Labour Day tomorrow

and i gotta come back to work...

talk abt IRONY

Peektures!

Kung fu fighting!

ok ok, give u ice cream, make peace :)

random snapshot to perk the wifey up

my best fren's daughter, Trisha! Wanan grow old fast... slow down slow down!

byebye for now!

11-13-36

oh. on this note, well its about as close as we got to settling for a condo. This was a unit which we both loved instantly. Deco was great, furniture was great, view was quite good too. Plus it was so so so near to the mrt.
Our first 3 offers were rejected so we decided to have a chat with the owner at the 2nd viewing to discuss price. Unfortunately the owner seems to think that the housing prices will rise and the housing situation will favor the seller thus he decided to stick to a price which we will have a lot of pain trying to reach. Basically we won't have enough $$ for deco or furniture and have to live with what the unit comes with. Its not too bad but still you want a little bit of "me" in your apartment.
I suspect we will be revisiting this post again in the coming months dependant on the housing situation and, well, i do hope the owner can reconsider it carefully given what we have presented to him. OR he found another place that he really loves and has to sell his unit now. OR he gets posted overseas.

Whichever lets him sells his place to us.

We're not fussy :)

Search is still on.....

what you may not know about house hunting

1) Ask for size area and owner's expected price and maintenance (if condo)
2) if its HDB, ask for valuation AND owner's expected price
3) if an ad writes POOL VIEW, it doesn't necessary mean pool view. That is up to the owner's interpretation of what a pool view means. A little sliver of a baby pool can also be considered POOL VIEW *slaps forehead*
4) Near MRT can range from 5 to 15mins of walking. Always check online maps for actual location to be doubly sure.
5) Apartments that are older tend to get higher risk ratings from bankers and thus less likely to get better loans from them.
6) Everyone assumes that the new MRTs that are being built now will raise their prices. But that remains to be seen... especially if your station happens to be a white elephant :p
7) Always go visit potential places yourself to get a feel of the land, its surroundings, the place itself, the renovations done etc. You might get surprises (good or bad is pretty much dependant on fate)
8) You can afford a higher valued private apartment than a HDB. Observe the calculations

HDB Valuation = $450k, money over is about 50k for example:
Cash + CPF element = 50k + 5% * 450k + 1% * 500k (agent fee) + 3% * 500k - 5400 (stamp duty) + 15% * 450k = $154,600 where minimum cash portion is $77,500
Rest of 80% is loan.

Private Condo Valuation = $500k (usually money over is close to zero OR banker can match the selling price
Cash + CPF element = 5% * 500k + 3% * 500k - 5400 (stamp duty) + 15% * 500k = $109,600 where minimum cash portion is $34,600
rest of 80% is loan

Thus given the sums that i produced (the stamp duty might not be accurate for HDB side but it doesn't differ by too much) its amazing to see the amount of cash for HDB vs Private Apartment. Mostly though it has to do with the money over element which is mostly covered by the bank loan for a private condo. Granted the monthly installment is going to be a lot more but given the possible price variations for a private apartment vs a HDB, it does make sense now why my parents keep harping us to get private apt instead of condos.

Throughout our experience so far its definitely been an eye-opener. Granted we might have saved ourselves a lot of time by looking specifically to the specifications that my parents had already dished out to us, but we wouldn't have learnt so many things nor seen so many interesting units if we had not "knocked the wall with our heads" so to speak ourselves. This brings to mind a great many things about life and about humans in general. That we often need to see it for ourselves to learn better. Sure it might make things easier if we had gone along with the knowledge of our seniors, but we would have learnt the lessons by heart much better and more indepth if we had to go through the "pain", "suffering", "time" ourselves. After all,

you read, you know

you listen, you remember

you do, you understand

and i think its better for us to go through life understanding :)

Randy Pausch daily blog

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/%7Epausch/news/index.html

Single Females --> the new valuable commodity

Many of us have encountered the type of management that comprises of Single Females. This i feel is the next most valuable commodity. Why so? well..
1) Single career women tend not to have a lot of social wants/needs as compared to bachelor men (i.e. partying, pubbing, picking up chicks etc) so in essence their lives become family + work
2) women in general tend to be more family oriented thus after work usually they will head home to be with their family thus the lack of need for social wants in 1) above
3) they are usually more detail oriented and in terms of management of projects etc this is a good plus
4) compared to married women, they have no need for maternity leave
5) some are of the mindset that they have no need for men and romantic relationships thus again minimizes the reasons to leave work early and supports 1)

How did they come about?
well some of them have been through alot of disappointing romance thus have ressolved to the "i don't need this crap" view of romance and relationships. Others have not been able to find a man that can swallow their ego and be able to deal with someone who might be higher up the corporate ladder. Others started off working hard and never found the time to find their other halves. And when they reach a certain age, the interest just drops off and the engine never got kicked started again.

