Back in Singapore preparing to go to Hong Kong, Toyko, Kyoto and Osaka!
January 2-4, 2019
Our Japan Airlines flights from Chicago to Toyko and then to Singapore arriving after midnight on January 4 were good. Since Japan Airlines is a One World partner with American and I usually use an Aviator Mastercard, my last trip had given me “Platinum” status so our Pittsburgh flights to Chicago were upgraded to first class and I now earn more miles and am eligible for free domestic upgrades and use of some international airport lounges so I hope to take advantage of that when I return to the US or try to use dividend miles when I can! Kind of getting spoiled with this business and first class but want to enjoy them while we can!
Japan Airlines Business Class.
When I first drafted this section of the blog I was going to just comment that the trip back was pretty uneventful and I was going to start reporting on new activities occurring in Singapore and as we prepared for other Asia destinations such as Hong Kong, Toyko and Cambodia. But then as I started covering those days and some mishaps with injuries and lost and found items, that led me to filling out so many notes pages on list items that I even saved those on a separate report. And then I remembered that there had been some list and found drama even on the January 2-4 return flight to Singapore.
So, rather than report on all the lost items and injuries at one time, I will try to intersperse then by date as they happened or are happening (although as I continue to learn my lessons maybe they will totally stop? Doubtful but we will see.)
So I will report on the incidents using the format of Date: Lost Item # (this will be cumulative), and Story:
And since this venture started late in October and the first injury and lost item started in November 3, I will recap that also since some of you may have missed that report in one of my initial posts.
Date: November 3 2018
Lost Item#1
Aviator MasterCard
Location: Marina Bay Sands Singapore
Story: After a great day touring Singapore on November 3, 2018, my 4th day in the country.
Injury #1 Ankle
Story: Fell while walking after leg fell asleep at Marina Bay Sands Restaurant while watching a laser light show. Ended up at Singapore General Hospital with sprained ankle but was in and out seeing a doctor, getting an x-ray and medicine and paying 121 Singapore dollars (90 USD) with my MasterCard that I use to pay for everything including many automatic charges in Pittsburgh like cable tv, cell phones etc.
MasterCard lost and never found after paying the bill at Singapore General Hospital payment window. I keep monitoring it online and no unauthorized charges have appeared so I never reposted it lost or stolen.
Date: January 4
Lost item #2; Iphone:
Location: Japan Airlines flight Toyko to Singapore
Story: After we arrived from Toyko in Singapore just after midnight and were waiting at baggage claim I reached in my pocket to call our driver Kenneth Oon who was waiting for us and realized my phone was missing. After having the baggage guy call someone who was on the plane I gave them both my seat number and Susan’s as I had switched seats with her during the flight. After initially saying they couldn’t find it, I had the food fortune of them calling back and saying they found it stuck in a seat. They brought it out after only a 20 minute delay and when I tried to tip the guy who found it and the baggage guy neither wound accept anything. I felt greatly relieved as I use the phone for everything including all the pictures and text for this blog! After enduring some rolled eyes and comments from Susan and self-chastising, I assured myself that my absent mindedness, forgetfulness, lack of focus or stupidity was a “thing of the past.”
This lasted until we got to our apartment…
Date: January 4
Lost Item: Ainope Portable Charger, Case and Cable
Location: Japan Airlines flight Toyko to Singapore
Story: For Christmas Jennifer bought me a nice charger for my iPhone that could recharge the phone several times before the charger had to be recharged itself. I had never bought a new battery for my phone even after Apple gave some discounts because I didn’t want to lose my photos and hadn’t figured out how to download them to my computer so this was a real godsend! The charger was about 2 inches by 3 inches and was very sturdy and came in a slightly bigger case that held a charging cable and even had a small compartment inside so I started using it as a wallet also where It kept my Singapore ID card, my bus pass, my Citizens Bank debit card and even some money. It even fit in my front pocket but was a bit bulky. So while on the plane from Toyko I took it out and I think left it in one of the seat pockets.
In any event, after we got home on Wednesday morning, January 4, I realized it was missing.
