.::. Almost Goodbye .::.

The year is coming to an end. *gasp* I’ve no idea how did time fly by just like that.

I am finally done with ACCA exams, though I’m not too confident about passing and I don’t want to think about it. It’s my last paper, and I’m bummed that I’m not fully prepared and fell sick a few days before exam. Otherwise, that 2 days would have made the difference!

With exams out of the way and our year-end trip upcoming, we spent last weekend doing spring cleaning our place. We did pretty thorough cleaning, from cleaning the ceiling fan to stripping our sofa covers to wash and wiping all the surfaces, air-con filters and even cleaning our metal gates and window grills! *wee* I also packed the storeroom and study room, so I’m feeling very accomplished though it has been a very tiring weekend. We also wrapped presents and set up our Christmas tree for the parties that we will be hosting at home. We bought quite abit of Christmas deco for the home in addition to those recycled ones.

It’s a great time, and it has been a great year on many counts. I can’t wait for our parties and our 10^th anniversary Maldives trip. I’m also ahead this time, with all my Christmas presents done way before Christmas!

Feeling very thankful for all the love and people around me who really matters. I think as I grow older, I find it easier to accept that there are mean people and I’m no longer bothered about peoples’ opinion about me. My mum has always said things like what would people think of me if I did this and that, and it may have made me somewhat conscious despite my rebellious streak. But seriously, why the f*ck do I give a damn about what other people think? Going into the last year in my twenties, I’m proud to say that I’m no longer affected by what people think nor say apart from the passing annoyance before deciding to cut people off. Don’t give others the ability to hurt you. Life is way too short and precious for things like that!

I’m really looking forward to the parties and trips ahead! I’m ending 2014 with a bang with a truckload full of anticipation and optimism for 2015. I’m all ready~!

.::. Walks with Chikey .::.

I wished we went on more walks with Chikey, apart from around the neighborhood. I always imagine that we would spend our weekends bringing Chikey on walks if we had a car. But then again, it's a tad ridiculous to get a car just to bring the dog for walks, but sometimes, it's a lifestyle! Hah, but being the practical people we are, that's obviously just a thought.

We brought Chikey out some time back, when he had his mum's car. Chikey went to Hort Park!

It was actually quite a short walk, because we were running late for dinner.  But I think Chikey had fun!

.::. The Hen's Night .::.

This is ridiculously belated, but I still want to spend some time to put this down.

The girls organized a ‘hen’s night’ for me before the wedding.  I was not that keen truth to be told.  I was simply caught up with settling into the house, getting the wedding details finalized and preparing everything. We had to plan something though, since Ju flew back from the States just for my wedding. *touched*  The initial plan was to have a staycation in Singapore, but somehow that seemed boring and they suggested Batam.  Well, not that interesting either but massage and some relaxation sounded like a good idea and I specifically requested nothing wild, nothing too exciting! After all, I have been legally married for more than a year and I feel so married!

The girls made all the arrangements and I had no clue what’s going on.  We stopped at Batam Center, did massage, had lunch, and did grocery shopping before heading to the hotel.  By the time we reached the hotel, it was almost dark.  The reception was still grand even when it was almost pitch dark.  I can vaguely see the horizon in the darkening sky, and the whole place was airy, with really good service.


 

We were brought to our villa by a buggy.  And once I stepped in, I just kept woah-ing and woo-ing.  The villa was really amazing, with a huge living area complete with TV and cooking area, a private pool, huge bed, huge bathroom and bathtubs and a rooftop garden.  

The girls cooked for me while I concussed on the huge comfy bed.  I woke up to a home-cooked dinner and we spent time in the pool till the wee hours.  

The girls prepared this package of my favorite stuff complete with wands and tiaras. I managed to soak in the tub for awhile, before masking our legs and face.

It was so good, yet too short! Knowing me, it’s probably the best bachelorette night one can ever prepare for a boring bride like me.  =)

Montigo, I will be back!

.::. Sick .::.

I’ve been sick.  Since last Wednesday.  I got home and went right into bed after work.  The husband cooked steak for dinner, although I can barely swallow it down.  He thought that it would have made me happy.  I was coughing through the night and woke up with horrible body aches and fever.  It felt like all my bones were broken and moving simply hurts.  It took all my will power to get up for a shower and to see a doctor downstairs.  I simply couldn’t make it to central to see the better doctor.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday went by in a blur.  I woke up, I took medicine, I went back to sleep.  I managed to make it for brunch with the JC mates on Friday and the girls came by on Saturday for steamboat, reminding me how much I need to do before the pre-wed photoshoot and upcoming wedding.  I then spent the rest of the long weekend sleeping while the sweet husband cooked for me.  It got so bad that I finally relented and took anti-biotics on Sunday and went to the recommended doctor on Monday.

