Married Life

Many people whom I have met have been asking me "How's married life?" My standard reply would be "Like that lor, busy". Both of us hold demanding jobs which requires us to work overtime and over the weekend. We dedicate almost the entire day of the weekend to doing housework, and go back to our parents' place for dinner every weekend, one day each. Whatever free time was spent on working for me, and working or reading engineering books for him. This left us no time to date when we used to - exploring new places, new eateries. I can't even recall when we last caught a movie together.

But upon deeper reflection of how we have come for 2 years after marriage, my answer now is "It's not easy".

It's not easy for 2 persons with different living habits to stay together, and see each other every day. For me especially, I begun to take him for granted very soon. I soon forgot the reasons why I married him and chose to spend the rest of my life with him.

I began to lose sight of myself and of who I used to be. Slowly, I morphed into another person whom I wasn't before - naggy, irritable, picky, someone much worser than my already bad character.

I became self-absorbed, much ironic as it may seem, that we are seeing each other every day. But that's precisely the case that I became to turn a blind eye from seeing the goodness in him. Every little actions that I couldn't see eye to eye to disturbed me.

Such damages to the heart and soul are permanent. And by the time you have realised it, which is usually after a big fight, it would be too late.

Much as you would like to reverse the time, the damage has been done, the soul beaten.

There's a saying that goes "time will heal all wounds". Or will it? Only time can tell.

In the meantime, I can only constantly remind myself to be a bigger and better me, and put aside more time for such important self-reflections so that I can ever be so often reminded, like today, the reason why I got married, and how I should view myself as us instead of me, myself and I.

Yan Can Cook, So Can You!

If you have been following my Goddess on her Instagram, you would have realised from the numerous food posts that she did, that she has been making home-cooked dishes at least once a week - breakfast, lunch or dinner.

My Goddess has never been a domesticated person. Ask her mom and you will know that she hardly cooks or do housework chores when she's staying with us. The only things that she cooks then were maggi noodles, egg and luncheon meat.

But ever since she has moved in, she has experimented with many different dishes. This is because she has realised the importance of eating in which leads to eating healthy. She also finds it fun to try out new recipes and satisfying that the Horny Devil says it's yum!

Here are the food that she has prepared to date since Day 1 of moving in.

PR Agency to Avoid

I know I haven't been writing for a long time since my Goddess has moved out of the house. There's just so much to update - the Taiwan trip which happened early this year (it's already July now!!), the Europe trip aka 2nd Honeymoon just in May/June. I promise I'll write something on them.

But today is a warning post to all PR people out there - do not engage the agency P***PR. (not the full length of the agency name).

The experience with one of the staff was horrible. As a Director, she's not living up to her title.

1. She's totally insistent on her first proposed theme even though we had the campaign changed entirely and the originally proposed theme is no longer relevant.

2. She doesn't communicate with her team or check her emails. Even when she's in the copy, she will still call you and ask about things that you have already communicated in the email to her team member.

3. She's clueless about the correct name of your products and creates her own names when writing to media/bloggers.

4. She forwards requests from media to us late, if not, never at all.

5. During the event day, she turns up at the same time when all the guests come in, like she's the guest!

Maybelline Magnum Volum' Express Review

Apologies everyone! I know I have been quiet on this blog for the longest time! That's cos my Goddess has been busy with her new work place (ok, not so new anymore since it's her 9th month, or is it 10th there now). And every weekend is busy spent doing housework and cooking new recipes (as you can see from her Instagram posts), or if not working :( 

So no life right? She's not even going out to watch movies or shopping on weekends now that the Horny Devil is preparing for his Masters exam. 

Anyway, amidst all the busy weekend, my Goddess still managed to find time during weekdays to shop for makeup, and the latest item to her collection is Maybelline's Magnum Volum' Express.

She has read so many people using it on Instagram and blog, and it seems like quite an amazing product, so she decided to try it for herself.

The mascara promises volume - something that my Goddess is always on the lookout for. Her lashes are considered long, but she would like them to be more voluminous and dense. After 3 coats of the mascara on her top lashes, and 2 coats on her lower lash, this is the effect.

It's more obvious when the eyes are closed.

The Official HDB Tai-tai!

6 Feb was the official and auspicious move-in date for my Goddess and the Horny Devil!

According to the Fengshui master, they need to '安床' (set the bed) on the auspicious hour of moving in.    In order to ensure that the bed is there during the auspicious 2 hour, they decided to shift in the bed before the official move-in day.

