quaint melody

click photo to enlarge.

ParisB tagged me on this interesting meme over a week ago (see, told you I’m a terrible procrastinator!). Somehow, the word worm sends a chill down my spine, but I am indeed one when it comes to books. Here goes.

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
Coming from a house of worms (so to speak, heh!), reading has played a big part in my life since, well, as long as I can remember. Books are the one thing in our house that is more populated than anything else. One of my fondest memories of childhood is my parents reading me one fairytale story after another. My father’s animated gestures that accompanied his story-telling are still vividly etched in my mind. Great times!
Let’s continue with a click, shall we?

mmm… can you tell my dad’s desperation?

When you’re at the last leg of your 20s and married for more than 2 years, this is what to expect among many birthday wishes. *cue nervous laughter*

Thank you very much for the many birthday wishes. It was a great day.

Have a wonderful weekend!
(probably not so wonderful for me as the forecast predicts a storm coming.
I’m shivering in my boots already.)

Cmate must think my constant rambling is insufferable, therefore confine me to use only one word to answer these questions. LOL. Great fun!

1. Where is your cell phone? Bedside
2. Your significant other? Livingroom
3. Your hair? Black
4. Your mother? Cool
5. Your father? Great
6. Your favorite thing? Photos
7. Your dream last night? Sleep
8 Your favorite drink? Ribena
9. Your dream/goal? Happy
10. The room you’re in? Study
11. Your hobby? Photography
12. Your fear? illness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 year? Parenthood
14. What you’re not? Insincere
15. Muffins? No
16. One of your wish list items? Durian (what?! I really miss it!)
17. Where you grew up? Johor
18. The last thing you did? Reading
19. What are you wearing? PJs
20. Favorite gadget? Camera
21. Your pets? Nil
22. Your computer? Mac Pro
23. Your mood? Happy
24. Missing someone? Yes
25. Your car? Nope
26. Something you’re not wearing? Tutu
27. Favorite store? Early Settler
28. Like someone? Yes
29. Your favorite color? Rainbow
30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? unsure

You three are tagged: rimus, shionge, uncle suituapui
Have fun!

Someone has developed an addiction lately. It’s not sweet, animated nor flashy. However, it does make you jump up and down and at times lasts till night; only to emerge with a look to die for the next morning.

Yes, we finally succumbed to the temptation and now have unlimited access to discover and gain historical knowledge or learn to be dramatic. Evil has one word, SKYtv. Now I’ve fallen down into the dark hole of addiction. Will be back as soon as I watch my favourite show on Discovery channel over and over and over again.

Took some photos again during the weekend. Check back soon!

Melody of the day: Anyone know how to fix the encoding problem? After upgraded to the latest version of wrodpress, all the Chinese characters showed up as ????? again. I have removed ‘define(’DBCHARSET’, ‘utf8′);and define(’DBCOLLATE’, ”);’ from wp-config.php to no avail. Please help!

As for the topic that is on everybody’s mind now, petrol hike. YES it’s pretty much the same over here, albeit not up 40% at one go, but gradually. Like 6 cents in 2 days for the latest increase. If I remembered correctly, it was about $1.30 per litre for regular unleaded around this time last year. Someone raised the possibility that it might go up to $2 per litre back then, but most people just brushed it off. Now, the price has peaked at $2.12 per litre and the thought of $3 per litre is becoming so horrifyingly real. A lot of secondhand car dealerships have already taken the hit and closed down in the past few months.

Don’t even get me started on food prices. A research done by NZ Herald in April showed that food prices have upped 28% in the last year and is continuing to soar. Although NZ is a agriculture-based country, the prices of dairy products have surprisingly shot through the sky, with cheese up 45.5 per cent, milk up 21.1 per cent, bread up 13.1 per cent and butter up by a gob smacking 86 per cent, all in one year! By the by, all these prices seem to be on their goal-setting road of soaring to new heights. There you have it, my rant of reality. Now let me go curl up in my blanket in my cold unheated room, as the cost of power has gone up as well. ARG!

Byebye cheese, I will miss you! (photo taken in Nov 2007)

Like any weekday afternoon, I logged on to the local newspaper website for my dose of current events, while a news piece caught my eyes. It’s a photo article that’s placed in the middle of the front page. In gist, the Labour party Budget pamphlet features a happy family photo. The people in the photo are actually Americans, instead of Kiwis. Yup, it’s a stock photo purchased from iStockphoto, and some nitpicking blogger caught it out and called the newspaper because ‘it’s not kiwis’.

