{Happy New Year}

Spent the first day of 2010 at my aunty's new home. Had a simple, but fun day with my lovely cousins!

There were a lot more hilarious pictures, but I promised them I wouldn't post it :D

{Precious Lil Girl}

My lovely cousin, Z, is back for the holidays. We've been so tied up we barely had the chance to spend time together. She stayed over for 2 days. We had an enjoyable time together!

She wants to be a vet when she grows up. She loves Blossom!!

{Fraser Place & Around}

Fraser Place Serviced Apartment - Central Seoul. This is a really neat place. 1BR apartment, fully furnished with a kitchen, washing machine & dryer 2 bathrooms, dining and living area. The washing machine and dryer is really cool coz it's one of those that allow you to wash and dry your wool clothings without shrinking or spoiling it. You can also dump in all the colors and whites and mix them together and they don't get stained. Cool yeah!  They clean up and change your towels everyday. Located at the "CBD" area of Seoul. Busy during the day, a little quiet at night, especially after everyone has gone home for the day.

It's a nice area to live in, lots of food around, a 7-eleven just across the apartment and within walking distance to Namdaemun and Myeong Dong. Just a few stations away from Dongdaemun. We are basically living at the center of Seoul city - City Hall subway. Just 3 mins walk to Korean Air, which is great, that allowed us to walk to the pick up point just outside the Korean Air office building and take the 9,000 won limo bus to the airport, rather than pay 90,000 won for taxi or 110,000 won for hotel airport transfer.

It is also because of this location, that we are able to walk pass the fabulous red bean pancake which I've been raving about. Had we not lived here, we'd probably never find out about this jewel. If you ever visit Seoul, do try this. There are many hawkers selling these on the streets and it taste good, but this is beyond good :)

{Seoul - The Land of the Morning Calm}

We took more than a thousand pictures. What you've seen is just a portion of the fun we had. I have to say, this is one of the the most enjoyable trips I've had in my life.

Food was like what I've described and what you've seen in the earlier post - so me!!! Spicy, gravy and mixed up... absolutely love it!

M had his unexpected moments when he simply cracked me up with his strange sense of humor. His patience was commendable :) The hours I took just window shopping.
Sightseeing locations were actually fun and not boring. I'm so glad we did not follow a tour and did not need to visit any Ginseng factory or Amythyse factory. Phew!

Although I think we spent a lot more free and easy, but I'm sure we had much more fun visiting specific places that we really want to go, like the various Korean series sights, lots of shopping, food that Koreans eat (not tourist food), lived in an apartment on our own, ate street food, woke up at 10-11am daily woohoo! Didn't have to spend 70% of our time travelling on buses. Got to learn how the subway works. Had some thrill when we got stalked twice.

I have so much to say, but I'd end with this - I'd love to return to Seoul again and again and again!

{Yoido Full Gospel Church}

Yes! We made it for the English service on Sunday morning. The world's largest Christian church with 780,000 members. The service was in Korean, but the slides were in English, Japanese and Mandarin as well. They also had ear phones with translators for various languages just to accomodate foreign visitors. The most memorable part for me was that as we exited from the Sanctuary after service, it started snowing. It was a stunning sight and an answered prayer. It was very memorable.

Disclaimer: The angels and polar bear is not part of Yoido Church. It's actually the Christmas Decor in the hotel that leads us to the subway :)

{Having Fun}

Just some random shots of us having fun, as if nobody else is watching :)

{Prince Hours}

Remember the teddy bears you saw before the start of each chapter of Prince Hours. Well, those were not random teddy bears put together, there really is a Teddy Bear Museum that showcases the historical culture of Korea. Interesting, I like it!

Oh and here's a post-card-worthy shot just for you :)

{Boys Over Flowers}

This is the N-Seoul Tower where Jandi was suppose to meet Jun Pyo and left him waiting in the cold, only to end up spending a night in the cable car. Well, it's not that romantic when you're squeezing in a single cable car with 46 other strangers and a wife who gets frantic when led up to high places (excluding roller coasters - don't ask me why). I was holding on to M with my eyes closed throughout the ride. It was a torture.

That being said, it's a really nice sight when you get up there. You get to see an overview of Seoul. You see those locks in the photo below, couples come up to N-Seoul Tower, purchase these locks, writes their messages and lock them on these metal fences. Tons and tons of them.

We decided to go for the sticker tile with our picture on it instead. I'm sure they will remove it eventually, but if you are visiting any time in 2010, do look out for us there!

{Beethovan Virus}

For those who have watched the Korean series Beethovan virus, don't be fooled, like I was. The series was never shot in France. It was in this little replicate village called Petite France in Seoul :) Yes!!! Of course it wasn't as impressive as FRANCE itself, but it's a nice litte French village for those who have not visited France.

This piece of table and chair deserves to be singled out coz' it's so innovative and beautifully created!

{Winter Sonata}

I didn't watch this series - it was simply too slow and the ending was too tragic. But nonetheless, we decided to visit Nami island where this series was shot, simply because the scenery looks fanastic. Here's some snapshots...

The picture where M was holding me with a picture of the TV series poster behind us, this was one unexpected moment. My dear M, who is normally camera shy suddenly blurted out, hey let's take a picture and follow the poster behind. It was so funny!

