Men are indeed from another planet ...

No, scratch that. They are from another solar system ...

For the last 10 years, I've been telling The Hubby that I was of the opinion that the door of the toilet in the utility room should be changed to a sliding door. Of course, the man was adamant that the door be NOT changed. He said the door was fine, nothing wrong with it, why should we throw out a perfectly working door and put in a sliding one or a bi-fold one? Plus he would have to PAY for a new one *eyes rolling here*

Of course, I had a good reason for suggesting that.

A damn good reason.

When the idiot people designed the apartments at my condo .. at least the ones with my apartment layout, the door from my kitchen to the utility room and the toilet door IN the utility room .. well, the doors are perpendicular to each other when closed .. that means simply that at any one time, only ONE door can stay open since the hinges are on the same side for both .. and most of the time, the kitchen door has to stay open .. especially since the kitchen would have no ventilation otherwise. So the toilet door has to remain closed 90% of the time. The toilet is tiny by the way. Just the toilet bowl unit and a small sink. Of course, it has a light installed in the ceiling but it's irritating that the toilet has to be dark and closed all the time.

And it's just awkward to have 2 doors back to back if I were to leave BOTH open .. the doors would be open just halfway .. the design was just really plain ol' DUMB. I mean, if they really had no choice, why on earth did the developer NOT just install a folding door for that toilet to begin with ??!!

So somewhere along the way, after a sufficient time had passed by (a few years), I broached the topic again .. cos I didn't argue over the door issue for the whole 10 years ...

The man says NO. A flat no.

What the ...

And now, 10 years have gone by and I'm still living with that stupid door situation. TEN YEARS. I kid you not. My maid has to manouver around a small space with the 2 doors .. to hang clothes up, get at the washer and dryer, get into the store room .. it's just a nuisance having the doors like that.

2 weeks ago, I call up the folks at PD Door, they send their guy over to take measurements and give me a quote and today it's been installed. YES, I have a new swing and slide door !!! Ok, this was taken off of their website and it ISN'T MY door. But this is what it looks like !!

And it may just be a door, but man, once that original toilet door was taken out, and the new pd door installed, the area actually looked more spacious !! Of cos - with one less door naturally the area looks less cluttered!! I am PLEASED with the results. And I love that unlike traditional folding doors which have that UGLY track at the bottom, pd doors DON'T !! So happy with how it turned out!!

Ok, so back to my point here .. men are indeed a strange breed. I know what The Hubby was thinking .. or at least I think I do. He didn't want to waste money changing out the door (when we first bought our apartment) cos it just seemed like a waste of money. The fact that the door placement was not thought out well was secondary to him. He paid for the apartment (and that included the door) .. so he felt that we might as well use it. Till it's spoilt or we died or moved. Whichever came first. And come on, doors don't get spoilt ! .. How?? Unless it's your front door and you get paint splashed on it by loansharks .. doors are pretty hardy things that almost never need replacing. DAMMIT.

TEN YEARS, TEN WHOLE YEARS. Are u getting a sense of my bitteness here yet??! lol :p

By the way, in case you haven't guessed .. I paid for the stinking new door. LOL. Oh well, it's HIS money anyway. I'm just so happy with how it turned out, I told my maid if I really ran out of money, we're all eating plain old rice and fried anchovies for dinner.

HUH. I'll be happily sitting in my teeny toilet staring at my new door !!

Lunches and teas with girlfriends

Ok no pics .. A lot of the time, I'm too busy eating to take photos. Lol. Last week, I went to Marmalade Pantry with a group of gals .. We had a nice time chatting.

Today, I met up with an old friend while her boy was in Chinese class. We were neighbors back on Canon AFB in 2002.

We had food at this prata shop in United Square. I had thosai masala. I love Indian food btw.

Me time

With 5 kids, "me" time has to be carefully planned. Lol. I seldom have the time to do just anything everyday. I have stuff that I currently need doing which I have yet to do, like going for a facial (can't do that yet - still nursing Charlotte), rebonding my hair (same thing .. Can't leave Charlotte for so long) and a pedicure.

Last week, I managed to go for a lovely tea with my girlfriends at Marmalade Pantry at ION Orchard. We had fun chatting and eating :) Unfortunately, I didn't take a single photo of us at tea.

This pic was taken awhile back. I was with Charlotte who was happily in her sling staring at me gobbling down my so-late-breakfast-it-was-almost-lunch meal.

Ok, I cannot, for the life of me, get up early. With good reason might I add .. I sleep at about 2.30am everyday. How to wake up at 7am? I usually get up at 9. So I have all these grand plans for breakfast which never materialize cos by the time I'm all bathed and dressed .. Charlotte too, it's already freaking lunch time. Dammit !!

My shoe collection

I have a confession. See my new shoes? You'd think I'd be dying to wear them out ya? I haven't. And I won't. I like them too much to wear them I tell myself. Or, it's hard to drive with them .. Or, I just go up and down ferrying the girls to school and classes, why do I need to wear my "nice" shoes/ sandals. Ah yes, all the excuses. So I end up just storing them in the cupboard.

And so it turns out my collection is growing and I have yet to wear my newer pairs. Darn.

Ok, back to the pictures. The shoes are nice, aren't they ??

