Baptism by poo

Let's start today's post with a cute pix. That's 'cos yesterday, Tasha really had her baptism by diarrhoea. This phenomenon appears to be our welcome-to-the-family tradition and most of our pets have gone through it, though to greater or lesser degrees.

It's hard enough toilet training a puppy, but when she gets the runs all the 'no' and 'good girl' messages get all mixed up in the frequent -- and messy -- 'accidents' that occur wherever in the house she is in.

Fortunately, the biggest damage was in the main bathroom where we confined her for a while. But we had to deal with smaller issues in the bedroom, living-room and study as well. And she thoroughly messed up her bedding, probably during a surprise attack.

The reason why we were so concerned was at about past midnight, there was blood in her stool. We bundled her into a large plastic bag lined with a pee mat and drove her straight to the 24-hour emergency clinic. For an after-hours consultation and prescription costing over $200 we got the very helpful diagnosis that our puppy was having a diarrhoea problem. Wow, thanks. They also showed us a magnified peek into a stool sample they'd taken to show us a microbial parasite that could be the cause of all this anxiety.

So, no unauthorised snacks for her and definitely no human food. Instead, a regimented feeding schedule, antibiotics and pepto bismol doses twice a day -- at least until her systems can process at a more mature level.

TV withdrawal

Been without a TV for more than two weeks already. Not that I've been trying to prevent further brain-rot, but that since the Hitachi conked out, we've been going through the process of shopping around for a new one at a price we are comfortable with.

The Hitachi we sold off for $20 to the friendly neighbourhood karang guni man (a.k.a., the itinerant scrap dealer) -- although he wouldn't have taken it at all if we hadn't also saved the stand it came with. Apparently, people in Indonesia who buy their consumer electronics second-hand don't mount their TVs to their walls. Go figure.

Anyway, that was two weeks ago. Finally, this arrived:

That was yesterday.

Today, the new TV is still in the box. While the delivery went without a hitch, it seems somebody (i.e., our dealer) neglected to arrange for the human resource to do the wall mounting for us. Next available date: Monday, late afternoon shift.

And so... we continue to wait.

Keep on running

Finally! New running shoes to replace my previous old faithful. This new pair fits well and is light on the feet. While I am happy with the purchase, I'm a little less happy with the sales rep. As he brought the shoes to the cashier, he called out, "Uncle heng (paying)!" Grr... you're not so young yourself, whippersnapper!

I suppose that kind of ageist identification is to be expected. I'd just come in from my grand-niece's first month celebration. The view is from the young family's apartment, 33 floors up. I've never been in a residence that high before. You can see the sea from here, yonder on the horizon.

A special room comes together

When we embark on a home improvement project, it's like an Amish barn raising event. Here, our resident supervisor explains what is needed: basically to take flat, squared-off pieces of wood and attach them to the wall.

And here is what has been accomplished by knocking-off time. Actually, a whole lot more than I had expected. We only have to install the middle plank... which should be tomorrow morning after a trip to the local hardware store for a final supply run, and we're done. Now, what the heck could these odd-looking shelves be for?

Billy the Exterminator

You know you're the man o' the hoose when you've been summoned to the bathroom to evict the unwelcome house guest. Subject in question: a tiny baby lizard scampering about on the counter-top.

Eviction tool of choice: 1 x sheet of box tissue paper

Methodology: throw paper over lizard, quickly bundle it up for transportation out of the premises.

Rationale: avoid inadvertently applying excessive grip pressure on subject, causing potentially fatal squishing.

First attempt: FAILURE. Subject wriggles free from cellulose enclosure and suffers a long drop to the floor.

Unforeseen circumstance: URGENT! Subject Momo lurking unnoticed under the bathroom counter lashes out with a forepaw, effectively pinning Subject Baby Lizard underneath.

Remedial action: Use left hand to fend off Subject Momo and distract her from Subject Baby Lizard. Right hand  repeats capture procedure. Probably stunned by the fall and subsequent non-fatal squish, Subject Baby Lizard offers no further resistance.

Eviction procedure: SUCCESS! Eviction notice served and executed. Subject Baby Lizard transported to Front Door and released into common corridor where hopefully it will live out the rest of its life without making a return trip.

After Action Reflection: Odd that instead of feeling scared of Subject Baby Lizard, I was more afraid FOR it. With three cats in the house, few lizards get a second lease on life. This one was one of the lucky ones.

