Dan and I booked ourselves a weekend getaway to Batam soon after he was done with his first semester. We were looking forward to our stay at Harris Resort, the one where Dan and I stayed when he came to Singapore last July. Not only were the service and spa facilities awesome - karaoke was the very next activity we were keen on doing over the weekend.
Not too sure if I am a difficult customer or if it's simply because I have been spoilt by "Japanese Customer Service"; I must admit that Customer Service standards in Singapore have deteriorated to unacceptable levels of which I am very much ashamed. When I requested the lady over the counter to amend my Immigration Card (my D.O.B was incorrect), she frowned and told me in an impolite and unprofessional manner, "It's OK [one lah]" (this is Singlish), shooed me away and attended to the next customer. Dan said I should have demanded that the very same lady amend my details so that she would learn to fix her mistakes. But knowing me, it was best I approached someone else to avoid ruining the entire holiday.
Anyway, we soon reached Batam after 1.5 hours' boat ride. We enjoyed our lunch and were very excited about the 3 hour spa that would help us de-stress. After the spa, we had a game of bowling, courtesy of the resort. We must say that we are sticking to Wii Sports for bowling.
Throughout the day we were very excited about Karaoke. However, soon after dinner we found out that they no longer had Karaoke at the usual place. A new Karaoke bar had taken over and was charging us $20 per hour (the usual price was $5 plus a free drink for the entire night)!!! We were very unhappy with the fact that different staff charged us different prices ($6 per 10 songs, etc.) and so on. The manager was called in, as I could not be bothered explaining the situation to every single member of staff I had to speak to, and Dan managed to negotiate free karaoke for 1.5 hours with a free drink. Just as we thought the unpleasant experience was over, we experienced power failure (while asleep) 4 times throughout the night and two false fire alarms!!!
The next morning, we were selected to provide our feedback and guess what, we were aboslutely frank with our comments!!! Our friends and family in Singapore felt that what we did would lead us to nowhere and so on...
WE GOT A FREE NIGHT'S STAY THE NEXT TIME WE VISIT!!!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
End of Term
Time really flies. I've already completed my first term, submitted 2 pre-course assignments, 2 main assignments, made 2 presentations and taken 2 exams.
The (provisional) score so far:
Organisational Behaviour
PCA (A+)
MA ???
Presentation (A+)
Exam ???
Strategic Management & Business Practice
PCA (A+)
MA ???
Presentation ???
Exam ???
Unfortunately, the exam and main assignment for each module comprise 70-80% of the total mark, so I still don't have a clear indication of my progress and won't do for another 1-2 months.
The OB main assignment turned out to be a 7,267 word beast, squeezed into just 10 days. Actually, it was supposed to be a four person group project, but I'm very particular about who I work with - I didn't much like the idea of my grade being 'diluted', as it were. SMBP also challenged me with my first ever powerpoint presentation, made in front of the entire class, dressed in a suit. Apparently one of the Vietnamese guys secretly took pictures of me presenting and put them on Facebook, because I "looked so formal"... ōó
...
...If I find them, I'll post them up. The exams were mixed. I have my concerns about the SMBP exam, but I have a feeling the OB exam went much better.
Other highlights included a 'corporate visit' to the Gardenia bread factory!
...Which was over almost as soon as it began. Still, it was interesting to see how the bread was made, it forced me to break away from study for one afternoon, I got to sample some of the merchandise and I returned with goodies for Yolande from the gift shop (a Gardenia bag and gym towel). Most importantly, it was free (not the goodies, I must stress)!
I'm almost half way through my 2 week 'break' now. I've already started reading through next term's textbooks (Corporate Financial Management, Marketing Management), which are utterly huuuge! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I picked them up after my OB exam last Friday. Actually, I'm pretty excited about these modules. CFM is basically applied maths (my best subject) and MM is really the core of what doing business is all about - meeting needs profitably.
Last Friday we also got to hang out with Yolande's friends from NUS Japanese studies. They're a great bunch of people - I really enjoyed myself.
This weekend we have a trip to Batam! 3 hour spa, karaoke, bowling, swimming (just paddling for Yolande, whose eyes are still freshly lasered). I hope we don't get quarantined... I'll be sure to let you all know!
I suppose during the second week of this break I should really get down to researching my 2 research projects (RP1, RP2), along with some other stuff I need to sort out...
The (provisional) score so far:
Organisational Behaviour
PCA (A+)
MA ???
Presentation (A+)
Exam ???
Strategic Management & Business Practice
PCA (A+)
MA ???
Presentation ???
Exam ???
Unfortunately, the exam and main assignment for each module comprise 70-80% of the total mark, so I still don't have a clear indication of my progress and won't do for another 1-2 months.
The OB main assignment turned out to be a 7,267 word beast, squeezed into just 10 days. Actually, it was supposed to be a four person group project, but I'm very particular about who I work with - I didn't much like the idea of my grade being 'diluted', as it were. SMBP also challenged me with my first ever powerpoint presentation, made in front of the entire class, dressed in a suit. Apparently one of the Vietnamese guys secretly took pictures of me presenting and put them on Facebook, because I "looked so formal"... ōó
...
...If I find them, I'll post them up. The exams were mixed. I have my concerns about the SMBP exam, but I have a feeling the OB exam went much better.
Other highlights included a 'corporate visit' to the Gardenia bread factory!
...Which was over almost as soon as it began. Still, it was interesting to see how the bread was made, it forced me to break away from study for one afternoon, I got to sample some of the merchandise and I returned with goodies for Yolande from the gift shop (a Gardenia bag and gym towel). Most importantly, it was free (not the goodies, I must stress)!
I'm almost half way through my 2 week 'break' now. I've already started reading through next term's textbooks (Corporate Financial Management, Marketing Management), which are utterly huuuge! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I picked them up after my OB exam last Friday. Actually, I'm pretty excited about these modules. CFM is basically applied maths (my best subject) and MM is really the core of what doing business is all about - meeting needs profitably.
Last Friday we also got to hang out with Yolande's friends from NUS Japanese studies. They're a great bunch of people - I really enjoyed myself.
This weekend we have a trip to Batam! 3 hour spa, karaoke, bowling, swimming (just paddling for Yolande, whose eyes are still freshly lasered). I hope we don't get quarantined... I'll be sure to let you all know!
I suppose during the second week of this break I should really get down to researching my 2 research projects (RP1, RP2), along with some other stuff I need to sort out...
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