groupon by elements gym at gtower

In a bid to get my lazy butt to exercise, I wanted to sign up for gym. Of course there are several gym available in Kuala Lumpur. To name a few: Celebrity fitness, Myfitness, Truefitness etc etc

I have inquired rates from truefitness and celebrity fitness. To tell the truth I love the environment, classes and the facilites by celebrity fitness. Although the prices are a bit wee high and location inconvenient (parking expensive), I was in fact turn off by the way the salesperson ( could be trainer/manager/consultant also. I forgot the correct term) told me that I need to pay money to the gym so that I will work out. My own hard earned money need to be paid to the gym so that I will exercise in order to get the body shape I wanted. I find it hard to believe and reconfirm with him again. He nodded vigorously and said that even with all the free facilities why did you not exercise? In disbelief, I straight away took my leave and went out. That's bad marketing that leaves the customer unsatisfied and very unhappy. Truefitness did not manage to piss me off but after much consideration, I decided I can do my own exercises without paying anyone.

In the mean time, I went to the park to jog, my own condominium's swimming pool to swim and sometimes I used the stairs to climb to my apartment. If I feel like following classes, I will do Tiffany Rothe workout on youtube. She is an amazing trainer and her steps are easy to follow.

So when I saw groupon promoting unlimited access to elements gym in gtower for 1 month, I asked my friend to join together with me. We wanted to go to classes and workout after work since it is so near to our working place. Bought but did not use straight away due to a bout of illness. After much delaying, I called up to book a place. To my surprise when I print out my groupon I (finally) saw the fine print. This is better explained with a picture.

 See the two red boxes? Aren't they contradicting each other? First it said UNLIMITED ACCESS. Then the second red box said ONLY VALID MON-FRI 9AM-5PM. I called elements gym to straighten the matters out. Obviously they are very experienced in handling groupon customers who called in and complained about their fine print. The person straight away emphasize on the condition not available after 5pm and even have the cheek to say that everyone who was in this situation just accept it as it is. I am pretty certain at this point that every trainers/consultants in gym used too much muscle and definitely not their brain/mouth. What's the point of putting unlimited access in the first place? When I asked that, the person only can reply, "it's like that in fine print" and might be shrugging his shoulders (which I couldn't see since I am calling).

I might be paying lower amount compared to normal paying members but this is not the way to treat a paying customer. What if you want to attract me as your permanent member? I am working near there and won't mind signing up but currently, I am definitely not joining your gym. I wouldn't mind paying rm34 if I know I am buying limited access and might even consider furthering my membership with the gym. Isn't there a law or consumers act in Malaysia that protect the public from blatant misleading advertisment? Even if they put unlimited as the main title and they explained in the short paragraph that introduces elements gym that this groupon is only valid mon-fri from 9am-5pm, I won't even mind so much. Who reads fine print???? Isn't this similar to products that advertises that they are free from msg but in the list of ingredients, monosodium glutamate was listed among them?

I called up groupon as well regarding this to ask for refund and was unfortunately turned down. The person said due to the fine print listed, they can't do anything about it. I would like to retort, 'How about not allowing them to use your services to cheat customers? It is bringing down your name just for the sake of earning a few bucks.' but I bite my tongue. No use making other people unhappy over these little stuffs. Hence I am complaining on my blog. I actually bought this groupon around the same time I bought mydealmates facial HSY beauty. Am stopping groupon/dealmates/mydeals for the time being.

Lesson learned: Never ever buy anything without reading the fine print and definitely not to be cheated by the cheap price on groupon or mydeal or dealmates without reading fine prints. There are clauses or fineprints or additional add-ons by these unscrupulous businessmen just to earn more money.

HSY beauty

It was a fun-filled weekend! I managed to squeeze catching up sessions with friends and eating to my heart content. This is so long overdue and I am glad that my health is finally restored! I missed eating alot =)

On Saturday, I booked a facial appointment for me and my friend. It is a deal by mydeal.com.my and it is only rm19.90 for 2 hour spa oxygen facial treatment + face, neck & shoulder massage + door gift. HSY beauty is located in complex mutiara, jalan ipoh.

