Death of a Friendship

I kind of missed JM, so I whatsapp him to find out how he has been.

Suddenly, the conversation felt kind of empty. Is there nothing else to holding us together?

I don't think I will take the initiative again.

Exploring New Products

I felt Mother has to sell more unusual stuff in order to differentiate herself. Something hip that OLs might like.

Sparkling Sotong Ears!

Following last year's happy purchase from the Qoo10 shop, miniart korea, I decided to reward myself for my hard work for the past year.

Interest Rate Revision

O no!!! The first dreaded letter!

Which way, other than up!

But the monthly installments remain the same. Why huh?

Sands SkyPark Observation Deck

Brother got a room at MBS. He offered to let me visit the Sands SkyPark Observation Deck while he's out for dinner. Onz ah! Now that the observation deck is restricted to guests only, I have all but given up hope of ever visiting it. No way am I letting this chance go!

JM's Farewell

Where else can we go, other than Swensen's!

Damn boring can!!!

Anyhow Buy From iHerb Again

New products from iHerb!

るろうに剣心 伝説の最期編

Wa wa this one most power lah! Just look at the cards! 10/10!!!

Seriously, this is a good movie lah!

Olay Regenerist Advanced Cleansing System

Brother bought me an Olay Regenerist Advanced Cleansing System. Sounds so high-tech? Well, it's a facewash brush again.

Picture stolen from www.weloveshopping.com...

Christmas Present

My one and only Christmas present this year, from Some People Died.

Took photo because I'm feeding the inedible items to the dustbin.

るろうに剣心 京都大火編

The long-awaited second installment!

2 years already?!

Yay Takeru Satoh, I like! Villains looked like the manga, good!

9/10. Still draggy Japanese-style. Feel sorry at how stupid the non-leads were.

Department Christmas Party 2014

Department Christmas party coming up at office! I asked Brother to buy Poppy Cock so I could share them with my colleagues. He didn't manage to buy them :( Saw his bag suspiciously drum-shaped, but I thought he would have told me if he did buy them. I asked Father to use Brother's bag to carry my laptop, but he insisted on using his own. Hope my laptop won't die from all the jumping around.

Universal Studios Singapore Again!

I entered the family into the Singtel lucky draw for complimentary Universal Studios tickets to a private Singtel night event, the SingTel Rewards Exclusive Christmas Night Out @ Universal Studios Singapore.

Guess what, Father won!

He thought it's a scam, but luckily he asked me! Tickets for 4, so generous of Singtel!! It's kids' playtime~~ I really wasn't expecting to visit USS again in the near future.

Ultimate Hawker Fest 2014 + L'Entrecôte

Sister won $50 food coupons for Ultimate Hawker Fest 2014. Eh? So heng? Dragged Brother to go eat!

Review: Pobling Facewash Brush and Kingdom Face Steamer

12/10
On Brother's recent trip to Hong Kong and Shenzhen with X, I took the opportunity to ask him to buy me a face steamer if he ever came across a cheap one. There are many available on Taobao, I'm sure he could find one!

And he did!

A Day of Many First-Times

Gonna try out Sister's hair stylist for the first time. The salon is near Holland Village, so it's a chance for me to eat there since I haven't been there since... many years ago.

More Letters

Received letter from CPF for Use of CPF For Monthly Instalments. Letting us know that it will commence on 1 Nov 2014. Which is like 3 days later.

Letters, Letters

Received from lawyer the copy of mortgage-in-escrow - the document where we signed away our house to Maybank and yet still have to continue to pay for it.

Also a copy of stamped deed of assignment dated 13/10/2014 and letter of confirmation of property loan amount dated 15/05/2014.

No need to do anything, right?

Jurong Bird Park

We are visiting another Singapore tourist attraction! This time, it's Jurong Bird Park. With the corporate pass of course.

