Honfleur, France

So here goes our honeymoon snippets!

Upon landing in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, we picked up our rental car and started driving towards our first accommodation. It wasn't an easy drive for the both of us firstly because Wk had to drive on the left side and keep to the right side of the road for the first time. And then there was the rain. Plus after all that flying (total of 19-20 hours of travelling+transit) we were both exhausted. 

The thing I hate about roads in France in the cities or towns is there aren't many cross junctions with traffic lights, instead, they have roundabouts. LOTS of roundabouts. I usually only get motion sickness on winding roads, but the amount of roundabouts in France was enough to give me a really bad motion sickness. So bad.

However, the moment we stepped into our hotel room all that suffering disappeared. Stepping into our room felt like the biggest reward we have received in our lives after a really long, painful struggle. I know I sound dramatic and like I'm exaggerating but I'm not.

Our room Chambre Or, was divine! It was warm, clean, spacious, comfortable for 2, well facilitated and very tastefully decorated.

It is an 18th century property which Aline, our lovely host, bought and renovated. Aline herself used to be a film director, who enjoys a bit of interior designing. 

 

Pictures below is the living area on ground floor where guests are served organic, continental breakfast. Eggs can also be requested, she will cook it to your liking.

The stairs to get to our room was the most narrow and steep stairs I've ever climbed! 

A picture before we said our goodbyes.

Aline insisted I must stand slightly aside so that the camera can see the fireplace behind us XD

Maison de Honfleur

06 78745993

21 rue Saint-Leonard, 14600 Honfleur

maisondehonfleur@orange.fr

Read my review here on Tripadvisor (to be linked when it's approved)

After checking out from the hotel we explored the town a little before moving on to our next destination.

Our companion for the entire France trip

Apparently most Europeans, or maybe just the French, drive manual cars. The only auto the company had was this Citroen C4, which unfortunately wasn't a very good car for us; very slow pick up - a pain in traffic lights and parking and can be very 'jerky'. The size also isn't ideal when entering historical towns with narrow streets - absolute nightmare! Other than that, it's spacious inside and comfortable enough when the car isn't jerky.

Back to Honfleur. We walked along the port which has a beautiful view, went into a few churches, got lost in the stone-paved laneways and admired some of the timber walled houses. 

Honfleur is a small maritime town situated in Normandie, a region in France known for its dairy products eg. milk, cream, and cheese. Especially the soft cheeses such as Brie and Camembert. There's actually a place in Normandie called Camembert! Assuming it's where Camembert cheese originated. We didn't get to go there because it was a bit off from our travel plans.

 

 

Most of the churches were built based on naval construction, out of chestnut wood which according to Aline, is a natural spider repellent. Whatever that is, we NEED it. Our house is full of spiders! Anyway, if you look at the ceiling in the picture above, it's looks like an upside down ship's hull.

 

For lunch Aline recommended and kindly helped us make a reservation at this restaurant which serves traditional Norman cuisine - exactly what we were after since we were in Normandie!

Complimentary peanuts and marinated olives for appetizers

Foie gras terrine

Some kind of shellfish baked with garlic butter

Scallops (or St. Jacques in french) with lemon butter

Grilled beef with potato galette, salsa and salad

Norman cheese plate

A concoction of Nutella sauce, creme Chantilly aka sweetened whipped cream and nuts

Tarte Tatin

Restaurant L'homme de Bois
02 31897527
30-32, rue de L'Homme de Bois
14600 Honfleur

We had the 4 courses menu (own choice of entree, main, standard cheese and dessert) each (so 8 plates in total) which sent us into a food coma! 

Our favourites would be the mains. My scallops were so sweet and succulent. Wk's beef were cooked a bit too rare and it wasn't a good cut of beef but the highlight was the potato galette - SO delicious. The foie gras terrine wasn't what I expected to be and to be honest isn't the kind of foie gras I enjoy. Wk's shellfish was good. The desserts although nothing wrong with them, they were forgettable. The cheeses as we have expected, were really good cheeses since it's the main produce of the region. Unfortunately it eventually upset my tummy :( More about that in future post. 

We took a short stroll after the lunch to get some digestion going since it was such a heavy meal, before driving to Mont Saint-Michel.

  

I won't pretend I know or am interested in history (lol) so from my understanding, Mont Saint-Michel is a tiny island with an ancient town in Normandie which has a famous abbey and a beautiful view. And lots of Japanese tourist, which is not a problem or anything but we found it odd that it's as though this place is frequented by Japanese tourist that the souvenir shops have Japanese words and Japanese speaking sales assistants.

