Polling on kids

Dear Friends,

Of late I've been receiving no less than 5 not so subtle probings a day as to why Hubbs and I are not having kids. Even my gynea who I've only seen twice has nagged me about this. But that could be for other reasons. Anyway as both of us are truly indifferent, though if Hubbs could carry the baby for 9 months I'll be all for it, I've decided that the best way to go about this would be to set up a poll.

I know many reading this would have some kind of vested interest in me having a kid, but I do request that you limit yourself to one vote per person. I would also request that should you vote "Yes" to please include in this post 10 reasons why I should have a child. At this moment I won't commit as to what Hubbs and I will do with the results of the poll but I am sure that it will push us over one side of the fence.

Nevertheless, someone did mention to me that bringing another child into this fallen world only brings suffering upon the poor child. Especially given the existing food crisis. Think of all the many unwanted children without anyone to care for them. So think carefully before you vote ok? Polling ends on 30/6/08.

Happy voting!!!

Houseless

Yup it's official, I'm houseless. Today we sold our house. I know I should be very happy with the price that it was sold at, we more than doubled the price we paid for it, but unfortunately to I'm not. After the buyer left I actually cried :( I guess it proves again and again that money cannot prevent sentimental feelings or emotional detachment. The buyer was so eager for the place that they paid the earnest money even before looking at the house. After spending 3.5 years, living in this house it's really sad that we have to move out in 4 months. So until the new place is ready Hubbs and I will be houseless and and homeless and that could mean anything from 4 - 6 months depending on external factors. I guess it is not easy to be leaving a place where Hubbs and I shared so many memories of the start of our life together. If only we could move all those along with us :(

The upside to this whole thing is that I believe God is leading us to a newer better place and He has plans for us that we may not comprehend. Maybe this is part of God's plan to move us to a bigger house so that we will feel the need to fill all the empty rooms :) I'm grateful to all who helped pray for the right decision and I know God will lead the way.

This remind me of a passage from Proverbs 6:13 "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans" I trust that this step we are taking is part of God's plan for Hubbs and I, just as He has promised in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. "Jeremiah 29:11





Bye bye house...I will miss you. Thanks for all the memories :)

Decisions decisions decisions.

Someone mentioned in the cbox that my blog is as dead as hers. Yes I am so guilty of not only neglecting my poor blog but to be honest I've not visited it for over a week. Things have been so hectic at work and domestically as well.

So finally after such a long hiatus, I've decided to post from my phone. Please forgive the spelling and gramatical errors. (what's new right?!)

The past week has been full of having to make decisions. On the business front it has been about whether to increase or not increase our menu price with the escalating costs. It has also been a week of making tough decisions as to whether to proceed or not proceed on certain pre committed outlet sites given the current economic situation.

On the domestic side, things are a little more exciting. No..I'm not pregnant or anywhere close to being pregnant. Last Friday, Hubbs and I attended a small father's day gathering at Lin & Alan's new house. Somehow the thought of how great it would be to live in a bigger house (semi-d) in a better postal code (kiara) and to top it of having Lin & Alan as neighbours creeped into my mind. What's more Elmo would finally have garden to run around in!! So since Friday, Hubbs and I have been thinking, cracking our heads and contemplating finances as to whether we should move to be neighbours with on of the nicest couples we've ever had the priviledge to know. We've also been busy seeing houses around that area and calling up real estate agents for recommendations on semi-ds within our budget. So far we've not managed to find any semi-ds in kiara going for under 2million.

So the tough decision is this - sell the current house (I totally love the current environment but the house is too small ) or buy a super good value semi-d for 1.45mil (bigger house, the surrounding isn't great but we get great neighbours)

Any advice or comments that would ease our decision would be most appreciated. We're both praying that God will show the way. Pray with us ok?

