Courtyard @ Heeren

We stayed at this really quaint hotel in Melaka. It is actually a house that is converted into a boutique hotel which has in total 14 rooms only.



The location of our hotel is really good.It's on Heeren Street which is parallel to Jonker Street so we could just walk there and not have a headache thinking about where to park. At the back of the hotel, there's parking spaces reserved for guests only.

Our room was a Family Deluxe room meanwhile Bapak & Mama's room were the Deluxe room. We actually booked 2 Deluxe rooms but were upgraded to the Family Deluxe room once we checked in. The family room is slightly bigger with an extra single bed. What I really like about the rooms is that it's not identical. Each room has a unique style.



I loved the service that was provided. The hotel staff were friendly and the buffet breakfast was adequate. So those of you planning to visit Melaka I really recommend Courtyard @ Heeren. A great place to relax after a hard day's shopping and eating..

Yummy Melaka

We brought my mom to Melaka last weekend as a birthday treat. It was really fun and I'm sure I gained at least 2 kgs from all the food we ate there.

Here's a summary of what we ate:

1. Asam Pedas Selera Kampung
We left KL at about 1000 so we reached Melaka in time for lunch. Initially we were looking for Nyonya Suan, a halal nyonya restaurant but Hubby saw in the same row, at the corner lot there was an Asam Pedas shop. He absolutely loved the food and even had 2 plates of rice.



2. Cendol
Hani recommended Jonker 88 for us to eat but it was so packed with people so we just opted for a commercialised one because the store was big and had air cond. Hahahhah...the cendol was so-so only. Will try Jonker 88 next time we're in Melaka.



3. Seafood @ Umbai
Afraid that we won't be able to get a table, we arrived at Umbai just before 1900. There was no crowd and we chose to ate at D Muara as Hubby read online that this place was good. It was yummy and cheap!



4. Nyonya Suan
I'm not really a fan of nyonya food so the food was ok lah. I will probably give this restaurant a miss if I come to Melaka again.



After we had our nyonya lunch at Nyonya Suan we left for KL. I'll probably explain in more detail on the restaurants in a separate post. Now you know why I think I gained weight.. :P

MAIDless

Yes, our maid of 11 months ran way last Friday. She called a cab when we were out and took along her passport with her. Oh and she also took along my mom's maid who just worked for 1 month.

Because my maid has worked more than 3 months, the agent will not provide us with a replacement. So we will need to fork out the agency fees again. At this rate I can get a Chanel bag with all the money I have paid the agent!

I'm really contemplating on whether I should get an Indonesian maid or a Filipino one. Although Filipinos are more expensive, at least they will give me less headaches. Even when we made the report at the police station, the policeman was saying it's common for Indonesians to run away. He said they were so many cases because it's easy for them to find work else where but it was rare for Filipino maids to do that. I guess they're more professional.

My cousin also had an issue with her maid this week as well. Her maid went back to Indonesia for Raya and had a miscarriage and the baby is not her husband's!

I get really irritated with comments like " Oh, how are we going to progress if we treat them like slaves!". The percentage who does that is only about 1%. What about the dishonest maids who steal our stuff, who runs away and who mistreat our children when they are entrusted to care for them.

We'll probably get a new maid because we need to take care of Sarah while we're at work and hopefully this time we'll be luckier.

It's all about the money!

I like spending money but I love saving it more. I know this sounds weird but I get an adrenaline rush when I see there's lots of cash in my bank account. However I am very very bad at investing my money.

I'm scared of risks and I wish I could just put all my money under my pillow for my retirement fund. But looking at the inflation rates I know I have to take charge and think on how to save so that I don't burden Sarah when I'm old.

So instead of buying Female or Glam to browse through the latest handbags, I bought Personal Money to help me understand more about finance. I still am clueless on all this stuff but I did get some key takeaways that I'm trying to adopt now:

1. Always pay yourself first!
This is such a great tip. I usually just save the balance of what ever I have spent that month. So now, I will immediately make sure I transfer at least 10% of my pay to my Tabung Haji account. This way I force myself to save money for my Hajj too.

2. Diversify!
This also makes sense. You don't want to keep all your eggs in one basket right? So you should always invest in different things. Don't just dump your money at one place. I'll share with you later how I plan to achieve this.

I'm still trying to understand all this money business so I welcome any tips anyone else would like to share!

Date Night at the DFP

Last Saturday we went to see Sheila Majid with the MPO. I loved the show. She really has charisma and can interact well with the audience. I think she exudes confidence in the way she dresses too. Her first outfit of the night was gorgeous! The arrangement of the songs were really good and the way the songs were performed by the orchestra was beautiful.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the show because it's just the two of us. Sometimes when you have a child you forget how it's like to eat together (and not in turns), how to not have to worry if we brought the diaper bag, stroller..etc, how to just listen to each other and not be interrupted by your child's cries of attention.

Don't get me wrong, I love Sarah and being a mother is the best thing that has ever happened to me. But sometimes, even mothers need a time out.

Shopping Training

Today my mom and I taught Sarah an important lesson in life :

Diamonds are a girls' best friend.

We brought her to De Gem and she really enjoyed herself. She was so busy looking at the jewelry displayed and playing with the sales people's calculators.



She didn't cry at all and when she was too tired she just slept in my arms. So good luck Ayah, looks like we didn't need to train her after all...it's already in her genes... :P

My BFF went to New York and all I got was...

Chocolates from Dylan's Candy Bar!! :D



She bought me 4 "It" bars and the flavours are so unique. Dark chocolate with sea salt, milk chocolate with potato chips, milk chocolate with peanut butter & salted peanuts and white chocolate with banana bits.



So far I've tried both the milk chocolate bars and they're so yummy! Especially the peanut butter one.

Dylan is Ralph Lauren's daughter and her candy bar is inspired by Willy Wonka factory. Aaahh..this would be my dream job. I would gain too much weight though.

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to go to New York like me, you can drop by the Chocolate Research Facility in Singapore. They have lots of interesting flavours too. My favourite is the milk chocolate with pretzels! My best friend loves this shop too.