New Moon Chinese New Year Sale 2011 @ Comtech

Posted by Soh Cheng | Posted on 14-12-2011

Category : Promotions

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Very soon, 2011 will be coming to a close as we look forward to celebrating Christmas in less than two weeks’ time with Chinese New Year just around the corner For Caucasians & Americans, Christmas is one of the most important celebrations of the year while Chinese New Year tops the list for Chinese. Both Christmas and Chinese New Year revolve around the theme and values of gatherings, reunions, family ties and friendship. As for me, Christmas is usually dedicated to colleagues & friends while Chinese New Year is dedicated to family.

Speaking of Chinese New Year, prices of commonly consumed items during this festive season are generally expected to experience a price hike due to the increased demand e.g. bak kwa, dried goods, abalone, etc. Hence it’s always nice to see sales and promotions during this period to help ease our wallets without compromising on our celebrations.

Needless to say I was more than delighted to see a poster at the lift lobby reading “The Comtech Chinese New Year Sale” which focuses on New Moon products with abalone as the main highlight. As there was no price listed, I’m left with no choice but to wait patiently over the weekend in anticipation of the potential savings for the impeding Chinese New Year shopping.

On the very first day of “The Comtech Chinese New Year Sale”, the crowd was unmistakable but the range of products was much wider than what I had initially perceived. There were abalones, whole shark’s fin, essence of chicken, bird’s nest, canned soups like shark’s fin, Buddha jump over the wall & fish maw, canned shellfish & clams, oyster & soy sauce, canned fruits, SPAM, rice, oil, pre-mix paste, etc. In essence, you can settle all your Chinese New Year shopping @ Comtech Lobby C.

“The Comtech Chinese New Year Sale” is held over a period of 4 days from 13th Dec to 16th Dec from 10am to 6pm at Comtech Lobby C, refer to map (map extracted from www.streetdirectory.com) below for location details. I’ve also managed to take some photos of the New Moon products on sale, shared below. Hope this will help in your Chinese New Year shopping for Jan 2012.

PS: They also have some Philips products like telephone & earphones but that wasn’t really the focus on my trip so I skipped that section.

The Animal Farm

Posted by Soh Cheng | Posted on 12-12-2011

Category : Creative Moments

I was watching a repeat of The Million Dollar Money Drop which was featuring a celebrity special playing for charity when one of the questions asked was about plays. I only recognized Macbeth from my secondary school literature classes when I uttered this statement “Literature is fun, except for The Animal Farm”. I paused and I gasped, it rhythms! Inspired, I started working on a little poem below, just for fun.

It was something I haven’t done in a very long time (ever since my English teachers stopped asking the class for poem submissions). It sure wasn’t easy getting the phrases to rhythm and I spent more time on this little poem compared to other blog posts. It may not be easy or perfect but it was definitely an enjoyable process.

My little poem about The Animal Farm

Literature is fun,
Except for The Animal Farm.
The first book I had to read,
Gave me such a headache.

Applauded as a great literature piece,
It definitely gave me no peace.
Of humans, pigs and tyranny,
Poor animals that didn’t foresee.

The pigs conspired,
The animals inspired.
Chase out the humans,
To gain your freedom.

Out went the farmers,
There was joy and laughter.
Alas it was short-lived,
As the pigs started to scheme.

Gradually taking control,
The animals back to their old role.
To serve yet again,
For their new two-legged masters’ gain.

 

Christmas & Starbucks

Posted by Soh Cheng | Posted on 06-12-2011

Category : Promotions

Holiday season equals to spending season as everyone is going into top gear with their Christmas shopping. Despite a slowing economy, Christmas still goes on albeit with reduced expenditure as consumers keep a look out for bargains and alternatives to gift wrap this year.

This is also the season when merchants go all out to attract us to spend our dollars with them by rolling out various promotions, including tie-up with credit cards to e.g. tantalise us into swiping our credit cards to enjoy exclusive promotions for hotel Christmas buffet spread with THE hotel and THE bank. You get the idea.

Of course, as consumers, we’ll only stand to benefit from these friendly competitive discounts and irresistible offers, leaving us spoilt with choice most of the time. I myself succumbed to one on 1st Dec when Starbucks Singapore rolled out its “12 Days of Gifting” Christmas promotion with its buy one get one free grande-sized Christmas beverages.

Unwittingly I also became their free advertising ambassador, spreading word about their Christmas promotion to family, friends and colleagues. As expected, there were long queues at their outlets during lunch hours, heard it’s much longer in the city area, as we gathered to enjoy this 1 for 1 deal. My Starbucks Christmas Special – Peppermint Mocha tasted especially nice on this day.

