Author: amanda

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#1: Look for CONTRACTOR/CARPENTER

Both of us have a rough image of how our home will look like… so for the past few weeks, I had been looking for reliable contractor/carpenter to contruct the cabinents. I was quite apprehensive about not going with an ID BUT I figured out that I don’t need an ID because I know what I want and ID might wanna have his own input on designs.. which might add cost? hmm… hope we are not mking a wrong move here

So, I have sourced for 3 contractor/carpenter.. I shall contact them right away for quotes when I’m back… I’m excited… yet scared…

I like the open concept of the apartment , like what we have here in US. I really hope tt hacking the wall between the living room and the kitchen will not be that expensive :X and you know what? I think it’s a HUGE misconception when pple think that open kitchen = stinky home after cooking…. come on… i do massive cooking everyday… yes.. there’s smell of cooking BUT open the windows for ventilation and use air freshener or scented candles, the smell will be gone in no time!

ok fine.. I rather have the open concept of the kichen than install heavy glass doors that leave fingerprints..

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Cherry Blossom

This must be the last full bloom… hope it’s not the last of me seeing it bloom


[Sidetrack]
BH recently found out that Bully is able to put its paw on its nose.. haha.. and i also recently found out that Bambi likes to chew its own paw!! (according to my sis, only smart dogs does that! hahaha…)


Us on a good day πŸ˜€

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Finding its home

I kinda knew it will be a good weekend because BH came home earlier than usual on friday! hahaha.. we had dinner at home and for the first time ever since we moved to Redmond, we decided to take a walk in the nearby park.. it was a nice leisurely walk until we saw this lady staring intensely at the creek…. so… my natural instinct was to look at what she was looking at… and I saw……. something brown!! I know either a otter or a beaver… haha… but i needed to go nearer… the brown animal moved a little and I saw its flat tail!! ohhh… it’s a beaver!!! we were both v excited.. hahaha… i think we made a lot of noise trying to be quiet… and… the beaver swam away… :X

I was quite sure that the beaver don’t stay alone… I’m sure there’s a family of them in the creek!! so.. we decided to follow the beaver along the creek.. hoping it is swimming home… BUT…. we walked for a long while and it’s still not home… in the end, we gave up… hahaha

so.. for the whole weekend..I was itching to go looking for the beaver in the creek…

now to think of it…. “what’s the beaver doing now??” hahaha

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I want to be normal

you know… the typical Singaporean who works late, works super hard and feels super tired everyday… the kind who stomachs being upset and angry but have to remain speechless.. and the type that save all the hard earn money just to get married, buy a flat and settle down. Yes! I wanna be that type and I had always envisioned myself to be like that….

I like working, I like being upset and angry, I like saving money…life may not be a bed of roses but knowing that at the end of the day, we’ll come home to the same place mks everything worth it.. I just wanna be where you are and not be torn apart by my work

“Go back first and we’ll work this out…” When? How? I feel like a child being left at a child-care centre, waiting for my parent to bring me home…what if my parent did not come as promised?

This time, I’m not the child, I’m your wife.

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Chanel prices (USD vs Euros)

Blogging about it for records πŸ™‚

Pls pls pls don’t increase price yet… let me get to NYC first…. pls pls pls let it have stock when I get to NYC…. keke

In my whole life-time, I hope to get 2 Chanel handbags. haha.. i think I can die in peace if I have 2 of these babies… really. My No. 1 dream was to have a Classic Flap ( I don’t mind RED or BLACK) Belief it or not… but I didn’t even have eyes for WOC ( Wallet on chain) until BH brought it to my attention… hehe… WOC is cheaper… BUT Classic Flap is more worth it to get in the US, comparing the price difference between USD and Euros. Now I’m in a dilemma, which shld I get FIRST??? πŸ˜€ If I get the WOC in red, I’ll get the flap in black. If I get the flap in black, I’ll get the WOC in red.. haha… It will be great if I can find a flap in grey or a WOC in navy blue!!!

Prices as of April 5

For Flap

If I buy in euro, i pay 2450 Euros. I get back 12% tax refund
Price of WOC: 3068 USD

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If I buy in US, I pay 3400 USD
Buy at Bloomingdales NY, open their credit card, I got 15% discount
Price of WOC: 3400*0.85 discount*1.0875 = 3142 USD

For WOC

If I buy in euro, i pay 1080 Euros. I get back 12% tax refund
Price of WOC: 950.4 Euro = 1351 USD
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If I buy in US, I pay 1575 USD
Buy at Bloomingdales NY, open their credit card, I got 15% discount
Price of WOC: 1575*0.85 discount*1.0875 = 1456 USD











Dream….. don’t remind me of my bond.. ah… this is the closest I can get πŸ™

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It’s 9 years!

