Last weekend, Mee and I viewed two different flats some 5-10 minutes drive from our currently rented place. The first one is a resale while the second one is brand new unit and they are both of similar value; £35,000 – £45,000 on shared ownership. When we saw the first one, we liked it very much except there is no balcony. We can’t really expect much with that sort of price especially UK properties are quite small. The other thing that concerns me is the transportation. The nearest bus stop is not really near. I think it requires a good 5-10 minutes walk. Anyway, it has come to a stage where I can now put an offer and wait for further instructions from the housing association.
The second one is a new build and Mee and I like it more than the first one as it has a balcony and a little more spacious. It’s nearer to the main road hence a bus stop is just near by. It feels like a good quality flat and we don’t think we will have problems with it near to the main road. Well, as much as we like it, we still have to apply for it so that the housing association can access our situation. We have submitted our application yesterday and I received a call today saying that my application is in process already. Fingers crossed now!
It seems like we are still in the dilemma of moving out or still live in the same rented room. Mee and I are kind of in the middle of the decision. None of us is able to make a firm call. We viewed a studio flat this evening and we both agreed that it’s too small for us. It will be fine if we are minimalist but we aren’t. Hence, it is either buying a property of our own or stay put.
These days, I have been going to the post office almost once every two days. Each day, there will be a parcel too large to fit into the door’s post hole. Just when we thought that we aren’t expecting any more parcels, there’s another one. Today, I collected one that was ordered by my sister. She bought us two pairs of Ice Grippers. We are certainly not looking forward to using them because that will mean days of snow. Don’t get me wrong. Snow is fun but it just makes things more inconvenient, too inconvenient.
I have been meaning to post some pictures of my latest few purchases but I guess that I am too lazy. Everyday, time passes so fast that by the time I sit in front of my Mac, it’s near midnight. My workload is piling up everyday. I have a habit of using Windows 7 post-it notes program to write all my tasks and stick them onto my desktop. Soon, all my icons will not be accessible as my post-it notes will cover them up. I don’t think even my manager will be able to tell me which of my tasks are priority.
I have been wanting to blog daily but fail to do so. It seems like everything happens in a flash. One moment I was quite free and doing all the things that I love and wish to do and in a split second, I was busy doing all sort of stuffs. For the past few weeks, I was busy at work. Real busy. In fact, I am still quite overloaded at the moment. I have to prioritise things and which means a lot of smaller tasks get pushed to the bottom of my tasks list. In other words, I will still be busy for many weeks to come. It’s a good thing but I am feeling the stress (though I always like to say that stress is man-made). Anyway, I happen to be quite stress at the moment.
Besides work, Mee and I have a sudden urge in owning our own property. We are tired of renting a room. More truthfully, we are fed up with one of our housemates and how our landlord treats her like his best tenant. Come October, we will have a stand down. We have been keeping quiet for a few months now and she just keeps pushing. The latest issues being her taking the back door key with her, leaving us with just one exit, which is not really health and safety in my opinion.
We actually went to see an estate agent yesterday and managed to book an appointment today to see a two bedroom flat nearby. Yeah, we saw the flat and it is small and it’s not cheap. I guess we just have to keep looking. We can’t really rush as this might be the time we own our very first property, if successfully. On the other hand, we might not achieving anything and still renting our current place. Well, it’s really hard to decide. We are still very unsure about our destiny and we wouldn’t want to waste the money and ended up having to move back to Malaysia with hardly any savings. Our permit ends next year and our hope is to be able to apply for permanent resident. Otherwise, our other bet would be hoping that my current company will extend my work permit. My gut is telling me that I wouldn’t have problem extending my work permit. Fingers crossed but I am still down with the one problem; should I still rent a room until I can be sure that I will be living in the UK or should I just follow my gut feeling?
I have found myself listening to music more often than usual. In fact, I find that it’s a good way to make me stay awake through the night. Well, not really through the night, just keep me from sleeping. My motto has always been, “sleeping is a waste of time”. Having said that, I still require some sleep in order for me to work efficiently during the day. Anyway, the song that I have been listening repeatedly is Jar of Hearts by Christina Perry. I think it is a great song. I first heard it from the radio and I actually thought the song name was Who Do You Think You Are? I just love the part when she sings Who Do You Think You Are? It’s now almost like a routine for me as I kind of listen to it at least once every night.
