I AM GOING TO ARASHI AROUND ASIA SHANGHAI CONCERT! I am bent on going, anyway.

Today was quite a slack day, while Sean had very minor changes to make to his Johnnie Walker stuff, I had the chance to surf and look through online China ticketing sites and Yesasia. During one of Arashi’s summer concerts earlier on in Japan, they had announced that there will be an Asia tour at the end of this year; the countries are Korea (Seoul I think), Taipei, Tokyo and Shanghai. Now wait a moment – last stop, Shanghai. Doesn’t it sound too good to be true? I only knew of the news a few days back.. and it suddenly dawned upon my laggy brain, that attending an Arashi con and seeing them up front might be more tangible than just a dream; It’s, quite possible omg!

15 and 16 November, finale in Shanghai, the final stop, awesome. I began seriously considering because I’m here to stay for 12 whole weeks, by that time I would have gotten quite familiar with Shanghai than anyone who hasn’t been here before, which means I’m a little closer than ever for being able to get tickets while I’m still here. If they implement the right ticketing system that is. Choosing to browse through ticketing sites wasn’t the easiest start for a first timer. As you know, in China, lots of scam websites that look very convincing are there to deceive unsuspecting individuals, and when they’re all written in Chinese, it makes understanding even harder. I simply don’t know for sure the ‘correct’ procedure and there are just too many concerns like payment, date, booking and all.

Gosh, the idea of attending the concert is making me lose sleep, like really. XD

After work, we didn’t quite have enough cash on us, so me and Sean went back, grabbed some and headed for Zhong Shan 龙之梦 for dinner. One of the typical malls nearby.. to me it’s like Junction 8 or Hougang Mall, just that in a much bigger scale. There were too many restaurants available, even though some even had ridiculously long queues, but we walked into a decent looking one after a while. Decent for its interior furnishing, posh looking seats and tables, European styled walls and modern décors. Not so decent after the very evident lack of even the most basic manners in their service.

We were seated at one corner where the air condition didn’t quite reach, so we moved ourselves a few seats away where the climate was better. The grumpy woman who showed us our seats, when she came to take our orders, gave off a “TSK”, obviously displeased with what we have done. Yes, we have just offended her! We asked her for her recommendation, and asked her a few more questions, she looked as if she was about to stalk off to set somebody’s hair on fire.

We came here after a tiring day at work in search of decent (not even asking for good) food but look what they returned us. Sean was telling me, “they are underpaid and overworked”, and they ARE like this. Well, whatever. I just didn’t want to throw up blood over something small, or else it would be impossible to survive in China. The pasta was, surprisingly, better than Olive’s. Got myself a glass of Baileys (about 25 rmb) to go with it.

In the days to come, 龙之梦 (the arcade, actually) would become our favourite place to destress. Near the Lego shop, there’s a huge arcade called “Tom’s World” and we spent a wee bit of time and a wee bit of money there. 1rmb for a token, which is $0.20 here. Most of the arcade games were very outdated, and it reminded me of Malaysia’s arcades.. the other side had those machines into which you dump your whole fortune in the form of coins, and expect the pool of coins to fall in return for some tickets. These took up like half the arcade(?!) and the number of people playing wasn’t just a handful.

A good thing Sean and I found the basketball machines, 2 tokens for some cheap and healthy (hahar) fun. We played a few rounds I think, but could never get past level 2 =.= If Sam was there, he would have had attracted a crowd… whoosh.

[ Expenses ] :
11 rmb (cab), 5 rmb (午后红茶), 37 rmb (coffee bean), 21 rmb (lunch), 47 rmb (dinner), 4 rmb (cab)

Breakfast! The really tasty yoghurt I mentioned about. I got the mug and slender plastic spoon that’s nice to eat from at Carrefour. Cutlery is so crucial because to me it affects the look and taste of the food I am about to eat.. and I especially like eating from big metal bowls (lol), small spoons and drinking from unusually shaped cups or glasses.

We brought our clothes to the laundry shop about 100m from our condo area before going to work. The system works like this: you purchase a card (it had my name on it) with different credits like 1000 rmb, 500 rmb, 300 rmb etc. The higher the amount, the more discount is entitled. Our current card is the 300 rmb one, with 80% discount for every piece of clothing we hand them. On the average, a pair of jeans or a normal t-shirt would cost 8 rmb each and after discount, it’ll be 6.40 rmb. As a standard rule, they take 3 working days to process and wash your stuff, so if we go on a Monday, the earliest we can collect will be Thursday, pretty slow actually, especially when you’re running out of clothes sometimes. A few guys work there, and Sean thinks that one of them, the one that probably in charge at the counter, looks like Nat Ho. *shrugs, I don’t know who* And the Nat Ho lookalike thinks my Chinese is bad haha T__T”

It’s true :D

Oh, by now if you’re wondering why I mentioned ‘work’, it’s because we have OT today. Saturdays are usually for rest, and if there’s a need, our company OTs on Sundays, which is the case today. We got there at 10.30am, and I started with the LG70 Baidu page layouts. The fact that the very next day would be the pitch to the client skyrocketed the stress level. I’ve been here for a while, and haven’t gotten used to meeting what is required, what is not, and the way of doing things, hence I felt rather lost when the first layout was rejected by the accounts team.