The next day I called Japan Airlines lost and found and reported it missing. Luckily they had found it but it was in Toyko. So they put it on the plane landing in Singapore just after midnight on Friday morning and I took the mass transit train to the airport on Friday and picked it up – all contents intact! Once again I reprimanded myself but related this to the same incident where I lost my phone but wasn’t too worried about it because I was turning over a new leaf! Until Janaury 11 that is…
January 4, 2019
After several hours of sleeping in Singapore we caught up with some news including finding out that it was a good thing we weren’t in Thailand due to heavy flooding, but we do plan someday go to Bangkok (two hour flight)and perhaps a resort area such as Phuket (90 minute flight) or historic Chang Mai where they also have an elephant preserve. I think my youngest daughter Meg and her graduate school roommate Holly may go to several Thailand places when they visit us during early March so we hope to share notes.
In the the evening on January 4 we made our way across the street to the quiet more historic Emerald Hill Road where this time we tried Que Pasa, the wine restaurant. This place is nice but is not to be confused with the Que Pasa we encountered in Kyoto which I plan to discuss on the 27 January blog day.
Saturday January 5
After still being a bit groggy from jet lag we ventured by bus to a fun area called Robertson Quay which is on the water and has a lot of restaurants but is a bit quieter and I think a bit more classy than Boat Quay or Clarke Quay, which are also nice but more crowded and expensive. My friend Tom Blythe really enjoyed Robertson Quay when he lived in Singapore a few years ago. We had bit of trouble getting there as we took the right bus but in the wrong direction but had fun seeing some new sites.
Once we got to Robertson Quay we had a nice Mexican dinner at Super Loco.
Monday Jan 7 – Tuesday Jan 8
Susan returned to work and to her long workdays both at the office and with evening calls back to London, New York and Pittsburgh while I continued to recover from jet lag (but not as bad as the first time!), did some reading and started swimming and walking a bit more. I found out that Singapore was starting to get ready for the Lunar New Year (aka “Chinese New Year”) which this year is “The Year of the Pig.” It lasts a while but is primarily celebrated in Singapore on February 5-6 when Susan’s office is closed.
When the office is closed we plan to go to Siem Riep Cambodia, tour the Angkor Wat temples and stay at the Sojourn Villas Resort recommended by Tom Blythe who stayed there a few years ago when he was on a temporary 4 month assignment in Singapore when he was the VP of Tax for Jabil Circuits near Tampa-St. Petersburg Florida. (Sorry had to wet (or is it whet?) the appetite for a future blog…).
I met Tom Blythe a few years ago at some MAPI tax meetings and he and I did a joint tax panel discussion on “Communicating with the Audit Committee”
While I really appreciated his keen tax knowledge and advice, what I really liked was getting to know Tom socially as I played golf with him at Mission Hills in Florida shortly after retiring when I also visited Sharon Cassidy and Scott Creveling during my “Mooch Tour” where I stayed with friends for free or for free golf, etc.
I really liked Tom’s housing and travel advice (“You worked hard over the years and deserve flying Business Class to Asia”) which has been invaluable to me, so thank you Tom!
(And now a switch to more serious stuff and life lessons as thinking of Tom got me started on the next epistles.)
CAREER LIFE LESSONS FOR YOUNGER BLOG READERS
While I probably just gave it, I’d like to reiterate some advice for those younger blog readers (and I know there are many of you out there!) who are getting ready to begin a career or those who are in the early career stages or even those who have been working a while and are getting more responsibility or opportunities to network within or outside of your organizations.
1. Seize opportunities to connect and get to know others within and outside of your normal job when possible.
2. Join other organizations related to your work area and volunteer for leadership positions. Sure, some extra effort is required on your part, perhaps even in your “free time” or within your “balanced lifestyle” time but the benefits can be enormous both professionally and socially.
3. Even though times are tough, document the benefits you receive from outside group participation and let your boss know about them. While you can’t go to every meeting or seminar, proving the value of these contacts can help keep the benefits coming even in hard times.
