MollyMia Aspire to Inspire before we Expire

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Jelly's Update: Jelly's Grooming Day!

Finally, a long awaited update for Jelly! 

Yup, and that's Jelly watching Running Man along with me every Saturday night. She either watches the TV or she watches me watching the TV. And that's Jelly's pre-groomed bunny butt over there. Yup, unruly (matted) fur in her overgrown tail and full of yellowish pee stains. Tried multiple times to wipe her down with a baby wipe but it really doesn't help at all. 
And so I decided to bring her for grooming! 

And there's Jelly, sulking in the new carrier I bought for her. Dresden's kitty carrier can't work because it's too dark and she gets terrified and starts to gnaw-pull at the opening. She's more calm and stable in this picnic-basket style carrier, just that because it's too big for her (twice her size) she keeps fidgeting, sliding and hopping around in the carrier. 

I made an appointment with Pets Republic (Telok Kurau branch) at 1230pm and when I was there at about 1220pm, I realised they were still closed and another girl with her pet bunny was sitting outside at the shop, waiting since 12pm. It wasn't until 1245pm that the lady boss rushed over in a cab, claiming that her girl is supposed to be around to open the shop at 12pm. She thought that the girl probably left for her 1 hr lunch, but we both didn't tell her that nobody came around at 12pm.
And then the biggest shock of the day happened. She pushed her keys into the lock, and pushed the insides of the lock system right out of the frame.
Oh well, more waiting required. This time, for the locksmith. It's really just not any of our days. So we left our bunnies with her and I dropped by Penny University for a cuppa coffee (their Muddy Expresso with Cold Milk rocks!) before returning to The Garden Slug, which was located right opposite Pets Republic, for my lunch. Speaking of this, I've yet to blog about my dinner here with OYHZ and Finaldust almost 2 months ago. *yikes*

Finally, the locksmith came at at 1 plus and I finally got Jelly in for grooming at about 2pm. Yes, my initial appointment time was 1230pm. 


There should be two cats to greet you at the door as you enter (if not 1, because Einstein might not be always so at-the-door), Munchkin, the Munchkin, and Einstein, (I'm guessing) the Persian. Look at Munchkin! Such cute short legs! But both cats are actually pretty camera shy, especially Munchkin. I took like 10 shots to capture one of her looking near the camera. Most of the time when she noticed the camera, she will quickly turn the other way. 

Now, back to Jelly's grooming....
First up she had her nails trimmed. I'm kind of scared of trimming her front paws because they're so tiny! I once ended up flipping her paws inside out as I snip on her nails at a wrong angle and she refused to let me touch her paws for a few days after. 

 Then, due to her bad pee stains at her butt, I decided to give her a wash down. She did kick a bit as she's really nervous with her first time grooming, but the groomer managed to handle her well. 

 Then on to the blow-drying, the part I was most worried about. Jelly is really kind of timid and she get startled even by our loud sneezings or sudden loud noises from the TV. Yes, she got that "Oh my gawd, save me!" look on her during the blow-drying but thankfully she still took it in her strides. 
Well done, Jelly! :)

 Then it's on to brushing out the matts in her tail....

And finally the groomer decided to trim off the excessively matted/stained/overgrown fur at her butt. 
Look at her trance state there, so comical!

And there's Jelly upon reaching home after grooming. She smelled so good from her spa soak bath and her fur noticeably softer (and shorter at the butt). 

 Here's some before pictures...


And the after! See, cute small tail with furry white bunny butt! :)

And now to spam more cute animal pictures...
The forever grumpy Einstein. She kept coming to me that day and meowed at me. 

And that's the camera shy Munchkin. She look so grouchy in the last picture because I was bent on taking a picture of her face. She kept turning her head away from the camera until she gave up. *rofl*

One of the cats boarding at Pets Republic. When I went near her and look at her, she meowed at me! And then we started meow-versationing. The lady boss was pretty amused and told me this cat usually doesn't give a hoot about others who go near her cage. 


 The cat-boarder in the next cage. Initially I thought he's a young Maine Coon (he looks so much like Shadow, a friend's Maine Coon) but it turns out he's not. He's an Australian Forest.... something. Ahaha, but very pretty indeed! 

There's actually another Maine Coon, kept in another large cage at a dark corner of the shop, who has his fur shaved off except for the face. Omg, that was such a pitiful yet comical sight but I didn't take any pictures because... I don't know, felt disrespectful? 

