oh accident!

How was everybody's weekend? Mine was ok...

Almost everyone I know had history of car accident, either minor or major. So far, nothing serious, thankfully.... As for me, I've had series of bumper accidents since foreeeever....

The first one was when I was driving from Papar to KK with my mom and some family members in the car. It was raining, so everybody was driving kinda slow. It was when we reach Kinarut, the traffic was getting slower, so I was trying to create distance from the car in front of me. Then suddenly, I heard a bump from behind... My car was being hit... It turned out, it was 4 cars alltogether, I think Hilux was the last car while me being at the front. Luckily I wasn't too close to the car in front of me, if not, it would be 5 cars altogether. It was raining heavily, and I was soaking wet talking to the cars behind me and while waiting for the police. Good news, the damage to my car wasn't too bad, it was just the bumper. The cars behind me needed insurance to cover their damage tho. So lesson learned, beware of distance with the car in front of you...

Second accident... Bumper again! I was gonna drive to KK from Papar. Near the furniture shop (where there was a curvy-road). People normally slow down at that lane because there's a train-rail there. So as I was slowing down, I was being hit by a lorry. The driver agreed to pay for the damage: RM250. The lorry is owned by a certain hardware store in Papar. I talked to the boss, and the boss/person-who-hit-me agreed to take some money from his paycheck. I feel bad tho. I mean, how much would his salary cost, like rm500 minus the rm250, then he'd left with measly rm250. Lesson: Beware of distance from behind you. If you see them being too close, go front a bit if there's space. No matter how careful you are, be super-extra-careful because you never know how reckless other people are.

Third accident. Guess? Yea, bumper! I was driving into the entrance of wisma kewangan (near sembulan), as I was signalling to go in, I heard a bumper-to-bumper kiss. Great! Another bumper accident. Luckily, it wasn't too bad and the kisser of my car agreed to pay for the damage. Total cost: RM300 - and the person who kiss my car even asked me out for a drink! Heheheh..

The-almost-fourth-accident. It was on my way to work this morning. Those who know KK of course know that this is a city full with roundabouts. I have to go through 5 roundabouts to get to work. So, as I was nearing Yayasan Sabah roundabout, I slowed down (near the bridge), then heard a screeching sound behind me. I was pretty sure the cars behind me pretty much wrecked....

So... please drive carefully... Don't drink and drive or if you're drunk-don't drive. That's my community message. Heheheh..

weekend oh weekend

I have heard news that I might have to work next weekend. Blergh... So today I'm gonna spend time at home, watching re-watching Brothers&Sisters (for the gazillion time) , get myself updated with my google readers, and spring-cleaning my closet. I have many clothes that I don't wear anymore , I'm thinking to give some of them (the size zero pants especially) away to make space for new ones (the >0 pants)...

I also need to make time to go to salon for a haircut. I like having short haircut (it does make one looks younger, if you want to know why), but it's the in-between short-and-long I hate. It's waaay too short to tie it that it's gonna look like chicken tail, and when you let it loose, it flips all over (so disastrous) making everyday a bad-hair day. Don't tell me to blow-dry and go all-hair-straightener every morning, I'd rather spend that 10 minutes doing my hair catching up my sleep deficit. Having long hair is fun though, you can do all sort of style with it. Whether curl it with curling iron, straighten them, have a cool bun with it, let it loose, or just tie it... (I never master the chopstick bun, still don't know how to do it)

Gazillion years ago, I still can't believe I've had hair that looooong... (Me n alissa)

So.... I was catching up with my google reader, then read Rina's blog entry on He's Just Not That Into You. We know the current situation where living expenses now becomes high, and some men use the money excuse to not get married. So, I was taking this excerpt from rina's "- There will never be a good time, financially to get married unless you're Shaq or Ray Romano. But somehow people manage. If your man is using money as an excuse not to marry you, it's your relationship that's insecure, not his bank account. -" Agree or not? But I still think that money is important (can u see that dollar sign on my eyes?), and without financial stability, it would be harder. Of course people who are in love would manage somehow... I was reading the paper few weeks ago, and read this advert on some promotion on some wedding package, it says "Everybody can say I love you, but only I do means you're the one". Soo... you gotta stay away from mr big-romantically challenged guys.

