Confessions of a Drama Mama

Today we spent 5 hours at IKEA. FIVE. And that’s even when I work there and I know where things are (i.e don’t need to factor in time for getting lost).

And we spent more than $1,000. And this is our second trip, the first was also a $1,000 trip. So scary, the way we spend money. But then again, I still feel that it’s good value for money. For $2,000, we bought:

- lights for hallway, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, guest room. ALOT of lights were bought today
- work table
- work swivel chair
- TV bench
- side table
- shoe cabinet (2 metres high! with mirror doors!)
- bathroom cabinets
- bathroom accessories
- 1 4-poster bed for us (bring on the ROMANCE!)
- 1 queen foam mattress
- 1 day bed for guest room
- 1 single foam mattress
- bedside tables

And you know what? We’re still not done yet. We still have more stuff to buy. Gulp.

Issues with contractor this evening. Alot of issues. I think settled already  but I scared wait he do nonsense again. One particular thing really pissed me off, but I’ll save the best for last.

First of all, tiles placed too high in the toilet. Hard to describe but quite weird looking la. He said ‘but your husband is very tall, if he shower then wait he cannot see the tiles how?’. Ok ya, whatever. I let it slide.

Then the kitchen wall tiles were put wrongly. Supposed to be horizontal, but he put vertical. I said no, cannot, must change. In the shop we saw it as horizontal and I never imagined it any other way. So lucky the tile guy was still there and the cement haven’t dry yet so can re-do.

Then I said to him ‘the kitchen cabinet that part also must do horizontal ok?’. He said ‘Har? kitchen cabinet that part also must do meh? I thought Max said no need!’. It takes alot to piss me off these days but that one really hit the spot.

I know what my husband would say and I know what we discussed. So I said ‘No, Max wouldn’t have said that’. He insisted so I said ‘Ok I will call Max’. Then he kalang kabut, said ‘Never mind la, I do for you, no need to call’.

I called anyway. Our conversation:

Me: Hey I’m at the kitchen now, do you remember us saying we wanted the tiles horizontally?

Max: Err actually no, what tiles?

Me: The kitchen tiles. Greyish, brownish and black. Rectangular ones.

Max: The floor tiles?

Me: No the wall tiles

Max: Oh I can’t remember

Me: Ya we said horizontal right?

Max: I really can’t remember

Me: That’s right, at the shop right?

Max: Ya I think so

(And we also settled the tiles behind kitchen cabinet issue over the phone)

Please, don’t try to bluff me. I hate it when people do that. By the way, I’m not trying to bluff him. I remember this kind of small things and Max doesn’t because I’m a woman and he’s not.

This one is the best. I
specifically told him I wanted to keep a feature above the main door. It’s like wooden ‘grills’, like very signature Tiong Bahru flat have
kind. So I told him I wanted to remove the ugly plywood that’s covering
it, then use glass to cover back. So can see, but yet insects won’t fly
in right?

Past few times I went to the house I saw that it was removed.
never say anything. Thought maybe he remove to clean it or whatever. Today I just mentioned ’so that one when you putting back? ‘He said ‘OH I
THREW IT AWAY ALREADY. I THOUGHT YOU WANTED ONLY GLASS’

Fed up. So I never raised my voice, spoke firmly but calmly (I
love it when I’m in power like that), I said ‘I bought this house
because it was nostalgic. And one of the reasons I felt the nostalgia
was that grill thing. We even discussed if we should put the glass
inside or outside. How can you tell me you did not know?’.

He said ‘oh already throw, have to redo for me, will be very
expensive, shouldn’t have removed it, waste money only.’ I said ‘It’s not my fault and you’re re-doing it for me and I’m not paying for
it’

In his defense, he’s not a bad guy. Max says he’s a nice chap and I agree. But he’s damn forgetful.

You know what? Call me whatever you want. Anal, nitpicky, renozilla… At the end of the day, it’s my house, I paid for it, I live in it, so I want to be comfortable in it and with it. Is that too much to ask? You want to pay tens of thousands of dollars (that’s FOUR zeros by the way, many months of salary by the way) for something you don’t like, that you have to see everyday? Precisely. So just let me complain

Our toilet bowl was supposed to be done up yesterday (conversion from squat to sit) and the contractor just told me this yesterday.

Adora, we have a big problem. When the plumber removed the
old bowl, he could see through to the downstairs neighbour’s house. So we’ll have to re-do the ceiling of the neighbour.

So that means I have to pay for the neighbour’s new ceiling, plastering and
painting…

I said ’so after this is done, totally no danger? As in there will be no overflows or leaks? And I won’t fall through the neighbour’s ceiling when I’m taking a dump?’. He said no, no problem. Easy for one to say when one doesn’t have to worry about falling through the floor every time one goes for a shit.

We’re thinking of not paying the whole $500 cos he should have known, right? I mean, he’s the expert. You think I’m toilet expert meh? OR we could pay it all, but get him to give us other things for free.

He says that such old old old (mine is 1973) flats that were built by HDB before they were called HDB got this kind of problem. Clever. Note to all who are thinking of buying Lim Liak Street / Seng Poh Road / Tiong Poh Road units, watch out.

The word ‘Banglah’ comes in close association with ’smelly’. Let’s face it, we’re all guilty of it. I know I am.

Went to see Uncle Ah Tiam (electrician) earlier, and found Uncle Banglah hacking away at my walls all by himself. I’m not sure if he had been alone all day but he sure looked tired.

He was drilling away and hacking away in a pile of rubble (like kena earthquake kind) with dust all over the place and no goggles. I asked if he had them and I’m not sure if he understood me. I think he said he had them but didn’t want to use. Why la, Uncle Banglah sir? So much dust is bad for your eyes la.

