Ya.. can u imagine that I get a very old insurance cover note in my late-grandpa’s drawer last Saturday when I was clearing up his room.. I wanted to have a scrap-room space for myself, so what I can do is to convert that room into one that I can work with without the mosquito disturbing me. While I run through those left over things that my Aunts didn’t throw away, I found a cover note dated back to 1971! Sum assured, RM5K. I’m sure at that time, it was a very big amount and I thought to myself.. wow.. grandpa was really modern, ‘cos at those time, there weren’t many that would buy insurance or even know about insurance . And the nominee was my late grandma. It wasn’t the kind of cover note we see now a days, it is folded up into a long slip of maybe 10″x4″. I was also surprise to find that it was in English… now.. my grandpa doesn’t know English, so who could be the one who introduce insurance to him? I think that will be the mystery for my life.
During those time, not only that my grandpa doesn’t know how to read English, there wasn’t even computer available for him. Now we can just go online to get our insurance quotes and get ourselves an online insurance policy! I know one that offer such a service: Advantage term life.
Another mystery for me (maybe will solve it later) is that it is a life insurance that my grandpa bought.. so who could be the one who have claimed it?
Talking about insurance, I myself got my first one ‘cos I’m fed up with the insurance agent who was so persistent for me to get a life insurance from her, and I didn’t regret it and am glad that she persisted that time. I think we all need at least one life insurance just so that when we passed away, our love ones won’t need to worry about funeral money .. ya.. I know.. some people doesn’t like to talk about this. But what about properties, you’ll definitely need insurance cover for that.. just imagine if you are half way paying the property and something happen, if you don’t have insurance cover for it.. non of ur love ones get to inherit that property that you might have been paying for over 20 years!

Ever wonder why we always have to hire foreigners to work in our construction sites? Ya..I always see non-Malaysian in the construction site, is it because of the pay or is it because of the skills? I wonder… The first fly-over in KK involved some Chinese form China to do the construction too, am I save to say that is due to skills? I still wonder. Actually construction workers need a lot of professional skills in handling heavy machinery down to painting. I’m including renovation too. When I was in Hong Kong, I saw the workmanship of the renovation in my sis’ house, and it was awesome, they go down to detail. I can see straight lines of paint in between the wall and ceiling, instead of a blurry line or a not so straight one over here. I saw workers hanging on the wall to put up tiles in one of the building next to ours in Shen Zhen, and that worker is a lady! I don’t see it here. As for constructing a high raised (about 20 floors) building, they can finished and open it in a year time. I wonder if we have that many skillful workers here.
I’m not sure how you can get qualify as a skilled construction workers though. There is this site that offer training and get you certified by 2010 in the related field, give you details of safety and also employment training. It is both useful for employer and whoever interested in getting certified in construction industry. How I wish we have such a site in Malaysia too.
Now I can safe suppose that once you’ve got the right skills, your pay will then be increase according to that, am I right?

“Mommy…! Is that you? What are you doing? Are you doing your “page”?”
Calvin asked when he heard noise and maybe saw the light shine through from the room next door when he is suppose to be sleeping last nite. Ya.. he caught me doing that, ‘cos I told him I’ll be back to watch over him and will be in bed pretty soon together with him, just so that he went to sleep feeling mommy is around. But somehow this little boy of mine isn’t falling asleep yet at 10 ish.. ya.. he hasn’t sleep yet.. and he needs to go to school the next day and I was thinking that I can start my scrapbooking already.
Oh well.. I guess I’ll have to stay there in the room with him till he is asleep.
Yupe.. I always do that, wait till the boys are sleeping then start my scrapbooking thing in the kitchen table. Sometimes during the weekend, I just can’t wait anymore and I got all my things out, hoping that they are busy playing. But they always ended up in the kitchen table or the outside table beside me, poking this and that, going through my stuff in the box, asking about this and that, got excited in seeing themselves in my album and Calvin being demanding that I do those photos with him inside.
So last nite I thought to myself, I hope Calvin will be just like mommy who like scrapbooking, who loves arts and be creative in his life.

I’m already been thinking about my retirement plan although I’m not yet 40. Well, an early plan is better than a no plan scheme ‘cos retire early is really my hope. That means I’ll need to be financially free, i.e. no dept and can support myself when I’m not on a daily job. I don’t rule out part-time or working on my own.. but to really retire, I would think of no need to work but just to enjoy life, it doesn’t matter if I have to work out my budget or to cut down on buying things so that I don’t need to work and still can survive, with a house to stay in, with a hobby to cling onto, with love ones that care for me (not hoping financially though), and of course with my children or friends that I can go out with.

Retirement plan in financial term might not be a problem for most people, but the caring part might be. As we grow older, we might be facing with mobility problem, health problem and of course financial crisis will come along if we fall sick or need extra care. A care home might be a good option then. A place whereby you have the right kind of people taking care of you, once in awhile check up on you, giving you advice on your daily life, giving you suggestion on dealing with things and even providing a space for you to connect with others that are in the same situation with you. As we all know, being old also means being lonely sometimes.. so care do needed. Our love ones might be busy away with their daily routine and sometime might neglect us.. so it would be good to know of some place that you can connect to at that time. Bettercaring is one site that provide all these professional assistance and it would be good if we can have something like this in Malaysia.

