Recently, i have been reflecting much. I think somewhat, i have been a very lucky person. First to start off, i am blessed that i was able to move my studies over to another country. It is not something that every family can afford to send their children overseas. Expenses overseas, especially in europe can be scaringly high. Even i get abit insensitive to prices after living here for a while ( for example, sometimes when i see a 2 euros sweets, i will still happily buy it. But if it is priced in sgd, it is a scary 4 SGD for a pack of sweets ). Even macdonald meal cost around 6 euros to eat…. which is about 12 sgd? and thus, i have since stopped trying to convert euros in sgd because it is just impossible to make me happier if i know the exact ‘loss’ that i will be incurring for every product i buy.

i am thankful that i have a very very very supportive boyfriend who has supported me in many ways, including financially. Without him, i dont think i will be able to study past 4 months. He has taken care of my phone bills, my housing issues, household expenses and such. It is not that i am leeching off him but given my current circumstances, it is just impossible to depend on either myself or my parents.. with school fees amounting to 15,000k in euros( and yes, i am unable to pay with CPF lol)

my study is ending soon and i am seriously thinking how i should move on with life from now. Should i move back to singapore? Or should i go to korea to study another 3 months of the language since it is a place that has given me tremendously wonderful memories? Or should i work towards to becoming a stewardess to explore more parts of the world? My mind is still unready to settle for a 9 to 5 office job. Should william stay in europe to continue working since the pay and benefits in netherlands is great? Should i start studying dutch… or just refocus to study japanese or korean instead?

Most importantly, where should we both settle in the future? Netherlands? Singapore… ? or somewhere else? Staying in netherlands has been somewhat eventful. Despite the fact that it is a pretty still, ( hmm, boring) country and people are satisfied with the shops closing at 5 pm and going back home early….. it is this place in which i have sort of built a home with my loved one. I learnt to refine my culinary skills ( HAHAHHAH), to build furniture by myself, to take care of someone else except for myself. being in a foreign country, it is inevitable that i have to force myself to be somewhat independent. Plus, there is so much privacy living by ourselves.. no parents.. no relatives chasing us to get married. We can also quarrel one day and make up the next day since we live under the same roof without others interfering. Honestly, i am very happy here.  Also, i managed to experience other cultures ( friendly whites, rude dutchies, smoking drugs is so ok here that i smell it in the lift of the subway everyday, THE SUN IS WONDERFUL….. ) and other countries in europe.

Despite all that, somewhat, i still miss the capitalistic, modern, very singlish singapore. This is especially so for the food, the variety of choices ( come on, netherlands drug stores totally sucks…no choices on their shampoos, makeup and everything EXPENSIVE ) , and singapore  stores’ opening hours till 10!!!!!!!!!!! and most importantly, the fact that i am unable to just grab bubble tea whenever i like since the plaza is just besides my house… and EAT packaged and CHEAP sushi when i like ( here, i have to go for the sushi buffet if i crave for sushi… 25 euros!!!!!!! ala carte sushi is a killer!! like 3 euros for one salmon maki? ) and also, in netherlands, if i crave for anything, i have to depend on a miracle that my hands and brains know how to make it.

but i am worried, if i come back to sg, what will happen to my dear will? He has no friends in singapore, being a pure breed dutchie and it seems like a totally new environment for him since netherlands advocate relaxation and is more for old people to build their retirement flat ( ok, too exaggerating but you get the drift) ;P Singapore, on the other hand, will be stressed for my pampered william lol, especially its working environment. I wonder what he will say when he has to do pay-less OT, encounter office politics and working hours till 8 or working on weekends. That is the life of poor singaporeans, and i highly doubt he can endure it. and can people accept his americanised english and forgive him for his lack of understanding for singlish? Also, will he feel left out when people start speaking in mandarin ( my poor boy is quite bad at mandarin) and that he wont be able to join the conversation ( that is seriously what i feel now when people start conversing in dutch, especially his brothers) ?

so many doubts and choices but only one path i can take. What should we compromise on? what will it be?

a singaporean woman with so many un-achieved dreams with a relaxed dutch man, where will life take us to? sometimes, inter-country relationships are so difficult.

