Monday, May 31, 2010

tHe sKeW oF thiNgS

if i ever needed proof of my potential for disaster, then i think i got plenty of evidence this month.

oh no, really. things are super fine here. i'm i n beijing and after all the circus to finalize my plans. they cancel the flight to get out of here on the 3rd. and now the brilliant morons, just rebooked one of my flights, without changing the connecting flight!! so basically my connecting flight is 15 hrs before my first flight.
oh brilliant.

and my manager got to know, what i did.
and was like.. aaah thats a no no. booking official trips through external websites.
ok boss.

i think next time, i'd decline the official trip itself.

more and more i feel like there are all these hurdles in my way. "i can hear you plotting you know! darn gollums"

went to this place called pure lotus. some cross over of buddhist and indian and arabian kind of place. pure vegetarian. but in the sense they make everything look and taste like non veg. but made from tofu. actually it was more like, the chinese understanding of indian. there were sculptures of camels around. and diwans and waters and waitresses wearing outlandish salwars. and lot of glitter.
and the serving plates were exotic. hey hang on, i got pics.



and this is a serving dish of tofu that looks and tastes like shark fin.
to be very honest, it was ugh. how could ppl eat this stuff.



in chicago there's a vegan restaraunt that gives you tofu based food that looks and tastes like chicken and beef. this is the chinese version of that place. where food looks and tastes like authentic chinese food. for ppl who hate the smell and taste of non veg food, its a no win sitch. coz who would want to eat veg food that tastes like non veg. ugh.
for ppl who wish they could eat it, but cannot due to some moral upbringing and repressing themselves from doing it. hey! this is awesome.

another place we went to the day before was very upscale and even more awesome. i think i should wait till we get out of the country to post pics. though another thing is i had forgotten to take the camera with me for dinner.
well lesson learnt! now i don't step out of the room without my camera!!

it was al black and white and i had a cushion of purple feathers. and these 8 foot backs to the chairs. and some really fancy and wierd setting. there was this tree that was painted all white. might be fake and it was kind of the center piece of the whole place.

and the whole rest. was just one long table with these chairs around it. the chairs were pretty simple but had 8 foot long backrests... maybe these hotels should be a seperate piece by themselves!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

tHrouGh tHe LoOkiNg gLaSs

beijing is a humongous city. ok its dark out and i can't really see much. 12 AM. the city was bustling. i look out the 17th floor window of the westin, and all i can see are vehicles whizzing by.
4:00 AM and the city slightly calmer. i look out the window and see huge signs on buildings. lettering all of it in chinese. sony erricson says one. gateway says the other.. and unless i see the english translated sign on the other side, i really don't know what they're declaring to the world.

nice roads, short ppl. really short and tiny ppl. or mebe its just coz i'm on the 17th floor.. naah they really are a short race. if you moved from sweden to here, you'd totally get a culture shock.

ok here's the view from my window -
really really early in the morning at 4:00 AM:




and morning 6:00 AM


the lobby :).. aaaaw yes i know i'm being a total tourist!!

Friday, May 28, 2010

sTarT oF tHe NeXt

ok so i've started. blogging from vancouver as we speak.

the last one week has been packed! with a capital P. meetings , working lunches, more meetings and team dinners. listening to a lot of ppl speak, talking and getting bludgeoned. :-/

on the bright side, we had the meetings in a golf course on tuesday and it was gr8!
was on the driving range for the first time! :)
ha! it was hilarious.



omg i don't know what i was thinking when i booked my flights! 6 hrs layover in vancouver, 4 hours in seoul, and then reaching beijing 24 hrs after i depart.
on the way to india i have god knows how many hours layover.
something's wrong with my brain. it just doesn't convert flight timings, landing times and flight durations correctly. mebe that's why ive been telling ppl i land 2-4 hours after i actually land.
its a disaster if i have to be picked up.

its one of the main reasons i hate to book flights. have this horrid fear that i might have booked the wrong dates.
also i'm getting a creeping thought in my head. did i leave the gas range on??
how will i know?? i don't have any recollection of switching it on. but then i dont have very good recollection now, do i???
aaaaaahrgh.

vancouver isn't so bad. larger population of chinkis than i'm used to. but nice empty airport. and nice open spaces and no ppl around. ok so i admit that's what i like best about a place :D no ppl around.






ok now i hope they don't arrest me for taking pics of the airport! gtg!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

sTop wATchiNg mUsiC aLtoGeTheR

have you ever stopped to wonder how the world has changed ?? i mean not since time began, but since the last 100 yrs or so? ok mebe from lil more before ??

