The Thai Words That I had pick up

I had forgotten my 0 to 10 numbers in Thai, my colleague had refreshed it for me. Let see, zero is "soon", one is "neeng", two is "song", three is "sam", four is "see", five is "ha", six is "hawk", seven is "jet", eight is "pet", nine is "kao" and ten is "sip".

Turn left - "leo side"
Turn right - "leo kua"
Drive straight - "tong pai"
How much - "toll rai"
Excuse me - "kho tor kah" - this sound like kotor kah to me when i first hear it.

This one is good,
Which floor is chan nai..... when I first hear it, I was like OH so vulgar. My colleague said "don't think crocked".

Don't want plastic bag - mai au thong
Color - C said it in the 4th tone like mandarine

Learn a few new words lately.
rain - phon tot
telephone - toll lap sap (when first hear this, you mean throw rubbish in canto is telephone in thai)
go home - kha bun

Assignment had finished in Bangkok, after 4 1/2 months, I don't think I have learn many Thai words. I managed to find a Thai for beginners. It is from English to Thai Ka ra oki, so can understand.

Good to be home, haven't update my blog for a few months. Hope to find more time for my blog.

In Bangkok After 5 years

Had been in Bangkok for 2 weeks. It had been 5 years since my last assignment in Bangkok. The feeling this time around is quite different, more comfortable and less lost. Nothing much had changed. The only thing that change is the airport and apartment.

The new airport is big, I remember I had a hard time finding the transit gate on my last trip to India. My god brother and me spend about half an hour looking for the place. Luckily we had 2 hours to do it. The escalator was hard to find too. It is behind some beam that block it from my small eye view. This trip, checking out was different. Coming right out from the gate the custom is there and out from the custom the luggage belt is there. Had to wait about 10 minutes for them to display it on the screen. Who said our KLIA luggage delivery is so. You should try Bangkok's.

The last time stayed in Pantip, this round at Oakwood. Pantip, the apartment is much bigger, the bed is also much bigger, the kitchen, sofa. Oakwood has better lighting. I think Oakwood is ok but I miss going to Lumpini Park...did i get the spelling right. I can go there every Saturday and Sunday or a public holiday. It's about 5 to 10 minutes walk from the Pantip apartment.

With my little tan, the people think I am Thai, even in the airplane too. I guess I need to pick some Thai words.

This assignment is at another customer, there is a market next to it. Spend the afternoon walking thru the place. Many nice things to see and buy. I bought 6 Ben10 T-shirt for my nephews. I hope they like it. You get shoes, I finally bought one pair. Singlets.... lots to buy... I think my 10,000 bahts is not enough to last until my home trip. Now I had already spend almost all of it. Need to have enough to last until my home trip, need to pay a visit to the ATM machine.

The market here is so different from Malaysia. Here you get almost everything, you even have stalls selling books, branded bags and clothes. Oh! have you seen stalls in Malaysia selling those 5 inche high heels. Those classy kind. You get working clothes too. Just don't have to go to our Jusco or Parkson or ..... to get them.

Last weekend went to Siam Paragon, bought lot of Mama tom yum. My colleague was holding is all in her hand while I went to get the trolley. Everyone stare at her, giving her a funny look. What is this lady doing standing there holding 5 to 6 bags of instead noodles.

Today walked to the wet market with my colleage. A good walk about 20 to 30 minutes. We bought quite a lot especially me. I needed to fill my fridge with vegetables. On the way I saw this cute slipper with a puppy head on it, bought 2 pairs for my sister and myself.

It's mango season, had been eating mango everyday since I land myself in Bangkok. The mango here are good. The green and yellow are all good. Laichee is coming too. Longan too. The durian are here too. But I don't like Thai durian, no smell. Eating durian without that aroma is like not eating durian at all.

3 1/2 months to go before the assignment finishes, I am already missing my bed.

While Waiting I Stumble Into Aska Yang (杨宗纬)

It’s been a year since my last assignment. Had called my manager a few times, he always asked me to hang in there, it’s going to come, we are finalizing the detail. His hang in there is like months. There are not enough of helpdesk enquiries to go around as my seniors are also on bench. Anyway, I still get my monthly salary. I tried my best to occupy myself with work.

The first few months I read the application manual, read those application manual that is useful to me. After reading and had no chance of applying what I had read, only hope that I will remember when clients enquire.

End of February the fever of 12th General Election was contagious. I had the fever too. I was surprised by the result. I started to read all the politic blog, the most famous Malaysia today. I found that others have the same sentiment as me. I spend my time reading all the blog articles I can get my hands on. I even found that our Dr Mahathir also started blogging. After a few months I become bored, as I found lots of talk but no action. I still read but only the headlines, unless I find the article interesting I will read the whole thing.

