It's Rodeo Time in Houston!

One of the things I missed most while we were in Singapore was the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I've been a show member and committee volunteer for about 17 years. I have always enjoyed volunteering and being a volunteer for the Houston Rodeo is very rewarding. The Rodeo gives away scholarships to Texas High School students. Their website says that since they started in 1957, more than $250 million dollars has been committed to Texas students for their education. Not only does the Rodeo help students it also has a big economical impact for the city of Houston. Being a committee member has it's perks too. We get gold badges that allow us entrance for ourselves and one guest into the rodeo grounds and inside Reliant stadium to watch the rodeo and the entertainers, plus we get a parking pass. The parking pass doesn't promise there will be a place to park though. Some days parking can be really scarce. As a committee member, I put in a lot of hours during the rodeo. And some nights when it's cold and raining and I have to walk 10-15 minutes to Reliant Center from my car, it can be a quite miserable. But, once you get inside and experience all the sights, sounds and smells that are all part of Rodeo you forget the crappy weather outside. And to see all the great kids who have worked so hard on their animal projects make it all worth it! So, if you are in Houston the first three weeks of March you should make plans to attend the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. You will be amazed and leave with some great memories.

Not like I need another thing to do...but

I truly miss updating this blog and miss reading everyone else's posts even more. Family is all back in Texas now - well except for daughter no. 1 who is now in Arkansas. I'm going to have to change the banner title though as that one doesn't work any more. We've been back for about a year and a half now and are getting settled into a routine I guess. Daughter no. 2 is in high school at the same school I graduated from years not that long ago. She made varsity cheerleader and knowing how big high school football is in Texas, she's loving it. That's one thing she missed when we were in Singapore. Hubbie and I carpool to work everyday. Most people can't believe we make the commute that we do, but to be able to live in the country and not be all bunched up in a subdivision - it's worth it.

I tell people that we are "homeless" right now. That's because we sold our house in Katy, TX before we moved to Singapore. So, right now we are renting a small house and are in the beginning stages of building a house on two acres we bought a while back. I hope the shape of the economy and the banking industry doesn't screw things up for us. We actually met the builder at our lot over the weekend and put stakes out for the four corners of the house and where the driveway will be!

I think the new house will at least be an inspiration for some frequent posts. The people in Singapore were definitely a source of amazement and amusement. I truly always had something that surprised me to write about. Not quite the same here in SE Texas!

Back in TeXaS!

Hey Ya'll!!!

Sorry...Long time no post. I'm sure I've missed reading y'alls posts more than you've missed mine. So much has happened since I last posted. We went home for daughter no. 1's graduation and while I was there I had a follow up interview for a job at another company. After a lot of careful thought and discussion with hubbie I took the job. Bid decision for me. I've been at the same company for 14 years. The new job offers me advancement possibilities and a great salary and benefits. Bigger part of the decision was the fact that hubbie is still in Singapore. It's tough but hopefully time will go by fast. The plan is to build a house. We bought two acres of land in a beautiful acreage-type subdivision. The land is already cleared with huge oak trees. It will be beautiful. Once we decide on a floor plan we will get started.

While Singapore definately supplied me with endless topics for posts here, I REALLY missed Texas and am SO glad to be home (all except the hubbie not being here part). Now I will have to find other ways to keep y'all entertained. Hubbie volunteered to keep posting about Singapore but I just don't know if he will have time. We'll see how it goes.

My next objective is going to be finding a car that gets better gas mileage than my little Tacoma. It only gets about 16 mpg so now that I have to pay for gas I don't think 16mpg is going to cut it. However I am so glad to be able to park at a store without having to pay to park and drive around a parking garage for 15minutes looking for a parking spot. Then having to go to several malls / stores to find everything you are looking for. I know there are people out there that hate Wal-Mart, but try living in a place where you have to go to one store for your groceries, a D.I.Y. store for any type of hardware items, a stationary store or the post office for a notepad or spiral note book, a larger market (Target or Wal-Mart wanna-be) for simple housewares, etc. You would start to pray for a Wal-Mart!

Although there are some things Singapore definitely does right: ZERO tolerance for drugs (death penalty), tough on other crimes as well, and the yellow stripes on the roads that allow for an opening in traffic for cars to enter the roadway, I can tell you for certain - There is no place like the USA ~ we have it made! Just like Dorothy says, "There's no place like home."

