The run-up to Christmas

I think the British celebrate Christmas as we would celebrate Chinese New Year. During my shopping trips to the supermarkets over the weekend, the shelves were stocked full. More fresh flowers were on sale and I was amazed when I visited Marks and Spencer yesterday. One whole shelf (about 10ft long) was packed with Clementines and crates after crates of parsnips, carrots and other fresh vegetables spilled onto the clothing shopfloor. Most shoppers were pushing the biggest shopping trolleys and they were filled to the brim with goodies. To beat the mad rush, I did most of my shopping yesterday and will buy the perishables either tomorrow or the day after. According to a report by Asda, the busiest time will be on Wednesday at 12.17pm. I shall stay clear of all supermarkets then.

The prospect of having a White Christmas is very much in the horizon. The snow which fell last week has not melted and we had more snow today. Even if it doesn't snow in the run-up to the big day, we'll still have a 'white' Christmas since the freezing temperature will mean the snow will still be around then.

I'm so relieved all the presents have been wrapped and yes, a special visitor will arrive in 3 days' time.

And so......the snow came

We were waiting with great anticipation for the snow yesterday evening. Everyone kept saying there's going to be a heavy snowfall overnight. While in the kitchen, I kept looking out of the window, hoping to catch the first fall of the flakes. When it got dark, I asked the girls to look out of the patio doors to see if there's any snow outside. 'No' came the reply. It was finally around the time we were about to leave the house to pick A from the train station in the evening when the magical moment came. White flurries fell from the sky. At first it was light. Just like white flour dusting around. The roads were still clear when we set off but they got whiter and whiter and the snow began to fall fast and furious. On our way home, the snow had begun to settle and all things were turning white. It's not the first time I'd seen snow but I get excited every single time without fail. Of course, the girls always manage to have lots of fun too!

Early this morning, I received a text from the girls' school informing me that it will be closed today due to heavy snowfall. It was supposed to be the last day of school for the year. Good thing they'd taken back all their PE Kits. Louisa kept saying her plimsolls are still at school. Nevermind, she'll be back at school in two weeks.

Today also marked the first time I drove in snow conditions. I always hibernate at home when it snows. Never dared to venture out. It's treacherous to drive. Not when there's at least 20cm of snow outside. But it's my school's Christmas Party for the children and I'd promised my boss I would go and help out. I rang one of my colleagues who lives near me and she said she's not going to take the risk. I was at a dilemma. If I go, I had to bring the girls with me. Driving out alone is a risk by itself, let alone bringing along the girls. So I called my boss and she asked me to drive out and if I were to feel uncomfortable with continuing the journey, I should then turn back and go home. Most roads in my estate are still private and not adopted by the council so they are not gritted. I live in a cul-de-sac so the roads were covered in thick snow. We also had to scrape off the ice and snow off the car. That took a while. When we finally set off, I drove so slowly. My average speed was perhaps about 20 mph. All went well until we were about to reach the school. I was slowing down and coming to a halt at a traffic junction, holding tightly to the steering wheel and using engine brake when it kept skidding to the left and towards the traffic light pole. I started to panic. Luckily, I managed to stop but I wondered if I'd gotten stuck or if I would continue to skid forward to the left. Alas! We made it safely to our destination. The party was a great success and by the time we went home, the sun had melted the snow on the roads. The only difficulty I had was driving towards my drive. The snow was so thick the car could hardly move forward. I heaved a big sigh of relief when we got back in the house. Will we have a white Christmas? I don't know. But it sure is very cold here and will get even colder (-7 degrees C apparently) as the week progresses.

Junior Nativity Play

The infant play was held in the afternoon during school time. I don't know why the junior play is always in the evening. Maybe they think older children sleep later? It was a mad rush for us that day. Right after school, Louisa had to go for Kumon. Then we came home and I prepared some dinner for them. Soon after it was back in the car, to the train station to pick Adrian and back to school. We barely made it there on time. Phew!

