almost debt-free

By June I am hoping to be debt-free on all my shopping exploits - which gives me leeway to get new stuff, hehehe!

Anyways, jokes aside, I am going to be finished with my monthly payments for my Miu Miu satchel. It's also mid-year bonus month so depending on the amount of bonus The Company is generous in doling out, I will also make full payment on the balance of my iPad monthly dues. This month I've settled all of my non-epp AMEX charges including my very pricey F1/Linkin Park tix :)

What I'm left with now, is my MC payments which are mainly for plane tickets. If we are talking overall debt, I still have my study loan payments to make though now I am making them out to my mother who helped me settle the lump sum amount back in March. This is so I would not have the monthly "administrative fee" that I kept being charged with and was completely burying my monthly payment efforts to decrease my total. I'm beginning those payments to Mom once I've paid off everything else next month.

Overall, I have been rather good in managing my finances this year. I've held off on making more charges to my card which has me quite pleasantly surprised by my show of self-restraint. Though I'm betting, once the last of my payments are done, I'm probably going to start up again, lol.

victim of fraudulent charges

The title explains it all. For the past month or so, my AMEX card has been hit with a number of fraudulent charges all originating from the UK. Not only that, these people have also used both my sisters' and my mom's details as well. We are currently investigating how this happened.

It apparently started with generous donations to an ALS charity which is believed to be a front for receiving monies via fraudulent manner. Then the perpetrators went online shopping at various UK-based ecommerce sites like Tesco Online, Sainsbury Online, York University Bookstore, etc. They have racked up charges amounting close to GBP1500.

The good thing about this is that since April 1st, I haven't been using my AMEX at all. Nor have the rest of our family. So any charges made were easily idnetifiable as fraudulent. The problem now is that despite having the card canceled and my sister, who is the principal, and I having been re-issued a new card with new details which is yet to be delivered to our home address, the people behind this scam have managed to continue racking up charges online.

The question on our mind is if this is an inside job. Cos how can our new cards be used when we haven't even received them. Totally weird. Anyway, this limits further any online shopping activities I may have had planned, hehehe. I'm really going strong with this whole not shopping business :D

raising kids is hard work

I was Gtalking with my sister this morning and she mentioned she was looking into hiring a behavioural counselor for my 7-year old nephew. That took me by surprise cos I didn't realize he had issues to the extent that he needed help.

What is it with children of this day and age that appear to have more problems with just being than children from my own time and that of my sisters'? My nephew, at home, behaves like a normal seven year old. He likes to play and he doesn't like schoolwork. I figure that is typical of a boy his age. He does have an active imagination which I never saw as a drawback but apparently he spends too much time in a world of his own making and not enough interacting with the people around him. This assessment came from his teacher who spoke to my brother-in-law.

Apparently my nephew lives in his own imaginary world, doesn't do his work in school and doesn't interact with his classmates. This baffles me a bit as my nephew is a friendly kid and doesn't have problems making friends. He gets along really well with his cousins and the other kids I've seen him interact with so I am confused as to where this anti-social behaviour is stemming from.

My nephew is NOT lacking in love or material possessions or attention. Our family sits around and makes sure he completes his homework for school so it's not like we let him fend for himself. We tell him we love him ALL THE TIME, I know I most certainly do. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't get everything he asks for. We do mete out disciplinary measures (i.e: taking away TV time, not getting him a toy he wants, etc., etc.) for balance. So for a kid that is not wanting for anything, what else does he need?

He is not my child but I love him with all my heart so this definitely bothers me a whole lot. What is it that we're doing or not doing that is causing him to be maladjusted? I am confused as to how I, and my sisters, managed to go through childhood coming out pretty well-adjusted but my nephew is struggling through the same circumstances. The pressures we faced seem to be the same but he is having a difficult time coping. There is a saying "It takes a village to raise a child", well, my family IS that village but we still seem to be failing so what do we do now?

anyone interested in a game of thrones?

Yup, I am TOTALLY OBSESSED with the HBO adaptation of A Game Of Thrones from the book series A Song of Ice and Fire!

My love of all things mystical and medieval on celluloid stems from the original game of thrones - Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I'll admit, I hadn't read the books (still haven't, is this a crime???) when the Fellowship Of The Ring came out and only went to see the movie because my sis won some free tix. At the time, the buzz was that it was going to have to compete with Harry Potter for box office success. As much as I love Harry Potter (books and movies), it did not blow me away like that first, second and third viewing of the first LOTR movie! I was hooked! I cried and cried when I thought Gandalf had perished.....

Which brings me back to A Game Of Thrones. The title comes from the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I had heard the buzz but was ambivalent till I read the news of the series getting a second season just off of its first episode ratings. By this time we were three epis into the first season and I finally caved and downloaded those three life-consuming episodes.

My goodness, my life is just not the same anymore. I am consumed by my need to watch the next episode - I practically LIVE FOR SUNDAY NIGHT to come around so that come mid-Monday the torrents will be up for me to download the epi. I don't know if it delights or frustrates me that each episode ends in the most unbelievabe cliffhangers that have me reeled in and anxiously anticipating the next installment in the series. After completing a back-to-back of the first 3 episodes, I spent hours on the web researching the background on the series to better understand the politics surrounding the many houses in the seven kingdoms. I'm quite caught up despite getting pretty much spoiled for what's to come in the remaining story arc for the show.

