Whew I finally have time to blog again. I’m leaving back to KL tomorrow afternoon. I’ve been staying in hotel rooms for the past one week and I’m really looking forward to going home to my own bed. What a busy trip it has been for me. Worked hard but had some good food though. Speaking of good food, let me tell you about the best burger that My Hello Kitty and I has ever had!

While we were in New York, I was told that our hotel was near the best burger stall in town. So one day we took a walk down Madison Avenue and came to Shake Shack!

We thought we were early, arriving some time at 11am or so but by the time I got there the queue was already building up. So being Asian and Kiasu and all, I asked My Hello Kitty to go jom a place while I stood in the queue playing Doodle Jump.

Man I waited for like 30 minutes and when I finally placed my order I had to wait some more with this buzzer thing.

Once it vibrates I would know my burgers were ready and I could go collect it.

That 2nd part of the wait took like 10-15 minutes until my little gadget started vibrating like a… well..  a vibrator. I went to collect it and brought it back to my patient Hello Kitty who was just sitting down watching some performance in front of her.

When she looked at the burger, saliva dropped from her lips.

The burger was a lot smaller than we thought but when we took the bite, we both floated up 5 feet in the air and then came back down again. It was AWESOME! I don’t know how to explain it. The bun was soft, the beef … just really high quality and the vegetables that came with it was all really fresh. Kinda made me realize that sometimes less is more.

My Hello Kitty loved it too and that’s an achievement! She doesn’t normally like to eat anything other than Sushi, especially burgers! But she loved this one.

We loved it so much that we made a trip back the next day, lined up for another 45 minutes and got ourselves more burgers.

It was sooo good.

Someone should bring the franchise of Shake Shack over to KL. It is one of the smallest, but definitely the best burger I have ever had!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’m in Beijing now but leaving for Hong Kong in like an hour. Been having really tiring days from morning till night. By the time I get back to the hotel I’m exhausted and I haven’t been sleeping well in the past two nights because Ming has been snoring really loudly. He normally doesn’t snore, think it’s some sinus problems.

Will update soon guys. Hong Kong here I come!

It is now over… my birthday. The one day in the year that I feel really really special….

This year’s one was the first one I’ve ever celebrated in Singapore before (since I happen to be here for some work) and I gotta say that it was great. Thanks to Ming, the Nuffies, My Hello Kitty and some friends here in Singapore it was a day full of fun and surprises! From the sweet present that My Hello Kitty gave me shortly after midnight, to the video the Nuffies made for me, to the surprise laser-tagging session and to the nice Sukiyaki dinner Ming’s mum helped make at his house.

Thanks so much for the great time everyone! I wish I could blog more or had more pictures but I think I’m going to collect the pictures and save it for a future entry ok? Really tired now. I have to wake up at 6AM tomorrow for a flight to Beijing!

In the mean time I’m going to leave you guys with a video that the Nuffies from the KL office made for me.

Thanks guys! I’ll miss you when I’m away this week.

Okay so this morning Esther and me  had a meeting here in Singapore. The meeting was one of the highlights of the week. I learned so many things from the people there. After the meeting we hopped onto a cab and headed back to the office. In the cab I was talking to Esther about what the meeting was about, explaining some things to her and all. At one point I even took out my chewing gum, popped one in my mouth and offered one to Esther.

She GASPED…. which was only then that I remembered that chewing gum was illegal in Singapore. Well not really illegal… illegal to sell and illegal to spit around but not illegal to consume. I quickly hid the gum from the taxi driver and didn’t dare chew once on the gum that I had popped into my mouth. A few minutes later we reached the Nuffnang office in Singapore. I rushed out of the cab after paying the driver so I could start chewing on my gum.

We walked into the office building of the Nuffnang office and it was only when I was in the lift that I realized I had left my iPhone in the cab. I darted back out of the lift but the cab was already gone. Fortunately we had taken a receipt so we had the registration number of the cab. I did the following:

1) I tried calling my own phone. It rang for a long time then somebody canceled the call and I couldn’t call it again.

2) I called up my telco to tell them to suspend my line

3) Elisa from the Nuffnang Office helped me call the cab company (Premier Silvercab or so) to file a lost and found report.

We were put on hold in our call to the cab company for a long time but we decided not to give up. Finally we managed to get through and file a report. An hour or so later they e-mailed Elisa to tell her that they haven’t found a phone that matches my description. So well… I had just about given up. I had arranged for My Hello Kitty to bring down a new sim card with her when she was coming down that night and I also considered buying a new phone.

