Home (Bitter)Sweet Home

Like other residents who have gotten their keys, I have numerous complaints about our new place, touted as public housing with *coughs* "a private touch".

1) The corridor leading to our unit is too dark in daytime.

2) The flat turned out smaller than we had imagined. Ok, to be fair, we made the decision to buy this flat and it’s not like we didn’t have a choice.

3) The provided laundry rack hardly has enough space for more than a day’s laundry. What’s going to happen when we return from a holiday and have a suitcase of clothes to wash? I wonder what the families with kids are going to do.

4) We can only fit a combined washer/dryer in our tiny yard. Stacking the dryer on top of the washer is not an option because this would block the gas heater.

5) The workmanship and quality of the finishings is disappointing. I found a big hole in my master bedroom bathroom cabinet. My household shelter door cannot be locked fully. The pointings (just learnt this tern a week ago) on my living/dining room floor look, in my ID’s words, “like the home has been occupied for a few years”. All my bedroom doors are poorly vanished and stained. My frosted bathroom windows have scratches on them. I have holes and gaps in my parquet skirting.

6) There is a disparity between the actual flat design and the showflat design i.e At the showflat, the bathroom bay window tiles are identical to the flooring while white tiles are used in reality.

7) There is no link bridge from the second storey of the multi-storey carpark to the residential blocks.

But despite my grievances, I still love the Shire.

It’s not the biggest of apartments and it has some shortcomings, but it is our first home, one that we hope to stay in for a while.


Experimenting with different recipes in the kitchen, weekend brunches at the balcony, playing host to family and friends during festivities and chilling at the bay window at night with a book and glass of Moscato.

I look forward to all these and so much more.

Turning A Year Older

My hatch day was a quiet affair yesterday.

I had a mini 'picnic' with the husband at the Shire (the new nickname I have coined for our tiny home which looks like it is built for hobbits, but more on that in another entry).

We spent the rest of the day checking for defects and adjourned for dinner at Momoya, a small Japanese buffet restaurant by the former owners of Hanabi.

Preparing the 'picnic'

At our balcony

There was no birthday cake nor fancy dinner, in fact the day was tiring and dusty. But I wouldn't have spent it any other way.

The Maldives - Waking Up To Paradise (Part II)

 

 

 

 

Cocoa Island's sandbar

Can you tell how strong the wind was from this photo?

At Last

For you are mine, at last

Unwavering Loyalty

This video breaks my heart.

The Maldives - Waking Up In Paradise (Part I)

I woke up at the break of dawn even before the alarm sounded because I was too excited to see Cocoa Island in daylight.

When I saw the morning sun light up the sky and illuminate the turquoise waters , I knew it was going to be an amazing holiday.

 

The Indian Ocean at our backyard

I couldn't resist dipping my feet into the crystal blue waters

 

The Maldives - Arriving at Cocoa Island

It's been a month since we got back from the Maldives and I know I've been tardy with my honeymoon (and wedding) entries, so here goes.

We arrived in Male International Airport at 10plus pm local time (Singapore is 3 hours ahead). Depending on your resort, you either stay overnight at one of the hotels in the city before catching a sea plane the next morning or take a speedboat to your resort. Ours was the latter.

We were greeted by Zara (no I didn't ask him if he knew about the Spanish label) at the arrival terminal. I thought he would lead us to a car to take us to the jetty but it turned out that the jetty was only a few steps away from the airport!

After being given bottles of water and cold towels to freshen up, Zara gave instructions on how to inflate the life vest, in case of an emergency. We were told to expect a bumpy ride. It was extremely windy and the sea was rather choppy that night.

True enough, the first half of the journey was rough. When we neared the resort 45 minutes later, the coxswain was unable to dock the boat at the main jetty after a few attempts. Thankfully, there was another jetty on the other side of the island where the sea was calm enough for him to dock the boat safely.  

And we were brought to the villa which was home for the next week :)

A welcome letter from the resort

 

We were given fresh coconuts as welcome drinks and a complimentary bottle of champagne for our honeymoon 

 

In Lieu Of Wedding Favours

A few months before our wedding, I chanced upon this wedding on Style Me Pretty where the couple had made a donation in lieu of favours.

I told the husband (then fiance) about it. After a quick chat, we decided it would be meaningful to do the same - make a donation instead of spending the money on wedding favours which not all our guests might appreciate.

And so we made a token sum donation of a few hundred dollars to the Community Chest. We chose this charity because it supported different causes - children with special needs, people with disabilities, the elderly and families facing difficulties.

If you are a bride-to-be, I hope you will be inspired to do the same.

One of the ways you can do so is to support the ongoing relief efforts in Japan.

Help Japan Recover - American Red Cross and Singapore Red Cross

It may sound cliche, but even a small effort will go a long way in helping those in need.

Melbourne - Photos from the Diana Mini

I love shooting on film because of the element of surprise. Unlike digital cameras, you never know what you are going to get. I especially love the vignetting and lovely retro feel of the photos when you use a Lomo, Holga or Diana.

Anyway, I finally used up the remaining film from my Melbourne trip on our honeymoon in Maldives and developed my photos a few weeks back.

Here are some snapshots taken with the Diana Mini.

Part of the film got accidentally exposed when I opened the camera cover thinking the film was fully rewound, but I thought the overexposed photos turned out rather interesting from the light leaks (the two photos below the one of the license plate).

 

My First Birthday Present

I received a nice surprise in the mail yesterday - a bottle of clover seeds all the way from Japan for my birthday, 3 weeks early!

 Can't wait to grow them at our planter box soon :)

Thanks babe, I'll try to photograph the growing process!

On TOP of the world

Someone from said government body might have read my previous post because guess what, our place has received TOP! (sorry about the pun in the title, I couldn't resist!)

One step closer to our cosy nest.

Whoopee!