New Playmate!

Been wanting to announce this last week when my Goddess hits her 20th week, but was just too busy/lazy to get down to it.

I'll be having a new playmate soon!

Thankfully this doesn't mean I get less of her and the Horny Devil's love - my Goddess still looks forward to cuddling me every Saturday, and I still get my weekly massage whenever she's here. Let's hope it stays that way.

Whose photo do you think you are taking!

 And I get to bully and still be manja-ed by the Horny Devil too!

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

Beauty Products Review - Good Skin Labs, Vaseline & The Body Shop

A month back, my Goddess was in the mood of making her skin flawless and perfect. Probably it's the time of the year where you want to make yourself look and feel your best.

And so, she went shopping for samples from The Sample Store. Think the popularity of the store has kinda of died down a little. The samples there were like for old products and mainly Korean drugstore BB cream.

To settle my Goddess' cravings, she still ordered some samples online.

The parcel has arrived...very promptly

The items ordered

Eat, Eating, Ate at KL

Remember my Goddess DIY-ed her own Galaxy nails for her cousin-in-law's wedding? Here' the post!

The wedding was held at KL, so the whole Koo family including the boyfriends of the 2 sisters went on a road trip to KL. Prepare your tissue. This post is all about good food that will make you drool!

 My Goddess worn her tattered 3/4 jeans - the fake Abercrombie & Fitch one - which she bought like in 2008 during her first overseas trip with the Horny Devil to BKK with her twin Nora and his buddy Kevin. She wore if for a while during her uni days but stopped after a while, thinking the jeans looked too rugged for her. 4 years later, she still could fit in! Phew~

As they went on straight onto the new highway from the Woodlands Checkpoint, their breakfast stop was at one of the Rest & Relax stops.

And if you have driven down the highways before, you would have known that the food there are usually very sucky (except for the one A&W stop!). The stop that they were at had thousands of flies. So many that it just turns your appetite off.

Look at the congregation of flies! Eeew~

In the end, my Goddess ordered only the Beef Dog, which is also very yucky.

The Horny Devil's doesn't look yummy at all too.

How to DIY Galaxy Nails

My Goddess was surfing around on Instagram when she came across someone who had her nails done the 'galaxy' style by her manicurist. It looked really pretty and so intrigued by this, my Goddess decided to surf around to find out if this could be DIY.

And to her surprise, the galaxy nails isn't hard to do at all! It as even easier than ombre nails. So here's sharing with you the simple steps to getting pretty galaxy nails!

Long or Short?

My Goddess' hair is now at a stage of neither long nor short. She's now deciding on whether to leave it long or cut it short.

She likes the versatility of long hair, where you can style it any way you want. And it looks feminine too. At the same time, long hair makes her look older, something she doesn't want. Furthermore she has really thick and unruly hair which is hard to managed.

She also like the chicness of short hair - easy to maintain - fuss free. But there's only so much she can play with for short hair.

Which style should she go for? Can you help my Goddess decide by taking the poll?

Liese Hair Dye + Salon M-i

It's been a while since my Goddess coloured her hair. Her black hair roots have grown out by about 2 inches or so?

In view that the festive period is coming, and that she has a couple of weddings to attend in Nov & Dec, my Goddess decided that it's time to re-colour her hair.

My Goddess first tried Liese last year, and she has never looked back. It is so much cheaper than your salon colour and it takes only 30 minutes to colour as compared to the salon's 3 hours. This is probably her 3rd or 4th box. But instead of her usual Mocha Orange colour, she decided to do a different colour this time round - Chestnut Brown, partly to also commemorate her last few weeks staying in Chestnut with me!

Proof of the Author Writing

In case some of you are doubting if the posts are written by me - Winnie the Mighty Dog. It sure is!

Here are the evidence:

Waiting for my Goddess' laptop to start up

Can you help me log in with your password please?

Path to a HDB Tai-tai: Fans & Song Cho

I know I haven't been blogging much about my Goddess and the Horny Devil's home and their renovations. That's not because the reno is done and they have happily shifted in. They are actually far from it!

That's the problem with getting your contacts in for the reno at a friendship price - you can't rush or 'gan' (aka scold) them when things are delayed or not done properly.

They are now at the carpentry stage. The carpenter is their FIL's contact and from Malaysia. And so you can imagine the 'bargain price' that they get for the massive amount of carpentry work. But I'll save this for another post when all the carpentry works are done. Anyway, a 2-weeks job took them almost a month now, either because laminates are OOS, the cupboards not done according to their FIL's design and need rectifications, or the workers need to rush other projects elsewhere in Malaysia.

After a 2-weeks halt and not doing any reno works over the weekend, they finally managed to arrange for something this Sat - the installations of fans.

The Horny Devil is a big fan of ceiling fans as he grew up from a family that uses ceiling fans. To him, ceiling fans create maximum air flow around the house with minimum obstruction as compared to standing fans. But to my Goddess who never grew up with such an item in the house, she views ceiling fans as a visual obstruction to the whole house, making it look smaller.

And so, the two of them compromised - the house will have ceiling fans, but provided the designs are something chosen by my Goddess. And to add on to the problem, their fans need to have lights that match with their intended Scandinavian theme since there isn't much lights in the house, especially in the rooms.

And my Goddess' criteria - white, slim and with simple lights. To try to get cheap and good bargains, they went in to JB to search for the fans. In total, they went in about 3 times to look but my Goddess found nothing that caught her eye. They were either too big for the house, if not too fat and bulky looking. Malaysia is especially popular with KDK fans which according to my Goddess, have a 'fat' neck. Also, they can't customise lights with the fans that have remote control functions.

So in the end, my Goddess combed through Bukit Merah (opposite Queensway Shopping Centre) and almost the whole stretch of Balestier Road in search of the ideal fans. And she found such designs in Crestar and Fanco. And only in Singapore are they able to find such small fans of 42".

And the installations begin! 

The Body Shop Year End Party

Wondering what makeup looks to wear this coming Christmas? Come learn from the pro Larry Yeo, on the latest year-end trends. You will also get to do your part for charity with the gingerbread man decoration as Gingie will be given to the kids at Stamford CareHut. Come do you part where you will look good, feel good and do good all at the same time!

Halloween Special (Beware of Disturbing Pictures)

Reno is taking a toll on both my Goddess and the Horny Devil. It's taking such a long while and not done, so luckily there's something to distract them from their monotonous weekly house reno monitoring.

My Goddess and the Horny Devil were invited to a Halloween/dress-up party. Initially, my Goddess didn't know there was a theme to the party, so she wanted to be a generic ugly witch. She even bought her props at Diaso and SKP.

Cheap cheap, cost only $2 each

And how can a witch go without black nails?

To make the witch look more evil, more Goddess also bought a red lipstick from The Body Shop. It looks rather red on its own, but when applied to lips, it turned out more pink :( So in the end, it didn't have the crimson red look that my Goddess wanted to portray.

And the Horny Devil wanted to be his favourite character - something green. So they got themselves face & body paint from Spotlight.