So with a 5% increment and the end of two loans, I felt ready to look at increasing my own insurance coverage. Because I was being loaded (extra premium) @ Manulife, the adviser told me to go back to Prudential where I have existing policies. I met up with Salmah my ex colleague who's handling my portfolio.
Inevitably, with the many health declarations I made, I was being sent for medical exam, lipids test and the like. My major concern is actually diabetes. I had Gestational one when I was pregnant and never did a glucose test again at 6th week, and family history is not on my side, so i really worried like hell. I prick tested myself sometimes. While in the morning the reading was good at 5.0, an hour after a simple meal gave me a 7.5 (ref range 5.5-7).
On top of that, I found out that the reason I was loaded by Manulife was not due to diabetes but to abnormal liver function test!!! What is this Abnormal liver function test?? I tried to google it, but I couldn't understand anything out of it. But it did say that it's actually pretty common and that it could or could not lead to other diseases.
This made me feel quite frustrated with the M adviser. Because firstly, he only told me that my health was "terrible, very terribly" when I asked the reason for the loading which led me to suspect it might be diabetes. And secondly, Salmah pointed out that there's no use of an insurance policy for my son if I, as payee, is not insured. Meaning to say that if I, wanauzubillah, fall sick or whatever, I would still need to keep paying that premium.
Now the results from Prudential is back. They are loading me. But for totally different reason. They've also excluded bladder cancer and carcinoma insitu (early and concentrated cancer) bladder. From $50 budget, I hafta pay $104 per month for Early Crisis Cover. This program will actually pay for medical and other expenses if critical illness are discovered as early as Stage I and II. I actually didn't know that my current critical illness coverage would only pay out at advanced stage. *Slaps forehead*
But the good news is I'm cleared of Diabetes and any abnormal liver function. For that, Alhamdulillah wa shukru lillah.
My Health
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ToTT
13th May 2011
I had heard from Kak Norza that ToTT or Tools of the Trade has fabulous kitchen equipments. I went to their website drooling.
As it happened, I had an errand to collect a cheque at the same building - Sime Darby Centre, so I took the opportunity to hmmm have a look.
The bus journey there actually took 1hour 15min from Tangjong Pagar!! *faint* I kept looking at my GPS to make sure i don't miss the bus stop. Turned out, I dropped a stop earlier and had to walk when I was already sort of late!! That's the bad thing about Google Maps, it doesn't show much building names let alone bus stops. Even after studying SLA's map a lot of time, I still can't memorise it.
There were a lot of constructions going on too with the Downtown Line. And the ride back up north also took another whole hour!
In any case, I managed to curb myself and only spent about $45 although I was totally in love with some of the mixer but its like $600 at least!
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| Essential teaspoon and tablespoon measuring spoons for baking Did i tell you our house lacks bowls of any kind let alone one that is microwave save? It's only $2.50 Luminarc brand |
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| Pizza screen - About $5? Pizza stone is $22. But I didn't dare to invest in one cause I haven't even made one yet so not sure if it'd be worthwhile. |
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| Totally had to get a new pair of gloves. The old one looks burnt out, literally. $8? |
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| 2pcs ramekins for $10? Safe for ovens/microwave and freezer |
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| I intend to do more baked rice or pasta hence this baking dish $11 |
Overall very happy with my purchases. But I think other than these, I don't really need anything else. Except maybe more bowls.
M&M Melts not in your mouth but...
Saturday, 14th May 2011 (2 year 1.5months)
It was 9am I was soooo tired I just couldn't wake up. I just let Tufeil wrestled my body around until some other member of the family came into the room and whisked him away. A little while later, he came back and wanted some more milk. I still couldn't open my eyes and just let him.
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| This is what I finally opened my eyes to |
Mini M&Ms smeared and squashed all over on the bed and the floor. Tufeil and I were lounging around in bed on top of them. Apparently, someone had given him a whole tube of it to hold himself and then let him run away. Great, now I hafta change the bedsheet. It's new too just a week old. Not the bedsheet itself but the change.
