"New Computer"

I got myself a "new" laptop today. Sounds like I am rolling in money and managed to get my hands on a pretty pink laptop. I have been salivating about the Dell pretty pink laptop for some time now - just drooling OK! In reality no moolah to get a new computer.

My current wonderful HP enterprise edition laptop has been slowing down for some weeks - web pages take ages to open, stuff go missing (because I cannot remember where I stored them) and all the frustrations of a fat over-weight laptop. Hero and I had been talking about getting the bigger HDD installed and maybe I would be able to run the laptop a lot faster. But we never do anything about it because we are lazy, inert folks or just trying to stretch our luck with the slowness and how much my patience will carry on. It was like this before Uncle Andrew passed away, and we still didn't do anything for over a month. This is my laptop but I have no idea how to maintain it. Everytime something happens, all Hero will hear is "what did you do to my laptop?" and his protestation: NOTHING!!

OK, so finally the laptop was so slow yesterday that it was incapable of doing anything. Run out of memory or space of whatever. No free bytes left for me so we bit the bullet and installed the new HDD. So that's how I got myself a "new" computer.

I spent my time today installing all the programs where I had the installation CDs. But I am not exactly very technically inclined, so a lot of times my voice would be going: finished! what do I do next? The instructions would be "click NEXT and follow the instructions till you get to finish!!"

Then when I get stuck and I have no idea what to do, and the computer tech guy is away, I start doing all sorts of other things and trying to get this "new" laptop to look and behave like the "old" laptop. I have some measure of success but I am still groping around trying to get all the bits of the jigsaw together.

Maybe in a couple of days I will get it all OK and my life will be back to normal.

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Shopping

Shopping is an activity that girls revel in. Some of my favourite shops in Singapore are Robinsons, C K Tangs, Body Shop and of course the endless rounds of window shopping just to see what is new!

However, these days I confine my shopping activity to just for groceries and essentials. I think this is better for my sanity and wallet.

Shopping on the internet is also fun - I get to visit all sorts of shops, see what's hot and what's not in London, New York and Paris. Ebay is lots of fun! I have found lots of stuff there that keep me happy.

So that was the car hunting jaunt - window shopping for a car.

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Car hunting and the sales people

We went off on a car hunting jaunt today. This rant and rave is about the sales people in the car showrooms. Maybe I could have a job as a mystery shopper after this episode!

The car hunt was all fuelled by a sighting of the Fiat 500 on a trailer at the Anguilla Park car park some weeks back. I figured we should find out more about this vehicle and we started our hunt today. We first headed to somewhere in the Ubi area where we found the FIAT sign but no sighting of any Fiats. The Fiats were hidden behind some showroom displaying some China marque but again no Fiat 500 in sight. A very friendly young lady told us that the Fiat 500 was at Sin Ming. She answered our usual questions about how much the car, what financing options, what colour available, manual or auto gearbox, engine capacity, electric adjustable wing mirrors, and even made suggestions on our possible replacement car.

We give her an A for effort even though she didn't have the car that we were looking for!

My criteria for a car were simple: manual gearbox, manual window winder and electric adjustable wing mirrors. My sister is another story - she's a lazy driver and wants an auto car, large boot space, must have vanity mirrors on both sun visors and a whole lot of other things. Hero only wants a vehicle to drive him from A to B and doesn't care about the rest of the other refinements. Can move - can already!

We headed off to Sin Ming and found the Fiat 500 in the driveway. We headed into the showroom and encountered another friendly salesman. He answered all our questions and even entertained our request for a green version - colour and nothing to do with CNG versions or whatever. This salesman even told us that he would knock off $1,000 off the price of the car and include all the extras (leather seats and premium colour choice) if we signed on the dotted line. He was totally upfront about what was included in the price. Told us that his company does not mess around with gimmicky sales prices to entice buyers. We told him that we were also looking at the Peugeot 1007 (the sliding door car) but he was quite unfazed.

Also an A for effort for this gentleman. We like him for his honesty.

So we headed off to Alexandra Road to see the Peugeot 1007. We encountered really snooty sales people in that Peugeot showroom. Admittedly we were not dressed to the nines, but that does not mean that we are not serious buyers.

In the stable of vehicles we have in our family, these are the marques we have driven over the years - Rover, Citroen, Land Rover, Peugeot, BMW, Mercedes Benz, VW, Renault, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Toyota Camry, Toyota Lexus, Mini, Ford, Jaguar, Proton, Honda plus experience in driving vans and lorries at some stage. So we are not inexperienced hopeless and hapless drivers!

