Wednesday, November 28, 2012

When you meet an Egoistic Person....

I am thankful that I had the experience of being in the retail line for so many years.
In fact, even before I set up my bubble tea shop back in 2001, I was already in the service line meeting all sorts of people from MNCs.

Over the years, it is inevitable that I would meet people whose Ego is Bigger Than Their Head.
Such people only believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong.
Even when they are proven wrong, they will still 'force' their way around to prove that they will be right eventually.
Losing is NOT an option for such people.
Let alone 'losing face' or be embarassed.

In my view, there is no point making them understand your stand.
To me, whenever I meet such people, I would just shut my mouth and let them talk.
The more you argue with them, the more fire up they become.
Totally unnecessary.

Stay cool and let they say what they want.
Let them do what they want.
To me, it is a waste of energy and totally pointless to win them over....



Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Progress of New House - Update 6

These 2 weeks seemed like 2 years to me!!!
Tiling takes lots of effort man!
Every tile that was laid need to be checked for balance using the 'balance meter'.
Imagine every house has so many tiles and every tile needs to do this 'Quality Control' step!
*Salute*

Some of the pictures are darker than others because they were taken in the night and all that we had was a temporary mobile light to help us find our way around in the darkness; thus explains why some photos are brighter.

All photos were taken over a span of 2 weeks.

Kitchen's Progress







 











The tiles at the edges, the corners, the skirting that connects the tile-less walls to the floor tiles and those that go around the big pipes had to be CUT with accuracy to prevent wastage and to have a nicer finish.
*Double Salute*



Even though machines were used to make tiles, there are no perfection. Every tile is slightly different from another and this become even more obvious when the tiles have prints or designs on them, just like the ones we had chosen for our TOILET floor and wall tiles PLUS the tiles for the living room and the 3 bedrooms.

The tiler needs to lay a few pieces on the floor first to make sure that the prints flow from one to another before he puts them to their respective places.
Hardwork!!!!!

Then for dark coloured tiles like that of our toilet tiles, man oh man!!!
There are different batches.

Different batch has different colour tones.
The tiler noticed the 'problem' after the toilet floor tiles were already laid and washed.
With water, the colour differentiation became very obvious.

The tiler gave us a worried face when he was trying to explain to us.
He probably thought that we were going to jump and insist that he redo the toilet floor because the colour tone of some tiles were darker than others (which were on the same toilet floor).

But instead of jumping in anger/frustration/dissatisfaction, I simply brushed his worry off by saying "Aiya! Small matter lah! Take it as a design lor!"
*laugh*

He gave me a surprise look.
Maybe I am the first house owner, whom he met, who is not picky.
*laugh*
Ooops! Forgot to add my dear husband too! *smile*

So I should correct that sentence and say "Maybe We ARE the first house OWNERS, whom he met, who Are not picky."
*laugh*


Kitchen Toilet's Progress








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Master Bedroom Toilet's Progress


Can you spot the different colour tones?







Then came the mosaic!
Our 'secret' tool to hide the crack on the wall.
We watched how he had to align rows after rows of mosaic.
Once again, none of the big square pieces of mosaic are identical.

 

Some rows in between are wavy, not straight, so the tiler had to 'slice' and adjust almost every row to make it as in-line as possible with the two pieces of mosaic which were laid beside it.

Now I finally understand why laying of mosaic, especially those that are made of tiny squares like ours, would cost more already, as mentioned in my previous post "Progress of New House - Update 2". Its definitely patience + skill.

Regardless of mosaic or normal tiles, every gap between each piece needs to be sealed.
It is like a concealer,  filling up the dents to smooth the surface.







We could still see the sparkles of our mosaic when it was on the wall, but the moment the finishing job was done and the gaps between each mosaic was sealed, the glittering effect was gone.
*pout*

Not something that we could do about though.
Unless I really want to put a spot light to shine directly on it.... *laugh*
Nah!
No way am I going to do that!
*laugh*


Living Room




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Master Bedroom







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Kids' Bedroom







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Study/Work Room








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Other parts of the house

'walkway' into two rooms

Storeroom

Stairs at entrance


And so, the tiling work is 99% done.
Where is the 1%???
Its the raised platform that I talked alot about in previous posts.

We need the wood from the carpenter first (who came for the first time today) before the tiler could come back to overlay the wooden platform with tiles.
So till then, my white floor tiles are protected by big sheets of cupboard and no more tiles would be laid....



