Spending too much...

I'm not very happy with the way I have been spending my money recently.

PopMart has been the main cause of this because I clearly have a problem....

.

Exhibit A. 

This is the Crying Again Plush, it's almost on par with Labubu in terms of popularity, so it's been constantly out of stock and has created a sense of FOMO amongst buyers of PopMart merchandises.

This is my second box from this series that I have gotten. 

... the first one I got, I pulled this design, it's a bee and it's adorable, really matches with my cream coloured Uniqlo sling bag and I think it's a lot cuter than the Labubu plushies.

I had no plans to get a second box initially because I know it will feel a bit excessive, like my Labubu collection, 1 would have been perfect, anything more and it would just become a waste of space in my room, like most of my PopMart purchases

But when the Livestream, which appeared on my TikTok FYP page randomly, did a surprise drop last week, I went to snatch a box just for the thrill of it. 

It was not a good decision and I think some higher power wanted to teach me a lesson because....

...I pulled a duplicate.

6 different designs for me to pull and I managed to pull a duplicate. My recent luck with all my purchases have been pretty shit lately, I either get duplicates or I get the design that I want the least. If this isn't a sign for me to stop buying this shit, I don't know what is. 

Upside is my order came with a free gift, so I got a free Labubu Bottle Cap Opener. 

Speaking of bad financial decisions, I recently also got a 3-in-1 Wirelss Charging dock that can wirelessly charge an iPhone, an Apple Watch and an AirPods at the same time.

It was only $34, and I really needed one because the cable management for my desktop is really going a bit out of hand thanks to my iPhone 14 Pro needing it's own cable because of the stupid Lighting Port, and the Apple Watch just needing it's own wireless dock. 

So this wireless charging dock was godsend,  but as I was using it, it just felt incomplete, like I wasn't using the product at it's fullest potential. This dock can charge 3 items, but I only had 2.

So I got myself the third item and that was the bad financial decision..

I got myself AirPods. 

I was originally only planning to get it after my Jabra ones spoil, but my Jabra lasted pretty long and had only recently started showing signs of aging, when I shake the case, there is something loose inside, but it wasn't bad enough to warrant a new earphone purchase. Then this new wireless dock entered my life and changed everything, the temptation to get the AirPods became stronger, but what pushed me over the edge was the pricing of the AirPods Pro 2 on Shopee.

As a comparison, this is how much it would cost to get from the official Apple website, I was deciding between these two for the wireless charging functionality.

I was leaning more towards the AirPod 4 because $350 sounds a bit much for earphones, but then I saw this on Shopee...

... and of course I ended up getting the Pro because how not to get when the price is like that.  It's a $60 discount, I have since went back to check the price again on Shopee and they are now only offering $20 discount, so lucky me.

I decided to use my Credit Card and actually pay by installment and even though it is still very expensive despite the discount, it is a good pair of earphone and serves its' purpose, unlike all my stupid PopMart shit that literally does nothing but take up space, especially the fucking duplicates.

It has active noise cancellation, it reads my notifications to me, which is a bit annoying because sometimes when I am on the bus listening to music, I really do not want to hear...

"Customer A has send a long message in the Whatsapp Chat group."

... good thing is so far, all the customers for the current ongoing projects are still tolerable, but when the intolerable ones start coming in, I am going to have to disable that function for the sake of my mental wellbeing, and also archive and mute the group chat that those customers are in, which I have already done for some of my current ones. 

Something else I will have to spend money on is Christmas gifts for my family.

I had intended to get my Mum some body care products from this local small business that I have been supporting because I do enjoy using their products.

I actually reached out to the business on their website to ask if they could rush an order for a Mystery Box for me because I wanted to get their product by the end of next week, at that point, I hadn't actually ordered the items yet because I didn't want to get commit to it if they couldn't meet my deadline.

No immediate response, and my Mum had actually told me what she would like for her Christmas gift a few hours later, which was to also have the same Wireless Charging Dock I had gotten for myself, so I got one for her through Shopee, and I completely forgot about the Mystery Box request.

Well, the local small business actually replied back a few hours later and asked me if I could make my order "by today" and share my order number with them, I was pleasantly surprised that they would do that. A part of me didn't want to get anything anymore because I already gotten my Mum something, but then another part of me felt like I wanted to support the local small business if they could help me rush the order in time for my Christmas dinner, so I decided to get ahead and ordered 2 Mystery Box from them, but instead of getting it for my Mum, I got it for my Dad, my brother and his wife, total amount came up to $95.

I shared my Order No. with whoever had replied me...

*$35

 ...and well, they didn't bother to acknowledge or follow up after that to confirm that they have received my order and will fulfill it by the end of the week.

