Saturday, January 19, 2008
Tip of the Day
Never blow your nose or clear out any blockages in your nasal cavities while dropping the kids off at the pool the morning after having an extraordinary meal the previous day. Say, something like Indian food...
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Hard to Say Goodbye
As I write this blog entry on my final flight home from a business trip, I looked back at the achievements that I had accomplished and the life experiences that I had gone through just in the last four months at Boeing. Sure, I may have sarcastically joked at how I hated traveling to Seattle, but truth be told, Boeing has been one of my favorite clients in a long time.
I flew in for just a day and half because not only did I have to return my Boeing issued property such as the laptop assigned to me, but I also had to run a meeting to transfer my knowledge on an otherwise huge side project that I had been tasked to do. They thought I would see through that side project till final implementation, but unfortunately (for Boeing), a better opportunity presented itself to me.
First of all, I hit the ground running at Boeing when I first arrived in September of 2007. Within a matter of weeks, I impressed the client so much that director's manager gave me one of the highest performance awards Boeing has, the Boeing Pride Award. Better still, I was not even a Boeing employee!
In the relatively short four months I was in Seattle, I was able to hang out with my college buddy Elle and her boyfriend almost once a week. I met and dated Traci briefly, and made a new friend Danielle. To add to my ego boost, I did so well at Boeing that they did not hesitate to sign an extension contract with IBM that would have kept me at Boeing through the next three quarters! I was really looking forward to that, because it meant more skiing opportunities at Whistler for me, and plenty of time to hang out with my friends Elle and Changren.
Of course, as we all know, I recently accepted a new job that will keep me afoot in Chicago. And during the conclusion of the meeting I ran today, I had such great feedback from my clients. All the hard work and sweat paid off. All those kind words were so positive that I wanted to cry. There was no doubt in my mind that had the new opportunity not arise, my stint at Boeing would have elevated my career. (Read promotion.)
As I turned over the Boeing property and spoke with the client director for the last time, I was at a loss for words other than simple thank you's. I have never been too good with saying goodbyes, especially after forming a special relationship with a client. I'm so going to miss Boeing.
Of course, once I receive my new iPod Shuffle in the mail, I will have a kind reminder of Boeing every time I use it. Because one of my wrap-ups was to redeem the points I received as a result of the Boeing Pride Award, and in doing so, I was shocked to realize how much 100 points were worth! About $100!!! If I had known it was worth that much, I would have redeemed it a long time ago! I thought 100 points were only worth a pen and pencil set, or some golf tees, or whatnot.
Thanks, Boeing, for the opportunities and memories!!!
Hotel a la Carte
For some odd reason, the Hilton Seattle no longer has the IBM negotiated rate in 2008. Instead of the usual suspects of hotels that usually pop up in the IBM online travel reservation tool, I was presented with a whole set of unfamiliar new hotels! The Hotel Vintage Park by Kimpton looked interesting, because it looked like a nice and classic hotel with rich interior decors. Plus, the website did a good job selling that property that I was won over. So I booked my stay at the Hotel Vintage Park.
When I arrived, I was quickly under whelmed. The room was tiny. And worst of all, the lobby could not provide me with complimentary toothpaste like most other hotel chains such as the Hilton or Marriott! Instead, I was forced to go through this basket filled with bottled waters, snacks, candies, a DVD about the state of Washington, and other miscellaneous junk. This basket contained a small, travel-sized package of toothpaste. I looked at the basket price list, which was separate from the mini-bar price list, and was shocked to see that I would be charged four freaking dollars for a toothpaste that was probably expired!
Bastards!
At first, I didn't deduct many points off of my personal review of this hotel. I was still relatively impressed, given the rich linens used in the bedding, and the interior décor. I thought it was rather neat at how they made the hotel room all romantic. The entire hotel had a wine theme, and each room was given a Washington winery name on top of the usual room numbers. I thought that was cute. And plus, I have read online that the hotel is good for romantic getaways and couples.
Then I kind of got a little nauseated later on. I noticed that perhaps the hotel was a bit too romantic. I mean, I'm on a business trip, and I expected the IBM negotiated hotels to be more on the professional side instead of romantic. All along the wall next to the bed was a giant mirror, extending the entire length of the king size bed. All the décor had red color as its central theme. And in the closet hung a couple soft and supple bathrobes with leopard prints.
LEOPARD PRINTS!!!
