Category Archives: Me Time

My own time without kids ie blogging, scrapbook ing, facial, massage,etc

Taxi in Phuket and Sugar Palm Resort

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FY told me that they paid THB750 for airport taxi from airport to Kata Beach. Hubby read on Internet that taxi is quite expensive in Phuket. It is cheaper to take metered taxi from airport to hotel. As we walked out from the arrival hall, there were lots of taxis offering their service. We walked towards the metered taxi counter and they quoted us THB600 for the same destination ie from airport to our hotel at Kata Beach.

We got into the cab and the journey took about an hour from airport to our hotel, Sugar Palm Resort. We felt so relief that the taxi driver could speak decent English. During the journey, Hubby enquired about car for rent, city tour, taxi for hire, etc as we’ve planned for Phuket city tour the following day. The taxi driver offered his service to take us to visit Phuket attraction places at THB1,000 from 10am to 4pm.

At the airport, there was counter distributing free sim card. They told us that we may purchase the phone reload at 7 Eleven. On the way to hotel, we stopped at 7 Eleven and purchased THB50 reload value. This was more than sufficient for us to contact the taxi driver on the services required during our stay in Phuket. 

Deluxe Pool View room

We checked in to Sugar Palm Resort and the first impression of the hotel was good. I liked the location of the hotel which is located near Kata Beach and the tangerine colours of our bedroom. The colours gave a refreshing and cheerful mood.

There were free wifi in the room and hotel areas. There were also 4 computers with internet access for complimentary use.

As we walked out from the hotel, there was this seafood restaurant, Mali Seafood & Restaurant owned by the same hotel. Since it was already late, we decided to have our dinner at the restaurant.

Dinner at Mali Seafood & Restaurant

Seafood for selection for BBQ.

Seafood and Mixed Meat Kebab

We ordered seafood kebab (THB180) and mixed meat kebab (THB160) and coconut juice (THB180 for 2)  for cooling. Jaden wanted carbonara pasta (THB160). There were counters for soup, salad and fruits which were complimentary with our dinner.

After dinner, Hubby checked out the hotel vicinity while I freshened up the 2 boys and get them ready for bed. When Hubby came back, it was my turn to check out the hotel vicinity.

The manual way of drying my nail polish

My goals in Phuket were to have massage and mani/pedi sessions. FY recommended me to try Oriental Massage which was about 5 minutes walk from the hotel.However, I did not feel comfortable walking around alone in Phuket at 10pm+ and decided to have my mani/pedi at a shop next to our hotel. The manicure and pedicure cost THB200 each.

We did not swim in the hotel as the pool did not look great. The breakfast was average. I did not like the idea of having birds flying around and rest on those cutleries arranged on tables. We paid RM285 for the 2 nights stay (booked via Agoda) in the hotel  and additional THB175 (~RM18) per day for Jared’s breakfast. They allowed Jaden to have free breakfast.

Overall, the hotel was the right choice for us for the first 2 nights stay in Phuket. We wanted a hotel at reasonable price, at a good location ie near Kata Beach and close to those attractions that we’ve planned for city tour. Sugar Palm Resort was the right hotel, at the right price and right location for us.

Sugar Palm Resort
20/10 Kata Road, Kata Beach, Muang, Phuket 83100, Thailand
Tel: (66 76) 284-404,
Fax: (66 76) 284-438
E-mail : info@sugarpalmphuket.com
Website : sugarpalmphuket.com

Birthday Celebration … just the way I like it!

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My mother in-law brought Jared for holiday in Penang. They took a train up to Butterworth and took a ferry across the sea. It was my mother in-law’s idea. She wanted to spend some time with Jared and also to let Jared experience the ride to Penang on public transports. At the same time, we told Jared to take care of his Ah Ma.

After they came back from Penang, mother in-law stayed with us for a few days. We invited mother in-law to join us for our family dinner at my parents’ house. It was Hubby’s birthday too and I knew my parents and sister would prepare a feast for the birthday celebration. My youngest sister told me that she would make a cake for us too.

 

These were the dishes cooked by my parents and my eldest sister, Annie. Inclusive of soup, there were 9 dishes all together. It was like CNY reunion dinner. We really enjoyed the food and the great company of family members.

After dinner, my dad went out to get some soda drinks. He knew the kids love it.

My youngest sister made this Tiramisu cake for us. I’ve never tried making one whole Tiramisu cake. It takes lots of skill and confidence to make such cake. I’ve only made Tiramisu cakes in small glasses. Of course, I did not use any gelatine to hold the cake together.