I talked to Lionel of Ripplewerks who used to be a Singapore Police Officer and asked him what were the odds of me getting my phone back. He said that if it was some lousy phone then higher but if it was an iPhone, probably like 3% chance or so. The rest of the Nuffies in the Singapore office agreed that it was a lost cause.

I then made a pledge. I said that if the driver or someone somehow returned by phone I would write a blog entry and tweet that “I love Singaporeans!”

So you can see by the title of my blog post that well… I found my phone!

While I was having my meeting with the JPB team later, Elisa slipped me a note to say that the cab company called back, that they had found my iPhone. I was to go collect it at their office. I quickly hopped on to a cab there and voila! My phone was there! I was really impressed. I mean there were so many people that the iPhone must’ve passed hands from. From the passenger who probably saw the phone after me, who then passed it to the taxi driver, who then sent it to the office. I mean all these people could’ve taken the iPhone and nobody would know! But they didn’t…. they decided to return it to me.

Thank you for the kind act of honesty Mr Taxi Driver. Singapore is a great place because of you!

Thanks again to Esther, Elisa, Yuen Yee and My Hello Kitty for helping me out in getting my iPhone back or my new Sim card. And to the rest of the SG Nuffies who were there to support me. Thank you!

And of course, thank you for all your kind comments in the previous entry guys! So comforting to read!

Went for a meeting this morning then left it in a cab registration number SHD 1302G. Tried to call it but nobody picked up and eventually somebody turned it off.

I’m now in the midst of changing the passwords for my emails, Twitter, Facebook and etc etc. I asked around the Singapore office and all the Nuffies here say the finder sure won’t return it wan. Even Lionel who used to be an ex-police officer said there’s like a 3% chance that the somebody who finds it will return it.

Oh well… shit happens.

You know how we always hear about these ghost stories all the time right? A friend’s friend saw this or experienced this and all that. My friend Shaun likes to say that he thinks all this is just us making stories to scare ourselves because when you’re overseas like in London or something you really don’t hear that many ghost stories. You can be in one of the oldest cities and living in a building that is a few hundred years old and still nobody talks about ghost stories.

Either ways, I had never before experienced anything supernatural myself (and I’m happy for that). My Hello Kitty though had her share of experience when we first moved into the apartment. When we moved into the room downstairs she said she felt depressed and there was something in there so she ended up doing some kind of ritual her mum taught her to do.

I never felt anything though, until this day I’m about to tell you about.

It was the day I was supposed to leave for New York. My flight leaving KLIA was at 9AM so I had to leave home by 6.30AM. I set the alarm clock to wake me up an hour before. Some time in the middle of the night before that though I suddenly woke up to the sound of someone beside me breathing. You know how when you’re asleep, sometimes you’re snoring and sometimes you’re just breathing a little bit harder? This was like the latter. It felt as if there was someone sleeping right next to me.

I didn’t think much of it at first. I initially just thought that it was My Hello Kitty sleeping next to me until I remembered that she was in the USA and I was sleeping alone. So then my mind started to wake up a little bit. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just dreaming this and that I was sure I was fully awake.

I stopped breathing for a while to make sure that I wasn’t just hearing myself snore in my sleep. I held my breath for a few seconds but I could still hear the breathing sound coming in intervals and it came not from the air-conditioning or anything but from someone right next to me. I turned my head and looked to see if there was anyone next to me but there wasn’t anything there but Hello Yoda and some pillows. It’s like you could hear the breathing sound coming from that direction but there was nothing there.

Now I wasn’t particularly afraid or anything because I somehow believe that if you don’t disturb ghosts or spirits, they won’t harm you. In fact I still like to believe that there are friendly ghosts out there… you know, like Casper.

So I just decided to go back to sleep. I woke up later to the sound of my alarm clock going off. It was 5.30AM and the sound of someone breathing had stopped. I packed my bags and headed off to the airport.

So everyone, what do you think that was? Was I just imagining things?

I’m still struggling to get over my jetlag. Yesterday I woke up at 12.30PM or so, the day before at after 1PM. For the first time ever in my life, I had My Hello Kitty waking up earlier than me albeit just by half an hour or so. I’m going to be traveling a lot more too. This Thursday I’m going to Singapore for a conference and some meetings, then right after Singapore I’m going to Beijing and then Hong Kong for some business. I haven’t recovered from missing home yet… but oh well.. that’s my life.

