So I’m here in my hotel room on a boring Sunday afternoon on what is supposed to be summer and yet it’s 14C outside and drizzling.

Earlier, I walked around the area hoping to get some calories burning.   But even after 8km, I haven’t broken a sweat so decided to come back to the hotel.   Took some pictures, posted them in facebook, now here I am.  Again nothing to do.

The pace here is sloooow though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  If my family was here with me, then the pace here is just right.  They sure know what work-life balance means around here unlike in Singapore.

It’s funny though that I had a hard time getting a sim card with a data plan.  I asked a few people from the office where to get one and nobody seemed to know where to get one.  When I even asked one colleague where I can find a sim card that could connect me to the internet, she gave me a polite but disgusted look and basically said she wouldn’t know.  Turns out, over beer,  she hates the iphone or probably any sort of gadget that lets you be “connected” all the time .  She even hit her head on the table when I said the iphone is a very useful phone when you live in Singapore.  She says she doesn’t get why people had to have to their maps on the phone when it takes a shorter time to just point to the map.  The problem with us Asians is we always feel like we don’t have time and we’re always in a hurry and all that …

I suppose she didn’t realize that the iphone or whatever phone with apps will let me call my family cheaper because I can call with the data plan.  I actually told her that if I lived here then I would understand why you wouldn’t need an iphone.  And I wanted to say that for her I suppose since she speaks German she doesn’t need google translate but I do.  I need a map too – an online one because if you know how to use an online map it may actually be much faster to use.

Oh, and plus my iphone has Gigabytes of photos and videos of my family so I don’t have to miss them so terribly.  You don’t have that with your 5110.

And I would swear by the iPad too.  In moderation, it’s a good educational tool for toddlers and yet my son still kicks balls, goes on the slides, and is the more active than most kids.

If you live in a place where only cash is accepted, where you can take off from work at 5PM and go relax in a beer garden everyday or some other place and everything closes by 7PM,  then yeah there’s really no need for a hi tech phone because your hi tech phone doesn’t add any value to a normal phone in a place like this.  (Oh and by the way,  when I asked if credit cards were accepted,  she also told me that she doesn’t like credit cards.  Uhh errr… don’t tell you want me to pay my hotel bill in cash?!)

It was a little frustrating, but oh well… whatever.  I didn’t even argue anymore there is no point arguing with people who have set their mind on something.   She was, in a weird way, kinda polite about it anyway.

It just bothers me that some people see only one way and the rest is all despicable.