JBP is so ulu that the F&B options look worse than SAD. Not wanting to spend on food that already look unappetizing on the menu (mostly due to the tourist-oriented pricing), we made our own sandwiches. As a kid, I have always yearned dining out and viewed eating home-made food outside with disdain. Now I'm doing it willingly. How growing up changed me!

Waiiit! I Wanna Pay!

Finally CPF e-services are completely up. The process of filling up the request form was quite straight-forward, but there were still a few glitches.

I was prompted to print a copy of the form before submitting. Ok, so I clicked the Print button provided. The lousy button didn't allow me to print to Google, and printing to PDF got scrollbar. I should have tried changing the paper size, but I didn't think of that then. Fed up, I screenshot it.

Ok, done with the diversion and back to submission, but the Submit button disappeared! WTF, now must I redo the whole form????? Not that I had a lot to fill in, but just boey song lor. I tried the Back button. Phew, everything was still filled in. Carefully get it done without repeating my mistakes~

Successfully setup the payment with 1 day to go! Phew!

First Instalment Letter

I think I understand liao. When we were informed that the 10% for foundation is due, our lawyer got Maybank to disburse the money and passed it to the developer's lawyer. Now Maybank is going to get the money back from us slowwwly.

Haha Sotong finally connected the dots!

So now, Sotong has to go to the CPF website to submit the request to Commence CPF Monthly Instalment. But the lousy CPF website was down! Payments are due on November, now October liao wor!

Huge-sum Cashier's Order

Ok, I received another chim lawyer's letter. This time, our lawyer has sent the developer's lawyer a cashier's order for a huge sum of money.

What does this mean ahh, do I need to do anything?

iHerb - Vitamins, Hair, Face

iHerb shopping again! Mother was going to restock on flaxseed oil, so it's an opportunity for me to buy some personal care stuff too!

My Beauty Diary Vanilla Moisturizing Aroma Mask

I responded to a facebook promotion by My Beauty Diary to redeem a free sheet mask. Because no need to share, write fake posts, invite friends or go down to collect it!

It took so long that I thought I have been forgotten, but the promised mask eventually arrived in my mail.

Austerity Time?

First bombshell has landed!

Tomi Sushi

Sister chose this Tomi Sushi for her birthday celebrations this year. X was ill, so she didn't join us.

Conveniently-located at Novena Square. I was able to get to our table without much trouble.

Food is rather pricey. But since we were celebrating a birthday, I decided to splurge on some sashimi and a few pieces of sushi.

We ordered bottled beer. When the waitress served the beer, she brought us an appetiser-sized food... some fish skin I think, saying that it went well with the beer. So nice to give us complimentary dish for ordering beet! And it's tasty!

Asked for the bill. We were billed for the "complimentary" item. That's a sneaky way of shoving items down our throats, like the Chinese restaurant peanuts! Not happy!

Not gonna come again. Too pricey for no wow factor. Positive wow, I mean.

Hero 2

2014 Takuya dorama!

Hero 2

I wasn't expecting a 2 at all. Trust the Japanese to revive a franchise from 13 years ago! But I guess that was necessary with his crappy works these years. If a formula works, why not?

What a pleasant surprise that they managed to get so many familiar faces back! Even if it was just for a cameo. The previous female lead didn't return though. But I thought the bar owner who has everything, is more crucial than her LOL!

Like!

MAF 2014

Nobody bought specialty mooncakes this year. Eh... people who always go out, should go buy what...

iHerb Snackin'

Mother needed to restock her vegetarian glucosamine, so I bought something to top-up to USD60 to qualify for 5% discount.

So, You Wanted Some Feedback

18/8
Feedback form! Oh, you are so asking for it.

I just got a new PT, again. Obviously, there has been no handover done regarding my case at all. He's clueless about my HKAFO! Did he read my case notes? Or is there actually anything regarding it in my case notes?? I really want to know! It's unacceptable that everytime there's a new person seeing me, we have to go through the whole process again, wasting my time!