Now let me continue telling you guys what else I did in New York.

Right after I was done visiting the Empire State Building, I went back to the hotel to meet My Hello Kitty who had just arrived. We then headed to this Pizza place in SOHO that Raymond suggested which is apparently the first and oldest pizza place in New York.

This is Raymond and Xes.

I actually met Raymond on that day itself. Raymond messaged me on Facebook to tell me that he reads my blog and offered to show me around so I met up with him. Raymond works in New York.

We did some quick ordering of the pizza and it came really soon.

That was some really great pizza right there.

And if that wasn’t enough, Raymond later brought us for what’s supposed to be the Best Cheesecake in NYC. It’s at this place called Junior’s just off Times Square.

I ordered a hot chocolate along with it too which came in this big cup and was yummy! I love the hot chocolate in the USA. I ordered it everywhere I went. I wonder why Malaysia doesn’t have such good hot chocolate.

The cheesecake was a bit of an extreme feat. I mean it looked big but not that big but by the time I was just halfway through, I couldn’t eat another bite. We went back there again the next day to meet up with another reader of mine, Ai Ling and I made sure then to share my cake with Xes. My Hello Kitty after all doesn’t eat cake. She’s the only person I know who doesn’t eat cake. Even her own birthday cake!

The next day we all went SHOPPING! We hopped on to a bus to Woodbury which is a discount outlet about an hour and a half away from New York. It was this really really nicely developed area but it was raining that day so that kinda ruined it for us. All the shopping bags we carried were all made from paper and once they were wet from the rain they easily tore apart.

This is me in the Ferragamo store, 5 minutes before learning that I couldn’t afford anything Ferragamo even when it’s at a discount outlet.

My Hello Kitty concurred so all she did there was take pictures of herself in the mirror.

I did however discover an awesome drink when I was there. Walking around I saw a vending machine and you know I love vending machines right. Especially when I see them in a foreign county… i just like seeing what different drinks they have.

This time I went for this Nestle drink called Nesquik Vanilla Milk. It was awesome! It’s just like vanilla milkshake but in a bottle. I wish they would bring that over here.

By the end of the day we were all done with our shopping but the difficult part was going back to New York. You see instead of having a fixed seat on a bus on a given time, there was just a timetable in which the buses would come. Then once the bus came you had to fight for a seat on board and if you missed the seat, you would have to wait for the next bus which was an unpleasant wait because it was raining and cold.

I felt like we were refugees struggling to get off a war-torn country… but we eventually got on and I slept all the way on the way home.

We went back and we met up with Carol who was very much our guide for much of the trip.

Here’s Carol and My Hello Kitty taking a picture in the New York Subway. The Subway is actually quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. When I first went there I was totally confused. Really doesn’t work like the way the London Underground works. I love taking subways though.

Okay everyone. That’s enough for this post. I shall leave this post with a picture of me in front of the Trump Tower.

I thought that the Trump Tower was a little bit of a disappointment. I mean if you go into it, it looks like a 4-star hotel back in the 90s or so. It’s just old looking and really unimpressive. Of course I don’t know how the upstairs look and I think this is where Donald Trump is supposed to be staying (according to some man on the street) and his crib upstairs is supposed to be some freakin mega-luxurious place. Maybe it’s just the lobby and all that wasn’t impressive looking.

I actually accidentally stumbled across the Trump Tower. I was lining up outside Abercrombie & Fitch when I looked across the road and saw “Hey look! Trump Tower!”

.

Anyway, until next time everyone.

I just got back from watching Caught in the Middle at PJLAC with some of my readers here whom I’ve met for the first time. Always great to put a face to the people who read your blog sometimes. So you know who you’re talking to whenever you blog. They’re all really really nice people.

Jasmine said that I looked a lot younger than I actually do on my blog. Should’ve asked her if I looked thinner too 🙂

Thanks for coming tonight guys. Sorry again for not having more tickets. Here’s the picture we took as promised. Sad to say, picture was a bit blur but… well.. there’ll be a next time right?

As for the show, I actually really enjoyed it. If you have time this weekend you should try to catch it. Really funny… and it’s ending in the next few days I hear.

Ok now I shall go to sleep. Man I slept right after I got home from watching the Nuffnang Mister Potato screening of Prince of Persia last night . Was so tired I slept for like 12 hours straight and woke up only in the afternoon and ended up missing an XBOX Live appointment I had with my brother in the morning. Must still be having a little bit of jetlag.

