The 4th day of our honeymoon trip was also our last day in Rome! The husband and I tried our best to cover as many places as possible. Felt a little sad but we had 17 days to go so it wasn’t really that bad at that point of time 😛 This is our favorite photo taken that day 🙂
After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Vatican Museum but the Sistine Chapel was not open to public due to an ongoing conclave. Anyway the weather was wet and chilly because it drizzled the entire day! Me no likey 🙁
Admission ticket and audio guide cost €18 per person.
The hubs acting cute and silly. Hahaha.
I hope to visit Egypt some day! Have always found the history of ancient Egypt very mysterious yet captivating at the same time. But then again, I heard that it’s quite a dangerous country to visit.. Hmm so maybe not.
The husband must have benefited quite a bit from listening to the audio guide! My attention span was too short for it.
The famous Laocoön statue
Hall of Maps
This was our very first museum visit but little did I know, misterchewy had planned many more of such visits throughout our trip! *Faints*
Recharged ourselves at a cafe and we shared a bottle of beer over lunch! *Gloop gloop gloop*
Walked to St. Peter’s Square which is located within Vatican City. Many people were eagerly anticipating the unveiling of the new Pope.
This was one of the Altar of Science in Angels and Demons.
We joined in the queue to get into St. Peter’s Basilica. Admission is free except to certain parts of the church. You will be surprised but some churches do collect entrance fees.
St. Peter’s Basilica is one of the biggest churches that we visited in Europe!
In Angels and Demons, the Camerlengo (Italian for “Chamberlain”) set himself on fire and ran down these flight of stairs upon realization that he had murdered his own father, the Pope.
The media on standby.
This is the Ponte Sant’Angelo which leads to Castel Sant’Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel).
Castel Sant’Angelo is also known as Mausoleum of Hadrian. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress because it had an underground tunnel which was connected to Vatican City. As for us, we had to pay €21 to get into this museum.
Guess the hubs was thinking about food when he did this Italian hand gesture which meant ‘delicious’. Haha.
A top view of Ponte Sant’Angelo.
The rain was getting heavier so we seeked shelter at Tartufo House along Piazza Navona.
Our upside down dark chocolate ice cream! 😀 Tartufo is an Italian icecream dessert usually composed of two or more flavors of ice cream. Ours was also encased in a chocolate shell.
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) at Piazza Navona.
Our final stop of the day was the Pantheon.
The Pantheon used to be a temple to all the gods of ancient Rome and is now a Christian church. The Oculus (opening at the top) is the main source of natural light and also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. At the same time, it could have played an important role for prayers to ascend to the heavens.
Tomb of King Umberto I, successor of Vittorio Emanuele.
Main altar of church.
Ending the post with a photo of Trevi Fountain taken on our way back to our hotel. Next post will be on Florence! Remember to check back as we will be sharing about our shopping experience at The Mall’s Prada outlet. Stay connected with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 😀
Ciao chewys! Did you enjoy our previous post about the first two days of our honeymoon trip? Today’s post is gonna be slightly shorter because I just wanna focus on our Pompeii day tour from Rome on the third day of our trip! It was really fun and we experienced a bit of snow that day! Whoopee! 😀
Back in Singapore, misterchewy booked this guided tour online with Viator Tours because since young, he had been very fascinated by stories he read about Pompeii and its remarkably well preserved ruins. We were told to meet at 7.15am at Piazza del Popolo before setting off. Thankfully, it was just a small group of 5 because I never liked traveling with big groups of strangers.
The journey to Europe’s only active volcano took about 3 hours and halfway through, we stopped for a short toilet cum coffee break.
The chocolate croissant and hot chocolate sold at this kiosk were pretty awesome!
Hopped back onto the minivan and the next thing we knew, we were at Mount Vesuvius, which is infamous for causing the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79AD and has erupted many times since.
Lava flows have scarred the sides of Mount Vesuvius, and are visible on the winding road up to the summit. We took our own sweet time to hike up the crater of Mount Vesuvius.
The mountain is actually quite steep and very uneven. I was panting and gasping for air just five minutes into my way up! Very unfit and I feel like an old granny! Plus, it was so much colder on the volcano and the wind was really strong! We were freezing the whole time.
I think we took about 30 minutes to reach the crater. Hurriedly took a few photos and made our way down. Going up was tough but going down was scary!
At this point, it began to snow! Not sure if it’s snow or hail or whatever you call it but yeah, we were so thrilled because it was misterchewy’s first time experiencing snow! We decided that for every country we visited that snowed, we would buy a snow globe as a souvenir! 😀 Both of us were smiling like idiots and we quickly continued descending upon realizing that if the snow got heavier, it would be very slippery and dangerous.
