This is what I remember of the floor plan of #04-94. (Hey! Not bad right? I can draw pretty well 🙂 ). At this juncture, there is no need to tell you the directions of the house, because I did not check (I did not know that I had to check) the directions of the flat or flat unit when I bought it! Remember that I was so desperate that I bought this (only) unit that was available. My husband and I carried our stuff over from my MIL’s place. It was just across the road. The PILs saw us struggling with the boxes and bags, but they just sat and watched us, refusing to even hold the door for us. It was under such circumstances that we shifted out, with nary a “goodbye, take care”.

Of course we did not have money for new furniture, but we were lucky because my sister borrowed my Father’s company van, and she drove over whatever furniture my mum donated to us. #04-94 was a small unit (about 60 square metres), so we arranged the furniture in a way that made sense and maximised space. An example was the extra old sofa set that my mum donated to us, but on condition that we take the whole set. So a three-seater came, plus a two-seater, plus 2 single armchairs. That’s good for a sprawling landed property, but imagine all that settee in the 60 square metres space! (We did not have the guts to throw any of that out, because we were too young and chicken.) And don’t even talk about colors of the sofa covers, because it was a very worn out brown with faded flowers. Nope, we did not have money to buy new sofa covers either, so we made do! So you see, this house that brought us our first dose of incredible good luck did not follow the principles of Feng Shui, like which color belonged to which sector, and the facing direction of the person sitting on the sofa. But what I can tell you is that we found a rabbit in the drain downstairs not long after we shifted in. I remember it was nibbling on some long beans that some kind soul had thrown for it to eat in the drain. Being animal lovers, we took the rabbit home to join our beloved rabbit that we brought home from Australia. Then later on, on a rare excursion to Bukit Timah Hill, my husband and I had not even ventured 1km when he spotted something moving in the bushes. Yup! You guess correctly. It was another abandoned rabbit! So we named these bunnies our 3 musketeers. We did not give them the most beautiful cage, neither did we buy them fancy food bowls or pet igloos. Even the pellets we fed them was the cheapest one that we bought from the supermarket. Pet shops (everything is so expensive there!) were a no-go zone, because even $7 for a packet of cheap rabbit food was a lot to us, and I thought we were ‘extravagant’ to be keeping rabbits! Nonetheless, we truly loved our 3 musketeers, and we cared for them, making sure we (my husband did 😆 ) changed their soiled newspapers everyday. And no matter that we were broke, we would bring them for their yearly check-up at the vets.

I am reminded of a guy who was my husband’s university mate. He too, graduated with a degree, and he worked as a Junior Executive in the same company as my husband after graduation. Though they were the same age, he was very different from my husband. For one, he was very eloquent, and he was such a confident guy that he could crack jokes with anyone he met. He had a daring personality too, and he was a risk-taker. Anyway, he and his wife hired a famous Singaporean Feng Shui Consultant to see their 3-room flat in Farrer Road area. He told us that the Feng Shui consultant only circled the flat once, and pointed to some kitchen tiles that needed fixing. “Oh, and get a dog”. You know what? This university mate quickly climbed up the ranks, and he even met an investor who gave him money to set up his own company. Today, this university mate lives in a private apartment in the Bukit Timah area, and he had long stopped working as he is sooo loaded! He and his wife pass their time buying and selling paintings for profit and for recreation.

So I am inclined to think that the 3 rabbits in our home were part of our good Feng Shui then. Of course I’m not telling you to go get a pet, if you hate animals. Or worse, you expect the animal to bring you good luck, and if it doesn’t, you plan to neglect or abandon it! No! I can’t think of anything worse for your Feng Shui than abusing an animal. What I mean is that if you love animals, then by all means, go and adopt an animal and bring it home. But do it for love ok! 🧡

The kitchen cabinets were infested with cockroaches, so my sister’s then-boyfriend, together with my husband ripped out the cupboards one weekend. But we were so inexperienced and clueless, and afterwards we could not find anyone willing to throw the discarded carpentry out. And we were too chicken to carry the discarded carpentry downstairs to the void deck to dispose of, for fear of being fined for bulk littering! For those of you who are newbies like we were, you can try to approach the estate sweepers (they normally ‘hang out’ in the main refuse collection area during their break times), and if you ask them politely for their help, they will help. Please ‘tip’ them (maybe $20 each guy) because they are doing you a big favour! This trick I learnt from a Professional mover who came to see exactly what ‘discarded wood’ I wanted to throw out. I guess he took pity on me, so he brought me to go look for the estate sweepers. You see, we learn something new every day, even how to throw out garbage. LOL.

