This is a little rant about the project that I have been working on for the past little while, the same project that sent me to Asia twice last year. I am not working on it much any more because it was a complete and total disorganized disaster. The people in charge here have been working on the project by themselves with it closely tucked into their shirt.
This is how bad it was. When I was in Asia one of the clients asked me a question about the requirements for a single module. I looked at her and scratched my head because I did not even know what that module was and what it was responsible for. Thats how bad it was.
Back to the present. Its January 9th, the project "super visor" (I prefer to call him the "ruiner") came up with a list of things that needed to be done by the 15th and given to the client which would close off this portion and allow the company to get paid. [Have I mentioned that because the "ruiner" is not allowing anyone else to help out on some parts the project is already 7 months late?] Which is fine, whatever. It was 4 business days that they gave us to work on things. On the list were about 22 items. I had 5 items that I needed to do. There was some programming and some reports that I needed to create/fix and then give to the client. Which is fine, I had created about 12 reports for the client already so I was familiar with what needed to be done and the software.
I worked my ass off doing all of the things that I had on the list and getting them done. Hell, I even finished by morning of the 14th.
We had a meeting yesterday to go over everything. It was the 21st and there are still 11 items on the list that aren't even started! Like wtf? How does that happen? Here I was working hard for nothing. How can the company be satisfied with the way this project is going when nothing gets done at all? We promise the client something and then don't deliver? Its no wonder the guy who is over there now has called/emailed the boss with complaints from the clients because nothing is as its supposed to be.
The best point of all. This isn't really our fault. Well not completely. This project is based upon a features document which outlines all of the components of the project, it should have never been signed. When the project was awarded, they didn't really know what they wanted. They only knew that they wanted a system to help streamline their business processes.
Fine.
They have a webmapping component. The document states that they required the ability to print from the web both graphical and textual information on A4 paper. Great. It already does that. Now that they've had time to think about it, they want the web mapping to print based on a template and started yelling for that. If they had of told us 6 months ago about this, then it would be different.
Do you know how hard it is to complete something when someone keeps giving you new stuff to add on top of it?
Showing posts with label Brunei. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brunei. Show all posts
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Ugh... F*ck
Music: The throbbing of my own head.
Warning: This post contains explicit fucking language.
I haven't been this hung over in.... so fucking long... last night a few of the guys (and by "few" I mean: me, the other Canadian, and Stinky) came home from the mall and had a few beers.
As the night progressed we got more inebriated and began to carry on.
Around 9 in the evening, I casually mentioned that I could use some Pizza to go with the beer, Stinky ran to the living room and ordered us up a Pizza and garlic fingers from Pizza Hut.
He said he ordered the "largest pizza in Brunei" which turned out to be a 12" pizza. I think he's full of shit.
The garlic fingers turned out to be 3 pieces of garlic bread with a bit of cheese on them. A little disappointing.
When there were three pieces of pizza left Stinky had the bright idea of having a Tabasco-challenge where we'd put Tabasco on the pizza and then eat it. Needless to say, he didn't fair too well as he kept saying "more, more, more" when we were putting it on.
Then we started teaching him Caps.
For those of you who haven't played, here is a summary. You take you beer and put it in front of you, and put the cap on it, the other person then throws a cap and tries to knock it off. When they do, you take a drink.
Fairly simple, right? Well. Lets just say that Stinky didn't do too well with it.
In actuality, he got own'd!
He loved every minute of it though! At one point he started pushing his bottle closer and closer so that he could drink more and more. It was pretty funny.
At the end of the night, Stinky and I went bottle for bottle on our last ones of the evening. I drank twice from mine when his was empty, though I would occassionaly drink from mine anyways cause I was bored and thirsty.
Needless to say, everyone is hungover this morning. If I were back in Canada I'd still be in bed and I'd be taking a mother fucking sick day. Our host actually asked us if we wanted to take a sick day but neither of can as we have alot of work to do today to be ready for the end of our trip.
I won't be touching any more beer for a few days, thats for sure.
Warning: This post contains explicit fucking language.
I haven't been this hung over in.... so fucking long... last night a few of the guys (and by "few" I mean: me, the other Canadian, and Stinky) came home from the mall and had a few beers.
As the night progressed we got more inebriated and began to carry on.
Around 9 in the evening, I casually mentioned that I could use some Pizza to go with the beer, Stinky ran to the living room and ordered us up a Pizza and garlic fingers from Pizza Hut.
He said he ordered the "largest pizza in Brunei" which turned out to be a 12" pizza. I think he's full of shit.
The garlic fingers turned out to be 3 pieces of garlic bread with a bit of cheese on them. A little disappointing.
When there were three pieces of pizza left Stinky had the bright idea of having a Tabasco-challenge where we'd put Tabasco on the pizza and then eat it. Needless to say, he didn't fair too well as he kept saying "more, more, more" when we were putting it on.
Then we started teaching him Caps.
For those of you who haven't played, here is a summary. You take you beer and put it in front of you, and put the cap on it, the other person then throws a cap and tries to knock it off. When they do, you take a drink.
Fairly simple, right? Well. Lets just say that Stinky didn't do too well with it.
In actuality, he got own'd!
He loved every minute of it though! At one point he started pushing his bottle closer and closer so that he could drink more and more. It was pretty funny.
At the end of the night, Stinky and I went bottle for bottle on our last ones of the evening. I drank twice from mine when his was empty, though I would occassionaly drink from mine anyways cause I was bored and thirsty.
Needless to say, everyone is hungover this morning. If I were back in Canada I'd still be in bed and I'd be taking a mother fucking sick day. Our host actually asked us if we wanted to take a sick day but neither of can as we have alot of work to do today to be ready for the end of our trip.
I won't be touching any more beer for a few days, thats for sure.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Days off in Brunei
Music: Praxis - Inferno/Heatseeker/Exploded Heart
Today was my first official day off in Brunei, its Sunday. Want to know what we did?
Went to the office and worked. Yeah, we're losers. Though we only put in a grand total of about 3 hours before we went to lunch and then went shopping.
The shopping was pretty good. My colleague wanted to buy a new watch for himself and his girl, so we went to a girl we're working with-cousin's shop. It was pretty cool. He gave us 20% off everything in the store.
I bought a fountain pen for $160 Brunei dollars. I had a really hard time justifying spending that much on myself, but I managed to convince myself that its worth it.
I also looked for a set of ear-rings for my wife but didn't see anything in the store that I liked.
[Note: That should read, I didn't see anything for under $1,000 Brunei Dollars.]
--
Did you ever have one of those friends whom you really want to help, but don't know where you should step in? Ok, its not "my" friend, she's my wife's friend - but I view her friends as my friends.
She's going through a difficult time at the moment, and by difficult time, I actually mean dating an asshole.
Lets start from the first time that I met him. It was about 3 or 4 weeks after I met her and he showed up to her party after he got off work and he was loaded. Fine, so was everyone else. He'd make stupid comments about sex and didn't really pay much attention to her or be nice to her at all.
After most of the people at the party had left we crammed 6 people into our hatch back and went to Subway so they could have a drunken snack. While we were ordering a couple of police officers came in and he started to chat them up.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but he began asking them if they'd ever been tased and that they should because they shoot people with tazers. He began ranting at them, his girl looked at him and told him to shut up but he wouldn't. After getting his order he then went to his seat and continued to bash them and call them "douche-bags" all the while his girlfriend was in tears. I should have popped him one, but then I might have gotten arrested.
Anyways, that was my first impression.
My subsequent impresssions were not any better.
She sends me a message on Facebook last night (yesterday morning for everyone else) asking where my wife is because she really needs her since she was breaking up with him. I was near giddy with excitement.
The last we heard she was going to go talk to him .... and then there was silence. Its been 14 hours since our last contact with her. I'm beginning to get worried.
Today was my first official day off in Brunei, its Sunday. Want to know what we did?
Went to the office and worked. Yeah, we're losers. Though we only put in a grand total of about 3 hours before we went to lunch and then went shopping.
The shopping was pretty good. My colleague wanted to buy a new watch for himself and his girl, so we went to a girl we're working with-cousin's shop. It was pretty cool. He gave us 20% off everything in the store.
I bought a fountain pen for $160 Brunei dollars. I had a really hard time justifying spending that much on myself, but I managed to convince myself that its worth it.
I also looked for a set of ear-rings for my wife but didn't see anything in the store that I liked.
[Note: That should read, I didn't see anything for under $1,000 Brunei Dollars.]
--
Did you ever have one of those friends whom you really want to help, but don't know where you should step in? Ok, its not "my" friend, she's my wife's friend - but I view her friends as my friends.
She's going through a difficult time at the moment, and by difficult time, I actually mean dating an asshole.
Lets start from the first time that I met him. It was about 3 or 4 weeks after I met her and he showed up to her party after he got off work and he was loaded. Fine, so was everyone else. He'd make stupid comments about sex and didn't really pay much attention to her or be nice to her at all.
After most of the people at the party had left we crammed 6 people into our hatch back and went to Subway so they could have a drunken snack. While we were ordering a couple of police officers came in and he started to chat them up.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but he began asking them if they'd ever been tased and that they should because they shoot people with tazers. He began ranting at them, his girl looked at him and told him to shut up but he wouldn't. After getting his order he then went to his seat and continued to bash them and call them "douche-bags" all the while his girlfriend was in tears. I should have popped him one, but then I might have gotten arrested.
Anyways, that was my first impression.
My subsequent impresssions were not any better.
She sends me a message on Facebook last night (yesterday morning for everyone else) asking where my wife is because she really needs her since she was breaking up with him. I was near giddy with excitement.
The last we heard she was going to go talk to him .... and then there was silence. Its been 14 hours since our last contact with her. I'm beginning to get worried.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Hello, from South Central Asia
So, I'm back in Asia again. I'm not really happy about being here this time either. Wait... let me rephrase that.
I'm not happy with the way in which things were dealt with for my trip here. Things have happened over the past few weeks which have been underhanded and not very kind. I've commented on it before, and nothing more needs to be said.
My last trip here I was jetlagged for a few days before my body adjusted to the time and I was perfectly normal again.
