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the 2nd house
Monday, 17 July 2017
after much anticipation and hype from getting the letter from the lawyer firm to inform that the condo had TOP, and the need to pay the maintenance fee and the survey fee at the lawyer firm and the long wait from the bank to disburse the 15% payment, we were checking the website everyday and hoping to get the earliest date to get the keys. however ironically, we actually choose a saturday (despite that we can actually do it on the monday already) so that we can save up some AL. anyway, we finally got the keys on 17th June 2017 for the 2nd house (just 3yrs wait, the initial TOP date was June 2018)
wasnt too surprised of the size of house, but was quite overwhelmed and elated regarding the view at the balcony, an unblock view and we can still catch a view of the swimming pool from the opposite condo.. in fact, after knowing our neighbours's exact floor place's view, i am totally pleased with our own. the 2nd bedroom's view is alot greenery now, with the upcoming plans of building a primary school from hdb. no complains, especially we are not the first batch to ballot, and the fact that we are like the walk-in type to see what's the remaining units.
the only complain we have will be the placement of the tv point which totally doesnt make sense as the wall might even have difficulties fitting a 40inch tv, so we literally have to re-locate the tv point by engaging the electrician for help, meaning extra cost. and we will also see the cable casing which hopefully will be blocked by the curtains and furniture.
defects are minimum, first round was 8 defects (which include really minor scratches on door and solid table, painting patch, the biggest one of all will be the scratch on the shower screen, and misalignment of the bathroom door), 2nd round was the stain on the washer/dryer door which we totally missed out in the 1st round. i would say the response from the defect teams are really good and they fix it at lightning speed unless its appliances then they have to wait for the company to rectify.
on 29th June, we had the curtain tracks, lighting and digital lock done up.. better to get all done up in 1 day, as work are not allowed on weekend, although we managed to bypass 2 times and get some drilling done as well on a saturday. and the one troublesome thing about condo, was the need to report to management office and require deposit for everything.
on 8th July, we booked and make use of the spa paillion (with teppayaki facility and the jacuzzi) and organised a bbq for the ngo family, also to do a home-coming gathering for jo and john as well as the house warming for the condo..
Labels: condo, family, gathering, house-warming, renovation, rivertrees
xoxo,
dear |
16:40
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our travelogue
Friday, 6 January 2017
the travelogue of CS...
Year 2010
|
|
|---|
| November | Malaysia Johor, Kukup |
Year 2011 |
| March | Indonesia Batam - Harris |
| April - May | Malaysia Cameron Highlands |
| June | Malaysia Johor, Desaru |
| August | Malaysia Port Dickson |
| September | Malaysia Johor, Desaru |
| December - January | Taiwan Taipei |
Year 2012 |
| February | Hong Kong and Macau |
| April | Malaysia Genting Highlands |
| May | Cambodia Siem Reap |
| June | Indonesia Bintan |
| August | Japan Tokyo |
| October | Australia Gold Coast |
| December | Malaysia Legoland |
Year 2013 |
| March | Malaysia Malacca |
| May | Korea Jeju and Seoul |
| July | Hong Kong |
| October | Malaysia Penang |
| November | Thailand Bangkok |
Year 2014 |
| February | Indonesia Batam - Turi Beach |
| May | Japan Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama, Tokyo |
| August | Thailand Bangkok |
| September | Malaysia Kuala Lumpur |
Year 2015 |
| February | Thailand Bangkok |
| March | China Shen Zhen (Hong Kong by dar only) |
| April | Hong Kong |
| June | Hong Kong |
| November | Taiwan Taipei |
| December | Malaysia Penang |
Year 2016 |
| March | Thailand Bangkok |
| October | Hong Kong |
| December - January | Australia Sydney |
Year 2017 |
| February | Thailand Bangkok |
| April | Japan Tokyo and Hokkiado, Sapporo |
| June | Malaysia Kedah, Langkawi |
| August | Taiwan Taipei |
| October | Italy Rome, Vatican City, Pisa, Milan, Venice |
Year 2018 |
| January | Hong Kong |
| February | Thailand Bangkok |
| February | Thailand Bangkok |
| July | Taiwan Taipei |
| September | China Shanghai |
| November | Malaysia Kuala Lumpur |
| December | Finland and Norway |
Year 2019 |
| May | Royal Carribean (Spectrum of the Seas) |
Labels: fun, holiday, travel
xoxo,
dear |
18:07
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pokemon go
Friday, 9 September 2016
pokemon go is such an addictive game, especially when you got pokemon character that you want so badly such as snorlax, pikachu, lapras etc..
