When space is all we need

Posted on July 25, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

When my hubby and I first moved into our condo, everyone remarked that it was very spacious. Well, that was way before we started populating the rooms with stuff. Hubbs likes to call my stuff “clutter”, but whatever 😛

See, in our condo, we have three rooms. One obviously is the master bedroom, which has an attached bathroom. And because my hubby and I take pride in entertaining our visitors, we have a guest room completely furnished with a queen-sized bed, an air-conditioner and built-in wardrobes. Not that we have guests all the time, but we like to know that our guests are comfortable while they stay with us. Most folks don’t have a guest room, I know, but we just don’t like the idea of guests having to “rough out”, unless they absolutely have to.

Of course, this now leaves us with one more room, which we initially planned to be our study. But when baby arrived, we decided to convert half of that study into a playpen and baby-changing area. But now I look into my virtual crystal ball, and realize that very soon we may need to make some changes again. Ultimately, Ethan will want his own room, complete with all his favorite cartoon characters decorating it. We’ll probably need durable Kids Bedroom furniture, strong enough to endure the daily wear and tear.

As it is, I am rather attracted to Wooden Childrens Furniture. For one thing, they are sturdy, they look good, and they transcend time. Undoubtedly, if you are talking about getting a Kids Desk, a wooden one is your best bet. I know I had one when I was a little girl.

So the problem now is, how do we find that extra space?

Posted in Rainmakers | 3 Comments

The inevitable call or not?

Posted on July 22, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress


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I recently made a call to the bank affiliated with my credit card, to request for a waiver in annual fee.  I am not specifically mentioning the name of the bank here, because I have had similar experiences with Citibank, HSBC and also Alliance Bank, so this really applies to all banks who charge an annual fee.

Anyway, formalities aside, after I was asked to verify my identity with the typical passcode and obligatory questions, I asked if they could waive my annual fee.  My backup plan, of course, was that if they said no, I would then threaten to cancel my card.

Turns out I didn’t need to do that, because the customer officer told me, after checking my account, that she would waive the annual fee for me since I had already made a minimum of 12 transactions in a year.

So then I asked her, “If I had not called up, would the annual fee be automatically waived?”

She said yes, but EVEN if it wasn’t, I could still call in and request for an annual fee reversal.  She didn’t sound exactly confident it would be waived, by the way.  (Actually in my past experience, the annual fee has NEVER been automatically waived before).

But anyway, I’ve been thinking… why do these “supposedly” consumer-friendly banks need to WAIT for customers to call in to trigger the waiver of annual fee?  Since it is already their practice to waive the fee when a customer has made a minimum of 12 transactions, why can’t they program this rule into the program’s algorithm?  I definitely know that is possible.  Is it because they want to earn some annual moolah from those customers who fail or forget to call up, either out of ignorance or just because they simply don’t care?

If the banks automatically waive the annual fee for customers that deserve it, they would certainly spare the customers the hassle of having to remember to call up to waive the annual fee, and at the same time, the bank would earn brownie points for this proactive service.  After all, it’s the relationship between the bank and the customer that counts.

For someone like me who uses the credit card as an instrument to facilitate payment of purchases, and not as a tool to overspend, all I need is a card, without the need to pay the annual fee.  Of course, for those of you who don’t mind paying the fee every year, you can just disregard my rant above.  Or perhaps I’d be better off just using the free-for-life credit cards, like the one I have from CIMB bank…

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | 17 Comments

Holiday & snappity-snaps

Posted on July 17, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

I have been a bad blogger. 

Good bloggers would religiously download their photos and blog about a trip they just came back from almost immediately after coming home.  Also, good bloggers would be snapping pictures here and there and everywhere.  Pictures of just about every interesting and not-so-interesting thing that they see.  Well, maybe I’ve just lost it.  But I like to think that I was having way too much fun to remember snapping pics.  Excuses? 😛

I’ve been dead tired since we got back from our Damansara getaway over the weekend, so much so that my hubby even pestered me as to why I have not blogged about the trip.  Well, anyway, here are some bits and pieces of it.

We made a routine stop in Bidor for the famous and overpriced duck drumstick mee.  This time, I ordered the dry version, which actually tasted better because the duck drumstick soup remained concentrated and in addition, I could still savor the taste of the wan ton mee, sans wan ton.  Here’s another view of the duck drumstick showcasing the skin and how big the piece was.  Yummy!  For the record, I drank up every bit of the soup 🙂

We stayed at Royale Bintang Damansara yet again.  Well actually it’s a funny thing I mentioned Damansara specifically… I made an appointment with someone on Monday and she was waiting for me in Royale Bintang KL!  Anyways, dinner on the first night was at Italiannies, The Curve with my brother, my SIL and my little nephew Collin.

