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| After coming back from our Taiwan trip, it's the time to face the shocking price hike in Singapore's property market. A look at the housing advertisements published online everywhere will give you the idea of how expensive is the rental of a unit in Singapore now. In the past years, the rental of a whole unit with 2 rooms used to cost less than $1k per month unless it is located near to the city area. Now? Even rentals at ulu places like Boon Lay, Punggol etc. cost at least $500 per room. Some owners are even asking for more than this price.  Thanks to the help of friends and online websites, I managed to get many agents to help me to look for an ideal unit to stay in. My phone has been ringing non-stop in the past few days with calls from agents. It is really good money for the agents considering that the demand for housing now is much more than the supply. So in this case, for every unit that they rent out successfully, they are paid one month rental shared by both the owner and the tenant. In some cases, people even jumped to the decision to rent the unit without looking at it first. Wow.. that means the agent got to earn so so much without much effort involved right now ya?  Anyway, Kok Hui, Teng Teng and I agreed to share a unit together since we are all working in the same company. We started our house viewing on Tuesday, in Ang Mo Kio area. I arranged for 3 viewings on that day but ended up seeing only 1 unit due to several reasons. About the condition of the house that we viewed on that day, the rental stated online was $1.4k online. However, the agent told us that the owner is asking for $1.5k now but since we have only 3 people staying in the house, she can help to get the rental down to $1.3k. not bad right? Though the house is quite spacious, it gives no homely feeling to us at all. It only gives functional feeling. A place for you to sleep in and for you to stay in. The furnitures are rather old with minimal interior decoration or rather I would say none, unless you consider a 神桌 with 大伯公 as one. I am not against the idea of having it in the house though  We went home quite disappointed as not only that we have to pay a much higher rental now (near to the rental of a condo in the past), we will still get such sub-standard units to stay in. A great news came on Wednesday when Teng Teng emailed me that a colleague asks her whether we want to stay at his place in Serangoon. It is a mansionette unit (double storey HDB) near to Serangoon MRT. Wow.. going to work from that place needs less than 20 minutes. Great~ In his email, he mentioned that his unit is newly renovated a year ago with 4 rooms. The unit is fully air-conditioned. The rental is $2k. Kinda attractive to us when we first heard about this. I asked Lisa whether she will be interested to join us as the forth housemate. She agreed to go have a look with us on Friday evening. We were all very excited to go for the viewing yday. Here is how the unit looks like. Pardon my lousy skills in phototaking.  The corridor leading to the unit. Small corridor again -.-" but luckily not very occupied with things from other units. Small corridor will be bad for moving in/out from the unit. 
Soon, when he opened the door of his unit, we were more than pleased to see how the place looks like. How about you?  
The renovation is brand new and here is what we see next- the living room~ 
Of cos, the 43" plasma tv he will not leave with us. He said he will replace a new 29" tv for us. That will be enough for us i guess  Next, let's see the kitchen. 
He has a huge fridge costing $3k+ at the side which is not in this pic as he said he will buy another one for us. So no use to include that here since it wont be for us also. 
Nice cabinets ya. Looks really homely. I may be inspired to cook more often with this kind of kitchen in the house. There are 3 rooms upstairs and 1 room downstairs. The room downstairs is currently his entertainment room with a huge TV and games in it. 
Moving upstairs, here is how the master bedroom looks like. I love the sliding wardrobe in the room. It will be for us as it is not possible for him to move away the wardrobe. Wee~~ 
The attached bathroom looks like very "inspiring". I am sure with toilets like this, I will not have constipation problem here. Hehe 
Photos of 2 other room upstairs. 
This room is quite big also. Almost similar to the master bedroom except that it has no attached bathroom. 
This room has a super big built-in book shelves. The book shelves will be there as he can't move it away. The good thing is that we can put many things there but the bad point is that it takes up quite a huge amount of space in the room. Hmm.. i wonder where to put a wardrobe and a computer table.  nevermind, shall think about it if i take this room. 
