December!

Woo hoo! The last month of the year has arrived!

I am soooo looking forward to my new home.

Completed the last (almost) of purchases last weekend with homeware and kitchenware, knives, utensils, containers for: rice, sugar, salt, flour, corn flour, spices, oil, sesame oil etc etc.. Very happy now! The reno is also proceeding smoothly. Heard that it can be completed by christmas!

Finally had time to relax last saturday - went cycling in the morning with jo & co!! Nice sunny morning! Followed by a sumptous dim sum lunch. That's a good start to a weekend isnt it? This weekend there's a wedding lunch to attend, and we've to pay up for the rest of the furniture that will be delivered soon. So some running around to do. And on sunday, church, followed by another sumptous dim sum lunch at dong hai (east sea) at shaw. Quite obvious that I have cantonese in laws.. but dim sum is one of my fav, so not a problem with me.

Talking about weddings, I counted.. I already have 9 to attend next yr.

1 in Jan

2 in July

2 in Oct

2 in Dec

2 dates not revealed

Think this garden looks good for a summer garden wedding :-)

Happy happy

Renovation is proceeding smoothly (i hope). I havent seen what the contractor has done to my home over the last 3 days. Heard that they have started hacking the tiles. It's a good sign.. means that they have started work! We have bought most of the stuff needed for our home too, - dining table
- book shelf
- extra drawers
- everything in the toilets
- cooker stove & hood
- sofa
- chose tiles for toilet and kitchen
Tomorrow we will be going down to check out the status of our home and how many lights we need to buy so that's a task for sunday afternoon.
Realised during this time that I am definitely not as detailed as kenneth. He measured every single part of the house in every room every space- height and width included - which was useful in calculating how much the tiles would cost (charged psf).
Fingers crossed.. the reno would be completed by the end of the year. Really looking forward to that day!

Meantime, the financial crisis is hitting us hard. Reading bad news every day. Today there were talks about citi merging wif another financial institution. Scary! Can you believe it.. the share px is less than US$5!?! Everything is tumbling.

Besides work and reno, am happy that jun is back in Singapore. We managed to meet up quite a few times so far.. let me see. We had dinner at astons once, rgs reunion, togi dinner, swimmers' meeting, and 1 more time at parkway. Quite funny listening to the conversations that jj and kenneth have.. from banking, to experiences in the surgical theater, to national geographic. Haha. :-)

OK i shall update again soon..

Renovation

Things to do:

A. Living Room
1
Supply & install TV cabinet cum back drop panel for LCD in selected laminated finish
2
Supply & install full height cabinet for utilities @ Dining
3
Supply & install mirror at Dining
4
Reposition living room aircon

B. Master Bedroom
1
Supply & install master room full height PVC head board
2
Varnish wardrobe (no change in door) and change hinges

C. Bedroom 2 (next to master bedroom)
1
Supply & install study table cum full height bookshelf in selected laminated / veener finish
2
Varnish wardrobe (no change in door) and change hinges

D. Study Room (next to kitchen)
1
Supply & install full height wardrobe in selected veneer finish

E. Kitchen & Baths (1&2)
1
Supply labour & tool to hack existing wall/floor tiles, sanity fittings, vanity long bath etc.
2
Supply & apply waterproofing with level screed
3
Supply & lay selected wall tile include sand and cement screed
4
Supply & lay selected floor title include sand and cement screed
5
Supply & install vanity counter with bottom cabinet and top solid surfaces (basin & tap etc by owner)
6
Labour to install watercloset, basin, tap shower set. Etc supply by owner.
7
Supply & install mirror with glass shelving at Bath 1
8
Supply & install glass shelving at Bath 2
9
Supply & replace all water and discharge pipe within Bath and Kitchen
10
Supply & install kitchen cabinet top & bottom, top with solid surfaces (black granite top) and finishes in selected laminate/ veneer
11
Hack low wall (next to window) and extend kitchen cabinet (bottom) to the end of the kitchen.

