Was invited to HP's New Employee Orientation (NEO) 2 day event last week, basically just to fill us new hirers how HP works, the different business units/products we have and so on and so forth. I immediately started envisioning huge brain-washing machines in white rooms! Hehe, kidding. Will spare you people the boring details of what the trainers went through with us on those 2 days and instead, focus on the traffic (sore issue for me) and food! Glorious, glorious (some not so) food! :p
So anyways, the email stated that the events starts at 8.30am both days and it was to be held at Renaissance Hotel, KL. Aiyo, right smack in downtown KL city on a weekday no less! Started feeling stressful as it was my turn to drive that week (I carpool to work with a teammate who happens to stay nearby) and it has been over 5 years since I drove to KL on a weekday during rush hour.
Left Bukit Rimau at 6.45am, a time where we believed was early enough to beat rush hour traffic. The ride along Kesas highway, through Subang Jaya and NKVE was pleasant enough albeit a longer route. Right up to Jalan Kuching, then that's where the cars seemed to be stuck heading towards Jalan Sultan Ismail. Arrived at about 8.10am and discovered that the event did not cover breakfast. Hmmm, hopped over to the hotel cafe and bought a RM12 sandwiched to be shared by the 2 of us.
Day 2 thought that we smartened up and decided to use NPE through Jalan Bangsar - a shorter route but still unable to beat the traffic. Cars were slow moving right up to Brickfields turning. But we arrived much earlier at 7.30am and decided to walk over to the back alley of Concorde Hotel for roti canai breakfast. Yummy!
Day 1 photos while nibbling on my breakfast sandwich. Event only started at 9am. I supposed the earlier time in the email was intentional in view of some people adhering to Malaysian time!
Huge Chandelier with pretty lights in the middle of the ballroom. There were 2 smaller ones around the room.
Day 1 Lunch Round 1 : Blue Cheese with Crackers, Cold Chicken Cut in Pastry with Jam, Assorted Vege Salad (Bland...) and Mushroom & Cucumber Salad with Tanghoon (Not nice at all!)
Day 1 Lunch Round 2 : Kailan in Oyster Sauce, Brocolli with Abalone (Fakes?), Steamed Asparagus - the vegetables were a dissapointing lot, tasteless..
The yummy ones : Sambal Prawns, Beef Sate Stick, Curry Squid (Sotong), Curry Lamb.
The So-Sos : Roast Beef, Sweet Sour Fish Fillet, Cod Fish (Can't remember how it was served)
Day 1 Lunch Round 3 : The Desserts! Ice Kacang with loads of variable nuts, Watermelon slice, Mango Cheesecake (Not nice :p)
Day 2 Lunch - The Dissapointments : Same Kailan dish but better tasting on Day 2, Lamb Steak, 3 Fish Skewer
The Yummies : Sambal Squid, Curry Crab, 3 Mushroom in White Sauce (My favourite mushrooms with not too thick sauce, I had second helpings of this dish), Salmon Fish, Steamed Herbal Chicken & Cheese Cake (Another all time favourite)
Day 1 & 2 Dessert Highlight : Chocolate Fountain Served with Fruits, I only took 1 stick of a single grape to try. Did not find it that tasty.
So although as seen above my plate was full most of the time, worry not that I threw my eating healthier/diet plan resolution out the window. Remember all those foods which I labeled as so-so and dissapointments? I only took a bite of all those and left it on the plate to be cleared by the waiter. Wasteful I know, but it was really yucky :p
In between the sessions and lunch, we were also served tea breaks with more food. So all in all, food was served 6 times in those 2 short days. Didn't really bother eating during the tea breaks as they didn't seem to be too appetising, so pictures. Besides the yummies that I mentioned above, the other good thing was that the trainer managed to wrap things up early in the afternoon for both days. So no traffic! Yay!
