CNY 2011

Third Day of CNY 2011, Big Bro In Law is extremely happy. It's the first time he invited all the siblings to his house since I knew him 20+ years ago. It's a very special day for him as it's the first time since his family split about 18 yrs ago that he has all the 3 girls with him for CNY. K and I are happy for him. We counted, it was around Aug that we got in touch with the girls (all because of facebook) and invited them to dinner. At that time the girls were not interested to meet up with him. He has this habit of scolding without even realizing. We are glad to see him so happy today. No more scolding and happily snapping pictures of his 3 grown up girls.

Paint the Wall

After painting the whole house using Nippon Paint Services, I found a fantastic website. . . "www. Sherwin-Williams.com". The colour Visualizer is easy to use. You just have to download your property picture and digital paint the house. The program is very user friendly. Wish I search for it earlier then I wouldn't need to spend so much time to decide on the colour.

This is my second paint job with Nippon Paint. I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome except for the living area. We used to have Tangerine on the feature wall. This colour is very striking and create a postive, active and lively mood. I certainly would not mind having this colour again. However, for the sake of changing the look, husband suggested to go for an alternative colour for the feature wall. It took me quite some time to decide on the new colour as no other colour seems to be able to de-throne the Medifresh Tangerine orange colour. Both the colour consultation and the paint applicator suggested using the Champagne colour. When the job was done, I wasn't used to the Champagne colour on the L shape wall. It has a more brown tone and the mood is totally different, more stable and no longer as lively.

I thought I would change the colour on the smaller wall to white so as to brighten the Champagne colour. The painters are supposed to come late morning today to do it. Luckily, I found the Sherwin williams website before they come. I can download my picture and digital paint the wall to see the effect using their program. After exploring their colour visualizer, I'v decided to keep the Champagne colour on the L shape wall. It's a much better option.

Maid 'Offered' us her balanced food

Jan 26 2011. The painters were busy painting the house. I had to leave the house at 12pm to pick up the youngest boy from school and to send him for enrichment class. No one will lunch in except for maid herself. I'v told the painters that I'll only be back at 3pm and they bought their own lunch. Evening time when all the painters were gone, I told the maid to prepare dinner for us (she, myself plus 3 boys as daddy is out of town). She said there's no need to do so. She had cooked 3 cups of rice, a plate of breaded chicken breast and fried chicken wings for her own lunch. As she can't finish the food, we can eat that for dinner. The ingredients were purchased by me and she had not inform me that she'll be using the ingredients to cook her own meal.

Nevertheless, since she's a long serving maid (3 years), I didn't question her. I repeated my request to cook warm rice for the family. The rice remaining from lunch can be used for fried rice the next day. For the dishes, I bought a roast chicken and I just needed her to warm a can of campbell soup and a can of peanut plus the remaining chicken she cooked for her lunch.

Comes 27 Jan 2011. Youngest boy will be home for lunch. I asked her what did she plan to cook for lunch for him. She said steamed rice remaining from last afternoon and cook a tofu with bean paste for him. I was annoyed but kept my silence. Comes dinner time, I asked again, what would she be cooking for the family. She replied a dish of kailan vegetables (no meat) plus plain rice. I asked what happened to the packs of frozen meat and chicken in the freezer, she said they are frozen and not ready for cooking. When I questioned her why not use the remaining half pack of chicken wings she opened for herself yesterday and which was left in the refrigerator, she gave a short reply "OK".

I used to think that she's always helping me to save money by cooking little for us and the children. Now I know I'v not been conscientious in keeping stock of my fridge's inventory. In 3 years, I paid for 2 home trips plus passport renewal (as she was a transfer and left 2 yrs passport validity when she joined me) and higher than stipulated pay. Very disappointed she treated us this way.

How much do we need to retire in Singapore?

When planning for retirement how long should we assume our life expectancy? Till 80, 90 or 100 yrs old?

How much medical fees should we budget for if we are covered by shield plan that require payment of $4K + 10% deductible?

Should we still budget for car expenditure or do we have to switch to MRT? I still like to have the car till I can't drive.

How about yearly vacations?

How about domestic helper?

Pressure Rice Cooker and Brown Rice

This is my new Pressure Rice Cooker from Philips model HD4763. It's a fabulous helper in the kitchen. The brown rice cooks in 47 minutes + about 10 minutes wait time for pressure to be released before the rice is ready to be served. The brown rice is soft and fragrant. You can smell the sweet brown rice aroma while the rice is being cooked. I saw a lot of such rice cooker in Korea but this is the only one available in my Singapore. The non-stick inner pot make it a breeze to clean after each use. However, I would very much prefer to have a stainless steel inner pot as well due to the potential health hazard from using non-stick pots and pans. I think the coating on the philip inner pot is not tough as the Japanese brand rice cooker. The demo rice cooker's inner pot was badly scratched- probably done by people to test the toughest of the coating. Rice can be washed in Tiger and Zojirushi inner pot but not this Philip rice cooker's inner pot. I wish Philip will overcome this shortcoming on the inner pot.

Temple at Seoul

I like this temple. It's just opposite the Coex mall. There were lots of chinese writings around the premise as well as trees. I like the persimmon tree near the buddha. There were lots of big persimmon on the trees but they were too high up. Those on the lower branches had been "harvested". The Buddha statue is tall and majestic. I stood there for quite some time to make all my wishes.

Safe in Seoul

The whole family is so relieved that Seoul is safe. We were there from Dec 1 to Dec 5 2010. Initially we thought that with the North Korea bombing, we would have to stay close to the hotel vicinity in case war broke up. We were surprised that life is as usual in Seoul. Lots of people can be found at Coex mall, Lotte world, Dondaemon, Nandaemon, Insodong , subway stations and Tech mall. The hotel was busy with lots of foreigners. We explored Seoul by subway. The Koreans are helpful in giving us directions. I like the BBQ meat. We tried one at Dondaemon and one at Insodong. The Japanese meals at Coex mall (both stalls) are delicious and reasonably price (39K to 42k Won for family of 5). The ginseng chicken and the big dish of spicy chicken were average though. I bought the honey ginseng slices for Won 24k each box from a shop at Nandaemon. The promoter spoke perfect mandarin. The Hyundai mall had a promotion and selling at about Won 26K. I would have preferred to buy from Hyundai if I knew there was promotion. Though it's a little more expensive, at least you get what you paid. One of the box of 6 yrs old honey ginseng slices I bought was swopped for a 4 yrs old honey ginseng slices. Overall it's a pleasant trip.