I have never been lucky when it comes to winning things, but perhaps it’s a sign of a good year ahead, last Saturday, I was one of the selected blogger by omy to catch Yona Yona penguin for a special one evening preview at Jurong Birdpark, in return, to blog about the event. This is my virgin attempt to blog for a hosted event.

Yona Yona Penguin is a Japanese animated film, by Madhouse, about the amazing adventure of Coco, a little girl with penguin coat, as she journeys through a world of fantasy and magic to save her friends from the Emperor of the dark.

Having watched only Hollywood cartoons, Walt Disney and Dream Works have somehow set the standard for animated movie.  And knowing that distribution deals for this film has been signed with the Japanese and French set my expectation for this film even higher, afterall they are known for their haute couture.

In the park, Bongo Burgers served food a little slower and pricier than your usual fast food joint.  I like the deco for its originality and wild safari feel with little animal chairs at the kids’ eating corner. They were so cute that my husband and I chose to sit on them even though they could only support half our butt.

Malcolm is crazy over penguins ever since our ski trips in France. He was smitten by the pigloo penguins and was absolutely thrilled and delighted to take picture with Hobart, the little penguin in exhibit. This little guy was so darn cute and is tamer than any dog I’ve seen. He just stood there obediently to let excited kids take picture with him. There was no food whatsoever to bribe him. A little affection and patting from his handler was all he needs and he stood there still enough for this picture to be taken without a flash.

We finally found the pool amphitheater after a short stroll. Having zero recollection of how the Birdpark is like, I was really expecting something like Movies in the Park by Class 95, a little bit of party or carnival mood. I even thought of packing a picnic basket to go along but glad I didn’t. Picnic at an outdoor theater with step seating ?  Erh, perhaps not.

The sky took on a deep violet hue and the crowds started streaming in.  Soon the movie began. The sound was scratchy and intermittent for the first few minutes and then we realised they were speaking Japanese! I thought perhaps it was a technical glitch and the language will revert to English once it was fixed but I WAS WRONG.

Upon closer scrutiny, the fine prints behind the ticket did say that the movie was in JAPANESE with English subtitles! There was no way my 5 year old could read and understand the subtitles and having left my glasses in the car, I couldn’t understand anything beyond the arigatos and sayonaras.

The air grew heavy and still.  The mist blowing fans didn’t seem to help to cool us, neither did the ice creams nor the queen of Caldecott Hill who was sitting two rows in front of us with her husband and 2 lovely boys. Mal grew restless. Marcus was sweaty and beginning to fuss in his seat and Daddy yawned even as he stuffed his face with chips. We realized that leaving is our best option before the peace was broken.

Getting out of the amphitheater was a relief. The evening air at once felt fresher. We strolled back to the car and had a pleasant drive home.

Lesson for the day, always check the language of the film before you go.

It has been a crazy week
My husband is out of town and I am left with the kids
I could have gotten some help from my mum but it was a bad time to seek help as every year this time, my mum is busy preparing for Chinese New Year
And somehow despite all the disapproval she got from me over the years for making such a big hoo haa over Chinese New Year, I AM EVERY BIT LIKE HER
I FOLLOW her Chinese New Year ritual
It’s scary

I woke up one morning and decided that I NEED to clean the house, not because I feel energetic but BECAUSE Chinese New Year is nearing

I changed the sheets, cushion covers, bean bag cover, dining chair covers, basically all removable sheets and tops you can find in the house
I dusted the furniture
I mopped the floor the old fashion way
I scrubbed every inconspicuous corner in the kitchen and I traced every single ants and bugs to where they reside

I set up ants baits
I called in the furniture guy and demanded for a refund because I found BUGS crawling on them when they were barely 6 months old !
I settled for a one to one exchange instead

Then there were my few suitcases of pre-pregnancy clothes still sitting in the storage room
I can finally have them back in my wardrobe now that I have lose most of my pregnancy weight but I NEED SPACE and I can’t have them until my maternity clothes make way

Then I received this very timely email from Maternity Exchange, a unique retail concept where mums-to-be have the flexibility of buying or renting from an extensive maternity wardrobe.

MX will be launching a new program called the ‘Buy My Love’ this Chinese New Year, a sellback scheme which allows mummies to sell their preloved maternity and nursing wear back to them

Ms Deborah Ng, Director of Exchange Concept Pte Ltd, the company behind MX gave all the credit to their loyal customers for this very innovative program as many have been asking whether they could sell their hardly worn maternity pieces back to them.

