Project Habitat is finally, taking shape

Last night, I had a really pleasant surprise. Hub and I went over to our new place to check out the on-going renovation, and instead of the usual “construction site” mess that basically engulfed the whole flat from Day 1 of the renovation…

The flat was spanking clean! No debris, no cardboard boxes all over the place, no bags of concrete lying around. Oh my god, finally I got to appreciate how big our new place really was.

The renovation is almost 80% completed. By the time I’m done with my CFA exam, I should be ready to move in and start working on the planter boxes.

YEAH!

The crazy things that we do

There was this one day, my interior designer (ID), who is an avid gardener called me one afternoon and told me that he saw this huge Bird Nest Fern that had fallen from a tree, along the road opposite Goodwood Park Hotel.

“It’s a big-ass fern! Really majestic looking! Just that 1 fern can fill up the whole planter box along your corridor.” exclaimed our ID.

That was like 4 pm in the afternoon and where the hell could I get a lorry to pick up that huge fern in such a short notice?! So, I was thinking to myself “Nah… not worth the effort”. Nonetheless, I told Hub about the fern and he too, thought that the whole process of scouting for a lorry and to go down all the way to orchard area to pick up a fallen fern seemed extremely ridiculous.

But that fern stuck to my head ever since…

And it brewed and brewed and I JUST COULDN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD. Until I couldn’t take it anymore and at 1230 am, ie: 8 and ½ hours after that wretched phone call. I told Hub that we needed to get that fern.

It would be like a housewarming gift from God.

And to my surprise, instead of yelling at me for being “crazy”, Hub pondered for a while and said to me “ok, let’s go and get that bloody fern?!”

So, at 1230 am, both of us last minute rented the biggest car that we could find, a Honda Odyssey (thanks to KahShare), quickly changed into something decent and dashed down towards orchard road to “rescue” a fallen fern.

And what a HUGEMONGOUS fern it was?! OMG… the leaves almost reached my shoulder?! Hub looked at it for like 2 seconds, and with all his strength, actually managed to pick up that Fern and squeezed it into the back of the Odyssey. There was just ENOUGH space for that fern.

Then the best part: where to put that monster? At first I thought we could just dump the Fern outside in-law’s flat but it was simply too big. So last minute, I called up my brother’s GF who had a garden and her mum was totally cool to adopt our Monster Fern temporarily.

So, at 1 am in the freaking morning, 2 idiots headed to her place to “deliver” the loot. And she was very sweet (and awake) to direct us where to place the Fern. The Fern was so big that when Hub carried the fern, he looked as if he had completely “disappeared” and you would see the Fern had suddenly sprouted 2 legs and “walked” itself to the garden. It was a really funny sight and instead of helping him, I was crouching at a corner, laughing my head off.

By the time we settled Mr. Monster Fern and cleaned up, it was already 2 am and we completely knocked out after that.

What an adventure.

p/s: the photo above isn’t the Monster Fern, just a picture that I’ve gotten from the net. I’ll take a shot of Monster Fern when he’s settled down at our new place. Monster Fern is way bigger than that… …

Keeping the romance alive

Hubby and I have known each other for 15 years, and out of that, we have been together for about 9 yrs... I used the word "about" because I seriously cannot remember when we “officially” started dating. *opps…*

So after being together for so long, we are already very comfortable with each other that… sometimes, we become TOO comfortable and start to take each other for granted. We would get so bogged down with our daily lives that we would just grunt at each other instead of engaging in meaningful conversation.

But there’s one thing that Hubby will ALWAYS do every single day. He will hug me fiercely for like 15 seconds everyday. NO matter how tired I am, no matter how much laundry I have to do, no matter how stressed up I am over my work or studies. I’ll feel very much loved after that.

And during times like that, I’m really grateful that I married him, and I will feel totally 幸福.

But still not enough to iron his clothes.

;P

I know this is a bit late, but HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

How many babies is this poor mother carrying on her back...? I counted 11. OMG. She's a super-what-ever-animal she is!

I'm sure all mums out there feel like this super-animal-mum once a while. But all of the mums told me that carrying all that 11 brats (0r even if it's just ONE brat) is all worth it.

To my mum: It's our turn (3 of us, brats) to carry you on our backs now. Love you, mum!

Discouraged…

Feeling low and discouraged currently.

The stress of studying for an exam, house renovation, personal investing, company investing and keeping a lookout for greener pastures… all of the above are giving me A LOT OF STRESS.

Exam -> This stupid CFA level-3 exam is freaking killing me. Exam is in a month’s time and I have not finished mugging yet! I know of friends who are already revising for the 2nd/3rd time! I’m in a slightly panic mode… …

House Renovation -> Mr. Contractor has finally started on the cabinets and other carpentry works, but issues such as weird measurements and dimensions kept surfacing and I am getting fed up with Mr. Contractor. It has even reached the stage where I don’t really care anymore, just finish up so that I can move in by June!

Personal Investing and investing for the company -> Everyday, I look at charts, read financial data, internalize economic events and hopefully, pick the right stocks and make some decent returns, for the company that I’m working for, as well as for myself and for Hubby. At work, I’m facing a lot of stress, especially when the markets are moving very fast and very volatile. At night, when we’re at home, Hubby will tune to CNBC to check on the US market and European markets and sometimes… all these stress are really getting to me.

Meanwhile, I’m also thinking of changing my work environment. I’ve been sending out some CVs but haven’t heard anything from the headhunters yet, Geez… is my CV that bad?!?!

All in all, I just hope that after the exam, I’ll be in a better place.

I'm looking for a painting for my bedroom...

I wanted something dramatic, something sensual (it's the bedroom afterall, stupid), something that will make you make you go "hmmm".

Then I saw this painting. Too bad, I can't get it in spore. ;(