My Merdeka Shoe

In the quest to hunt for a great pair of shoes comfy enough for my upcoming Hong Kong walkathon, without breaking my back, I trawled the malls for two days in search of The One.

Almost surrendering to my urgh Crocs perception, I nearly bought a pair if not for some divine intervention that prevents me from finding the size the fits, the colour & model I want.
In fact I went to TWO Crocs concept store.

Nope, they don't have what I thought I wanted, and I have to go all the way to another mall in Sunway. On a Sunday, public holiday, almost noon.
Heaven forbid no!

If there is one thing I have great restrain on, is to avoid ALL malls after 11am on weekends, contrary to 80% of people who's idea of spending their precious time is to be stuck in a snaking crawl to get in the mall.

I need an alternative.

Bless the internet, I remembered that there was a *gasp* Bata concept shop, and they sell *gasp* Power shoes. Which I clearly remembered was my 1st sport shoes back when I was earning crap, and it lasted me well for 3 years.

Another thing I remembered well is the price tag. Pleasingly easy on the pocket, very easy.
They should have good walking shoes (not those bulky sport shoes please!)

So off I went, and with recommendation of a very helpful Chinese saleslady (what a rarity these days), tried on a cool looking pair. Fits beautifully, comfy. It's the criteria that I'm looking for- has to be covered, good soles, soft, decent design, good quality.
It fulfills all of it- plus bonus point- it's only RM69.99! Oh my freaking god!
And when I thought things couldn't get better, the girl told me it's 50% off! ARGHHH!!!!

With much spare cash left, I 'upgraded' the shoes by adding what my poor ole knees & back need- Medigel insoles. (U know, the ones for those above age 60, I think!)
Plus 4 pairs of socks.
Total: RM88.95

Crocs: RM139
Power plus stuffs: RM88.95

With enough money for a mani & pedi (top up RM10).

Power to Power!!

So, on our 51st Merdeka, I declare my independence to be free from being a label freak, not letting decision making being clouded by brands- at least in this area.

My very own Merdeka shoe.

Even McD's value meal has more value

Here I am, supposed to be productive and work.
But I can't, I'm letting my emotions get the better of me.
Sitting here, upset over things that are outside my control (circle of influence as described in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Why, with advancement of technology and the blinding choice in communications, the distance between people are getting even wider?

Relationships meant nothing much, courtesy meant nothing much, feelings meant nothing much.
It's all about, I'm so busy and consumed by my own happenings that nothing, no one, can be more important than me.

Basic human courtesy of returning phone calls, or text messages, or emails are a rarity nowadays. When the message clearly stated, please revert/ awaiting your reply/ hear from you soon.

Yes, I agree, it's true we have more on our plates in this era, things are getting expensive, everyone is working a little bit more for a better life.

But have we forgot the essense of being a humanbeing?

People's life are now rush rush rush, outta my way, my priorities, that they don't mind stepping over others to get on with it.

It's true and valid, people are indeed becoming more selfish. And that, coming from a selfish only child, it's big.
It doesn't matter that they will offend or cause hurt to other people.


I thought human beings have built in feelings? No? Don't they feel upset/ hurt/ angry/ fed up/ pissed off/ puzzled when days after days no calls/text/emails are returned?...when it's VERY clearly indicated that a response is expected?!

Even myself, to my utter disgust, on rare occasions 'forgot' to response as such, sms from friends unreplied indefinitely.
'Forgot'- as I was, oh so busy, and conveniently just left it as such.
Though it certainly is not my habit of doing it, the fact that I've commited the offence remains.

It has become our way of life in this era.

What a sad sad way to live.

I missed the days when kids have no tuition/piano/judo/ballet/drawing and are free to roam the streets, like I did.

I missed the days when people get home by 5 or 6pm and sat down for dinner as a family, I'm glad I still get to do it, at 8pm!

I missed the days when neighbours are friends.

I missed the days where people are creative in spending their free time rather than jamming up the malls, knowing that they won't buy much anyway.

I missed the days where relationships are VALUED.

I lurve the movies

Watched two shows this week.

Dark Knight and Sex and The City.

Both evoking VERY different emotions after watching it. And that's what I love about movies. Good movies only, mind you.

And that is very difficult to come by.

But the Movie Gods must have been kind this Summer 2008, coz they landed two brilliant movies on my lap in a week.

Dark Knight, gosh. It's the movie of the year, no, for many many years. Brilliant. It's pure genius.

Went in with not much expectations, it's a DC comic ya know, like Batman Begins where all I can remember was Katie Holmes nipples sticking out on a flimsy satiny white top during a scene.

But this, this, the sheer logic of it all, however perverse it was, thrills me.

It makes you think about us, human kinds. What makes a right? What makes it wrong?

