Archive | January, 2015

The Reluctant Candy Crusher?

22 Jan

The last several weeks, I have been so derailed by Level 758 of Candy Crush, I was quite reluctant to play it. It was so hard to pass this level, I knew I’d just end up frustrating myself. The other games have progressed well, Level 159 for Candy Crush Soda and Level 646 for Farm Heroes,

But on Sunday, whilst waiting for the family to get ready to go out for lunch, I thought I’d give Candy Crush a try. And voila!

Not only I passed it, I even conquered the equally difficult Level 765 and have marched on to the chapter, Eggnog Emporium, now at Level 776. Maybe it’s good to step away for a while, recoup and try again.

A Birthday and A Blundstone

20 Jan

Monday was a good day. Two significant things happened; one being my parcel from Blundstone arrived from Tasmania, Australia when I least expected it. What can I say? Customer service at its best here. Thank you!

The second being my M1 turned 18 years old.

Gosh. Wasn’t it just yesterday I was seated at the sofa in mom and dad’s home watching Mulder and Sculley in action in yet another weekly X-Files TV show? Then I had my contractions. Uh-oh… It’s time.

The next thing I knew, I was at the hospital, ready to welcome my firstborn. Scared, excited, anxious, nervousness all rolled in. Hubby was like, “Don’t breathe that in!”

That, being the laughing gas. I was in too much pain then to curse him and passed the point for an epidural (I did, cursed him that is, the second time around when M2 came along). Then wham, bam, kabam, we became parents to a 3.04kg bundle of joy. Wow.

The last 18 years has been a roller coaster ride. The many emotions felt dealing with a very strong minded child… yet despite the challenges, we have been very blessed with a very smart child.

All grown up now and ready for college and the world. I can just feel another white hair readying itself to sprout out from my crown…

Okay enough, I am going bawl my eyes out.

The parcel arrived!

The parcel arrived!


So exciting!

So exciting!


Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

The Joy of Driving, Part 1

19 Jan

Towards the end of last year, M1 started driving lessons. Soon she will be able to drive and take us out for a spin. She was telling us, over dinner one night, her experience on the road. In short, she thought it was scary.

And this reminded me of my time when I first drove in town after returning from college. Unlike her situation on a crowded road, mine was in a parking lot in a very crowded area. It may have been dinosaur years ago but I still remember vividly, I was parked on a roadside downward slope and had to reverse out from the parking spot. In short, I thought this was scary.

I couldn’t coordinate the clutch and the accelerator well and was revving up a storm. MY little manual car died several times. Embarrassing! And when it didn’t die, it hardly moved and beads of sweat were building up on my forehead!

Thank goodness, that moment was short-lived (but felt like forever) and I survived to tell the tale. Well, I hope M1 would overcome her scary moments and enjoy driving well into the future. She sits for her driving exam today after clocking in enough hours in lessons.

Insomniac Maniac

16 Jan

Lately I have been having sleepless nights. Hubby accuses me of my obsession with my games more than anything else. Day and night, I am at it on the iPad or the laptop. But of course, the stubborn me begs to differ and refuses listen to him, therefore the sleepless nights persist.

The fact that I cannot pass Level 130 of Candy Crush Soda for so long is eating my nerves like crazy! Nights when I resist the iPad, I end up reading and it’s two books at one go: an old Nora Roberts title and a new Jennifer Probst’s. The voracious reader in me just can’t read one title, it has to be two. The things I do to myself!

Finally, I managed to cross Level 130. And it was in the office during lunch time. But the success came with a price: I had to use my gold bars, twice, because I was so close yet so far, I couldn’t just waste the sudden breakthrough. I am now at Level 143.

Hopefully, no more being an insomniac maniac from here on.

Should I Be Worried?

15 Jan

It’s been a week already and the Blundstone parcel has yet to arrive. Should I be worried? Should I write back to Customer Service to inquire? Will I sound too anxious or silly if I did so?

Maybe it’s not their fault. It could be the courier service or even the customs holding back the box for inspection. To be fair to Blundstone, they have already done a great job to make a customer (me) happy by sending a replacement pair of boots without questions. To give the situation the benefit of the doubt, maybe I should just drop them an email to just ask nicely for the tracking number of the parcel.

I realized I shouldn’t be too impatient and should first trace back the email before doing anything rash. That was when I saw my mistake.

Oops. My bad.

