History in the making - UK has exited the European Union. Is it a good time to visit London this year? 1 British Pound is 1.87 SGD now!

In two minds about taking another long holiday in December. On one hand I would really like to, but on the other, we have really limited resources, plus travelling can get quite tiring. Given my limited number of days of leave, I doubt there's really sufficient time to have a real leisurely trip to take in the sights and sounds.

Met up with our independent financial advisor yesterday too and planning to get an early critical illness policy by the end of this year, so that would mean my entire AWS will go to the premium, and not to holidays.

Sigh! All these grown up responsibilities suck. I've always been quite YOLO, so while I try to save, my savings are probably way way lesser than those of my peers. Coz all my money usually goes to holidays and materialistic things. So it's really a bummer that I can't even get to enjoy my money after working hard for one year coz it's got to go into paying insurance premiums.

I just realized people are drawing salaries of 7-8K at my age. If like that then I'm possibly a super underachiever! I thought my husband's salary is already buay pai (1.5x of mine) but he is probably earning the least among all his friends omg.

Also maybe growing older = wanting to stay rooted and losing that spirit of adventure, getting more lethargic, getting more jaded, and that sense of wonderment at new things or even life in general? Practically non-existent. I think it takes a lot more for me to feel amazed and excited about things now.

Another new month!

Getting increasingly tongue-tied (finger-tied?) when it comes to coming up with blog posts. Should I cease blogging?

Mundane things that I do in my daily life seem far too trivial for this platform (there's always Dayre for such content). Plus it's quite inconvenient to actually post photos.

Blogs seem more suitable for "heavier" content which to be honest, my brain is not capable of producing at this life stage. Nothing "heavy" going on in my life now also ahaha. Which I should be grateful for.

Too much of my life experiences contained in this URL. A bit of a pity also la.

Anyway I would like to add that initially I thought I would get a comfortable sum of money for my PB this year to replenish my starving bank account... but then after allocating money for insurance savings, trips, and possible home rental, and paying off all my credit card bills and debts, I have about zero left. Yikes! I have about $20 left in my DBS account now #truestory so the vicious cycle of perpetually being penniless continues....

I wonder how people actually manage to stash tens of thousands of dollars away?! I can never seem to grow my cash!

Down with my usual sensitive airways cough (bye money) at this time of the year which is unusual... usually I get it after I come back from a cold country. I suspect it's coz I went to jog last week when it was terribly hazy in the evening.

Also getting itchy butt syndrome!

Hellloooo February.

New things this month:

1) Started on KFit
2) Gave out angbaos for the very first time and felt very poor
3) Moved back home coz parents are out of town
4) Gained 2kg thanks to festive feasting and a lack of control :(
5) Celebrated Slumpy's birthday without Slumpy :'(
6) Stood in line for 1 hour to buy 4D and Toto -__-"

Woah has it already been 3 weeks since my last blog post? It felt so recent.

Here I am again with my first blog post as a married woman!

If you ask me what's the difference... there is no difference. Hahaha. We're still living apart and I'm still sleeping on my own comfortable single bed with Squishy and Rolly. We meet if neither of us has anything in the evenings, which is just like how it was pre-marriage!

Now that the big day is done and dusted and there is no more wedding prep to be done... I actually kinda miss doing wedding prep! LOL.

Some hiccups here and there for the wedding but overall it went smoothly and I am glad for that.

What I do have left is a very messy study room with bags and boxes of stuff to unpack and store away (mostly decor items) and 2 weeks worth of clothes to iron. Also we need to sort out our finances. Very sadly a lot of people under-bao their angbao plus my mother has buay paiseh-ly taken all the angbaos for her tables so I have a deficit of about 12 tables ++++++.

Although no money... we are still going for our honeymoon. Yah no idea how but maybe we'll just go there and eat 7-11 food every day.