The play was rather similar to the Infant's (it's Nativity Play afterall) but they added some rock music to it. Some of the costumes were recycled. I think Louisa looked really cute in hers. It was hard to take a clear picture of her during her routine as I had to do it discreetly. In the end, all the pictures turned out blurry. Sigh! I got to brush up my photography skills.

Infant Nativity Play

I braved the great chill this afternoon and attended Lavigne's Nativity Play at her school and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Apart from straining my ears to hear what the children were saying, I found myself tapping to the beat of the songs they were singing. Unlike last year, Lavigne (she was a star) sang along with all the other children and performed her part very well. She kept turning around and smiled at me. What a vast difference a year has made. She even suggested posing on stage for me. My little girl is growing up.

There's some problems with my photoshop software, so I can't edit them.

It'll be Louisa's turn tomorrow evening. That's going to be a fun one!

Let it snow.....

Strangely after I talked about snow earlier in the previous post, I heard over the radio that there's going to be snow showers this evening and tomorrow morning. Apparently, more snow is on its way this Thursday. We may have a White Christmas afterall!

MIA again

I didn't realise it's been that long again since I last blogged. Life's been pretty busy at the moment. It's near the end of term and lots going on at schools (both mine and the girls). I'd also been given more responsibilities at work and covering for colleagues who are busy with paperwork now.

Last year, I put up the Christmas tree pretty early and most presents were bought by mid-December. However, it's a different story this year. Well, the tree and decorations (minimal) are up but I still can't find the right presents for friends and family. I'd been going to the shops, hoping to find something for everyone but each time, I came home empty-handed. At this moment, I'm starting to panic. I don't want to buy something for the sake of giving. But then again, I can't go on searching forever. Christmas is just next week!

At least the Christmas menu has been planned. Phew! First time hosting a Christmas party and I hope all will go well. There's not going to be that many people anyway, just us and 2 other families. Now the question will be 'Will it snow on Christmas Day?' I doubt so. I heard that it's never snowed on that day. Still, I'm really looking forward to Christmas because my sister will be here.

Are you ready for Christmas? I know S is!

Who? What? Where?

It's been about 5 months since we moved and 3 months since I 'disappeared'. Gosh! Has it been so long already? Don't even get me started on how the year is coming to an end. But really! Where did it all go? There's still a month to go before we step into 2010 but allow me to reminisce and reflect a little about this year.

Homefront

We moved to a nicer home (way nicer compared to the old uni owned house) in another county and enjoyed an improved quality of life. A blessing in disguise, I always say, we started looking for a place of our own when our landlord wanted to sell the house. This took up a huge chunk of the year. We thought we'd never find a house we both like (I had prefered another house on the same street than the one we bought but that's another story) and can afford. By a stroke of luck, we discovered a rather new development sitting between the town we were living in and the next town. DIYers we are not. We prefer new houses with all the modern fittings. Not Victorian nor Edwardian? Not a bit of character in sight? We're not at all bothered. By God's grace, we now own a house which is bigger and better than what we thought we could afford. I really enjoy pottering about at home and spend quite a bit of my time in the kitchen which doubles up as a diner. Even though I had said we're not DIYers, I managed some easy bits like painting and hanging up things such as blinds, curtain rails and picture frames. The hardest was hanging the wallpaper in the bedrooms. But it was a very fulfilling task. I'm actually contemplating doing it again in the dining room.

Summer holiday

This past summer, we had a lovely holiday in Singapore and attended my sis-in-law's wedding. Hers was a love marathon and I'm so pleased for them that they finally tied the knot. The couple is now happily enjoying an extended honeymoon (a year!) in Switzerland as her hubby has been posted there for work. Good for us too as I hope we can visit them sometime next year. Even though we stayed for about a month, it was still a whirlwind affair - trying to cramp as many activities and meetups with family and friends. I'm glad my group of poly friends always make time to meet everytime I go back even though they're very busy being in the media industry. Also caught up with 2 mummies from a volunteer hotline I used to be with. It's amazing how we can just 'click' even after a long absence. That's what I call friends. It was also our first time catching up with S and her family whom we first met in UK but have since returned to Singapore. It was she who recommended me to her stylist and I went from long to short. Very pleased with the haircut and I'm actually dying to have one done now.

