Apple iphone

and so i succumbed to peer pressure. hmm, or rather i psycho-ed joyce into getting an iphone so i have a more compelling reason to get one too.

two days from now will mark the 12-month milestone of my mobile contract which entitles me an equipment upgrade option with a loanshark penalty of s$100. yes, either the person i talked was a powerless temp or this 100 bucks is such a major source of the company’s revenue that they refused to waive it. despite that, i managed to negotiate into me getting my re-contract 2 weeks before it even ended.

i even ordered a belkin leather holster off amazon before i got the phone to time it with the purchase.

so far, i like it. i like how i can sync the calendar on the phone to my google calendar which is sync-ed to my mozilla email / lightning. i like the fact that i now have stuff to read on the train/toiletbowl. i like the fact i can check which bus is arriving so i can decide to take cab or not. i like the fact that when adam or joyce asks me where i am, i can share my location with them thru whatsapp without having to type so much.

i wished the battery could last longer and that it came with a longer usb wire. i would like to thank the people who influenced me to get the phone.

we shall get back to this post one year from now and see if i hate the phone so much that i trashed it somewhere for another android phone.

complaint letter

in singapore, it is a well known fact that if you are in a position to make demands (i.e. when you are a customer), you seize every opportunity to bite the service provider.

the question i always ponder… if the provider is not keen to receive feedback, why provide the feedback channel? because it really pisses ppl off when you patronise them with your standard replies.

i wrote:

Since a few weeks back, my ez-link card seemed to exhibit intermittent functionality - there were only random successes when I tried to pass through the gantries at the MRT station. I have tried to highlight to the control staff many times, but they insisted that my card was working.

Today, when I tried to top up the card at the GTM @ harborfront at around 8.20pm, it could not read my card. Thinking it was the machine's fault, I had to rejoin the line to try at another machine which failed as well. Hence, I tried to use the machine at Kovan station where I alighted. It did not work either - i had tried the GTMs at both ends of the station. When I approached the staff at control office, she highlighted that the card's chip was a goner and that I had to use one trip tickets or replace card at ticketing office.

The ticketing office was obviously not opened and not found at all stations (for reasons i cannot comprehend).

I needed to continue my journey on the feeder bus but the control office does not sell ez-link cards (something which i also cannot comprehend since there was an exchange exercise for the older cards not too far from my memory).

I did not have coins, and certainly it did not make sense for me to use $10 bills to pay for a bus trip lasting 4 stops. This whole episode caused me much distress with all the queuing and walking around to try to top up my card. On top of that, I had to deal with embarrassing moments the past few weeks when my card failed at the gantry, causing momentary stop to the human traffic.

Now I need to find time to just to visit the ticketing office just to change my card since i end work late and start work early. I think this is serious service failure, especially so for a newly launched card.

I demand explanation as to why only the ticketing office may sell the ez-link card? is there a function test for ez-link cards? why is that only until today, could a staff inform me that my card was faulty despite approaching the control office many times? is ez-link going to bear the cost of my taxi ride home since there were no other options for me to continue my journey? i look forward to your reply. thanks.

And their reply?

We refer to your email dated 19th Jan 2010.

We would like to express our sincere apology with regards to the inconvenience you have experienced with our ezlink cards. We appreciate your feedback.

We value every feedback as we aim to continually enhance our services to increase the satisfaction level of our users. Do keep the feedbacks coming in as we constantly seek to meet the changing needs of the consumer markets.

at no point did it answer my any of my query. and no, of course i didn’t think they would compensate my taxi fare but at least… you should not patronise me and give me some cut and paste replies.

they will hear from me again.

do i really need a $280 alarm clock?

i was browsing thru the ces roundup and this came up…

the sony dash. never been a fan of sony ever since i held onto the mini disc player eons ago. the only other sony stuff i had was the ps2.

this is one of those gadgets which i dun really need but feel like buying knowing i will live to regret if i did.

dinner @ nan hua chong fish steamboat

one of the perks of working normal hours, it is so darn easy to get everyone together for dinner. finally there is such a thing call weekend dinners, so we threw the ball in cuicai’s court and got him to scout for possible locations. we settled for fish head steamboat instead of nakhon kitchen (hougang st 21) because the latter’s bound to have long que.

if there’s something common among all the fish head steamboat places, it is the lack of parking + lack of seats.

the place was packed but by some stroke of luck, we got seats pretty quickly. and no, it was not first come first served. it was a matter of who eyeballed the right tables.

service was barely adequate but singaporeans, being suckers, would rather bow down to bad service for good food. the table was empty as we talked – it felt like we were done eating. the trick here is to get someone to order first, while the rest searched for parking space – something we learnt from the old birds.

the signature oyster omelete. which was ravaged even before the rice came. thankfully, the rest of the food were served in steady intervals – which probably explained the long wait.

the marmite chicken chop was something new… otherwise it would have been har jiong kai (prawn paste chicken) on the table.

ahh… kai lan. the regular feature on the dinner table, from singapore to bangkok.

the highlight of the day. this is no food blog, so i shall not describe in rainbow language how good or bad the thing was. overall, it was good with more than sufficient flavour which all fish head steamboat should exhibit. a point to note was that the amount cabbage in the soup was very generous.

