No LPG Delivery between 8pm-8am 30 March, 2012
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1.add a comment
Dear2 and I seldom cook at home. So 1 cylinder of LPG will normally last quite long for us, maybe 1 year or so. Since moving in, I think we’ve ordered at most 3 or 4 cylinders thus far. And we’ve also changed our tubing once as per safety recommendations even though we don’t use it much. Safety first.
So, one day (not too long ago), Dear2 decided that she will wake up early to prepare fish porridge for both of us to bring to work for lunch. That morning, she woke up, only to discover that we’re out of gas. As it was around 6am in the morning, we decided that the gas companies couldn’t be open and decided to order new gas only that evening when we got home.
That evening, we arrived home at 7.50 pm. We promptly called up the gas company to order a cylinder of gas so that we could cook our fish porridge the next day. However, we were shocked to find out from the gas company that lorries carrying LPG cylinders were not allowed on the roads between 8pm-8am. It was the first time we had heard anything like that.
The situation was bad for us. It was already 8 pm, so we couldn’t receive the gas that evening. And we needed to set off from home before 8 am in order to send Baby1 to her granny’s place and ourselves to work on time. And the fish in our fridge was already 2 days old, and it was several more days to the weekend. What was we to do?
After some haggling, the lady from the gas company was willing to help us ask around if there was a deliveryman staying near us, and hence could make an early delivery.
Several minutes later, she replied. She had indeed found a deliveryman staying nearby and he was willing to take a small risk and arrive at our house exactly at 8 am the next morning. That would also mean that he would have to be on the roads slightly before 8 am.
Fine, that will have to do. We’ll wait until 8 am, leave 2-3 mins for installation, and quickly set off to work. The fish porridge will have to wait yet another morning then.
The next morning, our doorbell rang at 7.55 am. The gas deliveryman was early. He quickly finished with the installation and was on his way. Very quick, we were on our way too. That was the end of this episode of gas changing.
It wasn’t until this episode that we realized the inconvenience of ordering gas for dual income family like ours. We didn’t know that gas cannot be delivery from 8 pm – 8 am. It would be alright for housewives who stay home all day. But not for us. That would mean that weekends are the only time we can get gas delivered. That would mean that if we ran out of gas on a Monday morning, we’re out of luck. This is something we will have to take note of in the future.
Also, I’m wondering what is the rationale for such a restriction? Perhaps the civil defence houses lesser staff during the night? Hence such a restriction to reduce the possibility of a fire hazard on the roads? I don’t know. Any one who knows, drop us a comment.
-Dear1
The Lure of $2 30 October, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear2, Reno & Furnishing, Shop till you drop.add a comment
- Square porcelain plates
- Round Japanese bowls
- Dustbin for kitchen and bed room
- Tub for sink
- Baskets for laundry pegs
- Baskets for putting make up and stuff
- Wall suckers for bathroom and kitchen
- Horizontal rod for hanging kitchen tools
- Potato masher
- Kitchen gloves
- Big paper boxes for storing small items
- Food containers
- Small handheld broom and dustpan
- Big plastic bowls for baking
When we first moved into our house, equipping everything from scratch often leads us to buying these household essentials from Daiso. At that time, money was scarce for us, so with each item at just $2 per piece, these were very affordable for us yet stylish. Many a times, there were even cents to dollars of savings as compared to buying the same item elsewhere, or simply as a cheaper alternative.
Over time, we would often frequent Daiso whenever we need to get more household essentials:
- Laundry bags (I think we have about at least 8 now)
- Large zip lock bags for overseas purposes
- Containers for storing Dear1′s meeples and tokens (I think he has bought at least about 7 to 8 boxes in all)
- Apron (my second piece already, just because the first one was not pretty)
- Food grater for Baby1 (used maybe 3 times?)
- At least 3 sets of small containers (for storing Baby1′s pureed foods that time; now all neatly stacked up in the cupboard)
- Cookie cutters (2 new sets, washed but not used yet)
- Cute food picks (still in the plastic bag. Extremely cute!!! But haven’t got the chance to making bento for Dear1 yet. Oh yes, there’s still the ‘fake’ seaweed for sushi decoration which we have not tried yet too.)
