What I can’t make, I’ll have to buy.

So on the note of crafting and sewing, I’ve come to realise there’s something I don’t think I could ever make with my own hands: SHOES. Sure, I know of crafters who make baby booties and even leather-soled ballet flats, but a well-structured pair of heeled shoes is probably best left to expert shoe brands.

After my first pair of ALDO shoes back in 2007, I’ve been a convert and am now the (proud?) owner of five pairs of (too high) heels, plus a pair of black leather Nine West heel sandals I’ve pretty much worn to death since I bought one sale at $90ish before I got preggers with Lisa in 2011. Because I’m “old” now and can’t keep wearing those 5-inch ALDO heels anymore, and heels also make me way too tall to talk to my small kids so I end up having to bend over – or worse, squat down – and possibly flash some body parts at someone unknowingly.

So for the past year, I’ve been trying to find a pair of wedge sneakers in animal prints that would scream “THAT’S SO SHELLY!”. I’ve shortlisted two brands I’ve been dying to try out in recent years: Steve Madden and Vans. But sadly, I’ve not found the perfect pair yet… 😦

Thanks to technology (again!) I’ve taken to browsing Steve Madden shoes online in hopes of finding a pair without leaving the comfort of home. Then the most (predictably) peculiar pair of shoes caught my eye…

SWTROOPALE Laced Up Boots (Leather).[Photo courtesy of ZALORA SG]

To be honest, I’ve been eyeing this pair of boots for a while now because it’s one of those pairs with convenient zippers built-in! But given the weather here and the frequency in which I actually wear SHOES and not slip-on sandals or heels… ARGH DECISIONS DECISIONS.

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The Great Geek Debate

So I want a lightweight portable computer device… The fight is between a MacBook Air, HTC Flyer and Asus Eee Pad Transformer (stupid name).

The iPad has been ultra failz in terms of work. It has, however, proved to be a fun device for play thanks to the various apps available only for iOS. Plenty of educational apps for the kids, and some stupid ones for me (like Smurfs and Coin Dozer). The iPad version of Evernote does not support Rich Text, which gives me a major headache as it is imperative for me to bold/underline headlines in proposals and my other forms of typing. My iPad 1 also has no camera function for enhanced note-taking – particularly useful now for my preparation of the new home.

I’m sorry I ever wanted you, iPad. Cos you really suck bad in terms of multi-functionality. You’re only good as a Flash-less plaything. And even then, you don’t load desktop version of Facebook very well, lagging way too often when trying to display notifications. I do thank you, however, for educating my children in animal sounds, Chinese words, and the likes.

Ok, through the course of this “debate” the MacBook Air has been struck out due to its hefty price tag. No, a MacBook won’t do because it’s heavy and I’m looking for portability. Under 1kg would be fabulous, thank you very much.

The fight is tough, as detailed below:

	HTC Flyer	Asus Transformer
Price	$899	$799 (with dock)
Hardware Keyboard	No	Yes
Writing Capability	Yes	No
Full-functioned?	No	Supposedly Yes
Screen size	7″	10.1″
HDMI	No	Yes
Weight	420 g	680 g
Front Camera	1.3 mpx	1.2 mpx
Rear Camera	5 mpx autofocus	5 mpx
Flash supported?	Yes	Yes

However, further research on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer revealed that the optional dock (also the hardware keyboard part of it) weighs 4lbs (1.8kg) which totals the weight to a hefty 2.4kg. Heavier than a Macbook Air, which is only 1.32kg! This pretty much defeats the portability function, considering I don’t have the strongest shoulders.

If only the HTC Flyer was a tad cheaper at $600+, this debate would be a no-brainer. Alas, it is going for $899 as a GSS promotion at the PC show, usually priced at $1098 (which I suspect no retailers would actually sell it at).

But you know what? After all this talk, I realise I could actually get both the Asus Eee Pad and the HTC Flyer for the price of a MacBook Air… with change to spare for accessories!! 😆 That aside, seems like we have a clear winner (pricing aside). Thank you for reading my thinking aloud! 😆

These shoes made me hyperventilate.

Wowee Zowee, £69.00, from Irregular Choice.

Spit Spot, £199.50, from Irregular Choice.

Wenezday, £105.00, from Irregular Choice.

The Austria Lace Back Boot, USD250.00, from Jeffrey Campbell.