in retrospect, we should have opted for the pomfret. our reservation for not choosing so was that, pomfret is usually served in small quantity. hence the choice of the traditionally chunkier ‘ang goh li’ but it had more bones than meat. my mum was telling me this place’s serving of pomfret is rather generous.

if you are fussy over service, don’t come here. i wouldn’t rate it good nor was it really bad. the place is always packed and the staff seemed to have very specific roles – only this guy could take order and some seemed like they were only in charge of serving the steamboat. they serve table by table, so rest assured by the time your first dish arrives, the rest will follow soon.

desserts @ 1 caramel

i was still rather irritated by the fact that cathay did not grant me my immediate redemption of citibank points for the chipmunks movie ‘due to technical issue’ – well that cost me $16. not wanting to admit defeat, we tried our luck again at the cathay for ‘have you heard about the morgans’. yes, we are targeting movies not worth spending cash on.

of course that was not the real reason. we went to check out city square but obviously the novelty was only enough to last us 2 hrs. so quick dinner and then off to cathay. with too much time on hand, it was off to 1 caramel – which i heard about during ict when my senior/then instructor raved about

- how good the cakes

- that it was opened by his gf

- how they linked up with one rochester group

- how they managed to get good rental rates at the location

- other biz/personal short stories which i shall not share

obviously it was reverse psychology at work – make it sound incredible and so the skeptic side of human nature will make us check it out… - i fell victim despite walking past so many times.

we just had dinner so something fruity was the logical choice - Mango Mascarpone and strawberry shortcake.

i think enough reviews have been written so i shall not go on to comment. though i wish to point out… the hot choc doesn’t go well with the cake – it was too strong.

opt for the Charlemagne Tea instead… it is light and has a tinge of orange flavour which gives a refreshing aftertaste.

so did i get a discount? no. the boss doesn’t know me.

who’s the boss? the only lady that doesn’t wear uniform.

is city square worth the visit? just stay at home if u think about visiting the place

major changes

the boss dropped a bomb yesterday. no more shift work for me, so it’s normal office hours. this took away some privileges and added some perks.

after more than a year, i can finally taste the true flavour of a long weekend. i can wake at 7, that is i can see daylight. i can also finally re-tune my bio-clock (i think i have some mild sleep disorder).

of course, i now have less free time and have to jostle with weekend crowd. and effectively, my pay is less by $200 since i will lose my night shift incentive.

net gain or net loss, cannot tell.

Bangkok 2009 – The Breakfast Table

I really like these hotel breakfasts that came together with the room package for two reasons. The first being able to wake up late and still be sure that there will be food laid out just downstairs for you – no need to crack head or drag yourself elsewhere in the wee hours of the morning. Secondly, being able to enter the breakfast cafe brands you with certain exclusivity. Haha.

This time round, the spread is decent. Of course it degrades over the course of your stay since you will be eating the same stuff permutated differently. Nevertheless, there’s variety from breads, to cereal, Jap food, Chinese food, wafers, french toast, omelete and eggs on demand.

Another thing about breakfast affair is that it is the only time you see the people you are actually staying with. Over a few days, you will start to learn which family is which, who’s partner is who, who’s hot and who’s not, and who looked like they had sex etc. Most importantly, it was fun to see human behaviour exhibited by the different nationalities.

Our hotel had a great majority of Singaporeans and Ang Mohs. Surprisingly, the Singaporeans were pretty gracious and well behaved but the See Ang Mohs (loosely translated, 死红毛) or Sam (Samantha for the female version) are the culprits. In my opinion, the Europeans are generally ok but the Americans… tsk tsk tsk.

There was this Sam who was more or less done with breakfast and was just sitting there scribbling on his shopping list. Then, he conveniently stretched his arm over to the next table occupied by a Singaporean family to reach for an empty coffee cup.

Err Mr Sam, I thought that thing in front of you looked like a cup too. Anyway, Mr Sam retracted his arm when the Singaporean dad told him that the cup belonged to his table. Mr Sam then feigned ignorance and went back to his shopping list without feeling a bit apologetic or whatsoever. Americans…

Another time, we saw this Sam kena owned by 2 Asians – a Thai and Singaporean – at the pool. This Sam was horseplaying with his son at the pool. Now usually horseplaying is acceptable in the pool but this pool was meant for swimming, hence there were demarcated lanes for people who did not wish to swim.

So this Sam kena slapped with comments like ‘Get over to the otherside’ from the Thai. From the straightforward Singaporean, ‘Are you illiterate? Cannot read?’. Sam was stunned and left the pool altogether. Well, at least he looked ashamed. Once again, Americans… no wonder the world doesn’t like you.

Off to bangkok

we are off to bangkok for annual vacation.

will keep everyone posted via our travel log.

While flipping the newspaper on the plane, we saw this article. although some of us knew about this quite some time back, it’s quite sad to see it make it to the news. of course, the exact details may not be as reported given that ‘officers are the countersigning officials’ so naturally the responsibility is on them.

trust me, i’ve worked with one of them and have heard many good things about one of them – they are definitely men of integrity. well, saf’s loss then.

whatever they are doing now, i hope they are doing fine.