- Laundry hangers (we have 2 sets of 8 pegs each, and 3 sets of 18 pegs each)
- Tie Hanger (hmm… cannot remember why I bought this at that time)
- Clothes hanger over door (ermm… we realised that the door cannot be closed with this one on, so………..)
- Flower pots (bought 3, but only used 2)
- Various hanging baskets in various sizes (usage varied, depending on where needs what to be hung)
- Shower caps (I have 4 now – blue, yellow, white and pink. ;p)
- Gloves for Baby1 that time when we went Korea (ermm.. we didn’t even take this out to use, just for ‘in case’ situations)
- Round stools for sitting or just putting the feet up (ermm… we have 2 grey, 1 brown, 1 yellow, 1 pink and 1 blue now. Why do we need so many stools in our little 3 room flat!?)
- Bottle brush (when we already have 1 Pigeon one for Baby1′s bottle)
- Racks (total count reveals 5 in the kitchen. Didn’t know that I have bought so many!)
- and the list goes on and on
Things are so cheap at Daiso! I mean, everything is fixed price at $2, so I just have to count the number of items in my basket and it’s easy to know the total price. But many a times, total damage usually exceeds imagination. We would walk into Daiso wanting to get a container for storing some of Dear1′s cards (again), but end up having 1 Christmas tree, 1 more basket for the living room, 1 toothbrush set for Baby1, 1 fork and spoon set for her, a super cute food container for her too, (resist to buy the matching pink bowl, and oh, there’s a plate version too!), (prohibited to get another Christmas decoration because Dear1 refuses to choose one for me), and 1 packet of the caramel corn at check out. Nowadays, I even have to give myself a budget, say $20 if I want to go in to get a $2 item!!!
The lure of Daiso is indeed very big. Things are so pretty in there, and most of them are really useful. But we do have experiences when the quality is poor, like that hamburger food timer which we didn’t manage to get it to work properly ever, and that stainless steel egg mold which got rusty though we only used it once. But even if the item is no good, it’s at most a $2 write off, very cheap indeed ya. ;p
- Dear2
Dear1 the Handyman 9 June, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1, For Him For Her.add a comment
A handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as “odd jobs”, “fix-up tasks”, and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet or light electric jobs such as changing a light fixture.
When we first moved into our current home, Dear2 and I had a small discussion about the distribution of housekeeping tasks. There are just about a thousand and one things that require our attention around the house, from sweeping, mopping and laundry, to painting, repairs and maintenance.
I was of the initial opinion that a man should be doing man’s stuff. So I quoted examples of tasks that I will take charge of, such as setting up any new purchase (electronic and non-electronic), any general repairs, and any other works that requires strength. However, it soon became clear that works of these nature only occur once every now and then. In other words, these events are usually one-off events, as compared to cleaning and regular upkeeping tasks such as sweeping and mopping.
So, I had to take on more regular housekeeping roles in addition to my handyman’s roles. For that, I helped out with the laundry, dish washing, dry mopping, occasional wet mopping, occasional toilet washing, and changing the bedsheets. I may have left out some.
But when it comes to the handyman’s tasks, I’m proud to say that I’ve done quite a fair bit as well. Let me list them down in bullet points.
- Fixed leaking kitchen sink pipe.
- Fixed leaking shower head.
- Fixed leaking toilet spray.
- Fixed leaking washing machine pipe.
- Fixed minor blockage in gas stove.
- Fixed rattling sound in ceiling fan.
- Cleared choked drainage.
- Cleared choked toilet bowl.
- Cleared choked toilet sink.
- Changed numerous light bulbs.
- Changed broken lamp shade.
- Changed remote car key battery.
- Installed new graphics card for living room desktop.
- Installed new harddisks for living room desktop.
- Repaired laptop.
- Repaired DS.