Ohhhhh yea.. talking about mr big! I've watched Sex and The City the Movie... Love it! The fabulous clothes, New York City, the girls, and obviouslly the drama... I must say, if you love the drama, you must watch the movie. Don't expect something different though, since the movie is like 3-4 of satc shows compacted into 1 movie. Those who are planning to watch in on GSC, ehemmmm, expect to be blurred in the middle, since I bet they will cut A LOOT of scenes. But do watch it yea girls, then we can do our review together, hehehheh...

Borneo Marathon clinic was supposed today, but it was raining (super-heavyly before 4pm). So I would stay home and enjoy the coziness of my bed.

It’s all about me!

Gawd… It’s almost end of June. Work and all other boring adult stuff are consuming my life!

I’m gonna make sure… I will get some ME time… It's ALL about ME... ME... ME....

I am soooo deserving some ME time...

Girls night out...
Whole Day Movies Marathon...
Shoe Shopping...
Photography trips...
Mani & Pedi...
Body Scrubs and Massage....
Vacation....
Vacation...
Vacation...

It's time to be selfish...... **Evil Laugh**

work or another thing

Being good in your job doesn't only mean you're good at handling your tasks. It includes being able to have diplomacy in negotiating... Being able to accept(and at least listen to) other people's suggestions and opinions (non-defensive-in other word)... Being able to work with people and all sort of other people-qualities... I think every employee should attend "how to deal with difficult people" training... Somehow these people always turn up in our life one way or another...

Yes, I've become 25-boring-me... Shhhhhhhehhh...

I need vacation plz.... it's summer, where's my 3 months vacation time???

monday oh monday

It's monday... Well, let's try to make today a good-day at least.

I finally figured out why... oh why.. I was spammed... Previously, I configured my blogger email address so that I can just post entries to my blog from email (in case blogspot is blocked by office etc). By default, the setting for email blog entry will be posted automatically (instead of saved in draft). So, I have changed the setting to save my email posting to draft and change my blogger email address. Hopefully no s3x advert will come up in my posts!

Last weekend, finally stepped into the-hype-up-1Borneo. Many fancy stores... and they have mac cosmetics! But on Saturday, there were toooo many people there. The parking lots were full, so had to pay for jockey parking RM5. It was dusty all over, with sounds of construction work here and there... I guess I'll wait until everything is ready before going again...

Next public holiday is 31st August.... That's a loooong way to go.

Until next time, hope your monday is better than mine....

blog is spammed...

My blog was spammed yesterday! And worst.... it was about Viagra Tablets! Now everybody's gonna think I need men with some viagra!!! But Ms Whimsy who read this earlier, sempat mentioned how viagra pills costs RM35 (2 yrs ago?) each and one of the most popular pills at the pharmacy! That's expensive eh, equivalent to 13 litres of fuel....



I'm sure its one of those blog virus spam.... Hopefully none of this spam would come up in one my posts in the future...

movie

Yesterday I was supposed to ..... go jogging (my promise to myself when I bought fancy running shoes)

Instead I was spending half an hour beating the traffic going to kk because I want to watch kung fu panda :|

So.. instead of burning off 230 calories by running for 30 minutes, I spent my one hour and 20 minutes in the cinema with 1 reg soda (200 calories?) and popcorns! The movie is so-so.... The storyline is direct... A true kiddie movie...

"It's the story about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, named Po, who is the biggest fan of Kung Fu around...which doesn't exactly come in handy while working every day in his family's noodle shop. Unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Po's dreams become reality when he joins the world of Kung Fu and studies alongside his idols, the legendary Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. But before they know it, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung is headed their way, and it's up to Po to defend everyone from the oncoming threat. Can he turn his dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master into reality? Po puts his heart - and his girth - into the task, and the unlikely hero ultimately finds that his greatest weaknesses turn out to be his greatest strengths. "

from imdb

Good news for SATC fans... I checked out gsc's website, and they say it's going to air in malaysian cinema soon. But I bet they'll cut A LOOOOT of scenes... And where's the fun in that?

