Back from Bali and HATING IT!

We finally touched down on Friday after spending 4 incredible but hot days in Bali and boy am I hating being back!!!! Back to work tomorrow.......I have been depressed the moment we touched down at Changi and I'm still not over it! *!%*$


The trip, apart from the weather when we are at sea level, was great. Although close to 50% of the time was spent on the road getting from one place to another, but each time we get there, it never fails to take our breath away! We almost always start our day complaining about the heat but everyday (except 1st & last day), we will end up in a mountain somewhere with strong winds and extremely cool weather (think Genting Highlands in Dec). It was just great.


The villa we were in, wow.....speechless. Apart from the mozzies, I have no complains whatsoever. I can live with the mozzies. 

The trip ended better than expected. I was apprehensive before because I have never travelled with my aunts before (Genting Highlands when you were 5 doesn't count) especially my 2nd aunt who is somewhat unique. Also we were a pretty big group of 8 pax so trying to get everyone to agree to something might be tough. But thank God, I had all the itinerary and transport arranged so all we do everyday is to get into the car and let the driver surprise us. The best decision I ever made.

The downside? Hmm....food was rather disappointing. Apart from our daily breakfast which are cooked in our villa itself, I haven't found anything worth recommending at all. Not even Babi Guling at Ibu Oka nor Bintang beer. Also, I lost my ID even before I checked-in! Ish! 

I'm glad mum enjoyed herself - this trip could either make her or break her ie: she could stop traveling altogether and hate airplane rides or she will be more open to traveling from now on. If you didn't know already, I had to resort to booking and paying for the flight tickets first then tell her afterwards to make sure she'll go on this trip with us!


Verdict: Great holiday with the family which includes my 2 aunts (dad's only sisters) - great way to spend our first Chinese New Year without Grandma but she was in our thoughts throughout the trip. 

We miss you Grandma.  

Congratulations Lil' Sis!

*Yawn*


Anlynn has yet again scored straight A's in her AS exams. For those of you, old school like me, AS is first half of A-levels. A-levels is no longer like what it used to be - one monster exam at the end of the course. 


It is now a course with 2 final exams each of them accounting for 50% of the final score - AS and A2. 


So yes, Anlynn's AS results were announced this morning and again straight A's. She has received conditional offers from 3 universities in UK based on her forecast results and now with this actuals, she will most likely be accepted to all of them. I'm pretty sure Anlynn will not be able to attend Sam's wedding in Melbourne in October. See term in UK starts in Sept *wink*


Congratulations Lynn! Echoing what everybody else has said - we don't want you at Sam's nor Sue's wedding!!!

Welcome Year of Dragon!

First day of the year of the dragon and I have broken all traditions by not visiting my in-laws! Not on purpose.....hubby's sick. :(


Tomorrow's Bali....I hope hubby's fever will go away and he'll be fit for the trip tomorrow!!!! 

The BlogShop Sucks *2nd update*

Good news for all you vendors out there!

On of Haji vendors have managed to file a claim with Claims Tribunal and they are going to court this month (or is it next...hmmm)!!!

For all of you out there if you still haven't got any reply from the police, you can start looking at filing with Claims Tribunal. The filing fee is S$100!

Good luck and happy new year!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Hope the year of the dragon brings all the goodness to all.

Only a few more days to Bali =)

First day of work on 30th Jan is actually not a good day for me to start work but my boss didn't approve my leave extension by just another day. So I am seriously considering of coming back to the office on 28th Jan to look at some emails. This year is going to be tough for my industry and also personally, my budget is super high. Gotta do everything I can just to make sure it's gonna pass smoothly. No hiccups.

Cold sweat sial!

New TV

Oh I knew I left something out!

Hubby got a new TV for our place! He actually bought 2: Samsung LED 40" for MIL and Samsung LED 32" for us. He claims that this is his Valentine's gift to me. Uhhh.....nice try darling.

Exactly 14 days to Bali!!! Woot!

Bored

Aiyoh I'm so bored! It's 3.30pm and 3 more hours before I can leave the office. I was secretly hoping that hubby will have his departmental dinner tonight but no such luck. Only with him having to stay back for such functions can I leave on time (4.30pm) otherwise I will have to wait till he knocks off which could be anytime between 6.30pm to 8pm. He will have a dinner tomorrow though but it doesn't do anything to me - I have a telcon at 2.30pm which will jolly well drag till 4-4.30pm. SIAN!

The weather sucks too. Gloomy and raining all day. Granted it's cooling but it's not doing anything to lift up my mood especially when I'm terribly sick and tired of my job.

Am so bored and blank, I don't even know what else I can contribute here. My OPI shipment needs to arrive soon!!!

The BlogShop Singapore SUCKS - *update*

ANOTHER Long Post Beware

Since my first post about my experience with The BlogShop Singapore in September, I have received a lot of emails and comments about my readers' own experience, many asking for updates from my end and many with a lot of unanswered questions what is happening. Since I have insider information, I have decided to write an update about what happened to me after my September post and what is currently happening within The BlogShop, as accurately as I can. I gather these information from somebody I know hence I will not take any responsibility of misinformation.

My last post, I stopped at Clarence playing with words that I wasn't able to collect my ITE stocks from FEP.

What happened after that? The story continues.....

