Gimme A Break

The school break is here again and the city seems to be quiet as many folks are on vacation. It’s amazing the lifestyles of the not-so-rich and not-so-famous these days. Every chance they get, they’re taking out luxury vacation rentals at some exotic destination.

The trend seems to be that people work hard these days so they can afford to go further away for holidays in Europe to see the historical sights and enjoy a whole different culture.

I hear that Caribbean getaways are pretty popular too for their romantic sun, sea and surf. What I wouldn’t give to get away from the mundane just to feel the sea breeze in my hair, eh!

Golf vacations are another popular one but I’m not sure I would enjoy that very much since I’m clearly not a golf fan. To spend a vacation baking on a golf course under the hot sun is certainly not my idea of fun. I’d rather be out shopping and eating till I drop and experiencing the local cultures.

Of course, it’s great that people choose to reward themselves after a hard day’s work instead of just stuffing their hard-earned money under their beds, know what I mean?

• exploring old coins
• staying home
• leveling the playing field
• wild vacation (2)
• chief executive hairdresser

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I’ve noticed many companies are going, or at least trying to go green this year. For one thing, I can’t afford to forget to bring my eco-bags with me when I go shopping. Different stores have designated different days of the week when they will no longer issue plastic bags to you when you make your purchase.

Yeah, admittedly I used to forget to bring my eco-bags along but these days, I really can’t afford to do that any more or I’ll be lugging my groceries piecemeal to my car and that certainly won’t be pretty . Initially some stores were kind enough to give out free recyclable bags with purchases exceeding a certain amount. But not any more!

With so many businesses on the verge of going green, 2010 seems set to become the year for investors to turn their attention to energy efficiency companies. If you’d like to launch a profitable business in the energy saving sector, you can get more information from the engin blog where there are detailed discussions of the wealth of opportunities out there.

Meantime, the idea is to try and find ways to recycle and reuse stuff instead of throwing it someplace where it’ll clog up the environment.

• too much plastic
• green tea, lovin’ it
• a holy morning
• do-good neighbor
• sitting out the crisis

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For months now, I’ve been complaining about the heat and many of you have been complaining about the cold. While it’ll probably be a long while before things get any cooler here, I’m so happy that the weather is indeed warming up for many of you.

I guess it must be a great feeling to finally be able to get out of the house into the fresh air and sunshine again. Hope you haven’t forgotten you have a garden out there . You’ll probably want to get a bit of work done to chase away some of the cold weather blues from your garden and make it an ideal place where your kids can run about and you can invite a few friends over for a barbecue or something.

I hear that Wickes are the people to call for your garden landscaping needs. They can install a shed, deck or a summer house, or a fence for your added privacy. They carry a whole range of tools and products for maintaining your garden. Whatever you have in mind, you can just talk it over with them and I’m sure they’ll be only too happy to work something out for you.

• brandishing power tools
• moody does it
• shoo, sun!
• slow but at least I’m blogging again
• a new faucet for nothing

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An entire morning of shopping has left me completely zonked out today. There’s a huge sale going on and I only shop when the sales are on. I don’t believe in paying retail price if I can help it. Working from home and managing a household means I have to tighten my purse strings whenever possible.

This morning, I was like a child in a toy store. I had so many things on my list especially clothing. But clothing is probably the hardest to buy since I’m quite picky and the lines are long at both the fitting rooms and at checkout. So I ended up spending on every other thing but clothing, which wasn’t how I’d planned it!! But so be it. At least I enjoyed the retail therapy.

• long weekend
• self-confessed shopaholic
• a leg up
• why you should shop on weekdays if you can
• lines, lines, lines

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Yay, yay, yay is all I can say! And it rhymes too. It’s been too hectic a week and I desperately need to kick my shoes off for a bit. But seeing as how that’s easier said than done, I’m not holding my breath as I’m all set to cook up a storm this weekend. Nothing special, just that we’re between school exams so we should probably stay in so the kids can get some studying and I can get some nagging done.

