Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Are you in need of a loan?

With all the holiday season spending, do you find yourself a little short on cash?
Are you looking for a quick and fuss-free loan to tie you over till your next pay check? Don't want to borrow from relatives nor to have an overdraft in your bank?
Look no further, you can get payday advance loan online. The loan will generally be due on, or soon after, your next payday. Yup. It's that simple.

Great Gifts for Kids...

I just came across the Personal Creations Marvel comics collection online, and there are some great personalized Marvel comic hero gifts for kids. By the way, do you know that most of the heroes and villains in the Marvel comics have their first and last names in the same letter? For example - Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Sue Storm, Victor Von doom, Matt Murdock, Mrs. Marvel, Green Goblin etc. etc.... Don't you find that kinda odd? I thought so too!

Stylish Address Labels

Do you still send mail the old-fashioned way? i.e. via the postal service and not email? How about holiday greeting cards? If you do, a good way to spruce up your envelopes is by using stylish address labels. You can choose the colors and design to suit your taste and personal style. I'm currently into PINK stuff. So I think I might get myself a set of address labels with cutesy pink background and shocking pink words. What do you think? Cool?

Monday, December 27, 2010

Is it because they are BOYS???

Or is it because they are BIG now???
We were at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on Thursday (23 Dec)...thankfully the weather cleared and was bright and sunny by Thursday morning as how California should be! I initially bought the 2 Day, 1 Park per Day ticket.... But because of the rains, our visit to Disneyland was unsatisfactory. Luckily, I could upgrade our tickets to 2 Day Hopper Tickets ($10 extra per ticket) so that we can hop between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. I was determined to watch ALL shows, parades, fireworks etc on Thursday... to make up for the 'lost' time where everything was cancelled on Monday.

Anyway, boys were okay with the first parade at Disneyland - which was a Christmas Parade (photos to come later).... I was more excited than my kids. They were really just okay with it. When I wanted to catch the second parade at Disney California Adventure, my boys were like "Huh? Another parade? Must we watch it?" ... bleah... But I wanna watch it!!
Did manage to watch part of it....as S1 and I were on a ride (S2 and H stayed behind as they hate thrill rides) and we came out a little after the parade had started.

And for the Disneyland Fireworks... I thought that was quite a main attraction and a MUST watch. BUT no one wanted to watch it!!! the three of them went them for the Buzz Lightyear Astros Blaster Ride leaving poor ole me alone on Main Street. Yup! Experienced the magical fireworks and snowfall ALL ALONE!!! So...why no interest in these??? Boys!!!

Don't even mention about photos with the Disney characters... NADDA.
:-(

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Once in a DECADE!

Actually not. Apparently it is Once in about 15 years!
What am I talking about?
This Pacific Coast Storm!!!
It has been raining and raining and raining since we arrived on Sunday!
What a bummer!
We were at Disneyland on Monday and it was certainly NOT fun....for both H and I that is. Boys still thought the day was EXCELLENT! Would definitely be awesome if the day was dry! It was soooooooo wet that all shows were cancelled. The Christmas Parade, Fantasmic and the Fireworks - ALL Cancelled! Boy. Was I disappointed. Funnily though, boys were not. They even joked that if the parade was on, you would see Cinderella in her poncho! Actually, I was in my Disneyland poncho the whole time!
Even though it was raining, the park was still quite crowded....with kids and toddlers and babies. I guess my grandma would say 'Siow Angmoh"!
Okay la...gotta go.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Another Jumbled Post - 17 Dec 2010

Donno what has been happening but time seems to just whoooooooooooooooosh past. Now it is coming to the end of 2010....

Last Day of School
Yup. Today is the last day of school for the boys. BUT I told them to just NOT go. We have a plane to catch later this evening, and H said that we ought to leave the house by 4 pm as SURELY the whole of Jakarta will be leaving tonight, and traffic will be a nightmare. (Last day for many International Schools) Since they won't be studying at all today, might as well stay home and NOT chance the traffic. They usually will arrive at 3.30pm from school but if traffic is bad, they might only get home at 4 pm...then they need to have a shower etc etc.
Actually, S1 already missed school on Wed and Thurs... diarrhoea. Donno what sai he ate. Took him to the clinic yesterday...and the doctor wanted his stool sample which he couldn't give. But he's fine this morning.

