Why cursing and swearing are friends... Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Friday, August 28, 2009 at Friday, August 28, 2009, in Labels: Emotions

WARNING: CURSING AND SWEARING AHEAD.


Now I finally know why the words "cursing" and "swearing" must come one after another - because they come naturally when a person gets freaking irritated and/or is in a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot of pain.

Following a really nice and relaxing manicure and pedicure treat from S yesterday, I thought I should give myself another treat by going for a 2-hour massage. Man! It turned out to be a 2-hour ordeal instead!

This massage has got to be the WORST one I had in my life. The masseuse was really heavy-handed. Every single one of her strokes either made me felt uncomfortable or in great pain. Now you must be thinking, "aiyo then tell her lah," Well I did and I told her many many times. I not only asked her to go soft, i also indicated to her many many times with my actions. I was practically curling in pain throughout the session.

Bitch! Asshole! I hope you fracture your thumb!

Now I have a headache because you squeezed my skull too hard.

So much for a relaxing massage. Hmmph!!

STOP SMILING TO ME, YOU FARKING BITCH! I'M IN PAIN!!!



P/S: I'm not scolding you. I'm scolding her. Bitch! Bahhhhh!

Best Friends Like None Other Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Saturday, August 22, 2009 at Saturday, August 22, 2009, in Labels: animals

Time for a pay raise ? Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Friday, August 21, 2009 at Friday, August 21, 2009, in Labels: Property News

Singapore ranked second most expensive city in Asia, after Tokyo

21 August 2009

Singapore has been ranked the second most expensive city in Asia, after Tokyo, with Hong Kong taking the third position.

In UBS’ Prices and Earnings 2009 study released on Thursday, Singapore is ranked 24th globally, in a comparison of living costs in 73 cities around the world. The study was based on data collected between March and April this year.

It found Oslo, Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and New York to be the world’s priciest cities based on a standardised basket of 122 goods and services. Mumbai, Delhi, Manila and Kuala Lumpur are cities with the lowest price levels.

The study said: “Asia is home to some of the world’s priciest cities and nowhere is the spread between most expensive and cheapest more pronounced.”

Employees in Copenhagen, Zurich, Geneva and New York have the highest gross wages, but Zurich and Geneva top the rankings in the international comparison of net wages.

In Asia, employees in Tokyo earn the highest wages, and are ranked 18th globally. Their salaries are about two times higher than those in Singapore, which came in at 40th globally. Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai are at the bottom of the table.

As for working hours, people work the longest hours in Asia and the Middle East, and the shortest in France. People work an average of 1,902 hours a year in the surveyed cities, but those in Asian and Middle Eastern cities work an average of 2,119 and 2,063 hours a year respectively.

Overall, Cairo employees work the longest hours, averaging 2,373 hours a year, followed by Seoul with 2,312 hours. In comparison, people in Lyon and Paris spend the least amount of time at work – putting in about 1,582 and 1,594 hours a year respectively.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 20 Aug 2009

Download UBS Prices & Earnings 2009

What a Big Hoo-Ha.... Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Monday, August 17, 2009 at Monday, August 17, 2009, in Labels: Emotions

I'm soooo blur that I should be crowned the blur-queen.

It happened to me many times and I did it again today.

I was supposed to be off in India tonight but because of my blunder, I'm back at home on my bed.

Sounds good huh...not really. Not only I caused inconvenience to myself, I caused inconvenience to a whole lot other of people. Not forgetting that I would be laughed at in the office for as long as I'm working there. Blahhhh...

It all happened just after I passed through the security check waiting to be boarded. Since I had some time to kill, I took out the stack of paperwork that I gotta fill for Indian immigration. Everything went on fine until I hit the question - VISA NUMBER & EXPIRY DATE.

Man!! My visa expires on Thursday but I will only get back on Friday!

Gosh. I panicked lah. Freak! How can I be so careless??!!???!!

