Archive for March, 2008

The Band

31 March, 2008 · Filed under JoOb Search, music, Xubi

He came home super tired after a 2.5hr of jamming.

His group has got 7 members!! Keyboardist, drummer, 3 guitarists and 2 singers! Hmmm Don’t think they have a name yet

They sing Chris Daughtry’s songs… and i have always liked him from his American Idol days. Sighhh… And some Indonesian band i can’t remember what but its popular one lah.

He was astonished that the Chinese Studio owner can speak Urdu! The Chinese man heard Z talked to Ammi on the phone in Urdu and asked him, “Kaisey ho?” or something in Urdu. Apparently, he used to work in Rawalpindi for 15 yrs!! It’s a no wonder!

The leader in the group said that he had ever got a $10,000 a month contract to perform at a SMALL club. Imagine how much would a bigger club offer. at the very least $1,000 per person per month. If $2k don’t even need a day job lah! And here i thought they got like nightly pay of $100 x 10 weekends. oklah that would equate to the same thing but still!! if the band was smaller can get fatter share. ok ok im not greedy lah.. just saying.

But then again, i detest clubs. However, its very much a need we’re experiencing here now. On the other hand, they dont see getting contracts anytime soon as they still need to practise more songs as a band together.

Z did say that their first jamming session turned out great. like 80% in sync and that’s great considering they’ve never played together before!

Next month, we should enrol him to the music lessons again lah… this month too tight… toooo tight. God please let the claim cheque come quickly. It’s already agreed and processed what

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IMM

31 March, 2008 · Filed under dates, married life, S'pore

Sat 26th Mar 08

It was Sat night and Zubair was getting restless and said let’s go to IMM. At first i said, “let’s save it for Tues.” Although he said ok, i remembered that i was again as always dejecting his ideas and decided to relent.

I just found out that IMM had a major renovation! But still the slip road to go into the building’s micro Mini! There was a long queue and not even the shuttle bus was exempted!

There was a Sony sale going on at the Atrium. a Bravia 40″ was going at $1899!!! $1,000 off with 5 years warranty and Free Home theater! Only 5 sets were available. If we had the money, and if we bought our house already, we surely would have grabbed that deal!

Our aim was to buy a new phone for our room digital voice line. It has been down for like 3 months or so. So wasteful that im still paying Starhub $10+ a month but can’t fully utilise the unlimited free outgoing!

We reached there about 8:30 and only managed to go to Best Denki.

Bought a $33 phone with Handsfree function and Caller ID Display and 1 yr warranty. Although i havent subscribed to caller ID, i think its good for future lah. At first wanted to get the $19 basic phone, and then saw the $28-with-speaker phone… then saw the $33-with-screen phone.

Also, we bought a $19 webcam. Its less than 1.3MP but it serves the purpose lah… Our Paki family is missing us and wants to SEE us…

We had a great time talking in the train that i didn’t realise it was our station already! Thank god he decided to take off those earphones!

We also managed to stop ourselves from buying OTAK2 and Cempedak and what nots!

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Negative Energy = Spring Cleaning

31 March, 2008 · Filed under celebrations, friends, married life

Sunday, i woke up to a super bad mood.

Thanks to Zubair who last minute told me he cldn’t come along to my best friend’s wedding bcos he needs to practise his songs before he meets his band at 2:30pm.

I was throwing tantrum for some 30min until i cannot take it anymore cos i didn’t get any attention and channeled my bad vibes into positive activity. LOL!

I had some 30 hangers of pressed clothes on my door knobs that cant fit into the wardrobe and i wanted to clear them. But with all those pent up frustrations, i didnt just put them away in my wardrobe,

  1. i folded all his hung but unironed shalwar kameez to give way to MY clothes
  2. Then organized my hanged clothes, right side shalwar kameez (10 pairs!) left side Dresses and pantsuits in the middle shirt & pants
  3. Rearranged HIS side of the wardrobe by matching pants & shirts into one hangers and jackets to one side
  4. Cleaned up my bag area
  5. I finally took out my Body Shop wedding present from my 10 besties and put the beautiful boxes to good use to organise my creams, scrunchies and what nots.
  6. Later at night, i even turned over the mattress and changed the bedsheet ALL on my OWN!! Bearing in mind, my still very much delicate left thumb.

