22 Reasons Why I Love Zinio

I've been a zinio subscriber since mid-2010, the moment I got my ipad. Before that I blew money on tons of magazines. In my teens, I started reading Tiger Beat and the like, then when I started working it was Philippine titles like Preview and Cosmopolitan. From time to time, I would also buy InStyle, Harper's Bazaar and Mademoiselle (which evolved into Glamour). But magazines were expensive then and now. Local titles cost Php100 and US titles cost Php300 or thereabouts. When I moved to Singapore I then got hooked on Singapore titles as well - Her World, Female, Cleo and Singapore Women's Weekly. I would try to save money by reading magazines at the salon since they usually carried the latest issues or I would go to Borders in Wheelock to read new issues (before they started covering the magazines in plastic and of course before Borders closed down) or to the local library to borrow back issues. But it was tedious to do that. So I was beyond ecstatic when I discovered zinio and discovered so many, many more titles. And the price, oh gosh, I can't believe that the equivalent of what I used to pay for one magazine in the '90s is now equivalent to a one-year subscription in zinio.

This is why currently I have about 23 active subscriptions. What used to be a habit of reading 4-5 magazines monthly (including Philippine, Singapore titles) has now morphed into a nightly ritual of reading and keeping up with all of my subscriptions. I've proven there is a magazine out there for any possible interest or topic, but so far here's what I've subscribed to:

Business: Entrepreneur (Philippines), Harvard Business Review (US)
Fashion: Cosmopolitan (US), Cosmopolitan (Philippines), Elle (US), Harper's Bazaar (US), Marie Claire (US), Preview (Philippines)
Family & Parenting: babytalk (US), smart parenting (US), smart parenting (Philippines), working mother (US), young parents (Singapore), Good Housekeeping (US), Good Housekeeping (Philippines)
Food & Cooking: EveryDay with Rachael Ray (US), Yummy (Philippines)
Home Decor: Metro Home (Philippines), real living (Philippines)
Lifestyle: More (US), Oprah (US), Redbook (US)

And no, I am not spending obscene amounts of money. To be honest, zinio has so many ongoing promotions it practically gives away these digital magazines for a pittance.

Late last year, they were giving away USD25 worth of credits if you signed up for a zinio account. That would have gotten you a year's subscription for at least one or two titles. That was good news for new sign ups.

Around the same time, they were also massively discounting their titles, so I was able to buy annual subscriptions to Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Redbook etc. for around USD8 each. Now it's back to regular pricing at USD19.99

Still, from time to time, you can wait for good promotions before buying subscriptions. For example, a week ago, there was actually a promotion where you get a 2-year subscription for the price of one. And then on top of that there was another promotion which would gives you back a USD5 credit for every annual subscription you bought.

So since I renewed my Elle subscription for 2 years for the price of USD18.99, each year effectively costs only USD9.50 and on top of that, I still get an additional USD10 as credit for the 2-year subscription which helps me save some more on other titles I need to renew or top up.

Sometimes, they even give away titles for free, so you can try it out. Or offer them at ridiculous prices. Like offering the latest Esquire magazine (with Jeremy Renner on the cover) for USD1.

This is why for me, zinio is the gift that keeps on giving. So if you have an ipad, I recommend you seriously consider signing up for zinio, it will literally open up a world of information for you.

Turning Japanese

As part of my resolution to try out new restaurants, I started looking for family-style establishments where I could bring the brood and eat good food without busting the household budget. This weekend we tried out a Japanese restaurant at Cuppage Plaza in Orchard called Izakaya Nijumaru. 

I saw an old review from renowned Singapore food blogger ladyironchef:

'Izakaya Nijumaru is a great hidden gem with good Japanese food at very affordable prices.'

Well that's a good enough endorsement for me, so off we went to Cuppage Plaza.

We entered this rather old building and looked for the restaurant - you'll see this bright green can't miss it sign and you'll know you've arrived.

It's a bad menu. All words no visuals. But if you frequent Japanese restaurants you'll find most of the standards here. We went for the Oyakodon, Kastsudon, Hire Katsu Sets and Chawanmushi. 

It's fairly small and all the tables and seats are really close to each other. When you're inside you'll be immediately transported to Japan. 70% of the customers who were there at the time were all Japanese.

This is a shot of the Hire Katsu set. Quite affordable given that it was SGD11.50 in 2010 and only increased price to SGD13 in 2012. It wasn't as good as the one at Tonkichi but given that the one at Tonkichi is around SGD23, I'd say it's still pretty good value for money. The Oyakodon was pretty good too, and for SGD8, I'd say it was a steal.  

Feeding oranges to the baby. She loved it because it was quite sweet. She also loved the sticky rice, soft tofu and the chawanmushi.

