Finally Some Pictures!

I finally managed to resize my photos & here are some of them.

Our Ton-Can-Do van. No side view unfortunately. Will get it done soon.

Celebrating Ton Ton's 1st birthday on 13th Jan 07.

A kaypo Ton Ton looking in on Aboody & Naucky at Bobby's birthday bash.

I love this picture showing Ton Ton in mid air, jumping off the sofa in pursuit of Belle, his 'girlfriend'.

Ton Ton in his CNY clothes I bought at Pet Safari, Vivo.

How Time Flies

Just last Sunday, I went to East Coast Park with the guys. I remember feeling the usual Monday blues. Somehow, I survived another 5 days & it was the weekends again. It's Sunday again & I have to go back to work tomorrow. Somehow I feel like I'm just passing time with no goals. I'm only looking forward to each weekend.

I'm earning almost twice as much as Jeff but it also causes our expenses to go up. I'm not confident at all that we'll be able to gain financial stability. We've talked vaguely about getting our own place but I know financially, we're not ready. He wanted to get a pug which is like his long time dream. I don't think daily expenses will increase by a lot. But it's the lump sum that we have to pay for a new puppy that I'm worried about. Sure, I have enough money. But we're looking at about 2k, not $2. Besides, the thought of retraining a new puppy daunts me.

I don't know how we're going to cope when I stop working here. I can earn much more as an agency nurse. But his mom has been exerting quite a bit of pressure for me to stop agency work & get a permanent job with CPF. She'll bring it up everytime we meet. I'm running out of excuses.

I'll only be able to work till end of Nov in my current assignment as their staff will be back from advance diploma then. What I'm thinking is, I'll try to save as much as I can during these few months. Then I'll look for a permanent job. This way, it'll help me build up my savings as I can easily save 2k & above per month. I tried explaining this to my MIL but she doesn't seem to understand or rather, she's so fixated on the idea of CPF that she's not absorbing what I'm trying to tell her.

Yes, I understand that CPF is important when we need to get our flat & that it's also for retirement. But what's the use when we don't even have the ability to pay for renovation & furnishings? That way, we'll have our flat, yes. But we won't be able to move in. Then what's the point in it all?

I feel so cheated. In the beginning, my parents in law were the ones who suggested that we stay at my parents' place & slowly get our own flat at a later time when we have the money. Then, when the option of getting a van came along, they agreed to it & even said, if you buy the van, then don't need to get a flat. Now that we got the van, they forgot everything they said & wanted us to get our own place. I don't own a bank. I need to slowly build up our finances too. Sigh... All I want is a simple life. I don't need to be very rich. I just want to have enough. My idea of joy is being able to be with my little family of Jeff, Ton Ton & possibly a sister for Ton Ton. Maybe sometime in the near future, our own children. So why is it so hard to achieve?

Sunday's Outing

Was supposed to go to Sentosa on Sunday with Robert, Enrica, Bobby & Belle. But sky was really dark & even the weather forecast said to expect thunder storm in the south. Sianz. Smsed Enrica & they decided to stay home. I told Jon & Sam to wait till noon to see if the weather improves. Jon suggested a movie should it rain. But by 11+ am, the sun was out, though still cloudy.

So how did a direction idiot like me got around? Jeff taught me how to get to Sam's place the day before & Sam knows the way to Jon's place. Jon said that he knows the way to Sentosa. Jeff & I picked up Sam on the way to work. (Jeff's working) I took over the driving & went to West Coast to pick Jon up. We headed to the Sheng Siong nearby & as there were no parking lots, I stayed in the van with Ton Ton. I had the van stopped in front of the motorcycles parked there.

After some time, feeling bored, I tried to lay a cushion over the driver's seat. As it was kinda cramp (blur me didn't think of pulling the seat further back), I had to lean against the steering wheel. I jumped when the horn sounded but continued with my task. Then I realised the car in front of me was moving away & I thought there was a lot. That was when I noticed a BMW trying to come out of the lot on my right & the female driver was glaring at me! So the horn must be from her lah. Felt really pissed off. What's there to glare? I honestly didn't see her what! Anyway, I reversed the van to let her out.

