Elixir Haul #27

 

New Iphone 16 Plus

Bought myself a new phone today. I've always been receiving the hand-me-downs from Meimei and am perfectly fine with it. But Meimei needed spare phones for the kids so makes sense for me to buy a new one and pass on my old one. I was initially thinking of the pro max but it seems excessive for what I need the phone for. Which is primarily to play simple games, take photos, whatsapp, net surfing. So we landed with the 16 plus which is $300 cheaper and that went to the Apple care. Still an expensive buy but I think it's worth it. Smartphones have become an essential part of everyone's life in this day and age.

Reading Is An Entertainment

I try to cultivate their reading interest. Many talented kids get their skills from their parents, but I don't have any specialities to share. So the best I can do is give them a fighting chance with reading.

They seem to have found that reading can be an entertaining activity. But it takes constant reinforcement of this to make sure it sticks. Plus lots of $$ to buy them books to sustain the interest. I'm all in on it so we may need more bookshelves in the future haha.

Stuck On The Ceiling

This is probably something silly that is a 真传 of Meimei.

萱萱 had noticed some flying creepy-crawlies in the bathroom when she was showering and decided to spray water all over the place. Meimei mentioned that the water was all over, even outside the shower cubicle. 萱萱 described to Meimei that since the water didn't work she decided to throw toilet paper soaked with water at them. Unfortunately, one of the tissue bomb got stuck on the ceiling and hence she had to confess to her silly deeds.

When Meimei was sharing the story during dinner today, YeeYee couldn't stop giggling. She must have been having flashbacks of silliness from Meimei in her younger days :-) Well it's not lost ... our daughter has obviously taken on the mantle to keep the tradition going hahaha.

 

Buying Books For Kids

My parents had a rule when we were growing up. We have a blanket approval to buy any story books we like. So every time my parents brought us to a bookstore we would each grab one. They were very generous with books since they are not very educated and don't have the time to guide us through our homework. It's their way of "helping" their children. Years later I understood the intent and goodness of this. And I hope to give our kids the same experience of the joys of reading ... especially in this day and age of digital gadgets.

Spent a good $140 getting books for both kids today. It's a lot but the excitement they have on their faces  is worth it. And totally priceless when they read them. Meimei did think about buying the books online but I insist we do this at the bookstore so they get the right experience. 

I'm not expecting this to pay off but just wanted to really give the kids the goodness that my parents did for me. And if we are lucky, it will become a good experience for them too.

萱萱 @Heartbeat For School Swimsafer Programme

Meimei was at the polyclinic today so decided to drop by the swimming pool to spy on 萱萱's swimsafer classes. It seems Nyama was there too so they got to gush at our little girlgirl's swimming classes.

萱萱 should do pretty ok for these classes since she has already passed them in the private classes we sent them for. I can't imagine how difficult it would be for kids that never had the opportunity to swim before this. Swimming is a life skill like cycling so Singapore mandates every kid have the chance to learn it. It's a good initiative.

Kiddo Pic Mar 2025

阳阳 @Bedok HeartBeat For Swimsafer Test

Meimei accompanied 阳阳 to the test. By the time I got into the swimming complex he was already done.  We'll hear of the results in a week or two.

Elixir Haul #26

The original Travel bottle is back! Although I'm only in Bangalore for 4 nights, I still decided to buy this bottle just so I can savour the sweet taste of the Cognac.

Mastercard Must Have Some Data Leak

My turn to get the same fraudulent charge on my Mastercard. The fraudsters must be going through their whole long list of Mastercards to buy things off Amazon US.

The difference this time is that I received a call from OCBC about 5 minutes after this charge pop up on my phone. The customer service immediately cancelled my card. They must have been receiving a constant stream of people calling to dispute these charges that the moment more of such charges at USD499 are placed on Mastercards, they immediately call to notify the card holders.

Again I have to wait till the charges are billed before I can dispute them. I do think Mastercard must have had some data leak that they are not sharing. How is it that we can be receiving these charges like that? I've not used my Mastercard ever and I don't have any Amazon accounts nor buy anything really online. So my bet is that someone got hold of a list of cards with their security codes. Oh well, this goes to show it's important to check the credit card bills. Never know if something fraudulent pops up on your card.

 

Kids @Dentist ... With Special Guest

Both kids have their dental appointment today. Yeeyee took the opportunity to let XY learn about what happens at a dental check in hope that she understands having to stay still and open her mouth when it's her turn in the future. The kids were also excited to have their little baby cousin come along to see.

Mastercard Amazon Fraud Charge

Got a prompt on my phone for a USD499 charge against Meimei Mastercard sub-card. Huh? What did she buy? Checked with her immediately and she didn't buy anything on Amazon. The USD amount also raised a red flag. If she had purchased anything on Amazon it's usually in SGD.

Further checks on the banking app showed that the charge came from Amazon US. Ok, definitely this is. fraudulent charge. But because this is a fresh unbilled charge, it doesn't allow me to dispute it on the app. So I called and spoke with a customer service. They asked a couple of questions and recommend that I cancel the card. Makes sense but they cannot reverse the charge right now so I have to wait till its billed and put in a dispute.

The fraudsters were pretty "smart" in purchasing something below USD500. The typical default notification threshold is at $500 so this way some or many people would not notice a charge. And unless they comb through the bills they may not notice it and pay for it. Thankfully I always set my notifications at $1. I want to know everything that is being charged, even if I was the one triggering it. 

Next step is to remember to dispute it once the charge is posted.

Happy 10th Birthday 萱萱

Happy Birthday 萱萱! Lots of attitude these days. Hopefully you grow out of it soon! 

Work Travels: Dining @Cincinnati Feb/Mar'25

I didn't take many pictures of meals this time. After a few weeks in the US, everything tastes the same. There were a few good finds but I forgot to take pictures for some of them.

As good as the food looks, I miss home-cooked food. Can't wait to get home for a good bowl of meesua!

Work Travels: Usual Loot And Something New

Every trip to Cincinnati involves 2 staple. Lawry garlic salt from Walmart and Lindt chocolates from the outlet mall.

I made sure to grab the chocolates over the weekend. I came with more clothes this time, plus the ones I bought when my luggage didn't arrive on my flight. I love the sleeping clothes and went to buy another set of them from Walmart. So as it turns out, there was more stuff that the luggage can take. Thankfully Meimei had preempt this and made me bring along a foldable bag. I threw clothes and stuff I can afford to lose into the bag and kept the salt and chocolate in the main luggage. I had space for more but Meimei didn't want me to buy too much. Plus I'm probably going to make another few trips to McAllen this year so plenty of opportunities to get more salt!