But one message conveyed very clearly from my Senior designer HL, during the informal review, was that I have to convey my own rationale to them and stay true to my designs if I’m very sure of it; why this colour? Why is this placed here and not there? Why is this better than that? Of course, that wasn’t what he actually told me, but when he said something like, “你来解释给他们听, 说你的想法..” when Lily and Colin were pointing out the changes to be made, I fully understood.

Until now, I have still not gotten used to hearing the word “Redo”, more so the action of redoing, even though I’m a design student. Today was definitely an experience every designer has gone through, or will go through in time to come; to produce something acceptable – commercially – under a very tight schedule..

For some reason, which I assume is the pitch tomorrow, Colin wasn’t hyper and crazy today, not at all. We all worked in the office till about 10pm, Colin made a trip out and brought back packet food, like fried rice, noodles and some other dishes. This was the first time I’ve seen him so serious.

What is it like OTing on Sunday? – feels like crap… when you know you’ve five full working days ahead and when you’re supposed to be at home recharging for that.

[ Expenses ] :
11 (便当), 7.5 (yoghurt), 5 (bottled macha milk tea)

Each morning as we walk to work, we would turn into a road where opposite a condo are convenience stores, a restaurant, a bar and some food stalls. We are usually there by 9.10-15 and a short queue is always present at the mini stall selling their local ‘roti prata’. It only costs 1.5 rmb for an egg prata (it’s called 油煎饼, or more specifically, the one I always buy is called 鸡蛋饼) that doesn’t exactly taste like our prata, but more like kuey and bread and egg with salt and pepper sprinkled on top.

For days, 鸡蛋饼 has been my addiction, and for today I bought yoghurt and bottled coffee to go with it.

It’s the long anticipated Beijing Olympics 2008! The whole of China I assume has been very hyped up about it….. and why didn’t we even get a halfday =.= Sam and Macson’s company gave them a day off just because of the Olympics opening! Haha, that’s just too bad for us. The day’s work included designing the Paypal edm and then the LG70 Baidu page.

I was really tired throughout the whole morning and noon, so I rested in the office while they went for lunch. Sean and Ryan came back soon after, they brought back food to eat in the office. Sean got dumplings soup for me and it was SO DELICIOUS and only 7 rmb for this amount of dumplings.

For dinner, we had Baileys. Ahh no no, I mean, Fionnie went round pouring Baileys for everyone to toast to the Olympics. Moreover, it’s Friday so all of us were practically wrapping up our work by 6pm to leave as soon as possible.

Sin Yew brought us through a shortcut to Fan Yu Road (I think) from the office that cuts through a residential area. There were pretty big traditional Chinese houses in the area, and none of them look the same; all uniquely built. As the sky turned darker, we hurried through the long stretch of road (not exactly short cut huh). There were no street lights at all to illuminate the road at night.

Sean’s friends – Bertram and Bo Chun – arrived and joined us for dinner at a Chinese restaurant opposite 影城 the Shanghai Film City near our house. They got so many cans of beer =.= at C-store downstairs and we got back just in time for the opening ceremony that started at 8pm.

It’s so rare to experience watching Olympics right in the very country it’s held, and the opening ceremony was wayyyyyy grander than I expected! They must have spent a bomb on the fireworks and the really creative props. However, what we saw on tv wasn’t even half the effect of what they planned to achieve because of the angles at which they filmed and the way it was cut.. we were forwarded an email in the next few days that contained images during the opening ceremony that showed the ‘actual’ intended effects, which were much more awesome by the way!

Kudos to the voluntary cheerleaders that cheered from the beginning of the entrance of the first sports team right to the last. This took really long, about 3+ hours, so we all kind of fell asleep waiting for Singapore’s team. Out came Li Jia Wei with the flag and the rest, paraded for a bit and then they moved on.

This 080808 was a memorable one, I don’t even remember watching the Olympics four years ago. Oh yes, Sakurai Sho went to Beijing as part of the News Zero crew to report on the Olympics! OMG lucky Beijing fans! \(`o`)/

…especially when you discover interesting things like these everyday. Seen near the entrance of Red Town, hohoho.

This is the view when we are at the 4th storey outside our office entrance. The alley resembles a residential area but is in fact a path that leads to many design related companies.

Half the day went by for me without being allocated any work, so I took the liberty to relax and surf a bit and be totally unproductive XD For brainstorming on LG70’s concept, HL, Vincent and Ryan didn’t go to the meeting room but brought us to the design library instead. On entering, I was AWED by the interior design that seemed more like a design space or a showroom than a ‘library’ that I had imagined it to be.

I said ‘showroom’ because of the facilities there were within the space: stoves, sinks, ovens, the very cool hidden refrigerator (the door makes up part of the pillar), sofas and more. I mean, wow, you can even cook here…

for the people holding meetings up there, lol!