We're definitely adding this restaurant to our list of favorites.

Izakaya Nijumaru

5 Koek Road #02-09 Cuppage Plaza Singapore

Mommy Goes to Workshop

It's my third trip to Indonesia in five months and my nth workshop since joining the company. We stayed at the lovely Kempinski Hotel this time around and we learned from our country host that the hotel is actually a historic landmark and was built in 1962 for the Asian Games. In fact right in front of the hotel stands the Welcome Statue intended to welcome the guests who visited Jakarta for the Asian Games. I didn't get to take a picture of the statue, but here's what welcomed us upon entering the hotel.

Photo courtesy of www.kempinski.com

And here are pictures of the rooms.

 

The bed, not luxurious-looking, but you could choose from a customized pillow menu and an aromatherapy menu to help you sleep better 

Welcome gifts - toiletry products for our short stay 

The very large, very deep bathtub - you could take a soak with the blinds open but maybe not if you're on the ground floor like I was 

Here's to warm toilet seats and to never having to lift the seat or put it down with your own hands.

The very sleek side table and lounge chair which I never used anyway

The very sharp transparent table I bumped into on the first day.  

The first thing I looked for inside the room, the in room dining menu. I loved the look and feel of the menu. Too bad the nachos and calamari I ordered wasn't as good. Ended up with a stomachache. But still much better than my last Indonesia trip where I ended up vomiting a very nice but expensive dinner.   

Where is the goddamn light switch?!!! I found it on the second day, inside the bedside drawer 

Great design idea: Spray painted toy soldiers behind a plexiglass frame

We finished the first day of workshop and had a customary dinner at another historic place. I dreaded going to the restaurant though given my experience of horrendous Indonesian traffic. I remember during my last trip, it took us an hour an a half every time to go from one place to the next so it was always much better to just eat dinner at the hotel. But this time around they ordered car services for everyone and we had cops on motorbikes clearing the way for us. That's VIP service for you.

Anyway, we went to this restaurant called Oasis. Here's a description of the restaurant from their menu:

'The Oasis is famous for its Rijsttafel, a feast of mild to strongly spiced Indonesian dishes that includes a soup, and such delights as crabmeat omelet, fillet of fish in a spicy turmeric sauce, lamb stew in coconut milk, grilled chicken with chilies and garlic, lamb and beef satay, and stir-fried baby corn and of course a dessert along with coffee or tea.

Rijsttafel means Rice Table, although it is a Dutch idea, its origin is clearly Indonesia and it was known at one time as MAKAN BESAR. 

There are many variations on the Rijsttafel, at the Oasis Restaurant, we believe we have preserved the best of the tradition. It will be brought to your table on old porcelain by gliding procession of twelve waitresses in neat kebaya gowns and floor length Batik sarongs.'

Images of the restaurant from their postcard menu

The twelve waitresses - each one goes to your place and gives you a serving of whatever dish it is she's holding, and they go around the table.

The menu listing down all the dishes -  and this doesn't even include the appetizers

I said no to a lot of dishes and still ended up with a full plate, and I didn't realize there was a second round! So the twelve waitresses go around the table again, but most of us said no as we were already too full - and to date I've never said no as many times as I did during that night

That was a very nice end to the first day of workshop. The second day was pretty much just a blur. We promptly finished off at 5 pm with everyone rushing off to catch the evening flights and I piggybacked onto a colleague's APEC card so we also pretty much sailed through immigration (Gotta try and see if I can get one of these APEC cards for myself). Then a quick conference call while waiting at the airport lounge, before finally boarding the flight back to Singapore and then home to my babies.

Passport Application Woes

I hate hate hate going to the Philippine Embassy here in Singapore. For one, I always end up taking a taxi because it's so far away (Nassim Road) and for another I always feel like I'm in limbo because it takes forever to process a simple application. There are so many steps and there's no other way around it. You just lose time. And that's when the process works, can you imagine what happens when they make a mistake? Well, let me tell you what happens then. What happens is you have to take 8 trips to the embassy just to renew a passport. Here's the long story:

I needed to renew my green passport and finally get the red machine-readable one. I could have done it in Manila because I was there second half of last year but chose to do it when I got back to Singapore thinking it would be more convenient and the process would be more advanced.Well, I was wrong. At least the DFA has Pilipinas Teleserv which helps process your applications online and sets your appointment for you. Here at the Philippine Embassy in Singapore, they tell you in the website that you can email them the e-application and they'll respond and give you an appointment. Well, I tried that route and lost two weeks waiting for a response. And good luck to those trying to call the hotline, not once have I been able to talk to an actual person on the phone. Anyway, so I had to do it the traditional way, and so my passport journey began.

