笨mummy's KL trip

笨mummy just came back from KL from a short getaway trip with a group of friends over the weekend. During the trip, 笨mummy was frustrated by the speed of how slow the people in KL process documents, etc. The wait for the tickets to the sky bridge to twin tower was unbearable. 笨mummy and friends got number 76 and wait for 1 hour 10 min before it was 笨mummy's turn at the ticketing counter to buy a ticket. The time took for the airport staff to process check-in also is a test on 笨mummy's patience. 

It could be that 笨mummy is too used to the speed of things in Singapore, everything need to be fast fast fast. 

But one thing that 笨mummy likes about KL is the attitude of the service staff. They are always friendly despite the fact that we are asked a lot of questions about the products and ended up not buying. This is something that we seldom see in Singapore. 

The friendlines of the services staff has helped to compensate the "slowness" in services. Overall, it is a great place to re-visit again for 笨mummy..

笨mummy's daily rant - 08 Mar 2011

There is this lady in her late thirties working in the same office building as 笨mummy. 笨mummy has been noticing her for a while. 笨mummy always saw her in the office gym toilet in the past when 笨mummy was still hardworking enough to go gym [which she has not been doing so lately due to laziness].

It is not surprising to see a co-worker in the office gym toilet, but the thing is she is not there to workout, rather to bath. Normally this co-worker bath once in the morning and in the evening before going home. 笨mummy guessing that this co-worker wants to save her water bills by bathing in the office gym toilet. 笨mummy cannot believe that there are such people in the world who would resort to this. But this co-worker is not the only one, apparently, 笨mummy was told by one of the guy colleagues that there is also an uncle who come to office gym toilet to bath and brush his teeth every morning.

$1 tendergrill burger by Burger King

Burger King offering a $1 tendergrill burger on this Thursday. 

Great bargain!!

笨mummy 's take on samples

Disclaimer: 笨mummy is not doing an advertorial for "TheSampleStore"

笨mummy loves to get samples of different products. She normally get them from the respective products websites, magazines, even ebay sg at times and more offen "The Sample Store". 笨mummy has been a member of The Sample Store when it was still known as fr3b. Why does 笨mummy likes about  "The Sample Store"?

Firstly, of course is about the free samples!!

Rather than spending money getting a product at its retail price and finding the product not suitable after a few usages, getting the sample pack for the product for testing before committing to getting the product at retail is a much better option. Unlike getting from products websites and magazines, it consists of reviews from other users of the products, and one can decide whether to get the product samples or not depending on the users' reviews.

Secondly, it also helps 笨mummy to solve the travel restriction of a maximum capacity of not more than 100ml each for the liquid and gels on handcarried luggages. The sample size is normally sufficient for a few applications and of course less than the restriction limit of 100ml each and it also allows one to do away with buying travel size container.

This is something that  笨mummy recently ordered from http://www.thesamplestore.sg/product/details/2502/0/name-the-sample-store-hair-care-kit-35pcs-free-normal-mail-delivery

Though it costs ard S$10,  it is still quite worth it. Plus 笨mummy is traveling to Malaysia in Mid Mar and also Japan in End Apr and these samples would come in handy for the two trips.

Standard chartered 15% cashback on dining is back

Standard chartered 15% cashback on dining is back again from 1 Mar to End April 2011.  Standard Chartered Cardholders who like to enjoy this cashback need to register first with them and according to the website, it is restricted to the first 50,000 who registered. For more information, check out their website - http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/promotion/15_dining_promo/index.html?camp_id=subpage_15_dining_promo_promo_latestpromo

Some of my friends commented that it is hard to hit the S$500 usage as they do not spend much on their credit cards and there are certain restriction to what qualify to be included in the S$500 spending limit and it is not possible for them to qualify to get the 15% cashback. 

Here is a little trick that 笨mummy used to ensure that she can hit the spending limit which is to pre-paid her monthly expenses. There are certain bills that are needed to be pay every month - Phone bill, internet subscription, utilities bills, etc and there is no harm from paying them way in advance, anyway the bank interests that you lost due to the amount used for advance payment is also very little as compare to the 15% cashback on your dining assuming you eat out at the fancy restaurants once a week. 

Discounted card pricing for online booking of tickets at GV

It is very common for banks to have credit card promotions that allows the cardholder to enjoy discounted movie tickets. For example, OCBC credit cards and GV - S$7 for Mon to Thurs and S$8.50 for Fri, weekend and PH. You can access to the list of credit card with GV movie ticket promotion on GV site - http://www.gv.com.sg/promotions.jsp

However such promotions are not extended to online booking. As cardholders, we need to queue for the tickets in order to enjoy a discounted movie tickets and for those newly released movies, we may not even get a good choice of seats when we try to purchase at the ticketing counters.

Now ANZ is having similar credit card promotion for discounted movies tickets with GV, and it is  extended online booking as well -

https://sg.anz.com/ANZPrivileges/gv.html

One thing to point for online booking, the ticket fee and booking would be charge in FULL to your credit card and ANZ would "refund" the excess paid to your credit card.

It is definitely a good new for movies lovers like me, no need for queuing, can purchase tickets in advance. and a chance to choose a good seat. 

But happiness is short, as this promotion is only valid from 1 Mar to 30 Jun 2011. Enjoy it before it ends.

Reason for the long absence of posts by 笨mummy

It has been a long time since 笨mummy updates this blog. Yes, she has been busy with a lot of things. 

In Nov, she was clearing her leave and enjoy the life of a retiree, wake up each day thinking of where to go and what to do for the day. Together with 闲人, she has covered most of the places she likes to go in Singapore in Nov. This is something that 笨mummy looks forward to once she hits her S$2K per mth target and she can semi-retire.

In Dec, 笨mummy is busy with work, as Miss Little Giggle [one of her colleagues] has tendered in Dec and 笨mummy needs to take over Miss Little Giggle's balance work. From what 笨mummy found out, Miss Little Giggle has been selected for a voluntary charity programme overseas and would be spending a few years overseas doing charity related work. 笨mummy is super envy of Miss Little Giggle that she can afford to give up her job to do charity work. It is something that 笨mummy can only dream of, but never can afford to. Unlike 笨mummy, Miss Little Giggle comes from a well to do family - her parents are professional earning 5 digits paycheck every month plus they have a few properties in Singapore for rental collection.

Jan is the fresh start of a new year. 笨mummy was informed of a "big new" on 31 Dec 2010 about her move to a new team on 3 Jan 2011. 笨mummy guess that this would be a shock for anyone to have just 2 days (which is also the weekend) to prepare for the move including clearing of existing work items. 笨mummy spent the rest of Jan clearing exisiting work items, and adapting to the new team and the work scope. Tough!

Feb is the Chinese New Year period and 笨mummy finally has time to rest and re-charge. Feb also the month where 笨mummy could put her dream to start an online business to reality. The ordering of goods to sell, the setup of the website, etc is taking up most of 笨mummy's spare time in Feb. But 笨mummy still very much enjoy the process. =D

Finally Mar.. 笨mummy found time to do other things such as updating this blog.. Hopefully, she can add more posts to this blog in time to come.

That's all for now.