Almighty Guarantee

So I have had an Osprey day-pack. It's awesome. Period. Can't ask more from a backpack. It has been with us everywhere we have ever been solo or together. So since we bought the bag, it has been to more places than we individually have ever been. It's been 5+ years now of owning the bag, and trust me when I tell you it has been through a lot of abuse. Two instances of crazy abuse are:

1. Once I managed to melt an entire bar of a Macadamia nut milk chocolate inside the bag. It was a sticky gooey mess with ants partying, but I washed it and the bag turned out to look brand new
2. We took it into the sulfur fumed crater of the Ijen mountain and covered ourselves and the bag with crazy sulfur fumes. I threw away my clothes and my shoes, but the Osprey survived and after washing a few times it even lost its pungent sulfur smell

Ijen Crater within the Sulfur Fumes

Naturally after using it for so long I was expecting something to give way. A month ago the "zipper holders" broke. I was thinking now it's time for the backpack to retire. However Osprey gives this "almighty guarantee" which sort of says that Osprey would fix any backpack however old it is for a defect. I was skeptical at first, cause zipper holders are made of plastic and these things eventually do wear out even if there is no defect.

So I was pleasantly surprised that Osprey, replaced all 3 of my zip holders for free no questions asked. Now I have a worn-out Osprey with new zip loops ready for my next adventure! Another reason why my next backpack would again be an Osprey.

Corporate Humanity

A few weeks ago I twisted and hurt my ankle quite bad. I had a business trip lined up right after that fateful day, and I had to cancel it. I had non-refundable tickets so I had given hopes of getting any refunds at all.

Just to try my luck, I wrote to the hotel and to the airline indicating that I am unable to fly because of my medical condition and attached my doctor's medical certificate. I am pleasantly surprised that both of them made an exception, and refunded my non-refundable reservations without any penalties. They were pleasant, responsive and did it without any administrative delays/ hassles to me.

I am amazed and my faith in humanity is restored again. I am glad that there are still human beings on the other side making such decisions (and delighting customers). It's not just an AI engine managing everything!

Thank you Hilton and thank you Air China for being nice to me. I am not a special (read gold/elite/platinum etc.) customer of either of them, yet they treated me well. Emails were responded and calls were picked up!

Entertaining F1

Whoever arranges the Singapore F1 is crazy good at business. While not everyone enjoys race cars and F1, almost everyone enjoys "entertainment". And almost everyone likes to go to live concerts. So if you can't get them to see the cars, then get them to see the concerts. What a brilliant way to make money!

Every year Singapore F1 organizers get musicians to perform at the F1 venue on all 3 days of the race weekend. A lot of big names have visited Singapore in the last decade that they have hosted the night race. While, I have almost completely stopped following F1, I still made it to the race this year, mainly because I wanted to see Fatboy Slim and Red Hot Chili Peppers perform live. Imagine seeing 2 concerts in one day just hours apart, jumping, screaming and head banging! (don't imagine the delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) at my age)

Both concerts were very amazing. Here are my summarized thoughts ;):

Fatboyslim looks like Kevin Costner. I had never seen how he actually looks like, so it was a pleasant surprise. He also happens to be the first DJ act that I saw live. I am amazed at how many things a single person can do with whatever heck of a magical device that DJ Turntable is (yeah I know I am underestimating his talent - you give the same table to me, and all I could probably do is generate a lot of cacophony)

RHCP were amazing. So much energy. 2 hours of non-stop music. They didn't even take a 15 second break between their numbers. The stage was alive the entire time. I am amazed by their energy. All these bands are a constant reminder of how old I am getting and how soon! They were young when I heard them growing up, now they too are a bunch of very energetic uncles!