Monday, June 04, 2007

I'm shifting... from Hysterical to Today's Mostly Cloudy

Dear readers, I'm shifting to my new blog 今天天气多云... Today's Mostly Cloudy starting from... now.

This blog 瘋了!Hysterical will still remain (I've got to keep my old stuffs somewhere right?), so if you prefer history, you can still feel free to drop by!

Thanks for all your support all these time and hope you'll equally enjoy my new blog! :D

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Another CW Production... "Where did paymobil's money go?"

Where in the world are all the money? To sound investments? Or just somebodies' pockets?



Other CW Productions can be found at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=cloudywind

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Since Disney is too far, we give you 石景山遊楽園...

Who dares say China is only good at pirating branded handbags and DVDs?

Part 1:


Part 2:

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Creative's way of customer support

I bought a Zen Aurvana from Creative, having heard about how "powerful" it is. However after using it for about eight months, this expensive earphone that is supposed to be superb at cancelling ambient noise started to make its own static noise... Since the earphone is still under warranty, I sent it for servicing at the Marina Square branch. Then, the guy behind the counter told me that the servicing will take about 2 weeks.

2 weeks later, I happened to be at Marina Square, so I dropped by to check on my earphone. "Oh, it's not yet ready. We'll sms you once it is ready." said the Creative guy.

Another week later, I did receive a sms from Creative. But it said "Thank you for visiting Creative Care. Your item is still under servicing. We will contact you once its ready for collection. Thank you for your patience."

Another week later (by then one month has passed), I decided to check out my earphone at the Creative main office at Jurong East (yes... all the way there). The Creative guy told me that a replacement earphone will be given to me. However, the shipment has yet to arrive.

"Why can't you just give me one off the shelf since it's a replacement?" I asked.
"Sorry, we can't do that. Please wait for our sms." he said.

Till now, 6 weeks have passed. I finally received a sms from Creative. But it was still "Thank you for visiting Creative Care. Your item is still under servicing. We will contact you once its ready for collection. Thank you for your patience."

Frustrated and in need of a earphone for my coming business trip, I went down to Sennheiser. I found one earphone which performs as good, if not better, than the Zen Aurvana, and cheaper. This time round, before digging my wallet for the earphone, I asked the Sennheiser guy, "How long will it take to service the earphone in the event that it is spoilt?"

"About two weeks. But for earphones, we usually do one-to-one exchange."
"And how long will it take."
"Shouldn't take too long."
"6 weeks?"
"Hahaha... you must be kidding!" the Sennheiser guy laughed.

Monday, March 26, 2007

How Singtel rewards me for being a loyal customer - to rip $300+ from me!

Long long time ago in my previous compamy, I joined the corporate plan for cheaper Singtel mobile plan. But well, time flies and things change. One day I left the company for my current company. When I was leaving my previous company, I informed the HR to terminate my corporate mobile plan. Time flies and things remain unchanged. After chasing and requesting for a couple of months, my corporate mobile plan was still not terminated. Being too caught up in my current job and too fed up, I gave up requesting to terminate my account.

About 2 years after I left my previous company, I found that my current company is also offering a corporate mobile plan from Singtel. Well, logically since I've already left my previous company and joined this current company, I should change my plan. Also, it was about time for me to change my mobile phone. I went down to the Singtel shop at Citylink and tried to purchase a new mobile phone with a renewed 2 years plan. Then... the counter staff told me that I was not allowed to get a new phone unless I've got an authorised letter from my previous company! I told her patiently that I have left my previous company for the last 2 years and was unable to get any authorisation letter from the company (in fact, the last time that I called, the HR has left the company and the new bird didn't know what to do! omg!). Then the conversation went...

Me: I have left my previous company for the last 2 years and there is no way for me to get any authorisation letter from the company now.
Counter staff: I'm sorry but this is a regulation. I can't allow you to buy a new handset unless you've got an authorisation letter from your previous company.
Me: But I've already left the company! Can't I just switch to my current company's corporate plan?
Counter staff: I'm sorry but this is a regulation. I can't allow you to switch to your new company's corporate plan unless you've got an authorisation letter from your previous company.
Me: Okay fine! In that case, I want to terminate my mobile plan!
Counter staff: I'm sorry but this is a regulation. I can't allow you to terminate your mobile plan unless you've got an authorisation letter from your previous company.

Fed up, I left the shop and dialled 1626. After relating my situation and frustration to the customer service person, and after several calls to and fro, she finally told me that my current company's Singtel account manager will contact me and assist me to switch my corporate plan.

True indeed, my current company's Singtel account manager swiftly contacted me, and after filling a couple of forms, I had successfully transferred my account. Or so I thought.

For 2 months after I've transferred my mobile account, the $300+ that I overpaid in my previous company's mobile account was still THERE!!! I called 1626 again to request help, and here we go again... the same old "we need an authorisation letter from your previous company" story! OMG! So now I've got $300+ stuck in my previous mobile account and there is no way for me to get it back! I requested to speak to the customer service person's manager, and she said that since it is an regulation (AGAIN!), even her manager couldn't help me in this case, but she'll try to get him/her to call me back.

A while later, the customer service person gave me a contact and told me that is the Singtel account manager for my previous company and she should be able to help me. I called this account manager and she requested me to provide her more details via email. Well, I thought that she could really help me... then... one month passed... and... NO EMAIL FROM HER!!! Arghhhhhhh!

