Golf day - Camel Resort

Golf was at Camel Resort Course in 千葉県　（Chiba prefecture). The weather was fine and the hangover from last night did not help to a good start to my game. Monday evening was drinks at mamasan's snack near home followed by as usual Momo's shot bar till late. Was home late and had to struggle to get up for golf in the morning.

Lunch at the course during break was うな重　(Unajuu) or Japanese freshwater eel, with rice. Unagi is also written in kanji as 鰻. It is the common うなぎの蒲焼　(unagino kabayaki) or grilled eel served in a lacquer box that you can find everywhere in Japan and perhaps many places overseas. The kabayaki sauce is quite simple basting of soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Unagi has been eaten in Japan since the 17th century, and is rich in protein, calcium, and vitamins A & E.

The helping was quite generous and provided the much needed "stamina" that Unagi is so well known for. Unagi is known for its energy boosting effect in summer, when the heat wears you down, so its popular during the hottest time of the year.

The way of cooking unagi-no-kabayaki is slightly different between the eastern Japan and the western Japan. In the eastern Japan, unagi is steamed after it is grilled, then it's grilled again. In the western part of Japan, unagi isn't steamed before grilling. So, unagi-no-kabayaki in the eastern Japan tends to be softer than that of the western Japan.

Second half was much better and I could keep a bogey average for the start until I blew the second last hole par5. Sigh. Maybe the unagi did help..

Dinner was nice hot laksa at home..

Golf Day Pete Dye VIP Course

Sunday was golf day at Pete Dye VIP course in 栃木 (Tochigi). Its approx 1.5hrs drive on a smooth day, 157kms from home, according to the sophisticated navigation system.

I did not play too well, short game cost me lots of strokes. I did managed to try out my newly acquired tour tempo, and it did work for my irons. Somehow its easier to change tempo on the range, rather than the course. The course though, is very nice: long and lined with trees. Fairway condition was also good. The greens were uneven, and slightly bumpy. All in, not a good day for golf...

A colleague invited us to his house for dinner after golf in Saitama. Pizza and some nice home cooked food, courtesy of his kind wife, rounded off the day.

My student Y

And so as agreed, I gave a second free lesson to Y. Improved her setup and release so now her ball goes straight and a bit further. She was all smiles and said "you're a good coach"...No more LV tote bag today but still in the tight jeans and perfume....

I managed to hit about 160 balls myself and focused on my tempo. Focusing on tempo has really improved my consistency.

When it came to the time to go back, we agreed to have a game someday. Later, noticed that this lady has style, she came in a white CL500 and was just behind me as I left....

Good luck with your golf Y...I am sure our paths will cross again on a golf course soon...

TGIF

Friday night was dinner with A at my favourite restaurant Cicada. She was late because of work and was apologetic. Friend and restaurant manager V recommended Yarden Sparkling Chardonnay from Golan Heights, Israel.

A came in a red coat and below that was a black one piece dress with long sleeves. It looked pretty decent and I noticed she had some make up.. unlike the first time we met when she had not worn any.

A likes cheese so starters consisted of some goat and blue cheese, as well as Moroccan crab cakes and mushroom and chorizo in olive oil.

For main, it was scallop risotto, which I earlier saw on another table and thought they were potatoes. That's how big the scallops were.

Wine was Yarden's pinot noir. It was so good I asked for a bottle to be reserved for my next visit, as they only had 5 bottles left.

A had worked for only 4 years since graduation and had read philosophy, so we had something in common to talk about.

Finished off with a nice glass of Amaretto on the rocks. It was already past 1am so A had to take a cab home. Until we meet again...

HKG airport and beef noodle

I arrived Hong Kong CLK airport early in the morning at 7am, feeling somewhat refreshed. I had managed to catch several hours of sleep after a hearty bowl of warm wantan noodle soup onboard yesterday night's flight from MEL to HKG.

Arriving transit passengers had to go through anti-hijack screening before proceeding to the main departure concourse. The security screening area was not very well organised, queue snaking around a small area.

When I got to the main departure lounge, did some お土産　(omiyage or souvenir) shopping at The Atrium duty free shop before deciding to have a hot bowl of noodles at Taiwan Beef Noodle before boarding. I have noticed this noodle restaurant on the last few occasions I travelled through CLK but had always wondered what it was like so now's my chance, I thought. Especially since it was just next to my boarding gate 67.

I was also getting sick at the thought of eating another inflight meal for now and decided to skip the next meal onboard.

