We are getting married!
10 Nov 2009 1 Comment
in About, ROM accessories
Wedding Ticker from WhenIsMyWedding.com
2011 in review
05 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Oven adventures
29 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Bring me out Darling/Dar Dar, jiak jiak 吃 吃, Love Nest @ Pungol Springs Tags: Bosch
Having an oven is so much fun!!!
Initially the salesperson was warning us that the oven will spoil if we never use it regularly. He even advised us to switch it on and heat up the oven for fun if we do not use it regularly. Haha, no need lo!! We are fully utilizing our oven!!
And with the addition of our super Kenwood kitchen mixer, nothing can stop Darling and Dar Dar from their Oven fun!
Kenwood Classic Major, Winner - Domestic Diva Awards (Singapore Women's Weekly)
We have yet to sign up for our free baking workshop at the AFC studio…haha but we are already experimenting with online recipes.
One of our very first bakes is the chicken… haha, my babarian obsession to grill my own chicken and tear the meat off it!! Grunt!
In the end, I was too lazy to marinate my own chicken, so bought a readily marinated one from Cold Storage. Lolz
Grilled herb marinated chicken
The chicken is quite big for Darling and me, lucky we got Xian’s sister to help eating and help in da-baoing a big drumstick for Bryan. We also made lasagna and brocoli to go with it. =)
The next major meal made by darling using the oven was this super Lovalicious breakfast!
Breakfast full of love
This breakfast really touched me deep deep! Darling really put a lot of effort into this. Everything is in hearts!! Truly amazing my darling. That’s how creative my Darling is!!
Our current favorite website for baking recipes is “joyofbaking.com” The website has lots of nice easy-to-follow recipes and some even comes with a video demonstration! Really easy way to learn to bake =D.
Next, Darling made these lovely muffins, using the small foil cups. Don’t just look at the pretty face of these muffins, they really pack a punch! Full of flavourful chocolate chips! And most important of all…handmade with Darling’s love
Love Muffins
More pics of the lovely chocolate chip muffins
After muffins, Darling wants to take up the cupcake challenge! She wants to try out cakecups as well as the icing decoration =) We even bought small packets of decorative sugar from Red Man =p
The cupcake batter ready to be baked
With the 3D hotair of our Bosch oven turned on, the batter soon becomes… …
Fresh cupcakes hot from the oven
And then with the whip of our kitchen mixer and under the delicate hands of my darling, they soon become… …
The finished product, Vanilla Cupcakes
This is our very first attempt making and decorating cupcakes and it’s a really fun and sweet (coz we keep eating the left-over icing) baking session!
This attmept really perked up Darling’s interest in cupcakes and very soon, there shall be a second attempt. =)
Darling bought Hershey’s chocolate powder for her next cupcake experiment and off we go to our next cupcake adventure!
Darling's Hershey Choco-Love cuppies
Up close and personal with the Choco-Love Cuppies and the improved icing!
The previous icing made for the Vanilla cupcakes was too soft and fluid so this time round, Darling added in a generous amount of icing sugar and the consistency of the icing turned out just nice.
Now is my turn to try my hand at baking something for darling. Christmas season is near so I decided to give it a shot at making Gingerbread man! Darling has never eaten a gingerbread man before, neither have I…haha
The ingredient list really got me blurred…what the hell is molasses? Well, a trip to Red Man got me all the listed ingredients. Molasses is a type of cane sugar extract which is thick and sticky, almost like honey’s consistency but black/ dark brown in colour. The smell is also different…haha
Quite exciting to really bake and create something on my own. I did not study Home Econs before and the only thing I really cooked myself is instant noodles. All the time I have my darling at my side to guide me in cooking…this time I was alone. So scared, yet excited…
I was thinking how happy and surprised Darling will be when she sees and eats my gingerbread man! Shiok!
My first attempt at making the dough failed miserably… =( The dough I made is so sticky!! It looks so so different from the joyofbaking.com video! I was so so sooo disappointed… Well, maybe I added the ingredients in the wrong order? Or maybe my measurements were not accurate? I endured the heartache and threw the failed dough away, and started my second attempt at the dough! I must succeed this time!! This second attempt, I have not enough molasses as per the recipe so I used 3/4 volume of what the recipe suggested…Viola, guess what??? The dough came out perfect!!! Hahahahahaha
I really shouted “YES, YES, YES!!” when I saw the dough changing into the consistency as shown in the video! I knew this will definitely succeed!