The Birthday guy too busy for the Birthday gal.

The cake was so lovely with our names printed on wafer and had 3 layers. 

It was a simple dinner cooked by my parents and eldest sister, with lovely Tiramisu cake made by my youngest sister and celebrated with my parents, mother in-law, kids, sibblings, nieces and nephews … just the way I like it!

 

Nuffnang Blogopolis 2012

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When I first started blogging, it was meant as a place for me to treasure my memories of those joyous days, to cherish and remember people I care about and events that I attended. They give me great pleasure and they are very special for me to treasure the memories. It is also a place for me share information and good experience with my family and friends. After all, good things are meant to be shared.

After a while, I find blogging to be very useful. It is like my virtual library, for me to note down important facts and to make reference to. There are several occasions when my friends asked me about Maid Renewal procedures and also about Kumon. I asked them to refer to my blog. And it was it.

Human lies but Numbers don’t lie

When I knew Nuffnang was going to have it’s first ever Blogopolis workshop, I signed up for it and surprisingly, Wendy decided to attend the workshop too.

Yes, I was very excited. Counting down to the event.

The set up

Official Broadband partner, P1 and its Bat Man, The Dark Knight Rises.

Twitter board for the event and competitions.

Wendy and I did not have any Twitter account. By the time, the MC announced the contests and prizes up for grab, we realised that Twitter is a necessarily tool. We signed up for Twitter accounts on the spot and … we did not win any prizes.

Nicholas Chay, Country Manager of Nuffnang Malaysia

 

Master Class 1: Idea Sourcing & Content Generation

Ken Wooi, Lim Chee Wah (Editor of TimeOutKL) andThe first Master Class was on Idea Sourcing and Content Generation where the speakers shared about key sources of finding blog post idea.

Master Class 2: Opportunities Gained Through Blogging

Huai Bin from sixthseal and Hui Wen from Revel in Me shared about the opportunities gained by them through blogging.

Master Class 3: Blog Design 101

Eric Cruz, Firdaus Haris and Lionel Chin talked about things to note on blog design, its compatibility across browsers, social media and blogs are the new magazine.

For the Master Class 4: SEO & Analytics for Dummies, the session was cancelled as the speaker, James Yeang from Google Malaysia was unwell. 

Master Class 5: Building Your Brand

Vivy Yusof from Proudduck and Beautiful Nara talked about understanding brand and what it stands for.

Master Class 6: Blog Photography 101

Sue Anna Joe and Carlos Nizam shared photography tips for blogging.

Master Class 7: Finding Your Voice in the Blogosphere

Prior to this Blogopolis, I have not heard of Wendy Cheng of Xiaxue. She is one of Singapore’s top blogger. She shared with us the reasons of her wanted to blog in the first place and her blogging life. Based on the overwhelming respond from the floor, I guess she was the highlight for the day.

Master Class 8: Using Different Platforms to Optimise Your Blog Traffic

Comic blogger, Ernest Ng together with Maria Elena had fun talking about the different platforms in blogging. This was the session that the MC had no chance to speak.

Master Class 9: The Malaysian Blogosphere

Premesh from Malaysiakini, Timothy Tiah (co-founder of Nuffnang) and my favourite, Kenny Sia who has won numerous awards for his blog. They talked about the future of blogging in Malaysia.

It was a very informative sessions. The master class topics were well chosen. I wish the discussion session can be more lengthy with more in-depth knowledge sharing.

New Home for “treasure memories”

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Welcome “treasure memories” to WordPress!

This is my first post using WordPress. I started “treasure memories” in Aug 2008, using Blogspot. At that time, blogging was new to me and I wasn’t sure whether I was able to maintain the blog and keep it going.

I attended Nuffnang’s first ever Blogopolis event on 14 Jul 12 in Concorde Hotel. There were so many young and aspiring bloggers sharing their experience and opportunities gained through blogging. They are doing well and very successful. Ever since then, blogging just got better.

Exabytes was one of the sponsor for the event. The sales staff at the booth did a good job in explaining to me about hosting and domain registration. I wanted to have my own domain. “treasurememories.com” was taken. As such, I needed to put “-” in between the 2 words ie “treasure-memories.com”.

After much research and survey, I decided to sign up with Exabytes as the company was having promotion until 31 Jul 12. I paid RM99 for one year of hosting plan and paid another RM99 for 4 years ( 3 + 1 year free) of domain registration.

There are so many things that I wanted to do to improve on my blog. I also hope to move my old posts from Blogspot account to this WordPress account. Please bear with me for a little while.