- Applied screen protector for Dear2′s HTC Desire.
- Attempted to repair spoilt cupboard hinge but it was beyond repair.
- Oiled numerous creaky hinges.
- Set up anything Mio.
- Set up anything wireless.
- Set up many more home appliances.
- Set up all Baby1′s toys.
- Assembled various furniture (with Dear2′s help).
- Partially disassembled various furniture for safety reasons.
- Moved furniture around.
- Caught and disposed various house pests.
- Sanded smooth Baby1′s bathtub.
And maybe some other things that I’ve forgotten.
It is not that Dear2 is not able to do these things. I think if she’s required to do them, she’ll figure them out eventually. But the point here is that I, Dear1, enjoys being the handyman in the house. Doing these man-chores provides me with a satisfaction and fulfillment that I cannot get out of doing the cleaning tasks.
Perhaps it is because I like to impress Dear2. I especially enjoyed it when Dear2 looks amazed by how I managed to fix a leaking pipe. Perhaps I enjoyed receiving praises from Dear2. Because I will know that I have her admiration and acceptance. Perhaps it is just egoistic. But isn’t that what it means to be a man? To be showing off my best abilities in front of Dear2? Perhaps I just want to be her knight in shining armour, slaying dragons and standing tall.
I will continue being the handyman in the house. There are currently 2 blown light bulbs in the kitchen, I will get the replacements the next time we visit the supermarket. I will also help out with the housekeeping so that Dear2 and I will have more time to spend together as a couple. It isn’t easy being a FTWM, I understand that and I appreciate Dear2 for working hard.
And it isn’t easy being a modern family man either. The role of man in the house has changed to one that shares the maintenance of the household while the woman steps out into the workforce. Both are subjected to more stress compared to parents of our parents’ era.
So while both of us are coping with the stress and difficulties of our additional roles, I want us to continue to strengthen our bond, deepen our love, support each other at all times, and cherish the little time we have together for each other. Some times, a simple life is the one most worth living.
-Dear1
Such Wastefulness 21 February, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear2, Dollars & Cents.add a comment
We were very poor last time. After buying our 3 room flat with major renovation uphaul, we were down to the last penny in our bank accounts. The rest of the furniture and appliances were purchased bit by bit over the next few years after we settled into our house. Even our TV was sponsored by my brother as a house-warming gift. These, we remembered deep down, but over time as we have a steady salary, the memories got buried away…
Food that were kept in the fridge for months – throw away lah. Vege that Baby1 don’t want to eat – throw away lah. Softener that was unused since time immemorial – throw away lah. Tidbits that were left uneaten – nevermind, I still want to stock up more of my favourites first.
So wasteful!! Because we are better off now, the few dollars and cents don’t seem significant now, so throwing away things is commonplace now.
Stop! Halt!! Don’t you realise that the few dollars and cents can make up a lot. And don’t you realise that such wastefulness is because you think that you can afford them now? If you accumulate these together, you might be able to gather a few hundreds to buy other useful things, or for investments, or for some leisure, or for some nice things for yourself or for Baby1 or for Dear1, or for some nice food, or for other practical household items, or for some thing for other people, etc etc etc. See, there’s so many things that you can buy or do if you’ll just stop wasting that packet of biscuits, or that shower foam, or that maggi mee, or that whatever.
The next time you buy something, make sure that it is what you want to consume. And if you realise that some item has been opened but there’s half a bottle left, make sure that you finish it before buying a new bottle!!
- Dear2
McLunch Weekends 23 May, 2010
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1, Food & Beverages, Slice of Life.add a comment
Since MacDonalds extended their McLunch promotion to every day of the week, Dear1 and Dear2 is having McLunch for lunch nearly every single weekend. Haha…
We’re getting kinda bored with the food at our market downstairs. There is the usual variety of local delights such as chicken rice, roast pork rice, wanton mee, hor fun, hokkien mee, youmian, etc. But after eating more or less the same things for the past few years, Dear2 is getting really really bored with the food. That’s the main reason why we’re eating McLunch every weekend.
