Recycle III

I have this bee in my bonnet about recycling lately so I figured I might as well get the whole thing out of my system.

In our HDB estate, the recycle company comes around every two weeks on Mondays. So Monday 1 June was the designated recycle day.

In the two week lag time, I collect all our disposed plastics, glass, metals and cans, all sorts of paper, styrofoam and put these into our recycling bag The recycling bag also says that they will collect old clothes, toys, books and electrical items.

So I have put all these items aside for the recycling company in the so many years that they have been collecting such stuff in our estate. We would collect the newspapers for the recycling company instead of waiting for the karung guni man who comes around to BUY the papers from us.

Anyway, this is the thing that has made me really cross with our recycling company - they didn't come around on the designated day a couple of times and our bags were left along the corridor to wait for them. They did this in May when they came around only once.

So this time I was so cross with them that I called them on Tuesday to demand an explanation for their tardiness in following the schedule. The girl who answered the phone had the cheek to say that I put out the bag too late after the guy had come around. I informed me that the bag would be put out on Sunday night, just in case we forget on Monday morning before 8 am when we leave for the office.

Anyway, if the guy had come around he would have left another bag for the next collection. There was no bag!

Anyway after my feedback on collection, they came and collected the bag yesterday. I will be monitoring their activities and will keep you updated.

Great! Now that I've got this off my chest I will have my tiramisu dessert as a reward.

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Recycling II

I just became the latest victim of electronic waste through no fault of mine. I am well known for my "kedekut" ways or mad recycling efforts, so this is really disappointing for me.

My VOIP service provider announced that it would be terminating services from 31 May 2009. When I subscribed to their service, the company provided me with an ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) box so that I would be able to use a regular old fashioned analog phone over the internet connection.

Now that this service has been terminated, I am stuck with an ATA box that is in perfectly good working condition but cannot be used. So why is this considered electronic waste? THE BOX IS LOCKED by the service provider.

I called a couple of service providers to ask about their service and asked it I could reuse the box. I get the same answer - Sorry, madam. You are not able to reuse your ATA box, it is locked by the original service provider. You will have to buy a new one from us or pay us $xx for the use of software internet phone.

Sigh! What a bloody waste!

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Recycling

There has been talk a lot these days about being GREEN and recycling and not wasting stuff. So these are my experiences recently about being a greenie in Singapore.

Some time back last year, there was this huge campaign to use less plastic bags. When I first came back from England, people thought I was nutters because I would have my own bag to carry my shopping. Actually it was a large bag where I dumped my handbag and my umbrella and my newspapers. Whenever I bought something, I would decline the plastic bag and then dump my shopping into my large carrier and happily went along my way.

Then, to my horror I realised that I didn't have plastic bags for throwing out rubbish! I remember asking a girlfried for her extra plastic bags because I really didn't have any at home. What a laugh she had.

There was a lull in this recycle effort for some time althought there would be some occasional call for the people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Ah, but the Singaporeans have not met the great Malaysian recyclers!

In the office, I am known for my "kedekut" or stingy recycle ways. When we moved to this new office, I am so proud to say that everything has been recycled where possible with the exception of the partitions, airconditioners and lights - no need to say about the electrical wiring because all these items we didn't have in our old office. Boss did say something about it making the office look like really poor, but I told him that I am the great recycler and I don't really care about that rich image.

So, we recycled everything! The partitions that lost their connector posts would be sandwiched between tables. Tables that could not stand properly would have L posts drilled to the tops and legs for stability. Two printers with two non functioning duplex units had been canibalised into one good working duplex with the other parts given to the repair shop for spares. Files that had P&C information that was no longer needed were shredded and the bits sent for paper recycling. No need to say about the reverse side of the paper right? The file dividers were then put aside for reuse. Of course the files were put aside for future use. The totally rusty spring files with split or torn edges were also sent for recycling.

I use re-filled toners for all the printers in the office from a very reliable compatible toner refill company. BTW, I keep all these cartridges with the boxes and the packaging for him too! All pastic, paper, glass and metal will be sent to the recycle bins where possible.
In the office, we will use item until it is totally dead or cannot be used anymore. If the item can be salvaged or repaired, we will have it repaired to prolong its life for use until there is a point of no repair or return.

According to the building management, our office is one of the greatest recyclers!

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Dog-ma

I recently because god-mother (or kai-ma) to a cairn terrier puppy - hence the nickname DOG-MA :p

This cutie pie was bought by Danny and came home to live with him on 25 April 2009 and was named LUCKY after many tries at a name that Danny's mother could say. They speak Teochew at home. The names I suggested were Ahti (little brother) or Nokia (small kid) but these were rejected. I figured an easy name would be great, but Danny had other ideas and finally LUCKY because mother would say it.

