Today, we got the house into good enough shape to move in. We officially vacate Promontory Circle tomorrow morning - all have been settled with Oakwood and HR. The Comcast guy came and installed the cable TV and internet access. And lo and behold, the plasma works - it is true it has universal power functionality. I was a little nervous that it would not work on the 110 volt they have here. Here they broadcast a fair bit in HDTV so we will see if we get better pictures.
So we are good to go. Amost. We have to buy many household stuff - it is like building home all over again. Almost. Brooms, vacuum cleaner, soaps, cutlery trays, iron, ironing board, laundry basket, ... better make a list.
Of course, there's still all those boxes in the store room to unbox but I am tired out and those will have to wait... maybe for a long time cos out of sight, out of mind. Nic's room is just waiting for her to come make it whole.
Changing my blog's look as an experiment. Like this?
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
Last Leg
Last evening we had the house inspection with the landlady and her previous tenant. She brought her pair of identical twins. They were very active and then one of them started becoming agitated and started bawling on and off. Her cousin and niece also came along for the ride.
This morning at about 10:30 am, the movers came with our container from Singapore. They got quite lost looking for the house so I had to meet them at a gas station nearby and they followed me to the house. There were only 3 of them and by 2:15 pm, they were done. But then many of the boxes ended up in the store-room because we were not sure what were in them despite the careful labelling or where to put them. We would have hell of a job unboxing them in the days and weeks to come. Sigh! Many of them were actually meant for local storage in Singapore but at the last minute because of the documentation required, we decided to just ship them.
Then in the midst of all the shifting and unpacking, the appliances men came with the washer and dryers we bought a day earlier. But they were fast - hook 'em up, make sure they work and they're gone.
The house is still quite a mess. I started hanging up the clothes, the beds are in place and the writing desks. But there are still things stacked in all the different places and we have to find a way to hang all the paintings without too much damage to the walls. The landlady said we can hang them but we are so unsure about what to do about the holes, etc., when we finally leave. The house is nicely painted but they are special mixes and the leftover paints from 6 years ago have all but solidified. The formulae are on the paint cans but if Larry, the tenant before us, could not paint over the patches he made correctly, we will surely do worse.
I took lots of pictures and will upload them when I get the chance.
Tomorrow, the Comcast people will come to set up the internet and cable TV connections and the fridge men will deliver the twin door Amana fridge we got from Fry's at a fairly good price - it was a show room piece but in almost perfect condition save for a tiny scratch.
And on Sunday, we check out of the apartment and will spend our first night at the house. At long last, we will be "home".
This morning at about 10:30 am, the movers came with our container from Singapore. They got quite lost looking for the house so I had to meet them at a gas station nearby and they followed me to the house. There were only 3 of them and by 2:15 pm, they were done. But then many of the boxes ended up in the store-room because we were not sure what were in them despite the careful labelling or where to put them. We would have hell of a job unboxing them in the days and weeks to come. Sigh! Many of them were actually meant for local storage in Singapore but at the last minute because of the documentation required, we decided to just ship them.
Then in the midst of all the shifting and unpacking, the appliances men came with the washer and dryers we bought a day earlier. But they were fast - hook 'em up, make sure they work and they're gone.
The house is still quite a mess. I started hanging up the clothes, the beds are in place and the writing desks. But there are still things stacked in all the different places and we have to find a way to hang all the paintings without too much damage to the walls. The landlady said we can hang them but we are so unsure about what to do about the holes, etc., when we finally leave. The house is nicely painted but they are special mixes and the leftover paints from 6 years ago have all but solidified. The formulae are on the paint cans but if Larry, the tenant before us, could not paint over the patches he made correctly, we will surely do worse.
I took lots of pictures and will upload them when I get the chance.
Tomorrow, the Comcast people will come to set up the internet and cable TV connections and the fridge men will deliver the twin door Amana fridge we got from Fry's at a fairly good price - it was a show room piece but in almost perfect condition save for a tiny scratch.
And on Sunday, we check out of the apartment and will spend our first night at the house. At long last, we will be "home".
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Being Boring
Yay, the c cards arrived today - actually yesterday. Our office admin apparently opens office mail and only passed them to me today. So yes, we are finally on our way to debt-dom all for the sake of building credit history. Who knows, maybe we may become history ourselves if we are too enthusiastic about this credit thingy.
My blog has been kinda dreary - talking about mainly mundane stuff. I was thinking it would be like a journal so family members in different places can stay connected. But it seems to be more like a monologue. So maybe I need to have a change of style and start being a little more controversial, a little more philosophical, a little more irritating even. Let me mull on that for a bit.