 

Our tiny room and tiny beds

 

The red arrow points to our room's balcony which overlooks the bay

I remember clearly I didn't sleep well and woke up feeling sick in my stomach the next day FML. I'll leave the rest of the details of our stay in Mont Saint-Michel in the next post.

Till then!

Hello hello

Super long time no blog!

Last blog post was in October 2014. And it's now February 2015. Wow Ee Von, you surely suck.

I do have many posts saved as draft. It's like every time I start doing a post, I seemed to never have enough time to complete it. So I save it hoping that I will find time to complete it and have it posted  some day but obviously I never got around to do as I intended to. Some of them have been sitting in my drafts for over 6 months. I also have a 2014 year-in-review kind of post drafted.

I think the problem with me is I care too much about what I blog about that it takes me ages to decide what pictures to put, which words to use, what to mention etc. Consequently I ran out of time to complete it and then just proceed to leave it sitting in my drafts. This is bad. It's encouraging me to do things half-assed and procrastinate more, agree?

Soooo. My goal this year is stop drafting things. If I open my blogspot page and intend to blog, I will hit "Publish" in the end regardless. Worst scenario just put 'to be continued' hahaha.

We're flying off tomorrow midnight. I can't believe how quickly time has passed! Yah I know sounds super cliched but really lor, didn't feel like it was too long ago when we bought our air tickets ok. And we still have so much to do for the wedding it's not even funny. When we arrive, we only have exactly 1 week before the big day!!!

I don't think I've mentioned this before but basically, there will be 2 events. I know most of you will think bride's family reception and groom's family reception.

Wrong. 

Event number 1 is basically a ceremony followed by lunch reception. Event number 2 is the traditional Chinese pick-up-bride, tea ceremony and banquet dinner reception. To be practical, most Chinese couple will only need event number 2. 

Here is the story behind why there has to be 2 events.

For me, my dream wedding is to be able to walk down the isle with my dad/parents, say my vows to my future husband, exchange rings, and walk out of the isle as husband and wife. There's something beautiful about it that I cannot explain. 

So we looked for venues which has a place for us to do this ceremony plus have a banquet dinner after because a banquet dinner is one of my parents' requirements. There aren't many options in Klang that we like. In fact, there probably aren't any? And again, it's my parents' requirement that the dinner has to be in Klang because that's where most of our guests are from. 

We found venues that we like and they are mostly in KL. If we were to have the ceremony in KL and dinner in Klang, it would just be too much of rushing in one day. So we decided to do 2 days. And since people are coming all the way to attend our ceremony, we might as well have lunch. And also since this ceremony is what I wanted, it's only fair that we pay for it ourselves and not our parents. It's a very small event with less than 60 people, they're mainly our immediate family and closest friends. 

We wish we could invite more but frankly, we cannot afford to. Inviting people is not something you can just do without much consideration. What if the person you are inviting doesn't know anyone else there? Or what if you invite this person, you somehow have to invite the whole group of people and you don't have the financial capability to? So for anyone out there who easily gets offended when you're not invited to a friend's event, please stop being an insensitive prick by making the host feel bad for not inviting you. Thankfully none of my friends are like that. Or maybe I will get it AFTER the wedding? Who knows. 

"Eh why you didn't invite me?", now THIS is offensive - thinking you can decide on how we should spend our money.

I've been doing a lot of DIY lately for Event 1. Event 2 is in a Chinese restaurant which usually covers a lot of things like simple decoration, invitation etc so there really isn't much that we need to organize. But because we're basically hiring only a venue in Event 1, things like decoration has to be outsourced. 

One of the things I decided to DIY was our invitation. Since the invitation was for only 60 people, I thought I'll be fine hand making them. I did get a quote and to be honest, I wasn't sure if I was willing to pay for someone to design something that isn't quite what I wanted. 

Here's the final invitation that has been sent out to our guests.

Sharp corners for this one here who prefers it like that :P see, you so special ah!

Rounded corners for everyone else

If I have time I will do another post on the 'evolution' of this invitation. It took me a while to finally settle with this. Except for the main invitation wordings that was printed, everything else were handmade, handwritten and hand-painted. 

Ok time to go. 

2 days in a row now I have been freakishly lucky!

