Direct Flights Only

First…

1) … Blog entry – this one!

2) … few photos in the new year (Post-Countdown)

Sophie distracted by the New Year's Eve food on the dining table

3) … Singapore tourist attraction visited (Asian Civ Museum)

4) … shopping mall where I made a purchase beyond SGD50

5)… film watched on the big screen

Happy new year!

Farewell 2009, Welcome 2010

New hairstyle and specs going into the new year.

Here’s what I plan to do in 2010 in random order :

1 Achieve “regular customer” status in one of the bars in Singapore by end June.

2 Listen to FM radio more often to keep up with English and Mandarin pop music.

3 Lose 3kg by end March, another 3kg by end June and maintain weight with +/- 2 kg variation for the rest of the year.

4 Be more active on Saturday mornings.

5 Use my MacBook, Nokia X6, online applications (i.e. WordPress), digital media to the fullest.

6 Be involved in preparing at least one new dish per month.

7 Be more conscious of the price of goods & services I purchase and use such knowledge on a need basis. Avoid buying blindly.

8 Discover new items via online shopping every 3 months.

9 Among all acquaintances I will meet in 2010, be able to catch up again post-introduction with at least 10 of them.

10 Continue to learn more about Singapore — specific focus on (1) how the education system works, (2) CPF,  (3) buying a house, (4) its history , (5) heartlands exploration

11 Use the bus as the primary mode of transport to and from work (70% of the time).

12 Learn basic / conversational Mandarin without taking up formal classes. Sound like a pro even for a limited scope of words.

13 Read more – on print and online.

14 Undisclosed target – to be known by yearend if achieved

Moved to a new home recently, settling in well, and loving the new place and area.

I realised that change is good if it means having a place with more space, keeping the same modern look & feel at a much more reasonable price.

Moving also means getting rid of the clutter (or at least knowing what could be thrown away in due course) and buying new furniture and appliances. I keep telling my family that we are only transferring to a new home within the same country, not relocating to another country hence no need to purchase a lot of items. I think we have kept that in mind 50% of the time.

My room looks neater now than before and I plan to keep it that way. It will look more tidy after the holidays as some of stuff from overseas travel meant for Christmas gifts are still in one corner of the room.

For some reason, I sleep more comfortably now even with a slightly earlier wake up time. Maybe it’s the room, the house in general or my new mattress and set of pillows.

I am also taking the bus more often as the bus stop is less than 3 mins away. I had wanted to do this ages ago but happy that I am able to do it now. Better late than never.

There a few major insights I learned throughout this experience so thought I’d write some here :

1) Several months before the move, I kept a folder containing the types of mail I receive which are directly addressed to me. Examples of these are membership-related letters, subscriptions, bills, other notices. This allowed me to track the relevant parties I need to inform of my change in residence.

2) There should be an overlap between the lease end date of previous and the lease start date of the new place, at least 2 weeks to a month. In my view, the extra month of payment for the new place was worth it. It not only eased off some pressure in having to move everything in one go. It also allowed some form of transition — mails, clean up of old place etc. It is also a busy time and I did not want to get stuck with relocation stuff during the Christmas break.

3) SingPost has a mail redirection service which you can pay for a certain number of months. What they then do is to intercept all your mails based on the name/s you indicate in the form and place a sticker based on the new address. There is a 1 or 2 day delay vs normal delivery time but at least you don’t miss out on any correspondence.

4) Singaporeans and Permanent Residents can update their address at the community police station. Doing so also results in a select number of government institutions and agencies to be notified accordingly. The process is quite straightforward and takes less than 30 mins. You go to the police outpost with proof of new residence and the police officer will ask you to sign a form before he places a special sticker indicating the new address on your IC.

5)  Moving is costly and one needs to set aside funds to cover : 1st month rent, 2 months deposit, service fee for property agent and relocation company, cost of buying new stuff.

6) There’s a lot of coordination that happens prior, during, and after the move. My family has been a tremendous help in making things happen as I have been tied up with work.  We treated the relocation as a project and it went really smoothly with everyone’s efforts and patience.

What’s left on my To-Do list ?

1) Get rid of some more stuff currently in organised boxes in the storage room

2) Series of housewarming parties over December and January

A few photos :

Living Room - That couch is really comfy

My bed

Sister's bedroom

Mom's bedroom

Hallway from rooms to dining area. Behind the sliding glass door is a study room which we converted to store bookshelves and shoe racks