Thursday, February 26, 2009

House hunting continues

So... House 5 rejected us (am really getting used to rejection!) and wants to wait on the other offer that may be 7% higher. House 8 is now the main house and can only view on monday, House 6 is our backup and while all that is going on, a few of our other choices seem to be back on the market... House 9 is willing to go on cheaper rent and do major renovations... will retake a look at that one tomorrow.

In the last two days I have expanded my pool of agents from 3 to 6. I have a spreadsheet to organise all this information.

Tomorrow is another day of me zipping around looking at houses from the outside and a treat, meeting with someone who knows about permaculture.

On monday we will have to book the service apartment for another month... its not bad living. Though I feel like I am refilling gas alot! the tank is definitely not the 180 litre Prado tank, needing a fill every 2 weeks, this one needs a fill every 5 to 6 days. Need to figure out where the Shell stations are too as I get a 5% rebate.

Ike's first week at CNIS





We had prepped Ike the whole of last week by going there for about 30 mins a day, over the weekend he started talking about "my class". The teachers were concerned he is a bit too young as the youngest in the class had already turned 3 and was a mature 3, that he could be disruptive and not yet fully toilet trained. So last week was a crash course in toilet training (ie mommy had to be more consistent with ike and no diapers, thank god olivia is here!). Agreed with the teacher that Olivia will be there to help with the potty process.

Monday : mommy leaves, olivia stays in school. Ike cries for 15 minutes but eventually joins the class and even finishes a project (dr's bag and the stuff inside). He only wears the uniform bottom but agrees to top the next day. Teacher's comment... rough beginning but good progress. Ike by the way is more advanced than the other kids in scooping food into his own mouth and eating faster than anyone else.

Tuesday: olivia stays and in the corner of the classroom... Ike stuck to her alot, did not want to participate, sat on her knee. Teacher's comment... will try something different the next day. But again, number 1 for eating, the other kids are either fed or helped along or are not good food scoopers. Ike started telling olivia he is hungry at 11am, starvation is the way to go.

Wednesday: olivia stays outside the classroom and comes in to check if he needs to go wee... also not great, he gets upset that she isn't close by. He also does not participate and the other kids are wondering how come he gets to play by himself in the corner but they have to do songs and work... he is still the champion eater.

Thursday: olivia leaves with me but actually does stay outside incase they need her. All goes well until Ike see's Nate at the gym and wants to go with Nate... cry cry cry, Nate is quite sweet and holds his hand and brings him back to his own class and tells him that he must stay there as he has "work" to do. Olivia is trying to duck away so that Ike does not see her but nate spots her.

Ike really likes the Chinese teacher Miss Jenny and allows her to hug and kiss him and calls him affectionately, mingming or more like miiiing ming. When his english teacher, Ms. Jackie tries that, he says, "i'm ike, IKE". He also was able to tell Zuzu (the burmese helper in the class, yes there are 3 people there for 12 children) that he needs to go wee. In the last 4 days, no poo in the morning nor even accidents!

Here are pics of us on the double decker bus ride. 10 mins into the ride, ike falls asleep! I later take them to the toy store. I had promised nate his bat cave (in the container) when we get to singapore and if he does not whine about going to school and does his homework and the umbrella covenant of being good, he had filled all that so I said he could get another toy while our container awaits a home. Ike seems to not be bribable yet... he vehemently refused olivia helping him with dinner (mom helped him in the past but now has another job as a real estate agent, calling up leads myself), but for a Thomas DVD, he fed himself.

On the housing front... will post our house 7, house 8, house 9.... you guys must think we are too fussy but there is a shortage of houses in our budget category, lots of demand so everyone elbowing each other. A good potential one popped up today, the tenant got his budget slashed by half so we will be paying 50% more than the poor chap's slashed budget. We can have the place if we don't demand too much and move in as soon as they move out. Nice area, right next to the botanical gardens and in Tanglin. I do not have any more than my 10 toes to cross.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Still no house...

Well... its time to take a philosophical view on house hunting? this is what I enjoyed today... while checking out the three potential houses, I got to also do the following around the neighbourhoods... (1) Walked some trails on the nature reserve at Mac Ritchie, (2) Checked out a HDB area called Ghim Moh and found a nice community center with activities for the kids and yoga and cooking for olivia. (3) Found Saddle Club, a children's horsey riding place and free manure!! the essential bit to my organic garden and worm farm, I am already receiving orders to build vege gardens and plan to charge an arm and leg.

So have now looked at over 30 houses...

House 1: Experience is to no trust landlords that tarik harga or buy time or take their time as they hold us up and then dump us for a better offer. Nice house, nice garden and trees, not so nice was the one strange room and the PMs residence with the Gurkhas nearby.

House 2: Someone outbid us. Actually am glad we didn't get it, its too big to maintain, unfortunately another one has come up but the bidding etc process will take us to end march.