And moving on to the bunnies...
 Meet Cotton, another bunny in queue behind Jelly for grooming. So round and fluffy, a true cotton ball indeed!

 Some lops chillaxing at one corner....

 Here's another cotton ball! It's so fluffy I'm gonna dieeeee!

 Ahaha, the bunny here has got some lop-butt fetish, I guess?

 I just ROFL-ed when I saw this. Funny beyond words.

 A very pretty, white bunny with blue eyes. 

 These dwarfs are just a few weeks old. And they're really tiny! Just palm sized!
And look what we've got here! A half-lop! Ahahahaha! I guess its still pretty young that's why the uneven lop-ness.

And then to the dogs....

Here's another dog that came in for boarding. Looks really cute and pitiful as it whined at me and did a cute head tilt when I looked at it. Apparently, it's a frequent boarder and turns into a monster when it sees food. 

A cute, old Golden Retriever, who has some skin problems at her snout because of a habit of always nudging things with her nose....

And finally, the Chinchillas!
Can you spot the chinchilla here? *rofl*

Pets Republic is located at 
No. 224 Telok Kurau Rd Lorong L, #01-06 Uni Building Singapore 423836
Tel: 6345 9132


Thursday, 28 November 2013

Mia's Review: LollyTalk [Invited]

Just yesterday, I walked into a piece of little heaven....
 Look at all these adorable handmade rock candies, stacked up in this colourful and fun shop. Yup, it's one of the newer 'faces' in our local handmade rock candies shops, Lolly Talk! By now, you all should know how much I adore sweet treats & sweets in general but I still got to say it. I really love these candies, from their intriguing miniature designs to their tangy-fruity flavours (from their own recipes). Plus, they have the candy for every occasion. 

 As a simply perk-me-up gift for your study-group buddies during the exam period....

As a small birthday gift, or as a small sweet treat to sweeten up the day of a friend who's ill. 

And for everybody else during the month of August! 
Well actually, I believe this Singapore-Love series (yes, I coined this myself I hope you don't mind LollyTalk) is also the best product they have to lay their feet down on the ground and claim: Hey, we're a 100% local brand, we're made in Singapore! 

 Yup, LollyTalk is actually started up by our homegrown candy-makers, trained under the Grand Champion Winner of 2009 Royal Melbourne Fine Food Awards, Ross and Judy, who were in turn, students of the original founder of the Australian-style rock candy. This placed LollyTalk at a very peculiar spot indeed. 100% Australian heritage, yet 100% Singapore brand. 

And guess what, LollyTalk has their very own Christmas candy mix, going for $2.90 up. Christmas gift shopping really need not burn a hole in our pocket, does it? 

 See that Santa Claus and Snowman in the poster! They're actually 2 separated candies stacked together, so yeah, you gotta go searching for either the head or the body in your bag/bottle of candy mix. And that's Rudolph beside Mr. Santa. How cute! 

 Samples of the Christmas candy mix with these cute Christmas stickers on the lid. 

And they also comes in resealable bag form too!

And now, LollyTalk is having a promotion on their christmas mix right now too! Grab a few of them and you can get to try out their Acquired Taste Collection (at random) for free! For more details on this promotion, visit their facebook page HERE.

Wondering what's this Acquired Taste Collection about?

Basically there's 7 special flavours: Apple Cranberry, Plum Guava, Chilli Lime, Honey Lemon, Menthol Grape, Spicy Mango, and Menthol Honey Lemon. 
Out of these 7 flavours, spicy mango and chilli lime sounds really interesting to me! 
Perhaps I shall do a separate post on taste review of this collection? :)

And now let's get on with more cute stuff, shall we?
And that's LollyTalk's mascot, Rocky, in the display window, standing on lots and lots of colourful lollipops. And yes, that's Santa Singa standing right in front of Rocky. Yeah, we all thought Singa has retired, but apparently not. 

In collaboration with Singapore Kindness Movement, Santa Singa is making a special appearance at LollyTalk Plaza Singapura B2-20 as the Lolly Crew at LollyTalk believe strongly in the spirit of showing kindness and love. So what better way to have Santa Singa at LollyTalk’s Candy Island this Christmas season to spread the message of kindness, caring and sharing together with Rocky!!

Have your photo taken with SINGA and ROCKY, hashtag #LollyTalk and #Nationofkindness in your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and you could be a lucky winner to walk away with prizes (contest details to be announced later, watch out for updates over at Lolly Talk's facebook page.)
-credits to Lolly Talk-

And just sharing more cute pictures taken...
 And can you guess what's in the making?