Without the discounted McLunch, meals at MacDonalds are really too expensive. With McLunch, it’s $4.50 for a simple Fillet-o-Fish meal or McWings meal; or $5 for a McSpicy or Big Mac. Each meal comes with a burger (main course), fries (side snack), and a drink.
Consider if we were to eat out at the coffee shop, a plate of wanton mee would cost $2.50, a snack of some nyonya kueh would cost around $0.70, and a drink would cost around $1, that’s about $4.20 in total. I know it’s not a fair comparison but you get the idea.
Dear1′s favourite meal is the McSpicy becos it has a big chunky piece of chicken and makes for the most filling meal. But Dear2 thinks that Dear1 is boring becos Dear1 also eats the some meal over and over again. So recently, Dear1 decided to alternate between the McSpicy and Fillet-o-Fish.
Dear2′s favourite meal at the moment is the McWings. But it’s not very worthwhile getting the McWings becos Dear1 will sometimes ask for a piece of the McWing and Dear2 will be left with only 3 pieces. Gee… Occasionally, Dear2 will also order the McSpicy meal for the extra meatiness.
However, we do note that McLunch isn’t very healthy. First, there’s the high salt content in the fries. Second, we like our fries with curry sauce, so that’s another source of artificial food flavouring/colouring/etc. Third, there’s next to zero fibre in such a diet except for the very few pieces of lettuce in the McSpicy.
Despite it, we still enjoy munching down our McLunch meals becos they’re selling at such a great discounted price. We refuse to eat there otherwise. McLunch is the only way we’ll ever eat at MacDonalds.
Let’s see when we’ll start to grow bored of it and start going back to our local delights.
-Dear1
The Aircon Disaffinity 19 April, 2010
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Baby, Dear1.add a comment
I’m writing this from the comfort of the air conditioned study room. Dear2 and Baby1 are asleep in the non air conditioned bedroom. So, who’s the one with the aircon disaffinity? It’s Baby1!
The weather these days are so hot. It’s that time of the year again when the hot and humid spell hits and we would be sweaty and sticky the whole day, including the nights. There are some advantages, such as the sun moving over to our side of the kitchen and our laundry dries faster than usual. But the hot weather meant that we bath about 3 times a day and can only get a good night’s sleep in an aircon room. And that’s what we did, three of us all sleeping in our aircon bedroom every night since the hot weather started.
It turns out that several days ago, we noticed a trend that Baby1 sleeps longer in a non-aircon environment compared to an aircon one. In particular, we can hear her heavy and noisy breathing as if her nose was blocked. And she wakes up multiple times each night and gets rather fussy. However, she would calm down when carried outside the room for a walk in the living room or the kitchen. Maybe she didn’t like the aircon? We decided to put that to the test.
The next night, we slept without aircon. It was horrible. Dear2 couldn’t fall asleep as it was so hot that she was sweating. We had three fans in the room (we bought a new standing fan from Courts just for this) and they all circulate hot air over and over. I bathed twice in the middle of the night cos I’m all covered in sweat. Grr… However! Baby1 has a good night. She slept well, breathed softly, and wasn’t fussy. So she didn’t like aircon, I see. But mummy and daddy had a terrible night!
So we devised a plan. Remember we had a sofabed in the study room? Well, we decided to transform it to bed mode. The plan is to turn on the aircon in the study room and off the aircon in the bedroom. Baby1 will sleep in the bedroom since her cot is there. Dear2 and I will take turns sleeping in the aircon study room using the sofabed while the other person sleeps in the bedroom to look after Baby1.
It worked well so far. Baby1 is really enjoying sleeping without aircon. She even slept for 5 hours straight these past 2 days. Dear2 and I are taking turns in the aircon study room. The sofabed is smaller and harder than our king size bed but at least we won’t sweat in the study room. But sleeping in separate rooms is so unromantic.
