Simple Pleasures

Stress for the past few weeks has gone up the notch eversince our landlady gave us a month's notice of vacating our rented flat. She needed to leave her parent's home due to some serious family issues and thus, she decided to go back to the house. Though we are sympathetic with our landlady's predicament, we had to face the fact that we have to find our new abode sooner than expected.

We found this particular flat a little over two years ago at the beginning of the real estate boom in Singapore. Also, This is the time when the Filipino population in Singapore increased due to EPEC, which alllows foreigners to stay in Singapore for one year while searching for a job. As such, the influx of foreigners increased the demand for rentals and tenancy in the island, which increased the property prices and rentals between 30-50%. Before, people claimed that you can rent a 3 bedroom flat in Woodlands below SGD 1,000 (approx Php 30,000). When we found our flat in Sembawang, it was SGD 1,300.

My friends wondered why we picked Sembawang, in the north part of the island that takes approximately 15 minutes for a commuter bus to arrive at our bus stop to the nearest train then an hour-long commute to get into the heart of the city. HDB flats (government developed buildings similar to tenements in FTI) in Sembawang are recently developed, quieter, peaceful and cheaper. We had viewed a couple of flats near city limites but never failed to disappoint us.

Choosing a flat is like a relationship. You have your own set of standards in choosing your own place to stay. If the one you viewed had failed to live up to your expectations, you would not probably want to have them. And then there are those what you call "exceptions". These ones you fell in love with despite of all the parameters you have set for yourself. And this is how it happened when we found our lovely place in Sembawang. Despite the lengthy commute, we fell in love with the place. The moment our agent took us inside the flat, I couldn't say anything but "I love this place." My friend, Charl, who eventually became my roomie, agreed with me.

And for the next two years, it served as our humble abode. Even with those lengthy commutes that made us late for work, we hardly complained. Our visitors, which are few, is always amazed how we found this place. It's a bright and spacious enough for two (then, three) of us. and as gratitude to our landlady, who chose us despite of bigger bids, we made sure we keep the flat clean and orderly. For this place that is worth a gem, it deserves a tenant that recognizes its value.

And after our two year love affair in this place, it is time to move again. We have found a smaller place in Hougang, which is slightly expensive but just 15 minutes away from where we work. Another journey begins for all of us but we will never forget our old home in Sembawang.

This the most awesome video I saw today. I thank JohnnyB for sharing. Facebook done wonders keeping people in the radar with new stuff and whatnots. Neil Patrick Harris is truly legen..... wait for it..... dary!!!!!! Enjoy!

In times when your life has gone lightning speed, you needed to adjust yourself to keep up with the pace. You learn a lot of things. Learning is not supposed to be bad. It makes you more capable and do great stuff. And when people do great stuff, they feel good about themselves.

But there is such thing as the virtue of unlearning the things you have learned. It is like going back to basics. You need to know how to build and do things the old fashioned way. Not only you gain appreciation of the things why you had to do it the other way but it also open doors for other things which you can do.

I have always wanted to be a mobile person where I can work remotely anytime and anywhere. Technology in Singapore has enabled me to become the most mobile person I can ever be. I learned how to email through my PDA, retrieving my plane ticket through mobile internet, blogging in a coffee shop, reading e-PDFs in my laptop on my cab ride to work, answering customer queries while riding the train. But when my PDA got broken, I had the opportunity of unlearning being online all the time. Instead, I had to ensure the idea of being offline for a short period of time. This gave me time to think about myself and other finer things in life while in transit or out of office. I enjoy reading my books in a long train ride to work. I learn how to be patient. I learned not to be tense and jump at the next phone call from customer. I learned to pace myself being work and outside work.

It's never too late to unlearn. You better ask yourself, what is that one thing you want to unlearn.

It has been long since my lips has touched a glass of margarita. The last time is when I was in Gerry's alabang with my high school friends having our usual Saturday night outs. I have never liked margarita because it has the bitter after taste of tequila, which is my least favorite among my preferred poisons.

