Increase in EZ Link fares

The PTC is so sneaky. I just realised that there was an increase of ez-link fares on 8 Oct this year, and this wasn't even published to let people know that they were jacking the prices up!

So i went to their website to see how much they've increased their prices to, because the last I could remember, they just adjusted their fares recently based on the distance-travelled calculation method.

Surprisingly, I've discovered that the organisation makes it a point to increase fares once every year!! And it seem to be in October or July. Let me show you a quick chronological update:

• 1 Dec 2000 - $0.10 increase on single-trip LRT adult fares
• 1 July 2001 : $0.10 increase in feeder bus adult fares
• 1 July 2002 : 3 cents increase in adult EZ-link fares, 5 cents increase in adult farecard fares, 10 cents increase in adult cash fares, 50 cents increase in concession stamp prices for students, $2 increase in concession stamp prices for tertiary students, $3 increase in concession stamp prices for NS men. wow what a year!
• 20 June 2003 : 5 - 25 cents increase for fares for NEL line.
• 1 July 2005 : 1 - 2 cents increase in adult ez-link card fares, 10cents increase in adult fares
• 1 October 2006 : 1 - 3 cents increase in adult ez-link card fares
• 1 October 2007 : 1 - 2 cents increase in adult ez-link card fares
• 1 October 2008 : 4 cents increase in adult ez-link card fares, 10 cents increase in adult cash fares
• 1 April 2009 : 10 cents increase in transfer rebate for adult ez-link card fares
• 3 July 2010 : introduction of distance based fares
• 8 October 2011 : 2 cent increase in adult fares, 1 cent increase in senior citizen card fares, 10 cent increase in adult cash fares

Wow, how many times do they want to increase our transport system fares? For a full listings, please check here http://www.ptc.gov.sg/FactsAndFigures/chronologyOfFareAdjustments.htm

I mean, i totally understand when the government is trying to increase the standard of our transport system. We are building more tunnels, more stations, more lines, having more trains to increase the rate at which we commute. I'm fine with them increasing the cost of the fares every year because what we pay for is what we get.

Granted we have a growing population of foreigners, and our transport system is struggling to keep up with the influx of people on our small island. We have crowded trains, and we have to stand really close to each other now. And in some places, we even have to queue to get into the trains. Totally understand.

Because 10 years ago, we didnt have the circle line. Our train intervals were 5 minutes, and not 3 minutes during peak hours. We probably didnt know that we waited so long then, because we didnt have those overhead boards that kept counting down the time for us until the next train came. We didnt have so many double decker buses, nor bendy buses that we get nowadays, neither did we have such nice and modern bus stops that stayed bright throughout the whole night. So fine, I put up with it, and the fares i pay contributed to a better system and transport mode.

But this time, my gripe is the fact that the increase came at such quiet notice! What, are they afraid that people might lash out at them for increasing the cost of fares? What is worse than a someone who aspires to be a leader, is someone who is coward when doing so!

All that talk about making our transport system first class. Perhaps if more effort is being put into communicating your plans to us before hand, we wont feel so taken for granted, and the people won't feel like they've just been taken for a ride. Literally!

Weekend Staycation

We just had a really good weekend break at the Amara Hotel! so pardon us for the absence for those few days.

Amara Hotel has always been second home to me because my parents bought a timeshare in it when my mother was expecting me. And so for the next 30 years after that, we have 7 nights at Amara Hotel every year, and we go there every year without fail. Sometimes more than once a year because of the number of nights we have, and sometimes just once because we give them as gifts to our friends.

I've spent a significant portion of my life in Amara, my 21st Birthday party, my hen's night, and this weekend - our celebration of our 1st month of being married. Not to mention the number of times we've gone there for National Day weekends so that we could catch the fireworks there, and countless birthdays for the family.

Anyhow, we spent the weekend relaxing, watching teevee until we fell asleep, and waking up to breakfast in bed.

On Saturday night, we had the boys over for a few rounds. Ended the night really late, and so woke up to our glorious Sunday 'Munch on Brunch' again.

This time, we went to Penny Black at Clarke Quay. Brunch is so expensive. We had ours just last week at House @ Dempsey because our initial plans of Jones the Grocer failed since it was too crowded. House is so expensive and just as we thought we were actually satisfied paying for it since brunch anywhere always makes you feel so good, so met Penny Black.

1-for-1 brunch on weekends with citibank card! Amazing. The food was gorgeous, and my Eggs Benedict was awesome. Jay had himself a hearty English Breakfast, and I tell you, its the perfect hangover breakfast with its sunny side up eggs, deep fried bread slices, sausages, mushrooms and grilled tomatos (and baked beans). The 5 of us ordered a portion for 6 (since it was 1-for-1 anyway) because we were famished and could do with some food after all the alcohol the night before, but well, it's never a bad thing whenever your food portions are so big! We were so stuffed and happy.

