Whimsical Lair

Day 1

5.00 a.m. Woke up after two hours of sleep in panic. Didn’t get ready the mini padlocks for my luggage. Rushed through shower and vanity.

6.00 a.m. Landed in my husband’s place, he saved the day by producing two padlocks from his possession.

6.30 a.m. Arrived at KL Sentral (phew?)

6.35 a.m. Called my colleague, he’s around but no clue where. Dragged my luggage (I had one big bag, one hand carry bag, my handbag, a coat and my laptop with me) up and down the stairs to find the place he said he is at. (Couldn’t be clearer??) Finally found a security guard and got directions.

6.50 a.m. Finally managed to check in via KL Sentral, feeling thoroughly irate.

7.00 a.m. Got on the express train to KLIA

7.30 a.m. Had some breakfast (got more irate, don’t ask).

9.00 a.m. Boarded the plane.

9.30 a.m. Flight takeoff!!

1.10 p.m. Finally landed in HK Airport (Chap Lap Kok or something I forgot) after some delay.

2.00 p.m. Met up with colleague based in Guangzhou, he was kind enough to come to HK to pick us up so we won’t get lost. Had lunch (I ate some pathetic looking sushi, didn’t feel like eating)

3.00 p.m. Enroute to meet the HK clients in the city. The cab ride from the airport cost us a whooping HKD 400!! Lucky I had sufficient …

3.30 p.m. Went through a whole round of introductions, beginning with the Group Regional Director. Had some discussion with colleague on current status of the job. (I am to takeover his role in Guangzhou) Client helped us get train tickets to Guangzhou.

4.45 p.m. Rushed out of client’s office to catch the train to Guangzhou. Had to change 3 different MRTs to get to Hung Hom, after which we ran all the way to the train station. (it was 3 minutes to 6.00 p.m.) We made it just in time for the 6.00 p.m. train. Thank god my colleagues helped me with the luggage, I struggled even with just the hand luggage, my handbag and the coat …

6.15 p.m. After some delay, the train finally took off. We went on our way to Guangzhou. I was tired, hungry and feeling extremely grumpy. Called my hubby to tell him I was on the train already. Ordered some dinner, ate it and promptly fell asleep.

8.30 p.m. Arrived at Guangzhou East train station. Walked some ways across the road to Tian Lun hotel.

8.45 p.m. Another hoo-haa … apparently the client does not have an agreement of sorts with the hotel and expects us to pay the hotel bills first before we claim it back from them. Not too bad you would think, except that the room cost a whooping RMB 650 per night! And I was staying for 20 days!! With great reluctance I swiped my card for RMB 12,000. SOBS!!! My poor colleague had to pay cash, (and he only had sufficient to pay for one night!) though he was only staying a week he didn’t have the credit limit on his card.

9.15 p.m. After all that hoo-haa, I finally got in my room. It looks lovely, but it is so painful to swipe the card. I hope it gets sorted out before I get back. If I have to pay for it first I will loose a lot of money … the currency exchange plus the fact that I know I don’t have sufficient cash flow to pay the bill immediately. The splendour of the room was lost to me cos I was so worried … Sighs. Made sure I did all the important stuff … unpacked, took a shower, messaged my husband, got the operator to set wake up call for me at 6.00 a.m. from now till the day I leave (very very important coz I wouldn’t have my lovely hubby to pester me out of bed), set the ‘contingency’ alarm clock, ate some instant noodles…

10.30 p.m. My hubby finally called me! Only the first night away from him and I miss him so. Hmmm come to think of it, ever since we were together we have never spent a single night away from each other (hmmm I think there was once for one night), and this time I will be away for a full twenty days!!

Before 11.00 p.m. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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