If you missed this promotion, not to worry, it will be repeated on 12 Dec, the last day of Starbucks “12 Days of Gifting” Christmas promotion. Wonder what will Starbucks roll out next from 13th Dec to 25th Dec?

For details on what’s special for each day of Starbucks “12 Days of Gifting” Christmas promotion:

To learn more about Starbucks’ success:

 

Google Day

Posted by Soh Cheng | Posted on 05-12-2011

Category : General

Today’s the day I flipped the switch to say “Hello World” to the worldwide web by clicking on the radio button which reads “I would like my site to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati) and archivers”.

Today’s the day when I searched for sohcheng.com and saw an inconspicuous link displayed at the top of the search results with the signature “Did you mean: <something else>” suggestion by Google. Not to mention, my blog is not listed anywhere when I search for my name – sohcheng. Who am I kidding right 😉

And there’s of course no preview available yet since sohcheng.com is just a new born in the eyes of Google who’s still in the decision making process of understanding sohcheng.com, deciding “good sohcheng” or “bad sohcheng”. Come to think of it, Google is very much like Santa Claus during this festive season – “good list” or “naughty list”.

Somehow, throughout the day, 5th Dec gave me a feeling of bearing some sort of significance. I can’t really explain it but there’s this nagging feeling which seems to be telling me something. The only thing I link to 5th Dec is that it used to be the birthday of a very close friend. Other than that…what could it be?

Oh well, I’ll get it sooner or later. Apologies, noticed that I’ve digressed quite a bit from my original topic. *Clears throat* Anyway, to commemorate sohcheng.com’s Google Day, I’ve decided to create a blog post regardless of what’s waiting for me *glances over my shoulder* and here’s the screenshot of Google’s first acknowledgement of the existence of sohcheng.com. Cheers!

PS: Bing haven’t found sohcheng.com yet and Technorati only gave me a blank white page, so Google wins hands down.

 

The Versatile Owl

Posted by Soh Cheng | Posted on 04-12-2011

Category : Interesting Videos

After sharing the “Lovely Owl” video in my recent “Google+ Makes a Comeback” blog post, it seems like more Owl-related videos are coming my way as I was recently introduced to yet another “Evil Owl” video. It’s interesting to see that not only humans are able to adapt ourselves to show varying degrees of strength and armor when presented with different levels of threats & dangers. I was pleasantly surprised & entertained to see how this “Evil Owl” disguises itself to scare off threatening counterparts.

From projecting a larger physique towards immediate threats to projecting an “evil” image to spook much larger fellow owls, this versatile owl has it all covered within its bag of tricks. Needless to say, the highlight of the video and the owl’s abilities is the evil Count Dracula look which it puts on when faced with a huge adversary. Not forgetting its confident “I’ve got my eyes on you” stare as it stays fixated on the perceived threat.

Now, I can’t help asking myself this question – do I shy away from huge challenges or stand up to them with unfaltering strength like this little owl? What about you? Somehow it seems like there’s always some lesson which we can learn from Mother Nature? The only thing is whether we maintain an open mindset and stay present? 🙂

T-Mobile With Angry Birds Marketing Campaign

Posted by Soh Cheng | Posted on 04-12-2011

Category : Interesting Videos

As Internet becomes an integral part of our everyday lives, we are no longer restricted to messages published on billboards and public transport like buses, taxis and the MRT. Nor are we limited to only the television & radio. Marketing and advertising can now access and reach out to a worldwide global audience group through the worldwide web (aptly named) via online advertising on popular platforms like YouTube, Twitter & Facebook to say the least.

It is via the Internet that we get exposed to the creativity of marketing and branding agencies beyond the shores of Singapore at the comfort of our home, in front of our computer, without the need to fly around the world (to see the world). However with this medium easily accessible to everyone, with everything online, it’s getting rarer to see physical real-life advertising efforts due to the relatively higher cost, time & effort to set things up.

Hence it’s a delight to come across this marketing campaign by T-Mobile and Angry Birds bringing the virtual world into real-life where gamers get to see the angry birds in action right before their eyes with real ‘explosions’ when the target is hit. Absolutely fantastic! And I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to see this if not for the Internet, Facebook and YouTube since this was held in Barcelona and not Singapore.

If you have yet to see this amazing feat, here you go. Meanwhile I’ll continue surfing for more gems in the Internet.

Now you can have one of your own: