31 March 2016

New Look Yo.

I have been wanting to 're-shape' ze hair for the longest time. Yes, if you have known me well enough (no need that well also actually), you would know that I appreciate the random need of cutting my hair, be it short like a boy or just do something weird with it. 

Okay, weird is not the right word because I would never be daring enough to dye my hair. 


Since I cannot do anything with my hair, I decided that I shall change the look of this web. 


I don't know since when but I have noticed that my color preference has changed quite a bit and as you can see it with your own eyes, it is pretty obvious what my favorite color is now. 


No, it's not white. 


I have decided to change some fonts here and there as well if you had not noticed it. Heh. 


Photo number one shows of an example of what this web is not. If really you are seeing this kind of font, please hit reload.



Photo number one

Photo number two is the correct one. If you think it's not so nice, also bo-pian already since you don't come see my web everyday also. Hah. I feel its quite nice lah, unless some kind souls want to help me re-design till super nice, that of course I don't mind. Hah.



Photo number two

Ah, I feel so satisfied now.


Weekend is here already okay bye now.

29 March 2016

Cash Rebate at ShopBack.com

Last Friday, a very good friend shared with us about this website whereby you can earn cash as you shop. So difficult to believe seriously. 

It means that when you spend money on Groupon, Zalora, Expedia, Agoda, AirasiaGo, Taobao, Foodpanda, eBay, Forever 21, Sephora and Cotton On (just to name a few - the list goes on seriously), you will earn some cash back/rebate/money. So, basically it works some sort like a discount for you later on. 


It's called ShopBack.com and it works as a third party website some sort I don't know the details of it. 




My first thought on this was this could be another those direct marketing kinda thing, but I decided to give it a try anyways. 


After-all, I was gonna book a few hotels for a few upcoming holidays anyways so might as well give this a try. They some more ask me to enjoy the best travel deals and me with travel deals are inseparable I tell you. 


So, I clicked on the link that Hui Jen sent to my email and from there, I just register (under him and immediately got a RM10 cash inside my account!) and shop via ShopBack.com and they redirected me to the original website. Our honeymoon was still not finalized so I decided to give this ShopBack a try on Expedia. The process is super simple. I clicked on Expedia and they re-directed me to the website and then it's all the same as any hotel bookings. 

So, this means that I earn cashback even when using Expedia coupons, as long as I go to Expedia via ShopBack. Simple okay. 

One thing you MUST do is to go to your desired websites through ShopBack, then only the link can track and you can earn your rebates yeah. 


Remember to go into whatever online websites that you want THROUGH ShopBack so you can earn back your rebates! 


The next day, I went into the website and checked again, and the cash rebate works from what they have claimed to be!




Apparently, it will take up to 48 hours for the cash-back to happen. I really like the website because I feel it's very easy to navigate around. They also have like series of FAQs where you can go read to know more, and I seriously think there is no losing in going through this website to do all the online shopping. Hah. 


It feels super fun because it feels like I'm helping myself to save. Hah. So I tell myself. Muthu, if you are reading this, don't worry. I don't do a lot of online shopping anymore okay. I sudah bertaubat. 


This is for sharing purposes. 


To help you get started, you can click HERE and get started with a ShopBack account. 


You will probably think that, "Aiya, this one sure she can earn money eh".


Yes, that is entirely true. I will earn RM5 for every friend that register through my link and RM400 if 40 of you decided to do so. Oh and you also get RM5 on your first purchase! Win!


However, in my most honest being, I actually find this website really work-able and really can earn cash-back okay so I am actually sharing this mainly because I would like you guys to be able to feel as happy as I was when I saw the rebate in my account. 


Another best thing is there are so many brands with ShopBack that you can now get your rebates from! SO THE VERY AMAZING!


Hello, you can get cashback even on internet plans such as TIME or TMNet or MAXIS also have and you also can get back your cash. 

get cashback even on internet plans I don't know about you, but this has officially became my new website other than my Just Sarah. Hah. 

Thank you Hui Jen! 


To those of you who just found out, YOU ARE MOST WELCOME! :)


And for those who already knew about this long time ago, SHAME ON YOU FOR NOT SHARING WITH ME! Heh. Kidding! Maybe not. Better late than never lah. 


Bye now. 

22 March 2016

Heaviest Me.

This is a sad post. 

Because I am a sad person today. 


Okay, more like yesterday but today only got time to post. Heh. 


I have about six more months to my one and only wedding and guess what I found out. 


TAKE A GUESS!


THE NUMBERS IN MY KG!


I tell you, it's absolutely ridiculous you know. 


This is by far my heaviest moment of my entire decades of life.


