Daybreak Season 1 Review

My sister recommended Daybreak to me and I wasn't really impressed by it. But then I had nothing better to do and felt curious about where the show was going, so I decided to watch it. Like what many critics have said, it's a show that is trying too hard to be witty, and trying too hard to insert all kinds of pop culture references into as possible. The show is self-aware and so it tries hard to subvert tropes as well. 

Despite the generic apocalyptic teenage drama type setting (see The Hunger Games and Maze Runner), there were episodes that were good and I really liked the character development in those particular episodes. To make things clearer for you, I have decided to create a graph, courtesy of one of those free graph makers online:

Like I said, the first episode was just 'meh'. I became genuinely interested when it came to episode 3, since it was about Angelica Green. Her backstory was appealing. She's basically a young 10-year-old eccentric genius who was sick of being homeschooled, so she faked mental illnesses to crush drugs into slime and sold the slime at the nearest high school. She wants to be Griselda Blanco and she craves attention but her parents are too busy to give her any.

We see her wanting to make friends with the high schoolers but when she gets rejected she goes nuts. And apparently, she was kicked out of many of the cliques she tried to join during the apocalypse and she now wants to create a group with Josh Wheeler and Wesley Fists. There's a lot of potential for her character to grow and realise that she doesn't need the approval of others since she can shine on her own. Of course it's tragic that her mother has neglected her, but she doesn't have to feel envious about Sam Dean's popularity either.

As you can see from the graph, the next episode was just as interesting because we see how principal Burr tried to do what was best for the students at his school at first. However, he later took a bribe from the parents of Jayden Hoyles and later other rich parents as well, agreeing to change their grades for 'the greater good' of the school. Now, as a Harry Potter nerd, you'd know that this wouldn't end well. Sure, I was glad that Burr got rid of Jayden Hoyles by calling the police on him for having sex with a minor, but two wrongs don't make a right.

Although to be fair, the public school system did fail the teachers and principal Burr because of all the shitty administrative work he had to do just to buy a freakin' pencil and other school supplies. Burr realises that kids are monsters and in the apocalypse, he creates a scary persona for himself (Baron Triumph) whom everyone thinks is Hoyles because of the motorcycle. Josh Wheeler later comes in and "saves the day" (with the help of KJ, but more on that and those inverted commas later) but we do kinda understand why the principal snapped.

Episodes 5 and 7 were the best episodes in my opinion. The former was Wesley's backstory and how he ended up in a toxic relationship with Turbo. It's pretty clear that he should choose to help Josh and his other friends instead of Turbo, because Turbo is a maniac who would kill others out of jealousy. But when you're in a toxic relationship, the path isn't so clear because you're blinded by love and your own insecurities.

Ms Crumble's backstory was just as awesome because she's such a relatable character. Throughout the season, we've been witnessing her moments of brilliance. She thought of putting maggots on Josh's hand and somehow she doesn't behave like a typical ghoulie. In the episode that's centered on her, the biology teacher reveals her smarts at the Cheermazon trials too. Through her flashbacks, we saw how principal Burr took advantage of her as well. He manipulated her to change the scores of students and also started a romantic relationship with her that was arguably just as toxic as Wesley and Turbo's.

So far, I've kinda summarised that characters and episodes that I liked. But there were some really boring and shitty ones too.

Episode 6 was crappy because the focus was on Turbo, the asshole whom Wesley dated. Josh and KJ recruited some gamers to infiltrate the school where the jocks were to take out Turbo, but it was just a trap that Turbo had laid for them so that he could get a victory over Josh Wheeler. Like... wtf? Ok, I get that we needed something like this for Mona to turn on Turbo, but releasing the cannibalistic principal is just as dumb. For a tv show that's trying to be smart, all this ended up becoming dumb. Somehow even though the gamers were captured, Josh and KJ don't seem to feel guilty or concerned about them and they don't even show us what happened to the captives. Instead, they end up making out and probably having sex. Like... huh???

I'm not sure if the writers want us to feel sad that Turbo's father is rarely around or something but to me, those dumb flashbacks didn't work because we know that Turbo kills people for fun during the apocalypse and treats Wesley badly both before and during the apocalypse. Parental neglect doesn't justify murder and being a dick in general, goddamnit.

Episode 8 was by far the worst tv episode I've ever seen in a very long time. As you can see from the graph, my interest in the show went all the way down. That episode made me so bored that I wanted to just switch off the tv. I was so frustrated with the nothingness of this episode and the only reason why I watched till the end was because I thought that at some point, the show would return to the present-day apocalypse. Needless to say, I was wrong and I was very disappointed. The episode also ended way too early, so it was very abrupt. I hated everything about this episode.

Because all the characters that actually appeal to me are just side characters. Even though there are episodes dedicated to their backstories, the main character is still Josh Wheeler, the typical white kid who is so average that he gets Cs on all his subjects. He's such a boring character who doesn't seem to have any other interests apart from skateboarding, Sam Dean, and ignoring his mother's phone calls.

The episode was all about Josh and Sam's boring ass relationship before the apocalypse. He saw a pretty girl and fell in love with her. Ugh.

Let me make a list of things that I dislike about the character Josh Wheeler:

1. Irritating: For the first few episodes, all Josh Wheeler could talk about was Sam Dean. Like sheesh shut up, we get it already. You liked a girl! Whoopee. And all he talked about was SAVING HER, like he was Mario and she was Princess Peach. Like, get over yourself, dude.

