At the right place, at the wrong time

Yesterday, i decided that peter ma and tiek sze have to see the correct mumbai so they won't think of slumdog millionaire each time they get out of the hotel. And so my plan was to go to elephanta island late morning, then have high tea at taj mahal hotel after that.

My plan was perfect, except that i didn't know yesterday was the 2nd year anniversary of the terrorist bombing. What does that mean? It means warships are placed every few meters apart near the gateway of india, riot police in buses are stationed along the entire stretch of the beach line, entrance of taj mahal hotel was barricaded (you can only enter from the back after several scans / checks) so no car was allowed near, police dogs (although i thought they looked very cute) were on patrols, choppers were circling the air and even an APV was stationed next to the back entrance of the hotel! Talk about singapore being exaggerated. India just brought it one notch higher.



So with all the fiasco, everyone arrived late for high tea. There was another slight episode on losing contact with peter ma because the contact person fell asleep... but will leave that out for now. High tea was good (and DAMN expensive), then we waited for a long time for our driver to squeeze in somewhere near the hotel. So much for drama for the night.

Another missed flight

My flight was at 2.30am. Before that, i had my dinner n dance at RWS. The plan was to leave RWS by 10.30pm, head home to pack luggage, then go to the airport. Everything went according to plan, but in the middle of packing my luggage, i fell asleep. Dunno if i'm tired or drunk or both, but i slept till 2.15am! Although the airport is 5 minutes away from my house, i haven't checked in!!!!

My first reaction was to call my colleague who was waiting at the airport for me (we're flying together) and i couldn't find my mobile phone to retrieve her contact details. I decided to call my own mobile to find it, but i simply couldn't remember my own mobile number! ARGH!!! So after stoning with the telephone handset for a few minutes, i tossed everything on my bed n my mobile phone suddenly dropped. Quickly called my colleague n told her the bad news, then called amex to change my air ticket to the next flight out on the following night. I think the reason why i overslept was due to 2 factors:
1. My younger brother who was supposed to send me to the airport was engrossed with his drama n forgot the time.
2. My colleague (dunno why) only called my mobile once instead of multiple times when she was waiting for me at the airport.

No, drinking a few glasses of red n white wine will not cause me to oversleep.

Anyway, because i had to delay my flight by a day (or night), it meant that i could visit sitex (YAY!!!), cut my hair and fix my specs. I was initially quite upset by the fact that i had to miss sitex by 8 hours just to go to a place i dislike, but now things are turning out well instead. I guess this is what u mean by, think positive. :)

Back n going back

My worst nightmare has come to pass. I will be returning to Mumbai. ARGH!!!! But i have negotiated to only go back AFTER my company's dinner n dance. So this just means i'll be going back on wed red-eye flight. Super sianz. Although the theme for my table is rock n roll, i have totally no mood to wear some silly costume lor, since i have to rush to airport right after that. WHY????????

My only consolation is that... i managed to pull another colleague there to suffer together with me! Hahahah..... Eh, free trip to india ok, so it still pays to be my friend right? :)

Desperate for dinner

Blogging twice in a day can either mean I'm too bored, or I have too many things happening in a day. Well, i guess it's all of the above.

Woke up late this morning n wanted to swim, but the water was too cold so i went back to my room. Although i have a driver for the entire weekend, i just didn't feel like going anywhere. Yet cos i was so bored, i went to the client's place n started working till 6pm. I was quite hungry n decided to go look for dinner.

I had a list of restaurants that i wanted to go to. Good food tends to cheer me up when i'm in some depressing place. When i got there at around 6.30pm, they were closed. They only open for dinner at 7.30pm. I can't sit around and wait when i'm famished, especially since i had my gastrics attack last nite. So i headed to another place, just to realise they were finishing up with their high tea buffet. Hello, it's like 7pm lor! What high tea???

I finally found a place that was open at 7pm. It was fully booked, but everyone was only arriving at 8.30pm. I told them i'll definitely finish n be out of there by then, so i was allowed in. True enough, i was the ONLY person eating dinner there. No wonder those indians have a huge tummy lah.. eat so late!