It's very chun-timing that I dug out a twenty cents coin from my purse near a weighing machine last night. Of course I inserted that coin into the machine, took out my flats and went on it like a boss. 


The number appeared within 2 seconds and I swallowed my saliva so many times trying hard not to believe what I just saw. 


Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little lot here but I have only six months. SIX!


You will not understand it but it's too short of a time to do anything. Hah. Not really lah. Still got time but I just really never want to go through this phase. 


So, what numbers came out?


Serious very chun-timing i tell you. 


49.5 kg. 


0.5 kg from hitting 50 kg. 


You know how mad that is? 


I have never NEVER gotten so high before so this is insane. I am indeed getting too comfortable with eating and not working out. This has got to stop. 


All my life, I have always been on the 45 kg range and went down to about 40 kg when I had my surgery. Since then, the range has gone up to 47 kg-ish and that I could take lah I guess. 


Now that it's 49.5 kg, FORGET IT!


No more so much fried stuff all. As painful as I feel right now having to sacrifice all of those, I think it's going to be worth it because I DO NOT WANT TO HATE LOOKING AT MYSELF ON MY WEDDING DAY. 


Of course for sure got cheat days here and there. Heh. For now, I don't feel like I wanna have cheat days yet. Last night I had salad for dinner. Today, I had mango and avacado salad for lunch and a hard boiled egg for teatime. I feel okay so far. Hah. 


I have also officially started my workout session alone at night using an exercise app called Seven. So far so good. Of course good lah cos I just started doing it last night. Heh. 


MUST CONTINUE TO BE MOTIVATED. 


Do you know Muthu has been hitting the gym everyday after work for weeks now? I'm going to follow his footsteps. No money to join gym nvm. Use app can already. 


I CAN DO THIS. 


LET'S DO THIS. 

14 March 2016

My SkinnyMint Story.

Many weeks ago, I posted a photo on Instagram on this Teatox thing that I was going to try but I didn't. I postponed it till today. Reasons why so:

  • I wasn't feeling well at that time so it would defeat the whole purpose of me finding out whether it will work because I would be feeling so blehh. 
  • I was going to have my period in 1 or 2 days time so the bloating on my tummy was probably due to the blood still inside me, waiting to gush out (TMI boys).
  • I was tied down with a lot of work stuffs and will most likely skip a tea or two because there isn't much space left in my memory drive.
  • Most important of all, I didn't feel like I wanted to experiment anything that time.
  • No mood.
So here I am now, feeling all ready to try this SkinnyMint experiment. 

What made me go for this experiment?

I have always felt really bloated ever since I went through the abdomen surgery and I've always looked for ways to reduce them. Nothing really worked. I suspect that when the doctors took my intestines to clean them (appendix perforated and toxin infected the whole area), they did not do a good job in placing them like how God had placed them in the beginning, hence the bloating that is so annoying. 

Or maybe those are just fats and I have a good excuse because of the intestines placement. Heh. 

I don't know from where I saw the advertisement on a Black Friday that they were offering a bunch of discounts based on a wheel. All I did was click 'SPIN' and before I knew it, I got a 20% discount on any purchase. 

Clever move really. 

I went into the website and chose the poison. 


That price, less 20% = RM75.92 (no shipping fee whatsoever).

The purpose of this tea is to help me (or you) to detox, with the tea that contains all natural ingredients. No nonsense in the mini bags okay. 

The Started Pack comes with 14 mini bags of Morning Boost Tea (one every morning for 14 days) and 7 mini bags of Night Cleanse Tea (one every two days).

It's such an expensive tea so I obviously not gonna spend more than RM100 to test this out. I think RM75.92 is a good price to see if this works. 

So here goes.


B E F O R E / D U R I N G

The first two days when I started on SkinnyMint tea, I went to toilet like ten thousand times I think and it's probably not solely because of the tea. I don't usually take in a lot of liquid so I guess by doing this, my kidney feels like it needs to be processed even more or something. Hah. 

So, I am supposed to drink the Morning Boost Tea every morning during breakfast and the Night Cleanse Tea every two days. 


One thing I realized about the Morning Boost Tea is that it opens up my appetite to eat breakfast. I usually don't eat anything in the morning, but somehow the tea makes me want to take at least a light breakfast, like a sandwich or something. So, I am guessing that it's good cos people always say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.


The Night Cleanse Tea is the bomb dei. 


Here's why.


It's not as nice to drink, maybe because of the herbs combo. Everytime when I have to drink it, I went, "Ughh!" The next day, confirm sure got output. 


The first few times, there were watery and then it slowly became more solid. The tummy aches first yes, that's how you know you need to do number 2. 



