The last week or so, I've been Hotel-hopping. Having been evicted from my apartment on two days notice, it was unsurprisingly a little bit difficult for me to find suitable accommodations on such short notice.
// Start Back Story
The back story is that I "accidentally" signed a 6 month lease with Marriott Execustay. Unfortunately, my sensitive allergies were flaring up in the apartment and I was needing to get fully doped up on antihistamines to get through each day.
Marriott had no problem with me leaving the apartment, but would keep me rent obligated if a new tenant could not be found. I was beginning to lose hope that i would be stuck for the remaining months in this apartment, however, on the 30th of March, I was duly informed that a new tenant had been found and that i had to GTFO by the 1st of April..... YAY!
Unfortunately, it is a little bit challenging to get an apartment on short notice, and i had to go through the proper channels to secure a new lease. This means waiting for strategic sourcing blah blah blah to do their thing.
In the meantime, it meant i had to find a hotel to stay in. The only hotel which could accommodate me was none other than the W Hotel New York. FANCEE ...
The hotel room was an absolute shoebox, but i got by for the week. On Sunday, my rate was going to go up significantly, so to be considerate, i changed hotels to the Element by Westin in Times Square West. I had my first glimpse of how it felt to live on the west side :)
// End Back Story
Anyway, I went skiing this weekend and I was pretty tired. It was the morning after my first night in the hotel... When I woke up, I went to the bathroom to put on my face for work. My bathroom has a full length mirror on the door and in my half awoken state, i reached out to push the door open. I was confronted by a dark image reaching out to me. I make no excuses, but I had no lights on and it was quite dark. To summarise ... here is a graphical re-enactment.
I can honestly say, that my heart skipped a beat and concurrently, i brown pants-ed myself, perhaps just a teaspoon, but a change of underwear was nevertheless necessary. Please note that some embellishment has taken place ... the part about my heart skipping a beat that is ...
Monday, 11 April 2011
Friday, 1 April 2011
Accident
So ... apparently, every time i go on a business trip, I'm involved in some vehicular accident.
This trip is no different. SNAFU
After an excessive amount of time had elapsed since my last hair cut (as usual), I finally grew tired of the jokes and decided to get my hair cut. A few of my US colleagues remarked that they thought there were several birds nesting inside my hair. I reasoned that i could potentially be destroying a habitat ... by the thrifty side of me realised that i was expending too much product ... so to hell with the birds. which reminds me... here's a funny clip of birds...
I ask around to see whether anyone has got a hairdresser that they recommended. Unfortunately, almost everyone on my team is from out of town, so it's a hopeless cause. One recommends yelp.com, so i go and start reading through some reviews and settle on a hairdresser.
Due to the popularity of this particular hairdresser , it was difficult to get a booking and so i settled for a thursday at 5:30pm.
Come thursday, I intended to leave at 4:50 to catch the subway. Unfortunately, due to some unexpected work shenanigans, I didn't manage to walk away from desk until well after 5. Keen to keep my appointment, i tried to hail a cab outside my client's offices. Unfortunately, it was raining and the yellow cabs were in high demand. I settled for one of the town cars that do a flat rate service (and rip you off a little).
Anyway, i tell him where i want to go and we're on our way.
We make about 5 or 6 cross streets, and then I hear him yell "OH SH!T"... accompanied by the slamming of the brakes. The car fish tails a little on account of the rain and then there is a loud thud....
In slow motion, I hear a scream from outside the car and i see a bicycle flying up over the car and then hitting the back windshield and scraping the boot of the car.
People around us are screaming, yelling and swearing and accusing different individuals of being maniacs.
My driver clearly needs to go check on the situation and he tells me to stay in the cab and not to get out. Then i look out the front windshield and there's a crowd gathering around the back of dump truck. All I can think is, sh1t, she's a goner.
A minute passes and then the crowd starts to part. I thought I was dreaming, but then I see people helping the cyclist out of the dump truck. I didn't know whether to raff out roud or not. I mean sure, it's never cool to be hit by a car, but to be hit by a car and launched into a dump truck? I think that's very well rehearsed choreography ... the "eat sh1t" type of choreography.
