A'Famosa Resort

Over the weekend we had this terrible experience with A'Famosa Resort, Malacca.

It all started with a getaway plan to Malacca. Thinking of trying some place new, we chose A'Famosa. Although heard from couple of friends that this place was not worth visiting; that everything there was expensive and that it was far from the city, we still made our booking at their condotel.

"How wrong could a resort be, right?"

So there we went, called up to make reservation. And double triple confirmed that all admissions to the attractions would be free alongside with the room booking.

Driving excitedly to the resort, we arrived at this deserted resort feeling gloomy. The view in front of our eyes were dry, yellow, patchy. What happened to the greenery? To the crowd? To the 'resort' atmosphere. My gawd!!

It was nothing close to the photos featured on their website. We tried to stay calm as we drove towards the condotel to check in.

Shortly after that, we stepped at this 2-star-lookalike apartment lobby, served by a staff who speaks minimal English, in her oversized uniform. I couldn't get her look out of my head even until now.

Good thing that she was polite. She suggested us to go around the vicinity while waiting for our key, which only will be available at 1pm. So we took her advise, hoping that the attractions would prove us otherwise.

But before we could entered to the water world and animal world, we were stopped to buy tickets! What tickets?? I thought it's included?!?

There and then, Andy and I felt we've had enough. We requested for cancellation right away. The idiotic reservation staff that I've spoken beforehand was completely ignorant of his empty promises. Where did all the free admissions go?? The whole conversation with A'Famosa staff was completely helpless.

The only helpful guy from the whole resort would be the front desk manager, who offered help to fulfill our cancellation request.

This experience with A'Famosa proves how a resort could get SO WRONG. Boo hoo!

We felt so relieved and lucky after we got out of that misery place. Then started the real holiday with our trusty Hotel Equatorial. Be back with more Malacca posts :)

Cut! Cut! Cut!

Not only Chloe loves styling our hair; pretending to comb or to cut our hair, she actually loves to get a hair cut too!

New interest seen today! When 奶奶 brought her along to the salon for a hair wash, little miss vain actually requested for a haircut - badly! She was nagging and begging for the stylist to cut her hair!

Neither did she fuss nor whine during the whole process.

Chloe is happy. But I'm disappointed.
Just when I thought her hair has grown longer again, there she went,
cut! cut! cut!

Hmphh!!!!

When We Fidget For The 2nd Time...

We love Fidgets when we first visited last 3 weeks. So we (with the same gang) planned and anticipated for the 2nd visit last Saturday. It turned out.. not that fantastic anyway...

It could be the parents who were lacking of excitements, cos the kids were certainly enjoying themselves.

For me, there are pros and cons to bring a walking toddler to such playgym. Good thing is I don't have to hold her all the time. The bad and the most taxing thing, was she refused to stop, even for a second. Phew..

The most turn-off, however, was when I saw some parents walking around with no socks on! What?! I thought socks were a must? So I went to complain to the staff there and guess what's their answer was... "Socks were only necessary when you are hitting the play area. So, walking around in the cafe, barefoot, is OKAY!" Err.. I just couldn't except such an explanation when the cafe is just next to the young toddler play area. Hey, I did spot a few couples roaming inside the playarea barefoot okay?

Well, well, I guess we will stop visiting there for the time-being..
We'll see if we'll miss that place :P

Anyway, a few pictures to share:

Lesson Learnt!

I was jolly happy to come in to office this morning, reminding myself, I need to check-in online first thing I turn on the mac.

Boo!! I didn't know I need passports with me for more details are required, like passport expiry date! Geez, I never memorize that date. I barely can recall my passport no, let alone expiry date!!

Grr.. I want friendly seat with bassinet for Chloe! Pray hard it'll still be available when I check-in tonight from home....

What's Going On?

Today I find myself acting weird. I've been moody. Be it at work or at home.
Work is never ending with chapters and chapters of manuscripts. It is really annoying to have a colleague sitting next to me who burps zillion times a day without saying 'Excuse Me'. And I got headache when another colleague playing hard rock music on his speaker, where he should be using his headphone. Geez.

Upon reaching home, I got to play with Chloe for brief 30 minutes. Her nose was wet again. She slept right away after her milk feed at 7.45. I've been doing stuff half the pace I usually do. I stone a lot in front of the computer. Even my past time favourite, blogging. When I thought I should be blogging the whole night, I actually ended up stuck with this post for the longest time.

Something is missing...

I Hate Thursday!

The weekend seems so near, yet there are 2 more days to go!

The photos I took, are expiring as days go by...

And the fun I had last weekend, has started to fade away....

I hate thursday...

Please somebody make my day!

An Expensive Lesson - poor service from st. louis

Remember the poor service from st. louis furniture shop?

It was FINALLY all solved yesterday nite.

Hubby and I filed a complaint to the Small Claim Tribunal last 2 weeks. We talked to CASE beforehand and then realized SCT would be a better and firmer channel to proceed. We had our consultation session with a representative and a registrar from st. louis at the Subordinate court on tuesday.

I must say the registrar didn't side on my complaint much. He had to be fair to both parties. He didn't bother much to listen to my stories but only noting down the timelines of purchase and delivery procedures.

Final outcome we settled for was to accept refund (decided by the registrar) and return st. louis the damn sofa. How much is the refund, you must be wondering. A total $600 less than the original purchase. Damn that was a lot of deduction i thought! Loss on me!

But after giving it a deep thought. I think that refund is a better solution than to accept a replacement sofa from them, which:

• who knows what are gonna happen again in the next delivery;
• who knows which insane staff or boss we're facing in the future; and
• what kind of warranty service i'd be getting should the recline mechanism break down?

Enough of nonsense from them.
不经一事，不长一智.

