春节花会2009

We went to Sentosa yesterday to see the Sentosa Flower 2009!, My 1st time there for this event though it has been like annually host. Quite nice & pretty, but was abit too hot. And I din bring my camera there, these were taken using my hp. There are more pretty pictures in my hubby camera. If the files not too big, i can upload to show! And 1 thing i must say, we went into sentosa without paying a single cents! except the carpark entrance!!! Dont know why! The staff just din make us pay and wave us to go!!! Was it because before 10am or because it was b4 CNY, they dont expect too many would go!!! Pls enlighten me if you know why!

CNY Flower

Some update,  taken today. And re pot 风信子。

祝大家：

新年快乐，万事如意, 心想事成，身体健康。

CNY Flowers & Plant

This 6 inch cost $24

This "Jian Lan", $2.20 each from a market. But the flower shop outside NTUC selling $3.00

The 风信子@$5.80 from Chinatown, but this morning i went to the 511 market only $4.50.....hazi...

Coffee Plant @$3.80.

Conculsion, market's pricing cheaper!

This last pot is coffee plant, bought from Chinatown yesterday. This year buy more flowers than previous years! Hope everything will be better for us!

Pineapple tarts

This year i am very lucky to have my DH to help me with the cookies! YEAH! btw she is my "sceret friend", if you know what i meant....

2009 Red Packets

SCB

ADONIS

OCBC

Hong Leong Finance

UOB

Bank Of China

Parkway Parade

DBS

NTUC

BHG

CitiBank

This year seems to have more variety from diff banks & shop. However, after so many years, I still find that SCB has the most classic & special. So can feel that the CNY is getting closer & closer!....:D

buzy

Chinese new year is just round the corner but i still have many thing haven post! I haven post my this Ang po from banks and other shops! and cookies i made with my DH......and still very buzy with office project....which has been overrun by abt 5 months liao! how abt it overdue for 5 months....hahahahha! The new target date is by end feb, die die must finish....and now super CNY mood leh.....and i m on leave on Friday!

And would like to post abt treatment of maid by many others. May be when i free after Feb bah....no matter....

Just HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL!

MAY ALL THE GOOD WEALTH & HEALTH BE WITH YOU!

What is a guard Post or security Post?

Yesterday I took leave to bring my girl to her school as she has her 1st CCA in the morning. Her 1st time (P1 only) so i thought I bring her with my domestic helper(DH), and subsequently she will bring my girl instead. However, i was quite shock when i reached the school gate. There is a "guard post, guarded by an old man". He asked, why?, i told him lah, then he said sign-in here. So i do as he said and also sign-in for my DH.

Then i went into the school to the class where her CCA will be with my girl & DH. However, less than 5 minutes, the so called "guard" came to where we are, as there were also other parents around. And he started to chase us out!. I simply ignore him until he came & pointing to me & ask me to leave. Then i raise my voice!. I told him I want to speak to the teacher!. He continue to attack my maid : YOU....! I told him SHE IS MY MAID!. At that point i feel like slapping him! Cos MAID is also a human! Why is he so rule! SO inhuman! An old man like him has live all his life without knowing all humans are equal! He then call for help lah. I will still said I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE TEACHER! EVEN IF U CALL THE POLICE, I WILL STILL STAND HERE AND NOT LEAVE!

1. 1ST u asked us to sign-in, next minutes start to chase us out! WHAT IS THE POINT OF SIGNING-IN!
2. 2nd, as a guard, u leave "guarding area" without anyone standby, your defence level already FAILURE!
3. 3rd, the attitude of the guard towards a DH is bad! u cant even treat human equally, u are not qualified to be guard!

Though i can understand the school for placing the security, but this is totally unaccepted. Because, it is not that we will come every week!, Yesterday was the 1st lesson, we parents of course wanna make sure everything is in order! Whats more my this girl seem too have no sense of direction! And we cant just tell them what to do!, we must teach them! If by telling and they can follow correct, then there is no need for the teacher to teach! And schools always said that we parents don't teach the children but leave it to the school to teach!!!!When i wan teach, i was not allow into the school! And we have also sign-in, we should be allow in and not having ppl chasing us out!......PISSED!