They were not keen to show us where the spare tyre was stored - a safety issue for us! Answering our questions seemed like a great chore for them. We were dressed in our Saturday best ( t-shirts and denims with SHOES, not slippers) - maybe too casual for Peugeot. In my usual impeccable taste, I had my feet shod in my Ferragamoes - with the logos showing, so I don't think we were doing too badly! :-p So do we need to turn up dripping in our designer labels and tote our Hermes Birkins before we get attention from Peugeot??

When we asked for the exit pass (so that we el-cheapo people don't have to pay for parking!!) we were given one with great disdain by another snooty looking sales lady.

We give them an A++ for snotty snooty behaviour.

We headed off to the Renault showroom after that - we give then an A++ for hospitality. No problem with answering questions. They even offered us coffee and tea and biscuits. Ahh, that's bliss after the rounds of the showrooms.

Anyone want to hire me as a mystery shopper to test out services?

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Rude persons

Sometime ago, I met a rude man courtesy of my client. I won't mention names here so that their "face" will be protected. My client had decided that he wanted to take his work away from me. Now you are beginning to think that I am suffering from a case of sour grapes because I am loosing a client. Let me assure you that it was not the case - they were also driving me nuts with their work and "madness".

Anyway my client flew in at the last minute and I had to clear my calendar for him. Then we went to Citibank as he wanted to change the bank signatories. No problem but the client (J) didn't give notice to the banker (L) that he was coming. So that morning, J and I turned up Citibank at Paragon to change the bank signatories and we met with the rude man (M) and his business partner (J).

Since L didn't know about this meeting and had scheduled another meeting in the morning, nobody could attend to us at Citibank. However, there was this wonderful concierge guy named Ben who attended to us and did all he could to assist us.

In the time we were at Citibank at Paragon, M made all sorts of disparaging remarks:

M: why can't another person attend to us?

Ben: L is the person who is taking care of your account, so he is the best person to deal with the matter.

M: you mean there is no other person? Then if L is not around, how does Citibank function?

Ben kept quiet but M started on again -

M: is this the sort of inefficient service that Citibank offers?

M: so if one person is not around, the bank comes to a standstill?

M: how hopeless, do they think we have time to sit around and wait for L to come back?

If you are wondering how I can post this - very simple - I made a recording of his rant!

In the meantime, Ben did manage to get L on the phone and L told Ben what to do and spoke with me about the bank's procedures for changing the bank signatories. I am very accepting of bank standard operating procedures because they want to protect themselves against being sued by customers for some mistake made - so simple!

Hey M - you could have achieved a lot more if you were polite. If you think that being rude to Citibank will impress J, then you are sadly mistaken. Firstly, you didn't make an appointment with L. Secondly, you didn't follow the procedure (that's produce the resolution!!). Then being rude to the bank does not help at all. The amount maintained by the company in the bank does not qualify the company for priviledge banking. Citibank considers the company as SMALL FRY!! Another things you should note - J and his organization think they know everything because they have dealings with the government. They won't tell you anything about what is going on in the company. They will only tell you what they want you to know - this is a case of CAVEAT EMPTOR when you handle their work.

Frankly, I have never had any problems with any bank because I know how to follow their procedures. When you are polite to the bankers, they will actually bend over as much as possible to assist.

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Why I started a blog ...

For a long time I've had thoughts of putting my musings, observations, rantings and ravings in some written form instead of just having them as wild thoughts flying around in my head.

There are many things that I observe in the surroundings, then if thought provoking - I would be musing about it. If sufficiently irritated, then I would be ranting and raving. Hence the title of my blog: MUSINGS, RANTINGS & RAVINGS for me to ventitlate in virtual space instead of taking it out on all and sundry around me.

In the Bible, there is an apt verse: Psalm 141:3 - Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.

So instead of an actual nag or the shrill tones of my frustrations, I put my thoughts in the written word instead of spoken - could be better for peace all around if you ask me.

I have also been encouraged to write as I have been told that I speak well. However I can tell you that speaking well and writing well are the opposite ends of the earth. People who write well may not speak well.

We have a friend from church who is a publisher of trade journals, who by her own admission hates public speaking. She admitted that she would prefer to scribe instead of sprout. In reality, she does not speak well.

The pen is mighter than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy.