My blog has been kinda dreary - talking about mainly mundane stuff. I was thinking it would be like a journal so family members in different places can stay connected. But it seems to be more like a monologue. So maybe I need to have a change of style and start being a little more controversial, a little more philosophical, a little more irritating even. Let me mull on that for a bit.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Legal Licence
Another small step towards legitimacy. We have passed the practical driving tests. Our California driving licences will reach us by mail in about 2 weeks. That will be such a relief because we will have legal identification cards then. By then, I hope we will also have our long-awaited credit cards, would be comfortably ensconced in our rented house and have secured a second car.
Bert did fabulously for the test. He had a perfect score for the written tests couple of weeks back and today, he passed the practical test without a single point! It is rare. We still have about 20 hours of driving instructions with Linda and Rachel, our driving instructors. We can use them for Nic when she is here. I bet she will be thrilled.
Bert did fabulously for the test. He had a perfect score for the written tests couple of weeks back and today, he passed the practical test without a single point! It is rare. We still have about 20 hours of driving instructions with Linda and Rachel, our driving instructors. We can use them for Nic when she is here. I bet she will be thrilled.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Small Steps
Ryan had his MMR booster yesterday and boy, was it expensive. In Singapore, kids get all the immunizations they need FOC from the polyclinics. Parents don't pay a cent unless they go to private doctors. That one jab here costs US$85! The clinic was referred to us by the company - we do not know where else to go for cheaper jabs.
And with a few phone calls, I managed to schedule the start of electric, gas, water and garbage collection services for the house so the utilities will be ready when we move end of the month. Now that was efficient. I will probably call Comcast today for cable, internet and telephone services. Hope it will be as easy as for the utilities.
But I think we are in trouble for the appliances. The better half kept proscrastinating for reasons I still cannot pretend to comprehend. CostCo tells me it takes up to 10 business days to deliver on appliances and we still have not ordered them. That means we could end up for a week or more without a fridge, washer, dryer and goodness knows what else we need. May have to revisit Sears but I am afraid better half will launch into one of the endless tirades if I suggest it. We'll see...
And with a few phone calls, I managed to schedule the start of electric, gas, water and garbage collection services for the house so the utilities will be ready when we move end of the month. Now that was efficient. I will probably call Comcast today for cable, internet and telephone services. Hope it will be as easy as for the utilities.
But I think we are in trouble for the appliances. The better half kept proscrastinating for reasons I still cannot pretend to comprehend. CostCo tells me it takes up to 10 business days to deliver on appliances and we still have not ordered them. That means we could end up for a week or more without a fridge, washer, dryer and goodness knows what else we need. May have to revisit Sears but I am afraid better half will launch into one of the endless tirades if I suggest it. We'll see...
Thursday, September 21, 2006
We've Wheels
Here is our Civic. We just got it late this afternoon and already I have used it to practice for my driving test tomorrow. We paid for something called Xylon so it has a protective coat against scratches, bird poo, etc. and lojack against theft. Atomic blue metallic. Sounds cool and hi-tech?
Credit Crunch
We are not credit worthy in the eyes of a bank. Our application for a credit card was rejected because we did not score enough points and the reason we did not was because the credit bureau said we made too many attempts to get credit. Oh brother!
The attempts I can think of are (1) trying to apply for a departmental store card because the very kind salesman at the appliances section said we could get additional discount if we apply for a card and it is real easy, the cashier can do it on the spot; (2) trying to buy a cellphone plan for Bert at Cingular. Of course, both were unsuccessful because ?? We got no credit history! No brainer. So folks, we have a catch 22 situation here.
The bank call center is not empowered to reason with customers or to help them in any way, it seems. They kept calling my cellphone and when I returned call, it was only to ask me for all kinds of personal details and then to tell the application had been declined because we did not get enough points on their rating system, blah blah blah. And sorry, we cannot help you because our job is only to tell you the bad news and no ma'am, there is no one here you can talk to, appeal to or commiserate with and no, your letter of introduction is of no interest to us. And thank you for calling our call center. Urg!!! I am about to seriously consider terminating my financial relationship with the bank.
So if you ever want to live in the US, first thing to do, is to quickly take on debt. How counter to the confucian values of thrift and living within your means and saving, always putting aside something for a rainy day. I may be a bit unfair here but my experience tells me I am not too far wrong.
The attempts I can think of are (1) trying to apply for a departmental store card because the very kind salesman at the appliances section said we could get additional discount if we apply for a card and it is real easy, the cashier can do it on the spot; (2) trying to buy a cellphone plan for Bert at Cingular. Of course, both were unsuccessful because ?? We got no credit history! No brainer. So folks, we have a catch 22 situation here.