This time is a little different, its day 4 and I've already been up at 5am everyday since I've been here. Not very good, if you ask me.
Everything is like I remember it. Nothing much has changed. They boys still like to drink, though the whisky seems to be lasting alot longer than when I was here before.
Since I'm here with someone different, I think, just think that I might be able to some touristy things so that I could get some pictures. We went and had supper last night by the water front and you could just see the "Water Taxis" zooming by taking people from the city to the water village.
[And by "Water Taxis" I mean Speed Boats.]
The only other thing that I have to say right now is that its frickin' warm, and I'm bored.
Thats right, I don't have near as much to do as the last time that I was here so things have been going rather slowly for me around the office. Though, I'm not complaining, I like being able to take my time while doing some tasks. Its refreshing and a change of the ordinary.
One funny story from this trip. I was drinking beers with the guys in the back yard when a girl arrived who knew a bunch of them. She started talking and I near pissed myself. This petite Asian lady spoke near perfect English.... with... get this.... a thick British accent! It was awesome, and made my night.
I'm not happy with the way in which things were dealt with for my trip here. Things have happened over the past few weeks which have been underhanded and not very kind. I've commented on it before, and nothing more needs to be said.
My last trip here I was jetlagged for a few days before my body adjusted to the time and I was perfectly normal again.
This time is a little different, its day 4 and I've already been up at 5am everyday since I've been here. Not very good, if you ask me.
Everything is like I remember it. Nothing much has changed. They boys still like to drink, though the whisky seems to be lasting alot longer than when I was here before.
Since I'm here with someone different, I think, just think that I might be able to some touristy things so that I could get some pictures. We went and had supper last night by the water front and you could just see the "Water Taxis" zooming by taking people from the city to the water village.
[And by "Water Taxis" I mean Speed Boats.]
The only other thing that I have to say right now is that its frickin' warm, and I'm bored.
Thats right, I don't have near as much to do as the last time that I was here so things have been going rather slowly for me around the office. Though, I'm not complaining, I like being able to take my time while doing some tasks. Its refreshing and a change of the ordinary.
One funny story from this trip. I was drinking beers with the guys in the back yard when a girl arrived who knew a bunch of them. She started talking and I near pissed myself. This petite Asian lady spoke near perfect English.... with... get this.... a thick British accent! It was awesome, and made my night.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Brunei, after-effects
May 4rd
Today marks the 3rd day being back in the country after my "round the world" trip from Asia. I'm just a little jet lagged. Just a little.
The first day back in the country we were up until 3am talking and telling stories, doing that kind of reunion when you've been away from your wife for so long. The sleep was restful but at the same time short.
My eyes shot open like a spring at 5am. Shit. I thought it might be a little different coming this way as I didn't get as much sleep on the plane. Then again, it is my body we are talking about. I got up and walked around the apartment looking for something to do, but couldn't really find much to do that didn't involve making lots of noise, like unpacking and watching a movie.
That day we went shopping to get me some shirts as I realized on my trip that I have a very limited amount of short-sleeved shirts for the summer. Which kind of sucks for the summer as I'm a very warm person anyways. While we were at the mall we inquired about the possibility of getting a phone that I could possibly take with me some other time that I/we go travelling outside of North America so that we can stay in contact.
The only thing that I could find in a worldphone is a Blackberry, I tried a few different providers and Aliant/Bell in Canada are Bastards. The package of theirs that I could afford was $100 and didn't include much in the way of anything maybe 50 MB of Data a month. I walked down the hall in the mall to Telus and found out that they had an unlimited Data package for their blackberry for $88. So cheap.
If we can get out of our Aliant contracts I'm walking over to Telus and getting a Blackberry. Fuck Bell.
After we went to the mall we walked downtown to see the Flooding that has been going on in Fredericton. It had been progressively worse in the downtown area as most of the back property has been flooded, the little highway, the on ramp to the bridge. Everything was flooded, it was hard to find an area that wasn't covered in water.
The previous day most of the downtown core had been shutdown, there were 30 roads along the river that had been completely shut down as well.
You can see some of the pictures that I've taken on my website
The next night was just as bad, I was up until 12 or 1 and then up at 6am. I went to bed again at 8 and slept until 11, which wasn't bad, but it was too much sleep and felt like crap the rest of the day.
We did something we haven't done in a while, we rented a movie. We rented Cloverfield and Sharkwater.
Sharkwater has to be the most touching documentary that I've every seen. Its something thats going on right now that isn't discussed and that most people don't know about. Its scary to think that so many people will pay so much money for a piece of tasteless meat.
This morning is even worse, we were in bed at 10pm because I was so exhausted and then I was awoken at 4am. Things this morning was different, when I awoke I found out that there as a Godzilla movie on CBC. Sweet.
Today marks the 3rd day being back in the country after my "round the world" trip from Asia. I'm just a little jet lagged. Just a little.
The first day back in the country we were up until 3am talking and telling stories, doing that kind of reunion when you've been away from your wife for so long. The sleep was restful but at the same time short.
My eyes shot open like a spring at 5am. Shit. I thought it might be a little different coming this way as I didn't get as much sleep on the plane. Then again, it is my body we are talking about. I got up and walked around the apartment looking for something to do, but couldn't really find much to do that didn't involve making lots of noise, like unpacking and watching a movie.
That day we went shopping to get me some shirts as I realized on my trip that I have a very limited amount of short-sleeved shirts for the summer. Which kind of sucks for the summer as I'm a very warm person anyways. While we were at the mall we inquired about the possibility of getting a phone that I could possibly take with me some other time that I/we go travelling outside of North America so that we can stay in contact.
The only thing that I could find in a worldphone is a Blackberry, I tried a few different providers and Aliant/Bell in Canada are Bastards. The package of theirs that I could afford was $100 and didn't include much in the way of anything maybe 50 MB of Data a month. I walked down the hall in the mall to Telus and found out that they had an unlimited Data package for their blackberry for $88. So cheap.
If we can get out of our Aliant contracts I'm walking over to Telus and getting a Blackberry. Fuck Bell.
After we went to the mall we walked downtown to see the Flooding that has been going on in Fredericton. It had been progressively worse in the downtown area as most of the back property has been flooded, the little highway, the on ramp to the bridge. Everything was flooded, it was hard to find an area that wasn't covered in water.
The previous day most of the downtown core had been shutdown, there were 30 roads along the river that had been completely shut down as well.
You can see some of the pictures that I've taken on my website
The next night was just as bad, I was up until 12 or 1 and then up at 6am. I went to bed again at 8 and slept until 11, which wasn't bad, but it was too much sleep and felt like crap the rest of the day.
We did something we haven't done in a while, we rented a movie. We rented Cloverfield and Sharkwater.
Sharkwater has to be the most touching documentary that I've every seen. Its something thats going on right now that isn't discussed and that most people don't know about. Its scary to think that so many people will pay so much money for a piece of tasteless meat.
This morning is even worse, we were in bed at 10pm because I was so exhausted and then I was awoken at 4am. Things this morning was different, when I awoke I found out that there as a Godzilla movie on CBC. Sweet.
Brunei, Day 15, May
May 1st, 2008
I'm officially on my way HOME! I can't believe that its actually been 15 days since I've entered Brunei. Its crazy to think that so much time has passed and that I was able to see and do SOO much. It really was the trip of a lifetime because I honestly don't know when I'll have the opportunity to come back again. Although, if work sends me I'd try to find a way for my wife to come too! I think she'd LOVE it.
I work up this morning and pressed snooze on my make-shift alarm clock until a little past 7:30 and then went downstairs to get myself ready to start the day. When I got downstairs I ran into a few of the guys from Malaysia who were here to do some business with my sponsor. I met them last week when we were participating in the launch of the software application.
We went to the office for a few minutes to do a few things and to let my sponsor get some work done before we went to the airport. I said a few goodbyes to some of the people that I have been working with and then went to the airport where I was scared the I would have to pay extra for my luggage as it was heavy. I brought my things to the counter and put it on the scale.... 22.3 kg. I'm allowed 20 kg and then I started to panic because I saw a sign that told of the different charges that I would have to pay if I was over, and Hong Kong was something ridiculous like $65 a kg. The lady didn't say anything and then proceeded to check my luggage to Toronto (because it is a domestic flight after that I have to move the baggage myself.) I was talking to my sponsor afterwards and he told me they only make you start paying when you get to 25 kg. Phew!
Once I got my ticket I had to get out of the security area to cash in some Brunei dollars that I had, I still have a $100 bill that I needed to get ride of. The $5's and $1's I can give away as souvenirs to friends and family. I received $70 Canadian and $30 Brunei because he couldn't give me anything smaller.
I said my goodbye to the sponsor and went back through the checkpoint, then in through immigration. The guy took my passport, scanned me and then said “Who's your favourite player? Ronaldo?” In reference to the Manchester United jersey that I was wearing. We have a nice little talk about it before I left. What a way to start a trip! Normally Customs/Immigration people are very cranky, well they are in Canada. But I guess, if you're a fan of football, you can get along anywhere in the world. :-)
I walked around the Departures area to have a look at the sights. I walked into a souvenir shop and saw a little elephant statue for sale that I thought would be a fantastic little souvenir for myself as I didn't buy my statue..... listed price.... $89.00. F*ck that! (Though I didn't ask if it was listed in Brunie dollars or Malaysian ringits which are 15-1 for BND.)
They had a pretty cool little salt-water aquarium with a Dory and Nemo in it. It was nice to stand there and watch them swim around. It got a little weird after a few minutes when a couple of British fellows walked up to the aquarium and said, “This is cool, we saw these on the reef.”
Bastards.
I wen to find my Gate so that I knew where to go at 11 when they started boarding when I cam across a peculiar sight. There was a good dozen people sitting on the floor infront of a television. I could tell immediately they were from the UK:
1.They were white.
2.They were watching a replay of the Chelsea v Liverpool game from the night before.
I was there for Chelsea's third goal (They won 3-2) and not a single person cheered. They all seemed to take great offense to this particular goal. Stupid Chelsea.
The flight should be in Hong Kong on time, giving me about 2 hours in the airport to navigate my way around to find where I will be going. Maybe I'll have time to buy something? Think they'll take Canadian dollars?
