Day 30 of the 60DWCC - Long Overdue Visit to My Parents Place

Since the first day of school, I am not been very happy with the fact that RK's school bus always moving off before RK could get seated safely. The last straw came when THL (her turn to send RK off) told me that RK got up the school bus, handed over the bus fare to the driver and before he could even walk to the seats, the bus moved off. Our poor RK nearly lost his balance.

At 9.30a.m, I called the school bus operator and feedback to them that the bus driver should ensure that the child get seated before moving the bus off. This kind gesture of a few seconds could save everyone lots of unnecessary trouble should the child lose his or her balance, fell and knock on the head. The bus operator agreed and told me the bus driver will be informed of this feedback.

The weather was good today and since RK is home early from school today, I decided to bring him to see his grandparents. It has been quite a while since I last visit them. As we have sold our car, it is no longer as convenient to drop by as before (10 minutes drive away) as it was involved taking a 25 - 35 minutes bus ride. After washing up and lunch, we walked to the bus stop to wait for the bus service that goes directly to my parents' place. The bus that we wanted to take left before we could reach the bus stop and since it was noon time and with the blazing sun beating down mercilessly upon us and sweat rolling down my eyebrows, I surrendered. We took a cab instead and we reached there in 10 minutes and to our surprise, the taxi fare was only a few dollars more than the bus fare -had we taken a bus instead. :D

RK had a good time there playing with all his childhood toys and he even took home a small portion of them. I was talking to my mum about Taiwan and she was somewhat keen to go. I told her that we have to book the tour fast if she is really serious about going. We have to secure the peak period rate which also has to coincide with RK's one week school holiday.

We took a direct bus home at around 5pm and was home in 30 minutes. RK took a nap till 6.30am and he finished up his homework before playing with his toys. THL went out for dinner with her colleague at Jurong Point and so RK and I had dinner together.

After dinner, I found myself browsing at the pricing for used cars at SG Car Mart and I notice that the pricing have not changed much over the last 30 days. I guess if we were to get another car, it will definitely be after the review announcement from MAS to see if the car loan can be serviced over a 8 years duration and car loan percentage to be brought up to 80% from the existing 50%. Staying tuned...

Transport Expenses: $11.01

Bus Ride: $3.51

Home to Boon Lay Interchange (THL) => $0.83
Boon Lay Interchange to Home => $0.83

Parents Place back to Home => $1.27 + $0.58 => $1.85

Taxi Ride: $7.50

Home to Parents' Place => $7.50

Transport Expenses for the first 30 Days amounts to...

Drum roll please...

Yeah, we manage to only spent a whopping $214.64 over the last 30 days which is inclusive of all bus and Taxi fares. Before we sold our car, I was expecting the amount to be at least $500 a month, I did not expect the 3 of us to be able to take public bus most of the time and only take Taxi when the need arises. We deserve a pat on our back, don't we? :)

Daily Afterthoughts

In my opinion, there is always a thin line between being too dependent on Taxi and taking one when there is really a need. Case in point, this afternoon I believe it was rational that we took a cab instead of enduring another 15 minutes (the duration for the next bus to arrive) of sweating-all-over under the hot scorching sun. To arrive comfortably and in style (or so I thought) at my parents' place within 10 minutes at the price of a Value Meal at McDonalds, I seriously thought it was worth it.

Don't you think so?