I'm not much of a rule breaker, but...

I've never wanted to break a rule more, just to break it, than I do now. Admittedly, I've broken my fair share of rules, maybe done a few illegal acts in my time (sorry mom) but never just because I wanted to be reckless. My desire to break the rules was just stronger than my desire to not get in trouble.

But here, in Singapore, where the streets are swept and mopped everyday, where kittens play on the sidewalk under rainbows; here, I just want to gun through these guarded gates for the hell of it. I have no idea what's on the other side. I don't care. I just want to do it.

I'll let you know what happens in the next entry. Or not. Because I don't want to get in trouble or because I'm in some sort of Singaporean jail that's still sparkling clean.

Singlish Word of the Day: O-k-k-k-k-k. When they finally understand something i.e. half the time I'm talking, they repeat the last syllable of things really, really quickly. Oh-k-k-k-k-k-k. OR Can-can-can-can-can-can. OR lah-lah-lah-lah-lah. It's oddly comforting b/c I know it means they finally understand me.

Amazing Advertising Learning: JUST ONE MORE MINUTE COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE. This was the poster in the MRT yesterday. I was initially drawn in by the image and corresponding headline but please take the time to click on the image so it's large enough you can read the type. It sold me in to stop and take the picture. It deserves your eyes. I'm wondering why this isn't a concern for Americans?

Dumb American Moment: It's not really me being dumb, but other people think I am when I say this. When people ask me where I'm from, I never know what to say. If I say Atlanta - sometimes they don't know where that is. If I say Georgia - sometimes they think the country. But always, always when I say America - they answer with 'well duh'. I'm not stupid! I just don't know how stupid you are!

Speaking of America, Tuesday afternoon I had a chat with 2 ladies I work with and I was trying to explain to them where in America Atlanta is. Since most people here that have visited the states, usually go to California or New York it was hard to place. So I made the below map with my face and it's now taped to their desks :)

I took it easy this weekend since I was getting over being ill and didn't want to overdo it. But I did go to dinner with Kris and Viktoria at this Outdoor Cafeteria/Food Court type thing. And we ordered several things I've never eaten before and I thought the safe thing would have been the Calamari. No dice. It was these tiny, tiny crunchy Squids. NOT like the circular calamari I'm used to or even like the tiny squid things they'll sometimes include in the mix. See the picture and imagine it being basically what you'd think a fried cricket would be. It's the only time I've ever thought I was going to vomit from the food here. If I'd had a napkin, I would have spit it out but they never give you napkins here. I crunched quickly 3 times and swallowed it whole with a chug of Tiger beer. Bleck. Makes me shiver even now.

They have a LOT of cartoon signage here. It's never advertisements, just signs that say what you should and shouldn't do. I'm not sure how they think a Cartoon makes it more authoritative but someone's drinking the Kool-Aid.

Cartoon Signage installment 1:


Last night I went to Chjimes area with Barbara and it was beautiful. I'm going to suggest we go there every night we go out from now on. It's so pretty, not the concrete jungle around me. We had dinner next to this building which used to be an old Monastery. Literally, that picture was taken from my seat at dinner!

Then we went to Swissotel Bar which is a little Posh and on the 70th floor! It has a beautiful view of the entire city. While I certainly wasn't dressed the part, I would like to go back again...this time trying to get a gentleman to buy my $26 dollar drink. Totally worth it.

(Just one part of the view of the city, it went around the entire building)

(Barbara and I - photo credit to the British dude who made fun of me when I said I was from America)

It's been one thing after another over here. I may have forgotten over the weekend that Singapore is practically on the Equator therefore making the sun a little more potent. I got TOASTED. Bad. And now I'm peeling. Gross. But Jen and Val's gift made an appearance at the pool on Sunday and it made an Indian gentleman veeeery jealous. So jealous he decided to ask me out for a drink. I already had plans...

Last but not least, I was craving a chicken sandwich the other day for lunch so we went to a Carl's Jr. Imagine my disappointment when the meals were $14. FML. I paid it, and the sandwich was pretty close to worth it.

