Friday, November 1, 2013

Lil Bro's NS journey: 1st Overseas Deployment

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Lil Bro is back to being a student for months, but I have yet to finish documenting his NS Journey, oops. He had his 1st overseas deployment during his OCS journey. This refers to the Midshipman Sea Training Deployment, where it is the practical phrase of the Midshipmen's training during the Sea Training Term. This phrase of training consists of a 7-week sailing schedule with stopovers at various foreign ports. For this deployment, lil bro was more of a tag-along to have first hand experience on how his actual deployment will be like in a few months time. 
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Before his actual deployment, we were invited to a mini party hosted within Changi Naval Base. Families & friends were all invited by the delegates, but somehow, I seemed to spot more GFs than family members, tsk tsk. 
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It was my first time @ Changi Naval Base, with many more to come later as Lil Bro embarked his navy journey. The event was held at the central mass, so not much security clearance was needed.
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Drink for the night - we each had a coupon that we can redeem for drink, lol! I prefer my drink for the lovely shade of blue :) Leecher had a fake mojito since there wasn't any alcohol in the premises, if I recall correctly. 
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I certainly feel like a parent in this youngster environment, haha!
 
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The guys put up a wonderful performance which deserved a round of applause :) 
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We also had a game of bingo! Sadly we didn't win any prizes :(
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Old people must sit down on the sofa while the youngsters stand, lol! 
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The amazing view while we had our dinner! 
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This became the photo booth for the night. Families and friends crowd around this to take polarids. We took a couple and gave to lil bro, so he can look at it if he misses us during his sailing days, lol! I just hope he didn't pick up a pen and start drawing on my face!
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 The day finally came when lil bro set sail for his 1st overseas deployment. Before that, I even had to change $$ for him in various currencies as he'll be visiting 3 ports during this deployment. 
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Lil bro with his course mates. 
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We got to tour the ship & lil bro was our guide - we visited the navigation room and it was an eye opener for me! Thankfully I was wearing flats and jeans, for the steps leading down/up to the various areas were pretty steep.
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Hello World, lol!
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Well, a proper post for lil bro since he can't be fooling around in his uniform. 
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Last pictures before we need to leave the ship.
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A group pic for the batch mates ~ honestly, they all looked similar apart from having no specs vs wearing black-rimmed specs.
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It was time for the midshipmen to board RSS Resolution. Prefix RSS meaning Republic of Singapore Ship. RSS Resolution are the biggest class of ships in the Navy. The ships are also actively involved in humanitarian and disaster relief operations, notably in East Timor, the Persian Gulf and Indonesian province of Aceh.
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Waving byes as they embarked on their journey to become better sea navigators :)

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Yet another year of marriage

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Today, we celebrate our 2nd year of marriage life. Traditionally, cotton is the symbol for the 2nd year wedding anniversary. Cotton symbolizes the sweet and smooth flowing of the couples' relationship. Apart from a few obstacles, I thank life for being kind to me - most importantly letting me be close to the love of my life. 

Happy Cotton Anniversary, my love :) 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Honeymoon: Grocery Shopping

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The apartment that we stayed was well situated - a min walk to Champs Elysees Ave and very close to the Metro Line Exit. A couple of restaurants/eateries were all within walking distance.  The next step was to head to the super market to stock up on food, haha! We checked the neighbourhood map that Jad printed for us and discovered that a supermarket was located around the corner.
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This became our go-to store for grocery over the next few days. Franprix opened its first store in 1958 and that started the birth of a new network. Till date, there are more than 900 stores around the area, catering to our everyday needs.
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A wide range of food for us to choose from! Even though we had a kitchen, it will be probably easier to buy ready-packed food and heat it up in the microwave whenever hunger pangs strike during late hours. 
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Their range of packed food is so extensive that we were spoiled for choices!
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Not to mention that they have really cheap wine available too! We got a couple of bottles - red, whites and moscato - back to the apartment.
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Stocking up on drinking water.
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I'm the in-charge of desserts, lol! We grabbed a couple of ice creams and not to mention they have the most delicious chocolate yogurt :) 
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Handy-man carrying our loots back to the apartment.
Franprix
35 Rue de Ponthieu
75008, Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 5376 0008

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Hubby strikes again .....

Just as I had suspected, the hubby didn't make plans for our anniversary. So, his homework was to look for places to go over the weekend when I was out of town. Being the kind me, I gave him a list of places that he can consider (taking some stress of him!). Today, he decided to "surprise" me further ....
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Now, he thinks that our anniversary is tomorrow. HMP!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Honeymoon: Vacation Rental in Paris

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I'm not a fussy person when it comes to accommodation - all I ask for is a clean toilet. When I started planning on Paris, all the nice (and cheap) accommodations were unavailable for our dates. I wasn't willing to spluge on hotels too, since they were costly to begin with. A decent hotel will cost at least 150 euro/night, translating into close to 250 SGD/night *gasp* In an attempt to save money (also for my own bag fund, haha), I decided to hunt for a cheaper alternative for our stay in Paris :) 
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After our tour at Tuileries Garden, we headed back to Hotel Royal Magda Etoile to pack up our bags. The hotel staff were really helpful over email and in person, which I was thankful for! It's always heart-warming to meet nice people :)
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Leopard print stairway which I walked down as Leecher took the lift with our luggage. I felt slightly dizzy if I were to look down and walked down the stairs, which prompted me to pose this on my instagram.
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Survived 4 flights of stairs before reaching the ground floor :) 
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Breakfast were additional charges, so we always head out instead of dining in. That's the reason why we did not spend time in the hotel lounge and this is the only pic of the lobby area that I have.  
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Bidding farewell!
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Jad (the owner) met us at his apartment so he could hand us the keys and gave us a mini tour. Upon entry, this apartment looked straight out from an IKEA magazine! As the saying goes, 麻雀虽小,五脏俱全 - even though the apartment is small, but it contained everything that we needed :) We chatted with Jad and got to know that he recently got married too. We traveled half the globe for our honeymoons - Us to Europe, Jad & wife to Asia. Looked like this will be the norm going forward! 
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Jad even gave us a bottle of red wine as our honeymoon gift, much to our delight!
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