Renovation (Part 5)

–11 August (Saturday)–

I’m almost in my third trimester now and both Dada and I would really like to quickly settle as much renovation stuff as possible. We have settled the carpentary works with Daniel and so what’s left is to shop for furniture and lightnings.

We have looked around for furniture in Singapore but I must say that none caught my fancy. Even if they do, the price is super out of our budget. Both Dada and I decided to drop by our friendly neighbouring country to see if we can purchase some furniture and lightnings there.

Off we went to Johor Bahru, our friendly neighbour, to look for furniture and lightnings. We left at 8 a.m. but still… others were earlier than us. But I must say, the jam wasn’t that bad after all. Perhaps most of them went in yesterday which was National Day holiday.

Anyway, we had 2 furniture shops in mind. One was Rustica and the other was Rosini. Dada wanted to go to the one in Rosini but I spotted Rustica on the way to Rosini. So we dropped by Rustica first. Luckily we did, coz that Rustica that we went was the largest Rustica Showroom. 🙂

Rustica

No 1, Jalan Waja Satu, Pandan

81100 Johor Bahru, Johor

Tel: 07-3525289 

When we went in, we were greeted by a friendly pregnant saleslady, Angel. She showed us around the showroom. Her service was great and we actually managed to find my dining table cum working table. I have been looking for a table that has drawers. Totally perfect! 🙂

My favourite buy – A dining table with drawers

Model: 283 Dining Set

Dimensions: 160 cm (L) x 90 cm x 76 cm (H)

Cost of recliner chair: RM$1080 (S$435)

Cost of 4 chairs: RM$1000 (S$403)

Total cost: RM$2080 (S$838)

In Singapore, I only managed to find a table that has drawers by Lorenza. But the price is very steep! 1 table with 6 chairs would cost cost to S$2600. In Rustica, there are 3 different types of tables with drawers for us to choose from.

The next thing we looked for was a set of sofa. Initially, we wanted a 2 seater sofa so that in future, we can put the play pan or have some space for baby to play. But after looking around, we got persuaded by Angel to buy a 3 seater sofa instead. It makes sense to buy a 3 seater sofa since when Baby grows up, it will be 3 of us. Dada wanted the recliner sofa but I prefer a normal sofa.

After much thought, both of us gave in to each other. Haha! You must be wondering how to give in to each other right? Well, I got a normal 3 seater seater sofa and Dada got himself a single reclining sofa. Dada said he prefers to sit on a sofa which he can place his 2 arms on the handrest. Perfect! We both got what we wanted.

The recliner chair and the 3 seater sofa that both of us love.

Model: 5111 Recliner Chair (Col: 3813) & 9018 3 Seater Sofa (Col: 664)

Dimensions: 105 cm (L) x 100 cm x 105 cm (H)

Cost of recliner chair: RM$1650 (S$665)

Cost of 3 seater sofa: RM$2575 (S$1038)

Total cost: RM$4225 (S$1703)

The sofas we got may seems a little expensive. But if you were to go around Singapore to have a look, Singapore don’t really sell full leather sofa seats. It’s usually partial leather, i.e. the place you sit on is full leather while the rest is all PVC. Besides this price we pay for the sofas in Rustica is full leather! Therefore, both Dada and I felt that it’s cheaper to get in Malaysia. 🙂

Anyway, we told Angel to write down the deminsions and the price and told her we would like to drop by Rosini to have a look first before deciding where to purchase our furniture. Haha! Luckily, we were honest and told her that. Angel told us that Rosini caught fire a week ago and hence if we were to go there, there wouldn’t be anything for us to buy anyway. 

Well, things happen for a purpose! We felt that since we both loved what we have seen and Rosini was burnt down, we decided to purchase the furniture from Rustica. Huarry! I love my Dada’s decision to purchase the furniture! Actually, I was quite surprised that he was willing to purchase the furniture from Rustica as Dada loves to purchase cheap stuff and he did mention before that furniture from Rustica is slightly more expensive than Rosini. Anyway, I suppose the burning down of Rosini and the great service of Angel made Dada decide that we will get the furniture from Rustica! Huarry!

