One and a Half more Months to end of 2009 18 November, 2009
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It’s mid November already, when stores are starting to put up their Christmas decorations and shoppers are coming out onto the streets of Orchard Road to view the Christmas lightings or just to get into the festive mood (we can all do with some nice mood now, don’t we, after the past year’s of economic downturn and grimy employment conditions).
But hey, this also means that you have only 1.5 more months till the end of the year to accomplish those goals that you have set out to achieve earlier this year! Remember those things called New Year Resolutions!?
Dear1 and Dear2 reviewed our 2009 New Year Resolutions during the Penang trip, aka, our ‘retreat’, and discovered that there are still some things not done yet. Of course, the whole point about making new year resolutions does not mean that you have to ‘die die’ stick to them, because circumstance do change along the course of the year. Rather, these goals, if still applicable till now, are not yet done, or worse still, had long been forgotten already, remind yourself that you have something that you want to achieve, so, BETTER GET YOUR BUTT MOVING AND WORK ON IT NOW.
Working hard for something does not only begin on 1 January and ends when the clock strike 12 on 31 December, so even until the last day or 2009, don’t give up on your dreams and goals, but continue to work hard and reach for them. As this Chinese saying goes, 人因梦想而伟大, so 加油, 加油, 加油!!
- Dear2
Waking up Early on a Sunday Morning 16 November, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Slice of Life.2 comments
Dear1 and Dear2 were up early again this Sunday morning. Dear1 and Dear2 were up early on the previous Saturday morning as well, but as the NEA’s weather forecast spelt that it was gonna be a rainy morning in Bukit Batok, we decided to go wake up and just go for breakfast at the market. On this Sunday morning, though the weather forecast still predicted a rainy morning, we again went out for breakfast after taking a 1 round walk in the park before heading to the market since the sky didn’t looked that bad after all.
Eat, went market to buy $4 worth of vege, went NTUC to get our milk supply, and we were back home before 9.30am. It was still early in the morning…. Thinking back just a couple of weeks ago, Dear2 was feeling such so lazy and lethargic. 5 days work days are already depriving me of my beauty sleep, so all the more I need to sleep in during weekends. And, as the pregnant mummy gets especially hungry after a night of sleep, it was Dear1 who had to so poor-thingly go dabao breakfast for Dear2. After breakfast, Dear2 will doze off to sleep again, and it’ll be until noon time when she wakes up for lunch, again, Dear1 who had to go dabao for her….
Was it because of the expansion of more energy needed to fuel baby’s growth, or was that just a reflection of Dear2’s xian-ness towards work, I don’t know. But that was really a disgusting kind of feeling to feel so lobo and worthless…
On this Sunday, Dear2 woke up to a new morning with a fresh start again, just like the earlier weekend. 7.30s are usually the time on weekdays when Dear2 bargains another 5 more minute of sleep from Dear1, but on this Sunday morning, we were already having a nice stroll in the park at 7.30am.
It’s all about what we want. I want to cook a nutritious pot of vegetable soup for daddy and mummy and baby today so I was able to drag myself out of the cosy morning bed. Conversely, there’s nothing that I want on weekdays when it’s all dread and gloom in the office, so it’s ‘another 3 more minutes, another 5 more minutes..’
Is there anybody who is truly happy doing what they do for a living? Probably just a handful, I guess, and lucky are these people. As for the rest of us, people who dread work for whatever reasons there may be, it’s time to get ourselves wanting something out of it. Want to be a jawe – I am just a wage earner, or want to make the best out of this wretched situation. Maybe if I can identify clearly what I want, waking up early on weekdays mornings will be just like waking up fresh on a Sunday morning….
- Dear2
Waking up Early on a Saturday Morning 7 November, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Slice of Life, Sports & Health.1 comment so far
7.00 am: Dear2’s alarm clock rings. Dear2 looked outside the window, it’s already bright. Yes, this morning we are going for a morning exercise for Dear1 and a morning walk for Dear2. Dear2 stopped the alarm clock (no need for snooze mode lah). Dear1 didn’t seemed to hear the alarm clock ring. Dear2 goes back to sleep.
7.10 am: Dear2 wakes up again. Yes, we are going for a morning exercise. Dear1 needs to start his exercise regime today. The day is still bright. Can hear Dear1’s slumber breathing. Maybe we should just go back to sleep and forget about the morning exercise….
