NS45 Benefits for NSmen

Update - 27 May 2013:

Yesterday, I spent all my $100 voucher on milk powder, baby diapers, toilet rolls, etc at the NTUC fairprice. The cashier was telling me that some got $80 and I was lucky to get $100. Well, I told her that it depends on the NS status.

I have yet to receive my HometeamNS-passion card. I called NS45 and they told me that my particulars are missing. I asked them what I have missed and they told me to give them my email address and phone number. This is strange as they had my mailing address and I had received the vouchers. I asked the counter lady at the HomeTeamNS club, and it seemed that there are delays in sending the cards. I hope that they should give later expiry date since I have not gotten my card. Anyway, I asked the NS45 counter lady to print out the letter and I can still continue to use my expired card.

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Last week, I received my $100 worth of HomeTeamNS and a year's free HomeTeamNS membership. This is to commemorate the 45th Anniversary celebrations of National Service (NS) in Singapore and to thank the National Servicemen for their dedicated service to the nation. As I have completed the ORNS training cycle, I have entitled to $100 worth of vouchers and one year free membership.

This may not be a big amount but at least we are recognised for our service to the nation. The vouchers are valid for one year and you will need your ID card to use the vouchers.

Most of my colleagues have not received them and well, there are over 900k NSmen which will take more time for the personalised vouchers to be printed and delivered via mail.

So, for those who have not received the vouchers, please have some patience and the vouchers will be in your mailbox soon.

NS45 Benefits

Phewtick app - no more ticket system

I was about to delete my Phewtick app when I saw the email from Phewtick that the meet-up ticket system has been removed. Oh yes, I got the cash in my paypal account. However, it was much less than I thought when I compared with my colleague who cash-out few weeks before me. I got about ¥1680 as compared to my colleague who got ¥2040.

The new rule is that you get unlimited meet-up tickets but you can only scan the same person after 1 hour. However, I think the number of points you will get will be very little and I just got 9 points for meeting someone.

Anyway, probably I will just keep it so that if someone wants to scan me, I will get to have points and maybe another cash-out in the near future.

9999 Meet-up tickets

Check-in at Zurich Airport

Going home today... Now waiting at Gate E67 for SQ flight back to Singapore.

My colleague buys two cups of coffee because we are trying to get rid of our coins... Wow, two cups for CHF10.20... That is pretty expensive.

Hotel Sedartis & Zurich Lake

We arrived in Zurich on 11 Mar morning and managed to check-in the rooms at 9am. After freshening ourselves up, we made our way to our company.

In the evening, we went to the Zurich Lake and took some photographs of the lake and swan. There are ferries/boats running along the lake to ferry people and cars.

Zurich Lake

It is snowing in Zurich now...

My colleague told me that it will snow this Thursday, 14 Mar... Well, it is snowing now...

Sitting in the conference room and looking outside of the windows, I can see the snow coming down from the sky. It is picturesque.

On Wednesday, we went to have dinner at Adlisberg. It is located on the hilltop and my colleague told me that it is very near to FIFA headquarters. My colleague was using his GPS to navigate up the hill.

My colleague and I standing outside the Adlisberg in the snow

We passed by the Dolder Grand hotel and were impressed with the design and the castle towers. I was wondering how the hotel guests go down the hill to the city area.

Over the last 2 days, we went to two different restaurants to have lunch. One is Ban Thai http://www.restaurantbanthai.ch/ at Adliswil. I ordered a shrimp set meal and it was quite hot and spicy. However, being an asian, it was not that spicy as we are used to eating chilli. I would say that the European will probably need a lot of water to go with this.

The other restaurant that we went is Gasthof Rose http://www.roserueschlikon.ch/. There were seven of us and we all ordered the garlic chicken set menu. We managed to empty the plates and I would say that the taste and texture were quite nice.

Gasthof Rose in Ruschlikon

The decor in Gasthof Rose is quite nice. It has a few unique "time-piece" and pendulum liked devices.

Business trip to Zurich - Confirmed

The business trip to Zurich is confirmed. I will be leaving tonight for Zurich and arriving tomorrow morning. The weather in Zurich now is zero to minus degrees. I hope it is not too cold for me. I can endure cold but not hot weather. So, I hope the clothings that I bring will be enough.

The flight is full and I cannot change the aisle window seat to the centre column aisle. I heard from my colleague who is travelling with me that there will be snow on Thursday.

If I have the time, I will do a bit of blogging and update the interesting things that I see in this trip. I hope that I can sleep in the plane as I will be going to the Zurich office in the morning when I landed. The hotel check-in time is probably afternoon and we will not be able to check-in in the morning.

See you and good night... get to go to the airport soon...

Phewtick App - Can cash out finally

Finally, I have accumulated 24000 points which I can cash out to my Pay-Pal account. As you can see from the photos that 24K points have been deducted and left with 72 points. It will take about 15 days to receive the money into my Pay-Pal account. My colleagues have already cashed out and they have verified that they did indeed receive the money. I think Phewtick has run out of its charm and most people have deleted the app from their smartphones.

Phewtick probably will need to come up with a better way to attract existing and new users to download and use the app. Now, I think the craze is candy crush which my colleagues are playing. However, I don't think I will download the app as I'm not a fan of playing game on my iPhone. The screen is a bit small for me to play comfortably on it.

I will update again once I receive the money into my Pay-Pal. In the meantime, if you are near 24K points to cash out, just keep scanning and you will have your chance to cash out. After that, you can decide whether to continue using the app or delete it forever.

Phewtick app - Cash out

Phewtick apps - update

It has been almost a month since I last blogged on Phewtick apps. There are a few changes to the rules and now you can scan each other 2D barcode every minute. However, you need to have meet-up tickets to gain meet-up points. You can get more Phewtick meet-up tickets by downloading apps via Tapjoy. If you don't want to download the apps, you can wait for random meet-up tickets everyday. Just open the Phewtick apps after midnight and you will receive 2 to 9 random meet-up tickets. You will only be given once every day. A few colleagues have already successfully cashed out the money. I'm now at 17881 points. I will need 24000 points in order to cash out. I will cash out at 24000 and delete this apps. A bit pointless apps and I hope people will not be too engrossed in this. Get a life....

My current points

Random meet-up points
(fr 2 to 9) each day

"Spring" water from the hilltop Bukit Gombak

When I'm driving along Bukit Batok West Avenue 5, I always notice water flowing down the particular drain even when there is no rain. I happened to walk by the drain today and noticed that the water flow was quite strong. I guessed that there must be a catchment basin somewhere up the hill. I went to search the map and noticed that there is a blue catchment area and the drain is in between Block 383 and Bukit Gombak MRT station. 

When I was young, I heard of people using the "spring" water in Bukit Batok/Gombak area to wash their cars. Some people said that after using the water to wash their cars, they would strike lotteries. I wondered whether the 4D numbers were the car registration numbers or just some random numbers. I think it is that the water is quite clean and the fact that it is free, people will just scoop from the drain and use it to wash their cars. However, I have not seen anyone used the water to wash their car since I moved in to this estate. Well, if you are the one who used the water to wash your car and you have struck lotteries regularly, you can leave your comments and experiences here.