2. Not trustworthy: Later in the season, we find out that Sam Dean is with the jocks and she's perfectly fine, helping out by growing fruits and vegetables at the school or something. She doesn't need any saving. Then, Josh Wheeler finally tells the audience that he and Sam actually broke up. Wow. By then, I was like UGH I knew it. There was something off. Sam's fine and Josh shouldn't be trusted. Also, the boy has double standards. He banished Angelica, Eli and Wesley from the mall for their lies but he's actually been lying about Sam this whole time. So who cares? Angelica at least had the foresight to create a community in order to survive, even if Josh's part in it because of a lie. What's Josh's excuse? That he wanted to risk his life and possibly get himself killed over a girl when he doesn't even know if said girl requires saving?

3. He didn't return his mother's calls and he went to blame Sam for his father's death. Like seriously? That's the most screwed up thing in the whole season! And this is a show with cannibalism in it! In the first place, he was an ass to his father just because his father didn't "choose" to keep him around and stayed in Canada or something. Yeah, I get it. His parents got divorced and he's sad. So what? Sorry, I know divorce sucks, but relationships fall apart all the time. It's hard for me to empathise when Josh Wheeler is such a whiny loser.

4. He likes to assume stuff about people. Josh assumes that his father didn't love him because he didn't choose to stay with him. He assumes that Sam Dean is a virgin when she isn't. He also assumes that his mother has nothing better to do than to annoy him with calls. Hey, if your father dies and you didn't manage to call him in time, then it's your own fault for not cherishing your relationship with your father. Sorry not sorry. Just deal with it! Don't blame others for your own mistakes or incorrect judgements.

5. Somehow people keep dying in the show because of him. He stupidly let Hoyles escape at the cereal factory. Guess what? Jayden Hoyles ends up killing Eli when Eli is disguised as Baron Triumph. And you know whose idea it is to use this disguise? It's Josh Wheeler's. Why did Josh Wheeler even let an asshole like Hoyles escape the cereal factory? No fucking clue. Why did Josh not kill principal Burr when he had the chance? No fucking clue. (I initially thought that Burr would drown in cereal but he didn't and they just kept him locked in a cage. So dumb) This is why I mentioned earlier that he "saved the day" because he didn't really. He waited till the last episode to legit save the day and kill Burr with his peanut allergy.

Also, I liked Eli better than Josh. He had a nice but super short backstory about his love for some silly magic cards and he recalls working at a beauty parlour for extra cash. He did explain that his mother was a first generation immigrant so things were tough. And this butthole Josh just comes in, takes Eli's mall and kicks him out? Please, Eli's backstory is much strong than Josh's. At least he doesn't go around blaming people for his family's lack of wealth like how Josh blamed Sam for his father's death and called her a slut. Jeez.

Now it's time for a list of reasons why I dislike Sam Dean:

1. She behaves like a spoiled brat and doesn't know what she wants. Ok to be fair, teens don't know what they want. But she needs to take responsibility for her decisions! She needs to own her shit! She was the one who came up with the idea of going around the mall, making a vlog telling people good things about themselves. Then she somehow blames Josh for uploading it and getting her 1 million followers? She claims that she isn't this "nice girl" that Josh paints her out to be. Yes, while that may be true, you can't just blame Josh for uploading the video cuz it's your freakin idea isn't it? Omg I can't even. What does she even want? If she didn't want the vlog to be uploaded, why did she ask Josh to film it? And she has like a bunch of lines about how she's figuring out who she is. Yeah well so? Isn't everyone else?

2. She's privileged and doesn't seem to appreciate that. Sam Dean is portrayed in the show to be a pretty and the characters repeatedly tell us that she's the most popular girl in school even though she isn't a cheerleader or a typical mean girl. Initially, she gives off the "good girl" vibes, but that could be because Josh Wheeler is an unreliable narrator. But she is privileged because of her popularity. She has a voice and people listen to her. And she doesn't appreciate any of that, thinking that people now have expectations of her. Like, really? Is it really that bad for people to like you? Is it really that bad for people to expect goodness to come out of you?

3. She's a selfish, self-centered person. When Sam was talking to Josh it was all "me, me, me." It was about her identity, her past relationships and sexual encounters, her discomfort with the new "nice girl" persona she now had, her acquisition of 1 million followers etc. And from all that, she seemed like such a bland and shallow character. She's trying to hard to sound "deep" but it all falls flat and she just sounds pathetic, to be honest. And I don't the point of her mini speech at all.

4. She's just too weird and irritating. Sure, Josh shouldn't have thought she was a virgin and slut shamed her. But she's so freakin' weird that if I were Josh I would've asked her to leave my house and not have sex with her at all. Because I would be just pissed if someone ordered food for me without telling me what it was they ordered, and I would be also very annoyed by the amount of food she ordered because of the food wastage. She also looked like she wanted to seduce the deliveryman and the whole scene was just weird. Like why? What was the purpose of that scene? To further confirm that she's a slut but not be able to say it because she would accuse us of slut-shaming? To waste the audience's time? To make us dislike her more? Just... why? And she rudely entered his mother's room without permission. A very irritating house-guest indeed.

I'm surprised that by the end of the season, Eli is dead but Turbo is not. I'm not exactly surprised that Sam refused to go back to Josh and took over as the leader of the jocks instead, because they broke up before the apocalypse and Josh is the only one trying to deny that none of that shit ever happened. But since Sam is now on the throne. it is clear that she and Josh are the main characters and I'm just not going to watch Daybreak if there is ever a season 2 because the two of them are so unlikeable as characters. They are both immature and irritating, like Korra from The Avatar. Somehow kids in The Last Airbender like Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph are all more mature than Korra, the hotheaded privileged and spoiled avatar who loses it when things don't go her way.

Ughhh. I get that all good, 3-dimensional characters are flawed and realistic. But it still has to be done tastefully, you know? So, no thanks. No more Daybreak, unless it's clear that Crumble, Wesley, and Angelica are the main characters. Please stop making unrelatable and unlikeable characters to annoy the shit out of me and perhaps cause irritating self-centered kids to think that it's ok to behave this way.

