YY's Turn With Fever

As expected, YY has fever too. We tried to keep them apart but kids will be kids and they are playing together more often these days. YY especially likes to follow OO around and tries to play with her. OO gets irritated often when YY butts in on her make-believe plays.

Oh well, that's what siblings are for right? Get in your way, fights for stuff with you, messes with your stuff etc etc. But as they get older, we hope they start to bond better and get themselves a chance to experience the joys of having a sibling company.

I'll never get to experience it. My brother and I don't talk. Never. We are brothers simply because we have the same parents. That's about it. It's sad but it's the reality. Can I change it? Probably no, we'll worlds apart. This is something I never want my kids to end up at.

So I say, go ahead and continue to play together even when you are sick. Live and play together. And create bonds that never break.

Mysterious Fever

OO has been running a fever over the weekend. We brought her to see the doctor today and after a whole suite of tests Dr Ang cannot tell what's wrong with OO. It wasn't influenza A or any bacteria infection. But to be safe she put OO on a course of antibiotics and we were to simply ride it out.

Although we couldn't tell what caused the illness, it did leave a pain in my wallet. $500 for all the test and medication. I'm rather perplexed about the 'diagnosis'. It wasn't something serious ... or at least not something that is known. But could it mean other more serious problems that average tests cannot detect?

There really isn't much we can do. We can only cross our fingers and hope that whatever that is causing OO to have high fever is a passing phase and nothing serious comes of it.

Getting Home & Random Food Pics

I got on the first flight home on Wednesday morning. Per schedule, I was going to touch down in Singapore on Friday 12.30am.

The first flight from Cincinnati to Chicago was on a similar small plane I came on a week and half ago. I cannot even stand straight along the aisle and I think they had to find shorter air steward/stewardess to work these planes.

The trip home was uneventful except for a flight delay at Narita where they had to do a on-the-spot replacement of an engine part. That set the flight back another hour and it wasn't till 1.20am when I  touchdown in Singapore.

Next section are just random pictures I took on my meals.

Salmon at Uno Pizzeria. Was better when I was in back in April. Was disappointed that their standards have dropped.

Bourbon cheese steak at Applebee's, which has always been my go-to restaurant here. The picture doesn't do it justice ... its pretty decent fare and I finish every bit of food on the plate.

Dinner on the Friday night on the first week. I didn't want to go anywhere after a week so I ordered room service. Same salmon dish I had in April but I added seasonal vegetables this time instead of fries.

Lunch at Mellow Pizzeria on Saturday. I had been driving to the carpark of this restaurant for the past week to spin the two pokestop and gym. There was a particular spot where I can reach all 3 points. Finally decide to step in to eat and it was pretty ok fare too.

Lunch at Cheesecake Factory on Sunday after the walk at Sharonwood. Sashimi salad variant and an ice cold beer.

Breakfast at Cincinnati airport before my flight to Chicago. A little sick of egg and potatoes after a week and a half of it. But hey ... better eat something than get onto a long flight on an empty stomach.

Supper at the only restaurant opened at the Jewel before I took my cab home. It taste so much better than anything I had in Cincinnati ... maybe its the sweet taste of home.

Pokemon In The Woods

Yesterday wasn't really exciting for Pokemon action. There isn't a lot to catch at the outlet and mall and it's pointless to go back there again today. So I was googling for a better place to catch Pokemons. It seems parks are a popular place since they tend to have several gyms and pokestop.

There are a couple of parks I can go to but eventually I settled on Sharonwoods park because it looks like an easier park to navigate to and I can make out where I can park on google map. 

I arrived at 8-ish to a quiet park. There were already people jogging and it seems popular with dog walkers too. I didn't bring any jogging shoes with me so I was in my leather casuals. An extremely goofy look but hey I don't really care ... I'm here to catch me some Pokemon action!

There are several gyms and pokestops dotted across the entire park which makes for interesting walks. After a week of sitting in meeting rooms, I was ready to get some exercise.

There were nice wide footpaths from the carpark and it was a relative easy stroll. I'm enjoying the fresh air and nice morning sun. But as I get further the paths start to thin into smaller inlets. I looked at my poke map and decided to go down a small path into the forest.

