Author Archives: chuletz

Our Miracle Journey

15 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Chulet Miracle Journey

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Hubby and I just celebrated our 4th Year marriage recently. This time round, the celebration was simple (relatively). No big fancy gesture or fine dining (unlike last year. LOL)

Wedding CupcakesBut, this year got a little extra special to us. We will be expecting our baby girl soon. I’m now waddling around like a proud mother duck at 38 weeks pregnant. I have been putting off posting about this for some time as I still feel overwhelmed by it all.

I’ve strongly believe that having a child boils down to God’s timing / blessing. For the first three years of our marriage, hubby and I enjoyed a lot of ‘us-time’ traveling and seeing the world. We have always believe in letting God and nature takes it course.

Eiffel Tower ParisHowever, deep down…I was always a little worry as I am never regular with my menstrual cycle since my teen-years. I remember the longest was 7 months when I was in Uni (my mum even joke if I am hiding something from her). After several check-ups, the Dr told me it’s normal for certain people and my blood and hormones all check out ok. So, I was never bothered about it and have never pay attention to my cycle.

Interestingly, after my marriage, my cycle got really regular. At most it will hit 2-3 months. So, whenever my menstrual is late, I get super excited to use the pregnancy test kit. But, when results show that I’m not pregnant, I still get a little disappointed. But, I never let it bring me down and hubby is always very supportive. Hubby always reminds me that it’s God’s plan so I have to trust in the Lord.

So when my menstrual was late for 5 months last year, I got a little worry. I decided to look for a gynaecologist to do a detail check. After checking to confirm that I’m not pregnant, my gynae did a detail scan and found that I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). According to him, PCOS is quite random and till today the cause is not entirely understood.

Anyway, he explain that it was the main reason why I have not ovulate and hence no menstrual. Then, it hit me, no ovulation = no baby!!! I was in full panic mode. The nice doctor told me not to worry and he will prescribe me some medication to help regulate my menstrual cycle.

During the one week I diligently took my medication. If you know me, you’ll know I’m not a fan of medicine (except – pain killers, because I hate pain even more!). But, after one week, still nothing…

I went back to the Doc, and he jokingly told me that my body must be really stubborn and request I take another week of the same medication. Interestingly, after that, it did come, ONCE!  Dr was happy with that and requested I take 5 days of Clomid to stimulate ovulation. It’s usually what you take to encourage fertility. I was quite excited to take clomid as I thought it would help ‘speed’ things up abit. LOL.

After 2nd day of clomid, I was feeling nausea and tired. During dinner with my bff (she’s in her 1st trimester then), I jokingly remarked that I feel like I’m going thru exactly what she’s going thru. She kindly offered me her ‘chen-pi’ (sourish pickled orange skin) and we wondered if it could be the side effect of the clomid.

After completing the Clomid, I was due for another appointment with the gynae the following week. 2 nights before the appointment, I prayed before sleeping and God prompted me that He will provide as He’s the provider.

The next morning, I was wondering if I should check with the pregnancy test kit again. It’s silly since I was so confident that I was not pregnant since I’ve done several tests before that and the doctor also did one when I visit the clinic.

But, when I pull open the drawer and saw that I have one (the most expensive – which I only bought ONE) sitting there, I decided to go ahead and use it. I bought a lot of test kits of different brands and prices to stock up in my drawer. Deep down, I was telling myself that I’m silly and I just wasted a good RM15++ (some of these branded sticks are not cheap!!!)

The normal modus operandi is I’ll leave the test while I shower. Then, check it; negative, throw to bin. This time, right after peeing, I stare at the little window and waited. There were 2 blue lines clearly visible on the window. I was confused. I thought perhaps different brand have different indication. So, I went back to read the instruction on the box. Double lines = pregnant. I was stunned and actually spend a good 5-10mins staring at the test kit.

Pregnancy Test KitAfter that, I walked back to the bedroom and told hubby, “I’m pregnant”. Hubby was waking up then. He stared at me like an owl blinking and then he utter “Ooo… congrats?” (Congratz??!! Is that all he could say?! Bleh – Rolling my eyes) and then he was like, “Are you sure?”. I told him I was not sure and was wondering if the clomid could have confused the result.

