My Life

Time to blog about my Flea market last month.

It has been 2 years since the last time i had flea with my Sister in law at Lucky Plaza. The flea at 2 years ago was so much better in terms of location and space of our booth. But this time round, our location for this one time off business was shifted to right-inside the flea market at level 6. We had to move through those permanent tenants and carry our luggage through the narrow pave.

The rental space for 1 table is $160 before GST. The flea start at 12pm and will end at 7pm. We are allowed to queue outside the entrance before 12pm so that we could get a good slot inside. This flea was shared among me, my sis and my cousin.

We were queuing outside the entrance.

The crowd at Lucky Plaza was crazy on Sunday. When we arrived at 10am, the whole orchard road was empty except Lucky Plaza. It was so crowded that we had to move through the crowd slowly with our luggage, When we arrived at level 6, we were 2nd in the queue. There were many of us ta-baoing McDonald' breakkie and iced Milo. Some of them came with trolley as they have twice more than what we had to sell.

When the organizer allowed us to enter the premises, we chose our booth (Its first come first serve basis). Just as I expected, the people (mostly Indonesia helpers) rushed in and started helping themselves with the luggage. They would ask if can open and they are more than willing to help you to do it.

Next, your clothes will be everywhere.

Flea on an early Sunday

They began to ransack your luggage, flipping the clothes right and left, tossing them around, trying on etc. We initially sold the clothes for like $5 per dress while top/bottom at $3 each but the price is dropping every hour. At a point of time, someone was shouting 3 for $10 for dresses. We had to match their price so that we are able to clear our pre-loved stuffs. Not more than often, they were also asking for bags and shoes. If you have lots of bags and shoes to clear, Lucky Plaza is one place where you can clear your bags away. One of our customer also took our spoil luggage for $10!

The serious money making mode.

At 3pm, we still have a lot of unsold clothes and the prices continue to decrease.

$1 per piece, cheaper than Daiso!

At 6pm, we managed to our shoes, bags, jewelry, 90% of clothes and some makeup. We were getting tired and sore from standing straight 5-8 hours without much toilet breaks. sweating and tolerating the fabric dust in the small enclosed area (including queuing time till closing ). At 6.30pm, after we sold the last piece of jewelry, we slowly packed up and headed to Paragon for dinner. We earned a decent amount from the flea. After deducting the rental cost of the booth, we treated ourselves to Thai food. It was a satisfying dinner from a hard day of work.

Took some really nice Christmas photo before going home.

Flea at Lucky Plaza on 20 Nov 2016

by Elvina on 7:47 PM

Time to blog about my Flea market last month. It has been 2 years since the last time i had flea with my Sister in law at Lucky Plaza. T...

I love staycation. I love getting away from the noise pollution at home and some privacy with my husband.

I was searching for staycation deals and I knew that Safra has some joint promotion with the Millennium Group. If your boyfriend /husband is a Safra menber, you can go to the website and view their current list of promotions. They have staycation deals at Copthorne King's Hotel at $190 nett in a night stay in Superior Room with a pair of movie passes, Studio M Hotel at $212 nett per night stay with a pair of movie passes etc. I was looking if they have any promotion at M Social Singapore but unfortunately, there was no promotion. But anyway, we wrote in to them to see if there is a better rates for Safra members. The rates given by them were slightly cheaper (maybe about $10 cheaper?) with breakfast included at about $240 per night.

We went ahead with it since it's been a while since we went for a get-away.

M Social is situated at Robertson Quay and among the hotels under Millennium Group. It is a great place to chill and relax and the night view was awesome.

The lobby was really small as they can only serve 4 customers at one time. Almost all of the guests are young adults. Some of them check in as a couple while many others, came to celebrate hen's night or just a simple gathering with friends.

Love and I booked a room at Loft gallery. I felt in love with the the tall ceiling and chic layout shown on the website. We felt that the price was reasonable and so we proceed with the booking.

Ok, let's look at the real photos:

M Social Loft Gallery

The living space

The upper deck

Took a photo of the room on the stairs.

The check in time was 3pm, and their check out time was 12pm. Our room was at level 9 and right at the end of the corridor. The room was really posh and comfortable that you wouldn't want to leave the room once you were inside. The TV is at the upper deck and was separated from the rest area.

Rain shower!

The toilet is a panel of see through glass but rest assured that you can turn the blind on inside. The vanity is outside the toilet so you just have to brush or wash your hands in the living hall.

Opposite us is a residential building. with a nice pool when you looked down from our window.

Some of them were having breakfast on their balcony!

What I like about M Social is the luxury decor and high ceiling. The bed was also comfy and I had a good sleep throughout the night. I slept at 11.30pm and woke at 8am. It was really shiok! The TV has sports channel, so in case your husband/ boyfriend want to watch their soccer at night, they can go to the upper deck to watch and cheer without disturbing you.