Car Toys

Well, I haven't posted any new Car Toy photos in a while so here's a couple of new ones. If there are any Singaporean readers out there can you please explain why this is such a big deal here? I think I will try to make this a regular weekly post

And then there was this one below. See all the Hello Kitty stuff....it was a guy's car:

It's been crazy!

Sorry for the lack of posting this month. After going home for daughther no. 1's graduation and coming back nothing has been the same. I am now on a new project in a different shipyard so hubbie and I can't eat lunch together everyday, and what sucks even worse is that there isn't a Subway anywhere near here! The project that we are sharing office space with brings in luch three days a week but it's all local food and not the least bit healthy. Just about all of it is fried. Being at this other yard does have one advantages: the traffic is MUCH lighter both ways.

We started having AC problems before we went home to Texas for a week. So when we got back first thing we called and had the AC service people come out. They said the unit needed to be replaced. The AC here is different then back home. Each room has it's own unit mounted on the wall and the compressor is outside. Some rooms share a compressor. I really don't know the least bit about how an air conditioning system works and the ones here are even more confusing than our central air back home. The owner of our unit wanted to get the guys he uses to come out and look and they told him the same thing. Keep in mind that each time someone comes out we have to be there too and they don't come in the evening after we get off work. So, Saturday the AC guys come out to replace the AC in the dining and living areas. We have to move all the furniture and roll up all the carpets so they are not in the way. Needless to say, here it is Monday and there is work that still needs to be done and it all needs to be completed before Thursday when hubbies youngest sister arrives to visit us for two weeks. I spent all weekend looking for information that the tax preparer needs to do our income tax returns. In doing so I realized that I am not as organized as I thought I was. I went through every file folder looking for tax receipts for our house we sold back in Texas, stock information, travel information so we know when we were out of the US, etc. I found most of it. If it weren't for having to do all that fun tax stuff I would have been blogging and reading all your great posts. I hope I don't become like my mom with this tax crap. I remember year after year she had to put off doing stuff she wanted to do because it seems she was continuously getting stuff together for their taxes.

In our spare time we are also out looking at other condos. Our lease comes up in August and the owners wanted to know by the end of May if we were staying or not. He wants to raise our rent from SGD$5200 to SGD$8200 a month. We think he's crazy. There has been a definite rise in rent around here but most units in our complex are in the $5000's. We really like where we are and would like to stay but if we can find something new, without all these issues, then perhaps we will consider moving. Luckily with all that has been going on he gave us some more time to decide.

Other updates: daughter no. 1 is now in her new apartment in Arkansas thanks to my parents, brother, and her friend that helped her pack and move all her stuff up there. She starts her new job on the 9th. Daughter no. 2 is taking her last finals and her last day of school is on Thursday.

Good Engrish

Hubbie sent me all these sign pictures. Being here we can really relate. Can only imagine what kind of signs people will see when they go to Beijing for the Olympics in August.

We're Baaaack!

Well we just made it back from our quick trip back to Texas for no. 1 daughter's graduation. We got there on a Thursday and left the following Thursday. We were definitely on the BNE as my brother calls it: "The Butt Numb Express". It is such a LONG flight, especially when you fly economy class. But it was all worth it to see our daughter graduate from Texas A&M! Whoop! There were no flight delays or trouble of that nature so you missed seeing me in the news: "Crazy Mother goes postal in airport". The day after her graduatiuon we had a typical Texas Backyard BBQ with all our close friends and family. The weather was great and so was the BBQ. We had it catered by a place in Huntsville called McKinzie's. It was really good so I recommend them if you are in the area. I really wanted to post to my blog while we were gone however we stayed with my in-laws in Midway, TX and they are on a dial-up connection so I didn't mess with it. We were too busy visiting and having a great time anyway. More than anything I wanted to catch up on all the other bl*gs out there I like to read. (see my list to the left)

Here is some Texas humor for you to enjoy:
After having dug to a depth of 10 yards last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back100 years and came to the conclusion, that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 yards, and shortly after, headlines in the LA Times newspaper read: 'California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.'
One week later, The El Campo Times, a local newspaper just outside of Houston, Texas, reported the following: After digging as deep as 30 yards in cotton fields near Hillje in Wharton County, Texas, Bubba Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Texas had already gone wireless.' (Too bad that wasn't in Midway, TX - LOL!)

Leaving Singapore Today

Well, as you can tell by my ticker above there are only a couple days left before daughter no. 1 graduates from Texas A&M. So, tonight we head home. I'm bringing my laptop and hope to catching on my posting and reading of posts while we are home.