4. As you become more experienced share your knowledge and let others also network either with you or on their own.
For example, I was asked by my former bosses Jim Bodfish and Ralph Denney to join Tax Executives Institute when I only had five years of experience. For a while I just thought it was some old guys getting together for drinks and dinner but as I got more involved and saw my bosses bouncing ideas off of colleagues at other companies and me meeting more senior people when I volunteered to be a Committee chairman and obtain outside speakers, it helped me develop in my career and I stayed friends many others for years and rose through the ranks to become President of the Pittsburgh Chapter, Vice President of Region IV of the National Chapter, Distinguished Service Award Recipient, etc. Again while this took some of my free time, the benefits weren’t in the titles or in getting to travel a bit. The benefits were in getting tips and experience to do my job better and progress in my career and in getting ideas that literally saved my company millions of dollars, a large portion of which I do not believe would have been realized by me or others without the networking within or outside the company.
I experienced similar benefits over the years in uncovering tax saving ideas and best practice ideas through membership and leadership positions at MAPI, FEI and AISI.
For example in AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) on numerous occasions my co-worker Michael Monteith and I would find out other company planning ideas and audit experiences that again saved millions, some of which happened from casual conversations following formal meetings.
The same results happened in these and other groups with Mike Prendergast, John Dougherty, Rich Snyder, Scott Creveling, Scott Krebs, Mark Hoover, Cindy Clemens, Lisa McShea, Mashawn Lorenz, Gary Walsh and other co-workers.
And over the years my many bosses such as Mike Prendergast, Ralph Denney, John Mills, John Rowland and Gretchen Haggerty understood these benefits and let me and others continue to participate in organizations and attend meetings and seminars even when times were tough.
While there is a lot to me said for original thinking, remember that not all knowledge resides with you or those within your company!
You more seasoned blog readers obviously know these things and also know that often it is the senior person in a group that often gets the conferences and networking opportunities. And groups are sometimes limited to heads of a department. I profess to sometimes hogging some of the meetings and nice venues and I apologize when I did. But I also know there are benefits to sometimes taking more than one person to kick around ideas or to just let them go in your place or get them involved in subgroups or in other ways.
And to you less experienced people, don’t be shy about asking to become more active in outside meetings or conferences or asking if you could attend some internal meetings your bosses go to so you can better help them, help the company and help your development. During a performance review or check-in with your boss maybe float the idea of attending more meetings whether or not you are asked about your future plans. Just assure your supervisor that you will not let the additional work interfere with your normal duties.
While not every contact “pays off” you never know when they will. I’m proud of the fact that some of my former staff such as Mark Hoover, Cindy Clemens and Janelle Gabbinelli continue to move up in the ranks at TEI, encouraged by Scott Creveling.
(Wow, I think I forgot that this was supposed to be a fun travel blog, not a retirement speech? But this can be what happens at 35,000 feet on the way back to Singapore on Tuesday January 29. Or perhaps I should have saved it for my book “Hollingsworth Stories.” But that book is also supposed to be about some of my more comical mishaps over the years. So what the hell – it is my blog anyway so you can take or leave that advice or roll your eyes and skim over it as many of you have done to get to this point!) Now, onward!
January 11 – Honesty in Singapore!
Ok, back to the Hollingsworth mishaps you’ve been waiting for!
Date: January 11
Lost item #4
Ainope Portable Charger, Case
and Cable and cash and credit card and bus pass and ID card.
Location: Singapore Clarke Quay Cafe Iguana and Jumbo Seafood
Story: After the end of our first week back I suggested that Susan and I meet at one of our favorite Mexican places “Cafe Iguana” on Clare Quay which is next to Jumbo Seafood where we had the chili and black pepper crab with her coworkers last year. We had a very nice dinner with margaritas (which may have been part of the problem that arose later.)
Susan was going to the place from work and I took the subway MRT train to meet her. Unfortunately I googled the wrong Jumbo Seafood so ended up at Boat Quay instead of Clarke Quay so I ended up with about a half mile walk. But it was fun as I’d never seen Boat Quay which was a very busy nightlife touristy kind of area that Susan had told me about before. As she noted the prices were fairly high and lots of workers were trying to get people to stop in their bars or restaurants for happy hour. Here are some sights as I walked around the water to Clarke Quay which in the last photo is across the water toward Susan’s building in the background that is pyramid shaped and lit up.