I pick up my friend from Kepong and we snaked our way through traffic (or me who was driving). Traffic in Kepong was, as usual, jam and full of motorcyclists.

It was hard to search for the shop but once I called up to ask, it was just right beside 7-11. We went in and the assistant asked us to fill up a questionnaire regarding our face skin conditions.

It is a small shop with only 3 rooms and front partition as lobby. One of the rooms has an adjoining toilet which is leaking and smells funny. Luckily I am not in that room. I was lead to a room that has mirror and gadgets. Changed into a robe for easier massage by the assistant.

The whole ordeal lasted 3 hours. I was prepped with double cleansing and after she finished extraction, the beauty assistant told me that I have sensitive and dry skin which is not suitable for this package. In order to do a treatment that is suitable for my skin, I have to pay rm49 extra. I was sleepy and blurr so I kept asking why do I need to pay extra. In the end, she offered the package for rm40 and I happily took it, snoozing back again. I slept through extraction, massage and mask. I am too tired because previous night I slept at 2.30am and I really do not feel a thing when the assistant put the metal stick with a loop (not sure of the name) at the end to my face.

The result: My face looks radiant and smooth. I am not sure the assistants praised me because my face is really good or they just want to earn money (Chinese are pretty money minded). My friend have to pay extra rm49.50 because she needs extra hydrating treatment. She also complained that her beauty assistant did not clean properly and she needs to go to toilet to rinse the cleanser from her eyes. For extraction, mine was overall clean and she didn't leave any red marks because I think she chooses which is easier to extract. My friend's extraction was done pretty badly according to her. Her pimples are picked on and it became very red afterwards. She felt that her extraction was not complete. However, I am happy with my extraction because I don't like going around with red face.

The door gift is actually a whole body scan or face scan and we are supposed to go back again. I don't think it is actually feasible to go all the way to jalan ipoh just to get my face check and corrected by massages or treatments. This might be another way to make me pay more >.<

I might not go for facial deals on any groupon/mydeal/dealmates again. I think spa deals are worth it as they cannot add additional costs to the package. This is my first time going for a facial deal. Even though rm59.90 might be cheap for the whole facial, I do feel a bit cheated for paying extra.

*happy*

Being sick is mood breaking but armed with a full stomach and my favourite magazine, I am feeling much better. No studying for now >.<

being at peace with self

In the hustle and bustle of the city where I worked, sometimes I just wonder does it really matters?
To people who are caught up in the rat race for money, good luck and take care.
I also fell victim to greed. I want to earn more money. I want to be rich and buy expensive clothes and handbags. This is materialistic thinking. I realised that when I fell sick. Not from overworking but just from some random virus that I caught in clinic. I wasn't even overexerting myself. Once I am sick, I want nothing but my health back. The saying is true, "Once you lost something, only you realised how important that something is". (I am quoting based on memory)

Why are we so obssessed with money and power?

I am still coughing consistently. It hampers my job sometimes and might caused some stress to my colleagues for fear of getting infected. I am reading too much in one go, a few books at one time, my mind is all over the place, I can't speak without coughing, I can't sleep without coughing. I got annoyed with little things (especially patients). Things I do that I thought would make someone happy but someone doesn't think so. I am making myself catering to other people's needs but what about mine? Burden, burden
To avoid overthinking, I just focussed on the present and work with it. It is not easy, I might add but sure helps keep me sane sometimes.

Reading meditation book does help me. I treasured this book more that those books that I bought. I remember back when I am still in a-level without my parents with me. I am searching for my identity (and I am still not sure that I found it yet). I was exploring ways to help me concentrate. To keep my turmultous feelings in check.

Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh is a book I got for free from Kota Kemuning Buddhist Centre. I took it back and devoured every single words. The words that present themselves calm me down and I hold on to the book. I never once let go of it during my years of study. I might not read it every night but the thought that I have the book with me give me peace. Now I am rereading it and trying to memorise it all over again. Somehow it brings back fond memories and what I cherish in my life. I am the one who is going to forge a path for myself. I am not depending on other people to decide for me. I became who I am today because I wanted to.

We might want something really bad but have we thought of the price? Isn't letting it go better? What is meant to be yours, it will be yours.

