Letters from the Daddie

I'll be going up to Berlin this weekend. I told my dad that. Then I realised that for all the trips I went, I never once asked my dad if I could go, I just went ahead and told him my plans. yea... I know I'm past the age of needing to ask for permission from my parents, but well, all my expenses here are being paid by them, whatever trip I make, it's out of their pockets. Feeling a bit guilt spending so much.

So that day, after conversing with a friend, pondering if should go to London, or Utrecht, I thought that maybe I should ask the Daddie. My family is not rich, yes, I might live a comfortable life, but we are nowhere near extravagant. Financially, I know my this whole exchange programme is a burden to the Daddie, even though my grandfather did pay for my airplane tickets and attempted to help out a bit. Considering this and that my sister is going to Hong Kong for an immersion trip this June, I really shouldn't be spending too much.

SO I decided to ask the Daddie about the impending trip to either London or Utrecht. I don't want to be a spoilt kid and always get my way, so I asked him if it's viable. I told of the costs either by train or by plane, then I told him about the costs of my tickets to Berlin. Then I asked him what he thought. I was thinking, if he thought that going to London would be too expensive, then I should maybe go somewhere else.

But this was his reply:

Joan,

Go for a break.
I think you have enough money in your account.
I have experienced living in the dormitory alone during the holidays, it was very very boring.
You just have to keep track of your expenses and let me know when to top up your account.

Bye.

--

What is it about the men that they like to end their emails with "bye." or "cheers.", it's so lame.

It's nice to have a father who understands after being through the same thing once. My Daddie studied in England some time back, okay make that some very long time back, so he knows what's it like to be far away from home and must make use of all opportunities. But of course, the very long time back and now is very different. Because of one very important invention, living alone in a dormitory is no longer boring.

Internet.

With the internet, I can be whereever I want to be and do whatever I want to do. I can occupy my time by surfing websites, I can read books, I can watch movies, I can catch up on news, though mainly, only football news. Life in a dorm isn't really that boring.

But of course, it would be better to be going out, definitely~ hehehe~

I've been trying to cut down on expenses by not buying anything irrelevant. The shoes I wanted to buy when I came over has been shelved away, I hates shoes anyway, I'm a slipon kind of girl... hehehe... I don't think I'd be buying clothes over here, unless they are really cheap, or that I can wear them again when I'm back in Singapore, ie I won't be buying jackets and coats and stuff like those. I'm also not eating a lot. All these just so that I can travel and not burden the family back in Singapore. I think I am a good girl~

After spending 154euros on my train ticket to Berlin, and the Bahncard, and whatnots, I've officially set my budget in Berlin to be at 100euros, and if I don't buy anything tomorrow and on Friday, I've got another 20euros more to spend. I've now only like 120euros in my wallet, not counting the bit of coins I have. So that shall be my budget. Actually for only two days and one night, 100euros sounds quite more than enough, right? hai... Not so sure, anyway, I think if I really see anything I really want to buy I think I'll still buy it and probably pay by my Mastercard. I'm such a spendthrift.

Maybe instead of asking my dad to top up my account, I should call him to transfer money from my savings account in to my this account. At least when I know I'm spending my own savings, I might feel a bit more pained and not spend that much? hahahaha... damn... I'm now even scoffing at myself.

yea... This is coming from the girl who had just this afternoon spent €17,99 on a (brace yourself for this) German soundtrack for (...) Detective Conan. That's like so duh... But the opening track keeps playing in my head "Ich kann nicht dagegen tun..." that after seeing the advert for the OST, I was tempted into buying it. Oh, and my Gravitation the novel finally came in the post~ wahaha... More on that another time.

I just want to say this again. I'm really thankful for everything I have. The 52 Detective Conan mangas sitting in my cabinet back at home. And I'm really not jealous of everything I don't have. The entire set of Detective Conan the anime. I don't really need the things I don't have, so there's no reason for me to feel upset over things I don't have. After all there is youtube, I don't need to buy all the anime when I already have the whole collection of manga. wait... I suddenly thought of my whole collection of anime AND manga of Cardcaptor Sakura. I should be extremely thankful that I have all those I have.

Looking forward to Berlin this weekend~

In preparation for this Berlin trip, I've bought an extra set of 4 rechargable batteries, and I shall charge them all up, I now have 12 batteries. And I'll clear my 1gig card, and just in case, I shall go and clear my 512mb card and 128mb card. And in extra protection, I shall also clear my 1gig card for my handphone, and the other 512mb card in my the other handphone.

Have I not said I'm extremely thankful for everything I have?