Life – Page 7 – wyred dot nu

November 3, 2010November 3, 2010

Did Chan Brothers Travel just try to cheat me?

My Japan trip is coming soon and one of the things I had to prepare is a JR Pass. It’s basically a pass that allows me to travel on all JR trains and bullet trains for free (except NOZOMI bullet train).

This is going to help save a lot especially when I’m planning to travel all the way down to Kyushu, stopping at Nagoya, Kyoto, Oosaka along the way.

So I went to Chan Brothers Travel office because I’ve bought a 7-day pass from them 3 years ago.

There, they told me they don’t sell 14-day passes, but are able to sell me two 7-day passes.

From the JR Pass website, a 7-day pass costs 28,300 yen, a 14-day one costs 45,100 yen.

A huge difference of 11,500 yen between both if you compare it with two 7-day passes (56,600 yen).

I said I’ll check first and that makes it the wisest decision I’ve made today.

I looked up for other distributors on the JR Pass website and called up H.I.S. International Travel to find out if they sell any 14-day JR Passes. A guy picked up the call and answered yes to my question. I went down there to get it.

I received the exchange order for the pass and this is how it looks like:

And I remembered this is how it looks like 3 years ago when I first got it from Chan Brothers.

14 is written.

Written.

I suppose they ran out of 1s and 4s and can only write 7s for me.

Anyway, I’m open to any reasonable explanations.

August 12, 2010

What’s wrong with having one’s purchasing history stored?

Most people seem to freak out when their purchase history is stored.

I don’t see what’s so bad about it.

In fact, because I’ve signed up for a membership card at Kinokuniya and that I shop from them so often, I’ve always hoped they would store my purchase history.

So I can make sure I won’t purchase a manga that I’ve already did in a previous visit. So they can make recommendations to me when a new series is released that matches the genres of manga I’ve purchased in the past. Or alert me when a new book in the series I’m collecting is out for purchasing.

There’s so many things they could do to make my experience with them a better one. And not just me, but many other manga lovers in Singapore.

But because it’s a Japanese company, and from my own observations, they seem to be afraid of trying such things in case it offends their customers, they probably won’t attempt something like this.

But I’ll drop them an email anyway and pray for the better.

June 16, 2010

Fast music is bad for jogging

I pushed myself a little too hard at jogging today.

To the point I fainted.

Judging from the position of the music on my ipod, I suppose I was out for 5~10 minutes.

I felt comfortable, had a dream. Then the image of my mum popped in and in my less than sub-conscious state, as if my body was moving by itself, got up and lied down on the nearest bench.

With my eyes open, I just stared blankly until I mustered enough strength to sit up. Then sat there for a while before I started walking myself home.

Went to a 24 hour clinic which told me I needed to go to the hospital.

Had a deep cut on my chin and little finger, kept bleeding, need to be stitched.

Doctor said I probably didn’t have enough sugar in my blood.

At least now my fears of being close to diabetic can be dismissed.

June 2, 2010

Beer and Coffee

Today is the 4th day that I’ve stopped drinking coffee.

Trying to clear out the caffeine in my body so that I can once again enjoy that exhilarating feeling when one drinks coffee.

I feel like crap without my daily cup of coffee. Going to resume drinking after my…

Redang 3 days 2 nights holiday! This Friday, I’ll be leaving for another short holiday with a different group of friends. One of the events included in our travel package is snorkeling. Mmmmmm

I look forward to taking naps under the sun again. Waking up feeling refreshed to the sound of the waves.

However, it’s a holiday period now and it might be very crowded over there. :(

And what about beer?

Well, there was a small gathering of my secondary school friends at someone’s house and we had beer, cheese sausages and we chatted about the old days. This is when I discovered how I want to enjoy beer. With good company and good food.

It was such a good experience that I want to enjoy it again. But this time, an air conditioned room, friends, lots of beer and cheese sausages. And we’d just chat till the last can of beer. Ahhh…

May 31, 2010

Bintan

Went to Bintan from the 8th to 10th May 2010 together with 4 other friends. Just a short getaway from the busy Singapore life.

We stayed at the Indra Maya villas of Nirwana Gardens. From what I understand, Nirwana Gardens consists of beach clubs, villas, resorts, and we chose to stay at the villas.

While my friends were checking in, I went out to the nearby beach. It’s the first time I’ve seen a blue sea. In Singapore, it’s a dirty green color.

At the beach, you can hear nothing but the sound of the waves. No children screaming, no cars, no boat motors. Very peaceful. We went during a non-holiday period so there’s not a lot of other people.

The waters are clear. If you try, you can see small fishes swimming around your feet.

This is where we stayed at, a private villa of our own.

With our own private pool!

And a buggy to drive around the place in! I had my turn to drive everyone around the place in this and it made me want to learn driving.

We ate, played in the pool, beaches, had karaoke, drank at a kelong style pub out in the middle of the ocean.

On the last day, we woke up early to go see the sunrise.

Each of us paid like SG$500 (USD$355. Includes food/transport) for the whole 3 days 2 nights trip. I feel it’s worth it.

There’s a few more photos in my flickr set here.