The usually no-comments me wrote a scathing essay (by my standards), lambasting the way they are handling me. Not accusing them of anything, I suggested that they start doing documentation in case even the last person with the know-how (and we are literally down to one last person; the rest were no longer working there) is not around, we could still proceed. How many times do they get to handle a HKAFO? Good learning experience ok?

Today
The manager came to speak to me. She confessed that my suggestion was good and wondered why they have not thought of documenting (!!! WHUTTT!!!)

The PT started my session earlier too. Hahaaha paiseh ahhh must have scared the boy :P

H's Baby Shower

Today is my JC friend, H's baby girl's baby shower. Ehh same name as another classmate's daughter.

Why do the angmohs call it baby "shower". Was it literally the first shower for the baby? :O

Mosquito Dropped Dead

On my table.

Means-Testing

Out of the blue in July, I got a letter asking me to submit a Means-Test Declaration Form. At first, I didn't want to, since it's a waste of time to fill in the form when my application is going to get rejected anyway. Even though Mother dumped her boss, we were still considered "rich"...

But hey, I discovered that the form already bore our family details, and all I had to do was to send Brother's payslip since everything pretty much remained the same. Ok lor I shall submit!

Today, we got the result. Zzz.

They sent the same reply to all members of my family. Waste paper lor.

Happy Realm Vegetarian Food Centre 素食林

Mother has been wanting to bring us here but I wouldn't come unless it's been verified by a credible person that the place is accessible. Finally the stars have aligned, so we were going there tonight.

iHerb, Our Supplier

iHerb is literally our supplier now. Mother has opened a shop at a neighbourhood market selling organic stuff. To her delight, there's still some margin left, and not too shabby at all, despite the shipping cost!

Zoo and River Safari

We are going to the Zoo and River Safari! Actually I think it's because he wanted to take his girlfriend, but might as well take his sisters too since a corporate pass admits up to 4 for free. At least he is still welcoming light bulbs! I'm not complaining.

カノジョは嘘を愛しすぎてる 她爱上了我的谎

Adapted from a manga, of the teen romance genre. The type that I'm not into. But I think I can still stomach a movie.

Talented but emo male lead. Innocent, normal-looking female lead. Somehow could not tell each other the truth about themselves. Disappearing acts. Random kiss scenes.

Although the storyline is cliche, the background of a music industry is still refreshing to me.

Ok lah.

6/10

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Wanted to catch Transformers: Age of Extinction, but the thought of having to watch it with Father... :( It meant that I have to sit in the wheelchair spot. Not so appealing. Maybe I should forget about movies for the rest of my life.

Dear PT, Buck Up!

Last Monday, when I was on the standing frame, the new PT who took over me passed me a questionnaire and a pen and asked me to fill it up and return it to her at the end of the session. Off she went about her other duties.

PWD Concession Countdown

My Persons with Disabilities (PWD) concession card is delivered! Concessions starts on 6 July. Kewl!!!

Dinosaurs & X-Men

Found time to catch the exhibition, Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction at Artscience Museum. First time at the Artscience Museum.

The inside was darker than Science Centre, with spotlight on the exhibits. Quite artsy? Haha.

Still can't understand how the shape of the building translates into exhibition space. Maybe those sticking out parts are not utilized.

Next to Marina Square, because there's nothing at MBS. Dinner was Carl's Jr because I haven't had burgers for a long time. The burger was too tall, so I had to deconstruct it. So much for eating burgers...

And then it was X-Men: Days of Future Past. Wa got Fan Bingbing! With next to zero lines. Enjoyable movie :)

D's Farewell

It's D's last day. This time, we were going to have pizza in office. Not very pleased with the choice. Office is very inconvenient to me. Eating pizza without cutlery is very inconvenient too. And they are not sian of pizza yet meh?? OT always eat pizza right??? Turned out that's because D didn't want Swensen's (neither do I... DAMN SIAN). They weren't sure whether Thirteen Chefs at AMK Hub takes reservations (find out lor?) and the TL experienced slow service there; not desirable coz we will be in a rush.