I have no idea if I want the producers to deviate from the book a little as there are some characters for whom I've acquired a growing attachment to that meet with untimely deaths. I won't name names as people who simply follow the tv show are always rather angry when other people spoil things from the show. Can I also say that I am thrilled that an old TV crush of mine is Khal Drogo. I had a HUGE crush on Jason Momoa back in his Baywatch Hawaii days and to see him all buffed up and dirtied up a bit as the khalasar of the Dothraki tribe still puts a smile on my face. I think he and his bleach blonde wife, Daenerys Targaryen are the cutest couple on the show. I love when an episode has a stroyline involving my fave khalasar and khaleesi.

However, it is not Khal Drogo that is my TV crush this time around but instead the oft maligned Jon Snow, the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark. Ah, the idealistic Lord Snow, trying to find his place in the land of the seven kingdoms, always wanting the approval of his father and to rightfully stand amongst his other half-siblings as a member of the House of Stark. Scorned, and rightfully so, by the right hand of Ned Stark, the mistress of Winterfell, Catelyn Stark as he is a constant reminder of her husband's infidelity, he tries to assert his birthright as a Stark by joining the Night's Watch believing it to be the bastion of all things great and good only to discover that his comrades in arms are little more than petty thieves forced to make a choice between joining the Night's Guard or having a limb chopped off. He is pretty much disillusioned by the whole Night's Guard concept though despite the company he keeps, he finds his footing and does make a name for himself as a skilled swordsman. Kit Harrington is PERFECT as Jon Snow. All doe-eyed and innocent, filled with righteousness and the hope of making his father proud of him, his portrayal as a disillusioned Jon Snow is just as believable and despite my laughing at his rose-tinted glasses breaking in the most shattering of ways, I found that the way Kit Harrington made his Jon Snow portrayal rally and soldier on with the task at hand so convincing that I fell a little bit in love with Jon Snow.

And how can I talk about Game Of Thrones without touching upon the character that practically steals the scene every time he's in it; Tyrion Lannister. He may be known as The Imp or The Half-Man but he stands as a giant when he is on screen. Peter Dinklage is the embodiment of Tyrion Lannister. Love, love, love him. He is very, very attractive in this role, hehehe. His little parting shots and memorable one-liners contribute to some of the best parts of an episode. I love the anticipation of hearing what is going to come out next from his mouth - his delivery of the lines are always spot-on. Any scene he's in is absolute entertainment.

Ok, I am going to stop here, I have mentioned the important bits of the show that has me enthralled and so I will leave this post to ponder on what's to come in this coming Sunday's episode. Hopefully there'll be a Jon Snow appearance this time around, episode 5 was lacking of my favourite bastard's sighting. LOL, who woulda thought those lines would ever be typed off of my keyboard :)

the pearl of the orient

Am safely returned to Workland after my jam-packed company retreat. Feels like I need a holiday after the holiday - no joke. I probs feel this way cos I was super stressed pre-retreat with all my pre-retreat finalizations and then went full-on activity mode throughout the 5-day trip. It was a good thing our return flight was early and I had a day and a half to somewhat recuperate due to the 17th being a public holiday here in my neck of the woods.

Did I enjoy said trip - when my head was in the moment (which was 90% of the time) hell yeah! Least enjoyable part - sharing a bedroom with two other divas. Always means that a lot of bathroom timetabling is involved and I being the responsible one had to volunteer myself as the first in EVERY SINGLE DAY! That basically meant waking up a full hour and a half earlier than our call-time. On the second to last day I was a zombie for a good part of the morning. It was only a ride on the Space Mountain @ Disneyland that gave me a shot of adrenaline I didn't get from my non-existent morning coffee - a totally crappy waiter was in charge of our section and was completely inept when it came to pouring coffee into a cup.

Truthfully though, I did have fun. It was a good time out and about, seeing what Hong Kong had to offer. And I was super proud of myself that I stayed completely on budget. In fact, I demolished my budget to a tee. I only gave myself USD400 to play around with and that was what got me through to the very end. Ok, the whole time constraint with the packed schedule may have helped in keeping the budget in line but all in all, I got some great, quality stuff that I may or may not do a haul post on when I'm feeling up to it. I've taken the pics and all, it's just a matter of transferring 'em to my pc and watermarking them but laziness does get the best of me most days.

Bottom line: would I go to Hong Kong again? Yes - and next time, it's strictly to do some retail therapy :D

just cause

Yup, that's a pic of me (question mark head and all :D) in front of a poster of the Singtel F1 GP Linkin Park poster :D

This was taken last month during my biz trip to Singapore. I went to the Ion shopping complex and was crossing over to Takashimaya via the underground MRT tunnels and completely freaked out like a crazed LP fan when I saw a whole tunnel section dedicated to the Linkin Park Singtel F1 GP promos.

I was drawing quite a bit of attention unto myself but it was worth it to get to do that photo op - I talk as if I actually got to take a pic with the band itself and not just a promo poster - me mucho S-A-D, lol.

Anyways, just a bit of randomness cos I am basically a lazy git to blog about anything of worth. Am leaving for Homeland tomorrow evening - cousin's wedding I mentioned - and will only be back to Workland Monday morning before jetting off to Hong Kong (WOOHOO!!!!) on Thursday. I'll see about getting in some quality posts (have there ever been any?) before I leave. One last thought: I <3 LINKIN PARK!!!!!!