Only 2 posts in Jan so far? 30 January, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Slice of Life.add a comment
What happened to Dear1 and Dear2!!? Haha…
January really is a busy month for us becos both our birthdays are in Jan. I’ve really been playing a lot a lot of DS lately and I really liked this birthday present a lot. Thank you Dear2. For her birthday, I bought Dear2 a Bonia bag. It’s her first ever expensive and branded bag, cost me $264 after 20% discount. But as long as Dear2 liked it, I’m happy.
Oh, and did I mentioned that I fell seriously ill on my birthday? On my birthday’s eve, I attended a class gathering with my secondary school friends at Outback Steakhouse at Millenia Walk. After the gathering, I had a terrible stomachache. I couldn’t sleep the whole night, my stomach bloated, I had diarrhoea, vomit, fever, it was terrible. The next day, my birthday, I went to see the doctor and he confirmed that it was a case of stomach virus, possibly passed through food. That’s it, I’m never ever going back to Outback Steakhouse again. Luckily, with the medication and Dear2’s care, I was feeling alright by the end of the day and was still able to enjoy the remaining hours of my birthday.
Since then, we’ve been staying in our new house. That means I haven’t been home for more than 2 weeks. Wow! I wonder if that means we’re going to permanently stay here from now on. At least I haven’t made any annoucements to my family yet. But then again, I work until quite late every night and set off quite early in the morning. Even if I’m going home to my parents’ place, it’s pretty late, like 10pm, and we don’t talk much. The next day, we leave house at different times and so basically we don’t talk very much at all even when I’m at home. So that means my going home is just to let them feel my presence. Hmm… Personally, I think it’s better if I just stay here, and perhaps we can get together frequently for family dinners and have a more fulfilling time chit chatting over food and such. Let’s try this arrangement and see how it works out.
Right, the reason I haven’t been writing much posts since the last post is also becos I’m staying here in our love nest with Dear2. Every day, every night, I love being around with Dear2. As we enjoy our 二人世界, we sometimes ‘forgot’ to write. Haha… I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen again. ;D
-Dear1
Nintendo Dual Screen Lite 12 January, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Consumer Electronics, Dear1, For Him For Her, Leisure & Games.add a comment
Hohohoho… Dear2 gave me a Nintendo Dual Screen Lite (NDSL) for my birthday present. So happy so happy. Gee… Thank you my dear. I’ve definitely always wanted a handheld console since the introduction of Gameboy Advance some years back. Back then I was still serving National Service and Dear2 is still schooling so really not much extra income to speak of. Now that both dears are working, we can afford just a little bit more and so Dear2 gave me a DS. So happy so happy.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that we just go shopping and just get a DS from any store out there. Normally, parents or people looking for gifts spend more than required because they were in a hurry and there’s sort of willingness to splurge when people are gift shopping. Well, not us. Dear2 informed me that she intends to get me a DS for birthday present quite early on. My task, as a tech savvy person, is to source around and look for the most economical means of getting a DS and all required accessories. And that’s exactly what I did.
In the end, we bought an export set black colour DS (they call it Onix colour) at $215 from qisahn using the sgclub discount coupon. Then there’s the $4 for the screen protector. After some sourcing around, I found out that DealExtreme (based in Hongkong) is selling some DS accessories quite cheaply and decided to order from them. I ordered a black soft pouch with strap, a pack of 4 retractable stylus and a retractable USB charger from them at $12.62 including free shipping. Cool ya? The shipment took 12 days to arrive in Singapore by registered Airmail which I thought was reasonable enough. The only thing about ordering from DealExtreme is that they only accept Paypal orders and that meant I have to open a Paypal account. At least now that I have a Paypal account, I’ll be able to shop online more frequently. Gee…
These few days, Dear1 and Dear2 both had a lot of fun playing with the DS. If Dear2 grows fond of it enough, maybe we can even consider getting a second set so that we can play games with each other. Gee… Let’s see about it when our year end bonus comes in… (I know, but our companies pays end year bonus at the beginning of the year. -_-)
-Dear1
Eating cheap at Cafe Cartel 6 January, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Food & Beverages.add a comment
Recently, Dear1 and Dear2 have been patronizing Cafe Cartel a lot, mainly becos of its cheap price for a restaurant ambiance and food. Just yesterday, we were lunching at Cafe Cartel over at Junction 8. We ordered a St Louis Pork Ribs and Cartel’s Pan Fried Macaroni ($13.20). For the ribs, becos they’re celebrating their 10th year anniversary, there is a discount on their signature ribs, now $12.80 (UP $15.20) plus a free upgrade to full meal with soup of the day and soft drink (worth $3.60 normally). And if you’ve ever eaten the pork ribs at Cafe Cartel before, you’ll know that it’s a huge serving that is bound to fill the stomach of most adult meals. Not to mention that there’s also the free flow of bread. Yum yum.
In total, we spent ($12.80 + $13.20) * 7% GST = $27.82. Note that there’s only GST, no service charge, that’s a saving of 10%. Since we’ve already taken the promotional price for the pork ribs, we couldn’t use of Citibank card to get a 10% discount. Nevertheless, we used our Capital Mall card at Junction 8 which earned us 10.3% (or $2.78) cash rebates which we can redeem when shopping at any Capital Mall outlets. Overall, it’s really a very value for money meal. Compare this to the previous 2 times that we ate at a restaurant. First was The Big O at Wheelock Place, a chicken chop set and a pasta amounts to $40+. Second was Breeks at Causeway Point, a fish set and chicken set plus a ice cream float amounts to $40+ too. I foresee we’ll be biased towards Cafe Cartel for our restaurant food outings for quite a while, maybe until we get sick of the food.
Eating out is really not cheap, especially for people who dines frequently at restaurants. Luckily, both Dear1 and Dear2 are not really restaurant people nor desserts people. We dine at restaurants every once in a while to enjoy the ambiance, to rest our legs, when there’s a cause for celebration or just to have a nice chit chat with each other. Life can be simple too.
-Dear1
