amanda – Page 24 – KEEP CALM AND READ ON

May 13, 2011

Unboxing the KINDLE 3rd Gen. (FREE 3G + wifi)

I have ALWAYS believed that a BOOK is something physical and it is meant to be held on hand. HOWEVER, as I was packing for my trip.. I suddenly realised that my luggage is TOOOOOO heavy to accomodate a BOOK. The BOOK which I wanna bring with me is BREAKING DAWN ( yes – the last book of the Twilight Saga) I LOVE the Twilight Saga and I read it b4 I watch each movie. (Can’t wait for BREAKING DAWN movie!!!) haha.. BH thinks I’m crazy.. BUT I like to rem the quotes and repeat after the characters when I watch the movie.. and I get super angry when the movie is not as accurate as the book. Anyway, I was in panic mode when I realised that I can’t accomodate the book (due to its thickness = weight) “I need a Kindle” I told BH when he gets home from work.

BH is super enthu about buying tech stuff so HE began to research. He showed me various alternatives BUT I was uninterested. I mean.. I only wanted a kindle because it is CHEAPER compared to ipad or other forms of e-reader or tablet PC. I toyed with the thought of an ipad BUT we went to the Apple store and I don’t like how heavy and BIG is it. haha… my hand actually ached after holding it to read for 5 mins! geeez… and the glare, I can’t take it.. furthermore, I don’t like to watch movies/videos on the computer ( or plane for that matter) I can’t deny this BUT at the back of my head, I was thinking of putting the e-reader in my Chanel flap ( if i ever get one) Ipad is too heavy and will ruin the shape of the bag overtime. Afterall, IF I’m getting MY Chanel, it’s gonna be PERFECT! keke.. ok.. wishful thinking… FYI, Chanel price hike in US starts June 1 , getting further from my dream 🙁

Any case, we searched for other alternatives and emailed sellers on craigslist. In the end, we decided to go for the promotion at Microsoft Store – Buy a Kindle and get a FREE leather cover (ends May 8, the day we bought it. Phew!) . The question is… which Kindle to get? Basically, I am only looking at these 3 :

1) Kindle (wifi) with advertising US$114 – This means, if u r not reading the kindle, the screensaver will be filled with advertisement. Advertisement doesn’t bother me because even if it’s not advertisement, the kindle’s screensaver can’t be customised.

2) Kindle (wifi) US$139 – same as above w/o advertisement. erm.. the screensaver is Kindle’s own, introducing various authors

3) Kindle ( FREE 3G + wifi) US$189 – same as the 2 above BUT it comes with 3G. 3G for kindle is not linked with any telco ( not like ipad) Technically, IF i’m at a place w/o wifi – 3G will be used. According to Amazon, they have connections with telco of 100 countries (includes SG) so no cost will be incurred! The pt of the 3G is to d/l books BUT ALL Kindle comes with an EXPERIMENTAL browser – It is not powerful BUT good enough for checking email, facebook and even DBS ibanking!!! :O This means tt I can browse simple websites overseas ( 100 countries covered by Amazon) for FREE , even when there’s no free wifi. This is super useful when travelling!

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Anyway, I am tending towards Option 1 because it’s the cheapest. I was going to sell the Kindle after I’m done with it during this trip. However, BH was very keen on Option 3 – the one with 3G. In the end, he said ” Just get the one with 3G – I will pay for the diff. ” erm… OK… Btw, he paid for everything and I haven’t paid him yet. haha.. HEY… I have the intention to!

P1150547 — Kindle in FREE leather cover worth US$35!

P1150548 — How kindle looks inside the cover... haha.. maybe I shld have bought the white kindle.. more colour contrast

MY BLOG IS KINDLE-FRIENDLY 😀

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Kindle is fabulous! Loving it! Just for records, the first book bought is BREAKING DAWN and I had downloaded a tonne of FREE books. haha… Caryn, if u r reading this… THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF TRASHY NOVELS FOR FREE!!! kekeke… In the libraries,these trashy novels look old and dirty… on the kindle, it’s always CLEAN! 😀

1 other thing to note about Kindle: I have been accumulating SWAGBUCKS and participating on BING REWARDS, every mth or so, I will have enough pts to redeem $5 Amazon giftcard from EACH site. This means NEW BOOKs! heh.. have been doing these for awhile now 🙂

[Sidetrack]
I had been reading reviews of Kindle’s 3G coverage in Singapore. It seems like the 3G can’t really work there 🙁 I’m kinda disapted BUT I’ll try it then review here to clear misconceptions. (I hope!) keke.. This trip, I will also be visiting other countries like Korea ( for transit) , Hongkong ( for Mayday concert) and Bangkok ( for leisure) I’ll also bring the kindle along and test it out at these places. Stay tuned!

