Sunday 30 July 2017

Refitting the kitchen.. finally

I have hated my kitchen ever since I moved into my flat.
20 years ago I didnt have the money to refit or redo anything.

20 years of working hard to save money, 20 years of scrubbing the wooden laminate counter tops, 20 years of watching the water leak under the sink, watching the cupboards split and finally this year I thought thats it, bite the bloody bullet and get it done.

goodbye old kitchen
so on Friday the 21st,  2 men came in and pulled my old cabinets apart. 
After they were done, I washed the tiles, washed the floor, waiting for Tuesday when they would be in with the new cabinets and new granite countertop.
half way through demo
tiled till the ceiling, 30 years of grime......
I worked from home all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning, while they fitted the new cupboards. A few days later, the granite countertop came in, and the sink and cooker were fitted. They also had to fit in a couple more doors, as they screwed up on the cupboard above the sink. There are a few bits I am not happy about, bad finishes that the main contractor will sort out with the cabinet makers. Then the gas man came to fit the new cooker.
almost done. I had to wait at least 24 hours before I used the kitchen but have started reorganising the place.  there are a few bits left to touch up but its all starting to come together.  I even cooked my easy grilled chicken legs for Sunday dinner..

granite going in

Doing this kitchen was, as expected, stressful but I also realised that when men see a woman alone, they will try to brush things off and kind of dominate the conversation and intimidate you into seeing it their way.  I am of course made of sterner stuff.  Stand your ground.

There were many moments that resembled a farce or worse still something out of a bad comedy.
From the contractors arguing about the wiring of the oven to them putting the cupboards wrong to telling me that if the pipe leaks it's not their problem....
Thankfully the main contractor was a very sweet man that never made me feel that way, he seemed to be the only one that had my interest at heart.  there were several heated messages from me to him complaining about what the plumber or cabinet maker said, and his messages always ..."cool down".
All Done! a little similar to the old ones 


My asthma had a field day with all the dust and mayhem and I hated sharing my bathroom with son no 2 (his bathroom was past the kitchen and blocked off most of the days) as he doesn't put the lid down when he flushes. The disruption to daily routine, things we take for granted like washing dishes in a proper sink and not in the bathroom sink or even just having things like spoons and dishes in their place.  I do not intend to live in the home when doing any other renovation...
the bathrooms will be re done soon though by the Housing development Board, probably next year and if the kitchen threw up that amount of dust I can only imagine what the dust will be like when they hack away at tiles in the bathroom.... I will move out for sure..

Anyway, I love my new kitchen, absolutely adore it..

view from the other side.


Friday 7 July 2017

asshole magnet

So I had to take my mums old housekeeper to the airport today.  She lives in the Philippines but comes back for medical checkups as she had a mastectomy a few years ago and Mum pays for her to come back every six months for her medical checks.
There was no one to take her to the airport today and she does need someone to help her get to places as her sense of direction is bad and she is so innocent and anyone could fool her and she will have no idea...so anyway.
I  checked her in, sent her off and made sure she passed the immigration lines then took the bus from the airport to work, needed to go to work to do some stuff.

there was this man sitting and waiting for the bus, my senses did go on alert mode with this man but I was more concerned with which bus stop to change busses to get to work. The bus was empty when we boarded, and he choose to sit right behind me, senses got more alert.
 I  felt him pull a bit at my hair, thought maybe my hair was over the back of the seat and pulled it over and made sure nothing over the chair, felt it again.  pulled my hair forward again.
Inside our busses, there is enough space for someone to slip their hand on the side 
Then the dick slips his hand along the side ( i was sitting by the window) and as I had my hand away from my body, he could almost touch my breasts from the back... I felt his hand, looked down to my left and turned around and yelled at him to stop touching me.
he just shook his head and moved away to another seat.
I was not going to let him off that easy.  I went to the driver and told the driver that a man just touched me,
well driver said :   what u want me to do?
I think that shocked me more than what the man did.
Me    -   call the police
Driver - then have to stop and wait for the police

obviously I was going to inconvenience everyone

me - what are u supposed to do
Driver  stares at me blankly

By this time I was fed up, and the man was up in my face telling the bus driver that I leaned into him... really!!!!

