Gatherings

more gatherings during the Lunar New Year ...

first stop was lunch at Kay's place where we played several rounds of blackjack, with 7 of us each taking turns to be banker ... i'm lousy at gambling, so no surprise that i lost at being a ching-kay ... more exciting was polish a.k.a. in between ... at some points, the atmosphere was so intense that it was pretty stressful, but that added to the fun anyhow ... it was also very uncanny and errie at times when the cards which got called out were the exact same ones that we were chanting for ... it was as if the God of Wealth or the God of Gamblers was hearing our calls! brrrr .... scary stuff ...

second stop was at dinner Sharon's place ... and ooh ooh ooh, the babies are oh so cute! i can't stop gushing at baby Caleb ... Eurasian looking, uber friendly baby, cool (quite oblivious most of the time) .... sooo cute! Tiffany was hyperactive and super-happy ... and definitely a chip off the old block ... looks exactly like Melvin! We are keeping our fingers crossed that she won't inherit Melvin's curly locks, else its gonna be rebonding for life ... hehe

:: (L) Sharon's son Caleb at 7 months & (R) Melvin's daughter Tiffany at 6 months ::

:: er ... yea, mug shots ::

:: yea, we had fun camwhoring ... with the usual suspects ::

last stop was Hon's place where more gambling ensued ... didn't partake knowing that Corky had gamblers luck as banker ... which turned out to be true, yet again ...

Bestest Apology Letter

Dear JetBlue Customers,

We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue's seven year history. Following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast, we subjected our customers to unacceptable delays, flight cancellations, lost baggage, and other major inconveniences. The storm disrupted the movement of aircraft, and, more importantly, disrupted the movement of JetBlue's pilot and inflight crewmembers who were depending on those planes to get them to the airports where they were scheduled to serve you. With the busy President's Day weekend upon us, rebooking opportunities were scarce and hold times at 1-800-JETBLUE were unacceptably long or not even available, further hindering our recovery efforts.

Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that we caused. This is especially saddening because JetBlue was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel and making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.

We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident, as a result of these actions, that JetBlue will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive airline than ever before.

Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights—our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational interruptions going forward—including details of compensation. I have a video message to share with you about this industry leading action.

You deserved better—a lot better—from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.

Got this via email today. Impressed (especially coming from a budget carrier). Best apology letter that I have read in the longest time. It acknowledged the dire situation, the irritable plight it put its customers through and vowed to improve its operations. Sounds straight out from a marketing communications textbook.

Okay, I may be biased since I wasn't one of those angry customers (else I would be tearing my hair out now amid colourful expletives). JetBlue does command excellent customer service based on my encounter with them when I was in the US 2 years ago.

You see, this blur queen got the internal flight dates mixed up and well, inadvertently missed the flight. Only to realise it at the end of the day. So we called the hotline and viola! Jetblue was so kind as to put us on the waitlist the next day with no extra charge. Its a very generous leeway considering that its the customer's fault for screwing things up. And yes, we made for the flight ... free!

I'm a true blue JetBlue advocate. Fly them if you happen to be in the US.

a long weekend

yea, its been a great break ... been pigging out, hanging out & youtubing helluva lot! here is the low-down :

Club-hopping on Friday night ... Oosters, Ice-Cold Beer, Balaclava and finally St James (again, I missed Dragonfly) all in one night. And lo and behold, I bumped into my client at Ice-Cold Beer ... hmm, I seem to have much fate in meeting my clients at bars, don't I? Met this particular one on Thursday in fact. What a coincidence to have bumped into him the next day, standing at a table next to where I was seated. And uh-huh, suggested that I call him out the next time I'm out drinking ...

Finally (part 1)! Got a chance to try out the third and newly opened branch - Canele at Paragon. Very nice cake counter that will set your taste buds drooling. But the cakes were such a disappointment! Cakes were very dry and didn't have that 'oomph'. Presentation was mediocre. Service was startling. Some waiter sent the plates a crashing which woke bee up from his usual sleepy stupor. Am aiming to try The Chocolate Factory next. Apparently, it garnered more ardent worshippers from the staunch chocolate community.

Reunion dinner was pretty good. We had steamboat porridge (without the grains) at Joo Chiat. Yeah, I know its kinda hard to imagine, but the broth mixed with seafood + meat was really sumptuous. Frog legs were added in the last bit and I swear I didn't touch any froggie meat even though some relatives (jokingly) insisted that I did. I ain't ate no frog man! Ewww!!!

Lunch on CNY itself on the first day was at Sha Tin at Geylang and at Mong Hing Teochew Restaurant at Keypoint on the second day. The first restaurant was really lousy and the latter was so-so. I have come to realize that luncheons on CNY were never really fantastic. But then again, I'm no Chinese food gourmand. Give me a simple and tasty wonton noodles + 'dian xin' and I'll be the happiest Dim Sum Dolly.