J and his huge and hearty english breakfast

my eggs benedict on the right bottom. i am such a happy girl!

And the thing that really pleases me to know is that Penny Black has other 'sister' outlets around, and so we're going to visit the rest in the coming Sundays! Yay!

After brunch, we went back and spent the afternoon by the pool just falling in and out of sleep in the afternoon sun. Soaked myself enough to get wrinkly fingers before coming up for a quick shower and headed to church.

Dinner was a quiet affair since the night before had been so rowdy with laughter. J and I packed a huge prata meal with my favourite curry mutton before cabbing back to Amara and binging there in front of the teevee. The night ended early and we crawled into our beds with our very full stomachs and slept.

Checked out and conveniently went down to Raffles Place to cathc lunch with 2 of my girlfriends that I havent met in a long long time, like 8 years since JC! Awesome session.

I digress, but i didnt know that TCC positioned itself as an arts cafe! It's menus featured artists in it! Wow, you learn something new everyday i suppose!

Up and around the city

I went to Marina Bay Sand on Monday because Sheila's mom had a room there that night. And so she invited me to spend an afternoon with her, and i got really excited because i could finally check the pool out without paying a whopping $420sgd/night to stay there!!

Anyhow, true to all rumours that the view is gorgeous, because it really is!! I mean, being on the 57th floor, the lift opens up to the main deck and the first thing Sheila told me is to 'Get ready for the view'. And lo and behold, the life doors open and it was a pleasant surprise:

On top of the world yo!!

View to the right, where you have sun beds to lie on next to the trees, and partially submerged beds half soaking in the water if you want to dip a bit into the water.

View to the left. It is really quite a wide pool, although you cant do laps there cos they have concrete slaps at intervals. I particularly like how there are so many lifeguards with their whistles, so they keep hyperactive children safe and prevent them from bringing their irritating toys to the pool, except in the children's pool..

Sheila and I, and her little friend who is 7 years old that we babysat for the afternoon. We take this picture from the children's pool so that you can see the whole length of the infinity pool, and the curve that it sits along.

Note to self: never wear the hotel's bedroom slippers there because they are made of cardboard!!!! 5 minutes after walking from the nice sun beds to the children's pool, Sheila tells me that i am leaving trails behind me. And i look back and under my foot to see bits of cardboard from the sole of my slippers coming off!!!! 2 seconds into that, my feet are soaking and my slippers are soggy. Eww.. i throw them off into the bin and walk barefooted back to our room on the 11th story....

Everyone should download this iphone app called Photosynth. It takes amazing panaromic pictures and slowly stitches them into one seamless photo. Okay, the image above doesnt do much justice because of the size now, but seriously, it looks great on my computer. And its a free app!!

well at night, we went up one more time just before dinner, and check out the city lights at 730pm!

Gorgeous!

*****

Okay so yesterday i spent another afternoon/evening out to catch dinner with some of my girlfriends, and i sneaked in some time to wander about town by myself. I had a HUGE craving for popcorn and so when i saw that facebook was having a voucher for Garrett's, i jumped at it and went to search for the nearest one at Citylink and got myself a pack.

The sad part of this story is, you cannot redeem the voucher by just showing the people over the counter the voucher on your phone.. This was really disappointing because

no 1: there is no barcode/serial number on the voucher which allows it to be a unique track of the numbers that are used!

no 2: the voucher didnt say 'cut to use'. It said 'valid upon presentation'

well, i was craving popcorn and i was gonna get myself a bag whether or not i could use the voucher, so i let the inner demon in me subside, and i went ahead and ordered a bag anyway. For any of you who wants to use the voucher, please either cut it out, or help me tell the people at the counter how the ought to improve their vouchers, otherwise, dont produce any.

Caramel crisp, and not Chicago mix because the previous time, it was really painful picking out the caramel ones among all the cheesy ones (pun intended hur hur)

on a side note, i think the reason why i like their popcorn is because every time i dig my hands into the bag, i can expect to pull out pieces of the same size, and the same consistency. Something that cinema-style popcorn cant guarantee me!

everyone has an inaugural post

it is first entry of the 4th blog i've ever had, so essentially this cant be called the first post i've ever done. But it's inaugural for this blog i suppose.

Now that i'm on with it, please dont fault me for the following:

- lack of capital letters in for the words that start sentences (because to me, i never really had a pause there)

- having to many commas in my paragraphs (because yes i have a long breath like that so i type like how i speak)

- long paragraphs (because i speak fast like that too)

- spelling (because my fingers type too fast sometimes)

- no capital I when i mean i (because my last fingers dont have enough strength to keep up with the number of times i want to talk about myself)

- no apostrophes to the words dont/wont/didnt (because its disrupts my continous typing)

anyhow, i write because often, i forget things easily i suppose this would work as a way to remember experiences.