back from beijing trip

after almost a week in beijing, i am back in shanghai =X was in beijing from last sunday nite till today morning :P visited BIRTV show, visited several clients, and had a demo testing at one company, which failed though... but nvm that, at least problems surfaced, and these gave us more motivation to solve these problems :)

BIRTV show was very big! a total of 9 exhibition halls... and we walked till my legs were very tired, hands tired with all the carrying of the heavy brochures, which i had to bring back half of them... had a brief idea of how the broadcast market is in China, and i can say it is overwhelming to me. many China companies. many foreign companies. Our main focus was to find potential System integrators who would be interested in buying our software for OEM. But of course, to me, it was more of an educational tour, since Leonard was around, and he gave me some ideas of what to look out for in this show for broadcast and Xpress.

Yesh, and there would be quite a bit to follow up on, especially for the meetings we have had before the show and during the show itself. But well, it's definitely better than having nothing to do. I hate lull periods. I don't like to have little to do in the office. So come on, keep me busy :P hahaha but not too busy. cuz i got other things to do....biz case, xun ji, and the coming nvc...

got a day off from Anne on Friday to bring her friend, candice's relatives (a couple) around. We went to the Beijing Olympics stadium, the so-called 鸟巢 and 水立方. felt proud as a chinese when i am in the 鸟巢, probably cuz of the olympic songs played in the bird's nest :) Took some pictures, had put them up on my facebook :) there are other photos in the couple's camera, which i hope i can get soon :)

And yeah, met up with some of the noc beijing pple (4 only though) + 2 ntu friends of theirs at nite. cool and friendly people. would keep in contact with them, especially if i get to go to Beijing again :P it was a last minute event, even though my boss did arrange a dinner which included her friend's noc beijing intern. They went to eat 过桥米线, which i have eaten before. and cuz i was super full from the whole day of food (korean buffet + afternoon tea + peking duck), i didn't touch the food at all lol. Then they brought me to 南锣古镇 for a walk, a nice street with many pubs, but the buildings are all cheena-like. quite cool :P i like the idea of fusion between western and cheena flavours :P

and today is the first time i took a bus back from hongqiao airport =X tiring journey back. around 30 minutes in a crowded bus, with my heavy luggage. it was just to try it out, since i had always taken taxi back home lol. i guess i would nv take a bus back from hongqiao airport anymore lol, 20 plus RMB is ok lah to save the time and effort :)

tired day. feel like sleeping. slept a bit though for around 15 minutes ba lol.

discussed dear's birthday celebration... sort of settled on the scale and venue, and the people to invite, which actually includes different leagues of her friends lol. feeling bad of not being able to be present for her birthday... how i wish china's national holiday lies on her birthday, but too bad it is a week before her birthday. and i cannot get such a long leave... i have taken more than enough leave for the past 6-7 months, a total of 10 days i think. my boss was really kind enough to let me go, though i can feel that she is not very pleased about it. I am not being sexist, but female bosses tend to be pettier...

hmm, i would try to do something that can let her feel my presence during her birthday. Hope that it would alleviate her sadness abit. but well, of course it is not as good as me physically being there singing a song for her. but then, i guess it's better than nothing ba. my 21st birthday was not good, and it's high likely that i would leave some scars in her 21st birthday. Haiz, i guess life is always full of regrets, and we have to continue to live on even though there are regrets here and there. what we can do is to learn from our mistakes and make sure that the same old mistake is not committed again.

ok, that's for all. Now i got many things on hand. Follow-ups, Biz case, Xunji... got to clear them as fast as possible. maybe not for xun ji, but i would have to get my butt working for the follow-ups for the meetings in beijing, as well as for my Startup biz case very very very very soon!

Updates

I am in a mac donald in Chinatown, Singapore now! Yes, i am back in Singapore just for a vacation, since last saturday in fact. Waiting for my gf to get off work now :P very long nv blogged already, so yeah, here i am blogging.

Work in Shanghai was a bit boring since mid July, so it's considered my lull period in my stint in Alphatron Shanghai. That's because my boss was trying to teach the basics and other stuff for her other intern, who works under a company called ILS, which contracted the sales in China to her. And so, she's managing 2 companies. come to think of it, this is crap, how can a person be in charge of the work of 2 companies? that's why i was having a lull period, when she was engrossed in her work in ILS. hahahaha. And luckily, i took a week's leave to come back to Singapore at such a time, otherwise i would have to tahan another week of lull, which is in fact torturous to me!

