I'm a full-time mummy

As a busy mum with 4 kiddos between 11 months old to 8.5 years old, I have started cutting down on doing product reviews to focus on our childcare and family life, home cooking, teaching kiddos, helping with hubby's administration site of the business and sharing informational articles on my FB fan page so of lately, I am only accepting and prioritizing products that can fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or educational stuff, family products, something along those genre)!

Today's post however is my first milestone in my years of doing product reviews! This ladies and gentlemen, is my first ever hotel review whoaa...

About the hotel:

"The Straits Hotel & Suites conveniently located in the heart of Historical City of Malacca and UNESCO World Heritage site. It is just 2 mins’ walk adjacent to shopping belt of Melaka where guest will enjoy easy access to shopping, entertainment, and dining destinations.

This new Melaka Hotel offers 352 spacious of deluxe guest rooms and luxurious suites which feature contemporary design facilities to meet today’s modern lifestyle. Each deluxe and suites are fitted with large windows offering ample natural lighting with balcony and offers spectacular view of the ocean and town views, and distinctively equipped with complimentary WIFI access and in room safe."

I received the invitation to review the hotel a few months earlier but we were only able to make our visit in early October 2017 as we have to wait for our older 2 kiddos to finish off their major extracurricular programme for the year as well as co-ordinate with our niece and nephew whom we brought along with our family to enjoy the hotel stay as well.

It has been a couple of years since our family has last visited Melaka and it was a first trip to Melaka for our nephew and niece. We arrived at Melaka in time for lunch which we had in the town followed by a visit to the Taming Sari Tower as well as the Melaka Maritime Museum which is a replica of the Flor de la Mar, a Portuguese ship said to have been carrying loot plundered from Malacca when it sank off the coast of Malacca on its way back to Portugal. Weather was hot on the day we arrived, a change from the past few rainy days as I was told by one of the Taming Sari tower staff. We then proceeded to Waze our way to the hotel which surprisingly was near to where we were.

We reached the hotel around 4.30pm. The hotel was just a few minutes' walk adjacent to the shopping belt of Melaka. Lots of eatery area nearby, 24-hour convenience stores can be seen as well. In fact, on the first night at the hotel, we walked about 100m behind the hotel to one of the many restaurants nearby - our favourite is Nyonya Makko which we always try to go to every time we come to Melaka.

Reception staff were courteous and helpful to explain the terms and conditions of the hotel stay. We were given our room access cards and quickly made our way to our respective rooms. The access cards allow the guests to go to their respective floors only. You can also go to level 23 (where the infinity swimming pool, sky bar and lounge are located) and level 3 (restaurant)

Pictures below are some of the rooms and facilities highlighted for your pleasure viewing. Our king-sized bed shown in picture below is clean and neat, mattress and pillows are comfy, I like the floor actually. A bit of a nice positive change compared to other hotels I've stayed in which are mostly carpeted. I am not really fond of carpeted floors in hotels as I feel they are not so clean and also hot as well as we encountered some negative experiences where we found broken glass pieces in some hotels at Port Dickson a while back. Anyway, I love the floors in our hotel rooms. Smooth, clean, cooling and easy on the eyes.

Bathrooms - one of our rooms have bath tub while the rest have shower heads. Toilets are clean and dry. Towels and toiletries are neatly arranged in the bathrooms. There is dustbin, hair dryer and an electrical socket in case you need to use. I did feedback to the hotel management on my concerns of the toilet curtains being outside the bathroom - maybe instead of using the curtain blinds, the bathroom wall to be frosted or covered up for privacy?

The closets are right outside the bathroom, there's cloth slippers for hotel guests to use. We didn't use the hotel safe though it is provided in the room. One cool thing to note is our Suite comes with a large bathroom with bathtub and standing rain shower, sofa set and dining area. There is a dining table with 4 dining chairs, a TV, comfy sofa and TV table. There is an electric kettle, cups and mini fridge provided. I love the deep sink as well, easy to wash your hands and stuff without water splashing everywhere.

The view from the balcony is wonderful as well. Pictures below are taken from the Infinity pool located in level 23. What a beautiful sight to savour the panoramic view of the City of Malacca and The Straits of Malacca! Love love love it! I also love that the swimming pool area is sheltered, you can swim to your hearts content while being shaded and you can feast your eyes to the wonderful view all around the pool!