Me to bus driver - Stop the bus and get him off
Driver stares at me blankly
Me - stop the damn bus and throw him off the bus!!!

The incident really upset me.  All I got from the other passengers was blank stares, and when the driver had told the man to get off, the other passengers started talking loudly, about me.
How lovely was that.  No one came to help me.  not even when the man was shouting at me and making threatening advances.  Not one bloody person came to help.
No wonder women dont want to report molest.  the people around us dont want to know, dont want to get involved, dont want to offer help or support.  its always the woman at fault.  That man kept saying It was me that was leaning into him and his had was just there... yeah right!

Oh and one of my friends said i should be flattered that I was still attractive to get attention... no this isnt attention.. its just wrong.  Thats not what good men do

I am still upset, I am still wondering why do I always get the assholes after me. Do I have a sign on my forehead that says " bait"
i must just be an asshole magnet







Sunday 2 July 2017

the Pink debate

While Singapore is still a very conservative Asian society, the powers that be have allowed us mere mortals to celebrate the equality to love.  It's still a very sensitive and highly debated subject but....

the friends and me, notice the barricades..
This weekend we gathered at Hong Lim Park ( which is where we have our speakers corner but then we need a permit to go speak there…) for the annual Pink Dot Rally, a day where the LGBT community and those who support them, gather to celebrate the equality to love.

Our powers that be had to show that while they allowed ‘these people’ to gather and celebrate they had to also show that they did not encourage such behaviour.  As its usually held at Hong Lim Park, the Powers that be decreed that only Singapore Citizens and permanent residents were allowed to attend the Rally as any rally held at Hong Lim was for Citizens and permanent residents only.  They also decreed that only local sponsors could sponser this event.
The powers that be probably thought this event will die a natural death as no local company would openly show support.  They were wrong. 120 local companies and 20,000 Singaporeans showed up yesterday.  Even with barricades and security to check our Identity cards, Singaporeans turned up to show their support.

the Pink  dot on the office building
LGBT rights will divide people,  one colleague in the office was appalled that our boss was supporting the cause by having the Pink Dot logos on our building.  She even went on to say that if we ever were to pitch for an LGBT event or LGBT related event, she would refuse to do it.
Another colleague who has gay friends, says while she likes her friends she won't be able to attend their wedding as she believes it's wrong for people of the same sex to wed as her beliefs say marriage is between a man and a woman.  She also went on to tell me what her pastor said about accepting everyone's right to love…. The Pastor said “Isn't it the same as a couple who are father and child but who have sex, shouldn’t people accept that too, and people who wanted to have sex with animals,  shouldn’t people accept their right to ‘love’ too”

Listening to her, I was quite flabbergasted that the pastor used those examples to argue on the right to love..  So I tried to counter the point especially about the incest and what constitutes consent as well.  2 adults consenting is different from a father and child or an animal. 

It's something that one can argue about all day, what constitutes the right to love, who's right and   who's wrong, everyone has an opinion on this and everyone has the right to believe what they want, as long as they don’t force an opinion down someone's throat, I don’t really care what they think.  I for one am wholly supportive of same sex marriage, same sex relationships and if you wanted to have sex with a goat or camel well I doubt I would approve but...
20,000 Singaporeans showed up


LGBT, Inter racial relationships, discrimination based on skin colour, gender and yes even agesim... Its time to look at the world differently, it's time to push prejudices and discrimination aside allow people to choose who they want to love.
While I identify with discrimination I cannot think how people must feel hiding who they really are just because someone once said love and marriage must be between a man and a woman, we all deserve to be happy in our own skins.