Great stay at the Singapore Intercontinental Hotel

I recently had to make some last minute travel to Singapore for work.  I didn't think it would be a problem until I had tried all the company approved hotels and no rooms were available for my entire stay.  Finally I decided to compramise and go with the Intercontinental which had 3 out of the 4 nights available.  I figured it wouldnt be that tough to find a room for the missing night. 

There must have been some major conference going on since despite trying 10 different hotels I couldn't find a room.  I became a regular fixture at the Singapore Intercontiental front desk checking to see if a room for my missing night had been found.  No fault of the hotel but the entire city was completely booked.  

I big thanks to front desk employee Josiah and his manager who, despite everything was able to find me a room.  Kudos to the hotel for not only finding me a room but also ensuring I didn't have to change rooms multiple times.  They accomplished this by upgrading me to a higher level suite and letting me stay in the suite for the entire stay. 

Personal thanks to Josiah who was very helpful and not only went out of his way to find me a room, but also was available the numerous times I had questions about the local area. I am not sure if I should be thanking him though, since thanks to his excellent shopping advice I bought more things than I was planning! Thank you!

On the service note, one more story and thank you to unnamed Intercontinental staff member, the tailor!  I sent my blazer down for ironing and got a phone call from the housekeeping staff asking me if I wanted my buttons changed!  They noticed that a few of my jacket buttons were broken and replaced all buttons with a matching set!  Small things like this are great for creating customer satisfaction and a memorable stay.  Thank you!

Website for Singapore Intercontinental

My Favorite Ted Talks

This is one of my favorite Ted talks.  So no long post for right now, but just something to get back into the groove.  The company I work for recently sent out the link to a ted talk on Stress.  I enjoyed the video and it got me thinking of my favorite Ted talks and I can't resist re-sharing my number favorite talk till date.  

The concept of continuous improvement is great in theory, but tough to implement.  In addition to constantly being aware of good things to learn, we also have to continusly critically assess our selves to determine the gaps to work on. It's one thing to go to one extreme or the other... ie - "I have no faults to work on", or "I am terrible and have to work on everything". I guess the secret lies in finding the right balance!

My Favorite Ted Talk - How great leaders inspire action

Another great talk - How to make stress your friend

Hotel Review - Lemon Tree Hotel Chandigarh

Lemon tree is one of my favorite hotels. The Chandigarh hotel delivers good value for clean, pleasant and warm accommodation. Lemon Tree has done a great job of creating a unique ambiance that is more home-like than hotel-ish. This is always a pleasant experience for frequent travelers who get sick of the same-old-same-old generic hotel experience.

I did have a few reservations about the hotel. Specifically felt the housekeeping was not up to the mark. No humongous misses, but a few minor "forgets" that you wouldn't expect from a hotel with like the Lemon Tree. Spent two nights there and on both nights housekeeping "forgot" at least 3 standard items like removing used cups, replacing tea spoons, replacing used bathroom accessories.

The bed sheets / duvet covers were some of the worst I've ever used, not sure if it was the quality of the cotton but they were covered by the small pokey balls of cotton that were extremely uncomfortable. Ended up having to remove the covers and request some extra sheets which were marginally better.

The major disappointment for me was on the food front. Below average cuisine, tried both the Chinese and Indian. Breakfast was also one of the less appetizing varieties I've found at LT hotels. Had a similar experience with dinner where we even asked the Chef to taste the food and he admitted there was too much salt, making it inedible.

To summarize, I'd go back to the Lemon Tree in Chandigarh for the good people, pleasant ambiance despite the lackluster food and minor housekeeping misses. Only the most anally retentive individuals such as myself will notice the last point.

Room Tip: Check the sheets/ duvet covers for softness before you turn in for the night!

Check out my Review on Trip Advisor

Morbidly Aweseome feature… Google Inactive Account Manager service

So I had this really surreal experience which I wanted to share with you guys. It’s sort of morbid so I apologize in advance!

I’m Not sure how many of you know about Google’s “Inactive Account Manager” service. Basically it’s just a pleasant name for an “e-Will”. What do you want Google to do with all your Google stuff after you… well.. die. Maybe not so important for some but very important for others like me that use Google drives for storing of key information on bills, investments etc. The kind of information you would want to pass on to others after you are… unavailable… to put it mildly.

