Monthsaries!

2 nights ago we had our 5monthsary! Its crazy how time flies!

Yes we are celebrating monthsaries (though as you'll see below, we, or rather I've done a rather crappy job of it) which at this point is just an excuse to go out for a nice meal.. but we've more or less exhausted every single nice dinner option in our tiny town!

  

Heres a look back at our past monthsaries!

22 Jan, Umm I was still in Singapore :(

22 Feb, Dinner at Garagistes
This is a rather cool eatery, the restaurant is decked out in a modern, warehouse style, and the menu changes frequently, depending on the produce they secure that week/period. They are only open 4 nights a week and don't take reservations, so we went in, put our names down for a table, and went grocery shopping while waiting. I know, sexy. We eventually had our table at close to 9! grumbly tummies!
This is very unheard of in this tiny town, where people have dinner early and town clears out by nightfall! When we went again when the family visited, we had learnt our lesson, I was first in line when the doors opened!

The restaurant was very dark, and my iphone photos (save for the one of the interior I stole off the internet because mine was really too crappy) really don't do the dishes justice. 

Each dish was really innovative and used ingredients in a way you wouldn't normally think to use. We were practically googling stuff throughout the entire dinner - I know, way geeky. Taste wise, it was good but I'd describe the taste as interesting rather than.. mind-blowingly good, just because of how unfamiliar each dish was to the tastebud! Plating was beautiful as you can see, I loved the heavy stoneware. 

There is a choice of 2 menus, either a 3 course or a 5 course. We picked the 3 course, and I later added a dessert from the 5course menu because my 3 course one wasn't satisfying. But the pepper parfait also failed to impress. I like my desserts sweet rich and sinful! 

Price wise, definitely reasonable, I think its $55 for the 3 course and $85 for the 5 course (one good thing about a small town!). The place is well known for its extensive winelist but I don't drink wine so I can't tell you about that. Everyone around us kept complimenting the sommelier on her choice of wine though! 

22 Mar, I was in Singapore :S

22 Apr, Dinner at Astor Grill

Honestly, it was a meal so crappy I don't even know why I bothered posting my lousy photos (the place was too dark for the iphone to handle). I tried looking for better photos of the place online (the charming, old school ambience was the only redeeming bit) but even their restaurant website gallery has poorly taken photos :( no pride. Anyway interestingly (or maybe not quite), all the reviews I came across of the place described it as classic, Hobart iconic.. how about.. stuck in the 80s, when it started?

22 May, Dinner at home :)

Because we had bible study (its at our place), we couldn’t go out, so Elvine cooked us a steak dinner :) Lucky me!

tsk. boys can't be bothered with presentation! He had to use our ugliest plates!

My silly boy has been obsessed with Heston Blumenthal for awhile now.. he watches Heston's youtube videos almost every single night!! One day he decided he had to try Heston's steak technique so he went out to the supermarket to buy a cheap cut! (this is super un-him. i'm always chastising him for buying expensive cuts like angus, especially for experimenting!)



This technique turned out to be wonderful, but because the steak was too thin (when buying steaks, ask your local butcher for a double cut so its a nice thickness) it was browned throughout. We normally have our steaks medium -rare (him) or medium (me). And so for a few days now he has bugged me to go to the butcher to get him a nice cut =_= I said I didn't want to have 2 home steak dinners in a week, so he said I could just buy him one. I can eat something else!!

Volunteering

So this is the post I’ve promised for a while – My volunteer job!

Just to quickly recap the background story, I was looking for a job here and couldn’t find anything, so I decided to look into a volunteer position to pass time. I applied to 5 or so volunteer positions on volunteeraustralia.com, and only this position called me in for an interview, and they only had a slot open on Wednesdays for their bookshop (instead of one of their 10 retail stores), and Wednesday is the one day I would prefer not to work because then I can bake something for bible study at night.

Anyway I decided to take it, because it beats sitting at home. I was quite surprised to find that even volunteer organisations had no openings.. until I learnt later that some Centrelink (government welfare aid) beneficiaries are required to put in a certain number of hours, so most volunteer organisations have no lack of casual volunteers. Also, I don’t have a police check license, which is required if I want to work with kids. I even contemplated opening my place as an afternoon childcare for kids to come study.. but its too dangerous.

