When Smart + Smart doesn't necessarily equal 'Smarter'

The long overdue post is back. Yes. It's been more than a month. In fact, "whooosh!" and just like that we're more than half way through 2012. Well, this post is about one of the many little 'important' days to me.

Yes. It is the day I became... not just smart!

But Smart + Smart.

How's that for progress?

You see. After more than 10 years of being red, I finally switched to yellow.

Oh yes, I made the 'smarter' choice. Or so they claimed. Personally, I don't think it's really a 'smart' choice because quite frankly it loses big time to red in terms of connectivity, 

but it is really affordable.

And that is a BIG plus for me.

Because I live and breathe prepaid since I got my very first mobile phone when I was seventeen. And after 10 long years, I have reached the point where I am no longer even constrained by credit expiry. Yes, my lovely red offered me year-long credit validity. How cool is that? Very Cool. Except, my lovely red has a very expensive green partner. So I made the 'smarter' choice and went with yellow instead.

But it's not just that that matters.

If you ask me a few years ago, back when 'switching' means 'changing your number', 

I would have never taken that leap of faith. So that's another BIG BIG plus for me.

So what's with all these change we're talking about? Why now?

Because of this!

Before you go all "S2?!? Girl, it's S3 now!" Yaadaa yaadaa yaadaa.

Save your breath. It's my choice anyway. Not gonna justify it either.

*shrugs*

This is a 'big' leap for me already, okay?

After all, lookie at my old phone.

Ah. My simple ice-cream phone. So pink on its own.

Gotta take a picture and remember it as my 3rd phone. 

The 1st that I'd bought with my own hard earned money.

Now the funny thing was, my new s2 was way bigger than my ice-cream, 

so there's no way it could fit into my little knitted-bag. So I went on a hunt inside 

my room in attempt to find some means of protection for my new phone.

And I found this! 

A little pink bag that just managed to snug it perfectly.

So the 'pink' lives on!

I threaded the rest of the week with caution as I have yet to buy any cover for my phone. PSP-san, as resourceful as ever when it comes to all things gadgety, presented a cover for my phone "just to get by, until you buy one." It's a little dirty for being kept in a corner for too long but it's still a cover nonetheless!

BUT!!

Why is it pink too?!? Hahaha.

And you see that little cloth on the bottom right there, that's pink too.

It was a complimentary piece from the salesgirl when I bought my screen protector. I guess when she saw my pink-inspired phone, she naturally chose pink for me too.

No. Pink is not my favourite colour.

All these pink were not chosen by me anyway. 

So what did I choose then?

*slaps herself on the forehead*

I had no idea how I ended up with flowery pattern instead.

Sometimes, I don't understand myself either. LOL.

[L.E.P.A.K series: Amsterdam] Chap 20: Dutch Beauty!

It's time for some pretties again. I foresee there will be more photos than words 

in this blog post. What you will see here are some of my favourite shots of Zaanse Schans. 

.

.

.

Here we go!

I love this. Cute little pink scooter for two.

Followed by cycling man. *kriing kriing*

The real mirror effect.

Crazy right?

Now back to our usual 'broadcast'. Hehe. 

It's the cheese factory and we're customers number one and two!

There was soooo many types of cheese for sale and free samples to try. Hahaha. 

The lady explained to us the various types of cheese that were available. 

From cow's milk to goat's milk, from plain to mixed herbs, from normal to 

smoked cheese. Yummmmy!! 

 We had to stop ourselves from unashamedly finishing up the smoked cheese with herbs. *embarassed* But it was sooo good that we each bought a chunk home to share with our loved ones. See at least we got buy too. And that's not all we bought. We had our eyes at these Dutch Stroopwafel or *ahem* in English, Syrup Waffles! I've read about how deliciously good they are and boy were the reviews spot on. Once again we found ourselves standing in front of the waffles and munching down at the free samples. Hahaha. To justify our actions, we bought ourselves six packs to take home with. Or at least I think it was six. Could be more. No less though. 

 And and there was more! We also bought bars and bars of chocolate! 