House 3: is quite perfect... nice older house, nice land, nice pool, near a nice club... nice wife landlord but husband wants 20% more than our budget. House not rented for a year but I guess they are rich enough.

House 4: Got snapped up before we could try and bid as we failed on house 3.

House 5: Near Holland Village and our favourite restaurant (where loren took me on first date and proposed a year later), bid with them now... has big big park outside for the kids, not so much land but decent, near Ghim Moh so I have a chinese dr, wet market, chinese dispensary, hawker food, Ulu Pandan Community Center, all close by.

House 6: considering.... its like a merge of our taiwan house (big basement for billard table, wine cellar, nature reserve just behind) and SA (large toilets...), nice owner but in Upper Thomson. Weekdays will still take me 30mins to get the kids to school and its huge, like 10,000 sq ft (who needs so much space?). The guests have their own outhouse with living room and small kitchen (and will never leave). There is rooms we will never use? First time I have seen a dining room that will make our dining table look tiny and even loren's throne chair! Oh and the top floor has a laundry chute down to the laundry room (huge). Kitchen is huge, everything is huge, wonder if I"ll lose the kids? Apparently we may have snakes and monkeys as visitors too but nothing our dogs can't take care of...

House 7: Not bad but should not be the budget we pay, could be lower, small park nearby, Bukit Timah living.

So... lets see what tomorrow brings, there is another older house like a black and white to view, Maybe news on House 5 will also be positive?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Cable car




Well looks like we found a house, no more dilly dally, am giving the landlord a check asap! Wish us luck and send us lots of good positive house vibes! Strangely the market is picking up, prices are going up again and many houses are disappearing from the market. I guess people are trading up with their budgets and the lower rents. Hmm maybe I rented out my place too low?? Such is durkha?

So I won't describe our first choice house yet, in case we jinx it. But we have two choince, I do hope to get our choice 1.

This is us this am on the cable car, they start at 830... a round trip takes about 30 mins, i think I am too old for these things... I could feel a twinge in my bladder, its quite scary... esp since I know there was an accident some 30 years ago, but since then I guess they have made sure it never happens again. I sure don't feel as fearless like I did 25 years ago when my parents took me on this... They boys? they loved it.

Nate got more "handsome" compliments... maybe I should sign him up with a talent agency.

Friday, February 20, 2009

More KL photos





The chinese dispensary...

A strange fruit, very tart... originally from South America

Nate and his dinosaurs

Ike and his facial expression

Photo's from KL





The water park at KLCC, the river we took the boys to... dada when he visited...

Their School




Nate has adjusted nicely to school, has friends and I have been elevated to the rank of mommy's that have kids that have homework to do!!! He was quite keen to do his homework except that we do not have crayons in the service apartment... got to go buy some on the weekend.

They have assembly on Fridays and a little performance, am not sure what stage they are at but it sure lacked the organisation of Broadacres, they do however have fancier gadgets like microphones... the PTA has and overhead projector linked to ones computer... I do miss that farm school where everything is basic and slapped together! At this place, the administrators do not seem to speak to the teachers and the offices are so far!

Ike will start school next week. He will be the youngest, as he is not fully toilet trained (nearly there), olivia will be there with him to ask if he needs to pee or poo and then we can be quite consistent, he only wears diapers to sleep now and has improved alot in the 3 days but when he is playing he doesn't remember. I debated for a long time whether to keep him home and train or to send him and olivia, well olivia doesn't have too much to do at the service apartment and Ike already calls his class, "his class".

We got his uniforms too...

Nate is learning chinese at a rate of a word a day now... waiting for the exponential factor to kick in! so mommy has to do homework and speak chinese maybe even get a chinese GPS! wow I can't imagine homework already...

The dogs are out of quarantine





and are now residing with Jawahar and Vinisha in their very comfortable black and white. Jake took to his favourite hobby, chasing a ball immediately, usually he is "shy" at someone elses home.

Vinisha is a Scientist and has bravely quit research with a blue chip pharmaceutical and now runs www.greendot.com, she teaches kids about science and has bought a worm farm on my recommendation, apparently there is a shortage of worms and they can go for S$120 per kg. hmmmm... I think I will help her build a compost heap and also a mandala vege garden, once I figure out where to buy a pick! But her place is great, she has put up a wind harvester and soon solar panels, our dogs tomorrow will be used for show and tell.... the throw of a ball has a certain arc, is it better to throw the ball to bounce or to throw far, which is the throw that will make jake run the furthest?

Here is Vinisha giving the boys a lesson on how to burn your fingers on cheap boats made of metal, add water and some oil, light it and it spews black smoke and chugs along with sound effects. The toys from the good old days...

Pistol unfortunately hurt his paw so we are housing him with us at the service apartment. He needs a manicure and is enjoying good food and being a single dog again, tho he feels alot less brave.

