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Sunday, July 13, 2008

Hong Kong - Final

After spending a whole day in Disneyland, we were all dog-tired and thought it would be good that the boys as well as the 'old man' finally get to rest in the hotel to boost back their energy while i report to 'work' on Monday!! But as i returned that night, huby already complaint it was torturous & strenous to confine the boys in the hotel as they just couldn't sit quietly even for 1/2 a minute and huby was forced to resort to shouting & yelling to control them.....i can imagine how taxing that could be on one's mind ..... poor thing !!! So of course huby brought them out just for the sake of jalan-jalan, makan-makan & most importantly to ' kill ' time !!
Now what happened to me when the above drama unfolded ??
DAY 1

Due to the high rate of staff turnover, almost 60% of the team in our HQ-HK was newly hired while most of us coming from overseas have been long....old....staffs! Email & phone calls were the only communication we had prior to this, so first thing in the Monday morning was ice-breaking, getting to know who is who....engaged in all d hand shakes & hugs!! Then followed by "updates" from each country as well as different functions!!

Then, lunch was at SUPER STAR restaurant which was a well-known restaurant for DIM SUM & other chinese cuisine!! Food was quite good except a little pricey!! Weather was fine and it was not as HOT as the day earlier when we were in Disneyland.

The 2nd half of the day was filled with TEAM-BUILDING games/activities. It was quite FUN & i must say it removed away to a certain extend the stress, the tense environment & the boringness of the events in the 1st half of the day! Seeing the "usually acted very professional people" engaging in some of the silly games was very hilarious to me! But i reckoned that it was indeed very successful in building up our relationship!!

Team mbrs were blind-folded but to make a rectangle shape with the string!

6 members were to balance themselves on a piece of small paper (legs off the floor). The above was the winning team : tips are, get a strong member to stand in d middle as a pillar for the rest to hold-on. None of the rest could make it......hahaha


My team was the winning team : to use only newspaper & tape, we are to make/build the tallest object. Yeah....we won but but but, the gifts were only the company's T-shirt & cap, cheh !!


All in there were 4 games played & that ended the day around 5pm. As our hotel was just across the road, some of us went back for a short rest/change & gathered again at 6pm for dinner! Dinner was at YU restaurant, in OneCapital tower which was located nearby the office, so it was walking distance & convenient !! Typical chinese cuisine, with 9 courses dish. I must say, i was surprise despite there was bills to pay for 3 tables (30 plus of us), we were served with luxurious meal.... thought d co. was starving for cost-control...*wink-wink* !! was told that a table cost abt HK$3,000.....wow !!



There was suppose to be karaoke system in our dining room but guess without any alcohol, the people wasn't 'high' enough to sing their guts out so facing with shyness, the group decided to disperse around 9pm. No doubt, the issue of crony was inevitable....some of the drinker crony went ahead to the pub, then the asian ladies crony decided to go for a walk.....or rather shoparound!!
And i must say we were very lucky to befriend some of the NICEST Hong Kee we'd ever meet.

My taiwanese & philippino colleagues including myself wanted to go for a walk & when we asked to find out the place where there's night street market or so, 2 of the HK ladies INSTANTLY offered to take us there. I felt really appreciated & reckon that was a very good hospitality!! There we boarded the MRT to WONG KOK where the popular "lui yan kai / woman street" was located. It was indeed the right place to visit, as given such late hours, the street was still brightly litted, shop was still busy operating & lots of people still wondering around !! Our first stop was at the Esprit warehouse outlet & managed to grab some clothing for the boys as well as myself at reasonably cheaper price than M'sia !! Ordinary khakis long pants for kids could be easily sold at RM100++ here but i got them at HK$120/RM60!!
Then, we proceeded to the woman street & bought the followings:
- a dozen of under wear for the boys;
- Toys Story 2 t-shirt;
- helo kitty pyjamas for myself.
Then our throat started to itch hence a cold, icy drink/dessert was the solution! Pop into a dessert house at 11:30 pm & we had more than just a drink !!!

Mango sago is always my favourite and the other 2 were durian pancake & mango coconut roll.

By the time we travelled back to our hotel, it was already way past the midnight !!!

