A Good Drama – The Hospital 31 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Moving Pictures, Shop till you drop.2 comments
F4′s Jerry Yan is back! Heehee, I may be a bit slow, when Jerry’s latest drama The Hospital aka White Tower aka 白色巨塔 was already broadcasted in Taiwan in mid 2006, but watching just 2 episodes of the drama has made Dear2 appluad this fantastic production and which gives me something to look forward to. (I simply groused out of the plot of The Peak, now showing on TV8, 9pm; so cheesy!! Don’ t you have the de ja vu feeling of a familiar plot once again – complicated love relationships, mysteriously too-frequent accidents, and that irritating rowdy aunties and uncles. Do Singaporeans really only know to speak loudly and get into arguments all the time?? Cannot understand. Probably the most interesting aspect of the series is the peek into the workings of a shipyard, cos afterall, how many of us have stepped into one before? But the plot and skills of the actors/ actresses…….. *Shake head shake head*)
The Hospital is definitely much more interesting. How I miss the captivating of one’s heart at the end of each episode, when you just want to continue watching to know what will happen next, ie, a cliff hanger. Unfortunately again, this kind of allure has longed ceased from our local productions. Struggles for power, lives hanging on the line, love affairs, medical malpractice decisions, all these are simultaneosly happening at the same which keeps you glued to the screen. Hee, of course, a pretty face as Jerry’s gives more incentive for the anticipation.
2 episodes down, 37 more to go. Let me enjoy this wonderful bliss before resigning to our cannot-make-it local programs again.
- Dear2
Qmax giving away free webcam 31 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Internet & Blog.1 comment so far
Currently, there are 3 providers for Wireless@SG, Singnet, Qmax and iCell. From what I understand only Qmax is giving out free gifts with signup at the moment. For Qmax, January Promotion, they’re giving out free webcams, from Creative. I heard that this offer has been going on since last SITEX 2006.
One thing to note is to read their terms and conditions carefully. I’ve signup already and the signup process requires u to provide ur name, IC number, mobile phone, home address, in fact, quite alot of information. In the T&C, it’s also stated that they may send adverts to the address and mobile number that one provide. Some people may see this as a form of spamming. Well, we’ll have to see how this goes. So far, 2 weeks after I signed up, I have not received any spams yet.
I’ve not collected the webcam either. Since it’s free, I din I shouldn’t expect too much. Should be less than 1 megapixels. Once u sign up, they’ll issue u a redemption couple which u have to print out from the website, so be ready to have a printer around when doing the online application. I called up the redemption hotline to check on the availability of the free webcam before going down to the Creative Centre at International Business Park. And lucky I did, they are out-of-stock! But the friendly sales officer did inform me that a restock is on the way and I can redeem my free gift from 21 Feb 2007 onwards. Well… as least this means that it’s not while stocks last, and it implies that this webcam is not leftover warehouse inventory, rather is specially manufactured for Qmax. Goodie goodie.
I’ve not actually login to any wireless@sg hotspots yet cos I never have my laptop around when I’m within coverage. I’ll give a review of the wireless services once I have a chance to login. Also, a review on the free webcam once I get mine. To this point, I only recommend Qmax for the free gift, until the spamming proves me wrong that is.
-Dear1
Don’t Give Up 30 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Slice of Life.add a comment
I seriously admire those who can turn from rolly-polly to decent-looking.
Man live to eat. Man eat to live. Whatever it is, we cannot turn away from this necessary ingredient of life – food. Anyone knows very well how that involuntary snacking at night, that delicious looking chocolate cake, that sumptous just-cannot-stop-eating buffet or that 暴饮暴食 will materialise into bodily fats. So Dear2 really salutes those people who can use sheer determination (or abstinence) to work hard to convert those bulging weights into nothing. (I got this inspiration from one of the Amercian Idol’s contestant who really trained hard to shed all her extra flabs to turn into Beautiful Body. Admirable.)
Like many things in life, if you want to achieve something, you need to work for it. Dear2 feels that maintaining positivism is very much the same. Making yourself feel buoyant despite that idiotic painter’s lousy paint job, the coordinator’s over a month delay and the obasan’s daily irritation requires extreme hard effort. It feels like a daily struggle, to have to chase the negative wolves out of the head everyday while stretching your door as wide as possible so that any passing positive wolves are welcomed to enter. Some days you did it, but on other days, the positive wolves just become so hard to invite in. What a constant battle….
