I hate I.PH…BEING AN ALALAY

June 30, 2007

I hate i.ph. It always hangs up. My son asked me why I am not blogging here anymore.

 

I say it always hangs and my blogs gets lost.

 

I.Ph wake up!!!!!!

Its a free site but terrible….

ON BEING AN ALALAY FOR TWO DAYS

My feet nearly grew numb. For two days , me and my son Niles were Alalays to my sister Mean and her friend who visited Singapore just to shop. Its the Great Singapore Sale… and tomorrow the GSt will already be increased to 7%..

 

I never realized my stamina …biro mo from 10 am till 6pm we walked the malls of Vivo City, Suntec, Harbourfront, Orchard Road  …I never had done this kind of walking for a while.

 

My youngest son Niles can already work as a tourist guide. For his two day effort of bringing around his two aunties and carrying bags he got extra pocket money and baon.

 

 

Happy Fathers Day

June 17, 2007

Two days ago my husband got angry with my two boys due to my sons computer conking out again.

 

 Everytime my husband gets angry with the two boys lagi akong damay sa scolding. We all get scolded, me ,the two boys and even my maid dont escape the ire of my husband when he is angry. He was seething with anger more so because i was just looking at him when he was spanking the two kids.

 

I just kept quiet and I was so sure that he was going to have a big migraine again due to anger. I was right. Midnight he was already nudging me asking me for Whiteflower.

 

When I am angry with hubby I just keep quiet . He knows when I stop talking and dont answer him  I  am surely angry.

 

 The following day hubby woke up smiling at me and kissed me as soon as he went out from the bathroom. So bati na naman kami.

 

 Alam nya siguro na fathers day today kaya ako binati.

 

 So to my precious husband….Happy fathers day!!!!

 

Also to Lolo Taba (my father in law ) and  Lolo Cecil(my father)Happy Fathers Day !!!

Here is a touching song about fathers and sons…I hope my two kids will grow up to be as loving to their wives as their father and grandfathers.

Father And Son Lyrics (Cat Stevens)

Father
It's not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to know.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.

I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy,
To be calm when you've found something going on.
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you've got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

Son
How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again.
It's always been the same, same old story.
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go.

Father
It's not time to make a change,
Just sit down, take it slowly.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to go through.
Find a girl, settle down,
if you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.

Son
All the times that I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside,
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it.
If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them you know not me.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go.

 

Saving Money for a New Home

June 15, 2007

I stumbled upon two cool websites on saving money .One is Jared who commented in my blogger account (his site is at  http://powerofthepenny.blogspot.com/ )and another is http://www.belairwm.com. These two blogs have some really good articles on How to Save Money.

 

One article that Marc of Belair Wealth Mgt wrote is Buying your First House. He wrote about the advantages of owning rather than renting a house, However in SIngapore a new trend is rising..these are of old people who sell their homes and use the profits renting. This probably is because in Singapore properties have a 99 year lease period. You own your property only for 99 years. This means you cannot really pass this property on to the next generation(maybe only to your sons and daughters but not to grandchildren).

 

My own experience in building my own house I would say is miraculous. Why miraculous?

 

When I started bulding my house which sits on a 365 square meter property which I made a downpayment on,,I practically had zero money.I also had no savings. I was single and working for a Japanese company. I initially borrowed from my Pag Ibig fund. From the P250,000 loan I only got a mere 180,000 because I had to pay so many legal fees. From that money I was able to buy cement, gravel and sand ,steel and wood for the basic structure.

 

I didnt have to pay for my Architect since my father is an Architect. When my house was half way into construction, I already ran out of funds. So I approached my Japanese employers and I borrowed money which I promise to pay off every month through my P10,000 pay at that time. Fortunately they agreed.The loan was P50,000 interest free.

 

Finishing the house was another matter, this is where the miracle came. My company closed one of its plants so they had to dismantle all the cabinets, lighting etc from the old factory, My colleague offered to give me(without asking) some of the materials from the old factory like lights and cabinet materials and some roofing items. They even delivered all these items for free to my house. My Japanese employers didnt really care if everything was given out for free since they even thought they have to pay for the removal fee.

 

I was able to therefore save 40% of my construction costs from the wood items coming from the closed factory. All my lights in my present house are still there …they all came from the closed factory. They are industrial lighting so they can withstand years of usage.

 

I remember one friend telling me that when you have decided to build a house it will eventually be finished because you really have that goal of completing the house.

 

This house which is a labor of love is still there. Everytime I go home to Manila, I ask my father to give it a good coat of paint. There are a lot of memories in that house….it was where my nephews and nieces grew up…my grandmother saw it before she passed away a year later and I will always remember my mother proudly saying its her house and tending to her garden daily before her stroke.

 

So  even though a lot of my neighbors have rebuit and remodelled their homes..my house (sticking like a sore thumb between two beautiful houses) is still there reminding me of my penny pinching days just to have her.

 

 

 

Managing My Cards Rewards Points

June 13, 2007

I normally dont bother to check how many points I already have for rewards redemption from my credit cards since I try as much as possible not to use my cards and if I do so, I normally consolidate the spendings in 1 or 2 cards at most.

