Shopping for the Little Ones
Before I had a child, I find it difficult to shop for baby shower gifts. Although there are a lot of choices ranging from baby necessities to niceties, I had no clue what is the best and reasonably priced out there.
Then I had a baby and all of a sudden, shopping for unique baby gifts become second nature to me. Knowing the needs and preference of the parents (usually the mom-to-be) and injecting some creativity, searching for the right gift becomes an enjoyable activity.
Our Dream Destinations
We will be celebrating our fifth year wedding anniversary this December. As it is timed with the Christmas holidays, which we will spend back home in the Philippines, we’re planning to have a simple celebration probably at a nice restaurant somewhere in the city.
I hope we can plan something more special on our tenth year. I was teasing my husband that a Europe trip would be nice and we can pick one of those romantic Venice hotels to stay in. There are so many beautiful places to choose from in Europe!
But other than Italy, we would also like to see Switzerland and Spain. I saw photos on the Internet and these two countries are equally beautiful and romantic. I can imagine Madrid hotels and Lausanne hotels to be as quaint and cozy. Hmm, it’s so nice to dream about that trip.
Hitting the Books
It’s a shame to admit it but the last time I picked up a book was November of last year. It was O’Kelly’s Chasing Daylight. It was the last time I ever read a book in a span of a day (in between my motherhood duties, that is). It was both enlightening and beautifully written that it was so hard to put it down.
It’s the busy-ness of daily life that keeps me from reading books these days. But I know if I want to, I can make time for reading. I really, really want to spend less time in front of the computer and I guess I can curb my Internet addiction through books. Hmm, what am I doing writing this post? I should dig my stack of reading materials now and see if I could find something interesting.
Smart Marketing
I’m not quite sure about the mobile service providers here in Sydney but back in the Philippines, the two mobile giants Globe Telecoms and Smart offer brand new phones under different packages. The phone unit itself comes cheaper because it is bundled with a service contract but the catch is the unit is ‘locked’.
In the event that you wish to transfer providers, you need an unlocked phone to do so. That’s shelling-out extra cash to have your phone access a sim card from another provider. It’s not to say that it is a bad promotion. These days, there are a lot of small businesses offering phone “unlocking” services back home. And I don’t think it’s expensive at all.
The OZ Adventure
We are bound to Sydney tomorrow after nine days in Perth. It is indeed a relaxing mini-vacation for me, with no worries of household chores and errands. The only weekend we got was maximized to see the beauty of Western Australia.
Our next target family trip is to visit Melbourne. They say that its city is more colorful, more vibrant than the city of Sydney. It will be exciting to experience the four seasons in one day, too!
For now, we have places in Australia in our travel plans. Since we are already here, we might as well take advantage of the travel opportunities. Paris or even London can wait. For now, we’re in for an Australian adventure.
The Worry-Wart Strikes Again
My earlier excitement on my photography classes has been replaced with jitters. I feel flitter-flutters in my stomach whenever I think of the class, whether my instructors will be nice, or if I will make friends there. It sounds funny but it’s just like attending my first day of school.
It doesn’t help that I still haven’t completed the requirements. After I enrolled, I received a welcome letter from the workshop center and it came with a list of must-bring for the classes. To this day, I haven’t bought a sturdier tripod and additional memory card as I only have 2 cards with 1GB each.
There is a photography accessories store in the city of Sydney that I heard offers the cheapest prices. If we won’t be able to go there this weekend, I will check out the Storesonline eServices. I hope the delivery charges are reasonable and the transaction safe. I haven’t shopped online in Sydney and if ever, it will be my first time to do so.
Now, just thinking about the shopping part excites me. It has been a while since I last bought a gadget to compliment my hobby. I better focus on shooting new photos with my new tripod to relax my nerves.
Living in Tough Times
I have heard about loan companies extending salary loans to eligible applicants. As any other kind of loans, this is both good and bad. These days when there are talks about the big “R” (recession as they call it) and companies folding up, many employees can benefit from payday loans.
However, knowing that there is a fallback in the form of loans can also be a negative thing. Instead of taking measures to manage the finances better, there is that temptation to simply pick up a loan and wait for the next payday to cover for it.
There are companies out there, which limit the borrower to take up loans for emergency cases only. I think this is a good idea to inject some form of discipline to the borrower. I’m sure that many companies out there do not care about the purpose of the loan. What’s important to them is that they charge interest and there are collaterals they can get a hold from the borrower later on.
An extreme case of this is what they call loan sharks in Singapore. These are lenders who extend money usually to gamblers. Once the gambler is neck-deep in debt, these loan sharks will do anything even as far as vandalizing your own home just to threaten the borrower to pay. But then again, this is an extreme case.
