Ms Blur

Since day one that I received notification for the selection of our BTO unit, I have always thought that our selection date is on 29 Oct, 2.15pm. I was shocked when I received an sms alert from HDB reminding me to go for our appointment on 29 Sept, 2.15pm!!! Immediately I switched from my sms inbox to my calendar to check if today is 29 Sept. To my relief, it is tomorrow but still it came as a nasty shock to me as we have not shortlisted any units nor have we prepared for the documents to bring for the appointment.

Refusing to believe what my eyes saw, I called Lar Lar and made him check online to 'verify' that it was indeed yours truly who had made such a huge blunder :P Alvan was speechless. I have to thank HDB for coming up with this sms alert initiative for people like me, if not we would have probably gone down to HDB one month late, with no more units left for us :P

Heartbroken

Something unpleasant happened this afternoon. Something that nearly broke my heart into pieces. Emotions got over me and I broke down in public. Unhappy memories overwhelmed me and it seemed like all my past nightmares were playing right in front of me.

I was glad Alvan was with me. He didn't say anything. He just stood there and held me in tight, giving me the mental support that I needed most at that time. When I finally released it all, he just said "Don't worry, no matter what happens, there will always be Lar Lar by your side." These few simple words were enough for me to cry another few bucket full of tears.

I know I will be fine and will get over it soon. Thank you Lar Lar for your presence today and kind words that helped sooth all the hurtful words I heard for the day.

Kbox-ing

Had a long day at work yesterday so I didn't plan for anything for Friday night. Quite happy to be home after work and had an early night, looking forward to the aircon installation and delivery of our mattress the following day.

Morning came and I woke up with a runny nose. Thought it was my usual morning sinus but it persisted till now. Nonetheless, I worked on my wedding day programme so as to be in time for the briefing session to the helpers in two weeks' time. It didn't take me long as I had several references and from my experience of being the 'sister' for a number of my gal friends.

Not long after that, the mattress and aircon men came. All the drilling and dust didn't do much help to my nose. So I went out earlier to Orchard to do some shopping before our appointment at Chris Ling. We were quite satisfied with the album layout of our pre-wedding shots and didn't ask for any changes to be made. They even asked for our permission to reproduce another album to be placed at Divine as sample album for other couples to refer to! Haha I certainly didn't put up much resistance to their request and were in fact quite happy that we indirectly became 'models'.

After we were done at Chris Ling, we went to Cineleisure to have a quick bite. I thought of watching 'Time Traveller's Wife' but Alvan wanted to go Kbox! I was taken aback by this unusual request as he certainly ain't no singer. Nonetheless, I went along with his suggestion, despite my uncontrollable nose and slightly hoarse voice. After three hours in the karaoke room, I walked away with both hurting ears and throat.

Now, I am finally back home and blogging before turning in. And in the comfort of the aircon room :)

Calendar of events

he he asked me to write down the important dates to note so that he can record in his diary. So I dropped him an email, with the initial thought that it won't take me very long. To my horrors of horrors, the email got longer and longer..... below is an excerpt of it:

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me reali machiam ur secretary hor.... here u go:

- 26 Sept (Sat): delivery of aircon and mattress from courts (11am-5pm)
- 26 Sept (Sat), 4pm: confirm pre-wedding photo album layout. Shop for dresses for flower gals at raffles city, robinsons
- 27 Sept (Sun): Go IKEA buy remaining furniture eg. dressing table, side table and book shelf. Then pay visit to my papa.
- 3 Oct (Sat) 3pm: me go spa@sentosa with enemy and gals. before that i'm gg facial at camdem medical. may need car on that day. May also need to arrange to meet Priscilla from merchant court as well. If not then got to wait till 17 oct.
- 4 Oct (Sun), 2pm: bring flower gals to buy dress. after which to buy things for 过大礼
- 10 Oct (Sat): Delivery of sofa, bedframe and wardrobe from furniture HQ in the afternoon
- 11 Oct (Sun) 9.30am : 过大礼. After that to start moving things fm my place over to your place then pack your room
- 17 Oct (Sat): Continue with moving.
- 18 Oct (Sun): Briefing for bros and sis (so pls inform them beforehand)
- 24 Oct (Sat) 2pm: Final fitting at Divine. Meeting with Justin, our florist, to confirm on flowers.
- 25 Oct (Sun): finalise guest list and prepare seating arrangement. Look at available HDB units and shortlist those we want.
- 28 Oct (Wed) 3pm: Appt at ROM to collect things (u need to take at least half day leave)
- 29 Oct (Thurs) 2.15pm: Appt at HDB to choose units (u need to take at least half day leave)
- 30 Oct (Fri): STAY AWAY FROM EACH OTHER (i tink so... according to chinese customs... i'll prob be at home biting my manicured nails cos too nervous while u may still be relaxing in some corner at home, with guest list and seating arrangement not done up yet)
- 31 Oct (Sat): our BIG day..... (stay over at hotel, to decide whether to extend one more night)
- 3 Nov (Tues) - 7 Nov (Sat): Honeymoon then BACK TO REALITY

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Pure coincidence??