I can't wait to see my photos from Pixel Musica though! I didn't get to take much photos on that day at all :(
But also good la coz it allows me to be in the moment. Instead of living the most important day of my life through a phone.

Till the next update!

My mother wants 17 tables at my wedding dinner, which is frankly, ridiculous!!!

Our ballroom can fit maximum 30 tables, max maybe 32 if we squeeze. And half of the tables are going to be occupied just by her and her extensive guest list! Wah angry leh! 她在嫁女儿不是娶媳妇叻！Even Paul's relatives are not going to be 17 tables. Not paiseh one seriously.

She is demanding for 14 tables from my poor groom, i.e she will pocket all the angbaos collected from those 14 tables. That is easily $21K that we will have to be prepared to lose for sure. She thinks we print cash?!

For my sister's wedding, she got 10 tables (120 pax in total) which amounts to about $13K or $14K but I have to pay $21K? And my sis and bro-in-law earn much more than we do! I'm gonna haggle it down to 8 tables man. If you want to invite more then you pay more! That is the reality!!!

I'm so annoyed, a wedding is not a time for you to "earn" or "recoup" all the money you "invested" in raising us up! We are already struggling with finances as it is! I get it that it's tradition that the groom "gives" some tables to the brides' side for free to repay them for raising their daughter yada yada filial piety blah blah, but 做人要有分寸！Don't give one inch take one metre! That's another 50 more people she wants to invite grrrrrr and seriously I don't give a hoot if those people are present or not!

I feel very sorry to Paul for having such a mother-in-law :(

In my excitement to talk about my baptism yesterday, I forgot to update that... we have settled on our honeymoon plans!!! *exploding fireworks x 10000*

We all along knew that we wanted to go catch the aurora bourelis for our honeymoon and also to fulfill my ambition of catching it before we turn 30 (by which we will be a few months late but better than never getting to go at all) but the how and the mechanics were just... vague and fuzzy.

So down we went to the travel fair on Sunday and there we met a very helpful lady from CS Travel who very kindly helped us plan the whole trip, and helped book our international and domestic flights, as well as a 10-day land tour to Finland!

It looks like it will cost us ten thousand dollars (literally) EACH. :( Now the problem is trying to find the $20K to finance this very costly trip hah.

Hmm even my father is questioning the wisdom of us taking a holiday in June. I heard from Paul who heard from my mom who heard from my dad - "No need to save for wedding meh?"

But oh well. Money can be earned later? (I hope.) If we don't look-see the world while we can now, I doubt we will have the time or money to do it if we start a family. Still planning to skydive one day leh. So there's no better time than the present!

A senior couple in RCIA shared that they don't know how or where they got their money from but somehow they still managed to get by because somehow God will provide. He doesn't provide A LOT (like striking $10 million Toto) but he gives enough for us to get by. Fingers crossed!

So yup looks like travel plans for this year are:

June - Taiwan, Japan
July - Bali with Ichee!
Nov/Dec - Italy, Finland, France, Switzerland (if time permits!)

This will be my first time to the European continent... Looking forward!

Even though I've been doing yoga for at least 5 years, my yoga skills are still quite noob haha. 

But this is PROGRESS! This is to put on record that I can finally do the Wheel pose as of yesterday!!! Woot woot!

Hello world from upside down (no that's not me but a stock image)

Unfortunately the ability to contort self into wheel pose does not equate to fat/weight loss... if anything, I've GAINED weight (horrors) :(((

1-month trial with R-evolution is ending and I would like to continue but the fees are not something I can afford at this point... sigh! Am I really spending too much or earning too little? What's the average expenditure of an unmarried 20-something these days like?

I'm not even having additional savings for the wedding/house at this point :x Must have spent too much of my income trying to see the world during my younger days. I imagine I could have had another additional $20k or $30k if I never went on holidays. 

5-day weeks feel so long.... *whine grumble grumble whine*

The whole of next week is packed with strategic meetings and I feel like my presence isn't going to make any difference. Not sure if I can get out of it. Else I'll be stoning in boredom while people ramble on and on about the mission and vision and values and yada yada.