Just a few hours ago, Mee and I and some of our colleagues had a retirement dinner for one of our colleagues at our college’s restaurant. Overall, we all had a good time, taking pictures and stuffs. That was the first time I actually chatted with my line manager for a long period of time. Normally, we would only talk a little bit during office hours but never this much. To be honest, I thought the food could be better. The starter was a little too salty and strong for me while the dessert was not my taste. I guess it’s just my preference. The main course was fine though.
Salted Duck Egg
This is Mee’s latest invention. Well, not the latest though as it needs to be soaked in a recipe-ed water for a few months according to the recipe that Mee has. It tastes good and exactly like the one we usually have back at home. The only difference is that this is actually a chicken egg rather than duck egg. Most importantly, it’s fresh and hence it tastes better than bought ones as the bought ones tend to be more solid in texture.
We both think it’s a success. Almost immediately, Mee started soaking another 4 eggs in two separate jars.
Today, we came home and there was a letter for us from our landlord. Each of us, housemate, has one. As much as the landlord tried to word the issues in all fairness, deep down we know that he is handling matter with prejudice. The letter reads;
I have to remind you that it is everyone’s shared responsibility to empty the rubbish from the bin and not just leave it in the kitchen. Please empty the bin before it gets too full and put in the dustbin.
Person A cleans the house but it not solely responsible for emptying the bin.
Pardon the letter for any grammar mistake. I am merely typing what’s in the letter. Person A is one of our housemates. She has been covering for the previous cleaner for quite sometime now. I do believe that she is going to be the permanent cleaner since I don’t think that the previous cleaner will want this job anymore now that she has a baby to take care of. The landlord has told us before that he wouldn’t want anyone who lives in the household to clean the house. He breaks the rule and obviously, Person A seems to his favourite tenant judging by the many things that the landlord has done for her.
Honestly, a rubbish bin and he needs to send out letter? Read the last line and it is very obvious that Person A has complained to the the landlord about a full rubbish bin. The problem with our housemates is that they just keep pushing down the rubbish in the rubbish bin even though it’s full already. So, why should we clean up their mess when they don’t want to empty the bin when it’s full? We would only empty the bin when it’s in reasonable shape.
Even funnier is that a cleaner is not suppose to empty the bin? When the previous cleaner was still working, Person A will make an effort to clear her room’s rubbish by dumping them into the kitchen’s bin. And now she’s the cleaner and she wants no part of it? Ridiculous!
Sometimes, we just thought that maybe we are just two immigrants with no power in words. When we want to tell him things about the house, he will always make gestures as if he doesn’t want to hear anything from us. It’s fine for once or twice but when you are doing it every time, it shows no respect. This year, the landlord bought flowers and chocolate on Person A birthday. It doesn’t surprise me considering that Person A broadcast her birthday every year. But being a landlord, isn’t he being too bias sometimes? We don’t need any presents from him for our birthday but his effort in buying presents for Person A could have been spread evenly to all other housemates by just saying happy birthday on their birth days.
I think I might be thinking too much but there’s certainly no jealously here, although you might say so. Well, there are lots of things happened before this. Now, Mee and I are dying to move out but not until we could confirm our living status here in the UK. My work permit ends next year and we shall see what happens then. To me, I wouldn’t be bothered about the letter. Everything will just be normal for me as we empty the rubbish when it’s full. If Person A is going to accuse us, we won’t back down. There are so many things we could talk about her yet we never told our landlord unless it’s a bigger matter. We have tried to keep problems to minimum but Person A is just another nightmare, trying to stir things up once a while.
Anyway, we will be keeping our distance from our landlord from now. We have helped him with buying cigarettes every time we went abroad but I guess there’s no next time. I don’t see the point in helping someone who doesn’t believe in us or respect us if I am harsh.
