I have to admit. I am a gear freak. Point me to nifty gadgets and you'll see an idiot look on my face and a pool of drool at my feet. So it is with phones, computers, solar lighting, pet gear, and even baby gear.
And where to browse and buy them, you ask? With the amount of advertising online, you need to find an objective collator of information. Wikipedia is one, penned by anonymous writers (no fame there, just contributors to the bigger picture). When it comes to shopping, there is ShopWiki which nicely crawls the web for shops.
Now, half the time when I shop, I have to ask myself (and now with more experience) if I really want that item or if Jack wants it. Like those electric cars and huge car parks. Then I ask him. :D And that's only if it is a buying trip. He's been really good about that.
Speaking of cool baby gear (and I know dear hubby will kill me if I buy another baby carrier), check out this cool backpack baby carrier (always wanted one) and this bike trailer. I think I could even stick a couple of cats in there. Maybe Tux and Sam. Yeah I think they'd dig that.
But solar lighting. I'd bought some from the Animal Rescue Site but they didn't last very long. So I was thrilled to find one in Ikea for $19. It has three LEDs and serves as a booklight too! I wish I saw it before buying that crummy one from Borders last year.
Since I am up half the night, this can save me tons of money and the environment too by using it as a computer light and a book light. Will try sewing under it too. It is really very bright!
If you have an Ikea where you are, see if they carry it. It should be under the lighting department.
It is nice to see Ikea walk the talk, now if only they'd shut off those lamps in the lighting department! They really don't need to advertise their lamps. People go there to buy their stuff already.
Since I became a mother, I put away my lovely engagement ring, as well as other jewellery my hubby and my mom gave me.
Aside from the obvious, primarily, diverting funds previously spent on frivolous adornments on myself to frivolous adornments for baby, as well as for his college fund, I want to teach my son that material things are not important, but social ties are. Still, I enjoy wearing things that mean something to me and these usually find me unexpectedly.
Hence I love scouring the web for great finds. I found some lovely cloth dolls from Etsy and some lovely Silver Jewellery from Keysilver, a cool online jewellery store from the UK.
The latter is a pretty - the green is very soothing - simply laid out shop, which places its offering clearly on its landing page. It is reminiscent of those sweet push carts you see at the market run by adventurous and enthused 20-somethings with a love for silver jewellery. Very honest with its offerings and personal service.
Shipping information, something I look for first when I visit an online store, is placed very visibly on its left navigation bar. They do ship internationally although it isn't mentioned on their website. A design note: the text looks great everywhere else on the site except this page, where there should be paragraph breaks.
My goddaughter Joyce and I have had a love affair with silver jewellery since our school days. Silver is pretty, inexpensive, and signifies a simplicity from the harder and harsher gold, which older people tend to wear. (Even my gold jewellery is white gold.) She loves Silver Bracelets and I love Silver Pendants.
Even today (I won't say how many years!), she wears the same, and after motherhood, I bought a silver cat pendant and bunny pendant from the Animal Rescue Store to wear on occasion, so Jack grows up seeing Mom wear meaningful things, not expensive things.
Being a fan of silver jewellery, I must say Keysilver's designs are very unique, especially this lovely Amber bracelet my sister will adore. Joyce would love this sweet bangle. Definitely a site to bookmark. Pop by for a visit. I am sure you'll find something you will like. :)
I remember, because I remember taking lots of it as a kid. There was a vague honey taste to it that appealed even after I had passed the baby stage. :)
More recently, after Jack was born, I went and bought one bottle but they have changed their formula. It tastes different now. I guess over the years they refine the formula and make it better.
That bottle is still in my larder somewhere. I am lucky we have never had to use it but it is reassuring to know it is there.
My friend Carol is planning to bring her whole family to Osaka this June holidays. Although we haven't planned anything (since hubby has taken no leave and Jack is still little) it is nice to ponder where we might go.
We might however go to Melbourne some time this year to see Art and Janet with their new sweet Isabella and Minh and Keith with their little Sebastian. Everyone is having babies and since being a mother, I have been immensely enthused about seeing my friends' new babies.
Our family and friends have offered us a room to stay should we wish to visit but it is always lovely to enjoy a nice hotel room once in a long while. The last time I was in a hotel it was the Linna Hotel in Helsinki for a business trip. It was very cosy and nice. For a 5-month pregnant woman.