Who’s so kind as to not want to harm a fly? Not me. Though I’m not the culprit, cos I don’t own a lighter. The flies here are big and fat and they react much slower, so you’ll be able to catch one with your hands. So if you can catch one without letting it fly away before your hand even reaches within 30cm of it (back home I think flies are destined to live if we don’t own fly swatters), you can definitely do this.

Random shot of Sean,

and more of Red Town. See if you can spot The Coffee Bean right at the end.

As Red Town is still under development, many ruins and construction areas can be seen, and there are also the workers’ quarters. These workers can be spotted doing their laundry (like in this picture), moving things around, resting under the shade etc.

I heard from Sam that now is the melon season, a good time to cool yourself down with watermelons amidst the summer heat. 10 rmb for one :3

Back in the office, the informal meeting (objective: to look for inspiration in creative commercial ads) turned into a crapping session, with Mr See *erhem* shooting dirty jokes way too often.

1. Hilarious Indian ad about chewing gum. MUST WATCH: click!
2. Bridgestone; a doggy’s love story: click!
3. “To every little good thing in life, Cheers!” Funny Thai ads, three versions in one: click!
4. Sperm bank….. click!

Remember I talked about our designer colleague Ryan whom Sean things resembles, or rather looks better than, Jay Chou? He has a very unique name: Duan Mu Zhuan Long 端木专龙 where Duan Mu is his family name and his hometown is in Nanjing. It’s like a name you can find only in 武侠小说!

Silly Colin aka Mr See (a nickname given by me and Sean) pretending to be some statue and Ryan’s offering imaginary incense T____T” But I really have to agree that the office won’t be as fun without Colin around =) By the way, he’s a freelance accounts manager, and Singaporean. He’s been here for two months after spending two months in Beijing and will leave at the end of August, owwww.

After the meeting, we all found some time to WIIIIIIII! There’s a huge LCD TV opposite the meeting room just for playing Wii and Xbox. This was the first time I played, and had a game of tennis with Colin. Motion sensor! Damn cool! Let’s see if I can get the videos up..

The afternoon sky was very clear and blue, the perfect colour for relaxation. Playtime was soon over, followed by another serious meeting on Paypal which turned a little sour near the end.

Although I didn’t have much work, the stress level was equally high. Had to eat so much to keep me going, lol.

OT was until 11pm, the latest so far. I don’t know they suddenly started playing chapteh… oh yes, this is Vincent our copywriter and he’s 26 (and close to getting married!). Bet you can’t tell haha!

[ Expenses ] :
17 rmb (biscuits from the bakery), 5 rmb (milk), 1.5 rmb (油煎饼), …. ???

Backache again! I must make sure I never visit massage palours ever again. Arrrrgh. For the Nike project, Sean had to meet Joe near Zhong Shan Park to conduct an interview with the four interviewees in the morning. That means, this would be my first time walking to office alone. Alone! I was rather nervous, afraid that I’ll make a wrong turn at the wrong junction and hence be lost forever in my unfamiliarity of the Huai Hai Xi area in Shanghai :D

Here’s what I had for breakfast: sandwich and milk from the bakery. The ‘ham’ in the sandwich tasted like vegetarian ham, artificial and weird. Other than that, I love how they package the milk! Entices me to drink it every day :D I’m a sucker for dairy products, oh yes, big time.

The two new NUS business interns enters our company today; our boss Leo was already showing them around (not that our office was big or anything) by the time I got there at about 9.30am. They were Sin En and Jolene, I exchanged a few lines with them about school, work and I vividly remember Sin En asking me to please teach her photoshop if I’m willing to after working hours, LOL. Two more Singaporeans in addition to the four already here; Sean, Sin Yew, Colin and myself. If you think it’s just us and the Shanghainese, nope you’re very wrong. Leo is Taiwanese, the previous boss was Singaporean, the CEO is American, the rest of our colleagues are (except a few) non-Shanghainese, that means they are from different parts of China.

Including Jolene and Sin En, we all went to Chen Family restaurant 陈家 for lunch, the very place Sean and I lunched at on our second day here. Sin En is such an outgoing person.. I always think (and its probably true) the ability to speak up boldly is one of the important criteria of entering university. She came from JC while Jolene came from Ngee Ann Poly, though both of them are in year 2 of uni. Jolene looks ‘tougher’, but is also a very easy-going person.

Sean came back to the office some time after lunch and had to transcribe the interviews in both English and Mandarin! Tough job! We got some time to mix around with both of them a bit, and we all clicked in no time =)

We got to go off quite early, around 7+, when the sun was just setting. Since it’s their first day in the company, Sean and I joined them for dinner at a Chinese restaurant near our workplace.

Huge menu mounted on the wall.

Jolene and Sin En. And dinnaaaar! Rice (they call it 米饭), fried egg with prawns, meat and vinegar, broccoli and herbal chicken soup. Decent food, but bad service. *grrrrrrr*