with some stroke of luck, i managed to hatch pikachu and snorlax from the eggs. so dar was really hoping to get both of them soon as well, especially snorlax (because it look so cute and look like her now, fat and round) but it turned out to be real funny when the snorlax appeared at our house one evening, and it actually escaped when dar threw the first pokeball on it. concurrently, i also managed to catch my 2nd snorlax. =p
of course, we are not only the crazy ones catching pokemon, we had frens that are equally as mad as us, and they need snorlax as well. hence we went on a crazy pokemon car chase. was tasked to be radar eye and was looking out for snorlax's spot and considering if it is worth to travel down.. when we were catching pikachu / other pokemons near punggol settlement, i suddenly saw a snorlax spot at sengkang east way. its not far, but its not exactly near as well, hence here we go on a breath-taking journey to hunt that snorlax down with a million comments in the car (although only 4 of us), on how to get to the spot.
so finally we reached the destination, where all peeps are there (seriously, its near 10pm, and everyone crowd around to catch??). dar was very anxious, she ran down the car and joined the crowded, while the rest of us just try to catch the snorlax near the car. so in the end, 3 of us caught it, and dar's snorlax escaped again !!! omg!! i can imagine that to be a mental breakdown.
1-2 days later, dar finally managed to catch her snorlax juz outside hougang mall, am glad that we decided to go back home that particular day. she was literally running to hougang mall once she tapped out of the mrt station. hahahahaha! so she's a happy girl now!
anyway, on and off we will go mbs mall catch pokemon too.. that day there was a lapras, the crowd was superb duper crazy, no network, everything was chaos. mine ran away too, was superb devasted (that's why i can understand her devastation over snorlax) and dar dar was desperately looking for network, but in the end she caught hers (but she lied to me that she didnt catch it, i will rem it forever)
luckily after that we moved over to mbs hotel, and we happened to bumped into lapras again.. finally i caught it, and without any great or ultra ball, i used my poke ball to capture it! heng ah!
Labels: fun, games, pokemon
xoxo,
dear |
15:31
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throwback: birthdays 2016
Thursday, 1 September 2016
my birthday : dar felt that it is necessary to spend my birthday the very first time in this home of ours, hence she invited families from both sides (in separate occasions) over and had a celebration (steamboat and mini buffet). and not forgetting inviting my bff pipo and his gf april as well.. no birthday cake but birthday muffins for the birthday girl, and the theme of the muffins is my favorite football club - manchester united! also received alot of hongbaos from family (which is very useful), an electronics dartboard from pipo and april, and my darling bought me the ps4 games which i wanted, and the kaws and man utd jersey what i want!!
dar birthady : had a birthday staycation at bugis mercure singapore on the weekend before her bday, similar to last year, i ordered customised macarons again, and this time is her "family", the craftholic! and i added on 1 more design to make it the main 4 characters in craftholic, and of course, they are so cute and nice to eat.. and on her actual day, we took half day from work, and we had lunch at one of the restaurant at outram park, as she mentioned she wanted to try the duck confit. after lunch, we moved on the the national gallery singapore at city hall in which i was tasked to be her personal gallery tour guide! enjoyed the quietness in that place and yet able to spend quality time together, at least not always shopping! as for dinner, i bought her to the boiler at tai seng, hahaha, i guided her wrongly and we walked extra extra before we reached the place. luckily she love the food - crabs and lobsters! oh yeah, birthday pressie was the gold tsum tsum necklace, and i bao-ed her a big hongbao waiting for the new iwatch to be release.
