Wednesday, October 16
Gratitude
More than 3 years ago
As dear was driving me home one day..
We noticed that the Land for Sale was up at the very corner opposite the reservoir.
We were secretly and cravingly hoping that there was some "new project" going on..
It would be great if we could own a place there.
The reservoir view, the close proximity to the MRT
And best of all,
It's nearby my parents place :)
Then weeks later,
We read on H88 that they are inviting private developers to send in bids to buy that land.
MCL Land won.
A few weeks later,
They started building the showroom.
We managed to sneak a peek at the name.
The Estuary it is.
Somehow
We didn't think it was possible.
It was really wishful thinking on our part.
That huge loan was going to kill us.
What if we lose our jobs, what if we fall sick, what if we can never go travelling again..
Endless what ifs..etc.
Giving up the idea,
We began looking for new HDB and resale maisonettes instead.
We were unable to quality for new HDB..
And simply could not bring ourselves to buy resale.
Stuck.
Then one Friday 26 Feb 2010
We drove past the site again.
Showroom is up.
Sparkling glass walls, bustling with people..
Pre launch had started.
Estuary was beckoning to us.
With itchy backsides
We drove in on the spur of the moment.
But we couldn't find any parking space.
We almost wanted to forget about the whole idea and drive off when a Propnex agent came to us.
His name was Brian.
He asked if we had any appointment and if he could help us.
We said no.
Brian told us that day was the first day of pre launch and usually people could only view the showroom with invites.
But he asked us to wait as his customer was preparing to leave.
He could secure that parking space for us.
So he brought us inside and began the usual procedures upon entering a showroom.
Propping us with the brochures with a few standard questions, we began the tour inside.
Brian did not brush us off like some agents thinking we are just kids trying to waste their time.
He was really sincere.
The developer only launched two blocks that day.
The one and two bedrooms
And it was already 80% sold.
Every single storey up meant $3k additional.
Brian told us perhaps there isn't a project in Yishun for a long time..
There are many people waiting to upgrade.
Such good sales have never happened before.
Hence the next few blocks that they were going to open up are going to be subjected to ballots.
We jaw dropped..
Private project with ballots?
He showed us the site plan.
And asked which one we are interested in.
We knew we wanted the 3 bedrooms facing the reservoir.
But there is always a but.
We are unsure whether we can afford it.
So he suggested that we talked to a banker first.
All the bankers were lined at the sides.
He asked which bank loan we prefer if we were to take up a loan.
And introduced one to us.
We were pretty surprised by the bank loans offered.
There is this loan that we can pay off any amount anytime to offset the loan and reduce the overall interest.
And after some calculation,
We barely scrapped through.
The agent suggested we gave him a blank cheque.
We went blank.
Eyes wide open, trust is a big factor.
He explained that the cheque is just a ticket for him to bid a unit for us.
We discussed it over dinner and checked out our CPF balance.
Overloaded with information with a pinch of every emotion possible.
Excitement, fear, uncertainty..
Those butterflies in the stomach.
The next morning
Dear received a call from Brian.
He was camping out early morning outside the showroom.
And stood in front of the developer as they announced the new blocks released..
With only a few ballots given out a certain time frame..
6th storey and 10th storey,
The block we wanted, slightly bursting our maximum budget..
Shall he proceed with the 10th or not?
The unit was actually given to two agents at the same time..
Who were actually competing to see which of their customer confirms first.
The other customer said he needed to think about it.
Dear said ok immediately without hesitation.
Hence we got it.
The rest are history.
And till now,
I'm still amazed and frightened at the same time..
Amazed by the circumstances of how we met this agent
Amazed by how everything fell into place nicely
Amazed by our own guts
Amazed by this touch of luck.
I've never been lucky and that explains the fear element.
And I've been humbled more than ever.
This shelter doesn't come easy..
And I'm really really thankful for it.