The variety for breakkie wasn't that sumptuous but it was good enough for a boutique hotel. Breakfast is at Beasts and Butterflies.

The pastry is good.

If you are going there by car, do note that they do not have free parking. Xiong paid below $20 for an overnight parking.

If you are just like me, looking for a luxury yet affordable stay in Singapore, you may want to check out

M Social Singapore

90 Robertson Quay

Singapore 238259

Tel: +65 6206 1888

An a selfie of myself >.< Sorry hubby, you are not in my post :/

M Social Singapore [ Loft Gallery] Staycation

by Elvina on 7:28 PM

I love staycation. I love getting away from the noise pollution at home and some privacy with my husband. I was searching for staycation...

We finally took our keys on 5th Nov. It was long long wait since we applied our house in 2013. Initially, I didn't want to apply house with him because I was only a year in my job. I didn't have any money then and how was I supposed to afford a $300,000 flat? But anyway, Xiong was enthusiastic ( I knew he would marry me) and so we went ahead.

On the 5th Nov, Xiong and I woke up to an early morning. Our appointment was 8.15am and it was raining. I couldn't laze on my bed any longer or otherwise we would be late for the appointment. Xiong drove to Toa Payoh Hub and parked his car at the basement.

Before going to the queue, we had to make a payment for fire insurance. It is kinda like an insurance to protect our walls in case of fire. After that, we had to queue to take our keys.

It was about 45 minutes discussion at the HDB. Our CPF were totally wiped out and we still had about $200k to pay off. We took a loan of 20 years, hoping to pay off as soon as we can so that we wouldn't have to pay so much for the interest. We had agreement in mind so we didn't take a full day to think about the loan. After taking the keys, we didn't go to open our new house. We had a stay cation at M Social and were only allowed to open our new house on 9th Nov.

开门大吉

Before opening, we went to seek advice on what to do and how to pray. We were advised to buy Huat Kueh, 5 oranges, 进盒， joss stick and some kim zua.

We placed the items on the floor with red disposable plate. While praying, we have to say all the goods words, like informing the god whose this house belong to, pray for abundance joy and good health etc. We prayed to the 4 corners as well as mentioned by Xiong and my aunty. While waiting for the joss stick to burn to near half, we were mingling with the electricity and water point where we couldn't switch them on earlier. We tried to switch them on with the allan key provided by the HDB but we couldn't to. Luckily, his brother who was staying nearby came to see us and helped us with the allan key. He managed to turn on the water supply! All the switches were working well and good. After 30 minutes, Xiong brought the joss stick and kim zua to the burning urn at the void deck.

I was happily snapping photo of our new house:

Our kitchen

Kitchen wall

One of our room

And... toilet

I am supposed to put the oranges and huat kueh on the highest point in my house. The highest point I have at home is our toilet bowls. My dad saw and and he was like wtf when i showed him this photo.

Before leaving the house, we scattered salt and rice on the floor . Not sure what it means but i believe it meant good.

Alright, that's be all for today. Will keep us updated on the our renovation progress soon!

Getting keys and new house opening

by Elvina on 10:23 PM

We finally took our keys on 5th Nov. It was long long wait since we applied our house in 2013. Initially, I didn't want to apply house w...

Since the start of my new job, I have been blogging lesser and lesser. After ending a day work, I would go home to have my dinner, surf the net before getting some rest.

There are so many things I wanted to blog about but I always ended up procrastinating it.

For today, I am going to blog about my friend !!

She is my ex-colleague actually but we are still keeping in good contact. When I was in Eurustech, I knew that she she was learning make up from JB and she traveled every weekend to learn. She has an amazing husband who supports her all the way to drive her into JB. Sweet isn't it?

After a good 2 years, she was going to grad and she needed to look for a model. I was so honored that I was on her list :D I agreed to it immediately and I was her last model for her exam.

On that Saturday, she picked me up from my house in the late morning and his husband drove us into JB. There was a short jam at the custom and we reached there at about 1pm + . We grabbed some bread before going to the studio.

I sat there comfortably while she was unpacking her make up items. There were lots of foundation, brushes, eyeshows etc. She was definitely nervous as it was her last leap of all the lessons and hard work she puts in.

I was so regretful that I didn't take a photo of myself before and after. By the time I took this photo, Vivian was already in the midst (or almost done) with the make up.

My face was definitely slapped with all the good and expensive products. And all of those were newly purchased! Can you imagine I am the first person she used those products on? 100% honored!

She is thinking what design to do on my hair. This is perhaps the last thing she wants to see on this post. And me? Busy snapping photos everywhere hahaha!

Dividing my hair to prepare for the design.

After doing much research, she decided to braid my hair.

