~The Sassy Misis~

With market prices soaring everywhere, from the household rent down to the basic goods, one needs to be resourceful and flexible to bring more money on the table. Said so, the internet seems to be a viable option to bring in some more paper bills. Thus, I decided to take on a work from home (WFH) job.

As an IT professional, I know that there are a number of jobs that are available online. I thought searching for a WFH job would be easy as typing "work from home" in Google. But nope, sorry it's not. And why's that? There were a lot of returned links but most need a "registration fee". Yep, from as low as $2 to as high as $65. It's screaming "SCAM" for me. Why can't they just deduct this so-called "one-time fee" to what you will be earning if they gave you a job?

Luckily, I found a site which do NOT need any fee at all. Just click on some ads, wait for a few seconds and voila, you earn some dough (no significant amount though but "you must work hard for your money" ). Then again, there's the value of networking so if you are curious, please click the link:

Bux.to

And if you happen to know other legit WFH jobs, feel free to send me a message :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2008 is finally here and what better way to celebrate it here in Singapore than to go to one of welcome parties for the new year. And so my hubby and I headed straight to VivoCity where the Countdown to 2008 by Mediacorp was held.

It was PARTY time with Gurmit Singh, Michelle Chia hosting the show and performances by Live the Dream winners, Fendi and By Definition, Singapore Idol contestant Joakim Gomez, Deal or No Deal girls, Robert Sunga (Go Pinoy!), Taufik, and Hady Mirza. One-and-half hour of standing checking out what they've got in store is tiring but pretty worth it.

Here are some of our pictures of last night's event (can u tell who's the photographer? :)) :

But still nothing beats celebrating Christmas and New Year in the Philippines, surrounded by your entire family, amidst the deafening noise and fireworks extravagance :) .

Coming back home to the Phils. brought back a lot of good memories, especially while I was rummaging thru my old things and found my treasure box.

It's a box full of trinkets from the past, mostly letters from my barkada way back in high school. Some are also crochets of my name made especially for me by Joan. I had a lot of girl friends back then (no malice huh!), friends who made high school a lot of fun despite the difficult school work (that's another story).

Now, I am torn between keeping these letters and throwing them away. It's been more than a decade since those letters were written but they always make me smile everytime I read them. I was thinking to scan them one by one but seems a lot of hard work.

Well, to preserve some, these are some funny quotes from those letters:

Dear Melanie,
    ....
    anyway, i will not wish you good luck because you are oozing with it. haay...i wish myself erase that. someday your prince will come and you will soon be part of his world. you can paint with all the colors of the wind and then you can kiss the guy. o di ba? but if you never knew him, your life would be steady as the beating drum. so listen with your heart and you'll soon have a romance that will end happily ever after. whether you may be beauty or the beast you will have a whole new world.

                                                                                                                               goodbye snow white,
                                                                                                                                   always cinderella

-- Above letter is from my friend Bau (Hi Kristin! How are you?:)). And come to think of it, most of my letters are from her, this gal is really something :)

We usually make nonsense poems (while listening to our teacher). Here's another cute one from Bau but it is in Tagalog, our native language. I may be able to translate in the future for my foreign readers...

                                   medz, excuse me din ako lamang ay nagloloko
                                   sorry kung ang puso mo'y nasaktan ko
                                   kaya makisig ang salitang sinulat ko
                                   dahil 'wa na akong maisip at yan ang totoo!
                                   hindi ako kinikilig
                                   sa lalaking makisig
                                   ibang klase talaga kung sya'y makatitig
                                   ang intense-intense, ibang klase
                                   nakakaconscious -- nakakaasar
                                   tulad ngayon na naman - asar!
                                   ano bang problema nya, malaki yata
                                   kung may dumi sa mukha ko, sabihin lng nya
                                   ayoko na sanang pagusapan
                                   nagugulo lamang ang isipan
                                   teka, sino ba ang iyong tinitingnan
                                   c JR* ba...hindi naman c Nathan*
                                   tatapusin ko na teka napapansin mo ba
                                   ako'y palipat-lipat ng upuan o di ba
                                   ang kapal talaga ng research group ko
                                   kanina pa nila ako niloloko
                                   c Divo* lumabas ng room
                                   ang bilis nya.....zoom!
                                   bumalik na hindi nahalata
                                   ni Mitong* salita ng salita..
                      
*Names were changed to protect the persons mentioned

Hehe, most of what we talk about are boys (of course!), subjects, Prom, family..anything under the sun. I love my girlfriends and I love it that I was able to experience this letter exchange..I don't know how the young ones do it now with the advent of technology. I can imagine them just passing SMS to one another but I hope that's not always the case. I wish they will discover (if they haven't yet) the joy of writing letters because it's more heartfelt and personal.