There goes my long weekend.

Is it almost November already?

I’m starved for time.  There’s so much to do and I’m barely coping with day-to-day routines, much less unpack and start preparing for everything else.

First thing first – get my health and strength back!

For now, I’m going to sentence myself to full house rest (apart from work) till I fully recover.

Jan will be back.  Soon.

.::. Sunday .::.

The husband made breakfast again, while I slept in.  Have been really tired after the cleaning and cookout on Saturday.  Nothing beats home-cooked breakfast with love.  =)



It tastes so much better this time round.

Then I started folding plastic bags and doing some unpacking while Chikey lay lazily on the carpet.





He's such a darling.

Why are weekends so short?

.::. Beautiful Homes .::.

It has been a really productive day today.

I taught kids in the morning, rushed down to the home to see the progress and took pictures before heading to Punggol to visit a 2 beautiful homes.  It was then Spiderman with the husband and teochew porridge for a late dinner.  I'm really tired!

I realized that it's the first time I'm at Punggol.  The furthest I went was Seng Kang as his cousin stays there.  Other than that, I haven't ventured out that far.

I'm really glad to visit 2 very beautiful homes today, in real life.  I've been following their blogs on Renotalk for quite some time and have witnessed the transformation of their homes.  I've also made friends with these people with similar taste and it's indeed true that your home is an extension of your own personality.  I suppose that if you have similar tastes, you should be able to click.  I love both of them so much that we got the same contractor to do up our place.  It's amazing how HDB flats could look so beautiful these days.

Here are their blogs with pictures to share:

Paloma
Pinkwhale

I really love Paloma's as it's very similar to what I want for my place.  I like it white and bright!

Really thankful to have met such nice people who have shared freely with us.  It's amazing to meet up with them and chat about all the little details about renovation and ideas.  =)

Sadly, the pictures I took of our place turned out really blurry!  I realized that I accidentally turned off the auto-focus function =( I guess I'll have to go down again tomorrow if I want 'Week 4' photos for memory.

I'm really loving how the place look now and can't wait for the protection paper to be removed and cleaning to be done!  Tomorrow is sanitary wares shopping day.

.::. Time Out .::.

These weeks have been so hectic.  There's so much to think about, so much to decide on, so much to choose and research about.

I'm really a hands-on person, and I don't really trust anyone with my home.  It's not like my contractor does not help to coordinate everything.  In fact, he wadsapp me pictures of the progress every single day and checks-in with me (us) everyday.  But I'm just the kind who would ask him 'so, what's next?' when he tells me something is done.

Moreover, I would like to have a say in everything.  Every single thing.  I've no clue how people could pay IDs to do everything and trust them to do it exactly the way they want it.  Between me and the husband, we have different views about what we think is the 'best' or 'norm' and everything is designed for the ease of use.  Even things like position of the clothes rack in the toilet resulted in a good discussion.

This week is especially horrible, as we've been rushing to the house to see the hacked wall, to Balestier to choose lights for a good 2 hours and Jalan Besar to choose sanitary wares only to realize that it was closed!

I suppose that we are enjoying this process and both of us have been putting effort into every single detail together.  =)  I'm really grateful for this every single day.  I've heard horror stories about how couples argue over renovations and wedding preparations, but so far, there hasn't been much disputes between us.  The only obstacles we face isn't between ourselves, but the external pressures from people who think they know what's the best for us - this is really draining and I really don't get why-oh-why can't we be left alone to decide on things by ourselves, as adults.  I'm hoping everything continues to go smoothly.  *cross fingers*

There were some rare chances when we took a breather from renovations.



At PS Cafe last week, after trying on Vera Wang's gown at The Link.

I've got to say that the service sucks big time.  It was already bad on the phone, but the appointment turned out bad too.  No service to speak of and they didn't even serve us drinks!  Even lights shop at Balestier served us water!  I'll save that rant into another post.



Here's the happy husband.  We were with Chye and JH, but didn't take pictures of them though.  I love lazy afternoons like this.  They dropped by our place to see the renovation progress after.



Dinner after buying lights at Balestier.  Founder Bak Kut Teh.  Both of us were so tired and hungry as we chose lights till almost 9pm.



And I rushed down to Jalan Besah after work today, hoping to check out sanitary wares.  The direct bus from office stops at Serangoon Road and I had to walk.  As a matter of fact, Little India smells.  I do like dropping by for some good Indian food and visiting Mustafa, but it really was especially bad today, perhaps due to the scorching weather these days.



Walked past this bar/restaurant place that I would like to try someday.

