LEAP day

Today is February 29th and the newspaper here in Malaysia has a whole section dedicated to leap year articles. The first article is about people who only celebrate their birthday once every 4 years on the actual date, etc.

Then there is this article (I’ve cut out some of the article):
LEAP day was traditionally the only time in the west that women were allowed to propose to their sweethearts. It was said that men could not refuse these proposals and those who did, would have to pay compensation, anything from kisses to silk gowns and gloves. This tradition, which draws it’s roots from Ireland and popularized by the Scottish Queen Margaret, does not hold true any more, since women are empowered and have a bigger say in a relationship…

Must be a slow news day. I'm LEAPing for joy since it's the weekend and I’m headed to Singapore tonight.

I Hate Thunder

I’m not sure why, but I have always hated the sound of thunder. It’s one of those sounds that gets under my skin, kind of like nails on a chalkboard. Since I didn’t sleep very well last night (it was thundering for most of the night), I finally decided to look up what causes thunder.

This is what I learned:
Lightning is a giant spark that heats the air around it (up to 30,000 degrees Celsius!). This extreme heating causes the air to expand at an explosive rate. The expansion creates a shock wave that your ears receive as the booming sound of thunder. Since light travels faster than sound, we see lightning before we hear thunder. I think this explains why you can count the time between seeing lightning and hearing thunder to determine how far away the storm is.

Now that there is an explanation, maybe the sound won’t bother me… and with that, science class is over for today.

Weather

When we left dinner tonight, I could see lightning. Then, the sky opened up and started dumping rain. And, I mean DUMPING. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of seeing a rainstorm in Asia, you’ll have a hard time imagining the kind of pouring rain I am describing. It’s the kind of rain that would cause flash floods in California within a minute or two. The constant dumping of rain lasted for only 20 minutes this time, but I’ve been in storms that have dumped rain for hours. I’m still blown away the amount of rain that falls out of the sky here. There is thunder and lightning now. Hope this storm passes quickly. The satellite TV reception has been out because of the rain. Plus, I hate thunder.

By the way, they finally fixed my room issues. Something didn’t get entered into the system at the hotel. So far, I have 1 letter, 1 email, and 1 card apologizing for their mistake. And the manager and front desk staff apologized to me also. It almost makes all the hassle ok. Almost.

Air Conditioning

In Asia, it appears that the thermostats are just for show. The air conditioning is either on, full blast, or off. There doesn’t seem to be middle ground. So, it’s 90 degrees outside and inside it’s like 65 degrees inside. Now the air conditioning is off and it’s quickly headed to 80 degrees in this room.

The company that we are working with here in Penang is located right near the airport. In fact, if you go to the 3rd floor, you can see the runway. And the planes fly right over the building when they are taking off. It’s not a big deal because Penang is not a very busy airport, but we do need to stop our meetings every once in a while to let the plane fly over. I can now tell the difference between a 747 taking off versus a 777. For those of you interested (or just bored enough to read this), the 747 is much louder and the rumble lasts for longer.

As for my room situation, they are still working it out. I’m going day-by-day at the moment. I left my things in my room, so hopefully they are still there when I get back. At least I know my room is reserved in Singapore for the weekend and early next week. And if there are more issues with my reservations, I’ll just go home.

Travel issues

I’m having some travel difficulties this week related to my hotel. And even though they all speak English here in Malaysia, understanding is a whole other issue. So, I have decided to squat in my room (leave my stuff in my room) and let the hotel figure it out on their end. Otherwise, I’ll be sleeping on the streets tonight and tomorrow night.

That reminds me. I haven’t booked a hotel room for China next week. If I can’t get a room on this trip, I’ll just skip the China part of this trip and head home one day early.

If I'm honest, these difficulties are all because I was in denial about this trip and didn’t book hotel rooms until (apparently) too late. I suppose this should teach me to book my trips earlier, but it’s awfully hard emotionally to book flights/hotels when you are still on a previous trip and just want to be home.

Now it's 4:40 AM

If you remember from my last blog entry, it was 3:40 AM and I was passing time in the Singapore airport. Well, now it's 4:40 AM. Yes, I managed to pass an entire hour. Sigh.

I'm having a difficult time deciding what I want to write about in this blog entry. I could spend an hour and list all the reasons why I shouldn't fly United Airlines, but continue to do so against my better judgement just because I collect their miles. I think I'll save that for another day.

