Wedding Update 10: onemustardseed

"Why you need to take engagement photoshoot?"

Why not?

Initially, it was supposed to be for our pre-wedding but later on I realized that we would have to rent our dresses or wear casual style. I have no idea how we finally decided that we want to have a nice-in-bridal-gown-and-coat kind of pre-wedding photoshoot so we just leave that part to My Dream Wedding to settle for us. 

I may have said this too many times, but we both super love the photos that Shaun from onemustardseed has taken of us.

THANK YOU MR TENG! YOU ARE THE BEST YOU KNOW THAT! :)

We met up for lunch on one of the days and after a lot of research, we found this place to be of what we would like our photoshoot to be - rustic-ish and simple. Sekeping Victoria serves not only coffee, tea and drinks but also proper lunch meals like burgers and pastas. 

Okay, I'm not here to promote the food okay. To be honest, their food and me not really at the same page. I don't really like them? 

It was quite a short photoshoot as we did them over lunch but it was enough for us. We had so much laughter doing this, and it's mostly because we all know each other fairly well so yeah. That and we're so awkwardly romantic if I can say that.

Time to let you guys feast your eyes :)

Once again, BIG SHOUT-OUT TO THE MOST AMAZING SHAUN TENG for all the photos! Hah. We love them so much I'm going to print out and stick all of them all over my new room's wall. Heh. Maybe not all since our wall is quite limited, but you get what I mean. Hah. 

Next up, our pre-wedding photoshoot is happening so soon, like in a months' time OH MY GOODNESS I still have the double chin and I don't think it's going to disappear in a months' time.

Thank God for photoshop! HAHA!

Bye now. 

Wedding Update 9.

We have about five months left before I become a missus and there are a list of things still to be decided. WHY SO MANY THINGS EH?

I shall break them down for easier reading. 

WEDDING CEREMONY

Prepare what again? 

Oh right. We don't know yet who is going to emcee the ceremony (don't know if we need one), how we want to do our marriage union to symbolize unity as one, and what time the whole ceremony will start. 

I am thinking that we don't do it so early so that all our guests can sleep in on a Saturday morning. So caring right this bride and groom? Hah I know I know. 

I'm sorry for those who is expecting to have some kind of brunch served at our ceremony, I would think that most likely we will not have that because that is another money-concerning item and can we stretch some more? I don't think so. Heh. Or maybe we will? See! So many I DON'T KNOWS OH GOODNESS. 

BRIDAL CAR

Hah. This one just pops onto my head, like literally 10 seconds after I finish writing the first one. My ideal car would be those old-rustic-convertibles-or-mini-cooper but I also know that to rent one is going to cause the pocket to koyak lagi besar so I am guessing that it would be one of the Sedan cars that we have or something. 

WEDDING DINNER

What time start also not confirmed yet. I would like to think that all our guests will not be late for our dinner because we will start on time. If really impossible to start on time, the most we would wait for is 30 minutes, but knowing Adrian Koay, we will most likely start on the time that we decide on. He don't like late-comers eh okay. 

WEDDING THEME

We don't really have like a theme's theme for our wedding because we really don't know which one suits us best. All we know is that our ceremony will be rustic-ish and our dinner will be super formal. So, I guess there is some progress?

WEDDING COLORS

There will not be any dress-code (I think! Hah) because it would be too troublesome for our guests to follow according to our colors so it's most likely going to be wear-what-you-want-but-be-super-formal. Heh. 

HONEYMOON

Believe it or not we have finally bought the flight tickets. Such a big headache because we are not going to just one place okay. 

Penang-Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur-Bali

Bali-Lombok

Lombok-Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur-Bali

All with Airasia. Suddenly I'm not looking forward to fly because I super don't like Airasia but what to do since we need to be in the budget. Stress giler. 

The only flight that we have yet to buy is PEN-KUL-PEN, because it was so pricey at that time. About RM150 per person I think. No thanks I will wait for promo time (hopefully).

NEW CRIB

This one only applies for me because I am moving into his crib, so for me it's a new thing. For him, sama je lah. Due to many other commitments, we have yet to own a house but that will happen one day I believe. Raffel we've got our eyes on you yo. 

We decided to renovate our future room and give it a total makeover. The renovation has started on the toilet and we have done some essential home-shopping and got ourselves some really good furniture so we are feeling pretty stoked and broke. Hah. 

BABY PLANS

Oh no no. As much as I would love to be a mother already, I want to maybe travel as much as I can first before the little Koays come along. I teased Koay that we shall start the production next year and he gave me that 'Siau-cha-bor" look. It may seem like I became so desperate at one point. 

But really no rush because I will have a new baby nephew to play with for the next 2 years? I bet my uterus also can wait longer la. Afterall, I'm only twenty-two. Heh. 

SAVE THE DATE

Yes, it's out! 

The designs were lovely BTW so thank you again Mr Tan!

Our save the date card has been sent out to a bunch of people, and they are all in soft copies, usually through Whatsapp or FB Messenger or Email. This is just the simple invitation so that our friends who are currently residing elsewhere may lock their dates earlier and make arrangements should they choose to be at our wedding. 

I believe there are still quite a handful of people that we have yet to send to so just hold on okay. Sorry again for those who did not get the card because I can only invite so many :( Don't be angry with us okay. 

MARRIAGE COUNSELLING

This is starting this week and we have been looking forward to do this with Pastor Cowan since January this year. We are finally able to lock down on a weekly Tuesday. 

Cannot wait for the sessions to start. 

BRIDAL PARTY

Now the headache is this - how am I going to make all my maids wear the same thing without spending money that I currently do not have? They are definitely going to make noise if they were to spend on getting some colored-coordinated clothes. My maids are the worse! KIDDING! I love you all! :) 

Some got brown shoes, some don't have. Some don't even have white shirt. G!