Shortly after our birthdays, it’s our 9 years anniversary! haha..It’s amazing how time flies.. I mean.. i don’t even think that BH and I will go this far… BUT we did!! πŸ˜€ ok… I still rem the times I felt soooooooooo embarassed that I had such a ‘useless’ boyfriend.. who have NOTHING NOTHING at all and is as poor ( or even poorer than) as a church mice.. glad we are past that phrase… and how I persevered and believed..

anyhow, we didn’t celebrate…in fact, we went grocery shopping and bought some new ingredients because I wanted to cook NEW things.. haha… so on sunday, I cooked while BH played games!!!

Sneak peak of my yummy food – can you guess what I cooked? haha…





I promised I will update my food blog with recipes soon… I had been cooking.. taking pictures BUT not updating it πŸ™ Heh..I deliberately made the above FOOD extra spicy to ‘punish’ BH for ‘enjoying himself’ as I worked in the kitchen… In the end, he finished the food and had a tummyache! I was DELIGHTED.. haha.. think I’m a sadist!

Because I’m back to the ‘FREE’ me again… it’s time to catch up with things I love doing… πŸ™‚

I was in the mood for Scrapbooking – yes, I am still working on our wedding photos…





On friday, I spent the whole afternoon scrapbooking… then I realised that I had no time to prepare dinner. Heng ah.. found a FREE pizza code and ordered pizza and buffalo wings for dinner.. Invited WQ over to help eat the pizza… heh.. and it was all gone in a spilt second! v good… I don’t like leftovers!

AND… my BABY-G reached me on saturday, on our 9 years anniversary!! yay!!! πŸ˜€
Super happy! I know it’s just a watch but to me it was like a childhood dream came true! ok… so now.. i feel so KE$HA!! (Changed my mixpod music for the effect!) wahaha





Happy weekend! πŸ™‚ Hope u had a good one too!

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FANTASTIC home-cook meal

Last night, BH and I went for a dinner party hosted by Jo and Dave πŸ™‚ Well, Jo is Sam’s friend and we met Dave ( Jo’s hubby) at Sam’s place during potluck night. Jo just came back from her trip home and bought back delicious food…… PETAI = Stinky beans!!! OMG!!! I mean… stinky beans is my fave!!! Sam was really sweet and invited BH and I on behalf of Jo to join them for dinner… wah… I love it!! Cozy dinner… random chit-chat… and of course.. it’s amazing how all married couples have the same complains… like ahem… ‘men dirtying the toilet bowl!’ hahahaha

yup… BH told me that he’s busy for the week.. so I was kinda prepared to say NO to the delicious food… BUT it turns out that BH was onz about it too!!! Happy happy!!!

We had Bak Kut Teh, Sambal Petai and Egg tofu… It was certainly the MOST YUMMY home-cooked meal I have ever had here ( The best is and will always be my mum’s cooking..) Jo also baked a delicious cake for dessert!! My skill is sooooooooooo not there can! kekeke…. but I’ll try to host a dinner party soon… πŸ˜€

and… we took pictures… but it’s with Sam… I’ll update this post if I can get pictures from her

Happy mid-week!

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The BIG ‘3’

3 days after my 27.. comes BH’s Big ‘3’! haha.. oh well.. we did nothing special.. just went to Seattle downtown and walked around.. BH made a good deal at Macys, scoring a cool pair of Levis at $9.99 and a stylo shirt at $6? wah… I bought 2 Gap tops at $15 as it was on BOGO. Gap tops make good working clothes ya know…

Above all, I gave BH his bday gift – a CK belt! and…. my bday gift is still NOT HERE!! so…apparently, it’s kinda lost in transit??!!! I mean.. we had purchased numerous items from Amazon.. and it’s the first time this had happened.. sob πŸ™ looks like i’m not fated to be own a Baby G. Fortunately, amazon agree to give us a refund if we still don’t get it by coming monday

We also went to the Nordstrom at downtown Seattle to look at Chanel bags.. haha… the SAs were not friendly at all.. I hate SA that talk among themselves while they are assisting you.. geez… It feels that you are not a valued customer. IF I am mking a HUGE purchase, I would spend money feeling happy and well taken care of… anyway, we left the store getting NOTHING?! heh..

After shopping, we had dinner at The Olive and Grape
I love Mediterranean food… so when there’s a livingsocial deal on it, we jumped on the chance immediately! Finally, we kept the coupon to a special occasion and used it… well… the Lamb Kebabs ( looks like Satay) was quite nice… the meatballs were nice too… however, the entree was only ok… we ordered grilled fish.. I was expecting the fish to be more flavorful but there was little aroma of spices and herbs. The only saving grace was the fish was fresh.. at least there’s no fishy smell



Actually, I wasn’t even full after dinner.. I wanted to order more BUT the food isn’t even up to standard.. so we just left.. Now I miss Panos Kleftiko Greek Taverna We went there some time back and the food was super!

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On Sunday, Yilun treated us birthday peeps ( all 3!! BH and WQ bday on 26, while mine is 23) to dimsum brunch.. then we watched Rango together… eeks… v disapting!

