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We are waiting for the paperworks to complete in the sale of our home as well as some renovation works in the new place we are renting in. Our landlord is fixing some basic fixtures including grills which I insisted since I have two young kids. Although this is a temporary place until we decide to wait for the market to grow softer, rented homes need to be just as comfy. My kids love the place and they are excited that there is a playground just across the street. If Singapore allows, I’d have preferred to live in a motorhome! I simply adores those I’ve seen in magazines and televisions. I’m sure my kids would like them, but alas, we do not even have enough parking spaces and wide open spaces for parking our cars, so the motorhome dream is definitely out. Otherwise, there’d be a good demand for motorhome accessories as well as a good range of motorhome insurance coverage. I can imagine some arty farty fella who may even dress up a motorhome in the retro era in pastel shades of pink or baby blue and lots of Warhol’s artifacts. And all that accessories one can have.. Wouldn’t that be so much fun?

I am so tied up at work since the part time worker resigned. It is difficult to get people who wants to work in food business. Maybe it is not glamourous and there is no air cond comfort. That means Ah Boy and I will just have to do the jobs ourselves. Dishwashing is a shunned job. Peeling prawns is too. But if you psyche yourself and accept it, you probably don’t feel that it is not all that bad. What can I say, should I put myself in a positive mood or negative mood just to do those jobs? I always come to face to face with things I do not have the interest or fear doing it. But facing it is something I come to eventually. Just like tabulations in financials which I ran away years ago led me to a company where I had to do tons of them. In the end, I became an old hand in what I fear. So now, I guess I shall be able to be a professional dishwasher and prawn peeler. Give me competition, anytime now. I’ll do it.

So because of these jobs, I now skips my meals so frequently that the only meals that can be eaten in peace would be after work, like supper. And pretty soon if I continue this way, I’d have to look for diet pill that works fast because I will be a bottom heavy pear shaped person in the end. I can’t skip any more meals can I? After all, it is the only other meal I take besides my cup of breakfast coffee and toast in the early morning.

I’m filled with sadness yet with emotions of relief at the same time. We are finally processing the sale of our home. A place I really call home, a place I do love to be after years of being a nomad-like person who moved from one place to another in search of a permanent place. For the time being, we have not found a permanent place yet, so an interim one on rental will have to do. So many decisions we had to make, especially when housing rules and regulations are being set now and more to come. We just had to make this timely decision, now or never. Our sale is being processed, and I’ll be out of this place in less then 2 months. I had this temptation to make an Address Plaque for every place I called home because they mean a lot to me. Even though in ten years time I no longer reside in it. At least I can have a piece of history to remind me of it, and perhaps a folder with photographs of the lovely place.

A potential buyer once came to view my home wanted it on the spot but when it was time to put in the deposit and exercise an option to buy, started criticizing my home of this and that. I was furious because, this is MY HOME and he had not bought it yet nor even place any deposit. What gives him the right to criticize it as if it were not worth. Then why is he so keen in my home. All in all, I found out that he actually didn’t have the money to buy and wanted to do a contra (sell his current then use the proceeds to get mine) and played cheat, by delaying the process so that other buyers can’t get to it till he settles his housing sale! Well, I’m afraid, I decided not to let him have the place in the end but chose another keen buyer. At least we are secured to complete a sale in the stipulated time, not having to drag and drag. Anyways, I’m relief that a chapter of this is finally coming to a closure. Will update.

Ah Boy decided to recontract his phone with the local subscriber and got a free iPhone. And he gave it to me to use since I had lost my phone and all my contacts in it. I was kind of lost without my old phone albeit a basic one. I miss it dearly, with all it’s temperaments and freezes it commonly gives me. The person, who found my phone had turned if off upon finding it and then one day, 3 weeks later, decided to call one person in my contact list to try to return it to me. Can you believe it? For one, I am suspicious, of course! He could have done that in the first few days.. why wait till 3 weeks later. My friend who told me about it agrees that all this person wants is some sort of monetary reward or something in return (HA!) after finding out he can’t sell it for even $10 measly sg dollars! I tried to trade in only to find out the no-valueness of it and I know all the numbers NOT TO PRESS or face a freeze by my temperamental NOKIA! So, the MR who found my hp and tried to return it 3 weeks later, I’m sorry but you can keep my phone and blocked SIM card to see if you can find some value in it, no problem. Or just throw it in the bin..

