Bengologist

15th July 2013 Following three weeks after the official move-in date, my mom begins to experience discomfort in the service yard and kitchen. She told me that every late afternoon, she will come across this annoying sentiment along the cooking/laundry area which she had never felt before in our previous house. In order to prove her point, she even forces me to stay at home during the afternoon on Saturday & Sunday, to get a feel of this bothersome feeling. She was absolutely right! There was indeed some form of uncomfortableness which will persist for a few minutes and after a lengthy discussion with her, I decided to call in a specialist to rectify this critical issue. Nope, that is not the introduction of another chapter in the "True Singapore Ghost Stories" and the specialist we are engaging are not the ghost-busters, so you guys/girls can relax your shoulders, remove the hands off your eyes and continue reading. The phenomenon I'm referring to is the.....................................tremendous amount of sunlight & heat in the service yard & kitchen in the evening. As my service yard is facing the West and very much exposed as there are no blocks in front of it, the temperature can become pretty unbearable during hot afternoons and this doesn't sound good for the two Samsung victims - washing machine and refrigerator (On the plus side, my clothes dry super fast! Ha! ). Therefore, I had no choice but to put Ryan (the curtain/blind specialist) to the efficiency test again. When I call him on 9th July to inform him about my intention to install wooden blinds in my service yard, he immediately identified my voice and started sharing his views on which is suitable for my service yard (Service Attitude +1). I subsequently send him an SMS on 11th July to arrange for an appointment to drop by my house in the evening to take measurements, plus discuss the quote and he replied immediately *really hope my ID can learn from him on this* (Efficiency +2). After a couple of messages, the appointment time was set at 8pm (Efficiency +3, Service Attitude +1). Before he came over at 8pm, he still drop me an SMS to inform me of the appointment time again and in addition, ask if I need any dinner cause he can help to pack some meals for me along the way (Service Attitude +4). After the measurement, we sat down in the living room to have a small chat about the quote and he provided me a very reasonable price for the wooden blinds (Service Attitude +1). He suggested that PVC wood will be more durable and even provided me a matching cloth blind tape (I don't know what is it called ) to complement my selection (Service Attitude +2). He subsequently informed me that the installation will be carried out on Tuesday, which I re-arranged it to Monday (15th July) and he gladly obliged (Efficiency +5, Service Attitude +1). His final scorecard is 10/10 for both efficiency and service attitude! Top-notch services! It's really an honour to work with a friendly & humble individual like him. Okay, here are the photographs:- 1) A wide range of selections available. WOW! 2) The combination which I had chosen for my service yard blind. Love it!

Wah! Ran into a lot of hiccups with HDB. What happen? Don't worry, we'll wait for your updates. Hopefully things are gonna turn out fine! Good luck!

Tummy loh! Tummy bigger cause I have been eating fried food. Lots of fried food to be precise. Hahaha! LOL! Thanks for the reminder! I will definitely buy a water-proof marker. Hahaha! Yeah, still quite a lot of unpacking to be done but gotta wait till the cabinets/racks are here before we can arrange the items nicely on them. As for the payment to the ID, I have fully cleared all of them, now waiting patiently for them to issue the warranty certificate to me.

Ha! I'm sooooooo different from you! I want a all-black kitchen but was stopped by my mom cause she don't like the whole house to be 'black black'. Anyway display sets are really the answer to budget-constraint peeps like us and if not for the fact that the display washing machines & refrigerators are all SOLD OUT at the household electrical fair when I visited it in June, I would have ordered display sets too. They are in good condition and we get a good discount off the normal retail price. Win-Win situation right? Hahaha... Don't worry much! Black looks awesome too! Cheer up!

Wow! The carpentry works look amazing! I'm starting to regret my choice of opting out of a TV feature wall & console after seeing how beautiful yours are. Hahaha!

