Expenditure so high this month!

Hi guys and girls, merry xmas to you all. This month has been the highest spending month for me so far with more than $1500 being spent! (normally I only spent around 500bucks) I bought lots of stuffs as there are discounts going on. Some of the stuffs include headset, 3 in 1 printer, spare printer inks, ipad air, powerbanks, shoes, sling bags, water bottle and t-shirts! A lot of things right? And recently, I venture into taobao/tmall online shopping portals and buy stuffs from there too! But my goods not arrive Singapore yet as the goods are bought from overseas. I also joined starbucks membership card program whereby I get a slice of cake during month of my birthday which I redeemed this month and get 13th beverage free with every 12 beverages purchased. Earlier this month, I got a starbucks planner when I top up $120 into my card which I find it a nice planner to have. Looks like next month I need to watch my spendings as I not earning much yet.

Few days ago, I attended a pot luck poly friends xmas gathering in Pasir Ris area. There are quite a few food items ranging from turkey, cheese nachos, salad, pasta, chicken drumlets and ice cream cones(bought by me) as well as mocha. I find the pasta, chicken drumlets and salad better than other dishes but overall still a delightful spread to have. And then, its time to exchange presents. I got a desktop bonsai and some ferrero rocher chocolates which I suspected might be huilin's gift. If that's the case, I think she received my gift and I received hers! Surprising isn't it since her birthday is only 3 days apart from mine at near end of December. But I dunno if the gift I received is her's as the gifts do not have names on it and so it remains the gifts are from secret santas for all of us. Ok, then we played a guessing game with the use of some poker cards to find out who are the 2 murderers out of 10 of us. It was pretty much a guessing game unless you are 'killed' by the murderers and you will know who probably 'killed' you in the game. Throughout the game, I was surprisingly not given a chance to be a murderer because my poker card is usually a commoner status and thus ends up being 'killed' innocently. Ok, next gathering will probably be Chinese new year period but is it house visiting or remain in a friend's house is yet remains to be determined. Ok, I will blogged after the Chinese new year as I will have more things to write about. Stay tuned!

2 Weddings to attend in a month!

Well, for the first time in my life, I get to attend 2 wedding dinners in a month. One is my relative's and another is my friend's. Now, I have gone for the Nov 8 one, so left Nov 24 one to attend. For the one that I just attended, the food tastes great but the door gift is a bit of a let down cos its a small bottle of jam. Talking about door gifts, I prefer 1 that is not edible but useful such as bottle opener, mini photo frames and so on. Others like keychains are common and furthermore I have a lot so it is not that useful though some designs are unique. I have receive perfume tube container from a past wedding which is unique but not that useful as I don't spray perfume nowadays. Anyway, talking about EmCee for the Nov 8 wedding, I was surprised that he is actually Lin You Fa who is quite famous for his gigs on radio show years ago. Heard that he is actually a close uncle to the bride. Hmm, the world is indeed small, ya?

I got a upcoming seminar to attend on Nov 23 which will give me the chance to win prize like Ipad Air and vouchers. It has been quite long since I attended a seminar and somemore its a free one. I will also be able to have an analysis of my luck for next year and what to invest if I have the spare cash which I don't have much currently though. So it seems next weekend will be a fruitful and entertaining one for me as I got this seminar and wedding dinner to attend. Meanwhile, I am playing jelly splash which is easy to learn but a little tough to master. For candy crush though, I have reached level 500 and now waiting for newer levels to be released. And I am still waiting for the new Ipad mini with Retina display to be out in challenger next Friday hopefully. Wow, lots of things to look forward to and I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will not be a lot of disappointments. =)

Lousy Laptop.