my mom calls me kiki, kikipoes, kiki baby, baby, … the thousand names that girls make up for me. honestly i prefer to be called kiki. That is the reason why i like guys. guys are simple, just like my dad.

i am 6 months old. Unfortunately, i can never mate anymore so disperse that dirty thought of yours if you are a male , especially if you are a cat. I live with my parents, and they often harrass me. cant i be left alone? i just love drooling in my cat’s world!

anyway, arent cats cool? we sleep, look at the birds and then eat and sleep again!! you know, i just love seeing birds in my dreams!

ok before i go on, here are some of my MOST lovely pictures showing you how pretty i have grown up to be!! dont disagree with me! Cats are always right!

am i dead?!? of course not, playing dead so my mom wont disturb me sleeping.

eating is nice~!!

zzz my fav hobby

curling up like a ball is fun

mama lap is not bad

will using the command stick

i love icecream too

she is being emo.

what?!

she sniff my hands for good deals.

aww little girl

sleeping with her fren-nemy, the house mouse

i love the umbrella~!

hey what is up?? i love to play games too!

something very nice up there.

like a ball like a ball.

looks very fun to me!

i love sitting on my mom’s homework

new heights dont scare me

dont i look pretty?

birdy birdy.

showing off my new teeth.

dad hand is so juicy

look at my ears! i can be the next pin up girl!

me being sterilised. that hurts.

again, my poor wound

zzz end of my story. zzzz

PS : i am really super lousy at dutch i dont learn this full time and i just learn some sentences for fun at times.. hahahah this is ultimate cui-ness as i will put it. this was done with a specialised consultation with the superman bf.

How are you? – hoe haat het met jou? ( pronouncation: hu heart hat met yao)

i love you – ik hou van jou ( pronounciation: ik how va-n yao)

how do i go to _______? – Hoe gaan ik naar _________? ( pronounciation: hu ha-an ik na _____)

i am hungry – Ik ben honger ( pronounication : ik ben hon-er)

i am full – ik ben vol ( pronounication : ik ben ful)

I am Joelle – ik ben Joelle.

 I live in ______ - Ik woon in _______( pronounication : ik woo-n in ___________)

darling?? – schatje? ( Pronounciation : Sa-Che)

i live with my boyfriend - Ik woon met mijn vriendje. 

my bf is nice – mijn vriendje is aardig.

See you again! – tot ziens! ( pronounciation : toad- seen-s)

i am going home – ik ga huis. ( prounication : ik ha house)

where is _____? – waar is _____??

why? — waarom? ( pronounciation : wa-rom?)

is this free? – is het gratis? ( pronounciation – is hat hra-tis)

lol. that is all i remember for now more to come next time. and hopefully, it get better over the months.

i am such a slow learner..:X practically i am learning one sentence per month. Hope my bf dont laugh/scold me. hahahha.

but basically, the thing that is bothering me about dutch is that stupid G sound.. if you realise, it is much pronounicated as a H sound with a combined RRRRRRRRR sound. so if you manage to gurgle your mouth, you are basically making the dutch G sound. And up to now, i still cannot pronounce the G properly.

and i also cant stand the long long words… like sometimes there can be like 20 alphabets or more in one word!!that is totally murder. my tongue gets tied pronunicating the never-ending word.

my cup of coffee to keep me alive on the train.

in the speedtrain. Holland’s green grasses

train station. the everyday rush

den haag. Will’s hometown

here, there everywhere.

den haag looks nicer than rotterdam

waiting for tram

here it is!

in the tram. Kind of old huh.

can you see they use the old CHOP machine to chop my card( look at the orange MACHINE hidden behind the ezlink machine looking thingy.)

this is the card i am talking about. you need this to take the tram. and it cost 7.60 euros per piece!! exp!
one tram ride takes about 2 chops….but that depends on the distance.. sometimes 3 sometimes 4.

the hague bicycle station…. see how popular bikes are??? so many people in netherlands use bicycles.

a view from tram into the hague’s train station

the train!! VERY FAST SPEED AND EXP it cost me 5 euros to come to the hague each time.

what am i taking?

that is me camwhoring while waiting for food

that is my dear bf’s mom making food lovingly

today dinner

today dinner

after dinner : took couple picture

will’s mom packed food and rocher for us to bring home. I love her!

heading home. isnt holland nice? this is taken at 8 PM extra daylight for you.

that is my baby:)

his brother so kindly giving us a ride to the train station

Den haag( the hague) ‘s train station

bored

here is my train!! bye den haag, hello rotterdam!

wayyy home~

my bf, aka, superman-will, has updated his blog at hubbypoes.wordpress.com

his recent entry is about the customs of dutch customs and how he, a dutch chinese, survive in dutch land.. and a deep analysis of DUTCH language.

