Flea, flea and more flea!

My constant flea-ing effort is showing some results. Not many online order from customers who patron my booth during fleas, but my namecards are getting lesser. More and more customers are taking my namecards, that means, they're observing our blogshop. =D What I should do now is to upload all my accessories, but I'm too tired to do it. After every flea, I'd have to sleep at least 2 days. Seriously it's super tiring. Hopefully I'd have the mood and energy to upload them soon. =D

My accessories are depleting. Think it's time for batch 4. =D For these 3 weeks of this mth, I had been running fleas every sat. Hoping to go for a fourth one this sat if possible. =D

The last flea I went was at HomeClub, Clarke Quay area. Extremely impressed with the organiser Flea.Fly.Flo.Fun. It's the best flea I've every been to. We, the booth vendors, were given plenty or space, unlike other fleas which always makes me feel suffocated. Probably due to this, shoppers were more willing to take their time to browse through every booth and not rush to get out of the place asap.

I chose an outdoor booth which most people will pass by, so I had an edge over the others. People will tend to spot my booth cos I've got almost everything shoppers usually look for, apparels and accessories. Plus, recently I'd brought along nail polishes which was quite a hit at the flea too.

My booth set up

For this flea, I have the best sales so far. My profit was 2 times the amount for other good fleas. See how little accessories I'm left with:

Left: Arena on 17th, Right: HomeClub on 24th

Look how strategic a place I'd gotten. Just right next to the river! It was super relaxing, but didn't have much time to enjoy the nice atmosphere. And and and, I got to see fireworks!!! The direction I was facing was just where the fireworks were. Others had to rush out to see, while I just sit down there and enjoy while drinking my glass of coke. Hohoho. =D

Yup, I was alone at the flea again. Packing up is alright for me, but pulling back 2 trolleys is super tiring. So, I asked Ben to fetch me again! Lol! Poor him, always have to be my coolie.

Mt Faber with Cousins! =D

Went to Mt Faber with my cousins. It was quite a last minute meet up, arranged only the day before! Lol! Luckily it rained heavily the previous day, so the weather there was very good. Was afraid it might rain cos the forecast stated that it would be partly cloudy. In fact it was super sunny in the afternoon.

We went there with a rough idea of what we'd like to look out for. Went there with Ben once but didn't realise that there was so much to see there. Passed by some abandoned cable cars so took some pictures.

Our first stop, the Henderson Wave. It's really beautiful. The view there is rather nice too. Definitely a good place for relaxation and enjoy the serenity.

The platform is made by wooden planks. Believe that bridge has been there for qiute some time, but apparently the planks are in extremely good condition. Very clean, so we didn't give a second thought before lying on it.

My cousin suggested to have a "jumping" shot. I started out jumping alone first while my cousin tried to take a good shot. Jumped a few times, got fed up and ask her to join me too. We jumped countless time for this shot! Lol!

Then I helped my cousins to take one. I was more pro than them. Lol! Only a few jumps before this good shot. Haha! =DAfter resting there for quite some time, we headed for the forest walk. There were two paths; the earth trail or the elevated walkway. We chose the latter cos it was the easier path though longer. Haha! That walk is definitely much better than tree top walk. Though it wasn't as high, it was long enough and have more things to see. =D

After that, we went to Hortpark. Saw this chair swing in their mini garden and rested there for awhile. So fun sitting on the swing that cost $600+. Hoho.

There's alot to see inside Hortpark. There's like a demo room decorated with plants. Super cosy, we sat in there and chatted for quite awhile, remiscing our childhood times together and talked about what we want to do in the future.

Other than these, there are several different themed gardens. There's a butterfly garden that houses alot of butterflies, but it's only opened on the last saturday of every month so we can only peep in from outside. But around the vicinity, there were several butterflies flying around too. Beautiful.

We also saw this Glasshouse that has lots of flowers. We couldn't go in again, but admiring them from outside was enjoyable too.

Hortpark was our last destination. There are more to explore but we were too hungry to continue. Haha! Bus-ed back to habour front and had YaKun toast. What an accomplishment to have walk such a long distance. But the walk is easy la. It's a must to go there again! =D

Durian Feast!

We went to Lower Seletar again last night. This time round, we had a mini picnic there. Went to buy Ben's dinner at Chong Pang. We've been craving for durian and finally bought it! 3 for $10. Apparently one wasn't ripe when Ben went home and tried to open it, but the other two were terrific! Ben like sweet ones while I like bitter, so just nice. =D

I chiong the durians first while he slowly eat his chicken cutlet. Thought I could really finish all the durians but only finish half a durian, I was almost bloated le.

