Chanel earrings for my wedding day!

I bought my first pair of Chanel earrings! I always wanted a pair and my biggest regret is not buying any when I was in Paris.. TWICE! Twice I was in Paris and I didn't buy any because I walked into the shop and didn't see it in the display shelves.. Little did I know, they keep their earrings hidden and need to ask the salesgirl to bring them out.

So, I bought mine in Singapore's Takashimaya. Told Le bf I will go back to Paris one day to buy more Chanel earrings and he just gave me his silly nervous smile. LOL. Nathaniel was with us and both of them helped me choose the design cos there were so many designs and I had a headache choosing. The simple ones are around SGD300++ and there are the more intricate ones that costs double or more.

Pretty ribbon!

Close up picture of my earrings! :)

It's so expensive for a pair of costume jewelry, I don't dare to tell Le bf how much it is. Shall not post it here just in case he happens to read my blog. 

Actually he don't read my blog... I think he has a short attention span or something (except for games) cos he stalks me on Twitter. 140 characters per post. Also I like to rant and complain on Twitter about stuff so he will be more informed and updated about my mood and what's bothering me so he can tread carefully around me when I am in a bad mood. Bwahahahahaha! Whenever I ask him "Did you read my blog???" he will reply me "Ehh.. no. Why?". Hahahahaha!

I wore it for the first time today and I love it!

Thing is, I've not worn earrings for a long long time.. At least 10 years! Luckily the holes have not closed up and I can still wear them. People think I don't have ear piercings cos I don't wear earrings, but I have 6 piercings on my ears!

Reason why I don't wear earrings is because I am allergic to nickel and I had very bad ear infection when I wore earrings in the past. It was so bad that my ear lobes nearly fell off! Seriously! I had pus and blood running down my neck, and the flesh is always mushy and disgusting. Damn gross.

After I removed my earrings and let the wounds heal, I tried other ways like plastic sticks, gold, titanium, platinum earrings, but I still had problems... So I gave up on earrings. I think the piercing was either not done properly or my body rejects all sorts of metal objects.

I went for a belly button piercing when I was 18 years old and had such a bad infection, the scar is still there. =_= When I showed Le bf the scar and told him I went for a belly button piercing, he was so surprised, then he shook his head and said "Haiyooooo". LOL!

I still keep my belly button ring, a very cute platinum ring which had no nickel but still gave me an infection. Tsk. Ok, so now you know another fun fact about me. I had a belly button piercing! LOL! The reason why I did it was because of my good friend Money. She wanted a tattoo and asked me to get the same one for moral support.. I am very against tattoos (Still am. My sister wanted to go for a tattoo and I told her I will disown her if she does), because it is a permanent thing that cannot be removed easily. What you want now may not be what you want 10 years later. In the 80s, shoulder pads are all the rage but now? People think it's ugly.. So, I never believed in inking my skin.

Back then when Money asked me to go with her, deep down I was like "No, I don't think we should do it", but it was the stage of our lives where we are angsty rebellious teenagers and wanna do things like drink, club, smoke (though I never tried smoking cos I don't like the smell and it's lame to pay money to kill yourself slowly), also it was a very difficult period of my life cos my parents are going through an ugly divorce and my ex-boyfriend was a big time asshole, so I was like, "FUCK IT! LET'S DO IT!".

Thank God we couldn't decide on the design. I remember us sitting in the computer lab (back then there was no smartphones) in Singapore Poly's Business School scrolling through pictures of tattoos and debating which one is nice. Joyce was trying her hardest to talk us out of it. Haha! Good times.. Well, in the end we went for a belly button piercing together at Heeren because we cannot decide what design and where to tattoo it. If not I will have a tattoo that I regret for life now..

I think the earrings has nickel in it because after wearing them for 5mins to take pictures both of my ear lobes are kinda red and feels itchy! Dammit. I hope I won't have too much trouble with the earrings during our pre-wedding photoshoot and actual day ceremony.

Farewell High Tea for Sangeeta

Sangeeta is my best buddy at work. We don't like to gossip or backstab others, just prefer to do our job well and not get involved in any of the usual office politics or gangs. You can say we formed our own "Neutral gang". Well, we do grouse and nag about our colleagues to each other, but never spread the gossips or rumours that we hear.. always the "Really? I don't know.." reply when other people ask us anything.