Lucky came about in a strange way and I am glad. One day - out of the blue - Danny called and said that he was looking for a puppy. For years, Danny hankered after a doggie. He was very happy to see Junior. But the doggie idea was totally out of the question because his brother BT was dead set again a dog. Actually I think BT is afraid of dogs. So I was totally stumped with Danny called and said it was now OK to get a dog at home.

Danny wanted a golden retriever because he likes large dogs - Junior is his idea of an ideal dog. BUT Danny has no idea how much training effort we have put into Junior. However Danny was practical about his choice of dog - it had to be small to fit into the requirements of HDB rules and regulations, hypo-allergenic, shed free and I guess easy to manage. A long list of requirements.

Anyway, we set off for a friend's pet farm and there was this cutie Cairn Terrier and I fell in love with it - actually I lusted over it and wanted it. My dear friend at the pet farm said: No more dogs for you - too many at home! BTW we only have a goldie (Junior) who lives illegally in an HDB flat and a westie (Torrent) who is totally legal and 3 cats.

OK, so since I didn't get this Cairn Terrier - Danny took him home and I became to DOG-MA!

Doggie benefits and love with no responsibility of pee and poo - NOT A BAD DEAL I WOULD SAY!!

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Manja

What's this about some women who feel that they must dress provocatively and act all hapless and helpless to achieve their wants and desires??

There is this lady I know, no names mentioned, who is mutton dressed as lamb. She is already 40+ but she acts in this coltish, skittish, manja type manner. She is also always dressed in these skin tight, skin baring clothes that make her look cheap and sluttish.

To make things worse, she is short and insists on wearing extremely high heels to totter around precariously.

Her manner of speaking is also weird - she also tries to speak in this so-called provocative giggly manner where she tells you something then breaks out in giggles like it is so funny. She also has this way of dragging her words or draggy manner of articulating her speech, depending on how you look at it. There is only one way to describe it - manja manner.

So this would be a caricature of her in your mind - someone short who wears high heels, skin tight and skin baring clothes, and acts all manja around men. I guess you could say BETTY BOOP!

Someone in our office building mentioned to me that he thought she looked like a prostitute - his words, not mine. By her own admission, she said that there are times when she has been stopped going to her hotel room when she was overseas on business because the management thought her to be an undesireable guest.

Anyway, I guess you could say that she is eye candy for the men but I think she could have a better image of herself.

Enough said!

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Bimbo stuff on television

There are 2 shows making their rounds on Singapore TV at the moment - The S Factor and Singtel Grid Girls. Last year, I posted a blog on Singtel Grid Girls and stated that the show portrayed women in bad light - as bimbos or sarong party girls whose whole idea in life is to snag themselve some ang=moh guy.

This year, I will state the same the same thing - the sponsors who agreed to fund these shows should have better things to do with their money.

In "The S Factor" the girls on show seem totally brainless from the trailers that have been showing. One girl said something like she has had 7 serious boyfriends, then the screen freezes and shows the expressions of these 2 women interviewing her.

Excuse me - I am not very keen to hear about how many serious boyfriends, or what part of your body you like the best, or your opinion that is so "brainless or senseless"!

I don't think I am particularly bitchy or nasty, but these 2 shows really portray women in bad light.

The girls don't do much to portray themselves in good light - they speak badly with the typical Singaporean accent Singlish, they don't pronounce words properly, they don't think of their answers or they speak with some stupid fake accent that does them no credit.

Sigh! - please take such horrible shows off the air. I am sure the money is better spent on other shows that put women in better light.

I rest my case!

New Phone

I bought a new phone a month ago - Samsung Pixon in standard black.

When I started hunting for a phone, HH told me to just fixate my search on a feature that was very important to me. These days, all phones come with the usual features - phone calls, SMS, MMS, emails, picture, video, games, radio and a whole lot of all-in-one features that will make the kitchen sink seem obsolete!

So I only have one requirement - the SMS fonts must get bigger! There is only one brand on the market that has this feature: SAMSUNG!!

So I headed off to the M1 shop to get my new phone based on that one requirement.

So why the PIXON instead of the cheaper F480 or the more expensive OMNIA - considering that all are touch screen phones?

Simple - PIXON has the loudest ring tone besides the larger font capability.

M1 gave me a $300 phone upgrade voucher, so the price diff between the three phones was something like $50 to $100 depending on which phone I took.

The OMNIA was some Windows mobile phone with Wifi, but the FONTS DON'T GET BIGGER, so that ruled itself out.

The F480 was pretty much the same as the PIXON (java phones), but the ring tones were softer and it has only a 5 megapixel camera. Since I already have a 5 megapixel Samsung G800 in good working order; I would be getting something with the same specs with a touch screen phone. The price difference for the camera size? $50 to me; so being the kiasu person, I took the biggest, bestest phone to suit my requirements. :p

Now I have put my data card into the PIXON and with the 8 gigabyte micro SD card, I have internet access on the move and can watch movies as well.