Some nights, when the weather gets really hot, we would both end up in the study room, leaving poor Baby1 to enjoy her fan circulated bedroom by herself. Other nights, we would all gather in the bedroom if the weather is cool enough. Whenever no one is in the study room at night, the aircon is switched off and we can save on some electric bills. In terms of the number of hours, we’re definitely using lesser aircon than before (having it on the whole night in the bedroom), so that’s a positive note.
We also seldom have our hot milo late night supper anymore these nights. The hot milo will only add fuel to fire to our already hot and sweaty bodies. Sigh… But that will be the plan for the time being. At least we know Baby1 is having a good night’s sleep and that’s all that matters.
It’s late, time to sign off, turn off the aircon, and go to bed with Dear2 and Baby1 in our ‘warm’ bedroom. :)
-Dear1
Baby1 Shower 3 April, 2010
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Baby, Dear1.1 comment so far
We organized Baby1′s baby shower about 1 month ago. It was a simple affair as both Dear2 and I don’t have much spare energy to do anything more fanciful.
First, we decided that we will not use our house as the venue. Firstly, our house is too small and too messy with baby’s things. Secondly, we do not want to clean up after the party. Remembering from our house warming 3 years ago, cleaning up after a party is truly exhausting, and we won’t have the energy. So, it was decided, the baby shower will be held at Dear1′s parents’ house.
Next, we sent out SMS to the people we are inviting. Once they have confirmed their attendance, we proceeded with ordering the food. We ordered food for 50 people despite having more guests than that. Experience tells us that people dun eat much at such house parties. It was to be an afternoon affair from 12pm-6pm.
Our traditional full month cake from Gin Thye consists of a 700g cake + 2 red eggs + 2 ang ku kueh.
Then, we went to Gin Thye to order the full month cakes for our relatives. We liked Gin Thye because we prefer the traditional cakes to those modern chocolates and tarts that many people serve these days. We ordered the $9 cake with consists of a 700g cake + 2 red eggs + 2 ang ku kueh in each box. We decided not to deliver the cake by hand. Instead, we will distribute the cakes to the relatives at the baby shower and then deliver the remaining cakes to relative who were not able to attend the party.
And that’s it for preparations.
Come the actual day, we woke up early to bath Baby1 and to prepare her essentials for the day. As usual, things are unpredictable with Baby1 and we ended up late for our own event; we arrived at my parents’ house slightly late and some guests had already arrived before us.
Frustratingly, the caterer did not arrive until 12.30pm and by the time everything was set up, it was already 1pm. Finally, our hungry guests can have their buffet lunch.
Meanwhile, Baby1 slept through most of the day despite the noisy environment. We have brought her Capella stroller to the house and used it as her temporary bed in the living room.
Throughout the day, we hardly have much time to ourselves. We entertained all our guests and share with them our new experiences of parenthood, stopping only to feed Baby1 her milk. It was quite a tiring day hosting all our guests.
We wrapped things up at around 7.30pm and came home. Then we bathed Baby1 and ourselves and got ready to rest for the night.
And that’s our very simple baby shower. :)
-Dear1
Encore: One interesting thing that we noticed was that a surprisingly small number of guests (iirc 3 or 4) gave us actual presents. The rest simply gave baby an auspicious congrats ang bao, which is a good thing! Initially, we were slightly worried about receiving many duplicate gifts because we had already bought a lot of baby’s equipment ourselves. Luckily, the few gifts we received were clothes and toys which are always good to have. The cash ang baos will definitely come in useful for baby and us. We used the ang bao money to pay for the catering and cakes. Then we gave $1000 to Baby1 and deposited it in her first POSB Kids savings account. We then deposited the rest into Baby1′s CDA account for her future use and also to start earning her $1-for-$1 baby bonus. :)
Our new found night life 26 March, 2010
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Baby, Dear1, For Him For Her.1 comment so far
We have been awake a lot these nights. In fact, over the past several weeks. Yupz! You guessed it, it’s baby feeding time.