Still, no?

Omg, it's their limited edition mix.... BANANAAAA... I mean, MINIONS!

And of course, without a second thought I grabbed a packet off the shelf and headed for the cashier. And mind you, they're LIMITED edition mix. So all you minion-lovers out there, what are you waiting for?

Bunnies! And 3 levels of Super Sour Lemon!
You two, be good. I'll be back for you real soon. :)

LollyTalk is located at Plaza Singapore, B2-20.
For more information, visit their facebook page HERE and website (and online shop) HERE

Till then,
Mia

Monday, 25 November 2013

Mia's Review: Stay Home Mum Cafe's Cake In A Jar

Just yesterday I visited this really pretty restaurant at Clarke Quay area with the FP girlies and since SHM Cafe is just nearby at The Central, I decided to pop by for a look. It was already pretty late when I got there and they seem to be clearing up for the night so I quickly picked one flavour out of the many yummy-looking ones and paid for my purchase. 
The cafe was really simply and clean, with a display fridge set out at the front of the cafe displaying all the pretty cakes in a jar and a few metal tables and chairs set out at a corner of the small cafe for customers to dine in if they wish. 

Their cake in a jar ranges from $4.50 to $7.90, typically falling between $6.50 to $7.90 ranges. 

Choco Monkey - $5.90

I think the name speaks it all, chocolate with bananas! It has a relatively thin (comparing to the rest of the chocolate cream/mousse) chocolate sponge cake topped up with a generous layer of rich chocolatey mousse cream, with slices of banana stacked within. And the fragrance of fresh bananas mixed with chocolate that came out of the jar upon popping open the lid simply put this on my (longggg) list of Happy Food

Just showing off the amount of banana slices you can find inside the chocolate mousse layer. 

And also giving you a better gauge of how big the jar is going to be. :) 

And I've already created a small list of must-try from their Cake in a Jar flavours:
Lychee Martini
Bailey Tiramisu
Cherry Brandy
Chocoholics aka Crunchy Choco
French Style Ichigo

Those who've tried them, do comment and let me know how were they, yeah? :)

SHM Cafe is located at The Central, #B1-27C
For more information, visit their website HERE and their Facebook HERE

Till then,
Mia

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Mia's review: Au Chocolat

Somehow I realised that I've accumulated quite a handful of backlogs on my eating place reviews. *yikes* 
Oh well, I guess I'll have to blog more for these days to catch up. :p
But first, let's get on to the restaurant chosen (out of the list of backlogs) for today, Au Chocolat.

The very first made-in-Singapore French-inspired concept store, Au Chocolat is a retail & dining experience that promises to fill your belly, warm your hearts & bring smiles to your faces.



A place for family and friends, Au Chocolat  will provide fine and sweet things to be enjoyed together. Deep in this wonderland of goodness, meet Danielle (The 8 year old French girl), OO (Pronounced Oh-Oh, Danielle's French Bulldog) and Yu Fa (Danielle's Pug), friends of Au Chocolat. The three are inseparable as they travel on a delicious journey of friendship and adventure filled with the most scrumptious treats.
-credits to Au Chocolat-

Au Chocolat consist of a Bistro section and a Confiserie section, located side by side at the furthermost corner of MBS. If you know me well, you should know that I totally went into 100% excitement mode when I saw the confiserie section. 


The entire section was full of pretty looking sweet treats like chocolates, truffles, oversized macarons, and pastries! 
But we didn't visit for the confiserie that day, aww.... 

 It was pretty dim and I set the wrong setting for my samsung mobile camera, hence the disastrous looking photo of the bistro shopfront. 

And here's OO, one of the cute mascot for the cafe! Special appearance by my colleague's hand. *rofl*
And yes, erm... it was Halloween that day we visited. 

And some photos of the cafe interior.... 

Apart from the pretty floral ceiling, there's something even more intriguing at the ceiling.... notice the track? 
 There's a choo-choo train running on it, going around the open area of the cafe. How cute is that! 

And upon seated at our table, I noticed that everything in Au Chocolat simply oozes cuteness. From the coaster with Danielle's face printed on it (which, in the end we asked the staff if we can keep one and he very generously handed us a stack of brand new ones), to the serviette and the menu, every single item placed on the table are just mad cute and pretty!

