shutterbugISm

Fridays are definitely NOT a good time to go down to town to do any decent shopping without being intimidated by the amazingly huge crowd of last minute shoppers, students on holiday and the usual Friday crowd. It's simply like being in Orchard on a Sunday! Adding to the fact that it's good weather today, the people turned up in full force to celebrate consumerism, lugging bags of gifts from boutiques and shopping centres.

Frankly, I hate shopping when crowded, I get very frustrated coz I can't seem to find my own pace with so many people jostling around. Of coz, worse when you see that the MRT trains are practically sardine cans @ 12pm onwards and loud aunties chatting over their best buys and the cheapest deal... sigh...

Well, to report 1stly, there was no ZARA sale, for now. We zipped down to Vivocity for lunch @ Sushi Tei and headed over to check out the boutique for the jacket but nope, the saleperson was not aware of any news of a sale.. anyway, it's good. There should be one after X'mas so I'm playing the waiting card.

Here, I have to mention about the terrible service @ Sushi Tei (Vivocity) today... We ordered the usual stuff including the Ebi Mentaiyako (BBQ King prawns in Mentai sauce) which will usually take 15 minutes after ordering to serve up (cooking time) and before we even have our sashimi salad served, the ebi was served!

Both of us were in unison in saying "So fast?!" and so we checked the plate and food.. and true enough, it was lukewarm approaching coolness... and mind you, it was served by the manager. We called one of the waitresses and ask her to take it back and to bring us a fresh one... it's ridiculous to be paying for lukewarm food that people rejected. At the very least, make it look like it was still fresh from the microwave but nooooo... it's plonked down just like that.

next up was my rice dish, the Salmon ikura mentaiko don .. it was okie but the waitress or the cook (i suspect most of them are Sec/Poly students on holiday employment) sloshed the miso soup over the side of the bowl and it was presented to the table just like that. Again, I was damn peeved. Decided to pay and NEVER to come back to the restaurant again.

Anyway, we took the NEL - NSL to Somerset to check out the deals on the 24" iMac @ the iShop by Club21. Right now, most of them are offering 1 or 2 mac peripherals to sweeten the deal (like the BOSE Companion 2 sound speakers from iShop and the Apple Airport Express Base from EpiCentre @ Orchard, Wheelock) but the main thing I am interested in are the RAM deals that is bundled with the purchase: 2Gb upgrade is SGD$ 99 and a 3Gb upgrade is $199. Sounds good to me.

So after ding-donging between the 2 shops (iShop & EpiCentre), I decided to go to the one @ Wheelock and get the 24" iMac 2.4Ghz.

And it was there where it's so coincidental that I met Mudgod and Ms P (remember the fun and beautiful couple I shot in Jepamala, Tioman mid this year?) out shopping also in Wheelock Place... chatted a little while and exchanged Xmas greetings. When I stepped into the Apple store, I heard my name been called and ha! it was Siang Chee (I shot his wedding in May last year!) The thing is Siang Chee also knows Mudgod (and the gin gang like Jemej) as they are uni and gaming friends. He was quite surprised that I told him I just met them not 7 minutes ago!

Anyway it was a very tiring day trying to settle the notion to purchase a potential lemon according to the many reviews & warnings about the new iMac screens failing or screen calibrations being inaccurate despite using the industry's known color calibrators like the EYE-ONE Match. But I believe that God will be merciful and that the iMac will be a good one without any problems.

As EpiCentre @ Orchard has no more stock for the 24", I have made a pre-order for the new intel iMac 2.4Ghz, 3Gb Ram with preloaded Leopard OS which is due to arrive in about 1 - 2 weeks' time so I'm just keeping my fingers, toes, eyes crossed that it will be good investment rather than a bleeding lemon...

Labels: Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug on Friday, December 21, 2007 at 20:56 | Permalink