is something all of us take for granted.
Until it’s all taken away from us — and then we realise that we should be glad that it’s there in the first place.
This dawned upon me in three different ways, and I came out of them learning three different things, which perhaps in the end — at the most basic level — aren’t so different after all.
A year ago, Maybank’s representatives ambushed me in school with an offer that was hard to resist. Sign up for their free card, and get a free voucher for GV and free entry to Sentosa for a year!
So many of us signed up that day, the card salesman was practically grinning from ear to ear.
About 2 to 3 months later, the free entry to Sentosa privilege was revoked.
The card henceforth became a white elephant. For me, it was an emergency card that I never used.
Recently, they must have realised the stupidity of this whole facade and discontinued this card.
Since then, Maybank has been hounding me (and Amber) via unsolicited calls and spam mail to sign up for their “new” eVibes card.
The name of their old, discontinued card? eCard Vibes.
What?!
Doesn’t help that the 1-for-1 movie deals the new card offers is for Eng Wah…
are out of town, and their dog makes my bed her bed - literally, adjusting my blanket for her comfort. Because she’s probably feeling lonely without them, I let her do this just once. Just once, Yuki!
Today would be the second day I’m in office. I like it a lot!
One challenge in entrepreneuring is locating and leasing a suitable office - one that fits our requirements of budget, location, size, and to a certain degree presentation.
This particular one is big enough to sit up to 4 comfortably, is decorated tastefully by the landlord, isn’t too expensive, and is wonderfully located centrally at Bugis.
We’re pretty lucky to have found this place - and even luckier that that landlord turned out to be my brother’s client - and a very happy one at that - that we got to saved on agent fees and got to move in 2 weeks ahead of our lease tenure.
Thus while officially we have yet to move in yet, but I’m making full use of this rent-free period. My partner Francis is coming in soon, but until then - I’m the sole occupier of this room.
So if you are in the area someday, ask me for coffee or lunch!
During my short stint as an IT trainer, I had the honour of teaching in a few primary schools.
It was thus so that I had a first hand experience of the difference between the attitudes and behavior of those from neighbourhood school, and those from so-named prestigious schools.
My opinion is that kids from the former are more down to earth and therefore more pleasant to have as students.
On the other spectrum, the one class I had from the prestigious school had so much lesser… innocence.
I can’t begin to state how much this judgement suffers from various survey biases, but the truth for me is - those students worried me.
Let me elaborate.
There was one kid whose teammates were away for the session and so were told by her form teacher to join this other group.
The reaction of the team leader was, in American slang’ed English, “Oh my god, are you serious?” in stereotypical Gossip Girls style, with a hand gesture to boot.
Halfway into the lesson, about half of them whipped out their iPhone 4s (not even a 3GS there) and fiddled around with them.
Another time, I’ve heard from a fellow trainer that the kids asked her about her Gucci and CK and stuff.
This class was a mix of primary 3s and 4s - 9 and 10 year olds.
Is this how the rich and elite treat their children? Exposing them to the material life at so young an age and thus destroying most of their sense of innocence and any opportunity to instill the correct values?
If this is what “prestigious” entails, then I would very much stick with “neighbourhood” to avoid the taint, thank you.
More specifically, exclusive deals.
iPhone and Singtel. EPL and Singtel. Some particular gaming titles and PS3. Or Xbox 360.
Choice is a necessity to safeguard consumer interests, and exclusive deals take away our ability to choose.
When it’s no longer competitive, ultimately, we as consumers are the biggest losers.
A primary 2 school kid was standing next to me. His bag looked much heavier than mine.
I was carrying my laptop, adapter, mouse, notes, and jacket in my bag.
Hmm.
