Planning our Honeymoon

(Above) Beautiful View from Mt Hakodate, one of our destinations in Hakodate

Gayle and myself are looking forward to our planned honeymoon at the end of this year. We didn't have time to go for a honeymoon since we were preoccupied with our customary wedding dinner preparations and the renovation of our apartment last year in Nov - Dec 2007. It was also prudent since our savings had been depleted by expenses for our ROM reception, wedding dinner and apartment renovation. Thus, we decided to postpone our honeymoon till end this year in December so that we can really splurge on ourselves if we need to. As both of us are fans of Japanese stuff and gourmet, we were uanimous in choosing Japan as our honeymoon destination, in particular - Hokkaido for seafood and winter activities and Tokyo for shopping and more eating.

We went to Prime Travel located at Hong Leong Building, 16 Raffles Quay #B1-14D ( Tel 62214250). They are a travel agency specializing in Japan, with a wide range of contacts in Japan. Our experience with them was a very professional and helpful one. We were served by a senior sales rep by the name of Ms Elaine Tang who patiently sat down with us for over 2 hours to discuss and map out our planned itinerary. She was very helpful in suggesting activities, feasibility of planned routes and was never pushy about any packages. In fact, she actually enquired on our budget and helped us fit in accomodation and air travel ticketing within the allocated budget.

(Above) Shinjuku , Tokyo , the hip place to go !

We selected a free and easy package with accomodation and air ticketing booked through the agency so that we can focus more on the itinerary of the trip. In general, with respect to our itinerary within Hokkaido, we would take a JAL flight from Singapore to Osaka Kansai and then take a domestic JAL flight from Osaka Kansai to Hakodate, Southern Hokkaido.

Fresh Sashimi !

We are planning to start at Hakodate because it is the place for Japanese seafood, sashimi, sushi since it is a port city. We will spend 2 nights there before heading to Noboribetsu, which is the hot spring resort capital of Hokkaido for a night's stay. We booked a hot spring package which includes a stay at the hotel, a hot spring experience and a personal full course Japanese dinner set for two, just for the experience for SGD$450 a night.

We will then take a JR train to Sapporo where we will spend 3 nights there. on the 4th day morning, we will take a domestic JAL flight from Sapporo Chitose airport to Tokyo Haneda airport. We will then spend 4 nights in Tokyo before flying back to Singapore. We booked the evening flight so that it gives us at least an extra half day in Tokyo.

Our customised free and easy travel package covers accomodation for two for a total of 10 nights plus air tickets for two for a return flight via JAL from Singapore to Osaka and from Tokyo back to Singapore inclusive of a dosmestic JAL flight from Osaka to Hokkaido and from Hokkaido to Tokyo costs us SGD$5300.

We will be sharing more details on our planned itinerary in future posts.

Shayna - Week 6 - 7

JUNE 21

JULY 20 ( See how much she has grown in length )
JUNE 21 JULY 20

Shayna has grown very much within these past two weeks, her weight ballooning from 2kg two weeks ago to 2.7kg today when we brought her to the vet for her 3rd vaccination. She's a favourite at the vet where she garners much attention from passer-bys who make funny faces and wave at her. In the clinic, we get alot of questions asked about her and many people say that she has a look that is adorable and cute. Some people can't recognize her as a shih tzu and always ask us whether she is one. The vet says that Shayna's an obedient darling. She sits down and takes her shot with no struggle and licks up the medicine willingly. She's grown by a head size according to the vet. She's also recovered from her cornea infection.

She is growing up to be a rebellious teenager at times and can have her own mind as to what she wants to do. Of course, we are always there to come down on her so that she maintains some discipline. She's quite strong now, always standing on her hind legs, balancing herself with her front paws. She also was able to sprint and jump from the floor up onto our bed. She's getting even more manja, always taking the chance to cuddle into our lap whenever we sit down on the floor.

Oh yes , Shayna has a thing for the vacuum cleaner , mop and hairdryer. She gets all excited and worked up whenever she sees one of these. Just amazing that they really appreciate simple things in life! ; - ) See below, she's standing on her hind legs trying to reach for the hairdryer while Gayle is asking her to sit and stay down.

Week 5 - Shayna's makan

Nowadays, dogs really have a good life, judging from the range of accessories, toys, dress and food available for them. So of course, we also jump into the fray and bought a few types of makan for her. For her daily main meals, twice a day, we bought her Natural Balance - Chicken and Lamb combo, which is high in proteins, necessary for a young growing puppy like her. You can see a kibble displayed below.

For her snacks, we bought two types of treats - Natural Balance Sweet Potatoes and Fish (3rd from left below) and Nutro Puppy Biscuits(4th from left). The natural Balance treat provides additional proteins while the Nutro helps in tartar control and teeth strengthening. We also bought her a few variety of breath freshening treats that are good for her breath and teeth, especially so that no one will faint when she opens her mouth, especially when she is naughty and plays with her poo. We bought a combo package recommended by the pet shop (Macho Pawz)which provides us a variety of different treats and allows us to sample which treat she likes best. We are betting that she will like the Milky one best sicne she loves milk.

