Perth 2017; 6D4N booking summary.

So we "kind of" took the 2 for 1 Scoot promotion and book for ourselves a 2nd honeymoon.... to Perth again.

Not really though. We overlooked the fact that my parents are leaving for their small pilgrimage to the holy land of Mecca, right in the middle of the dates we booked. So instead of saving for the flight, we had to fork out slightly more to top up for the flight change.

But as known to social media, my husband got into a bad bike accident across the border exactly 1 month before we fly off, and i had to put everything on hold in case we had to cancel the whole trip. Honestly i wished the trip would still carry on, he's recovering well until...

HE CAUGHT THE CHICKEN POX VIRUS! Yes, chicken pox guys! At 26! and 12 Days before we fly of!

So here i am again, on the waiting game again, hoping he'll recover just in time. And yeay he did!

So the frantic rush begin;

1. change flight
2. look for an apartment
3. book a car
4. plan an itinerary.

I did all but number 4. because i suck at planning. and even before we set off to Perth, we still didn't have any concrete itinerary. But for sure we would be those typical lame ass tourist because husb's injury haven't recovered 100%.

So what i thought i'll save, i actually had to spend more because everything is last minute.

My flight was supposed to be SGD300/person, taking advantage of the 2-for-1 Scoot promotion over the national day period. And if i were to change the flight dates way before hand, it would only cost me SGD380/person. Not so bad right? But because of all these unforeseeen circumstances and the bad luck that I'm having back to back, I made the flight change last minute and now the flight itself costs me SGD500/person. Holy mother of goat I swear it would have cost much lesser on a full flight on low peak periods!

My apartment was also last minute. Can say everything also last minute lah! Manage to find one, and i have no idea why i immediately booked the apartment without checking the location, but it's not so bad ... PROVIDED YOU HAVE A CAR. alamak this trip really .. i don't know where i put my brain.

So as usual, booked through booking.com because expedia's being a bitch (apparently it firmly decides that i have a fake name on my credit card. BROOOOO?!!!) . It's several dollars more expensive at booking.com though. But it's okay lah i can earn my booking status on that platform heees.

I booked Assured Waterside Apartments, it's at Melville Parade, just off Mill Point Road. Quite a convenient spot. It's just like you know ... You exit tampines avenue 5 just to get to my place. ahh that kind of convenient lah... if you drive that is.

Next, the booking of cars. I can't remember how many times i switched screens and how many tabs i open just to make sure that i don't lose out on a good offer and so that i don't end up paying more for a car and especially the insurance part. It's so damn important i tell you. It's okay to fork out more for your insurance rather than having to pay the full excess incase of any accidental damage to the car! I kena once already, lucky i got it waived off. So no more second time ok! Now akak clever already hehe

OK guys. This part VERY IMPORTANT OK. I don't want my friends to be conned or have to pay more for nothing.

I'm sure you're aware that you are offered to book your vacation cars through 3rd party websites, be it scoot, booking.com, qantas, SIA, blablabla. DO NOT.. i repeat... DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THE 3RD PARTY WEBSITE TOGETHER WITH IT'S INSURANCE COVERAGE. Sure you can book the car on the website, they can be trusted, don't worry about it.... BUT DON'T TAKE THE INSURANCE COVERAGE UNDER THE 3RD PARTY WEBSITE!!!

The insurance coverage under the 3rd party website will be a bond/agreement between you and the 3rd party website, not between you and the renter of the car.

Example:
3rd Party website name: rentyouacar
car rental providers: rentlah, comerent, rentfromme, irentyoucheap

Rentyouacar provides the prices from all the car rental providers. Probably throw in a "free CDW (collision damage waiver), roadside assistance" blablabla on most car rental providers. So let's say you decide to rent a car from "comerent", and because rentyouacar says got CDW got this got that, you'd think... ok lah i'm covered already. free mah. good what the deal.

Nope.

On the day of your arrival, you come and collect your car from comerent booth with the confirmation slip from rentyouacar. It says already have the coverage right? But you wait. The staff will ask you if you wish to purchase insurance for this or that. Sorry i can't remember exactly what but i can only remember full protection lol. Then i can guarantee you will have question marks on your face, really.

