ngthatsme

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      5 May 2008

      It's scooter time!

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      I'm so excited about this. This is my latest impulse buy. I was in the bike shop today getting some grease/lubricant for my gears, and ended up buying one of these babies - a Xootr Scooter!

      They're like the Razor scooters which were really popular a few years ago, but these are designed for adults. They're a lot sturdier and have larger wheels so you can get a lot more speed. I'm going to use it to get to and from the subway everyday and maybe use it to scooter all the way in to work - we'll see, don't know if I want to scooter 30 blocks, and 3 avenues though.

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      30 Apr 2008

      Note to self

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      The doors on the subway do NOT have motion sensors and will NOT
      automatically open if you stick your arm between them even if several
      people are trying to pry them apart.
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      21 Apr 2008

      Washing woes

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      Ok this is awkward. I'm in the laundry room at the Marriott hotel in San Francisco (I was going to put all my clothes through the laundry service but the prices were ridiculous even if the company is paying).

      Its a really small laundry room. About the size of an alcatraz jail cell (more on that later as I went to alcatraz today). There is one washer and one drier. Each run for 30min. When I came back 35 min later I found that someone had taken my clothes out of the machine. That's cool I don't mind that. It just meant when I put my clothes in the drier I knew that I better be on time to collect them as someone will be waiting right behind me.

      So... I'm now standing in this little room with the person who took my clothes out before. Her washing has finished but my drier has not. She doesn't look like a happy camper at all. Leaning against the wall with arms crossed. There's massive tension in the air. I think she wants me to stop my cycle early so she can put hers in. But I'm not budging. I paid my 2 bucks for my clothes to be dry and they're going to be dry dammit!

      She says curtly,

      "How long has it been in there?

      I try to be casual...

      "About 35 min but the sign on the wall says drying 30 min, so it should be done any second".

      "The sign's wrong it takes 45 min" she replies.

      Who does this lady think she is? I'm not falling for your mind games. I take a deep breath.

      "I guess it has 10 more min then".

      KNOCK KNOCK - oh what now? Her husband come in. Don't think THAT will pressure me Ms Grumpy Old Lady.

      There are 3 of us in this little room now. This room isn't big enough for the 3 of us.

      Silence.

      The clock's ticking. I'm typing pretty furiously on my BlackBerry right now. What else can I do?

      Finally. The machine coughs and splutters and dies down.

      Pause. Save. Put BB down and collect clothes...

      "All yours", I say, and run out the room.

      Dear Marriott,

      Please build a bigger laundry.

      Yours sincerely,

      Guest in Room 937

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      17 Apr 2008

      Flowers in my hair

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      Arrived safely in San Francisco...

      Very different vibe here although I've only explored a very very small part of it, namely the few blocks around the office! Will look around more over the weekend. I hope to hire a bike and ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and visit Alcatraz (argghh! David Copperfield flashback). Haven't taken any decent photos yet to post so I've got this treat for you...

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      What's with the eyebrow David? You don't fool me.

      It's been a busy day today. Although I'm staying in San Fran I'm doing several trips out to Seattle too (where my client is based). I flew there today for a meeting and just got back a few hours ago. Am going to Seattle again next week for a few days. Am definitely building up the frequent flyer miles. In the past I've been pretty slack about any free points schemes but I figure now with all this flying around for work there may be a free personal trip in there for me somewhere....

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      13 Apr 2008

      Jenny's bday

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      This week at work I found out the account I work on is being moved to the west coast. This makes sense because the client is based there, but what does this mean for me?

      My boss pulled me aside on Friday and said I have a number of options. If I'd liked to stay in the New York office it's absolutely no problem as we're under staffed and there's plenty of work to go round. But if I wanted to move with the account to the west coast I could transfer to the San Francisco office.

      Now everything everyone tells me about San Francisco has only ever been positive - there's a good vibe, good weather, beaches, mountains, bike riding. I've not been there yet but am flying there next week to check it out and meet the people in that office.

      BUT, while this all sounds exciting, I really do feel that I've found my feet in New York. And with fun nights like last night I just don't know if I want to give that up.

      It was Jenny's bday and second time lucky we managed to organize a night out at the Kuma Inn and the Back Room.

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      The Kuma Inn was a pleasant surprise. Located in the Lower East Side (between Delancey and Ludlow), if you blinked twice you'd miss it. It was on the second floor of an old building so the entrance at a street level was simply an open door and a flight a stairs. There was no official signage as far as I could tell, rather just the words Kuma Inn in think bold letters, sloppily sketched in faded red paint on the wall. As I made my way up a steep flight of stairs, the smell of Detol assaulted my senses. My first thought was - this is not a good. But as I got to the top of the stairs, the place unfolded into a cozy, warmly lit little restaurant decorated with simple, yet tasteful pieces art.

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      The food was amazing. We ordered a bunch of specials a la carte. The advantage of having a group of people meant we were able to taste a huge variety of dishes, and some of them were so good, we ended up going for a second round and ordering them again. I'd recommend the prawn sui mai, scallops and pork chops. Hmm mmm. Oh did I mention the place was BYO too? Bonus!