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Day 2

It was the most drop-dead boring day! It started to rain & got wet everywhere. I was kind of culture shock seeing the drastic change in weather!!!
Apart from continuing with the routine updates, there were also macro excel training & other system training !! No official lunch & dinner was arranged for this day so it was a FREE & EASY day...........supposingly !!! But i don't have d luck. I was sort of 'force a little' to accept a lunch invitation by a function head in which i had an accountability so no choice, die-die and don't like also must attend !! The worst part was, my indian colleague was a vegetarian & can't even possibly 'eat' our chinese vegetarian food, hence we had no choice but to accustom to his taste so obviously indian cuisine was the decision !!! I was like ..... \#%$@&*/ .... oh my god, i don't even eat indian food back in my home country!! And knowing that the rest of my buddies (who don't need to attend d same lunch with me of course) happily went to enjoy themselves, i got so so so envy!!

But after eventually forced the food down my throat, i felt guilty......guilty for being bias & guilty for blaming on the choice of indian food bcoz i was way SURPRISED to discover that the taste of the indian food was not just good but extremely delicious, yummy & juicy man....tsk tsk tsk!!

There we had good food & a good exchange of stories from different countries as well !!!

After lunch, the training continued and most of us had a hard time controlling our eye lids from dropping down......arghh, i was very sleepy!! It was not until the presentation by the Thai ah pek that woke everyone up by virtue of his hillarious & humourous style, hahaha....that was a good one!!! The official hour ended at the dot, 5:30 & everyone got back to the hotel for a short break before heading for their respective personal plan. Most of the south asian colleagues (who were 'old' staffs) had made a dinner arrangement with some of our ex staffs who had left the co. You see.....these HKee must be good people that justified the continued friendship even after leaving the company, no??!! These good samaritans brought us to a very very very very FINE Japanese cuisine, oh dear....i'd never even savour such a fine one back home, felt so amazing....blessed....and lucky!!
Very nice view too........million thanks jacky, denise, stella, julia & raymund !!!



SHOW TIME

so fresh, so juicy, sweet, tasty, awesome !! btw, i wonder if d japanese lady(left front) ever agrees with my tastes....hahaha


It was so thoughful of my japanese colleague who brought us a souvenir each, now...i learnt what to do next time...hehehe
Arigato sachiyo !

After the dinner, i got back to meet the boys & was greeted by their cheerful smiles coz dady brought them lots of toys !!!

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Day 3

Oooh ya, btw at 3:30pm on Day 2, it was already announced that TYPHOON Level 3 reached HK !! We were told ahead that should it accelerates up to Level 8 by morning of Day 3, we should remain in the hotel !! YOO HOO....... cheering beneath the heart !!

True enough, it was declared a "pat hou foong khau / Level 8 typhoon". But i still woke up early as usual & met my colleagues for breakfast afterwhich we continued with our chat (gossips) in one of the lady's room!! While we chatted, we also looked out for the latest updates from the TV news. At 11am, the typhoon level was down to 3 & our mobile phones were heard ringing with notice to report back at work........oops for lunch actually as it was nearly 12pm !! It was Thai food this time at Chili Club. Everyone seen walking with an umbrella, as it was still raining cats & dogs! AGAIN.....was surprise by the good taste! I had underestimated yet again that the thai food would not be as good but wrong wrong wrong i was again. Even the thai ah pek also acknowledged that it was great this time, hahaha...

After the lunch, the other half of Day 3 was for OUTDOOR event. What do you think it was ??? Any good guess??


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Here u go .... it was BB BALL somethg like paint ball !!

It uses the light weight bullet instead of the messy paint !! But i tell you......it can caused you god damn pain in the arse.... !! I got a little brusing on the thigh & leg as i failed to hide myself from the shooting of the enemies!! It was my very first time playing the game & as much as i had appreciated this golden experience, i wouldn't actually go back for more as i was just not adventurous enough to enjoy it !! All i felt was scare & afraid...i basically just stood where i got started until the enemy came....hahaha !!! What i hated the most abt the game was the smelly mask & the jacket that made us all smelly & sweaty !!

This place was located at the 18th floor of a very old building in an industrial area. The co. hired a coach to transport all of us there which took about 1/2 an hour to arrive. From the pathway to the lift, the place looked so eerie & for a moment i had been thinking if the aging lift would be able to send us all up to 18th floor, gosh !!

Here are how the entrance looked like:

Anyhow, i still valued this experience very much !!


After a few rounds of the games, we were done & boarded the coach again to
NEWAY karaoke centre for the NIGHT OUT, karaoke buffer dinner !!

