Review Prud'or Double-sided eyelids tape from Japan

Being a natural hidden double eye lids all my life, I always wanted to try 'opening' my eyes bigger ^_^
Only people like me will understand our 'misery', the comments we hear from people, sometimes they hurt. But it is not bad enough for me to want to go for plastic surgery.

Throughout the years, I always use such tapes on and off, like once every 5 years. However, a trip to Tokyo sometimes back has renewed my interest again when I chanced upon a very very very good double sided eyelids tape.

Firstly, the tape is easy to apply.
Secondly, the tape stay in shape & can hold up for the whole day.
Thirdly, the sticky part is just right.
Lastly, the price is reasonable.

By far, this is the best product I used before. I will give it 5 stars.

buyer beware - 2 scoops is is not charge as double scoop @ swensen's - Caveat emptor

I must say we had a interesting event at Swensen's over the weekend.
We frequent Swensen's almost on a weekly basis. We usually ordered 2 ice-cream to share among 3 persons. (The evil wanna eat but still afraid of putting on weight)
Our typical order is always plain scoops of ice cream for the one who does not like any topping at all and an other type like cookie summit, coit tower, mighty nutty etc.
This time, we asked for 2 scoops, one vanilla & one macadamia flavour. The other order is a might nutty. The waitress took it that we wanted 2 separate single scoop ice cream and proceed to send us in separate cups. Unknowingly, my boy ate up the 2 cups of ice-cream  and I did not give much thoughts to it except commenting that 'so funny, why she must separate the ice-cream.

After settling the bill, I then realised that we were charged 2 single scoops ice cream of $4.50 each (total $9) instead of the double scoops which cost $6.50.
What I wanted to put across is the poor service then took place. I feedback that I wanted 2 scoops and not 2 single scoops, however because I have made payment, the cashier refused to reverse the bill. She asked if they were served in 2 single cups and i replied yes. So she insisted that I ordered wrongly and hence it was my fault and there was nothing much she can do. She even had the cheek to said I must order using the word DOUBLE and not 2 scoops.
What kind of service is? I am utterly speechless.

It gave me a feeling that double scoop order will be lesser than a single scoop!!!
Is that why they won't reverse the mistake?

I wondered if I have ordered a double and separate them, what would they charge me?

It is a buyer's beware market !!! Caveat emptor!

Bad driving attitude

Trans-Cab driver of SCH5984S driving attitude on the road needs improvement. 
It is very dangerous thinking and he needs to change his mindset that there are many people sharing the road he is using.

On 1 Sept 2014, Monday around 7.25am on CTE bound towards Yishun. At around AMK exit 3, the lanes are split into a few for exits. This driver knowing that he is exiting AMK5 did not attempt to slow down while still on lane 2 and high beam + honk to attempt to overtake. He ended up jamming his break after he overtook because of the many vehicles on the road. 

His attitude will cause danger to other road users including his own passengers.

Experience with F&B service

Today lunch I was ordering pepper rice for takeaway  and realized that in today world (where I am living), seller is always right!

I ended up being lecture by the cashier.

My order was double beef pepper rice, upgrade rice/corn, add egg, no pepper, take away.


Extract of her lecture as follows:-
'No pepper must say early, if receipt come out already, use hand written kitchen will scold me, why got computer don't use must write' 

I smiled at her with no reply. She continued repeating it. I said ok! And the fact was that while ordering, I had not pass her the money for transaction, she hasn't punch the final sale yet, receipt is not out yet. So, I just take it that she was having a bad rainy day and let her vent her frustration on me, if that made her feel better.

So I guess next time my order should be NO PEPPER double beef pepper rice, upgrade rice/corn, add egg, take away. I hope she wont lecture me again on takeaway must say early else blah blah blah...whatever excuse!

Kinokuniya gains a member

Today I want to talk about my experience with Kinokuniya Singapore. I always find the membership too expensive and by not signing up, a way to prevent me from buying more stuff (books, stationery etc).

Recently I bought a copy of a Japanese magazine that came with a complementary gift. However, when I opened the gift, the quality of the product was very bad. The zipper was totally slanted.

I went on internet to look for the magazine publisher contact but could not find it. So i decided to write to Kinokuniya where I bought the magazine and asked them to feedback to the publisher. Surprisingly, Kinokuniya actually offered me an exchange for the item. The customer service was beyond my expectation and I actually decided to sign up as a member. yeah! Cheers to good services!

A 'smart' note to travelling friends who shop in foreign currency using credit card

For those who travel often and shop in foreign currency using credit card, this is an important information.
If you purchase an item and decided to return it later for whatever reason, do note that you need to inform the merchant to cancel your credit card transaction instead of performing refund into your credit card account.
Last month, I purchased a pair of heels from Macy's and upon returning to the hotel, discovered that there were defects on it. I returned the item on the next day. Today I received my credit card bill and noticed that that the purchase and refund currency conversion actually has a 3.5% difference. In layman words, I am paying 3.5% for nothing with the hassle of buying and returning a defective item. How sad!