A few minutes before take off one of the stewards on the flight, yes all of the staff on the flight are gusy and not the really cool dressed girls, comes up to me as I'm crammed into my seat with an elderly chinese woman and her son, both of whom are holding Canadian passports. He asks me, “Are you travelling together.” I say No.
He then says, would you like to sit up front? My mind immediately jumps to FIRST CLASS. As if he can read my mind, he begins to tell me that there is an empty row beside one of the emergency exits over the wind and he wants to know if I will occupy it. I agree and walk down the corridor to my new seat.
As we're taking off I realize that it was good deal, I looked to the window and managed to take a few aerial shots of the water village thats in the capital city, there are few of them in the area, but this is the biggest.
Did you know that 12-15% of the population of Brunei live in these villages? They're essentially homes on stilts in the water, a pretty cool idea, though dangerous. I was told that a few years ago there was a fire in one of them and because the houses are so close together the fire's spread easily. Such a shame.
I'm beginning to not like my seat any more. There is a really cool vertical cloud formation just out side to the left that I wanted to take a picture of but the flippin' wing was in the way so I couldn't get a full shot... maybe I can see out out the window behind me in a few moment.
2:30pm
I have arrived in HONG KONG. I'm a little disappointed in everything though. As we were flying in it was very overcast/cloudy/smoggy which isn't that good for taking pictures off the cool ass land marks in the city. Though I did try my best to take what I could some of them will need some editing to try and clear up the blueish tint of the pictures while the rest are hopeless. But it was still fun to try though.
Coming into the airport and looking at the different airlines that fly here is amazing. I saw planes for: South African, Turkish Airways, Qatar, Jordaian Airlines, Air Asia, Vietnamese Airlines. Its crazy because we're so limited in our choices in Canada that we only see less than a dozen, maybe closer to 10 or 12 when you get into a place like Toronto.
When I got off the plane there was a few people standing at the bottom of the runway with a sign, one of them had my name. It was just a friendly reminder that I need to go to transfer area E2 to get to the Cathay Pacific Counter. I knew that, but if I didn't E2 is across the hallway from E1 so it wouldn't be too hard to find.
I made my way through security without any problems, the only problem I had was putting my watch in the bucket for the scanner, it just wouldn't leave my hand. After making my way upstairs I really found out how cool this air port is. It has EVERYTING. A Ralph Lauren store, a Svardovski (watch place) all the really expensive high priced fashion outlets are here! How cool is that!?
I told Amanda that if I had time I would wander my way around the airport and see if I could find us any souvenis, I found some, and after spending $100 HK, which I think works out to be about $15 Canadian on two Key Chains, I think we'll both be happy.
After leaving the shop with the expensive key chains I wandered around to see if I could find something else that would catch my eye. Turns out I was very easily swayed. I saw a wireless rechargeable mouse in one of the electronic stores in the airport, it looked really promising. But it was $425 HK, I went to the currency exchange to find out how much that would be Canadian, and it looked like it was about ... wow my math was really wrong when I was thinking about this... it was $50! What the hell? Hong Kong is expensive.... but then again, when is the next time that I'm actually going to be here? Probably close to never. It was worth it. (Though it means that I might not be able to get a new pair of shoes... hahaha... )
I went back to my gate to see if I could find a seat since I had gone around the entire air port in a little more than 23 minutes and went to find a seat, you'd think that the seats wouldn't go that fast, but man they flew! I was lucky to find a seat on the end of an aisle looking out the window.
For shits and giggles I turned on the wireless component of my laptop to see if I could get anykind of a signal. I could... there were TWO unsecured wireless.
I tried the first one labeled “Free Wireless” after 3 minutes of trying to load a webpage... nothing.
Tried the other one labelled “PCCW”, when I tried to load a page it brought me to a login screen where I could enter in information and pay for Internet. Whats the point of having unsecured wireless if you have to pay to use it?
So, its 3:35pm and my flight is boarding in 30 minutes. Shit, do I ever hate waiting for stuff! Thanks Amanda for sharing your impatience with me! Hahahahaha
I just can't wait to get home to Canada! I could spend the night in the airport in Toronto and I wouldn't care, just as long as I'm in Canada!
5:15pm (Hong Kong)
I'm on the flight! Making my way back towards Canada, so very exciting. I can't believe that its come to this. I was very scared getting on the flight because I didn't want to be smooshed into the window next to two people and not be able to get out to go pee or anything. Turns out I lucked out BOTH trips, on the way to Hong Kong on the 15th I had a really nice kick-boxing gentleman sitting next to me and we chatted our way through the sky.
This time I have a very lovely English lady (living in Toronto) sitting next to me who's oh so very nice to talk tto. She told me all about her trip to Brisbane and some of the things that they did in Hong Kong, such a pleasant lady.
Asian people can be, not to sound like an asshole, demanding and pushy. I was in line to get on the plane when this little fellow, not much older than me walked right past me, looked at me and then stood in line. How rude!
On the take off I still didn't have much luck seeing Hong Kong, there were some aspects that I could see: little bits of civilization in and around the volcanic mountains, very nice. But it was still too cloudy too see what was past or around those mountains. I think I'd like to come back this way and do a little tour of Asia. Visit Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and then head down to Austalia where I can get lost in the out back and never come back.....
The nice lady also told me a bit about the news lately, apparently Beijing made an announcement that for the next 100 days leading up to the Olympics the entire city is going to be a smoke free zone. Organizers are worries about the quality of the air in Beijing and figured that doing this would help with the pollution. How about if they stop building oil guzzling factories? That would help. Better yet shut down all of the Coal Fueled Power stations in the country, they're probably responsible for about 45% of the pollution. It sucks that they're advancing so far behind the rest of the world and encountering the problems that we've worked around 20 years ago.
Shit, that got a little political, sorry about that.
There's a lot of turbulence on this flight right now and they also made an announcement that some of the in flight services/entertainment are all messed up due to “technical” problems. Here's what I think happened: someone pushed the “reset” button on their system, and if it functions like anything else I've seen lately, resetting it won't help. Or the other cause could have been that some schmuck (me) turned on his laptop and left the wireless Internet turned on. Now that I think about it, I bought a new wireless mouse in the airport and I can't use it because its a “wireless” device. Dammit. I wanted to play!
Again, I digress and end up bitching about something that doesn't need to be discussed here.
I tried to use the power plug thats in the seat in front of me but when I plugged in my laptop cord the little green light on my transformer didn't light up to indicate that there was power. I mentioned it to one of the stewardess' (yes there are women on this flight) that it wasn't working while she was handing out drinks and she told me she'd find out as soon as she was done with the drinks. She walked back and forth a few times; I began to worry that she' forgotten about what I asked her.
On her third trip by my seat she stopped to tell me that there was a problem with the fuse and they were trying to reset it. Within 30 seconds of her leaving the little green light came on to indicated that there was power going to the outlet. YAY! Now I can turn up the brightness on my monitor and work until my hearts content. If I had a disk I'd take this opportunity to reformat my computer...
If I wanted to fill it with crap I'd put Vista on it.... nah.
We're only 4 and a half hours from Toronto, and I'm surprised we made it this far to be honest. Shortly after takeoff we hit the absolute worst turbulence I've ever experienced In my life. I was honestly terrified that we were going to drop out of the air.
At one point I raised out of my seat because the plane dropped about 10-15 feet and then rose again with the turbulence. I thought we were going to end up crash landing into downtown Tokyo! I looked at our moving map and at that point we still had 11 hours to go. Side to side turbulence I can handle, but that was terrible.
I'm glad that I got to sit next the lady from Toronto, she was very kind during the bad turbulence, offering me Gravol and checking to see if I was alright. I was like flying with my mom. Kind of weird, but refreshing at the same time.
We were in and out of normal turbulence for the entire rest of the journey. Hitting little bits here and there.
I did what I normally do in those type of situations.... I slept. I closed my eyes and imagined I was anywhere but on a plane. I pictured myself sitting on the couch at home with my wife, but then a plane crash landed into our television.
Every time I pick up the laptop to do some work we end up hitting turbulence and making the journey rougher and making it every harder to concentrate.
Currently we're flying over top of Whitehorse and I opened the window, after nearly going blind by the sheer volume of light coming in the window, I was absolutely mesmerized by the landscape. I managed to take a few pictures of the outside before our crappy lady ordered me “politely” to shut the window before she broke my face.
Ok, I added in that part.
I'm officially on my way HOME! I can't believe that its actually been 15 days since I've entered Brunei. Its crazy to think that so much time has passed and that I was able to see and do SOO much. It really was the trip of a lifetime because I honestly don't know when I'll have the opportunity to come back again. Although, if work sends me I'd try to find a way for my wife to come too! I think she'd LOVE it.
I work up this morning and pressed snooze on my make-shift alarm clock until a little past 7:30 and then went downstairs to get myself ready to start the day. When I got downstairs I ran into a few of the guys from Malaysia who were here to do some business with my sponsor. I met them last week when we were participating in the launch of the software application.
We went to the office for a few minutes to do a few things and to let my sponsor get some work done before we went to the airport. I said a few goodbyes to some of the people that I have been working with and then went to the airport where I was scared the I would have to pay extra for my luggage as it was heavy. I brought my things to the counter and put it on the scale.... 22.3 kg. I'm allowed 20 kg and then I started to panic because I saw a sign that told of the different charges that I would have to pay if I was over, and Hong Kong was something ridiculous like $65 a kg. The lady didn't say anything and then proceeded to check my luggage to Toronto (because it is a domestic flight after that I have to move the baggage myself.) I was talking to my sponsor afterwards and he told me they only make you start paying when you get to 25 kg. Phew!
Once I got my ticket I had to get out of the security area to cash in some Brunei dollars that I had, I still have a $100 bill that I needed to get ride of. The $5's and $1's I can give away as souvenirs to friends and family. I received $70 Canadian and $30 Brunei because he couldn't give me anything smaller.