Summary of Last Week's Events

It's Sunday. The weekend is as good as over. I've been wanting to update my blog about the happenings of last week but somehow could never get my brain around to typing out proper sentences. Too tired. Anyway here's a brief recap of what has happened last week and what's on my mind.

Mummy's scope
Mummy went for her first stomach scope. It was quite scary as she didn't know what to expect and with the prevalence of cancer everywhere we didn't know what to expect from the results. She decided to go for the scope because of the recent happenings with her elder sister. My cousin insisted that she do a scope, with his friend Dr Ranjeev as the incidence of cancer in her family seems rather high. She initially did a Helicobacter pylori test and it came out negative. However when the scope was done the doctor decided to do a biopsy to check for abnormalities. Thank God from the scope everything seemed normal except that she had a few stomach ulcers that explained why she would get hungry so fast. As for the biopsy, everything was ok according to the doctor but he was surprised to find that there is presence of Helicobacter pylori in her stomach. He said that this was the first time he has encountered a blow test (which is supposedly 98% accurate) negative only to show up positive in the biopsy. Anyway, he put her on some combination of antibiotics to kill the H pylori and some medication for the ulcers for 2 weeks. Apparently the super potent antibiotics may cause nausea and super discomfort but thank God, so far mummy is feeling like normal. All in all we are all glad that there's nothing serious with mummy.

Fuel Price Increase
The price of petrol has gone up by 41%!! Apparently the government can no longer afford to subsidize fuel. I personally think that yes, we cannot expect subsidies forever but I think the government should not have suddenly increase fuel prices so drastically for the following reasons :
1) They promised not to do a fuel price adjustment before the election and I guess those that voted for the ruling coalition have been duped once again.
2) We are a net exporters of petroleum. Don't compare the rates we pay with those of Singapore and Thailand. How about comparing our fuel prices to that of Brunei and UAE? Just imagine you own a restaurant and then telling your wife and children who've helped you build the business "too bad I can't give you a discount on the food, pay full price" Ridiculous!!
3) As usual I don't think the government has fully thought through the impact of the increase especially when the country is already facing crazy price increases with basic necessities such as rice, chicken, cooking oil at historically high prices. Businesses will suffer, unemployment will increase, government tax collection will be reduced, the already high crime rate will further increase and the overall consumer sentiment will be even worse than after the shocking elections. The economy will be faced by stagflation.

Personally I am already feeling the pinch. My full tank used to be RM120, with the increase I will be paying RM50 more for a full tank. I'm more prudent in my spending, becoming rather tight fisted with money, driving less and thinking of selling my car. Anyone interested in buying a 4year old 2.5T XC90? Time to buy a MYVI.

Electricity for Businesses to increase by 26%
As mentioned everything is going up. With the fuel increase the government has also decided to increase electricity by 16% for households and 26% for businesses. Rice price has gone up by more than 100% chicken has gone up by 40%, logistic cost will go up with the fuel increase. All in all this all translates to a super double whammy for us. We can't pass on the increase to consumers through price adjustments as consumer spending has already dropped and all our costs have increased. So at the end of the day we are squeezed both from bottom and top. Anyone interested in buying the business? I'll stay on as an employee :)

Kung Fu Panda
This was the highlight of the week. Kim gave Hubbs and I premier tickets for the movie. It has been a year since we've stepped into a cinema and we are truly thankful that Kim gave us the tickets to get us off our butts to do something different in a long while. It was a nice break to the depressing events of the week. The movie was hilarious. "Po"- the panda, reminded me of Elmo. They are both motivated by food and will do anything for food :) It's so ironic that when we had to pay for movie tickets I would watch a cinema movie at least once in 2 months. Now even with a GSC VIP pass that entitles me to 2 free movie passes anytime, any movie I've never used it. So Thank You so much, Kim for the invite!! Note to Hubbs if you're reading this - we need to make an effort to watch Indiana Jones ok?