{Coffee Prince}

Thanks to the friendly Seoul City Tourism Information counter, I was extremely excited as they directed us to the famous Coffee Prince Cafe where the Korean series was filmed. Capture every corner of the cafe. I must say, if it was not for the TV series, I don't think many people would go there. It was quite out of the way and quietly hidden in a corner away from the main shopping area. Most of the customers who came were fans from the TV series as you see them frantically snapping away - yup, I'm one of them :) I overheard one of the female customer commenting that it was precisely because of the TV series that we are paying for twice the amoun for a cup of coffee :) Oh well. Just once in my lifetime, I think it's worth it. I must say the chocolate drink and cake was pretty good. The hot lemon drink was too sweet and too sour :(

This was a hilarious shot. I was trying to take the coffee prince signature canvas above the guy's head. At the moment when I snapped, he looked into the camera. I don't think he realised I was taking the canvas coz' he kept looking over and had that "why did you take a picture of me?" look.

{Food is good for you!}

As we touched down in Seoul, I started my search for Kim Hyun Joong. Come on, I'm in his country... I might bump into him right?!?!?!?! As we were checking out the streets of Seoul, early morning upon arrival, I spotted, not Kim Hyun Joong but... someone even better!!!!

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Tada! Lol...

My hubs off course lol, who can be better than him, lol.

This was served before our main dish and I saw Koreans sipping them by the spoonful and I thought, how nice, hot seaweed soup... To my horror, it's cold and that clear liquid is vinegar. Yucks! I got "tricked" twice, then I learnt.

Other than this and Kimchi (which I still cannot appreciate), ALL the other food we had were absolutely mouth-watering. These are just some snap shots of the food we've consumed, check it out!!

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I love the feshly baked walnut red bean cake - YUMMY, and the street food is sooooooo delicious.

The Black Chicken Korean Ginseng Soup warms my heart! So sweet! This is the best shabu-shabu ever. The beef literally "melts" in your mouth!

The dark choco is heavenly! Even our home-cooked instant noodles were so good!

 

Did you konw that zha jian mian is pronounced the same in Korean? It's the bowl of black gooey stuff below. It taste MUCH better than the ones I've tasted in Singapore! And the egg cake is soooooo hmmm... lovely! :D

I've had the BEST textured noodle ever. Don't be decieved by its plain outlook. It's the most smooth "slurpable" noodle I've ever had. It's chewy, yet not too doughy.... it's PERFECT. The best, really! The store only sells 3 dishes and it's always packed with customers. Now I know why...

Oooo and those freshly fried red bean pancake - BESTEST of the best! Quietly tucked away in a little corner of the subway station. It's my must-have snack every night before going back to the apartment. Crispy, tasty, sweet, salty, tsk... it's just super mouth-watering!!

Our final meal at the Incheon airport. We decided to go for the food court food - YUCKS! :)

OK all these images are making my tummy growl. Time for lunch. More photos later!

{We love Seoul!!!!}

Food is superbly delicious. Not sure if it's the cold weather, but everything hot taste yummy! Our fav. food list:

• Ginseng Chicken Soup
• Brown Rice Porridge
• Bulgogi Beef
• Bibimbap
• Street Food - Those crispy deep fried Korean street food found in the Singapore shopping malls really brings injustice to the street food in Korea... The ones in Seoul are really yummy! It's crispy, hot and absolutely delicious. Very cheap too! Comes with a cup of free spicy, clear soup - very good for the cold weather.
• Hershey's Ice Cream Cone - Not sure if it's totally Korean, but didn't see these in Singapore
• Spicy Tofu Stew
• Korean Seafood Pancake
• Corn Pancake
• Egg Pancake - This is really tasty. It's like those red bean pancake, except there's an egg instead of red bean in it. Sweet. Tasty.
• Deep Fried Red Bean Pancake - one of my absolutely fav. Eat this almost everyday from a little stall in the subway on our way back to the apartment.

I'm sure there's more that I've missed, overall, I love Korean food! Spicy, lots of gravy, everything mixed together - that's the way ah ha ah ha I like it, ah ha ah ha  (lol)


Shopping is pretty amazing in Seoul. There's just endless shops selling beautiful items at very reasonable rates. Too bad they were all selling winter clothes and boots. Would love to return for the shopping during summer. Tried to bargain but most of them were not willing, since they know we are tourist. Or I'm just bad at it :)

Walk. Walk. Walk. So many flights of steps at the subway!! Where's all the escalators???!?!?Every evening, the final flight that we have to take is 60 steps.... That's just one of the many we take in a day.

Friendly people everywhere... especially if they know that you are a tourist. They speak English and Mandarin. Not hard to move around on your own at all.

Yoido Gospel Church. Largest Church in the world. 780,000 members. I thought it would be more like hillsongs, but it was more like traditional hymns with the 1980s band :) The beautiful part of this was that right after service, when we stepped out of the sanctuary, it snowed.... it was like an answered prayer for this trip. Woo hoo! After that the snow stopped. It was as if it snowed just for that service. Made it all the more special.

Oops gotta eat lunch now. More to come!

iLoveSeoul!!!!

{Counting Down}

We're leaving tomorrow.

We still have:

• Some misc. stuff to pack
• An itinerary to plan
• A wedding to help and attend.

Then, we'll be gone till near Christmas!!

{Holiday?}

Till today, we have nothing planned for our trip. We might just end up shopping in Seoul for 8 days... time, time... I need more time

Just did some sorting out of clothes for the trip, not sure what I'd end up wearing, nothing matches... O well, it will work out some how like it usually does. If it doens't, I'll just shop there :D Will drop by town to pick up some tops for the trip.

I'm hoping for really cold weather so we get to make use of all the winter stuff we bought, ear mufflers, scarves, beanies, gloves, boots (color is so ugly, not sure why I bought them :D Will go look for new boots when I'm there.)

Am I looking forward to this trip? For sure. I'm hoping a time of rest, relax, shopping and plain fun. Almost drained out of energy from the renovation works and packing. Shortly after we return it'd be Christmas.

