Buying Prescription Glasses Online

The festive season is well and truly over but I find myself needing more and more stuff. I need new jeans because most of the ones that I have are falling off me if I don’t use a belt and I really don’t like using one. A duffle coat is also on my wish list. I think I also need new glasses too. My next check up is due around the middle of the year. I have been checking out what other people are wearing and I desperately wish to get myself a pair of those that gives me a more mature look. I know that I am being greedy because I mostly wear contact lens.

I heard from someone that it is now possible to buy prescription glasses online. I love the savings by buying directly from the manufacturers. An up to date prescription issued by the Optometrist is required to buy prescription lenses online. Most Optometrists do issue one to each customer but I have been to one company that refused to issue one. That was the 90’s. I bought one pair of spectacles from them and that was it. They still send me offers to this day! LOL.

Zenni Optical is one such place to buy online prescription glasses. Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case! They manufacture their own fashionable glasses using modern materials. I just had a look at the website and I find their prices very affordable. This is because the customers are buying straight from the manufacturers without going through middlemen. With the option to now buy glasses online, affordability and variety are suddenly more widely available to everyone.

Bonnie’s Garage

I went over to Bonnie’s house this afternoon for the baby shower celebration. They have moved to this house only recently. Her type of house is the reason why I sometimes wish that I lived in a house. I like the fact that they have a garage. If I had a garage I could turn it into another room for extra storage. I don’t like renting a storage unit away from home. Imagine storing many of the things stuck in the spare room in the garage. It is impossible to do that for now because I live in an apartment complex. The car sits in the allocated spot in the garage shared by 20 other households. Bonnie’s husband carefully planned the space available inside their garage. He added some cabinets and shelves. He also made full use of the walls by adding two bike racks to hold their bikes and tool hangers for garden tools and household cleaning equipment. Everything is neatly stored. Bonnie actually wanted deeper shelves but if her husband went along with her wishes, she may have found it impossible to get out of the car once it was in the garage. She needs better access more than ever now that they are about to start transporting a little baby.

garage cabinets

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Up To Date Insurance Payments

It is awful to watch the Californian bush fires burning down so many houses. I hope those people can rebuild their lives after the fires stopped. Not only are their priced possessions burnt but if they are like some bush fire victims in the past that weren’t up to date with their home insurance payments, there would be more nasty surprises waiting to haunt them.

Australian bush fires are not really an immediate threat to my apartment but I do make sure the payments for our home insurance and car insurance are up to date. Our car sits in the garage and is hardly used but we still make sure it is insured.

A friend of mine used to own a little Holden Barina. She was driving home after work one day and lost her concentration for a split of a second along the way. She hit two cars but was not hurt. She couldn’t make a claim because her insurance expired. She was under a lot of stress at the time and was making plans to pay for the car insurance the following Thursday (payday). She also found out later that the car was not worth fixing. She didn’t drive a few years after the accident. She was adamant to save every penny to buy a new car without relying on loans.

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Online Videos

I went to check out a favourite bookstore on Lygon St earlier this year. The day was steamy, threatening to rain. I noticed that many people were heading the same way I was going but it was not until I approached the corner of Lygon St and Faraday St that I realised that there was going to be some kind of event. I looked around to see what it was going to be and found out that the Ferraris were coming. I wasted no time to give the Good Samaritan a call and instructed him to bring my camera. Being another Formula 1 racing fan, he didn’t hesitate to drag himself out of bed at all. Together, we found a good spot to take footages of the Ferraris driving down Lygon St. The Formula 1 racer was driven by a test driver but I have forgotten his name. Later, we uploaded our best footage on YouTube.
That was my first attempt to upload videos online. Since then, I have been checking out YouTube to look for funny videos. People enjoy uploading footages of their children. I think these people are ‘brave’ to do that because once the footages are uploaded, no one can monitor who is accessing them. I, as a nanny will never upload any images or footages of my charges.

Reel SEO is an interesting website for those who are interested to learn about online videos. It is only a few months old. It has great tips and up to date information on how to optimize and market online video footages on search engines. This can improve and generate more traffic to the online videos and have them ranked. There are also heaps of links to other useful websites to boost the hobby of making online videos. Leon, my neighbour, is really into this type of things. He will certainly find the website interesting. Unlike us, I don’t think he is content to just simply upload a basic video footage. With his help, Winnie made beautiful video diaries of their little boy.