Ever since I moved to Singapore, I made a conscious effort not to spend money to get myself wasted. This explains why I have dramatically changed my way of life. Gone are the days when I frequent watering holes and bars drinking with friends and be merry.

But three weeks ago when Charlotte gave her birthday bash to her very intimate and closest friends (which includes me), we went to Botak Jones and drink their house margaritas c/o Brewsky Jones, the in-house bar sitting in the same roof as Botak Jones. Jojo and I have been raving about Botak Jones because of it's dirt cheap. Where can you find good steaks valued less than 20 SGD and serving San Miguel Light on the side for 5SGD/each from a bucket of 4? Also, I have been curious to try their margaritas.

And true enough, we had our share of Brewsky Jones' Frozen margaritas. It was the greatest margaritas I have ever tasted. True value of money! The strong taste of tequila is not there either. I can even chug the whole pitcher if I want to. And from the moment, I have always been taking a trip down to Braddel for the past three Fridays and have my fill of those margaritas. It has been helping me de-stress after being in a stressful mode for the past few months. It is the only time for me to forget about work and other things that I hate which are too many to mention right now.

I think I have to re-institutionalize my drinking habit once more starting with Margarita Fridays.

I read an interesting article about "How IT Job Wears Your Body Down" and I decided to change the title a bit because I think IT Jobs can kill people. It may sound pessimistic but I feel that my job is killing me slowly, where I draw this pleasure of being the masochistic slave worker.

Maybe someday, I will need to switch jobs. Maybe I can take up waitressing jobs or cleaning building windows for my next career \but I need to recover from my future Musculoskeletal disorders.

To read this article, go to : http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/151763-1/how_that_it_job_wears_your_body_down.html

I used to be a fan of little transparent glass trinkets given out during weddings or displayed in armoires. But after yesterday, I had a different experience with these "trinkets" after our cab ride from IMM. We rode this cab full of these not-so-little glass trinkets on the car dashboard and back panel behind the passenger's seat. Most of these trinkets has LED blubs to goes on-and-off similar to christmas lights, only powered by the car battery. Can you imagine the patience of this guy wiring all these trinkets? There is even a centerpiece, which looks like a mini version of the ball that falls off during new year in times square, hanging from the rear view mirror.

At first, I found it very cute to see something flashy. However, sitting inside the cab in the dark with all the lights flashing before me gave me a nasty migraine. Even looking outside the window, we can still all the little twinkling things within our peripheral vision. We patiently waited for the cab to arrive at our place and calmly talked to each other out of not throwing up inside the cab.

After the dizzying travel with the "carnival" cab, we criss-crossed our way through the lift, relieved to know that we have finally escaped the wrath of the dashboard trinkets.

Lesson learned: Do not underestimate the power of the trinket with LED lights powered by car battery. One alone can be deadly enough.

Jojo and I went out for a date at Marche in Vivo city. It's been a while since we have gone out on a real date after Jojo moved to Sony for work and I became busy for Friday nightcaps.

We queued up at 815pm on an empty stomach. Fortunately, one waitress in her swiss maid dress was going around serving almond raisins and mini watermelon/orange coolers for waiting customers. Of course, Jojo and I indulged ourselves with the free food.

After consuming so many almond raisins for the past 40 minutes, we finally got ourselves a table. I immediately went to the Rösti stand to order my serving of Rösti with Chicken cheese sausage on the side. Jojo helped himself with a plate of savoury crepe with mushroom, ham and chicken.

We went back to our tables and ate our meals with gusto. I am guessing that either we were so happy to find ourselves eating after waiting for so long or the food is simply great. We can't seem to get enough that Jojo ordered some sirloin steak while I shared with him my four scoops of Mövenpick ice cream.

And while all of this is happening, I can't help gushing at the idea of being out on a date. It does pay to make an extra effort to make time for each other despite of spending almost each waking moment together. We agreed that we will do this more often to keep the "fire" alive and burning. What can I say? I love this guy for being so sweet.