void of existence

When I first bought my apartment 3 years ago, I realized that there are a lot work necessary for a new place.  I did not have any renovation works required for the place as it is brand new and the developer did a good job in providing a finishing that is good enough to move into.  The previous owner was just trying to flip the market.  (without much success may I add)

However, there were no lights.  The wiring are all dangling.  I had to shop for lights and curtains.  That was the very basic necessity.  Centrepoint did such a great job with their developments.  I discovered one major problem when I moved in.  The electrical wiring is not done properly.  My washing machine always tripped the fuse.  It took them one week and 3 testing to solve it.

So I understand that there will be a lot of things that can go wrong with a new place.  Especially one that is as big as my new home.

For the new place, we have to hire a number of contractors.  Carpenters (for the wardrobes and kitchen cabinets among other things), wallpaper lady, solar film guy, electricians, louver people, false ceiling guys, awning people, paquet people, curtain guy, etc.

2 weeks after moving in, some renovation works are still not completed.  3 weeks after moving in, we still find the little lapses in workmanship here and there.  We got the contractors came back to fix them.  4 weeks after moving in, we started to pay the remaining amount to the contractors.

In fact, the contractors started chasing for their payment as soon as when we first moved in.  My biggest dig is that there is absolutely NO customer service.  Not a single contractor called to ask ‘How is everything?’.  Here they are, making a couple ten thousands… and no customer service.  What are they thinking??

Just put a bit of marketing on this new tagline and it will be an instant hit.

‘Singtel – Not my department!’

In my recent relocation, my Billy and I decided to get our internet line transferred over.  I am subscribing to the Mio plan (which combines Internet, mobile and land line).  My Billy is with the Broadband Internet.

So one week before the move, I caught up with my Billy and we made arrangements with Singtel to bring both our Internet lines to our new place.  During the same call, we were told the different plan is under different departments.  Since they are different department, they have different vendors for the installation and hence different installation schedule.  I have half expected that this will happen since I experienced the same thing with the phone line and internet line with my office when that moved late last year.

So my Mio line was scheduled on a Tuesday and my Billy’s line was on the Thursday of the same week.  Installation day (for my Mio line) came and the installation guy said that he connected the cable to the house, but there is no signal.  He has highlighted it to the Digging Team of Singtel and will revert back to me.  The Digging team came the next day (after I have spoken with 3 different service staff on separate occasions, explained the whole situation to each of them and to confirmed that they are sending down someone to check the line).  The gate was opened and they helped themselves to the box (with all the cabling) without bothering to introduce themselves.  After about an hour of fiddling and walking in and out, they said that they have solved the problem.  They said that the line in the DB box was old but they have switched to the new line.  They also said that the installation guy should have done it.  The line was choppy at first, but it stablized towards the evening.  So we have Internet.

Thursday came, the Broadband installation guy came.  Fiddled with the lines for half an hour and said that the connection is done but there is no signal.  Same issue with the Mio line.  So he has highlighted the issue to Singtel.  So I called Singtel and asked them to confirm that they are sending down their technicians.  After transferring from departments to departments, they finally said that they will call me back.  Do note that each time that I was transferred, I had to explain the WHOLE story to each one of them.  After all of that, I found that even the Mio line stopped working.  So I had to called Singtel, transferred through 8 different persons across at least 3 departments, explained the situations to each one of them, gave them 3 levels of Hell each.

On Friday, someone from Singtel called me back to schedule an appointment in the afternoon.  I told the staff that it is not possible and I expect to see them first thing in the morning.  She said she had to check with the technician as it was not her department and will call back to confirm.  Before she was able to put down the phone, I gave her just 2 levels of Hell.

Side track a bit.  I still do not understand these people working at these big companies.  They use a general line number (no DID) and they like to introduce themselves on the first name basis without the department name.  They can verify you by asking personal questions, but when you ask them for more details on their identity, they go apprehensive.  Try calling any general line and ask for Kelvin.  They will be like ‘huh’.  But when Kelvin first called you, he assured you that there is only one Kelvin there.

Anyways, Saturday came and the installation guy came.  His work order said there are 2 VoIP lines when there is only 1.  VoIP lines have no dial tone.  But the Broadband internet is not VoIP.  Now this is an ultimate ‘Not my department’ guy.  He said that he only follows the work order to do things.  The order is wrong, it is not his problem.  I had to talk to 30 over Singtel staff (explaining the situation each time).  By this time, my blood is boiling and I am hovering over the Singtel technician with my old softball bat.

2 hours later, no one got killed.  The technician came closed though.  He left my place saying that another team of technicians will be coming next week AFTER I make the appointment with them to check on the line from my house to the substation.  He cannot check coz its not his department and its not on his work order.  He even demanded that I signed on his work order to show that he completed the job.  I crumbled up the work order the threw it at him.  No…politeness is out of the window already.  He was lucky that I did not batted him for a home run.  Funny thing was he picked the work order up and said that he needed me to sign.  It was funny enough that I signed 2 big XX on the work order and threw it back to him.

So I called Singtel again.  Explained the even longer story now to 3 staff before I got my appointment.

About 2 weeks after the first Singtel contractor, I finally got my internet hooked up.  Thats when I found that my connection is very slow.  Upon checking, I discovered that they have dropped my 10Mbps line to 3Mbps line coz the relay station in my area cannot support 10Mbps.  Not a single Singtel staff told me.  Not 1.  Coz it is not their department.

This happens in the USA.  Delay flight and the passengers are locked in a plane.

Here’s a list of FAQs on what to do while trapped in a delay flight. Click here!

