The Wannabe Economist

It has been a couple of years since the $10 haircut in 10 minutes was brought into Singapore and now the EC House and QB House are gaining large following amount the working class in town and heartlanders alike.

I vaguely remembered that the first such establishment that was set up in this little red dot is the QB House. The QB (Quick Barber) House was founded in Japan and yada yada yada. You can read the history at the Economist website here.

On the other hand, EC House is an investment by several Hong Kong stars and i’m not too sure whether the it came from Hong Kong or it spread from here to Hong Kong. In any case, when QB House failed to gain popularity here for a while after they set foot on the island, EC House came up and now EC House is all around Singapore.

I could try to come up with a game structure around this incumbent and entrant game here to explain what happened and what could have been done but i shall save it for another time and another place.

I have been visiting EC House for about a year now, after finishing my NS in Sembawang and decided that cutting hair at Chong Pang is certainly out of the way. For $6 or $7, i could get a good haircut at a neighbour salon, but if i walk over it would take 25 minutes and busing over would take around 15-20 minutes, depending on waiting time.

So the EC House at Citilink is a convenient choice. It does a good job too, and it’s now more in the way. Recently, i tried the QB House at Millania Walk. Huh where’s that? It’s the shopping mall sandwiched between Suntec and Marina Sq. Having read about the development of QB House and later the EC House on the local newspaper and then the competition between the two, i have my own set of opinion now after trying out the service on both sides.

EC House - plenty outlets around. Sometimes i pop by the Suntec one because hidden in one corner not near the building closer to Citilink, it is usually empty. Same for Funan outlet which is near school. However, i suspect that the hygience policy is unfortunately, not uphold by the staff on several visits. They did not give the comb to the customer after the haircut, and merely put it back into the equipment box after the haircut. When the next customer (usually it’s yours truly) sit on the chair, they take out the comb from the box and start cutting all over again. I do not need superman’s eyesight to see that there is only one comb inside the box.

The sucker airwasher whatever you call that tube that is used to remove the loose hair is not exactly effective, and the hairstylist do not really try to remove all the loose hair on the head and on the clothes. I have my share of tough time making myself decent all again for the next few hours i would be spending outside.

QB House - on the other hand, QB House provides great service. I have been there twice, and the hairstylist do give me the comb. When i chose not to accept the comb, the hairstylist dispose it in front of me. Down side is there isn’t much of a choice in terms of venue as i only go to the one and only one i know.

I have already made up my mind where to go to for future haircut.

Hey boys and girls,

Check out the marketing video for Gravical 07, compiled by Jason. Dex and Jason spent a lot of effort working on the marketing stuff, so you SMUggers spread the words ’round. Gravical, the SMU first inter-faculty climbing competition is the event to watch.

All happening on 19 Jan 2007 (Fri).

By the way, i’m just a small fry on the organising comm. Pulled all the strings i have from SAFRA and Contiki for the sponsorship part. Thank you Gerry and Jean for coming in to sponsor this event. The goodie bag we have put together is a good deal by the way. It’s definitely worth more than the registration fees. So show your support for this event, so next year we can make it even better.

New Year’s Day is way way overrated. There are so few cars in town that finding a parking lot is as easy as finding the gents in a shopping complex. So it’s gotta be either people are too sploshed from intense countdown parties last night, or people have escaped from the Island for a short holiday over the timely long weekend.

On contrary, New Year’s Even is much more happening. At least this time i can play a better part of a chef by dealing with the frying pan and the martini. Ain’t anything proud, but at least i stepped up.

Frying cheese tofu is not easy feat, mind you. Each piece costs slightly over 20 cents and if i am good, i shall sell 3 of them for $1.20.

Mrs Chongky calls these window fries. I’m not too sure whether this is a name she decides to call these fries, or are these the correct name the fries go by. In any case, they taste great.

Well, the fries and the tofu have to give way to the fish fillet. Mrs Chongky likes them, and they just remains me of primary school. My school canteen used to sell these, and i can’t remember the exact amount of the large portion of my pocket money that goes to the fish fillet auntie.

The domesticated Mrs Chongky is probably a slightly better cook than i am. But i is overly obsessed with my own work that i forgot to take photo of that busy lovely woman cooking and stealing food and drinks.