I have had this issue with them before in the past, where I actually shared that one of their products I had gotten was defective, and whilst they did apologize for my experience, (and not the fact that their product was defective), the way the reply was worded was quite condescending. 

What had essentially happened was I had gotten a bottle of bodywash from them about 1 month prior to using it, because I was stocking up, and after using those products for a while, I noticed that it was starting to smell a bit funky, like the fragrance that they had used had gone bad, so I feedback to them about it.

I got their bodywash in March I think, and only started using it in May, it was stored in a cool dry place completely unopened until I was ready to use it, so there was no way the product could have been contaminated by me, I told them that maybe the batch that they had been making in March had been compromised because I have been using their products for a while now and this  was the first time I had gotten this issue, and to that request, whoever who who was the Customer Service wrote back something along the line of...

" We are not able to check those batches made in March because we have sold all of them as it is already May."

... and it's the "it's already May" comment at the back of the reply that I personally felt was completely unnecessary. I am aware that it is May, I didn't just wake up from a coma and have no idea what month it is. I felt like that was very condescending and thought I may have upset them, so I, a paying customer, decided to make things right, and told them I will still be supporting their business despite this unpleasant experience that I have had with this specific bodywash.

No "Thanks for supporting our business"

No sign of appreciation

I was just left on read. Isn't it great? Way to make your customers feel valued. 

That being said, their products are good and speaks for itself, aside from that defective bodywash that I got, that's why I continued getting their bodywashes and room sprays because whoever is in charge of creating the scents always knocks it out of the park. I haven't gotten a defective bodywash since then so I honestly think it was that particular batch issue.

It's not so much me supporting their business, I just like their products and it doesn't make sense for me to deny myself products that I like just because their Customer Service is not great.

Fingers crossed I get the Mystery Box in time for Christmas.



Update : 

I was a bit annoyed when I was thinking of the lack of update with the local small business...

....so I just send a chaser message to that local small business to check if they will actually attempt to rush my order for my Christmas Dinner on 21 December because I feel like it should be basic courtesy to at least acknowledge the earlier message.

I feel like I am being a bit of a difficult customer messaging them the way that I did, but at the same time, I feel like it is also within my rights as a paying customer to know if the company will commit to my special request, especially after I had just bought $95 worth of products from them.

I'm treading on that very thin line of being a customer who is expecting within reason and being a straight up Karen or whatever the male equivalent of a Karen is.

What I know is this company definitely has a lack of appreciation for their customers because another local small business on TikTok that I get other body care items from is very different in the way they engage with their customers.

Nothing important

So the latest blindbox that I got from the PopMart Livestream arrived yesterday and it is from the Hirono Le Petit Prince series.

I had previously gotten 2 when it was first released and ended up getting the one I wanted the most, and the one I wanted the least, so it wasn't too bad of a purhcase, I just thought that the good and the bad balanced itself out pretty well.

What I wanted was the one at the back.

What I didn't want was the one in the front.

Even though I didn't like the one in front as much, I thought it still looked pretty good because it was quite detailed, and I liked the aesthetics in general, this Hirono series would be on par with the Skullpanda for me in terms of overall visuals.

Anyways, last week, the host for the Livestream did a surprise drop for this Le Petit Prince series again and I figured, why not just grab another one, so I did and I thought to myself, there is no fucking way I will get a duplicate of the one I didn't like, I mean I have a 1/12 chance, I cannot be that unlucky.

I was and I did....

.

.

.

.

.

It did not cross my mind that I would get a repeat, I guess that's the whole thrill of blind-boxes, it's a gamble because you never know what you will get and I lost this gamble and got the one I didn't want to get.

.

.

.

.

.

I feel like this is a sign from the universe that I should stop wasting money on blind boxes, if I want to get them, I should just get the whole set instead.

Update : On Hirono Dupe.

I put it up for sales or trade on Carousell and got someone who was looking to trade this...

... I honestly don't care so much for it and upon looking at it, I realize it's it's actually so much uglier than my dupe, but it's better than having a duplicate, so I agreed, but then he tells me he stays in Pasir Ris and would prefer to do the trade somewhere central. 

Initially, I agreed to doing the trade at either Novena or Newton since it would be on the way home from work, I figured I will bring the figurine with me when I am on my way to work, and then on my way home from work at the end of the day, I will meet this guy at either of those 2 stations, we do the trade and then I will be on my way, but I don't want to go out of my way to do the trade, it has to be along the way, the ugly ass figurine is not worth any detour.

The trader than agrees with Newton and asks me if we can trade at 12.30pm during lunch. 

