Today is the final workday for year 2008. I am not looking forward to year 2009 as you and I know, bad times have hit us. Let’s hope the economy will picked up and go back to normal.

I will go off for Christmas and New Year break. However, my director just given the department a task to capture our holidays moments. Now I am really scratching my head on what I should take. Should I take a picture

1. Of me sleeping?
2. Of me having a good meal?
3. Of me shopping?
4. Of me relaxing in a SPA or near a pool?
5. Of me sun bathing?

Any good ideas? I am not told what the prize would be but he was serious about this task.

Anyway, to everyone:

I don’t understand why top management wants to spread bad news a week before Christmas. Although I am not affected by it but those affected will not have a good Christmas. It is just so sad for them. For me, I would want to hear bad news after Christmas break and not before.

I am really disappointed with top management. It is just so cruel. I mean what messages are they sending across? That they are agile in giving bad news? When we need them to make agile decision, it is not done so.

I really pray hard for those affected. Yeap it is related to the global financial meltdown.

I wanted to get a gift for myself after hearing some not so good news. All I can say is that I just got a big pinch. Sigh. Economy situation with many MNC is not very bright and companies are cutting here and there.

Aside with the bad news, I wanted to get a nice pendant. I saw this being advertise and I love it at first site. Don’t you think it is cute?

I went to Diamond and Platinum shop to take a look. The actual pendant is real small and the heart is not crafted very neatly. I was a little disappointed. However I saw a pearl pendant that was on promotion and I love it. It is much bigger, more value and cheaper. I will wear this for the Christmas dinner. That’s what in the mystery box. We ladies have to pamper ourselves once in a while.

I am so looking forward to this day where my road tax expired. Now I can claim back my subsidy from the government, cash worth $625.00. Today I went to JPJ and saw a huge crowd there. Never go to JPJ or bank on a Monday, start or the week where most people choose to do things on Monday. Never go on a Friday where people like to do things last minute. In between weekdays is alright, less crowd.

Anyway, with that crowd and overheard the official mention, lots of agents with a stack of road tax to pay, I changed plan. I decided to go to a secluded post office to renew my road tax and claim my $625.

Finally my turn, the officer did my road tax first. Strangely, she asked me to pay my road tax first. I was a little shock, wondering why she cannot do both concurrently and pay me the difference. Anyway, I was in a good mood, so I paid my tax first. Then she went on to process my claim. Sigh. Later she paid me $625. 🙄

With a portion of the money, I spent on this….Guess what is in the box?

I was surfing around to survey some credit cards out there. I have decided to change my credit card after 12 years of loyalty. I stayed with the bank because of their good service. However I found that their service has been deteriorating and it has the worst gift reward ever.

Anyway I saw this when I was surfing the bank website, it is really funny. The tag line is “For entrepreneur whose office is in the world” Anyone’s office in the planet or moon? It doesn’t protray the idea of exclusiveness. Mind you, it is a Platinum Business Card.

Jokes aside, so what are the good credit cards out there? It is funny, previously when I was not looking for a credit card, I see so many promoters everywhere. I used to walk like driving a car in an arcade trying to avoid them. Now I don’t see any of them. How sad, I was hoping to get some free gifts and goodies.

I heard that my friend used to sign up at every booth. He gets free goodies on the spot. However he didn’t received any credit cards, it must be an administrative bug. There he goes again and sigh up for the second or third round. I bet he got a whole lot of freebies in his home.

Today I heard that certain banks are giving no expiry dates on the bonus points of the credit cards. Anyone know whether CIMB credit cards bonus points expiry date? 1 year? 3 years? I kind of like the CIMB gift reward. I need to do more survey.

The govt announced that we can reduce contribution from 8% to 11%. With this announcement, I am sure you heard quite a lot of rumors. I shall not anymore oil into the fire.

Last week, I received my company memo that it will be a default 8% contribution. If anyone wants to remain at 11%, we need to sign a form.

Now, the decision, should I sign or not? I don’t think the extra 3% is going to make a difference for me. You may say I can invest the 3% elsewhere. The question is whether the investment can measure up to the dividend given by EPF. Now fixed deposit interest rate is also lowered. I wondered what % dividend we will get from EPF this year. Any rumors?

