I first read about this on Bagaholicboy’s blog early this week and the first thing I did was to screen through the comment to see where I could order one for myself.

I’ve been using a purplish-pink Harrods one (which is a tad bulky) to contain all my coins and smaller notes, so though I was disappointed to know that only the purple and yellow coloured ones were available for sale at Strapya (because I really wanted either the red, pink or the blue), I went ahead to order a purple one for myself in the end  (even yellow was sold out  when I placed my order…) :(

I’ve never been a Hello Kitty fan since knowing about its existence when I was 8 or 9 years old, but the recent trip to Japan sort of changed my perspective for the better of the white cat. Or perhaps its also an age thing, considering I was quite a tom boy during my adolescent and always fancied the androgynous style more…

So some 10 minutes ago, the friendly Singpost man was at my door to deliver a package from Strapya. Considering that I placed an order for this on Monday night and I’m receiving it on Wednesday morning – I’m very impressed with the service.

And ooo can I also squeal to you how adorable the silicone pouch is to the touch? I’ve been squeezing it non-stop since!

Guess what came in the mail yesterday! My beauty loot from Benefit. Yays!

Wrapped in a beautiful Benefit gift paper no less!

I’ve also been somewhat of a closet Madewell fan, except that the prices always put me off. So when I received a mailer saying that there was a 20% + free shipping (to my special J, of course), I just had to jump at the opportunity.

And although I did linger around the denim jeans section for quite a bit, deciding what wash to be getting, I ended up purchasing this outfit (minus the nude oxford shoes & cardi) instead.

There was just something very alluring & romantic with this choice. And well, a girl should never reject a silk & fully lined dress. That’s probably one of the best material to be in considering the horrible humidity here in Singapore.

1. Madewell spring sonnet dress, (was) $145.00, (now) $116.00

2. Madewell missing pieces belt, $45.00

Enter GoForIt code to qualify for free shipping* & additional 20% off.

Have fun!

*available only within the United States

Disclaimer: I tried doing the more photos, less talk kinda thing only to realized that I was too busy shopping and carrying stuff that I didn’t have time to take as many photos as I usually would. Blame it on the cheap, fashionable shopping bug baht

I didn’t really give it much thought when my colleagues warned me a day before my flight to Bangkok on Friday morning at 7am (oh goodness, I practically slept at 1am and woke up at 4.45am just so I won’t miss my flight, again) that protests were still ongoing and that I should steer clear of wearing anything red/yellow/orange and away from shopping malls.

All I did was sent a SMS blast to my 3 other girlfriends/travel-mates not to pack those colours (red/yellow/orange) into the luggage, rushed home to pack my suitcase, do online check-in, change money (only changed $300, the least cash ever in my BKK trip!) and get as much sleep as I could. Apparently 4 hours was as much as I could squeeze in – but I sure was proud that I was first to arrive at the departure hall the next morning though :)

Marg & Fi waiting for Daph at the airport

I had been to Bangkok last year (2010) during the protests and it was so safe that if we hadn’t knew about it from the media, we would have no idea about the reds vs. the yellows. Thankfully they left blue & black out of the picture because that’s what I packed my suitcase with this time. Except that I only packed 2 sets of clothes to be worn on 4 days. I decided that I would be a little more adventurous this time…and shop for the rest of my outfits despite being fatter than before. So glad I stuck to that plan beause my luggage went from 11kg to 22.2kg on the way back home. Although I do think tailoring the 3 pants for Luke must have contributed to the additional weight… :]

So it turns out that travelling on a bigger plane did shorten our flight from the usual 2hr 40min to 1hr 50min – DUH, pretty sure we all didn’t know that judging by the surprised look on our faces when we found out we didn’t even have time to finish our inflight movie! We landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport at 08:30am, queued up at customs to get our stamps for about 30 minutes before we could hit the expressways and to the land of cheap & fashionable shopping!

We were rather surprised to be greeted with a face-lifted Grand Diamond Hotel (our usual choice of accommodation) that had a nicer looking entrance, a plaza of shops and STARBUCKS at the lobby!

at Grand Diamond's lobby

And of course, our very affordable Suite on the 24th floor. Hooray!

Rushed to the shops right after we settled our bags, bladders & bowels; and it turned out that I had brought the least value in cash ($300) vs. 1 x $500 and 2 x $700. Why does anyone need that much money for anyway!!! – I digress.

Day 1 was awesome.

We spent little, reaped lesser than before, but somehow felt a lot more happier & rationale with our purchases….maybe except Margie who probably purchased 6-7 dresses in a single afternoon. We even bought similar sleeping Tshirts – talk about a Pyjamas partay!

Day 2 was not quite what we expected.