The bank call center is not empowered to reason with customers or to help them in any way, it seems. They kept calling my cellphone and when I returned call, it was only to ask me for all kinds of personal details and then to tell the application had been declined because we did not get enough points on their rating system, blah blah blah. And sorry, we cannot help you because our job is only to tell you the bad news and no ma'am, there is no one here you can talk to, appeal to or commiserate with and no, your letter of introduction is of no interest to us. And thank you for calling our call center. Urg!!! I am about to seriously consider terminating my financial relationship with the bank.
So if you ever want to live in the US, first thing to do, is to quickly take on debt. How counter to the confucian values of thrift and living within your means and saving, always putting aside something for a rainy day. I may be a bit unfair here but my experience tells me I am not too far wrong.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Car & Class Conundrum
We bought a car on Thursday evening. A Honda Civic LX automatic transmission from Livermore Honda. Then found we could not drive it home. Worse, that we cannot get auto insurance because (1) the lady agent I spoke with earlier was not around, (2) the agent who answered the phone refused to insure us after wasting nearly an hour of my time because our temporary licences were not yet in the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) database. Urgh!! Then our car dealer recommended an agent who was willing to insure us rightaway but gosh, the rates he quoted were like, extortion. So I politely said thanks but no thanks and good night to you sir.
So instead of just a couple of hours that we anticipated, we spent four hours at the dealership, committed to a car but probably not able to claim it till I get my driver's licence after the "behind the wheel" test on Sept 22. We had to rush to Ryan's school and were terribly late for back to school nite for parents. We did get to listen to Mrs Jeanette Brown, the music teacher and Ms Nora LaHive, the core teacher. Seems back to school nights are to let the teachers talk about their methods of teaching and share their expectations, etc., with parents. A different experience from Singapore. Ryan had insisted we had to listen to Mrs Brown and see the gym (which we missed) because they award extra credits for parents' attendance. We also got to see his tech teacher for a couple of mins. Could not get to see the science teacher even though we made it to the classroom because the vice principal was anxious to close up the school - it was past 9:00pm so we could understand.
Next day, I gave the car sales document to the credit union and was advised to take as much loan as possible to build the credit history. Getting the loan was not the problem - company is giving me much more than I need or want - but this is a strange society - encouraging people to take on unwanted debt. Then called up company recommended insurance agent and lo and behold, I got the auto insurance cover after spending only half an hour on the phone with me. And at a very lower rate than the "shark" of the previous day. So everything is in place. But, to my disappointment, no car because the credit union is waiting for the money from treasury to pass to the Honda dealer. So have to hold onto the rental SUV for a few days more. Seems the trick here is to take a large loan, pay the installments for a few months and then pay off the rest. Then the powers to be will say, oh, they paid these installments and then wipe out the whole debt. So they are credit worthy... Let's see if it is really going to work this way.
And I almost forgot to mention. We met George and his brother, Tim, on Wednesday night at the Marriott. They happened to be in SR after visiting their father who recently had a bad stroke. Tim is very outgoing and pretty funny. Handsome too. Had dinner with George at Uncle Yu's. We were planning to drive to his mom's house to see him this weekend but it appears his plans to go to Montana has been advanced two weeks. We'll plan the trip for a later time.
And today, Ryan went for Chinese class at Iron Horse Middle School but it looks like the highest class (equivalent to P3) is too low level for him. We may switch to another school in Pleasanton tomorrow to see if the level is closer to his P5 curriculum in Singapore. And we went to Ranch 99 at Fremont to pick up some Chinese groceries.
So instead of just a couple of hours that we anticipated, we spent four hours at the dealership, committed to a car but probably not able to claim it till I get my driver's licence after the "behind the wheel" test on Sept 22. We had to rush to Ryan's school and were terribly late for back to school nite for parents. We did get to listen to Mrs Jeanette Brown, the music teacher and Ms Nora LaHive, the core teacher. Seems back to school nights are to let the teachers talk about their methods of teaching and share their expectations, etc., with parents. A different experience from Singapore. Ryan had insisted we had to listen to Mrs Brown and see the gym (which we missed) because they award extra credits for parents' attendance. We also got to see his tech teacher for a couple of mins. Could not get to see the science teacher even though we made it to the classroom because the vice principal was anxious to close up the school - it was past 9:00pm so we could understand.
Next day, I gave the car sales document to the credit union and was advised to take as much loan as possible to build the credit history. Getting the loan was not the problem - company is giving me much more than I need or want - but this is a strange society - encouraging people to take on unwanted debt. Then called up company recommended insurance agent and lo and behold, I got the auto insurance cover after spending only half an hour on the phone with me. And at a very lower rate than the "shark" of the previous day. So everything is in place. But, to my disappointment, no car because the credit union is waiting for the money from treasury to pass to the Honda dealer. So have to hold onto the rental SUV for a few days more. Seems the trick here is to take a large loan, pay the installments for a few months and then pay off the rest. Then the powers to be will say, oh, they paid these installments and then wipe out the whole debt. So they are credit worthy... Let's see if it is really going to work this way.
