AndroMoney : A Useful App!

I am not very organised by any means. Except for the few OCD moments where I insist on lining things up a certain way...

Any how, I found an app which worked for me and perhaps it will for you too. AndroMoney, for android obviously. :p sorry to all my iPhone-using friends. There might be an iPhone version too.

I would always say that paper is still the best. Or excel sheets. This app still takes some getting used to, and apparently, I accidentally deleted a few entries. Don't even know how that happened... but overall I do appreciate this straight forward app.

What I love about it:
- I can enter expenses and income.
- Each entry's details include project, payment method, payee/r & additional notes.
- I can choose a base currency (SGD) & whatever I enter in other currencies show their value & the SGD value (refer to 1st screenshot).
- I can personalise entries with photos (refer to 1st & last screenshot).
- I can later filter and calculate the total by projects, payee/r, specific credit cards, etc (refer to screenshot below, where I filtered "food").
- I can copy and modify entries easily.
- I can view by date, week, month & year.
- Loads really fast, no need to sign in.
- Future payments can be entered, which is great for wedding planning!

What I don't like about it:
- I accidentally deleted some entries, still clueless about how.
- It doesn't ask you to sign in to specific accounts so if your phone has an issue, you might lose all of the data.
- Filtering is usually easy but there were a couple times it didn't load properly for me.

All things considered, I like this handy app and will recommend it. I do not work for this free app, but I think it's pretty useful. If you have a better one to recommend, let us all know!

Hello Sydney!

I needed a break from wedding planning and if satisfying, meaningful or fast/high-paying work was lacking (yes there were some but too few to keep me subdued), I decided to travel. Well, I also had frequent flyer miles expiring. :p

So here I am in the city of Sydney, rainy and overcast the last couple days.

And some home grilled lamb chops

with cous cous and broccoli.

Don't forget sushi (Harbour Street)!

Served by giggling Japanese waitresses. :)

Code of Law - Season 2 Ep 5 Tonight!

I didn't realise the episode of Code of Law that I acted in was going to be on TV this week. Until my drama students and fellow actors alerted me to it.

They all caught trails of the trailer on channel 5. As someone who isn't always watching TV, I searched for the trailer on YouTube and found it: Code of Law - Season 2 Ep 5 trailer.

I had fun filming the episode around September last year with my friends and fellow actors Keagan Kang, Beatrice, Vernetta Lopez, Jaslin & Jerry Hoh, who supplied these photos. (I'll dig mine up too and upload some after the episode has aired tonight.)

Among the resiliently capable crew, I was also blessed to work again with Sam Loh, a very patient director who had once directed me as a crazy woman feeding rats, and Jenn, my fiancé's good friend and trusty sound recordist/mixer. I also made new friends! I had a ball telling the makeup artist, Jolene Kong, my silly jokes and theories. She must be tough enough to endure them, for we've been hanging out ever since!

I experienced a struggle during one of my scenes, so I have to admit that I am afraid of watching it. I think I won't then, until I hear feedback from others. Yes yes, I can be brave but there are a few tiny things that unfortunately bring out my cowardice. :p

The Sample Store!

Don't we all love samples?

Free samples would be even better. Click here or below!

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It costs nothing to sign up. And you get a number of points which can be exchanged for samples. I just started it so am not sure if the points regenerate on their own. I'll update!

Some samples are free and some require a shipping cost. S$5.99 is a flat fee they charge for any amount of samples in one order. I decided to just get the free ones first for my family to enjoy since I'll be travelling in a matter of days. Yes, I'll talk about that later. :)

Bridget Tan, Helping Wholeheartedly

Last year, and a few times over the last number of years, I was involved in some productions that were put up in favour of foreign workers who were mistreated or abused. Alone in a foreign land, they were able to find solace through HOME (Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics). Its dedicated founder and advocate, came to our shows and touched us with her kindness, generosity and sincerity. That's the humble Bridget Lewis Tan. You can read what she wrote here about sex trafficking: http://www.onesingapore.org/news/stop-sex-trafficking/

I recall Bridget at one of our performances, relating how she wanted to give back to society by setting HOME up with her CPF savings and whatever little time she had left on Earth. She would take calls at any hour, caring for helpless workers, domestic helpers, foreign women trafficked for sex, and even foreign brides. Her sense of justice resonated with many Singaporeans. After all, a lot of us here cannot deny our forefathers' immigrant roots.