On our 2nd night in the hotel, we were invited to sample the hotel's current set dinner promotion:

Actual pictures taken of our dishes from the dinner promotion set. Delicious! Portions are nice considering we have 2 adults, 2 pre-teens and 4 younger children below 9 years old! I'm not a vegetable fan but oh my, the kangkung dish is really good! My husband continuously complimented the dishes in the set.

To sum up my review, this is a wonderful hotel to go to if you are planning to stay in Melaka.

Near to shopping malls and local attractions, awesome facilities and amenities, courteous and friendly staff.

Really must consider!

You may find more info at https://www.straitshotelsuites.com/melaka/

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a complimentary hotel stay and a dinner promotion in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost every day) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

As a busy mum with 4 kiddos between 10 months old to 8.5 years old, I have started cutting down on doing product reviews to focus on our childcare and family life, home cooking, teaching kiddos, helping with hubby's administration site of the business and sharing informational articles on my FB fan page so I am only accepting and prioritizing products that can fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or educational stuff, family products, something along those genre)! Today's post is my review on Little Innoscents range of products.

About the company/products:

"Little Innoscents was founded in 2007, after Director Antonette Golikidis fell pregnant with her first child Alex. Antonette searched endlessly for baby products that were chemical free and found herself disappointed to find such a limited number of products, which were often difficult to find, too expensive, or offered misleading greenwash marketing techniques to persuade you to buy something that wasn’t all what it said it to be.

Then Little Innoscents was born, naturally. Antonette began making the products in her kitchen at home and spent 10 months perfecting the ingredients. She formulated an intensive soothing cream, massage lotion, massage oil, body powder, hair and body wash, vapour rub balm and organic soap. The range can also help relieve a wide range of childhood health and skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis."

I received the following products for my review. I didn't get to try out the entire range of the products though so I'm sharing those that I've tried out so far in my family.

A quick feedback on the packaging of the products - the tubes all comes sealed and the labelling info are printed on the tubes itself, so the info on the tubes is water-proof which is longer lasting compared to other products we used where the label stickers came off after the water soaked through the outer part of the tubes.

I would like to highlight the following 6 items which my kiddos and I are using so far (clockwise from top left):

• Intensive Soothing Cream - This is a nourishing organic topical application ideal for a range of stressful skin conditions. The moment I know the Intensive Soothing Cream is REALLY GOOD STUFF is when I have tried many other creams and lotions to sooth my sudden outbursts of hives (still unsure of the cause) and only this one gave me instant relief. I don't have the urge to scratch the itch. I am relieved to have this cream on hand, really. The moment the hives started appearing around my inner thighs and below knees area, I quickly applied the cream and I totally don't have any feeling of the itch at all. The brochure stated that this cream is perfect for nappy rash and the treatment of redness and itchiness caused by eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis. Totally recommend this!

• Moisture Rich Lotion - With a gorgeous floral scent of Ylang Ylang and Lavender, this rich and moisturising lotion is ideal for dry or sensitive skin by maintaining and replenishing the skin’s much needed hydration levels and protects delicate newborn baby skin. I use this lotion on our 10-months old boy after he took his bath. I applied the lotion all over his body and his skin stays moist and baby soft! From time to time, I also applied some of this lotion onto my legs haha...

• Paw Paw Balm - This balm is filled with nourishing beeswax, shea butter and calendula and most importantly Australian organic paw paw to heal and hydrate the skin. I love this balm and used it with extra care (precious you know!) when the soles of my feet start cracking due to dehydration and hot weather. It keeps my feet supple and heals the cracks fast.

• Hair Fudge - The Little Innoscents Hair Fudge is very good product for me to keep my stringy hairs at bay. I love that it gave my hair a strong hold and yet doesn't have those gels frozen look at all. It is also easy to wash hair without any yucky residue left.

• Hair & Body Wash - Cleanses deeply and refreshes from top to toe. I like that we can use it for hair and body as well. The minty smell is from the essential oils of spearmint, lavender and orange.
  

• Cherry Coconut Conditioner - I used the conditioner after using the hair & body wash. The ingredients serve to soften and soothe the hair.
  

The cool thing about Little Innoscents products is they are formulated to suit baby’s sensitive skin but at the same time, adults can also use them, especially if they are suffering from dry, itchy or eczema skin. And it is also safe to be used on pregnant mothers! Practically the whole range of their products can be used on babies except Sun Lotion which is recommended after 6 months old and Milky White Toothpaste after 3 months old (which I have yet to try it on our 10-months old boy as he is still toothless at the moment)

I haven't got the chance to use the Sun Lotion and Winter Blues Balm, but will definitely bring them along for our coming Chiangmai holiday in November later.

