had to go down >250 steps onto the beach, next to the ocean. The water was freezing!!! I suspect it's atlantic, but amit insisted it's indian. Whatever. Everyone believes that cape pt is where atlantic n indian oceans meet. At the end of the day, i was totally exhausted.

Today while taking the plane back, i fell asleep, just to wake up with a shock. When i opened my eyes, i literally saw a man carrying a baby standing behind the pilots with the cockpit door open! That was like, 15 min to descending i think. Took a couple of pix on tt n checked with 1 of the ground crew abt plane security. Apparently, they have an open-door concept for their cockpits. Open-door my foot! That was totally dangerous! I mean, if the baby had been screaming n stretching his hand out, he would hv easily messed up most of the controls there. The controls were definitely within the reach of the baby.

Now i really need to sleep n tune myself for work tomorrow. I wish i had another day of holiday.. or more...

Just before the cape

Counting down to my flight to cape town now. It's another 1.5 hours before i leave chubb n be away from here till next tuesday. Although i haven't quite thought about what to do in cape town, i figure tt things will just materialise when we get there. I'm a little worried though cos i haven't quite finished my work. Then again, i really can't care less anymore! Party time!!! :)

Danger insensitivity

I literally had an entire bottle of red wine last nite while dining with the Chubb management team. And my driver said i looked like i didn't drink at all when he picked me up after the dinner, which is good. So we started chatting again.

Amongst many other things, he said that I was his first female passenger in his many years of driving experience. And I was also the youngest! Haha.. all his other passengers, or clients, were really older men. He was in fact quite shocked that I came to South Africa alone since I was female. I mean, this Jo'burg city has a reputation of being one of the most dangerous cities in the world after all. I wonder if I'm just ignorant of the dangers surrounding me, or just too reliant on God to make things right for me.

Yes, amit's finally arriving. And i oso just managed to get accomodation in cape town, thanks to chubb. They got me a hotel at the waterfront, which is fantastic! Flying over there tomorrow evening. Since i've got my flight planned for 6.30pm, it means i'll have to stop work by 4pm. Sighz... considering how hardworking i am, this isn't too good for me but yeah.. no choice...

Spice it up!

I really must learn to eat spicy food. Apparently, the people here take spice. And just now for lunch, they were asking me if i wanted my chicken very hot, hot or mildly hot. Had to give them my own option of "Not hot", which they said "err.. lemon n butter?"... quite embarrasing, especially since they had to laugh at me!! :(

Hearty chat

Heeding olivier's advice, i went to this place with good mozambican food for dinner with my driver. Had a very good meal, and an interesting conversation. Nice ambience too. The restaurant gave me a fresh white rose as a parting gift, which i gave my driver to give his wife. Think the driver's feeling a little awkward as he commented that usually no one brings their drivers out for dinners.. but i told him i dun care. Racism is apparently still present in this society..

Today was a pretty busy day for me, especially towards the evening where i had a couple of meetings consecutively. Tomorrow is another super-siong day, where meetings would last from 9am to 6pm. Then the client management is bringing me to the italian restaurant for dinner. They've already made all the plans, including plans for having red wine.. I'm hoping not to drink too much as i wanna maintain my positive image u know..

Shit lah, my tummy is ballooning. I'm going to stop eating when i'm back in singapore! Oh yeah, did i say i was bitten by the ostrich yesterday? Yup, i got too close to the ostrich n i tried giving it a blade of grass but i guess my hand looked better than the grass??

It's a meaningful day

I feel so good today. It's not just abt the flea mkt tt i visited. It's not abt the predator park or safari i just came back from. It was abt my tour guide.

Went to church this morning in sandton (www.ruc.org.za). Then started my day's journey to a few places. As the other pple cancelled last min, i ended up being the only one on the day tour.

Anyway, the fulfilment for today came in 2 parts. The major part was about re-igniting the christian flame in my tour guide. He started listening to the christian cd that his mum bought for him some time ago, but never got down to hearing it. And i passed him the booklet on discerning da vinci code as he asked me for it. The best part was when he thanked me for helping him remember what he had forgotten, and hence being a blessing to him. Ok, n i oso let him listen to some chinese songs n he actually liked them!

The 2nd part was during the afternoon walk at the lodge, we found a playground n i started playing on the swing. I really really really like playing on swings when i was younger... so just now, when i started swinging myself real hard, it brought back some of my happier childhood memories, which was good.

Now that i've finished blotting my happy day, it's time to start thinking about work n preparing for work tomorrow.. SIANZ!!!

Compliment-not!