I heard these funnies on the radio this morning on the way to work.

Words of Wisdom:
The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard.
Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
Why are our successes private and failures public?

Where did they learn to park?

The answer is "they didn't". Hubbie and I frequently go to eat lunch at a Subway in a nearby mall (of course) Jurong Point. There is a parking garage below the mall however you have to allow an extra half hour to just get in and out of the parking garage car park. So, we park in a vacant lot along with a bunch of other cheap people across the street from the mall. It's a lot faster for us to get in and out of. We get there early, usually around 11:30 because if you wait too long then there isn't any place to park. I can't really say that there wouldn't be any parking spots because if you look at the photo below they don't necessarily care if there is a 'spot' or not. It is always so amazing to us when we come out of the mall to see how all these crazy drivers have parked. They apparently don't care that these people trapped in the middle may need to leave and go back to work. I think it's a good thing they don't have Hummers over here because you can imagine what I would do if that was my car trapped in the middle. Yep! I'd plow right over them. Hubbie and I always make sure we park where we have a way out.

Wanna Lick?

Today was a holiday here in Singapore. I'm not sure which one but we took advantage of it none the less. Daughter no. 2 was out of school. Hubbie and I worked in the morning and took off at lunch. We all went down to check out some of the local scenery on Arab Street. On the way over we past by a large crowded plaza area where there were vendors selling ice cream. Here they take a rectangle block of ice cream and slice you off a 1 inch slice and give it to you between a slice of what appears to be green and pink swirled bread. I'm sure it's flavored similar to a pound cake. It appears to have a pound cake like texture. Anyway we were standing over to the side where hubbie could get a shot of the crowd with his new Cannon HD video camera and this little old man came up to him with one of those ice cream sandwiches and offered it to him. Hubbie politely declined. After the little old man walked off daughter no. 2 says, "that man licked the ice cream before he offered it to you." I said, "no way". Sure enough, we watched the little old man walk over to another group of people and offer them the ice cream and after they declined, he took another lick. Then he walked back to daughter no. 2 and I and offered it to us...daughter no. 2 was very quick to say "no thank you".

Singapore Formula Drift

Amateur video by daughter no.2 on a Fuji FinePix V10. Waiting for professional video by Hubby on new Cannon HD video camera!

Yesterday we spent the day at the first Drifting Competition in Singapore. It was called Formula Drift and it is an American Championship Drifting Series. We had a really good time although we spent about 10 hours in the blazing sun on hot black asphalt. I'm sure you can imagine what we look like today - a family of tomatoes! Of course it wouldn't be a true Singapore event if there wasn't any drama. Remember me telling you about the fun we had going to the Air Show? Well this was at the same place. So, you know I have to rant on here. I have to let out all my anger somewhere and this is where I do it.

It all started the day before the competition, Saturday. We had bought our tickets back in February. In doing so we were going to get two Formula Drift Polo Shirts at the event. We bought a four pack of tickets thinking that daughter no. 2 or hubbie could bring someone along. Well on Saturday hubbie calls me a the office (BTW...the rig is GONE! - more on that later) to see if we bought general admission tickets or grandstand tickets. I asked, "what grandstand tickets?! When we bought our tickets I called them and there weren't any seats at this event." They told me everyone would just stand around the track. Sounded stupid to me but not surprising least you forget where we are. Apparently the guy hubbie had asked to go with us had done some checking and they had added grandstand seats. So I get online and sure enough back at the end of March they started selling grandstand seats. I'm guessing I wasn't the only person that had called and asked about seats and so a light bulb must have went off in someones head. So I get on the phone and call Sistic, their version of Ticketmaster. I ask the lady that answered if we could swap our tickets for grandstand tickets and pay the difference. She took my information and looked up our tickets and said sure, that I would need to go to a Sistic counter to do it. Then I asked if we would still get our shirts. She then told me no, because to get the shirts you had to buy your tickets within a certain time frame. I told her well I did buy our tickets within the correct time frame, but then she told me that we would have to give those tickets up and to get the new ones and the date would show that we just bought them today. I was getting pissed because here we were being penalized for buying our tickets early: 1) we bought BEFORE they decided to sell the grandstand seats and 2) here we were going to upgrade to a ticket that was more than twice the price we still couldn't get the shirts that we were going to get with the cheap tickets. I no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the gal to understand where I was coming from. So...the story is just starting. Hubby comes by my office to pick up the tickets and take them by Sistic to exchange them. We figured it would be better to have a place to sit and buy our own damn shirts! There is a Sistic counter at the mall that is close to our offices. Guess what? He gets there and they tell him he has to go the Sistic counter at the Indoor Stadium! Stupid girl I talked to left out that little tidbit of information.