This here was the strawberry colada I ordered.  Initially I wanted to order the strawberry shake and I inquired why it was more expensive than the rest of the shakes.  The server disappeared for a mo, and came back to tell me it was because the strawberries used were imported ones.  Well anyhoo, I decided on the colada instead.  Another funny thing happened.  I asked the server what was in the strawberry colada and he told me to wait just a moment while he referred to his notes!  And it was done all right in front of me!  It was a good drink, by the way.

It certainly seems to me that every time I make a trip to KL, I’d be stuffing myself silly with food.  We had Japanese buffet lunch the next day at Shogun 1-Utama.  It must be affiliated with Saisaki because the plates had the Saisaki logo on it too.  The spread was huge, although funnily enough it wasn’t the sashimi that got top marks, but the soups they had.  Sharks’ fin, black chicken with chinese wine, clam soup…well, let’s just say it was truly filling.

 

This is the jazz quartet that serenaded the passers-by who visited the flea market at The Curve.  Not sure who hired them, but man, they were good.  I had a good mind to start dancing then and there.  And I really loved the way they blended into the environment too.  Al fresco dining with jazz in the background…who could ask for more?  Of course, when I had that mini blogger meeting with Rinnah, Paris, Pinkelle and Beetrice in Marché, we couldn’t hear the music la. 😛

Anyway, this is the last of my pictures, but it’s really one of the best tomyam soups I have ever tasted.  We decided to have Thai food for dinner at Absolute Thai in Ikano Power Center and I have no regrets whatsoever.  Succulent prawns and seafood, with just the right hint of spiciness, I totally dug that!

So that’s the lowdown on my holiday last weekend…and I am already looking forward to what this coming weekend holds!

Posted in Relax & Celebrate | 21 Comments

The raindrops on my head

Posted on July 11, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress


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It was raining cats and dogs and elephants and hippos yesterday, around lunch time.  I stopped by my favorite dim sum restaurant to buy some century egg porridge and other tidbits for lunch.  Unfortunately they had already ran out of the porridge, so I ended up with just one char siew pau and one egg tart. And since I had gotten drenched with my jeans wet through to my shin level, I might as well make the trip worth it by buying some organic tau foo fa (soya bean curd) from the shop next door too.

As I was approaching my car after making my purchase, I noticed the parking ticket man standing nearby, with an umbrella in his hand.  So I motioned for him that I was headed for my car and asked him how much.  On hindsight, I could have just walked to my car and drove off, because I was only parked for not more than 10 minutes, but my conscience would have pricked me so hard it would have bled.

Anyway, he told me “Empat puluh sen”. (40 cents was the rate charged every half hour)

I paid him and waited for my receipt.

But that fella walked away!

I called after him, and asked, “Mana resit?” (“Where is my receipt?”)

He said, “Oh, tak payah resit laaa..” (“Oh, no need to issue a receipt…”)

Eh???

Immediately, I retorted, “Tak payah resit, tah payah bayar la!” (“If you don’t give me a receipt, I don’t need to pay!”), and extended my hand to him, as if asking for my precious 40 sen back.

Hey, I was all alone, cold and wet, incredibly hungry, holding my lunch in packets AND I was rushing for a meeting.  I probably sounded a LEETLE bit angry, but I had every reason to feel that way.  Yes, it was only 40 sen, but it’s still money, right?  It would have been conveniently squandered by him, had I not put my foot down at that very instant and demanded for my receipt.

Of course he issued me one after that, but I wonder how many incidents of “40 sen tak payah bayar” he had actually escaped with.  I wonder how many people would actually insist on a ticket.  Times are certainly bad, and every single bit counts.

I’m sure that parking ticket man is well aware of that. But nobody should ever use dishonest means to make that quick buck.  Or that quick 40 sen.

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | 10 Comments

Fishy spooky conundrums

Posted on July 8, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress


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Something spooky is happening to my blog.  I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t like it at all.  Last night, I noticed that at least three comments had mysteriously vanished from my previous post.  I am always very careful when moderating my comments, so there is no reason how they could have been accidentally deleted.

I am 100% sure they were there before because I saw those comments during lunchtime yesterday and I even responded to them.  There was a comment from Michelle saying that my shopping behaviour was clearly shown in the meaning of my name in that post.  And then I remember also reading a comment from Andie who said she might want to give this quiz a try herself, and I think there was also a comment from cc that it was quite an interesting quiz (I think) – did I miss out anyone?

Oh yeah, and I definitely know there was a trackback from Paris too, cuz I commented on her post when I saw it.

So, see? I ain’t imagining things!

I blame the bizarre behaviour on the latest WordPress 2.5.1.  Don’t like it all that much yet.  It has a rather cluttered interface, and the color scheme has also changed to something less cooler than before, if you ask me.

Well, I hope this is the first and last of mysterious happenings on my blog, but just to be on the safe side, I’m gonna run another backup right now.

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | 14 Comments