To San Francisco and back

Came back from San Francisco a week ago -- was in VMworld at Moscone Center for a client of mine, VMware. It was great to finally put a face to all the emails and names that have been flying in and out of my Outlook since April. Definitely an experience -- there were more than 10,800 attendees at VMworld this year -- that's a lot of people at one conference, especially when you consider how young VMware is as a company. Then again, VMworld has always been positioned as an industry event, and not just a company event. Coolest part was being back in San Francisco, even though it was only for 7 days -- sigh. Didn't even have the time to do a catch up dinner with Shannon! Or meet up with a headhunter...hahaha.

Stayed at The W, which by the way, is an amazing hotel. Would definitely recommend it to anyone who's looking for a home away from home while traveling. The W has a service called Whatever Whenever and they mean it -- whatever you want, whenever you want, as long as it's legal, the hotel will try their best to do your bidding. Love the ambiance of the place, and my room was beeeeaaautiful! More photos to come later -- the mini bar is officially the coolest mini bar I've seen. Besides the boring ol' nuts, chocolates and alcohol, the mini bar also had a Go Smile travel set, an Intimacy Kit (condoms, lubes, etc) and a First Aid Kid. Love the way the had the mini bar set up, but like I said, more photos later. Gerald at the Front Desk was a total dear! Oh, and did I mention that the toiletries given by the hotel is all from Bliss? Heavenly!

At least I managed to add my growing shoe collection -- woohoo, let's do a quick inventory: Classic black pumps from Ted Baker was a steal, an adorable pair of brown suede ballet flats from DKNY Pure, gorgeous blood red patent pumps from BCBG and a pair of black ballet flats. Was completely eye-ing a pair of blue Sam Edelman flats -- yes, I've gone back to wearing flats -- but they didn't have it in my size. Sigh, the woes of having a regular size 7 foot. Saw a pair of black Prada pumps going for only US$360, and fitted like a glove, but sigh, when you're getting paid as low as I am, it's hard to fork out that amount of money for a pair of shoes.

Finally got my hands on a iPhone -- no, not one of my own, but dropped by the Apple store to buy Ben's Macbook Pro and checked out the new FatNo. Had to do my own hands-on review of the iPhone -- overall, pretty impressed with the phone, tiny lag when switching from portrait to landscape view, but otherwise, the touch sensitivity is mind-blowing. Would I get it my it comes to Asia? Likely.

Don't get me wrong, I worked my ass off at VMworld -- from Monday, Sept 10 through Thursday, Sept 13 -- I was on my feet for at least 12-14 hours a day! But it's all worth it, especially when you have clients that appreciate you work and a great, great team to work with.