Clarence went missing for more than a week. He was totally non-contactable by phone or SMS. He stopped replying. We all know he doesn't picks up his calls but at least he was still replying SMS-es. There was still no security deposit refunds, no sales reports, no stocks to be returned, no rental refund nor were there my sales payments - since June.

On 31st October, I decided to lodge a police report. I am not able to share anymore SMS-es cz I have deleted all that after I got all my outstanding payments and stocks. Back to the report, I made the report targeting the company and Clarence for negligence, fraud and lies. I'm not sure if I can do this but I will anyway - I will share my report here.

Just noticed that when published, my report is cropped. To read the full report, click on the image. It will open up.

I don't think this is the best report but in your report, please be as concise as possible. It is not here but in the report, there is an option to indicate who you are reporting against - put The BlogShop and Clarence Chew there. If you do not have time to visit your nearest police station, do it online. I did mine online.
 
I told Clarence that a report has been made against him and the company. I got an almost instant reply from him. Wow! So he's still alive! What a surprise. From there, things just sped up. He promised to return the money - cash into my account directly in a week. After a week, partial of the money was returned but he asked for another week's extension for the other half. He kept to his word. But the stocks? Where are my stocks? In September he said it will be in Far East right? No, I got so fed up, I drove to ITE West and collected it myself. It was still sitting in the store.
 
For those of you who are thinking of lodging a report or getting legal advice, please do so quickly. The Blogshop has ceased all their operations in Singapore. City Plaza, Haji Lane and ITE outlets are now officially closed. Far East was the first to go on 24th Oct. Based on what I know from my source, The Blogshop still has a few loose ends to tie up before they call it a day. And they are already acting to tie up those ends, many are now done so it will not be long, maybe only a matter of days now before they deregister and dissolve The Blogshop. Once that is done, no reports can get them as The Blogshop is a private limited company ie the owners do not undertake any liability, debts etc of the company. Think of the blogshop as a person - a human being. If you are suing a human being, once that person dies, who do you sue? Nobody.
 
At the same time, seek legal advice. My case, because of the small amount of money and I was the only person lodging the case against them, they considered that a civil case. Case closed. No action was taken. I checked CASE - not within their jurisdiction. Claims tribunal - maybe. But seek legal advice. And if you can, all of you vendors, gather and lodge the report together. You can't, agree on the the police station where you will lodge your report with (you will need to choose the location online too) so that all your reports will end up on the same table then they will have the visibility and can see the magnitude of the problem on hand - the total sum owed in total and how many people are involved. I was fighting my own "war" then so my case was weak. I am very sure Clarence knows exactly what game he has to play - delaying your payments, bounced chqs, MIA, etc are all delay tactics. He is playing with time hoping none of us will take any action because we are all waiting then, BAM! The Blogshop disappears. Clarence goes scott free.
 
I am one of the few lucky ones who got everything back. (Actually not everything, I found items not returned to me but later on found them in Haji's store room when my friend was helping to clear out to make way for the new owners. So check your stocks too - my bad habit, not proper inventory checks - if/when you get them back.) But those out there, good luck. I hope my posts helps and can serve as a guide or give you an idea what you can do.
 
All the best!

PS: All interested to lodge a report as a group, please leave a comment here so that others might see. Give a date and location so that all who sees this post can lodge on the same day and at same location (remember you can do it online and select the same location). Otherwise, you can also email me and I will consolidate.

You can reach me at anshii@nelanz.com should you not feel comfortable leaving comments here for anything at all.

Happy New Year 2012!!

Happy New Year 2012 everybadeh! Hehehe

How did you welcome 2012? Have you made any New Year's resolutions? How drunk did you get?

Mine was a very quite affair. Stayed home all weekend without any alcohol. How boring is that? I'm interested to know if any of you can beat that. Leave a comment!

2 weeks to Chinese New Year - only 2 more weekends which means Bali is just around the corner! Yay!!! Holiday!!! Ooo can't wait can't wait. Ann Gie finally decided (again) to go to Bali and tickets booked. This time no turning back for her heh! But learn from her, indecisiveness is really a bad trait because she ended up paying twice of what we paid on the same budget airline before paying for luggage! She could have flown a 5* airline if not for the fact that they are sold out for the same price with 20kg check-in! Boo!

It's gonna be pay-back time in Bali for the lack of alcohol during New Year's eve. You just watch me *ggrrrr* But the excitement of the trip is really building up. I gotta pull myself back to earth - don't get overly excited and then ended up disappointed :(

Oh oh oh....Australia tickets are up! Gonna fly Emirates! But I hope the price stays for another mont, PLEASEEEEE??? I cannot buy the tickets now.....I need to keep my credit card debt free coz I need to pay for OPI - taking in new batch, in the process now and I'm gonna pay with my credit card. No no I'm not crazy. It's actually a good way to utilize your money PROVIDED you have all the cash to settle the bill in full at the end of the month.Ok in short, you get to maximise the use of your cash. A very long theory but proven and even thought in my Financial Planning course. Hmmm...let me put this as simple as I can:

Say your billing date is every 3rd of the month. Jan's expenditure will be billed on 3rd Feb then you have 2 weeks to pay up right? Think about this - what if you make a purchase on 4th Jan? It will still only appear on 3rd Feb right? Then you have 2 weeks to pay which means you only pay for something 1.5months later? Without interest!! What else do you want man for such good deal? Put your money into good use :)