Also I HAVE NOT FINALIZED MY EAS LEARNING JOURNEY PLANS @&*@@($!($*%%
Event is planned for 17 June and I won't have time to do it in the next 2 weeks so I better start doing it NOW!
(Was arrowed to be the chairperson of this committee even before I joined officially zzz.)

Met my ex-bosses on my day off last week and it was good to catch up again. Project is moving along so fast! 13 months to TOP and another 18 months to grand opening.

Also to update on Our Slumpy Nest, we are applying for the 2nd round of Sale of Balance for May 2014. Got a number to pick a unit in June but looking at the pickings left... not very optimistic. The worst case scenario is that we get a chance to pick a unit but all that's left are lousy flats. Then we get penalized if we give up and wait for the next round. Zzzzzzzz.
So if this 1st round fails then we gotta wait till Nov 2014 or so to pick the next one. That is if we get a number.

Haha squeezing in all the updates about my life here coz now everyone is too busy to meet everyone else.

OK a long to-do list awaits and then 2 weddings this weekend! Hello big hole in pocket :(

I mean I like weddings but I don't like to pay so much money to attend one hahahaha. I am barely surviving month to month as it is already. Especially NOW! When I have like $300 left in my account! 2 weddings is going to wipe out the whole balance! OK don't say liao later everyone don't want to bao angbao for my own wedding. :(

Just paid credit card bills and am left with a paltry... $310.

Hokay! WHEN IS THE NEXT BONUS??!!

SO... The plan all along was to tender after I get my AWS right? I had it all planned to get a week's break before I start my new job.

I handed in my resignation letter this morning.

*cue lightning bolt*

Found out after handing in the letter, that I AM NOT ELIGIBLE FOR AWS since I would be considered "serving notice".

*cue even bigger lightning bolt*

So apparently you have to be in service for the full month of December to be eligible for AWS. They don't even allow for pro-ration of AWS even if I tender say like, 30 Dec. No, I have to tender only in January or else my hard-earned $2,464 will go to ashes. Poof.

#majorfacepalm

I desperately need that money! Forgoing it is not an option. BUT if I tender on 2 Jan, my last day will fall on 1 Feb. PROBLEM. My new job starts on 27 Jan.

*lightning bolt splits sky into two*

So the only option I have left - take back my resignation letter, hand in another one on 2 Jan, and then serve 3 weeks notice instead of 1 month. And pay them the bloody 1 week that I am unable to serve.

ROAR!!!!

But I guess this is the lesser of two evils. In terms of monetary loss.

Sigh this is what happens when I don't check HR policies thoroughly enough. So boys and girls. You have been warned.

Korea was pretty awesome, even though it was very very chilly and my body condition wasn't that good. I've always preferred cooler climes than to be hot and sweaty and I used to be pretty good at taking the cold but as I get older, I find that my tolerance level for the cold has gone down quite a bit. :x My lungs are also very inclined to develop allergic coughs especially when the temperature dips so I gotta ensure that my chest and neck are kept warm. Before I left for the trip I was already nursing a sorethroat and I could feel a cough coming and it worsened in the cold, so I popped a lot of pills while I was there, and got better towards the last few days.

I think my stomach also shrank in the cold, didn't have much of an appetite most of the time (or maybe it was because I've reached my quota for hotpot). We had 2 very expensive dinners though - 40,000 KRW (~48 SGD / or is it 60,000 KRW? #memoryfail) for a Korean BBQ dinner and 65,000 KRW (~78 SGD) for a buffet dinner cruise along the Han River. But never mind, on holiday, just spend first and regret later!
Luckily I didn't put on any weight on my already expanded frame haha if not jialat.