This was by far the most HIGHLY rated event as far as ENJOYMENT is concern. Things were a little stiff at the beginning. People was seen busy stuffing their stomach. Then after a couple of rounds of beers, things got heated up!! And it was the Philipino lady that heated up the dance floor. When the spice girl song was played, she can't resist anymore & gushed out for the microphone & started to swing her flexible & sexy moves !!
Boy boy boy........everyone got stunned by her sudden moves but not long after, we all got "HIGH" & joined in the moves as well as sang to the top of our lungs !!! Guess people must be working too hard & needed to release the stresses so badly!!
The philipino lady in purple taking up on the stage....i'm so proud of u babe !!
See how enjoy everyone was .....
It was so cheerful each time i looked back at these photos....... everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so much including myself!!
It was indeed a very wonderful & memorable night for me.

Here is a group photo which i had initially doubted if i should put it here.....but after knowing that these photos were all flying around in Facebook (can't believe they do that), there shouldn't be any issue on privacy !!


When i reached the hotel around midnight, i was in total shock as i still don't see my MEN (both old and youngs) back yet!! Things that ran thru my mind: where were they?? what were they doing at such odd hours?? isn't it already way past their sleeping time?? sure the boys are still awake at such hour??

I immediately rang up the terrible dad & was informed that he was at his uni mate's pub together with the boys. He said the boys were enjoying themselves so much with all the "leng lui"/pretty chicks there........alamak !!!??? i was speechless for a moment, only to remember to shout at him to come back asap!! tsk tsk tsk......
I then proceeded to quickly pack up our luggages for tomorrow's departure home !!!
That's the end of our Day 3.
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Day 4
I actually didn't get to go for a NICE dim sum with my family during my entire stay in HK, luckily before heading home, we still managed to steal enough time to go for a well-recommended dim sum nearby, i.e. Ho Choy restaurant. The food was good for me but not good enough to satisfy my fussy huby.
The super soft, sweet & juicy "tao fu fah" boiled in the coconut will long remained in my memory !!
GOOD BYE / "SELAMAT TINGGAL" / "CHOI KIN" Hong Kong !!

Arghhh..........what a long-winded post, i'm so tired now & hope i didn't bore you out !!

9 comments:

Chinneeq said...

alamak...all ladies kena *pok mong* ah?

slavemom said...

Ur lou kong still sane after taking care of the boys for 3 full days? hehehe
Must hv been a great team building event. The activities r so fun!
U sampled quite a variety of good food there. Eh, ur counterparts got ask y u keep taking pics of the food ah?

LZmommy said...

I am feeling so hungry now, looking at these pics at this time :)

Annie Q said...

hello kitty pyjamas for yourself??hehehe
Looking at the japenese food...drooollllssss...yum yum....

Robertjo said...

Poor poor hubby, being kept back in the hotel room with two monkeys, no wonder he was dying to meet his mates and calm his nerves. (Kakaka) He would be past the pretty chicks now??? it is the boys turn!
Seemed to be a busy time but the company would realise that to spend extra on the staff for food, makes the staff happy and work better.
No photo of you singing karoke??

Tracy said...

U really left me with wows wows and more wows when I read ur HKG posts. What a wonderful time u had there - the food, the activities ... made me recall the time when I was in HKG, I really miss the food esp the steamboat there, it's so different from M'sia's.

A great experience for ur hubby to have been 'forced' to look after the 2 'monkeys' hor? Hahaha.

LHS said...

wow,the army look, wooo....very smart looking indeed!

allthingspurple said...

looks like you have a great time !!

and what a wonderful Japanese spread.

haha. i can imagine. confine kids to a room and you, not them, goes nuts.

Jacss said...

haha genie, still sane just a bit 'koyak' only!
yes, i really had a good time eating!!
ergg...nope, fortunately no one really ask d constant flashing of my camera. guess, with the conveniency of current technology like flickr, facebook, blog etc, people should have known it's common to keep photos of just anything happen udr d sun !!

yes annie: since i dun hv chance to buy kids' hello kitty stuff, might as well buy for myself, hahaha...nice & cute!!

hahaha, true uncle, d dady used his boys to mingle ard the pretty chicks!!!
yes, the company indeed made us all very happy & 'effective', haha
erggg....karaoke photo reserved for myself, hehehe

tracy: ooh...didn't try d steamboat though! i'm sure there r more things to savour in HK, everything seemed so nice!!

huisia: only "looked" smart but inside out, we were all "chicken out"!!

yes christene, huby said no more next time...he got phobia :(