Nevertheless, 加油 everyone. And all the best. What is more worthy is that you leave no regrets in whatever you do.
- Dear2
Valentine Day’s gift 30 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, For Him For Her, Shop till you drop.1 comment so far
Valentine Day is round the corner again. I’m sure many guys are out there searching for the perfect gift right now. Luckily, Dear1 and Dear2 dun really celebrate Valentine Day. We choose to adopt the philosophy that everyday is a Valentine Day with each other around. But of course, the actual day is still something special. So let’s talk about gifts.
One thing I dislike about Valentine Day gifts is their uselessness. Many gift shops will start selling alot of decorative items that, well, can only be used for decoration. And they tend to mark up the prices during this period. To me, these type of gifts are really impractical. And I think some of the shop actually repackage leftover Christmas gifts and sell them as Valentine gifts. Yucks. However, if both of u like such nice-to-look-at gifts, one good way is to buy next year’s gifts in year to save some cost. Normally, prices will be slashed on the 15 Feb, so u can buy the next year’s gift on that day. It’s still pretty, but much cheaper.
Many girls like to receive flowers on Valentine Day. But alas… Prices of flower go up like 200% just before the actual day. So again, if the girl doesn’t mind, u can give her the flowers on the 15 Feb instead to really save up alot of money that can be used to eat out on a nice meal instead. Another possible way is to wrap ur own flowers, by Dear2. I also bought flowers for Dear2 on V-Day before, back when I was in army, I needed to be in camp on the actual day. I scheduled the 12 stalks of pink roses to be delivered to Dear2′s house at 6.30pm after work so Dear2 can have a surprise receiving it. But the delivery man was early and Dear2 wasn’t home, so Dear2′s mummy received on her behalf. Nevertheless, I think Dear2 still got a pleasant surprise when she found a bouquet of flowers can her desk when she got home. :D
This year’s Valentine Day, I thought about getting a practical gift for Dear2. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s Martians in general, but I prefer practical gifts such as a bag, belt, watch, wallet, something that isn’t a white elephant. So I suggested getting a 2.5″ 80GB portable harddisk for Dear2. Hahaha… I think this will go down as the most unromantic gift ever. I have to think of something else, maybe some couple use items that we can use in our new home.
For ladies, I think it’s even easier to get a Valentine Day gift for ur guy. A nice self prepared homecook dinner will do the job very well. Of course, dun prepare white rice, 1 vege, 1 stir fried pork and 1 chicken soup lah. Something a little more romantic. Perhaps u can even try to recreate the mood and feel of ur favourite restaurant, but at the comfort of ur home. Alternatively, some homemade cookies, cakes or chocolate will also be a very heartwarming gift, maybe some mushy love shaped cookies.
I think couples celebrating Valentine Day is about celebrate their love for each other, not showing off how rich they each are. There’s no need for an expensive gift to show ur love for each other, rather, a gift that touches the heart speaks a thousand words.
-Dear1
House cleaning time 28 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Reno & Furnishing.add a comment
Last Friday, our sofa and bed are delivered. Finally. We initially scheduled the delivery on 6 Jan, but due to delays in our renovation, the delivery is delayed too. Nvm, past is past. Now, u can find the nice nice pictures of our sofa and mattress in the photo sidebar. I finally get my Dunopillo. Hohohoho…
So, last Saturday, we went to start some simple clean up for our new place. There’s still some painting works, 2 glass panels and some final touch ups pending, but we figure we could start cleaning some of the interiors first. We started with the interiors of all the carpentry works. Hehe… but we were quite lazy and took a short afternoon nap before starting to work. In the end, only managed to clean 2 cupboards before we went for dinner. Haha… not bad lah.
I also got my hands dirty at swapping the plastic screw pegs on our two toilet bowl covers. Apparently, one of the toilet bowl requires a long peg but our cover is having the short peg. We tried asking for the pegs from a provision shop downstairs but found out that a pair of the long pegs cost $4+. Too expensive. So I decided to check the toilet bowl cover in the other toilet to see if I can simple swap the pegs. Lucky lucky! Indeed the pegs can be swapped. So I spend some time figuring out the toilet bowl cover mechanism and swapped the pegs. Now, both toilet bowl covers are in place, and potentially $4 saved. I’m starting to feel like a handy man in the household. :D
What a short day’s work. There’s still alot of cleaning to be done, wipe the remaining cupboards, wipe the fan, wipe the lights, mop the floor, clean the window grills, windows, wash the toilet, clean the glass panel. Wah… Sounds like alot hor. But working together with Dear2, everything seems so fun. We’re going to enjoy cleaning our house together yo!