Oranges bag

Bought these from chinatown, the 3 on top for $10, and the 4th is $1 each. Nice!

New Year Resolution!

This year 2008 is coming to end now, and I have been relative busy with many things. First, in the company, and have not been doing my ops for 3/4 year.....hahahah and many colleagues was pregnant, (6 of them) that about 1/3 of our staff strength. To them this is very tedious! Because some of them still take no-pay leave! Long MC etc etc....very poor things for my other colleagues not on Maternity Leave.

I have not visiting my blogger friends so frequently like last year. Hope i will be able to do so more next year!

This year I have also ventured out something which I did not disclose here but only to my close friends....something very interesting but quite costly for a start. Which I have spent more times doing it....but hope it will be better next year! My friends you know right!

And the world! Too many Too fast "tumors". Hope next year we will have peaceful year ahead!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to ALL!

Movies!

This school vocation, we have watched 3 movies, usually we will only watched 1 show....but somehow we caught 3....And there was promotion by GV which we were not aware until today. The 1st trip was on 29 Nov we went to watch the winx club and the staff asked if we have children under 12, I told her i have 2 and she charged me 3 tickets' price for 4 pax. The 2nd time we went to watch was for free soI din asked. The 3rd time we went, I asked the staff about the "special price" and he told me he is not aware and asked me if I watch here at the same cinema and when.....These 3 times we went to the same cinema at Vivo City. Until today when i flip the newspaper and saw this GV promotion for movies before noon, every 2 tickets will get 1 free ticket for kids below 12.

J.CO Donuts & Coffee!

Today is super sian day! This afternoon we went to bugis to buy J.CO Donuts for an office events. We bought 2 dozens. At the counter, the staff asked if we have OCBC credit Cards and can enjoy cheaper price for 2 dozens. I show her my NTUC Platinum Visa card by OCBC and she told me no cannot only the 3 cards displayed at the promotional banner! I din argue with her knowing she is ignorant! But I m very upset, once back I email the company to complain and wanna them to enlighten me what is OCBC credit cards if the one I m holding is not. And I wrote, most of the OCBC promotional banners only put 3 standard credit card pictures and all other OCBC credit cards will still be able to enjoy the Privileges! Why J.CO cannot! Because your staff is very ignorant! And they indeed apologised to me just now. Cos I wrote I m not going to encounter the same problem again if I were to patronise them. If the same problem still exist, I wouldnt be so nice talking to your staff this time! hahahah mi very bad! Yes! I m. It is not the offer I m upset over, but the services provided by your staff, dont bother to check and just said "ONLY THE 3 CARDS SHOWN" that make me boiled! To me, I dont take advantage of people and I also dont expect others to take advantage of me! Dont bully me, I will EAT u up instead! Hahahahahah!!!!!:D

Another issue not J.CO now but the school bookshop this time! hazi.......Last Friday, my mum brought my girls to the school to buy the outstanding books and came back realised they gave the wrong books. Instead of a P5 science textbook & workbook, they gave 2 workbook, another 2 science assessment book for P4 when the book list is for P5. So i asked my girl & maid to go back to exchanged. My girl called, and said they dont have stock and they take back books and refund the money. I still double confirm with my girl they returned the textbook money and not the workbook money! However, when I got home, do some calculation, is wrong! They not only return her the workbook money, they returned the money without GST!. HOW COULD THEY! They Charged the textbook money with GST and refund workbook money without GST! OMG! Why these people do business like tat so DISHONEST! So tomorrow need to go back and reason with them! Very easy money hor! Like they can give the wrong book and say no stock and refund the money without GST and when the stock come they charge again the book with GST! Thats why I hate to buy book from their school bookshop, every year also have problems. First, they dont have receipt, then they only have very little selected dates that are open and are always so crowded! I will always buy from popular bookstores and have them delivered to me and only the books they dont have I buy from the school bookshop. And with very little books from the bookshop still have problems!