But but but ... you already have the basic coverage right? From rentyouacar right? Noooo. Comerent will tell you that whatever rental/insurance agreement will be between you and rentyouacar, and that rentyouacar and comerent are not affiliated in any ways. Meaning, should anything happen to you or the car, you will have to liaise with rentyouacar, not with comerent. So it's like you have to go in circles. Sounds much like a hassle?

So there. Instead of saving, you have to top up more for insurance coverage, to cushion your travel savvy ass in case anything happens to you, or the car. Most important is the car, shouldn't have any dented rims or scratches.

Trust me, the price wouldn't be much of a difference if you booked direct from the car renter's website and purchase the insurance directly from them.

So anyway, I'm done explaining. I got my car from Europcar, same vendor as the one i got last year in Perth. One of the cheapest after much consideration. Created myself an account, logged in my details and voila! Anyway because i'm such a scaredy cat and i drive like a klutz, i got myself the full protection to cover my not-so-sorry ass. But on the brighter side, because i got the full protection coverage, i got the GPS rent for free! Tips tips tips! But only do this at the counter, as in, you book the car online, just the car, add on the CDW (the price will be roughly the same as at 3rd party website, honestly), and wait till you arrive at your holiday destination to upgrade your insurance coverage and to include GPS rental.

You... NEED... the GPS! it helps you it saves you, honestly. Googlemaps can be relied on though, but it's not so accurate. The roads can get confusing at times and the GPS will really tell you which lane you should be on and which lanes and the road name you should exit. Right down to the tiny details.

Alright! So all in all basically i already spent SGD2400 just for flights, apartment and car itself.

DON'T SCOLD ME! I know expensive. Because i last minute i knowwwwwww! By the way the car cost me SGD700+ with the full protection.

Don't follow my steps. I always last minute. So I cannot complain if things get expensive. Not really a savvy traveller.

Okok. Done ranting. Itineraries next!

Dusty

It's probably been a looooong looooooooooong time...

8th Year in Shell, how time flies. But all through these 8 years wasn't an easy journey for me. Especially now. I am fully aware that my performance for the past 1.5 years hasn't been on par as compared to what i have put in the previous years. I only have myself to blame for that. Last year, when everything was a mess, i was constantly making stupid mistakes and not doing this and that. And this year, I am constantly thinking of how to solve my problems. And because of this stupidity of being unable to balance work and personal life, I won't be offered to sit for my promotional test. *SIGH*

Sometimes i wonder what is it with some people, to pick on every single fault of others but theirs. Like clearly almost everyone is unhappy with this fella but voicing out will not change anything. I guess that's the problem: because every seniors tell us to ignore the issue and always assume that the superiors will not take action against them, this mentality seriously have got to go man.

But on the other note, how do we know that the superiors aren't taking any action?

For all i know, and because i am a mature immature 28 year old who have been in the same workplace for 8 years, if i know i did something wrong, i'll redeem myself and strive to be better than the person i was yesterday. Some people ... i really don't know lah and it frustrates me that NOOOOOOO they are not wrong, others are always wrong.

And the best part? these people have no guts to approach the person who is in the "wrong". must go one big round and complain and bitch IN FRONT of the guilty party in dialect.

Beb, kau dah gila eh?

Seriously ... because i KNOW this person likes to complain a whole damn lot, i tried to show her that SHE DO MAKE MISTAKES TOO. but nooo, each time must give 1001 reasons trying to explain herself. oh okay, you can explain yourself, but did you even give others a chance to explain themselves on why they missed this or that before going straight to superiors to make a complain? seriously, the lab won't explode or the instruments won't malfunction over a single vial not cleared, over wastes not emptied, or glasswares not cleared from the oven/drying rack/washing machine. nor the lab will cease to function when there are samples awaiting to be sent out. how petty can you be? seriously? if your point is to show the boss that you are efficient in your work and a so called "siao on" worker, WHY ARE YOU NOT EVEN THE SENIOR-EST OF ALL THE SENIORS? you good mah? complain all got medal? got extra pay? got extra performance bonus? no?

