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...

More than half way through…

Renovation has been going on for a month and we’re more than half way through. The tiling has been done long ago, first coat of the paint is up, and all the lights have been installed… we’re just awaiting the kitchen cabinets so all the kitchen accessories can be installed. =)

Oh and of course the new laminate floors too!

No pictures yet ‘cos I’ve been super lazy to take pictures and load them online… Think I’ll just post pictures when everything is done.

Next up, furniture shopping. Came up with a list of items we needed to get, and the list is 26 items long! Fun, but pretty tiring. I miss my lazy weekends.

English Lesson

So apparently it makes a BIG difference whether I ask a Committee to endorse or approve something…

Sorry, stupid me thought that both words are interchangeable… And yes, by using the words erroneously I'm not thinking in the right context...

Oooo but previously in another paper to the SAME Committee you wrote this, and it was acceptable...

"ENDORSEMENT SOUGHT

The Committee’s approval is sought to include ... ... ."

Definition from Dictionary.com
en·dorse·ment
–noun
1. approval or sanction: The program for supporting the arts won the government's endorsement.
2. the placing of one's signature, instructions, etc., on a document.
3. assigning the interest therein to another.
4. a clause under which the stated coverage of an insurance policy may be altered.
ap·prov·al
–noun
1. the act of approving; approbation.
2. formal permission or sanction.
3. Philately. one of a group of selected stamps sent by a dealer to a prospective customer for examination and either purchase or return.

Much ado about rubbish…

Reno has started… so in the midst of hacking there were some concerns… and collateral damage…

Case in point:
The stainless steel rubbish chute that you open to throw your rubbish out of. While removing it to treat the walls and re-tile the wall, the workers found that the previous installation was too tight i.e. too much silicone (or whatever it was) was used to seal the thing, so when they were removing the chute and it ended up spoilt.

Previously, this was not highlighted to us as one of the areas that we may have to be wary about, so when the contractor informed us of this, and told us that we have to bear the cost of the chute, of course we were pissed off… He already “waived” the installation and transportation charge of $80 and just going to charge us raw material cost of $140, but still… if they didn’t spoil the damn thing, we won’t even have to fork out a single cent for this!

Granted, $140 is not a big part of the entire reno budget in the bigger scheme of things… but to me it was a matter of principle, if you spoil my things you should pay for it. Cos you’re already charging me quite a lot for every other thing… but I’m also worried that if we piss the workers and contractors off so early in the job, they’ll haphazardly do everything else, and that will be very bad for us.

Sigh… then it got me thinking. Over the weekend, we purchased a mattress + bed frame for 3.6K, which is significantly more expensive than a generic/lower-end brand. But we really felt very good sleeping on it… And our washing machine was about 800 bucks, at least 200 bucks more than usual, but it is proven that it is very water and electricity efficient…

Then why can’t I get over this $140? Is this a case of being penny-wise but pound-foolish?

it's been more than a month

yup... realise that i've been neglecting this little blog of mine... not tt there's nothing to blog about, more like i've been wanting to add pics to the blog but haven't gotten around to transferring photos... so oh wellz...

summary of the past mth:

trip to Bohol, Phillippines with TJ! our pre-honeymoon or something... it was a very good and relaxing trip, the beaches were to die for, and we saw dolphins! awesome! so as usual, it's more convenient to load photos on facebook, so if you really want to, please go see!

arrival of the cute little rascal winky
winky's a kitten tt cheryl (my sister's) fren found and winky needed a home... when cheryl first saw winky, she immediately thought "mini me!" winky REALLY looks like kinky (my older fat cat) down to the kinked tail... winky's a brat though, too curious for his own good, but now, kinky the older one has overcome his jealousy, and is performing the role of surrogate mother, grooming the little one and chiding him if winky did something wrong (which is very often)... awwww...

commencement of the renovations!
we finally selected our ID, decided what on earth we wanted to do, and chose all the tiles and flooring! yippee! super excited! but now we're like uncle and aunties... gg to see furniture, see toilet bowl, taps, fridge, washing machine... and ms aw is gg to be sewing lady... (i hope) curtains are WAAAAY too expensive...