Although everything looks to be flat on the map, I was slowly climbing up a very gentle slope as I followed the path. There were nice resting points along the way and there were many people coming down it rather going up like I'm doing.

I took me roughly 30 minutes to reach the end of the climb. At the end of it was a nice surprise, it opened into a small lake cum reservoir of sorts.

It took me another hour or more to circle the lake and then make it down back to the car. It has been a fruitful trip, I got on three gyms of which two look like I would be on it for a long periods, and I was able to enjoy the sights in Cincinnati. It would have been miserable to stay in the hotel the whole day.

Forced To Move Out Of Hilton Garden Inn

I'm alone this weekend in Cincinnati with little planned. I have assignments due for my Business Analytics course so that's the only priority for the weekend. Some folks on the project team were kind enough ask if I wanted to join them for shopping or trips to the aviation museum or the beer festival at the banks. I wasn't keen to be with anyone after spending a whole week with them. I politely declined, citing the class assignment I had to complete before flying back to Singapore.

There was a minor-major irritation though on the accommodation. Although we had the rooms booked through the fortnight, someone on the hotel team 'accidentally' released the booking for the Saturday and the place is fully booked. We found out that there was a wedding party and they had booked majority of the rooms in the hotel. Bah ... they were shoving us out the door so they can secure the 'bigger pie'.

I nua-ed in bed this morning and had a long breakfast. There wasn't really anything I could do till I complete the check-out and moved into a nearby hotel. It's like a minute's walk from this one but the hassle of packing and moving was a huge turnoff.

Once I was done moving into the other hotel, I went off to the outlet mall again to see if there are anything I can buy and more importantly, catch more region specific pokemons. Below is the small haul I have from this trip.

The late afternoon was spent at the hotel lobby working on my assignment. It has a cozy layout with a long high table area for working. There was also a side bar of hot coffee which really help just because I don't have to try and brew my own in the room.

Well as comfortable this all sounds, I'm gonna have to move back to the original hotel again tomorrow morning. I will think twice about staying at the Hilton next time ... you don't shove guest around like that.

Pokemon Action At West Chester

I've been here since Sunday and the Pokemon scene is definitely very different from Singapore. Here, pokestops are far apart, there isn't anyone fighting raids ... or I didn't know where people congregate to do them. A couple of challenges which makes me wonder how folks here play the game.

There are no pokestop at the hotel I'm staying but off and on, a few pokemons will pop up. I've had to conserve balls because there was not easy to get them unless I drove to a pokestop.

Because of the jet lag, I've been waking up at 4-5am every morning. So my usual routine has been to drive out to several spots with gyms and pokestop to spin and stock up balls again. Above is a picture of the West Chester clocktower I took in the wee hours of the morning while on my Pokemon run. I usually make it back to the hotel by 6am for breakfast.

As much as I can get around the lack of pokestops, there wasn't really a way to find folks for raids. I tried soloing a 3 star raid Raichu but kept failing because I ran out of time. Eventually I downgraded to only do 1-2 star raids.

Another 'problem' I had was my pokemons were 'stuck' in gyms and taking a long time to get back for the game to recognise the return and credit the coins for the day. This probably never happens in Singapore ... I'll be luck to have a Pokemon in a gym for more than 4 hours at any one time.

Jag's Steak & Seafood

The team was flying off next morning so we thought we go for something more up class. We had so-so dinners for the last few days so we were adamant to get something better. So we went to check Google Maps and there is a nice upscale restaurants nearby, Jag's Steak & Seafood.

It's a pretty nice decor and ambience with low lighting. The seats we were at are little tighter than I like but hey it's still ok. I order the fish and we had lobster bisque and creme brûlée for sharing. The meal cost probably close to USD80 each ... which is pretty pretty steep. But what the hack, they made us come all this way ... we should have a 'good' dinner.

Biting 姐姐

Meimei sent me this picture and I really have to blog about it. YY gave OO a big bite on her feet. I'm not sure what happened that lead to the bite but I think both are no angels. The good though I must say is that OO doesn't attack back ... that's an amazing quality. I cannot imagine the chaos if she fights back.

