Dance like no one's watching

Athens – 3 nights stay & Athens orientation tour

Argolis – Corinth Canal, Epidaurus Ancient Theatre, Nafplion orientation tour, Mycenae orientation tour

Olympia – 1 night stay, Sanctuary of the Olympian Zeus

Delphi – 1 night stay, Castalia Spring, Scantuary of Apollo Pythios

Kalambaka – 1 night stay, Meteora Monastery

Mykonos – 2 nights stay

Santorini – 3 nights stay, full day tour to the volcanoes and hot springs

Concluded the full itinerary was too long to type out.  Feeling lazy.  HAHAHAHAHA.

Mamma Mia!  Iceman and I went to the NATAS fair yesterday and booked our honeymoon with Dynasty Travel.

We booked a 14D trip to Greece!  There’s an estimated 6 bookings on the tour now and I suppose adding us would make it about 8 pax.  The tour needs 15 adult pax before it can be confirmed.  I really hope it works out!

Here’s the link to the Dynasty Travel Greece tour.  Our tour isn’t inside… but the first 6 days is similar to the 8D6N Classical Greece Tour… and the remaining 6 days are spent on Mykonos and Santorini.  (Actually I can’t rem. the exact itinerary except there’s the additional stays on Mykonos, Santorini and a visit to some island with a volcano + hotspring/spa trip).

Here’re more pics of Greece!

We’re going in Aug.  Anyone else wanna go?

Met up with our wedding solemniser on Sunday and we were exchanging ideas/suggestions on how to do the solemnisation ceremony.  It’ll probably be a simple 30min ceremony that won’t take too much effort to organise.

Iceman and I need to think of how we want to word our wedding invitation cards too.  We’ll probably open the solemnisation to whoever wants to attend (RSVP needed of course).. and if there’s too many people, maybe we’ll switch from using the Hyatt function room to the main ballroom.  However, if we get a cosy group of 30-40 people, we can stick to using the function room.

Just saw this really funny poem on my friend’s wedding invitation card:

If to our wedding you’re coming

And a little gift you’ll be bringing

There’s nothing we’d appreciate more

Than something to keep the cash register ringing

I thought that was hilarious.  Hahahahaha.

WASHINGTON: US insurance giant AIG is to receive up to an additional 30 billion dollars in federal assistance in the latest overhaul of its government bailout, US media reported Sunday.
Under the new plan, American International Group, Inc. is to repay most of the 40 billion dollars it owes the Federal Reserve with equity stakes in two of its overseas units, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The units were American International Assurance Co., which is based in Asia, and American Life Insurance Co., which operates in 50 countries.

AIG was originally supposed to repay the Federal Reserve in cash with interest.

The New York-based company, already set to announce a fourth-quarter loss of some 60 billion dollars on Monday, would also convert between five and 10 billion dollars in debt into securities, backed with life insurance assets.

The 60-billion-dollar Federal Reserve credit that AIG received in November, from which the company has already withdrawn 40 billion dollars, would then be reduced to 25 billion dollars.
The newspaper said AIG’s board met late Sunday to vote on the plan and was "expected to give its approval".

"Major credit rating agencies have already signed off on the deal," it added.

The US government bailed out AIG for more than 150 billion dollars last year after a home mortgage crisis that sent shock waves across the global financial markets.

The bailout plan was the largest in US history and came as AIG burned through billions of dollars of cash and reported a third-quarter loss of 24.47 billion dollars.
– AFP/yt

Collected our wedding bands over the weekend.  Iceman’s band has this black in-lay… not sure what’s the name of the material.  Mine has rose gold in-lay and both our bands are white gold on the outside.

Here’re some photos.  🙂

The pretty paper bag from Fairy’s Inc.

This box doubles up as a ring pillow but Iceman and I will probably get our own ring pillow ‘cos this one… doesn’t look very pretty lah. 

OK… this ribbon was tied by me… and I’m not good at tying ribbons, nor am I good at positioning them in any artistic manner…

If you look closely, you’ll see a pic of Muah Chee engraved on the inside!  Cute hor?  Hehe.  My band has milgrain around the edges too.

This was the pic of MC that the engraving was based on.

Iceman’s band.  The engraving says "ever thine ever mine ever ours".  🙂

I’m kinda tempted to add some scattered diamonds on the band.  Heehee.  Hmm…

See underlined portion below.  I hope this means no more calls from telemarketers pushing personal loans!  Woohoo!

Minimum income requirement for unsecured credit relaxed to S$20,000

SINGAPORE: From next month, more people will be eligible for unsecured credit facilities. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has lowered the minimum annual income requirement from S$30,000 to S$20,000.

However, this lower limit does not apply to credit cards and remains unchanged at S$30,000 for individuals at or below 55 years of age and S$15,000 for individuals above 55 years of age.
The move, which is still subject to a cap of two times one’s monthly income, has been welcomed by Credit Counselling Singapore.

