X'mas & New Year

We rang in 2010 at the flat feeling a bit cheated.

We rushed back to the flat from feeding & laser-pointing Spooky at Big's family home, becos we wanted to be there for the annual midnight horn-blasting from the ships anchored off the ECP. Marina Bay counted down with fireworks, MediaCorp counted down with confetti. 15 min after midnight, and STILL no deep foghorns from the ships...what the heck...

Anyway, we spent the long X'mas & New Year weekends at the flat, and apart from all the rushing around from family gatherings to parties' at friends', buying stuff at Ikea, furniture delivery on X'mas Eve & cleaning, it was actually quite fun.

X'mas 2009

We had arranged for 2 furniture deliveries from 3-5pm on 24 Dec becos we were both on half-days. The plan was to meet for lunch and then go back to wait. It ended up me grabbing a burger, and trying to get back before 3pm becos we both got off work late. Fortunately, I made it back in time for the 1st delivery at 3.45pm.

We now have a shoe rack (on the right), which we both hope will hold all our shoes - my middle name isn't Imelda (unlike Val =P) - which is also supposed to serve as a lookout for Spooky when she moves in. And we have a bench which will also hold shoes (on the left). This is supposed to also hold people becos the couch only seats 4 Asian butts of average size. I love the bench. Itz a great lookout for me - when Spooky comes, we can both look out together.

On 26 Dec, after the Ecosystem party at Val's, we headed to Ikea, with the package of Swiss raclette cheese tucked into my new Longchamp Le Pliage bag. We got a step-stool for me becos I have problems reaching anything above the counter-tops...and the most wonderful invention of all - a plastic bag holder!

We also finally got a bin for the kitchen. On our last visit to Ikea, we had spotted a rather impressive "Oscar" bin - yes it looks like the one Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street lives in. Big wanted the large version - it stands about slightly under 1 metre. After much discussion, he agreed to get the smaller version (phew).

New Year 2010

We bought a Play Station on New Year's Eve. So New Year's Day was spent fiddling around with it - Big played Little Big Planet and downloaded Street Fighter - and drilling. He put up the curtain rod (and the curtains) for the front room, which looks very cheery now if you ignore the huge box which the oven came in. And his bedside shelf.

Apart from the adventure on Arab Street and Gwen's birthday dinner, I spent most of the long New Year weekend either helping around the flat or reading with my feet up.

At the end of it, Big wanted to know if we were going to spend every Sunday with him gaming and me reading with my feet up. Doesn't sound all too bad to me.

Happy New Year from the folks at Pumpkin Patch.

Home-ifying the Patch

When Jul came over to bake 2 Sundays ago, she said our flat looked really quite lived in. Big & I take that as a compliment. A home is not a home if it looks like a showflat.

Over the weekend (it was longer one for us as we were on leave Friday), we bought a couple more essentials, cooked 2 meals at the flat (not including breakfast), put up a clock, a small shelf and used the washing machine. We also ordered the shoe rack and a seat, and argued over whether Spooky should be confined when she's alone in the house next year.

At the same time, we seem to be embarking on some kind of personal mission to add little odds & ends to the place. It reminds me (rather embarrassingly) of what my ex-boss Charlene once said about how her shoe, bags & clothes collection grew & grew & grew when she moved to her new flat becos she had her own space, & there was no one to complain about her taking too much space. Oops.

Pumpkin cheesecake from the Pumpkin Patch

The Patch hosted its first official "gathering" over the weekend - a spurt of baking with 2 of Big's colleagues Jul & Lif, and my sister.

The idea actually begun in late Nov when Big & Jul went on a complimentary baking class at Shermay's school. They came back armed with a sheaf of recipes which called for some really posh ingredients like high quality nuts and honey and Valhorna chocolate and pumpkin puree. Big thought it would be fun to initiate the new oven by trying out some of the recipes at home. He especially wanted to try Pumpkin Cheesecake and Panforte, which is like an Xmas fruitcake of nuts, dried fruits and honey. Panforte was subsequently dropped from the list becos it is not easy to make, and Big thought it might be better to do in his own time. We decided to take on the simpler but popular all-time fav Choc Chip cookies instead.

