Blending Happy Call

HamsterVille.

It is time to clean the village as the smell is now noticeable when one goes to the service balcony. Yes, my PDA is alerting the notification too.

Got to get my hands dirty this weekend to clean the 9 cages we have at the balcony. Sigh... it is a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. Me!

I have to get my son to do it too... after all, it started off with his project gone berserk.

The phone rang early in the morning. It was my Mom...

"I need a new blender." She said. "Your Dad broke the old one and now I can't cook...." she paused and continued with a strain in her voice "he is trying to repair and use it back again."

"Oh. Was there any spark or any smell when it went dead?" I asked intently, "ask Dad not to use it or plug it in to try. It might catch fire."

"Imran said don't fix it..." with some murmuring over the phone, "don't plug it in!" she hollered at Dad.

"Why don't we go out an buy a new one," I suggested "that blender is quite old, right?"

"We have been using it for 5 or 6 year now, I think..." she was counting in her head, "back from when we were still living in Tampines."

I think the blender had given enough of its life-time contribution to the kitchen and the cook for the household, all those years. It is time enough for a new blender. The old blender from National is really a very good brand, surviving all these years.

So, HamsterVille has to wait. The town clean-up will just have to be done on Sunday.

Since I have been meaning to bring both Mom and Dad to the new and largest shopping mall in Singapore to date, it was the perfect time anyway.

Wifey had to tend to her shop and my son was just too tired after coming back from his tuition he started for the first time this year in the morning, at ACE in 201D Tampines Avenue 2, he gave this outing a miss.


So, it was just me and my parents to VivoCity this afternoon.

Mom wanted to take the cab instead of the convenient North-East MRT line. Guess she is a little self-conscious about sitting in a wheelchair locked in the centre of the carriage while surrounded by other commuters.

Well, it cost us S$16.80 which she was adamant to pay for when we reached VivoCity's 2nd floor taxi stand.

"Ahh... I feel free," she exclaimed once we were inside walking around the mall "it is as if I don't have any sickness." She smiled while her eyes looking around the bright new place. She felt a relieve, a liberation of sort from being cooped-up in the house for so long.

Dad just smiled while pushing her wheelchair, looking at the harbour out across the glass walls on the opposite side of the mall. "This place is huge!" Was the first thing he said.

"Let's eat first. I'm hungry. It there Yong Tau Foo here?" Was his second.


Yes, Banquet Food Court was at B2. My favourite place to eat too. Tom Yam Seafood Noodle flashed in my mind's eye.

Once seated, we all decided to eat Yong Tau Foo instead. At S$4.00 a bowl, a big bowl at that. .. it was totally filling. Sat there for some time talking while sipping coffee after our late lunch. It was a nice time as we enjoyed each other's company.

Then onward we went for the blender hunt at Best Denki on the 2nd floor. A huge electronics and electrical hyperstore which was my first time in there too.

"Everything is huge here... impressive!" Dad exclaimed with awe. Mom just nodded in agreement. I nodded too. It was huge for something like this in Singapore, though I have seen even bigger hypermarts while in the US.

We found the blender. They wanted Philips Twist Blender as what Sis has. At $39.00, model HR1707 has a 2-year warranty. It was quite affordable and my parents were quick to decide on buying it.

My parents had another item on their shopping list. They wanted a home-phone to replace the intermittent one they are already fed-up with now.

Yes! That reminded me too. The one at home had its 2nd cordless set hissing noisily and the sound has become pronounced, irritating the caller at the other end.

I was looking for something that has at least 3 handsets to put one in the bedroom, the Gym Room and in my son's room.

My parents had their hearts set on a Uniden Digital Cordless Phone model DCT746-2. Two Cordless Handsets with for S$128.00.

I found the Motorola Digital Cordless Phone model ME4052-3 practical for my home. At S$226.00 for three Cordless Handsets for everyone is ideal.

Each handset has its own phonebook, so apart from the common family and emergency numbers programmed-in, the handsets can each be as unique as the personal numbers of friends and others that are important to each of us.


I know my son will have his numerous numbers of friends from school and around the block, while Wifey will store-in her friends and business suppliers in her handset. I will store my office as well as personal friends' numbers in mine.

With the stored name of the caller flashing if he or she calls in, apart from the usual caller-ID... makes it even more convenient at a glance. At the same time, each handset is already programmed with each of our names displayed all the time. A cool and convenient gadget!

Coming back to shopping... My parents were so happy to just sit back and relax on the stone benches along the harbour watching the waves and ferries passing by.


Just soaking up the sea breeze. Watching the sun set, silhouetting the cable-cars and the cruise ships at HarbourFront International Cruise Centre until it was time to go home. Not before more photo taking with my PDA and Mom's cell phones.

Nice day spent with my parents outside... with new a gadget to play around at home now.


Oh yes! Tomorrow is Sunday!

Gothenborg World Voyage

A Friday's Surprise

Alright now...

I should not be posting something like this. It is kind of sensitive and may be inappropriate for blog. Not when my work is concern, but this is my daily journal. At least that is what I think I have been doing.

I will just have to keep it as publicly vague as possible.