The orange flag at the end of the road another shop under Hobart City Mission.
That one sells clothes.

Anyway so this is the bookshop I volunteer at. Its run by Hobart City Mission, the first City Mission in Australia and the 3rd oldest Mission in the world. It’s a Christian welfare organization which gives families and children in need practical and financial support, eg emergency accommodation, parental assistance, counseling, Pastoral care etc.

From outside in
(Sorry about the weird colouration at the top of the pic, I used panorama and the room uses one fluorescent light source)

And from inside out. The bright spot is the window

And an inner room which stocks bric-a-brac
2nd floor is rented out to a film production company

There aren’t many customers in a day, its slightly outside town so traffic is pretty average. I’m the only one working in the store because it’s small, so I’m in charge of cashiering, organizing the stuff, and pricing the new donations which come in. Its lovely to sit in here one day a week, chatting up the few customers who come in.

Some weeks I read, some weeks I watch TV, today I'm blogging on my laptop!

The donations are pretty interesting to look at – many things can be considered vintage because some people donate their late parents’ things. Once we got a lottery toy box – it looked like a little wooden robot, the lid could be taken off to insert little round balls, then there was a crank at the bottom that fed the balls out one by one!

The prettier english/victorian tea cups get snapped up very quickly, leaving the plain ones behind

Silver plates for $5-6

Genuine Crystal!

We also get lots of vintage crystal and silverware – all going super duper cheaply at $2-10. Everytime I come in here, I look at the crockery and imagine what fun it’d be to buy random bits and pieces to have an English tea party, but I never know what to buy because they’re all odd shaped and sized. 

There is an antiques store dealer who comes in every week, and he just knows the things to pick up. I’m always amazed at what he gets because I sit here all day and I’ve not even noticed the thing till he buys it!

Old records for $1

A guy bought the whole stack since they were so cheap

On my first day, I had a partner, Dennis, to show me the ropes, he’s been doing this job for years.. and he also volunteers as a radio DJ on Sundays, playing oldies! Super cute guy, he taught me a lot about records and music from the ages past that day.

So this lady came in and saw me, and said (very very slowly) “Oh!... its… good.. that.. you’re… working here… You.. can.. learn.. English.. from Dennis!” 

I didn’t know what to say so I just smiled. 

The following week when I worked on my own, she came in and asked again about my English or something.. so I politely told her that English was my first language. So then she suggested that I could volunteer as a translator or English teacher to some chinese boys who need help.. and I was actually quite interested in it, but then I realised that she was trying to set me up with some ‘good chinese boys’. 

Sigh, can I not be volunteering for any reason apart from I just want to?

Today I had a really good day, where everything I displayed on the window sill sold!

Some Singapore souvenirs around the store.. erm I can only say.. thats why they ended up in an op shop?

I had wanted to take a picture of this pumpkin bowl all morning but didn't have a chance to.
I decided it was my last chance when a customer bought it, thus it is all wrapped up in a box ready to go home :(

Best buy today: The sugar and milk jug for $4:)
They match my expensive jug perfectly!

Tassie Tales #5

Still on the topic of housewives:
I've come to the realisation this week, that most people can't respond normally/appropriately when I tell them that I'm a housewife.. simply because they do not know how to! Their natural response is to go all tongue-tied and try to awkwardly change the subject or go the other extreme - start babbling alot and all at once. I'm only too familiar with the latter - where my brain overcompensates when I'm caught in an awkward situation.

I've mentioned some common responses the housewives of the world get in my Tassie Tales #2 post, but some that I personally keep getting include:

1) So.. do you watch alot of TV shows? -- This is mainly from students, which I totally get, because as a student, I spent all my free time catching up on American TV. And this is so close to the truth haha.

2) Oh! You're a housewife. Erm.. Same as my MOM! (Yea, thanks)

3) You're very young to be a housewife! (erm... thanks?)

