Saturday, May 28, 2011

What a disappointment Luminox (wristwatch.com)! Part II

experienceWell, lets just chalk one up for experience, wristwatch.com wrote back in a very (blunt, not even a ‘Dear Valued Customer’) short email, that they were willing to reimburse back 10% of the retail price. Without much of a thought I wrote back saying that I would preferred to exchange for the same watch.

After having time to read their exchange policy, it was clear that I shall have to pay for the shipping, to payout another 45 US$ was just too much to swallow (as I was already in a foul mood), I had decided to write back before they had a chance to reply, that I’ve changed my mind and will accept their offer (also additionally there were some polite comments on how unprofessional it was to send out a product without ‘Quality Control’), I am still waiting for their reply.

 

At the end of the day I can probably change the faulty parts under Luminox International warranty (just more hassle on my part).

There is no need to blow this out of proportion, just another poor choice in life, like buying a Harmonica or a plastic hammer for a two year old :) so here are my thoughts.

 

  1. Was this defected watch sold ‘knowingly’ at a special discounted price from Luminox to Wristwatch.com? Because the defects were so plain to see, it is so clear that Luminox is very proud of their Luminox Light Technology (LLT), the so called ‘Always Visible’… Come on, how can you release a watch that is ‘Always ‘NOT’ Visible’. If this is true then they are both ‘knowingly’ cheating their customers, as the watch was advertised as ‘new’.
     
  2. If this was done unknowingly then how can Luminox release this watch to Wristwatch.com? And more importantly didn’t Wristwatch.com checked the watch when they received it from Luminox? Where is the QC from both parties? What kind of a process is this? Is Luminox / wristwatch.com a mama & papa amateur operation?
     
  3. Didn’t Wristwatch.com spend two minutes looking at the watch before shipping to their customers? There is such a lack in their daily operation, it is so hard to believe that anyone can run a business like this.

Like I said, this isn’t the end of the world, realistically it is far from it; just feel like being cheated and a whole lot of disappointment, that is all :)

Friday, May 27, 2011

What a disappointment Luminox (wristwatch.com)!

Failed Luminox 3151Was surfing on Amazon and came across Luminox 3151, as I was on the market for a new watch, it was the perfect timing (no pun intended). The price was not that cheaper than at ‘retail’ in the department store, but as I have not used Amazon in a very long time… it was simply the wrong decision.

The watch came today (from wristwatch.com / watchzone.com), it was faultless at first, then after a few hours I’d noticed that the second hand looks a bit strange, simply there is a short hair size strip of metal protruding from the base of the second hand, perhaps the second hand was not properly pressed (cut) at the manufacturing stage, but how on earth did this get through the QC?

More importantly, the world famous ‘self-powered illumination Luminox Light Technology (LLT)’ isn’t working on the bezel of the unit I have in my hand :( 

Wow, what a bad experience this is turning out to be… anyway, I have already used Amazon email system to send a message back to the seller, I fully understand that being an overseas purchaser, most rights have gone straight down the loo… lets see what they can do to help :)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Back to the Suanlum

Wanted to get you out of the condo., as by the late afternoon the sun was less angry than it had been all day, the heat have been totally unbearable of late. Without traffic it took us less than ten minutes to get to Suanlum, then another 45 minutes trying to find a parking space… lol. 

 

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What can I say, what a determination on your face! Of course in actual fact I think you were looking at a cat :) running across the road.

 

 

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Less than five minutes in and you are already on your second water break, I forgot how much hard work it could be cycling about 20 metres, must give you your credit though, the last time you were here you must have cycled around 2 kms.

 

 

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“Reaching the Sand, we have, and now digging we must”. Your mother (and your brother/sister :) ) was so hot and uncomfortable, yet she found the energy to lug herself off the chair to come down and fan you, to keep you cool, so that you can concentrate the ‘oh’ so important, ‘sand’. Are you saying why it wasn’t me? Well I was taking the photo. wasn’t I! lol.

