Its confirmed. We are moving… in about 5 weeks.

2 weeks have past since we did the 1st appointment thingy at HDB, and now we know for sure, that we be moving around 24th Sept.

1st appointment at HDB is a big thing…. and I feel in people that they might be somewhat fearful of the day… Its the day that an officer would meet the buyers and sellers of the properties (note pural because 2 properties may be involved in 1 transaction), to resolve matters with eligibility of buying or selling, to discuss financing for the buyers and make arrangements with other government agencies to ensure smooth transition of monies, set behavious for sellers , etc.

My new flat has 2 levels... 🙂

It is scary to me too, and I hope that my diligence in preparing photocopies of numerous documents will allow us to pass without major hiccups that stall the entire process. I mean, stalling the entire process by weeks is the biggest scare to me… but it will still go thru, I am sure of it. .. Part of my worry, is that I do not have agents to help me with solving problems if I run into any… my study of HDB regulations suggest that there will be no problem… but agents will always give you the scary details about what happen to so and so … … I decided to be brave and see it for myself. Afterall, given my education, exposure, financial situation, if I cant work this out on my own, then I suppose DIY transactions at HDB is pure fiction. … thats my very arrogant thinking… its like knowing that there is nothing I cant fix. 

Okie okie. So on the day at HDB, we were served by a very efficient fast talking officer. Everything pass on her desk was like a blur to me… opps, we were missing death certs of my grandparents who were previous owners of the flat that I was selling… okie we’ll submit in the next few days. .. that was a minor hiccup.. The sellers agent for the flat that I am buying screwed up more than I did. They didnt get my witness to sign in the right columns, so I had to go get that fixed too. Then they had other missing documents that had to come from the sellers who were overseas. That was a major hiccup, that cost us 1 week! … Even the officer commented that I seem to represent myself better than the agents would have!! Yeah!

Now its just waiting for the completion and planning renovation… so what would you do with this new flat? Its big…. and does have many exciting options… I am going to have fun, thats for sure!

BTW, if you are still thinking that HDB is run by a bunch of rude, slow-moving cows,  you are probably living with the dinosaurs. We were impressed by the efficiency and knowledge of the staff.. altho we think that the completion process of 7 weeks is too long. I have used the hotline extensively and find that to be very helpful in my preparation work… I have nothing against HDB staff… but I wonder why there are many others who feel they are unhelpful and unfriendly. …?

A walk in the parks

What d’ya do on National day in Singapore…? Us..? We think we’d go for a nice long nature walk.

Looking up at the Henderson Waves bridge

We stay on board Calliste at Keppel on the eve, so that we be a bus ride down to the Henderson waves… it was a interesting looking bridge over Henderson road. We passed under it many times before were always wondering when we would do that walk…

This is a distorted picture of Singapore!

Bus 145 from the front of The Caribean (condo) takes us down to Henderson Waves in 5 mins. Only 4 bus stops away, in the nice early holiday morning… no crowds and no jam at 8am? This is such a refreshing change.

From the busstop, crossed the road and climb that steep uphill steps… I think there are like 50 big steps to the top… <huff> <huff> … I hope this is gonna be worth that effort… I did think that we were pretty well rewarded with this uncommon view Singapore. Greenery, no crowd and no jam on a pretty sunny morning. Looks good and welcoming.. until you see the pictures of common daily life scenes in the real Singapore deal…  Classic camera trick, putting the nicer part of the subject in the foreground exergerate the size of the object while making the residential blocks in the background appear small. Beautiful sunlight adds a great deal to this effect and made this picture more 3D.

The planks that made the bridge

There were a handful of people who, like us, were enjoying a cool morning walk. It was nice to know that not everybody is staying home and playing with phones, computers or watching tv. … well, I might be doing that myself if not for Doug wanting to do a walk.. altho, I always like walking, I just never move myself into doing it more often..  Another camera trick. Using a low camera angle to capture more of the planks to exergerate the distance between me and the next group of walkers, creating a feel of spaciousness…

A nice looking sign...

I like the signs around here, modern looking arty look. Each one must have been quite expensive. .. okie… lets see, how to get to Hort Park… alright, so today we be walking over the Henderson Waves, thru the forest walk over Telok Blangah hill, onto the Alexandra Arch and into Hort Park… there are many little side paths, I hope we be right on track and make it before we get too worn out.

Newer signs after the Waves.

We didnt bring any drinks, altho I thought that we learned from our walk over at Sentosa that we really should… but my research shows that there were vending machines all over these parks… fingers crossed… and viola, vending machines were exactly as marked  on the map and were all working and had all the selection! The power of consumerism! Somebody must have realized that its good money to sell drinks to thirsty dehydrated people in a park!. .. Broken or out of supply machines = no sales = no money! Altho… you gotta BRING YOUR OWN COINS!

Walking amongst the tips of the trees...

Ok… we kinda follow the signs, walking thru some car parking areas and then winding up that the forest trail bridge. This has a very unnatural feel about it… hmmm…

The fastest way down is to roll...

Well, there’s an escape route if you need. .. Leads you to the real forest trail… eee… real soil, real dead leaves and real creepy crawlies… not for me..

The real resident of Telok Blangah hill

We kinda like it that, after the steep climb up the steps, it was downhill all the way. Easy 4km walk.. We made it to Hort Park in less than 2hrs, plus stopping in quite a few spots for pictures. I spent quite abit of time with this family of primates…

A mohawk baby! How cute!

And then some interesting trees along the way… check out the durians. … somebody been into them tho.. some of them are just shells

Not my fav fruit...

The walkway itself wasnt that great to look at, but it was nice and convenient for familys with elderly and children to also enjoy the park. I would think its alot harder to round up kids to do this walk in the real forest… dun u think? 

Alexandra Arch. .. getting quite sick of steel and alu by now

Eventually, we got to the Alexandra Arch. … I like the Henderson Waves bridge much better.. The arch is quite not as impressive… IMO. Right off the Arch is Hort Park. Alright, we made it there.

Very untropical plants thriving at the hort park

Hort Park is short for “Horticulture” Park. I think the purpose of this place is to show how plants can be in our living spaces and adding to our enjoyment of our homes. A little too landscaped for my liking… very fake kinda feeling… but it was nicely maintained, not sure if I had the same resources to maintain my place like this tho. .. u see, thats the reality.

dusty purple green and yellow trims

Adding to my collection of pretty plants! I like plants with big leaves and high contrast colors.

The real green camo!

Am thinking that some of these might be nice in my new place.. can I manage? But there are some plants that might be easy to care for.. sure I would like some big green camo leafy plants at home…

Not quite what I had in mind...

Enuf walking for today. Its good that we didnt have to walk back over our route… there are buses outside Hort Park that would bring us right back to The Carribean/Keppel … I think this public transport -> walk -> public transport arrangment is not bad. No complains from me…