I used to enjoy Christmas and Chinese New Year. Now I almost dread it coming, coz' it's one of the busiest time ever. Getting ready for the parties, serving, cleaning, entertaining... In the past, it was straight forward, just one family gathering. Now there's 3-4 family gatherings. Too many.  I really like to just spend it quiet and away from all these. Festive seasons are never the same again....

We used to get one week off for Christmas which I really appreciated because that's when I really get to rest after all the gatherings. Now, the Board has eliminated that one week leave... hai... that means I have to return to work after Christmas.... How to start the year afresh?

{Sneak Peak}

Styrofoam "Canvas" above our bed.

My lil ribbon pole. It can only hold so many ribbons, I still have one box of ribbons packed away in the cabinet. Extendable pole from Daiso - no drilling required.

Our bedside lamp. Body and the shade comes from two different lights. Made the light salesperson mix and match for us a few lights and finally settled with this.

Lil' scrap cabinet - Closed.

Added 2 rows of red ribbons for the flip up shelve & pull-down table. Realised that the white woody laminate get's finger print stains pretty easily. Added the ribbons at the areas where I would pull the doors most, hoping it'd prevent finger-print staining.

Two panels of glass cabinet allows changeable displays.

Lil Scrap cabinet - opened.

There's an additional pull-out L-table, a flip out study table. The panel above the study table can actually be pushed up. And of course a roller bench that can be neatly tugged in when not in use.

{Getting Happier by the Day!}

I'm almost done decorating our room. I'm really pleased with it! Had fun using the staple tacker and the hot glue gun to create a "canvas" look alike on my wall. Used the 3M velcro to stick it onto the wall. Very good!

Why a canvas look alike and not a canvas? The big difference is that this weighs much less coz' it's made out of styrofoam boards :) I was afraid the canvas might drop on us while we're asleep. At least if the foam board drops, we won't get hurt lol. But it looks just like a canvas. Bought cloth to wrap it up and added some ribbons, flowers and butterflies. Looks really simple, but I like it that way!

Bought 2 sets of new beddings, can't wait to use them!

I wish I could post some pictures online, but my paranoid hubby locked all his camera in the dry cabinet. Yes! Even the small digital camera. So I kinda have no access to it. Will get him to take some pics and have them posted up.

Feeling so excited with the new room!!

The carpenters will be in again tomorrow to install some extra drawers that we've requested. PLEASE do not drill extra holes! Pray please!

Did I tell you that the shelves in the book case started to warp coz' of the weight of the books. Oh well, they said they'd replace with thicker wood... we'll see....

That's all for today! Counting down to Sunday!

Before that, we have so many programmes lined up. Friday - farewell dinner for his cousin who's leaving Singpaore. Saturday - helping out at his friend's wedding. Sunday - Seoul here we come!

{I'm Lovin' It}

They've officially handed over the renovation project last Thursday.

Other than the fact that my flip down writing table snapped once (they came to fix it), I'm really pleased with what we've got (minus away poor workmanship). What I'm really saying is... I love the way "I" designed it ha ha ha ... (ego...ego) It's very functional and I could fit all my scrap stuff into my lil craft area.

I've packed, labeled and organised a total of 3.5 rooms - study room, sister's room, our room and landing area. That's like a 4 Rm HDB flat!!!! It took me a minimum of 52 hours over the last 5 days. That's like a minimum of 12 hours on a non-work day... Ouch! My back!!!!

M did the furniture (a 3.2m study table + two 3-drawer room cabinet) fixing from ikea. Lesson learnt. Pay for ikea installation. He took 2 days to fix up all the furniture, it's really a lot of work. It was hilarious when he sat there in the midst of wood and screws, looked at me and said, "Aiyo, next time don't buy ikea furniture. Cannot finish fixing..." Ha ha... If you knew M, that would be funny, coz' he's normally an accomodating person who SELDOM complains. When he does complain, I actually find it hilarious :D

Finally, today's the 6th day since packing started, I think we're 95% done. Just some final bits to touch up. Then, we have to start planning for the Korea trip. We're leaving this Sunday and our itinerary is still not out!!! We're going on a free and easy trip to Seoul. We don't speak Korean... I don't feel at ease to just go without a plan... Any recommendations? We decided not to go for the ski trip since both of us have been before and are not keen to go again, we decided to invest in a good spa package :D

Good times. Happy times. Relaxing times. Looking forward!

{What's Happening?}

This is suppose to be a happy scrap blog. Why has it turned into a ranting blog that sounds so frustrated and defeated...

{At the Edge}

I recieved an SMS that encouraged me...

God opens doors. If you feel like you are at the edge of a cliff, don't despair coz' God will either teach you how to fly or hold you when you fall.

I kinda feel like I'm at the edge right now.

Renovation works are suppose to be completed today. But like you guessed... things are still done wrongly. So it has been pushed to Thursday.
- Magnet on cabinet is not aligned to the metal plate on the flip down cabinet door. Cannot close properly. I dunno why they deliver things like that.

- Screws not screwed in properly.

- Hinges are screwed in crooked.

- Laminate damaged from carpentery work.

- Sliding door is done wrong TWICE with the SAME problem even though I've offered them the solution before... WHY WHY WHY!!!!?????

- Thursday after the movers shift everything up, I'd have massive amount of packing to do...

Mum's in hospital still - lung infection.

Dad started bleeding suddenly. He's getting rashes and blisters from chemo treatement.