We joined AMEX together and went through our 1 month training together, talking the shuttle bus to Harbourfront after work and taking the train home together (she used to stay near Little India, I used to stay at Boon Keng).

Especially when we were the first two persons that were on the night shift duty from December 2011 till June 2012. Previously our office is only opened from 8am-12am and for 8hours, the calls were routed to our Sydney office.. then they wanted to take over entirely and asked for volunteers so both of us volunteered. Partly for the money, and also because we can work together. 

Those days were fun because it's just the two of us in the office at night.. Though the work was crazy because we had to answer 200 to 300 emails between us within 9 hours, we worked well together as a team and had no issues over who did what or who did more. She was really good in flight quotations so she handled all the flight enquiries and requests. I am good in hotels and sightseeing options so I did all of that. Together, we were unbeatable! Fast, efficient, no-mistakes and no problems. 

I shared with her my problems about my relationship, my parents and my life. She always shared with me her secrets and worries about her life. We don't have to worry that the other party will go round using the information as gossip fodder cos that's not us. It was us against the world (well, it felt like that) and it was fun! Late night Mcdonalds supper, pizza parties during the weekend.. 

Afterwards we had to split up due to different shift timings.. then she was promoted to the Resolution Team (that handles complaints and escalation cases) and we spent lesser time together at work. She had new friends and I have Le bf, so we also did not meet up as often outside of work, but the bond we forged during the times we spent together was unbreakable. 

She will always come over to my desk to ask how I was, how is Le bf and how are my parents. Usual 3 questions. My usual 3 answers are "Good, very good, and mehhhhhh". Then she will roll her eyes and laugh, hug me and go back to her work.

Unfortunately she has to go back to India cos her son is bigger now and she has to go back and look after him. She's really a very good mother because she sends back majority of her salary to her family in India and scrimps and saves on herself..

She accompanied me to Vivocity today to meet Le bf after our high tea cos I was meeting him for movie and she wants to say goodbye to him too.. She is genuinely happy for the both of us and it's just too bad she couldn't stay till our wedding before she flies back (though I am still praying that she can come back for our wedding). She always nagged at me to find a good husband, nagging and nagging at me like a mother will do though she's only 3 years older than me. And she's so overjoyed when I told her Le bf and I are getting married cos that's one of her greatest wish - to see me marry well. *tears*

We actually hugged each other and cried outside GV.. not very glam, but we didn't care cos we really love each other a lot. :*(

I treated her high tea at Equinox. She's quite fussy over food cos she's vegetarian, but luckily there's prata and lots of her favourite fruits!

She was so happy & touched that I wore the dress she bought for me in October 2011 for my birthday. :) It's a very nice dress and she insisted in buying it for me cos she said it suits me (though she wanna buy for herself but she said I look better in it and want to see it on me since she can't wear it. HAIYO!). This is also the dress which I wore to meet Le bf's parents for the first time in March 2012. My lucky dress. ^_^

I am gonna miss you woman!!! This is not the last goodbye! We will meet again, either in Singapore, Delhi, or somewhere in the world! Wish you happiness and may God bless you in everything that you do! *muacks*

Operation "Hack Jasmine's Xbox360"

I bought an Xbox360 from Perth without realizing that it's region locked!

Brendan also can't believe it slipped his mind (he was with me when I bought it) that there are different versions of Xbox360 and Australia is different from Singapore. Something to do with the code or something.. some techie shit which I don't understand or care about, but I can't play the Viva Pinata game which we bought in Singapore!

We bought the game last year before I even have the Xbox because the game is 7 years old and it's no longer available for sale anymore cos the game is too old. We found it in a gameshop's second-hand shelf for $18 and Le bf just bought it for me to keep till I buy my Xbox.

The only reason I want to have a Xbox is because of Viva Pinata game. Seriously! So when he put in the game and it doesn't work, I was sooooo disappointed I actually sulked on my bed for 30mins in silence... LOLOL! He kept telling me sorry because he should have checked before he let me buy the Xbox, but it's not his fault lah.. Who would have thought? Cos he doesn't have an Xbox too (He's a Playstation fan) so he wouldn't know about the Xbox.