So yesterday (Sunday) I was supposed to start work at 10am. My shift was changed to 7.45am instead because a colleague was sick. Whenever I do 7.45am on Sundays Wk will drive me to work because there isn't a train that early on Sundays. So yesterday he drove me to work and left for a meeting with his business partners. When I finished work and was in the train station wanting to train home, I found out there was actually no direct train service to home (and from home to city as well) for the whole day because they were fixing the train tracks! If I was doing the 10am shift, I would not have made it at 10am to work. I wouldn't know there's no train and I would have had to book a cab to get to work because Wk would be gone for his meeting by then. If that isn't luck I don't know what is!

And today, because said colleague was still sick, instead of 9.45am I had to do a 6.30am shift. Didn't have a problem at all getting to the city via train. Apparently it was raining the night before but it stopped when I was on the way to work, and even managed to slip through and be at work before the heavy rain started pouring again! Thought that was lucky enough, until Wk told me that all train lines were basically screwed the moment it started pouring heavily around 7-8ish, which is already a peak hour to begin with. What normally takes 30 minutes to get to work took an hour and half! So if I was trying to get to work at 9.45am today, I would basically be freaking late. And best part is when I left work, the rain has stopped! Brought my umbrella and didn't have to open it at all.

Now I say this luck is freaking me out because they say things come in strings of 3 and then something of the complete opposite happens. Seriously hope this is absolutely not true.

Matcha Creme Brulee Recipe (Where to buy matcha powder in Melbourne)

Spot the photographer!

Only made creme brulee once, it was good but vanilla custard isn't really my favourite thing to eat. I don't mind it, I would order it for the sake of having desserts if it's the only thing on the menu but I just don't love it enough to want to make it again.

I've recently bought matcha powder to make mooncakes and of course there would be leftover powder which I needed to quickly use up since they don't have very long shelf life. Was thinking about green tea creme brulee when Cooking With Dog posted a video tutorial of Matcha Creme Brulee, wow, it's like they can read my mind!

My brulee looked very uneven. It's nothing, just bad torching technique plus I put in way too much sugar, big no no. The over browned sugar layer was hard as rock, not to mention way too thick to be enjoyable too. So do not follow my mistake. 

Failed brulee aside, the matcha custard tasted so. freaking. delicious. The bitterness of matcha balances the sweetness of the custard perfectly! This is definitely my favourite creme brulee, or matcha dessert. Ever!

Recipe below is exactly from Cooking with Dog's, only doubled (trust me, it's never enough!). Also added a few of my tips and where to buy matcha powder in Melbourne. Enjoy!

Matcha Creme Brulee Recipe

Recipe from: Cooking with Dog

Yield: 4 ramekins 4cm tall, 9cm diameter/140ml

• 200ml Thickened Cream
• 160ml Milk
• 4 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Matcha Powder
• 4 Egg Yolks lightly beaten

• Extra sugar for torching/brulee

1. Dissolve matcha powder by adding milk a little at a time. Once completely dissolved, mix together with the rest of the ingredients except for the extra sugar reserved for torching (duh).
2. Heat the mixture over low heat till sugar dissolves and mixture has thickened slightly that it coats the back of a spoon. Do not overheat or the eggs will scramble. 
3. Sieve the mixture evenly into 4 ramekins.
4. Bake at 140 degrees Celcius (120 fan force) for 20-25 minutes in waterbath. Basically submerge ramekins in a tray of water (water has to be at least half the ramekin's height). 
5. Let the cooked custard cool down to room temperature. Then chill it thoroughly in fridge for at least an hour before bruleeing.
6. Thinly coat the top of custard with sugar, torch the sugar until it melts and caramelizes. Leave the caramel to cool and set before serving.

*Only torch sugar when serving, caramelized sugar will melt when left in fridge for too long.

*To check if custard is cooked and not overcooked, tap/shake the ramekins gently. The sides should set but the centre should jiggle slightly.

*When torching, keep the flame moving and avoid staying in one spot to avoid burning the sugar.

*In Melbourne, Matcha powder can be found in major Asian grocers in the green tea section. I got mine (which looks like this) from Laguna in CBD. Another place you can find more variety of matcha powder is Fujimart in Prahran.

Home improvement

So nothing much is happening (including wedding planning) except for work and shopping for our new home on Saturdays. It's going really slowly because Saturday is the only day we both are free to do stuff together. There really isn't a whole lot of things to do since this house is at a pretty livable state but its making it cosy that requires some effort. And to make it cosy, we need to spend money. Before spending money, we need to research and decide for the best option to go for. And that's the time-consuming, hair-pulling part. 

