Birthday Specials

I had a great time turning 24 this year. I couldn't have had it another way.

Since I was working on my birthday itself, we celebrated my 24th on a Sunday instead. The husband is really terrible at keeping secrets from me, so he told me the plans he had for my birthday instead. 

Here was what went down..

Sedap siol.

Here was breakfast. So good. And filling.

Pout pout. Tak menjadi.

We were pretty tired from all the walking. Yes, I told him to leave the bike at home. It was public transport day! Here's a quick cut-off selfie at Starbucks while waiting for the right time for the next activity...

Escape Hunt @ Concorde Hotel Singapore

...which was this! This was the highlight. He booked an intermediate room and we took about 62mins to solve the puzzle. It was so exciting that we booked an advanced room immediately after the intermediate room. Guess how long we took to solve the advanced room - 56 mins yaw! BOOYA.

And I thought I'd be a pro at this because I downloaded almost all the escape room games from the Play Store.

Shopping!!

And what is a birthday celebration without shopping? Husband let me roam free in Sephora, being so patient and letting me take my time. Yippee!

First time seh. Got myself a few brushes, a bronzer and a makeup brush cleaner.

In the evening, we went to a salon to make some changes to Hadi's hair. After that, we had sushi dinner at Ramen Ten and then we headed back.

It was a simple celebration. Fuss-free date with my other half.

On the actual birthday itself, I spent time with my family at home. My mum made roti kirai and rojak salad for the birthday girl. Here was what was real cute:

My niece, Emma, gave me a present. Now, we would expect gifts from kids to be gifts that were bought by their parents or something. 

I got home, looked for my niece (who locked herself in the room with her mother) who eventually came out wearing her Elsa dress (which was meant to be worn only on her birthday) and handed me a gift. When I opened it, there was a box with one of her favourite toys and two packets of Mamee. Packed in a pre-loved make-up box.

Can it get any cuter? 

Of course, teacher toy for the teacher aunty. I couldn't stop laughing.

Omg I love this girl to bits.

So after that, we headed home (in a slight rush) and started cleaning the house (a nightly routine) because somebody wanted to get an early rest since he's working the next day. Somehow the cleaning was more intense and I figured that le husband simply wanted to REALLY clean the house (rajin mode, y'know).

Only until our friends came with cake and pizza and cupcakes that I realized we cleaned the house good for a reason. HAHA.

I totally didn't see that coming.

Thank you God for letting me live through another day, month and year and blessing me with great people in my life. Thank you to the people that made things happen. Thank you my families, friends and colleagues for wishing me an awesome birthday.

World peace yaw.

Mwah mwah.

Stationeries.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm an absolute sucker for stationeries?

Stickers

Labels

Markers

Papers

Pencils

Labels

Paper clips

... you name it, I love it.

Browsing the Qoo10 website is definitely time-consuming and frustrating.

MUST. RESISSSSSSSST.

Well anyway, I'm in the process of coming up with something that I was supposed to work on last year. But I stopped working on it because I told myself that I didn't have enough resources to get things going. 

But now, I decided that it's a brand new year and I should get up and get started. Make do with what I have, y'know.

Let's all hope and pray this will turn out to be a success :)

May take some time though, I'm only at the planning stage.

Bismillah.

I was thinking of changing my logo too. Maybe until I figure something out, it'll remain as that.

Mwah mwah!

Till next time, 

Leila

The biggest box and fish. Lots of fish.

Reading the articles online about warehouses gave me the impression that there were only 5 in Singapore. Um, nope. There are more, in fact.

I'm here to share about my trip to the newly opened Big Box and Jurong Fishery Port. I'll begin by saying that I'm a VERY happy girl today. *beams*


Big Box is located at Jurong East with a linkway from Jem. How convenient.
Unfortunately, Hadi and I only ventured around the first floor cos by the time we were done with our shopping, there were just too many things and we didn't bother exploring the other levels. Yet. 

Big Box is big.

Here are some pictures I took. (excuse the funny angles because I was trying my best not to look like a tourist while taking the shots.)

There is even a Garden and Home section IN the supermarket itself.

I like how every aisle caters to only 1-3 items. So there's a large variety of stuff there. I personally like the shampoo section.

This is the start of the frozen goods section. The entire row at the bottom right side of this picture is solely dried goods. I would have spent my time looking for individual herbs to make my bak kut teh, but I'll leave that for next time.

Here's the middle section of the dried goods.

My favourite - vegetables and fruits.

Here's the seafood section. Let's see, when I was there, there was a sale going on. 2 Black Tilapia for $5.90. Whuttttttt.

One particular buy that I was truly happy with was the Apple Cider Vinegar which was halal. Yes, it had the halal logo on.

Have you any idea how hard it is to find such things which are halal-certified?!

Anyway, when you're there, I suggest you comb each and every aisle to get the most out of the Big Box experience. 