Nitez all

———
I shall leave you with the latest Project Alpha 2 episodes that I’ve just caught up with after being away.

This one features Ringo (aka Cheesie)

In this one Ringo catches up with Kenny Sia and I happen to be with him. I have to say I’m terribly camera shy. I talk about how I set Ringo up on a blind date and introduced my friend to her and my friend said… well you’ll watch and see.

Jojo brings her dogs with Ringo for a walk with this one. If you know Ringo you would know that her dogs are a big part of her life! If you’re a fan of dogs then well this is for you.

Cheesie goes on a road trip to Tambun in this one with KY and Shaolintiger. You also get to see Kimberlycun, long-time girlfriend of Shaolintiger.

You gotta love the way Shaolintiger speaks English! I took a long time to get over that!

KY and Shaolin are the next featured bloggers in Project Alpha. Will share their episodes in the weeks to come.

Sorry I haven’t been replying your comments guys. Even in New York and all I seem to have pretty limited time online. So whenever I get a chance to go online, the first thing I have to go through is all my work e-mails to catch up with whatever’s been happening with all the companies we have back home.

Then after that whenever I have any spare time I quickly upload pictures and come up with a new blog entry. So sometimes by the time I’m done with all this I don’t seem to have any time left to do anything else. Either ways I want you guys to know that even if I don’t get to reply your comments, I read every single one of them.

So okay on with my blog entry now. After visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island the other day, Xes and I took a walk down Wall Street.

You guys know Wall Street right? The one street where everyone there got blamed for whatever happened in the financial crisis we went through last year.

I like the story of how Wall Street got its name. Click here to see it.

Anyway on Wall Street is the famous bull that we always see when we watch CNBC or any of these financial news channels. Whenever they talk about Wall Street they always cut into a scene showing this bull… which represents the street.

So naturally there were tons of tourists there trying to take a picture with it. the big attraction of the bull though seems to be its balls. All the tourists I saw kept posing right next to its two testicles and touching it with one hand. Well all except this one shy Asian tourist.

Her friends kept asking her to touch the balls but she said she didn’t want to.
Apparently you touch the balls for good luck or something.

There was such a queue to take a picture of the bull that I just randomly stole some shot of me and it right from the side. So here’s… half a bull

and me. Notice how right behind me there’s another guy getting his picture taken. Yes the bull is THAT popoular.

After Wall Street we walked further down pass some office buildings

and little parks like this where people from the office buildings will come down and have their sandwiches during lunch hour.

Our destination was… the site where the World Trade Center once stood.

This is how it looks like now. They’re building the new World Trade Center that’s due to be completed next year I think. So go back next year and you will see a very complete building in that picture.

Right next to the site was the World Trade Center Memorial. It was a little museum thingy where you could view what the World Trade Center was like when it was still around and everything that happened on 9/11. There were lots and lots of pictures. Pictures of the disaster when it happened and there was a wall of pictures of all the victims.

I learned so many things about 9/11’s effects that I didn’t know before. Like how after building collapsed there were 9 or so survivors that were dug out from the wreckage. Of the 9 survivors, 7 or so died from lung cancer or any other lung related diseases because of the fumes they breathed in on that day.

Even most of the 150 or so search dogs that helped search for survivors succumbed to other fatal diseases because of the fumes they breathed in. It was terrible.

My favourite part was when they had a volunteer share her story of 9/11. On different days, they would get volunteers from people who witnessed or experienced 9/11 to come share their experiences with the tourists that come to the memorial. On the day I went, the volunteer was the mother of a firefighter who perished that morning.

She told the story of her son and all her sons friends and what they were doing the night before and the day itself. I think 9/11 was a terrible tragedy. What’s different though is when you see a casualty figure on the news, it’s just a figure to you but when you hear the story of each individual that died that day it makes you realize how much one life is, and how many good lives this one disaster had claimed.

The only person I know of who experienced 9/11 is my cousin who used to work in the building opposite the World Trade Center. She told me when they all saw the first plane crash they all just thought it was a small accident and went back to work. When the second plane crashed though everyone scrambled to get out of the office buildings and find cover.

We left the 9/11 Memorial and headed then to the Empire State Building. Here’s me at the Lobby of the Empire State Builidng.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the inside of the building but I was too preoccupied with singing “NUuuu Yoorrrkkk!!!! Big city lights will inspireee youuu”….

I did however manage to take some nice pictures of the view from the top.

Look at how massive New York City is!

I even managed to catch a picture of this bird sitting out here enjoying the view.