But of course there are also some no-brainer decisions like decorating the living space with a few stalks of flowers.

Just a nice vase and a few stalks of flowers can really change the way a space looks. Even when they're only buds.

And even prettier when they blossom.

One thing I've learned from this is to get rid of all the extra leaves on the stalk. I didn't realise this was necessary until I was at a cafe once and they had the exact same flower except theirs looked really neat, there weren't too many leaves on the stalk crowding the vase. Lenny said the leaves need to be removed so that there wouldn't be too many leaves and flowers fighting for the water. If one doesn't get enough, it will not survive. Which probably explains why some of the leaves turned yellow and wilted.

So yesterday the moment we got this new bunch of flowers, I removed all the extra leaves before placing them in the vase.

Looks much better! But this is one is a different species, the leaves damn a lot! So definitely need to clean it up a bit otherwise it'll be really ugly.

One of the tougher decisions we've had to make was a dishwasher. Previously in the place we leased, the dishwasher was included. Back in Malaysia I have never used one in my life. When I came here I was skeptical. I didn't think it will clean efficiently but after using it for 2 years, we became quite dependent on it. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing. My thoughts on it eventually changed and I actually find it useful and much more efficient than hand-washing so we decided we will get one for our new home since the seller didn't include one.

We didn't quite have a specific brand in mind but we knew we wanted a freestanding one, a cutlery tray not basket, a straightforward control panel (no need too many fancy buttons). Took us about 2-3 weeks when we decided we will go with Miele, for piece of mind. Also because the sales assistant was nice to us. It makes a huge difference, the selling technique. 

We were at Harvey Norman and were comparing between a Miele and Bosch. The Bosch one was more expensive and we were tending towards the Miele. The SA kept promoting the Bosch one and refused to explain more about the Miele dishwasher. That's a turn off seriously, he should provide the information when a customer requests for it. Not only try to sell the expensive one so he can make more commission out of it.

At the other place (where we ended up purchasing from), Jim, the SA was really helpful and knowledgeable. And he didn't try to sell us the more expensive machine, he said in his opinion the lower end Miele is good enough. Anything expensive is unnecessary unless you are living in a million dollar house and you have too much money to spare. At the end of the day, it washes your dishes the end. And that's it, we were sold.

This is not exactly a home improvement item but timber floors are so hard on the feet! It looks nice but when it's cold, it really kills my feet. Got this cute bedroom slippers from Peter Alexander. Really comfortable! Matches my pajamas some more.

Came home one day, checked our letter box and found this:

It's from our neighbour, super kind can?? And this isn't the first time he's being kind. 

Ok let me explain how garbage collection works here. Basically when you live in a property (not apartment), you have to buy a bin from the suburb's council, and it's the large, dark green kind. So on specific days, you need to have your bin ready on the street side before the truck comes. Once they empty the garbage, you can then bring your bin and keep it inside your house; for us, we keep it inside our garage.

So one particular day it was the garbage collection day and we have dragged our bin out to the street side the night before. On the next afternoon I came home to the bin sitting right outside our garage  door instead of the street side. I thought it must have been Wk who pulled it in before he left for work and didn't have time to keep it in the garage. I left it there because I was lazy lol. When Wk came home and saw the bin by the garage door he said "Wah so nice ah help me pull the bin in". Ok before I continue, the reason he said I'm nice was because we all know Ee Von NEVER touches the bin unless she really has to (eg. bin is overflowing with garbage). 

Obviously, Wk wasn't the one who brought our bin in. And it wasn't me so we guessed it must have been our neighbour, there wouldn't have been anyone else! It's a really kind gesture because we had a general and a recycle bin (2 bins in total), so he would have had to go back and forth to bring both bins in, and not forgetting he has his own bin to mind as well. It's definitely not a convenient thing to do as you can see. And of course, we did return this gesture. 

And this guy let me tell you, is fated to live next to us man. One day we were at an auction on another property in a nearby suburb that we had intentions on bidding. He was there! We didn't bid on the property because we knew that we could not afford it when it went past a certain price. He bid, but obviously lost it to someone else. 

