Entering Phase 2
10th April 2006, Monday
Hasn't been the most ideal start to a week when everyone's hopes of a fat bonus is pinned on the generosity of an Old Hag while it would be make or break for yours truly who had been rooting from a slightly less than last year's portion.
The morning weather was sweltering and at moments as I squirmed my through the manic Monday human traffic, I felt a tinge of suffocation at times...
I was really grateful that the air conditioning in my lab was on full blast to help cool me down and dry me from the profuse perspiration I was soaked in.
Had a terrible stomachache for the morning perhaps due to some junk I had eaten over the weekends (perhaps some canned lychee which was in the fridge for far too long and started tasting sour when I tried to finish last evening).
Finally was groggy to start with after sleeping less than 5 hours after watching the 3 hour special of Hey Hey Hey Music Champ to commemorate their 500th episode on air while clearing the dustballs and mildews off my figurines I had displayed in my room some for a good 2 years now without being touched before (not even for spring cleaning).
Bobby came in to work, trying to make conversation about the Miss Universe Singapore pageant televised last evening which I intentionally ignored as the batch this year was hideous and I was been nice when I say that...
Bobby had a special liking for the runner-up, Jade which was a campus mate of my sister, well like her name implies, jade could never gain the most adoration as compared to diamond, thus she had to settle for 2nd place...
Anyway this would be the final weekend I could spend quality time with my lass before her flight off to Italy on the 15th although she promised to spend the Good Friday with me...
Basically the whole household is locking onto the next gear as we entered the more labor-intensive (in terms of shifting the pieces of furniture) painting of the rooms as well as the overhaul of the toilets starting today as Dad applied leave for an entire week to embark on his personal proxy to ensure things are done in place...
On Friday evening a lot of niggling issues that shrouded the household including the extra cost incurred for more glass plates to be catered from the contractor.
Dad frowned upon the extra cost as he was adamant that it was stated before hand about the need for more glass plates; while I felt the cost was justifiable because my request wasn't just 1 or 2 which he could have forgo in his overall budget but 8 pieces which don't come cheap.
In the end, Dad managed to halve the requested price from the wife who has the ultimate say in the accounts.
Then there is the installation of the SCV cables to the master bedroom as well as my sister's room.
The original quoted price from Starhub was too steep for our liking and my sis was prompt to dismiss the idea to install in her room.
We then realised that Starhub would eventually enlist the help of external contractor to do the installation so why not we contact our own contractor which eventually we got hold of one source from my sis' bosom buddy who charges a good $60 less than the Starhub's quotation after bargaining,
Thus the project would be embedded in the midst of the whole renovation for this week which makes logical sense to me.
Finally we have to beckon the lighting company as well the sanitation amenities retailers to send those items we had ordered and in total I would be looking at drawing a huge sum out to cover the bill..
That would be compounded by the king's ransom my credit card bill had been reminding me to settle for a while now...
I would be in tears to see my bank account been depleted into smitereens...*sob*
Just as I assumed that my budget for the whole wedding bonanza would come to an end, my family who insisted to revamp the TV console for the living room to match my display cabinet as well as the shoe rack got the contractor down to discuss on the design which meet Mom's requirements as well as stamp of approval from Sis and dad.. Myself was pretty much oblivious to the proceedings as I felt it would be beyond my scope as I focused on transferring my collection all along.
Then came in crux of the discussion when we enquired on how the pricing would be like... If it was 1K, then we felt unjustiable to change.
The quotation of $750 (after somemore bargaining) was reached which pleases everyone except me as Mom suddenly demanded me to foot half the bill...
Hey wait, I did agree on sharing the burden of the newly-incurred cost of renovation but I would look at maybe around $200...
I was really gutted by all these impromptu additions to my budget, firstly was the bathroom sink and now this...they don't come cheap by the way...
So I was piqued enough to start a petty tiff with Mom in front of the contractors as I later regretted on doing so as it wasn't gracious enough...but I could get really defensive and dogmatic when come to money...
In the end to mitigate the situation, my lass jumped in to say she would foot the bill on by behalf..which later became my burden once more...urgh... as she had spent far too much already.
A couple of items she had spent a fortune on was the water purifier units which Dad spent a good amount of the Sunday morning to rig up and after explaination and demonstration from my lass in terms of operation and the quality of pristine water the unit had generated which got my family abuzzed about the fact that the purifiers are really great tools...cool but not worth the price she had to pay...
Saturday was gloomy in terms of weather for the early part of the afternoon making us rather reluctant to leave the comfort of our house but with the notion and perhaps the penultimate purpose of getting some money owed to me from the good people of La Tendo, we had to make the trip.
We hit Bugis Junction before the hobby shop where spent sometime for her to do her usual magazine hunting....
As we passed by the Neo-Print machines or whatever it's called now blaring its colorful lightning and irritating Japanese-style jingles, we raised an eyebrow to each other as she just caught a Taiwanese infotainment show where they implore into the latest fab from the Japanese youths when they actually engaged in some promiscuous acts or bare themselves to their birthday suits while taking a photo shoot in these machines.