And I almost forgot to mention. We met George and his brother, Tim, on Wednesday night at the Marriott. They happened to be in SR after visiting their father who recently had a bad stroke. Tim is very outgoing and pretty funny. Handsome too. Had dinner with George at Uncle Yu's. We were planning to drive to his mom's house to see him this weekend but it appears his plans to go to Montana has been advanced two weeks. We'll plan the trip for a later time.
And today, Ryan went for Chinese class at Iron Horse Middle School but it looks like the highest class (equivalent to P3) is too low level for him. We may switch to another school in Pleasanton tomorrow to see if the level is closer to his P5 curriculum in Singapore. And we went to Ranch 99 at Fremont to pick up some Chinese groceries.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Birthday Babe
Another birthday in the family. So this is a special blog for Nicole who just turned 16 going by the Singapore clock and will soon be 16 by San Ramon time. Happy birthday, girl. We miss you a whole lot and look forward everyday to your joining us here in December. You have been brave and wise to stay on in Singapore to finish your secondary education and we are proud of you for making that decision. We know you will shine in the prelims and "O" levels. Love from mom, dad and brudder.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Learning and Licences
It was funny looking at the better half sweat over the California highway code. He put off studying for as long as he could despite my telling him to start early. He never was the studying type, even when he was young. So last night, it was almost pitiful looking at him pouring over the booklet and doing the sample tests. He moaned and groaned that he had not studied for a test in decades. Hee hee.
But it was worth it. We went for the written test this morning with Rachel, our driving instructor and he got full marks! He took a long time though. I went through the test within like 2 minutes and he took almost half an hour, even checking his answers like in a school exam. Hee hee. Rachel said he must be a perfectionist. So now, we both have a temporary licence each and we can finally get our own car instead of renting from Avis. Yay! Test at wheel dates fixed for Sept 22 for me and Sept 25 for Bert - cos he took so long with his written test, all slots for Sept 22 were taken up by the time he went to get his test marked.
And in my application, I checked off the organ and tissue donation box. So now I am a registered organ and tissue donor in the state of California.
One more small step taken towards sanity and stability.
But it was worth it. We went for the written test this morning with Rachel, our driving instructor and he got full marks! He took a long time though. I went through the test within like 2 minutes and he took almost half an hour, even checking his answers like in a school exam. Hee hee. Rachel said he must be a perfectionist. So now, we both have a temporary licence each and we can finally get our own car instead of renting from Avis. Yay! Test at wheel dates fixed for Sept 22 for me and Sept 25 for Bert - cos he took so long with his written test, all slots for Sept 22 were taken up by the time he went to get his test marked.
And in my application, I checked off the organ and tissue donation box. So now I am a registered organ and tissue donor in the state of California.
One more small step taken towards sanity and stability.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Costco, Crabs, Chicken, Celia, Carynn
Went to Costco today and we were able to sign up as members! Without any fuss. What a relief. And while there, ran into one of my team members and then Celia and her husband. This was the first time Celia has ever met Bert and she told him he had been a mystery of sorts to her because he has never attended any of the company events to which family is invited. Celia was there shopping for her son who is going off to college on Friday.
Bert basically went crazy at Costco. Everything started to look cheap and good to him after our experiences with the high cost of things in all the other places like Safeway at which we have been spending our money. Ryan came across boiled dunganese crabs and had to have them and so we had 2 large crabs for dinner. Not as nice as what we get back in Singapore but then again, we were just glad to have something other than pizza. The one and a half men ate most of the crabs. I preferred the roast chicken which was a whole dollar cheaper than at Safeway so Bert approved.
Happy Birthday, Carynn! We hope you are settling in well in Buffalo and shaking up academia there with your brilliance. With lotsa love from all of us here in San Ramon and I am sure from the folks in Singapore too.
Bert basically went crazy at Costco. Everything started to look cheap and good to him after our experiences with the high cost of things in all the other places like Safeway at which we have been spending our money. Ryan came across boiled dunganese crabs and had to have them and so we had 2 large crabs for dinner. Not as nice as what we get back in Singapore but then again, we were just glad to have something other than pizza. The one and a half men ate most of the crabs. I preferred the roast chicken which was a whole dollar cheaper than at Safeway so Bert approved.