Not only was the ‘morning exercise’ very adventurous, it was physically exhausting as well! It was time for lunch and all of us were looking forward to having pizza!
Pizza and beer never tasted this splendid! 🙂
After lunch, we headed for Pompeii, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The now ruined city of Pompeii was once a sprawling metropolis of shops and residences, restaurants, gyms and brothels.
Gladiatorial Barracks at Pompeii.
Plenty of carvings on the wall tell a story.
This was where and how ‘fast food’ was served in Pompeii!
We walked Pompeii’s main streets just as the ancient Romans did. The stones are still worn with tracks from the drawn carriages that used them nearly 2,000 years ago.
Possibly an entrance to a shop.
Wood-fired pizza, anyone?
Plaster death casts of the victims of the catastrophic eruption that destroyed the city of Pompeii.
I was a little surprised that red light districts existed in Pompeii. Didn’t know they were already so ‘advanced’. LOL. According to the local guide, the ‘Mickey Mouse with a long nose’ on the ground served as directions for men to make their way to the brothels.
One of the rooms in the brothel.
Goodbye Pompeii!
Had hot chocolate again at the same kiosk on our way back to Rome! 😀
After we were being dropped off at Piazza del Popolo, misterchewy and I visited Santa Maria del Popolo as recommended by the local guide.
Soon, it was nightfall and we went in search of a dinner place nearby before returning to our hotel. Stay tuned to our next post chewy chewy friends! 😉 Connect with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 🙂
Whoohoooooo chewys! I have been wanting to share about our honeymoon trip to Europe with all our dear readers! Finally had time to upload the pics and do a bit of QC-ing here and there. We departed for Europe on 9 March, a week after our customary wedding. It was our first time to Europe for the both of us and naturally, The Chewys were super duper excited! 😀
Our honeymoon trip was 21 days long and I have to emphasize that it was the BEST 21 days of my life! Our trip was purely free and easy because we wanted that flexibility but planning was a bitch of course. Hehehe the award-winning hubby did most of the research! 😛 We chose to fly with Qatar Airways and booked our airtix in January. Subsequently, we settled our accommodation via Agoda. Over the 21 days, we visited Italy, Switzerland, France (Paris) and London! 🙂 It was around the end of Winter, coming to Spring, but the weather was still very cold!
Our flight was at night and both our families sent us off at the airport. I was very worried about the two long-haul flights (we transited at Doha) that awaited us because I didn’t think I could get a good sleep on the plane and I hated that backside-on-fire feeling that I experienced before when I went to counties like Japan and Australia etc. LOL. Thankfully, it was still manageable thanks to in-flight entertainment and the cute neck pillows that misterchewy got! 🙂
We were served dinner AND breakfast! Had a small bottle of red wine each to celebrate the start of our honeymoon trip 😀
Reached Italy the next morning! Our first stop in Italy was Rome, where we spent a good four days there. Boarded the Terravision bus from the airport to the Roma Termini train station. Ticket costs €4 per person which is really cheap.
Took a train to Repubblica station and found our way to our hotel! Anyway, a single trip on the metro costs €1.50 regardless of distance. If you are planning on more than four trips on the metro in a day, you should buy the one-day pass at €6 from the ticketing machine.
Pretty amazed by the gigantic door that we had to get past in order to get to our hotel! 😛
As it was still too early to check into our room, we left our luggage at the reception and went out to explore some places nearby. I think we really sounded like tourists because we went, “Wah! Wah! Waaaaaah!” at practically everything that we saw. Lol. But really la, the architecture is such a vast difference from that of ours.
Fontana dell’Acqua Felice is of walking distance from our hotel.
On our first day, misterchewy wore only a short-sleeved t-shirt and sweater. He didn’t complain that it was too cold but from the next day onwards he wore at least 3 to 4 layers of clothing everyday! :O
The husband was so excited and dragged me to Santa Maria della Vittoria which was just next to Fontana dell’Acqua Felice. Apparently, a scene (or more) in Angels and Demons was being shot at this church. We went in at the wrong time because they were having Sunday mass and we quickly sneaked out. Of course, we returned the very next day.
Our tummies were making alot of noise, so we went in search of a place to settle breakfast. Empire Pizza was a stone’s throw away from our hotel and seemed fuss-free by the looks of it. Plus, the boss was very very friendly!
The boss was really nice and asked if we wanted a photo together behind the counter! Heh.. Why not? 😛
The husband wanted to see the Triton Fountain but sadly, it was under some kinda restoration and we got to know about it only upon reaching there 🙁
We moved on to Spanish Steps where we were conned of €50 (roughly SGD80) by an ‘overly friendly’ Italian guy. Our moods were kinda ruined after this incident. Oh wells, long story but lesson learned is that we should never ever talk to strangers. Don’t even make eye contact with them. We thought about it after a while and was thankful that we encountered such a nasty incident on our very first day in Europe because it taught us to be more vigilant and aware of our surroundings for the rest of our honeymoon trip.