May 11, 2011

Wedding scrapbook done..

after like 3 years.. phew…some pages below… hard work but worth it 🙂

May 4, 2011

Leap Year

BH and I watched Leap Year on Netflix last night. Thankfully, BH insisted on subscribing to Netflix else we won’t have the chance to catch up on movies/sitcoms!

I always wanted to watch this movie.. it was such a sweet romantic comedy.. haha.. the kind that’s sooooooo sweet that u wanna watch again and again.. and NOTHING beats watching a romantic comedy with your fave person! 😀 YES, you must go watch it… the actor is HOT!

Leap year only happens once in 4 years.. I was telling BH that it’s so romantic to get married on Leap year.. haha.. so he was like “can save money right?” heh.. oh well, partly.. but my pt is.. since it only happens once in 4 yrs, it makes celebrating it more precious! 🙂

In the movie, the male lead Declan asked the girl, Anna, “Your house is on fire, you only have 60secs, what do u take with you?” hmm… i asked BH the same qn and he was like “I will take you and maybe… BooBoo ( the swedish bulldog) ” haha… on the other hand, the first thing I wanna take is my fave ring ( the one BH gave me last yr in Hawaii) Anyway, I think BH’s response is so sweet can.. haha

To mk the movie even sweeter, there’s a scene when it played the soundtrack of ‘Dream a little dream of me’ which was our walk-in song for the wedding dinner. ( OK.. we decided on this song abt 3 hrs before the dinner… haha…v impromptu but turns out well) It brought back nice memories…

On top of that… there’s this super nice and romantic quote:

“May you never steal, lie or cheat
But if you must steal, steal away my sorrows
If you must lie, lie beside me all the days of my life.
And if you must cheat, cheat death.
Because I could not live a single day without you”

haha… I told BH that I would have included this in my wedding speech If I know about it earlier… it’s sooooo sweet! okok.. I’m a hopeless romantic…

last but not least… another nice quote from the show,“always kiss like it’s the first time and the last time” haha… that’s what I did!!! 😀 BH thinks I’m a frog.. haha

don’t laugh! Go watch the movie if u haven’t!!

May 3, 2011

Valuable asset

I have been busy for the past weeks.. I think I’ll still be busy in the coming week.. need to pack and all.. well, I am looking forward to go back to SG but I’m not looking forward to leave BH behind 🙁 I think I’m gonna miss him badly especially when I see our new home, it was supposed to be our dream home.. I mean.. we planned our life in SG BUT with God’s blessing, BH is relocated here.. I still believe God have a beatiful plan for us.. maybe it’s just unfolding slowly , not how I envisioned it to be

While I look forward to the reno, did research and get excited to seek BH’s opinion, BH is reluctant and somewhat reserved to talk about it. We hardly have any disagreements.. BUT the topic of our home in SG just stirs up a whole lot of bad emotions – we always end up being upset with each other. THIS doesn’t happen when we plan our wedding.. Then I know.. BH just isn’t into our SG home anymore … ahh… it hurts because I always wanted a home to call our home.. not with anyone else but with him

Facebook is evil..it gives you insights into other pple’s lives… and that’s when u realised that how this and that person is married.. having their 1st or even 2nd child… how she/he is preparing for their new home together… that’s when I realised that though I’m married, I AM NOT SETTLED – He’s here and I NEED to be there. No, we are not talking about having kids.. but the very thought of having a dog is difficult too.. I don’t regret coming here.. I don’t regret getting married… Just regretted how I signed my life away

So, just like the GE. I wanna mk my presence felt. I have been trying to be a 101% good wife. I want to be a valuable asset, not a liability. I hope that he’ll just think of me fondly when I’m gone.

oh well… till then… next entry? maybe when i’m in SG.. I wanna blog happy thoughts…

April 19, 2011

Review: The Pink Door

It’s the last week of Seattle Resturant week. I planned for us to check out The Pink Door
According to Yelp and many other websites, this place is VERY VERY good… so since we are downtown for the EMP, we might as well check this out. We wanted to go for Sunday lunch BUT they are not opened for lunch, so we went for Sunday dinner instead.

