Blessed Christmas

I received a pleasant surprise on the eve of Jesus' birth. There was a call from my condominium concierge, informing me that I had a package from Santa.

Thinking she was joking about Santa, I went down to collect it.

The package was in a Macy's shopping bag with a red ribbon. Written on a star-shaped card was my name, unit number and Santa?

I am keeping this card to compare the handwriting of my friends where I will undertake a crash course on graphology to narrow down the 'suspects'. So to Santa, beware! I am coming after you to unveil you (smile).

Inside the package was a nativity set where I displayed on top of my TV which faced my bed so that I would sleep and wake to it.

The nativity set is a good reminder of God's love.

Thank you, Santa (whoever you are)!

Christmas lightup at NYC, Dec 12-14

I had never been to the Big Apple during Christmas season nor took pictures of it at night.

On Dec 12, I was guided by Tom, an ex-New Yorker, to walk along Fifth Avenue where Lord & Taylor had wonderful, traditional window displays. As I did not like to use flash because of the harsh light effect on subjects and the light bouncing off the window, I had set my aperture to F3.5 and shutter speed to 1/20 seconds.

It did not help that I did not have a tripod and fellow viewers were walking into my view and looking at the displays too. Timing was essence.

The star-war effect was taught to me by Charles where I set my shutter speed to 1/20 seconds and twisted my zoom lens while capturing a Christmas tree.

At Rockefeller Center, there was a sea of people gathered at the Rockefeller Plaza where angels with trumpets drew your attention to the eight-ton, 72-foot Norway spruce in the center. Below the gigantic Christmas tree were people skating at the Rockefeller Ice Rink. Opposite to the tree, snowflakes danced to a tune on the facade of Saks Fifth Avenue. Bare trees around the rink were adorned with lighting, adding to the Christmas mood.





Thereafter, we proceeded to Times Square where I had a "light" overload. Lighted billboards, advertising musicals, brands, etc, were on every corner. We also went inside a M & M's store that had three floors of merchandise related to M & M's such as towels, mugs, jewelery, etc, and of course, chocolate.

The next day, we passed by Central Park Zoo which used to be free. The giant 'web' was the roof of a pavilion in the park.

My hand was frozen and painful at the end of the day when I took New Jersey cityscape from Manhattan pier. The wind made the cold unbearable.

Overall, I enjoyed this trip, having a deeper insight to life in NYC since I would not have ventured to tour the less-touristy places on my own.

Christmas at NYC photo album.

Stretching your dollars

In this bad economic time, thriftiness is a virtue. Here are some ways to lower the grocery bill by changing our daily habits.

Toiletries come in different containers and shapes. For example, a pump bottle would need a certain minimum volume of liquid to dispense. In the first picture, I found there was still about 1 cm of moisturizer left which could not be dispensed. By cutting the bottle, I was amazed at the number of times I could apply with the remaining moisturizer. Do cover the opening with a Saran wrap to prevent evaporation.

The next picture was my shower gel bottle. Because of its viscosity, most of the shower gel would adhere on the inner wall before reaching the opening. By inverting the bottle, all the gel would be collected at the opening. To get the last bit out, you could dilute the gel with a tiny volume of water. Similarly, you could dilute shampoo and conditioner with water.

The third picture depicted a rolled up toothpaste tube. Squeezing along and rolling up the tube as you used helped to consolidate the paste for easy squeezing as recommended on the tube.

The last picture was my facial cleanser which I cut into half. There was still a lot left on the inner wall though I could not squeeze it out. So, invert and let gravity does its job. Remember to keep the opening folded to prevent the cleanser from drying out.

Avoid grocery shopping on an empty stomach as I found that I tend to buy more food.

Check through your home for the things running low and make a grocery list to prevent buying unnecessary things or items you already had.

Buying things in bulk or larger size is usually cheaper.

Buy items on discounts offered at supermarkets which often rotate items on sale. I often buy toiletries to store since they have no expiry date. Use coupons and mail-in-rebates.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend (Nov 27)

After celebrating my birthday with lots of eating, the next feasting occasion was Thanksgiving which followed closely behind. Thanksgiving was celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November,

I had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday where I had a East-West Thanksgiving dinner of sambal prawn, pork braised in dark soya sauce, traditional stuffed-turkey, pecan pie etc. Cecilia and Josephine co-hosted this wonderful dinner and I avoided alcohol since I had to drive back to Baltimore from Camile Drive in Potomac, MD.

On Thanksgiving, I was invited by Yih Yng to his Singaporean Thanksgiving of chicken rice, salmon sashimi, Thai-curry pork, Szechuan soup and roasted beef. His culinary skill was superb. I realized I could not gorge as much as before. Sign of aging and lack of exercise.

On Black Friday, Joe, his family, and I headed to Hagerstown Prime Outlet, armed with discount coupons printed online. We reached around 9am and collected our membership cards which we applied online. With our new membership card, we split the cost of a $5-coupon booklet.

Thereafter, I headed straight to Adidas where I spent $77 on running gears. As I was looking for a humidifier and a travel hair dryer, I went into Black and Decker. There was no sign of either item but there were lots of Jo!e products which I had been collecting. There were pans, spatulas, measuring equipments, fridge magnets, tongs, cutting board etc. After spending $65, my collection would be almost complete. Yipee.

We only left Hagerstown around closing time, clocking my record of a 12-hour shopping spree! In total, I spent about $400.

On Saturday, we met again to do grocery shopping. I had not gone to AA Supermarket or HMart since Jianshi's in-laws came one month ago. I had to replenish Thai jasmine rice, leafy vegetables, tuna steak, and Chinese dumplings. We also dropped by Sam's club. My grocery bill came up to $150. To end the day, we had a delicious dinner at Szechuan House in Lutherville.

We visited Jianshi's newborn son and went to Towson Town Center on Sunday. I just bought a facial cleanser at Nordstrom Rack as mine was running out.

After five days of driving around shopping, doing errands, and eating, I was exhausted. Life returned to normalcy today.