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

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

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:

Maid cafes in Japan - part 2

Maid cafes in Japan - part 1

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.

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...

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...

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

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.

Super expensive dinner at Pine Court (The Mandarin Singapore)

After all the seafood dinner trips to the Long Beaches and Jumbos, we had decided to spare the crabs some thoughts and have our celebration dinner at Pine Court at The Mandarin Singapore. I have expected the dinner to be expensive, but not THAT expensive...

Upon sitting down, as usual the waitress asked what we would like for drinks. But unusually, everybody were individually charged for our individual small pots of exclusive Chinese tea with exclusive names like 東方美人 and of course exclusive prices as low as S$4.

While waiting for the dishes to be served, we searched the table for the usual small dishes of peanuts, but they were nowhere to be found. No, there was no macadania nuts or almonds in replacement either. Instead we were each served a small bowl of one 2X2X1cm rice cracker with even smaller mushrooms and carrot cubes in sweet and spicy sauce. One of our German friends was surprised to find out that Chinese food can be as small portion as the French food. Oh well... I think we're giving them some wrong impressions...

After that were the usual dishes - cold dish, clear sharks' fins soup (okay, at least this was served in a bigger portion), Peking duck, sweet and sour crab, fish, vegetables, noodles and dessert.

Actually IMHO, the Peking duck was not really worth it. First of all, the duck was skinned 25m away from our table, so our German friends didn't get to see the skinning process, no matter how skillful the chef was. Secondly, only eleven slices of skin was sliced from the duck. Hmm... either the duck was underage or it went for some slimming course? Thirdly, the whole duck-skin-in-pancake dish didn't taste as nice. There was too little sauce and the pancake skin was rather tasteless. And lastly, the secondly dish cooked out of the duck - stir fried sliced duck meat - was suspiciously small portion as well. Oh and of course, the expected duck soup brewed from the bones was nowhere to be found. It is disappointing that till now, none of the Peking duck I'd tried in Singapore could beat the one I tried at Hong Kong's 北京樓.

The dessert arrived at our table dramatically, with smoke (due to dry ice) rushing out from the bottom of the dish. It was 楊枝干露, my favourite dessert! But maybe because serving just the usual 楊枝干露, which consists only of pomelo pulps in mango juice, is really too cheap for such an expensive meal, a lump of lemon/lime sorbet was placed in it. But IMHO, it just didn't go well.

Finally, the bill... We asked if there was any discount for any credit cards and we were told that we could use UOB cards for 10% discount. But... somehow, only selected items were discounted and that discounted amount totalled to less than S$5... and in the end the total bill was more than S$700... Wow...

《刑警威利》 Willy The Cop ＃36

comics from Singapore

Crappy food and service in Singapore - MOF

I went to this restaurant with my friends before I left for the Europe trip. On that night, the restaurant was having a pre-opening night. We had initially wanted to go to Genki Sushi but had decided to give this new restaurant a try since there was a queue at Genki Sushi. After all, when we were looking at the menu by the door, the waitress was pretty friendly and urged us to give their food a try. It was a bad move to walk away from Genki Sushi.

The moment we sat down, we were asked if we want iced water. That was strange. I thought most Japanese restaurants would have served green tea. Then the iced water were served in glasses. Err... Not very Japanese again. Then we opened the menus. OMG... The pictures in the menu were so horribly taken that they looked like some kind of inedible food specimens taken from a lab. The food did not look colorful enough and the lighting were bad. So we just ordered (after some time needed to really deciding what to eat without looking at the pictures) and hoped that the actual food will taste better than how they look in the pictures.

The softshell crab and avocado sushi was the first plate that was served. And it did not taste right. There was no avocado in the sushi at all. All four of us could not taste it. So we asked one of the waitresses about it, but her reply was "Oh, yes this was supposed to be with avocado, but then we realised that avocado does not go well with softshell crab, so we took it out". What?!! So the menu was not updated even before the shop was opened?!!

Then the main courses came. The bentos sucked. The rice looked like Japanese rice because they were short grained, but they were also not sticky as well. Usually the Japanese bento rice should have some fragrant taste, but not in these bentos. The rice were bland and soft. Even worse than those we get from the mixed vegetables rice stall in hawker center. The cold ramen had a funny tasting sauce. Not miso and not shuyou, and tasted more Western than Japanese.