4) Lucky Elvine, he has someone waiting on him with dinner every night/someone to help him iron all his shirts. So.. what are you cooking tonight? (if you are reading this, please stop asking me what I'm cooking. I don't know either. And give Elvine some credit lah, he does not expect me to wait on hand and foot for him.. on the contrary he is happy to help with chores!)


So basically its easy for me to avoid such situations.. I could say I blog occasionally (no I wouldnt call myself a blogger), or I'm taking a sabbatical from work (the truth) or even I'm in between jobs. People are more familiar with such situations and are able to respond more appropraitely.
But for self-amusement, and the betterment of mankind (hahaha self believe), I will continue telling people I'm a housewife, so hopefully the next time they meet one, they can respond more appropraitely.


And for you, my dear readers. This, in my books, are some model answers:

1) Wow thats so noble. I read a study that housewives are the most underrated jobs ever. Did you know that your annual income is estimated at $xxxxx? (I'm sure I'm not totally making this up, but I'm lazy to go find the articles that support this)
2) Your kids/future kids could only be so lucky. Growing up, we couldn't afford for my mom to stay home, so our neighbour, who was a housewife, always had to step in to help. I don't know what we'd do had it not been for her.. (just... make up a story. I just wanna feel good heehee)
3) I don't know what your schedule is like, but I'd love to meet up for coffee/lunch! Are you available one of these days? (now I'm just desperate for company heehee! But I think if I were a stay home mom, all the more I'd like to be asked out!)

Basically, we both know how odd it is for me, a kid-less 25year old, to be a housewife. So more than likely, it wasn't by choice. Its OK to discuss that!
Also, there isn't anything wrong with being a housewife. At worst, it could be that I'm lazy (which isn't that bad). I don't genuinely think anyone thinks very badly of housewives, so just relax and stop fearing that I'll feel insulted! Speak to me like you would a normal 25 year old and we'll be all golden :) Oh and for the "model answers" above? A little flattery never hurt anyone:)



Anyway, my wedding is featured on Raspberry Wedding!
I've put off looking through wedding photos (how is it possible to have 5000 photos from one day!) and subsequently forgetting to blog about it, but Emma has done a wonderful coverage on our day, so pop over for a read!

And heres our highlights video!


Also check out a guest post I wrote on Chalkboard inspiration! No prizes for guessing which wedding I got it from!

Also, with igoogle set to close come 1st July, I set up a bloglovin link - Please follow my blog for updates!
It is able to import your google reader list for a seamless move.

Tassie tales #4

My lack of discipline on this blog has somewhat reflected my lack of discipline in actual life in my absence.

Since my last tassie tales update, I had decided to get back on the bandwagon since all the trips and distractions (and excuses) were over.
Well unfortunately I just found new excuses and reasons to stay away. It was just easier to not think.

The last month or so saw me sleeping in till late most days and spending most of the afternoon mulling around in my pjs+robe, then randomly throwing something together just in time for dinner.

The only sort of "achievement" I could boast being that I have watched 9 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, 8 seasons of HIMYM, 4 seasons of Modern Family.. and some random Korean soaps.
And after 9 seasons of Grey's, my only medical knowledge stands at: V-Fib, push 100 epi, charge to 300, clear, *bump*. So nope, can't even use that as an excuse of trying to learn more medical stuff to understand Elvine's work.

On the work front - still nothing. I have applied everywhere save for fast food joints. There just aren't any jobs. Lesser informed people say I should start a business - but thats because they haven't been here to see the closing down signs all over town. No, don't start about online businesses either.
I volunteer abit with church stuff and at a bookshop run by a mission and it helps pass time.. and I've even tried writing in to fashion stores to ask if I could have an unpaid stint. Still nothing.

I'm a retail assistant at a charity bookshop - more on this in another post:)

Elvine finally got us a new car - an automatic which I can drive, and it increases my convenience greatly, and I was happy to be able to go to the Chinese supermarkets. But it also means I don't walk anymore - it was my only form of exercise in the last 3 months, and frankly now I think also the one thing that reminded me to stay alive. (ok thats me being mad-dramatic. stay active. now thats better)

Bye manual car!

And hello automatic car!

And for the last time - I'm not pregnant lah! We also drive white SUVs at home, its just a preference don't overthink the changing from sportscar to family car!!


