A Day Out of the Island/Singapore

Living in the island is pretty boring after awhile as everything and everywhere looks the same. Honestly, living in Singapore is not as cheap as what people think. Food is affordable but personally, there isn't anything original in Singapore. At least with Kuching you can find Sarawak Laksa, or Kolo Mee. In Melaka, you have the ikan bakar, he-piah, siew mai, etc. In KL, you can find Wa-tan-hor. In Singapore there are similar food but the taste are far from being original. Even the Taiwan beef noodle is not as nice as the one I tasted in Kuching. Of course, according to darling, the original noodle in Taiwan is still the best.

The properties in Singapore are not cheap. Just a normal HDB flat is about SGD250-350k. Hmm... so if you need a roof, make sure both partners are working or else, single earner cannot survive. Those who are not married usually stays with their parents. Unlike in Malaysia, single earner does still exists. With SGD350k, you can get a nice double storey/semi-detached home in Malaysia.

Anyways, my brother suggested going to Johor for the weekend. And yes we did go over. My bro, Jenn and myself. Darling didn't join because he doesn't like hot weather. If he sweats, he will be in bad mood and will spoil my shopping mood. So he decided to stay back in Singapore and had his karaoke sessions with the guys.

The first thing we did was to head out for a place to eat. Yummy... Brother took us to Wong Kok and when we saw the price, we were telling ourselves how fortunate we are for working in Singapore and spending in Malaysia. For dinner, we had Kim Gary. We did shopping too. I manage to dye my hair with cut and treatment. I bought darling 1 shirt and 3 pairs of socks. Jenn bought her blouses. She is very satisfied with the buys. Bro got what he wanted. For those who did not join us also got what they wanted. Haha. People used to say that it is not safe for us to cross over the checkpoint in Johor for the old custom. Yes, that is true. But ever since with the new custom checkpoint in Johor, it is pretty safe. After the immigration, you just need to walk till we reach City Square.

Kim Gary food we had for dinner.

Mushroom rice with fish

Yin-Yang Milk Tea

Chicken Drumlets

Black Pepper Chicken Rice

Korean Style Noodle


Wong Kok for lunch.

Our drinks

Fried Noodle

Noodle in Spicy Soup

Fried Udon

I ordered fried udon because I was reading my SIL#2 blog's on what she prepared for a meal. Yummy. I like what I ordered. The food we spent for the day was amounted to about RM120. That is about SGD50. Imagine, SGD50 is only 1 meal for 2 in just a decent restaurant. In Malaysia, it is 3 pax for 2 meals. Isn't it great? It is good to be home. :)

Bottom line is that we enjoyed ourselves alot for the day. I was pretty tired. Darling was so worried about me because I seldom gone out the whole day and even reaching home quite late. My style is always getting home as early as possible so that I can sleep by 10pm. Hey, it is the weekend and it was a Saturday, I have the privilege to sleep late and enjoy myself the whole day. It does feel good to be home spending the ringgit.

Which Bouquet Is Better?

Which bouquet is better? Just purely white or with pink? I cannot decide at all. Haha...

Our wedding planning journey

How it all began?

April 2009
He suddenly just wanted to get married. Propose? Haha, he did that long time ago back in year 2007. Very sweet memory. However, the ring was kinda small but still it meant alot to me.

But this time, he upgraded the ring and got me a bigger one just in time for Korea.

We went for wedding band hunting. Saw a few but nothing captured my heart till I saw an extraordinary design pair in Lee Hwa, Plaza Singapura. Even he likes it very much. It was a diamond affair for us. Ironically, his diamond is much better grade than mine but a little smaller in size. But who cares about the size cause there is no difference if you look at it side-by-side.

Decision on where to have the dinner? Not sure, but we decided to have the ROM (registration) here in Singapore. We feel it is much classy. Then I manage to coax him to do the dinner here. Look at the bright side, we can minimise the amount of people we want to invite but only invite the close ones.


May 2009
We went to Korea at the beginning of May for a week and it was our normal yearly trip. Last year was Hong Kong and Macao.

