After I sent my complain email to the management of Bliss, I got 2 replies from assuming 2 members of the management team but the content of both replies are exactly the same:

Dear Mr Lim

First, our most sincere apology for the incident experienced by you andyour friends. We would like to seek your understanding with regard to the issue ofyour maltese. We have recieved multiple complaints from musliim customers who felt that we were not sensitive to their religion by allowing canine on chairs.

Due to this religion-sensitive issue, we were forced to impose the policy to dis-allow pets on chairs. All staffs are supposed to communicate this policy to our customers. The relevant staff who took your reservation has been reprimanded and reminded to highlight this policy to our customers in future.

With regard to the seating arrangment, we have investigated and discovered the following. It is to our understanding that your reservation is for a group of four and arrangment was make to assign a table to you. Due to the fact that it was raining heavily that night, some of our tables cannot be used as they are not sheltered. All the rest of the tables have already been reserved by customers through out the evening. Hence we really do not have additional table available to accomodate your group. The relevant staff has also been advised to convey our situation more clearly to our customers in future.

Finally, we would like to thank you for your support. Attached is a dinning voucher for our New Year Eve dinner for you.

Regards,
Bliss Management

Not exactly appeased here. Muslims complaining that the restaurant is not sensitive to their religion? If I'm not wrong, the restaurant is not halal leh, dun like then dun bloody go there lor. So, to respect your religion, Singapore should ban dogs altogether and all gals should wear tudungs isit?

Else in parks where sometimes people let their pooch sit on benches then how? Comprain to NParks? Then if gals wear bikinis in public swimming pools or beaches then how? Comprain to the police isit?

I'm not saying all Muslims are unreasonable people but there are just some selfish individuals who simply demand or expect everyone to give in to them.

I once had a Muslim colleague back in the days when I was in MOE who would berate people eating ba kwa during CNY period. Hello? People eating at their own worstation leh, non of your bloody biz rite? Your Allah would banish you to hell just by smelling ba kwa isit? And even so, do you seriously think we give a damn?
We would rather enjoy our ba kwa and worry about how to lose the calories later than worry that you will be cursed to smell like ba kwa for eternity.

Oh I digress. Anyway, Bliss then offered a $35.90 dining voucher which just about offset the price of one set dinner for New Year's Eve. Kauz, wat kinda apology is that leh? So assuming we do go back for dinner, it's only a 25% discount leh, we still have to pay for 3 pax.

And hor, they email today, give voucher which expires tmr lor, they think I tmr sure no program have to go back Bliss meh?

So verdict? Limbeh will still boycott Bliss =)

Came across an article when I was reading the papers today on how relationships could be destroyed during economic downturns.

Hmmm now that makes me wonder:
What would my so called friends do if I were to borrow money from them? Would they siam me?
What would I do if my friends try to borrow money from me? Would I come up with all kinda reasons for not having money to spare?

p.s. I'm not talking about $10 - $20 kinda loan, say in the hundreds or a couple of thousand?

One of my friends has this philosophy:
Treat lending of money as an investment, invest what you can afford. This should be the money that you can do without. The worst is you'll lose your principal, alternatively you will reap the rewards of your investment.

Zen eh? But it is really sound advise, do not feel obligated to lend more than what you can do without. Dun feel guilty about not lending if you can't. Cuz you have to bear in mind that you may not get your money back anytime soon, if at all. And your friends should understand and be appreciative of whatever you can offer to help.

So the worst case scenario is you will lose your money but you will be able to see if your friends are still worth keeping, so I would say it's not a total loss. On the other hand, as they say, a friend in need is a friend indeed. While some bonds break in the face of adversity, some strengthen.

Question is, would anyone wanna risk existing friendships?

Some of the more unique xmas trees I have seen this year:

a) @ Suntec Convention; made of donated soft toys

Sorry peeps for not updating on my blog recently. My router screwed up and I'm too lazy to plug in the phone line from the modem. But anyways, hope you peeps have had a good Xmas.

My Xmas Eve was kinda screwed up, no thanks to freaking Bliss Restaurant @ Punggol Park

My frustration could be summarised in this complain email I sent out afterwards:

Dear Mr Ben Chin,
I’m writing this email to express my utter disappointment at the level of service that I have experienced at Bliss Restaturant @ Punggol Park on X’mas Eve.
Prior to this, I was quite fond of the ambience and dining experience I had there and actually recommended friends on a few occasions.

