New Flat at Blk 113

since mika has already announce on her blog our new address (prob in jun/jul 09), i'll just show some pictures of the location..

first, the map view...

as you can see, we're near the MRT, so we can save time on travelling. also, and more importantly, we're near mika's parents place, so we can save on meals and laundry.. but... too bad for mika, the new place dun seem much nearer to her workplace.

next, the satellite view...

the arrows indicate where the windows face. so, yeah... we face the north and the south and so there's no evening sun. also, mika mentioned that it's breezy... well, cos the taller buildings do not block our windows... and also, the taller buildings are not in our view, and hence, we get this false sense of feeling of being q high up.. hee.

Service in Singapore

Finally i'm back on course at SAFTI MI. ie no more sailing, duties and unreasonable deadlines... haha. so got time to blog liao... had eaten out on three occasions at different restaurants and witnessed the dismal standard of service nowadays.

1. Lerk's Thai Restaurant, Marina Square Second Storey

was eating with mika after visiting it show. e waiters + waitresses were super inattentive even though it was off peak and there were virtually no customers. but it was within tolerable limits.

e incident: basically, the first waitress who took our order for drinks forgot to relay e info to e drinks counter or whoever. ok... so we asked for e same drinks again. so the drinks come lah. ok. so after the meal, we paid e bill and left. dunno why. i decide to check the bill again and i realised that they charged e drinks twice. ok. nvm... go back and checked e waitress.

wah. e waitress who took our order was simply indifferent. she signalled to the cashier to "settle us" and went on to do her job. e cashier just changed e bill and charged me accordingly with no apology and was not even apologetic about it.

2. Central Restaurant, Vivocity Basement One

was eating with colleagues this time around. two incidents..

incident 1: again, inattentive waitress took the wrong order. instead of 831, she recorded 813 and hence the wrong order was delivered. when we told the waiter who delivered it that the order was wrong, he returned to the kitchen with the dish. amazingly (this is really amazing) the waitress who took the wrong order returned with the wrong dish and confronted us. huh? is it necessary to confront us? luckily (for her) she didnt kick up a storm and just returned back to the kitchen. again, no apology and simply not apologetic.

incident 2: this is simply amazing. the waiter was clearing up the table and he had difficulties reaching a plate in the center. he asked for assistance but my friend wasnt paying attention. then he said "allo?" in a sarcastic manner and reached for the plate. i was simply amazed.

3. Muthu Curry, Suntec Basement 1

was eating with group 4 (actually, only got four of us...haha) ok. after the previous encounters, the service was not that horrible. just that, when i asked for water, they served me beer. i said no, and asked for water, but never come. asked for water again, but never come. asked for water again, but never come. last time, a bit smarter. saw a guy carrying glasses of water and i asked for water. basically, most of the time was spent repeating orders to different waiters for things to happen.

think i havent been dining out much. nv realised that service can be so horrible.

how to get a million dollars

realised that i havent blogged for over a month! was getting bit lazy until...

i found out the easiest way to get one million dollars!

drumroll....

act stupid and enter the gameshow "are you smarter than a fifth grader?" maybe the gameshow may sound unfamiliar, but it's the gameshow THE dumb blonde was in.

geez. basically, it's like "who wants to be a millionaire" the elementary/ pri sch version with adults. was watching it on channel 5. there's this chap who was answering his 300,000 USD question. Yes. 300,000 USD. And the question is... drumroll...

What do plants lose during the process of transpiration?

A. Seeds. B. Water Vapour. C. Roots...

Mika, her sister and I were like... What?! So simple?

And... this American chap just gave up and said that the question was too difficult.

???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worse, he walked away with 175,000 USD!

?????!!!!! I worked so hard to get a good degree to get a well-paying job and sloughed for the past two years and yet i dun get such good money.

There's really something fundamentally wrong with this world.

