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SG Budget 2018

The Budget was announced last week so I thought I’d share a summary here. It’s actually just for my own reference lah since I also wrote a similar post last year here.

I’ll just mention the points that are relevant to me, or that I find interesting. Other corporate stuff which idk much, I won’t dwell on.

1) Hong Bao with a GST hike

Hot topic this year because many are cribbing over the “give a chicken wing but take back whole 3kg chicken” thing. I’m personally not very upset about the impending hike because I feel our taxes are reasonable. Just my personal opinion ah. It’s okay if you disagree with me and feel strongly against this move by the govt.

Eligible Singaporeans aged 21 and above will receive $100 to $300 cash bonus (depending on your assessable income).

The GST hike will like be in 2021.

Although I don’t really understand what they mean by giving us ample time to prepare by announcing the hike early. Is it to stock up and hoard necessities?!

People like my dad will not be happy about the hike. He’s forever not happy with the things Govt do or say haha. I disagree with his viewpoints but it doesn’t mean I get upset or angry with him. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It may be because of the background you came from. It may be because you’ve seen better govt days and feel that it has deteriorated. 🤗 really, it can be anything.

2. 10% Increase in tobacco excise duty

I’m so pleased with this! Smoking does ZERO good to your body so idk why people would wanna harm their body. 😭 not like drinking where some people say it *ahem* helps in blood circulation *ahem* detox and the likes. But I don’t drink so I don’t want to comment much.

When I was in Perth in 2016 (yes I go there almost every year), the AU govt announced that they would increase tobacco excise by 12.5% to eventually reach A$40 a pack in the year 2020. I remember I was in our Airbnb with the hubby, eating breakfast while watching the news, and feeling happy about the announcement. Even my BIL and his Wife are happy. It’s not because we’re not smokers that’s why we are rejoicing ah. I have smoker friends too and they feel the pinch when SG raised its taxes but I told them it’s for their own good and they should cut down. They agreed.

But I know bo bian. Easier said than done.

But I’m sooooo happy one of my girlfriends quit smoking! Since late last year. 👏🏻

3. U-Save rebates with carbon tax increase

Again, the same logic of give a bit but take back a lot later.

Save the Earth! Though realistically I don’t know how to cut down. So many appliances need electricity! Few days ago the hubby saw that I did not turn off my computer before I went to bed. He thought I’d forgotten and asked if he could help me do it.

To which I replied “huh no need lah tomorrow morning I’m going to use it.”

He was like 😐 you should still switch it off! Standby computers consume electricity too. Oops. I have a bad habit of doing that frequently. So now I made it a point to shut down everything!

In 2017 Budget, the govt announced there will be a permanent rebate increase. For my case 4-room flat, the annual rebates adds up to $300. In 2018, the govt announced that they will increase by $20 more for years 2019-2021. Something better than nothing!

4. Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) rebates

On the topic of rebates, we will also get the same S&CC rebates as last year. 4-room flat get 2.5 months of rebates.

To summarise:

5. Proximity Housing Grant (PHG)

Last but not least, increase in PHG. I realize the govt likes to use acronyms ah. Almost all the terms can be shorted to few letters. 😁

It doesn’t apply to us but quite a lot of people my age might enjoy this benefit.

CNY BBQ

Over the weekend, we went to a friend’s place for BBQ! Haha unique way for CNY gathering – no steamboat, no lo hei, no gambling. 😅

I haven’t been in touch with this bunch since the longest time cos I haven’t been active in Scouts HQ now. And I’m not the most sociable creature lah so I was like… should I go?Hubby said yes we should go. To maintain and keep the friendship. Hubby is the extreme opposite of me. He’s the extrovert. He enjoys being around people. He likes talking to strangers. He will go around networking if thrown in a room of unfamiliar faces. That’s his strength and that complements me. Cos I leave all the talking to him. 😜So yes we managed to catch up with some good old friends! Went to A’s condo at YCK and surprisingly the cab ride is only 15 mins!A’s Wife is a wedding planner / cook / baker so she made this amazing chocolate ganache Swiss roll. 😋 shiok ah. Ate one whole big piece cos hubby’s not a fan.