Somehow I find this recycling concept rather ‘environmental friendly’ and with this brilliant program, the annual spring cleaning this year might actually get you some ang pow money.

MX will be offering attractive prices ranging from SGD $15 to SGD $70 depending on the brand of the piece
You can find out more about this program at FAQ section of their website

Do email them at buymylove[at]maternityexchange[dot]sg or call them up at +65 68419142 if you like to find out more about their program

[Giveaway to readers for this site]
Quote 4malmal or MalMal Our Inspiration when you visit MX flagship store at Marina Square #03-108 to get a S$10 MX voucher
Do take note that this voucher is only valid from the next visit onwards till April 2010

[this is a sponsored post]

This is how my site looks on my computer and how it should look when viewed with most browsers, I supposed.
Thanks to Leonny, I was told that when my site was viewed with Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP,  the 2 right hand columns of  this site DISAPPEAR totally !
And I am wondering whether you have been reading my blog WITHOUT the right hand columns all this while.
Do drop me a note or send me an email haifangsee[at]gmail[dot]com if that’s the case and I will have to find a way to fix it!

THANKS HEAPS!

There is a part of me which believe in the greatness of retail therapy.
I LOVE SHOPPING. It makes me feel victorious when I lug home bags of loot from sales. It makes me feel pampered when I splurge insanely on a bag, even though my husband thinks that I am better off spending the same amount of money on 20 different bags.

This time round in Paris, I am constantly reminding myself my 20kg baggage limit when I board the plane. And with my boxes of loots from our last stay in the States, still sitting somewhere in the warehouse back home, I know my husband is right. I have to restrain.

Sometime I joked to my husband that I am becoming a saint. Putting away those temptations is TOUGH and I REALLY REALLY can’t wait to get home so that I can live my ’shopping’ life. The life that will sort of connect me with the ‘real’ world.

When I found out about XCouture, I have been lusting over some of their fun tops and oooo lala sexy dresses. They are casual and chic and I can imagine pulling over one these on a hot and sunny day.

Xcouture is a newly launched online store based in Singapore. They carry a wide range of daily basics and cocktail dresses and have released their spring/summer collection for this opening special. Hop on over and shop now to enjoy a 20% storewide discount.

note : promotion code is COUTURE20

So I contemplated for a long while before replying my interest in interviewing Fabrice Grinda., CEO and founder of OLX.

In my reply, I told them that I am neither a tech savvy person nor an economic expert. The interview was arranged a few days later.

So on Friday night, after putting Malcolm to bed, I logged onto MSN. I began the chat with a brief introduction of myself and told him a little about this site. My main reason for the interview was to understand the challenges he faced as a self made entrepreneur and also to understand how his chldhood might have helped to shape him into what he is today.

Many time during the chat, I was blown away by this man’s determination and perseverance in achieving his goals and making things happen. His story has inspired me, a lot and I hope you may draw inspiration from his story as well.

And he quoted
Goethe: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

1. What were you like when you were a child ?
I was born in Paris and grew up in Nice. When I was a kid, I basically fell into computers. I was super studious and introverted otherwise and computers were a true passion. In a way it was luck. Because my passion actually turned out to be very practical in the future

2. Why did you choose to study in an American college when you were already doing so well in the French education system ?
I went to the US for college - Princeton because I loved the intellectual curiosity fostered by the American college system. In an education system like the one in France (or Singapore) which is very rigid and structured, there are lots of hours of class, but it’s not as creative and even challenging as the US for college.

3. What were the challenges you faced when you went over to Princeton and what did you learn from them ?
I could not believe that Nobel Prize winning professors had to have office hours!
My English was very limited and the difference in education system. I had a terrible French accent and probably the lowest English SAT score of anyone who got into Princeton. But I worked extremely hard at overcoming those challenges.
I underestimated the cultural challenge but in truth I thought the experience was fun. I had so much fun studying everything and anything - math, econ, the roman empire, molecular biology, etc. The intellectual freedom was incredibly liberating and energizing.
I realised that I had nothing to lose, I could always go back to France and do the “traditional path”.