General
1
Supply & install 1000mm height shoe cabinet at Entrance (about ~200mm above the ground)
2
Supply sand & varnish to 3 nos Bedroom
3
Supply machine to polish existing marble
4
Provision sum for alter and reposition socket, switches etc.
5
Replace aircon pipes and replace 3 nos air-con to bedrooms (Brand - Toshiba Inverter Sys 3, RAS 3M 20 SACV)
6
Replace main door and wrought iron main gate lock set
7
Varnish all 8 doors in the house (1master, 2bed rms, 1 kitchen, 2 toilets, 1 storeroom, 1 main door) and change hinges if necessary
8
Paint the whole house

My office space

Been so tired recently with a lot of things like meeting up with friends, planning reno, meeting contractors etc etc.... haven't had time to sit down to clog the interesting things in my life. Let's start with my work. My office space has been interesting not only because of the upheaval in the financial markets, the crashes, the bailouts, the capital injections, the plunging exchange rates.. but because i get the see the terrible construction going on outside and all around my building. Here's what it looks like.. TOTAL MESS! It's worse when they are digging (my building vibrates), when it rains (looks like poo) when the are piling (terribly noisy).. and worse of all, it takes forever.

With all the stress at work, comfort food is a must. My favourite is almond cream!!! Not many places sell nice smooth authentic almond cream. I am glad there are 2 near my office that are really yummy and handy when I am feeling down. Absolutely love it. Doesn't it look good? (ok, i know some people cant stand the taste or smell.. but it's one of my fav, besides ice cream)





And of course, you cannot miss out the daily dose of caffine.

Life is tough as a working adult.. need to pamper myself. But then again, I have so many things to save for these days like repaying my home loan, saving for renovation, saving for my israel trip, saving for the red packets of the people getting married (already 8 on my list for 2009).. and the occassional baby shower presents. This is a life of a 26-yr old in singapore.

Back to SF

Finally we're back in SF!

Stayed at a really nice and conveniently located hotel at the union square, which serves free wine and cheese with biscuits from 530-730 everyday. Awesome!! The first hotel we stayed at was a kimpton hotel that also served wine.. but i prefer boutique hotels with 20+rooms.. find it a lot more cosy. The service is better too! 

So anyway, we went on a wine tour to Napa and Sonoma valley.. went past a golf course that was called CHAMPAGNE golf course! Can you believe it? Anyway the scenary was great, and the sun was a lot brighter than in SF though it's only a 1hr drive away. 

More pictures during the wine tour..

Oh by the way, we only came back with 2 bottles of wine, whereas we shipped half a dozen to my sis for her birthday. Too mean to myself?

The next day we went to the SF bay bridge - see the fog in the picture. I could hardly see the bridge!! I think I only managed to see to abt half the height of the bridge. There's this perpetual fog in SF so this is quite normal. 

At the bay we came across this ship/tanker used in WW2 and decided to visit it. Turned out to be quite interesting also as they were showing us what the ship was used for during the war, what went inside the engine room etc. Didn't help that I was not a history student... but pictures taken were still worth while. Apparently it's 1 of the 2 boats that didn't sink during the war... mmmm...

Alcatraz island tour took another day. This was an eye opener. It's an old prison (shut down a couple of decades ago) used as a museum now. We can only get there by boat (and there's only 1 company offering the boat service!!) and guess what... we missed our boat cos we were too slow to get out of the hotel. Almost thought we had to write off the US$50 ticket but thankfully we managed to squeeze on to the next boat. 

That's about all for the honeymoon. 17days, 16nights, 7 hotels, 5 places. Seen nature, history, culture, people, the beach, tried different food... no regrets for the big hole in my pocket. :-)

 

Las Vegas

Fifth Stop - Sin city

Finally, we took a FLIGHT instead of a bus or train. And next destination - Las Vegas!!

Stayed at one of the hotels along the Strip and upgraded for $50 a night to a room on the 33rd floor with a HUGE bathroom and a jacuzzi (top left pic in collage), which was very useful cos Las Vegas is quite boring during the day except for all the shopping centres and pretty architecture and themes. It's way way way too hot to walk outside by the way. Ghiradelli chocolate ice cream was the highlight of the day... it's sooooo yummy and but it's a little too big so I felt really full after eating it. At night we watched Ka (Cirque de Soleil) which was really nice! In the end, Las Vegas turned out to be a place where we did quite a bit of shopping for myself (clothes) and for the home (quite a bit of decorative items).. which added to the load in our luggage. 

Fourth stop

Los Angeles!! Our hotel this time was also a very nice one (this is the 8th one in the last 2 weeks), quietly tucked inside a residential area off Sunset blvd. We had strawberrys with chocolate for a welcome gift and a note + dinner voucher from my sister. How sweet! 

Le Montrose

Santa Monica beach

Did a sand bath for my feet

Universal Studios Hollywood! Although it's my 3rd or 4th time here by now but many things have changed.. still enjoyable after all!