#16 on the way to mama's hometown

...and we saw this storm brewing in the distance. I caught the bus from Singapore to Melaka (my first time again!) and made friends with a 5 year old girl who took a shine on me and kept me occupied all the way to our destination. She made me origami creatures, talked a mile a minute in Chinese (which I only have a basic understanding) about everything from her family to her school. We played the games that you and I used to play in school and before we knew it, we've arrived.

I got to my uncle's place and found that my cousins were in the middle of their month long school holidays, my popo (grandma) was visiting and they have wii!!! Guess what I ended up doing with my time there??? Yup, got hooked on wii games, went to the cinema and watch Salt (love it!) and as you do when you're in Malaysia, eat too much and also spend time with family. I woke up early to go for morning walks with my popo each morning. By the end of my Malaysian trip, I would have put on 7 kilos from all the eating, even with all the walking and activities. Eek!!

#15 hawker fare

wantan mee for dinner in Singapore

#14: river city inn

I stayed at backpacker's hostel this trip. In a female dorm with 7 other girls. It's of special significance since I have never stayed in a hostel ever. When I told my friends where I was going to be staying this trip, a lot of them were a lil doubtful that I would be able to take it. And until I arrived at this dingy lane looking up at four flights of stairs and my executive luggage, which I had to drag all the way up, I was determined to prove them all oh so wrong!

I arrived at River City Inn and when I saw that long flight of stairs, at that moment, I wished I was staying in a hotel. I was definitely entertaining the idea of just turning back and catching a cab to one of the hotels in Orchard Road. Oh, why didn't I bring a backpack? (Coz you were lazy and well, couldn't justify getting one for this trip. Now when you think about it, if you have gotten it for this trip, wouldn't that mean that you would have used it for this trip and the next?? Your cost would have halved!!) Hell, I was backpacking with a massive pull luggage!! How hillarious!! I was definitely sweating like a pig by the time I got to the top.

Beyond all that whining about heaving a suitcase up four floors of stairs, I have to admit that everything else was spot on fabulous. And if I have to stay in another hostel, as long as it is like River City Inn, I'm all for it. The rooms were clean, the common area was warm and cosy, the guests there were very nice and most importantly for me, the bathroom was spink and spank. My one peeve and nightmare would be a dirty, moldy bathroom when you don't know how many people has been in it and the germs they harbored. *shudder*

Thing is I woke up wishing I stayed longer than my one night there. Can you believe that?? I picked a hostel as I was only staying a night and could not justify paying $200 on a hotel room, whine about their stairs and here I am, wishing I stayed longer in a $30 bed. In a dorm with girls who come back at all hours of the night. I thought I got back pretty late myself but there was only one girl in bed when I came back and the common room was a hive of activity. People surfing on the computers, chatting in the living area, reading books. I hung around and chatter for a bit with a Pakistani, Malaysian, Irish and German girl. I was pretty jealous of the Irish guy since he's been travelling for a year and it was his last day of travelling!! Envious mucho???

#13 wedding chow

seared kingfish, prawn and pearl barley risotto with coconut cream

We went for our menu tasting the day before I left for my travels and my, it was a fantastic winter's day to have lunch. Mainly because it didn't feel like winter. The weather was absolutely beautiful - sunny and gorgeous and sitting by the balcony of our wedding venue enjoying the spectacular view. Which I spectacularly forgot to take any pictures off because I was so focussed on our food and wine and getting Ryan back to work asap.

I know the above picture doesn't look all that tantalising. But I reckon, most of the time, the not so good looking plate usually turn out to be pretty darn delicious. Which in this case, it was! The kingfish was our favourite main. It was absolutely divine. We got to try two entree, two mains and two desserts and copious amount of wine. Because we changed our minds so many times before the tasting, we couldn't remember what we eventually decided on and today, I realised that our selections doesn't comprise of a safe option and it's bothering me a little bit. Do I want a safe option?? I love everything that we tried today but the meal will be more for the guests than me?? What if someone doesn't like our selection?? I'm not going to please absolutely everyone. It's alternate placement so if one is not happy with what they got, they can always swap. We don't have chocolate for our desserts. The guests are getting chocolates as their favors so there's the chocolate. Arrgghhh, I'm definitely thinking too much!

