my brain dump

Discovered that there were still a lot of tourists coming down to the place too, so it must be a quite famous hanging out spot at the beach. One of their main attractions, I'd say, is the stark difference between them and othe high-end supposedly superior interior design - there were a lot of glossy cafes with expensive chairs compared to their humble setup, but that's what attracts the tourists the most!

You can sleep here the whole day too, no one bothers.


Ordered green coconut water served in the coconut fruit, while laying down on the wooden couch and beanbags. Best date ever.

"This must be my favorite place in the world," I told him.

 If we were to visit Bali again, I'd come to this cafe again just for the sake of it. But next time, I'd make sure we stay until the sunset.

I've had my eyes on this one bag for years now - the first time was ever since I saw it on Purseblog. It has quilted leather in so many colors, but my favorite back then was this soft blush color. Loved it so much that I started reading Purseforum every day; stalking every picture posted by the lucky owners who are obviously not broke and obviously buy bags for a living.

And the celebrities who wear them became my idols.


Being a college student limited my savings and passion for the expensive bags I knew I'd kill myself for spending the money, I just had to brush it off and get on with life.

Fast forward last year, I found out that Marc Jacobs has decided to discontinue the bag - the Stam bag - and I was crushed. There goes my chance to ever hold it in my arms! So desperate to own it, I started looking for the bag online; trying to find the best deals for the best color I wanted, etc before they sold out.

Nothing gives. I found none that I like, and even when I did, it's crazy expensive and just didn't make sense to me. Getting married (hmmph) hampered my need to own it even more - I needed to prioritize. Even so, now and then I still drop by MJ branch in KLCC just to see if they had one at cheaper price. The most discount they gave was 30% - still ridiculously pricey to me.

So no Stam.

Fast forward again to this year last month, when I found out a new Marc Jacobs store is opening at JPO and (coincidentally) we had our babymoon at Desaru, I told the husband,

"Jom check out JPO! Along-alang dah lalu"

But obviously he knows me better lol.

So we did. And we went to the newly opened MJ store - saw the Stam bag in a gorgeous dark purple shade, tried it on, asked for the price.

It was at more than 50% off! MORE THAN. I still remember my reaction when the salesgirl showed me the price tag; it was like me seeing Tom Hiddleston in real life hahaha.

So..


The salesgirl said they're having the opening sale hence the big reduction, and also because the Stam is discontinued - still, the price is so, so much lower than the one in KLCC.

So glad I waited, all those years.


When we reached home, I pulled out the bag from the dust bag and started admiring it in the mirror. Husband couldn't care less - but when he saw me hugging the bag from afar, he said,

" You have a sickness."

Fine, maybe I do. Hmmph.

Reached this street with stores selling hip accessories by Chanel, LV, Kate Spade, Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Louboutins and even Ferragamo - only that the goods aren't authentic. The stores look so posh and exclusive (in Bali standard lah) that I really thought they're regular brand stores.



Asked the salesgirl about a black quilted Chanel bag,

"How much is this one?"

"XX rupiah (I can't remember how much)..but we have triple A version of this one, much cheaper!"

And that's how I discovered the goods were not authentic. Which baffles me cause the Louboutins look so real!


Jalan Petitenget isn't so bad - you'd find a lot of stores along the road with some famous villas located just a few inches from each other, and exotic spa and massage outlets. There are Japanese, Balinese and even western villas around so you can take your pick to suit your preference. There are a number of money changers (which looks dodgy but doable nonetheless), stalls selling fuel for your vespa tank, and in a few kilometres you'd find yourself at the beach.

Ooh, and there's a lot of pharmacies and convenience store too - the husband walked across the street to get me Panadols one morning because of a headache I had.

But one of the must-go place to head to if you're around - a restaurant called Biku. Will blog about it soon!

For the engagement, I asked my little brother to do the recording task of the ceremony - because I wanted the video to be personal.

For the wedding, I decided that he is far too amateur for that T.T

Deciding the videographer wasn't too hard - my (then) fiancé and I weren't keen on spending thousands on two pieces of films; so we focused on photographer instead and let them suggest the video part. Luckily most of the photographers do videos as well, and they came in a package catering for a smaller budget like ours.

