Interesting Friday

I had CNY "捞鱼生" with my bosses & colleagues today. I didn't expect my prediction for the place to be so accurate. It was the Mong Hing Teochew Resturant located at my office building. It was interesting to note that my boss do not choose his native Cantonese food for "捞鱼生" . He seems to prefer Teochew food. I guess the reason being it is not too salty.

As usual, the audit dept and secretarial dept do not wish to sit with my bosses. It meant that I had to join the bosses with Q & W. I must say I was well looked after by my boss, Mr Yee, who fed me with a big slice of fish on my plate. I guess the tongues of my colleagues were working overtime again, saying that I m boss' godson.

I have only good comments about the food. It was very good and I guess the price was a nice figure too.

After work, I took a cab to Delfi Orchard to collect a gift for a travel survey that I did some time ago. I suspect that it was one of those agencies selling timeshare holiday products, although the surveyor claimed that it was not the case. The name of the agency gave itself away. I shan't disclose the name here, as there may be implications. The agency is located at Level 6 of the building. I think the customer service officer who wanted to see me and explain to me about what are the gifts that I got got cold feet in the end, and didn't meet me in the end. She got the receptionist to pass me the following:-

1. A makeover voucher worth $588, valid till 11 March 2007.




2. A $80 spa voucher, valid till 30 April 2007.




3. A 4 day 3 nite stay in a hotel in Yunan for 2, valid till 1 March 2008.

After seeing my dad being saddled with problems with all these timeshare companies, my mum thinks that the above offers are too good to be true. They will ask you to buy something from these sponsors, no matter what. I guess I won't be using them.

Was very hungry as I stepped out of the building. I didn't see any food court in sight so I stepped into Genki Sushi @ Forum Galleria for my dinner. The food was not that fantasic but the service standard of the staff are not bad. I also met by a US international, who works for Boeing as an engineer. It was nice chatting with him as he shared with me how is the working style in Boeing is like? It is interesting to note that all his expenses, including lodging and transport are paid by Boeing. His Singapore taxes are borne by Boeing as well. He told me that the place where he is staying, Shangri-La Apartment is $7400 per month.

After dinner, I boarded a bus home. My luck was good as I managed to board the Nokia bus that was retrofited with Nokia entertaiment. Here is the interior of the bus.

It was very different from the normal SBS buses that we take as :-

1. The chairs are in vertical format & not horizontal.
2. There is another TV set for MTV. You can download music to your hp as there is bluetooth technology in the TV set. What I meant is u can download the song that the music TV set is playing onto your hp.
3. There is a bar counter on the bus.

Nokia is really going on an advertising blitz on its handphones. It is not cheap to retrofit a bus to become like that. Will it work?

Talking about buses, I was taking Service 107 to work this morning where I saw my friend who was the bus driver for the bus. When I saw his time sheet, I saw these words.

“不要用ECP 回，不然会后悔"

It was written by my other driver friend, to help to remind his fellow peers that there is always a jam at ECP as they end their day to go back to the depot, which is located at Hougang. This particular shift of Service 107 is a long one. It is a 13 hr shift from morning to nite, with only a short rest period in between. If the driver is caught in a massive jam, it will mean that the driver could be effectively 14 to 14.5 hrs long.

Maybe SBS Transit should try to adjust the timing for the service that is going back to the depot from Shenton Way Terminal. 35 mins is definitely not enough from Shenton Way to Hougang depot at Kim Chuan Rd.