Decluttering

I have been feeling anxious lately. Everything in my life are going on well despite few hiccups (nothing major) but I still feel unease as if I have a dateline that I need to meet soon. Looking back, I think what triggers this feeling is that we are expecting our firstborn soon. (Sorry I dropped the bombshell just like that). But all of my family and closest friends already knew about this from the start and we only officially announced it on social media last week. I was thinking of writing the pregnancy announcement here first but I realised I have way too many backlog posts to clear. This is what happened when I took the time off blogging and now all of my writing mojo are rushing back to me so fast that I couldn't cope up with.

I am on my 22 weeks now and in less than 20 weeks our baby will arrive. So far I have not doing any major preparation for the baby arrival. I mean I'm barely settling down with moving into my in law place. My belongings are scattered in my old room and my new bedroom. I have too much stuff and the other day I was thinking of doing some major decluttering with my belongings because I still have stuff that I've not worn more than years in my keeping. I mean, why would I still keep those? I have no idea.

My progress of decluttering so far, you ask? Well, I have started with my digital belongings. All of my photos are neatly arranged in my hard drive and properly labelled and I'm going to reformat my laptop. Deleting all the software that I no longer use eg: The Sims. I really enjoy the game but seriously I have real life to play now. So the virtual life of my Sims have to go.

Next on my lists are my wardrobe. This time I'm gonna be strict with myself. Anything that doesn't fit or haven't see the daylight in more than a year have to go. Anything that still in good condition, I will sell on my Carousell or give away to relatives. I think this is the hardest part because God know how many times have I tried to declutter/organise my wardrobe, I always failed. Maybe I will try the popular Konmari way and see whether it works for me.

I guess the point of my post today is that I want to try to live minimally, in term of my belongings. And also because storage space is a big problem for me. Our closet is full now but it only contains 1/3 of my clothes and I already dominated the shoe rack in my in laws place. 2 rows out of 5 rows are all my footwear.  

Actually one logical way to solve this problem is to get a place of our own. Trust me, I'm working on it but it is not easy to save up for a property now. One day, I will have a house for my own family. Finger cross that one day will be coming soon.

Our Pre-wedding photoshoot with France Taipei

As I've mentioned in previous post, we signed the pre-wedding photo shoot with France Taipei early last year during one of their road show in Sibu. It was an unexpected decision because we only wanted to do some survey initially but somehow we ended up signing the deal on the spot. At the first booth that we sat down at. So much for research, pfft.

Anyway we both really laid back in regards to wedding stuff so we had no special request and dream wedding. In fact, we just want to get it over with. After we signed the contract and told our friends, we received mix feedback from them and started to get worry. Apparently the review online for France Taipei is not good either. But the deal is done and we thought that we got a pretty good one actually. 

Since we had no wedding date fixed when we signed the deal, France Taipei been calling me every few months to remind us to book a slot early with them to avoid date clashing with other clients. Luckily when we gave them short notice on our wedding date, they managed to slot us in. 

Our schedule for the photo shoot was very packed as we need to do outdoor and indoor photo shoot all in one day. I was told to pick makeup look that I fancied and any locations that I wanted but seriously I had no idea what look to go for. So, I left everything up for them to decide. I think I am their favourite kind of client because I was so fuss free. 

Make up and hair do took the most time out of everything

The only part where I really put my thoughts into were during choosing my wedding dress and gowns. We came the day before the photo shoot to their place to pick my dresses. The choices were endless but not much up to my liking.

One advice for the ladies that soon will do dress fitting for their wedding dress, wear a nice undergarment because the assistant will strip you off and will see everything. I ended up choosing this for my actual day.

I really like this one but it is designer dress.

Those that I tried on and really liked ended being the designer dresses which meant that we had to top up from RM600-RM1800 per dress if I want the dress. What a rip off la but I understand this is how they did their business. So I had to refrain myself and settled for whatever our package include. Before we came in for the dress fitting, both my husband and I had a talk about how much we were willing to add on to our budget for the photo shoot. We agreed that these money are better spent elsewhere then on dresses that never gonna belong to me. I think my husband married the right woman la, hahahha!

