Memorial Day Holiday!!!

Oh Yeah!!! Its holiday today! That means no work, no sweat, no greasy hands...just plain old lazy man, slacking and resting his tired body. Just went for a shopping spree yesterday (IT WAS MEMORIAL DAY SALES) and I gonna let my tired body take a break today from those travelling and shoppings walking.

Manage to hook up to the internet at the local Starbucks thus giving me the great oppurtunity and time to update you guys on my life in the WEST althought I got to drive for 5 mins to reach Starbucks. No free internet access here at starbucks but I manage to get a free 24hrs "Day Pass" account from the counter so I could surf for free at the moment. Its a real handicap without internet access.

Mmm....1 coffee, 1 lap top and free wireless access for the first 24hrs.....

GETTING AROUND IN TEXAS Dallas

Life in Texas, or Dallas county to be exact or Coppell City to be accurate have so far been an eye opener for a first timer like me. This place is huge! In fact places are so much of a distance apart that everyone really got to have a car for mobility to work, supermarket, makan and chiong. Without a car is like without a leg or should I put it this way, “Without Car is like without your “Kar” (Leg in Hokkien).” Even the staffs at the 7-Eleven store near my workplace drive something with four wheels. So cars are essential here but with the rising petrol price now at US$3.03 per gallon (S$1.32 per litre) driving have make people slightly poorer.

Getting a driving license here is a joke for Singaporean. For just US$26, you can have 3 tries on your theory test and 3 tries on the practical test. You could literally get you pass your license within a day or the worst in two weeks depend on how free you are. I got my US driving license within the a day. Last time I spend close to S$2000 and many failures to get that prestigious Singapore license, imagine that.

The guy at the bottom obviously look happier with his US$26 Drivers license compare to the depressed looking and "Blue" guy at the top who spend S$2000

SHOPPING!!! Cause theres nothing else to do..

So what is the favorites weekend past times we guys have here? Weekend bargain hunting. Every weekend the 3 major electronic mall, Circuit City, Fry’s Electronic and COMP USA always advertise on the newspaper all the stuff they have for discount which range from 20% to FOC (Free of Charge)! Yes you heard it right, FOC! Just last week I got my powerful lap top at US$1199 a discount from US$1499 and a Microsoft Wireless Laser mouse+Keyboard at US$19 down from US$49.90.

Bargain hunters from Singapore

Close up shot of the workhard in the weekdays and shop-hard in the weekend creatures

Fantastic discount but with a catch. Every discounted stuff here are all about Mail-In rebates. Which means I am actually buying the laptop at US$1449 and the store will give me a rebate receipt to mail in to the manufacturer or distributor to claim for my US$200 discount which will be mail back to me in 1 or 2 months time provided,
I follow the rebate application instruction strictly. No missing details and supporting documents
The mail is not lost enroute to destination
The guy on the other side processing my application did not lost my mail
Mail is not accidentally thrown away by the rebate center staff.
I e-mail and call to pester them for the money if it was not send back to me in time.

Some colleague I knew actually have send in the application and have not get anything at all. Thus its take a lot of effort from the customer’s side to get that deserved discount as advertised on paper. I am currently waiting for US$150+US$15+US$5 rebates to be processed. That’s a lot of money isn’t it? And a lot of homework to prepare the application and follow up work to track those individual rebates. In any case,, even without the rebate the price of electronics’ are cheaper here compare to Singapore. So another saying goes, “Anything running on Electricity is cheap in US”.

Gonna go now. Update you guys again next time. Finish off here with a very nice picture taken at Tokyo Narita International Airport taken during my transit flight to US....