Delicious Afternoon!

Last Thursday, I had lunch with two good friends from school. The place was Delicious, One Utama and the plan was to meet at 12.30pm. This was way too early for my night owl ways so I stayed up all night in anticipation of this date for fear of oversleeping and completely missing the whole thing. But I was not late and the three of us enjoyed a very nice afternoon eating, laughing and basically catching up.

Shyam and Cal

Cal, Shyam and I were classmates in high-school, which makes us Assuntarians hailing from our beloved Assunta Secondary School. After high school, we went our separate ways but managed to keep in touch over the years. As always, whenever we meet, Shyam will give me a pep talk on credit cards; reminding me to cut my cards already and just end this credit card phase once and for all! And as usual, I'll reply with my standard "I need my credit card" look!

I know that excessive use of credit cards can lead to addiction but they do come in handy when I am in need of something pricey pronto! I always try to repay my banks ASAP of course and frankly, it's just easier to carry plastic around rather than paper.

Does it sound like I'm making excuses? LOL! The truth is I like having my credit cards around. In fact, that's actually the first thing I look for in a store. A store carrying the 'we accept credit card' sign or a restaurant with restaurant merchant account credit card payment facilities definitely appeals more to the credit card user in me!

I think every store should accept credit cards as a payment option. As a customer I'd want to have my option in paying for my purchases even if it means using my almost maxed-out credit card!

Back to my lunch, I had Carbonara that day and Shyam had the Beef Pie. After the many good reviews I've heard about Delicious, I was expecting something scrumptious. Sad to say, I've tasted better Carbonara. Apparently, Delicious is now under new management so perhaps that explains the possible change in the kitchen department.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Beef Pie

Callie who arrived later only had watermelon juice. No wonder she's so skinny, even after having three beautiful kids!

Cal and Marzie

For dessert, we shared a sticky date cake with ice cream and butterscotch sauce, which I thought was the best dish of the entire meal.

Dessert

Before we parted ways, we made plans for another session soon. And despite not sleeping all night, I had a wonderful afternoon with my friends and next lunch date will be my turn to organize. I'm thinking hi-tea in a nice hotel!

Shyam, Cal and Me

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LADY JAVA

My Never-ending Affair

My credit card affair started out innocently enough. I was into my second year of working at the New Straits Times Press and as an Advertisement Executive; I needed a credit card to finance certain expenses that come along with the job. My pay at that time was nothing to shout about and though I hold no bad credit to my name, my salary did not meet the minimum requirement to apply for a credit card.

Two years into my first job, my pay was finally sufficient to get me my very first credit card. One fine day, I found myself at a wedding exhibition; a huge client affair if you will so my presence was compulsory. There were many participating wedding booths but there were also plenty of banks offering credit cards for brides to be who needed a little credit repair and assistance during busy wedding moments.

With so many things to buy and book, a credit card is expected to lure these brides-to-be into applying for one. However, instead of the brides-to-be lining up to get a credit card, there was yours truly, happily applying for all the credit cards from all the booths on exhibition there! I purposely applied from every participating bank; convinced my applications were going to be rejected. But slowly, the cards started arriving at my office and before I knew it, I had not one, not two but FIVE credit cards with separate credit limits for me to enjoy!

I was thrilled and excited at owning my very first credit card and I celebrated with a new wardrobe! I even threw in a brand new cell phone for good measure! I did not stop to think about the bills waiting for me at the end of the month and it was only when they arrived that I had the biggest shock of my life. I could not believe I spent so much in just a month but the credit card statements were proof of my reckless spending!

Since then, it has been a tough struggle for me to fix credit card issues, which come with my overspending. As a shopaholic who is constantly with a must-buy list when we go out, it is hard for me not to swipe my card every time I see something pretty!

So now, I have a little box I call my no-no box where I keep all my credit cards at home. I leave all my cards behind when I go shopping except for one. This way, I get to control my shopaholic habits to a certain degree at least. I also try to pay for my purchases using cash instead of my credit cards. My motto when shopping now is "Paper Pays, Plastic Stays"! I don't know how long that motto will last, but at least I'm doing something, albeit a minute measure, about my credit card woes!

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SHEMAH

Bills, Bills, Bills!

It's another busy day for me today! Last night, I was supposed to take a cat nap after writing my post. But I ended up sleeping through the night and woke up in a panic this morning. The first thing on my mind was oh no, I overslept and did not do my work! But I was pacified for a moment when I checked my email and my client gave me a few additional days to complete my job so phew!

Since I slept early last night, I was an early bird this morning. This always makes me feel extra productive. I fed my cats, replied important emails and visited important blogs and then I settled down to pay my bills. There was a bunch of them on my desk and I had to open all of them first; sort out the ones that had to be paid in one pile and the not so important ones in another pile. That's just me being organized!

It took me half an hour to sort out my bills, twenty minutes to call up my banks to verify certain things on my bills and another 20 minutes to finish paying off my bills. Mind you all the bills you see above are not solely mine, some of them do belong to B. So I'm still in pretty good shape in the credit department. There's no call for Debt Consolidation or anything drastic just yet!

A little piece of good news for me today is that I called up a bank that I currently have a personal loan with, to check on my outstanding amount. I took a small personal loan several years back and have been suffering paying it every month. The officer in charge told me that I only have less than RM1000 to pay now so YAY! I could have opted to pay the full outstanding amount today so I asked what the rebate was like, for paying in full. It was less than RM100, which I thought was not worth the full payment so I settled another month of my installment instead. This means that I only have one more month to suffer paying off my loan and I'll finally be free starting next month!

It feels wonderful knowing that by this time next month, I will have one less debt to worry about. I'm still in the process of cutting down on my credit card spending though so wish me luck on that mission next!

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