Another good point about this unit is that it has a really spacious clothes hanging area next to the living room. Its space is as big as a room. Also, the owner has installed a sliding shade that can protect all our clothes from getting wet if it rains. Erm.. i know this pic has failed to convey the design and the space. So use some of your imaginations ya  So many good points about this house that there is no reason not to stay here. Before that, I could never imagine myself staying in such nicely renovated house in Singapore. Now I am really looking forward to the day that I move in here. | | |
| Let me start off this rojak post by talking about my FYP presentation today~ I have finally completed my honours degree  (minus the release of results..heh~) I am so happy not bcos that I did very well today, in fact my presentation didn't go well at all. Today luck is just not by my side i guess. 祸不单行, many bad luck in a day.  My presentation is scheduled at 11.30am this morning. I reached the lab at 11am to get Churong's laptop from the locker. When I reached the lab, both my feet were already badly blistered by my heels. argh.. so painful  I guess it's bcos my feet have grown so much "extra meat" that they do not fit into the heels nicely anymore and therefore the blisters -.-|| However, thanks to the first aid kit in the lab, I managed to get 2 plasters. I then quickly rushed to TR100 where Cheen Hau was practising. By the time I reached the tutorial room, it was already 11.10am, 20 minutes left for me to try out how to operate the projector. I tried connecting Churong's laptop to the projector but it didn't work. Cheen Hau, the "technical support" managed to get it working by changing some settings in the end. I rushed downstairs to my tutorial room when Steven arrived. However, I couldn't go into the room to setup the laptop as the person b4 me was still presenting in the room. At 11.30am, finally the person finished and I realised that she is someone from my effective communication class last time. When she was busy packing up, i quickly tried to connect the laptop to the projector. It didn't work again -.-||| At that critical moment, my moderator came.  *double sweat* It was already past 11.30am and I still couldn't set up the projector and my supervisor was still nowhere to be seen. Steven then asked me to call up my supervisor but then I remembered that my handphone receiver is spoilt.. oh my... *sweat again* At this time, the gal offered to lend me her laptop and her handphone. She is my life-saver~! *touched* My supervisor forgot about my presentation today. So he rushed here after i called him. B4 he arrived, my moderator asked me to proceed with my presentation without waiting for him. a bit not so good ya.. but i have no choice but to listen to him. Churong and I practiced quite a lot of times the day before. I presented without trembling voice this time, unlike during my demo.  After i finished my presentation, my moderator commented that i presented too fast. i presented for only 10 mins or so while the limit is 15 mins. -.-||| he said it was a bit too fast for him to grasp since he has no background in the field. He asked me 2 questions. One of his questions i was not able to answer well and finally i gave up and looked at Steven. Steven then helped to answer his question and my moderator then said that he has no further questions. Cham~ i really screwed up my presentation ya.. but it's over~! so 算了吧~！  Some photo-taking session in the lab after the presentation. 
Chee Wah (the guy who always emphasizes that he is not old -.-|| make me curious how old is he..), Churong, me and Wang Wei (our lab 帅哥) 
Churong (again ), Li Ying (she is not available anymore..hoho~) and me. We went out for a little celebration during dinner @ Bento Box in JP. 
Me, Churong and Geok Teng smiling so happily bcos ... 
... of the pizza? *yummy* No~! We smile because we have one leng zai eating with us... kakaka~ He is our Mr Beautiful Legs a.k.a Spock a.k.a Cheen Hau~~ 
Going home tmr nite~ yippeee... but I will come back to Sg on Sunday afternoon again. Will be flying off for our graduation trip to Taiwan on the following day. Looking forward to the trip At last.. WE HAVE GRADUATED~~~ | | |
| Last Saturday while shopping around in Wisma Atria with Giap Hwai, we saw Sony's roadshow featuring its Cyber-shot series of cameras. Since we were waiting for the queue to service his Sony Ericsson's mobile phone, we just tried out those cameras on display. After so many years, I still haven't bought myself a digicam. I usually just take photos with friends' camera. I am really surprised to see how much the prices have dropped. One of the model DSC-W55 from Sony caught my eye with its attractive features and affordable price at $399. 