The freshly baked Gingerbread man
My babies came out of the oven in 4 batches. The first batch were too crispy as I made them too thin…so I made some adjustments to the subsequent batches and they really looked more like the gingerbread man I knew. Next mission… the decoration… So what do you think of my art-work??
Batch 1 decorated by me.
Decorating them is so much fun!! I was smiling to myself while decorating them coz I knew Darling will be so happy to see these cute babies!! Haha.
She was indeed surprised and happy and excited to see these gingerbread man! Mission accomplished!!
So we went back to our Punggol love nest in order to continue the decoration of the rest of the gingerbread man…but there was a big twist of event…I was too rushed to finish decorating the first batch of gingerbread man so I did not have time to clear up my mess before I left the house. Darling was so so angry and disgusted to see the whole kitchen in a mess…sigh…all my fault. I have successfully turned an happy event into an unhappy event single-handedly again…
Well, I cleaned up the mess and mopped the house floor to atone for my sins and lucky darling forgived me in the end…and we ended up finishing the decoration for the remaining gingerbread man!! Yay!!! Mission finally accomplished and all’s well that ends well!!
Darling and Dar Dar's combined efforts. Can you guess who decorated which ones?
The latest additon to our oven adventure has to be the chicken pies =)
Darling has always been famous for her chicken pies at home. Even her picky brother likes her chicken pies and her sisters are eagerly looking forward to them too. This time round, darling is making chicken pies for me!! Haha YEAH!
The "I love U" chicken pies
I showed my colleague KJ this picture and she was like “So pretty!!!” Hahaha
When I finished work that day, I rushed home and enjoyed the best chicken pie I have tasted so far!! Darling’s version of the chicken pie =x
The pastry was light and fluffy and the fillings were not too watery. And it’s not excessively oily too. Healthy chicken pies by darling!
The finished chicken pies
I gobbled up 4 STAT! Haha, really good stuff. Today I brought some for my colleagues KJ, Chris, Vincent and they all have praises for the pies! For the rest who have no chance to savour these pies…there will be chances…wait for them. Haha
I am looking forward to our next project! The countdown cupcakes. They will be chocolate cupcakes with Hershey’s chocolate frosting! Can’t wait…
Happy 2011 birthday Darling!
06 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Birthday, Grand Shanghai, Love Nest @ Pungol Springs Tags: grand shanghai, hairy crabs
Time flies and it’s that part of the year again, drum roll….Darling’s Birthday!!
I Initally planned on giving a surprise to darling but she found out about it anyway…darling is too smart!
Darling sensed that the arrangement of the pillows on our bed has changed so she started to explore before she found the flowers!
Simple "Lego-style" Birthday greetings and fresh flowers
Opps, showed darling's age unknowingly
So flowers I gave to darling, what about the present? Haha, had it all preapred!!
What's a birthday without the present?
What did Dar Dar buy for Darling???
Au Revoir
So what did Dar Dar write inside that small small card, that resulted in Darling reading it with so much interest?? Well, you can only ask Xian to be sure.
Hmm...what sweet stuff did Dar Dar write??
Judging from the smile on Darling’s face, I think Darling likes the tiny surprise I had for her!! Yay!
Happy Happy girl
Next up is Darling’s Birthday treat =)
She had this strong desire to eat hairy crabs so she requested that as her birthday treat. Hmm…I initially had another place in mind which can offer great views and good ambience but since darling is the birthday girl, she gets the final say!
The dinner venue is the same as our AD dinner venue…which is…
Grand Shanghai
Taking a pic with what we are going to eat later..hahaha
We are always amazed by the setting of Grand Shanghai…the charm it exudes, the beauty it holds…
The interior of Grang Shanghai
Here comes the menu proper =)
The Menu
The hairy crab menu
We chose the set whereby we will have 2 hairy crabs each! Haha, it is our first time eating hairy crabs and since it is a seasonal delicacy, we must truly savour this creature by eating 2!
Our dish to share, the crispy eel
Our crispy eel does not taste like eel at all leh, but it does have a certain shiokness to it. Munching it while listening to oldies and sipping tea…quite a nice combi.
Black Fungus Salad
First up is the black fungus salad. The black fungus are big big pieces and really crunchy. The dressing is mild spicy yet slight sourish, really good appetizer.
Xiao Long Bao
The Xiao Long Bao is a nice size, full of savoury juices inside. The meat is tender and when taken together with the ginger and vinegar, is simply heavenly.
