Friday, April 27, 2018

Circus 1903 in 2018

[Media Invite]

We caught the circus last Thursday and I had actually wanted to post this up much earlier but who would have guessed that I would be down with stomach flu for the past 4 days? In any case, you still have this weekend to catch this entertaining family-friendly act before it ends its run on Sunday, 29 April 2018. 5 more shows to go!



To be absolutely honest, if you scrutinize each of the individual acts, they would not look THAT unfamiliar to you. But the real gem would have to be the funny ringmaster, who managed to work the crowd and get everyone from the young to the old, laughing at his jokes and antics. Kids will also be asked to volunteer on stage to take part in the show and he is really the entertainer. I give him a thumbs up for his ability to turn all the different reactions of the kids into super hilarious moments.


I was really more interested in finding out how the largest elephant puppet looked like and worked and I was not disappointed. The mammoth puppet looked really lifelike and lots of practice must have gone into perfected the giant's every move. Our family enjoyed the circus very much, and thank you BASE Entertainment for bringing over such an entertaining performance and inviting us over for it!

Only 2 more days and 5 more shows before they really wave goodbye!
Useful Information

Performance Times (now till 29 Apr 2018):
Tuesday - Friday: 7.30pm
Saturday: 11am, 3pm and 7.00pm
Sunday: 11am and 3pm

Ticket Bookings:
Internet - www.MarinaBaySands.com/ticketing or www.sistic.com.sg
Phone - +65 6688 8826
In Person - Marina Bay Sands Box Offices (Museum, Theatres, SkyPark, Retail Mall and Hotel Tower 1 Lobby). For more information please log onto - www.MarinaBaySands.com/ticketing

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Woohoo WoWo Wows!

[Giveaway]

I hadn't been taking good care of my oily hair and skin since young. I had been bleaching my hair as and when I liked and washing my face only whenever I remembered. Well the effects are quite evident now. My face is already beyond repair but experiencing bad hair days on work days are the worst. I either had to use lots of hair gel, or get a quick shampooing just to get the hair under control.


However recently I received a range of WoWo products as a gift to try out. For someone like me who is lazy and don't really bother about "beauty", I thought there was no harm trying? I mean my condition would not get much worst anyway. So try I did, but I only used the body gel and shampoo for the past 2-3 months. I was too lazy to apply the hair mask and other lotion. Initially the shower gel seemed difficult to work up a lather as it produced less suds than my usual body foam but I got used to it soon. What's great about this shower gel is that it smells really nice and it leaves a silky feeling after I dry up from the shower. 


I have oily scalp and dandruffs. At times, using off-the-shelves anti-dandruff shampoo does work at controlling the white flakes but it often dries out my hair and makes styling a chore (even though I do not have much style lah). Since using WoWo Hair Shampoo, I realized that to comb and get presentable enough for work in the morning took me less than 5 minutes for me these days. My hair remained soft and manageable after sleeping in the air-con room. I also hardly see dandruffs and also noticed lesser hair on the cover of my drain trap too!


With Mother's Day coming up really soon, I was thinking that maybe you would like to pamper your mother, wife or maybe even yourself a little! So we are giving away a full set of hair series products (shampoo, mask, serum) to one lucky reader who completes the following steps before the end of Fri, 11 May 2018 -

Giveaway Instructions

1) Like and follow The "Perfect" Father Facebook page;
2) Like and follow Levon International Facebook page;
3) Like and Share this Facebook post (with the original text) publicly; and
4) Comment in the Facebook post once done and tag your friends who may be interested too!


For whose who wishes to try the products out yourselves, you can contact Sindy through WhatsApp at 86886556 or WeChat ID: ProsperityMiracles56. She never say she will give me any commission but she did mentioned that she will do something special for you if you mention you were referred by The "Perfect" Father. 

Kampung Fun Fair At Waterway Point

[Media Invite]

We popped by last week on a weekend with Steffi and Leroy who enjoyed themselves so much. Brought Stacci along too but she was totally exhausted by the time we reached and she slept throughout! Hence we went AGAIN over the last weekend so that Stacci and Louie can have some fun too at the carnival!







The dining crowd over at the mall is ridiculous. We had to wait over an hour and a half just to get a seat for my family over at Ichiban last weekend. I seriously doubt the mall needed any more promotions, but they are having a Kampung Fun Fair right now over at The Plaza, Basement 1 and Village Square, L1. First 2000 shoppers daily who spends $50 at the mall gets to redeem a coupon set that includes $5 worth of credits for the amusement rides/game booths and a food coupon for three items redeemable at the Food Stalls. Go grab your free potong ice-cream and kacangs!

Redeem your vouchers from the customer service with $50 spent.

But take note that the fair will end next weekend, on Sun, 22 Apr 2018. If you are looking to win some toys for your kids at the fair, you may wish to try out some of those that requires skills ( that is if you have what it takes), otherwise I let you in on an open secret. There are 2 stations that with sure win prizes. One would be the fishing game at B1 while the other is the ball game at L1. Having said that, you should still check out what are the prizes before going for it because we realized that the prizes changed during our 2 visits, and the consolation prize at one of the stations was pretty lame for the price of $5 per try. 




Try this fishing game for a sure win prize!
In any case I would also advise against going during the weekend because we felt as though a good half of the Punggol population shops and dines there on Saturdays and Sundays! You still have a couple of days to bring your kiddos there though and you should! Check out their website for more details on the fair and thanks for the invite Waterway Point, the kiddos had great fun! 