24 hours a day!

Recently i have been very busy, over children next year's textbook, school uniform, birthday and christmas presents shopping. Everyday is rushing, rushing and rushing! Rush to work, rush to lunch, rush home, rush for dinner, rush them to finish their homework, rush them to bed!

Everyday I(is we) leave the house at 7am, bring the kids to my mum's place then go to office and reach home abt 7.30pm if nothing goes wrong (no traffic jam, hubby work late, me have got company activities).

Then settle down watch my TV programs at 7pm & 9pm sometime also the 10pm. I love to watch TV though i know is a waste of time. So i have actually cut down by selectively....hahahaha.... while watching and hands are not free either. But the lucky things is i do not have to house work because i have a domestic helper which really helped me alot. Because I always think doing house work is a waste of my time! I have 24 hours a day just like everyone else. But abt 10 hrs are being sold to support my lifestyle and abt 7 hours used to "rest". So i m left with only 7hrs which include my meals, traveling and i am basically have only abt 3 precious hours a day to do"my things". Sigh! And these 3 hours also not strictly belongs to me! Still need to communicate with my children and run errand. So all in all I think I m left with 1 hour a day!

Weekend abit more relax because I m not working! But I still have many activities though quite routine. How wish if only i can dont work and become a tai tai at home!"FAT HOPE"! Thats life of a employee!

Violet粉樱厨房笔记2009食谱月历

i finally got my 5 copies last sat! mediacorp email me to collect from mediacorp. Good! no queue de unlike the previous sat. Yeah!

I m just back from hospital after visiting my cousin who was back from Thailand last sat. OMG, his right foot was heavily swollen like elephant leg. He was there with the school to build library for the poor people there. And he kena bitten by dont know what last week when he finished his volunteer work and about to come back to Singapore. He was already hospitalised there but no better, then they fly to KL and transfer back and straight headed to the hospital. Now on drip of antibotic for 4 days now, still swollen but better and cant walk. Poor thing! 1st time over to do good deed and ended up kena bitten! At least he is now back in Singapore! The rate it recovering, he probably need another week in hopsital!

"RA"

Boss and his Secretary
>
>
> Boss walked into the office one morning not knowing that
> his zipper was down.
>
> His secretary walked up to him and asked,
> 'Boss this morning when you left your house, did you
> close your  gate ?'
>
>
> Boss was not smart enough to understood, so he went back
> into his office looking a bit puzzled !
>
>
> When he was about done with his paper work, he suddenly
> noticed that his Zipper was not zipped up.
>
> He zipped up and remembering what his secretary had told
> him, then boss finally understood.
>
> He then intentionally
> went out to ask for a cup of coffee from his secretary.
>
>
> When he reached her desk, He said, 'When you saw the
> gate open did you see my BMW parked in there ?'
>
>
> The secretary smiled for a moment and said,
> 'No, Boss I didn't.
> All I saw was a Kancil 600 with 2 flat tyre.'
>
> Boss went back to his office mumering... kan ni nau
> bu......

I was on leave yesterday & today. Because my mum brought my eldest to kuantan and i dint go. But these few days were full of activities. Watch movies on saturday & sunday, Winx Club & Madagascar....winx club is boring but to the girls it was nice! cannot image i actually watch the winx club with them! hahahah.

Saturday evening we still went to PC show, wanted to a NEC notebook. But still I dint buy, cos economy is really bad. May be we shall wait till next year PC show in march. And it was really big and many people, hard time walking around.

Sunday, watch another show because we have 4 free tickets and expired on Sunday. So Madagascar lah, so many kids' show now.

Then Yesterday, brought them to Ikea! They have fun while I shop! Just came back from Tampines, we had lunch there and then they play the Art craft. Supposed to meet a friend there but somehow she dint reply my sms so be it lah!