掌声鼓励一下！我画得不错吧！✌ 这是我印象中#04-94的屋内布局。匆忙的买下这间政府公寓单位，也没经历想想买房子的零零碎碎，比如说门牌号码，公寓的指南针方向等。我和我先生是一袋一袋把衣服和日常用品慢慢的从我婆家拿过来。别以为只是过一条马路，还真的很重很累！先生加班时，我就一个人搬。我记得有一次我拉着很重的行李箱，不巧行李箱在家婆家门口被卡住，他们两位‘老人家’（二十年前，他们不是很老啦！）坐着，看我一个人和行李箱挣扎，他们也没主动说帮我按电梯或帮我拿着大门。最后一天，我向他们说声“谢谢，明天我们会回来拜访”，不过‘老人家’根本不理我！我们是在这种敌意的情况下搬出来的。真难受！😭

新家空荡荡，我妈妈说有一套旧沙发可以捐给我们。幸好，妹妹开口向我爸爸借公司的车，帮我们把整套沙发分几个周末搬过来，我们才可以省下给搬家公司的费用。我妈妈住的是私人屋，家有很多位可以放几套沙发，不过我先生和我买的是三房式政府组屋，才六十平方米！哪里有位子挤进一个三座沙发、一个两座沙发、还有两个个人座位的靠背椅! 可以开家具店了！不过那时我们胆子小，不敢跟妈妈说我们不要全套，更没有胆量把一件两件沙发偷偷丢掉。。。所以我们把这整套沙发放进我们小小公寓时，并没有看什么座位方向。我们只是摆得有空间活动就对了! 应为这套沙发我妈妈已经用了十年，沙发套很旧，脱色了！我坦白跟你说吧，其实这套沙发其中一个单人椅是我们家养的黑狗用来睡觉的。是真的啦！😅 我会找照片证明你们看！这套脱色的沙发套是棕色的，还带有脱色的黄花图案！

读者们，你们看，其实#04-94根本没有照什么风水原理。房子方向我们不懂就买下单位了，屋里家私是二手的，沙发套也没有跟着最佳化风水颜色摆放！那为什么是好运屋呢？这我有很多推理。其中之一： 我们搬进去不久，我就在我家楼下的臭垄沟找到一只被抛弃的白兔。我记得它在垄沟里吃好心人给他吃的长豆。我记得，因为兔子其实不能吃长豆的！会肚子痛！ 我不忍心把它留在臭垄沟里，就马上抱它回家。再过不久，先生和我难得去武吉知马散步，还没有走一空里，先生就看到草堆里有另一只被丢弃的兔子！你看，是不是丢兔子旺季？！我们家就这样住了我们的‘三剑客’！其中跟我们最久的是我们从澳洲运回来的兔子！我们学生时期养的宠物！改天才告诉你这罗曼蒂克的澳洲兔子故事！‘三剑客’和我们一起挤小小公寓。虽然我们没有钱，没有买上等史料给它们吃，也没有买兔子玩具或兔子小屋给它们玩，不过我先生自己动手帮它们盖三层楼的兔子屋，他也每天每天帮兔子做卫生。我们家‘三剑客’不愁吃，给我们疼爱，而且每年我们都会带它们去兽医检查身体。我们分内能做的，我们一定做给我们家’三剑客’! 从来没有应为没有钱而忽略它们！ 🐰🐰🐰

讲一个类似的话题：我先生大学有一个同学，年龄跟他一样。毕业后，他们还短暂在同样公司一起工作过！这朋友性格和我们完全不同。他有冒险形态，人直爽，风趣。看到刚认识的陌生人也可以像青梅竹马好友一起开玩笑！这个朋友那时请了我国一位很著名的风水专家到他花拉路的三方式组屋（跟我们一样是小型组屋单位）看风水。那个专家在小小公寓绕了一圈，只叫他们把厨房里破碎的瓷砖换掉，和养一只狗🐶！很奇妙吧？！不久后，这大学朋友就换到大公司上班，认识和他志同道合的恩人。那位恩人给他一笔钱开自己的公司！今天这位大学朋友住的是武吉知马的私人大公寓 （是买的，不用借贷款的），他和他老婆不用做工，有空就在家里买卖名画赚‘外块’！

你看？所以我有理由相信我们家是应为有我们疼爱的宠物而开始有好风水的。当然我不是叫你去买或领养一只宠物！如果你没有心里准备永远照顾生老病死的宠物，你千万别拿一只回家！养宠物是很多工的！如果你是因为读了我的故事，以宠物能带给你好运的形态去领养一只，更不用说！ 如果宠物没有带给你好运，你打算怎么做？丢弃它或忽略它？这你、 我、 他万万不能这么做！我不懂该怎样强调：如果虐待或不负责任丢弃动物，是一个很大的‘罪’，所以千万别这么做！听我的，我不会骗你的！

讲回我那小小的#04-94。厨房橱柜都是蟑螂，根本不能用。我先生还有我妹妹当时的男朋友花了一个周末，两个大汉把烂掉的橱柜撕掉。橱柜贴了，蟑螂数不清，到处跑！😥😵 还有更好笑的，贴了橱柜那堆烂木，我们不懂该哪里丢。拿去组屋座楼下放着，会被罚款乱丢垃圾吗？我们打电话给几间专业的搬运公司，不过就是没有人要帮我们丢！后来，有一位搬运公司老板同情我，就带我去楼下的垃圾操中站，哦，原来那地方是扫地工人休息的地方。他问工人可以帮忙我把烂的木橱丢掉吗？我很感激，就给帮我的工人一人二十块。你看，丢垃圾还有‘学问’的。😅