In summary, a wonderful range of products that the whole family can use,

and I'm thankful that we have been given the privilege to try them out!

You may purchase them online or in retail stores at:

https://www.madrenatura.com.my/where-to-buy

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost every day) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

This post contains quite a number of headless photos.

(Okay, okay, before you decide to exit out of this post, it is NOT a grotesque post,

more like I actually had to trim off the upper body portion of the pictures shown in this post.)

Reason is due to my BFF being a very personal person (she doesn't even have a profile picture in her Facebook!) and I totally respect that principle of hers (cos I'm kinda like that too, only I masked my paranoia of being stalked by ermm.. showing more pictures of Ben? Theeheeeeheeee...)

So anyway, a bit intro on how she was so privileged (ehem ehem... sorry, can't resist bragging... it's the ego I tell you!) got to be my BFF...

She was just 4 days older than me, although I was quite often mistaken as the older one, thanks to us being vertically challenged by 3 inches difference.

We met at high school, were classmates together towards the last couple of our high school years. Sat near each other during classes. Hang out with our other friends after school, at McDonalds, doing revisions and sometimes playing UNO cards to pass the time.

At 16 years old during school holidays, we worked at the same departmental stores as part-time sales promoter to earn some spare cash for our own expenses when school holidays are over.

At 17 years old plus, she (and another close friend of ours then) accompanied me for my 1st date meeting with my hubby then PEN PAL.

At 18 years old, while waiting for our final exam results, we again worked at the same departmental store but we were under different clothing brands though still on the same floor. She even helped matchmake me with my hubby who is then starting to court me.

Then we drifted apart after we got our high school results, she continued on with her A levels and university and I went to a college, got my IT Diploma, jobless for a while, then worked part-time at a souvenir shop before finally managed to find a job in the IT line.

After about 4 years plus, our paths crossed again when I recommended her to my company (the subsidiary I'm working with happens to have a vacancy), she didn't get to work at the same subsidiary as mine (unit trust) but she was offered a post for the insurance subsidiary. Because the IT department were centralised under Group IT, we ended up working in the same office floor, in fact, her cubicle is just a table away from mine.

Those days were fun, at least we get to complain and share our work grouses. We go for our lunch together, go home often together (her house is about 20 minutes further than mine). We went to the company dinner together.

And then she left to another insurance company, while I left to join the banking industry (both of us still in IT line of course) but we still kept in touch, going out for drinks and chatting whenever we can (together with my hubby then boyfriend)

When my hubby's dad passed away in 2004, she attended the funeral wake even though she had to travel far, taking trains and carpooling with our friends who are going as well.

When my parents passed away in 2006 and 2007, she was there to support me too.

When I got married in Nov 2007, she attended my registration of marriage ceremony.

When I got pregnant in middle of 2008, we double dated (me with hubby, she with her boyfriend) and took a short 3D 2N trip to Cameron Highlands to celebrate my last holiday before Ben arrives. I was 5 months pregnant with Ben when we went for that fun holiday.

When her dad passed away in February 2010, no matter how we got nagged by my superstitious MIL (it was nearing Chinese New Year then and old folks have this superstitious crappy thinking that we should not attend functions like this before happy festival - bah humbug...), hubby and I made sure we attend the funeral wake and gave her the support she needed in times of sorrow.

And one time, after visiting a friend of hubby who recently gave birth (went to gave some advice to the new mum on breastfeeding matters), we went over to my BFF house and invited her along to join our dinner at a mall near her house. She gladly joins us (even though she gotta work the next day), then we walked around after dinner and hubby even managed to pester her to take Ben for a walk.

It was a nice sight to see her tagging along after with Ben, it's not often we get to see Ben getting so comfy with someone so quickly!

I just want to dedicate this post to my BFF,

thank you for being such a good and loyal friend to us.

It's nice to be able to have a BFF which you can talk to about anything and my BFF is a super good listener and we can just continue talking about stuff that happens long ago, kinda like we could just pick up where we left off long ago and resume chatting about the stuff as if it happens recently.

We wish you all the best in your life, be it work wise, family wise or relationship wise.

Read: 3 John 1:2 (NIV), Proverbs 18:24 (NIV), Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)

** P.s: Go and settle down already girl! We want to see you holding hands with your little prince and/or princess soon!

Maybe our kids can continue to be BFF too! :D

Still and always will love you loads girl!

** FYI, this post was originally posted in Sept 2010 and I'm reposting this as an entry to the "The World's Greatest BFF" contest