Extra kisses for my girl girl for being so restrained. *muach!

Red Mess

Back in the room after a long first day at the workout. I was hoping to ram down with a nice glass of wine. Shit happened when I open the mini fridge and the bottle dropped and broke. The guard that holds bottles to the fridge door was loose and the wine bottle went for a spin and cracked right in front of me.

I quickly grab a bath towel to soak up the wine before it reaches the carpet. I took a picture of the mess too and thankfully one of my colleagues was a Walmart and they got me a replacement bottle. Phew ... 

Skipping Lunch For Shopping ... Not Me

I went shopping at the Monroe Premium Outlets in the morning with the team. I was here earlier in the year so I wasn't going to buy a lot of stuff. I had planned meetings in the afternoon with the Digital core team folks so I couldn't stick around too long. I had a quick lunch at the cafeteria and drove to BEBC for the meetings.

I was to meet the team at Kenwood mall after my meetings. I reach there to find that they had only just arrive too. And ... they were ready for dinner at 4.30pm because they skipped lunch to shop at Monroe. Goodness ... there was so much shopping that they decide it was more important than food!

Dinner it is and they were excited to dine at Cheesecake Factory. I ordered the shrimp scampi and the Chinese chicken salad, similar as last year's trip. My shrimp scampi took a long time to come and  when it did arrived, it was overdosed with salt and totally inedible. I rejected it and the waiter returned the dish and had the kitchen make a new one.

The rest of the evening was fine, we had a good dinner and the team went off for more shopping at the mall. I didn't have anything to get and wandered around catching pokemons. When they were done we went off to grab water and groceries at Walmart. I got myself a nice bottle of wine for the week.

Narita > Chicago > Cincinnati

I jumped on the American Airlines plane for Narita to Chicago. They had me at a end section two seater on the left of the plane which is right beside the toilets. I was smelling crap the whole flight but the space I had on the seat more than make up for the torture on my nose. Because the row in front of mine is a 3 seater, there is a 'triangle' area behind the right aisle seat for me. I could safely move my knee out of my seat without fearing a hit by the food trolleys.

I finished all the movies I wanted to watch half way through the 18 hour flight and switch to music and tried to get some sleep. Oddly it wasn't as comfortable as my earlier trip on UA. I should really try to fly UA next time .... if I can get people to cooperate on the bookings. I was tired when I arrived at O'hare.

It was 4.30pm when I arrive and the next flight was scheduled for 6.50pm. So naturally the first thing to do is getting early dinner. There will probably no restaurants open by the time I reach Cincinnati so better get something now and worry about supper later.

The rest of the team had arrived earlier and they were getting ready to leave and get onto the connecting flight when I arrive at Wicker Park Sushi at Terminal 2. My connecting was at Terminal 3 but as I was walking to T2 I received a notification that my connecting to Cincinnati has been delayed to 7.30pm. Ok, just as well ,,, that gives me more time to enjoy dinner.

That delay was unfortunately a first of many to come. What was a 6.50pm became a 9.40pm flight. The only bright side to the delay was the opportunity to play Pokemon. This place is a gold mine with multiple gyms and Pokestops peppered tightly across 4 Terminals.

I also took the chance to get as many regional exclusives as I can so I can trade them to Meimei and the kiddo's account to complete their Pokemon collection.

By time I reach Cincinnati I was a little past midnight. I reach the hotel at around 1am ... it was horrible. I would try my best to avoid O'hare if I ever come to Cincinnati again.

Flight To Cincinnati On JAL/AA - First Leg To Narita

My colleagues were put on an earlier flight and traveling together. I'm flying alone because someone screwed up and another decided to be mean and put $200 for a 2 way priority over me having to spend additional 5-6 hours each way. Brilliant!

Anyways because of the fiasco with the non-issuance of ticket and finding another flight, the tickets were issued late and they simply put me in any seat they can find .... which usually means the middle seats. And even better was that they booked me via Japan Airlines and I couldn't check in on the American Airlines flight from Narita to Chicago to try to change seats. They had me booked on the middle seat for the longest stretch - 18 hours flight.