Joker (Film Review)

Wow.. just wow. Watching a psychological thriller is seriously quite taxing for the mind. I felt so tired after watching Joker. But it was worth it. I love the characters in the DC universe more so than Marvel. They just have the best villains, don't they? 

Anyway, there are so many things to unpack. But first of all, let me just say that I don't agree that this movie is going to promote more violence. In fact, it should do the opposite of that. (More on this point later) Research has shown that when most people watch violent movies, some part of their brain lights up or something. I don't know the scientific terms but I've read this somewhere before. Basically, this means that they get uncomfortable. But for aggressive people, this part of their brain doesn't light up because this is considered normal to them. So in general, I feel that there's a weak case against violent movies and games because most people aren't affected by them. They are able to indulge in these forms of entertainment without having the intention of actually hurting anyone in real life. Trying to pin the blame on violent movies is not a valid argument.

Now that that's out of the way, I want to discuss the themes in this movie. The acting was superb and I know that this was kind of loosely based on the comics and not the actual origin story of the Joker. To be fair, there are a few versions of how the persona of the Joker came to be, and that's great because you aren't supposed to have him all figured out. So this is just a new version. I would say that this is a new and improved version actually, because it's more realistic than falling into a vat of chemical waste.

Arthur Fleck is a really complicated character, and I feel that that's an understatement. In the movie, the audience is made to sympathise with Arthur because he has to go through some tough shit in his life. He's always getting beaten down by others - both physically and verbally. When the movie first starts, we see him painting his face so that he looks like a clown, but a tear is rolling down his cheek and forming a black line at the same time. 

And throughout the whole movie, Arthur is indeed a sad clown. It's already bad enough that Arthur already has some sort of mental illness and has to rely on a social service programme. He talks to a social worker, takes his medication, and carries a card around, explaining that he has a condition that causes him to laugh. This is also known as the pseudobulbar affect (PBA), which causes episodes of sudden uncontrollable and inappropriate laughing or crying. He mentions that he's not allowed to have a gun as well.

For the first part of the movie, Arthur is trying to fit in with society and earn enough money to support himself and his sickly mother. But it's so hard. Later on, things start to spiral out of control partially because the funding for his social service programme has been cut and Arthur stops taking his medication. This is the hard truth that the audience is made to confront: that we as a society may not be doing enough for the mentally ill. We still shun them, as seen by countless of people Arthur interacts with, and he's doesn't really have any true friends. His coworkers think that he's a freak and the woman we thought that he was dating is actually afraid of him.

Since Arthur suffers from some kind of mental illness, he is an unreliable narrator. As an audience, we only get to see what he thinks is happening around him. But once it is revealed that his romantic relationship with his neighbour is merely a delusion, it makes perfect sense. At first, I wondered why Sophie, a single mother who was actually stalked by Arthur from her child's school to the bank, would be okay with the fact that Arthur followed her that day. She seemed to confront him about it and then they somehow started dating. In his mind, she watched his comedy routine and was by his side when his mother was at the hospital. But when Arthur drops by Sophie's house later on and sits on her couch, she has a look of fear on her face and she asks him to leave. It's only then that the audience is made to realise that Arthur was delusional.

This delusion mirrors that of his mother's, Penny. She thought that she and Thomas Wayne were in love and Arthur was Thomas' son. When Arthur asks Thomas about this, Thomas asserts that Penny was delusional and Arthur was adopted. Mental illnesses can sometimes run in families, but it's just one of the many causes and in the end it does turn out that Arthur was adopted. He was abandoned and we don't know who his real parents are. Arthur later checks hospital records (he has to forcefully grab it from the administrative staff actually) and finds documents about Penny's stay at the Arkham State Hospital, as well as articles stating that Penny had allowed her boyfriend to abuse her and her adopted son.

This is news to Arthur himself, who doesn't seem to remember the events when he was a child. There are a few possible explanations for this. First of all, most people don't remember stuff from when they were really young. Secondly, if he had been abused, he could have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), because in order to ensure survival, our brains may naturally block out and avoid distressing memories. However, there's one other thing. He had a head injury as a result of abuse, and this may have caused his PBA as well as some memory loss.

(P.S. if you're wondering why I know a little bit about these things, it's because I studied local play "Off Centre" by Haresh Sharma for 'O' levels and then at the university level, I took a module called "Narrating Trauma". So I had to do bits of research on mental illnesses and PTSD. But I'm no expert, and such information can be easily found via Google of course)

I think it was at this point in the film that a tear rolled down my left cheek. (In the film, the Joker is always crying, causing his blue eye makeup to run) All this was too much to bear. Although it shouldn't have been surprising that he ended up murdering people, it was still shocking and horrifyingly gruesome to watch. There were no support structures left for him. For most of us, we have our family, then our friends, and then society or the community. For Arthur, his mother was complicit in his abuse and he ends up smothering her with a pillow. His romantic relationship was a delusion. He has no real friends. (Randall, a coworker of his, gave him a gun which dropped out when Arthur was performing at a children's hospital. When he got into trouble with his boss, Randall claimed that Arthur bought the gun himself. Arthur later kills Randall right in front of another coworker Gary)

And society shuns him. They don't understand his random laughter and they don't give him a reason to explain, causing Arthur to kill 3 men on the subway. (The 3 men were harassing a woman on the train and honestly, they were asking for trouble. Arthur laughed and wanted to take his card out of his bag but they started beating up him, so he fired his gun in self-defense and killed 2 of them. The last one was silenced) 

And finally, they mock his stand-up routine because he couldn't stop laughing. That was possibly the last straw. Talk show host Murray plays the clip of his routine on his show and jokes about it. Previously, Arthur had a flashback about how he once attended Murray's show as part of the live audience. He told Murray that he lived with his mother and took care of her, and that his mom said he was there to bring joy and laughter to the world. (Penny always called Arthur "Happy" during the film, which was kinda creepy to be honest. Why are you pressurising your kid to always be happy? Also, she claimed that she didn't abuse her son and said that her son was always happy, when that's entirely false. Even if he wasn't depressed, it's simply impossible for anyone to always be happy)

In Arthur's flashback, Murray praised him and said he wished he had a son like him. Something to that effect. But by the time Arthur gets invited to the talk show for his viral video, the audience already knows that he's an unreliable narrator. His flashback probably never happened at all. He was just seeking validation from a father figure, and since he and Penny always watch Murray's show, perhaps that was the only father figure he had.