Recommended a curtain lady to my paternal dad to get their home curtains fixed. Knowing my dad's temprements I can anticipate his overreaction when he finds out the lady cannot deliver what he wants... I'm not going to deal with it... gave her my parents' contact and asked her to deal with them directly. One renovaiton project is more than enough, not going to take on two.

I'm rushing everyday at work to complete everything before I go on leave...

Got news to lead at the Youth church camp workshop next Tues. I'd like to decline it but the worst part is I actually do have a conviction to do it. Even though I have no confidence, no energy, no time to prepare, superbly unsettled from this whole series of ridiculous and unfortunate events.... I have nothing... everything is drawing me away... I've been so unsettled, so mad, so angry, so pissed off... I... I... I.... am speechless....

In response to the SMS I received. Lord, I want to fly... I will not go through these for nothing. You will take me higher and closer to where You want me to be. All I'm doing now is submiting my will to you...take over.

{Have Not Been Scrapping because...}

For the last one month (nearly), all my scrapstuff are packed in boxes and transported downstairs... Since renovation works started, we've evacuated the entire 2nd level. Can u imagine how much packing was done just to empty out the 2nd level. Next week, we have to start shifting and packing again... scary to even juust think of it.

Even though the renovation process had not been smooth, I'm looking forward to the finished rooms.
(Notice I said had and not have coz' I'm believing it will be smooth from herefoth!!!!)

Finally, I would have proper places to store my scrapstuff and a proper table and chair to work on. No more sitting on the floor and squeezing everything into one miserable box and experiencing backache after that :) Woo hoo!

Do I miss scrapping? Sure I do. Now, I think we have accumulated more photos with all the weddings and events. Looking forward to start again, probably in January though. Coz' we're flying off to Korea in mid December and will only be back in time for Christmas - which is a busy time for us as well.

Hubs bought Panasonic GF1... I should start learning how to use it to take my scrap stuff :) This is so random... oh well :)

{Happy Moments}

We used to go to many places together when we were young, thanks to our closely knitted parents. These are people I love a lot and grew up with, My lovely aunties, uncles and cousins! Love them all!

With everyone growing up and getting busy with our own lives, going out together has became a mere conversational topic on our Sunday gatherings.

Last Friday, despite the drizzle, we were determined to go to botanic gardens for our first walk together. We had so much fun.

Joke of the day:

From a distance, we saw what looked like giant grey sunflowers. All the swagus went up to touch and see if it's real... of course it wasn't real... where on earth can we find grey sunflowers! lol. We had a good laugh and ended up with some lovely shots :) It was so funny. Yes... I was one of the swa gus ha ha ha..

Fav photo of the day:

They look so beautiful together :) I love this!

After god-pa took this photo he said, we don't take such photos (hands over god-ma's shoulder). Photos like that are for buddies, friends. You see, I went over and put his hand over her shoulder ha ha ha...

{Believe and Speak It}

{Reno Day???}

I've lost count how many days this reno has been going on.

Renovation Update
Majority of the issues have been resolved which is good. YET, there is stuff that still didn't went well...

1. Carpenter redid my study unit. Looks more like a workable space now. BUT I'm not sure why they don't bother to screw in the screws properly. They were too lazy to unscrew certain things to make sure they could screw in certain screws securely. Instead they just "did their best" to screw it in 3/4 and left the other 1/4 of the screw unscrewed.

Today the electrician came to fix the study light and had to lean on the flip down study unit... as you might have guessed, the hinge of the badly screwed screws snapped... Even the electrician knew how to fix it for us why wasn't it fixed properly by the carpenters the second time round?????

2. We found a piece of wood stuck in between our side table. It's one of those shelves that are glued to the wall. Obviously it was slanted... and all they did to rectify that was to stick a piece of ugly wood below the shelve to make sure it doesn't fall?????

The contractors aim to handover a 95% completed work on Tuesday. All the built-in things should be resolved... (yes, it means there are non built in things that are not resolved...) If everything goes as planned, they would have:

• Grind, stain & lacquer the floor 3 times.
• Paint our walls 3-5 times.
• Paint Touch up 3-4 times.
• Redo carpentry work 2-3 times, depending what items we’re talking about.
• Electricity 1-2 times. To be fair to him, the electrician did a great job. He had to redo because the carpentry work affected what he did.

Instead of a simple job that would last 1-2 weeks, it’s now probably going into our 4th week… and every single thing had to be done more than once.

Living Status Update

We've shifted back and are staying in our sister's room now. Since dad is alone at home, we felt it would be better for us to be home with him. But Mon, we have to shift back to my paternal mum's place coz' they are redoing the floor... which means we cannot access to the 2nd level for a day.

Right now, it looks like we are living coolie squatters. All our stuff is on the floor. We have a pole resting on 2 ends of our window where we hang clothes that we need to wear over the next week. High class coolie - we have a King size mattress on the floor and air-con :D

Pray With Us

Last night mum went to A&E and was warded - Bleeding in the lungs. She coughed out lots of fresh blood.

Years ago, her lungs collapse and the doctors said there was no hope. Yet, we believe in a God who heals, a God who restores, a God who answeres prayers. Miraculously, her lungs were restored and there were no issues till recently.

I hope the cause of what seem to be a relapse is not due to the dust and paint etc. Of course we would expect dust, smell of paint and smell of lacquer from this renovation process. My point is, it's acceptable if it's done once. But to redo it so many times really is creating extra dust, making mum n dad breathe in extra paint and lacquer... which ultimately isn't good for their health.

Please keep our mum in prayer that her lungs will be restored and made whole.

{Reno Day 14 - 18}

Saturday Evening:
I decided to call the boss and demand changes for everything that went wrong. He assured me that he would look into it when he returns to Singapore on Monday.

