It's been a long time ....

It has been a long time since I posted something.  So many things have happened.  I thought I should start writing again.  Let's see how much of this writing I can keep up with.  It will be my usual observations of the activities going on around me, whether in Singapore or in Malaysia or wherever we have traveled to.

The Heat is On!

It has been boiling hot for a few days.

These are some of the creative ways that we have to beat the heat when we sleep:

Bathe with mint shampoo and mint shower gel;
Sleep with 2 fans blowing away;
Slap on 4711 ice Eau de Cologne to keep cool.

We will not succumb to sleeping with air-conditioning!

Uncle SC

I received sad news that Uncle SC passed away today.  I guess I was expecting it because he had been unwell for some time.  Over the years, he had Parkinson's Disease - without the shakes!  Then he slowly lost his ability to speak and he was using some kind of voice box.  Very strange sounds came from his throat to some box he wore around his waist.  It took a while to decipher what he was saying.

Uncle SC will be missed for his love of good food, chocolate ice-cream, great sense of humour, wry observations and great writing skills who taught me how to love a good book to read and to look at life with a sense of humour!

Grumpy Sister

Ever since we moved in October, my sister has been a really grumpy person.  Please don't let your grumpy mood to affect the dogs and cats at home.  It isn't good for their psychology to have a person in the house who scolds them when they greet you when you get home.  How would you feel if you went to greet someone and they showed you a grump face? 

If you are having a bad day at work, too bad! The dogs didn't create the bad day for you, neither did the cats.  Blame it on the other people at work who affect your mood .... don't blame us! 

Pictorial of Sewer Works II

The steam coming out from the other end in our back yard!

They were steaming something in the hole - the other end is in the picture above

Orange caterpillar tube to air dry the sewer that they cleaned

Pictorial of sewage works

They start the day when they come to the house and lay out their tarp sheets and all other protective stuff on the floor.  This is when they come ...

These guys also lay out the cones, disaster area tape and a DANGER SIGN!

Sewage works

We have moved and now we cannot set up our kitchen.  Sigh!

The Public Works Department have decided that they need to change the sewers beneath our new home.  Since last week (when we moved), I've had all these sewage engineers arounds the house coming in to open the man hole and do strange things.  They have dragged hoses in from the drain, dumped the end of the hose into the man hole, put a CCTV camera into the man hole, checked the condition of the man hold and heaven knows what else they are going to do.

I have just had 10 men in my kitchen checking out the man hole - covered it with tarpauline and canvas sheets, moved my boxes (still unpacked) and tell me: Madam, don't worry - there will be gas smell.

I have spent the time holed up in the office room with the internet and air-conditioning on.  The dogs are very happy that I am home and they get to spend time in the air-conditioned room sleeping away.

I have no idea how long more this madness will last, but it had better end soon - I am getting cabin fever from being at home!

Moving House

We moved on 10 October 2009.  It has been a hectic 2 weeks since we signed the lease on the place.  We started packing and throwing stuff out.  The recycling people didn't come to collect what was due to them, so all that stuff ended being chucked out.

Our new home is a single storey intermediate terraced house in Seletar Hills Estate.  It is totally unrenovated other that the improvements put in some um-um years ago by the owners.  There are three bedrooms, a large living room (formerly the driveway), a large dining room (formerly the living/dining room), a large kitchen at the back (formerly the back yard or garden), a bathroom and ONE TOILET (!!) - yes, we are going to manage on ONE TOILET!!

The ceilings in the dining room and centre bedroom are lovely high ones that let in light and circulate the air.  However, the light does really shine in and create a glare in the afternoon - we are thinking of how we can cut the glare without cutting off the ventilation.

The front bedroom has a new air-conditioner so it is going to be our office.  So far, two desks have gone in there together with a bookcase and a sofa - we still have to set up the room.  I managed to hang some curtains in there to cut the glare and provide some privacy from the prying eyes of the kaypoh neighbours.

Sister takes the centre room with the high ceiling because she said that she does not want to sleep with air-conditioning.  The light in there is really dim (hopeless bulb and lampshade) so I am getting a handyman friend to come change the light and the bulb.  The ceiling is so high that we cannot get to the bulb without a tall latter.  I'm not hot about heights, so we will wait for Stanley to come to the rescue.

Our bedroom is at the back with very little natural light because the owners have extended the kitchen by 10 feet into the backyard.  There is a back wall and door that cut off a lot of light and natural ventilation.  There is an aircondioner in there so we've been sleeping with that.  The doggies are happy  - they enjoy the airconditioned cool air and get to jump into bed with us without being shoved off when we complain that they are heating up the bed!!

There are sewage upgrading works going on in the estate, so we can't set up the kitchen till they do that.  In the meantime, our meals are taken in the corner coffee shop till we can figure out what to do. 

We are still muddling around, but I am sure my future postings will have more on the surroundings.  Check in some time!

