Results of Nov 2015 Sale Of Balance Flats Exercise

We applied for the Nov 2015 Sale Of Balance Flats Exercise with HDB last year. After a long wait, finally today we received an email from HDB that our application is not successful due to our balloted queue position has far exceeded the flat supply. 

It was a great disappointment as we would very much like to upgrade to a bigger flat. This is especially after our gal was born, we felt that we run out of space even though our flat size was considered ok back then when we bought our current flat. 

Now as a second timer applicant, it seems like buying lottery to apply for BTO or balance flats with HDB. If we manage to get a good queue number, it is really like winning top prize. We prefer to utilise our 2nd chance buying direct from HDB instead of buying from the resale market as we prefer brand new flats. As 2nd timer, we need to pay a hefty resale levy and by adding to the purchase price, it is actually similar or even higher price as compared to the resale market for a unit in the same area. We regard the resale levy as a premium for buying new flats therefore we will continue to apply for other BTO or SOBF (Sales of Balance Flat) even though the prices not cheap and chances are very slim.  

Space is always not enough when there is a child in the house. We regretted not buying a 5-room or bigger flat previously when the prices were still low. We thought a 4 room would serve our purpose even if we have a child but we were so wrong. Having a child arrival to the family, not only we need to cater for the child bedroom but also playing and learning space. Therefore if we could do it all over again, we would choose to buy a bigger flat and stay in it till old age or until the last day we breathe. If in the future, we may not need so much space or when our gal got married and move out, we can always rent out the extra rooms or downgrade to a smaller unit. 

Therefore for newly weds or soon-to-be married couples who are planning to have kids, I would advice to buy a bigger flat if you can afford it. You will need the extra space even though it may not be too much difference. Buying a property is an important investment which needs detailed calculation on the affordability and sustainability. 

J-Pot @ Parkway Parade Review

We went to Parkway Parade for dinner on our gal birthday. Check out my previous post.

The reason why we decided to dine at J-Pot was due to its promotion of $20 discount for minimun spending of $50. Seems like a good deal. 

The main draw of J-pot is each person will have their own individual hot pot and own selection of soup base. It is more hygenie as no need to share with others. Also it uses technology like the self ordering touch screen menu which makes the ordering faster. They also uses the induction cooktop for each seat so it is safer too. 

We ordered the specialty soup and the porridge soup. Both tasted delicious. I ordered the porridge soup as I could share with my gal. We ordered the usual stuff: pork, chicken, fish, mushroom, vege, fish noodles, tofu fish paste. The food tasted good. And the most special part of J-pot is its sauce as we can help ourselves with a wide range of sauces and ingredients by mixing it like buffet style. The sauce was very good! The service was fast and attentive too where staff readily checked our pots and topped up our soup. 

Our meal total cost $40 after the $20 discount. Well, I think it is still expensive considering we didn't order much food. If we don't have the $20 discount, it would have cost $60, which I felt is totally not worth it even though the food tasted delicious. However after the meal, we felt extremely thirsty. It could mean there were lots of MSG in the soup which was why the soup was so tasty. 

I dined at J-Pot Vivo previously but don't remembered feeling so thirsty after the meal. So this is my review verdict:

Ambience: 8/10

Technology usage: 9/10

Food: 5/10 (I gave it 5 due to the MSG. If no much MSG, it could be a 9)

Service: 9/10

Value for $: 5/10 (considering the very ordinary type of food we ordered, it still cost us $20 per person after discount) 

In summary, I don't think we will patronize J-Pot again in the near future. The main draw to J-pot is the soup, however the soup was disappointing not because it didn't tasted delicious, but because of the MSG added to the soup. The soup base alone cost about $5-8per person which is overpriced in my opinion. For this price, I would expect the soup to be really 真材实料. Therefore the meal was not value for money in my humble opinion. It was a pity. 

Our gal is 3!

Time flies, our precious baby is now 3 years old!

I still remember clearly the day she was born. It was the happiest moment of my life. Sometimes, I secretly wished that I could turn back time just to savour that moment. I regretted not filming down the delivery process. 

Anyway, She got a blasting birthday celebration. In fact she got 3 celebrations! The first celebration she had was at my relatives house who celebrated her birthday in advance. My cousin ordered and bought her a Peppa Pig birthday cake. Peppa Pig is one of her favourite character and the cake was lovely!  

The 2nd celebration was at home and we only invited close family members. We bought her a Barney cake with her photo on it. She choose the Barney cake herself as Barney was another one of her favourite character too.

We just put up some simple DIY decoration on the wall and whipped up some home cook meal for a small and intimate celebration. We actually recycled the wall decoration every year. What we did was just changing the number.

The 3rd celebration she had was on her actual birthday which falls on a weekday. I baked some chocolate chip cupcakes and piped some homemade buttercream (with no food colouring) on the cupcakes for the happy birthday wordings.

We brought the cupcakes to her playgroup to celebrate with her little friends. We also prepared some Mickey Mouse theme birthday goodie bags and DIY Mickey Mouse party hats for her little friends. It was such a cute scene to see her celebrating and singing birthday songs with her little friends.

DIY Mickey Mouse party hat & goodie bags

She got 3 different themes for her 3rd birthday: Peppa Pig, Barney and Mickey Mouse! Lolx. Actually we didn't really plan to have 3 themes. It just happen that my relatives bought her the Peppa Pig cake, then she choose the Barney cake and I thought Mickey Mouse was an appropriate theme for her celebration with her little friends. Next year, we got to crack our head to think for the theme again.

After her birthday celebration at her playgroup, we brought her to Kaboodle Kids indoor playground at Big Splash in East Coast Park as we got the complimentary voucher from a contest.

She was having tons of fun at the Kaboodle, busy building and playing with the blocks! As it was weekday, so initially she was the only kid playing in the indoor playground and she got the whole place to herself! Subsequently there were a few kids joining and she had fun playing together with them too.

Riding on the bike from Mummy & Daddy's creation! 

Busy playing in the house where she pretended selling cookies! 

The house was built by the Kaboodle staff! 

Experimenting the ball rolling down the mini slide

We stayed for a few hours at Kaboodle until closing time at 6pm. She refused to leave until I convinced her that we were going to the beach and she could play with the sand.

When we went to the beach, she was so excited that she jumped up and down the sand. We only let her played for a short while as it was time for dinner.

Yeah sand playing time! 

We went to Parkway Parade and dinned at J-pot hotpot as they were having an offer to have $20 off for spending minimum $50. So we thought it was quite a good deal and furthermore, K haven't try out J-pot before. I will be reviewing J-pot on a separate post.

J-pot steamboat

So that marks the end of our gal 3rd birthday celebration! 

Children book review - Our Planet by Jimi Lee

I borrowed this children book from the library recently and read it with my gal as our daily routine. I find that the book is quite meaningful sending the message what will happen if we don't cherish our planet and what we should do to save our planet.

There are only pictures and no words at all. But the pictures are simple emough for the children to understand. As there are no wordings to read, I told my gal the story based on my understanding of the pictures. She responded quite well to the book and asked me to read again after I finished reading. 

I like that the book is promoting education for our children not to make the same mistakes to hurt our environment. Our children is our last hope to save this planet and I believe it is possible through education since young. 

In the book, children who learn to grow plants or trees from the seeds will be able to create a more harmonious environment for mankind to live with the nature and using clean energy by not polluting the environment. 

I do agree with the author that we got to repair the damage we caused to the earth before it is too late. Our children holds the key to the future. 

Highly recommended 5/5 stars.