*****
Labels: dear, experience, home, life, Motivation, musings, reflections, The Estuary, thoughts
irony @
11:07 PM
Thursday, June 6
Crestfallen
Reached a bottleneck
With no way out of the long dark tunnel..
And I hated the job to the guts..
I was repulsive towards everyone..
Everyone.
And I wanted to stay away from civilisation.
Stay away from logic.
Thoughts mired
Words stumped.
My mind refused to accept any form of negotiations.
I was at the bottom of the large crashing wave
Perplexed and baffled
Unable to find my way up.
No help given to me
And the world went against you.
But still I had to render help everywhere.
I was disheartened..
I was tired.
Overwhelmed with exhaustion.
Then that moment came.
Spirits lifted, that invisible hand guided me.
My stocks issues got worse..
That trepidation remained.
But I felt liberated after the longest ever down period.
The aftermath of a thunderstorm..
Is it all calm and peaceful?
Or is it the beginning of another storm?
*****
Labels: musings, ramblings, stress, thoughts, work
irony @
10:58 PM
Friday, December 21
Down
Never been so down before.
My brain is literally burnt.
I've never abused it so badly before..
Fever 4 times in a month..
Coughing like a hyena and vomiting my guts out..
And the medicine I took far exceeded what I would take for the past 3 years..
Felt like shit.
Everytime I tried to bring myself back on track with the running shoes..
I find myself going down again.
Life has been a robotic flow..
I need some nature..
Badly.
*****
Labels: random, thoughts
irony @
1:16 PM
Tuesday, October 23
The sun rises and sets again
Sitting in the conference room
Staring at the projector screen..
My mind's blank.
The body has been programmed to clear any incoming emails the minute it reaches the Inbox..
Then attempting to jump back onto the train of issues that were dragged on and on and on...
Issues.
What issues?
The different school of thoughts merely brings one from a continuum to another..
It's either black or white.
What is one's medicine, is another's poison.
Different paradigms..
Can you really fault one and favor the other one?
The existence of us..
To breach the gaps and come out with solutions to the problems created by people who first invented the process that they thought beneficial.
Then we come out with more "improvements" by giving ourselves more work to solve those problems.
Eventually these new improvements will create problems for the people who come after us.
How long does one need to stay to see that it's all a cycle?
Jaded.
I'm still on the same spot.
Swinging on a pendulum of emotions,
Just like a rag doll.
Then i started asking myself.
What have I achieve today.
Any memorable events to leave a mark on my short life?
At 30 years of age.
What have I achieve?
The milestones we thought we achieved
The material things we owned..
The meagre experience we went through..
Are they really..meaningful?
We watch TV after dinner..
We watch scripted dramas and movies..
We watch someone else live their lives..
Entertaining.
Is that really..meaningful?
Waiting.
How many more years of life do we have to claim tomorrow?
How much more energy have we left to fulfill our dreams?
How much more "I should have done it when I could.." can life grant us?
Raging ideas and ideals..
What have I done today?
What have you done today?
*****
Labels: musings, random, thoughts
irony @
11:46 PM
Saturday, October 6
Helsinki
Pre Wedding Preparations
Arrived Helsinki at 1 am
GMT+3 (Singapore time 6am)
So technically speaking,
We went without sleep for an entire day.
Arrived at the airport like a zombie,
We saw an equally zombified Don.
He was trying to get the airport taxi services for us.
Taxi services cost 50 Euro for an half an hour trip.
We went straight back to Tuuli's dad apartment which we would be putting up for the next 6 days.
The sky's still dark when we reached the apartment.
Dumped our luggage and went straight to shower.
Not without an irony,
Don asked us to go to bed fast cos it's getting "early".
The sun's coming out out 3am.
After 7 hours of sleep..
Felt good to be woken up by Don..
Havent really seen my brother for half a year..
It had been so long since he woke me up for work after he bathed for school.
Tuuli's parents will be picking us up at 1130am.
We had no idea what the plans were.
Don was giving us weird stares for constantly asking him what the plans are.