The beef noodle was written in English as "beef noodle in heavy soup". I asked the waitress if I should go for the beef noodle or the prime rib (pork) noodle. She recommended the beef noodle. In Japanese, it was written as ビーフ シチュー 汁麺　(beef stew soup noodles).

It turned out to be beef brisket noodle soup. The bowl cost HK$58 plus tax.

The noodle was firm and not overcooked and the serving of beef was quite generous. The soup was pretty good, the beef stock was not over powering and with just the right hint of spice. The pleasant surprise was healthy dose of collagen that I'd get from the beef brisket. :)

I saw several airport staff eating there so it must be a reasonable place to have a meal for airport workers.

Cathay's HKG-NRT flight was operated with a B747-400. It cabin looked kinda worn and old compared Qantas A330. I had a seat on the upper deck and when I reached my seat, it had been occupied by a "lady" whose partner was seated next to her. Without asking the crew or waiting to see if the seat was actually vacant, she moved from the last row to take my seat. "You don't mind to swap seats with me, its also a window seat, as we want to seat together". Its like asking someone if he minds lending something when its already been taken and used without permission. The couple looked like they were in their late 40s or early 50s. So much for maturity.

So I decided not to insist or fight for the seat and having to seat next to one of them, and ended up taking her seat in the rear. I slumbered immediately after takeoff and woke just when dessert was served. The crew did not notice I was awake and did not offer me a drink or dessert or meal. Later I asked for a cup of tea, and then some snack like fruit platter. The crew looked perplexed and asked me if I cared for the meal and I replied no. She said she'd check and came back with a small plate of cut fruit consisting of some mango, strawberry, melon and orange. Only the strawberry looked fresh, but I ate everything on the plate except for the orange slice, which I could not even slice through....

Still hungry, I asked for some cheese and the crew came back with a plate of 3 varieties of cheese and some table water crackers. I gobbled them up and accompanied by 2 mugs of Hong Kong style milk tea (lai char) !

Finally arrived into Narita airport just before schedule at 2:20pm. Tenp was a pleasant 16deg and headed straight home to catch up on emails till now.

Last day in MEL

Second day was day to go home. I checked out before going to the office. Business lunch was at Marriot, I had purple cabbage soup for starter and wagyu (和牛）bolognaise spaghetti for main. Skipped desert altogether...

Dinner was Malaysian food at Chilli Padi with a former colleague. We ordered an assorted platter, which came with a tandoori chicken drumstick, some korma curry chicken and beef curry. We also ordered beef rendang (which was served with roti) and mee goreng. The dishes were quite authentic and spicy. Topping it was a glass of home made iced soy bean milk. Yummy. The restaurant is owned by a Malaysian who has settled in MEL for many years.

After dinner it was straight to the airport to catch a CX flight to Hong Kong. The temperature had dropped to 14deg by now. Typical, well known, Melbourne weather. I was already quite worn out, having only had 4hrs sleep the night before and full day schedule.

So I looked for a shower room and found one at the sterile area after immigration. Problem was, there were no towels, soap, etc that a shower room facility in an international airport normally come with. So for the first time in my life, I had to dry myself under the handdryer....Don't laugh, its better than catching a cold of getting onboard a flight feeling dirty. Fortunately, the handdryers used in Australia are still the rub hands below dryer type, not the put hands into dryer type commonly used in Japan.

Melbourne

Qantas business class seats on the Airbus A330 features their "cocoon" style bed, when you flatten the bed, your head is cocooned in the cowl of the seat. It was pretty comfortable. Selected Yakitori for dinner to go with the Australian Chadonnay I was drinking. My, they were the largest yakitori skewers I have laid my eyes on ! The skewers were approximately 8in long? Large chunks of chicken alternated with shitake mushrooms on the skewers. Perhaps its the Aussie way of showing their manhood to the Japanese customers...


The Chardonnay was just acceptable, so I did not bother to check the label or vintage. It tasted a bit too light for my taste, which is prefers the richer, oaked and malelactic fermented Chardonnays.







Lunch was at Livebait, a seafood restaurant by the sea at Docklands, near Telstra Dome stadium. Docklands is also just a short distance to the famous Crown casino. Above is a pic of the docklands, without the restaurant.





I ordered some Tasmanian oysters au naturel for starters and we shared an assortment of starters: scallops, zucchini with zucchini flower rolls, soufle and octopus salad.


