The unbearable feeling of light

Geeky Eclectic, who looks even more like her name now that she's got a super-funky hairstyle, asked me over lunch - so which part of your house did you furnish this weekend?

We did the lights. And thank goodness the house is small. Becos I really hate shopping for lights.

The fun started when Big spotted a row of spotlights on a wire at Ikea, which are adjustable in any direction, and frankly, are kinda cool - like stage spotlights you know. So we bought those, maybe 2 weeks ago. For the living room. Becos Big doesn't want lighting in his huge display cabinet, so the spotlights will have to serve that purpose whenever we need to light up the display. We'll probably need another standing lamp - found a really cool one shaped like a cactus - would have been wonderful if not for Spooky (to quote Big - hmmm the cat or the cactus - hard choice really). I predict she will topple whatever standing lamp we get...

But we had to get lights for the rest of the house so that Paul's electrican could string them up before the carpentry starts.

So, yesterday, the fun ended. We found out that Giant only sells light blubs; Ikea's ceilings lights are not very practical; and Courts doesn't sell lights period.

Balestier, on the other hand, has far too many light shops. By the third shop, my headache started. This brought back all the lousy memories of afternoons spent trailing my parents from shop to shop along Balestier, looking for 6 lights for 3 bedrooms, 2 lights for the living, 1 light for the kitchen, 1 for the study, 2 for the staircase wells, 3 for the toilets, 1 for the gate, 2 for the car porch and a chandelier for the dining...that's a good 19 lights in all for a three-storeyed house. After a while, the huge crystal chandeliers in suffocatingly small shops, the smell of electricity behind acrylic covers, and too much light entering your pupils start to overwhelm you, and you just want to turn mole and hide from the over-powering light.

We ended up with 3 lights for 2 rooms, 2 for the kitchen, and 2 for the toilet/bath (fancy ones from Ikea - Big had his heart set on them altho they will be but 5 inches from the top of his head).

I say again - thank goodness for a small house.

P/S - On a lighter note, Big got a wall fan for his room - that's the one I'm not stepping into; it will be a mess. We also got a good deal on a 37" Toshiba Regza at Comex. Big moaned for 2 days on missing out on the $800 42" one - which we could have gotten if we place it at the far end of the kitchen, and sit near the front door to watch TV...