Video Search Marketing and Video SEO - ReelSEO.com





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More Lighting For The Garage

I recently whinged that the body corporate of our apartment building spent too much money installing more video cameras all over the place. I now regret doing that because the cameras did their job around 10 days ago when some dude broke into one of the garages. Unfortunately, the lighting is quite poor and the resulting images of the incident are blurry and grainy. The place does resemble a dungeon even in the day. There are fluorescent lighting but they are just not adequate. I think the next time money is spent to improve our building, they should consider adding more lights.

garage lighting



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Online Storage

It is amazing how it is now possible to obtain extra storage space online. At IDrive-E, a leading online backup service provider, everyone is welcomed to sign up to 2GB of backup space absolutely FREE. This can be used for storing photos, media files or other documents. It is easy to use, secure and reliable. There are no backup & restore restrictions or bandwidth limits or file type restrictions. This caters to people’s different needs.

At IDrive-E, they also offer IDrive-E Pro Version to people requiring larger storage space. This version is not free though. For only $4.95 (US Dollars) per month, this version offers families or small business operators unlimited storage space. To make management easy, one central account can be created for multiple users within a family or small business. And it is possible to monitor the actions taken by every additional user from the central web based console. The additional users can also be further grouped under different departments for easy identification.

The services offered by IDrive-E seem easy to use. It is as easy as just dragging and dropping the files from point A to point B. They provide ‘Continuous Data Protection’. This feature recognizes changes made to files/folders and backs them up approximately every 10 minutes. IDrive-E also offers phone support for those of us who needs the extra guidance. The handy thing about online storage space is that one can easily access files away from home or when the poor computer at home crashed. By login online, one can view any files stored there or to retrieve and restore any that needed to be. There is no need to cry when someone cheekily deleted the photos painstakingly taken over years.

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Extra Storage Space Required!

September has gone and Spring has already been here for a month! This nanny is slowly cleaning her apartment. There are things that need to be thrown out. There are also things waiting to be sorted out and stored away. There are things in boxes that have been waiting for months to be taken to our rented storage facility. This nanny is fast running out of storage space within her small apartment. She is simply hoarding too many things.

There are a couple of foldable easy chairs and a couple of bikes hanging on the bike rack at our car spot in the communal car park. Other people store things at their own spots too. Despite the recent break-ins, it may still be a good idea to add functional storage space if we are careful with our selections. This nanny might find the idea of some robust metal cabinets with good locks useful. Things that are not required immediately can be stored in the garage to create more space within the apartment while bulkier things that are not required all the time can continue to be stored at our rented storage facility.

garage storage



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Travel Dreams

As expected, Ettie took Bree and I out for most of the day on Tuesday. She bought us brunch and afternoon tea. Ettie actually wanted to drive but Bree's dad was using the spare car because his was taken to the workshop for servicing. So, we ended up using the taxi to go shopping. Also as expected, Ettie bought heaps of things for Bree. She bought three outfits, a couple of picture books and toys (including a T-Rex).

While I was sipping an ice cold lemon tea, Ettie asked me of my plans for my annual holidays at the end of the year. I told her that I really wish to travel. I told her about my plans to go to Japan but it won't be happening during this coming holidays. I am intending to have a good time in Japan and will have to budget carefully when travelling around this beautiful country. Ettie remembered me telling her that I went to Euro Disney years ago and she asked if Tokyo Disney will be on my list of places to visit. Of course Tokyo Disney will be on my list. I have heard so many great comments about this theme park. Some said that the Japanese one is the best of all of them. Despite believing in a need to avoid licensed characters, I also believe in the practice of moderation. LOL.

I have been returning to the Hotel Reservations.com website regularly to see the kind of accomodation and packages on offer for Tokyo. I am planning to have a short stay near the city so I can explore Tokyo on my own. I would like to stroll in the Imperial Gardens, take photos of the Imperial Palace, to window shop at Shibuya, to experience the serenity of the Meiji Shrine and to travel on a bullet train (Shinkansen?). In my desperation to travel to Japan, I have also started to take up Japanese casually. My friends in Japan can't wait to show me some aspects of Japanese life. They like it there so much that none of them are planning to come back to Australia anytime soon.

