Searching for Utopia

Holiday season in the rest of the world may be over, but not here in Singapore. Chinese New Year is coming soon, and another holiday means another excuse to indulge yourselves in shopping spree.

Once again you can first check #1 Coupons for better deals before doing your online shopping. Kohls Gold Star Clearance Dept, for example, gives 60-80% off of their items. A perfect time to expand your wardrobe collection, eh, girls?

And don’t forget about your other halves. You can shop for him on the cheap. Check this sale for seasonal fashion items for men and women.

If you’re interested in those offers, then you might as well like to get 75% discount on perfume, skin lotions, bath soaps, cleansers, makeup, fragrances, self tanning creams and gifts.

And plus-sized ladies, you too can receive up to 60% off of these Step Up Comfort boots. From their usual price $69.99 - $74.99, now you may have them for $39.99 - $44.99 only.

As always, don’t forget to verify that your free coupons are still valid upon checking up, and make sure that the price they give is correct. It wouldn’t be funny if you used an expired coupon after all.

Apart from the deals mentioned above, you could still expect many more discounts from many merchants. Click here for the merchants list. Happy shopping, ladies!

I’m feeling a bit sentimental at the moment. Yesterday I heard my neighbor played an old song from Backstreet Boys. It goes something like this:

I’ll never break your heart
I’ll never make you cry
I’d rather die than live without you
…

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not gonna talk about how much I was into Nick Carter (yuck!!!!). It’s just that the song brought back memories from more than ten years ago — that is when I was still in school.

What did you hate the most in school? I had a lot to hate but one of them is the flag ceremony held every Monday morning. You know, students and teachers must stand for 30 minutes to sing national anthem, listening to speeches yadda yadda yadda.

I never know who first had the idea of enforcing it to schools and all institutions. Mr. Suharto? Anyways, I used to envy students in the USA — those whom I saw from movies. They didn’t have to wear uniform, they never had ceremonies, they never had to salute their teachers.

Overall, I thought ceremony was utterly useless. Oh, if you haven’t known, its purpose was said to boost our patriotism — our love to the nation. But most students like me couldn’t see it. Many of us would make up excuses just to skip it.

“Look at those Western people. They love their nations, even if they never have such ceremonies,” or so we thought.

Ten years later, who would’ve thought that listening to those songs we used to sing in the ceremony would have different effect. Take this one:

I don’t know about you who are lucky enough to be able to live your lives in Indonesia. But for those who have been away for years, like myself, such songs are enough to reduce me to tears. They brought back the memories of my childhood. And they remind me so much of Indonesia — of the morning dew, of the way people still know each other by names so you won’t need GPS, of everything. If there were bad things, they’re all forgiven (mostly).

Di sana tempat lahir beta
dibuai, dibesarkan bunda
Tempat berlindung di hari tua
sampai akhir menutup mata

Given my current circumstances, Singapore is the right place to live in. But I still miss Indonesia. I miss tempe gembus. I miss my cat Temon. I miss becak.

I’m just feeling sentimental.

Is this the result after doing that ceremony for twelve years? The person who created it must have been a genius.

I’m thinking of getting my hair done very soon — that is like er, tomorrow or the day after. Unfortunately, I still can’t make up my mind about what I want to do with it.

Since I was still expecting Adam, I had actually planned to perm my hair again after a satisfactory visit to Jean Yip at Bugis Junction.

However, I then went to Jean Yip Tampines, and the hairdresser could convince me that I should rebond my hair instead. Perm definitely needs lots of extra attention, and she said once I had a baby, there would be no time for that. Good point. Sadly, I’ve been obsessed with Angela Zhang’s permed hair as you could see on the picture .

So now I’m torn between the two. What do you think, what should I do?

Rebonding:
- Expensive
- Easy to maintain
- Pretty

Perm:
- Very expensive
- Very high maintenance
- Very pretty

We’re selling our car, folks. If any of you happened to plan to buy one or know somebody who planned to buy, choose ours!

It might be a two-year old car, but Zsolt is a very careful owner, I can assure you. He pampered this car more than me. It’s like a second wife for him.

The reason we are selling it? Zsolt is looking to buy a new second wife So please, please, please click here for more details.

How important do you think a bedroom is? For some people, it may only be a place where you can enjoy your slumber, but for others it’s much more than that.

A bedroom is also showpiece of a home for its owner. And therefore furniture pieces play very important role in the interior decorating. In fact, the perfect furniture might set better mood for its owner.

If you belong to the second group, then you can’t avoid spending some bucks to find the right Bedroom Furniture. One thing you could avoid is wasting too much money, while spending zero time to make visits to furniture stores.

Depending on where you live, you could simply view online furniture stores like Discount Quality Furniture of North Carolina. Such online stores offer products from major furniture manufacturers.

You can find everything you need for your dining room, from daybeds too mirrors, chests to full bedroom furniture sets made by Ashley Furniture, Powell Furniture, Hooker Furniture, and American Drew.

It’s up to you whether you prefer elegant style or a more practical one. Bedroom furniture come in a large selection of types.

But of course, such online stores only exist in the USA. When they will reach Singapore, I wonder.

When Adam arrived, people’s reactions were mostly curious about how he’d look. Is he like his daddy? Does he take after his mommy?

The answer is yes, for both actually. Adam is the splitting image of Zsolt when he was a baby — but with slanted black eyes. Oh, and tan skin! Oh well, I mean darker, since he never really has sunbathed. But in overall, people would say he’s a caucasian baby.

Have you ever wished that your children would look more like you?

I’m actually happy that Adam takes after his daddy (well, if he were black then Zsolt might ask for a DNA test :p). That being said, some people just can’t believe that I’m actually Adam’s mommy, and not his maid.

When we went to the Indonesian embassy, for example, the security guard simply ignored my questions and chose to spoke in English to Zsolt. I bet he thought I was Zsolt’s maid, and we were going to apply for a new passport for me.

No offense for maids who happen to read this post. There’s nothing wrong with being a maid, really. If you’re an Indonesian woman who lives in Singapore, there are times when somebody asked whether you’re a maid. I’ve got used to that, considering that many maids are from Indonesia.

It’s just a case when a mommy wants to be acknowledged where acknowledgment is due.

Maybe next time I’d want twins, like these incredible twins — then there’d be no more mistaking. One would look like me, and another is like Zsolt :p What do you think?

Zsolt has been having back pain for over a year now. After doing some reading online, it turned out to be quite common problem for those with similar jobs — geeks, that is.

Heaven knows how he can be stubborn sometimes. I’ve been telling him to talk to doctors about this problem, but he just shrugged it off. He said nothing could help.

Honestly I don’t know much about such problems. But today I read about chiropractic, and I came across this site, San Antonio Chiropractor. It seems like this might be a good solution for him. Researches said it’s generally safe, unless if
you have osteoporosis.

The only problem is that we are not living in San Antonio, so we’d need to get another chiropractor somewhere closer. Anyone familiar with this treatment in Singapore?