Interesting? go drop by and say hi! ^^

Taken from wikipedia:
1) Denial – “I feel fine.”; “This can’t be happening, not to me.”
2) Anger – “Why me? It’s not fair!”; “How can this happen to me?”; “Who is to blame?”
3) Bargaining – “Just let me live to see my children graduate.”; “I’ll do anything for a few more years.”; “I will give my life savings if…”
4) Depression – “I’m so sad, why bother with anything?”; “I’m going to die… What’s the point?”; “I miss my loved one, why go on?”
5) Acceptance – “It’s going to be okay.”; “I can’t fight it, I may as well prepare for it.”

recently, i personally went through these 5 stages of grief when i realised one of my acquaintances whom i met in korea died. Let me explain why i have used the word “acquaintance”. Honestly, i was not close to this person and i have never even spoken to him once before. But he left a deep impression on me because he was the first guy that i met in korea, going to the same ihouse that we both would be staying in for the next 4 months and both of us including gillian, took the same bus and taxi to the same ihouse on the first day that we arrived in korea.

i still remembered that he carried a big guitat with him when he was waving for the taxi, how 3 of us got stranded on the road while waiting for the taxi, how he managed to got one first and how we managed to get to the ihouse first because the taxi driver decided to drive him around thinking he is a foreigner ( he is a american-korean by the way.) and yes, that was the first and only encounter i had with him. Subsequently, he got his own friends and i was always surrounded by the japanese. And so strangely, his roommate was a close friend of mine in my korean class.

i added him on facebook when we both left korea.. even though i didnt talk to him, he was always very active on facebook, posting up music, doing his weblog experiments( in which he set up a blog indicating that he was married and see how many people respond), and yeah, he seemed like a cool guy to hang around with. i think if we had the chance again to be friends, i am sure he would be one of the good friends that i will ever have.

AND SUDDENLY , HE BECAME DEAD. sorry, correction, he is dead. It happened on the 31st of March 2010, and even on the 30th March 2010, he was still posting messages on his facebook wall and suddenly, one day later, his dad wrote on his facebook that he had passed away in the morning. I saw the message that people left on the wall on 2nd April 2010, and honestly initially, i thought it was a bad april fool joke. I really couldnt believe it, i was in denial.

i started backtracking the entries that his friend left for him, the notice that his dad posted, the message that he last left… despite the huge amount of evidence that he was really gone, i still couldnt believe it. I honestly still thought to myself that it might be a april fool joke, or another experiment that he was doing again. How can such a young and talented person die at this age??? i brushed away that thought that he was dead and secretly lingered to the hope that he was still playing a prank.

and later, i came to realise, he was really dead. More and more people came to pour in their condolences and well-wishes on his facebook wall, his dad posted the notice that his funeral would be held on Monday… i couldnt believe my eyes. i was honestly horrified. How can someone my age die so young? How can someone who have so much to do in life die so young?? And i thought of the times i first met him and then how he was gone. Then, i thought of myself, what if i died so young as well?

i was scared. and still in denial and in the bargaining stage, i asked my bf numerous times, ” you sure he died? you sure he never play a prank? you sure.. you sure?? ” Then at night, after the fact that he really died sunk into me, i laid in bed, feeling a tinge of depression even though i didnt know him that well. He was a talented , bubbly , young man with tons of aspirations, how could he have died so young? and even if he did, what caused it? That night, i didnt sleep well and i even got a nightmare.

