While driving to work yesterday, I was tuned in and listening to Glen and FD on the Morning Express Show and FD shared about what some ironworkers who were working on a new building - Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. So I googled some and found out more and found it so touching what these men were doing to cheer the young children who were at the clinic.

What happens is this. Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. And the children get so happy to see their names on the beams and from the video that I saw, they even had lil things like a crane with SpongeBob to hoist the beams up and simple messages for the kids.

Bless these ironworkers for what they are doing! If you want to see or read more, you can head here or check out the videos below.

Here's another video for your viewing:

Fash Bash's Flea Market

Today, Mag, her lil girl Nat and myself headed out to check out the Fash Bash Flea Market that was held at St James Power Station. We were there about 2pm and that was good timing because by the time we left the place, it started to pour and the stalls at the carpark area had to pack up.

It was nice because half of it was outside, thus the carboot sale where you have all sorts of things pouring out of people's car boots - mainly clothes, trinkets, bags, shoes, toys and books. Some brand new and some pre-loved items.

Mag and I were also commenting that the carboot sale reminded us of the markets in London and Australia and how much we missed those markets. For me, it has been a while since I have been to Australia and I definitely enjoyed the weekends where we spent going from one market to another. Nice!

Okay it's not the best shot with people's back but I just had to take a picture of this gorgeous Toyota bB. I just had to ask the owner of the car who educated me on what kind of car it is cuz I have never seen one on the roads before. It has been modified some but there's lots of space at the back and had speakers so when you have the boot open, you can just take out some foldable chairs and sit and enjoy! I wish I knew how much it would cost to bring in this car cuz it seems that's the only way to get this gorgeous car into Singapore. More about this car at Wiki.

Indoors, you also have more stalls and I think the best one has to be the vintage stall where Mag got some gorgeous pieces at a steal. We also got some little things from a stall that sold clothes from Nepal. It's pretty tight area so you don't want to carry too many things with you as you have to meander your through the different stalls.

And Nat is such a cute shopper. She's definitely a girlie girl and her eyes lit up with excitement each time she saw pretty jewellery. She got herself some neat things including a nice mood stone ring and an OM patch! Mag, I think we should rope Nat in the next time we do any fairs ya! She will just love it! Also, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Nat!!! Hope she has a great time tomorrow! Lots of hugs!

Something Japanese ....

Finally went back for hula class after missing last week's session thanks to my gout attack. Had quite a bit of catching up to do! Az came back from Japan and got me this pretty lil horsie that I will be bringing to the office and put it at me desk to keep my golden ox company *grins* Thanks Az for the gift!!! I was curious what the wooden horsie was about and googled and came across this blog that had more information:

'The Kinoshita-koma wooden horse toy is a traditional handicraft handed down in Kinoshita in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture. Kinoshita-koma, along with Yawata-goma of Aomori Prefecture and Miharu-goma of Fukushima Prefecture, are known as the three best wooden horse toys of Japan.

The origin of the Kinoshita-koma wooden horse toy dates back to the Heian period (794-1192). The Tohoku region has traditionally been a horse-breeding area and horses were indispensable for military affairs and agriculture in the old days. It is said that the provincial governors of this region always dedicated horses to the Imperial court whenever Komahiki (the horse exhibition) was held at the Imperial palace. When a horse was dedicated, a horse-shaped wooden ornament was put on the harness around the neck. Later, people began to make wooden horses modeling after this ornament.

These wooden horses were sold at the festivals of Mutsu Kokubunji Temple or Hakusan Shrine as the talisman to protect horses and drive away evils. Gradually, they became a popular souvenir item for temple and shrine visitors and farmers began to make them during the agricultural off-season. Their cute figures attracted attention of travelers and they became known all over the country. '

Another site has a nice picture of the horsie but with a different style. Information about the horsie that they displayed on their site:

'Hand-made Japanese wooden hachiman horse figure. Dolls such as these were originally made to act as good luck charms by horse breeders in Aomori prefecture, an area of Japan long famous for quality equine stock. The dolls are painted with bold colors and patterns to represent a horse’s strength and vitality and to act as a ward against disease or accident.'

Very cool. Am going to google some more to see what else is available. The photo of my horsie is definitely going into my flickr page!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you had the opportunity to do something special with your loved ones today :o) We decided that this year, we will not have dinner on Valentine's Day because we would be paying heaps more for the same food that we could have gotten on an ordinary day. Yeah, not very romantic but honestly, how romantic is it when you pay three times more (can even be more depending of location of purchases made) for flowers and food. I just don't like how businesses out there think of ways to make money on occasions like Valentine's Day by charging $250 per person for dinner and they throw in a bottle of wine with dinner. So this year, we had a nice Korean dinner way earlier in the week instead and it was nice because we weren't rushing through dinner (usually restaurants will try to have as many diners as possible so they have shifts and you have to finish your meal by a certain time) and the place wasn't too crowded either.

We were also at Funan today because I wanted to check out a small Acer laptop that was advertised in the paper. And I was disgusted to learn that for the same model, depending on your choice of colour, there's a price difference. For a coral pink (which I was eyeing), it would cost me $638 (cash payment) but if I was happy with black, blue and white, it will costs me $600. Yeah, $38 is not much of a difference but why do I even have to pay a different amount for coral pink? Because they claim that it's a limited edition. For laptops? And what's their definition of limited edition? It's just marketing and one has to be a fool to fall into that trap of buying something at an additional cost because of the colour! *shakes head* Was totally disgusted, and walked away after he offered me the laptop for $620 (best discounted price).

And when I got home, same laptop selling at Harvey Norman Hougang Mall Roadshow for $399, but only blue is available. So how does it all work then? I could have paid for one at $600 at Funan and at Hougang Mall, some other person would have gotten same one for less. I guess it pays to look around, something which I have very little patience for *sighs*. Makes shopping for a laptop such a chore now. Anyways, don't let my ramblings get to you. Have a great rest of the weekend!!!!