Luck was on my side. Mummy wasn’t going to the wedding until 1pm. And Z was initiative enough to quickly work on his songs and then decided he could join me after all.

I can’t believe i almost didn’t wanna go to my own best friend’s wedding! During my early early days in school, we were very close lah. I always walked over to her house (some 10min away) to play bicycle, roller blade and whatever lah. Being the only child she’s got a LOT a LOT of toys!

And i had a fun time at the wedding lah. It was funny how we hindered the groom from going up to the dais to his wife. We asked him to name at least 5 out of 9 of us! And he only got 4 even then with the help of his best men!

Group Shot. Z Missing. *sob*

The event was held at the void deck and it occupied the whole block! with two diff buffet sets. Very good cos there were ample seats for th 2,000 odd guests and we can even hang out for a bit. Poor Mother of the Bride, at one point, she got very confused/bingung with so many guests coming up to her!

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And I Thought it’s the Employee Market now…

28 March, 2008 · Filed under Downs, JoOb Search, Passes, S'pore, Xubi

ZacM, my former employer, would rather take cheaper workforce from India than help his former employee’s husband. Despite the fact that he had taken a Nigerian or something whose wife is also a Singaporean and the expected salary is the same range. Sure ours is a tad higher, but ….

Play By Ear says your sight reading (playing looking at notes) is good but need some more practice. Come back when you got better. Besides, they might have a problem with work permit.

I guess i have only the Airport job on the cards left.

Cik Rose suggested getting that riding/driving license soon, prolly she can recommend to one of C241 (pizza) outlets. And she will also try to ask her contact (my schmate’s mother) who owns an employment agency if she can find a job for Z.

Oh! I have not written about this sms i got from my friend. It says

I received d sms below. can your hubby take it up? – Looking for a piano tutor
for a special boy who has ADHD. He can play the piano but he learns thru
listening. Cant read notes. Prefer the tutor to be experienced in working with
people from this background.

It turned out to be a child in the local muslim orphanage home. a 14 yr old boy who has multiple disorders. After speaking with the officer, she told me that its difficult to find a suitable teacher! But that it will be even more diff cos this tutor’s fee is funded by the govt and they’d need proper documentation and what nots. So i emailed her.

heheh yeah i was the one who wrote the email on his behalf since i’ve liaised with her from the first. Anyway, i wrote that, “Although Z doesnt have any official training in psychology, he is passionate about teaching music and children.”

I also pandai2 (out of the blue) proposed that they would hire him full time as a so called events management officer or something. To train not just the one boy but also the rest of the children for the prolly monthly fund raising events they have here and there! LOL!

One thing i’m very scared of is of Work permit. Argh!!! *pull hair*

I just followed up with the officer again and she said that she’s passed to her boss and that the answer wouldn’t be very soon as there’s a long red/yellow tape of procedures to follow, as usual, and that they would need at least 2 proposals to compare, when they have only the one right now. She said i could check back again in 3 weeks time! *faint*

At least i have some leads to follow rather than nothing at all.

Sighhhh

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The Piano Player

28 March, 2008 · Filed under JoOb Search, music, Xubi

He’s been advertising himself on SOFT (a webportal for Singapore musicians).

BAND

A few bands have already approached him. 3 to be precise, that i know of. Again, naturally, he’s been attracting groups of Malay musicians bcos of his name, which is just as well. The first one was heavy metal like Dep Leopard or Deep Purple something or other played by Abang2 (older brother) rockers . He met them once but got turned off.

The second band is much better. A group of Malay/Indonesian playing soft rock, Indonesian “islamic” rock song. He turns out to be the youngest amongst them. And one even lives just next to our block!! Amazing! *shake head* So this newly organised band is gonna meet for the first time this Sun~ Let’s see how it goes.

Then just a few days ago, an 18 yr old boy msged him to bcome their keyboardist. I seriously dont know where this one will lead to or if it will even last long taking into account their tender age where they will meet big crossroads soon.

TEACHER

He also offered his teaching services. at a mere $40 a month at that! I saw another person posted at market rate of $200 for 4 lessons of 1hr each. What vast difference! But my dear Z is willing to do it as long as he has something to do! But nobody has replied yet lah.

But one kind soul did msg him saying, “Can that cover your transport cost?” And later he said that this Play-BY-Ear Music School is hiring, why dont he check it out kinda thing.