i'm just counting my days to get out of this shit place. yea the pay is good only after 5 years but it is physically, mentally and emotionally draining. i have enough of my personal problems to tend to and i don't need this extra pressure from trying to constantly watch my own back. but i reckon with the upcoming house and the shit load of debt i have to clear, i can't throw in the towel just yet.

when it comes to debts, people might assume that it's from my wedding expenses. nope. my wedding expenses have been kindly paid off by my father. i am so thankful for that because otherwise i won't know how i'll survive. it doesn't really pay to be kind and lend people your money. because when times like these comes and you have a whole load of burden on your shoulder, you can only rely on yourself to settle the loan amount. *sighs*

marriage life has been wonderful. i keep telling myself how blessed i am to have such a husband and how stupid i was last year. memories hurt me alot but it makes me grateful of what i have right now. surely we are not the best of ourselves right now but it takes time to improve and each day is a learning point for us. business is slowly picking up, i have yet to make my first thousand from sales each month though but i wouldn't complain much because i still have my full time job commitment to attend to every 4 days. my dearest husband is also picking up the skills to make his own decals and do his own editting so i have pretty much a helping hand right now. i even have a team of resellers now! maybe one day we'll make it further than what we have now, and maybe one day we'll look back and feel lucky we decided to take this step.

PaperkutzSG is almost 2.5 years old now, how time flies! we're still expanding as we speak, but when it comes to a brick and mortar, i am reluctant to invest on one even in the near future. maybe one day when i decide to throw in the letter, i'll just settle for a home based business.

We plan, but only Allah knows what is in store for us.

May everything go smooth for us...
and may i constantly have this strength to keep me going.

On the road to... clearing my debts.

I did the most stupid thing over the months before i got married. Not surprising that i brought over the misery into my married life. hahahha i don't know man i wish i could go back in time and slap my own face.

So what happened was, i loaned a total of $6k to a friend. My heart soft ah, that's why easily can give money like that. Part of that $6k was loaned off from my DBS cashline account. Don't know eh, i kinda believe that people will really work hard since there's people helping them try to get back up on their feet. NAIVE RIGHT. i know.

Disclaimer: I am NOT mentioning any names here so kindly don't be kepo try to find out who is the "lucky" fella who manage to suck my money dry ok. Don't need to assume anything also. Ya i know i stupid.

Ok so as you knowwww, i still kept my 2nd bike, my Yamaha Spark 135. Intention was to renew COE, then to rebuild the whole damn thing. So the total costs is .....

COE as of June 2016: SGD6500+
Rebuild spark: SGD2100
Total: SGD8600+

Honestly, I don't know how i spent so much money within that few months. I can't recall how much savings i had back then either. I only know that somehow, my loans are starting to accumulate. hahaha bodoh

So anyway, back then i had loans with DBS, credit card outstanding with ANZ. My OCBC credit cards was a horror because every purchase got converted to installments and i ended up having accumulate SOOO MUCH to pay every month. But you see, i'm a very independent and financially savvy (chey! screw you la savvy.) kind of person. I know it's irrelevant that with the amount of debts i have, it's pointless for me to set aside a portion of my money to park as savings. You know lah, anything can happen right?

So now as i'm desperately trying to clear my debts by claiming what's mine, it is no surprise that people will constantly have excuses after excuses as to why they can't even pay a single cent. Pathetic much? Okay la be a nice person la and think of the good things.

It gets frustrating because .... FUCK LAH I HELP YOU ALL THEN I IN DEEP SHIT WHO HELP ME? Help yourself loh. K fine. Never mind, suck thumb and eat shit. Slowly pay off whatever loans i have and stop getting myself into unnecessary debt again. Just so long as I don't owe anyone money, is more than enough.

I don't understand how people can just shrug their debts off their shoulder like they don't owe anyone anything. Especially that useless ex. Wah, that one sibei CMI fucking gold digger do so much wrong and then point to that single fucking mistake i do just so that he can get away with paying.

So anyway, back to the topic ... i managed to increase my credit limit for DBS, then consolidated all my debts/bills into one account. So yay to zero dollar bills for ANZ and OCBC but OMG to my DBS bill! See amount i owe liao i can cry. But i mean, it's easier to consolidate everything into 1 so lesser things to think about and don't have to keep thinking of "alamak must split my money here there everywhere."

