I have not been shopping for a good watch for the longest time. With everyone carrying a mobile phone nowadays, one tends to neglect wearing a watch. However, for me, I would say I’d definitely need a watch if I am employed for work that requires a lot of time management as in my previous careers.

I love a good watch. Any quality make such as Breil watches are excellent in giving that professional look. Come to think of it, watches are usually given to employees who have served the company for a number of years. I still have a couple of good watches with me, some brand new, never worn before. I honestly do not know when I’ll start wearing watches again.

It is probably time we visit Flower Power again to grab some bargains if any is suitable for our home.  All our plants are on the verge of dying, some are dead due to the heat and drought.  Now I know why most people only grow ugly plants that have no flowers but easy to maintain the whole year round.

I must say it is very disheartening to see your plants stop growing or shrivelled up due to the hot sun.  The only time I see my plants thriving and looking healthy is during Spring. 

Maybe we have to start growing ugly plants too. 

When you have a home, you start to take note on how other houses are decorated. The frontyard landscaping, the kind of lawn, retaining wall, plants and much more. These you normally notice during the day.

Eventhough we are satisfied with the progress of our house (I think we’ve completed all the basics, anymore will just be extras), we still love to admire other people’s houses especially during the night time when you could see how their outdoor lighting transform the look of the house when it gets dark. Some have down lights and I especially like those tiny spot lights that lit up from the garden beds.

The post Christmas sale is happening but we didn’t see much that we’d like to buy. Got ourselves some rope lights and more LED lights as well as some fake candy canes - all ready for next year. Bought some more beddings. The malls were not as packed as last year I noticed.

I look forward to New Year’s Day sale hoping that retailers would further mark down their prices to entice customers. Why do we have so many household items to buy? The list doesn’t seem to end.

A career I could never see myself doing is anything related to sales jobs. Why? Because I lack the ability to sell and most importantly, I need to believe in that particular product/service before I would promote it to others. I also dislike face to face customer service jobs because you sometimes get disgruntled, ridiculous, know-it-all customers.

However I must say, I was and is impressed with the powerful sales capability and persona of some people I have met in the sales profession. They are able to communicate confidently and make you believe in their products/services. I know being in the sales line is not easy as you have sales target to achieve and some have much travelling to do which could be tiring.

Nevertheless, sales jobs are often the headstart career for most people, be it at the shopping mall or the corporate office.  Come to think of it, my first job was a “Sales Girl” at the toy section of a departmental store in KL Plaza.  It was a 1-2 months temp job while I waited for my SPM results.

We bought a Philips Skype Phone a week ago but it is still sitting in the box, unwrapped!! I mean I have opened the box but have yet to unwrap the phone sets, etc individually whereas hubby has not really got the time to install the phone. I am too lazy to read the instructions to get it working and since this is hubby’s task, I will leave it to him.

It would be easier for me to make Skype calls to international landline numbers or to Skype PC with the Skype phone as I do not have to sit near my PC. I can for example, lie in bed and talk on the phone when my little girl is asleep, hehe. 

I must admit when I travelled for holidays especially to overseas, I have never bought any travel medical insurance. I guess I often took things for granted. Sure when we are younger we tend to easily ignore the need for holiday insurance coverage but I think once we become senior citizens, it might be an excellent idea to purchase some sort of travel insurance that covers medical.

Take for example, my dad unfortunately had galt in his knee the moment he landed in Sydney during his visit with my mom late last year. The medical consultation and x-ray costs ended up to approx. AU$500. Because he had no medical insurance, the expenses were not recoverable. The important thing was that he was much better after a week and in a good condition to fly back.

We finally got one of those for the sake of being able to watch ABC2 digital’s cartoons to keep my little girl occupied. Sounds so lame to use the TV as a babysitter. Our little girl is not one who likes to stay glued to the TV, she only watches certain shows and with the limited cartoon programs on the analog TV, I am hardly able to do anything without her bugging me.

This digital setup box is helping a little as she likes watching Miffy, Brum (little yellow car), Postman Pat and several other cute ones but still, sometimes she requests that the TV be switched off as she’s not interested to watch TV.