Speaking of my S1.... I donno if is just bad luck or that he just don't process things in his brain. We both set out to pick S2 from school - on arrival at school, he said he didn't want to come down from the car. Thus he waited with the driver. When I came out, he blurted "we can't get into the car". Guess what happened... Driver was in the bathroom and when he saw the driver, he decided to get out from the car. Didn't bother to wait for the driver to get into the car. Came out and somehow LOCKED the car. So the car was locked with the engine and aircond running. You say lah! What was he thinking? We had to call a cab to get home. Poor driver had to wait for the leasing company to send the spare keys!
I tell you.... I feel like sending him to an ARMY BOOT CAMP to learn to think! Not just always so tidak apa and NOT processing things. Need some TOUGH love here... *sigh*

Baking Baking...
Have been baking quite a bit over the last week.... with orders from friends as well as for the Charity Bake Sale at school. Wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have so many baking disasters. The blender that I used for processing the sugar grains conked out (wrote about this a few post back), and I had to buy the fine sugar from the shops. Didn't realise that some had additives that made the cakes FUNNY. It was quite a nightmare! But luckily, eventually did manage to find the right type of sugar. Anyway, I turned down two orders this week. Figured that I needed the time to pack etc etc.

For the Charity Bake Sale, I baked both vanilla and chocolate cupcakes - Sent 14 vanilla and 8 chocolate cupcakes for the Bake Sale. Would have sent more if NOT for the "individually wrapped" request from the PTA. Such a bummer to put them in the little boxes.

Vanilla Cupcakes
Chocolate Cupcakes

Left the cupcakes with a PTA mom and then went off to attend S1's Sports Day. Was surprised that there weren't any moms! I guessed the Secondary School kids do NOT want their parents to come?? Well, S1 didn't win in his events. Oh well...

After that, I went to help out in the Cake Stall. Was a bit surprised that they priced my cupcakes at RP 30,000/-. That's about USD 3.30 each. By the time I left, all my cupcakes were sold. Was quite pleased... as was abit worried that there weren't a big crowd on that day.

Porky Lunch
Hosted a very porky lunch at my house last Friday... just had a few angmoh friends over for a Chinese porky meal. I have been saying that I will cook a porky meal for many moons. So decided to have one and get over and done with. What's on the menu?
Roast Pork, Fried Udon Hokkien Style, Fried Vegetarian Beehoon, Vegetarian Curry, Pork Spring Rolls, Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Coca-Cola Chicken Wings and Fried Gyoza. Cut fruits for dessert. The Vegetarian stuff was because I had a vegetarian friend over...
As it was a porky lunch...my friend said to take a photo and scrap it. The title of the page would be "Put a Pork on your Fork!" hahahahha


Porky Spread

Christmas Concert
As per last year, S2 participated in the school's Christmas Concert on Wednesday. I tell you ...this fellow is another irresponsible and tidak apa boy. I had to email his teacher to ask if he is taking part... I was supposed to receive a consent form in November through S2, which I did not! The teacher had to email it to me, and I only signed and sent it on Tuesday. Yeah. A day before the concert! When it was supposed to be handed-in in November!!
Even on Tuesday night...when I told him to pack his flute and his concert attire, he still said that he didn't know if he was playing in the concert! PENGSAN!!!!

The Primary Orchestra
(I need a terrer ZOOOOOOOM lens!)

Yeah. I know... cannot see anything. What to do? My lens on my DSLR is the normal one.
They only played 2 miserable songs. And I mean the tunes sounded miserable. H said that it sounded like "New Orleans Funerals". Hahahha...
Two hour concert but my S2 was only on stage for 5 minutes. H was like "ah?? Just that?" ...cause I rushed him from his meeting with his clients. Hehehehe
Okay...better go check what else to pack....

Expensive Gadgets...

As my kids grow older, the price tag of their toys and gadgets grow as well. I don't mind getting them all the newest gadgets in the market.... IF they are a responsible bunch. Unfortunately, I have two very irresponsible boys. Lost mobile phones, scientific calculators iTouch etc. I have barred them from taking the laptops out of the house. I tell you... if I don't, the laptops will be lost as well! I dread the day when the boys require personal laptops for school. Some schools already require all their Year 9s to have their own laptops. Shucks! What am I going to do? Wonder if there is such a thing as laptop insurance? I seriously don't want to repeatedly replace laptops for my irresponsible boys. Any other advice?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

From NOT Putting up the Xmas Tree to......

