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With value of up to 50%, this voucher is great for early Christmas shopping! To snag this freebie, simply send an email to ambienlim@yahoo.com.sg with the subject header "I wanna free voucher!" and you'd get the voucher in your email inbox the very next day!

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Customer service battle for last place

I have been a customer of all three telcos we have here in Singapore - M1, Starhub, and I recently switched to Singtel.

Having experienced all three telcos' customer service, I must say Singtel really takes the lead for having the worst customer service around. Using them as a benchmark, M1 would be top-notch, answering calls to their service line promptly and politely. Starhub has also improved over the years although I must say they seem to favour Starhub users calling from a Starhub mobile line, as opposed to enquiries via email or regular land line. Unfortunately, as of last week, Singtel was the only telco selling the Apple iPhone, and having had waited for that phone for many months already, I decided to sign up with them to buy the phone. If I had been patient, I would be able to buy the phone with M1, or even Starhub in future.

Because of the limited stocks of the iPhone in the past few months, I had been emailing Singtel customer service to request information. It takes about 2 emails to get someone to reply, and then after that it's a fairly long wait for another reply, or you might not get one at all. I sent an email to a customer service officer and left her a message on her answering machine but have had no reply to this day. As for calling 1626, it's perpetually a 45min - 1 hour wait for anybody to get on the line. I know Singtel has the biggest customer base amongst the telcos, but I expect that they should have more officers in their customer service department to handle the high volume of calls, especially when they say they are "committed to providing nothing less than quality products and premium servicing".

I think Singtel should improve their customer service, now with the added customers they would be having with the EPL and ESPN channels they have scored.

A special mention on a special site

http://porkonyourfork.blogspot.com/

Do surf by this site, written (very well I might add) by a good friend of mine. She loves reading and cooking, and until she develops ambitions to be a world-celebrated chef, she's actually pursuing a career in writing and publishing. Loads of luck to her from me on getting her dream fulfilled!

In the meantime, do "follow" her on her blog (just click on the Followers on the right side of the page) and learn to cook from the recipes she has there.

Sushi Tei is opening at a mall near me!

I'm excited! As corny as it sounds, i'm pretty pleased that there's going to be a Sushi Tei near me. City Square Mall, which opened today, seemed like it was destined to be a suburban mall (read: not in Orchard Road) with run-of-the-mill boutiques and eateries. Actually, shopping there doesn't seem so great from the tenant list i've seen, but the eateries fare a bit better. I was half expecting substandard restaurants like Sakae Sushi, or worse, Suki Sushi. After all, it's not as shiny and glamourous as ION.

A lot of my favourite fastfood outlets are opening there - Macs, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway - and there's Soup Restaurant, Toast Box and Manhatten Fish Market. Alas, the ubiquitous coffee joint slated to open is Coffee Bean, which serves up some of the worst (and milkiest) teas and coffees around.

Shopping is a bit of a letdown in City Square. There's Metro, argh, and a host of strange boutiques I've never heard of, all very suburban, topped off by Charles and Keith. I guess they will suffice, and there's always Watsons and NTUC for daily neccessities.

Nevertheless, i can't wait for the rest of the mall to be up and running, i can walk there via the underground walkway at the MRT so it's highly convenient. :)

Rabbit Alert

I think my mom's rabbit is ready to pop again, that means, more cute little baby bunnies. Those of you who have emailed me previously wanting to adopt, you should probably be getting an email from me soon, asking if you're still interested in getting a bunny pet. I actually don't think rabbit mama likes to keep doing this, but alas, she always gets set upon by males who do a high jump out of their fenced area to get to her. Should really think about spaying her. Poor gal.

Some truths and The Ugly Truth

What do you think is the biggest turn-off (disgust) during a date?
I personally haven't been on a lot of bad dates, and thankfully have been spared anymore of those ever since I got married. But there was one particular incident which left me with a bad taste in the mouth. I had a date grab my hand and insisted he kept it warm for me because the cinema was cold. Of course, on hindsight, it was not a very wise decision to go watch a movie with this fella. I don't relish my hand being grabbed on a first date, moreover on such lame pretext as "keeping it warm". Hah. I actually did not even like my date very much and only decided to go out with him because I was free and it was the school holidays. Oh well, that's behind me now.

Why do you want to watch “The Ugly Truth”.
I absolutely want to catch this movie because Gerard Butler's quite dishy. I can't really stand his accent, that lingering Irish, Scottish or whatever accent that he can't seem to get rid of in America, but he makes up for it with his raw sensual energy, perhaps a carry-over from his 300 days. hehe...

I like Katherine Heigl too so...she's always fun, funny, stylish. I liked her in that bridesmaids movie with James Marsden.

Till the movie arrives, be a fan at the official Facebook page and catch The Ugly Truth when it opens in the cinemas on the 17th September 09!

My brush with H1N1

Just some days ago, a 27 year old woman died of a heart attack brought on by H1N1 influenza. She had no underlying medical conditions. The frailty of life, it could have been anyone, it could have been me.

Two weekends ago, I woke up with a horrible sore throat and it progressed into a fever and hacking cough. I doused myself in juices, panadol and whatever medicine I could find in the fridge, but after a few days the fever had not subsided.

I made it to the doctor, only to have him diagnose wrongly, giving me antibiotics when clearly H1N1 flu (the most common flu around nowadays) is a virus and antibiotics wouldn't work. I had to visit another doctor a couple of days later, only to just pay to receive peace of mind as my fever had subsided by then. He did mention I will be coughing for 2 weeks and it's nearly about there...and I'm still coughing.

As I look back, I feel blessed my fever hardly went over 38 degrees and I could still spend my days watching movies on the couch and chatting with friends over the internet. If you're reading this and are at home feeling fluish, please get yourself to the doctor straight away to get proper medicine.