Moving On now that March is Gone

I end my traineeship in 2 weeks (actually, 9 more days of work!) Come April 13th, I end my wonderful Traineeship experience in my company, and after travelling for 3 weeks, I will get a move on in my life.

I'm in one of those moods where I want to capture my current state and leave it on the Net for me to come back months later to read. Bear with me =)

So I returned from a week-long break and entered a shite-mood. I came back on Thursday to find that I (and me alone) had to work further on a certain part of the "completed" project. Let's just say that coming back from a holiday to work again a project that you *thought* was over is just NOT fun. For the first time, my boss saw me in a nasty mood =). But I overcame it. Good.

The weekend was also a good one..spent lotsa time with myself, did NOT party at all =), and treated myself to a glorious buffet at one of the BEST hotels in India-The Leela Palace- for Rs 1200 ITSELF ONLY (SGD48). Having 'organized my life' that weekend as well, I went back to work feeling, in a word, GOOD.
But this week has just been awesome. I've been in proper,regular touch with 'friends' from all over the world *hint*, Spoke to my Bosses about my future plans and gained valuable advice, Convinced my Dad about my decisions in life (major hurdle overcome!), and Felt happy-peppy and myself all over again finally.

Now..I'm looking forward to re-starting life proper.
Its also time I update my near and dear friends on what I'm going to do now: After I end my traineeship, I'm travelling to Kenya, yes, KENYA for a week. Proper home-coming trip I think, considering I havent' been back since I left at 5years of age (I was born in Kenya for those who don't know). The Plan is to then travel around India for 2 weeks. Leave 5th May night, arrive in S'pore on 6th May(morning)....and head to Siglap's Mas Ayu for SUPPER!!

Guys, I can't wait =)

P.S. Felt like also putting up some memorable pictures of my traineeship in India



Scary Trainee-colleagues at Christmas- Casa Del Sol (Residency Road), 24Dec 2005



Company Christmas Party at the Leela Palace, 17 Dec 2005



Joanna, Mahima and Yam at our last clubbing night together in Bangalore, Nov 2005

Mumbai Madness

What a fantabulous month, March was! As the month closes today, I can confidently say that I had never learnt so much about my colleagues, my family, my friends and myself.

It started off with Johannes revisiting India from Germany and then with Blossom, Winnie and Chloe coming down to visit me from Singapore. So much fun and laughter....I hadn't had those in a LONG time.

We went up to Mumbai on 15March and needless to say, we had an AWESOME time. Staying at Colaba and going to Leopold's for breakfast, and Cafe Mondegars' for dinner and drinks (flirting with the sorta-decent-cute waiter). The Last night was an absolute blast..with Blossom and Winnie almost falling asleep in their beer mugs. And we easily had taken about a 1000 pictures combined together. Chloe alone would have taken 500. Crazy Asians....

Anyways, some Quotes from the Mumbai trip:
1. "TP" for "take picture". Can also be substitued for "Toilet Paper"..depends on the context, naturally...I don't think anyone of us (however trigger-happy we were) wanted to TP (read:take picture)of an Indian Toilet.
2. 'Making Pictures'...Application: "Your Always Making pictures", "do you want to make a picture here?"
3. "CHEQUE PLEASE"..by Winnie, of course. The aim was to see how many Indian waiters got the joke

I had taken a further 3 days off after the girls left on Monday to spend time with friends who were leaving for home on Wednesday/Thursday. Those 3 days, I also attempted to "Organize my Life", but it was more like taking a break from work..Since my project had "apparently" completed before I took off for my Mumbai trip...But I came back to work on Thursday to realize what a fool I was to think that. (to be continued in the next blog entry..first, view the pictures of Mumbai!)




YESH, there's a place in Mumbai called HORNIMAN Circle.

I lost my voice!

So Last Saturday morning 3am, Johannes and I picked up Blossom, Winnie and Chloe from the Bangalore (crappy) airport..While we were being eaten raw by mosquitoes outside, I was real jumpy..nervous, to say the least....: To meet my friends Blossom and Winnie, who I've known for the past 11 years, HERE IN INDIA!!..how radical!!!

I mean, these are my closest friends ever...with whom I've shared so many experiences with..and to have them here in INDIA..and to have them get to know a part of what I've been experiencing here on my traineeship..and to have them back in Singapore and to reflect these experiences with them...it was just a crrraazzzyyy feeling..

So besides being nervous about meeting them, when I saw them I went Ballistic!!! We created such a scene outside the airport..squealing in Singlish and hugging and me, I couldn't control bouncing!..It was soooooooooooooooo awesome talking in Singlish again!!!!!

The thing with living abroad is that we tend to have a separate life for the period of time that we are out of our home...when we return, we often find it difficult to explain our experiences and emotions with those back at home..i mean, sureee they wanna hear about what we've been through,but it's not quite the same as them actually experiencing it with you..

so when I got to introduce the girls to all my other trainee-friends at Robertson House, and to have them stay in my room and have a huge girl-talk session the whoollee of saturday and sunday, was just GREAT...talk about some real girl bonding..it was wonderful..Needless to say, no one in Robertson House could understand what we were talking about..many said that it sounded like Chinese..whhaatteverrr..it's such a yucky-sounding slang but ooohh sooooooo satisfying!!

Now the girls are in Goa, but I will meet them on Thursday afternoon in Mumbai..and for 4 more days, we get to experience India together..I can't wait..

After almost 2 months of not travelling, I wanna get out there and TRAVEL..of course, taking a 1.5h Air Deccan flight instead of a 24hr train journey isn't really being a hard-core backpacker =p, but I think it's about time I treat myself to the small luxuries in India...And when Rs700/night hotels are considered "budget", I can be rest-assured that Mumbai is not gonna be cheap. (Read: budget-style accomodation in Goa is about Rs150/night..hard-core)

6 more hours at work and my one-week vacation begins. Wooptidoooooooooooooooo

Happy Peppy

I'm in a dream these days..and then I tell myself that it's not a dream, but it's REALLY happening. It's great =)

Tomorrow at 3am, my 3 girlfriends from S'pore will be coming down: Blossom, Winnie and Chloe. They're going to enter this dream of mine in India. (And hopefully they remember my request for Old Jamaica!!)

The AWESOME thing is that when I get out of this dream and re-enter life in S'pore, I'd actually have friends to share these experiences with. I can't wait to see them..it would be like we're back in our past holidays in KL or Australia or Thailand...and we get to re-start the travelling nonsense that we experienced...AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH...can't wait!!!!

Travelling to another country or even to another town like Mysore can bring people closer together somehow..I haven't been travelling *with friends* for almost 7 weeks now (i'm not counting my travels by myself)...and I'm terribly missing it..I'm missing the coffees, the laughs, the frustrations, the Masala Dosas and Butter Chicken!!, the budgeting...the splurging...the STARES!!!!

I can't wait to start my one-week vacation next Wednesday..I wanna re-enter the travellers' dream. I think I'm falling ill with the travellers' bug all over again =D

(...talk about a random post..)