On the house front - I am increasingly feeling like a terrible wife. The first few months when housework and cooking was still new and fresh to me, I could dive in and treat it like a learning opportunity. Now they are what they are - chores.

My husband's shirts & pants don't have a line down them because I wouldn't spend anymore time ironing than I have to. When I'm uninspired I don't cook a proper meal, we make do with Sashimi & Soba. I hate housework and I procrastinate doing it all day. Until we have guests coming and I go full-on nazi mode. Am I a bad housewife, yes. Am I a bad wife? Some would say those two are the same question.

NIV Titus 2:5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 
NIV Ephesians 5:22-24 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 

Just to be clear, the bible does not say wives shouldn't work, nor does it say the wife should not work outside the house (The Proverbs31 woman was described as a Godly woman, and she was a merchandiser/property agent/vineyard owner/seamstress) but she should not be the primary breadwinner for the family and her work should not prevent her from carrying our her duties to her husband and family (which are, essentially managing the household, which includes having a clean, comfortable living environment)

I believe the Bible to be 100% true, and I do not believe that any teachings in there may be outdated and irrelevant to the 'times'.

Society has evolved to a state where women work as hard as men, we are not expected to be stay home moms. No, we are frowned upon if we are housewives, if we don't also bring home some dough. In fact, I've even rationalised with myself, that if I didn't work, I wouldn't be able to relate to my husband the way a working person, who faces challenges at work, could. And that wouldn't make a good wife, would it.
But on the other hand, I know I am being self-centred. There are rules for a husband, and rules for a wife in the Bible, and those are good rules. Is our evolved 'modern society' better than the old one where women didn't work?
I have been desperate to work, and desperate to go home so that I can work because God knows I love 'real work' over housework. And how annoying I must be, reminding Elvine every opportunity of just how much I'd rather be at work.
I do know, that most of what I'm feeling is self-pity. I am facing a challenge that God has put me to, but instead of facing it, I'm running. I feel like I deserve more, I feel like I deserve to be 'happy'. When in actual fact, I don't deserve anything. God has blessed so richly, and I'm grateful for everything I have, but I have done nothing but be an ungrateful brat.

If I had chosen to live life my way - who knows, today I might be an ruthless careerwoman, clambering over everyone to get up the corporate ladder, having no social life, no joy.
Instead at a ripe old age of 25 I am now a housewife in a quiet little town.
But God knows best and His plans are perfect.
Maybe He knew that for my marriage to succeed, He had to drag me out here into the wilderness to quieten my ambitious heart to learn to truly be a wife.

And so off I go now to iron some clothes - half-properly, because I really don't see a point in wasting tons of time on it - so that my time can be better spent elsewhere, another way to be a good wife yes?

Seeing the Doctor

***ALOT OF OVERSHARE IN THIS POST. BE WARNED ***


I have been to the doctor (and even a hospital!) more times in the last 3 months than I have been in the last.. 3 years in Singapore. Nope, no cause for concern, and all on unrelated matters but I have interesting experiences about them to share.


1) Lousiest GP ever

One morning I woke up with the worst cramps in the history of my 1/4century life. I literally broke out in cold sweat, I was shivering, and I couldn't stop hyperventilating. The hyperventilation lead to numbness and more trembling and shivering, and I was just so so scared. Somehow I managed to find my phone to text Elvine to come back (he works 5mins away) but he just told me to go eat panadol!!

Now I'm definitely someone quite the opposite of the boy who cries wolf when it comes to pain tolerance. I've had doctors ask my mum/aunt what took me so long to get to the doctor because I hate going to the doctor and would sit there hoping the pain would work itself out.
So when I told Elvine to come back I fully expected him to... but he did not. I think its probably only the 2nd time in the 8years I've known him that he really disappointed me. His defense was that as a doctor he didn't think it was a life threatening problem (actually alot of doctors I related this story to had the same reaction. but I still insist I was really dying!)