But maybe life's not so bad after all. after two years, my paper submission to a math journal is finally accepted! actually, not v excited, cos of the long delay in the refereeing process. haha. anyway, mika asked me how much i may get for publishing a paper.

i said, "i dunno. but definitely much less than 175,000 USD."

dim sum dollies: history of singapore

just came back from the show and tot it was not bad. very hilarious (but v singaporean jokes) and refreshing. unlike most musicals which have a simple plot, the show has no plot at all. it's just local jokes intertwined with history.

in fact, it's v local and twds the end, quite ndp-ish... n (no offence to anyone) the show makes one feel more singaporean than ndp itself. perhaps one should learn to be more open and laugh at oneself, so that one can learn to be open to others.

anyway, i think the show's worth catching.

seriousLY.

genting trip

While mika goes to tioman with her family, me decides to go out with my jc friends to genting. it was a long time since we went overseas together (the last time was to hk after a levels)... anyway.. q difficult to describe and imagine wat we did and how we actually can derive fun from it... basically, was just gambling, eating and chilling out. and 'occasionally' bitching about the 'efficiency' of the place...

moreover, it's q disturbing to realise that genting (e company) in a few years' time will be running the sentosa's integrated resort.

things i hope they'll learn:

1. to have a much more parking slots with a properly managed carpark. and not to allow cars parking out of proper parking lots.

2. to have a nicer reception lobby which does not remind one of a refuge camp (with hundreds of ppl waiting with luggages) or an A&E ward (with queue numbers LED display).

3. to have Kenny Rogers' Chicken to be served with the side dishes and not serve a plate with sides dishes only.

4. to manage a HUGE crowd during public hols.

5. to have an eloquent service, which is able to describe food on the menu (even though the food is not what they can eat).

6. to have a friendlier service. (kaimin wanted to upgrade his genting card to some genting 'green' card. the lady at the counter told him to do so in the casino and sacarstically told him that he has to wear polo t-shirt into the casino... huh? we entered the casino without any shirt/polo t for two days...)

7. to have fastfood served fast. (as pointed out, the elderly at mac's or the handicapped at kfc serve much faster)

hmmmm... but all in all, still enjoyed e trip and it was an excellent break from work.

Soka Kindergarten Camp at Sentosa



Helped mika out in this camp for kindergarten kids at sentosa last fri.



First station was at mount imbiah. They put up some kiddy stuff at the place. Below is a house with a giant head inside. The teacher told them there was a rabbit which went missing. So i bluffed them that it was inside the house, behind the head. Then i went in the house to look for the rabbit. It's q dirty and dark behind the head, so no kid followed me. Note to the right of the picture, there's a door. The kids there started banging the door and hence, created the sounds "in the house". The kids in front of the head cannot see the kids behind the door, so i bluffed them that it was the rabbit trying to come out. And some kids actually believed and some were frightened... Haha.. Sorta got a bad reputation...

Yeah... So some kids started picking fights with me... Grrr...

In the afternoon, there were some free play at the palawan playground. And i decided to take a nap. and some kids (both big and small) refused to leave me alone..

a final shot at sentosa.

1. tried food at some new places for the past two days.

a. ba ku teh at this restaurant next to new orchid hotel at balestier. not bad not bad. business v good... got long queue by 1930. but q ex tho.. $22 for two ppl...

b. PREGO at raffles the plaze. officers' gathering. horrible experience. their garlic soup is horrendously concentrated. my tummy became super irritated and i puked most of the soup out. the food is super expensive (but expected lah) and tasted normal (prob cos i lost my appetite). but the tiramisu was not bad tho.

2. was visiting nus csc website (i dunno why i did it). realised that my surname (under 2nd mc) is spelled wrongly yet again. my surname is KIAH! not kian. ends with a H, not n. this error is so common that it can get quite irritating at times. no. it's nothing to do with my handwriting. ppl just like to help me correct KIAH to kian.

so, i repeat again. my surname is KIAH. pronounced same as KIA (as in KIA motors) or KIA (as in noKIA).

KIAH is not unique! there are other occurrences of KIAH in the world today.

For example, Kiah-Exquisitive Diamond Jewellery is a world created just so that every cherrished moment becomes an occasion.

Kiah Consulting primarily works with clients in establishing new iniatives and re-invigorating previous plans and projects.

kiah.net is ... kiah.net

kiah.org is ... KIAH dot ORG

Kiah Park consists of 315 beautiful acres and is situated 20km east of Gympie and is 160km north of brisbane.

Kiah Ridge Conference Centre is the gateway to the south highlands.

kiah is also a malaysian photographer.

kiah is also a shiloh. (hmmm...)

tim kiah plays on the bass.

kiah mcgregor works at the australian institute of crimonology.

yes... so it's KIAH with a silent H.

hmmm... like that another weekend has passed, and a simple count puts it now to 2 years 9 months and 7 days = 36 months = 144 weeks = 1007 days...

