Surprise Birthday for Love (Part 1)

Got him to arrange for his leave in advance and pack his getaway bag few days before the trip, but only allowed him to know where we are heading to on the night before we depart for the cruise.

No fanciful present this year but just a surprise birthday treat out on a cruise and stop-over at Redang!

• Starcruise (2 days 1 night)
• Setting sail from Singapore to Redang

It was my first getaway on a cruise, hence I researched for quite a while before being clear what is on a cruise as I didn't want it to end up being too boring.

Checked in at Harbour Front and joined the long awesome queue to get our boarding pass. Entrance to the cruise was easy, simply by following the crowd and soon we get our room key!

TIme to set sail

Very glad that all the arrangements have been done up as per what has been communicated. Of course, some little details have been done through their own initiatives.

Balcony! Kinda important cause I don't want to be enclosed in a room >.<

Surprise!!!

Walked around to explore what is available on the cruise and saw many facilities such as basketball court, hop-scotch for kids, gym, Jacuzzi, entertainment rooms and many many more!

  

  

Was quite amazed by the size of the pool and the spiral tunnel for kids! 

MJ room!

  

Good Night!

Spent 1 night on the cruise and caught sunrise right in the middle of the sea. If I don't remember wrongly, sun rise was pretty early at 5am plus.

Good Morning!

Dining hall was very grand, but filled with lots of tables for the buffet breakfast.

Painting right beside me 

 

Tried our luck with some Bingos, Match and Win tickets. Didn't managed to win for Bingo but won $4 for the match and win ticket. Sadly, I think we were only trying out our luck as we couldn't find where we kept the tickets when we thought of claiming it! Duh~

  

Stop-over at Redang

Boats getting ready to bring us to REDANG island

Beautiful

Clear blue sea

1st diving experience!

I refused to take on the diving challenge even though everyone else is doing it! I knew that I would be contented with a simple stroll along the beach because I can't handle myself in the water! I can't swim, I can't even trap water and the list can go on and on... Besides, it's not a swimming pool, it's the deep blow sea and it's DIVING down further... it's scary!!!

But, after enquiring and being rest assured that non swimmer can also dive and much persuasion by bf, I've decided not to disappoint him and took on the bait. Brrrrrr...

First, we paid for the diving via credit card and were asked to change into the diving suit (I'm gald I wore Bikini out) while waiting for a briefing by an instrutor. We were taught on how to breathe in and out in the deep blue sea and what to do if water gets into our goggles. 

Then, we were a given a tank (if you call it a tank) and a very heavy metal waist to grip it tight. Both the tank and the metal piece were VERY heavy. I almost can't move forward with the tank behind me, to make it worst, the stones on shore were filled with big, small and spiky 'stones'! OMG. I'm sure I was walking 3 seconds slower for every step I made and ouch-ouching throughout. Ha-ha. 

Lastly, we finally made it to the sea and practiced our breathing with the water. Panic was all I felt when my face was fully submerged into the water. I guess it's not that scary, but my phobia made it worst. 

It might appear that we were swimming on our own but the fact is, we were only floating through with simply kicks. The real diver is doing his job behind us, holding onto our tanks and moving us around!

Nemos

A shore of fishes!

Amazing diving journey, kudos to the diver and photographer.

Although there are some worrying times when water got into my goggles, breathing got interrupted with ears feeling blocked due to a drop in water pressure, diving wasn't that scary after all (with a professional diver) with you. WE did it, our very first diving experience.

Bye sunny island!

Wondered around to get a good place for dinner and we found ourselves in here. Posh setting, quiet environment and fine food for a good birthday dinner. 

Exquisite porcelain dining wares 

Staff were really thoughtful and had a birthday cake ready after our dinner. I do not recall arranging for this, but I guessed that they must have browsed through the profile / cruise data since the bill was charged to the room.

A series of Birthday cakes and well wishes! 

Happy Birthday my Love.

Ever tried popping champagne as much as you wishes and not hurting or making anyone wet? 

Here's the chance! 

Shake Shaken Shook and POP, HAPPY BIRTHDAY as the clock turns 12am. 

You are 1 year wiser again!

Cheers

There it comes again, we are back in Singapore.

Just as he thought it was all over... sit tight for the upcoming surprise!

Dim Sum Lunch and photo layout selection

Arranged for a dim sum lunch with family at Peach Garden, Thomson Plaza and the queue was long... many of them were already waiting outside before the door is open for their dim sum lunch buffet!

Had our fill even though it was crowded, enjoy the photos!

Laksa

Spring rolls

Potato croquet (if I don't remember wrongly)

Fried wanton

Mushrooms

Vermicelli vegetables wrap 

Siew Mai

and I can't remember this, can't recall if I ate this too. 

Food was good overall, typical dim sum standard that you can find elsewhere. However, if you would like to have your dim sum craving fixed, I'll recommend this place as the selection is more then what is shown above. They have a buffet line for other food such as Chee Cheong Fan, soup of the day etc. 

Went ahead for our pre-wedding photo layout selection after lunch. I still recall that there were too many photos to choose from and both the photographer and bridal shop sales person had to do their job to ask us to buy the whole album at $x,000 amount. I'm glad that they wasn't pushy after we rejected them. As much as I would like to have those photo saved for future memories, I can't bear to part with my money! It was too expensive to buy and have it stored in my computer, even though it will be with me for the rest of my life.

The layout came out pretty well arranged and here's one for preview! 

Wedding preparations (Revamping the room)

We were busy reading the catalogues from Nippon and Dulux for the past few weeks and trying to differentiate between both brands. Selected Dulux ultimately due to the type of paint that was available and the range of colors that fits into the type of paint that we wanted. Besides choosing the colors, we also cracked our brains for on how to restructure the fixtures and fittings so that the bed and wardrobe will be able to fit in perfectly.

Took careful measurements of the entire room, the length, height and breadth for the bed and wardrobe before ordering to make sure that we don't get surprises upon delivery! Painting is the first step to the welcome the rest of the purchases :)

Chosen dark pink for the main wall where we will place the bed headboard and light pink for the rest of the walls. As we wanted to differentiate the ceiling and allow the room to be warmer, we chose light blue for our ceiling! We also matched a light pink for the windows grill and beige for the door in order to let both blend in with the overall room colors. The current color for the window grill was red and too loud with the new selection of colors!

Started packing and cleaning up 2 days before and shifted everything to the center of the room to make space for painting works to start! We are very happy with the end result, or at least I am. Not a pink person but pink makes the room warm and pleasant to sleep in.

Sister-in-law contributed the window blind and helped greatly in making the room a better place to sleep in without eyes glaring sun rays!  Since dressing table is needed as part of the wedding room, and we can't find any dressing table that is slim enough to fit into that corner, we decided to DIY! We added a full length mirror, put a small table and ta-dah, we are done for the dressing table corner.

Wardrobe arrived and fits perfectly! Aircon was the only problem that we focuses on during ordering as we had wanted to get in something taller, but got restricted due to the aircon unit.

Room is now ready and the only thing that is pending is our bed. It will only arrive a few days before wedding, just in time Guo Da Li (过大礼) and An Chuang (安床) as the bed cannot be used or touched once An Chuang (安床) is done.