Trip 1: Went to Embassy with filled-up application form, photocopies of IC and passport. Got queue number. Waited in line for about an hour. Showed documents and set an appointment.

Trip 2: Showed up in time for appointment but only one among a number of people in a given hourly slot so therefore have to wait my turn again. Go through biometric processing, photo capture process. Paid in cash. Got my ticket for next appointment to pick up passport (Meanwhile, DFA can courier your passport to you for a fee). It will take a month to process.

Prior to my scheduled passsport pick-up date, I get an SMS notification from the embassy saying there's been a delay and my passport pick-up will then be rescheduled to another date.

Trip 3: I arrive on the rescheduled passport pick-up date. Got queue number. Waited my turn. Then was told my passport still hasn't arrived. I ask when it was expected and was told maybe in a day or two, why don't you give us your number, we'll call you. Well I was a bit worried already since I might not get my new passport in time to go home for my father's wedding. So I asked if I could get a passport extension instead. I could but that would require some other forms. I decide to come back another day.

Trip 4: I arrive at embassy two days later . Got queue number. Waited my turn. Then checked whether passport arrived, which of course it hasn't. So I went on another queue to apply for passport extension. Got 1 year extension.

Went home for my father's wedding. This was in April.

When I got back to Singapore I actually just started a new job so I didn't have time to go back and forth to the embassy. I thought well, it states in the pick up form that you just need to claim it within 6 months so I have plenty of time.

Trip 5: My husband goes on leave. I ask him to go to the embassy to pick up my passport. This was around June or July. I write him an authorization letter. He goes off with my letter and the pick up form. Again they tell him it's still not there. At first I think he's joking. 'Did you really go to the embassy?' To me it's impossible they still don't have my passport. My sister asks if it's just my passport that still hasn't arrived. They can't possibly have months and months of passport backlog. Don't have the time to go there. Figure maybe it's just really really late.

Trip 6: My husband goes on leave again. Again I ask him to go to the embassy. I'm thinking, it's almost 6 months surely that's enough time to process a passport? Again, not there. But this time my husband goes ballistic and starts pestering people about it. He is sent home with a promise that someone will finally look into it and give him a definitive answer. A half hour later someone calls him back. Apparently all this time, my photo capture was incorrect and my passport was never processed. And no one bothered to check or ask me to come back for photo recapture. Anyway, the embassy person is apologetic and asks me to come to the embassy in the afternoon for photo recapture.  He says it's going to take 5 minutes, which of course still means maybe 30-45 minutes for the whole process.

Anyway, I go. There's no choice. Even with this re-application I won't get my passport until October 11.

Trip 7: Photo recapture. This time around the embassy person gets my number. I just hope nothing goes wrong with this application.

There's of course going to be one last trip to pick up the passport in October, so that makes 8 trips in all, just for a simple passport renewal.

Oh, and I'm still not sure my husband isn't blacklisted yet from the embassy, after kicking up a fuss, although  I feel at this point, it's warranted and it did finally get us the answers we wanted. So thank you hubby, you're the hero in this story.
   

Just Got Lucky

You know you're working in a big company when they give away a Samsung Galaxy S3 just for attending an HR talk.

 

Well guess who just won one?

 

Though being the iPhone girl that I am, I promptly turned this over to hubby.

 

But it sure is pretty...

 

ELC End of Season Sale

Ben and Jerry's Chunkfest Singapore 2012

It was actually a very fortunate coincidence that my husband's company Family Day occurred at the same day and same location as this year's Ben and Jerry's Chunkfest Singapore 2012. I thought okay, we also haven't been to Chunkfest before so let's try to go.

Here are pictures from the event. Suffice it to say that we had a blast eating ice cream, playing games and trying to win prizes. I can't wait for next year's Chunkfest!

Free admission and you get 3 Faircoins each person if you're one of the first 500.

There were 6 of us including the kids so that's already 18 Faircoins, enough for 3 scoops of ice cream.

  

 Lexi and Dada with the Ben and Jerry's Cow

 One of the many booths

Hubby trying his hand at squirting water from an udder to knock out plastic cups

 The list of ice cream flavors for Chunkfest 2012. Most of the flavors are not regularly available 

in Singapore so lots of flavors I've never heard of.   

 Now I know for a fact, my husband can fit 10 marshmallows in his mouth.

Me giving the maple tree a hug, in honor of Ben and Jerry's new flavor. 

For 5 Faircoins you can try to guess 5 flavors and win a prize. 

Hubby concentrating on the flavors.

Hubby choosing Pina Colada, Spiced Chocolate, Late Night Snack, Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl, Froyo Chocolate Fudge Brownie

 Lexi waiting for Dada to solve the Moo-stery

  

Our loot: 3 iPhone covers, 4 notepads, 1 sticker and 1 tote bag