And so many things happened over the last 1 week! The world is getting crazy and the people too. Bombay & Thailand! My cousin still being "stuck" in Thailand! He went to bangkok with his school teacher & friends on 14 Nov, and supposed to be back on 28 Nov! But what the hell he need to be there for 2 weeks? was back last sat and went straight to hospital.

Next time we go tour, dont stay in 5 stars hotel. 4 stars good enough, if not terrorists like to attack 5 stars hotels, then we will be in deep shit!

Violet粉樱厨房笔记2009食谱月历

I have actually ordered 5 copies via internet. And i went on sat to collect my that 5 copies. However, i was shock to see the queue was very very very long. The collection was 12-6pm on sat at chinatown point and i was there about 3pm. But the queue simply too scary le, i gave up my 5 copies. So i got nothing la. At 1st i thought it wouldnt be long since only 2000 copies and some ppl ordered more copies. But the 2000 copies were like 20000 copies. May be they can think of other collecting method or let the sale of the calendar be at more places rather than just at 1 point. I estimated that i were to join the queue that day, i probably need to queue 1.5hr! I must be mad if i joined the queue! The management must think of other ways lah. Like that cannot!

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all beloved bloggers!

I may not blog this coming days, as i need to prepare for my Christmas presents for my colleagues! but i will still be reading your blogs!

The SEED

THE SEED - Very good story

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together. 'It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO,' he said. 'I have decided to choose one of you.' The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. 'I am going to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.'

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him! When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives. Jim just tried to hide in the back. 'My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,' said the CEO. 'Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!' All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room! With his empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, 'The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!' When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed. Jim told him the story. The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, 'Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!' Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said? Then the CEO said, 'One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.BR I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow. All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

'When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!'

Moral:
If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will r! eap grea tness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

New Christmas Song

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

It's hitting you once,
It's hitting you twice
It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise
Recession is coming to town

It's worthless if you've got shares
It's worthless if you've got bonds
It's safe when you've got cash in hand
So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town!

Finance products are confusing
Finance products are so vague
The banks make you bear the cost of risk
So keep out for goodness sake, OH

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

My review on W595

I have changed the phone with my daughter's Samsung L700.

For W595, i personally felt that the basic requirement of the phone was not able to fulfil. The phone is very pretty and no doubt about it. The sound is also good, however, the screen is not as good, when i transferred pictures from PC to the phone and save it as screen saver & wallpaper, they become blurred even though the pictures were taken with high mega pixels. I was disappointed.

Next, which i am most particular about phone. The SMS alert only sounded for 5 seconds and stop with the screen become blackout, even i have set the alert to a song which last for at least 4 mins. I emailed Sony Ericsson about this and this is their reply:"The ringtones for your handset unit is only set to play for 10 - 15 seconds only." But i have tested many times and they dont ring more than 5 seconds. If i m waiting for a SMS, i must hold on to the phone otherwise I m sure to miss SMS. In fact, even since I have the phone I always miss SMS or miss calls because the ringing is simply too short. What would i be able to hear if i m in a noisy place and it rings only 5 seconds. NOTHING AT ALL!

Another thing about the phone which i dislike is the screen blackout within a few seconds of idling, even if there is a transmission between phones via bluetooth. I also emailed them and this is their reply :" I do apologize there are no setting for it as it is designed this way so that is does not consume more energy to the phone." But even i have the ability to charge the phone often, they dont allow for an option!

This is the 1st time I m using Sony Ericsson Phone, all the while I was using Nokia & Samsung. So far I have no problem with all my Nokia and samsung Phones. Just that I thought I should change for something different since they all said that sony ericsson were GOOD! Well! I m wrong! I will not buy anymore Sony Ericsson Phones again.

Disney Bag Tag

Today I was on leave, because the children's last day of school and they have parties! Programs was abit over run due to some "expected" event! Then I went to Suntec Convention Hall for 2 exhbitions. Home Appliances & Food, and Popular BookFest.

