leen

ya, korea is rite, food vy salty and oily. wat we usually do is tell the waiter, pls only put eg. 3 teaspoon (those use for stirring coffee) of salt and use half the usual qty of oil to cook (if for a table of 10 person meal, etc). tell them specifically hw many teaspoon or spoon so that they know, if you say pls put less salt/oil, they usually come back the same salty/oily food. must give them qty count, they are ... err... kinda 'smart'?? to Sporean taste it took me sometime to get used to their food. either its too salty, oily, spicy (their spicy is different in SG where we use spices, they use pure red chilli or combine red and green chilli to cook!) or too sweet. but if together with tour, you can tell your agent (every morning or night before you go back hotel) of wat you guz like for your meal. by telling so many times is to ensure they do it when they order the food before you guz go for your meal. and if you scare they forgot, remind them before every meal. get it ingraine in their brain... and talk in plain understandable Mandarin. SG Mandarin sometimes cannot make it. eg. if we want to ask how long is the silk, we should use 'qing wen zhe si de chang du shi duo shao?' instead of 'qing wen zhe si duo chang?' they will not understand. we hv to describe to them of wat we want to know.

uncle mace, i in learning level only leh... u den the ultimate guru in saving $$$$$ = vy rich person as did not any hw spend !! i den 5 body parts roll on the ground .... eh.. not rite hor, say like that it mean the other way 'wu ma fen shi'

hi karen77, my mum, sis and me are all orchid lovers. my advise, for a start, buy those durable and easy to maintain ones so that ~ 1stly, it will not take up too much of your time to care for them 2ndly, it will not die so easily and thus crushing your love for them or your confident in planting orchids 3rdly, it will not be costly to buy and maintain the plant orchid growing can be classify into 4 levels ~ beginner's level - no knowledge or ever try growing orchid before intermediate level - grown beginners' orchids before, know their diseases types, type of treatments etc. higher level - experiment with those harder to grow orchids expertise level - do lab orchid pores cross breeding and growing and you need to look your house environment and condition before deciding on which orchid to plant or rather which orchid can survive in your home environment. i hope you can provide me with more infor and i can den advise you on the different type of orchids base on my little knowledge i hv.

u r definitely welcome, hope you enjoy your trip. and also, the shanghainese there loves spicy hot fish soup, those fish soup in SG but only that they are cooked in spicy hot red oily chilli soup. these are nice to eat, vy hot, but dun take alot coz vy oily and we (Sporean) sure will kena stomache after that... i tried many to concur that but evertime ended up the same and during colder times, they like to eat 'fire pot' aka steam boat

apple, you are very funny and true with the last sentence im in my current job and coy for 16years already... from green horn already become old snake liao but alas, there are even more loads of older snakes den me in coy

erm, not really. actually, the air-con guy will have to look at your individual rms that need air-con, and the best position to mount it. they hv to know the air-con throw, ie how the distance of the cool air from air-con unit can throw to, and the area that hv to be air-coned. eg. if its a big square rm, it ideally be central of the rm at either side of the wall and also depending on the shortest pipe routing coz the longer the piping runs, the less cold the end of the rm will feel the cool air from air-con due to pressure losses, air flow, heat load, leakages etc. if its a long type of living rm, either select a bigger btu air-con installed at mid length of rm, or hv 2 unit of smaller btu air-con install at different corner of the rm and also hv to study the pipe routing. if its a small rm, of coz its ok to place above door. and all air-con unit hv to avoid places like, eg. near to window as heat load will be high and poor air-con unit will keep sensing not cold enough and keep on trying to cool down the place and thus = higher electricity bills. or near cooking area as smoke or oil generated from cooking will get suck into the air-con unit and in days to come, it breaks down easily. i think your air-con guy had position your air-con at the best position. they are the specialist and they are able to do it. in fact, did you ask your air-con guy how to best run the conduit so that it will not be so visible? some of these guys can advise you coz they do many already and hv seen many different installation, so they may able to tell you how to best run the conduit. some i saw is that they run in a way that it looks like you hv done a conice on top.

