Blog entry drafted on 12th Aug
The day is drawing closer and closer, even if I wanted to laze more and procrastinate I NEED TO GET MY WORK DONE.
INSURANCE
OMG! How can I forget? The most important thing one should never leave without when travelling - Insurance! Was running through in my mind what needed to be done and I suddenly remembered. 🤦🏻♀️
Finally purchased a student insurance from Income on 5th Aug. Valid till mid June 2024. Not cheap man! Cost me S$905.27. I love it how insurance can be purchased online and policy documents sent via email. Not that I will read them at all 🤭 anyway and I hope there’s no use for it.
CREDIT CARD
At the same time, just remembered and decided to apply a supplementary credit card for her on 2nd Aug (or was it 3rd?). Only to be used in emergency. Well, I can trust this girl not to anyhow sign my card. I can’t say the same thing about lil’ one, to her everything is emergency. But having a credit card might be an assurance should her other cards fail to work.
E-MFA REGISTRATION
Wanted to register e-mfa but website on maintenance. Duh! Put in a reminder in my phone to do it by next week. We still have XX days before she leaves. 😢
PACKING
Been telling that girl to quickly list down what she wants to pack but she’s not doing anything.
Been telling that girl to take out all the summer clothes and undergarments etc..for me to pack now but she’s busy watching her なにわ男子. Aiyoh girl ah…. Can you please prioritise what you need to do or not? If she make me repeat one more time she can jolly well pack everything on her own!!
I was even more efficient in bringing out her winter apparels. Even brought her to ColdWear to get 2 more sweaters on Wed (2nd Aug) coz she only has 2 at home.
This is also the time to use vacumn packing bag, let’s hope the cheena ones are ok if not I’ll have to use the better quality (imho) - Packmate.
Somehow I’m glad lil’ one couldn’t go back KC next Fri (11th) to visit the teachers as at last minute her teacher scheduled a practical test. If not, I’d go crazy trying to clear the mess lil’ one left behind after baking AND packing the cookies for her. She will go back at a later date, which by then I don’t have to dwell upon che-che’s overseas studies stuffs. Not related to the important stuffs but I'm like the bao-gah-liao person and I'm not good in multi-tasking to such extent lor...
DENTIST
She’ll definitely miss the routine checks so brought her to the dentist just opposite our house on 30th July. I’d just switch us all over there for convenience. Normally we go every 6mths so fixed the next appointment in Jan for the 3 of us, she should be back in SIN for her term break then.
HAIR CUT
Appointment made for 7th Aug. She won’t need to do anything while she’s there unless she decides to colour or perm her hair 😛
SPARE SPECS
This is another suddenly remember item. I think I should stand her infront of me and 从头到脚 think what other things I need to prepare. Lucky that one can collect their specs in 20mins in Owndays. It was a spare one so didn’t need transition lens. We had it done on 6th Aug at PLQ.
CONTACT LENS
She told me last minute she miscalculated and thought she had some contact lens leftover but she can't seem to find them.
Brought her down to Lens Men on 10th after my Fight-Do. They heard of the urgency and tried to quickly reserve some boxes for us. Received a message the next day late afternoon that it is ready for collection. Woah! kumsia kumsia.
We went back to PLQ on the 12th as hubby needs to collect his glasses at Owndays. Asked him if he can drop me at Lens Men to do the collection after dinner. Used all the CDC vouchers to pay for her $354 contact lens.
PACKING
Was done in a span of a few days while the house was looking messy like this. 🤣 such an eyesore
mess while packing. I do get frustrated when I'm the busy one and one by one everyone come to me about something. Just the other day, lil' one was complaining about her spoilt laptop keys etc..
This is not a holiday, it's an extended stay. Although one will laugh at the amount of items I packed for her.
I spent time packing; repacking; moving some items here and there until I got confused. Aiyah! as long as it's in her bag just find it herself. I packed from her luggage bag (24") to the bigger blue cloth luggage bag (32") and then finally to a new luggage bag (32") which I bought on the 11th after Dr Chu's (skin doctor) appointment.
Threw away the cloth luggage bag which is almost the same size - 82cm (32 inches) - as both the wheels and handle are a little spoilt. This luggage will be our replacement for the ladies to pack our items when we go on a long and perhaps wintery family holiday.
Hubby borrowed her 24" luggage bag as his luggage is smaller and we needed tompang his extra space. My luggage weighing scale 好不坏这个时间坏 so I can't weigh the bag. I was trying my best to lighten as much as I can but ..... she's already travelling with the minimum.
For personal effects I packed :
1) 10 sets of outside clothes
2) 3 sets of room clothes [will discard 2]
3) 10 panties [will discard 5]
4) 8 bras
5) 10 socks
6) 4 sweaters
7) 3 pants [will discard 2]
8) 1 thick coat
9) Cinamoroll hoodie
10) 2 set thermal
11) 3 thick socks
12) gloves, 2 winter hats
13) one extra sneakers
14) 1 bathroom slippers, 1 fluffy bedroom slippers [will discard all]
15) snow grip for shoes. Oh shit! I forgot to pack the ice grip attachment.