For in every evil, there's a logic behind.

Just takes a flip to the other side, that's all.

SATC, Sex and The City....my girly dream came true.

For what can be more marvellous than witty comments, unconditional friendships (are there any? I want to send in my application please!), and the most f****** set of wardrobe ever.

And why do they always dine in the loveliest place, still hang out, drink and have fun...and doing it looking every bit stunning at 40???

This, this, is the ultimate finale to SATC, a deserving finale. I never thought I shed a tear, but shed I did, a couple of times during the show.

When Carrie almost got married....when Charlotte screamed in anger at Mr Big, when Steve told Miranda he slept with another woman...

Awww, I'm letting all the good stuffs out of the Louie Vuitton bag if you haven't watch it.

And Mr. Big, oh Mr. Big, it is during this finale movie, that I've confirmed, yes, I do have a crush on him. That impish grin, that deep baritone voice, that smooth super successful look, and the most important of all, he loves nothing, nobody but kid- Carrie Bradshaw. Oh, did I mentioned he's not too bad in the finance department?

Every girl's dream eh.

Sexy, successful, fun, did I mentioned sexy? John James Peterson- finally we know his name.

Does that even exist, I wonder? From the unconditional love of friendship between FOUR of them, it's crazy to even find one friend like that let alone four.

To the kind of love that Big and Carrie have for each other.

The trouble and the good, of movies is you unknowingly benchmark yourself, your life, your thoughts to those in the movies.

.............I'm gonna try on my husband whether we can live up to the benchmark tonight. ;-)

When work doesn't feels like work

Went to the cinema twice in a week, gasp! Went has this happen? Can't remember.
And in the daytime during weekdays, double gasp! Monday & Wednesday.
One may think I've retired.

It's one of those hard to grasp weird timing moments, where I'm juggling my in between time on my business & personal life.

Yes, I don't have a typical clock in at 9am work, but do I work my butt off? You bet I did. Only now I'm thinking, does work have to feels like work; in order for it to qualify as work??
I like what I'm doing, constantly refining and upgrading, and learning, and applying, that I just can't help but think of doing it. Good or bad??

And they all came crashing down

I witness a massacre right in front of me today.

In the name of development, and god knows we need more of them, more houses when a lot were built and not being able to sell, more mega malls where some can't even pay off their credit cards let alone buy a Coach bag (oh wait, that's why some of them are in debts)...

What my family termed as a rare piece of greenery on a prime located residential area were destroyed in a matter of hours.

Our condo unit has the lucky privilege to be on the fourth floor whereby the view is of lush greens. And I remembered someone said (was it the seller?) that this view alone is worth RM30,000 from the condo price.

It's true, for where can you get to see greenery in front of your house if it is located in the city?

Seeing the way the hills are positioned, we thought that it won't be developed, boy oh boy, the monsters came and showed us how wrong we were!

Perfectly healthy trees, crunched, chewed, spit out like they didn't matter. In the background, I heard birds chirping away frantically, as if screaming in agony watching their home destroyed. My heart sanked as I saw the trees gave a big crack, then came crashing down, perfect green leaves and all. Bloodshed.

And as I stood there, the very condo that we call home, I reflected, was this very place the home to lush trees and animals too?

What price to pay, in the name of development?

The world's simplest money management system revealed!

How many times have we heard, I have no money, what is there to manage?

Ok, time to put things straight:

#1 Even beggars have money- there's no such thing as not having money, either it's more or it's less, but you still have money

#2 Which leads us to a very important point- So, you do have money after all. But, wait, you whined, I don't have enough money to manage!!

The key is managing whatever you have, so you will have MORE.

Hands up to those of you who signed up auto debit payment (say for example: A gym membership for RM200) and don't even notice when the payment has been made? (the outflow of the money goes unnoticed as it is auto payment)

Take it another step, you decided to work out by jogging around your neighbourhood now and hence cancelled the gym membership. This effectively gives you an extra of RM200.00 to spend/ save/ invest.....sounds like a pretty good idea...or is it?

Through my experience of speaking with many friends, the extra money normally slipped out of their finger unnoticed! Yes, it was spent alright. But to where???

See, the thing is the money was spent, and they don't even get to experience the thrill of knowing what they spent....

If this is getting confusing, read on and you soon know the relevation!

Back to the money management tug of war...ready for the most ridiculously simple money management system ever???

Everytime you get paid an income (salary, bonus, rent,etc), before you do anything, before you pay ANYONE, that includes your bank, PAY YOURSELF FIRST!

Here's how to do it:

1. 10% goes into YOU- this is your Financial Freedom account. Not to spend, not to give away. You accumulate a decent enough amount then you put it into investment.