As I was looking through the titles of my old posts, I came to notice this freaky number 79. I had a post in August that says "Counting down - 79 days" and another post in September that says "Lucky 79". The former is counting down to my big day on Halloween and the latter is our ballot number for Punggol Residences. Isn't it freaky?? And I forgot to add that we are both born in the year 1979!

Another day on the road

Another busy day for us. We woke up early to prepare for the painters to come over and finish up the remaining painting works. By noon time after Alvan's mama came back from church, we headed to my cousin's housewarming at Water Place. It is indeed a nice living environment. It can easily pass off as a 5-star resort, with a big pool and lush greenery. I like her dining area as it is separated from the living hall and is a great private area to play host to your guests.

We continued with furniture hunting for the rest of the afternoon. We ended up back in Ang Mo Kio area at a place called Furniture HQ. We passed by the place countless times but didn't even notice that there is a furniture mall here. So we decided to give it a shot. We walked out a few thousand dollars poorer after purchasing a set of sofa, wardrobe and our bed frame. I thought the bed frame was quite a steal as I saw a similar one at Barang Barang selling close to $2k and mine was lesser than half the price :P yippee!!!

Can't stop smiling :)

I was bored stiff staying at home with the painters for the whole of Friday. After the painters were done with the bedrooms, I took up the broom and started sweeping! It must be an unbelievable sight for Lar Lar. After sweeping twice round the whole house, my hands and back were aching. I concluded that this is not going to be my forte. This job has to be outsourced. I was glad Lar Lar finally came back in the evening and sent me packing to my friend's house for mahjong :) I smelt the air of freedom once I stepped out of the house that was filled with the paint odour.

Today we are back to our schedule of furniture hunting. We went to take a look at a furniture place along Upper Bukit Timah and saw some bargain deals. Alas, I forgot to take out the measurements and were unable to narrow down those that are able to fit into our room. Nonetheless, we shortlisted a few pieces and would continue on our search for better deals. We went on to Orchard area to pick up our Aussino purchase which Eileen had very kindly utilitised her 40% discount for us :) After which we went to try the mattresses at Robinsons. This was like the nth time that we were there but it was just so difficult to make a choice amongst all. Not surprising, we didn't buy anything as Lar Lar wanted to go to Courts to compare the prices. So off we headed back to Courts. Glad that it didn't take us long to decide on a Panasonic System 2 air-con and a Sealy Indiana mattress... yipee!!!

The fixing of air-con and delivery of mattress will be on next Sat. We hope to be able to buy the remaining furniture over this weekend so that everything can be delivered by the next weekend! I can't wait to see our revamped bedroom :)

MESS

It is now an unearthly hour to be awake on a weekday by my standard. I have not removed my make-up, neither have I showered. I am blogging, surfing the web, facebook-ing and msn-ing. Not that I can afford to wake up late tomorrow (or rather it's today) as the painters would be coming at 9am. It is because Lar Lar is busy clearing his room now. I don't wish to get in his way as I might be more of a hindrance than help to him :P

I am so tired now.... I shall wait for a little while more before I check out his progress again. To see if I can get into the room to get my clothes and stuff for showering. Sigh... I don't know how am I going to sleep in the mess tonight.

Getting busy

Friends and even Lar Lar have been complaining that the posts are coming in at a much slower rate. I'm not getting lazy, just getting more busy :P Or when there isn't anything too exciting to share as yet.

As an update, we have started to look around for suitable furniture for our bedroom. And we spent the whole afternoon last Sunday just at IKEA! We didn't even have the energy to cross over to Courts that was just next door. We had to give it a miss as we were totally wiped out. The hunt will continue over this weekend.

Tomorrow the painter will be coming over to paint the whole house. And being the ever supportive wife-to-be, I volunteered to take a full day leave to be home to oversee the painting works. Although I get to enjoy a super long weekend , we have a long to-do list. We might be too over-ambitious, but we shall try to complete as many 'tasks' as possible!

And when I went home this evening, I received a big envelope from HDB. Yeah, our selection date is on 29 October 2009, 2.15pm. That is just 2 days before our big day! I can't wait for end October to come soon :)

Lovely

he he, thanks for your lovely gift. I know that you are not one who believes in such indulgence, you still gave in to my small little wish. Muarks muarks!

Graduation

We were presented with our 'Graduation Certificate' after the end of our 4-part counselling session. A little of token was also given to us, perhaps as a reward to us for completing the marriage preparation course.

I have to thank Felice's insistence on us attending this course (Felice is Alvan's sister). Although there are only 4 sessions, we have benefitted greatly from it. We have come to better understand each other's needs and most importantly to share it openly with each other. I hope that we can continue to work hard to make our marriage a lasting and happy one :)

New toy

This was the reason I mustered all courage to wrestle my way into Comex yesterday.