Our Xbox360 avatars! :)

We can only create Avatars and go online onto the Xbox community but we cannot play any games. Kua kua kua.

So how to solve this problem? We cannot play any of the original games that is bought in Singapore. We cannot order games from Australia cos it's so troublesome and shipping is expensive..

White elephant sitting in the corner of my room..

Long story short, Le bf decided to hack the console. We wanna "support" Microsoft and buy original games but the stupid console is region locked! What can we do but hack it since we cannot refund it and buy a new set in Singapore? 

Le bf had to study and research how to hack the Xbox360 cos apparently it is more challenging to hack than the Nintendo Wii (Le bf has that and he hacked it in no time). For the Xbox360, he needs to buy some special equipment or program called the Wasabi and he has to dismantle the whole thing and cut the wire mesh and God-knows what else... he explained the process to me and as usual, I blanked out lah.. Techie stuff just sound gibberish to me.

However Le bf said that even if we hack it, I will still be unable to play the Viva Pinata game cos it can only play downloaded games on the external hard-disk or region compatible disc.

So, he did some techie-magic and managed to download the PC version of Viva Pinata on my laptop. He was face-palming himself cos there's a PC version all along and if he downloaded that for me, we did not even have to buy the Xbox360! LOLOL! 

Luckily, I want the Xbox360 for another reason now, apart from Viva Pinata - Dance Central & Just Dance! Playing it on Nintendo Wii is just not as fun as the Kinect! So all's well ends well! Now I can play the Viva Pinata on my laptop (my garden is flourishing!!) and Le bf can download all the other games that we like to play without spending money to buy the games! ^_^

Le bf brought the console to his office to dismantle it and took pictures of the process.

He brought it back home to show me how it works. He was so excited like a little boy and so proud of his achievement that he managed to hack it successfully without spoiling the console.. I never had a doubt that he will fail because he's good at such stuff. :)

Can't wait for the chance to play it!! ^__^

Thank you Le bf! Love you love you love you!!

Peramakan Katong

Had dinner with Le bf & Nat at PeraMakan Katong earlier.

Had high expectations for the Babi Pontey but it was so disappointing.. 

It was quite expensive too. Just a few dishes and it's SGD100 for 3 of us!

Only good thing was the Durian paste. The icekachang's syrup was good but the ice was too coarse.

Proves that not all food bloggers are honest, cos this place has a high rating on many food bloggers' blogs but it won't even get 2/5 stars if I were to really use my usual standards to critique it.

Le bf said I should go and be a food blogger and "tell it like it is". Told him it's not financially viable because I am so fussy and most of the food in Singapore will end up in the shit list and no one will dare to invite me for food tasting. LOL! But he said I can be one of the honest, incorruptible food reviewer because if the food is bad, even if you pay me I will still refuse to eat it. Heh.

After dinner Le bf had to send me to work and it's my lunch time now (at 2.30am - 3.30am).. gonna go back to the mountain of emails so I can go home on time at 6.30am later. I've never ever left on time before since I started this fucked-up night shift and I am just so burnt out right now.

My pretty rainbow bag

I have retired my red Burberry handbag and is currently using the rainbow Coach bag I bought in Las Vegas. It is so colourful and the shape is just perfect. I also love the middle portion with the clasp!

So far I've received many envious comments on my bag.. everybody is telling me it's so pretty and they want something like that too. :) Awww...

Duffy & Shelly really makes it look cuter huh? I seldom hang bears or keychains on my bags but these two just fits in so perfectly.

Chloe without her ponytail

It's been a long time since I post pictures of Chloe! 

I miss tying her hair everyday into a ponytail and putting ribbons on her.

In the past, I did say that Maltese should have long hair & I diss owners who shave their Maltese and refuse to let them have long coat because they are lazy to groom and comb them everyday.

I've kept Chloe's hair long & silky for a long time, but the weather in the past few months is just crazy hot and I can't bear to see her pant & suffer in her long coat, so I have to scrap my principles and snip off her hair.

She's happier with shorter hair but there is a limit to how short we can cut, because if my groomer cuts it to short (buzz cut), she will get grumpy and sulk for days. LOLOL!

Hope the weather will turn cooler soon as we head into the end of the year so I can let her grow out her hair. I'm considering bringing her for our wedding photoshoot, but I don't think her fur can grow long enough for the shoot cos we have to do it by end of June or early July.

