1st official day at work!

this is me, "in uniform".

even though i'm not required to be in the hotel uniform, but being "in uniform" means that you're in your blazer, with the collar pin and your name tag on. normally, we only need to have the collar pin on, but if we're attending official functions or events in and outside of the hotel, then we'll need to have our name tag on as well.

maybe i'm kampung, but this is the first time i see magnets being used for name tags in place of pins. and the magnets are those super powerful kind! this way, we don't have to worry about damaging our expensive suits with the pins... how thoughtful!

anyway, nothing much to do on the first day, as my immediate boss was still away for a seminar. but i did had tea with the gm, who talked to me a bit about the things that will be taking place very soon in the company and my role in them. and then i had lunch with another director with whom i'll be working closely with. so basically my first day was just to get acquainted with my colleagues as well as go through some of the current working files to get a feel of my job here...

as for the food here... well, the staff cafeteria's operators are mostly indians/pakistanis, so the food are something that i'm used to back home. dhal, curry, capati and the likes. but there are also the more "normal" dishes of fish fillet in sour sauce, stir fried mixed vege, black sauce chicken etc. and they always have a variety of rice to choose from, such as jasmine rice, carrot rice, mint rice, etc. of course, there'll always be plain old boring white rice... :P

i've been trying out a lot of different dishes here, but even though i can accept their taste, it seems like my stomach will need some more time to acclimatize. been having stomach upsets since my first day here, tho' not a very serious one. just need to run to the ladies an hour or two after every meal!

another thing that's quite frustrating is that i've not been able to get much sleep here. those who know me will know what a pig i am when it comes to sleep... but here, i've been waking up very early and can't seem to fall back to sleep again! it can't be jet lag, coz it's only a 4 hours difference and as my sleeping patterns back home is always so erratic, i don't think it'll make much difference to my system. for now, i can only guess maybe it's the foreign bed? or maybe coz i'm missing my dao-dao?

hmm, it could really be because of dao-dao ler... i can't remember how many years dao-dao's been sleeping with me, but i just can't find anymore space in my suitcase to fit him in! so in the end, i had to leave him behind to be in N's care... :"(

when will i get you back?