A few days after I wrote my last entry, I brought the boys to the central to get some groceries when I was stopped by a credit card sales person. Urg! I thought he would let me pass but I guess seeing me with two kids makes me a great target for him.

“Hi miss!” he said brightly. “Do you have a credit card?”

“No,” I said, still walking, but slowing down to be polite.

“We’re having a promotion where we will give you $80 when you sign up with us.”

“Thanks, but I’m not qualified.”

He seemed a little baffled. “Uh, miss, what do you mean you’re not qualified? Are you 21 and above?”

“Yes,” I replied, laughing inside because I know where this conversation was going.

“Are you a Singaporean?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re more than qualified!” he sounded brighter than before.

“Uh, don’t I have to earn at least $30,000 per annum?”

“Yes.”

“Well then,” I said. “I’m not qualified then.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he assured me. “You can include all your bonuses as well.”

“Well, I’m still not qualified.”

“Aren’t you working, miss?” he sounded quite sad by now.

“Yes, but only part-time.”

I gave him a smile, didn’t bother to wait for a response while I walked on.

What struck me was the fact that he could not fathom that someone like me was not earning $30,000 a year. I mean, hellooo? Chancing upon me at 11 in the morning on a weekday should give you at least a clue, right? Throughout our conversation, he looked really puzzled and surprised. Are adults like him so clueless about the wages of the lower middle-class these days?

Now back to what happened on the phone earlier.

I got a call from a landline that was not in my contact lists. I usually let it ring endlessly because it’s always some telemarketer trying to sell me credit card/insurance/something I can’t afford or don’t want or need. Most of the time though, I tend to miss the call since I’m never around my phone when it is actually ringing. Since I happened to see it ringing and I happened to have my hands free (both boys were down for their afternoon naps), I decided to entertain whoever it was on the line.

“Hello?” I said in my most bored voice.

“Hi ma’am!” a male voice greeted me. I hate being called that.

Before he could continue rambling, I asked, “Who are you looking for?” (Since he didn’t greet me by my name, I assumed it was another cold call. Then I could just cut the call short.)

“Are you Ms Soh?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I’m calling from AMEX and you’re selected to have this gold card…” Blah blah blah. Okay, actually, I forgot what he said because he went on and on, not giving me the opportunity to refuse him. I heard something about making the minimal payment with zero interest fees and getting discounts from a certain petrol station and from a certain sushi place and getting some kris flyer rewards (did I get that right?) with Singapore Airlines and I so badly wanted to tell him I don’t fly and have never sat on a plane before but that would be like mind blowing him too early into this phone sale.

Anyway, after he was done with his sales pitch, he proceeded to ask, “So, m’am (darn I hate that!), may I know if you’re earning $40,000 per annum?” (And I was thinking, I don’t earn the minimal and this is like… even more? )

“Uh, no.”

“No?” (Yes, with a question mark.) He sounded surprised. “How about this: Do you earn $3,100 a month?”

“Uh, no.”

“Okay, then do you earn $30,000 a year?”

“Nope.” I can actually feel his mind about to explode any time soon by then.

“What about $2,500 a month?”

“Nope.”

“Huh? You don’t even earn $2,500 a month? You earn less than $2,500?” he sounded like the above mentioned guy by now.

“Yeah, I earn less than $2,500.”

“It’s alright then,” he tried to recover. “We’ll keep you in our database and contact you again in future.”

I guess I was a wee bit annoyed when he stopped being professional for that moment when he was trying to get the fact that, no, I don’t meet that minimum wage that all credit card companies require. If he acted professionally throughout the whole phone conversation then, he wins and I lose because I did not get my entertainment.

I should have told him to just take me off the database or whatever but I figured I could use some entertainment in future.

Usually sales folks who try and sell me insurance annoy me. Only because I need insurance and… I don’t have any. And because I do not have any, I’m a pretty good target for insurance agents. This puts me in their potential category and this annoys me greatly.

Credit card sales people, on the other hand, amuses me. Really, really tickles me, I must say.

Usually, I don’t get approached by them on the streets because, hey!—apparently I still don’t look 18! However, when someone decides to be bold and attempt to test if I was of age, I would be approached and I my response would be automatic: “I’m not working.”

There was once where this sales guy actually told me to get Guan to sign up for a credit card and then I had to tell him that Guan doesn’t even earn $30,000 a year! (The minimum wage to sign up for a credit card.) It amuses me what sort of ideas and reasons they can come up with just to sell me their products as I’m not the “normal” (potential, or not) customer that fits in their criteria.

Anyway, I’m writing about this because I was at the supermarket earlier to buy my regular, same old brand of facial wash when this sales aunty (yes, I had to say aunty) commented, “This one not good. Makes your skin dry.”

I admit I was a little surprised because she came out of nowhere

So I told her it was okay and wanted to escape from her when she said more things along the lines of “this one really makes your skin dry” and “see how dry your skin is” followed by “come I show you this”.

I obligingly followed her to the next aisle where she picked up a facial wash and passed it to me. The first thing that caught my eye were the HUGEASS letters “UV” followed by a smaller word “white” at the bottom of the letters. So I told her, “Thanks, aunty, but no thank you. I don’t like UV whitening facial wash.”

I caught the surprise in her eyes and she said, “But this is very effective! Makes your face whiter…”

“No thanks, aunty, I don’t like fair skin.”

