After being back from CNY, this is one of the most hectic periods ever.
Apart from pulling in hours for work, I was mercilessly "hounded" to finalise my renovation bits. I could barely keep my eyes open during my Jap class. I am so positively going to suffer and pay the price comes my test period.
Met my contractor yesterday afterwork at our new unit and my intended 2 hour meeting stretched from 6pm to 10.30pm instead. My poor husband was also left dinner-less as we move from room to room to nail down the details from cabinet height to the functionality of the drawers I have in mind... I dont like to leave it to Interior designers alone because they can give a general proposal but it will never be customised to one's needs & preferences. And because I cook, I have very specific ideas about how to categorised my storage systems from storing dry provisions to placement of my bin etc.
By the time we were done, both my husband and I are totally exhuasted. What's left is to pick the tiles and fixtures tomorrow....
When I got back last nite, it was back to the drawing board to tell him the ideal height for the bathroom vanity table top etc. Finally collapsed into the bed at 3.30am. I am soooo looking forward to Monday where I can take the day off and just sit back and relaz on my birthday.
Yipppppeeeee!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
First post after gettng back to HK
Am finally and reluctantly back to HK.
I had to adjust my mentality and language back to Cantonese as well.
The first person to welcome me back to HK is the bloody mobile spam.
The second person is my contractor and finally the third is my new neighbor from downstairs.
Previously before I had left for Singapore for Chinese new year holidays, my neighbor (a retired old couples) from below had requested to have a quick chat. So I had gone down with my contractor in tow to listen to his grievances about how the previous owners (the people who sold us the flat) had wreaked his ceiling during their renovation work, causing water leakage and totally disregarding their feelings and ignored him. Comes this time, they are still reliving the paranoid nitemare and wanted us if possible not to "dig" too deep when ripping up the existing wooden floors.
Perhaps this is the reason in life why my "calling" in work is project management with customer service. It makes it easier for me in life to deal with "complaints", "feedbacks" and work at reassuring them that I completely empathise with them... Frankly I didnt do much except to lend my ears but my neighbors were totally elated. They keep saying we are very reasonable as compared to the previous occupants. My contractor later told me I was very nice to "entertain" such requests and most HK people wont give a shit. I explained that I could understand his emotions and it doesnt take much to just spare 10mins of your time and cost me nothing else. People nowadays talk too much and listen too little... and perhaps so why tensions always ride high rapidly, excluding times dealing with morons and arseholes.
So comes today, I awoke to my dear neighbor calling me again and before he can say anything, I wished him a very happy chinese new year with a string of Chinese well wishing... That probably place every one in a good mood and he told me that my renovation is in good progress. Honestly, I havent even seen the state of renovation my place is in yet but since my neighbor say its fine, I am crossing my fingers. We have only just got started. However, He just wanted to remind me about the waterproofing works - to do a better job than the previous owner. I said ok and not to worry, I have been reminding my contractor about the same thing.
With that, he wished me good success in my renovation and that we will move in to the complex happily soon. And in return, I thanked him and that hopefully we can invite him over when we moved in.
I too hope my place renovation will go smoothly. Well, it has been "blessed" by so many parties from my contractors, the security guards, the management, to my neighbor, so I am hoping these combined "power" of good wishings will rub good luck to my unit and free me from future headaches now and later when we move in.
After 2 weeks of idling back home, it's kinda hard to kick into high gear. Dragging my body all over the house, and its back to the routine of laundry and work and cooking. Thankfully my very considerate husband had done his share of housework and folding the clothes away to reduce my load when I am back. I am thankful:)
Last nite getting off from the late flight, I was even more surprised by the lovely vase of flowers that welcomed me home. My husband has good taste. He picked all the lovely shades that I love. As I went about to unpack and putting the bags out of the way, he gave me a second surprise. I have to admit, my husband is much sweeter than I credit him for at times.