Happy Birthday, Carynn! We hope you are settling in well in Buffalo and shaking up academia there with your brilliance. With lotsa love from all of us here in San Ramon and I am sure from the folks in Singapore too.
Credit Convolution
Oh but how naive I was. Having a SSN is only the first step towards making life a bit easier here. We still have no credit history so getting a credit card or a cellphone is still a pain. It seems so stupid. I have absolutely no credit problem in Singapore and banks kept sending pre-approved gold, black and various colored credit cards which I promptly dismembered and threw away, sometimes even giving the banks a hard time for trying to get me to spend and build up debt.
And without a driver's licence, I cannot get auto-insurance and therefore get to buy a car. Even though I have 30 years of safe driver record in Singapore. Such are the learnings we go through when we make a major life change.
We went to get Bert a cellphone and was asked to put down a US$500 deposit for a year. Hell, no, we said and walked away. At some point, we may well relent but for now, the better half says he has no friends here, no contacts so no cellphone is no big deal.
So my highest priority now is to get that driver's licence since I now have the SSN pre-requisite and then start building up some credit history by taking out a car loan even though we really do not need to and did not originally want to so as to avoid interest charges. Oh well, we learn as we go.
At least the housing front is now stable with only the signing of the rental agreement to go. Hope to get that done within the week. And to sign up with the company medical and dental plans for the family now that we have the SSNs.
And family - if you plan to come spend some time with us at year end, please check "The Happenings" link on this blog cos I added the kids' school breaks information to help you plan.
And without a driver's licence, I cannot get auto-insurance and therefore get to buy a car. Even though I have 30 years of safe driver record in Singapore. Such are the learnings we go through when we make a major life change.
We went to get Bert a cellphone and was asked to put down a US$500 deposit for a year. Hell, no, we said and walked away. At some point, we may well relent but for now, the better half says he has no friends here, no contacts so no cellphone is no big deal.
So my highest priority now is to get that driver's licence since I now have the SSN pre-requisite and then start building up some credit history by taking out a car loan even though we really do not need to and did not originally want to so as to avoid interest charges. Oh well, we learn as we go.
At least the housing front is now stable with only the signing of the rental agreement to go. Hope to get that done within the week. And to sign up with the company medical and dental plans for the family now that we have the SSNs.
And family - if you plan to come spend some time with us at year end, please check "The Happenings" link on this blog cos I added the kids' school breaks information to help you plan.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Housing Homily
And so it came to pass. Bert and I went to the Social Security Administration office in Walnut Creek this afternoon and after losing our way on Highway 680 and Interstate 24, and a one hour wait, got our Social Security Numbers. Yay. Now we can do things like get cellphones, apply for credit cards, go for driving test, buy a car, ...
And we have settled on the house. It is a small two-storey "semi-detached" - don't know what they call it here but it only has one common wall with the neighbouring house and is certainly much smaller than a semi-d in Singapore. The built in is only 1600+ sq ft and there is a stamp-size front lawn and a teeny weeny backyard but it is good enough for us. It is still fairly new, only 6 years old and very well kept. There won't be a lot of space for all our barang barang so the garage may become some sort of store-room. But it is cosy. And it will be home. The house is fully carpeted, even the master bedroom toilet! The living room is small - if memory serves me right, it is probably just a tad larger than Nic's bedroom in Li Hwan or maybe not. We may have a bit of a squeeze in the master bedroom with the dresser and display bookcase we shipped over from Li Hwan. Will have to see. I must remember to bring the camera for the house inspection and will post some pictures when I have them.
We would need to spend a fair bit on electrical appliances - a fridge, washer, dryer for starters. The house does have central heating and air-conditioning already. It is fairly close to the office so the commute should be fairly easy which helps. I am hoping that since it is still in San Ramon, that we will be allowed to keep Ryan in Iron Horse Middle School next year. May have to appeal for a transfer from the school to which he would otherwise be assigned.
Come Sep 29 and we will be moving our furniture into the house. I have not heard from the shipper but the container should be arriving sometime around Sep 10 or 11. Don't know how long it will take to clear customs but hopefully the timing will work out alright.
It is the weekend again and this time, we won't need to spend the time crawling the net for homes and driving around with a compass checking to see if the main door faces NNW. What a relief. Maybe we will go shopping - for a computer and cellphone for Bert, maybe a jacket so he can stop wearing the Microsoft one that I bought at a TechNet symposium many years ago.
My cellphone is active now and I will terminate the SingTel number early next week so folks in Singapore can still make local calls to us for only a few more days. Hee hee.