Incy wincy spider

I have 4 posts sitting in my WP draft but I haven’t got down to properly writing them! What is it about WP that makes updates so hard ah? Its like I have to properly construct them? 🤔 guess that’s the beauty of microblogging (Dayre). If Dayre survives I think I will go back leh. I feel so fickle-minded, jumping all over the place like a jumping spider.

Which reminds me, there is a jumping spider 🕷 living in my house!!

It’s hubby’s Best Friend hahaha.

One day, hubby was out till late for a friend’s bachelor party and I was alone at home. The jumping spider decided to jump onto my desk, and on my computer monitor omg. I was so distracted I could barely get anything done. It’s crawling all over the place. After a few minutes it jumped away to other parts of my desk. Tried my best to ignore it. Anyway spiders are good I should not kill them.

After a while I forgot its existence. 😁

All was well until I found it in the bathroom 2 days ago aiyo. I quickly told the hubby to “save his Best Friend” in case I step on it.

He caught it in his hand – which was super duper hard cos it jumps fast – and brought him “outside”. Idk where he placed it. I assumed outside the house?

A few moments later, I was near our mini garden in the living room and felt something drop on my feet. Thought it’s a fallen basil leaf or something but when I glanced down, OMG SPIDER?!

But as quickly as it landed on my feet, it jumped away.

I confronted the Husband “where did you put the spider?? How come it’s back??”

He admitted to just putting it near our mini garden. 🙄🙄🙄

So now we have a spider living with us. Not sure if it’s the same jumping spider that I keep seeing? But it has to be lah. Hubby says his Best Friend isn’t poisonous and won’t bite. Okay I will leave it alone.

–

Was supposed to talk about WP / Dayre matters. Why did I end up talking about spiders? Lol. 😅

So ya, I still update my Dayre from time to time just because it’s more convenient?

I’m just creating trouble for myself cos I have to juggle 2 platforms. 🙄 oh wells.

Milo taste test

Went to Perth late last year to visit my BIL and we went grocery shopping almost every other day. 😂 one of my fav activities is to go supermarket-ing! Very aunty behaviour but I like walking slowly down the aisles of supermarkets and taking in all the brands / types / prices of the products lolol.

Anyways I bought a tin of Milo (Australian version) cos I heard it’s different, and supposedly better tasting than the local one?!

My colleague very kindly brought a Singapore version of Milo so we could do taste test!

At a sniff, you can already tell they are different! AU’s version smells sweet and milky, SG’s version smells like the regular milo powder from a Milo Dinosaur drink – chocolatey and malty?

We tried to put the same amount of hot water and Milo powder into each cup and did the taste test!

Verdict:

I quite like the AU’s version! It’s less sweet (surprising) and very milky. If you don’t like those Anlene / Fernleaf milk powder, you will not like the AU’s version.

SG’s version is much sweeter! And very chocolatey – probably the reason why kids love Milo haha.

Overall I would say there’s no “better” one cos they are rather different and it’s up to individual preference. Haha. This taste test like not much use hor but at least I can confirm they are not the same!! 😂

Tags on WordPress

Managed to find how to search for tags like hashtags on Dayre!

Hope this helps.

I’m using WP mobile app so I just took screenshots of the interface.

Click on Reader tab.

Under Tags section, click Add a Tag. I’ve added dayrecooks and dayrehomes. When I click on dayrecooks, I will see all the entries using that tag! Like this:

Since I’m at it, shall share how to add tags to your posts too! I’m no expert in WP ah, just explored and figured out. So if you know better / more, please do share with me!! 😆

First create a post.

The middle icon with a + sign. Then click on the three dots on the top right.

Then click Options and you will see Tags under Taxonomy.

Enter the tags here. Similar to Dayre’s hashtag but skip the # sign.

And you’re done! Quite simple lah. But I have manually tag all the Dayre-exported posts one by one. Not sure if there is a shortcut to it. 😅

February babies celebration

First post on WP official! Meaning this is not a Dayre-exported entry haha. Feels good to come back to a familiar space. Although the contents I blog about is quite different from the days before Dayre.

It’s throwback Thursday today so I shall update about February’s cake cutting at the office. There are 4 Feb babies but all but one turned up. 😒 it’s okay we get to eat more cake lol.