It didnt quite register in me why he was dragging me through half the bag boutiques while we were back in Singapore. I had mentioned off handedly some time back about needing a nice dinner bag but I had long forgotten about it but he remembered. However, I didnt quite catch on to his eagerness in trying to get me one, to the point of wanting to buy 2 Prada bags which I was having fun trying with. You should see the sales girls' eyes lit up like fireworks. Of course I will never frivolously throw my money away like that so I told my husband no. The girls were trying to convince ME that I should get both. Nice try girls, but I am not a believer that it is a must to stock pile on luxury brand names.
In the end, we left without buying anything because if I am going to spend such an amount, I much prefer to get a new piece (not display) and make sure I still like it at second or third look. I hate those sales tactics where they try to tell u it is the LAST piece..limited design...blah blah. Like I care I said. If its gone, its gone. No big deal. My quality of life is not going to diminish or that I will be deprived of future happiness. My heart wont skip a beat if I never see it again.
So when I came back last night, my partner happily told me that he went to several stores in HK and confirmed they had new pieces and the colour I wanted. I looked at him inquisitively, asking why is he more keen to get me the bag than I am? Awwwwww....he went through all the trouble because my birthday was coming up. Even without the bags, I am touched and happy by the devotion and thoughts alone...
I had to adjust my mentality and language back to Cantonese as well.
The first person to welcome me back to HK is the bloody mobile spam.
The second person is my contractor and finally the third is my new neighbor from downstairs.
Previously before I had left for Singapore for Chinese new year holidays, my neighbor (a retired old couples) from below had requested to have a quick chat. So I had gone down with my contractor in tow to listen to his grievances about how the previous owners (the people who sold us the flat) had wreaked his ceiling during their renovation work, causing water leakage and totally disregarding their feelings and ignored him. Comes this time, they are still reliving the paranoid nitemare and wanted us if possible not to "dig" too deep when ripping up the existing wooden floors.
Perhaps this is the reason in life why my "calling" in work is project management with customer service. It makes it easier for me in life to deal with "complaints", "feedbacks" and work at reassuring them that I completely empathise with them... Frankly I didnt do much except to lend my ears but my neighbors were totally elated. They keep saying we are very reasonable as compared to the previous occupants. My contractor later told me I was very nice to "entertain" such requests and most HK people wont give a shit. I explained that I could understand his emotions and it doesnt take much to just spare 10mins of your time and cost me nothing else. People nowadays talk too much and listen too little... and perhaps so why tensions always ride high rapidly, excluding times dealing with morons and arseholes.
So comes today, I awoke to my dear neighbor calling me again and before he can say anything, I wished him a very happy chinese new year with a string of Chinese well wishing... That probably place every one in a good mood and he told me that my renovation is in good progress. Honestly, I havent even seen the state of renovation my place is in yet but since my neighbor say its fine, I am crossing my fingers. We have only just got started. However, He just wanted to remind me about the waterproofing works - to do a better job than the previous owner. I said ok and not to worry, I have been reminding my contractor about the same thing.
With that, he wished me good success in my renovation and that we will move in to the complex happily soon. And in return, I thanked him and that hopefully we can invite him over when we moved in.
I too hope my place renovation will go smoothly. Well, it has been "blessed" by so many parties from my contractors, the security guards, the management, to my neighbor, so I am hoping these combined "power" of good wishings will rub good luck to my unit and free me from future headaches now and later when we move in.
After 2 weeks of idling back home, it's kinda hard to kick into high gear. Dragging my body all over the house, and its back to the routine of laundry and work and cooking. Thankfully my very considerate husband had done his share of housework and folding the clothes away to reduce my load when I am back. I am thankful:)
Last nite getting off from the late flight, I was even more surprised by the lovely vase of flowers that welcomed me home. My husband has good taste. He picked all the lovely shades that I love. As I went about to unpack and putting the bags out of the way, he gave me a second surprise. I have to admit, my husband is much sweeter than I credit him for at times.
