what’s with the massage chairs?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

What’s up with the massage chairs that all the shopping malls seem to be featuring in their center courts? There seems to be more and more people making a beeline for these chairs and plonking themselves down for a free test drive.

And then all along the fringes of the display area are these eager promoters waiting to pounce on you and attack you with one of those portable massagers.

Those guys really annoy me. I’ve been struck on the shoulder by one of those massagers as I hurried along. I think they should at least ask if I wanted to try one instead of just attacking my shoulder with it. Hummph!

benches and breaks

Have you noticed that many of the newer shopping malls have benches on every floor? Not too long ago, you could walk a whole day at the mall and not find a single bench.

The only places where they had chairs were the restaurants. You couldn’t bring the older folks because if they got tired, they’d have no place to stop and rest. If you were lugging your kids around, you would not have a place to rest.

So it’s great to see benches scattered all over the mall these days. Let’s face it, old or young, it’s good to know you can take a shopping break any time. What do you think?

dressed to the nines

Fashion is one thing but what I don’t understand is why some mothers dress their little daughters up like Las Vegas showgirls. Well, okay, maybe I’m exaggerating just a little.

Granted that we were at a kiddy party but if you saw these poor girls, you’d see how uncomfortable they look all dressed up to the nines. I think kids need to be comfortable and natural in what they wear.

And since it’s a party, they just want to run about and have fun, not cooped up in clothes their moms wouldn’t wear themselves. Kids have a natural beauty and they look good even in the most casual of clothes. So what’s the fuss?

shopping for service providers

When it comes to shopping for service providers, do you usually search online or in newspapers? I usually ask around my friends for their recommendation of a good provider they’ve used before.

For instance, I once dealt with a realtor for many years before I found out that she had been cheating me on the commission. Well, it’s a long story. Suffice to say that if anyone asks me now, I would definitely not recommend her.

So with service providers, I think your chances of finding someone trustworthy and reliable is higher if you work with someone who comes recommended.

At the very least, you will start out with an idea of how this person has fared in previous dealings and from there, you can draw your own conclusion of what level of service you can expect from them.

three historical cultures to explore

After my somewhat lacklustre Oktoberfest experience last weekend, I wish I could go to Germany for the real thing. But surely the hotels in Germany will be packed with tourists at this time, all there to experience Oktoberfest. Wow, I can just imagine the merry making.

My girl friend tells me that if you go to Germany, you should take the opportunity to visit the neighboring countries as well. Hotels in Berlin are relatively easy to find and there’s lots of castles and museums to visit.

And if you have time and left over money from visiting the other two countries, go check into one of the hotels in Munich, she says, and spend a day or two visiting St Peter’s Church and soaking in the rich historical culture of this beautiful city.

Oktoberwhat?

We got to the Oktoberfest a little after 6pm last Sunday evening. So we were only an hour late but guess what? All of the rm1 German beers had been sold out.

Sold out? After just one hour into the event? Are you kidding me? I don’t think that was very nice at all considering that I didn’t see anything on the poster to say that stocks were going to be limited.

It was really crowded but it seemed more people were just standing around than sitting down and having a drink. Maybe there were disappointed patrons like us who got there early but not nearly early enough.

We circled the place to see what else they had to offer. The song that was playing wasn’t even German. Bleh! Count us out of the next Oktoberfest, thanks .