This is so embarrassing. In my excitement, I read that the parcel will arrive in two to three days’ time when in fact it was to take this length of time to prepare the shipment to send out; the parcel will actually take two to three weeks to arrive. It is indeed silly me, worrying for nothing! Haish…

Back to School

13 Jan

After a long school holiday break, it’s back to school but only for M2. She went back to school yesterday. She has had a pretty non-productive holiday in my opinion, watching her videos and shows online every single day.

When she is not doing so, her iPod is perpetually stuck on her hands either for her to listen to music or to play games. While she may find this a good way to lull her time away, I still feel it’s unproductive; unlike M1 who came to the office to work for me to learn some responsibility and earn some pocket money at the same time.

Well, then again I cannot fault her for we never went anywhere after the Bangkok trip. The most is to the mall on weekends. So I am glad school has reopened and our lives will be back to the normal routine.

A Matter of Time

12 Jan

I knew it was bound to happen and a matter of time before I made it pass Level 755 of Candy Crush. The game felt easier to handle. Also, I have progressed on to Level 634 for Farm Heroes and Level 130 for Candy Crush Soda. The mojo is back.

True enough. Within a few shot effortless games several nights ago, I made it! I am now in Chewy Citadel at Level 758.

Treasures Found

9 Jan

With M2 and her cousin in my office, I was kept busy. During their first two weeks, I shared with them some basic graphic design knowledge just so they understand what we really do. Hubby, for his part, taught them office administrative duties. Then the next two weeks, both girls worked on emptying my store room that has accumulated twenty years’ of printed work! Along the way, they found some treasures: photos from the pre-digital era!

Oh. My. God. Such classics – our wedding photo, M1 when she was a toddler, bad hair days captured in time, the twins when they were young, my Dad. The two girls certainly had a good laugh over these antiques while I was pleasantly surprised they found them.

It made me realize we should make a stronger effort to take better care of printed photographs. Not only that, we should have some favorite pictures framed and put on display to remind us of the treasured moments. Otherwise it will be forgotten.

As we are now in the digital age, a lot of moments are captured but never printed. They are then stored in a mobile device, hard drive, computer or iCloud and hardly looked at again. It is always put off for when we ‘have time’ to do so.

Think about it, how often do you find yourself scrolling or searching your device looking for that one particular treasured moment? Sometimes you cannot even find it from the thousands of photos stored! How would someone else know what treasures you store in the photo album of your device? Nobody knows except you. This whole scenario makes me rethink my life in all the photos captured digitally.

It was a good decision then to have them clean out the store room for we may have totally lost these forgotten classic photos.

Chat

Are Journals Dead?

8 Jan

It is several days into the new year and every time in the year prior, I would debate whether to get a good old physical journal or diary to document the coming new year. This year hubby ‘decided’ for me and gave me a leather orange diary which he received from TNT, our business partner. And like every year, I would contemplate should I use one or not.

Last year, I got myself a small little Moleskine diary which sadly, I used only to keep a record of all my passwords for things that require remembering passwords. Frankly, between the Calendar, Notes and Reminder apps in my iPhone5S and iPad Mini plus my daily blogs, there is no more need for a journal. Accessing and documenting information is always at my fingertip with hardly a stretch of my hands to my ever close-by devices. The diary however, has become an obsolete object or relic of sorts, because it is always in the handbag, office bag or at home, untouched.

But the orange TNT diary is rather beautiful looking. Maybe I will transfer all my passwords from the Moleskine to the new TNT diary. After all, I did the same the year before, transferring all these information from an earlier diary to the beautiful Moleskine.
Journal

Customer Service at Its Best

6 Jan

After I posted my Blundstone boots issue on their Facebook page in December, guess what? There was a response. They replied to my post by providing an email and request that I email to their Customer Service and a rep will be contacting me to assist with my inquiry directly.

With this positive lead, yesterday I emailed to their Customer Service to highlight my plight. Honestly, all I wanted to know is how or where I can get original soles to replace the damaged ones to salvage the boots because throwing away (the boots) was not an option.

But they provided more than a solution! They replied to my email within a few hours, explained a little bit on Hydrolysis (which was what happened to my boots) and asked me for my shoe size, confirming again the shoe style (model) and requested for a mailing address so that they can send me a spanking new pair of replacement boots! No questions asked, no investigation, no query. Super wowzer! How about that? I was ecstatic!!!

This is definitely customer service at its best for I never expected such an outcome. Hats off to you, Blundstone!!!

I received notification this morning that the parcel is being despatched today and it should arrive in two to three days’ time. I await for the arrival of my new Blundstone Style 550 eagerly. Be still my beating heart!
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