Note: Majority of people get a disease IBS or Itchy Butt Syndrome when they see a pool of money accumulated....and they SPEND it!! Hey, you worked to accumulate it to this handsome sum, you deserve it right? WRONG! You don't spend it at all! You reinvest and reinvest, never ever touching the capital!

You do this until you have reached the stage of (sing with me now) Financial FREEdom!! Or simply put, your passive income > expenses. When you are at this stage, you can spend the returns from the investments, but again, never from the capital.

It is only when you have income continuosly coming in whether you work or not that you can be freeeee, if not, its back to your rat race, baby.

2. 10% - Saving for future spending

This is for those gadgets, car, slimming program, child education, that you want. Save towards it. One of the major reason why so many people are in goddamn debts it's because of the wonderful 0% easy installment programs available! Darling, it's 0% interest, not 0% payment. You still need to pay for it! Do this often enough, and you find that all your income goes right into settling easy payment this and that, not so fun now isn't it?

Reality check, if you need to split RM5000 into installments, chances are you can't afford it. It hurts, I know.

3. 10% - Education

I'm not talking about kid's education. I'm talking about your education! Books, seminars, courses that can enrich your life, improve your mindset and adds value to you.

*4. 10% - Fun

Whoa ho ho, this is MY favourite!! As human beings are creature of comfort, we shy away from pain. So, if pain is inflicted, what do we do? We retaliate!

This lovely account is designed to give you pleasure, mm hmm. For this is the account that you can, you must, blow away every single cents in it within that month on anything you want!!

Try it, and tell me that you don't feel the thrill of planning what to spend, and when you spend it, it's 100% guilt free!

It's definitely better than not knowing what you spent on, and then you spend it anyway, end of the day, you don't know where has your money gone.

5. 55% - The blah blah

This is for the monthly expenses, debts....zzzzz.....enough said

Note: Some people will note that 55% is not even enough to cover their expenses....guess why we always feel broke?

6. 5% - Love

As good karma goes, in order to receive, you give. It's complete bullshit that you have no money to give. This account is dedicated for giving. It doesn't have to be donations to charity only, it can be a gift for someone who has helped you.

There you have it, TA DAH! The world's simplest $ management system.

The percentage serves as a guide. For some circumstances, you may temporarily need to increase the Blah Blah to 70%, just go ahead. But whatever it is, never lower your You account to less than 10%.

TIPS:

It's the habit that counts, not the amount. Even if you are in debts (who's not?), split it anyway.

If you keep on working to plough all money to clear the debts, you soon retaliate and will get into more debts (like attracts like).

If you keep on just saving, you will retaliate. You need to have fun a bit with your Fun account.

Open DIFFERENT bank account to hold all the 6 different monies. That way, you won't be tempted to dip into your You account for the latest mobile phone.

I find it easy to have jars in the house that I can then transfer to respective investments and bank accounts.

For You account, apart from the 10% that you deduct upon receiving your income, have another jar at home. End of the day, put whatever spare change you have, 10 cents, RM5.00, RM10.00 into it EVERY DAY. You will find that unknowingly you had additionally set aside a neat sum end of the month for you to invest and MAKE MORE MONEY! Really cool.

This method is basic financial planning way way back from ancient Babylon age (read the book Richest Man In Babylon).

I knew about it, but was I really practising it? No. Coz I was missing a few points- its simple, but not easy!

It's a habit that keeps the rich rich, and the middle class just over broke.

Bless Mr. T. Harv Ever- multi millionnaire. I've recently attended his seminar Millionnaire Mindset Intensive and was reintroduced to this concept.

And bless me for practising it every single day after I left his seminar!

Now, though I'm working to increasing my income, accumulating my wealth, settling debts (yes, yes, I have those buggers), I feel happy, in control...best of all, I know end of the month, I have my Fun account to celebrate!! Hmm....what to buy next?....

Question of the decade

After being in existence for 34 years, I again asked myself, what do you want in life?

Guess big questions like this requires more time, coz half year down the road, I haven't nailed it down deep.

Yet, I know I made progress month after month, discarding old habits, old blueprints that's holding me back, collecting sweet titbits for my life, taking a bit of time to smell the roses, put on some weight (now, this is totally not my intention!), enjoy life. Heck, if I'm going to walk the road, I might as well enjoy the journey.

That explains my blog title. An inspiration from a brilliant book- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a nonfiction book, reviewed by Oprah. About a woman in search of herself.

This comes in smack when I was disillusioned with areas of my life- business, relationships, families, dreams. And it's heaven sent, for I have found the key to my life. - Perfectly encapsulated in these three words: Pleasure ~ Devotion ~ Balance

So, my blog is dedicated to to the finer things in life, material & non. This is a sanctuary for me to indulge and explore what makes a happy life.