What Simply Works!

We’re still a few days short of June and it feels like the winter season has begun!  It’s so chilly in the morning, so imagine how it is towards night time.  That’s why people here say, you can survive without airconditioning units but not without heaters!  That is so true.

At best, ceiling fans or stand fans are enough to survive the heat during summer.  Although last January, when temperatures hit low 40s C, we thought of getting a portable aircondition unit but the extreme heat passed by quickly, it wasn’t long before we started putting on light jackets.  At home, we don’t have modern ceiling fans or craftmade fans but I think it will be a good idea to have one especially in the living room and dining area.  But that’s wishful thinking since the last thing that the landlord will consider is to upgrade this apartment and fit it with ceiling fans.

From my doctor’s visit yesterday, I was told that the least of my worries should be my pregnancy weight. See, I ‘confessed’ to my O&G that I’ve been giving in to sweets lately (the craving is just too much!) and that I was worried about two things, my weight and a potential development of gestational diabetes. She smiled and told me to continue controlling my sweets intake and that I shouldn’t worry about anything at this point. I hope gestational diabetes will not be seen on my radar in my next check-up and that the husband won’t have to invest on any exercise equipment to help me with pregnancy weight loss.

I’m eyeing a Canon point and shoot camera to buy this weekend.  Reviews are not really great but with my simple requirements and limited budget, I’m thinking of getting a Canon Ixus 95.  Tempting as it is to get a P&S with manual setting features, I’m setting my eyes on something that is simple to use.  Although there is not a lot of huge electronics store here (like Circuit City), I’m hoping to get a good deal with either Ted’s Camera store or JB Hi-Fi.

With the government’s generous stimulus package, which included a first-home buyer’s grant, many qualified residents found the grant too enticing to pass up.  The property market got the boost in sales it badly needed.  What is scary though is not being fully aware and prepared with everything that entails buying your own property.  The article in yahoo.com pretty much details practical tips that’s worth a look-see.  Click here.

What’s worse than going through the pains of buying a property only to end up sinking in debt and later on needing credit repair.  That’s why some of our friends decided to hold-off buying and preferred to wait until the economy picks up to ensure a more stable credit interest and property market prices.  So many people are doing it tough these days, losing their homes and finding ways to repair credit standing, it might be better to take the ’safer route’ and not make hasty decisions.  Let’s be cautious and avoid the trouble of having to fix credit in the long run.

There’s a new networking site that also acts like an online album of sorts, it’s called Acobay.  Apart from the purely social networking function, Acobay lets its registered users share photos and details of items they own.  Like pets, cars, or any gadgets which they can share and compare with what the users in their network have.

Those who love to collect movie or concert DVDs can join the movie network, of course there’s a pet network and book worms would love to join the book network.  Having these groups will make it easy for those who area seeking to meet new friends or make acquaintances over the world wide web.

There’s never having enough when it comes to social networking sites.  Well, it’s like saying we’ll never have enough of developing new friendships and sharing interests.  As Acobay aims to be 2009’s hottest social site, let’s give it a boost by signing up.  It’s quick and easy, try it!

When I watch documentaries or reports on television about nature, places or the galaxies, I usually ignore where and how video clips shown were gathered.  When I read about absolutelywildvisuals.com, I learned that if there is a huge market for stock photos, surely there is as much need for stock videos.

For a unique collection of stock footage online or animal stock footage, Absolutely Wild Visuals have a library of video clips made by filmmakers and wild life specialists.  Video quality is assured and their popular clients (that include Apple and Nickelodeon) already speak of the company’s integrity and popularity in the business.

So, hop over to their website and a user friendly navigation will let you browse footages and their clips library.  Enjoy!

It’s getting colder and colder by the day.  And despite Sydney’s winter being ‘milder’ than in the U.S. East Coast or Canada, I.still.don’t.like.it.  The Autumn cold leaves me wanting to use the heater round the clock, so, imagine how it will be like when it’s officially winter season next month?  I don’t even get to check our mailbox anymore and let the husband do it so I don’t have to walk out the road where the rest of the residential mailboxes are.

