Blunders galore

I nearly missed my flight back from Hong Kong to KLIA. Probably had spent too much time in the Business Class Lounge. I was chatting and having a coffee at the comfortable lounge. Fortunately, the departure gate is just above the lounge, so I had made it in time. But strangely, I couldn't find my flight ticket now that I am at home. I need the copy of it to claim my missing frequent flyer miles. Goddamn. What it means now is that around 5000 miles went missing and I'll have no other way to get those miles or ticket number back. It's also a hassle not to be able to claim Cathay Pacific miles when checking in flights that depart from the Bahrain airport. I don't know what's wrong with that airport. Suddenly the company just doesn't allow it.
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After doing the usual which is unpacking my stuffs, I had found many Bahrain coins. I have around 10 of them which after conversion to Ringgit Malaysia, amounts to RM 10.00. That's quite a lot in terms of value for it to be lying around now in a worthless state.
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I am officially unemployed now. The good thing is, I wouldn't need to get up early and be stucked in the traffic and face mundane tasks or stuck up people. No need to work. I'll be visiting friends to catch up and have a good rest to charge up the batteries before the next wave of challenge and stress comes along.

Cooking up

The goddamn apartment's compressor unit is condemned yet again. The apartment is all stuffy and humid. Why are we paying them RM 5000 for the rent every month?

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Internet connection in the apartment is abysmal. Sigh. That's the only available resource which doesn't have any filtering. The internet access in office is adequately fast, however, the proxy server now basically blocks a huge list of keywords, websites and also IMs. Even Meebo was blocked but luckily, I was still able to access it via direct IP connection. Hope they don't find that out soon enough before I leave this place for good.

Living the rich - a jakun entry

I have had the provision to check in to my flight at the Business Class counter at KLIA yesterday (which means no queue). That is one of the benefits from the upgrade of my frequent flyer club to Marco Polo Silver tier. And my luggages were tagged with the Business Class priority tag which means I will no longer have to wait that long, which could sometimes be quite aggravating, for my luggage to arrive on the belt. I was also given an invitation pass to the KLIA Business Class Lounge and also for HKIA Business Class Lounge as my flight transits at HKIA.

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The HKIA Business Class lounge was astounding. It is the best that I have been to. Actually I have only been to 3 other airport lounges. After handing in the invitation pass, my colleague, Teh and I proceeded to roam around the swanky but rather conservative looking lounges. We ended up in one of the available rooms, the Noodles Room. As the name would suggest, it is a noodles restaurant. The interior is just like a mid to high-end restaurant and we ordered Japanese Noodles and Wan Tan Mee. We were given a coaster like tag which blinks in red LEDS when our order is ready for collection. I then surveyed the drinks section, ignoring the coffee and tea section. There were fresh juices and a selection of various soft drinks and beers. I grabbed for myself an Asahi. We had Shanghainese Pao and fresh orange juice after finishing our noodles.

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I then surveyed around looking at the Wifi section, the long bar (for cocktail and liquors), the luggage section, telephone rooms, shower rooms, before settling in the Games Room. There were 2 Grand Turismo sets complete with Sparco Seats, steering wheel and foot pedals. Teh and I tried to hook up a Vs game between ourselves but to no avail. There were several other cubicles with leather sofas and personal headphones for other PlayStation 2 games.

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Later on, I was reading some magazines whilst resting on the leather sofas in one of the lounges when Teh came and asked me whether I would be interested for a second helping of the noodles. His reason was for us to be full so that we won't have to eat the horrible plane food later on which I sort of agree to. Little did we know what would be coming.

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We came to realise we might be late for our flight. We quickly walked towards our departing gate and saw the staffs ostentatiously looking around and when they spot us, they greet us by name and one of the staffs there were rather in a hurried mode and visibly pissed especially when he said "Please be on time!".

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Our boarding passes were exchanged with Business Class seats. Woah! The bonanza of that is actually on the duration of the flight. 9+ hours. That's surely a bliss.

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I was surprised when I was greeted to by name by the stewardess. The dinner serving came soon after take off. I was already full from the earlier second helping of noodles. The first appetizer was lobster meat! Then the dinner tray came with second appetizer of salmon slices and cheese salad. There were also personal salt and pepper shakers and steel utensils unlike the plastic ones given on economy class seats. There were also 3 glasses meant for three different drinks. I requested for champagne and mineral water. After the main course and the dessert, I was given pralines too.

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The seat were big and the reclining of the seat can be done more significantly than the odd and limited angle that I am more used to. That's a huge plus on comfort not to mention, the leg rest extension was really helpful for the trip. So that's why the ticket came to about RM 6000 which is twice the price of an economy class'. Fortunately I got mine for free. Till today, I still wonder why was I given the upgrade. It could be either because I was late or due to my Marco Polo membership. Either way, the complimentary upgrade was great.

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End of jakun entry.