Oh yeah, the menu tasting went really really well. I'm sure I'm just having a moment of doubt. Don't we all?? :)

marry me

#12 solo adventure

I'm off on another trip back home for a friend's wedding, to catch up with family and to Hong Kong and Taiwan on my own for the very first time!!! I've never travelled anywhere solo before. I'm jittery and nervous but uber excited. Gotta remember to have my wits about me. At.All.Times.

our kl wedding dinner

Yeaaa!! Got the photos back from our wedding dinner in April! We love them!! One thing that's for sure... you never realise how quickly the day goes by until you look back at the photos. For us, it was pretty much a fly-in, fly-out trip so that made it seem even more surreal. Here's a summary of the day and more pictures on my flickr. Enjoy!!

We woke up insanely early this morning for casual portraits in town. It was a last minute decision thanks to Huey's persistence and I would say, it was well worth it!! We traipsed around Chinatown behind alleyways and laneways. That one above is by a big huge gigantic drain and to be honest, I can't even remember how we got there now.

Then it was back to the hotel to prep. I love this photo of my dress. I have always wanted a photo like that and now I have one that's all mine. We got this dress made Paulynn, who owns White and Lacy in KL, who grew up together with my aunt. I asked her to make me a copy of this dress (the first one) which I have been in love with since practically day 1. We communicated by email and by sheer luck, the dress fitted like a glove when I popped in to try it the day before the wedding. No alterations needed. I was over the moon!! It was absolutely perfect, very light and sheer and easy to move around too. :)

Getting all prep-ed up

Looking pretty for the camera.

My handsome husband in the other room. Did you know that they were all done and ready like 2 hours before we were?? Un-freakin-believable!

The picking up of the bride. That look on Ryan's face is just pure gold. Mum and I canned this idea during the planning so I obviously didn't tell him what to expect here. He had no idea this was happening and what was going on.

My grandmother had the time of her life on our wedding day. It was just amazing. She started tearing up from happiness just as we started the tea ceremony and it was when I realised that it meant a lot to her that we celebrated it with her. Awww~ I can't wait to see her again in a couple of weeks!!

Our tea ceremony was the most casual ceremony ever. It was full of laughter and banter. When we were done with the adults, we all just decided to skip the tea drinking bit and just give the red packets to the younger cousins.

A family portrait. That's us there with my parents and my sister. I love love loveeee the photos. I can't believe our photographers found this sweet spot. We took all the portraits here. Check out the next one of us and the reflection. So cool!!

Our wedding dinner venue. This was at the Chynna, the Chinese restaurant inside Hilton. The deco is basically 1920s Shanghai with oriental chairs and tables. chinese silk lanterns, enamel plates. We even got a calligrapher and a teamaster who served us tea with his outstanding kung fu moves.

The food we had was amazing! Everyone raved about it which was good. I had most of it but towards the end of the night, I just couldn't eat anymore as I started to feel really tired.

The final yam seng!

This was sooo embarassing. I think this is typical of most Asian weddings though, we were asked by the compere (my cousin!) to come up and kiss in front of the whole group. What can you do in such a situation other than go with it, so go with it we did! This was our second attempt as apparently, the first one was a little lackluster. :P 

I wish that the day was a lil longer just so I could have spent more time with all my relatives that attended our wedding. I have not seen all of them in years and going around the tables greeting everyone that night, memories and recollections came flooding back. It was truly an awesome day and both of us enjoyed it immensely, having such great photos to cherish and bring back the memories in the years to come was just the icing on the cake!

