Thursday, June 04, 2015
My Solemnisation was Cheaper than Yours
Chancing upon expensive weddings and likewise posts have provoked me to think about my own solemnisation. I read that Mr Larry Ho and his wife spent less than $900 for their solemnisation. I'm quite sure I can rival their spending with ours. So, a digital breakdown here to see if I'm right (or wrong).
Who: Mr Jason Ong, 26, then a guidance counsellor in a secondary school and Ms Melvina Koh, 27, a marketing executive in a local firm
When: January 2013
Where: Raffles Institution (an office) and Selfish Gene Cafe
Food: About $560 for brunch at cafe for 30 pax, coffee and cookies provided by family and friends
Dress: $40 from ASOS
Jacket: $70 from H&M, Groom's own shirt and jeans
Shoes: Glued-on diamantes on Bride's old shoes $30; Grooms' own shoes
Flowers: Handmade bouquet and boutonniere about $70, a large bouquet of flowers for venue provided by Groom's colleagues
Manicure: Already paid for in a package deal years ago
Photography: Free, shot by a close friend
Others: Miscellaneous decorative items for about $80
Total: $850
I KNEW IT!
Who: Mr Jason Ong, 26, then a guidance counsellor in a secondary school and Ms Melvina Koh, 27, a marketing executive in a local firm
When: January 2013
Where: Raffles Institution (an office) and Selfish Gene Cafe
Food: About $560 for brunch at cafe for 30 pax, coffee and cookies provided by family and friends
Dress: $40 from ASOS
Jacket: $70 from H&M, Groom's own shirt and jeans
Shoes: Glued-on diamantes on Bride's old shoes $30; Grooms' own shoes
Flowers: Handmade bouquet and boutonniere about $70, a large bouquet of flowers for venue provided by Groom's colleagues
Manicure: Already paid for in a package deal years ago
Photography: Free, shot by a close friend
Others: Miscellaneous decorative items for about $80
Total: $850
I KNEW IT!
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Friday, October 25, 2013
Travelogue - Perth, Western Australia (1)
Eeeeks! Back with yet another Perth entry! I endeavour to be fast and furious!
This time round, I flew Jetstar and got really lucky - three seats all myself! Okay, I schemed a little. I told one of the crew that I had a bad back and asked if I could take the second last row since it was empty. Had such a wonderful flight being able to lie my body down straight. 'Cept that it was really cold onboard and I definitely under-packed my hand carry!
Caught a pretty sunrise when we were approaching Perth. It was like sleeping on a bed of clouds.
Tex picked me up from the airport and off we went to have breakfast! I can't remember if we actually did have breakfast in the end, but what I recalled was that he dropped himself at school and I drove Rosie home. Talking about assimilation into other countries' culture, can't get any faster than this.
Reached his place and immediately changed into pyjamas to get comfortable!
Cooked myself an easy lunch, took a nap before heading out to pick Tex up from school.
Tex's Mum treated us to dimsum the next day! Ever since Hong Kong in 2007, I have been really careful in choosing dimsum as my meals but this was quite yummeh!
This Salt & Pepper Squid is my favourite! I like anything salt and pepper, I realise.
And I made Cheese Baked Potatoes with Bacon & Onions.
Here's the recipe!
Ingredients:
Preparation:
From the photos above, you can see that I kinda burnt the sides a little. That's because I forgot to turn the temperature of the oven down after taking out the foil and topping the dish with cheese. So always keep a lookout! They melt so much faster than you think.
That's all for today! It's challenging to be blogging from memory and trying to remember things that happened close to three months back! I hope to be blogging next about my bucket list item and also the best birthday present I ever received in my entire life - a skydiving experience!
YAY!!!!!
This time round, I flew Jetstar and got really lucky - three seats all myself! Okay, I schemed a little. I told one of the crew that I had a bad back and asked if I could take the second last row since it was empty. Had such a wonderful flight being able to lie my body down straight. 'Cept that it was really cold onboard and I definitely under-packed my hand carry!
 |
| My travel essentials - shawl and my little mini bolster for my back |
Caught a pretty sunrise when we were approaching Perth. It was like sleeping on a bed of clouds.
 |
| Such a beautiful sight. |
Tex picked me up from the airport and off we went to have breakfast! I can't remember if we actually did have breakfast in the end, but what I recalled was that he dropped himself at school and I drove Rosie home. Talking about assimilation into other countries' culture, can't get any faster than this.
Reached his place and immediately changed into pyjamas to get comfortable!
 |
| Mama-made pyjamas pants are the best! |
Cooked myself an easy lunch, took a nap before heading out to pick Tex up from school.