I spoke to J who had the same problem and deliberated if I should go ahead and board the plane. He said previously he was thrown outta plane and sent directly to a Police Station in India. I thought "hey I could live with that' and was all set to do it until he said I could go to jail because I would be considered an illegal immigrant the moment I am thrown outta the plane.

Noooooooooo!!! I dun wanna go to jail. I dun wanna go to jail in Singapore and definitely I dun wanna go to jail in India! No offence to my Indian friends. The public roads of India are already quite filthy, I really can't imagine the condition of the cells.

So yeah, that's my story. I was very embarrassed lor. My luggage had to be thrown out of the plane and escorted out of the airport. Malu!

I tell you, I can't think of anyone else who can be as blur as me. As I was saying, this ain't my first time. I made these other blunders over the years...

(1) On my trip to London from Singapore many years ago. I thought my British Airways flight was scheduled to depart at 11pm. But actually it departed at 10pm. Bleah! Luckily there was a Quantas flight at 11pm so the ticketing officer put me on that flight instead without additional charges. Phew! BLUR!

(2) On my trip from London to Singapore, I was all set to depart on say Tuesday...but actually, my flight was on Wednesday. BLUR!

(3) On my trip back from Los Angeles, I attempted to leave the customs without my passport. Apparently it was with my boss who already left Changi Airport so I was stuck at the airport for a few hours. BLUR!

(4) On my trip from Hong Kong to Singapore, the plane flown off without me :'( ...BLUR!



*cries* Me so stupid.

Chic up your bedrooms! Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Sunday, August 16, 2009 at Sunday, August 16, 2009, in Labels: decor, DIY

Lately I'm in the mood for some serious DIY.

C'mon. Get your head outta the gutter.

I meant DIY - Home Decor.

Before we made an offer for the house and before it was rejected, I fantasized about how I'll be doing up our newly 'acquired' 2-storey home. Now friends, before you get all excited that I finally found a place, I haven't. I'm still in a position where I get to see property prices go up uppp upppp right before my eyes. *sighs*

Anyway, I am particularly interested in DIY because we have to keep the cost down. B & I ain't exactly anywhere near millionaire status so we need to keep our expenses at bay. Besides, as you might already know, I'm pretty house-proud. It would give me even more satisfaction when one of my 'understudied' DIY creation turns out well. Why 'understudied'? Because I'm not all that original & creative. I usually gather my ideas from loads of pictures from different websites before deciding what I'll settle for eventually.

In this post, I'll share some cheap & chic ideas to update your bedroom. Once again, please take note that these pictures ain't mine. They were originally taken from various websites such as www.ikeahacker.blogspot.com, www.apartmenttherapy.com, www.designspongeonline.com, www.bhg.com etc. Please visit them if you like these photos.

The ideas that I'm about to present you can definitely be DIYed. Materials are also readily available in Singapore. If you need certain suppliers, leave me a comment and I'll try to pass them to you, if I have.

By the way, if you would like to showcase your work here, please email them to me at bachie. boo@gmail.com . :)

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From a potential looking headboard....





Transformed to...retro headboard in a really nice colour. Those stuff on top of the headboard ain't my favourite though. Cute puppy. Do you know what breed issit? Look at the bottom of this picture for answer




It should be a Border Collie



From a boring looking small mirror (Ikea Malma Mirror at S$3.95 each)




To a sophisticated headboard




Alot more to come...

Let your imaginations run wild!!

I GIVE UP! Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Saturday, August 15, 2009 at Saturday, August 15, 2009, in Labels: Emotions, property

It's impossible to find a landed property within our budget and liking now.

Just 2 weeks ago, we thought we found one even though the location was far from perfect - somewhere along Jalan Kayu.

When we finally got the bank approval, we eagerly made the offer for the house. It turned out that the owner had changed his mind. He's not selling anymore!!!!

**WAILS!**

I feel so tired.

I give up.

Hold firm, first-time home buyers Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Monday, August 10, 2009 at Monday, August 10, 2009, in Labels: Property News

This article was published in Sunday Times on National Day. It is very well-written and it totally reflects our agony - even though we are not first-time buyers.