Well, whether its mailboxes or the laundry, I still gear up just go out these days.  Funny no?  While my husband loves the colder, chillier months, I prefer just the right blend of the summer heat and cool wind.  I can live in Hawaii!

My daughter and I were walking back to the car park yesterday when she saw two puppies tied to a post at a restaurant.  The puppies were so playful, no doubt passersby took notice of them. Then a thought came to mind.  Assuming that the owners work full days during the week, do they have someone come over to their house to baby sit their pets?  Or do they enrol the puppies to something like Doggy Day Care Rozelle?

Australians no doubt love animals.  And aside from pet care shops, pet stores (e.g. pugaliers for sale sydney) there are a lot of other business I’m sure that exist to better the lives of house pets, just like the doggy day care mentioned.

It is part of our evening routine for me or my husband to check the locks, lights and power switches before we hit the sack.  These days, you can’t be complacent when it comes to securing that all the locks and bolts are set at night or when you leave the house.  And in those days when we’re both too tired and sleepy, we wish we have something like a *KVM switch to do all those checks in just a flick of a finger.

*A KVM switch is a hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse. [Wikipedia]

A major house clean-up is in order.  Now that we now the baby’s gender and my tummy’s officially on its 5th month on Wednesday, we have decided to start cleaning up the house to make space for the new baby’s things.  We’re not looking forward to the cleaning bit, especially the carpet cleaning and steaming but ha! we can’t escape it.  We will purchase area rugs too for the living room.  We didn’t realize that the rugs will keep the floor carpet a lot cleaner if we used them from the day we moved to the apartment.

Weeks prior the month of May, major shops nearby have started advertising discounts and freebies for Mother’s Day.  From hair accessories to jewelry, cookwares to shoes and all other womens fashion trends, the gift choices are endless!

As for me, since my mother and sister (my big sis always gets a little something from me, too.), I just finished my online orders this morning.  I’ve always been a fan of online shopping, especially for my folks back home and I am confident that they will once more get the presents on time.  So, if you haven’t done shopping yet for the greatest women in your lives, head over to shopwiki.com and take your pick.

I seldom watch the morning shows on the local channels.  The early morning ones, which start at 6am (I think) to 9am are really good but the ones that come after just cover tons of celebrity and fashion stuff that are not really my interest.  One time, I chance upon a morning show and nearly before each commercial break, the show featured a campaign for an exercise equipment.  I was shocked to see how many types of machines or ellipticals they have these days and I wonder if people do buy or use them.  For me, apart from the good old treadmill, everything else is just a big marketing gimmick.

The husband noticed the bigger ‘bump’ I have these days.  I’m nearly on my 5th month (hooray!) and my tummy is really showing.  And because I’m expecting a major schedule/routine change in our household once the new baby comes, I broached an idea of planning a short and simple get-away.  It will take a year or two before we can bring our youngest family addition to anywhere farther than the church or the mall, for sure.  We’re no sure if this idea will pushthrough, but it will be nice to book an overnight stay at a bed & breakfast or one of the boutique hotels in the South.

Before I fell sick last week, I started doing my photo back-ups, which I left unfinished last year.  I have tons of CDs with stored images from year 2000 and they haven’t been uploaded to my online photo website.  After this, I’ll be uploading the more recent ones, photos from mid last year to this day, which are currently on my iMac.  So far, disk space and computer memory are not a concern right now with the huge space my computer has and the memory upgrade I done at the point of purchase

The past week flew by like a flash.  Two Fridays ago, our little girl was feverish, the next day she was sleeping most part of the day and then she got better on the third day.  She’s had a nasty flu.  The virus didn’t leave our household without first affecting me and the husband.  Overall, we’re glad that we all recovering without any doctor visits, just lots of fruit and soup therapy for me and the little girl and the husband popped a few paracetamol.

I’m cooking like crazy since Friday and I managed to bake a Betty Crocker cake, too.  I feel like preparing lots of food for us in the coming days to help us get back into tip top shape.  Surely, there’s no need for best diet pills with all the weight we’ll be gaining.