Health

I hurt my back earlier this year and it was quite bad. It's so true that once the back is hurt, it will never be the same again and in fact, very vulnerable to aches and pains thereafter. Then I fell ill 2 weeks before our big move. I had never felt so sick before. A friend had said before, us mums always carry on with our chores even though we're poorly. But for that episode, my temperature always stayed very high and my body was drained of energy and I just wanted to be in bed all day. That was such a stressful time. On the fourth day of fever, I started developing a stiff neck. Obviously I couldn't drive and so the girls couldn't go to school. A had gone to stay with a friend the previous day to prepare for his viva. I went to see a GP who told me I had to be seen at a hospital. I tried to call a few friends to ask them to look after the girls but they were not reachable. Home phones, mobiles. No one picked up my call. Of all times. Luckily my neighbour was home that day and the girls stayed with her. I went to the hospital in a taxi and checked myself in. They did all the routines - temp and blood pressure. The scariest part was when they told me I had to undergo a lumbar puncture and CT scan. I didn't mind the latter but certainly not the former. In the end, the Dr said the scan wasn't necessary and she would go ahead with the lumbar puncture. Every patients there had someone with them. I was the only one without a companion. Honestly, I had been fine with it until the time for the procedure came. To say I was nervous is an understatement. Even though I had epidural before, it was VERY VERY painful to the point where I teared. I have very high pain threshold but I was holding so tightly to the bed rail. You can imagine how bad it was. It was nothing like epidural, trust me. To make the matter worse, the junior dr who was being guided by a more senior dr couldn't draw any fluid out and I could hear their conversation 'Anything?', 'No', 'Try again', 'Still nothing?' , 'No, you want me to pull it out and shift the position?', 'Yes go ahead'. That was totally unpleasant. Good news was the result for meningitis came back negative. Bad news was I had to stay in the hospital for at least 3 nights for the blood culture result to come back. I was sent to a ward where the average age of the patients must be around 75. One lady kept talking to herself and I couldn't sleep at night. The lady next to me was breathing very loudly and was in pain and groaning constantly. Yet another lady opposite me gave me a fright the first night when I opened my eyes and saw her standing in front of my bed, looking straight at me. I asked her if she needed help and she said she needed the toilet so I called out for the nurse to come. The following night, she kept walking in and out of the room then stopped in the middle, dropped her nappy, did her business (by this time I had already called out for the nurse) and then came and sat on my bed!!! The smell was bad and she was taken away and my sheets were changed. Hospital is not exactly a place to rest or recuperate. Every so often I'd be woken up for temperature and blood pressure measure, be given tablets and I was given more than 10 bags of anti-viral plus antibiotics drip during the whole duration of my stay. Not only was I bored, the hospital food was really bad (not that I was expecting gourmet food but they were not quite palatable) and I was worried about our impending projects and move. Thankfully, all went well.

Others

Since September, Lavigne started full-time school at Louisa's school and I have more me-time. She's really enjoying school and has become more independent and confident. We're really pleased with her progress. Louisa's now in junior school and is quite busy with violin, recorder, swimming and Kumon classes. She's also started on her Holy Communion class and will be receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion next May. My girls are growing up so quickly.

My sister, Joanne, who had wanted to visit us during X'mas but then couldn't and then could again, made me very, very happy. The girls had been disappointed that their Tinyi would not be coming and we're keeping them in the dark in order to give them a big surprise early xmas eve morning. We had such a blast last year but unfortunately, A was having his first big exams and he couldn't join in the fun. This year will be so different. First x'mas in our own house and I can do whatever I want to decorate it - baubles, tinsels and everything glittery! We'll also be having a party (haven't planned the menu yet and I'm not good with western dishes).

