23 April 2019
Who am I kidding? 10k posts? That's going to take another decade or two.
Just went through an old drawer of documents kept by my late mother. It is time for the wardrobe to go, so the final drawer of old stuff there needed to be sorted through and removed.
Inside was a lot of stuff, but my late father's old entry permit, ie passport, caught my eye. Anyway, ok I know an re-entry permit is not a passport, but as far as I'm concerned it's not very different for a Hongkonger in the days of colonial rule.
Back to the passport, it had all the immigration stamps of and visas of the places that he had been to, and I was quite surprised by the number and intensity of his traveling days. Tbh, it's quite similar to mine. For example, he visited Canada for two years consecutively in the late 80s. Then there were several visits to Korea and Japan, on top of the one visit to Europe where he entered Switzerland, France and the UK, plus a lot of visits to Malaysia for our family there, and Thailand for some reason.
Now I feel like digging out the photo albums but then again I don't want to ruin anything inside.
According to the stamps, he traveled frequently for several years before marriage, then kept it up for another 3 years before stopping, the final year being the year after my brother was born.
I may have unintentionally followed his footsteps then, because that is similar to what I think things will be like after marriage.
12 May 2019
This could be one of the more important posts.
Going to settle the legal aspect of marriage in a few hours at the Trilinq. Just going to solemnize it and sign the marriage certificate in the function room, and then months later, we will have the ceremony in the form of a lunch since we couldn't have it at tea to make a tea party.
Surprisingly elaborate for such a simple process - there will be a makeup artist, photographer, small lunch buffet, professional decorations and a small bouquet of preserved flowers.
To me it's no more than a slightly more complicated process of signing a big contract, but marriage isn't just about me, so these are necessary.
1 June 2019
Got the ring on my finger, properly scratched and a little chipped.
As for the ceremony, venue has been fixed with deposit paid, includes food and decoration and tea set, invitations are still unconfirmed entirely, bubble tea also not booked, her gowns are set, my suit is going to be the one I got a while back that isn't the most formal but probably will do for the occasion.
Are we supposed to include the price of our rings in our wedding costs? I know honeymoon isn't but rings?
It makes a difference because the rings cost a total of 7k, which is a sizeable amount compared to our target wedding budget of 30k. Singapore dollars.
Right now everything plus a 2k buffer for bubble tea, transportation that day, and etc has added up to 19k without the rings, so with the rings in, it's 26k. That won't leave very much for hotels for my less well-to-do relatives.
Anyway, the ring. After wearing for a week, a number of necessary precautions have been found. For one, I need to curl up my ring finger when rinsing my hands with soap and when stretching my hands out of the window. It has, on one occasion, simply slipped off my entire finger when it was soapy and my hand was facing down diagonally.
Taking it off regularly will not be good either because I am absent-minded. Having a necklace chain? Uncomfortable.
So even though it's going to wear off the rhodium plating faster, I am going to wear it at all times.
It is an additional expense of about $40-60 per re-plating that might be needed annually so it's not that bad.
The honeymoon trip has been improved. We were unable to stay in Ushuaia due to fixed logistics so the extra two nights before our flight home will be in Buenos Aires. Amazingly, the cruise line was able to get a very good rate for the same hotel they were using for the complimentary night before the cruise, S$220 per night, for a "run of the house room" which is any available room upon check in.
On the hotel's website, for those dates in February, Alvear Palace costs US$395 a night for the cheapest room (not suite), Booking.com doesn't even have anything less than suites available for those two nights, Hotels.com only has the better room category out of the two non-suite room types for S$612 per night available as the lowest rate, and those are the absolute cheapest prices offered without breakfast!
Ours will include breakfast! The cruise line basically got better than a 50% discount for us! The best part is that there is even a chance of getting a suite if both types of rooms are full!
My card's complimentary night for every 4-night stay is nothing compared to this!
Yes, my mind is blown.
This is just a cruise line, not a travel agency in the traditional sense of the term. It is true that this is their go-to hotel for all the guests in this city, yet how could I have expected this degree of negotiating power on a hotel of this level by a cruise company, however luxurious?
13 June 2019
Recently got addicted to SOTS - The Pit again. Comes and goes regularly, this time because my laptop is in the living room on a table now, and I am there usually, and this game is turn-based. Perfect.
Not sure why I prefer this over others like Dungeons of Dredmor.
Anyway, was having one of the better runs of the year, got a Lightning Spear, kept my starting armour and weapons intact, plenty of healing items and ingredients, only downside being that my Ranger is constantly on the edge of being weak from starvation.
Then I died at the first room of level 13 because of a surprise attack from an Adaptoid. Lessons here are:
- be more generous with the meds and keep HP at about 50% minimum
- BE ON CONSTANT ALERT WHEN APPROACHING SINGLE-TILE CONTAINERS
Ugh, what a waste!
But yeah, the Ranger is my favourite class to use right now. The 3 movement points are just the best advantage, because it's good for fights and life in general. For one, you can cover more distance on the same amount of food, and you can find cover more easily even when caught by surprised (unless grabbed by an Adaptoid).
Tibet tomorrow. And Jewel on the way. Should be interesting. Apparently, monks in Tibet are monks. Calling them all "lamas" was caused by a misunderstanding by early Western travellers - "lama" is an honorific title for certain monks who have attained a certain level of training. So yeah, they're still monk, and the Tibetan term is "trapa" which means "student" or "scholar".
Now I know where the term "trapa" is from. Seen it in games before.
Also have to explain it to Van since I also thought they were all lamas yesterday.
