The UN defines ‘youth’ as persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years and having celebrated my birthday yesterday, I am officially no longer a youth. In other words, I am in my mid-20s and this is perhaps the turning point of my life where marriage, starting a family, and no more partying comes into play.
On this note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those whom have made my birthday an awesome one.
To My Dearest Jacqueline [a.k.a Baby]:
Thank you for being the Chief Organiser for my birthday celebration. You have done so much for me that I am really thinking hard about how I can make your upcoming birthday celebration a blast! Though we both agree that Tajiyama at Vivocity would have been a much better place to dine at, I really enjoyed having dinner with you at Rocku Japanese Charcoal Grill Restaurant. The lovely birthday card that you handmade for me is so real that a lot of people thought that we were going to fly to Taiwan yesterday. I really appreciate all that you have done for me and thank you for the unconditional love and blessings that you have showered upon me.
The Tiramisu Cake that Jacqueline bought from Four Leaves
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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Japanese Charcoal Grill Dinner at Rocku, Bugis Plus.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
It’s my third time dining at Rocku and to be honest, the quality of the food has dropped. A normal weekday dinner buffet at Rocku cost $32.84 per person and we decided that after this dining experience, we would probably stick to Tajiyama at VivoCity [although Tajiyama is slightly expensive].
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
The Lookalike Scoot Boarding Pass Birthday Card and Famous Amos Birthday Cookie.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
Everyone really thought that I was going to fly to Taiwan last night when I posted a photo of the lookalike Scoot boarding pass birthday card on Instagram. The idea for the birthday card was cleverly thought out by Jacqueline and she’s amazingly creative in making cards and gifts. Maybe she should start a business selling handmade cards. With that said, we would probably be travelling to Taiwan next month if nothing disrupts our plan.
The Famous Amos Birthday Cookie is really tasty and sweet. However, it might be a little too sweet for certain individuals. For me, I like it a lot!
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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To My Encouraging Family Members & Relatives:
Thank you all for celebrating my birthday last Saturday at Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant. Over the last 25 years of growing-up, all of you have been my pillar of encouragement and I really appreciate all of your presence during last Saturday’s gathering. Truly, as the saying goes, “No family is perfect. We argue, we fight. We even stop talking to each other at times, but in the end, family is family, the love will always be there”.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
The Awesome Swensen’s Ice-Cream Cake that My Brother Bought
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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I have dined at Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant a couple of times in the past and I really like their food. They used to have many outlets in Singapore but it seems that the outlet at China Court is the last surviving Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
The pricing is average and the service has room for improvement. Nevertheless, if you’re into super duper spicy ramen noodles, Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant is the place.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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To My Supportive Brother and Cheryl:
Thank you to the both of you for taking some time off to hold a separate birthday celebration for me at The Straits Wine Company last Saturday. I had a relaxed time chilling out with the both of you over a bottle of Italian Moscato D’Asti and a bottle of New Zealand Merlot Red Wine and I really enjoyed myself.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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The Straits Wine Company is honestly my favourite place to chill out. As a matter of fact, both Jacqueline and I frequent there so often that we have bought more than 20 over bottles of wine till date. The cosy ambience is really inviting and personally, I like The Straits Wine Company because it is a really lovely place for sipping glasses of wine while chatting with friends. Furthermore, The Straits Wine Company’s wine collection is vast and the price is rather reasonable. In fact, we’re planning to engage them to supply bottles of wine for our wedding banquet unless there’s other distributors that provides the greatest value for money.
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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To My Awesome Cellgroup Members:
Despite not having seen you all for such a long time, it was really nice of you all to plan a surprise dinner for me at Manhattan Fish Market. I had a really fabulous time catching up with you all and I do look forward to more meet-ups and catching-ups. Thank you all for the lovely hoodie that keeps me warm at work.
Here’s a Photo of Me Wearing the Hoodie that my Cell Members Bought
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| From Melvin’s Birthday 2013 |
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I’m no stranger to Manhattan Fish Market and they have always been my favourite place to dine at. When we dined there for my birthday, they had a Fish and Chips Set Meal Promotion that cost $10++ and it includes a soup or ice-cream and a drink. The portion size is really huge and it is really value for money. Having tried a few variations of Fish and Chips in Singapore, I personally feel that Manhattan Fish Market’s Fish and Chips is the best!
