My darling chinchilla Bubble    

It had been now his first-month anniversary of his departure, the anniversary of my darling chinchilla Bubble who left me unexpectedly.

He came into my life out of the blue eight years ago. One day at the pet shop for my pet hamsters, I saw this little white sweet animal. He was so adorable, so charming and he ran to the front of the cage and put his tiny paws on the edge and looked at me intently.

That was when he won my heart. He was so cute and fluffy, and he could be my new pet when all my hamsters were gone. I took him out to cuddle but he wriggled a lot. Nonetheless, I made up my mind to bring him home to be my pet.

At home, I checked online for his cage and found one suitable sizable one, ordered and had it delivered to my flat in eagerness for his arrival.

Meanwhile. I called the pet shop to reserve him.  After arranging for transport with my sister in law, we went the very next day to fetch him home to be part of my life.

Bubble was his name. He was a male white chinchilla, already seven months old. From calculation, I believed his birthday to be the same as mine: 25^th August.

Henceforth every year, we would celebrate our birthday together. He would get special treats and birthday wishes, even birthday gifts and New Year gifts from my sister.

It took me eight long years to get used to him and his changing habits.

Training him to pee at the right place took four years. In the beginning, he would pee under the cupboards, on my carpet and everywhere. It was quite frustrating because I let him out into the living room everyday from noon to 7pm. Every night it was considerable cleaning-up.

He loved to pee on the green carpet which I inherited from my late mum. Maybe the green colour reminded him of the grass land that he liked. When I could not stand the stench anymore, I enquired on the dry-cleaning fee to remove the stench.

It turned out that it was no small sum. In fact, it was more cost-effective to purchase another new one. So, my late mum’s carpet had to be discarded with a heavy heart. After further purchases of two brand-new carpets, I gave up the idea of the having any carpet for the living room.

Later, I found the clumping cat litter could be used. I placed them in a tray both in the living room and one in his cage. Ever since then, he knew how to pee in these trays and my four years struggles was at last resolved. I was so thrilled! Hallelujah! At long last!

This little rascal was no little docile darling. He like to bite everything. All my furniture from table, to bench, cupboards and even edge of walls were bitten and marred by him, sometime badly destroyed. Good news was that most of my furniture were not new, so it did not bother me a bit.

Yet he alone destroyed four electrical items. Once, he even bit the wire of the local internet connection and I had to contact the local service provider for repair. Sigh!

Every afternoon, he would wait outside the bedroom of my sister. When she came out, he would rush in, sometimes he was so swift that no one noticed. Only two hours later did I noticed that he was missing and then found out that he had entered her room quietly.

He also like to roam into the kitchen and the backyard. Once again, he would wait outside the kitchen door. When opened, he would hurry in and hopped onto the shelves and ventured to the back of the washing machine. Why he loved these dark places was to this day still a mystery to me.

He was somewhat a fussy eater. His diet varied from different fruits like strawberry, cherry tomato, grape to different type of nuts like walnut, pistachio, peanut and almond nut too.

If he adored it, he would consume it for a while. After that, he would stop eating them, and I had to consider what would be next for his new diet.

He of course ate the basic chinchilla food like hay, dried grass and herbs. At times, I would give him a slice of the red apple and he will dashed to eat it eagerly.

Most afternoon, he would take his naps behind some chairs, stools or cloth draping.

There were times when there was no sight of him for a few hours. When his absence was noticed, there was a frantic search around the flat, with agonised shouting “Bubble where are you?”

We searched for him all around the place, fearing the worst that he might have jumped out of the kitchen window nine storey down.

But he would appear from nowhere with that innocent expression, nevertheless to my total relief.

When we had our dinner around 6pm, he would remain at one corner yet always visible to me. He was so deep in thought and looked as if he was meditating.

When I had finished my dinner, I would catch him, but it was no easy task. I could not understand why he was so afraid of me even after eight years. He would run around the living room and I had to group our effort to trap him in a corner to catch him.

Only then he would jump onto my left shoulder. This was the best private time that we had together, watching TV and viewing the outside scene and I would chat chit with him, though It was me doing all the talking.

Around 7pm, I would walk to the cage with him on my left shoulder. Then I opened the top of the cage and he would jump into his cage. This was the usual daily routine, and he knew that it was time to return to his own space.

In his cage, I have installed a flying saucer wheel which I had it air flown from Canada. In the beginning few years, he would run onto this flying saucer for hours in the middle of the night and he certainly caused many disruptions to our sleep.

Needless to say, I received plenty of protests from my sister.

