Valen’s Vanity Square

Oh dear, 5 days to the end of 2011 and the beginning of a new year! And we haven’t got our big plan out yet! By big plan, I mean money-making plan.

I have been nagging hubby for THE action plan since weeks ago. Still no sign of any thing!

This morning we heard on the radio of how some people managed to make their first bucket on gold in their early twenties. I don’t know how much does one bucket of gold represents. Let’s make a conservative assumption that it is equivalent to a hundred thousand bucks. Well, I’m not even half way there!

That’s why we need to get away from the city this CNY, and to a beach hotel that I like in PD. May be, without the noisy CNY songs (and relatives), we are able to come up with a good money-making plan. We certainly will not go into something heavy-duty such as selling restaurant supplies or baby strollers, but something light and small to start with… like… hmmm… what could it be…

Oh well, I’ll let hubby do the difficult thinking part first, I will crack my head when we are at the beach hotel …

It’s comfortable to be able to shower under water with just the right temperature, not too hot, not too cold. Yeah, I’m talking about the new shower water heater that we finally installed this afternoon.

However, the water flow seems a bit weak. I didn’t know if it’s due to the low water pressure or the fault of the shower head design.

Oh well, I’m a total home-DIY idiot, I don’t even know what bearings are supposed to do, so obviously I didn’t have the answer and had to voice out the problem to hubby.

According to him, it may be due to the absence of a built-in pump in the heater machine to produce a stronger water flow.

Hmmm, so the answer is: The water flow is weak because we bought a cheap model that doesn’t have a built-in pump. That is such a bummer! I thought I could finally enjoy good showers every night before going to bed. Looks like I have got the temperature, but not the flow!

The day after Christmas, seems to be a nice day to go for shopping or have a get-together with friends. But instead I’m sitting at home waiting for the delivery and installation of a water heater we ordered two days ago.

Yes, finally, we are getting a water heater for the bathroom in our bedroom! That is after 3 years we moved into this house.

If installing a simple, cheap water heater took 3 years to accomplish, imagine how many years I have to wait if I want to install tv mounts. Even the electric hair curler that hubby promised to buy for me - last year - is no where to be seen yet.

Oh my, it’s already 3 pm, and there’s still no sign of the water heater. Better call up the shop!

A Christmas weekend holiday and am sitting in front of the TV watching Anna Olson making Christmas desserts on Sugar, while half my attention goes to typing on the laptop to get some unfinished work done before work resumes on Tuesday.

(This makes working on a holiday a little bit ’sweeter’?)

And tomorrow, while it’s still an off day, it’s not a totally work-free day for me. I will be home-bound, catching up with office work, freelance work, house work.

This makes me wonder if I should actually consider getting an hourly maid to come in weekly to do the household chores. An easy way out for a lazy person like me, haha!

Of course, if we were to do that, it also means a higher monthly expenses for the household. And this, leads me to think if I should start to buy gold coins, a form of investment that I’ve been contemplating but have not done anything about it.

But let’s see what hubby thinks about this idea first. If he doesn’t agree - to either the gold coin or maid service - then he just have to bear the house cleaning responsibility himself. Haha!

(Too bad for him, he has got himself a lazy wife!)

Oh my gosh, less than a week to Christmas, two weeks to a whole new year! Eeeks, what have I achieved so far in 2011? I have not even found a Christmas tree (even if it’s a fake one) to decorate for this Christmas!

And soon, it will be CNY which calls for a spring cleaning of the house and lots of shopping. Will I have time to accomplish this ‘enormous’  task in the midst of heavy office workload and personal commitments? I really don’t know…

These days I’m just too mentally tired to do any physically-demanding chores during the weekends.

Same goes for hubby. He said he wants to replace all the low-quality switch plates (that originally came with the house) to new ones, but until today he hasn’t found the type of switch plate that he likes. Or more like, he hasn’t really make an effort to look for it!

Busy husband and wife (or lazy husband and wife?) - we do make a perfect couple! Haha!