On the whole, I think it's been quite a good year apart from the health department. I'm looking forward to a good end to the year and hopefully, 2010 will be an even better one. I can finally announce my baby sister will be getting married next summer (oh our little sister will be a wife soon! Wasn't she just toilet trained and out of the sarong?) so we can look forward to another great holiday.

I had said I won't be gone for long this time, didn't I? Hope to load some photos the next time. There's so many I don't even know where to start.

HELLO!!!!

I want to shout out 'We finally have broadband and I'm reconnected to the cyberworld'. It's about time yah? In fact, it's long overdue! I'd signed up with Sky, after waiting for our 'ideal package' to come along all these while. We got a free Sky+ Box, free installation and £50 Tesco voucher. A still feels Sky it's expensive. But hey! At least we can watch TV programmes now. Being a fan of 'I'm a celeb Get Me Out of Here', I had been watching the programme on my 'grainy tv' for over a week prior to the arrival of satellite tv. I was that die-hard. Now, everything's so clear and I'm really loving the fact that I can pause and rewind live TV and record programmes without tapes. Ok, I know I have been living in the mountains. But it's absolutely brilliant! Ok, back to checking my emails. I won't be gone for long this time.

Hello World!

Goodness me! My last post was almost 2 months ago. Longest hiatus ever (I think)! To my regular readers, my apology for 'disappearing'. We haven't subscribed to internet service (nor cable TV) yet. This is a quick 'appearance' to let you know I'm still around and have not 'disappeared from the face of the word' or 'depressed' as some friends had wondered. We had such a wonderful holiday in Singapore (can't wait for the one next summer). Thank you, friends and family, who took time and effort to meet up. Since our return to UK, there had been lots to do. It sure makes alot of difference when you have your own home. Even doing household chores is no longer considered a chore. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually enjoying it. Lavigne has started reception year and stays in school from 8.45am to 3.30pm. She, who had been looking forward to going to 'cheh cheh's' school all summer, is loving her time at school. Both girls have school dinners and I no longer need to do packed lunches (except for A). It certainly makes my mornings more sane and less stressful. OK, I hope we'll have broadband soon and then I can blog regularly. Oh, all the backlog!

Marriage thoughts

This post is actually inspired by another post written by a dear friend of mine.  I couldn't agree with her more that 'marriage goes through its ups and downs'.  In our years in UK, I thought there were more downs than ups.  Perhaps we were too pampered in Singapore and what life threw at us in a foreign land was not quite what we had expected.  But in those difficult days, we grew to be 'stronger and more independent' so to speak.  

Coming back to Singapore this time round, our relationship is on the up.  Maybe it is because he has already completed his course.  Maybe it is because the children are older now and don't need our attention and care all the time.  Maybe it's due to the fact that we're on holiday and away from the hustle and bustle of daily routines in UK.  I think it's a combination of all factors.

We are more tolerant towards each other.  We hold hands when we go out.  We get to enjoy couple time away from the kids, something which is non-existent back in UK.  If only they can all continue (not expecting the dating part though) when we leave here.  Marriage is indeed hard work.  It needs to be nurtured all the time.  But the children and other family matters usually come first so we often neglect each other.  We forget to woo the other partner.  We pay less attention to him/her.  Any free time seemed so precious that we spend it on ourselves.  We will have to remind ourselves of the happy times spent here and not spiral down again.  

Free!!

