Enjoy Hanoi: Freestyling - Day 3

Dear Pipsqueaks,

It was another one of those mornings where I had automatically gone through the routines and found myself at the breakfast table sipping on my noodle soup with beef and noodles. When I said I can have this for breakfast everyday, I wasn't kidding.

Not long after we swallowed our last bite of breakfast, our guide had arrived. How not exciting does a 4hr bus ride to and back (totally of 8hrs) sound? Very not exciting. But, the long hours were so worth it.

We joined the tour cruise named Alova, and the staff were fantastically friendly. Even though we were kinda fed through this touristy shop to use the toilets during drive breaks, it was kind of neat to see the local crafts. They also supported handicapped/disabled people by teaching them how to make local crafts or be a part of the sales team - so yes, wanting to put in my two cents for such a good cause, I found a piece I liked and brought it home.

(It was too bright that I couldn't open my eyes for the photo! But, what a nice weather to be out cruising in Halong Bay eh?!)

Enjoy Hanoi: Freestyling! - Day 2

Dear Pipsqueaks,

The day started at our own pace around 9am, brushing up to catch breakfast before it ended at 10am. Breakfast area was petite and homey, so I had expected a very simple breakfast. I couldn't be more wrong.

A whole counter filled with local fruits; a section with western pastry; hot noodles and fried fish cake; drinks and sauces. Then, the great offer to order anything from the hot meal menu. From noodles to omelette to sunny-sideups, what an unexpected surprise! Just brilliant - not to mention a smart way to save space and food. Also, a personalised feel to breakfast when it comes out nice and hot just for you. Thumbs up!

Then, a cup of their famous Vietnamese coffee. Wow, even hotel breakfast coffee can taste this awesome. I'm amused alright. I can do this kinda breakfast any day!

(You're looking at most of the breakfast buffet - not a big one, but they do have a hot food menu to order from. I like this system better where I order my pho and munch on the fruits and drink soup while waiting. There is another smaller table with hot plates holding a few other selections to choose from. The second best part of breakfast is the Vietnamese coffee! It's been a while since I had hotel breakfast coffee that I actually look forward to!)

Enjoy Hanoi: Freestyling! - Day 1

Dear Pipsqueaks,

And I thought a 3am wakeup call was the worst part. Boy, was I wrong. After dragging myself out of bed, brushing up and finishing the last bits of packing, we hopped on our pre-booked taxi Mr.Goh - yes, I can always count on him to get me to the airport one way or the other at the most random hours - at 4am to KLIA2.

I'm just not a morning person. This time of the day isn't meant for traveling. So, unless absolutely necessary, I will not take flights before 9am. Seriously too painful to go through the rush at that hour.

So anyway, we reached the airport and went straight to baggage drop. The crazy part was, the only thing I could think about at that point wasn't even food (that's how tired I was). Then, the worst thing happened...

"I need a what to board the plane? A letter of approval for VOA?"

Regaining My Sanity In [Taipei]

Dear Pipsqueaks,

Writing this on the plane...

Once again, I'm amazed at how I always manage to start a trip with such "excitement". This time was really coming too close.

The plan: 6.15am wake and a 7.15am depart to KL Sentral. Estimating for an easy pace to wash up and pack. Train at 7.45am to KLIA2 to check in at 8.18am (ride was 33mins) for my 10am flight. All times locked in.

What really went down: waking up to the 7.10 "Time To Move" alarm, which was actually set for us to get ready to leave the front door, and literally jumped up from bed. 3mins brush and  wash, 2mins dress, 5mins to pack toiletries and the rest of my clothes and lock luggages. Within 10mins, we were on the car zooming to KL Sentral. When we arrived, it was about 7.40am so I rushed to purchase my ticket and descended to the platform downstairs. Then, I realised the board was showing "Next Train in 19mins". Huh? How could that be?! I had a good 5mins! So I quickly searched online and...yes, I looked at the wrong schedule. 7.45am departure was for weekends. Weekends are every 20mins, so the train actually left at 7.40am. G R E A T.

At that point, the only way to save myself from wanting to scream at myself was to remove myself mentally from the situation. Sometimes, you just have to recognise the situation and understand nothing more can be done. Just go with the flow. So I got on the next train at 8am, arrived at KLIA2 at 8.33am, checked in my luggage, zoomed through all the check points, and finally arrived at my gate at 9am. I was at least 20mins ahead of boarding time.