It’s been almost a week since I last posted. A lot of things happened of course, but in a good way. Just yesterday, I was browsing Play.com, looking for some bargain stuffs. There are over 1,000 items selling at £5. It’s not exactly cheap but for some items, they are definitely worth buying. There are three main categories which I will always be looking at; electrical, computing and gadgets. For Mee, it will be clothing and clothing and clothing. Secretly, I was already looking for Christmas presents for my office. Each year, colleagues within the same department will buy a present of not more than £5. The presents will then be put in a huge sack where each of us will pick one present out of the sack on the last day before our Christmas break. The theme has always been funny presents. So, whatever I bought from Play.com should be kept a secret.
 Hama Universal Sat Nav Case |
 Veho 360 |
Apart from the presents, I bought a Veho 360 portable speaker and a Hama Universal Sat Nav case. Most consumers who bought the Veho 360 speaker have been singing praises and at £5, I thought it is a bargain. Honestly, our desktop is attached to a 2.1 speaker, my mac has speakers on its own and my iPad2 has built-in speakers. So, where else can I use it? My old Phat PSP comes into picture. Since I got my iPad2, I haven’t been playing games on my PSP for a long long time. PSP Vita still catches my eyes but its the big screen iPad2 that attracts me the most. I must admit that iOS games are not as refine as proper games made for gaming console though. Anyway, using my old Phat PSP, I can play podcast and that’s where the Veho 360 comes into picture. I might start using my PSP as a clock and a podcast machine at the same time. Cool!
The Hama Universal Sat Nav case is just for my Tom Tom navigator. At the moment, I am just using bubble wraps to protect it. It would be nice to have a hard case to protect it. The Hama case is universal, so even if I bought a new navigator, it should still fit.
I am still quite wide awake now. I have taken a nap in the afternoon and by the time I woke up, it was already dinner time. I guess it wasn’t really a nap. Well, I had to wake up early today. It wasn’t that early but considering that I slept about 230am yesterday, it was early. Tomorrow, Mee and I will be going to London to meet her friend coming from Australia. Her friend’s had a problem earlier with her visa but it is all sorted now but that costs her to have to delay her flight. She and her husband will reach tomorrow morning instead of today. We thought about giving both of them a London tour but we now only have a couple of hours to spend with them. By the time we meet, it should be around afternoon and they have to meet their cousin for dinner.
It should be fun though. Mee and I haven’t been to London for a few months now. It is also time to stock up some stuffs we don’t normally get here in Basingstoke. As usual, we hope the weather will be nice even though the forecast says otherwise.
On another note, we plan to drive to London but I have forgot to book the parking. Now, as it’s past midnight, the website doesn’t actually accept same day booking. How bizarre! But anyway, I have done a little googling and apparently, the price that I will be paying online and on site is the same; £26 per day. So, that’s comforting.
PayPal Access Credit Card
A while ago, I received my new PayPal Access Credit Card. It replaces the old yellow PayPal Top Up Debit card. To be honest, the PayPal Top Up card looked cheap and it was so troublesome having the need to transfer money from PayPal account to the card before the Top Up card can be used. I would rather have the money transferred from my PayPal account to my bank account.
Anyway, I was very excited when I first received it. I registered immediately. As stated, my PayPal account balance should show up in the balance of the PayPal Access Credit Card. Well, there are a few problems here. Why do I need to have a separate account just to view my PayPal Access Credit Card details? Why can’t they just combine altogether into one PayPal account since it’s using the same balance? When I first logged in, I can’t see my balance. I didn’t panic but I did hope that it will eventually update itself. Months gone, and my PayPal Access Credit Card online account was still showing zero balance. I sent an email to PayPal customer support. Well, the first reply didn’t catch my question well. Subsequent replies made me realize that I actually have to convert my current standing of US dollars to Pounds. I changed it and it showed up on my PayPal Access Credit Card online account immediately. Great!
The thing that I have yet to try is the contactless payment. Any purchase of less than £15 can be paid without entering pin. My Amazon credit card has that function too but so far, none of the stores that accept contactless payment has offered me to use the function. I am very keen to try out one day. By the way, there is a charge of 50pence for changing the pin of my PayPal Access credit card.
Weird Tesco Promo
Mee and I were in Tesco to make use of some of our club card vouchers when we came across this special price tag. Apparently, Tesco was advertising that Aldi is selling this particular product at a lower price. How bizarre?