See all that 'free breakfast' is not exactly free after all.

SEE SEE! That's 27.16€.

Which is over a hundred ringgit and you see me enquiring about the windmill pen. 

Yikes! Stoooop. I did not buy the pen but I did bought a super cute and big Dutch lady 

magnet which costs more than the pen. -.-;;

That's me checking out the stuff I bought. And that's Duckie checking me checking out 

the stuff I bought. LOL. There may not be many people around the village but the animals 

here is pretty good at this hospitality thing too. Remember Si Manja? 

 Anyway, since he's all interested, 

I might as well asked him to smile one for the camera.

Nice knowing you Duckie! Thanks for the company.

And there we go pretending to be ladies on the farm. *grins*

Hard at work yo!

I love this shot! *hearts*

This is one way of getting a photo of us together without someone's help. :D 

 And that marks the end of part two of Zaanse Schans. 

I have one more part to go before we head back to Amsterdam. Wee!

Rainforest Bakery: Rich Bread, Poor Manners (Part I)

As some of you might or might not know, I managed to get myself caught on the online coupon craze not too long ago. Bought myself one coupon after another and finally decided to stop at coupon number four, because all that coupons have not materialise to tangible or even edible items just yet. So I said to myself, "Hey hey! Slow down girl. Wait till you at least try to redeem one of them and see how it goes."

So I did!

I finally used my very first Groupon on my own!
(Note the keywords "on my own". My first was with my fellow colleagues

and I just tagged along for a pre-paid lunch.)

Head over to Rainforest Bakery at Chulia Street after dinner with the family and bought myself RM20 worth of b.r.e.a.d. I know. I know. Omg right? Hahaha. Before you go all out thinking this young lady must be crazy, let me justify that the deal was I got RM20 worth of bread for only RM10. Yup. A good deal especially since Rainforest Bakery is known for its really good but slightly pricey bread.

So I came home loaded. I even paid an extra RM3.60
for ummm.. 'overspending'. :P

Need a better look?


Here you go! So what did I get?

Two thick slices of Yogurt Limonata Cake for RM4.20 EACH. Told ya. A loaf of Mixed Grain Bread for RM5.40. A Foccasia for RM3.90 and a gigantic loaf of Poppy Seed Bloomer for RM5.20. Yup, you read it right. Poddy seeds.

These were not my initial choices but unfortunately I went late after dinner and all the other good stuff were already sold out. *sad face* Now here's where the story begins.

Obviously the bread is good. There's no denying about that. In fact, we had a wonderful lunch yesterday from all that. More details later okay? But first back to bread shopping shall we? Well, there was obviously a lack of choices when we were there and mom went on to ask if these were all there is and the below conservation took place.

Conversation 1:

Mom: Is this it? But there are so many choices on the flyer.
Guy: You came late. That's all there is. You want you come in the morning.

Gee. Felt like I just got slapped by the truth.
I admit what the guy said is true but it wouldn't hurt to be nice about it, no? Say maybe...
"Sorry 'mam. That's all there is since it's late already. We have more in the morning."

*shrugs*


*******


Conversation 2:
Mom spotted some stuff behind the counter near the baking area.

Mom: What are those? Are there more buns inside?
Guy: No no. That's not... *mumbles something.. I wasn't paying much attention at first till I heard...* Why would we want to keep anything. Of course we want to sell everything.

Alright. True. I accept that.


*******


Conversation 3:
Mom spotted a basket of little pre-packed strawberry jam
like those in hotels and restaurants served together with bread.

Mom: Is this free ah? *excuse the Manglish*
Guy: *gives mom a are-you-being-ridiculous-stare*
No no no. You have to pay. Everything here you have to pay.

Hear that?

Everything here you have to pay.

As much as I felt embarrassed about mom's typical aunty-like antics, I was also very not pleased with the man's poor social skills as a salesperson. Hello. Know the words 'Please, Sorry & Thank You'? Guess not. Since mom was being an aunty, the man was being a jerk,
I might as well be the bigger person. So I paid for my extra RM3.60, smiled and say my "thank you" and enjoyed seeing confusion swept through the man's face for an instant in not knowing how to react to some proper etiquette and finally muster out a little "thank you" in return.


