Day Two: 1st Day at work @ Jiangmen Hongda

So I promised some photos of the dorm... here it is...Not too bad really, with the exception of the following;

1. The silly teeny weeny fan





2. Dirty floor which means you gotta wear your shoes around, not to mention their habit of spitting in the corridor





3. The bed which looks deceptively comfortable but is as hard as a wooden plank...ok...maybe i'm just exaggerating a little...

Otherwise its really all pretty good.

Not too bad eh...









This 1-man room is for all the guests and managers...









The rest of the staff bunk is 4-person rooms which are about the same size. And then there's the sub-contractors who get 8-man rooms....also the same size...amazing...Didn't get to see their bunks though.









One thing I gotta say...the view in the morning is pretty amazing....check the following out!

Only in China will you see this....Paddy fields next to construction sites and shipyards!...LOL

Morning breakfast was a simple fried vermicelli....(they seem to love vermicelli, what we know as Mee Sua)...

Pretty good...nothing to complain...

It almost seems like a routine day at work....except no one speaks english....and they're all amazed I SPEAK ENGLISH AND FLUENTLY TOO...LOL

Nothing much really happened...spent most of the day clearing work remotely. The broadband connection here really helps a thousand-fold...

I leanrt a new idiom about them China Chinese today... "The Chinese eat when its time to eat, not when they're supposed to eat"

How very true.

At 12.00, right on the dot, everything just goes down....lights, doors, windows, the lot.

LUNCHTIME!

And right after that, a siesta until 1.30pm.

DAMN!

I wish that was so in Singapore....but then again, we wouldn't be able to get any work done...

Its the same case at 5.30pm. Either they have nothing to do, or they really respect that idiom too much to care.

This time, add in the locking of doors as well....so that no one sneaks back to work overtime and make the rest look bad...LOL

Night in Jiangmen...is well...night...

Pitch. Fucking. Dark.

You couldn't see your balls in the dark without a light....sorry for the language...

Anyways, I got to go see the town at night...

Here is Shadui Village's equivalent of ... Orchard Road!

Impressive eh? LOL

Got a hair wash too... only RMB 10. That's like S$2! lol...

A view of the hairdressers....dyeing hair is like only 300 RMB...or 60 bucks..

And here's a view of the local version of Tangs...

And a view of Harvey Norman..oops...I meant Shadui Central Electronics Store

And this is the IRAS...oops...nope... Shadui Village Tax Centre

Citycab.............on two wheels.

Everything pretty much shuts down after 7....only these few shops were the die-hard ones....

Went for a drink after that....Kingway Beer...3.3%. At RMB 5 per bottle, it is cheaper that a bottle of Sprite!

Sprite = RMB5.5

Amazing...like I said...

Adios to all for now.......

Wan An....

Day One: Going to China

So as probably everyone I know already knows, of if you don't, then now you probably know, and if you still
don't know what I'm talking about then please read on and knock your head as well....

So it all started pretty well...like I got to the airport early and then checked in and all...The budget terminal's
pretty good really, on the sparse side but then again, what do you expect eh..
And then the nonsense really got going.

I met Jeffery's man at the checkin counter and he checked in as well, then as soon as we were in the departure hall, KL's call comes in....

"Eh, Winfield, where are you huh?"
"Erm, at the airport?"
"Err, why are you flying so early for?"
"Err...I thought you told Jeffery to book the tickets to go on Monday, 23rd?"
"The meeting's on Thursday, what are you going to do there until then?"
OMG
1st shock of the day!
Boarded the plane now, then realised never bring H/P charger....oh well...
The flight was pretty uneventful...typical of a budget airline...you dont get anything i guess....bought a drink and a sandwich...good thing, cos I wasn't going to eat anything else or get the chance to until at night...
Landed now at Macau, immigration uneventful.... tried to call Jeffrey, realised no autoroam, so went to a payphone to try and he didnt pick up....then the man with me said usually he will take a bus, then i was like , well, alrighty , maybe the car cant come to macau...so after the payphone ate M$5 and didnt return the coin , we were out of M$ so had to bargain with the bus driver, in the end dumped a S$2 in lol...
Some pics of the view....forgive the shots...taken from the minibus...LOL

Casinos....a whole stretch of them...
Casinos that look like avolcano.....no end to imagination....
and more casinos....
And then i noticed something abt the bus....its auto...gee...that's weird....
After about 45 mins drive, we got to the bus terminal near the customs border, and then I realised that Macau is actually one of the best planned cities in the world....everytihng is near each other....or maybe its just small....lol

Got through the customs with relatively little hassle, except for the customs officers reminding me to change the passport cos it was water damaged....and the smudging didnt help i guess...