I said my goodbye to the sponsor and went back through the checkpoint, then in through immigration. The guy took my passport, scanned me and then said “Who's your favourite player? Ronaldo?” In reference to the Manchester United jersey that I was wearing. We have a nice little talk about it before I left. What a way to start a trip! Normally Customs/Immigration people are very cranky, well they are in Canada. But I guess, if you're a fan of football, you can get along anywhere in the world. :-)
I walked around the Departures area to have a look at the sights. I walked into a souvenir shop and saw a little elephant statue for sale that I thought would be a fantastic little souvenir for myself as I didn't buy my statue..... listed price.... $89.00. F*ck that! (Though I didn't ask if it was listed in Brunie dollars or Malaysian ringits which are 15-1 for BND.)
They had a pretty cool little salt-water aquarium with a Dory and Nemo in it. It was nice to stand there and watch them swim around. It got a little weird after a few minutes when a couple of British fellows walked up to the aquarium and said, “This is cool, we saw these on the reef.”
Bastards.
I wen to find my Gate so that I knew where to go at 11 when they started boarding when I cam across a peculiar sight. There was a good dozen people sitting on the floor infront of a television. I could tell immediately they were from the UK:
1.They were white.
2.They were watching a replay of the Chelsea v Liverpool game from the night before.
I was there for Chelsea's third goal (They won 3-2) and not a single person cheered. They all seemed to take great offense to this particular goal. Stupid Chelsea.
The flight should be in Hong Kong on time, giving me about 2 hours in the airport to navigate my way around to find where I will be going. Maybe I'll have time to buy something? Think they'll take Canadian dollars?
A few minutes before take off one of the stewards on the flight, yes all of the staff on the flight are gusy and not the really cool dressed girls, comes up to me as I'm crammed into my seat with an elderly chinese woman and her son, both of whom are holding Canadian passports. He asks me, “Are you travelling together.” I say No.
He then says, would you like to sit up front? My mind immediately jumps to FIRST CLASS. As if he can read my mind, he begins to tell me that there is an empty row beside one of the emergency exits over the wind and he wants to know if I will occupy it. I agree and walk down the corridor to my new seat.
As we're taking off I realize that it was good deal, I looked to the window and managed to take a few aerial shots of the water village thats in the capital city, there are few of them in the area, but this is the biggest.
Did you know that 12-15% of the population of Brunei live in these villages? They're essentially homes on stilts in the water, a pretty cool idea, though dangerous. I was told that a few years ago there was a fire in one of them and because the houses are so close together the fire's spread easily. Such a shame.
I'm beginning to not like my seat any more. There is a really cool vertical cloud formation just out side to the left that I wanted to take a picture of but the flippin' wing was in the way so I couldn't get a full shot... maybe I can see out out the window behind me in a few moment.
2:30pm
I have arrived in HONG KONG. I'm a little disappointed in everything though. As we were flying in it was very overcast/cloudy/smoggy which isn't that good for taking pictures off the cool ass land marks in the city. Though I did try my best to take what I could some of them will need some editing to try and clear up the blueish tint of the pictures while the rest are hopeless. But it was still fun to try though.
Coming into the airport and looking at the different airlines that fly here is amazing. I saw planes for: South African, Turkish Airways, Qatar, Jordaian Airlines, Air Asia, Vietnamese Airlines. Its crazy because we're so limited in our choices in Canada that we only see less than a dozen, maybe closer to 10 or 12 when you get into a place like Toronto.
When I got off the plane there was a few people standing at the bottom of the runway with a sign, one of them had my name. It was just a friendly reminder that I need to go to transfer area E2 to get to the Cathay Pacific Counter. I knew that, but if I didn't E2 is across the hallway from E1 so it wouldn't be too hard to find.
I made my way through security without any problems, the only problem I had was putting my watch in the bucket for the scanner, it just wouldn't leave my hand. After making my way upstairs I really found out how cool this air port is. It has EVERYTING. A Ralph Lauren store, a Svardovski (watch place) all the really expensive high priced fashion outlets are here! How cool is that!?
I told Amanda that if I had time I would wander my way around the airport and see if I could find us any souvenis, I found some, and after spending $100 HK, which I think works out to be about $15 Canadian on two Key Chains, I think we'll both be happy.
After leaving the shop with the expensive key chains I wandered around to see if I could find something else that would catch my eye. Turns out I was very easily swayed. I saw a wireless rechargeable mouse in one of the electronic stores in the airport, it looked really promising. But it was $425 HK, I went to the currency exchange to find out how much that would be Canadian, and it looked like it was about ... wow my math was really wrong when I was thinking about this... it was $50! What the hell? Hong Kong is expensive.... but then again, when is the next time that I'm actually going to be here? Probably close to never. It was worth it. (Though it means that I might not be able to get a new pair of shoes... hahaha... )
I went back to my gate to see if I could find a seat since I had gone around the entire air port in a little more than 23 minutes and went to find a seat, you'd think that the seats wouldn't go that fast, but man they flew! I was lucky to find a seat on the end of an aisle looking out the window.
For shits and giggles I turned on the wireless component of my laptop to see if I could get anykind of a signal. I could... there were TWO unsecured wireless.
I tried the first one labeled “Free Wireless” after 3 minutes of trying to load a webpage... nothing.
Tried the other one labelled “PCCW”, when I tried to load a page it brought me to a login screen where I could enter in information and pay for Internet. Whats the point of having unsecured wireless if you have to pay to use it?
So, its 3:35pm and my flight is boarding in 30 minutes. Shit, do I ever hate waiting for stuff! Thanks Amanda for sharing your impatience with me! Hahahahaha
I just can't wait to get home to Canada! I could spend the night in the airport in Toronto and I wouldn't care, just as long as I'm in Canada!
5:15pm (Hong Kong)
I'm on the flight! Making my way back towards Canada, so very exciting. I can't believe that its come to this. I was very scared getting on the flight because I didn't want to be smooshed into the window next to two people and not be able to get out to go pee or anything. Turns out I lucked out BOTH trips, on the way to Hong Kong on the 15th I had a really nice kick-boxing gentleman sitting next to me and we chatted our way through the sky.
This time I have a very lovely English lady (living in Toronto) sitting next to me who's oh so very nice to talk tto. She told me all about her trip to Brisbane and some of the things that they did in Hong Kong, such a pleasant lady.
Asian people can be, not to sound like an asshole, demanding and pushy. I was in line to get on the plane when this little fellow, not much older than me walked right past me, looked at me and then stood in line. How rude!
On the take off I still didn't have much luck seeing Hong Kong, there were some aspects that I could see: little bits of civilization in and around the volcanic mountains, very nice. But it was still too cloudy too see what was past or around those mountains. I think I'd like to come back this way and do a little tour of Asia. Visit Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and then head down to Austalia where I can get lost in the out back and never come back.....
The nice lady also told me a bit about the news lately, apparently Beijing made an announcement that for the next 100 days leading up to the Olympics the entire city is going to be a smoke free zone. Organizers are worries about the quality of the air in Beijing and figured that doing this would help with the pollution. How about if they stop building oil guzzling factories? That would help. Better yet shut down all of the Coal Fueled Power stations in the country, they're probably responsible for about 45% of the pollution. It sucks that they're advancing so far behind the rest of the world and encountering the problems that we've worked around 20 years ago.
Shit, that got a little political, sorry about that.
There's a lot of turbulence on this flight right now and they also made an announcement that some of the in flight services/entertainment are all messed up due to “technical” problems. Here's what I think happened: someone pushed the “reset” button on their system, and if it functions like anything else I've seen lately, resetting it won't help. Or the other cause could have been that some schmuck (me) turned on his laptop and left the wireless Internet turned on. Now that I think about it, I bought a new wireless mouse in the airport and I can't use it because its a “wireless” device. Dammit. I wanted to play!
Again, I digress and end up bitching about something that doesn't need to be discussed here.
I tried to use the power plug thats in the seat in front of me but when I plugged in my laptop cord the little green light on my transformer didn't light up to indicate that there was power. I mentioned it to one of the stewardess' (yes there are women on this flight) that it wasn't working while she was handing out drinks and she told me she'd find out as soon as she was done with the drinks. She walked back and forth a few times; I began to worry that she' forgotten about what I asked her.
On her third trip by my seat she stopped to tell me that there was a problem with the fuse and they were trying to reset it. Within 30 seconds of her leaving the little green light came on to indicated that there was power going to the outlet. YAY! Now I can turn up the brightness on my monitor and work until my hearts content. If I had a disk I'd take this opportunity to reformat my computer...
If I wanted to fill it with crap I'd put Vista on it.... nah.
We're only 4 and a half hours from Toronto, and I'm surprised we made it this far to be honest. Shortly after takeoff we hit the absolute worst turbulence I've ever experienced In my life. I was honestly terrified that we were going to drop out of the air.
At one point I raised out of my seat because the plane dropped about 10-15 feet and then rose again with the turbulence. I thought we were going to end up crash landing into downtown Tokyo! I looked at our moving map and at that point we still had 11 hours to go. Side to side turbulence I can handle, but that was terrible.
I'm glad that I got to sit next the lady from Toronto, she was very kind during the bad turbulence, offering me Gravol and checking to see if I was alright. I was like flying with my mom. Kind of weird, but refreshing at the same time.
We were in and out of normal turbulence for the entire rest of the journey. Hitting little bits here and there.
I did what I normally do in those type of situations.... I slept. I closed my eyes and imagined I was anywhere but on a plane. I pictured myself sitting on the couch at home with my wife, but then a plane crash landed into our television.
Every time I pick up the laptop to do some work we end up hitting turbulence and making the journey rougher and making it every harder to concentrate.
Currently we're flying over top of Whitehorse and I opened the window, after nearly going blind by the sheer volume of light coming in the window, I was absolutely mesmerized by the landscape. I managed to take a few pictures of the outside before our crappy lady ordered me “politely” to shut the window before she broke my face.
Ok, I added in that part.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Brunei, Day 13, April 29
April 29th, 2008
Just finished day two of the training I am giving on the Web Mapping Software that our company added for the project. The training, in my opinion is going well, although I wouldn't know that as the people attending the training sit quietly and watch when they have missed what I had done in the previous step. After two days I've almost become a mind reader and master of observation to figure out when he people are not really paying attention or are completely lost.