Our house hunt... well not so successful, we have been pulled a typical singapore landlord rug trick, ie string us along but then when they get a better offer, dump us! Our bidding also not successful as many leases coming due now is creating competition in our budget range... everyone looking for a better deal but that is somehow propping the market. Well at least my shophouse is rented out and cashflow is good.

Bullet is hot here! and that is Nate in one of his school uniforms.

Science center - outside




Here is the water park side, I just heard from another friend that the Zoo also now has a water park, I guess the key is to pack swimming stuff and a towel handy always! Also I think we will sign up for annual memberships at a few of these places.

Great way to cool off, no snow here except snow city next to the science center, where loren may take up ice hockey again.

Well also Mc D's are a lot more prominent here. The boys seem hungry all the time... a milkshake led to their discovery of a place that sells fries!!! must somehow pack healthy snacks too!

Singapore Science Center - inside





With the car, I decided to take the boys to the science center using my nokia phone which has GPS function, didn't realise its all the way in Jurong. Its still as magical as i remember it to be as a child, they still have the little chicken hatching station which is all I remember about it when my parents took me.

The boys... they loved it, its really well done with all the large Singapore corporations contributing a section like the SingPower having a big volt demo and thunder making thing to the water co sponsoring the water science part.

I seem to have a knack of getting lost from Keppel Bay to nate's school, maybe its my insistence on over riding the GPS and then discovering either my bearings are kaput or some street has become a one way street. It takes about 25 mins each way now and when i get lost its qbout 45 mins... so I am beginning to wonder about my rather good sense of direction.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Days are pretty filled here...






Nate had day 2 of classes, at the end of class yesterday, the administrator pulled me aside and said that the teachers found him immature (whiny!) and so they downgraded him from being the youngest in the class to now the oldest. He took a look at his new class and was quite happy to go today. He also chose to go to the more chinese intensive one as it had more toys! I asked him what words he learnt and he said something but he doesn't remember what...

Ike got to play in nate's class then spend about 15 mins in his own class, then he wanted out... his cough got a bit worse last night and today (I can't believe I had to buy a humidifier in this country!! should not have sold mine in SA, apparently the humidity of singapore is between 75% to 95% and the aircon makes the air only about 35%, while ideal is closer to 60%).

I left ike at home with olivia and went house hunting, he wasn't happy about it but got to nap. I saw 3 more houses today and they were not really suitable... so we are pushing with the documentation (which was promised to us today at 5pm, didn't arrive) on the gurkha house and by tomorrow night will decide and may go bid for the black and white house. I will go over again tomorrow to look, I went to day and its definitely a second choice, its just a huge place (that the dogs will love).

I picked up our new car today... got on the wrong side of the PIE and went quite far east then quite far west... I have GPS on my nokia and quickly have learnt that for tomorrow, also got my parking coupons and my ERP card.

Here are the boys at my friend sarah's house (where wendy the confinement lady is now working), she has built a sand pit in their black and white. They also have a niu niu qe which Nate seemed to know how to use, even though he hasn't seen one since Taipei.

I went for a nice back and shoulder massage last night, the type that some guy pummels ones muscles and tomorrow I will swim laps in the huge pool here. Today i had another nice surprise, as the banks in malls close late, I checked the balance in my POSB account and am pleasantly surprised that I have alot more cash their than I thought... then I went shopping, I got a replacement hat for the one I lost. Tried to buy a cheap stroller or another Maclaren which is really cheap in SA and 3 times the price here, I am still getting sticker shock all the time.

The bite mark is from Ikey, quite a perfect circle!

Oh must remember to put gas in car tomorrow!!!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Nate's first day at school





Wow the internet sure is fast here, I will be motivated to take and post more pictures! These are not pics of the school yet. Here is the black and white on malcolm road, I'll go take a look at it again this week as our negotiations for the Gurkha house is not going smoothly. I suspect i will still be shocked by the size. Olivia will probably faint. So the house hunt continues...

The playground is in my friend's black and white and she imported it from China and had the contractors build a sand pit. Didn't realise these contraptions are quite expensive. And some pics of the boys in KL in front of the train station, they had old steamies and a diesel that kids can go climb in.

So nate's first day in school, did not go as well as the Chinese Playcenter in KL which had loads of toys upon walking in. The school is more like a school environment. The other kids are already used to the routine and they are cutting ABC's, Nate looked at the whole classroom to not find a single attractive toy, there were some blocks. He did not want to stay! So we went to the jungle gym area, the teacher I spoke to in Nov was there so she let him join their PE session and he then wanted to stay, she'll drop him off at his own class later. I wonder if he'd like this type of school?

A girl there named Grace, likes taking new kids under her wing, she took one look at nate and said to her friend, he is so handsome, I like him already! Yikes, these kissy kissy girls are already after him.