We headed to the rejuvenated Bugis Village to grab a bite from this Taiwanese eatery store which took ages to fried some chicken pieces.
Managed to contact CS to make known to him that Foo would like to enlist his help to rig up a powerful computer to support his film production aspiration; while some SMS from Sel informed me that she had delayed her wedding and thus would be available to come to my wedding...
At La Tendo, the crowd pales in comparison to the week before which could be down to the fact that there was no shipment this week.
Matthew left early, leaving the money with Chan who after such long wait was placed in my hands. Not a huge sum but enough to pay for my outstanding bill from the huge haul the weekend before.
Karen came in quite late after spending time with her friends a while ago and was glad the money came in time for a proposed Lasik operation and buy buy to PSP which she had intended to get with that sum of money.
My lass then asked the Taiwan-bound Karen to get some pop idol stuff back for her while they had a great time over some jokes the capricious and most of the time, senseless Chan had made...
We then bid them goodbye by around 8 and stopped by at the newly-opened Cathay Building just across the road. The original Cathay cinema and Picturehouse which did was a haunt for movie-goers from the 1970s to early 1990s was now a facade with delightful lightings and supposed to equip with the best movie-watching facilities despite some dismay complains I spotted on the newspapers days back...
We had intended to watch "Shinobi" which I thought should be ready when we came back but the transfer rate was creeping to my irk... However once I lie on my bed after a nice shower, I just fell into slumber without any hesistation which was rare for me on a Saturday evening.
The large part of Sunday was spent on packing up my room in terms of the figurines littering the entire place, either to be transferred to the living room or just packed up for storage; and I got an abled assistant in my lass who did a splendid job ensuring my storage cupboard below the display cabinets are utilised efficiently without any space wasted. She managed to stuff most of the packaging boxes I wanted though at times was puzzled why I even keep some items which many considered junks...but to a true-blue collectors, those items are quinessential to the value of the figurines.
The entire cleaning up went on till dinner afterwhich she left for home to begin packing up for her overseas stint...man I think I would really miss her presence in all aspects of my life for the next 3 months...
Oh yeah, last but now least, this post marked this blog's 1st anniversary...well it was incredible how I managed to find interesting aspects of my routine life to rant about...but on to the 2nd year in operation!
Hasn't been the most ideal start to a week when everyone's hopes of a fat bonus is pinned on the generosity of an Old Hag while it would be make or break for yours truly who had been rooting from a slightly less than last year's portion.
The morning weather was sweltering and at moments as I squirmed my through the manic Monday human traffic, I felt a tinge of suffocation at times...
I was really grateful that the air conditioning in my lab was on full blast to help cool me down and dry me from the profuse perspiration I was soaked in.
Had a terrible stomachache for the morning perhaps due to some junk I had eaten over the weekends (perhaps some canned lychee which was in the fridge for far too long and started tasting sour when I tried to finish last evening).
Finally was groggy to start with after sleeping less than 5 hours after watching the 3 hour special of Hey Hey Hey Music Champ to commemorate their 500th episode on air while clearing the dustballs and mildews off my figurines I had displayed in my room some for a good 2 years now without being touched before (not even for spring cleaning).
Bobby came in to work, trying to make conversation about the Miss Universe Singapore pageant televised last evening which I intentionally ignored as the batch this year was hideous and I was been nice when I say that...
Bobby had a special liking for the runner-up, Jade which was a campus mate of my sister, well like her name implies, jade could never gain the most adoration as compared to diamond, thus she had to settle for 2nd place...
Anyway this would be the final weekend I could spend quality time with my lass before her flight off to Italy on the 15th although she promised to spend the Good Friday with me...
Basically the whole household is locking onto the next gear as we entered the more labor-intensive (in terms of shifting the pieces of furniture) painting of the rooms as well as the overhaul of the toilets starting today as Dad applied leave for an entire week to embark on his personal proxy to ensure things are done in place...
On Friday evening a lot of niggling issues that shrouded the household including the extra cost incurred for more glass plates to be catered from the contractor.
Dad frowned upon the extra cost as he was adamant that it was stated before hand about the need for more glass plates; while I felt the cost was justifiable because my request wasn't just 1 or 2 which he could have forgo in his overall budget but 8 pieces which don't come cheap.
In the end, Dad managed to halve the requested price from the wife who has the ultimate say in the accounts.
Then there is the installation of the SCV cables to the master bedroom as well as my sister's room.
The original quoted price from Starhub was too steep for our liking and my sis was prompt to dismiss the idea to install in her room.
We then realised that Starhub would eventually enlist the help of external contractor to do the installation so why not we contact our own contractor which eventually we got hold of one source from my sis' bosom buddy who charges a good $60 less than the Starhub's quotation after bargaining,
Thus the project would be embedded in the midst of the whole renovation for this week which makes logical sense to me.