I arrived early at the American Airlines check-in counter in hopes of getting a seat change. There was a Caucasian fella on my left who seemed to have some problems with his booking and was arguing with the counter staff that he was promised aisle seats over the phone. However he was not able to produce any documentary proof nor was his request recorded in the airline's reservation system. Seeing how he was reacting and the response from the airline staff reminded me that it's not going to work if I hardline it. So I politely requested for a switch to an aisle if it was at all possible. The counter staff response was that the flight was full on the Singapore to Narita flight but he can put in a request. He was however able to switch me on the Narita to Chicago, which meant wonders! I thanked him with a big smile ... I can survive 8 hours in middle seat on the first leg.

Once I cleared customs I settled down at Starbucks for a quick breakfast. Nothing fancy but important to get some hot food before the flight. You never know what sort of quality you will get on a flight.

The next thing that happen made my day. As I pass the security check to get into the waiting area, I pass the counter and scan my ticket. Out sounded a loud beep and the counter lady stopped and checked my ticket closely. "Sir, you have a request for an aisle seat? There is an available aisle and we will be switching your ticket." WOOOT!!! rang those my head. Thank you!

Yeah they put me in the baby row ... which is perfectly fine with me. The front was empty and I could fully stretch my legs .... Super Win! There was a lady on my left and then a Japanese couple with a cute baby boy The trip was pretty good except ... there's seems to always be something that happens on my flights. On the last trip, I had my spectacles crushed on the flight which prompted me to pack the backup on my carry-on. This time I broke the USB charging cable for my phone. I didn't really get how it happen, just that when I woke up from a nap, the USB end of the cable was bended 90 degrees. Bah ...

I spent half hour hunting for a cable and then another half walking around to see if there was anything good to catch. There was nothing so I went straight to the gate to grab some food. There was a Yoshinoya and that's what I had for lunch. There wasn't even time to go get something better at the other terminal but at least this is hot food.

Off to Chicago we go!

Two Weeks In Cincinnati

I'm travelling to Cincinnati again ... and this time for 2 weeks on request. I have 3 other team mates going too but they are there for the initial Deloitte POC from Tuesday to Thursday. They fly off on Friday and will be back in Singapore on Saturday evening. 

I, on the other hand, have been asked to stay another week and will only fly off on Wednesday morning ... and back in Singapore in the wee hours of 27th. I didn't like that I had to stay the weekend, especially when here was an assignment due in the middle of the 2nd week and a class as well. But it was difficult to decline the 'invitation'.

So I'm flying off tomorrow ... on a crappy flight because someone decided that two hundred Singapore dollars savings for the company was more important than an employee having to spend additional 5-6 hours on each flight. The appointed travel agency for my company forgot to issue my ticket so they had to put me alone on another flight. And even then this someone insist I travel on the cheapest ticket ... which means I reach back in Singapore past midnight instead of the original 6pm+.

This whole saga pisses me off to no end. I made it very clear to my boss that I will not travel again for the company if this is going to be how it is in the future.

All the grumbling aside ... I'm still stuck on a 28 hour economy flight to Cincinnati because I have to lay over at Narita and Chicago. Phhhhffff ... this is one of the worst company to travel for. And that's saying a lot because it is in the aerospace industry!

YY @19 mths - Walking Up And Down

YY has been asking to get down the stroller to walk the past month. I think he likes the freedom to go where he wants and the opportunity to explore and touch the world around him. He is innocently fearless and that scares me, especially when he attempts to climb up and down steps without holding support.

He recently went up and down the steps at the basketball court while I watch worryingly close by, ready to catch him should he fall. He did get up and down brilliantly though, taking single steps carefully and not trying to rush it like OO when she was the same age.

Playground Renewals @ Bedok

We're noticing that playgrounds are progressively getting revamped at Bedok. Which is a great thing considering that some of them are visibly old and ragged. However the new ones looks to be made for older kids like OO.

I cannot imagine a two year old YY trying to scale the steps. And the slides coming down have less depth. I think they are safe if the kid obediently sits down and just slides down. Hopefully OO and YY will not get into naughty stunts on these new slides.

I'm waiting eagerly for the one near our place to get its turn. And it would be great if they bring in a version for younger kids.