Great Singapore Sale 2011 - group madness!

From 27 May to 24 July 2011, many major stores and shopping malls in Singapore offer a range of exclusive promotions, including dining, wellness experience, and nightlife & entertainment! It’s what they locally call a ‘Great Singapore Sale’!This is one of the greatest events here, as Singaporeans absolutely love, love, love shopping! Singapore has without a doubt the most shopping-without-limits culture I have ever experienced in my life!

For eight glorious weeks shopping malls offer up to 70% discounts on almost everything! This is a major magnet to Singaporean women, who use their credit cards much more in this period. The central shopping belt of Orchard Road to the city suburbs turns crazy-busy as many Singaporeans as well as tourists want to enjoy the exclusive discounts in the most popular malls such as 313@somerset, ION Orchard, Orchard Central, TANGS Orchard, Wisma Atria, Marina Bay waterfront, Suntec City, etc.

Singapore is really a very fashion-conscious country, just when I look at the women in trains or buses commuting to work every day, it’s so obvious! They look like from a runway, fashion magazine, or in other words, as if they were to go to a party on Sunday evening or to a club. They wear fancy dresses, designer bags and shoes, as here you are measured based on what labels you wear… That’s indeed true, even my fellow Singaporean colleagues and friends admit this! During the Great Singapore Sale, GSS, it’s easier to get the designer items at a better price, so this is a great opportunity for Singaporeans to get their favorite brands!

My shopping experience is limited to occasional shopping sprees in specific shops and I have seen big crowds and queues especially when the new collections come in, but after visiting few more popular shops during lunch time in the Marina Square shopping mall this month, I must say I was a shopping-virgin! One of the shops I went to the other afternoon was Zara; it was full of women going through every rack and with queues at least 30-people-long! And they were rushing, because it was only the lunch break and the queues were so long… It was the busiest in the sale back end, where the clothes were in a mess, mixed together, even on the floor… In Ireland this was quite common sight in the shops, but not in Singapore! The women were trying the clothes on the office outfits they were wearing, to avoid queuing to the changing rooms… I was glad when we left the shop, as this shopping-madness was uncontrollable… The shopping malls are also open late to allow late night shopping for those working regular office hours; almost all of them close only around 11pm. I read that many women take time off work in groups way in advance the sale starts, just to shop during less busy hours and to get the best choice of the product; well, in here I cannot say that surprises me any more…

Although many countries struggle these days due to bad economy and inflation, Singapore is blossoming and pumping lots of cash into the system! Happy retailers can be proud and more than satisfied, as the MasterCard survey of the sale's first month showed cardholders splashed out a total of US$676.6 million (S$831 million) - 49 per cent more than in the same period last year! And the GSS is not over yet… alamak!

Made in China 中國製造

Autobiography In Five Chapters

1) I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.



Portia Nelson

From: Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

iFly Singapore!

Last weekend we went to the newly opened iFly sky diving centre in Sentosa. I won discounted tickets on Facebook, for once I won something in an online competition, and so we made a booking came to the iFly earlier for the safety induction.

The building was very modern and the whole experience, quite interesting! From the very beginning we felt like we were on the plane… In the first chamber we were put in the mood of sky diving, as we were sat down on side benches, it was all dark and there was a big screen with a video of people jumping off the plane and diving in the air, making various moves and ‘dancing in the air’! It was all shown ‘from the plane’ perspective so we had an impression that we were sitting on the bench of a plane and that we were about to jump next.

Few minutes later we moved to another room where they provided detailed security briefing and explained the communication signs that the instructors would usually use during a dive, as it’s not possible to talk in the wind chamber, daah! We met our instructor there and everyone got a try in a proper flying position on the matt provided. Instructor tested our memory for communication signs and we moved on.

When we were in the main fly area of the building our instructor gave us the gear: overalls, helmets, ear plugs and goggles. The wind tube had a small staging area where our group sat awaiting their turn. Each of us went one by one to the wind chamber, also as if we were on a bench of a plane and taking turns to jump! Everyone went twice and for those more adventurous or crazy ones, you could go for the 3rd time!

It was really funny feeling being in the wind tube, as there were different laws governing your every move: the laws of physics! When I did my first flight I was smiling and laughing out of excitement and didn’t even feel when my saliva started going down my chin… Yeah, I didn’t really see that coming! My hair in a pony tail became all tangled; it took me more than half an hour to comb them at home after this.


The third dive was in a tandem with the instructor; he grabs your arm and leg and spirals up and down few times at a very high speed! It was an amazing experience, and added even more adrenaline to the whole experience. The speed of wind went up from about 150kph in the previous dives to over 200kph!

The last dive was at an extra cost, and they do the tandem trick only on the third one, nice marketing move. There is no photography allowed there so you can only buy their pictures at $25 each, so it was quite an expensive afternoon! The tickets to iFly vary from about $70-100, depending what time you are available to fly, so it’s not the cheapest entertainment in town. It was so worth it though!

A piece of advice for the iFly first timers: bring sports shoes and comfy, stretchy trousers; and during your dive: close your mouth, maybe smile for the pictures but do not laugh, seriously; and for ladies with long hair, hide it under your helmet to avoid the combing pain! Otherwise, you will love the experience!