Parking lot with a view

Dropped in on the lawyer who's handling the refinancing of our home loan. This is a periodic necessity as every couple of years or so, depending on the loan contract, the bank will increase the interest charged to a ridiculous level.

I don't know why it will do this because what happens is that we will go shopping around for another bank to take over the loan at a more reasonable rate. The formalities are now complete, and now we owe a new bank everything we have -- and everything we are likely to earn in this lifetime -- for the roof over our heads.

The pix represents the view from the parking lot of the lawyer's building. This is another exciting downtown parking facility, accessible only by car elevator. It costs only $5 per entry to park here from 1800 hrs to 2200 hrs on weekdays. Useful to know.

Property J-V

So much for my earlier protestations of financial prudence. The Wongs are determined to sink money in property... and we are now committed. In a three-way joint-venture, we've pooled our resources to purchase a SOHO unit in an upcoming waterfront development.

Location is easily accessible as it incorporates a public transport hub; offers immediate access to a mega shopping and entertainment complex; and proximity to outdoor recreation and watersports facilities. The inclusion of an additional 'shareholder' spreads the cost outlay and risk to a more bearable load. And because the unit is a SOHO, the rental pool opens up not just to tenants looking for a place to stay but also to businesses looking for office space as well. Or even a combination of both.

It also helps that the units in this development are selling fast. All the while we were looking at the showroom, the in-house announcements kept us up-to-date with unit numbers just sold. It wasn't long before a familiar number boomed over the in-house speakers, sealing the deal.

Here's hoping that at least our new piece of real estate can eventually pay for itself. Either way, it looks like voluntary retirement is still a long way off.

Condo dreams go poof

Our recent explorations in the property market required a chat with our FA. Since he knows our current financial situation, he could point out to us our one big dealbreaker: for the condo penthouse we're looking at, there's no way any bank will loan us that kind of cash to pay for it.

Looking at us, because we haven't finished paying off our current property, the bank will only loan us 40%, tops. If the loan went in May's name, legally the bank can only loan her no more than 35% of her monthly income.

Either way, to make up the difference between the asking price and what the bank is prepared to finance, we'll have to go find a friendly neighbourhood ah-long who would only be too happy to bridge the gap for us, and throw in a free exterior paint job every month as his kind are wont to do.

Thankfully, we kept cool and didn't get pressured to sign anything last night. Otherwise we'll have to get bitten by a vampire in order to live long enough to finish paying what we would be owing to pretty much everyone. Even if we work nights.

A nest in hand

The Wongs are looking at a condo development not far from where we are currently staying. Walking through the developer's mock-up apartments, it's hard the not be tempted by the clean, shiny surfaces and slick ideas for making small spaces look larger than they are. The sales talk and concept drawings are likewise persuasive, promising a resort-like environment where life away from work can be a permanent vacation. Big sigh.

Particularly droolsome is one of the penthouse units with an open skylight for staring out into space at night to observe the heavenly bodies in their nocturnal progressions. For the asking price, all fixtures and fittings are thrown in, except lighting -- almost move-in condition already upon completion of infrastructure construction.

The plan: two Wong households occupy a single penthouse which includes a downstairs studio apartment. Our existing HDB apartments are to be rented out, the proceeds of which will finance the loan for the condo unit.

The Wongs have lots to think about and discuss before the night is over. Our sales rep can't hold the unit too long and has given us 24 hours to commit...

This is not a decision to rush into, though. Other people doing the math for us is likely to overlook or understate important variables that may cause us to regret any over-enthusiastic autograph signing at this time. Fortunately, the Wongs are also willing to err on the side of caution and seek more objective advice on the current and near-future property situation.

My bottom-line is this: I haven't yet finished paying for one, and I'm not keen to start paying for another. For me, living off rental income is counting eggs before they're hatched. It's a caution that's holding me back from being rich, but then I don't like the potential money pit I'm looking at right now.

Shopping for loans

Time to think about options for refinancing my home loan. With my 3-year lock in period having expired, the bank is now offering me a generous new rate of 4.08% per annum. While that doesn't sound like much under normal, everyday circumstances, when applied to a 6-figure principal, it's a whopping extra bushel of dosh every year -- I don't gross enough a month to cover the interest alone!