Delaying the date of the shoot because I have not found my bridal dress yet!!! Fingers crossed that I can find one soon!

Le bf's Bento

Le bf went to his friend's house today for a Bento Party. The host prepared the food and materials for everyone to make their own Bento set for lunch! How creative & fun is that??

This is the Bento that he made!

She even prepared a nice place-mat so they can take nice "professional" pictures of their own Bento. Awwww.... It really looks very well done and not home-made at all!

I wanna have a Bento Party too! Maybe for my birthday this year? :) Well, I'll be in Maldives for our honeymoon on my actual birthday but I might have an early celebration..  We'll see how.. By then I will be out of the night shift and staying with Le bf! So happy! :)

Operation "Save Jasmine iPhone Part 2"

See Part 1 here.

Last year Le bf (who wasn't my bf then) fixed my 3Gs after I've used it for 2 years++. I changed my phone in August 2012 to the iPhone 4s and now barely 1 year on.. the battery is cui (spoilt) again. Seriously!!!?!?

The battery level will deplete like crazy! One moment it is 100%, send a few Whatsapp message and it drops to 60%. Next minute it will just shut down by itself, and when you plug in the charger it will show the battery bar at 80%. Super irritating and maddening cos it just shuts down suddenly and is super unreliable! 

Grrrr... 

We ruled out the phone having software issues because we tried all the "R"s. Reset, restart, restore as new and all the troubleshooting steps. With my knowledge of the iPhone (however limited, but at least I was an AppleCare consultant for 6 months!! LOL!) + Le bf's techie skills, we concluded it's a hardware problem and we were right. 

The battery is bloated from relying too much on the portable charger which has irregular voltage charging or something..  Le bf said I rely too much on my Eneloop which caused the phone to behave so crazy. Well, the original battery life is so lousy so I have to rely on my portable charger! My usage for my phone is really little cos I only use it for Whatsapp, Twitter & Instagram. I don't watch videos or play games on it!

He doesn't want me to go and change to a refurbished set because he said battery is easy to change and we don't know what other problems a refurbished unit may have. Might end up with another phone which is more problematic with my current one.

So, Le bf ordered a new replacement battery for me from somewhere (he has all these sort of weird lobang) and brought it over to my place to fix it for me. 

I was actually sleeping when he came over a few days ago (cos I am working in the midnight shift), but I forced myself to wake up and take my camera to take picture of what he's doing so I can blog about it. Hahahaha!

He said the 4S is easier to dismantle compared to the 3Gs.. I went to my old blog entry to see what he did and realized it's true, because there's not as many screws in the 4S.

I actually dozed off a few times cos I was so tired, but I remembered him trying really hard to pull the battery out because it has a very strong double side tape or something at the back of it and he was like "oh shit oh shit I am gonna spoil it", but I was too tired to really panic so I just ignored him and snoozed.. LOL!

Old battery vs the "new battery"

He said the new battery is an original iPhone 4S battery but it's not exactly brand new per se because a brand new original battery is so expensive, it will make more sense to buy a new phone instead.

He don't trust the generic battery either, though they are dirt cheap, because those may not work and might spoil the phone.

So... I think this battery he got is from an original iPhone 4S that is a refurbished unit or maybe it dropped off the back of a truck in China or something.. LOL!

Anyway, thank you Le bf for saving my iPhone again! It is working perfectly now! I've been monitoring it for a few days and there's no more problems anymore! :)

Mother's Day Celebrations

I ordered two cakes from Cremeberry for Mother's Day Celebrations today. One is for Janice in our cellgroup and the other one is for Mama Chew. I know about Cremeberry when my sister sent me a picture of the Despicable Me Minion cake that they made. Mad cute. After they sponsored Xiaxue's housewarming, they had more exposure and became more well-known.

Honestly the cake is not very fantastic. It tasted like cake mix (instant) and the frosting is too sweet. It's also not cheap as each cake is SGD52, but at least it looks nice.

In March, I've paid a deposit to them for a Dessert Table and Churros Live Station during our church wedding. Hopefully the desserts will taste better than the Mother's Day cake.

Few weeks ago I make mini flag buntings to put on the cakes.

One for Janice, one for Mama Chew.