Anyway, after the call, I went to elvine's medicine cabinet to find panadol - but my vision was hazy so I spilled the entire contents on the floor. All his medicines are in those plastic pouches (you know from a gp) and this girl here only knows panadol in its red&white box (I don't normally take medicine) so it took me awhile to find it, blurry vision and all.
Then I brought it to the kitchen to get water to take it with, and found myself too weak to do that, and collapsed on the floor. So I decided the kitchen wasn't the safest place for me, because it was tiled while the rest of the apartment is carpeted. So I crawled to the living room, and eventually into the toilet where I put the shower head on my tummy and ran scorching water on it. I must have passed out or fallen asleep or something, because I woke up a while later still sitting in the toilet with running water - but luckily the pain was gone! When I checked my phone, it had been half an hour since my text to elvine.

So though I felt fine, I was traumatised and knew I needed a doctor. I was gonna just run down to the GP but elvine told me that to see a GP here I needed to make an appointment. And the earliest they could fit me in was the next day.

The GP was housed INSIDE a pharmacy.
And no I did not feel so much better.
I felt so bad I have an entire blog post dedicated to it!

OK so fast forward to the consultation room. Doc asked whats the problem, and I presented my prepared speech (Despite having an appointment, I was still kept waiting for a long while and had time to think up my speech)

Me: Firstly before we begin, I have these insurance forms that you'll need to fill in. And today I come to you with 2 problems, 1) I had very very bad cramps yesterday, which has never happened before so I thought I should check it out, and 2) I've been having a recurring UTI which I hope you can look into.

*sidenote: Ever since our honeymoon I've been having stupid bouts of UTI, its apparently really common in girls but its annoying and I really hate the drink. I wasn't actually down with it during the time of the GP visit, but since I was already there I thought I should just do a test.

And lo and behold, the doctor replied:
Ok lynn, before I begin, I have to let you know that we only have you down for a 15min consultation.
So you will have to choose. Do you want me to fill in these forms, or treat your problem A or problem B.

I was taken aback because hello? 15 min consultation block? And I must choose?
I didn't specify when I called to make the booking, apparently if I had so many problems I should have informed the nurse I wanted a 30 min or 45min slot. Now how am I supposed to know how long the doctor takes?
Btw, 15min consultation = $72, 30 min consultation = $144 and so on. No its not some high-class raffles medical grp type GP. Its just a very normal one and these prices are apparently very average.

And so I told the doctor, that the insurance forms were for my claims, so he could do them tomorrow or over the weekend or when he was free and just send it in for me. If he didn't fill them in, I couldn't make a claim = I cant see him.
So he took over the form and started filling them in very reluctantly.

Then when we finally got to the consultation, and I had explained in length on BOTH conditions, he had one thing to say.

"So, you don't actually have any problems right now."

I mean, technically, yea. My UTI had stopped, and my cramps were the day before. And the only reason why I wasn't in the day before was because they had no appointment slots!
And anyway who goes and sees an expensive doctor for.. fun?

So anyways after much (fake-cheery) bantering, I got him to do a urine test for me. He gave me the form and asked me to go to Pathology myself! I stared at him blankly because in Singapore the doctor sends it out for you, so he took me outside and handed me over to a nurse. Anyway the nurse said they could send it out for me, which is the option I chose, which also turned out to be an extra $72 compared to $18 if I had marched my pee over to the pathology clinic myself - well expensive tuition!


So my test results came back as inconclusive because of contamination. And the very brilliant advice I got from the GP? He suggested (with some tact, of course, though I still had trouble not wincing) that I was having too much sex (because I'm a newly wed and all), which meant a couple of different viruses met each other and thus I had contaminated pee. (This turned out to be absolute bullshit)
I thought it sounded weird but hey, he's the doctor right? But just to play safe, I had him print out a copy of my test results to take to Elvine.

Elvine's first reaction was: Oh contaminated, you need a retest! (which is, the right thing to do - he went back to the hospital to check with his colleagues)

The story goes on for alot more but I'm tired of talking about the GP's incompetence, and I'm sure you're bored of this story already. So last complaint: About my insurance - I wasn't able to make any claims. Because under "when did these symptoms start", the doctor wrote "According to the patient, she said last Dec". And that was before I took out the insurance.

Thanks alot, doc.


