If spending is a sin...

When you spend on food, it doesn't feel so sinful... how come???

The Singapore Food Expo is here till Tuesday, and I have to admit that I do feel so "auntie" when I go to such fair. All the aunties, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, grandchildren are all rushing and squeezing to get free samples or eating everywhere. But going alone is such a blessing in disguise, you won't have to worry losing someone or get tempted to try everything if you have enough company to share the food!! There are indeed a lot of good buy, but I just can't afford to get everything... all the coffee, cereals, healthy snacks, unhealthy snacks, soya product, sausages, blah blah... too much to mention!

Recommended for a first time visit - afterwhich I think that "being sandwiched" in the crowd experience will leave you not wanting for more!!

Indulgence is a sin

Self-pampering can be sinful.

On Thursday evening, I left Expo Robinsons Sale with a purchase totalling up to $222.

I had been shopping non-stop in the huge hall for 4 hours, entering the fitting room a couple of times, walking in circles at the perfume section... I didn't even want to pay attention to the shoes and bags section (For God's sake, I won't be able to imagine what my spending will be if I did!!). I chose my favourite brands of perfume, put them in my shopping trolley-bag they provided. Next, I passed by La Senza which is famous for their lingerie, going at more than 50% off... Sigh, I just couldn't resist the temptation anymore. I managed to stop myself at the SALE at their stores, however this time they are really a good buy at only 20-40% of the original prices. So I ended up picking up a couple of wonderfully comfortable bras, etc. Of course I didn't give the make-up section a miss either, because there are a few very good brands going at about 50% too and I would never get those prices even in duty-free shop! So I bought HR pore genius fluid foundation as well as Paul & Joe pressed powder - pretty happy to give them a try!

On Friday I decided the perfumes I bought weren't the best choices so I went back for an exchange. Thinking that I have to find substitutes to fill up the amount for the to-be-exchanged products, I ended up spending more (to top off the difference). At the end, I realised I didn't have to, damn it, they did a full refund and then I had to do a new purchase. I felt so cheated since I got the one other product to fill the number. Today, I went back to return it, it saved me $55!! But I ended up spending another $10 on something!

Now, at least I've reduced my spending to under $200, but that's still a lot to me - especially considering I have spent quite a bit in the recent weeks to get my skincare products and at TopShop Sale.

The warning signal is already flashing - time to stop and keep the wallet in check!

Bad luck or good?

My precious camera is finally discharged from the hospital... it has been hospitalised for over a week. And fortunately I didn't have to pay a cent. The lens which was being replaced costs S$210!!!!

Somehow, it's a blessing in disguise. So much bad luck, yet out of all these disasters, there have been a few lucky occasions. My warranty was ending the following day after my camera went bonkers - out of a sudden, the lens couldn't retract and it wouldn't let me snap any picture. An error message appeared. It freaked me out as I was working throughout the night at work and was using it to snap something for work when it occurred. Upset, tired and bothered, I left for home at 330am while most of my colleagues stayed till the morning. Following morning, I had to drag myself out of bed to send it to the repair centre just before my warranty ends!

But now I am just so glad I have it back!!

遇见怪脾的人 （01) - I lost it

Temper, that is.

I couldn't remember the last time I screamed or yelled before I did it again. Like Britney's song, Ooopss I did it again!! Haha.

I can't believe I'm laughing at it now, thinking that my legs were trembling from the loss of energy after that yelling. I hadn't lost my cool for a while, and with all the recent activities at work plus generally life has been going not very smoothly, I think it all added up to the build-up. But it was a good release. Mind this, I'm not venting my anger on some poor innocent soul... but someone who has actually deserved it.

Early monday morning, it was peak hour. The next train was arriving in 1 minute, I normally wouldn't mind waiting for the next if I missed one. As usual, I was making my way up on the right side of the escalator (Don't understand why Singapore is trying to be different, in HK and London, everyone is keeping to the right!!). So in Singapore, people keep to the left. Majority did until 3 men were standing in the way, being polite, I said excuse me, two of them shifted. One didn't. I walked besides him and asked him, "Can you please move to the left?" He wouldn't budge and instead, gave me ten other excuses for not moving... "There's a kid in front, blah blah." Being sympathetic, I looked and there wasn't any in sight!!!!!!! So I told him,"I don't see any kids. Can you please move to the left?" He didn't give in and kept repeating and said a whole lot of nonsense. At that moment, my patience wore thin and my limit has reached. I blew my top off! I literally screamed in his face,"I SAID MOVE TO THE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!" I felt like I was screaming my lungs off, the whole of the train station must have heard me but I didn't care! He's such an inconsiderate selfish ass! Guess what? Of course the sore loser wasn't happy at all, he started to swear in multiple languages (Hokkien, English, etc) but it DID NOT bother me a second because he is ruining his image. I just stepped into the train just in time and if he entered the same cabin with him, I would have wished him good luck.