Ironically as I got near the restaurant on the other side to the MRT station where I should have gotten off the train I ran into Susan who had taken a train from near her office.
So we made our way to Cafe Iguana where we first sat at the bar and were later moved to a nice table near the water.
Following dinner we went up the escalator to the bathrooms near Jumbo Seafood. They had some nice automatic massage chairs outside so I remember putting in a 2 dollar bill while I vibrated and waited for Susan.
We then made our way to the MRT station which was perhaps a quarter mile away and then a bit further into the station where we got ready to use our train cards to go through the gates and that’s when I realized I didn’t have my case that held my charger and cables and my train card and my apartment card and several hundred dollars as I’d just gone to an ATM earlier in the day. After a few moments of looking and panicking I realized that I’d likely left it in the massage chair where it had either vibrated out of my pocket or I’d taken it out because it was not comfortable. Susan was obviously not happy but she told me to stay while she went back and looked since she was faster and my ankle was still bothering me from the Injury #1 and Lost Item #1 incidents on November 3, 2018. So while she looked I leaned against a railing trying to think how it happened and because I was tired.
After about 10 minute a guy stopped by and asked if I was “OK” and I said yes just a sprained ankle and that my wife was looking for my wallet.
After another 10 minutes Susan texted me (yes I had my phone) and told me the case wasn’t in the recliner and that she was going to Cafe Iguana and Jumbo Seafood to look for it and report that it was missing.
THEN THE SINGAPORE HONESTY AND GOOD DEED MOMENT!!
After about another 15 minutes while Susan was still looking and I was still leaning against a railing in the MRT station I heard a voice: “Sir, what is your name?” I said “James Hollingsworth” and then two young women with glasses that looked like they were in their early 20’s handed me my Singapore Dependant Pass (remember that is how they spell “dependent”) with my photo on it and my case with my transit pass, apartment card for Pan Pacific Serviced Suites and every dollar of the money I had in it.
I was very happy and tried to give them a 100 Singapore Dollar Bill (worth about 75 USD) but they refused to take it and headed to their train. They told me they found it in the recliner and had tried to turn it in but the restaurants were closed.
I texted Susan and we made our way back catching the last train in our apartment direction just after midnight. We were so fortunate that the women had found it and we thought even more fortunate that they happened to be using the same train station and that they recognized me on their way to the train! So it seems that I sometimes have bad luck (or maybe bad actions or inactions) followed by good luck!
And to top it off when we arrived at our apartment, the receptionist told us that the women had ready called and left a phone number saying that they had found it and noticed the apartment card with its phone number on the card. I didn’t get their names but I think I may write a note to the newspaper for their Good Samaritan section that I noticed they publish on occasion such as when someone found a couple’s 3,500 dollar winning drawing ticket in a train and tracked down the owner using the train’s video cameras. So thank you ladies and thank you Singapore as I wonder if this would have happened in many other places! (And, spoiler alert – it didn’t happen with Lost Items #5-7 in Hong Kong that I plan to report on in the Hong Kong Blog for January 23, 2019.)
January 12
Bedrock Steakhouse
With my newfound wealth after losing my wallet and recovering it I decided to treat Susan to dinner at Bedrock, the nice looking steakhouse just below our lobby to our apartment. We had always been curious about it as the smells wafted through the building but we were reluctant since the steaks were like 109 Singapore dollars each, which translates to 81 USD. But we bit the bullet but split one and had a large dessert. Both were great but we really liked the atmosphere and our smiling waitress Jennifer whom we told we’d introduce to our Jennifer when she visits on February 26 to March 1.
January 13-17
While Susan worked I visited the bowling alley in the mall next to us and hit a few eating places and returned to my weight training at The Pit but spent most of my time making travel arrangements for our upcoming trips to Hong Kong and Toyko with side trips to Kyoto and Osaka. This will do it after the pictures until the next blog about those trips! Jim Hollingsworth
Singapore Travel Blog 