Back in Singapore, i spent time with dear and my family :) fortunately and unfortunately, at this time, dear was having a tough period with her stomach, cuz of some food poisoning, and i accompanied her to the hospital twice. but now, i think she should be ok already :) but of course i would control her diet, just in case the stomach pain comes back again. tonite, we would be meeting some of our friends at holland V :P this week with dear and family is going at a blazing speed :( haiz, nvm, happy times are always so fast...

tomorrow i would be going to Alphatron's Singapore office for a crash course to prep myself for a possible demo for some new equipment provided by my potential client/colleague, Sunny. He is one kind of a friend, very real very smart :P should be a half-day affair :P

going back to shanghai i would have things to tie up, such as the meetings for the 1wk beijing trip from 24th aug, as well as the possible demo with Sunny :P so it might be hectic for me, which is actually better than lull periods. after that, would follow ups, which would probably keep me busy for another 2 weeks :P

Sept 5, school will start =X New venture creation, the time hogger, will come and haunt me, and i would also take a disciplinary course in Fudan, which would be Algorithms. With school, i would not be stuck in the office so often, so i might not get so bored if i dun have much work to do :P

ok, i got to start my engine for biz case SOON, the first draft is due at the end of Sept. Dear's work is more hectic than mine, cuz of her idiotic, stupid, demanding, mean, stingy boss. Just hope that dear can tahan through it, as well as do well enough for her 2 modules this coming sem :) SO, JIAYOU for both of us, and everyone too :)

bye bye.

Weird i am writing this post in a super small window, cuz either blogger is sot now or i am using freegate to get past this stupid china firewall tat blocks youtube and blogger!

Anyway, i havent been blogging. busy is not the word i should give as an excuse =X i guess i was jus lazy :P i am lazy to put up photos, jus like how i am lazy to take photos. i leverage on my friends' cameras to take photos :) hahaha, as u can see the photos i had taken in China are all in my friends' facebook albums :) Kudos to these friends :P

Exams are coming! 2 weeks later would be Venture Capital exam! 3 weeks later would be Marketing Management exam. Before that, next wednesday, we would have to make a presentation for our marketing project, which i havent done a lot for it... 20th june i have got to hand in the internship report! shucks...

this friday, i would have to finalize my 8 choices of FYP. at least i have shortlisted 8 interesting and applicable ones yesterday. Would be arranging them in order tomorrow or a bit later before friday of course.

It has been almost 4 months since i have been here. What i have accomplished here is nothing much i guess =X except for getting a feel of what my job is and entails, coping ok with my studies, at least i don't lag as much as others? Hmm, and of course participating in random events here and there :P

Hmm, and besides that, i have taken an interest in social entrepreneurship, and i am now in the midst of finding sponsors for the upcoming forum / campaign in end oct. Hope everything would turn out well, even if it would not be as big-scale an event as we had wanted it to be. A small good start is definitely better than a big terrible start, isnt it?

My dear and i are still going well, despite several problems during the past 4 months. It would be another 4 months before i would be going back to Singapore during the long China national holiday in early October. Hope everything would be fine these 4 months :)

My dear is working under a nasty female boss. Hope she can take it physically and mentally. No matter what, jiayou ok, dear :) Fight for your welfare too, dun let that bitchy boss squeeze you dry ok :) hahaha :P

ok that's all, i got to get back to research on my part for the marketing project :P

bye,

chee yong

sick

when you are sick, you miss your loved ones most. and this applies to me now. i miss my dear. i miss my family. i miss the comfort of home. here, i am sick, but i don't have anyone to take care of me. though i  can manage, still i would have liked to have care from my loved ones by my side.

my dear is having exams. 2 more papers for her. jiayou to her. hope she does well for this sem. and also, she got a job for her iLead stint :) so happy for her. hope that job is a good one, not a lobo one, not a boliao one.

i am down with flu now. not swine flu =X at least that's what i think lol. feeling weak. feeling light-headed. took a nap this afternoon. feel a bit better. but then still a bit light-headed. i hate headaches. makes me unable to do anything but sleep. hope i can get well by friday morning, cuz i am going 黄山 for a climb :P should be able to lah. 

eat vitamin C, eat "special" honey that my mum bought, drink lots of water.

i guess i will lose weight for this bout of flu. hahaha, 顺便 lose weight lol.

