Tempted by recipe books at Borders

Over the weekend I was looking for a book at Borders. While there, I got distracted and was looking through some of their interesting recipe books. I have a lot of them at home but sad to say not the time to try out some of the recipes I like.

I was just flipping through one of those books and I came across a picture of a gorgeous salad served with cornbread dressing. That was enough to tempt me to buy the book. I have a weakness to buy a recipe book just because of one particular dish. I know it's silly and expensive...but that's just me and recipe books.

But I'm proud to say that I walked away from the bookstore with just the book I went in search for, and not the recipe book. I figured I really wouldn't have the time to make that salad and dressing no matter how easy it looked to be.

Have you tried MyEG's service?

The government has launched MyEG where we can now apply for road tax online and have it delivered to you for a fee. I was excited about it when I first heard the news. So when the time came for me to renew my road tax, I logged on to the website and proceeded to fill out a form for renewal.

To my disappointment, after clicking on the submit button, I landed on an error page where it said the page was not found. I went back to the homepage and did it all over again. This time, the same thing happened, I got some error page. I got fed up and left the site. I eventually went with my car insurance agent's service to get the road tax done.

Does anything ever work when it's a free public service?

2 weddings and a dresscode headache

Two of my good friends from school are getting married next month. And they are just a week apart from each other. I've got a dresscode woe for one of them...at first I thought of just picking any of the dresses I've made and bought some months back, but when I saw on the invitation that the dresscode is "pink and lacey", my jaw dropped. I have nothing that's pink and lacey!

Since it's a good friend getting married, I would like to play the part and come in the theme she has set. Besides, I'm also one of her chimuis and helping her out a little bit during the reception. So I should at least abide by the dresscode, right?

But where am I gonna find something pink and lacey? Pink is quite easy to find but lacey? I could only imagine a lingerie... :P

Are you disappointed?

September 16 came and went. Many people got themselves glued to the radio and internet, hoping to catch first hand information on what's going on. Apart from a couple of general press conferences, nothing major has happened.

Are you disappointed? As much as I would like to see better change coming along, I'm one who's willing to wait for it to happen than to see a forceful takeover. It can't result in much good that way. And whilst many are saying that it's all a bluff and mind game, it's too early to judge. Let's just wait and see. It's clear that someone is bluffing, but we will know soon enough who it is, won't we?

The one place I didn't think of going

It's almost year end and it feels like a holiday is in order. I don't know why but year end always feels like vacation time, doesn't it? I make it a point to save up my annual leave at work so that I can take a long break from work during that period. Perhaps it's just the notion of taking things slow and easy as the year comes to an end that I like. Anyway, this year with a baby in tow, we haven't planned to go anywhere just yet. I've yet to even get his passport made! I was asked a couple days ago whether I would consider Vegas vacations and honestly, it didn't really cross my mind. Maybe because I didn't think a casino city is much a a vacation for me. But I've never been there before, and if I get an all-expense paid for trip there one fine day, I wouldn't miss it!

What about you, what are you holiday plans for the coming year end?

What else to invest in?

In such times, I really wonder what people are investing in. The stock market seems risky for me, unit trusts are alright but I've stopped buying into them, commodities and foreign currencies are not quite a matured market for small time investors. So what else could there be? Many people get into futures trading and make big fortunes but this I view as even more risky than the stock market if you do not have the expertise. It looks like small time players are pretty much limited to just unit trusts for now. What do you invest in?

Honeymoon come home shopping trip

A friend of mine is headed to some very beautiful and exclusive island for a honeymoon at the end of the year. I'm sure the newly weds will have a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying the serene beauty about them.

They were researching some islands before making their final decision and one of the "finalists" is the Hilton Head Island. I've heard only nice things about the place, about how beautiful it is. Because of that, one will find many Hilton Head real estate for sale to just about anyone who is interested.

I personally think they make rather good investment opportunities. But then again for us to be invested in properties all the way in the US would cost a lot of money. However, for the big time investors who can afford to, a quick search on the internet with simple keywords like real estate Hilton Head would bring you to some great resources to find out more.

Anyway, my friend and her husband will not be going to this island for their honeymoon. However, she did say that they are keeping it as a wishlist place to visit in the near future. And when they are there, who knows they may just fall in love with the island and start looking for homes for sale in Hilton Head. Nothing is really impossible these days!

My little one is now 1 year old!

How time has gone by without us realising it. My little boy is already 1 year old! We celebrated his birthday last Wednesday. We organised a small get-together, inviting some friends and family over for dinner. I don't like the hassle of cooking and washing up, so catering was an obvious choice. As we planned to host the party at night, I worried a little about mosquitoes since it's the rainy season these days but luckily the outdoor lighting provided by the caterer's vendor was bright enough to light up our garden area so that it didn't attract too much of the creepy crawlies.

Anyway, the little boy was very happy that night. He has been a rather sociable baby even since I was pregnant with him. He simply loves having company and so he was very well behaved that night, not fussing even a little bit.

Here's a picture of him, all grown up and enjoying a drumstick.