Tomorrow I'm stopping by the Indian Embassy to get my Visa and booking my flight for Mumbai! I'm so excited!! Even if Joe bails on me (which is a possibility...sorry bud, I don't trust you as far as I can throw you) I'm going. By the way for my travel readers, I can't remember if I already mentioned this or not but my friend Joe is also keeping a blog of his journeys through India over the next 3 weeks. You can follow him here, Journeys With Joe

Talk to you later lah.

Sometimes, You Just Gotta Have Nuts

Bus shelter advertisement outside my place. I can't tell if they're being cheeky or if they just didn't know. Either way, it's perfect.

Singlish Word of the Day: Lah. They use it all the time here. It's actually become one of my favorite things. I really want to be able to use it correctly by the time I leave but because they say it all the time, it's hard to pick up the right and wrong usage. Maybe I'll just finish every sentence with it. It's a hard word to explain. When I looked it up, I came across someone else trying to do the same and I'm stealing their example, b/c this literally is how Singlish is. If I had to explain it, it would mean something like 'ok' or 'right'. Except not as a question. Almost rhetorical. And this isn't a misspelling, they spelled it phonetically.

Usage: "I can repair, but motor old oready. No stock lah."

Translation: "I can repair it, but this motor has already been discontinued. I suggest you buy a new one"

Amazing Advertising Learning: It's really interesting to be on the other side of Global calls. Talking to McCann NY about new TV concepting they are doing about it being appropriate for the Australia and APAC markets is funny given I've been on the other side of those phone calls. It's nice to know everyone has these cultural issues.

Dumb American Moment: Went to a Japanese restaurant last weekend. I do NOT know how to use chopsticks. I am an idiot.

But back to nuts. After seeing the Snickers ad on Friday, some coworkers and I went to a Martini bar where they throw peanuts on the floor. It was just like Logan's except with Martinis and a much different crowd. The martinis were quite good and were 2-for-1, er rather they were 1-for-1.

I did the martini bar on Friday and then geared up for my dance club bonanza on Saturday. It's no joke. It really is nz, nz, nz like (I'm trying to phonetically make that Euro-Jersey Shore dance club house music noise...you know what I mean). And we did it up right. There were 6 of us: Kris, his gf Viktoria, his 2 Canadian friends Chien and Rob and my friend Barbara (see Indian dinner night entry). So we decided the most cost efficient thing to do would be to buy a bottle of vodka and split it. It really was cost efficient, but I was drinking vodka cranberry allll night (thanks Ashlyn for introducing me to it). The bottom floor was more R & B like so we stayed down there for a while. And then the rest of the crew left so Barbara and I decided to go up to the nz, nz, nz part. The walls on the stairs up are covered in black fur, no joke. I have some pics of the club though it doesn't turn out well with the lights swirling around and the blackness but you get the idea.

I had made it my night's mission to meet some nice Australian gentlemen. And with Barbara and Viktoria's help, there was success. I spent a good part of the night laughing at their accents (and they laughed at mine) and how everyone dances in the clubs. It's just funny. How does the rest of the world love this? Clearly, I'm going to have to live in Ireland or something b/c I am definitely a pub gal. Once again, no pics of actual people. I PROMISE I will try and remember this weekend.

Finally Barbara and I decided to call it a night. I took a nasty spill and have a stellar bruise to prove it. I had to wear longer sleeves to work this week to hide it. I'm paying the price for my debauchery with heat exhaustion. It was definitely time to go home.

Somehow in my shenanigans at home that night, I flicked the hot water button off...it's right next to the bathroom light button...I never knew what it did, I just always left it how it was when I moved in. (see the pic below, it's easy to make the mistake!) Needless to say, I took cold showers for 2 days until I finally called the front desk to see what was up and she asked me if the button was on. That's not a dumb American moment, that's just a dumb moment. Ohhhhhh. Cursed myself for not figuring that out earlier and realizing I paid the price with 2 cold showers.

