Cookies!

Who has the best cookies? Is it Subway or Mario's Blimpie? Some other food place? I've tried both Subway and Blimpie and in terms of value, it appears the better deal is with Blimpie because you get three giant sized cookies (almost double the size of the Subway version) for 6.50 as opposed to 3 small cookies at Subway for $5.00. However in terms of flavour they are about equal. I think Blimpie may also have the edge because they offer macadamia nut cookies while Subway does not have these. All in all, they are probably too pricey, but when you're in the mood for a sugar high, and that's all that is available, they suddenly look very affordable.

Food Court - Auzonville Shopping Centre, Tunapuna

The new Auzonville Shopping Centre has a small food court on the ground floor. I have only tried the first place on the right (southwest corner of the food area) where you can buy East Indian food aka roti or paratha (buss-up shut), as well as other local dishes such as macaroni pie, rice, stewed chicken etc. I have never tried anything but the paratha which I must say is not of consistent quality but is of good enough quality for me to recommend, because I have had worse. The sauces are usually decent, some very good, especially the massala mango, which I always have. You are allowed two sides with your paratha, but they almost always offer potato and channa, so if you don't want a particular side, feel free to say so before they start dishing out your order. I usually have channa, pumpkin and mango ($1 for the extra side). The best thing about this place is they really do cook WITHOUT pepper and that to me is a big plus. I do not eat pepper but most places that serve paratha which I love, usually serve the sides with pepper and they always say it's just for flavour or "you won't notice/taste it", but I can always taste it! So this place gets top points for recognising that pepper is not a staple but a condiment and for leaving it where it belongs; on the side, as an option, and not compelling poor unsuspecting people to eat what their body cannot tolerate. That being said, I don't think their pepper sauce is the best because it made my friend ill, but I still will recommend the place,...maybe you could just avoid the pepper sauce. Who needs it anyway?
The mall has a Chinese restaurant on the top floor which I have not yet tried. There's an interesting soup place on the north west corner of the ground floor, which I have not tried either. Someone I know did purchase soup there, though and seemed to enjoy it.

Rituals Coffee House

Their coffee chillers are pretty decent. I don't like the synthetic cream they use, but other than that, you get a decent drink. I never have coffee but others have had it and commented on the taste. My "ritual" is the Belgian Chocolate Chiller which I had at UWI's Rituals as well as at the Rituals on South Quay. When I had it at UWI, I found the chocolate was not well blended, so the drink was not very smooth. At South Quay, the texture was smoother so I enjoyed it more.

Now I want to post a specific review of the Fish Panini (Sandwich) offered at Rituals Coffee House on UWI St. Augustine. If I could use the words: "nasty, stink or disgusting" I would, but I fear those might be too strong and offensive. So I will just state the sandwich was unbelievably unpalatable. The only reason I ate it was to stave off starvation because I was hungry. I will never buy that sandwich again. The "fish" turned out to be two flat rectangles which looked like processed meat with a "fish flavour" although I honestly do not know what they used. Silly me! I was expecting real fish! I would not recommend that sandwich to anyone. I am certainly not going to buy it again.

Deep Discount DVD

I purchased the Cinderella (1957) DVD when it was released from the online DVD store: Deep Discount DVD. The DVD appeared to have been lost in the mail because it did not arrive in the usual time which I expect orders from this store to arrive, so I wrote a note to the customer service department about it, and they said they would mail out a new one, and they did. The next thing that happened is two DVDs arrive at my house...not at the same time, but there was not a long time in between arrivals either. I don't know why the first one took so much longer than usual. But anyway, there I was with two DVDs having only paid for one, so I sent an email to customer service explaining what happened and offering to pay for the extra DVD. So far they have not taken me up on my offer, so I got an extra DVD for free. I feel bad about that, but I have been a good customer (so maybe it was decided I deserved a bonus! lol) and I did offer to pay so I don't know what else I could have done.

myLot Profile

Geeks.com

Another good news story! I have purchased quite a lot of items from Geeks.com, and while I think sometimes their prices are not as good as some places, and the cheaper items may not live up to all their expectations, they cannot be faulted for their dedication to good customer service. I once received a USB flash drive wristband that was defective and I shipped it back to them and got a refund without a hassle. Another time, I had a problem with an mp3 player which appeared not to be reading SD cards, and I wrote to them about it. They promptly sent me a replacement. I didn't even have to send back the "defective" player...which actually, it turns out, does read some SD cards...it is apparently a bit selective, so I ended up with two working players. I feel like I probably should have paid for the second one, but the truth is, both players do not work "as promised" in that they are supposed to read both mp3 files and wma files but only read mp3 files, so I gave myself the benefit of the doubt and didn't offer to pay. I don't know if they would have accepted though...see my story on Deep Discount DVD for why I think so.