It was a jap restaurant in taj mahal palace hotel n everything was like damn expensive lor. I had my most expensive green tea there... SGD 10!! I was so tempted to order the fatty tuna, but i just couldn't bring myself to pay SGD 20 for ONE piece of fatty tuna sashimi lor.

Anyway, i still had a lot of sushi since it's on client's account. When people started streaming in at 7.45pm, i decided to get the bill. Then they told me my credit card was being declined. I was like "SHIT!" cos i have no cash n i was banging on my credit card to be accepted everywhere for everything! They tried a few times, but it was consistently declined. I called the bank immediately (lucky i have auto-roaming on my phone) n confirmed that the clowns in mumbai had keyed in the wrong pin. My card was perfectly fine. I told them what pin to key in n it worked. PHEW!

During the whole process of panic, i was consulting peiqi for advice n she had nothing but useless suggestions, including wash dishes. Sometimes i wonder if i'd rather she not say anything at all... But i guess some entertainment is still good (i'm only saying this cos i know she reads my blog... hahaha).

Hello murphy

I just realised the inefficiencies of Singapore, which I thought only existed in china. The processing of india visa for singaporeans officially takes one working day. U send it in for processing in the morning, n they give it to u in the evening. However, because it's a company trip, we have to go through the company's travel agent. For them, we need to give them our passport n that supposedly takes a day. Then one day to do visa processing, n another to give it back to u. So effectively, one day becomes 3 days now! And this was how my trip got delayed to Wednesday night.

I wanted to go there on Tuesday badly cos i didn't want to risk spending my weekends there. So everything that can go wrong went wrong. I'm stuck in mumbai till at least next Friday. :( For the first time, i just didn't feel like planning anything for the weekend. Although they have a driver for me to use throughout the weekend, I didn't wanna go out, i didn't wanna sight-see. I just have no mood n i dunno why. Maybe i'm just so sick of travelling. Or maybe cos i'm alone.

When i was catching my flight on Wednesday, i overslept cos i was so drained from overworking. My flight was at 8pm n i woke up at 6.30pm. I jumped up n threw everything into the luggage. Took out my shoes n told my maid to put them in my luggage. When i got to the airport at almost 7pm, i realised it was the wrong terminal! Sigh. For a while, i tot i will miss the flight n delay my trip another day, but no, i unfortunately caught my flight.

When i got to mumbai, i literally crashed into the bed. Next morning, guess what? My maid did NOT put my work shoes in my luggage! I called her n she said she put them back in the cupboard. I exploded over the phone n was totally pissed off. So i wore track shoes with working clothes to my client's office. Hopefully no one realised it... And cos i wanted to stay focus, i decided not to change any indian rupees. Apparently a wrong move since i need to buy shoes now. ARGH!

Last minute happiness

The last 48 hours had been nothing for me but drama. Every hour, new information came in and the direction to go Mumbai will change. I tried to steer the direction towards myself not going with excuses like having no business visa, missing my EY free movie (which happens only once a year), parents dun feel safe (i created that effect) n having to stay in a bombed hotel (taj). N so just 1.5 hours before my plane took off just now, i cancelled my check in, changed my flight ticket, cancelled my hotel transport n changed the dates of my hotel stay for the 5th time. Then stopped packing. Yes, i have just officially postponed my trip to next Tuesday instead. In the meantime, i will have some time to think of more excuses not to go.

And the best part was, the reason why our indian boss insisted that i went was because "we need someone honest on the ground to tell us exactly what's going on over there". So much for trusting our colleagues in India... n since the boss is from there, i'm sure he knows best.

Deepavali eve - Festival of darkness

The sad news came down hard and fast today. It seems i have to go mumbai AGAIN. And i'll have to do the visa on arrival AGAIN. 2 weeks! And it's not to cebrate deepavali. It's 11pm on deepavali eve and i'm still in office trying to keep my sanity.

It's not just about going to mumbai, but it has to be at this timing and i just can't help but feel, why me. This timing.. simply is bad because that potential is coming to SG n i'm supposed to play host. I'm talking about my personal KPI here, which is my top priority right now. And this trip to mumbai just screws it. So frustrated.... :(

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me...
Happy birthday to me!

And then, i made my birthday wish for next year.