I finally found a lot & we went for lunch, tying Ton Ton to a nearby pillar coz the coffee shop had a big poster saying, "No dogs allowed." :P We went to a nearby pet shop just to have a look. They were selling 2 huskies, a goldie, a shih tzu & some other breeds. We finally set off at 2.30 pm.

Jon told me to go by West Coast Highway. But he wasn't quite sure where to exit & we ended up travelling towards Suntec! He then told me that East Coast is much nearer, so I continued to East Coast with Jon's directions. We were very lucky to get a lot near the newly opened Burger King.

It was a lazy day. We set our things on a mat & just sat around, snacking & drinking. (I drank tea while they had vodka. :S) We still couldn't get Ton Ton to go fully into the water. He dashed far far away from the shoreline after his legs & chest got drenched. It was a half hearted attempt anyway coz we didn't want to get wet. He got his share of enjoyment I guess, sniffing every single dog that walked past.

6+ pm. We walked to where people were water skiing past the seafood restaurants. A machanism pulls the people round & round on a "lake". I don't know what else to call it. It was a long long walk back to the van but somehow felt shorter than the way there. Probably becoz we were busy chatting.

I got home around 9+ pm after dropping the guys off. I only had time to drop Ton Ton at home before rushing out to fetch Jeff back. But that wasn't the end of the day coz Ton Ton had not been showered! OMG! I finally finished the task, showered myself & dropped dead into my bed. So did Ton Ton by the way. He didn't even ask for his afternoon snack the next day (Monday). He completed his recharging only in the evening. Diao...

Dream Work Place But...

I'm now currently working in a govt hospital as an agency nurse. I started working there in Jan this year. As it's a clinic setting, it's office hours & I have weekends off. Most of the people are nice except for most of the Drs. Well, what else is new right? But unfortunately, they don't have vacancy for me. I'm only here becoz 1 of their SRN went for advance diploma. I'll be here until she returns at the end of the year. Worse still, they only recently interviewed a SRN to replace a retired nurse in Dec! & they hired her so I'm out of luck.

The problem I have now is that the hospital is quite far from home. Each day, I have to spend 1.5 hrs per trip. It isn't so bad in the morning & I leave home by 6.45 am & reach there at 8.15 am, just in time for starting work at 8.30 am. I get off at 5.30 pm & I usually only reach home earliest at 7.30 pm. The evening jam is usually much worse & I have to stand throughout the entire journey after being on my feet the whole day. :(

Jeff takes the van to work as he is entitled to free parking. If he's working morning shift, he'll fetch me home. If he's afternoon shift, he'll drive me to work. I prefer to be driven home for the reasons stated above. :P

Well... my luck's pretty bad isn't it? I got away from hellish surgeons & ended up with a hellish supervisor. I found the dream work place but there's no vacancy for me. :(

Been So Long

I know I've been away for far too long. Been stubbornly refusing to switch to the google blogger which leads to inability to load in my pictures & subsequently extremely slow upload of the page. I guess it's their way of forcing people to switch over. So I've finally made the switch.

So what's new with me? We bought our 1st van. Yup, it's a goods van. Finally, no more waiting in vain for a cab or being super frustrated when the cabbie refused to stop becoz I have Ton Ton with me, standing in the rain. Upside, it's way cheaper than a car. Price is about an OPC but being able to drive 24/7. Runs on diesel, road tax is way cheaper. Downside, we can't drive to Malaysia. Jeff is too lazy to wash the van, leaving the job to me.

I guess there'll be no more pictures until I find out how to resize them. I've set my camera to the largest possible size & each picture is about 4.5 MB. Or if you know how to do it, let me know. ;P