Driving Up Efficiency

For most of us at least, driving is something of a necessity. Whether we’re part of the daily commute, dropping the children to school or carrying out errands without our cars we’d all be a little lost. That doesn’t mean we don’t find it an expensive necessity. What with the cost of insurance, petrol and not to mention wear and tear, running a car is quite the investment. That’s why a small saving here or there pays dividends. Watch them add up and year on year get the cost of your motoring right down. We take a look at cutting your driving costs, without cutting corners.

Photo from Pexels

Fuel

Making your fuel go further isn’t just about finding cheaper pumps, it’s just as dependent on making your car as fuel efficient as possible. There are quite a few ways you can achieve this: always have your tyres inflated to the correct pressure. Flatter tyres cause drag which in turn forces the car to use more fuel moving them forward.

You might also want to consider opening a window, rather than cracking up the air con. One of the worst culprits for fuel consumption, air con burns through petrol. This only applies at lower speeds, at higher speeds the drag from an open window takes effect.

Finally, remove anything extra that’s weighing your car down. Take off the roof box or luggage rack and clear the boot. Making your car lighter will help it become more efficient and not have to work quite so hard to keep you moving.

Insurance

Quite simply you need to shop around and find out what the average car insurance cost is. Then look to beat it on price comparison sites and so on. You might even find talking to a broker scores you a cheaper deal with some extras thrown in.

Whoever you choose to go with for insurance, you’ll need to make sure that you read the small print. As time consuming as this is, this is where you’ll find out that your amazing deal is cheap for a reason. Check that you’re adequately covered when driving abroad and if you’re entitled to any legal/breakdown assistance in the event of an accident. 

Lastly, shop around. Save up and use supermarket offers on fuel and look for online offers, such as Groupon, for servicing that keep your car in great condition. The more efficiently it runs, the less fuel you’ll be wasting. Learn to drive smoothly and avoid over accelerating, come to a halt and speed up again slowly and think about your road position to reduce unnecessary mileage on your clock.  Try and drive in as high a gear as you can. Keep your vehicle light and the tyres pumped up for better performance and less cash spent out.

Shop around for great insurance deals but make sure you know what value you’re getting for your money when you sign on the dotted line.

Driving is necessary but expensive, use these tips to reduce your costs and you’ll be cruising into a fuel efficient future.

Singapore Day 5: Gardens by the Bay, Satay by the Bay

Our last agenda for our Singapore trip is visiting Gardens by the Bay. Again, we got our tickets from Klook. Super duper helpful app if you're traveling! Tickets are separate for the Cloud Forest and Flower dome and each cost around ₱600-800.

There's a lot of walking involved in this visit so make sure to wear comfy clothes and shoes!

Cloud Forest

This man-made conservatory is conditioned to imitate the humidity and temperature levels of tropical mountain highlands creating a viable environment for lush vegetation and a variety of flowers!

This is truly an amazing place. Everything just puts you in awe. The waterfalls, the mist, the ferns and trees growing inside. Everything is magical.

Flower Dome

Singapore's Flower Dome is actually named as the largest glass greenhouse in the world as of 2015. You can find several gardens inside. There's an array of succulents, baobabs, olive groves, and a vast flower field too. 

When we visited the theme is still Chinese New Year so the place was full of lanterns, flower arcs, and other CNY things.

Satay by the Bay

After touring the two domes we decided to eat somewhere. There were a couple of restaurants at the Gardens complex but Jeckie was intrigued by Satay by the Bay. I wasn't up for some satay specifically but we still decided to follow the signs leading to it, in hopes of finding something good to eat.

Lo and behold, Satay by the Bay is actually a hawker. They could've added a description you know! It was a loooong long walk from the dome but who cares, we're hungry!

If this wasn't such a long way from the city center this would have been my favorite hawker instead of Lau Pa Sat.

Supertree Grove

By the time we finished eating, it was about time for the Garden Rhapsody lights and sound show. There are several supertrees planted around the Gardens but 12 of them can be found at Supertree Grove. The place is free to access since it's at one of the open areas, unless you want to walk at the OCBC Skyway to get up close and personal with the trees.

The trees are gorgeous. You can see them even if you're outside the Gardens but it's still a different experience looking at them up close. They're so mesmerizing.

Aaand that's it. You can probably say I was rushing to finish this entry because it's been long overdue, AND YOU'RE RIGHT. I wanted to get over my SG diary already because I know I'll forget about it soon! 

