Please reply Chan to tell her if you are going to send Mr Ward off okay! And we bought him a card! :D

WE NEED SOME RESPONSE

ClASss!

In continuation to waimin's previous post.
I suggest we meet at 5.30pm. Can eat dinner at the airport! HAHha it has been a long time since iv been there:DD
Btw, we have finally decided to make cookies and sugee cakes for Ms ward and his family. Who's interested to help please let me know leh. THe blog super dead.
Should be going to Ross's house if she's free.

Ok thats all. WHOS GOING PLEASE DROP ME AN SMS!! RESPOND PPL RESPOND!!!!!!

cjiam

27 November 2009

Hello All,

New post here because all the other entries are pushing the previous post down!

Anyway.

Mr Ward's flight:
Date: Dec. 22
Flight: Qantas Flight QF 52, Changi Terminal 1
Time: 10pm

Let's meet
Time: 8pm (I'm not sure what time to meet actually, if you think it's too late/early pls suggest a time!)
Location: Changi Airport MRT Control

Please SMS / email me or tag if you are going or thinking of going (or even if you are coming slightly later) so I can roughly know when we will wait until. Thanks!

mr ward

Class!!!

Me and waimin bought a very cute card for Mr Ward! Whos going to send him off? Tell me so that we can split cost k. Sms me or something once u r free:) Anywae, we planning to buy him a farewell gift, bt dont really know what to buy.

Any ideas please tell me also k. Thank you!!

Have a great time ahead my dears! JIAYOU for those who havent ended their As:D

loves, jiamin chan

Books.

Note: Please remember to look at Wai Min's post below this!

Update: http://ed-t.blogspot.com/2009/11/books-update.html

Every now and then, a debate over the decline in the popularity of read in Singapore pops up, and some arguments inevitably point out that most books in Singapore, barring local titles, remain prohibitively expensive for the general consumer. I agree. Wholeheartedly! Since I’m supposed to get back to my notes now (for the record, I’m referring to leisure reading material, as opposed to the academic, although they may at times overlap), I’ll cut this short.

The motivation for this post came about from my search for the book “The Audacity to Win” by David Plouffe. Without any discounts, it costs S$54.04 here, which is, pardon my French, bloody expensive.

Hence, I did what any rational modern consumer would do. I searched for alternatives online. Here are the numbers.

Buying from Amazon and shipping direct to my doorstep costs S$35.38.
Buying from The Book Depository and shipping direct to my doorstep costs S$39.25.
Buying from Open Trolley and shipping direct to my doorstep costs S$42.50.

Of the three, Open Trolley delivers within 4 to 7 days because it’s local, while The Book Depository (UK) takes 7-14 days, and Amazon (US) 18-32 days.

However, my sister wanted another 2 books, “Too Big to Fail” by Anthony Ross Sorkin, and “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense” by Larry Mcdonald, and since Borders SG sent me a discount coupon for 30% off 3 full-priced books, I thought we might as well support a traditional brick-and-mortar shop.

But it turns out that Borders doesn’t stock Plouffe’s book (OMGWTFBBQ?), so we got the other 2 for 20% off.

The unavailability is saddening, but the thing that really miffs me is that even with 30% off, the book, if bought locally (from Borders, Kinokuniya or Times), is still more expensive than Amazon Direct at S$37.83. The only perk, if it were available, is the instant gratification in contrast to the waiting time.

But since it’s the exams now, and I probably can only find the time for it after the 25th, I’ll probably go and try out The Book Depository. Amazon Direct (using the cheapest shipping option) takes far too long, and Open Trolley, while local (buy home-grown!), is a tad expensive and comes too soon. Haha.

So here’s the moral of the story: Always compare the online prices of the books you want against its list prices in local shops.

More next time.


PS: I know the GP content package thingy says there are other width points about libraries and ebooks, but I need to go off now! Plus they suck.

04 November 2009

Hello everyone.

As you guys might already know, Mr Ward's leaving at the end of this year. Anyone keen to go to the airport to send him off please leave a comment for this post.

The date / time is not confirmed yet, but it's likely to be on the 22nd of Dec, morning. I'll be getting a huge farewell card and you guys can write messages when we meet up; do also bring along any small presents / tokens of appreciation that you'd like to give to Mr Ward.

[ I'll post up details on the class blog when he gets back to me, and sms those who have indicated interest in going. ]

Wai Min

Enright Affair.

When we were PC-ing a poem by DJ Enright some time back, Whitby was telling us about Enright's stint in Singapore as a Literature Professor. Apparently the whole incident was called the "Enright Affair", and as recently as 2004 it was invoked in the discussion revolving around the Esplanade. If you're doing culture for GP, maybe this might help. Haha.

Here's an excerpt from "Singapore: the unexpected nation" (found via Google Books). It's enlargeable if you cant read it properly. And a page is missing, but you'll still get the gist of it.







And here's Enright's obituary. IMO, obituaries are better summaries of a person's life than Wikipedia.

Out.