Boom Gate Situation
This is a follow up from my previous post. Last Friday the residents of my area had a meeting with the developers. It didn't start off too well because there was this silly guy (a resident) that was totally disrespectful towards our Committee chairperson. Both were fighting to speak first and another resident got involved by shouting asking the guy to shut up and it nearly escalated to a fist fight. I guess that wasn't too great considering the residents were supposed to be united on this matter. Thank God for cooler heads prevailing in the room to calm the situation. It's rather unfortunate to see residents fighting. Anyway, when the meeting finally got started, I felt that we were rather gentle towards the developers considering we were misled and duped by them. No one actually grilled them that badly that was until one silly developer's representative had the audacity to say that we should not be complaining as we have made a lot of money out of the place. He truly opened a can of "whoop-ass". As usual, the developer did not admit that they are at fault but rather they were working with MBPJ on a "goodwill" basis when the plans were approved. It was hillarious when one resident asked how much the "goodwill" cost. Anyway the residents repeatedly asked that the developers commit and acknowledge in writing their responsibility in ensuring that the boom gate issue is resolved favorably. As expected none of the representatives dared to agree. Nevertheless, the residents set a dateline for them by next Friday to get the letter or else we will demonstrate in front of the developers office and begin legal proceedings. I doubt they will produce the letter so look out for us in the Star metro ok? (The chief editor of The Star lives here as well)

So that's it for last week. Please pray with me that the coming week will be better and that God will grant Boss and I the wisdom and ability to face the challenges and uncertainties ahead.

Finally One Weekend At Home!!

It has been a crazy two weeks. First it was camp and then last weekend I had to do my "tour of duty"in the south. I guess the real reason we had to go down south was because we had to attend our QC manager's wedding in Kota Tinggi, Johor. But I must say it was nice being able to spend time with Hubbs, Boss and Dad arguing about the current political situation of our country. Knowing how particular Boss and I are when it comes to accommodation, we decided that it was certainly a safer bet staying in Singapore even though most of our "activities" were in Johor.

On the way to Singapore we stopped at Batu Pahat to visit the two outlets we have there and because of that the entire journey down to Singapore took 8 hours instead of the usual 4.5. I guess the horrible traffic at the 2nd link didn't help. Last weekend was especially bad at both the Tuas link and the Causeway because it was the last weekend before foreign cars are banned from filling up petrol in Johor. The entire weekend was a blur because of all the travelling up and down between Singapore and Johor so I only remember a few things. The wedding, the "kampung" and of course the hotel.

The wedding was in some Felda estate that took us deep into Palm Oil plantations. It was a nice 2 hour journey. Being born and bred in the city my only encounter of Kampung life has been through the media. It was nice to finally get to experience Kampung life even if it was for only 30 minutes. I noticed that instead of having house numbers plastered in front of each house, they had the owner's name written on a sign. I guess it really shows how close knitted the community is. Unfortunately, being the lousy blogger that I am, I forgot to take pictures. But I did manage to take pictures of the bride and groom.


The happy couple...



Because we were surrounded by palm oil trees throughout the 4 hour journey to and fro, Boss and I started fantatizing about how great it would be if our forefathers had to foresight to buy land and plant palm oil. Life would be so different. We would literally have money growing on tress now. Oh well I guess selling chicken would have to do for now.

The other highlight of the trip last weekend was the hotel. When we are down in Singapore we usually stay at the Grand Hyatt right in the heart of Orchard Road. So this time was no different although we got upgraded to a bigger room. This trip however, was the first time I truly appreciated the hotel, especially the toilet. After each use of the shower I would come out and say to Hubb "This is so much better than camp...I can't believe I survived camp". It comes to show how scarred I am from the PD camp.

The hotel room...big because it had a separate living area.



The toilet...wish I took a picture of camp toilet to compare :)

So after the two hectic weeks of non stop traveling and running around, I'm glad I managed to wiggle myself out of a trip to KK this weekend. It is truly nice to be at home resting and of course updating my blog.