7.20 am: Dear2 wakes up again. The day is still bright. Oh, we should bring out the laundry to dry. Use my handphone and check the weather forecast on NEA website first. It’s cloudy through out Singapore. Ask Dear1 to go and sun the laundry now. Dear1 jumps up pretty fast, and is back under the blankets once he is done. Oh, maybe we should forget about the morning walk….
7.30 am: Gotto wake up to go exercise, I want to go market to buy vegetables for lunch’s vegetable soup also. Dear1 is still sleeping. Gotto wake up…. Flipped my legs over the side of the bed, and reluctantly got out of bed. Dear1 is still sleeping. Nevermind, I’ll go change first…
7.32 am: Changed into my outdoor clothes. Went back to the room. “Dear1 wake up, let’s go exercise liao, I changed liao.” Seeing that I am dressed, Dear1 starts to stir. Kissed Dear1, and his small eyes opened more. 1 minute later, Dear1 climbs out of bed too.
7.35 am: Dear1 and Dear2 are out of the house. Dear1 has changed into his outdoor clothes, but not his running wear. It’s ok, at least it’s a good start. Today we managed to dragged ourselves out of bed, and we manage to at least do some walking. We’ll try to get Dear1 to run the next time round. It’s already a good beginning. :)
9.00 am: Back from walking down the park once, reached the coffeeshop and had breakfast, walked back down the park and to the market, bought $3.80 worth of vegetables and $1.10 worth of niang dou fu, and Dear1 and Dear2 are back at home. Not much walking done, and probably gained more weight from the breakfast, but we both felt good that the morning is still fresh. :)
- Dear2
I Know I Should 6 November, 2009
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I know I should keep my spirits up, for if mummy is sad, baby will feel it too.
But when you dun feel a passion in anything that you do, den what else can I look forward to?
I know that I should keep myself happy; I really hate this gloomy feeling every weekday!
But if work is crappy and bosses are sucky, den what can I motivate myself to make me stay?
I know I should motivate myself, cos no one else can solve my own problems except myself.
But long term low morale and discomfort all day long is creating a drain on my emotional health…
I know I should be grateful that I have Dear1 with me, such a nice and loving husband, what else can I ask for more.
Thank you Dear1 for being such a wonderful husband, you really are the most wonderful thing that happen to me and I so adore.
I know I should appreciate all the wonderful things in this world, that being just being is already a blessing indeed.
I know I will be happy with all the lovely things and people around, and that together with Dear1, we will create much more lovely deeds.
- Dear2
Financial Plan(s) to acheive your Goal(s) 27 October, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Dollars & Cents, For Him For Her, Slice of Life.add a comment
Even before I had any proper knowledge in financial planning, it was already in our blood. Back in those days when Dear1 and Dear were together before our marriage, we had already started on planning our finances for our future. I remembered it was in our Uni days, probably a year or 2 into University, I started a second savings account. This account was purely for savings, for what exactly, I dunno at that point in time, but definitely it was an account to save for our future, ie our wedding, our house etc.
A few years later when the savings accumulated to $5,000, we decided to park it in a fixed deposit account so as to ‘make the money work harder for us’ at 0.75% compared to the 0.25% interest rate in those days. 1.5 years later, the FD matured but we still have no use for it, or rather it was not a ripe time for is to do anything yet, so we rolled the money for another 1.5 years.
After Dear1 proposed unexpectedly in 2005, it was pretty much still dating as usual for the then 1 year working Dear2 and Final Year Dear1, until one day when Dear2 spontaneously wiped out an empty sheet and paper and proclaim that ‘we must draw a timeline and cost to it.’ We thought about when we will get married, and buy a house, and the amount that we’ll need for the wedding, house downpayment, renovation, honeymoon etc. Some rough calculations and estimates, and some rough idea of what are the impending big ticket items, and our initially blank sheet of paper now tell us that a lot of money is needed ya. Nevermind that the figure is daunting, at least we now have a plan to work towards, and that we already have $5k ready to be deployed.