Nonethess, this was one of my favorite days. We were Manila bound the following day and it was great to cap off our trip by visiting one of the country's top landmarks. 

Related:

Singapore Day 1: Holiday Inn, Lau Pa Sat, and Marina Bay

Singapore Day 2: Old Airport Rd. Hawker, Jollibee, and the Gym!

Singapore Day 3: Bugis Junction, Central Perk, Lau Pa Sat again!

Singapore Day 4: Universal Studios

Singapore Day 5: Gardens by the Bay, Satay by the Bay

Singapore Day 4: Universal Studios

Our Day 4 in Singapore is all about touring Universal Studios! I've been here 2 years ago but only at the gate to take photos haha. Now I'm actually going in! We got our tickets from Klook for around around ₱2,700. Note that this doesn't include express pass and the Sentosa Station train ride from Vivo City Mall. 

Going to Universal Studios is super easy (as is going anywhere in SG lol), just navigate your way to Vivo City Mall either via bus or train then ride the Sentosa Express inside the mall going to Resorts World Sentosa. Go down at the first station and you can walk to Universal Studios entrance from there. If you got off at the wrong stop (like we did), don't worry because you can walk your way back to Universal Studios without having to ride the train again hehe. Once you're at the island everything's connected hehe.

What surprised me with the park is that it's actually smaller than expected. Enchanted Kingdom is so much bigger and has more rides. Not that it's disappointing, the rides at Universal are definitely much better.

I love that there are lockers available for rides where you're not allowed to bring your belongings. It's free for a certain amount of time and it's super high tech too! Some lockers require your fingerprint, and some require pin codes. It's so cool.

Rides we tried:

TRANSFORMERS The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle

Rode this twice because it was so good!

Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN vs. CYLON™

Jeckie was afraid to try this but I encouraged him anyway! We went for the Human side because it seemed less scary? We both loved it but the ride was too short, it was barely even a minute!

Revenge of the Mummy™

This is probably the one I got scared with the most mostly because it's a ride in the dark with unexpected dips! Mygaaahd! 

Puss In Boots’ Giant Journey

Ah this one's a bit boring, wouldn't recommend this for adults. Line was too long and the ride was okay at best. Good for kids but not for adults looking for a thrilling and a gut-wrenching experience.

Shows we watched:

Shrek 4-D Adventure

Another boring one. Basically a short 4-D film. Lines too long and the cinema is too packed. Maybe good for kids.

WaterWorld™

We were 15 mins late when the live show started but we still enjoyed it!

Yeah so I guess we didn't ride a lot! But at least we were able to cross out most of the good rides for adults. We were there for maybe 2 to 3 hours only but we definitely enjoyed every minute of it! We avoided wet rides because we didn't bring spare clothes. We were super amazed at how organized the rides are. The queue areas are so well designed and snaking through the lanes is an experience in itself. Definitely coming back!

Related:

Singapore Day 1: Holiday Inn, Lau Pa Sat, and Marina Bay

Singapore Day 2: Old Airport Rd. Hawker, Jollibee, and the Gym!

Singapore Day 3: Bugis Junction, Central Perk, Lau Pa Sat again!

Singapore Day 4: Universal Studios

Singapore Day 5: Gardens by the Bay, Satay by the Bay

Preparing for Retirement in Your Twenties

In your twenties, you might feel as though you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. You’d be right of course, even in your late twenties, you are still young. You’re yet to experience any signs of age, your body is still youthful, and you feel alert and filled with energy. You’ve still got years and years left to work. You might be able to eat the world without gaining a pound. Then, quite suddenly and out of nowhere, the signs of ageing start to show. It’s quite common to get greyer in your thirties. Cellulite, stretch marks, and varicose veins begin to creep up on you. You can no longer stay out all night and get up for work the next morning without feeling worse for wear. You might suddenly find that you can’t even look at a piece of cake without putting on weight. Ageing is a gradual process, but that process often starts much earlier than you’d like it too.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you are old. You’re not, you’ve still got a long time to go, and there’s no reason why you can’t live a long and healthy life. But, it is a gentle reminder that time passes quickly and that if you want to be able to enjoy your old age and your retirement, it’s never too early to start thinking about it.

