End of Maternity Staycation at The Singapore Resort and Spa Sentosa

Been wanting to go on a vacation during my maternity leave (so I don't have to take further leaves) before I return to the workforce again.

But hubs and I have discussed (and argued) over it, and we have decided that we are not ready to take the risk of venturing to a foreign land with too many unknowns in case (touch wood) something happens, so eventually we settled on a weekend staycation.

And so I chose the last weekend before I got back to work, and at a location that is far from the hustle and bustle of the city but somewhere tranquil and relaxing,  so at least I don't feel so much that I'm still in Singapore. Sentosa eventually became the choice,  and after some price comparison and research, we settled on The Singapore Resort and Spa Sentosa.

The place was exactly how it looked like on the website (you know how some websites are so misleading) - green, open, peaceful and serene. There are many peacocks roaming around too to add to the outdoor nature  ambience.

The welcoming  entrance 

Journey of Bibma: Five Apps for First-time Moms

Here's sharing 4 free and 1 paid apps that I'm using right now which has helped me cope with taking care of Julias one way or another:

Journey of Bibma: Five Things My Newborn Son has Taught Me

Little Julius has turned 2 months (by calendar) today! This also means I have survived as a first-time mom for 2 months too! (Yay! I'm so proud of myself!)

During these 2 months, Julius has taught me so much, much more than what I have learnt in school the past 18 years - no I'm not 18 years old this year - that's assuming I started nursery at the age of 5 all the way till my graduation from university.

So here are the 5 precious life lessons that I have learnt from him:

Journey of A Bibma: Giving the B(r)e(a)st to Julius

We all know that breast milk is the best milk to give to your baby (and at least for the first 6 months of their lives).

Every mothers will hence naturally want the best for their bubs, and start off with the ideal statement "I want to exclusively breastfeed my child for x number of months" before they give birth. And I was one of them.

Journey of Bibma: 3 things I wished I was told about Pregnancy & Labour

After a long hiatus, I'm back to share a new journey of my life!

As you may have noticed from my Instagram pictures, I've recently given birth to the most beautiful creature on earth (to me and Labub) - Julius.

Would like to take this opportunity to share my experience and lessons that I've learnt through the little one, which hopefully will give new moms and moms-to-be insights of a new mother-in-training.

So the first post of The Journey of Bibma, I'd like to share things that I had learnt about pregnancy myself but wished that others would have shared with me.

Neighbourhood Haircut at K1 Salon

Now that my Goddess is preggy, she tends to stay at home/around her neighbourhood even more. So on one of the days that she was clearing leave, she couldn't stand her thick manes (her hair is really thicker than mine) and decided to go for a hair trim.

As she was too lazy to dress up and heavy to go to town, she decided to try a neighbourhood salon to have her haircut. It's going to be cheaper - and how wrong can  you go with a trim to get your hair thinner - or so she thought.

My Goddess also didn't want to go to any salons in Toa Payoh, but a slightly more reputable one. So she googled online for reviews. K1 had some decent mentions on forums, and so there so goes.

True enough, the price is half cheaper than what she usually gets her usual salons in 313. But the saying "you pay peanuts for monkeys" can't be truer.

The service was really horrible. And I'm not even talking about serving water/drinks. The hairdresser Lawrence was so rough. Even though he looked metrosexual or even on the feministic side, he was so rough in handling my Goddess' hair! He pulled her hair at every single cut to the point it was so painful! And the cut that he did was the old school style - my Goddess wanted to trim her hair thinner, so he took the inner layers of the hair and them shorter. So of course her hair will look thinner and lighter when it's all let down. But when she tries to tie them up, the shorter insides will fall out so obviously that it looks like a haircut gone terribly wrong (see picture below and you will get what I mean).

My Goddess opted to have her hair wash and blown too, so having paid extra, she thought he would appreciate it and give her a more tender and better service. Sadly, the water was cold. And when blow drying, the hot air was burning her scalp and ears. And the end result of the blow dry? Her hair was so flat and the ends still all over the place. My Goddess could have done a better job herself!

Super limp and ends messy hair after blow-drying

Only after she tried to change her hair parting did it look slightly better

And see what I mean by the inside strands falling out on the right side of my Goddess. There was also another similar strip on the left side, not visible in this picture.

And her overall verdict - no more neighbourhood salons. She can't take the risk, even if it's for a trim, and would rather pay more and travel farther (probably do it after work or while on half day leave since her office is in town) for a piece (and also peace) of mind.

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!