Guest from outside KK

19/11 - Jiayi & Way arriving and settle yourselves :p

20/11 -
Morning: Amy arrive in the morning. I go pick you up then to meet Jiayi for breakfast. Then I'll send you all to the apartment. Please help me to decorate the newroom hehe... and do some last minute shopping if necessary.

Afternoon: I think you need to entertain yourselves. Hin Mun can go pick up (1.40pm and then 3.20pm) his family & my 2nd sis. When they arrive we shall 过大礼

Night: We go dinner at my uncle's restaurant then come to my house to do all those traditional stuff, comb hair la, eat 汤圆la etc. At night pick up Xiao Qing and send u gal back to sleep. Maybe should just leave 1 car with you all. I give u my address if you want to pre-set in your GPS.

Apartment, Colonnades Condominium, The Colonnade, Jalan Kebajikan, Kota Kinabalu Sabah.
See link http://www.sabah-hotels.com/colonnades/location.htm

21/11 -
Morning: Come to my house for FUN~~~ the customary is 9am-11am. I'll wake up at 7+ for make up

Afternoon: lunch with us at Hoi Wong Seng Seafood Restaurant. Then rest/ shopping up to you...

Night: dinner and May Flower Restaurant. Leave 1 car with you guys. Maybe just follow Hin Mun's family or the bridal car provided by the restaurant.

22/11 -
Morning: I go National Park/ TAR Marine Park with my "new" family. Xiao Qing to join us if she has no other plan.

Afternoon: National Park/ TAR Marine Park still. Jiayi check out and continue her package tour. Maybe Amy need to take a cab :p see how. can ask my sis to help.

Night: back to town. We have extra room for Xiao Qing.

November Logistic

Accommodation,
KK
20/11 - 23/11 (4 nights) Colonnades (6 pax) >> Booking confirmed
20/11 - 21/11 (2 nights) Colonnades (6 pax) >> Booking confirmed

KL
26/11 - 30/11 (4 nights) Sri Petaling Hotel (3 pax) >> Booking confirmed

Wedding gown and photos

In the end we bought a simple gown in Singapore.

History...
In case you forget again. We did talk about this for many many times.

Option 1
Sign up for a RM999 package in KK. We touch down on 19 Nov 1150pm. Go to the studio on 20 Nov. Select gown but no time to take photos. Use it for the customanry & dinner on 21 Nov. Bring it to KL for dinner. Ask my sister to return it. We can only take the indoor shots after wedding. The next we go back is CNY but don't think they are open.

Option 2
Buy a simple gown from the shopping center I mentioned. It's about RM300. We can only shop for the gown on 20 Nov. I assure you, there will be thousands other things to do.

Option 3
Sign up a package in JB when you are back to Singapore. We'll have more time to do the shopping TOGETHER, then select gown, then take photos. But I have no idea how much is it gonna cost.

Option 4
Get a gown from Singapore

Regardless which option we adopt, I'm printing 2 albums for our outdoor KK shots. medium size about A4 size with 20 pages plus minus.

Stuff that I bought

Home trip is getting more and more tiring and stressful.
Preparing for customary wedding is quite troublesome. A lot of stuff to buy. Stuff that somehow symbolises something. But it was quite fun to shop around and look for value-for-money stuff. When I found these stuff, I was happy and relieved.
Bought a red umbrella, red clothes, ang pao packets to be used on wedding day.
New bedsheet for new room.
Bowls, plates, chopsticks, cups in pairs to represent food. We will be prosperous and well fed. Both of us :)
Some groceries like shampoo, toothpaste, slippers etc to symbolise abundant life. Everything will be enough in our life. Something like that la... I dunno la..
Candle light stand, to symbolise continuing the family 香火
Still need to buy some makeup.. This one very important! In the old days only rich family and afford makeup. It symbolises wealth and good life for the bride. hehe..
Besides all these, maybe need to buy some other stuff. See how it goes.

ROM 20 March 09 - Mission Accomplished

One down. It went smoothly as planned.

