Yesterday was the day that we took another baby step towards the painstaking ‘Home Building’ project. I am beginning to be more convinced that some years from now, I may just publish a book documenting the ‘extraordinary’ journey we are taking just to own a place in this tiny red dot – a place that we could finally call our very own home.

Enough of my sarcasm if you didn’t notice.

So, after becoming tens of thousands of dollars poorer by making the down-payment for a ‘special’ spot in the yet-to-be-built housing project, the hoosbend brought me to a ‘cleaner’ washroom at HDB Hub, where I spotted the ‘HDB Gallery‘. To be fair, I can’t say if it’s cleaner, it’s clean though, since I have not used other washroom to compare the cleanliness.

There is a small corner with a security guard – whom I almost mistaken as entrance ticketing officer – stationed by the entrance. It’s a small corner down the memory lane for the home-grown Singaporeans.

There are sections of different mock-ups of the living areas in Singapore homes, including kitchen and living room, as far back as the 60′s. I would assume that it’s dated from 60′s because that would be relative to the time of Singapore’s Independence and when HDB – Housing Development Board – was set up.

The first mock-up section shows the kitchen of the 60′s. I am not aged enough to be familiar with the setting, since this setting applied mostly to the Kampong – Malay word for village, where most of the ‘experienced’ Singaporeans live in. Most stoves then, were concrete stoves whereby they used woods to start fire for cooking. Smaller clay stoves were used with charcoal for stewing, or boiling water. You are still able to find some of those small clay stoves in modern days, it is said that charcoal cooking produces more fragrant food. Then again, many a times, it’s a psychological desire to reminisce the good old days, yes?

Before refrigerator becomes generally affordable to families, kitchen cabinets and cupboards with windows lined with fine wire gauzes were used to store away leftover dishes, plates and utensils. The wire gauzes kept the flies away.

I am looking at custom making one of these when my home is ready. I really hate flies, and I love ‘vintage’ furniture. Not really antique type, you know, antique is an expensive term, and I love all things down-to-earth and won’t need me to break a bank. Antiques might not fit my style well.

The plastic beaded curtain definitely looked familiar. My mum had used one of these at our old place before, but not for long. Agnes, my older sister had the most ‘itchy’ hands, and she ‘twisted’ and ‘plucked’ off most of the curtain tails and created a ‘naturally’ formed irregularity to the otherwise quite uniform curtain.

My maternal grandma had these too, and had changed several before she decided there was no way to keep the curtain ‘safe’ from the little monsters who visited every other weekend, if not every weekend.

These plastic beads were made to resemble fake diamonds, and seriously, girls love bling bling! We twisted a small portion of curtain off so that we could keep the tail for ourselves. Sometimes, it’s really for no good reason. My grandma would tie the curtain up and tuck any tails somewhere out of reach from the kids, especially the monstrous Agnes. Nah, with Agnes, no ceiling was too high to reach, no place was safe, no task was impossible!

I have hunted high and low for these, and the hunt has been futile. I am not trying to recreate – or perhaps I am – my childhood, but there are pieces of it that always give a sweet tingle. Anyone knows where to get the ‘traditional’ bead curtains, please drop me a comment eh!

We had boxed television in black and white, very briefly, at least to my knowledge. This mock-up will resonate with many of us, since it is a very typical set-up in most small flats. With small apartments, you don’t really have the luxury to decorate it too differently from others, especially back in the days when resources were scarce. Most power points were fixed in specific places, so that restricted creativity too.

Then, we were still the ‘developing country’ whereby for most of us, we were at the base level of the hierarchy of need – food, shelter, clothes – so home decoration was strictly a privilege for the affluent.

My mum would probably find this set-up more familiar. Even the hoosbend may find this familiar since he had the chance to live in the Kampong until he grew to become a young teenager.

I am born and raised in a modern flat, so I have nearly zero concept of the real Kampong living style. I had only visited Kampong twice. Once to Jessie’s – best friend from high school – house where the family had plots of land for vegetables farming. Another time was an overnight adventure to my old neighbor’s relatives’ Kampong, which became an unforgettable event since the city kid – me – was bitten by too many giant Kampong mosquitoes that I ran a high fever on the following day and required a jab to take the heat off my body caused by the swell of the bites. The mozzies loved new blood!

Both visits were just before the lands were reclaimed by the government for housing development. Both experiences gave me ‘culture’ shocks! I couldn’t wrap my mind around the no-flush in the bathroom; large water jugs to conserve water; pitch dark in some areas of the house while most areas were dimly lit. I know, spoilt little city girl.

We had a lot to do yesterday, so it was a long day. We went to banks to open and close accounts. We tried to behave like grown adults and married-for-nearly-5-years couple, but it was too challenging to accomplish, and the bank officer who attended to us struggled to keep her professional composure but couldn’t hold back her chuckles any longer, and succumbed to playing along with the 2 old kids. I was so close to succeed in conspiring with the bank officer to have the boy’s money fully transferred to my account. Alas, she has too much professional ethics to let my evil plan through!

After one bank to another, it’s time to fill the hoosbend’s growling stomach. We went to the Taiwanese bubble tea eatery place located in HDB Hub – which I have no idea what the hub consists of, so this could be outside the Hub – and I don’t know the name of this place.

We have been here several times now, and as trusting as always, I don’t really bother myself with the name, or direction to get here from HDB office. I just follow, you know, remembering places and directions has never been my job, and not that I could anyway.

We ordered our usual clay pot rice set with salted chicken. We shared a large glass of bubble milk tea (red tea).

I don’t know what is this called, but the literal translation from Chinese would be ‘salted crispy chicken’. It is a famous Taiwanese dish.

After food, I had to use the washroom again, and considering that I had been to the same washroom ealier, you would probably find it absurd that I lost my way in the small washroom trying to exit.

Then, we headed to visit the new home ‘site’. First, we would need to collect our car at the multi-storey carpark at the basement of HDB office.

We spent some good 10-12mins circling around the hyper-gawd-stuffy-and-hot carpark from B3 to B2, and back to B3, because the hoosebend couldn’t remember where the car was parked!! I wasn’t mad, but I can’t say I enjoyed the unplanned ‘stroll’ either. I don’t do well with stuffiness and heat. I followed throughout the car-hunting, but I didn’t speak, because every single cell in my body was used to deal with the heat, so that was the only function the brain could handle. I could only manage an one-word reply.

Then, we visited the barren plot of land that our new home would be built. It would be somewhat secluded. Seriously, that would be so perfect, the more secluded the better! I need not just a home, but a sanctuary. I need a ‘start over’, for one reason or another.

Not that I spend much time outside the apartment, and just like the hoosbend said, ‘So what if the neighborhood is nice? It’s not like you go out at all’. That’s quite true, the last time I even stepped out the apartment was to HDB, exactly 2-ish month ago to make the selection of the unit!

Then again, spiritually and mentally, it’s important to know that we are not just in the urban jungle of concrete skyscrapers, but near to what is nearest to nature.

Our new home is very short distance away from the waters and greens. The vastness and openness in the neighborhood helps to free up any sense of ‘congestion’ aka mind blockages and clutter. Oh well, I am an idealist with super creative imagination!

We went for a movie at Great World City afterward. We found out that our favorite Thai/Vietnam restaurant is no longer there! Yeah, things like that happen when you don’t leave home for months, it’s almost a whole new world outside each time, due to the super fast paced lifestyle.

We watched ‘Transformer – Dark of the Moon‘. It’s still good and entertaining, but not better than previous.

When we reached home, I was dog-tired and remembered that I had to make releveant changes to the Paypal account due to change of bank account and names, and to update the bank details on the eShop records.