Let's see how long i will take to clear all these debts. Oh, and i do not ask my husband to help me pay my bills for me ok! My financial shit, i clear myself; i will never allow my husband to pay my debts for me. So yeah, 2017 goal: to waltz into 2018 debt free!

#yuzzuetravels ; Perth!

 

A not so surprise surprise honeymoon. We didn't leave immediately after our wedding because

1. we didn't know where to go

2. TH (the husband) is having his reservist.

Yeap! He was on reservist right smack in the midst of our wedding.

Had to beg for leave in December because TH is still schooling and December is the only time i could go on an escapade. Just my luck to be able to get my leave during the Xmas break! yeay!

I had so many mixed feelings about going to Australia over the Xmas period because my friends who are in Straya are all telling me that it's practically a ghost town on Xmas day! But heck. Just go ahead with it anyway.

But because it was a last minute trip, our flight tickets cost a fortune. But hey, HONEYMOON mah. I insisted on going in december because ... honeymoon. lol

okay so our flight cost us $900+ PER person. jialat. my friend told me he got his Qantas tickets to perth at half the price. But then again ... honeymoon ...

Took QF78 scheduled to flyoff at 2340H. I regretted the moment i stepped into the airplane. I DIDN'T CHECK THE FLIGHT TYPE. but it's okay, wasn't really a full flight so we had the seats to ourselves. Our Muslim meal was a-okay. Edible and quite nice to be honest. The in-flight entertainment was good too except for the variety of dramas/reality shows which i have never heard of (or maybe i just don't keep up .. more like can't be bothered with recent trends.)

Touched down on Perth almost close to 5am in the morning. Man the morning sun was already out by then. It's like already 8am in the morning when in fact it's only 6am! Immigrations was smooth, the security lady directed us to the automated lane which failed terribly i don't know why but either way we were re-directed to a manned lane which was catered for people who has problems using the automated lanes.

Aniway, collected our luggages, had a smoke break ... OH YA .. Straya only allows 50 STICKS per person into the country so ... have fun figuring out how to get your favourite ciggarettes into their country! i regretted not buying the 3packs ciggarette from duty free at Changi airport. Oh well, too late!

Slacked and waited till 6.30 to collect our cars. Again, renting the car cost us a fortune because... last minute. I booked the car under rentalcars, which is something like your 3rd party hotel booking platform. My advice is, just book your car ONLY through rentalcars. Skip the adding GPS and insurance part, because you will have to pay EXTRA with the rental company for the insurance. Yes, i kena pay the additional insurance but had "complimentary access" to the GPS. So either way, no difference for the price paid.

Why did i say that? Because at the counter upon collecting the car keys, i was asked if i wanted insurance protection since i'll be having the car for quite a long duration (it's a 9D8N trip). I told them i had purchased the coverage whilst making the booking. But the fella told me that THAT coverage is my agreement with rentalcars and that if something happens then i have to deal with rental cars and not with Europcar, and it'll be quite a hassle. So lan2 suck thumb purchase the insurance coverage directly with Europcar, and i was GLAD i did that.

I opted to get the GPS set and i was GLAD i purchase that too (even though i could have easily access the GPS through google maps). Read somewhere that google maps get confused sometimes and it confuses the driver as well, plus it's not really clear on it's directions due to the various exits and roundabouts and IT'S TRUE! It's so much easier to use the GPS navigation system because it tells you which exit and the NAME of the exit you should take, and it doesn't only apply on the expressway but also the normal roads as well!

Anyway whilst collecting our car keys there was this Singaporean kicking up a fuss because the car he got wasn't the car that he booked initially online. I was like.. eh, never read properly ah when you do the booking? The website (in fact most of the car rental websites) will state that you are booking for this car OR other SIMILAR models. So when you book a Suzuki Swift you might probably get a Hyundai Getz something like that. And the reason that Singaporean kick up a fuss about? BECAUSE HE DONT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE THAT CAR THAT HE GOT AND HE ISN'T FAMILIAR WITH THE CAR. like eh!!! IT'S STILL A CAR?!!! AUTO, GOT STEERING WHEEL, GOT BRAKE AND GOT ACCELERATOR PEDAL!

Really.. special kind of stupid.