Yo fun fun! Yeah I'm back. Bigger, Better and Funnier! Wahahahaha! Yeah you are right! Must eat in moderation. But my mom has been happily 'air-frying' food that she ignore the fact that I wanna keep fit. Guess I will make do with a black marker and have to draw the Jay Chou pecs on my tummy whenever I hit the pool or beach. Hmmm.. It looks almost like the previous chandelier. I personally felt that this is slightly bigger than the previous one. My parent & sister think otherwise though. They feel that it's exactly the same design & same size. Not sure how the electrician boss got it, guess he also ordered from China but don't think it's through the Taobao seller. Anyway I didn't bother to go ask my ID about it as long as the replacement chandelier is in working condition and looks as amazing as the previous one. Hahahaha! Final product? You mean my house? Yeah I will take photos of it but have to wait for a while more. Waiting for my 3rd batch of Taobao loots to arrive, waiting for the new bedroom cabinets to arrive, waiting for the metal racks to be fixed up in my storeroom so that items in stack of boxes lying around the house can be unpack and shift to the right location. Oh ya! Most importantly, my precious DSLR camera is still in the carton box. Need to snap pics of the house with it. Hahaha!

Hey Easter! Thanks much! Yeah! The passageway is finally back to the glorious days! I'm so satisfied with this chandelier that I will switch it on every now and then to look at it before switching it off again. Sound stupid right? Hahahahahaha...

Yeahhhhhhhhh! It's a looooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnng wait for the replacement chandelier. Glad that it turns out pretty good. Guess you can start persuading your hubby to have such chandelier in your house too.

Hi mariohoho (WOW! Awesome name!) Thanks a lot! Glad that they have finally replaced the broken one and enforced the support with more screws. However, once bitten twice shy, nowadays I will still look at it and check on it every now & then to ensure that the screws are fully tighten. Hahaha!

Hmmm.. It's a little inconvenient to reveal the price since I bought it from my sister's boyfriend who happens to be a Philips product promoter. Sorry... But I can let you know the price Tampines Giant is selling -> SGD 269.00 Go grab one!

Hahaha! Glad that you love reading it! It's a way to ease off the Tuesday blues. Well, I WAS a air-fryer fan. No more now after eating so many fried food. Wahahahaha! Just kidding! I still 'heart heart' my air fryer! It's definitely the best kitchen product in the market right now. Hahaha!

13th July 2013 After 20 days, 3 hours, 24 minutes and 53 seconds from the dreadful afternoon when my chandelier decided to commit suicide, the replacement chandelier is finally here. The electricians were supposed to arrive at 2pm to do the installation but had only dragged their *** to my house at 5pm. However, I'm not gonna point finger at my ID on this because I can see that he's trying his best to arrange for them to arrive earlier but apparently, the workers were simply a little difficult to control since they do not work directly under him. Okay, let's skip the story. Go straight to the photos. Hahaha! 1) The replacement chandelier in the carton box 2) The electrician knocking the screws into the ceiling. I had forced them to punch more screws into the ceiling. So now, instead of the 2 screws which was used for the previous chandelier, it now has SIX SCREWS! Yeah! 3) The two electricians lifting the new chandelier together. Guess it must be quite heavy. *scared scared* 4) OHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! It's finally back! 5) Rihanna Song - "Shine bright like a diamond, Shine bright like a diamond, Shining bright like a diamond, We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky"