 

Happy birthday to ME! Can i make 28 posts commemorating my birthday? Well, I'll give it a try!

1. My loving husband printed a picture of me, with my favorite Christian B. song embedded.and now it's taped on our closet door :) I'm a lucky girl!

2. A e-card from my family miles from home, thank you for  Internet
  http://www248.123greetings.com/card/11/21/13/24/JQ91121132459666.html

3. My sweet cousin Nikki designed for me this picture as a birthday present, isn't it fantastic?
               

  Btw, she recently celebrated her birthday too..guess, November babies are really talented! Check out her site:    uknowiwill.co.nr

4. Gave a birthday treat to my friends here in Sing last Friday. We ate at Spageddies -- an Italian eatery midway between fastfood and restaurant. Prices are worth it considering the serving and taste. Their  Spaghetti  Carbonara is a two-thumbs up for me  :)

Coffee and lengthy discussion mostly about our beloved country, Phils after dinner. A great way to end the work week.

5. On leave today, yippee!  Need I say more?

6. Watched seventh episode of Heroes Season 2 today (so Adams is TK...hmmm..things are getting interesting again).

7. Tried an animal print short dress in Dorothy Perkins..what do you think? :)

8. Had longganisa and scrambled eggs for breakfast. I put some soy sauce and sugar on the longganisa for added flavor and my husband liked it. Getting to be a better cook..so he says (*wink*wink*)

9. Found a shoe wheel that I know my housemate,Ces, will love. If it's not too pricey, I'll buy it for her as a Christmas gift. Oh well, at least I'll be the one to lead her to it :)

10. Banana Madness at Saybons in Plaza Sing.= 10 minutes of waiting + so-so taste..no more second time for me.

11 - 21. Will take a nap (hehehe..i'm taking the shortcut)

22. Another birthday present from hubby. A book by our common favorite author, Nicholas Sparks. I'll have something to read on the plane now..good thinking baby! :)

23. A unique jewelry storage gift from my friend, Arlene. Very cute!

  
24. Saw a Starbucks sign at Thomson Plaza while riding the bus..Ooooh, coffee treats just a block away. Hope it opens this December!

25. Thanks to all my friends and relatives who greeted me :)

26. I got tired from all the walking I've done this morning. So, my husband just bought dinner from Jai Thai = pineapple rice set and beef noodle. Good enough for me..as long as there's dessert and a heart-felt dessert it is...

27. Off for tomorrow's flight...can't wait to see my family but I'm gonna miss my hubby so much...

28. Completed this post, yay! (sneaky girl...)
 
  

A man humming as the chair slowly rocks
A child carrying her colouring book..pointing at her five stars
The man picks up the child and gives her praise

My father...my hero...

A man helping his fragile wife walk
Placing her gently in bed and staying by her side
Pretends everything's normal for his kids

My father...my hero...

A man waking up to the sound of the crow
Traveling miles and miles on the road
At the end of day, he has earned his pay

My father...my hero...

A man glancing at her daughter's note
And at his almost empty wallet
Still takes to the cashier all the books

My father...my hero...

Memories forever etched in my mind
And father's love deeply felt in my heart
How could I ever say thank you enough?
Papa, you're my all-time hero!

It all started last year, around December, seeing many people with gorgeous-looking phones and looking at my own. My phone isn't really that bad (but it's an old Nokia model, I even forgot what's the unit called..I remember, 6101). Every now and then, I see some people using the same gadget..but the number of those people, yeah, very..very few. And considering that I'm living in one of the world's front runners in technology, well you could say my eyes really turn green sometimes when I see all the high-tech phones swarming all around me. 

So, I decided that it's time to change my phone. Could be my birthday gift or Christmas gift for 2007 - whatever the choice, it should be in my hands before the year 2007 ends.

I began window-shopping, around August and at that time, the Beyonce commercial for Samsung was airing on TV. It fascinated me that I can have a phone and MP3 player back-to-back . Out of curiosity (plus the idea that I can be as cool and sexy as Beyonce when I get hold of that phone), my husband and I went to the Samsung center in VivoCity.
I took one look at the Beyonce phone and dismissed it right away..the reason? the screen is too small for me. And as a mega-texter, I like my screen really big as to read my entire message before I send it.

