Happy birthday Siang Ping

This month has been a real pleasant one... received alot of wellwishes during my birthday, on sms and on facebook. Never has such kind of greetings been so important, especially after my married life..

Looking back a year ago, my birthday wish/ resolution was met : A house, a stable career and a wonderful wife!

Baby plans wont hit our TO-DO list for the year 2009. It's already filled with our honey moon trip in mid may. The month of February was spent on securing air ticket for Paris. From now till May, its all about reading up for our honey moon trip. The plan is to hit Paris and roam the streets for 3 days, travel via rail eastwards to bern( capital of switzerland), spend about 6 days in total in central switzerland, thereafter crossing the borders via rail again to milan(italy). The last 6 days will be spent touring iconic places, including venice, florence and finally rome. I cant wait to utilise my newly acquired 18mm-200mm Canon EF lenses( courtesy of my wife hee hee ) and snap down all the iconic places of interest!!!!!

We were also quite busy with car hunting early this month. From the day i started training for my ATC job in Changi village( surviving on peanut pay as a trainee ), i vowed to get my hands on my OWN CAR the moment i receive my lump sum payment from passing the ATC assessment checks. Travelling to changi village via public transport has an impact on my every day life. Lost quite alot of quality sleep time. If you have no idea what i'm talking, see THIS

Hence, my wife and i spent some time checking out cars. The car budgeting was planned in such a manner that we could still afford a car, and YET enjoy our current life dining out and enjoy shopping / go for holidays and such..

1. My ideal car at present was actually a small SUV. Small=less expensive and SUV= sporty and young. That's my initial demands in a car. Then i realised how impractical it would be after sitting in a terios / rush. The interior wasnt roomy as compared to my dad's nissan latio

2. We straightaway thought of jazz/ fit. It has impressive roomy interiors for a 1.3L, complimented with soothing features on the dashboard and boasts a modern exterior for any hatchback in the market. The response on the brakes and accelerator was much better compared to my dad's nissan latio. The only factor ( both my wife and i debated over this for awhile ) was the cost. Super steep for a 1.3L hatch back.

3. So we lowered our expectations and went to check out vios. I must say that this is a car that's quite value for money. But during test driving i notice the rev to be quite noisy and frankly, the cabin spacing was anything but impressive. All along since the day i saw vios running on the road, i thought the exterior was quite unsightly.


Then, my dear friend Xiao Ming smsed me one fine day to try out this car from Kia. I had no idea about the profile of this car he was mentioning. I was surprised that he actually bought it ON THE VERY DAY HE TEST DROVE it ( i supposed it was his only test drive). 3 weeks later, another friend Patrix told me that he bought the car also ( he followed xiao ming to test drive it ).

This got me curious, and i read up about this car. Went test driving twice on it and finally settled on sliver kia cerato forte 1.6SX .

There are a thousand and one things i wanna achieve right now. I promised my wife to take her on a crash course on SINGAPORE HIGHWAY code( she passed in late 2004 but she seldom drove ). Cant wait for May to come so that i can fufil and materialise my honeymoon plans. I am also waiting for my car to arrive in late june ( had to wait due to overwhelming responses ).

Thank you folks for your well wishes...i will continue to live my life to the fullest!!!!

No water in my own house

I came to realise how inconvenient it is WITHOUT WATER AT HOME....

I got this notification pasted on the lift lobby mentioning about some upgrading works on the water pipings situated on the roof access DUE TODAY 17TH MARCH a few days back....

My usual routines of a 8am run, followed by some basic housework cleaning the floor and sunning the laundry were all ruined. Because the piping works will commence at 9am, all the way till 5pm, i run the risk of being stranded at home, sweaty.

What's worsd, is that the HDB contractors warned residents of dirty water discharging from the water piping works, and REMINDED the folks staying at the top floor to shut their windows and avoid hanging laundry .

So that means i will not only be stranded in stinkiness but also suffer the heat....

End result: I bathed with a pail that i dutifully filled up at 8am, and couldnt wash my plates from my breakfast makan. My plans to rest at home was screwed and i sought refuge at my aunt's place, giving tuition...

What a tired day...

Siang Ping,
Signing off in the radar centre, working on noon shift.