Along the way, we deflected from the original plan. Instead of having all the events at one go, we settled 1 event at a time – ROM, house, renovation, wedding, honeymoon in this order. Slowly and steadily with an income stream, plus our frugal lifestyle hinged on a systematic income and expenses control, we saw our goals falling into place 1 by 1, unknowingly.
Today as Dear1 and Dear2 are finally done with the important events of marriage, and are settling into a ‘no need to start our balance sheet from zero state’, we almost unconsciously forget to plan for our later future. Things are now getting quite dangerously comfortable for us (and how common is this the state of most people!!!). Marriage is not the only event in life, although it is one of the first few goals that most young people have to work towards. And upon the passing of that phase, there are still other important events or goals that we have to work towards, more commonly the planning for a comfortable lifestyle, now (together with baby(s)) and ongoing into our retirement.
Have you have a financial plan/ goal in place?
- Dear2
Setting (Good) Examples 22 October, 2009
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Dear2 often chide Dear1 for not saying what he wants. Come to think of it, it might be a habit that Dear1 inherit from his 25 years of living in his family. Dear1’s parents are those who always dun say what they want (not that its uncommon in families, I know). ‘Mother ask you to come home this weekend for dinner’, says father-in-law. This kind of thing frequently happen in Dear1’s house, when most of the time it is FIL himself who intends this. And apparently, Dear1 has inherited this trait himself as well…
And so, Dear2 has to remind Dear1 that, please verbalise what you want, really. ‘Anything’ is not ‘Yes, I want’, and black means black, and not an intense shade of grey.
Dear2 suddenly felt that this is an important point to remind Dear1 again, cos when baby is out, we want to be good parents and pass on good habits to our children. Dun people always say that kids pick up habits from their parents, and even if we dun have a talented musical skill to infuse to our kids, nor super fantastic linguistic skills to share with them, but at least be able to spread such ‘normal’ habits such as practicing good hygiene, good eating habits, regular exercise habits, no foul language, no digging of nose in public (haha), amicable relationship with people etc. Some of these things are not things that can be taught, rather, they are a way of life that can be spread to your kids through setting self examples.
Being good examples should be a way of life. It’s not about trying to be somebody that you are not, nor does it have to be going super out of the way just to show others that you care. It can be a simple demonstration of your inherent graciousness, your ambivalence towards human and towards others, and being who you really are by showing the good side of you. In Dear2’s daily MRT trips, I sometimes get seat offers from commuters, not just fellow women who understand the hardships of pregnancy, but from young people as well as men. These little acts of gestures often makes me very touched, cos it just shows that in this harsh Singapore society, there is still humanity left, be it how little. I’m sure that through their own graciousness, these offerers have, and will pass on good examples to their kids when they do have kids of their own.
- Dear2
With Love and Care 12 October, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2, Slice of Life.add a comment
So excited, and so nervous. In 5 months’ time, Dear1 and Dear2 are going to be new parents. Are we ready to nurture and discipline another being, when we ourselves sometimes don’t follow our hearts as well? Are we qualified to teach our child important values, when we ourselves sometimes may know what is right, but don’t do it anyway? I asked myself these questions recently.
True. So far, Dear1 and Dear2 have been doing what we like. We moved into our own place at 25 years old just because we want to stay with each other all day long. We go on holidays every year because we enjoy exploring new places with each other. But with baby along, Dear1 and Dear2 will not be able to simply do as we wish anymore. We cannot just go on a 2 week holiday during Dear2’s maternity leave and leave baby in the care of the grand parents. Because we are responsible parents.
As baby gets older, Dear2 wonders what kind of kid will she become. Will she be well mannered and sophisticated and goes to prestigious schools, or will she become an ah-lian who goes to lousy neighbourhood schools? Dear1 is also wondering aloud if our 10 year old kid will go through that puberty phase and refuse to go out with us anymore during family outings. Oh come on, that’s more than 10 years from now, and it’s still a long way to go.
Yes, from the time our baby is born till the time she grows up and starts to have a mind of her own, there’s still many many more years to go. I just want to enjoy our baby while she’s still young, and give her the best love and care that a parent can give to her child. Too little care and the child detaches, but too much concern makes us naggy parents. Too little love and she may go wayward, but overwhelming love becomes over-protection. Ask any parent, or just anybody who ever was a kid before, and you’ll find that a balance is always never easy to find. So the best thing that we can do, is to give our baby the best love and care that we can ever give, cos when you truly love someone, you just want the best for her.
