Of Visas and MetroJaya Sale

Yippee, mission accomplished #2 - I already got my Malaysian visa! I was whining in my last post about the long queues and hassles of getting my visa but surprise, surprise, the deparment seemed to have change a LOT!

We applied for my visa yesterday. We woke up late so, we only got there at about 8:00 am. Normally, we go there by 7am since it's usually packed with people. But to our surprise, there were no queues! My Hubby got the priority number and we got #6025 while they were serving #6019. We just waited for a few minutes and by 9 am we were already out of the building. That was indeed a breakthrough! And when we checked our receipt, my visa will be done the following day! wow! No more long queues nor waiting for many days...and not ot mention, the officer served us with a smile. Wow! What happened to the immigration office here? It's amazing how much they have changed in a year. I would have to congratulate their department head or whoever is responsible for changes that happened. And congratulations to me too for getting my one year visa...thank God!!

My visa extension is not the only highlight of my day today but another exciting highlight is the warehouse sale we went to this afternoon. We went to the MetroJaya warehouse sale. It was my first time to experience a warehouse sale here in Malaysia and of course I panicked! hahahaha! My hubby was always telling me, "it's okay...relax...don' get too excited!"..LOL! Who won't get excited when their items were really cheap! We bought shirts/blouses for 9RM, 5 RM and 1 RM! There were other items which were priced higher ( but still considered cheap since it's branded and the original price is already high) but as stingy as I am , I stick to the items less than 10RM except for my daughter's toy & shoes. It's good that we have tired and whiny children because it somehow limited us to scrutinize every part of the building or else we might have ended up buying a lot and spend more than we could afford. But on our way out, after paying for the goods, we went to the cosmetic section and found Revlon foundations and mascaras for only 5RM (about 60-70 pesos) I almost passed out. LOL! I'm not so much into make-up (all my make-up stuff comes from my Mom and sis) but I just couldn't resist the offer. So, I bought a revlon lipstick, mascara and foundation. But when were in the car, I regretted for buying only few. My Hubby was telling me it's okay to buy a few more of those (it's really worth it, Revlon foundations' orig. price is 54RM!) So tomorrow, hopefully we have the time to go back there to buy more (not for me ) but for my sisters and mom (to my 3 sis & nay, mao na dayon na akong pasalubong ha?hehehe! :)

So, that was my exciting day. Shopping like this only happens once in a blue moon for me. My husband was teasing me that maybe I won't be able to sleep just thinking about the sale and our great buys. :) He's right, because until nowI'm still overwhelmed with all those things I saw. That's why I ended up blogging about it in spite of not being in the blogging mood for the past days. :)

That's all for now folks.. Have a great weekend ahead!

Missing In Action

I've been 'missing' in the blogosphere for many days now and it seems I've been gone for many weeks already. I missed my routine of blogging and visiting my friends' blogs.

We are now in Malaysia, been here for a few days and we're settled now. I already renewed my Philippines passport and tomorrow we will be applying for a renewal of my Malaysian visa. I pray that the officers here won't give us a hard time. Even if this is the 4th time I'm renewing but I still feel tensed up everytime we go through this process. It's really quite stressful to do all these processing yearly. Not to mention, we all have to wake up early in the morning, queue up as early as 7 am with other hundred migrants, get our number, fill up some forms and have it certified at the Commission of Oaths (that's another long queue) and then wait for our number to be called and it'll be about 3-4 pm then. It's a whole day affair. Then I have to wait for my visa to be done after 3-5 working days. That has been our yearly routine for renewing my visa. The officers here seem so strict. They hardly smile and at times I saw them scolding some people even if there's a big sign in front of their counter "service with a smile". But I can't complain, this is one of the challenges of cross-cultural marriage..hhaaha!!

Anyways, the good thing is while waiting for my visa to be done, we'll have a lot of free time to go around( I'm excited to go around the malls here) , meet some friends and relax..AND then do another visa application for the whole family. This time it'll be our Thai visa..hahah!! The never ending visa applications and processing. It makes me dizzy sometimes. hehehe!