I am appreciative that in my former life as a single carefree being, I travelled a lot. I've been to Yugoslavia, when it was still called that, London, Paris (although I didn't appreciate it then and spoke bad French to the boulangerie girl who got irritated with me), Italy, and Switzerland.
Rome Hotels are usually fairly decently priced and in good condition. I vaguely recall the hotel we stayed in for US$60 a night and it was livable. But then again, this was 20 years ago so revise the rate for inflation.
Hotels Paris? Forget it. For the same amount, we stayed in a dump with no heating (this was the heart of winter, mind you) and the plumbing choked. Fortunately we only stayed one night. We could only afford Macdonalds then. So really, don't go to Paris as a starving student.
If you thought Paris was expensive, London Hotels take first prize. For a grand 100 pounds (that is S$300!), my cousin and I stayed in a nice but shoebox-like Harry Potter closet just 5 years ago!
I have to write to Heidi and Kevin to ask if Dublin Hotels are affordable. They're going home end of the year so if we want to visit them, we'll have to hurry! We can catch Greg en route in London and bunk at his place. :D Maybe in September.
While I haven't watched Gray's Anatomy, I am an admirer of the two hot doctors on the show. They remind me of someone I know and love. :D Scrubs took a new meaning, if you know what I mean.
Hence I was even more surprised that you can buy your own scrubs commercially though Scrubs and Beyond. You can buy dickies scrubs, cherokee medical scrubs, and even Katherine Heigl's new line of scrubs, which are only available at this online store. You can even see the lady modelling them herself (or at least some blonde model who looks like her).
They look really smart. I think our hospital administrators here should really take a look at them. They're definitely cheerier than the ones we have here. Trust me, I've been there, I know. But luckily the sweet nurses at the ward where I gave birth to Jack more than made up for it by their warm smiles and kind concern.
Last night I asked Jack what he wanted to do today. He could go to Toys R Us (his fave hang) or Ikea (where I needed to buy a bunch of stainless steel household items - bin, bread bin, and utensil holder). Surprisingly he chose Ikea. This morning I posed the same question and he replied Ikea again. Anyhow, we went there and he had a ball of a time.
During his nap, he smiled and laughed many times. I wish I had a camera but I was trapped under a 12kg baby! Now I hadn't bought my new Nokia N82 yet (hubby said okay today, yay!) so I totally missed the moment. Hon, if you're reading this, you know what I mean! Anyway, when he woke I asked him what he dreamed about. He smiled and said, "Papada!" (Could be papadum since we had prata for lunch and he ate his Dad's papadum later at dinner but his Dad beamed so widely we all accepted it as fact.)
So this evening, we decided to go to Vivocity, eat at Sushi Tei (my fave), and take Jack to Toys R Us while I bought my bread-making stuff and research some ovens. I found halogen turbo broilers, turbo broilers, and convection ovens, all of which are made in China, so it really doesn't matter which I buy. Still the halogen one has a pretty light ring around the top but I am not sure what it does. Googling didn't quite help this time. I might try Wiki-ing it after this post.
Sushi Tei had a really long queue. I counted (okay I didn't but pulling up the mental photo I took...) 10-12 people ahead of me and at 7.40pm, that was pretty long. So hubby, Jack, and I went to the food court for yong tau foo. The cook was amused that Jack ate veg - it was almost as if all the kids she met didn't. But he heartily ate up the spinach, broccoli, quail's eggs, and noodles. We were all hungry again by 10. Low carbs, mused hubby. I ended up eating 4 slices of organic ciabatti nut bread with way too much butter and a glass of rice milk.
Jack was thrilled by the trip to Toys R Us. He wanted to play on the Thomas Train a while more but Giant's slamming shutters gave me a great excuse for saying we had to go. He noted "shop closing" and said goodbye to the train. We will undoubted be coming again very soon. Tonight Jack went to bed pretty much willingly. He had both his wishes come true today - well technically he chose to go to Ikea but he always wants to go to Toys R Us - so yes! Both wishes came true. If I had the N82, I could probably catch him now smiling in his sleep.
"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." -- Bertrand Russell
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
-- Thomas Edison (Harper's Magazine, 1890)
A woman's romance with motherhood, green living, finance, and this heady thing called life.
Since I became a mother, I put away my lovely engagement ring, as well as other jewellery my hubby and my mom gave me. 
While I haven't watched Gray's Anatomy, I am an admirer of the two hot doctors on the show. They remind me of someone I know and love. :D Scrubs took a new meaning, if you know what I mean.
