Her Drama-ness

Okay, if you haven't watched the finale of Survivor: Exile Island, this is a warning that this post is a SPOILER. So if you hate knowing the result before you've watched it, go away now!

My thoughts on the finale - Danielle is a MORON. Aras threatens her that if she doesn't take him to the final two, she won't have his or Cirie's vote. But hang on a second, by taking Aras, she doesn't have his vote anyway, she is delusional if she thinks that Cirie will vote for Danielle when Cirie and Aras have been so close, and of course Terry ain't gonna be voting for her after she screwed him over. So that logic totally doesn't work, in my opinion. Her rationale is that if she had not taken Aras, Casaya tribe members would feel betrayed and it would work against her. To me, it's so obvious that between Aras and Danielle, Aras would be the more popular choice with the jury so she would not have had a good chance. I reckon she would have had a better shot with Terry in the final two, she should have taken her chances with Terry, the Casaya folks may have disliked Terry enough to vote against him thus casting votes for Danielle, whereas with Aras, they would be voting for him. Oh well, the dumb bimbo made the wrong choice and it cost her a million bucks. Although I think she would probably have lost the million bucks even if she had taken Terry. Which is okay with me, as I never liked her at all, so I'm glad she didn't win. I would have liked to see Terry in the final two though, and if he had won it, I wanted to see him vs Tom, the other super "older" guy on Survivor!

And my piano obssession continues, hee hee... Terrence and I went to a couple of stores today to look at some pianos. I had e-mailed my piano teacher (I still think of him as my piano teacher even though I've stopped having lessons for a long time now!) and asked for some recommendations. He didn't go into specific brands but did say that most European brands would be of better quality, which I already know and agree with. He also suggested that perhaps I could ship my existing grand piano in Singapore over here to Australia. That is definitely a possibility, so the option would be to ship that over and tide me for a while until I can afford the piano of my dreams (close to anyway!) or to just jump straight in and buy a brand new piano here. Of course there will be the packing and international shipping costs, which will be quite substantial for a grand piano, but could still mean significant cost-savings compared to buying a new piano.

However, after speaking to one of the piano dealers today, that may not seem like the best alternative. Singapore and Australia have very different climates - one very humid, the other very dry. As such, the timber may not be able to adapt to the conditions here and the soundboard could crack. Which is not ideal. The piano that I have back home is also a really old one, it's one that I've played on since I was 10 years old, so although the shipping costs will be a lot less than purchasing a brand new piano, spending the few thousand dollars to get it here may not be worth it and could be better spent on a new piano purchase. So, I'm still weighing up all the various possibilities and see what would be best. If I did go for one here, there are also a few options here. One was the Boston, which is designed by Steinway but manufactured by Kawai, so it would be an affordable way for me to get the "Steinway" name. I quite liked it when I tried it at the showroom last week, but today, I went to another place and tried the Schimmel pianos, and they are lovely. The touch and sound were excellent and I think I probably like them better than the Bostons. However, these are also a lot pricier, the cheapest Schimmel grand retails from about A$60K, which is A LOT of money. The dealer did say he could discount to A$50K, but still, that's a big chunk of moolah! Which then brings me back to Steinway. For $50K, I could probably get a 2nd-hand Steinway, so it's then being able to get the piano that I would like to own in a pre-loved condition, or something else, which is pretty good as well, in a brand new condition. Then again, I will need to have $50K first! LOL. At least dreaming hasn't cost me any money......yet. *grin*

On the house front, apparently there is a bit of a hoopla back home in Singapore about the house. The settlement date for our new place is 21 July and my mom and grandparents are panicking about it, because the first day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is 25 July. And why are they freaking out? Because it's the first day of the Hungry Ghost Festival and it's highly inauspicious to do much on that day, especially with big events, like moving house, getting married etc. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, in the Chinese lunar calendar, the seventh month is the Hungry Ghost Festival, and most believe that the gates of hell open for the hungry ghosts to wander in the living world for food before returning at the end of the month. Kinda like a Chinese version of Halloween. I know that some of you must be thinking this is some ridiculous BS; I personally don't take it too seriously, but it's part of my Chinese culture and customs and especially if my family believes in it, I cannot just renounce it - it's who I am. So, we get the keys on 21st July and as long as I do a "symbolic move" before 25 July, my mother and grandparents will be happy. My dad will be e-mailing me instructions, apparently we will need to cook dinner there and spend the night and some other stuff, I'm not sure. I actually find it kinda funny, Terrence got a bit annoyed because he absolutely believes in none of this stuff. Oh well, I wanna appease my family and keep everyone happy! Some things are more than just about us. It doesn't cost me an arm or leg anyways. We will most likely be moving earlier than later anyway, as we hope to settle early if circumstances allow.