Our mini picnic =DBen enjoying his cutlet The first one we opened was rather sweet so kept pestering Ben to open a second one hoping that it was bitter. Yeah! It was really bitter, but only ate a few then taboleh tahan liao. Lol! So Ben finished the leftovers, except the bitter ones. -_-"

What a shiok night we had! Durian, durian, durian! We love durian! Hehe!

Lower Seletar Reservoir =D

We found a new pa-tor place! Lower Seletar Reservoir! Nope, not the one near mrt track, that's "someone else's" favourite dating place. Lol! Anyway, the one near the mrt has been renovated. Rather beautiful now that the new platform stretches more outward into the waters. Nice view. =D

Back to our new pa-tor venue. It's the one near seletar runway. In the past, it was more remote, in the sense that there were not so many people. Now there's lots of people and big trucks. Not as peaceful as before, but still a nice place for relaxation.

We went there in the afternoon and the sun was really hot, but the big wind made the weather cool enough. Very quiet, except for the big vehicles passing by every now and then. We laid in the car and Ben chose to listen to my parent's mandarin songs. He was reminiscing the times when he used to go there with his family, telling me what they used to do there. =D
We went there again in the night, planning to fly our kite there. But the land breeze wasn't consistent and big enough. Mission fail. Lol!
Fail to fly the kite, we start taking some photos instead. =D There were alot of couples there, see the people behind in the pic b
Enjoyed myself very much that day! Will definitely go there often. Will anybody be interested to have a BBQ there? I'm planning to do so! =D

Hectic Saturday

Attended ex-boss wedding lunch with Ying Yan. Yes, it's LUNCH. It was a small event with close friends and relatives. Can see that he was still as excited and happy as he was during ROM.

See how happy he is? Smile so happily that the eye got so small. Lol! =D

Like superstars walking on the red carpet. He look so xin fu. =D

Had a flea at scape youth park on that day too, so drove to the event at Hotel Re! @ Pearl's Hill. Not the first time driving to Town, but first time going by CTE. Unfortunately, I missed the exit on my planned route. Lol! The next exit after the intended one was to Havelock Road, and I happened to know that road as the subordinate court was there. Stopped at the subordinate court and started searching my dearest directory for our location. Luckily, we didn't really get lost, we were just a few hundred metres away from our destination. Hoho! Got there in time for the reception and waited awhile before the lunch. The door gift was a super cute deck of poker cards with love messages on it, love it! =D We didn't stay for the entire lunch as I need to rush for the flea. Gave my boss face, so left only after the photoshoot. It was around 2pm then, and my flea starts at 2pm, suppose to set up at 1pm. So I'm really late.

Dropped YY at Orchard station and continue my search on how to get into Scape Park's carpark cos I missed it the first round! 2nd time I got lost that day. Lol! Kept going in circles around orchard-somerset area cos there was only one route to enter into the carpark. Spent more than half an hour driving in circles. I know orchard road quite well now I guess. Lol!

The flea was super crowded, not only with customers, but with lots of booths. Super squeezy. There was light drizzle, on and off, was really afraid that it might rain cos my booth wasn't in the sheltered area. Slowly set up the booth. Luckily shared booth with some people, so they helped me to fix the rack and arranged some of my accessories too. Nice people. =D

Business was alright for me, sold quite some nail polishes. But my other two partners weren't that lucky, cos they only sold clothes. Clothes are sellable at fleas, only if they're unique or are price really low, below $10. Cos there were too many stalls around selling 2nd hand apparels for as low as $2.

Nobody was free to help me for the closing so I asked Ming Yun for help. Sold quite a number of nail polishes she brought in so believe she was quite happy to help, plus I drove there so can drive her back. Haha! =D Packing up is always much easier with 2 pair of hands, at least not so sian. Hehe. =D But carrying the stuff up the car will always be a chore, and my arms are still aching.

Afriad to get lost again, I discussed the route that I had planned with Ming so that she can guide me. But once again, I failed! Haha! Turn at the wrong turn and ended up on balestier road. No choice, only can depend on instinct as Ming search for our location. LoL! Luckily didn't always sleep when taking other's car. Saw a familiar building at the end of balestier road which was on thomson road. Managed to find the way back again. Haha! =D

The most unfortunate thing that happened that day wasn't getting lost thrice. I lost my ring. :'( Lost it at the flea. Search high and low, almost everywhere with Ming's help, but couldn't find it. Called Gong and told him the bad news. Believe it made him upset, but he was understanding and sent me a sweet message to console me. Next day, we went to buy the same ring. =D Still hoping that the old ring is still lying somewhere.

