The Best Things In Life Are Free

In the telecom business, being on the operator-side has its benefits. The operator (buyer of equipment), has the right to choose and reject proposals from vendors (seller of equipment). The winning vendor of the bid gets to cash-in on the millions of money incurred thru that sale. So every vendor has to find ways of charming the operator, seeing to it that the operator is made comfortable of the system that is being sold.

Take for example vendor S. They had invited us to a team-building session over the weekend to better improve relations between operator M and vendor S. Venue was in Avillion, Port Dickson which is one of the most high-end vacation resorts, one and a half hour's drive from KL. I invited the missus to tag along since there weren't enough people joining in.

If being pampered in a 5-star resort wasn't enough (water-chalet accomodations, buffet breakfast and lunch, and BBQ-dinner by the yacht-club), as a parting gift, we were each given a 512-MB thumbdrive/mp3-player.

"Say wha?!"

Yes my friend. A 512-MB THUMBDRIVE/MP3-PLAYER as a token of appreciation. I was quite surprised with the present. It was a big improvement from the usual crappy gifts I've received from vendors (planners, pens, shirts, calendars, mugs, etc). This one really takes the cake coz mp3-players are one of those things that were in my nice-to-have-but-not-practical-to-buy wishlist. I've already got a portable minidisc(MD) player so buying an MP3-player was not really needed. I just find it difficult to transfer songs to my MD-player that I'd often wish I had an MP3-player instead. I guess Santa Claus thought I should get an early Christmas present for being such a good boy. Ho-Ho-Ho!

We got the gift during our BBQ-dinner so I felt like a five-year old wanting to be excused from Christmas dinner so that I can go back to my room to tinker with my present. During the after-dinner drinks and conversations, my mind was actually trying to remember all the songs that I'd like to copy into this tiny little bugger. It was just difficult to contain my excitement as I was opening the box from time to time to look at this amazing tiny gadget that I believe every 30-something music-lover, mp3-downloader should have. Wouldn't you believe that I gave more priority to the mp3-player that I almost (almost!) forgot our videocam from the dinner-table? Hihihi.

Oh yeah, the afternoon before we left, they gave us a handsome polo-shirt that I can use for work.

Sarrrap.