Toyota Sera reluctantly for sale

OK folks, because my beloved is getting an Employment Pass in SG (Again :-p ), once he gets it, he will no longer be able to drive his Malaysian car in Singapore... which means it makes no sense to have two cars in Malaysia, which in turn means we have to sell one of our two cars... sigh... and, Yes, you guessed it, the car that is more logical to sell is my little Toyota Sera (sob.... sob.... sob.... :'( ).

The details are:
- 1990 Toyota Sera, 1.5
- 2+2 seater, with Gull-wing doors (see picture below). The colour of my car is the one in the picture that says Light Turquoise. I think it looks more like Silver!
- Interior is blue-grey fabric.
- Registered in my name, no loan on it.
- Bought for RM30K, Spent another RM30K on doing it up:
- engine, aircon, power steering rack, and brakes completely overhauled (that was the bulk of the cost!!)
- Totally all new piping, tubing, valves, etc. I think every single non-metal part of the engine has been replaced.
- new sound system (plays MP3!)
- new 3rd brake light (the old one was in a very stupid location)
- new electric windows wiring
- new alarm system,
- new hydraulic door supports
- even new floor mats
- I will be putting 4 new tyres on it in the near future, as they are due for a change.
- Maintained by Tom's Toyota Specialist in Bangsar, and it is really in good condition
- Asking price is RM49K negotiable (Yes, I know, I will be losing money on it, but I sure cant ask RM60K for it!!!)



So, if any of you know any member of the potential Sera fan club, please drop me a comment.

Week 3, travelling to & from SG

Yep, I have been doing this for 3 weeks now, and it has been quite hectic. Keeping track of Husband's company details, plus doing my own work, plus the time taken to travel up and down. But it is so great to be with Husband wherever he is, so I am definitely NOT complaining!

Luckily we dont have to worry about hotels any more - the last two weeks, and for this week, we have been given the loan of an apartment by one of Husband's colleagues who is on leave. He has broadband connection, so it is great for me to just plug in and I am online. No worries about hotels, so Husband and I can take a leisurely drive from KL to SG on Sunday... so no more dragging ourselves out of bed at 4am on Mondays, for Husband to drive to SG to get there in time for office!! Then, from 5th to 9th Aug I actually have to be in SG for a project, so my company has booked me into the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (Husband's absolute favourite hotel so far) for that duration... THEN, starting 9th Aug, we actually have our own apartment in SG again - in the Upper Bukit Timah area, near to Dairy Farm.

The estate is called Glendale, and we have a unit on the 9th floor of one of the blocks. Not the 'best' facing, as we are partly looking at another block and partly overlooking the swimming pool, but it is a lovely lovely unit. Approx 2000 sq ft, beautifully kept, 3 bedrooms, very nice kitchen, and the landlady is going to furnish it with all new furniture, all for the very reasonable rent of S$3000 per month - which is a lot better than paying between S$2.5K to S$2.8K per month for 2-3 nights every week in a miniscule hotel ROOM with the risk of rates going up during peak season, and sometimes not even being able to get a room (and, of course, driving on Monday to SG cos we dont want to have the extra Sun night cost of hotel). All this is no longer relevant - we have complete flexibility of when we drive to SG, how long we stay, we can stay weekends, our friends and family can come and stay... etc, etc, etc. Another added benefit is that we can get our own broadband connection, for me to work from home, and we dont have to pay exorbitant hotel rates for it either!!

Mind you, we have been very lucky with the apartment - it is reasonably priced, considering that it is a beautiful unit, spacious AND it is going to have all new furniture. Right now the rents in SG are just exorbitant.... my totally wonderful real estate agent (her name is Kylene, and if you want her contact number, just drop me a comment) showed me quite a number of apartments, but within that price range most of them are really grotty, tiny, tatty, badly furnished. This is the 2nd time I have taken Kylene's services and this is also the second time she has fulfilled her task beautifully (the first time was when we had our gorgeous Leonie Hill apartment, but nowadays that unit is renting for S$9K.... which is way more than we want to pay !). Anyway, I would recommend Kylene to ANYONE as the preferred real estate agent!