all the scare from swine flu. be it in singapore or china. just hope that it does not get epidemic or pandemic or watever de, can't differentiate. it really is 雪上加霜 to have such disasters when the economy is weighing tonnes on the people already.

i think i better go get some food. Feeling weak is not fun at all.

bye :P

April Updates

heya, doing fine in shanghai :P work not that bad, a bit busy here and there, but better than nothing to do rite =X

gg to Beijing next wed once again, on a work trip. this one would be shorter, till friday only. but it would be much more intense than the last one, cuz quite packed... time is precious this time cuz our singapore engineer has to go back on friday =X well, i shall be content, and enjoy the free lodging and free food there :) A POOR WORKER IN SHANGHAI -> BECOMES CHEAPO =X

coping quite ok, though the budget i have set for myself earlier on, is no longer valid. it is almost impossible to live like that unless i am willing to save on food, which i think is harsh on myself, and my parents and girlfriend would not allow me to. well, i am still around 3800 RMB a month, with all the accruals (~400 RMB) from the one-time payments for household appliances and other necessities. well, i am not so concerned about the budget already, since life has become rather stable already, and I DON'T SHOP! hahaha :P

school is ok, still coping. project deadlines are coming soon... assignments from marketing management class are a terror! but well, this tutor's class is not that bad, except for the poor sense of time of him and those students making presentations! a 3hr lecture can stretch to more than 4 hours!  currently has 2 known projects, one marketing one finance. one more for finance coming =X 

oh and the startup biz case proposal, I FORGOT TO ASK MY BOSS FOR APPROVAL AND IT'S DUE ON THIS SUNDAY! SHUCKS!

but well, getting used to life here, traffic here, food here =X weather is getting good :) but i dun wan summer to come, which sounds quite scary, as it can hit 40 degrees... sianz

hmm, no matter wat comes, i have to face it, be it small like weather, or big like work piling up like nobody's business. So,  頑張るよ :)

another random post

hello, i am in beijing currently on a work trip. but i was in the hotel room almost all day long cuz i am down with flu. now feeling better after a whole day of sleep. the weather in beijing and tianjin really is worse than shanghai, ok maybe it's the bad air in these places, but whatever...i am sick because i am here in beijing =X 

ok, 2 random photos of my dinner today, very light, and ok-tasting =X

扬州炒饭 (RMB 11) + 红柿鸡蛋汤 (RMB 7)

so much rite for a person eating alone...

end of dinner. didn't finish it. how can i finish it when i am sick and it's so much...

hope that i will feel much better tomorrow. tomorrow i am going to the exhibition which is the main purpose of us coming to beijing. hope to gather some information that would bring us more insight to the control and monitoring industry :P

being alone in beijing when my boss is not around with me makes me miss my dear badly =X seeing couples holding hands, smiling to each other, teasing each other... haiz, i miss dear so much now and she's eating ice cream in holland village now =X hahaha :P

Random in Shanghai

Seriously, i like the name =X but my friend says it is a freaking expensive fastfood restaurant... but whatever, the food in there doesn't appeal to me either :P

2 packets of Maggi curry noodles, cooked by me tonight. A bit too much soup, but whatever, first attempt at cooking in Shanghai after more than 3 weeks. And by the way, Maggi instant noodles are not sold in Shanghai, according to an NOC senior. These 2 packets of Maggi noodles are specially brought by my dear from Singapore :)

an update

my dear says that i seldom blog in this blog liao. so ya, i shall give a slight update of my stay in shanghai.

it's been 3 weeks already since i arrived here on feb 5. this is the 2nd week of work. did nothing much except calling here and there. follow my boss to meet client. read this and that about the stuff that i should know, such as VHF, NMS etc. learn something about sales. purchased desktop.

have been adjusting well enough i guess, except the weather here is still cold. my mum and dear visited me last saturday, and went back on tuesday. sad lah, when i see them leave. but well, bo bian rite. they also quite sad i think. now i got a lot of maggi mee to eat =X

nothing much to write lah. visited only a few places in shanghai, actually i think shanghai is quite boring lah. nothing much except buildings and buildings lol. i prefer exotic places like xi'an, suzhou watever de :P

i am now blogging during office hours while waiting for my desktop to arrive :) after that i would need to install the software for work in Xpress :)

ok nth to write le :P end of post

I'm a poor boy in Shanghai

Coming to Shanghai is really an eye opener. After i came here on NOC then i realise that money is really hard to earn. given the meagre sum of money, i got to pay for rent, pay for household stuff, pay for utilities, pay for internet, pay for transport, pay for food, etc etc. even with the IE Singapore scholarship of 3600 sing dollars, i have only around 3700 RMB per month to spend.