Next up is the nightmare of some support groups out there…but it’s a heavenly dish for me!!
Double boiled Shark's bone with Superior Shark's Fin
The soup is full of flavour, and the shark’s fin are really big pieces! Full of Shark’s fin in every mouth! This dish we must have in our dinner banquet menu! =p
Now the main highight of the night.. …The creature that is renowed over the world…all the way from China…these hairy things that are only available a few months a year…大闸蟹!
The cute little hairy yummy thing
If you are wondering how to start tasting these little hairy creatures, heehee, there is nothing to worry about coz the waitress will help us prepare the delicacy =)
The waitress is making bite sizes of the crab in the background. The sauce for dipping is in the foreground.
All ready to go into our tummy. Look at all those yummy roe!!
The roe is the main highlight of hairy crabs and the roe is really smooth and yummy. There is also this sticky stuff around the roe area and the waitress says they are all fats… (-.-”
They have these crab meat eating tool provided so it’s really easy to finish eating the whole crab with minimal meat left behind. There is not much meat in this tiny thing but the meat is quite firm and have a good texture. Lucky we ordered 2!!
Darling using the tool to extract leg meat
After the main dish, we are going to have some fibre to help in the digestion =D
Braised Abalone with Sea Cucumber and Spinach
The sea cucumber is nice and squashy, I like!! The spinach portion is big too.
Next up is something light, also made partly with the yummy hairy crab roe.
Steamed Dumplings with Crab Roe
The dumplings itself is quite nice but I really cannot taste any crab roe. I supposed they used it to make the skin of the dumplings since the colour is yellow too.
At this point we are quite full already so it’s about time we have dessert =)
Chilled 胖大海 with Lily Bulb
We have no idea what 胖大海 is but it does taste nice and chilled…haha. A refreshing dessert.
That ends Darling’s birthday dinner! Full and satisfied!
Hmm…are we missing something here? It’s a birthday right??
YES!! The birthday cake!! it’s at our Punggol Springs love nest =x
Darling's birthday cake during the combined birthday celebration with Darling's mummy
Darling's very own birthday cake from Awfully Chocolate
Make a wish darling, and may all your wishes come true!
Happy Birthday my darling! Hope you enjoyed your birthday and your gift. May all your wishes come true!!
I love you!
Photo Selection Day
05 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Actual Day wedding, Bring me out Darling/Dar Dar, Grand Shanghai, Sentosa, Universal Studios, Wedding photography, Z Wedding D'sign
Today is really a day of headache and heartache! Haha. Supposed to choose photos today!! We are both really excited about this…at the same time, we are also worried that the photos may turn out too nice for us to reject!
We only have 24 photos included as part of the package…with each photo priced at S$115, it’s no joke if we are unable to “throw away” photos.
Well, if we have to spend, we must make sure it is worth spending on…
We saw the photos…die liao…the photos are ALL DAMN BEAUTIFUL! 真的是美到。。。。。The indoor shots are all taken beautifully, darling looks great in the white wedding gown!!
The outdoor shots are equally nice. The only disappointment is that the rope swing series did not turn out as nice as we expected…sigh…The big pink balloon also did not seem to make much impact.
Our USS series 众望所归 contains the best photos of the day! We are both quite natural when doing candid shots…haha, really not cut out to be models.
I shall upload a few photos to wet your appetite…hiak hiak hiak…
The white Room
Darling in her Cheongsam, damn seductive
The Happy Universal Studio Couple
Pre-wedding photoshoot
06 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Actual Day wedding, Bring me out Darling/Dar Dar, Grand Shanghai, Universal Studios, Wedding photography, Z Wedding D'sign
The day has finally come!! The day when I can preview my lovely darling in a wedding gown, all dolled up… OUR pre-wedding photoshoot!! We are doing an indoor shoot at Chris Ling Studios in Orchard in the morning, and then will proceed to do our outdoor photography! Exciting day ahead, so I shall re-think the events of the day.