Nevertheless,
We met Tuuli's parents, Illari and Tuija for the first time.
Not surprised how Tuuli got her genes..
She got parents with classy and supermodel looks.
We cannot thank Illari enough for giving up his apartment for our 6 days of stay.
We headed straight to Don and Tuuli's wedding venue for some preparation work.
And we saw this for the first time.
Ravintola Seurasaari (Restaurant Seurasaari)
A quaint restaurant which was established in 1873 located among the greens on Seurasaari island.
Very well conserved.
And there is a beautiful Seurasaari bridge with height 3.3 m that connects to the island.
Only service vehicles and Seurasaari personnel are permitted to cycle on the island.
Otherwise,
No cars allowed and all visitors have to walk in through the forested area to reach the restaurant.
Because we were "personnel" of the bride and groom,
We were allowed to drive through this bridge.
-picture taken from the web-
Unloaded the stuff
Illari ushered us to the cafe and asked us to choose whatever we wanted for breakfast.
It was on their bill.
Vegetable croissant and Munkki (Finnish doughnut)
During breakfast,
Ming and I kept asking them what time we were leaving the restaurant..
What are the plans thereafter..
Dad was supposed to meet us straight at the restaurant to give Don a surprise.
If we left early,
Dad would definitely be stranded.
We finally spilled the beans to Tuuli.
An elated her actually conversed to her parents in bullet Finnish that even Don could not understand.
It ended that her parents had to change some plans.
Illari and Ming would go to the airport to pick Dad and bring him straight to Tuija's apartment.
But before all that happened,
They had a rehearsal with Don's best man trying to get the music right.
Then it was sorting out the decorations for both the restaurant (for the wedding dinner) and the cafe (for the post wedding supper).
They were not allowed to do much changes to the restaurant.
But they were allowed to create a Bali ambience in the cafe.
We could only start decorating on the wedding day itself as there would be another event that evening.
After all's done,
I checked out the premises..
>
The restaurant was beautiful on its own..
Both inside and outside
We took a walk into the woods by the lake with Tuija and Tuuli..
Pure detoxification of the mind and soul :)
Duckilings come out to play during summer..
Seagulls pecked the grounds
Sneaking a shot with the bride to be..
Mother and daughter
>
Mothers of the bride and groom
*****
Thereafter
We took Tuija's car back to her apartment.
Met Tuuli's sister, Vilja for the first time.
And then Illari pulled up with Ming and their secret guest hurhur.
The expression on Don's face, classic :)
Tuija served us wine and sparkling juice..
And some smoked salmon on rye bread as appetizers while they prepared lunch.
The parents :)
(Tuuli's dad is a mix between Richard Gere and Harrison Ford)
The apartment was a cosy one.
Very Ikea infused.
Lunch was healthy and sumptuous.
No fried stuff, no red meat.
Everything was boiled.
We had a different type of rye bread with cooked salmon and scrambled eggs.
Then it was boiled baby potatoes with pickled Herring and salad with cashew nuts, dried rasberries.
Did not manage to take photos of the food..
Cos I was ushered into the sitting area before I could grab my camera.
It was nice seeing the parents click right away.
The Finns are people who aloof on the outside.
But warm up to you quickly once they know you better.
They share life experiences without showing off..
They share real knowledge, not hearsay.
Dessert was a satisfying home made pie with yoghurt ice cream.
Tuija made this :)
Tuija and Vilja have two cats..
One just like to stay posed on the shelf.
The other playful one is just like a dog who often snuggles up to people and loves laying on Don's shoes..
Imagine when I open the door to the toilet..
*****
After Tuija's place..
Don drove us to the supermarket to grab some stuff for dinner and the next few days of breakfast.
The area had a cluster of huge supermarkets side by side for you to choose your groceries.
Merchandizing is definitely better because you see more goods than human beings.
Chocolates are cheap, real cheap.
We have a very happy dad here :)
And daddy went to the "passenger" seat..