Shock No. 2

No car or transport available from the yard....

OMG

And off we go now to the Chinese bus terminal....and I noticed something weird....

Their buses have beds! WOW

LOL....didnt get a pic cos my hands were full with the bags...lol

Boarded Service 608 and off we went!

You know, someone once said, its no use if you have the best equipment but you do not have the talent to operate it....

Mind you, the buses were excellent. European built and all...Scania, Volvo....you name the lot.

But the drivers...oh well...

And the roads....oh my god.

And the traffic....even worse. I dun think anybody around here has even a license to drive....

And the pedestrians TOTAL disregard for traffic doesnt help....

So we bumped and rode our way into the outskirts of Zhuhai...

And I realised one thing...the bus company doesnt trust the people to pay the correct fare...hehe

you gotta tell them where you're going to the conductor and pay the fare in accordance.

a 21st century bus and a 1970's practice...LOL

And only, ONLY, the bus conductor can signal the driver to stop....lol, even though the bus stopping signs are all over the bus

And after 2 hours...oh boy, we finally reached BDCranetech's office in China. And I realise now that NO ARRANGEMENTS WERE MADE AT ALL!

Well, judging by their reaction anyway.

So, by this time, I was starving. Good thing the canteen was open and we had a bowl of noodles. very nice noodles too...Kudos to the cook!

And then now a driver comes...its the boss's son (New Oasis) and off we go to the yard....

Reached the dorm after some very dangerous driving in absolute pitch darkness....LOL

The dorm is pretty good.....very high standard in fact...and just about the one bright spot in this whole day....apart from the mosquito thingy...

Will take some photos to post regarding the dorm....

Time to sleep now.....

To my dearest Wynne, I miss you very badly....muacks and good nights

To all the rest....adios from China!

The N95 - A Brutally Honest Review

So the new current craze is now on the new phone from Nokia....The all-new N95!!

Its what computers have become.... or so says then tagline.... Now how is it I can't pop my dvd in and play Command & Conquer 3?

But here now....I'm supposed to review this....so here goes....

On first touch, the phone feels very sleek, however, the boxy shape of the phone gives a hint of what the phone can achieve. The large TFT screen is extremely clear and bright and even for the hard-of-sight, viewability is not a problem. On a rough test of the weight, it is clear that Nokia have done wonders with the weight problem and actually have made it lesser than the predecessor, the N80. This is unfortunately, a problem with the N-series.... Its just not a phone to be slid and hidden into the pocket. Its sheer size and weight will always make its presence felt with the user, not unlike many phones from other makes nowadays.

So first off, the camera. It is clear that this is the N95's trump card, boasting nothing less than a 5-megapixel camera with digital zoom, auto-focus and a whole shebang of other features. It is also clear that with this camera, they were hoping to trump Sony Ericsson's flagship model, the K800i. While in taking pictures and setting camera options, the N95 does beat the K800i hands down, however, the key part of the K800i is the flash. N95 flash? Nothing better than the N80, which sucked. Big Time. Also, the whole lot of options presented in the N95 may just overwhelm the average photo-taker, which looks like that of a DSLR menu, rather than a phone. Other points about the features of the N95, presented in point form...cos I'm a little lazy...LOL;

1. File accessibility is still extremely slow. Often causes the phone to hang. This is something that has to be addressed urgently by the Nokia engineers
2. Not able to go directly from the camera menu to the gallery to view photos.
   
3. Screen extremely clear. Even the blind can see what was taken
4. Video mode is excellent. Anyone looking for a budget handycam may consider this phone. Although you must be able to live with No.1 above.
5. The software provided with the phone is excellent, although it would be considered common now. Comes with a pdf viewer which is good feature

And with a horrific realisation that this post is getting impossibly long......I will end my review here.

Now you know why I work at a shipyard....

LOL

C&C Pt. 2

Oh....And did I mention the hot babes in the cutscenes? LOL

Command & Conquer!

Ok, I admit I have been lazy these past few days and not blogging faithfully.......

I have absolutely no excuses except for the following;

1. Command and Conquer


2. Command and Conquer


3. Global Defense Initiative


4. Brotherhood of Nod


5. Mammoth Tanks


6. Umm... Laziness... I guess...

LOL

ITS WARTIME!