The design is showing~ Look at all the braids!

It wouldn't take long for her to finish the hair-do. And the final look:

Not sure why my Iphone quality is so bad.

Looking at the side of my hair

My hair isn't very long that time so I think there is limit to what she is able to do.

And to the make up artist, thanks for making me so pretty on that day. You definitely has the skills!

I was taking a number of selfies before we left the studio.

Obviously, I was trying to act cute.

Alright, enough of my photos. We left the studio at about 5 plus. Vivian got her cert and I could say that she is now a certificate MUA. I had wanted to engage her for my ROM but Whitelink allows me to use the trial make up for my ROM. I might look for her again to do make up for my traditional wedding in 1 - 2 years time.

We had dinner at the nearby Aeon shopping mall before we head home. The jam wasn't that bad as we were at custom for about 1 hour (If i didn't remember wrongly). And home sweet home

Signing off here~~

A date with Vivian to JB

by Elvina on 8:41 PM

Since the start of my new job, I have been blogging lesser and lesser. After ending a day work, I would go home to have my dinner, surf the ...

Hi all, back to my blogging habits. I have been blogging on my ROM recently. Though my status has changed to Mrs, but things largely remains the same. I am still calling his parents "aunty" and "uncle" as we had not gone through the traditional wedding. At home, he calls my dad "uncle" too. Besides submitting my marriage cert to company and owning the house together, I am still me.

In case you are wondering why we had decided to change from a banquet wedding dinner to Solmnisation dinner and what did M Hotel had done to accommodate our request, you read more details here.

Checking -in

We held our Solemnization on 16 September 2016, Friday. As September is a 'hot' month for wedding dinner, we were informed by our then coordinator, Fiona, that weekends were fully-booked and had to look into the weekday. We decided 16 September because not only was it within my mum's 100th day, the date and year were both 1616 (Kinda easy to remember?).

On that day, we went to Bedok Central to collect my hand bouquet, bought some flowers for my reception and had a simple lunch. After all was done, we drove to M Hotel since it was about 20 minutes to 2pm. At 2pm, we reached the hotel, carrying our luggage, gowns, hand bouquet and flowers to the reception. Once we reached the lobby, I called our new Coordinator, Anna (Fiona quit her job just weeks before our ROM and that was when we knew that she is no longer with M Hotel). to inform her so that she can help us with the express check in. As she didn't pick up the phone, we thought that she was be busy and she would get back to us later, However, after waiting for about 5-10 minutes, there was still no calls or reply from her, Xiong decided that we try to check in ourselves since we were holding our event there.

At the reception counter

With the hand bouquet on my hand, we walked over to the counter and asked for a room. We knew that we were entitled to a room as it was written on the contract. The counter staff looked at us with a blur face and ask: Room? My hubby was very kind to inform that we were having our Solemnisation that night and there should be a room for us. Apparently, the counter girl was unaware of it and she went into the control room to check with someone.

After sometime, a man came out and ask: Mr Lim? My love is a Lim so of course he said yes. So the guy came, helped us with our stuffs and said: Mr Lim, please follow me. I though that we were able to settle down after waiting for so long. The guy brought us to level 28 for express check in and another 2 staffs usher us to the room. When the staffs opened the door, me and Xiong were like raising our eyebrows: Are you sure that you had given us the correct room? For a while, I thought we had a free upgrade to bridal suite.

We lay our things down as we were getting tired from those load. The guy gave Love a A4 size paper and said: Mr Lim, please sign here.

The paper turned out to be some other Lim and not Lim Wei Xiong.

"Er, this is not my name".

The guy's face was like a million shock. "You are Mr Lim right?"

"Yes, I am Mr Lim but not this Lim, we are only entitled to a Premier room actually."

My 'Mr Lim' is an honest guy and so, we carried all the things (with the help of the staff of cause) down to level 28 again and waited. The guy was so sorry and he felt embarrassed about the whole incident. Finally, we had our room and it was almost 3pm. Anna had finally responded to me by then and I was so upset with all the hiccups. What made the matter worst was that our room was not decorated as promised upon check in. We should be given a champagne, fruit basket, pralines and bridal room decoration (i am guessing some rose petal scattered on the bed and perhaps bathtub filled with water and rose petals, etc) but all were not seen at all. I requested Anna to come down to our room and discussed on all these issues. After a while, a staff, strolled in with the fruit basket, champagne, pralines and placed them on the table in the midst of our discussion (but the bridal room decoration was not done and i suppose it's too late to be done).

Aren't these items supposed to be prepared beforehand?

After our complaint was made, the duty manager, Andy, accompany by 1 of the staff who brought us to the wrong room, came to our room to offer their apologies and also offer us 1 bottle of red and white wine each. Though Love and I didn't have the time to enjoy those alcohol, we acknowledged that they had made an effort to do fast customer recovery action. At 3.30pm, my MUA came. She had mistaken the time and came in 1 hour earlier. For once, I thought what was truly happening on that day.