Yup. Wasn't gonna put up the Christmas Tree initially. Figured that we won't be around for Christmas anyway, and I didn't fancy having to take down the tree the moment I walk through my front door in January 2011. But since this probably will be our last year here, HECK! What's a little packing when I have to pack up the whole house?? (Latest piece of info from H yesterday... WARSAW! Where the heck is Warsaw anyway?? Well, that's another option. IT's all up to H really...and he is undecided what he wants to do. NO option, NO job also headache. Too many options also headache)

Here's my 12 year old tree.... bought this when we lived in Singapore...before S2 was born. As you can see, the top of the tree is kinda "chopped" off. My Angel is sitting precariously... any day, she might take the plunge!!
H said that perhaps we should change the ornaments to a new theme. WARIOW! THAT would cost a bomb. I said...perhaps a RED and GOLD... then we just have to buy REDS...not so expensive. But the other day when we were at the mall, I had to have a look at the Christmas ornaments..., H and S1 said that we should get a WHITE tree with Dark Blue ornaments. That's too modern and out-of-the-norm. Don't you think??
No lah. We didn't.


My S1 spent quite a long time decorating this shelf...

Some cute Santa and Snowman Stockings and Wooden Carvings



More Santa and Snowman Items sitting atop my Scrapbooking cabinet

Huge Christmasy Candle from a Friend

Gold Christmas Wreath thingy for candle...

Carved Wooden Christmas Trees

Cute Mini Ornaments on my Living Area Sideboard

Wooden Snowman atop my BookShelf

Fusion?? Christmas Ornaments hanging off my Pussy Willow from CNY


Ornaments on my Banister (Gift from a Friend)


More Wooden Christmas Snowman



Snowman, Santa and Poinsetta ...


Christmas Balls...


More Christmas Balls...



MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Bunch of Thieves????

Before you chastise me for using incorrect grammar. Don't. I don't care.
I am just wondering why are all the three XY chromosome beings in the house just like to take my stuff?? I had been mega busy the last few days, and just when I thought that I have a bit of a breather to upload some photos and do some blogging, I find my connector wires are missing. Mind you. We don't only just own one. We have tonnes, and I told H that NO ONE touches MY stuff. And yet... it is gone. Nope. I did not misplace them. I have a cute little 'hanger' (people use these to hang their jewellery) to hold up all MY connector wires etc. So if it is not there...it should be on MY desk where NO ONE sits except the QUEEN of the house. So where is it???

I am almost tearing my hair out with frustration. Why must everyone take MY stuff?
My earphones. My plug for charging my camera. My pens.
I tell you...really quite fed-up. EVERYONE has a pair of earphones. But somehow, they either misplace it, lose it, thrash it or whatever...and then they come looking for mine. H is the same. He has his own, and yet wants to come grab mine. I have to literally show my displeasure and to NAG for him to go look for his own earphones.
And yeah. Stupid plug also want to take mine. I have a point-and-shoot and a DSLR, and both has its own charger and plugs. Now....both plugs also gone missing. I donno what these guys do with the plugs. Charge the PSP? The DS? I donno. I just know that it's missing from my bedside.
And don't let me get started with pens and stationery. We really really have sooooooooooo many pens, pencils, erasers etc etc. And I make sure the boys have their own, and I have MINE. But then.... somehow, MY stuff will disappear from my desk. 10,001 pens in the house, and I can't find a single one. Maybe there is a PEN MONSTER in the house that absolutely just lurves to chew and devour pens!!!
Buy more...and they will keep disappearing too!!!!!!

I seriously think that in future, I have to lock up my stash of pens and stationery, my plugs and connector wires. mmmm....do you think I need to lock up my make-up too????

Sunday, December 12, 2010

"I need New Running Shorts!"

S1 came home the other day...asking for money to buy new running shorts.
My immediate response was "AGAIN? You just bought one quite recently!"
Apparently, he has outgrown his pair of shorts AGAIN.... soooooooo quickly. He said that when he ran during PE, he couldn't do too big a stride as his shorts were preventing it! They weren't stretchable and thus were kinda constricted. When he emulated how he was running with the too-small pair of shorts, I had to laugh! It was quite a funny sight.
I guessed I should invest in proper running shorts rather than the el cheapo ones that the school shop sells.

It's NOT that cold!

That's what people say about LA winters. Errr.. does LA even really have a winter season?? But in order to make sure that I packed the right clothing for myself and the boys, I went to look at the photos that were taken in LA last December 2009. I remember a half-naked street performer at Santa Monica beach. I remember joggers in shorts and sleeveless tops. Surely it really can't be that cold?
WRONG!!!
In those old photos, not only was I wearing a sweater, I had my JACKET on!
I know. I am such a wuss! But can't blame me for being brought up in the tropics!
We will be renting a private apartment near Hollywood Hills, I sure hope that the apartment has proper heating, and perhaps a heated blanket or two for sitting out on the patio, with a mug of hot chocolate...

I hate it....but it IS important...