*ps : she was entitled to keep the hongbao if she don't want to buy the iwatch eventually, but she cannot pester or complain why no iwatch in the future.. hahahaha..
Labels: apple, bff, birthday, family, home, hougang, present, the nest
xoxo,
dear |
17:56
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amazing records of local staycation
Friday, 8 July 2016
decided to keep track of the local hotels that we had stayed.. and the list goes like this...
| Date | Place |
Room# |
|---|
| 31st December 2008 |
Crowne PLaza Changi Airport |
|
| 26th June 2011 |
Hard Rock Hotel Singapore |
6-25 |
| 15th July 2011 |
Pan Pacific Singapore |
32-14 |
| 30th July 2011 |
Marina Bay Sands |
18-83 |
| 27th August 2011 |
Pan Pacific Singapore |
14-13 |
| 10th September 2011 |
Pan Pacific Orchard |
|
| 15th October 2011 |
Pan Pacific Orchard |
6-11 |
| 19th November 2011 |
Gallery Hotel |
10-29 |
| 12th February 2012 |
M Hotel |
25-04 |
| 10th March 2012 |
Peninsula Excelsior Hotel |
13-23 |
| 7th April 2012 |
Studio M |
6-44 |
| 1st December 2012 |
Novotel Clarke Quay |
23-03 |
| 22nd June 2013 |
Parkroyal On Pickering Singapore |
7-01 |
| 23rd August 2013 |
W Hotel |
5-25 |
| 20th December 2013 |
Swissotel |
50-61 |
| 5th April 2014 |
Hotel Michael @ RWS |
4-36 |
| 21st June 2014 |
Quincy |
7-09 |
| 13th July 2014 |
Grand Park City Hall |
|
| 19th July 2014 |
The Westin Singapore |
42-33 |
| 1st November 2014 |
Hotel Jen Gateway |
12-29 |
| 9th May 2015 |
Mandarin Orchard Singapore |
32-34 |
| 17th July 2015 |
Klapsons The Boutique Hotel |
2-02 |
| 23rd August 2015 |
So Sofitel Singapore |
5-15 |
| 25th September 2015 |
Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel |
7-24 |
| 21st May 2016 |
Oasia Downtown |
20-06 |
| 20th August 2016 |
Mercure Singapore Bugis |
10-12 |
| 23rd December 2017 |
JW Marriot South Beach |
07-19 |
Labels: hotel, singapore hotels, staycations
xoxo,
dear |
17:53
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amazing records of escaping!
Monday, 4 July 2016
decided to keep track of the escape games that we had played.. and the list goes like this...
• http://www.encounter.sg
Address : 302 Jalan Besar #B1-01 302@Besar Singapore 208963
The Apartment (completed on 25/28 Oct 2014)
Address : Teck Ghee CC - 861 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 Singapore 569734
The Community Centre (Mass game) (played on 10 Apr 2016)
Address : 454A Geylang Road (Level 2) Singapore 389413
The Hospital (completed on 23 Dec 2016)
The Cruise (completed on 30 Sep 2017)
• http://www.theescapeartist.sg/
Address : 52A Prinsep Street #01-01 (S)188683
After Dark (played on 3 Jan 2015)
Address: 1 Empress Pl, 179555
Night at the Museum: The Great Escape from Asian Civilisations Museum! (Mass game) (played on 12 Dec 2014)
• http://lockdown.sg/
Clarke Quay Central
Bail Out (completed on 20 Sep 2013)
Kidnapped (completed on 17 October 2013)
Trafficking (unable to track)
Top Secret (unable to track)
Suntec City Mall (Closed)
Haunted? (played on 8th May 2016)
• www.dunleyescape.com
Address : 163 Macpherson Rd, Singapore 348532
Hook (played on 2 Nov 2013)
• http://freeingsg.com/
Address: Bugis+, Level 7, 201 Victoria Street (Closed)
The Painter’s Murder (unable to track)
Mission Incredible (played on 31 Oct 2013)
Address : 2 Handy Road, The Cathay, #03-04/05 Singapore 229233
Ninja : The Secret Disciplines of the Shinobi (played on 3 Oct 2015)
Homicide: Death of the Headless Girl (unable to track)
Secrets of the Past: From Russia with Love (played on 16 Oct 2015)
Funeral: The Mourning Widow @ The Cathay (played on 21 May 2016)
• http://www.escaperoom.com/kl/
Address : Berjaya Times Square Shopping Mall, 07-96, 7th Floor, Entertainment Podium, No. 1, Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur 55100 Malaysia
Alice Room (played on 21 Sep 2014)