2 weeks earlier, I had planned for a Xmas Eve dinner at Bliss with my friends and called to make a reservation for 4 adults, a toddler and a pet dog.
The staff who handled my reservation assured me that Bliss is pet friendly and we can bring along our pet dog for the evening. There were NO mention of any ‘terms and conditions’ except that Bliss does not serve pet food.

My reservation was made for 7.30pm but we were there early at 6pm and the restaurant was still quite empty.
When we asked to be seated, one of the waitresses told us that we could not be seated by the pond as pets were not allowed in that area.
We were then shown to our table which was located directly in front of the entrance, where the human traffic was very heavy.
We asked for a different table but were repeatedly being denied, reason being that it was full house and the tables have all been set up..

Not wanting to spoil the mood, we were ready to accept the arrangement and asked for a baby chair and an additional chair for our maltese, but to our surprise, we were told that dogs are not allowed on chairs for fear of complains by other diners. We were quite offended by this remark. In our opinion; the restaurant is not in anyway as pet friendly as it claims to be.

The duty manager is in no way flexible when we explained to her that it’s very distracting for our canine friend to be seated on the cold hard cement floor at a table right in front of the restaurant’s entrance where the human traffic is the heaviest.

I simply could not comprehend the logic why the duty manger could not simply rearrange the tables and gave us another table.
There were not many diners around at the time and I could see the waiting staff standing around, chit chatting and having a good time of their own.

In the end, we were forced to make alternate dining plans with a hungry toddler and pet, amid heavy rain.

It totally destroyed whatever festive mood we were having and we have nothing but disappointment at how the staff at Bliss handled the whole situation.

I’d be embarrassed to even mention Bliss in front of my friends again after this awful experience.

Regards,
Dennis

Nabei, the restaurant really got the cheek to go around advertising that it's 'pet-friendly restaurant'. *pui*

So in the end, we had to tabao food from the nearby coffeeshop and sought refuge at Big Sista's place cuz else, our poor little pooch had nowhere to dine.

Sorry TSO, our first Xmas Eve will go down the memory lane as memorable, but for the wrong reason =/

Recently, there has been a lot of debates in the papers on mercy killing. Different ppl has different views, both ethical and religious.

My point is, if someone is terminally ill but is still conscious enough to make rational decisions, why can't he or she choose to end his or her life, and putting a stop to all the pain and suffering?

Okay, doctors may not be willing to administer the lethal injection due to potential legal implications but why can't they let the patients sign an indemity form and then let the patients take the drug via oral means themeselves, if not by injection?

And some may argue that some religions take ending one's life a sin. But ending one's life prematurely while suffering from a terminal disease is different from commiting suicide when one is in the pink of health rite? Arguing from this perspective, if God or whoever up there decides to deal you with an incurable illness, then it's as good as He wants you gone rite? So wat's wrong with ending your life early?

Due to the recession, got leave to clear oso no money to spend. Or rather, try not to over spend. So my one week's leave was spent at TSO's home K-ing dvd and spending some quality homely time tgt.

Phew, finally the exams over. Hahah even though I'm only taking one paper this time round, it's still an examination, nonetheless and there's still stress one lor.

School starts again in one mth's time but I'll miss some 6 lessons cuz the blardy Stupid Asshole Formation decides that we should go back for another 13 day camp before the Chinese New Year.

Oh well, might as well enjoy first lah. Will be clearing one week's leave next week. Wooohooo, too bad I wun be travelling this time round. Crisis liaoz so better be prudent in spending.

Blessed is the man whose gal makes an effort to cook for him. Double the blessing if his gal decides to try a new recipe each time she cooks for him.

In my opinion, cooking simple meals together is much more fun and romantic than just spending money on fancy restaurants. How difficult can it be surfing the internet for eating places, dialling a few numbers to make a reservation and swiping the credit card after the meal?

The perfect date starts with grocery shopping together, deciding what goes into the pot, onto the plate and finally into the stomach.

And this is the results of our shopping trip:

And finally, adding the finishing touch, pouring of mushroom sauce

And tada, Pork Chop Sphagetti with Mushroom Sauce, served with Garden Greens and Baked Potato (Jack's Place style)


Not bad eh?

<3 my dearest TSO

p.s. Miss J, if you till haven decide what to get Mr A for Xmas, trust me, cook him a Ai Xin Meal and it will sure send him to the moon =)