So our photographer suggested this company, D&D Studio to do the videos and showed us the samples. To be honest, at first I was skeptical as some of the samples were amateur at best - but still doable, at least for us. So we agreed and took the package.

Some criteria for the video :

1. there should be 2 videos - one for nikah, and one for reception
2. background song selection was left to the videographer because I didn't want to be too anal. Choosing songs, for me, could take forever!
3. simple and no cheesy poses

The third one was hard to cater for, I realized - there was no controlling on how you pose on the day itself, because you can never expect how the day would turn out to be. That's how I learn I can never be an actress -____-"

Our videographer, Abang Zaidi was kind and easy to work with. He didn't mind traveling all the way up north and even brought his family along - and I didn't hear any complaint coming from him throughout the event. Professionalism!

So..this is our reception video.



That's the most unflattering side of gedikness for the bride, really. I'm usually not that talkative or loud, I swear T.T Still, feast your eyes with this side of me while you still can.

If I could do it again, I would ensure with the videographer company on the deliverable of the video. Mine was long overdue (received the video about 7 months after the wedding, seriously) and I had to follow up frequently to check on the video completion, which I wish I didn't have to do.

Lesson learnt; check and double confirm on everything especially on the terms after the event, instead of just focusing on the day itself.

Never thought I'd have one, cause I've always been skeptical whenever people say "it's bound to happen soon".

I didn't believe in wanting to eat something so bad, I heard that you'd have headaches, hyper tension or worse..you'd cry. (I read somewhere that it's because during pregnancy, your body lacks some vitamins and it's one way your body tells you to get that vitamin from a certain food, hence the strong cravings. I wonder what kind of vitamin I can get from nasi lemak, though)

Until last few weekends, on a Saturday morning. Probably the one day I'd (and the husband) remember until the end of the pregnancy lol.

I remember that morning, I asked the husband to buy some nasi lemak bungkus for breakfast. I figured he'd comply because it's been a few weekends that we've been buying nasi lemak for breakfast, only that this time I clearly told him I wanted the regular one without lauk, nicely wrapped in the brown paper. Or better yet, if it comes in the daun pisang like I always have back in Penang.

So after a while, he came home..with the words that made me want to kill him so bad.

"Sorry sayang, there's no nasi lemak today..they sold out. So I bought mee goreng for you"

My face changed. I knew this because I could see his face expression changed, too.

"What? There's no nasi lemak? You've checked at other stalls?"

"Yeah..sorry for not checking with you earlier. You're fine with mee goreng right?"

Then he went to the kitchen. I was still in WTF mode, trying to make sense of what he's told me.

Mee goreng. Omg it's not even my favorite.

Then the waves came..I really felt like I'm going to cry I don't know why. No, I know why -  it's just that I didn't want to accept the fact that I wanted to cry because I don't get to eat nasi lemak that morning.

Thinking it was the hormones, I tried to shrug it off and do something else to distract me from thinking about the nasi lemak I didn't get to eat for breakfast. Put the mee goreng in a plate for the husband, one for me, made the hot tea he likes for breakfast, arranged them nicely on the table.

Still..something wasn't right.

Then the husband came in. He took one look at my face, shocked, and said,

"Ok sayang I'll go out and look for that nasi lemak for you ok? Wait don't eat yet"

I think I was mumbling "no it's ok don't bother" but he was already out the door, probably thinking WTH is wrong with his wife. My face must've looked so horrible, to scare him off like that.

So he came home, again, with my nasi lemak.


And I was all smiley again!

"Sorry sayang it's the hormones, I swear"

Conclusion is, if you're not pregnant, you won't know how bad it is. This craving thing, it's real.

When I first got married, the first thing my husband noticed was my handbags.

"If I don't see you wear them on daily basis, they will have to go"

(Not a good start for a happy-wife-happy-life, I must say.)

But regardless, my defense was that most of them were from my uni days, years ago - which means I needed them in big tote size for my engineering textbooks, and some shoulder bags for the weekend outings. And some really small ones were for the times when I felt like chucking everything else and just carry my purse and eyeliner and lipbalm.

