la casa

So you’re staking out classifieds, stalking sellers, prowling along the corridors, putting on an air of bravado on your very first house viewing. But once you’re there, you realize that the owner has made the first move: the house is spick and span, everything is neat and organized, down to the storeroom; everything about the place is perfect, from the neighbours, to the breeze and the nearby ammenities.

Darn. What’s there to pick on?

Well, when all else fails, ask Mummy! Here are the bits of folk wisdom my mummy dispensed:

1. Direction
   Ideally, the house should face the south. If there’s not possible, north facing is fine too. Permutations of South/North with other directions are passable but you should never never never buy East and West facing flats. Bring your own compass!
2. Neighbours
   The Australian soap doesn’t have a mega following in Singapore, but you sure don’t want any drama with your neighbours. If you’re sensitive to dust and noise, avoid the incessant incense burners. Also, if it is within your capacity to find out, the person living below you shouldn’t be an AC buff. His/Her compressor will generate a lot of heat and inevitably causes your need to blast the AC too.
3. Low levels
   Not only noisy, the main bane of low levels are the influx of rats and other creepy crawlies whenever the rubbish chute fills up or isn’t cleared during the public holidays for example.
4. Transport
   To safeguard the value of your house, convenience is a must. If it requires one bus ride, even a few stops, to the interchange, your rental/resale value will decrease as the flat becomes older.
5. Leakage
   Watch out for leakage of ceilings and pipes. It’s not a good thought to have to collect golden showers from the guy upstairs. HDB doesn’t help very much when it comes to such matters. Ask me, we’ve made many complaints.
6. Price comparison
   Lastly, to compare the prices of units of different size, use this formula: Area/Cost.
7. Prayer
   House hunting requires good timing, good agents, luck and call for good judgement under pressuring circumstances. Divine intervention helps.

Pearls of wisdom dispensed, ironically before the swine. Let’s hope self-awareness remedies that! Wish us hunting luck!

On a separate note, we found this post on wedding gowns.

虎丘玫瑰村 (”Tiger Hill Rose Village” – Hu Qiu, Mei Gui Cun), where many many wedding gowns/qi pao/evening shops are at. It was 90 min by car from Shanghai. Or you could take train to Suzhou, then taxi to 虎丘路 (Hu Qiu Lu), which is on the way to 虎丘公园 (Hu Qiu Park). The better shops are on the East side of the road, but you really have to shop around, shops in little alleys also have some good dresses. I remember that one of the better stores is called 新娘百分百 (Xin Niang Bai Fen Bai). An expat friend got a RMB260 gown custom made for her on the spot, and it was finished in 3 hours. It’s really amazing.

Seems like it’s worth a look at should we be happen to travel there.

We have listed our selection criteria, just in case anyone is selling.

1. Accessibility
   Near public transport routes leading to work places and town.
2. Cost savings
   Allows us to tap on the within 2km of parents grant or be so value for money that we can forgo the $10k!
3. Amenities
   Specifically a multi-storey carpark, with decent eating places nearby. Hopefully a nice mall, or supermarket around the corner as well. Additional facilities like swimming pool, running track or park would be a bonus.
4. Budget
   We can afford around the region of $500k.
5. Size
   We are looking at a 4A-room flat, or bigger.
6. Aesthetics
   Airy, morning sun, spacious, unblocked.

The above are not in any order of preference.

Just as you need a good mattress for a good night’s sleep, it also pays to have the right pillow.

You may think that the pillow’s filling is what matters most – whether to go for latex rubber or feathers, for example, to avoid a lumpy, bumpy lie-down.

But it is more important to find one that gives the right support, says Dr Terrence Yap, a chiroprater at Atlas Chiropractic Clinic and vice-president of Chiropratic Association Singapore.

Without proper head support, you may wake up with neck aches, he says. He uses a contour pillow – the kind that dips in the middle – because “it supports the neck where it curves”.

He says it is essential to test a pillow before buying. Here are some tips.

1. Lie on your back and on your side. “We toss and turn about 80 times a night, so you need to test the pillow both ways,” says Dr Yap.
2. When lying on your side, the tip of your nose, chin, and middle of the breastplate should be in a straight line, so that your head is not tilted at an angle.
3. When on your back, with the correct pillow, you should be looking straight up. “If you find your chin pointing downwards to your chest of if your head is tilted back, the pillow is either too high or too low,” says Dr Yap.
4. Change your pillow every three to five years. After many nights of use, it may no longer give you the required support.

Pillow talk

Feather and down (from geese): These pillows tend to be soft and sit a little higher than other pillows. They also feel more luxurious.

Foan and latex: These tend to last longer. They give firmer support than down pillows.

Pocketed coil: This has pocketed coils wrapped in polyester fibre. The coils are said to adjust and adapt to any head shape, weight and neck movement, providing proper support and spinal alignment eliminating muscle tension and morning aches.

Memory foam: Such pillows are made of polyurethane, which is less “springy” than other foan types and it slower to return to its original shape. That is why it is known as memory foam because it “remembers” your shape.

Extracted from The Straits Times, Saturday, 6 December 2008.

Here’s a wake up call: A good mattress can make the difference between sweet dreams and a nightmare of tossing that leads to a sore back or stiff neck.

So says Dr Terrence Yap, a chiropractor at Atlas Chiropratic Clinic and vice-president of the cChiropractic Association Singapore. Here are his tips on picking the right one.

1. Try before you buy. Don’t worry about looking silly – the only way to properly try the mattress is to lie on it, even if other shoppers giggle and stare. “Lie on it facing up and then on your side,” says Dr Yap. You need to spend about 10 minutes testing out a mattress to see if it suits you.Couples who share a bed should test the mattress together. You should not feel your partner’s movements on a good mattress.
2. Look for a mattress that has a medium/firm feel. Your body should feel supported, not like it is sagging.
3. There should not be a gap between the mattress and your wasit. If there is, it means the mattress does nto conform to your body’s contours and you could end up with aches.A mattress that is too hard is also bad for the spine. “It means the curve of your spine is not supported,” says Dr Yap.
4. Some companies offer mattresses that don;t require flipping, which you usually have to do so that your mattress wears evenly. Otherwise, “it is best to flip your mattress at least once a month”, says Dr Yap.Flip the top to the bottom.

Mattress matters

Inner spring: These have wire coils inside which are the support structure for the mattress. Depending on the manufacturer, there are different types of coils used.

The open coil is the ldest type. It is an hourglass-shaped wire coil joined to adjacent coils by small wire spirals.

A pocket coil is one where a cylindrical spring is wrapped in its own fabric pocket. Each coil works independently which means that you will feel your partner move much less.

The third kind is the continuous coil. Each row of coil is made of a single wire attached to the next row by small spiral wires. Such mattresses supposedly keep their shape longer.

Water: Comes filled with water but stll offers full support for the psine and body. Unlike tradtional mattresses, waterbeds do not sage and need not be flipped over. They also do not leak and will not cause seasickness.

Latex: Made from matural or synthetic latex. The dense material makes them durable. The latex usually comes with small holes which help soften it and make it comfortable.

Memory foam: Made from polyurethane foam which is said to help distribute body pressure and follow individual body contours. Such mattresses tend to be heavier.

Extracted from The Straits Times, Saturday, 6 December 2008.