Spymama @ Mamakshop

Did you remember the time when petrol cost were so high that all you could hear from motorists were sighs and more sighs.. That was in July and since then, the oil prices have been making it’s tumbling down as much as 69% since. Everyone was worried in the first quarter when it first hit its $100 per barrel and in July it was $147.27.

I read the news that oil could still be making its way down further. As much as I want to have petrol costs lower, I do worry about the impact on the overall following the recent news about retrenchments too.

Ever since the oil prices rose, the goods and products for many items has gone up. But we have yet to hear the price of goods going down much. And if retrenchments and many more companies laying off workers, we do need our goods’ price to be reduced for consumers’ confidence into buying spree.

I really don’t understand how come there are some lucky few who eat and eat and they don’t put on weight.. How lucky they are. Years back, when I had my first child, I told myself that I should be able to take off all the extra pounds if I work hard at the gym. In fact I did shed quite a lot but that was because I was still working. So when baby number two was delivered, I decided to become stay at home mum. Boy, how come with more chores I have to do and running around two young kids, I still have not lose any and end up collecting more blubber instead? Pathetic!

Lately, I feel as if my weight has increased even more. I do feel so lethargic too. And what makes matters worst, I think I get constipated easily. I tried taking more fruits but it doesn’t help much. I read that taking Colon Cleanser might help those who have constipation and also those with sluggish bowels too. I was worried about it initially but I think after reading it, I find that it is something healthy we should be doing to clean out the toxic in our systems. Perhaps it is all that bad prawn crackers, cakes, fried foods and other processed foods that I have been eating. It is time to rid our body of all these nasty oil and chemicals that has been building up in our digestive system.

A particular formula that is available is the Dual-Action Cleanse. It has a natural formula that is herbal and is safe to consume. Some of the benefits in colon cleansing include a radient skin and trimmer appearance. That certainly sounds great.

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…

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…

With so much news about the economy and financial crisis, Spymama was feeling low the whole week. Not that she had any investments linked to the Lehman Bros and not that she lost anything, but the feeling of recession was just everywhere. Spymama was sitting down at her favourite coffeeshop yesterday morning having a kopi-O with Yew Char Kueh when she overhead two stall tenants complaining how bad business had been lately. They complained how raising prices of the food by 20 cents was a turn-off for customers. Spymama can understand all that uncertainty. We at the end of the consumer wants to save but those doing business are also paying more for their items needed to make that perfect plate of noodles for us. Consumers can say no but these business owners have signed a contract tenancy and the are finding hard to cover their loses. That is so terrible. Some of the favourite stalls that Spymama used to go have also stopped operations, preferring to cease business.

The indian stall that sells spymama’s favourite Roti Prata has decided to cease operations when the tenancy ends this month.. Spymama is terribly sad to see them go. There’s only two weeks left so I think Spymama is going to the shop a little often till the last day of their business. Sob Sob Sob

Spymama had been feeling under the weather after the weekend of gorging on Durians. Show you the full picture here after that little miserable teaser.

I also like to thanks for the nice concern Zara, Mott and Rose.

You know, Mott.. I remembered my momma used to tell me about drinking water from the cavity to get rid of heatiness too. I definitely would have done that but alas, the durians I bought were all stored in styrofoam containers. Seems like the modern society nowadays sell durians this way. They rid the durian ’shells’ once they emptied into the containers. Next time I gotta stand there and ask those Durian sellers to let me pack a small segment back in a plastic bag,..

Then yesterday, Spymama could not contain her wanting to have something spicy and made my throat worst. It was seeing this yummy looking Ayam Penyet at the food centre than I pointed out (since my voice already croaking) and asked for that..  In my pea brain, I figured that fighting fire with fire should be at it’s worst. How big can the fire become? And guess what? Today, my throat feels like it is all swollen and swallowing my saliva was terribly painful.. sigh sigh sigh

Naughty Spymama. I should just whip myself. And to make it worst, Spykiddo 1 is having fever and Spykiddo 2 is having flu. Gonna be resting early tonight to keep an eye on them Spykiddos. Today we have a large pot of homemade barley.

Have a restful night everyone.

As soon as I dropped my girls to school, I went to Sheng Shiong. This is the very budget conscious style supermarket, found in Singapore. Food and Dry items here are obviously cheaper than most supermarket prices. I needed to get some dry noodles for home, check out some prawns and also maybe grab a facial cleanser for myself.

But nightmares of all nightmares, as soon as I was at the cosmetic section selling facial creams, this lady kept on my heels and asked me to buy some products. Mind you, I really dislike these cosmetic salespersons. I don’t understand what they say because they are just speaking for themselves most of the time. They make people dislike them because all they do is criticize how bad you look and how good their products are.

When you talk about people’s look, that is one sensitive topic. I think is out of bounds. It makes them so desperate and doesn’t sound genuine at all. 90%, I don’t understand what they are talking about because I really don’t understand their language. I shook my head and she just tailed me. As long as I lose one, another one follows.. sigh. They have become such a hateful lot that I avoid them wherever I go. To avoid them, I will only go into these area when I don’t see these ladies around. They are bad for business. Driving customers away.

Perhaps there should be a department where it is FREE BROWZING with NO COSMETICS SALES PERSONS allowed. Put them all in a counter like an enquiry desk. If we need to ask, we’ll be there. Otherwise, butt out! Can we have that?

Queues Queues Queus..

I Queued for the longest time yesterday. Each queue lasted a good almost an hour long each! Why? I had to go to the bank to cash out a cheque. Then I queued to get a doctor’s letter for my girl (this doc very popular lah. I was even there before the clinic opened!), Then I queued to at the post office to remit money for my helper, and I queued at the AXS kiosk to pay my credit card bills!

I’ve been standing on longer queues like few hours when I fed my fetish for First Day Covers decades ago. But yesterday morning was something I was asking for.. I could have just done them all on different days of the month, but I had to pick end month, when everyone has their salary credited or paid, and bills to pay. Ya, I shouldn’t be complaining about it, right?

Anyway, I used to collect queue pictures so these pictures are some of my collections.

Donut Queue

Nasi Lemak Queue

Sakae Sushi Queue