#11 cake toppers

Aren't they blimmin' fantastic looking?? My first Etsy wedding purchase. They're gonna go on top of our wedding cake (where else?) and I can't wait.... You know the thing that they kept saying on 27 dresses... the best thing is you can shorten it and wear it again??? Yup yup... going into the box of items I've been collecting for our future first home they are. :>

I brought them home on the weekend to show my parents and you should have seen my dad's face. It was hillarious!! He had this incredulous look on his face and I swear he must be thinking, "What is this ridiculously cute thing that only 5 year old kids would like, that they wanna put on their wedding cake?? I bet you it's all her idea... I can't see Ryan picking this one out. Still like a small kid!! Tsk tsk!" But when I went to put them back in their boxes before driving back to the city, he was all, "Put that bubble wrap around that cake topper of yours... you don't want it breaking on the way back!!" Bless.... you have to be there. It was soooo sweet!!

#10 swarovski earrings

...they are not, and my, they were quite frustrating to photograph because of its reflective properties but I hope my bridesmaids will love them just as much. I spent some time making them a few weeks ago, going for a simple and elegant with a hint of colour. They are different in colour but of the same style (still need to get the hooks for the other one).

#9 the big hurrah

Ryan is afraid I'm not going to be able to survive the Inca Trail. I keep telling him I'm fitter than he thinks I am but deep down, I'm secretly paranoid that I'm going to hate it. I know what's at the end will be worth it but exerting all that energy with no time to rest.... how am I going to do it?? Another fear... I can't function without contact lenses... like, seriously!! I hate glasses and they're always sliding down my nose. It's annoying and frustrating and you can't see beyond the frame of your glasses. As you can see, I'm no fan of glasses. I can be such a princess sometimes!!

The boss said he's probably going to regret it but I'm just over the moon because he's finally approved Ryan's extended leave.... of two months!!! This was 3 weeks ago and we've still not really booked anything since life has been hectic with work and wedding planning and see the first paragraph.

A few days ago, I finally knuckled down and booked our flights from Sydney to LAX. No turning back now, that's for sure. Onto the rest of our trip.... Can you guess where we're off to yet?? South America baybeh... and a little bit of everything else in the continent. We'll be going to Mexico City, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil as well as Las Vegas, San Francisco and then driving down into Los Angeles. Our big hurrah before settling down, that's how we're seeing it and you know what, I'm like a excited lil child, I can't wait!!!

Now that we're actually planning for it, I have an itsy bitsy favour... for all of you that have been to said places, any recommendations??? We've bought tonnes of guidebooks for each of the places and will be scouring thousands of internet sites but we would love to have any insider/local tips of things to do/food to eat in each place. Tell me one, tell me all!!

#8 curry laksa

Tis the busy season is upon us again. For Ryan, late nights at work will be the norm, as is weekends at work, he'll literally be breathing, eating and sleeping work until the end of September. The same would be for me usually, except I resigned a while back to fulfil my dream of travelling before settling down. I'll be going travelling in the next few weeks before the wedding so I've been busy planning the trip and trying to get as much wedding stuff done before I go as well as plan our honeymoon! It has been k-ra-zy around here!

Anyway, back to the point of this post. We devised a plan last year after another horrible busy season to make a ritual of coming back home relatively on time each work week to a home cooked meal. Just to inject that bit of nutrition into our bodies, take the edge of a stress-laden week and spend some time with one another. We didn't envisaged me going without a job but I have to say that it has been blessing in disguise as it looks like this year is going to be even worse for Ryan so at least I'm free to do the shopping and cooking and cleaning for our meals. It's not what we had in mind, me playing housewife but I guess, it's some kind of progress. Well, I'd like to think so. :P For our very first busy season meal, I made curry laksa. It was out of a box and it was delicious! Lol...

#7 melting moments

He loves my melting moments. :)

I made these yummy lovelies to celebrate Ryan coming home from Shanghai last week. They were so easy to make!!! He was craving for some good ol' Western fare (as he called it) after having rice twice a day over there so I whipped up some beef tacos for dinner and these for dessert and he's been popping them like pills ever since which, wouldn't you agree, is the best compliment ever!