After we got back, we went for our photoshooting. It was quite an experience. The photographers are his colleagues. He joined the photography club, so he had his colleagues to shoot it. Imagine this, the main photographer is a Manager. I am very fortunate to have a manager to be our photographer. He has the talent. You should see all his photos in flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjktan/

To those who wants him as their photographer, do let me know. I can pass you his contact. Trust me, he is very talented. He understands the subject very well before he does the shoots. He knows the subject's best image.

Did I mention, the wedding shoes that we purchased, was a last minute thinggy before the shoot. Haha, we forgotten all about it. We had to dash to Vivocity to get a pair before the shoot. Bloody cow... I have never spent a shoe >SGD60 in Singapore at all. Ok, the Adidas sneaker is different. I meant court-shoes, strappy heels, flats, etc.. the girly kinds. I have never gone beyond SGD60 cause to me, it is not worth it to spend so much on a shoe where I know after a few months, it will be worn off. Who knows, just for the wedding, I actually spent SGD120 on the sandals... and I paid for it myself. Chinese have this taboo that the husband/bf cannot buy shoes for the partner or else the partner will walk away from him/her. What a pain-in-the-arse! I cursed the shoe for being so expensive.

June 2009
We went hotel hunting. We had this idea of pool-side dinner. We got options like Shangri-la but we were not happy with the locations they gave us. Then we attended the wedding event by styleswedding magazine which I registered us. At first he was just tagging with me with no intentions of what-so-ever. The food was amazing because it was from Swissotel, The Stamford. 5-star buffet is awsome. Plus, I paid for the registration. So have to eat worth the money.

Part of the event is the hotel's decoration display. We ended up with a few options: a) Alligator Pear, Fairmont, b) Equinox, Swissotel. Actually it was 2 options cause the rest we ignored it. Both places have meaning to us. Alligator Pear was our 2008 Valentines' dinner affair. Equinox was his 2008 birthday affair. We ended up with Alligator Pear because it was a pool-side.

At the same time, he was busy with the photo fixing. He ordered our first album. Nice... simple yet nice. Then we ordered a smaller booklets for family. Even better. I love it. Small and handy.

On the other hand, I was busy browsing through the internet for wedding gowns. I hate to rent. I hate to tie to the boutiques here cause they are so blardy expensive. So I opted for internet purchasing and went for the risk. Many advised me that I might get cheated. Well, I told them, let me purchase something cheaper/lower price. If I get cheated, then it is my fate not to get a gown online but to rent it.

Date? Well, at the beginning we wanted 9-September. Why 9-Sep? Because the date is easy to remember.. 09-09-09... but it was so unfortunate that the hotels are fully booked. Shangri-la, Fairmont... So we changed to 20-September. Why 20-Sep? Haha... 20-09-2009. Nice or not? I just love these date.

For Shangri-la, it was never meant to be because 09-09-09 has no place for us, and 20-09-2009 do not have the room/place we wanted. For Fairmont, 09-09-09 was not available at all. So left 20-09-2009. There.... it was just meant for us to be at Alligator Pear... A memory for us cause, as I have mentioned, we had our 2008 Valentines' dinner there.

July 2009
Invitation cards were ordered. Once receiving it, we began writing. Actually, it was me who wrote it. Haha... Hand became cramp. The pen nip was spoilt due to overloaded/overworked writings I did. About 120 invitation cards.

This is the month where I ordered my gowns online. Dinner gown and wedding gown. Spent about SGD500 for everything, including alteration.

a) Wedding gown
b) Dinner gown
c) Can-can
d) Veil
e) 2 bags

These gowns are unfortunately not the gown that is in the album. Those gowns in the album are the ones that we rented for SGD500 just for the shoot. I can say that it is cheap because if we tied to a normal package of a bridal boutique, it will costs us at least SGD2k. "At least" is the key word. Gosh.. but the gowns that I ordered are even nicer. Haha... but never mind, this means I can have another album to make with the new gowns. *all smiles*

Also, we went to check out the Beach hotel that we will be placing our guests at.

August 2009
Made an appointment with Jenny, the manager for Alligator Pear that we liase with. Saw how the arrangements of the tables. At least with the rough idea on how the table arrangements will be, then it is much easier to plan.