This is the cake I bought for Janice with the buntings.

Mama Chew's one is more complicated because I added her name in and it is 2 lines instead of 1 line.. However I don't know what happened but her bunting was spoilt!! I was so upset because I did not have enough time to fix it or make another one!

I finished work at 7am today, went to collect the cake went to church, went to cellgroup and only slept at 3pm. Had to wake up at 5.30pm to bath and get ready and go to Le bf's office to collect the cake (cos the fridge at his home is full and the cake must be refrigerated), then go to Orchid Country Club to have dinner with the family.. So that's 2.5hours of sleep! Best of all, after dinner I HAVE TO GO BACK TO WORK AT 9.30PM!

I was so tired, grouchy and when I saw the bunting was spoilt I nearly broke down and cried.. luckily Le bf was there to comfort me and he told me to forget about it because Mama Chew will be happy with the cake with or without the bunting.

This shift really sucks. I am so tired out when I am not in the office and I spend all of my time sleeping or working.

#NoLife
#BurntOut
#TiredOfWorking

Family Picture! ^__^

Mama Chew & Papa Chew!

They always happen to wear the same colour clothes.. well, most of the time. When I say "Ooh! Same colour!", Mama Chew will give a really cute shy smile and say "No lah! Not planned!". 

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful future mother-in-law! Le bf has told me many times "Mama loves you so much woah!", and it's true! He is still surprised (yet happy) on the many occasions when Mama Chew show her love for me, like how she buys my favourite food, debone the fish for me, ask about me, etc. Papa Chew is a man of little words but I feel and know that he cares for me too.

I feel so blessed and happy, I just want to cry sometimes.. My own parents never showed me this kind of unconditional love and concern before and to have 2 people loving me like their own daughter even before I am Le bf's wife is just so.. so overwhelming. :') I believe God is working his miracle and He gives me such wonderful parents-in-law to compensate for the lack of love I received from my own parents. Le bf's sisters are really sweet and nice to me too. God bless all of them!

Meetup with SIM friends

Mett our SIM classmates (Le bf's clique) for dinner today!

Super happy cos we went to Omakase Burger and it's my favourite burger joint in Singapore! :) The boss is really nice and friendly and their food is good! However today's food is a bit off the mark, maybe because there is a long queue and the kitchen is overwhelmed. Usually we go during weekdays evenings so there's not much queue and the food gets served quickly. Today the fries were overcooked,  the queues are very long and we waited a long time for our food too.. So, my advice is to go during off peak periods.

The last time we met the gang was in last September during Le bf's birthday and the next time we meet will be our wedding in September! Time really flies! Everyone is very excited for our upcoming wedding and we can really feel the love and excitement. :)

Our Honeymoon Plans

I am so busy with work that I barely have enough time to sleep, let alone plan for our wedding.

I volunteered for the midnight shift because I thought that I can handle the emails and minimal calls during the night and have some free time to do some wedding planning research.. cos the previous 3 months I had to cover the midnight shift for 2 days a week when the midnight shift colleague is on her off days and it was manageable.

Ever since I started taking the night shift, from the very first day... it has been crazy busy! Partly also they brought forward the shift timing by 1.5hours to cover the busy period so I have to take a lot of calls in that time slot and work on the requests before I can go and do all the emails for the entire team who is at home sleeping! Sometimes I have to wait till 4hours later before I have the time to breathe and read through my inbox which is usually full of requests from other colleagues to call this hotel, that hotel or some other endorsements.

The past 2 weeks were just horrible!!! I had to stay back minimum 2hours each day, work through my break times and lunch hour (yea, lunch at 2.30am, go figure). And it's non-stop typing through the night! I am a fast typist so it's not about my speed but the workload!

Most annoying of all, people who have never worked the night shift before still dare to talk shit about how easy it is to work at night cos it's so free and we can watch YouTube videos yet still get paid. HELLO? Fuck lah! I AM ALONE AT NIGHT IN THE ENTIRE OFFICE! One person! If it's so easy, why don't YOU come and do it? Why? No balls? Scared of ghost? Fuck you lah! I really want to stab people in the eye with my pencil and twist it in deep to poke their brains cos they really don't use their brains to think. Working the night shift is tough firstly cos our schedules is upside down. Our human bodies are programmed to sleep during the night and be active during the day. We are going against that timing and that's already so difficult... plus with this kind of heavy workload.. Wah lao! I've worked night shifts before and this is the toughest one yet!

