my brain dump

Last few weeks, we received an invitation from Shahrul's sister - the family was planning to have a family day at Desaru.

Knowing it'd be a paid trip (yay), we happily said yes. (Realized that I've never been to any of southern beaches, especially in Johor sigh) But after a few days, the plan had to be cancelled due to unavailability of some of the family members, hence it'd not be a family day.

But since the resort was already booked, a few of us who are staying near southern region agreed to carry on with the initial plan, albeit just a few of us. The resort was booked anyway!

So it sort of..became our first beach getaway..since I've gotten pregnant.

Stayed at Lotus Desaru where we rented an apartment unit with 3 bedrooms.


The resort was a bit crowded due to the extra holiday for Deepavali, but accommodating nevertheless. The apartment was spacious enough for my sister-in-laws and their kids, so good enough for us.

They have a private beach with beach restaurants (reminded me of Bali!), a seafood restaurant, parasailing and bungee jumping activities, a spa and a theme park. Convenient for a family day.




Spent the weekend at the beach, bonding with the nieces at theme park and getting massage and facials at the spa in the resort. Back to the apartment with loud nieces to hang out with.

Not sure if we're doing it right, but not bad for a babymoon.

Reaching second trimester means I get to feel the baby kicks, they say.

So after a few weeks, I started to feel a bit off at some places of my belly at random times - and sometimes those 'feelings' were painful, too. Not the whooshy feeling most Mommy-to-bes would gloat about - it's the tingly, sometimes is-that-a-piranha painful feeling; and not one that I'd be smiling about.

Thinking it was just gases or I ate wrong, I just brushed it off every time and get on with life. Thankfully it goes as fast as it comes!

(Mommy-to-bes, do advise if this is normal T.T)

Until a few days ago, I felt something different - now it's not painful anymore, it's just a movement I can feel from inside and also outside. The first time, I put my hands on my belly thinking maybe it's gas.

It's not.

It's the baby, kicking!

And I'm sure of this because it's nothing like I've experienced before - and definitely not coming from me.

So back from work that day, I told the husband how I can feel the baby kicks now; so he put his hands to feel it too - even though I didn't feel anything at that moment -____-

"How's that feeling? Is it painful?"

"No, it wasn't painful but more like a 'blub' from inside my uterus", I told him.

So he got excited, and would put his hands on my stomach to feel the kicks..only to be disappointed each time because the baby seems to stop kicking right after he puts his hands on me haha WTF. He'd move his hands around, feeling for something that he'd think it's the baby..

Only nothing is happening there.

It was getting funnier, and I can see he's giving up with why-won't-the-baby-kick face, all disappointed. Tried to console him by saying that maybe it's just me, because maybe it's way too early to even feel the kicks.

(Not completely sure if he buys it though, because he reads babycenter.com every day and he's bound to figure out sooner or later, anyhow.)

Until during the car ride today when we were on the way back to KL, I suddenly felt the baby kicked a bit harder than usual and immediately told him to feel.

And he finally did. Twice.

And we can confirm that that's the baby, kicking. Haha.

From the hotel, we took a bus to Landungsbrucken - where the harbour is located. Were quite lucky because the hotel room fee comes with a 3-day pass for all transportation rides in the city, so it makes our trip easier not having to deal with tickets. (one of the reasons why we had to go out that day - we had to utilize all free paid stuff!)

The port wasn't so far and we reached there after about 20-minutes ride. Discovered that it was one of the most oldest and famous building in Hamburg.


There were a lot of ships and boats hovering around the area, as the people here also take boats as buses, too. Cruise ships, passenger boats, sight-seeing boats - it was so tempting to go on one of these boats, but there were so many people and we were too ignorant to find out how the ticketing system of these boats works.


We also learned that the city still preserves the old jetties of Hamburg called the warehouse district - the one which old Hamburg port used to operate as one of the biggest and famous port in Europe. But since it requires us to walk quite far from the port, we decided not to go and just hang around the port instead.

Googled a bit about it, and apparently it's similar to the Red Brick Warehouse, Yokohama I went to back in 2009. Made a lot of sense as both cities are port cities.


Paid the HRC a visit and went around other parts of the city. Took the bus back near the hotel and decided to walk around..

Until we found out there's a lake right beside our hotel's building, and lots of shopping outlets nearby.


