The crazy bunch

Bree's last day, and the last snap. All were meant to show their tongues ... where are they guys?

Picture courtesy of Bree.

First visit to Poland

We touched down in Warsaw International Airport at around 8 PM plus. Quite an old looking airport building .. the kind that you'd expect to see in Eastern Europen countries. The queue at the passport control wasn't that long. My boss got through without any question. I was standing behind him. When my turn came, I was expecting to let through easily also. What is there to expect otherwise. But, I forgot, with due respect to my boss, the whities always get special treatment. I was asked by the immigration officer if I had an invitation letter to attend the meeting. What a stupid question. Why should I have one? I would understand if I needed a visa to enter the country. I don't. Poland is in the EU. Malaysians do not need visa to enter any EU countries you moron! Having been told I didn't have one, he asked for the full address of the office which I had no idea of. I questioned why he let my boss in, who was there for the same purpose as I, but bombarded me with all the unnecessary questions. He didn't answer to that, but instead insisted on the office address. Thank god, I found it in the Domino light directory which I had just replicated down onto my notebook two days earlier.

It was such a disgusting discrimination!

Meetings

Today for the first time I sat in a meeting with other top guys from the IS management group. I had been a little apprehensive in the beginning in case I didn't portray the confidence ... basically I just wasn't sure how to behave. The leap that I took to reach this position had not been without any hurdle. There were a lot of questions thrown at my boss as to why me - too young, no experience. He probably had some tough moments having to answer them, but I respect him for standing by me and persisted on taking me on board.

The meeting turned out fine. They were just normal guys. Not the kind that I'd had imagined. I was a semi formal meeting that takes place at the end of every month. It's when the sector gets updates from the businesses of things that have taken place in the month, any issues that they might face, and also a time when businesses share ideas and information. It's pretty much talk, talk and talk, present some PowerPoint slides, may be argue here and there a bit for one whole day. Not to forget the lunch break in the middle. Most of the things discussed were very alien to me. I spent most of the time listened and tried to make sense what they were all about. I'll find out about them later from my boss.

Hmmm ... is all that these people do? Meetings, meetings, meetings?

Touching down in Switzerland

Going back a couple of days: At around half six, 30 July 2006 we touched down at the Zurich International Airport (Flughafen Zürich) greeted by what seemingly a nice, warm European summer weather albeit early morning. With excessive luggage with us (I paid RM 4200 for the excess weight!), we didn't waste a single second and went straight to catch a taxi to the city in Aargau where I'd be based for at least the next two years. The baby was in happy mood, which was good - thanked to the 11 hour she had had in the plane. The taxi ride took about 20 minutes, and costed 115 Swiss Francs (CHF in abbreviation)!. Forget about conversion to Ringgit. The value of 115 against 20 minute already sounds atrocious. It's probably the most expensive 20-minute taxi ride you can ever find in the world. Our first introduction to the renown extravagant Swiss life.

Who doesn't know about Switzerland being THE place with excellent courses for hotel and catering management. Ask anyone who in the hotel industry and they will tell you exactly this. We arrived at the hotel with the expectation that there would be a concierge ready to help us with the luggage; after all this hotel was supposed to be the best in the town and the favourite among the top guys in the company. But, as saying goes in Malay "jauh panggang dari api". The only staff on duty were the receptionist and another girl whose appearence suggested that she's probably in the housekeeping department. They had no choice but to give us a hand with the luggage although from the body language I could see they weren't happy. The remark "What do you have in this bag? A stone?" was enough to convince me so. We didn't care. We were tired. We needed a bath. We pay for the service. So shut up! And just do it.

Albeit the shortcomings in the service, the hotel is really nice is a really nice hotel, housed in a newly renovated old building located on the bank of river Limmat.