And then one day when we were here in this property's inspection, we saw him! We immediately recognised him because at the end of that auction it was between him and this other girl. And we thought oh crap, this guy has quite a high limit (we know from his bidding in the other property) if he's interested in the same unit as us, we will lose it to him. Can only hope that he's not interested in the one we want.

Thankfully on the day of auction, he did not bid on ours (but another asshole did hmmmph!). He was more interested in the other one which he got in the end.

Win-win :D Seriously it's so crazy, who would have thought someone you saw in an auction will end up becoming your neighbour?

Ok back to next home improvement item. We bought a bin for our kitchen! And it's no surprise it's not an ordinary bin otherwise it wouldn't deserve a blog post.

Maggie calls this the 'royal bin'. Here's a video to show why:

How can anyone not like this bin?!?

I super hate bins with lids that spring up when you step on the pedal, and slams down when you release it. The springing and slamming action pushes air out and it disgusts me, feels like bacteria will be catapulted into my face wtf. Ughh. Noisy some more.

Whoever designed this is a fucking genius lol.

And just look at it, which part of it looks like a bin? None. That's the whole point, bins are disgusting inside so it should look as cool as possible on the outside so people cannot tell it's full of shit inside wtf hahahah.

Found this huge Asian Grocer near our place called Asian Grocer WTF HAHAHAHA what a good name! Stocked up on some Asian staples and junk. Super ring!!! Gosh I miss that stuff.

Ok time to go to work.

Our first auction

In Malaysia when I hear the word 'auction' for a property, what automatically comes to my mind is the property owner somehow either went bankrupt, or went to jail, or is a criminal on the run, and that's why the bank is putting the property on auction so someone else can buy it and continue paying the bank money.

In Melbourne (or Victoria or possibly the rest of the world, anyone, enlighten me?), that is really not the case. A seller can choose to sell his property either through a private sale or an auction aka public sale. 

We've been looking for a property for about 3 months and have been to a number of auctions just to see how it's done, of course only being there as a spectator and having no intentions to bid at all. The one time we had the intention to bid, the bidding went over our expectations right from the start and needless to say wasn't a property that we could afford, so we only stood and watch and didn't bother to try.


I've heard stories and even seen it on the realestate.com.au website where properties on auction were passed in. This means the auction failed and the property did not get sold usually because either the reserved price was not achieved or no one showed up or nobody bid. But for us, maybe we just have exceptionally good taste *ahem* that every single auction we've been to, is a successful one. 100% clearance. 

We've been to auctions with 10 people and probably 2-3 bidding. We've also been to auction with 30 people and 5-6 bidding. 

Here's our experience on one particular day and also our first time ever placing a bid on a property in an auction.

That morning, we went to the place and there was already a crowd. There were 2 brand-new units for sale, we were interested in unit #2 because we preferred the layout. Also because it's single storey and the other one is double, technically single-storey would be sold at a cheaper price too so that's a plus for us.

We asked the agent which one will be going for auction first and the agent said possible #1. So we thought that would be perfect, it sort of gives us a head start of what the price is going to be like when it's #2 turn.  So we calmly waited... and was looking forward to see what's going to happen when everything begins.

Previously we have already set our limit, let's just say it's X. While waiting around, I don't know what made me do it, I told Wk we should increase our limit by $10k making it Y. He thought about it for a while, and reluctantly agreed. 

Then the auctioneer arrived and greeted everyone and started his speech introducing himself. People gathered around him and there were about 3 real estate agents scattered among the crowd, making sure every bid gets the attention of the auctioneer. 

He then announced that he will start the auction with unit #2 first. 

My heart skipped a beat. What?! Wk and I looked at each other, baffled.

The auctioneer, Arthur continued stating the rules and conditions of an auction, as required by the law before starting an auction. We listened carefully again just to make sure we didn't hear it wrongly and again he said unit #2. My mind went completely blank. I didn't expect it to happen so soon. And before we knew it, the bidding started.

It started off pretty slow, at increments of $10k. Slowly but surely it went higher and higher. Then it came to a point where the bidding stopped. That's when Wk stepped out to ask if we have reached the reserved price. An agent nearby immediately approached him and asked if he would like to place a bid. Wk asked again if it has reached the reserved price and the agent said he'll know only if he places a bid as it's confidential. At the same time while they're talking about this, all eyes were on us because Arthur was waiting to see if we were bidding. Wk shook his head and the bidding continued.