1. last week went for this navy sprint challenge at east coast park. basically a very shortened version of a biathalon. 500m swim + 3 km run (actual bi = 1.5km swim + 10 km run). so not that siong lah... (heh... not implying that i'm fit or wat) but the "challenging" part is the swim. more like a big fight in the sea. nudge here kick there. when i was talking to my frens, they say that it's like that for the biathalons... some "veterans" intentionally pull pple to get forward in the real biathalon (can try imagine combining the pulling motion with the front crawl stroke... it's quite smooth actually). like ????!!! dunno true or not lah.

here's one photo of the huge mayhem. taken by my fren derek. can look at his other photos of the race (unfortunately... no hunks...)

2. yesterday went for first lesson for pilates with mika. it's at the civil service club at bukit batok. pulled mika along cos my fren told me that it's good for the core muscles... ie. abs. a bit disappointed with the instructor tho (perhaps cos she's a replacement) it just felt like slow abs + legs exercise in an aircon room with music. the instructor just said do this and this... inhale exhale... a bit rush and dun really know wat's happening.

mika complained that her tummy is aching... mine is still ok. i think bigger tummy needs more exercise. haha.

shipyard in tuas and kolkata

today (sun) went back to ship to settle some work. my ship has gone to yard to undergo some sort of planned maintainence. sort of like servicing in a workshop lah. the yard is like "the peak" "zui gao dian (the highest point)" place lah. but it's extremely dirty and dusty.

not that i'm being mean. but the place sort of resemble the conditions in kolkata. this is not meant to be racist or demeaning. but the place has a lot of indian foreign workers.

and these ppl lead a v tough life. from wat i hear, the workers work v long hours to earn a pittance. not sure how much they earn though. but they definitely work a lot of ot. typically, they work until ten on weekdays and sometimes overnight to two am. when i was in base on sun, these ppl still worked until four.

their breaks are minimal. twelve to twelve forty five for lunch and is signalled by a horn throughout the yard. during which they squeeze in their naps by sleeping on the floor at a sheltered corridor near the canteen/toilet/office. on top of these, they have to endure the heat of working onboard ships with poor ventilation (our aircons are off for maintainence) and work in a dusty and potentially hazardous environment. plus those disgustingly dirty toilets.

basically, the working conditions in the shipyard is not much better than those in kolkata. only good thing is that the pay (though little) is much better. i doubt that these guys live in any better conditions. (saw a photo exhibition at the national library last year depicting the living quarters of these workers. )

so can we only provide these workers a seemingly higher pay? but not better and cleaner working and living conditions? is giving them a more decent treatment so costly that it will erode our competitive edge? or are we afraid of lowering their immune system or creating an environment so that they can better adapt?

singapore vs malaysia @ kallang stadium

went to kallang stadium to watch the semi-finals between singapore and malaysia on sat with mika. the atmosphere was great and the crowd was extremely boisterous. but cannot help to note that singaporean soccer fans are v unsportmanly. haha. there was really more jeering of msia team than cheering for the singapore team.

v apparent in the penalty shootout. everytime the lions successfully converted their kicks, the cheers will be loud, but for a while only. cos the msia guy who stepped up will receive an even louder and super long BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! with many thumbs down and the occasional MISS MISS MISS MISS chants.

here got some evidence of the jeers. clips not taken by me.


thought this was quite mean... the goodbye song was sang after msia loss to the msian fans. hmmm. when we were walking out, i think we walked past the msia camp. the singaporeans were singing this song v v LOUDLY.



the famous butoh! ok. you only hear the butoh! here. actually, there's supposed with the 11 claps/horns thinggy. in the past, it was 11 horns + SINGAPORE! now it's 11 horns + BUTOH!! it became so catchy that when we were walking back to Kallang MRT, some cars will do the 11 horns and the crowd which is walking will shout BUTOH!!! ok. for those who are clueless on wat butoh means, here's a link to (you guess wat?) wikipedia. Not a v nice meaning though.... meaning of butoh




ok. here's a better video clip of the butoh thing. haha.

regardless, JIAYOU SINGAPORE!!!

Broadband Finally

Haha. Finally decided to upgrade to broadband with starhub. Signed up a one year contract under the Starhub corporate plan with 10% discount. well, quite pleased with the speed which i can surf now. but wanna complain about the poor (though not dysmal) service standards of the sales personnel. here are some excerpts of the correspondence between the two of us, and my displeasure with this mr raj.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Mr Mao

I have received all your documents via fax. I have arranged for an installation on the 16th of Jan 2007 between 1830--2030. Please let me know if it is a convenient time. There will be an installation charge of $52.50 and subsequently the monthly subscription will be $52.92 inclusive of a 10% discount. Please contact me if you have any further enquiries.
Thank You


Raj

StarHub Ltd CIS

Telesales

Consumer Sales & Customer Experience

~~ Our People, Our Passion, Our StarHub ~~

DID: (65) 6725 2211

Fax: (65) 6725 9796

Email: cis-corpsales18@starhub.com

------------------------------------------------------------

Ok. This is not the first time someone got my surname wrong. so i dropped a hint to him.