So, we spent Sat running around Phoon Huat, Carrefour and Cold Storage snatching up baking equipment, and ingredients. Pumpkin puree was especially elusive. In the end. Big made his own puree from baked (and microwaved) butternut pumpkin. And we still missed out salt which had to be bought at the last minute by my sister.

In the midst of the mad rush, we also managed to grab a small cupboard for the master bedroom, a cheapo beanbag, a step ladder which can be used as a (rather high) stool, a magic floor cleaner (which, according to Big, I spent the whole of Sat night talking about - OMG I'm turning into my mother), and a fire extinguisher (don't ask).

Sun turned out to be a very fruitful day.

Big put up his country-styled shelf on the orange wall of the dining area. And plonked three tiny pots of cactus on it. Only to realise that he had chosen an orange cactus which of course blended neatly into the wall behind it...

The baking session was surprisingly accident-free, with the exception of one poor Pumpkin Cheesecake cup which decided to commit suicide flat on itz front. The oven is so air-tight that you can hardly smell anything baking. And it cools down rather quickly too.

So, we churned out, 24 Pumpkin Cheesecake - cup-cake style. And a nice number of Choc Chip and Pecan cookies, which, for some reason, were still bread-ish inside.

And I put together my magic floor wiper and tried it out immediately after we got it. Kinda like how Big takes his Transformers out of the box to play with right after he gets them. Talk about new toys.

Curious sights at home

Uncles bonding in the rainThere is a small grass patch in front of the block. Directly under our window. It's next to the playground, and belongs to the nursery downstairs. We've also seen senior citizens playing croquet (yes - croquet - so very Brit!) there. Last Sunday, two uncles were hanging out there. In the rain.

The Marine Parade community

We are under Uncle Goh's care. I've always had a soft spot for him. He was a very good PM, and from what I've heard, a very approachable amiable person. He's also my dad's old classmate from RI, and they always have something to chat about when they do meet.

So, although we don't get to vote, being under Uncle Goh's care has its perks. We have security cameras and monitors in the lifts and lift lobbies, the estate is relatively clean and pleasant, and there are quite a number of interesting activities. This Sunday flea market is one of them. The other is the very happening District Arts Festival whose collaterals really impressed me.

Dec - report card

The kitchen is almost done. The baking oven is in, and we inherited some nice plates and stuff, and a cutlery set from Big's aunt - all un-used. We're just waiting to turn on the fridge and pick up baking stuff.

The 'bots moved in even before we did. Shows who's the priority here, doesn't it?

A surprise visitor

We've had both sets of parents and siblings dropping by. We're planning for baking spree with some of Big's colleagues, and a house-warming of sorts for his office nearer the New Year. I'm hoping to get the Ecosystem and Capris in Jan as well.

But we had a surprise visitor even before the parents came by.

This is my friend Spot.

The Stayover

Each time the subject of staying over at the flat on weekends comes up, I have to endure a round of snide remarks before it pushes thru (IF it pushes thru, that is). The last time we tried to do a stayover, it didn't push thru, but I still had to endure snide remarks. As I've said before, Big & I may be married in the eyes of the law, but obviously not in the eyes of the in-law.

Anyway, ranting aside, we managed to do a stayover last weekend. The initial plan was to start on Thursday night since it was a long weekend. But I was (literally) running media for the event on Thursday night, and dead tired. Then we wanted to start Friday but I spent the entire afternoon gawking over Peranakan jewellery, and that lasted too long, so we didn't either. Even when we did finally stay over Saturday night, we spent most of Saturday advising the parents on which laptop to buy, and rushing to another parental event in the evening. So, actually, we didn't spend very much time at the flat.

