heat

hot!!!

escapade

gone fishing - be back soon

turn back time

if you could turn back time

just for once and just for a day

which day would you want to be back to

would you relive the moment of happiness

or amend the mistake you've made

if i could turn back time

just for once and just for a day

i would hold on to it

till i've experienced

the greatest happiness

or the greatest regret

Scam Alert

Feel obligated to share this to serve as a warning reminder:
Beware of Timeshare (or alike) scam in Singapore (and all over the world)!

Last Saturday, garren and I went shopping around orchard road aimlessly (except to get a replacement for my lost heels) as we have nothing better to do. Just as we stepped out of Takashimaya after I finally found and bought another identical pair of heels, and planned to just chill out at coffee bean or starbucks at Paragon (because the one in Ngee Ann city was over-crowded), we were approached by this young, innocent looking college girl.

Tired of the never-ending survey on the road, we simply wanted to walk away. But she was almost pleading us and promised it was just a short survey (didn't they always promise this)? Anyway she started to explain that she was doing a short holiday survey for this company called Asian Travel Club (ATC). Before we agreed she had already started the questions:

Are you guys Singaporean, PR, or EP holders working in Singapore? How old are you? What are your occupations? yadaa yadaa standard questions to gather our demographical information. When it comes to street surveys, I would usually continue walking away saying I was in a hurry or if I couldn't escape in time, I would try to finish the survey as fast as I could. However that day, we had no particular plan for the day and I just had that sudden mischivious urge to give all sort of false info to this survey. We told some lies and some truth, just for fun such as we are tourist from Malaysia, staying over the weekend, and that I'm self-employed doing online business, etc...

At the end of the survey, she presented us 1 scratch card each and upon scratching, we won something (unsurprisingly). I won a $30 Takashimaya voucher while garren's *gasp* a 7-night free accommodation in one of the 6 country choices. Immediately she called her 'supervisor' to inform of the prizes we won. And a more senior guy came within...10 seconds. And excitedly they told us that we just need to attend a 80-min presentation at the building opposite the road and no obligation to purchase anything at the end of the presentation, after which we can collect the prize.

It all sound familiar so I asked the name of the company again and even asking him if they are affiliate of Timeshare. He assured me it wasn't.

'Oh no..we are not timeshare, we are Asian Travel Club, and it's just a promotion we are having to invite people to go over and take a look..blaa blaa...'

so were thinking, ok, since we have nothing to do and the prizes are quite attractive, and we are very skeptical and know that we won't fall for any timeshare-alike scam as we had heard too much about it. I was also curious and keen to find out what is the whole thing look like. So we went along.

The presentation was indeed well-organised and the people were firendly and pretty convincing. There were about 20 other couples or individuals at the vast meeting room with loud pop music blasting over head. Each group attended by a well-grommed, smartly dressed concultant. Our consultant was a young malay guy called Mizam, and over the course of presentation, his manager, a British guy called Regee would join and took over briefly...

In short the whole concept sounded great and you would really think it's a great way to travel in style and luxury at affordable price. Every once in a while, the lound music would be tuned down, and a bell rang and announcement made and applause given to welcome the new member on board. Throughout our session (about 2hr+, way beyong the promised 80-min), the announcement were made at least 6-7 times. I felt sorry for those who had fallen for it.

Anyway, as attractive as it sounded, we were not buying as we were still very skeptical (honestly we couldn't be sure at that time if that was a scam either as we had not been to similar presentation before), but we played along well and asked a few genuiene concern and questions. Some were answered better than other but all along we did not show our suspicion.

In the end we insisted we were not ready to sign up even they offer from the standard price of a whopping S$25,000 for 30 years to $12,000 if we sign up on the same day. And later went down to a 3-year tiral period of S$2990. And they promised at any point of time if we decided to withdraw they would help us resell the remaining membership free of charge. We insisted still.

In the end, we collect the gift vouchers and walked away. I'd double/tripple confirmed with the staff that the accommodation is absolutely free and we would not have to pay any tax or booking surcharge etc and was assured that it was all paid for and we need to make at least 28-day advance booking and that there will be $100 cancellation fee for no-show.

As for the takashimaya voucher, I had not used it but I'm pretty sure it's good. Those were just a small cost for them and the gimmick must have pretty high conversion rate to bring people to the presentation.

