Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Business Trips

Don't know if I'll get used to it.

You know how sometimes you wished you had something you don't have and once you had the taste of that one thing you wanted so badly you realised that it wasn't all that great afterall?

I always thought business trips would be something glamorous. I see these people at the airport looking sharp and hoity-toity, carrying their laptop bags and overnight carry-ons, fervently checking their blackberry while talking into their bluetooth headsets - and I think to myself, "What would I give to trade in my 10 hour deskjob for that."

Sometimes I see my colleagues from work carrying their luggages to the office and scheduling their transport, getting their hotel rooms booked, speaking to the people from the other countries to fix their appointments - and they are dreading it. I wondered why. Anything had to be better than being chained to their desk.

Hahaha. I had my first business trip a few months back. The whole illusion of livin' the jet-setting yuppy live went down the drain after just one business trip

Lies. All lies.

Back to back meetings. Fire-fighting issues back in HQ over the phone. Forking out endless $$$ first and then waiting for months before your claims are banked in. Endless custom checkpoint Q-lines. Milking your credit card dry because everything out of Malaysia is a gajillion times more expensive. Budget travel, budget food, budget accommodation, on a budget allowance. Not even a company laptop or Blackberry, not that I want a Blackberry anyway, but I'm just bitching.

Definitely not fun when you are a small fry with just about no perks.

Damn you hollywood movies. Damn you Eyeris. Damn you people with high-flying jobs and even higher flying pays.

In spite of all that I still prefer this so much more than a 24-7 deskjob. Seriously, does this aging face look like damn robot who enjoys sitting in one place for long hours at a time staring at the monitor slowly killing off my braincells, pushing paper? Absofreakinglutely not. I get so freaking restless and cranky there are days where I'd feel like ripping the phone off and throwing it at somebody just to create some chaos and distruption in my routine.

But give me another few more months. I might actually start hating travelling too. You know me, Ms Bitch About EVerything But Don't Do Anything About It. :P

In a few hours, I'l be flying down south to our friendly neighbourhood Singapore. Whee! Any chance that one of you five readers might be a Singaporean? Well if you do see me waltzing around your city, please don't throw rotten eggs toward my general direction. I'm just a harmless little corporate slave android, being there, minding my own business, doing my job.

You could however, buy this poor bugger a very needed drink. I really, really love Brewerks!

But I don't even enough time to kaikai also. Or have drinks. :(

So, what is there to do in Singapore if I'm only there for 1-3 days with no budget?

13 comments:

  1. funny. MY business trips never seem to have any business in them. AHAHAHAHA.

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  2. The worst thing about travel ... is the travel! :-)
    Especially if you ever get as fat as me. I used to fit into airline seats quite comfortably, but now I touch the sides and it feels cramped!

    'damn robot who enjoys sitting in one place for long hours at a time staring at the monitor slowly killing off my braincells,'

    Nice description of 90% of the people in airports waiting for their flights! :-)

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  3. singapore dollars kill.

    but hey, if you absolutely need a drink, and you're after good cheap beer, brewerks is fine (esp. if you go in the afternoons when they're about 50% off).

    but you can also go to breko in holland village - $10 for 2 beers at any time of the day. or tuckshop in tanjong pagar (good food too). OR. sneak into smu in the city and go to their uni bar - it's called ice cold beer - and pretend to be a student.

    and if you want really good cocktails (fork out the dosh now) go to this still awesome bar on portsdown road called klee. 18 bucks for most drinks, no menu, bartenders to die for.

    have fun!

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  4. When you do enough trips, the perks come in time. Can work send you overseas? Like to HKG or SFO? The more miles you rack up, the more perks u get. That's the sunny upside for the day.

    What airline does yr work send you on to SIN?

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  5. haha kesian u...well but i really thought that going on company business trips would be really really fun. in fact, i quoted 75% amount of traveling as part of my job responsibilities...ingatkan the traveling allowance also giler giler wan...thank you for highlighting the down sides of traveling for work... happy belated birthday and have a nice trip in singapore!

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  6. The furthest business trip I ever go is Johor only lol. Lucky the customer is run a bistro and bakery chain. So get free lunch and sometime free dinner.

    What to do in Singapore? Find out here.

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  7. oh! u in sg! call me lah!

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  8. I usually just stay in the hotel room and end up touching myself during business trips... Cheap way to pass time...

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  9. do window shopping!! hahaha
    u see lots of stuff to buy and etc.
    but u can't. get the feeling - tormented

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  10. Carlsberg gold launched! got review? i love that beer

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  11. Brewerks then! My treat ... mail me?

    (BTW, I went up to Genting a few times previously and suggested meeting up but u said no to strangers!!!)

    :p

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  12. Considering the heavy down pour now in Sg, guess your tonight nite out is screwed.

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