dinner in downtown boston

we went to a japanese restaurant - wagamama. actually it is not really a restaurant, it is similar to pasta de waraku.

wagamama serves mainly noodles, fried and soup, plus side dishes.

trish (colleague) had yaki soba while i had the teppanyaki beef yaki soba.



i liked the beef (very tender) but typical of yaki soba, the sauce was quite sweet, so half way into the meal, i already felt jelat.

alamak

a colleague kindly offered to take me out on friday night.

we went to downtown boston - charlestown and north end. the night view of boston is really nice. i only bright my phone which has a 3.2mp camera.

took 2 pictures of the night view.

turned out like that... haha.. i think i will have to pick up a postcard at the airport.

cat beds

this was in a store (called target) near my hotel. it is something l ike carrefour. the cat beds are all very pretty and cheap. U$12-15 nia!

too bad i cant buy for my cats. got one pee-er who likes to pee on soft material.

every cat bed that i buy gets peed on within 1 hour - 1 day!

office at beverly

so i have been here in Beverly (half hour drive from Boston) for almost a week now.

things have gotten better since the ordeal.

my colleagues are all very nice. julie my US counterpart picks me up from hotel and drive me to office every day (5 mins drive). she also drives me back and even offer to have dinner with me. at lunchtime, there is always someone who will take me to the cafeteria for lunch (yes, they pay and charge back to company).

so, it has been very nice.

only problem is, i keep getting electrocuted!

i seem to have a lot of static electricity, on monday and tuesday, i keep getting 电 when i shake people's hands. so much so, i am afraid of shaking people's hands i will tell them. i met at least 30 people so i got zapped 25 times (last 5 i just tell them i am charged).

the office/factory compound is huge, almost the size of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. cafeteria is very nice. they got salads, sandwiches, pizza, soups, etc. and price is cheaper than mall and fast food restaurants. of course much cheaper than hotel.


tonight the regional planner in charge of singapore took me out for dinner. he is italian and he looks like a younger robert de niro! hehe... he tells me he cooks and bakes. wow... i was impressed.. i told him a lot of things about singapore and malaysia and japan.

these were what we had.

this was asian chicken roll. the skin is flour based. nothing crispy like popiah. it was quite dense flour. the filling is chicken with broken bee hoon. served with peanut sauce. quite nice actually. much better than the chinese food i had in canada 17 years ago!

this was grilled chicken (breast). not dry at all it was quite juicy. i dunno why chicken breast in singapore are all very dry..

the teary flight

i cried a lot during my 19 hour flight. watched the following movies

1) 恋空 a japanese story about a high school girl's love. she went through virgin sex, had miscarriage, later boyfriend broke up with her because he had cancer (but of course never told her), and how they came back together and finally boyfriend died. cried the most during this show

2) Le Grand Chef, korean movie about a talented chef against his evil 师兄, i think this show was in singapore late last year. i cried when the chef had to slaughter his own cow whom he has kept since she was small

3) PS I Love You - a touching story about how a woman cope with the loss of her Irish husband. Husband wrote letters to her to help her cope with his death. Starring Hilary Swank. dunno if this movie was in Singapore? i never watch movies at home one

4) National Treasure 2 - the sequel starring Nicholas Cage

the service on SQ soon to be discontinued executive economy class was very much better than i had expected. there was definitely more leg room and i could cross my legs. also, i had once upon a looooong time ago took business class, and this ee class is almost like raffles class - crew was attentive and there was even a self service snack bar. i had 4 packs of nachos and 1 pack of pretzel!

the meals were however definitely economy. i had chicken breast with risotto (aka nuah rice) for lunch and sauteed prawn for dinner. they offered ben and jerry's ice cream bar for dessert but i skipped cos it was HUGE...

happier post

so the first 2 posts i blogged about usa are bad.

this is going to be a happier post lah. partly bcos my luggage finally arrived, and not without incident lor.

luckily i was hanging around the lobby, when the front desk staff came and tell me my luggage came (i was blogging the other post and COMPLAINING and WHINING). happily i went out to see, only to find the bag WAS NOT MINE. heck, it wasnt even red!

heng the (stupid) driver still at the driveway. then i got MINE back.

during the last 22 hours, besides COMPLAINING and WHINING, i also wondered why a series of suay things happened to me.

i came up with 2 conclusions:-

1) ksn's theory as to why the US airlines keep losing money. bcos they keep losing passenger luggage, they have to pay for claims and courier service to deliver to passenger hotels.

2) the logistics here sucked because my luggage arrived at boston airport at 1pm but it was delivered to me only at 10.30pm. surely this is a sign to make me feel what my customers may feel if the parts they order come late, especially if it is critical? that means i must work really hard to ensure my company's logistics work, and send the RIGHT PARTS

wow, i am so blown away with my 2 findings...

i must have been very bored in the last 22 hours lah. haha.. i shall go take a shower and do my face mask and pamper my body a bit...

qualification

bcos of some (ahem) feedback that i am whiny and complain complain only, i must qualify that i dislike the US doesnt mean everyone should, or will.

i dislike the US bcos 1) i dont drive so its extremely difficult to get around

2) i dislike the fake service that is so obvious here

and why should tipping be compulsory?

its personal ok, ie i am personally suay. i am not a complaint queen, like "some other people"

ps STILL waiting for my luggage...