Endnote:
I couldn't help but think that it's not the first time st. louis faces such complaint. The representative that attended the consultation:

• came with a bermuda and slippers (One of the rules set in the letter is to come in formal clothing!)
• went into the chamber for consultation without the need of showing IC (The guard checked on my IC and compared the photograph with my current look!)

Well, well, last but not least, make sure you think twice before making a purchase at St. Louis Pte Ltd at The Furniture Mall, The Plaza. Who knows what services awaiting you, and oh, you might just get the sofa set i returned them. The delivery guy had the 2-seater fully wrapped with protection at every corner last nite before they left my house! High chance they'd just deliver it to another 'victim' for next order.

We wanted to have a good comfy sofa, but in return we had headache plus $600 less in our pocket. Haiz...

3rd dose of 5-in-1 vaccination

I'm on leave today to bring Chloe for her 3rd dose 5-in-1 jab. Dear baby is now weighing 7.5 kg. Head circumference at 43.1 cm.

Darn nurse didn't wanna measure her length, said they don't measure at the 5th month?! I guess this is one of the setbacks if you let your baby to have vaccinations in the polyclinic. Nobody is ever going to tell you which percentile your baby is in. Not everytime you are required to see the doctor before jabs.. (only 2 times so far out of 4 jabs at the polyclinic) Even if u did, the doc will only spend 5 mins max to check on baby.. Not a single word mentioned if you didn't ask any.

I think they are simply inexperienced. I still remember I once asked the lady doctor on Chloe's hernia matter, and she just said, "it's OK one..." Where as the private PD i consulted after which gave me detailed explanation on the matter.

Haiz.. If given an option, I'd certainly go for private clinics for baby's vaccinations.

Poor service from st. louis furniture shop

We bought a 3 + 2 seater sofa from St. Louis on 1st January 2008. The design we chose was the exact same one at their showroom at Furniture Mall, The Plaza.

When the sofa was delivered on the 24th Jan, the 3-seater design was actually different from its 2-seater. The back rest should have a vertical stitch design and the 3-seater didn't come with that. Blur me actually spotted it a week after its delivery. So i called them up again to check on it.

The moment the sales girl heard my complaint, she just laughed and implied, "Oh, so it's you who has THE other half?" Yup, they actually swapped these sofa set with other customer. The other customer had called to complain before me.

She asked me to wait for their office/customer service to call up the following week as their office was still closed for CNY. That was the start of the wait..

After a week they finally contacted me, saying they were taking back the 3-seater from me to FIX.
I asked how long? 2 weeks she replied.
So long? How are u fixing it? We're gonna re-construct a new 3-seater for u.
Ok good! But in between this period, can u do something about it? Ok, we'll loan u a sofa.

After they took back the 3-seater in Feb 20th, I waited for 2 long weeks to hear from them again. And they set Mar 11th to deliver back my FIXED 3-seater. That summed up to total 3 weeks of FIXING. It'd better be perfect this time!

So last tues hubby and I happy jolly took off again to receive our 3-seater.
My oh my! Not only the 3-seater was dusty all over, it was 'extra decorated' with lots of black patches all over it. The leather wasn't as bright as the 2-seater that's sitting on my living room. Lastly, The cushion was firmer, i never once asked for extra firm!

I took the initiative to wipe the leather. Yes, there was evidence of dust on the wet cloth. But the black patches were still there. It's hard not to think that it wasn't a new set at all.

Unhappy and totally disappointed to the max, we called to the office again and requested an explanation. One of the staff took my hubby's feedback professionally and promised to call us back ASAP. The delivery guy took back the 3-seater and the dirty old loan sofa, did i mention? It was frustrating..

4 hours later, a lady called us back. She started off by asking what was the problem? As she didn't see any flaw to the sofa. Eventually she admitted that we must use a certain wax to clean up the patches. Duh!

Then hubby conveyed the message on how unhappy we were with their services. We've made the purchase for 2 months plus and up til now we haven't got to enjoy the products. She mentioned that as her staff cleaned up the sofa, they realised that the back of the sofa was torn. I was surprised that a brand new sofa would be so dusty and was torn! "Therefore, I cant send it to you now." she replied. "When then?" my hubby asked "I dun know! was her reply.

Why is your new sofa so dusty and your new leather is torn?

She flared up and started accusing us for being too picky. Picky about their products. Talk about consumer rights! Hubby was pissed and asked to speak to her manager. Guess what she shouted,"I'm the boss! Too bad, u can't complain to anyone else!" How rude and unprofessional was that!! She hang up!

That was the last time we heard from st. louis. Up til this very moment, no one has actually called us up to apologize or follow up on my outstanding 3 seater.

In a country that highlights tip top quality services, actually exists a poor-attitude, sleazy-management like them! So people, I'm warning everyone to think twice before making any purchase from st. louis.

I regretted big time..

There goes my dream house

Ok.. it's more like my dream flat.

After been waiting for about 4 months, so disappointed to learn that the owner needs another 3 year to sell her flat to us!!
Said she has just bought a new bungalow which needs 3 years to be completed. So she gotta postpone the selling..

Though it's not a 'dream' dream house like pictured below... but it's the best that fits hubby and my requirements in the past one year.

A flat that is near to the inlaw (for obvious reasons, taking care of baby, and the meal provider :P). This one is just 8 floors apart!! Flat that is high floor. On the plus side, it has the pool view right from the master bedroom!! How romantic!! Though it's just a public swimming pool across the street, hey, what beats a FREE view??

Duh.. the more i write, the more disappointed i am..

Now has to go back to square one, start contacting our house agent, go for house viewing, provided we find something we like~~


I won't stop telling myself.. maybe this is blessing in disguise, maybe this waiting game will lead to some good find in the end of the day. Say maybe we're striking toto soon? so i can get my dream house??