transposable element

my mom and aunt will be coming over and i need to make another trip to ikea to get some stuff. instead of buying guest beds, i was thinking of getting a sofa bed since we needed a sofa anyway for the third bedroom we’ve converted into a working cum tv room. we’ve decided that the living room is not the place for the tv. afterall, the only person who really uses the tv in our household is jan (well i do, too, but only for 3 programs in tfc), and this way, when guests come over, we can entertain in peace, without having to compete with the volume of ben 10’s heat blaster. if jan would have his way, he’d want a home theater carpet and a popcorn maker, as well, but no way, jose. be happy i’m putting in a sofa at all.

june 28th marks the end of our first year here in singapore. one year! and yet sometimes, it feels like we’ve just arrived. it’s a tiny island, and yet there’s still a lot we’ve yet to discover– places to see, things to do, foods to taste, cultures to understand, friendships to nurture.

i wouldn’t say it’s the greatest place on earth, and i know that for me, this is not THE final destination, but so far, it’s been swell being here. its a place that’s easy to get used to and
yet, every now and then, you discover new facets that makes it quite intriguing. for such a tiny island, i can’t say i’ve had enough of it yet.

as they say, i’m keeping my fork. the best is yet to come!

reading tin’s success in using muffin pans to bake banana cakes reawakened my hankering for an oven. our kitchen here in our flat is not equipped with one (doesn’t seem to e a standard here, i was told) and i’ve been wanting one since… well, practically since we moved in. i used the oven a lot when we were in germany, not just for breads and cakes, but for other main dishes too. as lazy as i am, i love the way you can slide something in and just wait til it’s done. frees you up to do something else while dinner is getting cooked pretty much on its own.

oh well, when i start asking for recipes you’ll know i’ve crossed another one of my wishlist!

if you’re a shopaholic, it’s the perfect time to visit singapore now; the great singapore sale is on ’til july 20. from designer label fashion to tiangge stuff, electronic gadgets, jewelry, toys, teak furniture, everything you can think of is on sale. even services such as nail and spa treats are having discounted GSS rates.

but i’m not going ga-ga over it. we’ve been here almost a year now, and there is almost always a sale anyway. no joke. just when a sale period ends, they find another reason to make one right after. believe it or not, you kinda get immune to the word “sale”.

when we were in germany, i always complained about the weather. particularly during the cold and dark days of winter. now that we’re in singapore, i’m still complaining, this time, about the heat and humidity. when i was pregnant, it was almost unbearable. i used to take cool (nearly cold) showers, turn on the aircon, and then stand in front of an electric fan for a few minutes of reprieve from the heat. the worst would be during meals, as we don’t have an ac in the living/dining rooms. we even thought of changing the lamp above the dining table to one of those small chandeliers that double as ceiling fans.

now that mia is here, you’d think coping with the heat would be easier. but no, someone turned the temperature control a notch higher the last few days, i think. and the way mia clings to me during the day, arrgh, we’re sweating buckets!

if there’s one smart move we made before leaving germany, it was to sign up for the mawista health insurance. as i’ve blogged previously, the efficiency of the health care system in germany is something i have been very impressed with. as we were not sure what kind of health insurance we’d be getting here in singapore and how long the paperwork will take to get the family covered, we decided to sign up for a year’s coverage with mawista to bridge the gap. basically, it’s like a year long travel health insurance.

it turned out that the local health insurance we have here does not cover a lot of things. pregnancy and childbirth, for example, isn’t, as it’s not considered to be an illness. so if we didn’t have mawista, we would have had to cough out the S$4000-6000 from our own pockets for the delivery alone. that’s assuming it’s going to be a normal, straightforward delivery. as it is, we’ll have to shell out the cash upfront anyway, but at least we get reimbursed later. now i understand why, during my first consultation with the OB-Gyn, upon seeing on my records that i am a pinoy, the receptionist asked whether i plan to give birth here in singapore. i thought it was a ridiculous question then. after all, where else would i want to give birth? i live here, don’t i? but now, i get it.