Murray also represents the media and society at large. He represents the rich and famous, the successful and the elite. Being trampled on by someone who was once your idol causes Arthur to flip. He goes on the show as an invited guest but ends up confronting Murray live on television, pointing out how hypocritical the talk show host is by inviting him there just to ridicule him more. Then he puts a bullet through his head on live television.

I'm not condoning any of Arthur's murders but we at least get an understanding of how he got to the point where he could just murder someone so easily. And if anything, this movie doesn't promote violence at all. If you think that's the case, you've entirely missed the point. The message is as clear as day: violence is scary as hell. Arthur is extremely unpredictable and you don't know when his next kill is going to happen. Everyone in the movie and everyone in the audience was horrified when bullets were fired and crimson red blood splattered all over the place. Or when he attacked Randall with a pair of scissors. I flinched and other people in the theatre did so too. We gasped audibly and covered our mouths in fright. We couldn't believe our eyes. 

No, it most certainly does not promote violence. It's a warning that if society doesn't step up and change the way we treat the poor and the disenfranchised, the world is going to descend into chaos. This is what could possibly happen if rich and powerful people call those living on the streets "clowns" and "jokers", effectively putting negative labels on them. It could happen if unemployment is rife and crime soars. If nothing is done to solve these problems. If social services get cut off and the government no longer provides any form of support to those who are at the lowest rung of society.

If you know anything about Gotham city, you'd know that it's a mess. Villains are everywhere and Batman has to try to stop them all. Near the end of the movie, Joker gets arrested and he's in a police car. He looks out the window and sees rioters everywhere. Overturned cars, people in clown masks, fire and chaos. Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered. It really does seem like the "Batman" video games have come to life. The Joker even gets set free by some rioters who crash an ambulance into the police car and drag him out. They hail him as their hero and cheer his lunacy. And that's hella scary.

Taobao Buys

I started shopping on Taobao mainly because I wanted to get cheap wedding gowns and I heard that Taobao's the best place to buy them. But ever since then, I've realised that Taobao is great for lots of other stuff too! So I've complied a list of affordable stuff that I've gotten from Taobao and I'll try to get the links for them as well if they're still available.

Buying from Taobao is easy once you get the hang of it. I can read enough Chinese words to get by, but if I can't read the words I'd just call for my husband's help or copy and paste the words into Google Translate. To get the English version of Taobao, just copy and paste the Taobao URL into Ezbuy.sg and they'd translate the page for you! I think you can also use Sgshop.com or something as well, but I've always just used the official Taobao app and website. If I'm on the computer, I just click the "translate" button on my Internet browser. Google Translate isn't perfect but it's good enough. My Dad can't really read a lot of Chinese words, but he still manages to shop on Taobao anyway! 

1. Computer

Speaking of my father, he was the one who bought me the computer that I'm using right now to blog about this! I didn't (and still don't) trust myself to know what kind of CPU to buy even after he explained the specifications of a typical gaming computer to me, so he bought the CPU from Taobao. This is the link that he sent me, if anyone's interested.

He also bought the keyboard from Taobao but I think that's it. For the computer screen, he thought it'd be best to get a Samsung one locally since we'd be able to get a warranty.

2. Lights

We practically bought all of our lights from Taobao! Almost all of them. We still got track lights and a wooden ceiling fan that comes with a light from a local store because it was just cheaper that way. The fan would have been expensive and troublesome to ship over.

I love all these small and cute lights that can be found here at this link! We got two of the box-shaped lights (middle picture) and we also got the one next to it (on the right) that we called the UFO light.

Here's a picture of how it looks like at the entrance of our house! And if I'm not wrong, it's only $26? We were specifically looking for wooden lights because that was kind of how we wanted to design our house, hence all the wooden furniture and wood vinyl flooring. We used the UFO light for our service yard.

This is another one of my favourites: pendant lights! (Yes I know, I'm suddenly an expert on all the names of lights and stuff) We bought these lights for our dining area.

The above picture was taken after the lights were installed and before we got our furniture delivered. You can see the pendant lights there and the other box-shaped light in the corridor! Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention. The lights were $42 only! All these prices are much cheaper than all those shops that we entered when we were searching for lights. Also, all the lights at the lighting shops were all kinda ugly, so we didn't want to buy from them.

OMG look! This next one is what we call the cat light! I just had to get it because it was so cute! It's illuminating my room as I type right now. We had planned to move all the cat stuff to my room, which is also known as the cat room. So it's only fitting that the cat room has a cat light.

Ta-dah! Cat light in my yellow room! (Because yellow is the colour of happiness and cats make me happy) Oh the cat light is a little more expensive at $55, but I think it's worth it.

Okay we call this the rectangular light and it's for John's room. It's super bright and pretty and most importantly it's still partially wooden!

Most of the lights come in different sizes and also there are different options for the type of light (e.g. warm or white light, how many watts etc) so you have to choose carefully! This one is again slightly more expensive at $68.