4. Were you on scholarship when you study in Princeton ?
No. I had 4 jobs while I was studying. It definitely helped that at the time I was shy
All I did was work and study I was a tutor in math and econ, a TA in accounting, a consultant for the economectrics department and I ran a small computer export business

5. Was moving over to Princeton the biggest plunge you had taken ?
The biggest jump was probably not France to Princeton but McKinsey to startup.
Imagine - I had a fantastic high paying well regarded job and I decided to leave it for a startup
My parents thought I was crazy! They felt I was risking a fantastic job for something that would in most likelihood go under and as I had never failed in my life, it would crush me.

6. You managed to start a computer export business when you were in college and you grew your 25k to 300k in 2 years’ time from 1996 to 1998. Were you taught about money since a young age ?
Not really - my parents had several taboo topics. Money was never really discussed, I just observed it. It helped that my dad was a businessman but we never truly discussed it. I just learned from the environment and frankly hands on learning.
The best way to learn something is often just to do it and ask for advice from others with more experience. Several of my older friends ran computer stores and they helped and it also helped that computers were my passion.

7. Was it because of your passion that prompted you to go into internet business ?
Yes and no. I have 9 business selection criteria to help select what business I want to do. Some of them include:
A scalable business - which the Internet is perfect for
Another is: “Do something you love” - and I truly love technology so the Internet was a natural fit.
When I became an Internet entrepreneur in 1998, it definitely felt like I was “at the right time, with the right skills”

8. Since your passion is computers, why not a computer programmer instead ?
The thought crossed my mind, but I did not think it was scalable - as a computer programmer you are limited by the number of hours you can work. As an entrepreneur, the potential is limitless. I love programming, but I love building a company and product even more.

9. Is being an entrepreneur your childhood dream ?
My childhood dreams were not specifically to become an entrepreneur. That’s why my heroes were always people like Octavian/Augustus, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Bill Gates.
Given my interest in computers Bill Gates and others of that generation were definitely role models I considered becoming an Economic professor but I felt that I would have a stronger contribution to the world as an entrerpeneur.

10. Was the American Dream part of the reason for choosing Princeton ?
I went to study at Princeton to be able to study everything and anything with some of the smartest people! Pursuing the American Dream was indirect. It was the reason to stay in the US. Princeton was both a means to the American Dream and a fantastic learning experience. I value intellectual pursuits for the sheer pleasure of the intellectual stimulation

11. Were you drill to study hard when you were young ?
No my brothers did not study hard. I just LOVED studying. I LOVED learning. It came naturally and easily. It felt like the right thing to do.

12. What do you think of parents pushing for academic excellence in their children ?
Pushing a child is not necessarily a bad thing. Having high expectations of kids usually pushes them positively.

13. Do you think that academic excellence is the ticket to success in life ?
On average students earn an extra 8% of income per extra year of studying. It leads to high paying jobs - consulting, banking, programming, lawyesr, doctors. So on average it leads to more successful lives.
HOWEVER The most successful entrepreneurs are often the C students or the college drop outs. If you have something to lose - say a high paying job you are less likely to want to take risks by becoming an entrepreneur. Whereas the C students have less to lose so end up often taking more risks and succeeding more. In my case, Princeton led to McKinsey which definitely helped me become a better entrepreneur.

14. Do you think creativity can be taught in school ?
It’s hard to teach creativity - it comes from the environment and structure you create and in countries where
“following the rules” is culturally entrenched it will take time to change. However, with time, I am sure they can succeed. Look at the boom in entrepreneurship in China which only 30 years ago was conformist!

15. What do you think are the main qualities to be an entrepreneur ?
Grit, tenacity, passion, attention to detail.
Grit and tenacity are key - you need to see it through and want to succeed no matter what. Too many people give up too early.
Note that I did not mention intelligence. Sometimes intelligence gets in the way because instead of just testing everything you keep looking and thinking of the perfect solution so it is actually alot to do with character of a person. Especially on the Internet a lot is done through trial and error and I am convinced that can be taught. So when a kid does something well you should always tell him: “good work” instead of “you are so smart” this way when he hits a roadblock he does not think he is not smart enough but merely that he did not work hard enough

16. What has been the toughest part with your startups ?
The hardest thing changed dramatically from startup to startup. For the eBay of Europe it took me 6 months to find the idea, but I would not say it was that hard. Raising money was not extremely hard because it was the Internet bubble days and money was easier to raise. For that company it was probably hiring and managing people. I was 23, I had no experience, I made countless hiring mistakes!
For Zingy, the next startup - raising money and convincing the phone companies was the hardest. It was impossible to raise money because the bubble had burst and people hated telecom and consumer businesses and large phone companies are hard to deal with.