To all my friends..thanks for the regular visits and be checking you out soon!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK Ahead to EVERYONE!

BLOG NIGHT

Today is my blog day..night (whatever!). I was in the mood to update all my blogs and so I did! I didn't know having a lot of blogs will take so much of time!.. I didn't even realize that it's already so late....errr..so early (in the morning!) LOL!

Anyways, for the interested ones. PLease feel free to visit my other blogs.

• My Li'l Princess Diary
• My Li'l One
• From Asia and Beyond

Good MOrning to all!! :)

Weekend Snapshot 11

Today is Songkran Festival here in Thailand. Songkran is the Thai NEw year and the Thais celebrate by sprinkling or pouring water on people. They believe that as they start the New year, everything must be cleansed and the bad spirits will be cleansed by washing with water. So, this explains why everyone is out there sprinking or pouring water to whoever they meet. They pour cold water and put the prickly heat powder on everyone.

Since today is a Sunday, we all went to church. I was expecting people to come to church drenched with water but quite the contrary, everyone came in dry. I don't know how they did that..they either came to church by car or maybe some of them brought clothes with them.

IN the church, we celebrated Songkran by pouring water on the elderly people's hand, not to cleanse them from bad spirits ( since we believe that water cannot cleanse us but only through Jesus we can be wholly cleanse) but as a symbol of blessing them. It was a very nice gesture. The younger generations pouring water on their hands and the elderly prays for the younger ones in return.

THen on our way home, this is the scene which we have seen. It was amusing how everyone, young and old alike are ready to 'shoot' everyone with water. It looks so fun!

ANd lastly, this policeman was not exempted..look at him, he's so wet with powder on his face! LOL!! Pity , Mr. Policeman.

Have a blessed week ahead !

Looking Forward For...

I didn't realized until this afternoon that it'll just be a few days left and we'll all be travelling to Malaysia. I'm quite excited for this trip. Actually, it's not a holiday since we need to do a lot of things..attend meetings, renew my passport, visas (yes, 2 visas) and etc.

I think I'm excited because I'll be seeing our family in Taiping with my sis in law who's due to deliver her son anytime this week! So, it means we will be able to see the baby!! Other things I'm looking forward for is seeing our friends, getting inside all the big malls, seeing things and eating food that's not found here in Thailand. Does that means I'm tired of Thailand? I think not, I'm sure I won't get tired of this country. Maybe I just need a break for awhile and the fact that I just love to travel no matter how tiring it may be sometimes with two kids.

Do you want to be on LIVE TV?

I was just browsing through this site where you can have a live broadcast of yourself. It's quite unique from the other video sites because here you can have a live show with hundreds and thousands of audience watching you online. You can even chat with your audience or the audience can chat with each other.

So, if you want to show of your talent (may it be singing, dancing, cooking or doing other stuff) this may be a stepping stone on your way to stardom. Get your webcams ready and be seen on live tv!