What more can a non-tech non geek girl as for?

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Frozen meals

Times are bad - we are trying to save $$ by eating home most nights with me cooking dinner and trying to keep the budget down to about $5 for the two of us. Alas, the best of my efforts are often stymied by what is available in the supermarkets.
My bright idea for saving money would be to buy frozen meat from the supermarket, defrost and cook. This is my BIG PROBLEM - everything that I buy frozen comes in bulk packing. To buy frozen boneless chicken legs, I need to buy 2 kg and it is impossible to separate it because it is in a large frozen lump!
Pork is not so bad because they come in 500g sizes.
We can buy some fish frozen in single pieces, but in a large bag - so I just take out what I need.
So far, the "cheapest" way of doing this would be to buy the whole salmon at $9.90/kg and freeze that into individual pieces. This means we are stuck eating salmon for weeks on end because we would are certainly not eating salmon every night!!
Of course I could cook up a large portion of 2kg chicken curry and dump it into the freezer and eat it for the next 6 months - one portion every month.
From the safe food handling process practice, we should not defrost meat then marinate it and re-freeze it.
So what am I supposed to do? Any bright ideas??
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Wedding Food

Food at weddings are generally mass produced meals - sometimes terribly expensive for what they are. In all the time that HH and I have been attending wedding dinners as a couple, I would say that the best meal was at our wedding. That's because I decided what we should eat and wasn't going to have some banquet manager tell me what was allowed in the package.

Anyway, this posting is not about our wedding lunch but about some of the wedding meals we have had over the years. So this post takes pot shots at incompetent wait staff and bad food.

There was this one dinner at Pan Pacific for P - the meal was OK but the table service was horrendous. The waiter is inept and when he brought the soup to the table, he dipped his THUMB into the soup as he placed it on the table. Oops! After that, I told him to deliver the food to the table and I would serve the table. I think he was impressed by my serving skills.

There was another dinner at Shangri-La recently - the waiter was good but the food wasn't terribly fantastic for a hotel of that stature. OK, give them some benefit of being overworked - there were just too many tables for them to attend to and it was chaotic in the ballroom as there were a couple of other functions going on around the hotel.

Also recently, we were at A's wedding dinner at Paramount Hotel in Katong. The food wasn't that great either by the standards of the groom's family. I thought it was OK - very passable for the place. The groom's uncle (a great makan kaki friend) felt that the food was not up to standard and had caustic remarks about the stuff he ate! But my galloping gourmet friend has a great cook in his mother so nothing comes up to his standards - I will feel sorry for any friend who tries to feed him - his comments can deflate a chef's ego even if they are rated 3*** by Michelin.

However the best wedding dinnner we went to recently was at Noble House at UIC Building in Shenton Way. The entire wedding dinner was vegetarian - HH and I are OK with vegetarian food if it is well done - THIS WAS EXCELLENT!!!

There was not a single piece of gluten in sight - every dish was carefully thought out and well cooked. I don't think there was any MSG either because we survived the wedding dinner without being thirsty. There were mushrooms galore but they were cooked interestingly. Aiyah! wait for the pictures to tempt you!

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Weddings

We went to a wedding yesterday at the Jurong Adventist Church - must say it was the most creatively done wedding we've attended in a long time. The decor was great with flowers every where, making the place smell heavenly.

The wedding montage of the wedding couple was brilliant! There was this video on B talking about R and how they are best friends. Then, the video went on to show how B proposed R in total darkness with these tea light candles made into the words "Marry Me". Awww - so romantic and really a good video for YouTube.

Congrats to all the kaypoh aunties who matchmade the couple and orchestrated the whole wedding event for the wedding couple.

HH has this thing about wedding - he hates them! Maybe our wedding was so awful that he does not care the repeat the process :p

Anyway, HH dislikes going to weddings because he needs to get dressed up - put on a well starched ironed shirt and proper dress shoes and sometimes a tie for the occassion as well. There there is the mush of weddings that get to the very practical engineer brain of his that he cannot process - yeah, I can understand too.

My take on weddings - get dressed up in my standard formal event "uniform" of my kebaya blouse and sarong skirt with my Ferragamo shoes and try to have fun.

Yesterday's wedding was a very elaborate affair of a church wedding where the church was packed to the brim. It was beautifully decorated. There were many grooms men and pretty flower girls scattering flowers all over the aisle.

In contrast, our wedding was pretty simple - to church then to lunch. We had 53 people attend the church wedding (including ourselves) then we headed off to the hotel for lunch. The whole lunch was over by 2:30 pm.

HH was feverishly ill - I think he had no recollection of the event other than him having this wet towel on his head to bring down his temperature!! Oh well - we have survived thus far!