So, we decided to push the appointment forward and check with the gynae. The Doc was skeptical as well but being a good natures fellow, he agreed to squeeze me in. When I show him the picture of the test kit, he confidently says, “You are definitely pregnant. The lines are very clear. Let’s do a scan”. He found our little pea immediately and announces I am 6 weeks pregnant. I was stunned… but how? We did check that I was not pregnant (Doctor say it could be because it was too early in the pregnancy and the test kit couldn’t detect it yet that time).

God is truly GOOD!!!

I was so deliriously happy and spend the whole day grinning away like a Cheshire cat…

Miss Marple’s Tea Room – Dandenong Melbourne, Australia

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by in Australia, Gastronomy, Oversea Restaurants, Travel

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It has been raining everyday in KL now for the past few days. I love rainy day (but hate the traffic caused by it), especially if it’s raining in the evening. It always makes me feel like late winter in Melbourne. I love the fresh earthy smell and also it makes it so much cozier to snuggle in my warm bed and blanket at night.

For some reason, this also reminds me of Scones in Dandenong !

Don’t ask me why?! During my 6 years staying there, I somehow always end up going to Dandenong during late winter ! Maybe it’s because it’s usually low-peak season… And this means most shops are less crowded, including the famous Miss Marple’s Tea Room. Or maybe, I just love the air in Dandenong during that time of the year.

This quaint little place is furnish to ooze the typical English tea room. Walls are lined with a row of teapots, old mementos and nick nacks. At the back of the room, there’s an actual fireplace. Thankfully, most of the time we are there, it’s so empty that we get to sit really close to the fireplace. (Mum love it)

Miss Marple is famous for their Devonshire scones. Please note that personally, I won’t call it scones because it bears nothing like scones. lol… I remember the first time I had it, I was shock !!! IT looked more like a huge slab of raisin bread that tasted like a dense ‘fatt kou’ (it’s a sweet chinese steam cake normally used for special occasion).

Scones !!!

Yes – That huge slab of square loaf thingy… it’s the so-call scone. LOL….But overtime, I kind of got used to it and rather enjoy it. I love the combination of the whip cream and sweet tart jam spread over the chunky loaf.

Aside from their famous scones… I love their Belgian waffle. Crispy on the outside, soft and moist inside. nom nom nom… Belgian Waffles

Please beware that during peak season / hour, the queue to get in can be quite scary. I am not a fan of queueing up. So, I’ll usually skip Miss Marple if there’s any queue… But, if you are visiting Melbourne and is in Dandenong, why not give it a try?

Our usual Spread

The 3 S in Mattress – Simmons, Serta and Sealy

05 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Furniture, Home, Shopping

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If you are looking for really good mattress and are willing to invest at least 5-digits (MYR), then, I’m pretty sure your choice ends up between these 3 S mattress brands ; Simmons, Serta and Sealy. (Technically, it’s really 2 mother brands as Simmons and Serta are actually own by the same private equity company). Now, why did I say invest?! I’ll get to that later in the post.

During my hunt for a good mattress to replace my existing Slumberland Tempcool (which I have used for about 3 years before starting to get backache after a night sleep), I narrow down my research to the 3 S’s respective top-seller model. For Simmons, it is their BeautyRest. For Serta, it’s the Perfect Sleeper. And, Sealy, the Posturepedic range. (Please note that ranges you see in Malaysia can be slightly different from their US site – as it’s from different manufacturing site)

These 3 models are all Spring-coil type mattress. (If you are not a spring-coil fan, then, there are other types out there, like latex, memory foam and etc). Each of them has their slight twist and differences to their coil – each believe their design is the best (of course). Not surprising, both Simmons and Serta have the closest match in terms of internal design. After spending a huge amount of time online and reading up heaps reviews, I made the decision to check out the showrooms.