Oh.. by the way, the total damage for this furniture purchase is:

RM$6305 (furniture) + 7% GST (Singapore) RM$442 + Custom Tax RM$200 = RM$6947 (S$2800)

Huarry! It was within our budget. But.. you know, as Singaporean, we always like to bargain. We tried to bargain but failed. 😦 Nevertheless, Angel threw in a small chair and a sofa cleaner. Well, it’s still better than nothing.  

Next stop will be to search for lightnings for our house. Stay tuned to the next blog entry on our renovation. 🙂

Renovation (Part 4)

— 5 August 2012 (Sunday)–

Yeah! The painting for our flat is finally done. We were very excited when Mr Tay called us to inform us that he has already painted our flat and told us to go our flat to have a look. So we happily went down to our flat after breakfast to have a look.

The living room with baby blue.

The bright sunshine yellow that brightens up our children’s room.

The baby blue with a combination of white.

The colours we chose were basically colours that the fengshui master, Master Li Fang. The colours given to us were quite boring and dull and hence this was the best combination that both Dada and I chose. In fact the blue and white combination was chosen as we were inspired by Royal China @ Raffles Hotel. The purplish-pink that Mr Tay painted for us, made our corridor look so sweet. Most important of all, the sunshine yellow in our children’s room makes their rooms look so bright and cherry! The only challenge for the painter, Mr Tay, comes when painting our room – the masterbed room. I wanted the room to have a combination of blue and white so that it makes our room looks unique. I simply love the colour combinations we have and Mr Tay is really good in mending the damages made by the contractor. He mended the walls before painting the walls. Bravo! 🙂

We were quite satisfied by his works and called him to make arrangements for payment. That’s when we realised a mistake. We paid $950 for 3 colours + a white base. It’s really cheap. But, we didn’t know that Mr Tay doesn’t provide touch-up services i.e. if there’s any damage made by other contractors, he wouldn’t come and paint it. We were quite upset over it but we felt that it’s alright as even if there’s a need to touch-up, he will only charge us $150 which isn’t that expensive. 🙂 The best thing is, if the damge is very mild, we can just touch it up ourselves as he left all the remaining paint for us.

Well, what’s there to complain or feel upset anymore. I suppose we can’t expect so much when we pay only $950 for his painting works. 🙂 Anyway, we are quite happy with the price we paid and the service we get. He’s fabulous. 🙂 Just keep our fingers cross that Daniel’s men won’t make any damage to our painting works. 🙂

Ampang Niang Tou Fu

–7 August 2012 (Tuesday)–

I have a craving for niang tou fu recently. Usually, Dada will bring me to the one at Mandai. But, somehow we felt that the niang tou fu there is a little too salty. Well, now with the little one in the tummy, I got to eat food that it not too salty.

Ampang Niang Tou Fu

 

AMPANG NIANG TOU FU

225, East Coast Road

Singapore 428922

Open Daily: 11.30 a.m. – 8.30 p.m.

Tel: 63453289

 

Anyway, we decided to try the Niang Tou Fu at East Coast Road. The stuffed brinjal is really nice. Hard but not too hard on the brinjal and when you bite onto the fish stuffings, it’s soft and most important of all not salty. Another must try ingredient is the tao kee (fried beancurd skin). It’s not salty but very crispy. In fact, while we were having our meal there, we noticed that almost everyone ordered an extra share of the fried beancurd skin. By the way, all these ingredrients are served on a plate of soup.

The ingredrients of the niang tou fu and the sweet and chilli sauce.

Well, basically the niang tou fu is quite delicious but we thought it’s a little expensive. A plate of niang tou fu for 2 and a bowl of rice cost us $7.20. However, I supposed if you want nice food, you will have to pay a little more. 🙂 

Happy Dada with delicious niang tou fu.

