I finally found a suitable bag for Luffs!

Sorry, Luffs!

It is only a Pedro although the colour of paper bag looks like it is from LV.

This bag looks so much nicer than Luffs' Goldlion (ah pek) bag.

I am so glad I saw the bag at Pedro (Wisma Atria) because it did not look very 'attractive' when I visited their website last afternoon.

Oh well, my photos probably did not do justice to the bag too but it definitely looks alot prettier in real life!

Hope Luffs like this first part of his birthday surprise - More to come on 07 February, yah?

:)

My piglets are smelling nice and looking good!

Maggie Jie took this photo because she was at home when Mum washed my piglets and Botak (the monkey).

Thanks, Mum!

Left Photo : This was what I saw when I got home - The sun was shining into my room, so Mum arranged them in a straight line according to the sun ray! Haha...

Right Photo : And now they are back at their little cosy corner.

Sunday, January 24, 2010 @ 10:58 PM

The Bishi Bashi

Luffs has been working long hours nowadays! This poor boy has not been resting enough and is falling sick so often. :( I can’t recall when our last pak-tor session was but I was glad we managed to spend some time together after his work today. Oh well, I am definitely not complaining because I know he is working so hard for our future.

We had to make a trip to M1, so we chose Plaza Singapura. I seriously don’t know how this thing works, but apparently Luffs can get his iPhone plan converted to student plan with my student pass. Haha! It seems weird to me that he can use someone else’s pass to enjoy the student plan perks but at least that made Luffs a happy boy when we left M1. He needed unlimited free SMS very badly for his work!

We had an early dinner at Crystal Jade Kitchen because Luffs was too hungry!

Crystal Jade Kitchen (Plaza Singapura)
68 Orchard Road #02-32
Plaza Singapura
Singapore 238839
Tel: 6336 2833

We chose the ala-carte steamboat buffet so that we can sit in the restaurant to slowly enjoy the food and chit-chat. Haha… I think we sat there for like 2 hours? But no photos were taken because I forgot to charge my camera.

Luffs and I headed to the arcade after dinner. We saw a couple playing on The Bishi Bashi machine and decide to try it out too. You need 3 tokens (S$1.50) to start playing and it consists of 22 stages! Somehow we still do not know how the whole thing works but just went on playing by reading the instructions.

We had a good time banging on the coloured buttons of the machine. Haha… Good way to relieve stress! :) Unfortunately, I could only remember these 9 games out of the many that we played.

1) Catch the Fish Rolls
2) Origami Folding
3) Photo Opportunity
4) Shaved Ice Race
5) Toy Catcher
6) Wake Up The Cat
7) Peek-A-Boo
8) Roulette Roulette
9) Balloon Popping

While on our way home, Mum called to inform me that there was an accident near my place. So Luffs and I decided to play kaypoh Singaporeans and drove past the accident place to take a look.

Photos taken from AmoreQiQi

Not sure what really happened but seems like the driver of this truck was speeding and he slammed into the tree while trying to avoid an old man who was jay-walking. The driver suffered minor cuts while the old man was sent to the hospital.

NEWS UPDATE (26.01.10)

The old man did not survive the accident.

So who is at fault?

:(

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 7:40 AM

Higher COV!

Resale Flats Commanding More Cash—Over—Valuation, HDB Urges Caution
Channel NewsAsia - Tuesday, January 19

SINGAPORE : Housing analysts said it is a sellers’ market right now, with resale flats being a hot commodity lately.

But the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has urged buyers to exercise caution when paying high cash premiums, and to do their homework to determine if a house is truly worth its asking price.

A 4—room flat in Bishan was recently put up for sale. It was valued at S$460,000 by an independent valuer appointed by HDB, and the owners are asking for an additional S$100,000 cash—over—valuation (COV).

The owners, who declined to be named, are a young couple in their 30s who run an F&B business. They claimed to have received three offers so far, but all were rejected.

"The COV is too low. There are those who are asking for S$50,000 to S$60,000. There was one offer which was close, about $95,000. We are not in urgent need to sell. In a way, it’s to test the market. If we sell, we sell. If we don’t sell, we will just continue to stay," said the owner of the 4—room flat in Bishan.

Analysts said with a continued strong demand for resale flats, owners are taking advantage of the situation to increasingly ask for higher prices.

Based on the latest HDB figures, 78 per cent of home sales transacted in the third quarter of last year were above valuation. That is a 22 percentage—point jump from the second quarter of last year’s figure of 57 per cent.

The median COV is also on the rise — jumping from S$3,000 in the second quarter to S$12,000 in Q3.

With HDB resale flat prices hitting an all—time high, housing agents said most flats now command at least S$20,000 to S$30,000 cash—over—valuation.

Units situated at good locations, close proximity to an MRT station and good renovation can see COV go up to S$50,000 to S$70,000.

But there is a limit to how much buyers are willing to pay.

"If it’s not to my liking, then I’d have to do up, (renovate) it again. So how much (am I willing to pay)? About $50 to $60,000," said one member of the public.

"It’s too high for me. Because of my income I don’t think I can afford it," said another.

HDB said only four out of the 13,000 4—room flats sold last year had premiums higher than S$70,000.

And analysts cautioned against jumping into deals that require high cash premiums.

"COV is a premium. Five years down the line, the renovation will deteriorate. And there’s no guarantee that you can sell at S$100,000 above the then value. Therefore, buyers should exercise discretion as far as how high you want to pay," said Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex.