We took the metro and alighted at the next stop to get to Piazza del Popolo which is basically a large urban square.
When in Italy, eat gelato! 😛 Our Tiramisu and After Eight combination tasted heavenly, especially in the cold weather!
Passed by the Spanish Steps again. We weren’t in the mood for photos previously.
After dinner near our hotel, we decided to head back early since it was only the first day and we needed to rest after so many hours on the plane. We found the elevators that we encountered in Italy were really interesting with an element of creepiness. LOL. Must watch the video with sound! This was taken while going down but it’s the same la. Hahaha.
We stayed in Hotel Everest Inn Rome for four nights which cost us slightly lesser than SGD90 per night, inclusive of breakfast.
There is free wifi but only limited to the reception and dining area. Just ask this friendly dude or whoever is at the counter for the password.
Our room was quite small considering that we had two luggages with us. Other than the size, we were happy that our hotel is just a mere 3 minutes walk to Repubblica metro station. Staying near Repubblica station proved to be very convenient because all the attractions were along the same metro line, except for Colosseum.
On our second day, we went to the Colosseum which is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of Rome.
Admission costs €12 per person inclusive of entry to Palatine Hills and Roman Forum. We got the audio guide for Colosseum at €5 each. Explanation is very detailed and lengthy but my mind drifted away after some time.. LOL.
The Colosseum is built of concrete and stone and is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering. Besides that, it is also the largest amphitheatre in the world. Gladiator combats were held at the Colosseum and it could house as many as 50000 spectators. We were marvelled by the grandiosity of this magnificent ancient Roman architecture.
Beautiful view of Arc de Constantin.
Was very amazed by this! I wonder if it’s really magic or some illusion thingy? Haha.
We proceeded to the Roman Forum which is filled with architectural fragments and archeological excavations.
I think we spent close to 2 hours at the Roman Forum but we didn’t manage to cover the entire place because it was too huge! And I kept complaining that I was gonna die of hunger.
So.. Lunch it was! I think we were ripped off by the food truck guys. Two sandwiches cost us €15! Should have asked about the price before we ordered. There was a cafe nearby selling pastas and pizzas for around €9 on average too. Plus, you get to sit and enjoy your food.
Trying to enjoy our lunch while shooing away the birds by swinging our legs at the same time because I accidentally dropped a piece of sausage. Our lunch was already very pathetic and this had to happen. LOL.
After our quick bite, we went back to Santa Maria della Vittoria via the metro because as mentioned earlier, there was Sunday mass the previous day. Guess what? A young girl around 12 years of age (we think) tried to pickpocket misterchewy’s wallet while we were trying to board the train! Thank goodness he was alert and he shouted and gave her a kick! Omg that was only the second day of our trip.
We visited many many churches throughout our Europe trip and all of them are very beautiful!
Our last stop for day two was Trevi Fountain. We should have went there early in the morning because there were soooo many people there in the evening!
See what I mean?! I couldnt get a nice picture without all these ‘extra’ people around me. Boohoo.
The black haired guy is Pierfrancesco Favino, who starred as Commander Olivetti in Angels and Demons!
Ok here’s a short video clip that misterchewy took for fun! If you google “throw coin in”, the first suggested search that will appear is “throw coin in trevi fountain”! Throwing a coin into Trevi Fountain ensures a return to Rome! And yes, I was very happy about it! 😀 😀 😀
That’s all for now! Next post will be on Pompeii! Connect with us on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/missuschewy and on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy 🙂
Hihi chewy chewy friends! Sorry ah I know the above a bit distracting but please hear what I have to say. YES! I’m finally able to share our actual day photos and video! Ok that’s all I have to say for now. Before you do anything, please watch the above video first! Just need to click on the play icon but you might need to be patient and wait for it to load. Anyway, it will help to understand the activities which took place in the day better. Hurry and watch it! The husband and I LOVEEEE the video and we have watched it several times! I think if we were to watch it one million times also won’t be sian. Our videographer, Chin of ZX Workshop Photography did such a marvellous job! 😀 😀 😀
I’m gonna share the photos taken during the day of our customary wedding in this post! But hor, I need to warn you that it’s a super photo-heavy post. More than 180 pics I think? 😛
Aiya cuz I really love the photos taken by our main photographer Jack and additional photographer Aaron from ZX Workshop Photography so I ended up sharing like 90% of the shots here! Jack was also our PG for our ROM. There will be a part two, and that’s when the banquet dinner photos will be shared 🙂
The husband and I got together as bf and gf on 26 July 2010. About 3 months later, we applied for a BTO and got a pretty good queue number on our first try! Things kinda fell into place and we held our ROM on 9 September 2011 (09092011) shortly after misterchewy proposed a day before our 11th monthsary in June 2011. We agreed on another nice date 3 March 2013 (03032013) for our customary wedding! 😀
Needless to say, we had to wake up really early on this very important day! I couldn’t sleep the night before and ended up tossing in bed till about 11plus. Managed to wake up at 5am to shower and eat breakfast. My breakfast very simple one, just a small piece of kueh cuz I wasn’t hungry.