Turns out that unknowingly, we bought each other gifts! He got me a Canon Powershot S110 camera and I got him an iPad mini. Now we can both Skype each other without disruptions yay!!
 |
| My little purchase from the airport :) |
Tex's Mum treated us to dimsum the next day! Ever since Hong Kong in 2007, I have been really careful in choosing dimsum as my meals but this was quite yummeh!
This Salt & Pepper Squid is my favourite! I like anything salt and pepper, I realise.
 |
| The husband with his new toy. Downloaded games immediately, basket. |
And I made Cheese Baked Potatoes with Bacon & Onions.
Ingredients:
- Three big-sized potatoes
- One big white onion
- Four slices of back bacon
- Shredded Mozzarella cheese, around 600g
- Salt & Pepper
- Celery leaves for garnishing
- One Masterfoods Creamy Cheesy Potato Bake recipe base
- One cup of thickened cream
Preparation:
- Slice the potatoes thinly. All of them needs to be of the same thickness so that all will bake evenly. I suggest each piece to be around 0.5cm thick at most.
- Dice the onion and slice the back bacon into small strips.
- Combine the thickened cream and the recipe base together. Stir and set aside.
- Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
- Stir fry the onions and bacon until the onions turn soft and the bacon turn a little brown.
- Oil your baking tray with butter generously.
- Arrange the potato slices in a way that they stack diagonally above each other like fallen dominoes.
- After the first layer, spread the stir-fried onion and bacon thinly on top of the potato layer.
- Repeat Step 3 and 4 if you still have potatoes.
- Pour the cream and recipe base mixture over the potatoes.
- Cover the tray with foil and bake in over for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, remove from oven and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for a further 15 mins at 180 deg uncovered.
- Check on the cheese and if they start to brown, let it bake until your desired colour!
- Garnish with celery leaves and tuck in!
From the photos above, you can see that I kinda burnt the sides a little. That's because I forgot to turn the temperature of the oven down after taking out the foil and topping the dish with cheese. So always keep a lookout! They melt so much faster than you think.
That's all for today! It's challenging to be blogging from memory and trying to remember things that happened close to three months back! I hope to be blogging next about my bucket list item and also the best birthday present I ever received in my entire life - a skydiving experience!
YAY!!!!!
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Travelogue - Hanoi, Vietnam April 2013 (4)
After sleeping like logs the night before, we were hungry again wtf!
After breakfast, we went to visit Ho Chi Minh Memorial Hall! It was... alright in my opinion.
I thought this small little railway in between the houses was more interesting and cute.
Had a cup of really bad Vietnamese coffee, which also happened to be my last cup there.
Ever since I started travelling, I made sure I tasted all countries' coffee at least once. So far, my favourites are Balinese coffee - thick and powerful, and Viennese coffee - light and fragrant, almost forgot I was drinking coffee.
And that will be all for my Hanoi travelogues because these are all the photos that I managed to recover from my crashed hard disk. To Ruth, my best female travelling companion, thank you for all the memories that we created together and I definitely look forward to more of such trips with you. You are one of the best travel mates that one can ever ask for - independent, willing to share, considerate and fun-loving all rolled into one. How is this even possible?! Love you!
Well to myself, this is not the end of Hanoi. I will be going there in November again and I hope to revisit some of the places with two of my loved ones, my parents. Hope they will enjoy the sights and sounds as much as I did!
After breakfast, we went to visit Ho Chi Minh Memorial Hall! It was... alright in my opinion.
I thought this small little railway in between the houses was more interesting and cute.
Had a cup of really bad Vietnamese coffee, which also happened to be my last cup there.
Ever since I started travelling, I made sure I tasted all countries' coffee at least once. So far, my favourites are Balinese coffee - thick and powerful, and Viennese coffee - light and fragrant, almost forgot I was drinking coffee.
And that will be all for my Hanoi travelogues because these are all the photos that I managed to recover from my crashed hard disk. To Ruth, my best female travelling companion, thank you for all the memories that we created together and I definitely look forward to more of such trips with you. You are one of the best travel mates that one can ever ask for - independent, willing to share, considerate and fun-loving all rolled into one. How is this even possible?! Love you!
Well to myself, this is not the end of Hanoi. I will be going there in November again and I hope to revisit some of the places with two of my loved ones, my parents. Hope they will enjoy the sights and sounds as much as I did!
Monday, October 07, 2013
Oh Hello
Is it October already?
Work has been pouncing on me so often I have completely lost track of time. I go into office everyday and open up my calendar to see what meetings I have for that day and the next. I do foresee busier weeks ahead but at the same time, I am trying to enjoy what I am doing.
A good thing that came out of work is that I get to play badminton with most of my colleagues twice a week - which is a saviour actually. Bonding is there, work gets done faster and communication is just smoother. Am glad that we all found a sport that old and young like and can afford to attend after office hours.