We got into singapore on Saturday, Nate has hit 2 of the 8 pools here. Once we get the car (hopefully tomorrow), we'll be more mobile, I need to figure out how to get on the boat fm here to sentosa island where we can go on the beach... Olivia has her exam today and some orientation thing (ie when the employer is abusing you lecture).

The heat gets to the boys here and Ike seems to still wake at 530 and then naps in the car at 930.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Internet alot less frustrating today






Somehow the images can be loaded up alot faster....

Some shots from life here... have not had good sleep in a few days, Ike had croup suddenly 3 nights ago and almost took him to the hospital but he managed to relax but still breathed really heavily. The last two nights he has been coughing alot and I did not get to sleep to much, resulting in a very grumpy me.

Yesterday Ike bumped into a glass wall and his stitches opened slightly so we headed back to the hospital, he now needs a supporting bandage over the cut for 2 months (changed everyday) and his scar will not be as small. More "masculine".

Today took him and nate to the chinese dr, I opted for grounded powder for ike, mixed with some honey and in a syringe, he took it with no problem, in nate's case we boiled the herbs and added honey, he too was cooperative but I let him stay up for another 10 minutes. I hope in nate's case to not need to take out his adenoids and the chinese dr was supportive of that and we'll try out these herb mixes.

Hope Ike will sleep better today.

Onward to Singapore



We leave the comforts of KL on Friday am to singapore, here is a pic of the service apartment we will be camping out in... we presently have a 2BR and are trying to get a 3BR unit. Unfortunately I just heard that our car will only be delivered on Tues and not Friday this week, which is a bit inconvenient with kids but taxis are aplenty and the use of legs are a good form of excercise.

The second pic with the shooting fountains is Vivo City a big mall nearby with apparently a huge water park with shooting fountains.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

KL update


Although internet connection is faster here, my brother has not upgraded to ADSL so the pictures take a long time to upload, I have a lower res one here of the boys at the waterpark at KLCC.

After countless playgrounds and the ones here are really good, with themes and tunnels, Ike now goes thru tunnel slides without fear (well I had to go down several with him), its a bit claustrophopic for adults... and there is the tendency to get stuck in the smaller ones. After the water park, Ike now is also ok with taking showers.

The cousins seem to be getting used to each other and playing more together, we went to a CNY open house yesterday and nate got to mix with some kids that speak his lingo (ben ten, bat man...)

Update on our move... olivia has approval to come work for us, now she needs to pass the medical tests, the car arrives on Friday (our COE by the way costs only US$130... the average price is usually US$10,000!, a COE is the certificate of entitlement, that is a form of tax to put your car on the road and has a lifespan of 10 years) and we should hear about house number 1 today or tomorrow, otherwise we are back to square one on the house search.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Singapore house hunting...

I can't post any pics yet as I am using the "tablet" in the service apartment, have not figured out the download features so this post will be all text.

Singapore is like a turbo city (HK is super turbo), I now am back to my teh tarik fix to get some kick start caffeine just to match the pace of walking of the normal public. Got in late saturday and on Sunday we saw 4 black and white homes, 2 are too small and 2 are... well too big. It feels like I would spend more time maintaining the place, also they are situated somewhat on main roads so the traffic is also evident (to loren), tho with fan or aircon I think the noise can be shut out.

Day 2... we do find a house that we like, the fixtures are new and very well maintained, not like many of the older homes that have gone thru one or two renovations and have a mish mash feel. Its close to Tanglin, the botanical gardens and convenient for both loren and the kids. The downside? the PM stays 2 doors away across the street. He has two gurkhas, who are not menacing but will ask you to move your car if you are lingering outside, also no curb parking on our street. Prob checking our backgrounds to see we have no relations to a certain Osama. We have made a bid, 40% below asking, lets see if the fish will bite.

Day 3... no decent house. Bought a car instead... got a Subaru Forrester, good resale value and a discount from my classmate who wns the dealership, Thanks bud! For those who understand the COE system, can you believe we got a COE for S$200? (average price is S$10,000).

Today is Day 4... one house looks promising and then I head back to KL, manage to hitch a ride up from Loretta who is going up, this is great, so much flow traffic. Been meeting my friends and bumping into people I know. I even met Wendy (she looks good, slimmed down and nice hairstyle) my confinement lady who is now doing a 2 month stint with Sarah. Down side... oh still eating, no slowing down... Saw the doggies in the quarantine center, very nice facilities, they are not suffering. Bullet's neighbour is another weim.

So if the Gurkha house fails, we may bid for a B&W or next week I come down with the kids and will be here 100% to house hunt. The service apartment is great, big pools lots of other kids to play with, we can zip over to sentosa beach as well. We'll have a car in about 10 days.

Everyone send over positive house vibes!!!!!!