The title caught my eye and interest since it’s not often Japanese movie or drama titles have such long names, so I started watching it. A light comedy with a little English thrown in for effect. The CGI effects were not over used and I quite like it. The kid is cute too.

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I spent 2 hours just to have my makeup done by the makeup artiste. The hair was still not done yet till I changed into the gowns and costumes we chose for the photoshoots. The photographer kept saying to open my eyes bigger. Not that I don’t want to; but my eyes are only that big and he chose another angle just to make sure that my eyes will not turn into slits when I smile widely.

The outdoor shoots gave me mosquito bites since I chose Hortpark. Those mosquitoes only when for me. Why? Why? Why? DD worked hard physically since he had to carry me for some of the photos. At the end of the day, we were quite tired out for the next two days. Now, this coming weekend, we are going to choose the photos! I sure hope my eyes can be seen. I look better with closeups, should have asked the photographer to take some closeups. Oh well.

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I’m grateful that I got to work safely despite the near fall I had on the double decker bus that had spurts of energy. I managed to arrive in one piece and just glad that the bus just came and I managed to board it.

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All cabins in trains to have wide seats available. Now, some cabins have no seats. Please try to work at a location that is 1.5 hours away, then you will understand. SMRT and SBS, your people should try that for 5 days in a row, then tell me whether more standing room is better or more seats.

More frequency of buses and trains. It is pointless to up the transport fare when the frequency is still the same. People are expecting better service and that is part of the expectation. People don’t care about traffic jam or breakdown. As long as they can’t see, only nobody cares about it. Bosses don’t like to hear that the bus is late or whatever, since you are the boss, do you want to hear that from your employees?

Extend the bus shelters to shield from heavy rain. Small bus stops look stylish only in photos. When the sun is angry, only nobody can sit there. Make sure the shelter really works, it is pointless to be called a shelter when it neither shields you from the hot sun nor the pouring rain.

I guess this is it for now. I believe what I’m asking for is reasonable. I have a sense of deja vu here, perhaps I have posted this before but then again, if these requests have been fulfilled, I don’t think so many people would complain about the same thing everyday.

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Look for an ID (Interior Designer) early, a year before you get your keys, you never know how many you want to meet until you find one whom you feel comfortable with.

Always be there for your flat during the renovations, when you enter, if your flat is crying, you know that you need to be there when holes are being drilled into its walls, it hurts for the flat. In other words, you have to supervise the workers or your walls will have unwanted holes in unnecessary places. The ID may not always be there.

Get someone experienced in the layout for the plumbing and electrical. Meaning, you find someone to supervise them when your ID is not around. If your ID is supervising properly for the first task; installing the cupboards for example and doing a good job of it and always there, you won’t need to worry. My father-in-law had to scold each of the contractors who arrived and did sloppy work. The aircon compressor story, plumber, painter, ID (even he got it), and I think practically all of them had a tongue lashing for their lazy methods.

If the people were to arrive at a certain time to complete any task and you are already waiting for them, call the ID to chase after them. I had to do it twice. First time, I was a little angry. Second time, I asked the ID how come they didn’t come to wash the flat. Wasn’t it set at 9am? 11am: no one came. Then, ID replied saying that they went to the wrong unit. The. Wrong. Unit. I was speechless. I had an event in the evening and by the time they arrived, it was raining heavily. Using a lot of water is already a burden on us since they don’t pay SP Services. Using our electricity is a total waste since they were late. I feel very tempted to tell them to pay for the electricity bills.

I want to trust the people I pay money to. But when they do this kind of things, I really can’t believe that I am using their services and still have to fork out my money to pay for the things that should not be needed if they had done it properly in the first trip. If you don’t want to come again for another round of just to make things neat, do it right the first time. It is not difficult, I don’t care how long you take, just make it right the first time so I won’t have to call your company to share the horror story. I don’t like horror stories.

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I have seen friends who have been apart even after solemnisation and I wondered how they have endured it. The feeling is mutual. It is actually ironic that you can’t live together since you have not served the tea to the parents yet. Sometimes, I wonder why we didn’t just lump everything together. Perhaps I wanted something else? I don’t know.

Now that it is just a few more months to the customary, I wonder on how earth can I complete all the necessary stuff for the customary and still please both families. Perhaps it is never easy to please both families when the modern style is just do it and get it over with. It is not the day but the marriage itself that is more important. I have come to realise that after observing a few couples.

What you do on the day of the customary is important but it will never override the importance of making the marriage work and the couple resolve whatever it is to make it work. Not just because of the kids but also for the couple. If not, why on earth would a couple marry in the first place?

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I used my favourite flower (Star Gazer Lily in pink) as my bouquet, had to order it from SG Florist as the bridal studio does not carry it. When it arrived, the 3 lilies were beautiful, IMO, and I loved it, just that I didn’t expect the size to be big. A little dramatic for a solemnisation, so I left the bouquet on the table most of the time. That’s one of the good points of a solemnisation. The pink lily means honour and aspiration; rather apt for a marriage, I feel.

Now that I’ve gone through the legal process of getting married by law, the HDB will now leave me alone on the marriage matter. I can’t believe all the hurdles I had to jump over in order to get it done. I mean, it’s a simple process, right? Or maybe I had made it a bit too big an issue but still, I like to have memorable memories especially when it comes to being married. I’m the first in the family from my mother’s side to be legally married.