JSL

I have a good news story...actually a few...but this is just one of them...I will post others later.
JSL Speedpak may be the last mail-forwarding (aka skybox) service in Trinidad that actually has a free (as in "no annual fee") option and their service is not at all bad...at least, so far. They do have a strange "add-on" fee of $30 per invoice to clear in through customs, which means if you buy a lot of stuff, it is best to buy them in batches and not individually so that they can all be cleared by customs at the same time for the same $30 fee or you can choose to clear them yourself, and you won't have to pay the fee.
I have found that the total amount I have been paying for my packages is not any higher than I was paying the previous companies and in fact I think in some cases, I am paying less, so I am very happy with this "skybox" service and definitely think it is worth a try for anyone who is not satisfied with their current service. I have tried both Ecourier (formerly the TTPost skybox) and UPXpress before. I believe JSL offers the same value with better customer service than these two. UPXpress still owes me money and shows no sign of wanting to pay for the last time they over-charged me for a package. And I am sure they have over-charged me in the past as well, but I did not check on it and so I probably lost the opportunity to ever recoup those monies. I can safely say I will not be using their service any more, especially after the "attitude" I got from the delivery guy when I told him I could not renew on the day that he informed me the renewal was due and that the rate would after that day.

Still with JSL here, (some years down the road) just a few things you should be aware of. The free service comes with the condition that you must call or email them to request delivery. Since they rarely answer their phones, I recommend email. Also, if you want to use a credit card to pay, you will have to go to their office since they do not have a portable device for credit card transactions.

Drugstore ding-dongs

Had to fill a prescription for my cousin and it's a C-DAP prescription so I went to the first drugstore that had the C-DAP sign, and talked to the person filling prescriptions. This turned out to be Delta Drugs in Arima. The person, whom I am not entirely sure is a pharmacist, so I am not calling her that, said that only one of the drugs could be obtained freely with C-DAP, and I would have to pay for the other two. She told me the cost...I thought it was a bit high so decided to "shop around." The next drugstore I landed at, Bhagan's (on Broadway), the C-DAP drug was available, but the woman at the counter (and her cohort) told me I would have to verify with the doctor the exact "augmentation" because they couldn't understand it from the prescription. So I told them the first person who saw the prescription had no such problem. They apparently had such great confidence in their "ignorance" that they told me I could go and get the prescription elsewhere if I could. So I did. I went to Ross next. The person repeated what Bhagan's people said. So now I am wondering if the Dr. really wrote so illegibly they couldn't understand, and also wondering why the person at Delta drugs had no such trouble deciphering the handwriting. Luckily my next stop would be the last in my quest! At Maxsal, the person filling prescriptions was a gentleman. He told me at first I couldn't get the C-DAP drug but then when I mentioned I couldn't fill the prescription if I could only get two out of the three drugs, he apparently changed his mind...or maybe he remembered he did have the third drug after all. At any rate, he also did not have a problem deciphering how long the prescription should be filled for. So I asked him to tell me how he figured it out because the other drugstore people did not seem to understand and he explained the very simple coding the doctor had used. I guess the people at Ross or Bhagan's are not as experienced at filling prescriptions as one would think, if they cannot figure out that 2/52 means 2 weeks and 1/12 means 1 month. I don't think I will be filling too many prescriptions there at any rate. They have dropped in my estimation, and the customer service was not at all commendable. Even if they could not have helped me, they could have maintained a pleasant demeanour. This is not the first time I have dealt with unpleasant people who are there to "serve" customers. It is rampant in T&T, and patently obvious that there is a gross disregard for customers in many stores, where the people who are hired to serve customers never actually care about them and show it by their actions.