Membership promotion, anyone?

In October, I received that scam call from a China girl. Today, I received a telemarketing call from Sam. He is an Indian.

Now, I do not have any prejudice towards Indians, but some of them do speak with an incomprehensible accent, and Sam is one of those.

"Good morning, my name is Sam. I'm calling from ... Company... Our company is celebrating our 10th anniversary, so we are having a promotion. 50 selected people will get to sign up for our membership at...and you are one of the lucky ones selected. This card...very good...many discounts with...free accomodation at ...Hotel at Kuala Lumpur...Transferrable to your friends and family members... Two years free... Only have to pay $59.90; $59.90 to sign up for the membership!"

The "..." represent the parts which I could not understand. I told him, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

And I told him, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

And I told him again, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

"May I know why is that so? This is a very good deal, and we are having a promotion now so only 50 people will get it. You will only have to pay $59.90! Other people have to pay three hundred and ... to get it. Our company is located at Genting Lane, and we have been here for 10 years already. If you have any queries I can transfer you to our ... Manager or you can call 6*******(I did not bother to remember)."

"No, I don't want it."

"...Can I have your name and address so we can send our courier team to your place to explain the details to you? It's really a very good deal..."

"Sorry, I'm not interested. You can give the promotion to someone else."

"Sir, can I have your name and address so we can send our courier team..."

I interrrupted him, "Sorry, no."

"...to your place..."

After some more rambling, he finally gave in to my persistent rejection.

"Ok. It's really a pity that you are giving up this chance, Sir. "

Phew... Finally! Actually throughout the conversation, I was wondering whether I should have just hung up the phone, but I decided that would be too rude of me. I believe many would have done so if they had the same experience. Anyway, I did not believe that the so called 'promotion' is only for 50 people. He probably said that to everyone he called up. Unfortunately for him, I do not have the habit of taking up dodgy offers from people of ambiguous background, saying things I could not understand half the time.

While it was a relieve to finally get him off my back, I was to have another shock shortly after. Barely 10 minutes after he hung up the phone, I received another call. A private line, just like before.

"Good morning, my name is Sam. I'm calling from ... Company... Our company is celebrating our 10th anniversary, so we are having a promotion. 50 selected people will get to sign up for our membership at...and you are one of the lucky ones selected..."

"You called me earlier."

"(Pause)Ya...actually I really think it would be a pity if you give up this chance. For only $59.90, you get to enjoy...while others need to pay...If you have any queries, I can transfer you to our...Manager..."

"No, I'm not interested. Bye!"

Kevin's Wedding Dinner

The Merchant Court Ballroom
Swissotel Merchant Court, Singapore
20 Merchant Road

On Sunday, I attended the long-awaited marriage of my army bunk-mate, Kevin Lu, with his girlfriend of ten years, Brenda Tan. But before that, Fabian and I met up with WP and Joanne at Tampines, for a ride down to Orchard to meet Kenny for some shopping.

There's a bicycle stand along the sheltered walkway behind the MRT station. Many people wait there for the free shuttle service to Giant. And it was here, I found a number of bicycles with rubbish in their baskets. So many inconsiderate and self-centred people around! :-(

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Wei Ping was driving his sis' husband's car. It is a very interesting car. The back seats came with seat-belts but no clips for them. So how are passengers at the back supposed to fasten their seat-belts? Hmm...

At Orchard, we spent some time looking for a cheap carpark. One particular dark and cramped hotel carpark charges $4.00 per entry! Luckily though, we managed to get a lot in the Shaw Centre Carpark at only $2.14 per entry! :-D

Kenny was late. We were supposed to meet at DFS Galleria at 6pm. It was close to 7 by the time he reached, along with his girlfriend, two younger brothers, and the girlfriend of one of his brothers. His mum was there too, and had evidently reached much earlier as she berated him for his lateness. We were quite surprised to see the family turnout, which we found out later was due to Kenny's mum playing Santa to her three sons, promising to buy one a Gucci belt each (WOW!) while getting a Gucci bag(and more) for herself.

I even met Leng there while waiting for the family to get their stuff. Wei Ping and Fabian thought she was my girlfriend. Lol! Apparently she was there to buy the LV wallet for RC for their gift exchange. Singapore is so small that we can easily bump into someone familiar along Orchard Road.

It was almost 8pm by the time Mummy Goh completed the purchase(she was actually the fastest among the four shoppers, so it really wasn't her fault that they took so long) with a 30% staff discount courtesy of Joanne. We watched in amazement as she fished out a thick stack of $50 notes, with more left in her bag!

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It was finally time to make our way to the dinner, more than half an hour late. After some initial confusion over the location of the banquet at Swissotel, we arrived at the Ballroom, where Kevin and bride were waiting at the entrance to welcome guests. Ha! Dinner has not commenced yet!

Unfortunately, it was already past 8:30pm by the time the dinner started, and my stomach was growling away. Fortunately, there was extra food available as two of my fellow guests were absent. :-p

There was a video montage of Kevin and Brenda, from when they were babies to their current stage as husband and wife. There was also a video of the proceedings earlier in the day, and we saw how the army friends who were chosen to be his 'Brothers' were treated to 'kaya' (wasabi) buns and raw bitter gourd juice. What a nutricious and 'delicious way to start the day!

It was almost 11pm by the time we ended. The nine-courses were all pretty delicious and I really enjoyed my dinner. The only minor grouse I had was that prawns appeared too often. Haha!

StanChart Singapore Marathon 2008

This is supposed to be all about my run, except that I did not run...

Yesterday, 7th December 2008, was supposed to be the day I complete my first full marathon. Although far from prepared, I had nevertheless decided to go for it last night. Armed with a bunch of three bananas (LOL... I managed to find this small 'bunch' at Carrefour) and some bread, I had gone down to Hon's house to stay overnight as it is far nearer to the run venue. Unfortunately, despite his kind hospitality, I was not able to get a good rest on the makeshift 'bed' of sleeping bag with two blankets. Having wrongly assumed that he did not have any spare pillow to offer, I rolled up one of the blankets to use as a neck support.

It didn't work.

Between 1130pm and 4am, I must have been asleep for a total of less than 3 hours, in the midst of all the tossing and turning. At 4am, after realigning my position, I tried to get some 'last minute' of rest before my official wake-up time of 4:35am on my phone's alarm.

I woke up at 5:30am(the marathon was supposed to start at 5.30am), wondering why the 35 minutes seemed like an eternity. As it turns out, I had set my alarm to sound on Saturday instead of Sunday. -.-" Stumbling into the toilet, I contemplated joining the half marathon or going back to bed. 15 minutes later, my eyes still as puffy as when I woke up, I decided it would be safer for me to get some much needed rest. I woke up Hon when I re-entered the room, and was promptly chided for not asking for a pillow as he passed me one. Ah!! Finally I could get some sleep!