HDB said it does not control resale flat prices as they are the result of negotiations between willing buyers and sellers.

It added that intervening in COV means forcing people to buy and sell at fixed prices.

HDB also urge buyers to have the relevant information before negotiating with sellers, and to offer a price within their means.

— CNA /ls

....................................................................................................

So it is a good thing that Luffs and I bought our flat last year?

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 @ 1:50 PM

The First Appointment

Alright, we are all blur and doing this together for the first time - our First Appointment with HDB!

Our resale appointment was submitted in October 2009 and we waited 3 months for our appointment. Is that always the case or more people are buying resale now?

Anyway, we arrived earlier than our appointment time but there was already a queue at the Resale counter because the computer system was down! We were given a queue number and proceeded to Level 2 (Counter 202).

The sellers and their agent came to join us not long after. We chatted for a while before being called to meet an “admin” person whose workstation was one of those in the open-concept cluster. She was the person who made sure all our documents were present and photocopies made.

After the check was done, we were asked to wait for their call to meet our Officer-In-Charge (because their computer system was still down). The call came 15 minutes later and we marched into the Officer’s room (Room 229) and signed our lives away to HDB.

Luffs and I were like superstars of the day, putting our signatures on a million pieces of paper. Haha! After knowing how much we need to pay for our monthly installment and all, we made our way to the 3rd level to pass our COV cheque to the lady over at the payment counter.

Our earliest Completion Date would be 8 weeks from today (another round of waiting!) and I really can't wait to take possession of the flat.

So yeah!

Our Agent
The Sellers
The Sellers' Agent
The "Admin" Person
Our Officer-In-Charge
The Payment Counter Lady

Settled our first HDB appointment!

:)

We had dinner with the Tan family before Kenny Boy flew back to Melbourne - Settled for Dian Xiao Er 店小二 because Luffs has not tried their food before.

Dian Xiao Er 店小二
65 Airport Boulevard #03-42
Changi Airport Terminal 3 Viewing Mall

Seafood Fried Rice with XO Sauce

Sesame Chicken Hunan Style

Mixed Vegetables

Spicy & Sour Fish Slices

"Dong Po" Pork

Our dessert was at each-a-cup!

Surprisingly, their waffles were pretty nice and crispy!

And also the bubble tea!

Segway Fun Ride at the airport! $5 for 2 rounds circuit ride with every $20 spent at Changi Airport in a single receipt (including dining outlets).

Below are some photos of the Segway boys!

Uncle Raymond came to send Kenny Boy off too!

We visited 天外天 (鸿记) 潮洲鱼头炉 again, but this time with the Tan family!

Picture taken from Missy Glutton's Blog

Click here for food photo - I have decided not to post up any photo because we ordered the same dishes as those 舅舅 recommended the first time we were there! :)

The food was excellent but the overall experience this time round wasn't that pleasant because of some uninvited guests!

We were sitting at the back alley, so there were mouse (mice) running around. Violet Jie Jie and I had a good time screaming away throughout the dinner, with both our legs on the chair.

Hahaha!

with love

I knew YKK as a famour brand for zippers but have always wondered what that stands for. Yeah! I found the answer on Today I Found Out - It is a site where random-useless information are available but the stuff posted up there is quite interesting!

" Today I found out why zippers have a YKK on them. The YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (say that five times fast). In 1934 Tadao Yoshida founded Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (translated Yoshida Industries Limited). This company is now the worlds foremost zipper manufacturer, making about 90% of all zippers in over 206 facilities in 52 countries. In fact, they not only make the zippers, they also make the machines that make the zippers; no word on if they make the machines that make the parts that make up the machines that make the zippers. Their largest factory in Georgia makes over 7 million zippers per day. "

I am looking at getting myself dealt up with an iPhone over the one month or so, seeing that I am probably the last person on earth to own one!

Here’s my BIG dilemma - Which colour should I go for?

Black VS White

I am torn between black and white, although I generally prefer white.

The white iPhone is a little less common, but I have heard rumours that the white one gets funny stains from some chemical reactions or overheating of the phone.


HELP!

I don't think the photos did justice to the beautiful rainbow which appeared after a sudden rain this afternoon.

I sent Luffs to the airport early this morning because he needed to fly to Kuala Lumpur to meet his clients. Although he only flew Air Asia, I was all excited for him. Afterall, it was his first official overseas work trip!


Thank God that all went out when he was there!

It was a good start to the new year, yah? So 加油, Luffs!

Luffs and I wanted to watch Avatar after hearing so many good reviews but they only have seats from the first row when I went to buy the tickets. So we settled for Sherlock Holmes!

Synopsis
After finally catching serial killer and occult "sorcerer" Lord Blackwood, legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson can close yet another successful case. But when Blackwood mysteriously returns from the grave and resumes his killing spree, Holmes must take up the hunt once again. Contending with his partner's new fiancée and the dimwitted head of Scotland Yard, the dauntless detective must unravel the clues that will lead him into a twisted web of murder, deceit, and black magic - and the deadly embrace of temptress Irene Adler.

It was an interesting movie but I found the action sequences to be quite boring and there were too many dialogues throughout the whole show. After the first 15 minutes I knew, I was in for a long 2 hours.

** Sorry, Luffs! We did not manage to see the countdown fireworks because of me. **