I really should have done the customary on the same day too. However, it is now over, I just have to go through the customary process from this month onwards, I like to be prepared early, that way, if there is anything that decides to jump out from the bushes and shout “BOO!”, I can whack its head with something hard.

Now that I have just gone through a preview of what will happen on the actual day, the feeling is really there. It means that we would have to eat before the wedding dinner so that we can get through. I was rather nervous before the solemniser arrived and when he did, oh boy. My nerves just went crazy. I don’t know what my husband was feeling but my parents were asking me all the time, “Is he ready?!”

I was going all over to make sure that the solemniser was comfortable; I believe he was very comfortable, he had done it many times, we were just doing it for the first time! Finally, we all sat down to proceed with the process. My heart was thumping loudly, the family and friends were all quiet, I think half of them didn’t understand English but never mind. We were more important at that moment. When my husband held out his hand, I grabbed it for assurance, I was that nervous. I felt safe at that point.

All the cameras were flashing and I was starting to see dark spots from the left over but hey, I was the most beautiful for that day. My friend whom I had appointed as my photographer was telling me afterwards that we could sign slower. Erm, if I did that, I would totally forget how to sign but then again, it was done. Someone spilled water on our marriage certificate afterwards and I never found out who but that is not important. The next step is to laminate the certificate, ROM don’t provide such service for free, right? We have to do it ourselves, right? Anyone?

The lessons I have learnt from this event:

• Get food from good caterers and especially if your mother-in-law is a good cook, get her to do it. Just pay her for the ingredients.
• Assign one or more people to take care of the logistics and miscellaneous things. That way, it is easier to feel better when going through the whole process.
• Smile. A lot.
• Prepare the red packets in advance.

Finally, I really appreciate everyone who have taken their time off to attend our solemnisation. It was truly amazing with your blessings and the kids were really a bonus when they fill the chalet with their laughter.

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I discovered WattPad a few weeks back and found gems. Those authors are good. Really good at capturing the essence of the story. I found many popular cliche stories there. The overused themes like werewolf, vampire, nerdy girl likes playboy jock, rock hard abs for 16 years old boys (I have never seen anyone like that during my time, so enlighten me if you have), student and teacher relationship (seriously, 24 years old man teaching 17 years old. Someone can enlighten me if it’s possible? None of my lecturers in Poly were drool-worthy) and others that I don’t need to mention.

Cliche being cliche, the scary part and the real reason why they aren’t published; well, I don’t want to hurt or insult anyone here but the cringe-worthy grammar and spelling really turns me off from continuing to read.

I don’t need to establish the fact that there is a difference between ‘no’ and ‘know’. They mean totally different things. Maybe I should get myself hired as an editor or proofreader there. That means time. To me, blogging means I can use the lingo like “LOL”, “BTW”, “LMAO”, etc. Writing as in writing for magazines or books and e-books, proper sentences and correct usage of grammar is of importance to me.

In order to keep me reading, I go for story lines that are realistic bordering on being dramatic. Stories that are jumbled up without any coherent sense make me want to edit the stories to death. Unfortunately, I haven’t established relationships with the authors, hence, I can only find other good writers there.

I started posting my old stories there, I must say, those old stories were really on the depressing side. And really for mature eyes only.

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Okay, granted, these are puppies. They look so cute! Anyway, watching Dog Whisperer has given me quite a lot of insight to getting dogs to behave the way you want them to. Cesar Millan has this touch with the different breeds of dogs that makes their owners amazed with his simple finger pointing and a “Tsst”. Like magic.

What I really like about his teaching owners what and how is that he emphasizes on the energy being projected. Positive, calm and assertive energy. Even when the dogs scratch him and the dog owners look horrified at the blood on him, he tells them it’s just a scratch. I’ve seen some dog owners feeling guilty because they asked for his help and their dogs just hurt him instinctively. Cesar always assures them as he reminds them that dogs feel energy. They feed on energy.

Throughout the seasons of Dog Whisperer, I’ve gained a lot of information when it comes to dogs. Face to face to any dogs means confrontation and aggression when you don’t mean it. It’s animal instinct to survive in the wild. The best lesson about dogs? They live in the moment, whatever that is past, it stays in the past. Us humans tend to dig out the past mistakes and live in the past without moving on.

Although I dearly love to pet dogs, it is advisable to have no eye contact, no touch and no talking to any dogs for the 1st time. Dogs sniff for a reason. Ignoring them instead of screaming “DOG! GO AWAY!” helps to show that you are just letting them explore. Dogs have no reason to bite when they sense no aggression from another being.

Sometimes, I wonder if people are afraid of dogs because of their sharp teeth or horror stories from aggressive dogs.

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Not that I mind a lot. However, I’m still curious as to whether the price increment is equivalent to the inflation according to the Consumer Price Index. In that case, the age old question comes to mind; “How come my pay doesn’t increase?!”. It’s a direct question without a direct answer. Been hearing this phrase for years now.

What triggered this is the price increments just after our much publicised May 2011 General Elections. I don’t know if it was timed according to whatever conspiracy theory that some have but if I were to ever really record the dates of the events, maybe, just maybe, I’ll find the reason behind it. For most people, money has always being the main focus of their lives.

80% of their time is spent trying to make ends meet. In reality, the ends never meet, that’s why they are called ends, IMO. Therefore, in my quick search, I decided to look for the Inflation Calculator. It returned some results that made me relook at my current situation again. By doing the same thing and hoping for something else or better results, I’m crazy. There is no way I can still use the same route to get to where I really want to be. This has been proven for the past working years of my life.

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