i never really fully understood the connection of easter eggs, easter bunnies and easter egg hunt to the christian feast celebrating jesus christ’s rising from the dead. and having celebrated easter here in singapore, i got even more confused. over the easter weekend, we saw lots of people go and visit and offer gifts to their dead and burn pieces of paper. although perhaps that was an entirely different commemoration that didn’t have anything to do with easter and was just a date coincidence. or qingming, the chinese all souls’ day held in advance? oh well…

for jan, easter is like a mini christmastime, just that instead of the nikolaus, it’s the easter bunny bringing the goodies. sometimes i feel a bit worried perpetrating these illusions. when it eventually sinks in that there really is no santa claus, and that bunnies couldn’t care less about colored eggs, it’s gonna be one major letdown.

a sneak peek of our photos from last weekend’s shoot:

many many thanks to rey and cata and the rest of the gang…

sorry, thumbnails na lang muna. shy ako eh. hehe.

it’s been a busy busy weekend, trolling the shops for home and baby stuff. we’ve finally made it to the baby hyperstore and baby kingdom warehouse shops in kaki bukit, but i guess it wasn’t such a good idea to go on a weekend. too many people, too little space, and the staff were simply overwhelmed. there also didn’t seem to be many strollers meant for newborns on display (although i was surprised that they did carry the mia moda cielo. it was really as amazing as it was on video!). we left the place with not a single purchase.

then off to ikea at tampines. bought some small items, and have decided on which bigger pieces to have delivered. several shelves, also for jan’s room. it still awes me that for just $40, ikea does home delivery, and for a minimal fee, would even assemble your stuff for you. back in germany? d.i.y. all the way, baby! even if you had a car, you’d need truck racks to bring home those long slabs of wood, which you’d have to put together yourself, too. i don’t want to imagine how much it would cost if you ask an ikea staff to come over to your place to assemble your furniture. probably several times more than what you paid for the item itself, haha.

next stop: courts. they’re currently having a sale (which store isn’t?!) and we wanted to look at the washing machines they had on display. i was dead set on getting a bosch (german brand, of course. i would have wanted a miele, but man, it’s teuer), but the salesperson (who seemed to know what she was talking about — a rarity in shops here, it seems) did a very convincing pitch for electrolux. gotta decide within the week…

sunday, we watched the waterhorse (really endearing film!) and then proceeded to the mayhem called orchard road. they say this is the country’s ultimate shopping paradise, but i’m not sure why i dislike this place so much. but oh well, takashimaya is having a baby fair, and i was told they had more strollers on display. sure enough, they did. but again, the place was so crowded i can’t hear myself think, much more evaluate and decide on the items on display. so after about half an hour milling about, we gave up; i guess i’ll simply have to go back on a weekday, maybe at opening time when there would be virtually nobody!

i think i have my malling dose for the week, though. make that a month. there used to be a time when i enjoyed going to the malls, if just for window shopping. now? if i could buy everything online, i would.

sign of aging?

ikea is having a sale at the moment, and even though i am starting to have the impression that the quality of ikea stuff here is substandard (paint easily chips off, textiles gets frayed faster), i’m off to get some cheap-but-functional bookshelves. we’ve still got about a dozen unpacked boxes of books and various papers and jan’s room needs more shelf space too. arrgh, it seems that no matter how i intended to keep the flat’s furnishings to bare minimum to maximize space, we’re constantly needing shelves, shelves, and more shelves! i’ve actually thought of getting a tv wall mount (they have cheapo ones in ikea, too) to free up floor space, but then there’s still the players and cable tv box to shelve anyway, so it doesn’t seem to make sense.

more than half a year and we’re not yet done furnishing the flat. there’s the washing machine to buy as well, and i really want to be able to bake again, so i intend to get an oven soon, too. and with the baby on the way, a whole lot of other stuff as well. ka-ching!