or not

hmm... might consider taking back what i said about hmv singapore. it's really such a love-hate relationship we have!

well this morning i decided to give hmv heeren a call to find out if 50 first dates dvd is out. (not that i'm a big adam sandler fan or anything, i had to find a dvd for review for work - streats is very poor, no budget and no tie-ups.)

so i call the main number and a v grumpy girl answered with an inaudible mumbled "HMV" i asked if this was the right number to call to ask about dvds. she said, "you hold on ah" in a grumpy, couldn't care less attitude. not that i expected anything better of course.

but i was surprised when a guy from the dvd retail section answered the phone. he was polite and attentive! wow! i asked abt the dvd, he said it wouldn't be out until July. So i asked if there were any new releases. He said he wasn't sure whether these dvds were for this week or the next but he gave me a nice longish list of dvds. Willingly. not grumpily. but relatively cheerfully. i was very impressed. good on you gregory!

btw, am also q impressed with Janet from the Japanese embassy here. had been shuttled back and forth to the consulate department etc until I somehow got put through to Janet. Explained the situation (by this time had explained it several tiems already, and still was difficult to explain) she listened, told me she would see how she could help me out and clarified some details with me.

I called her again (i've learnt that a lot of times, have to be majorly pushy to get the point across) this morning and she said she had already asked some other department and they are making the relevant phone calls. it's a bit of a tricky issue i guess cos Singaporeans dont need a visa to get into japan but what if you're signing off from a commercial vessel? what happens then? no one seems to know and i dont want to call japan again and have pp say moshi moshi to me and then rattle something in japanese.

i just hope i can get this situation resolved ASAP. then i can start the wheels turning. and i have a lot of wheels to turn...