We have packed our huge luggage bag the night before with all our props for the day! The huge luggage is courtesy of Darling’s mum, the one she frequently brings overseas to bring back all the goodies from abroad…haha, really really huge! I brought my “walking tall” shoes while darling brought her ROM shoes and the newly bought Anna Nuci black crystal shoes. Attire wise, we just brought along our newly bought couple synchronized clothing, which happened to have a purple theme. Next are the props for the photoshoot. The main props are those for the Universal Studios session, comprising of
1) huge plastic heart shaped spectacles,
2) condensed milk cans joined by a rope,
3) Rilakkuma bears,
4) our giant purple lollipop, customized with “I Love You” wordings,
5) bubbles blowing liquid
6) Ring pillow from our ROM
7) green fan to accompany Darling’s CheongSam
Bag of of goodies
We also ordered balloons from the shop near Bugis Iluma. 1 huge pink one and 10 small ones. However, according to shop-keeper, the helium air can only keep the balloons floating for a 7-8 hours, so we can only collect today for best effects!
In the morning, we took a cab to Chris Ling Studios…haha, the cab uncle probably though we going airport with the large bag, sorry to disappoint you…hahaha. Chris Ling studio is actually a private terrace house, upon arrival at about 10.30am, we walked around the house interior, admiring the many themed interiors they have. Our assigned MUA is Angela who came just on time so darling can start to have her makeup hairdo.
Dick is our photographer, apparently he is damn good and is the top 2 photographers of Chris Ling Studios… …we shall see!
Wedding indoor shoot commenced with darling in her White actual wedding gown, Simply Gorgeous!! Then we went through the many rooms and corners of the studios, with darling wearing her actual wedding gown, the Chio Cheongsam and the Victorian style night gown.
After the indoor shoot, we took a short break and ate pizza…before we commenced on our outdoors!
First stop will be Grand Shanghai, but we will need to collect our balloons enroute to the restaurant. Lucky the balloons can be squeezed into a car…HAHA
We were early for Grand Shanghai and there are still customers eating or finishing their lunch. With a professional photographer around, there will always be photo opportunities. In the waiting room, we took a series of pictures, most noticeable is the set where darling is exposing her calves sexily…YUMMY! There is also a series taken through the window panes, super artistic!! Darling totally suits the Cheongsam, super SUI! I am looking forward to darling wearing the cheongsam and walking down the aisle of Grand Shanghai!! Everyone will definitely have a JAWDROP expression!
After Grand Shanghai, we proceeded to Hort Park, Alexandra hill. This is a hill full of greenery and big trees. There is even a rope swing! This place has a perfect setting for a romantic picture series. This is where we shot the pictures of our balloons and the rings. Really got feel. Carefree, happy, having fun together, these are the feelings portrayed in this series.
Last but not least, there is 1 place which is strongly associated with us… …my close friends will know… UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SINGAPORE! Where else right? We both held the year pass for USS and We went there at least 6-7 times?? Haha, knew the place inside out! The universal studios set is extremely fun!!! Dick is really creative and talented in taking candid photos. He also makes sure that we used all our props that we brought along!! Darling is so natural and relaxed when taking pictures in USS!! I think being familiar with the place has its benefits. =) We did some extraordinary stuff in USS, darling and me both attempting stunts which we will never thought of doing, if not for this photoshoot. We totally love the photos from USS and have a strong feeling that the USS photos will turn out to be the best!!!
We totally enjoyed today’s photoshoot and even though Dick keep saying he wants to vomit blood and shouted his voice hoarse…we are sure he enjoyed it as much as we do!
The Birth of a Love Nest…Part 3
01 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in ID and renovations, Love Nest @ Pungol Springs, random thoughts
It’s been a long and tiring gestational period and finally we are in the final trimester! Our love nest is nearing delivery!
Renovating a new house is indeed an enriching, yet stressful event. It’s an event that is really trying for any couple. Any engaged couple or newly wedded couple, upon going through the renovation process, will definitely have many fierce exchanges. Sourcing for IDs, decision of designs, negotiation phase with ID, payment installations, frequent monitoring of progress, choosing of colours, choosing of materials, defect checking and rectification, all these are possible stressors and potential sparks for arguments. In addition to work stress, threshold for arguments is definitely lower. Renovation is not merely a simple affair of leaving everything to the ID and expecting a beautiful product. Gone are the days when there were honest professional contractors who has pride in their work and will deliver to their best ability, to give us the perfect product we so desire. Nowadays with the stress of high material prices, shop rental prices, workers wages and firece competition for business amongst companies, there is bound to be temptations to take short-cuts. Consumers, like us, have to make time and effort to check on contractor’s work in order to rest well at night. We cannot leave everything to our ID to settle (even though we so desire to do so), simply because we cannot convince ourselves to trust our ID.