And so that is exactly what Z did yesterday. But he was told to come back today at 3pm for an interview. Please pray for him.

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Turtle Egg

26 March, 2008 · Filed under Funnies, Xubi

Zubair: Darling look *pointing to tv* So many turtle eggs

Me: oh yeah

Z: so many!!

Me: Yeah its common. In Malaysia a lot of pple eat them.

Z: WHAT? You can eat it? NO!! Is it halal not?

Me: Yeah can a lot in malaysia!!

Z: Then if you can eat turtle egg, why don’t you eat crocodile’s egg?

Dang!

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Sakura International Buffets and Monkeys

26 March, 2008 · Filed under family, Food, S'pore, Ups

Sun, 23rd MArch 08

Mummy and Ayah celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary on 15th May 08. They treated us to Sakura International Buffet at PAris Ris Downtown East last Sun! By us i mean our immediate family together with out fav cousins from Simei.

I dont have pictures cos my hp was dying at that time but i can tell you i’d enjoyed my time there. Prolly more so than in Carousel bcos:

  1. there’s more kind of food that im familiar with and like
  2. there are still seafood
  3. its cheaper but more friendlier
  4. They have prepared-on-demand Teppanyaki and an efficient system to manage it.
  5. The price is inclusive of unlimited drinks! LOL
  6. The toilet has a jetspray and wall fan!

The only downside is, its not as posh looking as Carousel, at least not the one at Down town East lah.

On the way home, we stopped by at Upper Pierce Reservoir and met our good friends!

Monkeys! and lotsa them!

If you look closely, this one is actually feeding her young! All these monkeys were just loitering and relaxing on the road, gawking at us humans. And there are signs everywhere that says,

“Don’t feed the monkeys. They have a lot to eat in the forest. Fine $500″

Ayah taking photos of leaves! Haven’t seen how it turned out.

Singapore being a stone jungle, all these greens are really a rare sight.

You can actually walk up to the “shoreline” of the reservoir. A lot of pple were trying to catch the small fishes there but swimming is still prohibited of course, or else FINE! haha

It was about 4 close 5pm when we were there and it was glaringly HOT! but if you stay in the shade and with the breeze gently blowing… you might just find yourself flown to dreamworld. That is before the ants wake you up!

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The Real Halal Food 2008, Finally!

25 March, 2008 · Filed under dates, family, JoOb Search, money, S'pore


After the disappointing “Food Fair” at Suntec, i was thrilled to read in the papers that there’s a HALAL Food Fair running at EXPO for the long weekend. Even more thrilled when Kak Ly offered to drive us there.

The title of the exhibition is Halal Food, furniture, lifestyle or something something 2008. Then the first thing we saw when we came in were wood furnitures and i joked, “Say, are these furnitures halal too?” LOL!

But 15mins into the fair, Kak Lily w stroller cldn’t take the crowd and left the scene totally.

We were left to fend for ourselves. We spent almost $30 there!!!! *faint*

  1. $3 Otak otak (haha all the way to Expo buy otak2 also!)
  2. $2 beef lung
  3. $5.20 personal Hawaiian Pizza
  4. $6 Lemang + beef rendang
  5. $5 Choc chip Baulu (which we later forgot it in the MRT!!!)
  6. $2.50 on 2 drinks
  7. $5 Chicken Kebab (bcos that Pizza is not enough for Zubair)

At least i’m happy that this is the true blue Food fair i’ve been wanting to show him. We even got to listen in on a seminar about Women. It was in Malay though, so Z cldn’t appreciate it. I wish for an auto translator. Where is my darling Doraemon?

Then we took a look at the Book Fair and Baby Fair too.

Book Fair

Hmmm too big and disorganised you can’t find something you’re looking for but will certainly get some random interesting thing. The best part is Fictions were tagged at no more than $15 (even hard covered ones!) with average being $10 and lowest being $5!!! Some General books are even 3 or 4 for $10!

We didn’t buy anything though with only $12 left in my pocket! Not necessary anyways.

Baby Fair

Hmmm When we stepped in, we were quickly approached by this Malay guy asking us, “Are you planning for your child’s education?” We said no we are not thinking about it yet as we have no children yet. But he kept on talking about his land investment. Wait a minute, this sounds familiar, i remember listening to Mel explaining it to me when she was with Jardine Smith.

but other than that, nothing else appeals to us since we havent actually HAD a baby YET, considering they were selling diapers like hot cakes!

