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When policemen still wore shorts

Tiffany lamp being taken apart

“Wah, you must have bought this when policemen still wore shorts”, said the lady at the lighting shop as she asked for my permission to dismantle some more of the tiffany lamp I brought in for her to fix.

As took the base off, the debris from inside the lamp fell out and dirtied her table, and I felt bad, until she told me it would cost around $100 to fix up the lamp and bring it into the 21st century.

I’m not complaining too much, because it’s a really nice lamp my mother bought in San Francisco in 1979 or 1980, and it hasn’t worked properly since. (Probably because we didn’t know the difference between AC and DC, and we probably melted the fuse or something).

And this lady’s shop was only like the seventh or eighth I walked into on Balestier Road, and the only one whose occupants didn’t say, “No, we don’t do repair. Only sell. Try other shop. Sorry”.

Then again, it was quite likely she knew how to fix this lamp, because her shop had several similar lamps, although she said, “Those different. All from China, not brass one”.

The lamp and some other stuff in the house should be ready by end of next week. Yay!

Moving sucks

The nightmare that is our move continues. I blame the government, because that is what we pay taxes for. Doesn’t matter if they’re not involved. Wait, they are. There’s the stamp duty and all that. Yah. Blame the government.

The stuff that I listed last night are still for sale (except for one Ikea bookcase), so if anyone knows of anyone in need of furniture, please, let me know. Thank you thank you thank you!

Blog garage sale

Because we are moving to a smaller apartment, we have a few items of furniture and a television that we need to sell. Please let me know if you’re interested in buying the following. Prices do not include delivery, which will be at buyers’ own arrangement. Just leave a comment with your email address (which will not be shown in the comments) and I’ll get back to you.

Unique 6-seater Dining Set:


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Colour: Black

Material: Wood

Set includes 2 armchairs, 2 chairs and 1 bench plus cushions from IKEA

Age: 2 years

Price: $500 (Original Price: $1,075)

IKEA Expedit Bookcase:


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Colour: Black Brown

Dimensions: 150cm x 150cm

Quantity: 1

Age: 1 year +

Price: $100 (Original Price: $199) SOLD!

IKEA Billy Bookcase:


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Colour: Medium Brown

Dimensions: 60cm x 106cm

Quantity: 2

Price: $45 ea (Original Price: $89)

Age: 2 years

IKEA Billy Bookcase:

Colour: Medium Brown

Dimensions: 80cm x 106cm

Quantity: 1

Age: 2 years

Price: $45 (Original Price $89)

SOLD!

Philips 29″ Colour TV (CRT):


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Quantity: 1

Age: 3 years

Price: $120 (Original Price ~$400)

Prosperity first, life second

Safety first for what?

We saw this sign at a construction site. I think it was an MRT excavation site.

It all makes sense now – “Safety first for our prosperity”. Safety’s good for business. Doesn’t slow things down. Like when the highway caves in, or when cranes collapse. Nothing to do with the lives of the workers, who get ferried to and from work on very dangerous modes of transport anyway.

Ikea TampinesToday, while helping Naomi’s mum shop for things at IKEA Tampines (honest, we only bought two, three things for ourselves), I realised this problem was endemic. People simply don’t care about their kids’ safety.

Kids were simply running amok today (that sounds like an IKEA product too, “amok”), pushing each other in the trolleys and tearing down the aisles of the self serve areas where people were struggling to load shelves and other things on their trolleys. You might think it cute to hear little feet pitter pattering about, but it won’t be so cute when they go pitter patter pitter splatter.

Plus, being a Saturday, there were thousands of people there, several hundreds more than there were at the Singapore International Film Festival’s opening at Lido the night before. So, as you can imagine, it really was quite dangerous for the little ones to be running around.

So, this is what I want to say to parents of young children in Singapore:

If you really have to bring your young kids to IKEA for some reason or other (they can’t really be helping you carry your Fakum glasses and Rektum vases), keep them close to you.

Don’t let them run around where large boxes of unassembled Epileptik lights or Hemoroyt sofas can fall on their heads.

It’s ok if you want your kids to grow up as dumb as you. But it’s not fair for them to grow up dead. It’s not their fault because they don’t know better because they’re kids.

So please. Safety first, for yours and your kids’ lives. Can?