Spymama @ Mamakshop

This morning I read that on Wednesday night, the police nabbed as many as 34 drink drivers in an operation that lasted 4 hours. At midnight there were road blocks that covered around the watering holes and nightspots, fencing off alternative roads should these drivers decided to avoid these policemen.

About 108 motorists were administered the breathalyser test. During this operation, the police also managed to nabbed 14 with traffic related offences.

I applaud this move totally because drunk-drivers are dangerous on the roads. I wish these people will learn from this lesson and take the public transportation or get friends to drive them home.

The recent news about Neptune Orient Lines’ to axe employees sent jitters to me. Not that I am an employee but I worry about the effect it will cause in Singapore. Just weeks ago, DBS had made a decision to axe 900 employess in Singapore and Hong Kong. Then banks were talking about how people had defaulted payments on their car mortgages. I’m sure some of those who need to pay bank installments and yet out of work might find themselves in a corner. Then many investors who placed money in some bonds find their nest egg lost overnight. And with the news about NOL, I think things are not looking very positive. Unemployment rate will sent many people in desperate moves.

Yesterday’s COE was historic at $2 for 1.6cc and below.

What a busy day it has been. I have so many errands to run. I had been to the market, bank, post office, cobbler at the market and the supermarket. I came back, took a short rest and in a minute I am going out again! Yikes! I need to pick up the kids from their holiday class then rush to the car workshop. But I’m not sure if I can make it in time. It is raining too. Arrrgghhhhh!

What makes matters worst this morning was when I came out from my car, I step up to the grass patch to avoid the puddle of water. And I step on some pup poo. Grrrr…!!!! What luck indeed! Then you already can feel the heat of anger and you just have to grit and smile and pretend nothing happened because a neighbour walked past and greet me ‘Hi’ and an old lady will not stop yakking about how the prices of rice did not fall..

Okay, I’m running out again now. Oh cross my fingers!

I went to Marche over the weekend. And it was terribly crowded. Sigh… Waiting for food took a while. Marche concept is similar to foodcourt, except that it is a Swiss foodcourt. It is like a marketplace actually.

You bring your cards, order your food, let them scan it in for payment later upon exit. Then you can go browze and buy other food or stand there while they cook your food on the spot. When you order food like grills and steaks and there is a queue, it’s just terrible. If I go back to my table and come back, I won’t know if my food is ready. And if I wait there, I may wait for a while. Terrible, huh. After this experience, I think the next time I want to have a nice grilled steak or seafood, I’d go to Jack’s Place. At least I know once my food is ready, it’s delivered hot to my table. Because by the time I go hunt for a vegetable in Marche, I am lost at where to wait. sigh…

Spypapa loves chips, especially the Ruffles BBQ ones. He would buy them from the convenient stores in petrol station and brings it back as quiet as possible so that the kids will not know.. It can be very funny indeed because my children has ears that can tell when Papa brings back chips!

I love them too but not as much as Prawn Crackers. My granny always have them in the house and visiting is always filled with memories of Nyonya Kuehs and Prawn Crackers.

A meal at a Thai restaurant last week made me crave for them even more since they served it as appetizer before our dishes were served. And after the meal, I popped by the supermarket to get this box of crackers to that I can have them fried at home! Eat them with chilly sauce, absolutely yummy.

Now I am rummaging through my drawers for that bottle of diet pills that I dumped in there last month! I feel terribly overweight now!

We all have our own differences in cultures and language. Even when we do use an international language like English for instance, the people of different cultures and regions have different ways of communication and understanding different terms. Singaporean uses the Singlish way of speaking English and inject lots of local colloquialisms and slang in life. They may learn the proper way of English, but the understanding and usage in every country will always be different. In Singapore, Coffee Shop is a very relaxed, neighbourhood no frills shop. Slippers, shorts, T-shirts or singlets are very much accepted without batting an eyelid. To a friend of mine from the states the term “coffee shop” meant our cafes selling gourmet coffee like those of Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

So if you happen to be in Las Vegas, and someone asks you for a las vegas strip map, do not be shocked because what he meant was an area map of Las Vegas and not pointers to places where dances remove their clothes. To be clear, do not fear and always remember to ask when in doubt.

It had been exciting day since Saturday at Ngee Ann City’s Civic Plaza. This is the 7th year where the Subaru Impreza Challenge is being held again. What is it you might ask. Well it is a contest whereby as many as few hundred contestants challenge to be the last man standing with their palms on the car only getting a 5 minute break for every 6 hourly interval! This goes on for days till the last one standing.. Most of those who quit finds themselves aching and wringing in pain after a day or two. It is now approximately 65 hours already…

This year saw 400 contestants in Saturday’s day 1, quickly diminishing by Sunday morning to 180 left! The last man or woman standing will walk away with a brand new Subaru Impreza worth S$80,000. By 7pm on Mon, there were 38 contestants left!

Last year’s female champion winner stood at a total of 77 hours and 13 mins! The male winner stood at 73 hours 55 mins.

For the past month, I’ve been thinking about finding ways to make a little pocket money. Does any of you do that or have time for that. Do you have little online shops that sells stuff or sell anything on eBay? I’ve not used eBay before and I really have no idea how it works. Is eBay more for global or you can actually find some local buyers from there. I guess these are some of the little things that I have to find out.

My friend had introduced me to some ways such as an online estore. I have yet to consider that because that will mean I have to really get down to handling more IT stuff that I can actually handle! Blogging already gives me a headache, trying to work out some things such as html and all that links and where to put them… duhh…

I had a good laugh when I saw the news just an hour ago. There was news about a robber who went into a bank and wanted to rob it. His attempt was definitely foiled because he behaved suspisciously and whats more, he wore clothes of a women. That of course made the security guard suspiscious of course. How silly can a robber be. He gave a slip of paper to the bank staff and chided the security not to do anything. But I guess the guard had already prepared to detained him as within minutes, he was pinned down to the ground…

Too much flab, too much fat. That’s what Spypapa said.. He was scrutinizing himself when he looked in the mirror in the mornings. He wanted to lose weight. I cannot agree more. Since I met him decades ago, he had put on a lot of weight. He has lost his waist and it is now taken over by that blubber. And his trouser size is also moving parallel alongside his ‘waist’ size. Yesterday, he asked me what I was going to get for lunch.. He passed me the stored value card that we use for our foodcourt meal purchase. Our foodcourt uses store value card for purchase.. No need cash. About 5 minutes later, I brought this plate of fruits and said.. ‘nah.. you eat this!’ It was hilarious. He raised his eyebrow and said, ‘you ought to be joking!’ I need something more.. err  ’solid’

Laughing, I told him. Of course, I’m joking, this is mine. Passing him the card, I enjoyed my fruits and agar agar. Later that night, I stuffed my hungry tummy with 3 Old Chang Kee Curry Puffs. He had the last laugh, of course.