 

 

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I like this one :)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Roomswithgreatviews.com

RWGVI have been keeping a smallish Flickr library, originally all of the photos came from the iPhone, ‘Shoot – Edit – Sent’, simple and fun. Later Flickr became a great place for me to see other’s work, talking about a great mix of tastes, techniques and interests, a fantastic place to get lost in.

Anyway, ‘sherry.andbill’ commented on one of the photo in my flickr stream (of a view from the hotel on our Chiang Rai trip), that I should consider sending it to ‘roomswithgreatviews.com’. Of course I did, soon after the submission (simple & straightforward) there was an email confirming the submission and the date that the photo will be published on the site (very professional in deed).
 
Please, I am not claiming it to be on the same pedestal as the ‘Nobel’ prize, but to tell you the truth, I was ‘way’ chuffed seeing my photo on another site :) (here is the link to my photo).

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Looking in the North-Easterly Direction

 

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A very cliché of a shot (Sathorn / Narathiwas-Rajanagarindra crossroads), but just wanted to keep it as a record of how it is now, it would be interesting to look back when I am about eighty :) assuming we get pass 21.12.12.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Holy Noodle Schanoodle Batman

DSC05154-003Just in case anyone fancies a Japanese style noodles (Ramen) in Bangkok, there is no better place one can be than ‘Ramen Champions’ on Thonglor 10 or Ekamai 5 (depends on the direction you are coming from), the briefest overview is quite simple, 6 Ramen champions from Japan have set up shops right here in Bangkok, a great marketing ploy really (Mr. Tan of Oishi fame). Just in case you need more information, please click this link, thonglor-ekamai.com/ramen_review.html, dedicated to all things interesting and fun around the Thonglor-Ekamai area. 
  

 




Due to my x-men like ability to find anything edible absolutely delicious, so I am literally the last person on earth you should turn to for critiques on food, so the ramen I had was quite (unsurprisingly) delicious :)

DSC05165-004I also liked the design of the place, six, closely knitted together smallish buildings all within a stone throw of each other really reflect the stereotype of the cramp Japanese urban planning, not sure if it was on purpose or just happened through the necessity to keep the cost down. The common area although small, was designed well enough to keep the whole place interesting, oh, the toilets could have been a lot better :)

The best thing of all, we managed to find a menu that Matt would eat… that night turned out to be a good one :)

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Just heard a pin drop :)

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Your mother and I love this photo, it is so nice to see you sit still for a change :) this is how we wake you up after your afternoon nap, we’ve pretty much tried everything, and lifting you straight from your bed and planting you down on the sofa have been the most agreeable with you so far :)

Just another sign of you growing up, you are now sleeping later and later each afternoon, today with all the activities, you managed to nod off around five, and soon you’ll be off to college :)

Friday, May 20, 2011

My Little ‘Thor’ :)

IMG_2432I am not sure where you got the idea from, but since we've got you the toy tool set, you have been inseparable from your little orange hammer, as it turned out it was another bad, bad, bad decision on my part. In comparison to the 'hammer' the harmonica' that almost drove me over the cliff is like a full French kiss from an angle.

Now you are probably wondering, what you could have done to make this tiny, harmless, plastic hammer to become your father's worst purchase of 2011 (so far) or to make it worst than the dreaded harmonica (that is now hidden away, I am trying to find the time to take it back to the ‘Crack of Doom’ in Mordor).

It all came down to this one thing, no matter how small this hammer is, it is still pretty solid and with a small surface area, meaning more pressure (force per unit area) can be created, and of course in the real world, this simply means more 'PAIN'!

With your arm fully cranked, reaching high above your head each finger tightly grasping the hammer's handle, your body arched backward like a crescent moon even tip toeing to reach the maximum height, your whole torso shook from the strain, like a great dam of potential energy that is just about to burst... and of course it does burst; all of your might, your determination, your strength was transferred to the tiny orange hammer, then very swiftly to my head :) (did I tell you I was as sleep).

This new trend of waking me up by putting an orange hammer to my head is not only annoying but quite painful, it felt like such a wonderful idea in getting you this tool set... :)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

‘Make up’ Holiday :)

A month after our amazing 'Hospital Holiday' in Pattaya, we have decided to give it another go but this time to Huahin, decided to also take a couple of days off, together with the Labour and Coronation Day, this meant an extra, extra long weekend.