Yup. Hate it. Hate to think about it. Hate to talk about it.
But it IS really soooo important to have it.
What am I on about?
I am referring to term life insurance.
I hate to think about it because it involves life and death. BUT it IS so important because it involves life and death! Know what I mean? Especially when there is only ONE breadwinner in the house, this topic is especially crucial. The other topic that I hate is Wills! Don't you hate talking about it? Especially with your spouse?

Friday, December 03, 2010

A Jumbled Post - 3 Dec 2010

I realised that I have not talked about anything else other than my bidding on eBay! Read here, here, here and here. Okay...so no more eBay talk in this post.

Anniversary Surprise
Nope! H did not give me a diamond ring nor a handbag or whatever. Instead, he woke me up with a piece of news. He went "should I tell you, or should I not tell you".... irritating. He had just talked to his boss and "Finland or Singapore" was the option. Huh?? Apparently, his boss prefers that he goes to Finland but we prefer Singapore. So I said "I register the boys at the schools in Singapore?" but he said NO.
Huh??? So how like that??
Talk so much but still go back to nothing. I had been quite stress over this... as to where we are moving to. When we are moving? I know it sounds silly but it's like "Do I go and buy a plant for my garden? What if after I buy, we need to leave?". Really so unsettling... H doesn't understand why I am stressed. He just kept saying "leave it to me...."
So basically, NO answers for me.
Live day-by-day!

Bad Day!
Wednesday was a bad day! I had an order for a batch each of vanilla and chocolate mini cupcakes. As usual, I baked my vanilla first... and it turned out really bad. Taste was good but they looked bad. Overflowed from the cups... Donno why. I have been baking minis this way umpteen times without problems. I then baked another batch. Again. Looked bad. I actually baked a third time! Again. Disaster! Why? Why? Why?
Even my maid was surprised...as she commented "each time always good why today like that?".
The chocolate cupcakes came out beautifully though...
I gave up after baking 3 batches of vanilla cupcakes. I called my friend who had ordered the cakes to inform her that I can't deliver the vanilla ones...but will give her some foc (some cupcakes were sorta okay)...
What did I do with the extra cupcakes?
Boys ate some. Gave some to the hired help and S1 took some to school...

And you know what? My grinder decided to conk out on this day too.
The sugar crystals here are too coarse for baking so I usually use my grinder to process the sugar into finer grains. With having to bake so many blardy batches of vanilla cupcakes, I ran out of fine sugar...so had to grind a new pack. Bleahhhhh... Can't do so lor... Used the fine sugar (not exactly icing) that I have to bake... the cupcakes were sooooooo soft and fluffy. They were okay in normal sized cups but for the minis, they were just soooooooo fragile.

To top it all, I received a call from my landlord's office to inform me that they need to HACK my kitchen floor to sort out the plumbing! And also the maid's toilet to repair a leak. AIYO! Will be such a mess. Pengsan!
Discussed with H...and decided that they do all the hacking and repairing while we are away... I just have to get my maid to be around to monitor the works-in-progress (she usually gets a break when I go on a break).

Irresponsible
Did I mention that my kids are an irresponsible bunch?
The latest thing that went missing was S2's Nokia Mobile Phone. And apparently, he also borrowed his friend's school hat and lost that too. How to make him to be more responsible? Getting really fed-up. Somehow, both the boys take turns to either lose stuff or to misbehave. They just have to take turns to make me mad!
I really donno lah.
And just now.. I wanted to pack the boys' vacation clothes so I opened S2's wardrobe door. Guess what I found... a box of Dylan's Candy Store FUDGE, which has to be stored in the fridge. Donno why the heck he hid it in there! *sigh*

Finally. I did win.

People who knows me will know that I am the PIGGIEST of the PIG, and nothing is more important than my beauty SLEEP.
I have been so obsessed to win some eBay auctions that I set my alarm clock to ring at 5.45 am... Yeah. To place my bids!
Normally, this would not be such a big deal as I usually wake the boys up at about 6.05 am for school. But today.. they needn't wake up early as boys were skipping the first few periods for our visit to the local Immigration Office to have our 'Permit to Stay" extended.

Anyway.....changed tactics a little bit. Lost an auction but won 3. The last probably not as interesting to the other bidders. What auction did I win?
(1) 3 Packs of Perfect Pearls Powder - $22.50 (think retail is about $13 each)
(2) Martha Stewart Heat Tool and 6 Embossing Powder - $21.02 (retail price of the heat tool is already $24,)
(3) 6 Packs of Brilliance Inks (each with 4 colours) - $10.49 (retail about $36 I think)
All these were from the same seller. Thus there was some savings in the shipping cost.