And then it stopped again at a price that is lower than X (our initial limit), and Arthur was saying "Going once, going twice..." and the floor was silent. This time Wk looked at me, and we knew it's the time to do it. We told the agent our number and it went to the floor immediately. Of course, SOMEONE has to top us. Let's just call him John.

John and us went back and forth, first with increments of $5k, and then down to $2.5k. A man in suit was standing beside John and we guessed he's probably a mortgage broker or someone who's in this industry giving John his best advice in this auction. Then John tried to hit us back with a sudden $5k thinking we would back off? Thing is when he did that the number hasn't even reached X, close but not there. Obviously we went ahead with bidding but of course not repeating his crazy stunt there, we kept it slow and steady and went by $2.5k.

It went on and quite quickly, the number became X+$5k, and this was John's bid. In other words, another $5k and we would have reached our limit, and if John is bidding anything beyond that, we would have to give up already, but it hasn't gone to that stage yet! Wk then turned to me and said "I don't want it already, what do you think?"

I was a little angry inside and I asked him why he doesn't want it anymore, he couldn't give me an answer. We haven't even reached our limit and I was so hopeful to get the house and now he's giving up? I knew when I set the new limit he had this mindset that it wouldn't go anything close to it because he thinks anything at that price is slightly overpriced, I know him. But the fact is we are here and that's what's happening. 

At the same time, Arthur is still doing his thing, yelling and yelling for a higher bid from us while we are having our own talk at the corner and everyone is looking at us.

STRESS MAXIMUS OK.

Wk looked at me and I said let's do it, we decided to go with another $2.5k and at this point I told him, if anything goes on top of this, that's it, we're out. I looked at John, Arthur asked him if he would like to raise the bid, John shook his head. Arthur called out for any other bids and nobody said a thing. He and the other agents then went inside the unit to discuss with the vendor. 2 minutes later Arthur came back and announced that the price has reached the market/reserve and they will sell to the highest bidder (or us) at that point.

Let me tell you this: that particular moment right there is the MOST WTFBBQZOMG intense moment ever. Arthur called out going once, going twice... I couldn't look at anyone, not even Wk. I stared intently into the sky wtf. I could hear nothing but my own imaginative white noise and heartbeat. And then I heard the word "SOLD", and people started clapping their hands.

And that was it. Everything went by so quickly like a gush of wind. 

WE BOUGHT OUR FIRST HOME.


(Neninenipupu to John wtf)


It happened in no more than 20 minutes. Possibly 15 minutes. SO DAMN CRAY ZEE. At the end of it my stomach was having a party, my heart was beating so hard it felt like my chest would explode anytime. At the same time all the agents came and shook our hands omg so annoying lol. I really wanted a moment of my own just to digest what happened but there were all these annoying people in our faces and very quickly, we were escorted into one of the units to sign our contracts.


That's the thing with auctions: there is no cooling off period, no subject to conditions. You win the bid, you sign the contract and pay the deposit and pray hard that your loan gets approved and you are getting a good property.


So this happened a month ago. I didn't want to talk about it until settlement happens and everything is official, you know, until the house's title officially belongs to Wk and I, ANYTHING can happen and we wouldn't let anything jinx it.


If you've read up until here, COME I CLAP FOR YOU! Thank you for taking the time to read my long-ass story! Now here is your rewards, pictures of our brand new first home!


These are from the real estate website since their pictures nicer. Furniture not included.

This is how the outside looks like. It's a single storey, subdivided unit. 2 bed and 2 bathrooms, plus 1 study. Open living, kitchen and dining. That's our garage right beside it.

There's a small amount of land/backyard. We both kinda hated the concrete floor, in future we hope to change it to timber decking. (Furniture not included)

Master bathroom - it's actually a lot more spacious than what this picture shows. Angle problem maybe.

The 2nd bathroom.

The kitchen. Cabinet, stone bench top, stove, glass splashback, oven and sink included. 

The house is now fully furnished as we reuse all our old (ugly ahem) furniture but there are a few more things that we need to get to get it to a 100% livable stage. We mainly need roller blinds and curtains installed, right now all our windows are there for the world to see into our house! Feels so exposed, like we're naked. Also need to get a motor for the garage door so we can turn it into an automatic door.


It's been 10 days now since we've moved in and surprisingly, I cannot be happier with it. I say surprisingly because initially I didn't think I love this house. We got it because it's within our budget and location wise it's acceptable eventhough we both know it's not perfect in our eyes. We had our eyes on a few properties before this but completely missed out because we simply couldn't afford them and it's been very demotivating. So when we got to this house we were like, yeah. It's alright, let's just go for it.


