watch that spending

Oh and one more thing, if you are making a New Year's resolution, be sure to include the one that says, I will not live beyond my means, if you're guilty of having done so this year.

I'm expecting that inflation will be on next year's news list so this is a practical and very important resolution for those who have been or are prone to overspending.

Sure, Credit Cards For Bad Credit are easily available these days but that's not the answer to your problems because if you keep spending like there's no tomorrow, well, then it's only going to become harder and harder to recover financially.

So it's best to keep your spending in check before it spirals out of control. You want to save some money for a rainy day especially if you have kids.

Happy New Year 2008!

Just a brief post to wish my readers a very Happy New Year. It's been a great year and I hope you guys will have a safe and happy holiday.

I'm going to be somewhere around town for the countdown so I won't be online when the clock strikes twelve.

hours from a new year

Gosh, why do the days go so quickly at this time of year? It's almost as if the minutes can't wait to rush the year out the door and ring in a brand new one!!!

This has been a pretty darned good year and I'm feeling a little sentimental about leaving it behind. Bleh! As you can see, I've been so busy savoring the last few weeks of the year that I haven't even been blogging as frequently as I should.

I'm not apologizing though because my offline life is just as important, if not even more important, than my online one. I love everything about blogging but then there's also real life to be lived. Agree?

a flexible degree option

If you ask me, an online education sounds like the very thing for someone who's working fulltime and is ambitious enough to seek more paper qualification.

I mean, who needs to drag themselves to class after a long hard day at the office? Take it from me, it's not easy. You tend to miss a lot of class because many times, you may have to work late or have to attend business functions.

Having said that, an online course isn't easy either but at least, it gives you more flexibility to progress at your own pace and in your own time. With this, it all boils down to will power.

At any rate, if you'd like to get into some of the most currently marketable degree courses, Capella University is a fully accredited online university that you may wish to consider.

This post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

a tree that sings

We've been to all of the new shopping malls in town. LOL what an achievement for a pack of mall rats like us!! What to do? No other work to do during the school holidays but walk aimlessly around the malls eating and shopping LOL.

I love the Christmasy mall decor but the one that takes the cake this year has got to be this...

This is the singing Christmas tree at the Pavilion. If you haven't been there yet, it's worth taking a drive downtown before the year ends. I promise your kids will be mesmerized by the changing colors on the tree and the fact that winding all the way up the tree are real, live singing carolers.

Not only that, there's also a grand stand where you can sit down (have a picnic too with your kids if you want) and watch in air-conditioned comfort. Steev and us were sitting on the stone steps when he took this picture with his new telezoom lens.

my very first blog post revisited

You wouldn't believe this but Mumsgather tagged me for this meme months ago. I started writing this post way back in October but never got around to finishing it. Mumsgather, my sincere apologies for being so-so late with this, I don't blame you if you never tag me again *sob*.

The meme is to take us back in time to our very first blog post. And I thought that since it's exactly 5 days to Christmas Day, exactly two years ago, when I started this blog, this would make a very timely post.

In my first blog post, I talked about 2005 having been a mixed year for me...

Here we are, days away from a brand new year. It's the time that gets a lot of us reflecting on the year that's almost ending. Well, this year started out pretty much like any other year but it turned out to be different in a number of ways.

... and then I continued on about seeing through some folks for the selfish, irresponsible people that they are.

This year, I've also had the opportunity to see some people for what they really are. True colors are not always a pleasant sight but they do have a way of showing through in times of adversity.

I was talking about my dear sister-in-law, Ursula, who to this very day continue to stir Kaa, her spineless husband, to stir up even more problems for the family. They were the reason I started this blog - to warn other unsuspecting old people, like my dear father, about people like them who try to plunder the property off the old folks even before they're dead!!

My first instinct is to let bygones be bygones but I cannot get over the fact that they continue to do this and still try to be so hypocritical about it all. They've lied, cheated, stabbed my back and broken up this family.

Yes, yes, Ursula and Kaa, I know it saves you the money you don't have to buy yourself such a big house, so why not rob it from right underneath the old man even while he's still living there himself and reduce him to a speck of dust while you're at it?

Indeed like the Chinese have a saying for this - give them more rope and let's see how they hang themselves with it later. Not to mean this literally. Just saying liars and cheaters never win. After all, there is such a thing as Karma, believe it or not.

Over the past two years, I've found better things to talk about than dwell on losers like them. And well, it's been a great couple of blogging years. What can I say?

best darned burger

I am seriously crazy about this burger. It's the best darned thing ever.

Doesn't it make your mouth water just looking at it? See that bacon beckoning to you? Hahaha, you're swallowing hard already, right and suddenly your tummy's feeling empty, right?

I tell you, I just have a knack for picking out the best burger of them all. The first time I walked into Carl's Jr and saw the magic word 'guacamole', I knew it had to be that burger and nothing else.

Seriously you got to try this bacon guacamole cheese burger lah, or you're really missing out. But once you've tried it, don't blame me if you keep going back for more, okay?

To those who're suspicious about whether Carl is paying me the big bucks to say nice things about their big bucks burger, listen up! I'm not, repeat not, getting paid to write this. Money isn't everything. Good food is. Bleh!

bond's gold

I'm not much of a believer in collecting gold. I don't wear gold so it's sort of a given that I naturally don't think of investing in gold or anything like that.

But I know of people who do very well in gold as an investment product. Monex is one of the trusted sources where they go to procure their ingots or bars. That sounds like a whole lot of money to me.

Until and unless I make that much money, I can't even begin to dream about gold ingots. It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie to me.

all the malls

I've finally been to all of the new shopping malls in town. Crazy but true. Having to find new and exciting places to entertain my guests, it's great that we have all these new malls to explore.

Okay, let me just think what I found interesting about each of these places. I love that there's an Isetan at the Gardens because I don't have to go all the way to Suria which isn't very often.

I was at the Pyramid's new extension briefly for lunch. I didn't get to explore the whole place but it looks quite standard, like all the other malls. There's a lot more variety though when you add up the old place and the new.

I absolutely love the Food Republic at the Pavilion. They have food from different countries and the food is actually pretty good going by food court standards. The best thing is it's easy to please everyone's tastebuds.

lazy days

I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since Steev finished his exams. The days have been zooming along so quicker. Like they say, time flies when you're having fun.

And we did have fun with guests coming in for a week. With the school holidays in full swing, we were crawling the malls just eating and shopping all day.

I've been slacking at the gym these past few weeks, going only once a week if I can drag myself out of bed early after all the late nights we've been having.

Such lazy days are a rarity when school is in session. So I'd better enjoy them now (LOL)!