Ling Jewellery

I first heard of Ling Jewellery when scouting for hotels and subsequently reading about them through blogs and forums. Prior to searching for wedding bands, I went to many local jewellery shops to take a look such as Gold Heart, Love & Co, Poh Heng, SK Jewellery, Soo Kee and Lee Hwa. Out of all the jewellery shops, only the wedding bands at Lee Hwa catches our eyes. However, since I am only getting married next year and it was in July when I was viewing the rings at Lee Hwa, I thought to wait till a nearer date before committing. Just so you know Lee Hwa has an extensive range of rings and I really would go for Lee Hwa for their designs. 

Anyways, I went to their shop at Orchard Hotel. It was their last day there and they are moving permanently to Amara Hotel. Their official opening date at Amara is 6 November and according to Tracy there is no news of any discount for their opening special. 

Here are some of the pictures I took inside and outside of the shop:

According to Tracy, Ling's mother was already in the jewellery business and have a shop at Fulleraton Hotel. Ling then started out her own shop and was doing fine jewellery till she realised as she was growing, all her friends were getting married and looking for wedding bands. Hence, she decided to venture out into wedding bands. So there we have....the various designs as shown....

I love their rings there and kinda wish I could get those that I really love. If you are interested and sold by the pictures, do make an appointment with them because their shop is buzzing with couples. Plus, the first appointment is a minimum 2 hours! The people in Ling Jewellery take time to talk to you, to find out what type of rings you like, to find out your style and tell you a lot of things such as the design and colour of the different rings. I did not have the time to sit for the full 2 hours but I had a good time in the shop. 

More importantly, this is the catch if you looking for discount at Ling Jewellery (only available during wedding show according to male boss). During wedding roadshow, there is a sale for vouchers sold at $300 each. You can also buy the vouchers at the shop itself. 

The $300 voucher specialty:

-Gives you back a $30 rebate with minimum spending of $500

-Gives you additional 20% after the rebate

-Locks down this discount for 2 years 

-Can buy as many vouchers as you want. If your rings cost ~$3000 and you buy 6 vouchers, you will be able to get back $180 + a 20%. 

What may not be so good is, the prices are not fixed. Can be risky to buy your wedding bands.

If you are interested:

*Please take note appointment must be made because there are many people there and 1 visit requires 2 hour minimum. You can do walk-in but there are only 4 staff so they might not be able to serve you if they are full. FYI, bosses are Ling & Andrew.

Ling Jewellery address:

Amara Hotel (2 mins walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT)

100 Tras Street #04-02
100 AM
Tel:62388712
10am - 10pm

Website:

http://www.lingjewellery.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LingJewelleryWedding?ref=profile

La Belle Couture's new wedding collection

Well... for those who are interested to know some of La Belle Couture's new wedding gowns collection, I have some pictures of a few dresses. To be honest, I preferred last year's collection. Felt they were more my style and something exciting and fun to wear as compared to their latest ones. But then again, I may be wrong because I have not tried the gowns.

Which gown do you like best? Actually among all, I like the one with the black ribbon around the waist, tried something similar before at the shop but the style makes me old. Hope to try these gowns cause you never know... they might be the gowns for the wedding! 

Comparison of wedding hotels

The man did an excel when we wanted to compare the various hotels. I thought he did an excellent job because I could see what are the different perks held across the various hotels and it showed me which hotel is worth considering based on the different breakdowns listed down.

Some of the hotels which we did a comparison in the initial stage as below.  As time goes by, we got lazy and tired so the comparing stopped here. This was very useful to us back then when we were clueless about the perks, prices and other stuff, it gave us a very good guide and prepped us so that we know what to ask when we visit the next hotel. 

If you are interested in this excel file, do drop a comment with your email. :-)

CIMB

Have you heard of CIMB bank?

It is a Malaysia bank and the only bank that offers 0.8% interest. It is quite high as compared to other banks. Actually when you plonk in a substantial sum like eg. $20,000, you can see the benefit of having such a high interests rate and the feeling is quite shiok when you see such high interests rate given.

May not sound anything but in long run it is very good, especially when you are planning to get married, pay for renovation, go for a honeymoon or planning a baby. 0.8% leh plus if you open up an account with them, there is a chance to win $1 million dollars!! I am really crossing my fingers and hope I could win the million dollars!

Difference between CIMB Savings and Current (which I remember to the best of my knowledge)

Below is a rough guide on the different banks' interest rate (Please note, different banks have different schemes and these are just some of the basic account. I may be wrong but they are taken from the websites based on the normal basic savings account that I can find).

I used to use Citibank Step-up interest Account because it was the bank that offers attractive interest among other banks and it forces me to save. But I have switched to CIMB now since it offers a better interest rate. 

I would recommend anyone reading this to go to CIMB to find out more and speak to the officer there or simply head to their website to find out more (especially the part on winning 1 million dollars!!). 