All in all, he was basically a healthy pet. Once he had diarrhoea after he ate the tip of the banana bunch which my sister harvested from the farm. I treated him with the medicine from the pet shop for a few weeks until he discovered. Another time he was unwell, probably flu, and he refused to eat or drink for a few days. But he recovered promptly.

This year, he contracted diarrhoea again, but it took him longer to get well.

He got weaker and weaker by the day. He slept a lot and hardly moved. It was this time that I realised that he had aged, and I had not noticed his failing health until then. I had begun mentally and emotionally to accept that he would leave me soon one day.

That day came on Tues 13 October 2020. Since he did not consume anything the last two days, I decided to get him milk. I went out to buy the milk and returned home around noon.

Hurriedly I brought him out to drink the milk. However, he only took a few deep gasps and one deep breath and then he was gone.

Apparently, he must have waited for my return to see him for the last time. Undoubtedly, he cared about bidding farewell with me before he departed for Chinchilla Rainbow land and I was grateful that I was with him in his last moment.

All in all, this written short record was a treasured recollection of how I met him, our times together with our ups and downs and of his final farewell.

To my darling chinchilla Bubble, thank you for all the joy , fun and all the wonderful memories of our times of you resting on my tummy in bed, of you standing on my left shoulder, of those times when I searched high and low in fear, searching in and out everywhere , wondering if you had fallen to the ground.

You had been a wonderful beautiful unforgettable part of my life. I do miss you greatly and I will remember you always. Bye bye Bubble, bye bye darling. Mummy miss you a lot. 

DOB : 25 Aug 2012

DOD: 13 Oct 2020

My view of a balanced Christian Church in Singapore

My view of a balanced Christian Church in Singapore 

With many thousands of churches in Singapore ranging from the traditional to the contemporary, so diverse in style and background, yet each upholding the central focus of worshipping the only One True God, Jesus our Lord, how then does a new Christian find the most balanced Church here?

Each church has both its strength and its weaknesses, so they can appeal to some but are unsuitable to another. By and large, they appear similar to each other but they are subtly distinct with their own individual qualities.

That’s the reason why I write this blog.

As a Christian for many years going through stages, changes and major crossroads of life, I had attended at least 10 churches ever since my youth, to schooling years, to adulthood and then now during my graying years.

The churches varied from Methodist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical and to Anglican. In Boston which I lived for 1 year, some 30 years ago, I attended the Vineyard Fellowship led by the late John Wimber.

However, there had been a period of 10 years plus when I did not attend any Church service, not for the reason of drifting away from my faith but rather due to my inability to attend as a result of many years of prolonged illnesses that impeded me.

Yet during those trying ‘desert’ years, I managed to attend every Friday, a prayer meeting at a Methodist church in Serangoon Gardens for simple fellowship and for God’s divine healing.

Recently, the leader of this prayer meeting himself had personal health issue, being almost 90 of age and the meeting occasionally was suspended. In addition, after more than 7 years, I found myself outgrew their role. So, I took an interim break for a couple of months, wondering where to go next.

One Sunday morning in Sept 2017, I was going home from grocery shopping, walking up the pedestrian ramp opposite my home, suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt the strong desire to attend a church service in a nearby church only 6 bus stops away, which I bore a deep longing to attend since 10 years ago but was unable to.

Quickly, I made some simple adjustments to my usual Sunday schedule and the next Sunday, found me going alone to attend this church service.

After attending this church, namely St John’s-St Margaret’s Church in Dover Avenue for the first time, I have to say that I admire this church tremendously and hold her in high regards.

If I have to give it a ranking on the scale of 1 to 10, I will give it without hesitation: 10 points.

Fantastic!!! This is just the church that I have found to be balanced and sensible, absolutely Bible- centred and certainly down to earth.

Below are the reasons why I find them worthy to be mentioned in this blog:

1. This Church is extremely Bible- based. The preaching of the Bible and its teachings is central to its Church services, a church that has not deviated from the core principles of the main stream Christian faith.

2. This Church is a praying church. Every Sunday, the Church will devote much time in corporate prayers. I also understand that the Vicar himself is a praying pastor.

 3. The folks who attend the church are mainly middle- class and middle- age and this suits me. To me, this is the right assembly, too young, it becomes too juvenile. Too old, everyone falls asleep!

4. Their worship services are mix of traditional hymns with modern contemporary songs. Though I do not know the latest worship songs, they are God-centered, not self-centered, catchy enough and appealing for anyone to pick up promptly.

One thing about the worship service is that there is no rock and roll band with heavy guitar playing whilst the worshippers jumping up and down like kangaroo, as if they are attending a gym class. This makes the church service rowdy and distracting from focusing true worship to God.