 

 But due to the recent Great Singapore Sale and with a lot of Credit Card Promotions(like one for one deals), I started scrutinizing my rewards balances.

 

Lo and behold I found out that my DBS points expired on June 2 and 6 in 3 of my DBS cards. Just to make sure it wont happen to my other cards, at an ungodly hour of 11 pm I started checking what I can redeem with my other cards and just tonight I was able to redeem the following items:

 

1) Starhub mobile account of hubby- $10 Polar Puff Cake voucher

2) OCBC card ( a joint account)- $10  DOME Cafe Voucher and a $10 Toys R Us Voucher

3) UOB Visa Signature card- $5 Burger King Voucher

4) UOB Tiger Visa Card-$10 Body Shop Voucher

 

At least now I can buy the $9.95 Body shop Perfumes on Sale.

 

Last week with my ABN Amro card I was able to redeem a 12 pc Corelle Dinnerware set. It was a hassle redeeming the box(which was quite heavy) since the Rewards Redemption Outlet has moved near the Boon Keng MRT, an hour and a half bus ride to my place. I nearly missed my favorite 7pm Korean Drama because of this.

 

When I was checking my Citibank Card rewards balance I noticed that I was billed by Puzzle Pirates(my sons online gamesite provider) close to US$60 for June 7 and 8. I should never trust my two sons on this. They only requested me to buy a US$2.99 subscription but how come I was billed far beyond this amount?

 

My God I guess this website is fooling a lot of kids with the pirate game. So for parents beware of this Puzzle Pirates website. My two kids have been going loco over this online game during the school holidays.

 

Tonight I already reprimanded them not to open  that site anymore. I should remember to cancel my subscription tomorrow This blog will remind me on this.

 

Maid in the Philippines

June 6, 2007

There are all sorts of maids in SIngapore and the most sought after are Pilipino maids due to their ability to speak English. However in my dealings with maids I noticed that the ability to speak English is slowly deteriorating among Pinoy maids. Two weeks ago I even had a maid who failed the English entry test for maids 3 times. The exam was meant for Primary 3 ,it is basic knowledge so failing it means that understanding of English is really poor.

 

A distunguishing trait of Pinoy maids is that 99.9% of them have handphones and are fast with texting. My maid for example has an ear piece.

 

She is like a telephone operator(maybe that should be her second career or maybe I should ask her to apply as a call centre agent in Timbuktu). The moment she wakes up and cooks breakfast you can already hear her talking ang giggling with her friends. One time I woke up at past midnight and I heard whispers in her room. I saw her again talking ang crying over the phone. Her phone bills sometimes exceed my bills.

 

Another trait of Pinay maids is their ability to do part time work  or sideline whether it be cleaning other houses, selling all sorts of stuff from phone cards to real estate.Again my example is my maid. My maid started out with selling phonecards. She gets her customers from everywhere. She talks to strangers on the train at the MRT station and chats with them and sells them her wares. She has all sorts of stuff…levis tshirts, jeans, perfume, phone cards, balikbayan boxes. She is also my agent for maids.

 

Lately she told me she doesnt want to sell anymore because she said some of her clients fail to pay or even run away from their loans. Pero di pa rin nadala. Yesterday she told me she wanted to open a $500 account sa bank because she said her partner(in crime) doon ihuhulog ang tubo nila sa patubuang alahas. I dont know where she gets her  screwed business sense. If you see her crying and screaming its either she has lost hundreds of dollars from her customers or her friend is saying bad things about her.

 

Another trait iof Pinay maids specially those who have been here for some time eh gusto nila puti ang amo nila.They dont want Indian, CHinese employers basta gusto nila puti(meaning Europeans or Americans). Why do they like working for this group. Kasi gusto nila all SUndays day off pati public holidays. And what do they do during the day off?

 

Again my maid..what does she do on her day off? She goes out at 6am  and returns at 8 or 9pm. She first goes to church, meet up with friends. Go to Lucky Plaza(the favorite meeting place of Pinay maids) to collect payments from her customers. She chats and eats with friends(may mga baon sila) They talk talk talk until their mouth and pockets hurt. They cry cry cry until their nose turns red. They cry about boyfriends, their husbands ,their children,their parents etc. AFternoon if they still have time they work part time cleaning houses of friends. they are happy to earn a little money or if you treat them to free lunch or breakfast.

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Another irritating thing about Pinay maids….they expect you to buy everything for them like their shampoo(Mam sa akin Pantene ha kasi nasisira ng buhok ko pag iba), toothpaste(Mam colgate lang), napkins(even the everyday pantyliner). Even their own drinks. Yung iba nagtatago pa ng food sa kwarto nila. Mind you, food that they buy in the grocery using their employers money.

 

In contrast, Indonesian and Indian maids have no day off. They work from 5 am to 11 pm with no complaints(maybe because they cannot talk English and have no friends) Ang mga pinay lumabas lang ng pintuan may kaibigan na. Dumungaw (look out the window) lang may kausap na.

 

So now, do you think Pinay maids  will still be sought after?