But nose-blowing and frozen fingers/ears/nose aside, I had lots of great memories such as seeing snow fall for the first time in my life! Also tried live octopus, fulfilled my wish of visiting Shinhwa's Kyochon chicken shop and I love the shopping there, especially for skincare and cosmetics. Now that I'm back, I feel like I should have bought more stuff! Never mind about bursting and overweight luggages hahaha.

Am hoping I get to visit Korea in autumn one day, when the trees are awash with pretty red leaves and the weather would be nice and cool! And I'll make sure to go with an emptier luggage so that I can lug more skincare and cosmetics home! Hurhur.

*blows dust off blog*

My poor, long suffering blog. Always here when I am angry or upset and I need an outlet to rant. But when things are calm and peaceful, it goes down the pecking order and gets ignored while I get distracted by Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and what-have-you. Ever selfless and giving, my blog doesn't fight for my attention and always waits patiently in the shadows. *pat pat*


And seriously how many social media platforms do I need?! Haha recently I hopped on the Dayre bandwagon (it's like microblogging on the go - if Twitter and Instagram had a rendezvous and had a kid, Dayre would be it).

But well nothing fascinating has been happening... or wait has there been? OK let me share some recent bakes:

Went for a log cake baking class last Saturday and this ended up as dessert for the Nepal celebratory dinner!

I asked my mom to buy lots of Christmas cake decorations back from Phoon Huat. Haha. Shall attempt to replicate the log cake again closer to Christmas.

 Banana Walnut Muffins

I'm pretty sure I baked something similar before but since I only had 3 small bananas left, I went to google for stuff that I could make with 150g bananas haha. So specific. But anyway I liked this version a lot, they were incredibly soft and fragrant. As with all banana+walnut combinations, it could do with some choc chips but I ran out of them.

Been really tempted to buy a lot of stuff lately, like a hand mixer, the Olympus Stylus XZ-10, and the Babyliss Big Hair 42mm. AHHH CONSUMERISM IS EVIL!!! All these are just wants and not needs. Like my Olympus E-PM1 is still serving me well but sometimes it's a little bulky to carry around plus I want something that can transfer photos from camera to phone using the wi-fi card. -_-

And I want a hand mixer because it's more handy and convenient instead of having to lug the huge mixer out of the storeroom when I want to bake something simple.

And seriously I always tie my hair up so why do I need the Babyliss product so that my hair can look like I just stepped out of the salon?

OK I shall convince myself that all this is not needed. Coz if I buy all these then essentially I will have nothing leftover from my AWS.

#firstworldproblems

And recently Paul got himself a second-hand bike and I've never ridden on a bike before (save for one time in Cambodia) so this will take some getting used to! Riding a bike requires lots of planning and also the mood of the skies. I wanted an orange helmet hurhurhur but I guess most riders like boring colours because there are absolutely no orange helmets out there unless I spray paint it myself. So my helmet is pink. Haha. Wave if you see a pink head that looks vaguely like me on the roads!

My very very very very VERY malnourished bank accounts have less than $500 in them. This, despite the fact that payday just rolled by on 25th. Banks will deduct $2 from my account because of that right? :(

Other people can work for 6 years and have tens of thousands saved but I have less than $500 left. This is what you get for spending now and regretting later.

So obviously this doesn't look good for future planning. Never been one to plan for the future since I didn't really see the need (carpe diem!), but now it's an imminent problem staring at me in the face.

And even if I change jobs it doesn't pay a lot still.

OK I dunno how people survive. Maybe this means I shouldn't go on holidays for the next 2 years.

Some time last week, Paul and I had this idea to take part in Kiss92's Perfect Match contest. LOL. Hey, the prize was $8,888 in cash! And other perks included a sponsored wedding party, bridal gown, make up, photography, and HOME RENOVATION! Haha. Not like I have a home yet but what the heck, might as well give it a try!

