Thursday, December 16, 2010
Paid a visit to the Bookfest yesterday, helped my sister changed 3000 Singapore dollars into 15 060 reminbi and helped a relative with her house renovation. That pretty much summed up the first day after the exams. This will be the last holiday I ever have as a student and to be honest, I don't really have much of a plan when it comes to spending it well. At least for this week, I'll be taking one day as it comes.
The original plan was to join my sister, brother-in-law and two of his relatives and head to Shanghai for a holiday (and spend Christmas there) but the thought of spending over 1000 bucks kinda puts me off. It's not that I can't afford it but I'm trying to avoid spending unnecessarily. However, I do yearn for a holiday myself, a dilemma really. Even to the point that my brother-in-law wanted to treat me by paying for my Singapore Airlines ticket but I'm definitely not the kind of person who would freeload. The verdict was, it'll be a December spent in Singapore.
The convention halls seemed so different when it host the Bookfest and IT show respectively. It was always a struggle to get to the 6th floor whenever the IT show is in town but the crowd was much more manageable. For those with time to spare and want to get some good books to read during the holidays, do head down because the discounts are really worth the trip. Towards dinner time, the crowd got a little bigger and what really caught my attention was the number of parents with children in tow. In their shopping trolleys were stacks of assessment books! It's quite sad really, seeing the competitive nature of Singaporean parents. What was supposed to be a holiday for their kids will turn out to be more of a nightmare once they reach home.
Being a Geographer who has studied and written several articles on a country's development, the recent spike in COE prices did not come across as a surprise to me. What it did was to curtail my hopes of getting a brand new car once I start working. It's impossible to get a brand new car based on my monthly salary and that's why I've to start looking towards the second-hand car market for one instead. A two to four year old car perhaps? Once again, I don't believe in getting something with my parents' help. Instead, I would like to own that thing with my own hard-earned money. The satisfaction that arises feels good.
The original plan was to join my sister, brother-in-law and two of his relatives and head to Shanghai for a holiday (and spend Christmas there) but the thought of spending over 1000 bucks kinda puts me off. It's not that I can't afford it but I'm trying to avoid spending unnecessarily. However, I do yearn for a holiday myself, a dilemma really. Even to the point that my brother-in-law wanted to treat me by paying for my Singapore Airlines ticket but I'm definitely not the kind of person who would freeload. The verdict was, it'll be a December spent in Singapore.
The convention halls seemed so different when it host the Bookfest and IT show respectively. It was always a struggle to get to the 6th floor whenever the IT show is in town but the crowd was much more manageable. For those with time to spare and want to get some good books to read during the holidays, do head down because the discounts are really worth the trip. Towards dinner time, the crowd got a little bigger and what really caught my attention was the number of parents with children in tow. In their shopping trolleys were stacks of assessment books! It's quite sad really, seeing the competitive nature of Singaporean parents. What was supposed to be a holiday for their kids will turn out to be more of a nightmare once they reach home.
Being a Geographer who has studied and written several articles on a country's development, the recent spike in COE prices did not come across as a surprise to me. What it did was to curtail my hopes of getting a brand new car once I start working. It's impossible to get a brand new car based on my monthly salary and that's why I've to start looking towards the second-hand car market for one instead. A two to four year old car perhaps? Once again, I don't believe in getting something with my parents' help. Instead, I would like to own that thing with my own hard-earned money. The satisfaction that arises feels good.
