My New Mobile

I have changed my mobile. My past mobiles were all Nokia’s. The service provider that I’m subscribing to was offering some pretty good promotion (for re-contracting another 2-year plan with them). So I’d decided to take their offer. For $48, I’d chosen Samsung Corby Pro, a touch screen phone.

First time using a touch screen phone, I’m quite clumsy. Whenever I tried to scroll the screen with my thumb on the contacts, I pressed the contact numbers and ended up calling my friends. Perhaps the touch screen is very sensitive too.

What I like about this mobile is that it has ‘auto-reject calls’ function. I receive a lot of calls from advertisers and find them very irritating. If I key these numbers under auto-reject list, I won’t have to entertain or pick up their calls. So I painstakingly keyed in all their numbers including ex-boyfriends’ and others I find irritating. And voila! It’s been peaceful for days!

My previous Nokia phone allows me to copy, cut and paste information. It makes creating new contacts or save information rather easily. However, this Samsung Corby Pro does not have that.

I like the design of it though; looks pretty cool, (I like cool gadgets). It comes with a sliding key pad for those who are not used to touch screen to type their text messages or emails. But you need to use both hands to use the key pad. I’m used to using just my thumb to key messages, (and it’s very much faster). It’s too much trouble using both hands. Also, I can’t put in ringtones for my contacts that are saved in sim directory. I need to copy the contacts to the phone in order to do that.

Anyone using this model out there? Please share your experience here. I’m too lazy to read the manual. :)

The Making of Teddy, the Bear

A girl friend of mine has recently taught me how to make a teddy bear. I could never have imagined I would be able to do so. Well, after two lessons from her, the making of my first teddy bear has begun to show some progress.

As you can see from the picture, most of the parts were ready, waiting to be stuffed and joined together. However, somehow when I looked at the head, it didn’t look like a bear at all to me. It looked more like a squirrel or a puppy. I began to get worried. I couldn’t go wrong. I could not make a teddy that looks like a puppy, because the materials are very expensive!

I began to speak to the teddy: “I hope you’ll turn out fine”. I sewed with trembling hands, (afraid it might not turn out ok), and often poked my fingers with the sharp needle. I ran out of thread when I was sewing the lips of the bear. I didn’t want to waste time buying for new thread to redo. And hence, the teddy has clef lips.

When I finally finished joining the parts, I was relieved. It looks like a teddy bear but a little grouchy though, (probably due to the clef lips). Nonetheless, I’m quite satisfied. I intend to make another one to improve my skills. Thereafter, I guess I could start receive orders for my ‘teddy business’. But I don’t think I could make a profit cos’ it’s actually cheaper to buy from the ready made market.

For the time being, this teddy is resting on my bed. :)

Learning Spanish

¡Hola, buenos dias. (Hello! Good day.)

I’ve been self-studying Spanish for quite a while. It’s not easy cos’ I’m not attending a class and I have no one to practise speaking the language. The reason I took up this language is that I love Salsa dancing; (not that I’m good at it, in fact I danced with two left feet), hence I want to understand the language in order to enjoy the salsa music.

In Spanish, all nouns are given a gender - masculine or feminine. And the gender also determines the adjectives. In fact, the noun’s gender affects the usage of other words. (Even articles are given a gender!).

For example: El professor de londres es muy alto. (The teacher from London is very tall). El is masculine; alto is also masculine. From the sentence, one will know that the teacher is a male. If it’s a she, then the sentence would be: La professor de londres es muy alta.

The spelling of the verbs changes according to the gender pronouns. For instance: Estudiar = to study

(yo) estudio = (I) study
(el, ella, usted) estudia = (he, she, you) studies/study
(nosotros, nosotras) estudiamos = (we in masculine/feminine) study
(ellos, ellas, ustedes) estudian = (plural of he, she, you) study

The pronouns are usually dropped out in a sentence since the verbs show the genders. I don’t know how else to learn the verbs but to learn them by heart.

Till then, ¡Adiós! Hasta luego. (Goodbye! See you again.) Oh, by the way, the alphabet H in Spanish is silent (you don’t pronounce it). Hence, Hola is pronounced as ‘o-la’; and Hasta is ‘us-ta’.

Movies

Movie 1 – Shutter Island (2010) 

The film is about a U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels’ (Leonardo DiCaprio) investigation on the disappearance of a female murderer from a mental hospital on a remote island.

Half way through the movie, I’d guessed what's the ending. I was good. 8-)  




Movie 2 – Chloe (2009)

Starring: Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried

Suspecting her husband is cheating on her, a doctor (Julianne Moore) hires an escort to seduce her husband (Liam Neeson).
Amanda Seyfried is young and beautiful. Julianne Moore, though more mature, has quite a good figure. Liam, is simply charming. The movie has a few nudity scenes, so one has to be of legal age to watch it.

The Wedge Shoes I Purchased

I bought a pair of wedge shoes at a mall that were on sales recently. I love wearing wedge shoes cos’ they can make me taller; as tall as 1.75m when I wear a 3-inch heels. And compared to wearing the stiletto heels, its more stable to walk on, (tendency of tripping is close to zero) as the base of the heels are much broader.

Back to the wedge shoes I bought. It’s a lovely red color. I fell in love with them when I first spotted the wedges. A couple of days later, I decided to wear them for my outing. I chose the outfit that matched the shoes. As soon as I reached the lobby of my apartment, and before I could walk more than ten steps, I almost tripped. I looked down and to my astonishment, the sole of one of the wedges had actually came off. I had to limp back to my apartment.

As I was examining the sole of the other one, it too came off. Furious, I brought back to the mall where the promotion was still on to exchange. This time, I examined closely before I took the new pair home.

The next day, I decided to wear it. You won’t believe it. The same thing happened! Only this time, both the soles came off as soon as I reached the lobby of my apartment and I probably managed to walk in them for just five steps.

I brought them to the retail shop at the mall. The sales assistant told me they would send back to the head office and let them decide what they would do. She took down my mobile number and told me someone from the head office would contact me. That was last Friday and no one had contacted me. So on Tuesday, I went back to the store and asked about it. Apparently, they had glued back the soles and were sent back to the store. I asked why no one informed me of the status. The sales girl replied they had received the shoes but were too busy to contact me. Ok, I tried not to be angry at such level of customer service. After all, they had mended the shoes for me. 

So the next day, I decided to try the wedges by walking in them to the mall. (I didn’t dare to wear them to town yet). And being a careful person, I had brought along an extra pair of shoes with me. This time I actually managed to walk in them all the way to the mall. I was feeling a sense of relieve when suddenly as I stepped onto the tiles of the mall, I felt slippery. It shouldn’t have happened. You see, usually for shoes with soles that are not anti-slip, I would paste those non-slip stopper on the soles and I would be able to walk in them without tripping.

I looked at the bottom of the wedges and found that both the heels have came off. So I walked right into the store and showed them. I told the sales assistant I wanted a refund. The sales girl told her male colleague what had happened and he called the office for instruction. After the call, he told me he had to send them back to head office for them to examine. I told him I just want a refund as I had lost faith in their products and won’t want to waste time. I insisted if he couldn’t decide, let me speak to their manager. He made another call and spoke for another five minutes. Finally I got my refund. The sales guy had to pay me first (from his own pocket) and claim back from office later. Sigh, the store does not even have a refund system in place.

You would have said since I had gotten my refund, I would suffer no lost. Wrong. The shoes cost $9.90; but the anti-slipped stopper cost me $5!