Day 1

1st day of separation. He is going to be away for about a month. After ages, I feel the pangs of saying goodbye again, even if for a short time. My sister is here to keep me company. The elf insists he does not miss the one who is not here - he thinks getting a present when he comes back is worth it. I wish I could have that outlook towards life. I have started swimming. We moved to a condo we can ill-afford but it has the luxury of a swimming pool and two balconies. Which makes it worth the rent that makes my bank balance bleed. Whatever. The elf is too over-confident in the pool. Just because he has those damn arm-bands that keep him afloat, he thinks he is super-man and gives my heart many a scare trying to impress us with his 'swimming' skills. He takes after me in the immodesty department. I have stopped blogging for so long. I don't know why. It is just that I do not have enought time for myself. The little time I manage to steal, I am either surfing the stupid net reading inane articles or reading. I thought I would blog everyday he is away. At least that should make up the quota for this year. Welcome me back.

House hunting in Singapore

So where was I? Ummm....ah, the agents. I was told that I should have a one-to-one relationship with the agents- meaning I should just stick to one agent and not flirt around. But you know me, if there is rule to flout, I will flout it. Plus I was getting impatient with the agent I had chosen - he kept sending me lists of properties I was not even remotely interested in. So I started straying around and calling up agents after agents after agents. We just had about a week left in the serviced apartment and I was beginning to wonder if it had been a good idea to have moved here. Office time was spent mooning over listin gs - I spent hours gazing at pictures of condos and landed houses knowing I could never afford to live in them but hey, a girl can dream, can't she? I saw the ad for this apartment and thought since we have nothing better to do we might as well have a look at it. So I called up the agent, fixed an appointment and off we went. The agent was a plump nice looking lady who showed us around. We did like the place but thought we should have a look at other options as well before finally signing our fate. But boy, the lady was persuasive and aggressive...I thought if we ask her to reduce the price she just might back off so we quoted a price that we thought the owner would refuse. She got on the phone with the landlady and after an animated conversation, she told us that our offer was accepted!

.......(to self)-->should I continue?

House hunting in Singapore - part II

Now, where was I? Oh yes, how depressed I was...the whole process is daunting esp when you consider the fact that you don't have the leisure of spending a day or two to mull over your decision- you are supposed to make up your mind right then otherwise they warn you that someone else might snap up the offer. I don't like being rushed...I don't like being pushed into decisions... And everything is so costly. We started off thinking we would be able to find some decent place at 2K. Boy, were we wrong? We had to stretch our budget till it got to the point where we would have a place to stay but survive on stale bread and tap water.. And then you have this thing about nationality. Apparently, some owners don't want to let out to Indians and so you would have ads saying 'no indians'. I spent the best part of the first month in the office glued to rental websites, gumtree and on the phone to agents. They would ask my name, my nationality, the kind of pass I have before I could even ask about a property. There were some interesting conversations too. Like for instance after I said I was Indian, the agent said 'But your name does not sound Indian.' I assured him I was so but he had more doubts 'But you don't talk like an Indian'. I was getting amused by this time. He continued 'you sound like an 'ang mo' ( the term used here for a white person)..I didn't know whether to be flattered or cry. He called me up again to ask, very apologetically I must add 'Are you the fair kind of Indian or the dark-skinned type?'. Now I was really finding this too amusing. Apparently the landlord wanted to know if I was from North India or from South and they were trying to figure that out from my melanin level!!! I told him I am neither from the north or the south but from the east. He persisted, 'Are you fair?'. At this point I felt I was being quizzed for a marriage proposal. I was kind and didn't try sarcasm and told him that I was not dark, on the fair side. He said he would pass on the information to the landlord. I was told afterwards that the landlord has decided to rent out to Indians so my fair skin was of no use. Damn. All that fair and lovely cream gone to waste (hey, joke, joke...I am anti-whitening)......(to be continued, maybe)

House hunting in Singapore-part 1

This is a long due post of the traumatic (you know how melodramatic I am )experience of house-hunting. We were put up in a serviced apartment for one month in the central district-house keeping service everyday and free breakfast and all those things. I had been forewarned by my colleagues who spoke of their less-than-pleasant experience of finding a suitable place. There are condos-private apartments, and those govt built HDB. I was told most of the HDB apartments are cramped, the toilet too small and horror of horrors, no balcony. I hate the thought of a house without outside space even if it is a balcony where you would have no space to move your butt. The last apartment we had in the UK overlooked a river and it was so cool to watch swans and ducks and boats gliding by while you hug a book and daydream. Back to the present. I was told the best thing would be to enlist the help of an agent and I was given the number of one such being. He was a soft-spoken elderly man and he gave me list of apartments available for viewings. I had quite a lot of boxes to tick- walking distance from the MRT, big, two bathrooms, a balcony... He took us around to see three flats and all of them were so depressing. ........,.,to be continued

Back

Well, whatever happened to my resolve of blogging regularly? Just like all my good intentions they never see the light of day. Anyways.., Still can't decide whether I like it here. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I hate the commute - I don't know why we decided staying 15 minutes walking distance from the MRT station was a good idea - I hate it esp. when I have to walk in the hot sun. Evening is a bit better because you have the breeze. Office is fun though. In the space of 5 months, we have managed to get 2 complaints against our 'noise' level. Yours truly is one of the main culprits. I cannot speak softly like a lady to save my life. Either I am squealing or laughing or beating up the one junior T-da and I have marked for bullying. Work wise, I am scraping through. I am doing what I am best at - nagging kids to complete their tasks and being what one kids call an 'editor' because I love correcting and reformatting their answers. I have picked up another hobby - stuffed felt toys and I am enjoying it. The dressmaking class starts next month and I can't wait to design my own clothes. I need to buy a sewing machine. I have also resumed baking - we just have a convectional oven. The first time I nearly burned my cookies to death because I am stupid enough not to figure out that the temperature in the recipe for conventional oven needs to be adjusted for convectional ovens. I baked three cakes in a row for the elf's birthday. Back home, we are having a house constructed. That is keeping DNA occupied - I heard she is terrorizing all the workers, supervising them to death. Hopefully, we would have it ready by December in time for Tamo's wedding. This house was Baba's dream - I am sad he could not see it come true. Apart from that, there is nothing much. I am toying with the idea of writing a book - as if anyone would pay to read the crap I write. But just to feed my ego. It would be a miracle if I can write one and a even bigger miracle if I get it published. Let's see. And why do friends drift away?