These few days have been extremely hectic. With the launch of HDB's Walk-in Selection at Sengkang, Punggol and Hougang, my wife and I finally ended the eternal wait for a flat in the estate we have been looking for.

On Monday, I woke up at 6am (which was my routine) to find out that HDB has launched the WIS. Immediately, I changed and rushed down to HDB Hub at Toa Payoh. By 6.25am, I was already there in the queue. My wife arrived soon after.

Initially, we were dismayed to see the long queue in front of us. We only found out that our queue number was 46 when they let us into the HDB Hub to pick up the form and queue number. We quickly completed the necessary forms and submitted it. The CSO told us that we were required to return to HDB Hub to do the selection on Wednesday at 9.30am.

After doing the necessary stuff, we went down to the area which we had desired - Compassvale Bow. Straddling between Hougang and Sengkang, this place was ideal for us as both centres were barely 15 minutes away and the nearest MRT station, Buangkok, was just a 10 minutes walk away. When the flats beside Buangkok MRT station are ready, the time would be reduced to 5 minutes.

We reviewed a few areas, namely Bomia (Blocks 267, 268 and 269) and Coris (Blocks 264, 265 and 266) and selected the flats which we felt was suitable for us. My wife didn't like Bomia due to the close proximity of doors between neighbours so we settled for mainly flats in Coris. We divided the flats into choices that we will take first and those that we had to take if we couldn't get our first few choices.

Today, we arrived early at HDB Hub. Our anxiety grew as we found out through the Internet terminals at HDB Hub that our first few choices are gradually being taken up by the 45 couples ahead of us. When our turn came, the flat that we wanted had been taken, so we had to settle for Block 264B. After signing the necessary documents and paying 2 grand for the Option to Purchase (which is a fancy-dandy name for booking the flat), we proceeded to the block in the later part of the day to see the flat once more.

We are pretty satisfied with the flat, given the fact that even though we can see a Chinese temple across the road from our living room, we still have an unblocked area in front of us. This means that it could possibly be quite windy during the colder parts of the year. We should be able to see Punggol Park from our living room and the nearest bus stop to Sengkang or Hougang is less than 100 metres away.

We are still awaiting for the call from HDB to inform us as to when we can pick up our keys to the flat. Stay tuned as we unlock the door to our secret haven. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the place.