I spent most of Sunday recovering (and taking a cold shower) and going to 3 different bookstores to try and find the next book in the True Blood series since I'm flying through books here. Addendum to escalator footprints entry - ran into an escalator that had footprints on every step and on the left and right. There was NO WAY of avoiding them.

On my trek around town for the book, I came across an Asian hoedown going on outside my apartment! They were getting down to Achy Breaky Heart. I put a picture and also some video evidence. It. Was. Awesome.

It rained a LOT here on Monday. And something I've started noticing is that they don't really observe the 'open umbrellas inside is bad luck' thing. They are everywhere, particularly in the office...next to cubicles, in the bathroom, etc. One of them was right behind me and I could feel the bad ju-ju flowing towards me.

The bad ju-ju is probably why I've found myself sick here. I'm sure that will come as no surprise to anyone, but it's still a bummer. I went to the doc today and she gave me like 7,000 prescriptions. All these and the visit cost me a total of $57 USD...without insurance. I'm moving to Singapore forever.

The next 3 things I couldn't figure out how to work them into the blog in a storytelling fashion, so I'm just going to straight up bullet it old-school style:

1. This is what I see on my walk to and from work in the morning and evening. I just think it's really pretty. The Youth Olympic Games will be going on here in August and I'm guessing it ties into that somehow.

2. In our kitchen at work, there's a TV on the left that plays a reel of top creative around the world on a continuous reel but it's updated every now and then. I was in there the other day and what came on? DUREX BALLOONS ANIMALS!! We did that! Fitzco is famous in Singapore.

3. This came on my TV last night right as they were deciding the verdict in Flash of Genius. What the hell? You think the cartoon character makes it any better?!

Ok, I've got to go now. One of the medicines I took that makes you drowsy is kicking in. Otherwise, this post is going to get reeeeal strange, real fast.

Warmest Regards,
Robin

Please Mum, Tell Them I'm Here

I went to get my pre-employment medical exam today. You must get it in order to be employed here. Nothing too bad. Got blood taken (didn't pass out), quick exam by a doctor (nothing invasive) and then an X-ray in a pretty sweet gown and banana clip that I almost had the radiologist take a picture of me in for you guys, but I decided against it. Sorry.

However, this was the sign on the door to the X-ray. I literally laughed out loud in the waiting room. I didn't even try to be discrete taking the picture. This was worth it. I mean, was the umbilical cord really necessary? Really? And what is this woman doing with a 4 year old in her stomach?!

I've gotten several comments and emails about checking out this place (Marina Bay Sands resort). It's just a few blocks from my office but I had a great view from the doctor's office.I will get into that pool before I leave here. And I will have a pictures just like this...Ridiculous Infinity Pool...Click It!

Singlish Word of the Day - When you ask if they can or cannot do something they answer 'Can' or 'Cannot' instead of 'yes' or 'no'. 'Do you think we can resize this ad by today?' 'Can'. It's quite entertaining. I might pick it up.

Amazing Advertising Learning - Sex sells.

Dumb American Moment - They always give and accept each other's business cards with 2 hands and a very slight bow. I did not do that. Oops.

Here's the thing about this office, while the open cubes and accessibility to creative and studio opens the lines of communication work-wise. It definitely hinders chit-chatting non work-wise. There's no extra chairs anywhere and of course everything is really open so even if there was a chair, you couldn't really sit and whisper. The only semi-closed off space is the creative space which I finally got a picture of. Everyone in that area will still hear you but at least the entire office can't see you chatting. This is kinda back in the corner of the office and it's broken off like this on each side. That's my work bestie Kris flicking us off there. Nice guy. And very scholarly sitting there reading The Lost Symbol. He borrowed it from his Book Club that he started like our Fitzco one. Seriously, he started it the day I came and he probably has 25-30 books already (I donated 2...don't want to pack that stuff again).

Oh and you see so many fans all over the place b/c they turn off the air in the building at exactly 5:53 every day. We work until at least 8:00. It gets miserably hot.