lunchmates
somehow our lunch group has gotten alot closer with the arrival of the two newbies... we go out more, we talk ALOT more crap, and our typical lunch hour is filled with guffaws and hysterics... a typical IM chat (we were irritating colleague YY by all talking like yoda)


CW... beat them not, join them shall u...
DD... looking and reading these exchanges, gaffaws and bellows I espouse
DD... seeing YY's exasperation, shuangness I experience
Me... DD, good u are
DD.. welcome, u are
Me... meaning of espouse i know not
CW... YY, the glory of yoda awaits
DD... actually words like that, cheemness they are all.
DD... actual appropriateness and meaning, i do not know
DD... to speaketh like yoda, pretending to be cheem, we have to
DD... irritating YY, our eventual goal shall be
DD... WAHHH...i'm damn proud la...i just wrote a sweet poem....4 lines somemore.

it amazes me how i can look like i'm very busy at work when we're all talking this kinda crap

Busy Busy August

been quite a while since i last updated. been busy with the following:

- national day (pre-NDP party), celebrating NDP at padang at some youth NTUC event
- Farewell for both Sharon and James = ( will miss them lots!
- Minds cafe with my bunch of crazy colleagues. Hillarious
- Bohol, Philippines! Haven't got the chance to really blog about this yet, go visit my facebook site for pics
- House stuff... we bought our cooker hob and hood! super excited can... But I just surfed some forums and realise that ariston products seem to have quite a few rants... oh well... fingers crossed! now we are in the final shortlisting process for our ID, then can go ahead! hpfully can have our first xmas party in the new place!
- Olympics... watching alot of gymnastics, swimming, vball, track... so sad tt it's over
- Newborn babies! Congrats to mel and gayle, ka fung and li han... (i haven't gone to see the babies yet... but super looking forward to it)
- and erm yah, work is also keeping me very busy...

Quesadillas

While planning our national day bbq Yun and I were talking abt exactly what we wanna serve… I ended up suggesting nachos and salsa and guacamole dip (cos I love avocados especially when served as guacamole). Then Yun came across quesadillas and suggested I made those

So Friday after gym TJ and I set out to make the salsa dip that goes into quesadillas… we ended up spending 2 hrs to prepare, to chop veggies, roast green chillies etc. But yeah I’m proud to say that the end result was pretty yummy… and once you have a good salsa, you will have a good guacamole (provided your avocadoes are ripe enough), and we got quite a lot of compliments on it during the bbq too!

So although chopping veggies was tiring, (we chopped until 1.30am), it was worth it cos it reminded me of how I love to spend time preparing food in the kitchen w TJ for our friends and family and how we would be able to do more of that in our OWN kitchen in future ^_^

Hmm... any kind souls would like to sponsor us a food processor?

Pure

Pure by The Lightning Seeds
-----------------------------

night time slows, raindrops splash rainbows
perhaps someone you know, could sparkle and shine
as daydreams slide to colour from shadow
picture the moonglow, that dazzles my eyes
and i love you

just lying smiling in the dark
shooting stars around your heart
dreams come bouncing in your head
pure and simple everytime
now you're crying in your sleep
i wish you'd never learnt to weep
don't sell the dreams you should be keeping
pure and simple everytime

dreams of sights, of sleigh rides in seasons
where feelings not reasons, can make you decide
as leaves pour down, splash autumn on gardens
as colder nights harden, their moonlit delights
and i love you

just lying smiling in the dark
shooting stars around your heart
dreams come bouncing in your head
pure and simple everytime
now you're crying in your sleep
i wish you'd never learnt to weep
don't sell the dreams you should be keeping
pure and simple everytime

look at me with starry eyes
push me up to starry skies
there's stardust in my head
pure and simple everytime
fresh and deep as oceans new
shiver at the sight of you
i'll sing a softer tune
pure and simple over you

if love's the truth then look no lies
and let me swin around your eyes
i've found a place i'll never leave
shut my mouth and just believe
love is the truth i relize
not a stream of pretty lies
to use us up and waste our time

lying smiling in the dark
shooting stars around your heart
dreams come bouncing in your head
pure and simple everytime
now you're crying in your sleep
i wish you'd never learnt to weep
don't sell the dreams you should be keeping
pure and simple everytime

look at me with starry eyes
push me up to starry skies
there's stardust in my head
pure and simple everytime
fresh and deep as oceans new
shiver at the sight of you
i'll sing a softer tune
pure and simple over you
pure and simple just for you

