Spymama @ Mamakshop

I read about some fella who walked into a shop selling aquarium and cooly reached for the arowana in an aquarium and put it in his pocket, then walked off. Arowanas are known to be auspiscious fish for Chinese people because of the colour and the way they resemble a dragon. Arowanas are also commonly called Dragon Fish, or Golden Dragon Fish, when converted in Chinese dialects. I wanted to get one but because I do not have a large tank, I put off until I know of a good space to breed this type of expensive fish. But I read that even if the fish is stolen, one can find it back because Arowanas nowadays have a chip that is embedded in it’s body… WOW..

Just like dogs, chips can be inserted into the animals… I wonder if human testing was done this way… what do you think. Just like humans, medical establishments even test medically viable tests on animals too.. Most importantly on those that are endangered and expensive species of many animals.

I won’t be surprised if dog dna testing are done in labs to find out if any lost pup are offsprings of some champion breed.

In the 80’s, I used to walk past an old dodgy looking tattoo shop. Oh, this is in Singapore, by the way. And although Singapore has always been known as a place that is safe, clean and all honest to goodness, when Sailors in other continents come to Singapore, they always know that this is THE place to get a decent tattoo from someone special. A licensed Tattoo. That tattoo artist was popularly known as Johnny Two Thumb. Not many youths in the present Singapore probably know how far back this tattoo shop has been around. If not wrong, it was in the 50’s. Yes you CAN get a tattoo in Singapore back then…  In Malaysia, many people travelled down south to Singapore to get one too!

Johnny Two Thumb was nicknamed so because, the person who did the tattoo had an extra thumb! Nope, his name was not Johnny nor John. It was like calling this person, laddie or fella - Johnny. Whenever I walked past this shop in Bras Basah area (how I miss this nostalgic place.. alas all gone to new development already.. still miss it dearly) I actually wondered if I could be a tattoo artist. Although I had no extra thumb, perhaps they could call me Leftie Jonie.. (people those days love the name Jonie, ok?) I even thought perhaps I might set up a shop next door offering tattoo removal instead for those who have regretted having one and would like to remove it for fear of being associated with bad company. It comes in useful for those who had done a silly picture of their lover then when they finally break it off, they need to rid of the tattoo.. Having a shop next to it meant people knows where to get a tattoo and where to get a tattoo removed..

Then one day it moved. The tattoo shop moved and I missed it until my friend asked me to accompany her to get her Cancer motive tattoo at Far East Plaza… There, I found it and up to now, not sure if it had moved again…

Oh No! I think I really need to get an additional hard disk, the portable one.. I am sure there are plenty on sale in many stores that sell computer peripherals or IT stuff. I really need to get start on my data backup as soon as possible. My computer recorded a ’stop error’ screen not too long ago.. Before I could read what it says, my computer had already turn off and restart by itself.. I was worried that it will never start up! sigh… but lucky it did, hence my post here. But I really think it’s time to do something to check on the ‘health’ of my computer… Need to do a proper data backup ASAP. That means money money money again.. oh dear.. How I wish I studied IT when I was younger… so at least I can trouble shoot my own pc..

When I go off doing facials, I can go off it for months! And when I am in the mood, I can ‘longed’ for it week after week.. I guess it all depends on my mood, how I feel and if I felt that I needed to ‘cleanse’ and ‘work’ on my face more often.. Just like a bad hair day, I do have bad face day. On days like these, I’d be on a shopping spree, mostly cosmetics, toiletries and anything that I want to feed my face with! Last week was my face week.. I bought cleansers (although I had not finished the existing tube…), I got facial scrubs, mud packs, green tea face packs, a box of blackhead remover, a new botte of toner, a Tanakha face cream/moisturiser and lastly, I even got one of those gel thingy when you apply will help to ‘tone’ your face… hahahhaha Guess I’ve got beserk now… absolutely.

Over the Chinese New Year, I persuaded my partner to visit Sentosa Island. I had not been there for so long, not knowing what to expect. A lot of hype about this place recently because of RWS, or Resort World Sentosa, to be exact. RWS is already a year since it’s opening during last year’s Chinese New Year. I had not been there and nor do I know what to expect. The monorail’s still around, except that now there is a link from Vivocity via MRT (Mass Rapid Transit, our train). The cable car is still hanging *heart drop* at the very top.. But I can see a nice castle building as we drove in from the bridge from Singapore towards the Sentosa Island.. A nice welcome view, I must say. Looks like Disneyland… but it is actually the Universal Studios.

Look at the photo I took from the car window.. sorry.. not that sharp.

My cabinet under the kitchen sink is totally soaked! I think the water comes from the kitchen sink just above it. After checking it through, we managed to locate a plastic pipe that is faulty, hence water leaking under the sink basin. I also checked to make sure that my kitchen sink has no faulty parts. So for now, I need to lay lots of cloth and dry newspaper so that the water dripping from the pipes will not cause my cabinet to be soaked till the regular plumber arrives… and I’m sure it will take some time… For now, I guess I will have to wait till the plumber comes. I better go to the near shop that sells kitchen sinks, cabinets to see if I can have one custom-made to fit the cabinet.

I hardly get to see this friend of mine lately. One night, I called her up on the phone to catch up with her and she told me that she was working with a foreign company. She works from Singapore and her parent company is situated in the States. She then told me that that is the reason why she seldom spends time with her friends since it is already night when in US, it is day and everyone is in the office working. That meant her physical work is done in the night from 9pm all the way to 5am in the morning. And everything elses is reverse too. She sleeps in the night and does whatever errands in the early morning and sleeps when we are all having our lunch! Of course with the availability of many Conference call services, nowadays we can work globally from our own home office without leaving the country to work in another country. That saves many corporate and independant companies a lot of money, transmitting around (meetings can be done via webcams) because one can communicate in real time through internet conference advantage using webcam and internet talk/chat online.

Before Chinese New Year, I had to do spring cleaning at home. I cleaned out the lingerie drawer and found so many things that is not in use. One of them are my favourite corsets, of course! I used to love wearing this stuff because I always think it helps to shape and keep our extra love handles in. Now, looking at it, I am tempted to get new ones from the lingerie department. Corsets do not come cheap either.. some are independant while some are joined to the bottom panty. Would you find separate ones better or together? What ever your result may be, perhaps this is the time to look at Victoria’s Secret..

I just wanted to look-see the job market if it was as buyont as ever. Well, in the weekend papers, jobs are plenty for one to make a selection. Ads are expensive and I am sure the job market is going to be slightly better unless there is an unforeseen economical grief. Currently, the job market is already expanding with thick copies of weekend papers being distributed. The only one complaining is the newspaper vendor because the delivery man need to carry extra load of papers inthe weekends.  Singapore will have a higher ratio of aging people so it’s either one get exposed to health care job site for more concession or other much needed jobs in manufacturing and service sectors.

Do couples still spend Valentine’s Day like they used to? Valentine’s day is a day to spend with your love ones. In the papers recently, it was reported that flowers are not as ‘hot’ or popular as they used to. I wonder why, is it because they are more expensive, harder to get or people simply do not like to give gifts that do not last or it is simply not in the agenda as much. For me, I’d do anything to have my partner sweep me off to an azamara cruises and spend a few days together… Okay, i’m dreaming.. anyway Valentines’ day is finally come and gone.. just in some split seconds…Most thoughful children I have, I get lovely homemade gifts from them too.