Now, writing this from the middle seat of the 2nd last row of an A330, I'm on my way back to typhoon Taiwan. Luckily, the typhoon had left the region during the night. Otherwise, I'd be stuck in KL...stuck in that unhappy bubble created by work. Yes, I desperately want to get away and clear my mind. I NEED this vacation!

Now, prepare for my arrival y'all.

You Win, Allergies!

Dear Pipsqueaks,

After coming back from Bangkok - at supper to be exact - it was brought to my attention that my face had begun to turn very red. I didn't take much notice then because I reasoned it from being too dehydrated from the trip as a whole. I normally drink about 3~4L of water a day, and that wasn't convenient when we travel, so yes I definitely dropped it to about 2L a day. So, legit to see some reaction from the body.

But when I got home, I realised it wasn't only turning red...but bumpy. Like a horrendous allergy attack. Funny enough, it stayed very well within the face region, nothing on the ear, neck or scalp. I started to wonder whether it was the facial mask, but that couldn't be because I used it since day 1 of the trip. So if that were the cause, this would have happened on day 2. It just didn't make any sense as I was also quite careful with what I ate, though I may have had a little too many squids...

Back From Bangkok!

Dear Pipsqueaks,

Seriously getting too old to stay up late and not give myself time to recover - so yes, I literally KO-ed from the trip that I had to take leave yesterday. It wasn't entirely because I couldn't keep my eyes open; I had developed some sort of rash/allergy all over my face. Okay, allergies are not foreign to me, but all over my face? Yes, it's so weird! Normally, it'd be on my arms, back or legs, but on my face...this is the first time ever. So, I had to just stay home and recover...and not go out to scare the public or my colleagues.

Anyways, now that I'm 'back in action', I'll hopefully be able to do the recap for Bangkok on my flight to Singapore tomorrow! It's been a while since I recapped my trips, so let's pray my memory doesn't fail me now. 4D3N really flew by...but LOTS of action, I must say. Can't wait to share it with y'all!

Peace out for now.
Have to finish a few more emails before I head home to pack...or just top up my luggage back from Bangkok!

(One of my favourite drink in the world - Thai Tea! Oh, how I missed you!)

Month of Random Travels

Dear Pipsqueaks,

Okay, I just realised how crazy my travel schedule is for most of July...and I'm definitely to blame because I caved!

Thursday - Sunday [Bangkok] = I'll be heading to Bangkok with a bunch of friends. Now, this trip had been talked about for probably less than a month. For the first few attempts at getting me to go with them, I managed to leash my inner travel-addict to say no. Then, one dinner before singk, I surrendered to temptations. Next minute, my flights have been arranged. It's not that I don't want to go - I desperately need a break out of this office before I lose my sanity, but I've already planned to visit family mid-July, so it's a bit too frequent for me. Oh wells, too late to back out now. So...pad thai, here I come!

Monday - Tuesday [Kuala Lumpur] = back to repack.

Why Am I Not Surprised

Dear Pipsqueaks,

As my usual routine to work, I like to listen to BFM 89.9 Business Station just because they're able to explain what's happening in the world of business without my brains filling up with question marks. So, this morning, they touched on a topic I wrote about a couple of years back...

Malaysian-registered Taxi Drivers. *Taking a deep breath*

Apparently, they're getting upset with the rising popularity of MyTeksi and Uber. *Taking another deep breath*

Lucky Number 111

Dear Pipsqueaks,

I just had to share this because it still boggles my mind what a coinkidinky the day had been.

So, my friend got me into this whole 11street contest to win random vouchers for purchases on the site. I play it once in a while if I remember to check. This morning, it just so happened that after I checked the time (it was showing around 9:08am) and knew the contest just started at 9am. In my own pace, I went to the site, entered the answer and downloaded my voucher...

(you should have seen my face when I saw this pop up!!!)

Epic Fail *Sigh*

Dear Pipsqueaks,

While I'm trying to remember what happened last weekend (just a day ago), my mind is running blank. This is good and bad news I suppose. Bad news first to get it out of the way - normally I have a pretty good memory but I'm forgetting things?! But, possibly because I didn't do much this weekend, so nothing major stuck to me? Good news is that it meant I really took a break from being so active all the time. I really enjoyed my reading-on-the-couch-while-drinking-shake breakfast, cooking-whatever's-in-the-fridge lunches, and just chatting-with-friends-while-watching-TV chillaxes.