On another note, he made this in school last week. Well technically he didn't, i suppose his teacher did minus the fridge magnets, of course.
Off Day w Friends from Work
5th May 2011
Ok so the four of us had been looking forward to the April moolah since like September last year! We promised to treat ourselves to good food once we've received them. Finally they day had come!
I was sooo wonderfully surprised when all of them were ready to take half day leave from work to chill. Thankfully, we are all from different departments, so no problem. So instead of a weekday dinner or a weekend lunch (need to arrange babysitter) we opted for weekday hi-tea @ CAROUSEL!
Because hi-tea only starts at 3.30pm and we can go off at 12.30pm, June and I decided to catch a movie first. The other two, Yani and Midah, opted to shop around in Orchard instead.
I was a bit skeptical about Water for Elephants at first because the movie poster wasn't good enough and I'm not sure if I like a vampire turning soft. But that was the only show with the perfect timing other than Thor which June wanted to watch with her Abang.
And it turned out quite alright. Romantic and loveable. I just don't like how an old man was telling the story. Make me cringe at the prospect of such a good looking man could really age badly. LOL Sorry I'm so superficial! hahaha
And because we got our attractive VB (Alhamdulillah), I managed to finish of my study loan. Just 3 months in advance. HAHA but at least I feel a burden has been lifted! And I treated myself to MAC's primer and liquid eyeliner. =D So mentel me nowadays.
We were about 15minutes late for the hi-tea!! We got a lot of catching up to do, in terms of food intake, with our two friends who were already there.
A bit disappointing that today's theme for main dishes was Asian. Imagine Nasi Lemak, Chicken Rendang, Indian Rojak and prata, Spring Roll, You tiao, Pie Tee, Dumplings, etc... Cold dish, salad and dessert counters remain. PLUS they have DIY ICe Kacang!! YAYY MY FAVOURITE!
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| Prawns are a must. Mostly, its the sauce that's DELISH! |
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| I had Lychee, jelly and peach in mine. w lotsa syrups |
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| The Four of Us Behind from left: Hamidah, June In front: Haryani and Me |
Hopefully we can have a FULL day of fun in December. IF our holiday schedule don't clash, that is!
Abang Tufeil
Tufeil is now a BIG brother. But NO, I didn't quietly got pregnant. LOL. My sis delivered a baby boy on mother's day 8th May 2011.
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| Everybody's saying he looks like Syifaa' |
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| To be honest, I can't rmbr how to hold a newborn! |
Tufeil was very excited to see Baby (yet to be officially named but we call him Umar for now) drinking mother's milk. He demanded to sit on the bed to see closely but I had to rein him in. Ly was in great pain as it was. Finally when I got to carry him, T was all kissing and touching the baby with his index finger. Oh! Can't wait for Umar to grow up already and play with T!
Syifaa' was also very cute. She stayed with us when Ly was admitted to the hospital and she kept jumping up and down more vigorous than usual screaming "I'm Happy I'm happy!!!!" cos baby was arriving soon.
Trying to control Tufeil's louds squeals and keeping him from running into the sharp end of the table between the curtains (he kept getting under and peeking back and forth) proved to be quite impossible so i relented and brought him to the playground instead.
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| The only slide suitable for his age |
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| Through the tunnel |
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| OMG! Like got a hairy ghost up there! That's the girl's sister actly. |
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| Cldn't get over how he climbed and rocked the horse himself! |
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| The group of bigger boys immediately caught his attention He wanted to rock for them. *shake head* |
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| The boys were so good to him but very rough among themselves |
Dinner at Kopitiam was very disappointing. The drinks stall didn't carry any leading brand of canned soft drinks, not even COKE. Ice Kacang, bandung, lime juice all not available. The Delifrance was also disappointing. The cinnamon croissant was stale. The seats and high chairs were all VERY DIRTY! YUCKS! The next time, we should go to the canteen at the other wing 2 Kent Ridge or something.