I felt really awful because I do get along very well with the contractor. That was also the reason why I've given in and covered up for her so many times. Until I spoke to my friend who introduced them to me, she kept drilling this into my head: She's not your friend. Right now, she's your contractor. You are the client."

And so I did it.

All these time, there were SMS exchanges between the contractor and me. On one hand I was fuming mad with the entire process. On the other hand I felt extremely bad to have gone to the boss - kinda felt like I sabotaged her. Anyway, it is done...


Sunday Evening:
Cousin came over to check out the work and gave some advice on Sunday afternoon. I called the boss again to request to meet on Monday to settle it.

Spoke & SMS contractor on Sunday evening to say - NO NEED to paint door frames. Coz' they wanted to charge another $100 for that in which we didn't want to take the risk that it might go wrong again. Contractor understood. All the painter had to do on Monday is to clean up the mess that he made and do some final touch up. No painting of frame required.


Monday Morning:
Received call from dad to say that he's at the hospital for check up. The painter came and started painting my door frames. Our helper was sharp enough to stop him.

I was in the middle of a semiar organised by our school, extremely busy, extremely frustrated... I lost it.

I called the boss and let's just say, he saw the ugly side of me... hai... I demanded to see him that very afternoon and was ready to demand that if nothing is going to be rectified, we'll stop all renovation works, and we're shooting this up to case - EXTREMELY ungracious, but like I said, I lost it.

Seriously, what's wrong with their communication. Something as simple as NOT paint could go wrong. How could I have been clearer to her?

Monday Afternoon:
They came: Boss of contractor, contractor, boss of carpenter, carpenter. We met. Boss agreed it was shabby work. Was extremely apologetic, especially because it was recommended by a friend. Agreed to change everything that was wrong, including all those stuff that they said cannot be rectified.

All the items listed in the previous post on things that have gone wrong, would be recitified and changed to what I wanted.

Finally, I could smile.

They could only install the week after coz they needed time to make the changes. I agreed. Seems reasonable.

The boss was extremely apologetic, especially after seeing how mum and dad had to sleep amongst the mess and dust downstairs... What was supposed to be completed in 2 weeks has now stretched beyond...it's coming to a month....

Monday Evening:
Contractor SMSed to say that they would get it done by this Saturday. Woo hoo! Not just that, they even offered to paint the frames for free (the paint is now different color because of the earlier miscommunication with their painter.)

So after all the storm, everything finally came to a peaceful stream. I'm just waiting to see the beautiful finished work on Saturday and have the parquet reworked on Monday and wala! We're done!

Pray with me.

And yes, pray for more grace and wisdom for me to handle such situtations. While I had the right to blow up, there was really no need for me to do that. I could have spoken nicely to the boss and managed everything better. I need to learn how to extend grace, rest in God's assurance that all will be worked out and take control of my temprements. Well, we all learn :)

Today is the 18th day since reno started... agree in prayer with me that it will be completed by early next week.

{Think Happy Thoughts}

This is the cutest one of all...

aw.... lil M! :D

{A case with CASE}

Yesterday my cousin came and saw it for herself... I believe she started to feel for me ha ha ha... she too agreed it's terrible workmanship. And stuff that they said cannot be rectified, in reality can, it just means more work.

Hai... here's a list of things that went wrong.

OUR ROOM

1. Height of study table - wrong. If you saw it you would laugh, where got study table height so shallow. Cannot put A4 holders, then I want that space for what? Put tea cups????
2. Depth of study cabinet - wrong. Specifically requested to fit ikea box, gave them measurements. Sure, can fit ikea box, the cabinet cannot close only... duh!
3. Tracks for flip up unit and mirror - wrong. Why can't they give me normal tracks like everyone else. Give me some industrial looking track that is so hard to move and scratches the laminate. And it's so ugly!!!!
4. Internal of wardrobe - wrong. They told me can't be done before construction and I naively accepted it. Yesterday I was told it can be done - I feel cheated. This mistake would hav caused us inconvenience for the next ten or twenty years. Imagine a part (5" or more)of your wardobe that is constantly blocked by the silly sliding door because of misalignment.
5. Wardrobe sliding doors - wrong. I gave specific instructions how I want the dimensions to be partitioned, it came out exactly how I don't want it to be.
6. Wardrobe drawers... super sala. Bad workmanship. Use liquid paper to touch up on the damage done on the laminate. HALO!!!!
7. Drill a hole in my TV cabinet - scratch the cabinet... Hai....
8. Gave me a swivel table that flips over when I put my hands on it.
9. Use hinges that they don't know how to drill. The screws are all over the place jutting out everywhere.
10. Drill hole wrongly in my cabinet because of wrong measurement I think. So there's holes in my wardrobe that are redundant.
11. Sliding door track cannot work because their proposed door is too light.
12. Their proposed TV console drawer doesn't work because I cannot use my DVD recorder - no space given for the DVD player to open.
13. Bought access more than half of the special hinge and refuse to refund me even though it's their miscalculation.

STUDY ROOM

1. Spoke with contractor and emailed her dimensions of a space we need for a specific use. Instead of a 435mm width, they gave us a 35mm width. Now the space is so redundant and we can't do anything with it. Too small to add drawer but too ugly to leave it alone. On top of that, we have to sacrifice another space to create the desired dimensions.

All these were on top of the painters that gone wrong, the flooring that went way wrong...

So, do I have a case?

{Why Like That?}

I lost it last night and even more so this morning. I blasted out at the contractor's boss... :( Feels awful but necessary. Too many major mistakes.