Rocku Yakiniku

We bought a Voucherlicious voucher for Rocku Yakiniku, primarily for the FREE FLOW beer.

Get-together Lunch With Too Many People

Our Business Development Manager, J, organized a get-together lunch with IHiss and users. Ehh weird lor. Plus mingling is really not my cup of tea.

Letters and Money Swishing

Our law firm, PKWA Law mailed us
1) copies of the Sale and Purchase Agreement together with the original Certificate of Stamp Duty
2) copy of their letter to the developer's solicitors

They have also sent the developer a cashier's order of $178,125 for the 15% downpayment, which came from our CPF. Boohoo our CPF~~
3) cashier's order for stamp duty refund to Brother
4) the Schedule of Payment.

Mother's Day

Mother's choice of Mother's Day vegetarian food tasting is 佛有缘素食馆 at Kitchener Road. Very bad wheelchair accessibility! Because it's a shophouse along a busy road, there was no proper drop-off point. There are steps when you walk towards the restaurant and at the front of the shop. Dropped one shoe when I hit my foot on a step. Haiii terrible lah.

First Visit to a Church

K, a long-time friend since Sec4, is getting married. He invited our JC class to his church wedding. Ok! If I can find some company...

No mention of the banquet. We are not invited I guess :\

そして父になる 如父如子

A very touching movie about two families discovering that the sons they have been raising have been swapped at birth.

Fukuyama Masaharu is very irritating in it! Means successful portrayal!

10/10!

Money We Paid

The 15% deposit, legal and stamp fees have been deducted from our CPF accounts. Our accounts look so empty now~ A decade's labour for this day!

A caveat has been lodged on our property by Maybank.

Silk Pillow Sheet 2

Mother decided to put the silk pillow sheet that I bought from Taobao at a special place instead of with all the other sheets after a couple of washes. I protested vehemently, because whenever she does that, the thing will most certainly go missing. And so that was the eventual fate of my pillow sheet. Back to rough towels D:

Brother bought me a new one on his trip to China. Bye to pricky sensations on my cheek!

iHerb - Joints, Skin, Food

Mother complained of aching joints and the polyclinic doctor prescribed glucosamine, but those dispensed were not vegetarian. Hence the search for vegetarian alternatives online. Being a lazybum, I went back to iHerb again. I briefly considered Vitacost, but their shipping cost is too prohibitive.

For the sake of 5% discount for orders over USD60, I added a lot of other items into the shopping cart. Classic case of spending more than intended.

I placed the order on 6 Apr and the delivery arrived on 11 Apr. 5 days... ok lah.

Letters

Letters day.

We received CPF'S letter of approval to use our OA to fund the property purchase.

We also received a copy of the letter from our lawyer to the developer's lawyer informing them to return the duly signed S&P by way of exercising the option. Whatever that means.

It's Ours

1/4
We emailed the bank letter of offer to our lawyer. This is one thing X said the banker won't do for us :\


2/4
But seems like S did fax the letter of offer to our lawyer. Now to find a day to go down to our lawyer's office to sign the S&P and mortgage documents. Evily, I suggested lunchtime on the assumption that lawyers don't need to eat since they have no life. Alas, Brother's not free tomorrow. Friday then. Friday lunchtime is too tight for me, so I shall take MC :D Yayy long weekend incoming!

Bad Service by SBS Transit

Happy day coz I'm on MC! As usual, I'm not sick lah. Having follow-up appointment with the rehab doctor at No Use Hospital.

Chop Chop!

The banker, S, came at 10am. It's a Saturday! My beauty sleep z_z

We signed the Letter of Offer, fire insurance form and I passed S a cheque of $1k to open a loan service account.

S told us that we could use our private property as a collateral if we ever needed a loan, even if the property has not been fully-paid up yet. Cool!

Congratulation S, for closing the deal swiftly. 速战速决! From the chat after finishing business, S revealed that business has slowed since the cooling measures. We have now contributed to his quota. 皆大欢喜!