[WW] Winter’s Last Hurrah
“Soon all the old leaves will be gone and new ones will come. Such is life.”
It’s the last month of winter in Australia. We’re looking forward to spring!
I have another wordless here. 
Knowing When to Get Help
When I hear real life stories of people who go through pain pill or methadone addiction, a lot of “whys?” come to mind. Why do they want to resort to drugs? Why do they want to make their lives more difficult? Why won’t they seek help?
I know that not everyone is equipped with wisdom, courage and faith to go through life’s problems. But they should realize that painkiller addiction cannot and will never take them out of their predicament. There’s family, friends, even counseling services that can provide genuine support.
Illegal drugs are never our allies. I wish those drug pushers and manufacturers get the punishment they deserve. Like what my post title says, know when and where to get real help.
Life in Full Circle
From time to time, my husband and I talk about our daughter’s college education. Although it is still far-off, this topic is very important to us (or any parent for that matter) that we build our initial plans this early so that they will form as a guide when the time comes for our child to enter the tertiary level. We usually discuss about education plans, possible schools of choice and our means to assist her needs by then.
Usually, at the tail end of our conversation, both of us will let out a sigh and somehow feel the fears of “letting go” of our child. She would have learned to do certain things on her own. She should be driving her own car and owning one if not two college student credit cards that will be her backup for emergency expenses.
It will be a happy and sad time for us, as a family I’m sure. Planning for the financial aspect of sending our child to school is just one side of the coin, I should say. But dealing with the major changes, the separation, the typical worries, the adjustments, will all be part of yet another major phase in a family’s life.
A Bitter Crunch
In the news just the other day, the popular coffee chain, Starbucks is closing a lot of its branches here in Australia. It comes as no surprise to us, with the expected economic slowdown. However, what comes to mind are those people who will soon lose their jobs.
It’s as if it’s not enough that many of them are working hard to survive day to day along with paying-off existing loans or already working on credit repair schemes. Although the employment rate remains stable, it is still no guarantee that these people will soon be out of credit.
No one knows how long this economic downturn will be. Companies offering credit repair services should be very busy these days assisting more people ease out of the financial crunch through bad credit repair programs.
I think all of us should be more proactive when it comes to managing our finances. We may have different priorities in life and different standards of living, but the bottom line is, we should live according to our means. It is very tempting to brush aside the future and enjoy what we have now but with our family in mind, the fear of another recession coming wakes us up to reality.
The Good Hair Gene
Many people take note of my daughter’s thick hair. She has had that since she was born. She must have gotten that from my side of the family with my siblings and I having very healthy, thick and brown-black strands.
The upside of that is I was able to put cute ribbons and clips on my daughter’s hair. It was almost like dressing up a doll even when she was an infant.
One downside though is that I can’t let her hair down. They would be covering her face and that makes her really uncomfortable. She would use both hands to uncover her face and even with really short hair, she would do that.
But I’m not complaining though, I read in a parenting magazine that one of the signs of good health is healthy hair. I hope she carries on that good gene even when she’s older so that she won’t have to go for hair loss treatments.
The good hair gene does not exempt her in getting grey hair though. My daughter might have it early in life just like I did. At least that can be remedied with simpler measures like hair colors or dyes and nothing as complicated as hair re-growing.
A Career in Real Estate
Not so long ago, I thought of delving into the property market. It was and still is an inviting industry in Singapore with the property prices reaching unbelievable heights. The agent whom we worked with encouraged me, albeit unintentionally, to consider getting into sales. What’s inviting is the working hours flexibility apart from the commission that is relative to the sale one makes.
I didn’t ask the agent though whether she went through sales training or a formal real estate investment school like Nouveau Riche University. This school specializes in teaching the ins and outs of property sales and investment. Their curriculum, listed on their website is very extensive and promises attractive careers to its students.
Seems like a highly specialized school such as Nouveau Riche University can give an aspiring real estate agent or a potential investor a good foundation in the economics involving this type of investment. The school promises a follow-through after the course so that what they learned will be put into action. This is aside from the hands-on training they’ll get as part of their curriculum.
Even buyers can take advantage of selected courses from Nouveau Riche University. This can only equip them with more knowledge before making a life-changing investment.
Exploring Australia
Ever since we arrived Sydney, my husband and I promised to try to see as much of Australia. There are so many beautiful places to see and things to do here that it will take many, many years for us to see everything. So, we’re taking little steps to see the fruition of our goal. Never mind the planning and packing efforts, it’s the whole experience that makes traveling worthwhile.
Just this year, we’ve gone to two road travels and a trip to Perth. I can tell from how our luggage look that they deserve some serious cleaning and probably some parts replacement. We are only a family of three but even with short trips, we use one huge luggage for my and my husband’s clothes and a small hand-carry with roller for my daughter’s things.
