Grubbs n Critters

July 14, 2015

Basket-Weave Raffia Flats

Look what came hand-delivered directly to my home when I was not around:

In this black and mysterious looking package, therein lies a box of shoes, with a simple hand-written note attached to it from Zalora Thailand. How’s that to fuel my little shoe-whoring habit on the side?

It’s been a long while since I feature shoes on my blog; mainly because I haven’t been looking at them much or haven’t had the intention of buying them as I haven’t found anything I really like. Besides, work and kids have been keeping me off the streets – I’d be mad to be trying to squeeze time to go shopping.

And, if you don’t already know, I generally hate shopping, unless there is a pressing need to. I find it to be a chore; online shopping and browsing items online included. I am also very picky so I don’t bother trying to look hard for things that I could potentially like to spend unnecessary money.

But, when Jin contacted me a couple of weeks ago and suggested a collaboration, I was floored! It was yet another unexpected surprise to get some…hmmm..call it “recognition” if you will, in the blogging world following my recent monthly collaboration debut with World of Moms. I’m truly honoured by this opportunity and despite my sentiments towards shopping, I’m only too happy to oblige after not-so-much deliberation.

Besides, this just gives me things to talk about on my blog.

Jin provided me some links to peruse for me to choose one item: Slingbags, Dress and Shoes. There were so many items to look at and initially, I was convinced that I was not going to find anything I fancy enough to feature. Admittedly, part of me was also a bit lazy to browse.

But I took my time, looking at each link at least twice over to make sure I did not miss anything. 15 minutes later, I actually found one or two items from each of the category which I like, and would very much like to feature. The thing was, I was allowed to pick only ONE. Bummer!

My choice narrowed to a dress and a pair of shoes. Had I picked a dress, it would have have been this:

It looks great for work and I love its chic design as well as the subtle textured fabric. I also love how the site works as not only it is easy to navigate, and when it comes to sizing, it’s got a handy virtusize feature where you can measure the dress you already own to compare the size. Nifty! I almost did that, only, my biggest issue is that I can’t see myself parading in that dress (or any dress) on my blog! I’m not a model nor a fashionista and really, I wouldn’t and couldn’t do the dress any justice.

So I picked a pair of shoes instead and I thought that the Basket Weave Raffia flats looks like a cool little number. For me, this shouts unique, a little quirky (very me!) and comfy. I informed Jin of my choice and my size, and I received the package 2 days later.

Unfortunately, I have pretty big feet for an Asian and even though I informed Jin of what I thought was my right size, the shoes were a size smaller. (One of the reasons why I usually refrain from ordering shoes and apparels online.) My feet practically over-flowed and they looked like stuffed sausage! Dammit.

So here we are: my pretty big feet on a puny body with a swanky pair of new flats which I presently can’t wear because it’s a size too small. It’s a great pair, but I can’t say that putting up pictures of bulging feet with a pair of nice-looking shoes will be very flattering!

Here they are WITHOUT my stuffed-sausage feet in them (you are welcome!):

I really do like the design. It’s fuss free, easy to slip on and easy to match with my everyday wear. My only hope is that, it doesn’t give me any blisters from all the walking that I have to do.

Jin has been really kind and accommodating to exchange the size when I told her about it. The most awesome part about this is that I get to keep the shoes and I’ll be getting the right size in a couple of days. Can’t wait to get my feet into them.

Thank you Jin and Zalora Thailand! You made an ordinary blogger like me very happy and blessed, indeed. 🙂

Here’s to the first with Zalora, and hopefully, many more!

Brand: Zalora

Cost: 381 THB (that’s less than 15 SGD)

From: Zalora.co.th: Women Shoes – Ballet Flats

Broken Blades Part 2

Category: Stories and Anecdotes

At slightly after midnight last night as we rounded up our evening with a movie, we heard a loud, strange sounding crash-bang of something. Thinking it was one of the cats’ doing again, I was a little blasé but Silver Bullet went to the kitchen to check on things anyway.

He had found nothing. The cats were not in the kitchen and they all were soundly asleep in different parts of the house. The sound was quite disturbing, but as we could not find anything amiss, we both ignored it for a good 10 minutes; thinking that it could have been a noise from outside.

Just as we were about to head up to the bedroom, Silver Bullet called me in to the guest bathroom and asked me about a strange noise that came from there. I couldn’t figure it out at first, and then it occurred to me that it could be coming from Spud’s room which essentially is just above the bathroom downstairs.

My heart was going at a million miles as I sprinted my way upstairs to Spud’s room. The closer I got to her room, the louder the sound was…my heart skipped a beat at every single step. As I turned the knob in her room, I couldn’t see Spud on her bed.

Instead I came face-to-face with the a fan with that offending noise. It’s cover had been flung open and landed on n floor, broken blades still turning at full speed and shrapnel of blades strewn on the floor. It was just inches away from Spud’s bed.

With hands shaking and heart a-pumping, I quickly turned off the offending object, rushed for Spud and called out for Silver Bullet, almost in panic. I found her, all of her, under her covers; thankfully sound asleep. Interestingly, the loud, crazy noise from the fan did not wake her up and she had slept through all that since we first heard the loud crash-bang more than 15 minutes ago. She only realised what happened when I woke her up to check if she is still alive.

Phew! Nothing happened.

But, as soon as I realised that, I started shaking when I thought about what could have happened had the shrapnel landed anywhere in her while she was sleeping. For a second there, I was overwhelmed by a WTF! moment.Scary thought. I heaved a sigh of relief while Silver Bullet removed the broken fan from her room.

Insane. What’s wrong with the electrical appliances here? Didn’t I just write about electrical appliances needing to last longer, no more than 2 days ago and now this?!

Granted, this wasn’t the first time we’ve had broken fan blades with these Thai-made fans, a brand called Astina. The first one happened about 2 years ago, also the same brand of fan. That was with Squirt and that fan was barely 6 months old then. I wrote about it here.

This is it! No more Thai-brand fans for us. I am so bloody done with such unsuspecting nonsense, right in our own home, which could cause us our lives. And perhaps, just no more fans in the kids’ room if I can help it. If I was paranoid before, this is me being super-hyper-paranoid!

Here were the remnants of what was left after I regained my composure to take a picture of it. I.do.not.like.this.one.bit. NOT.ONE.BIT.

That would be enough excitement for one night. OK now. What else?

Sunday Humour: How’s That Pizza?

Category: Entertainment

My brains weren’t quick enough to process the information when I got this from my BFF via Watsapp. I had to look hard and took me a few seconds longer to “get” it. When I did, I burst out laughing like I had lost my mind.

Ahh! I can see the humour in that. Someone has too much time on his/her hand to come up with things like that. Madness!

Here’s wishing you plenty of pepperonis in your pizza for the week! 🙂