But the worship session of SJSM is well controlled, orderly and respectful.

5. They serve Holy Communion twice a month, on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. In the book of 1 Corinthians Chapter 11, Jesus says to remember His death as often as we can. Hence, twice a month is undeniably better than once a month as practiced by other churches.

6. Their sermons are short and sweet which are all Bible based. They are timed to be just right, about 25 mins. Too long and ha, some will dream off.

7. I like their practice of collecting the weekly tithe and offering with the offering bags brought to the foot of the Cross at the altar and are laid there. To me, this act is very significant and very touching.

8. After attending the church services for more than 4 months, I have never once heard any pastor or anyone asking for money or more fund in spite of their urgent need to raise fund to build a new village comprising of a $80 million nursing home with elder care and childcare for the next 3 years.

9. They do not preach Prosperity Gospel. To me, prosperity Gospel is not the True Gospel. The True Gospel of Jesus is to save, to heal and to restore mankind to God.

Some churches that I had attended would urged the members to give more and yet more, always saying that God would bless with 100 folds return.

Who are we to expect God to bless 100 folds? The Bible mentions about returns of 30, 60 and 100 folds. The amount of blessing lies with God, not the preacher!

Jesus Himself was never wealthy when He was on earth though He could have everything and every wealth on this earth. Yet Jesus chose to live a humble life, focusing on doing His Father’s will.

Nonetheless, I like to mention that blessing and great wealth from God is never wrong, but should never be the focus of our giving.

10.The Church believes in divine healing and the full manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Many times, during worship services, there are words of knowledge, visions and the like. They are to guide, to counsel, to encourage and to bless us along the journey of our lives whatever God gives us individually.

After every service, those who need prayer can proceed to the Altar for ministry time.

It’s surprising to note that some churches, even mega churches are lacking in this area.

Lastly, I like to mention that the points mentioned above are not conclusive as I carry on to attend the services and may discover additional worthy facts.

To me, this is the most balanced Christian Church in Singapore.

To everyone reading this blog, most welcome, happy reading but only positive feedbacks are welcome.

Worthy Mention:

I like to mention that the ministry of the leader of the prayer meeting in the Methodist Church had helped me tremendously. After many healing sessions in the time frame of about 7 years, my health was marginally restored .

Great thanks  from the bottom of my heart to God and to Brother Yan. I will remember what God and what he has done , I will definitely remember with much gratitude forever.

Guide to first time buyers of home properties in Singapore

Guide to first time buyers of home properties in Singapore    

Many people and many younger of the population will find themselves once in their lives be involved to choose a property unit, whether it is for their own use or as a family unit whilst living with their parents.

Hence it is essential for all involved to cultivate the knowledge and experience to choose effectively and choose well.

On the overall, some have selected well and perfectly. Bravo!! Others somewhat have chosen quite correctly in one area but inadequately in another.

Yet many others have inadvertently made bad choices and choose units that they find to their shock and dismay, heaps of unforeseen problems that result from their wrong choices that hurt and harm them and their lifestyle for many years to come.

As a result, I choose to write this blog to offer a free guide to all, having been in the property line for many years.

Having also help many family members and close friends to select properties ranging from bungalows, to condominiums, private apartments to HDB properties, I like to share a few pointers.

Time and again, I find that numerous individuals will make the similar recurring mistake over and again.

Fortunately, for those who take my advice, they have eventually progressed on to resell them at good prices making a handsome profit.

Some are thankful for the advice that they have received and they live peacefully in good and pleasant environment, even to this day.

For those who refuse my advice, sadly and regrettably they suffer for their poor judgements to this date. Too bad, friend…just too bad!

So, anyone choosing to buy the first property in Singapore can follow the next simple guidelines and one can certainly not go wrong.

LOCATION

To begin with, the correct choice of the property is choosing the best location. Location, location, location first, always the top priority to abide.

Location is utmost priority No. 1, for sure, no. 1 ranking in terms of ranking of all priorities!

Choose a property in the location that suits your life, your lifestyle, your career and proximity to your workplace and to your family’s home.

So, let’s say, if you live in the East and are used to activities in the East, so it’s best to choose a site that you are familiar with and that you feel comfortable with, right?

Next look out for available nearby sites of the chosen location for HDB flats, condominiums or private properties.

BUDGET

Choose the type of property according to your budget and affordability. Do not overstretch yourself for in years to come, the property can become a financial burden and in your lifestyle and in your future life. Evaluate and calculate wisely and prudently. Don’t try to catch up with the Joneses, so they say!