I'm a legal Driver! =D

After 4 long months of practice, I finally took my test on 24th June. Wasn't too nervous at first, but as I got into the car for the warm up practice, I felt my hands turning cold. My driving wasn't too good for the warm up. During the vertical parking, I scraped the kerb. Stalled the car for at least 3 times for the approx 20mins practice, and there were other screw ups. Quite demoralised then, but was still hopeful.

Waited for around 20mins for the test. Tested directional change first. It's the easiest of all, so no problem. Next was slope, I took quite some time to master it so was confident enough, completed it nicely. Then was crank course I think. After that was parallel parking. During usual practice seldom screw up but unfortunately I struck the kerb!!! Super disappointed. 10points flew away just like that. I was like thinking: "Die, that's the end of it. Need to come back again." Then I tried to request the tester to let me redo. Lol! But of cos, he didn't allow la. Next, went to do S course and vertical parking. Luckily no screw up.

Continued on the road, my mind was fill with the thought that I might fail. Kept telling myself to focus and that since the tester allow me to continue, there's hope. Some minor mistakes here and there. When we reached back, I had convinced myself that I had failed and asked the tester to let me redo the parallel parking again. Lol! The thought of going back to practise again really puts me off. Again, the tester didn't allow. He said it was only 10pts. Lol!

Waited in the room and was really afraid that he would be sitting down to advise me on the mistakes that I had made, cos that would mean that I had failed. Waited for a few mins only, but it felt like 15mins. Haha! Then he came out, passed me my ic, pdl and test slip, "Go and watch video." I was super duper happy!!!

I was lucky that day to have gotten a very lenient tester. My total demerit point was supposed to be 20, but he took away 2 pts. 18 pts, just passed. So what, at least I passed. Haha! =D

The video was super disgusting and bloody. Will never want to end up like any victims shown in the video. Next, went to apply for the licence. Expensive man, $50! I forgot that the photo background can only be white, so have to retake, $7. Sian. After that, happily went to buy my p plate and street directory. The p plate was more expensive than the street directory, thought it would be the other way round.

The following day, wanted to practise my driving skill and familiarised with my family car, drove my mum to amk to our food stall. Seriously, the feeling of driving with and without licence is really different. Since I'm already legal to drive, I was very confident with drive though my mum kept (somehow) criticising my driving skills. Like, "Keep right now" when I was two junctions away before turning right, "Brake now" when I was already engine braking before the arrows. Maybe cos it's an auto car, the braking distance is longer than the SSDC manual car ba.

Saturday had a flea at mount sophia. Lucky or unlucky, nobody was available to drive me there and thinking of the cab fee that would be incurred, I decided to drive myself there. It was a long journey but I enjoyed it, though I damaged the car a little on my way up the hill. Too narrow le. Hehe. =D Hated the minor traffic jams though. The experience made me realised how reckless motorcyclist can be, I'm so afraid of them man always squeezing in between vehicles. Also, it makes me dislikes taxi drivers. One taxi overtook to the left lane and horned me while I overtook to the right lane. Sucks man.

When I was reaching there, I nearly lost my way. Luckily my street directory was with me. I love my street directory. =D

Side track abit, the flea was not too bad except that the organiser didn't give me the amount of space they were supposed to give me. Though the place was ulu, up on some hill, they were able to attract shoppers by providing shuttle service. Thumbs up. =D No breakthrough for this flea though cos the shoppers were super good at bargaining. Hopefully expo one will be better, praying hard.

Went to the flea myself cos everyone was busy. But Ben came down to help me out during closing, though he just came out from camp that day. Maybe most of you don't know, I always bring 2 trolleys of stuff when running fleas. Handling everything alone makes me feel like a super woman. Really thankful that I've such a supportive boyfriend, though he don't really like going to fleas with me, cos I always neglect him. Lol!

Anyway, when driving back, cos Ben didn't know what I was writing on my notes, I ended up taking the wrong road, or rather, we took up an unplanned road instead. Luckily I chose the correct 'wrong' road which can lead us back. The road that we took didn't allow me to stop by the side so I couldn't check the directory. Finally drove on a familiar road, serangoon road. Always take bus there to buy my equipment so roughly know how to go back from there. For the rest of the road till SLE(I think), I drove mostly on instinct. Haha! =D Then on the expressway, there were several exits. Ben called a friend to ask for directions and we managed to reached back without getting lost again. Haha! =D

Too be honest, I'm "directionless", as in I can't remember well which road leads to where or which expressway to take to go where. So I always plan my route when I drive far and my street directory is my best driving buddy now. =D Drove almost everyday since I passed, and am still enjoying driving. Let's see how long can this hobby last. Haha! =D

Till today, it's still quite unbelieveable that I managed to pass. Without doubt, I'm being blest. =D