I did some online research the night and confirm our suspect, many victims had fallen for the companies (there were a few with different name but most probbaly affiliated to one another).
Check out some of the related forums/links:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showtopic=81946&st=10
http://www.singaporebrides.com/forumboard/messages/4/72245.html?1149486908

I'm glad we did not fall for the scam and felt sorry for those who already had. Garren and I are actually thinking if we should really claim the so called free accommodation to find out more about it. But we haven't figured out a plan and we do have some concerns about the risks and time and money involved.

Anyone who has similar experience to tell? Wonder what we can do about it to prevent more victims falling for it and a way to take action against scammer who con innocent victims out of their hard earn money!

sun-burn

vicious souvenir from a beach vacation

love-bite from signorina del sole

city of lost soul

alienation on a foreign land

in the alley

stair case advertising

a diifferent advertising approach

creative but not necessary effective

Marketing 101:

The essential components of a Good Advertisement -

1. RIGHT message

2. RIGHT channel

3. RIGHT audience

4. RIGHT timing

Absolutely common sense right? But still we see thousands of sucky advertisements and wonder where had the advertisers left their common sense at?

p/s: the advertisement shown is bad (because it's not effective) but not the worst, at least it didn't cost!

窗外有蓝天

the sky was 15-storey closer

mission impossible

books..if only i have all the money and time

Who ever said where there's a will, there's a way, was obviously wrong. Wrong as in it's not a fact, it may be true in certain circumstances, but not always. And a truth requires the hyppthesis to be 100% correct all the time.

So if someone tells you there's no such thing as mission impossible, I say you can tell him in his face that's bullshit.

To prove my theory, let's take reading for example. I say no one can ever finish reading ALL the published material in the world. This (refering to one being able to finish reading all published material in the world) can only be possible if ALL the following assumptions are achieved:

1. A person can access to ALL the published material in the world without missing a single copy out.

2. A person understand ALL the languages of the published material. One must read all the different translation of a same work as long as it's published.

3. A person has to be immortal so he/she will have unlimited time to read ALL the published as well as going-to-be-published work continuously.

4. A person's reading speed must be faster (a lot) than the publishing speed so he/she not only can finish reading all the published works but also able to keep up with the speed of the never-ending new publishing.

5. Still thinking but i think the 4 mentioned above are sufficient to prove my theory right.

So i say, "where there's a will, there's not always a way". Prove me wrong!

lost

to be found

Bizarre incidents of the Day:

Why do bizarre things always happen to me? This morning alone there were two of them!

1. Missing heels

I was about to leave for work only to find out my black heels were not on the shoe rack. I always leave my shoes on that rack by the corridor as the owner assured there has never been any shoe theft before. Beside the shoe cabinet inside the house was almost full, and reserved for more expensive ones. I'd also double-checked the cabinet in vain. My missing heels weren't exactly expensive, but they were pretty new and most importantly, they were my only black heels at the moment! Great! I was dressed in black today and I didn't have a matching shoes!!! I resorted to the dark brown pumps reluctantly. Why? Why me? That wasn't even a designer brand or extraordinary design, just a decent black heels I wear to work. :( And no chance any housemate would have worn it by mistake, size is one thing, but trust me, women can always tell which pair are theirs given 2 identical pair. Basic instinct. Urghh....no matter how I'm gonna try my luck again when I go home tonight. Worse comes worse, I'll have to look for another pair (or perhaps the same design).

2. Wrong bus

I boarded on the wrong bus :( I swear I saw 975 coming, but I don't know how it became 190. Must have been 190 bloody cutting in before 975 could pull in. Must be so because at a turn I saw 975 overtook my bus..:( Luckily 190's route was similar to 975 but terminated earlier at CCk interchange, so I had to alight and wait for the next 975 from the station across the interchange...so I was 10-15 minutes late.

world of concrete

each day tress are fallen

lands are reclaimed

to make way for civilization

for a better place to live

oh

what a wonderful

world of concrete

panic attack

your mind starts racing madly
your thoughts flickering at 10000rpm
you scream on top of your lungs
silently
all you can do
is to wait for the crash

to bring it to a cease

colour mood

Discovered an interesting fact about using colour and b/w effect to give different perceptions to a same image:

a sad, lost-in-thoughts look

a sober-after-a-pint-or-two look

(which happened to be the truth, or not quite, bro?)

ambiguity

confession/confussion of a commitment phobe:

linked or chained?

you are not alone

the journey is long

but we have each other

take a bow

burberry window display at Ngee Ann City

the monster within

a paw-shaped lamp post stand near Clarke Quay, Singapore