Left hand drive :p
*****
Illari's place is a cosy abode..
Minimalist with tasteful arrangements.
Sewing machines.
His unique collection.
It was almost 10pm at night..
We took a walk around the neighborhood..
Small groups of people were lazing around on the open field..
This felt damn good.
Daddy wore shorts and shivered badly in them..
Further down the neighborhood sits a harbor.
The sky, illuminated by the setting sun.
A nice walk back accompanied by a field of lovely flowers
*****
Labels: Europe, family, Helsinki, photo logs, thoughts, travel
irony @
6:06 PM
Sunday, September 9
A brush with Scandinavia
After a flight of 12 hours
With my body going into a state of limbo..
Time is screwed.
No longer aware what time it should be..
Be it sleeping time, movie time, breakfast or lunch time.
The air craft cabin was another world on its own.
Totally had no appetite for the second meal.
But we opened the shutters to this,
Absolutely no idea which continent we were above.
And I'm beginning to love the thrill of all..
As we stepped off the plane..
We saw a lady carry a huge bag pack, lugging a hand carry bag, pulling a little girl on a suitcase with another brawling little boy tugging and pulling at his mother's sleeves, demanding to be carried.
The lady needed help obviously,
And there wasn't a single sign of exasperation on her face.
She took it in her stride and was really thankful when mommy offered to carry her bag so that she could carry her kid.
We walked 5 mins all the way back to the queue
There were only two queues, no other way out.
One to the transit flights, the other to the passport check point.
So we queued for another 40 minutes before we finally see the passport check point.
Looking around us,
We were the only Asians around.
The rest were tanned blondes in suits and cardigans.
Absurdly good looking people.
When someone tried to cut the queue in front,
The people at the back all let out a unanimous "mm mm"..
And then smiled to the attempters and politely asked them to join the queue behind.
Such happy people!
After checking out,
We proceeded to the automated machines..
With the help of another crazy good looking staff..
He helped us checked in for our night transit flight to Helsinki.
Since our baggage went straight to Helsinki,
We proceeded to Left Luggage between Terminal 2 and 3 to leave one of our bags for 50 Kroners.
At the Metro station
We realized the credit cards can only be used with pins.
So this had to be by cash.
75 DKK per day ticket
Copenhagen
A dream came true.
Still unable to believe that I managed to wait for a stopover ticket at Copenhagen en route Helsinki.
We had a whole 10 hours to ourselves :)
It was too early for breakfast as most cafes by the harbor are not open.
We took a one hour canal tour departing from Nyhavn.
One of the best way to see Copenhagen..
Blue skies, precious sunlight and cool wind..
What more can we ask for :)
At this time,
The boat rides are already filled with both locals and tourists.
70 DKK per person
This is a lucrative business.
All the guides attached to the boat are young and sporty.
Tanned bodies, lobster red faces..
Resulted from being in the sun all day long.
And the best of all
They speak at least 3 languages.
The boat ride took us through these wonderful architectures..
Both new and old..
Theatre for ballet and opera
Royal Danish Playhouse
Copenhagen Opera House
Black Diamond
(Singapore's Esplanade equivalent)
The biggest shipping conglomerate
Danish A.P. Moller Maersk Line Headquarters
The white building with its signature small blue windows
People crowding around Little Mermaid
Thurah's corkscrew spire,
Church of Our Saviour
Church of Holmen
Spotted this interesting red bricked house whose stairs are outside and over the water
Commerce Building with a Spire that has four dragon fingers wrapping around it
Sandcastles in the making
The other tour departing from Gammel Strand
I see a lot of happy blonde kids on the streets..
Yacht to travel the many harbours in Copenhagen..
Loveeee this camera :)
*****
After the tour in just an hour difference..
Nyhavn is filled with people..
The al fresco ambience is electrifying.
We took brunch at Nyhavn 17..
An old restaurant since 1936 :)
Soaked up the ambience
This felt good, really good :)
Our breakfast took a little longer than expected.