Next up: The pentagon light that we have for our master bedroom. As you can see in the picture, they give you the exact measurement of how big the light is and you get to choose the colours. This one cost about $55.

Here comes my lousy photograph. I don't know how to make lights look good obviously.

Okay in case you're bored, this is the last one: Toilet lights. These are the best since they are only $4 each! I don't think they are pretty but toilet lights don't have to be pretty anyway.

3. Wedding gowns

This was the first gown I decided to purchase from Taobao but this turned out to be a stupid decision! I should have listened to the advice on other blogs about buying wedding dresses on Taobao, and that's to buy made-to-measure dresses. This dress was NOT one of those dresses. It came in sizes S to XXL and I noticed that the measurements did not fit mine at all. I still bought it because I thought that I'd just try it out since I wanted a short dress for the tea ceremony. Besides, it was only $77.

Anyway, I shouldn't have done that because the dress that came did not look like the one in the above picture. John and I had to bring it to Alt-to-Fit, a tailor shop in Clementi that saved my dress.

The wedding dress turned out all right in the end after we paid perhaps $200 for the alteration? I can't remember the exact cost. But altering a wedding gown is always going to be expensive.

This blue dress was slightly better because the made-to-measure or 定做 option was available. I gave them my measurements but unfortunately, the part with the sequins (the chest area) was still too big. We brought this dress to Alt-to-Fit along with the other one.

This dress was used for our photoshoot in Indonesia and I still love it very much because it's so poofy! It was only $90.

Okay, the last dress was hands down the best gown that I bought. When it arrived and I tried it on, I was surprised that it fit PERFECTLY, unlike the previous two that I had bought. So by this time, I was kicking myself in the foot, because this was the FIRST dress that I had favourited on Taobao, and yet I bought the other two dresses first! How dumb.

I had it made to measure and I didn't have to alter it at all! I wore this on the actual day of the wedding! And I just realised that this is almost the cheapest gown I bought: it was priced at $67.

I don't know if the moral of the story is to trust your gut, but UGH I feel like I should've had just gone with the first dress I liked! (even though now that I type it out it still doesn't sound wise)

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention: All the dresses came with accessories like can-can skirts, white gloves, jewellery sets (necklace, earrings, ring) and veils. I didn't know about this so the first time we bought a wedding dress, we actually bought an extra can-can too. Turns out that it was totally unnecessary to do so.

P.S. All prices in this blog post are exclusive of shipping, but honestly since packages for wedding gowns can add up to thousands of dollars, I think Taobao is still the best option.

4. Shoes + Bra

These are the heels that I wore at my wedding! As you can see from the picture, there are different patterns and different heights that you can choose from! There are more options if you look at the listing on Taobao itself.

Guess how much my heels were! The answer is $15! And they were pretty comfortable too! No blisters or anything! On the day of my wedding, I did struggle but that wasn't because I had trouble with heels. It was because of the huge poofy dress I had to wear. I had to try my best not to step on my own dress and it was difficult!

In order to wear all those beautiful gowns, I had to wear a stick-on bra. I also purchased this from Taobao and it cost only $8!

I felt like it was losing its stickiness actually, because I had already used it for the photoshoot in Indonesia. I was super afraid of some kind of wardrobe malfunction but Klarissa (my make-up artist) told me not to worry when she was helping me change out of my tea ceremony dress to the other dress. She pulled on the strings at the back of the dress and tightened it so much that everything did feel much secure, and I didn't worry about it for the rest of the night.

5. John's suit and wallet

I think this blue checkered suit only cost us about $77! I found it on Taobao and thought that it suited him but unfortunately we also had to alter it. No regrets though - even after alteration, we only spent approximately $750 on his suit and my dresses, which is already a lot less compared to renting gowns and other wedding packages.

I think it's damn nice!

We also chose to buy a wallet for him on Taobao together but we didn't look at it carefully and bought one without a coin pouch. He's still using it now but I think it's stupid. Why is it so difficult to find wallets for guys that also come with coin pouches? It's as rare as pockets for women's clothes! Anyway, it's only $12 or $13 so it's still really cheap!

6. Wallets

Now we're talking about the wallets I bought for myself. I bought the blue one on the right a while ago and it has since spoiled, but can you believe that it was only $4?!

This is the wallet that I'm currently using! I like the colour and it's only $19.

What I like about this wallet is its functionality. There's plenty of space for cards, but it's small. Probably half the size of the previous wallet. And I can just place the strap around the wrist and go for my lunch break when I'm at work. Very convenient, plus I don't have to worry about misplacing it.

7. Cat trees 

If you're a cat owner you'd know that cat trees in Singapore are EXPENSIVE. A small cat tree can already be more than a hundred dollars!

But the one above is only $27! Can you believe it?

I didn't realise that it was going to be so short, though. I mean, the length of the cat tree is stated in the listing, but I didn't realise how short it was going to be until I actually saw it. I wanted something that was super tall because Shadow (like most cats) loves to perch up high on furniture.

So I decided to buy another cat tree! Hey, why not? It's cheap anyway!

This is a cat tree that reaches the ceiling and it's only $38! The cost of two cat trees doesn't even add up to the price of one cat tree in Singapore, so I think it's super worth it.

This is a picture of Shadow watching me assemble the cat tree. After this picture was taken, she jumped up on it thinking that it was ready to be used, but it ended up toppling to the side so she freaked out and ran away. Haha! She scratches these cat trees every day and I think she loves them.

8. Shadow's shark bed

I saw some cats sleeping in shark beds online and wanted to buy one for Shadow too. Taobao made this pawsible! The shark bed I bought was only $9.

When we first moved in, Shadow slept inside the shark bed every night. I think it makes her feel safe because it's like an enclosed space. But now that she's used to the house she doesn't use the shark bed that often anymore.