The thing that I'm finding most disturbing/hard regarding Asian culture is that when I am talking and giving my presentation as part of the training I can always hear one person somewhere in the room talking to someone else. I'm going to assume that what they are saying is related to the course, but they're speaking Malay so I'm unsure as to the exact content of their discussion.
I am having lots of fun with the training though, the training room that the company here in Brunei setup has an Interactive Smartboard. This means I can jump around the room and click the pen on the board to show people exactly where to click. I'm actually thinking they're having a hard time seeing the board.
I handed in my expenses today to the company who is sponsoring my visit. Staying here for 2 weeks: this includes, room & board, meals, chauffeured driving service (Tommy), and full maid services for a grand total of $500 (Brunei). I spent 4 days in Halifax and the hotel alone cost me $900 Canadian. For a state of reference $500 in Brunei converts to $372 Canadian.
But thats the way things are here, everything is cheap. There is a place we go to breakfast just past work, and for 3 people to eat we get change back from $10 BND (Brunei Dollars). I managed to find, on Sunday, a jersey for an English football club for $20 BND, I bought my other jersey in Toronto a few years back, on sale, for $100 CDN.
When I leave here on Thursday, I'm actually going to miss it. I enjoy the people that I work with and the people who are hosting me (though Asian morales I could do without). Its going to be different going back to Canada, having to cook, having to drive and having to pay full price for everything.
The strangest thing that I found was this: nowhere, I repeat, nowhere in this country can you find a non-pirated movie or DVD. Everything in this country is pirated. You can buy a brand new movie for $5, one of the people that I work with bought Pirates of the Caribbean 3 for $1.50, we're still paying over $22 for it in Canada.
After work sat around outside with a few of the guys and had a beer or two. Listening to their stories slip in and out of English is highly entertaining. They're talking about trying to bring me out to see the night life in Brunei, which consists of illegal pubs and illegal karaoke which are both surrounded by Asian “back workers” (my way of saying prostitute).
Just finished day two of the training I am giving on the Web Mapping Software that our company added for the project. The training, in my opinion is going well, although I wouldn't know that as the people attending the training sit quietly and watch when they have missed what I had done in the previous step. After two days I've almost become a mind reader and master of observation to figure out when he people are not really paying attention or are completely lost.
The thing that I'm finding most disturbing/hard regarding Asian culture is that when I am talking and giving my presentation as part of the training I can always hear one person somewhere in the room talking to someone else. I'm going to assume that what they are saying is related to the course, but they're speaking Malay so I'm unsure as to the exact content of their discussion.
I am having lots of fun with the training though, the training room that the company here in Brunei setup has an Interactive Smartboard. This means I can jump around the room and click the pen on the board to show people exactly where to click. I'm actually thinking they're having a hard time seeing the board.
I handed in my expenses today to the company who is sponsoring my visit. Staying here for 2 weeks: this includes, room & board, meals, chauffeured driving service (Tommy), and full maid services for a grand total of $500 (Brunei). I spent 4 days in Halifax and the hotel alone cost me $900 Canadian. For a state of reference $500 in Brunei converts to $372 Canadian.
But thats the way things are here, everything is cheap. There is a place we go to breakfast just past work, and for 3 people to eat we get change back from $10 BND (Brunei Dollars). I managed to find, on Sunday, a jersey for an English football club for $20 BND, I bought my other jersey in Toronto a few years back, on sale, for $100 CDN.
When I leave here on Thursday, I'm actually going to miss it. I enjoy the people that I work with and the people who are hosting me (though Asian morales I could do without). Its going to be different going back to Canada, having to cook, having to drive and having to pay full price for everything.
The strangest thing that I found was this: nowhere, I repeat, nowhere in this country can you find a non-pirated movie or DVD. Everything in this country is pirated. You can buy a brand new movie for $5, one of the people that I work with bought Pirates of the Caribbean 3 for $1.50, we're still paying over $22 for it in Canada.
After work sat around outside with a few of the guys and had a beer or two. Listening to their stories slip in and out of English is highly entertaining. They're talking about trying to bring me out to see the night life in Brunei, which consists of illegal pubs and illegal karaoke which are both surrounded by Asian “back workers” (my way of saying prostitute).
Brunei, Day 12, April 27
April 27, 2008
I actually managed to go shopping today. Puah went and took me to town because I wanted to buy a Football jersey that I had seen on my first day in the country. I was expecting to start the bidding at $40 and knock them down to $25 or $30, but all of the good bartering shops didn't have a single Manchester United jersey in the store.
Actually, I couldn't find a store that sold jerseys anywhere in Gadong.
After hitting up 7 stores looking for jerseys we finally decided to go to “The Mall”, thats the name of the mall in town. Seriously.
We walked around the mall and found on the 3rd level a little sports store in the back corner. They actually had a jersey, it was XL. Which I frowned up as it appeared to be too large when I thought about it, I tried it on and it fit great.
I proceeded to walk around the store a bit to get my bargaining face on, she took the shirt from my hands and said in her Chinese accent, “Twenty dollars.” I'm thinking, “You're shitting me!? Sold!”
The rest of my night was spent in front of the computer working on the notes for my training session that starts tomorrow. I really dislike doing training sessions, I'm much more of an
I actually managed to go shopping today. Puah went and took me to town because I wanted to buy a Football jersey that I had seen on my first day in the country. I was expecting to start the bidding at $40 and knock them down to $25 or $30, but all of the good bartering shops didn't have a single Manchester United jersey in the store.
Actually, I couldn't find a store that sold jerseys anywhere in Gadong.
After hitting up 7 stores looking for jerseys we finally decided to go to “The Mall”, thats the name of the mall in town. Seriously.
We walked around the mall and found on the 3rd level a little sports store in the back corner. They actually had a jersey, it was XL. Which I frowned up as it appeared to be too large when I thought about it, I tried it on and it fit great.
I proceeded to walk around the store a bit to get my bargaining face on, she took the shirt from my hands and said in her Chinese accent, “Twenty dollars.” I'm thinking, “You're shitting me!? Sold!”
The rest of my night was spent in front of the computer working on the notes for my training session that starts tomorrow. I really dislike doing training sessions, I'm much more of an
Friday, May 2, 2008
Brunei, Day 10, April 26
April 26th , 2008
Today began by dropping RN off at the airport at the proper time to catch his flight to Hong Kong. He left and then we went back to the office to do some work. I went and began preparing extra training material to cover the things that are not going to get done during the run of the three day training session.
I notified the staff at SPC that training about run from 9-4 every day that would give 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. I was then informed by SPC staff that we'd have 3 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon because people in Brunei enjoy talking 2 hours for lunch.
I may need to modify the training sessions to run from 9 until 5 to get a full 6 hours in.
At about 4 pm the power at the office went out, in actual fact the power was out for ½ of the country. Just before 5 we pile into Puah's car because we can no longer take the heat and they go looking for a place with air conditioning. They say that we're going to Sharelle's girlfriends business, she owns a “beauty parlor”.
“Beauty parlour” is apparently code for something else.
We walk in the door and are greated by girls and Sharelle. I kind of look around funny at the room its setup like a parlor where you would get a hair cut, but it lacking anything to cut your hair. The girls introduce themselves and I sit down in a chair in the corner.
A girl walks up to me and from across the table says, “Would you like a shampoo? Ear cleaning? Massage?” I shake my head No.
In my mind I'm thinking, “What the f*ck is going on here. Where did they bring me? Ear cleaning? Who the f*ck goes to a slutty place to get wax cleaned out of their ears? Asians are fricken' weird.”
The guys are chatting and within 5 minutes we leave to go get some coffee. Partly because of the odd look on my face the entire time we were there, or the fact that all the guys I was with shoved girls off of them. When we got there Sharelle was getting a shampoo in the chair, when we left the coffee shop 35 minutes later he was still upstairs getting a shampoo. Boy must have been dirty.
Now, I know why I picked the single chair to sit in...
After arriving back at the house we discover that the power is still out, but the street lights are on and the houses 6 doors down still have power. It really sucks to be at the end of a power grid when you can see lights on outside.
The benefits of having no power in 25 degree night: sitting on the front step drinking a cold beer. That beer had to have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. Period.
Today began by dropping RN off at the airport at the proper time to catch his flight to Hong Kong. He left and then we went back to the office to do some work. I went and began preparing extra training material to cover the things that are not going to get done during the run of the three day training session.
I notified the staff at SPC that training about run from 9-4 every day that would give 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. I was then informed by SPC staff that we'd have 3 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon because people in Brunei enjoy talking 2 hours for lunch.
I may need to modify the training sessions to run from 9 until 5 to get a full 6 hours in.
At about 4 pm the power at the office went out, in actual fact the power was out for ½ of the country. Just before 5 we pile into Puah's car because we can no longer take the heat and they go looking for a place with air conditioning. They say that we're going to Sharelle's girlfriends business, she owns a “beauty parlor”.
“Beauty parlour” is apparently code for something else.
We walk in the door and are greated by girls and Sharelle. I kind of look around funny at the room its setup like a parlor where you would get a hair cut, but it lacking anything to cut your hair. The girls introduce themselves and I sit down in a chair in the corner.
A girl walks up to me and from across the table says, “Would you like a shampoo? Ear cleaning? Massage?” I shake my head No.
In my mind I'm thinking, “What the f*ck is going on here. Where did they bring me? Ear cleaning? Who the f*ck goes to a slutty place to get wax cleaned out of their ears? Asians are fricken' weird.”
The guys are chatting and within 5 minutes we leave to go get some coffee. Partly because of the odd look on my face the entire time we were there, or the fact that all the guys I was with shoved girls off of them. When we got there Sharelle was getting a shampoo in the chair, when we left the coffee shop 35 minutes later he was still upstairs getting a shampoo. Boy must have been dirty.
Now, I know why I picked the single chair to sit in...
After arriving back at the house we discover that the power is still out, but the street lights are on and the houses 6 doors down still have power. It really sucks to be at the end of a power grid when you can see lights on outside.
The benefits of having no power in 25 degree night: sitting on the front step drinking a cold beer. That beer had to have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. Period.
