Monday, December 31, 2012
Chapter 429 - Welcome 2013!
It's sort of become a tradition that I've got to write a post on my "New Year's Resolution" every year, so here it is!
As we leave 2012 behind and usher in the New Year, I've got to say that I begin the year with plenty of uncertainty - not necessary in a bad way I guess:
1. Uncertain of when we will move into our new flat! In case you've not read my previous post on our housing woes, you should! ;p We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we'll move in around the 20th of January.
2. Uncertain of my new "job". I think most of you will already know, but I'm moving to HQ next year to be a Special Pro-jects Officer - a bit of a change from teaching. For now, I only have a very vague idea of what I'm gonna be doing, so again I'm hoping that this move is for the better! (Not that I could have stopped it if I'd wanted to though...)
3. Uncertain of when a certain piece of ear wax is gonna come out of my ear! And yes I'm serious about this! 2 days ago, I went swimming, and ended up with a bit of a blocked right ear. And then I was so annoyed by it yesterday I decided to try and clean it with a cotton bud, only to push ear wax deeper into my ear! Spent 2.5 hours at the Polyclinic today to find out that the ear wax is now impacted (i.e. stuck) and I've got to come back for ear syringing (basically using a syringe filled with water to flush my ear). But well, the silly thing is that the appointment for the ear syringing was gonna be in a month's time! I think I can only tolerate a couple more days of bad hearing in one ear before I start pushing all sorts of stuff into my ear canal to take out the ear wax!
Well, thankfully I also went to see a GP this afternoon, and we should be able to do some ear syringing on Wednesday. So even as 2013 has arrived, I've entered 2013 with blocked ears! And I've got to put this wax solution into my ear to try and soften the ear wax so that it's more likely to come out during the ear syringing! Brings new meaning to the saying "Happy New Year, Pull Your Ears!" haha!
But on the other hand, I also begin 2013 with something that I'm looking forward to - the birth of our first child! 2012 was indeed a life-changing year - what's with the wedding, our honeymoon, and now that Esther's pregnant, we are both looking forward to seeing our baby boy some time in early April! :)
As we leave 2012 behind and usher in the New Year, I've got to say that I begin the year with plenty of uncertainty - not necessary in a bad way I guess:
1. Uncertain of when we will move into our new flat! In case you've not read my previous post on our housing woes, you should! ;p We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we'll move in around the 20th of January.
2. Uncertain of my new "job". I think most of you will already know, but I'm moving to HQ next year to be a Special Pro-jects Officer - a bit of a change from teaching. For now, I only have a very vague idea of what I'm gonna be doing, so again I'm hoping that this move is for the better! (Not that I could have stopped it if I'd wanted to though...)
3. Uncertain of when a certain piece of ear wax is gonna come out of my ear! And yes I'm serious about this! 2 days ago, I went swimming, and ended up with a bit of a blocked right ear. And then I was so annoyed by it yesterday I decided to try and clean it with a cotton bud, only to push ear wax deeper into my ear! Spent 2.5 hours at the Polyclinic today to find out that the ear wax is now impacted (i.e. stuck) and I've got to come back for ear syringing (basically using a syringe filled with water to flush my ear). But well, the silly thing is that the appointment for the ear syringing was gonna be in a month's time! I think I can only tolerate a couple more days of bad hearing in one ear before I start pushing all sorts of stuff into my ear canal to take out the ear wax!
Well, thankfully I also went to see a GP this afternoon, and we should be able to do some ear syringing on Wednesday. So even as 2013 has arrived, I've entered 2013 with blocked ears! And I've got to put this wax solution into my ear to try and soften the ear wax so that it's more likely to come out during the ear syringing! Brings new meaning to the saying "Happy New Year, Pull Your Ears!" haha!
But on the other hand, I also begin 2013 with something that I'm looking forward to - the birth of our first child! 2012 was indeed a life-changing year - what's with the wedding, our honeymoon, and now that Esther's pregnant, we are both looking forward to seeing our baby boy some time in early April! :)
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Chapter 428 - Delay's the name of the game
So you might have heard, we collected our keys to our new flat in Punggol! That was on 8 Oct 2012. Fast forward to today (27 Dec 12), and guess what? Our flat is still not ready yet! Every time we visit the flat, we end up being frustrated, helpless, and dejected. "Why?" You may ask...
Well, we looked for our brother-in-law on 7 Sep to get him to design and do up our flat. The designs didn't come till mid/end-Oct. Well, we should have taken that as the first sign that things were not gonna come soon. But we were assured that the flat would be ready by mid-December.
In Nov, the designs were out, we chose our tiles, bathroom accessories, lighting. We even bought our kitchen appliances (stove, hood, oven), refrigerator, washing machine, dining table. To top it up, we even went on a 2-week holiday to the UK/France, and now we're back! And we have now bought a rice cooker, sound bar, vacuum cleaner, kettle, bedsheets and more. Oh, did I also mention that we had already bought our mattress back in April? And guess what? Still no flat.
Basically, we have planned to make use of this entire Nov/Dec holiday to move in and settle into our new flat, but let's just say that things haven't gone according to plan. We've spent days literally scouring the streets, and sitting at cafes watching time go by. We're sick of shopping for this and that, and then wondering where the hell to put all the stuff we've bought. Thankfully the big ticket items can be stored at the warehouses until our flat is ready.
We even had grand dreams of hosting Christmas parties (notice the plural form used here) at our new flat, as housewarming! But of course, grand as these dreams may be, they remained as dreams for now and we shall now hope that the house will be ready by Chinese New Year. (which FYI, is about 1.5 months after Christmas)
The progress thus far - tiles have been laid (excluding the vinyl tiles), the lights and fans are up and just today, the first coat of paint was laid. And that's all that's been done in the flat for now.The last we heard today, the carpentry work will only be ready 15 Jan, so after installation, the flat will be ready 20 Jan at the very earliest. If you are reading this, we're gonna need to borrow your fingers and toes to be crossed that it really will be ready by then..... :(
Well, we looked for our brother-in-law on 7 Sep to get him to design and do up our flat. The designs didn't come till mid/end-Oct. Well, we should have taken that as the first sign that things were not gonna come soon. But we were assured that the flat would be ready by mid-December.
In Nov, the designs were out, we chose our tiles, bathroom accessories, lighting. We even bought our kitchen appliances (stove, hood, oven), refrigerator, washing machine, dining table. To top it up, we even went on a 2-week holiday to the UK/France, and now we're back! And we have now bought a rice cooker, sound bar, vacuum cleaner, kettle, bedsheets and more. Oh, did I also mention that we had already bought our mattress back in April? And guess what? Still no flat.
Basically, we have planned to make use of this entire Nov/Dec holiday to move in and settle into our new flat, but let's just say that things haven't gone according to plan. We've spent days literally scouring the streets, and sitting at cafes watching time go by. We're sick of shopping for this and that, and then wondering where the hell to put all the stuff we've bought. Thankfully the big ticket items can be stored at the warehouses until our flat is ready.
We even had grand dreams of hosting Christmas parties (notice the plural form used here) at our new flat, as housewarming! But of course, grand as these dreams may be, they remained as dreams for now and we shall now hope that the house will be ready by Chinese New Year. (which FYI, is about 1.5 months after Christmas)
The progress thus far - tiles have been laid (excluding the vinyl tiles), the lights and fans are up and just today, the first coat of paint was laid. And that's all that's been done in the flat for now.The last we heard today, the carpentry work will only be ready 15 Jan, so after installation, the flat will be ready 20 Jan at the very earliest. If you are reading this, we're gonna need to borrow your fingers and toes to be crossed that it really will be ready by then..... :(