There are only 2 branches in Singapore and details as below:

	Orchard 270 Orchard Road #03-02 Knightsbridge 238857 Singapore
	Phone : (65) 6333 7777
	Fax       : (65) 6645 2099
	Counter Services: 10.00am - 8.00pm (Mon - Sun) Personal Banking Services & CIMB Preferred: 10.00am - 8.00pm (Mon - Sun) Closed on Public Holiday
	Raffles Place 50 Raffles Place #01-02 Singapore Land Tower 048623 Singapore
	Phone : (65) 6333 7777
	Fax       : (65) 6557 2213
	Counter Services: 9.00am - 4.30pm (Mon - Fri) 9.00am - 1.00pm (Sat) Personal Banking Services & CIMB Preferred: 9.00am - 6.00pm (Mon - Fri) 9.00am - 1.00pm (Sat)

CIMB webpage:

http://www.cimbbank.com.sg/

Printing wedding inserts and cards - T & T Instant Print Services at JB City Square

Yup, if you are planning to save money on wedding inserts and cards then I think this is one the places to do it -T & T Instant Print Services at Johor Bahru City Square. It is located at 5th floor near this waffle shop. When you take the escalator that goes to the cinema, walk straight past the ticket office, turn right and there you will see the shop.  

Actually, its nothing new but almost all Singaporean couples come here to do their wedding inserts and cards. Prices are based on the number of cards you are printing, paper used, the designs of the cards, etc. The last time I asked for a basic card design is about 20 cents or less per piece and the lady told me the prices might increase because there is plan to add in government tax. In any case, it may still be cheaper than doing it in Singapore. 

Some of the card designs... 

"Airport passes"

Well, I have plans to do it here since we wanna save costs but I will still go to local shop and check out the prices for comparison (but that will have to wait next year!). 

Anyway the lady advised us not to email them, to us it is a faster mode of communication but the problem is they do not have internet access and so phone call is very much preferred, besides it is way much faster to get things done (according to them). 

Check out their Facebook page for more designs and ideas here: 

T&T Instant Print Services Sdn Bhd 

https://www.facebook.com/tntinstantprintservices

By the way, just some calculation to see if all these printing insert/cards is worth making the trip down to JB... 

Hotel gave me 75% wedding cards which is sufficient (according to colleague) because most guests invited come in pairs or families. So the cost now is only the inserts/cards which I need to try to find a place to get people to do at discounted rate. The cost savings I get from T & T is used to travel to and fro from Singer to JB and I may be wasting more money instead (technically I don't see it as a waste of my time and money because I get to eat cheap food, watch cheap movies and buy cheap stuff at City Square - depends on how one sees it). I am wasting more money in the sense because insert from Shop A vs Shop JB may saves me 30 cents (30 cents x 200 inserts = $60). Hence cost savings of $60 may not be substantial enough to waste the time and money to print, especially if I am saving 10 cents  per piece, overall I am only saving $0.1 x 200 = $20. 

Hmm something which you can think about and debate too!

Working on it - Day 1 - Day 13

 With 5.5 months left before I go for my photoshoot in Taiwan, I am standing at 65 (gained 2 kg since April). My target weight is 58 but I think it is gonna be quite a challenge. Gonna target at 60 instead. I hope I really can persevere through as I jot down this journey. Besides, I still have a 21km marathon to run and I have not started training.   

So, I finally forced myself to take on the challenge. It is an ab challenge which will get tougher and tougher as the days go. Doing day 1 really easy peasy. No sweat! 

On top of exercising, it is also important to take note of my diet. Well..it is Day 1 and I chose yogurt with milk instead of my usual cereal with milk because I didn't really have the appetite to eat right after my exercise (did skipping prior to the abs workout). Eating breakfast is really important because I am telling my tummy that there is food now, so there shouldn't be a time where I am supposed to feel hungry. Plus by eating my breakfast, it gives me the glucose my brain needs to start the day and ensure that I will not overeat for my lunch and breakfast. 

For lunch, I opt to eat vegetarian meal. It is becoming a habit already ever since I discovered the really wonderful but expensive dishes that the vegetarian stall is selling. Expensive but healthy.

Besides exercising and eating right, a better way is to drink right too. For me, I mostly consume non sugary drinks like green tea, oolong tea and plain water. But then again, whenever I am out, I go for bubble tea with 30% sugar. Not having my drinks sweet is not a problem for me because I am at high risk of getting diabetics so I got to control my sugar intake by opting for the minimum level of sugar. I tried to opt for no sugar for bubble tea and soya but really tasteless and unbearable to drink. Of course, drink some vitamin c water ensures I am getting the nutrients needed.

Well...that's roughly for day 1 only! Losing weight is easy, especially in the initial stage because the body is not used to the amount of exercise at the start and most importantly we lose weight quite fast but it is not the fats that we are losing but the water in our body. It is the maintaining part that is difficult because whatever exercises I did, the body would have recalibrate to the new routine and gotten used to it, so it is much harder to lose weight. The only way is to increase my intensity of the exercise or prolong the running time to lose more fats.

Is 5.5 month enough to get the body ready for wedding photoshoot? Don't know...so I have to give it a try to see how it works...