Till then, I'm gonna be working my ass off and hopes Tex understands! It's his last week before his thesis submission and I pray for greater motivation and strength for and from the both of us.
åŠ æ²¹!!
Work has been pouncing on me so often I have completely lost track of time. I go into office everyday and open up my calendar to see what meetings I have for that day and the next. I do foresee busier weeks ahead but at the same time, I am trying to enjoy what I am doing.
A good thing that came out of work is that I get to play badminton with most of my colleagues twice a week - which is a saviour actually. Bonding is there, work gets done faster and communication is just smoother. Am glad that we all found a sport that old and young like and can afford to attend after office hours.
Till then, I'm gonna be working my ass off and hopes Tex understands! It's his last week before his thesis submission and I pray for greater motivation and strength for and from the both of us.
åŠ æ²¹!!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Happy Thoughts
I know most girls gush about their wedding preparations, so do I, with every perfect reason to do so. I shall not elaborate on "why" but I equip myself with a very sobering statement that I have engraved to the back of my brain while doing my own wedding research - it's not the wedding, it's the marriage.
Easier said that done? When you flood yourself with more and more indulgent information, you get lost in it. I caught myself delving into "hmmm so white or turquoise paper ah?" before I went "Siao".
A wedding happens for several reasons. Some do it for themselves, some do it for their parents etc. Mine has a few contributory factors but they are not far off. Ultimately, Tex and I are going to be the ones in it, the ones spending the most money and we better fucking enjoy it.
That means,I think I will not give a shit about what others think. You can read it somewhere along the lines of "you want, you come, you don't want, you don't come". We only want people who are happy for us to be there anyway. We don't expect ourselves to be treated like VIPs but you don't get the princessy treatments from us anyway.
Have I marred the mood of wedding preparations? Nah, nothing has happened during our wedding prep because.. there is nothing I can do when Tex isn't here. We can only start most things proper when he is back next year.
Till then, I am a happy wife whose husband calls every night and watches me go to sleep. And that is enough.
Easier said that done? When you flood yourself with more and more indulgent information, you get lost in it. I caught myself delving into "hmmm so white or turquoise paper ah?" before I went "Siao".
A wedding happens for several reasons. Some do it for themselves, some do it for their parents etc. Mine has a few contributory factors but they are not far off. Ultimately, Tex and I are going to be the ones in it, the ones spending the most money and we better fucking enjoy it.
That means,
Have I marred the mood of wedding preparations? Nah, nothing has happened during our wedding prep because.. there is nothing I can do when Tex isn't here. We can only start most things proper when he is back next year.
Till then, I am a happy wife whose husband calls every night and watches me go to sleep. And that is enough.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Travelogue - Hanoi, Vietnam April 2013 (3)
That day, we took a day trip to the UNESCO Heritage site - Ha Long Bay! Woke up really early to take a 4-hour bus ride!
We arrived at a jetty, got onboard on a small ferry and lunch was served while the ferry cruised out to the bay. The jetty was pretty crowded and it dawned upon me that the day we went was a Sunday hence many Vietnamese may have brought their families there for a day trip too.
After about half an hour, the bay was in sight! Woohoo!
Yep, we have arrived at the famous Ha Long Bay. "Ha" means "down" and "Long" means "Dragon" which also means "descending dragons". Legends have it that in the ancient times, Vietnam entered a war hence as the gods tried to protect Vietnam, they sent a family of dragons to protect Vietnam. The dragons spat out jewels and jade which later turned in islands and islets around the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Eventually, they won some battles and the dragons decided to live in this bay.
Nope, didn't see any dragons.
Guy in light blue was our guide. They speak pretty good English and are quite helpful!
The ferry stopped at kelong-like site where we all disembarked from the ferry and got ready for kayaking!
Seriously, I cannot emphasise more on being situationally aware about your environment. I am one of the most clumsy persons I know on earth but even my common sense told me that I should not kayak to where the big boats are. Right!?
If you look at the photo below, two of the tourists on my ferry actually kayaked to the back of these ferries. Worse, the ferries were trying to reverse out to leave! And they were clueless about how to manoeveur the kayak away from the ferries hence people at the kelong were desperately shouting, screaming to those on the ferry, in order to get their attention. Thankfully, the ferry stopped moving in time and the two tourists moved away slowly. I think they may have just cut their kayaking short and rested on the ferry to wait for us, haha.
Kayaking there was an experience of a lifetime. It was serene, we could heard our paddles being pushed into the water, the ripples forming and just enjoying the majestic scenery around us. We could paddle really close to the rocks and touch them and that was just awesome. I felt so small and humble being surrounded by nature.
Also felt like at any point of time, an ancient swordsman would just fly out and start to duel with his opponent, like those we watched in æ¦ä¾ 片! Hahaha!