After weeks of usage of my new Lenovo budget laptop that costs me around $1500, I found that it is not as long lasting as the challenger staff claims. It is supposed to last me 5 hours but I found it last me only an actual 2 hours. Why like this? I thought perhaps I bought a laptop that is not of good quality. Oh well, although it is fairly good in its performance, but its poor battery life has let it down. I think this laptop may be sent to customer service soon if it is indeed proven to be faulty. Anyway, I should have bought apple MacBook in the first place as it should be a great laptop for anybody. Talking of apple, I am planning to buy ipad mini with retina display soon but I am thinking whether I should keep my current ipad mini since its value is fast depreciating. It costs about $688 for a 32gb model which is about $100 expensive than its previous generation. Lucky I got some savings to be able to afford this. To add to my worries, I got a $100 singtel voucher to buy a handphone with 2 years contract to worry about. I already got M1 plan so if I get this singtel plan, wouldn't I have to pay for 2 plans every month? A pity that I cannot transfer to anyone as the voucher got my name printed on it. So to use or not to use? Haiz...

Soon, I got to attend one relative wedding and another poly friend wedding. Looks like I got to buy new clothing to wear for such occasions as my wardrobe choices are limited due to my control on buying new clothings. Anyway, I will be hopefully eating good food I suppose. Suddenly I remember to post about my candy crush adventures. Yup, I cleared level 500 and looking forward to more exciting levels. Level 500 is indeed hard to past which took me about a week to clear as I cleared it last night. So now I suppose I should take a little break before the next candy crush episode comes out. All the best to my fellow candy crush friends to clear the higher levels soon. And one more thing before signing off this post, I am hoping that I will be getting my allowance this month end as I submitted my timesheet a wee bit late this month. Thanks for reading this random post update, be back next month for more updates! =)

Iphone 5S is good?

Once again, another updated version of iphone has been released and due to hit the stores on sept 20. I will probably wait for next year's iphone 6 as my contract will only be due to renew then. Furthermore, the upgrades for this year's iphone 5S is minimal and IOS 7 will be released on sept 18 which will probably make me feel as if my phone is brand new with the latest software updates. The fingerprint sensor sure sounds cool but whether there is any issues with it is still remains to be seen. Meanwhile, iphone 5C sure looks colorful but the specs is the same as iphone5 which will appeal only to those with older iphone versions such as iphone 4. Ok, so will next year iphone 6 be much better than iphone 5S? Hopefully that will be the case if not iphone supporters will only get lesser by then.

At the moment, I seems to be working contented but maybe it will be for another 6 months. By that time, I shall be able to land a perm job which I have failed to secure one recently. For now, SPH don't seem to hire many workers so for me to land a perm job there seems highly unlikely. So now, I got to find a job soon again. So where will it be? If its near my home, that will be better as I do not need to travel quite a distance. But if I decide to study, then the course should appeal to me. Anyway, I have not make a decision yet so anything can happen in 6 months time. So I will probably think carefully as I wasted a lot of time on not that wise decisions so far. Hmmm... What's next for me then?

Busy busy Saturday

Last Saturday is a busy OT work day for me whereby I clocked a whopping 9 hrs of OT hours in a day! A new record for me as I never clocked so many hours of OT before. How come I can work so long, many of you may wonder. Its actually because the coupons for 7 out of 11 boxes worth of Golden ticket promotion has not been counted and recorded. It's a big task which will need a lot of manpower and effort to record everything. Therefore, around 13 of the staff including me have been mobilized to sort it, count it and then write it down in columns on paper. After all this recording, some staffs will need to record hundreds to thousands of numbers into the computer. Oh, I wonder how come this time round, no scanning of barcodes is being done. One possible reason is that handheld barcode scanners are not enough for many people to use. It would have save time for sure but till now I am still baffled about the decision to record on paper. After a hard day's worth of work, only 3 boxes are left which I supposed needs at least 2 work days or 1 more Saturday depending on the manpower available. I now hope that I won't be called to do the keying in of data when all coupons have been accounted for the workload accumulated will surely be undoubtedly not light. Oh if I have to do then I have to just do it. Hmmm... ...

Last Saturday also marks the start of EPL season. With my supporting team, Manchester United winning on 1st round encounter against Swansea, It makes me a happy person for the rest of the week. I am sure many people has their favourite team in mind. Some may be sad that their team lost and that is if your team that you support is Arsenal. While other strong teams like Chelsea have won, It is also a delight to see the goal decision system ensures goal is awarded correctly for certain matches. Oh well, looks like my team will not have easy matches for next few weeks though. Hopefully the result will go their way. Anyway, now that Wednesday is coming. Time to rest before continuing to work till Friday then its time to another round of EPL matches. Yippie, at least that's something to look forward to, isn't it? =)

Something new is always cool!