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DSC04979 1 cWow, what a complete contrast to Pattaya, everything went as it should, the hotel and the room was wonderful, although the checking in experience left Gio totally fuming, we had to wait way beyond fifteen hundred before we were given the keys, on top of that we waited forever for our bags and ended up having to go down and pick up some of the bags ourselves, only to find our bag sitting by the concierge, to be honest I think we were so frustrated because we were missing 'pool' time for Matt :)





Like I said earlier, everything ran like one of the The A Team’s plan, perfection. Ended up spending most of Matt's waking hours (of the 3 days and 2 nights) in the water, whether in the pool or in the sea, although the sea came second to the sand, I never knew so much joy could be had from digging holes in sand and filling it up again... :) Apart from that we managed to sneaked in a short trip to a temple and a couple more other places.
 

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This time round, we had an additional team member, Matt's Auntie, Tip, so Matt was in extra high spirit all through the trip. May be it got all too much for him on the final day where Matt and I went swimming before breakfast, in fact we sneaked in even before the pool opened, so by the late morning / early afternoon he was in such a foul mood (probably from the lack of sleep), and of course it all ended in tears (for him). The tears were gone as fast as it came because he felt as sleep as soon as he had stopped crying, then once again when awake it was like hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete, resetting a three year old is actually quite simple :)


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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Facebook and I: a changing relationship.

FB1It certainly was not love at first sight, I proudly would classify yours truly as a nerd/geek, so I was already in the Facebook (FB) universe around July 19, 2007 at 22:34 (according to this FB app), way before anyone I knew even knew of FB. I took a good look around, tweaked all the settings until I was bored, posted my (plain) profile pic. and promptly left (at that time High5 was all the rage here in Thailand, especially at work, and I wasn't particularly a big fan there either).

Becoming a born again FB is a bit of a cliché, like so many it was through a very old friend whom I have not seen (nor contacted) for over twenty years (couldn't thank her enough, we attended the same prep school, so, so, so many years ago), she had suggested that I join Facebook, (now, how on earth did we got in touch in the first place is still foggy in my mind, perhaps it was through one of those 'Friends reunited' site).

Since that born again moment, it was scary how quickly 'my' FB bubble got populated, certainly it was full of ooohhhsss and aarrrrrrssss, '%$#^ look at him/her' (I am sure they were mouthing the same words, may be even at the same time). Certainly with the user group of my age, I can only assume that the 'holy crap' moment often comes when a long lost friend popped up as a friend request, and definitely I was totally hook line and sinker (another cliché?), probably more than most.

The biggest piece of the 'friends' pie chart is easily my friends from secondary school (have not see them for over twenty years), so like I said earlier, as each one came up it was full of 'Oprah' moment, at Wellington (school's name) it was kind a my thing to always be taking pictures, especially in the house (this was a boarding school, Darks was my house, think of Harry Potter, replace the broom stick with real mop, Quidditch with Rugby, The one who must not be named with our Matron (only kidding... she was lovely) and you are half way there).

Each night during my honeymoon with FB, I was up way beyond what a professional 'employee' should, and what was I doing with / for my beloved FB? Sifting through each photo, choosing the presentable ones, scanning it, uploading it to FB, label it carefully, tagging the start all over again for the next batch. There was nothing I wouldn't do, I was shamelessly addicted to the comments... give me more, hoping my friends would find as much joy as I have all these years... and they did.

At the same time, FB was a part of me as my lungs were, each step took outside of the house seemed all worthwhile to be shot to FB, it was done really without thought, like a spoilt brat, it was all about me... then suddently I got bored... not enlightenment, just bored of putting up irrelevant rubbish. This gave me time to consume rather than spewing crap into the cesspit, it was quite a change.

Don't get me wrong, I am still in love with FB, but more like a loving couple who had just celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary, I am now wise enough to have wholeheartedly chosen to listen to her rather than talk back, and FB have grown to be very mature, secure and have branch out to other interests such as vdos and locations.