• how to reduce back-to-school stress (2)
• quiet weekend
• plan for the weekend
• happily occupied
• hibernating

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Over the Chinese New Year season, I met many relatives I haven’t seen in a long time and one of them is a cousin who recently graduated as a doctor. Wow, talk about the bold and the brainy!

She was telling us about her course and her new job, showing us photos of her at work conducting her rounds and so on. And what really surprised me was the clothes she was wearing which don’t resemble anything a doctor normally wears. Man, those koi uniforms are in bright prints and ever so chic I would never have known she’s a doctor!

Apparently these days, medical professionals have turned fashionable wearing these brightly colored koi scrubs at work. Even the koi scrub pants are in bright plain colors. I’m shocked and impressed! They look like something you would wear to lunch with a girl friend, not to a medical job, know what I mean?

It’s almost revolutionary, I say, seeing as how we’ve always equated medical professionals with rather drab colors. Obviously I was curious as to where she gets this fashionable attire and she says she and her colleagues get their stuff from Scrubs and Beyond. So yeah, it’s all good!

• camos and cardigans I don’t understand
• blabbermouth
• one boo-boo makes two
• trendy and wearable
• the necklace

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I’ve recently had to spend money on a new washing machine and obviously I’m none too happy about the expense. If I’d had more time to shop around, I might’ve saved some money and time.

If my kitchen sink should break down, I know just the place where I won’t have to pay through my nose for undermount kitchen sinks! Mr Direct does same day deliveries and they’re a trusted source for their brand of kitchen sinks.

I’m just happy I found out about them so I can keep them on file just in case. Working from home means I have a tight budget to keep so whenever I find a great source for stuff I might need, in it goes into my favorites folder .

• a small price for peace of mind
• dealing with the business jitters
• full of initiative
• tale of my kitchen faucet
• flashy flash templates

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We had an absolute blast of a weekend attending a wedding at the in-laws. Yes, when the clan gets together over a happy occasion, there’s never a shortage of food and I’m sure everyone walked away with a few extra inches to their waistline.

There was such a lot of catching up to do and there seems to be an never-ending stream to new members of the family who’ve just joined us. Anyhow we met a few relatives we never knew we had and that was really fun.

• family event of the year
• weddings
• the rhythm of the mall
• they came anyways
• celebrating family and good food

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Ever since I watched the movie “Ghost” where the character of Demi Moore was sitting at the potter’s wheel working the pottery wheel clay, I’ve been fascinated with pottery.

I can’t say I’ve ever done pottery, I hope to one day, but I’ve tried my hand at various crafts like jewelry making, t-shirt painting and basket weaving. Now whenever I walk into stores, hotels or restaurants, I’m constantly on the lookout for craft decorations like pots and vases.

Pottery looks like a lot of fun and I’d really like to try my hand at it. There’s a very good site at AMACO/Brent that’s just a treasure trove of information about pottery, and which offers everything from lead-free sculpting compounds and pottery supplies to teachers offering to teach you the craft.

With the classes that AMACO/Brent offers, you can learn all about how to work those texturing tools and develop your skills at your own pace. I guess you could teach yourself pottery too but I personally prefer to work in a group with a teacher.

With guided instruction, I find I can learn more and quicker that way. By now, I’m sure you can sense my enthusiasm and impatience at getting started soon.

• the making of kid talents?
• driving me nuts
• please, no more tools!
• free resource for credit repair
• the stumbling cook

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Today was one of the craziest days. Ever! I’ve been up since the crack of dawn and not stopped till now. I was out in the freaking electric storm picking up one kid after another. Do you have any idea how hard it is for the kids to struggle into the car with their heavy schoolbags and umbrella?

And my car ends up half-flooded from all the water brought in from the rain. Not to mention the number of traffic lights that had gone bust. And trees having toppled down from the sides of the roads onto cars that were stuck in traffic. It took us hours to get home!

• driving in the driving rain
• rains and jams
• gotta do the rain dance!
• stop killing the trees
• wierd weather day

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