God please give me strength to not have murderous thoughts towards imbeciles who don't use their brains.

Happy thoughts.. happy thoughts......

Today I wanna share about our honeymoon planning, not about the kind of lousy colleagues I have (some are really good, but there are the shitty ones that just ruin my mood).

When we started planning for our wedding, I immediately thought of our honeymoon!! It has to be somewhere really memorable because both of us travel a lot together (and we plan to travel even more after we are married), so our honeymoon has to be "special". Come to think of it, Le bf and I really flew to many places in the past 1.5 years! He must have broken the record for "most frequent flier with Jasmine" or something. LOL! And we don't know any other couple who has travelled as much as both of us in the span of 1.5years, especially to far away countries.. Really blessed. ^_^

Since many people know that we always travel because of our pictures on Facebook and Instagram (some even dubbing us "Le Couple who travels"), there is already quite a lot of interest and curiosity on where we will be going for our honeymoon.

Le bf is luckier than me.. he has been to more countries and cities than me with his family. My parents always bring us to Genting Highlands and Star Cruise so they can gamble at the casinos.. I get to go to many nice places when I was working as a tourleader but that's for work.. he goes on holidays! His parents bring them to faraway places like USA, Europe, Egypt, blah blah.. So lucky lah! But he says it's not fun cos he was young and more concerned about playing gameboy or something.. Hahahahaha!

Long ago, when I was a little girl I wanted to go to Paris or Los Angeles for my Honeymoon. Main reason was there are Disneylands in both cities! LOL! And of course Paris is the romantic capital of the world. However I've already been to Paris twice, once alone and once with Le bf last year. We just went to Los Angeles in January this year and most probably planning another trip next year so that's also out.

A lot of people go to Europe for their honeymoon but I don't want to do that. It's not special anymore! Especially since I've been there with Le bf before the honeymoon! I do want to go travelling around Europe with him, especially Italy, but just not for our honeymoon.. Also, it's gonna be quite hectic.. driving around, taking trains, changing hotels, lugging my shopping bags around (heh), etc. Europe is for shopping! For our honeymoon, I want to chill, relax, laze around in bed with him and cuddle all day long without any distractions!! =D

So I thought : "Why not go on a cruise?". Not just any boring lousy Star Cruise or the lower end cruise liners, but a luxury cruise that won't bankrupt us because the ultra luxurious cruise goes upwards to 5-6 figure sums.

My first choice was SeaDream Yacht Club.

http://www.seadream.com/

They did a presentation in my office last year and I was convinced that it will be a good choice for a honeymoon trip because of the staff to passenger ratio, unique itineraries and beautifully appointed suite rooms.

The meals and activities are all-inclusive, and there is no stress of changing hotels each night because we will wake up to a different city everyday and since the boat is small enough, it can maneuver through smaller rivers and hug the coastline so we can see more beautiful scenery!

Rome - Malaga (7days)

Dubrovnik - Rome (5days)

I saw two itineraries on their website in October that I am interested in and they both go to Italy! :) I contacted the sales rep and his boss was very sweet and offered us discounted rates because it's our honeymoon but....... after checking my leave application and discussing with Le bf, we have to give up this plan because we will have to fly in to the cities for the cruise and we have to add in some days in front/back so we can have more time to tour the place. 5 or 7 days is just too short to properly have a good holiday if we are flying so far out. Our flying time is already 1 full day and we need to pre-book or post-book hotels according to the itinerary.

I don't have enough leave because I am using up 2 weeks for our wedding. 1 week before and 1 week after. I need to ensure I am not bogged down by work stress cos I know if I mix work + wedding stress together I will just explode or kill someone. Moreover, I need the time after the wedding to pack up all my stuff to move in with Le bf. Moreover, I also used up a lot of my leave for our USA trip in January and Perth last month. Considering I was in USA for 2 weeks and Perth for 2 weeks plus 2 weeks for the wedding, I am already very lucky to have enough leftover for our honeymoon without taking unpaid leave! (Company don't really encourage or allow us to take unpaid leave anyway)

So I had to abandon that plan... After discussing with Le bf, we agreed on a "maximum 1 week" holiday instead of a long one because of my leave constraints & his work commitments.

