I don't know why this happens to me. Everytime I start something, I always get setbacks. Granted most of them were minor but this one, whoo-wee..what a major setback.
Saving money is hard, granted I think its actually easy..if there are no sudden expenditures coming up your way. Saving really is easy for me, after all its not like I go shopping or buy new stuff here and there, all I do is eat, really. I already exhausted my want of spending on my car a while back, pretty much satisfied with it now, worked the spending out of my system and was planning to buckle down and start saving. But just when I have given myself a master plan and target and then boom, another major expenditure sets me back.
I've got another destination to go to. Its expensive. Ouch. There goes the money which I had earmarked for the next two months savings. Ticket also booked already, on my card even. Whoa, I guess I really have to ramp up the OT's this month and next month. I can already feel the pressure and pain...bring it on.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Challenge: "Haven't seen you in a long time, buy me a drink!"
Not a good start to the challenge I must say. After putting in a double OT shift I decided to meet up with a friend whom I've not seen for many moons. First thing she says is "Hey long time no see, buy me a drink la!" Haha..there goes $11.70 or whatever it is in drinks at the Bean. Oh well.
I must say Im pretty pleased with myself though. I don't go out as often, and the times I do I don't go all out on food like I used to.
Well, $3 lunches and the occasional tuna over rice with cheese, microwaved. Total cost $2.40. Funnily enough it tasted good. Well better than the $4.50-$5.00 I used to spend on Thai food for lunch. Not like I had any choice. Why oh why did all the half-decent, quick-serving restaurants that decided to open in Jerudong had to be Thai beats me. And the decent Chinese restaurant nearest to where I'm stationed happens to be in Sengkurong, 15 minutes away. Don't you even dare to mention WYWY.
Anyway treated myself to a Root Beer float just now, $2.50. Man I'm splurging, hahaha. Doing this is starting to feel good in a way, its something I can use to micro-pace myself, mini-targets if you will, to the biggie. Stay tuned.
I must say Im pretty pleased with myself though. I don't go out as often, and the times I do I don't go all out on food like I used to.
Well, $3 lunches and the occasional tuna over rice with cheese, microwaved. Total cost $2.40. Funnily enough it tasted good. Well better than the $4.50-$5.00 I used to spend on Thai food for lunch. Not like I had any choice. Why oh why did all the half-decent, quick-serving restaurants that decided to open in Jerudong had to be Thai beats me. And the decent Chinese restaurant nearest to where I'm stationed happens to be in Sengkurong, 15 minutes away. Don't you even dare to mention WYWY.
Anyway treated myself to a Root Beer float just now, $2.50. Man I'm splurging, hahaha. Doing this is starting to feel good in a way, its something I can use to micro-pace myself, mini-targets if you will, to the biggie. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The Challenge
Woah its been a long time since my last blog: so shoot me! I've been busy and now even busier considering we're picking up the pace..I've had an interesting month to say the least. We have a new colleague who happens to be the sister of an old acquaintance. She has discipline like no tomorrow (Virgo bah!); can save and save to the point of being accused of stingy. But Virgo's also have another trait: Man, can they talk!!!! Trust me I've 2 female friends and a female acquaintance who are Virgo's and the character is similar across the board. Not that I'm complaining, merely making an observation so don't shoot me down in a torrent of spoken words and pincushioned voodoo dolls.
Anyway she inspired me to try something that I have never tried before. With all commitments financial which every working person must saddle, she has been living on the grand total of $300 a month. Including petrol. Daily commuting. From KB. Granted she has no car loan and she eats like someone auditioning for "Ms Anorexic of the Year". But she can do it, as well as inspired her own partner to do it.
So in this day and age of revolving loans, credit and whatnot, I have embarked on the challenge of living on $300 a month, every month. Why? Because I think I am a sucker for challenges. And also it wouldnt hurt the wallet as such. Now, I am doing this differently however. I've got car loans and other financial commitments, car upkeep and general maintenance to pay every month so living within this amount will be slightly more challenging. And there is a target I am aiming for so that makes it legit.
Those who know (or should it be knew) me well should know that I had 5 primary goals I wanted out of life. And those same people will have known that I had already achieved 3/5 of them. Well, time for Goal Number 4. Wish me luck, God knows I'll need it for the peserverance. Self discipline and money never went together in my vocabulary.
Check out my progress and cheer me on or shoot me down, or even drop some hints on that all-dandy money saving tip you all have. Ideas are what I want!! $$$$$$$gambadeyoo!!!
Anyway she inspired me to try something that I have never tried before. With all commitments financial which every working person must saddle, she has been living on the grand total of $300 a month. Including petrol. Daily commuting. From KB. Granted she has no car loan and she eats like someone auditioning for "Ms Anorexic of the Year". But she can do it, as well as inspired her own partner to do it.