Newborns tend to have reversed day and night cycles compared to us becos they grew up in mummy’s womb. During the day, mummy walks around alot and the gentle sway of the amniotic fluid in the womb rocks baby to sleep. During the night, when all is quiet and mummy is sleeping, baby wakes up since there are no more soothing sways. This is also the reason why mummy’s tend to feel more baby kicks during the nights.
Now, newborns will carry this reverse day night characteristics with them for the first few weeks after birth. Eventually, they’ll tune their biological clock to sync with our world and no more sleepless nights for mums and dads. Or so that’s what the doctor says.
It’s true to a certain extent. We did observe Baby1 adapting to our normal day night cycle at around 2-3 weeks. She would fall asleep at about 11pm-12am, then sleep through 4-5 hours. Great! Just 1 night feed per night.
But lately, Baby1 reverted from 1 feed per night back to about 2-3 feeds per night. Omg! After some observations, we attribute this to growth spurts and bloaty stomachs. Although we burp Baby1 after every feed and made sure that she had at least 1-2 big burps, she would still continue to have gas in her stomach that will cause her to wake at night. Hopefully, the situation will improve as she grows.
To accommodate her night feeds, we have settled ourselves into a new night schedule ourselves.
At 10pm, we would give Baby1 the regular breastmilk and an extra large serving of formula milk to last her through the night.
At 11pm, Baby1 has gone to bed. I will prepare all the feed equipment for the night, including washing and sterilizing the bottles, boiling water, mixing the right temperature of water in a thermal flask for preparing formula milk at night. Then Dear2 will prepare a cup of milo for each of us and we chat over a hot drink with biscuits.
At 2-3am, Baby1 wakes up and Dear2 feeds her. I will prepare formula milk if needed, and boil another kettle of water for the next day. Then Dear2 and I will sit down for another cup of milo and biscuits. Dear2 feels hungry easily becos she is breastfeeding. I just enjoy keeping Dear2 company over our late night supper. :P
At 4-5am, Baby1 wakes up again and Dear2 feeds. Dear2 will wake me if formula milk is needed, otherwise I will sleep right through. Occasionally, Baby1 will have trouble going back to sleep at this time, probably her bio-clock is telling her to wake up already. If this happens, I will coax her back to sleep which can take up to 1 hour.
At 7-8am, Baby1 wakes up again and Dear2 feeds. Normally, Dear2 will go back to sleep after feeding while I coax Baby1. Then I’ll go buy breakfast and it’s the end of our night feeding routine and the start of a new day.
On some nights, things don’t go quite according to schedule. Just the other day, a cockroach somehow entered our bedroom. Dear2 spotted the cockroach near Baby1′s cot during the 2am feed and evacuated the room with Baby1 immediately. I quickly grabbed the insecticide and a roll of newspaper and patiently waited for the cockroach to make its move. Once it was away from the cot, I sprayed it with insecticide and smash it with the newspaper. Phew! However, the room now reeks of the toxic insecticide fumes. So we had to ventilate the room for some time before bringing Baby1 back in.
Last night, a big lizard made it into our room door and positioned itself on the door frame. I waited for some time, hoping for it to move to open ground before capturing it. But it didn’t budge. Dear2 decided to skip our late night supper becos she didn’t want to go near the lizard. Hungry, but no choice. So I made the milo, brought it into our room and we had supper in bed. Hehe… We left the room door open and eventually the lizard escaped.
There as even one night that Dear2 couldn’t fall asleep and she surfed the web and did quite alot of housework while attending to Baby1. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to visit the toilet and I saw Dear2 wiping away at some Fisher-Price toys that we bought from a warehouse sale recently. The next time I woke up, Dear2 was seen making and rolling cotton balls from the huge roll of cotton wool we bought earlier.
As much as our current night life is fun and interesting as it is, as much as I enjoy chit chatting with Dear2 over our nightly milo, we really need to start training Baby1 to sleep through the night. Nothing is better than a good 7-8 hours sleep at night. Now, the first step is to extend the intervals between her night feeds. Perhaps its time we bring out the pacifier…
-Dear1
