Happy Monday From Tuesday

(From March 26, 2012)

Hello All,

It’s been a little while since I last sent out an update. It’s not because nothing is going on, but quite the opposite. There has been a lot going on and I haven’t had much free time to write about it.

My apartment is inhabitable now. In other words, I was able to get wine glasses and a toaster. The wine glasses got purchased before the toaster. Priorities are important. Now if only I can get the dryer to work for more than 3 minutes at a time I think I’ll be set.

One of my friends came over from the states a couple weeks ago and spent about a week and half here before heading off on a tour / jungle exhibition through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. It was nice having him here as I made him sherpa the remaining heavy stuff and groceries I needed to buy up to my apartment. He also followed the golden rule of anyone visiting having to bring me alcohol from the duty free stores on their way in. Hopefully while he’s traveling he won’t drop off the face of the Earth forcing me to take a boat up the rivers searching for him.

We spent a Saturday visiting several of the tourist sites in the city including going up to the top of the Petronas towers. The observation deck on the towers is on the 82nd or so floor which is quite a bit higher than the other buildings in the city. The view is amazing but I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing. A zip line. If they could build a zip line into the top of the towers that’d be awesome. It wouldn’t even matter where it goes. Imagine walking into a new city for the first time and all of a sudden you look up as someone goes flying past you on a zip line. You could triple tourism to the city and all it’d take is some simple cables and a whole lot of liability insurance.

Last weekend we went to Singapore, my old stomping grounds. For those who don’t know, I spent a semester at Singapore while in college. I went back to the National University of Singapore where I studied and walked around a bit. They built a new business school building which was pretty snazy. All was not well though. My favorite food place that served Roti Prata closed down sadly. Replaced by some random restaurant that just didn’t seem interesting.

Speaking of Singapore foods. We ordered some of Singapore’s famous Chili Crab. Basically it is crab cooked in a chili sauce, hence the name. It is delicious. Especially if you have a beer with it. Anyone who has never been to Singapore has to try it during their first visit. There’s also another must try Singapore tradition, Singapore Slings. These are a mixed drink of about 20 different ingredients served to perfection at the world famous Long Bar. The Long Bar is located in the Raffles hotel that originally created the Singapore Sling about 100 years ago. The bar still exists and is a nice place to take a break in the warm afternoon. That is until you get your bill. Each Singapore Sling there costs about $20 US and are very easy to drink a lot of. For those interested in going there, ye be warned.

There is a new hotel and casino in Singapore that was not there before. It’s called the Marina Bay Sands and is quite unique looking. It is three towers with a giant boat on top connecting them all. I’m not kidding. It’s on the edge of the city which means you can view the entire city from the balcony on one side and the harbor with all the ships from the other. Naturally we went to the side with the bar (city facing). It’s quite a view at night.

Speaking of bars. There was some sort of holiday named after a Saint Patrick going on while we were in Singapore. We did a little bar hoping and among other things:

1. Drank some green beer (which was green because it had Spirulina Algae in it which is supposed to be very nutrient rich)
2. Listened to a live band sing a mix of Irish pop music and current American pop music as well as a song about a girl named Alice
3. Got a Guiness hat

Things at work have been very busy as well. This past week we brought in our company’s top Six Sigma process efficiency efforts and hosted a couple of Six Sigma training sessions. They were very interesting. Besides being an attendee, I was the main point of contact for this session and worked to organize the whole training. Guess I can add event planning to my LinkedIn skills. The whole experience was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the analytics behind process improvements. I also learned where I can buy M&M’s in bulk in KL. All useful knowledge.

Alright. I’m signing off again. I hope you have a good week. Oh, and opening day for the Giants is April 6th. Make sure to get your Giants gear ready.

-Chris

Almost forgot, here are two quotes for the email. The first is an inside joke so the second one is for everyone else. Enjoy!

Quote 1:
“Nobody knows they’re pajamas”

Quote 2:
This one is actually better in video form. A little Family Guy fake movie. Here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB1FxEQG57s