-Dear1
Malacca 28 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Shop till you drop, Travel & Discovery.1 comment so far
Dear2 always like to experience the culture of other places, so small wonder that Dear2 always rares to go on a tour. One of Dear1 and Dear2′s fondest memories of touring (amongst our very limited number of excursions altogether) will be Malacca. We visited the place sometime in end 2005, and took lots of photos then. The weather then and there must have been very good, cos most of the pictures turned out brilliant and natural. Nice nice.
The planning procedure was pretty straight forward. Dear1 and Dear2 popped down to Boon Lay Shopping Centre one day, compared all the Malacca packages from Gunung Raya, Grassland, Seiki, Consortian etc and took the best plan which happens to be from our favourite tour agency Consortian as well. The 3D2N package comprise simply of 2 way coach trip and a hotel stay, and we made sure that the boarding was from Boon Lay (Westerners will find it a chore to travel to Golden Mile in the wee hours of morning for boarding) and that return was via the Second Link so that we can hop down at Tang Dynasty instead of having to go to Golden Mile again, then return to our Jurong homes.
In Malacca, Dear1 and Dear2 spent the first half of the day sight seeing at a Half Day Tour. Definitely not a wrong choice, with the tour guide bringing us to the various historical places of interest of Malacca and the interesting illustrations making the trip more informative rather than just another shopping trip. Without the tour guide’s recommendation, we will also have a hard time deciding which is the best chicken rice balls in town. Comparing with the supposedly infamous Famosa chicken rice balls ourselves, we confirmed that the local’s tastebuds is indeed accurate.
Plying the streets up and down multiple times at different hours of the day, Dear1 and Dear2 realised that gosh, the morning, afternoon and night food scences of Malacca can be so very different. Food review articles tell of where to locate the yummy Malacca flavours, but they did not mention that the particular food will only be there at certain times of the day. Yummy barbeque pork rice is there in the morning, but blink, it’s not around in the night. Yummy chicken rice is there in the noon, but you’ve better come early cos by around 5pm, the shop will be closing for the day. And the famous Satay Julop is only locat-able after nightfall.
Apart from eating what the locals eat, how can one miss out on shopping what the locals shop? Watching movies seem to be very popular with the locals, and you have better booked your tickets online the day before, else be prepared to join in the snake long queue for your tickets. Remember to buy Kids Ticket if you have a kid in tow, cos apparantly there are different ticket prices for the various classes.
Malacca can be so enjoyable, or for that matter, any tour or holiday can be very fun. Yes, Dear2 knows that there should be no more tours in the near future. *sniff* Hey, let’s plan to go to Bukit Batok, how’s that? Heehee…
- Dear2
How to discover her ring size for proposal? 26 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, For Him For Her.10 comments
This is quite a difficult problem. First of all, u want to keep it a surprise, secretly go and buy a proposal ring, and pop the question in the most romantic mood possibly. I know jewelers allow resizing of the rings, but that’s not the point. The ring has got to fit properly at the moment u put it on for her. And please! Do not bring ur girlfriend to shop for a proposal ring together!
Now, how to find out the correct ring size for ur girlfriend. It helps if she frequently wears accessories. In that case, all u need to do is to steal one of her rings that she wore recently and shop based on that. Make sure it’s a recent ring, her fingers may have outgrown her older rings. There’s really no point in ‘indirectly’ bringing ring size into a conversation to discover that she wears a size 8. Because like shoe size and dress size, those numbers do not match across the industry.
But what if ur girlfriend doesn’t wear rings? A little bit more difficult and perhaps we need some long term schemes here. A possibly way is to buy a cheap ring for her as a gift or maybe buy a set of couple rings together on ur anniversary celebrations. This way, u can 光明正大 bring ur girlfriend ring shopping and ask her about her preferences. Of course, this one is just prep work, so just get something from Perlini Silver will do. The next step is of course to… steal that ring! :D
Now, let’s assume that’s no opportunity to steal that ring, so what should we do? I ever read in a magazine before that suggested using a piece of thread, wrap it around her ring finger while she is asleep. Then bring that thread to the jeweler. Hmm… A bit farfetched I would say. It’s worth considering if u run out of ideas.