I was immediately not interested anymore, do you know how troublesome it is for me to have a take a fucking bus out to Newton MRT from my office, just to do a fucking Hirono figure trade during lunch time, and then travel back? 

Well, not super troublesome since it is technically a direct bus, but for a figurine that I am not all that interested in, that is way too much effort. 

So I told him I had a change of mind and will only do the trade near my place because it's way too much of a hassle, he actually agrees to it and ask me if I can do it tonight at the nearest MRT Station of mine. I thought about it for a while and realize that was also troublesome as fuck because it's not "along the way". If I did the trade tonight, that means I would have to go back home to collect the figurine, then walk back to the MRT Station again to do the trade.

This ugly ass figurine is not worth the hassle.

...this one, maybe, and that is a big fat maybe...

So I lied to the guy and told him a friend of mine wants it, so I won't be trading anymore and will be deleting the listing.

It's so fucking troublesome, I'm just gonna bring that dupe to my office to display it with the rest of my other PopMart regret purchases 

Anyways, since I am already posting about shitty things..

... here is my economical rice from yesterday. This isn't leftovers, this is a fresh box of cai fan that I got for lunch at a foodcourt from the bus interchange near my office. It's $3.50 and it sucks because look at the pathetic amount of vegetables the guy gave, he was generous with the rice serving, but he was so stingy with the other stuff, especially the green beans because that literally looks like leftover.

Now I know that I am definitely never going to patronize that shop again.

Another much needed Solo Trip soon...

I have been in need of a break for a while now and have decided to book another trip to Taipei for January. I really just need something to look forward to because life has been very dull lately, it's just work, eat, sleep, repeat, I actually thought I was suffering from early stages of depression earlier this week on Monday because I was feeling so down literally the entire day, just completely unmotivated to do anything, so I think I really need this trip to boost my mood a little. 

This time, I won't be going for 6 days 5 nights because I could barely fill up my itinerary the last time,  even though I ended up getting unwell and didn't get to do a lot of things on my sparse itinerary. I will definitely not be overeating this time around and will do my best to avoid sashimi and nigiris lest I get another round of food poisoning.

My choice of flight carrier this time round will be Scoot, again, I just hope they don't have any issues this time round because that 2 hours delay during my previous visit was not a great start to the trip.

I decided to go for Scoot this time round again is because the flight timings are just so much better than EVA Air.  EVA Air has the same flight timing into Taipei as Scoot, but the return flight is shit because it's pretty much all morning flights, the "latest" morning one is at 9am, that mean I need to reach the Airport by 7am, the only way for me to get an afternoon return flight via EVA Air is if I am willing to pay an extra $400 for it, which I am clearly not going to because that's ridiculous, so taking Scoot really is a no brainer for me.

Having 2 full days should suffice for me, and I also made sure my trip is happening on weekdays, I hated the weekend crowd so much during my last trip, so I will not be making that same mistake again this time.

Hotel have also been booked, and this time, it's also located near a MRT Station again...

.... the hotel I stayed at during my first visit was at Shandao Temple on the left, the hotel I stayed at during my second visit was at Zhongxiao Fuxing on the right, they were both fantastic hotels, super close to the MRT, which is extremely important for me and my style of travelling. 

This is why I didn't book a flight to Hanoi this time around even though Vietnam was on my list of countries to visit, they still don't have a robust metro system yet and I don't want to have to constantly rely on Grab for my travelling needs.

We shall see how this hotel that I have booked this time around fares, it is a 4 Star Hotel so I believe it should be on par with the last 2.

Flight Tickets - $670

Hotel Accommodation - $715
Total Damage - $1,385



If I had gotten everything from Expedia directly instead and went with EVA Air, the total damage would have been $1,800, and if I actually went with the afternoon return flight option, that would have brought my total up to $2,200, so going with Scoot was really a no brainer.

When I find myself a travel buddy, maybe I will look at exploring Vietnam, but for now, solo it is. I really need to look through my friend list and see who can be a suitable travel buddy, or maybe I just need to start making new single friends who don't have any family commitments because I definitely do not want to be travelling with their spouses and kids and then become the third wheel during the trip.

It's complicated what I want in a travel buddy, because as much as I would like to have someone to spend the trip with, I really don't want to be around them 24/7. I would like to meet them on the trip for lunch or dinner, or maybe visit an attraction together, but after that, we split up and go back to our own accommodations. It's weird and I think that will only work if I am visiting a friend who lives in another country. Don't have a lot of those, but the ones who are, they are either living only in New Zealand or Australia, it's really just one of those 2.

Anyways, I think I am slowly getting over my PopMart phase, I hope, because all the stuff that I have bought are starting to lose their appeal to me...