**Frugality rating (**/***** ) I drove (1.5km/way) twice to another dept this week. I also found out that my phone bill was whopping rm170 last month! Celcom IDD call is a rip-off. On the internet, I checked IDD call is supposed to be 50 cents per minute, but in my bill it was nearly rm3 per minute (premium IDD). I ended up being charged almost rm70 for international calls :( Should never believe what companies are writing in their website coz there's always T&C. haaaih, how to be frugal like this?

p/s If you have the time pls take the time to read this, The Simple Dollar:What can I do today to make me rich in the future

frugality in action

So, over the weekend I've been thinking of new ways to cut down expenses. Every ringgit counts!
1)Thinking of downgrading Streamyx at home. currently using 1MB Rm88 and thinking to switch to 512KB plan RM66 (amount saved RM22). We're using the rm66 plan in papar home for few computers, and so far it's bearable.
2)My mac compact powder is halfway finished (bought in march this year), with everything sooo expensive, there's no way I'm buying another mac (except for its nice concealer). Thinking of switching to less fancy brand (same as whimsy's plan), how's body shop?
3)Make own drinks. Will stock up nescafe 3-in-1 in the office. RM9 for 30 packets (enough for 1 month of caffeine supply)
4)If there's meeting at another dept, walk (instead of drive) under the freakin' hot sun! Plus, I get 15 minutes of free exercise-I'm gonna try this tomorrow.
5)Walk to the market to buy groceries. Pasar/Market is considered near my house. I'm guessing it's less than 1km. Parking near the shops are difficult after work (very limited!), even more the police tend to summon those who park illegally even for 5 minutes (obstructing traffic at highway). I can consider this as my half-marathon training :)
6)Use less aircond- I'm going shopping for a standing fan (good quality one) for papar home, I'm guessing the price should be around rm150. Amount saved from using less-aircond rm40 monthly? I know this is the opposite of saving, but over few months, I should see less electricity bill.
7)Plan journey. Go back to papar-home twice a week only (except when carpooling with others) - or when i'm out of baju/craving for mom's cooking/pick up barang tertinggal papar's closet. With fuel price costing rm2.70/litre, journey from papar home to office can cost whopping rm20 return trip.

So far, I've started my frugal plan for breakfast this morning: 1 cuppa instant coffee and half packet of tiger biscuit... I know... I know... it's sooo inbalanced-no fruits nor protein - but with price of fruits/milk/others go up, who can afford having a truly balance meal?

my frugal plan

After reading whimsy's frugal plan, I'm inspired to think of my new frugal plan as well...
1-Have breakfast at home/bring breakfast from home (amount saved RM2-RM3 daily)
2-Make own coffee at the office
3-Go home at 5 SHARP or after 6 PM to avoid crazy traffic (amount saved, I'm guessing RM3-RM5?)
4-Avoid eating(driving) out on lunch break (despite the lousy food they have in the office cafe)
5-Less gayut/sms on the phone (amount saved RM10-RM30)
6-Switch off lappie(thinkpad) before going to sleep (except when I'm downloading my tv shows). Herda, how about we trade shows?
7-Learn to sleep with the lights OFF (yes, I've been sleeping with the lights ON all these while)
8-Only switch on AC right before going to sleep and/or if it's really hot
9-Only use hot shower for super-early morning shower or super-late shower
10-Plan/have groceries list to avoid going groceries shopping so often
11-Limit (fancy) dining out
12-Limit books purchase, except for super-good books which are worth to add in my books collection. Be best friend with library. I mean how many of us bought RM35 book, read it once, and toss in the bookshelf just to show off our book collections?
13-Find a multipurpose shoes/bag that can be used for everything. No more that formal bag/casual bag/i'm hip bag/big camera bag/escape bag/and the gazillion other handbags we need for many different reasons
14-Avoid unnecessary shopping

where is she?