Happy 7 Dating Years

–27 July 2012 (Friday)–

Wow! It’s been 7 years since we started dating. It was supposed to be a week long worth of celebration. But… I have been sick for almost a week and I never seems to recover. Dada was telling me a week ago that we will go for night picnic. I was like so excited coz it’s been a long time since we went for night picnic. I also wanted to go for dim sum brunch @ Royal China on Sunday. Not only that, Dada even said we will go view Harry Potter’s exhibition on Saturday.

Look at the number of pills I need to take 😦

But all this was destroyed by my persisent cough. I was utterly upset. All our plans seems to go down the drain. 😦 But you know… Dada is the best hubby one would ever have. He knows just the thing to get me to brighten up my mood.

Dada got me balloons!! He came home while I was napping and decorated our room with 27 colourful balloons with more green balloons than other colours. 🙂 Not to forget about my biggest balloon! A turtle-shaped balloon. Dada revived my turtle-shaped balloon! 🙂

27 balloons with a large turtle balloon make Dear Dear a Happy Little Princess 🙂

Not only did Dada buy many balloons to lift up my spirits, Dada also make dinner for me. It was a simple dinner but it was made with lots of love. Dada made mushroom soup and baked some baby potatoes topped with bacon. He also bought a pork knuckle from Cold Storage. In short, all of us had something that we love to eat. We enjoyed our dinner.

Dinner bought and made by Dada.. Yummy!

Dada got me so many things that made me happy. Then what about me? What did I get for Dada? 🙂 I got 2 movie tickets for Dada. 

My present for Dada 🙂

A Movie Date with Dada

Venue:  Vivocity

Time: 9.00 p.m.

Show: The Dark Knight Rises

Dada knows that I’ve been at home resting for 1 week and have been feeling super bored at home. Since today is a special day, Dada decided to bring me out for a walk at NEX! While at Nex, we bought 2 pieces of cakes to celebrate our 7 years Dating Anniversary!

The Chocolate Cake is so much nicer than the Chestnut cake. 🙂

Heehee.. Can’t wait for tomorrow to come for us to watch a movie together. It’s been ages since we last watched a movie together. 🙂 Happy 7 Dating Years Anniversary!! I love Dada lots lots!! 🙂 

端午节 aka 粽子节

–23 June 2012 (Saturday)–

Dragon Boat Festival 2012 or 端午节 falls on Saturday, June 23 this year. The traditional Chinese rice dumpling (粽子) was created to honor an honorable in China’s history – the divine Qu Yuan, 屈原, (340-278 B.C.) – the famous pioneer poet of ancient China. 端午节 is always one of those Chinese festival that I look forward to every year. Not that I admire 屈原 but more of… I’m interested in eating 粽子. Haha! Well, can’t blame me, cause my mum is a traditional woman. She won’t buy or cook dumpling unless it’s 端午节. Which means… I only get to eat them only once a year!

Got this cute picture from someone’s blog. But.. oops! I can’t remember whose blog is it. :p

Rice dumpling (粽子) contains glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to form a pyramid shape. There’s a lot of varieties when it comes to 粽子. There’s Nonya Rice Dumpling, Salted Rice Dumpling with egg yolks, Vegetarian Rice Dumpling,  Abalone Rice Dumpling, etc.

The 粽子 I liked to eat the most is the one made by my mum. The classic Canton-style Rice Dumpling with Pork. It’s also generously packed with ingredients — pork belly, dried shrimp, green bean, chestnut and mushroom. In this 粽子, there’s more filling than rice. Mum’s dumpling may not be the nicest in others’ eyes, but it’s the best 粽子 in my eyes cause I have been eating them for years. Mum will choose an auspicious date then wake up early in the morning to start frying the ingredients and wrapping the 粽子. The preparation of the ingredrients have to take place days before the actual wrapping of the 粽子.

