Me and my shoes...the 2nd pair

I bought 4 pairs of shoes in 20 minutes at the Charles and Keith store in Changi Airport on the day of my departure for Hong Kong. It was 10am and the shop was empty; I was probably their 1st customer that day. The sales assistant who attended to me was very fast with bring out the shoes that I wanted to try and I tried on about 10 pairs before deciding on 3 but the total amount was a little short for getting that VIP card so I chose another pair making it 4 pairs! :)

Here's the photos of the 2nd pair of shoes that I decided to buy...it's a simple black one...

Front view

Side-view of the right...I love the heels!

Side-view of the left.

Sungei Buloh Outing

One of the highlights of our trip back to Singapore this time was the outing to Kranji. We had actually wanted to go to the D'Kranji Farm Resort but upon reaching the Kranji area, my hubby the navigator, decided that we should detour to get something to eat. The detour took us to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve instead. :)

At the entrance, we didn't know what to expect but it turned out way more exciting and fun than going to the zoo! It was really nature at its best! I would definitely go back there again next time with better equipments such as a better camera, more suitable outfits and maybe a pair of binoculars too. I realised that I liked this kind of outing! So I am not only an urban girl afterall!

Here are some of the pictures taken on that trip...

A fish which looked like a piece of wood in one of the exhibition tanks near the entrance...

A Monitor Lizard swimming in the pond...

Another Monitor Lizard climbing up from the sea...

We were really not dressed for that kind of outing...

A view of the swamp when it was low tide.

Another beautiful view of the swamp...

N feeding the fishes...

My resolution...

I made a resolution this year for not buying handbags, shoes and clothes, especially branded ones...but I broke my resolution this trip home. I was at the Charles and Keith store in Changi Airport prior to my departure for Hong Kong and I bought 4 pairs of shoes. :D

I had kept to my resolution for the past 4 months but I really couldn't resist buying shoes, especially Charles and Keith shoes as they are fashionable and very reasonably priced. And best of all, I didn't have to pay GST at the airport! So, I indulged myself and made myself really happy. My passion for shoes is indescribable...Here the photos of the 1st pair of shoes that caught my eyes.

From the front top view

Side-view on the right foot.

Side-view on the inside of the left foot.

Singapore Again~

Construction site of our new place~

Went home again over the May Day weekend which was just 2 weeks after the Easter weekend home. 2 weeks ago, we decided that we want to buy the next door unit to our new apartment for extension and this time back, we made the offer. The greedy owner wanted S$80K above the bank's valuation but we offered to give only S$30K. We couldn't close the deal of course as the owner is still trying to see if he can get a higher offer. The apartment will not obtain its T.O.P any time soon...they are just starting the 5th storey and the whole apartment block is 10 storey tall, so no real hurry for him and neither for us. I have a feeling that we will be able to get it the next time we go back in July. Hopefully my dream will come true~ :)

Nevertheless, it was still a very satisfying trip home. We managed to fixed up the children's internet connection, fixed up mum's skype cum landline telephone and also the TV. Then we also went for a day trip to the wetlands area of Singapore for a hike and also visited some farms. Didn't know there are still farms in Singapore...There's a farm resort which offers spa treatment using coffee beans produced at the farm; there are also some orgainic farming, agro-cultivation of vegetables, dragon fruit plantations, koi and tropical fish farms, goat farms, etc. Quite an interesting trip. (Will post pictures of the trip in my next few posts...)

Finance

I am doing my Finance module this term and learned quite a lot about investment risks and returns. The whole idea is to put money in some assets/investments for a period of time and let the money grow. The interest rates offered at banks for our savings are at all time low, much lower than the infaltion rates, so putting money in the bank will only depreciate the value of our savings. The money I have in the bank today will be worth lesser in a year, and even lesser if the interest rates are going to be lower than inflation rates for the whole time. So, what do we do? We have to invest and with investments, risks of losing part or all our money will be involved. The recent stock market performance has caused many people to lose money and I am lucky that I did not hold any stocks this time. I had lost quite a lot of money in the last Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. I have been burnt so bad that I really do not have anymore courage to touch on stocks now...

At the moment, I do not have any investments except for 1 private apartment in Hong Kong and 1 in Singapore that are bought with mortgage. Hubby thinks that investing in properties is the safest kind of investments but is it true? Comparatively, investing in properties may be safer than investing in the stock market or the forex market but nothing is risk-free. There are many people in Hong Kong who have been burnt badly from speculating properties and some are still stuck with their devalued apartments. Some of these apartments will never go back to the prices that they were bought at the peak.

When we were back in Singapore over the Easter Holiday weekend, hubby and I went show-flats viewing. The private property prices have dropped >14% this quarter compared to the prices of the last quarter of last year but I still think that the prices are high...However, we are thinking of buying the unit next to our new apartment to expand into a 6 bedrooms unit for all the members in our extended family to live in together. Just hope that we can get it at a good price and make our dream come true. :)

I won!

We had a golf game today at Shenzhen with my colleagues as a going away party for Nomu who is going to be repatriated next month. It's a standard ritual for the Japanese to have a golf game in the name of the one who is going to be sent back and the repatriate gets to play for free. I don't usually join the golf games but since I have known Nomu for many years and I had played with him when we were both in Singapore, I thought I would play a last game with him.

There were 15 players for today's golf game and we were separated into 3 groups or 4 and 1 group of 3. There were 3 main category best score prizes, 1 for the 20s, 1 for the 30s and 1 for the 40s and above. Then there were 4 "longest drive" mini prizes and 4 "nearest pin" mini prizes. I played in the 2nd group and I played really well today even though most of my driving was not so good. I managed to win the 1st "longest drive" and also won in the 30s category. Not bad huh? Actually my score was not fantastic, I was just lucky that the rest of the players in the 30s category was worse than me. The winner in the 40s category won with the score of 88!

Saturday Hong Kong style

The view from my bedroom window after the rain...

I can see all the way to Hong Kong Island!

I am sitting on my freshly-made bed (thanks to hubby) and looking out the window on this lazy Saturday. The air is clean after a wash from the heavy rain this morning. It's one of those few fine days when I can see all the way across to the apartments on the hills of Hong Kong Island. I like this kind of weather after the rain, the air is cool and everything is cleaned.

I had the room's aircon checked this morning by Carrier for foul smell coming out from it and the technician told me that I need to have the unit cleaned soon. Then another technician from PCCW came to fix up the wireless router and upgraded my broadband plan to a 18M one. Going online should be much faster from now and we will also be able to go online outdoors at all PCCW wifi spots.

After the 2 technicians left, hubby and I went to the Chinese restaurant downstairs and had tim sum for brunch Hong Kong style. We read the morning papers, sipped tea and had our favourite tim sums. We ordered a little too much though...the food could have fed 4 but the bill came out to be only HKD145. Great deal! Will be going back there for a meal again when mum and D come over next month.