Did arrange the guest lists to allocate them on seating arrangement. I can say this is VERY difficult. There are hidden rules in how we place them on the seating arrangements.

Hidden rules:-

a) Who knows who
b) Who should seat at the main table
c) How are they related
d) Who cannot seat on the same table with X-person
e) Cannot part the partners they bring along ==> Obviously not a hidden one. Haha!!
f) Who can click with who
g) Managers must seat with other Managers
f) Where are they from
g) etc...

Flower bouquet hunting is also not easy. Have to search online for many days. I like this type, but he doesn't. He likes that type, but I don't. Hmm... kinda hard to decide cause all the bouquets are pretty and beautiful. However, we wanted simple and elegant bouquets. We decided on a few...

Choice #1:

http://www.singaporeflorist.com.sg/product.php?TYPE=3&CATID=79_117&PID=900

Choice #2:

http://www.singaporeflorist.com.sg/product.php?TYPE=3&CATID=79_117&PID=539


So the decision will depends on how the hotel does the decorations. Well, we are not so particular in themes cause we want to spend the minimum amount we can. Being in Singapore, it is not cheap at all. But with 5-star hotel at the cost we estimated, it is quite reasonable. Please... we are not converting it to RM and compare. Then it defeat the purpose of us decided to have the dinner here.

We had to decide on the songs too. I can tell you that it is hard to choose songs for the wedding. I love Christian wedding songs. I just love the serenading melody in it. Oh yea, we also search for a band. We had a few options... a) 2 guitarist who can sing all sorts of languages/songs, b) pianist, violinist, singer, c) saxophonist, singer.... I tell you, option (a) is kinda expensive cause it charges but the time but base on our timing it won't exceed SGD1k. Option (b), bloody cow.. this is damn expensive. About SGD2k. Hmm.. can scrap this option. Option (c) is the best cause it is cheap and KY likes saxophonist. Unfortunately, he is booked on the same day of our dinner. Aww.. so we had to go for option (a). Nevertheless, these 2 guys are talented too.

September 2009
Hmm... definitely will do my hair, my nails, my eyebrows. Nope, no facial spa for me. I do not believe in keeping my skin just for my wedding day. Keeping my skin at best is a daily affair.

Tips to those bride-to-be who stumbles upon my blog... Golden rule.. Just have fun coordinating and planning the wedding cause quarrels and misunderstandings will definitely arise. You will definitely show "black face" to each other but then again, don't let this stop you from getting married and love your partner for the rest of your life.

What else have I missed? Well, this is for now. I will update more in future.
Gosh.. time in nearing...
Photos and other tips will be later.... C ya..

Preview of the Album

Hi guys,
I hope it is not disappointing to preview it.
I actually printed out copies but for family only.

http://www.blurb.com/books/724474

PS:-
This preview is not complete. It is just part of the whole album.
The gowns shown in the album are not the ones that I purchased. Hihi.. sorry..

Thinking Hard

What is it like to be a full time housewife? I wonder...

Junk Food

Do you know what is among the best things in Singapore? Eating junk food in Singapore, which is quite costly in Malaysia. Last Sunday, we had our dinner in Sakura, Downtown East. We had international buffet. Gosh... buffet.. what gluttony food Singapore always offer. Almost everywhere in Singapore offers buffet. Well, dinner was dinner but nevertheless we did a small groccery shopping in NTUC Fairprice before dinner. Well, most of the things we got are junk food.

All sorts of Pringles and Ruffles (plus toothpaste & toothbrush, which are not in the picture). We got all the special flavours of Pringles and my all-time-favourite Sour & Cream. He got his Ruffles (which he ate his favourite BBQ flavour and no picture taken). 3 special flavours: Pickle, Buffalo Wing and Cheddar Cheese. I have tried Pickle flavour and it is really sour. Those who loves pickles, they would surely love this. It will definitely not be my favourite choice next time. I am yet to try the Buffalo Wing flavour. The name does sound interesting. I cannot imagine how I would react to the flavour. (The normal Pringles cost about SGD2.50 and the special flavours about SGD4. I guess Malaysia would have cost almost RM8-10).