Well, now that our renovation is coming to an end. I shall share the new look of our love nest!! Transformed from an empty space with concrete walls and cement floor to one which we can call our VERY OWN LOVE NEST!
Sketch and 3D picture of our living area
Sketch and 3D picture of our cosy area
Sketch and 3D picture of our MBR TV feature and MBR bathroom
The sketch and 3D picture of our MBR
Sketch and 3D picture of our kitchen
Of course, nothing is so easy in this world. Our ID definitely will cause problems along the way.
The first major problem….her plumber drilled into the kitchen water pipe within the wall while trying to install the backsplash! Of all places, the plumber have to choose a spot so close to the blue tape marking from HDB!
Notice how close it is to the blue tape?
Of course, the plumber have to fix it up! According to the plumber, welding is the way to go, really hope it does not create any future problems. HDB mentioned that we have to get our own plumber to fix it and HDB will not need any notification or report. Fine, ID have to do it and ID have to give us assurance that it will not leak in the future….Hope the water that spurted out did not cause water damage to the cabinets opposite as well as the oven.
Damage done
post welding
Patching up of kitchen tile
The next major problem is our kitchen entrance… …
It was initially planned to have an inner sliding glass door but just when ID have to order the glass, she realized a grave mistake…a rather amateurist mistake!! She got the measurements all wrong!! She mentioned that our original kitchen entrance is too big for her to make an inner sliding glass door. The glass door when pushed open fully, will result in our entrance narrowed to a mere 60cm width (this is because the side wall next to the fridge is not long enough for the glass to slide into, and the excess glass will eat into the space of our kitchen entrance). Ok, fine…so what next? She suggested extending our kitchen side wall, to make the entrance smaller, in order for us to have a swing open glass door. She says that the wall extension can also effectively cover up our fridge, serving 2 purposes. She is also very sure it will work. So it was made…
Wall extension
Guess what?? Surprise, surprise…now our fridge is jutting out of the wall extension! We did give our fridge dimensions to her before she proceeded to do the wall extension. As a professional ID, common sense tells us that there should a good distance between the back of the fridge to the wall for proper ventilation right? And it’s usually at least 5 cm…well, she only made allowance for 5 mm…..Isn’t this a super amateur mistake? Angry or not? Of course angry! Angry Bird!
Simulated fridge, showing the extent it protrudes out. Measuring tape shows height of fridge
So in the end, we ended up doing a sliding glass door on the outside of the kitchen. Not the best option but it’s one that definitely works. If only she has done her homework, if only she has foresaw this problem, we wouldn’t have to go through the agony and stress of making this kitchen sliding door! Stupid ID… …
The eventual clear glass sliding door
The next problem is our bathroom doors placement. Can you all accept this end result??
The exposure of bathroom tiles after door closed
How can anyone accept this? ID still have the cheek to tell me that some of her clients actually accepted this! She came up with a ugly suggestion of building a “kerb” outside the door along the passageway to “cover up” the exposure. OMG, no way man! We demanded a change in placement and told her to shift the door forward!
The nice end product! No more bathroom tiles exposure
Ok, now I shall show the readers around our almost completed love nest!
TV feature wall in living room minus the future 46" TV
Our cosy area, where mahjong and games will be played
Our dining area where Darling and Dar Dar will whip up and enjoy delicious dishes together!
Our MBR bathroom where we will make ourselves clean before Gai Gai or Orh Orh
Not forgeting the glass shower screen
We can dance in the rain while bathing!
Full height mirror for Darling to have the perfect view of herself after dressing up
Bedhead with crystals! Darling loves this to the MAX!
We have just completed a almost 30 item defect checklist for our ID to settle by the end of this week. Hopefully she can rectify everything and then polish our floor before handover.
Yay!! Our Love Nest is nearing the end….
Next event….Our Pre-wedding photography on 6 Nov 2011! Stay tuned… …
The making of a Happy Z Wedding Bride
26 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Actual Day wedding, Grand Shanghai, Z Wedding D'sign
Today marks THE day when we settled Darling’s wedding gowns! We have already chosen some gowns for our indoor and outdoor shoots but short of a “spectacular” Cheongsam to truly match our Grand Shanghai Theme…..until today!
Darling is the one making all the research for her gowns, browsing through hundreds and thousands of pictures on the internet, flipping through the online catalogue of Z wedding gowns, as well as catalogues of Dang Studio, Le Grand etc, in order to find her perfect gown. Well well well, 皇天不负有心人, Darling finally came across her perfect gown after months of research!