So we hastily coughed up a video for submission but sad to say the 3 couples have been shortlisted and we were not one of them *insert mega sad face here* :(((((((((((( le sigh. OK la but I saw the other videos of the shortlisted teams and they were really a lot more interesting than ours (which was just basically a slide show). Hahaha.

To not let the video go to waste, here is the mishmash video that we put together in one night. Ahahaha. :D



Not too bad for a few hours of work considering I took super long to do up my KK video and the In Japan without a Yen video! Or maybe it's because my skeelz improved. Hahahahaha.

Been neglecting this space quite a fair a bit I know. Sometimes I have nothing to say about my life, other times I just don't have the time to put them down into words.
 
Did quite a fair bit of baking and some cooking recently. The bakes were pretty expensive since I attended classes for them but oh well. For the fun of it! :D

Plus usually the stuff that comes out from baking classes looks pretty decent and tastes excellent. Hahaha.

So I'm taking the easy way out and shall spam pictures. Haha.

Easiest banana cake to bake ever! I like easy to bake stuff coz washing up and carrying the standing mixer out from the storeroom is damn leceh. So when I found this recipe I had to try it. This is as easy as it gets. Recipe here.

 

Warm and soft and delightfully fragrant, fresh out of the oven!

 

The day we baked Caramel Popcorn cupcakes. This vanilla cake base is awesome, I think I shall use this recipe for all my cupcakes from now hahaha.

 

After slathering the frosting on!

Topped with Garrett's popcorn and drizzled with salted caramel sauce. 

I NEED TO EAT THIS NOW

 Yup this is seriously good stuff. I'm imagining the taste of it right now as I look at the photos...

OK must bake this again when I'm free.

 

We baked again the following weekend! Yes that's two consecutive weekends spent baking. 

Guess what this square is going to morph into?

 

Cake coated with raspberry cream! Not a fan of normal whipped cream but I love this version coz it's so light and fluffy!

 

And it's a double-tier cake! Don't be deceived by the photos, the actual size is actually quite tiny.

Here we have Paul trying to squeeze raspberry jam out of a tiny hole

 

ARGHHH SO HARD TO SQUEEZE IT OUT!

Turns out that Paul has quite a talent for slathering cream onto cakes and frosting them evenly haha :D

 

My completed Raspberry Cake! Before the cream collapsed that is.

 
Top view. My "waves" around the cake got squashed by the fruits :(

 

 

Cross section of the lovely two-tiered cake!

 

Banana cake again for Mabel's housewarming! I had the honour of breaking in her new oven haha :D

Well it was supposed to be banana cake with walnut and chocolate chips, but we were out the whole day and I was lugging the ingredients all around so the choc chips melted when mixed with the batter. Hence it became chocolate banana cake haha.

 

It's not a brownie!!! Although it does taste fabulous with vanilla ice cream :D

Oh and btw I won money at poker!!! Was up almost $30 at one point but I played a little too recklessly and ended up halving that. But still walked home $16 richer hurhur. Considering I have supremely bad luck when it comes to gambling (mahjong, slot machines, blackjack...) this must have been one of my good days. Hurhurhur.

 

The next day after Mabel's housewarming was le 100th day hurhur and I had been dreaming of aglio olio for a while prior to that so we decided to get busy in the kitchen! We looked to the holy grail of cooking for noobs for assistance - Noobcook! Followed this Prawns Aglio Olio recipe.

Btw photo above is a lot of pasta for 3 pax.

 

Essence de prawns

 

Not in the recipe but shrooms!!! for me and bacon!!! for the pork loving Paul. 

But poor Paul is allergic to shrooms :( ok nevermind I'll eat them all next time! 

 

Oh btw Paul also has another hidden talent in de-shelling and de-veining prawns :D

Here we have the prawns cooking nicely!

Le Master Chef

 

Must have for every meal - some veg for fibre!

 

So basically I didn't do much because this was chopped by Paul haha

 

And here we have it! The completed dish! Nom noms

 

Topped with parsley and a lot of black pepper. Rating: 7/10!

