Moving and Marriage

March is ONE helluva crazy month!!!

I spent last week looking for a new apartment all over Manhattan in the frigid cold(-11 celsius!) and snow storms only to emerge... TRIUMPHANT in Inwood! After visiting like 25 apartments, I became almost an expert on (1)Incompetent Brokers - you can sniff them from a mile away! (2)Crappy, run down century old apartments and (3)Shady dealings(cash under table to brokers). Only the broker who finally introduced our apartment to us is the most professional and responsible.

It is an easy life as a real estate broker in Manhattan. U get customers knocking on your doors every minute and apartments flying out of the office in seconds! Shopping for a rental place in NYC is a "chop-chop" biz.

You see it, you like it, you get it. NO hesitation.
If you hesitate - it is GONE.
In the blink of an eye.

Deals are closed on same day that you view the apartment and you can probably move in in the next 2-3days once credit check and all paperwork are done. Brokers get 15% of your annual rent and with easy businesses like in NYC, you can easily get US$180k/year for an experienced middle manager broker w/o doing much work.

Tho' our new place is all the way up there in the northern tip of Manhattan, it is still next to the park, bigger than our current place and at an even cheaper rent! Saving US$500 a month on rent may seem like peanuts to some New Yorkers(some who pay US$5-10k on rent per month) but it means more operas, trips and shopping for us(poor academic scientist & housewife)! Oh, savings too, of course! How can I forget? Touche... ;p

As the wedding date looms nearer and nearer like a huge scary shadow over our thoughts, we frantically scramble to get all the necessary paperwork done with the church, the embassy and the hotel. Bureaucratic staff are so full of shit and delays. Inefficient is all I can say about them.

The US offices dealing with bureaucratic stuff are obnoxious, rude and simply downright unpleasant that any visit to their offices will leave you with a bitter-sour aftertaste like bile. Their phone skills leave you wondering if they were even educated at all(seriously) and if they just like bullying people over the phone cos they are in reality losers at home and at work? Maybe they were trained to intimidate and belittle anyone who needs help? Is that their motto? If not, why is such behaviour tolerated by the citizens of the United States and deemed "acceptable" in a society that promotes democracy?

The government(and all people working under its umbrella, might I add) is meant to serve the people in an ideal world. But here, you are in the hands of these cruelites and if they want to be aggressively rude to you and talk to you as tho' you have a lower IQ than them, you are hardly in any bargaining position at all cos they are THE GOVERNMENT PEOPLE.

Citizens of The United States - I urge you all to VOTE WISELY in your 2008 elections and stand up against such fools, for pete's sake! WAKE UP!!!!!! Anyone under the command of a fool can't be any smarter!

Just to get a certified copy of our marriage certificate in NYC took me the whole morning visiting 4 different offices in different buildings all over downtown getting the necessary stamps, chops and signatures. In Singapore, all you have to do is apply via their website in 5mins and it will be mailed to you in less than 7days. What more can I say?

With the brokers and bureacrats out of my sight, I earnestly hope we will have a smooth moving transition and a even smoother wedding in Paris!

With only love, hugs, warmth, friends and family to surround us - I am sure April will be one great month!

(Sorry about the long ramblings. Just one more thing - USA sucks.)