I’m glad Max and I had bought some bottles of water for the worker/s last night. Small gesture but I hope they/he feel/s appreciated. 

There was an article called "Singapore’s Invisible" a few months ago. Uncle Banglah and all his friends, and all our domestic workers belong to that category. We try to pretend that our roads are being swept, our homes are being cleaned, our public toilets are being cleared and our buildings are being built by an invisible force. If and when they choose to go on strike, we’re screwed for sure.

Whole day hacking away in small enclosed spaces and probably not many sets of clothes to rotate among, sure smelly la. I’m not saying breathe deep when in Serangoon Road. I’m just saying let’s try to not be so Singaporean.

OK!

Yesterday collected key! First time alone in the flat without contractor, parents, agent etc

So funny when we met the contractor, he immediately went to our store room (we going to hack down) and drew what i thought was a BIG KUKU BIRD. Then I scold him. I said ‘Eh just cos we going to tear it down, doesn’t mean you can vandalise our house you know’. Then he blur and said ‘err actually it’s a HAMMER (i.e. this wall have to hack)’

Kwa kwa kwa…..

But doesn’t it look like a big kuku bird?

So anyway we’ve already bought our ceiling fan, aircon, chosen our tiles for walls and flooring, so now just left the following to do:

- Choose wall colour

- Settle on lighting points and buy lights

- Settle on kitchen design (should be today la)

I guess that’s all ba…

TODAY START RENO LIAO! Woohoo! Bought drinks for the workers to angkat them a bit. Hopefully they won’t pee all over my house :S

I got a CAVEAT NOTICE from SLA
(Singapore Land Authority) today and I have no bloody idea what it’s for. The office is closed and the
suspense is killing me. Is it a common thing to receive? Have any of
you gotten it upon purchasing your flat?

It sounds damn scary. It says that ‘a
caveat has been filed against your property. A caveat is a claim by the
caveator, who is usually a buyer or a bank, that you have either sold
your property or obtained a loan from the bank’

The thing is, i’m buying, not selling, and my loan is not from bank, it’s from HDB.

I hate all these scary govt agency letters. My heart always races when I see ON GOVT SERVICE envelopes. I always think ‘Did I do something wrong? Did I speed? Did I spit on the floor? Urinate in a lift? Get caught for indecent exposure? Not pay my bills? Shoplift? Did my gala pole drop on someone’s head? Was our TV too loud and our neighbours complained?"

Dammit. Someone tell me what this bloody this is about!!!

The menu for lunch today included "salted egg steamed meat" but I realised that the 2 salted eggs I had had gone bad. I always wondered how preserved stuff can go bad. Then way call them ‘preserved’ if they can’t be?

For those of you who are salted egg virgins, a salted egg on the outside looks like it’s been covered with a coat of black soil. Looks quite mysterious and scary actually. So you have to break the layer apart and wipe away the ’soil’ as much as you can and then finally wash the egg. You’ll see a nice white egg shell. Kinda like a duck egg but smaller.

Then you break it open and you’ll find a HARDENED (as in solidified) egg yolk amidst normal egg white (but only it’s more giam than normal egg white).

So after I realised that BOTH my salted eggs had gone bad (the yolks were in liquid form), I went downstairs to buy more. I went to 3 provision shops and 2 told me that they were not allowed to sell them anymore, because the eggs contained some weird thingie that the food authorities deemed to be dangerous.

SINCE WHEN!!!! And why does it have to be when I’ve already marinated my meat? But I persevere. I keep going until I find a shop that has it. I finally do, and there were 2 eggs left - one looked a bit ‘wet’, like the ’soil’ was wet, and the other looked too dry, like mud that’s not had water for a long time. Dammit. So how? Buy both la.

I decided to try the ‘wet’ one and thank goodness it’s ok. The ‘dry’ one is still in my kitchen for my next adventure.

For those of you who want the recipe for steamed salted egg meat:

Marinate meat with pepper and sesame oil for about half an hour. Then just before steaming, mix the salted egg white with the mixture and then break the yolk and put it all over the top then steam for about 10-15 mins, depending on how much meat. Your water must already been boiling hor.

OKAY! Here ye, here ye. Tomorrow we will be hitting Balestier Road to buy:

- Ceiling fan
- Lighting (maybe, if got Vietnam kind)
- Tiles (to choose)

And to look at bathroom accessories. Maybe. If got time.

Wish us luck!

By the way, Barang Barang now got moving out sale (real sale, not pretend to move out kind then forever 80% off but still stay at the same location kind) at Great World City. The most interesting thing we saw was square pieces of wooden flooring. Can just buy and join together to put in toilet. So in case anyone is interested, I think the sale will end this weekend. But not so happening la. Still expensive

Footnote: After working at IKEA, every time I look at any furniture or furnishing accessory, I can’t help but say "SHIT I don’t understand why this is so expensive!". I mean seriously, bed frames cost more than $1,000 at Barang Barang! Made of gold or what?

I’ve heard it for years but never knew the reason. It kinda sounds like those high tech school recess bell (not the RRRRRRRRRRing like our time kind). It goes off without fail every 1st of the month at 12noon sharp. Sharper than knife.

I’ve learnt that the system that gives out that sound is the same system that will give out the warning POW! POW! POW! alarms in case of emergency. Ya, Civil Defence thingie. And they need to test the system every month to make sure that it’s working, but they also don’t want to sound the real alarm in case wait got Singaporeans really go hide in the bomb shelter then how?

So they play some cute soothing music thingie lor.

Happy? I know I am Another thing off my mind. Yay.