The Lure of $2

• Square porcelain plates
• Round Japanese bowls
• Dustbin for kitchen and bed room
• Tub for sink
• Baskets for laundry pegs
• Baskets for putting make up and stuff
• Wall suckers for bathroom and kitchen
• Horizontal rod for hanging kitchen tools
• Potato masher
• Kitchen gloves
• Big paper boxes for storing small items
• Food containers
• Small handheld broom and dustpan
• Big plastic bowls for baking

When we first moved into our house, equipping everything from scratch often leads us to buying these household essentials from Daiso. At that time, money was scarce for us, so with each item at just $2 per piece, these were very affordable for us yet stylish.  Many a times, there were even cents to dollars of savings as compared to buying the same item elsewhere, or simply as a cheaper alternative.

Over time, we would often frequent Daiso whenever we need to get more household essentials:

• Laundry bags (I think we have about at least 8 now)
• Large zip lock bags for overseas purposes
• Containers for storing Dear1’s meeples and tokens (I think he has bought at least about 7 to 8 boxes in all)
• Apron (my second piece already, just because the first one was not pretty)
• Food grater for Baby1 (used maybe 3 times?)
• At least 3 sets of small containers (for storing Baby1’s pureed foods that time; now all neatly stacked up in the cupboard)
• Cookie cutters (2 new sets, washed but not used yet)
• Cute food picks (still in the plastic bag.  Extremely cute!!! But haven’t got the chance to making bento for Dear1 yet.  Oh yes, there’s still the ‘fake’ seaweed for sushi decoration which we have not tried yet too.)
• Laundry hangers (we have 2 sets of 8 pegs each, and 3 sets of 18 pegs each)
• Tie Hanger (hmm… cannot remember why I bought this at that time)
• Clothes hanger over door (ermm… we realised that the door cannot be closed with this one on, so………..)
• Flower pots (bought 3, but only used 2)
• Various hanging baskets in various sizes (usage varied, depending on where needs what to be hung)
• Shower caps (I have 4 now – blue, yellow, white and pink.  ;p)
• Gloves for Baby1 that time when we went Korea (ermm.. we didn’t even take this out to use, just for ‘in case’ situations)
• Round stools for sitting or just putting the feet up (ermm… we have 2 grey, 1 brown, 1 yellow, 1 pink and 1 blue now.  Why do we need so many stools in our little 3 room flat!?)
• Bottle brush (when we already have 1 Pigeon one for Baby1’s bottle)
• Racks (total count reveals 5 in the kitchen.  Didn’t know that I have bought so many!)
• and the list goes on and on

Things are so cheap at Daiso!  I mean, everything is fixed price at $2, so I just have to count the number of items in my basket and it’s easy to know the total price.  But many a times, total damage usually exceeds imagination.  We would walk into Daiso wanting to get a container for storing some of Dear1’s cards (again), but end up having 1 Christmas tree, 1 more basket for the living room, 1 toothbrush set for Baby1, 1 fork and spoon set for her, a super cute food container for her too, (resist to buy the matching pink bowl, and oh, there’s a plate version too!), (prohibited to get another Christmas decoration because Dear1 refuses to choose one for me), and 1 packet of the caramel corn at check out.  Nowadays, I even have to give myself a budget, say $20 if I want to go in to get a $2 item!!!

The lure of Daiso is indeed very big.  Things are so pretty in there, and most of them are really useful. But we do have experiences when the quality is poor, like that hamburger food timer which we didn’t manage to get it to work properly ever, and that stainless steel egg mold which got rusty though we only used it once.  But even if the item is no good, it’s at most a $2 write off, very cheap indeed ya.  ;p

– Dear2

Where is the “Me”

Nowadays, I can hardly tell which nickname is which of my friend on Facebook and on MSN, cos’ their pictures are usually a baby’s face, or of a toddler or 2.

As me and my peers age, we add new members to our family, and our focus all tune to our darling little ones.  Status update on Facebook becomes status updates of the happenings and progress of our little ones, and they no longer are “my” updates anymore. Long lists of friends’ comments becomes all talk about ‘”she’s so cute” or “my little one is doing exactly that too!”.  I even have a friend who resisted Facebook for many years, only to open an account when his baby boy is recently born so that he can join the Daddies and Mummies community online.