That's the latest update so, till next time, have a good life and may the sun shine in your life, figuratively if not necessarily literally.

Of remote work, idiot drivers, and great landings

It has been quite a while since my last update - lack of time, and (more correctly) lack of inclination!

I am, even as I type this, in Singapore - as I have been given the opportunity to travel to and from SG with Husband on his trips, as long as I dont have any meetings in KL to attend with any clients. Isn't that just amazing? It is true that I can do my job from anywhere, as long as I have an Internet connection, but to actually be given that choice by my boss is great! So now I can come to SG with Husband, and work from here, and then when he goes back to KL I go back with him. I am a very lucky person! So I am in SG this week - arrived last night (flew in, as I had meetings to attend, and could only come down after the meetings, whereas Husband drove to SG yesterday morning), and will be returning to KL with Husband on Thursday afternoon, will be spending Friday in Penang for meetings, and then Sat to Mon we will be at Langkawi :-).

Now, about IDIOT DRIVERS - last week, driving to Berjaya Times Square, I went into the back car park which is on the upper floors. On TWO separate floors, I am driving IN, and I come across TWO MAJOR IDIOTIC YOUNG (happened to be Chinese) DRIVERS, who are GOING OUT via the IN!!! AND, to add insult to injury, they are smiling away at me, as if the whole thing is a big joke. If I had been going any faster, I would have slammed my car head first into theirs. And, of course, this is NOT the first time I have personally encountered people doing stupid things without thought. I mean, what does it take to make IDIOTS like this realise that THEY ARE ASKING FOR AN ACCIDENT TO HAPPEN? When do they stop doing these stupid things - after they cause an accident where people are hurt or killed, or after THEY die in an accident which they cause? Why are they so stupid? Don't they THINK about the consequences of what they are doing? Obviously not - as I keep telling my Husband, obviously all these idiots (I include idiotic Indian, Malay, Chinese, Others AND expat drivers in this list) have so little respect for their own lives, why would they have any respect for any other life?

A better topic - great landings. I know there will always be people out there who have a lot of negative things to say about our lovely national airlines (MAS). However, I am not talking about the experience at the airport per se (I know there are problems happening at this time), but I am talking about the experience once one is actually on the plane. In the last 10 years of flying almost exclusively on MAS (my preferred choice) I have to say that I have always had excellent experiences with the cabin crew and, almost without exception, the landings have been SMOOTH (the few times I flew SIA during the last 10 years, the landings have been almost uniformly BUMPY, and the cabin crew experience generally mediocre). So, kudos to the cabin crew, and kudos to the pilots!!!

Enough for this week.... have a great life everyone.

Happy Birthday Husband

Yep, it was Husbands birthday last week, and I shall hope and pray that he has many, many more of them with me :-)

The last two weeks have been busy for Husband, and not so busy for me. He has been travelling between SG and KL every week, loads of work, but he is enjoying the work, which is really great. It has a lot to do with the people he is working with as well - they are people he has worked with before, and he is enjoying working with them again. Having said that, the travelling is tiring for him.

Husband had been looking for a bbq set for some time and we had gone to the BBQ shop in Bangsar Village 1 - but the only one we liked was toooo big, and was approx RM6K - which was way expensive! So, on Sat 9th June, after some searching, we managed to find the PERFECT barbecue, with the help of Google which pointed us to an ExpatKL ad, which gave us a mobile number, which led us to Carlo and Mabel who stock and sell barbecue sets. We called them that Sat morning, and by the afternoon they had delivered a bbq that was exactly what we had been looking for. On top of that, they are a lovely couple and we ended up going out for drinks and a nice long chat with them that evening!

Last week, Thursday 14th June, was Husbands birthday, and my Mum had cooked a MAJOR meal for him. Totally delicious, but both of us suffered for the meal, as we are just not used to eating so much so late...... so it was pretty much a sleepless night, and an exhausting Friday.

Saturday we had a small party at home to celebrate - a bbq party, of course! My sister made a totally delicious salad for the evening - and it was obviously pretty darn good as it was the first item to disappear! Thanks Sue!!