Brunei, Day 9, April 25
April 25th, 2008
Call me old fashioned but sometimes I just don't like the way that people treat women. Let me explain...
Today was RN's last day in Brunei, he was catching a flight back to Fredericton on the 4:30 flight, or so he thought. We arrived at the airport at 3pm so that he could check himself in and then we could go get ready to go to Malaysia. After we dropped him off at security we went and walked around a moment, we turned around and discovered RN walking towards us.
My flight out of the country is at 11:30am, when he mentioned that his was at 4:30pm I didn't think anything of what he said and just continued on my way working. He missed his flight, it was at 11:30am. Whoops.
We run drive across town to our sponsor's travel agent in hopes to make arrangements for rescheduling flights. It was no problem to rebook the flights from Hong Kong and then from Toronto, the only difficult part was booking the one out of Brunei. It was booked through a travel agent / ticket broker and the airline refused to reschedule the flight because of this and the broker refused to arrange a new flight and forced him to buy a new ticket.
There is a rule in the country of Brunei, that you are only allowed to enter the country for a period of 14 days before you have to leave and enter again. RN and I were in the situation where we were going to be in the country for 15 days so we had to go to Malaysia for supper. Oh darn.
We walk across the border and get stamped to enter the country, on the way in we gather a customs card to bring beer back into the country. Since its a dry country non-Muslims are allowed to bring back 12 cans of beer (8 bottles) and 2 litres of spirits. We were being used as Mules to gather beer for everyone else.
We go to a little shanty town called Cowboy Town, but when the locals pronounce it “Cabo Town”. Basically its a group of places the cook chicken of various forms (deep frying, skewering, etc) and a giant tent for people to get drunk on $1 beer. What!? Did you just say $1 a bottle. Yes, $1 Brunei dollars, which is $0.75 a bottle in Canadian dollars!
I was informed the next that that we drank, between 9 people, 72-80 beer. All of which was paid for by our sponsor.
We got drunk. We then went home.
We walked back across the border because its easier and quicker to walk than to take a car because people to go Malaysia and either switch their engines or have it stolen. Plus its illegal to modify the crap out of your car like you can do in Canada.
It was then I discovered that our host had disappeared with his driver to find some food.
And if by “food” you mean Chinese prostitutes, then you'd be correct.
Thats right, I saw my first official Chinese prostitute. One of them was so fresh off the boat that she didn't speak a lick of English and she wasn't here for more than 15 minutes before she shot gunned a bottle of our illegal beer, and took one of the boys to the room for some quick action. (He was back within 3 minutes and bragging. Asians are wierd about that.)
Within the next 5 minutes she went back up the stairs with one of his friends. Why would you share a prostitute with your friend? Gross.
The night progressed and I began drinking water to rehydrate myself, I spent a good portion of the night on the front step talking to Tommy about traffic, weather, family, etc. to escape the pulsating techno music and random bursts of Metallica vidoes. (Malaysians, Chinese, etc are OBSESSED with Metallica for some reason....)
For some background, Tommy is a colleague of our sponsor and an ex-sharpshooter for the Brunei police force. A fantastic guy.
Shortly after 1am, the Chinese girls disappear into a cloud of v.d.
Call me old fashioned but sometimes I just don't like the way that people treat women. Let me explain...
Today was RN's last day in Brunei, he was catching a flight back to Fredericton on the 4:30 flight, or so he thought. We arrived at the airport at 3pm so that he could check himself in and then we could go get ready to go to Malaysia. After we dropped him off at security we went and walked around a moment, we turned around and discovered RN walking towards us.
My flight out of the country is at 11:30am, when he mentioned that his was at 4:30pm I didn't think anything of what he said and just continued on my way working. He missed his flight, it was at 11:30am. Whoops.
We run drive across town to our sponsor's travel agent in hopes to make arrangements for rescheduling flights. It was no problem to rebook the flights from Hong Kong and then from Toronto, the only difficult part was booking the one out of Brunei. It was booked through a travel agent / ticket broker and the airline refused to reschedule the flight because of this and the broker refused to arrange a new flight and forced him to buy a new ticket.
There is a rule in the country of Brunei, that you are only allowed to enter the country for a period of 14 days before you have to leave and enter again. RN and I were in the situation where we were going to be in the country for 15 days so we had to go to Malaysia for supper. Oh darn.
We walk across the border and get stamped to enter the country, on the way in we gather a customs card to bring beer back into the country. Since its a dry country non-Muslims are allowed to bring back 12 cans of beer (8 bottles) and 2 litres of spirits. We were being used as Mules to gather beer for everyone else.
We go to a little shanty town called Cowboy Town, but when the locals pronounce it “Cabo Town”. Basically its a group of places the cook chicken of various forms (deep frying, skewering, etc) and a giant tent for people to get drunk on $1 beer. What!? Did you just say $1 a bottle. Yes, $1 Brunei dollars, which is $0.75 a bottle in Canadian dollars!
I was informed the next that that we drank, between 9 people, 72-80 beer. All of which was paid for by our sponsor.
We got drunk. We then went home.
We walked back across the border because its easier and quicker to walk than to take a car because people to go Malaysia and either switch their engines or have it stolen. Plus its illegal to modify the crap out of your car like you can do in Canada.
It was then I discovered that our host had disappeared with his driver to find some food.
And if by “food” you mean Chinese prostitutes, then you'd be correct.
Thats right, I saw my first official Chinese prostitute. One of them was so fresh off the boat that she didn't speak a lick of English and she wasn't here for more than 15 minutes before she shot gunned a bottle of our illegal beer, and took one of the boys to the room for some quick action. (He was back within 3 minutes and bragging. Asians are wierd about that.)
Within the next 5 minutes she went back up the stairs with one of his friends. Why would you share a prostitute with your friend? Gross.
The night progressed and I began drinking water to rehydrate myself, I spent a good portion of the night on the front step talking to Tommy about traffic, weather, family, etc. to escape the pulsating techno music and random bursts of Metallica vidoes. (Malaysians, Chinese, etc are OBSESSED with Metallica for some reason....)
For some background, Tommy is a colleague of our sponsor and an ex-sharpshooter for the Brunei police force. A fantastic guy.
Shortly after 1am, the Chinese girls disappear into a cloud of v.d.
Brunei, Day 7, April 23
April 23, 2008
Today was the day of the offical launch of the application and website, which I have been helping to install for the past 7 days. It was a public event surrounded by speeches, a press release and visits by local dignitaries. They made such a big deal with the launch of this that when the Minister of Development finished his speech, he walked across the stage and literally pressed a button to make the launch official. The Canadian High Counceillor to Brunei was in attendance as well.
We had three booths setup in the main foyer for people to walk around and see the different things that we were offering. I was talking with a colleague next to me when I was tapped on the shoulder and one of the Department heads asked me to explain this system to the Minister of Development. I was taken a little by surprise but proceeded to explain the 3-D system to him. After a moment we moved on to the other two kiosks, of which I'd normally handle as well, but Jenny was there to help, plus it was at that particular point in time when I was introduced to the Canadian High Counceillor.
The 2nd or 3rd day that I was in Brunei, RN and I had lunch with his assistant Celice, mostly because he was out of the country doing some diplomatic things, or else we would have been having lunch with us. At this lunch she had mentioned to me that the day of the launch she would make introductions.
So, while Jenny was sinking with the ship trying to explain the other two items I was talking to the High Counciellor about the East Coast and the local cuisine. It was a pretty cool experience.
Today was the day of the offical launch of the application and website, which I have been helping to install for the past 7 days. It was a public event surrounded by speeches, a press release and visits by local dignitaries. They made such a big deal with the launch of this that when the Minister of Development finished his speech, he walked across the stage and literally pressed a button to make the launch official. The Canadian High Counceillor to Brunei was in attendance as well.
We had three booths setup in the main foyer for people to walk around and see the different things that we were offering. I was talking with a colleague next to me when I was tapped on the shoulder and one of the Department heads asked me to explain this system to the Minister of Development. I was taken a little by surprise but proceeded to explain the 3-D system to him. After a moment we moved on to the other two kiosks, of which I'd normally handle as well, but Jenny was there to help, plus it was at that particular point in time when I was introduced to the Canadian High Counceillor.
The 2nd or 3rd day that I was in Brunei, RN and I had lunch with his assistant Celice, mostly because he was out of the country doing some diplomatic things, or else we would have been having lunch with us. At this lunch she had mentioned to me that the day of the launch she would make introductions.
So, while Jenny was sinking with the ship trying to explain the other two items I was talking to the High Counciellor about the East Coast and the local cuisine. It was a pretty cool experience.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Brunei, Day 4
April 19, 2008
Up at 4:30, forced myself to lay back down. F*cking jet lag. Up at 7am.
Working at the Survey Department installing software and preparing data. They began to hover around me, the workers. It kind of creepy hearing something shuffle behind you in an enclosed area and then turn around to see them standing there.
Experienced some network configuration problems as computer was on a different network than the DNS server. This can be alright if the network is setup right, but I'm supposing its not, to make matters worse nothing has been connected before we arrived.
We may have to work tomorrow, when the Gov't offices that we are using to do our work are closed. Great. There goes my weekend. (Their weekends are Friday [Muslim holy day] and Sunday [Christian holy day].) Guess I'll have to find some other time to get my “shopping” done, though I don't know when or where. (apart from DVDs and a football jersey.)
We have been here for 2 hours and I have yet to touch the server, we are soooo behind schedule.
There was a break of one of the guys using the server and so I went to test a few things to make sure I had all the connection information when we came back here tomorrow to do work. When I went and tested the information nothing was working and things had been unplugged, that and they didn't give us access to the third server that we told them, which is the entire purpose we are here.
I'm still picking dry skin, rather large chunks from my hair from when I burnt my scalp in Mexico the week before. I hope its peeling skin and not actual skin shavings from the Gecko running around my room, that would be kind of creepy. But fun, that sounds very fun, I want a house with 15 or 20 gecko's running around pooping on the walls. Its official, I need a new pet, maybe a lizard or a giant iguana to have basking on the rocks in the yard, though he may freeze to death in the spring... fall... or winter. Definitely the winter.