17. Which is the real you, an introvert or an extrovert ?
The current me is the real me
I was an extrovert stuck in the body of an introvert

18. You believe that personality can be changed. How did you do it ?
It’s HARD but if you really want to change you can change. It’s similar to the way I learned English. 2 words a day every day. I definitely wish I had been less shy when I was young, but that’s ok

19. Did you learn determination and perseverance through sports when you were young ?
I always had it though i loved skiing and tennis as a kid

20. So you don’t usually give up? or do you ?
When I realize I am wrong or that it’s not going to work no matter what - but really only after trying extremely hard

21. Imagine you having an idea where everyone says no, will you still go ahead ?
Absolutely. Everytime I started a business people said it was a terrible idea! When I created Aucland, the eBay of france people said:
We don’t care about collectibles like these crazy americans
We have minitel, we won’t use internet
We don’t have a garage sale culture etc.
When I created Zingy in the US people said the same thing: It’s only crazy Europeans and asians who like ringtones etc.

22. So was it about proving them wrong ?
No . It’s not to prove them wrong. It’s to do what I think is right.

23. So does people still say no to your ideas now ?
Of course. I have a lot of ideas Many are going to be wrong. It’s always good to hear people out but if I am convinced it will work, I will still do it There are several types of advice.
Those who say: “It will never work” are usually wrong.
Those who give you advice about how to improve what you are doing, how to approach it differently - that’s usually good advice
In other words “positive advisors” are valuable. Negative advisors are not.

24. What advice do you have for those who wish to start a business but were held back because they can’t get pass the ‘WhatIfs” ?
The good news is that it often does not cost much to start a business. My recommendation is usually just to try it. If it works great. If it fails it was a learning experience. You learned something interesting AND you also have no regrets. You don’t want to be someone who is 90 and thinks “I wish I had done…” Lead live with no regrets! If you do that you WILL make mistakes but you will be glad you tried.
Well it’s like being rejected. You try something that fails and then you realize it’s not a big deal! You are still there. You still have your family. Your friends. Your health. Maybe you lost a little bit of self esteem but you did not really lose anything. So it’s worth a shot. I know the first step is scary but once you get started it takes a momentum of its own and you are too busy to be scared!

25. I realise that you have a lot of your own questions answered. Which do you do more, read or reflect ?
Both. But I definitely read a lot of nonfiction - especially biographies and I network with other entrepreneurs so I learn from them. The power of introspection. It’s very important to know yourself. You can read this

26. How do you describe yourself other than being an entrepreneur ?
I would like to believe I am more than an entrepreneur - I am also a student and lover of life and a wannabee Renaissance man!

27. Are you more of a rational or an emotional person ?
I am very passionate and can feel intense emotions, BUT I am supremely rational. For topics I know a lot about: I trust my instincts. For topics I don’t know a lot about: I trust logic

28. What are your fears ? How do you manage them ?
I hate the fact that we are mortal or the fact that we age. But I face it.

29. What are your failures ?
Well I had lots of small failures. Some companies I invested in failed. And many times within the overall success story I failed to do a deal, to raise money, etc. At the end you look back and say: “It was a success” but I did not know ahead of time how it would pan out.

30. What advice do you have for aspiring young entrepreneurs ?
Just do it! Create your company and pursue your dream. Try it out. You have nothing to lose! And don’t give up! Keep trying until you figure it out!

Note : Fabrice maintains a blog at Musings of An Entrepreneur
Here are 3 interesting articles from his blog
How it all began
How he raised his very first round of financing
Graduating from College: Starting your own business or joining an established company?

We will be heading back home in a few months’ time and as much as I am looking forward to returning home, I dread going through my long list of to-do-items. It is getting so long that it is freaking me out. There are the things that are really urgent and need to be sorted out.  I can’t wait and I want to get started as soon as possible, right away, even when I am stuck on the other side of the globe.

A few days ago I received an email from a lady from OLX asking me whether I am interested in sharing their business with readers of this site.

My first reaction after reading the email was, HOW DID THEY KNOW ?!

I am frantically trying to look for a place to stay when we go back and we need to urgently get a car as my husband’s workplace is tucked in the remotest, most rural corner of the island, away from the buzz, away from civilisation.