I kinda miss coming into the office and catching up with people. And I can't sit here and catch up with people from home because of this darn time difference. It's hard to talk to someone in the past.

And just in case you're wondering about the other options: Asians don't get on their knees.

Get your mind out of the gutter Angmos! I mean it literally. I was at Bonnie's desk yesterday, talking to her about some project, so I knelt down by her desk. Because there isn't a chair. Not even 5 seconds after I did that, a girl walked by and emphatically asked if I wanted her chair, like it was the most uncomfortable thing for me to be on my knees. Bonnie then informed me that in Asian culture it's like a no-no. Not a bad thing, they just don't do it.

Oh well, if they're not going to have extra chairs at every desk then I'm going to be on my knees all over this joint (don't you dare say that's what she said).

Side note: I've figured out the secret to why Asian people's hair is always so shiny. It's the water. Not really, but there is something in the water here. I had to stop using conditioner b/c my hair would just be all funky and gross. And my hair needs conditioner. I've never gone a day without it. Until now.

That last story was struggling. I'm peacing out now until the weekend and will have many stories to tell I'm sure. Hopefully better ones as I'll be drinking...heavily. I'm finally getting my feel for the city so I think I can get home ok if I'm a little tipsy. And Kris's girlfriend, Viktoria, wants to go to a dance club. An excessive amount of alcohol will be needed for me to experience this right. Maybe it will be the Club La Vela of Singapore. Can't wait!

Anyone for a Taro Turnover?

I'm pretty sure there couldn't be anything less appetizing than this. You get it free when you buy any of the Burger King A4dables. I think I'll pass. What even is that goo-ing out of it? Fish eggs?

Singlish Word of the Day: Angmo (pronounced Ang moe, hard 'a' and 'g') - it basically means White Monkey and it's what the Asians call white people. Some people consider it racist, but it's pretty widely used even in the papers and such. And to be honest, I kinda like being called a white monkey. It's funny. I've started calling other white people Angmos. Bring it on Angmos.

Amazing Advertising Learning - They don't have an Art Producer here. Well, they have someone that does a teensy bit of that role but for the shoot we did on Saturday, there wasn't an agency 'Jonas' if you will. Those responsibilities were split between an Account Manager and the photographer's producer.

Dumb American Moment - We were watching Rugby on Saturday trying to educate some of us on what it's really like, and I said "Oh I think I get it, it's like a cross between Soccer and American Football". The client looked at me like "Dumb American, always has to bring it back to something American." I was just trying to understand the game!! Rugby's stupid.

Though I want to say, my Holiday Inn clients are some of the nicest clients ever, so objective and smart.

Weekend recap, brought to you by Samsung, my teeny tiny phone I bought this weekend so I can text and call local numbers. It's much cheaper, and now locals can text and call me at a normal rate. The phone was only $35! Now I'm one of those people with 2 phones that I always heckled. Oh well. It's worth it for sure. Didn't realise how much I missed texting until I had it again.

Thursday night

I went to a Happy Hour with some co-workers. And by Happy Hour, I mean after Happy Hour b/c as I previously mentioned, we didn't leave work until after 8:00. Anywho, a couple of us decided to walk because they said it was close to work. And as we passed my apartment, I realised how close we were! (You see that? I spelled it with an 's' I'm so good at this!) I can walk to my office in under 10 minutes. Yes, please. I've always been taking the MRT b/c that's all I knew, but now I'm a walking machine. Though it's a little Working Girl-esque, with me in flip-flops and my heels in my bag...if I dare to wear heels (see Saturday night mention). I might wear tennis shoes one day just so I can get someone to take a pic and I can post it. Pretty sweet.

It was nice to have some drinks and wind down and make some new friends. I promise I won't always bitch about this but 'Dang Kevin, beers are expensive!' We got 3 of the cheapest beers and it was $20. I was at the 7-Eleven the other day (they are everywhere here!) to get some beer and it was $15 USD for a 6-pack of Tiger beer (the cheap beer). $15 bucks!!!! Tiger beer I have found is manageable taste-wise for me. Which is good, because it's cheap. As opposed to the S$13 I paid at a bar on Saturday for a glass of Stella.