Photo from Pixabay

Give Your Mind a Workout

Most of us worry about how we look. We diet and exercise, and stress about how we look in a bikini on the beach. We worry about how our bodies will age and hope never to lose our looks. But, we don’t worry about our minds, and how they might age. 

But, they do. Your brain ages just like your body. The things that seem easy now might not always. You might start to forget things, or struggle to think clearly. This can hinder your happiness in old age even more than the physical signs of ageing. 

When we’re kids, we’re always learning. Every day we learn something new to the point that our minds can sometimes feel tired and overwhelmed. Then, we start work, we settle into our adult lives, and we stop using our brains so much. We don’t need to think. We just go through the motions. Doing this for too long can lead to premature ageing of the mind, just like not exercising could lead to your body ageing before it’s time. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to give your brain a workout. Reading, doing puzzles, learning languages and even going to new places and having new experiences. Anything that is out of the ordinary that gives you something to think about is a good exercise for your mind and can help it to stay young.

Watch Your Diet

When we’re in our twenties, and we feel as though we can eat anything without worry, we often do. Older friends and family members might warn you that it will all catch up with you one day and you won’t believe them. But, it will.

It might not catch up with your hips or belly in the form of weight gain, but that doesn’t mean that a fatty diet isn’t clogging your arteries, or that too much sugar isn’t affecting your teeth and vital organs. You might be able to drink everyone under the table without getting a hangover, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not killing your brain cells. 

That doesn’t mean that you can’t indulge in treats. There’s no point in living a long life if you don’t allow yourself to enjoy it. The key to all things is balance. Drink water, as well as other drinks. Eat fruit and vegetables, and limit your treats. 

Maintain Your Friendships

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that living in a nursing home when you are older can keep your mind young, help to prevent depression, and even give you the chance to live longer. One of the main reasons for this is that social living in old age can prevent loneliness, which can lead to depression, isolation, and unhappiness. 

Often when we retire, and we stop going to work, we lose touch with our friends and colleagues, and we find ourselves much more alone than we’ve ever been before. This can have a negative effect on our mental and physical health. 

It might seem as though there’s not much that you can do about this now, but there is. Even when you are busy, make time for your friends. Develop your friendships and keep them going, and there’s no reason you can’t stay firm friends for life. 

Find Hobbies That You Love

When we’re young, we don’t always have the time for hobbies, and many of the things that we felt passionate about when we were kids get left behind. Then, as we get older, our time becomes more limited as we move up the career ladder, raise families or both. Suddenly, we’re old. We don’t have anything in our life that we love to do. We retire with nothing to fill our time, and we’ve spent our working years so busy that we suddenly feel empty and lost. It can be almost like we don’t know how to relax. 

Starting hobbies now can help your future self immeasurably. Finding hobbies that you love, and that you are keen to make the time for will help to keep your mind young and alert, give you a way to meet new people and ensure that you have love in your life, no matter what else happens. 

Start Saving

Photo from Pixabay

One of our biggest worries about retirement is money. We worry that we will still have debt or a mortgage to pay off when we finish work. We’re concerned that we won’t have enough money to enjoy our retirement, or that we will end up poor. Start saving now, and avoid debt where you can, and you’ll never need to worry. 

Be More Aware

One of the best ways to prepare yourself for retirement and old age is simply being more aware of your body and your mind. Become more aware of how the things that you are doing now will affect you in the future.

Feeling lost

Venue of the 2nd RPA Philippines Summit

Our water supply is back to normal

I guess it's been a week since our water is back to normal. We returned our excess water containers to my parents and just kept 15 gallons worth of empty ones, which is as much as we can keep given our small space. It's good to have water back. Really. Metro-wide water crisis isn't over yet but I think we have stable water supply where we live. Thank God!

I attended the 2nd RPA Philippines Summit

It was really insightful, being seated with delegates from various companies hoping to setup their own RPA team. It's also great listening to those who have already successfully deployed a robotic workforce on such a large scale. I enjoyed listening to the huddles, not really pitching in, but just trying to soak in knowledge from the experts. After the two day summit it just dawned on me how much work needs to be done in order to put things in the right place. From creating a governing unit for all things RPA, to funneling the tasks in order of priority, to managing sprints, to deploying them right, and so on and on and on...

It's freaking overwhelming.

Now I don't know where my career is headed

I was reading through my mailbox the other day and saw a job posts notification from LinkedIn. I'm not actively looking, I usually ignore job alerts, but I read through the list anyway, curious if there's anything new that fits me after I've added UIPath RPA in my skills portfolio.

