Surprise Surprise!

Oct 17th was our 11th anniversary of the day the love story has started. I arranged for a romantic getaway to Bali with him in September to celebrate for this special day - which was an awesome break by the way- so, I wasn't expecting anything else from the man as we both agreed the Bali trip is a little treat to ourselves to celebrate the great 11 years.

It was the weekend after the busy house moving week, he came home from town while was busy packing away things in the new home. He called me into our bedroom told me that he was looking for something and it looks like the white envelope on top of our walkin-wardrobe seems to be it! And he was squatting on the floor telling me that he pulled his muscle and so he needs my help to reach for that white envelope. I first went to survey his foot to see if it was okay but he just asked me to get the envelope first so I did! I was expecting something familiar, something that I've already seen as what he was looking for is something that I know of. So, I was a little confused to see an unfamiliar envelope and that when I saw his scribble on the package (can't remember exactly as he kept it or threw it I'm not sure after I opened it) it went something like this - "For my loveable wife. Happy 11th Anniversary.".
When I opened it, it was a brand new unwrapped iPad Mini, a beautiful red colour cover for it and a card. I was thoroughly surprised, very excited to see the iPad mini for the first time and mostly overjoyed because of his little touch of love by giving me a surprise present for our anniversary. I feel a little sad for not preparing anything for him. But he caught me by total surprise. So can't blame me on this right?

No wonder he was acting so Not-interested when I just casually mentioned that Apple has launched the new iPad Mini. Now that I recall, he must have been thinking about this gift and that he didn't wanna give it away.

I was so caught up with the house moving, I didn't realize a few things that he has done. The gift was like a wake up call or a light that shines through the dark (okay being a little poetic here) I finally seen what he's done to our room. He has hanged up the photos that we took in the year 2002 all young and happy - 1 at the door inside our bedroom, 2 near the computer table, 1 in the walkin wardrobe. How can I not see those before? And another thing, he has also changed my laptop's background pic to our couple pic that was taken during our Bintan trip in July. How sweet!

My husband who's is so occupied with lots of stuffs happening in his career hardly have time to be all-so-romantic and couldn't give his undivided attention to me as much as I wanted, can be this romantic at times and do such little things to please his girl. And I sure am a happy girl.

Unlocking the deepest part of the heart....

It's the moment of realization that hit both of us (more so for him) last night. He was on the long drive home that is 1900+ km away from where I am right now and he called to tell me that how hard it was for him to be apart from me and that he needed me with him while he strives to make it big in the things that he once and still wanted so badly.

About a year back from today, I remembered him convincing me how he wanted to go back to Burma to try out a new business while I was resistant to the idea of staying apart and I kept saying no to this idea of him. He was pretty disappointed with my lack of understanding towards what he wanted to do for us and for our family not realizing that staying apart is going to be this tough.

After many discussions, some heated some what-ifs, I finally agreed to take on this challenge. A challenge that is not only for him who's going away but also for me who need to stay strong and be the role player in the stable income for the household for what looks like at least a couple of years. Then in Aug this year, I helped him book a 2 wk trip back home for him to research, understand the current market condition and basically to find out if what he wanted to do is feasible and profitable back there.

He finally left for the 2 wks trip on 1 oct and all I've left with me was his photos and his belongings during the stay in Singapore, bed feels so empty and too big for me alone, his wardrobe left unopened, his toothbrush left unused and his voice his physical existence are all memories (except the times we get to talk on the phone or video chat on skype). I missed him very very much. Especially when I'm not occupied with my work or busy at the yoga class. And I know he misses me too but knowing he has got a bunch of friends who are going to occupy him during his stay, I thought he wouldn't miss me as much as I did.

But I was wrong. He missed me a lot! Like a lot! I could hear it in his voice, I could witness it in his grin when he saw me on the screen, I could feel it from the way he opened up to me about his feeling and how much he needed me beside him. It was such honest and dear thing for him to let me know. He usually isnt very good with expressing his feelings and showing his fondness. But he touched my heart so very deeply that I immediately wanted to forget every problem we may have faced and promise him that, come what may, I will be with him for ever!

How I wish life was as easy as abc. Choices in life are tough. The consequences to the choices made are tougher to sort out. When one problem is solved, the other arose. How will we ever keep up with all the problems so we could breeze through the rest of our lives?

If only wishes really could come true.......

Our Nest In The Making Part III

It's a day shy of a month into the renovation. Although it's considered to be a slow renovation work since it would take 2 months for this major overhaul, I'm quite pleased with the progress so far. On top of what was done previously,

- The timbre flooring has been laid in the living room and the 3 bedrooms.
- The cabinets and the Kitchen as well as the 2 common rooms have been installed.
- The plastering works are in progress for the whole house

What's left now is for us to decide if we want to keep the existing window grilles. If so, decide what colour to be painted it with.

Can't wait for my ID to be back in SG whoes patience and responsiveness are very much appreciated while he was out of town for a week. The backup contact (his business partner) wasn't very much dependable.

Anyways, here's the nest at a glance.

Out Nest In The Making Part II

At times like this, I feel really appreciative of having my husband taking care of the renovation work. It has been such a big responsibility to make sure things are done according to planned. Even with such close monitoring, things and bloopers still happen while we went away on overseas trip for 4 days. We left for Bali and came back 4 days later only to realize that the toilet sink in common bath was installed too closed to the WX hence the person sitting down and standing up to get the business done get obstructed by the corner of sink during the process.

It hasn't been an option for me to take care of things in details and to frequently visit the place. Hubby has been really a big help doing it and his knowledge and interest in the hardware works and measurements come in real handy. He has been the one settling lightings, bathroom accessories and various appliances for the whole house. It ain't an easy job sometimes even to receive a delivery at the site can take a humongus amount of your personal time.

Since there's a timeline to meet, all the different pieces of work has to come in together at the right time to make sure smooth installation.

All in all, the progress made to the new house I must say was a good one so far. The last time we visited, I remember the huge pile or soil on my living room area. All the doors locations were rough edges holes. But now, all the hackings on floors and walls have been smoothened out, tiles were nicely placed at where they are supposed to be. The small walk-in wardrobe that we have last min implemented has been erected up from the floor to the ceiling in the master-bedroom. All the essential bathroom accessories has been installed, the flooring in the kitchen has been done up and now ready for the carpentry works, the aircon pipes have been laid and the pile of soil on the living room floor has been used/cleared (not very sure about this).

The Parquet for Floors and the teak doors has arrived today and up for installation on 1 oct. Always grateful to have caring aunt and uncle who has been very kind to provide us (FOC) with such quality material for our new home. Who would have done that?

The cooker hob, hood and oven are arriving this Saturday and ready to be built into the carpentry work in the coming week.

Our lovely nest looks empty and big now. But I'm sure soon it will turn out to be a cozy little nest for us to call it a home.

Our Nest In The Making Part I

Photo taken at the 4th day of Reno. The nest is juz a pile of earth, the doorless edges entrances, uneven cemented floors and empty patched up bathrooms.

It's hard to see how everything's going to turn out at this point but I can surely tell the progress was doing just great for the 4th day.

Can't wait for the flooring to arrive nxt week and hopefully we can see the progress in clearer vision.

Is driving really my thing?

So I've been taking the driving classes at SSDC and today was my 4th. I think I'm doing fairly good for the beginner. It was fun but scary at the same time cux the instructor would ask me to drive on the road.

I kept going too nervous whenever the road is packed and obstacles along the way. Next week is going to be packs with the driving lessons. Hope I don't screw this up and get my driving license soon.