Morning Storms

Well… It was such a gloomy morning, dark and gusty winds… and I was so praying that it wouldn’t rain until I got into office. Alas it was not meant to be, and 5 min before I arrived at office, it started to pour… And the strong winds ensured that umbrellas are of no use as shelter from the storm…

And guess what I saw on Channel NewsAsia website?

Morning storms expected

Posted: 23 July 2008 0738 hrs


SINGAPORE: If you are headed out Wednesday morning, you may want to bring along your umbrella. The weatherman said heavy showers with thunder and gusty winds are expected over many areas between 7am and 10am.



PUB also warned that flash floods may occur in low-lying areas in the event of heavy rain.



Traffic watch reported vehicles pinned by fallen trees in the Chinatown area. One tree is reported to have fallen on a taxi at about 7.35am at South Bridge Road heading towards Tanjong Pagar, at the junction of Pickering Street, causing slow moving traffic.



According to the meteorological department, there are showers with thunder all over the island and such weather can be expected over the next few days in the morning and afternoon.

- CNA/yb

Our very efficient weatherman issues us a warning of morning storms at 7.38am, when MOST of us would have stepped out of house to head to school/work already. Thanks hor, can give more advance warning next time? And it was so strange, first song I played today on my ipod (shuffle mode no less) was “Blame it on the weatherman”

On a lighter note, I placed my slightly wet bag on my chair when I arrived in office. When I removed the bag, I see the imprint of a smiley face on the chair :)

BKK 2008

Went BKK over the weekend with my family. This is a very long overdue family trip, our last one was also to BKK over 10 years ago… Sisters and I flew in one day earlier to shop, and shop we did… until we totally did not drink ANY water for 6 hours and be so parched, but continue shopping ‘cos “hey that dress is SOOOOOOOO cute”

Temple tour with parents was a tad disappointing, cos we only made it to Wat Arun, not even the temple with reclining Buddha (forgot the name) and we spent quite a lot of time at some other temple cos nobody there understood English or Chinese…

But yeah, I honestly have not spent so much time w my family in a long while… though they do get on my nerves sometimes, it was overall a pretty fun (if not very tiring trip)

An approximate count of the number of stuff I bought:

10 dresses
5 tops + 1 cardigan
2 skirts
3 belts, 2 bracelets, 2 pairs of earrings, hair accessories
4 bags, miscellaneous small pouches as gifts
2 pairs of shoes
tailored 2 shirts (one for me, one for TJ)
1 bikini, some shorts, underwear
miscellaneous titbits
one bench stool (for the new house), compact mirrors

For TJ:
5 t-shirts, 1 polo shirt, 2 shirts

sounds like a lot right? Multiply the above by 3 (three sisters mah) and you can understand how much luggage we ended up with…

and now I think I need new shoes to go with my new outfits ^_^

I don't have a blog

Boss was chatting over lunch whether my colleague and I are Gen X or Y. He says he belongs to the babyboomers era. Anyway according to him, the difference in Gen X and Y are:

Gen X: takes digital pictures of themselves

Gen Y: takes digital pictures, posts it online, blogs about it...

So I guess I'm Gen Y.

He proceeds to ask us if we blog.

Not wanting him to ask me what my blog address is, I told him that I didn't blog.

So yah, I don't have a blog lor...

Photos!

Thanks to all my photo contributors, I've consolidated most of them and selected some for your viewing pleasure, but I didn't post them here cos v troublesome to do so...

Pls click on HERE to view the photos loaded on picasa.

Enjoy!

