Committed 1/2

I have committed to my 6-day holiday next January.

However, I am not about to share the pre-hols itinerary planning.

Hands up to those who have encountered a bad customer service experience. What I am about to share is a modern day story of a customer service personnel who went beyond just selling airfares.

Let's define the cast. Company A, company B and Kingdom Travel. I chose not to name A & B by name because I think they would rather I not name them.

I did a fare inquiry on A's website. The site shows airfare with good price. Cheap I should say. I attempted to book it. But when it comes to the securing part, it shows that there were no more seats and I should look for a higher fare or another day to travel. Fine, let's proceed to company B.

I did an online booking with B and secured a fare. Though more expensive by about $100. I manage to reserve a seat. The very next day, the salesperson (Ms Lai) called me, not to ask anything other than whether I have transferred the money to them. I said I will make my way to her office to make payment on Monday (which is the next day).

Come Monday, I got a call from Ms Lai and quite predictably, she asked on the status of my payment. I got slightly annoyed and told her again that I will be making my way to her office to make payment and also that I have told her this yesterday.

I called up A to ask about another ticket fare for my colleague to another location. The customer service personnel said that the ticketing officers are all busy and will call me after 2pm. I believe they were all busy eating. And they never called though I heard them discuss about my call when I was in their shop. I did not buy their fare too because the ticketing officer do not seem to know the route to the destination and I had to tell him that.

This is getting abit long. I shall leave the rest of the story for the next post, if I remember.

Untrustable

Cast:
Boss
Minion
Outsider
Authority-A
Authority-B

There was a time when boss got into trouble with authority-A and received an edict to appear in front of the court at a said date-A.

The boss knew that this case would mean a fine, which is fine, by the way. However, he could not attend the court session on the said date-A due to an overseas obligation. He asked his minion to try to settle the matter with authority-A without letting him know about his trip - as good as asking the minion to go to the casino without any chips.

Of course, the minion failed. Boss went to outsider for help as the outsider has links with the nobles. Boss asked for an out-of-court settlement, however, the outsider tried to be smart and asked for a total removal of the charge, which failed, by the way.

The minion told the boss that he would have to seek out authority-B and ask for the change of date. But the boss, oblivious to the minion's words, asked the outsider for help again. And the outsider - after speaking with authority-A - gave the boss a number to call, and the boss asked the minion to make the call. Alas, the number is the number to authority-B, albeit nobody answering for the whole day the minion called.

The minion continues his sad life trying to call.

Pengerang

I am glad there are some things that is worthy of me saying I am happy about recently. The Robinson sale at Expo, I bought like there is no tomorrow, although the John Little sale is really round the next corner.

The Pengerang cycling trip - though smeared with hiccups - was a pleasant first time. I started the trip with less-than-optimum level of enthusiasm, made worse by the wait for the ferry, one hour, if not more. The cycle to Sungai Rengit was an excellent route lined with simple housing, just-enough-to-feed-the-family vegetables plantations, fishing houses, the sea and everything simple in life. Another disappointment is having to eat the oh-so-famous baby lobster that cost a bomb, yet tasted no better than the crayfish at Tebrau market in JB. I am not even sure they are fresh. Thankfully, we had a good company for lunch. The uncle and auntie (or should I say the hip granny with her husband) chatted us through lunch and repeatedly reminded us to "吃！吃！敢敢吃！吃多一點！我們老人家沒有吃那麼多的！"

We realised that we are running (cycling) late, and decided that there is no way we could catch the next (or was it the last?) ferry back to Singapore on time... unless... we could hire a cab to bring us and our bicycles! And we did, and we suffered the shame when the onlookers look upon our arrival at the jetty.

Better luck next time.

Caught a flu

Rubbish theory

I derived a strange theory on a certain monotonous trip on a coach. When the coach climbs to high altitude, the shampoo bottles bloated due to the low atmospheric pressure acting on the contents of the bottle. When I open the bottle in the hotel's bathroom, the shampoo puked out in a sudden burst.

Applying the same theory to the human body, we should experience severe farting and at least one session of good burst while passing motion.

On the way down, the pressure cells acting on the bottle is higher, hence, the soap bottle will be dented. The same pressure is applied on the human body and one travelling downhill will experience tightness physically, explaining for the queasiness.

Lousy

I am forced to take things in my stride today, even if it means having to be held by the nose by a driver and suffering the consequences of a selfish, lousy, wrong decision.

I sacrificed a relative gathering, which I was never told of, and an afternoon of time to do my assignment, just to act like a responsible, helpful facade.

I chose to take a step back and just accept whatever instructions that come by. Whatever not said, I take it there's none.

More and more things I dislike are happening nowadays. But whatever I do not like, I say nothing about.

The truth always hurt.

Yet I rather keep quiet than to tell a lie.

Teachers Day

Tomorrow is Teacher's day. I can only think of a handful of personnel that truely deserve my gratitude.

- Ms Cheong Lin See (Keming Pri Sch)
- Mr Beh Yong Hua (Dunearn Sec Sch)
- Mr M. Nageb (SIM-UOL)
- Dr. Philips Stephenson (SIM-UOL)
- Dr. Frances Healey (SIM-UOL)
- Ms Jacqueline-Lee Mather (SIM-UOL)
- Ms Patricia Chia (SIM-UOL)
- Mrs Rosemary Gosling (UOL-LSE)
- Dr. Steve Taylor (UOL-LSE)
- Prof. Roy Chandler (Cardiff)

Thank you all for helping through my learning journey and making me constantly explore and question.

I felt a gloom when I looked at my Alma-maters' website and had a minor shock that some 'lousy' teacher during my school days are not heads of departments. Within their departments are more qualified (integrity-wise) teachers. Think again, this is a place that looks at your degree. You don't have it, you do not rise.