Day 3

Day 3: Wilmington, NC

The weather appeared pretty gloomy this morning. The skies were overcast and it looked like it had rained during the night. Over the breakfast table provided by the hotel(nothing but bread and more bread, different breads... bagel, french toast, raisin, etc etc) the weather information indicated that it would be a week of thunderstorms ahead. Things don't look good weatherwise at least. Personally, i had no agenda for today and yet, i did feel a certain amount of trepidation letting my fellow colleagues plan the the itinerary. Being the CDO (i.e. chief driving officer), my primary duty was to get everyone where they want to go without accident, whose service, i am sure, others have no complains about. We started with Wrightville beach which was across town 15mins drive away because we thought it would be wiser to go there before the 'thunderstorm' hits town. Lucky for us, it never did rain the whole day and the weather remained balmy, even a tad warm during the late afternoon.

Wrightville beach seems like a coastal summer resort for people in NC. There were a lot of motels and private summer cottages along the coast with their own little private launch for motorboats. There were plenty of surfers, though the surf wasn't too fantastic, and families enjoying a bit of sand and sea. Some of the interesting things there were beach toilet stalls without doors (made a friend through the communal *ermm* 'relieving' session) and a doggie poop station (where people can get free poop bag) dedicated to billie holiday and her dog. Charming...

After the beach, we drove to the historic downtown at the riverfront where we walked around and explored some of the little shops. Nothing memorable but there was a WWII battleship anchored across the river which one of my colleague visited (guess shopping isn't quite his thing). Had lunch in one of the darkest cafe i have ever been to (in the bright afternoon). Food here, i realize, tend to be quite salty. I think i would have to ask them to cut back on the salt the next time i order. After lunch, the 4 of the ladies (minus the sole gentleman onboard the battleship) drove off to Westfield Mall at independence drive a short 8 minutes drive away.

At this juncture, i think i ought to state quite clearly that i am not much of a shopper and actually have a mild aversion to wandering around a big mall "shopping" most of the time unless i know that i wanted to buy something. Hence, it was more tedious than pleasurable to follow 3 ladies around a mall for two hours. Actually, it wasn't just the mall... i think there must be something quite wrong with me because i realize i just don't really enjoy being in a group in general and most of the time rather preferred to walk on ahead on my own. Anyway, despite myself, i did ended up getting a shirt for myself (only because it was 50% off and i needed something formal to wear for work) and some stuff for friends. After two hours and covering only 1/4 of the mall, we had to drive back to pick up the gentleman away from his battleship and proceed to wal-mart at market street. By this time, i am tired and bored, and it was pure torture trying to occupy myself for a solid hour while waiting for the rest of them to finish shopping.

Some of the things others bought: toiletries, bath towels, toys, cosmetics, cherries, medication.

Some stuff i can understand but a bottle of hair conditioner just because it is S$3 cheaper here? And 4 bath towels??? What is the rationale? Maybe it is me... but i just cannot understand why would one buy bags of unnecessary items (not small somemore) so early on in the trip and knowing that we have to travel around quite abit. But then, i am not exactly a bargain shopper either.

Dinner was back at the historic downtown again at a little corner bar overlooking the river. Salty clam chower and chicken sandwich. Yawns. Returned back to the hotel by 8pm and helped 3 of the colleagues move from their original room (too small for 3 since there were only 2 small double beds and hardly space for a rollaway bed) to a slightly larger suite with 2 double beds and 1 pull out sofa bed. On top of that, was also trying to fix my HOD's laptop because for some reason, it would not connect to the network using the LAN cable. So much for being the CTO (i.e. chief technical officer) for this trip. I suspect that there is something wrong with the LAN port because the cable worked on my computer. Ah well. At least i get to have the internet in my room which i shared with Eliz.

Finally the end of another day and tomorrow we start training officially. Yippee. Can hardly wait.

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