So in this day and age of revolving loans, credit and whatnot, I have embarked on the challenge of living on $300 a month, every month. Why? Because I think I am a sucker for challenges. And also it wouldnt hurt the wallet as such. Now, I am doing this differently however. I've got car loans and other financial commitments, car upkeep and general maintenance to pay every month so living within this amount will be slightly more challenging. And there is a target I am aiming for so that makes it legit.
Those who know (or should it be knew) me well should know that I had 5 primary goals I wanted out of life. And those same people will have known that I had already achieved 3/5 of them. Well, time for Goal Number 4. Wish me luck, God knows I'll need it for the peserverance. Self discipline and money never went together in my vocabulary.
Check out my progress and cheer me on or shoot me down, or even drop some hints on that all-dandy money saving tip you all have. Ideas are what I want!! $$$$$$$gambadeyoo!!!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
What the...!!@!!!
The weather is out to get me..I swear its out to get me. The nights I work, weather is raining cats, dogs, the whole of Noah's ark and I don't get a call. Trust me I'm eternally grateful for that. Who would want to be woken up in the middle of a rainstorm at midnight thereabouts to drive to do work? Not me, and I'm assuming not any of you out there either. Here's the catch. The next day where I'm free to go out at night the weather is perfect, a bit chilly, no rain and I get an emergency call to go back to assist. WHAT THE ***** is going on?? It's a conspiracy out to get me to stay at home!
And because of that I haven't been able to bike even once since the 25km expedition. Like the other evening, rushed home from work, put the bike rack on the car, put the bike on the car and secure it properly, change and then the very SECOND I step out onto the porch it starts raining.
Thanks...I think..maybe I had my hobbies reversed, should've explored all the eateries now and bike the last time when the weather was perfect almost every night of the week. I need to invert myself maybe everything will go right.. :)
And because of that I haven't been able to bike even once since the 25km expedition. Like the other evening, rushed home from work, put the bike rack on the car, put the bike on the car and secure it properly, change and then the very SECOND I step out onto the porch it starts raining.
Thanks...I think..maybe I had my hobbies reversed, should've explored all the eateries now and bike the last time when the weather was perfect almost every night of the week. I need to invert myself maybe everything will go right.. :)
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Don't try to be a hero
Good news: I've finally resurrected a hobby, or interest..or whatever you want to call it. I can't believe that I didn't start this earlier..considering I enjoyed it so much last time. I guess the advent of the driving license sidelined this hobby for a while :) Anyway so there I was thinking what in the world to do about my expanding waistline because I don't want to go to JPMC gym its always full. And Fitness Zone to me is just overpriced and full of posers. So what to do leh?
*looks downstairs and discovers a vaguely bicycle shaped dust mound* oh yeah lets give that a try hehe..brought it to the shop and spent an ungodly amount of money fixing it up (although it was cheaper than buying a new bike) and was 'coerced' into joining a bicycle expedition. Now lets get this clear, I hadn't been on a bike for 4 years, well out of shape due to the project of tasting every half decent restaurant in this country and I signed up for a 25km expedition!!!
I wonder what made me do that. Now I'm got sore legs, tomorrow the hamstrings will probably follow and what-not. Oh and a certificate. But you know what? I really enjoyed it. Chasing the pack, trying to keep up with the veterans (surprisingly I wasn't eating THAT much dust), all about the mental focus on a point to chase. It's all good. I might pursue this hobby along and see how far I can take it. Hopefully can get fast enough to join one of the inter-country expeditions although thats many moons away...
*looks downstairs and discovers a vaguely bicycle shaped dust mound* oh yeah lets give that a try hehe..brought it to the shop and spent an ungodly amount of money fixing it up (although it was cheaper than buying a new bike) and was 'coerced' into joining a bicycle expedition. Now lets get this clear, I hadn't been on a bike for 4 years, well out of shape due to the project of tasting every half decent restaurant in this country and I signed up for a 25km expedition!!!
I wonder what made me do that. Now I'm got sore legs, tomorrow the hamstrings will probably follow and what-not. Oh and a certificate. But you know what? I really enjoyed it. Chasing the pack, trying to keep up with the veterans (surprisingly I wasn't eating THAT much dust), all about the mental focus on a point to chase. It's all good. I might pursue this hobby along and see how far I can take it. Hopefully can get fast enough to join one of the inter-country expeditions although thats many moons away...
Saturday, August 25, 2007
On Korean Food and why we should emulate them.
I just realised after being back for a week or so that we actually eat pretty unhealthily over here. I mean lets see what we have available for snacks, easily accessible kind I mean: nasi katok, deep fried stuff, fried noodles and whatnot, BBQ smoked chicken wings/fish etc. I'm talking about cheap, daily available and not those 'once in a blue occasion' kind of snacks. Thats kind of unhealthy. Consider that over in Korea, at 11pm, we were able to sit down at a roadside stall and order stewed rice cakes in spicy sauce, with soup. Or the fact that snacks for them means a 1000won (Approx B$1.70) bar of sushi (I mean huge roll, not like Excapade miniscule type of sushi roll).