So after Hubbie drives daughter no. 2 clear to the north end of the island he then drives to the opposite end to the Indoor Stadium Sistic office. He gets there with the tickets and my passport since I bought the tickets. Thought we had everything covered. WRONG! Hubbie has to call me cause they need more proof that I indeed want to exchange the tickets. It's not like we are asking for a refund. I thought I was going to have to write out a letter and fax it to them. Luckily, me talking to the person on the phone was enough, no fax was required. She then had to discuss it with her manager. After all of that....they told hubbie they didn't have any more grandstand tickets!!! I think I would have pulled her though the window! Only about 3hours had passed since I had called and spoke to the lady on the phone. She didn't give any indication that they were close to selling out. They did tell hubbie though that they would have a limited number of grandstand tickets at the event. You can imagine the warm fuzzy feeling I had about that.

So Sunday we get up early so we can be there when the gates opened at 9AM. Believe it or not they had police checking to see if everyone had tickets when we turned onto the road that the exhibition center is one. Hubbie was a little concerned because we had the tickets for the people coming with us. But they assured us they wouldn't have a problem getting in. I can only imagine what the traffic backup was going to be later.

We got a great parking place. There was already quite a few people there which kinda surprised me because Singaporeans aren't known for going places early. The malls don't open until 11AM. We walked to the gate and were able to trade our tickets without much trouble. We went first to the merchandise booth before it got too crowded. They were so unorganized. There were three people working the booth. All the shirts were in cardboard boxes on the ground. The lady helping us didn't have a clue as to what was where. Shelves would have made things a lot easier for them. That are clear plastic bins rather than cardboard boxes. Hiring people that know how to add or use a calculator would have helped too. All shirts and caps were $20 except for one really nice shirt that was $50 so you think a first grader could have added up the totals in their head. But it took her 5 minutes to give us the correct total - after I had already told her what it was. So, shirts in hand we walk over to the grandstands, which were covered.

The grandstands were clear on the other side of the track from everything else. The organizer must not have given any thought to the fact you were going to have 1000's of people out in the hot sun that were going to have to walk clear back to the gate for water. Would it have been too hard to add multiple water/soda/food stalls? Not sure what they were weren't thinking there. The food too is so strange to us. We are used to event food like hot dogs, hamburgers, corn dogs, pizza by the slice, peanuts, cotton candy, pretzels, etc. Here they have fried rice, noodles, fish balls, chicken nuggets on a stick, chicken wings and chicken hot dogs. Strange, so strange.

The races were fun to watch. Some of the drivers did really well and some not so well. The fans are kinda the same. Everyone loves to see a wreck and there were a few of those too. Nothing was hurt but the cars. No injuries, just lost bumpers. There were three drivers from the USA there. My hubbie's coworker brought his wife and daughter. Come to find out you can bring in coolers so to heck with the water, where's the beer? Now we're talking! Hubbie and coworker went to get some beer while we took the girls around to the paddock area to meet and greet with the drivers. They got a few autographs and took some photos. Apparently we waiting too long to head back to the grandstand because now all the good upper seats were gone and we had to sit on the second row and the sun was beginning to peek in under the roof.

There are other things that the event organizer could have done to make the day a little more enjoyable: a program that listed the drivers, where they were from, the rules, etc.; a play zone with video race cars and other fun stuff, more food and beverage stalls. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time. But to make this a top notch event, a little more planning could have really made a difference. When you have that many people there for the entire day, there is just so much more they could have included.

Craziness!

So much is going on! Our project is FINALLY coming to an end the rig is SUPPOSED to leave the quay side on Friday and go out to the anchorage area for it's UWILD, that is UnderWater Inspection In Lieu of Dry Docking. This is where we send a team of divers to inspect the underside of the rig for any damage or holes. Then after that the rig heads out to it's new location to start work off the coast of Thailand. There is a lot of loose ends that require attention at this point in the project and that has everyone really busy. In addition, the shipyard office that we have been working out of for the past year and a half is going to be completely gutted and remodeled. So, in the middle of everything else that is going on, we have to pack up and move to another office. That is what we are doing today. All the drawings, all the manuals, all the files, all of our personal office stuff is now in boxes waiting for the movers to come take it all to our new temporary location. I really feel sorry for these guys too. We are on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator. Anything that has to be moved is done by sheer man power...and most often ... these are not the big bulky men we are used to see as movers back home. These guys might weigh 110 lbs soaking wet. And I'm talking everything: refrigerators, copiers, filing cabinets, etc. - they have all been brought up and down by the stairs. I've think they've already disconnected the air conditioner in the open area of our office because when I go out there to pack boxes it is hotter than hell! So, I come back in to my office where I have the AC cranked down to 16 deg. Celsius - have no idea what that is in normal temperature but it's as low as it goes - to cool off.