They have this bakery in the basement, and bread was freshly baked only upon orders placed.
All of us were shivering outdoors..
This cuppa hot chocolate was god sent in this temperature.
Brunch
Nyhavn Fish Trio
Best apple pie I have eaten
We sat for a while, really "chilling" out.
Tried to order some warm water..
And unknowingly,
We ordered a bottle of water that was more expensive than the hot chocolate.
And we did not expect the water to be chilled.
The entire meal cost us 347 krons (SGD 80)
Water after that was refilled from the toilets..
Wa sat watching the people fill up the restaurant..
Danish tugging their dogs to and fro..
Then we saw this beautiful husky at the cafe
*****
After brunch
We proceeded with our itinerary.
Fredericks Church (The Marble Church)
A few minutes walk away..
Amalienborg Palace (The Royal Palace)
This palace is the winter home of the Danish royal family
Royal Life Guards changing parade
Behind the palace was Amaliehaven, a two level garden
We walked back to Nyhavn,
To look for the ice cream shop we came across before brunch
By now,
The harbour was filled with loads of people
Old couples strolling hand in hand..
Young adults chatting, eating sandwiches and ice cream by the waterfront.
Businessmen in suits dining and people watching..
Street artists performing
Both young and old
We blended in :D
*****
On our way to Strøget..
Strøget is not difficult to spot.
Being the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe, the crowd of people gives its location away.
Many of the city's most famous and expensive stores are found here.
Bicycles are a common sight.
We see young women casually chain their bicycles outside the shops before they went in.
The things there are really expensive.
No intention of buying any stuff.
We were in fact planning for Helsinki shopping.
It was more of basking in the happy shopping crowd :)
All we came across are good natured people who apologized to you even though you bumped into them.
We see a lot of young parents spending quality time with their children..
The cohort of people here..
Filled with energy, full of life :)
*****
The end of Strøget is our next destination.
Rundetårn (The Round Tower)
A 17th-century tower is an astronomical observatory.
It is most noted for its 7.5-turn helical corridor leading to the top, and for the expansive views it affords over Copenhagen
The view atop
Us braving the cold gusts of wind
*****
We had one more place to check out on our itinerary
But along the way,
It's not possible to miss this huge public square that is brimming and bustling with more relaxed people.
Rådhuspladsen (The City Hall Square)
We continued to see groups of people who whizzed by you in the most fashionable wear..
Ladies in tight skirts and smart blazers
Chic youths in funky styles
Bicycles became functional accessories for transport.
We saw this modern glass bus interchange acoss the road.
Weird how this modern structure stood in the midst of the old buildings..
Tivoli Gardens is right beside it.
*****
Tivoli Gardens
A famous amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen.
The park is the second oldest amusement park in the world.
Read the travelogue that Tivoli is a place worth visiting.
This is one amusement park that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland
Even without the rides,
The place is exquisite enough to keep you happy and relaxed
Since mommy was so exhausted, plus we did not have much krons left,
We went to the entrance but skipped it altogether.
We routed back to the City Hall Square and tried to look for dinner.
Ming wanted to try the hotdog bun from the mobile van.
So we ended up sitting on the benches at the square like the rest of the Danish..
Soaking in the sun, people watch while munching on a hotdog bun.
Birds were roaming the area, and flocked to the bread crumbs during "feeding time"..
Everything was so carefree and easy
More street artists claimed their space.
In Copenhagen,
All the street performers that we came across are extremely talented.
So Youtube worthy that could garnered million hits.
But none of them are hankering after fame or money.
They are here simply to make ends meet, to make a living.
A final shot as we depart for the airport.
Copenhagen is not a place for retirement, but still I loveee the ambience here :)
An ultimate jump shot to end the post :D
(I have no idea how he did it)
*****
Labels: Copenhagen, Europe, family, photo logs, thoughts, travel
irony @
10:17 PM