Below is the breakdown of my budget:
rent ￥1,500.00
transport ￥300.00
food ￥900.00
internet ￥190.00
utilities ￥200.00
household ￥154.92 (will increase if i buy more household stuff)
water ￥30.00
telephone ￥300.00
daily necessities ￥50.00

total ￥3,624.92

30 dollars a day includes breakfast, lunch, dinner. ok maybe lunch usually provided by my boss, according to my future colleague. but it's still so pathetic. ok maybe there is cheap food like around 10 to 15 bucks which can be quite filling. but am i gg to just eat all these everyday? well ya, i still have pocket money from my parents, but i try not to use, cuz i wan to sort of try to stay independent.

ok lah, cuz we 3 pple staying in an apartment, paying 1500 rmb is considered cheap i guess =X but there are many hidden costs, cuz we need to buy this and that for daily use, eg plates, cutlery, mops, thrash bags, iron board, bedsheets, blankets, etc etc.

hope i can sort of keep to my budget. hope so lah :) at least give myself some sort of "training". even before a month is gone, i have realised that the standard of living in Shanghai is super high, considering the amount of salary the people get here. ok, shall endure, shall adapt :) this is the whole point of noc, that is to learn to be independent, explore, network, look for opportunities. the latter two parts would be fulfilled by my work in Alphatron Asia starting next week, i guess :)

ok some photos, which i have taken while i went around walking and exploring :)

云南路美食街


Metro @ 徐家汇


人民公园


@ 南京东路步行街


View from 外滩

leaving for shanghai noc

hi,

i would be leaving for shanghai soon for an noc stint. would be interning at alphatron asia :P

my friends, pls take care of my dear for me. i would miss her a lot. cheer her up when you can :) bring her out for lunches and dinners and gatherings. also remind her to study hard :)

i would be updating this blog to tell you pple about some interesting things in shanghai lah :) with photos also :P

ok, this would be a short post. would blog when i get my accomodation, logistics, internet done :P

signing off,
chee yong

Sky Dining and Marina Barrage

18th jan 2009, me and dear went for sky dining from jewel box on mt faber :P was very excited the whole day cuz it sounds really quite fun to have a romantic dinner on a moving cable car. we reached there damn early, cuz excited lol. and we started early at around 6 which we regretted, cuz by the end of the 3 rounds of ride, it's not really dark yet at 7.30pm. we should have gone up at around 6.30pm...

when the cable car started to move with table of appetizers inside, i was quite shocked, cuz quite fast sia the cable car (long time nv sit cable car lol), and the table was shaking though no food or drinks toppled cuz of the shaking. got 2 drinks (1 plain water, 1 red wine) toppled, cuz of my butter hands, and extra movements lol. dear kept nagging me saying she paiseh lol. what to do, i also not purposely de, spoil a bit the romantic mood lah. overall, the food was quite ok, above average. it's an experience, quite shiok but also expensive at 198 bucks :P

towards the end of the cable ride, a pro photographer took a photograph of us, and we bought a big photograph + 2 small card size ones + 1 shake-shake thingy (dunno what's that called....similar to those christmas thingy) for 40 bucks. quite nice the photo. i kept the small card size one in my diary (given by dear too :P)

me having a tortoise face =X

Before the sky dining, we went to marina barrage to see the nice scenery as seen on photos on the web :P really quite nice :) Sun was out then, and the wind was super strong. so strong that i got the feeling that i was going to be blown away lol. took some photos too :P dear also took some banner-kind photos using my omnia lol. my canon camera doesn't have that function, stupid camera, i am going to discard it soon, when i have some money to spare.

i like this photo :P

on a side note, started packing my luggage yesterday, realise that really no space lah for a 20kg luggage. winter clothes take up half of the luggage liao. i still havent put in casual wear, and shirts and blazer...already quite full liao...die, got to squeeze squeeze squeeze...

back from genting

went for a 3d2n genting trip with dear last sunday. quite fun cuz we managed to play at the outdoor theme park though the weather wasn't really favourable.