In addition daughter no. 2 turns 15 tomorrow! and we are still working on the planning for daughter no. 1's graduation party in a few weeks.

So that's pretty much it around here lately. I've missed having time to catch up with all my favorite bl*ggers. So while I chill...I'll go browse a little bit before I have to pack up my PC.

A Day Late

I know...tax day was yesterday. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to doing our taxes. Especially now that we are working overseas. Gone are the days when I could download the newest version of TurboTax and a pitcher of margaritas a few hours later I would have them all done. Now we have to pay someone else to do them for us. Luckily we automatically get an extension since we are over here. We haven't even received the paperwork from our companies for the taxes they've paid to the Singapore version of the IRS on our behalf. Basically my opinion, not that it matters, is that the IRS shouldn't make it so that you have to have a PHD in Accounting to be able to file your returns. If I ever make a mistake, then it's their fault. They should make it everyone should be able to fill out the forms with out it causing migraines, alcholism, and balding or grey hair. A person shouldn't have to give up a good chunck of their life to fill out those stupid forms. I think about my mom. It seems like her whole life revolves around preparing their income tax returns. I think of all the times she put something off because she was having to work on taxes. I wish we could tell the IRS to stick it and we could do what we wanted to with our money. I think most people would be so much better off if we could keep 100% of our paycheck and spend it, invest it or save it as I please! Having everyone pay their share as they spend their money on goods and services would ensure that all those currently "flying below the radar" would contribute as well. So...today my post is in support of the FairTax!

Eddie here never particularly liked the term "drug dealer." He prefers, "repeat sales entrepreneur." Labels aside, here's a guy who loves the current income tax system. That's because even though he generates plenty of income, Eddie doesn't pay a dime in income taxes (1040s are a drag, man). Eddie's a proud member and contributer to the $1 trillion (yes, trillion) underground economy—that's about 8% of the US GDP—that flies well below the IRS tax collection radar. And that's just fine with him. So the last thing Eddie needs is some new tax alternative which captures revenue from everyone on consumption, including underground players like Eddie (whose new cars and fine threads don't come cheap, you know).

So please don't crimp Eddie's style: Don't go to www.fairtax.org/changedc to learn more about the FairTax and the April 15th "Pass the FairTax" petition to Congress.

I'm Giving Them Fair Warning

I keep hearing on the news back home about all the flight delays with American Airlines and this has me a little concerned since we are due to fly home in May - ONE day before daughter no. 1 graduates from Texas A&M. Now you may be thinking, well if you are that worried about it then why don't you change your flight and leave earlier allowing yourself more time? I wish we could but you see daughter no. 2 will still be in school. She will be missing classes the whole time we are gone. It's not like she's only in the first grade where it really doesn't matter. She's in the 9th grade and it being near the end of the school year it's likely she will either miss some exams or miss the review for her exams that she will have when we get back. School here is pretty tough and she can't afford to miss too many days that close to the end of the school year. At first I thought I only needed to be mainly concerned about weather related flight delays. Those are the ones where no one is responsible and there's not much you can do about it. Then there is the type of delay that is cause by some lazy airline employee not doing his/her job technical problem. This type of delay happened to hubby and daughter no. 2 when they flew in from Singapore last summer. When they arrived in Chicago where they had to go through customs they happen to get there the same time as 9 million other people and it took them 2 hours to get through customs. Needless to say they missed their connection to Houston. They ended up on a flight to San Antonio where they rented a car and drove to Houston, to get their luggage that went on made it with out them - now how does that happen? So, after flying for 20+ hours they had to drive from San Antonio to Houston then another 2 hours to Midway,TX. I was in a panic thinking hubbie would doze off while driving just a little worried. American Airlines says that it should be back to a normal schedule this Sunday. Now we aren't even flying on American Airlines, but I just wonder which Airlines will be next. In March it was Southwest Airlines and earlier this month it was United Airlines and US Airways. So of course we will be on Continental/NW Airlines and I'm thinking, "Oh, great! They are probably next". If by some chance we get delayed on our trip home for our daughters graduation, I will turn into the mother-from-hell and everybody better watch out! Don't say I didn't warn you - at least that's more than we can say for the airlines!