2) Mole removal

So I noticed that I had a mole on my finger (and it was growing, which satisfied some cancerous mole conditions and was thus cause for concern) so elvine made an appt for me with the plastics clinic. I was getting plastic surgery!!

Ok so it really wasn't a big deal, or any deal at all, but first visit was the consultation, where I had to fill in a 4 page long booklet for surgery pre-admission.

Then on actual surgery day, I had to go in at 745am to get prepped. A whole long process where I shake my head to every single medical condition they can name - Some were very important, eg history of allergies, esp to anesthetic drugs, but some were really weird like, do you have tooth fillings? - down to dressing up! or down for that matter..

The full works: Hospital gown (backless for easy removal!), shower cap, booties, wrist & ankle tag!

The whole time I was joking with the nurses - but they thought it was funny too because everyone knew I was there for a mole removal. on my hand. but I had to follow all protocol anyway.

Then when I got to theatre (lucky I didn't have to be pushed in - that would have brought ridiculous to a new level) I had to lie down on the surgical table, and there was a little plank hanging out of the side for me to rest my right hand. Then they sterilised my entire arm and draped me all over (really like in tvshows!), exposing only my hand.

The actual thing was over super quickly - mole removed and dunked into some liquid (maybe saline?) to be taken to the lab for biopsy, and my finger was stitched back up - cool trivia, the 'thread' will be dissolved into my body! so no need to remove.

And tada - big bandaged finger as my battle scar. I actually joked with the surgeon about my battle scar, and he told me with a straight face, that if a scar is what I wanted I was with the wrong surgeon. "plastic surgeons dont like scars". Cheh no sense of humour.

Oh and after you're done, you get a drink and a biscuit! Or yoghurt or fruit. Just like when we were kids and got a little sticker after visiting the dental truck!




A week after, I went in again for a post-op consult, all was good, I'm cancer-free yay.
As expected my wounds don't heal the best (I still have leg scars from when I was a child, and scars of every single acne spot I've ever had in my whole life), and none of the exposed thread had dissolved yet, but its just a superficial wound and will go away in no time:) Praise the Lord!

Two weeks after surgery

The stitches were originally covered in dried blood so I kept picking at them in the shower, and the stitches just started coming apart. So I just cut off all the stitches hahaha. So now I have a scab where the mole used to be :P

Tassie tales #3

I woke up today and realised its already April.. not in the literal sense (ok kinda) but in the.. I've-been-here-two-months-and-done-nothing!!! sense.

Yes I have fallen into some kind of routine with my home-making duties, and I could blame my terry cloth robe (Its like a robe that casts a laziness spell on you - Mark would understand) or the constant travelling for throwing me off (sidenote: I slept an entire day away upon returning from Singapore! I blame the jetlag and lack-of-sleep on the red eye flight) but I know the real blame lies in my lack of determination in getting out of this deep hole.

When I'm away I'm filled with all these ideas of what I could possibly do with my time - I want to do this and that and learn this and that but the moment I get back here I start wasting away again. Before I came, I was almost certain this would happen and I made myself a checklist of things to achieve by end of the year. Lets just say... there aren't any checked boxes yet.


So with all the travelling out of the way, save for a family visit end month (we can only travel on long weekends because elvine only gets one block leave this year so we're saving that for Wallace's wedding in Sept) I have come up with a simpler checklist to follow.


1) Do up a cooking plan once a week so I dont waste hours everyday googling what to cook!
2) Blog once a week, twice if I'm up for it
3) Limit reading (blogs/fashion websites) to before noon so I can do something more productive in the afternoon
4) Tidy accounts - something I've wanted to do since I got here but its just so difficult trying to figure out Elvine's salary packaging.
5) Volunteer more.
I tried looking into some jobs to do, but its proven extremely difficult because of how bad the economy is, so I started to look at volunteer positions, but out of 5 places I applied to, I only received one call - and its for only one day a fortnight.
6) Organise his family's trip itinerary - and also look up nice restaurants we could go to in future:)

A round up of some holidays:

9-11 Feb: Royal Hobart Regatta
We stayed in Hobart because it was the first week I was here but we had a nice long weekend at the festival.