Last Sunday on 30 June 2013, something happened... My old acer laptop which has served me for more than 6 years has stopped working normally. With little notice, the display screen dimmed and flickered for a few seconds before it went blank. I anticipated this day coming but did not think that it will be that soon. For a moment, I thought that I probably won't have a new laptop anytime soon. But then, I checked my savings in POSB and realize that I can afford a $1500+- laptop. And so I went to Challenger store in Tampines One to choose a new laptop that will probably serve me for next 5 years and beyond. After I told the staff there that my budget is $1500, I was recommended a Lenovo Z400 touchscreen Laptop which costs $1399 and extra $158 for 2 more years of warranty which adds up to a total of 4 years warranty for me. It is a little bit bulky but it is definitely value for money. However, the battery life which the staff claim is around 5 hours seems to be lesser for my laptop with not many programs running. Oh well, as long as my laptop does not break down soon, it should not be a problem. As for my old laptop, the garang guni man has helped me dismount the HDD in it and pass it to me for data recovery purpose in the near future. It is sold for $10 though for the casing and the other parts. Well, it is now officially hello to my new laptop and goodbye to my old laptop starting yesterday!

Recently, I bid for hello kitty singing bone at ebay. After some bidding I managed to get one at $28 which is a little bit overpriced. Anyway, I am to collect it tml and now I am sourcing for another one at $26 or less which I believe is the ideal price. Besides that, I am helping my colleague bidding for one at around $15 which I believe is hard to get but after some time should be possible. As to why I want 2 kitties, I want to keep one wrapped in box with plastic while I unwrapped the other one for display. Maybe I can sell the unwrapped one for a higher price in future since it is a limited edition kitty. Haha, we shall see...

A better tomorrow?

So when can I find a new job? So far, I tried aiming for one that is near my house but it seems to be a failed attempt. The lady that called me last week said that she will call me back but apparently she never called me back. So I guess I have to search for a job again. Hopefully I can move on to a proper job in few months time. So is it going to be an admin job again for me? I can't seem to find a job that interests me so I probably shall fit into an admin role well since I have amassed some experience. Then in regards to attire, I prefer smart casual rather than office wear. This is because I feel more comfortable wearing smart casual and also office wear is harder to wash without a washing machine. But if a job requires me to wear office attire and comes with decent salary, then so be it. But at the moment, it seems that I wont need office attire soon enough though. Hmmm

Recently, I saw from facebook that one of my friends from my secondary school has fall sick and currently in ICU. Life is indeed fragile. What illness she is suffering from I am not too sure but it seems to be a serious one. Now, all can only pray for her health to turn for the better. Well, from what I can remember is that her maths back in the old days are as good as mine. Hope that miracle will arrive and cure her illness. I can only wish her all the best. Her friends are more than mine and I am sure they are praying for her everyday. Ok, on a brighter note to end this post, I have cleared level 380 in candy crush saga although I did not get a high score for most levels. =)

Love or hate???

Sometimes I hate Candy Crush Saga while sometimes I love it. Because when I am stuck at certain levels, I usually hate it for being so difficult to clear. Now I am at level 323 but it seems tough to clear. Maybe i should try using the laptop to access the game which I am doing now. But then when I am able to clear alot of levels, I love it to bits. Oh how irony the feelings for the game, isn't it? Well I am now stuck for a week on this tough level and i almost clear it yesterday but failed to do so somehow. Argggh, frustrations to the max!!! I dunno when will I be able to clear this level but hopefully I will be able to do so soon enough.

Nowadays I somehow could not manage to submit my timesheet in time as I could not find my supervisor on 2 days before the 15th of every month. As a result, my pay always come 15days later after month end as I could get my pay at month end if I manage to submit on time. So far, failed to talk to my supervisor about whether there is vacancy and the possibility of a pay raise as he is always busy. Ok just as I finished this post, I managed to clear level 323 using my laptop. Ok, then time for a job search, perhaps? Last but not least, anyway, I just heard from HR that I can receive a digital payslip through email, but I guess I will stick to the current plan of getting a paper payslip though.