My makeup artist (MUA), PG Jack and VG Chin reached my place at 6am like what I had told them. All of them got cracking and no time was wasted. I wore pink contact lens on this special day! 😛
My bridesmaids arrived at around 6.15 to 6.30am and started preparing the 酸甜苦辣 (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy) concoction for the xiongdis to drink during the later part of the gatecrash!
Vincent is very professional and skillful. I liked my eye makeup and hairstyle! Told him not to bun everything up if not my face would look damn round.
It’s probably more obvious in this pic. Two days before the big day, I dyed my hair red. Some parts are fiery red because of the bleaching that was done earlier when I had my hair dip dyed purple last October.
Haha believe it or not, this super single bed can fit two 😛 The husband and I were even contemplating on getting this bed size for our future home! LOL then got more space to move around.
Only 4 bridesmaids in this pic because the last one overslept! LOL. Luckily she stays just across the street, so Maureen and Bee went over to knock on her door.
And in the meantime, misterchewy and his groomsmen were running through the programme sheet that the both of us came up with. This was done only at the very last minute and we were quite stressed over it. We tried to be as detailed as possible and sent the sheet to our Jack and our XDJMs for a once-over to familiarize themselves with their respective responsibilities.
Soon, misterchewy and his brothers were ready!
And so were we!
Girl power yeah! Hahaha!
My bridesmaids and their gatecrash weapons. LOL.
Wanna thank my David ah gu and da jiu ma for lending us their Bentley and even got their chauffeur to ferry us around the whole day! Would also like to take this opportunity to thank Steven ah gu and er jiu ma for printing our invitation cards for us!
Setting off to fetch his bride!
Gold from my mum and white gold from my MIL.
“老婆！我来了！” (Wifey! Here I come!) Watching this part of the video really made me LOL.
Task #1: Twister
Task #2: Yoga
Everyone who watched the video said that Kelvin (guy doing yoga on the left) was super cute and funny! 😀
A group shot before the guys proceeded upstairs for another round of ‘torturing’ session!
Task #3: 酸甜苦辣
HAHAHA it was damn funny (from what I saw in the video) because the guys “yam seng” really loudly and for damn long la!
Bridesmaids also joined in “YAMMMM! YAM YAM YAM YAMMMMMM!”
Still yam-ing until Maureen very sternly told them, “OK! 够了！喝！” (OK! Enough! Drink up!) and the guys really guai guai finish.
At this point, the girls demanded for their “open door angbao” before the next two tasks could be carried out.
Task #4: Dance to Wonder Girl’s “Nobody Nobody But You”
During our meeting, my bridesmaids and I were thinking of a song to make the guys dance to and they were strongly against Gangnam Style. LOL. I suggested this because it’s like “I want nobody nobody but CHEW!” Geddit? Hahaha 😛 I must say the guys danced quite well!
Task #5: Retrieve the right key to get past the gate
The husband feeling victorious. LOL.
Reciting his love pledge. He made it very “Ah Boys to Men” pattern. >_< Even shouted "Permission to enter the room, ma'am!" To which I replied, "Permission granted!" LOLOLOL.
Presenting me with his handmade ‘Chanel’ bag. Wahahaha faints.
Thanks to all our wonderful brothers and sisters for being so sporting! 🙂
My maternal grandma, second aunt and third aunt actually reached my house early in the morning before the gatecrash so that they could watch misterchewy fetch his bride 🙂
Setting off to misterchewy’s place for tea ceremony.
Some Chinese tradition that my dad had to shelter me with an umbrella till I reached the bridal car.
It was also a Chinese tradition that I had to throw the fan while the car was moving and my brother and to pick it up. He’s behind the lamp post in this pic. This means that I will still return home to visit them. Before the day of our wedding, I joked to my bro that I will make him chase after the car for 5km before throwing the fan. LOL.
Since we were way ahead of time, Jack helped us to take some photographs at the mini garden. Ok I duno what is it called la. Haha.
Tea ceremony commenced immediately and it was basically offering tea to all of our elderly.
We were also offered tea by misterchewy’s brothers and god brother.
So nice of my sisters to be fussing over me the entire day!
HAHAHA this part was damn funny.