Till now, Singtel still owes me $339.02...

Friday, February 23, 2007

Kuala Lumpur Tips #3 - Where for food?

KL is full of restaurants and cafes everywhere, especially at Bukit Bintang where there's one posh restaurant or cafe at every street corner. And most of them are not really much cheaper than what you'll pay for in Singapore.

So where did we go and what did we eat...?

Madam Kwan’s Cafe
There's one at KLCC and another at Midvalley Megamall. We tried the one at megamall for lunch (luckily we did because when we went to KLCC in the evening, that branch had a long queue during dinner time...).

The food is sorta expensive, about RM20 for a plate of nasi lemak. But from a tourist's point of view (aka don't know where to find really good and cheap local food), it's still quite worth it. They're famous for their nasi lemak and nasi bojari, and both are really good. The fried chicken for the bojari was really worth the price. The skin was cripsy, not too dry and over-fried, and the meat was tender. KFC cannot compare man! And the coloured rice, which I don't know what gave its colours, was fragrant and tasty. IMHO, even better than the coconut rice for the nasi lemak!

The Chinese restaurant at Sungei Wang Plaza
There's this chinese restaurant at the first floor of Sungei Wang Plaza, at the main door, that is always super duper crowded. We kinda hestitated to join the long queue but when realised that the queue cleared quite quickly, we stayed. And I was glad that we stayed!

The food is mainly Cantonese style, with roasted duck, dim sums and wanton noodles etc. I ordered roasted duck noodles and found it rather tasty. The duck was not too oily or too dry, and the egg noodles was very Q. Their standard may be one level below Crystal Jade, but hey, they're cheap!

Planet Hollywood
Typical PH food, nothing special to intro. But they serve cheap and good set lunches on weekdays. Good for tourists like us who tour and not work during these times.

Dunkin' Donuts
There's one branch at the basement of KLCC. I'm not sure if it's just me, but for someone who's deprived of good donuts, I really like them for breakfasts or even lunches man! After all, once crossed the causeway, I won't get to see them again!

Restaurants at Starhill Gallery
There're numerous restaurants at the Starhill Gallery basement, serving from Chinese to local to seafood, Western, Thai etc. The whole interior is decorated to look like an international village but... don't even try!

With the amount of ang mohs going in and out of these restaurants, I will bet that the food and service must be superb. But one look at the prices on the menus at the doors, and you'll make a U-turn like we did...

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Kuala Lumpur Tips #2 - Don't get ripped at KLCC

We had a long shopping day at the KLCC shops and we were really tired. Since the restaurants were packed, and our hotel at Bukit Bintang was really not that far from the KLCC, we decided that it would be a good idea to have take-aways.

We walked out of the KLCC and saw a queue of cabs. Hmm... since Bukit Bintang is not that far, the fare should be okay right? WRONG! We approached the first cab driver and he said "straight RM20, no meter". What?!? RM20 for a mere 15mins journey? Siao! I asked the second cab, then the third, then... I gave up. All quoted the same RM20! How united right! Malaysia Boleh man!

Pissed, I suggested the LRT. I will rather take the LRT and make changes at busy and crowded stations than to pay RM20! So we went to the LRT station and boy it was really crowded... Then guess what? ALL... yes, ALL ticketing machines were out of order! So EVERYONE queued up to buy tickets manually from a counter of TWO cashiers! And judging from the speed of the tickets purchase, our dinner could easily become breakfast. Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I was about to burst when my friend tried to cool me down, "Hey, take a deep breath! Cool down! Let's forget all these and go back to the road okay? I'll pay for the cab fare, okay?"

Angry that I had no choice, I went back to the road with my friend. Just when I was about to give in to those crappy greedy cab drivers, I saw a bus approaching the nearby bus stop... wait! I thought I saw the route indicator on the bus showing "Bukit Bintang"! Excited, we ran and followed the bus till it stopped. We boarded it and asked the bus driver if that bus really goes to Bukit Bintang. Ha! And sure yes it does! It made a small detour before arriving at our hotel, but still, we reached there fast enough. And the fare... less than RM2 per person! :D

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Kuala Lumpur Tips #1 - Time has stopped at the rest stops

Really... time has really stopped there.

If you were to go to Kuala Lumpur (KL) by coaches from Singapore, you can't avoid them. They are the rest stops. These are the places where all tourist coaches will stop for both the passengers and drivers to have a break.

Time can fly past all it wants, but nothing changes in these rest stops...

1. Toilets
They are still as dirty... the floor is forever flooded, and you can be rest assured there is at least one cubicle that will be choked and/or full of shit. And omg... and the smell... the whole toilet will smell just like a dirty and choked "lang kao" (drainage) that is filled with urine and shit. If there is toilet papers in the cubicle, it is considered a bonus already.

2. Food stalls
They are still selling the same old food... mee goreng, fish ball noodles, and fried whatever. The food are still as tasteless (or sometimes too "tasty", aka salty) and cold and suspiciously unhygienic. Oh, but one thing has changed. I think the prices has gone up...

3. Souvenirs stores
They are still selling the chicken biscuits, nutmegs, coconut candies etc. The only upgrade after all these years is that the pirated movies have been upgraded from video tapes to VCDs, and now to DVDs. One thing stays though. Whatever that you find in the stores are still much more expensive than what you would get from the cities like KL and even JB.