I will be honest, I’ve always believed investing in gold bars is something that only the ultrarich can afford to do, and I still do. I’ve seen it in movies, of course, and I’ve often wondered how and where you would do something like this.

Apparently if you go to Monex Deposit Company, there’s a whole panel of financial advisors who can advise you exactly on how and where you can invest in gold.

See, if you’re rich, there’s nothing stopping you. I guess that’s what they mean by ‘money talks’. You just talk to someone and they’ll tell you what are the best investment options available on the market and you just go from there. It must be nice to be rich .

If you liked this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed for more hip parenting posts. Oh and do leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I hope y’all had a more interesting Christmas than I did. I spent mine in bed with a thermometer sticking out of my ear.

Well, the fever’s finally blown over after it got tired of playing games with me. It feels great without the fluctuating temperatures, dizzy spells, aching joints, non-stop sneezing, persistent cough and everything else.

After days of gulping down yucky gooey oatmeal and tasteless water, my first real meal of saltless steamed broccoli over rice never tasted so good.

Today I had my first sip of tikuanyin and it was singularly the most beautifully soothingly bitter tea I’ve tasted (in the past one week!). I’ve used three adverbs there almost consecutively in one sentence so you know I’m serious!

I haven’t left my house in a week. I was forced to drive to the corner store to pick up Steev in the torrential rain one afternoon and when I got home, my temperature went through the roof.

So that will teach me to sneak out of the house. I haven’t dared set foot outside since then. But then enough of that silly self-imposed house arrest.

Tomorrow I’m forced to head out and make a trip to the mall, of all places. I’ve been slack. I still haven’t gotten the girls’ school supplies and school starts in a matter of days!

Duh! Malls! Such boring and crowded places! I wonder how people can stand going there !! I’m going there because I’m forced to (not because)

I MISS THE MALL!!!

Well, another new year is almost here. After all that shopping and retail therapy, are you somewhat inspired to start your own little business? A small online store maybe?

Personally there’s something about a shopping frenzy like that that makes me think, why not, eh, why not start my own store?

Frankly I don’t think it’d be hard. Well, it certainly couldn’t be harder than setting up a physical store and having to sit there all day waiting for customers to walk in, know what I mean?

It’s even easier if you choose a good shopping cart solution like Ashop Commerce where every aspect of your store can be managed on the internet, in the comfort of your own living room.

This shopping cart software is so intuitive that even a newbie can easily handle the setup in a few clicks. There’s no need to bring in the geek troops unlike other ecommerce software.

Ack, I’m down with a temperature. It must be the shopping and walking in the hot sun during mid-day. Now I’m feeling warm and achy all over. I thought I’m aching because I over-exercised at the gym yesterday.

Skye stuck the thermometer into my ear and it’s beeping like crazy. 100 degrees! I popped my Vitamin C and cod liver oil and it didn’t help at all because my fever is full-blown now.

I’ve hardly eaten all day. Bleh! I decided to pop some Panadol and get some sleep. The kids are bringing me lots of water to guzzle but I still feel tired as heck.

I woke the kids up before 8 this morning hoping to get an early start at the mall. This being the last weekend before Christmas and everything, I figured the malls would be sardine-packed and parking would be hell.

I was so wrong! Parking was a breeze and there weren’t many shoppers. Beautiful. We had a small breakfast of curry puffs, then walked around and later found other stuff to eat.

I managed to get myself a pair of shorts at the Padini concept store where there’s a big sale going on. Then along the way, I stopped by Metro, FOS and a couple of other places and picked up a few more baby tees for myself.

It turned out to be a great day for shopping. Nothing too stressful and just the way I like it.

You know, a lot of us taking our parenting role so seriously that we feel incapacitated to do anything else… for ourselves. Our entire lives revolve around the kids. As a result, we sometimes deny ourselves our own ambitions.

Here’s the good news then for those of you who’ve been hankering after a higher education for yourself. Capella University is a fully accredited university that offers you the opportunity of an online education right from your own living room.

They have courses in the most sought after disciplines that you can pursue in your own time at your own pace. So even if you’re busy with the kids and only have a few hours a day to spare, you can still get yourself a degree.

This post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

What’s the best thing about being a mom, you ask?

Could it be that I get to have the last word on everything?

Could it be that I get to answer ‘because I said so’ to that perennial question ‘why’?

Hmm, I wonder ? Or could it be that I get to enjoy this at the end of a day’s shopping?

I’ve been asking my kids to read the news. It’s good practice, I feel. And this being the school holidays, I thought I’d get them into the routine.

They, on the other hand, have their own reasons why they shouldn’t read the news.

“It’s too depressing, Mom, there’s never any good news in the papers!”

Aaargh! They’ve noticed too? Gosh, I don’t blame them. Even I find it depressing to read the news these days and I try not to make it the first thing I do in the morning when I get online.

Steev was only five and Raine three when I took them to the US on vacation. Steev still has memories of the bright lights in Las Vegas and the exciting themes of the Las Vegas Hotels.

Skye was still a baby then so we didn’t bring her along. Poor thing, she feels so left out when we talk about that trip. So we’re definitely planning on going there one of these days.

This time though, I’ll be sure to make my bookings on BestOfVegas.com. I like the fact that they have recommended hotels and shows that other tourists have enjoyed.

It’ll be so much easier than trying to second guess which show is good to watch or which hotel offers better service. They’re a comprehensive resource on Vegas vacations with great prices on offers.

Most kids hate veggies. What I used to do was hide the veggies, in any way, shape or form, in other food.

Like I’d grate my carrots finely and hide them in my spaghetti sauce and the kids would happily lick their plates clean. Green veggies are a little harder to hide because of their telltale color.

But what I used to do (and still do) is to keep exposing them to the sight of these veggies and keep encouraging them to eat even the smallest portions of it.

Steev will only eat one veggie - broccoli so that’s what I keep adding to my pastas. Now all three are so used to seeing broccoli featured as part of their pasta that they’ll eat every last bit.

The fact that lettuce is so much a part of burgers is great because they’ve gotten used to the taste of it. Now I can add them seamlessly to my homemade burgers and they’ll just take it for granted.