And just when I was fretting over these, over how to get things started, I received this email.
It is like an answer to my question, a solution to my problem.

For those who are as ignorant as ME, OLX is a global online classifieds community with more features than old school Craigslist and Ebay.  I was quite surprised to find out that OLX is available in 84 countries and 36 languages and it is based in New York and has offices in Buenos Aires.

Overall, I like their interface as it is simple, clean, uncluttered and user friendly.  I can’t tell you how many times I get turned off by sites that are not.  For the geek in me, I was also glad to find out that they allow rich text posting using their WYSIWYG interface.  What this means is that I can customise my ad like  how I customise my blog.

If you have yet to  renounce social networking sites , OLX allows you to display your listings on your Facebook or Myspace profile, which help to increase exposure for your ad.

And if you are one who surf the internet using phone, OLX allows you to do everything via your phone, from browsing, listing to replying messages to your ads. For me, this may have to wait till the day I own a really smart phone.

Currently, postings on OLX will appear for a maximum of 365 days unless users remove them from listing or mark them as sold. This means that we may be looking at ads that are outdated. Personally I think it will be good to make it mandatory for user to set the duration for the ads to be active like how ebay does for their listing.

OLX claims to have 50 million unique visitors worldwide. But I doubt it has much exposure in Singapore as I think in Singapore, the classified ads in the daily newspapers still command the greatest exposure considering our local habits. It will probably take OLX quite a bit of marketing and publicity to break into the local market.

I must confess though, as a typical housewife, what REALLY attracts me to OLX is that
IT IS TOTALLY FREE !
and they plan to remain so FOREVER !
You don’t even need to register an account with them to start listing!

I remember how I was lured to a local classified site, only to be charged a month later for my listing. I don’t blame them, that’s business.

Having said all these, we are going to try and sell our car here in Paris on this site among others and compare the number of responses we get.

At the end of the day, the invasion of OLX might not be good news for local internet classifieds, as they now face stiffer competition from this global giant. It is a cruel reality but survival of the fittest is a known fact.

As consumers, we shall sit back and reap the benefits of this competition.

For those who are interested in what OLX has to offer, check out their news release here.

I am not sure how many of you are aware of this but the annual Blogger Choice Awards 2009 is ON. This event is sponsored by IZEA, Inc and they have numerous award categories for you to vote your favourite blogs. There are The Best Parenting blog, Best Blog Design, Best Photography Blog, Hottest Mummy Blog, Hottest Daddy Blog, just to name a few.

Some may find the word ‘BEST’ rather daunting. It is a big word and it seem to me rather impossible to determine the ‘BEST’ based on the limited number of blogs I visit each day. There are always better, nicer and cooler blogs waiting to be discovered. It was because of this, I voted for none last year.

This year, however, I have convinced myself that the ‘BEST’ shan’t be a hindrance for me to support some of the bloggers whom I think deserve a pat on the shoulder for delivering wonderful stories, beautiful photos, inspiring thoughts and many many more to readers like myself. I am participating and casting my votes this time and I feel good !

One of the blogs that I voted for under The ‘Blogitzer’ Category is Cheesyskepticism by Regina Escobar

Regina is an ASEAN scholar from the Philippines currently studying in NUS. I enjoy Regina’s bold writing style both in form and substance.  She dares to speak her mind on issues that may not be too mainstream or may even be a little controversial. It takes courage for what she is doing especially when you are putting your face on the Internet.  For that, I admire her guts. Furthermore, I think she write beyond her years, at least in my opinion. It is definitely a good break from the really exciting topics of parenting and kids.

Some new mummies’ blogs that I have nominated and voted are Raefootprints, Mumspotting, HappyHomeBaking and AllAboutYourChild. Do check them out!

So come on, hop on over here to support your favourite blogs now !

I have always been very excited about changing the ‘look’ of my site, dressing it up with new banner and new layout. My lack of artisitc genes doesn’t stop me from fiddling with the template, the code and script. It gives me tremendously joy and satisfaction when I managed to tweak those intimidating codes.

Since I migrated my site to my self hosted wordpress, I have been overwhelmed by the versatility of this new platform. I love the many ready written plug-ins and the fact that, if I am ever geeky enough, I can write my own plug-ins in PHP ! The good thing about running wordpress on my own server is that, I can almost change anything ! I am not so sure whether you can do this much if you are running the site from wordpress.com itself.