Shopping outlets like H&M and Zara are all scattered around the area, and we had no idea -___-"


Thank God I was wearing flats.

Growing belly

Supplements

Appetite

PDA from husband

"I didn't really feel it at first because your belly wasn't that huge..but now.."

All the while staring at my belly in disbelief -____-"

After my frequent rants on not being able to fit into any most of my existing clothes, I decided to pay Zara a visit one day, after work. Looking at my wardrobe every morning figuring out what to wear is getting exhausting - I couldn't find anything comfortable that fits.

Browsed through halfheartedly (because somehow I know I won't fit in any of them either, in my size), then I saw this.


I rarely ever wear skirts (as you can see from this blog I think?) but since jeans and pants aren't meant for my belly now, I find skirts interesting. Those without the fitted waistband, of course. I have long realized that I have to steer away from skirts with button or zip closure, ever since I couldn't fit into my favorite pants a while back.

So when I was done belek-ing this skirt, I decided to go and try it on. With this belly I couldn't take a chance T.T It has a stretchable waistband and made from stretchable jersey-like material, only finer. I've never worn stripes before, especially horizontal stripes as they make my already defeated height appears shorter - they'd also make it look like I'm 2 sizes bigger.

And haven't you read That Extra Half An Inch by VB sheesh.

But still, I tried on my size, and fit. And the length, too - usually had to tailor them a couple inches short for my short legs, but not this one. Quite surprised at the price tag though, it comes for only RM79.90!

So I got it, and have been wearing so much that the husband even notices -____-" Went back to the store to get the skirt in other colors (can you see how much I love it?) but as usual, Zara only stocks their items short term which means the skirt would only lasts less than 4 weeks in the store before the new designs came out.

Couldn't find it at any other Zara outlets, too. Safe to say that my hunt for tube skirts continues.

I was reluctant to blog about the reception dress before the wedding because I believe in the term bridezilla lol.

But post-wedding, I regret not doing so because I forgot about all the (little) details T.T

Here's what I can gather from my pregnancy brain so far.

The design

I did some research on how I wanted my reception dress to be - truth be told, there were A LOT OF THEM. I couldn't decide; traditional or modern, tulle or chiffon, full lace or half. My main resource (besides Google) was Instagram - surprisingly you can find a lot of wedding inspirations from various accounts, most even based in KL!

For instance, I took my inspirations mainly from this Instagram account, Songket Affairs :


Their Instagram account is all about weddings - the wedding hall setting, the dais, the wedding dress, the flowers, the cake - you can find everything there. Though some (most, actually) looks out of this world, you can be inspired by the pictures.

For me, I was inspired by picture, for example :


I wanted something as majestic (was quite into fairytale weddings, thanks to Songket Affairs -___-") as this dress, so with this design in mind, I started hunting for the designer.

The designer

I was lucky because during the designer hunt, there were a lot of my closed ones and friends getting married or in their own journey to get married. So, a lot of ideas were exchanged and shared - I came across this designer by doing that.

Again, the power of Instagram! Found this designer's Instagram which shows some of her bridal collection, one of them similar to the design in my mind.

Aishah Rouhe is a designer specialized in beadings for traditional clothing and bridal dresses, based in Ampang Park. When I'm quite sure she can do the dress I wanted, I gave her boutique a call and set up an appointment.

The final design

Our first appointment went smoothly - I gave her sketching of what was on my mind, and she made this for me.


She showed me some of her bridal designs, and I was certain that she could deliver. So we settled on the color for the dress, the groom's baju melayu, materials, veil and scarf during the appointment!

Paid the deposit, and there was no turning back.

The subsequent appointments and fitting

She called me for fabric hunting to ensure I'm fully informed about the materials, which I'm happy about. There were times that we had to reschedule due to both unavailability, and there were times when she couldn't make it on time - but she was professional enough to let her assistant do her part. I had 3 fittings - quite a number IMO, but she had to take some time to complete the rest of the beadings so we only saw the dress fully beaded during the last fitting.

The final dress

It turned out like this :


Overall, I was happy that it turned out like this - especially happy that it's got tulle! The beading was heavy but not overly done and Aishah did the beading in a way that one design belongs to one customer - so it doesn't resembles anyone else's.

The scarf, veil and tiara were provided by her as well - saved me the trouble.