My dear 'daughter' aka Von reached earlier and collected the brochures for me. Particularly narrowing down those with pink as one of the colour options. Once I reached, we dashed straight to the respectively booths to check out which would provide the best deals. After much analysis of the specifications and package deals (or rather it was Von who did it and I was simply concerned on the aesthetics part of it), I went for Lenovo S10-2. Thanks Von for the 'much effort' and yes I just remembered that I still owe you a drink.

After my fruitful trip to Suntec that was filled almost to the brim, we headed out of Suntec to Bugis for our dinner. It was past 9pm and we were all famished. It was only during dessert time that I whipped out my camera and took some pictures.

Much effort!

I received an email from Alvan this morning and I couldn't resist the temptation to post it here, so that everyone can also enjoy a moment of comic relief.

This was what I received in the body copy:

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he he, did I mention to you yest I much effort? when I reach home, I parked under the big tree tinking tat leaves and branches are easier to remove rather than sap…after tat when I back from jogging, went to take a look at the car, WOW, big tree oso got sap (OMG)…then I went back home get car key drove ard the car park, finally found a lot whereby the small tree branches will cover abt less than half of the car, so decided to take it. Then hor, when I walking back to the lift, saw tis car leaving a PRECIOUS LOT, I run back to the car, sped to the lot, in a way got snatch with another car which juz came in, hahahahaha


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Please pardon Alvan for his command of English language here. I didn't want to edit as it would lose much of the funny element. In case one misunderstands the last portion of his email, Alvan actually meant that HE snatched the PRECIOUS LOT from another car that just drove into the car park.


In short, Alvan never fails to entertain me with the darnest things that he is capable of doing.

Spring cleaning

I have been nagging Alvan to start to do something about his room ie. to clear out all the rubbish so that we can think of how to put in new furniture (once we get down to shopping and buying them). In return, I have also been nagged by my sister to start to pack my things in my room too. I thought it won't be such an uphill task since I seem to have lesser things to pack, as compared to Alvan.

So one fine evening, I took out a big trash bag and contemplate to throw away things that I thought I might not need. So I dug deep into my drawers and cabinets. I put aside my treasured books, my school yearbooks, my photo albums and many other things that I hold dear to my heart. And as I started to sieve out my hidden treasures, I realised to my horrors of horrors that I actually kept aside tons of things that I don't need at all. They include past tax assessments, credit card bills, old receipts, old notebooks etc. I must have chucked them aside without even realising their existence!

Before I knew it, I had four trash bags to clear from my room. And the amazing thing is that the room still looks like before ie. still as full and cluttered! One would not have noticed that four bags full of rubbish have been cleared and I am sure my sister thinks likewise. I am not looking forward to shifting as I am fearful of how many boxes I can shift over and how Alvan's tiny room can contain all my remaining treasures.

Lucky 79

I received an sms from Tracy today, asking me about my queue number for the BTO at Punggol Residences. She was terribly upset that her queue number was 500+, lamenting that HDB cheated another $10 registration fees from her yet again. So I went into HDB website to check my application status, thinking that our queue number would probably be a 3-digit number as well.

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw a 2-digit number. I took a closer look (literally as my nose almost touched my laptop screen) and confirmed that our number is a cool 79!!! Yeah, it felt good and it seemed like a good omen as it is actually our birth year :) It is the very first time in our numerous attempts at balloting that we manage to get a 2-digit number!

The only thing is that it will take a few years for completion and during that period of time, we will have to stay put in Ang Mo Kio. It will sure take alot of adjustment, especially for me, with no one waiting on me like the way my sister does :'( I am already starting to miss home.....

Our 5Cs

We use to hear about the 5Cs that typical Singaporeans chase after, which are cash, condominium, credit cards, career and car. Well, these are material things that are good to have but definitely not things that we must definitely achieve by all means.

Nonetheless, we came up with our own version of 5Cs that have stuck with us for years.

Communicate: Lar Lar is a man of few words. So I have to constantly remind him that it is critical to share with each other what goes on in our minds and verbalise our thoughts. So he has improved on that, although he still sets a quota on the number of words he says per day.

Connect: Be it physical or emotional connection, we try to make it become our second nature. We kiss each other good night before we sleep, kiss good bye before we head in different directions and we hold hands to sleep (or at least try to but we always let go in the middle of the night). Emotional wise, we know that we are connected when we can finish each other’s sentences and laugh at each other’s nonsensical jokes.

Care and Concern: This is no doubt an important aspect in our relationship. It comes naturally with the inherent love that we have for each other.

Complain: We don’t mean it in a negative way actually. Yes, it is true that sometimes I nag and complain. But it is my way of verbalising my thoughts. Haha, so no complaints so far from Lar Lar since this forms part of our communication :)

I like this!

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.