And we have settled on the house. It is a small two-storey "semi-detached" - don't know what they call it here but it only has one common wall with the neighbouring house and is certainly much smaller than a semi-d in Singapore. The built in is only 1600+ sq ft and there is a stamp-size front lawn and a teeny weeny backyard but it is good enough for us. It is still fairly new, only 6 years old and very well kept. There won't be a lot of space for all our barang barang so the garage may become some sort of store-room. But it is cosy. And it will be home. The house is fully carpeted, even the master bedroom toilet! The living room is small - if memory serves me right, it is probably just a tad larger than Nic's bedroom in Li Hwan or maybe not. We may have a bit of a squeeze in the master bedroom with the dresser and display bookcase we shipped over from Li Hwan. Will have to see. I must remember to bring the camera for the house inspection and will post some pictures when I have them.
We would need to spend a fair bit on electrical appliances - a fridge, washer, dryer for starters. The house does have central heating and air-conditioning already. It is fairly close to the office so the commute should be fairly easy which helps. I am hoping that since it is still in San Ramon, that we will be allowed to keep Ryan in Iron Horse Middle School next year. May have to appeal for a transfer from the school to which he would otherwise be assigned.
Come Sep 29 and we will be moving our furniture into the house. I have not heard from the shipper but the container should be arriving sometime around Sep 10 or 11. Don't know how long it will take to clear customs but hopefully the timing will work out alright.
It is the weekend again and this time, we won't need to spend the time crawling the net for homes and driving around with a compass checking to see if the main door faces NNW. What a relief. Maybe we will go shopping - for a computer and cellphone for Bert, maybe a jacket so he can stop wearing the Microsoft one that I bought at a TechNet symposium many years ago.
My cellphone is active now and I will terminate the SingTel number early next week so folks in Singapore can still make local calls to us for only a few more days. Hee hee.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Social Security Standup
We went to the Social Security office at Concord on Tuesday, Sep 5, after the Labor Day weekend to apply for our social security numbers. There were 5 of us who went with Denise, our expat guide. We went with another couple from Singapore (but holding Indian passports) and a Scottish woman whose husband got his number the week before. All of them had arrived in SR just about the same time we did. The Indian colleague had been working out of Jurong. And we met an Indonesian engineer who arrived the day before while waiting in the office. He was on a 6-month training assignment and will be going to LA in a few days with his wife and 3 young daughters who had been very excited about their first ever trip to the USA.
Denise had warned us before that we can expect to wait for some time, probably a couple of hours. Well, as it turned out, because the day before was a public holiday, Tuesday became the "Monday" of the week. Mondays and Fridays are the worst in terms of waiting time. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, this problem was compounded by the office having only 2 windows opened. We waited some 4 hours to get our applications in. There was standing room only so my back began to ache after nearly 3 hours of standing around. And since we went at 11:00 am, we ended up not having any lunch as well. All in all, not a really interesting experience although the officers were pleasant enough and were apologetic about the inconvenience. Officially, it takes about 72 hours for the SSNs to be assigned in the system but we may try to go to the office to see if we can get them late today. We were advised to call first.
I hope we can get the numbers today because you see, it is almost impossible to do anything here without the SSN. We cannot apply for a mobile phone, we cannot get credit cards, we cannot get our driving tests we cannot get any insurance or medical plans, and therefore we cannot get a car, ... You get the picture. My two week car rental period from the company expired on Saturday and I am now paying for the car rental myself.
We have been house hunting and we have found a small house we like. The main door facing is NNW and in line with Master Hoa's instructions. It is close enough to the office in the Westside area and in a very neat residential area. The landlady, however, does not want to deal with a realtor to avoid paying any commission so now we have to find a suitable lease agreement and execute it with her on our own. Bit of a hassle but she seems nice enough and appears very accommodating so I anticipate few problems. Denise has been very helpful getting me sample lease agreements to use.
We took a look inside the house. The current tenant takes good care of it. It is only 6 years old and although slightly over 1,600 sq ft inside, is very cosy, clean and well kept. No complaints. Tenant says he would be touching up the walls and shampooing the carpets professionally when his family moves out.
Another small chapter may therefore be closing and a new one begins soon. Wish us luck!
Denise had warned us before that we can expect to wait for some time, probably a couple of hours. Well, as it turned out, because the day before was a public holiday, Tuesday became the "Monday" of the week. Mondays and Fridays are the worst in terms of waiting time. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, this problem was compounded by the office having only 2 windows opened. We waited some 4 hours to get our applications in. There was standing room only so my back began to ache after nearly 3 hours of standing around. And since we went at 11:00 am, we ended up not having any lunch as well. All in all, not a really interesting experience although the officers were pleasant enough and were apologetic about the inconvenience. Officially, it takes about 72 hours for the SSNs to be assigned in the system but we may try to go to the office to see if we can get them late today. We were advised to call first.