errmm... call HDB to check, give them your hse address and they will be able to advise coz some old hse may hv some restrictions, i dunno

i used to hv frequent stays at Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou coz of work. Suzhou and Hangzhou got vy vy nice sceneries and gardens. and mind you, their so-call gardens are ultra big size. and if you dun want to go vy far, can go zhou zhuang (river village), etc. there are many there. and at these places, you can ride their 'sam pan' and tour the whole village by river. the best buy will be the pearls, cheap, nice and gd and also must bargain alot, eg. if they ask for 1000rmb, the most pay them 200rmb will do. the train at Shanghai is magnetic train, not bullet train. its call Fu Ci meaning floating magnet (something like that). during my stay, i eat at local foodstalls, you juz walk around and see those that hv alot of their local people eating stalls, that stall must be selling gd tasting food. i miss the beef noodle there. and unless you hv a strong stomache, dun anyhw try the road side stalls. and these road side stall owners are controlled by local thugs, that is for every (eg.) 1 stick of bbq sotong (juz like our local satay pattern here), they hv to give them certain % of $. and dun stare when these thugs take $ from these stall owners. I think i am there too frequent so i walk to these areas where local people hang out. If go there, must eat Quan Ju De (the franchise of famous Beijing Roasted Duck). And it will be ultra ultra ultra crowded. so when eating there, be prepared to wait in queue for at least 20-30minutes, order food wait for 15minutes, wait for food to come is abt 30minutes (if lucky, there was once i waited 50minutes!), eat food abt 1hr but you will not regret it coz vy nice and when you order, do remember to order more food coz once the waiter goes away, you want to add food, you hv to wait again, and your 1st lot of food will come and you will finish it and still waiting for your 2nd lot of food. they hv vy gd massage and facial service there, cheap and gd. and they alot of vy gd tea houses serving gd tea, some teas are quite costly though. the tea itself can be more costly den eating a meal. anyway, Shanghai is a vy safe place provided you dun go around doing silly things, and as if with all other countries. but Shanghai is vy commercialised, too many people, can't feel relaxed there. go further from Shanghai and you will see more sceneries and cheaper items to buy also. and along the bunk (Shanghai tan), those selling sovenirs are vy ex. if possible, and if you can buy from other places, dun buy from there. and if buy from there, must bargain vy hard.

Hi, i dun think mine idea can help but juz to share with you on my wat my previous hseowner for my previous hse did. our MBR has a false beam, that is where your air-con position is. he build a false beam that protrude out for the whole stretch of the MBR (juz below the ceiling, where your air-con position is) and run the conduit underneath the false beam. this conduit will serve the MBR air-con, with a hole drill out to living rm air-con and to other rms (this position i hv to check again, forgot how he run to the other rm). and the conduit he paint the same color as the beam and the wall, and thus from far, you thought its part of the false beam. and also unless you knock on the false beam, you will not be able to identify that its a false beam. for your situation, i think you really hv to your ID if you really dun like it. But if there are no choice, either you accept it or you deduct your ID $ to redo the air-con and this area. but if holes are drill, it will hv to be plaster back, and from your pic, your hse is 99% ready for move in, so do consider the time that it will delay, additional work & $ incurred, and making good of the after re-work which sometimes will result in a mess if you dun monitor closely. but your hse gives people the feel of neat, clean, bright and beautiful color you hv chosen for your wall. it brightens up the whole area. and you hv vy nice tiles also... looks like marble... sweee...

