Bad service at Dragon Gate Restaurant

This is the first time I've ever heard of dinner buffet diners having to sit with the wedding guests. I made a booking for a family dinner and we went all the way down to Harbourfront only to find out that there're 2 weddings going on. When we check with the counter whether there's still dinner buffet since there're weddings, the counter staff said "Yes. We are open soon, please wait" without further elaboration and looked away, trying to avoid explanations. When I asked a waitress, the auntie pushed me away saying she's busy. When I went up to the counter for the 2nd time to ask again, saying I would cancel my reservation if we are allocated to sit in the hall where there's a wedding starting soon, the man say "You only booked for 4, so no room. Ok, I've cancelled your reservation.". Not even a "sorry" was given. Such bad service. We were so disappointed.

Singapore Bay Run 2007

Just completed my first 6km "mini" marathon yesterday. For a person who has not "properly" exercised for many years, it is so tough....I ended up running and walking (most of the time) the whole 6km. My legs are so painful now....can't even walk properly. I'm glad to finish the run within 65 mins though. During the run, I saw a motivating banner that said "Once you start, don't stop until you finish". It may be one of my "push" factor, as the moment I read it, I felt like running (after walking for some distance ). Luckily, my registration for the Shape Run was unsuccessful, as I don't think my legs will recover in time.

Dengue Fever (I hate all mosquitoes)

My Dad just recovered from Dengue fever and I'm so glad he did. During the time when he was hospitalized, I searched online for different kinds of natural remedies that could help a victim to fight dengue. (There are no medicine for treating dengue fever. It all depends on the victim's immune system) Just wanted to share my findings...

Papaya
Papaya is a very good fruit. Even the hospitals give dengue patients papaya in their meals. A lot of online posts said that the juice from papaya leaves would help to cure dengue fever. We wanted to try it out (we even got the leaves ready), but were scared that there may be side effects...So, we stick to the safest choice - eating the papaya fruit. It is supposed to help increase the victim's platelet counts, which could fall to a dangerously low level in bad conditions.

Bitter gourd (small ones)
A friend recommended taking the juice of mini bitter gourds. It's really bitter, but it's really good for the body.

I believe these could help a dengue fever victim fight against the virus, in addition to the help of a doctor.

Back from Bangkok training!

6-Sigma is so tough...residual analysis etc give me headache. It was a tiring, but fun Black Belt refresher course. We went through all the 6-Sigma methodology again and learnt how to use some of the new tools. I felt so sleepy during the class as it was very technical at times and I did not have enough sleep...sob. There were so many things to cover in the 3-days course. Anyway, I found a good way to keep awake. Eating minty sweets and drinking lots of water/tea. However, it also makes me frequent the toilet more often. There are so much land in Bangkok, that everything could be so spacious. The dealer in Thailand has a big nice workshop, with really nice scenery. They even got space for their own airplane! So cool. Novotel Bangkok is a good hotel to stay in. The rooms are spacious and clean. Their service was also quite good, we were asked to check-in at the business lounge where we were given towels and drinks while waiting. We even got a free drink voucher to redeem at their pub. It was fun to attend an overseas training with a group of colleagues.

Crowded Bus - Go in thru the back?

Bus 184 was really crowded yesterday at 6 plus. There were people on the steps, and it's those type of extended bus that could accommodate more paxes. I saw 3 people got up the bus from the back door. The old gentleman tried to tap his EZ-link card, but there's an error beeping sound. The 2 other ladies, who got up the bus first, didn't even try to tap their cards. Is that the right thing to do??? Maybe I should try it next time to get free ride...just joking. I personally felt that they should wait for the next bus (It's so crowded and stuffy already) or the ladies should at least tap their card. They don't seem to be in a hurry. I have an experience where I almost fainted in the bus due to lack of oxygen. The lady infront of me kept pushing and I almost blacked out. No one gave up their seat even though I was all pale in cold sweat and was swaying to the exit. I even squatted down for a while with my head down, as I remembered that would help improve blood circulation. (Maybe they thought that I'm drunk or something since I accidentally knocked into some of them) I wasn't able to see clearly - It's like all black and white, and my hearing was seriously muffled. And I was alone. (I remembered how scared I felt)Luckily, my eyesight improved after swaying out of the bus. Hopefully, I won't get that type of bad experience again.

Zhiyi's graduation

Congratulation Zhiyi! Hmm, now I'm the only one who haven't got a degree yet...hopefully I'll be able to get a degree with distinction next year. (Keeping my fingers crossed) It's the first time I attended a graduation at NUS. The food at its cafe is so expensive! $8.90 for an ice cream! It's the most expensive one I've ever eaten (I only know the price after ordering), luckily it don't taste too bad. I like the flowers you got...but I think Ling like it more as she keeps hugging the flower. Haa. (You said I behave like it's my graduation, you too leh)

My first time as a wedding receptionist!

Wedding couples' thank you speech always touches me. Now I understand why some parents cried during the wedding. Yee Leng looks so pretty in her wedding gowns! Hmm, I guess all girls (and ladies) look pretty in their wedding. I got a red packet from the pretty bride for being her wedding receptionist. Thanks gal! I enjoyed being part of the moment. All the best to you!

