Meals At Cincinnati 2019

Most of my meals were at the Applebee's across the street from the hotel. It wasn't till the last night that I went to another restaurant for dinner. Which is a silly thing considering that there are quite a few restaurants around the hotel. I'll be more adventurous the next time round.

Also I couldn't take many pictures, there were lunches with colleagues and it wasn't convenient to be taking pictures like if you were a tourist. Overall I ate well, breakfast at the hotel is always the wonderful perk-me-up in the mornings. Lunch was simply finger food at the training location and dinner was usually at a nice restaurant.

Shrimp & Chorizo Quesadilla @Union Street Gastropub, San Francisco Airport

Room Service @Hilton Garden Inn West Chester

Steak & Seafood Combo @Applebee's West Chester, Ohio

Chef Bulgarelli's Stuffed Rigatoni & Tomato Meat Sause @Applebee's West Chester, Ohio

Grilled Shrimp & Sirloin @Uno Pizzeria & Grill West Chester Ohio

Same Hotel Same Route

Familiarity is important, especially when you are travelling alone. So I purposely chose the same hotel as last year's trip, the Hilton Garden Inn West Chester. And it's not a shabby choice by any means. It's a very good hotel with good rooms, nice breakfast and free coffee every morning.

It definitely helps that I am used to the route to/from the airport and office. In fact I drove straight to the hotel from the airport for a hearty breakfast. I knew that's the best place to get a good meal at 7am in the morning.

The Ride @Cincinnati 2019

Since I was travelling alone, I could only get a small sedan. I was expecting to get a Volkswagen but they only had a couple of Nissans, Kia and Toyotas in the cost category I selected. I forgot to ask for a GPS enabled vehicle so I had to drive around with Google Map navigation. Thankfully I was on familiar grounds, not much has changed since last year's trip.

YY @14 Months - Cheeky Little Fella

This little boy is a very different baby to OO. He has a lot of Meimei's cheekiness which is a good thing.

Purposely lying on 姐姐

Sharing a pair of Nyama slippers each

Nyama's soup is the best!

Up To No Good Look

Corporate Card BooBoo

It's embarrassing to say the least, especially when you had contacted the whole team over WhatsApp and also emailed the MD's secretary to check on your behalf.

Because it was a corporate card, I had assumed that the card was naturally activated for overseas use. It's a Amex travel card after all, only to be used for travel or company business entertainment.

I was further snook-ed because I had used it at a restaurant at San Francisco transit to pay for dinner. And then again at the Starbucks at Cincinnati Airport earlier this morning to pay for coffee before I set out to drive to the hotel.

It turns out that both F&B outlets had used the card chip to book the charge. But when I was getting the car at Hertz, they tried to swipe the magnetic strip to book the charge. That failed since I had not activated it and had to use my personal card.

Well I finally sorted it out at the hotel. Thankfully they let me check in after I arrive instead of having to wait till 3pm. I was then able to login to the hotel wifi to activate the magnetic strip on the card. The star hub calling card had the tethering function disabled on the SIM card ...

Anyways I had to copy my new 'boss' too on the return email to the MD's secretary so he knows to approve the exception charge on my private card. Haiz ... so embarrassing ....

Crushing The Specs

A picture says a thousand words. Imagine being on the plane, you place your spectacles in the front pocket for a nap and when you wake up you cannot find your spectacles. And to make matters worst, your eye sight is so bad everything looks a blur and you have to drive from the airport to the hotel.

I woke up from a nap on the plane to utter dismay of not being able to find my spectacles. I searched for it frantically for a good five to ten minutes before the old lady behind me said that she picked up a pair of spectacles and passed it to the air stewardess. I immediately rushed to the service stations, only to find that my spectacles were crushed.

The right arm was totally bended and the lenses were popped out from the frame. I tried my best to put it all back together but couldn't get the transparent strings holding up the lenses to tighten. I curse and swear at my luck ... here I am on a plane half way round the world with my only pair of lens which I totally depend on for sight. 

Arrggghh the agony and frustration. Just a few hours ago I was happily swooning over my 'good' luck that a father switched his aisles seat with my middle seat so they can sit together as a family. Now I'm kinda regretting it ... if I had been in a middle seat, my spectacles may not have for god know what reason landed on the aisles and trampled upon by god knows who.

Dammit ... now I have to gingerly handle my spectacles to last the week. That or plan a trip to a optician to fix it. But I'm in a foreign land and where am I going to find an optician at 6.30am in the morning when I land? Haiz ....

