Gimme A Break

This time of year is usually pretty laid-back as we head into the holidays. Not so this year. It seems I’ve been going back and forth to my kids’ school getting my youngest registered for next year, attending their prize giving ceremonies, …

My son’s finals are still on and some days, the exams start at 7am. Can you believe that? This means we have to be out the door a little after 6am to get him to college in time. Heh!

As a result, I’m pretty tired. There’ll be more running before this week is over. Won’t I be glad when the weekend comes ?!

• happily occupied
• tgif
• how to reduce back-to-school stress (2)
• nervous wreck
• frenzy weekend ahead

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I honestly hate those times when one of my neighbors’ house alarms would get triggered off, for whatever reason, during the daytime when they’re all out at work. The alarm would just keep ringing non-stop the whole day.

I’m not sure if there’s an auto-mechanism that shuts off the alarm after a certain period of time. But if there is, I wish they’d set it. See, while they’re at work and totally unaware, the rest of us who are home, are driven nuts with the loud and incessant ringing!

Well, I know times are bad and probably more people will feel safer with a security system. I have nothing against people installing house alarms but I wish they would also think of their neighbors, the folks who have to endure the noise for hours till they get home!

• of hearing alarms all day long
• how do you keep your home cool?
• leaving your front door wide open
• neighbors, friends and moving
• can you hear your music?

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I went to the gas station to top up my gas yesterday. I usually try to do that before Monday so that I won’t have an extra thing to worry about as another week of madness starts.

Well, guess what, when I got there, there were orange cones and streaming tape criss-crossing the gas pumps. I opened my window and shouted across to ask one of the workmen what was happening.

He said they’d run out of gas. Huh?? What do you mean, run out of gas? I asked. Well, apparently over the weekend, the entire supply at his gas station had been guzzled up because of the drop in price.

I knew I shouldn’t have waited till the last minute. Bad idea. I went home with an empty tank and had to get up early to go fill up before my taxi runs start today.

• our annual donation
• Wednesdays
• the rhythm of the mall
• stuffed
• built-in cardio

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I’ve complained about how difficult it is to shop for groceries these days trying to avoid products from China due to the melamine tainting episodes of recent days.

I’m not going to link back to that old post of mine made on October 10 lest this be mistaken for a paid post, which it isn’t. Each week since then, I’ve had to peruse grocery products with a fine-toothed comb.

Like I said before, there’s really no way to tell if where each ingredient that went into make a single product comes from. Similarly if you eat out, there’s no way either to know the origins of the ingredients they use to prepare your order.

It’s interesting that this seems to tie in with a report on CNN yesterday about “who is buying food from China” which says Japan and the US are the two biggest importers, and China exports everything from garlic to apple juice to eggs.

So that confirms that it’s impossible to know where stuff comes from that goes into stuff that we continue to eat. Many products have not/will not be tested, and even if they are, some reports may not even be reliable.

With that, I’m off to eat the grass in my garden… bon appetit!

• grocery shopping just got harder
• Mac in the house
• are you feeling the pinch of higher food prices?
• a floral tea
• how to deal with rising costs by using smart shopping techniques

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The weather is hot, hot, hot. Look, not a hint of rain in the sky for over a week now.

To think that just before that, we were having major storms and some towns were flooded and there were massive traffic jams and stuff.

Right now, it says it’s 86 degrees on my computer but I say it feels more like 100 degrees because of the humidity.

Alrighty, I’m logging off now to do the rain dance .

• sparkling clean car, yeah right
• a bit of rain
• is it rain I hear?
• freaky electric storms
• moody does it

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The girls and I went to a book warehouse sale yesterday. My two bookworms have been hankering after some new books to read as the year-end school holidays are approaching.

They’ve long run out of books to read and have had to reread the same books over and over till like they say, they have almost memorized some of the paragraphs.

We didn’t buy many books yesterday. They were only 30% off the normal price unlike at other warehouse sales where the prices often come down to 70%.

It’s a good thing too we only bought 6 or 7 books as our bookshelves are already at bursting point. I’ve actually had to put some books in boxes.

The girls won’t let me sell them. They want to reread them after some time when they have nothing else to read .

• re-reading old books
• big family mentality
• the weekend warehouse sale
• nice combo, tools and dresses
• five hours of shopping

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An old girl friend of mine is in town from halfway across the world. I’m not sure what her schedule is like as I haven’t had a chance to speak to her yet.

I’m waiting for her to call and I hope she does soon and I’ll get to see her before she leaves this weekend.

Our friendship has been solid as ball lock pins since forever. But somehow over the years, distance got in the way and we both got busy with work and kids and life, so our friendship has suffered as a result.

It sure would be great catching up to chat over old times. We did have a lot of fun back there and we used to travel and dine like there was no tomorrow.

I still think about those times we had, hanging out, laughing, just being crazy. I sometimes wish we could go back in time, you know and live those carefree days again. Do you ever feel that way?

• island days
• all set to go again!
• when the travel bug bites
• yoga tomorrow
• Happy New Year 2008

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With the rising cost of living and the weakening economy, it looks like prices are going up and businesses are scrimping on freebies.

I mean, can you imagine my grocery store used to give away promotional pens when you showed them your proof of purchase on your way out? My kids used to love collecting those fancy pens.

Lately, they’ve started giving out coupons that will entitle you to a small rebate only if your receipt shows your purchases above a certain amount. This means I have to buy something to ‘earn’ that rebate. Doesn’t sound like a very good deal to me.

So is nothing free anymore? *sigh*

• purple chic
• ungrateful B’s
• my little pen collectors
• you mean we should stop eating?
• long drive for free latte and donuts

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The rains are here. I guess my rain dance worked . It’s still blazing hot from mid-morning to noon time, but at least we have cold (as in brrr!) nights and early mornings.

I’m guessing the unprecedented cold has to do with global warming. I mean, it’s usually cool when it rains but never quite cool enough to be cold.

But these few nights have been ‘brrrr’ cold, as in me needing a blanket even without the air-conditioning on. What’s up with that?

• a bit of rain
• the rains are here
• fresh and green outside
• 5 ways to shun the sun
• rainy days

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The other day, I stopped to watch the Olympics men’s swimming event and was impressed by how Michael Phelps managed to ace it in such easy-going strokes.

Today I read he’s the “winningest” (does such a word even exist?) Olympic athlete winning his 11th gold medal, five of which are in the five Olympics events he’s competed in so far.

Apparently he’s pretty nonchalant about his historical wins too. Wow, what a guy. And of course, I’m constantly amazed at how competition swimmers glide so effortlessly across the water. That one gets me every time!

• investing in gold
• wouldn’t you rather be counting gold?
• constant traveler
• all that glitters
• pure water without boiling

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