A F T E R 

It claims that it can reduce bloating, and I did realized that since I started on this tea experiment, I have been burping and farting a lot, so I guess it is doing what it says it will do. Reduce the bloating by getting rid of all the air inside. I have been struggling with air in my tummy since the surgery, so this tea actually makes me feel better.


In terms of detoxing, I don't think it's super effective. That's for me though. I know there are a lot of people who consumes a cup of coffee (minimum that is) every single day and not have any sleep-deprived effect or something, but for me, when I started taking the Morning Boost Tea everyday, I realized I have some minor trouble sleeping at night. 


I really don't know if it is related. 


Last year, I took a cup of green tea every single day and I had few days in a row of not getting any proper sleep. It was only when I stopped the green tea craze that I had good sleep again.


Also, I feel that my number 2 has been really hard and a pain (in the behinds!) to go through and I feel it's because I've been consuming too much tea. I feel only lah, no scientific evidence all. 


So, I have since stopped the tea and I felt normal again, sort of.  


And, I was really scared that I can only do number 2 whenever i have the Night Cleanse Tea. On my first week of trying it, I will only poop when I have the tea the night before. Now, I poop almost everyday without the help of Night Cleanse Tea.


It may work for others, but for me I think I will give it a pass. No more for me. So expensive some more. Heh. It was a good experiment nonetheless. 


Now I know that no amount of tea or slimming pills (not that I've tried before) can help make my body be more toned. It's all gonna be through hardwork in the gym and exercise. Such a difficult truth to swallow. 


So, here's my two-cents on SkinnyMint Tea. 


Ohh I also took like before-and-after photo but looks same to me only so I shall just not post it here. Heh. 

06 March 2016

Wedding Update 7: Bridal Package from My Dream Wedding.

UPDATED AFTER THE WEDDING

We both agreed with My Dream Wedding was one of the big mistakes that happened - I was super quick to say yes to taking the package from them just because they looked really promising and their shop looked amazing with the dresses on display - only to find out later that whichever wedding gowns you choose that is on display is upon extra charge. Also, I pointed to a dress that I liked and asked if I could have that as part of the package and she gave me a yes. When it was our turn to choose the dresses, they told me that this dress has been off the shelf for so long already. Heh. 

Not only that, we were not allowed to enter the "room" that keeps all their gowns. I only shared with them what some of my preferences were and they were the ones who will bring out the gowns one at a time. I remembered trying less than 15 pieces and they told me that was it. 


Despite screwing with our travelling plans and time in KL, they didn't offer to compensate or add anything. Even when I needed to change a gown last minute, they went ahead to charge me about RM1,000. Customer service, zero. 


Let's not get to the photography itself. Many times, we told the photographer the kind of photos we wanted and not want (like at the beach kind of photo), he insisted that we go ahead and take - wasted our time and energy seriously. 


So, in summary, I will not recommend My Dream Wedding to any couples out there. NEVER. 


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I'm starting to feel that we got a very good deal. I may be wrong though. They may have given more upgrades and complimentary items to other couples. Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I doubting this package? It's already too late now because we've paid for everything already! Oh well. We are happy with what has been given to us. 

I hope this is helpful for all brides-to-be in the future. Something for you all to compare, and hopefully, also successfully demands for more upgrades/complimentary items :)


Also, I will be sharing with you on the overall comments and feedback that I've received since I posted on this. All from people that we know of personally and from our experiences of course :)

Later on that below.

My Dream Wedding @ Bridal Fair Gurney Paragon Mall, Penang
13-14 February 2016


PRE-WEDDING PHOTOSHOOT

Inclusions:

Kuala Lumpur or Penang or any overseas location (if my money grows on tree)
Service of a professional photographer and a make-up artist
3 Deluxe wedding gown
1 Selected Swarovski wedding gown
2 set of tuxedos
1 hand bouquet (artificial flowers)
1 bridal make-up with 4 hairdos
All accessories  and hair veil available for photoshoot day only
Fake eyelashes (the only bridal shop at the bridal fair that includes this)

A selection of 40 poses from 150 shots
40 selected photos in digital file (soft-copy)
12' by 12' wedding album (10 pages - 40 poses) - Cover stand-alone album from HK
8' by 12' soft diamond album (19 out of the 40 selected poses)
24' by 30' printed photo with desired frame
10' by 14' table top photo with desired frame (2 pieces)
50 pieces of 4R (5 out of selected 40 poses)

Exclusions:

Transportation service
Toll and bridge fee
Entrance fee to selected locations (if needed)
Body Foundation
Ampoule (acts like a primer, to hold make-up for a longer time)

ACTUAL WEDDING DAY

Inclusions:

1 Platinum wedding gown
2 Deluxe wedding gown
2 set of tuxedos
2 set of accessories
1 set of car decoration
20' by 30' signature roll for guest
1 DVD slideshows (chosen 40 poses)


Exclusions:

Make-up and hair-do
Body Foundation.
Ampoule (acts like a primer, to hold make-up for longer time)
White bow shirt for groom
Nude bra for bride


It is the most common thing that people shared with us and that would be on the extra expenses that you will find yourself having to pay, that ranges from a higher category of dress that you want or the more photos that you would want to have. Something like that. 

