Thanks to my renovation project, I feel like I’m twice married, mainly because I have scouted all over my sunny island in search of furniture and electrical appliances that would embellish my home and alleviate the stresses of family life.

This time round, I have wisely kept my mouth shut so that I won’t inadvertently say anything that would come to haunt me for years to come. A decade ago, I had sincerely expressed bewilderment at my wife’s insistence to get a vacuum cleaner. “We can just use the broom,” I blurted out. She has not let me live it down, let’s put it this way.

I think there are two kinds of people: those who care about electrical appliances and those who don’t. And they often marry each other. No points for guessing which camp I belong to. And yes, I guess I’m lucky to have married someone whose beauty belies an admirable dogged persistence that powers her to procure all the household items.