We bought another of the soft squeaky toy for her this week so that it can be inter-changed with the earlier sponge bob one we bought for her when it is being washed.

Week 4 - Shayna

Shayna grinning mischeviously at the camera. Can you spot her ? : - )

Shayna is 3months old today. We bought her to the vet as she contracted cornea ulcer which we were told by our vet was a common ailment among the shih tzu breed due to the large size of their eyes. This results in a slight discolouration and hazy film in her left eye.

You can see that her left eye is darker as compared to her right eye due to the cornea ulcer.

The cause is unknown but the vet said that it could be caused by her accidentally scratching her eye while she was playing with herself as puppies are quite hyper. Luckily, it is just a small ailment and does not affect her very much. A good sign is that she donesn't try to rub her eyes indicating that it isn't itchy. She's been given some anitibiotics and eye ointment. She's officially 2kg now, 1 kg more than when she was first brought home.

She's been quite naughty this week though, maybe adjusting to being alone at home the whole day until we get back from work. We are trying to stop her from playing with her poo by clearing it immediately and telling her in a firm voice that it is wrong. Hopefully, she will grow out of it. However when she's out, she's on a best behavior and when people say she's so well behaved, we just grin inwardly cos she's a naughty michevious tot at home.

Shayna playing around with plastic bags, one of her favourite passionShayna standing on her hind legs and calling Gayle to share some of the laundry with her.

As she grows, we have been noticing her developing her unique character traits. She's gotten very curious the habit of standing on her hind legs and using her paws to indicate to us what she wants, either for more sayang or trying to get our attention. She seems to have a fetish for laundry and is always around Gayle to observe her doing her laundry.

The laundry supervisor checking that Gayle doesn't slack on her washing.

She also like to come in between the both of us when we are chatting so that she doesn't feel left out. Sometimes it's amazing how human like dogs are in terms of behavior.

Place to buy sunglass

We went to Seng Li Departmental & Optical at #01-36 Queensway Shopping Centre, which many of you might know that it is a good place to look for shades, to look for a new pair of sunglasses for Gayle as her present shades are lightly tinted and does not provide enough UV protection and tinting from the glaring sun these days. We are sure that it is a well known place to get glasses, at least in our opinion. For myself, I have been getting my Ray Ban and Oakley Shades since my school days from there and the prices have been very competitive. Gayle's present Armani shades were also from the same shop.

We were served by Margaret, one of the salesperson who has served us before. One thing we like about this shop is that they are very willing to let you try all kinds of shade to get the right one. It is also easy to banter with her. She also gives her own opinion which well, is up to the customer to accept or reject without the customer feeling pressurised.

We found and tried on a number of shades with a very dark tint from Prada, Esprit, Dior, Oakley and Gayle finally settled on the one that appealed to her and looked best on her. She chose the

Gucci Model 2933 Brown shades which I thought was a classy shade with a retro Gucci look. Base retail price was $370 ,already quite a good base price as compared to the shops in the major shopping belts) but we managed to get a very good discount from Margaret ,about over 30% discount.

We like shops that one can shop at ease in without any coercion to buy or feeling a sense of intimidation and this is one such shop.

Just a little trivia on Shayna

Recently, Tanny , a good friend of ours suggested that we try to align Shayna alongside an object to show her relative size and we thought that was an interesting idea. So here she is measuring beside a 160g can of Pringles potato chips to show a rough gauge of her size.

Week 3 - Shayna

Us with Shayna after her grooming session

Shayna has been with us for 3 weeks now and she's grown in size now, measuring 38cm in body length now. Today, she went for her grooming and the groomers at Macho Pawz, the pet shop downstairs our block were commenting that she's a mischevious girl.

Shayna bringing her own doggy for a walk around our house.

As usual, she was whimpering when we left her at the groomers. She went for full grooming session inclusive of toothbrushing. She's very curious these days and like to stand on her hind legs balancing for a few seconds, to look up at what we are doing when we are up on the sofa or bed. She's also manja as sometimes when Gayle and me are having a conversation for a while and she feels neglected, she will bark at us. Sometimes we indulge her by coming down on the floor and playing with her but sometimes we will tell her off and then she will sit and look at us with very sad looks trying to soften our hearts.

She has also shown her possessiveness over the both of us. When we are at Gayle's parents' place for dinner, we will bring her along with us to let her mingle with Tisha, the family schnauzer. Whenever Tisha wants to come near us, Shayna will rush at her furiously and try to nudge her back even though Shayna is so much smaller than Tisha. She doesn't want us to be near Tisha. She also mark the dining hall at Gayle's parents place as her territory and will rush at Tisha if Tisha approaches the dining area. Very naughty and jealous , isn't she ?

We have cut down her meals to twice a day to fit in with our working hours, one meal in the early morning and one meal when we are back in the evening. We have taught her to sit for her food also(Below).