Hotel Reservations.com is a handy website to shop around for hotels, motels, holiday packages, bed & breakfast options, car rentals and airline tickets. They also offer vacation rentals to people (especially families) with a bigger budget. A vacation rental is not just a basic hotel room. It is usually a larger self-contained suite that includes handy cooking facilities like a kitchenette, fridge and microwave. This website is very easy to use. Visitors can search for examples according to their individual needs. They do not list only the high end options but affordable options to cater to those of us who are planning to travel on a tighter budget as well. While they also offer more destinations within the USA, their coverage for the rest of the world is pretty extensive. Everytime I check out the super affordable accomodation options on offer in other parts of East and South East Asia, I become so tempted to ditch my plans to visit Japan. Some of the 3 Star hotels in Thailand have rooms starting at less than US$50 per night! Some friends who visited Thailand also had heaps of great things to say about Thailand, including one who went when the Tsunami hit at the end of 2004.

Travellers should really visit HotelReservations.com to see what is available out there. Travellers booking their reservations online are given Special Internet Rates. For greater reassurance, phone bookings are also available. People from the US, Canada and Europe can book by calling toll free numbers outlined on the website.

As it turn out, Ettie told me something I didn't know about the family. Ettie and her husband (Bree's grand dad) lived in Japan for a couple of years in the 70's. The couple moved there to work. Bree's dad was sent to a boarding school because he didn't want to leave his mates. He used to visit his parents during school holidays. No wonder there are bits and pieces of Japan around the house. There is a wooden bucket in the home office where Bree's dad 'hides' his pens. These are souvenir pens he receives as giveaways from functions and events. I just learned that the bucket is actually a traditional Japanese rice storage container. People in Japan probably do not use such buckets anymore. In the land of gadgets, they might have already created a digital rice storage container with smart technology.





Hotel Reservations



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Can’t Live Without My Digital Camera

The camera that I was given when I was 11 died in 2004. I had always wanted a camera with zoom function but hated to just throw my beloved camera away. It was after it stopped working (beyond repair apparently) that I finally bought myself a digital camera. Not only am I blessed with 10x Optical Zoom, the best thing I like about digital cameras is the LCD screen that allows me to check the shots that I have taken. Pictures that didn’t turn out ok can be deleted instantly. At the photo developing kiosks, pictures can be further enhanced so that the end result is almost always brilliant. How wonderful, huh? Digital cameras are so easy to use that even one of my friends was producing great shots of her son playing footy recently. She is the last in our circle to purchase a digital camera and she bought one for less than aud$200!

On my way out to the city today, I walked past a few trees behind the National Gallery of Victoria that were starting to bloom. Being a fussy person who is always planning to make beautiful and quality products for young children to use, I stopped by to have a good look. I decided right then that I have to go back tomorrow morning to take a few shots. I would like to take pictures of the leaves in various stages of development. It is a pity that I didn’t have my camera with me today. At home, I sometimes even take pictures of general items to create flashcards. My ongoing language project requires heaps of pictures and what can be better than creating my own.

Greedy me would like to buy another digital camera with at least 8.0 megapixels and 12x-18x optical zoom next. It is hard to settle on one from a growing selection out there in the shops. New technology is introduced regularly. I just saw the new iPod in the paper today. This nanny will have to work really hard to keep upgrading.

Nikon D300

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Pay Per Post: A Week On…

I have been a Pay Per Post postie for a week. Time really flies. In that time, I have written around 6 sponsored posts (not including this one). I received a confirmation email yesterday that one of them has been approved. Having only just started 7 days ago, I have not been paid yet. I think I will be receiving payments soon. I am aware of the amount of money that I will be expecting as it is stated on my blogger dashboard. I am actually pretty pleased with the amount (in USD) considering that I didn’t have to work my butt off to earn it. I am still debating as to what to do with the pocket money I earn from writing sponsored posts. I am hoping to make enough to cover the cost of Christmas but I am tempted also to spend it on a big ticketed item for myself but that’s wasteful though. It might be better if I just save it to fund my big project later. I can also use it to fund my trip to Japan. Woo hoo!

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Travelling Made Easy

Australia is geographically very isolated from other countries. Islands like Fiji and Vanuatu have never attracted my attention much, New Zealand too for some reason. My folks love New Zealand. They kept telling me how green its country side is.

I went to England years ago. While I was there, I did a little bit of travelling in Europe. Travelling around Europe is not only just so easy; it can be pretty affordable if you shop around wisely. I shopped around for short breaks within my budget to cities that I was interested to visit. Because of the close proximity to Europe, many people book themselves into weekend breaks to relax with the family. Europe is filled with history and culture. There is always plenty to do for the whole family. Couples too can book themselves into city breaks to enjoy what cities like Paris have to offer in terms of entertainment and of course shopping.