His death made me realise that life is so fragile. Life is SOOO fragile indeed. People can spend their whole life thinking, ok, i will go on holiday, to the miracles of the world when i retire, when i become 50 bla bla. People ignorantly assume that they still have that 50, 60 , 70 years of life to live, they assume that they would just be like everyone who die at a peaceful age of 100 maybe. I think if my friend knew that he was going to die at a tender age of 23, he would have played harder, drank more, dated more girls, made more music, ate more sinful food and enjoyed life more. But he was just like everyone  who assumed that they have the rest of their lives to do whatever they please later.

Who knew life is so short? You could just come and go the next moment. Thinking about that makes me kinda depressed.

Thank you Terry. You made me treasure life a little more, be more thankful with the passing of each day, that my loved ones are still with me. You made me realize that i should treasure life and my loved ones more and i should complain less and be thankful more, that i should wait no longer to do the things i really want to do.  I pray for you to be blessed in your afterlife and you will be deeply missed by all of your friends.

and for everyone, we should JUST DO IT.. whatever we like dont wait and have regrets.. no one knows what is going to happen in the future.. so we should cherish the present!!

Today i was about to update my blog…i realised to my shock that my HDD is not working anymore! It cannot be read in my mac and will’s laptop, a windows that threatened to reformat my stuff! Plus i tried changing cords, blowing away the dust, shaking it, changing computers, but all failed.

in fact, i was shocked to tears. All my lifework is in that damn HDD!! all my pictures.. those of me that were ugly, that were cute, that were with friends, that were of the best and worst moments in life, that of will and me. All gone. All my 3 years work in NTU gone. ALL my work in Erasmus gone. My pictures in holland GONE. My pictures taken in rome and paris GONE! the only consolation is that i did upload some of them on FACEBOOK and i still have picures taken from jan in my camera.

BUT OTHER THAN THAT, EVERYTHING ELSE IS ALL GONE.

can you imagine how that felt?? like i have lost my identity. So being that weakling, i cried.

my sister say i could bring it to fix in singapore(since i have that warranty) if not, i can fix it in holland. Chances are the files might be gone. BIG SAD SOBS. plus the fixing takes like 1 month or so?

please come back to me, my HDD. PLEASE.

honestly, when i buy things from sellers, i am always nice but this seller totally turns me off. i can be a very nice and sweet customer but if you piss me off, please dont expect that same courtesy from me.

sidetrack, I need to preach how much important customer service is. In this world, customers are KINGS literally and as a marketer, i cannot stress how important customers are because retaining a customer is like 200% more cheaper than getting a new one. and one negative association to your shop can tentatively ruin everything you built for years.

I have decided to write about her because i just cannot let her off for such shitty customer service. I feel so incredibly angry when i think about what happened. So, to anyone reading this and intending to buy from GUDONYATOO from etsy, i highly recommend you NOT to buy. There are like a million of good products out there, why do we want to spend our money on sellers who obviously DO NOT care about their customers, and only about their profit margin? Her products might be good, which i initally honestly thought so, but they totally do not have any form of customer service. i mean, we need to uphold our diginity, why buy when you literally have to beg?

Read below for my case and many others as well.

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story goes : i was finding a shampoo and conditioner on etsy because recently , i am very into handmade and organic products. Then I saw this seller, GUDONYATOO with over 10,000 reviews and decide to look through some of her products. I was almost 90% certain that i was going to purchase her products( i have browsed through her website and picked the products i wanted: i actually spent quite alot of time looking through the reviews and each and every product she had)  but then, i thought that i would just ask some questions first before buying.

i needed to check on shipping from the US to the Netherlands and also if the hair product was suitable for my oily + dry ends + falling hair condition ( sobs). Who else is better to ask than GUDONYATOO themselves? GUDONYATOO also highly RECOMMENDED people to ask questions on their website( contradicting)

oh yeah, so i saw this on their website and thought that it would be no harm to ask so i convo-ed her. (my nick is erased off for privacy reasons)

i emailed her a few questions all asking about if the product suits my oily, dry ends and falling hair and about the shipping costs. Note that i was VERY polite, courteous and always with smilies. She chose to ignore my questions and only swiped it off with a answer that US law dont allow her to make any comments. That was fine, and i decided that ok whatever, i will just take a risk and buy it even when she didnt answer my questions. And that was when she DECIDED NOT to sell to me!

