tzlee.com/blog

Category: Finance & Property

  • Welcome back

    As promised, I will attempt to revive my blogging.

    As I type, I’m actually watching “The Social Network”. Damn geeky, I know. Not the best movie of all time for a Saturday night.

    Anyway just to start off the new year – lots of shit happened in Q1 2011. My “Ultimate” Driving Machine™ had a cracked radiator which meant it needs to be replaced. Not too expensive but still ouch.

    A friend got into an accident with a bus that tried to flee the accident scene. Thank god he’s not injured at all – the bus hit the passenger side and he was alone in the vehicle. He was lucky he had a witness.

    My high BMI neighbours upstairs are still as annoying as ever, even right now at 1.25AM and I have another 3.5 years to put up with them and you bet I will.

    By the way, if you’re wondering – Singapore has no decent law against domestic noise. There’s nothing the government can really do if you have an imbecile neighbour like mine. All you can hope is to curse them to rot in their filthy home and get eaten by fleas so they’ll mixmash well with the herbs and spices they pound daily in their bedroom. I’m not sure if even an impending election would change anything since Bukit Panjang is still split into two.

    Just six hours ago I heard I got voted to be in the EXCO of KH. I’m puzzled how I got voted even when it was a no-show; I was at CGH and it wasn’t a lie. I don’t think I can commit and I will not bullshit my way into a role I cannot put quality effort into. This is precisely what I am going to tell them during the next meeting: Career, Family, Hobby. Choose two. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to answer that.

    I’m also trying to adopt a minimalistic approach to life. I’m trying to get rid of shit I don’t need and just keep the necessary stuff at home. I’ve always believed in buying things of quality versus price since high quality stuffs tend to last longer. Also you’re likely to only need ONE good, say, shoe than ten cheap shoes.

    That’s it for today. I need to watch my movie. Stay tuned for more updates.

  • Noisy Neighbours in Singapore

    If you’re wondering, wow, I’m writing a blog at this hour, well that’s because I’ve been awoken at 6AM+ this morning by my neighbour upstairs.

    I had to resort to hammering the ceiling with my fists last night to get them to shut up. That was 1:30AM. Yes, read carefully, my fists. I stood on a stool and hammered the ceiling. This proves that HDB flats are constructed so badly these days. The ceiling vibrated just as it did with the stomping and running upstairs. My flat’s 8 year old BTW. I don’t think my parent’s flat (closing 30 years now) are like that.

    I’m thinking if calling the cops doesn’t work and (according to many online forums) even going to CMC, MP and even court doesn’t work, what works?

    The government loves to take reactive approaches and maybe I should create something to make it happen. It’s called the “I sabo your neighbours, you sabo my neighbours” portal. I am fully committed to funding this portal as long as it brings me peace. I will start putting a plan to get this done. All comments welcome.

  • Curtains Up!

    Curtains and blinds are up! Actually was up about two weeks ago, but I didn’t have time to take photos, edit and upload. I finally found some time to do so. I didn’t take the blinds though, it’s pretty generic roller binds, though they are of much higher quality than Ikeas’. Photos can’t tell the difference in quality – you’ll have to see for yourself.

    The curtains are tailor made by Rosse Curtain and I would like to compliment them for their excellent service. The guy who installed our curtains and blinds was very detailed in his work and did his duty to keep the dust from drilling to a minimum. If you’re looking to get curtains for your new home, I’d highly recommend them.

    Living Room Curtains
    Dining Room Curtains
    Master Bedroom Curtains

    P.S. Choose your fabric wisely. They make a huge difference in price.

  • Similarly Human, Different Lives

    Yes, the title comes from the Chinese saying 同人不同命, meaning we are all similarly humans, but we lead different lives.

    I just read Jac’s Blog and it seems that she’s so stressed at work until she lost 4kg. While I would certainly need to lose some weight, I think Jac’s not the right candidate for this weight lost programme.

    Unfortunately as well, 同hamster不同命. Casper made an escape and when wifey came home, he was not in his cage and we found him in the kitchen drain drowned to death. This is his 5th month birthday. Sigh. Silly hamster, why did you choose to jump into a drain when you could go elsewhere? We will miss you. 🙁

    And then while some people very heng to stay in landed property, I have to live in a measly overpriced government flat (a.k.a pigeon hole) with a bloody inconsiderate neighbour upstairs who doesn’t sleep. I mean, there isn’t once I see their room lights go off, not even at 4am in the morning. Actually, I don’t care if they don’t sleep – maybe they do shift work – but that’s not my problem. If they choose not to sleep then they should be considerate to the rest of the people who’s sleeping.