House Type: HDB D&B Executive 5Rm Premium House size: 137 sqm fully paid upon purchase in May07

hi audreymarilyn, went there talked to another guy, jason was off. anyway, he dun seems to know much coz keep calling his supervisor to check. and his supervisor also not very knowledgeable. the toshiba inverter system 3 quoted is about $2.7k and as i need 2 sets, i.e. = $5.4k, more ex den other places. and it exclude bracket, additional powerpoint etc. total cum up to abt $6k. and the insulation they give look like those china made grey color cheap foam, not those rubber type of black insulation like armflex, thermaflex, kflex etc. and its easy to peel off with your fingers (i hv tried it). when ask if they give the other type of insulation, he say HDB not approve!! how can that be?? me and hb in this line, so we know wat we are asking for and wat we need and also wat HDB approves. in our line, condo projects is consider small pea projects. we doing turnkey projects and deal with much bigger cooling system, like central system, district cooling, seawater cooling system etc. and we hv to know our regulations and CP by the finger tips coz its our rice bowl. so hb not agree to wat they offer.

your plumber/contractor. like wat applefreak says, either he install the mixer too low or the rainshower pipe too high that's why one flexible pipe is not enough...

can i know how much is it?

Storeberry's menu is more well rounded, suitable for all. curry chicken + fried bee hoon = gd combi. if people dun eat spicy food, they still can eat the bee hoon, baked beans, duct, fried maggi mee. and though there is the alcoholic cocktail, ribena & 7-up is also provided for guests who dun take alcohol or for kids. potatoes, salad and fruits are light before and after snacks which can help to ease the heavy meal taken. Storeberry's menu is simple but good enough for all

wah !! gd for you, got a gd bargain, so quickly grab liao, mai tu liao

hi alice916, i only ask for system 3 inverter. for a start, inverter will be more costly, that is the initial equipment cost. but subsequently there will electrical savings. non-inverter tend to use more electricity. and also my hse require 2 sets of system on different combination, either 2 set of system 3 or 1 set of system 4 + 1 set of system 1 base on calculation. and i will be using the aircon at least 3days per week, so to me, an inverter system makes more sense. non-inverter price can either be far fetch from inverter or quite close to inverter depending on the brands. fyi, i hv made my trip to amk fairprice on their air-con. the so-call cheap ones are those non-inverter, the ones that we enquire for, are also on the high side than the above quotations that i hv enquire. eg. amk fairprice - $5,300 everjoint - $5,100

now you guz know why the wahs but vinlee is quite rite on this: "it sounds like he is giving excuses on HDB system. I thought it is all computerised and automated? I am in the civil service, and I know about submissions and processes. If he did submissions promptly, there is usually a fixed processing period." coz even if computer got problem, they can go to HDB physically to do all submissions etc. or can go there to ask if there are any problems and can they submit phycially. SG govt system not so kuku one... we are not classify as one of the international top for nothing one leh !! SG ppl culture is kiasu, kiasee, kia lose face some is kia boh - wife if you observe when you go HDB, there are many housing agents going physically there to do submissions, applications, etc. they can also use computer to do so, but some still prefer and used to going there physically. so there is no excuse of HDB computer system something wrong. and also do get drawings that have dimension stated. its to safeguard both side, both the customer and the contractor, unless the contractor want to create grey area so that customers cannot do anything to them.

hi tingshen, den call them and check if the price still stand. and also do read up abt the seller credibility. if ok, and you are confident, den buy from them. its so much cheaper now. 5 years ago, my washer technology haven't come to AG ion or anything yet, juz holeless tub, and its so much more expensive. for 5 years, no servicing, no maintneance (meaning calling sharp people to maintain it or any regular kind of maintenance procedures to follow), no breakdown = so no problem for me... but with so many new washer coming out, i wonder when can i change to a newer one?

no leh... mine jap made. but i got it 5years ago leh... maybe you like to try ask around more? but i not surprise nowadays many things made in china. for the current sharp washer price (which is a bit pricier now comparing with other brands), which i saw your post, it could be from jap. so does it mean that other jap and continental washer going for $380+ onwards are also made in china? better still, find the manufacturer phone from yellow page and call them up to ask so that you can clear your doubt.

