"What the hack....!"

The hacking had started last Wednesday and had stopped yesterday, at my new place. Fortunately I was not there during the hacking but inspected the place on Monday evening and on Wednesday evening. It looked like a bomb had fallen inside with all the dust and debris.

I had a site meeting with the interior designer today, amidst the clearing by the workers. I am now home, writing this on my new laptop, which deleted half of what I had written. What the heck happened??

Unfortunately the walls could not be knocked down yet, pending approval from the authorities, which I hope will be accomplished by next week. According to the work schedule, tiling should commence next week for the next three weeks. I have arranged to move in by 27 August, and will hand over my old place by 4 September.

Lately, I have been shuttling to my new place, getting the hang of the bus connection, and taking the opportunity to try out the Food Park and restaurants there. A new Cold Storage has opened there and the shops are being upgraded. So it is quite a nice place.

Last Wednesday, had some friends over to try out the steamboat restaurant. It was pretty good value for money at $23.50 per person. We had a big buffet spread offering us steamboat, BBQ, Japanese Shabu Shabu. In addition, there was tempura, soft shell crab and even curry chicken and rice as well as fruits and dessert. The steamboat had both spicy and non spicy soup. Unfortunately, there was too much MSG, and I ended up drinking a lot of water. The BBQ mutton was so tough and hard that I had to throw it away.

I had fishhead curry last night with my air conditioning friend, who will instal my air conditioning for me. The curry was not that nice unlike the Indian curry.

The Thai restaurant was not bad, when I tried it with my son and my wife. The pineapple rice and the tom yum goong were nice. I had lunch with my son today at one of the grill meat place. The pork rib was not all that tender. Wonder what their steaks are like, because they are advertising their Angus steak.

Of late my spirit has been going up and down like a yoyo. I am feeling my age. I have been concerned about the renovations and the impending move. I have booked the mover and booked my handover date. Next week, the boxes will be delivered for packing. As I clear and throw my unwanted stuff, I will pack what I want. I am very apprehensive about all these and hope I can cope with the chores. When I look at all the stuff at home, I am confused and wonder where to start. I hope things will turn out well for me.

This laptop is driving me bongers because some of my text went missing. So I better sign off now.

Till then....

My new laptop.

I have done it, I have bought my new laptop. A VAIO, costing me $2,499, from a friend's shop. My friend upgraded it to 3 GB DDR2 and set up for me the OS, XP Pro SP3. In addition, I received a carrying case and a optical mouse.

The problem was that all the laptops now come with Window Vista, which is still full of bugs. I found out that the higher range laptops come with Window Vista Business and Window XP Pro, giving me a choice of either operating system. This will put my laptop compatible with my PC. So that suits me fine.

I spent the most part of today (Sunday), getting used to the laptop and installing my working programs. I am happy with it and will run it alongside with my PC as a sort of backup. It is very neat and whether it will replace my PC, time will tell. Certainly will save space and will enable me to work anywhere with the wireless connection.

Last Saturday, I had a long meeting with Gary, my interior designer and my son. We finally hashed out the renovations contract after going through so many changes. My son had so many lofty ideas and made so many changes that the drawing had to be re-drawn. It is going to cost me a whopping 85k. By the time we add in the lighting, the bathroom fittings, the kitchen equipment and my bedroom, it will hit 100k. My mind boggles, but I hope it will turn out right.

Work will commence next week starting with the hacking for three days. I hope the works will run smoothly and according to schedule. Gary has indicated to me that the schedule is comfortable. I intend to go in periodically to check on the works being carried out.

Last Friday evening, I took a bus to my new place to have a look around. There are many restaurants featuring alfresco and oriental food. Look nice and appetising. I eventually ate at the Food Park. There were jeichar stall, steamboat, Muslim food, nasi lemak, vegetarian, roast meat, pasta and noodles, dim sum and a cooked food stall, which I patronised eating steamed fish with rice and vegetables and tou foo for $4.20. Unfortunately there were no yong tau foo stall. Hope someone will open one there soon. Cold Storage has already opened there.