- Dear2
Anime Watching 10 October, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Moving Pictures, Nihon no koto, Slice of Life.1 comment so far
All of us grew up watching some form of children program on TV. One genre of programs that captured the imaginations of countless children worldwide is animation, or cartoon in some places.
For us in Singapore, we grew up watching mainly cartoons from America, be it Disney or Marvel. Pardon me for the over generalization but I feel that American cartoons of my era (1980-90s) fall into 2 main categories, Talking Animals or Superheroes.
The only Japanese animation that we had and I could remember was Doraemon. Of course, during that time, I couldn’t tell the difference between American and Japanese animations. To me, they were all cartoons, the only difference being whether they were shown on Channel 5 or Channel 8.
I enjoyed watching cartoons immensely as a child. I remember rushing home from primary school everyday so that I could catch the 6.15pm cartoon on Channel 5. I remember learning how to operate the timer function on the VCR so that I could record cartoons that I knew I was going miss. I remember recording and compiling my own cartoon series so that I could watch them over and over again. I remember The Land Before Time was my all time favourite movie for many years and If We Hold On Together was my all time favourite song.
I remember proudly declaring to my mum that I will never ever grow sick of cartoons and will never stop watching cartoons even when I grow older.
I was that much a fan. And in a way, I did fulfill my declaration. Till this day, I am still very much in love with animation, just that I had shifted from American cartoon to Japanese anime.
I couldn’t really remember when I started the switch. Perhaps it was during the time when SCV started screening up to date anime from Japan. I recall persuading my mum to sign up for SCV just so that I could watch the anime Detective Conan. It was then that I realized animated films can be much more than Talking Animals and Superheroes. It was then that I realized opening and ending songs of anime didn’t need to sound childish. It was then that I realized themes such as crime, guilt and justice can be embodied by an anime.
It was then that I realized anime can be enjoyed by adults too.
It wasn’t until broadband was introduced that the anime became more accessible. Thanks to the hard work of fansub groups, the latest anime from Japan was able to reach out to all corners of the world. I even considered joining a fansub group to make my little contribution to the anime world.
The next big event that contributed to the accessibility of anime was video streaming. Just click Play and moments later the video will begin its run. Now, anime fans around the world could watch their favourite anime even with a basic broadband connection.
I digress.
A few years back, at my peak, I used to watch about 5-10 anime per season. I used to watch an episode or two in the morning while I sipped away at my morning coffee. Those were the days. However, it felt like I was choosing quantity over quality.
Since moving in with Dear2, I’ve learned to reduce my anime intake and focus on quality instead. These days, I watch about 1-2 anime per season. And I would introduce those that I think are really good to Dear2 so that we can watch them together as a couple.
I guess I really will never outgrow anime. And in the future, hopefully Dear2, baby and me can all watch anime together as a family past-time. :D
-Dear1
(p.s. Currently, I’m trying to find a good, calm and tranquil anime that perhaps Dear2 and I can watch together in the delivery room at TMC so as to take her mind off the labour pain. I wonder if they have DVD players there?)
Saving our $1 coins 30 September, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Dollars & Cents, Slice of Life.2 comments
Since so long ago that I can’t even remember, I started a habit of saving my coins in those coin-saver piggy banks. Of course, mine is not a shape of a pig, rather it is a traditional red mailbox. Now, how did this habit start?
It was around the time when I got my first wallet. As many of us know, if there are coins in the wallet, it makes the entire wallet big and bulky, not to mention heavy too. So what I did was, at the end of each day, I would empty my wallet of coins and just left them lying on my study table. Before long, my study table was overwhelmed by coins. That was when I decided to bring out one of my unused piggy banks and started depositing all these coins into it.