Finally (part 2)! Got to check out Cafe Del Mar at Sentosa's Siloso Beach with lee. Hmm ... lee thinks its a great place to make out ... uhm, that extends largely to the whole of Sentosa with dimly lit corners and all. Another disappointment. Not as great as it looks. Not so pleasant in our muggy weather. The experience would have been better if there was a slight breeze that night. Music is not limited to just Cafe Del Mar tunes. So it can get a lil' incongruent at times with house music for a chill out place. Expect some families with kids, beach goers in board shorts + flip flops and the occasional pool dippers at night (duh!). Bikini babes? Probably in the afternoons :)

Finally (part 3)! Got to try out Kim Gary at Vivocity after hearing all the ravings from the 'ees' when they made a trip up to KL some time ago. Tried the infamous peanut butter thick toast. It was waaayyy too thick! At 2 inches. Had quite a tough time sawing + gnawing at the base of the toast. Interestingly, Ken actually thought that Kim Gary was the name of a hair salon (think Kim Robinson) hahaha!

oink!

happy lunar new year!

another year gone by ... a rare gathering with everyone in tow ... the only excitement was losing $$$ to my dear cousins and of course cam-whoring which i have not done in AGES!

:: the families ::

:: the lees ::

:: black jack ::

:: the ritualistic line-up of cousins ::

:: a CNY tradition since we were kids, a yearly race to find out who had shot up in height while we were growing up ... now its the heels that count! ::

:: hehe, to reminisce the past 4 years (clockwise from L-R 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007) ::

:: bro's transformation to the vain pot that he is today ::

Pop The Bubbly!

240th post since the virgin foray into the blogosphere

its been a year since the cherry got popped

fast ain't it?

i didn't expect my commitment to blogging to last that long ... but it did! having j-mee to nudge a reminder once in a while helps!

its also gratifying to see more friends who have jumped onto the blogwagon ... jellybelly, tee, shoutmates ...

on the other hand, its sad that some blogs have decided to extinguish their existence ... i-speak is one of them ... Gayle has such amazing insights and maturity in thought for an 18 year old ... that she makes me look sheepish ...

anyhow, existing bloggers, keep the fire alive!

MBA

In my line of work, I relish the part where I get to meet up with clients personally. While I sometimes lament about how meetings can be really disruptive, especially with really tight deadlines to meet, emails to wade through and piles of files to review, it breaks the monotony at work.

Well, some may have already heard of the interesting experiences that I recently had. So bear with me as I repeat my stories ... so here goes ...

Had to meet a bunch of expats yesterday to conduct a series of consultations and to ease the doubts behind the tax filing process (yea, boring ...) and guess what, I finally met up with the client who gave me an indecent proposal last year and yes, he does look cheeky! hahaha

The meeting was rather daunting at first ... it was just me fronting 10 clients in a room and fielding questions from all directions. But after I said my piece and explained the rationale behind certain actions, all calmed down and I finally managed to take a breather. I then took the opportunity to speak to each individual personally. Yes, I chatted to my indecent proposer and he left me his mobile number, inviting me to club with him (quite a party animal). I was praying that he wouldn't ask me for mine!

There was another new client that I met whom I had no details on. So I had to ask about his personal profile to understand his situation better. His reply was that his friends call him a MBA ...

Married But Available

But he went on to add that he thinks he should be known as a MBVA ... Married But VERY Available ...

Oh man, was he openly flirting with me or what?! And there's more ... he mentioned that it would be nice to have a companion with him to enjoy nice walks by the beach as it can get quite lonely ... erm ... I really didn't know what else to say but grin and scribble notes ... he's 58 years old by the way ...

And yes, the yatch guy ... in separate meeting, there was this other client who showed me pictures of his yatch in Italy and of his apartment in Singapore with a nice seaview and outdoor jacuzzi . Since he was new to Singapore and had not mingled around much, he had a humble request ... for me to be his tour guide ... my client meetings are becoming an occupational hazard! Hmm ... not very comfortable with divulging my mobile number to clients or to blur the line of professional relationships ...

Well, well ... so far the folks that I have met up with are much older and much shorter ... so no hope lah ... hahaha

IT's HERE!!!

uh huh .... peak season is here ...

been slogging in the office till late, which kinda explains the silence ... well, i was getting lazy too ... so before j-mee starts chasing me for posts, thought i'd better drop a line in here ... heh

hmm, so what have i been up to?

well, i think i have hung up my dancing shoes and given up on clubbing ... somehow, i'm getting bored with the scene, preferring to wine and dine instead ... there are so many restaurants that i wanna try ... Hangout at Mt Emily, Il Lido, Sage, Novus, Tatsuya, chocolate buffet at Fullerton and many more ... so if u are game for some serious epicurean indulgence, lemme know and i will be happy to oblige :)

i have also been working on more designs for the chinoserie collection for SY's shop ... for the first time in ages, i felt the exhiliration working intently on designing and making stuff ... just locking myself at home and working until the wee hours in the morning churning new pieces presented the most immense satisfaction that i can never get out of work ...

having said that, i'm thankful for my creative outlet in balancing the current staid work environment ...

at the same time, i hope that this new business venture will take off ... could do with the extra moolah so that i can buy more cheongsams from SY! hehe :)

tts it! i'm dead beat ... night ...