Changed into my traditional Chinese wedding dress, otherwise known as kua. I was so happy to be wearing it because it was so comfortable and loose fitting!
Went back to my place for tea ceremony!
And again, we had some time for some photos at the playground 😀
Thanks to all my relatives and cousins who took time off to come over to my place!
A shot with my lovely next door Indian Muslim neighbors! We have been neigbors for about 20 years and almost every year without fail, auntie would cook a variety of dishes such as curry chicken, chilli prawns, nasi bryani and rendang mutton, and bake numerous cookies and kueh for us during Hari Raya.
With some of my cousins, nephews and nieces from both my parents’ sides!
Hope you enjoyed this post! Will try to share part two soon! In the meantime, do ‘like’ our Facebook page www.facebook.com/missuschewy and follow us on Instagram @missuschewy and @misterchewy ok? Cheerios! 😀
Okay this shall be my last scheduled post before we return to Singapore! Hope you guys liked the photos from our indoor wedding shoot. Cant decide if we like the indoor or outdoor shots better! Both are equally impressive and surpassed our expectations 🙂
Hola chewys! Greetings from Switzerland! Hahaha ok la actually I am typing this at home. This scheduled post features only the indoor studio wedding album layouts. It will be an overkill to upload every single photo here! Will post all the shots on Facebook when we return 🙂
Love story of misterchewy and missuschewy. Enjoy!
We love all the pics! Glad that we chose Chris Ling Studio + Z Wedding. Stay tuned to the next post for our outdoor wedding album layouts!
Hello chewys! It’s Friday, like finallyyy! To me, it means just two more days to our big day! Within this week alone, misterchewy and I had so many things to settle because we are really number one procrastinators. Things such as the entire day’s programme, emcee script, photo montage, arranging of guest tables, angbao for the young ones, final gown and suit fitting etc etc etc. Phew! In the meantime, I shall keep everyone updated about my bachelorette party, also known as hens night, which took place at Zouk! 🙂 I got all these photos from Maureen and Bee.
My dear bridesmaids planned the party for me and it was supposed to be a surprise I think. But they asked me to choose either Movida or Zouk when they came over to my place for the manicure session so no more surprise liao. Haha.
We agreed to meet at about 10.30pm outside the club. Me, Adelene, Ying Pei and Bee shared a cab from CCK. The cab auntie was really nice and friendly. She actually told us to take care of ourselves and not drink too much. Hehe 🙂
Deng deng deng deng! See the props already?
Red furry furry tiara
With matching red butterfly wings
Duno why the butterfly wings were like ‘senget’ the entire night. Me no likey!
Photo with the girls while Ying Pei and Pei Rong went off to get the first round of drinks.
The girls all wore black/blue. All I wanted was to make sure that I was suitably covered and hence I wore stockings because my dress was too short. Hohoho.
There was a one for one promo before 12am so we ended up with 2 jugs of Vodka orange, 2 jugs of Vodka cranberry (which was pretty tasteless), 16 sour plum shots, 4 tequila shots and 4 sex on the beach shots. All in all, it was MAD. Almost fainted at the sight of all the drinks. Lol.
Sour plum shots were yummy!
Someone figured that the best way to finish the drinks fast was to play the number guessing game. This game really very popular leh. Casmin’s hens night also got play.
And for some reason, Pei Rong kept guessing the correct number and I was made to drink! Like 90% of the time leh! >_<
Gloop gloop gloop..
Group shot with the.. ohhhhhh sexay ladays! LOL.
Soon, it was time for the dares. My most dreaded moment!
Somehow, the two Korean guys who had been sitting next to us knew what was going on and very quickly turned to look at me which made things really easy for me. Hahaha!
Ehhh nope, I don’t think their names start with a vowel 😛
Ok basically it just went like this throughout the night. Instead of asking or talking to my targets, I went up to them and showed them the tasks that I was supposed to carry out. LOL.
Wah piang! Go where find the tallest man?
You gotta be kidding me. Am I really the tallest? HAHAHA.
The husband saw this photo and asked, “Like that is bear hug meh?” Wah someone very encouraging hor.
Horror or horrors. I just realized that I didn’t take with Pei Rong! How come nobody noticed?!
We decided to call it a night at around 2am which was super early la. And I think we look as though we had not gone in yet 😛 No drunkard look.
This dude photobombed us and….
All of us were really hungry and we had yummy bangers and mash from the cart outside Zouk!