~ Abstracted from Sunday Times...

Two Sundays ago, my editor wrote in this column about property advice his parents gave him just before he bought his first home.

He was unaware, but on the day his column was published, I took the plunge and bought my very first property with my partner.

His words obviously resonated with me: My purchase was an apartment way below $1,000 psf and under $1million, and reasonably near an MRT station by 2015.

But beyond these guidelines, I discovered that buying the first home was a lot more difficult and agonising than I had ever imagined – a process determined by so many pressures and factors.

For the longest time, the classified advertisements on Saturdays were my best friend. I zoomed in on cheap private properties because my partner and I were deemed ineligible for HDB flats (he is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident).

I pored through every single column, rang countless property agents and viewed so many apartments that one blurred into the next, and I had to start remembering them by something like the colour of the owner’s cat.

At the start of the year, I had seen some potential homes, but told myself to be patient – wait till year-end for prices to bottom out.

Well, apparently, that period of time was the bottom, and I had missed the boat.

Asking prices for properties soared as much as $50,000 to $100,000 more in just the difference of a month from April to May.

Queues started appearing at new project launches, blank cheques were being written for agents and a certain euphoria started to grip the market.

As my search deepened, the further my heart sank, for my dream apartment seemed unreachable as unrealistic sellers priced in Singapore’s economic recovery even before any evidence of it.

All through the hype, I had to remind myself not to be pressured into making a rash decision just because Singaporeans’ infamous ‘kiasuism’ for property was manifesting itself again.

One key factor which kept me grounded was this: affordability.

According to one widely used international standard to measure housing affordability, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent to 30per cent of a household’s total monthly income.

Do the sums to derive your comfortable monthly outlay, ask banks to calculate from that what your total home loan is, and you get what I call your ‘affordable psf price’.

Often, you will get tired of the hunt like I did sometimes, see a nice home out of this budget and contemplate upping the psf just to get the search over and done with.

At times like these, I wanted so much to believe the usual spiel that agents give about land-scarce Singapore and how home values will always rise, even if the price you pay now seems high.

But whatever you do, do not budge from this price.

A story I was told warned me this could only be foolhardy.

During the 1997 property boom, my friend’s parents had bought a unit in the area I was looking at – a time when it was highly fashionable to invest in new suburban homes to ride the property wave – not unlike now, actually.

But when the Asian financial crisis hit the region, the property boom-turned-bubble eventually burst. The value of their property plunged more than $200 psf thereafter and has still not recovered to the original level a decade on.

With this in mind, I did more homework, studying historic psf prices of the estate at its lowest and highest levels, and made sure I bought only at a price that had potential upside.

It baffles both me and some analysts I speak to that new suburban homes in Ang Mo Kio, for example, are selling for $1,100 psf.

Where is your upside when you are already paying city-fringe prices for suburban estates?

Be firm about saying no to unrealistic sellers who like to test the market with bullish prices if they are beyond your budget.

If everybody kept a level head about purchasing properties, it would certainly help avoid turning a property boom into a property bubble as in the last decade.

No matter how heartbreaking, I said ‘no’ to many dream homes before finding one with sincere sellers who sold at a price that was a win-win for both parties.

My home-hunting journey ended only after I had made hard decisions to narrow down my options to specific projects, doing research and keeping to my affordable psf price.

As a result, National Day this year has taken on a special meaning for me because for the first time as a citizen, I have a physical stake in the country.

Our very own home: a spacious apartment set on a hill at the edge of a rainforest, a quiet, green haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Finding that first home can be an exhausting experience, but also a rewarding one if you safeguard yourself against huge risks which could otherwise come back to haunt you.

Good luck with the hunt, and Happy National Day!

Source : Sunday Times – 9 Aug 2009

Looking for a home to buy? Try resale Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , at Monday, August 10, 2009, in Labels: Property News

Taken from The Sunday Times. (www.asiaone.com.sg)

Now that the property market has picked up, individual sellers are out in full force.