I found a very helpful luggage buying guide on the Internet and I realized how many times I made the wrong purchase. I thought that it’s never a good idea to spend a bit more for some thing you don’t use everyday. But it goes without saying that for travel bags, quality means shelling out more cash. This will be a good investment, so to speak, since we plan to make full use of the luggage for our future adventure trips.
[LP] Dalampasigan (Sea Shore)
(Kung hindi dahil sa tema natin ngayong linggong ito, hindi ko malalaman na kaunti lamang ang litrato ko na kuha sa may dagat. Malamang, pupuntahan namin ang maraming beach dito sa Sydney pagdating ng tag-araw sa Disyembre!
Ang litratong ito ay kuha sa Carrs Bush Reserve sa Sydney. Napansin ko ang mga ibon na parang nakatitig ng matagal sa kawalan na di alintana ang malakas na hangin at ang mga batang naglalaro sa paligid.)
If not for this week’s theme, I would not have gone through all my online albums and realize how few my beach photos are. This calls for a major beach hopping in Sydney when summer comes in December!
This photo was taken at Carrs Bush Reserve in Sydney. I took note of the birds “looking” at the horizon that they stayed unfazed by the wind and the kids playing around.
Comment Interaction Plugin
One of the plugins I find really useful is wordpress’ comment thread plugin. It allows the blog owner to “nest” his/her reply to readers’ comments with ease. I used to log in to my WP account and edit the comments to add in my reply but that can be troublesome if you have a lot of comments coming from three blogs to manage.
So, this is the answer. This is proven and tested to be working on my three blogs. Here’s the source:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-thread-comment/
More blogging goodies, here.
On Debt Consolidation
It is a fact that many families are going through financial crisis today. Here in Sydney alone, many homes were foreclosed by banks and most of the families have left the city to settle in the country side. The increasing oil prices, weak US dollar value and even sickness or accidents in the family can all add up and result to financial setbacks to any family.
Also, along with it are the rising commodity prices that add to everyone’s worries. People are encouraged by the government through various media, to manage their finances, spend wisely and to make it a goal to save.
Even young couples are not spared. With the lures of credit cards, some have declared bankruptcy at their early age. With a combined household income that used to give them freedom to spend for both needs and wants (of course with the help of their credit cards), now they find themselves in major financial trouble.
Good for them, there are many credit consolidation companies that have sprung given the demands for such service. Debt Free 24 is one company that helps people achieve financial freedom by assisting them to manage their loans. All it takes is just a phone call and the company will be ready to provide debt assistance.
Are You a Gaming Addict?
I was never interested in gaming save for the free online games like miniclip.com (and I’m not sure if it qualifies as a “game”). However, I know a lot of guy friends who make “gaming” a serious hobby. They not only spend a lot of time on their PCs but spend money as well to sort of nurture their past time. I have heard of World of Warcraft (WoW) from these guys and at one point, they hooked up the game into the company’s network, which allowed them to play after office hours.
This game, being a multi-player online role-playing game, requires the player to buy WoW account, choose a character and play with thousands of other WoW enthusiasts. In a way, getting an account is like tapping into a new social network because you get to meet people and make friends along the way.
To my surprise, WoW’s website is so extensive that it has its own forums, multiple pages of gaming rules and guides and workshops even. The monthly fee is a bit expensive but as the website claims, there is so much work put in to build the WoW gaming community, which in return is enjoyed by the gaming addicts.
The characters in the game definitely do not appeal to me but I guess it’s the adventure and thrill that make it so popular and loved by many gamers.
When Three is Too Much
I’m beginning to feel the “pains” of maintaining three blogs. My posts or topics overlap, the photos which I use for my photo memes are spread on all blogs and in days where I am in no mood to write, I have site traffic on three sites to worry about.
Once more, I’m thinking of streamlining my blogs. Maybe keep a minimum of two or decide on a blog theme that will prevent me from posting overlapping entries. Sigh. I think I will need acne treatment just thinking of my blogs.
My Dreamhost Review
Since my webhost move to Dreamhost a few months ago, I contemplated to blog about my hosting experience to help out non-techie users like me. So now, this will be the first of a series of reviews, which I hope I can complete within a few weeks.
Although my first blog set-up was a bit tricky, I have begun to appreciate the features offered - like the quick installs. I don’t need to upload wordpress files through ftp anymore. I just need to log in to my control panel and click on the One-Click installs menu. The best thing is that I can do my version upgrades there, too. Isn’t that grand?
Like what it says on the Dreamhost website, it’s Fantastico, shmantastico!
More blogging tips here.