For main, I picked the Pan Roasted Kingfish （ひらまさ）or Hiramasa on a bed of squid ink （イカ墨 or ikasumi）risotto. The pan roasted Kingfish was firm and quite well roasted, and just a tad dry. The Kingfish is well known in Japan for sashimi, due to its firm flesh.


The risotto was disappointing, as they did not use the right arborio rice, but instead had used Japonica rice. Bummer.

Dinner was at St. Kilda's, at a restaurant called Donovan's. Again I had oysters au naturel for starters and main was an entree sized Linguine with Western Australian scampi. There was only 1 scampi in shell, and the rest of the prawns were the common banana prawns. Dinner was accompanied by WA's Cullen Estate Cabernet Merlot 2005.

After dinner back to the hotel and had 3 bottles of Hoegarden beer with a colleague. It was just after 4am to bed.

Melbourne here I come

Am sitting at the Qantas lounge at Narita airport, waiting for boarding. I can't help but be reminded of how indiscreet some Aussies are....by these two blokes who were chatting quite loudly. I don't want to know what problems they have with their work or relationships, neither of their aspirations, but here I am hearing some of it. In Australia, its called "whinge-ing" pronounced "whinjing". These two blokes were on a different flight and they left when boarding for SYD was announced. Whew!

Mobile phones ring internittently in the Qantas lounge, although its impolite in Japan to use your mobile phone in public and "quiet" areas like these. I guess we bring our habits with us all around...

On a more positive note, earlier today I got some help from the Australian embassy in Tokyo to get my ETA issued, as it could not be processed online. Japanese staff at the embassy were quite helpful. They fixed the problem within 2hours and faxed over a letter confirming that my ETA had been approved.

Well, until MEL, signing off...

Driving Range in 神宮

Today was spent at the driving range in 神寓 ゴルフ練習所　(Jingu Driving range). Had to wait for 45 mins due to some baseball event using the range. Just warming up in my lane on 2F and noticed a lady I saw downstairs at reception, who looked somewhat inappropriately dressed for range: denim jeans and a knitted top over some sexy black shoestring top....Brought her pearl white shiny LV tote bag along and even wore perfume! For driving range? Women golfers.

When I saw her hitting an iron off the driver height rubber tee, I had no doubt she was a beginner in trouble. Of course, I had to offer some advice, lest a hooked ball fly in my face. Ended up teaching her to swing for the next 2hrs. Well it turned out that Ms. Y happens to be a VP in Goldman Sachs.....Said she'd call for more "lessons" from me.

In any case, with the help of my Suunto G6 golf watch, I managed to bring down my tempo to around 1.15s to 1.25s, from 1.35-1.5s. Had to shorten my swing to get this tempo, but it turned out that this actually accelerates the upswing, or it felt so. Did not notice any significant increase in clubhead speed for the driver, but it certainly increases the consistency of my hits. So it its true that having the right tempo in the swing is important for straight shots.

All in all, a fruitful day at the range...

City of Bulgogi & Kimchi

Just came back from Korea on a business trip last 2 days. Tight schedules. Gift giving in Korea is apparently still more endemic than in Japan. First meetings and visits are seldom made without some gift exchange. Perhaps the Japanese have already been sobered by the burst bubble. Koreans also practice going to a second place and third place after dinner....

I seem to see smiling faces on the street in Korea, was a bit unexpected though. And certainly the ladies have very nice features and shape on the average (arguably...) but that's my personal opinion....and it was gleefully agreed to by my Korean audience with applause, mainly young ladies of course! See the face of popular Korean singer Boa Kwan above and tell me if you disagree...

From my own recent experience, Korean ladies are actually quite charming, as they somehow exude some semblance of sincerity. Somehow, Japanese seem a tad inscrutable by comparison (maybe its the company I hangout with, or maybe i am 外人ーgaijin), or somehow just more restrained or calculated...my words or vocabulary doesn't quite convey my feelings right here....

In any case, Koreans tend to wear their heart out on the sleeve, and are much more comfortable talking about themselves and their feelings, and showing them. Maybe its the spicier diet?

Dinner first night was typical Korean Bulgogi, pronounced as "pulgogi" in Korean or 焼肉 (Yakiniku) as we call it in Japan. The beef we ate was "Galbi", which means rib in Korean, and the dish made from beef short ribs marinated in a sauce made primarily from Korean soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. The accompanying side dishes known as banchan (the most well-known being kimchi), were really tasty. I liked the raw crab kimchi...yummee!