But no big deal. There are a lot of choices in that Samsung store and what caught my eye then was the Samsung 10.9. It is so slick, very compact and very light. I tried its music and camera features then and it was quite good. In my mind, this is THE PHONE. Ok, just need to save the money to buy it :)

Now, it's October and with the Hari-Raya celebration, there were a lot of discounts for mobile phones. Friday, Oct 12, we stopped by Plaza Singapura after work to buy some groceries. And maybe it's a sign, but there's a Singtel booth offering discount to my dream phone, Samsung 10.9. It is one hour before they closed, and all we had for testing is a dummy blue phone. No one last look at the features and the available colors, garnet red, copper gold, blue , and white. I don't exactly know the look of these colors except for the blue one, and nope, that color is not for my next phone, neither is the white. Now, which one between garnet red and copper gold, hard to choose..harder because I am just IMAGINING those colors as there were no other dummy sets. Finally, I chose red...BUT surprise! They don't have that color available anymore. And since I won't settle for the blue one, we walked away from that booth and planned to go to the Samsung center again.

And so, my hubby and I were back in VivoCity to check out my phone (hahaha! mine already). Eager me got hold of the 10.9 in all available colors but disappointedly, not one of them took my breath away. But since I want it, I settled for the garnet red, and started to fiddle with its features. All are ok, except for the text-messaging. I felt that the keypads were too-sensitive to touch and I didn't liked it.

My hubby, the ever reasonable one, suggested that we look for other phones. We went to the nearby Best Denki store and checked out the other manufacturers' phones, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson. Two Sony phones caugnt my eye, and they are both sliders and compact. One is S500i and the other is W580i. S500i boasts of its nature-inspired theme and it changes color/theme by day/night and by month -- how cool is that? :)

W580i, on the other hand, is a walkman phone, which I loved because it's like having your own mp3 player although the S500i can play mp3 tunes too.

But alas, with all the phone window-shopping, we went home that day with still no phone in our hands. And that night, I think I even dreamt of mobile phones, and I felt uneasy because I still don't know which phone to pick.

Sunday morning, Oct 14, breezed through searching for reviews on the two Sony phones I like (and helping my sister on her case study but that's another story). With the Singtel promo brochure also in my hands, I stumbled upon the new Sony release, the w910i. Features seem great, I even viewed a demo in YouTube. And yeah, I have 3 phones now to decide on (which was really not easy to do).

Before we left the house to continue our hunt, I've discarded s500i from my list already (with a great sigh). Sure, it's such a cute phone with all the changing colors but the features were more like my old phone's. This time, I wanted something new, like a Walkman phone.

Off we went to Bishan Junction, heading for the Sony Gallery, Unluckily, they don't have the w910i yet , even for display, because it's a new release. There's the w580i though, but I couldn't decide without comparing the two side-by-side. The sales person suggested that we go to Singtel's main cneter in AMK hub where the w910i is offered.

One train stop away and  I was now queing for a number in Singtel 's center. No dummy sets for the w910i also but it can be purchased there. I was feeling excited and sort of scared at the same time. Scared because I can't even test the phone, not until I buy it. Arounf 15 minutes later, I was giving the sales guy my NRIC card..and I was holding the w910i. Color is hearty red, it's a bit bigger than the w580i but since I'm still not saying "YES", I was not sure how big is it and will I be comfortable with its size. WIth a few more minutes of contemplation, I agreed to buy the phone.

The box was opened then, and the sales guy gave it to me for testing. The size is A-OK. Screen is big yes, but the size still is comfy. I love the red color, the music sounds, the themes....it was perfect. The hunt is offically over.

Check out Sony's demo video of this phone.

   

Sweets, lots and lots of sweets...a haven of eye-popping, mouth-drooling and yeah..tooth-decaying concoctions that will satisfy the sweetest tooth..and home of some of the warmest people in the world...CandyLand, a.k.a. B*R*A*Z*I*L.

Stay tuned for the whole story..

She wakes as Gaia's star rays seeps into the window
Dousing cold water on her face
Then soon afterwards, the kettle whistles
And the smell of bacon and eggs wafts thru the air

Thump!Thump!Thump!
"My boarders are awake!"
Morning breakfast finely laid
But time's a-wastin, they reasoned out
She heard gulping of Milo's best
And much too soon, a scurry of feet past thru the door

Alone, it's back to the dishes
To the never-disappearing mountain of clothes
To the scalding heat of iron
To the garden, trash bin and other what-have-yous
Time passes, then a casual glance at the clock
"Ah, soon they'll be back"

And so soon, the same bodies came home
Embracing her, tears, sweat and all
Idyll chatter fills the room
Trading stories, sometime not even of their own
But they are after all children, and hers..
A wistful smile touches her lips
And love abounds with each silent gaze

Night settles in, lights out
Her reflection in the bedroom mirror
A hint of recognition, then dawn of realization
"Mom, I am now in your shoes"

Author's Note: This is my personal tribute to my Mama: Ma, miss na kita!

Sonific's SongSpot:

Loved the movie, in-love with song, I can't get enough of it :)