We get to eat cakes from different places every month – kudos to J who is in charge of buying them. This month we are trying Boufé! I’ve heard much about this cafe but never tried their cakes before so I was excited!

There were 3 Galaxy cakes. Unfortunately idk if I’m getting old or what, I find them too sweet for my liking.

Also, I pondered for a while how much colouring were on those cake glaze? I mean, they look too Instagram worthy they don’t even look like cakes.

Should have taken a cross-section picture of them.

K was obviously very happy nobody to snatch the cakes! She was the only birthday person around!

This cracked me up!!

A friend shared in our whatsapp group and I immediately lol when I saw it.

My friend’s EDD is today!! Which is a vvv good date because (1) she and her hubby are from Scouts ⚜️AND IT IS FOUNDER’S DAY TODAY!! (2) it’s 人日 which is everybody’s birthday so it’s very apt.

Happy Founder’s Day to all my Sister Guides and Brother Scouts! 🤞🏻(don’t have the salute hand sign so this is the closest)

Praying for a smooth and safe delivery. Can’t wait to receive her good news!!

After 38 long days of waiting, I finally received my steamer!! 😪 even lodged a ticket on Lazada and they gave me $5 back so this steamer is less than $20 hehe. Okay lah cheap stuff I don’t complain.

It was totally worth the wait though! Built is good, quality is like quite sturdy. Seller even gave an adaptor cos the appliance came with China plug. I like how compact it is. Easy to clean and keep too!!

This is the double layer Bear brand steamer. I have heard of this brand before, quite a lot of people use it. Originally from China I suppose. Taobao has tons of different variation from small to big. But after we convert and add shipping charges, it’s cheaper to buy locally from Lazada.

But I think the seller also import from overseas that’s why it took so long!Within a couple of mins, it heated up. Yay! We tested some frozen dumplings. Done in 15 mins! No need to watch over the fire too! So happy!! Don’t have to use my Happy Call pot to steam anymore! I’m looking forward to steam rice, fish, pau, egg, milk, etc. Shall test and review!

In the box, we found a measuring cup. At first glance, I was like I don’t need another measuring cup and wanted to throwaway. Upon a closer look, I found a needle sticking out from the bottom.

Like this!

Tried to remove it but it was impossible to yank out. Showed hubby and he went “ohhh this is the injection mould pin which they forgot to remove aiyo. Defective!”

I got scared!

After all I’m not confident with MIC products. I replied “isn’t it dangerous?? They never check one ah. Hmm okay better dispose asap before we hurt ourselves.”

And upon an EVEN CLOSER look, hubs went “alamak!! It’s supposed to be there lah!”

At the bottom of the cup it’s written 小心伤手 or something. Which means be careful of the needle lah?

Then hubs very cleverly exclaimed “it’s for you to poke your eggs before steaming so they won’t explode!!!”

Me = 🙄

Anything also he say. Didn’t believe him and went to read the user manual. Which took quite a while because my Chinese comprehension not very good. Then I found it!!

It really says to poke eggs!

I swear hubs gave the biggest smirk ever.

😏🙄🤷🏻‍♂️🙆🏻‍♂️😁💪🏻🕺🏻

#haolian

Proof that he’s right. Kept repeating I have to “trust an engineer”. 😅 hubby and I have this long standing bicker about how he’s an engineer so he must be good at things lol. Super stereotype.

WP > Dayre > WP

Wah wah wah!!

So many people are rushing to do the Dayre export to WordPress! Initially I thought I’d just wait for the official Dayre team to send me the zip file containing all my posts, but now after reading so many people successfully port over to WP, I have FOMO!!

And so… I’m prolly gonna add to the list of tens of thousands of people queuing to export.

Sorry! 😐

MEGA HUGE THANKS TO THE MYSTERY PERSON BEHIND @dayxport!!!

And @/gilliansng for discovering this gem 💎 which is precious to many of us!

Now to decide if I should export to my existing WP or create a separate WP account for it. Hmmm. 🤔

Okay so I have decided!!

I am sticking to my old / current WordPress account!