They are putting up their properties for sale, from the newest uncompleted homes to fully furnished tenanted units and ageing apartments.

For home seekers, this means that apart from brand-new launches, there are plenty of choices in the resale market.

Even developer Keppel Land (KepLand) has started releasing tenanted, fully furnished units at its 99-year leasehold Caribbean at Keppel Bay for sale.

The 969-unit development, launched in 2000 at about $800 per sq ft (psf), had been fully sold, except for 168 units that KepLand has kept for leasing purposes under Caribbean Residences.

The developer declined to disclose the number of transactions, but said asking prices are around $1,300 psf to $1,400 psf. Caveats lodged last month show deals done from $1,131 psf to $1,218 psf.

But, said HSR Property Group executive director Eric Cheng, ‘the resale market is not that hot compared with 2007, when you could sell one apartment within one or two days’.

Right now, only the new projects are moving very fast, he said.

He added that ‘market sentiment is strong as people are very confident. I think a bubble is forming but it is not near the bursting level yet’.

In the resale market, not only are the units bigger, but living space is also larger as there are fewer bay windows and planter boxes unlike in new condo units.

Prices are also much more affordable, said Chesterton Suntec International’s research and consultancy director Colin Tan. But at the moment, ‘a large amount of the liquidity or excess money in the market is going mostly into the new launches, that is, uncompleted properties’, he said.

‘The genuine buyer may end up paying a high premium for a newly launched unit and…spend his whole life working to pay off the mortgage.’

Buyers may want to consider already-built or older projects near new launches which are selling at lower prices, property experts said.

‘Quite a number of buyers are not aware that there are better buys in the resale market. They know only how to buy from showflats,’ said an investor who recently profited from the sale of a Citylights unit, which he had bought for just $550 psf three years ago and sold at $1,200 psf.

Buyers should ask themselves which properties are available for the budget they have, he suggested. Then, they should narrow down their choices and pick a unit that gives them the most value for their money.

In the Tanah Merah area, deals caveated last month at the nearly completed Casa Merah were at $699 psf to $751 psf, below the average launch price of $810 psf at the sold-out project Optima just next door. Some sellers at Casa Merah may now be asking for higher prices but it remains to be seen if buyers will bite.

Sellers at other completed projects may also be asking for more, as Mr Tan pointed out. He cited an owner of a low-floor 1,453 sq ft unit at Savannah CondoPark in Simei Rise who recently raised his price from $850,000 to $920,000 in line with market sentiment.

This is despite the fact that the owner has failed to find a buyer at the earlier price since January, said Mr Tan.

Greed often gets in the way of a deal, property experts said.

Said the unnamed investor: ‘In order to entice buyers to buy resale units, sellers must price them at least 10 per cent below developer units in the vicinity.’

In general, prices of many completed projects are still falling but a few of the better ones have seen some price increases recently, said Mr Tan. However, even then, the increases are minimal compared with those of the new launches.

For those who are ready to commit to a property purchase, it may pay to look at completed homes in the resale market.

Source : Sunday Times – 9 Aug 2009

My Obsession with Parrots Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Thursday, August 6, 2009 at Thursday, August 06, 2009, in

These days, I seem to have a penchant for parrots. They're sooooo cute. Like dogs, not all parrots are cute. I especially love the affectionate and funny ones. I wanna keep one!

It's a little quiet here in the office. Very serious corporate shit. I hate it lah.

Anyway, here are some videos to keep you smiling. :)

Christian the Lion Posted by Another Boo Boo by Bachie , Sunday, August 2, 2009 at Sunday, August 02, 2009, in Labels: animals

Have you heard of Christian the Lion? I haven't until today. The story about this lion moved me to tears. Watch the video for the full story.

Christian was a lion originally purchased by Australians John Rendall and Anthony "Ace" Bourke from Harrods department store of London in 1969 and ultimately reintroduced to the wild by conservationist George Adamson. One year after George Adamson released Christian to the wild, his former owners decided to go looking for him in Africa to see whether Christian would remember them.... [abstracted from www.wikipedia.com]