I hope we can get the numbers today because you see, it is almost impossible to do anything here without the SSN. We cannot apply for a mobile phone, we cannot get credit cards, we cannot get our driving tests we cannot get any insurance or medical plans, and therefore we cannot get a car, ... You get the picture. My two week car rental period from the company expired on Saturday and I am now paying for the car rental myself.
We have been house hunting and we have found a small house we like. The main door facing is NNW and in line with Master Hoa's instructions. It is close enough to the office in the Westside area and in a very neat residential area. The landlady, however, does not want to deal with a realtor to avoid paying any commission so now we have to find a suitable lease agreement and execute it with her on our own. Bit of a hassle but she seems nice enough and appears very accommodating so I anticipate few problems. Denise has been very helpful getting me sample lease agreements to use.
We took a look inside the house. The current tenant takes good care of it. It is only 6 years old and although slightly over 1,600 sq ft inside, is very cosy, clean and well kept. No complaints. Tenant says he would be touching up the walls and shampooing the carpets professionally when his family moves out.
Another small chapter may therefore be closing and a new one begins soon. Wish us luck!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Picture Poser
Wanted to start taking some pics and uploading them for all to view but realised I packed my uplink cable in the roller computer bag which is somewhere on the high seas in a container. As well as the external data reader that I bought in Cape Town because I forgot to bring the cable last trip there. Sigh! Will have to wait for another day.
And family, I created the calendar for us all to share our schedules. No one except moi has posted anything. Can we have some energy here???
And Ryan has started blogging. He still won't pay much attention to grammar but it is a start. A family of bloggers dispersed in 4 places striving to stay in touch. Now if I can only get the old man to share his thoughts as well. What a triumph that would be. It is Sunday morning and he is about to start crawling the net for homes up for rental so till ciao for now...
And family, I created the calendar for us all to share our schedules. No one except moi has posted anything. Can we have some energy here???
And Ryan has started blogging. He still won't pay much attention to grammar but it is a start. A family of bloggers dispersed in 4 places striving to stay in touch. Now if I can only get the old man to share his thoughts as well. What a triumph that would be. It is Sunday morning and he is about to start crawling the net for homes up for rental so till ciao for now...
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Some Stability
A second week has come and is almost gone. It has been a much better week. We checked out of the Sierra Suites on Saturday morning and moved into the apartment at Promontory View. It was deja vu. I was in the same apartment complex three years ago almost to the day when I was assigned here for 5 months. Except this apartment has only one bedroom and 1 bath while the previous one had a bedroom, a study and 2 baths. But I was contented because the address was what I wanted to get Ryan into Iron Horse. And the apartment came with a stock of daily necessities like groceries that should see us through a week or so. Very thoughtful. And a service person came soon after to ensure we were OK and asked if we needed anything else. We asked for more hangers. It was just such a relief to be able to unpack our luggage and hang up the clothes and have a bit more space to live in.
The next day we spent roaming looking at houses Bert had picked out from his internet search and we went shopping for school supplies. And went to Fry's to look at PCs and came back with a rice cooker :). Ryan, chinaman that he is, has been clamoring for some good old fashioned rice for dinner.
Monday was start of school for Ryan. Daddy went with him. And he came back with a bunch of memos from the school outlining the school and teachers' expectations from both student and parents. And I had a homework assignment from the band teacher! She wanted parents to tell her something about their kids so she can understand them better and she promised a great year for them. I had never had homework from my children's teachers before. Ryan would not let me proscratinate beyond a day or two so I was nagged into completing my homework. I wrote an essay which wow'ed Jeanette Brown with its verbosity :).
At the office, it was a week of information download. My supervisor made a lot of effort to onboard me, and brought me along to several meetings introducing me to various people so I could start making connections and understand some of the priorities of the business. I really appreciated that. And the admin arranged a cake and cookie afternoon inviting staff to drop by my office to say hello and chat with me. That was nice too. Some of my new staff were curious to see what I look like. The office had been half empty - many of the cubicles were empty so I never really got to meet all of my new team. But for Week 1, hey, that was OK.
Now my office. It is NICE. I had been sitting in an open office in Raffles Place for the past two and a half years and got used to having very little space, old furniture and no privacy. But here, I have a nice sizeable room with good ergonomic furniture, including a closet to hang my jackets, a whyteboard, and a brand new T60 Thinkpad with a 19" LCD. And lots of windows so the room is bright and cheerful. Except it gets rather hot in the late afternoon when the setting sun starts streaming in through the windows. So I had to close some of the blinds but it is still heaven compared to what I had.
