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Labeling Frenzy

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Last week before school started, I had this idea of using a label machine to label all of D&P’s school books this year. So I went and brought a Dymo Label Machine from Popular for $39.90. Since this was an offer price, I could not use my Popular Card and get any more discounts. Went home and started labeling all the books. By the time I was done with D’s books, the label cartridge that came with the machine was finished and the AA batteries that I had to use was also low. So had to stop and wait till I got new cartridges plus batteries. The next day while waiting for D to finish her ballet lesson, I went once more to another Popular outlet and brought not just the paper cartridge, but also one in plastic – this will come handy in the kitchen I thought. The paper cartridge was around $6 and the plastic one was around $12. Also got some rechargeable batteries from Mustafa. I am actually thinking of buying some more of these batteries!

So now I’m all set to label everything around me….

Avani Avittam

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Today is Avani Avittam, one of the most important days in the year of a Hindu South Indian Brahmin.  It is probably the only festival that I know where men get top billing. On this day, men (and boys) reaffirm their faith as brahmins and also change their sacred thread. Here is a link from Wikipedia which give more details about the festival and its meaning. The day after Avani Avittam is the day when all brahmin men are supposed to do the Gayatri Japam, even if you don’t do it on any other day 0f the year.

We plan to do P’s Upakarma most probably end of next year. This is when he will be formally initiated into becoming a Brahmin. This is something that needs to be discussed with both my parents as well as S’s parents sometime soon.

Today is also Raksha Bandhan. This is a very beautiful Indian festival which reaffirms the ties between a brother and a sister. This is mainly celebrated in northern India, but since I have grown up in the western part of the country, I have adopted it as well and D&P have been celebrating it since they were babies. In the evening after they are back from school, D will tie the rakhi to her brother. I’ll take a picture of the Rakhi and post it here tomorrow.

Air conditioning woes

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My sister called me on Thursday and confirmed that she, my brother-in-law and two adorable nieces were finally coming to Singapore! This trip has been in the offing for the last year and a half and finally it was coming to fruition. In fact the month after my sister, it’s the turn of my parents – but that’s another post.

After we brought our new place, we converted what was supposed to be the study into a guest bedroom. The original owners had left that space as part of the hall/dining room. The floors are pure marble and so in order not to mess with it, we decided to do the doors in such a way that the tracks (it’s a sliding door) are at the top of the room. Now we installed a fan in the room, but there is no air conditioning in the room. Since we will be having guests back-to-back, S asked an acquaintance who is in the a/c business to come and have a look at the space to see what best will work in that space. We already have a 3 split a/c and apparently we existing main unit can’t take another line. So the alternative was to have a casement unit, which would mean sacrificing one window for this. The last choice is to have an air cooler. We checked out air coolers today and have kind off narrowed it down to two options. The first one is about S$249 and the other is S$349. We’ll probably go for the $350 one but need to check out some more places before we make the final decision. Ah well I’ll make the update when it happens