JM Suntec outing
The jellyfish is back! Posting about the short Sunday outing with JM!
Jeff responding to location, Suntec City Tower 3, Unit number 03-27,
case of collecting Mooncakes.
Yep, so that sort of summarizes the sole purpose of going to a faraway
place. Apparently JM has a groupon offer of buying 8 Bakerzin snow skin
mooncakes with hints of alcohol for $52 (UP $70+?). A rather good deal! The
downside is that he has to collect it personally if he doesn’t want to be
charged for delivery fees. So yep, accompanied him to find the place since I
have not really seen the awesomeness of online deals before.
Met up at 1.30pm and walked to
Suntec. The shops along the Citylink walkway didn’t really change, but the
Suntec corridor is a totally different story. Perhaps they are upgrading or
building an extra facility, the usual main entrance is being blocked and
visitors have to walk a long way with twists and turns to enter the basement. A
very long walk! Several shops have also closed due to the construction.
Carrefour 2nd level is being vacated, didn’t visit the 1st
level though! Apparently there’s an event for Christians on the 3rd
level, and thus there were very long queues outside the venue. We took a bit of
time to find Groupon, but eventually found it, with a small crowd in the store.
Since the mooncakes need to be transported ASAP to prevent them from being
thawed, we decided to leave the collection to the last thing.
We went to Aston’s specialties for lunch since JM’s Kenny Rogers was
down and I couldn’t find any Swensen outlets for ice-cream. Surprisingly there
isn’t any queue when we got there, compared to the ridiculously long queue we
saw on the way to Tower 3. Whatever, that’s a good thing right? Got a corner
seat, behind one with a family of 2 kids. After giving our food orders (I
ordered lemon lime chicken with baked potato and coleslaw), we rest for a
while, until the small boy started to disturb me with his toy bicycle figurine.
He made his bicycle go forward and backward the smooth surfaces, up and
down the sofa cushion, and let his bicycle fly down in the air… If he’s going
to be a cyclist, I’m not going to be a paramedic. I hate doing spinal
management! =X
Suddenly reminded of Ma’am Herda’s views about small children: “Aiya
they still young mah, they don’t know the seriousness and consequences of the
reckless behaviors and injuries, unlike us when we have seen so many trauma
injuries and accidents.”
That’s true! Small kid luh, shall give him a chance and let him play
peacefully. So I practically ignored him, until his bicycle knocked onto my
head. I looked at him, and commented: “if you’re going to be a cyclist, I’m
NEVER going to be a paramedic.” Hopefully the parents understand and ask him to
behave in public. Don’t play while you’re eating, basic manners. =P
The next thing we knew, we were staring at the magnetic effect of the
bill holder and timing how long it takes for the 2 magnets to attract. So much
for not playing. =P
Lunch’s great! The lemon sauce concentration is fantastic and goes well
with the grilled chicken! The baked potato and coleslaw are nice as usual. J Took a bit of JM’s chicken cutlet,
mashed potato and macaroni with cheese. The cutlet is crispy and juicy, it’s
very nice! The macaroni with cheese is all right, a typical cold dish. The
mashed potato is soft (duh)! This is just like the texture of the cottage pie
at the Gelato House, except without the ham and mushrooms. Very nice! Some
mashed potatoes are really chunky, I have no idea why. =/
JM seemed interested in the Toto e-betting system at a different
settings, and is even more interested in the mathematics behind it! So, we
started calculating about the probability of winning of different systems, and
approximately how many tickets are needed to win with many assumptions.
<Every number drawn is independent of another number, the chance of
each number being drawn is the same, the winnings are based on the most basic
prize money, there is an unlimited number of Group 5 and 6 prizes, other many
assumptions which I have forgotten to put here.>
Anyway we took quite a long time to calculate, to the extent that we
ordered extra garlic bread and pasta side dish to kill time. The winning
percentage seems to be only 0.3% win for every 6-number ticket. Very pathetic..
I wonder why do people waste their money on these things, you will lose your
bettings at a 99.7% rate!
JM also mentioned another system which you are allowed to buy numbers
from only 1 to 28, however the winning numbers can still come out from 1 to 45.
The ticket should be cheaper I guess? That is worse, it’s only 0.09?% of
winning! I wonder who will buy tickets from this system, they are better off
buying sweets from a Mama shop at 5 cents per piece. =P
I think we got 2 glasses of free plain water. Yea Aston does charge for
its plain water. After Aston’s, we decided to collect the mooncakes, and oh,
along with his Yoghurt maker. Groupon is seriously crowded, and the shop
features a various number of products / vouchers which the prices are seriously
slashed so as to attract more customers to get the deal. JM got a queue number
for his items, which is about 30+ customers away. During this time, we looked
at other merchandise and vouchers.