At the Home appliances & Food fair, we had 6 scoopes of New Zealand Ice-cream for only $4.50, when 1 scoope cost $4!

At bookfest, we spent about 3 hrs there. I think 1/4 of the time was spent on waiting & qeueing... there, i made the Disney bag tag for them and little Bryan! Hope he will like it cos i don know which disney cartoons he likes. I will "AIR" over to him....

Sony Ericsson W595

I have one of my wishes fulfilled. Last Sunday I bought the Sony Ericsson Phone W595. Was very happy because it came with many freebies and the phone is beautiful. The freebies : SHE DVD & CD, JJ's CD & JJ's Concert tickets for 2! WOW! I didn't expect it because it was not published or promoted anywhere.

However, after using for a few days, I was disappointed. I will write a review later. Now thinking if i should sell the phone.

African Violet

These are plants in my office since April in year, I think i have bought at least 4 pots of African Violets, but non of them still alive, but when they were dying, we cutted their leaves and plant in water & water baby, and new roots came out and now, I have repotted one of the plant into soil again. Hopefully, they can live this time.

This above is tie shu 铁树, which I cut off the "new shoot" from its mother plant and plant in water baby, the new root also came out, this way, it will take longer time to grow into tall plant, heehee....

These are some of the newly grown leaves from a African Violet leave, still in water with water baby.

This one i have repotted into soil just last week. Hope it will grow well, if not i will be very sad.

Marriage Passbook ("sent to the girls only")

Jocelyn married William this day. At the end of the wedding party, Jocelyn's mother gave her a newly opened bank saving passbook with $1000 deposit amount.

Mother: 'Jocelyn, take this passbook. Keep it as a record of your marriage life. When there's something happy and memorable happened in your new life, put some money in. Write down what it's about next to the line. The more memorable the event is, the more money you can put in. I've done the first one for you today. Do the others with William.
When you look back after years, you can know how much happiness you've had.'

Jocelyn shared this with William when getting home. They both thought it was a great idea and were anxious to know when the second deposit can be made.

This was what they did after certain time:

- 7 Feb: $100, first birthday celebration for William after marriage
- 1 Mar: $300, salary raise for Jocelyn
- 20 Mar: $200, vacation trip to Bali
- 15 Apr: $2000, Jocelyn got pregnant
- 1 Jun: $1000, William got promoted
.
..... and so on...

However, after years, they started fighting and arguing for trivial things.
They didn't talk much. They regretted that they had married the most nasty people in the world.... no more love...

Kind of typical nowadays, huh?

One day Jocelyn talked to her Mother.
Jocelyn: 'Mom, we can't stand it anymore. We agree to divorce. I can't imagine how I decided to marry this guy!!!'

Mother: 'Sure, girl, that's no big deal. Just do whatever you want if
you really can't stand it. But before that, do one thing first. Remember the saving passbook I gave you on your wedding day? Take out all money and spend it first. You shouldn't keep any record of such a poor marriage.'

Jocelyn thought it was true. So she went to the bank, waiting at the
Queue and planning to cancel the account.

While she was waiting, she took a look at the passbook record. She looked, and looked, and looked. Then the memory of all the previous joy and happiness just came up her mind. Her eyes were then filled with tears. She left and went home. When she was home, she handed the passbook to William, asked him to spend the money before getting divorce.

The next day, William gave the passbook back to Jocelyn. She found a new deposit of $5000. And a line next to the record: 'This is the day I notice how much I've loved you thru out all these years. How much happiness you've brought me.'

They hugged and cried, putting the passbook back to the safe.

Do you know how much money they had saved when they retired? I did not ask.
I believe the money did not matter any more after they had gone thru all the good years in their life.

May be we can change to Childhood Passbook!

Men's Brain & Women's Brain

Click the link below and enjoy the video clip, is really interesting. Have a good laugh!

Click here

sorry i cant upload the video from youtube.