Before buying on the spot, we decided to walk around Orchard to compare prices. We dropped by a shop at Lucky Plaza to ask for the price of this camera. The rather unfriendly salesperson told us that if we were looking for 300+ price range, then it's either this model or Panasonic Lumix FX10. We took a look at both cameras while he was busy wiping away our finger prints. When asked the price for FX10, he quoted $375 with free 1GB memory card, an original Lithium ion battery and casing. Since he dislikes us touching his gadgets so much, we left the shop after asking the price. While we were walking around aimlessly in Orchard, we noticed there's a free shuttle bus heading to Great World City. Since we haven't been to Great World City, without much hesitation, we hopped on to the bus to go there to have a look. At Great World City, there's nothing much to see. It's just another shopping mall in Singapore. Feeling bored, I suggested to go in to Best Denki, an electrical shop, to have a look at the cameras. We can look at the prices without having to ask since the prices are all labeled beside the camera. The friendly salesperson started to talk to us about their weekend in-house promotion. I did not pay much attention to it at first. The Sony camera is again at $399 while the Panasonic one is also priced at $399 according to the price labels. I wasn't interested to buy any of the model at all until I heard the person saying that this Panasonic model is good and it's now under promotion at $349. 50 dollars discount~! hmm.. that makes me kinda 动摇. He then went on to say he can give me extra original Lithium ion battery worth 75 dollars, 2GB memory card, tripod and casing. Pretty good deal ya? Also, he is super friendly that it's really hard to resist and finally i decided to buy this model. 
The exterior and dimensions are similar to Sony's model. The response time after each shot is much faster than Sony's and it uses SD card rather than Sony's Memory Stick Duo card. One thing i dun really like about Panasonic's model is its user interface software. The friendly staff also went on to introduce to me Canon IXUS series. I really like its user friendliness, its look and its photo quality. Photos taken with Canon cameras have really nice colours. But it's priced at $509! hmm.. though i would love to buy Canon, the price difference is just too much for me to justify. I will spend lots of money after graduation: graduation trip to Taiwan, house rental etc. I better not spend too much on camera ba~ After buying the camera from Best Denki, we headed to Sim Lim to collect Giap Hwai's external hdd. Since we were at Sim Lim, we again went into one of the shop to ask about this camera. Hehe.. the salesperson claimed that they were having in-house promotion and this camera is priced at $380 with 2GB memory card. No extra battery but if i want an extra battery, they can sell to me at discounted price at 39 dollars. It is not original battery but a compatible one. We pretended to have to think over the offer and left the shop. I was so happy that I got a pretty good deal in fact. Before this, I have never thought that we can get electronics gadgets from those electrical shop like Best Denki, Harvey Norman and Courts at price cheaper than those shops in Sim Lim. Well, this case shows that it's not always true. In fact, sometimes we may even get a better deals at these places when they are having promotions. Also, we do not have to bargain hard or to be thick face to ask for more free gifts. The salespersons are interested in getting their commission while we, the customers are interested in the extra free gifts. The end result is therefore a win-win situation ya Some photos taken with my new camera. I have yet to master when to use what mode to capture nice photos. Anyone good in photography mind to share? 
I dun have much photo taking skills. This is called "一树" or if u like, u can call it "艺术" too 
yet another 一树照 
this is where my FYP lab is located. looks nice isn't it? but i am always lazy to go there. 
me at my FYP workstation, chatting with papa . it has been a year since i am assigned this workstation. 
Sunset over NIE buildings. 
wanted to capture the moon at first. realised there's 意外收获, one moon with 2 birds: 一月二鸟. can u see the birds? 
took many photos of different flowers around the campus. this is currently my desktop wallpaper. for the price i pay, i must say i am quite satisfied with the photo quality. at last, i have my own camera and i will definitely bring it along with me when i go out. | | |
| Get all 25 episodes of this series from Giap Hwai on Saturday night. I am always addicted to TVB series. Once started, I will 废寝忘食连夜 to finish watching it. So after spending 3 nights in a roll watching till 7+am every day, i finally completed the whole series. Churong said i was not even that hardworking while preparing for my exam last week. 
