Executed

I went to execute the OTP this morning. The law firm is at Clarke Quay Central and I was quite amazed to realise that the last time I went there was before COVID. I reached 20 minutes early and I decided to grab something from Donki since I did not have my breakfast yet. I had takoyaki with pumpkin mayo for $5.90. Its original price is $6.90 which is $1 more than the normal takoyaki and honestly I could not tell any special with the pumpkin mayo to justify the extra $1.

It was my first time dealing with lawyer and law firm, and all expectations were shattered. Haha... Because my friend (who is also my agent) was late, we reached about 10 minutes late than our appointment time. Yet we still had to wait for more than 15 minutes for the lawyer who was not warm, engaging, friendly and other similar adjectives. In short, not someone I will choose as a lawyer if I have the option. The worst part was a staff called me after I left to ask me to return. She said I had not signed the OTP when I was sure I already did so and I was even given the photocopy version. Luckily 1 minute after the call ended, she called me again to inform that she found the OTP -_-" So unprofessional. 

The whole process took slightly less than half an hour. It could have been shorter if I was not so noob with my new phone. The lawyer did not know I already secured a bank loan offer. Since I already have it, he asked me to send it so that I could also sign the forms pertaining to the bank. Luckily I had a copy in my email 'sent' folder since I originally saved it in my office laptop and I sent it to my own email so that I could save a copy in my personal laptop. The thing that took me so long was to figure out how to find and attach that pdf for me to send the email to the law firm.

After that I followed my friend for lunch at Hong Lim Food Centre since he was craving for the famous curry chicken noodle. Since I am not a foodie, I find nothing special. I also never try any curry chicken noodle to compare. Normally I will avoid because I do not want to risk stomachache because of the curry and I do not like white chicken because of childhood trauma. Nevertheless, I have to give it for their white chicken: tender and did not make gag.

The best learning from today is knowing the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line (TEL) better. I only knew it until Orchard so this morning I actually transferred to red line at Orchard, alight at Dhoby Ghaut to change to purple line to finally reach Clarke Quay. That is the pre-TEL aka pre-COVID route. I should have taken TEL all the way to Outram Park and change to purple line there. Lol.

With the OTP execution, there is no more turning back for me and Sophia Hills will be my new home in few weeks time. I am lying if I say I never regret about not having the opportunity to check out the most recent listing at Thomson V Two which I discovered few days ago. Nevertheless, I think it is indeed God's plan for this Sophia Hills. It is seems impossible for the dates to be mere coincidence. The seller agreed to my offer on Mother Mary's birthday (8 September) and the OTP is signed today (13 October) which again is related to Mother Mary with her final apparition at Fatima on 13 October 1917.

I certainly never plan it this way since I was given a 3-week duration for the OTP i.e. the last day is 22 October. Two weeks ago, the seller requested if I could execute before 15 October, which is 2 months before the unit handover, since he needed 2 months for his mortgage redemption. It is not a problem for me since I have the funds ready. My friend happened to be travelling to Korea and only returned on Wednesday evening. Yesterday was not possible since I only go to office on Thursdays so I have to give face a bit. Hence, today is the only possible day since tomorrow is already the weekend.

Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Mother Mary! I know none of these is possible without Your grace and blessings. Forgive my ungratefulness and activate your Spirit within me to overcome the temptations to be ungrateful, envious, angry and thinking of all the "what ifs". May You continue Your blessings so that everything will be smooth to the end.

Samsung A34 5G

I am a procrastinator when it comes to backing up and transferring data across devices. Despite the sunken power button of my Huawei Nova 3i, I was still delaying to start using my new Samsung A34 5G. The last straw was when it was impossible to press the button to lock and unlock the screen. At least I learnt that there are ways to lock and unlock the screen without using the power button. I will be using this method for my new phone so hopefully it will not have this sunken power button issue.

On Friday, I started to download necessary apps in the new phone and backed up my contacts. I transferred all photos yesterday morning and I finally started using the new phone today. The transfer was not as bad or disastrous as I thought. I only lost all the Whatsapp conversations. This noobie ended up transferring the new/blank Whatsapp in the new phone to overwrite the records in the old phone instead of the other way around. Lol.

Otherwise, this has been quite a downer weekend for me. It is unfortunately that new round of war began in Israel yesterday. I will be very disappointed if my plan to go for a Holy Land pilgrimage this November must be cancelled. I have been stressed over this since March for the visa. I even plan the timing of my property purchase around the visa application since I need to maintain a clean record for the bank statement which I will use as one of the required documents. The irony is that last week I still worried about late application since the ticket has not been issued yet and now I worry if the trip can still proceed. The good thing is that full refund will be possible since the ticket has not been issued. Too bad I already bought travel insurance last week so that is $100 wasted if the trip is cancelled. At the end of the day, it is all God's call that I was interested to visit Holy Land to begin with. So if the whole thing is called off, it is His will and plan too.

Premier shiet

Bank is only good when it comes to sucking money. The response and onboarding process were so quick after I registered my interest to join OCBC Premier Banking a few months ago. It is a complete opposite with everything that happens after that. My RM never even once contacted me to say hi lol. What an irony considering UOB and DBS called me in the past to offer insurance and investment products even though I did not have as much money as now.

Today was my first time (yay?) using the premier banking service to get a cashier's order for the 4% to execute the OTP. There was nothing premium about the whole experience. Before going down, I tried to get a queue number from the mobile app and I was told that there was no queue and I could just come down. When I reached, I was told that there were about 3 people ahead of me and I had to wait for about 30 minutes.

Part of the perks of premier banking is to have a waiting lounge with free drinks. Too bad the staff in-charge of the refreshment could not even be bothered. I sat at the bartop counter (because the other tables were lounge coffee tables which were troublesome to fill in banking form) and she did not even offer me any drinks. No wonder got people complained her as what she shared with another customer. Since I wanted to maintain my intermittent fast, I only asked for a cold water.

The staff was also very 'judgy'. I wore my usual t-shirt and bermuda so perhaps I did not look like their usual premier banking customer profile: smartly dressed or older uncles. When the teller was ready, the staff who tried to locate me asked the staff at the refreshment counter where was the "xiao di". Hahaha.. While I was happy that it was a testimony that I still looked young despite my increasing grey hair, it was quite unprofessional leh..

The teller who did the cashier's order for me was another typical grumpy auntie. There was nothing more professional than those tellers downstairs. It seems that the only edge of premier banking is to be able to sit down at a more atas lounge while waiting instead of standing in a queue.

I am considering to apply for OCBC Premier Voyage Card to pay for my stamp duties but I want to make sure that I can earn points and that I can make such a huge transaction. Another perk of premier banking that I cannot deny is shorter wait for the hotline. I learnt that I would not be able to ask for temporary increase of credit limit (apparently only situations such as wedding, hospitalisation and funeral can be considered) but I could pay the credit card with the stamp duty amount first. Unfortunately the hotline person seemed to be just a customer service officer and did not address my interest about applying for the card.

I actually already registered my interest in both 'Contact Us' forms for Premier Banking as well as the Voyage Card but noone contacted me so far despite the 'we will contact you within 1 working day', after submitting the form. The RM chat in the mobile app was not working for the past few days. Somehow it worked just now when I decided to email my RM and wanted to check the email address in the app. Let's see if I got any response on Monday.

In conclusion, nothing is premium about this whole premier banking shit. I suppose my housing loan application went smoothly few days simply because my friend knew the banker and I was giving the bank business, nothing to do with me being premier banking status. I also cannot tell if the 3.1% rate I get is just normal or slightly better. Oh well...