Finally we have to beckon the lighting company as well the sanitation amenities retailers to send those items we had ordered and in total I would be looking at drawing a huge sum out to cover the bill..
That would be compounded by the king's ransom my credit card bill had been reminding me to settle for a while now...
I would be in tears to see my bank account been depleted into smitereens...*sob*
Just as I assumed that my budget for the whole wedding bonanza would come to an end, my family who insisted to revamp the TV console for the living room to match my display cabinet as well as the shoe rack got the contractor down to discuss on the design which meet Mom's requirements as well as stamp of approval from Sis and dad.. Myself was pretty much oblivious to the proceedings as I felt it would be beyond my scope as I focused on transferring my collection all along.
Then came in crux of the discussion when we enquired on how the pricing would be like... If it was 1K, then we felt unjustiable to change.
The quotation of $750 (after somemore bargaining) was reached which pleases everyone except me as Mom suddenly demanded me to foot half the bill...
Hey wait, I did agree on sharing the burden of the newly-incurred cost of renovation but I would look at maybe around $200...
I was really gutted by all these impromptu additions to my budget, firstly was the bathroom sink and now this...they don't come cheap by the way...
So I was piqued enough to start a petty tiff with Mom in front of the contractors as I later regretted on doing so as it wasn't gracious enough...but I could get really defensive and dogmatic when come to money...
In the end to mitigate the situation, my lass jumped in to say she would foot the bill on by behalf..which later became my burden once more...urgh... as she had spent far too much already.
A couple of items she had spent a fortune on was the water purifier units which Dad spent a good amount of the Sunday morning to rig up and after explaination and demonstration from my lass in terms of operation and the quality of pristine water the unit had generated which got my family abuzzed about the fact that the purifiers are really great tools...cool but not worth the price she had to pay...
Saturday was gloomy in terms of weather for the early part of the afternoon making us rather reluctant to leave the comfort of our house but with the notion and perhaps the penultimate purpose of getting some money owed to me from the good people of La Tendo, we had to make the trip.
We hit Bugis Junction before the hobby shop where spent sometime for her to do her usual magazine hunting....
As we passed by the Neo-Print machines or whatever it's called now blaring its colorful lightning and irritating Japanese-style jingles, we raised an eyebrow to each other as she just caught a Taiwanese infotainment show where they implore into the latest fab from the Japanese youths when they actually engaged in some promiscuous acts or bare themselves to their birthday suits while taking a photo shoot in these machines.
We headed to the rejuvenated Bugis Village to grab a bite from this Taiwanese eatery store which took ages to fried some chicken pieces.
Managed to contact CS to make known to him that Foo would like to enlist his help to rig up a powerful computer to support his film production aspiration; while some SMS from Sel informed me that she had delayed her wedding and thus would be available to come to my wedding...
At La Tendo, the crowd pales in comparison to the week before which could be down to the fact that there was no shipment this week.
Matthew left early, leaving the money with Chan who after such long wait was placed in my hands. Not a huge sum but enough to pay for my outstanding bill from the huge haul the weekend before.
Karen came in quite late after spending time with her friends a while ago and was glad the money came in time for a proposed Lasik operation and buy buy to PSP which she had intended to get with that sum of money.
My lass then asked the Taiwan-bound Karen to get some pop idol stuff back for her while they had a great time over some jokes the capricious and most of the time, senseless Chan had made...
We then bid them goodbye by around 8 and stopped by at the newly-opened Cathay Building just across the road. The original Cathay cinema and Picturehouse which did was a haunt for movie-goers from the 1970s to early 1990s was now a facade with delightful lightings and supposed to equip with the best movie-watching facilities despite some dismay complains I spotted on the newspapers days back...
We had intended to watch "Shinobi" which I thought should be ready when we came back but the transfer rate was creeping to my irk... However once I lie on my bed after a nice shower, I just fell into slumber without any hesistation which was rare for me on a Saturday evening.
The large part of Sunday was spent on packing up my room in terms of the figurines littering the entire place, either to be transferred to the living room or just packed up for storage; and I got an abled assistant in my lass who did a splendid job ensuring my storage cupboard below the display cabinets are utilised efficiently without any space wasted. She managed to stuff most of the packaging boxes I wanted though at times was puzzled why I even keep some items which many considered junks...but to a true-blue collectors, those items are quinessential to the value of the figurines.
The entire cleaning up went on till dinner afterwhich she left for home to begin packing up for her overseas stint...man I think I would really miss her presence in all aspects of my life for the next 3 months...
Oh yeah, last but now least, this post marked this blog's 1st anniversary...well it was incredible how I managed to find interesting aspects of my routine life to rant about...but on to the 2nd year in operation!
Japanese word of the day: 援助 (Assistance) At this juncture I can reassure myself with the fact that my wife is perhaps the only one that could provde me the assistance at all aspects and at anytime I need...I really feel glad and blessed
posted by Kei at
1:22 PM
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