Candy crush frenzy?

3 days ago, I cleared lvl 275 on the candy crush game. It is quite fun with the challenge to overcome the various obstacles presented on each level. Some levels are hard while there are some which are relatively easy. So while waiting for the update to more levels for this game, I now play certain levels to get higher score. Almost every other day, I saw people playing this game on their hp inside mrt trains. Looks like it is rather popular huh? Oh well it seems I will be playing this game throughout this year and maybe next year if there are still updates.

Lately, I found out there is this temp who earns $1.7k in another dept. I wonder if it is related to the nature of his work. I think next month I got to ask if I can earn a higher allowance since I worked there for so long. If not successful, I think before end of this year, I may start to look for jobs allowing me to earn a higher pay. I dunno how long my dad will be working cos he told me he got eye problems. Looks like I got to start earning a decent salary as my dad is retiring soon. But am I going to continue working in the admin industry? or other industry? I got to find out myself what I really want to do. Resume my studies or officially starting to work? Looks like I got to think through these issues carefully... ...

Lady luck with me?

I believe many people had their share of fun in the past 15 days. For me though, I did have some fun by visiting a friend's temporary house. Many relatives visited my house but I visited only a handful of them. Surprisingly, my hongbao money compared to last year increased a hundred plus to about 450 bucks and that means I get to enjoy around 3 weeks worth of expenses. I also increase my weight to 62kg which is still healthy but looks like I got to start excercise soon. I found out from visiting my friend that I have a bit of luck with me. We gambled a bit around a table with 8 of us staking out 20cent bet each round, playing "in-between" and "21points" card games. In the end, I won $6.40 from a few hours of small gambling which is considered good luck for me. Hopefully, I will enjoy luck in the snake year in work which means a conversion from temp to perm.

Recently, I played candy crush saga on my iphone 5 and ipad mini and I enjoyed it very much. It is similar to bejeweled but this game involves matching jelly beans over a variety of obstacles. I am now approaching Level 80 as it is getting tougher to complete each level. For certain levels, I attained 3 stars but majority of them I only get 1 or 2 stars though. As I played this game often, my iphone battery gets low fast. I now depends on my 10400MAH external battery pack to charge my devices but I still got to depend on usb to plug charging as it is not enough. I only bought the Valore battery pack for only $76.30, courtesy of a 30% member discount from Challenger. It works fine but I dare not say it is really that good as I got to charge it when It reaches 1 bar out of 4 bar which is shown on the battery pack front display. Looks like I will play candy crush saga for a long time yet as I repeatedly tried to successfully complete each level with determination. The other game I like playing is Top Eleven on iphone too. I am now blogging as my iphone is recharging. So work again tomorrow, feeling the blues after chinese new year anyone? =P

New year, new hopes, new plans?

It is less than a month from Chinese New Year. 2013 has arrived just not long ago, many people would have planned on what to do in the coming months. For me, whether I continue to stay in SPH or not is a decision I need to make. I just heard that my colleague is not retiring too soon and therefore probably won't have a perm vacancy for anytime soon. Looks like I will be leaving SPH late this year if I want to have a job with a salary around 2k. Right now, my salary or rather allowance ranges between 850 - 1050 bucks a month after CPF. Pathetic isn't it? So most people will choose to leave. Hmmm Will I leave? I will need to find a suitable job first though.

The christmas gathering held in my poly friends not long ago is not bad. There is a potluck session which saw many types of food appearing on the table ranging from shepherd's pie, roasted chicken pieces, tuna & egg sandwiches, bee hoon to desserts like chilled soya beancurd(brought by me) and Udders durian ice cream. While the board n card games are decent, I found the monopoly deal card game quite special as it is hong kong version. Ok in between potluck and games, we watched the last episode of Ch8 drama serial It Takes Two. Soon the gathering ended at around 12am. A poly friend drove me to the nearby bus stop and I took bus 17 home. Well, It is a special day and the next gathering will probably be around Chinese New Year. Meanwhile, time to do some spring cleaning. =)