• http://singapore.escapehunt.com/
Address : 100 Orchard Road, Concorde Hotel & Shopping Mall, #02-43, Singapore 238840
Bomb in the Cellar (28 Sep 2014)
Blackmail in the Bedroom (played on 2 Oct 2014)
Spy in the Study (played on 5 Oct 2014)
• http://bangkok.escapehunt.com/
Address: 399 Interchange (Citibank) Building, Unit C, B2 Level (Basement), Sukhumvit Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok, 10110, Thailand
The Bangkok Bomb (played on 17 Nov 2013)
• http://www.trapped.sg/
Address : Kampung Glam Shop Houses, 42 Kandahar Street, S198896 (Near Arab St) (Closed, relocating)
Hunger Games - The Escape (Combined game) (played on 25 Oct 2014)
Alice in Wonderland (played on 3 Oct 2015)
• http://unravel.sg/site/
Address: Bugis CUBE, 470 North Bridge Road #05-20 Singapore 188735
The Haunting (played on 18 Oct 2015)
• www.roomraidersg.com
Address : 181 Orchard Road #05-45 Orchard Central Singapore 238896
Where’s Cuddles (played on 21 Jun 2014)
Dark Mansion (played on 5 Oct 2014)
• http://exitplan.sg/
Address : 279 New Bridge Road #03-01 Singapore 088752 (above Manbok Korean Restaurant)
Pandora The Haunted (played on 4 Jun 2016)
Labels: escape games, fun
xoxo,
dear |
17:16
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getting inked
Wednesday, 1 June 2016
somehow i always had this tattoo lust within me.
unable to commit to one mainly afraid getting killed by mum during the younger days
and slowly the courage fade off with the scene of getting poke by the needles as one get older.
one fine day in March, so happened i hit a fb page that had all the small-sized tattoo, and it was so appealing that i shared the page and tagged the missy, and then a couple of frens bashed back and decided to go along with my madness of getting inked.
thru ivy's recommendation, we booked an appointment with this shop called "oracle tattoo" with this artist called "morris"! so the d-day was on 8 Apr, we hugged our gut close to us, and had a life time experience, i would call it!!
morris was a pretty nice chap being patience, starting with us showing our desired design and he will do some googling online to see if there is any better option for discussion. next, he will print out the chosen design on a kind of sticker-alike and stick it on the body part of your choice. then time for some catwalk, and looking yourself in the mirror with that "tattoo" before the needles say hi.
first one to go was missy. easiest one. thin needle is sufficient for that context (wrist area). she had this design where her name "cat" is around the universe (yin he) which contain her chinese name as well. accordingly to her, it was painless but it was tiring as the artist had to go thru a few round of similar stokes to get to the final product. estimated time taken to ink. 10min.
next in line was missy's bestie, justina (juice). she had this lust on cats, so she got this really easy design as well, just a outline of a cat figure (really glad it was a small and easy one!) but morris said it need a thicker needle to be done on the ankle. wow, juice was almost to tears when the work was being done, screaming about how painful it is, oh gosh! i think that's her first and last ink in my assumption. estimated time taken to ink. 2min.
and then i was last. the braver one i suppose. i got a lot more lines to my design on my ankle as i chosen a snowflake, which aligns to my chinese name as well. i think i am a line person. lol. if you ask me, i would say pain is inevitable when the needle poke deep into the flesh, but somehow the pain is bearable as well, no turning back after all. just think along this line, and soon, it will be done. estimated time taken to ink. 7min.
google read : ankle was one of the top 5 most painful place to get inked.
as the old saying 'it is better to be late than never'. getting inked. checked.