Remember my last post on new tv series: In Plain Sight? I’m sure most tv show fans are excited about its premiere. This picture here is Mary McCormack acting as Mary Shannon in the show. Friends and family members of Mary Shannon know that she’s working as US Marshall. But… what they don’t know is, she’s working with the highly secretive Federal Witness Protection Program (WITSEC) and her job is to protect federal witnesses. Let’s play a challenge of hide and seek here: I challenge you to find this image from the website! The premiere of USA Network's new original series In Plain Sight is on June 1st, so don’t forget to catch the show every Sunday night 10/9C.

fuel hike

I'm sure all of you aware of last night's big news. The increase of fuel price from RM1.95 to RM2.70. It was raining super-heavy yesterday evening, and I didn't know about it until I get to parents home. No wonder it was jammed on my way (I thought it was due to the heavy rain). When I got home, my dad was busy filling up fuel all the cars at home. And... in Papar there's only ONE gas station which is near Papar Superstore. The other one closed at 6pm (What kind of gas station closed early???).

My car previously for 10 ringgit can last for 60kms, now it's only for 40 kms.
Home to office 25kms ~travel time 40 minutes to an hour one way
Parents home to office 60kms ~travel time 1 hour to 1.5 hour one way
* I wonder if there's any shift work in kk I can change to. lana/mel said working in shift has an advantage of not having to go through heavy traffic during peak hours.

With this new fuel price, I am pretty sure there will be price hike in other things. Food, groceries, transportation, and everything else. The hawkers also will take advantage of this. Example, for breakfast, mee goreng will be rm2 from rm1.50 and fried egg from rm0.80 to rm1 - so that's rm3 just for breakfast! Okaylah, maybe for some people rm3 is nothing, but still, every small thing adds up.

I think this would be hard for the low-income group. People might now know about unemployment rate in sabah. It's a sad thing to see many graduates with degrees but without jobs. Since malaysia doesn't enforce any minimal wage, employees take this as advantage and freely give low-salary to these people. Being a clerk with RM500 pay is considered very normal in kk. You're lucky if you get your first salary above 1k. My first pay didn't even qualify me to get a credit card, so I'm pretty grateful now...

Crimes of course expected to go up (obviouslly). Pencuri also have to work over-time to overcome this price hike.

I remember the last fuel-price hike, they say they would be using the subsidy money to improve public transportation. But in KK, I don't see any difference in the public transportation. The buses still the same, they're driven by reckless and dangerous driver, stop as they like without signals, come out from junction as they like. I don't even know if the drivers even hold a legal mykad/driving license. Scarrrry... Train/Tram/Lrt are non-existant in kk (for now). Right now, they're building new railway for the KTM train from tenom-beufort-papar-kk. No, it's not the super-fancy fast train. It's the leisure old-fashion super-slow train which takes longer time than driving. I think that's why people in sabah mostly drive personal cars (4wd - to compensate the bad roads!).

Altho, eventhough it's 40% price hike, they say it's still considered one of the lowest price in the world(aside from brunei). Maybe we need to get away from this subsidy-mindset, too bad they had to do it sooo drastically rather than slowly. Hopefully the subsidy money would be diverted to something that could benefit the people (not one of those space programmes again!)...

Since it's World Enviroment Day today, I take this as a good sign to start thinking of energy conservation. On my way home everyday, I always see many maaaaany cars with 1 passenger(driver) only. Maybe it's time to consider car-pooling. Also other things like only use the needed water/electricity. Reduce-Recyle- and what else? Oh maybe we should go back to nature like plant our own vegetables (whimsy's plant looks soo nice).

Here are my frugal websites in my google reader:-
http://www.frugal101.com
StopBuyingCrap.com
Fisforfrugal
thesimpledollar

web hosting

You’ve decided to give website hosting a try? It doesn’t matter if you want to host your blog or your e-store. By the way, have I told you that if you host your own blog, you can get more opportunities for pay-per-post? So, maybe it’s time to consider this :)

A Small Orange Web Hosting has customize plans whether you need a small or big hosting space. It’s all depend on you! They have plans starting from $2.50/month, and with this you get up to 500GB of non-oversold bandwidth.

Good thing about this is there’s no limit of hosting, which means you get unlimited emails account and you can have as many databases as you need. Also, it’s good to know that they have a detailed statistic of your website. This way you can target your audience, and attract more visitors to your website. Don’t worry about service downtime of your website since the company is fully facilitated with reliable and secure infrastructure.

There’s a promotion now, you can get two months of service for free just by purchasing a year of any plans! Don’t forget to refer this service to your friends, you can get free hosting service if they sign up.