Also, October is a very neither here no there season. It's Autumn in many countries but the in-between period towards Winter. I am not keen in both seasons. I prefer Spring time where there's lots of flowers and no snow. I hate snow. It's fun the first few times you see it but after a while it becomes a pain in the ass cos you have to suit up every time you want to go out and if you walk over the roads where the snow melts and freezes into a thin layer of ice, each step brings your heart up to your mouth because it's so damn dangerous! I've fall before in the past when I did not wear proper shoes with grip, but even with good grip shoes you still can fall if you are not paying full attention to the floor! I don't want to walk with my eyes on the floor, fearing for my life... I want to look around the and enjoy the scenery! I don't want to run into a heated shopping centre to warm myself and out into the cold to brave the crazy winds.. No thank you! Shivering like a crazy woman and always finding warm places to hide is not my idea of a fun & romantic holiday.

Well, both of us really want to go to Japan during the Sakura Season.. I don't care that Korea, China, Taiwan even Washington DC also has Sakura trees.. It's just different in Japan. I've been there so many times but never seen the Sakura cos it's always the wrong season. Summer, Autumn and mostly Winter but never Spring. :(  Le bf and I always this dream to go for a month long self-drive holiday together in Japan. But it's the wrong season (6 months too late).. AND his parents + my dad are worried about the nuclear radiation scare that may affect my child-bearing ability or cause some unknown horror on our future child, so we have to abandon that dream until we have children.

#ShelveSakuraDreamAside #KeepOldFolksHappy

So the requirements for our honeymoon are:
1. Short duration (less than 6 days)
2. Short flying time (less than 6 hours)
3. Romantic
4. Relaxing
5. Luxurious

Two things I am very particular about when I go on holiday trips are the flights and accommodation, other than the company. That's the first thing.

I don't want to be stressed out or frustrated by flight delays, flight cancellations, long layovers, multiple connections, lost baggage, lousy service, horrible seats, etc etc at the beginning of the trip. . Also, I will not "rough it out" or stay in budget properties.  Well, it's a holiday trip so it has to be enjoyable! I didn't work so hard during my work days to be more stress on my holidays! I also don't want to go to nearby countries for 3 days 2 nights to "relax". Omg.. To properly relax, one must be out of their usual environment for at least 1 week. No work, no schedules, no stress. Go far far away and see the world! Why go Bangkok or Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur? It's the same as Singapore.. high rise buildings, pollution, many people.. Cheap shopping? It's all cheapo lousy quality stuff! You haven't seen the factory outlets in USA yet.. branded goods at reallllyyyy cheap prices. That's cheap and good! Why spend money to buy cheap but substandard goods that you won't use after a few times?!  =_=

And I work in the travel industry lah! I get to see so many nice hotels and places and also able to obtain agent rates discounts for my personal trip so why should I be "budget"? Best way to budget? STAY IN SINGAPORE! STAY AT HOME! Turn on the aircon, watch TV and eat junk food. Cheap, stressful and no need to plan anything.

I was grousing to Le bf  and asking him why do people not dare to venture further yet always complain about stuff. Why don't they dare to move out of their comfort zone? Go to somewhere faraway and see the world for themselves... The flight ticket to a further destination is more expensive but the prices for hotels/food there is cheaper or better than somewhere nearer! So if you go for a long trip, the price of the ticket is justifiable! Right?

They like to say "I have a lot of commitments, unlike you". Like hello??? I am the one living by myself for the past donkey years and for the past year I've paid SGD20000+ in rental fees! ONE YEAR! You all live with your parents!! Single!! No kids!! How much do you give your parents a month? I pay more than 50% of my salary to my rent so if you give your parents half your salary, then good for you. If not, why are you complaining about commitments?

He told me not everyone thinks like us and everyone has their own preferences and opinions.Well, true. So that's my opinion. Wanna be cheap? Stay at home. Don't go on a holiday and spam pictures of your trip to show off but stay in dodgy hotels and fly budget carriers and eat maggie mee in the rooms.

Take the holiday for yourself to relax and unwind, not to make others envy or jealous or to show off.