It didnt quite register in me why he was dragging me through half the bag boutiques while we were back in Singapore. I had mentioned off handedly some time back about needing a nice dinner bag but I had long forgotten about it but he remembered. However, I didnt quite catch on to his eagerness in trying to get me one, to the point of wanting to buy 2 Prada bags which I was having fun trying with. You should see the sales girls' eyes lit up like fireworks. Of course I will never frivolously throw my money away like that so I told my husband no. The girls were trying to convince ME that I should get both. Nice try girls, but I am not a believer that it is a must to stock pile on luxury brand names.
In the end, we left without buying anything because if I am going to spend such an amount, I much prefer to get a new piece (not display) and make sure I still like it at second or third look. I hate those sales tactics where they try to tell u it is the LAST piece..limited design...blah blah. Like I care I said. If its gone, its gone. No big deal. My quality of life is not going to diminish or that I will be deprived of future happiness. My heart wont skip a beat if I never see it again.
So when I came back last night, my partner happily told me that he went to several stores in HK and confirmed they had new pieces and the colour I wanted. I looked at him inquisitively, asking why is he more keen to get me the bag than I am? Awwwwww....he went through all the trouble because my birthday was coming up. Even without the bags, I am touched and happy by the devotion and thoughts alone...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
There are really only 2 things in life that are really intimidating....The first would be getting married, and the other would be house renovation.
They are certainly not something you can walk away from easily. They both require huge committment and once u start the ball rolling, there is really no looking back.
Getting married is terrifying because well, nothing in life is predictable least of all another human. Renovating the house is terrifying because there are so much unforseen events. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.... Hence, If you put your trust in the wrong person for both events, you are pretty much screwed.
So far, I think I am still in good hands for both.
My HK renovator seemed like an ernest guy enough and responsible enough. At least he calls to update me stuff and doesnt leave me hanging up in the air. I am cross my fingers.
Design wise, its atonishing what stuff are in the market right now. Fake wood tiles. Amazing. They print the wood pattern on the tiles soooo well on the tiles its almost hard to tell from a distance unless u get to touch them, with products from china being the sole exception of course. The wooden designed tiles from Australia and Italy look fantastic..the china ones just look cheap and nasty at half the price of course. I had a choice, I picked those manufactured from Malaysia as much as possible. Dont know...just dont like the idea of supporting this halfhearted shit from China.
It's quite funny. How I am living near China, but I am paying high labor cost here in HK but cheap materials. When I did reno in Sg - 4hrs away from china, I had to pay higher cost for materials, but ending up with cheap China labor...What an irony.
They had started to rip the wooden stuff out of my apartment now. All I can do is really just sit tight, cross my fingers & toes and pray. Wish me luck
They are certainly not something you can walk away from easily. They both require huge committment and once u start the ball rolling, there is really no looking back.
Getting married is terrifying because well, nothing in life is predictable least of all another human. Renovating the house is terrifying because there are so much unforseen events. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.... Hence, If you put your trust in the wrong person for both events, you are pretty much screwed.
So far, I think I am still in good hands for both.
My HK renovator seemed like an ernest guy enough and responsible enough. At least he calls to update me stuff and doesnt leave me hanging up in the air. I am cross my fingers.
Design wise, its atonishing what stuff are in the market right now. Fake wood tiles. Amazing. They print the wood pattern on the tiles soooo well on the tiles its almost hard to tell from a distance unless u get to touch them, with products from china being the sole exception of course. The wooden designed tiles from Australia and Italy look fantastic..the china ones just look cheap and nasty at half the price of course. I had a choice, I picked those manufactured from Malaysia as much as possible. Dont know...just dont like the idea of supporting this halfhearted shit from China.
It's quite funny. How I am living near China, but I am paying high labor cost here in HK but cheap materials. When I did reno in Sg - 4hrs away from china, I had to pay higher cost for materials, but ending up with cheap China labor...What an irony.
They had started to rip the wooden stuff out of my apartment now. All I can do is really just sit tight, cross my fingers & toes and pray. Wish me luck
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