Day 1 - 19 March 09
兵分两路
Miao2 took half day leave on Thursday to fetch my parents at T1. I drove my Materia and paid $20 for the first time. The feeling is good because I didn't have to rush for bus, MRT and then another bus. I took my own sweet time in the morning yet reached office in ~40min vs. ~90min if I take public transport.
At about 12pm, I left office and picked up stuff from home. Making sure nothing important left behind. Then started my long long journey to the airport. AYE - ECP. No jam, no ERP haha... I reached T1 about the same time as my parents so they didn't wait too long. They were surprised to see my car. They didn't expect Daihatsu Materia to be so spacious and cute looking.
We were starving, need food! Took skytrain to T2 for a decent meal at Crystal Jade. Ordered "5 grain hot pot rice" and some other stuff. Well, the food was delicious. Out of curiousity, we asked the waitress what the 5 grains are. No surprise, they don't know. They started to name a few grains but only 3 or 4. That's the standard of service in Singapore. People don't really know their own product. One of them went on extra mile to stir the rice in the hot pot and continue to name the grains. I think that is too much and say, "You can check with your kitchen and please don't stir my rice over here...". Luckily she got my message.
After lunch, we shopped at T1 while waiting for 3rd sister. Tired...

3ung went to JB custom to fetch parents to Sg. Task is equally tough. Jam at custom for 1 hour. Eventually arrive at Aloha Changi and check-in. The place is big. 2 storey with all 4 bedrooms on the upper floor. Living, dining and kitchen on the lower floor. Only shortcoming there is only 1 toilet!


We can finally take a rest after 4pm when everybody reach the chalet. Later on, we had dinner at Changi Village. At night, people want to go shopping but we decided not to bring them anywhere. Instead, 2 of us drove to Novena to collect matress and buy bouquet at Novena Square. The shopkeeper recommended Hydrangea.
Shopkeeper, "Tie the flower with some leaves, ribbon. Can make it very beautiful..."
Miao2, "How much?"
Shopkeeper, "For ROM should make it nice.. With other smaller flower..."
Miao2, "Ya, how much?"
Shopkeeper, "Around $80, $85..."
Miao2, "Too expensive, I just want a simple one."
Shopkeeper, "Ok, maybe I just put some leaves and tie with a matching ribbon..."
Miao2, "Ya, a simple one will do. How much?"
Shopkeeper, "Maybe $25, $30"
Miao2, "$25"
Shopkeeper, "Maybe $25, $30" (Miao2 thought, "Walao... she cannot hear what I just said meh?")
Miao2, "OK!"
In the end, I paid $30 for a simple bouquet.



As we returned to chalet, it's already 11pm. Time to sleep. zzzz



Day 2 - 20 March 09

This is the day! Woke up early to fetch 3ung's sister from T1. I was disgusted by the chalet toilet so I am more than happy to drive to T1 so that I can use the sparkling clean airport toilet. The flight has touched down on time. Met them up and return to chalet for make-up session.

The rest of them were almost ready. I took only 30min to makeover, of course with some help la.. My 3rd sister did my hair while I put on make-up. 1st & 2nd sisters later touched up my eye brown. Then we are done. Arriving at Peony Jade 3omin earlier, just in case anything went wrong. Luckily everything is fine. Friends reached the place one after another.

We started solemnization at 1130am. It was a short and sweet ceremony. We exchanged vow and rings and took pictures by the sea. Actually is between the pool and the sea. At 12pm, we had our dinner. Let's the guests entertained themselves and talked to strangers. I just want to sit down, take a rest and have my lunch quietly.
Photos uploaded in facebook album

The food is good, environment is relaxing but the carpark charge was high. When the guests heard $2 per 30min, they started to kao beh already. We tried to get complimentary carpark coupon from the manager but our effort was in vain. In the end, we paid $7.32 per car.

The weather was good in the morning but cloudy in the afternoon so we can't go anywhere. Lucky! All of us returned to the chalet and do nothing but chit-chating.

At night, after 3ung's sister left, I brought them to IKEA for dinner. My siblings were ok with IKEA. But the parents were disappointed and shocked seeing so many people at the food court. They reluctantly ate western food, reluctantly shared table with strangers and reluctantly sit on a different table away from us. That's a lesson learnt for them. Don't ever say "随便" when I ask, "what do you want for dinner?" Haha...



Day 3 - 21 March 09

The phrase that I heard mostly for these few days

Rank #1 "What's the activity later?/ Where are we going later?"

Rank #2 "What time do we eat?/ Where do we eat?"

Rank #3 "Now what?/ What's next?"