... my Labubu collection just feels really excessive now.

I have some buyer's remorse for a few of the newer PopMart Blindbox I had gotten, and 2 of them are from the Molly series...

Molly

Molly

... it's really not very cute, in fact, I find the cupcake stand one to be creepy as fuck, so I brought them to the office to displayed on my office desk instead.

I think the PopMart phase is starting to go back to normal again to before the whole Labubu x Lisa craze started, I notice the Livestream viewership is now barely hitting the 1k mark lately and I am just not very excited to snatch any new Labubus anymore thanks to my excessive collection of them.

That being said, I will most likely get a blind box from PopMart at Taiwan as a souvenir and hope it will bring back positive memories instead of bad ones.

I have also finally invested in a height adjustable desk from a brand called Squirrey...

I think it's part of a Xiaomi brand.

It was retailing for $300, I made use of a Lazada Voucher my sister gave me and only paid $250 for it, it comes with a mini drawer as well along with a USB C and USB A port right next to the height adjusting control panel.

I have wanted to get a height adjustable table ever since I got my Hag Capisco, and finally have a full black desk to match the rest of my furniture, which is fantastic. Am definitely preferring this table over my previous one, which despite having the perfect size, was way too big, and because my room has those stupid bay-window design and the old table was L-Shape, I couldn't access the bay-window easily and the bay window just kept collecting dust.

Even though this current table is still blocking the bay-window, I can still easily clean the area when required...

... because the height of this table can go up to 1.2m,  which gives me more than enough allowance to crawl underneath and do my cleaning as and when required. I could probably work on the cable management because it's a huge mess right now, but this table was a good purchase, I did not get the same buyer's remorse that I got with the HAG Capsisco because this table just validated that purchase. 

With this new height adjustable table, I can now prop my table a lot higher than usual and not longer have to slouch as much anymore, or at least I hope that's what will happen.

I feel like I have spend a lot this month, but thankfully it's not all on PopMart, I did get some useful items.

Shady AF

Recently, my boss got this text from a prospective customer of ours...

 "apologies but i won't be proceeding with your team, mainly because I need a designer to handle the design. In its current state is just too far from what is possible for the home. thank you for the time"

... it's a bit hard to understand because I guess this client failed his writing comprehension, but what he essentially means or what I got from it, is that he wants a designer who is able to maximize the space's potential, and the design proposal that had be prepared for him by the designer (me), which includes a 2D Space Planning Proposal and 3D views of his space , did not meet those requirements, so he will not be going ahead with us.

He has pretty much taken a dig at me by sending this message to my boss and is essentially telling him that the designer he has attached to this project, a.k.a me, is unable to design and plan the space efficiently according to his needs.

I will admit, I might have deserve a bit of critique from him because I did not like this guy from the start ever since I met him during the initial site survey I did together with my boss, and that kinda affected our interaction, or lack of it, in the follow up group-chat.

Let's call this customer Jean.

Jean is a referral customer who had been introduced to us by one of our past customer, I had worked on that customer's project and that customer and his wife were very pleasant to work with, so I was also honestly expecting Jean to be a pleasant individual.

Jean wasn't an unpleasant individual per se, but I had an unpleasant experience with him which if I were to think back, is not entirely his fault.

Our first meeting involved Jean, my boss and myself at his new place, I have not had any interaction with Jean up to that point, his main point of contact had been my boss, so when we eventually met and my boss introduced us to each other, in his eyes, I was probably just viewed as the "underling" and that was when it got a bit unpleasant for me.

Jean only spoke to my boss for pretty much the entire meet up, every idea he had, instead of directing it to me, the designer who had been attached to this project, he directed it to my boss. Initially, I would stand beside my boss and try to note down what he wanted to do, and his plans for the space, but after a while I realize he wasn't talking to both of us about his ideas, he was only talking to my boss because he did not make eye contact with me for almost the entirety of the meeting and pretty much just overlooked my presence, which I found to be a bit rude, so I returned the favor and exited the conversation whilst they continued talking amongst themselves.

It was not very professional of me and my expression after that just became really sullen, I would find myself grimacing when I am not in direct line of sight from Jean because I just felt like it was a waste of time for me to even be there when the customer had no interest talking to me, my boss could see from my expression that I was in a bad mood, so he did try and pull me back into the conversation every once in a while, so I did try and bounce some ideas off of Jean and hope he would realize that I am the one he should be sharing his ideas with, not my boss, because I will be the brains behind his design proposal, but I could just feel the immediate disinterest from Jean when he spoke to me, which caused me to develop even more of a disdain towards him.