6th July 2013 It had been close to a month since my last update regarding the fallen chandelier and I had been wandering like a headless spirit around Renotalk, sticking my ears and eyes as close to the mortal world as possible, trying to find out the latest gadget to add into my new home. After T-blog hopping for a couple of weeks, I realised that everyone's harping about this kitchen appliance which resembles the 'must-have' of the Reno cyber-town but for a mountain-tortoise like me, this looks like a national treasure which is just being unearthed from the ground. So, what is this item? Alright, most of you got it right. It's none other than the strong, powerful and mighty Philips Air Fryer! Wahahahahaha! I've seen a lot of positive reviews about this product and I was totally amazed by its ability to 'fry' food without any usage of cooking oil. YES! WITHOUT ANY COOKING OIL! That's 80% less oily than the fried food we usually consumed and for a plump fellow like me who loved fried food and is constantly hallucinating myself to be a fit healthy guy, this product is undoubtedly a dream come true! Hahaha! Therefore, without much hesitation, I gave my dearest brother-in-law (okay, sister's boyfriend) a ring and ordered one set from him. My mom wasn't impressed with this product initially and skeptically brushed it off as another ridiculous cash-splurging effort from me. However, on the evening when the Philips Air Fryer arrived at my doorstep and after I demonstrated to her on the usage, she had been playing with it non-stop and even went around the neighbourhood and her circle of friends, bragging about the marvel of this product, the user-friendliness and also the crispiness of the food. And ever since that night, I had been eating 'air-fried' food for a record number of days. Now I hate fried food. Officially. Here are a couple of photographs of the Philips Air-Fryer:- 1) The Philip Air Fryer in its packaging box 2) The Philips Air Fryer camouflaging with my kitchen cabinet top. Awesome product! Sorry pals, no pictures of any food because they went straight to my tummy faster than I can whip out any camera to snap them. Anyway here's a picture of my Taobao clock for those who hate the Philips Air-Fryer. Hahahaha! Bonus picture of the month: My sister and I lazing on the sofa watching DVD (Jay Chou's 'Secret' 不能说的秘密)

WAHHHHHHHHHH! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! IS HE A PROFESSIONAL BURGLAR?

Wow! That's a long list of items! And what surprised me the most is that all the prices are very reasonable! Guess you are a better Taobao bargain-hunter than me! Hahaha! Btw, I love the carpet! It looks like it's worth every single cent of the 28 bucks you are paying.

Lol... I think I gotta stop going to Taobao for the time being. It's like cocaine, once start cannot stop until you check into the "Taobao rehabilitation center". Wahahahahaha!

Wow! The walkway lights are amazing! I nearly bought something similar but didn't buy because I don't know the meaning of 明装 & 安装。 Well, thanks for the clarification, now I know what they mean in English. Hahahaha!

You know what? I have also done my purchases via fortytwo.sg (they are previously known as beds.sg) in April/May 13 but I have requested them to deliver only in June 13. So basically what they do is they will keep your orders and only purchase the items nearer to the delivery date so that they will not incur any unnecessary storage charges for your items. In addition, if the prices are cheaper, say in Aug/Sep when they are going to be sent to your house, you can request them to revise it to the lower price. Awesome services right!

Yeah! I'm always jumping in joy when I enjoyed good deals from purchases from local shops, Taobao, fortytwo.sg etc. Hahaha! I'm not spending much nowadays since I am almost done with my purchases *fingers crossed* but thanks for sharing! Hope renotalkers can benefit from this piece of info!

LOL~! I only have white paint. Guess it's more than enough since it's free for my usage! Hahahahaha~!

Hahaha.. I'm a coffee lover but I guess I have to cut down on the expenses a little after splurging a lot on recent purchases. Maybe next month? Hahaha.. Yeah! I bought a lot of things from fortytwo.sg! Their products are pretty good and their services are excellent (not only the phone-operators attending to my queries, but also the deliveryman, installers etc). Quite a spread of items which are cheaper than purchasing from shops and it's fuss-free & can be done without a sweat. Hahaha! Give it a try!

OH GOSH! What happen to your renovation?

Ohhhh.. I didn't know this is automated. The one in my office is the manual model, so I had a hard time trying to brew the perfect coffee with the right level of water. If it's automated, then it's worth the bucks!

Hahaha! No prob! Remember to post the pics once the Taobao loots arrive! Hahahahaha!

I still have some paint left from the renovation which is kept in my storeroom and hasn't been retrieved by my ID firm's painters. I can use them for free! I can use them on my ID firm if they do not give me the replacement lamp asap. Wahahahahahaha!