Friday, October 30, 2009
Help me Auntie Anne! I'm troubled
I'm very depressed.. Depressed over my tenant Lisa. In fact, I couldn't sleep well the whole night. Only managed to sleep about 3am.
Actually it's all our fault that we didn't make things clearly when Lisa came for viewing. Lisa is a SIA girl and was the one officially looking for a place. Alvin, whom Lisa claimed wasn't really her boyfriend then, came along with her during the viewing. We asked if he will be staying over and she said no cos he goes back to Malaysia everyday. The impression that we get then was that they were probably not in a staple relationship yet. Considering the fact that she's going to fly around quite often and we are renting to one person, we don't mind to downrate our rent from our previous $750 to her budget of $550. But we did one thing wrong. Daniel told her that Alvin can stay over once in a while if he has to.
So on the day when Lisa moved in, we gave her two sets of keys but she didn't want to give one set to Alvin. The contract also clearly indicates that we only rent out to one tenant, Lisa. On our set of terms and conditions, we also indicated very clearly that no bringing back and overnight staying of friends.
Things were ok initially until Alvin came over to help Lisa run some errands and he stayed overnight without Lisa around, saying that he will fetching Lisa from the airport early in the morning. So we didn't say much then. However since then, I guess their relationship has progressed and Lisa gave Alvin the keys and he started staying overnight every time Lisa is around.
There were even a couple of times when he came home suddenly when Lisa wasn't around in Singapore. I was caught by surprised because I wasn't expecting anyone to be around in the house since Daniel was in reservist too. So I quickly went back into the room to change into something more appropriate with only me & a man around.
Lisa alone is fine. At least she is a girl. But I really don't feel uncomfortable with a man at home, uncomfortable at the fact that there is a couple living in my house. I mean.. what could they be doing in the room, sometimes I can't help but wonder, especially when I'm home alone. It really torments me a lot sometimes.
And there is also another issue. Considering the fact that she's a SIA gal, we decide not to impose a "only on the aircon at night" policy on her since she may come back in the morning or afternoon. But we did tell her right from the first day, that if she around for a few days, please don't on the aircon for long hours. However from our observation, especially since Alvin (who is a free-lance Interior Designer) has been staying over, they can on the aircon for the whole day! We have been tracking our utility bill and the electricity they are using is equivalent to the usage of four of my previous tenants before we moved in. This is ridiculous since Lisa is not even in Singapore everyday. Deducting their utility usage, we are barely making $10plus a day!
With all these issues, I feel frustrated because I'm compromising too much privacy for too little $. Sometimes I can't help but to feel regrets.
I wanna stop this entire renting dinggy!!!! But Daniel feels that it is too early to stop since he has just moved over to the bank and has not stabilized in his job. He knows my frustration and he wants me to talk to Lisa about it. But it's so difficult cos Alvin is always around.
Screaming out!!!! Can anyone understand my dilemma?Everytime I'm frustrated, I want to talk to Daniel and I know that talking again and again won't make any changes unless we make an action -
- Either to tell them we don't want to rent anymore (Not stable now) OR
- To tell them about Alvin & electricity (but I'm sure there will be confrontations and I'm not courageous to tell her myself) OR
- Make them pay more rental but this will give Alvin the right to stay when Lisa is not around, which is definitely not what I want.
Two nights ago just when I thought that Lisa is alone finally for a night, I wanted to go down to the kitchen in my sleeping attire. Daniel was telling me don't need to put on my bathrobe to cover my sleeping attire (nothing sneezy, just less materials) but I went ahead with my bathrobe. Just when we least expected him to be around at
1am, he was standing at the main door as I was walking down the stairs. Luckily I was in my bathrobe!!!
So I hinted him:
"Hey nowadays you don't need to go back to M'sia ah?"Alvin:
"Oh no lah, cos tonight work late."In my mind i was thinking,
"Please la.. 1am leh! What a lame excuse.. you are staying here everyday!"Man being man, although they know you are angry and sad, but they don't want to hear the same thing again & again. Daniel was tired and slept. I was left awake alone the whole night, couldn't sleep becos I can't talk to anyone. I was so depressed, I cried.