Be very careful with all the extra charges because before you know it, it could mount up to the same cost with the package original price. 

However, we were told by Bennie on some of the things that is not given and will be charged if you choose to have it. 

Extra soft-copy with touch up (RM100 per pose)
Request to change gown after confirmation (RM300 per piece)
Photo-shooting on Saturday, Sunday or Public Holiday (RM250) - waived for us yay!
Extra poses into album and soft-copy with touch up (RM160 per pose).
Early collection of photos in advance (RM500) 

TOTAL DAMAGE: RM4,988 (GST included)

Now that you have known of all the items that is part of the RM4,988 package, I bet you also want to know if the "extra charges on everything" is really true or it's just something that only some people will experience.

Based on our experience, this is very true. I don't know if the consultants earn extra income by up-selling their dresses or photos and even if they don't, they sure seemed really pumped up to get people to pay more.

And I would like to believe that this does not happen to only My Dream Wedding because my sister was with another bridal brand and same case also. Friends using other bridal brands also gave the same advice so I guess this must be the standard "sales & marketing" tactic in the bridal industry.

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Number 1
My Dream Wedding:
Wedding gowns displayed on the shelves are free to choose as part of the package. 

Friend:

All photo-shoot gowns are kept in a room and we're not allowed to go in to choose. They will take them out, batch by batch.

Me:

Wedding gowns displayed outside are only to be selected for actual day wedding, and not for pre-wedding photo-shoot. Extra RM1,000 will be charged if you wish to select from shelves for photo-shoot. We obviously did not choose any from the outside.

Summary:

They tend to be very general with the verbal offerings/deals. ASK MORE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS.

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Number 2
My Dream Wedding:
After all upgrades/additional items mentioned, they casually mentioned about an additional signature roll that they will give just for you. 

Friend:

Yes, we have that.

Me:

Yes too. We realized that we didn't need the signature rolls (which by the way comes in either pink or purple) and asked to change it with a table photo frame. 

Summary:

It's not just for you. Don't be naive, like us. Hah. IT'S ALL PART OF THE PACKAGE ALREADY!Change with another item if you don't need the roll.

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Number 3
My Dream Wedding:
We will upgrade the current big frame to a bigger one and two more smaller frame for table top showcase.

Friend:

They gave me one big frame if I remembered correctly. 

Me:

We were given 1 big and 2 small table top ones, as promised.

Summary:

This one may be dependent on the salesperson that served you. I think in this case we may be given more from others? Again, it may be the same as others.

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Number 4
My Dream Wedding:
You can choose 1 Swarovski wedding dress for the pre-wedding photo-shoot, upgraded from Deluxe.

Friend:

They did not give me any Swarovski wedding gown.

Me:

They presented to us 5 Swarovski wedding dress options to choose from, of which I chose one, after trying all five.

Summary:

They may have again casually mentioned about it. So, you must REMEMBER WHAT YOU'VE BEEN TOLD AND ASK FOR IT. 

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Number 5
My Dream Wedding:
In Malaysia, you can opt to take your pre-wedding photos either here in Penang or in KL. Discussion will be made in KL office if you wish to do it there.

Me:

Okay! As excited as we were, they did not mention anything about photographer and makeup artist having no transport. They only just say 'transportation service is not included' to which of course we understood as our own transport. Turns out, we actually have to fetch their crews around.

Summary:

ASK MORE QUESTIONS. DO NOT ASSUME IT'S PROVIDED JUST BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T TALK ABOUT IT. 

I'm beyond thankful that people shared their experiences with me, because if not, we wouldn't have known about having to transport their photographer and makeup artist, using our own car yes. 


This is actually not like a really bad comment. It's just they should have talked us through on this. 


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Number 6
My Dream Wedding:
Try the wedding dresses and choose the one you like for the actual wedding day, and we will book it for you.

Friend's Direct Friend:

A week before our wedding, they called and told us that the dress we originally booked earlier has been booked by other couple and that we had to choose another dress, which also means additional costs. We ended up paying extra RM6,500 because it was a week before the wedding and we panicked. 