Some time down the road, I found it quite satisfying to hear ‘clinggg’ of new coins falling upon the old ones already in the piggy mailbox. However, I also began to thirst for more! I wanted to grow my piggy mailbox quicker so that I can open it up and start counting my coins like Scourge Mcduck. So I made a new personal policy, that all coins will not be spent but will be deposited once it entered my wallet. This really made a lot of difference as my piggy mailbox grew by leaps and bounds. But my spending power took a big hit. Imagine, I paid for a $0.30 packet of titbits using a $2 note and received $1.70 worth of coins in return. Following my strict policy, I had to save all the $1.70 worth of coins, meaning I had very much less pocket money to spend. :(
Soon, my piggy mailbox was full and it was time to count the fruits of my labour. I remember sorting out the coins by type first, the 1c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c and 100c (aka $1 gold coin). I vaguely recall that the 10c and 20c were the greatest in numbers but they were worth very little in total value. Instead, the $1 coins contributed to the majority of the value of my first full piggy mailbox despite it being the least in numbers. (Okok, the 5c coins were the *least* in numbers, the $1 coins were 2nd last. :P)
From there on, I made a change in policy. Only $1 coins will not be spent and must be deposited; all other coins can be spent. This is because $1 coins are the highest valued coins in Singapore and hence a pure $1 saving piggy mailbox will yield the highest value per volume.
That was years ago. I’ve since emptied my piggy mailbox of my pure $1 savings several times and easily recovered around $500 each time. It really makes me feel like Scourge Mcduck counting my stacks and stacks of gold coins (Singapore $1 coins are indeed gold in colour).
Some time along the way, I managed to influence Dear2 into subscribing to my $1 coin policy, and she did. But Dear2 plays cheat sometimes as she would occasionally throw in some 50c coins in order to make her piggy UFO grow faster so that she can empty it earlier. And because Dear2’s piggy UFO is transparent, I can often spot the odd silver colour 50c coins within and ‘punish’ Dear2 for violating the rules. Gee… Under my close supervision, Dear2 has turned over a new leaf and plays by the rules now. Gee…
Since moving in together, we have joined our efforts in saving $1 coins into my piggy mailbox. With our combined contribution, the piggy mailbox is growing faster than ever. It is really music to our ears to hear the silence of the falling coin getting shorter and shorter. It means that our coin-level is getting higher and higher. :D
Besides counting coins and satisfying our coin-music ego, the $1 coins came in useful for one other occasion, our wedding. We selected the brightest and shiniest of our gold coins and packed them into a hefty $88 Gold Angbao for our wedding. So auspicious, $88 (fa-fa), gold colour, bright and shiny. Yeah…
We’re not young children anymore, so you may ask, why are we still putting money to a piggy bank? Well, it’s a matter of discipline and character. Saving these coins is not about its monetary value. It is about cultivating a discipline lifestyle, teaching us perseverance and training ourselves to be responsible adults. The small gesture of our daily coin drop may well be a building block for us to face larger problems in life.
-Dear1
Just a Wage Earner 25 September, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Slice of Life.add a comment
I need a bigger goal in life, that is, I need to, not based my self worth from job satisfaction alone.
If habits are hard to quit, one’s personality is even harder to change. Since graduation 5 years back, Dear2 has always been a systematic worker, and derives much joy from being able to do her work properly. So when she found that things were not moving at all in the government office that she was working at in her first job, she quit the job just 7 months after being employed, barely fresh after her confirmation.
Since then for her subsequent jobs, Dear2 has been able to associate her job with what she believes in, and derives much fulfillment in what she do. Until now. When that feeling 5 years ago is back again.
Dear2 really feels like throwing in the towel. She no longer believes in what she is doing, and hardly can align herself with the actions of the management. This company is simply a time bomb, ticking away only waiting for that moment for the authorities to uncover that ONE BIG THING among so many other mis-practices. The company no longer do what it preaches, and only those still satisfied with the handsome rewards, and not what it preaches to want to do for the clients, can unemotionally stay on.
Dear2 can see all these problems, and hates all these, but she is bounded. That’s why she is miserable, miserable becos u dun believe in what u do, and in what the company is doing. And with a character that prides so much on job satisfaction, this is costing Dear2 a lot of heartaches.
So Dear2 needs a bigger goal in life; she needs detach herself from work, and to find joy in other aspects of life. It’s not something that she can achieve easily, for she is who she is, but for now, this is the only solution.
Let the work be just a means of earning that $100 per day; let work be just another assignment where u just do it and let it be. If it passes, it passes; if it doesn’t, that doesn’t concern you too for you have already done your part. Afterall, the company is not yours and you are just a wage earner.
- Dear2