My new broadband connection!

I finally got a broadband connection! I'm so glad that I no longer have to use dial-up, as I'm a very impatient person. (Self-awareness, a must for leader as taught in RMIT's leadership and mgmt, ahem.)

However, installation of broadband is a headache for me - I don't know which wires are to be connected and why my pop-up window didn't open up even though pop-up blocker is disabled. I remembered how "pek cek" I was...I called the Singnet hotline and the call centre girl asked "What's your laptop's brand?" I answered "Dell". She advised "So you should call Dell to check with them what went wrong, maybe it's the security settings." My sixth sense told me it's not the security setting and it's not Dell's problem. I played around with the settings and restarted my laptop for about 5 times, and the same problem appeared. A new problem is discovered - I had to reinstall the broadband connection each time I restart...I searched the website for Thomson Speedtouch to see whether I could install any driver that the software missed out, after been advised by my friend, but nothing was found. So, I checked through Dell's website, but found nothing relevant.

On the 2nd day, I called the hotline again. This time, a knowledgeable guy informed me - "You only need to connect the yellow cable." Oh i see...that solved the reinstallation problem. "You need to check Microsoft website for pop-up problems". Bingo! I found out that my internet explorer 7 got a bug. (Actually, I still don't understand why that problem only appear after my broadband installation) Finally, I solved my pop-up problem by installing another web browser called Mozilla Firefox.

Hopefully, no more problem again....

Free Anti-Spyware software

An IT colleague recommended us to use this free anti-spyware software "Spybot-S&D" -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

But I find the downloading of updates a bit too slow....Maybe I'll try again this Fri after my internet connection is upgraded from dial-up to broadband. :)

Veggie or meat?

Today, I went to an air-conditioned foodcourt at Pioneer Mall to buy my dinner. The signboard wrote "2 veggie and 1 meat $3.20". As someone who don't eat veggie, i picked potato (a harshbrown) as the substitute for veggie. At payment time, i was told that the packet of food cost $3.80. I asked why and they informed me that potato is considered as a meat. Why is that so? So weird. All other stalls I've went to (in foodcourts) considered potato as veggie. It's so embarrassing when the stall lady told me loudly (and there was a long queue): "Xiao Jie, we always charge the potato same price as the meat". (And I was not complaining, was just politely asking why it's $3.80 and not $3.20) I think she could be more polite by excluding the "Xiao Jie" from her statement, as it sounds very sarcastic under her voice tone.

Movies review

My mum rented a few movies and one of them is "Unholy Matrimony" by Leon Lai and Rene Liu. It's so boring (I don't know why, but I always find movies starring Rene Liu boring) and I don't like its ending. At the last part, it shows that the ghost is actually part of a story told by a DJ and the DJ acted as the ghost. So unmeaningful. So, conclusion is don't watch this movie unless you really like Leon or Rene.

"Just follow law" is a really funny & creative movie. It's really "Singaporean". Everything needs black and white, and time to process. (I believe it's a common frustration for those who work in big companies) "CC" = cover "ca cen" (backside) and "BCC" = back cover "ca cen". The xiao mei mei who followed the law by not crossing during the red light (which's faulty) is knocked down by a vehicle, which anyhow u-turn. A really entertaining show that I believe most Singaporeans would enjoy.

Nowadays, movie rental are so cheap - 4 for $10 and for 4 days. That's why we prefer to rent movies instead of watching them in cinema. However, the cinema at JB's City Plaza is very cheap and has great leg space. So, it's a good alternative to renting the vcds, if you live near the Woodland custom.

My Taiwan Trip

Just came back from Taiwan - It's a great trip. I've enjoyed the food (excluding the veggie which i dun eat), the scenery and most of all, moments with my long-time best frens. However, rashes broke out and I'm still itching all over. I guess it's the hot weather that causes my rashes.

Our 1st stop was Hualien. "Stone House" homestay's owner is a very nice and friendly lady. It's a highly recommended accomodation for those who wish to stay at Hualien. The room is great-looking and spacious. (Visit http://www.sutohome.com/ for more details) Our tour guide Mr Chen, a fren of the homestay owner, is very friendly and has excellent driving skills. The winding roads on the hills are so scary, and even more challenging with the fog, but Mr Chen drives his taxi so smoothly like it's so easy. It's so cold up on the hill, even though it's summer. We borrowed jackets from Mr Chen and still, we felt cold. (But I enjoyed the coldness).

There's always something bad with the good to balance off. When we got back our checked-in baggage, I found that my baggage lock was broken. Is it because I put a 830ml bottle of water inside my baggage? Or just spoilt due to accident? Haiz, the lock was only used twice. When we got to Taipei from Sun Moon Lake, we went shopping. Wu Fen Pu has lots of shops, but it's so tiring to shop there. I guess my stamina for shopping is limited. We bought the wrong train tickets (due to the incorrect info from our Taipei hotel's staff), which took us 2 hours to reach the wrong stop.