Me:

This sounds insane. This is so not right and this is not the way to earn money okay. Now that we've been warned on this, we are making sure that we book our dresses earlier and make sure this doesn't happen by writing it out on the deal after choosing the dress. If not, I'm going to call all my lawyer friends on this. Hah. Judson, be on a standby okay? Heh. 

Summary:

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THEIR 'PROMISES'.

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Number 7
My Dream Wedding:
Promised that the exact location that we wanted to have our photoshoot at was available and need no prior appointment or entrance fee.

Me:

You can read the entire post on the incident here. Madness. 

Summary:

I think they were taking things quite lightly and not double-check on these locations. You should make sure with the team. 

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Number 8
My Dream Wedding:
Choosing gowns for actual day ceremony and dinner. 2 pieces from normal selection and 1 from Platinum series. Groom gets 2 sets of tuxedo. 

Me:

I knew what color I wanted so it was easier to narrow down the dresses. I saw one that I realy really loved but was told that someone else have booked it. Boo! So, proceed to try on other dresses and felt that they didn't have a lot of choices. Most gowns were kept in a room and only staffs can enter the room. The gowns displayed outside is quite limited, especially the Platinum series one. I left the shop feeling like there should be more dresses that I could choose from. Maybe because of the color that I chose. Hm.

For the tuxedos, please do not expect to get the nice formal typical type of tuxedo. It's either long tail tux or patterned tux. Not many choices to choose from to be honest.


Summary:

You should maybe have other colors in mind when selecting the dresses as they really do have quite limited choices, and I wouldn't say that their designs are spectacular. I was not very impressed. 

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Number 9
My Dream Wedding:
Making appointments for photo-choosing and gown-selecting. 

Me:

It was quite difficult for us to make date/time appointment as we both only can go after 530pm on weekdays and they are usually full on weekends, but I was quite impressed on their service because they were very helpful to make it work for both of us, so win.

Summary:

I think their business is doing really well because there's always so many people in and out of the shop whenever we were there. However, their service is pretty good. I like! 

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Number 10
My Dream Wedding:
Making appointments for photo-choosing and gown-selecting. 

My sister:

You will find it very difficult to choose photos within the limit and they will sell to you per piece basis and offer you "special" package. 

Me:

This was so funny. There were so many of you who warned us on this and told us that it's almost impossible to choose only 40 photos and once we both disagree, they will come out with special offers. Thanks to you guys, we were mentally prepared to choose only 40 photos. The consultant tried to convince us on some photos that we didn't want because we got chun-chun 40 photos. She even tried to sell us a special package of RM1,000 for a huge plain light brown wood frame with 10 extra photos. SIAU MEH! We were shocked at the price that she mentioned. She lowered it down to I think about RM300 but it was a no for us. We were not going to spend more money on this. Hello. We already spent RM5,000 on this entire thing so no thanks.

Summary:

Before you select the photos with your better-half, please discuss and agree on what you guys really want. It will really help with the entire process. It's like once both of you are on the same page, no one else can be featured in that page. Stand strong people! :)

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I guess if we could give a summary of it, we won't say we hate to the core of the services provided by My Dream Wedding. I think they are not perfect and they are probably not looking into becoming the best bridal brand in Penang. I think they have accepted too many clients that they should because their dresses seems to always be very limited due to the reason 'someone else have booked it'.

I don't know. I may not be fair to them by saying that.

I have people emailing me to ask on whether they should choose My Dream Wedding and it's the one question that I cannot give an answer to.

I feel that people will most likely be drawn to them because of the posh image that they try to portray. Just a look at their shops and you will feel like this bridal company confirm is famous/popular/well-to-do and with the price that they offer, you will feel like it's a good catch. 

Is it really a good catch? 

If I was given another choice, I would survey around more before deciding. They won my vote (in the beginning) because they took us to their shop and showed us all the fancy dresses and their 'quite-glamour' looking shop. Immediately I felt so princess-ish. Hah. 

But all is good with us because we're not haters like that. Heh. 

If you feel like this is the one, then this is the one. Despite all the negative feedback from people, you just need to make sure you do your part and be very careful because all bridal shops tend to have the same 'behavior'. Hah.

ENJOY EVERY BIT OF THIS PLANNING OKAY?

Fun times ahead :)

I decided to update on this post with more experience-sharing so you will not go through the same thing we did. Despite all the things that we went through with them, I think in the end it's where you stand and how you "take care" of yourself that will make all the difference. Heh. For our case, I'm thankful that we're not the kind of people who will demand for a lot of things when they screw something up or show angry faces whenever they sort of disappoint us.