Or take drinks. They sell fruit drinks and water mostly. I simply could not see any Coke, 7-up anywhere. Why? Because they were promoting their own drinks such as pine bud drink, energiser drinks, fruit sodas, chilled teas equivalent to Season's Cincau drink. They even sell milk in 350mL cartons in quantities that we in Brunei stock on Coke and Pepsi. Talk about a health conscious society.
You understand where I'm getting at. No wonder they are mostly lithe and slim. There is one downside. In an 8 day tour, by the 5th day we had eaten most of the national dishes, the ones you simply have not arrived in Korea if you have not eaten them. Korean bbq, bimimbap, steamboat, etc. Bland, mostly. Except the BBQ. That was really great.
Thats why I found myself, at 11 30pm, at Sinchon shopping area, looking at a 24hr Mc D's. Sad you might think, but for all those who have only eaten McD's in Singapore, Brunei or Malaysia, even Australia, you should really try the beef in Korea. OMG, it tastes SO much better!!! A bacon deluxe double cheeseburger, with fries and a Coke Zero. For 5500KRW, it was well worth it. Apparently the beef in Japan is better yet. I can't wait to try. And that's where I found myself at the airport, craving for a Bacon deluxe cheeseburger but no Mc D's. So what to do, go 2nd best and wallop Burger King. Problem number two was that I had run out of Korean Cash.
I can say it right now, I have never enjoyed a bacon deluxe double cheeseburger so much, especially when it was paid for using a VISACARD. Desperation knows no boundaries.
Or take drinks. They sell fruit drinks and water mostly. I simply could not see any Coke, 7-up anywhere. Why? Because they were promoting their own drinks such as pine bud drink, energiser drinks, fruit sodas, chilled teas equivalent to Season's Cincau drink. They even sell milk in 350mL cartons in quantities that we in Brunei stock on Coke and Pepsi. Talk about a health conscious society.
You understand where I'm getting at. No wonder they are mostly lithe and slim. There is one downside. In an 8 day tour, by the 5th day we had eaten most of the national dishes, the ones you simply have not arrived in Korea if you have not eaten them. Korean bbq, bimimbap, steamboat, etc. Bland, mostly. Except the BBQ. That was really great.
Thats why I found myself, at 11 30pm, at Sinchon shopping area, looking at a 24hr Mc D's. Sad you might think, but for all those who have only eaten McD's in Singapore, Brunei or Malaysia, even Australia, you should really try the beef in Korea. OMG, it tastes SO much better!!! A bacon deluxe double cheeseburger, with fries and a Coke Zero. For 5500KRW, it was well worth it. Apparently the beef in Japan is better yet. I can't wait to try. And that's where I found myself at the airport, craving for a Bacon deluxe cheeseburger but no Mc D's. So what to do, go 2nd best and wallop Burger King. Problem number two was that I had run out of Korean Cash.
I can say it right now, I have never enjoyed a bacon deluxe double cheeseburger so much, especially when it was paid for using a VISACARD. Desperation knows no boundaries.
Friday, August 17, 2007
BAAACCCKKKK!!!! :D
Finally got the time to blog..after a hectic 8 day trip to Seoul..weather was raining, we encountered mild typhoon-heavy rains, oh and one other thing I learnt; try not to go shopping with such a big group. And not with shopaholics. I thought I was a shopaholic (even if its mostly window shopping) but whoa...you're in a totally different league...I mean arriving at the hotel at 9+pm then go straight out for shopping right after checking in until 1 something am, spending 300k KRW, on the 1ST night itself, getting lost !!! I also won't mention the other 4 days of shopping 'till 3 30am then waking up for morning call 7.20am for the tour. Walau, damn "keng" eh..either that or you're full of energy. I salute you. Of course *blushing* I was also quite interested with the shopping lah...hehe so its not (entirely :) ) your fault that I'm writing this blog..
It was fun, really fun, everyone was great..visited a local Korean pub/club style, visited Sub_Zero Ice Bar where outside was a darn humid 24 deg n the pub was -10 deg C..imagine using Alaskan style winter clothes to visit a bar whose interior is carved out of ice, even the stools, bartop and drinks 'cups'..Kudo's to either our socio-communication skills or maybe our tour guide really thought we were giving him an easy time, that he paid for our (6 of us) dinner, and entrance fee (KRW15,000 each!) to the Ice Bar. Cool!! Eating out in Korea is not cheap. Case in Point: McD's Bacon Double Cheeseburger Meal KRW5500~B$9.00
Oh and by the way, all that hype about Korean girls being really as beautiful as they look on TV..well its 70% true. No offense to any ladies reading this post, but we all have to understand population dynamics (??)..its simple, there's just more of them in total, therefore there is a higher percentage chance of happening across the more beautiful 'normal' local ones.
