Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm wollen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with string,
These are a few of my favourite things...
So it is about nine on a cool Sunday morning. I am feeling calmly happy because:
The weather's cooled down. And Zurich is a lot more beautiful when I am not a heaving sweaty Pregosaurus.
I only woke up once last night! Ever since I got pregnant, I have not had a single uninterrupted sleep through the night. After waking up at 2am because my pregnancy heat rash was acting up, I slept all the way till 8.20AM. That is a solid 6 hours that does a lot for my mental well-being.
The house is more or less set up and there are no unsightly dirt sections of floor.
Lionel washed the toilet with me last night and he did a pretty good job of getting the metal bits to shine. (I did read that men who helped out in the housework get more and better you-know -- and I can see the logic behind that. Man helps out, woman is happy --> Rolling and tumbling activity)
Lionel's still sleeping -- so I get my quiet morning spending time with myself doing all sorts of mundane things that keep me happy. e.g. emptying and keeping the dishes from the dishwasher, taking more photos for this blog, walking around my home and feeling pleased with it...
In this cheery mood that I am in, here are a few of my favourite places at home:
Upon our fifth trip to IKEA yesterday (no car lah, so the number of trips we make depend on how much we can carry up the bus and tram each round), we finally got Lionel's dream high table and high chair for the kitchen's "balcony". I am taking quite well to this table too since that means I can chop garlic, cut fruits or marinade the meat while without being on my feet for too long at a stretch.
Did I already mention how well-designed the kitchen is? (=
I love this pull-out. Even the trays have adjustable heights which I have made use of, because I am not as tall as the ang mohs here. Can you spot our dozen packets of Bak Kut Teh Spices preciously brought over from Singapore?
I love my utensil drawer!!! We bumped into this assemble-your-own-utensil-tray section at Manor (it's a very affordable Metro, but with much nicer things). Lionel insisted on getting a Silit utensil set that was half-priced, which I still thought was really indulgent initially, but I love the shine it has after being in the dishwasher (because the water is so hard here with the minerals from the Alps or one of the mountains, only dishwashers do a fantastic job of getting all watermarks off).
Below and next to this drawer is our Corelle set shipped all the way from Singapore. It was a lovely wedding gift from Lionel's Cochlear hearing aid provider. Corelle plates look elegantly like glass, yet are deceptively light, chip resistant, unbreakable and dishwasher safe.
For the first time, I find myself using teacups. I have always avoided teacups because of how brittle the handles are, but with Corelle, I love eating my cherries in two teacups. One teacup with my cherries, and the other teacup in the other hand to spit the seeds in. *Red toothy cherried grin*
I am loving the electric stove because it is so easy to clean. I use a sponge and dishwashing liquid to just give it a wipe after cooking. It is unlike the gas stoves with the black pot holders that you have to remove and the nooks and crannies. We hope to get one like this in our new kitchen when we get back to Singapore.
Situated nicely below the stove is a drawer where we keep all the cooking utensils. Yes, Cui, I brought over the white garlic chopper I got you for your birthday but you left behind in Singapore. ;p It is working very well for us here.
Little things make the kitchen experience so much more wonderful. I like having that little white IKEA bin next to the sink, and my hand towel just above the sink so we don't drip handwater all over the kitchen floor. Because we have to pay for our rubbish disposal bags here, we usually have to keep the same bag for about 3 days before it fills up. So to keep the stench at bay, we tie up every day's food waste into little plastic bags (that come when we purchase vegetables and fruits at the supermarket) and put them in the larger paid trash bag.
And Lionel's 25kg gas grill with the 7kg gas tank sitting on our balcony. That door leads to the baby/guest room. Another door (not in the picture) leads to the hall. We're going to have our first BBQ at our place this evening with a fellow bunch of poor Singaporean students. We BBQ on a Bring-Your-Own-Meat basis and discuss where we can find the cheapest meat and sausages.
It's 10.30AM now. It takes that long to get these photos up on Blogger. The sleeping monster has just stirred, scratched his rear, then the top of his head, and lumbered into the toilet. Finally, Breakfast Time!
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