9-11 March: Tassie Eight Hours day (or as the rest of the world calls it, Labour day)
We took a trip to Sydney!

13-25 March: Singapore+Malaysia
I went home for Toni's wedding which happened to lead on to church camp so I stayed on for that:)

29 March - 2 April: Easter super long weekend (Good Friday till Easter Tuesday!)
We took a trip to New Zealand with transits in Melbourne both ways.

And coming up on 25 Apr is Anzac day but we'll be somewhere in Tassie with our family who are here for the (real) labour day holiday!

Tassie Tales #2

Week 4 update:

I've definitely settled in now - so its time to get organised.
I've cleaned up/arranged most things but there is the hugest elephant in the room that still requires fixing. The larder. But.. that shall wait till I get back from Singapore armed with some plastics! (like shelves/boxes and other necessary things)



International Women's Day

Today being International Women's day, I stumbled upon a couple of articles along the lines of "10 worst things to say to a stay-at-home mom".
I compiled a few most common ones below. While I'm not a mom, I've been a stay home person for a month now, and I can now totally understand a stay home mom's frustration when she hears the following lines:

If you are thinking 'some of those questions are quite ok what', firstly, be ashamed of yourself.
And secondly please go google up some of the responses mummy bloggers have to these questions and self educate.


Facebook

Because I have so much time on my hands (ok I'm not a mum I do actually have alot of spare time) - I did some housekeeping on my Facebook friend list. It led to a couple of thoughts.

Firstly, the shocking number of true acquaintances I have (the I've only met you a couple of times in a social situation but don't know anything about you apart from your name kind; not the we were friends from school but havent kept in contact kind)
I mean, yes it is to be expected with $1.3K friends, but I've always thought I was somewhat selective with who I added (its not a proud thing at all.. more a privacy issue. see point 2)..e.g. I rarely add back people I meet at social events/conferences. When I do, its normally if we have a few of common friends, and I think I see them enough in my social circles to make rejecting a friend request awkward.  But I still managed to find a few people whom I could not recall at all, not even with 10 mutual friends! Need to be even more careful from now on I guess!

Secondly, the need for privacy. When I started blogging I really just said everything on my mind, bitched about any organisation I wanted and updated on every.single.little happening in my life - that when I look at my archives I really writher at just how foolish (or brave?) I was! After I started working (especially so because it is a mostly girls environment) I learnt to watch my tongue a little more (though I still fail miserably many times) and gradually I no longer felt the need to update the world on everything.

Anyway this may sound weird to you, after all this privacy talk, that I've decided to let my blog be a public space. People are free to share and link my posts, and onus is on me to be selective with what I rant about here.
But Facebook protects my family and friends.. and realtime updates increases risk factors such as.. my current location and who I'm with etc.
And therefore, privacy level Facebook >> Blog.


Telemarketers
Telemarketers here are different from Singapore's - where its usually credit card or insurance companies. Here you get calls asking for donation, or blood (eg red cross), or to sign up with a new telco etc. Worst one I got so far:

me: hello..
lady: hi can i speak to your mom or dad
me: erm who is this?
lady: this is XX from XX
me: sorry what is this regarding?
lady: (rudely) ok look can you get your mom or dad to the phone
me: erm they don't live here.
lady: i'm looking for a mr or mrs neo
me: oh this is mrs neo
lady: oh i'm so sorry about that! im blahblah etc calling regarding windows software
me: oh we don't use windows
lady: oh you mean you dont have a computer at home? like you know, windows computer?
me: no.

Had she been more pleasant I might've been nicer and just explained that all 3 of us use macs but..
i mean sorry, i really don't sound that young. (plus i put on this irritated 'hello' whenever i pick up the landline because its 90% of the time its a telemarketer - ie i probably sound quite mature...-ish) and erhrm, what kind of windows software salesperson isn't aware that there are alternative operating systems? dont use windows does not equal no computers ok!

hahaha. and just in case - i'm not an apple elitist!! when this mac dies i'm probably switching back to windows anyway.


and tomorrow we go to sydney!
then i'll be home for toni's wedding + church camp:)