Margie & Fiona wanted to go to the 4-faced Buddha (word has it that once you ask for blessings, you have to visit it every year…) temple. On the way there, I saw some ladies in red tees, didn’t think much of it until I realized it was one of the meeting & protest points for the reds which was happening in less than 2 hours.

Daph & I outside the temple waiting for the girls

Needless to say, Daph & I contemplated taking a high-priced tuk tuk back from the temple to Platinum Shopping Mall as soon as the other 2 were done. Except that we couldn’t find a tuk tuk or taxi in sight. We saw the police and their shields closing in all directions, while the sea of red just got bigger. One of the girls suggested cutting through the reds to get out. Thankfully we deided to make a detour through another entrance of the mall and seek shelter & safety there instead. I got to admit that seeing them deck in red from head to toe with a flag in the toilet too felt quite intimidating. I had almost silly thoughts running through my mind at that point.

The girls took more than an hour shopping at Naraya and by time we left the mall by the side entrance, we could quickly walk past the protest and brisk walk our way to our destination. But our adventure didn’t quite end there.

Later than evening when we took a taxi to MBK, we were told by the driver that we were lucky because every 19th & 20-something of the month was the Reds protest day and that it had ended at 5pm (it was 6.45pm when we boarded the cab). We were  so relieved to hear that, only to experience the driver making a stop at the side of the road and telling us that the roads were blocked till 8.30pm at all major shopping points, including MBK and that he could not take us there. What a waste of time.

We contemplated going for a massage at a place I frequent nearby MBK, but taxi driver had a better suggestion of taking us to the #1 massage place in Thailand. For a moment I did think he was referring to the massage place I was talking about, until I saw him turn into a much quieter lane with a big massage center. Didn’t feel quite comfortable because the massage prices were double of what was supposed to be the usual price, and seeing a group of Thai men at the counter loitering just threw me off completely.

Glad we agreed to walk out of that place after I haggled the price with the lady who refused to budge, went to the nearest 7-11 shop to ask for directions to MBK, was told that it would take us 2 hours to walk there. Flagged down 2 cabs who had no idea how to go back to our hotel and by Grace, managed to get a 3rd one who would finally take us to MBK.

Guess what. It turned out that MBK was only 2 baht worth of a taxi journey away from where we were! And there weren’t road blocks!!! Although on hindsight, I remember the first driver pointing to his ‘red shirts’ decal while telling us how the yellows will strike at the airport while the reds do it in town…I digress again!!!

We heard a loud shot as our taxi passed by MBK though. The girls started asking if it was a gun shot, which I told them not to speak nonsense especially not in a Thai taxi. My heart was fearful though, as we noticed that the McDonalds’ at MBK had its shutters down. Good thing the location which we wanted to alight at was a few hundred metres away so by time we alighted from the cab, it was surrounded by shops and eateries (like a bigger version of Holland V).

Had a satisfying meal (recommended by the massage parlour) that night followed by a good foot massage. This was probably the next best highlight after a day of shopping!

us waiting for a seat at Som Tam (Soi 5)

Day 3 & Day 4 was just like Day 1. Good fun shopping, lots of bargaining, buying, carrying, achy backs and packing. And soaking our tired feet in the tub over cans of Chang beer in the night.

soaking our feet in the tub at the suite

All in all, a very fun & fufilling trip albeit terribly exhausted one since we were up at 8am every day and out cold only by 11ish pm.

My only regret(s): Wished I had more Thai baht with me and took more photos to capture more of the trip!

If you’re considering whether its safe to go Bangkok during this period of time, just be mindful to avoid the 19th and I think 28 or 29th of each month (so we were told by the taxi driver) at malls like Central World & MBK etc. Or you can be like us, avoid packing any red/yellow/orange in your bags and just stay indoors during the afternoon (indoors = shopping) with some coffee breaks in between.

I enjoyed this trip so much, I’m contemplating another one end of the year. But we’ll see…baby-making plans are still priority :D

It caught me by surprise when I realized that the bag hubby got the sis in UK to get last Dec was actually going to be my birthday present this year! Especially since I knew that he was still recovering from our fairly indulgent gourmet adventure in Japan.

So when he said “Sweetie, this alexa is your birthday present”, I went jumping up & down for a while, trying to register that it was real that I was going to have a 3rd addition to my Mulberry collection (as you can tell, I’m quite the Mulberry fan).

I now have a collection of small, medium and oversized Mulberry bags suited for any occassion. Whoopee!

Following the slew of open & hearty communication between bobo and I recently, in addition to the agreement with BR over brunch yesterday that we ought to remind ourselves about letting go of expectations (like how we used to discuss some 2 years ago) - a string of surprises has been unfolding.

And of course I know it has been the work of my Father.

The bobo has been a sweetheart. Not like regular sweetheart, but too-good-a-dessert-to-miss-sweetheart. He’s back to how he used to be – without work constantly bogging his mind and frown lines appearing lesser.  

