Friday, 7 September 2007

My home trip is coming to an end

Was meant to write something before coming back, but there were no free wi-fi in the economy class boarding gates (Lee Ling always get to update her blog on BA lounge as she flies business).
I was actually a little anxious before coming back, wondering how distant i'll feel with the environment that i've been so used to, since i was gone for a year. But it wasn't that bad, I guess i've lived here long enough to still remember the place fairly well, of course, forgot most of KL street names, but still remembers the shopping complexes ;)
Just like settling down in London, navigating through the city and getting myself sorted is the easy part; the hard part is the culture
One thing that really got on my nerves were the traffic, I forgot how bad the traffic is in KL, and could not imagine having to be part of it in the near future
Then, there's the people's culture; I got so used to just booking partner's time and walk to their desk's (or they come find me) when the agreed time arrive; sort of got a shock when Gary's secretary made me wait for almost 2 hours
That's obviously not the end of people's culture; I was organising a get together dinner using the british way, and obviously it didnt turn out well, people tend not to respond to emails! Guys, I'm not complaining, I might not have responded due to our 'kiasuness' culture, my fault I guess. We Malaysians tend to be spontaneous, planning ahead simply doesn't work, ok, lesson learnt
Then, there's the public transportation. I was lucky enough to escape the Tube strike, that was really bad, I probably have to walk to work, which is more manageable than to walk to work in KL. Then I tried out all the trains (except Putra), and I can only say, it got even worse, even being congested during offpeak hours. But I probably would rely on it when I come back, it's probably better than the jam on KL Seremban highway

After all the complaints, what's the good part? Obviously, being able to be back to see all the people that I missed, eat all the food that I missed dearly ... being able to convert all my spendings to £? that's actually a bad habit that I should get rid of as soon as possible

And it's the end of it, my 2 weeks home trip, will be back to the bitterly cold weather (I noticed that the good weather only arrive when I'm away)

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