As for me and hubby, gee we are ashamed to say that we have yet to watch any programme on the digital channels, haha!

DH always has problems buying gifts for his company’s Kris Kringle (Secret Santa) especially if it is for a female colleague. For guys, he would usually buy gifts from the gadget specialty store or some computer devices.

However when it comes to ladies, I think something feminine and different would be nice such as a magnetic bracelet instead of the usual box of chocolates. Fortunately for DH, this year’s Kris Kringle will be for a “him” and the budget everyone must adhere to is around AU$10, nothing more. But Guess what? He bought two big Cadbury bars of chocolates after failing to locate the funny toy he wanted at Kmart. Chocolates can’t go wrong with anyone huh?

It is always interesting to note the popular names in a country.  Australia’s Top Ten Baby Names for year 2008 is as below (source SMH):

TOP 10 FOR 2008

B O Y S

Jack

William

Lachlan

Joshua

Cooper

Riley

Thomas

Oliver

James

Benjamin

G I R L S

Mia

Chloe

Isabella

Emily

Olivia

Ella

Charlotte

Sienna

Sophie

Ava

*************************************

And to think that we almost named our little girl “Isabelle” which has become quite a common name everywhere

Most people are already eating their way to Christmas by attending lunches, dinners & parties thrown by employers, family and friends alike. It is difficult to refrain from feasting on mouth watering goodies when you have great company to indulge in that passion together with. What more, everyone enjoys a jolly good time gobbling up delicious yummy puddings, turkeys, etc and so should you. Eat now, worry later, savour the moment, that’s the motto for the holiday season.

I guess after that, stepping onto an elliptical exercise equipment at the local gym or at home might be a brilliant idea to shed those extra kilos and most importantly, GUILT.

Oh how I wish Daiso would come to Sydney and of course in each state of Australia.  For the longest time I have been reading on blogs about all the cute household and bento goodies bought at Daiso stores.  So I decided to Google Daiso.

Hmm even Auckland, New Zealand has a Daiso.  Malaysia has two Daiso outlets (in KK and the other one in PJ to be opened soon or already opened for business, I am unsure).  Singapore has one.  Other SEA countries have Daisos.  Now, Australia desperately needs one too. 

Come on Daiso, please please please come to Sydney!

We finally took our little girl to the beach! We had been hesitant all the while because of her eczema and mainly also because the idea of heading into the CBD and being in overcrowded beaches like Manly, Bondi and Coogee really puts us off.

Thanks to the beautiful beach photos by Aidan’s mom, we decided to go where she went and we certainly loved it. The beach is not crowded at all and the kiddy pool at the seaside is just fantastic. I remember the one at Manly was full of algae.

We tried Mona Vale last week. It was good. Mostly families with little kids there and I didn’t see topless women everywhere like the beaches in the city. So there you go young men, Mona Vale might not be the beach for you *LOL*

We shall try the other stretches higher up at the next weekend if the weather permits.

The shower head in our ensuite was dripping about a month ago and we had it fixed for an extremely good price and good work. How did we do it? Well, thanks to Sydney Water which offers a bargain price to replace your existing shower heads with water saving ones at a cost of $22 per shower head. The price includes repairing any minor leaks on the shower heads and faucets in your bathroom(s) as well as the kitchen faucet. This offer is open to all Sydney Water customers and is only available once per household. I think other states have similar program too.

Although our shower heads were already of water saving type, we took the opportunity to change the model to one with massage setting which is one of the three selections available in their basic range. Too bad they do not offer sleek designs like the Hansgrohe range (see photo) at affordable prices, else we just might have opted for those instead.

The plumber also inserted a filter device in our kitchen tap to reduce the amount of water going through - part of Sydney Water’s saving plan. All at no extra cost. We’re happy.

Google Street View is expected to launch in New Zealand tomorrow. Source: SMH. This is cool. I find that with Google Street View, it makes it easier for me to recognize a building or house that I am going to for the first time instead of just checking the property street name and number.

When others asked me about the location of a shop, etc, I am able to tell them to look at the photo of the building and surroundings so that it might help them locate it without wasting too much time driving round and round.