1st day, had to wake up at 5am cuz bus leaving sun plaza at 6.30am. very tiring lol. the bus ride was okay initially, but towards the end, cuz the road was rather rough, i somehow felt uncomfortable. that's the 2nd time i 晕车, 1st time was when i was on a taxi from guangzhou to hongkong i think during the return trip from China biz trip. the check-in process was rather smooth, but we got a cui room, with no scenery, cuz dear thought her aunt said tower 2 instead of tower 1 =X lol, but nvm lah, it's ok lol, cheap cheap mah :P had lunch at 阿一 :P it's a dimsum lunch :P the price was ok lah for such a restaurant.

Our room

2nd day, we wanted to play whole day at the theme park, but weather was damn bad till 3pm. so we played the indoor ones, quite boring... in the meantime. went to the snow world, very cold inside, but fun :P got ice slide, as well as snow flakes simulating real snow dropping from the sky :) took a few photos too ourselves even though the temp damn low till my hands were numb. we also bought photos that were shot by the camera pple there.

Snow World

luckily, the weather turned better at around 3pm, and we entered the outdoor theme park. long time nv play this kinda thing, buay tahan lol. i sat the cyclone, and few other rides, except the scary corkscrew and space shot. i simply cannot tahan vertical drops lol. dear took them all =X scary girl lol. we both went for the karting thingy, quite fun, though dear got a slow one, and i managed to lap many pple, including her lol.

Boating in outdoor theme park

and to end the day, we had abalone for dinner =X wah, sounds so 奢侈 but then it's only 50 bucks per person. 难得 we come to genting for a vacation. got abalone, got shark's fin soup, got bird nests tart, and others. okay lah :)

3rd day, is time to go back to singapore. had a brunch at KFC. it's cheaper than singapore, for the portion we get. eat till buay tahan, very full lo. but i think i buay tong the special chilli lime sauce, cuz i had a bad stomach when i almost reach Singapore. luckily i manage to go to the toilet in time when we finally reached sun plaza at around 9pm.

oh yeah, ytd, we went to koh yu's house. play games. watch tv. eat. talk. have to say thanks to koh yu :)

think dear is going back home now. she's been shopping for the whole afternoon for new cny clothes.

ok end of post :P

2009

It's 2009! Ytd didn't really celebrate, cuz actually i dun feel like squeezing with crowds at downtown, and the traffic confirm cui when all the pple there are rushing up north, with CTE already cui everyday.

so we just had a steamboat dinner at home, with my mum's sea cucumbers :P this time round not as nice, cuz not as soft as i want lol, but no matter what still better than those coffeeshops and restaurants.

also we watched 2 vcds. one is 梁祝, acted by 吴尊 and A-Sa. ok lah, as usual sad ending lol. was hoping for a happy ending, but then this storyline is always sad ending de. the other show is a horror show, forgot the name le, japanese show. hair is the theme. quite scary, though there are some parts that are too draggy for a horror show. dear was a scaredy cat lol. so funny, use the pillow to cover her eyes, though she says she still can see lol.

finish the show it's 10 minutes to 2009. counted down with the TV. and here came 2009!

2009 is a brand new year, so it's always good to have some goals to achieve set. so without much thinking, i shall list down some goals.

1) Continue a good r/s with dear, even though i would be in Shanghai from Feb.

2) Have a clearer direction in life.

3) Good health for me, dear, and my family and friends. (i can only control mine...so i have to eat properly in Shanghai esp)

4) Manage work and studies well over in Shanghai

5) Start to build a viable network, for business, for other purposes too :P

6) Exercise regularly, in part of building a healthy me :P

7) Control my temper better, dun scold pple so much, cuz will karma

8) Always try to achieve a win-win situation.

okay, that's all i can think for now lol. i guess they are very general, and they need my every effort to achieve, esp the 1st one. the 1st one is the one that i wish to achieve most. and i feel is a must!

that day, dear was telling me that jeslyn asked her whether we are having a lifetime commitment. and i can positively say yes. i told her that, and she reaffirmed me with a yes too :) well, it's kind of reassuring to hear that. sometimes, reassurance is really necessary, although we always say 尽在不言中 or 不言而喻．i guess the feeling was the same for her. it has always been my problem to be not very expressive in words regarding love. well, i have been trying to improve, and i still have much to improve. hopefully 2009 would be a year that i improve dramatically cuz i have to, esp when i am not physically with her all the time. i will strive to, no matter what!

ok, end of story-telling =X would be gg Genting this coming Sunday for 3 days 2 nights. would try to enter casino for the 1st time to see see look look, as well as have fun with the rides which i dare to take lol. and most importantly, enjoy the moments that me and my dear are tgt :)