I have only one thing to say.. Terry Trippler, an airline and travel expert based in Minneapolis, is an idiot.  The article named him as an ‘expert’.  This ‘expert’ was quoted saying “Instead of that extra pair of shoes in your carryon, you put an extra sandwich or an extra bottle of water.”.

Dear Mr Expert, if you have not heard…most airport security will make you throw away that bottle of water.

Of course, I had an experience where I pass the airport security into the restricted area and I bought a bottle of water, only to be asked to throw it away at the boarding gate.

Expert…pui.

This is a good article:  Dating Advice: 3 Compatibility Deal-Breakers

I was thinking about one side of the story a bit more I have found it to be disturbing that when a female come to say that she wants equality.  What they are essentially saying is that ‘I want to be more like men’.  Just like when a poor person say that he wish things are equal.  Do you think that person want everyone to be as poor as him?  Probably not, he just want to be richer than what he is now.

More females are neglecting the powess of the femininity.  In fact, they are losing it.

Here’s a good movie from 2006.  There is a particular part that explains the above.

Title is largely meaningless to ourselves, but it shows a lot when other use them.  If you are a doctor, you know your stuff and does not need to call yourself as ‘Doctor’ whatever.  However, you would want others to refer to you as Doctor something.  The newspaper is showing a lot of who is calling the shots lately in that aspect.  When we refer to the PM, the newspaper has been using ‘Mister’ something instead of ‘PM’ something.  But when it comes to the MM, the newspaper printed MM something.  Does tell a lot, doesn’t it?

My sister commented yesterday (again) that I have strange taste.  In many ways, she is right.

Today, I was so bored out of my hair that I decided to look at the friends’ list of my friends in FB.  In a strange way, I felt like I am invading the privacy of my friends.  After all, that is their business.  Then I started going through my own friends list.  I am surprised at the number of people, whom have nothing but bones to pick with me, on my list.  And I am very sure that they added me.  The strangest part is that I accepted.

I admit that I am strange.  Sometimes, even beyond my own comprehension.

Yesterday, I saw my nurse again.  Its been a while since I went back for the treatment of my Psoraisis.  Its not everyday that you get to strip down to almost nothing in front of a nurse.  I have pretty much come to terms with it.  After dealing with it for more than 20years, I better be.  I heard of a guy who got upset with his parents for his condition.  That such a moronic thing to do.   What I am tired of is people passing me remedies of other skin ailments when they know absolutely nothing about what I got. In any case, I have gone pass being frustrated with that as well.  People are just trying to be helpful.  I will normally smile, thank them and promise to try the remedies.  All those remedies normally end up in a corner somewhere collecting dust.

Baby X is having his regular 9th month old check up tomorrow.  Now that is going to be painful.

The scary scary month is here again after Thursday.  Dun stay out too late now.

SOME Singapore Internet users may be experiencing slowdowns on the Information Superhighway, especially when trying to access websites hosted in the United States and Taiwan.

Typhoon Morakot, which has triggered Taiwan’s worst flooding in 50 years, has damaged the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 submarine cable system through which bytes of information travel.

This means that people trying to connect to gaming servers in the US or trying to instant message friends overseas may find it difficult to connect.

A SingTel spokesman said that restoration works on the cable system have begun.

‘Our engineers are in the process of diverting Internet traffic to other cable systems. We expect the situation to return to acceptable levels within the next 24 hours,’ he said.

The last time a major outage happened was in December 2006, when quakes off Taiwan severed several cables at once, causing the Net to go down.

Thank to my darling wife’s hard work and patience.  We have managed to finish up the renovation of our new home and moved in last sunday.  This is not to say that everything was fine and dandy since the little little things that went wrong…to say in the least….most irritating.

We packed from Friday evening and Saturday before the big move on Sunday.  First thing that went wrong was my own fault when I forgot to bring my handphone along.  The movers called me 20 times before arriving at the first location to pick up my stuff.  I have my stuff stored in 2 different locations after I sold my place last year.

After that, everything started to go haywire.  The movers wanted more money as they feel that there are more items than quoted.  They were already $100 more expensive than my last move for less furniture and less work (since the furniture in one location is all wrapped up for transportation).

We finished the move by early afternoon and started proceed to unpack.  The task is daunting but we were able to move along as we have a clear goal to finish up our bedroom first, so that we can sleep in the night.  So we started sorting through the 43 cartons of stuff that we got.  By evening time, we sorted out the bedroom  and the kitchen.  There was no Internet and no television.  We ended up reading books in the almost empty living room (sofa set is not delivered  yet).

Monday morning came.  We had breakfast nearby.  After that, all hell broke lose.  While we are unpacking, we had to deal with all the contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers.  Singtel contractor came to install the line.  After he finished, he said Internet was not working coz the line outside may be too old and failing.  Digging to install new cable…may take 1month.  First bomb was dropped.  1 month without Internet.  Great.  5 frantic calls to Singtel later, they promised to send their own engineers down to examine the situation tomorrow.  Eventually, they solved it by using a new cable pairing, whatever that means.

The biggest irony was with the carpenters and tv installer over the installation of the tv.  The tv installer did not want to install the tv becoz they fear that the carpentry work is not built to withstand the weight of the tv and they do not want the take the responsibility.  The carpenters do not want to install the tv becoz they fear the tv brackets may be faulty and do not want to take the responsibilty.  We have to make them both come to my place at the same time to do the installation.  Painful…

2 days and 11 contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers later… We finally managed to get the place to 95% completed.