No room to think, they want immediate answers. After breakfast, have to think about lunch. After lunch, have to think about dinner. Bring them to one place, they want to know where to go next. After taking 1 picture, they ask you when to download the picture... Tougher than taking uni exam.

We when to Marina Barrage in the morning. It wasn't very hot nor very sunny. But people just hide under the canopy. Come on! Marina Barrage is the most "in" thing in Singapore now! We visit the gallery and get to know more about water body in Sg. The best part is, parking is free here...

Then we went to a teochew restaurant in Chinatown for lunch. Then we started to shop for the first time. My mum bought 肉干and some 鲨鱼骨. My sisters bought some packet tibits and mua chi. Before the heavy rain, we manage to take cover at the Smith St multi-storey market. We shopped in the market and took some dessert while waiting for the rain to stop.
In the evening, after the rain stopped, we took a 30min flight. The shortest flight I have ever taken. Yes! It's the Singapore Flyer. The highest ferris wheel in the world standing at 165m height. When there is a big group, it became very hard to please everybody. We even argue on how many tickets to buy...

3ung is sick.. He cannot speak and cannot say "ung ung ung ung ung ung ung ung ung ung~~~~~~" Enjoy the quiet moment for a day or 2 :)

On this day, there is a promotion. Buy 2 adult tickets and get 2 senior tickets for free. I won 1 ticket from lucky draw and received 1 from Madaliene (as a gift, Thanks gal!). So I bought 2 tickets and got 6 of us into the Flyer. The ride was interesting because we get to take wonderful pictures. Getting 3rd sister up there is most value-for-money. Because she kept saying things like, "wah! nice~~", "let's take pictures", "wow!", "see see... that one is xxx, that one is yyy" etc etc. But the parents didn't seem to appreciate. Sg Flyer, state-of-art ferris wheel leh.... Well, paying $60 for 6 persons to go up. That's considered a good deal la..

After the flight, we find our way to the dinner place. It's dinner time. This time we went to PuTian restaurant at Kitchener Road. The food was good but there was a group of celebrity-wanna-be singing KTV next door. It's disturbing because they sounded like pig slaughtering. Very irritating and unappertizing. This time we were smart to park the car at Park Royal Hotel nearby. $2.20 for 1st hour. The cheapest carpark I have paid so far. I need to come up with a list of cheap or free carpark in Sg. That's all for Day 3.

Day 4 - 22 March 09
Parents flying back to KK on Jetstar from T1. It's a wise decision to fly them directly between KK & Sg on Jetstar. Booking Aloha Changi was also a wise choice. It's near to airport. No matter how procrastinate my 1st sister is, we can always make it to airport in time. They took off at 740am. Then we returned to chalet and continue to sleep.

Checked out at 10am and paid additional for aircon useage. The way they operate is funny. They give you 25 unit of credit for 1 day. Anything exceed the limit is chargeable at $0.20 per unit. We were quite consicous at first but from Day 2 onwards, we just switched on the aircon when needed. Anyway, in the end we paid extra $1.89 for the additional aircon unit consumed. That's cheap.

Lead 3ung's parents to Woodland checkpoint by TPE - SLE - Turf Club Ave. It was a long drive. I finally activated my N78 GPRS for the first time. I really took long to detect the signal. When the KL group left, we were 90% relieved. Dropped my 3rd sister at Causeway Point for shopping and we were 100% relieved... It was a like a military training simulation. I so feel like not working on Monday :p

Getting married should be very easy. But we chose to make our logistic so complicated. One day we looked back, these will be sweet memory.

Thank God for the 60% discount

Sometimes we really need to go shopping without specific purpose. Today I went to Plaza Sing for facial. As usual, I lepak around after facial. My eyes pop out when I saw this "MOVING OUT SALE" stickers at TianPo window. Although I have been looking around for a pair of suitable rings since last year, the price was just not right. Because ung zai limited our budget to RM2,000... This sale came at the right time & we managed to keep within budget. I tried various design in the shop and discussed with ung zai over the phone. It was quite difficult to describe the rings but I have to endure because 60% is a good deal that hardly come by. Eventually we came to a landing after ~1 hour. $840 or RM1,932 for a pair of white gold wedding band with 0.04C diamond on each ring.

