Archive for Shopping

Secret Santa – What to Buy?

1 December 2013 Shopping No comments

As part of the division’s festive dinner and gathering event, we were taken to Halia Restaurant within the Singapore Botanic Gardens complex – as part of this, we had a Secret Santa festive challenge, which required us to pick a name out of the hat, and purchase an item of no more than S$30 for the person we had selected.

I wanted to get the person (a lady) I selected something different, most people would opt for a Body Shop or Scented candles type of gift, so I decided to with a ‘puzzle’ idea. Also, it is a bit of a gamble, as I don’t know the likes or dislikes, but that’s part of the fun. I found a place in Velocity Shopping Mall in Novena, my nearest shopping mall, and it was called ‘Perfect Fit‘ and the selection was pretty interesting – although the price varied widely, so I tried to keep the cost close to the S$20-25 range. I got one that was priced around S$27 and it was one of a black and white image of NY City, so as Amex had it’s HQ building there, I thought it was related to work (just about).

Anyway, I think she liked it, but at the very least, will provide some fun to put it together… Okay perfects for an hour or two 🙂

Opticians – Eye Test and New Glasses

16 October 2013 Shopping No comments

Well haven’t suffered a bit of damage on my glasses during a game of Futsal in May, I decided it was time to buy a new pair of glasses.

So I decided to source around for a good opticians, I went to a couple of places, but didn’t see a pair of glasses that I liked, so I finally ended back at Novena Velocity Mall, and didn’t even realise there was one right on my door step. It was called Northern Opticians, and then seemed pretty okay. I know there was a Japanese one that just opened up in Plaza Singpura – called OwnDays, and I also found one on Facebook called GlistVision in The Cathy, Dhoby Ghaut.

I know Singapore is a great health hub – in the medicare arena that is – so I thought eye care would no different. I wasn’t wrong, the eye test was done pretty well, and the good news is that there wasn’t much change to my current prescription. The only concern was my right eye was slightly weaker, and I sense this could have caused by the eye infection I had previously, but apparently they couldn’t say for sure it was linked. I then looked at the array of glasses on offer, and they had quite a nice display – however, the frames and lens were quite expensive, slightly more so than the UK I think. The Optician confirmed the same – that the frames are expensive, although the lens are about the same. Hey-ho, if needs must!

I purchase a nice pair of Guess glasses – half-frames, they were quite light, and they certainly felt very comfortable. Price-wise, it was S$380 all in all – about £190 – that is not too bad, although if I went for some of the other frames, it would have been more expensive indeed.

Anyway, at least I have purchased one. I know there were probably other glasses or Opticians that were probably cheaper, but that will do for a year or so 🙂

Krispy Kreme Singapore – First Store Opening

14 October 2013 Food, Shopping No comments

I always am inclined to a delightful Krispy Kreme…especially the original Sugar Glazed coating one – they are truly … well just delicious 🙂

So FINALLY Krispy Kreme have opened up in Singapore – with their first store opening at Tangs.

The Grand opening of the store was marked with the first 100 customers receiving freebies…it started with the first one received 12 months worth of Doughnuts (a dozen a week), the second 6 months, the third 3 months…and the next batch until 100 receiving a free dozen. WOW, if only I could have made it, but I was slightly hungover from the night before 🙂 Haha!

Anyway, I turned up around 1.30pm, the queue wasn’t too bad, and after about 10 minutes, I was inside and had made my purchase. I purchased the double dozen – which was a dozen of the originals and a dozen of the assorted doughnuts.

The doughnuts weren’t cheap – they were S$2.60 each or S$23.40 for a dozen for the original glaze doughnut.

Krispy Kreme Singapore – Orchard
Tangs Orchard Basement 1
310 Orchard Road
Singapore 238864
URL: http://krispykreme.sg

New Iron but no New New Iron Board

6 October 2013 Shopping No comments

The joys of my Singapore life. I decided to buy a new iron, as the one I previously had wasn’t up to the job…eg of trying to iron my shirts properly. It seemed to be too light, so really wasn’t pressing the shirts properly. Also, I suffered from a burnt ironing board cover, which meant the plate had some of the remnants, which occasionally came off on a shirt – grrr!!!

So I invested in a brand new Electrolux one, it cost around S$195, and it looked and felt a lot better. I also brought a new iron board cover, hopefully one that will not ‘melt’ – which is not much to ask for for an iron board cover :). Haha!

I know I should get around to buy a new iron board itself at some point, but it will do for the moment.

Now the biggest question of all is whether I should bite the bullet and get a maid to come every couple of weeks to do the cleaning and ironing. Almost tempted :). Lets see how I feel in a few more months, maybe I should just sort it out for the new year… Would save me a few hours, and my place will simply look and feel a lot cleaner…

New Standard Chartered Credit Card Application

20 June 2013 Shopping No comments

Well if you are given the option to get a free S$80 (£40) cashback rebate just by applying for and activating a new credit card – no one would say no, right?

So I said ‘yes please’ – ha!  I previously had applied for a Manhatten Credit Card (Mastercard) from Standard Chartered Singapore – due to the 5% cash rebate, and I decided to apply for another one – this time a Visa Platinum card (it’s because Amex doesn’t have a Partnership with Standard Chartered Singapore – unfortunately).

I activate the card, and received another S$80 rebate – that’s $160 now – for doing nothing.  Nice!  Apparently, there is a loop-hole in that whilst the small print says you only can get a maximum of $160 cashback, you can actually keep getting more.  So I might apply for another card and see if this loophole actually exists or not 🙂

SCB Visa Platinum Secure Token Card

SCB Visa Platinum Secure Token Card

Anyway, after receiving the card, I went online to activate the card, and was offered to apply for a ‘token’ credit card – basically, you may have remembered that Visa embedded their 3D-Secure technology (a dynamic security token) within the credit card itself – a two-in-one card so-to-speak.  It’s amazing that the credit card has turned into a mini-computer in your wallet!  So I applied for this and just received it.