Anyways, my tummy is kinda hard now at Day 13. The first 7 days was easy peasy. 

Day 8 -  was manageable. Started to experience soreness at the thigh cause of the leg raise. 

Day 10 - tummy area started to ache at the side. Thigh still abit sore due to the progressive increase in leg raise. This is also the day when I started sweating abit. 

Day 13 - planking was killing me because to do a perfect one requires a lot of core muscles to maintain the posture (straight back, butt low and elbow close together).  I kinda struggle maintaining, can't do it the proper one.

I did all these with a bit of cheat code -doing it on my bed so technically I am not making my muscles work as hard as they should as compared to doing it on a hard floor. Doing all these help me with my running as in, I can push myself more in distance and walking up the stairs is much more enjoyable now.

Ok...wish me luck with the determination to continue because I have been eating fried food and curry every meal. =-O

Belif Skincare

How true....

Recently, there is an obsession with skincare products because I really wanted to look my best and prep the face for the shoots and all. Anyway age is catching up with me, thought I better spend an effort to maintain the face to keep it fresh and young looking. Thanks to my friend I got to know about Belif. Read some reviews here and there and decided it is worth trying since the sales ladies do give out samples to customers.

Now comes the exciting part! Buying the products from Tangs during Belif's opening special! Super shiok when there are so many free gifts and discounts! Not only me but even the sales ladies got blur giving out the freebies. Was really happy to know of their promotion through this http://www.tangs.com.sg/save-the-date/belif--believe-in-our-truth-for-your-skin_249 together with the UOB promotion too! Too awesome already!

Wanted to buy the Peat miracle revital serum concentrate because according to the sales lady at Wisma, if you buy the Peat serum, there will be a 10% if you buy other products. But instead I bought the first aid 360'deg eye care mask because buying that will give me a 10% on their best sellers +  double of points for members.

The Peat serum exceeded $80 and I was given these freebies.

Was given more freebies for purchasing the eye care mask and Hungarian water essence which exceeded $120.

Best part was taking advantage of the UOB credit card promo. It is a superb deal which I am entitled to even more freebies! =D

That's not all...was surfing UOB Facebook and chanced upon another deal. Flash the Facebook page to receive a set of masks samples. 

Best part was winning a Peat cream in a lucky draw for every $50 spent!

To end my belif spree, I asked for some samples because of the 3 products bought. Wanted to try and see if they are compatible with my face.

While chatting with the sales lady, I managed to get her to register the membership on the spot for me because I wanted to save the hassle of making another trip down. 

Lastly, was told I could get a chop for every $50 spent. 

Had fun talking to the sales ladies although it ended up with me giving them my Loccitane voucher. But that's ok, I am open to sharing and hope they could use it since I really had nothing to buy from Loccitane anymore. I enjoyed the shopping experience (well obviously!) but in terms of product knowledge, felt the ladies from other stores were way much better because they can go on and on talking and introducing the products in the stores but the ladies at Tangs are still new so they are still not so sure and mostly asked me to read the information myself. 

Belif Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/belifsingapore

Belif outlets:

Wisma Atria #B1-64 | Plaza Singapura #01-61 | Junction 8 #01-28B | Suntec City #02-337 | TANGS VivoCity #01-187

Belif website:

http://www.belif.com.sg/Pages/login.aspx

Food which you cannot resist

This is one of the usuals for my breakfast. Not on a strict diet really because I need the carbo to fuel the energy required for my exercises and stop me from snacking or overeating. 

Parkroyal on Pickering - Wedding lunch

Attended a wedding lunch at Parkroyal on Pickering..... 

Home made sweet treats from the groom's side. 

Went for the solemnization ceremony to get a feel and see how it is like. It is held at a small function room fit for about 30 people. This is also the place where the tea ceremony is held after the solemnization. 

Reception area where the brothers and sisters are waiting and getting ready for the crowd.

Ideas for wedding. Everything is self-made. Quite a lot of effort put in! 

Photo Booth area. Quite amazed to see all the details that go into decorating the photos. 

Checking out the "bridal" room!

Small but cosy "living room"

Bedroom with great view (can even see the hotel room over the other side) and the big toilet.

Ballroom. Like the stage a lot, especially with the $200 balloons flying there.

Time for food! Food - not too bad but nothing "wow". The duck sauce is quite good though. The waiter serves the food one by one but we couldn't wait so told him we will help ourselves. They serve a lot of herbal prawns, one person could eat about 2-3 prawns. 

Post-Wedding Photoshoot at the pool area (Subject to the crowd. If there are many guests at the pool area, phototaking is not allowed - not even on your wedding). 

Super amazed because the pool is so awesome! 

Quite heartwarming to see the happy couple. Everyone used to be worried that he will not be able to get a girlfriend but now he is actually the second one to get married within the group. Happy that I could come and experience this too! The hotel is really good and since it is quite new, this is a good place to come get married and use the facilities. They have a very good gym facing the pool as well, good for staycation to just relax and have fun.