Still, it was very nice to stay over, and to have a place of our own. It does seem like a good hideout from our daily annoyances & frustrations, and the rest of the world. Neither of us had much problems adapting to the smaller bathroom, except that we need clothes hooks in there, and we would much prefer the water pressure to be higher. We slept without the aircon or the fan, and it was nice & cool. In fact, the living room can be get windy at night with the land breeze coming from that direction. Of cos, there's all the extra noise we had to deal with - someone upstairs using the toilet/taking a bath, kids shouting in the early morning and etc. But that's to be expected living in such close quarters with everyone else.

Big shoved the oven into its rightful place Sun morning, with some minimal help from me. And we discovered our thermal flask only keeps water warm, not hot. And that we really really do need those hanging basket things for the bathroom for the bath stuff.

AND we have a flea market every Sunday nearby!

Would be a good idea to stay over every weekend. As I said, itz a really good hideout, and becos we don't have to waste time travelling (from my house to his or vice versa), we managed to get a lot more stuff done. The only issue is how much I can tolerate the snide comments.

The bed & other stories

The bed
...is in! The Serta mattress, 2 free pillows, 2 free mattress protectors and a No.6 plush sheep were delivered on Fri. Apparently, the delivery guy spent 2 minutes showing Big how to undo the plastic wrapping becos he had encountered customers who gleefully slit it open with a penknife, and slit the mattress in the process.

The bed frame came on Sat. It looks humongous in the room. We laid on the mattress, 1st unwrapping it and managing NOT to slit the mattress itself, pulled on the mattress protector, and the rather bright bed sheet, and then jumped on to test it out.

Big's 1st comment, "The ceiling looks very close (to my face when I lie down)". Actually, it doesn't. It's just lower than what he's used to. This is a flat after all. Landed property have higher ceilings.

Parental visit number 2
The second of parents finally came over to visit on Sun night, with the hatted sibling in tow. This proved to be a surprisingly mellow visit, perhaps buffered by the chilli & black pepper crabs before it.

Comments made were on the choice of wall paint colour for the front room, why the kitchen sink should not be top-mounted, how the TV is too near the sofa, how the bed should be against the wall, how much problems we would have adapting to the small size of the bathroom (and flat), how we should get Big's parents' maid over to clean on weekends, and how the cat shouldn't be brought over at all...

Not surprisingly, they came from 1 parent only. The other took a walk around, declared it very nice and sat down to watch the failure of a soccer match between Singapore and Thailand (1-3).

Further parental advice
- We shouldn't invite the neighbour into the flat yet. Or let her look in thru the door. For info, she had already gone in just after reno was completed.

- We shouldn't release too much info to neighbour. e.g at what stage of completion the house is in, what we already have in the house and etc. For info, Big told neighbour our bed had arrived that morning.

- We should, however, let the neighbour know that our parents will be dropping by now & then to check on the house. Er, right, sure...

- Before moving in, we had to have people come in to meditate so as to bless the house. This is a new one...

Hard labour

On Sat, we swung by Expo to see if there were any mega-sales, thanks to Val's tip-off. And there was! 3+ hours and $200 later, we had gotten the water-boiler (no kettles for us), a juicer, 2 sets of bedlinen, and a couple of other small items. Big almost got a luggage bag too. We're still not sure about the rice-cooker (anyone knows a good brand and suitable size?), and haven't bought the pots&pans, or crockery. Or the curtains & blinds.

Sun - Big loaded up the car with all the stuff we had bought before he went for reservist, and we trolley-ed them to the flat. That is to say, he carried the big TV, and I pushed the fully-loaded trolley which had an unfortunate tendency to list to the left.

After much sweating and grunting, we finally unpacked, stowed away and fixed up whatever appliances we had brought in. Big even christened the bathroom by taking the 1st shower there.

And he very nicely shoved the quest for bedlinen, curtains and cushion covers to me. Like I know anything about draperies...

Any recommendations for reasonably priced, good quality cloth stuff, with nice sophisticated subtle designs?????

The bed frame will be in coming Sat. And we need to call for the mattress too....