As mad as a march hare..... or the Mad Hatter?

The title says it all.... it's been a mad month for both me and Brain due to the numerous corporate exercises going around the last couple of weeks. I haven't had the time to do anything this month except to work my ass off since we had so many financial due diligence exercise going on in the last one month. My short trip to Singapore middle of this month was cancelled as Brain had to work real hard too on some due diligence stuff too. With special work assignments coming up in April coupled with the busy tax season, I'm not sure how I am going to juggle these and plan my holiday at the same time especially with attrition rates hitting the roof in my dept. Anyway, I guess under every cloud there is silver lining - let's just hope I'll find it before it is too late.

I went to the Brands Outlet at Ikano Centre over the weekend to check out their lastest offering of children's clothing as I felt that paying RM80 to RM120 for a GAP or Oshkosh sweater for my son who will outgrow the sweater before the end of the year, just a bit way too much especially if we are only travelling to countries with a temperate climate like once or maybe twice this year. I must say that the outlet offers a lot of branded attire at a fraction of the price which I mention above simply becos these clothing have some minor manufacturing defect which is not exactly visible to the naked eye - well, at least not to me, I definitely do not have a trained eye to look at minute details like this. Ok so maybe there will be a loose thread here and there but hey as long as it is wearable and the dye doesn't come off from the fabric after a wash, who really gives a damn!?

I managed to get two pullover Oshkosh and GAP sweaters at RM19.90 each - amazing isn't it??!! Check out the sweaters below. They snipped the washing labels for some reason or another - I guess it is to make sure that we don't sell it off ourselves at GAP or oshkosh retail prices *lol*.

I'll be doing a bit shopping in the next couple of weeks to stock up on the stuff I need to bring a long for Jeremy for my trip to Oz. As far as food and diapers are concerned, I'll be buying these as soon as I land in Kingsford airport. Ok - so it may be little bit more expensive than Malaysia but it beats the hassle of having to lug all these items across to another continent especially since we will be lugging 2 bags ( one hand carry + one to be checked in), a knapsack to contain all of Jeremy's worldly goods, an umbrella stroller and Brain's camera equipment. Oh and not to forget the fidgetty toddler who now demands to be carried from time to time despite having gained the confidence to walk properly without any wobble. Flight tickets are incredibly expensive these days and I didn't even bother to book the tickets at the recent Matta fair as the price differential or discount wasn't substantial. I got ourselves ordinary economy class tickets with the hopes of getting a one-way upgrade to Business Class as Brain and myself have collected sufficient number of frequent flyer miles over the last 5 years thanks to the overseas business trips and credit card points. However, since I do not have sufficient miles for the upgrade I have to combined my frequent flyer miles with Brain's and to do that I have to effectively transfer my miles to his account and guess how much the transfer fee is costing me??? RM640!!!! It's quite a ridiculous sum of money that MAS is making off from its Enrich members. For any points transferred to another Enrich member, one is charged RM0.04 per Enrich Mile and if you want to apply for your points to be extended to a certain period you need to pay RM0.02 per Enrich Mile. And this is excluding the administration fee of RM40 that they are charging per transfer/per extension. So much for loyalty program that places unnecessary burden on its members. Perhaps I should switch to Kris flyer instead the next time I fly....

I haven't booked my accommodation in Sydney yet but it would definitely either be the Meriton World Towers Service Apartments located near Chinatown/Darling Harbour or Saville Apartments which is located in the CDB district. I guess I'll go for the former due to the location of the apartments which are nearer to all the tourist attractions that I could bring Jeremy to.