hi, this is my experience and comment, and if you are catering to 20-30people and do remmebr some frends may bring kids and old folks. DIY drinks - i think you better buy those big bottle orange juice (others also can) and mix with water into 1 big pail coz when people talk and eat, they tend to drink alot. and dun forget, there may be kids, so how to serve alcoholic cocktails? DIY salad - gd idea. make sure these stay fresh the whole day, if not, guests may not like to eat and salad may be wasted. DIY popiah - gd idea but if ingredient is cold (as you plan to hv the event for the whole day), is it better to get a warmer? from my experience, people like to eat curry chicken with bee hoon. bread also can. but since you got 1 hot/spicy thing already, why not consider leaving out the laksa? and also for the whole day with guests keep stirring the laksa, afraid the coconut may not last and laksa soup may spoil. and also are there any kids or old folks visiting? do they all can take hot/spicy food? DIY laksa Chicken curry w bread Fresh fruits w Chocolate fondue - gd idea. old folks, young people and kids all like these. do remember to put abit of salt in water to disovle it and use the water to wash the cut fruits. with this method, fruits will stay longer in the open without turning brown. hope the above helps and enjoy your hsewarming

hi, my current sofa is leather. and its vy hot when you dun on the air-con. no matter whether its leather, synthetic leather or pvc, its vy hot unless you on air-con all the time. like wat zirhk3355 says, "as all of us sweat, especially in this hot weather. If you have a PVC sofa you will find your backside wet-wet very quickly" and my solution to my sofa is to put a smooth thin cool feel throw on the sofa to sit on. nowadays fabric sofa is better and remmebr to spend abit more to buy a quality one. for my new hm, my hb had bought another fabric sofa coz my living rm able to put 2 sets of sofa and still got spare space.

hi, erm... why in the first place you guz didnt get the contractor to state the date of completion or the duration of work, eg. if dun put date coz duno when can get loan to start renovation, he can put "duration of work: 6 - 8 weeks". like wat raincole advise, do record down daily site work progress. ask your dad, he being in this line could understand why you want to do all these. these are to safeguard you. record: - all telephone call conversation by black and white juz like meeting minutes, even if its only 5 sentences (handwritten also can) - all meeting minutes and what both side had said (handwritten also can) - all pictures of work and number of workers at different days file: - all written emails, letters, meeting minutes, pictures properly and like wat diva say, you can dun pay them 1st. with all the above records, if go to court, usually court will judge and access, eg. if do 17 day, wat have they done and how much have they done, number of workers per day etc. and also the above records serve as evidence. remember, in law, everything must be in black and white, verbal is hard to prove and serves not much use. if worst come to worst, you will be require to pay wat they have done so far if the cut off day is on the 17. in contract law, there is this clause stated that the employer will have to pay watever the contractor had done as of that cut off date. the rest that are not done, can dun pay or if they cause delay which resulted in undesirable results, they can be order to pay a penalty or if they causes damage eg. waterproofing did not do gd enough thus causes leak, they will be charged also. maybe you like to call HDB to see if they can help and for water proofing, if you are worried, you can ask HDB if they hv surveyor to assess such work. if HDB caught them like that, 1st they will be given a warning to re-do, if cannot improve, their license will be suspended.

oh, u r refering to this... i tot u ask whether i go to all these shops or not ma like my earlier post, my washing machine no problm so din go and check out and i dun nid a new fridge i went to check out those electrical store for oven, hob, hood, air-con, look see look see other things like tv, browse thru washing machines thats all..

forgot to add... go to imm and jurong also to source for things and see if these shop owners gd attitude or not... like many shops, some things in genova is ex, some is having sales so still ok and i say this coz after comparing with some outside shops. i gotten from them rain shower set and mixer. mixer vy ex leh. but hor, arino brand is china brand. so juz try lor... next time if spoil den change coz reno contractor able to get cheaper and after compare with other shop, decided to buy from them. actually, i saw the brand i like vy much, grohne, i think its spell like that, its germany product. vy solid and gd. but price is ex so hb say cannot coz going to get 2 sets rain shower, and my kitchen sink tap is those flexible type, all will be running on hot and cold water. so since like that, hv to budget it lor... boh bian

warrior88 quite rite. and mind you, the procedures + paperwork + application period, all take very long. it will be longer if the deceased make a vy complicated will or hv alot of properties, shares, cash, jewellery etc. to distribute