I bet most of the younger generation will spend the extra 3% which is not good for their future. It means less money when they retired. Older generation will be wiser to keep the 3% in EPF. By the way, I saw a long list of signatures.

Should I sign or not?

I must say that I had a pleasant stay with Hollywood Disneyland Hotel in Hong Kong. The only thing that is a setback is the rooms are very pricey. I guess that is Hong Kong, most hotel rooms rates are pricey. The rooms are very spacious and great for a family of four. The twin beds can be share with 2 persons.

Service was superb. You can leave your luggage with the concierge if you arrive early, so that you can first enjoy yourself at Disneyland park.

I had an opportunity to dine in with my family and enjoy the buffet. There was a variety of food there with my favorite sashimi, seafood, roast beef, roast goose, Chinese dim sum and plenty of dessert to go around. They even have a chef to cook special sauce pasta for the children. Do try the seafood sauce pasta, it taste great. Not forgetting the chocolate fountain.

A tip to get good savings in the hotel is to get the child annual pass. You can get discount rates on hotel room rates and dinning in the hotel. However there is a quota with discounted room.

I did enjoy my stay there. My children loved the sauna heated pool. Too bad it was fairly windy outside, if not we could have soak a little longer.

Cleanliness:
Service:
Facilities:
Overall:

My hubby bought an Apple WIFI Airport Extreme. Now you may asked what does it do? Well, it connects everything without any wire. Now I can print to the printer anywhere in the house or access to any share folders in any PC/MAC. Basically, it can build a wireless network in the house without any cable.

It allows me to surf internet anywhere in the house too, so does my old router. But the airport extreme provides high speed access. With this thing, I practically can build a internet café in my house.

Still don’t know what I am talking about? Look at this picture.

I had to do a little spring cleaning in my study room just for this thing. We need to put the modem, printer and airport in one location.

I got two pieces of 4G SDHC card for my Hong Kong trip. With 8G of memory to play with and yet it was only just sufficient for my trip. Yeah, I had a lot of video to take when I was in HK Disneyland. I had the entire Lion King performance in video.

When I got back, my HP notebook couldn’t read the 4G SD High Capacity card. I google for info and found out that I need to upgrade my notebook card reader. Yeap, I went to download the latest card reader driver from hp.com. The card reader driver is Texas Instruments Media Card Reader Driver 2.0.0.8 A. Download here.

After I install it, I could read the high capacity card. I could load all the pictures and videos into my notebook. SWEET!

Now SD HC comes in 8G too. Wow 8G in a small piece of plastic. I remembered my first computer only had 20MB in the hard disk. 10MB to run the OS and 10MB for applications. That was a luxury in those days. Now 10MB is so insignificant. Time has changed and technology has advanced.

Hong Kong customer service has improved tremendously. People are so friendly as compared to 10 years ago. I remembered I was scolded a couple of times for no reason in Hong Kong. I being a banana, not knowing how to read Chinese had difficulty ordering dishes in a restaurant.
However I could speak Cantonese. The waiter upright told me to read the menu when I ask him for recommendation. If I took too long to order, the waiter will ask me to go away.

However all that has change now. They are so polite. One of the waitresses even helped me to find a English menu for me to select what I wanted. As I was shopping in SASA, one nice lady came and started to help me with my shopping stuff. She is so friendly and told me a lot about promotions and offers. She didn’t follow me around, allowed me to take time to browse through what I wanted and told me where things were. No wonder SASA was awarded with the Best Customer Service.

One funny thing happen while I was walking down the street, there was an old man in his security uniform. A westerner approached him and asking where the nearest MTR was. The old man didn’t understand any English. The westerner look lost and I just directed him to the nearest MTR. The old man asked me what he was asking and I told him the MTR. Later I asked him for direction to go to a shop. He was very friendly and told me how to get there.

I must say that speaking in Cantonese does have an advantage, they cannot tell that I was a tourist. You must speak the right Cantonese and not Malaysian Cantonese. I learn most of it from watching TVB series.

Ha! However a shop owner spotted that I was a Malaysian because I didn’t wear any warm clothing and I was in my short sleeve shirt. I didn’t feel cold although it was below 18°C, maybe too much walking. Any how he gave me a good price for the dried scallops and abalone strips. Frankly speaking, I don’t mind going back to Hong Kong again!