------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry. But the time is not convenient. Would a weekend be possible?

What do I need to prepare?

Regards,
Kiah HanMao

-----------------------------------------------------------

But he replies:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Mr Mao

I will reschdule the appointment to 20 Jan 2007 between 0900--1100 if that is convenient . You do not need to prepare anything, however it will be good to be there when my tech guys come over, if you do have any enquiries, they will be able to assist you with it. We will be billing you the installation and subscription charges which you can subsequently pay vis credit card.
Thank You
raj

----------------------------------------------------------

hint not strong enough.

---------------------------------------------------------

How about Sun 21 Jan 0900--1100?

Thanks.

Kiah Han Mao

--------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Mr Mao

We do not do installation on Sunday.
raj

--------------------------------------------------------

????????!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok. My hints are not good enough. Maybe i should be blatant.

--------------------------------------------------------

Ok. For Sat, when is the installation up to?

By the way, my surname is Kiah. I hope the form i submitted indicates it clearly.

--------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Mr Kiah

Can I get the tech guys to come between 11am to 1pm. I will get them to call you before coming.
Thank You.

--------------------------------------------------------

Finally he gets it right. Maybe i'm too sensitive. but isnt it customary for ppl to apologise after making a mistake in addressing ppl? Anyway, i wasnt too uptight about it. What really pissed me off was the next incident, as i describe in the next email.

--------------------------------------------------------

I think there's some big communication problem in your company.

I received an SMS telling me your tech guys are coming down on Tue. I called up your Customer Service Hotline and talked to this Stephanie and arranged with her for the guys to come down today on Thu between 1830 and 2030 because Saturday I'm not free in the morning. Today I rushed down from work to just to be home by 1830 and now at 2115, there are no signs of your staff. Don't you guys have the courtesy to inform me earlier?

Now, I'm only available after 1200 on Sat 20 Jan 07. Your guys better call me at 94312567 before coming. If your guys do not arrive by 1300 on Sat, then forget it.

---------------------------------------------------------

Ok. maybe i'm v harsh. but hey! i'm the one who rushed down for nothing. Well, what was irritating was the next email from mr raj.

--------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Mr Kiah

I was not informed of your conversation with the Customer Service Officer, Stephanie, however, like I mentioned the appointment I made is between 1100 to 1pm. I understand you are only free between 1200 to 1pm. I will get the guys to come between that time and call you before that.
Thank you
raj

-------------------------------------------------------

This really put me off. Not a single word of apology. Is it now my fault for not informing him of my conversation with his other staff? Geez. Has the word "Sorry" been erased from his vocabulary? Sigh. This is not even about service standards. It's about basic courtesy.

Think this is quite common in many service industries. First, they are polite in enticing you into a plan. Once you signed up, they become utterly bochup. they risk offending you on the assumption that you wont waste your efforts by cancelling your plans. Geez. Mr raj was q right on this point. in the end, the guy still came today to do the installation. but he was wrong on another point.

i didnt forget about his indifference.

bangkok

wanted to blog about our trip to bangkok. but in view of the recent tragic events, decided against it.

just want to write that bangkok is a vibrant city, filled with life.

hope that the violence will not mar her charm.

it's been a long long long time since i've posted. a very brief update on the past few weeks in my life.

1. tormenting first two weeks of dec: visit to singapore by some swedish navy delegates. i was in charge of entertaining them, ie bringing them around and facilitating their stay. wasnt really that tough, but i had to sacrifice some weekends to bring them around. brought them to eat roti prata and dim sum on separate occasions. realised that describing local food is a rather difficult task (according to a food guide released by the tourism board, roti prata is flat bread).

but the real difficult part is the unpredictability of my routine and the need for last minute changes. for example, on the first day, i had to return after midnight because one of the flights was delayed by four hours. another time. another irritating thing is that pple keep hounding you on the movt of the delegates. once when i was bringing some apparently swedish big shots to our base. within three minutes i received three calls from three different ppl asking me for the time of arrival of the delegates.

kinda like my new ship. although there's a lot a lot of miscellaneous work to do, it kinda makes it easier to ask for incentives / rewards. now i ask my superiors to cover duties for me when i'm not available and find it easier to reason with them.