My boss isn't the designer, he came into this meeting as a contractor/project manager and started talking about all the technical stuff that Jean can expect out of the renovation, which I believe wasn't what Jean was interested to talk about, at least not during the first official meeting, he wanted to discuss about the possibilities of the space, but what he got in return was a bunch of technical jargon thrown at him and at the end of the meeting, and was even told by my boss to source for the contacts of a bunch of suppliers that the condo developer had used, like the marble supplier and aircon contractor because this were information that the homeowners could obtain more easily from the Condo Management. 

Honestly, he did not need to do that at this stage, this early stages is for the clients to be excited about what they can do with the space, to bounce around ideas and I think the site visit was meant to be a way for Jean to check with us if what he wanted to do was possible, unfortunately, because he was directing his attention to the wrong person, he didn't get to experience any of that, and since I am only the underling in all this, who am I to interject? 

Towards the end of the meeting, Jean was essentially crouched down in the living room of his new apartment, busy sourcing for the contacts of the suppliers and sub-cons on his phone, and I could sense from his body language that he wasn't really in a good mood. I knew then that the meeting had definitely not gone well and if he was going to be visiting a few other Interior Design firms as well, then we would definitely be crossed off the list just based on how bad this meeting had gone.

We said our goodbyes, he thanked us for dropping by, I shook his hands and I just felt really uncomfortable shaking it because I was pretty much sulking the entire meeting, and I could see from his expression that he also looked a bit awkward having to shake mine and thank me for taking the time to drop by because he probably felt like my presence was not required. and he was definitely not thankful.

That was the end of that meeting, and I just had a really bad impression of him. I didn't exactly work on his proposal immediately, although to be fair, I also had a bunch of other proposals that I had to finish up before I could start working on his, so I kinda left his project on the burner for about a week. I was also starting to feel really burnt out by then because my boss had been throwing a bunch of new enquiries at me and I had found out not too long ago that he was letting go of a few of my colleagues, so I was also in a very very bad mood.

My boss on the other hand went to work pretty quickly the moment Jean shared with him the contacts that he had requested, he got the price of the marble from the supplier, then had a back and forth with the aircon contractor and even prepared an aircon plan  for how the re-routed aircon would run, and he send all of this information to Jean via email and text message.

Jean did eventually message in the group chat about a week later asking my boss what the next steps were because there weren't any design updates from us after that meeting, my boss told him we were still working on the proposal and then tagged me and asked me in the group chat...

"Tim, do you need to schedule a Zoom meeting with Jean to iron out the design requirements?"

... I didn't feel it was necessary and was honestly a bit peeved that my boss would suggest that, so I completely ignored the messages from the chat and just did the proposal at my own pace. 

I wasn't 100% sure what my boss had discussed with Jean during the site survey, so I just designed the space based on the mood board Jean had prepared previously and sent over. I will say I did put in quite a bit of effort with the proposal, it wasn't groundbreaking design, I didn't reconfigure the space much because I can really only do so much with a 2 Bedroom Condo, so I send what I had done in the group chat and Jean acknowledged the proposal by replying with...

"Ok, will revert if I have any comments."

... normally I would send a smiley face and thumbs up emoji to acknowledge the customers' reply, but the lack any gratitude to my proposal just really irked me, it felt so entitled, and mix that with the the unpleasant impression that I already had of him, it just made me not want to express any pleasantries, so I just left him on read.

 

Anyways, my boss reached out to him via the group chat a few days ago to ask him for his feedback on the proposal and he shared that he didn't really have any comments, but followed up with a message related to the marble supplier, asking if the price my boss has shared was the final price, my boss confirmed the price and that was the last message Jean would send in that group chat, the next message that he would send would be a direct message to my boss, which was the above message.

A rejection message with a subtle dig at me.

The fact that he had zero comments about my proposal proves that he already had planned to drop us long before my design had been send out, it was either impress him with the very first proposal from the get go or we are out, and my proposal was clearly not going to impress him because  he had been sharing his ideas to the wrong person the entire time during our first site visit. 

I will say, I do appreciate his directness and for not wasting our time any further.

What I do not appreciate however, is the subtle dig at me, which is why I left the group chat that Jean was a part of immediately after my boss forwarded Jean reply to the internal chat, because that's really my only professional way of saying "fuck you" to the client without getting in trouble.

Do I feel like I am lacking as an Interior Designer as per what Jean had feedbacked to my boss? 

No, I honestly don't think I am a bad interior designer, I am not the best and I am nowhere close to the level of creativity of a lot of the Interior Designers that I follow on Instagram , but I do like to think I am slightly above average from most Sales Designer in the market.