I hope my retirement is a joyful one and I will still be doing my scrapbooking..

Or you are already in the thought of doing that.. so wanna look for one good shopping cart software?

Ashop is offering affordable online ecommerce software which accept credit cards online (no need to create paypal) and it is a web based software that doesn’t need installation (doesn’t jam up ur hard-drive).

Starting from USD39.95 a month, you get to enjoy up to 50 products’ cart entry. As for unlimited product, they charge USD189.95. You can also take their free 10 day trial to try out before decide to commit yourself, if you choose their USD69.95 package which has 100MB webspace but still for 50 products’ cart. They claim that they are having an Award winning shopping cart software. All of the package include “Built-in Design Themes”.

With the price that you are paying for, you get their technical support which to me is the most important thing for a non-shopping-cart-savvy person.

Well.. find out yourself and visit their website for more information. To me.. not yet.. not now.. but who knows some day I’m gonna do this online business things. Anyone wanna buy scrapbooking idea?

Yupe, got back and started to work. Got to send the two boys to school, surprisingly today, they didn’t cry, no show of separation anxiety.. probably later.. this mother is nuts, who in the world would hope that their kids will cry on first day at school? But.. hey, that show how much they miss their mommy ma.. anyway, it is also a good thing, it shows that they know how to control their emotion..

About the photos.. I guess I won’t be able to show any photo from now on till Chinese New Year, cos that is when hubby is getting home and that is when he can bring back the camera that I left in China.. [double :(( from me.. ]
Yes, that is really the dumbest thing that I did, how could I have forgotten my camera!! All the photos are there.. all those that I wanted to use in my scrapbook, for my Christmas pages, my Disney pages, my travel pages, my daily pages.. OMG!! I HAVE FORGOTTEN MY CAMERA! Yes, those were the first things that I thought of when I discovered that the camera is not in my bag. It get worst when hubby called saying that he can’t find the camera at home, which means.. OH NO!!! I can’t even scrap them? I haven’t even develop them! I can’t show to my friends? What if people use my photos to do silly thing? what if…?
I’m ok in loosing the camera, I can buy a new one, but the photos?!? Loosing them is like loosing some of my memory.. those one in a million photo shot that I’ve got, those never gonna have it again moment?
Then when I call hubby again, he said he found it in his wind breaker.. buoy am I glad, but I was mad with him, cos that really given me some head-ache and heart-ache.
Fui, u better think of something to compensate those cells that died in me..

Just got back from Hong Kong Disneyland. Yupe, been there, done that and loved it. Hoping to go back again someday after they have new “land” being built up.
Thought we’ve been there, but we didn’t spend counting down there, instead we are back in China and me and hubby didn’t really do our count down. The boys are flat and need to put them to bed soonest when we arrived, and I had my late nite shower after that, can u imagine, whole day in the same clothes without shower.. buoy.. that was a nicest shower I ever had. Oh and the boys.. well.. Cal can sleep standing in the MTR, that’s how tired he got after the whole day visiting the zebra, darzan, elephants, hippo, Mickey, Donald, Santa, and oh the parade and snow.
Sorry.. no photos for now, will do that once I have them. At the mean time, it is bed time for me.. I’ll get panda eyes in the morning, that is definite.

Yay!! Ever heard of Smorty? Ever heard of get paid for blogging ? I suppose most of us are familiar with blog advertising or advertise on blogs, I didn’t know about posting also can earn money till I saw it in my friend’s blog and thought to myself.. hmm.. what is this? Smorty.. then I got an update from her telling me that I can actually earn by posting. So here I am. Well, it will also depends on my traffic, the popularity of the blog. Smorty is actually one that connect advertisers with bloggers and you can write about your opinion and post them on your blog according to assignment. This is actually one way in helping bloggers to get to the right information that they needed daily.
Ya, I suppose you can blog for money while you are sharing your stories with your fellow bloggers or friends that choose to read on your blog. No harm in trying and who knows one of your posting is a helping tips for someone else that doesn’t seems to know about it. Smorty actually give you a choice on things that you wanted to write about, or familiar with instead of just putting an advertisement there which need users to click on them. I haven’t came across any other “get paid for blogging” services yet, and Smorty is the first and I think I’m hooked.

Took the nite HK train then transfer by bus to the China border, it took us 1.5 hours from HK including the train and bus ride, immigration and taxi ride. Not many people at nite, thus it took us faster to get through the immigration and got ourself a taxi.
Before that nite, we went to join in the BBQ fun in the fire department which is being organised for family members. The boys had great fun there seeing the real fire engine up close and sure enough taken lots of photos. The boys love it.
Last nite was a family take-out day which we order Japanese food, but that is strickly for adults and as for kids, we got them spegetti, chicken wings and sausages, and lots of toys.
It is not a public holiday yesterday in China, they don’t celebrate Christmas over here.. so hubby still had to work, today as well.
Christmas over here is more to the advantage of business people, Christmas theme but not knowing the true meaning of the birth of Christ.

well.. today is the 1st day of staying home with the boys… frustrating and nerve cracking as Cal always do things purposely opposite my request.. not easy to be a stay home mom.. I miss my normal working day routine… but enjoying some me and my boys time as well.. despite the nerve cracking part.