Monday, September 26, 2005

Sonia goes to Gitex

Went to Gitex. What an absolute waste of time!

The place is HUGE, so I just got to cover just one hall.
Got loads of brochures, several bags to carry it all in, a few dozen business cards, hundreds of enthusiastic handshakes, and a million plastic smiles to boot!
I went with this colleague of mine, (let’s call him J) who has been going for years and loves it (he’s really weird, and not just cos he likes Gitex)!

We’re walking together, and I’m asking him something and suddenly I see him smile like he’s discovered his long-lost brother and he runs to this guy.

Hey yar Srikanth!!! How’re things?
Slow man, slow! It’s been a slow start.
Yeah?
Yeah man, slow! Slow!
Slow huh?
Yup, slow!


Just I start to tune off this scintillating conversation, Srikanth suddenly notices me standing beside J. “Heyyy! Is this...” he says, with a (un)knowing smile.
(OH Noooooo! Don’t tell me he’s actually linking me & J romantically! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuccckkk!!)

Arrhem, this is my colleague, Sonia, J corrects him, before he can put his STOOPID thoughts into words.
Thanx for the intro J, about time!

Enter me, with bright plastic smile on my face and murder in my eyes.

Howdedoo? My handshake has an extra firm grip to it.

Err…sorry…err... fine! Kinda slow actually!
(Yeah, I see that, but I wasn’t asking about your mental capabilities, numbskull!)


I saw two Filipino dancers doing a promotional dance for Canon (wonder if they come free with the purchase!) and also a fake David & Victoria Beckham (you know, the look-alikes). Duplicate David (DD) could have made a more authentic Moose Miller (from Archie comics). And Vicky-wannabe was wearing a pair of sunglasses (yeah, inside the building) that covered half her face, so you couldn’t make out who she was supposed to be anyway. She might as well have claimed to be a Britney Spears look-alike!
Wonder what they were doing there!
Canon needs a new marketing manager!

Three excruciatingly boring hours later, we headed back to the office. We had to wait for awhile for the taxi, cos everyone wanted one, and there was this looong line. We finally got a cab, but we got a maniac of a cabdriver (what were the odds of that happening to me?!!) who kept banging the window cos he couldn’t close it!! I had made the mistake of asking the man (who seemed perfectly sane till then) if he could switch on the AC. That’s when I realised that the AC was already on, but his window was open. He blamed it on the circuit, tried ALL the buttons, making all the other windows open and close, and even opened the car door (I’m NOT making this up) and kept banging the door and window with all his might to get the damn window to close. No luck! Obviously.Damn window wouldn’t close! All this when we were stuck in traffic! I watched as signals turned from red to green and back to red! Cabby was oblivious to all of it and totally frustrated with the window not closing. And the window remained stubbornly stuck, until he gave up! Then when we were driving along at snail’s pace (traffic was BAD), the window suddenly closed, on its own!!
Sheesh! Me thinks teenage ghost has haunted that car!
We finally got back to the office an HOUR later (the ride usually takes 15 mins).I got home late & with a killer headache! :o(

Can’t believe I’m going to have to do this AGAIN tomorrow!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, it wasn’t all bad.
I got a job offer! :o)

18 comments:

Lost in trance... said...

Aha! Was the offer worth the trbl?
And y wudyu wanna go there again?

Keshi said...

Cool Sonzz great that u got a job offer!

I've been to similar exhibitions while at Uni and during my job search phases...was fun and quite informative.

Keshi.

First Rain said...

Hey cool! Having a nice time profiling cab drivers I see :P

KJ said...

Good that u got a job offer. is it from CANON???
me 2 visiting GITEX. where can i look for u? :-)

u sure do get the BEST CABBIES AVAILABLE, dont ya girl?

Have a nice day

Sonia said...

parna: thanx! yeah, i guess so.

lost in trance: i dunno yet. haven't checked it out. and i HAVE to go, my boss sent me. so it wasn't like I took the trouble to go there.i just got really bored.

keshi: i was bored by it all. they should make me go shopping for clothes, not IT products!!

FR: yeah! dunno why! i always get the weird ones!

KJ: ha HA! :P no, it wasn't from canon! and you can't look for me anymore. I've just come back from the place (it's 4: 30 pm now) and i hope i won't have to go again!! so mebbe we saw each other and didn't know!

silverine said...

LOL this was hilarious!!! Exhibitions are a pain and the amount of paper that you collect is awesome, almost an entire quarter of the Amazon Rain Forest!!! Sheer waste.
And congrats on that job offer.

Rhyncus said...

Your cabbie stories are way better than mine. :)

Sonia said...

silverine: they really are a pain! my legs are still aching!and thanx! :o)

rhyncus: that's just cos i get the weirder ones.

Keshi said...

lol Sonzz yeah they can get boring but if ur on the look for jobs it's the place to be..hehe...

I wish I can go clothes-shopping rite now :(

Keshi.

Sujith said...

it mite be the same ouija ghost that haunted the cab.. dont u know it never leave u? :-)

Rahul said...

you know what, i guessed your climax! Looks like iam beginning to decipher your writing ;-) Hearty congratulations? Are you accepting it? All the very best. But, i dunno why you were so utterly cold to that guy you talked about. Either i missed something or i dont understand women...

Anonymous said...

job offer?- very good!
but lucky you- u get to go ourt of office on that pretext atleast!

Sonia said...

rahul: that guy assumed i was dating J!! and that is an INSULT! therefore...

leazydad: i guess in that way, i am a bit lucky. i charge the company for all expenses and all. so i guess in a way it wasn't that bad.

z said...

Not as interesting as one of the Tintin adventures, but still good.

Sonia said...

thanx i guess! *grin*

btw, how come i need permission to read ur blog?

Shefki said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Keshi said...

Sonzz u still in Gitex? :)

Keshi.

the Monk said...

Hey,nice one...keep postin...and check out mine sometime too...