We signed with Z wedding about maybe 3-4 years ago? At that time, we were attracted to the gowns already. We were curious to find out more about Z wedding and their services after we signed the package so went on the Net and searched….to our horror, Z Wedding has many mixed reviews. They even banned 1 forum from listing a thread under their name coz of too many bad reviews! We were worried, Darling more worried….did we ganna cheated again? Regularly, Darling would pay the Z Wedding website a visit to view their latest gowns over the years. The gowns of subsequent years after we signed were not as impressive and Darling was having second thoughts about continuing with Z Wedding. Luckily somehow from late last year, Z Wedding gowns actually picked up standard and became beautiful again. And it picked up the standard at the right time coz we are in need of beautiful gowns for our wedding on 17 March 2012!
We have both indoor and outdoor shots, all done in a day. 3 outdoor locations and 2 indoor themes. We have 2 indoor gowns and 2 outdoor gowns. How can we take it lying down to have only 4 gowns? There’s 1 evening gown which Darling like but not available on our Actual Day for Darling to wear. Our coordinator Grace actually is kind enough to allow us to use that gown for our photoshoot only and also allowed us to choose ANOTHER evening gown for our Actual Day! We initially have a White Can-Can wedding gown as well as a pink evening gown for our outdoor shoot, and a White Can-Can wedding gown and a Victorian style green evening down with black lace for our indoor shoot.
Darling set eyes on a Le Grand Cheongsam a few days earlier and has been dying to try it on! So we fixed a meeting with Z Wedding today and got Darling into the Cheongsam and OH MY GOD!! It fits her almost perfectly! Almost like made to measure gown!
So we decided to pay s$1788 for the rental of the LeGrand Cheongsam for photoshoot and for actual day wear! Totally worth it, 简直一见钟情!
After some negotiation today, we managed to fix a more favorable arrangement. A total of 6 different gowns for Darling to wear!
—– Outdoor shoot —–
1 white wedding gown
1 pink Chiffon material evening gown
1 Cheong Sam from LeGrand (special request to bring for outdoor shoot)
1 Casual wear (Most likely our ROM gown)
—- Indoor Shoot —-
1 white wedding gown (also for actual day wear)
1 green with black lace evening gown
1 Cheong Sam from LeGrand (also for actual day wear)
—- Actual Day —-
1 White wedding gown (same as indoor shoot)
1 Qun Kua for tea ceremony (to be rented)
1 Grey with black lace Victorian Evening Gown (only for Actual Day wear)
1 LeGrand Cheongsam (same as photoshoot)
The photoshoot is happening on the 6 Nov…hope everything goes well! I am choosing locations for our photoshoot in the meantime.
I am so so so Happy to see Darling in such a Happy mood when she has her perfect gown! Wish that Darling will be this happy forever!!
I love you Darling. XOXO
The Birth of a Love Nest…Part 2
24 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in ID and renovations, Love Nest @ Pungol Springs
Well, the next major step to renovation will be the fabrication of the false ceiling as well as the installation of lights.
The installation of the build-up wall and part of false ceiling
We did a built-up-wall in order to let our entire wall be flushed. This is to prevent a space behind half our sofa. And it looks neater this way too…of course this comes at a price but a beautiful home is always priceless. The dining area brick feature is ready but looks a bit raw. This is going to be one of our nicest corner of our love nest!! Can’t wait to see the finished product!
another view of our built-up-wall
This should make it clearer. The original HDB wall adjacent to the window is too short to fit our sofa in, so we decided to give the entire wall a continuous flushed look. The false ceiling really looks raw without lights and paint.
Our MBR ceiling
Once all the false ceilings are up, it’s time for our lights to take center stage!!
Cove lights up. Down lights up!
Once the cove lights and downlights are up, the living room is transformed into a more refined space…more like a place worthy of humans to live in! Haha.
Service Yard light
Bomb Shelter light
Kitchen light
MBR downlights and cove lights
Our shoe rack on the left and parts of the display cabinet on the right
Our TV console and part of TV feature wall
Our kitchen in the raw
Our MBR bathroom vanity top
This is where our Super Comfy King-size Sealy mattress will be!
This is our MBR wardrobe...Ok, Darling's wardrobe, with a full height mirror!
This shall be where Darling chooses her beautiful clothes and admire her beauty everyday! A full height mirror to take in the beautiful image of darling! YEAH!