Lesson Learnt ....

Last year, I blogged about my KL trip that had to be cancelled. And I bought insurance from NTUC Income for the trip because I was told that they had good coverage and quite prompt in processing claims. I used to get my travel insurance from American Express but they were costly and I was thinking for KL, I wouldn't have to get an expensive one.

Boy, that was a mistake! When I sent in my claims on 13.12.2008, I received a letter from the company dated 30.12.2008 that they have received my claims, and they are 'processing the claim and will give [me] a reply within 14 days'. I was confident that they would be able to do that because I had included all the information I had, receipts and for items that I did not have receipts, I gave estimates. I also included the contact person and number if they wanted to check with the Investigating Officer who was incharge of my case (hmmm, I do wonder what happened to the investigation .....)

Anyways, I waited two weeks and finally made a call on 23.1.2009 to ask about the status of my claims. And the person on the line told me that they will get somebody who was handling my case to call me back. Of course no one called. I finally decided to email and received a reply that they had sent a letter out on 20.1.2009 to ask me for the price of two items in my claims *sighs* If I knew the price, I would have included in my claims. And it took this long to ask me about these two items? And I received an acknowledgement email on 28.1.2009, letting me know that they will assess and reply on status of the claims.

And to date, nothing. So I wrote in to ask what is the progress since the last email. I will probably get a reply asking me about two more items on the list, and then two weeks later, another two more items. I don't know anymore. It's just so frustrating when companies make promises that they cannot keep. My experience with the travel claims I got through American Express was excellent. I had some medical claims while I was overseas and it was processed and payments made less than two weeks. Yes, I understand that this case is a little more completed but it will be almost two months!!!

Note to self: Don't bother with the cheap travel insurance next time round .....

Personalised Photobook ...

I was casually mentioning about how it was frustrating that my older version of macbook didn't allow me to print the photo book that I created on it using iphoto to my colleagues when I was away on course and he recommended a Malaysian company who could used my iphoto version and print it into a coffee book. He mentioned that they were very professional in their service, quality of the book is good and the price is reasonable.

I continued to look around locally and was frustrated how either they were going to charge me heaps for printing or they were not able to use what I had created and asked me to redo everything in their templates (like I don't think so after spending hours and hours creating my photobook).

So in desperation, I emailed my situation to the people in the company and they confirmed that they were able to use my version and crop it to fit the size of the photobook. We exchanged a few more emails and I was guided on how to send the file to them and payment was made online and within the week, my photobook of my Italy trip came by Fedex and I love it! It looks really professional and I love how my pictures turned out in the book. My head starting thinking of all the different personalised gifts I could make for family and friends.

Recently, a good friend celebrated her birthday and I managed to put together a photobook for her and within the week, the book arrived and am glad she likes it. And she's going to work on her photobook!

So am going to spread the word around and if you want to make your own photobook, go to Pixart PhotoBooks!

Hobbling, hobbling, hobbling ....

Last two days I have been hobbling about thanks to a swollen ankle. I have weak ankles and nope, it's not because my youthful days were spent playing some sports that weakened my ankles. Instead it's because of my many many occasions of gout attacks that have weakened my ankles. Doctors may disagree but this is based on my own observations.

Yes, I have gout which basically means my uric acid level is high and it usually attacks or accumulates in the joints and cause swelling and extreme pain. I googled some and this is what I found.

Gout is a form of arthritis, an chronic form of inflammatory arthritis that causes intense and painful swelling in the joints, most often the feet, especially the big toe, but can also affect the legs as well of other major joint areas. (American College of Rheumatology, 2006). Gout is characterized by intense and very severe attacks of pain, redness, and tenderness in one's joints. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2005). I can vouch on how painful it can be.

Now, gout is also known as the 'Disease of Kings' or 'Rich Man's Disease' because of the rich food that is high in purines (a type of protein) that one eats that can lead to gout. But for me, it's not because of the expensive food but the more peasant like food that I love that leads to my gout attack. For example, I love them internal organs like beef tripe, liver and the whole works. I love 'Satay Babat' or 'Paru Goreng' and just a few meals of these (staggered of course) and I am SURE to get a gout attack. I am a meat person but last year I was overseas for three weeks last year and had to take seafood for all my meals, I came down with a severe gout attack that left me in pain and hobbling miserably around. Even showering was such a chore because it meant getting out of bed and into the showers!

Alrighty, what kind of food should I be avoiding. Just google and you'll find many websites and I got this from wiki to share.

Food to avoid: (Foods high in purines)

• limit food high in protein such as meat, fish, poultry, or tofu to 8 ounces (226 grams) a day (avoid entirely during a flare-up)
• sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, brain, or other offal meats
• sardines and anchovies
• seafood particularly shellfish such as clam, oyster, scallop, shrimp, crab, lobster, and crayfish.
• asparagus
• cauliflower
• mushrooms
• spinach
• dry beans (lentils & peas)
• meat extracts, consommes and gravies
• foods high in fructose
• all soft drinks (non-diet) wherein HFCS is second ingredient next to water
• fruit preserves, jam, jelly
• syrup
• candy
• to lesser extent, depending on fructose content, ice cream, cakes, and cookies
• foods high in sucrose, which is a double sugar consisting of glucose and fructose

Can you see how impossible it is to avoid the list of food above when there are so many yummy food there. Yeah, I am useless!

Anyways, the swelling has gone down some. I am not hobbling as much though my ankle is still a little sore. I had to get a jab to bring the pain down quickly because I couldn't get away from work. Will try and behave for a little bit now since the memory of the pain is still fresh in my mind ....