Before dinner, we went to play "Jackpot" to kill time before dinner as we arrived about 1.5 hours earlier. We spent about SGD30 and we got a bag full of sweets. I was aiming for the soft-toy but I guess I was not in luck. It was either he changed the money (to coins) too slow or it would take another SGD20-30 for the soft-toy to be mine. Was it worth it to pay about SGD50-60 to get the soft-toy (jackpot) and sweets? Or just buy the soft-toy which would cost a fraction of the cost and better kept teeth? Go figure... this is what some folks here kill/pass time in Singapore. For now, we are still wondering if we should bring some of the sweets to office and share with colleagues or just make our teeth rot faster?

More of Korea

There are many pictures taken in Korea and all the pictures are messed up and I do not have the time to sort it out.. Haha.. too busy planning other stuffs and also watching series (when I can). But at least I get to share the places I went in Korea.

Muju Resort. Part of the resort

Landscape in the town where the use-to-be government officials stayed during the reign of the emperor period


Temple on the top of the Herb Hill

Lake at Herb Hill

Temple. The lanterns are the well wishers of the observers

Teddy Bear Museum

In Cultural Village

Flowers taken in Cultural Village

Emperor's Meal

Red Leaf in Changdugong Palace. Pictures below are all Changdugong palace.

The entrance of Changdugong palace

Changdugong palace is big. We took at least an hour to walk all over the place, and yet we did not cover every single part of the palace. There are beautiful landscapes all over the palace. The palace is well preserved. No wonder it is one of a tourist attraction. We took many posings in the palace... Hihi..

Honestly, I just love Korea. If you ask me if I want to work and stay there... Haha.. I would love to. It is a very nice place. Seoul itself is nice.. and what more, I love the food. I can never get bored of it. I love the weather too.

Korea Part 2 : Jeju Island + Nami Island + Daegu

We travelled the whole Korea... covering as much as possible.. The photos might not be in sequence but at least I can share what I experienced in Korea. We travelled from Seoul to Jeju, then to Boosan, Daegu, Muju then back to Seoul. I love the itinerary cause it covers every important aspects of Korea.

Plot of flowers in the cultural village

Heart Shape landscape in cultural village

The cultural village is a nice place. It tells you the culture of Koreans and how they evolve. Actually, this village is also the place where a drama series was shot but I cannot remember the title... (I think I will post the pic in the next post)... This village is very informative. Reminds me of the cultural village in Kuching, Sarawak. However, this village is beautifully displayed with many gardens of flowers... You will realise that there are many pictures of us posing with flower background. Haha..

Jeju Island

Jeju Island. The famous dragon landscape

Jeju Island

Jeju Island

Nami Island. This island is where Winter Sonata was shot

I cannot remember exactly where this is but this is where the officials and servants of the palace lived. This place also house the shrines for all the emperors.

The dinner place where we had after the visit to Nami Island

Lantern in the kimchi making place

Us.. wearing the Korea traditional attire

The Korea trip we had was quite fun as the tour guides were quite informative. It is a mandarin tour. This trip really tested my mandarin level, and I have to say that I can only understand one quarter of the entire trip. Haha.. KY had to explain to me and I actually became frustrated as KY only told me in a sentence, wrapping up many sentences of the guides explanation.

Overall, the trip is worth it. I get to taste many Korean food and also taste all sorts of quality. Haha... I know, they say that if you are in a tour, you don't get to taste the real Korean food but I have to say, the arrangement is good. Anyone who wants to know more about my trip and also which tour agency I go to, do drop me a message.

Korea : Day 1 (Everland & Jeju Island)

I have taken about 3 weeks after the holiday to update my blog. Ok.. ok.. I was kinda lazy to update the blog and also busy with other stuffs which practically took my weekends/free time. Haha.. but most of that work was done by my darling.

Anyways, here are the updates of Korea trip...

On the first day, we went to Everland and Jeju Island. Everland is a theme park which houses 2 roller coasters. One of it is the famous wooden roller coaster. It is pretty scary. I did not dare to ride it, and more over the queue was very long. To take any rides in Everland, it will be at least an hour queue. We were told that it was a public holiday for Korea that celebrates family day, and its a 2-day public holidays. How lucky they are.. Unlike Singapore, we do not hear such holiday at all.