And so everyone, that was my trip to Wall Street, 9/11 Memorial and The Empire State Building 🙂

“Awww such a cute dog!”, My Hello Kitty then proceeded to almost pat it until she noticed that there was a little badge on the dog that said “Guide Dog, please do not pat”. She then took her hand away like she had just touched a hot surface.

We both looked up at the owner of the dog. Dressed in jean and a t-shirt with a backpack on her, she was holding her the dog by a saddle bar. Her movements were cautious and the expression on her face let off that she was trying very hard to listen to the sounds around her in that busy New York Subway. She was blind. A few moments later, a friend of hers pulled up right next to her. He was dressed similar to her, in a t-shirt and jeans but instead of a guide dog, he had a stick to guide him.

He took a few steps towards the edge of the platform but stopped right when the stick ahead of him came into contact with the rough surface up ahead. It’s from that rough surface that he could tell it was the edge of the platform and the train wasn’t there yet.

My Hello Kitty and I stood there wondering how they would know which train they were getting on or where to get on. Then a tall well-dressed man with sunglasses next to them asked them where they were going and told them which train to take.

Three minutes passed and the train arrived making a loud entrance with all the metallic clamoring it makes when its wheels ride on its tracks. The train stopped with its door just a few feet to its side but the blind couple couldn’t tell where the door was. The man was the first to take a step forward as if just to experiment but the helpful well-dressed man behind him guided him “It’s on your right… it’s on your right”.

Getting on a subway train during peak hours in New York City is a messy feat.

Everyone inside trying to get out and everyone outside trying to get in. That time though it was different Just as they prepared to get on board the train, the bustling New York City crowd around them stood back as to allow them ample space to be the first to board the train. Even the people who were in the train looking to come out waited for the blind couple to enter before they got out.

The blind couple felt their way through the subway car and finally found an empty two seats for them to sit down on. The guide dog simply sat down right in front of the lady. Across from them a woman who was carrying a box of stuff with her stood up with the box and took two steps towards them. She then asked them where they were going. The man replied and she listed out all the next 3-4 stations they were going for so that they knew where to stop. After she had given them whatever help they needed she went back and took a seat before I took a quick picture of her so that I could remember that moment. She’s the woman looking into that big red box.

Ten minutes later the train reached the destination for My Hello Kitty and I to get off. We noticed that it was also the destination for the blind couple so we stood back and let them get off the train first. Once everyone was off the train the blind couple stood there looking lost, not knowing whether to go right or left. I decided to try to help. I walked up to the man and asked “Where do you wanna go?”

He said “Down the stairs to Penn Station”.

This is when I felt totally useless. I had no idea where Penn Station was let alone any stairs that led down to it. I was a tourist, and there wasn’t anyone else around to ask. So I looked around for signboards and fortunately there was a signboard just for that. I pointed to the right direction and said “It’s over there!”. I did it a few times until I realized he didn’t understand me obviously because he couldn’t see which direction I was pointing at. I felt terrible but I guess it was just a second nature that when you tell someone where to go you point rather than say left or right. Now knowing at that point how else to point him in the right direction, I put my hand on his arm and guided him to the right direction.

He thanked me and they both started on our way. My Hello Kitty and I walked behind then for a while, then when we decided they were okay we walked off. Just before we exited the platform we looked back to take one last look at them and they seemed to have pass the flight of stairs down to Penn Station. So we went back to them and verified with them again where they were going and they again replied “Penn Station”. So we guided them to the stairs and told them that it was down these flight of stairs (at least according to the sign board and based on what they said earlier about going down a flight of stairs to Penn Station). They thanked us again and started their very slow but careful journey down the long flight of stairs. It was then that My Hello Kitty and I last saw them.

On our way out of the station I said to My Hello Kitty
“I hope we pointed them in the right direction… I mean the signboard says that way right?”

She replied
“Yeah it should be. According to the signboard.

We then both said at the same time

“If not… we’re both going to hell for this”.

———

Now the reason why I wanted to share this story is that it touched me to see this moment of kindness in people. In every day New York, everyone is too busy going their own places and doing their own thing but on this one journey this blind couple had scores of people that either tried to point them in the right direction or gave them first right of way for everywhere they went.

It was a touch of humanity that was refreshing to witness… and something I will always remember. If you see anyone in such difficulty at any point of your lives, please do lend a helping hand just like these New Yorkers did that day. Remember how blessed we are for what we have… and help the people who aren’t as fortunate.