20/6/09
Hse mate say wanna move back to Ipoh so will not be staying with us anymore. This gal always pay the rent late and I hv to become debt collector even at home. She stil has the guts to ask for the deposit refund (too bad, no refund coz the contract is for 1 whole yr, the owner will not pay us back if we didn't stay here for the whole yr). Now me & Jean hv to pay more for the rent. Sigh! Jean asked "Sweetie, why don't we just get our own place?" Yeah, why not since the rent for our current place is already RM750/mth.
21/6/09
Went to see 2 units of condo in Shah Alam with the real estate agent. We liked neither 1. Sigh! Just hv to continue to look then. Sob!
27/6/09
Went to Mid Valley for Transformers 2. It starts @ 1.30pm so we walked for a bit. There's a property fair going on in the exhibition hall. Went in for a sneak peek. Came out holding brochure of The Zest @ Bkt Kinrara 9 (http://www.thezest.com.my/). Paid the deposit almost immediately since the location is directly in front of an approved LRT station (this station is suppose to be built in 2 yrs time to extend the STAR line) and it has 2 parking bays. A beau indeed! So our future abode is one stop after Bukit Jalil station. Happy happy Meow! When we signed the Letter of Offer after we paid the booking, Jean held my hand & whispered, "This is a very BIG step for both of us!" I hv to agree coz when I signed that piece of paper, I felt like I was signing my marriage certificate!
10/7/09
Finally settled for OCBC as the end financier. I almost fell off my chair when I heard that the rate that they're offerring is BLR -2.3%. I know the purchase price is a bit on the high side (RM261k) but I really didn't expect such a good deal.
11/7/09
Went to the sales office in Bdr Puteri, Puchong to sign the SPA. I really hate the lawyers, they must be smirking in the corner when all of us (including other purchasers) were struggling to initial every single page of the agreements. Lawyer grinned sinisterly, I swear!
12/7/09
Went to work (on a Sunday morning). Decided to let my parents know about it. Dad was continuously extending his congratultory remark over the phone. I asked "Why is it that you did not congratulate me for my previous 2 purchase?" "Tim, this one is different, you bought it with your spouse-to-be". Geez! I really didn't expect that. Yeah, we had been talking about the "M" word a lil too much for the past few mths. Hmmm... both Jean & me has been planning on the funds for quite a while now. We'll hv lots of budgeting to do. Surfed net looking for wedding budget tips. Stopped by a site with the heading "Book your 2010 wedding reception with us now". Are these ppl serious? So I was suddenly slapped with the very fact that if we were to book anything, we need a date. Yes, a date. We had always had the plan to get married in November since it's the month that we begin our love. Flipped through the calendar on my work desk. 20th Nov (Sat) sounds nice. Rang Mommy, Can help me to check if 20/11/10 a good day for "M"? She took down our birth dates, and promised to call back after checking with the Sifu (you know which field she's in so these kind of things are very easy for her to look up). She confirmed that it is a very auspicious day for the both of us. So, it's fixed. Texted Jean the gd news. He was overjoyed. Nigo, will you be around at that time?
18 & 25/7/09
Meet the parents. Cool (not)! We were so nervous. 18th - his parents. 25th - my parents (during dinner). They are very happy for us. I can tell. Even Mommy which is always with her usual "I-hate-the-world-but-I love-only-money" air, seemed rather soft.
Before that, we had the whole afternoon to ourselves after signing the Loan agreement (yeah, another 1, i know, thanks for your concern over my aching fingers) in the morning. Drove to Pudu just to check out some of the bridal shops b4 meeting my parents in a restaurant in Bukit Bintang. Initial plan was just to see-see since never been to one before. Wanted to compare packages & price. End up paying a booking fee but photo shoot date yet to be decided since "M" is only in Nov next yr. I guess better put th PS next yr. Jean thinks March is just nice so that we don't hv to rush. The sales girl was very professional and very honest on the packages like "these are included and these are not included". She showed us a few photo albums. Both of us were really amazed by her selling & customer service skills (since both of us are also from the service industry, we can tell right away that she is a rare breed). She grabbed 3 gowns for me to try on. I was like, ummm... you are not gonna charge me right? She laughed, shook her head and said "No, miss. Just wanna let you feel the wedding. So, I tried all 3 on. The gowns were gorgeous. Jean's eye balls popped, walked closer to me and all he could say at first was "Sweetie...". He paid the deposit immediately after that.
30/7/09
Called the sales office to confirm that I will be coming to pick up the stamped SPA since tomorrow is my offday. Jean proposed that we go for our Registration of Marriage (ROM) next Monday since both of us took the whole week off. My excitement were short lived over the news. Wanna know why? We ralized that we work in the same bank, same department, reporting to the same boss! We can't get married and work in the same department, it's against some god-knows-what banking policy (it's deemed as legally married if we do the ROM thingy). So 1 of us will hv to move out fm the department. In these moment of panic / confusion, Jean called to ask his TL-cum-buddy and sought his advice. "Chill, bro. Boss already see this coming and he say he will do the necessary arrangement." My jaw dropped. My, my, a boss with great vision and foresight! So, no ROM until the "arrangement" is done (which I don't really know what he has in mind for us. Can't ask him either since he's currently on leave in overseas. Guess we'll hv to wait til he comes back or we'll just do the ROM next yr maybe in July. 2 moths b4 the real "M" should be manageable.
I think a lot has happened in July 2009. It's really worthy of a post in this humble blog. Meanwhile, we'll stil continue to prepare for the big "M" day - $$$, restaurant hunting, card printing, guest list, etc, etc. Both of us has agreed that we will take all these slowly.... and we mean real slow coz we have time til Nov next yr :)