seriously i was pissed mainly because 1) i did my time researching on her products 2) i was always cordial to her 3) i even was willing to look pass the fact that she was unwilling to answer my questions which i thought every seller is obliged to when promoting their own products. 4) in the first place, she was the one who encouraged questions on her website

So, being very pissed, i sent her a confrontational reply 1 in which she did reply but seriously not in a sincere or apologetic manner. it seems as though she had the right to do it and she was right in doing it. and she pushed all the blame on me by saying that i insulted her by indirectly saying her product to be ´harsh´just cos i asked if the product would make my hair drop. Even if this is not the exact 100% politically right way to ask, i didnt ask it in a mean or insulting way right! she could outright just say NO and i would have trusted her.

oh yeah if anyone read carefully, she did mentioned ´sorry things didnt work out´ but too bad, i didnt take this to be a sincere way of apologising to a potential customer. it seems as if i have to beg her to buy her products and now she is rejecting me because of a wrong question i asked. AWWW. is this honestly how a good seller should act?

please also note that after the last note to her, she NEVER did reply again anymore. no apology no nothing. just totally ignored me.

please read from bottom up. this reflects the entire convo with her.

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seems like i was not the only one insulted with this shop . if you look at the following, you can see that she has actually told BUYERS NOT TO ORDER FROM HER AGAIN, or BAN THEM FROM ORDERING. woah she is so high and mighty. and when buyers gave them feedback which was not positive, she retaliated by giving them a negative feedback!

http://legothique.com/2010/02/12/gudonya-too-a-review/

!!!! also from the same lady.

as above, she demanded a apology and this is what she got from the male owner of the GUDONYATOO

just look at that comments that followed HAHAHHA. now brian and tina, you really lost your potential customers.
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these are just some more things i discovered while googling about GUDONYATOO. sorry for the small text.. you can enlarge your screen hee.

apparently this consumer was saying that she had bought a few times from this GUDONYATOO. But the third time she was able to buy, she left a positive feedback saying how 2 of her items didnt suit her BUT the other 3 did. GUDONYATOO then went on to ban her because apparently GUDONYATOO CANNOT ACCEPT NEGATIVE FEEDBACK. what crap is that.

so potential buyers of GUDONYATOO, the feedback you see now on GUDONYA only represent a portion of GUDONYA real positive feedback because she doesnt allow any negative possible feedback so she ban or disallow any potential bad feedback buyers. that is total discrimination.

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lastly, while looking at GUDONYA feedback, i realised she left negative feedback for people who have left her negative feedback about the products. Can sellers be more rude than that?

another case …

honestly, i dunno who is right or wrong here so i shall not comment.

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apparently i heard that the current owners of GUDONYATOO, tina and brian, are not the first owners of GUDONYAToo. The first owner, i heard, was a very nice lady who provided superb service. Tina and brian bought the company from this lady. I have googled  gudonya customer service and i realised the nice feedback ranges back from 2007.. maybe that was the time when the first owner was still running the shop.

after saying so much, potential buyers who want to buy GUDONYAtoo, i have some advice for you. If you want to buy GUDONYAtoo, please only have NICE things to say, and always seems PLEASING. remember to phrase your words correctly, and you cannot feel bad about the product even if it doesnt work well for you.

And if you think you cant be so accommodating, then dont buy from them.

you might also want to read http://frescophyrra.blogspot.com/2010/01/gudonyatoo-soap-review.html , http://www.lipsticksandlightsabers.com/2010/02/drive-by-reviews-part-2.html , http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11564&page=4

PS: this entry only states my own opinion and research i have gathered from google. it does not contain any false or fabricated information. Also, this entry is never meant to defame anyone but to highlight the low service standards and to uphold my rights as a customer. If you do not agree with me and feel that their products are much worth than their customer service,do go ahead

in the next entry, i would highlight 2 etsy shops which i think have really wonderful service. They definitely won themselves a lifetime customer!!

MR WILL, AKA the GREAT, hahahahah who play the role of my superman boyfriend has finally created a blog!

visit him at hubbypoes.wordpress.com

ask me why hubbypoes?? hehe, that is how i call him….

and poes means cat.. so well, you get it.

cheers to my bf! hope he keeps this up for at least 1 week!

i am going out to play now! shutter island!!!