Just a sneak peak into my frustration:

Last night I instructed the contractor not to paint the wooden door frames.

Today, the painter came and happily started painting the frames. My sharp helper stopped him and called us to check. So our frame is kinda "damaged" because it is different color.

Out of goodwill, the painter wanted to paint the entire strip so that it looks nice. I appreciate that, BUT he used wall paint to paint on the wood... HALO! Even my helper who is not a painter knows it's wrong.... why like that??????

Hai... even this can go wrong, I said not  to paint, how else could I have put it across clearly??????

{White}

Not sure if I'm influenced by my mum who absolutely loves white furnitures, but these look fabulous! Would love to live in a home like that. Haven't been seeing pretty pictures on this blog, it's about time to see some...

{Reno Day 10 - 13}

I've lost count what has gone wrong... coz' there's just so much.

To sum it up...

The good:

• The contractor/designer is a really nice and cute lady - I can see a friendship blossoming from there. I just pray this whole work thing wouldn't damage a possible friendship.
• Love the laminates
• Love the intricate designs on the knobs
• Pretty happy with the colors, would look nicer if they were a little darker
• Love the look of the curtains but not sure how it'll look with the room - can't envision it now - we found our own curtain lady from her distributing of leaflet at the central ha ha, can't believe we used her but she's quite good.s &
• Love the lights - we selected the lamp; bought them

The bad:

• Day after day, we find stuff that were not done properly. Overall, I find the workmanship - poor.
• The workers boo-booed on all the major items that have been highlighted right from the start of our discussion, in which we were assured that all those details will be well taken care because they are "professionals". But in the end, I must say, I've been disappointed time and time again.
• Flooring went wrong, painting went wrong, dimensions of study room wardrobe for the safe went wrong, the swivel study table went wrong, height of bench went wrong, now I'm wondering if the size is also wrong, hinges on pull-out table isn't installed properly, sliding doors of wardrobe block an entire section of the wardrobe...
• The part I've been most disappointed in is the overall look of the internal of the wardrobe. I've highlightd right from the start and throughout the discussion on what I want, I even printed several pictures and emailed pictures to them... they assured they know what I want... in the end it looks like a rearrangement of my old wardrobe - I really don't understand how this could happen even with all the pictures I've showed them.
• The most frustrating part is that the contractor is always siding the workers, accepting all the unacceptable reasons that the workers give. Very simply put, we're the client, we're paying shouldn't it be the contractor's job to ensure quality and the right things are done, instead of saying, "Ah ya I told them already... workers hard to manage..." At the end of it, if it's not done well, it's the contactor's job to make sure the workers get it done as the client has requested and not give the clients excuses on why it cannot be done... I'm really really disappointed...it feels as if we have to do all the checking even though we have gone through all the details with the contractor and they have assured it will be delievered as requested.

This is a total ranting session, but... I'm frustrated!!!!!!!!

{Oops I did it again..}

I've been very blessed most of my life. Since I've started work, I've always had someone send me to work. Today's one of the rare few days where I had the opportunity to take the bus and I did wake up early just to make sure I'd be in time. The last time I took a bus I stopped almost half the distance before the actual stop ha ha ha...

Anyway, as I sat at the bus stop waiting, I saw one empty taxi after another going past me. I took a look at the time. It was ticking by fast and there was absolutely no sign of the bus.

Then... I did it!

I flagged a cab and hopped into it.

So much for attempting to take a bus.

{Reno Day 9}

Love the laminates in the study room as well! Happy!!

I guess with each passing day, we become more forgiving with the painters and workers. Instead of getting mad at why isn't it done this way or that way, we just laugh about it and say, anyway they'll have to figure a way out to solve it.

We made a corner wardrobe, the doors were fixed and guess what? After opening the 2 corner doors, the 2 ends meet and we cannot access the the wardrobe ha ha ha ha... I'm not sure why they didn't think about it before they make it.

I have a swivel out panel for my study table in my room... it looks lovely and nice, BUT once I swing it out and rest my hand on it, it tips over... hm... didn't they try it?

I looked at the bench and immediately knew it was too short. They told me the cushion is 6 inches... I was shocked. They promised to redo the bench, so I asked... so what are you going to do with the wrong one... throw away they said... in which I quickly say, can I have it ha ha ha ha...

Oh well... with each passing day, I'm looking forward to the day we can shift in and enjoy the new furniture :)

Till tomorrow, that's all for 2nite!

{Reno Day 8}

I love the laminates in our rooms! I was a lil worried about it turning out natural-looking but I'm in love with it! A happy day 8 indeed!

{Pack}

I've been asked to pack up my stuff during my stay at home, which is totally legitimate. I've moved out 3 years now, but I still have clothes and misc. items occupying wardrobe space. It's time I clear the clutter!

That's all for today!

{Random}

Today's like a massive blog download, I'm just typing post after post. It's been ages since I last blogged from my bedroom, as in my own bedroom - the one I lived in before I got married. Feels.... nostalgic :)

Thanks to A's wedding, I get to take leave today. That leaves me time to post some entries. If I hadn't had this day off, I wouldn't have had time to do this.

I can't wait till we get away in December. I'm tired.

{Truth?}

Met a grand-aunty at the dinner last night. Haven't seen her in years. She probably wouldn't have recognised me.

Dad introduced me...grand-aunty looked at me with a wide smile... and said in hokkien...

"jin xiang lao pei..." which means looks a lot like father.

So I was a little surprised because most people said I looked like mummy... what came next was totally unexpected...

"jin dua jia" which literally means very big size.

Ouch! Coming from a grand-aunty, must be genuine. Everyone at the table laughed and so did I... then I asked her again, "wa jin dua jia?" which translates to "I'm big size?"