Project Ex-Links

KNOW MORE ABOUT PROJECT EXLINKS HERE

BATCH 1

1. Pinay Mommy Online

2. OnlineBiz and Resources

3. Island Paradise

4. Momhood Moments

5. RedRuby

6. Pinaymama

7. Business Mars

8. JeansWomen

9. Pampss

10. Sheng\'s Simple Thoughts

11. Nelle - LucidCreativity

12. janice

13. Femikey

14. sunshineforlife

15. arlene

16. Prily

17. Pinayjade

BATCH 2

1. Pinay Mommy Online

2. RedRuby\'s Euroangel Graffiti

3. Joliber Mapiles

5. marc

6. janine

7. gizelle

8. Homegirl Space

9. recepsionist

10. Princess-2

11. nebis

12. WWW Addict

13. Simply The Best

14. anna

15. Rhea Calma

16. Annie

BATCH 3

1. Pinay Mommy Online

2. Kristin

3. femikey

4. angel

5. janice

6. eastcoastlife

7. bloglearner

8. pmonchet

9. mari

10. ilovephilippinestoo

11. Travelling Strega

12. Sexy n Healthy

13. gizelle

14. mama meji

15. makiko

16. zamejias

17. tips and tricks

18. Do You Want To Chillout?

19. rodaflip

BATCH 4

1. Pinay Mommy Online

2.Mommyhood Moments

3. Island Paradise

4. jcsacramento

5. Life Photography

6. shimumsy

7. cherry gonzales

8. sofia

9. Lalaine

10. Barefooted Me

11. pinoy money online

12. Pinay Mommy DigiScrap

13. liza

14. Sherry

15. Nina

16. Toro

17. angel

18. Ada

19. Homegirl Space

20. rems

21. KidReviewer

22. wifeynibangis

23. changing lanes\' pit stop

24. Lourdes\' Mia

25. Pinay Mommy Biz

Baking Mood

I think I'm technically a 'frustrated baker'. I just love to look over all the baking blogs and sites, copy -paste all the yummy recipes (but never got to bake them) and wish that I could bake delicious and beautiful cakes. I used to tell my Hubby that once our kids are grown up, I would bake all my favorite cakes (the complicated ones) and even dreamed that maybe we could put up a Bakeshop here in Thailand since cakes are so expensive here and served in miniscule sizes.

Actually, it was just recently that I learned how to bake. I learned from my sister who can bake with her eyes closed. But for me, I would have to look at the recipe over and over again and still end up forgetting to put the eggs or 'oh no! it's supposed to be baking soda and not baking powder!' toink! That's what I mean by being a frustrated baker..LOL! But anyways, I think I'm improving as I go but sometimes my cakes still ends up uneven and the oven ends up being blamed. (poor oven!)

After looking through some baking sites this evening, I was suddenly inspired to bake Chocolate Cupcakes. Our children's summer workshop is still ongoing so I decided to 'donate' the goodies for them. Hahaha! I hope they'll like it and not end up having tummy ache...just kidding.

So, this is the result of my baking blues...of course, I have a little helper who helped in pouring and mixing the ingredients and enjoyed decorating the cupcakes too.

Do they look yum? I hope so..I'll have to ask the little ones tomorrow. They have to say "yes"..if not then no more goodies for them in the near future..:)

Of Degrees and Career

The 'graduation season' is over now and for sure a lot of 16-17 year old students are busy choosing colleges or universities and thinking really hard of the courses or career path that they should take.

What's surprising now is that there's a wide selection of degrees and career options available. Several years ago for example, there was only BS ( Bachelor of Science) in Commerce and years later it divided into BS Management and BS Accountancy. Before, when you talk about Medical career, it was only Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry and Midwifery. Now, there are specific courses or careers such as Radiologic Technology or X-ray technician, Surgical Technician, Ultrasonography, Orthodontic Technician and etc. All these were unheard of during my time. Am I that old then? Kidding aside, what's great about choosing these very specific fields for example as an x-ray technician, is that it's not a very common career path and therefore jobs will be available after you finish your training. I even found out that there are different programs available for this specific field, from a year training to 4 years training in which you'll earn a degree and not just work as an x-ray technician but can open up doors to an administrative or supervisory work. In the US, this career earn an average of $40,000 annually. WHew! For me, that's a huge one.

My Love Language

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Physical Touch.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		12
Physical Touch:		9
Words of Affirmation:		6
Acts of Service:		3
Receiving Gifts:		0

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz ( If you take the quiz, please let me know your result..I'm curious!)

I got this quiz from Aisha. I read this book " The 5 Love Languages" 5 years ago when my Hubby and I just got married. It was then that we realized that both of us have entirely different love languages so, we need to make adjustments to express each other's love language appropriately. My primary and secondary love language which is Quality time and physical touch respectively has not changed after 5 years. But it's also surprising that in the quiz , I scored zero in the receiving of gifts..hahah! It's true that I'm not a gift enthusiast but what I didn't expect was to get a zero for that. My Hubby knows that I'm not head over heels over gifts and flowers but being a giver, he just can't help giving me these and of course I don't refuse them. :) But, a cup of coffee with late night talks is more precious to me than a diamond ring. ;) That's how I value quality time with my Hubby or maybe I'm not just materialistic. Heheh!