Also July is bonus month and nope, didn't get promoted (which was entirely expected to be honest - considering how slack I am sometimes). Bonus is also sadly not as good as last year's, which is tragic because I really really really really really really really really need the money (as of now I have $300 in my bank account till PAYDAY! hahaha and that's really almost all the cash I have except for the Untouchable Savings which, I'm almost on the verge of Touching).

So yup the job search's now on! Albeit really slowly. Applied for a few - all in the civil service hurhur - zero response thus far, but ah well, we've all got to start somewhere! *cross fingers and toes*

Been feeling rather sloth-like and blubber-like lately. Even when I climb stairs, I feel tired and lethargic! The stamina has gone down greatly thanks to a whole month of no-swimming and no-jogging (thanks to my frequent weekends away and the haze). I used to be how fit and healthy! Now it's like.... nua blubber blubber blubber nua sloth and nom nom nom nom (from the non-stop eating).

THIS GETS SERIOUS GUYS! Can't run away from the glaring fact - it's the extra 3 kilos that I've been carrying around. ㅠ.ㅠ

I IZ NOW AN OMNOMNOMIVORE

 *weeps in despair*

Haha oh well it's "happiness weight" as the Saint says but honestly I can do without it hahaha. Happiness weight, you can find someone else stick to! We can be happy without the extra weight right?

ANYWAYS! The point of this entry is. OK I don't know what's the point except to share that cute OMNOMNOMNIVORE picture hahahaha because that describes my life now perfectly.

Oh oh oh and I'm also pathetically broke and dying and eating grass and I can't wait for July 25th to come BECAUSE I IS NEEDING MY BONUS NAO!!!

Oh oh oh and also as our luck would have it, the grey smelly haze followed us to KL while it was all clear blue sunny skies in SG. Zzzzzzz. But ok that's it to all the travelling, no more travelling for me till October (Nepal!). I just tried to pay my income tax and the AXS machine told me I have insufficient funds to pay by NETS. Yes that's how broke I am. Haha. Of course, it's not like my taxes are some ridiculously high amount or something. Monkey here earns peanuts. Rahhhh. *slinks away*

Whoop whoop, imma certified open water diver now! v(^_^)v

 

Must pose v(^_^)v as I unglamorously crashed into corals (can't control my body well underwater haha). Emerged with a few little nicks and cuts here and there.

 

Our group! Everyone looks the same underwater haha. I'm the one on the left :D

 

On the surface with our stern looking dive instructor Michael

We've only got a few precious underwater photos courtesy of our groupmate's friend. Underwater cameras and casings are so expensive! The case for my Olympus EPM-1 is $1k. Say whut?!?! I bought my camera for only $600+ leh.

Still, it was an interesting and pretty cool experience despite my initial apprehension. The skills were boring but we still had to go through it. The fun part was the leisure dive, and we saw a turtle! *achievement unlocked* Haha. And so it's another ONE OFF THE BUCKET LIST! :D I've cleared the mountain, I've cleared the sea, next up, I think I wanna skydive! OK maybe trek Nepal, then take my Advanced diving first, then we save money, we go see Aurora Bourellis, then we skydive. So many things to do before I turn 30, I don't know if I have enough time (or money). ㅠ.ㅠ Did I mention that I have $1.82 left in my travel fund?

But yes, all on the bucket list. Will tick them off one by one eventually!

Also, I got kissed by an elephant (in Phuket) :3

 

Very enthusiastic, this one

 

I think she likes Paul more haha

And I finally found some time to bake! Tried the Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies again; my friend has been requesting me to bake it again for her since one year ago.