Well, I hope I provided an entertaining post, hee hee. If any of you out there are experts on the various pianos available on the market, please feel free to share your thoughts! Unfortunately, I know more about piano-playing than the manufacture of the instrument itself! That's it from me this time, till the next drama unfolds, take care! :)

Wow, how time flies, I haven't blogged for ages and so much has happened! Where do I start? Well, I don't know if I have been missed much, but I'm glad to be back on my blog and I hope my friends out there keep visiting!

Okay, first piece of big news to share with everyone - Terrence and I bought a house! AHHHH! This probably happened a couple of weeks ago so there was a lot of activity and the initial stretch has just quietened down a little bit, although there will still be plenty to do. It was really really exciting, but also very scary at the same time. When the real estate agent rang to confirm that the vendors had accepted our offer, I was happy but also freaked out at the same time - it really is overwhelming and frightening! Nevertheless, we are definitely looking forward to it, a place to call our own and plan a future together, and the freedom to do it up as we please and to make it our home. We don't actually move in till late July as that's when settlement will be happening but that at least gives us plenty of time to prepare for the move - I hate moving as it is, it will be a real pain to move when rushed! We purposely looked for a place that would last for at least 20 years, even when kids become part of the picture, so hopefully once we settle in the house, we don't have to move anytime soon! If you would like a look-see, click here for some pictures. Let me know what you think! Be honest, but not too harsh, after all, I can't ask for a refund! LOL.

Secondly, I am finally ready to mail out my RR, which I'm doing with some friends from Cyberstitchers. I am totally GUILTY of holding this RR up! *sheepish grin* I had started well, and then things at work got a bit crazy, I never quite caught up and only managed to get my act together over the weekend. It really is quite shameful, I only managed to add the border and still didn't have enough time to work on my own square! Thankfully, I have such understanding and patient stitching buddies and they have been very very kind to me. I will be mailing off to Mady (who has a great RR piece!) this week and I should be able to get started on Annemarie's piece soon and meet the timeline for the 2nd round. There isn't much to show and it's not a great photo, but here is a picture of where my RR is at:

Work has also been going quite alright, I have a few new challenges, which always helps to change things up a bit and keeps it interesting. I have been given a product line to manage, which is good, but also a bit intimidating as I don't know where to start, and it hasn't been easy to get information that I can leverage and use to understand the business. Well, I have to cut my teeth on something and I'm definitely up for the challenge, but I must say that it does brings a bit of stress, and as we all know, I have very exciting and stressful things happening in my personal life at the moment! To cap that all off, I could then also get married at the same time! LOL. Nah, just kidding, it isn't happening, hee hee. It will, just that right now, our focus is on the house; we definitely see it happening in the future, we're just not horribly concerned with a piece of paper right this moment - although I must say it is of utmost importance to our parents.

The house is definitely a huge thing for us. We have started some form of packing, okay, I lie, we haven't got to the packing bit, it's more of clearing out junk at the moment. We have a lot of crap and I really don't want to haul things over to the new place that will just remain as rubbish - I would rather accumulate new junk! LOL. Anything that's definitely trash has been and will be thrown out, but I have also been freecycling heaps of things that are useless to me but are wanted and can still be used by others. Say what? There are freecycling groups globally and it's where you can give things away to others in your own community, like an old guitar that you never play anymore but is still in good condition and will be much appreciated by someone else. I think it's a great way of clearing out stuff, much better than just throwing things away, which is so wasteful - as they say, someone's trash is someone else's treasure! For more information, you can visit Freecycle. I'm also gonna be giving plenty of clothes and miscellaneous items to Salvation Army, which again is so much better than just chucking things out.

Oh, and I have also been dreaming about getting a piano (I've played from young and actually performed in a few public concerts back in Singapore), since with our own home, this can now be a possibility, depending on finances. A dream of mine was to always get a Steinway, but this is definitely out of reach after I found out today that an upright starts from $50K and the cheapest grand piano is over $100K! YIKES! Even a 2nd-hand Steinway grand is at least $40K, which is just waaayyyyy too much. As Terrence likes to say, I am getting ahead of myself since the house isn't technically ours until the day of settlement. Oh well, I can dream, can't I? Hee hee... I will most definitely get a piano, it just won't be a Steinway.... *sigh*

I haven't blogged in such a long time and now I can't shut up! I guess that's what over-compensation is all about huh? *grin* Well, I think that's about all the latest updates with me. I hope everyone has been keeping well, if you have dropped by, do leave me a message! Take care and till next time, lots of hugs and kisses from me! :)