After 26th November, whereby the tiling works were 99% completed, the renovation progress would be on turbo speed (I think + hope), as most of the task below need just a day or two to complete.
  • Running Air-con casing/wiring
  • Running electrical casing/wiring + power points and switches
  • Acid wash for Kitchen and toilet floor tiles
  • Running of gas pipe
  • Running of water pipe
  • Install new doors AND Amend existing doors
  • Painting
  • Air-con units installation
  • Lighting installation
And while that semi-long list is in progress, the carpenter would be busy sawing and putting together all the 'wooden' fixtures, needed for my house, in his factory.
By the time the above list is completed, the installation of the 'wooden' stuff would begin.

As I come to the end of this post, I suddenly realised that I am panting!!!
A lot of things....done......and yet to be done too, isn't?!?
*huge laugh*


Well, I am happy with the progress though renovation has been going on for exactly ONE MONTH already!!!!
Amazed at how time flies........
.......  when one is happy and busy all at the same time!
*Super Thumbs Up*



Sunday, November 25, 2012

Song Sharing Sunday #198 - Diamonds ~ Rihanna

My elder son has this song deep in his head.
He would sing "Shine Bright Like a Diamond, Shine Bright Like a Diamond, Shine Bright Like a Diamond, We're Beautiful Like Diamonds in the Sky......" out of the blue every now and then... *laugh*



Song Sharing Sunday Badge


Every Song reminds me of a person, an event, a place, a smell, a taste....a secret, do you have a song to share today?


Diamonds ~ Rihanna





Join in the fun, leave a comment with your Song Sharing Sunday post's URL and don't forget to grab the meme's badge above using the codes provided and I'll hop over to 'listen'...

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Orchard Road Christmas Lights 2012

Ever since we enter into the Millennium, there had not been a year which made me go "Wow" whenever I looked at the Christmas Lights in Orchard Road.
The REALLY "Wow" ones were all before year 2000!

I remember saying sentences like "This year's Christmas Decorations (in Orchard Road) is nicer than last year's." during the 1980s to 1990s period. It just gets better each year (back then)!

But after 2001, the Christmas lighting in Orchard Road no long holds the "Wow" factor for me anymore.
Sad to say, TO ME, this year's is the worst!

Its CHRISTMAS!!!!!
How come it looked like its Chinese New Year?!?!!
RED????!!!
Seriously???

I don't know, maybe its just me.
Have you seen this year's Christmas Decorations in Orchard Road yet?
Do you like it?
I don't.











In fact, I think the Christmas Decorations at the Cross Junction of Queensway Shopping Center brings out more Christmas 'Mood' than the ones in Orchard Road.


Thursday, November 22, 2012

First Time Using Daily Disposable Lenses

Over the past few months, my eyes had become very sensitive.
Totally no clue as to why or what is causing it.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a swollen left eye.
The white area of my eyeball was puffed up.
It looked as if someone had injected liquid into it.

The black area of my eyeball was still in good condition.
Thank Goodness!
Or else I would have been half-blind the whole of yesterday.

The white part was so swelled up that I had problem closing my left eye.
When my eyelid drops down, it felt like it was the bread of a sandwich, with the white part as the fillings.
GROSS!

I felt so and so did my boys.
Exact same comment "GROSS!"

It was not painful nor itchy.
It just felt uncomfortable.

A friend of mine saw my condition and believed that the culprit might had been my contact lens.
Hhhmmm... which reminded me that it was probably overdue!
Ooops!

Ever since I started wearing contact lenses more than 20 years ago,
monthly disposable contact lenses were my only choice and I wore them every single day.

It was only towards the end of last year that I stopped wearing them on a regular basis.
I wore my glasses more often instead.
In fact, I hardly wear contact lenses anymore, probably twice a week or thrice at most.



Thus I thought it would be more practical and economical to switch to daily disposable lenses.
Bought them more than one month ago but decided to keep them till my monthly disposable ones ran out.

As if to welcome me to the Daily Disposable Lenses group, I received this cute hand towel from the sweet optometrist.
What a surprise!
Guessed I would not be using it to wipe my hands, 'cos too cute!
*laugh*

My swollen left eye took ONE WHOLE day to recover.
It only got well this morning after many drops of EYEMO yesterday.

At 8.15am today, I could finally close my left eye without having the feeling of it being like a hamburger, with a thick meat in the center.

However, the strain was still there.
Not painful type of strain, but tiredness type of strain.

Before we went out for dinner just now, I decided to throw away my overdue contact lenses and tried out the daily disposable lenses for the very first time.

The 'fitting' did not feel as good as my monthly disposable contact lense, but hey, it definitely felt 'fresher'.
*Thumb Up*