The Shifter Shoe, USD252.00, from Jeffrey Campbell.

All I Want For Christmas…

Forget about DJ Hero, I barely have time to sleep.
Forget about all the glitzy jewellery, cos I won’t have a chance to wear them anyway.
Clothes and shoes?! As if I even get time to go out.

All I want this Christmas are:

• To watch “Avatar” and “New Moon” in the theatres – that’s a combined 5 hours that’s almost impossible to get. (Screw you if you suggest for me to wait for the DVD releases.)
• One big alcohol-infused bash to year 2010 (in desperate hope for a better future) complete with rocking bopping super hawt house music
• A new tattoo (but I don’t have $500 to spare)
• BlackBerry Bold – because for some fucked up reason, this Nokia is screwing up on me (like most Nokias do).
• To get my legs waxed. My legs look like a man’s. 😦
• A good meal of roast beef and potatoes – just to feel that wee bit Christmassy.

Looking around the flat, it looks dismally unhomely and lacking in festive spirit. Pathetic lack of space aside – and now the goods for the business is making it worse – something’s just not right with this place and I swear it’s not in my head. Goddamn I hate this place. (Yes I know it’s the umpteenth time I’ve blogged/complained about it.)

I wonder when I will be able to celebrate Christmas in a place that actually feels like home. And hopefully that new place will have space to accommodate a Christmas tree and enough room to vigorously play Wii.

Obviously, I’m not feeling very merry for Christmas. 😦

P.S. For the 6th year in a row, I am not going to have any of the commercialised, very yummy and expensive-for-no-reason X’mas dinners. (Yes, I’m petty and I actually do keep track of unfulfilled promises.)

Vrooooom!

One day, I would like to own the following types/brands of cars:

• Land Rover
• Jeep – in olive green for that “army appeal”
• Mini – for days when I’m traveling light

It’s quite obvious that I’m into SUV types. Fierce, baby, but not showy.

I won’t get showy cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati or Lotus even if I was to have unlimited cash flow. Although I won’t mind a Porsche Boxster. Its design somehow just appeals to me aesthetically and I’ve been loving it since I first saw it many many years ago.

Before I continue to dream, I really do need to get my ass down to CDC (Comfort Driving Centre) to register and book my Basic Theory Test first. 😆

Whatever car it may be, it will definitely not be this:

IT’S A FUCKING UGLY CAR LAH! Especially that gaudy ambiguous shade of dunno-is-it-pink-or-purple. It’s like trying to retro-fy a hearse! Just throw in plenty of hanging charms, hippie chicks with hairy armpits and dudes smoking bongs.

Ewwwwwwwww!

 

The shiokness of tightness.

Just had my first Malay massage session this evening, and boy oh boy, shiok is an understatement.

Ok, there’s a tinge of masochism involved in the shiokness, considering how I was going “ouch ouch ouch” half the time. According to all massage therapists, pain means there’s a problem in that area. And when it came to massaging my thighs, it really hurt like %^*(&*%# because apparently I have lots of fatty deposits there. 😕

My shoulders, neck, wrists and temples also hurt a fair bit too. Mostly due to strain – as per what every single masseuse tells me.

After the massage, my midsection got wrapped up nice and tight – not unlike a bak zhang – and it was strangely comfortable to be bound up tightly and feeling toasty in the wrap. The binding also keeps my back straight no matter what I do, which prevents me from bending it the wrong way even more. My backache is almost gone now!

I’m hoping after 6 more sessions of massage and wraps, my tummy will disown it’s current nua nua state and be visibly firmer and flatter! And backache be gone! Ultimate chio-ness, here I come!!

I did myself one up!

While it was considered to be “brave” for me to nurse 3-week-old Joshua publicly – without any decency provided by nursing covers or the like – at Cafe Cartel two years ago, I just did myself one up by nursing 4-day-old Keegan whilst browsing the racks at Maternity Exchange (MX) yesterday.

And I’m glad to announce that the other customers barely batted an eyelid. Or maybe they’re just trying really hard not to look. 😆

Due to my (unfortunate recurring) C-section experience, Hubs had brought me to the shop to purchase the “Classic Incision Care” C-panty for my poor suffering wound area. Imagine being cut up twice in the same spot… Eeks!