Thanks to my lovely bridesmaids for the unforgettable party! <3
‘Like’ us on Facebook for more updates! 🙂
To be honest, I have never quite liked Chinese New Year since young. Things have not changed much today. I just find it troublesome that we have to observe various customs and traditions. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not being disrespectful or anything. Hahaha and I absolutely dislike spring cleaning. But look what I found in the process of throwing away unwanted stuff from my room! Posted this pic on Instagram too! Follow me @missuschewy if you have not! 🙂
This year’s CNY was not as happening as last year. We did fewer house visits which also means that we collected fewer angbaos. *cries* We had a combined reunion dinner like last year on CNY eve. This time, we reserved a table at Park Royal on Kitchener Road’s Si Chuan Dou Hua. Full house that night!
With Granny Chewy!
Heh heh. Didn’t make use of my DSLR at all during CNY. All photos were taken with my iPhone, and hence the quality. Hmm..
Lost count of the number of times I lo hei-ed this year! I think we are all very gentle. 99.9% still remained on the plate. LOL.
The husband and I decided to treat everyone to Pen Cai this year since we only get to eat this once a year. Needless to say, the menu cost us slightly over $1000 after GST and service charge.
HEHEHE hope this pic didn’t give you a shock! Tried something different for my eye makeup. I don’t usually attempt this because it’s troublesome and slightly time consuming. Also made an effort to put on falsies. Let’s just say I’m usually very lazy 😛
Double chin is visible in this pic. Argh.
As usual, we went to my gugu’s house first. Played Blackjack for a couple of hours (I think) and we won quite a bit of money! More than 60 bucks in total if I’m the wrong. Not bad considering that our bets ranged from 50 cents to $2. LOL.
Wokay here’s the mandatory OOTD (outfit of the day) shot for us on CNY day one. Haha. Since everyone on Instagram is doing so!
At my maternal grandma’s place.
Sometimes I really wonder how did I end up with a guy who is a head taller than me. It’s so difficult to get a decent self-shot when both of us are standing!
One of my aunts sculpted this God of Fortune balloon! Very talented right!
Hehe I like this photo a lot so I posted it on Instagram as well 🙂
Baby Adelle is the second youngest baby in the family! OMG I’m really getting old. I have 7 nieces and nephews now. Everyone is popping babies. O_O I think baby Adelle is afraid that her aunt will mishandle her. LOL.
She seemed to regain her calmness after we gave her a baby biscuit.
Adelle and her sister Lavelle, who is almost 2 years old.
Another cutie in the family! My niece Marion, not my brother la. Haha.
My youngest cousins, Anthea and Aloysius. Oops didn’t take photo earlier and they changed into their pjs after showering.
That’s the end of CNY day one!
Our OOTD on CNY day two! My caption for this on Instagram, “Our styles are totally mismatched. I look like I’m dating a young boy!” Don’t you think so?
After going to misterchewy’s aunt’s place, we caught Ah Boys to Men II at I12 Katong! Didn’t expect myself to watch this. The night before, we watched part one via YouTube on our iPad and we really enjoyed it! The cast can act really well and the movie was full of humor.
We took our paternal grandpa to Dragon Phoenix Restaurant at Liang Court for a round of lo hei. iPhone lousy, focus on wrong subject ._.
This blog post is dedicated to our dearest Roborovksi hamster, Mambo, who passed away on 14 January 2013 (Monday) sometime between 8am to 3pm. My regular readers and followers would have read about Mambo through my previous posts. I really don’t know how and where to begin. This post is the toughest to write so far.. As I’m typing this, Mambo had already left us for more than 24 hours but I can’t control my tears each time I think about him :'(
We will always remember Mambo’s cute and innocent-looking little face and his big round eyes which made our hearts melt every single time we looked at him. He had brought so much joy and laughter to everyone of us. We really love him and treat him as part of our family. My mum even prepared his breakfast before ours every morning. This post is written in remembrance of Mambo and his brother Jumbo, who passed away when he was 5 months old.. I have selected some photos taken within this period of 1 year 7 months from our DSLR, iPhone and iPad. Misterchewy and I even have a hashtag #mambotherobo for all photos of him on Instagram even though there are not many 🙁
On the night of 10 June 2011, two little hamsters about 3 weeks old arrived at our place. They were part of a sibling group given by my brother’s friend, Abel. I was away in Taiwan then. My mum and bro came up with the names ‘Mambo’ and ‘Jumbo’ for them. Jumbo was slightly bigger in size, and he was more timid as compared to Mambo.
We were quite amused that Mambo and Jumbo could sleep in the most awkward spaces.
We call this their playground. Mambo and Jumbo liked to sleep at this spot of the playground too. Both of them also passed away at this very spot.. :'(
This video was taken by misterchewy, when Mambo and Jumbo were about one month old. They were truly brothers. They ate together, ran the wheel together, slept next to each other. They did everything together and never fought. An unfortunate incident happened and Jumbo left when he was around 5 months old. We felt really sad, and at the same time, pitied Mambo. We could sense that Mambo was agitated when he could not find his brother and he ate very little for a couple of days. It must have been really tough on him. I feel very sorry for him, even till today..