2. went to langkawi with mika. this time a bit further than tioman. had q a lot of fun. main highlight was trekking in langkawi. on the second day, we went up to one of the peaks on a cable car, and walked across this super high suspension bridge. the view was wonderful and mika was so so so nervous. then we trekked to this waterfall plus seven wells, and we had fun playing in the waters. think mika will post on the trip. so pls look up her blog. haha.

3. had a fun GR xmas gathering at mika's place. sorry. getting lazy to blog. so pls refer to any of the GR's blog for more info.

4. now i'm actually at pacific coffee company, waiting to get my essay draft so that i can edit tonight. as said earlier, this time round my job entails many miscellaneous obligations, which includes writing a submission for an saf-wide essay competition. maybe will post this essay if it doesn't win anything.

short update

vertical marathon
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

1. an institutionalized job is one where the employee accepts a lower pay and works long erratic hours to protect a set of higher values. ok. my pay is not that low (but i’m q surprised that ppl with the same degree as me gets the same pay in other civil service sector...) but the hours are certainly v long and v erratic. lost my last weekend due to some things which i cannot say. and there are so many other misc things to do outside my job scope (but i guess it’s the same for all jobs..) k. i’m not supposed to complain here.

2. met up with the roosters for mika’s liangyu’s and lijie’s bday. great to meet up with old friends and it was a good break from all the work. this dec gg to langkawi with mika. and hopefully bangkok with mika lijie and mika’s frens. and more hopefully can go with roosters to kukup in jan. good things to look forward to.

3. just completed the vertical marathon! it felt much shorter than expected. though climbing steps is rather agonising. haha forced mika to go too... felt bad when she looked so stressed before the race. but after the race, she was bouncing around as usual. haha. oh. met ee jay there too and we went up together. but climbing steps is really rather demoralising cos everyone slows down the pace v early in the climb. think there’s some technique to moving up at a fast and reasonably comfortable pace.

bali

bali
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

just came back from bali. had a super slack time there. went there mainly to dive. mika was complaining that i wasted my flight ticket there, cos i didnt really go and visit the culture side of bali... oh well, the trip was a bit too short. but bumming around at bali was q relaxing. sigh.... dunno when will there be such a long break, where i can go explore, tour and bum around at a relaxing pace.

found the balinese industry v tourist oriented. the ppl there generally go the extra mile for service, without ‘really looking forward to tips’. go many examples lah. the taxi driver who drove us to our legian, the place we were staying, was rather patient. he waited for us while we try to choose the hotel to stay in, even though the fare was a flat rate. then there was another driver, who ferried us to and fro from the dive site. The journey took 3 hours. so to and fro, will take 6 hours for us, BUT 12 hours for him. (since he came from the dive site) it was super tiring for him lah... but he was cool about it. on the second night, he brought us to a nice beach to eat bbq seafood dinner. (which was rather ex... but still worth it. ambience plus taste)

wah... but the service at the dive center was great. the last time i dived was in 2003, when i took the open water course with leeway. wah. that time, had to lug around the air tanks, BC sets, weights etc etc. rig up your diving equipment. wash equipment after the whole thing.... ok lah. wasnt that sian then. but at tulamben (the dive site), everything is done for you. you just have to carry your fins, mask and weights to the shore (where we enter) and the BC set and the tanks are there, rigged up for you, miraculously. (actually got lady porters who carry the tanks on their heads in the traditional manner) so just pick up the equipment and don for a short distance and down we go... will blog about the diving and show the dive pictures when i get them from my friend.

but despite all this, the dive master (ie the guy who dive with us) earn v little. he told my friend that for the three dives he took us for the day, he earned only 30,000 rupiah which is less than 6 sgd. but the dives that day, we in total paid 210 usd which is more than 315 sgd. well... my friend gave him some tips in the end. (perhaps he was trying to get sympathy... but so be it)

hmmmm. while we admire the high service standards there, and push our service industry to reach higher standards, we should be cognizant of the vast differences in circumstances between us and them. i took a module about the service industry in nus, and the lecturer always compare singapore service providers with those in bali and thailand, etc. perhaps we should be aware that places like bali survive on the tourist industry and (this is wat i think) given a choice, the natives would rather get a better job than to serve. BUT... this is no excuse for the lousy standards that we experience in singapore SOMETIMES.