Pictures

First few shots from my own camera: not a single shot of me in it cos apparently the camerawoman doesn't take flattering shots of the bride, so all censored out! hehe...

the TWO men in my life: my hubby and my daddy



(the pink-shirted man is my dad-in-law)



my HOT mum and cute dad: his facial expression is damn funny!



mum-in-law and my grandma, a spritely 90-yr-old! so honoured that she's present



the chest and the boobs (i meant the cupcakes, what were you thinking?)



my sisters and my cousin

19 June 2008 (^_^)

And so the day I’ve been looking forward to came and went… It was a ball of nerves, excitement, fun and laughter all rolled into one, and ended up oh so sweet…

Don’t really have many photos yet to tell the story, but from the photos I’ve seen so far, and the feedback that I’ve got, seems like everyone enjoyed themselves, food was not bad, cupcakes were cute, venue though small was intimate, though I’m sure nobody could hear us say our vows ‘cos we opted not to get the mike.

Lesson I’ve learnt: things always work themselves out in the end…
- The venue flowers were supposed to be yellow roses with white eustomas, but turned out to be white + pink champagne roses with yellow/green orchids and vines… but it matched my bouquet of white and pink champagne roses perfectly.
- My cupcakes, though not a complete match to my specifications, turned out cute and yummy! The tier was pretty too!
- My skin, though still terrible, looked pretty decent after the makeup artist did his wonders… and no major wardrobe mishaps occurred…
- And though it was rainy the day before and looked totally cloudy before the ceremony, the weather held and it was nice and sunny (though abit too stuffy and humid) and the solemnization was carried out outdoors as planned…
- Though TJ and I were nervous and excited and rushed and everything, the solemnization went well (ok we both really have a lot of amusing facial expressions) and I think everyone had a good time (I hope)

And in the end… I’m thankful for a lot of things, for having a supportive and caring family (so touched that my grandmother turned up), for having great friends who went out of their way to help (esp my photographer Delvin), and for the rest who took leave specially to join us… and most of all, thankful that at the end of the day, I’ve found you and we’ll have so many more sweet moments in the future…

P.S. In the meantime you can go Yun’s blog to check out photos!

Do you remember

Inspired by a Jack Johnson song that I love

Do you remember…

- When we first met, we chit-chatted on the train all the way from Buona Vista to Bugis and XM was beside us looking very bored, sms-ing his gf?
- The times we were sitting on the bus from Outram Park MRT to Jurong Island (vv) and we were talking about cats, exercise, food etc., and when we just go to the pantry to heat up our tabao-ed food, while everyone heads down to the canteen to eat?
- How it felt so warm and fuzzy sitting on Changi Beach on our sandals back-to-back while watching airplanes fly by and talking about everything and nothing in general?
- The first time we held hands after we finally told each other how we felt, in that small park in Serangoon Gardens?
- The first flowers you gave me and you told me you wanted us to look forward to the bright future together?
- When I fell very sick living alone in the hostel, you came over to nurse me, putting wet towels on my forehead, fetching water for me, buying me “honeysucker” water, porridge and feeding me my meds? And when I was having dysentery you came over to saying me, and called pharmacies for me to help me find medicine, looked so worried and wanted to send me to the hospital?
- Our cycling sessions to East Coast Park, sometimes with yummy picnics thrown in between?
- The time we went MacRitchie for tree-top walk and were totally drenched by the torrential rain, your sandals broke and we had to walk through the country club to find a cab? Thank goodness you always prepare some food on our outdoor adventures.
- How I’ll be so bitchy and irritating when you’re away (in Canada, China, Batam etc.) but when you’re back everything disappears and I’m so happy to see you?
- All our little cookouts in your house, from pasta and salad to pineapple rice and green curry?
- Our salsa/mahjong/squash/chilling out/outdoor adventures with our dear FAGs?
- Your dreadful accident and how all the arrangements sucked but you were still trying to be upbeat and cheer your mum and me up? And how I was so glad to finally see you get well. Your positive spirit always never fails to uplift me too
- All the little arguments we had over the wedding preparations, but one of us will always give in eventually?
- How we love to sing 80s songs while you drive me back home, and how we would always try to imitate the singers and end up going off-key?
- How you always make me laugh, and I hope, I always make you smile…

List to be continued…