The lady boss sitting at the opposite table then realised that we did not finish our food, so she came over to ask for the reason. So we told her the cold ramen sauce was funny, and she said "Oh is it? Maybe because you're not used to it. This is a traditional Japnese sauce" Oh is it? The funny thing is that we had been to Japan and their cold ramen definitely did not taste that way.

Then we told her the bento rice was horrible, and she said "Oh the bento are not ready to be served yet! We're still testing out!" And so we the customers are the guinea pigs?

Then we told her the softshell crab and avocado sushi had no avocado, and she said "Oh you know why, because we realised that we could not get good avocados in Singapore. They're either too hard or too soft, so in order not to lower our standard, we decided to take out the avocado." Huh? Not one avocado in Singapore is edible?

Then we told her that it was strange that green tea was not served to us, and she said "Oh because we're trying to run this restaurant like a izakaya (Japanese pub) and if we were to serve green tea, typical Singaporeans will not order any other drinks. Which is a waste because we've got so many Japanese wines imported from Japan! And also, our green tea are on the way from Japan so we can't serve green tea now." A Japanese restaurant that does not serve green tea? Well...

Seeing that we were still unsatisefied with her explanations, she ordered the kitchen to serve us their star dessert. It was something that they were supposed to be good at - vanilla sundae with fried sweet potatoes and red beans. When the dessert arrived at our table, the sundae was already half melted.

And so the lady boss said again "Oh, we've ordered a very sophisticated machine from Japan and it is on the way to Singapore now. Meanwhile we can only live with this rented machine and that's why..."

So, hoping to make us happy again, the lady boss gave us a ten dollars voucher and urged us to return to the store after it had officially opened.

"Oh, by the way, Miniter Lee is going to be at our opening ceremony. And all other big shots too. You must come and try our food again!..."

Yah right.

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comics from Singapore

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Click on image to enlarge

Cloudywind Podcast... Korea!

阿風和好友ST，J和S一起到韓國白白地度過暸一個冬天咧！

Korea #01... A Long Skewer of Fishcake
Korea #02... Conquer of the Sunrise Peak
Korea #03... Abalone Sashimi at the Jeongbangpokpo
Korea #04... The Old Woman Called Oedolgae
Korea #05... The Amazing Teddy Bear
Korea #06... Abalone Porridge, Black Boar and Kimchi Fried Rice
Korea #07... Morning Stroll at the Manjanggul Cave
Korea #08... The Real Jeju Folk Village
Korea #09... The Cold and Quiet Bulguksa Temple
Korea #10... Going up the Seokguram Grotto
Korea #11... On Our Way to Herbnara
Korea #12... A Fairytale like Herbnara
Korea #13... Night Ski at Phoenix Park
Korea #14... The Magnificant World of Lotte
Korea #15... Two Men Who Took us to Gyeongbokgung
Korea #16... Gyeongbokgung and its Museum
Korea #17... A Tour at the Daejanggeum Theme Park
Korea #18... Korea's Unique Food and its Culture

Cloudywind Podcast... In Cantonese, About Singapore

雲裏風的廣東話的，關于在新加坡的生活的podcast

第一集: 什麽是 Service Quality Training？
第二集: 大長今會在我們的生活裏出現嗎？
第三集: 我夢到COE和一間HDB flat
第四集: 2007國慶慶典狂想曲
第五集: 同情心,您回來啦！
第六集: 打工仔的教育，打工仔的心情
第七集: 新加坡电影的经典电影对白
第八集: 請幫幫忙吧！
第九集: 怎麽煮出一道好的電視節目
第十集: 報章言論自由？不重要！
第十一集: 馬爺真的生氣了！
第十二集: Dawn Yang 和她的謠言

Willy The Cop - The Comics

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Smile, Singapore! (PS: to the right people)

Our smiles are ready for the world, specifically the people from IMF and World Bank. Be it real or fake, as long as we've got their monies, or to be politically correct, business opportunities.



Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmPcsoLDBd0

Singapore

I am Singaporean - National Day meme

This is my share of the National Day meme started by Mr Brown and Mr Miyaki, inspired by the Molson beer "I am Canadian" commercial.

Find out more at Mr Miyaki's AND SO SAYS SINGAPORE article.


Listen to "I am Singaporean", Cloudywind's version！




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Another podcast from Singapore, iamsingaporean