Maybe they should just wear tutu. 

Yes, I am DIY-ing some tutu for photo purposes. Stay tuned! :)

BRIDE AND GROOM

We are feeling pretty okay so far. He is not feeling any urgency yet to rush anything or make any final decisions whereas I am feeling all the stress because I see into the details. He? Umm, making sure I don't spend over the budget? Wait, there's a budget? Hah. 

One thing for sure is that discussing about our 'mini crib' and how we want it to be has brought us closer than ever. It's a very funny feeling. I finally felt so adult-ish to be buying my own furniture and at the same time, picking the furniture or mattress with him brings the joy onto a whole new level. So, it's like I'm not really picking my own bed but co-deciding it with another person and to know that he enjoys the process just as much is just so fulfilling. 

Okaylah, you gonna say we too in love or something but this feeling is so amazing I cannot not talk about it. 

So, if you ask us about us, I would say that we are doing great. More than great! We are looking forward to doing this. I am very excited to sign that paper and nervous. 

Till the next update, stay tuned okay? 

Bye now. 

3D2N at Best Star Resort, Langkawi, Kedah.

It will always feel good when the entire family plans and agrees on going for a holiday, be it near or far. Actually, go far means better eh. Hah. 

This short getaway we decided to go to the nearby island, famous for its cheap chocolates. Since the grandmother could not walk too much or far, we thought Langkawi could be the perfect one now, with such short notice. 

It was quite difficult to book hotel rooms at Cenang Beach during that season, I think it was a short school holiday. They were all either fully booked, too expensive (RM1,000 per night kind) or 1/2 * kind of ratings. 

Somehow, we ended up managed to book 4 superior rooms at Best Star Resort, which is also from the same company with the hotel during our last trip there called Langgura Baron Resort, of which I would highly recommend and wanted to stay at this time but was fully booked. Bleh. 

The distance from both hotels also not that far. The Cenang Mall is actually right in the middle between these two hotels, so very nearby nia. 

Best Star Resort is located along Cenang Beach, so no need to cross the road whatsoever to get to the beach. Very convenient indeed. 

Will I choose to stay at Best Star Resort again? Definitely yes but the next time I will probably try another hotel for reviewing purpose. Heh. Life of a blogger (self-proclaimed eh).

More holiday photos down below, so go ahead and feast your eyes on my beautiful Kang Family :)

 Super short getaway but such a needed one. Hah. 

That's what I said everytime I go travel. Heh. 

Oh wells. Till next time we go see the world again yo.

Bye now. 

Wedding Update 8.

I actually don't really know how to start this post.

It's not really a wedding update but it is related to that so can lah. 

I have been wanting to express myself fully here since yesterday but I was way too tired after getting home from life-group. I thought that I would have forgotten about it when I woke up this morning, but no, so here I am.

Okay, I'm going to try my best to word it out. 

There has been undeniably a lot of disagreements between the huz-to-be and myself when it comes to anything related to the wedding that's happening in 5 months' time. 

It did not come as a shocking thing as we sort of expected it, seeing that we are both very different kind of people, with quite a handful of different taste in things. 

What is really nice to him, is super ugly to me in some cases. So, we argue our way through. That is the natural way right?

People argue because they don't see eye to eye in things or situations. 

This is where most people would 'agree to disagee' which we do but really rarely. We often want to talk till something is settled, but if not then we leave it at that and it would somehow surface again. 

Wow, I think this is probably one of the most honest post that I will ever do on us. 

Anyways, it has been a struggle for me to go through this. If I'm correct, we've never argued so much since we got together 4 years ago and I cannot say that it has affected my feelings towards him, because I love Adrian no matter what. But it has certainly affected on how I see through the planning for our big day. 

The one question that people always ask me is this: How's the wedding prep?

Often times, my reaction is a mixture of excited and clueless (if I may be super honest). Clueless because it's just so difficult to get things sorted when we both have such different preferences and please don't get me wrong. We will always manage to meet halfway and agree on one thing we both are okay with but all that will only be achieved usually after a lot of arguments and heartaches. 

Sad but true. 

Being at Joe Sern and Jaryn's ROM yesterday opened my eyes a whole lot. I realized the one thing that I have failed to see for so many months. 

The man that I'm going to be with for the rest of my life. 

The man who I will go through hard times and good times with. 

The man who will be my children's daddy. 

The man I truly love with my entire life.

 The man who is still at a mourning stage for losing the most important man in his life, his father. He misses his dad everyday of his life, and it is with no doubt that on our wedding day, he will miss him hundred times as much and makes it more difficult for him to go through it.

So, all the details does not matter as much to me anymore. 

We have been arguing over the little-est things because we want to make this wedding the best one yet on our own expectations #bridezillaalert and along the little arguments, we forget the whole reason to having this wedding. 

It made me realized that there is absolutely no point in arguing over petty things for an event that will only last for a day. Yes, it is our once in a lifetime, but so is this whole planning for own wedding. 

Sometimes it is not the final destination that matters most, but the journey to the destination and this is exactly what I want to focus on from now onwards. 

I do think that he will have harder time doing this without his dad on that day and I am not going to be that horrible partner to not remember that. 

To be honest, I have always felt that I am giving a bigger sacrifice because I am the one who is going to leave my home and everything that I am comfortable with to go to a new home and start again with new habits and stuff. 

So selfish of me to think like that seriously. Good thing I woke up today feeling so different and well. 

With all that being said, I can say that there will definitely be a drop in our arguments since I am usually the one who is more stubborn right. Hah. 

Here's to five more months of fun times, Muthu. I love you and that will be till our-forever. 

:)

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.

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. 

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. 

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.