I had a quick bath, dried and hair and began with the make up. After about 2 hours, I am finally done with the makeup and hair-do. Now I really felt like a bride.

Credits to Wei Teck

All these were not over until love was completed with his hair-do. My friend, aka the photographer and his assistance (aka our friend too) took those decoration down to level 2 to assist us in laying out the stuffs. We were given the Anson Room at level 2 instead of the Sheraton room at B1 since there was no event going on at night.

Our ROM table

Reception area

Canapes but Xiong and I didn't have any of it.

Vows and ring pillow - Credit to Ah Teck

It wouldn't take long to decorate since we had friends to help out. We completed our decorations just in time as our guests made their way to the reception.

Since it was a Friday night, many of them came from work while some of our relatives took a day off. Our Justice of Peace, Mr Alex Tan, came early at around 7.15pm though there was a heavy traffic from his location to M Hotel. We waited till 7.30pm as a few of my relatives were late due to bad traffic. Mr Tan is very patient who wouldn't mind waiting a while for my relatives and also, he is punctual. *Thumbs up! He is one of the popular JP and we were glad that he was available on that day. His speech is serious yet funny at times. He would ask if we have preference to hold our ROM in English or Mandarin. But we requested for both and he was able to accommodate with it.

It was both a significant and genuine moment for both of us, like literally, I am 'upgraded' to be someone's wife. That moment of upgrade felt like a new beginning and marked the end of single-hood.

Big room with not much decorations. Credits to my relative

The banquet manager was Ken. He is a great guy! He was able to give us free flow of beer, wine and even to throw in a champagne for us! The food portion was huge and delicious. My relatives commented that our ROM was done up nicely and they were impressed. They got us 4 servers, with each of them portioning the food individually to guests though we did not specifically request for it. All of us enjoyed a lot.

Our JP, Alex Tan Yan Boon. Glad that he was able to oversee our Solemnization.

My Family- Credits to Wei Teck

His family- Credits to Wei Teck

The dinner ended at around 11pm, leaving us tired and worn out. Though the morning was unfortunate, but everything ended well at night.

Solemnization at M Hotel

by Elvina on 11:07 PM

Hi all, back to my blogging habits. I have been blogging on my ROM recently. Though my status has changed to Mrs, but things largely remains...

Let's talk about our ROM decorations. As our's was a Solemnisation event, M Hotel didn't prepare much decoration for us. Beside the centerpiece for the ROM table and sash for each chair, the ballroom was completely bare. And so was our reception area.

So I decided to decor the reception on our own.

I wanted those kind of like romantic settings, like flowers, photos, lights etc. I looked to Pinterest to find my inspiration and I saw a few pretty good ones but just felt that those decorations were hard to find, Ultimately, most of the photos were uploaded from overseas. What they might have would cost a bomb in Singapore. Locally here, our choices are also limited. You would either end up in Paper Market, Typo or Ikea, trying to find nice decorations. At the end of the day, they all sell similar stuffs and there wasn't any special embellishment.

Taobao is my next source of idea.

Thanks to my ex-colleague, Vivian who taught me how to use Taobao, I became one of their fan and bought clothes more than I could wear them. I sourced a few items from there: Vase, photo-frame, love bird decoration and ring holder. Let's see ...

Our ROM was held at Anson Room 3.

Overall decoration

For all these items, It cost me a total of less than SGD50!

Duel use, Blank and white board. RMB16.80 = SGD3.44. It comes with whiteboard marker, chalk as well as the stand.

The white roses was borrowed from my friend. So they are free! The Polaroid camera was given to me by my love. And those bling factor, was my art work haha. Saw the 2 love birds behind? They cost RMB31.10 = SGD3.36 for 2.

The love birds basically look like this:

Credits to Taobao

Moving on to the next,

Photo-frame!

A college photo-frame would cost RMB24.77 = SGD5.06. I believe it cost twice the price in Ikea.

And the vase? They cost RMB40 = SGD8.18. I bought the flowers on the day at Bedok Central before check in. The lilies, orange roses and baby breath were real. Petal came in small packet at SGD1 each. They cost me SGD20 in total.

In total, they cost a mere SGD20++, not including the shipping cost. I bought most of the items from this seller. They sell really cute and unique decorations at an affordable price. You can find designs which you not get to see in Singapore, or even if you do, they would cost like twice the price locally.

Last but not least, doing up our very own "Mr and Mrs" Tag.

For this paper tag, I did mine less than 2 hours, hand drawn, cut and glued. I got this inspiration from Pinterest as well. With a ribbon, I punched some hole on the letter and bind them together.