You know how after trying hard for a while to get something but in vain, you sort of get tired and lower your expectations just so that you can get something in the end? Like, 'better than nothing' kind of attitude? Yup that was our mentality.


When we moved in, slowly I fell more and more in love with it! I guess the main reason is because apart from it being a lot more spacious than before, I know at the end of the day it belongs to us and we can do whatever we want with it. And also slowly noticing how certain parts of the house are well planned/done, making living in it such a comfortable experience. Of course it has it's flaws but I think its the journey to fixing the flaws that makes living in your first home exciting!


Ok this post is getting way too long. Till next time!

wkev #4: Home taim!

So I was back in Malaysia for 10 days to sort out some wedding stuff which I wasn't able to do being here in Melbourne. I can't stress enough how maQfan planning an overseas wedding is. And it doesn't help when the bride is fussy haha. It was a 2am flight and I thought I would sleep through the journey since I flew with Emirates which is supposedly more comfy than Air Asia. Ok lah have to say it's definitely much nicer than Air Asia but I didn't manage to sleep much also, I just can never sleep well in planes, that's why I hate flying. The moment I touched down I was so tired I took a nap. And woke up with headache FML. 

The next day we were planning to drive to Ipoh and I woke up at 6am with the worst migraine ever FMLx2. It was so bad that I was nauseated and almost threw up. I have a feeling it's the hazy weather in Malaysia because I've never ever experienced this before!

I was planning to cancel the trip already. Took Panadol, went back to bed and slept for another 2 hours and woke up feeling much better although a little dizzy still. I decided to proceed with Ipoh anyway because I really don't want to screw up my entire schedule. Off we went!

Lunch at Lou Wong famous for their beansprout and chicken rice but I didn't want to eat rice so I had the rice noodle soup (hor fun). Pretty overrated. I'm not a fan of chicken rice or steamed chicken for this matter. Everything tasted so-so. If there's anything I would come back for, it's the hor fun. So silky smooth and thin! 

Drove around and sighted some street art.

So the main objective of going to Ipoh is of course not because I wanted a roadtrip - ain't no bride-to-be's got time for that ok. I wanted to try this ONE specific wedding gown and only this lady in Ipoh has it. Since we can treat it as a roadtrip on a weekend, why not? 

So after getting lost couple of times, we managed to get to her place eventually and I finally got to try on THE dress that I have been thinking about non-stop. No pictures for that because I'm saving that for another post. But here's another gown in her collection I tried that I thought was quite nice.

It's a champagne tulle gown with a really elaborate back. Some people like it, some people don't. The bestfriends saw this picture and thought this design look like a skunk HAHAHA.

Quite cute ma. Hahahaha.

I kind of like the design but didn't like how the bodice and skirt has a very awkward joint at the hip area. Also my tummy area in the front (not shown) looked quite bulky aka fat. Plus champagne wouldn't fit into the theme of my wedding anyway.

After trying the gowns it was back to more food for us. Salted chicken from Aun Kheng Lim, white coffee at Nam Heong (this is the original, real deal white coffee, not some crappy packaged stuff), and this super yummy kaya puff from Sin Eng Heong.

The pastry is so light and flakey and not too rich, it's very well balanced with the not so sweet kaya. We bought it freshly baked and they were so damn good.


While back at home...

Mom bought durians! These were devoured within minutes.

Sister just got back from Malacca with these super delicious Nyonya Chang (rice dumpling). The dumpling is filled with savoury, sweet meat filling. Chiukap nice lor!


Went to one of the venues to have a look and meet the manager to talk things through. It's actually my first time there. Yup, we booked the place without even seeing it first. Too kanjeong maybe lol.

To be honest, the first thing which came to my mind when I saw the place was "Is this it? Meh..."

Hahahah. In pictures I see online they're all nicely decorated with wedding stuff and the pictures are all professionally taken and edited. Maybe when I saw it that day it's like a blank canvas so there was nothing to be wow'ed about. Not that I will change my mind la since I've already paid the deposit. I knew there's a risk booking a place without even seeing it first. Hopefully the decoration will make it look beautiful. 

And then there's another round of gown trials...

The back look quite nice but the front... ugh. There's this really high side slit which I don't understand at all. And lace is just not my thing la.

But with the slit it was easy to walk with though. Confirm won't trip wan. If you trip then... tough luck hahaha.