JJ's Farewell

Is it weird to have Indian food for a PRC farewell lunch? We are going to Casuarina Curry Restaurant for JJ's farewell.

Loan Approved!

It's expected, but still, !!!

It's 1.30pm on a lazy Friday afternoon. Our banker is chasing for the letter of offer now.

I thought it's going to take 3 working days, but guess what, it's ready in a couple of hours! Impressive efficiency!

And he's coming to our house tomorrow 10am to let us sign the letter! :O

Hungry Banker

Blunder! Forgot to pass Brother the declaration forms for the bank loan application. Can't submit the application today then :(

We wanted to submit tomorrow instead, but the Maybank banker offered to come and get our signatures and form, in spite of Brother and I being in 2 different places!! So enthu, so touched! And hungry for sales hahahaa!! I think we didn't tell him that we never applied for any other bank. On the other hand, so over-confident of us :P

Give him a medal lah!

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO GET A LOAN!

Since we have received the S&P agreement from the developer, X sent our lawyer our IC and OTP scans.

The S&P agreement will expire 3 weeks after receipt. We MUST get a bank loan with 2 weeks so that the lawyer can have time to prepare the mortgage documents for our signing together with the S&P agreement.

So this is how people have their offer lapse when they cannot get a bank loan in time! 2 weeks suddenly feels short now.

Race to Clinch the Sales

Buying a house is so complicated for peasants. Now to find a financing institution that wouldn't bleed us dry before we sold the house or paid up the loan. The things is, I know next to nothing about housing loans and the options we have in Singapore.

25 or 30 years?
SIBOR or SOR?
1 month or 3 months? Damn no fixed interest available.
What's refinancing? Always see this word but never understood it.
Which bank?

好乱啊!

Rehab Cancellation Charges

Uh oh worrying subject line!

Glad to know no change in charges! *clap clap*
Kind of amusing to see this paragraph about charges for second accompanying caregiver. Looks like there have been people abusing the service. Using it as transport to go out maybe.

Haha! I have the feeling they came up with this after the Irritating Guy flew plane on numerous occasions! But too bad he's no longer with us.

Good that they have this cancellation charges clause, but I wish they could make cancellation easier for us. How many people can decide that they will feel unwell the next day, by 5pm today? Actually the centre is still kind enough to accept same-day cancellations within reasonable notice, but I have encountered occasions when there wasn't anybody to pick up the phone from 8am to 8.15am. They should have a cancellation email address or voicemail so that we can inform them even over the weekend. Funny that they don't have anything like this in place yet! And I never remember to write it in the feedback.

Gaming Is Good

I have been dumping my virtual godly gear in anticipation of the upcoming Diablo III Reaper of Souls. With minimal monitoring of the AH during office hours... heehee!

I achieved a Bnet balance of USD37.03 and USD54.21 in Paypal from RMAH. Amazing how people are willing to shell out real money for virtual goods! This paid for my expansion that costs USD59.99 and also toothbrush replacement heads for USD12.99 from eBay. Still have USD18.26 leftover woohoo!

My heroes are naked now and can't fight.

Done Deal

Driver very kindly dropped us off at Bishan. No more irritating guy, I own the ride!

Shaking the Piggy Upside Down

X advised us to bring along our ICs and cheque book for our visit to the show room. Feels MLM-ish. As in having to decide on the spot and PAY. So hasty.

Ai Mai?

X got the ball rolling by asking if we have shortlisted the units that we were interested in! O gosh people buy houses like that one ah? So fast one ah? Well I shouldn't be surprised. J's husband asked her to do the same when they were going to buy their EC. Kiasuism is essential!

House-Hunting

Brother and I have been talking about buying a home since the end of last year, either for living or for rent. Got to wait 3 more years to apply for a HDB and another 3 years for it to be built. Private will be instant, but those resale condos are exorbitant in this sizzling property climate! In Woodlands with no MRT in sight, also dare to ask for above $1M! New developments have really bad location. Zzz.