The Story behind It: In Act II of Bulwer-Lytton's play Richelieu, Cardinal Richelieu learns of a plot against him contrived by a friend and confidant, the monk Joseph. Since as a priest he could not challenge the monk to physical combat, Richelieu issued a written statement which contains the following:
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,the pen is mightier than the sword.

The Greek poet Euripides, who died about 406 B.C., said, "The tongue is mightier than the blade." In 1600 Shakespeare had Rosencrantz in Hamlet say that "... many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills." Thomas Jefferson, who in 1796 sent a letter to Thomas Paine in which he wrote: "Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword."

It is easier to write well than to speak well - you can edit your words for clarity and preciseness, check your spelling, re-arrange your sentences and whatever else you do to make your written word look good.

As for speaking well, - I can tell you there is no return after you have said it. Hence the Bible verse from Psalm 141:3. In Singlish we say: Engage brain first, hor! Otherwise we have the "Oops! I put my foot in my mouth" moment to mortify us forever. The situation may be OK if there were no recordings of the proceedings, so the moment will pass. However in these days of "I must protect my reputation" and libel proceedings - you will also have to guard your mouth.

So there you have it - I started it to practice my writing skills instead of my oral skills.

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dhobi (dō′bē) - what on earth is that?

For the uninitiated, a DHOBI is an Indian washerman or woman.

Wikipedia states:

A dhobi is a washerman in Pakistan and India. Dhobis usually operate from door to door collecting dirty linen from households. After a day or two, they return the linen washed, sometimes starched and ironed. Each dhobi marks a unique symbol or character on garments belonging to a particular household. This is marked in black indelible ink to prevent it from being washed off.

So sometimes you hear the term "dhobi mark" used as "make sure you dhobi mark your item to say that is yours, otherwise ......" - just to practice my Singlish here!

In Singapore, there is an MRT station named DHOBY GHAUT which literally means WASHING PLACE. When I was younger, I remember going home to Katong via Orchard Road, Dhoby Ghaut, Bras Basah Road and Nichol Highway route. I was totally fascinated by the rows and rows of laundry (usually large white sheets) billowing in the wind along Dhoby Ghaut on the large green grass patch in front of the Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, that stretched all the way to the Catholic Church before Victoria Street near the Town Convent.

Wait a minute - what large green grass patch in front of Orchard Road Presbyterian Church??

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Chinese Dhobi

Last night I bought a new iron from Courts at Ang Mo Kio. You must be wondering why on earth I would write about an iron or even title this post as "Chinese Dhobi".

Dad and AKK set up dressing rooms with a steam iron, an ironing board, water spray and spray starch. I have the same set up in my bedroom to deal with the laundry pile that never seems to go down! I am quite particular about my work clothes being properly pressed and ironed but I am also OK with wearing creased casual weekend stuff. I don't iron jeans and t-shirts, but will iron the edges of bedsheets to make them look tidy. A little daft if you ask me!

Any way ..... this iron that I bought is the Philips GC46301i - the blurb on the box says "removes creases easily from cotton and linen - powerful ironing with Ionic DeepSteam". I thought "what the hell" and forked out $152 for the iron. The other deal maker for me to buy the iron was the FREE sandwich maker. Typical girl, right?

So tonight, I decided to tackle that mountain of laundry that has taken over the sofa in our bedroom. What a breeze to tackle that pile - the creases really seem to iron out faster! OK, as usual I will prep the laundry with some water and then some random spray starch and start the glide with the TV for company and the fan blasting away.

I have no idea what on earth this Ionic DeepSteam thing is but on the box it claims that the steam particles are 50% smaller to reach deeper into tough creases. I was totally attracted to the 150g boost of steam and the 24oow ironing power.

The other iron that I had around to help me tackle the laundry mountain was also a Philips with 100g boost of steam. It did the job but it was not hot enough and didn't have enough steam to keep going. This iron offered me 50% more steam to kill those creases on the cotton and linen laundry. We don't have a maid at home and any home appliance that will make our domestic lives easier is very much appreciated.

I sound domesticated?

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Sleep or the lack of .....

I cannot sleep - was it the coffee that I had in the afternoon? I really don't know.