OH, and just outside the hypermarket, sushi is going for 50cents per piece.

OKAY, that's that for Big Box.

Later on at 1am, we headed out again. This time, we went to the Jurong Fishery Port with our neighbour and her little one.

Once you reach the entrance, you need to exchange your IC for a temporary pass that will grant you access to seafood goodness.

Oh, I read somewhere that when you go there, you should expect to wade through ankle-deep fishy waters. But nope. 

The water wasn't ankle-deep. It was merely slipper-deep.

Here are other things to take note of:

The smell wasn't too bad simply because these are fresh catch.

You can't expect tip-top customer service either. People are pushing and pulling trolleys, ferrying their goods to their respective stalls. They will HONK at you to move. Not ask. Honk. Using their voices.

You can try a little bit of bargaining. Most of the time they won't entertain you. What I did was to ask for the price. Then I leave, make another round and ask a different guy when I got to the same stall. He gave me a cheaper price. :)

Ensure that you recce the entire place before deciding what to buy. You may find better deals as you walk along.

Don't wear shoes. Everywhere is really wet. EVERYWHERE.

Time to do some seafood stock-up.

Fish are "arranged" on the floor. 

Some may come in styrofoam boxes.

I saw some men cleaning and cutting the fish. Not all stalls will provide such services. You need to ask them.

Oh. My. God. Prawns as big as my entire palm. They're huge.

3.2kg of stingray that I shared with my neighbour. My chopping board is roughly the size of a 15-inch laptop. I had a hard time cutting this baby in half. They don't cut it for you.

Generally, the prices are cheaper than what you find in Sheng Siong or NTUC or even at your local wet markets.

If memory serves me well, the prices are as follows:

1kg of selar kuning for $6.50.

1kg of flower crab for $10.

1kg of squid for $10.

1kg of large tiger prawns for $24.

1kg of stingray for $8.

*The above prices vary from stall to stall.

Now my fridge is full. 

Happy girl is happy.

*Keep a lookout for their trolleys!

Much love,

Mwah mwah

*All pictures taken with my LG G3. Unedited.

What's up, 2015?

Move aside 2014, cos 2015 is here to stay.

At least for now.

The start of the new year was pretty hectic. Thankfully so, cos I know things will cool off and pretty much settle down soon.

2014 for me was like... eons ago. Only because I can't remember what really happened. 

I just knew that I went to Bali, cooked a few things and that's it.

HERE'S TO REMEMBERING EVERYTHING IN 2015!

Maybe not.

***

Putting pressure on 2015 because I'd like to think I'm more matured (turning 24 in 3 weeks), a little bit wiser and a better cook. I still hate cleaning though, that doesn't change.

I'd gone through the first 3 days of school and it was nothing like how I imagined the first 3 days to be.

The primary 1s are too adorable and annoying at the same time. We even had to teach them how to sit down.

Have you ever taught anyone to sit down?

Other than babies?

NO. 

Because NIE didn't teach me how to.

heh.

You see, there's more to being a teacher than just the theory and application modules they provide in NIE. Most of the things I learnt to be a better teacher was the on-job trainings in school itself. 

I've opened my eyes to such experiences when we had to teach them what we thought were the simplest things. It was then that I realized that there were DIFFERENT kinds of admin matters to settle. But who's complaining? I get to teach something different and I see visible results in time to come.

I'm having fun.

So please, parents, if you wish to make things a tad easier for the teachers, the things to prep your kids before entering Primary 1 are these:

1) Make sure your kids can read and write alphabets.

2) Teach them how to take turns.

3) Teach them basic manners like "Please", "Thank you" and "Sorry".

4) Make sure they know how to go to the toilet independently.

5) Teach them how to count.

6) Teach them what to do if they get bullied.

BONUS: Teach them the national pledge and anthem.

hahahahahaha.

Touching on number 6, I encountered a small bullying case just now.

During recess, a girl came up to me and said that a boy was running after her when she was playing with a friend. She got scared and she started running. It turned out to be a game for that boy.

So the conversation went like this:

Me: Why don't you tell him to stop?

Girl: I asked him to stop but he kept running after me.

Me: Okay. Next time you should stop running and look at him and say, "I don't like what you are doing. Stop it now or I will tell the teacher."

(She thinks to herself, probably imagining the conversation that she would have with that boy)

Girl: Okay, I'll tell him that.

I didn't hear from her after that. She probably told him off, I guess. Hmm, maybe I'll find out from her tomorrow.

But yes, kids these days need to be told off by their own friends. Teach these kids how to repel bullies PROPERLY and not with profanities.

I've heard and seen my fair share of kids as young as five hurling profanities (even those that I forgot about) at the void deck on weekends.

Seriously?

Can we teach kids of this generation to be respectful and kind?

Let's begin this practice at home.

Till next time,

Mwah mwah