I want to work hard for the next two months and earn more $$$! But meanwhile can someone be my Auntie Anne and counsel my emotions? I'm overwhelmed...
Karen Yeo Smiles at |1:31 PM|
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
P78 eating at my house
After reading all the blogs about our attempts in cooking in Ruxin's & my blog....
Evelyn said to me one day in the office: "Hey why you gals never cook for us to eat??? Never chio us... Include us leh..."
Me: "You sure you wanna eat our food? No problem..."
So there and then, a dinner at my place was set. And that was before Evelyn set off for her Bangkok holiday. The conversation ended with Evelyn saying: "This week that I'm not around, you gals don't cook without me around ah!"
...........................................................................................
So the day came (the Wednesday that just passed) when P78 came to my place for dinner. Audrey was also invited over since she was part of P78 before.
Having thought that since I have pre-advance prepared the Bak Ku Teh soup & marinated some stuff in the morning , it shouldn't take too long to prepare the rest of the remaining 4 dishes. So we dily darly in the office, and with the traffic jam, we only managed to start preparing dinner at 710pm.
Over-estimated myself, there were actually a lot more to prepare like cutting & chopping of ingredients. Thank God for Evelyn & Jesslin, who helped me alot in the entire preparation process. The rest wanted to help but the kitchen was tremendously hot and sticky & stressful cos everyone's so hungry & food is not ready!!! Urgh! Sorry people~~ As usual the two guys were not involved in the kitchen, only playing Wii in the living hall.
Oh ya, something funny happened. There was not enough rice grains left!!! So paiseh, and Derrick was so nice to help me go downstairs to buy rice. Thank you! Oh ya, I haven't pay you back $ fr the rice!
No pics to upload here since Derrick was the cameraman for the evening. I think I will look very "chui 3" in the pics with all the sweat, oil & serious-looking face.. sigh!
To Derrick: Quickly upload the photos in your blog.
So finally dinner was served at 830pm. Late dinner indeed.
Dishes served:
1. Bak Ku Teh soup that comes with Bak Ku & Chicken wing (Yeo family style)
2. Pork Chop with Japanese Curry gravy
3. Brocolli with Mocked Abalone
4. Brinjal with Pork Floss (Yeo Family Style)
5. Prawn on Toast (something that I've learnt from the recipe book just the day before)
Hope you guys like the food. I can share the recipe if you guys want. ;)
Think without the help of everyone, dinner would probably be ready much later. Thanks guys!!!
Not cos, that's not all. How can a wonderful night end off without a fierce fight over the game "I'M THE BOSS" and some super nice Hagen Daz Ice-cream, compliments from Evelyn?
So is Ruxin going to cook for us next time?
Karen Yeo Smiles at |12:51 PM|
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
JB outing
The last time that Daniel & I had a good hang-out with our friends was in August, celebrating Audrey's Birthday due to Daniel's 1-mth reservist.
So Daniel & Karen Chia organized a JB trip last Sat, also at the same time to "celebrate" Keeliang's birthday. Didn't really celebrate actually.. except to sing a birthday song during the dinner... Paiseh..
Although most of you probably might have read about the happenings on Ruxin's blog, I will still blog about it by uploading some photos for the benefit of Daniel's friends - Lee, Yaochang & Angela - whom might be visiting the blog..
Enjoy...
Audrey loves this photo of herself...
I was in-charged of taking pics of the food...And looking at the amount of food we ordered, you will know we had been very typically "Kiasu" Singaporeans there...
Steam Fish, Lemon Chicken (Non-spicy for Keeliang), Fried Youtiao (Fried food for Angela), Kangkong
Fried Calamari (Fried Food for Angela), Drunken Prawns (Everyone thumbs-up for this item, Yummy!), Mussels ("Big Head")
Three types of Crabs (Chilli, Black Pepper, Salted Yoke)
We waited so long for the crabs because they only have 2 chefs who specialize in cooking crabs for the entire restaurant of more than 70 tables??? And I guess becos of the crowd, the crabs didn't taste as nice as the previous time. So disappointing...