New Show: In Plain Sight

Most of my friends agreed that I love my tv shows. While other shows are on hiatus during the summer, I found out about USA Network's new original series In Plain Sight. I was checking out the website, and can’t help but to read about the characters! Out of all characters, I can relate myself to Mary Shannon as she’s someone who hides her secrets from her loves ones because she doesn’t want them to worry. As usual, Brandi Shannon is almost like some youngest child out there that I know of, living in the moment but ultimately try to be better people.The show is about Mary Shannon whose job is to protect federal witnesses. In order to do that, she had to keep her job as secret from her friends and family to ensure her witnesses are safe. The premier of this new series is on June 1st. So turn on your television to USA channel and watch this new and anticipated show!

super-laziness strike

oh gawd... i'm struck with a super-hyper-laziness! I haven't even train in days (6 days to be exact!), I plan to run during long weekend last week, but became tired (with sakit pinggang and headache sekali) after hours of babysitting. And yesterday it rained after work. With this unpredictable weather, I don't know how I'm supposed to find a perfect time to train. Don't mention morning, I'm still struggling to wake up at 6am every morning! I think I'm gonna ask a driver to wait for me in tg aru plaza, in case if I pengsan halfway (the negative thinking isn't helping at all!)..

To blog, even malas nowadays. Can't think of anything interesting to write. Also, I haven't gone out to interesting places nor taken pictures in awhile. So I guess it's a hiatus for now. The trees here are beautiful, at times it looks like spring except it's june. Must remind self to take pictures of those tree+flowers one day.

Work-wise: It doesn't matter if you got a 3.9 gpa or first class degree if you can't work with people. No wonder employers are looking more on soft skills as well, other than academic achievements. If you're highly educated but people can't work with you, or you don't want to work with people, I guess there's no point...

Priority... priority... priority. Can we have it all? It's all about balance and priority whether it's family, friends, education, career or relationships. No matter what comes first, the choice is up to you.

I think pms (pre-menstruation syndrome) is real and it's not in women's head only!

**Check out Kim's e-store for cute babies/kids clothes!

school holidays

I love school holiday! The road is not as jammed as during non-SH, I reached the office in 35 minutes (compared to normal 1 hour)... Another reason to snooze a little every morning :) I need my sleep to stay sane...

I spent last weekend just staying at home, part time babysitting the little ones. I was running out of energy and patience! Two hyper toddlers equals to a tired aunt. I respect those parents out there, especially those with many many kids.

I'm allergic to hugs, don't hug me!

Yesterday, went with Aesya to Imperial Hotel at Warisan Square for its new promotion RM9.90 hi-tea buffet. We got there around 1pm, immediately seated in the air-cond area. Food-wise are okay-lah. Selections- not so many. As for entrees, they have fried rice, friend noodle, potato, chicken nugget, mini pizza and cuttlefish balls. Then, desserts, as usual some cakes, pudding and fruits. Since it's rm9.90 buffet, don't expect fancy french pastries or unique delicacy yeah!

To those who are running in Borneo International Marathon, why don't you join the Sutera Harbour 7k Sunset Charity Run to test-drive your stamina and endurance. The run will be on the 5th July (Saturday). I'm not sure about the route, but two years ago, it was from pan-pac area towards the end of sutera-harbor (near the super-big house!), then out to wawasan plaza, then go back to pan-pac. Usually you have to finish the run in 77 minutes (average 11 minutes/1km) to qualify for the lucky draw tickets. Half marathon is 21 kms and 3.5 hours, I don't know how I'm going to survive that! Also, running clinic will be held this week in likas sports complex, I can't go because of family event. But for those who are going, pls share the info yea! And can you pls ask for me, how to run like energizer bunny?

character name

Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach is such a powerful name. If I have the option to pick my name, I’d certainly pick a westernized-manga character name because it would be easy to remember.. I’d love to be one of the Sailors so I pick Sailor Angel as a name which means angel looking over all the Sailors. On another note, I’m sure all manga fan are excited of the upcoming Bleach the Movie which will be showing for two nights only in selected theaters on June 11th and June 12th at 7.30pm. The cool thing about this is they will feature exclusive footage and behind the scenes action from the movie. Since seats are limited, why don’t you get an advance tickets instead, it will save you the worry and certainly trouble.