Friday night

Had dinner and drinks with my account team. It's 7 girls, including me, and we just gossiped and talked about the differences in the US and here. 2 of the girls have actually lived in the US for a couple years. Everyone here is so well-traveled, and usually lived somewhere else for a while. It's very interesting...and definitely adds a lot more to learn b/c now I'm learning about Singapore and all the places they've lived. At dinner I had Mussels. And they were good! This is Serene...with a very, very large Hoegaarden. Doesn't quite do the magnitude of the pint cup justice. Then it was time for bed b/c we had an early call-time for the shoot.

Saturday

I had the shoot with the Australian gents. Not all of them were Australian, one was British and one was American. But all were hot. And the accents were ridiculous. They sat next to me at lunch. I was such a sissy, my hands were shaking. It was pathetic. But they were attractive guys with accents! What was I supposed to do? I tried to act as professional as possible. But when you stutter it's a little hard to come off like an adult.

You know what's cuter than a guy with an accent though? A little kid with an accent. There was this little British 5-year old girl at breakfast the other morning and it was just adorable!

Saturday night

I met up with Stephanie for drinks at Clarke Quay (it's pronounced 'Key', I have no idea why but I didn't want anyone else to make the same mistake I did). I've been determined to try a new place as much as possible so I've been in all parts of the city. It was early and we just went to a dive bar where the Stella was $7...wahoo! Half priced beer. Sad that a $7 beer gets me excited, but it does. And then my new work bestie Kris was in the same area with his girlfriend so I met up with them until it was bed time for me, I was exhausted. Kris's girlfriend is a 5'9 blonde girl from Sweden (or Switzerland? can't remember) and super cool. It's a little unfair. And she was brave enough to wear very tall heels. I've only wore heels once here b/c even without them, I tower over everyone.

I need to get better at taking pictures of my new friends. I always forget. But when I'm on the MRT or walking around, I can think of it then. Even if the people give me weird stares.

I slept in and took it easy on Sunday. I've been overdoing it a bit since I feel like I should really experience Singapore. I keep forgetting, I've got 3 months to really experience everything.

I know I've mentioned my wonderful setup with my apartment. The fact that they come in every day and clean, make my bed, do my dishes, new towels, etc. Well they certainly went above and beyond last week when they organized my makeup and jewelry area. Please notice the iPhone charger curled around the plug. That my mascara standing upright in the bottom left. Wow.

But double wow is the mural they have on the wall of the Children's play area in my building. Who's idea was it to put this up?!

Nick Saban and Fitzgerald + CO made an appearance at the office today. Glad they could make it out and keep me company.

Tata for now. Hopefully I'll have some better stories at the end of the week!

Sorry America, I just might not come back

I go back and forth from thinking that I could stay here forever and Oh my god I’m going to be here forever. I lean more heavily towards I could stay here forever, I think.

And now the post that's the reason I'm here. Work. This will probably only be interesting to people in Advertising, so I’m putting the non-advertising related stuff first and then you can read on if you care about the differences in advertising in Atlanta and Singapore. Which clearly, everyone does!

Singlish word of the day: Takeaway. Instead of wanting something To-go, you want it for takeaway. Now you know.

And for last post b/c I forgot to include: Queue. They always say please Queue here instead of wait in line or something like that. Please Queue here for my next blog post ladies and gentlemen.


Amazing Advertising learning: Here, they pull a color proof before every ad they run. And they send it to the publication. And when they do that, it’s called getting the colour seps. Adds 2 days to the timeline of getting it to the pub. But I guess better safe than sorry!

BTW, fun fact, I’ve been starting to talk and write like they do here. Colour, organisation, warmest regards (that’s how they end all emails…ridiculously nice closings). I have caught myself saying y’all twice here. The sad thing is, they are all so far removed from that, that they don’t even make fun of me for it.