We had a hard time looking for this place.. as there were NO signboard.
THIS IS THE DOOR! We walked past this spot countless times and we didn’t notice that it’s THE PINK DOOR. haha….

The resturant had great ambience … nice.. esp that vase of ‘FAT’ XL tulips

We were greeted by our cheerful server who patiently explained the specials for the night ( Grilled swordfish and Whole Rockfish).

BH ordered the Rockfish while I ordered the Seattle resturant week specials ( 3 courses for $28)

While waiting for our food….we took some pictures… haha
.

Our server bought us bread while waiting… well, the bread is cold and hard like rock… they shld heat up the bread then serve it…

My 1st course: Sautee Calamari ( Very nice… v soft… tasted like fish cake!!)

My 2nd course: Cioppino Pink Door ( This is like a italian seafood stew. It contains clams, mussels, fish and prawns. Very tasty.. yummy!)

BH’s entree: ‘Brazino style’ Rockfish ( Fresh w/o fishy smell)

Last but not least… Dessert… Shards of love ( Biscuits-like crackers on sweet sauce, i like it!!)

The highlight of dinner was THE TRAPEZE LADY! we were quite fortunate to get a table right smack in the centre of her ‘stage’ 😀 It was a pleasant surprise as I reserved this place not knowing that they have such entertainment!

The performance lasted for about 15mins BUT it was good! At least there’s some kind of other entertainment than BH and I talking rubbish to each other… hahaha…

Total damage: $80 with 20% tips ( 3 course specials + 1 whole fish+ 1 cocktail + Trapeze lady)

Quite reasonable for the price for dinner as compared to Purple 🙂 Hope to come back again

A picture of us to rem the date

pink door (1) — A picture of The Pink Door and ME.. lest I forget

April 19, 2011

EMP+SFM+Pike Place Market

The weather last weekend was awesome! Mr Sun decided to come out and say ‘HI!’ haha..BH and I had been planning for our weekend since 1 week ago? So I was quite glad that the weather is good ( No.. we didn’t have wet weather plans) hehe

The main point of going to Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum was for NIRVANA. I’m not a NIRVANA fan BUT BH was.. so I accompanied him to the museum. Thankfully, BH have company discount, we only paid $5 each for admission

Lots of pictures…. let them do the talking

EMP (4) — Kurt Cobain in SINGAPORE!! No joke... haha.. he didn't take pic with Merlion but with Mr M and Col. Sanders

EMP (6) — Guitars of all shapes and sizes... Oh well...

The FUN part of EMP is playing with various musical instruments like guitar, drums…there is computers to guide you as you learn ( not all computers are working that well.. haha… )

EMP (7) — At SFM.. there's a whole lot of spaceships... BUT I find this interesting.. haha

After which, we made our way to Pike Place Market… just to walk around… Finding a parking space at Pike Place Market was CRAZY BUT we were quite lucky to get a space after driving ard for 20mins!! Then I realised that BH can parrell park quite well… haha… i mean… I totally forgot how :X

We participated in a interesting game at Pike Place Market. You will be given a passport ( red book I’m holding) and ‘Bob the builder’s hat’ , so u will go ard the market looking for answers and get the stamps. There were only 5 pages which we need stamps on BUT we only had 2 stamps? oh well… BH was not v enthu abt the game.. he was looking for the pple with the ‘stamps’ instead of the places… HE is definitely NOT someone I’ll join Amazing Race with….

Sunny days like this always mks us wanna have a dog 🙁

pike (7) — Goose eggs are HUGE! Everything here is XL!

