I received a quote from my e-mail within one week of request. I picked Tint A Car after reading reviews of a few popular car tinting companies. After reading about the horror stories from some, I am glad that I did. Sharon was very friendly and answered all my questions (however dumb they sounded). I made an appointment, dropped the car off at 8.30am, was driven home by Sharon, and received a call at 2.00pm to tell me that the car was ready. Sharon picked me up at my house to collect the car. The car looks great! The tinting started out all wavy, which I was told would go away after a few days as it dries out, and it did. From my close examination two days after the tinting, all I could find were two tiny bubbles close to the edge of a window which disappeared after a few weeks. I got the Octane tint for $395 (RRP was $495).

Approximate cost: $395

I had a nail in a tyre and went to Tyre Plus Pakenham. The service was friendly and professional. I decided to also have the tyres balanced and aligned. The staff updated me with the progress of the jobs regularly, which meant that I knew that they were working on my car all the time I was waiting. Prices were competitive compared to Beaurepaires, which I normally use.

Approximate cost: $130

This is a good swimmer's pool. The main 50 m pool is often divided into 2 25m sections, but there is always ample lanes available for lap swimming. My kids love the wave pool and frog slide, and they have a bouncy inflatable available to kids every Saturday. Entry prices are a bit on the high side, though. I would make this my regular pool if only I lived closer.

I love the fried kuay teow (flat rice noodles) here. You can ask them to make it as spicy as you like (and I like my food spicy!). Friendly staff, reasonable prices (just a small increase in prices last year, still reasonable), large portions, good food...ticks all my boxes. They cook each portion separately, which preserves the consistency of the taste, unlike some other restaurants I know who would cook double or triple portions in a wok to save time, but cause the taste to suffer.

Approximate cost: $10.50

Used to frequent them monthly for the yum-cha when prices were mid-high. The food was authentic Chinese and delicious. However, after a couple of price increases in the previous few years, it has become a probably a couple of times a year place for me. However, if you can afford it and would like to taste real "tim-sum" (NOT dim sim!), this place has my recommendation. However, I have tried their dinner menu once and did not like it. *Update: You can now get 20% off the bill up to $25 if you are a Frequent Values cardholder.

Started out as a swimming pool and gym a few years back and catered well to the small number of users then. However, in the recent years, it has been expanded with several basketball courts and have seen increased patronage. The swimming pools are now almost fully booked in the evenings for swimming lessons, training, aquarobics, footy training (yes, footy players training in the pool, using 3 lanes), leaving only one or two lanes available for swimming. As it is only a 25m pool, each lane is not able to accomodate many swimmers. The ends of the pool are not raised, so be careful if you do the tumble turn or your heels might hit the edge. Quite a lot of activities to join if you are interested, but not a pool for the dedicated swimmer. Even the times quoted for lap swimming indicates so (stated as 40s per 25m for the FAST lane).

The pizzas and pastas can be great on non-busy times, but food quality and service suffers on busier days like Friday nights or weekends. Personal favourites are the chicken pizza and the marinara on pasta.

Approximate cost: $14.00

Checked my house for termites and replenished the termite barrier chemicals. Arrived on time and did a thorough job even though it was very hot at that time. Will definitely call him for the next job.

Very accomodating front desk, considering how busy they are. The doctors are friendly and knowledgable. One of very few fully bulk-billed medical centres around.

Approximate cost: $0

Very unprofessional. I had my ducted heating and evaporative cooling serviced by Heatwave at the end of 2012, together with looking for a leak from the evaporative cooling. The end result, the evaporative cooling does not leak...nor does it work (it worked before, just leaked as well). The water now goes directly down the downpipes, so the cooler never comes on. E-mails and messages do not get returned after he has been paid. Calls are not answered. Try calling him from a new phone number and he picks up, but when he recognizes your voice, he terminates the call. Leaves me wondering if anything beneficial was done for the $350 charged and how much I will have to pay someone else to rectify the problems caused.

Approximate cost: $350