After which, BH bought me to Neiman Marcus Chanel store again.. hahaha.. it was as though he wanted to redeem his ‘sins’ I saw the bag/wallet I wanted!!! wah… the SA was super nice – she kept taking out the bags to let me see/touch/hold and try… even checked out her system for different colours and styles I might be interested in… BH was super nice… he was like asking for new pieces and all… it wasn’t cheap.. but touched my heart that he was super serious at getting the item for me… πŸ™‚ Ok.. so I did a silly thing… I stopped him in the nick of time and pulled him out of the shop.. nah… I don’t need no Chanel….

After which, we went to Purple for dinner.. haha.. like FINALLY





BH and I decided to splurge and bought a bottle of wine to go with our dinner..on sunday wine was on special: 1/2 price for a bottle. Bh’s entree was fried rabbit!! boo.. it tasted like chicken! Just felt abit cruel eating rabbit.. so I had pasta instead. The food was ok… but the ambience was good.. Hope to dine here again in near future.

That’s how we spent Bh’s birthday weekend… it was fun… and that’s when I realised that 30ε²ηš„η”·δΊΊιžεΈΈζœ‰ι­…εŠ›:)

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simple 27

How did I spend my birthday? well, the truth is I felt miserable and scared the whole week long… things aren’t going my way.. we made reservations for dinner at Purple which I always wanted to go for the longest time… BUT I cancelled it last minute.. just because I haven’t been feeling so good πŸ™ For the 1st time ever since I’m in the US, i felt so miserable that I took a 2hr nap in the afternoon instead of going to the gym.

anyway, I know BH got me a Baby-G watch which I had been eyeing since I was in Primary school? haha.. i really needed a watch because I only have 1 formal looking watch. So his bday gift for me is going to be late. Out of desperation (I think), he told me he was getting a Chanel bag for me. I think he’s bullsh*ting… until now.. I still think so… but you know what? I was just too miserable to find fault with him… ahhh… we don’t have much time left .. y sour our r/s over a gift? nah…

On my birthday, i cooked a simple dinner.. prepared his lunch box…it was just another day. BH came home slightly earlier and presented me with a card, flowers and cake. It’s nothing much but i appreciate it




I was kidding with him that we could keep the candles and use them when we are 72! Not sure if we will be celebrating bday together then? haha

We had the cake… he did the dishes then we lazed around watching my fave The Middle and Modern Family- just like any Wednesday night

I think BH is crazy… he likes it when I cry as I read the card he wrote! So this time I deliberately just LOOK (not read) thru’ the card but I still cannot help it and teared a little…haha.. ok fine.. so he decided to read it for me.. and I teared even more… it’s been ages since he wrote me a card and I was v touched! esp when he wrote+said ” My success is yours, my failure is mine ” ( I actually googled this sentence to see where he copied from BUT I can’t find anything!) that’s such a sweet thing to say…esp when I met THE major setback recently..




Simplicity is bliss.. and I can ask for nothing more. Can we spend every birthday together pls?

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you know what I dislike about blogging? it’s the title I need to enter for every entry I wanna type. As the thoughts flood my puny brain, I feel so disturbed that all these thoughts need a title?? geez… and so i decided that I shld just leave it blank

It was a horrible week for me. No amt of tears or words can sum up the fear, anger and disapointment I have in my heart πŸ™ I’m still not sure if the matter is settled. Just thinking about it, mks me scared.

I thought I was going to spend my whole weekend being worried and unhappy but Sam called and invited us to their new home! πŸ™‚ It’s nice to be remembered… and I haven’t seen Sam for the longest time!!! Their new house is awesome! and it mks me wonder when would it be our turn? haha… wishful thinking on my part… you know.. i really always wanted to have my own place and then u say… ” There! U have your flat right?” what’s the pt of having it only by name? and Bh would say… “We’ll get there .. be patient..” I think I shld believe him.. it will mk me happier. Anyhow, we had a good time making new friends… chit-chatting and catching up… glad that we went .. it was more fun than worrying..Looking forward to the next meet up!

I realised that other wives here have really GOOD talents and skills even though they are not working. On the other hand, I am good at nothing πŸ™ Sam’s good at make-up, she’s doing it as her sideline. The other lady is good at cake decorating! wow! I can’t think of something i’m good at… I’m embarassed… then Bh consoles me by saying that I’m good at cooking.. talking to pple… blah blah… these are all bullsh*t. I need a skill… and that skill is teaching?? i guess… maybe I shld just go home…

Then I see how other wives address their hubby as ‘Hun..’ or ‘Dear..’ even though they are married for as long as we are… wah… they must really love each other… I looked at Bh and guess what I addressed him? haha.. I used to call him his name but… as time goes one… I just call him other names like “F*cked up, come home early ah!” He calls me ‘A’ … how unromantic! I think BH has became my friend! πŸ™

woke up this morning… and i felt so ready to leave everything behind here ( including BH) and go home… I want to feel like this and I need to feel like this.. yes, I think i’m not in a marriage anymore.. This is what you call ‘Domestic Partnership’