Ryan seems to have fitted well into his new school. He tells us he has made 6 new friends, including 2 from China. And he has been getting 5 credits daily. The school awards credits to encourage the desired behavior and these can be used to push up grades later in the year. So I asked him whether 5 credits is good relative to the rest of his class and he cheekily gave me the thumbs up. So I guess that means he is doing well. He has been completing all his homework punctually and that to me is a real surprise considering how laid back he was in Singapore. I am waiting to see whether this lasts. School ends around 2:50pm and father and son go off to the community library to spend the hours till 6:00pm before picking me up from the office.
Except for finding a home, we are beginning to settle into some sort of routine which we badly need. And our realtor quitted on us yesterday. Coppergate sent me an email yesterday to inform me and immediately assigned another realtor to take care of us. I was shocked to say the least because the night before we had been chatting to him on the phone. Guess our requirement for a house with the main door facing NNW just freaked him out. Anyway, in my opinion, he wasn't doing that great a job. Rather laid back.
This is a long weekend - it is the Labor Day weekend. We should be going south to the Santa Barbara area to meet up with George and hand over the packet Doris wanted us to give to him. Maybe spend some time with him and meet his mom and brother.
All in all, an uneventful week compared to the adrenalin rush of the past month. But so good for the nerves. The long lazy days of summer are still here but you can start to feel the days shortening and the nights starting to cool a little. Which reminds me my two men need jackets and some warm clothings. The clothes of Singapore will not work for the winter days here... We just called Carynn and Ryan is right this minute letting all the cats out of the bag.
The next day we spent roaming looking at houses Bert had picked out from his internet search and we went shopping for school supplies. And went to Fry's to look at PCs and came back with a rice cooker :). Ryan, chinaman that he is, has been clamoring for some good old fashioned rice for dinner.
Monday was start of school for Ryan. Daddy went with him. And he came back with a bunch of memos from the school outlining the school and teachers' expectations from both student and parents. And I had a homework assignment from the band teacher! She wanted parents to tell her something about their kids so she can understand them better and she promised a great year for them. I had never had homework from my children's teachers before. Ryan would not let me proscratinate beyond a day or two so I was nagged into completing my homework. I wrote an essay which wow'ed Jeanette Brown with its verbosity :).
At the office, it was a week of information download. My supervisor made a lot of effort to onboard me, and brought me along to several meetings introducing me to various people so I could start making connections and understand some of the priorities of the business. I really appreciated that. And the admin arranged a cake and cookie afternoon inviting staff to drop by my office to say hello and chat with me. That was nice too. Some of my new staff were curious to see what I look like. The office had been half empty - many of the cubicles were empty so I never really got to meet all of my new team. But for Week 1, hey, that was OK.
Now my office. It is NICE. I had been sitting in an open office in Raffles Place for the past two and a half years and got used to having very little space, old furniture and no privacy. But here, I have a nice sizeable room with good ergonomic furniture, including a closet to hang my jackets, a whyteboard, and a brand new T60 Thinkpad with a 19" LCD. And lots of windows so the room is bright and cheerful. Except it gets rather hot in the late afternoon when the setting sun starts streaming in through the windows. So I had to close some of the blinds but it is still heaven compared to what I had.
Ryan seems to have fitted well into his new school. He tells us he has made 6 new friends, including 2 from China. And he has been getting 5 credits daily. The school awards credits to encourage the desired behavior and these can be used to push up grades later in the year. So I asked him whether 5 credits is good relative to the rest of his class and he cheekily gave me the thumbs up. So I guess that means he is doing well. He has been completing all his homework punctually and that to me is a real surprise considering how laid back he was in Singapore. I am waiting to see whether this lasts. School ends around 2:50pm and father and son go off to the community library to spend the hours till 6:00pm before picking me up from the office.
Except for finding a home, we are beginning to settle into some sort of routine which we badly need. And our realtor quitted on us yesterday. Coppergate sent me an email yesterday to inform me and immediately assigned another realtor to take care of us. I was shocked to say the least because the night before we had been chatting to him on the phone. Guess our requirement for a house with the main door facing NNW just freaked him out. Anyway, in my opinion, he wasn't doing that great a job. Rather laid back.
This is a long weekend - it is the Labor Day weekend. We should be going south to the Santa Barbara area to meet up with George and hand over the packet Doris wanted us to give to him. Maybe spend some time with him and meet his mom and brother.
All in all, an uneventful week compared to the adrenalin rush of the past month. But so good for the nerves. The long lazy days of summer are still here but you can start to feel the days shortening and the nights starting to cool a little. Which reminds me my two men need jackets and some warm clothings. The clothes of Singapore will not work for the winter days here... We just called Carynn and Ryan is right this minute letting all the cats out of the bag.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)