Made for USA

I 'm back in Singapore for barely a week from my 2-week USA holiday and I miss the US already! The past few days, i've been sleeping b4 ten and waking up at six plus and reaching office before 8.30am (this is what really bothers me).


It was scorching in LA the first few days we were there, then our jackets proved to be too thin for San Francisco and Las Vegas. We had to queue a good 45 mins under the hot sun for the latest finding nemo submarine ride. I tell you – going into the underground air-conditioned capsule was heavenly!

Hate hate hate group tours and will never do it again cos it’s all about coach rides!. What was worse – the tour guide was a Taiwanese who pronounced “almond” as “amen”. I was glad he used mandarin as the first language! A newly wed couple from Singapore joined the tour for their honeymoon… so romantic???

Anyway, I skewed the itinerary whenever i could and opted out of those optional tours (basically bus tours that passed by an area and you take photos from the bus that came with additional charges and the tour guide was obviously not too happy about) and combed Beverly Hills, Hollywood and downtown LA and even ate the Pink’s hotdog! We caught mamma mia in Vegas and with the limited time we had there (only evenings were free), we did hotel hopping (both the posh and sleazy ones) till past midnight the 2 days we were there.

Ok… now for the highlight… on my connecting flight from Tokyo to LA, I went to the toilet which has this huge sign that said “please close door gently”, which I did… and the door came down on me! 2 air stewardesses rushed in to see if I was ok. Then they cordoned off the area.

Anyway, some 30 photos of the 1500++ i took http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=154cfbnf.70b2ju0r&x=0&y=-srxzth&localeid=en_US Can't put up photos of posters of nude gals.

And d*** the trans island 857 driver who drove off the suntec bus stop before i could even make out the bus no. 2 days ago. It was almost 7pm, tired and hungry as i was and he parked so close to the bus in front of him, stopped there for a few seconds and swerved out of the bus lane and drove off. Bet he couldn 't even see if there were passengers approaching. Anyway, the bus company's feedback mechanism is useless cuz i had this problem 2 years, sent in my feedback and the same old thing still happens. Wonder why they still bother to have the feedback channel around.

Family Dinner, plus a colleague

We had a family dinner recently. Go to our invited guest's blog for the details http://www.limology.blogspot.com/

<-- My painless husband.

F1 Night Race Was Great!??

Nice picture of Singapore's skyline yah? I took this at my company's F1 party last friday. Our office has a good view of the circuit so there we were. Food was ok, company was good and we could see the cars zooming by (but not which was which). They looked like specks of dust from the 37th floor and

when night fell, all the camera could capture was the 2 lighted tracks.

And it was minutes of boredom after the cards passed these 2 tracks we could see, before the cars sped past in seconds. But indeed, it was thrilling to hear the roar of the engines - live.

I was quite proud to tell (i.e boasting) some of my frens about the party (b4 it happened) and they happily told me they had THE tickets to the races.

Hurray F1!!!

Actually, doesn't Little India look just as good as the city at night?

If I struck lottery

I was watching tv recently and there's this Euromillions lottery across 9 countries in Europe. So those who bought the tickets (we can call them the hopefuls or the gamblers) were asked what theyintended to do with the $$$ if they won the USD27 million lottery (I think so). And one British man said he would give part of his winnings to Lehman Brothers. SOme gals said they would buy a pony.

For me, i would probably start a company and employ the people I hate.

Have fun with your bosses!

After telling you howboring my office, here's some fun and joy to share. First, some top guy in my company said "a SET of twins". It's like a set of chopsticks, a set of team, a set of people and a set of eyes.

And here's something more - A picture says a thousand words.

Someones, but i won't who, have been bringing joy and laughter to the office with photoshop. We went beyond work.

May I present to you my "new" boss - Kungfu Peter

as well as master wu gui, the tortoise, now turtle






My boss has seen all these, and he seems to be enjoying all the attention.

Enjoy the weekend!

Use my brains!

I'm so bored at work working on the nothings... can die. And this morning, the aircon died... added on to my woes. I'm also becoming more stupid each day. The only comfort is the Recruit section in ST everty Saturday and recently one more to assure myself that i can still think - I actually came up with this while watching tv - which is the most environmentally friendly animal?

(Scroll down)







It's the kangaroo! (cuz it carries its own bag around). I'm really intellectually deprived, isn't it?

Oh yes, and the manager from Chan Brothers finally called to apologise after seeeing my letter in the ST forum the same day. He said it was all his agent's fault. He had told him to look into the matter but he forgot all about it, busy preparing for the upcoming travel fair. The manager promised to mail us a cheque for the exchange rate difference and even took down my address. And it has been 3 weeks since we spoke. Maybe he needs another letter to remind him so he can remind his agent? Besides using his brain, he also needs to use his heart.

Chan Brothers - Fly-by-night

In early March this year, my sister and I wanted to book a free and easy holiday to the US for mid March, so we went to an established travel agency, Chan Brothers Travel. The trip to Portland and San Francisco was wonderful but the experience with Chan Brothers was unexpectedly disappointing.

We had enjoyed a two-night stay at the Mark Spencer hotel in Portland until we checked out. The hotel staff refused to honour the hotel voucher issued by Chan Brothers, saying that they were unaware of the arrangement. We tried explaining to them that the accommodation had been paid for in Singapore as part of the package, but to no avail. The hotel suggested we make the payment first and then seek a refund from our travel agency when we return to Singapore. As we were in a hurry to catch a flight, we had no choice but to settle the bill on our credit card.

Upon coming back to Singapore, we reported the case to Chan Brothers. We specified the refund be made to us in Sing dollar. They did manage to us get a direct refund from the hotel to our credit card but it was in US dollar and due to a difference in the exchange rate, the refund was S$15 short of what was debited. We went back to Chan Brothers but they said there was nothing they could do. They were unable to compensate us the difference. The tour officer that helped us book the tour package and whom we subsequently called, always seemed freaking impatient over the phone and in his emails, and it has been almost two weeks since he informed us that his manager would contact us on the exchange rate matter.

To Chan Brothers, S$15 may be a small sum (at least that was the impression we got) but that is not the point!!! We do not think it is fair for consumers to bear the extra cost due to miscommunications (or lack of it) between the travel agency and its hotel. The explanation given to us was there was problem with the computer system.

I thnk it might have been better to travel with the fly-by-night travel agencies at People's Park than with the cannot-make-it Chan Brothers. Or do your own booking online.