At first I wanted to go to 159 Jalan Bersah Road, but realized that the outlet was no longer there.  Had to walk all the way to 389, to realize that it was closed at 6pm!!!  It was so hot, and I feel like it takes so much effort to reach Balestier and Jalan Bersah



Luckily, I spotted this crowded dim sum restaurant along the way and we walked back for dinner.  Queues on a Wednesday night!



Yummy.  The dim sum was generally nice.



The happy husband.

I'm looking forward to Jason Marz's concert on Friday!  I'm yours.....dum dum dum dum..

.::. Shopping Spree .::.

Just a short one before I concuss.  I'm sleeping later and later these days, it's like I'm surviving on adrenaline rush.  I'll probably stay this way till we move into our new place.

I went to Bugis to baibai for our renovation before meeting Chye to get my cheongsum done.  Got a good lot, and hopefully everything will go smoothly from now onwards.

I've been cracking my head to choose all sort of things these days.  There are so many things to know and to choose!  Even making my cheongsum had so many possibilities, designs, cuts and colors.  Luckily Chye was with me, which makes it a little easier since I trust her taste.  I'm not very confident about carrying a cheongsum off, but I like the idea of having something traditional during the wedding.  After all, weddings are traditional and it's probably the only time that I'll consider wearing one.  Hopefully it'll turn our pretty.  Since I wanted the 20% early bird discount, my dress will only be ready in Dec/Jan, not in time for our pre-wedding shoot.

Then, I went shopping at Robinsons after Chye went for her dinner date.  Robinsons is having some ridiculous sales with discounts on top of discounts plus vouchers and rebates given.  I spent quite a few hours in there and bought quite a few things for the house!  I got us bedsheets which were on 40% + 15% sale, the Kenwood water boiler which I really like, some colorful mixer bowls and strainer, cutlery which was 6 for $10 (cheap!), 2 beautiful (expensive) towels, a small chef pan, a cooking wok and some little stuff.  It's a struggle telling myself to buy only things that I really like and not spend too much unnecessarily. It cost me almost $600 after the discounts, but it was pretty worth it!  The extra discounts are only till this weekend.  Luckily they provided free delivery, otherwise it'll be impossible for me to carry all those back.

The husband is still happily in China, sightseeing during the weekend and drinking every single night!  He doesn't sound very sober and laughed at my auntiness.  I'm helping to save money okay!

There's still seemingly 101 things to buy.  Lights, air-con, hood/hob, TV, bed frame, console...and the list goes on.

.::. The flooring hunt .::.

We went to meet up with our contractor to finalize some details again.  If everything goes well, we should be able to confirm our contractor for our renovation soon.  So far, I really enjoy working with our contractor. Apart from the fact that he has done many projects which I love and is in sync with the style we are after, he is also very experienced and belts out advice freely.  Most importantly, I feel like I can trust him and he feels like an honest guy.



It's an extremely warm day today, and here's the view from our MBR.  I love it that it's windy in our flat.



And then, we went to complain about our 'defective' bomb shelter door because we can't seem to lock it fully.  This is the view from Block 424, super windy too.  We wanted to look for a neighbor we knew from Facebook, but didn't see anyone there.



They sent a guy with a pail of tools up in 20 minutes and he helped us to adjust the door.  It was really tight at first, and it was a little better after he came.  At least we can lock it now, though it's still quite tight.



We then went to Hafary to look at tiles.  It was huge with lots of selections.



We chose this, probably for the MBR toilet feature wall.



And this, for our common toilet feature wall.



We dropped by Soon Bee Huat after Hafary.  It's quite near IMM and it's really HUGE!  They have a ridiculous selection of tiles (the biggest shop we visited).



This was what we chose.  It's my favorite wood-grain homogeneous tiles after visiting White Horse, Hafary and Soon Bee Huat.  Soon Bee Huat seem to have the biggest and best selection of wood grained homogenous tiles! We should be getting the same tiles for the whole house, including kitchen.

And you know what's the best thing of all?



The price.  It's cheap and wallet-friendly.



The also have this ridiculously big showroom on the 2nd level which showcases all the different tiles and design ideas.  We love this toilet and the mosaic tiles.  It's so beautiful, but the price is even more beautiful and I don't think we can afford it.

It has been a really fruitful day and I'm happy.  We have discussed many ideas with our contractor and I'm really excited to see my dream home materializing.



We had a late dinner near beauty world, and I got some pastries from this traditional shop:

Ng Kim Lee Confectionary

Address:

4 Chun Tin Road, (S)599591

Tel: 6466 3515 

Everything looks yums.



This was for dinner, my favorite two chew porridge place.  Comfort food and a very happy me.

Joo Seng Porridge and Rice

Address:

14 Cheong Chin Nam Road
Singapore 599738

Tel:              +65 6463 0768