Finally, I can wake up in some undefined time. Did my laundry by hand and left the house by 1 pm. The amazing thing is, after losing ways and got to the wrong place here and there, it took me 4 hours to get to see my Kah Lok friend. Amazing, huh?
Begin to feel like the good old days in UK. Except that no one is beside me while I drive.
Watch the show, “Good Will Hunting”, alone.
Last night was bad, I slept at six in the morning. Force myself to get up at midday but I failed (once again). Lucky the room service called at three and I managed to get out the room at four. Did some shopping and headed off to Paris centre immediately.
Knowing that the show “Cinquième Element” or in English, “Fifth Element”, is so popular, I bought the ticket in advance. Once again, thanks to Aurore’s Card, I bought the ticket in special rate.
Just before I left the room, I have noticed a magazine at my study room. It tells me all the good restaurants around Paris. I took a look and selected some of them near Chatelet. It was an Italian restaurant and the food was fine.
That show “Cinquième Element” was really good. Especially, I love the part about the fifth element, which was a heroine. I just love heroine. A lot of special effects with great sound quality. What more do I want? I still contemplating whether to watch “Romeo and Juliet” again or this one as I still have one credit left.
Ridicules as it seems, I called up JP at three last night. She sound very cheerful and oh, how much I miss her sweet voice. Been talking about work here and there and her ex-ex, J, called just before we broke up and returned all her photo albums to her. Also, she got herself a mobile phone. So, life seems to work out really good for her. As for mine, it is just a mess. God, how can I ever get out of this?
I ended up not being able to sleep for the whole night and went to sleep at 7 am. Obviously, I couldn’t get up. Eventually, I walked into the office at 10:30 am. Sophie was “concerned” and I quickly went up and apologised.
The office was very empty today. Guess a lot of them took Friday off and have 4 consecutive days of holiday. Other than Aurore and Claude, all of us were in the office.
At five, everybody started to leave and I left at 5:30 pm. Usually early.
Laurent has invited me for a party tonight and therefore, he picked me up from my hotel. More and more people joined in and in the end, I have lost count of the total number of people. I guess that was around fifteen.
We went to this Chinese restaurant with Karaoke. Started from 7:30 pm and we all stayed up to 2 am. Kind of crazy but I was having a great time. Laurent’s girlfriend is a Vietnamese and is actually very pretty. The songs varied from Cantonese to Mandarin to English to French to even Vietnamese.
It was a great party and when Laurant drove me back to the hotel, we shared a lot of our personal life. He is a great guy.
Totally ridicules! If not for Francis’s phone call and the room service phone call, I would have slept until God knows when. Finally I woke up at seven pm. Had a long hot shower and rushed off to my favourite Japanese restaurant. One thing good about going to the same restaurant all the time is that they treat you really good. Extra sushi and free cup of tea.
And the next thing was rush to watch a movie. Wanted to watch the “5th Element” by Bruce Willis but it was full. So I watched “Shine”. Very touching movie. With the ticket voucher given (lent) by Aurore, I’ve got a really cheap bargain.
Annie’s email is always so practical and always reminds me of the cruel reality. She even suggested that I shall stay in YMCA instead. Alright, this is when the reality bites. I shall survive. I will survive.
Grand Canyon. That was today’s plan. Well, I woke up half an hour later and Colin was very impatient. Seriously, I need at least seven hours’ of sleep in order to be able to drive such a long distance. And last night, we slept late. As I have said before, if I have to get up early the next day, we better sleep early the night before. Also, I do need to wash my hair and so on in the morning and as for him, just wash up, dress up and go.
That goes back to the first agreement that we have – a relaxing holiday. I think, in the end, our definition of relax is different. For him, it is less of travel and for me, it is more of sleep.
That also make me realised that the way I treated JP was not quite right. Last time, I always didn’t understand why she needs to sleep for ten hours and I always waited at the door impatiently for her. That is good that I feel that way now. At least I can truly put myself into her shoes. After all, people are different from each other and there is no way to change. But to understand and accommodate. Am I right? Pity that it is a bit too late to realise this.
Therefore, I don’t blame Colin for feeling that way. In fact, he was quiet the whole morning.
OK. Back to the trip. Took an hour drive to reach the Hoover Dam which is in Arizona. The reason of building such a dam is because of the flooding of the Colorado River. It is the largest dam in America and it is quite spectacular. And after visiting the dam, we rush off to Grand Canyon which took us another four hours to reach. As pressurised by Colin, I was driving at 90 mph. Kind of quite exciting.
Basically, the national park has a few views for us to stop. It is the most breathtaking scene I have ever seen. It is somewhat like a very long stretch of “cliffs” and the formation of such a wonder is still a mystery to me. Whether it is worth of driving ten hours today is still in doubt.
The West Rim can only reach by the shuttle bus. And we managed to catch the last bus and managed to see the sunset. While we were in the bus, waiting to return to the part centre, there was one very old couple and one young couple. As the conversation exchanged, we learnt that the old man has been through the World War II while the younger one has been through the Golf War. We joked that Colin should tell them that he is from the Singapore Army and get ready to start the World War III.
One of our Strategic Manger (let’s call him CH) has rented a car for the whole week (USD 160.00). So you can guess what we do for the whole day.