If you compare it to men realistically they do hold more value and thus more power now than before and this is a rather interesting trend don't you think so?

11-13-36

omg the anticipation is killin' me... want to get it over and done with....

my first gift to her...

no... not these.. though whenever we fail to see one of these floating-as-if-really-walking balloon animals it never fails to bring a smile to our faces :p they seem so life-like and bobbing up and down ...

its this little fello...

see at that time i was in the states traveling with mom and bro on a NY-Canada tour package. At that time we have already known each other exists and during the super duper long bus journeys i just started smsing her using my o2 mini pda (omg so long ago). at the same time i had my older PsP and was listening to corrinne may as well. Cant really remember wat i sms her about but at least she took the time to reply me for which i am grateful :)
then at that time i already knew she loves huskies... and well i was hoping to get something cool from usa for her. So whilst in ole Canada, i happen upon this really cute huskie dolll with canadian mountie uniform. So i just had to get one for her. I compared a few of them and found the one least deformed and when i got back from the states, on our first dinner date (i tink), i passed it to her.
Today she managed to dig it out from duno where and mms me the pic with the message "i found someone" .... that brought a smile to my face :)

Do they know what they are doing?

The world is becoming increasingly restless and it shows in the high-profile wierd-ass things that have been happening around the world.

The protestors for the torch relay. Its just a torch relay and already it has garnered so much wrong attention. Actually with all these actions, don't they realise that they might just be pissing China off? I wonder though what might happen at the actual olympics itself if already a torch relay has gone so wrong, even to the extent that the route in San Fran had to be diverted in a cat-and-mouse situation. Where is the honor and glory in that? So what might happen during the Olympics? And if it does happen will there be a tremendous backlash from China and who knows, spark the start of Cold War II? scary....

What about robbery at the airport from our neighbours to the north? I mean given that 911 has happened, most airports around the world has stepped up on security to prevent another terrorist attack has happened. Then how on earth can this robbery happen that resulted in injuries and a large sum of money stolen? Its quite apalling to think of what might have happened if some other organisation took advantage of this lax in security.

Not that we ourselves are any better. I mean how on earth can a person escape from a prison in our little isle.. let alone a Internal Security one... and from the toilet no less? The guards ought to be watching more shows like CSI, Prison Break and Crime TV and learn from past mistakes and experiences! I mean good lord.. and its been so long and we havent found him yet? SHEESH...

Finally, the circus that is the US presidential votes coming up and the battle between clinton and obama. I was just reading an article on yahoo that mentioned that polls done on the supporters have revealed that 1/3 of supporters from each of the camp (clinton and obama) will vote for McCain should the other party be the Democratic nominee... So essentially, the Deomcrates are handing the Presidential seat to the Republicans on a silver platter. All this fighting and stubborness is really getting nowhere and its amazing they don't see the danger upcoming in the actual race itself and who their real competitor is.

McCain must be watching this with glee now..

Do they really know what they are doing?!?!??!

*slaps forehead*

a dogwalker's diary...

i should probably start my diary with ollie, since i've been walking him for a couple of days now and will be doing so for a bit. =)

he's growing and is more lanky now.

he's also getting more naughty!

it feels kinda sad to have to discipline him the way the trainer wants us to, but i guess it's a must if we want him to know the rules.

we can only look forward to the payoff in the future. =P

i think walking ollie's really testing my patience and teaching me things about teaching dogs. and, i suppose, about teaching my future kids as well.

here are some of the pictures i snapped off my mobile today...

weekends with the boys...

i do love the weekends.

especially the part where i wake up next to snuffy hubby.


the last one was spent on good food and house-hunting.

the house-hunting didn't go too badly, and post sunday times report, we got my brother to join us in our hunt for the supposedly best chocolate cake.

according to the last sunday times, it's supposed to be the one at PS Cafe along Harding Road. the place is really near dempsey, and you really have to watch out for the sign because the entrance to the cafe is hidden amongst greenery.

and i'm guessing PS is an abbreviation for "project shop". because when the bill came, the company's name was "blood brothers".



so here's what we came for...



but we couldn't bear to just order one dessert (as usual), so we got a brownie as well, which came with a tower of marshmallow.


we started with such gusto...


but even with the two dessert junkies around, it was way too rich to finish. both were really good though, especially the chocolate cake.


all in all, the ambience was good and the desserts were nice. the menu was also interesting...the hubby and i were watering at the mouth just seeing "whole lobster with garlic butter..."


but the sticking point was the service and how bloody slow it took for them to bring us our bill. you see servers standing about and chatting, but it took them such a long time to even bring us our bill...and an even longer time for them to process it and bring it back to us. =(

and because of that, the hubby and i aren't inclined to visit the place again.

the last week of year 1 classes...

perhaps it's just the constant contact i've had with investor central that's pulling me through the year of studies.

