BioChicago2006

View of Chicago from the pier

First ever trip to the US and I got Chicago. Mighty huge place. Would explain the reason why we got lost most of the time. They say Chicago is a better place to visit than Detroit though San Francisco is much better. Both of these latter places are much smaller though compared to Chicago city area. Everything went smoothly in terms of flight and immigrations despite me having a name with a BIN. The hickup occured on the day of arrival when I nearly lost my marbles due to a nearly missing passport. Thank god a kind and gentle soul saved me when she returned my jacket with the passport inside (got a scolding too..."You left your passport outside!!"). Thanks miss... (i assume she was a miss).


Anyway, we were there to attend an industrial event, Bio2006, which was held at the McCormick Place (seen here - looks empty but wait till you get in). This building too is huge one - 2.2million sq ft of exhibit space, apparently the biggest in the nation. Whats up with that..big city, big convention centres, big cars, big meals...ok I'll stop there. And going back to the building, they're in the midst of completing a whole new McCormick west side!! All 470,00 sq feet of it! Man, if you have to go from the west to the east I think you're legs will dislodge.



The event itself went very smoothly. Our company booth was located in the Malaysian pavillion which was designed to resemble the DNA's double-helical structure though you can't really see that from the picture. It was rather amusing that whenever the minister for MOSTI was around, that was the time you see the pavillion swarming with delegates and the press. Speaking of the press, our marketing guy who is supposed to be a hit with the ladies got snubbed by a female reporter for TV3. We all felt the rejection..lol.



After the 3 day event, we only took 1 day extra to be in Chicago. There are many things to see in Chicago like the Aquarium and the lookout point atop the Sears Tower but upon my colleagues request we ended up going to the Field Museum of Natural History. Though it sounds dreary, it was quite a good place to visit. In the mainhall stood Sue, supposedly the world's largest and most complete T-Rex. After the museum we took a stroll along Michigan Avenue where all the outlets were. This ended up with dinner at a Thai restauraunt in Bloomingdale's where the Thai ladies were very friendly. Ahem! Anyway, as a whole it was a good trip even though it was for work purposes. People in Chicago are friendly and very helpful bunch. There's lots more to tell but I can only afford an abridged version (I can hear sighs of relief).

View of the Chicago city line through a window in the Field Museum

Friends of mine, please visit www.flickr.com/photos/azerila for more pictures.

The excursion

Tis' a very belated posting on the events of early April 2006. And this is mainly a post to share pictures of the excursion me and my colleagues had to Bukit Cahaya, SA, Malaysia. Being on April fool, the pranks started early with Aunty PD but being the cautious person that I am, the prank failed. Better luck next time ya!


To the left is a view of the main house at the Malay Kampung. We all rented bicylcles to navigate through the whole area. I don't know about the other lot, but it was really quite tough going up roads with almost a 45 degree gradient. Felt it in my thighs right through the next day! This is much better than going on those stationary bikes at the gym, at least there's a view here. Well, there are 'views' at the gym too but that another story altogether now.... This whole excursion ended up taking us more than half a day but it was a great day indeed amongst friends..heck I see them everyday at work that they almost feel like family now. Anyway, pictures speak a thousand words so I'll leave the pics below to tell the story.....

Disclaimer: These photos are taken with the SE (not SM's relative ya..) k750i. Please visit here to view better pics taken by my colleague who's a much better photographer and more fully equiped (if you can read Chinese, it would help)