 

Swirly swirls 

 

Someone commented on Instagram that it looked like raw beef :(

  

Easy peasy nutella brownies that I made into the form of cupcakes

Can't remember if I left anything important out but what's been hogging the news these days is the terrible, terrible haze. It hit 401 today and it's really unfortunate because I had plans to go to Legoland tomorrow. :(

So Legoland was postponed, and I thought I'd stay at home and bake some banana cake while wishing that I was breathing underwater from an oxygen tank. But within a few hours, we decided to escape smoky Singapore and now I'm scooting off to KL for the weekend to get away from the haze. Haha. Talk about impromptu.

June is shaping up to be a rather happening month. It's an overseas trip every weekend for the third consecutive week running! Haha and may I reiterate that I only have $1.82 left in my travel fund. Hurhurhur. Live now, pay later. Bonus coming in July!!! Then I need to sit down and take a long and hard look at where I am going from here.

Feeling pretty stoned today. -_-

Flu medicine making me drowsy and spamming Vitamin C to fight whatever virus is lurking in my body while it's still relatively tame.

Wanted to post some photos from the 2 hens' night I attended but I realized all the photos I have from Corrine's hens' party are so cui! We didn't even take a proper photo lor. :(

Haha. Never mind, here's some from Mabel's Hens' night at W Hotel. I expected W Hotel to be bigger and glitzier, but it was still nice. I guess the snazzy decor makes it different from other hotels, but it's still a little overpriced IMO.

We took an Away Room which came with our own private plunge pool!

Even the standing light got zhng-ed

1-2-3-4 Gwiyomi

 Cheers to our bride-to-be!

 And from Corinne's Hens' night last weekend at MBS:

 I believe this photo of the pizza at Pizzaria Mozza is the best photo I took that entire evening because all the other photos look cui. #truestory

We were so chill that we didn't even prepare anything. 

Last minute party stuff courtesy of Xiuhui haha

The 40 degrees hot tub and steam room 

It's gonna be a busy month of May with 2 weddings over the next 2 weeks and then it's Genting and Sundown, then in June there's Phuket and diving! I'm broke but heck. Spend now worry later LOL.

I think I'm a victim of credit card fraud.

Noticed a dubious transaction while I was checking my credit card statement online. An amount of about USD$220 was charged to my card when I was pretty sure that I didn't purchase anything from any US-based online websites recently. Not even Victoria's Secrets (though I was pretty tempted to get stuff a few weeks ago).

Called up Citibank and asked if they could block this transaction. They were not very helpful (the customer service officer told me to google and check out which merchant it was) and basically said that they couldn't block the payment coz it was an online transaction. Oookay. So I googled and was led to a website called Cache, which sells clothing and stuff. Never in my life have I heard of Cache and I most definitely did not purchase anything from this website. I can only conclude that a sneaky someone must have somehow gotten my credit card details through unorthodox means and used it to pay for stuff that I didn't even buy.

The CS officer advised me to email the site and to check, which I already did and am waiting for their reply.

I called Citibank again for a second time to ask them to block my card and this second CS officer asked me to fill in a dispute form. Goodness knows how long it will take for them to investigate and I wonder when I can get my money back. USD$220+ is close to SGD$300 already leh! THEY BETTER GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK.

ROARRRRRRR!!!

I have been good this month - it's already past mid-month and I've only bought a shrug online! Oh and also a pair of pants that was too big for my sister. I also didn't spend that much on beauty products and stuff!

Now I'm lured by pretty and nice outfits again... clothes that will only see the light of day during weekends. Oh no this is bad. My wardrobe is already bursting. And there is no space at home for a second wardrobe. Please convince me that I do not need an embroidered dress.

It's gonna be a quiet work week coz both bosses are in Japan! I just hope they won't bother me when they're there.

Anyway some snapshots of the weekend past:


Visited Ade's new home and here are the master chefs cooking up a storm in her kitchen!


Master chefs whipped up a pretty decent dinner - Chef Koh's doumiao and mushroom (and I helped fry the egg!)


Chef Yeo's Korma chicken - a little like curry but not really


After realizing that none of us knows how to chop a whole chicken, I decided it's time for me to learn some life skills...