Do I think what Jean has said about me being the wrong Interior Designer for his project is accurate?

Yes, on a personal level.

No, on a professional level. 

Jean thinks I don't have what it takes because Jean didn't discuss his ideas with me, he discussed it with my boss during the site meeting. You want a designer who can handle the design, but you didn't bother to actually talk to the designer on site. 

So the reason why Jean dropped us was not because of my inability to "handle the design", the reason why Jean dropped us was because of our inability to communicate with each other, there is a huge difference, this is not about my incompetence as an Interior Designer, this is about our shared incompetence at communicating with one another. 

I will admit, I wasn't the most professional, but...

...it's not just me. It's us. 

I honestly feel that this project could have gone very differently if my boss had decided to just meet Jean on his own during the initial site visit, and then introduced me much later during a design meeting in the office. That way, Jean would have had a better idea of who he should be speaking to about what instead of getting bombarded by 2 people during the initial meeting.

If we had been properly introduced and had a proper design meeting in the office, we would have not gotten off on the wrong foot, but alas, that did not happen.

I wasn't expecting Jean to proceed with us anyways so this rejection really came as no surprise, I was just a bit taken aback by the way Jean had to make sure to let that my boss know the reason why we lost the project was mainly because of the designer.

... what a shady bitch.

Also my boss wasted so much effort liaising with the condo developer's marble supplier and air-con contractor for nothing. Literally did all that work for the next ID to takeover.

PopMart Spendings problem...

So my PopMart obsession has been getting a bit out of control lately, and with my daily tune-in to the Livestream to try and snatch as many Labubus and Crybaby plushies as I possibly can at the retail price, it is clear I have a problem, like a serious problem.

Out of fear that I may be spending wayyyyy to much money, I decided to tabulate my spendings down on a spreadsheet starting from last month after I started getting the items from the livestream, and my total spendings for last month came up to ....

$339.70

... this is just from PopMart TikTok Shop, I am not including the items I have gotten from resellers and from the physical PopMart Shop, but to be honest, I didn't get much so I will just say those figures are negligible and I shall pretend they are just part of my regular monthly expenses.  

So that amount is bad, but this month's total as of 27th Oct is beats that amount by a mile because this month's total is currently...

$970.00

... I have spend almost $1000 on the Livestream just this month alone. 

The figures are insane!

But then I remembered, I didn't buy all those shit to keep for myself, I actually snatched some for friends and sold quite a few of them, so I tabulated those figures, and THANKFULLY, I actually made a $10 profit for the month of September!   That was great.

And whilst I didn't make any profit in October, I did manage to sell $705 worth of PopMart goodies, which means my actual damage for my own PopMart loot that I kept for myself for this month is just $265! It is still a lot for just a bunch of collectible figurines, but at least it's not $970!

I was also able to snatch this Zimomo Angel in Clouds during the Livestream on Friday, it retails for $299.90, crazy price for a plushie, so that definitely help brought my spending figure up to $970, I will however be selling this to a friend for $350 because she was the one who requested I help grab it for her.

Even though I am selling her at a profit for myself, selling it to her at $350 is a steal because this figurine is being sold in the reseller market for upwards to $700, if I were to sell this on Carousell, I am sure I can easily get a buyer at $450.

If my friend wants to, she can technically sell this Zimomo and make a profit from it herself, if she is desperate for cash, but I doubt she will do that.

This was release in limited quantities on Friday, so I was competing against 3000 viewers for only 100 pieces, and I managed to get it! Which is amazing, but my snatching skills have been getting rusty as of late. I would however like to look at that positively because it just means I won't be spending so unnecessarily anymore purely out of FOMO. I can already imagine myself not knowing what to do with all my current Labubus next year when I get tired of it, if it can last and Labubu becomes the next bearbrick, then that would be amazing, but all this hype started because of Lisa from Blackpink, so I think it will just be a short-lived trend that might not last until next year.

Another PopMart milestone that I have made...

... I recently decided to purchase the final 2 figurines from this SkullPanda collection. This was what truly got me started, it only feels right to complete the collection, except the secret (which is the only model that is seated) because that shit is expensive and I am not about to pay $200 for the secret.

This is the one collection I should have gotten the full set of from the very beginning because getting them individually has cost me a bit more, since resellers are actually pricing the different figurines at different prices. I paid $44 for the last 2 figurines that I am missing, and the retail for 2 blind boxes would have been $30, so yeah, at least it's not as bad as Labubu.

I have also purchased another 2 more display boxes that can display up to 8 figurines each, that means I have more excuse to buy a few more figurines. 

Fuck! I really need to stop! 