There are now greater numbers of cheap flights and holiday offers to Europe than ever before. Instead of taking some time off work to visit a travel agent, one can now browse what’s on offer by going online to visit websites of travel companies like Dialaflight. Their website is jammed pack with useful travel information. They offer cheap flights, accommodation options and travel ideas to help would be travellers better plan their holidays. From their website are also links to search other important bits and pieces related to travel, such as car hire. What I really like about Dialaflight is that the procedure to book anything is not done entirely online. I like the idea of speaking to one of the travel consultants over the phone. With all the horror stories of shonky travel companies, it is definitely reassuring to speak to a travel consultant to make sure that any travel plans are carried out properly. It is also an opportunity to have any queries answered without having to email them in and then wait for a response.

So, where did this nanny go after she was done with England? I went to Paris to visit the Euro Disney. Sorry, I was young at heart then and still am now. I also went to Rome to experience what the Italians had to offer.

weekend breaks



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Christmas Will Be Here Soon!

We are fast approaching the end of the year. We will be putting up our Christmas tree in just a few months. While we look forward to Christmas, our relatives working and living in the US will be anticipating the triple celebrations that line up the rest of the year. They will be celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Three celebrations in succession must severely deplete their savings as well as increase their stress levels for having to jostle through the crowds to get their shopping done. If you think the traffic is bad in the week leading up to Christmas, spare a thought for those who live in America and have to do it three times in freezing conditions!

Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular. With a little planning, one can get most of the shopping done online nice and early without ever stepping foot into a crowded mall. Online shopping is not necessarily expensive, especially in America. There are plenty of offers and savings to be made. One way to save money from shopping is to check out the discount coupons and promotional deals at CouponChief.

I checked out some of Coupon Chief’s extensive list of web merchants. At the time of my visit, the Target Coupons were offering a $5.00 discount to online shoppers who spend $50.00. Another one of the Target Deals was FREE SHIPPING to shoppers spending $25.00. I am wondering if one of my relatives is aware of this as she has had a ball purchasing educational products for her child lately.

GAP is one of my favourite stores and Gap Coupons were offering online shoppers a 25% discount for spending $125.00. BestBuy Deals will be popular with the guys and there were plenty of discounts on digital cameras, home theatre systems, home entertainment accessories and computers. A FREE SHIPPING* offer was also available from BestBuy Coupons at the time of my visit. Please be aware that the currency quoted here is in US dollars and please always check the expiry dates to the offers before committing to any purchases. Once a web visitor clicks on a certain coupon/offer, the website will automatically transfer him/her over to that merchant’s website so the shopper can almost immediately browse the store’s goods. A smaller window also pops up to give the shopper extra instructions for that particular coupon.

With the bulk of the shopping done, there will be more time for everyone to just enjoy the celebrations at home with family and friends.
coupons

Cheaper International Phone Calls

We used to dread receiving the monthly phone bill. The bill used to be expensive because we made a lot of international calls. We decided to try prepaid calling cards around 2 years ago. This move immediately slashed the costs considerably. Now, I can talk longer without feeling too guilty. Once the prepaid credit is used up, we would then go searching for the best rates by popping from store to store, reading the fliers to find the best phone card to suit our usage. This slight hassle sent us surfing the net for an easier option.

Pingo is one provider offering such international calling cards. Being the 10th largest carrier of international phone calls, they offer competitive rates. For example, it costs only a little over 3¢* per minute to call the US from Australia. (Bear in mind though that the rates do fluctuate due to currency exchange.) Calls can also be made to the UK, Japan and many other countries. Pingo’s website offers more details on their current rates and the countries they cover.

New members are now being offered up to 5 hours of FREE International calls for signing up to a Pingo account. Readers of this blog will receive $8 in FREE CALLS. There is also a special phone card blog discount coupon called “ppp3” available that is valid for $3 off Pingo. That means that you will receive a $25 phone card for just $17. Pingo charges a small monthly account maintenance fee of less than USD$1. Calling time can be purchased online with a credit card or via paypal. With that, a toll free access number and a unique PIN number will be provided to allow immediate usage. Read more about this by clicking on ‘How It Works’ on Pingo’s homepage.