Another friend (Min) made the birthday cake, and it was totally gorgeous (and delicious). She had made a cake in the shape of a guitar, with a marzipan figure of the birthday boy, in swim shorts and sunglasses, reclining on a beach mat, with a little rubber ducky next to him. It was an excellent likeness of Husband, right down to the white moustache!!

It was a good party....the whole family (13 including Husband and myself) was there, and another 15 friends. A good time was had by all (I hope). We ended up with three distinct groups of people but each group was having fun, so we figured it was all good :-) And now that the bbq set has been thoroughly initiated, we must use it more often.

Last week and this week, for me, will be fairly quiet with just a few scattered meetings here and there. No stress lah! Husband, of course, will be travelling up and down as usual!

Till next time, have a good life everyone... and if anyone wants the contact details for our BBQ Set vendor or for Mama Min and her delicious cakes, just drop me an email, or put a comment on this blog, with your contact details and I'll make sure I send you their contact.

PS: As of June 11th, our unit at Armanee DD has electricity. We have also been promised that all remaining defects (mostly cosmetic) will be rectified within the next two weeks....

June already?

Where does the time go? We are almost halfway through the year and it feels like time is just zipping past at top speed. What have we been doing...?

Armanee Damansara Damai:
Most of the defects in our unit have been fixed, and what is left is mostly cosmetic. The BIGGEST issue so far is that we still have no electricity - more than 3 weeks after TNB actually installed the meter! So, today, with Husband in SG for work, and me on medical leave and feeling quite shaky and with a fever, I still drove to Armanee and had a nice to-do with the customer service people. It turns out that the cables, in the TNB cabinet on the 11th floor where our unit is, have been stolen. Man, I was so ANGRY - called their lawyer, who in turn called the Ops Director of MK Land, who in turn called the cust service and set a fire under them. They have committed to getting all defects rectified and electricity done within the next two weeks. Well, I shall believe it when it happens. The sad thing is that with JUST a little bit more effort on the part of MK Land this place could be absolutely beautiful!! And then they would be in a situation where the current owners (ie, people like us) would pass the word around to other potential buyers. As it is, unless they get their act together fast there is not much chance of that happening!

Mont'Kiara Pines:
Husband finished painting and doing up the place about 3 weeks ago, and we finally managed to get all our pots, pans, and other sundry barang-barang out of the place and stored away in our PJ house. Handed over a set of keys to a real estate agent recommended by an old friend of mine, and we are open to either sale or rent. Let's see how it goes - wish us luck either way.

PJ House:
Pretty much stored everything away - it is amazing how much unutilised space there actually was in the kitchen, even with all my Mum's stuff there! It is nice to be staying here, when Husband is in SG, especially on those days like yesterday and today where I feel so sick and shaky - as it is nice to know that I am not alone at home :-) Bishop and priest here for lunch today(!) so I had early lunch, as soon as I got home from Armanee, and am now upstairs doing this blog, to be followed by a snooze to see if I can get rid of my headache.

Work has been pretty busy lately - with a new project coming up, with existing customers to keep in touch with, trips to SG for meetings (yes, me too!!), trips to Penang for meetings, etc, etc, etc. Husband and I have been talking about my quitting, so that I can go with him every week to and from SG, but we haven't really made any decision yet. Told my boss I would like to quit and he has been doing his best to talk me out of it! Decision is on hold for the next few months. Like I told husband, if we had decided last week, I only had to give 1 weeks notice, as I was still on probation... but now I have to give ONE MONTHS notice!

One of my old friends is in town - we met up with him last week in SG, and then again in KL on Sunday - took him all over the place, to Mont'Kiara, Armanee, and then to PJ, so he got a 'good' start to his week :-) (I hope we didn't tire you out too much Michael O!). He's trying to decide on whether he wants to move to this part of the world as his "base" - and I told him that whether it is in KL or SG, both Husband and I will be really happy to have him in our part of the world. Good friends are hard to find, and when you do find them it is hard when they have to leave, so it is GREAT if they are in the same part of the world (get the message MO?)

Anyway, time to sign off for now... head is pounding a lot and it doesnt help really to be looking at the computer screen :-p

Till next time, have a GREAT life.