We Will Rock You - Singapore Style

Hubbie and I went with my PM and his wife to see We Will Rock You on Sunday night. I think it's safe to say that PM's wife and I were looking forward to the show and hubbie and PM going under duress weren't quite so sure. It is a musical by the way. A THREE HOUR musical. The story is set in the future when there is no REAL LIVE music, just fake music pushed to people over the internet. Earth has been renamed "planet mall". Musical instruments are forbidden. Mainstream commercial conformity reigns. The story was told in the most humorous fashion. There were all kinds of innuendos and ad libs. The cast even injected some funny stuff about Singapore. At one point, one of the characters, Killer Queen, makes a comment about one of the other characters suits being from Armani. Then he comments that it isn't Aramni, he bought it at Bugis Village which is a VERY local shopping nightmare center. It is dark, cramped and crowded. Like a Flea Market or Bazaar but permanent. There was even a comment added about how the star Galileo (Rock Star INXS finalist MiG Ayesa) "didn't even get picked to be in INXS". At another point in the show all the "Bohemians" shout out the names they have given themselves from old newspaper and magazine clippings. That part was particularly funny...if you can, imagine a muscle bound guy in a kilt named "Victoria Beckham" and a chubby guy in a red fishnet tank top with a gold bustier over it, ratty jeans with what looked to be a puffy red heart strapped over his privates named "Madonna". The list was hilarious! I started to write a whole outline of the show but figured - hey, it's already been done. Just go read it here. If you ever have the chance to go see it I recommend that you do. The music is AWESOME and is played by a live band which you never see until the end of the performance. At least that's how it is here at the Singapore showing. The Wikipedia posting about the performance doesn't mention anything about the band that I saw and this is a shame as in my opinion they are the true stars of the show.

Aggie Parking Lot

Hubby emailed me this joke and I thought I would post it in honor of our own Aggie that is about to graduate:

An Aggie from Texas walked into a bank in New York City and asked for the loan officer. He told the loan officer that he was going to Bakersfield on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000 and that he was not a depositor of the bank.
The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan, so the Aggie handed over the keys to a new Ferrari. The car was parked on the street in front of the bank. The Aggie produced the title and everything checked out.
The loan officer agreed to hold the car as collateral for the loan and apologized for having to charge 12% interest. Later, the bank's president and its officers all enjoyed a good laugh at
the dumb ol Aggie from the south for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral for a $5,000 loan.
An employee of the bank then drove the Ferrari into the bank's underground garage and parked it.
Two weeks later, the Aggie returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest of $23.07. The loan officer said, 'Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?'
The Aggie replied, 'Where else in New York City, can I park my car for two weeks for only $23.07 and expect it to be there when I return?'

GIG 'EM WHOOOOP!

Essence of Chicken - hmmm?

Since the Bird's Nest was such a shocker - at least to me - I thought I would dig around a little to find out the scoop on another item here that the locals pay a lot of money for: Essence of Chicken. I know you are all on the edge of your seat...

One web site claims: When taken regularly, this all natural health food supplement sustains your health, through all stages of your life. By increasing your metabolic rate, it helps to relieve fatigue and to restore both your mental alertness and physical energy (within 15 to 30 mins!), allowing you to perform at your best, and to meet life daily challenges. It is also proven to help your body absorb and use vital nutrients like iron. When you consume a bottle of BRAND'S Essence of Chicken, you can be sure of all the benefits you've come to expect of BRAND'S Essence of Chicken, and more! Simply put, BRAND'S Essence of Chicken is your trusted friend, For Mind. For Body. For Life. Ingredients: Concentrated Chicken Stock, Caramel. Price: $15.99 for (6) 2.3 oz. bottles. Why can't you just go by a can of chicken broth? Is there any difference? Any how in the heck does chicken stock help your body perform all those amazing things?

A little more research on the interenet and I found this scientific study and it listed the following in regards to Essence of Chicken and the Immune system: Implications to consumers: Active and strong immune cells are equivalent to powerful "soldiers" that destroy or ward off invading foreign agents that cause us to fall sick. Essence of chicken effectively activates neutrophils and these immune cells play a vital role in destroying foreign agents at the site of infection. Regular intake of essence of chicken helps to strengthen our immune system to keep us in optimum health condition. This is especially true in today's hectic lifestyle where stress and environment can weaken our immune system. In addition, the potential modulatory effect of essence of chicken indicates that essence of chicken may help to reduce the side effects of intense immune response (eg. local tissue inflammation due to superoxide radicals) while gearing up the immune system at the same time.