I went upstairs to sleep but I guess I had too much activity so I couldn't get any ZZZZZs in. I started by de-ticking Torrent our cutie pie Westie. Then I found he has monster ticks in his front paws. A trip downstairs to pick up his tweezers put the idea of sleep away. The 'exercise' made my blood circulate. After fighting Torrent for his ticks, I thought the ZZZZZZs could come - alas! after tossing around for 10 minutes with my active mind, I thought reading something would help so I started on the Reader's Digest. Hmm - no sleep anywhere on the horizon. So I came downstairs and fired up the old laptop. A few games of the boring Minesweeper do nothing for my quest for sleep.

I try to do stuff on Facebook, but sleep eludes me.

The lack of sleep can be terrible but I seem to be able to survive with little sleep. When I was younger (let's say about 10 years ago), I would be able to talk on the phone with Hero till 4 in the morning, go to bed and get up by 7 and head to the office before 8:30 and work sanely and repeat the cycle for a couple of days.

Even many more years back when I was in London, there were occasions when I went without sleep for about 3 days and nights - about 72 hours at a stretch. Don't ask me what obsessed me at that time, but I managed homework and classes and what-have-you with very little sleep. In those so called sleep-deprived days, I survived on 1 hour catnaps that fuelled me on. Horrors! Was it the bad coffee or just the lack of need for sleep?

God has given me a wonderful gift - I am able to sleep just about anywhere. Hero also has this gift. Besides the bed, we have been able to get our catnaps in all places. Let's see - I can fall asleep on the bus, the MRT when I can get a seat (it is a little difficult to sleep on the train and balance yourself), in the car, in the office, waiting in government departments or service centres for my number to be called, at friends' homes when the sofa gets really comfy and the list goes on .....

I have yet to fall asleep in the shower!

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Blue Eyes aka FatBoy

This is the second post on another cat in our home officially named Blue Eyes for his beautiful blue eyes, but affectionately referred to as FatBoy.

FatBoy is the most loving cat that we have in our home. His sister is Bandit the alpha female at home. In this picture, he is having a good time getting his chin rub whilst on our bed!

FatBoy is really fat according to our vet Dr. Anthony Goh: You will have to put Blue Eyes on a diet - he is overweight!

FatBoy is lovable - an eating machine, an attention seeker and a talking machine. He loves his food but he is really picky too. We fed them Eagle Cat and Kitten kibble for a while and that made his colour change to this lovely chocolate Siamese colour from the pale kopi-susu colour that he was born with. Then one day, we ran out of the super premium cat food that we were feeeding them on. In desperation we bought some cheap supermarket food for him from the corner shop. He lapped it up because it was the equivalent of junk food and it was so tasty. When we managed to get the regular super premium food - they complained loudly! We had no peace till we changed it back to junk food.

Dinner is very important for FatBoy. They will guard the balcony area where their dining table is located. Also expect plenty of noise when dinner is not in the bowls. That's the eating machine part.

FatBoy loves attention - he will come to greet all visitors. He will also respond by coming to you when he is called. Visitors are amazed that the cat comes when called. He loves being carried and squeezed tightly!

FatBoy is also extremely lovable - he will sleep with us on our pillows or on the bed. Another favourite position is on your chest or stomach. Then he sticks his claws into you to express his manja-ness and purrs incessantly with his eyes half closed in sublime pleasure. You will wake with a start because of the weight and the claws and the noise. FatBoy causes breathing difficulties when he is on my chest because of his weight!

With his piercing blue eyes that stare without blinking, FatBoy looks really intimidating but in truth, he is a sweetie pie!

Bandit the alpha cat

This is Bandit our super alpha cat who rules our home. Bandit is described as a tuxedo cat because of her markings - black with white mask and markings like a tuxedo. Bandit came to live with us in March 2000 together with her brother Blue Eyes more affectionately referred to as FatBoy. They were picked up by our friend Yvonne who worked at a clinick in Silat Walk off Jalan Bukit Merah. I think they were about 3 to 4 weeks old when we took them home with us to Toa Payoh.

Anyway, on the day we took them home we had to visit my grandaunt in hospital. So we left them in the car in the cardboard box. When we got back to the car, the box was opened and the cats were missing. FatBoy was found under the car seat. Bandit was nowhere to be found. She had hidden herself in the dashboard of the beat-up BMW that we were driving.

That was years ago!

Fast forward to the present day - Bandit rules the roost. She is the ALPHA FEMALE at home. FatBoy is wary of her - he doesn't cross her path unless necessary. He gives in to her unless he is pissed then he holds his ground. The others (cats and dogs) at home are just wary of her.