Woke up by myself at six thirty mainly because the curtain was not popularly closed. Shortly after I woke up, in the mist of trying to get back to sleep again, Colin called me up and told me that he has been awaken since four thirty. So we went for an early breakfast.
(Met up two guys from Shanghai AC during breakfast)
Oh, not to forget to mention that before we went for breakfast, I approached the reception area and asked if it was possible to move into Colin’s room. I first asked for the supervisor. And the girl (pretty – Italian?) actually fixed our ‘problem’ for us. We had some nice chats and I learnt that she just came back from Italy.
The big shopping area (or ‘outlet’) will not be opened until eleven. Therefore we took a drive to a park (Fox Lake) and had a nice walk there. Kind of very scenic but it was a bit too brown. Think it will look a lot better during the summer. Met a man who was fishing which his son and his step son (from Philippine). Talk about hookers in LA. Kind of nice to talk to.
And had a good lunch at T.G.I. Friday’s.
The big shopping area is called Gurnee Mills. Bought one Zippo XIII lighter with a pretty Petty Girl picture in front. It is really pretty and come with a trading card. The next one I bought was a dog statue for Annie. Hope she likes it as it is pretty big. Finally, the book – Romeo and Juliet. With that, I hope to understand the literature better.
Wanted to go to the theme park called Six Flags but it was booked for private party. At first felt very disappointed but we soon another place of interest.
That is another factory outlet. Bought three ties and one pair of Timberland shoe. It was kind of a rush as we walked into the shop ten minutes before closing. But we got what we wanted.
Next, we head for Chicago for a pizza. CH was tired in the middle of the drive and I had to take over (as Colin needs to direct us). The pizza was not that good but at least we have been to Chicago.
Well, what was I thinking of for the whole day? I kept think that my life will not be completed without a lover (and obviously you know whom I refer to). I can try to be happy spending all the money and time doing what I like but I have no one to share the happiness with.
And I have already set my target for the coming year 1998. That is:
I couldn’t really sleep last night. Gone to bed at 10:30 pm and woke up at 2:30 am. And I couldn’t go back to sleep. Got up, obsessed with my coming broadcast and tried to go back to sleep at six. Couldn’t. Hence ordered breakfast.
Eventually, woke up at noon. Nice sunshine today. Desperate to go out and bathed in the sun. Contemplating whether to call the BNP guys or not but I didn’t.
Sunglasses on, I went done to Châtelet-Les-Halles and decided to watch “Blood and Wine”. Took the same route as Claude took me to 2 days ago. Had lunch at one very nice bar. Actually planned to watch the show at six in the afternoon but I couldn’t wait no more. Just too much time. Hence watched it at four instead.
Very good show. It’s Jack Nicholson. Went to Virgin store and walked aimlessly at the busy street of Champs-Elysees. In the end, decided to go back to Châtelet and had my Japanese food.
Been thinking of my future house all the time. Suddenly I remember one of the reason of coming back to Paris was to be able save some money for my future home (+ decorations and so on). Shame that things do not always work out the way they suppose to be.
Weekend again. As always, woke up really late. This time is about five in the late afternoon. Gone out for an Italian restaurant. The food was good. Wanted to watch a movie but I had too much alcohol.
I do need a lover.
It was Monday morning and I was so glad that I was back to work. At least there was someone I could talk to. Miracle happened and I woke up at 6:30 am. And I couldn’t go back to sleep. Therefore I replied a few emails to my friends and sister and went to work at 8:30 am. Anyway, I had a very important status report to write (to all the SocGen big bosses this time). And I promised to give Nicholas and Willie a SIR to work with. Spent the whole afternoon doing the BG transaction advice SIR and probably will spend the next two days doing the BG reversal advice. It’s so boring, but that’s work.
Unexpectedly, Michel invited me to have a dinner with his wife. Initially, we were talking about Chinese Food and I told him that I can never find a good Chinese restaurant in Paris. And he told me that there were quite a few good ones near where he lived.
So I said, okay I would come with you if you don’t mind. By the time we arrived at the train station near his place, his wife was already waiting in the car. And they drove me to their place and had aperitif (whisky for me). And we drove down to a Chinese restaurant. That waiter didn’t speak Cantonese at all. What a disappointment. The food was good and we chatted quite a fair bit. Michel was a good translator (as his wife, Mirela, doesn’t speak English at all). We talked a bit about Romania as well (where they are from). They planned to take me out one weekend. How nice! (And they played Mylene Farmer in the car, just perfect)
One of the happiest night in Paris.
What a horrible day. This morning I woke up, looked at the clock and found that I was 45 minutes late as compared to my usual wake up time. Total panic. Quickly showered and dressed up, got into a non air-conditioned bus and only got a place to sit half way through my trip. Fell asleep and nearly missed the bus stop. Arrived at the office 15 minutes late. Well, the conclusion is I can actually wake up half an hour later. Wonder what I spent half an hour on.
I was so tired the whole day. Achievement of today: I have found out that my HDB flat waiting period is roughly 3 years from now. That means I can only move into my new place 5 years later. By then I will be near to my 30. I think the only consolation is that I should be relatively financially sound as compare to an early marriage.
Went with Francis and Zen Pin to a Japanese Restaurant at somewhere near AIA building. Very good food and probably ordered more than we could eat.
I always promise myself that I will sleep early but I never do. By the way, Sophie from Paris managed to get me the hotel I wanted. What a great news !