Good thing is, the bank's current refinancing package offers a rate that is actually lower than the initial rate. Still shopping around for better deals, though. I know they're out there.

Service with a smile

Times must be hard. These 'Friendly' people are busy distributing flyers advertising their services door-to-door around my block. Apart from approving loans, I'll bet Jason will kindly extend his services to home redecoration too.

Need a loan? Pick up the phone! :)

A view of the river and beyond

NBS and Vince had us over to warm their new digs. It was quite a reunion of all the folks we once worked with but have since moved on to manage more responsible things.

The apartment is quite comfortable for the two of them. I'm envious of the view they have that stretches all the way south. The city skyline is just on the horizon and considering the distance as the crow flies, that's awesome.

Distances between people over time made dinner conversation a little more cautious, polite even. We basically caught up with each other and our current activities and concerns over a selection of dishes both home-cooked and purchased. As always, there was more than enough to go around.

Too bad we couldn't stay longer after dinner. We'd already had a full day out and had just arrived at their doorstep fresh from sweating it out at the fitness club. We hadn't even showered. The fact that nobody remarked how rank we smelled shows how polite the company has become. And the animals were texting me repeatedly, asking when dinner-time was.

Replacement sofa

Say hello to our new Sea Horse sofa, a significant downgrade from the one it's replacing. At least the new one is neat and because it's a little smaller, our once cramped living room now feels more spacious.

Tong had also dropped by to help us with some home repairs -- a leaky kitchen tap for one, and to troubleshoot a lighting problem in the bedroom. And Ling helped us save $35 which the delivery guys were charging us to dispose of the old sofa. No, she didn't carry it off herself; she reminded us that the Town Council provides a bulky item removal service for free. We'll give them a call on Monday.

An expat settles in

Another of June's foreign contacts dropped in from Germany. He'll be staying in S'pore for half a year and needed a place to rent. We spent this evening taking him around to view a couple of rental units that June could scrounge up at such short notice.

The first one was in Potong Pasir. A tiny, cramped shophouse apartment that smelled funny and was asking 2.6k per month. For a foreigner, it would have been quite exciting to live like a heartland S'porean. To eat for cheap at the kopitiam downstairs, to go marketing at an NTUC, to mill about with aunties and uncles and listen to the cacophony of a milieu of incomprehensible languages and dialects from day to day, that's learning to be a true S'porean while simultaneously studying at at NUS on an exchange programme. But the asking price was way too much for the experience so we moved off to the next prospect.

Staring out of a 30th storey window of the Plaza Apartment, the view was absolutely stunning. The panoramic windows put the entire city on display. At night, it's a fully dynamic light show of buildings and traffic that never sleep. Just slightly left of centre is the S'pore Flyer and Marina Bay lies beyond. That promises a fantastic view of the occasional firework display, the next one probably being at CNY, just around the corner. Food around here is still relatively cheap in the Arab Street area, while the heart of downtown is within walking distance, as is the MRT if he wants to go further. Jacuzzi bathtub in the bathroom. Asking price (after June got through negotiations) 2.8k per month, pro rated.

No prizes for guessing which apartment won the contract. Our friend is going to live like an expat and not a heratlander after all.

The apprentice

Dropped in on Jojo and Derek's new condo for their BBQ housewarming. Most of the evening she was recounting to us her renovation experiences which didn't quite live up to our expectations as we had recommended to her our ID whom she contracted without seeking a second opinion.

Therein lies the difference between having the work done by the master ID himself (which was our experience) and having the work done by an apprentice. While William controlled every aspect of our renovation with an iron fist over his workers, his poor apprentice showed how freshly minted green she was by getting properly bullied by everyone from her workers to her increasingly frantic client. The apprentice got run through the mill of tardy workers, delayed deliveries, assorted errors of calibration and other careless mistakes; and probably got yelled at quite a bit too by various parties.

We're kind'a sorry our recommendation for a trouble-free renovation experience turned out to be a more hairy one than expected for Jojo, and we're thankful she's not taking it to heart against us. As for the apprentice, we hope this job has taught her to be tougher and more in control of her resources, and not run home crying to mommy about all those mean people she's had to put up with. It's that kind of an industry, and she's just got to learn to survive in it.