We're free from Mr Nasty Landlord AT.LONG.LAST!  As expected, he had tried to be difficult almost right to the end - charging us unreasonably for several items, the most ridiculous being labour charge for removing a tiny sticker on a door handle which we hadn't removed totally.  He also wanted to charge us £200 for painting the walls.  I had cleaned the walls and A had used the paint left behind in the garage by the builder to patch certain bits.  He said we used a paint of different colour and he had to get someone to redo it.  Most laughable of all is he sent A a letter asking us to enjoy our last month of stay in the house and hope that we will return the house in the same state as when we had taken over or in an  even better condition.  How is that possible?  Walls will be marked for sure which we had tried to clean up.  To save on professional carpet cleaning, I was on my fours for hours using a strong carpet cleaner to clean the whole house's carpet.  Luckily he didn't mention anything about the carpet.  If not I'll surely hammer him!  One day when A tried to call Mr Nasty, his dad answered the phone instead (he's the big boss of the estate company).  Senior Palmer asked if he could help and A told him everything.  Strangely, he said he had seen the house after we moved out and commented we left it in a good condition.  In the end, Mr Nasty reduced his claim and the rent by half.  I hope his father had given him an earful.  So we're now totally free from him and it feels GOOD!

MC

Louisa was supposed to start school today but she'll be on MC for 4 days!  Which means her summer school stint in Singapore will be shortened from 2 weeks to 1.  What's the culprit this time?  Very bad rash all over her body.  It all started last Saturday evening. I'd thought it was a food allergy.  Brought her to a GP and was prescribed the usual anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory medication.  He suspected dust allergy.  It made sense since we'd visited several bridal boutiques in the afternoon.  She didn't seem to respond to the medicine and the rash looked worse so I decided to bring her to KKH a few hours later.  There were many sick children.  After paying and waiting for nearly one hour, I saw that the rashes were subsiding so cancelled our queue and went home.  It was 2am then.  When she woke at 7am in the morning, there were more rashes and the itch was really bad.  I gave her the medication regularly and the rashes came on and off but it got really bad, even on her face from the afternoon.  My sister Jo (Bless her!  She'd been driving us around) suggested bringing her to KKH in case she became very uncomfortable in the middle of the night.  Along the way, we decided to go back to the GP whom we thought might give her the same treatment as KKH - an injection as opposed to waiting for hours at the hospital.  Unfortunately, the Dr (different from the first visit) said he didn't know what's wrong with her and advised us to bring her to KKH.  His answer to all my questions was 'I don't know', 'I really don't know'.  Good for him for not charging me anything.  So we ended up at KKH afterall.  There were even more children then the previous night.  We were warned of a long wait.  I could see most children were there for high temperature due to the patch on their forehead.  My sister brought Louisa to the car to sleep while I waited.  After almost 2 hours, she was finally seen to.  The Dr asked for many details.  She didn't think it was food allergy as Louisa didn't eat the same thing she had on Saturday and by right, the rash shouldn't come back.  She suspected a viral induced rash.  Louisa was given a jab (so brave of her), placed under observation and prescribed a different anti-histamine which worked this time.  Up till last night, there were still rashes all over but she didn't itch as much.  New rashes appeared on her face and her lips swelled a little.  The Dr from KKH did say the rashes will come and go for a week.  Finally today, she looked more like normal.  The rashes were really ugly.  Big, raised, blotchy and lumpy.  Louisa had been really good these whole time, all the while only complaining about the itch and I could see she tried not to show it at times.  

Doctor visits so far (over 2 weeks):

1. KKH - 4

2. GPs - 3

3. Specialist - 2

My wallet is haemorrhaging.

All's well

Lavigne's fever is gone and my review with my consultant today is good.  Flowers are almost all sorted, just the photo-shoot backdrop at the hotel needs to be discussed with the groom-t0-be.  Order for the flowers will be placed tomorrow and I shall complete the wrist and car door corsages by this weekend.  Getting excited yet nervous about the flower arrangements next Friday.  This is only my second time doing it (first was my own wedding).  Hope all goes well!     

Holiday so far

I had not been doing much for the wedding except to do more research, came up with the flower plan and check out the flowers and prices at a nearby nursery. A asked me what had I been doing the past week since I didn't seem to be doing much. My answer to him was 'I don't know'. But if I am to make a list, it will be as follow:

1. Makan
2. Dr visits
3. Personal grooming - cut and highlight hair (it's one of the first thing I had to do since I don't get my hair cut by the professionals in UK so you can imagine the condition)
4. Spending time with my family
5. Brought the girls out to a soft play place
6. Brought the girls to ECP to cycle (I had a wobbly start myself as I'd not cycled for more than 15 years?)
7. More makan
8. Nursery visit
9. Research on the computer
10. Even more feasting
11. Visit to schools for registration
12. Even more more food!!!

