This is a very popular Japanese comic strip (サザエさん) by Machiko Hasegawa, and it’s all about Sazae and her ordinary family and their day-to-day living in Japan, during post World War II.

The Wonderful World of Sazae-san is a translated version published by Kodansha International.

From Vol 1, page 72-73:

According to this receipt, I got Sazae-san from a bookstore on 7 March 1999.

When I do keep a non-thermal receipt for a book or magazine that I had bought locally or overseas, I would slip it between the end pages, so that it can stand-in as a bookmark and at the same time serve as a short snippet of my (shopping) diary.

Do you keep any receipt, for any purpose?

Last Friday, another swap package came through the door. Thank you Tracy!

She has given me cardstock, pretty papers, paper napkins, a bag of beads, candles, lovely pink+brown ribbons, stickers, lip balm and a copy of Romantic Homes. She also included a chocolate bar, which I’ve almost finished, so now I can say I’ve tasted Norwegian chocolate. *big smile*

And I love the handmade pouch she made for me. Perfect for my cellphone, keys, purse, a pen and other small items.

Tracy is a very sweet friend of mine who makes excellent bags and knitwear in her Etsy shop. And whenever you need to custom make something as a gift or for your own use, just drop her a line for she loves to create that special item, the way you like it!

If you like to see my goodies for Tracy, you can find them here.

Hub was very excited when he saw me with all the goodies and he asked if I would like to do a swap with him too!

A wonderful parcel arrived yesterday! Thank you so much Jessica, for a generous provision of swap goodies!

I already love the brass earrings since I first saw it online and the gorgeous monogram necklace with my initial, oh, it fits me perfectly!

Jess designs and makes unique jewelry at Lost Button Studio and she’s offering a storewide 25% discount off all her jewelry in her Etsy shop till the end of November. Please don’t miss it!

I’m grateful that she had offered to get me craft supplies that aren’t available here and so I chose paper punches from Martha Stewart. And I was given more than punches (pun intended, heehee)! Now I also own sparkling glitter, placecards and project idea cards.

The new punches (+ an old one) were immediately roped in to prepare this message to wish all my American friends:

Wishing you every joy that is Thanksgiving.

In recent days, this sunny island has been experiencing more rain. And wetter days mean I can’t sun dry the laundry, and the wet clothes won’t dry indoors because humidity reaches as high as 86%! That was the reading on the hygrometer when I last checked.

Electric dryers are becoming indispensable in many households (here) these days, but it wasn’t like that in the past, unless you were an expatriate from a colder country.

We were glad to have found this space-saving, collapsible and portable electric dryer in a department store last year. The heat source is at the bottom and the whole unit is enclosed in light-weight canvas and sealed with zippers. Looks pretty much like a tent actually. I like to watch how the tent puffs up like a balloon when hot air is circulating.

The dryer will have to be put to work again, later today. It’s a pretty wet Tuesday. Just like yesterday.

How’s the weather in your area today?

= hub’s birthday
= happy birthday my dear!
= 1 symbolic candle

= celebrated with set meals at a Jap chain resturant
= drove around town to see Christmas lightings
= Thank you Lord for a caring and loving husband

= a birthday treat yesterday at a coffee house
= 2 of them happily posing with the toasted bread

= which was our delicious dessert
= we shared and chatted till 11pm

= a bloom knot for them
= Thank you Lord for good friends

Leafwares

Half of these are used daily in the kitchen while the rest serve as backup.

I use the petite ones to hold chopped ingredients like garlic, chilli and ginger. Those with sufficient depth will hold dips. The medium-sized leaves serve small food portions.

One of these was sold as a soap dish at the L’occitane shop.

Food laid out on leaves is just naturally different, well…sometimes.

Backup

And speaking of backup, I had a “crisis” yesterday afternoon while sending out a monthly newsletter to subscribers on my list.

As usual, I was using a software program to carry out the mailing to each email address on the list and after the process was completed, the next step was to filter off any email addresses that have bounced back. To my horror, after the second step was done, the program had actually deleted every subscriber’s email address on my list that were on a text file! There were more than a thousand addresses! Oh nooo!

My heart dropped for a moment! It has not happened in this manner before so I was caught by surprise and puzzled, all at the same time.

The good thing was my backup plan B helped saved half of what was gone and for the rest of Monday evening, I had a look at my backup plan C to retrieve an earlier list, dug up some records, and then one by one, I entered each new subscriber’s details manually to complete my list again. Then I could sleep.

Do you have backup plans for files that are important to you? An external hard disk drive and a USB flash drive are must haves.

…by Tracy for 7 true things about moi:

• I will buy 2 extra pairs of the same pair of heels that I wear most often. This is to avoid any frantic search when the current pair worns out.
• I always use bullet points not just to make lists but also while writing articles. Dotting helps me process my thoughts.
• I will sing the last line of the hymn “My Jesus I love Thee” (…If ever I loved Thee, My Jesus tis now) whenever I think of snacking late at night to remind myself not to because it’s not the best time to digest.
• I run several websites but my first and oldest is the tips site and this baby of mine is 7 years old this year. 5 or 6 years ago, I incorporated small online shops for every topic I cover. For example, if I wrote tips on constipation, then my shop will feature products that help relieve constipation. I had more than 30 ’shoppes’ and for each, I gave them a name, like these:
  - Snorer’s silent aids (snoring)
  - Antibacterial agency (natural antibiotics)
  - Blackout survival shoppe (power failure)
  - Clearance Aids (constipation)
  - Veinglory shoppe (varicose veins)

  My baby used to look like this.

• Except for once when I topped the class for a maths test, I was almost always a straight F student for this subject. If it hadn’t been for a new teacher who came and invested extra time on the weak students, I wouldn’t have gotten through a major exam with a B+.

  Several years later on my friend’s wedding day, I discovered that this teacher was (well, still is) the bride’s brother-in-law, ie, the bride’s sister’s husband. *Oh!*

  And when I went on to engineering maths, it was yet another exceptional teacher who taught in such a relational and humorous manner that only made me appreciate maths even more. His efforts paid off. I got an A. I was overjoyed. Sooo happy! In his class, he would always reiterate that in mathematics, we need to know the laws at our fingertips because they are laws, and even if we were to be called out of bed in the middle of of the night, we must be able to recite the laws!

  Hence, besides the joy, the impact I’ve received from this wonderful learning experience— don’t walk away from maths (or any unfamiliar learning subject).

• This month is a birthday month for hub, me and at least 15 other people we know.
• I don’t like clutter and neither do I do like to contribute to it. The only time when clutter exists is when I can’t decide a place to store the stuff.