Results are Out!!

Remember those exams that I didn't have time to study for? Well, the results were out yesterday. I've been having a flu all week and my nose is all stuffed up, making it impossible for me to breathe through it especially in an aircon room. Classes have re-commenced with the next 2 modules but I've missed both the first lessons due to my stuffy nose. While you can make disgusting nose noises at home and even in the office, you can't do it while you are in a roomful of almost strangers straining to hear the lecturer teach.

Anyway, J told me she had collected my results for me and I just said thanks. Then spent the next 5 minutes agonising over whether I should ask her to open it and tell me or not. On one hand, I wanted to do the honours (or disgrace) myself. On the other, I was DYING to know my scores. In the end, I bit the bullet and SMS'd J to slit my envelope. She took forever to do it and finally SMS'd me back to say that I'd gotten an "A" and a "B". My first reaction was utter surprise. I hadn't expected an A at all. B maybe and possibly an F on one of the subjects... but an A and a B!! WOW!! I still can't get over it. I can't wait to see her on Monday so that I can see it for myself!

So that's that. I hope I can keep it up. An A!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... who would have thought?!

It's a pretty boring Saturday for me so far. I was invited to WCDR for someone's (or is it some pooch's) birthday or something but it was raining all last night. I'd just bathed the dogs the day before and I didn't fancy bringing Russell to a soggy dog run. Besides, the weather's really muggy today and with my stuffy nose and dosey head, I don't think I would have had much fun.

Russell's really white now. His muzzle has so much white in it now it's reached his eyebrows. My boy is growing old. He's almost 8 yrs now and has the most another 4-5 years to go. How I wish D wouldn't give me such a hard time about the dogs... they haven't long more to go and I just want to give them the best I can until it's time for them to go. I swear Russell is the best dog I ever had. I wish I were more of a handler so that I could have given him what he needs and deserves. He is capable of so much more than I could ever handle.

Heeheee.. I just gave him a hug which he didn't like at all. It makes him feel very un-macho.

Here's a pic of him. He was barking at the door and I'd thrown my slipper at him to make him shut up, but of course he thought it was a game... hahahaha...

Well, the GST hike comes in tomorrow. 7% now instead of 5%. It's crazy... just when the economy starts to get a little better, they increase taxes. They say it's cos the economy is looking good. Yeah, for the rich maybe... the poor are still, well, poor. And 2% poorer from tomorrow. They gave us a couple of hundred dollars as an "offset". Yeah, right. $100 over a year, that's $8.33 a month, which is about 27 cents a day. Big. Fat. Hairy. Deal. They get that back in a bowl of instant noodles.

And they send letters to people like my MIL who is 76 and uneducated, telling her in 4 different languages she can't understand that they are going to give her some money. And yeah, they include a chart. That works. And they expect MIL to go online and click a button to tell them that yes, she wants the money. For crying out loud... you wanna give people money, just give it to them, man! How the flying f*** do they expect MIL and her buddies to know how this darn thing works. She thought she had to go to goodness knows where to get a letter and then go queue at the bank to get the money out. Oh maaaannnn! There are some people out there who desperately need their bosses to think they are earning their keep. No wonder there's been a hike. We need to keep these airheads employed so that they can set up tripartite organisations to find out why poor people aren't making CPF contributions in order to take advantage of progress packages. Hellooooo.... they are POOR people. Their concern is where their next meal is going to come from, how they are going to pay the rent, how they will live next month. Not put precious cash into CPF and hope for the next big thing, IF there is one.

Ok, I told myself when I started this blog not to go into politics or try to figure out why governments do what they do. It's like they have no common sense. Then, again, my mom always said that common sense isn't so common. So this is just a one-shot thing. No more. Imagine how smart people will look when there are no more dumbasses to compare with. Ha ha.

Exams over!! yipppppeeeeeee

Can you imagine sitting there for 3 hours.. ok, 2.5 hours.. bullshitting your way through your exam paper? I bullshitted till my hand cramped then I decided to spare the poor guy who would have to mark my paper.

Well, anyway, that's that. It's done. Let's talk about something else. Oh darn! I forgot to take a pic of our booth at Mutts & Mittens last weekend! Doh!! Well, it was a great weekend... met plenty of DS people at last and saw a lot of doggies too. Wow, they are really lovely doggies, especially the beautiful Black Eye Pea, an 8-month old Jack Russell puppy. I'm half in love with her and I haven't stopped thinking about her since then. She is absolutely perfect and if I didn't already have 3 dogs, I would adopt her in a jiffy! Well, since I haven't a pic of the booth to put up, here's a pic of the inimitable Black Eye Pea! Isn't she simply adorable??
Lots of people came to support the jumble sale and our jewellery sales. We donated a total of $222 to Mutts & Mittens to help them sterilise their shelter dogs. Not bad for a couple of amateurs in one hot, humid afternoon... heehee..

This weekend is the tournament. It's work and I am not looking forward to it at all, I tell ya! I wish I didn't have to go. I dread standing there in a stupid polo tee with heels (what a fashion faux pas!!) for the whole bloody afternoon smiling at the guests and trying not to sweat. There was a time when we all used to enjoy these events but lately, it's just become a chore for us. Work just isn't fun anymore! I think it's time for me to start looking for a new job already or just hang up my computer and office clothes for a while and hang back, relax and enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed! :-)

TGIF!!

Boy, what a week it's been!! I am so glad it's Friday and I haven't a thing planned for tomorrow. Yep... Not. A. Thing. Which leaves me to sleep in if I want to or to bring Russell to the beach for a morning romp and swim.