Please disable notifications if you’re following me haha. I received hundreds of emails today cos I am following a few Dayreans on WP already!

My WP name is

dancingquinn.wordpress.com

Lucky lucky!

It’s 7k plus now. 🙏🏻 I read that it went up to 25k yesterday? Lol. Anyways I’m not gan cheong lah. I think it can be done before Dayre shuts down.

If not, then I guess it’s fate? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ll probably start blogging on WP next month!

/10:50pm/

Hahahaha I spoke too soon. It’s 13.5k now. Oh wells!

初三

Finally. The last of CNY posts. 😅

Even though we don't have much visitings, I still feel tired. 老了. 😩

Ahahahaha I hope you're not sick of my pancakes pictures.

I thought the hubs would be quite sian of eating pancakes already since this is the third day in a row.

Asked if he wanted something different and he said "no, your pancakes very nice."

Wahhhh made me so happy!

弟弟和女朋友来拜年!

Made simple yaki udon for lunch.

Posted the recipe here before: @arohammer:120218

I just changed the ingredients depending on what I have at home.

And after that we kept playing on the Nintendo Switch.

My fav game is Overcooked!! So much hand eye coordination involved. And a lot of teamwork too. Omg.

We also played Limpeh Says lol.

CNY is really all about eating and playing right? I seldom "chit chat" with people leh. Not a very sociable person by nature. 🙈

Only stop: F&W's crib!

Gothere.sg said to get to Ghim Moh from Sengkang, we had to take the MRT to Dhoby Ghaut and change to bus to Commonwealth Ave.

It took us 1.5 hours instead of the 68 mins that the website said.

Sobs. 😭

路途很遥远.

40 storeys. 😨

The location is quite ideal though. Just 5 mins walk to Buona Vista station. The next time we go there we shall take MRT to BV directly! 👉🏻 making a mental note to self.

Yu Sheng topped with mandarin oranges. Quite nice leh!

So much pork & beef from Don Don Donki!

I've never been there but their meat is quite good. Hopefully hubs can find time to accompany me there to look see look see. 😁

Plate full of preservatives. 🤣

My favs! Fish dumplings and crab sticks.

The steamboat was too small so we had to split into 2 batches to eat.

Post dinner games!

Of cos I didn't play. 😐

Haven't met up with this bunch of girls in the longest time. 🙈 still as crazy as ever.

初二

Hello hello 👋🏻 back to update again by turning back time. 😐

Work has been insanely busyyyyy 😭😭😭 I want my chill life back! Nvm shall endure a little bit more.

—

Decided to make banana pancakes again since we still have the ingredients at home. I added 2 bananas this time cos hubby didn't even realized I made banana pancakes the day before. 😭 he cannot taste the banana AT ALL! 😫

First stop: 姑妈家!

Can't believe the bus ride from Sengkang to Pasir Ris took us more than 40 mins. 😭

My Brother brought his Nintendo Switch and we played with the younger cousins. Mario Kart and Bomberman are super fun!

But I suck at games. Especially this kind of computer / electronic games haha. Maybe card games or board games still can win. This kind, totally zero chance. 😅

Second stop: hub's 叔叔家!

Travelled to the other end of the island via MRT (from Pasir Ris to Pioneer). 😨 thankfully we had seats so we sat for more than an hour on the train.

This is Mother of all Yu Sheng! 😅

There's so much ingredients that it made a mountain.

Those little "knotty" crackers are so good!! Taste like hae bee hiam but not that spicy!

Massive. 😁

Yums.

The best part about CNY is getting to eat all these yummy home-cooked food. So blessed to have relatives who can cook so well!!

Hub's 叔叔 and 婶婶 super li hai. I like them cos they're humble and sincere and very down-to-earth people! It's a far cry from the usual "nosy" relatives.

Hahahaha I had to Google what zek zek & sim sim is called in Chinese! 😅 so terrible lah my Chinese.

My luck is bad this year so I don't dare to play. 😨 hubs won a bit though! So yay!

The only time I played was when hubs had to attend to something so I took over for one round.

THANKFULLY I won gor leng (five dragons?) for him! Hehehe. That's all the luck this dragon baby has already. Used up in 1 round. 😬