Yeah, that was what we did - kayak, stop, take photo, rest, kiao-kar, kayak, admire, go "woooowwww", kayak, laugh, kayak super fast and competitively, explore, rest, kiao-kar somemore.
Bringing my dry bag was one of the best decisions made in my life!
We were one of the last pairs to return to the ferry! Went onboard the ferry again and they brought us to another islet.
Disembarked the ferry and enter a cave. We didn't like it because it was crowded with people and with all the lights, it looked way commercialised. Quickly breezed through the pathways paved for the tourists!
Ha Long Bay is definitely becoming a super super hot tourist spot! I will be coming back in November this year with my parents and this time round, I hope to do something different or at least visit a different place!
On our coach back, we met a British girl whose name is Ruth as well and she was travelling alone so we invited her to join us for dinner! She had to change hotels that night so we went back with her to her hotel to grab her bags and helped her move to another hotel, settled down and out for dinner we went! Brought her to the roadside BBQ place we patroned the night before and she enjoyed it! :)
We were all tired but happy from the day's travels! Ha Long Bay was the highlight of our trip! :) I think it wouldn't be easy to travel there by yourself so you would probably have to book a day trip out.
Till the next! :D
We arrived at a jetty, got onboard on a small ferry and lunch was served while the ferry cruised out to the bay. The jetty was pretty crowded and it dawned upon me that the day we went was a Sunday hence many Vietnamese may have brought their families there for a day trip too.
 |
| Waiting for lunchhhhhh. |
 |
| If this is Vietnamese fried spring roll, then I like it. |
After about half an hour, the bay was in sight! Woohoo!
 |
| Bad hair. Because of bad wind. |
 |
| Ruth's is worse. Hahahahahaha! |
Yep, we have arrived at the famous Ha Long Bay. "Ha" means "down" and "Long" means "Dragon" which also means "descending dragons". Legends have it that in the ancient times, Vietnam entered a war hence as the gods tried to protect Vietnam, they sent a family of dragons to protect Vietnam. The dragons spat out jewels and jade which later turned in islands and islets around the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Eventually, they won some battles and the dragons decided to live in this bay.
Nope, didn't see any dragons.
 |
| Not in there either. |
Guy in light blue was our guide. They speak pretty good English and are quite helpful!
The ferry stopped at kelong-like site where we all disembarked from the ferry and got ready for kayaking!
Seriously, I cannot emphasise more on being situationally aware about your environment. I am one of the most clumsy persons I know on earth but even my common sense told me that I should not kayak to where the big boats are. Right!?
If you look at the photo below, two of the tourists on my ferry actually kayaked to the back of these ferries. Worse, the ferries were trying to reverse out to leave! And they were clueless about how to manoeveur the kayak away from the ferries hence people at the kelong were desperately shouting, screaming to those on the ferry, in order to get their attention. Thankfully, the ferry stopped moving in time and the two tourists moved away slowly. I think they may have just cut their kayaking short and rested on the ferry to wait for us, haha.
 |
| Ruth looking totally like a coach! |
Kayaking there was an experience of a lifetime. It was serene, we could heard our paddles being pushed into the water, the ripples forming and just enjoying the majestic scenery around us. We could paddle really close to the rocks and touch them and that was just awesome. I felt so small and humble being surrounded by nature.
Also felt like at any point of time, an ancient swordsman would just fly out and start to duel with his opponent, like those we watched in æ¦ä¾ 片! Hahaha!
Yeah, that was what we did - kayak, stop, take photo, rest, kiao-kar, kayak, admire, go "woooowwww", kayak, laugh, kayak super fast and competitively, explore, rest, kiao-kar somemore.
Bringing my dry bag was one of the best decisions made in my life!
We were one of the last pairs to return to the ferry! Went onboard the ferry again and they brought us to another islet.
 |
| This one is called The Paintbrush Island or something. Can't remember. |
Disembarked the ferry and enter a cave. We didn't like it because it was crowded with people and with all the lights, it looked way commercialised. Quickly breezed through the pathways paved for the tourists!
Ha Long Bay is definitely becoming a super super hot tourist spot! I will be coming back in November this year with my parents and this time round, I hope to do something different or at least visit a different place!
On our coach back, we met a British girl whose name is Ruth as well and she was travelling alone so we invited her to join us for dinner! She had to change hotels that night so we went back with her to her hotel to grab her bags and helped her move to another hotel, settled down and out for dinner we went! Brought her to the roadside BBQ place we patroned the night before and she enjoyed it! :)
We were all tired but happy from the day's travels! Ha Long Bay was the highlight of our trip! :) I think it wouldn't be easy to travel there by yourself so you would probably have to book a day trip out.
Till the next! :D
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