The Pizzazzy

It was my last weekend and I had lots of shopping to do. I have been having a difficult time in deciding what to get for everyone back home. I thought may be looking around in malls I can get some nice ideas, so we set out to Plaza Singapura.

Since mum is having a good time looking at the vegetable section of spacious malls I gave her a round of Carrefour. In India the newly coming up departmental stores like pulse, reliance retail are actually quite cramped compared to huge players here.

Once inside the mall, a typical rotten smell hit us. Excuse my use of adjective for the king of fruits Durian. And I told mum this is the fruit which is banned in the MRT and buses here. Durian with it’s typical smell is a fruit that you either love or hate. A week back when my team gave me a farewell party I was forced to try this fruit. Even before registering the taste the smell was so awful that my brain outrightly rejected the taste. I simply cannot understand how anyone can stand this fruit. I asked mum if she wanted to try it. And she made such a face which read how could you even dare to suggest it.

After we crossed the durian section, I got a look at another fruit which I had lost all hopes of ever trying before I left Singapore. Mangosteen, the queen of fruits were nicely lying in heaps. My happiness was sky high at that moment and I started picking up some in a bag. My mum couldn’t comprehend what all the excitement was about so I explained her how I have read about mangosteen and wanted to try them. But because they were out of season I was very disappointed. Durian is also out of season but the good people at Carrefour could still stock both the king and the queen of fruits.

After reaching home when I cracked open the mangosteen to reveal the white mushy fruit, mum was equally excited and said “ohh this is cow” and she was transported back to her childhood. Well, cow is what it is called in Manipuri and both of us finished the great tasting fruit. The fruit is aptly called Queen of fruits although why Durian the smelly one is called the king I don’t understand.

The mangosteen is a truly tropical fruit, once opened has a white fruit inside which is plum like in texture and sweet with a faint hint of acidity. This fruit is perfect when it comes to the taste with seeds which may or may not be present. You can read all about mangosteen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen.

Now when I want to compile a list of my favourite fruits definitely mangosteen steals the second place right below Mangoes and on top of yet another personal favorite, custard apple. And if you are anywhere in world where you can grab a mangosteen, I would personally recommend you to taste this exquisite fruit. And that’s not all, this sweetheart of a fruit comes with a lot of health benefits also.

This Tuesday I took a leave from office and as planned set out with my mum for shopping. There were quite a few items on my list and the top most was the iTouch followed by some other items. When we reached Funan mall we hit the apple show room and I took a good 30 minutes to go through the features and also gave a good demo to mum.

Now, Mum is that kind who watches lots of news and reads newspapers, familiar with the uses of internet for chat, skype if someone connects her, playing games is as far as she gets when it comes to computers. But after looking at the safari browser connecting to Urjit’s site via the wi fi and his pictures coming up on the wide screen of the iTouch even she was impressed.

Actually I had made up my mind to get this new version after Anand claimed our previous iPod shuffle as his so I was only looking for a good deal. And with Christmas just around the corner I thought I could get a good one. So, when Apple showroom quoted the printed price I simply smiled and left. Finally I made my purchase with some free gifts instead of cash discount.

It was very difficult from the time of purchase till reaching home all the way to Pasir ris with not being able to take a look at this amazing piece. As soon as we reached home, I opened the packing and there came out my new iTouch. I set out to work right away with iTunes and syncing my favourites photos, songs and some videos.

Once it was fully charged I connected to the net using the wi-fi and was watching “Jab We Met” on youTube. The next day I nicely plugged the ear plugs and was smiling at everyone on my way to work. Even during the lunch break in our favourite cafeteria which is wi-fi enabled I was busy with iTouch while my friends who were as usual having our daily gossiping session merged into the background.

I sent an email to my sis saying “Hi I am mailing you from my iTouch” and the good thing she told me today is that more zones in Pune are going to become wi-fi by the time I return to India.

With this new iPod I can connect to the net from any place that is wi-fi, watch videos directly from YouTube, download songs from iTunes, Organize my day and of course listen to my favorite songs with just a Touch. An amazing feature is that the display changes with a flick from vertical to horizontal giving a wider screen. Another very impressive feature is the zoom in zoom out with slide of two fingers. I simply bring together two fingers on the section I want to zoom in and then slide them away. To browse through the whole page I can slide the section left right or flick through. This is amazing while net surfing, reading pdf files and also browsing through picture albums.

The wait for an iPhone was getting too long so here’s iTouch with wider screen and without the phone.

What more can I say apple simply offers the sleekest and most stylish designs when it comes to iPod and iTouch is a touch above the rest.

especially in Singapore. The increasingly materialistic country is known for it’s C’s. Cash, Car, Cards, Condominium and Contracts. I only missed experiencing the second C. And I was in or with all the fours every single day of my stay in Singapore.

The Contracts can become very annoying as you start making yourself feel at home in Singapore. Rent a house, get a cable connection, get internet or simply get a mobile connection. So, here I was in Singapore with a prepaid card bought at the airport as soon as I landed. Ofcourse one should be reachable in today’s networking world.

After I joined my client’s office I foolishly got a colleague’s contract transferred on my name. Why foolish, cos I really didn’t need one at that point of time and it turned out to be a two years contract. Now, I have to pay for it’s early termination.

Then after a good house hunt I entered another contract of 12 months for the condo. Then followed internet, cable and one more mobile contract when Anand joined me here. Very convenient if one plans to stay longer here, but our plans changed and now that we are returning to India, what followed was a nagging concern to get rid of the contracts or pay an early termination fees.

I promptly drafted a notice and fired three copies and strategically placed them on office notice board in the break out area where it could grab some attention. I didn’t want to act like my office colleague and force it on people, so I had already debited my bank account with 750 SGD in case I did not find anyone in need. That was the total amount I needed to shell out in case of an early termination for all the four contracts excluding our condo.

The condo was taken care of as it was well beyond the 6 months binding period and I could get away with one month notice without having to part with my deposit.

The ads on the notice board was an idea of another colleague who found them to be quite effective. But no response from that end. Luckily for me another colleague who planned to stay back a few months longer was looking for short term contracts and someone happened to mention me. And it was as simple as that, I got all my three contracts transferred to his name and that too for a future date. How convenient can it get Thank God. Truly it is very convenient when you transfer the ownership. I went to the counter and didn’t know what to say so I said ”ahh.. I need to transfer my mobile connection to my friend here”. The lady smiled and said “Are both the parties present?”. This reminded me straight away of Company Law, Contract, Consent, Parties

By the way another friend enquired about the internet connection just yesterday. I told him he was late but anyways I still have one mobile connection if he was interested :-).  One cannot get away being greedy so now I guess it’s a good sum of 250 SGD out of my pocket. I am still keeping my hopes up and I have some time.
 
But on the positive side I am a happy girl now and let me tell you about the 500 bucks that I have saved. I’m planning to get an Apple iTouch for that sum. Howzzat. No, this post will not continue into features of iTouch. I will let it be till I own it.