The other 粽子 that I liked to eat is 碱水粽. This one is usually eaten with sugar but I like to eat it with kaya instead. In fact, the kaya must be even be the one bought from Ya Kun.  The rice is treated with edible alkaline, hence its yellowish color. It’s plain and tasteless. My mum doesn’t know how to cook this so my favourite is the one that my mother-in-law makes. But unfortunately, my mother-in-law din make any this year.

Just as I was feeling quite upset about this, Dada bought me some 碱水粽 from the fruit stall in Hougang market. The fruit seller was telling us that it’s from Thailand. The 碱水粽 is really very mini!

Yummy 碱水粽!

Well, these 2 types of dumplings are basically my favourite. I really hope to learn from my mum how to make dumpling some time soon. 🙂

Renovation (Part 3)

–30 July 2012 (Monday)–

Another lesson to be learnt as part of the renovation process ~ the installation of city gas.

A few weeks ago, the serviceman from City Gas came to install the gas pipe in the kitchen. We thought the position was fine but apparently when Daniel (the carpenter) came, he said the position is wrong. The pipe is right in the centre which means if the oven was to placed below the stove, there wouldn’t be enough space for the oven.

This is the wrong position for the gas pipe if your oven is right under the stove.

Sounds bad right? Anyway… Dada has been a great hubby and coordinator when it comes to renovation. Dada ensured me nothing will go wrong and he contacted the serivceman from City Gas to come to our place again. Lady Luck was on our side. 🙂 The first installation and the 2nd re-stallation is free. Subsequent restallation will result in a fee. Phew!

The correct position of the gas pipe which is more towards the side.

So the serviceman came today and installed the pipe at the correct place, which is more towards the side. Hope it’s really the correct place. 🙂

Renovation (Part 2)

–10 July 2012 (Tuesday)–

It’s a whole new learning process when it comes to renovation. You know, the constraints of concealing wires in HDB. HDB has rules that you can’t conceal wires and it’s an interesting experience we had when we met 3 electricians.

 The first one, recommended by our contractor, Mr Lim, said it cost $3000 – $4000 to do up the electricity with concealing. Let’s skip the second electrican first. The third one said he don’t do things that are against the law. Wah!! So upright of him. :p Haha!

The second electrican is the one we got. He offered us another solution when he knew that we were going to change the floor tiles. He suggested running cables on the ground. In this way, it’s concealed in a lawful manner coz no drilling was involved on the wall!! Kuodos to this smart electrician! 🙂 Yes Yes! And we got him as our electrician coz of his quick-thinking and  good price he offered us.

Hmm… so what’s done after 4 days. Well, the old tiles have been removed, cables have been laid on the ground, tiles have been ordered and above the electrical cables on the ceiling. Oh.. and the concrete Kerb for both the kitchen and the toilet have been done.

This is how our house looks like after 4 working days. 🙂

Looks like progress is good! 🙂 Next person to chase will be the painter. Hopefully the painter we are going to look for will be cheap and good. 🙂

Start of Renovation (Part 1)

–5 July 2012 (Thursday)–

Yup Yup! You didn’t read wrongly. I know we have collected our keys for more than 6 months and it doesn’t seems right to only start renoving after 6 months.

Well… it wasn’t exactly all our fault. We engaged this contractor Mr Lim through my buddy, Amy.  Strangely, our this contractor is unlike the other contractors. We are supposed to look for people to do things. Not we tell him what to do and he finds people to do. Werid right?

Anyway, this contractor like super busy always saying next week start work but his next week will never come. Another reason was also because everyone was waiting for one another. For instance, the electrican was waiting for the carpenter, the carpenter was waiting for the contractor and etc. Anyway… what’s past is past! Dada and I were just glad that renovation work has started! Yeah!

This is how our house looks like after the 1st day.

 Both Dada and I just hoped that our house will be ready by the time I give birth to baby! 🙂

Tomato & Cream Prawns Pasta

–16 July 2012 (Monday)–

I love to eat pasta a lot coz it’s a dish that only Mummy can’t cook as well as Dada! :p

However today, I wanted Dada to cook something different. Something that I have been thinking about in my mind. I wanted Dada to cook Cream & Tomato Prawns Pasta! 

