Tuesday, 26th Dec 06
Went down early to hospital to catch the doc before he goes for operations and stuff. Totally not enough sleep the night before so wasn’t really thinking straight. Saw that the weather was getting better so decided to fly today, got his Beijing office to book a new flight for me, stayed with tj abit more, then left. After more jostling in the airport, I learnt that my 1410 flight was gonna be postponed to 1750 (which was still ok for me) but then they had another earlier flight at 1430 which they booked me on. Will be in Beijing too early, but it’s ok, arranged for his Beijing office to pick me up at airport, put me up in their staff housing to rest/wash up before taking me back to the airport for my 2355 flight. Got on the flight, waited one hour on the plane for missing passengers before take off at 1530. Flight was as ok as it could be, sandwiched btwn a fat man and another one w bad breath. Thankfully it was short.
Though I reached Beijing a tad late and was considering whether I should trouble the driver to send me back and forth, I learnt tt he was there to pick someone up (arnd the same time as me) and later he had to go to airport to pick another person up and could send me back. So I decided to just go. Beijing is a huge city, modern, bustling etc. The number of cars on the road on the multi-leveled highway is amazing. Reached their luxurious staff house, dumped my luggage there, then left to walk around Beijing and find dinner.
Had about 3 hrs to kill, first time in a foreign land by myself at night, so didn’t dare to walk into dark alleys, just stayed on main roads. Walked inside the high class china world shopping mall where there was LV, loewe, and all sorts of other high class brands that I can never afford, and decided to walk outside, walked all the way till xiu4shui2jie1, supposedly a good place for shopping though somewhat a tourist trap. Decided I didn’t wanna have to deal with more Chinese ppl and having to bargain, so tried to have dinner, which isn’t v fun when you’re alone. Almost had KFC but decided not to, a Chinese fast food restaurant, had good beef noodles and thick soya bean milk. Yumyum. Tried to find Tiananmen square, near China World Apartments but it was dark and I couldn’t find it (wasn’t equipped with a map) so decided to just go back, wash up and head off.
Back at the apartment, I met C, the other Project Mgr taking over. A v nice fatherly figure, think I woke him up when I entered, spoke to him awhile. He told me they all liked TJ and tj was having so much fun in this job and they were v sad tt this unfortunate accident had to happen etc. The driver, J, didn’t know I was tj’s gf until the ride back to the airport, and he was nicer the 2nd time around, enquiring abt his condition etc. Telling me how tj loves his job though his parents and gf didn’t, and how it was a struggle for tj…
I realized something abt this trip, that he has wonderful colleagues, who do all they can to make it easier for us. All friendly and concerned for him, and they all like tj cos he’s just an enthusiastic, friendly, young chap whom they think can go far… though we’re frustrated abt how the upper mgmt seem to be dallying and not being helpful, we can’t deny that we’re very well taken care of by the admin and ops staff in china, we get driven arnd everywhere, meals are always paid for (and they ALWAYS order too much). Makes me feel bad abt being so annoyed with him leaving all the time. But yah, I maintain tt the HR dept is very annoying.And I finally realize why tj always tells me abt his adventures and tell me that he wants to bring me traveling arnd the world. All arnd Xi’an and that lone night in Beijing, I realize that part of the joy in traveling is having someone there to share the wonderful scenery and interesting culture with.
Return flight was good, SQ is always good, there were ample seats so I ended up lying down to sleep on 3 seats. Flashing my airport pass gives me additional discount at duty free (15% off alcohol!) so it was more shopping before I headed for work, but was too sleepy to concentrate much.
Now I just wish he can come home too…
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