Labels: first-time, fun, inked, pain, tattoo
xoxo,
dear |
09:44
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before and after (the nest)
Friday, 22 April 2016
finally some time to piece up the before and after look of the hougang nest..
which these photos will also serve as very good memento in the time to come..
i am thankful that the plans we had a few years ago had materialized, such as having our own place when she hit 35, i guess this is a very good milestone for the two of us.
“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”
Gaston Bachelard
"A good home must be made, not bought."
Joyce Maynard, "Domestic Affairs"
Labels: home, hougang, renovation, the nest
xoxo,
dear |
16:56
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Our Love Nest
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Surprise!! In the event you thought I will never write in this blog again but here I am.. hahaha! Time flies and we have officially shifted in a mth plus since 16th Jan 2016. The first week was a messed as there's million things for us to unpack and buying essential stuffs so our house will not look so empty. Let me recap of the 2 months journey since the day I got the keys.
| 30 Nov 2015 |
Gotten keys |
| 1 Dec 2015 |
Enter house day |
| 2 Dec 2015 |
Renovation start (The start of problem solving and decision making...) |
| 7 Dec 2015 |
Sidetrack a bit : I had 2 of my wisdom tooth taken out (Downfall of my wisdom) |
| 12 Dec 2015 |
Aircon trucking issue. The ID "designed" the layout in a "less" popular way which make it look like a boarder to the door therefore we requested him to re-lay hence additional expense for him |
| 15 Dec 2015 |
Re-lay of trucking |
| 16 Dec 2015 |
Installing toilet door & window and kitchen window (Total damage: $1,240) |
In between the renovation, there's many things for us to decide, eg: how we want the inner wardrobe to be like, how many shelves we want for the display cabinet, everyday we need to make decision. The stress-est month in my life! But luckily we managed to make everything look like what we wanted (I think so)
| 31 Dec 2015 |
Installing lights |
| 2 Jan 2016 |
Carpentary Works (as at 4th Jan, the only carpentary done is at Kitchen and it's partially done so we had to rush our ID to speed up) |
| 7 Jan 2016 |
Installing aircon |
| 11 Jan 2016 |
All carpentary are up!! Finally |
| 12-15 Jan 2016 |
Packing unstopped, installing Ikea furniture |
| 14 Jan 2016 |
Round one of house cleaning |
| 15 Jan 2016 |
Delivery of bed, sofa |
We have decided to change the wooden door and metal gate (Finally)
| 16 Jan 2016 |
Officially shift in! Yippy but the start of non stop cleaning :( |
| 22 Jan 2016 |
Installing of SCV! Yes yes my favourite! |
| 23 Jan 2016 |
Installing wooden door (Issue : Metal gate was not measure correctly therefore returned to vendor) |
| 29 Jan 2016 |
Installing metal gate (Total damage : $1,584, yet to pay bal of $1,123 as at 24th Feb 2016) |
| 3 Feb 2016 |
Installing of Korean Blinds (Total damage : $836) |
| 17 Feb 2016 |
ID officially handover the house to us (Total damage : $29,492.21) |
From a princess at home to a "modern" housewife, I am slowly trying to change some of my bad habits but give me time... lots of time.. hahahahah! Anyway you suppose to take care of me and love me of who I am so... Bleah! You also have some bad habits but I never hiam you.. hahaha
Let's stop being lazy on every Monday and go to WORK!! and relax when we can at home lah! Don't always try to find things to do CAN?
Love you always and forever!! Let's eat and "slim" down together :)
Labels: home, the nest
xoxo,
darling |
15:25
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crackline. forever. losing part of me.