i'm watching VH1, and i'm thinking to myself.. wtf??

ok so we came from being primitive tribal ppl, to some kind of .. normal looking ppl?? i dunno. ok then the victorian wierdo phase where everyone was covered up all over. ok ok am talking of the western world, not exactly "we" but its easier for me to tell a story this way, so hang on before you start spamming me about how i'm forgetting i'm indian. but i digress...

and now. NOW, we have something like lady gaag on tv, with beyonce, wearing bikinis and thongs and looking butt ugly and not caring. and prancing around ( helloooo that can't be dancing?? are you serious?? )
actually i like the song. don't get me wrong. but the videos???
:O

wat the eff!!
its all semi naked women, and outlandish wierd clothes. and man is she butt ugly.
and then all of them wearing wonder woman kind of costumes and...

oh man this is a sad sad century. don't think i'll switch on VH1 for a long long time !

Saturday, May 15, 2010

nEw tHiNgs to tRy

Well what do you know, I'm blogging from the new iPad !!!!!


Aw shucks now I know what I said earlier.. But ....ok so I'm still on the fence a bit. It's very cool and all, and I can surf and type as fast as I can on a normal keyboard (ok let's go back and heck the typos :P) but I don't know if I really want to carry this around with me along with my laptop and phone and wallet and iPod. Phew thats a full bag.

But still its a really fancy we browsing device.

:)

Ooooh ooh btw I walked bout 6 miles today. Ran a little, walked a little.. But I feel good :)

Work is getting more hectic than ever. Actually, losing my mind is more like it!! Oh well. Oohh ooh btw off to china end of the month. Looks like it s happening. Found out I need a Canadian visa to transit through there. Which is stupid!!!!!
Ok Canada transit visa check.
Book hotel check.
Pack clothes check.

FAA. I wish I cud take my net book with me when I'm traveling. Wud be cool.



note to self: pure imagination, wonka

Friday, May 14, 2010

cOLoriNg foOd aU naTurALe

with my once neat house now looking like a gollum's nesting bed... well with it looking like a natural disaster survivor's zone.. i just want to hide under the bed.

sigh. made panneer bhurji ( ok what I call panneer bhurji) the other day. came out pretty nice. not so nice were the questionable chapatis that i made. admittedly, they were more than a few days old. and i was taking a 'risk'. but when they turned out orange.. well i was really skeptical. but what the hell. i'm going to china.

who knows what i'll end up eating there !!

so .. i ate the rusty colored orangy chapatis and well. its been 2 days. i'm still alive.

so good. no harm done.

:D

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

siNs oF tHe oRiEnT

speaking of peanuts, why the heck was i pouring milk INTO my peanut butter jar???!!??

oh wait, did i tell you that story already??

or about how, i was sending pictures of myself in my new clothes, that i shopped for yesterday and i started off, with one pic of me in my old clothes just so i could "baseline" the results???

:O

its very clear.. i'm losing my mind!

i might be going to beijing, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time.

its exciting, but what do you do when the universe makes the process as miserable as possible.
i mean ok, its I***** thats making me as miserable as possible.

sigh.. its a long story and i shall tell u now.

week 1 -
memorial day , a wonderful weekend for fun. family coming to pdx. plans all set. outlook is good.
next week going to india, booked the tickets, outlook is good.

week 2 -
manager comes with plan to go to beijing, says no other dates available.
think of cancelling which on hindsight i should have done.
but think of making superhuman effort and managing both beijing and india trip. really stretching my abilities here..

week 3 -
find out, now i need to cancel memorial day plan too. life sucks.

week 4,5 -
amex quotes 4k for new trip. admin will have coronary if i book it that way.
so do some searching find the best possible deal online and book it off. phew one big prob is solved.

week 6 -
book the hotel instead of reserving it. oops. didn't do enough research and ended up booking a hotel at thrice the price listed.
major ooops :(

week 7 -
find out that transiting through canada on my cheap ticket and need a TRANSIT VISA even if i stay on the darn tarmac. call the super expensive hotel and find out, i need to call china to cancel......
aaaaaaaaaargh......


sigh. ok the weeks may not be really weeks. more like my own timelines. but watever. u get the point.

i ask u one thing. when ARE the good times supposed to start?? shouldnt they have started by this time ??? huh? huh???

oh man, i am sooo living up to my name as the QoD
:(