However, I was slightly disappointed when I flipped through the menu because there's some item missing from the online menu, HERE
I was totally eyeing the macaron burger when I checked out their online menu but I couldn't find it anywhere in the menu at the bistro. I reckon this online menu is a combined menu of both the bistro and confiserie, as to whether you can order desserts off the confiserie menu while at the bistro, I'm not sure. 

Their pricing is pretty pricey, but fret not. Their serving is pretty huge, too. 

Frozen Hot Chocolate - $12. 
And mind you, that's a Samsung Galaxy S4 beside it. The amount of whipped cream is really generous (it's almost like a 1-to-1 ratio of whipped cream to frozen hot chocolate) so those on a 'diet', please remember to make a special request for less/or no whipped cream if needed to.
Plus, erm... do consider sharing this. :p

My pot of Camomile Tea - $10
I do agree that this is pretty pricey, though, judging from the fact that it's a tea bag.

Spicy Chorizo Linguine - $25
Frankly speaking it's hard to get a bad pasta for me, unless the chef screws up the sauce and overcook/undercook the pasta. I'll say that this pasta fits the bill of a pasta I can get from any other restaurant, through I do admit their tomato sauce is pretty rich with generous chunks of tomato bits inside. However, I could hardly taste the spiciness from the hot sauce. It's really just Chorizo pasta in tomato sauce. Zero kick from this SPICY chorizo pasta, quite a disappointment even though the pasta wasn't bad.

Battered fish & spiced chips - $22

I didn't get to sample this dish but look at the serving! My colleague hardly touched the fries after finishing up the fish. 

The other 2 dishes, which I didn't manage to snap pictures of, made it to the best and worst list of the table. 

Must try: 
Duck Confit - $27

2 of my colleagues who tried this both quipped, "This is good!" at their first bite. A steal of a teeny weeny bite from them boasted of some tender, savoury duck meat!

To avoid:
Steak Frites - $43

Medium rare was requested. But just a slice through the meat shows it's pretty well done. Needless to say, my colleague had some rubbery ribeye for dinner that night.

Au Chocolat is located at The Shoppes @ MBS
Bay Level L1-03
For more information, visit their website HERE.

Till then,
Mia

Sunday, 17 November 2013

AgeLoc TR90 Tracker: 4th Week's Update

I remembered I've done a 3-change update 2 weeks ago and unfortunately, I believe I have to make some changes to it. Yes, the constipation part. 
To my greatest disappointment, I realised that the item that helped alleviate my constipation problem wasn't TR90, but Ya Kun's coffee. It was then that I realised, after starting on TR90, I've been reporting back to HQ more often as my site work has decreased significantly, hence I indulge in a cup of hot Ya Kun kopi siew dai every single morning. 
So yup, 1 brownie point taken off from TR90. 

And after ranting on the lack of help, I've received emails from a handful of helpful distributors claiming their success stories with TR90/TRA and also heard some frustrations from non-distributor TR90 eaters, stating that it really doesn't work on them, AT ALL. 
Hmm, why such a trend? I'm so very curious. 

Thanks for all the feedback sharing, fellow (honest) TR90-ers, do keep the comments coming in and let's keep going and updating each other. :)

Oh well, the 1.8k has been spent (answering one of the question posted in one of the TR90 tracker post only now, sorry I didn't notice that my reply to you didn't get posted.) and what else can I do other than to follow through with this programme and try to make the best out of it? 

So now, after striking off the cure of constipation off the benefit list, I realised there's really nothing that I can boast of with TR90. So for my 1st month's update, I'm very emotionally disturbed to tell you guys, that no results or whatsoever has been achieved. 

One of the distributors claimed that it's because I've not been eating well enough, hence I can't lose any weight with TR90. I've been counting calories for almost 1 year till date and I'm eating a minimum of 1200kcals daily, with relatively less carbs and proteins, and more vegetables and fruits. A body analysis shows that my body metabolism rate is 1250kcal as well. So why am I still not eating enough?! 
Nevertheless, I shall half-heed her advice and give it a shot, changing my breakfast intake from just an ordinary jam bun to home-made sandwich with multi-grain bread and including sources of protein (from meat and non-meat) and vegetables. 
It has been 1 week since I started the nutritious breakfast diet and my weight has INCREASED from 62.5kg to 62.8kg. 
But as this increased has been preempted by the distributor, I shall stick to the same diet and see how it goes. 
If by the next fortnight my weight is STILL increasing with no increase in muscle mass/drop in body fat, then GOD SAVE MY F*CKED UP DIETING LIFE.

Till then,
Mia