The collection so far....

The first few SkullPanda figurines that started it all, it would have been nice to just stop here...

... but then I got more SkullPanda, Space Molly, Twinkle Twinkle and my only V2 Labubu that retails for $24.90, but I had paid $50 for. Luckily I got it in the colour I wanted, still not worth it though..

And then here are the rest of my Labubus along with some other figurines from other series. I have decided to just open the Secret Labubu because I realize I don't have any intention of selling it, so here is it, unwrapped and wearing a pair of sunglasses and boots.

I got this today, this was the design that I did not want from the latest Hacipupu collection, and I guess the universe is trying to tell me to stop buying blind boxes by letting me pull this thing.. 

.. the back of the 2 head looks like a fat juicy ass though.

I'm a pervert

I also have 2 more blind boxes on the way that I will be keeping for myself so hurray to having access to adult money and making questionable financial decisions! 

Work Update, Ulcer's a Bitch and my PopMart craze...

Work has been overwhelming the past 2 weeks.

After my boss made the decision to let some of us go due to financial constraints that the company is facing, we suddenly receive a bunch of new enquires from all over the place, this sudden surge has been extremely overwhelming for me because I am now a single designer expected to handle the design proposal of 12 different projects.

We went through something similar earlier this year when my boss kept throwing new enquiries at me, and it was really odd because back then, we had another designer as well but he just kept directing all of it to me, needless to say, I took way too long to get back to some of them because I literally do not have the time to handle them, and most of them ended up engaging another company.

That is definitely going to happen this time round as well.

Anyways, for the sake of my mental health, I have decided not to entertain any work related messages over the weekend because I really need a break.

Last Thursday, my boss and I did a site visit to one of our potential customer's new home, we have met this customer for the first time about 1 month back, and during this 1 month period, I have prepared 2 different layout plans and 3D Visuals for her, the first version was based on my proposal, the second was based on her feedback after seeing the first.

The 2nd proposal was a full proposal that included...

1. Space Planning Layout

2. False Ceiling Plan

3. Electrical Works

4. Lighting Plan

5. 3D Visuals

... it had enough information for the Project Manager to essentially start running the project. Everything had already been thought out, from the length of the carpentry, to how the lights would run, how they would be connected to the switches, the location of the switches, everything was already done. 

So we go to the site on Thursday  and I was expecting to maybe just do some site measurement, for us to mark out the location of the carpentry from the 2nd proposal so the client could have an idea of how everything would fit in the space.

However, before we could start taking the measurements, the client goes...

"I'm pretty happy with the current layout of the space, but I do have a few changes I would like to make...."

... and she proceeds to change EVERYTHING except the position of the loose items like TVs and Armchairs, she then informs me about how she has shortlisted another ID and us, and started to share with us what the other ID had proposed and wanted us to layout based on what the other ID did. 

At that moment whilst I was there, I still listened to what she wanted and told her I will propose a different layout and design based on her updated requirement, but when I actually went back to the office, sat down, looked at the plan, then looked at the whiteboard of all the projects I have yet to work on it, I digested what had happened and just dawned on me what a huge waste of time this project was going to be.

Her project is a relatively small one, and against all the projects that I have yet to work on that have the potential to be worth 4 - 5 times of hers, it just didn't seem like a project worth investing so much time in, especially because I had already invested so much time doing the 2nd proposal, only for her to essentially tell me ...

"Fuck your original proposal, here are the ideas from the other interior designer I met, propose what this person did and quote me based on that."

... I really don't want to. If you like what the other Interior Designer proposed, then engaged them instead, don't ask me to replicate their work.

The truth is I had overprepared for this project because at that time, the company wasn't really getting any new enquiries, and I had the time to work on this, that being said, to have spend so much time working on that, only for it to just go to shit does not feel good, and now I am required to do what is essentially a whole new proposal. 

It's a waste of time, my boss also feels like this client actually prefers the other Interior Designer over us, so if I were to actually spend all that time working on her project instead of focusing my energy on the others, and then she ends up engaging the other designer...

... I probably will have to come up with something, but maybe at a later stage when I have worked on my other enquiries, hopefully by then, she will have decided to engage the other designer and save me the trouble of having to give a fuck.

Speaking of fucks to give, my ulcer has been giving me a fucking bad time recently. This bitch of an ulcer just popped up at the back of my mouth right beside my molar and it has been making all my meals very painful.

I'm trying not to have the food that I am chewing go too far back because it will all start to rub against the fucking ulcer, so I have been chewing with my premolars instead, which feels weird because it just feels like I am not properly chewing my food.