Seems impossible to get anything without $1M. Where to find that money?

Goodbye OT

Today is the last day that my favorite therapist is seeing me. Nobody to crap and gossip with me anymore :(

Goodbye S.

New OT looks boring.

Pedal Wheelchair

While waiting for therapy to start, a curious-looking, brightly-colored wheelchair caught my attention.


It's a pedal wheelchair, suitable for people who are unable to use the regular hand-propelled wheelchair. One hand controls the steering by rotating a brake-like gadget with the elbow as a pivot. D the TA let me try it after my therapy session. I'm game for it.

Difficulty in transferring over to the chair because of the pedals in the middle of the chair. Unfortunately, I still have problem operating it because I couldn't quite pedal continuously. And I found it difficult to control the steering too. No good for me :( Otherwise, it's a cool product.

Down With the King

20/2
After being MIA for a few weeks, Irritating Guy was early (or rather, on time?), for once!! Caught me off-guard. So today, I was the one who's late.

After today's session, the driver Mr L very kindly drove me to the MRT station.

Disability Transport Concession

I received a letter informing me of my eligibility for disability transport concession! Cool!

So nice that the government is not doing means testing for this goodie.

What's even cooler is the $80 interim assistance! How long will I take to spend it? :D Can use it to buy rubbish also!

Belated Farewell

Belated farewell for C! So nice of her to still entertain us despite having left the project for one month :O It's unfortunate that the project blew up on the morning of the original scheduled farewell lunch. So paiseh. We were so tied up that nobody remembered to inform me that lunch was cancelled. Luckily I thought it's illogical for us to continue lor. Thanks J for being my informant.

Taobao - DIY!

Shipping promotion by 4px! I finally succumbed to temptation and made my first foray into Taobao, all by myself, no agent! This is made possible because Alipay finally accepts Singapore credit cards!

River Hongbao 2014

I have not visited River Hongbao for about 10 years. This year, I don't know what came over me, but I thought of going down to take a look again. Wanted to try the China street food also :D~~ Must be because I have not gone on a real outing since end September. Dinner dates and meeting colleagues don't count. It's the second day of Chinese New Year and going out seems like a bad idea, but I don't have other choices. Bo bian lor.

To Health & Beauty! (Cheaply)

Not quite done with the spate of online shopping! This time, Mother wanted to buy some health supplements. All thanks to a shop at our nearby market which managed to convince her that she needs help. No sarcasm here, heartfelt thanks! Of course, they sold her overpriced products, so here we are, looking to iHerb for more affordable alternatives.

真夏の方程式

Manatsu no Houteishiki

Galileo movie! Must watch! 10 stars awarded before I'd even watched it!

Broadway Claypot Rice 百乐匯砂煲饭

Friday night and no dinner at home. Sounds like a chance for the siblings to go out for some food :D

On Brother's recommendation, we tried Broadway Claypot Rice 百乐匯砂煲饭 at Coffee City, a kopitiam at Ang Mo Kio Central Blk 728. The last time I had claypot rice was, erm, 11 years ago at Smith Street Food Centre?! It was that time that I realized why I never appreciated claypot rice - because nobody gave me the charred bits!! That's da star!

We snagged a table outside, away from the smoky and overcrowded interior. So cool and airy, why everybody wanna squeeze inside?

We ordered some zichar dishes from another stall, including our favorite hotplate tofu~ Drinks from the drinks stall. Love our kopitiams!

The claypot rice is indeed good! Flavorful with a hint of smokiness, enough ingredients to go with the rice, bits of salted fish as a trophy for the lucky ones. Guess nobody but me loves the charred bits. So fragrant and crispy! Why they don't like? It's carcinogenic, but once in a while mah!

Stuffed!

REAL～完美的蛇颈龙之日

Checking out a new movie starring Takeru Satoh and Haruka Ayase.