Well, it's not really easy to make me jealous cos I know how to be contended with life. I've already been to so many nice places and met so many nice people!! Moreover of the people I know have not even ventured out of Asia before! It's always the same old cities and boring places they repeatedly visit year after year after year. Buay sian ah?

Back to the topic..

Cracked my head over where to go because the countries that are within 6 hours flight from Singapore are mostly South East Asia countries. Even Japan is minimum 7 hours away!

Thought for a long while and I finally decided on Maldives! :) It's only 4.5hours away by flight yet feels like it's much further! However October is considered one of the peak season months so most of the hotels are quite expensive.. Good thing is the weather will be perfect and I think it's turtle hatching season!! :)

There are plenty of 5 star properties in Maldives so we are pretty spoilt for choice. Only main consideration will be the price because the rates range from USD1000 to USD5000 per night depending on the property and size of villa. That's for room and breakfast, excluding meals and transfers. Seaplane transfer is around USD150 to USD400 per person depending on how far the property is from Male (pronounced as Mah-lay) International Airport. A typical meal costs between USD60 to USD300 depending on how exclusive or special the meal and setting is. So for a 6 days 5 nights trip, you are looking at around SGD10,000 for a nice luxurious hotel, airport transfers and 2 way return flights on Singapore Airlines Economy class (excluding food & drinks).

Maldives is actually quite a "cliche" place for a Honeymoon. Think of Honeymoon destination and most likely the first thought will be "Maldives". Maybe it's the strong marketing & hype, like how you must buy a diamond ring to propose to your wife, but I will give it a shot because Tabby went on a honeymoon with Doug to Maldives earlier this year! She said the place was gorgeous but there's not much activities to do..

Well, exactly what I like! Nothing to do so we can be isolated from the world and just enjoy being newly weds! ❤❤❤ They stayed at the Hilton Maldives Iru Fushi Resort & Spa and it is a gorgeous property! However it has 221 rooms and that's too many for me... I need something more private, more smaller scale.

The usual safe option that most people choose is Club Med Kani because it is a full-board property where all the meals & free flow alcoholic drinks are provided (good for you if you love to drink, but Le bf & I don't drink alcohol so we are "paying" for something we don't need). The resort includes airport transfers and flights as a package deal but I don't need this because I like to book my own flights and have control over the booking (control freak alert). I think the biggest draw of this property is because sometimes they have 1 for 1 offers during off-peak season, buy 1 adult and 2nd adult is free, that sort of deal. There are 240 rooms at Club Med Kani and it is a family oriented resort with lots of kids running around. I want a quieter, more exclusive property where it's couple oriented.

Yes, I am such a fussy girl to please, I irritate myself sometimes.. LOL! That's why Le bf left the planning up to me provided I stay within the requirements that we agreed on.

Searched and searched and in the end I decided on Gili Lankanfushi, previously called the Soneva Gilli.

There's only a total of 45 villas and they are all over-water! :) I also got quite a good deal with them for a 5 nights stay! Super happy and excited for our trip!

I usually don't get so excited about my upcoming holiday trips and spam post pictures of the hotels or places but I MUST POST THESE PHOTOS!!! Cos I am so excited that I want you to feel excited for me too! Hahahaha!

 This is the Villa Suite that I booked for the trip..

Whole villa by itself over the water! :)

The bedroom

The living area

 Can just walk down to the beautiful ocean!! 

 Private sundeck

What I like most about the unit is that there is a private 2nd floor with a big day bed where we can snuggle and gaze at stars at night! The hotel will prepare our breakfast everyday to have it here or at one of the restaurants.

Can't wait!!!!!!

So we've booked and paid for the flights and accommodation! We are only going for the honeymoon 2 weeks+ after our wedding cos I will be moving in with Le bf and his family after the wedding and I need to pack my stuff and settle in. It's alright though cos we will be spending my birthday there!!

Come to think about it, another of my wish came true.. I always wanted to get married before I am 28 years old and it's gonna be fulfilled! My other wish is to have a baby before I am 30 years old!! Hahahaha! We are planning to wait for at least a year before trying for a baby and I hope that wish will be granted too! :)

Now I just need to find my bridal gown & wedding rings.. Eh yes, it's only 4 months+ to the wedding and we haven't found the dress yet.

Should I start to panic now?