Why didn't I hire a more well-known Malaysian designer? I've thought about this a lot - I've approached Yadotsa, PU3, Innai and others; but when some of them were a bit out of my price range, some were difficult to secure an appointment with since they need at least 6 months in advance to arrange the first appointment. For me, I made up my mind on the design 4 months before the wedding, so it was already too late. And though I know they can do exquisite job of this dress at a higher price, I was not ready to take the risk to secure the appointment, pay the deposit and put my trust on them in such a short time.

So lesson learnt; if you want any of these designers, plan ahead at least a year! But listen to your financial advisor too (aka the fiancé lol) for budgeting as I don't believe in spurging too much on a dress you'd wear once.


For Aishah Rouhe collection, you can find her at this address :

Since it was a business trip, the hotel reservation part was left to our counterparts in Germany to do on our behalf.

(Really, we were just too lazy to survey. But my boss said he'd prefer booking the hotel himself - it gives him freedom to choose which area to stay, etc which is sensible especially when you're going to a foreign place. I didn't mind.)

A few days prior to the trip, we received booking confirmation (it was a last-minute trip). Our counterparts knew the area well - they chose Baseler Hof hotel, a private family-run hotel in the city, located in the middle of Hamburg.


The room is actually..not so bad. It has everything it's supposed to provide (for a hotel) and given that it's one of the best hotel in the city, I had nothing to complain.


The hotel is about 15-minute walk from Hamburg central station, which is convenient for us. Except that I'm pregnant and walking more than 500 meters just sounds too exhausting and muri for me; we ended up having to take cabs every day -____-"

The area around the hotel was nice. A walk along the street by the hotel led us to beautiful buildings, something uncommon in this area Europe.


The interior of the hotel itself did not disappoint.


There's a sitting area where guests would sit while waiting, and a bar in case they're thirsty. I find the whole concept very sophisticated - something they would have chose targeting the business, corporate people coming to stay.

We were provided breakfast every day, so at 6.15 am sharp you'd find me at the hotel's restaurant binging on the croissants and cheese and yogurts.



To summarize,

• comfortable place
• maybe a bit pricey - so make sure you know the area and survey other choices
• walking distance to the central station
• surrounded by nice buildings and also shopping street - convenient for last minute retail therapy
• a kebab shop just down the corner 
• they don't provide iron for the rooms; you'd have to go down to the basement to iron in the ironing room

Actually made friends with one of staff there because he can speak Malay hahaha. He'd greet us at the restaurant every morning with a "Selamat pagi madam!" I think it's the only Malay phrase he knows, but it impressed me nonetheless.

Nice people made my day.

A week before my business trip to Germany, the husband and I were so swamped with work.

Still, I managed to get home earlier than him, giving me some time to clean up after myself and the house a bit before he gets home to a lovely (ahem) wife with squeaky clean floor and packed food on the table (didn't have time to cook I swear).

But that week..I failed. Had to stay at the office to settle things for the trip and he had to go home to an empty house and empty fridge for a few days, which I felt so guilty about.

So that weekend (2 days before the trip), I insisted that we went somewhere, just the two of us. I knew I'd feel guilty for leaving him behind albeit just for a short time, so I wanted us to do something special, which we didn't get to do so often.

"Where can we go? Can't be that far from KL, you'd be tired"

"Bukit Tinggi nak? We've never been there, and it's only 30 to an hour drive from here"

"Jom!"

So that weekend, we found ourselves at the hill just outside the city where the air is cooler and the trees are greener.

There are a lot of French-style cafes and restaurants, which is thrilling. Reminded me of Paris somewhat, except that the breads and coffee weren't as good.


The weather was nice, so we proceeded to the Japanese garden at the other side of the place. Basically to make our 12 bucks worth.


Had to drive to the Japanese garden and parked our car at the parking area. We found out reaching the garden needs a bit walking up the hill, so I had to change to sneakers.


Wore the Onitsuka Tiger sneakers he got me from Japan.

"How come I feel like I've never seen you wearing this?" 

And then we went to the souvenir store to get ice creams.

It was a great trip, I didn't know they even have the Japanese tea house and an animal farm (which we skipped) - but I feel like there's a lot more they can develop to turn the famous hill to a must-go place. We didn't go to any attractions, having been to Huis ten Bosch twice makes me think I'd somehow regret it if we pay and visit the attractions.

Nevertheless, the hotels and spa are nice. Most people from KL go there just to have a nice hotel stay overnight and being pampered in the spa, I think?