* Of course the currency can be the other way round and I could be on the receiving end of the gain. But the fact is that I am now 3.5% poorer :)

Vine Vera

I was window shopping at suntec city the other day when I was approach by this promoter giving out free sample. She tried their nail file on my left thumb, assuring me that the shine can last up to 30 days. I was and still am quite impressed with the results. It has been like 10 days and my nail is still shining looking very healthy compared to my others poor dull looking fingers. Now I am so tempted to go buy the manicure set!

thumb up to DNC

Excellent after the implementation of DNC
this trip compared to 8 months ago, i received so many less smses
and saved some money.
Actually the smses i received were mainly from the bank.
One particular bank actually sent me multiple time of the same message to verify a particular credit card transaction.
 
 

Standard Chartered Online banking review

The OTP sms did not arrive at least 5 mins after, made me wait and wait without knowing what''s wrong.
This problem is on and off. happened sometimes.

Ajuma online shopping spree

These are what i bought online in April.
From Qoo10, usually quality is pretty low. But these 2 pouches are quite good. Fit my requirement to protect my new iphone5s perfectly since I wanna 'show-off' my GOLD color phone, i couldn't buy those typical cover to use.

Love the sandal boots from Rakuten best. This item was also available on Qoo10 when I made the purchase, and Qoo10 actually was selling cheaper after factoring the shipping cost from Rakuten. :(
From ASOS, very sweet outfit, yet to try it out. Love the plaid pattern skirt. Just take delivery took a while, by then excitement die down.

 

ASOS online purchase review

before I made the zalora purchase, I bought something else from ASOS online  10 days before. As ASOS delivery is from UK, the goods normally took 2 weeks to arrive.

I made the order on a thur evening, and received my goods 13 days later on a tue, a time frame acceptable and consistent with my previous purchases.

The goods are usually of a higher quality compared to those on Qoo10.

However, this site is not for those last minute urgent purchase for the evening dress u need over the weekend or the trip u going away next week as u have to wait up to 2 weeks to receive the goods.

 

Zalora shopping

online shopping is always so tempting and irresistible.
u can simply buy anything anywhere,
and especially when the pictures are all so 'well-taken'
it is so very hard not to click purchase.

I also spent a considerable amount of time online shopping (window or not),
and sometimes as usual, I succumbed to those sales.

I am especially vulnerable to polka dots, plaids type of stuff.
It only took me less than 5 mins to decide to purchase this dress from zalora.

Can you see why I was sold? *smile

white and plaids is a sure killer to me as I will definitely fall prey to it.

The online purchase from Zalora is pretty fast, within 6 hours, I received email informing that the item was packed and in the hub for delivery. From past experiences, I normally would get my 'loots' by the next 2 working days.

However this time round, it took 2 days for the update to reflect that the item is ready for delivery. And I still did not see my dress on the next working day.

Quite disappointed.

Flaw in carpark

Location  United Square
Flaw: parking lot taken but vacant light still turn on, making drivers confused and slowing down traffic trying to locate the real vacant lot.

Review purchase process from Qoo

after a long while of not purchasing from Qoo as the quality of the items are usually quite low compared to other online websites like Rakuten, ASOS and Zalora, I decided to give it another try after viewing the recommendation from the page. But alas, the experience is still bad. Here is what happened:-

i chose my items i wanted, 2 pairs of shoes for free shipping.
confirmed my order and made payment.
dated was 29 March.
the items were updated as sent out on 4 April.
then on 7 April, i received messages from seller telling my one of the items was out of stock, asking me to replace with another if I want to enjoy free shipping.
that same day, i chose another pair for replacement, seller said will check stock.
seller did not contact me again
on 9 Apr, I dropped a message to the seller asking for an update.
first the selling sent a message saying items were send.
after a while, seller said no stock, order cancel.

it was very confusing from my point of view as I was given conflicting information. I personally think the service is very poor, the seller is freshline.

anyone need discount code for vPost?

bus peak hour suggestion

i noticed that during morning peak hours, when 3-4 buses all arrived at the same time to a bus stop, the traffic will build up terribly causing a long queue that usually took 5-10 minutes to clear. It was made worse when some of these buses (2 out of 4) were moving from bus stop on the left to 3-lanes across to the right in order to turn right in less than 50m.

another thing i observed was that sometimes there were only 1-2 passengers left on the bus. could they have gotten down earlier? or the volume was actually low?

one thing for sure, the bus was very slow in maneuvering due to its sheer size.


consider replacing some 'double-decker buses with low volume' even during peak hours to mini bus to improve traffic jam.

the passengers may also like this as the mini-bus will be able to move faster although it may increase cost for the bus company as each mini-bus with a driver will fetch a lesser number of passengers.

it is not easy to run a city!

Inflation

Definition of inflation from Dictionary.com

a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency

After spending a month overseas, I came back and felt that food prices in sg have risen quite a fair bit. 