Seoul reminds me of a "sim city", (an old city building PC Game). Roads in the city here are 4-lanes wide, and they seem to have been constructed first before the buildings. Its almost like the use of space is somehow generous. The impression I got was that some historical buildings have been preserved and newer structures built arould them. Good example is the location of the South Gate that was burned down by a disgruntled taxpayer recently.

When I saw the location of where the South Gate used to stand, it actually looked pretty out of place amidst the conrete jungle around it. But then historical monuments are such, you normally don't move them around, just graze them to the ground....

Since it is spring, there were many locations where colourful flowers are planted. In some places, flowers line the clean and wide sidewalks that span along the main roads, as the following pic shows.

The great Han river is more than 1km wide within Seoul city limits! Countless bridges running across this river would make many politicians in Malaysia drool (10 bridge megaprojects to build). According to Wikipedia, the river is known for its huge coefficient of river regime (ratio between the maximum and minimum amount of flow) of 1:390. (For comparison, The Thames and the Rhine have coefficients of 1:8 and 1:18, respectively

It was a bit hazy on my last day in Seoul, the yellow sand blown from the Gobi desert in Mongolia obscured the skyline on an otherwise nice bright sunny day.,

Overall, Seoul is a nice, safe and very clean city. There was little hint of stress, unhappiness in people in general and the city just felt somewhat, sterile, at times. Until the sun goes down that is....

In any case, it was a fruitful trip for business. Meetings, presentations, seminars, lunches, dinners, discussions, entertainment...all in 2 days...

Reception

Yesterday evening was spent at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Tokyo Midtown, at a reception hosted by Dubai based Jumeirah Hotel group. The management team from Dubai was in town. Pretty nice food, wine, and champagne were served. Pleasantly surprised that Piper Heidsick was the bubbly of choice, as they do not come cheap in a hotel like the Ritz, or for that matter, any hotel.

Met some interesting people, including a TV Asahi and a Japanese jewelry company staff. Had interesting chat with Ms. S from the jewelry company. The items from an Italian brand she handles are priced from ￥1m and above. Of course, they have a few items just below ￥1m if anyone is interested. They cost so much because each item is unique, they make only 1 piece of each design. This company does b to b as well as b to c. For that kind of price, you'd have to sell to anyone who have interest and お金 (okane or $$$), b or c!

After that went to the スナｼク（snack）near home, then to Momo's shot bar till late. 楽しいかった！

The Green Jacket 2008

The only thing exciting today was the Masters at Augusta. Trevor Immelman, is the second South African after Gary Player, to win the masters. Just 28 years old, he joins the ranks of the very few in winning a major below 30, in a field that includes Tiger Woods.

Although he shot a 3-over par 75 in the final round, Tiger could not do any better than gain 3 strokes in the final round. Picture above shows last year's winner, Zach Johnson, putting the coveted jacket on for Trevor. Well done young man! You've showed the Tiger can be tamed, in the mind....

Rainy Spring Day in Yokohama

Today was spent with the family in Yokohama. Another rainy and overcast spring day. The streets were lined with vendors selling 肉まん (niku man), or meat buns as we know it. There are various types of meat buns, some include some フカヒレ (fukahire) or shark's fin, some have vegetables, some have bean paste and some have just pork.

Here's Chloe enjoying a 肉まん, supposedly the world number one ranked bun! Funny, how she ate it from the top, first bit a hole and expose the meat before devouring the meat first, then the rest of the skin.

The sign above is from above a shop in Chinatown. Looks quite funny, eh, the character on the left? It looks like a man squatting over something? Anyone who knows the meaning do explain...

This is the view from the ferries wheel from its highest point, almost.

Being spring, there must be flowers. Found some nice flowers for close up pics! Check them out. These white ones are just about 1cm across, taken from a distance of 5inches, with the 12-60mm Zuikor SWD lens. By the way, these are decorative potted flowers, in front of a shop, not wild ones.

Chinese working in 赤坂 (Akasaka)

She is a Chinese girl from Beijing working in a Korean club in Akasaka! She calls herself "Moe chan", a Japanese name. Speaks perfect Mandarin and almost very good Japanese. Has also adopted much Japanese mannerism. Is she very Japanese? She is as Japanese as much as I am Chinese...宜しくお願いします！

友達

Meeting an old friend from Yokohama, we go back to Calcutta days in 1999..Now with a family and a third child in his wife's womb, we caught up in a tapas bar in 麻布十番 (Azabu Juban) He is seemingly content with his family life, and unseemingly content with his working life, and the third child seems quite exciting for him...Good on yer mate! Make hay while the sun shines!