Last night, we had one of the best ever meal together. It was a good ol’ simple but very delicious prata-heartfelt talk-teh tarik dinner session in a nearby neighbourhood, but one which we kept talking about how good it felt afterwards.

This afternoon, he whisked me into Prada in search of a replacement bag (kudos to the extremely good service by Sean, department manager at the Ion store). I didn’t fancy anything at first glance, although eventually we did narrow it to 4 options: all being either deer or lamb skin – which I couldn’t decide because if calf leather being the most durable of them all was already proving problems in ageing with grace & character, a more delicate material could only prove to be more of a disaster. Plus those bags were huge! Like if I was 1.7m tall, I would look great it in. But unfortunately I’m not, so the bag pratically wore me instead.

The service at the Ion store was impeccable, showing me some very beautiful new arrivals which was all very tempting, but I couldn’t make a decision and decided to have a think about it over coffee. We walked around for a bit, got bobo in another Prada store to suss out anything else that we may have missed earlier until he picked out a gorgeous, GORGEOUS Nappa Gaufre.

Designed in a stunning and GORGEOUS (don’t mind me!) ruched nappa lamb-skin leather, I finally found the one that I couldn’t really keep my hands off. It didn’t help that another 2 ladies were eyeing it as I got in front of the mirror to strike a few poses with it. The ruched leather exuded a feel of luxury yet at the same time I felt incredibly comfortable just knowing I could carry it to everywhere when I saw that it came with a long strap to have it either crossbodied or shoulder slung. 

The price did throw me off a little though. Especially since I’m on a serious savings mode and been encouraging bobo the same. At a steep short of 5 grand, I was quite prepared to walk away from it. This was practically tickets to Japan + hotel + food for 3/4 of us! I could settle for something more reasonably priced.

Some magic talk from bobo & assurance later – we were seated at the Prada lounge & nearly landing myself a pair of shoes while waiting for the salesperson to process the payment and wrap our purchase. The husband had purchased the nappa gaufre for his wife, reminding her how much she loved her. While the wife was still in awe of his continued generousity, as she recalled witnessing a scene of his generousity to the needy earlier that morning now being continued

I did feel absolutely guilty for making the bo spend (because that was practically 3/4 of a watch we’ve been looking for a long while now) but also absolutely loved. Surprises, no matter how big or small, are a very special thing to me. Especially when it comes from the man I love. 

First wallet from Bobo for our 2nd Wedding Anniversary in June!

Seems like the Gucci in wine-red is going to have a good scrub-a-dub-dub and be in storage for a while…

Just went through my stash of favourite magazines and fell in love with not one, but TWO bottega dresses! Wheeeeee.

And in case you’re wondering why the sudden blabber and fluster about the brand is because the husband is getting me a beautiful beautiful beautiful wallet from there for our 2 years wedding anniversary. Not in June, but like tomorrow (he was too willing to cancel tennis to get one.)

Now all we are hoping for is, available stock!

I must stress how much I’ve been curbing my pockets and telling myself that I was going to wait till we got to Europe for some ultra vintage glamour, feminine chic and modern stylish stuff in those quaint little shophouses I often read about online and about at Borders.

And I’ve been keeping to it…

Until I suddenly developed a crazy urge of late to start wearing non-black stuff as much as possible (must have been spurred by mum’s gift of a bright sundress recently which really lifted me in high spirits that day). “Shopping is fine, as long as it ain’t black” she often says.

So today for the 2nd time in a row, I was telling Jan how much I wanted to shop randomly but this time, I learnt from yesterday’s expectations lesson and decided that I was not going to be adamant that I was going to buy something. And I kept to my word and didn’t carry that expectation of hope…and somehow ended with

2 new outfits in a nice velvety purple with sparkles – all perfect for spring meets autumn when we head for UK later this year, as well as year-end dinner parties (Jan walked me through how often I was going to wear them)

…PLUS almost purchased a pair of extremely comfortable sparklin’ tangerine heels which received compliments from another shopper…but I guess I’d pass on that for now.

And for some reason, Jan (& Luke when he called) noticed the mega change in moods – I was grinning from ear to ear, despite being much poorer.

save me

I finally bought myself a “BFF” adidas candy watch 2 weeks back when…

1) Bff & I decided to buy something in common to mark our friendship – she settled for a more stylish red leather strap bigger watch face as opposed to my sports-friendly option

2) I wanted to get a sporty watch to match the G-shock I had surprised the hubby with, and I didn’t want to risk ruining the Omega he got me during our “adventure trip” to Koh Samui – and thank goodness I wore that instead cuz I ended up with lots of scratches on the Adidas Candy within days!

Right now, I just got to find more sports activities to do in order to make the superb deal. Thanks to Kat, I got a  good bargain on the price too!