CE Oh sighted!

I saw Oh Chee Eng in the locker room this morning. Hope he notices that there are no staff at reception. Or the orange construction mesh by the lift. Or scaffolding on the stairwell between 2nd and 3rd floors. Or the broken window in the gym. Or the broken strider machine in the gym. Sigh....

Also, there's a "club members' only" sign on the wall on the 2nd floor pointing to the 1st floor... Which means the 2nd and 3rd floor of the glass building are NOT members only!!!!

2011-02-10 - STB Press Event in the Glass House - WTF!!!!!

So I go to the club this morning for a swim. As I go out the lift on the 3rd floor to go to the pool, I see some set up. An hour later I come back and there is a full blown Singapore Tourism Board Press Event being held in the function rooms on the third floor!

I am in my swimming trunks and I have to sneak by fully dressed business people (the press mind you!) to get to the lift to go to the changing room! I used to be in the Travel industry so I know STB people and I am currently in the media industry so I may know some press folks.

I was not happy! This is NOT a private club. This is a public gym. A very PUBLIC gym.

Pictures below. Where is the 50%???????

2011-02-08 Update... Hmmmmm

Went to the Club today. Things have been progressing and this is the first time I came back since a few weeks ago.

The lift is now working so you can get to the 1st floor (Gym and Spa), 2nd floor (The Glass House Restaurant) and the pool (3rd floor) from the basement changing rooms. The Gym is the same so I am going to show you the other floors.

2nd Floor - Below is a view of the coffee lounge directly in front of the lift. It is not yet done as there are no glass on those windows.


2nd Floor - This is The Glass House restaurant (See below). I was asked if I wanted to sit down for breakfast and I saw some people in there already. I asked if this was for hotel guests, and was told it was open to hotel guests for breakfast as well. I thought this whole glass structure was for Members Only, no?

The Glass House breakfast buffet spread... Open kitchen... very Hyatt :-)

3rd Floor - Out of the lift on the 3rd floor.. the deck is now open.

3rd Floor Deck - the stairs here go down to the lower pool. I guess they will put some furniture here.

3rd Floor Deck - there is a bar at the end of the deck. There are two function rooms Jasmine I and Jasmine II on the right side (below).

Jasmine I - these rooms seem to be private dinning rooms for The Glass House restaurant. I am not sure how this is supposed to be "Members Only" either @#$@$#@$

Jasmine I is setting up for Chinese New Year dinner of some sort.
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1) Seriously, I thought this was supposed to be a member's only glass structure. Looks like:
- 1st floor gym and spa is shared with Hotel Guests (and public for the spa?)
- 2nd floor is a coffee shop and restaurant open to hotel guests (and public?)
- 3rd floor is a deck that hotel guests can probably use and private dinning rooms for the restaurants that are open to all.
- WHERE'S the 50% dedicated to members only? URA approved this? Hello? Hello?

2) Feb 14 is looking like a "soft opening". There are still much work to be done in the next 6 days. Is there a party? a meeting with members?

To Management: What's the plan?

WiFi is working!

I did not see a WiFi network last week, but I see one this week. Sitting in the members lounge right now and logged into "memwifi".

Mobile phone reception spotty

I am back at the club this morning working out. Just a note that my phone signal dropped a few times when I was in the men's locker room. I am on M1 using iPhone 4.

New General Manager has left

I was at the Club this morning for a workout. This is my first time working out there. Facilities have not change since my last update.

The only change is that the General Manager - Anthony Oneill - has left. I think he was there for a year, though we did not know he was GM until a few months ago.

Anyhow, in case you did not get the email from CEO last month, here the announcement that the Glass House will open on 14 Feb this year: (click to see full size)

Member Update - as of 3 December 2010

I have not had a chance to get to the club recently as we just came back from a holiday. One member did update us. Here's what Keith wrote last week:

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Hi all

Let me just put in my 2 cents worth here.

What is usable today:

Swimming pool

Gym

Toilets

Changing room

Members lounge

Card room (mahjong)

Car Park

What is not convenient:

Members must walk from the changing room to pool via the entrance of the club at the basement car park, take a lift to the mezzanine floor and walk from there to the pool – it’s a long walk to go to the pool because the glass house isn’t ready. When the glass house is ready, there will be direct access from the changing room to the pool via the glass house.

What puts me off:

The whole club now looks like a German war bunker, with corridors upon corridors, it feels like a bomb shelter, or a scene from a first person shooter like Doom (if you’ve played Doom, you’ll understand). It feels unfinished, unpolished, and a real slap in the face for members who have supported the club. If this is how the management treats its members, I don’t wanna know how it’s treating its staff, suppliers, or hotel guests. I definitely won’t recommend anyone else to join this club or even stay as a hotel guest.

As a social club – it’s not ready for prime time. But if you want to have a workout or a swim, or free parking for 3 hours, it’s OK. Is it worth the monthly fee? Probably, if you use the pool and gym on a regular basis. Oh, and by the way, you need to climb a flight of stairs to reach the gym from the changing room – so it’s extra exercise right there.

The floor looks like it hasn’t dried out, and the signs on the wall (Toilet, changing room) are basically pieces of A4 paper pasted on the wall with sellotape. If you want to impress somebody, bring this person to the hotel lobby and say that this ‘used’ to be the club area which you’re a member of. Don’t bring this person to the actual club area (bunker), because it’s not impressive, in fact it’s depressing. No sunshine, no internal décor, no flash.

Oh, and there’s a dilapidated pool table covered with an ugly tarpaulin right smack in the member’s lounge. Why is it covered? Because the table is in a shite condition. I’m surprised it’s even there.

I met a member there who doesn’t want to bring his kids to the club right now because there is still construction work going on. So if you wanna swim, consider bringing a hard hat along.

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