[Day 1] Our Family Trip to Bangkok (BKK), Thailand

Sorry for this super "late" Bangkok (BKK) trip writeup which I have drag more than 6 months since December 2012 till now. And for friends and readers who have follow me on my Instagram or Facebook Page, you would probably know that we just had just returned from our awesome Taiwan trip last week. So in order to pen down as many memories as possible on our travel experiences for future reference, I need to first clear our BKK backlogs before I could start sharing something on our recent trip on Taiwan.

Visiting Singapore Mail Processing Centre (MPC) @ Eunos Branch

A few weeks back we were being invited to visit Singapore Mail Processing Centre at Eunos Branch by SingPost. It's was a fun and educating trip where we learn how mails are being process after we drop them into the post box. I am sure most of us are not aware of how our mails are being sort through the different process before it reached the receivers. And it was only after tour that we realised there are so many steps and work involved in order to deliver our daily mails despite of the minimum postage of 26 cents stamps that we paid.

Everyday SingPost deal with an average of 3 millions over postal items and although most of the sorting process are being operated by machines with minimum human help but still about 20% or less of the mails with undetectable addresses (not written in English) or bulky items are being manually sorted by human.

In order to provide better services to their customers, SingPost will be going through some major upgrade on their Mailing Process systems in July 2013 to prepared future demands on a better postal services.

Bar Code Sorter reads the ID tag on stamped mail and prints destinations bar code on envelopes at 35,000 per hours.

Corporate Mails takes up about 80% of the daily postal items.

Manual stamping for large and bulky mails with hand written address that could not be fixed and detected by the Bar Code Sorter.

Operators trying to captured the image of the printed address on the mails and sent them out for sorting.

My boy was excited to be able to try out the mail processing system.

Different types of "stamping" such as pre-paid postage, stamps and franking found on the envelopes. 

Just for your information, more than 90% of the basic mails are being delivered on the next day delivery which can be considered as the best service record in the world.

Other than handling basic and corporate mails, each day on an average SingPost has about 14,000 undeliverable mails/items due to wrong or unrecognizable address as well as no trace of return address. These mails/parcels are then held for at least 3 months for the owners to claim. But after the dateline those items which could not be donated to the Red Cross will be automatically disposed without being opened.

For kids who sent their letters to Santa Claus during the month of  November and December, SingPost will still help to send them to the home of Santa Claus in Finland out of goodwill.

Beside those undelivered mails/parcels, we were also amazed on those loose items that being put into the post box each day. On and off SingPost will received loose items like toys, books, wallets, identification cards cards and etc in the post box island wide together with the rest of the mails. SingPost will then consolidated those items and sent them in bulks to the related banks or government departments. 

Photo Credit: SingPost

For your reference SingPost do offers a wide range of options to help customers to deliver their documents and parcels including fast delivery and standard delivery services within Singapore and overseas (over 200 countries). Depending on your items, you could select the type of deliver services accordingly to your preference by referring to the chart above.

A.M. Mail is a postage-paid local delivery service that offers an earlier delivery time for urgent mail. Customers may choose from either Letterbox Delivery (SG$2.60) or Doorsteps Delivery (SG$3.90)to deliver their mail (maximum weight is 300g) in a postage-paid A.M. Drop the envelopes at any of SingPost's posting boxes during the regular mail collection hours and the mail will be delivered to the recipients not later than 11.00am the next working day.

SmartPac is a postage-paid postal service for delivery anywhere in Singapore within the next working day at a fixed price of SG$4.70 which comes with free packaging box for delivery up to 3kg. On top of it, SmartPac also provide an easy online Track And Trace access which allows customer to check the whereabouts of their package 24hrs a week too.

For those who stays around 5 mentioned area stated below, POPStation or "Pick Own Parcel Station" is a new pilot phase system which allows selected customers (vPOST members or customers with SingPost/Speedpost Deliver Advice) to collect their parcels 24hrs a week at the designated  5 POPStation such as:-

- Bishan Community Club
- NUS Stephen Riady Centre
- Sengkang Community Club
- Singapore Post Centre
- Tanglin Post Office

Other than postal services, SingPost also handles Basic Banking Services, Financial Services, Remittance and many other services.On the go, you could also download SingPost Mobile App on Apple iOS and Google Android which will help you to track parcels, locate a post office, find a postal code or calculate postage and etc in just with a few clicks.

[Wordless Wednesday] Cuisine Paradise Breakfast Ideas #1

Parents World Junior Chef Workshop And Competition

Photo Credit:- Parents World Magazine

Time flies, about two years back in 2011 I was engaged by Parents World Magazine for their Great Kids Cookout event to in-charge the Pizza and Bento workshop which you could read about it here. And this year, we are back with them at ARC (Alexandra) with more exciting workshop for your kids from 22 - 30 June 2013.

There are two work stations each handle by Chef Catherina Hosoi and Ellena Guan (me) for this Junior Chef Workshop such as:- Soup and Dessert (by Chef Catherina Hosoi), Bento and Pizza Toast (by Ellena Guan). To register for the workshop, simple just spent a minimum of S$30.00 at ARC or VivoCity from 31 May to 30 June. Below are some samples of the pizza toast and bento which will be taught during the workshop.

Creative Pizza Toast that will brighten up your kid's day as well as boost up their appetite for fussy eater with bits and pieces of the colourful ingredients in it.

Simple recipe on how to make Pizza Toast

Instead of the usual "rice" Onigiri, in this workshop we replace rice with another daily staple food like bread for a change and it's also easier for kids to handle too. I am sure the kids will be thrilled to receive a colourful breakfast/lunch bento set like this.

So do drop by ARC this school holiday from 22 - 30th June and pick up your kid's desire workshop to hands-on as well as bring back some yummy food to feast on. See you there!

Photo Credit: Parents World Magazine

On top of the Junior Chef Workshop mentioned above, VivoCity will be collaborating with Parents World Magazine to organise the ‘Junior Chef’ Competition 2013' for children aged 5 to 12 years old. This competition is categorised into two age-groups such as:-

5 -  8 Years Old
Cake Decoration Competition where younger kids get to demonstrate their budding creativity through designing their own Cake.

9 - 12 Years Old
Whereas for the older kids, they will need to whip up a mouth-watering sweet delight for the Dessert Making category.

Winners for both categories will walk away with a range of attractive prizes! So do sign up your kid of this Junior Chef Competition to showcase their interest in cake designing and cooking.