To which everyone laughed. Then another aunty said, "yong qi bu dang la..." meaning she didn't use the right words....

Lol...

Stop laughing!!!!

After we came home, I was still bothered by that comment...

I asked mum, "Am I really that big size?"

She graciously said, "Of course not, it's just because I'm (mum) smaller size than daddy, and you are tall..." Told you my mum is the sweetest...

{We Are So Different}

How SHE attempts to stay organised:

• Puts things back in their respective places. Put them back where you took them.
• Have a place for everything. Whether it be in a box, a bag, a shelve, a drawer... everything has it's rightful place.
• Try to keep the visible space neat and "hidden" from clutter if possible 
• When all else fails... just allow the clutter to pile up and do a massive raid out ever so often.
• Junk or giveaway stuff that have no use over the past one year. Don't think of "What if..." IF the time comes when we need it, we can easily purchase what we need. Everything is easily accessible now.

How HE attempts to "stay oraganised:

• Leave everything everywhere except in their designated places.
• Display every little item from handphone to coins at every visible table top possible, except in it's designated container or shelve.
• Move is good. Take one thing from position A and leave it at position D.
• Packing means putting stuff in plastic bags and putting them away on the floor.
• When all else fails.. she (that's me) will clear up the pile when it exceeds her tolerance level.

{I M NOT A BREAKER}

You see... when I was living with my parents, my dad used to scream at me for "spoiling things". It seems everything that landed in my hands got broken or spoilt.

Honestly, I don't agree with him :) ... seriously, I'm not kidding, I don't spoil things. The only time this happens is when he's around... it's like an unseen evil lurking around just to make sure that happens so that we both could get into a fight.

I haven't been breaking stuff since I shifted out - ok once or twice, but who doesn't right. But what happened over the past week was just ridiculous...

First day when I shiftd home "I" broke the Roman Blinds.
When I shifted out of that bedroom 3 years ago, the roman blinds were working fine. Apparantly, dad broke 90% of it but managed to fix it such that we could still pull the strings to move the blinds up and down. First night when I pulled the strings, something seems stuck. So I tugged it a little harder - OOOooopppss! All the strings popped! I broke it. Now, it can never be rolled up again... OK so i spoiled it 99% now, but, nobody told me i couldn't pull it at the bottom, which is supposedly the right way to do it...

So, there I was panicking, coz' I could anticipate what my dad would say. Started praying. Told mum about it, got her to be my buffer. We prayed.

When I saw dad in the evening on the 2nd night, not only did he not scold me but he talked to me nicely :)

Thank God for mums, they help us buffer the firing from dads :) Yeah, mum got the first-hand firing that morning when she broke the news to him. So sweet of her, she even told him it's my first day home, don't scold me... aw... i love her!

Second day when I shifted home... I broke an egg.
So as dad was "talking to me nicely" about the roman blind, his back was facing me. He was at the sink. I just came home and wanted to put our breakfast in the fridge. All I did, really...., all I did was open the fridge. And I heard a crack. An egg dropped in the fridge.

Gosh! Should I seen my face then. I was like, no way this is happening!

I quickly closed the fridge with the broken egg in there and walked away, praying that dad won't open the fridge.

He didn't. When he get settled in watching TV, I casually walked into the kitchen, got the table cloth and quietly started to clean up the mess. Half way through, dad turned over suspiciously with a frown and said, "What are you doing in the kitchen? Don't break things ah. Don't know anything ask me..." Oohhh.. panic in the first degree..... In which I quickly responded "orh". I left the table cloth in the fridge and pretended to take out something from the fridge and walked away.

Later a casually walked into the kitchen agian. This time I had my hair towel in my hand. I opened the fridge, quickly clean up the mess with the table cloth that was left inside, and hid the cloth below my hair towel and quickly went to the toilet to clean the table cloth...

Aiyo went through so much trouble just to wipe off that dancing egg that nearly sabotage me... So, he never found out about the broken egg, that's one thing I broke less...

Sixth day when I shifted home...  the fan broke
We were out most of the day and dad was home most of the evening. All evening while we were out and he was home, nothing happened.

Mark and I came home, went to the room and started unpacking. Suddenly I heard "kiak, kiak, kiak..." I looked around to see where the sound was coming from. To my horror, i saw my fan head slowly but surely falling off! I quickly went over to support it.

The moment i did that, I knew it was a mistake. What would it seem like? It would seem like I broke the fan.. ahhhhhh......

So I called for dad and he came in. The moment he saw me in that fan supporting moment, he was all geared up to blast at me, "Break the fan again!!!!" before he could go on, I quickly defended myself and said, "I didn't do anything. I was just packing my stuff over there, don't believe you ask Mark..." In my defense, Mark responded in his usual quiet self and said. "em" and nodded in agreement.

For the first time, in such a situation, I saw that look on dad's face. He wanted to smile, but he kept the smile in. In hokkien, it's called, um-chio. It was hilarious! 

So he fixed it and all was well... to set the record straight - I didn't break the fan, it broke on it's own the moment I set foot in the room...

Seventh day when I shifted home... I broke a hook
I was trying to be smart to shift one hook so that I can hang my towel to dry it more effectively. It wasn't a special or extraordinary hook. It was one that I used before because we have it in our home. So I confidently tried to remove the hook and it went "PIAK". 

Oh my oh my oh my... 

I thought to myself, "What? Even a bathroom hook! Look! Whatever that's causing all this silly breaking series, stop it now!"

It's the day eight today... I WILL NOT break anything!  