I was following the news on TV, I saw a MV. It was (洋葱-yang cong, onion) by 杨宗纬. When I saw the MV, I told myself, singers nowadays don’t have to look superb good, they only need a good vocal. Most MV that appeared on TV does not attract my eyes or ears. This does, I tried catching the MV on TV somehow I did not get the second chance. I guess I did not spend enough time in front of the TV.

After a few weeks I had forgotten about it, one day out of boredom, I watch Astro 301, I saw the One Million Star competition show, its was season 2. I noticed the judges were very professional, and give very good constructing remarks to the contestants. I also noticed none of the competitors have very good look, just normal. Then came the duet with season 1, I asked my nephew this guy 杨宗纬 was he the winner. My nephew replied he’s not but exit towards the end of the competition. The big question WHY? I thought I could overcome the curiosity, Curiosity kills the cat.

My reading and written Hanyu is around standard 2, after finishing my level 1 Hanyu class. My listening and spoken is good, went to youtube, spend about a week going thru season 1. Found out why he retrieved from the competitions.

With all the medias and human eyes and mouths, he can still go on stage to own up, it’s takes a lot of courage. I would have died from it. To me why he did that, it was like, give it one last chance. What is the big deal? Don’t we all make mistakes every now and than, just that we are not in public eyes like him. I still go to youtube or his webpage to view.

My next target is to sew table runner and knit, hopefully by the time I finished the next assignment will be around the corner.

A Job That Travel and Working From Home

Since joining this company, when I don't have any assignment, assignment is going to client's place to work on an IT job, I am based at home. While based at home, need to help out on helpdesk problems send from all over Asia Pacific countries that bought the software. Some would said it is great, don't have to hassle with others on the road every morning and evening when you work from home.

Right after a long assignment, it is great to be based at home. If the waiting time for the next assignment is not a long wait. To me a long wait would be anything more than 3 weeks. If the waiting time more than 3 weeks but enough helpdesk enquires it is still fine with me. While waiting there is nothing, with a laptop that does not have wireless given to me, it is a hassle going out. If my laptop have wireless, then I can go into any place that provide free wireless, I can download my email and work on it.

How much of application manual can you read? I can read all the application manual but it is just reading. After sometime it become boring as the push to read is not there, the aim to read the manual is also not there. So you plan going out with friends for lunch, but they are working and most of the time they will be telling you their working story. You listened but it will also get......... But during this time I get to spend lots of time with my sister which is also great. We would go shopping and lunch together but still not enough to occupy the time there. You go for class, but class have to be short as you don't know when you get called to go on the move. There is always the worries that you might not finished the course and waste the money.

I went for my mandarin class, as I am a banana. The course takes about a year to finish, it has 4 parts in it. I took 2 parts at the same time, finished the course within 4 months. When I finished I was glad I had finished but during the course the worry getting called for oversea assignment, then it would upset my class. Now that I have finished level 1 was thinking of going for level 2, the same thought will probe up. Have decided to do it on my own at home. People that are not in this situation will think it is so great when it bites you than you will know how boring it can be. You wake up, open the laptop nothing there, you do your own stuff and still....... AHHHHHH it is BORING, I am not going into retirement AHHHHHH! 闷 死 我 啊！

Yesterday a friend came back from the state. Took a day leave went out with her. It was great, it had been quite sometime I went shopping with a friend. I guess it was quite sometime I have seen her, normally would just send short email, talking face to face and catching up is anytime much much better than emailing.

This working from home, has its good and bad, the good part is you get to spend lots of time with family. But sometime would like to see others besides family members. The bad part of it, you are like cut out from others, the only link is thru the internet.

When I first took up this job I was very excited as I am travelling, but after sometime I noticed you get one thing but not the other thing. Some hobbies that you like you can't take it with you, courses that interest you also you can't register. When you travel you either make new friends or learn to be on your own. After sometimes you get feedup with the food on the flight and carrying your luggage in and out. I noticed new friend's friendship does not last too. I look around me I noticed the friends that I had, are all those old friends. The only good thing comes out of it, is that my relationship with my family member becomes better, I learned to appreciates than more.

I sometime tell myself I am going to look for a job that does not travel, but why am I still at this job. As I told my family member I will be responsible for whatever unhappiness, it is a path that I choose. I am no longer a child, I guess this a way for me to grow up. As this job takes me away from the comfort of home which I am so use to and took for granted too.