Went out to lunch at a little Indian place for some spicy noodles... drove by a Shell gas station, which is the only oil/gas company in the country. The price $0.53 / L ... in BRUNEI dollars..... thats about $0.34 / L Canadian. I want to live here....
Jenny, one of the consultants for the company we are working with to setup this system is going to be sent to Caris to undergo some training and experience with our software, etc. They were thinking about sending her in June or July to take the training and gain better experience with the software. She's hoping to have the trip to Canada pushed back quite a bit. She would really like to have them send her over sometime in the fall/winter when there is lots of snow.
Spent 6 hours standing around waiting for them to finish with Oracle installation. Yeah, totally behind schedule. Not cool. I don't want that added pressure.
Spent the evening configuring web servers on my laptop to work so that I could spend only a few moments in the morning configuring the servers without having to do research. Woo!
Up at 4:30, forced myself to lay back down. F*cking jet lag. Up at 7am.
Working at the Survey Department installing software and preparing data. They began to hover around me, the workers. It kind of creepy hearing something shuffle behind you in an enclosed area and then turn around to see them standing there.
Experienced some network configuration problems as computer was on a different network than the DNS server. This can be alright if the network is setup right, but I'm supposing its not, to make matters worse nothing has been connected before we arrived.
We may have to work tomorrow, when the Gov't offices that we are using to do our work are closed. Great. There goes my weekend. (Their weekends are Friday [Muslim holy day] and Sunday [Christian holy day].) Guess I'll have to find some other time to get my “shopping” done, though I don't know when or where. (apart from DVDs and a football jersey.)
We have been here for 2 hours and I have yet to touch the server, we are soooo behind schedule.
There was a break of one of the guys using the server and so I went to test a few things to make sure I had all the connection information when we came back here tomorrow to do work. When I went and tested the information nothing was working and things had been unplugged, that and they didn't give us access to the third server that we told them, which is the entire purpose we are here.
I'm still picking dry skin, rather large chunks from my hair from when I burnt my scalp in Mexico the week before. I hope its peeling skin and not actual skin shavings from the Gecko running around my room, that would be kind of creepy. But fun, that sounds very fun, I want a house with 15 or 20 gecko's running around pooping on the walls. Its official, I need a new pet, maybe a lizard or a giant iguana to have basking on the rocks in the yard, though he may freeze to death in the spring... fall... or winter. Definitely the winter.
Went out to lunch at a little Indian place for some spicy noodles... drove by a Shell gas station, which is the only oil/gas company in the country. The price $0.53 / L ... in BRUNEI dollars..... thats about $0.34 / L Canadian. I want to live here....
Jenny, one of the consultants for the company we are working with to setup this system is going to be sent to Caris to undergo some training and experience with our software, etc. They were thinking about sending her in June or July to take the training and gain better experience with the software. She's hoping to have the trip to Canada pushed back quite a bit. She would really like to have them send her over sometime in the fall/winter when there is lots of snow.
Spent 6 hours standing around waiting for them to finish with Oracle installation. Yeah, totally behind schedule. Not cool. I don't want that added pressure.
Spent the evening configuring web servers on my laptop to work so that I could spend only a few moments in the morning configuring the servers without having to do research. Woo!
Brunei, Day 2
April 18 ,2008
Up at 5am, I think the jet lag finally hit me, either that or its that f*cking cock (rooster) outside “roostering” in the moring. (What is it that you call the really annoying noise that they make when the sun comes up? I prefer to call it “roostering”.)
Worked until 8pm installing software on the training computers, how did that happen? We had a few small issues with the installation of the metadata software but both Jenny and Roy seemed very willing to help out, and very helpful.
Lunch at Chinese place. Very good. (That will be the description for all of the food that I will have eaten here.... except for the Top Yam soup, that wasn't good.)
Had a very typical Government meeting regarding the Data and some of the things that we require for the application launch. The first was data requirements, what they wanted in the launch for temporary access for the public, a naming convention (they couldn't make a decision and then asked us to.). We also requested some information from them (as of April 30, we still didn't get anything.)
RN asked me to speak about some of the setup that we had for the FME portion I began speaking and about ½ way through I froze and forgot everything that I was going to say and the other items that I needed to cover. I should have had notes. I felt like a giant ass.
Supper at a Chinese place there were a lot of stray dogs walking around near the restaurants, very sad. I wanted to take them home.
Offically: Chinese food in Canada sucks.
Up at 5am, I think the jet lag finally hit me, either that or its that f*cking cock (rooster) outside “roostering” in the moring. (What is it that you call the really annoying noise that they make when the sun comes up? I prefer to call it “roostering”.)
Worked until 8pm installing software on the training computers, how did that happen? We had a few small issues with the installation of the metadata software but both Jenny and Roy seemed very willing to help out, and very helpful.
Lunch at Chinese place. Very good. (That will be the description for all of the food that I will have eaten here.... except for the Top Yam soup, that wasn't good.)
Had a very typical Government meeting regarding the Data and some of the things that we require for the application launch. The first was data requirements, what they wanted in the launch for temporary access for the public, a naming convention (they couldn't make a decision and then asked us to.). We also requested some information from them (as of April 30, we still didn't get anything.)
RN asked me to speak about some of the setup that we had for the FME portion I began speaking and about ½ way through I froze and forgot everything that I was going to say and the other items that I needed to cover. I should have had notes. I felt like a giant ass.
Supper at a Chinese place there were a lot of stray dogs walking around near the restaurants, very sad. I wanted to take them home.
Offically: Chinese food in Canada sucks.
Brunei, Day 1, Part 2
Some time in some timezone....
So, I've been on the plane already for NINE hours and there are still another 6 to go before we get to our destination. It makes me wonder if I'm going to get there on time for my connecting flight, I really hope so, but then again my luggage is on this plane so its not like my stuff will get there before me.
I'm exhausted but its near impossible to sleep on the plane, my butt is numb from these chairs and the plane is warm so its making me even more uncomfortable which makes me restless and not tired. Its a vicious circle really, and I swear the people on the plane are out to get me. :) Plus, as nice as this plane is its lacking the "personal" air blower that all other flights have. I guess its a sacrifice: cool interactive tv gets traded for a reclining seat and air blower. Rip off.
Currently, we're flying over the northern part of Russia toward Mongolia then to Hong Kong. I'd open the window slider and look outside but the sun is still out and shining directly on my side of the plane, I guess that might be because we're now tomorrow morning instead of night time like my body thinks. Its that or my eyes have been adjusted to the darkness of the plane and this thing called "natural light" is f*cking up my body.
One of my co-workers told me to request on an aisle seat so that I could get up and walk around when I'm feeling numb, now I know why. My butt's numb and my row buddy is sleeping. Guess I'll have to request aisle for on the way home, wonder if they can accommodate me?
If only my seat would recline then I'm sure I'd be able to sleep, the only thing my seat does is slide down the chair to help me slouch. Too bad really.
I'm sleepy, I miss my wife, and I've got a headache.
-------------------------------
1:35 am (Fredericton) on the 15th – 1:35 pm (Hong Kong) on the 16th.
We're getting close to landing the plane in Hong Kong, they're still landing at 2 in the after noon, and still planning on giving me only an hour to navigate my way through the airport to find my flight and boarding the next flight to Brunei.
Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.
---------------------------
Flying into Hong Kong was AMAZING. It has to be the coolest place on the planet. I unfortunately was too mesmerized by the scenery to remember to take any pictures. (I'll try and do that on the way back in on the 1st of May)
Upon arrival in Hong Kong, navigating my way through the endless passageway where all of the arrival terminals are to the mezzanine which contains about ½ million people, I'm not shitting you.
Confusingly make my way to the Royal Brunei area where they tell me that because our flight was late getting in they were calling a person from their terminal to come and get me through security. Take me to the side of the line to the “Staff” entrance and jump me to the front of the line and run me across the air port. They tell me “we can't guarentee that your luggage will be on this flight” I knew that because if I wasn't almost going to make my flight, then there was no way that my luggage was. :)
On the plane, the girls were dressed really cool with different head dresses. They played a Muslim prayer before take off and then did the security demonstration. Its weird not hearing English instructions and then another language. They do Malay first then English. There were a surprising number of white people on the flight.
Arrived early, was standing next to the conveyor for my luggage when I was approached by a man who told me that my luggage wasn't on that flight and that it would be arriving 6pm tomorrow evening on the same flight that I was on. Filled out forms and went to look for my co-worker.
Found him, took me to the house (very nice) and then showered. Mmmmmm... rinsing 24-hour sweat never felt so good, seriously the best shower I've ever taken. Talked to the guys with whom I'll be staying. They gave me a tour of the house and told me where the important things were, such as toilet paper. We then went to eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant in the back of someones house. Very tasty. Chicken, pork served with illegal beer. Did I mention that Brunei is a dry Muslim country, and selling alcohol is totally illegal? Did I also mention that its illegal for a Muslim in the country to drink the illegal alcohol? I'm safe though, I can drink as much as I want.
Met a few of the people with whom I'll be working, all very nice and good people. Will be an interesting few days thats for sure.
Bed time.
So, I've been on the plane already for NINE hours and there are still another 6 to go before we get to our destination. It makes me wonder if I'm going to get there on time for my connecting flight, I really hope so, but then again my luggage is on this plane so its not like my stuff will get there before me.
I'm exhausted but its near impossible to sleep on the plane, my butt is numb from these chairs and the plane is warm so its making me even more uncomfortable which makes me restless and not tired. Its a vicious circle really, and I swear the people on the plane are out to get me. :) Plus, as nice as this plane is its lacking the "personal" air blower that all other flights have. I guess its a sacrifice: cool interactive tv gets traded for a reclining seat and air blower. Rip off.
Currently, we're flying over the northern part of Russia toward Mongolia then to Hong Kong. I'd open the window slider and look outside but the sun is still out and shining directly on my side of the plane, I guess that might be because we're now tomorrow morning instead of night time like my body thinks. Its that or my eyes have been adjusted to the darkness of the plane and this thing called "natural light" is f*cking up my body.
