This year has been a year of travels for me. Getting to see places, experience new cultures, taste new cuisines are truly a dream come true! I consider the trip to the US as the Lord’s special gift, perfect before the year ended. Hubby and I were also discussing on a good investment for next year. Would a life insurance be a good one? It would be odd for some people—but the honest truth is, it would be a very excellent investment. The value for our money increases through time, and at the same time it is protecting our loved ones when they would need it the most.

My friend was sharing to me about how the global crisis is affecting their business. Though against her will, they might be laying off some employees next year to cut down on expenses. I told her she’d better invest on a project management software. That little thing could do wonders! She can not only save on time and labor costs, she can even expand her market globally. Sure, she will have to spend money to purchase one, but the savings she gets out of it will truly be worth it.

We are now at the Narita Airport Terminal in Japan. We got off the plane at 6:30 am, Japan time. We waited at the terminal until 8 am to get a bus that goes to the main terminal.

We just exchanged currency because our flight to Atlanta will only be this afternoon. Quite surprised that Japanese Yen is stronger now. For 50RM, we got 1,100 Yen.

We went looking for food and ended up eating at McDonald's. For two of us, we paid 50RM for 2 breakfast sets. Hmmm... quite expensive, I may say. But we had to eat.

Our counter will only be open at 11:30. I have more time to go around the airport terminal. Geez... it's like walking in a mall here. Too many signature shops and I can only drool.

I know of some people who are not so comfortable at the thought of buying life insurances as it connotes death. Some friends just think the explanations made by agents are way too complicated with a page full of numbers and seemingly endless calculations. Almost all of them think it is not a need and is just an extra expense. I used to agree with them until lately.

I’ve been thinking, for someone who travels a lot, I need to get a term life insurance online. It’s actually easier as I can take my time comparing rates and better services myself. Buying one is not an expense as I have not lost my money. The issue here is protection for me and my family, don’t you agree?

I have been doing an inventory for our accumulated things lately. There's just too many to de-clutter. Glad that one of our friends are having a new baby soon. I get to dispose some baby furniture. Our baby cot is still in the living room. There's just not enough room in our storage for it. So I am glad to get rid of it. One of the things for keeps though is the stroller. It's not of those Baby jogger city select strollers but it's definitely a keeper. Others can go.

Anyways, I have a few more days to do this stuff. Then I will do some inventories of my business online. It would be cool to see how much I have earned this year.

I just posted about about our Air France flight recently, saying that we wrote to Air France management and asked for compensation for the trouble that we went through. I also posted about the hassles of booking a flight from travelocity. I was just writing my experience with them and not blaming anybody. You know what, today, we got the reply. From Air France.

They explained what happened and why. In compensation, they gave us travel vouchers for two, we can use it anywhere in the world and valid for one year.

Wow... if getting stranded with Air France and getting a compensation like this, I truly won't complain. LOL. It's just too bad that we can't use it for cross country moving. But well, we won't be doing that any time soon... or ever. So it's okay.

I am glad to be able to get a reply from Air France. Will definitely fly with them again.

Bonjour! ;)

We flew from London to Bogota by Air France. I found the flight from travelocity. We booking in our side here, but it didn't seem to get through. We asked a friend in Thailand who's from the US to do the bookings for us but it didn't get through either. We asked my friends Steven and Aisha who are currently living in America to do the bookings for us. It didn't get through at first but on second try, they were able to book the flight. It was a hassle but we were grateful for them for doing the bookings for us.

On our way to Bogota, the flight was on time. We didn't have any problem. On the way back to London though, the problem started. From Bogota, we're supposed to touch down in Paris for a 9-hour transit. We reached Paris in the morning and our supposed flight would be in the evening.

We didn't need to check in because we were in transit only. We waited at the boarding gate an hour earlier. Then one shuttle bus came and took us to the Air France plane. When I saw the plane, it looked like it was junked. And I started praying. Remember the Air France plane which didn't make the flight and crashed somewhere? I got a bit concerned. Hubby felt the same way too.

We stayed at the shuttle bus for a long time, wondering what was going on. When one of the crews came to us and told us something (in French), the passengers started mumbling about something. Then we realized our flight was canceled due to lack of airplanes available. At least, that was what one of the French passengers told us.

So we went back to the terminal. Others were given a hotel stay outside the airport. Since I didn't have Schengen Visa, one of the crews tried applying a visa for me which apparently was rejected. So they put us in Air France VIP Lounge to stay for a night. It was freezingly cold outside. I didn't have extra coat with me because they were all packed in our checked in luggage.

And so, we stayed there for a night, were given a meal, and free usage of internet. Since we were on jet lag (10 hours time difference between Colombia and Paris), we couldn't sleep well that night. And you can guess we had dark eye circles because we were practically awake for 24 hours!

Anyways, our flight was at 7:30 in the morning. Somebody came and picked us up from the lounge at around 6:00 am.

We tried writing to Air France management and asked for a compensation because we had to let go of our hotel booking in London. But so far, we didn't hear any thing from them yet.

We also tried to contact travelocity because we bought insurance for the flights but they were asking for some credit card infos and documents. Didn't want to hassle my friends about it. So we had to let go of the insurance.

Will I use Travelocity again? Definitely, not. Will I fly Air France again? Well, if I can get a good airfare, I would. It's the cheapest we found from London to Bogota. So I was grateful for Air France about it. We had to go through some hassles but we were treated like VIPs. Only, they neglected our letter of appeal for compensation.

I started using USANA Reset last month but when we left for London, I stopped taking the supplement. I was worried that if I stopped using, I would gain back the weight I have lost. You know, USANA products are not that cheap. It would be a waste of money if I gained back the weight in just a few weeks. In London, we didn't eat much. But when we were in Bogota, we couldn't resist the food. So I thought I have lost hope in maintaining my weight. But when we came back from our trip, I weighed myself and to my surprise, I didn't gain at all. I maintained my weight! Right now, I'm doing a portion control when I eat. I cut down on my rice intake. Sometimes, I indulge myself and I don't do portion control at all. But my weight is still the same. I would like to think that I don't need weight loss pills anymore. But then again, I am still a few kgs extra away from my ideal weight. I know I need to work on losing some more. I have 20 more days to go.

I am missing to be in a cold weather. Actually, the weather in Malaysia is getting cooler. Last time I checked, (like 3 minutes ago) it was 27 deg celsius. I know it's nothing compared to zero degrees my friends in the US are experiencing right now. I am just missing the cold weather. My skin type is oily and I noticed that in cold weather, it doesn't get oily that much. The tendency of having an oily skin on the face is that the skin tends to break out a lot. And if not cared for properly, you would end up having lots of zits that sometimes, it gets to the extent of doing acne treatment. Oily skin needs to have a water-based cosmetics, especially when you live in a tropical place, to control the oil "production." Hmmmm... I wonder if oil-based cosmetics would work on my skin type if I try it in a cold place. That is yet to be tried.

I don't really have material things that I want for myself for Christmas. Although I wouldn't complain if somebody gives me Samsung HDTV as a Christmas gift. LOL. Anyways, paypal has this promotion of creating a wishlist and just by doing that, you earn $1.00. I think you just post it in your status update in facebook and if friends click on it, you will earn some more. I did it, created my paypal wishlist, and post it on my facebook. That was last week. Today, I checked my paypal account but I didn't see anything from paypal. Hmmm... I wonder if it works on others?

What about you? Do you have a wish list for this Christmas? Is it something tangible?