On 5th February, Bridget suffered a stroke. According to the news, she hasn't regained consciousness and is in Changi General Hospital. It is heartbreaking for many to hear this, including my "Rojak famiree", who put up a play at the Arts House twice last year entitled Rojak. Let us hope and pray for the best.

You can read more about HOME here: home.org.sg

(I'm not linking any news articles about her sudden stroke, because those are the first things presented when one does an online search for her. Also, her condition may change and we all hope it will, for the better.)

Skin for Skin!

Lots of people criticise chicken skin for being unhealthy and fatty.

I, as I always have, beg to differ. I feel that chicken skin is an amazing alternative to moisturiser and collagen.

I have a confession to make. I am really lousy at sticking to any routine. I also feel that it's a silly thing for us women to spend lots of hard-earned money on skincare, when most men hardly spend anything yet look pretty good anyway.

Well, guys may not always have the soft dewy skin and healthy glow that women seem to crave, as many magazines and advertisements suggest. But I suppose they are not expected to as well.

I imagine this could have stemmed from the distant past, when men had to work hard in the fields or at an office while a woman wasn't allowed to even apply to universities. Her duty in life was to marry a good provider, bear him children, cook, clean, make the house a home, guard the mailbox, stand by her man (poor Tammy), and in the time that's left, look pretty for him. Notice that as a wife, mother and home-maker, her duties did not include falling in love.

If one were in love, wouldn't looks be unimportant? Or are looks the first lure to falling in love? Well, I had always made it a point to go on dates without makeup and heels. Ok, ok, I admit. I am just daaaamn lazy and don't want my feet to suffer in pain and worry about my makeup running, especially if a date is meant to be enjoyable. Why should the guy get to have all the fun in his comfy shoes and his own makeup-free skin?

I also get to be myself from the start and if the other party ain't interested, that's just fine. Because as sincere and honest as I would be that day, I wouldn't put my heart on the line for a relative stranger. If the other party likes that and I enjoyed their company, then things can only get better from there! That's almost like telling some of the story within the pages of a book before you reveal its glossy colourful cover.

Anyway, back to the skin. Muahahaha... I suppose I should start with a proper skincare regime now. Better late than never, they say. Everytime I hear the word "regime", I think of the military. Wonder what I read as a child. I am never disciplined enough to follow a, well, regime, so I never kept to any product or routine. Oh, except maybe shampoo, soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste. I used to condition my hair once a fortnight when it gets really dry and tangled. Now I'm reminding myself to condition my hair just before it gets to that bramble stage.

Eating my favourite food, however, requires no reminding or stress. It relieves stress and gives me joy! It also provided collagen enough to keep my skin from looking like crushed paper. I may scrape off the fat sometimes if I feel too full (though I am never too full for skin). But I guess I could safely say this:

Skin saved my skin!

Rebates or Points?

Today I am thinking of buying something on rakuten singapore. Many things are currently on sale and to add to the nudge is a S$15 off a minimum purchase of $50.

After the discount, you would be paying S$35 but they will still give you points for your purchase at 1 point per dollar spent. Which means you still get 50 points for your $35 purchase! There's also free shipping now for different deals and amounts.

Now if you also use mastercard for your purchase, you will get 10 times the number of points usually given. So your $35 purchase would give you 500 points, equivalent to $5 which can be used to b a future product. Points will be credited about 7 or so days after the purchase.

But from what I read online, it seems you cannot use the points to partially pay for a single item. So if i wanted to buy a $6 item in future, I cannot use my 500 points (or $5 credit) and just pay $1 using my credit card. It has to be an item that is $5 or less. And I won't know when these promo points expire till I get them.

I also have the personal option of paying with the OCBC frank card which gives me a 6% rebate off online purchases (minimum spend of S$500 online). This works out to S$2.10 rebate for a S$35 purchase.

Which would you choose?

I would normally go for the rebate since I don't know if I will buy anything on the site again. That said, they are giving new sign ups $10 credit which you can use by entering a code (one can use one code per bill so I would recommend the cny $15 discount which expires tonight!). So I might return to get some ramen or something if they offer free (conditional) shipping again.

I also am forgetful so I might lose my credit as I did with groupon. I just discovered I lost $20 credit from refunds etc which expired in 2012. Oh well. Haha!

So, which would you choose?