Had some additional auctions that I lost as I was at the Immigration Office . The area had really really bad 3G connection. Usually it takes like 5 seconds to register a bid but the connection was sooooooooooo slow that it took more than 2 minutes to register a bid. How to win like that?

Boys went to school directly from the Immigration Office, while H and I took a cab home. Put in another bid in the cab... and won an auction of 112 Inkadinkadoo Clear Stamps at $23.10. There were about 10 packs in there, and with $5 shipping - it works out to be $2.80 per pack...still cheaper than in the shops I guessed. Not that I need more stamps?!? I realised that I have stamps that I had bought but NOT used. They were still untouched in their original packaging. And the stamps I bought were pretty expensive compared to what I just spent on 10 packs. Can't believe I actually spent between $9.99 to &19.99 per pack of stamps! If I had discovered eBay then!!!

All my purchases will be sent to the hotel in Anaheim - we've informed them to expect delivery of packages. Should be okay one lah. Nobody wants to take my scrapbooking stuff ... nor my Psoriasis cream! We actually had 3 iPads delivered to our hotel in New Orleans last July....and they were all safe and sound.

Now I am watching the SLICE ELITE on eBay. The latest winning bid was at $82 with free delivery. I saw that Scrap-n-Crop in Malaysia is selling it at RM 800 (after the RM 50 discount). With USD still just at about RM 3.0-something, $82 is really really cheap if you compare with Malaysian prices. I am still deciding if I wanna get it. The thing is that the Design Card is about $25 to $45 each....unless I just stick to 1 or 2 design cards just for the alphabets. Will see.....

Watching. Watching. Watching.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

It is NOT easy to Win!

Serious. I kid you not. It is certainly NOT easy to win an auction on eBay.
Of course I am not talking about things that have 1000s in stock...like the cream for my Psoriasis. I was the only bidder... probably because one can just pop into the Duane Reade or Walgreens to get it. I am referring to things that are really a good deal.
(Errr...you are wondering why I bid then? Well, it's something that I need for my feet, and since it offers free shipping - might as well order it, and when I check into the hotel, I can use it immediately instead of popping out to search for this).

I missed out on a mixed lot of Scrapbooking Tools/Embellisments/Paper etc yesterday... and a lot of Creative Memories Punchers this morning. The retail value for the former was about USD 300 and and the winning bid was USD 53. For the latter, I estimated the retail value to be close to USD 150 as each set of punches is about USD 20, and there were quite a few plus other stuff. The winning bid was USD 78.50.

I followed the strategy of not bidding at the start...but just have these items on WATCH list.
For the first lot... I waited till the last minute, and then put in my bids until I was the highest bidder. I did this by upping 5 USD in one go. I was only highest bidder for like 5 seconds, and then I saw the words "You have been OUTBID", and then the timer goes to 0! ADOI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No time to even increase my bid.

And for the second lot. I thought... okay. I don't follow the same mistake as I did yesterday. I will put in the bids dollar-by-dollar. No more upping USD 5 or 10 or whatever. ALAMAK! I didn't have time to even reach the point that I was the highest bidder. Timing has to be sooooooooooo right to WIN! Really sooo difficult. Who knows that buying stuff can be so difficult one ah?

Anyway, I stil have a few things that I am eyeing. Will see if I can WIN WIN WIN!

If don't win at these auctions, hopefully....will WIN the jackpot at Las Vegas! Hahhahahahah...

Multivitamins for Growing Boys...

My older boy is growing rather rapidly in recent months. I didn't realize that he was as tall as I am until a friend mentioned it. All along, I had thought that he only reached my eye brows. With this growth spurt, I supposed I must switch his kiddie mutivitamins to a different one. Do you know what is the best multivitamins for growing boys? Whilst we are on the topic of growing boys... my younger boy somehow doesn't seem to be growing at all! I am wondering if I should supplement his diet with nutritional drinks on top of the multivitamins. What do you think?

Confused over Wrinkle Creams!

Are you confused?
I don't know about you... but I certainly am!
...Confused over Wrinkle creams.
I know that it sounds so silly but I have been searching the WWW to read-up on reviews on the wrinkle creams in the market. I wanna put in my order so that it can be delivered to the hotel that we are staying . My gosh! There is really really soooooooooooooooooo many brands out there. And the price can range from downright affordable to up right to the moons and stars!!! All I want is something affordable that would remove wrinkle from my face. It's tough to select ONE brand. I really am confused.
Lilypie 6th to 18th Ticker
Lilypie 6th to 18th Ticker