Saturday

Saturday 26 September was a busy day for us - we were running around till we were really tired.  We started in the morning by decided that we should go for our annual vehicle inspection.  We also had to fill up with our bio diesel as our low fuel indicator had come on.  Then HH decided to he wanted to see a house and we also had a wedding to attend in the evening.

We headed off to do the vehicle inspection and I am pleased to say that Goo passed the whole test with a rating of 29 for the carbon emission test.  Last year, we had 13.5 but that low number was because the Goo had gone for its' regular 10,000 mark servicing and the wonderful people at Renault has cleaned out the engine.  This year, we just merrily drove up and they started the test, stressing our already low fuel by gunning the engine to test the carbon emission - SIGH!

We passed the test with no problems - so whoever out there tells us that Renault vehicles are not road worthy or reliable, please keep your comments to yourself.  Our Goo is agent maintained (engine, servicing and washing/cleaning), serviced on a regular basis (every 10,000km as required) and are owner drivers who take care not to stress the vehicle unnecessarily.  I believe that our Goo will drive in excess of 500,000 km before we have to retire it.

Then we went off to pump our bio diesel before the centre closed.  Those people at the test centre really stressed our fuel by revving the engine till we topped up 50 litres of bio diesel.  Our tank has a capacity of 52 litres so it was cutting it a little fine.

We then headed off to our usual Saturday haunt for laksa yong tau fu - if you ever visit us in Singapore, we will take you there to eat.  It's a lovely corner coffee shop that has not changed in the last 30 years or so.  There are those old fashioned stone tables - now topped to stainless steel covers - with beer umbrellas providing shelter from the heat.  Alas the stone chairs or stools are all gone - most probably from use.  We have been eating there for the past 10 years and it hasn't changed - except for a couple of replacement beer umbrellas.

HH then said we had an appointment to look at a house in Seletar Hills, so we headed off in that area to look at this intermediate single storey terraced house.  We signed the lease and that is another posting for another day. 

We then headed off to Toa Payoh to visit the cobbler - to collect my stuff and to repair a couple of pairs of shoes.  It was a long wait at Toa Payoh - I re-heeled and re-soled 2 pairs of shoes,  and collected 1 handbag sent for cleaning, 1 pair of shoes sent for cleaning, 1 handbag sent for dyeing and another pair of white shoes dyed to navy blue - I spent $250 of all that but I was really happy with the money spent.

We went home to rest for all of 30 minutes before we had to start getting dressed to attend a wedding.  We were  truly tired after that hectic day of running around in the blistering heat.  We got home from the wedding around midnight totally exhausted!

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Bread Machine

 

Sometime ago, we bought a bread making machine from Carrefour under their own label called BLUESKY.  We had previously bought a 4 place setting tabletop dishwasher that worked wonderfully so we thought nothing of buying a bread making machine from them.

Today is a public holiday.  We were home in the afternoon when I decided that I should take that bread maker out of the cupboard and make ourselves some fresh bread from a package by Prima Flour - focaccia to be precise. 

Took out the machine and went - oh no!  I had lost the instruction book.  So I started to hunt down some instructions from the internet on how to start without a book.  I had to find out the maximum capacity for the bread pan.  After measuring water and it showed a 12 cup volume, I proceeded to add the proportion of water and olive oil and the bread mix and yeast to the pan.  I was so excited - in 3 hours we would have some fresh bread to munch on!!

The only thing that would have triggered this blackout would have been a new piece of equipment - the bread maker.  HH the resident engineer switched off the darned thing, started the mains and then I started the bread maker - PLOOP!  INSTANT DARKNESS AND STILLNESS IN THE APARTMENT FROM NO POWER!! We switched to another power point - same reaction.  We sighed, looked at each other and decided to head down to Carrefour to get our exchange or refund or whatever.

 

We drove to Carrefour at Suntec City and went to the Information Counter and queued.  When I got to the head of the line, I told the lady there my story of woe - how I was making bread and it just died on me.  I even showed them my bread maker with the focaccia mix in the pan, still warm from proofing and waiting to be baked.  The ladies behind the counter were truly amazed.  They then started looking for the bar code (because there weren't anymore in stock) and the price to arrange for a refund in vouchers.  I had forgotten how much I had paid for the bread maker and when I had bought it and whether I paid by credit card or by cash.  I didn't have the receipt for the item either!!

Anyway whilst they were hunting around for the information, HH and I went to Hans (the Hainanese cafe) to eat our dinner - that is worthy of another blog! - for dinner .

We went back to the counter after dinner and the customer service lady said that they would give me back vouchers equivalent to the price of the machine ($99.90) and could I let her have 10 cents so that she could give me $100 vouchers as a refund. HH and I took the vouchers and proceeded upstairs to look for a replacement bread maker.  There weren't any in stock so we bought an induction cooker for $39.90 from Home (another Carrefour brand) - the regular price being $99.90.  So we now get a test induction cooker at a reasonable price before we make the switch away from gas and hopefully cleaner cooking.

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What's so good about buying from Carrefour???  Well, they have a one-to-one exchange for faulty appliances within one year of purchase with no questions asked. That's what I call good service with no hassle!
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