Look at this giantic crab cracker!!! Hello, are we eating a 15kg crab that we need this huge one???
Not satisfied the food, but we enjoyed the time spent.
All in all, we only spent RM30 each for the food plus RM15 for transport to & forth. Although not ex, I don't think I want to go there again because the travelling time is abt 30min plus the food is dropping in standard. Maybe next time we can go eat Durian instead.Labels: JB outing
Karen Yeo Smiles at |12:45 PM|
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Mrs Chia feel loved
My sister's 21st birthday (Sharon) is coming up this weekend and just 1 week ago she has already listed out her birthday wishlist .. plus a list of things she prefer not to have. So smart of her by being so specific in what she wants and not want. Just hope that none of her friends will buy her a bunny.. Enough trauma the family had the previous time when Tummy died.
So we went shopping for a leather watch which is what she wanted. I picked up a few items that caught my eyes in the shop & started to make comparison.
Not bad....
The crystal too bling bling for her....
Eh... This looks similar to what Daniel has.... Too Unisex already
Most of them are white straps with big frames. One of them is a eye-striking rose-gold frame with a slightly mustard yellow strap (not too bright, & not too dull kinda yellow).
Something very uniquely contrasting & smart-looking.
Daniel didn't like the yellow watch at first glance but the more we looked it, the more we liked it. However in the end we decided not to go for that as she prefers a white one with rectangular face.
So this is a memento for Sharon's 21st birthday from Daniel, me, my bro & his girlfriend Clarabelle. Nice? I love it because it comes with a rose-gold frame.
After telling the shop assistant our decision, Daniel told her to wrap the Yellow one too and this is for me! Wow!
Over the past 3 years, personally I have bought quite a couple of watches to my loved ones, out of which 4 of them are Titus. Everytime I buy them, I wished to buy one for myself but they are just too expensive for me to make a 2nd purchase at the same time.
During xmas a couple of years ago when I bought Evelyn a watch, she also shared with me that she used to buy many watches for people with no good watch for herself. But then there came a time when she starts reaping many watches back. So I sowed patiently...
And today I get to wear one too, and it's something so unique!
Although my primary love language is not gift-giving, I really feel very loved to have received this beautiful watch fr you! Thank you Dear for your generosity!
Daniel asked me this after giving me the watch: "So is this Wife's Day?"
Haha.. Kenneth, thank you too for inspiring this wife's day. I guess anyday that the wife feels special about herself & loved, it's a WIFE'S DAY!!!
P.S. Husband, can we have it more often please??? Kekee.....Labels: Titus Watch
Karen Yeo Smiles at |11:13 AM|
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Baking Day
I was rather excited when I woke up today because a few colleagues & I have booked a hands-on baking class for today. And guess who??? They are Ruxin and JOANNA (the legendary roadshow queen & richest person in NGO) !!!! Haha.. in fact, it was Joanna who jio jio us to go with her. She recommended a more ah-tas class which will cost us about $90 & only demo but I found out a cheaper place in Geylang which will cost us only $36 for a 3-hr lesson, somemore got hands-on.
In only 3 hrs, we managed to learn & produce 3 recipes today - Cheese & Nut Cookie, Chocolate Almond Cookie and Chocolate Black Berry Cake!
Although they may not be the hotel-standard pastry, we had so much fun even in learning to use the electronic weighing device, the gathering of utensils & ingredients (ingredients which are totally unfamiliar like milliac cream, gelatine powder, chicken powder???, blackberry puree etc),
the operating of huge mixing machine (Joanna almost spoil one),
Look! We look serious about what we are doing, don't we?
rolling & flattening of frozen dough, cutting of dough into equal sizes.
And after 3 hrs of serious & fun learning, these are what we have produced! Tata!
Not too bad for 1st-timers right? Can we hear some applause??
Ruxin & I were saying that maybe we can give Keeliang one cake for his birthday celebration but we have decided to eat them ourselves cos the cake is so delicious!