Bandit is our "no maintenance" cat. She comes for attention and affection on her terms. When she wants some attention - she's there. If she wants to sleep in the bed - she's there. If she wants food - she's there. Otherwise, she's somewhere around - watching the antics of the lesser beings to amuse herself.

BTW, she does always look so fierce and stern!

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Uncle Andrew

My Uncle Andrew passed away on 14 May 2008 in Kuala Lumpur and this entry is in his memory.

Uncle Andrew or AKK as he was affectionately referred to by us was Dad's best brother. AKK was the 4th son in the family of 5 sons and 2 daughters. For as long as I could remember, AKK lived in London, England.

I have this early memory of AKK as a dapper bowler hat London gentleman in his pin-striped three piece suit with his black brolly and black polished brogues from photographs in my younger days.

AKK was always very particular about his clothes - they always had to be properly pressed. No crumpled shirts or badly creased trousers for him! Always impeccably dressed.

The joke amongst us was that AKK and Dad could run a Chinese dhobi. The two brothers have identical dressing room set-ups. There would always be an ironing board, a steam iron, water spray and spray starch set up - all ready to be pressed into service at a moment's notice.

They would press their suits if slightly creased to smarten them before wearing. The shirt sleeves had to be well pressed - only one crease line was acceptable. The collars had to be properly starched and the collar stiffeners put in.

I guess this Chinese dhobi set up as also rubbed off on me. I have an ironing board, a steam iron, water spray and spray startch all set up in our bedroom to iron clothes when needed.

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Carrefour

I guess this will be considered a BIG RANT at Carrefour Singapore.

On Tuesday 10 June 2008, V (my sister), Papa and I went to Carrefour at Suntec City to do some grocery shopping. We were quite fast about what we were going to buy as we wanted to get home before 9 pm. We managed to get our shopping done very quicky but the queue to pay was the killer.

We were the 4th and 5th persons in the queue to pay. The cashier had a problem scanning the stuff of all the persons in the queue. It started with him always having to look for the barcodes, then there were problems with the scans - there was always some discrepancy from what was advertised on the shelf and what was reflected at the cash till.

Then this cashier would have to call for a supervisor to rectify the problem. This happened many times for the first customer in line when we joined the queue. Then also the second customer and the third as well.

The second customer was this poor lady who bought some frozen fish and there was a discrepancy. They could not resolve the price discrepancy and she had to wait as she wanted the fish.

The third customer bought some ice-cream and I am sure that was half-way melted by the time it got to his turn to pay.

When it was my turn to pay, I could have yelled at the cashier from waiting in frustration for about 30 minutes to pay for groceries. I kept my cool but he started getting idiotic.

We bought two loaves of bread which were marked"BUY ONE GET ONE FREE" and they had different price tags. The bread aunty who was putting these stickers on the bags said that it didn't matter that the prices were different - we would just pay for the more expensive loaf.

This cashier charged me for both loaves of bread because he insisted that they were different prices, so in order to get the offer, I would have to buy FOUR LOAVES of bread.

So he called the supervisor over again to rectify the cashier error. Another long wait! Then he decided that after he voided the bread purchase, I wasn't interested in the loaves and put them into another basket for return to the shelves.

SIGH!! I left the bread because I was just too tired to deal with this idiotic cashier.

Then I asked the supervisor what the problem was - he said that the computer system was not updated with the correct prices.

Anyway, I was so fed-up with Carrefour and their idiotic cashier that I decided to post this rant.

The best part is that we brought our own shopping bags to bag our purchases - the same idiotic cashier decided that he should give us plastic bags.

What happed to the "use less plastic bags" campaign that Carrefour participates in?

In all fairness to Carrefour, we enjoy shopping there because of the variety of food in the supermarket. Didn't I say somewhere that we are foodies? The cheeses are great, yoghurts also yummy, actually all the French stuff is good.

However, our shopping experience is always marred by the long queues to pay and incompetent or slow cashiers.

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The dogs in KL

Today, I received an SMS from my sister L - Monty and Oreo had killed a large rat. BRAVO!

Monty is living up to his Westie reputation of being a ratting dog. Oreo is just the best manja kaypoh dog around and needed to have her share of the fun as well.

Of course L was going bananas because of the dead rat! We are not hot about such gifts from our pets, especially the dead rat type.

I will just get Hero to come rescue me from all these creatures because that's what the hero is supposed to do! Isn't that what husbands are supposed to do??

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