The first stop was Simmons. Personally, I had my heart set on going with this brand already since I read so many raving reviews about it. On top of that, Simmons is also the OEM for the Westin fame Heavenly bed. I’m not a fan of the heavenly bed after my last time sleeping in it in Westin Phuket. But, I was willing to forgo that experience. Hub and I head to the nearest Simmons showroom and we spend literally half day sleeping/testing on each and everyone of the mattress in their showroom. Hehehe.

Aside from their customary top seller, they also carry limited editions made for specific countries (like Korea / Japan and etc…). Unfortunately, both of us couldn’t agree with ONE specific mattress. I was either too soft for hub or too hard for me. The poor kind sales person was really nice about it. He gave us the price for our top 3 favourite and told us to take our time to decide… I was quite reluctant to walk away.

Some weeks later, we finally found some free time and drag ourselves to Serta showroom. It was relatively smaller compared to Simmons but they have most of their top range on display. We tested out almost everything they have on display and really liked 3 of them; The Perfect Sleeper and 2 from the iPedic range. Hub was leaning towards the Perfect Sleeper and I was favoring the iPedic – iPrestige. Both are the same price! So, we ended up jumping between these 2 beds quite a bit. The sales guy / boss, was kind enough to indulge us and even throw in the duvet and pillows for us to try a REAL sleeping condition. It was awesome. I did almost fall asleep on the iPrestige. Haha.

Serta iPrestigeFinally, hubby told me that he thinks iPrestige was pretty comfortable and he thinks we should get that. (I’m not sure if hubby just gave in to me, or he decided that he lazy to repeat the whole testing process in Sealy, or he was excited that the Serta is almost half the price of the Simmons mattress I liked…)

Hence, we decided to go with Serta since there’s no point hunting around anymore if we both liked it. It’s seriously not easy to find a mattress that fits both different individual at the same time. Look how thick and plush the top side is !!! After some negotiation and throwing in some freebies, we agreed with the deal. Delivery took about 4-5 weeks.

Plush Top sidePlease note that Serta’s mattresses in Malaysia are manufacture in Indonesia. The latex used is import from Malaysia. The boss was very honest and shares the info with us before we decide. Another thing he caution us was that this mattress is quite thick, about 40cm. So, we will need to be careful when getting certain fitted sheet.

Luckily all our existing fitted sheet can fit nicely over it. If not, I’ll be quite upset since I love all my bedsheets so much (hubby thinks I’m crazy when it comes to buying our bedsheets…). Good bed linen sets are not cheap, ok?! But luckily, I have good friends and family who showers me with gorgeous bed sheets. hehehe.

At the end of the day, mattress hunting is a relatively personal choice. You really have to walk into a showroom, take off your shoes and lie there to test it out yourself. It also really depends on what kind of sleeper you are. If you are side sleeper, test it lying on your side. If you prefer sleeping on your back, do that. Try to head to the showroom when it’s not peak hour so that you can really spend a long time lying down (at least 15-20 mins).

Why do I say investment? I always feel that since we spend at least 1/3 of our life sleeping (8 hours/day), we should spend some money to ensure that our sleep it a good one. Not only that, a good sleeps helps to give us a better rest so that we will feel re-energized the next day. Most of these mattresses comes with a 10-15 year warranty.

If we take the Slumberland for instant, it work out to be about RM1000++/year (since I only got 3 years out from it). The Serta works out to be around RM1100++/year (IF I get about 10 years out from it). So, only time will tell… hubby did highlight that we could always opt to buy cheaper mattress and change every 2-3 years. But, I’m lazy to spend the time hunting for mattress, going thru the waiting and delivery, exchanging if got problem and etc.

It’s been almost a year sleeping on our Serta iPrestige,  I notice a slight sinking but, it’s not very significant. Serta did highlight that if the sinking is more than 4cm (i think), they will replace a new mattress for you. Overall, I still love my mattress…

Every Serta mattress comes with a free Serta counting sheep. We got number 5. I kind of like that the 5 looks like a ‘S’ for Serta. LOL.

Iconic Serta Counting Sheep