As it turns out, I have to be at the adoption drive this Sunday after all. I'd thought I could escape it but... so I have been busy with production the past few evenings and these are some of the stuff I managed to churn out.

I just wanted to use up the one leftover tensha bead so decided it put it on this bracelet made with Swarovski crystals and glass beads with a very pretty flower finding, all in a golden tone.

This pic really doesn't do this piece justice. Maybe it's the poor lighting or my crappy cam. Anyway, the whole thing is in white and gold which really reminds me of some Greek goddess' toga (or is that Roman?). Another piece which I created by mistake and comes with matching earrings. Of the 50 odd pieces that I've made over the past couple of weeks, I like this piece best and am half hoping it won't be sold so that I can have it for myself or give it to a special friend :-)

Yep, these are earrings. But not for a person with 3 ears. I got bored with putting them up to have their pic taken so just combined all the 3 available colours in one shot :-) Aren't they pretty?

Just saying HI :-)

Yep... just doin' that... saying HI :-)

And yes, I'm bored. I really shouldn't be as I have loads of things to do like study for my exams and making more jewellery. But studying would be even more boring and I don't feel particularly creative right now. Which reminds me, I have a couple of orders for customised necklaces but I'm so not in the mood to make jewellery right now.

I spent all of this morning and early afternoon at Holy Trinity church helping out at their food and fun fair. It didn't go as well as we expected. J and I were selling okonomiyaki. For the uninitiated, that's a Japanese pancake made with cabbage, egg, a yam flour batter and topped with fruit sauce, mayo and bonito flakes. We also provided the youth ministry with a popcorn and candy floss machine.

Business wasn't that great. We sold less than 60 oko and only popped 5 rounds of corn. The candy floss machine (which is normally a best seller) was also quiet most of the time. At my own parish's last fun fair a couple of years ago, we sold out the oko (200pcs) and the candy floss machine ran non-stop until we had to make everyone wait while we let it rest before it burned out. We had also used the big popcorn machine and corn was continuously being popped.

Strange... this is our 3rd year running helping out at the Holy Trinity food & fun fair and this is the first time I have not seen a crowd at Holy Trinity. They're usually so bustling. We did the same thing the last 2 years and they sold very well.

Ooohh... did I mention that I got a bulk order for my accessories? 200pcs of handphone accessories! I made some simple but very pretty ones with Swarovski crystal hearts. Too bad I didn't take a pic of them. I completed the whole order in 4 hours (was a rush order) after which my hand was stiff for 2 days! I'm going to donate the whole amount to the Mutts & Mittens Adoption Drive. It beats sitting there for a whole afternoon selling jewellery... and I doubt I would be able to make $250 in that afternoon either!!

Ok, I'll stop here now... a post without pics and with a lot of words is boring, I know, so I'll spare all you brave (or super-bored) souls who have read this whole thing up till here. Grazie and ciao!! :-)

More of my jewellery

As you know if you've been following my blog, I make jewellery to raise funds for animal shelters. Well, I thought I'd post some of the recent ones just for the heck of it :-)

I'd told myself not to work with chinese cloisonne beads again, but I just could not resist this when I went bead shopping. I love the colours and how well the green crystals go with the gold tone. It was so popular I sold 3 pairs all in a single day!

This bracelet was made by accident... heehee... I hadn't planned on making it this way but somehow it all came together and was bought up the very next day. I love the colours!

This long and chunky necklace was a long time being produced. I'd received a request for customisation and it took me about 2 months just to find the right beads. I made a matching bracelet too and that also was snapped up the very next day :-)

The blue glass tube was one of the very first beads I bought when I first started beading last November. Inspiration didn't come until recently when I bought those lovely cat's eye hearts. It's also already been sold :-)

Catchin' up...

Wow, has it really been a month since my last post? Time sure flies when you're having fun. Or as the frog said... time's sure fun when you're having flies... :-)

Let's see now... what's happened in the last month? Hmmm... not much except that I got ill a lot. I spent the entire month wrapped in a haze of flu virus that never seemed to go away. But I'm ok now (knock on wood) and have all my weekends choc-a-bloc till end-June.

C's parents arrived end-April and Iggy had a bbq to get the family together. It was fun alternating bbq'ing and swimming.


Last weekend we celebrated Olivier's 1st month. I & C had about 70 guests over and I helped by arranging the catering and preparing some activities for the kids. It was fun doing balloon sculpting. Here's a green dog I made for my friend's kid but forgot to give it to him.

Olivier is doing very well - he's in the 90 percentile in terms of height and weight - but I've never seen that kid awake! Honest! He's always sleeping or drinking milk. But I guess that's how he came to be in the 90 percentile... heeheehee...

Oohh.. I managed to take a pic of him doing his growing :

This weekend, I am helping Fr JF with his parish feast day food & fun fair. He's doing it to raise funds to build the new Divine Mercy Church. Oh by the way, I was the one who suggested that name to him :-) I actually named a church! I'm so proud of myself :-)

The weekend after that, I will be selling my jewellery at the Mutt-vellous Adoption Drive. It's a dog thing and this dog shelter is trying to raise funds to sterilise their dogs. I just went bead shopping today and got $100 worth of beads and stuff. I could have bought more but I wanted to come home to start production. I should have bought more, especially some plastic beads for making bracelets and necklaces. I'll be really busy producing this weekend and the whole of next week. I hope lots of people buy them (fingers crossed).

After that I'm dead as I have exams which I probably wouldn't have studied for. Who has time with such busy weekends?? Then it's work that weekend cos of the tournament.

Then I plan to spend the next weekend at the spa and also have my hair permed. I've been trying to grow it to a decent length for perming and it's getting on my nerves (or rather, in my eyes) already.