Teck Wei CAR Roadshow

outside, there was a car roadshow and Zubair fell in love with Honda Fit. the new model retails at $500/mth for OPC (weekend car). I said to the agent, “But that’s almost the same price as that MPV over there!” He said, “Oh that is Fiat, ya know. Cannot compare. That one uses up a lot of petrol!” I suppose he’s right but dont know whether he just wanna “goreng” / fry or sweet talk us.

Then he told us that he has sold 20 cars just today alone!!! Imagine one single car salesman sold 20 cars a day, how many total Singaporeans buy a car in a day? in a month? How much does that salesman earn? If for eg, he earns 5% commission and the average price of a car is $30,000, he would have earned $30,000 in a day!!!! *faint* Should i get Zubair to become a car salesman? Or should i just switch career and be a salesman myself?! LOL!

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We Finally Discovered Daiso

25 March, 2008 · Filed under dates, S'pore, Ups, Xubi

Tues, 18th Mar 08.

i asked Zubair if he wanted to go to Esplanade or VivoCity. After some thought, he chose the latter cause we’ve been to Esplanade quite often as compared to VC. Even after i tried to tempt him with Satay at Lau Pa Sat, he stayed firm with his decision. I forgot we just ate satay the previous night.

Anyways, we window shopped. Zubair has this fascination for watches. The names like Emporio Armani and God knows what else could fetch $3000 easily, while $5000 is also not unheard of. Z said he wants to buy me one good watch too some day. I told him, “If you ask me, i would rather you buy me lots and lots and lots of clothes than just 1 expensive watch.”

Me? I have only just the one Swatch i bought some 5 yrs ago. Previously, i was wearing $10 watches most of the time. Even now i dont wear it anymore cos its so troublesome to put on with my left hand like it is.

So… i dont exactly get what he sees in these watches. and often, i get bored when we visit them watch shops. But there is this one rather unique shop that has a combination of watches as well as wall clocks. Now the latter is at least more interesting to look at with the diff designs and all. Well i must try, musn’t i?

Then i saw the yellow orange neon sign of Daiso on the upper floor. I’ve heard of it being something like the old Muji or something so decided to take a look. I was browsing the cups and plates and looking around for the tag and i said to Z, “What kind of shop is this that doesnt tag their items?” One employee was stacking some stuff so i asked her and she told me, “Oh everything here is $2!” LOL! *slap forehead*

And we almost went crazy looking at the various items they’re selling. From those cockeries, to stationeries, to undies, to gardening tools, to god knows what. haha We agreed that we can’t wait to have our own house and buy for our house all these things! :D

We picked 8 items. But before we reached the cashier, i noticed they had a sign that said they dont accept credit cards, so i had to remove 4 not so important/urgent items. Ergh :S

Then we went to the open space. All benches were taken so we sat by the stairs and it was most comfy with the railings to lean on, and the breeze blowing… Sheer bliss….

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It’s been 8 weeks

24 March, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized

since the tragedy on my hand happened.

I was a fool to have thought that my hand would soon return to normal when the stitches are out!

It’s been 7 weeks since the last stitch was taken out here in Singapore and still my thumb feels stiff, sore, lame and “ngilu” (tingly?).

I have made some progress in achieving small small tasks but really am tired of it.

Small hairs are sprouting on my left hand where they’ve never been before. Zubair said it’s prolly bcos of dettol! LOL

I’ve just bought a new box of special latex free, waterproof plaster that cost me $6.50 for some 20pcs and im allergic to it! and now the wound area is itchy as hell! But then again, could it have been the prawns ive been eating? Can’t be cause i havent stopped my seafood nor egg intake since the incident, and it hadn’t affected anything before. ERgh!

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Speaking of tired, i can’t wait for things to settle down for my husband too. When will that day come, i wonder?

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A lot of stories to tell, not many pictures to aid in writing. I must take it slowly.

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The long weekend was spent with moderate amount of relaxing, working and going out, money came in and also out~…

One Question has always remained lingering in my mind: SHould i sleep away on a weekend or should i do something about it?

Eg: if we were out in the morning and home by say… 4pm… should i sleep (cos im very tired having woken up so early) or should i play game? *guilty look*

Come Monday, instead of feeling refreshed, i will still feel tired. Maybe even more so.

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