Groupon puts the retail price, the price it offers, and also the
benefits of purchasing the item. Although it is really good to show the
benefits, the type of benefits isn’t really balanced between items. Examples
~ A random kitchen product ~ (Approx 40+% discount)
Why is it good? Durable, warranty guaranteed, perhaps heat
resistant,perhaps non-stick? 4 benefit
points.
~8 x large gulp (50% discount)~
Why is it good? Lots of flavors, it’s a large cup, 7-11 can be found
islandwide, 7-11 is 24/7, cheaper compared to outside prices, 1 more random
reason which I have forgotten.
One does not simply make more benefit reasons just because it has a
larger percentage discount. =/ Other than that, the other products look rather
nice and have really good prices. I heard from JM that some products can only
be bought once per customer. Perhaps the distributors do not want to offend
their retailers by selling too many to Groupon and thus customers can buy at
really cheap prices via Groupon and ignore the original retailers.
The waiting time isn’t very long though, after about a short 15 to 20
minutes, it’s JM’s turn already. =D There’s a mooncake sampler table at the
front of the shop, we helped ourselves to quite a number of pieces. Those are
the ones which JM bought at $52. They are… really normal. I don’t seem to feel
anything special about them. If you ask me, my favourite flavor would be the
pandan snowskin mooncake, perhaps with lotus and a salted yolk inside. =)
The freezing time bomb shows 60:00 mins after collection. Before we left
Suntec, there’s a rather classy chocolate shop which JM wanted to take a look.
Well, the chocolates inside looked really pricey and the packaging is really
awesome. However, the prices seem to be in double digits, making it unsuitable
for just-to-munch snacks. On the way to the Circle line MRT station, we went to
the mall with the very high ‘Time-travel’ ceiling and looked into Candy Empire.
Ah, the vast number of interesting candies and snacks! From your everyday
M&M chocolates, to bite sized Cadbury chocolates, to your unique seashells
and even mini alcohol bottles! The alcoholic-chocolates cost about $27 for 12?
bite-sized pieces. Really expensive, but JM recommend it if you would want a
classy gift with really good quality stuff. I don’t think that one is suitable
for kids!
Somehow Candy Empire sells a lot of oversized things, which are perfect
for parties and not easily found in other super/hypermarkets. One very large
packet of M&M peanut flavor cost about $7, and there’s other special
flavors like mint, grape. Is there a rose or raisin flavor? All your bite-sized
chocolates and biscuits are just awesome! I do not really look at candy shops,
but when I do, it means I may want to buy a gift over there! =D
JM bought some cherry/rose flavoured chocolate bar. Tasted all right, a
bit too sweet though. Passed by many advertisements that promoted ‘Josiah
Kids’. No idea what is the shop selling, but I had the urge to take a pic and
post it on Josiah’s wall, until I saw JM giving a face-palm pose all the way to
the MRT station.
Gangnam Style seems to be a REALLY addictive song, sing we heard this
song from different phones, TV advertisements and even shopping malls are
playing the song. In total, we must have heard that song for at least 3 or 4
times. Strongly reminded that on a particular Thursday morning in STN, one fire
appliance was checking the sound system by playing that song. This is what I
called ‘Checking Station Style!’ =D
Oh I saw LTA, correction, CPT Jerome at the MRT station! He looks well,
along with his gf(?) Rachel.
Jeff: Sir!
CPT: Eh, Jeff ah? How are you?
Jeff: Ok la sir, how come you left STN without any word? Never say
goodbye sia!
CPT: Scared you all will miss me! =P
Lol anyhow sia! But yea, I must admit he is a very good RC when he was
still in Yishun. If he conducts RT, I will go for him. A pity he got
transferred after his promotion. Ah oh well. He said I look ok when not wearing
station uniform. Aiya ok la, normal, Zul would describe it as a shady attire,
without the jacket. Currently R2 has a new RC, which I don’t even know whether
that is a regular or a NSF. O_O
Nothing really interesting on the way back, just listened to some music
with JM while he admires his Yoghurt maker and me reading the instruction
booklet. One sentence caught my eye though, which looks like a turn-off when
using the product.
“If you develop diahorrea after taking the yoghurt, ferment using a
different duration as you are not used to it.” Something like that. This means
that if your fermentation time is wrong or a few times, you can get the jackpot
medical prize of having diahorrea for weeks!
“Since I can’t find your vein, I would have to keep poking until I find
it.” A very scary thought.
With that, concludes a Sunday outing filled with interesting sights to
see. J
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