In the end I chose according to my package which includes 9 outfits which 4 wedding dresses, 3 evening gowns and 2 traditional outfits. I ended up 4 wedding dresses (3 for photo shoot and 1 for actual day), 2 wedding gowns and 2 traditional outfit of Chinese and Korean but we omitted the Korean in the end because I don't like it.

One of my evening dress was an upgrade and we paid RM600 for it. So die die must wear it till we got our ROI. It is also my evening dress on my actual wedding day. 

Location, location, location!

En route to our first location, Carmelite Chapel

For our outdoor photo shoot. my only request was to have one done in a church. My photographer suggested Carmelite Chapel because it gave the European church vibe that suits us. I have never been that chapel before. Although it is small but it suits us.

I'm wearing my favorite wedding dress here. Too bad I'm too short because I would have choose this for my actual wedding day. 

When it came to outdoor photo shoot, we have been so lucky that the weather was so good. It had been raining a lot that week almost everyday except on the day of our photo shoot. It was a hot day but at least we could get everything done despite sweating so much. I'll take hot day over rainy day anytime for this matter.

Make up and hair do changes on the go

At the state library

We spent around 3 hours doing outdoor photo shoot and rushing from 3 location. Carmelite Chapel -> Museum (yeah, the classic wedding photo shoot venue in Kuching) and State Library. We only wanted anywhere nearby so, beach/green field were out of the question.

The studio photo shoot turned out to be very easy because we're indoor. But still tough because we both were tired and very sleepy by the end of the day. The husband even managed to nap while waiting for my make up and hair done. Because we both were exhausted, we started to pose nonchalantly and very very close to cancel the traditional outfits because we could no longer posing for the camera.

This dress was an upgrade

Our photographer, Patrick is awesome and it was so easy to work with him because he sure know how to crack jokes to lighten us up. It was him to persuade us to take the traditional outfits. Even if we don't like the outcome, we can still omit it from our selection.

Very fake la our pose but we still keep this one. And the Korean outfit one really cannot make it la.

Getting our pre-wedding photo shoot done was quite an experience, I'm glad we did it but I'd never want to do it all over again because it was really tiring to pose and smile whole day while you're sweating under the scorching sun and aching feet. I wonder how those models did it. And my thought of France Taipei, it is actually not as bad as everyone said. I guess they have improved a lot.They  are really accommodating us with our short notice and did not try hard to push us to upgrade our package or maybe we're just too kiam that it was impossible to make us do it. 

Life Update

A selfie of me to start off the post because I haven't post my own selfie on this site for a very long time. As of late, most of my post are either backdated or review which has nothing to do with my current life update. I remembered I used to religiously update my blog with whatever is happening in my life but as I grow older, somehow I've lost my writing mojo and become more private. Ah, I miss those carefree day.

In my attempt to revive my blog, so I guess I should update about my current life here as a start. This year is a very exciting year for me personally. From a 'Miss' now I am a " Mrs". I have been married for 2 months but I haven't even update about my wedding here. Pardon the laziness in me and I also have a very legit reason, okay!

Backtrack to 2 months back, I tied the knot with the fiance on 06/06/2016. We chose this date not because it is a special date for us but because this is the date that can accommodate everybody specially for outstation family members. Trust me guys, wedding is not just about the couple. There are so much stuff that we need to consider and put into consideration so that every parties are satisfied. I was very close to meltdown a day before my wedding because of the stress and everything are just to overwhelming for me.

Preparation wise we were doing good because we only want a simple reception with close family and friends. If it were up to me, I would skip the reception and just elope somewhere. Easy and stress free, except that when your fiance is the first male to wed in his generation, you can forget everything about about your dream wedding. The family for sure will take over everything and there is no escape from tradition.

I am a very laid back person and would rather planning my holiday than planning my wedding. So I have no problem to leave the preparation to the fiance's family members. But what's drove me over the wall is the unnecessary advice and comments. To make thing even worst, these advice came from those who think they know it all. *roll eyes* The best that I could do in such situation is to just distant myself away because seriously no use of letting them get to my nerves. But I'm really grateful for the fiance (now husband) to be so accommodating to me. He listened to my rants, changed anything to suit my wants and basically been letting me having things in my way.