They also listed these results in regards to Essence of Chicken and Metabolism: Implications to consumers: Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is the minimum number of calories you need just to carry out your body's physiological processes. It reflects the energy used by brain, muscles and other metabolically actives tissues (liver, etc). In other words, RMR is the number of calories your body burns when you are at rest such as sitting or lying down. Monitoring your metabolism over time will help you to balance the calories you burn with the calories you eat. This study provides good scientific evidence that essence of chicken increases resting metabolic rate, confirming the findings of Dr C. Geissler of University of London. Therefore, essence of chicken serves as an important key ingredient to help you burn fat by increasing calories expenditure, bringing about better fitness and good health.

Now I take everything I read (online, in the newspaper, etc) with a grain of salt. I mean who are these people doing this research? Their website doesn't really say much about exactly what the company (Cerebos) does. Their Vision states: To be the leading food and health supplements enterprise in the Asia Pacific region by creating value for our employees, our customers and our shareholders. So I don't know if they really have an unbiased view when it comes to the results of the tests.

Switching from yahoo to google for searching I found one site, Grocery Ninja, who explains the whole process of how a chicken becomes something more than chicken broth, but the wonderful, fix-it-all in a jar, Essence of chicken.

Maybe I should give it a try...What's that saying, "Give us a week and we'll take off the weight"? Maybe I'll give it a week and see if it helps with my new work out and eating regime.

Ouch!

Well hubby and I signed up to work out with a personal trainer. It sounded like a great idea at the time! You know my 40 year warranty has expired so everything is starting to go to hell in a handbasket. First my vision, and now my figure. I thought that I had better do something to stop this downward spiral before I get past the point of no return. So Sunday was our first torture treatment work out with the trainer. Now it is two days later and I am still sore. I am sore in places I didn't even know existed. Hubby is too. Yesterday I asked him if he was sore. In my mind I was thinking, "he better be, or I'm going to tell the S&M Master personal trainer that he needed to step it up some for my dear sweetheart. Luckily for him he is suffering just as much as I am. We have our second torture treatment work out this evening. It better not include any workout for the arms or chest or I am not going to be able to play along. I know you must be wondering then why did we submit ourselves to this inhumaine treatment? Well, it's because I know what I should be doing, what I should be eating, etc. I just don't have any will power. It's too easy for me to get home and fix something easy and not necessarily healthy and sit on the couch afterwards. We work long hard hours - 6 days a week. And to be honest, watching a good DVD is a lot more enjoyable than working out. But they say that it takes 21 days of doing something to develop a new habit. So, here it is day number 3, 18 more days to go. After that I'm hoping that maybe not working out or doing some sort of activity in the evening will feel like the wrong thing to do.

When is a name only a name?

Every here and there while shopping here in Singapore I come across items that I'm not familiar with. This morning there was a two page ad for Bird's Nest in the paper. I must admit this is one of those strange sounding items that I have no idea what it is. I'm thinking it can't literally be bird nests, can it? I know that the Chinese are known for what I consider to be strange beliefs in what they call Chinese Medicine. However, I just assumed that the name Bird's Nest was just that, a 'name', and not really bird nests. It comes in a jar. And why would, not to mention how, would a person even consume a birds nest?

So, I did a little research on the Internet. I figured there must be other people out there just as curious as I am to know what the heck this stuff really is. The first website I came across stated:

According to legends,the great voyager, Zheng He, had been known to popularize the consumption of bird's nest. During his journey with his crew in the rough sea, he discovered a small island in the Malayan peninsula during a thunder storm. As food were insufficient on the island that was unoccupied by people, they set off to search for food. In no time, they discovered bird’s nests in cliffs. Thinking that the bird's nests might be a good source of food, the members of the crew were ordered to retrieve them. After thorough cleansing and double-boiling, the bird’s nests were consumed. Days after, members of the crew had noticeable glowing complexion and improved stamina. Bird’s nest were then brought back to China and impressed by the miraculous effects, the Imperial doctor termed them as health-bestowing gift and ranked bird’s nest above ginseng, shark’s fin, and abalone.
It was taught back then that bird’s nest should be consumed in the morning, by mixing them with congee over a period of time,, to enable the body to take in its beneficial properties. That knowledge was passed down through generations up til this day.