And did I tell you Fengshui also states that they are not supposed to step into the house 3 days before the official move-in.

So on Sat, they had their bed shifted. For 4 nights, they were sleeping on the floor with a single bed mattress. Reminds me of the nights before my Goddess got married - she can't sleep on the new bed by herself first. But this time it was worse as the two of them had to share this single mattress.

On the day of the shift, it was also my Goddess' Chinese birthday. So her mom made her red eggs and there was also an angbao for them to give them blessings on their shift in.

Path to a HDB Tai-tai: Curtains & Blinds

After carpentry is done. It's finally the last step of house reno before the furniture and electronics come in - curtains & blinds!

After doing some research, and even going into JB to search for the cheapest curtain, my Goddess finally found one - Starpoint Curtain and Furnishing.

The owner has his shop in JB but comes out to Singapore regularly. He's very prompt in his service, and his workmanship is also good.

The only minus point is that his selection of curtain is very limited - majority of them are plain design with no prints. Which was ok for my Goddess and the Horny Devil as they wanted a simple design for their scandanavian theme.

The whole installation was very fast - just one hour and all the curtains are up

Path to a HDB Tai-tai: Carpentry

Initially I thought the longest and worst part of the house reno - false ceiling and electrical was over, and everything should be moving very fast, and my Goddess and the Horny Devil would be able to shift in before Christmas. I was terribly wrong.

Carpentry took an even painfully long time - 3 months. Even till now, her dressing table/cupboard was not completely done, and it sadly won't be done till after Chinese New Year.

But my Goddess and the Horny Devil are still going to shift in before Chinese New Year nevertheless, together with the other defects in the house which I will share more in future posts. Otherwise, they will never ever get to shift in if they were to wait for the whole place to be complete.

For carpentry, they chose to go with her father-in-law's contact from KL. While they are based in KL, their factory was in JB and they have businesses in Singapore. After comparison on the price based on the FIL's detailed drawings (he's an architect) with all his contacts, 2 of whom were Singapore companies, the Malaysia was the cheapest, half the quote of the other two. Thinking they can save a substantial amount of money, they went with the Malaysian carpenter of course.

Little did they realise, the workers will only come 1-2 times a week (that's because my Goddess and the Horny Devil didn't have much time to take leave to monitor them on weekdays) and by the time they drive down from KL to SG each time, it will almost be 12 noon! So technically they only had half a day to work.

When carpentry first began, the two of them were really excited (thinking they should be able to shift in soon).

Shifting the make-shift table as if it's part of the carpentry works

Tired after setting up one make-shift table!

One Year Part Three - The Finale

Half a year back, I wrote about my Goddess and the Horny Devil's anniversary celebrations. Yes, that's how belated it is. In August last year, they did the finale of their 1 year anniversary celebration. It was a surprise planned for her. After a friend's wedding dinner, he told her they are going for a 1-day getaway, and asked her to have prepared her swimsuit. In her mind she was already prepared for Pulau Ubin stay.

Yes she still had wavy hair then, that's how long ago it was

Cheeky and refusing to tell her where they are going

Egyptian No-magic Cream

Heard some good reviews on the Egyptian Magic Cream - claims especially from the West that it gives fabulous skin and removes scars, eczema etc. so my Goddess decided to purchase one tub online to give it a try.

Part of the ingredients is honey, bee pollen and olive oil, making the content really rich. Heard from makeup artist Larry Yeo that some people are allergic to Bee Pollen! Being very cautious, my Goddess applied a really thin layer on the face every night for 3 nights.

Adventures at Legoland Malaysia (Another Picture-filled Post)

When Legoland was first opened, they did some roadshows to sell their early bird tix. Always game to explore new places, my Goddess purchased these tickets for herself, the Horny Devil and her friends.

Initially they intended to go during the school exam period, but due to their house reno commitments and later the Horny Devil's exams, they could only postpone it to last weekend.

Taking bus into Legoland was quite easy - they boarded the Causeway Link at Boon Lay MRT station bus stop/taxi stand area - where a lot of shuttle buses pick up workers from. This CW6 bus will bring you to Tuas Checkpoint. From there, you just need to hop on JPO2, the shuttle that will bring you to Legoland in just 15 minutes, and later loop to the Premium Outlet Mall. However, you do need to take note of the time. There's one at 8.30am and next one is at 10.30am. Missed it and you will have to find your own transport it. The shuttles at Woodlands Causeway is more frequent at half hour intervals, but the ride to Legoland will take you about an hour though.

The very colourful bus interior