One of my co-workers told me to request on an aisle seat so that I could get up and walk around when I'm feeling numb, now I know why. My butt's numb and my row buddy is sleeping. Guess I'll have to request aisle for on the way home, wonder if they can accommodate me?
If only my seat would recline then I'm sure I'd be able to sleep, the only thing my seat does is slide down the chair to help me slouch. Too bad really.
I'm sleepy, I miss my wife, and I've got a headache.
-------------------------------
1:35 am (Fredericton) on the 15th – 1:35 pm (Hong Kong) on the 16th.
We're getting close to landing the plane in Hong Kong, they're still landing at 2 in the after noon, and still planning on giving me only an hour to navigate my way through the airport to find my flight and boarding the next flight to Brunei.
Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.
---------------------------
Flying into Hong Kong was AMAZING. It has to be the coolest place on the planet. I unfortunately was too mesmerized by the scenery to remember to take any pictures. (I'll try and do that on the way back in on the 1st of May)
Upon arrival in Hong Kong, navigating my way through the endless passageway where all of the arrival terminals are to the mezzanine which contains about ½ million people, I'm not shitting you.
Confusingly make my way to the Royal Brunei area where they tell me that because our flight was late getting in they were calling a person from their terminal to come and get me through security. Take me to the side of the line to the “Staff” entrance and jump me to the front of the line and run me across the air port. They tell me “we can't guarentee that your luggage will be on this flight” I knew that because if I wasn't almost going to make my flight, then there was no way that my luggage was. :)
On the plane, the girls were dressed really cool with different head dresses. They played a Muslim prayer before take off and then did the security demonstration. Its weird not hearing English instructions and then another language. They do Malay first then English. There were a surprising number of white people on the flight.
Arrived early, was standing next to the conveyor for my luggage when I was approached by a man who told me that my luggage wasn't on that flight and that it would be arriving 6pm tomorrow evening on the same flight that I was on. Filled out forms and went to look for my co-worker.
Found him, took me to the house (very nice) and then showered. Mmmmmm... rinsing 24-hour sweat never felt so good, seriously the best shower I've ever taken. Talked to the guys with whom I'll be staying. They gave me a tour of the house and told me where the important things were, such as toilet paper. We then went to eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant in the back of someones house. Very tasty. Chicken, pork served with illegal beer. Did I mention that Brunei is a dry Muslim country, and selling alcohol is totally illegal? Did I also mention that its illegal for a Muslim in the country to drink the illegal alcohol? I'm safe though, I can drink as much as I want.
Met a few of the people with whom I'll be working, all very nice and good people. Will be an interesting few days thats for sure.
Bed time.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Brunei, Pt 1
My Journey of a Life Time, Brunei - Part 1.
April 16th, 2008
Today began just as any other day, the only difference being the day started at 3:30am as opposed to the standard 6:30am alarm buzzing. What is the purpose of the early wake up call? My semi-spontaneous work paid travel 12,000km across the globe.
Initially when work had told me that I would be leaving the country less than 48 hours after arriving back in the country from my sisters wedding, I was less than enthused. More specifically I almost told my boss to take the job, the trip and shove it right up his arse. Really, that would have been a stupid move to do as I do, momentarily, like my job and the people that I work with. I took the news of the trip in stride as I was still trying to deal with packing for my sisters wedding. Did I happen to mention that I was told about the trip 4 days before I was supposed to leave for my sisters wedding?
I arrive at the airport in Fredericton with instructions from my coworkers to check my luggage so that it will arrive in Brunei without me having to touch it anywhere along the way. The fellow at the check-in counter looked at me funny when I told him of this and then had to verify what I told him, he then proceeded to look up the airline that I was to be travelling on in the system to see if he could do this. He told me that he was not able to do that as it was not part of the “Star Alliance” family of planes. (I thought he was full of crap, and the young gentleman in Toronto at the Cathay Pacific counter confirmed this when he told me it was strange that they wouldn't forward the luggage along.)
The flight leaves Fredericton without a problem and before I could blink twice we arrived in Toronto. (And by “blinking twice” I mean before I registered that we were flying I was asleep.) Seeing as how I was just in Toronto the week before, navigating my way to the Monorail (What'd he say? Monorail! Everybody now. Monorail! Monorail! [Sorry, some necessary Simpsons humor that I couldn't avoid.]) for Terminal 3 was a piece of cake. I walked for what seemed to be miles looking for counters 501-510 which I got from the screen, for Cathay Pacific. I rounded the corner and found that ticket counters empty as it wasn't time to check-in. It was 7am in Toronto and I had 4 hours until my flight left.
I checked in and the young fellow at the counter asked me for my luggage claim tags so that he could ensure they were being routed by Air Canada (which by that time they weren't), he also told me that they would get my luggage retagged and sent to Brunei with me so I wouldn't have to worry about it when I got to the Hong Kong airport. Sweet.
10:00am arrives and I go upto the counter to find out the status of my luggage transfer and they still haven't received it from Air Canada. I begin to panic a little as the only thing I have in my carry on is a stick of deodorant and movies. Shortly before I'm to begin boarding I get a page from the people at the desk who have my new luggage claim tags so that I can pick up my luggage in Brunei without a problem. Phew.
I look outside at the plane, and its HUGE. By far the biggest plane I've ever been on. Its a Boeing 777-300ER (for those who want to Wikipedia it). As my row is called, I can't help but thinking that this is going to be one weirdass ride. I get on the plane and I'm floored by the sheer volume of seats. This is the first plane that I've seen that's had an actual “First Class” section and a real “Business Class” section that has little individual sleepers.
I navigate my way through people and luggage and behold in amazement at what I see. My seat has a headrest with sides the fold out and around your head to form a pillow. (which is good as I forgot to buy one.) Also, is an interactive media center with games, radio, tv, movies all at the click of a button. They have the first 7 episodes of Heroes Season 2 which I might consider watching (most likely I'll end up watching one of the movies that I brought with me, such as the Black & White version of the Mist). I'm sitting here looking at the screen which is flashing images of the time its going to take to fly, the length of the trip and the like when I make a startling discovery.... on the map on the screen shows us flying NORTH. ....
I'M FLYING OVER THE NORTH FLIPPIN' POLE!!!
How awesome is that!?
Even better they have a live version of the flight which shows its progress as we make our way to Hong Kong, and they also have a live camera on the front of the plane somewhere where I can see what the Pilots are seeing.
I don't know about you, but I'm officially impressed with this plane and this journey up until this point.
April 16th, 2008
Today began just as any other day, the only difference being the day started at 3:30am as opposed to the standard 6:30am alarm buzzing. What is the purpose of the early wake up call? My semi-spontaneous work paid travel 12,000km across the globe.
Initially when work had told me that I would be leaving the country less than 48 hours after arriving back in the country from my sisters wedding, I was less than enthused. More specifically I almost told my boss to take the job, the trip and shove it right up his arse. Really, that would have been a stupid move to do as I do, momentarily, like my job and the people that I work with. I took the news of the trip in stride as I was still trying to deal with packing for my sisters wedding. Did I happen to mention that I was told about the trip 4 days before I was supposed to leave for my sisters wedding?
I arrive at the airport in Fredericton with instructions from my coworkers to check my luggage so that it will arrive in Brunei without me having to touch it anywhere along the way. The fellow at the check-in counter looked at me funny when I told him of this and then had to verify what I told him, he then proceeded to look up the airline that I was to be travelling on in the system to see if he could do this. He told me that he was not able to do that as it was not part of the “Star Alliance” family of planes. (I thought he was full of crap, and the young gentleman in Toronto at the Cathay Pacific counter confirmed this when he told me it was strange that they wouldn't forward the luggage along.)
The flight leaves Fredericton without a problem and before I could blink twice we arrived in Toronto. (And by “blinking twice” I mean before I registered that we were flying I was asleep.) Seeing as how I was just in Toronto the week before, navigating my way to the Monorail (What'd he say? Monorail! Everybody now. Monorail! Monorail! [Sorry, some necessary Simpsons humor that I couldn't avoid.]) for Terminal 3 was a piece of cake. I walked for what seemed to be miles looking for counters 501-510 which I got from the screen, for Cathay Pacific. I rounded the corner and found that ticket counters empty as it wasn't time to check-in. It was 7am in Toronto and I had 4 hours until my flight left.
I checked in and the young fellow at the counter asked me for my luggage claim tags so that he could ensure they were being routed by Air Canada (which by that time they weren't), he also told me that they would get my luggage retagged and sent to Brunei with me so I wouldn't have to worry about it when I got to the Hong Kong airport. Sweet.
10:00am arrives and I go upto the counter to find out the status of my luggage transfer and they still haven't received it from Air Canada. I begin to panic a little as the only thing I have in my carry on is a stick of deodorant and movies. Shortly before I'm to begin boarding I get a page from the people at the desk who have my new luggage claim tags so that I can pick up my luggage in Brunei without a problem. Phew.
I look outside at the plane, and its HUGE. By far the biggest plane I've ever been on. Its a Boeing 777-300ER (for those who want to Wikipedia it). As my row is called, I can't help but thinking that this is going to be one weirdass ride. I get on the plane and I'm floored by the sheer volume of seats. This is the first plane that I've seen that's had an actual “First Class” section and a real “Business Class” section that has little individual sleepers.
I navigate my way through people and luggage and behold in amazement at what I see. My seat has a headrest with sides the fold out and around your head to form a pillow. (which is good as I forgot to buy one.) Also, is an interactive media center with games, radio, tv, movies all at the click of a button. They have the first 7 episodes of Heroes Season 2 which I might consider watching (most likely I'll end up watching one of the movies that I brought with me, such as the Black & White version of the Mist). I'm sitting here looking at the screen which is flashing images of the time its going to take to fly, the length of the trip and the like when I make a startling discovery.... on the map on the screen shows us flying NORTH. ....
I'M FLYING OVER THE NORTH FLIPPIN' POLE!!!
How awesome is that!?
Even better they have a live version of the flight which shows its progress as we make our way to Hong Kong, and they also have a live camera on the front of the plane somewhere where I can see what the Pilots are seeing.
I don't know about you, but I'm officially impressed with this plane and this journey up until this point.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)