Our semi-finished cosy area, with the shoe rack, bomb shelter concealment, the satee and the display cabinet
The display cabinet is supposed to be a tic-tac-toe design, interlaces with black glass. This shall be our cosy area! We can play our Mahjong while watching TV, or even sit down on the satee while wearing our shoes.
Our TV feature wall, without the glass and mirror sides
Darling's mum checking out the faulty concealment door
The tic-tac mechanism is faulty in the first version of this door. Cannot close the door easily once it’s open! Of course we cannot take it lying down. We confronted the ID and she eventually got it changed.
The full view of our kitchen
The kitchen view photo is taken from the service yard looking in. The kitchen is small but it sure contains everything we need!
We love the colour of the laminates we chose. Good choice by darling!
This is where all the delicious cakes and roast will come out from
The initial proposed kitchen colour was black and white. So glad that darling is strongly against it! And we eventually chose silver with white. Excellent choice and unique colour combination that looks nice!
Now, the best time to test the lights is at night right? After 3-4 days of installing our carpentry, we have now installed our beautiful lights at our dining area and our living area.
Dining area lights
Our dining lights with its beautiful shadows
Our living room light when viewed from below
Admiring the lights with my parents
With the carpentry almost finishing and the lights all installed. We have considered ourselves completing a major part of our renovation. The next steps will be to finish up the rest of the carpentry, do the painting and plumbing works. It’s nearing the end Darling. Hang in there!
The next instalment will show you the final outlook of our love nest…stay tuned
Hakuna Matata
29 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Bring me out Darling/Dar Dar, Lion King, marina bay sands
It’s been a hectic week so far for darling and me…Darling working night shifts over the last weekend and I am working overtime daily from Monday till today…we needed a break.
Of course, since this is a “lull period” of renovation, with carpentry fabrication being done in the factories, nothing much is happening at our love nest. Why not take a break and treat Darling to some much needed entertainmen? So… … here we went!
Marina Bay Sands inaugural musical event
The musical is supposed to stop its run by the end of May but was extended due to overwhelming response. It’s scheduled to end its run here in Singapore by the end of October, so it’s almost like the last chance we can catch this world class musical on our shores. After hearing so many rave comments on this musical from facebook friends, I decided that it’s too great a loss if we didn’t catch it before it ends…hahaha, my auntie mentality again. There is this promotion for weekday tickets, where u can have a free upgrade of seats for class 2 and 3 seats, ie, get class 2 seats for class 3 price and class3 seats for class 4 price. So i chose class 2 seats, with darling’s seat smack right in the center! Hope darling can get the Best experience of the show! Haha.
We were running a bit late, as we left house later than expected, so we had to rush through our MOS dinner before brisk walking over to the Marina Bay Sands. Thank God and Deities for all the guidance, as I successfully found the way to the Grand Sands Theatre 10 minutes before the show started! YES! So we had our toilet break before proceeding inside. It’s our second time to Marina Bay Sands, and our first in the theater. It does not have a grand interior, with regards to wall decorations and eg sculptures seen in Victorian style theaters, but it’s big nontheless.
Taking our seats, preparing for the show!
The stage... we are 7 rows from the front!! Haha, shiok! First time we sit so close to stage
Finally the show begins! And it’s the Circle Of Life song, with the “Nant’s Ingonyama Bakithi Baba!” Remarkable vocal of Rafiki Baboon!
Rafiki and the galloping antelopes!!
Then comes the bigger than life animals walking down along the aisles! We are seated in the central block, so we have full view of the birds, the cheetah, the bulls, and the HUGE Elephant and Baby elephant! So cute!! I love it!! What a great start to a show and I feel so into the show! Haha.
The scene on stage, while "The circle of life" is being sang and the "animals" are walking by our side
The presentation of Simba drew a loud applause. What a great opening!
The story follows the Disney Lion King, so nothing new. The props and the puppetry is truly amazing. The actors really are professional, and they can mimic the movements of their respective animal characters superbly. I am quite impressed by the giraffes and the cheetah, the HUGE elephant and the baby elephant. The masks for Mufasa and Scar were very intricate and I love the way the masks can be made to come down above their heads and they “transformed” into lions.
Showdown between Scar and Mufasa
The interesting part about this muscial is that the script writer has incorporated local context into the play. Timon’s speech did make mention of HDB upgrading, includes using chinese words like “xie xie”, and of course using the “lah”. These are just one-liners but it has achieved the effect of getting some laughs. Only Timon can pull this off.
