Arts Festival Launch

The Singapore Arts Festival took off with performances of people dangling in mid-air doing stunts. More like Acrobatics than Art, to be honest. Anyway, it was interesting in its own way. But I really came for the fireworks.

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Scrowl and Chew

Sports Day

It was company sports carnival last Saturday where 600 people turned up. It was a colourful affair with lots of stalls and activities organised. Staff could choose to compete in team games like soccer, telematches or join in the dance classes (hip hop, line dancing, kebayaerobics, belly dancing). There were activities for kids too like the bouncy castle.

I must have been delusional when I signed up to participate since I have been MIA from the sports field in decades years and not exactly in any fit condition to be running around on the field, much less under the hot sun. Unfortunately I was standing near my house captain when the carnival kicked off and got kena arrowed to join the frisbee team game. We were taught how to hold and throw the frisbee by some young punk. The game rules were set where the five of us had to defend or attack one side of the field against another house colour team. Then off we went. After ten minutes of running after a flying white plate all over the field, I was gasping for breath like a wild crazy woman. The al fake-ko shirt they issued trapped heat instead of dissipating it. I nearly suffered a heat stroke.

My family and I each received a large goodie bag each. I have never received so many sponsored gifts before. In the end, my colleague had to give me a carton to put in all the stuff, since it was three of each item - mineral water, 2X drink pack, a banana, a pear, a bun, a cup of soya been milk, a bowl of bean curd, a packet of peanuts, a pack of khong guan biscuits.

Kindness

This has been a day of blessing indeed, when I count the number of kindnesses I encountered today.

Kindness act 1:
After missing for five months, I finally turned up at my hairdresser to let her trim my wild hair. Okay, so her 20% discount helped. Benly had smsed me about celebrating the 4th anniversary of her business. I had my highlights done on my last visit in January but the colours are fast fading now. She asked if I wanted to freshen them up. I hesitantly agreed. She went through what I felt was the usual full highlighting service. It wasn't a few streaks. I had foil all over my head. The final outcome was more than satisfactory. I wonder why I have not made more time to come for her service more often. I have been her customer since 1997 but it is the first time I have not turned up for more than 3 months. At the payment counter, she told me the colouring would be complimentary. WOW. That is savings of at least $150.

Kindness act 2:
Went for dinner and order oyster omelette. My table was near the stall. The food arrived and I happily tucked in. As you know, one of the best things about oyster omelette is the slight sourish chilli. I was halfway through my plate and my dip was fast thinning. Suddenly, the stall owner called out, "Miss, would you like more chilli?" It took me a second to realise she was talking to me. I looked up to see her walk over with a tumbler of chilli and she promptly refilled my saucer. WOW.

Kindness act 3:
I got back my change of $1 from paying my oyster omelette, which I then slipped under my plate. I thought I might use it to order a drink after my meal later. However after my dinner, I decided to leave and totally forgot to take my change. Incredibly, the couple at the table behind me actually noticed my coin under my plate and alerted me to it just as I was leaving. WOW.

All this in one evening. How awesome is that.

Knock knock, anyone there?

Wanted to take a short break nearby for Labour Day weekend and decided on Sofitel Johor. Besides being fairly easy to get to, it is also really cheap. The taxi from Singapore (Rocher rd) direct to the hotel costs a total of S$55. On the return, the cab from the hotel to the City Square is RM$40.

As it turns out, you get what you pay for, the hotel quality is only passable and not worthy of the 5 star rating. Things work but it is not in the best of condition (eg, bowling floor has 8 working lanes out of 10 and parts of the working equipment have tapes holding them together. Eg, Room has aircon but aircon is weak). If you do make use of the numerous facilities (most of them are available such as olympic size pool, jacuzzi, squash courts, tennis courts, bowling alleys, gyms, golf), it is fairly good value for money.

The biggest let down would be the service. I mean the folks there are extremely forgetful (or is it sloppy).

At the chinese restaurant, the waitress tells us to wait for her to clear up the table and then forgets to inform us when it is ready. We pop our heads back to see the table has cleared but there is no sign of any staff appearing at the door to show us our table after more than 10 minutes. We figured they are not interested with our business.

At the Japanese restaurant, the staff are more friendly but also suffer from short memory. Our request for wasabi are only met some 15 minutes later, by then our dinner is almost finished. The restaurant is not full and repeated reminders have to be made.

At breakfast, we follow the waitress as she is walking over to a table to check if it is available for us. Halfway there, a guest interrupts her with request for milk. Typically, a service staff would say "please wait a minute and I will get back to you". Not this one, she suddenly turned on her heels and rushed off to get the milk, leaving us strandled in the middle of the room baffled at the sudden change. She did not come back and obviously forgot that she has not finished serving us.

If you think the fish 'Dory', in the movie 'Nemo', is a figment of imagination, wait till you meet the staff at Sofitel.

My Daemon