rant on a hot sunny day

Still full from the gianormous sammich from brunch. Love the homemade bread! The family bread maker has been rather convenient, although no one really bothers 'cept the mother. Hehe. But it's really nice to wake up to a home smelling like freshly baked bread. My mom's been on a baking frenzy lately- cakes, muffins and the works.

Mom and I went down town yesterday avo- another one of her "stocking up supplies cabinet" shopping sprees. She also had to get something changed, coz she'd bought the wrong item the day before. You know when the crowd gets to your head and you just want to pay up and choop home. So anyway, the sales manager was being slightly anal about it and refused us the small favour, saying it is known that you can't do exchanges (SINCE WHEN?) etc. I say small favour coz I've worked in a departmental store over the various summer holidays before, and it's almost no hassle to do an exchange, give a credit note. Simple as that.

Many times when the sales people give you trouble, they just can't be bothered having to do an exchange. I can't fathom why. It's not even hard work, it makes the customer happy. So why not? Why not just DO IT and save everyone from the unnecessary excuses. Very frequently, although the items purchased have been way past the "exchange by" date, we still do it anyway coz it only makes the customer happy and satisfied for the good service AND, one less complaint letter to the store. It's just that simple. Besides it's nobody's loss. Item gets placed back on the shelf, customer exchanges for something else, customer goes home happily, customer returns to shop because of the good service.

Anyway that is probably the reason why staff at Tangs get sent to various service standard courses, and is something of utmost importance to them, and also the reason for the numerous awards for good service standards! Ok this wasn't meant to be a "shop at Tangs" entry.

Oh yeah so I was saying, in the process of giving heaps of stupid excuses as to why we couldn't have the item changed, the sales manager contradicted herself several times. It was pointless and time consuming and the mall was extremely crowded, as a mall would on a weekend.

THEN, I don't know why I opened my big mouth and spoke of the Consumer's Rights (something Mark Hennagan told us last year at Case, that heaps of people are not aware of, but in fact is so true and powerful!). As soon as I did that, I wanted to laugh. I don't know what got into me I think I just wanted her to cut the crap. Or that whilst she was going on and on with her ridiculous reasons, it was in me bursting to come out. That burning desire to give it to her.

Long story short, I think that shut her up and a couple of minutes later, we got the stuffs exchanged (boy oh boy we could've saved so much time and saliva). From the corner of my eye, she kept staring at me, then looking away when I looked up. It was slightly amusing.

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The sun is so scorching today! Perfect weather for doing my laundry. By the way, why is it so unbelievable that Cheryl is capable of doing the housewifey stuffs like cooking, doing the laundry, cleaning her own room etc? A LOT of people seem to think I'm gu-niangish, princessy, wimpish (and what have you) and always wondered how I survived the years I did in NZ.

We've always brought up to be independant, and to fend for ourselves if need be, bearing in mind the support the family will always give nevertheless. Such that when I left Singapore at 15, it was no mean feat anymore.

In that few years I have had fun, shed tears, done heaps I mightn't have had the opportunity to here in Singapore, regretted doing stuffs, learnt to let go of people and things. And I thank the Lord for always keeping me safe in His arms, in the land where every 1 in 5 people were mentally unstable (no really, I'm serious). And I've grown to be even stronger, by His mighty power.

Being back home makes me lazy. I miss cooking! Western and Asian! And shopping for food. Now, everytime I visit the supermart I don't have to look at raw meat anymore. Ahhh rack of lamb, sirloin steak slurrrrrrpppp. LOVES supermarkets! :D

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So hot. Am going to start sweltering like a pig. Back in NZ, weather was such a fantastic topic for when you meet people you hardly talk to, but just want to make small talk. Everyone talks about the weather- for you can experience 4 seasons in a day, that loony place :p So much so that I could even blog an entire entry about the weather. I amaze myself.