Spymama @ Mamakshop

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

I wanted to rant about this for the longest time. What else can I say. It’s about Spypapa of course. Spypapa has had a quite stressful pace of work for the past decade. There is no escape from the corporate world. If you have watched Singapore’s movie by Raintree Pictures - Just Follow Law, you’ll probably know how office politics are. Lots of arrowing around. But that is not what I want to rant about. It is about how office life has moulded Spypapa.

In the office, he has to make decisions quick and not look at pointing fingers. Business is always risky of course. When there is a problem at work, he will need to come down to the level and see how solutions can be solved. Very efficient, of course. BUT.

Have you ever come across when your second half comes home and solve your problems the way he solves it at work? I have and sometimes it can be irritating of course. Especially when all Spymama wants is just an outlet to rant? Lets look at how Spypapa responds at these rants! 3 actual examples.

Spymama told Spypapa: Aiyo our fridge for the 3rd time, is not cool at all. I had to clear the stuff, turn it off few hours and back on then it will be cool again. bla bla bla..
Spypapa: What is the root of the problem..
Spymama: *rolls eyes and shakes head*

Spymama text Spypapa: Hey, the kids are going to have holidays soon. Perhaps we could take a short break away and bring them to a resort to have fun?
Spypapa text Spymama: Noted
Spymama: sigh

Spymama text Spypapa: Mei Mei not feeling well. Her lips turned blue tis morning, so i rushed her to see Dr Tan. (I purposely didn’t want to tell more)
Spypapa text Spymama: Pls Update Me
Spymama: sigh sigh sigh (don’t want to update liao)

I just had to rant about this. My girl had left her pencil case in the music room last Friday. She tried to look for it in the school’s Lost and Found corner but it was not to be found. Today being Friday, she approached her teacher to check if she had seen it. Her teacher told her she gave it to another student, who brought it to the school general office. So I thought perhaps someone in the office may know about it. What I couldn’t register was that the clerical staff in the office are all terribly rude and always pulls a long face. This is not the first time though, the last few times I had been in there, I’ve never seen them smile. Is this the way to welcome anyone? I understand at times they may have some busy moments dealing with primary school students who may be noisy and they may want to portray a strict disciplined personnel example to students but I think this is not a good start for anyone. Perhaps they do not enjoy their work. Then it is best they do not work in an environment where there will be visitors who come in all the time.

I cannot believe my eyes when I walk in and smile at this lady who just walk past me, without smiling and ignored me, when I said ‘Hi, excuse me..’ The reception area is so small, she can’t even see me at all? That was utterly rude! And everyone in the clerical section just ignored me, and mind their own business not even bothered that there was someone at the reception. Is this the way of hospitality?

Grrr…

I didn’t do any marketing the past two mornings. I was busy in the afternoon shuttling my kids to tuition and drama classes. I went to the supermarket to shop for some sauces and found myself buying 5 packets of Bak Kut Teh herbal bags instead. Well, they were on offer at about $1.4X each. I usually buy them at $1.80 per pack. I cook these once a week using spare ribs, soft bones and the part they call ‘twee’ bak. Is that the leg or the thigh, not too sure. But my kids love it and so do hubby. I bought about almost $60 worth of groceries in the end although my intention was just getting a handful only. And because I was late fetching my girl, I paid up the groceries with my ATM card instead of my cash voucher that hubby gave me the other day. That means I still have my cash voucher for use the next time I shop. Oh dear, I’m gonna be late fetching my girl now if i don’t stop yakking blogging. Catch ya later.