Anyways to all married people, if you get a chance to read the book, I highly recommend it. It shows the five different love languages and helps you and your spouse understand each other deeply.

Lifelock

I always thought that identity theft just happens in the movies. But in reality, it can happen to anyone of us. That's why we must always be very careful with our personal information like social security numbers, credit card numbers and etc. There are a lot of scams happening right now and hackers on the lure to steal our identity and personal information. As a result of this theft, we lose our money or pay huge amount of money on items and products we didn't spend at all.

The most prevalent thing that happens now is stealing our personal information online. There was once I received an email from an online payment site that says that my login in name and password is needed because I violated some terms and it might result in freezing my account. I was quite surprised with the email since the address I used to register for that site's account is in my other email address. Then, there was this link from their mail that I need to click to login my username and password. When I clicked that link, the exact homepage of that said site appeared BUT it still looked suspicious and then, when I looked at the URL, it was a different URL. Then, I knew that it's a scam and it's a work of some hackers. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I entered my log in name and password. My money could have disappeared out of thin air. It wasn't much though, but still that's my hard earned money from blogging. :)

Anyways, there are a lot of scams circulating right especially those trying to steal our credit card information. But do you know that there's also this company that protects your identity and therefore your hard earned money? I've just heard that Lifelock is America's #1 identity theft prevention program. So, you'd be sure that your identity will be safe. They also have lifelock promotion code in which you can avail of discounts and 30 days free service. Check out their website at lifelock.com.

Blogless??

Cartoon by Dave Walker

Hahahah! Don't you feel like this sometimes? I don't literally look out of my window and wait for something to happen (can't see anything from our window) but sometimes (and I just did, a moment ago) I would sit in front of the computer, my fingertips are ready to type but I would just stare at the blank screen for a long time and I won't have any idea what to blog. ;)

Good that I found this cartoon, then now I have something to blog about..LOL!!!

Mizpah Mart

Several years ago, my family used to run a minimart. It was called Mizpah Mart. Now that I've mentioned it, made me miss those days in the store. We had shelves, stocks of goods with small shopping cart or baskets. Even if it was just a very small business but the investment for that mini mart was quite high plus the amount of hardwork invested to run it. Unfortunately, the 'Asian Crises' hit and we also got affected. Our mini mart had closed down and we kinda lost a lot since the set up cost was quite high.

If I would have to run a business in the future, I guess I would opt for online business. No need for big investments on shop space, no need to hire sales clerks and no need to spend so most of my waking hours in the store. All I need for an online business will be the products that I will be selling, a computer and an ecommerce software or a shopping cart software. Once you have these, then you'll be ready to start any online business. Pretty easy huh? Yeah, because the ecommerce software is designed to help you set up and run your online business.

This is one of my 'dreams' in the future - setting up an online store. But as of now, I'll just have to get contented in blogging and taking care of my kids.

Daydreaming...

Things are quite busy here now especially for my Hubby. I've been reflecting over our past weeks and I realized that we were really busy from classes, summer workshops and visitors. I'm not complaining but I think I've come to a point where I just need a break and spend time with family esp. my Hubby. We hardly have time for each other these days since his days start early and with guests around, he only comes home after dinner. I always have a choice to go with him while entertaining guests or go with him to the center, but with kids around, it's a bit of a hassle especially when they're tired and cranky. So, I'd rather stay home.

So for the past days, I've been dreaming of our family to go somewhere...to a quiet place and just spend quality time with each other. I've searched the net and looked for cheap destinations for a holiday and all I could find was Genting Highlands ( for only 88 RM / approx. 1000 pesos, 2nyts/3 days with show and bfast- IT's REALLY CHEAP) . We went there last year, we enjoyed that time with family but it's not an ideal place to rest and relax for it's not a quiet place as it's an entertainment center. We're thinking now of a faraway land..a mountain maybe minus the noise and the hi-technology...haaayyy....anyways, let me continue dreaming and pray for this desire to come to pass.