Kuo How Nam, president, Credit Counselling Singapore, said: “We’ve always believed banking should actually be inclusive and you shouldn’t exclude people just on the basis of income.
“There is always a danger here of people getting into trouble, borrowing too much. But I believe this is still a good move because you cannot ignore the fact that there are people who may have a genuine need for unsecured credit."

However, if the borrower has an annual income of at least S$30,000, he can obtain unsecured credit of up to four times his monthly income.

MAS said the new rules state that borrowers with an annual income of less than $20,000 can only take a small unsecured personal loan not exceeding S$3,000, with the interest capped at 18 per cent per annum.

The unsecured lending provisions will not apply to high net worth Singaporean or Permanent Residents earning at least S$120,000 per annum, and non-Singaporeans/Permanent Residents.

The unsecured lending provisions also provide for exclusions from their application for certain types of loans, for example, loans for purposes of medical treatment, study and renovation.
As part of the new rules, banks will be required to be more stringent when it comes to lending.

MAS is now making it a requirement for financial institutions to conduct comprehensive checks with Credit Bureau (Singapore) before approving each new credit card, charge card or unsecured credit facility.

Financial institutions will also be barred from making unsolicited offers of unsecured credit facilities such as credit lines to customers unless these customers write in for them.
This follows similar restrictions on unsolicited offers of credit cards already in place.

Also, when it comes to explaining credit charges, late payments and other additional information, banks will now have to be much clearer than before.

MAS said these changes follow extensive consultations it held with the Law Ministry, financial industry and the public.
These changes will be incorporated into the new Moneylenders Rules which will take effect from March 1.

These will come under the new Moneylenders Act which also takes effect on the same date.

It was passed by Parliament in November 2008 and replaces the existing Act.

MAS said the new Act will allow for a more flexible and progressive approach to the regulation of moneylending in keeping with the modern credit economy.

It also clarifies the moneylending activities to be licensed, modernises moneylending operations and tightens the regulatory framework. – CNA/vm

Was queuing for a taxi at Raffles City last night when this youth with a huge tattoo on his right arm approached me with a laminated letter, his wedding photo and a Neoprint picture of his wife and young kid.  I was trying to sms Booze Queen and Iceman regarding the breakdown of the MRT trains on the east-west line so I didn’t pay much attention to the letter he was showing me.

He said he was an ex-offender and how difficult it is to get a job.  He then went on to talk about this organisation (he didn’t give the name) that was helping ex-offenders get job.  So I asked if he was soliciting donations for charity (the charity being the organisation to aid ex-offenders).  He said he wasn’t.  He said he was selling this thing (2 furry balls held together with a string) to earn money to feed his wife and young daughter.

I said “no” politely.  He tried to sell the furry balls to me a couple more times… to which I kept saying, “Sorry, no”.  Seeing his scary tattoo, I certainly didn’t want to piss him off and be the first person in Singapore to get slashed/bashed over furry balls.

What made me uncomfortable and totally unwilling to donate was this.  How was his selling of furry balls (of which he said he earns 50% from each sale) not charity?  His modus operandi was the same as how a lot of deaf/dumb people go around hawking furry soft toys to earn a living.  If I were to make a purchase, it would have been out of being charitable.

Had he been raising funds for the Yellow Ribbon Campaign or something, I would have been more willing to donate.  The impression I got however, was this was his job!  His way of earning a living.  I know it’s tough for an ex-offender to find a job.  But there ARE companies that hire ex-offenders and surely a young man of 18-22 years old should find a proper job instead of going around hawking furry balls?

I have no conclusion to this post.  No moral of the story, no bottom line.  This is just a post to record my thoughts on the incident.

Heard Whisperer complaining about it first… two days in a row… first she was locked out of the intranet the very first time she tried to log in.  The second day, she was working halfway when her account locked up on its own.

This morning, I tried logging onto the intranet as per normal.. but I got an error message saying I was locked out!!  Called HKie who did something on the server end and my account was ok.  It wasn’t a password reset ‘cos I used my existing password to log in.  I asked him what was the cause and he said, “We’re still investigating”.  Sigh… why always like that!

It’s only Tues but I feel as though I’ve spent all the energy available for work.  Cache has shown himself to be an efficient worker.  I’m also impressed that when I explain insurance concepts to him, he asks sensible questions that demonstrate his logical processing of the information.  But having to take care of this temp/intern has resulted in me working extra hard as I try to clear my own work as fast as possible. 

Heard from Jazz that a laptop has been approved for me and I’m probably going to get it in March.  That is NOT good news ‘cos it means I’ll be expected to check on deals from home.  Bleah.  There has also been rumours that this year’s increment and bonus is going to be BAD.  So it’s more work for less monetary compensation?  Argh.  So demoralising.  I hope the new government export scheme we’re on brings in big bucks so I can get a big fat bonus next year!  And a through the roof increment too!  Show me the money!

Saw on the CNA website that President Nathan visited the Marina Barrage for the time yesterday.  I’m sure, being the President, he was busy and thus couldn’t find time to visit earlier.  But when you read the headlines, and in consideration that the Marina Barrage has been opened for some time now… don’t you think it makes it sound as though the President damn sua gu?  Hehe.