Food court prices have increased from around $3.50-4.50 to $5 to 10. Hopefully this increase will stabilize the shortage of manpower in the f&b industry. 

Not only that, I also noticed that a lot more small restaurants (aka cafes) like Bakezin / Wee Nam Kee are beginning to charge iced water by cup in the range of 30-50cents. I personally think this is not the way to go in term of business.

When planning pricing of the products, f&b should consider factoring such cost into the food product to create a pleasant environment for its customers. This way of business, the waitresses are reluctant to bring water to the table. They have to 'double confirm' how many glass of water the customer 'want to pay'. I think mainly because it is not a culture to charge for water. It made the dining experience very focus on 'are you willing to pay before I bring you the item'!

 

In Tokyo, most restaurants provide free flow of water. Cost of a bowl ramen or a curry katsu don is slightly more expensive than sg. The overall dining experience is more pleasant than in sg. The same goes for United States.

Singapore PSLE

On this day that used to be Children Day in Singapore, until it was redesignated to the first friday of Oct, I would like to rant a bit on putting these young children through examination.

I personally is not against examination. In fact, I have full support for people to continuously gain knowledge from a young age. A certain level of testing of ability is good.

The question here is the type of examination and I am going to mention specifically PSLE 12 years old (and there about) are required to sit. If it is purely to test on knowledge, on things that the children learned, things they should know, it is perfectly justifiable.

However, if you take a look the various questions set at preliminary examinations in schools and the sample questions sold in bookstores, you will realize it is not about testing their knowledge. Half the time, the questions are set with tricks for them to fall into. Do we need to teach them to be so cunning at such a young age?

I remember quite clearly in my university 1st year, my lecturer was very particular about our report writing standard. Rule number 1 was in a report, if you write 12 as numeric number, you are to follow that standard throughout. If you decided to write 12 as twelve, then same for the rest of the report. In the event that he sees 12, then three, he will hit the roof and the grade will reflect. This is basic report 101.
However, a simple Maths question of 3 lines will have a mixture of words and numeric to confuse the young child further.

Planning for a long trip in Fall

The great fall travel from Asia to America.
This is my pre-departure note. The idea of this trip was mooted sometimes in July. The objective was a overseas exposure on basketball cum holiday for the family after the big exam PSLE!
 
Hence the itinerary will have to designed / planned around the basketball event.  
When come to basketball, we are definitely talking about USA & NBA. We want to see Miami in action. Therefore, the state to visit is definitely going to be Florida. Since we are going to Florida, we might as well go Disneyland!!! 
Yes! I am a Disney fan. So far, I have been to Tokyo, Paris and HK Disneyland. 

I started to research on the available flight options. As usual, our first choice of airline is SQ since we are going half way across the globe..

Although options were aplenty, I can tell you it is not easy to get a reasonably priced, minimum hours route, comfortable airline. I am not keen on UA as I had bad experiences with them, engine failure and poor service. Talk about it on another post.  
My first choice was going via New York by Singapore airline which was our favorite. However, the transit and pricing were both not ideal. I spoke to some friends and there were suggestion to go via London direct to Orlando. It is always good to talk to more people to get ideas and opinions. We were seriously considering this option when we visited the travel agency to make reservation on multi-cities option because I couldnt find on internet to do this. It was at this point that the agency recommended delta airline.
Since delta flies via Tokyo, the thought of going for a quick stopover in Tokyo took place as a by-the-way trip. *happy
Slowly from August when the dates of travel became clearer, I began to make arrangement.
As I was planning the itinerary, there were a few days to spare. At that point when I was about to make reservation for air tickets, the Las Vegas sector popped into my mind. Grand Canyon was one of my must-visit places! I definitely want to take this chance to go take a look. So finally, our multi-cities fall trip read as follow:-

Singapore-Tokyo-LV(viaLA)-Orlando(Atlanta)-Bradenton-Miami-Atlanta-Tokyo-Singapore.

Wow! I even get the chance to celebrate my birthday in Vegas! I am so blessed!

After Disneyland, we even have time to visit an old friend in Florida.

We are looking forward to watch the season opening match between Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls. How wonderful! I thank God for all these possibilities!

Next I started to plan the daily itinerary.

We have hotels booked in Tokyo, Las Vegas, Orlando & Miami. 

Mt. Fuji day tour check. Grand Canyon explorer check! Disneyland 2 days park hopper check! Miami Heat tickets check!

We are almost ready! We pray for smooth traveling.

I am so looking forward to the outlets shopping, photography, theme parks and Miami opening basketball match. How can I use words to describe my excitement?

vpost delivery part 2

today is 22 Aug 2013
when i log in to track my parcel from Japan
it is still not up to date
reflected on 13 Aug when the shipping was paid.
when I made payment, the estimated arrival was 17-23 Aug 2013.
I will rate this service POOR as there is no update, customer has a tracking number to check status BUT it is sorry, there is no result or too many request, please try again later.