And to make things all the more kinky, I saw in the aforementioned basket price list an item costing $14 called, "Intimacy Kit." When I saw that, I quickly stared at the bed, and hoped that the linen was super cleaned with no remnants of any human DNA left. This would be my turning point in my personal review of this property from good to bad.
Then, as nature would have it, nature called. I went to the bathroom, and at first glance, things looked fine. But perched atop the toilet flush tank cover was yet another price list. Holy shit! Apparently, they charge you for almost every single thing, including the cotton swabs that are typically complimentary at most other hotels!
When I had finished dropping the kids off at the pool, I turned towards the toilet paper. Right before I tore off some squares, I made sure that there was no rolling counter installed on the toilet paper dispenser, as well as double-checking the bathroom price list to ensure that I wouldn't be charged extra for each sheet of luxury toilet paper.
Thank goodness the toilet paper was free. I have never, ever stayed in such an a la carte hotel that nickel and dime'd its guests! One thing was for sure though. I will never again stay at another Kimpton hotel ever again. Not even for my future honeymoon, if God willing.
Labels: funny, stupidity, travel
My Crooked Back
After waking up hung over on New Year's Day, I promptly went home to check my work email. I didn't get an email response from my client instructing me not to come to Seattle, so I quickly booked a flight out that night as well as a hotel reservation. I was pretty sure I was done with traveling, but I guess this will be my absolute last trip.
Given the fact that it was already 15:30, and my booked flight was to depart at 20:00, I quickly showered and did laundry. I was down on the wire when it came to clean underwear, because I was on the last clean pair. After running around like a headless chicken, I finally managed to leave my house with enough time to swing by Maria's place to pick up some yummy dinner she had prepared and drop off the second Nintendo Wii that my sister decided not to get.
As it had been snowing all day and night of New Year's Eve, as well as through the entire New Year's Day, it didn't occur to me that flights might be affected. By the time I got to Midway International, I discovered that my flight's departure time was delayed from 20:00 to 21:20. Ugh!
And of course, I wasn't prepared for the massive crowd that awaited me at the security lines. Aside from the fact that I was tired and hung over from New Year's Eve celebration, I also had not been traveling for about a month, which made me rather rusty. And on top of that, I didn't think people would be traveling on New Year's Day. I only had to fly on that day because I had business to tend to for work.
Through all the madness, I finally got to the security checkpoint. If there is one thing I have to complain about having Boeing as my client, it would have to be the fact that I had to carry a Boeing issued laptop with me. That typically meant that in addition to my laptop bag and a carry-on roller bag, I also needed three baskets: one for my shoes and coat, one for my IBM issued laptop, and another one for my Boeing laptop. It certainly slowed me down when it comes to effortless and smooth transition in the security checkpoint.
After all that hassle, I finally collected my personal artifacts at the other side of the security checkpoint, while laughing at the woman still in line who was ahead of me, because she had way too many things. I thought she had bottomless pockets in her coat and jeans! As I walked away, I quickly realized that I had accidentally left the dinner Maria had prepared for me on the unsecured side of the checkpoint!
DAMN!!!
As there were still plenty of time left before I would have to board my flight, I thought I could make a last ditch effort to see if any of the fine TSA security agents had my dinner in custody. As luck would have it, a very courteous and nice TSA agent (shocker!) on the secured side of the checkpoint was carrying the bag of dinner, and was about to inspect to make sure it wasn't a "suspicious" package left by some terrorists. I recognized the bag immediately, and begged if I could have my dinner. I was hoping he wouldn't have to use his dirty little paws to go through my dinner. I mean, who knew where his hands had been. For all I know, he could have been using them all day to perform full body cavity search on suspicious passengers!!!
After finishing my sandwich, which I had requested Maria to pack, I was shocked to see that she had included a second plate. I thought it was more of the pepperoni pockets that Amy R had made for the party, so I tore at it. But when I peeled back the aluminum foil, I saw a whole personal size strawberry tart pie! Damn! Maria is the best!
So far, my final business trip started out badly with the horrible delay, but it was quickly overshadowed by Maria's little nice surprise. That is until I got on the plane after it had finally left Baltimore and landed in Chicago.
After we had all boarded our flight, we had to wait longer because the ground crews were overworked and could not load our bags into our plane well after our plane was deiced. And on top of that, as a rusty road warrior, I had totally forgotten to look for the right seats. As soon as I saw an open middle seat in the exit aisle, I quickly jumped at it. I totally forgot to notice that A) the man and woman on either sides were quite large, and B) they were a husband and a wife who were so big that they couldn't sit next to each other!