Monday, April 9, 2018

Confinement without the Lady

The confinement period following childbirth is a very important period for a woman to take good care and to recuperate from the pregnancy. I cannot imagine how taxing it would be for ones' body to take the stress of carrying another life for 10 months, provide the necessary nutrients, and subsequently to recover from the amount of blood loss during birth. Especially when it is a cesarean birth.

I have heard of many parents talking about 'regrets' after having children. And it's not about their kids, but rather their nonchalant attitudes during the crucial period of recovery following birth. They will mention about how they felt less energetic or how their bodies ached because they had not taken care during confinement. While I have to admit that I have my own reservations about some dubious practices that were handed down for generations, most of the current practices does make certain sense. And of course taking of proper confinement food and herbal concoctions would no doubt be beneficial for the mommy.



We decided on a "self-service" confinement following the birth of Starri because I was gungho and thought that I would be able to take a full month off work to help (which ended up only to be 2 weeks max), and most importantly, save us a whole lot of money! Employing a confinement lady during the Chinese New Year period would easily cost twice as much and upwards of $5,000! I may be able to bathe, feed and take care of the baby, but cooking is a no no for me. Thankfully the catering of confinement food put together by the TCM Physicians and Nutritionists at Thomson Medical, totally took care of this aspect of confinement.


The lunch and dinner come delivered in 4 blue thermal containers (consisting of one meat, one vegetable, one soup and rice) that kept the food warm, as well as with a thermos flask of red date tea. Thus my wife was able to have hot red date tea throughout the day, and managed to refrain from the temptation of any cold drinks. The food portions were rather generous and I actually shared the food with my wife for the entire 28-day course! So much so that I can even give my own personal assessment of the food! For one, I am definitely impressed with the freshness of the ingredients like the fishes, and the herb-infused vegetables were tasty without the need for too much salt. There were lots of goji berries and dan gui in the dishes. In fact I think I ate more vegetable during this period than I would have in a whole year! And to add on, they actually serve Kinmemai gourmet Japanese rice which we loved over normal rice. 

The "takeaway" version of papaya fish soup is different from the milky one in the hospital.
This has to be one of my favourite. Should be egg tofu or something. 
A 28-day package would consist of 2 cycles of 10-days and 18-days which means you would be seeing the same food within 2 weeks for lunch and/or dinner. There is only that much variety or combinations, otherwise they would have to come up with more than 56 totally different dishes to please the pickiest of customers. I am also not going to lie, the food tasted great on most days when it came on time. But it can get a little disappointing when the delivery is delayed due to unforeseen reasons leading to the food getting "old", as with any other packed food from anywhere. You can find more information on their confinement food packages here.

Some of the essentials for confinement, all conveniently packed for daily use.
However solely relying on just the food is not enough, because a woman would require herbal concoctions to nourish, strengthen, rejuvenate and recuperate from the "ordeal" post-natal. I remembered spending hundreds of dollars buying herbs that were packed on the spot from the Chinese medical hall that were not that well-received by my wife, but this time round we had the pre-packed vacuum-sealed herbs from Mummamia Confinement that came along with clear and simple instructions on the use.


The instructions are all clearly shown and really quite idiot-proof already.
The herbs comes in a box of 10 individually packed herbs clearly labelled Day 1 to Day 5 and one pack is meant for 2 servings in the day, for lunch and dinner. So I started off with brewing Day 1 herbs with meat and followed through with the others days and restarting the cycle after Day 5. Not many people would appreciate the taste of these herbs, and by the first cycle, the wife would have made her preference known. You can vary the water used between 1.5l to 2l so as to make it easier for her to finish up, if you know what I mean. We used a total of 3 boxes for the entire confinement period.

Use these for mom and baby when taking baths.

In this age and time, I believe that most young moms would find it crazy to abstain from bathing and hair washing throughout the confinement. I personally felt that the idea was actually not to catch a chill during this period, and my wife used Ban Kah Chai Mom Confinement Herbal Bath for her baths. Even Starri had her Baby Herbal Bath too, which helped with mild jaundice and baby rashes. After keeping hygiene in check, one must also ensure to fully towel dry and not catch a cold!

All the ingredients are apportioned for the nest results.
We also supplemented the routine with nursing herbal soup to boost milk production.
Water retention is not a pretty sight but her condition was well kept under control!
My wife started taking cold drinks after the confinement and told me that she could feel the difference almost immediately the next day. She actually got body aches which she never felt while she was still drinking tea. The Pre-packed Red Dates Tea from Mummamia Confinement comes in a 10-day pack, in easy to cook sachets. Drinking that helps reduce water retention, and the ingredients are rich in Iron and Vitamin C as well. Those who wished to boost milk production can also try out the Nursing Herbal Soup as a supplement. Do check out their full range of confinement necessities available here.

I am thankful that my wife experienced a great recovery from her 5th cesarean birth, despite the nurses telling me about her heavy loss of blood this time round, which made me worried as I sat alone in the room waiting so long for her return from labour ward. My wife is definitely a strong lady to begin with but I am sure taking extra care, having nutritious food and proper tonics during the confinement period helped lots!

Disclaimer: We were provided with a 28-day confinement food packaged by Thomson Medical as well as a 30-day confinement package by Mummia Confinement for review. No monetary compensation was received and all views are of my own.