In this show, there's office politics involved as well as other 黑社会 matters. Watching the office politics really makes me worry how 阴险 the people can be. Hope next time i will not have to face such people in Micron. I like 吴卓曦 starring as those 正义感 rich guy. But too bad in the end he died.. however, towards the end so many ppl died, so i was kinda immune to it already and did not cry anymore. Anyone interested in watching this series? | | |
| On a Saturday afternoon prior to our first paper, Churong sent me a msg asking me whether is it ok for her to stay with me during exam period. I hesitated for a while, not knowing whether will it be a good idea or not before giving her the answer. In my university days, all my roomies are not my coursemates. I have tried to persuade my coursemate to be my roomie b4 but many think that it's not a good idea. They feel that coursemates staying together will create a competitive & stressful environment in the room which may eventually have negative impact to the friendship. Churong is one of my best frens here, my FYP mate, my coursemate, my classmate... though seeing her everyday, i have not stayed with her for long period before. I was afraid that we may have 冲突 if we were to stay together, especially during exam period when the stress level is high. However, my final decision was a "Yes". I cleaned up the extra table on my roomie's side and wiped the floor clean to welcome her as my "new roomie" for this exam period. So she moved in with her 乌龟壳 (her backpack) on the following day. That is when our journey to fight the final battle in uni "最后的战役" started.. which eventually turned out to be a memorable period in my uni school days. Initially i thought this is our least prepared exam ever as during the semester time, we have been quite busy with our FYP and other assignments. We hardly have time to catch up in our subjects. The worse thing is that we have a 轰轰烈烈 exam timetable, 3 papers in 3 days for me; Churong has one more extra subject, Engineers and Society, that makes her timetable to be even more 刺激: 5 days 4 papers. We were quite worried at first how were we going to prepare for the remaining papers after our first paper on 19 April. However, the situation turned out to be a relatively relaxing experience for us surprisingly. It is a completely different experience for me during this exam period. Never would i imagine that i can even enjoy it so much to have a close fren to 并肩作战 with. There's no stress or competition between us.. we shared our knowledge, we discussed the problems, we "outsourced" when we cannot solve a particular problem ourselves .. we even enjoyed poking funs at each other.. by "poking funs" i really mean "poking", literally poking or 笃 each others waist. Our final battle's 点点滴滴~ 
The 乌龟壳 that Churong brought with her. Big big round round initially.. 
Guess what? This gal even brings her own bedsheet and blanket. -.-|| Luckily she din bring along her own bed from home. 
Settled down. Hard at work, preparing for first paper- Digital Communications. 
Me hard at work too. We took turns to sit at the edge of the table to study. We have 3 ppl but only 2 study tables. Who is the 3rd person studying in this room? He is... 
Mr. Beautiful Legs aka Spock.. dun be shy la~ 
All the snacks that she brought are beef products. 原味牛肉，沙爹味牛肉，麻辣牛片，牛肚 etc.. and she said she doesn't really like beef products -.-|||| 
Instead of keep buying milk tea from the canteen, Churong bought a packet of Jasmine Tea and a bottle of condense milk here. i get to taste the milk tea that is prepared by our dear 奶茶皇后 but it tasted really unique i must say. Jasmine tea + milk ... errmm.. too unique -.-|| the lesson learnt: sometimes it may not be a good idea to 节外生枝. so we went to buy a packet of normal tea instead later on. 
We bought this and cooked for one of our meals when we were too sick of the canteen food. We thought it was Tom Yam flavour but we didn't realise it until a few days later. While eating, we even complained that the Tom Yam flavour really cannot make it as it is not sour and not spicy at all -.-||| 2 weeks passed by quickly and without realising it, it has come to the end of our final exam in NTU. Churong has moved back to her own house while i am again alone in the room with some lizards and many many ants. I really enjoyed myself during this 2 weeks. | | |
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