Now the accusations start flying ... one minute passes, two minute passes, three ... now i'm getting impatient. i have an appointment to get to and I'll admit, the impatience that many New Yorkers have is rubbing off on me. haha ... who am I kidding, we all know that is bollocks and that I have always been impatient.
Then the police come along. Then it turns into a multi way shouting match ... I move to get out of the car, the driver then yells at me, "i'm almost done here. STAY IN THE CAR".
I'm completely baffled as to what I should do. I start playing scenarios through in my mind on how i can get to my appointment on time. But true to his word, the driver returns moments later and we're on our way.
What seemed to take an eternity to sort out, turned out to be 15 minutes. In the end, the police officer negotiated some sort of agreement whereby, no one got anything. The cyclist ran a red light, so was at fault. Her bicycle was mangled, but the driver's bumper was dented and his boot scratched. Essentially everyone walked away a little bit sore and with a little bit more adrenaline pumping through their system.
About an hour later, i walked out with my hair cut and went back to start what would become a 100+ hour work week.
This trip is no different. SNAFU
After an excessive amount of time had elapsed since my last hair cut (as usual), I finally grew tired of the jokes and decided to get my hair cut. A few of my US colleagues remarked that they thought there were several birds nesting inside my hair. I reasoned that i could potentially be destroying a habitat ... by the thrifty side of me realised that i was expending too much product ... so to hell with the birds. which reminds me... here's a funny clip of birds...
I ask around to see whether anyone has got a hairdresser that they recommended. Unfortunately, almost everyone on my team is from out of town, so it's a hopeless cause. One recommends yelp.com, so i go and start reading through some reviews and settle on a hairdresser.
Due to the popularity of this particular hairdresser , it was difficult to get a booking and so i settled for a thursday at 5:30pm.
Come thursday, I intended to leave at 4:50 to catch the subway. Unfortunately, due to some unexpected work shenanigans, I didn't manage to walk away from desk until well after 5. Keen to keep my appointment, i tried to hail a cab outside my client's offices. Unfortunately, it was raining and the yellow cabs were in high demand. I settled for one of the town cars that do a flat rate service (and rip you off a little).
Anyway, i tell him where i want to go and we're on our way.
We make about 5 or 6 cross streets, and then I hear him yell "OH SH!T"... accompanied by the slamming of the brakes. The car fish tails a little on account of the rain and then there is a loud thud....
In slow motion, I hear a scream from outside the car and i see a bicycle flying up over the car and then hitting the back windshield and scraping the boot of the car.
People around us are screaming, yelling and swearing and accusing different individuals of being maniacs.
I confess, while I made all these observations, it did take me a little while to react. It probably took me about half a minute before i thought "crap, my driver has just killed a cyclist". I believe the new version of Angry Birds is to blame for the tardiness in my reaction time.
My driver clearly needs to go check on the situation and he tells me to stay in the cab and not to get out. Then i look out the front windshield and there's a crowd gathering around the back of dump truck. All I can think is, sh1t, she's a goner.
A minute passes and then the crowd starts to part. I thought I was dreaming, but then I see people helping the cyclist out of the dump truck. I didn't know whether to raff out roud or not. I mean sure, it's never cool to be hit by a car, but to be hit by a car and launched into a dump truck? I think that's very well rehearsed choreography ... the "eat sh1t" type of choreography.
Now the accusations start flying ... one minute passes, two minute passes, three ... now i'm getting impatient. i have an appointment to get to and I'll admit, the impatience that many New Yorkers have is rubbing off on me. haha ... who am I kidding, we all know that is bollocks and that I have always been impatient.
Then the police come along. Then it turns into a multi way shouting match ... I move to get out of the car, the driver then yells at me, "i'm almost done here. STAY IN THE CAR".
I'm completely baffled as to what I should do. I start playing scenarios through in my mind on how i can get to my appointment on time. But true to his word, the driver returns moments later and we're on our way.
What seemed to take an eternity to sort out, turned out to be 15 minutes. In the end, the police officer negotiated some sort of agreement whereby, no one got anything. The cyclist ran a red light, so was at fault. Her bicycle was mangled, but the driver's bumper was dented and his boot scratched. Essentially everyone walked away a little bit sore and with a little bit more adrenaline pumping through their system.
About an hour later, i walked out with my hair cut and went back to start what would become a 100+ hour work week.
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