The surreal experience was writing an email to Rashmi which I knew would only get delivered if I didn’t access my gmail account for 3 months, something which has never happened. Once I started writing the email, and the situation under which she would ever read such an email sunk in, there was so much I wanted to write in addition to the mundane logistics of which bills need to be paid by when.

Anyways, as morbid as the experience was, I encourage those of you that have made it this far in my diatribe to use this feature if you are a heavy google user and want to ensure that people have access to your google account in the unlikely event you are indisposed for an extended period of time.

Basically what it does is let you compose an email to up to 10 individuals and assign them access to your various google sites (Youtube, Picasa, Gmail, Google Drive etc). In the even that you don’t access your account for 3 months, and after Google has tried to contact you via alternate email and SMS, Google will send the email to the identified individuals along with providing them access to the services you selected.

It’s actually very useful so I encourage you to sign up for the service.

https://support.google.com/accounts/topic/3075532?hl=en&ref_topic=2864354

To iPad or not

Since I'm in the market for a tablet computer I've been reading articles on the various options.  As an avid and satisfied iPhone user my first choice is to go for an iPad.  At the same time as the father of a growing infant that will (I'm sure) eventually want to go to college my thoughts have started turning towards saving some money.  Normally I would be the last person to even consider anything except the iPad but of late I've also been looking at some of the other options.

A frequent complaint that people voice about the Android market is the level of fragmentation.  I had the same problem when I started delving into the world of Android tablets.  It's just too dang confusing!  I got lost in the sea of combinations, different version of the operating systems, different manufacturers and numerous options within each! 

I've narrowed down the competition to the Kindle Fire and the iPad.  Both these choices are being driven by being a satisfied consumer.  The majority of my "e-time" is spent between the iPhone and my Kindle e-ink reader and while they both have two distinct functions, I'm extremely satisfied with both.

There are a number of in-depth reviews avaiable online.  I love the responsiveness and the display quality of the iPhone.  I also love the stuff that just works... mainly web pages.  There is a marked difference between how web pages look on the iPhone versus my Samsung android phone.  It comes down to whether or not I'm willing to risk the quality of the user experience for saving some money.  The small annoying things like a laggy interface and non-responsive screen can make the difference between the tablet being a daily usage device or a display piece.   

So I guess this is as far as I've gotten. I'm leaning towards the iPad but eventually the cost concious side of me may prevail and I'll end up with the Kindle Fire.  Needless to say if the sensible wife prevails then I'll end up with neither!   

Trying out Spotify

I just got my Spotify invite and account so trying it out. So far seems pretty good, since I've been away from Detroit had really lost track of all the latest music. Spotify is letting me listen to lots of new music without having to make the committment to buy the songs!

In case you are also planning on joining, or have just joined spotify then check out this post from Lifehacker.com, pretty useful. Will keep you update on how well musically satiated spotify keeps me!

The Essential Spotify Tools

Humerous Irony

So as usual it has been a while since we have been able to post anything to the web site.  It's funny, when I was younger I could not wait to grow up, and now as I move towards the proverbial mid-life I find myself wishing a way to turn back the clock!  It might just be a case of the grass being greener on the other side of the, once again ...proverbial fence, but who is to say.   

I digress though from what is supposed to be an update post on the web site, but bear with me for a few more moments.  I wonder where all the time went, what happened to the dreams and optimism that we come to this world with.  In contrast to how I feel I see the innocence in my daughters eyes, and experience the novelty of being alive through her.   The shock, and joy, of knowing that someone that was just 10 short months ago a thing, a biological component in her mothers womb, today has thoughts and views of her own is quite an eye opener.   

So when was the turning point in my own life, was it when I hit 30, moved to India or got the responsibilities of marriage?  Knowing what I do now I'd venture that there is no simple answer.  How many of us can identify that single moment when life turned, that one instant in time when the sweet milk of optimism curdled into the bitter dregs of realism.  *sigh*   

But it's not all doom and gloom.  I may not have the optimistic potential of my own future to look forward to, but I eagerly await to see what life has in store for my offspring.  The seasons have bloomed and I have reaped all that I sowed in my own life, but now there is the excitement of ploughing the field for the next generation.   

[FYI - for those of you who may not have realised it, this was written with a tinge of ironic humor and not to be taken seriously!!!]