Let's take a closer look :)

Wedding Dinner Nov 2009

KK dinner changed to 21 Nov 2009. Customary will be in KK instead of KL. Not planning for church wedding anymore. Couldn't manage to arrange for the pre-marital course in time.
Will fly there from 19-24 Nov. Ung parents flying from 20-23 Nov
Tentatively, the plan goes like

19 Nov: Flight 935pm. Touch down KK at 1150pm. Stay at miao miao's home
20 Nov: Shopping for the 过大礼... List is prepared already, just follow. Fetch ung's parents to Promenade Hotel and check-in & decorate the new room. 过大礼 in the evening. Stay up whole night...
21 Nov: Customary, tea ceremony, dinner at night. Eat Lunch at Hoi Wong Seng.
22 Nov: Free & Easy. Need to rest. Let's go to Mt Kinabalu
23 Nov: Back to the bride's home on the 3rd day Stay at Sutera Harbour after sending parents back to KL
24 Nov: Back to Sg Flight 640 pm, reach at nite 855pm

KL dinner fixed on 27 Nov 2009.
25 Nov: Drive up to KL carry stuff back
26 Nov: Take pic in KL
27 Nov: Dinner at Restoran Overseas, Sri Petaling
28 Nov: Free n Easy
29 Nov: Drive Back to Sg

No more trips for dorby in 2009 except maybe go Bintan

Trips of 2010
Japan - Mileage extended till Sept 10
Taiwan, Shenzhen, Langkawi
Penang or Ipoh for food

Let's rent a car. zoom zoom~~

Have you driven a MPV before? Let's experience it! Hmm.... I scare cannot park the car properly.

Report - ROM on 20 March 2009

For the past month I have been through a tough military training...
This is my progress reoprt, Roger SIR!
Preparation for ROM is more or less settled.
1. Booking at Peony Jade is confirmed with $300 deposit paid. Remaining $1000 over will be paid on the day.
2. I have also contacted our solemniser. We will sign the consent form.
3. Remember to present to ROM on 17/03/09 as per stated in the Acknowledgement notice.
4. Invitation to our guest is also sent out and all of them have replied with a "Yes". There are altogether 14 of them and a baby sitting at the same table.
Su Teng, Hon Choong, Kok Pun, Yee Siang, Peter, Siew See, Joanne Teoh, Shin Yee (W), Evelyn, Xiao Qing (W), Janice & baby, Benny (Photographer), Ren Hui and Chee Seng.
Our family members will sit at another table. There are also 11 persons.
Dorby, Miao Miao, parent x4, Margaret, Esther, Gina, Yin May and Chuan
If you decided to invite Lye Ping, Yan Leong, Ren Hui's wife + baby & Man Woei, we will open another table and order a la carte. Then we will shuffle the people again to fit 10 per table...
5. Ring Ring Ring... Haven't bought yet. Let's follow our plan to search for a suitable pair in KK or KL. I also need a bouquet of flower. Thinking to get something like these...

6. Just booked Aloha Changi from 19/03/09 - 21/03/09. I believe the bigger ones already snatched by the members. So Biggin Hills Terrace is OK la...

Report ended, ROGER!

Where can we go in Singapore?

In March we need to bring our parents ard. The best is if we have cars. Most likely renting one that can fit 6 persons. We will be staying near Changi Ferry Terminal (near the sea) which is very near to the airport. Some of this places I have not been to.

Possible places that we can go
1. Sungei Buloh Wetlands and lim chu kang
2. Southern Ridges along the bridge
3. Tanah Merah Club via Changi Coast Road
4. Bintan/Batam one day tour
5.Labrador Park
6.Pulau Ubin
7.Sentosa
8.Marina Barrage
9. Terminal 3 to eat lunch or dinner
10. Keppel Island
11. Go Punggol for seafood or Defu Lane 10
12. Desaru and JB

Tentatively the plan is,
19/03/09 (Thursday)
Morning

Free & Easy 自由活动

Noon

We army-split-2-way... 兵分两路

Ung zai's parents will drive here from KL so that we can use the car in Singapore for that 2 days.
Ung zai fetch parents from JB CIQ around noon time. You can have all the Bakuteh you want before re-entering small island. Meet my 3rd sister at Kranji MRT. She's coming from Senai... Poor thing haha..

Meanwhile Miao Miao off work and meet parents at Changi. Flight from KK touch down at about 1.30pm. I'll bring them to T3 for lunch.