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
it wasnt the best post title to start with after such a long hiatus from the blog scene.
but it described how i really felt right now towards our relationship.
of course, during the absence from here, we continued our usual life routine of work, travels, entertainments and good food and good fun. when there are good times, there are bound to have bad ones as well, she still irritated and pissed me off in some occasions, but all was still well..
this year, last month, she turned 35.
we had big plans for this very year, to finally purchase a place of our own.
she tried applying BTO with her mum, but without surprises, it was a flat rejection from the ballot result.
so we turned to purchasing of resale flat.
things began to get really tricky, too many concerns and worries. not unusual after all.
1) purchase price > valuation price. this means that we have to top up cash, which we are not very willingly to such an option, especially when i felt that we would have done better in the negotiation of price with the seller's agent. somehow she got all whirl up in the plot of the existence of another buyer pitting with us, and she being too anxious, sank in, and cast the price in stone.
remedy - our agent had agreed to absorb part of the top up cash, which we felt slightly cushioned, and to top it up, we can only consoled ourselves through the blessing of hopeful divination from the temple as well as the good orientation of this flat from the reading of a fengshui master.
2) the layout of the house wasn't really fits well into the ideal of our dream house, hence huge renovation works have to take place, and we start hunting for IDs. again, its not an easy feat, as we need to make comparisons to the price against the type of renovation works that we will get.although we might have some fuss on meeting up with some IDs due to their location, but we are almost done right now to the confirmation of engaging the ID.
the episode that link to this, was meeting up with the usual gang. we had fully understood that some people love to remains as closed books, no matter how you try to prompt them into sharing, its just not gonna work. when you face such people, there is also no need to share and be too straightforward with them, but she just go on and on, into sharing renovation ID company, designs. and even when we deeply believe that they had already engaged their ID, but they just refused to share. i just felt that she can't catch my way of response when they questioned me, and the body expression that i displayed when she goes on blurting out all the information.
remedy - not much of remedy, but i can only say that she is being innocent and gullible towards others. but i do hope that she will learn that fine line between sharing and sharing too much. some people are just not worth doing so.
3) money. its a superb sensitive item, as well as a frequent bought up matter during the course of budget planning during a occasion like this. the budget for this place was relatively tight, especially we have to spend quite a sum because its a resale flat, we really have to give it a change for certain items. apart from the renovation cost and soft furnishings, we have to take up installment plan for all the big ticket items. indeed, i did toyed with the idea of getting a loan from our best buddy or my own family members, but i brushed it off as i felt that the pace of repaying them will be the same as taking up interest free installment plans.
but she actually went to her mum and asked for a loan. without a discussion with me.
and she only told me when her mum had already withdrawn a sum and placed it at home.
first of all, no pre-discussion with me. second, she didnt even do her maths (i calculated and concluded it should be sufficient if we stick to the plans of spending and saving in the joint account), third, she fail to pick up on how i will feel. she claimed she is trying to help, but looking at the current situation, my ego is so bruised and i have no sense of belonging.
indeed i have too huge an ego, which i really hate to make ourselves under this bad shade of light, and there will always be a possibility of news leaking to others that we are on a loan. perhaps i had always felt that as human beings, we do what we can do with, if there is a lack of capital, we should work on how to save from the furnishing and items, and not resort to borrowing. and i had already preempted her not to take up loan from her mum or aunties.
most importantly. there is no marriage cert in such relationship, so we would only stay strong through actions and mutual understanding, bestowing honesty, respect, openness in communication, and putting each other in the first position in this whole universe, letting people know that we ACTS AS ONE. its not though verbal affirmation, but also through actions. she felt that SHE is the one that asked the loan from her mum, from what i see it, its WE that asked for the loan. to put things simple, isnt SHE = ME or ME = SHE ? isnt this the equation to rely on when we decided to be life-long partners?
remedy - there is no remedy, crackline will always be there, and she is beginning to lose part of me in her. i really wish things doesn't happen this way and we can turn back the time, but reality hurts. what's done cannot be undone, and certain actions will just remain there forever. Labels: the nest, upset rantings
xoxo,
dear |
22:13
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