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| From Bugis+ Food Trail 2013 |
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To My Friends On Social Media [Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogosphere]:
To be honest, I am really overwhelmed by the number of birthday wishes on my Facebook Timeline and though we hardly meet/see each other, I really do appreciate all of your well-wishes. Thank you for not forgetting me!
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With this, I would like to end off by saying a big ‘thank you’ to all of you whom have made my birthday a really joyful one.
Meanwhile, do check out my very first song cover, “Telling the World” by Taio Cruz. This was the same song that I sang for Jacqueline when I proposed to her last year. 
God bless!
I once heard of this concept, “The Power of Words” when I attended a Church meeting many years back. The Pastor shared about why it is so important that we should always change our negative thoughts, words, and deeds and make it positive and I also remembered vividly that the Pastor shared pictures of an experiment that was conducted by Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese author and entrepreneur.
In the experiment that was conducted by Dr. Masaru Emoto, he exposed water in glasses to different words, pictures, or music, and then thereafter froze and examined the aesthetics of the resulting crystals with microscopic photography.
The results of the experiment were pretty astounding and it showed that the water in glasses that were exposed to positive words, pictures, or music had a nicer structure than that of those water in glasses that were exposed to negative words, pictures, or music.
If you have the time to spare, do check out a video that I have found on Youtube regarding Dr. Masaru Emoto‘s experiment.
Well, if that wasn’t interesting enough, a local Singaporean by the name of Ken Casimir Koh conducted somewhat a similar experiment and documented it. In the experiment that took Ken 2 months and 15 days to conduct, Ken had three bowls of normal beancurd [a.k.a Tau Huay] bought from the hawker stalls and he labelled them A, B, and C.
You would see that in the video, Ken spoke positive words of encouragement to beancurd A, words of comparison to beancurd B, and discouraging words to beancurd C.
Interestingly enough, the results were quite amazing and the beancurd labelled A has a slower rate of decomposition as compared to beancurd B and beancurd C. Another interesting result that was observed from the experiment was that the container of beancurd B was deformed.
While it may be difficult to explain how and why such a phenomenon took place in the two separate experiments [and probably many other more] that were conducted, what is important for us to note here is that words contain energy and they can have an effect on the people around us.
The Book of Proverbs in the Bible says that the tongue [which translates to the words that we speak] is a tree of life and that it can promotes health. However, the Bible also says that a perverseness of the tongue can break the spirit and lead to death. [Proverbs 12:18, Proverbs 15:4]
Therefore, in all that we do and whether it be at home, school, or work, it is extremely important to watch what we say, do, and think about. Choose to be positive. Choose to be happy. Choose goodness in life.
We hope that you have been blessed with this blog entry and if it has benefited you, do share this with your family members and friends.
After attending an event with a best Blogger-friend of ours, I was having a conversation with her and we chatted over many topics and issues pertaining to social media and the Blogosphere. When we bade farewell, I drove home and throughout the journey, I started reflecting and as I reflected, I began to thank God for the many wonderful opportunities and blessings that were poured into my life.
In fact, when both Baby and I started A Winsome Life back in December 2011, all we wanted to do was to share information about our latest food finds, how we bred Betta fish [also known as fighting fish] and triops, whether a movie was worth catching, and what was so interesting about the places and events that we visited. Little did we know, the incoming traffic to our blog kept increasing and we started receiving invites to product launches and media conferences.
Today, we are privileged to be blogging for major brands like McDonald’s, LG, Logitech, Nespresso, Panasonic, Ben & Jerry’s and we are also honoured to work with major reputable PR companies like Mileage Communications, Strategic Public Relations Group, Golin Harris, and etc.
With that being said, we aren’t here to brag or anything like that but more often than not, we hear nasty comments from certain bloggers about why we are getting all these opportunities while they aren’t invited and to be honest, we ourselves are sometimes quite surprised when we open up our emails to see that we’re invited to a particular “premium” event.
The truth is, we are not “popular” bloggers and we are not out to steal the limelight or any of that sort. We are just ordinary folks whom are passionate about blogging and would go all the way to make sure that every content or blog post that we publish are of substance and quality. This means that with every blog post that we publish, the blog post would more or less be displayed in the first few pages of search engines like Google or Yahoo! when people search online for information about a particular product, brand, or event.