IC kinda makes me feel like i haven't been away from them for that long, and that i've been studying for the past year (or so).

today marks the last day of lessons and presentations for this semester, and for year 1 of my course at SMU.

there were many occasions during this semester that had me so tempted to quit school. but on hindsight, the year did pass by really quickly.

and if i apply that to the next three years to come, they may pass just as quickly. if i take it semester by semester.

the last few months had me undertaking a constant stream of assignments and projects. i don't think i've ever been that consistent in school work. i had had to plan things way ahead because of the tons of project work we had to do.

i took 5 modules this time around, the heaviest module being my business in china course. but that was my favorite class to go to each week because it was taught in mandarin. it was a change from the monotony of the week because we learnt a lot about what we sorta knew, but didn't know much about.

after doing the course, i am now more receptive and ready to try communicating with chinese businessmen in chinese. i may even explore the option of doing an exchange program with a chinese university (because going to south america may be way too expensive).

now if only i can get mark to post me to china...*hint hint*. =P

i had my last presentation today. my sociology class made me appreciate how much fun social science is. everyone was so ready to step out of the box and use head fakes to get their message across. here's my team with the professor at the end of the class...



...our presentation was on how education creates social trends. =)

our ltb group handed up our community service project portfolio on monday.

and since our project was pretty much centered around the chinese new year period, we fashioned it in the form of a hamper. each of us wrote our experiences on individual learning blocks, and those were positioned as the goodies you'd receive in a CNY hamper.



if there were an award for efficiency, muchas gracias sure takes the cake. =)



can you spot LSG? =P

on another note, i love hanging out with snuffy hubby.

while we don't cannabalize each others' time, we love hanging out with each other so much that there really doesn't seem to be enough time for us to chill together.

so when we do, we try to kick back and chat about our week and anything that might've crossed our paths.

last saturday, we headed to vivo to catch spiderwick (and then to cineleisure sunday to watch evangelion).

post-movie, we shuffled around a little, and decided (somewhat skeptically) to try out corduroy. we've walked past it many times, admiring the deco, but have never had much impetus to go in and try out their stuff.



corduroy has got a very relaxing atmosphere. it's plush sofas are inviting, and if you were with a good conversational partner, you could be admiring the view of the harbor and chatting there for hours at a go.

the food doesn't seem too bad either.



we ordered a hot chocolate (because they only serve water if you order a drink), a kartoffeln salat...



...and a beef burger.

the potato salad was really potato and apple salad, and the crunchy apple pieces really added a nice bite to the dish.

the beef burger patties were extremely tasty, but seemed a little dry. that's solved if you like chilli sauce and mayonnaise. even if you don't fancy those condiments on your burger, ask the waiter for them because they really don't taste like your supermarket bottled chilli sauce and mayo. we really enjoyed dunking our fries in them. =)

this weekend's going to be an interesting one because we're going house-viewing.

yes, we are househunting so if you know of anyone who may want to sell their property, do let us know.

next week will have me studying for my exams and walking ollie!

i'm excited. =)

thanks snuffy hubby, for wanting to make all my dreams come true.

together, we'll defy gravity.

Randy Pausch, the Last Lecture

I'm glad wifey took up psychology for her degree in SMU. Its filled her with so much interesting tibits of information and of course she passes them on to me as and when its appropriate especially nowadays.

tibits like how your mind does affect your health in someway or another. like after we met each other we are happy and well optimism and laughter is actually the best medicine and that she has been less ill in the time she has spent with me. That's why its a vicious cycle really for those that worry or are pessimistic. In that they are worried and depressed and their mental health is suffering and that in turns bring their immune system down and they get more prone to illnesses which makes them even more sad and depressed.

It also brings to mind how you get what you project outwards in a way. Say you project yourself as happy and hopeful, then the world and karma seems to direct those that are like you, your way as well and vice versa. That interestingly seems to be the way my life has been, especially in the areas of work. Most of my colleagues that i have interacted with are usually the friendly and easy-going type or at the very least we can click and talk.

One of the good things that wifey brought back from class was this video clip about Randy Pausch. Click the below link to watch this inspirational video (76mins long so download and watching will be a whee bit slow)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Please go watch it and learn from it as there are very good meanings and lessons you can take away with on your road through life. It certainly provided me with a catalyst to work on something else also in my life and i hope that it will bear fruit in the coming years :)