Family

Had a grand reunion with my extended family. My cousin, Whitney graduated and is now Dr Whitney D'Cotta!

Awesome! We're all proud of her. Her parents threw her a dinner celebration at the Guild House in Bukit Timah and The Hubby and I were invited. Here is a photo of me and another of my cousins, Geraldine. She's a banker :)

DNA testing ..

Had a funny thought the other day.

Charlotte is our last baby cos The Hubby has gone for a vasectomy .. But I just thought I'd ASK. Lol.

"hey, so does this mean that if I do fall pregnant sometime in the future, you'll make me go for a DNA test to prove the baby is yours?" I asked The Hubby.

"Of course! That goes without saying!" Bugger had the cheek to say.

Instead of feeling indignant, I hooted with laughter. Eh, it's kinda funny and he's right. Trust or no trust, I'd go anyway just to make him happy.

Green grass

Is the grass greener on the other side of the pasture? Come on, just look at the pic below. It's taken by a friend of mine currently residing in Mountain Home, Idaho. That's her dog, MacKenzie. Just stare at the picture for all of 10 seconds and tell me you don't think the grass is greener over there. Hell, yeah it is. I had the wonderful opportunity to live in Clovis, NM for 2 years on an air force base, Canon AFB. It was the best 2 years of my life. Not only was the grass really greener, the air was fresher, the weather was a hellava lot better .. But the space was awesome. Wide, open spaces of just sky and land. NM is relatively flat but the other states .. We had long road trips whenever we could and it was truly breathtaking looking at the scenery. Mountains, lakes, valleys and gorges .. They are truly awesome. And visiting the Grand Canyon remains one of the best surprises Hubby ever gave us.

A last look

This is my Graco Silhoutte swing .. I love it. If I were having any more babies, there is no doubt I'd keep the swing. But I am not. Only Charlotte got to enjoy this swing btw. I haven't had it that long. lol :p

Lastly here is a shot of Charlotte napping in it :)

Denial

I am in denial. Ok, not so much denial as it is pretending it's denial. I am aware. Very aware.
My shopping is having dire consequences. On what u ask?

Space.

I am running out of space. Hence, my urgency to sell off the baby gear. Next up will be clearing out all the too-small baby and newborn clothes. And man, there is plenty of that.
Thing is, I can think of no one to give it to. Most first time parents prefer buying new. And let's face it, baby clothes whether from Mothercare or otherwise, are not hundreds of dollars apiece.

Anyway, I will find the time to look through stuff. And see how it goes.

Oh yes! I have plenty of still good condition maternity wear. So if u know anyone who's a plus size and pregnant and has problems getting maternity stuff in Singapore, Land of the Liliputians .. Let me know. I'll sell all as one lot. Or piece by piece. I haven't decided.

Almost all are bought online at motherhood.com. There's more than 10 pieces in the lot - mostly dresses and tops and a few bottoms.

Let me know if u want to have a look!!

Sent from Sam's iPhone :p

Update

Oops, I initially posted this in my other blog .. Here it is  

Well, a bit of an update here. So far, my Quinny Buzz has been sold to a really nice couple for $300. Her husband came to pick it up. Very nice and friendly. Showed him how the stroller works etc. While I'm sad to see my stroller go, I'm glad I sold it of at a good price to someone nice !! Hope u guys enjoy using it. 

My Fisher-price infant seat is on reserve and the swing has had a few inquiries. Let me know if you're interested. I also have tons of newborn girl stuff. Am wondering what to do with it. Must look through and sort it out soon. 

Cos my stuff came today - I need the space!! Lol! Yes, my recent spate of late night online shopping stuff.

Sent from Sam's iPhone :p

Angsty-ness

Season 7 of Grey's Anatomy started playing on cable tv here last night. Man, they are really angsty doctors. It's like watching a grown up version of One Tree Hill or 90210. I love you, I don't love you. I wanna marry you, I'm sorry I can't do this ... WA LIAO EH.

And yet, I still watch the show. The characters GROW on you. And I've always been a sucker for what I call .. "doctor doctor" shows. Lol. I was watching Chicago Hope and ER long long ago. Ok, I kinda gave up watching ER after some 8 seasons .. it dragged too long and my love, George Clooney was no longer there by then so really, what was the point in watching it? COME ON, that was THE only reason why most women watched ER.

In Grey's Anatomy, there are hunks galore. Who on this planet doesn't think Patrick Dempsey is HOT? And that other dude is hot too .. Eric Dane. Grey's Anatomy has been around since 2005 .. and aside from Private Practice, there aren't any other "doctor doctor" shows around right now.

So, as angsty as the characters are .. I'm gonna still keep on watching them for now.

The baby sale starts ...

Was supposed to give all these stuff away to a good friend .. but that was not to be. Too bad. So I am selling them all off to recoup some of the money spent .. lol :p
Some of these items, my friends .. are NEW .. bought just for Charlotte. Specifically, the last THREE items. Loved those things a lot. The Fisher-Price infant seat is my favourite. Comes with sound and vibrations as do the Graco automatic swing .. Love them.

Drop me a note if u wanna know the prices. Except for the Buzz stroller and the changing unit, the rest are about $100 - $120 :)