White tulips are displayed in a section of Everland. Aren't they beautiful? It's white tulips.

Red tulips

The flowers in Korea are all very color rich. I guess it is the weather that makes the flower so colored. When I saw the flowers, I just fell in love with them. Even the simplest flower you see, the color can make you fall in love with it.

This is a cosmo-ride.. which turns and yanks the seat forward-backward. When I saw it, it is kinda giddy to even watch it spin, what more about seating on it.

Jeju Island restaurant in the park

The famous scene of Winter Sonata. No snow, so it does not really reflect the scene, but it is the avenue. Friends say that when you walk this place, you can feel the feeling from the scene. When I was there, I felt nothing. Haha.. I guess I kinda forgotten the scene already (watched it last year). But it is a beautiful view. The symetrical part makes it very perspective. Good spot for picture taking but with tons of visitors around, sure spoil the picture.

Beautiful purple flower trees

Famous red-leaf tree

Haha... As you can see, we really pose for the camera. Yup, we love taking pictures together. I will update the next blog for second day.

Back to Reality

Hi all,

I guess some of you might have wondered what happened to me... Well.. I have been busy. Busy making preparation for a big event and also I just got back from our yearly holiday. This time round we went to Korea. Though we intended early this year because of the economy down turn we held on but finally decided to go mid-year. And yes.. we enjoyed ourselves alot.. I will update you all soon...

Cheers..

Playing Tag : 666

Go to your sixth picture folder and post the sixth picture in the folder, then tag 6 people!

This is the 6th picture in the 6th folder in my pictures folder in my notebook. This picture was taken during our Bangkok trip last year, on a pedestrian bridge over a buzzling street of Bangkok just outside Asia Hotel, where we stayed.

Now, I am tagging 6 people.
Christina
Mummygwen
Faith
Calvin Sim
Uncle Lee

P/S: 666 - very devilish eh.......... but think of it as a positive number.. hehe..

Good Things Are Coming

Hi all,
I guess all of you who are reading this must be wondering what I have been up to that I have less stuffs to update in my blog.

Well, I have been very busy with work. Reaching home as late as 10-11pm from office. Also, I had to work during weekends. All those got paid off by my loving partner... whom he pampered me with his love. I am very fortunate. Hehe... I am so in cloud-9...

Anyways, all those late hours working are gone and now I am busy planning for other stuffs....
Good things are coming... I will be meeting a dearie friend of mine for a couple of days, who is back to Malaysia from NZ. Then I will be off to my long break with my darling. Then we will continue with planning.

Gosh... many events are coming... and of course, work is needed to be completed by then. Hehe.. so.. I am pretty packed, but I promise to my readers that I will update more fun things...

Cheerio all.. Luv ya.. Stay cool..

Initials - Playing Tagging

Rules:-
It's harder than it looks!

Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag twenty people including the person who tagged you. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions.
They have to be real...nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers.

You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.


1. What is your name : Fiona
2. A four Letter Word : Fond, F**k (haha), etc
3. A boy's Name : Franklin, Flinch, etc
4. A girl's Name : Felicity, Felicia, Fanny, etc
5. An occupation : Fisherman, Financial Advisor, Fashion Designer, Flight Attendant, etc
6. A color : Fuchsia, Floral pastels, etc
7. Something you'll wear : Frills - Anything with Frills (not sure if this answer is valid), Flip-flops, etc
8. A type of food : Fish-head Curry, French-fries, Fettuccine, French Toast, etc
9. Something found in the bathroom : Facetowel, Floortile, Facesoap, Flushing handle, etc
10. A place : Finland, France, etc
11. A reason for being late : F*cking stuck in the jam!
12. Something you'd shout : Freakingly toot
13. A movie title : Face Off
14. Something you drink : Fanta drinks... old-skewl
15. A musical group : Foo Fighters
16. An animal : Fox, Frog, Fish, etc
17. A street name : Fort Canningham Street (Does this count if I have never passed the road before?)
18. A type of car : Ford
19. The title of a song : Feeling Good (by Michael Buble)

Anyways... I wanna tag....
Christina
Mummygwen