It's good to be back in Singapore and knowing that I'll have a week to catch up with people and shop and go for a wax, make new glasses, etc

The last day in london was an absolute nightmare. I am no longer looking forward to going back there. Not wanting to go into too much details, all I would say is that service in London is SHITE! and the thing is, there's nothing much you can do about it. The companies don't care about customer satisfaction at all!

Anyway, I shan't dwell.

I went down to wala's as expected to catch the Unxpected =)

Shirlyn's vocals never cease to amaze me and everyone else in the band seems to have gotten even better. I don't know how you can improve on perfection but they have definitely done it. Not sure about the bassist though. Asri wasn't there. But Rene seemed more smooth on the guitar and each of brandon's drum beats seemed more distinct.

Tomorrow will be family day. Lunch with grandma, parents, brother and sister-in-law and then dinner with Jean and Joy. YAY

Everyone's been saying I'm even thinner than before leaving for London. I have avoided the dreaded heathrow injection. Thank God!! Hopefully I will not kena the Changi injection what with all the dinner dates lined up.

It's been a while =)

Went to Paris a two weekends ago. Moo Moo and wuggles have been such globe trotters.

Paris was lovely save for the fact that many parisans could not speak English.

Somehow, I don't remember it being so difficult in India. It seemed more Indians speak English.

Anyway, we were all prepared to encounter rude parisians after Richard's warnings but was pleasantly surprised that most of the people we met were quite helpful and friendly. Maybe it was because we were two chinesey girls and where possible, we did turn on our helpless innocent charms. Heh

True to my mission to have croissants and coffee in a quaint cafe along the Parisian streets, our first stop once we got there was to hunt down a famous croissant bakery recommended by an article that I nicked off the net. We had so much bread in the two days we were there! Two croissants, two pain au chocolat, one mini snail, one mini pain au chocolat, one seeded bagatte, two palmier, 4 brioche buns and all these in just 2 days!!!

Sydney rant part I

I've been trying to post a blog entry for the last couple of weeks but they always end up as half written entries saved up in my virtual blackhole of an internet diary, unfinished and hence unpublished.

Will be heading off to paris tomorrow night on a coach. I love road trips because there's a certain excitement to it. You just don't get the same buzz from taking a plane.

Felt quite sad yesterday because over lunch, a comment made by a new partner from Sydney went like this... 'Oh, their command of English must be quite poor and that's why they lack the confidence to speak up'.

This was made in reference to a meeting in which pakistani managers had hardly voiced their opinions. (Might I add that there were English present at the meeting as well but this remark was not directed at them!)

Anyway, another Aussie replied, 'well in that case they shouldn't even have been promoted!'

That was a real slap in the face. The English, like the Asians, tend to be more reserved but when the English are quiet, they call it aloof. When it's an Asian, it's bad English. Fucking ignoramuses.

It seems to me that the impression of Australians here is that they are loud, bawdy and brash.

It's ironic because I think a lot of senior PwC people in Sydney think that Asian people tend to be tactless and have poor PR skills.

It is also ironic that there exists a strong sense of camaraderie within the Sydney firm so much so that sometimes it feels as if criticising anything no matter how insignificant would be tantamount to blasphamy. Not really what you'd expect from loud, bawdy and brash people.

It suddenly occured to me, that the reason for this contradiction was simply narrow-mindedness.

An 'if you're not like us you're crap' mentality.

So there I was sitting down for a 2 hour lunch surrounded by these moaning and groaning aussies lamenting on how horrible london could be. *yawn*

I couldn't help but smile when an aussie moaned about how inefficient the English are at sorting out administrative matters. Coming from Singapore, I found Sydney a bureaucratic nightmare. I think it helped living in Sydney before coming to London. My bank here has screwed me over a few times but somehow, that does bother me. Afterall, I had my fair share of banking nightmares in Sydney. These Aussies have probably used the same bank account since they were 12 and it's been too long since they've tried setting up a new one in Sydney.