I only remember my time in college and university of being with friends and having a good laugh. Sometimes I got so caught up with the race of trying to be the best that I got so down. Then I learn to let it go. I might not be the best and I will not be the one who put others down. I am just being me

sick again

I can't believe I am being sick again after recovering for a few days. This is the third time I am being sick in 2012 =(

I thought I am still not recovering until a doctor gently corrected me.
Dr: So you have been sick for 3 times this year?
Me: No no, this is the second time.
Dr: You said that you don't have greenish sputum after taking antibiotic?
Me: But I do now after finishing my antibiotic course
Dr: Actually you recover and got sick again
Me: Ahhhhhhh so that is what you mean.....

Sigh...a sick pharmacist means blurred and tired all the time.

I am prescribed lots of rest and soft diet. There goes my weekend. I am hoping I get to see hunger games or battleship tomorrow.

hazards of being a pharmacist

A pharmacist is a highly paid job that specialized in various medicines. We are there to educate doctors on different types of medicine available and prevent mistakes from reaching patients. However, pharmacists are not appreciated and often got bullied by doctors or patients.

Hazards of being a pharmacist
1. Being sick. 
The government clinic setting is based on 60's and 70's era planning. They do not expect the population of Malaysia could increase exponentially in the years to come. (same goes with the population of pharmacists and dentists in Malaysia). So, a small clinic is expected to handle 500 patients load instead of 200 patients load. Imagine a clinic that has tuberculosis patients coming in to eat their tb medicines and mothers bringing their a-few-months-old (weak and sick) babies to clinic for treatments. Tb is an air-borne disease which could infect babies that have not fully strengthen their immune system. That is just one example. What about flu viruses or bacterias? In that outdated era, the authorities have not think about air ventilation. So, your health doesn't bode well with environment that does not have proper air ventilation. Which explains why I keep on getting sick (or it could be just plain-old-sambal )

2. Being scolded by patients.
Listen out there patients. We are there to help you. You are not helping yourself by scolding us. We can choose to ignore you but we didn't. 90% of problematic patients speak in Indonesian. It would help us if you would speak slower or if you would be able to speak bahasa malaysia since you are on Malaysia soil. Some of the problems are inevitable due to missed appointments and we can direct you to the personnel who can help you. It is not our fault because you couldn't remember your appointment dates or forget to collect your medicines at the appointed date. We repeatedly emphasized to you while we are dispensing. It is not fair that we got blamed for your own lack of concentration and poor memory. It is your health and you are supposed to take care of yourself (or your relatives).

3. Being scolded for government policies.
This is a government pharmacy in a government clinic. We are helping you (patients) to lessen your medicine costs. It would be better if you are able to abide by a few rules. Government had already stated that all medicines are only supplied for 1 months duration FROM THE PHARMACY not 6 months duration. This is to minimize medicine wastage and ensure that patients are eating correct medicines in the correct way. This is a policy that come out in view of storage problem (due to no space in small clinic) and a huge amount of medicine wastage caused by public. Do you think that we make you come every two months because we want to see you for fun? We would want to lessen our work load as well. If you came to us earlier or later then we know that you might not be eating correctly and we could educate you.
However, government did come out with a few schemes that can lessen your burden from coming to pharmacy. We have post services and 'sms take and go'. If you think collecting medicine is a waste of time and you feel that we are not doing our jobs correctly (with all the services we are providing), please feel free to buy from outside pharmacy. They will provide 6 months or more medicines willingly as long as you pay up! We are not expecting payments from you. It's just the registration counter that are money-minded. You just need to pay RM1 (malaysian citizen) or RM15 (warga asing) or free (government servant/pension/kebajikan) to them and you are taking hundreds ringgit of medicine (insulins, insulin pen, high blood pressure/diabetes/cholesterol medicines) from us. Why are you scolding us again?