And what's even better, we get to bring them home!!!! Yeah! Not bad for some learning experience, fun & tasty food! Come join us the next time, we are thinking of learning log cake for the upcoming xmas season.
Labels: baking
Karen Yeo Smiles at |10:58 PM|
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Start Living Like One
Yes I know it's been a long time since I blogged, in fact almost one month! That's the longest break that I've taken from blogging since I started my blog this March. And Daniel has been nagging me for the past 2 weeks "Hey, quickly go & blog leh, otherwise we will lose our viewership!" SIAO! As though we were running some media business. But really... I couldn't find the mood to blog as I was pretty bothered over some of my thoughts.
IN THE PAST.....
A typical comment that I would make before marriage whenever we talk about Daniel's going-up-home to anyone:
Me: "Oh Daniel's house is like a showroom!"
Me: "Wah your wardrobe is so organized. Everything's so neatly pressed.You mean your mum iron your home tees & bedsheet?"
Having come from a house of six and always having to share rooms with my siblings since young, attaining such standards in my own house that I grow up in is never possible even though people always think that I am a very systematic and organized person. Like many typical Singaporean chinese, my room would be neat, systematic and organized only for while during Chinese New Year... before things start getting messy again in a corner of the room and then "spreading of messiness" starts and before you know it, the whole room is in a chaotic scene again. Sigh... I guess this is what we call the "broken window" theory.
So before marriage, this is what I had told Daniel: "I'm very impressed..But please hor... don't expect me to produce this kind of standard ok? You do your own ironing and folding of clothes ok?" I said that because I was doubtful if I can do it since I can't even do that in my own house. However secretly in my heart, I wished I can have a room like his.
Friends who came to my house and those who read my blog kinda know the effort I put in my current Tampines home. Very often my conversation with them whether in person or over the phone would normally start like this "Hey Karen, what are you doing ah? Cleaning the house? Cooking? Washing the toilet? Ironing the bedsheets? Ironing Daniel's socks and home tees? You very high standard leh"
I know they are teasing me but these constant remarks have caused me to start feeling that probably some people think that I do nothing else except these things...
"Do they think that I am evolving into a housewife, an auntie???"
"Do they think that I'm very EXTRA to go such great lengths to make my wardrobe so neat?"
Thoughts like these have not only bothered me, but also crippled me. I stopped cleaning my house and laundry for one whole week until things really piled up & I got even more frustrated about myself.
But thank God I cooled down in my thoughts & after pouring out to Daniel, I began to appreciate the good works that I have trained myself to do. As we talked, I began to remember what Mummy Annie had said to me once:
"Many people take great effort in personal grooming and making themselves look good. But not many people put great effort in making their house looks good & feel good. The condition of a home tells a lot about a person's character and soul."
And I totally agree with her and it was after this sentence that I have made a decision in my heart then that one day if I have a home of my own, I will do my best to upkeep my home in its best possible condition.
My cousin came to my house recently and said: "I'm sure you must have woke up very early to clean the house before we came right?"
Me: "No la.. my house is always in this condition anytime you come"
My mum: "Of cos la, now you don't know have children yet.. this should be the standard."
So finally I came to terms with myself that this is not about being "kua zhang", "EXTRA" or "overdoing". I believe anyone who's a first-time homeowner will also be equally "homeproud" right???
Just like we say in church of how we should start tithing from the 1st dollar, otherwise we will never tithe when we have our 1st million dollar.
Same thing...
One day, I want to live a good life. I want to be in the up-society. I want to have a beautiful home like those dream homes in the magazines. But where I am right now, (although without a maid and the quality of life) I will start living like one, with the cleanliness, the neatness and the excellence, I will create a beautiful home at my current level ...
Inspired by how the condition of a house reflects the character of the owner,
I want my house to be always ready for guests anytime.
I want my house to be always ready for selling tomorrow.
Yes I have high standards, and cheers to high standard. ;)
Karen Yeo Smiles at |12:31 PM|
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