Hubby and I in Maldives Day 4: Snorkeling and then some.

We joined two ladies on a snorkelling excursion on Day 4.

Luckily they are not very good swimmers - like me! - so I won't get teased by the instructor or Andy :P

 

 

Turtle excursion: USD$25/pax

Manta and Turtle excursion: USD$55/pax

Ocean Discovery excursion: USD$265/couple - you get to snorkel with Whale sharks, manta rays, turtles and dolphins.

 

* Snorkel equipment rental at additional charges by Vilamendhoo resort.

Due to hygiene purposes, you may choose to buy your own snorkel equipment from surf shops or Toys R Us. They are not expensive and you can reuse them for future water sports.

 

Underwater shots are taken with my trusty Canon Powershot D30. It's compact and doesn't require a waterproof case.

 

Powder blue surgeon fish



You definitely don't want to step on this.

Spotted some Black tips!

They were in the middle of the Hunger Games.

The two sharks tried to round up a school of mullets.

We spotted turtles! Not just one, but three!
As marine animals are in their wild habitats, sightings are not guaranteed. We are so lucky indeed!

Why hello, Hawksbill turtle.

I'll be damned if I don't come home with a Maldivian tan.



It's hard to distinguish where the heavens and the seas meet.

Click here for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.

Kea Xplorer Insect workshop: Outdoor-bound fun for everyone.

As a kid, I grew up in Woodlands, and my parents' flat was just in front of the Woodlands Street 11 park. My brothers and I would spend our free time after school catching spiders and grasshoppers, and kept them in matchstick boxes.

Hands up if you remember this from the 80s!

 

Children of this era, however, spend too much time with gadgets!

Adam is an iPhone/ Playstation addict so when I saw fellow Mum-blogger ZhenZhu post about her experience with Kea Xplorer, I decided to sign both boys up for the insect specimen-making workshop.

First things first, everybody gather around for the briefing by Instructor Zhi Qiang.
Several kids are already swatting their nets around in anticipation.

Kea Xplorers setting off!

I caught our first butterfly! Zhi Qiang is helping me pinch the nerve of the butterfly.

 

I may be no insect expert, but I think you're holding the net the wrong way up, Ashton.

 

And another!

 

After a good 45 minutes in the field, we were all sticky and sweaty and gathered again for de-brief.

Back at Fern and Zhi Qiang's house: now we need to make the insects we caught into specimens!

 

 



Ta-dah!! We caught 5 grasshoppers and 2 butterflies.
The Rhinoceros beetle was bought from Zhi Qiang.

 

 

Thanks for the fun and enriching activity today, Fern and Zhi Qiang from Kea Xplorer!

We enjoyed ourselves very much, I think it brought out the kampong girl in me :P

The kids KO-ed right after we got home.
What a terrific way to kick-start the March holidays :)

 

Check out Kea Xplorer HERE for more workshops!

*Insect catching workshop (Pak 1) is $10/child.
Insect specimen making workshop (Pak 2) is $40/child which includes the display box and being taught how to pin the insects and preserving them in the box.
Another workshop available is Woodwork - if carving/ sawing/ creating things is your child's passion, then Woodwork is the workshop for him/her.

If you're interested in catching your own insects in future, the nets can be bought from Daiso at $2.

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*P.S. Had my braces fitted only yesterday and my mouth is in a lot of pain.

Talk, laugh, eat also cannot. Despite not having been punched in my face before, I feel exactly like I've been punched in my mouth approximately 15 times.


My birthday: I'm 30-something this year :)

Thank you Precious friends & Beloved family for the well wishes on my Birthday - every single one of you who SMSed/ Whatsapped/ wrote on my Facebook wall/ wished me in person - you are important to me and don't ever think I do not appreciate your presence in my life!
All my friends, relatives, colleagues and family are like little pieces that make my life puzzle complete.

This year I spent my birthday at work, with my wonderful colleagues, people with whom I share a large part of my time with and confiding about my personal life to, and my clinic which I regard as my "home away from home" as the years go by.
Coincidentally I share the same birthday as my Tiger Mother mentor and birth-week as my partner-in-crime.

I'll leave you to guess who's who.

 

I then spent the evening celebrating over a sit-down Chinese dinner with lou hei (it's still Chinese New Year) with my girl friends, something mandatory we do every February and December.

Girls I've known for life. Cannot forget the crazy times we pontang school, went under the drain and trekked from old Woodlands central to Blk 300+ coffeeshop and emerged from the drain cover like Ninja Turtles, asked our parents to help us machine-sew Home Econs project, go Canto tea-dance and used fake IC until kena detained in their office, and etcetera OMG moments! :P

We are the February (Siew Wei and I) and March (Angeline) girls!
Coincidentally, our birthdays are in the same order as our positions in the photo from L to R: Siew Wei 23/02, me 27/02, Angeline 05/03.

 

And special thanks to my husband, he sent a surprise bouquet to my clinic this morning which totally caught me off guard as this is a first (I used to take leave on my Birthday but happens that this year Hubby is away at reservist and I have nowhere to go so I went to work).

I've never been one to fuss over flowers & soft toys but this year the bouquet came complete with a card that had a mushy (funny) poem.

I asked him where he got the poem from (note: not how he composed it) and he replied without missing a beat that it's from Shakespeare.

Oh how do I begin with this man?
All I can say is, marriage is a funny union where we can talk about our children, life, dreams, and our poop 💩.

The kind of intimacy is almost bizarre.

 

As I get older, the things I wish for become more and more the things that cannot be bought with money. Like kinship and friendship.
With Andy, I found both.
He's the kind of guy you want to go traveling together with, buy a used car or house from, and start a family with. He's fabulous with micro finances, itineraries and stuff that require planning in orderly detail.
They say there's a lid to every pot. Andy is the lid for me.

And lastly, some tips about staying young always:

Source: Pinterest

 

My home garden: grow your own food.

Well you all know how much I love organic and natural stuff. Hubby calls it my organic sh*t.

I'm taking my organic sh*t to another level by channelling my inner Jamie Oliver and growing my own food.

I started growing some vegetables from seeds in our home garden when I realised what a huge balcony we have with so much under-utilised space.

I started out with capsicum seeds and before I knew it, small flowers started blooming which subsequently blossomed into round, colourful bell-shaped peppers we call Capsicum.

 

 

First try at gardening in 2013:

 

 

These photos were taken sometime in 2013. Fast forward 2 years to 2015, I'm still growing my organic veggies :)

In fact, I recently noticed some eggplants blooming in our home garden.

Initially, the seedlings had aphid and mealy bugs infestation (white, fluffy pests that suck the sap of your plants until your entire crop dies).

I mixed my own concoction of natural pesticide using Young Living essential oils - Peppermint, Lemongrass, and Thieves in white oil (bought from nearby Nursery).

 

I sprayed on the plants and totally forgot about them until recently Hubby noticed little bulbs budding from their purple flowers.

My plants are healthy and thriving indeed.

Even the Capsicum are doing well.

 

Source: Pinterest

 

 

Home gardening is actually not as difficult as you think!

All you need are trench pots, good soil, and seeds!

My veggies are grown on organic soil and compost, and fertilised with organic earthworm castings, and Young Living essential oils to prevent pests.

No GMOs/ harmful pesticides and ambiguous substances.

I like to know what goes into my food because the same food go into my children's bodies :)

 What about you?

 

 

* I'm a Young Living distributor and my member ID is: 1841945.