Living on the 24th floor

Room with a view

The Good:
– Plenty of fresh air and gusty breezes that keep the apartment cool
– Killer view, especially when I do yoga in our living room
– Gorgeous perspective of thunderstorms

The Bad:
– Long elevator ride
– Dust accumulates real quickly when I keep the windows open for fresh air

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Keeping the home clean is certainly more challenging in Singapore than it is in Toronto. For one, because we keep the windows open more, dust accumulates really quickly. Within a day you can feel it on the floor already, and you will see the counter and table-tops start to look grainy within 2 days…

Because of the humidity, food rots faster, dirty clothes stink faster… my mom wasn’t kidding when she said I’d be doing laundry every day or every other day! Then of course there are the little critters that wander around. We’ve only moved in a week and I just killed a spider today. Really trying to have a zero-crumb policy so that hopefully the cockroaches and ants don’t visit…

Changing the sheets to a 16-inch thick king-sized mattress is a helluva tiring job. Thankfully I’ve got Zibin to help me with that, at least until I get the hang of it. At least I’m getting used to making that huge bed every morning and am getting faster each time! :P

Laundry is still a snap thanks to the dryer we have. And I’m so glad that I found Shout! stain remover and Bounce dryer sheets in Cold Storage… something familiar from Toronto. (Cold Storage sells Tide too!) We still don’t have an ironing board or an iron though… something we have to rectify real soon before Zibin runs out of his uniforms… heh heh…

Here are some things we’re currently living without:

– Rice cooker
– Kitchen knives
– Chopping board
– Microwave
– Toaster
– Baking tray
– Soup ladle
– Tea pot
– Iron
– Ironing board
– Shelving system for storeroom
– Printer/copier/fax (high priority!)
– TV (low priority but arriving with internet connection)
– Sound system
– Basket for clean laundry (I make multiple trips still from dryer to bed)
– Book shelf (my books are still mostly in boxes)
– Coffee table

Thanks to my mom, we’ve got a second-hand water kettle (the air-pot type), 2 second-hand Brita water jugs, my old laundry hamper and we also inherited a full set of dining ware… spoons, forks, knives, chop-sticks, soup-spoons (both Chinese & Western), chop-stick holders, serving forks and a big serving spoon. Cool part is, that silverware is over 30 years old because they were my parents’ wedding gift when they got married. My mom never used them but kept them in perfect condition. It’s the closest thing we have to an ‘heirloom’… ha ha!

Well, we did get some gift vouchers for Robinson’s, Istean and Best Denki during our wedding that we haven’t used yet. Will have several big shopping trips to make still! It’s been fun ‘living it down’, but there are some things I really want to get SOON!

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Heard my first HDB-void deck Malay wedding the other day… man, they can sing for a looong time! First time staying in HDB heartland area, and there are quite a few new sounds! Like that of the MRT coming through Bukit Gombak MRT station… It’s not actually too noisy for me, but sometimes I miss the kind of quiet we had in Zibin’s apartment in Ithaca. (I think it’s probably impossible to get that kind of quiet in Singapore unless you stay someplace really ulu)

The brightest side of staying in the heart of HDB-land though is the sheer convenience. Just out the backdoor of our estate there are coffee shops, ATM, houseware stores, wet market, 24-hr clinics, bakery, pawn-shops, laundromat, Supermarket (Shop n Save), hair salons… I love that I can buy most stuff we need within a 5-10 min walk, and at affordable prices! Also, Lot 1 and West Mall are both just one MRT stop away… it’s not bad, even compared to staying in downtown Toronto.

We’re off to a nice start in our bare little nest. Looking forward to filling it up more! :)