Dumb American moment: I was helping the art director look up some image options for something and I pulled a ton of options. When we went through, one of the ones I pulled was Mainland Chinese versus Southeast Asian. I know there’s a difference, I just don’t know the difference…yet.

Went to a happy hour on Tuesday (at 7:30 and I had to leave work early to make it) with Stephanie. It was 2 for 1. Except they call it 1 for 1. Though I don’t really think it matters either way b/c each beer cost S$15 so it’s a real steal they’re giving us. Not. Then I ate at McDonald’s the other day. I know, I know. I never even really ate at McDonald’s in the states but after the 2 for 1 night, I just really wanted it. It does taste the same. Exactly the same. But look at how tiny the little ketchup thing is? It was like a miniature plate!

I went to lunch with some people from work on Wednesday. One guy, Bobby, is from the states and went to LSU for undergrad. So we were talking about what we miss from the states. To be honest, I don’t really have that much yet. His was Mexican food, wings and Light beer (they have all of that here, it’s just not the same). I really miss Light beer too (ref previous blog entry) and I’ve only been here a week. Does that make me an alcy? This prompted another co-worker, Eric, to join in and ask what Bud Light was. What is Bud Light?!?! So we talked about that and what Irish Car Bombs were for a while. It was riveting and quite funny.

UPDATE: The previous Bug Repellent was such a success I decided to upgrade. This time I mean business.

Food:
Most importantly, look what I found in the Cold Storage!!!! My life is complete. I just need to make sure I have the supplies to make it.







This is the snack my boss, Angelique, was eating today. She offered one to me so I tried it, I thought it was a pretzel stick. I missed the part where it was a ham and cheese flavored stick. It wasn’t bad, but it was definitely a surprise and her face when I made my face was priceless. I wish I had that on camera.

Work:
I started on Monday. A week ago. It feels like it's been 304 days. It has been quite interesting. I want to caveat this part of the post that I am not complaining or judging. I'm trying to have completely objective observations of differences and similarities of our offices.

1. In this office, everyone starts really showing up between 10:00 and 10:30 (though my boss gets here at 9:00 and therefore so do I) and here's the kicker: NO ONE LEAVES THE OFFICE BEFORE 8:00 PM. You guys in Atlanta always thought I would work late and I left at 6:30 or 7:00 most nights. Seriously, no one leaves until 8:00 or later. It's nuts. And I'm hungry by 8:00! Speaking of food, they may work late, but almost everyone goes to lunch every day. It’s like the exact opposite of Fitzco numbers.

2. All McCann Erikson advertising is on the 5th floor. Finance and MRM and Momentum are all on other floors but creatives, account management, production and traffic are all together on the 5th floor. Quite close actually. The distance between my desk and the first creative is probably from my Fitzco desk to Jeff Anderson's desk but it's completely unobstructed. And b/c of that, everyone seems to talk a lot more. Creatives come over to the AM area and vice versa. I have posted pictures below. There's only like 10 offices around the edges and everyone else are in these short cubes...including account directors and such. And then the creative guys are mostly paired copywriter and art director in these little pod like things. I’ll get a better picture of that when I know the guys better, they might think I was nuts if I did it now.

The 6th Floor lobby


The main are where account management sits and the upper management:


Studio area on the left and creative pod-like things straight ahead. This is just at the top right of the previous picture.


The kitchen area, Refrigerator and stuff behind me:


3. I was going to save my Fitzco Bizarro World references til I could really place personalities but I already have a few so here goes. It's based on a variety of distinguishing factors.

Bizarro DC - there is Chris, the IT guy. He set up my iPhone. DC set up my iPhone. Chris walks around changing computers, fixing phones and the girls all get excited when he comes around. DC walks around the office and all the girls get excited when he comes to help them. I haven't seen Chris dance yet, but I have high hopes.

Bizarro Carlos - Though this guy is Canadian. He just kinda looks like him. T-shirts, emo glasses. I haven’t' talked to him yet so I can’t tell you if everything is the same. Not a good picture, but I had to be covert from my desk.

