J-O-Y-L

It has been months since my last update.. guess i’m getting really busy or lazy nowadays to upkeep my blog.. anyway more or less still the same… My birthday in Oct was a memorable one… after sooo many years, I’m so touched that someone still bothers to celebrate birthday for me and its my long time friends… really appreciate my dear Rina for organising this wonderful birthday chill out for me and invited 2 very ‘unusual’ guest! Winne and Emily!! It has been so long since i last saw them.. erm.. well.. Drank with Emily at my house before that lah.. but still great to have them around and talking cock like we use to in secondary school days.. Nice to see that they are doing well, erm well maybe relationship matters most of us are not really doing well except for our beloved bride-to-be Rina. Anyway that’s it on our topic as the rest of the conversation are to be kept confidential… lolz.. here’s a pic taken on my birthday…

then… 2 weeks later…. its Rina’s birthday!… we went to the same place, sat at the same table, with the same people…



then 1 week later… it’s my darling boy’s birthday… due to budget constraint… I wasn’t able to fulfill my promise to my fellow poly mates for a gathering party on his birthday this year… so I helped him celebrated his birthday in school together with his fellow classmates on his actual day, at night celebrated together with family members at home… The next day, which happens to be a public holiday, brought him to the Underwater world and butterfly park at Sentosa..

And yes! Its December! Time to get bonus and do my annual shopping! Spend lots of money before i even got my bonus.. bought 4 pants, 1 jeans, 15 tops (including t-shirts), undies & bras (of cos!), 2 pairs of heels, 1 sandals, cosmetics, accessories, new bed sheets… and as for my son, set of clothes and new shoes for him for Chinese New Year, few other sets of home clothes, sleep wear, casual outing wear, underwear, bag… Total damage… lost count! think everything goes up to about $2k? Argh!!! and i must comment that children wear ain’t cheap at all… my little imp sure knows how to choose good stuffs for himself and I must say that he’s got taste when it comes to choosing his own clothes, his CNY set, just a jeans, t-shirt and shoes cost me about $100… *sweat*

At last, X’mas is just ahead and 2010 is coming to an end… let us welcome 2011 and hope everything will be better in the new and brilliant year ahead! Mina San! Merry X’mas & Happy New Year!!!! Huat ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long time never update my dust collecting blog… busy with work? not really.. cos i don’t need to do OT often now.. on the dot 6pm and i’m out of there.. reach home, eat, watch tv, sleep… then its another day AGAIN… weekend, either stay home and rot with my son or we will find some place to go… how boring can my life be…. haiz… really feel like going overseas to get away from all the shits here… but i’m too poor to do that right now… wait till i clear my debts… heh heh!

Anyway, today went to somerset window shop… as usual the little one always wanna get a toy when he goes shopping and I would always give in to him… we were shopping in OG and saw the Mushroom pot buffet restaurant on the fourth floor.. have seen the advertisement many times and thought that its interesting and I always love to eat mushrooms.. so we went in to have our dinner. Their style of “buffet” is something new to me. Its not those self service, take-all-you-want, kinda buffet. We chose the yuen-yang soup base (mushroom soup and ma-la soup). They let u choose 5 cooked dishes from their menu, then they serve the basics of a steamboat to you. If you need additional ingredients you have to order it and they will send to you. Well, the service is not bad but i don’t like the concept. The soup is tasteless. The ingredients they have is also not fantastic and not much variety, its those cheap cheap ingredients. I think this is the first time i eat mushroom eat until feel like vomiting. Got a shock when I receive my bill for 2 adults and a kid.. cost me $95 for a god damn awful tasting steamboat. The steamboat which i prepare myself at home using chicken stock taste 10 times nicer than theirs loh.. somemore with $95, i can buy a whole lot of good quality steamboat ingredients and i think can last me for 3 days. Or rather use the money go and eat Vienna International buffet also much better than throwing into that stupid mushroom pot. Really feel the NOT-WORTH-IT pinch… argh!! last 2 weeks, we went to punggol marina country club to eat the sakura steamboat cum bbq buffet.. it is definitely 100 times better than the stupid mushroom pot… variety many many and superb tasting food. and it cost me only $76 for 2 adults and a kid. definitely worth the money.. will definitely go back there to eat again.