Alas, visiting hour was over and it was time to leave....
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| Good night, Baby. See u again soon. |
Marble Cake.
I was inspired by bermudabuttercup to bake this cause it's also one of my (not many) favourite cakes. But the recipe in the link she gave asked for almond extract and rum. I don't have the former and was lazy to google for replacement of rum.
So i googled for an easier recipe and stumbled upon All Recipe's which uses a combination of plain flour and baking powder instead of self-raising flour which I wasn't sure if we had. I tried to find a recipe using OIL in place of butter and with no milk but to no avail.
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| Spooning the chocolate mixture |
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| Realize too much chocolate |
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| Why my cake always break in the middle one? |
But really, the steps are super easy!!! Basically, put all ingredients except cocoa powder in the mixer, pour 3/4 in the pan, mix 1/4 with the chocolate and spoon them into the pan and swish a knife at it to make patterns and wa la!
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch round pan.
Place flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter or margarine, eggs, vanilla, and milk into mixing bowl. Beat slowly to moisten, then beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth. Reserve 3/4 cup batter; pour the remainder into pan.
Stir cocoa into the 3/4 cup reserved batter. Drop by spoonfuls over top of white batter. Using a knife, swirl the cocoa batter into the white batter to incorporate it in a marble effect.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until an inserted wooden pick comes out clean.
Yot's New Place
Sat, 30th April 2011
We were invited to go to my uncle's new house. The condo name escapes me but I know its just opposite of Sembawang Al-Ameen.
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| Tufeil's Get up of the day @ Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim for Zohr |
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| Wahhh like some kind of European country side |
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| Oh Tufeil and his love of fountain no matter how small |
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| Pinning T down for a picture in the Function "hall" Thank god its small so that its air-conditioned perfectly amidst the HOT weather |
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| Gotcha! |
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| Kid's Playground |
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| Syifaa' and her aunties |
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| Meantime, Tufeil played with yet another fountain for a good 30minutes! |
We were shown around the house but its not completed yet. So I didn't take any pictures. But it's a penthouse and the two girls' & maid's room is upstairs with 3 more bedrooms on the first floor. Cool! My aunty brought us to her sister's house in another block and it was soooo cooly decorated! I LIKE!!!
The only downside is the pool doesn't seem too child-friendly. I think we hafta go to our other uncle's house, then to use their swimming pool haha.
PSA Port Visit
Fri, 29th April 2011
Finally found the time to update this ancient event. The Company organised a tour of PSA Port. I was sooo excited as I've never been there before! What was better was it was just us 8 of us - the underwriters and us executives - no brokers or whatever.
Me & Sharon at the lobby waiting for the van
The van that is to drive us around in Pasir Panjang Terminal
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| View from the PSA Building They are reclaiming land using HUGE CONCRETE BLOCKS to make the 5th terminal in S'pore. |
First, we met the Corporate Comm guy at the PSA building where he played a 7min video of what its all about. And then we moved off to the terminal.
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| Just had to snap a pic in the toilet |
I was quite disappointed to know that we were not allowed to alight from the van and that we were not going onboard any vessels! But my manager did tell me that she would let me know if any my risk manager is going on board one so perhaps I could follow!?
But security is very tight.
Huge huge cranes!!
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| Car Terminal |
It was fascinating to see how extremely accurate all these cars were parked in sheer straight line not a cm askew! And the number of them parked there! like WOW! Felt like running away with one of them mercedez hatchbacks. hahahah
We learnt quite a few many things which I shan't bother to write here. I already squeezed my brain writing for the internal newsletter.
Besides, the best thing about that day was the bonding part of it.
We had lunch afterwards at Garuda, Vivocity.
I can't tell you how funny my British colleague is. He shook his head at the menu and food i photographed. He even made fun of the word HALAL as Hello!
He also laughed at my OCD-ness eating the waffle square by square.
Oh Sheesh. Now that photo makes me hungry.
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