Here’s the next best option. Try to match her ring finger size to ur own finger size. Play with her fingers often, and play with her rings if she have any. Try to put her ring onto ur finger and see which finger fits. Then u can use ur own finger as an approximation of her ring size. This way, u dun have to steal the ring either. If she doesn’t have rings, then try playing a finger size matching game with her and compare which of ur finger best matches her ring finger. The key here is to be discrete. Hehe…
For me, I used sort of a combination technique to find out Dear2′s ring size. Dear2 doesn’t really wear rings, so that option is out. One day, while Dear2 is asleep, I tried matching my fingers to her fingers. And I found out that none of my fingers match hers, her fingers are all so slim! So instead, I use my thinnest finger, which is my little finger, and try to estimate the difference in their diameter. Remember that our finger get thinner towards the tips. So I realized that Dear2′s ring finger’s ring position diameter is slightly thinner than my little finger at the second joint while thicker than my finger tip. So that’s all the information I have to work with. I went to SK Jewellery to pick a ring that would fit snugly onto the second joint of my little finger and hopefully that would be a comfort fit for Dear2.
Some tips on buying proposal ring now. First of all, I think a solitair diamond ring is most suitable for proposal. Do not buy fashion rings eventhough they are cheap. For diamonds, it depends on what is ur intended purpose for this ring. Is it meant for daily wear? Or only for special occasions like the actual wedding day only? Remember that a wedding band is already a daily affair. For me, I wanted the proposal ring to be a ‘semi-formal’ thing, something suitable for daily wear but not too glamourous that can grace the Star Awards. Also remember that some ladies may not find it comfortable wearing a $10,000 ring due to the mental burden. It’s best to find out ur girlfriend’s preference first, discretely. Eventually, I bought a ring that is on the small size, less than 0.2 carat, but something that I feel will look good on Dear2′s slim fingers. The size of the diamond should complement the lady and should never seem out-of-place.
Hope that I’ve managed to give potential husband out there some useful tips. Dun hesitate anymore, ur dream girl is waiting for u to invite her into ur life. 加油！
-Dear1
Email – Good Way to Maintain Contact 25 January, 2007
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Internet & Blog.add a comment
In this era of Information Technology and the boom of electronic information, the amount of information and data which an individual can store and is storing is now many many many times much more than last time. Ask yourself, how many of that video “you’ve watched for once, thinks it’s nice and that you may wanna watch it again some other day” is still in your PC? Or maybe it’s been saved in a CD/ DVD/ hard disk/ external disk/ or the many more gadgets that I don’t know of. Heehee. And how many more photos have you happliy clicked away on your digital camera (usually candid/ ugly/ spontaneous/ no focus) which is then later stored in your computer again, so that you can save on the developing cost? Sigh.
Information Technology is good, cos it provides us with so much more entertainment and convenience. It is the keeping up and remembering of the tons of account numbers and passwords that sometimes can drive one mad. It’s tough enough having to keep track of the ID names and passwords of my singnet, mail, email, gmail, company mail, company’s affliate’sssss mail, not to mention the other various online portals for the various groups of people. As much as I try so hard to avoid all these years, the IT idiot Dear2 still cannot avoid becoming a member of at least 3 yahoo groups. Fortunately, Dear2 is still remaining firm on No Friendster For Me, Thanks stance.
Then again, it is these emails and online communities that sometimes keep the flame burning and contacts in touch. A secondary friend of Dear1 and Dear2 recently emailed us inviting us to her wedding. We haven spoken to each other since graduating 10 years ago, and the email was sent to my singnet mail which I am still using all these years (notwithstanding the daily task of deleting at least 2 pages of spam DAILY). She also did emailed Dear1, but Dear1 being IT savvy, his 10 year old email account has already gone dormant long ago. So happen that Dear2 actually have already clicked ‘Delete’ on her mail, but luckily somehow caught her name and mulled on it for a few seconds to make me dig it out from the Trash Box. Haha.
The online portal and email has also allowed friends half a globe away to maintain contact, like how we always can feel Jiahui’s presence through her occasional email jokes and via MSN. Seeing Jiahui online on MSN in the day time, you always have to remind yourself to add 14 hours to her time before deciding whether to say hello or not. Still, seeing even her nick appearing on the list makes her presence felt and remembered.
All right, Dear2 will try to remember all the passwords, else sooner or later, I’ll have lesser and lesser portals to go to (Cos passwords forgotten is forgotten!) Hmm, maybe a more systematic way of remembering should be the way, like I could write them down somewhere. Somewhere…….
- Dear2