I'm so .... !#$!$@%$%#$#$$%
Ok, my driver who was supposed to come pick me up from office couldn't make it and got someone else to come. So along the way back to hotel, i started talking to this new guy n somehow, the guy commented that i was pretty. I was like "err...", then he had to continue saying "I see many pple from ur race, all the air hostesses at the airport, all so tiny. Their bodies all the same. U're different from them. U are more like an african!".

I'm so .... !#$!$@%$%#$#$$%!!!!!!!!!!

Cannot tahan ah!

I really cannot take it. I'm serious, even the switchboard ladies know my name! N every hour (or less) someone would come n ask me if i needed more water or go anywhere in the evenings. I mean, i dun even drink water! But when i ask for bottled water, they would bring a couple of bottles, plus coke n other can drinks. Yes, i've told them that i didn't want coke or fanta or whatever shit they had. They just dun get it. I've uploaded a picture of what they would give me in the morning without me saying anything. And THAT muffin. I was so happy that I told them "NO MUFFIN FOR ME TODAY" early in the morning today cos i feel totally weirded out n full from breakfast in the hotel.

Talking abt that, i'm so happy that the hotel serves english breakfast too! The mushrooms were simply delicious n i ate so much of it. Love it big time. Anyway, south african food is mostly meat stuffs. Last night, i asked the driver to bring me to some place where i could eat south african food. Ended up eating the spare parts of oxes and lambs, which were really nice. I refused to try their caterpillar.. Food here seems pretty cheap. I can't seem to even hit half of my food budget. Then again, it's becos i get free breakfast from the hotel, chubb pays for my lunch (they totally insist), n i'm left with just dinner.

I think i've never done so much PR work in an entity before. Here, i spend half of my time working, and the other half PR. Yesterday, i started having a chat with the hotel security guard for 20 min while waiting for my driver, then talk to my driver the entire 45 min journey to office, then talk to at least 10 different pple in chubb. All in 1 morning. I really need to re-focus on work.

In between

I'm seeing lots of greenery here, even in the city centre. Buildings are generally very low-rise. There's only 1 or 2 high-rise buildings in the entire city, which are not even tall. People here are nice, apart from the frequent stares I get. Had a good chat with my driver during the car journeys and found out that the racial problem was still quite severe in SA. I'm considered a "white" here, much to my dismay. While they say streets are not unsafe in my area, they are still not safe. The Chubb guy was telling me that they receive 300,000 burglar alarms in a month! Apparently, the police here doesn't do much, hence our chubb entity became a big business in SA.

Anyway, the chubb people are really hospitable. They know me even before I introduce myself. As I walked towards the receptionist, i hear her calling the management that i have arrived. Strange. Were they expecting a chinese or something? Oh, i think i'm about the only chinese around cos everyone else is either white or black. No in-betweens. And the group finance director arranged for someone to bring me around the city tomorrow evening. Guess what? I forgot to bring a camera. Brilliant.

I just had my dinner in the hotel. I'm so sleepy, i dun feel like going anywhere else for dinner. Had mussels, lobsters / crayfish, fruit cocktail and warm choc cake with a "hint of chilli". Didn't feel any spice, which means that my threshold had moved up yet another notch! :)

I really need to sleep soon. It's early, i'm freaking full from dinner, but i need the sleep.

Back n away

It's been a while since i updated my blog. No time, i'd say. During team-building, we were doing some dare-devil act by trying to cross the river with 3 ropes. Many people started crowding round to film how we did that and somehow even the suzhou TV interviewed us. That night, i drank a lot of their yellow wine, which was quite potent. Mixed that with another beer and red wine on a partially-empty stomach ended up with me being semi-drunk.

The next day (i.e. friday) was the final day of training. That night, i met up with a friend after dinner to get my DVDs. Bought 110 dvds in all, given the lack of luggage space. Wasn't quite expecting the discs to come in such big boxes. Then on saturday morning, i met up with xiao zhiqiang at qingpu, where he was teaching tkd. Took a couple of pictures and headed to shanghai airport. Time to fly back to singapore. Flight got delayed mid-air n i ended up being late for elias class.. :(

Sunday morning was NTC for silly pattern tourney registration. The arrow supposedly flew to peiqi, but she apparently made sure i was involved. Today, i cleared as much stuffs as possible, even cut my hair n chilled out at kazbar, before going home to pack my luggage again. Yup, i'm flying off to south africa in another hour n be at the mercy of the plane for 13 hours. Half-filled with apprehension from the SA horror stories n not knowing what to expect. Moreover, i'll be alone. At least for a couple of weeks.

And it is this unknown that will evolve the next dimension of my life. Or at least that's something that's not beyond expectation nor comprehension.