I was rather productive in finishing the photo cards that I had to get done in order to use my Groupon voucher before it expires. But, as usual, it's always the last step that frustrates me the most. I had a jolly time looking through my thousands of photos from the history of forever - some of which I will promise to forever bury - and picking out the right backgrounds and text to go with each photo. When I was finally done with the project and ready to send it in for order, I couldn't log in to the server to upload my project.

Nice People & Positive Things

Dear Pipsqueaks,

So, I did get a reply from the template designers and got some pointers (thanks for your help, Yo Templates!), and will now be trying out these tweaks on my test blog instead because I'm reluctant to do any testing on this one in case I can't change it back. (Okay, it had been more than at least two years since I last sat down to tweak a template, so I'm SUPER rusty and slightly less patient than I used to be...) I remember how brain-hurting the process was to put this one together. Yes, I don't remember the moments, but I remember how I felt about it. So to be safe, I'll just iron out all the kinks somewhere else first. When I'm done, then we can have a 'ta-da' moment here :)

I'm still waiting for the right 'feel' to do some recap since my last post (that wasn't an update). Maybe this weekend. But I do want to take this moment to thank all the nice people in this world. The nice guys at Yo Templates for giving me some guidance with the template and being very patient with my beginner questions. The nice colleague that always boosts my confidence by calling me 'gorgeous' or 'cantik' - she also thinks I'm Malaysia, so she keeps talking to me in Bahasa only to see me looking confusedly back at her, but meh! The nice drivers that are actually considerate of others. The nice people who share happy news on social media that makes me happy. The nice peeps that write encouraging comments when I post something depressing...all sorts of niceness. These are what restores my faith in humanity, and remind me that the world is bigger than what I'm finding difficulties facing at times.

Point: Focus on the positive things and just do Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' for all the negative things in life. If it won't bother me 6 months down the road, then it shouldn't bother me now. It's all in adjusting my perspective. Create moments to be positive about - now that's one to work towards!

Just had to get that down in writing...now, back to work! (and listening to Wong Fu Weekends in the background. So addicted :P)

Updating The Look & Feel

Dear Pipsqueaks,

Okay. I feel like it's time to do some updates to my blogger, except...it always stresses me out because I'm not a techie person. Just looking at the template coding is giving me a headache. Yes, I have found one that I quite like, but I'm not sure how to fix some of the sections to make it look right.

But no worries, I've called for some guidance, so hopefully I'll have this up and running with a whole new look and feel! Not sure why I feel it's necessary right this moment, but I do. So I'm going to change it.

--------------------

Can't believe I haven't written anything since March! Though, quite understandably, I've been piled under since the beginning of the year with the changing of my position within the company. Old stuff and new stuff all nagging for my attention...sigh! But lots to update on what happened since March: Sudirman Cup 2015 in Dongguan; heading to Bangkok with a bunch of friends in a couple of week's time; visiting parents in July; then World Championships in Jakarta (Yes, I'll have to spend my birthday there too *sad*). Anyway, I'll post an update as soon as I get all this sorted out!

Peace for now.

P.S. - Not sure when it all started, but I'm now addicted to watching Wong Fu Weekends! These guys are just adorable - kind of regret not going to see them when they were in Malaysia earlier this year (though, I did have to take off that night...so not like it was really possible either, but still!) Sigh..next time.

(Happy Dragon Boat Festival, Peeps!)

Undivided Attention

Remember those days when you would call up a friend, meet and chat for hours on end about anything and everything without either one of you touching your mobile devices? I mean, not even remembering you had a phone or be tempted by it. When we really understood and appreciated each other's time and company. Yup, those were the days.

No, really. I had the opportunity to listen to an amazing person tonight at a talk. She was no doubt an engaging speaker and really knew how to capture and keep an audience's attention. Then, she did the unthinkable.

She popped open her ipad mini cover flat on her thighs and started typing. Right there, on one of 3 speaker chairs, on center stage, in front of a crowd.

Theme for 2015: Consistency

Dear Pipsqueaks,

Right. After spending the count down at Genting Highlands - and winning both games of bowling with a 'consistent' score of 119 each - I've decided on the theme for 2015...

CONSISTENCY