Chinese Habits

Gambling - it's in our culture. The Chinese' love of all things material, luck, and one-upmanship is deeply ingrained in all our upbringing, no matter which part of the world we are brought up in. Gambling just appeals to all those things we were brought up to love.

On the back of someone else's good fortune, we got a chance to visit the casino part of the newest integrated resort here on the Little Red Dot.

Driving up to the structure, I have to admit - it took my breath away! The massive structure was interesting everywhere we looked. Not just the sheer size of it, but the design details captured our attention like we were school kids on an outing to the zoo. We pointed, gawked and took pictures, and marvelled at how the sunlight played with the "wind-chime" wall and came in through the many glass windows, throwing interesting shadows onto the walls and floor. Yup. It'll be iconic in time to come.

First, we starved ourselves in order to make the most of the buffet spread before us. It's been a LONG time since we tried to take advantage of a buffet in this manner. When you get older, it generally becomes a question of quality over quantity. However, on this occasion, company dictated that we should go for quantity instead. *burp*

Then, having filled our stomachs, we proceeded to empty our pockets...

This is where the high-rollers get to go. Which is why we didn't get to see what it looked like inside...Lucky for me, Our Friend won my entrance fee back with his beginner's luck in the "common man's" floor. :)

Home

Can you believe, it's coming to almost four years since I started this blog? Admittedly, the frequency of blogging has decreased, due to "over-exposure" on Facebook. Still, it's been an interesting record of the journey I've taken over the last four years.

The latest event to be filed under this little blog of mine is the coming of the new home. Since we had committed ourselves to this little apartment at the end of last year, we'd been waiting, and waiting. And waiting. One postponement after another had happened along the way, and we only managed to get our grubby little hands on the keys to our new home-to-be a week ago.

And in the last week, it's been all systems go! With trusty Ah Ho at the helm, speedin' through all the renovation works. Owing to the fact that we didn't have a good sense of the actual dimensions of this tiny flat, some works which had been planned had to be scrapped or adjusted, and others added along the way, all amidst a panic attack and a mini-meltdown on my part.

I'm a planner. I just don't like it when things don't go accordingly to (my) plan.

This is the living room, before trusty Ah Ho and his merry ("Bangla") men got down to tearing things apart.

Work-in-progress of our new living room. Gigantic glossy black entertainment unit - poof! Demolished! Kitchen counter cutting up living space in half - gotten rid of! Glass sliding doors to tiny bedroom - installed!

However, some good things have happened. As providence would have it, the sofabed we had been eyeing popped up for sale on craigslist! After (im)patiently waiting until we had the keys to our flat, we eventually managed to score this coveted piece. Delivery expected next Friday! Yippee!

In the midst of all this excitement, I look out the window of The Cave every day and wonder, how much will I miss my tree house when I move out? It's been a good home.