Tomato and Cream Prawns Pasta

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• 6 deshelled prawns
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of sundried tomatoes pesto
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons of thickened cream
• 50g butter
• salt & ground black pepper, to season
• chopped parsley to garnish

Steps

•  Place a pan over medium heat and melt the butter.
• Coat the prawns with some cornflour and stir fry them till semi cooked. Take out the prawns.
• Add the garlic, onion and sundried tomatoes and fry till the onions soften. Be careful not to burn the garlic, as it will turn bitter.
• Add the tomato paste and thickened cream and mix till well combined.
• Add in the semi-cooked prawns into the pan and mix it well.
• Pour the pasta into the pan and mix it well, making sure the pasta is coated well with the sauce.
• Season with freshly ground black pepper.
• Serve and garnish with parsley

Dada said it was a relatively simple dish to cook. The result? Both of us loved the pasta super lots! Yeah! We have a new recipe to pasta now. Yeah! 🙂

Malacca Here We Come!!

–6 April 2012 (Friday)–

It’s Good Friday!! Yes! It’s a public holiday. This Good Friday holiday came at a great time as both Dada and I wanted to be out of Singapore for a little while to enjoy. The first place that came to our mind was Malacca!!

So off we went to Malacca for a one day trip. We left early in the morning at 7 a.m. to avoid peanut butter’s pal ~ Jam!! :p But I supposed every Singaporean has the same thought too, they left earlier than us and when we reached the checkpoint, there was a little jam. But… I must say, the jam wasn’t that bad – still reasonable. 1.5 hours later and we were on the expressway in Malaysia! 🙂

 

1st stop ~ Dim Sum

Unfortunately, I can’t remember where this place is.. Haha! Never mind lah! We took some pictures for everyone to admire and envy what we ate. :p

Yummy Dim Sum were the first that filled our tummy! :p

2nd stop ~ Donald and Lily’s Corner 

Entrance of Donald & Lily’s cafe

Donald & Lily’s Corner

Off Jalan  Tun Tan Cheng Lock

Closed on every Monday

Business hour is from 9.30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Donald & Lily’s Corner is located in the alley behind Hereen Street (Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock). Interesting fact about this cafe is that the main entrance is actually located at the back alley ~ the back door of the building. We parked our car diagonal to Donald & Lily. It’s a huge open-aired car park!

It’s kind of comfort and cozy in it. There’s decoration around the place which seems like it’s not related to Peranakan or Nyonya Baba. But…. never mind! Coz what Dada and I are interested in is their cendol and food!

The interior of the cafe.

We ordered the Nonya Laska and Dada’s favourite ~ Cendol! The Nonya Laska is rich in their coconut. So woman out there, if you want to maintain your figure, this is not the dish for you coz the coconut serving is very generous! As for the Cendol, it’s super duper nice. Both Dada and I love the Cendol lots. It’s sweet but not overly sweet.

Cendol & Laska ~ Both are our favourite!

3rd stop ~ Satay 

Yummy Satays on the plate

 This satay stall in Malacca is very interesting. The moment you sit down, they will put some ketupat and pineapple satay sauce on the table. The next moment, a plate of different satays, like pork, chicken, liver, etc will be placed on your table. Not to worry! You don’t have to eat everything that is placed on your table. You just pay whatever you need!

 

4th stop ~ Seafood!!

It’s dinnertime! Seafood!

Seafood has always been our favourite. It’s especially nice if it’s caught from the sea and then cooked it! We had seafood for dinner! Other than seafood, Dada ordered nasi lemak. He said the rice has rich coconut aroma.

Well… that’s all for our Malacca food trip. Of course other than eating, we did some shopping and take some photos. Dada bought me a new pair of crocs shoes from Crocs. It’s for me to wear when I’m in the 2nd trimester! Dada is so sweet to baby and I. 🙂

Shopping and photo taking time! Do you know my Crocs shoes can change colour under the sun?? 🙂