I have never owned a DSLR before because I do not have the heart to part with my SLR, the classic ones that uses the good old camera film.. However, I get tempted looking at so many adverts placing best buy cameras that goes for so much less than the classic SLRs during my time. Also you can view you shots immediately after a shot and reshoot when you find the subject not to your liking. Ah Boy said maybe I should sell it to a real photography buff if he or she is interest in taking up classic photography and learns to develop films in the old way in the dark bag or dark room… Hmm, would you? Lots of mistakes, however and we all learn via mistakes, don’t we?

I notice that the average security personnel that guards the ATM machine during a repair or upgrade or service times are usually the ones that is not our normal CISCO nor the ones that labels as POLICE. These armed guardsmen go by the name AETOS. They are trained to guard bank personnels when the need to top up cash at the ATM and they can be seen even during midnight when there aren’t much human traffic around since ATM machines are heavily utilised in the day. Sometimes I wondered if besides the usual arms like pistols and batons, do they carry those very high tech shooters that comes with holographic sights. These are specially designed arms that helps one to aim more correctly even thought the target is not quite aligned, as what I have read.. Can you imagine, instead of the usual classic guns people carry, high tech ones are now getting more advanced!

My kids are deft when it comes to computers and the like. They belong to the latest generation of kids where computers are a common commodity before their birth. At age 3, my youngest cannot even hold the mouse with her small palm that she has to move the mouse, stop and lifts the whole hand to click on the mouse button. And she can’t really read but she recognizes buttons and colours in shapes and sizes like an illustration. Lately my girls tell me that they enjoy their IT classes in school which provides them with the iPad. Gosh, I had not even gotten near an iPod, iPhone and they are already using iPads… Guess I’m more at ease with the traditional HP or acer desktops that look enormous and gigantic at home! I’d just fumble at buttons and keys if I were to be given those smartphone because I’m still using a very basic Nokia without a camera! How old fashion am I?

I walked past the jewellery shop the other day. Nowadays there aren’t many people walking into the store. A friend told me that gold has appreciate so much that for what you paid last two years, you’d be paying much much more today. Instead of buying, some prefer to Sell Gold to pawnshops since they fetch a good price. The advertisements are also getting more aggressive on TV and Newspapers, with many Mediacorp artistes endorsing the pawnshops of certain branding. It is not anymore a taboo nor negative to go into the pawnshops in this day and age. In fact, it is something that people prefer to do, as they get immediate cash plus low interest and they do not need paperwork for approval. Would you pawn your gold?

My friend told me about his new cash cow. He had been investing in stuffs like gold in the past years and told me that they have increased in greater value since these few years. He made a lot selling them for extra cash and told me that the new ‘IN’ now is to buy silver rounds, whatever that is..he said that silver or white gold is now also increasing in value although this metal was considered as something of little value in my grandmother’s time. But then again, no many people invested in white gold then, but they love gold more. Tell me, how many of you actually bought white gold for investment then? If you did, now is a good time. They are getting valuable now!

3 weeks ago, I dropped my mobile phone at a hawker centre. Within minutes of discovering this, I tried to call my own mobile using the kind lady’s phone who owns a fruit stall in the market. And guess what? My phone was turned off, much to my expectation. My hubby had just gone to the gents and tried to call me and told me that my phone was off too. Whoever had my phone, voluntarily turned it off, for his own motive, otherwise, why would he. On that afternoon, I called up Singtel, my phone service provider to block off my sim card, just in case this person tried to use my phone for unsavoury motives or even to make trunk calls.

Guess what happened, 3 weeks thereafter. Someone called my house agent (as she was the last person who had been communicating with me via txt messages). This person told my agent that he wanted to return my phone to me, and asked my agent to give him my mobile number. I am very suspiscious of this person because, why does he need to wait till 3 weeks before he decided to return my mobile phone?

I know why. My mobile phone is NOT WORTH EVEN THE VALUE OF $10 TRADE IN! HAHAHA! He must have tried to sell my phone off in the past 3 weeks to second hand mobile phone shops. Only I know of my mobile phone’s temperament. It will turn itself off if a certain number is pressed and hangs when I do a particular task. ONLY I KNOW how it works and I have used it without fail for the past 3 years. I only use it for very basic purposes! Not even a smartphone, this basic Nokia is given free by my trusty provider because I wanted to cancel my mobile number 3 years back. My agent told me that, he sounds like he wants a reward or something for returning my phone… what a con he is. He can have the phone if he wants to, since he didn’t even bothered to return it in the first week upon finding it. How sincere can this person be. It doesn’t take 3 weeks to return a faulty valueless phone, unless he has an ulterior motive.