Here are some of my favorite shots of Mambo, mostly taken by my mobile devices. He was awaken when I opened the cage. Hehehe.
Giving me the “Wassup???” LOL. 🙂
Every now and then, we would find him sleeping comfortably sandwiched between this cage and log and it never fails to amuse us.
Mambo was a light sleeper because every time we opened his cage, he would scurry out of his log or playground with half-closed sleepy eyes. He surprised us once when we found him curled up in a ball when we lifted up his log! Awwwww.. 🙂 But of course, he woke up about 5 seconds later with a blur look. Hahaha.
My bro liked to carry Mambo and sayang him on his head but our poor friend doesnt seem to enjoy it!
Here’s something else we found highly amusing! We wanted to let Mambo ‘see the world’ outside his home and let him out one evening but he scurried round and round his cage and finally climbed up his log and fell back in. Seems like home is still the best place to be!
On a few other occasions when we just wanted to kajiao him, we placed the log far away from his cage 😛
When Mambo was younger, he used to be afraid of us too. We found it hard to stroke him because he often ran off in fright. As he grew older, he got used to us 🙂
Sometimes Mambo could get quite lazy! Hahaha.
Clearly enjoying his frequent well-deserved back massages from us.
Apart from his favorite sunflower seeds, Mambo also loved eating his Vitamin C! We just had to wave it in front of him and he would come and snatch it away from our fingers.
We also introduced dried mealworms into his diet after my friends Shi Jie and Joslyn told me that their hamsters loveeeeee mealworms! Really glad that Mambo loved them too. We had also given him other special treats such as cheese cubes, donuts and pudding from the Pet Lovers stores.
Here’s a video of Mambo munching away happily!
I’m also glad that I bought the cottony blanket for him when I caught sight of it at Pet Lovers because Mambo clearly loved it very much! He was found snuggling in it most of the time :))
I think it was in October 2012, when we first found little traces of blood on Mambo’s bedding and he looked unwell. We weren’t sure what happened and attributed it to him eating too many sunflower seeds. He didn’t bleed anymore for a long time after that day.
This two videos were taken on 17 November 2012 evening. I was alone at home and spent some time playing with Mambo. Not sure what was he digging for!
We were always tickled by Mambo’s ‘kungfu moves’!
In 2011, we decorated Mambo’s cage during Christmas. I’m sorry that we didn’t manage to celebrate Christmas with Mambo at home last year because our house was undergoing some renovation work, which was also why I stayed at misterchewy’s place for about a month.
These are the last few photos taken just two weeks ago when I finally returned home. I was really glad to see my little treasure again :’)
Mambo looks pretty small right? Hehe..
Caught munching on his dried mealworms! This is one of my favorite photos of him 🙂
For the past few weeks and especially over the weekend, my parents noticed that Mambo’s appetite shrunk considerably and he was not as active as before. They said that we had to be mentally prepared. The last time I saw Mambo was on the 12th, Saturday evening because I was at misterchewy’s place on Sunday, but Mambo appeared normal to me. On Monday, my brother called me at around 2.50pm when I was at work and he said, “Jie.. Mambo is dead..” We spoke briefly before we hung up. I was calm but only for a few seconds. The tears started to well up in my eyes and I found it impossible to fight them back. I cried behind my computer at work for at least an hour and a half.
The husband met me at my workplace and we cabbed home. It was pouring very heavily on Monday evening and my heart felt really heavy while we were on our way home. I used to think that it was very difficult to take photos of Mambo because he was constantly running about but the truth is, it is the hardest when he was lying there motionless. My tears were rolling down my cheeks the whole time.
I kept asking myself these few questions:
1) Did Mambo know that he was going to leave us?
2) Did Mambo choose to die at the very same spot as his brother?
3) Was Mambo waiting for us to stroke him and bid him goodbye?
4) Was Mambo lonely when he left?
My only regret is that nobody was around to watch him take his very last breath and I also regretted not coming home earlier on Sunday. Mambo, I am really sorry but I sincerely hope that you felt loved by all of us. I really really miss you and will never forget your cute antics and random noises made throughout the day, especially in the morning when you were busy eating at your food bowl and at night when you were running on your wheel :'( My only consolation is that every single one of us in our family really doted on you and you were always on our minds. You will always be missed by us.
My mum stuffed his cotton blanket and his favorite food in a box.
My dad placed Mambo’s body in the box. I took quite a number of shots and wanted to make sure that I was satisfied because I didn’t wanna regret afterwards. It was very depressing for us to see Mambo go.. My mum finally sealed the box with a tape and at that moment, it really felt as though all the air had been sucked out of my lungs and I cried harder than before. My parents buried Mambo next to where they had buried Jumbo previously at a piece of vacant land along Sungei Tengah Road. We know that Mambo and Jumbo will be reunited in Hammie Heaven. Hope they become good friends with Coconut, Dodo, Mimi, Rei-Rei, Snowy, Sleepy and Milo too (thank you ahpoohbear and bubble_jen for comforting me)!