Seven hills

Today discussed a tie-up with Seven Hills magazine, another limited circulation (30,000) magazaine for the high net worth individuals. The definition of high net worth here is JPY100m, or approximately US$1m. Usually, net worth is measured by asset wealth excluding property.

The project involves coverage of a fashionable European city, with 2 pages for us for editorials and advertisement.

Sounds like a good channel to build a premium brand. In Japan, advertisements are very exhorbitant. A single page in a good magazine averages US$10,000 or more.



Take a look at this car, which is being advertised in the Seven Hills website. It has a 4.7L V8 that puts our 806bhp/6,900rpm and 903Nm of torque at 5,700rpm ! Weighs only 1,180kgs. It is now on order, limited to 5 units only. Price: US$1.15m. Any takers?

Rich Seniors

This is a magazine for the super rich, circulated only by direct mailer and at posh establishments (hotels, airlines included). You can't buy this magazine, you apply, and they will decide whether you qualify to receive a subscription. At no cost.

Saw an ad of an Alpina BMW B60 in the current issue of the magazine. And so I had to ask them, what sort of cars are popular with your readers? BMWs? The reply: Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Aston Martins. Hoo-Ah! However, German cars are popular too. Hmmmm. Talk about market segmentation.

No wonder the circulation is limited to 50,000 only. Anyone interested to apply?

Wasabi and "Singles Bar"

Tonight, another drinking night..much relationship talk at Japanese Izakaya called "Wasabi".

As usual, i don't eat much when drinking so another empty stomach night. Many views from fellow men about relationship with women..viewpoints from Japanese men..This kind of talk shop and drinking together is relationship building in Japan.

So I have learnt from a rich bachelor that the top brands for gifts to women in Japan are Hermes, Cartier, Vuitton and Bulgari. He gives them jewelry, Hermes mugs, shoes and other small items costing from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

However, the main point is always to start small, or step by step, so that the expectation of the lady is managed....Giving too big a gift from the start raises the expectations and don't leave much room left for improvement, perhaps the same applies to the relationship?

Food for thought.

Later we went to a bar called "Singles Bar Encounter". You have to give your business card and then some ladies will be selected to join you for drinks. One for each man. I wonder how they do the selection. By industry type? Perhaps they try to match the ladies to the clientele by level of seniority? Of course you'd have to pay for the ladies' drinks.

I was joined by a 23yo OL (office lady) Ms. S. She wore a Cartier Tank Francaise, which looked pretty nice on her. I asked her if her boyfriend gave that to her , she said she had to buy it herself, used for $2,000. Had a bottle of Moet and quite a bit of chat with the ladies.

Sunday Work

Sunday afternoon, nice, bright, warm and sunny day. 21deg C. Hmmm. Had to go meet a diplomat for work related matters. Anyway the meeting place was quite chic, Roppongi Hills Club, on the 51st floor in Roppongi Hills. Hills is a chic and relatively new area in Tokyo with posh apartments, hi-end brand outlets and nice restaurants. The photo above was taken with my Samsung phone, from where I was seated. Only 2MP camera phone, so quality is bit hazy. Tokyo Tower is visible on the lower right.

Golf Day

Golf on Saturday was played in 栃木県　(Tochigi prefecture) in a club called 紫塚ゴルフ with my lady friend Ms. E and colleague Mr. Y. Spring has started and the temperature now around mid teens so I brought my Fujikura shafted R7 TP driver. The shaft torque at 2.9 is hard to play in winter as it it becomes too stiff for me. I did hit some good shots with the driver, some 270-280 yds!

It was a resort course and quite a distance from Tokyo, about 170km one-way. Such is life for golfing in Japan. The courses nearer to Tokyo are not so wide and costs several times more. Also the surrounding views or scenery are not that great as well nearer the city. This course came highly recommended by my colleague, who played here recently.

In Japan, it is customary (more like mandatory, as you don't have a choice) to stop for lunch in between the 18 holes. This is to provide opportunity for golfers to have a meal (usually lunch) and for business people to talk business. In the past, especially during the bubble period, golf was a game enjoyed mainly by very senior executives and high officials for 接待 (settai), or entertainment, on company expense. Many exhorbitant golf courses were built and the memberships went for millions of US$ dollars then. Today, they can be had for a small fraction of the cost.

