Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Online Shopping

Before I started online shopping, I never realised what fantastic bargains some online shops had until I found a chemise on this online lingerie store at a fantastic price. It was even cheaper than any shop I have ever seen and came with a beautiful wrapper and box which was complimentary with every order. They even gave free camisoles with each order when I paid with a certain bank account! I'm a huge online shopping fan now! :)

Managing Money

I have just made my life insurance payments recently. I always tend to forget to budget for this in my monthly payment schedule and never fail to get a rude shock whenever it is time to make annual premium payments! It is a real pain especially when I am running low on funds that month! Apparently there is a system which allows you to make monthly payments instead of a lump sum annual payment but it comes with a small interest attached to it. I guess I'll have to manage my money better.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Spas to Relax

Spas are fast becoming popular now especially amongst the urban crowd. I guess as work pressures grow and people become more affluent, they start learning how to pamper themselves as a getaway from the pressures of work. There are so many spas in the city now that spa jobs are a dime a dozen. Lots of girls from small towns make their way to the city to work in spas which can give quite decent returns. However, some of these spas tend to be rather seedy. So if you are looking for a good spa or if you know someone who is looking for a spa job, be sure to only approach those that are reputable and have a decent premise. That way, you can be sure that you getting proper spa services and massages instead of "extra services"!

Bit of Lie-in

I got to sleep in a bit later this morning cos Sis sent me to work. I never thought sleeping in was such a luxury until I joined this new company. Parking is a huge problem here and in order to get a car park I usually have to arrive around 6.30am which means getting up at 6am! It is a real torture especially when I sometimes sleep quite late the night before. I wonder how long this will need to last!

Going Home

Sis will be picking me after work today. We're going home to be a busybody in the coming elections. This weekend is nomination day so we will be there with our cameras to take lots of pictures! The candidate that was finally announced was a great disappointment but oh well, we will just have to see how things turn out. Just about 2 more hours. Hurrah!

Flowers for the Wedding

I'm currently trying to plan my wedding which is scheduled to happen at year end, amidst my busy work schedule. I've been trying to draw up a budget and was really at a loss at what to budget for wedding flowers. The amounts I was told by friends who have gotten married before varied greatly, from a few thousand to just a few hundred for some. I guess a lot of it depends on which florist you use and what sort of wedding flowers you want. I am really quite at a loss as I do not really have a favourite flower I was planning to use. On top of that, my wedding will actually be held in my hometown where I am not sure what sort of flowers and arrangements they have. I think I need to do a lot more research on this!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Buying Jewelry

Apparently in the Chinese custom, the bride must be presented with at least a gold bangle during her wedding by the groom's family. So recently, I went to a goldsmith's shop with my sis and dad to take a look at the gold bangles they had. Some looked rather old fashioned but there was one that looked quite nice as it was a mixtured of yellow gold intertwined with white gold. I thought that made it look more funky and was something I could probably still wear on a daily basis. Hopefully they have some new stock coming in towards the middle of the year.

Patient Care

When my late grandmother was hospitalised, we used to visit here there almost every day. I noticed that some patients there couldn't really move and used to wonder how the nurses bathed or washed them everyday. A kind nurse later explained to me that they actually use a bath lift to help these patients bathe so they can still remain clean and fresh. I think it is quite important as these are still people with dignity even though they may be ill or immobile. So it is only right to continue to treat them with dignity.

Dream Come True

Have you ever heard of the Riviera Maya Resort? If you haven't then it is time that you did! It is a superbly luxurious resort smack on the pristine white sands of the Mexican Riviera Maya or Maya River. It has been immaculately designed to provide wonderfully luxurious accommodation for the discerning traveler, honeymooners and people who simply want to have fun but come back to a wonderful room with its personal butler! They even provide a wedding chapel for lovebirds to get married in their dream wedding. For scuba enthusiasts, they have a fantastic scuba clinic just waiting for you to gear up and take off into the deep blue sea! Even the food is fantastic as everything is made by hand by scratch so the bread you are eating was home made, right on the premises of the resort! What a dream! Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit there someday!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Wedding Costs

My grandma told me that my aunt in New Zealand called her over the Chinese New Year holidays. She has planned to come home at the end of the year for my wedding and was discussing with my grandma whether I would prefer cash as a present or a gold item such as a gold coin , gold bracelet or earrings. According to her, the things in New Zealand are very pretty and would make very good gifts. However, now with the wedding costs escalating, I think I would very much prefer cash to help us break even on our expenses. Things are all in the thousands, even for our photographers and I am getting really stressed as we have still not been able to finalise our vendors. Time seems to be running too fast and I know that if we do not finalise them soon, we will not have much time left to plan for the year end event. I hope we will be able to get a good photographer soon!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Travel Insurance

Recently I got a call from our budget airline here, Air Asia, offering me some free travel health insurance. I do not know how they got my number but it could have been from the online booking I did for my sister when she recently went to Bangkok. I am not sure how it works though as I do not know if I need to fly before I can get that insurance policy.

Furnishing A New Home

In about a year's time I will be moving out to my own place to stay from my parent's place. It is a big project to work on especially to furnish the place. Luckily I was involved in the furnishing of my parents' place so at least I have an idea of where to go to look for my LCD TV, sofa and other furnishings. However, since I have a limited budget, I will need to look harder for bargains!

Pantry Novelties

My current office has quite an interesting feature in their pantries. Each pantry is equipped with coffee makers dispensing coffee, tea and hot chocolate for the staff. I was initially quite impressed with it and used to start my day with it until I realised that it was too sweet and probably bad for me. Now I hardly drink it anymore. So much for a novelty item!

Home Theatre

I visited a friend's house over the Chinese New Year holidays and was impressed to see a nice big sound system there complete with Bose headphones! It was a room that was specially built simply to watch movies with a good theatre effect. It was really interesting and something that would have been perfect for big family gatherings or parties.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Breathtaking Hotels

A friend who recently came back from her honeymoon was full of praises for Las Vegas where she visited. She stayed in some good Vegas hotels such as Excalibur and Caeser's Palace and could help telling us over and over again about how beautiful the hotel was. Apparently, the lobbies of these hotels alone were enough to take your breath away as it was beautifully done with even changing ceilings!

Building Mansions

Our house in USJ finally got sold. The keys have been handed over and it is no longer part of our property. We were lucky in the sense that we managed to get it sold without having to incur any real estate agent fees. Our previous neighbour was interested in expanding his property and offered to buy it from us. While the transaction was done relatively easily, we were still a little sad to see it go as we know all the nice renovations we have done to the house will only be broken down by him when he starts to build his mansion.