To me FB is still the only place where I can keep track (and contact) of all my friends, it may try to be a new platform of the modern lifestyle, it may be the number one content creator, it my replace Flickr, if done right it could be the center of all knowledge (lol) and cure cancer, well it could even win the Nobel Prize, %^$$ it had already helped Egypt to become free (but for how long). But for me I think I have found the best side of FB, it's the front page news of my social life... haa haa haa, now where is that Diaspora.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Hospital Holiday :)

DSC04705-002We decided to get away before the Songkran holiday, the last time we were in Pattaya we promised ourselves for our next return trip here, we would try to stay at Centara Grand, simply because of the huge water park, and family orientated hotel.

 
 
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DSC04707-004For this trip (07-09.04.11) we have decided to take our house keeper (Pui) with us, Matt is getting to be a handful so an extra pair of hands means we can enjoy this short break just a little bit more :) The plan was simple, drive down on the Thursday and return on the Saturday, spend as much time as we could in the pool, eat some seafood and then come home... what could be simpler :)






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Life is never that simple, it all started so perfectly, Pui was here as early as usual, she helped to pack and in no time we were all in the car heading towards the deep blue sea. We arrived at the hotel around noon-ish, despite what the foursquare tipsters had posted, the checking in experience was faultless.

Usually Matt would have had a long nap in the car, but not this time, so after checking in and a quick lunch it was clear that he was tired, so we decided to go back to the hotel for a quick rest, he pretty much felt asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow, and here is where the fun begins (not).

The plan was as soon as he had woken up we were going to take him down to one of the gazillion pools downstairs. As soon as he had stirred Gio gave out a quiet, and much feared few words, 'I think he has a temperature', Gio is never, never wrong... :)

He woke up with a temperature and diarrhea, things suddenly looked rather gloomy, I was more concern with the temperature and there was no doubt that one was connected to the other. It was terrible seeing him playing and happy then suddenly he was curling over on the floor like a shrimp with both hands in a fist pushing on his stomach... like many parents, we felt awful and helpless...


DSC04715-006Luckily the hospital was only a few minutes drive away, everyone was nice enough, but at home we were used to one of those thermometer that you stick in the ear (it takes about a sec to give the result), but here I had to hold a thermometer under Matt's arm for what felt like an eternity, Matt was having none of it and screamed like a busted exhaust the whole entire time.



 

 


          
DSC04760-012By the time it was over we came out with a bunch of medicine, including powdered antibiotic that could be mixed with milk, you should have seen my face, I was over the flipping moon, no more holding Matt down and physically force the med down him.

Oh, how life could be so cruel, it all sounds too perfect just like a Ponzi Scheme, it was just too blooming good to be true. After mixing in the powered antibiotic (orange flavoured) and milk, I had a quick sip knowing how particular Matt could be... Gio read my face like a front page news, there was no way in ^%$$ he was going to take that, I can categorically say, it was worst than dog's poo biscuit.

So the first day was over, Matt was snoring away at around ten, so we had some time to relax. We managed to give him the med for his temperature, all the fingers were crossed for him to feel better in the morning. Well, the night was terrible, Matt woke up three times needing the loo, holding him steady on top of the loo and seeing his face in pain was not what I had expected for this short break.
   

DSC04716-007The next morning looked a bit better, he was still suffering from the stomach cramp but his temperature was down (yippp ppppeeee), so we took a gamble and asked him if he wanted a swim, it was a pointless question really, the answer would always be 'yes'.

Within a blink of an eye we were both playing in the pool, his stomach suddenly got better, hygiene was on the top of my mind with the swimming nappy and constantly being vigilant we ended up having a great time (including a quick dip in the sea). 


  
 
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After the pool we took Matt to the playpen, it was obvious that his stomach was still giving him some trouble, during his afternoon nap I was sent by my CEO (Gio) to the hospital, taking with me an extremely dirty nappy just to get it tested :) After around thirty minutes the preliminary results gave the Doc. no concern, so on this second visit I was given Matt’s usual antibiotic, oh what joy.

On the check out day, we woke up early trying to get back all the lost time… well, we tried our best ;) Got in another swimming session before heading home :)
 
 
 
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