One of the tooth at the back is also causing me a toothache that comes and goes every now and then, I'm not sure if the pain is radiating from the spot where the ulcer is or if I actually have a toothache.

If it's a toothache, then that is extremely concerning because the dentist had told me he couldn't spot any issue via X-Ray when I visited him a few weeks back for a similar issue, and that it could potentially be due to a hairline crack. I was advised previously not to eat too much hard food, but have been eating a lot of chocolate coated almonds and macadamia nuts recently, and with that fucking ulcer at the back, I had to chew on them with my premolars, which could have made the pain worst.

This consistent dental issue is one of those things that is coming back to haunt me as an adult because my younger self was a moron who felt like brushing was unnecessary because the teeth will just get clean after drinking a cup of water. 

Now on to another topic of vapid interest...

PopMart.. again

My PopMart loot that arrived yesterday all at one go...

Everything here was purchased at Retail Price via the PopMart Tik Tok Livestream because I found the proper technique to clinch all these items during the surprise drops. 

Total damage is $100, estimate, for 4 figurines and 2 plushies. 

Seeing them together, unopened, felt really exciting, because there is so much unknown, I didn't know what type of design I was going to get....

...but after I opened them all and started to display them on my shelves...

... and table, all that excitement went away and was just immediately replaced with me questioning my financial decisions.

The only reason I wanted the Labubus was purely out of FOMO, it does get cuter the more you look at it, but if the plushies had been a collection that was readily available in the PopMart store, I would have never bothered getting one at all because it was the Exciting Macaron plushies have really questionable quality. 

This was the Labubu I got from the reseller for $40...

bad fur day much...

I had to take a scissor to give it a trim because of how bad it looked.

I was questioning the authenticity of this doll, but the QR Code on the box my Labubu came in confirmed that this is an authentic PopMart item, so I ended up giving the reseller a 2 or 3 star rating.

I understand that is isn't technically the resellers responsibility to do quality control because they are only reselling a product they have no control over the manufacturing of, but because they are selling it at such a high profit margin, my expectation for the quality will also heighten. So it's not their fault that the quality is bad, but I blame them for inflating my expectation like they have done with the price. 

$25 for that built quality is kinda expensive, but $40 for built quality that is ridiculous.

Speaking of expensive shit, Labubu recently collaborated with a clothing brand and dropped this as part of their Milan Fashion Week release...

Labubu x Pronounce

... this is the bigger model that is retailing for $129.90

Honestly, it's not very nice and I personally wouldn't get it, but it is sold out everywhere because it is a Labubu Plushie afterall. 

The only place to get it is from resellers, and the TikTok Livestream Reseller that I got my very first Labubu from was selling it for $700. 

What the actual fuck, that is more than a 500% mark up.

I remember one time, someone in the comment was asking her if she could introduce more discount for the Labubu dolls, and she claimed that she can't because PopMart won't allow her, she claims she is an official reseller, which makes me believe that PopMart is directly working a few of these resellers in China because there is no way they are able to get their hands on dozens upon dozens of Labubu Plushies without any help from them. 

This is from the TikTok video of the reseller that I got my "bad fur day" Labubu from. The amount of Labubu boxes they have is insane.

Anyways, that is their business and marketing strategy, so props to them because it obviously worked, they created the illusion of the product having very limited stock and made people like me go crazy over them, the fact that I have gotten probably 10 different Labubu goes to show how effective it is.

Thankfully, because I know how to actually snatch the Labubu from the Livestream rather successfully, the whole FOMO effect has worn off for me and I think it will only be a matter of time before this Labubu trend finally dies down. 

Keibubu, my PopMart buyer has expressed interest in getting another rainbow plushie from me, so I will probably let my new CryBaby Cheer Up plush go, his friend also expressed interest in the Merbubu and Halloween Labubu as well and he told me that his friend is willing to pay $70 for each of them.

I didn't really like how his friend is "willing" to pay $70 for each of them, like his friend is doing my a favor, those Labubus are going for $200 - $300 in the reseller market, he should be asking me if I am willing to let them go for $70. 

The Halloween one is a definite no go, it's actually out of stock and I haven't seen it get dropped in the livestream, so I am definitely not letting it go for $70, even if his friend is "willing to".

The Merbubu on the other hand will be a weekly drop on Wednesday, so that might be easier to snag, but I don't feel like snagging one for his friend, so I will be meeting him again on Thursday to pass him just the rainbow plushie, and being the generous individual that I am, I have decided to sell it to him for $25, but no meal to follow along with the purcahse this time, just a quick pass and go because the last meal we had was too awkward and a bit vapid for us to have another together, plus my waning interest in PopMart will mean we will really having nothing much to talk about.