4. Being overworked and underpaid
Sometimes the amount of reports due every month is a task so daunting that I feel that I could not possibly elaborate on that. That's why we are overworked with low remunerations. On the topic of underpaid, comparisons between doctors and pharmacists who worked extended hours (outside office hours in a government clinic to better serve the public) can be made. Doctors are able to claim rm80/hour for each hour they work extra. For pharmacists, we can only claim hours. Imagine you are the only pharmacist working and you have accumulated probably 48 hours, how are you going to claim because you don't have a replacement. Each pharmacy must have one  pharmacist working. Case closed.

5. Future of pharmacy in Malaysia
The future of pharmacists are quite bleak due to dispensing rights. Dispensing rights are not exclusively pharmacists. Doctors, nurses and medical assistants can dispensed. Private gps could earn alot because they prescribe and sell medicine at the same time. (Some might argue that things are changing and private gps are not earning alot but they still have dispensing right!) Compared to UK and Australia, they have a proper system to ensure that patients received utmost care and pharmacists are there as a safeguard against errors. In Malaysia, the net that could catch errors caused by private gps are removed. Inside clinic itself, there are various errors caused by medical assistants that are prevented by pharmacists which is quite scary for the rate of them occurring.
For pharmacists, if you chose not to work with government, you have to be really resourceful to find another job that really utilized your specialty or you could end up being a cosway pharmacist like everyone else. Then you have to fight for sales, advertise, make sure your turnaround is high, recruit members which inadvertently caused each and every friend of yours to run for their lives! (that would be an exagerration) So far I have not heard anything other than being a community pharmacist in a private pharmacy and sell huge amount of medicine to increase profits.

6. Being called other names
This is just my private grouse. I just hated patients who called me ah moi, jie jie, missy, nurse or doctors. You can call us by Miss or Ma'am or Cik or Puan. I used to correct patient who called me nurse or doctor. "Thank you, doctor/nurse/something-creative-those-patients-think-of*."
"I am not a doctor/nurse/something-creative-those-patients-think-of*, I am a pharmacist"
"Oh sorry. Thank you, doctor/nurse/something-creative-those-patients-think-of*"
"I am not a doctor/nurse/something-creative-those-patients-think-of*, I am a pharmacist"
"Oh thank you" (patient rolled their eyes and couldn't be bother to pronounce)

*circle where applicable

Is it so hard to enunciate pharmacist? It's just a NOUN [COUNTABLE] and you could pronounce /ˈfɑː(r)məsɪst/ according to Macmillan dictionary or you could just do bahasa baku 'far-ma-si'. Easy-peasy. Nope, in the end the patients couldn't even thank us properly. I have long since given up the attempt of correcting patients although I would give them an annoyed look if they call me ah moi/jie jie/missy/nurse. I am freaking not a nurse. I don't wear a uniform. From which part of your brain think that I am a nurse? Shakes head and just looks up to the sky.

I hate to be on the negative side but sometimes you just have to let it all go so that you are at peace with yourself. Maybe I would do a benefits of being a pharmacist when I am in a better mood. I could just scribble all the words just like the good ol doctors handwriting and leave you guessing what benefits I am talking about.

Yours sincerely,
Pharmacist

Seikisho exfoliating massage gel and sekkisei supreme washing cream

Kose products that I am currently using:

right: sekkisei supreme washing cream left: seikisho exfoliating massage gel

Seikisho exfoliating massage gel
It is unique in the sense that it doesn't have beads or rough chips in it to scrub all the dirt from the face. Upon massaging onto your face, it will feel warm and with further massage, it will turn into greyish solution. Then it would be time to wash it away. Face do feel cleaner after using. I love Shiseido's face scrub as it has little beads inside that clears the dirt away but this exfoliates well.

This was recommended by Kose SG when I wanted to buy Kose Seikiso Mask. She told me that the peel off mask will dry my face. Instead I should exfoliate more and put more toner and rice power extract serum (which does not help in the end. My face just continued to be dry and peeling off). That prompt me to change back to Shiseido (which is another topic).

Sekkisei supreme washing cream

This is a smooth with lots of foam cleanser. Whenever I use this cleanser, my face feels deeply cleanse. I actually love this more than kose white liquid wash which I think doesn't really clean my face. I just love how this lathers up and feeling so smooth on my face. Then I would massage my face gently and feel all the dirt melt away. Bliss!

Abrupt end of post

Cheers