You can see that I've been eating lots - Laksa, bak chor mee, hokkien mee, chendol (which caused me to have diarrhoea), prawn noodles, rojak.....and I have yet to eat durian (too much deprivation is definitely not good). I can see my face becoming rounder and the waistline expanding. BAD! The food blog ieatishootipost is organising a durian degustation this Fri at a store near my mum's. Unfortunately, I got to know too late and places have all filled up. Perhaps it's good for me too. Otherwise I'll have to go look for another dress for the wedding. A friend asked if my dress is very small. It is the figure hugging type and a perfect fit so if I put on any weight, I won't be able to fit into it.

Sadly, due to the girls' illnesses, I have yet to catch up with any friends. Looking at my diary, this holiday is going to fly by really quickly.

Yes or no?

Louisa developed a high temperature Friday night.  After living in UK for a while now, I didn't bring her to see a Dr straightaway.  The GPs' advice in UK is usually 'rest at home, drink plenty of water, no medication needed'.  So I gave her paracetomol and monitored her temperature throughout the night.  It remained very high (at one point it was 39.5 degrees) and I sponged her.  Since there had been a case of H1N1 in her school just before the holiday, I brought her to a GP just to be on the safe side.  The nurses at the clinic wore masks and patients with high temperature had to don it too.  It was a totally different scene in UK.  Louisa was eventually seen to by the Dr in a 'separate room'.  Her symptoms were only cough (she had it in UK before coming) and high fever.  The Dr said she'd prescribe Tamiflu so I asked if Louisa has H1N1 to which she replied 50-50.  I asked if tests are needed to confirm and she said not anymore.  Anyone with any symptoms will be treated with it and it can be used for common flu too.  Then I was told the clinic doesn't stock it as it's unstable.  Was asked to check pharmacies or go to KK.  I rang up a few pharmacies and none of them has the syrup form.  So I had to go to KK's pharmacy.  Temperature had to be taken at all entrances and a mask given.  Singapore is really carrying out all the precautions.  When my mum rang me while I was in UK and told me about the situation here, I couldn't quite fathom it because it was totally different in UK even though the country has the 3rd highest number of cases outside Mexico and America.  When I started to worry when I found out someone got it in Louisa's school, her friend's mum told me 'it's such a flu'.  Anyway, the normal pharmacy had closed and I had to go to the Emergency Pharmacy and queue for it.  So many people were wearing masks.  After a long wait, I was given the Tamiflu tablet.  I commented that my child is still young and won't be able to swallow the pill.  The staff told me to open up the capsule and mix it with water.  Louisa doesn't even like drinking paracetomol syrup, let alone a bitter powdery mixture.  The GP specifically prescribed syrup form.  The reply I got was that there was no more stock for the syrup.  I heard a staff from another counter giving out the syrup form so I questioned him.  He said it's MOH's regulation to keep the syrup for very young children and infants.  I told him my daughter's not even 7 and she's still young and by telling me it is out of stock is totally misleading and that I insisted on having the syrup.  He said it's ok and gave it to me.  I had a shock when I was going to pay for it.  Almost S$50 for a small bottle!  The pharmaceutical companies are making mountains of money.  It's strange.  Everytime I come back, a big expenditure will be on medical costs.  Had already spent S$100 to get Lavigne's eyes checked.  She had sty and will need another review.  Medical care is readily available here but it is so darn expensive! 