Not sure if I was really overwhelm or what but leading up to the day of my wedding, I had no feeling at all. Not excitement, no adrenaline rush even the night before. I guess I was just too tired and wanted to get this wedding over with. But on the morning of the wedding itself, I started to get jittery in the stomach and super nervous. And worst I got sore throat and slightly feverish. Luckily I downed a heavy dose of Vitamin C and felt a lot better when the groom entourage reached my house.

With my family

Our new room

Us during the reception

I will do a separate post for my wedding day because it will be too long to write in this post and also I haven't sort through all of photos from that day. We both wanted to post photos first in Facebook because everyone been asking about it but we are only halfway through sorting the photos *shifty eyes* 

So here's a little snippet of our pre-wedding photos. We signed the package with France Taipei Kuching last year during their promotion period. I admitted that I really not into planning wedding because we signed the package on the spot and France Taipei Kuching was the first booth that we sat down at. I didn't even bother to do further research or read review online about the bridal company that we chose. Only after we signed the package and I told my friends about it, everyone been giving me bad reviews about France Taipei. Fortunately everything turned out well for us and of course I will dedicate another post for this soon. 

This is actually my favourite photo from the day

Sorry for the blur quality because we haven't receive the soft copies yet. These photos are cropped from the pdf file that they sent us for approval. The photoshoot was done back in May and we will receive our albums and soft copies tomorrow. 

We sealed the deal and became legal on 16/05/2016. 

One question for married couple out there, when is your wedding anniversary date? Your ROM date or your wedding reception date? I was confused about this but I chose ROM as anniversary date because that is the date that we're legally married. Anyway, we're not big on anniversary so it doesn't really matter. 

How's life after married you ask? 

Well, nothing change much for us except that I miss my old room and my dog. Maybe I do a 'A day in my life after married' post. Maybe okay, just maybe because I have so much stuff to blog about. Feel so good to be able to write again!

Back to books again

This year I unintentionally pick up my reading habit again which is something that I have been meaning to do long time ago. I'v picked up lots of books from Popular book sale for the past 2 years but haven't read all of it till some are collecting dust on my desk. I can't really remember but I think for the past one and a half year, I think I have gone through 10 novels. So, I'm gonna share my review of those novels here.

My favourite genre are chick literature (don't judge okay,I love Sophie Kinsella), thriller mystery and family drama (all thanks to Jodi Picoult). You see, I was never a fan of Jodi Picoult before. I've heard of her books and watched My Sister's Keeper which made me wept whole night. But I never have the urge to pick up her books up until last year. And the only reason I did that was because the books were on sale. (Tips: Never ever buy novel on full price, always wait for Popular sales which the discounts are as great as 70% off)

So, I'm gonna start my review with Jodi Picoult's novel, Plain Truth.

Review

I picked up this book without expectation and started reading it only to be unable to put it down for the next few days. One thing about Jodi Picoult is I always learnt new things through her books. This time it is about the Amish community. The novel centres around an Amish family when police are called to investigate when they found a dead baby in their barn. The police investigation quickly round up to two conclusion. The baby was not stillborn and Katie Fisher is the unwed mother. This discovery is not acceptable within the Amish community, however the bigger issue is that Katie Fisher is charged for the murder of the baby.

Ellie Hathaway was brought in to defend Katie in this case as a favor for her aunt. But what challenged Ellie was that her client denied giving birth despite the medical proof and did not want to be defended as her client insisted that she is innocent. Staying with the Fisher family in the Amish community brings a new perspective to Ellie. The reason that I was unable to put this book was the way the Plain people live, their belief and their faith. If I'm Ellie, I'll be really pissed at Katie because all the medical proof are pointing to her giving birth to the baby but she keeps on insisting it never happened because it is against their culture and belief. It's like " Hello girl, doesn't matter your religion allowed it or not, you carried that baby in your tummy for nine months and gave birth to him"

To cut the chase loose, yes Katie did gave birth but someone else murdered the baby. I don't want to spoil anything but this was a good read although I still mad at Katie for living in denial.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Review

I'm not kidding when I say I have jump on the Jodi Picoult bandwagon because this next book that I will review is also from her which I've just finished recently. The Storyteller started off quite slow for me. I wasn't fully impressed until I've read on Minka's life as a child that grew up during The Holocaust.

The story started with Sage Singer, a loner baker that befriend a well-loved veteran Josef Weber. 

