Update Project Habitat: All walls are down…

Finally, we are almost done with all the hacking.

Flooring is totally gone, and all walls except a “half-wall” are hacked away. Currently, we need to touch base with the Designer to why that half-wall is still there…

Except for the perimeter walls, we basically hacked all the walls. Yes, ALL THE WALLS. In total we have hacked 11 walls. ELEVEN walls?!?!

Except for the pillars, everything is down. And finally, I realized how big this apartment truly is… … …

This project is getting more exciting!

I feel like a business partner…

Basically there isn’t much change to my life although I got married. Except that my so-called husband is behaving more like a business partner instead of a husband.

We talk about almost nothing but money. Or how to make more money. Whether in 3 years time we can afford to buy a 2nd apartment. Whether we can upgrade ourselves to a District 9 or 10 address before we hit 38? Yup, 38 and not 40. Because “Biz Partner” here is very competitive and want to lead the high life before he is 40.

I am getting tired of this. Not the least say, very, very pressurized. It’s almost like I’m reporting to my boss about our AUM (Asset Under Management) on a monthly basis. I’ve to draft out my next 3 years of “saving-cum-investment plan”, and have to aim to hit my KPI (Key Performance Index) in order to be a good wife. I am NOT joking. We seriously did sit down to talk about all these. The only thing lacking was an official Business Plan.

To look at it positively, it is good financial planning. In the beginning, it was also quite cool to talk about financial terms, or to show off my financial jargon with someone who can actually understand (other than fellow colleagues). But after a while, it isn’t fun anymore. I have to constantly know whether the Hang Seng Index is up or down, or whether there are any new promising stocks to buy. Or “what is the latest market trend.”

I DO NOT FREAKING CARE ABOUT WHAT IS THE FREAKING MARKET TREND AT FREAKING 1130 PM??!!!

Ok there. I got it out of the system.

I admire him for being so driven. But now, it seems almost like an obsession. It’s not like we don’t have enough to eat or spend. In fact, both of us are financially savvy enough to be rather comfortable actually.

Contentment is the key to happiness. I aim to be happy. I don’t need to be rich to be happy. Yes, I belong to the camp of poor people who always tell themselves that money isn’t everything.

I still believe money isn’t everything.

Life of a stray dog…

For those who know, I’m almost running a mini-SPCA at home… My mum is a very kind hearted lady who ends up adopting a few stray cats and these kitties are now part of the family and are very much loved.

She is also part of the “reserved” team of aunties of the Cat Welfare Society, as like if those aunties are too sick/out-of-town to feed the neighborhood cats, my mum will stand in for a few days…

A few months ago, I got to know that my mum has also adopted a few stray dogs near her work place. According to her, there are about 7 stray dogs living in a quiet corner of the CBD area. I’m not going to pinpoint the exact location, in case the AVA decided to cull the dogs…

According to my mum, previously these strays were being fed by a kind-hearted soul, but somehow, the mysterious kind-hearted soul stopped showing up and these poor dogs began to starve.

Seeing those skinny strays looking frantically for food, my mum begun to feed these dogs with her left-over lunch or dinner. Obviously that was not enough for a pack of 7 dogs… then she started to COOK meals for the dogs. She will usually cook some cheap cuts of pork with unpolished rice, and make a conscious effort to feed the dogs in the evenings.
Even during her off-days, she would still make her way down at night to feed the dogs.

2 days ago, I decided to tag along with Mum to take a look at these dogs. Due to the up-and-coming Taiwan trip, she has begun to worry about these poor dogs and whether they can survive for 9 days without her. These dogs are REAL strays, which mean that they are wary of humans, and are not happy puppies which will run up to you to be petted.

There were only 3 dogs when we arrived at the site. Mum said that we were late and a bunch of them had already gone out scavenging for scraps. The remaining 3 were left behind to protect their home turf. They kept their distance when we poured the food into 2 buckets that served as feeding trays and didn’t approach until we walked away.

They were really thin and mangled-looking. They had to fend for themselves, no proper shelter and had to scavenge for scraps just to survive. All these are grown dogs and I do not think it’s possible to re-house them to be domesticated pets. Nonetheless, they are sweet-natured and seem to understand that we’re here to feed them, and were actually quite docile.

Any kind souls out there who is willing to pop by every 2 days to provide some fresh water and food for the dogs while we’ll be away for 9 days?

My 1st trip ever… with Mum.

Coming this Jan, I’ll be on a 9-days trip to Taiwan with my mother, my 1st younger brother (I have 2 younger brothers) and his girlfriend (my future sister-in-law??)

Although I’ve been to Taiwan before, and I’ve also traveled with my brother before, but this is the very first time that I’ll be bringing my mum on a holiday. And since brother is bring his GF along; I guess Mum will be MY primary responsibility.

I’m excited and apprehensive at the same time. I’m excited that I can dote on my mum and finally sponsor her holiday but I don’t whether my mum will drive me crazy with her usual nagging or her typical-auntie remarks or actions of extreme frugality…

We (my 2 brothers and I) took about a month to convince my mum to take a holiday to Taiwan… My long-suffering mum has never boarded on a plane in her life nor has she ever traveled anywhere further than M’sia. And yet she kept telling us not to waste money, and insisted that she did not want to go.

It was only after I lied that I’ve already bought the tickets that she finally relented and agreed to go on a “waste money” trip to Taiwan.

Then she started nagging on who’s going to look after the cats while she’s not around in Singapore, who’s going to clean the house... …etc. Thankfully, this is when a 2nd brother is most useful. Ha.. ;).

I just hope that this trip will not ruin our existing, fragile mother-and-daughter relationship!

Project Habitat: I think I can bake…

I’ve never, never really baked anything in my WHOLE life.

Well… Home Economics’ classes didn’t really count.

Key reason to that is because I’ve never had a proper oven ever.

My mum is a really good cook, but she only cooks Chinese dishes and I doubt she has ever used an oven before. So while growing up, no oven.

Then I moved over to the States for 2 years, there was an oven in the kitchen, but I used that to roast chickens, beef, turkeys… Somehow, it didn’t hit me to bake a cake, nor even a cookie.

Then I’m back in Singapore and camped with the in-laws… and still no freaking oven for me to bake a cake?!?!

Argh… so after all these years, I’m still a bake virgin.

But now with my new place coming up, I started researching on the brands and types of ovens. I started to look at cake mixers and have already decided on the brand and COLOR of the standing cake-mixer that I wanted.

I fantasize about me standing in my big, airy, wonderfully new kitchen, making cakes, soufflés and macarons… … …

Yup, I think I can finally bake. But I need my kitchen to be ready!

p/s: renovation haven’t started yet. We’ll take over the keys officially on this coming sat, and once HDB approves the reno permit, then we’ll be all ready to start hacking!