Object of Contention

Recently TJ and I have been having many discussions about of all things, soap. This is the subject of our many discussions.

He loves it, but I think it smells very auntie, even his father refuses to use the same soap because of its auntie smell…

The compromise? He can continue using the remaining 5 bars but once they are used up, he can no longer buy them.

Yet another day in the chronicles of the Lim household.

Resolutions

Ok it’s a tad bit early to come up with New Year Resolutions (only 37 days to 2009 *gasp*) but I’m going to start with my list of resolutions anyway… here goes…

1) Track my expenses more carefully

Yes, I’ve been working for a couple of years now, but yet I’ve never really gotten down to tracking my expenses carefully. It’s not like I’m a spendthrift, I do save every month, and have enough to spare for holidays to pay up my debts etc. and have a decent amount stashed up, but that is dwindling rapidly into the vast debt hole known as the “New Home” and I’m already looking at absorbing losses from the wedding dinner to be held next year, no thanks to the recession.

With the recession and all, I’m thankful that I still have my job even though it still sucks, but at least every month I have a fixed income to rely on and the job stability isn’t all that bad…

To achieve my expense tracking, I’ll have to end up spending more money (to get a nice 2009 organizer to track daily expenses) but it’ll be worth it. No more impulse buys and I (will try) to online shop less (I hope)

2) To improve my standards of English and Mandarin

While packing my stuff to move house early this year, I was flipping through my old assignments in JC/Uni days, and was amazed by how “smart” I was. Seriously, I look back and have no idea how I managed to do all those integration/differentiation, write decent essays for economics, memorize and replicate the complicated organic chem. mechanisms, teach a class of year 1 students how to do lab experiments, conduct research and write a paper that really makes sense for my FYP…

I was relating this to a colleague during our long bus ride home the other day, and he was lamenting about the same thing, about how he feels he has to dumb-down his standard of English to fit his colleagues (I was kind of ticked off at this conversation but shall not go into it).

Feel like all that I’ve learnt in school has gone to waste because I’m not applying any part of it in my job, and I’ve also lost the urge to want to improve myself by studying further, which is kind of a waste… So I’m going to take the small step of improving my language standards by speaking and writing proper English and Mandarin, simply because this is the easiest to start off with, and borrowing more intellectual reading material from the library to read on my long bus rides so my time is better utilized.


And I resolve to keep my resolutions too… Wish me luck!

I Wonder…

Over the weekend, my colleagues and I had a blast of a time at a BBQ. A few of us helped to prepare the food (thankfully TJ’s mum lent us the use of her kitchen). From this experience, I realized that not all my female counterparts know their way around the kitchen. I mean I don’t expect everyone to know how to cook 10 course meals (which I don’t know how to btw) but not even knowing how to cut an apple?

I brought this up during lunch today, and realized it’s fairly common among girls our age… Hmm…

Which leads me thinking: In this time and age, is it still important for a woman to know how to cook?

For me, I like to pore over recipes, to go supermarket and wet market shopping, to chop up a feast, and the best part of it all, preparing a good meal w TJ… and sitting down with family and friends to enjoy the meal.

Maybe it doesn’t matter if a woman knows how to cook, but I’m glad that I do, even if occasionally my veggies end up uncooked or my potato salad ends up looking mushy.

Gone Shopping

This weekend was spent shopping mostly. And yes we did get a couple of stuff at pretty good deals.

40% discount at Giordano. TJ bought a pair of jeans (his existing ones are way too loose) and I bought a spag top, pretty good quality.

42” LCD TV!
Was initially looking for a 37” but there aren’t really that many in the market, and this deal at Harvey Norman was really enticing plus it’s full HD! Really happy with the HUGE tv! Can’t wait for end of the month when it’ll be delivered!

Fridge:
At Harvey Norman the sales auntie was trying to convince us to buy a Hitachi fridge, which even though was more ex than the Samsung one that we’ve been eyeing for a long time, was better cos (1) japanese brand, and (2) more energy efficient when you compare consumption vs capacity (3) design looks nicer.

At Harvey Norman the price was $699 (U.P $749) and doesn’t include delivery of $30. TJ went to our neighbourhood store to enquire the price of the same fridge, and she still quoted $720 incl. delivery. Since I was in Hougang area, decided to just pop into this neighbourhood electrical appliance shop to check out the price, and was quoted $650 and I only need to call them to order the fridge and they’ll deliver it, and I only need to pay cash on delivery. Coolness! Went back and checked renotalk, and found that the random shop that I went to was well known for cheap appliances. So qiao!

Wihardjia
If I had tons of money I’ll get my furniture from scanteak, but since I don’t, and I still love wood furniture (resort look), we have to find cheaper alternatives. Wihardjia came highly recommended by my classmate Laura (who has a lovely home btw) so Tj and I popped by to have a look. Turns out they were having a sale! We haven’t bought much though, planning to go the larger branch to check it out soon.

Vhive has decent furniture too that doesn’t break the bank. Now if someone can tell me where to find light/pine/birch colored coffee table and tv console I’d be very grateful!

Sneak Peaks

26

So I’m now officially in my late 20s, or as yun says, round-up to 30. One step closer to auntie-dom. But instead of feeling upset or whining about growing old, I’m actually looking forward to growing older somehow… weird but true.

Thank you all my family and friends, for making a difference in my life, for making me laugh, for the times we spent having fun, slogging, killing time, shopping (online or not), doing housework, for listening to me when I need a listening ear, for helping out, for taking charge, and for making the promise to take care of me for life...

Thank you...