bought a cat in a bag

For the last few weeks, Mum was busy looking for a new flat. When the viewings were done at night in the weekdays, Mum left Kate at home by herself. A couple of times, it was done at the day time in the weekdays and Kate became a latch-key girl because Mum wouldn't be home when Kate came back from school. When the viewings were done in the weekend, all of us would went together.

Actually Kate wanted to come along on every viewing, but Mum said that the weekdays' viewing would be done by Mum alone. If the flat looked suitable, there would be a second viewing before we decided to buy it, and that time we would all go together.

But one morning,
Kate: "Mum, are you going to see some houses again today?"
Mum: "No, we bought one yesterday."
Kate: "But ... I haven't seen it!"
Mum: "Neither me nor Daddy. None of us have seen it."
Kate: "How come???"

Well, it was quite a long story (click here to read it -- in Indonesian). It happened so fast. Hopefully we wouldn't regret it.

how much?

As the landlord of the flat where we are staying wants to move back in by November, we need to start looking for a new flat.

With the rental price now hikes so high, we decided to buy a flat instead of renting. One request from Kate:
"Can we find a house that is not far from my school? I want to keep Hong Wen as my school."

We can see that Kate loves her school, eventhough there are not many facilities, yet. The school, too, will move to May Road on January 2009. According to Kate, the new school building will have swimming pool and sports halls (and many other new facilities). Surely this makes Kate doesn't want to be transferred to another school, even more.

....................
Mum: "The house nearby your school is very expensive."
Kate: "How much is it?"
Mum: "Around five-hundred-thousand dollars."
*wondering whether Kate really understands how big that number is*
Kate: "That much??? It's so expensive."
Mum: "Yes, it is."
Kate: "And how much money do we have? All of it. The one that we keep at the bank, in Daddy's wallet, in your purse, and the one in my saving box."
....................