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      After that we headed to the Back Room for some vodka in tea cups. At first I was a little worried we wouldn't get in as the group in front of us got turned away, but luckily we had the right boy/girl ratio and got through. I've been to the Back Room 3 or 4 times now but this was by far one of the best nights I've had there. The place was heaving and there was a really good vibe. As is the case every time I've been, we tried to get into the room behind the bookcase, but were turned away by the 8 ft tall burly security guards. I think they've heard the 'I know Tim' line one too many times (Tim Robbins owns the bar). Next time we shall try the 'I know Susan line'...

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      Vodka in tea cups!

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      Vodka in tea cups being replaced by beer in tea cups

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      The sneaky brown paper bag and the secret beer which feeds us all.

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      13 Apr 2008

      Favourite lunch place

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      I've been craving yum cha and dumplings so badly recently so strolled down for some quick and dirty chinese from my fave place only to find it actually was a little on the dirty side.

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      7 Apr 2008

      Gym

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      I did it! I went to the gym... needless to say, now I'm stuffed. Over and out.
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      6 Apr 2008

      Prep for the gym

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      Went to check out the new gym yesterday, although was too afraid to get stuck into it. Everyone there looks so fit and knows exactly what they're doing. I have no idea. The cycle classes look awesome though so enrolled myself in one this evening. Will see how I feel as still pretty under the weather, but got really excited when I saw all the bikes. It's a spin class, so there are around 40 bikes in a room together and the instructor takes the class in such a way that it mimics being in a race in different terrains, speeds, stages etc etc.

      Also, check out the new shoes... I haven't owned a pair of runners/trainers for years! Found that Asics were much better than Nikes in terms of comfort. The Asics are wider and have a deeper sole so my heel didn't feel like it was slipping out all the time.

      Now I just have to get to the gym...

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      5 Apr 2008

      Fight club

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      I'm sick. I HATE being sick. Especially when it's the weekend and the sun is shining outside.

      I've been nursing this cold the whole week, taking lots of vitamins but I can't shake it. Took a stroll down to Starbucks this morning for a coffee, but still feel like shit. Just canceled plans for brunch with friends and dinner/drinks with other friends. Arghhhhhh!

      This is shit.

      So now I've resigned to the fact that I'll staying indoors the rest of the day so thought I'd catch up on some blogging. I don't even know where to start, so how about this...

      Last night I went to a fight. Yes, I said a FIGHT! It was crazzzy. In the morning one of my colleagues at work said:

      'I'm going to a fight tonight, want to come?'

      I said, 'What do you mean a 'fight'?'

      She gave me this website: http://www.ifl.tv/

      I took one look and said 'Count me in'.

      The whole day at work I was thinking about it and the Ultimate Fighting Champion from FRIENDS just kept popping into my head. We departed work promptly at 5:30pm and headed to a Jujitsu gym to buy the tickets, which were $40. Pretty cheap I'd say for this sort of experience.

      We took my friend's car as the venue was out in New Jersey, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The GPS said it would take 15 min to get there but it took over an hour as we kept getting hopelessly lost. Dark winding roads, no street lights. Kind of scary. Then out of nothing, a massive sports arena appeared, with towering stadium lights but there was not a soul in site. It was bizarre.

      'Are we in the right place?'

      'This is where Jane told us to go' (Jane is what my friend calls the GPS as it's the name of the voice on the GPS - haha'

      We drove around for a bit more and it turned out we were just at the wrong part of the stadium. It's that massive you see...

      Anyway, once we got in, there was buzz and excitement all around. The parking lot was full of Tonka trucks, Big Boys Toys 4 Wheel drives, souped-up racers and macho hot rods. I think we were the only two girls there.

      Armed with a couple of beers and a hot dog we pushed our way past the red curtains into the main stadium. It was huge (imagine the Telstra Dome!). In the middle of it all was a ring with blazing lights where 2 fighters were having it out. I'm not sure if you ever played boxing computer games when you were young, but I felt like I was in a computer game. At the end of every round a scantily clad bikini buxom blonde would strut around the ring holding a sign saying Round 1, Round 2 etc, and Eminem or other high adrenaline angry rap would pump out of the speakers.

      It was an M.M.A. fight - Mixed Martial Arts. But thankfully there were some rules. No kicking below the belt or elbows to the face. Nice. But there were no boxing gloves - it was a raw fist fight. Grappling, rolling on the floor, choking and submission. Throughout the night there were several KOs. People getting wrestled to the floor put in a headlock and pummeled by multiple punches to the head. I think half the night my jaw was on the floor. An ambulance came to take one guy away. He got karate kicked square in the face and went down lack a lead sack.

      Amazing night. Not sure if I'll go again though!

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      3 Apr 2008

      Clinton F%$@ing Obama

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      Sarah Silverman's pisstake lives on. The guys that put this together did an excellent job. LOVING IT.

      If you haven't seen the original see here.

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  • ngthatsme

    Sometimes geek, sometimes chic. I'm a third culture kid - born in Malaysia, grew up in Australia, worked in London and am now in NYC. I love traveling to places strange and unknown and having unforgettable random adventures.

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