9. Tablecloths

Now that we have a house of our own, we can buy stuff like tablecloths! Maybe in future, we'd buy even more household items. Anyway, we bought two cat tablecloths and they were $14 each.

We've only used one of them so far but Shadow approves of it. She likes to jump up on the dining table and inspect our takeaway food. She also likes to ask for butt pats over there.

10. Bag with cat ears

Okay, I have more things to blog about actually, but I'm going to stop at 10 because I'm so tired. I needed a new backpack because to be honest, I prefer carrying backpacks so that the weight of whatever I'm carrying is split between my shoulders. It's more comfortable and it can also be cuter if you get a backpack with cat ears!

I brought it along with me on our honeymoon to Greece and Serbia. It only costs $7-8 which is honestly such a steal. Now I really want a hoodie with cat ears too.


I hope you enjoyed reading about all the cheap stuff I bought from Taobao! There's more to come because I have another bunch of stuff that'll be shipped over soon, and like I mentioned, I actually haven't blogged about some of the stuff that I've already bought. If you're interested in all of that, stay tuned for the next post about my Taobao buys!

Just remember to be very careful when you shop online, whether you're shopping on Taobao or not. Look for stuff with lots of reviews and always read the details properly. Most of the stuff I bought from Taobao have thousands of positive reviews, and some customers even shared their wedding pictures too.

Personally, I think that it's super worth it to buy stuff on Taobao because the prices are cheap if not affordable. So many things are overpriced in Singapore, so I prefer buying on Taobao and on Carousell. It makes me feel like I'm buying what I want/need (depending on the situation) and I'm saving money at the same time.

Teachers (My School Experience)

I once tweeted in 2012, "Nobody fucking cares about my education down here". Honestly, that's how I felt sometimes at home. Growing up, my parents were always quarrelling over the most ridiculous things. I know that like all parents, my parents still wanted to do well in school. But I found it difficult and even near impossible to study at home since it was so noisy. Even if there wasn't a fight, my parents are the type of people who speak pretty loudly, so I often found myself studying in school or at public libraries. 

My parents didn't have specific expectations, so I found myself setting my own expectations. When I was in primary school, I just hoped that I scored better than my sister for PSLE. When I was in secondary school, I only had goals and targets for the subjects that I liked. And when I was in Junior College, I was already taking subjects that I did like (except Econs, which all arts students had to take) so I wanted good grades for everything.

In my opinion, my academic success (not that I was super successful, but you know what I mean. I did all right in the end) could mainly be attributed to two things: my willingness to pay attention in class (most of the time) and the teachers that I had. Since Teachers' Day is around the corner, I'm going to blog about my school experience with teachers in general, but I'm not going to reveal the names of the teachers. If you were my classmate, you'd know who I'm talking about.

Primary School

I think I did pretty badly for the end-of-year examinations when I was in Primary 4, which was also known as the streaming year. On the first day of school for us when we were P5s, I remember that we still had to sit with our P4 classes while they got us all sorted out. My name was called and I was put into a different class from all my friends. There were boys from my P4 class who went to the same P5 class as me but that didn't count because, as you guys know, girls only made friends with girls and boys were all seen as gross when you were ten.

The only consolation I had was the fact that my P4 form teacher was still going to be my P5 form teacher. When I met up with my friends during recess, all of them told me "Oh, you're so lucky!" even though they went to a better class than I did.

For the purposes of this blog post, let's call this teacher Mr K. It was pretty obvious even back then that Mr. K had a really tough time being the form teacher of a notorious class. My class was always being yelled at, reprimanded, and punished. My classmates were always up to their mischief and the teachers, vice-principals and even the principal had to step into the classroom to scold us for some reason or another. People were playing pranks, bullying others, clogging up toilets (I think they attempted to flush a Chinese 习字 exercise book down the toilet bowl), stealing (was it a handphone?), etc. Thankfully, Mr. K knew how to speak to us and all of us respected him for that. 

He was also a good English teacher. I recall him explaining to us (rather exasperatedly) what nouns, adjectives and verbs are even though we were supposed to have already learnt that when we were younger. He always cracked jokes and he was encouraging. I remember that we laughed at one of our classmates for calling him "Dad" by accident. To be honest, I nearly made that same mistake once as well, but I just went "Da- Mr. K" and nobody realised. Anyway, I think that many of my classmates came from fucked up families too, which was why they were acting out.

Unfortunately, I disliked my music teacher in primary school. I thought it was a good idea to join the choir and I think I went for auditions on my own accord and got in. When I was in primary school, I basically was a super quiet student who didn't talk to people or answer questions. My mother told me that there was this boy who would wait for the school bus with us last time. He went to another school but he was my neighbour. Apparently, he complained to my mother, "I got talk to her but she never talk to me!" Whatever.

I was in the choir for four years and Mdm L was the teacher-in-charge. She also taught us music, but when we were in upper primary we had a different teacher. I remember that for our recorder test, we could choose between two songs and I chose the slightly more difficult one. When I got a B in my record book, I cried and all my friends were confused since music wasn't exactly an important subject to them. They thought that my parents would scold me or something. But I just had high expectations of myself as usual.

Anyway, Mdm L seemed like a nice person because she was the one teaching us all these fun songs and hand gestures that went along with them. However, she revealed her true colours when the choir conductor had us sing individually. Like I mentioned earlier, I was the quiet and shy type of kid. I liked singing, and I thought that it was a good idea to join the choir so that I could sing with people, not alone. So this was a lot for me. To make matters worse, I also had a sore throat that day. I croaked out some lyrics, and like the crazy woman that she was, she shouted at me for being a disgrace. 

