Expat Living Singapore Magazine

ABBEY: Expat Living gave us free gigs many times. Now they gave us a chance to be subscribed on their publication for a year for free. Yes, for free. 

The first issue we had showcases the beautiful vacation getaways, including the famous Amanpulo in Philippines. Also in the magazine are suggestions  of beautiful furnitures like chairs, tables, and beds for your home.

WILL: Expats or expatriates are the people residing temporarily in a foreign land, Abbey and I are one of those foreigners living here in a very diverse culture and races of Singapore. Residing and blending in is not so easy to do, many adjustments should be done and should learn and that is what Expat Living Magazine is all about.

      I signed up on their newsletter so every move and news, I was updated, and we are so lucky to sign up for one year subscription for free. Yes!, you read it right, one year for FREE!

      We received May and June issue and we are very glad to see the different people living and enjoying their stay here. From  fashion to pigging out, getaways and services, recipes to home decors / home for rents and even schools for your child, they have them covered. This is an ultimate guide for foreigners.

     And you know what, this is not just a paper that you can read and forget about the contents, they also manage to put up some events to meet up with other subscriber...they are building a community and a great chance to meet a new friend!

     Please visit their website, sign-up on their newsletter, like their facebook page and subscribe!

     Thanks again EXPAT LIVING!

Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin - Money That's Never Short

ABBEY: The Bible teaches us to be a good steward  with the blessings that the Lord is giving to us especially when it comes to finance. Not that we have tons of money to manage but as it is written "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much". We just want to handle our finances well. This book gives us insight supported with Biblical truths that helps us to reach our goal. The author is an example of a "debt-slave" person until he overcome and paid them and became debt-free within a couple of years. He showed that living in debt is stressful. He wanted the readers to reach financial freedom with God's help. So if you're having financial worries, maybe this is the time to grab and read this book.

WILL: This is only a P50 book and I have a feeling that my Kuya have this to me for me to save money wisely. As I remember, my mom tagged me as the most stingy person she knew but my dad tagged me that I spend money like there is no tomorrow. 2 opinions from my 2 different closest person in my life. So let me asked my husband. Wait. And his answer is, I am thrifty. 
     Maybe I am the three of those and yet I am not ashamed. 
     Not blowing my own horn, I live a life that every little girl wanted to be. I had 11 barbies (original), a books of fairy tales, as early as 10 I have a collection of wristwatch, in my schooldays my clothes were from Guess to Gap to Tokyo Fashion, all of them were branded. But when I set foot on college and told by my mother that from there I will be writing my own future, I stopped and accepted that everything might be gone. I started to save my weekly allowance. Open a bank account and started to nurture my brain to survive the fight of so called "Life". 
     So here I am, saving the the most that I can, sharing it with the people that has lesser than I have. Contented on what we have, investing some in stocks and living a simple and yet peaceful and comfortable life. 
     Thanks for this book kuya. This made me realize that at the age of 30 I have some accomplishments na pala. ;) I will lend this book to other people for them to realize that we must save for the future and to be a blessing for others. 

Borders - Final Days

ABBEY: I'm happy and somehow sad when I learned that Border's will be closing down. Happy for the book discounts; sad because the bookstore will meet its end. I got two reference books for 5sgd each when I first went to their drive. On its last days, my wife got one part of her fave novel but I had none. Almost all the reference books are gone. Its nice to be part of the last sale but I also must live to the fact that life must go on Border-less.

WILL: There is no easy way to say goodbye. Bye Borders. :( this company been great in serving the public by giving us the varieties of books the world can offer. 
      By letting them know that we support them until the end, we went at their clearance sale. And surprise, surprise my long last book was found and purchased for 70% off
     Thank you borders for the years of service and feeding our mind through good books.  

The Economist

Abbey:
The magazine that I received contains collection of featured article of  The Economist. This is their sample. It tells how advanced the cloning research and testing in the US. You can also read about the depressed area in other countries and how the world helps on their needs. As their name states, they tackle also the effects of mobile phones on their profits on fish. How can you sell your goods at a better price. With technology fast advancing, they can have potential buyers even if they are far away from each other. Hope I can read more on this mag.