Well, I don’t know about you, but what’s the big deal here? So what if the Labour party spent about 10 or 20 NZ$ to purchase stock photo to use in their Budget pamphlet; So what if the family in the photo is actually American instead of Kiwi?! Big freaking deal! It’s an advertising campaign for pete’s sake! They certainly looked kiwis(and not only I said so).The photo is purely there to act as a portrait. No harm done, no law broken! Most people can’t even tell! Yet some people are making such big deal out of it! Seriously folks, do you really go through all the pamphlets and flyers to scrutinize every single stock photo for originality and authenticity? Some people just have too much time on their hands! I love New Zealand, but every so often, little things get blown out of proportion here. Some trivialized news like this is simply not worth a place in a prominent newspaper, much less on the front page. Yet there you have someone jumping up and down shouting blue murder! As one commentator simply put it, ‘The only embarrassing thing about this is the fact that it’s seen as a newsworthy story here in NZ. Get over it, get a life and move on, it’s a photo for christ’s sake!’

On the side note: Here’s a question. Do you really think every single advertising, say holiday promotion uses the exact photos taken in the said destination? Newsflash! All advertising agencies use stock images, and they choose the ones that suit the champaign best. Most of the time, they are not the same place! It’s all make believe! The most suitable pictures that depict the product in question are always chosen. Photos, so often are just a tool to give people a sense of what the company is marketing. Agencies use whatever that is most relatable and most eye-catching to promote their products. Why do you think Celcom used Leehom as their endorser? He’s not Malaysian and surely is not using Celcom network, but the campaign caught our eyes and it’s a success!

My cellphone repeatedly rang from an unknown number today. I didn’t answer it, as I don’t normally answer phone calls from unknown numbers. Out of curiosity I googled the Australian number and found out that numerous people from different countries have actually received phone calls from the same number! Apparently it’s one of those calls where they tell you you’ve won a prize and then try to get some personal info out of you. Basically, it’s some kind of scamming scheme. They seem to get our numbers from one of those draw-for-a-car competitions that are often set up in malls. So, be cautious before entering into those contests next time.

Photo: Phil Carrick

Lately there are just so many similar scams going on, where they use big monetary rewards to lure people on. I also found out that there’s a kind of scam that miss call people. If consumers ring back, they are directed to a premium rate number for a prize. They’d be charged for the call and promised prizes that will never arrive. A good judgment of common sense is required here. My motto is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So if you ever receive one of these calls and the caller asked for money before you can get your reward, that should be your cue to end the call. Or you can get creative and pull a kennysia. Heh.

By the way, I also found this very useful website called WhoCalledMe where you can search unknown numbers and submit any scam or crank calls information there to share with others.

Have you received these kinds of calls before? Do share!

What have I been up to? Well, I’ve been bitten by the home redecoration bug, so have been spending every free moment, redecorating around the house. Did I mention I love home deco? I do! Most people dread moving house, all the packaging and the cleaning chores drive them crazy. Well, not me. I love packing and cleaning, I see it as a chance to rediscover the bits and pieces that have been packed away and forgotten. It’s also a great chance to decorate another new place! What more can a girl ask for?! Oh, I’m so growing into a neat freak. It’s hard to believe this is a girl who couldn’t even manage to keep her bedroom floor free from clutter growing up. Really, when I was a teenager, my bedroom floor was literally covered by everything imaginable. My dad even threaten to publish the photo he took, to no avail of course. Ha. My parents must be so proud now, they must not in their wildest dream have thought that their little girl would grow up to be a neat freak today. So parents out that, there’s no need to sweat over your teenagers’ messy rooms, all hope is not lost. Heh.

I love the old country look in home deco. Spent countless hours online and offline hunting for that aged pieces with a story behind it. I love to look at that light scratch or worn part of the furniture, they tell a story and add much character to them. A clean freak who loves old pieces, can you imagine how much cleaning go into each piece before it’s deemed usable again?! Here I share bit and pieces of my humble abode, a place I can feel totally relax and at ease; a place filled with love and joy.

click on the thumbnails to enlarge (duh!)

Wow, that’s a lot of work figuring out how to do that thumbnail thing. Ha. Actually it’s easy, just took me some time to figure that out. Now, I invite you to share your home photos with me too.