リアル 完全なる首長竜の日

Team Outing + 2X Buffets

O my we are actually gonna do something very different for our team gathering!

First, buffet lunch at the good old Penang Place, which has moved from IBP to the more accessible Fusionopolis. I thought Meritus Mandarin is the furthest we will ever venture. Now here's a new record!

Partly because there's a part 2 of the day... bowling at SuperBowl SAFRA Mount Faber later. Meaning no need to go back to work yay! Which also means I should not skip it!! I'm totally coming!

安堂机器人

The 2013 Takuya Kimura dorama:

安堂ロイド

Seriously?! His doramas are getting from bad to worse. It's somewhat like Terminator - sending a lousy android from the future to protect somebody from the past. And the antagonist's robot is, well, you have guessed it, a more advanced model.

Futuristic sci-fi show mah, need special effects. But few have the privilege of mega budgets like Hollywood television series. As such, the effects fall short of expectations (that were elevated to stratospheric levels, no thanks to Hollywood).

Couldn't feel any chemistry between Kimura and Koh Shibasaki. I wonder if it's my imagination, but I thought Shibasaki's acting was... horrendous?!

OMG... can I have something better next year?

Argh My Variable Bonus!

NOT HAPPY! The December variable bonus is based on my salary on 1 Dec, meaning I don't get the full month due to the no pay leave. Although I refunded some of my no-pay leave later, my bonus didn't get refunded.

Must think of how to prevent this next year.

Shiny Sotong Ears!

After getting new clothes and skincare, Sotong feels that she needs to refresh her dated earrings collection. Not quite fitting for a 31-year-old already!

*Facepalm*

How many excuses do you need to shop?

Donate Must Open Eyes Big Big

Our hearts are all with the unfortunate victims of the Typhoon Haiyan.

Snail Buys

O no! Sotong is on a shopping spree!

Sotong's New Haul

I really need new clothes. But I'm too lazy to go out to shop for them. Solution: Buy online.

The fashion ads on Qoo10 looks really tempting :D

The Hard-to-Get Incentive Spirometer

I have an idea! Today's my appointment at the eye clinic. I can try asking for the incentive spirometer form the doctor!

Tried... but the doctor told me that it's only available in the wards. Not that she didn't want to help me, but she couldn't just give me one. One way was for them to refer me to their physiotherapy department and I could get from there.

o_O 太大费周章了吧... I thanked her and declined. In that case, might as well ask the rehab doctor to give me instead of getting yet another clinic involved and having to pay more fees. And no more spare leave to see PT already.

Mission: Failed.

The Elusive Incentive Spirometer

My long-awaited break! Aiyah, just a scheduled appointment with the No Use Hospital's rehab doctor, which happened to fall after Hari Raya Haji, so it's like an extra weekend!

Sister's Birthday Celebration @ LeVeL33

Recently, quite a number of new atas restaurants have sprung up. One of those places to want to be seen at, is LeVeL33 at MBFC. A birthday is the perfect excuse to splurge!

Wheelchair-accessibility is satisfactory. Walkway to the lift and the interior of the restaurant are wheelchair accessible, although the designated lift lobby may be a bit tight for powered wheelchairs. They have a clean and spacious wheelchair-accessible washroom - like! However, a big dislike goes to the outdoor balcony seating. Due to space constraints, they have not bothered to make it wheelchair accessible, since they would rather place tables for revenue than let the sporadic wheelchair-user take a stroll. So I couldn't go out to take in the scenery from the top, which was supposed to be one of the highlights of the restaurant.

Farewell to All Our QCs

Shocking news! Although not so shocked to hear it coz it's kind of expected... all 3 QCs are leaving at the end of the month. I just uttered an "oh" when my TL told me so and that we were going to be QC-less. Well, that's exactly what the higher management intended for us anyway, isn't it?

Hokkaido - GG!

Good Game? Ok maybe, but I meant to say Goodies Galore!