WILL: It truly fed our mind. My expectation to this is just a ordinary magazine that will portray the life of others, but damn, I am all wrong.
      This sample magazine that Abbey received features the negative and positive in looking deeper in biology, the imbalance rate of girls and boys in China and India, and they tackle about a discovery of disease that affects the prosperity of a country.
      So informative. Currently waiting for this magazine for a fresh copy for 2011. :)

Borders - Where Minds Meet

 

 ABBEY:

After my gift from Manny (a bout with Antonia Margarita), then came the Borders. I convinced Wilma to go to the booksale, because I want her to get a new book for a cheaper price of course. :) Once there, she went her way to the novels. For me, to the computer books, trying to find a book about Oracle. After searching dozens of books, I found three, but they're worth the search :) ASM, Oracle 10g, and Oracle OCP exam tips. Di pa nga ako OCA, OCP na agad book ko. Hahaha. And as we are about to pay the books, there came my birthday surprise. "All those who celebrate their birthdays today, more book discounts." Just kidding. The announcement was all computer books will be 5SGD only. Imagine, PHP9k worth of books now only PHP150. Happy birthday to me :)

WILL: It will be unusual if it doesn't rain in our town in weekends. As in heavy rain poured down last November 14, so I am thinking not to go to Borders markdown price, but baby insisted.

      After side trip in Cosplayers in AFA X, we went to Borders Books. Ayun, so many books I don't know where to start the hunt. 

      I ended up buying 2 fiction books and Trump's for only S$5.00. But Abbey has books that have a great great discount and very helpful for his love job. 

      I hope there will be books regarding international trade for next year's sale. hehe.. I am just demanding. Tapos tag price sana S$2.00 heheehe.

 

The Power Planner

ABBEY: Alam ko very awkward yung magkanito ang isang guy, lalo na yung ganitong mga design. Hehe. Hindi naman ako katulad ni Wilma na kailangan mag-set ng mga meeting for next week, magpasa ng docs at manifest at a certain hour and day. But whenever I have an important thing na dapat tandaan, I'll just grab my phone and set an alarm. :)

The biggest perk for me ng mga planner na ito is yung mga freebies nila or discount coupons. Nawili akong kumain sa white hat, nakapunta ako sa ACE water spa, etc... Nung nakita namin yung planner ng BDJ for 2011, it was different. May mga leaf na tinanggal sa basic na planner and they can be purchased as an add-on. :( Pati mga coupons nila mostly puro discount na lang. Wala nang one-for-one. I hope hindi manatili sa ganito yung BDJ kung sakaling cost-cutting sila. It will create a negative impression sa kanila ang mga clients nila.

WILL: 2007 I already got a Guess planner from a friend but I didn't somehow maximize the importance of it. 

      2008, My boss gave us another planner from Guess ulit, then that was the start of my busy years. Kaya siguro nya ako binigyan ng planner, hehe. When u got to see the inside of it, it looks like a dump site, lots of post it(from Abbey), IDs from different events, etc. etc.

      2009 the Belle de Jour, this is my first time to buy something online. I got the idea of this when one of the accounting chose to buy a planner instead the one provided ng office. This time medyo masinop na and mas maayos na pag nagsusulat ako but the IDs, stickers, receipts, and little notes from Abbey eh di ko pa rin naiiwasan ilagay. Di na mukang basurahan, more of scrapbook na sya.

      2010. Belle de Jour pa rin, Ito malinis n tlaga. As in ang konti ng nakasulat. Why? Kasi I am using the calendar notes na sa phone. I got my to-dos na din downloaded from Apps. 

      In the coming years, planner on paper or in mobile phones, definitely, I will always be needing for one.

JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard

ABBEY:

Sinubaybayan ko talaga ang Harry Potter but not to the point na naging die-hard. Yung iba nga na detail ng story hindi ko na maalala. Nakakatuwa kasi nagkaroon ako nitong libro.

Tales of Beedle the Bard is one of the books in the Harry Potter series. Ito yung Grim's fairy tales natin.

The book has less than 10 stories. Magkaiba lang nga sila ng terms. Puro jargons ang sa Beedle the Bard. Hehehe. Pang-wizard and witches talaga.

And like our fairy tales, they end happily ever after.

WILL: This is my 1st surprise for Abbey when he got home. He is a big fan of Harry Potter but he got the collection of the series, so I just decided to go for this book. 

I went to some bookstores but Fully Booked at The Block just got this one. Tapos mga 3 copies n lng, so I grabbed it agad. 

The story is for children and children at heart. I found it weird when I got to see the commentaries of Albus. Kaya si Abbey na lng ang bumabasa nun. It only worth not more than Php500.00. 

Natuwa ako nung makita ko na it was published to help some less fortunate people. I am glad in buying some kind of stuff like this. May libro ka na, nakatulong ka pa!