I wish someone took a video or MMS of me doing that, because when I think back now, I feel so proud of it. Alex just said,"How London of me!" I guess only Londoners are so obedient and considerate to fellow commuters. Singaporeans can be such ***!!! Good on me and I'm feeling good tonight... finding my rainbow soon!!

My champion team :)))

I haven't mentioned this but I have been participating a lot of activities at work. Laserquest. Paintball (which I initially signed up but was cancelled and postponed), thus I missed it. Last Friday, it was Scrabble & Jigsaw.

I went for Scrabble the moment I saw it was open for registration. I love strategy games, I'm not utterly good at them (I sucked at some of them) but it's the challenge I like most about it. It also depends a lot on luck and your opponents.

I was nominated by my RED house manager to be the Scrabble team captain. I had to make sure I had 8 players to get my games going! It was tough as most of my colleagues were tied up, some people backed out the last minute due to meetings or sick leave. It was a mad rush but managed to get some novice players joining in to fill the number! It's a miracle and a lot of luck we still ended up being the CHAMPION team!!! I'm so proud of my team players, even though my colleague Cyn got last in her game, at least she was being spontaneous and I hope my refreshment course (using Scrabulous on Facebook) before the game helped her since she had only played 3 times in her entire life!

I was very lucky at my game. At that moment, I was secretly asking myself if bad luck has left me and found itself a new target?? The uncle at my table was really good and he was scoring all the triple word bonus - he must be thankful to that Malay girl whom had been giving him the chances. When it came to my turn, I was left with no chance. My tiles came up to be mainly vowels. The only hope came when I picked up two "BLANK" tiles from the bag and I was already doing the anagram in my head. My hands were trembling when I put out all SEVEN tiles which gave me extra 50 points!!!!!!!!! It was a very close fight between me and the uncle. But it was a lot of FUN at my table because we are always doing a challenge to someone else's word (if someone put a weird combination of letters, you can challenge its validity - if the word exists, you get -5 points because you challenged him/her, but if the word doesn't exists, he/she misses a turn). We thought that it should be fair to award us the +5 points if we did a right challenge but unfortunately no, and challenge is only at your own risk. I was doing a lot of challenges - there was one word "Tent" and the girl decided to add "y" to the back. I challenged it! Guess what??? It's a word!! So I ended up with a few -5, I think uncle got one -5. I was struggling to finish my tiles because whoever finishes it will get all the extra points (doubled) of the opponents' leftover tiles. It was so close, if I didn't finish it, it will be uncle's!!!!

I finished my game with a score of 216. Never did I imagine I was the top scorer for the night, I thought there were much more smarter/luckier people than me! Anyway, it was cool to walk away with a trophy, though I would prefer something else... like rewarding me with extra 3 days off from work!!! LOL. I can dream on.

Laze on Saturday

I'm deadbeat... even with almost 11 hours of sleep. My sister is a bad influence on my sleeping routine, I woke up 930am and seeing her soundly asleep, I decided I should follow. Ended up waking up at 12pm when I'm supposed to meet a friend online to book our flight tickets to CAMBODIA (here we come!!!)! DAMN. But it all worked out well, as he went out for dinner and came back around 2 hours later... just nice!

My Toshiba baby has been cranky these days with the wireless connection getting fu*ked up a lot of the times, and my screen flickers every now and then (hate it hate it)... I think I should bring it down for a check-up one of these days - but with the office hours, it's almost impossible to visit the repair centre without taking an off day, arghh!

Today has been slow, with everyone gathered at my 6th uncle's house to celebrate Mothers' Day (officially on Sunday) for grandma. Grandma is getting worse with remembering, she can't remember seeing me when I have greeted her a few times. It was nice chilling out and catching up with my cousins, having wine and buffet... watching a dvd.

I haven't gotten around to do things I wanted to do... Things I can make with my hands! Getting up late really bothers me and I do want to make an effort to be up earlier tomorrow, even though I'm going to be sleeping late!!!

Plagued

Bad luck has been following tightly behind me, secretly lurking around corners, hiding in my shadow and even sleeping under my bed... It must have been this way because I have not gotten any good fortune.

Who said this is a luckier year for Roosters??? BULLSHIT.

Even that divination lot (click here if you like to understand how it works!) I got on Saturday from the temple says it is BAD. It says the situation isn't good or bad but neutral; I shouldn't be whipping the horse to speed things up. By that I guess it means I shouldn't be rushing into things, I shouldn't act on impulse... Should I be just letting things happening at its own course, taking things as it is now and patiently wait for the right time??? I can't help myself - I am still so impatient.

I feel jinxed, stuck, lost and aimless.

I'm that little girl hiding my head in my red hoodie, standing helplessly in the middle of the forest... without a compass. I need to find that north star that guides me to a river, takes me to the road... brings me to sunlight.