k r i s a n d r o

Singtel has won the bid over Starhub to broadcast the Barclays Premier League (BPL) for 3 seasons beginning 2010 and boy am I pissed.

Pissed because the reason I pay $52.73 monthly for my Starhub CableTV is for the $25 component that says “Sports Group”. And it may jolly well be named as “BPL Group”, because the only thing I really watch on Starhub CableTV is BPL football.

So if you take away the only reason I am paying FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS and SEVENTY-THREE CENTS every month, please don’t expect me to pay for Starhub CableTV come October 2010.

It’s easy to blame Singtel for this situation as they have taken the whole pie out of the plate leaving nothing to eat for the diners at Starhub’s table. Sentiments I garnered from Twitter proved that most are pissed with Singtel or/and Starhub and only a couple celebrating (Presumably the rare ones that are actually subscribed to Singtel’s mio TV).

I initially felt the same anger towards Starhub for not bidding hard enough to retain the rights and Singtel for greedily taking the pie which they never ever had in the first place. But then again, it’s all business. Instead of the possibility of sharing the pie, it was all or nothing.

I’m gonna boycott both cable tv providers next year once BPL screening makes the switch. No way I am paying to switch providers every 3 years just to watch football.

Image from Facebook Group

Don’t know how much difference we will make, but do join the Facebook Group here.

[Advertorial]

Singtel is officially selling the INQ Mini 3G as of today and I had the privilege to attend their blogger event on Monday and brought home a unit to try it out!

INQ Mini 3G box

accessories...

T9 keypad layout

2 MP Camera

INQ Mini Switcher button that allows ease of jumping to other apps

INQ cards designed by artists all around the world

Features/instructions on the back of the cards

Size comparison of INQ Mini 3G and iPhone

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time with the phone to give and in depth review but here are the pros & cons.

Pros:

• Phone designed with social applications integrated into it’s core like Facebook, Twitter, WLM etc..
• Light
• Applications can be downloaded/updated easily
• Aesthetically pleasing design with many colours to choose from
• Buttons are well define and relatively easy to press
• Very, very, very affordable price

Cons:

• Felt fragile
• No 3.5mm headphone jack (earphones are connected via usb)
• Felt a little sluggish at times

If you are looking for a phone to beat the Blackberry, iPhone, Android and whatever top-of-the-line phones you can think of; the INQ Mini 3G is not it. But INQ and Singtel has priced this phone at $0.

Yes. ZERO DOLLARS, if you sign up the 3G Flexi Lite AMPed plan or the iOne Plus Youth plan.

The phone is built for social media crazed individual and the price point makes it pretty irresistible if you don’t have much cash to spare.

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Singtel is holding a fun filled launch event for INQ Mini 3G between 19th – 21st September at Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City.

Do come down to try out the INQ Mini 3G and catch celebrity appearances between 2-3pm. There is also daily lucky draws where you can win the phone itself amd Takashimaya shopping vouchers.

Now I leave you with the best information of this post.

I will be down at the even tomorrow (Sunday, 20th Sep) between 4-6pm. Take part in the photo challenge by taking a picture with me or the other bloggers using the INQ Mini 3G and you could win F1 Walkabout tickets worth $256/pair!

Ok fine. Taking photos with me is not THAT exciting. Holly Jean will be there with me as well.

Check the facebook page for the event here and I’ll see you guys tomorrow!

Don’t be shy! Come up and say hi!

I hope you guys have read about the mission I intended to carry out on a restaurant in Holland Village in support of “Are You Being Served?“, a website that gives the “low-down” on the service standards in Singapore.

I only took this pic because I was too busy eating and worrying about being exposed. :p

And the restaurant being put up to the test is none other than Fosters.

What can a mission be without the visit of Murphy, and we saw a real situation of a table of customers doing exactly what we had planned for. These customers requested to change their tables in the middle of their meal and the waitresses acceded and attended to their request.

With our plan becoming a cliché for the very evening, we contemplated between KKNN ‘accidently’ stabbing my hand with the steak knife or me giving her a wet shirt moment with my glass of coke. Luckily, the mission unveiled itself when KKNN’s steak came almost well-done when we actually asked for medium.

The waitresses were quick to come to our table when called for and was very apologetic about our steak even though she wasn’t responsible for not leaving some ‘moo~~’ in the meat. They took the steak back to the kitchen to re-fire a new one but not before asking if my steak was cooked to my request. One little complaint is that the chef didn’t bother to reheat the sides despite replacing the steak and left KKNN eating cold greens and potatoes.

Although the food was not really up to expectations, we were very pleased with the service levels of the waitresses at Fosters. They were all smiles throughout the night and were very attentive without being the intrusive kind who would stare down every morsel of food that I put into my mouth.

Hurray for great service!

A colleague of KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) forwarded her an email with the image above informing her of Rasa Sentosa Resort’s half price promotion and she immediately pounced on the offer and asked me to do the necessary bookings. Few women can resist things sold at half price. Not that I am complaining as she offered to pay for the stay.

It’s my 1st time staying at Rasa Sentosa Resort and KKNN’s 2nd and we chose the Panoramic Room which was priced at $227.50 after 50% discount.

The view is quite lovely from the balcony I must say and the window that opens to the tub is quite cool but that is probably just a couple of the good things I have to say about Rasa Sentosa Resort.

I entered the room and just did a rough inspection just to make sure that everything is in order and part of that routine is to check under the bed for dead bodies. And though I didn’t find any, there was an empty bottle of the hotel’s complimentary water bottle left under the bed.

Not like the water bottle is chucked deep under the bed but it was near the edge and the attendant who cleaned the room prior to our check-in completely missed it.

And then a question comes up. Which 4-5 star hotel doesn’t have LCD TVs these days? I brought my HP Mini laptop along hoping to plug it in to an LCD TV to spend some of our time watching movies but I end up facing a stone age CRT TV with the wrong connectivity cables.

Hoping to better our stay at Rasa Sentosa Resort, we checked out the highest rated restaurant amongst the 2 that were listed down for the 50% promotion which was Barnacles Restaurant for dinner. We ended up heading for the other restaurant (which was almost fully booked by the way) because it was fully booked till 9.30pm. Rasa Sentosa Resort should have informed us of the popularity of the restaurants so that we could have made plans. It wouldn’t hurt to tell me during my telephone booking or included as a few lines of text in the email confirmation.

Dinner was settled at Silver Shell Cafe with a seafood buffet.

Nothing tasted awful but in fact, nothing tasted good as well. It’s one of those meals that you won’t remember eating after a few days.

And the worse thing about the whole stay? I was almost overcharged by at least $70 by Rasa Sentosa Resort. The bill looked suspiciously high even after a 50% discount for both the room and the buffet dinner and after checking it further, I realized that Silver Shell Cafe overcharged me by twice the amount I was supposed to pay. It was lucky that I kept the receipt from Silver Shell and checked the final bill before I left the resort.

The stay at Sentosa Resort and Spa was SO MUCH better. Weird thing is that KKNN and I still enjoyed our stay very much despite all the screw ups. Having each other is all that matters.

On that note, I’ll convince her that I’ll pay for the next weekend escapade at a cheap hotel. WAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

The face we are gonna make after she hears about the next escapade