Kitchen Makeover: Day 12

5 February 2010 (Friday)
Day 12

I fervently hope progress on my kitchen makeover will pick up pace today. We were told the workers would begin plastering the walls today which would continue till Sunday (I recalled how adamant they were to be given a break last Sunday), so I'm not sure if Jali could convince them to come in this Sunday.

The floor and wall tiles are expected to arrive by today. And the plan is to start working on the tiling by Monday. Hope everything will go as plan.

Meanwhile, I'm making good progress on Phase Two (editing) of my Digital Marketing book. I hope to complete Phase Two and Three (proof-reading) before Chinese New Year, as I'm slated to go to Singapore for a couple of days after Lunar New Year.

Just before the workers left for the day, Enji told me they were done with whatever needed to be done which surprised me as Jali had indicated earlier they would work right through Sunday.

Progress and Pics on Day 11
Plaster: 95% done, some parts still not done
Tiles: No sign of them at all
Door: Nil
Grille: Nil
Gutter: Nil

I'm feeling really exasperated. In fact, today is one day since the renovation started that I felt as though I'm falling down an abysss, so deep I'm not sure I can ever come out of the rut again.

Kitchen Makeover: Day 11

4 February 2010 (Thursday)
Day 11

It's been more than a week since my kitchen makeover started. I'm getting very impatient as everywhere is a mess. Now, my bedroom has trebled up as a mini kitchen cum dining area apart from what the name implies.

And talking about names, I met someone on FB, who goes by the name of Dart Vader (notice the H is missing..??). I always wonder why people need to hide behind a pseudonym. What exactly are they trying to hide or conceal?

My take on this is, if you are brave enough to join a social network, you ought to be brave enough to reveal your true identity, unless you have an ulterior motive. I'm sure there's plenty of  Dart Vaders on FB and other social networking in cyber space.

And have you ever wondered what their true motive is? Could it be to hoodwink gullible people? Or was it to just appease their abnormal state of mind? Whatever the motive is, the likes of Dart Vaders should be shot by, what else, but darts, of course!! and banished from cyber space.

Cyber space or kitchen space? That is the question.

In my kitchen space, I can whip up a frenzy with all my cooking. In cyber space? I've met a lot of friends, both young and old, new friends, old friends, crazy friends, and even weirdos.

I've been very eager to meet up with my old classmates from Maju Secondary School, Singapore since joining FB. So, when a guy added me as a friend, I was thrilled to bits, thinking he was my classmate, as I just couldn't recall some of their names, especially the boys. Anyway, it turned out, he wasn't.

But what tickled and amused me most was his posting to my query on FB, "I'm happy to be ACQUITTED!" Of course, you can guess what my reply was.

"You mean you were charged in court for an offence, and they ACQUITTED you?" Welll, what he actually meant was, he was happy to be ACQUAINTED with me.

Since then, he has stopped liasing with me, as I reckon he wasn't too happy to be "ACQUITTED" by me.....he'd rather the judge...... Till today, this has been one of the highlights in my FB sojourn, it still tickled me to bits whenever I reminisce about this hilarious exchange.

That's some of the lighter moments on FB. I think, enough of cyber space.

And back to my kitchen space, I'm waiting to see what progress the workers made today, on Day 10....

Kitchen Makeover: Day 10

3 February 2010 (Wednesday)
Day 10

The workers who are assigned to my kitchen makeover are kind of erratic in the time they report for work at my house. Their usual starting time is 9:00 a.m, but some days, they can be as late as 9:45 a.m. Day before yesterday, they arrived late. And I thought it'll be the same yesterday, but no! They arrived just before 9:00. And today, when I had expected them to arrive early, they arrived only at 10:00 a.m. Arggghhh... I can never understand these people.

Call it one of my quirks, strengths, or weaknesses, but whatever the label or term you call it, I'm a stickler for punctuality.

I detest and abhor people who are late, and who don't treat being punctual as a boon. I'm one who strongly believe in being systematic, both to benefit me as well as others who may be associated with me.

From my schooldays as a primary school pupil, I had always insisted on being early, not just being punctual to arrive in school. And this trait or quirk has remained with me till today.

I recalled being always early for my dates with my boyfriend (now my soulmate). I would ensure I arrived at least 15-20 minutes ahead of him.