Dear1 and Dear2 also recently each borrowed a couple book from the library recently.  Each one of us should have our personal space to prevent burn outs.  Need to spend quality time as a family and as a couple to foster strong relationships.  With only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, how to manage the “Me”, “Wife” and “Mummy” at the same time, not to mention “Daughter, Sister, Daughter-in-law, Sister-in-law”, and even “Friend”!?

Enough is enough.  2 weeks of staying at home and doing the things that I like, I found “Me”, a me that has been put off for some time because of all these daily demands.  Without a “Me”, I can hardly fulfill any of the other roles at all, don’t you agree!?

For 2 weeks, I did extensive cleaning of the house, cross stitch, watch tv and video, read, do hula hoop etc.  2 weeks passed in a flash and there’s many more things that I haven’t got the time to complete, but don’t worry, reading about property, reading about photography, washing the fans and more cleaning again, cross stitching, I’ll slot these in among my daily routine life when I get back to work again.

Life is exciting, and should be exciting, for it is a blessing for us to be able to be healthy and well to be able to do all the things that make us happy.  And when we are happy, we will be able to pass this happiness on to our love ones around us.

Stay positive!

– Dear2

Collecting board games was fun

I can’t remember when I was first introduced to board games. I seemed to recall it was during my holidays at the end of my third year in undergrad, at my internship company. I recalled a discussion where one colleague was trying to tell us how fun Settlers of Catan was. But I didn’t have the interest to find out more.

The next time was probably during my postgrad years. One of my lab-mate was a close relative to the owner of one of those board game cafes. And so we spend a few happy hour afternoons over the years at the board game cafe playing games. Board games were indeed fun, I thought. But the prices were just too expensive.

Some time later, I would come across this website that sold board games online, typically at 20% off those prices in the brick and mortar stores. Now, that got me excited, and I made my first 2 purchases, Citadels and Pandemic.

When I buy board games, my first consideration was always Dear2, because she would be my most preferred gaming partner. And Dear2 did enjoy playing. She picked up the rules very easily and was able to quickly develop strategies for the games that we were playing. I found it very fun pitting our wits together and having an intellectual tug-o-war.

My “network” of board gaming sites increased, and I discovered many more online board game stores. I even found an active board game meetup group locally where there are tons of discussions going on, not to mention a buy/sell section on the forum.

My little collection started becoming bigger, taking up more and more shelf space. But it also meant that each game got played less and less, and many of them just sat on the shelf for an extended period of time. Not only that, my initial criteria for choosing games expanded. I was not only buying games that I think Dear2 and I will enjoy playing, but I was also buying games I think other people will enjoy playing when they have a chance to play them (<-convoluted logic). And then the whole idea of collecting games became a game in itself. Collecting!

My collection grew to a size of 36, counting only distinct titles, and 50 something if I counted all the expansions too. It was getting out of hand. Our shelf space was quickly diminishing, and some games were still in shrink, waiting to be played. My interest in board games evolved from playing to collecting. Also, I started to have high expectations in my choices of games. Some games that I thought Dear2 will enjoy playing, she did not. And I would be disappointed.

Thinking back, it wasn’t like this when I started. I would have no expectations and just enjoyed playing. But as my collection grew, I too grew overly attached to them, making me more defensive. Dear2 and I had a few fights over this growing hobby/collection of mine.

Well, it has gotten to the point which I feel is out of hand. For me, personally, I am spending too much time, energy and money on board games. For us, it has become a source of conflict in our relationship. Playing board games with Dear2 used to be fun. Not anymore.

So, I am going to put a stop to it. I am not going to buy new board games. And, I will be selling off my collection (if I’m able to find sellers at reasonable prices).

I am released. Cheers to more shelf space, an open mind and an open heart.

-Dear1

P.S. Just wanted to share a video here.

Making Rice Balls

When Dear1 and Dear2 went on our Japan trip in 2008, we had triangular-shaped rice balls for breakfast in the business hotel on our first morning there. They came in various colors – green, red, purple, how weird.  Wrapped with pickles within, or diced pickles all around, top with a steaming bowl of miso soup in the early morning, it was a fascinating morning meal for us both.