We have to admit that, yes, having a large fan base may be something admirable; but sometimes, bloggers got to really ask themselves this question, “Are their readers truly reading about the stuffs that they blog about or are their readers merely following them for the sake of getting some benefits in return?” We’re not saying that all our readers are following us for the sake of receiving some benefits because we have in fact received emails from some of our readers whom encouraged and thanked us for addressing certain questions or doubts that they had. However, there are certain bloggers whom have a large fan base and they assumed that as such, they’re bringing value to the companies or brands that they are blogging for. Well, we personally feel that what really matters in social media is the quality of the content that we bring to our readers and the companies/brands that we’re blogging for.
Authenticity is also one other factor that we feel is equally important. Over the last 15 months since we started our journey in the Blogosphere, we have met with fellow bloggers whom shared similar interests as us and some of them eventually became personal friends of ours. On the other end of the spectrum, there were also a few bloggers whom we have met and they had devious plans in mind to gain followers and “likes” so that they can have a large fan base and proclaim that they are influential opinion leaders in the Blogosphere. Whatever the case, we believe that it is important to be real and authentic; not try to shadow someone and become like someone whom we are not meant to be.
As the title of this blog post suggests, we have counted our blessings and will continue to do so because we consider ourselves blessed to have been given tons of wonderful opportunities to not just work with the best brands and PR companies but to have also made real and trustworthy friends in the Blogosphere. We will continue to keep up the good work that we have done and we will continue to strive for the best in all that we do or undertake. Henceforth, we really want to show our gratitude by thanking all those whom have made A Winsome Life impossible possible!
On a separate note, if you’re a non-blogger and you’re always reading our blog or if you’re a blogger/blogger-friend and you have been checking us out very often, may we kindly request that you drop us an email at admin@awinsomelife.org just to let us know that you’ve been visiting our blog because we are in the midst of planning something and we would like you to be a part of it. Even if you know us personally and check us out regularly, do let us know too. As we really want to keep what we’re planning a surprise, do leave us your name and contact number when you send your email to us so that we can get in touch with you and provide more details.
Meanwhile, do stay tuned to our upcoming blog post about a Nespresso Atelier Class that we recently attended and we look forward to sharing more exciting stuffs with all of you.
We have an exciting piece of news for all you Winsomelifers because we’re launching our March Blog Giveaway, courtesy of the kind sponsorship from Huiji. So for our March Blog Giveaway, 3 Lucky Winners will be selected to win a 1KG Bottle of Huiji Honey worth SGD$7.50
[Image Courtesy of Fanpop]
In case you’re wondering, Huiji Honey is natural honey from China and this pure honey is distinctively different from others because of its pure concentrated form. Nutritious & delicious, honey can also be used for barbecues & for baking of cakes. Not only that, honey helps to relieve dryness in the mouth & also promotes good health.
[Image Courtesy of Huiji]
Well, whichever way you intend to use honey, be it cooking up a storm in the kitchen or preparing a simple hearty breakfast, one handy ingredient that adds oomph is honey. Boasting a perfumed jasmine flower scent, Huiji Honey is definitely a must-have in the kitchens!
Ellena Guan, a Blogger whom Blogs at Cuisine Paradise and also someone whom Baby and I really respect a lot for her fine culinary and baking skills, came out with a recipe for Baked Honey Chicken Wings using Huiji Honey. Do check out her Blog via the following link for the recipe: http://ellenaguan.blogspot.sg/2012/12/huiji-baked-honey-chicken-wings.html
[Credits to Ellena Guan of Cuisine Paradise for the Image]
For those of us whom are honey-lovers out there, you would know that handling honey can be a rather messy affair and even with the use of a spoon to scoop up a dollop of honey from the jar, there will still be residue left on the rim and cap of the jar. Now, with Huiji Honey, you can enjoy the natural goodness of honey anytime anywhere and with much more ease because of its special cap that is designed to help prevent spillage.
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| From Huiji Honey 2013 |
This specially designed cap ensures that each squeeze of the bottle leaves no residue and it also allows you to squeeze out the exact amount of honey that you require; hence, leaving no room for unnecessary wastage! The bottle has also been designed to be quite environmentally friendly because you can reuse the bottle for other purposes like dispensing oil or soya sauce after using up all the honey.