Taobao Review: (Fake) Clarisonic Mia 2

This item deserves a review of its own.

So sick of seeing my pores still clogged with oil immediately after washing my face. There must be a way of getting all that gunk out.

Taobao Review: The Others

I was looking for a pair of pants with these qualities:

• length to stop at or over knees
• loose
• elastic waist band
• matches with my existing tops easily
• preferably tight ends so that they don't slide to the floor when I pull them down
• CHEAP

Sounds stringent. How elated I was to find the perfect fit here!

Miao Yi Vegetarian Restaurant & Island Creamery

Mother's choice was Miao Yi Vegetarian Restaurant this time. Located at Coronation Plaza, I remembered it fondly as a restaurant near my secondary school, where I once had an affordable and delicious lunch of crispy noodles with S and Z.

Hokkaido - Aftermath

Summary of itinerary: Touchdown at Changi Airport, DFS shopping, go home, sleep, work

~03:30 Breakfast
Didn't get much sleep with a baby bawling for the whole duration. Fortunately, I was tired enough to get some sleep, just not the rejuvenating deep slumber. Maybe I would have been better off sitting at the 8^th row :(

Hokkaido Day 4 - 札幌一日

Summary of itinerary: Check-out, Nijo Market, Tanukikoji Shopping Street, Underground shopping street, Sapporo Ramen Republic, Airport

09:00 - Rise & Shine, 23°C
Wished I could sleep more, but got to check out again today. And we only have 1hr to get our asses out, which from experience, I know wasn't enough. Gonna be late again~

Hokkaido Day 3 - Nature to City

Summary of itinerary: Check-out, Furano Marche, Furano-Biei Norokko Train, Check-in Sapporo Hotel, Sapporo Bier Garten, Sleep

08:30 - Rise & Shine, 23°C
No hard and fast time for getting up. Just get out of the place by 10am. Having stayed up late last night to eat, we needed more sleep. I really don't think we can make it on time...

Hokkaido Day 2 - 盛夏,花与果

Summary of itinerary: Furano Winery, Campana Rokkatei, Farm Tomita, Furano Cheese Factory, Dinner, Sleep

07:45 - Rise & Shine
I never knew what the shine in rise and shine means, but anyway...

I didn't sleep well. It began when I was awoken by what seemed like an alarm. Was it the door, fridge, what? Tried to get somebody to check it out, but they were all sound asleep. O well, I hope the place doesn't explode.

Zzz... ... ...

Hokkaido Day 1 - 千里迢迢

Summary of itinerary: SIN -> KIX, KIX -> CTS, CTS -> Furano, Check-in Apartment, Dinner, Sleep

06:30 - Breakfast time
All that noise. Wakey wakey, time for breakfast with sun-rise. But the sky was clear and the rays were piercingly-glaring, so the passenger at the window shut the blinds. Aww.

Top L: Vegetable frittata with grilled veal sausage, tomato and potatoes
R: Japanese breakfast of grilled teriyaki fish, Japanese omelette, seasonal vegetable and steamed rice

Both came with fruits, cake, bread roll, butter, jam and beverage. Juice for me as usual as I intended to attempt sleeping again.

Here We Come, Hokkaido!

Really suay. Got tricky issue to investigate and taking so much of my time. Made worse when my concluded root cause was unexpected and unbelievable. Simulated it and attempted to convince my colleagues ad infinitum. Did all I could. All they had to do is to believe me.

And This Is Crazy

7/7
While our parents were holidaying in Beijing, the kids checked out the GSS in Orchard. I can't remember if we actually bought anything during the sale, but we bought into something entirely different.

First PAID Phone App

太阳从西边升起来了吗?

I am proud to announce that I have personally purchased for the first time, a phone app!

Nuance Communications's Swype Keyboard

After being a trial user for the past year, all good things have to come to an end. There was no way of continuing the trial. When none of the other keyboard apps come close, I went crying and running back to Swype.

Shut up and take my money! $1.23 is reasonable.