It has been monthsss since i last updated my blog.. can see the amount of dust collecting on it… initially wanted to update it as and when my house is under going renovation to show the progress.. but was really tooooo busy to do that. I have officially moved in since mid of march. 2 months already… this period has been adapting myself and adjusting to my new lifestyle and time-table, and also some ad-hoc things that’s on-going with parts of the house etc…

I have done my house warming 2 weeks after i moved in… for those who could not make it on that day, i have posted some pics of the reno done in the house. Proud to say, I design the whole house myself.. haha.. not much of a design but the concept, position, size, colours were all done by myself. My ID’s job is just to help me coordinate and do the carpentry work accordingly.

ID: U-Home
Total Reno Cost: ~$14K (carpentry and flooring works)
Window grilles: $1100
Lightings (for 13 points): ~$500
Major electronics (system 2 air-con, washing machine, fridge, 40″ lcd tv + dvd player): $3200
Toilet accessories + kitchen sink + stove: ~$1000
Mater bedroom furnishing: $1600
Kid bedroom furnishing: $1200
Sofa: $899

TV console (red), is not built-in but movable. Few years down the road if the thing gets damage, i could easily replace it! The black rectangle below the console is actually a coffee table, drag it out if needed and push it back in to save space!

Sofa and dining table. The sofa delivered 2 weeks late and the damn sales staffs from Novena really pissed me off!! Dining table bought from another furniture store but 1 week after delivered to me, the metal plate attached to the glass top came off, called to complaint and requested to change to other furniture instead. So now, there’s no dining table in my living hall liao.

My shoe cabinet. My mum says it looks like a fire extinguisher.

My fav part of the house.

DIY wall decals (from China, ~SGD30) and Roco Verre clock hand (from UK, ~SGD100). Both ordered online.

Master bedroom. Left hand side wardrobe, follow by one step parquet platform up. Right hand side, framed mirror using the same laminate as my wardrobe.

Platform up to my mattress. This parquet platform has been giving me lots of insect problems 2 weeks after I moved in. Got my contractor to hack the whole thing off and lay tiles instead. So now, its flat homogenous floor with bedframe. Remember the faulty dining table? I got it exchanged for a bedframe and side table instead.

My son’s room.

Wall decals in my son’s room. Notice the 2 egg on the window? Haha.. cute eh?

I love these plants!!!

Kitchen

Kitchen view from service yard

Built-in shelves in service yard.

Yesss!! Finally collected my keys to my new flat.. so happy.. my appointment was in the morning, it took me about half hour to complete the whole process, from buying fire insurance at 2nd floor, collect keys at 1st floor, payment of conservancy charges at 3rd floor and application for SP Services at 2nd floor and back to 1st floor to hand my receipt to the officer.. and that’s it!! Afternoon went with my fengshui master to do the open door and “dong tu” ceremony.. check for defects, submit defects…

went to the reno fair at Toa Payoh today and straight away I signed a package with U-Home.. recommended by my colleague cos its his relative’s company… and I think he did give me a good quote so I sign immediately.. do everything that I wanted -> total quote 15K. Right now, RHB also has promo for their reno loan at only 3% interest.. so gonna send in my application once I got the proper quotation.

Next following 2 months I will be quite busy with CNY and sourcing and running around for my flat’s stuffs.. Hopefully can move in before Ching Ming which is mid April.. Think this should not be a problem since mine was a “Mickey Mouse” flat… so small.. dun think will need so long to do the reno…

Below are some pics of the “raw” stage… once i start renovation, will post up the progress here…

Its the last day of 2009.. usher in a new 2010!! New year new beginning.. Time really zooms.. use the word “fly” is like too slow.. lol.. What have you achieve in 2009?? For me, I would say its pretty much the same.. nothing major changes.. life is just the way it is except that I have changed dept.. and because of the change in dept, my life somehow took a turn too.. now i have more time to myself.. which is a good thing.. and as for the coming new year.. too many things for me to look forward to.. firstly is of course my new flat which I’m getting next week. after that would be few months of running around… I hope everything would be done by end of March.. hopefully i can move in to my new house before Ching Ming.

This new year I’m not going to state my new year resolution because i find that it’s useless.. well I think i did not fulfill my 2009 new year resolution also.. so no point setting it.

Anyway, wish all of you a happy new year… let us all HUAT AH!!!!!