If you’re wondering where you can find Huiji Honey, it is available at Giant, NTUC Fairprice, NTUC Finest, NTUC xtra, OG, Prime Supermarket, Sheng Siong, Shop N Save and ZTP and it is selling at an affordable price of SGD$7.50 for a 1KG Bottle and SGD$4.35 for a 500g Bottle.
Since we’re giving away Honey, we reckoned that we should share with you 3 ways that you can use honey in your daily life.
1. Using Honey for Cooking
Honey can be used in a variety of cooking methods. In fact, you can use honey to marinate chicken wings and pork ribs for that tinge of sweet aroma and flavour or you can whip up some homemade salad dressing by pouring equal parts of honey, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil into a jar, closing tightly with a lid and shaking all 3 to form a mixture. You can also use honey as a substitute for sugar and personally, we like our toasts spread with butter and honey!
[Image Courtesy of Did You Know Archive]
2. Using Honey for its Medicinal Properties
Honey has a myriad of medicinal properties and one of them is for soothing sore throats and for relieving pain caused by burns. Because of its anti-microbial properties, honey helps keep infection at bay. If you’re experiencing a pretty bad sore throat, you can mix one to two tablespoonful of honey in a cup of warm water/warm green tea to drink as it helps to soothe the throat.
[Image Courtesy of Jiiva]
3. Using Honey for Beauty
You will be surprised to find out that you can actually use honey to give yourself a facial treat. For a DIY [do-it- yourself] facial treatment, all you have to do is just apply some honey onto your face and gently rub the honey onto your dry skin in a circular motion with your fingers. Thereafter, wash off with warm water, wipe with a clean cloth, and your skin should be radiant-looking!
Check out a video by Annie Jaffrey [a Beauty & Lifestyle Blogger] about how you can use honey to do your own honey facial mask.
Having said so much about honey, we know you’r excited to win that 1KG Bottle of Huiji Honey. So, to participate in our giveaway, do check out the following link and submit as many entries as you can: http://awinsomelife.org/current-blog-giveaway/
Good luck!
Stay tuned to more updates from us!
God bless!
First and foremost, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Josephine, Justin, and Cheryl for winning SGD$10 worth of ePhoenix Credits from our recent Blog Giveaway. We have one other piece of good news; tomorrow, we will be launching a new Blog Giveaway where we are giving away a 1KG Bottle of Huiji Honey worth SGD$7.50; hence, do check out our Blog tomorrow for the Blog Giveaway.
Anyways, this is one long overdue Blog Post but nevertheless, we would like to share with you about our experience at the Sentosa Flowers: Joys of Spring 2013 event that was held last month at Sentosa’s Palawan Beach.
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
For me personally, this was my first time attending a flower exhibition that showcases the wonders of creation with thousands of tropical and spring flowers in a myriad of species presented in a natural outdoor setting. Though it rained in the later part of the evening, we managed to finish the entire trail right before it started pouring cats and dogs.
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
In case you didn’t know, the annual flower exhibition was birthed in 2005 by Sentosa and every year, they have a different theme. The event also presents itself as a vibrant backdrop for visitors to capture their most memorable moments.
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Along the trail, we took quite a number of photographs because the flowers were a sight to behold. Just take a look at some of the really beautiful and pretty flowers.
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
The trail itself was divided into different segments with sub-themes that were relevant to the types of plants and flowers on display.
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
For the young at heart, especially the little children; there were activities and mini playgrounds where they could play and have fun!
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Was the event crowded? Yes, it sure was crowded!
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Despite the crowd, we took a simple stroll around just to admire the beauty of nature and Baby happened to bump into her best friend at Sentosa! Sentosa’s definitely the place for fun, excitement, and bonding with family members and friends.
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
We also saw some rather interesting displays and props that caught our attention!
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Guess what this is! It’s a Dragon Fruit!
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Pictures with the Cheery Sunflowers!
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Well, having said so much about the event, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and we can’t wait to head back to Sentosa probably for our next Staycation. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoyed reading about the Sentosa Flowers: Joys of Spring event.
Till then~!
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| From Sentosa Spring Flowers 2013 |
Stay tuned to more updates from us!
God bless!