Looking back, she was probably under a lot of pressure to secure some glory for the school or whatnot. It was the first time the choir managed to get a Gold for the SYF and we were also in the top five or something, so we had to compete for the Choir of the Year award I think. But... nah. I don't think her shouting at me was justified.

Secondary School

I had a rather pleasant experience in secondary school because most of the teachers were nice and encouraging, apart from the Physics teacher who told us that we were "idiots" if we had gotten one of the supposedly easy MCQ questions wrong.

One teacher who stood out was Mr. L, who was also my literature teacher during my upper sec years. My classmates and I felt enlightened whenever we left the classroom. I guess when you're 15 or 16, you're easily impressed by the way your lit teacher analyses the text, since you're immature and lack life experience to appreciate and understand it in its entirety. 

He always made lit lessons so fun and engaging. All of us looked forward to his lessons. Some random stuff I remember include how we once had class outside the classroom at the exercise corner, how much of a good actor Mr L was (and still is) when he emphatically read out lines from the play that we were studying, and how he answered his daughter's phone call in class and put her on loud speaker so that we could all hear her adorable voice.

The most memorable incident was actually the Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) that I had to attend with my mother when I was in sec 4. I had failed four subjects (E-Math, A-Math, Physics and Chemistry) and I knew I was in deep trouble. From what I remember, the worst results I had ever gotten was scoring 9/100 for A-Math (had never seen a single digit score in my report card in my entire life) and getting 39/42 in terms of class position. Anyway, I was doomed. My form teacher was my Math teacher and throughout those two years of secondary school, I kept wondering if she was ever going to get me to drop A-Math. Strangely, she never did.

Anyway, as luck would have it, my mother didn't get to meet my form teacher. Instead, she met my lit teacher, who was my co-form teacher. Instead of getting reprimanded, Mr. L took a look at the report card and said that I was obviously into the arts more than I was interested in the sciences. He assured us that I'd get to choose what I'd like to study in future. To top it all off, when we were about to leave, he told me that he expected to see me up on stage next year. (In other words, to get an award)

What a plot twist! I would never forget that. I was nervous all day but in the end, my mother and I left happily and we had a nice meal at a restaurant. And Mr. L was right because I did get an award after receiving my 'O' level results. Who would have thought that his prediction would come true? Not me, that's for sure.

I also had other wonderful teachers. In sec 2, Mrs T, my English teacher, was especially encouraging when I failed to make the debate team (too shy to talk but hey, like she said, I made the effort to try). My upper sec English/History teacher was awesome because her lessons were always engaging.

In general, I had good teachers who only scolded me when I was doing something wrong. For instance, I was scolded and sent out of class for talking. I was told off for folding my (extremely long) skirt or for wearing dangling earrings. Once, my ezlink card was confiscated during assembly. My shoe was confiscated and I had to hobble about if I didn't complete my Math homework. I had to surrender one of my valuables and go for detention to get whatever it was back when I was late or when I didn't have a tie on tie day. These were all part and parcel of school life and I didn't have a problem with it all since I knew that I was misbehaving. 

Junior College

My time at Junior College was the worst. I felt like the teachers were out to get me even when I wasn't doing anything wrong. I felt like there was a regression of sorts, because we were not given the same independence and respect that we had as students in secondary school. 

A simple example was not having access to the first aid kit during a sports carnival, when I used to be able to retrieve first aid equipment for my friends in secondary school. (The staff told us to bring the injured student to the general office but I guess they lack common sense because everyone knows that you go to the casualty, not the ask the casualty to come to you.)

There was Mr. N, one of our history teachers, who was the type of teacher who said that we could do whatever we wanted during his lecture as long as we weren't disturbing others. I liked his teaching style because he left us alone for most part. He didn't force us to see him after class, and I was only persuaded to go for history consultations when my friends dragged me along.

However, there were horrible teachers like Mr. H, our PE teacher, who claimed that my friends and I skipped PE lessons and we'd had to stay back to make up for it. Erm, excuse me? We didn't skip anything. Don't blame us if you're blind or if you failed to take attendance properly. To this day, I'm still pretty mad about this, especially since I didn't get to tell him off properly for being an openly biased teacher and just ended up crying. (If I recall correctly, he didn't make us stay back in the end, so that's good. But even if he did I was sure as hell not going to)

I also have this vague memory of doing my 2.4km run and right after I was done with it, I rushed to the toilet because I always felt like pooping whenever I had to run. (I didn't know that 'runner's stomach' was an actual thing) When I came back out and asked what my timing was, guess what? The idiotic teacher didn't even know. He was too busy talking to other students. Wow.

Then, there was this old and ugly random Math teacher who didn't even teach us. I was playing around and poking my then boyfriend (now an ex) in the bus and also while walking to school or something. Then, out of the blue, he scolded us, marched us to the front of the general office, and yelled at us for who knows what. He claimed that we should behave appropriately in public, which sounded like we were showing Public Displays of Affection (PDA) when we weren't. 

When I was a JC student the only thing I knew how to do was to cry when I was angry, so I did that and walked all the way home, and my then bf followed me and tried to calm me down. Back home, both of us received calls from our JC2 form teacher, who was our other history teacher, Mrs N. Her lessons were boring and most of us didn't like her, though I didn't have a problem with her until the incident that I'm describing right now. She told us to return to school so we had no choice and did so during recess.

