Day 2

Woke up early in the morning, it was 5.15am and the hotel room phone was blaring. The lady from the front desk was making our morning call. Sri, as usual was stoned. It wasn't surprising, considering he had only less than 4 hours of sleep. I would be having a headache if that was me. I was not only a bit pissed when I was woken up in the middle of the morning, but it was kinda tiring to wake up at 5 something two days in a row.

Got up, showered and we headed down to have breakfast. It was 6am and there were only 3 tables taken. Not everyone had to wake up early, like us. We left the hotel at 7am and headed straight for the station in Changi South Street. We reached the station at 7.20am. The couriers were having their morning exercise and the morning sort had already started. The packages haven't fully arrived from the airport, but the conveyer belts were already moving. We met up with June and there was Peter. The tall man, whom I've always spoken to but haven't met up in person. He said hello and proceeded to move along to inform the couriers, what they needed to do. Norman also walked by and said hello.

June arranged for us to go out with one courier each. I got paired up with Adtha, a nice chap and we witnessed the packages being sorted into the vans. Each courier picked up the packages belonging to his or her route, and proceeded to put a scan using the tracker. These scans will then show up on the Internet, telling where the package is. Usually customers always want to know, so there you have it. When it's on the van, it will show up on the system.

We went out into a residential area first. The roads were very similar to KL, in Bangsar Park. The names were Jalan Limau Purut, Limau Besar, Limau Manis... and this really reminded me of the place where Wan Yee stays. Did they copy us? Adtha said that the place was only about 10 years and Bangsar Park is more than 30 years. We can see who is the original one. Oh by the way, the couriers drive Mercedes Benz, nice with tiptronic transmissions. Damn, when am I gonna get one with a three pointed star?

After the ride, we headed back to the station. Met up with Peter and Norman for a while. Chatted a little with regards to the traces that were opened and got a little feedback from them. After that, Sri came back and he said he was tired as hell. Not surprising, 4 hours sleep and alcohol in the system, I was surprised that he didn't just drop down on the floor after all that walking. June came and met up with us and we proceeded to have lunch with her, Mavis, Johnson and Willie. We went in two cars, and as usual Johnson was driving. Mavis drove her Corolla and we met up in the coffeeshop. Don't ask me the name of the place, all I know is that they have good curry laksa. Now I'm not a big laksa fan, but this was good.

As usual, Johnson was cracking up jokes and I must say he is really not as I imagined. He's always been serious in his replies, but he's really shown that he's not that sprung up and serious all the time. He really knows how to have fun. After lunch, he took us sight seeing to some place called Joo Chiat Road. Apparently it's famous for the Pasar Malam on Thursday nights. Also, it's famous for Vietnamese girls. What else, I'll leave that to your imagination. He even told us how to get there using the MRT and which stop to get off. Of course we didn't even bother, but he's told us that when we are there on holiday, to go there and open our eyes.

After lunch it was back to the station where we sat in with the dispatch team. Now the dispatch centre is really the coolest place in the whole station. It's totally isolated in a special room and they have the music on and everyone's really cool in there. Met Hussein, Rahim, Selva and Zalizan. Nice people and it was really interesting how different this was compared to the dispatch team in KL. After that we headed to the logistics floor, where it's a warehouse for most of FedEx's large clients. It's really huge and you could even get lost in there.

Then it was down to meet Peter and gang. He's a nice chap and even gave us some very nice stickers for Dangerous Goods. Stickers like, "Dangerous when Wet" (my favourite!), Radioactive, Corrosive and all. Damn, the DG stickers are really the coolest. Think I'll just stick to the Dangerous when Wet sticker. Really puts a whole new meaning to wetness. Peter showed us all the traces he works on, and I can see why he's got the toughest job in the station. It's really difficult working on so many customer's requests, but someone's gotta do it. I can't imagine him retiring and I'm really worrying who will his replacement be. He shared some Apom Balik with us and in Singapore, they call it Kuih Kacang (Peanut Cake).

Then we headed back upstairs to meet up with the people from Tele Sales. Really nice to be able to see what does the sales team do. I've only managed to communicate with them over the phone, but being able to meet them in person was really nice. Felix, Tony, James, Faezah were all friendly and they even provided us with some nice gifts. Sweet! Sri of course knew most of them and had some time to catch up with his old chaps from Customer Service. I on the other hand, just sat there and heard from feedback from Felix. Surprising thing was when she told me that she was from Penang, but don't expect her to speak Hokkien.

We had such a good time in the station and it was basically the highlight of the trip. Really enjoyed our time there and getting to meet most of the managers. Also did manage to meet up with Eric Pun, the evening manager. Went to say goodbye to June and Johnson. Told them that if they are ever in KL, I'll be glad to take them out and show them around. June said that she was going to come down to KL next month. Guess we'll just have to wait for Aunty June to come calling and she said that she wants to go to Madam Kwan's.

Sri and I decided to go and take a look around the hotel surrounding to see what good restaurants around. We then hopped into a cab and headed to Orchard for a little sight-seeing. We got off at Takashimaya and we tried to get to the other side of Orchard. Being two tourists there, we tried looking for exits only to find that all of them were locked. Sri, being so frustrated, walked towards one and there was a sign, which he claimed that he didn't see. It basically said that if it is opened unnecessarily, an alarm will go off. I wanted to warn him and before I knew it the alarm went off. I just turned around and walked off. He turned around trying to say, "Oops.." and saw me missing. Basically I fled the scene faster than he could say the word. He caught up with me and I told him that he was gonna be arrested and interogated.

After that incident, we walked along Orchard Road for quite a bit. We didn't see any interesting restaurants that caught our eye. We decided to just take a cab back to the hotel. The line was long and we just took the train instead. It's been 9 years since I've last set foot in Singapore and a lot has changed. Orchard still looks about the same, but the MRT really feels different. It just shows that the LRT system in KL really sucks and it's slow as compared to the MRT. We got back to the hotel and walked towards the restaurant. The hotel restaurant was already closed. Damn, we had to find something else to eat.

It was really sad and our feet were tired as hell. We just went to the second floor and saw a Japanese restaurant. Just had our dinner there and along with a cup of beer each. Now that felt good! After that it was just back to the room, shower and off to bed. We had to be up early the next day to get to the airport in time. Just the thought of that really put our spirits down. I should suggest to our Senior manager that the airport visit should be re-scheduled to the second day. It's really disappointing that after the visit we had no where to go back to rest our feet. I'll explain that in my next entry.

took a cab back to the hotel and then it was off to dinner at a Japanese restaurant.