    I keep hearing wooden furniture dragged along the floor, heavy objects dropping and people walking like King Kong. It’s not occasional – I can tolerate that. It’s persists through the night like a JavaBean. I mean, I can have a great day at work and have a great dinner with friends, but the moment I come home, these noises totally ruins my entire day (and sometimes the next.) These aren’t continuous background noises that our minds could filter (e.g. people chatting, piano playing, traffic). These are sudden bursts of loud noises that makes me jump, irritated and stressed out. It’s not I can’t cover the noise, but it’s so resonant that it overpowers my TV!

    Back in December 2009, I tried going upstairs and talking sense into them, but it ended up into a yelling session on the 3rd approach. Then I resorted to knocking on my ceiling with a wooden stick and calling the police. The noises went away for a while, and recently they’re back again. I knocked on the ceiling a few times, but it seems they’ve decided to turn rebellious and knock back. So that’s it, I’m fucking fed up already, I’ve had enough, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I’m going to a psychiatrist because I’m so stressed out, and I am going to send them a lawyer’s letter. If talking and knocking doesn’t work, maybe paying for legal fees will.

  • The Life of a Working House Husband

    Somehow I think I’m living life on the soft side, or as the Chinese says, 吃软饭. I’m officially in a holiday mood as I write this blog entry while my wife (who’s just right beside me) bashes away at a PCI DSS audit report… I think she doesn’t even notice me blogging.

    I’m finally taking a real break from work with a weeks’ leave between Christmas and New Year. Not that I’m the first around here, but hopefully not the last. I spent the last working hours of 2009 actually back in office unpacking, installing and repacking servers each fully jam-packed with twelve 3.5″ SAS disks. They’re really quite heavy – weighing up to 30 kilos each. SAS disks are considerably heavier than SATA ones. Somehow, weight does matter? Shrugs. So if you think I’m really having a good time at work everyday, now you know it’s not always the case.

    But before I let myself run wild for the last few days of 2009, I’ll write a little about work… I’ve been at this job for a little over a year. It’s been pretty nice working around here and I’ve surely learnt a great deal. My colleagues are fantastic – I’ve got a great PM and one thing that touched me was that the sales folks gave us Christmas presents every year! Or at least for the two Christmas I’ve been through. I got cookies from Vivien last year and Winnie gave us Royce chocs this time round… I ate about half the box before I brought the remainder home. Oops, sorry dear.

    I’ve also gotten really lucky to have won lucky draw prizes at all the company dinners – I got a Dell Inspiron the last year and a Sony PSP Go this year. The Dell has been put to good use, but the PSP is not really my kind of toy, so it’s going to my sister if she behaves, or maybe eBay.

    I’m packing my schedules up for the next week to catch up with some looooooooong lost friends, some of whom I’ve completely lost contact with since we left primary school. Thanks to the power of the Internet and social networking, I’m finally meeting them again after fifteen years! Unbelievable.

    And of course in my free time I shall religiously clean the house which has been neglected for the past two months. I also need to learn how to cook more variety of dishes. I’ve been preparing fish dishes so far.

    Well, that’s the life of a working house husband. At least for now.

  • Happy Holidays, Welcome 2010

    Welcome back…

    I know you have been faithful readers.

    See? You’re smiling. Stop denying it. You love my blog, don’t you?

    It has been a crazy month. I’m part of a small team of three and two of my colleagues went away – one to Turkey and another to reservist so he could help weed out terrorist. I was, of course, left all alone to take on some good amount of work that, well,  came all at the same time. Screw Murphy. Hate that guy.

    So it’s December and everybody’s in a holiday mood. I wish I was too, but it’s not quite easy with a fucking noisy neighbour living right upstairs. They make so much noise and vibration by dragging furniture, slamming their doors and let their kids run about into the wee hours that even my window grilles rattle at times. After approaching them three times and calling the cops once, I decided to approach them one last time which ended in a yelling session, with the typical remark from these inconsiderate bastards like “this is my house, I’ll do whatever I want” or “go buy a condo“. Things improved a bit after the yelling, but it still happens. When the night’s all quiet, these sudden bumps and squeaks really make you to jump.

    So it seems nothing really changed in 2009 other than my marital status and an empty bank from a property purchase and renovation. It’s time to work out something new in 2010. My public list of items goes like this:

    • Get back on track with some research/dev type projects. I’ll be meeting an NUS professor before 2009 ends, so I’ll post an update here.
    • Learn to cook now that I’ve got a kitchen to myself. I’ve also promised to post some of my successful attempts out of many other unsuccessful ones.
    • Get the wedding banquet done.
    • Build new sources of revenue. I’ll start small, but aim big.
    • Get back to flying R/C occasionally as a hobby. I’ve stopped flying for the entire of 2009 without even realizing it.

    And of course, before 2009 ends, here’s a short to do list.

    • Pack up the study room. It’s in an absolute mess now.
    • Get another two sets of Wii Remote + Nunchuck since the two I ordered from HK over a month ago didn’t arrive at all.
    • Get my old Cello bows rehaired. Already sent and will only be done in January 2010.