Not a fan of the lace and the mesh/see-through top (Wk hates this hahaha) but I really like the tulle skirt in this! I asked the owner about custom designing a dress using tulle with simple ruched bodice and no lace/beadings. RM7k FML. Way over my budget, so didn't with it of course.

Went to Number76 MidValley with the girls to get my hair fixed. It's got this massive black roots which I cannot stand.

Please don't tell me "Nice ma it's called Ombre look" because ombre to me is gradation of colours from light to a more saturated shade (or vice versa) and what I have there I call it laziness in maintaining hair colour. Black --> blond = NOT ombre.

Actually my ends are all highlights which means they are random strands/strips of bleached hair. The stylist said it's impossible to touch up highlights :(((((

Stupid highlights damn maQfan lo! So he said the best he can do is touch up the roots with a colour that's similar to what I have at the bottom so it blends better rather than Black --> blonde. If he highlight the roots, it's gonna look brighter than what I have at the bottom and it will be super uneven also. I just agree with whatever he say la since he's the professional.

Can't really tell from this pic but I think he did a fantastic job in choosing the right colour to touch up!

Here's a better picture. This was also the day I went for a makeup trial. The makeup artist also provide kua rental so I tried some. Didn't end up with it la cos too expensive. He said since I'm taking him for my wedding he will give me a discounted price to rent the kua, RM 600. No thanks. Still more than what I'm willing to pay for for something which I will only wear for only 2 hours.

Went to Puchong for this place with steamboat using a wintermelon! My grandma was the one who kept wanting to take me there and insisted on treating me -.- , she must really like it la lol. Nothing special except for the wintermelon which is cooking as you do your steamboat in it. At the end of it you can scrape the flesh and eat it lo. The prawns were really fresh. There's not much variety of balls, only the standard fish and porkballs. The scallops were disgusting, lala was nice though. The other special thing is their dipping sauce - it's made of fried shallots, coriander, sesame seed, sesame oil, sweet sauce and I'm not sure what else. It's quite dry, more like a condiment you eat with your food but it's really good!

I don't know why there's a number carved on the wintermelon, probably it's the number of wintermelon they've used??? 

Also met up with Adelle near her workplace in SS15 for lunch. We went for Chili Pan Mee at this place, Jojo's Little Kitchen. It's actually my first time having a chili pan mee in Malaysia, I've only tried it in Pappa Rich here in Melbourne and it's so-so. This one in Jojo's so yummy! The meat sauce has so much flavour in it, and the pan mee is not too thin, cooked al-dente some more. Very impressed!

On Friday, I met up with one of the bridal gown designers and finally decided to engage her to custom make my gown. Finally, one of the most important things checked! Actually the main thing being back is to sort out my wedding gown, the rest all can do without me there but not the gown. This will be further elaborated in another post. Long story!  

And finally, food tasting in the restaurant we'll be holding the reception banquet. Also one of the worst days of all my days being back trying to plan this wedding. Haih, I can't wait till everything is over.

One of the dishes. Will do a separate post on the food tasting plus the venue in general.

Last Malaysian snack eaten was fried nian gao with sweet potato. Omg why so nice wan! Haih you can take a girl out of Malaysia but you can never take Malaysia out of her.

When I was back I didn't bring a lot of skincare with me (too damn heavy la and I'm not bothered decanting) so I curi used my sister's Shiseido White Lucent cleanser and day moisturiser hehehe. And I fell in love! I don't know why, it just makes my skin so balanced I feel. And the smell isn't too overpowering, the texture is so light and absorbs quickly. So I was planning on getting the basic range. Also because I needed to replenish some stuff too cos I ran out of my cleanser, toner and moisturiser. 

I was so busy the entire week that the only time I managed to shop for myself was in the airport before waiting to board. Good also la can get them duty free. Initially I only wanted a cleanser, toner and moisturiser. I asked if they have a boxed set of full size products and they only have it for the serum, day and night moisturiser. And then the salesgirl said if I get the box plus cleanser and toner, it'll be a perfect set already. So I was like ok lo, then get everything lo.

I tell you, I am damn easy to be persuaded wan when it comes to skincare. 

Then she said if I buy a bit more I can get 10% discount. So I added the eye cream since I ran out of eye cream too, which I almost forgot.

So now I am on the journey to achieving a more white and translucent skin. So far I haven't look like a snowman yet wtf.