So now I'm thinking, no freakin' way! This has got to be a mistake! Maybe we aren't talking about the same bird nests here. So I went on and did another search. The next website said this:

Indonesian’s Bird's nest is one of the finest qualities in the world. There are two kinds of places to develop the Swiftlet (Collocalia Fuchipaga) nest: In the caves and in old or abandoned or cultivated houses with three different types of nest such as Blood Nest, White Nest, and Yellow Nest.
Once the nests are removed from the houses, they are washed and cleaned (processed) before being shipped to the shops for sale. From Indonesia, millions of nests are sent to Chinese communities around the world, with Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan the top consumers. Southeast Asian consumers include: Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Edible bird's nest can be categorised into two main types according to the location they are harvested from: cave nest and house nest.
Cave nest
Cave nest are mainly harvested from natural caves in eastern Sarawak and Sabah (two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo). These caves are scattered in the state's various forest reserves, natural parks and coastal islands. The more famous of these caves are located at Niah, Kakus, Baram and Tinjar.These caves differ in sizes and heights, but mostly are found on high cliffs facing the sea. Cave nest generally contains more dirt and feather than house nest.
House Nest
House nest is made by Swiftlets that nest under the roof of houses in the countryside. Since many believed that having Swiftlets in their house is a sign of good omen, not to mention the prospect of a lucrative trade, it wasn't long before houses are abandoned to encourage the Swiflets to move in. Indonesians started encouraging Swiftlets to nest in empty abandoned houses since the Dutch colonial times. Needless to say, house nest are those harvested from these"swallow houses". Generally, the texture of house nest are smoother compared to those of cave nest, and with less feathers and other contaminants. Thus, the original cupped hand or crescent shaped bowl of the Swiflet nest can be retained after the removal of feathers.

Now I'm thinking...those crazy Chinese are EATING REAL bird nests!!! As you can see I've underlined the parts that are particularly disturbing to me. But the ones I've seen are in a jar. Could they really be talking about the same thing? To find out, I went to the website of the company that ran the ad in the paper. This is what I found there:

Premium Bird's Nest (Sugar-Free)
Actions : Maintains youthful and glowing complexion, speeds up recovery from illness, stimulates appetite, aids digestion, invigorates the lungs and boosts immunity. The product can be added to fresh milk, desserts, salads, tonic soups or others as desired.
Ingredients : Bird's Nest
Unit : 150g/bottle

It is amazing to me that in a country that is supposidly so protective of it's citizens there appears to be no government regulations over such "snake-oil" type of products and services. Here the papers are full of ads for companies that promise to make you slimmer, younger, larger breasts, whiter skin, etc. There was an article in yesterdays paper on this very subject that said they (Ministry of Health) leave it up to the physician's conscience to not offer products or perform procedures that do not have any proven benefits...unless they are doing clinical trials. And we all know how honest and trust worthy everyone is...give me a break! Here I am in a country where you can't buy a pack of bubble gum - but if I so choose I can go spend my life savings by signing up for some program that promises I'll loose weight in weeks. I also saw an ad that says I can loose weight with a balloon that you swallow - with no risk from surgery or side effects from weight-loss drugs. Well, this is a little off the subject - so I'll save that for another day.

Rodeo Houston

Well, up till now I have kept from boring you with my complaining about missing another year of rodeo in Houston. Unless you've been apart of it and love volunteering as much as I do then you just wouldn't understand. This is my second year I'm missing by being there. To me volunteering at the rodeo is so much fun that you sometimes forget that you are actually there to help support the rodeo in it's efforts to raise scholarship money for Texas students. I guess rodeo will be over this weekend so why am I just now bringing it up? It's because there was an article in the latest issue of our local free paper Today all about the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. It was a huge two page article. I couldn't believe it! The article mentions the actual rodeo events, the calf scramble, the entertainment and the carnival. There was also one sentence about the money raised and the scholarships. This lead me to actually write a letter to the author of the article. There was no mention of the over 20,000 volunteers that donate their time and skills to the rodeo. Everything is supposed to be for the kids. That's why we (volunteers) spend all the hours and not to mention money at the rodeo that we do. The rodeo brings in some $75 million each year her article read, and some 17 percent of it goes to scholarships. That doesn't sound like much when it's listed at 17 percent, but that is actually millions given in scholarships to Texas students every year. Did I mention that I miss Rodeo?