- $

Been spending/have spent quite a bomb lately T_T

June:

• Wisdom tooth extraction and follow up - $750

In July alone:

• Annual car insurance - $970
• 6-month car road tax - $380
• Annual personal accident insurance plans - $338
• New refrigerator from Samsung - $723 
• 2 tickets to Lion King musical - $300
• New pair of specs - $280 
• New work shoes from Pedro - $129.90
• Angpow for brother's wedding - undisclosed

Anticipated expenses:

• Family trip to Perth in Sep - $2000(or more?)
• Renew mobile phone contract in Nov - $300-$400

POK GAI LIAO! T_T

Final farewell to Block 123

Block 123 Tampines Court
1988 - 2018

Taken 10 years apart - trees in the distance have grown (and quality of phone-camera improved drastically!)

Entrance to master bedroom - I would sit there chatting  and/or discussing homework on the landline with my friends

Kitchen - had countless meals here

Living room taken from balcony

Bathroom for 3 of us - we played watergun and soapy-sliding on our buttocks!

Master bedroom looking at the common walkway. My bro and I played football along the the walkway

Upstairs looking down at living room. I would leap from one staircase landing to the next

Oil painting

CARC organised an introductory oil painting class. Priced at $50 for a 3 hour session, I felt it was pricey (compared to what one can get on Groupon/Fave), but I decided to go for it anyway, given the convenience of location.

Very happy with my drawing!

Teacher really 画龙点睛 , literally made the dogs' eyes come alive, using subtle yet skilfull dabs of the paintbrush.

Volunteering with AIG

Another year, another day of happiness brought to the less fortunate, this time at Mett@ Welfare Assoc.

Madly impressed by the camaraderie and teamwork put up by my colls. We sacrificed much personal time into the preparation, and were the clients full of glee being entertained by dance and songs, receiving balloon sculptures and handmade decoupage rattan fans! And also folded their own origami paper hearts. Full of love! 

Organised this as early as Jan this year, and was mildly disappointed midway when a few colls couldn't make it and/or displayed lack of interest, resulting in postponing the proposed date not once but twice. Thankfully to the home in-charge for accommodating us and for their patience in answering our questions, we finally got our acts together on 13 July. There were a number of fresh faces as compared to last year and that was really heartening to know there are more like-minded people putting in a shift to contribute back to society.

Thanks to everyone who made it happen! I am proud :)

The day I lost Wisdom -2

Plucked out 2 more wisdom teeth on 28 June at CGH.

This is X-ray taken one week after surgical extraction of my LR impacted wisdom tooth:

Though it wasn't giving me problems, I was strongly recommended to remove it asap as the older one gets, the more complications there could be. Moreover, there could be food trapped between the teeth which could lead to tooth decay, if not cared for thoroughly. So I went the polyclinic -> government hospital way to remove 2 of them. After this plus last year's surgical extraction at Raffles, I still have 1 remaining on upper right. It is still hidden beneath the gums and not likely to cause any problems in the (near?) future.

Gosh, seriously where do wisdom teeth come from??? Firstly they don't serve any purpose; secondly it costs a bomb to remove them! Anyway, I'm just relieved to have them removed before they cause me any further tooth decay and/or pain. Since I've gone through extractions at both private and government hospitals, thought I'll share some wisdom with y'all on the differences between both:

	Private (e.g. Raffles)	Government (e.g. CGH)
Procedure	Surgical extraction (2017)	1 surgical extraction + 1 normal extraction (2018)
How to book an appointment	Call in	Book an e-appointment at the polyclinic to have your X-ray done, and to receive a referral letter
Waiting Time	2 weeks	>6 months comprising: - Polyclinic appointment: 1 week in advance - Hospital appt: Depending on how busy, mine was 3 months for first appt, then another 2 months for surgery.
Comfort, facilities, equipment	Excellent	Excellent
Skill of Dentist	Excellent. No pain at all, after morning surgery, I could eat solids by dinner	A lot of probing and hard pricking. Struggled to eat solids for a couple of days. L Though this is very subjective, could be that this particular tooth had very strong roots
Follow up	None required. Stitches dissolved by themselves.	1 week after surgery, for routine inspection and stitch removal (which otherwise would dissolve by itself as well). Also given an open appointment valid for 2 years i.e. I can walk-in anytime without having to wait on clinic's availability.
Cost	~$990	~$700

Mejustloves2eat's recommendation:

• If your wisdom tooth is giving you hell, quickly make a call to Raffles. Money solves the (root) (oh wow, that's a pun) problem.
• If wisdom tooth not giving problems, can have them done at G hospital. Although my G surgery gave me some pain, the pain isn't unbearable. The savings is a few hundreds.... can buy oneself a branded wallet or shoes or something.

Both gave 5 days MC, quite "market rate". Of course, if a few hundreds isn't much to you, go Raffles lor... quick and fast!