Trip To Singapore - Day 1

Well, here's a summary of the 3 days that I spent in Singapore.

Day 1:
I woke up at 5.45am to get ready for my limo. I called the limo company and told them to change the time to 6.30am. I packed in a hurry the night before and didn't manage to bring my earphones for my mini, dammit no mp3s to listen to. Had a cup of coffee and then it was off to the showers. My dad knocked on my door and said that the limo was waiting outside at 6.15am. Damn, these guys are too efficient!

I got into my clothes, rushed down with my luggage and pouch and made damned sure that I didn't forget my ID. Otherwise, no 10% off in DFS(Duty Free Shop). Luckily I subconsciously packed my airplane ticket and passport in my pouch. While I was in the limo, Sri, the AM for the call centre called and asked where I was. I told him the limo was along the Sungai Besi highway, and I'd be there in about 30 minutes.

Got to the airport and then it was off to meet up with Sri. Funnily, this was the first time I met him as we've always just spoken on the phone. No direct contact as his office is all the way in the heart of KL, while I'm based in Damansara Uptown. Strange to be able to put a face to the name, which is what I've been doing for the past 3 days in Singapore.

We checked-in, spent as little time as possible in the shops as we did not plan to buy anything before leaving KLIA. It was quite exciting being able to travel to Singapore. Then he asked whether I brought the booking number for the hotel. I was going through the iteniary for the next 3 days in the limo but I didn't remember seeing the booking paper. I called up Ashley immediately and told her that I might have left the paper in the house. She said not to worry and she'll try to get the number for me. But then she recalled that it was the only copy and she had handed it to me. Damn, I downloaded the flight details into my phone but not the hotel booking number. Brilliant!

I checked in my pouch again, and to my surprise, there it was! First panic of the day. Got onto the plane and it was a short flight to Singapore. Though, they served coffee on-board and this was my second cup for the day. Then it was off to the immigration checkpoint and then to the baggage claims counter. Got our bags then straight to the cab. From what I've heard from Albert, the call centre manager for Singapore, he told me that all the previous flights were delayed. Our flight was the only one on time. No delays what so ever.

So straight to the FedEx station in Changi South Street. When we got there, we felt a little lost. Went up to the first floor and called for June, the duty manager there. Sri fondly calls her Aunty June as she was his manager before, when they were both working in the call centre. June was kind enough to let us put our bags in her office and she showed us to the break room. There, third cup of coffee, I knew I was gonna be sprung up! 3 cups of coffee in the span of 4 hours, that's an average of 1 hour and 20 minutes per cup. Damn, it was going to be a long day. While in the break room along came this girl, who I could have sworn I've seen in the video that Yen showed in one of the meetings. Sure enough it was Queenie! The girl from HK who helps us a lot in the trace department. She initiated by asking if we were from Malaysia and then she knew it was us immediately. We went to introduce ourselves and it was nice to finally get to meet her in person.

Then June came in and introduced us to the other people in the office floor. The office is a whole lot nicer than our HQ in Uptown. I'm kinda jealous of the nice interior that they have there. We met up with the Tele Sales team, then it was off to the other managers, Johnson, Samuel, Mavis... gosh, all of them whom I've just talked to over the phone or just through writting via email. Now I get to meet them all in person. Johnson's a funny character, before I met him he was the serious manager, but now I've seen him in person, he's actually the most funniest manager around! We also got to meet Willie, the Service Assurance manager.

It was off to observe the SPICE team, which deals with US paperworks for clearance issues. Though, it was sad that none of the SPICE team members were around. They were all on leave and the CusCare division had to take over their job. We got to know a few of the CusCare people and they gave us an insight of their jobs.

Lunch was off to err.. some place called Banquet, a food court, which caters to halal food. Johnson drove us all in his Mitsubishi Colt Plus. Nice car, kind like a bigger version of the Colt. Lunch was good and we joked around with Johnson, who was giving us a little insight into the activities in Singapore.

After lunch we took a cab to our hotel where we checked in and then it was off to our second station in Pasir Panjand, Alexandria. As we got there, all the managers were getting ready to go for a conference. At least we still got to meet Shanker, Eric and Mazlan. The three main managers there. The senior manager of the station was not around, and Cetera was kind enough to give us a tour of the station. We also got to meet the HP support team, which was made up of three people. The station was a lot smaller as compared to the one in Changi. We got to witness the second cycle in the afternoon and we were shown the Power Packs, something that will replace the pen and paper in the near future. We also requested for a sit-in for the call conference between the stations, the CS department and the Gateway clearance operations.

Then it was off to the Financial Services Control for FedEx. The office was in Techlink building and it was impressive! It made all the other buildings look bad, this was the poshest building for all FedEx operations. Guess they really have to make the credit collection building the best looking one don't they. The trip was the shortest and the manager Lester just asked us, what can he do for us. We didn't really know the reason why we were there in the first place. The trace department doesn't have much dealings with the Credit department. It was just a short talk with Lester, then it was back home to the hotel. Before that, Sri suggested we have a cup of coffee there as it was the best. Had my fourth cup for the day. Damn, I was really charged up.

I had dinner with my uncle the first night. We went to Tiong Baru, near his place and we had a nice dinner. Not bad, we ordered a fish, a fried chicken dish and also a hot plate toufu. Good stuff, did a lot of catching up and he was quite impressed with the hotel we stayed in. It was the 48th floor and the only complaint that I have is... the lifts are too slow. They should have more lifts, the view was good and it's really nice! Guess Sri and I were fortunate as the rest stayed in the Park Plaza. After dinner went over to my uncle's place and had a look at his apartment. Not bad, it's actually in one of those heritage buildings, which was quite impressive. The interior of his place is actually quite nice, pleasing and huge. His room had the balcony expanded so there was actually more room.

Day one didn't end there. I got home at 10 something and took a shower. Had a cup of tea and then it was off to bed. Sri came back to the hotel at 1am and he woke me up. He had the nerve to ask me, "Bro, why your eyes so red?" I told him that I was sleeping... DUH! Had a short rest, I calculated about 6 hours plus and he had about 4 hours of sleep. That's what you get for a night out drinking with your buddies dude. He was kind out the whole of second day. We had to go for a check-ride with the courier. I'll write more on the second and third day in the next blog entry. For now, it's off to dinner.