Sigh. Took a young to teach the old. Not cool.


Now as for the bread, well...

My-Everyday-Groupon-Deals ;)

Have you hopped on the online coupon deals bandwagon yet? I did. Yeah yeah. Before you start rolling your eyes and say "Now only hop, outdated already lah!" I will tell you that... that is so true! Hahaha.

I'm always a step slower than the rest in keeping up with the latest "in" things. Not that I'm not aware of it, it's just that I don't hop right on it. Get it? I always tread with caution. I don't just hop on the first bandwagon that passes by. I make sure a few bandwagons went ahead of me, reached the destinations safely, all hypothesis supported with proof and evidence, etc, only then do I hop on the next good bandwagon that comes my way.

Except I kinda plunged right in too deep and managed to get
myself addicted to the entire thing now. *frowns*

Now now, if you think I'm on my way spending my ka-chings away on cheap but unnecessary spending than you are very wrong. In fact, I have only made five purchases so far (since late August) and one of them was not even bought by me. I just paid for it. It was a lunch deal that the entire office gang bought together and enjoyed together. Hah!

My first two purchases were for a Photobook deal and one of them was even bought as a gift to dear Cubbie. So that left two minor purchases that cost barely RM10 and RM12 each. See, I am no big spender.

So why call myself an addict then?

Well, I'm not addicted to the act of buying, I'm addicted to the act of window shopping. LOL. Or is it call 'browser shopping' instead? It has somehow became a routine for me to check these online deal sites out every night. And that my dear friends, is very dangerous. Seriously, you are tempted to buy things you never thought of buying.

So be warned: Lots of discipline is needed when venturing into
the oh-so-very-convenient world of online shopping.

Side Notes!!
Between the three sites that I frequent: Groupon, Everyday and Milkadeal, my preference leans towards Groupon simply because I am a girl and I like things pretty. =P Did I just make myself sound shallow right there? Hahaha. Seriously though, I'm talking about the web design and presentation. Everyday and Milkadeal just don't do it for me. I know at the end of the day, it's about how good are the deals offered but it sure doesn't hurt to be pretty at the same time, right?

When was the last time you reward yourself?

Whether it's splurging on a fancy handbag, buying that dress you have always wanted or... well, to be fair to the guys, getting the latest camera, iPhone or whatever gadgets out there. The list is endless and not necessarily confined to... well, shopping. *shrugs* You can go travel! Okay, that involves lots of money too. You can sit back and relax at home. That's a reward itself, depending on how you look at it.

Or sometimes you can get yourself a birthday gift. :D

And it doesn't have to be expensive. It can be but doesn't have to be.

RM24.90

That's all it takes and you get to upgrade this

dish-drying-tray-turned-computer-table to...

THIS!

And amazingly turned dish-drying-tray-turned-computer-table to a CD rack holder.
Am I amazing or am I amazing?

[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chapter 9: Yummy...

Wondering what Mr Man is looking at?

Well, hopefully he's not reading this blog but in all possibility that he is, then
"Hi there, Mr Man! Please don't be offended by what I'm going to say because I don't mean it to be an insult. Just a light-hearted humour." Here goes...

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

*grins*

You see. We were busy taking pictures of our umm.. 'destination' because hello, tourists here! *points to self* In come along Mr Man in his smart suit, stopped, looked and decided to join in the fun and took some photos using his phone as well. Hahaha.

Always glad to inspire others.

*smiles*

So where is this 'destination' we're talking about anyway? If you've followed my previous posts, you'll know the answer is....