Have a look at the new looking technically-advance card here – http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/tokencard/

Cheap(er) Guinness from Cold Storage

14 June 2013 Shopping No comments

During a recent grocery shop at the nearby Cold Storage supermarket, I decided to check-out the alcohol aisle – and noticed that there was one column of Guinness draught stout (normally it is the Guinness Foreign Export – which is much more bitter and a stronger taste – and personally so unlike the original Dublin variety).  Anyway, they had just 3 cans left, so I decided to buy them all.

Guinness Special Offer - Yay

Guinness Special Offer – Yay

I went to the till, paid and started to check my receipt and I noticed, to my surprise, that there was a promotion of Guinness – resulting in a small saving.  It was a buy 3 for S$12 (£6) offer, so equating S$4 (£2) for each can of Guinness, instead of S$5.35 (£2.70).  I did say only a small saving – lol!

And yes I know it is still expensive, compared with the local UK supermarkets – where you can get special offers equating to £1 per can – grrrr…. I miss those offers – haha!

Standard Chartered – S$80 Cashback

8 May 2013 Shopping No comments

Sad to say it, but I took a plunge to the dark side and successfully applied for a new Credit Card with Standard Chartered.  It was called the MasterCard World Manhatten card – so an elite card – with an offer of S$80 cashback upon activation.  It also provides 5% cashback for every charge – up to S$800 per year – nice!

I hope I can spend a bit on the card to get this level of cashback.

Someone also told me that if apply for another Standard Chartered credit card, you can get another S$80 cashback, so I might give this a go.  I will probably spend a few txns on the card, and cancel it upon annual renewal 🙂  Hopefully, that is!

Wine Tasting – Hubert Lignier Wines

22 April 2013 Entertainment, Exhibition, Shopping No comments

I was invited to join a couple of friends for a wine tasting event at Crystal Wines @ River Valley Road.  The winery is called Hubert Lignier – and when we arrived we were directed to the table to “deliver” the wine.

We were given a wine glass, and a stamp-card for the 7 samples – apparently, we were only meant to sample each wine bottle once until the 7 stamps were completed.  This particular wine tasting didn’t provide a host to explain the differences, just a chap sitting behind the table that pours the wine, and briefly explains some of the background of the wine bottles – but it was a bit ‘limited’ in the terms of a more detailed run-down.

We ended up chatting with each other for a while, and we basically continued drinking, nibbling at the cheese until the wine tasting session ended.  They didn’t seem to mind, I guess for them if the wine is open, they would have to finish to themselves, so might as well give it to potential customers 🙂

We did take a walk around the wine merchants/shop – and I did notice a nice display of Barolo Wines as well as Montupulcino – my favourite two Italian wines – but alas all wine in Singapore is very expensive.  So I opted for one of the ‘weekly specials’ – the Windy Park Sangiovese – another nice red grape.  I hope it tastes as good as it looks 🙂

I do hope that they do a Barolo wine tasting soon – haha!

Crystal Wines
491 River Valley Road
#01-02/03 Valley Point
Singapore 248371
Tel:      +(65) 6737 3540
Email:  retail@crystalwines.com
URL:    http://www.crystalwines.com

Imagine Prepaid Card and Amex SIA KrisFlyer Credit Card

12 April 2013 New Chapter, Shopping No comments

I managed to receive two more credits cards now – the EZ-Link Imagine American Express Prepaid Card – and the American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Credit Card.

I will start to use the Imagine one (which combines a prepaid Amex purse and EZ-Link purse on the card) once my current EZ-Link card has depleted to zero. My KrisFlyer one will be used to help me start to increase my KrisFlyer status and mileage – I just hope I get to the next grouping of the Frequent Flyer Programme. Then again, I tend not to go with SIA or SilkAir (SIA’s low-cost arm) as they are usually very expensive for short-haul trips. Good to have the card anyway, as you get 5k free bonus miles on the first purchase 🙂

Air Conditioning Servicing

25 March 2013 Apartment, New Chapter, Shopping No comments

Well one of the stipulations of my condo contract, like the vast majority of rentals here in Singapore, is that you have to perform quarterly servicing of the Air Conditioning unit.

The previous tenant provided me their invoices from a company – and this was for $70 each time.  I have two units in my apartment, so that worked out to be $35 for each unit.  I knew this was quite expensive, having asked around.  I was told that I should be able to get it between $15-$20 if I shop wisely.  I also knew that an annual service contract would be cheaper.

Anyway, I wanted a bit of consistency in the paperwork, so first contacted the ‘Atlantic Engineering Air-Conditioning’ company, who previously serviced the units for the previous tenant.  They told me that an annual service would be $200 – which equates to $50 a visit, or $25 a unit.  I still wanted it slightly cheaper, so told them about a comporative price where it was quoted as being $17 a unit for an annual contract.  They couldn’t match this, but rather than the inconvenience of phoning around to get a cheaper quote, I accepted their slightly discounted offer of $180 – or $45 a visit, or $22.50 a unit.  That will do 🙂  I am sure I could have found one slightly cheaper, but alas I’ll be happy with this – a few bucks spare to spend on the Guinness!!.

The first visit was scheduled for 21st March, and they came and serviced the units very efficiently.  In 20-30 minutes it was all done.  Sorted for another quarter and sorted for the next year at least!

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