Suddenly, I realised that I have been so occupied with office work, freelance work, travelling, shopping, eating, tv watching etc, until I have totally forgotten about a hobby that I started a couple of years ago - beading and jewelry making!

I have not touched for a year those boxes of stones and beads, including a collection of precious Swarovski Crystal beads that I bought online. Those expensive books on beading, hehe, are collecting dust in the bookshelves…

I have become a bead collector, rather than a bead jewelry hobbyist.

*Sigh* That just show how “hectic” my life is.

Another reason, I think, that has kept me from doing beading crafts is my deteriorating eyesight - my hyperopia seems to get worse these days (psss, after I started this current job of mine)!

Err, actually I can wear my glasses, right? Hehe.

Well, may be I should start picking up this hobby again; at least make use of all the beads I have (stock clearance!), so that they will end up as beautiful jewelry pieces and not just beads.

The trip to Bali can be considered as our anniversary honeymoon. Of course, besides that ‘fully paid’ holiday (by husband), I had personally requested for a 10th anniversary gift. It ain’t diamond, it ain’t jewelry, but an iPad! Wuahahaha!

I wanted an iPad mainly for Facebooking, internet surfing, watching YouTube videos and playing games. All for leisure purposes, not for work or any serious stuff of sort. Gosh, after working on the office laptop for 8 hours a day (excluding lunch time), who needs an iPad to do serious stuffs after work??

While playing games on iPad may not seem to look as good (or as fun) as playing with the latest wii black in colour, but since I’m more of a puzzle and board game person, I’m happy with iPad. And its screen is big enough for my poor eyesight these days. ^.^

Of course, a Christmas gift - a Wii console that comes with dancing or golfing games - is most welcome!

An overseas holiday is always tied up with lots of souvenirs upon returning.

Luckily things are cheap in Bali, hehe. I spent all cash that I brought, mostly buying stuffs for family members.

Souvenirs include Bali-produced coffee powder, t-shirts, womens sandals, cotton canvas bags, fridge magnets, multilayer cakes, and body scrubs. Hubby also bought a piece of canvas painting for house decor. I didn’t buy anything special for myself; whatever I bought for others, I get the same thing.

But I did bring back nice photos of the places we visited, and is currently concocting plans for our next Bali trip. May be next time we will chill out more at the private pool of a villa, or by the pool side and beach of a resort hotel. And, of course, to watch those gorgeous surfers riding the waves!

My past week was all about flying. Flew to Bali island for a short holiday, came back, unpacked, and repacked for a business trip to Singapore the next morning. Had not even warmed my bed before I got up and left!

But the holiday was relaxing, although a bit tiring due to the scorching hot weather there. I thought it was supposed to be rainy season, so said the weather forecast app on my iPhone and also travelling websites on the Internet. But I ended up two tones tanner, and it is so obvious - there is actually a dividing line on my chest. Dark above the tube top line, fair below. And somehow, I got this weirdly-shaped patch of darken skin tone right on the top of my right arm arm, near to the shoulder. I think it looks a bit like the edge of an umbrella. Haha!

But also during this trip, I think I triggered skin allergic reactions on my face. I suspect the culprit is the make-up remover facial wipe that I used in both Bali and Singapore. For the purpose of travelling light, I bought a small packet of facial wipe, some cheap unknown brand, from the pharmacy. Often, those products, sad to say, contain too much chemicals that are hostile to sensitive skin.

My face started to feel itchy and get mild red bumps on my last night in Bali, but it got more severe after I used it for the third time during my stay in Singapore. Yesterday, I had those eczema-like rashes all around my mouth.

With the help of medicine, the itchiness and rashes are now under control. But the skin where the rashes appeared is now turning dry and flaky. This needs about a week of very tender loving care to recover to its original healthy complexion.

The moral of this episode: my skin can’t take cheap skincare products.

(Now I have solid reasons to spend money on expensive cosmetic brands, haha!)