Sadly, this C-panty design only comes in white or beige – which are sucky colour options if you ask me – so I had to pick beige (grandma colour!) that would at least match my sexay leopard print Bravado nursing bra. The nice shop assistant at MX allowed me to try for size over the panties I was wearing, and by golly, these C-panty things are fantabulous! It held in the piece of flabbiness that flops over the top of my incision area, and doesn’t cut into the healing flesh. LOVE!

Hubs was super sweet to buy 2 pieces for me to alternate, and told me to screw the combo pack of 1 white 1 beige going for $109.90 if I would rather prefer 2 pieces of beige at $59.90 each. To be honest, I’d much prefer black, but they don’t make it in black! God knows why…

And because we qualify for the current promotion, we also bought Sophie the Giraffe for Keegan’s upcoming teething days. Josh’s eyeing the lil squeaky thing too, but he’s already done with all his teething (I think) so there’s no point for him to have one.

Keegan peed on himself while Hubs was changing his diaper at MX’s couch, and I had blurly forgotten to pack an extra romper for the bub! So thus we were given a perfect excuse to buy a cute romper for the boy so he could have something dry to wear.

Here’s Keegan modeling his newest romper:

Cute not??

Cos it was “cheap & good”.

It may please some people (Barffie, I’m talking about you) to know that I am now the owner of a Nokia E63. In red.

The reason for purchasing a Nokia even though I’ve not been keen in the brand since 2004? Simply because – to quote Hubs – it’s “cheap and good”. It’s wifi-enabled, qwerty keypad, 3.5mm audio jack, and most of what I need in a phone. Best of all, Mustafa was selling it for $395.

I was gonna go for an LG KS360 – retailing at $205 – because it was pink, cute and has qwerty keypad. It’s not wifi-enabled though, which means I would have to surf using my mobile data plan. But Hubs said to just get the E63 because it was time to “test” the newer Nokia models. He believes that they are less crappy than the models that were released between 2004 to 2007 and had common shortcomings of lagging, hanging and crashing.

The only downside of E63 would probably be the 2mpx camera, which I don’t really give a flying fuck about anyway considering how our D40 reacts much faster and produces quality photos. I hate how most compact cameras have this lag time when you press the shutter release, making me miss Joshua’s split-second expressions.

So… Let’s see how this Nokia performs, shall we?

My phone spoil. Again. :(

It wasn’t too long ago that my Motorola V9 started cranking up and then announcing its “terminal illness”. I heartlessly selected the Motorola ZN5 to replace it – which Hubs promptly bought for me as an anniversary gift – and now the ZN5 is also down with terminal illness.

I am needing a new phone again. 😦

Hubs is kinda jumpy that I may need to make an emergency call while I’m out, and the phone would crank up on me and then I would be left stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Although the possibility of me being ready to birth but being unable to reach anyone is pretty much absurd – if anything this country is overpopulated and there will always be someone no matter where – I can’t deny that the thought does send miniature jitters down my back.

So now I’m searching for a phone that is:

• affordable (duh)
• WiFi-enabled, tabbed browsing is definitely a bonus
• slide-out QWERTY keyboard, for ease of typing
• expandable memory via mini-SD
• decent camera quality, because I don’t always carry the D40 out
• in some pretty color instead of the boring blacks all over the place

It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually a pretty tall order. I’ve been doing my techno-research for the past 2 weeks and haven’t found naught. Some QWERTY keyboards have such bloody tiny keys I have no idea how people actually type with them, thus I decided mine would have to be a slide-out QWERTY because these seem to have larger keys to suit my fat fingers.

WHERE IS MY PERFECT MOBILE PHONE?!?

If only we were any less sane…

We would have so definitely snapped this up when we saw it at AMK Hub’s Mums & Babes:

At $79, this Combi Smile Labo mat is not exactly practical, yet it’s not entirely useless either. But what the hell, it’s soooo super duper cute! I wish it would go on a half-price sale or something so I can justify giving in to temptation and then pose Keegan in it for some super cute photos!

I got so excited by the item that I was shrieking in the shop for Hubs to “Buy it! Buy it! So cute! I want!” But I guess this man just isn’t one who succumbs easily to impulse purchases. Throughout the rest of our time in AMK, he just kept grumbling about how he shouldn’t have shown me the mat, because I just won’t stop about how cute it is and how much I want to buy it.

So, my dear Hubs, next time you see something nice and have no intention to buy it, don’t show it to me lah! Make me feel all uncomfy only… 😦