When we went to Taiwan earlier this year, while waiting for our pancake to be ready fresh, there were 2 other office ladies ordering rice balls on the other half of the road side stall.  Hmm… We wondered what was it, so we ordered 1 ball to go as well.  Hot and steaming, wrapped with some crunchy crackers and floss and a whole load other stuff in that gigantic rice ball, it was a surprisingly yummy breakfast for us.

One fine day, Dear1 had an idea to make rice balls for our own breakfast as well.  A trip to NTUC and it seems that the short grain Japanese rice only comes in 2.5kg bag.  No choice, I’ll just have to make lots of rice balls to eat. Buy some frozen fish finger fillet, 200g of pork floss from Bee Cheng Hiang, the medium hard type ones cos there were the soft fluffy ones, the very crispy ones, and the medium hard ones that was a nice in between.  With 1 big pack of bite-sized seaweed left over from our Korea trip, we are ready to make rice balls!

First, oh, we gotto soak the washed rice for 30min before cooking.  After cooking, we gotto leave it for a further 15min, hmm…  Oven bake the fish fingers, prepare a piece of cling wrap over a rice bowl, lay some rice on it, top with the fish fingers and GENEROUS servings of the pork floss, cover with more rice, wrap the whole cling tightly, compact it nicely into a ball shape first, then shape it into a triangular one, finally remove from cling wrap and lay it on a piece of seaweed.  Tata, we have a nice rice ball (or triangle)!

Ta-ta. A triangle riceball.

First attempt at making rice balls and I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.  Baby1 took a few bites too, and she seems to like it too.  Some refinements needed though.  Firstly, the rice has to be laid real thin without exposing the inner ingredients.  Too much rice to ingredients ratio makes the ball a tad too plain for savours.  Then, the pork floss has to be real generous.  Again, the ball won’t taste nice if there’s too little ingredients within.  Next, don’t make the ball too big.  Too big means not easy to handle with all the stuff spilling out from within.  Finally, remember to compact the rice real tight, otherwise the triangle won’t be able to stand up nice and proud.

Happy making rice balls, yum yum!

– Dear2

Fun @ Polliwogs

Following our extravaganza at three indoor playgrounds recently, our family decided to head down to Polliwogs at East Coast Park for an experience too. We managed to chance upon an empty lot at the free carpark, so it was savings-savings for us, heehee…

At registration, the rates had revised from the earlier $6 for 90mins on weekends to $8 for 2 hours.  Extension is $5 for every 30 mins, and the attendant made sure that we understood it was still $5 even if we over stayed for a mere 15 mins.

Into Polliwogs, it’s quite impressive.  A big lounge area, a small counter that serves foods and drinks (you can collect your free cup of coffee/ tea here too, not bad for $8!) a big area for infants with a slide and a separate ball area. And we have not even went into the big playground yet!!

We let Baby1 play at the infant area for a while first.  After a few attempts in various balls area, she is more confident waddling among the balls now.  Walk here walk there, climb here climb there, and it’s off to the big kids’ area.

Here, it’s pretty huge with at least 2 slopes to climb up and 2 slides down.  We cajoled Baby1 up the big playground, and got her to slide down the slide herself.  Woosh!!  At 19 months, she’s still a little too young to control her descend lest her small bottom hits the ground with a thud.  The acceleration’s too fast for her too, but we are sure that she’ll love the slides when she gets a bit older.

By 1.5 hours, Baby1 was already tired and restless. We quickly have a tour of the outdoor playground which comprises of 1 large inflatable air structure.  This is sort of an obstacle course where the older kids climb up the slope, and go through various obstacles, all wobbly filled with air of course.

Paid the $8, put on our shoes, and we were off enjoying the evening breeze at the beach before heading home for dinner and showers.

Polliwogs is fun!  It’s big enough to accommodate rowdy toddlers when they are released from whatever birthday parties they were attending in the various functions rooms.  1 child admits 2 adults FOC, so it was a nice family outing for us threesome.  Similar to the other indoor playground which we have visited, there seems to be quite a handful of Caucasian kids there too.  I like the glass walls of the place which make it bright, though a bit hot too.  Finally, free parking (provided you go at the right time)!

Next up, we want to try pitching our tent and our picnic chair. But first, the tent probably needs some cleaning first since it has been ages since we last put it up (hmm… actually just once, LOL).

– Dear2