But getting older and working, I find myself favoring just a number of them for practicality. Like this MbMJ Groovee shoulder bag with top handle I can wear to work and also, casual :


Probably the one bag with most appearance on this blog haha, and that's for a reason!

I no longer carry totes for laptop, I'd choose satchels and messenger bags instead, like this.

Probably the least thing I worried about, when it comes to my wedding.

Why? Because I had decided that I wanted none - no DJs, no karaoke, just plain old Islamic, selawat or selamat pengantin baru songs. Even so, I asked Mum to not choose any songs unless I've proofread the list first.

Until a few days before the event, we had some relatives helping out the house, including my cousins. One of them, a cousin 2 years younger, talked to me about the emcees.

"Why won't you have emcees?? Who's going to usher the guests and relatives to do the salam thing at the pelamin?"

Honestly, I hadn't thought of that - I figured someone in charge (in my head, it was Mum but I realized she'd be busy at the guest reception point at the front) would do the task.

"And who would ask the guys to recite the doa? Do you have someone to recite doa yet?"

Oh no.

So after being brainwashed, I figured might as well hire someone who'd be willing to be a bidan terjun emcee for me. Hiring a professional emcee was not my type - if I were to have emcee talking at my wedding, it might as well be someone in the family who I'm very close to, because I wanted the event to be very personal.

The cousin was the perfect candidate. She was the one who got the ball rolling anyway!

So, she agreed. She gladly took the task (she's been involved in her friends' weddings quite often - she did a friend's wedding photobooth by herself once) and started drafting a script for the wedding.

Since it was a last minute decision, we had to sort out microphones, speakers and agenda in a time span 2 days prior to the event. Luckily everything was in order; we had the PA ready, doa recital by one of my cousins who's a pro at these things (he attends an Iqra' private school) and my brother was ready for anything just in case.


I'd rather put my trust on these youngsters because I know they'd know what they have to do - and even if they did anything wrong, I honestly won't think much of it because it's not supposed to be an uptight event, to me. It's supposed to be fun!



Kudos to them, the merenjis part ran smoothly - a few hiccups here and there (some relatives didn't realized their names were being called haha) but it went great, to me. They even helped my Japanese friend to do the merenjis haha! My cousin wanted to do a story-telling about how Shahrul and I met, etc but I'd rather leave that part out of the wedding T.T

In conclusion, main things you'd have to prepare for emcees :

1. Ensure the flow of the event
2. Doa recital
3. Prepare a proofread script 
4. Someone close so that they'd know all your relatives for merenjis part - or get ready with a list
5. Ensure they can help with any mishap throughout the flow of the event - getting the event back on track
6. PA system, ready!

Considering how I almost had no one to narrate during the event, I'm so lucky I have helpful cousins who'd jump in and take the task within a short period of time. Makes me realized how important it is to double check your preparation, even though you're confident you're fully prepared. Lesson learnt.

"Sorry Miss, I think you've been bumped to first class. Let me check"

*hands me the first class ticket*

And off I went to the (6-hour) land of happiness.


The movie choices are good, and we were given the standard essentials kit which contained lotions, perfume samples, toothbrush and everything from Bvlgari - but upon arrival, I realized I left mine in the flight T.T The kit was given in a polished black leather pouch bag of Bvlgari, for God's sake!

So I just moved on with life with the bathrobe and the basket of chocolates. Bathrobes were given because they have showers for first class; where they also provide lotions and perfumes in the toilet.

Super swankyness.

I doubt that I'd get this lucky during the trips to come (crossing fingers) but I'd definitely remember this one.

So how to get yourself bumped to first class?

+ Find out if your flight is fully booked, or the nominal flight of a certain route (which people would usually travel) and ask if you could get bumped. The flight attendant told me that if the flight was full, those traveling in business class would get bumped to the empty first class seats to maximize the space. Thus why sometimes we get bumped from economy to business, too.

+ Try flirting with the flight attendant.

Might not always work, but worth the try.

Travel.bart.la did a full review, my pictures didn't do any justice.