Unfortunately, it was all too late by the time I realized that I had picked the absolutely worst seat in the house. Or plane. And right after the plane took off, I realized that their teenage son was sitting across the center aisle on the other side of the plane!
So what is wrong with sitting next to two large people, you might ask? Well, normally, it's not all that bad. But in this particular situation, it was extremely horrible, because the husband to my right was top heavy. His left shoulder and arm went past the imaginary personal space border by about three inches, causing me to lean to my left. And his wife to my left was bottom heavy. I could not put my left armrest all the way down, because her right hip and thigh extended past the armrest by three inches into my seat!
So here I was, sitting crookedly, with my hip to the right, and my upper torso to my left. And the flight was a cool four hours long! In my seven year experience as a road warrior, I have never been subjected to such uncomfortable contortion of my body! I was leaning to my left side, but I couldn't support myself because if I use my left arm to lean on my left armrest, then it would be pushing down on the woman's leg fat. The last thing I needed was being barked at with: "Can't you see that you're pinching my leg when you lean on the armrest?"
By the time our flight landed in Seattle, my lower back was in pain, and I could feel a kink when I slung my laptop bag over my shoulders. As I stumbled out of the terminal, I thought to myself, What a way to take my final outbound business flight! How memorable!
The Mile High Club
[Note: I originally wrote this blog on the plane a long time ago, and never publised it. While cleaning up my laptop before I return it to IBM, I discovered this somewhat dated material. Why waste it, right? So here you go...]
Ever since my college friend's then-boyfriend bragged about getting it on with her while on a plane, I have always wondered about what it would be like to join the ranks of the famous rockers of years past, and the elite few who were able to do the nearly impossible.
As someone who is totally afraid of germs and getting sick, I try my utmost best not to use the lavatory on planes other than to take a piss. But in all of my travels, nearly twice a week domestically for the last six and a half years and a few international flights scattered in, I have only taken a big ol' dump on the plane just once. It was out of sheer desperation, for otherwise I would never allow myself such nastiness. And given that it was a newer Boeing 737-700 with the redesigned lavatories affording bigger space, I still managed to have a near impossible time bending my torso and navigating myself in a lavatory just to take a dump. By myself.
Yeah, you can say that I'm a very curious person. And I, too, covet that honorary medal of the mile high club. But given the logistic of things, namely the physics of two bodies thrusting in synchronization, I thought it was practically impossible. Hell, I was bumping walls and knocking my elbows and knees just to get my pants down to shit! Unless, of course, you charter one of those specialty flights I once blogged about. (Click on the link to read the story.)
Then, my sliver of a dream finally came true, with the Airbus A380. If you're not familiar with at least commercial aviation, I pity you the ignorant. ;-) Anyway, the Airbus A380 is the newest largest plane to navigate our skies, taking the trophy away from the venerable Boeing 787. Originally, nobody thought the plane would ever fly, fearing that no airline will purchase one, and no airport will want to accommodate such monstrosity. After all, it is a double-decker plane!!!
Well, Singapore Airlines became the first airline to take flight with its new aircraft. It is also one of the first to reveal its cabin configuration, something which is considered almost a trade secret among airlines when it comes to seating capacity, arrangement, and the sorts before flying its new fleet of new model planes.
I was rather pleased to learn that Singapore Airlines will be the first airline ever to provide a cabin with a double bed! Aha! So there is still a way of being inducted into the Mile High Club. Yes, my dream continues to live! Just as long as I earn enough money to pay for something like that, seeing how my bare inability to pay even coach fare when traveling abroad even now.
And the best parts of it all? It's not like one of those semi-private partitions where fellow passengers can see you when they stand up, but a real room with walls! And to put the final cherry on that cake, endless champagne is included. Sounds like one of those all-inclusive resorts in Mexico to me, except in the air!!!
Of course, all good things, or imaginations, must come to a crashing end. Times of London had this to report in its article on the new double bed cabin:
"A380 may have the world's first airborne double bed, but it won't be put to the obvious use if Singapore Airlines has its way." (Note: I added the emphasis.)
Of course, Singapore Airlines spokesperson Stephen Forshaw had this to say about the potential hanky panky after Singapore Airlines' inaugural Airbus A380 flight:
"If couples used our double beds to engage in inappropriate activity, we would politely ask them to desist."
Damn!
What a perfect waste of unlimited champagne. =)