For now, here is a picture of the inside of the limo that took me to the airport on Saturday morning. I ask them not to send the limo. Partly because it's really hard to maneuver in my condo complex and mostly because I don't like sitting in the back of a limo by myself. It just feels silly.

24 Hours of Travel

Hmmn, the space key is broken on this keyboard. Let me try to fix it before I get annoyed and stop writing........................... OK, all fixed.

24 hours after leaving my house, I'm in Singapore and am on my way to Penang, Malyaisa. The transit hotel didn't have my reservation, so I am without a room for my 8 hour lay-over. I didn't really want to stay at the transit hotel because I was worried it would be dirty... I guess I got my wish.

Now I have to find a way to pass the hours at the Singapore airport before my next flight. I'm in the Singapore Airlines lounge, which is really nice. So far, I have had a snack, taken a nap, and am now I am writing this blog entry. I forgot to mention that it's 3:40 AM here. My flight is at 8AM and then I head straight into work after landing in Penang.

I'm going to try to nap again. Something tells me that I won't be a happy camper later this afternoon.

Oops

I deleted my previous post and I have no idea how to fix it. Oh well.

I'm feeling much better now. I think I must have had the flu. And I can now tell the difference between a cold and the flu... the cold comes on slowly and goes slowly, the flu hits hard. This week, I was hit hard. Luckily, it has left pretty quickly. Other than a bit of congestion and being really tired, I feel pretty good.

I leave tomorrow morning for business trip #3 of 2008. I've been in the US for almost 3 weeks, so I guess it's time. I'll write more once I get to my first stop... Penang Malaysia.

Have a good weekend!

V-Day

Apparently, every year for the past 6 years or so, one of my co-worker's cubicle is decorated (secretly) for Valentine's day. I've worked with him for 3 years now and this is the first time I am noticing it. Maybe I've been out of the country all the other years?

This was too good to pass up for a picture. The best part was that a bunch of us were standing around his cubicle when he walked in this morning. All he said was "not again!" Ha ha. Not sure who managed to make it through security last night or maybe it was an inside job. The rumors are flying.

In any case, I hope you are all having a great V-Day!

Japan

There is a small possibility that I will need to go to Japan next week for work. While, I am not ready to leave on another trip just yet, I have always wanted to spend time in Japan.

During a 2 hour transit stop in Narita airport a week ago, I had the best sushi ever! And, I got to play with the crazy vending machines that sell just about anything. They didn't have the vending machine that makes fresh french fries though. Here's a picture of a relatively normal vending machine. I couldn't get the lighting right to get a picture of the cool ice cream vending machine.

Two Tigers

The Singapore Zoo has two white tigers. One was sleeping in the sunlight and the other (below) was walking back and forth along the ledge, as if putting on a show for us. I didn't stay too long at the exhibit since I was still a bit on edge after hearing about the tiger mauling at the San Francisco Zoo in December. It probably also explains why I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw a GIANT lizard (iguana maybe? it was at least 2.5 feet long) walking along one of the paths at the zoo.



The tiger below almost came home with me...

Stats

I was looking at my frequent flyer account last night and was shocked when I saw how many miles I have flown so far this year... 44,000 miles. That's a new record for me this early in the year! I have been on 14 flights and had to clear customs/immigration 19 times already.

If you are jealous about the amount of frequent flyer miles I have, don't be... it also means I have spent 7 days of this year (YES, an entire week- 160+ hours of my life this year) on planes or at airports. This isn't even counting time it takes to drive to/from the airports, etc. Wow.

I arrived home from Orange County yesterday (flight #14). It was a short 1 hour flight, but it seemed to take forever. When I got into my condo, I realized I had not slept in my own bed for 20 days. I slept very well last night... I didn't want to get up this morning (probably has something to do with jetlag too).

I am now at my desk at work. This is only the 5th day this year that I have sat here.

And I just had tickets issued for my next business trip!

Jetlag and Diet Coke

It appears that jetlag and diet Coke do not mix. It is 2:45 AM and I am wide awake. I'm pretty sure it is because of the diet Coke I had at dinner tonight. I knew better, but I still drank the diet Coke. When will I learn?


Below are two signs I saw while in Singapore. Thought you might enjoy them.

Good thing I left my horse and cow at home that day!!

I like the monkey in this sign.

Finally home

I am finally home... sort of. I'm down at my parents' house this week. Taking a few days off to celebrate Chinese New Year and recover from my trip. I'll upload some pictures when I am less jet-lagged.