Request and enquire further of the mortgage plan from several banks before deciding. If buying a private property, there is higher cash out to be lodged for deposit as according to Singapore Government’s guideline. You can also enquire more from a housing agent.

Remember do not calculate so tightly that you have no spare cash. You must allow yourself ample cash for many unseen future costs, like renovation costs, moving costs, stamp duty and lawyer’s fee. There are many hidden and unseen costs, so be beware!

CHOICE OF HOUSE AGENT

Now, you may want to engage the service of a house agent to help with the purchase. These agents have more contacts and networking to help find the most suitable units for you.

If you are looking for a property in a newly launched condo or property, there are appointed agents who can help you.

Just a word of caution here. The choice of agents is also very important. Get an agent who has done some sales for a friend or a family member. They will protect your interest more. Ask them about the commission that they expect upon successful purchase.

Usually it is 1% to 2% of the sales price for private properties from the seller only. Buyer of private property do not have to pay commission.

For HDB property, it is 1% of the sale price for the buyer and 2 % for the seller.

Bear this in mind: these agents can only help with the right connections to the right properties or desirable unit.

Choosing the right unit is your responsibility as you know what you want and what’s best for you and your lifestyle. Do not let any agent choose the unit that they fancy but not what you fancy!

SITE AND HOUSE VISIT

Upon locating the prospective unit, go for a house and site visit.

Ask yourself these few questions:

1)  Do you like your surroundings? Too near school, too near to the road, too many factories nearby, MRT track in sight, buildings of worship are also important factors for there will be public loitering around your property due to religious activities and their celebration and religious day.

2)  Do you like the appearance of the property? Too modern, too dated, too dirty, even colour of the property is very important to some people because of some belief or personal likes or dislikes.

ORIENTATION 

The orientation of the unit to the East- West sun is noteworthy. Ask for the direction of rising sun and the direction that it sets. Usually try to avoid unit that faces the West or the setting sun as it is hotter in the afternoon. Units that face the West will be hotter.

Choose unit that faces the morning sun. It is good to have sun for morning period as the sun will help brighten the unit and will freshen up any mouldy environment. Unit that gets morning sun will be cleaner and more refreshing.

Always avoid a unit that get both the morning and afternoon, a unit that is not planned along the East West Orientation. Some condo units are not best planned with this golden orientation as they are designed within a small restricted site area, causing some units being unable to be planned to the correct orientation. So, pay extra attention and be careful on this point.

Most HDB flats are planned with the correct East- West Orientation due to the immensity of land area given for urban planning of the whole estate and town. I can safely say that a high percentage of HDB flats are planned correctly to the EW orientation.

NOISE FACTOR

Next: Is the unit too noisy being too close to major road, expressway and even MRT tracks? These are important factors because these contribute major noise throughout the day and even night and it can upset one’s lifestyle, especially if there is an elderly or a baby living with you.

LAYOUT

Next: the layout of the unit is very important. There are many units that are not planned well or planned insufficiently for good interior layout or with much long corridors which are not useable to you.

One terrible layout I consider in present planning of units is the lack of Yard. Many of the modern condo units are designed without a yard, which cause the kitchen to have no opening or window. Hence there is no direct ventilation of the kitchen when cooking one meal but every odour from cooking will have to ventilate through the living area to the outside space.

Due to non-provision of yard area, the washer/dryer is located along the lower kitchen cabinet. Hence one has synchronised their cooking and washing to be at different time.

I have seen such unit with non- provision of yard area in which the owner has no choice but to dry their clothes in the balcony beside the living room. I find this arrangement to be unacceptable and ridiculous as some such units cost a 7 digit dollars property (more than a million dollars) and yet the owner must live with their laundry in their exclusive balcony area which is meant for relaxing and entertaining!!

ADDITIONAL FACTOR

Also, items like location of the playground area and BBQ area are important factors for the choice of the unit. These are public areas that create noise and unwanted smell. Decide if they can be acceptable to you and your family.

If buying a resale unit, you may have to consider the renovation costs. But if the unit is brand new, most of the built-in cabinets in the kitchen and bedrooms will be included in the sale price. Even new condo will provide fridge, washing machine on top of the usual oven hob and cooker with the kitchen cabinets.

BUILDING SPECIFICATIONS

Lastly, read the building specification carefully before signing the dot.

CHOOSE AFTER FEW SITE VISITS

One last word of advice: if you like the unit very much, do not commit immediately. Visit the chosen unit at different times of the day and night including viewing them at weekends to observe the surrounding environment and ambience to further help with the decision.

Best success to your house hunting!