Books to go

What a week! Between official assessment duties in the morning and cleaning/unpacking/installing duties at night, I feel like I've been running without stop. And looking at the mountain range of -- things -- that's currently occupying my guest room, it doesn't look any better for next week either.

But I did get a little break today, as a volunteer selecting and then delivering books to the disabled. Today was the selecting of books phase, so armed with my recipients' list of book preferences, I gaily happily parked myself at the arts and crafts section picking out books on crocheting and knitting, and attempting very hard to imagine which titles would fascinate them the most.

Based on their topical choices, I guessed that they would have been little old ladies who probably wanted to express themselves creatively. But I didn't want the books to be so simple as to be insulting, yet I didn't want anything too difficult either so that they would get bored and perhaps try to find other ways of expressing themselves creatively with knitting needles.

There were also other considerations like, I wanted to get something uplifting, but I didn't want them to think I thought they needed uplifting. I wanted to get something humorous, but I didn't want them to think I was making light of their situation...

It's kinda' like the decisions the media corporations have to make selecting the media content that would appeal to the widest audience. Like them, I chose the blandest sounding titles which were the least likely to offend anyone, although I did take a chance on on of the old girls by selecting for her Jeph Loeb's "Blue", one of the best Spider-Man stories I've read focusing on a tragic tale of a romance cut short in between trading punches with an assortment of costumed bad guys. Well, she did include 'Romance' and 'Short stories' on her list...!

We'll get the books delivered to them next week, so I will only know if I'm going to get the books chucked back at my head, of if I'm going to be offered a cuppa and a nice chat then.

In the meantime, through all the gripes, grumbles, whines and tantrums, I finally have a house to live in. We brought the cats back from Dom's, so the whole family is back together again! The unpacking will still go on for some time, but our place is an operational domicile at last!

Down to the minor details

Things seem to have come to a standstill with the renos. All the heavy, noisy work is complete but now comes the perod where we have to deal with all kinds of minor issues -- the fine tuning. Small faults like overlooked unpainted bits, the tracing down of the source of the electrical trip, small fixtures that still need to be installed, that sort of thing. And until we're absolutely sure another bunch of tradesmen won't come knocking on our door, we can't really say we've moved in yet.

And the unpacking! Everything we hastily threw into our packing crates now have to be organized back into their permanent places in the new house, and that's still going to take a while yet. Meantime, there're boxes everywhere with their contents spilling out while we figure what's what and what goes where.

Hope to get my home back by the weekend...

Still homeless and roughin' it

Perhaps too optimistic about being able to move in to the new place by last Friday. There're still various workmen buzzing around getting this and that done, and the nightmare of being temporarily homeless seems to be extending interminably. It's even worse for the cats since we're projecting that they can't come home till about Thursday, when we've finally been able to cat-proof ourselves sufficiently to accept them back with us.

Meantime, we're still squatting at M-i-L's, and Q-tip is starting to become accustomed to the new routine of life here. That's not a bad proposition, really, because there's a chance we can put here here in future while we go out to work and collect her when we come home in the evening. She'll be cared for and given regular walkies, like a doggie day-care. The cats can look after themselves.

Took the kids to watch "Avenue Q" today. I'm planning to watch it again with June closer to the end of the run, so I'll review it another time.


Also, congrats to Sha who tied the knot this evening. A relaxed and easy affair at the Fort Canning Centre. A loosely Bollywood theme complete with a troupe of energetic Bhangra dancers who wowed us with some tandem spinning manouvres that were quite risky for the tight space they performed in.

All-you-can-eat briyani and naan to go with a spicy variety of curried meats. I focused on the mutton -- lovely flavour and have eaten myself silly. Burp!