Yi Lian's scribbling and musing

So quickly, a week has came and gone. The last time I had a proper entry was the night before Bangkok and here I am, back in HK, done with BKK and done with SG. It feels bittersweet cos I was looking forward to the travelling part of my job and though I’m exhausted as hell now, it feels sad that they are all over (for now).

I can’t compare myself to Angelia or Amy who travel more extensively and for longer periods than mine but this is the first time I’m doing this and I was counting the other day, I was in 5 cities within 3 weeks!

Manila/HK/Shanghai/HK/Bangkok/SG/HK.

There’s this perpetual tiredness that I just can’t shake off. And it doesn’t help that I just can’t bloody sleep on planes. But I’m sure it’ll get better over time. Well, I hope it does. It better bloody does. -_-

Anyhow, just an entry of the short 2D/2N company trip in BKK from 5-7 Nov:

That’s me and Jessie – one of my many fave colleagues in my company. She’s always so happy and funny. And above are Elaine (I mentioned her earlier), Polly (a fellow Singaporean) and Angelia.

We stayed at the Grand Millenium Sukhumvit, which is a way nicer hotel than I imagined it to be. The bed, pillows and sheets were really luxurious and I love the bathroom’s open concept that allowed me to watch CNN while I was soaking.

It was a great conference as everyone gets to meet everyone from the Asia Pacific teams of WGSN. It’s great to put faces to some names we’d been emailing for months. There were staff from Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and of course, Hong Kong, which also covers China. Our CEO and Content Director from London also flew down. So it was great to meet the extended family and our big bosses. Of course there are still the London team (which is massive) and teams from other cities such as New York, LA, Sao Paulo and other European cities. Those, I wonder when would we ever get to meet.

There were approximately 60 of us in Bangkok and I thought it was especially generous of the company to give us a room each and a lot of us actually got the club floors too! Among the 60, only 6 of us are in the content team while the rest are mostly sales managers.

So on the second day of the conference, during the parts where it really didn’t involve us content contributors, our content director had one-to-one meetings with each of us over breakfast, which was great cos all of us slept in instead of getting up to catch breakfast before the conference.

After which, Louise (the team’s new translator) and I had more than an hour to burn so we sneaked off to the pool:

The pool area was surrounded by spa music, the sky was a perfect blue and it was just the two of us lounging about. I was happy that I actually managed to get a light tan in 20 minutes but I think more than anything, we were stoked that the two of us whiled our time away at the pool while everyone else was in the conference. hahahaha

All of us commented how we didn’t feel like we were in Bangkok until the second night when we hit the night market. It was a trip out with the content team. We went to Cabbages & Condoms for dinner and well, it didn’t feel like we were in Bangkok either cos almost every diner was a Caucasian. The food was moderately good but still, I had better Thai food. But I’m glad we went there anyway, I’d always wanted to try it out after reading about it for years.

And guess who I bumped into at the night market?

I was so darn happy to see Sue!!!

I first saw Renyi, Sue’s bf and was thinking how familiar he looked then realised he’s Renyi then realised that he and Sue were supposed to be in BKK for the weekend and that’s when I yelled out Sue’s name. Gawd, you should see how I really tried to get into the stall even before I spotted the couple. I was eyeing this purple Smurfette T-shirt on the mannequin (see Sue’s right) but this guy… Gawd, he was such a queen! Honestly, I do love my gay pals cos god knows why, I just love them and I just need to have them in my life but I’d never met any one as queenie as this one!

You know how narrow the night markets’ stalls were. I was trying to get in but he was literally blocking the entire entrance and this is the scenario:

He saw a T-shirt that says “Mr Tickle” and he was gushing, “OMG! That’s totally me!” and went on to tickle his guy pal while going, “See? Tickle tickle tickle! Tickle tickle tickle!” I was appalled and couldn’t help but stare for a while. But I guess I had Mr Tickle to thank. That’s when I spotted Renyi. Hahahaha, thanks Mr Tickle!

Anyhow, I was catching up with Sue fast and furious while trying to watch where my fellow shoppers had gone while wanting to try on the T-shirt. Before I knew it, Renyi got me the T-shirt – I didn’t even know if I wanted it! But I do love it now. Thanks guys! I washed it once I got back to SG and wore it on Saturday for Matt’s and my movie date. 

And with that, I ran off to join the rest. So happy to see them! :)

But oh, guess what. I didn’t have a single massage in Bangkok. O_o Yes, I know. Like seriously.