Traveling For Work 2019

I'm travelling to Cincinnati again this year but unlike the last, this time it's voluntary. In fact I had to push pretty hard for it to happen.

There is a self service program on digital tools and the product owners were inviting expert individuals who are familiar with the tools to become global digital trainers. Naturally I was interested since I've been teaching it unofficially for the past 2 years at the local site. So I put forth the request a months ago and somehow it ding dong for the longest time before I finally start to hound my manager on the status. I was adamant to travel there since this will put me and the site further ahead in terms of digital initiatives.

I eventually receive the travel approval 3 days before I was to fly today. It was a mad rush to get tickets, book the hotel and pack the bags. But I gladly do it all for the opportunity to be there and have myself certified as a global trainer. If there was anything I wish different, it would be that the approval came earlier so I have more time to prepare for the trip.

New Bookshelf

I've been talking about getting a bookshelf for the longest time as the children's book are strewn all over the TV console. It's messy and difficult for the children to reach. Some are stacked on each other and I fear the kids may pull one and everything else topples on them.

Meimei shares the same concern and has been diligently searching taobao for a suitable bookshelf. She finally chanced on one which looks sturdy and ecstatically ok.

The rotating bookshelf is space-saving and does not require a wall to lean against. There is a heavy metal plate at the base which keeps it sturdy. Unless a kid decides to scale the bookshelf it is unlikely to topple.

The other upside of this - OO is starting to pull books out to read because it's prominently in the living room and easy to pull out. I think we might consider getting a couple more of this to store other books. I'm sure the book collection is going to grow, especially if the children show interest in reading.

Hey Mr. Fireman

YY saw OO putting the fireman hat on and couldn't resist but do the same. He looks so cute with the hat and the pyjamas.

Coaxing A Haircut

YY's hair is long again. But now that he's no longer a little baby where we can easy hold still and cut, we needed a way to distract him while we cut his hair.

Out comes the water play table. Which kid doesn't like to play water eh? So while he splashes the water Nyama and Siti work quickly to snip off the long hair. Success hehe.

New Washer With Steam Cleaning

First the dryer broke sometime last year and we replaced it with a similar model. But after we replaced it the maid kinda stop using it ... what a waste. Now the washer is giving problems. I suppose it's about time.

We bought the washer when we got married and moved into 303. That's like 8 years ago so it has seen better days. Plus over the last few years we have been using it heavy duty, with several washes a day due to the sheer volume of kids clothes.

So time for a new washer and after some quick shopping we bought a larger 8kg capacity washer with a steam cleaning function. We think we 'might' use it to clean the pillows and stuffed toys on the weekends. But we'll see .... it did set us back a good $1.3K+ though. Hopefully it'll last for a lot more years to make its worth.

Tokidoki Pop-up Float Playground @Changi T3

This Tokidoki craze is getting everywhere. First it is this proliferation of the brand through the Jubebe collaboration. It's like the LV of the mama world and every mum seems to have to have at least one Jubebe. Then this is followed by the obsession of the mummy brigade on everything Tokidoki.

So now they have a joint marketing effort with Changi Airport and have setup a bouncing castle at Terminal 3's departure. As usual, Meimei has her groupies to join in for the fun. Somehow they bought so much merchandise that they have enough 15 minutes for 3-4 kids to play for an hour at the bouncing castle.

OO was all excited and kept going and going at the slides, bouncing around the castle from end to end non stop.

Tampopo @Takashimaya

It's been a long long time since we had Tampopo at Liang Court. That was when we didn't have children and had the luxury of time to detour to the Clark Quay area for dinner. So when I found out there was an outlet at Takashimaya when we went there today, I immediately jumped at the idea of dinner there.

And man did it not fail me. The black pork ramen was as super as it was many years ago. The broth is so appetising without being salty and thick on the throat. I'm definitely coming back for more!

OO is 4!

Hurray! OO is now 4! Oh how time pass so fast. Just yesterday she was a little pouty baby girl. Now she is practically a teenager with attitude!

Meimei outdid herself with OO's decor. I especially like the unicorns.

Instead of the traditional birthday cakes, Meimei ordered 2 sets of customised cupcakes for the celebration at home and school.

OO and her classmates loved the cupcakes and they kept coming back for seconds and thirds. Bravo Meimei!

YY @ 13 months - 臭脾气

YY is getting more and more opinionated. He understands what he wants and doesn't want and knows how to communicate it with displeased grunts and cries. Probably a good thing so he won't be bullied by OO.