And it didnt help that our tour guide whose a guy, half Taiwanese-half Korean, brought us to his local hangout which is situated smack-bang in the middle of 3 universities, one of which is the top women's university in S. Korea. You tell me lah, how not to be able to see them leh???!!!!
Oh and by the way, I have to say this lah...I couldnt help but notice, Korean guys really do look that good lor...I mean I only notice opposite sex but yeah, Korean guys do look good. That can be verified by my female tour counterparts as well..hehe..
Anyway...before I start sounding homosexual...
The tour was well worth the money spent, there were so many places in the itenary, the studio set of Jewel in the Palace which is about twice the size of our Royal Regalia Museum, historical palaces, war/traditional Korean culture museums, the many places of shopping, Seoul Tower where one of the Korean movie scenes was shot..pity the weather didnt permit us to visit Namiseon Island, scene of Winter Sonata shooting. Trust me we were in the bus on the way when the rain just poured down, flooding the roads and blowing signboards over, I would NOT want to be on a ferry at that moment en-route to Namiseon Island. Its not fun being stuck in traffic for 4 hrs. Oh and btw, I'm really sick of looking at 3 brands of Korean made motorcar, 90% of which are either in white, black or silver.
AND I can't believe my luck!!! We just got off the bus on one of the last days when we stumbled across a film shoot..live, with cameras rolling and crew-camera trucks. And I managed to take a few photos live, up close, paparazzi style, of a Korean Film Star!!! One thing I can say is: they are really stick thin. That is the most appropriate description I can give.
Well, thats it for now, pictures will be uploaded to my friendster site( http://www.friendster.com/garyviosblogspot ) soon, when I get the time and patience to sit down n upload them...stay tuned...
Wow I can't wait to see what Korea will look like in winter, or maybe I'll just go to Japan..hehehehe..
It was fun, really fun, everyone was great..visited a local Korean pub/club style, visited Sub_Zero Ice Bar where outside was a darn humid 24 deg n the pub was -10 deg C..imagine using Alaskan style winter clothes to visit a bar whose interior is carved out of ice, even the stools, bartop and drinks 'cups'..Kudo's to either our socio-communication skills or maybe our tour guide really thought we were giving him an easy time, that he paid for our (6 of us) dinner, and entrance fee (KRW15,000 each!) to the Ice Bar. Cool!! Eating out in Korea is not cheap. Case in Point: McD's Bacon Double Cheeseburger Meal KRW5500~B$9.00
Oh and by the way, all that hype about Korean girls being really as beautiful as they look on TV..well its 70% true. No offense to any ladies reading this post, but we all have to understand population dynamics (??)..its simple, there's just more of them in total, therefore there is a higher percentage chance of happening across the more beautiful 'normal' local ones.
And it didnt help that our tour guide whose a guy, half Taiwanese-half Korean, brought us to his local hangout which is situated smack-bang in the middle of 3 universities, one of which is the top women's university in S. Korea. You tell me lah, how not to be able to see them leh???!!!!
Oh and by the way, I have to say this lah...I couldnt help but notice, Korean guys really do look that good lor...I mean I only notice opposite sex but yeah, Korean guys do look good. That can be verified by my female tour counterparts as well..hehe..
Anyway...before I start sounding homosexual...
The tour was well worth the money spent, there were so many places in the itenary, the studio set of Jewel in the Palace which is about twice the size of our Royal Regalia Museum, historical palaces, war/traditional Korean culture museums, the many places of shopping, Seoul Tower where one of the Korean movie scenes was shot..pity the weather didnt permit us to visit Namiseon Island, scene of Winter Sonata shooting. Trust me we were in the bus on the way when the rain just poured down, flooding the roads and blowing signboards over, I would NOT want to be on a ferry at that moment en-route to Namiseon Island. Its not fun being stuck in traffic for 4 hrs. Oh and btw, I'm really sick of looking at 3 brands of Korean made motorcar, 90% of which are either in white, black or silver.
AND I can't believe my luck!!! We just got off the bus on one of the last days when we stumbled across a film shoot..live, with cameras rolling and crew-camera trucks. And I managed to take a few photos live, up close, paparazzi style, of a Korean Film Star!!! One thing I can say is: they are really stick thin. That is the most appropriate description I can give.
Well, thats it for now, pictures will be uploaded to my friendster site( http://www.friendster.com/garyviosblogspot ) soon, when I get the time and patience to sit down n upload them...stay tuned...
Wow I can't wait to see what Korea will look like in winter, or maybe I'll just go to Japan..hehehehe..
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