Bizarro Brian McB and Jenna - Isn't it obvious? (PS This is Sean. He's pretty awesome, especially since he let me take his picture.

4. Now this is very important - given the cube set up, I can see a lot of people's computers the angle that I'm at. In the week I have been here, I have seen ONE person on facebook, and it was only once. No Gmail, no facebook, no pandora, nada. They work 10-12 hour days and do not dilly daddle on the internet. Why do you even need all these people? If you took away our access to facebook and gchat, I could do the work of 12 men (I’m banking on the fact that Lisa G is not reading this).

5. More than once, I have gone to the elevator to change floors, cursed because I didn't have my fob, turned to go back to my desk to get it and then turned back around because I don't need my effing fob here!

6. Traffic is EXACTLY the same here. Not really, they do some different things. But they still say "no, it can't be done that fast" or she saw me talking to an AD and walked up to see what we were talking about, etc. But it also differs in that, if creative gives something to review, it's expected that there will be internal changes and I'm allowed to go directly to them to get them done. Only when they are significant or they are client comments does it seem you have to do a ‘change order’, or as they say in Singapore, a ‘Revision Brief’. The traffic ladies - Creative Services here - also get stock costs and purchase them when it is approved. I already had my first "I know it's tight timing but we have to get it out" discussion with traffic here. I’m sure they’ll love me. Which leads me to my next point.

7. My team. I really like everyone I'm working with. They are smart, quick and very nice. Angelique, is over all 3 accounts and is a regional Business Director. She's quite funny and has been very inclusive. She asks me my thoughts and actually uses my input. The other day she said she 'trusts my tastes' and went with it. It was nuts! I've only been here for 5 seconds. I've only really been working on Holiday Inn and Panasonic this week so I'll talk through those girls and will get to L'Oreal once I have more info. Pim is an Account Director on Holiday Inn and Bonnie is an Account Manager on Holiday Inn and Panasonic. Both were out sick for 2 days at the beginning of the week which is why I already had my run-in with Traffic. I've been doing a WHOLE lot of stuff that I don't think I would have been doing if they had been here. It’s been very busy, and crazy since I don’t know the system but pretty cool. Fun to work on a brand again that actually does advertising people see.

Panasonic is working on this really cool OOH idea to launch their 3D TV. I hope it works out b/c it's super cool.

Holiday Inn did a shoot yesterday that is for an Australian Rugby ad. Which means we casted attractive Australian men. Best. Casting. Ever. I got a few pictures from the shoot. Don't drool too much ladies. I may do enough for all of us. Just imagine them all with accents. As I mentioned, the shoot was on Saturday, call time before 9:00. I swear they don't sleep here. But it was at the Holiday Inn right next to my apartment so I just walked over.

8. This one’s for Becky – if you don’t do your timesheet in 7 days, it shuts down your email. That’s the way to do it.

9. They use the biggest tape dispensers and tiniest staplers here. Angelique and I were laughing about it the other day when I told her our staplers were bigger and she’d never seen one. So I need someone to send me a picture of one of our staplers. I guess I could google it, but I'm trying to make the blog interactive here guys!

10. Ad sizes are in millimeters, not inches. The first time I saw it I was shocked. 210 x 275…it’s HUGE.

This isn’t work related, but no one says 'Bless You' here. I said it to someone who sneezed here today and have almost said it lots of other times and they looked at me like I was crazy. In retrospect, it makes sense why no one would say that, since I’m sure it has Christian foundations and most people here are not Christians. But it was just out of habit for me!

Last but not least, everyone knows the crazy rules here. I was talking to someone the other day and they said that there's so many rules and such strict punishment (they hung an Australian last year for trafficking drugs) that people are too scared to do anything at all. I accidentally kicked a piece of litter yesterday, and I do not lie when I say my heart jumped b/c I was petrified that some plain clothed cop would come flying out and tackle me.

Warmest Regards,
Robin