A stunned look. But she quickly recovered and said, “But you should try anyway. Can get rid of your freckles…”

“Thanks, aunty, but no thank you. I love my freckles.”

Another stunned look. “But you have so many…”

“I know, but I love them.”

“Then why not you try this one,” she picked out another facial wash. “Can use together with your facial wash. Cleanse inside your skin so you won’t have pimples.”

Thanks a lot, aunty. I’ve been exercising regularly since last week and I could feel that my face was getting dirtier than usual. And, somehow, over the course of the night before, my face showed three fresh new pimples sprouting out of nowhere. So, thank you, aunty, for pointing that out to me.

I didn’t have the heart to give her another mind blowing explanation of how I’m actually too lazy to wash my face, let alone wash it with two facial cleansing products. So I politely thanked her and declined her promotions as I made my way to the checkout counter.

Well, kinda. But I remember ever since I was in primary school, most of my friends’ birthdates fell between August to October.

Anyway, don’t you think it’s time I attempt to revive this thing?

(to his grandfather)
Zayden: Ye Ye! Good night! Harg!
(hugs exchanged)
Zayden: Kees!
(kisses exchanged)
Zayden: Mama! Good night! Harg!
(we hug)
Zayden: Kees!
(we kiss)
Me: Love you!
Zayden: Lob yew!
Me: Take care!
Zayden: Tak care!
Me: Sweet dreams!
Zayden: Shweet dreem!
(runs back to grandfather)
Zayden: Ye Ye! Tak care! Shweet dreem!

Aww *hearts*

Happy Birthday, my baby Zayden!

Happy Birthday to you, too, Zefeng!

This morning, his Ah Ma asked him, “Did mosquito bite you last night?”

He pointed to the bump on his hand.

Yes, he knows what a mosquito bite is

It was pretty easy to entertain people on Saturday since there was a wide screen TV and a home theater system. All we needed to do was pop a DVD in and hey presto!—people are entertained.

Totally into Avatar

Since Guan had to entertain his friends and his parents, their relatives, I just made sure that there are enough chairs, that people have taken their food from the buffet and making sure that everyone has a drink (or two). Inititally, when some relatives and friends came early, Zayden was pretty cheerful and socialized. But as the night went on and more people came, the crowd became a little too overwhelming for him and he clung onto me every now and then.

(While going through my photos, I realized that I am missing photos from my sister’s camera so there are a lot of photos that I can’t add to this post. I guess there will be another post on this event.)

Really yummy cake!

Lighting the candle

As the birthday song was sung, he got all happy and clapped along.

A few days prior to this celebration, Guan’s father tried to teach Zayden how to blow out his birthday candle. It wasn’t successful so on that day, we coaxed him to attempt to blow. As we were encouraging him, “Go on, Zayden. Blow the candle. Remember how to blow?” He suddenly stuck out a finger and extinguished the flame!

Everyone was so shocked! I quickly checked his finger but it seemed fine. In fact, he looked like he was about to cry with everyone’s outburst

Cutting the cake

Having his first taste

Yup, he loves cake

On Sunday, Guan, Zayden and I went over to my old home at noon to help decorate the house. I have to say I was rather surprised because I did not expect my parents to actually decorate! On my first birthday I remember not having any balloons nor streamers/banners hung up around the house. Grandparents really spoil their grandchildren, eh?

(After the party, my mom insisted that I should take a few photos of the decorations. It wasn’t much. But, still.)

Zayden was actually rather cranky because he didn’t nap. So when most of the guests arrived, he was napping away

My cousin’s kid, Cheyenne with Nicole

Cousins and second cousins

My sister with Dylan (Cheyenne’s brother) and Yoda

My family (minus my dad who’s the photographer) with my grandmother

My friends Tarmidzee and Li Lin

(Um, yes. He doesn’t really like to wear clothes.)

With Joel

At the end of the day, Zayden had a lot of presents.

Left: my side; Right: Guan’s side

We decided to let him open one

“Ooh, I wonder what’s the biggest gift like?”

“Thanks for helping me Daddy!”

“It’s a Winnie the Pooh airplane!”

“Awesome!”

Due to the size of the gift, Guan and I initially thought it was a car. But since Guan’s in the airforce, my cousin got him the airplane. Sweet, ain’t it?

Did I forget to mention that Zayden started walking?

Looking at cute little girl items from this Etsy store just makes me wish for a girl sooner than I’d like! Though I wouldn’t dress her up in pink or over frilly dresses and such, the images from the store just makes me want to stare and dream

The weekend was an exhausting one since there was a double celebration for Zayden Asher’s first birthday Here’s a sneak:

Admittedly, when I was a young girl, (yes, I was once a young girl) I did dream that I could be a little fairy girl. Not like Tinkerbell though; she seems bratty. A fairy with blue wings, a silver crown and a blue dress.

Yes, I guess I was girly when I was a kid.

It’s pretty good and I really wished there is such a thing as Trapar waves so I can ref in the air

I’m starting on an old show, but it’s new to me since I’ve never heard of it before. Fawlty Towers has been making me laugh out loud so far (even though I’m on the first episode).

Invites for Zayden Asher’s first birthday party has been sent (being the tech-y person, I texted message instead of sending tangible invites) and I’m feeling a little excited now