Mambo lived to about 21 months. In our hearts, he is irreplaceable. We love you Mambo and we hope that you are forever happy and contented in Hammie Heaven. :’)
Messages from Grandpa Ben, Grandma Christine, Daddy Bertrand and Daddy-in-law Chewy:
Mambo, you are dearly missed and fondly remembered by us.
– Grandpa Ben
It is painful to see that you are gone…..You have brought joy n laughter to our family. Mambo, you will stay in our hearts forever…….. Rest in Peace.
– Grandma Christine
Hi Mambo, many will say that hamsters are just small pets that are cute to keep. To me, you and Jumbo nothing like pets; more like family members to us. During my time in NS, you made me forget all my problems and worries. When I was preparing for exams, having you around made me less stressed with my studies. I will miss the times you bit my finger and ran away after that. I will also remember and miss how you showed those big eyes of yours, wanting more mealworms and sunflower seeds. I will miss how you ran to the sand bath to clean yourself after Grandpa Ben or me played with you. I will miss how you ate everything from the food bowl and hid the food remnants under the bedding, laying them out nicely. I will miss the times you ki siao and scratched around the cage wildly. I will miss you and Jumbo very very much. Grandma Christine cannot stop crying whenever she sees the empty cage now. You have brought so much joy to our family and everyone miss you dearly. Mambo, I hope you will get to meet Jumbo in Hammy Heaven and hope you will enjoy a happy afterlife. You stupid boy, I will not forget you and Jumbo not as my pets, but as my sons. Farewell son…
– Daddy Bertrand
Dear Mambo, although you are mischievous at times, you are always very cute to me. I have always loved to look at you and stroke your fur. I will always remember that bite that you gave me. Now that you are gone for good, I really want to tell you that I miss you, and I will continue to miss you in the future.. Take care and have fun in your little hammie heaven with Jumbo :')
– Daddy-in-law Chewy
Cheers chewy chewy people! Here’s a toast to a splendid and awesome 2013 ahead! Like what I had done for 2011, I have decided to compile a list of the more interesting events which occurred in 2012 for misterchewy and myself! Frankly speaking, 2011 was more exciting than 2012 but we are very sure that 2013 will definitely be a blast because we are in the midst of making great things happen! 😉
14 February 2012 – There are many firsts in our lives, and we spent our first Valentine’s Day as husband and wife last year. If you really really have to know (LOL), it was our second Valentine’s Day as a couple 🙂
February 2012 – And in the same month, we were also given a special feature in Purple Sage’s e-magazine, Taste! It was truly an honour for us to have this opportunity of being featured in a publication! And yes, that Tiramisu photo was taken by yours truly 😀
7 to 8 April 2012 – We went for our very first staycation in Singapore and it was at Porcelain Hotel! It was not our last staycation! In fact, 2012 had been kind to us and we were blessed with four staycations! 😛
6 October 2012 – Together with some other invited bloggers, I had a taste of indoor skydiving at iFly Sentosa! I wanna try the actual thing next time!
8 October 2012 – We spent an entire day for our wedding photoshoot, which was very tiring but extremely fun! Selected the photos last two months and we were quite satisfied. Total damage? More than $8K. Prior to the photoshoot, I also visited Shunji Matsuo salon and dyed some parts of my hair purple. Yes, it was for the photoshoot. Aren’t women vain? LOL.
12 to 15 October 2012 – The Chewys went for a much deserved 4D3N trip to Bangkok. We ate and shopped and ate and shopped and ate somemore! Highlight of the trip was our fine dining experience high up in the sky! Click here to read our day 1 to day 4 blog posts.
30 November to 1 December 2012 – Both misterchewy and I were invited by the folks of Resorts World Genting to take part in the Adrenaline Junkie Challenge at the indoor and outdoor theme park! It was truly an exciting and unforgettable experience for us.
24 December 2012 – Despite the crowd on Christmas Eve, we enjoyed touring the world’s largest oceanarium, S.E.A. Aquarium at Resorts World Sentosa! Pleased that this post got the most number of blog hits and visitors on the day it was published! Well, not that I really care about these figures 😛
31 December 2012 – Didn’t hang out much outside on new year eve because it was pouring the entire day! Good thing the skies cleared by around 8pm and we made our way to the Siloso Beach Countdown Party!
Did you make any new year resolutions this year? I didn’t because I don’t believe in making them. Haha. May 2013 be a fun-filled one for all! 😉