I had カレー　うどん (Japanese curry udon) for lunch and everyone had a small glass of draft beer, which is very social and common thing to do. Social outings and events in Japan are seldom dry, such is the culture here.

Being a Saturday, the game was very slow but it suited us fine as we had a lady beginner playing, so there was no pressure on us.

The game started off not too badly for me but it got worse as I was not playing the short game too well. So some of the time was spent admiring the sakura bloom on the course instead and talking with each other...

Although we'd tee'd off at 11:18am, the game ended only in the evening at about 4pm. The weather had turned chilly by the time we finished and it was followed by the obligatory 温泉 (onsen, or hot spring bath). The Onsen at this course is a natural one, with the spring being pumped from a depth of 3,000ft. The water is rich with mineral ions such as Natrium, and has healing properties. To top it off, I had dinner with my friend at a local 居酒屋 (Izakaya) or tavern, and had sumptuous local tavern fare at an Izakaya called 酒楽 (Sakaraku).

Friday Night

Friday night was spent in Ebisu, drinks with industry colleagues comprising of Greek, Japanese, Taiwanese and hydrids of Japanese/French, Japanese/Croatian, Japanese/Polish. This went till morning and had to take a cab home.

Excepting the Taiwanese lady and a Greek man, everyone else could understand Japanese. But most were gaijin....strange, is it not? Everyone was living and working in japan except the Taiwanese lady, who is working as a TV presenter in Taiwan.

Changi

Managed to get to Changi this evening, took a cab to Tampines Mall and reactivated and replaced my lost (stolen!) mobile phone. Got a nice new Prada style LG KS20. It runs on Windows Mobile 6. Looks a beauty and works pretty good too. Now to restore all the lost telephone contacts....
By the way, the drink pictured there witht he phone is to give a sense of perspective to the phone. Here's the link to the product if you're interested: http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/lg-ks20.jhtml

In case you're wondering, it is a smoothie concoction of banana, orange and strawberry. Just some booster I needed after having sleepless night travelling through 5 airports.

4 airports to get to one place

So I was shafted off the UA flight in Narita because of some voluntary grounding of their B777 aircraft fleet for safety reasons. And how did I find this out? No, not from the UA staff who shafted me. But from a Thai newspaper onboard TG flight. What a good example of bad PR.

So, I tried ANA, full, Northwest, full. But I must commend Northwest people in Narita for trying to help. No seats in the end fine, but they really tried. I have only thanks for Ms. Ito, for caring to listen and help.

So I collected the car and went from Narita to the office in Tokyo and then on home to park my car, and then rush to Haneda airport by train to catch a flight to Kansai so as to catch the last flight out to BKK on TG. Just made it ! TG was nice enough to seat me in the bulkhead and had a bit more room to stretch them legs. Flight was chockers ! (full)

Arrived BKK 0515hrs and the first thing that struck me was the un-painted and un-finished look (see photo) on the walls and ceilings of the new "whatchama" call it airport. So now I know its not un-finished, it hasn't changed from my last trip here in Nov'07.

Went straight to town in an airport limousine. Funny how they can charge you THB1,100 for the same trip from airport to town and when you hail a cab from town to airport, it costs only THB250 on the meter, plus some toll charges of THB65.

Freshened up in a colleague's hotel room and went for some noodles before meeting. Breakfast at a cafe nearby the hotel:

Me: "you have soup noodles?"

Staff: "yes, we have egg and wantan"

Me: "ok, we have 1 egg and 2 wantan noodles"

Staff: ok

Later the orders came. Egg noodles was actually "char siew" soup with egg noodles, no egg. Wantan was just soup and wantan with char siew, no noodles. Welcome to Thailand! "Mai phen rai", perhaps the waitress is not an early riser?

Next time you're in BKK, do ask for egg noodles if you're serious about getting your noodles...

Bangkok

This afternoon leaving on short business trip to Bangkok, returning back the following day, arriving Friday morning, very tiring. All the travel for a 4 hour briefing session tomorrow morning! No seats coming back to Tokyo direct from Bangkok so will travel through Singapore. Hopefully I get to travel on business class, subject to seat being available, on United on the way out. Chance to re-activated my mobile phone at Singtel, stolen from under my nose whilst waiting for boarding in the business lounge in Manila airport last month!

Anyway golf arrangements have been made for Saturday, with a colleague and a friend E. At least something to look forward to for the weekend...with the warmer weather and sunny conditions, maybe I can attempt at repeating my best score!