Virtual Calling Cards or prepaid calling cards have made it possible for everyone to enjoy chatting with friends and relatives living overseas. Such a service is also a blessing to those of us who are managing a small or micro business from home. This allows us to contact suppliers and customers from around the globe within a tight budget.


long distance calling card




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A Wish to Travel Overseas

I have been planning on a trip to Japan for a while now. It is never cheap to travel to this exotic country. It is especially expensive for someone earning her living as a nanny. I really should consider other countries in Asia but Japan has been on the top of my list of destinations for a long time.

I do check online from time to time to see what sort of travel packages and accommodation options are out there. There are many places online where one can arrange their travelling needs. One such website is Hotel Reservations.com. This company offers travellers good prices to hotels in many countries around the world. They specialize in Bed & Breakfast and private condos/apartments as well. (The later is definitely out of my budget range. LOL) Vacation packages are also available. Hotel Reservations.com also covers hotels in Japan. Some of the hotels featured are pretty reasonably priced and within my budget since I only need to use them for a few days during my trip. Even the cheaper options are said to be close to facilities like the subway. Staying in hotels close to all the action allows me to spend some time exploring Tokyo. Luckily I won’t be spending the whole trip staying in hotels because a couple of friends have already invited me to stay with them. One of them is married to a Japanese guy. It will be interesting staying with her because they (like many Japanese) do not sleep on beds! They apparently sleep on traditional Japanese futons – thin mattresses that are rolled up for storage. They are such nice people though. They have offered their son’s bedroom to me. At my rate of savings, the kid (who is 3 now) might well be a teenager by the time I take up the offer. LOL.






Hotel Reservations

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Tuition to Improve Literacy and Mathematics

Most people think that a nanny’s job is to look after her charges. This includes bathing, feeding and entertaining the little ones and ensuring that they are all safe and sound. I however take a special interest in their overall development and education as well. In my experience, I have come across a few children who seemed to struggle in the first year of school. Alexandra is one example. She has always struggled to concentrate. 3 years of Kindergarten didn’t seem to prepare the child for Prep year. I was discouraged to improve her situation in any way at the time because her parents received advice that my ‘intervention’ may confuse the poor child further. I was also too busy looking after the other two siblings and completing long lists of chores (that a nanny shouldn’t be made to do). Months after I left the family, her mum called to ask about tutoring services to improve Alexandra’s literacy and math skills after school. I found it hard to believe that she actually bothered to ask for my advice. I thought I was only a nanny. Score’s innovative tutoring programme would be a great help for children like Alexandra. Score! Educational Centres have been around for 15 years and they are part of the Kaplan family. Attending this type of after school programme will help Alexandra to catch up to her peers and keep up with new work at school. I dislike rushing children academically but some children do need extra help. If the child is struggling, it is best to work out a way to improve the situation now than to wait till it is too late. It is still easy to help children struggling in the early years of primary school.


Innovative Tutor

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This Nanny is a New Pay Per Post Postie

I have always wanted to have my own blog. I was curious to see what others were doing with their own blogs, when I noticed that other bloggers were writing sponsored posts for Pay Per Post. I wondered what the fuss was all about. Later on I found out that these bloggers were actually making money from writing sponsored posts! A light bulb turned on in my head immediately. I thought that maybe I could do the same.

I got this blog up and running in June. I blogged about my work. I waited patiently for 3 months, because that is how long it takes for a blog to become qualified. As soon as I was eligible I applied to become a postie for Pay Per Post and I have just been approved today. This will allow me to write about various topics and still earn a little pocket money for myself. Writing sponsored posts may also allow me to write about things that I do not usually blog about. This way I will not run out of things to say. Hopefully the opportunities will also improve my writing skills.

I work as a nanny and on top of that I am also a student, studying off-campus via Open University. I do not have a lot of extra time to secure another casual job to feed my expensive hobbies. The thing I like most about Pay Per Post is that it allows plenty of flexibility for people like me. I am not made to work to a quota. I can work as little or as much as I want, provided that I follow the ground rules laid out by Pay Per Post. This is my first sponsored post. I can't wait for other opportunities. I would definitely be a liar if I said that I was not looking forward to getting paid via Paypal. I have already been daydreaming in the last 3 months as to what I will do with this extra pocket money. I might save it for my grand project or I might save it for the trip to Japan next year. If I am not careful, I might spend it all at Christmas time! Look out shops, this nanny loves to shop!


blog reviews

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