Timon with the young Simba
I especially love the part where Timon, Pumbaa comes into the story, they just bring the comedy factor in!
Hakuna Matata is their moto, and I hope to adopt it as mine too! It means No Worries
The story of Simba is well known but to see it live as a musical is really quite an experience. I love how the stage and curtains moves to create depth and elevation, I am loving this musical with every passing minute!
There’s a segment featuring actors wearing the traditional african clothing of vibrant colours, singing African tunes, dancing to the beat…with birds flying above our heads! WOW!!! Almost wanted to jump out of my seat to sing and dance to the tune!
So the story evolves with the young Simba growing up and defeating Scar, taking over PrideRock, and eventually marrying Nala as a happy ending.
Simba trumps Scar...Run and never come back...
Darling, can you feel my love tonight? Lolz, a bit mushy hor!!
The show ended at 11pm, a good 3 hours with a short break in between. I thoroughly enjoyed myself!! Hope Darling enjoyed too!
We stayed around longer to take some photos of the mirror-filled Sands Theater.
After the show
The highly reflective Sands Theatre with Darling
It’s been a truly eye-opening experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The show is simply extraordinary and the experience is even more awesome with my Darling by my side!
Darling with the impressive Sands interior
The Birth of a Love Nest… …
27 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in ID and renovations, Love Nest @ Pungol Springs, marina bay sands
As the title implies, this post shall be the start of a series in an attempt to document the progress of our love nest renovation. Renovation is a stressful progress, but I really hope that at the end of the whole time, we can sit back and relax over a cup of tea and tell ourselves that it’s all worth it… …
It all started from our BTO exercise when we got our very own home.
Road sign to our future love nest
Building in progress
The probable completion date
So we started waiting for the date to come….keeps going into the punggol forums to get the latest updates from our project engineer and finally it was announced that keys will start to be distributed in early 2011. We are however sad to hear that our block construction will be delayed due to some faults and that we can only start getting keys from July onwards. Well, we have to bear with the daily facebook updates about our neighbours buying furniture and doing renovation while we wait for our bunch of keys.
The exteriors of our nests
No matter how long the wait is, it has to come to an end and we eventually got our keys on 13 July. This post I have covered previously about us throwing in our “Ong-Lai” and Oranges. I shall now showcase our house interior.
Our love nest is just like a plain canvas waiting for us to give it colour and life!
View of dining area from living room
Our living area and bedrooms passageway
The next meaning visit will be on 3 August, when our flooring is being done! They are so so nice! Glossy, shiny tiles and it makes our Love Nest bright and happy! Good choice by Darling!
Darling examining the shiny floor of the living room
Darling inspecting our Dining Area feature wall
Come 10 August, our Dining Area feature wall is all done up! Looking impressive but wait till it’s fully painted, it will present a totally different feeling!
Our beautiful Dining Area
So far so good? Except the small kitchen…That’s the problem with all new HDB flats, the kitchens are damn small! Not that we are big cooks lah but nobody will complain that the kitchen is too big right? Big is always good! But if HDB were to ask me to choose a bigger living room or a bigger kitchen, I would choose a bigger living room anytime!
A glimpse into our small kitchen and our service yard beyond
After the flooring is done, we had the aircon man from Gain City out up the air-con trunking together with ID’s contractor putting up the false ceiling. After the false ceiling is up, Darling was saying that our love nest “looks more like a home”. I totally agree! Our love nest is slowly coming into shape…
False ceiling looking from living room window
Our living room with false ceiling and proposed TV feature wall in progress
13 Sept is our first delivery day!
Check out our stuff! We delivered the Oven and water heater, as well as the lights and our professional kitchen sink!
Our Bosch oven for our delicious cakes and pastries and a water heater for our bath after the baking session
These are the nice lightings goodies in those boxes.
Our Belllari professional sink
You may think that’s the end of delivery? Haha, there is still a long long to wait! Look at Darling” current house…her bedroom has already become a mini storage room!
Tip of the ice-berg in Darling's current home...overflowing soon
kitchen sink, bathroom towel rack and bathroom accessories
Ok, I shall end my post now. The next post Will be about our lights! Haha, A house with good lights just make it more cosy… …
Now we are looking forward to 28 Sept 2011…we are going to watch the Lion King @ Marina Bay Sands!
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