FA kit, all the misc. items. Some items I told her she can throw it away before she returns home.
Luggage is heavy. Her prescribed skin toiletries weigh a hefty 6.5kg, which I transferred to hubby's bag. Didn't pack her Aveda shampoo and conditioner as she didn't want to.
PACKING WAS SUCH A HASSLE, THO I MAY BE AN EXPERIENCED PACKER. (will blog about this another day)
Friends asked me if I roll my clothes. Sometimes I do, it really depends. If rolling my jeans will take up more space then laying it flat, then I'll lay it flat. Rolling up clothes is more appropriate when packing light-weight clothes.
I love to use packing cubes. Before packing cubes, it was Naraya's garment bag. Packing cubes helps me keep my items segregated and organised. It'll be nice to open up to a luggage bag with everything all neatly packed. However I must it is never easy to use packing cubes when I'm packing winter clothings for the females. Roll up vacumn seal bags is a must have. I used a vacumn seal this time, so it means she'll have to borrow a vacumn cleaner from somewhere to pack her things in for her return. *wink*
I came across this compressed packing cube which is really interesting. I changed the packing cubes to this instead. Sigh.... unpack and repack all over again.
I managed to pack the vacumn sealed thick fluffy blanket, vacumn sealed 2 bath towels into one bag and compress it even further. Good luck to her when she's packing her items bound for home 🤭.
I left some items for her in hubby's bag as well.
In it, is a packing cube with the clothes, undergarments and socks she needs for the next 3 days, disposable bedroom slippers and plastic bag. There's no need for her to open her huge luggage bag at all >>
as I've also put whatever she needs in hubby's toiletries bag.
this will make it easier for them as they don't have to unpack and then repack anything. Sometimes I'm amazed that I'm so smart. 😉
Challenges faced :
One of the challenges I faced while packing her clothes was that che-che has little clothes. Or should I say little favourite clothes 😉. I can iron her clothes and then next week I’m ironing the same one again. She was still wearing them to go out with friends, yet I needed to pack them in. She’s more of a T-shirt and shorts person. Look at the number of clothes she’s bringing over and ONLY that luggage, she is unlike her primary schoolmate who probably packed in 2 large luggages over. That schoolmate is practically like doing a fashion show like that!!
I didn't even think of a few items, especially organizers, until recently. She's not as fussy as me (I guess) or as crazy as me to colour match every thing in the room. I am excited and daydreamed .... if I were in her shoes how I would organize my room - another post of this on another day.
Laundry basket collapsible S$6.69. I'm paying 3x the price, if only I had thought of this months ago I would be able to cart this out from Taobao
3 layers hang organizer for wardrobe as I have no idea how her wardrobe looks like. Is 3 layers sufficient?
S$8.21
Mesh organizer for undergarments and socks. S$10.69
[hubby brought back one of the smaller mesh organizer. She didn’t need it at all. she also asked him to bring back her pink dress; 1 set of home clothes and 1 outside shorts]
Blog entry drafted on 16th Aug
In one of the last few days of outings with my big precious baby. (she left the last week for the family).
On 16th (Wed), the eve of departure, I suddenly remembered SIM card. Argh! Thankfully I was able to get one from shoppee within 24hrs, I made that within 4hrs.
Paid : S$26.50 for T-Mobile 7 days 5G/4G Unlimited Data + Call.
Made the payment at 12+pm and did the pick up at 3+pm. Was chided by mini-mother aka che-che why leave to last minute? Wah.... she thinks I'm like her - got time to sit down and keep listening to music and play games? There are 1001 things running through my mind wondering if I left anything out.
So really I'm so thankful that I can pick up the card in the HQ or at selected ESSOs. This is not the first time I got a SIM card from them, the previous time I had many days in advance to prep but also did the pick-up for lil' one's Taiwan SIM card and had the cards sent to me for Japan's SIM cards.
One can get SIM cards at the airport upon arrival but knowing hubby will rush her through she wouldn’t have the chance to get the card. And his thrifty nature will not let her have it and simply rely on mall’s wifi. Might as well get it for her for 7 days, which is already too long as I expect hubby to settle her new card in less than a week.
Anyway after the Taiwan purchase, I think I’m a convert and will stick to this forever until I figure out what the heck is e-SIM.
INSURANCE
Oh yes! I know I purchased her student insurance on the 5th.
However I read that it's good to have College Renters Insurance plan as well for US unis. So I purchased one on the 12th that is designed for students. This gives them assurance over fire burning their accomodation to flooding. If snow piled up and she can't open her door, can claim? 🤣
Maybe I'm just too safety conscious lah! Of course I hope nothing happens.
MISC
The things I forgot again or maybe it's 多以, I printed two small cards for her to put in her wallet. It's something that I'd bring along with me whenever I go for a run/walk. (Ah-nia scared I faint and need help mah...) The card states her name, blood group, allergy, nationality and all the contact numbers which includes the dean, embassy, our contact number.
At the same time consolidated all the important numbers for her in one sheet of paper, checked the shuttle buses timing to the supermarkets and to Student Health Services etc.. Had them printed and laminated for her to put it on her table for easy reference.
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