Evening & Night
Check in to Aloha Changi and take a rest. Stroll around the chalet area. Don't think there will be a lot to see. At night, dinner at 91 Defu Lane 10 - Seafood Paradise.
If we need to book, call 6487 2429.

After dinner go do some shopping in Pasir Ris. I think we need to buy breakfast for the next few days.

20/03/09 (Friday)
Morning & Noon
Dress up and prepare for ROM. Transport to Keppel Club Peony Jade. ROM starts at 11.30 and Lunch at 12pm. We shall sit there as long as possible. Laze around and take photos until the noon sun is over.
Need to rent a car for Friday & Saturday.

Evening
Get up to Southern Ridge and Keppel Island at about 4pm for more photo shooting. Hopefully that time is not too hot. Labrodor Park is not very beautiful. I think we can skip that.

Night
Dinner at Kitchener Road, Pu Tian Restaurant.

21/03/09 (Saturday)
One day tour at Marina Barrage. We can start our day slightly later coz Friday could be quite tiring for everyone. Ung zai's parent is leaving in the afternoon.

22/03/09 (Sunday)
My family is leaving in the morning, except for 3rd sister at 2pm.
I don't know how our Bintan trip is going to work out.

Our "Evergreen" DorbyMiaoMiao Plan

ROM in Singapore We will hold our solemnisation on 20 March 2009. I have booked 2 tables in Peony Jade @ Keppel. They are giving us a private room. If needed, they allow us to increase 2 more seats per table. Just pay the prorated additional charges. Re-confirm the details in first week of March.

At first we thought of a few possibilities but they are either too expensive or too inconvenient...
1) Fort Canning Park - X - I said too boring, you agreed. And you said troublesome to ferry people from Fort Canning to makan place.
2) Singapore Flyer - X - You said too pricy.
3) Zoo - X - We both agreed Zoo is not convenient & expensive.

The biggest concern is how to bring our family all the way down south from KL & KK. Every now and then, we watch AirAsia website carefully. We don't want to miss any good deal. Coincidently, Jetstar celebrate the 4th aniversary and we quickly snatched 2 return tickets for RM380 per pax.. Haha... I am as happy and jumpy as the girl in the advertisement.

The next challenge is to look for an affordable accommodation for them. As we were trained to surf internet, we found the best place. We shall book Aloha Changi from 19/03/09 - 21/03/09. It is located near to the airport and Pulau Ubin. REMIND ME to book the room!! Maximum 2 months in advance, which is Jan 09.

Next to do list:
1) Check out the land tour from Creative travels.
2) My sister is getting someone from her church to take outdoor shots for us at Mt Kinabalu and get a set of gown for the dinner in KK. My 3rd sis has a package with bridal studio and she is entitled to take the gown for dinner.
Then we can sign a cheap package to take indoor photos in JB and use the gown for KL & Sg. Flying with the gown can be very tiring because they are very heavy. Should be able to ask the JB studio to compile the photos we took from KK.
3) I am also thinking of a mini honeymoon at Bintan.

Dinner in KK
My mum to prepare guest list. BTW, Jiayi & Amy wants to go KK.
Location:
1) Sutera Harbour - Awaiting their proposal - X
2) Hoi Wong Seng - X
3) Hyatt Regency, Kota Kinabalu - X - This is no longer an option because someone has consumed the deposit.
Hyatt is quite good in terms of location and brand name. Minimum 20 tables. I need to find out whether the package includes "Honeymoon Suite" hehehe...

4) Port View Seafood Restaurant

I'll go find out more in when I'm back for CNY. Most likely 10 tables.
5) May Flower Restaurant -> Final Decision.
Guest list for KK is done.

Customary Wedding & Dinner in KL
To prepare guest list. 7 tables booked on 12 Dec 2009 (Sat)

Honeymoon Destination
A few options to choose from,
1) Japan
2) Tahiti... very nice pictures found online... You know where is it??

Pre-Wedding Preparation
I want to use these bears for the car deco... mow

For wedding band, I've been to a few Singapore jewellery shop like TianPo, Soo Kee, Goldheart etc. I roughly know what I want. Basically, I am looking for matt finished white gold ring with or without diamond. A little bit of rose gold colour. There is this design where the inner part of the ring is rounded. It gives a comfortable fit. I tried and the touch is better than the normal cut. During CNY, I'll survey the price in KK first. No hurry, we can decide in March after finding out the price in KL.