And even when I was working, I had always been one of the firsts, if not the first to arrive in the office. I would be in the office when everywhere is still shrouded in darkness, when the sun is still shy of peeking its brightness, when most people are still fast asleep in bed, even the birds and bees lay quiet in their nests and resting places.

I guess I'm what you would term as a morning person. I know it's wishful thinking, but how I wish more people would make punctuality a part of their lives, my kitchen makeover workers, included....

I am actually getting agitated with the rather slow progress of my kitchen makeover as I reckoned the workers aren't putting in their utmost effort to complete this job as soon as possible. So I called Jali up to find out the status, and was told that everything should be in its place and makeover completed in 10 days' time, i.e by 13 February. I'm anxious because once it rolls into Chinese New Year, it's gonna be difficult to complete everything as the Chinese contractors would take almost 2 weeks break (right up to Chap Goh Mei).

I badly need my kitchen to be done quickly as not only has the food bill sky rocketed since the renovation began, I'm also (I'm sure my husband and kittos too) are missing terribly my home-cooked meals.

And to make matters worse, I've cancelled all my English classes as the dining and living area are not 'livable,' hence not suitable to conduct any classes. I wish progress will be speeded up.

Pics from Day 9

Kitchen Makeover: Day 9

2 February 2010 (Tuesday)
Day 9

Day 8 into my kitchen makeover and thank God, today there's less drilling and hacking. Probably they're working on some other work, although half the floor is still not hacked nor drilled. Whatever, I'm glad for the reprieve.

And I've also completed translating my Digital Marketing Book, a project I've been working on, in fact, have been breathing and living DM since end of November 2009. Imagine, everyday, having your eyes glued to a 360-page book, and poring through dictionaries, thesaurus, glossaries and terms relating to digital marketing and internet for almost 3 months.

I'm now into the editing phase, and hopefully in a couple of days' time can start the proofreading stage, before I'm done with this exhausting and tiring project. My target is to complete this book well ahead of my deadline, i.e 25 February 2010.

Meanwhile, now that the translation part is done, I can relax somewhat as the translation bit is the most tedious and laborious part. I have hardly done anything else during this period, no TV, no nothing, except translating and the occasional facebooking and blogging (thank God I could still indulge in these two passion).

For the past 70 days, I've been profoundly intertwined with Terms like Web 2.0, simulcast, spider, SEO, SERP, link, embedded format, etc.

And I have also delved intimately into the thoughts of the two authors Damian Ryan, and Calvin Jones. And I think I've had enough of them.

I'm looking forward to resuming my literary and far more intimate relationship with Sophie Kinsella, Nora Roberts, Sue Townsend, Melissa Hill, John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, and the likes of them. I've missed their intriguing plots and twists, and most of all I've missed the sheer pleasure of reading.
 
By the time I'm done with all the phases, I hope my kitchen makeover will be completed too. And, pleased as I may be, it'll be a mega headache for me as I've to look into cleaning up the HUGE mess in my entire house. Looks like Sophie, and Nora, and John, and Jeffrey will have to wait for a couple more weeks before I can caress them again.

As I'm in a celebratory mood today because I've completed Phase 1, I gave myself a treat by catching a 2-hr movie on ASTRO Max, "Safe Harbour", a touching and moving love story, about two grieving souls who found each other on a fog-shrouded California beach, but as their passion grew, the darkness of their past threatened to destroy their love. That was a truly blissful break, a solid 2-hr break since I started on this translation project.

And right after the movie, I went down to check on the progress of my kitchen makeover. It aws a huge relief to discover that they've completed hacking the old floor tiles, so I reckoned they'll be ready to cement and retile both the walls and floor within the next couple of days. I couldn't wait to see my kitchen taking its new shape soon.

Kitchen Makeover: Day 8

1 February 2010 (Monday)
Day 8

After one day of break, work in my kitchen resumed today. The drilling and hacking on the wall really drive me up the wall (my bedroom wall!!!). Given that I'm at home, I have no choice but to put up with the din.

The racket stopped during their lunch break and right after lunch the ggrrrr...drrrrrr..... brrrrr zound resumed!!! I can't wait for all these to be over.

And with all the grrrrrrrrrrrrr, brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, drrrrrrrrrrrrrr, drrrrrrrrrr sound done for the day, I went down after the workers left to survey the progress and here's the output from the racket they made today.