There was none.

I joined the company as a Performance Tester but I never really got to hone it here. Instead of focusing on one track I was exposed to different things. I learned functional testing, php web development, and now I'm dabbling into RPA too. Initially I thought it was cool, I'm an all around QA who can read code and make robotic workflows. But where does that put me? I don't even know what position to search for in Jobstreet anymore. :(

Makes me wonder where I would be right now if I had accepted TCS' offer last year. What was I thinking turning down a six digit offer with a clearer career path? If I had joined them and had a few months to work on my Performance Testing skills before applying at PlanIt, would I have passed the technical assessment? Would I be offered a job at Australia or New Zealand?

Hay Lord. I feel like I'm being led to too many paths right now that I'm starting to get lost.

Out of sidelines, full of rest

Now that I have more free time after work I can finally enjoy watching KDramas, and probably even go back to reading! Yehey! But of course, we all know I'm just gonna end up lounging and doing nothing on social media. :P

Oh, I already received a rejection email from PlanIt

Not exactly a rejection letter, but I was put on wait list for the next six months. And knowing that some people on the wait list already got called with an offer makes me a hopeless case. Oh well, it's probably not my time yet. Who knows.

What I do know right now is that I want to get a job out of this country hahaha. Where do I find companies that offer relocation benefits extended to their family? XD

4 Essential Ways To Take Care Of Your Skin

Photo from Pexels

1. Swap to a lighter foundation

Now, I don't mean that you need a lighter tone of foundation, after all, I can see you through the computer! Instead what I'm talking about here is swapping a to a lighter coverage foundation, one that isn't so heavy and so does not clog up your pores as much.


Of course, the advantage of this is that it is much better at letting the skin breathe, and it's always easier to wash off thoroughly at night. Something that means you are likely to get fewer blemishes, and problems, because this is the time when your skin replenishes and repairs itself.

2. Get it checked regularly

Next, it's important to remember when caring from our skin that it's not just the stuff on our face that need some TLC, but our entire bodies too. 

With that in mind, regularly checking any moles or blemishes you have to see if they have changed in size or shape is a worthwhile activity. 

Then if you do find any you are concerned with you can find a skin cancer clinic local to you and get a medical professional to assess them for you. After all, the sooner any problems with moles or other skin blemishes can be identified and treated the better the outcome is likely to be. 

3. Clean it well each night 

Another way you can take care of your skin is to ensure that you clean it as well as you can. Of course, you will need to tread a very fine line between cleaning it thoroughly, and over cleaning and exfoliating, which can leave your skin looking red, dry, and aged. 

To that end, creams and gels with exfoliant pieces should only be used once a week, and the same goes for facial brushes. Remember too that even wash clothes can be too harsh on their own, so combine them with a soap-free cleanser, and use the super soft bamboo versions where possible. 

4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate 

Finally, when it comes to taking care of your skin, it is absolutely essential to stay as hydrated as possible. However, this doesn't mean just sipping water throughout the day, but taking action to hydrate the skin directly. 

Happily, this is a task which is seldom tiresome, as there are a range of different products on the market designed to assist you with this. Look out for hydrating moisturizers, and other facial care products that focus on this benefit. You may even like to combine them for the best result, and skin that is well and truly taken care of. 

Uhh late post

I completely forgot about this lol. Written last Monday haha.

Fire alarm went off in our building earlier during work and we were told to evacuate. We don't know the reason yet. Some say it started at B1 parking level, some say it started from B4 or B5. Nobody knows. I thought it was a drill, so I'm surprised it was an actual emergency. First time I experienced this. Yikes.

One of the blazers I tried on

I got myself a blazer for tomorrow's conference because the dress code says business attire and I only have a lanky company jacket with me. Picture above isn't the one I got though haha. I got myself a simple black blazer that's it 'cos I'm not too confident wearing other colors lol. 

Aaaand since we're on the dressing room now lol, let me just share a couple of outfits I tried a few months back while looking for something to wear for my friend's wedding.

I was looking for something to match the pink floral skirt. Black off shoulder looked okay but it's black. White undergarment looked okay but I didn't have a pretty cover up to match. 

I also tried on this dress but it's too dark. Eventually I got the maroon boat neck top lol. Love the mirrors here, I look less fat hehe.

Yeah that's it for the late post hehe.