{Reno Day 7 con't}

So the contractor told us they would send a different TEAM of painters and will be there early morning. We waited... waited... waited...

Finally ONE painter decided to show up at near noon. Apparantly the other painter just decided not to come coz it was a Sunday... HELLOOOOOooooooo

Dad-in-law asked him how come there's only one person, in which he responded, "small job I can do it."

Hai... I'm not sure if it was the contractor who conveyed it wrongly or he had a wrong perception. That was precisely what the first painter said, "small job." In the end he not only rushed through it but did such a terrible job. This second TEAM suppose to come rectify it, but it sure doesn't look promising.

Anyway, so we agreed that this painter would complete just one room first and the other rooms on Mon.

I really don't like it that this blog is becoming a ranting outlet.. it's suppose to be a happy place :)

So, let's end on a happy note: Thank God that with each passing day, we're drawing closer to getting our nicely renovated rooms!!! Woo hoo! :)

{Reno Day 6 & 7}

They spent about 9 - 10 hrs on Sat redoing the entire parquet on the 2nd level. They were grinding, sandpapering, staining, varnishing...that should be the way isn't it? Previously, they only took 7 hours to do the job and we didn't see them sanding it down, they went straight from grinding to staining & varnishing... why would they want to do that? Would that really save them time?

It's now day 7 and we're here here waiting for the contractor and painters to arrive. Appointment was made at 10am... it's now 11.38am, no signs of workers - they need new watches... don't they realise that people actually make plans to stay home to wait for them????

We went upstairs to look at the floor, it seems MUCH better than before. So all their reasons and excuses for why the grinding marks were seen previously has officially became invalid.

There's still some flaws that were missed out. An entire portion of the staricase hand rails were not polished and varnished. It's rough...also there's a spot in our room where the wood is not level with the floor. So when we walk we actually hit on it...

What can I say...

{...}

{Reno Day 2-5}

Horror!

{Day 2}
Apparantly paint color is the least of the our concern. The quality of paint work done by painters were terrible! I'm not sure if it's the paint being too diluted or that it was actually painted just one layer - we can see the blue tint from the previous paint. 2 walls look different although the same paint was used.

The painter used emulsion paint to paint on the metal window grills - hello....

He didn't smoothen the walls before painting. Walls looked like acne wall...

I'm disappointed.

{Day 3}
Parquet guys came to grind the floor. They were suppose to arrive at 9am, but they only appeared at 1130am.

{Day 4}
After what happened on Day 3, I made it very clear to our contractor that we want them to start at 9am so they can end early and the smell of the polish will go away by evening because my in laws are staying there at night. Contractor assured that workers would be there by 9am.

11.30am I received a call to say that nobody's there.

12.30pm I received a call to say that nobody's there.

1.30pm I called to find out still nobody's there.

2.30pm finally received an sms to say that they are arriving.

What is this???? I'm so frustrated!

Everything was done by evening. Thank God!

{Day 5}
Nothing's suppose to be done today. We're suppose to let the floor rest. I started the day thinking everything would be beautiful and fine.

9am received a call from home to say that the parquet looks more scratched than before, there were what looked like paint spots sealed in it, the trimmings were not polished...

I give up.

Is it me or is it the contractor? When we hired them shouldn't it be their job to make sure everything is done properly? Why is there nobody checking on these? Why is everything not done properly?

Urgh!

Lord, help me!

{Love My Mummy!}

My mum's really a sweetie. We're moving back for about 1-2 weeks till the reno ends at our current place. She cleaned up the room, made wardobe space for us, changed the sheets, filled the room with nice smelling Lavendar air freshener.

To top it off, when I got home last night, I suddenly saw pictures of me all around the house. My mum actually made the effort to put pix of me around so I can feel at home. Lol. Isn't she sweet.

Then again, why aren't they around when I'm not staying there? Lol.

{Reno: Day 2}

The painters will be in right about now to fill the rooms with colors. Pray and agree with me that the colors will turn out beautiful and well matched!

Can't wait to see it this evening!

{Reno: Day 1}

Yeah! Day 1 of reno works started yesterday! After hacking and emptying out the rooms upstairs, the place looks so much bigger! The movers moved EVERY piece of movable furniture downstairs. We have thoroughly cleared out the 2nd floor. It's pretty amazing how much packing we did over the past weeks.

First night back home at my mum's... I broke the roman blinds. Gosh! I'm so anticipating that I'd have a big blow up with dad coz' he used to say, "everything that lies in your hands get spoilt..."

Cut, cut, cut... cut all those lies out in Jesus' name. My dad will not scream at me, but he will understand that the roman blind was already spoilt, I just damaged it further...a little.

Anyway, I was glad to be "home" at mum's. Feels great to finally be able to sleep on a bed that is at the corner of a room, beside the window. In case you don't know, I love corners and confined spaces :D

Here's one for you to digest:

Title: The Green Ribbon

She says: Buy the army green ribbon. Those dull, shit green, army green kind, not the bright Christmas green.

He says: OK

He bought the ribbons. She saw them.

She says: You bought Christmas green?

Long pause...

Eventually when he saw the color, he said: You should have said moss green.

She thinks to herself: Isn't moss green, same as army green, which is similar to shit green? Since when did shit come out in happy christmas green, it's as if you've eaten vegetable and it comes out the exact color as when you ate it... duh!

So, can men tell the difference between greens? Ask your spouse or partner or a male friend. You'll be surprised...

Beyond this, she loves him tons for running around buying ribbons for their new curtain. She's just ranting :D

{So Pretty}

{Totally Cute}

{Curtain Selection}

To go for something plain and easy to match or something distinct and difficult to match?