Comparing Bloggers to Wordpress, is like comparing Windows to Linux. Bloggers do has its advantages. Firstly it is from Google, anything from this big giant can’t be too bad. Secondly, it is like Windows, Easy to Use, and that alone is enough to make a lot of bloggers stay on.

Having said that, I thought of sharing with you some tips on how to create some snowflakes to your site this holiday season.

Method 1 : (for blogger and wordpress.com users, basically what this does is call the script from my server)

Step 1 : Open template file

Step 2 : Insert

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://4malmal.com/wp-content/themes/4malmalBlog/snow.js”></script>

somewhere between the <head></head> tag

Step 3 : Save template file

Easy peasy, you are done !

Method 2 : (for users who are hosting own site and can access the template files, you may like to run the script from your own server)

Step 1 : Save the snow flake image into your computer with filename snow.gif. Upload image to your site.

Step 2 : Go to http://4malmal.com/wp-content/themes/4malmalBlog/snow.js, copy the chunk of code, paste it in notepad/wordpad. Save as snow.js

Step 3 : Near the start of the above code, look for

//Configure below to change URL path to the snow image

var snowsrc=”http://www.4malmal.com/wp-content/themes/4malmalBlog/snow.gif”

Replace snowsrc (in blue) with the URL of the image uploaded in Step 1.

Step 4 : Save file

Step 5 : Upload edited snow.js to template directory of your site

Step 6 : Edit header template, add the following <script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php bloginfo(’template_directory’); ?>/snow.js”></script> between the <head></head> tag

Step 7 : Save template

VOILA !

It is SNOWING already !!!

These lovely Corelle dinnerware are for sales!
A friend of mine manage to bring them in from US and is currently selling them from her home in Singapore.
All sets are brand-new with only the box that are opened and slightly damaged. All the sets are from the Livingware collection except for Square Kobe 16pc set.
Please drop her an email if you are interested.

Another interesting quiz. I thought I should try out this quiz to see whether my degree is still valid. I used to love Maths and Physics which explained why a degree majoring in Physics. But I have never been proud of my days in NUS. I think I was burnt out after years of being a ‘good and studious’ student. I skipped tutorials, missed my lectures and copied most of my assignments from seniors and peers (mostly the very hardworking nerdy geeks). I still remember being lectured by one of my professor for submitting sub standard report for one of my lab experiment. His words still remain vividly in my mind and today, I thank him as his words had spurred me to give my best in everything I do.

This is interesting. According to the test, I am only 58% addicted. Phew! I already feel that blogging is taking up a big part of my time. Are you addicted?

58%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

My sling site is finally up again, after being down for almost a week. What happen? The price to pay for being cheapo. My host’s server exceed bandwidth and there was no way for me to access my site, my files and everything that I have on the server. I had problem contacting the person in charge who was actually a friend of mine from Singapore. Luckily I had most of the stuff backup. This is the time when I am thankful that I went on an extra mile on normal days to update and backup files.
So since the day my site was down, I had been searching frantically for a reliable webhost. I remember chancing upon some webhost recommendation on Doris’s blog and I am glad that I settle on Hostgator. They claim to provide 24/7 support and so far, at 10 bucks per month, I told myself is money well spent, the peace of mind I enjoy is priceless. I think their live chat is one of the best features so far as you get to speak to the expert live while you are troubleshooting. It tends to be easier for me to describe the problem through writing, in this case, via online chat than to explain to them verbally over the phone.
Will be exploring more features offered by the webhost and I hope everything will be easier now for me to revamp my site, with all the tools available. Meanwhile, if you are looking for a reliable webhost, do check them out

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Too bad we will still be stucked here, far away from home. Was contemplating whether to fly back but had given up the idea as it is simply too expensive. The tickets itself will cost us close to SGD 4k-5k!!! Hmmm, I can instead use that $$$ for my shopping spree, though it was not a perfect substitute , I guess it is more practical. I justified to myself that anyway we will be back in another 7 more months and I will just channel my energy to packing and getting ready to go home!

For you guys who are lucky enough to spend this special occasion with family and friends back home, here’s something that you might want to consider bringing your kids to. A friend of mine is having a Chinese New Year Art Exhibition on 9 - 11 Feb 2007 at Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce (47 Hill St - Level 2 Exhibition Hall). Check out her studio if you are interested at Rus Art Studio. I must say it is damn cool and inspiring for someone to have a total career switch from IT to Art!

‘Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so!’