We were expecting a long-time customer to visit us this morning. Talking about business and forecast for the year 2007. Another busy but manageable year at work hopefully.

The presentation slides were not as hard to prepare, but taxing enough as we can never read our management's mind of what they exactly want. The job was done anyway, and I think I did a good job at it too.

A shocking revelation came late morning though.

I received a call from my boss saying that the customers are pulling out by February after making a great let-us-down-gently speech of how efficient and pro-active we were supporting them all these years, but at the end of the day, it was not cost-effective to do it in Singapore anymore!


I had to lead them for asset sighting of all the equipment they have consigned to us to pull back in 2 months time. Sigh. Tall-tale signs are already there, subtle, but already there. We knew it. It was just a matter of time, and the time is till February.

After all were accounted for, and after the customers have left, we were left to rethink what is our fate going to be like. After all, this customer was quite a substantial one to us, economic-wise.

Next week and the weeks ahead will be a time to pick-up the pieces, some pieces will be a good fit, some may be thrown away.

Not a good start to the New Year with a revelation such as this thrown at us on the first week of a work year. Things were good a week before when I got a good increment on my salary. Sigh... the wheel keeps turning.

Well, that will not get me down. I have to re-consolidate my manpower... justify and redeploy the workload and hope new things come our way fast enough to justify everyone's existence in the company.

Everyone in the office was obviously feeling a little down. Most called it a day by 5:45pm and left.

I needed a fixer-upper while I re-evaluate my position and my career path in the company. It is a good company, no doubt... but just too stressfully dynamic this day and age where competition from China and India is getting stronger.

I stopped by Courts Superstore on my way back and bought nostalgic songs from several of my favourite artistes. Depeche Mode Collection was sadly not found.

Instead I got the Queen of Cool herself, The jazzy Sade with her The Best Of compilations in one CD. Many favourite songs here - Smooth Operator, Ordinary Love, The Sweetest Taboo... I can go on, but what exciting is to listen to her relaxing songs on my bus and MRT rides. Smooth songs from that sweet face.

A prized find CD, I could not let go even though the price tag was a tad higher at S$16.95, but worth it.

I also found my cutie yet suave lady singer Dido with her No Angel album, a collection of her bests including my all time favourite songs - Here With Me and Thank You. A Hong Kong pressed CD that cuts the price tag to only S$7.95.

Then another wacky, take-no-prisoner lady, Cyndi Lauper with her compilation of Twelve Deadly Cyns album. Will always listen intensely to her True Colors song even until today. Very good lyrics that I think many can relate to. That cost me S$14.95.

So, 3 CDs all ladies today. The ladies will serenade their songs to me tonight as I blog and rip them into MP3 format and load them to my Dopod C800 PDA. Wifey would be glad that I will be loading the songs into her Creative Zen MicroPhoto player too.

Ahh, the songs of yesteryear. The good old times... until next week.

Where're The Shoes?

Off it went. The alarm clock sounded on the dot at 6:15am in the morning.

Oh... what at nice morning. Still dark, cool and breezy. A nice morning to continue sleeping, that is. Yet, it was not to be. I have to be the responsible parent and wake up from my cozy bed and wake my son up to get him ready for his first day being Primary 6 student.

As he bathed, I made him hot a cup of hot Milo and took out his favourite pineapple-jam biscuits to dunk into his drink while he watches his morning cartoon before he heads out to take the morning bus at 6:50am.

All was fine. His bags packed, hankie in his pocket, money for his meals given and it was time to leave the home.

"Ayah... where are my shoes?" he asked while searching around the front door.

"Oh, your Mommy said she put it in the cabinet outside," I said casually "check it there."

"I have, but I don't see it anywhere," he said almost desperate sounding "I'm going to miss my bus!"

I looked around while praying hard in my heart that nobody actually took my son's brand new schools shoes from the unlocked cabinet outside. l had to wake Wifey up even though she was not feeling too well still.

"What?! That can't be! I placed it in the cabinet outside!" She said frantically and confirmed there was no new school shoes after checking the cabinet.

"OK, OK... where is the old pair? Just let him wear that for today" I suggested.

"I threw that away already..." Wifey said looking at me blank. "Somebody stole it?"

"Awww...." my son sighed almost shocked with his eyes and mouth wide open.

"No way," I said "no way you would put a new pair of shoes outside... People can take it just like his bike!" I rationalised. "You must have forgotten you put it somewhere else. Let's look for it around the house."

So all 3 of us searched for that white pair of Fila school shoes I bought for him a few weeks ago. We were getting desperate until Wifey found it under her SoHo table after she recalled hard.

What a relief... for all 3 of us!

"Ah... Ehm, how do I tie a knot?" My son retorted a question.

"What?!" I exclaimed and calmed myself down as I knew he always had Velcro-type shoes throughout his school-going life. This year is different as there was none for his foot size.

I had to teach him there and then at the front door, with the bus almost arriving. He was quick to know how it was done and off he finally went off... in time before his 7:00 am bus that came on the dot. Phew!

Like a zombie, Wifey went back to the bedroom and slept, while I resumed my morning ritual... gym workout! Yes!

Everything is back on schedule now. Ahhh... morning tranquility once again.

What an adrenaline rush! The gym workout I mean.