Harrods!
We were pretty bummed that Harrods was undergoing some construction work while we were there. Kinda ruined the pictures. :(


But that didn't stop us from taking more photos! :P

We actually didn't quite make it here after spending too much time at Tower of London but we have a few short hours to spare before our pre-booked time slot for Madame Tussauds, so we decided to give it a go. Oh and here comes some travel advice! ;)

Hiyashibeeps' L.E.P.A.K Travel Tips No.8:
If your schedule is tight or you simply want to utilise your time to its fullest, take note of the opening times of each attraction you're planning to visit. Schedule those with later closing times last in your itinerary. For instance, Madame Tussauds' last admission time is from 5.00pm to 5.30pm and you can stay in there till 7.00pm. So why head there during the afternoon when you can go somewhere else that closes at 4.30pm. Right? *winks*

Oh right. So back to Harrods shall we?

With only that precious hour to spare, we head to the one section
NO ONE SHOULD EVER MISS in Harrods.

The Food Hall!


I was looking at all that food and salivating. It didn't helped that we had nothing since a survival breakfast that morning. Shocking right? I did not feel hungry till I saw all that food in front of me.

PIES!

Surprisingly the food was not ridiculously expensive. Quite affordable in fact. I felt like buying every flavour and try a little bit of everything. If only I live there, I'll probably drop by after work and buy myself a different choice of food every day. Even so, I bet I can go on an entire month without any repeats! Yum.

To further proof my point.

Foood...

and more fooood!

Even the lady behind the counter is just as charming
with her matching top hat and apron.

I somehow managed to do some 'grocery shopping' here. Bought myself some cute little bottles of jam with equally cute illustrations of London's various attractions, some Thyme biscuits and a bottle of apple chutney claimed to go superbly well with roast pork. Even though my family rarely eat roast pork these days, we still have our ways of enjoying the chutney. Yum.

The only boo point of the food hall is that we couldn't find anywhere to actually sit and eat our food. Which was good. Hahaha. Because there and then, we decided to head over to Hyde Park which was only about 5 minutes from Harrods to enjoy our lunch-tea-dinner meal of the day.

*sigh*

The view that greeted us as we stepped into Hyde Park.

Never have I seen bare and botak trees to be that pretty. Hahaha. Remember I mentioned about how I will come by every day to buy myself a meal from Harrods? Well if that happens, you'll see me sitting here every day to enjoy it as well. Lovely lovely isn't it?

As we unpacked our food, furry horses passed by.

Sooo furrrry.

As for the food?
Look at how crazily packed my salmon pie was! It's crazy loaded with chunks of salmon.
YUM for the third time in this post.

And that's it. We're off to see giant figurines next. :P

I'm Poofed! or is it I'm Pooped?

Either way. I'm tired out.

Shopping is way tiring then working. Physically.

Working on the other hand, kills mental power. (-_-);;

But...

.

.

.

To "Bijak Berbelanja" needs equal mental power. *grins*

Plan Ahead. Be Prepared.

Leave was taken a week earlier for this.

Boss might not be pleased. Yikes.

But, my first half of the afternoon was spent in the bank, all hungry and a tad poorer / richer at the same time.

Shopping was just a plus, okay?

Member Day woh. 80% Off woh.

It almost annoyingly sounded like a pasar malam in JUSCO.

JUSCO wei! (-_-);;

*******

And to sum it up...

I'm a daddy's girl. ♥

Bijak berbelanja... just like dad.

*grins*

My First Time...

...buying clothes online.

XD

Not my first online purchase though.

Had doubts buying clothes online since there's this "No Trying" policy. Obviously. Ain't got no model-like body that fits any clothes either. So even after I was introduced to various shopping blogs by dearest Ching more than half a year ago, only now did I kick-start my first purchase.

Simply because I love it oh so much.

Efficient as always.

You may disagree but poslaju has never failed me till now.

Paid on Monday.

Sent on Tuesday.

Received on Wednesday.

Talk about efficiency.

Credit goes out to Lynn from Fashion-Loft.

Jeng Jeng Jeng!

This shot ain't pretty.

Simply don't do justice to the pretty piece.

This is a much prettier shot.
*gets whacked for her narcissim*

I'm talking about the dress/pinafore okay?

*innocent*

I did attempt to take a picture of the back but it didn't turn out good and I was lazy to keep taking pictures of myself. Am not that narcissistic.

All in all, I must say I really like it.

Now if only I got a pair of good shoes to go with it.