From the beginning, I really dislike Sage Singer because this girl has some serious self-esteem issue. 

She was involved in terrific accident which left her mother dead and a permanent scar on her face to remind her of the incident. Sage herself is having hard time to move on with her life. She met Josef Weber in a grief group. However, Josef Weber is not whom he portrayed himself to be. Everyone has past but Josef Weber's past life is haunting him. And he chose to share it with Sage along with a dead request. Like literally a dead request.

Josef Weber was a Nazi during Holocaust and has done lots of terrible things on Jews. The fact that Sage's grandmother is a survivor during the Holocaust made Josef confide in Sage and request for her aid in killing himself. Sage is torn in between because she know how much Minka (her grandmother has suffered during the Holocaust but taking Josef's life will make her no different than those Nazis. I know nothing about the life during Holocaust, so Minka's story really intrigued me. I have visited the Genocide Camp in Cambodia and have read about all the torture done on those prisoner. I imagined it is the same in Jews concentration camp. But not all Germans are murderer and not all Jews are victim. The different perspective from Minka and the Nazi officers give me an insight of what actually going on on both side of the story.

However, the extra story about the mysterious creature which obviously penned down by Minka is unnecessary in my opinion. And the twist at the end, honestly I wasn't expecting Sage to do that. Overall, I highly recommend this book and please hang on to the first part because I promise it will get better from there.

Play Dead by Harlan Coben

Review

This is the first novel by Harlan Coben that I picked up. Coincidentally, this is the very first book that he wrote in his early years as author but never get publish until later on. Again, I picked this up without expectation and ended up loving it. Some of the review on Goodreads said that this is not Harlan Coben's best work but I have read his Mickey Bolitar series after this book and sorry, Mickey Bolitar is the worst. Although in this book, he seems to be obsess with the beauty of Laura Ayers, the main character whom got it all, beauty, money and fame. Everything changed when her husband, the basketball superstar is missing during their honeymoon in Australia. Laura is on the mission to find out what happened to her husband despite everyone telling her to stop. Reading the narration of Laura's day and her feeling when dealing with the loss of her husband, it feels so real. This is where Harlan Coben hit the right spot for me. 

Also, the twisted plot toward the end really surprise me. I mean I thought I knew what was coming and someone must have killed Laura's husband but I was so wrong. This book keeps me in suspense and I really couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this one if you love mystery/thriller.

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

Review

When I picked this up, I assumed that this will be another book about a housewife having a midlife crisis. Well, it is but not as boring as I assumed it would be. In fact, it is very much hit home for me because let's admit it, you do feel like you're stuck in a rut after a while of doing the same thing or when you stop putting effort in your relationship. 

Alice Buckle been married to her husband for 20 years and now they have 2 teenage kids. She used to be an independent strong girl with a career however she slowly letting herself go with the excuse of marriage and being a mother. One day she was approached by an online survey about marriage and assigned the pseudo name Wife 22. She was engaged to a handler called Researcher 101. She started by answering some survey question and found herself answering them honestly because she was on an anonymous platform and nobody can judge her. Each day she opened herself up more and more online about her feeling in marriage but in reality she and her husband are slowly drifting apart.

Most of us can relate to this where we tend to be more open when we're behind the keyboard but unable to be at least honest when dealing with loved one in real life. The problem with Alice in her marriage is the lack of communication and effort from both of them. They know that they are parents and life partner in life but they forgot that they are lovers too. 

And what happened when you spend more time talking to someone online than someone in your real life? You slowly fell in love with that online persona. This is what happened to Alice Buckle and she even seriously considering to leave her husband for Researcher 101. This is where I started to develop dislike to Alice Buckle character, everything about her just scream 'attention seeking teenager' Why can't she just try at least make an effort to reignite the fire in her love life with her husband rather than pouring her heart out to a stranger online and risking her own marriage. And her husband too! No effort at all.

Well, I kinda predicted the ending and everything fall into places in the end. This is a good read in my opinion because sometime we too stuck in the rut like Alice Buckle and maybe this will help to shed some light into our life about what will happened when we stop putting effort into relationship.

There are other books that I've finished reading and absolutely love it but I'll save that for another book review next time. In the mean time, go to my Goodreads profile to see other books that I've read and wanted to read in the future.