How can we go home w/o flowers from Pike Place? haha…. Love the tulips.. they are so ‘FAT’ hehe

You know.. when you can’t think of anything that went wrong for the day… it’s a good day…

As time flies by… these days are numbered…

April 19, 2011

8 bottles of Nivea bodywash for $1.52!

ok, there’s only 7 bottles in the picture because BH took 1 bottle to use. heh…

Target:
8 bottles at $3.19 each
Used 8 MQ $3 off
Total: $1.52 + tax

Actually, other Target/Walmart are selling at as low as $2.54/bottle. So if u managed to get it at that price, it’s a MONEYMAKER! I’m just glad tt we can get 8 bottles for almost free + FREE shopping bag from Target! 😀

If you have TLC, you will get to watch Extreme Couponing on Wed. Unfortunately, we don’t have cable 🙁 Anyway, the show mks EVERYONE aware of coupons.. so when there’s this Nivea deal… the shelves were CLEARED!!! seriously… cleared… i mean.. who doesn’t wnat FREE or almost free bodywash right? I don’t know about other household BUT the bodywash runs out FAST in my home!!! I suspect BH is playing with soap when he bathes! heh.. so when such a deal comes out… I stock up! I won’t be around for sometime, to minimise unnessary spending on BH’s part, I am stock up on such items..

The dirty secret…. because I wanted to save $ so badly and I only have 2 $3 MQ, I went to dig our apt’s recycling bin for newspapers which pple threw away :O BH was disgusted and thought I’m mad… yes… almost…

[Add on] Itchy hand me… went to click on ‘UPDATE ALL’ for wordpress… and my whole blog got distorted!!! BOO!!! I freaked out man!! Now.. I finally got it back… erm…changed a different skin for luck..

April 15, 2011

#3: Hacking wall

According to the floor plan, walls that cannot be hack is shaded. The wall that I want to hack is unshaded!
The question is…. how much to hack the wall?

April 12, 2011

Review: McCormick & Schmicks Seafood Restaurant

It’s Seattle Resturant week again!

Initially, I made reservations for Barrio – it’s kinda like a mexican american fusion resturant which is under the same company as Purple. However, both of us don’t feel like Mexican food so we cancelled the reservations and went to McCormick@Bellevue instead

When I see McCormick, my instant thought is the spices in the supermarket! I mean the range of spices they have are not cheap, so I thought that the food is going to be super pricy! Luckily there’s Seattle Resturant week! We are able to dine at this resturant for less!! and just when we think that the 3 course lunch for $15 is very affordable… we managed to buy the resturant’s $100 gift card at $80 at Costco! 😀

We made reservations and went to the resturant slightly earlier. We were greeted by our server with a FREE BLUEBERRY CAKE! usually, these resturants will serve bread BUT they serve us cake! Happy Surprise #1! (Yes… there’s MORE)The server added that it’s a sunday special! anyhow, the blueberry cake is super nice… I was kinda 1/2 full from eating it… haha…

We ordered food shortly. BH ordered the 3 course for $15 specials while I ordered Crab Cake Benedict ( I don’t think that I can eat 3 courses.. erm… after the cake)

BH’s appetiter came. It was Mussels in Thai curry sauce. The server and his supervisor brought 2 plates of the mussels! ( we only ordered 1) Happy surprise #2!! The supervisor explained that they made a mistake and prepared more, they didn’t want to waste food so I have a plate of mussels too! yums! That was a perfect mistake… because the mussels was SUPER NICE!!!!! keke… From this incident, i also learn that they only prepare the food when customers order – they don’t prepare beforehand and heat it up to serve!

No joke… after the mussels, i was 3/4 full…. then came the entrees

After 1 benedict… I was too full to go on… BH thinks i’m a very lousy eater

Last but not least… the dessert – Creme Brulee

We felt that the dessert was alright only… we tasted better Creme Brulee

When the bill came… it was happy surprise #3! we thought we had a whole lot of good quality seafood.. and the price was very affordable ( taking a/c of our giftcard deal)

Total damage: $40 ( with 20+% tips – gave more tips because of the mussels)

Overall: Recommended to go for seafood and when you have the giftcard ( from costco)

[Edit]
Bought nice flowers from Trader Joe’s during grocery shopping! Nice end to the weekend!

April 12, 2011

#2: Grid system

For our kitchen, I am hoping to cut cost by NOT building so many cabinents… so…. I intend to source for such grids in SG or get BH to buy these grids and ship to SG. Love how convenient and good looking these grids are! Above all, such grids are cheaper than carpentry.