After eating I took a walk around to check the letter box, as I promised Alfred, I will re-direct his mail to him. I took the lift up to check the place and met the neighbour next door. We introduced each other and I found him to be very friendly. He assured me that the neighbourhood is very peaceful. So I apologised to him in advance that there will be hacking and noise. He dismissed it as being normal whenever someone renovates. When we parted, he told me that he was going to watch football.

Till then....

Time is catching up.

Yes, time is catching up after sitting on my backside for the last few months. After waiting for the prerequisite time period for the process of buying my property, I have now taken over the property physically with keys in hand. The next step will be to finalise with Gary to kick start the renovations.

With three days of hacking as allowed, I am targeting mid August to complete renovations, and to move in by last week of August. Hopefully things will work out well without any cliff hangers.

It is also June school holidays and on a few days when all the three grandchildren were with us, it was p-a-n-d-e-m-o-n-i-u-m!!!! Enough to drive me up the wall. The older kids now do not like me one bit because of my discipline. My grandson hates my guts, because I do not allow him to sit in front of the television from the moment he comes till he finally leaves. Every time he comes, he will ignore me and prefer to sulk in a corner and pander to his grandmother. This has caused a lot of friction with my wife because my wife will always automatically disagree with me

Though the older girl may not be that bad, but she has picked up a lot of bad habits, like talking back and ignoring me when I try to tell her something or other. There is nothing more I can do. I feel sad when I think that not so long ago, she was the apple in my eye.

Emma is now the cream in the cake while she is still young. When she starts growing up, she will adopt the same attitude and I will be a nobody. Might as well enjoy her while she is young now and go my way when she grows up. The legacy of a dying old man.

Emma celebrated her third birthday on 10 June, as I am writing this. The family gathered for dinner last Saturday night. I guess at three, Emma is at the epitome of her cuteness. I took 160 pictures that night and will be compiling them into a musical slide show. I hope she will appreciate this when I am long gone.

I have also just bought a new laptop, a VAIO VGN-SZ75GN. This is my first laptop as I have been using PC all the time. I bought this from a friend, who pulled out all the stops to give me a good deal. He even got the Sony guy to come over to explain all the details to me. Instead of the Vista OS, I wanted the XP Pro, because Vista has all the bugs. So my friend is now setting it up with XP Pro and getting the necessary drivers. I told him to take his time and let me have it in a few days time. I am touched by his good gestures.

I have been eyeing a laptop for some time now, but could not justify buying one as my PC is still running good. What prompted me, was the possibility of getting one with XP Pro, while this is still possible. I will use this as a back up and in the future, it might take over from my PC all together. My main interest is on multimedia for use with my photography and videography. In addition, I still surf, email, do my internet banking and other IT functions. Moreover my new work station may not have the space and the laptop is very compact.

My PC was giving me problems, due to the power supply shutting down periodically. While working on this posting, the PC shut down on me. Very frustrating. Luckily my friend Chow called and said he was on the way. He came and within five minutes, changed and installed my new power supply of 500 watts, which I bought for $79. Seems to be working well now.

Had news from Gary through my son, that Gary will be sourcing the material for the renovations and tying up loose ends this week. Hacking will start next week and the time frame is realistic enough.

Also had a call from my agent this morning that we will get together with the seller, Alfred, who suggested we have a sort of farewell meal to mark the handover. Alfred has since become a good friend.

Last Monday, he collected me in his car and drove round with me to take over the property and also to the various agencies making arrangements to pay the conservancy charges and car parking. Funny thing was, a car pulled up and thinking it was Afred, I opened the door to get in. I was so embarrassed when I startled the driver, who was not Alfred. In doing so, the door knocked against my spectacles and sent it flying. It took me a while before I found it under the car. Luckily the spectacle was not damaged. When we left my new property, I noticed a sadness in Alfred, who lingered a while before leaving. After 23 years, he must have felt nostalgic leaving his old home for the last time. Anyway, I have a standing invitation for him and his wife to visit us, after we moved in.

I am getting long winded. Better shut up for now.

Till then....