Time off

Since the kids didn't have to attend school on Monday, I took the morning off to go furnishing-shopping with YK. After meeting the flooring guys at the apartment, we set off for breakfast at Ikea. What a surprise to find the dining hall packed at 9.30am. Apparently many parents shared the same idea.

We spent an hour browsing at the store before heading to Isetan and Tangs in the city. At one point, YK said "I definitely want to be the boss of my own company in future. I can get to shop on a workday."

While his aspirations are admirable, he's only looking at the rosy side. He has forgotten how he's forever grumbling about why I'm still working at 9pm or replying emails on a Sunday morning. Or why I can't sit through a TV programme without having to answer a business call.

By 1pm yesterday, I was already feeling the heat of being absent from the office all morning. I dropped him off at home and hurried to work to find a list of emails in my mailbox. Soon after, the flooring guy called for an inspection in 30 minutes. I rushed down to find that they had another few more hours to go.

I went back to the office to make some long distance calls to solve an urgent problem. Before I knew it, office hours were officially over. I went back to the apartment to find that they were having difficulty fixing back the main door they had dismantled earlier. Ten minutes dragged to 30 minutes. I suspected it would take a long time because they could not get the door's hydraulic system to work properly.

I went home for dinner, leaving them to solve the problem. At 9pm, when I was working at my desk, they called to say it still wouldn't work. I told them to lock up and resolve the problem over the next few days.

After sending my last email of the day at 9.30pm, I decided to crawl into bed for a good night's sleep.

Alas, it was a fitful night of sleep. Maybe I was anxious about the upcoming schedules, for I got up at 1am thinking it was already 5am. Getting back to sleep was hard. The schedules kept replaying in my head. As I laid in bed, I had the timings all laid out. While the cleaners are at work in the morning, I shall scoot over to Ikea to exchange an item that I purchased yesterday. While at Ikea, I should get a couple of stuff I left out yesterday. Then I should get back to pay the cleaners and wait for the TV console and cosy chair to arrive.

Yesterday I also realised that my mammogram clashed with the bed delivery on Wednesday morning. I entertained the thought of asking my colleague to be at the apartment while I'm at the doctor's but decided against it. I managed to reschedule the bed delivery to the afternoon where I'll also be anticipating the arrival of washer, dryer and TV set. The lighting guy's coming in the morning and I hope he can install all the lights before I leave for my mammogram.

Thursday will see the arrival of sofa set. That should complete all the deliveries. The house will be ready for living from thereon. There are several other things to be done, like applying for broadband connection, cable TV etc.

I know it seems a little hectic but the workmen and deliveries can only come during working hours at certain time slots which means I have to take time off from work to be there. The kids are in school and everyone else is also working and I don't have a spouse whom I can split the workload with. But I'm not complaining. When I'm out furniture shopping, almost every salesperson would ask, "Don't you have to seek your hubby's opinion first?"

"Nah."