Is no house, is zoo

Everyone knows I keep four animals in my house, 3 cats and a dog. The addition of the fifth, Mimi, whom I am dogsitting over the weekend has pushed me to my limits.

It's no fun being constantly up to my elbows in poop and pee, every now and then having to spray down the bathroom floor because somebody missed the paper. And even then, sometimes I can't even change the paper fast enough, so I can't really blame the dogs for their inability to make a precision strike when the designated target zone has already been carpet-bombed to saturation.

Bleary-eyed all weekend, I finally got a good night's sleep in my own bed last night. I simply couldn't take my Mimi-induced insomnia any longer. When she started acting up as usual, I got out of bed to give her a sharp swat on her hindquarters and plonked her back into her sleeping basket. Not a peep out of her after that, and I got a solid five hours.

Now to get the house ship-shape for June's return tonight. All evidence of my decadent bachelor lifestyle must be eradicated. Rhumba is hard at work as we speak.

The robots are coming!

This is typical cat behaviour. 1st, check to see if the newcomer is at all a) edible, or b) bully-able.

Maui gets a new playmate, and the playmate collects a new toy.

After some getting used to each other, Maui and the Roomba are new best friends.

May picked up a Roomba for us on her travels. With all the fur, fluff and whatnot sloughing off our pets, and forming a daily layer of sediment on the floorboards, we simply cannot spare the time to keep our place neatly vacuumed all the time.

Solution: let a robot from iRobot do it for us while we're out at work so that the house is pristine by the time we come home. Enter the Roomba 560, electronic self-directed dustbuster extraordinaire! Battery-operated, it circles our floor and sucks up all the pets' sheddings. When it gets low on power it automatically docks itself with its charging bay for a nom, and then it's ready to go again, if that's what we want.

May gave it an initial charging while in the US, and on that single charge it performed quite a satisfactory job in our living and dining rooms. But to charge it again, Tong will be helping us to find an adaptor that can tansform our current (240V) to a voltage its American tastes are more accustomed to (110V). Until then, its initial charge expended, it's temporarily dormant while it awaits its next meal.

The Roomba isn't capable of miracles, though. It's a lot faster to do our vacuuming manually, and it misses the occasional spot, but that could be perhaps due to Maui messing with its operations as he tries to play with his new friend. But since we expect it to be working while we're out, it should be able to get most of the floor clean by the time we get back. For us, that's good enough.

Cool! My 1st Robot.

Settled in

Finally, we can say we've completely moved into our new digs. The last room is clear of our stuff and we can see the floor once again. Operation Spring Clean has been a resounding success. We're so proud of ourselves... well, mostly June. Heh.

Already we can say the cats have settled down as well. They're so comfortable, they've already destroyed our brand new sofa! Poor sofa.

Last minute spring cleaning

One day before CNY eve. A day dedicated to collecting pork from the market, collecting Aunt Shirls from the airport, and collating piles of no longer wanted assorted detritus, taking what's recyclable to the newly discovered recycling point downstairs where we hope it will find a new lease of life somewhere, somehow, as long as it isn't cluttering up our second bedroom any more.

A little last minute spring cleaning before the Ox takes over the new calendar year.

An Arts House wedding

Congrats, Yee! Attended his wedding at the Arts House this afternoon. It was a very pleasant, easy-going service led mostly by Yee himself before he relinquished the microphone to a good-natured JP who presided over the legal formalities. Each of his guests received a personalized gift for attending based on his impressions of us or what he could recall of us. For instance, I received ice-cream vouchers due to a couple of escapades with him at Haagen-Dazs, and June got a pretty egg-shaped music-box (no, not a Faberge, quit drooling) because he remembered she likes music boxes. Yee knows how to put his personal touch to events he organizes. Would have loved to stay and hang out longer, but there was a turkey in the fridge that needed roasting.

Haven't done a Christmas thing at our place for a long time, so now that we've got our new digs, there was every reason to play host again. June wore the chef's hat tonight. She has the recipe for the roast turkey and ham nailed down, but she's been experimenting all week to discover the secret of a good pumpkin soup. With me as guinea pig, we ascertained a couple of key factors: it has to be butternut pumpkin (ours came from Mustafa, cheap and good), and it needs a sprinkle of powdered nutmeg and hand-squeezed OJ to take the edge off. There's still some in the fridge, along with the turkey leftovers. Guess what we're having for dinner tomorrow night?