Home

No matter how long I had been away or where I had returned from, the feeling I get whenever the plane lands on Singapore tarmac is always the same - 'this is my homeland and I am glad to be home'.  It is one of familiarity and fondness.  As I walked out of the aircraft, I felt a wave of heat and heard people speaking in Singlish and Hokkien.  I knew my family were waiting for us outside.  I said to the girls 'I'm so glad to be home'.  Later, Louisa said the same thing to my sister, Joanne.  My dad cooked so many dishes.  My parents-in-laws came for dinner together with my sis-in-law and her fiance.  That was a nice get-together.  I'm also looking forward to using the massage chair and playing wii amongst many things.  There's also many people to catch up with.  I know the month will fly by so I'll have to make good use of the time.    

Due Home Soon

In about 5 hours' time, we will leave for the airport. Compared to my previous trips, I didn't start packing until yesterday. Yes, YESTERDAY! I had already put aside clothes and things to bring home in my wardrobe but only took out the big luggage yesterday. However, everything's packed. The excitement is finally starting to build up. It's been a whirlwind 1.5 months. Even Lavigne's teachers told her to 'let mummy have a good rest in Singapore'. People have commented I look tired on several occasions. I certainly am. I hope the girls will sleep well so that I can catch some sleep too. It'll be my second time flying with them without A who will be joining us next Saturday. They are really excited and have been counting down to this day like 273 days ago. We are looking forward to be on board the Jumbo A380. I know, quite 'sua gu'.

Cheerios!

Goodbye

This will be my last time blogging from my old home. I'm not entirely sure the real reason behind me still having things here - my computer, the vacuum and cleaning stuff. Ok, computer's here because I don't have internet connection at my new place so I come back here to check my emails. But seriously, I think I'm trying to hold on to this place even though I can't wait to handover it to the landlord. Even though we'd lived here only for about a year, I really like this home. It's way nicer and bigger than our old uni accommodation in Surrey. All things come to an end. I will have to finally say goodbye to this place and pack up all the remaining things (even though the handover will not happen till end of the month) for we fly off next Monday. Am I ready for the trip? Nope! I've started packing but I haven't got round to buying presents or stuff requested by my mother-in-law. I haven't even had time to recuperate from my recent illness. My colleagues had been telling me to rest well in Singapore since I went back to work this week. I'm going to be busy the first 2 weeks helping my sis-in-law with her wedding preparation. But there will be home-cooked food to look forward to and the company of my family and friends. Time to disconnect the computer and pack them in their boxes and see you all in Singapore!

The countdown

One more week and we'll be going home. I thought I could finally look forward to the holiday after the move and that the house will be rented out and we can handover on 15th July. But looks like that's not going to happen now all because of Mr Nasty Landlord Dominic Palmer. Someone wants to rent the house and is keen to takeover on the 18th. As previously agreed, Mr Nasty said he'll end our contract on 15th July provided someone wants to rent or buy the house by that time. Voila! He's got a potential tenant. So my letting agent's been asking us to clean up the house for the handover on 15th as the new tenant is preparing to move in on 18th. Today Mr Nasty says he wants to sell the house which means we have to hang on and pay till end of the month even though we'd moved out a week ago. He had been a difficult person to deal with at the beginning and he's a big A*** right till the end.

Today after shopping at the supermarket, Lavigne and I got caught in the rain. It's one of those loathesome weather - rain a minute, shine another. It was drizzling so I decided to walk briskly to the car. The moment we were out in the open, it poured! I got the shopping and Lavigne into the car and pushed the trolley back to the bay. Passed by Subway and 2 youngsters in there went 'Chinks'. I thought I had misheard but on my way back, they said it again. I was already in a foul mood. So when I drove past them, I did the unthinkable (by my standard). I showed them the middle finger. They got me at the wrong time. I had enough of bullying of late.

On a happier note, even though the whole house is not set up at the moment, I'm enjoying having an ensuite, my bedroom and the kitchen. As we now have a dining table in the kitchen, I'm spending alot of time in there, doing my paperwork. My old kitchen was 1/3 the size of the new one. So I'm really liking the bigger space.

Scream

Maybe I should learn from my friend, drive to a place where there's no one and give an almighty scream! That's all I want to do now.