Mrs N and our co-form teacher (who was a Math teacher but he didn't teach me at all because my class was split into two Math classes) met us when we arrived back in school and scolded us for our "inappropriate behaviour". We tried to explain that we weren't doing anything inappropriate, but they said that in the first place, we shouldn't be dating. (Ugh okay that's not even relevant to the argument that we were trying to make but sure, go ahead. Say that it's a "distracting relationship" all you want, but at the end of the day, I did get my As and my ex bf didn't do so badly either. In fact, I actually helped him with his studies. Jeez)

My mother didn't know I had a boyfriend, so Mrs N proceeded to use this as leverage over me during the PTM session with my mother. Basically, while my mother was next to me having a discussion with Ms Z, my lit and GP teacher, Mrs N spoke to me about how I needed to study harder and not be so distracted in school. She said something like, "You wouldn't want your mother to know about your relationship, right?' I was furious. Which teacher actually blackmails her students like that? When I actually behaved inappropriately during assembly with my ex bf in secondary school, the Discipline Mistress took our ezlink cards, spoke to us after school and threatened to call our parents. That was all. I wasn't blackmailed!

To make matters worse, I was done fine at that time in JC. I remember my report card reflecting that I was among the top 80-90th percentile for most of my subjects or something. But in the end, when we left school, my mother reprimanded me until I cried. A big difference from what happened back in secondary school.

Anyway, the JC teacher that I guess made the deepest impression on me was Ms Z. She was our GP and lit teacher, which meant that we saw a lot of her. I liked her at first because she gave off the "don't try telling me what to do" vibe, and her lessons were always conducted really well. However, I grew to dislike her because she would compared my results with my then bf and also the other couples in our class. At that time, there were 3 couples in total, and our class was already divided into 3 cliques, so what she did only caused more tension. 

Another thing she did was how she always tried to get me to speak up in class. She pointed out that I'd have to speak up during tutorials in university to get participation marks, and this is true. But I didn't like being put on the spot and feeling forced to give an opinion about something. And since I was getting good grades, Ms Z ended up portraying me as a selfish person who keeps all her good ideas to herself (not true) and doesn't contribute in class. As I started disliking her more and more, I also started arguing with my then bf over Ms Z, because he was one of those students who loved her and he was also the lit rep, so he always had to do her bidding. It was a disaster. 

Anyway, I don't agree with what she did but I'll admit that I did get my As partly because she was an effective teacher. I became the "Top Arts Student" of my school and I'm grateful to most of my teachers, but it doesn't mean that I have to like all of them as people.

--

I know that it's not easy to be a school teacher. In fact, when I hear stories from people who are actually teachers, I feel glad that I'm not. Not only do they have more students than I do, but they also have to juggle with other admin work, CCAs, field trips, camps, meetings, courses, etc.

I have always treated my teachers with respect and even before I became a teacher, I could already tell, by observing my own teachers, that it was a tough job. However, I can't deny that there are strange teachers who can be unreasonable, or teachers who may not always know what they are doing. Despite meeting some of these teachers, I've not felt deterred to become a teacher. Even if they were mean, I would say that at least they made my school life interesting in some way.

To all the teachers I admire, Happy Teachers' Day! You've inspired me and made an impact in my life, whether or not you realise it. And to all the teachers I have lost respect for, well... you've made this post become half of a rant, and somehow some people find rants enjoyable so thanks?

Descendants 3 (Film Review)

R.I.P Cameron Boyce.

(I'd recommend the watching the interviews on ABC News about his death. They interviewed his parents in one interview, and also Kenny Ortega, Dove Cameron and Booboo Stewart in another. But for right now, this blog post is going to be a lighthearted one about the movie)

--

Okay, so FYI: the Descendants movies are like my guilty pleasure. I know that the movies are bad, but I still enjoy them. The same goes for High School Musical. So even though I'm probably going to write about how shitty and illogical the movie is, I still enjoy the songs and the dance moves.

After watching the movie, I realised that there was something wrong with it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then I read my previous review and it hit me: the Descendants movies are about TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS.

I already covered this in the aforementioned review, but I didn't know that it was going to play such a huge role yet again in the third installment of the Descendants. I didn't review the first movie, but Ben and Mal's relationship started off wrong because Mal gave him a love potion cookie or whatever. And later in that same movie, we find out that Ben knew that he had been spelled ever since the spell wore off when he got to take a dip in the Enchanted Lake.

At first glance, it's sweet and all that. Like, aww, he liked Mal all along! But if you really think about it, Ben's just a coward. He was already in a toxic relationship with Princess Audrey (emphasis on the 'princess', because that was how she introduced herself to the VKs) and didn't like her that much anymore because he realised she was mean and selfish. And he had already started liking Mal. So instead of doing the grown up thing and breaking up with Audrey properly i.e. talk it out and give her closure, he decided to just... continue pretending that he was under a love spell for the rest of the movie.

(We all know that he was under the influence of the love potion when he sang 'Did I Mention', which actually makes his proposal in the third movie even worse if you really think about it. But again, it was just glossed over as another 'aww' moment)

Somehow, Ben, an immature teenager is proposing to Mal, another immature teenager. They are too young and their relationship hasn't really changed since the last movie! Mal is still keeping secrets from Ben. In Descendants 2, she used her spell book behind his back. In this one? She kept a HUGE secret from Ben: the fact that Hades is her father. I get that Evie is her best friend so she knows, but shouldn't you also tell your boyfriend/fiance who your father is as well?

Okay, I have to admit that the songs are even better in Descendants 3. I love the song 'Do What You Gotta Do' because of the rock n roll vibe, and I love almost everything Sofia Carson's 'One Kiss'. The best song is 'Queen of Mean' obviously. Disney villain songs are the best.

But is it just me or are the dance moves... just a little off? Because they are kinda unrealistic. For instance, in 'Night Falls', they are fighting and yet dancing with the knights (or rather empty suits of armour, but well, there's the night/knight pun) and it just seems so fake. In reality, or even in the reality of fantasy worlds, if the villain casts a spell to get knights to attack you, the knights wouldn't just stand there and wait for you to squabble about who's in charge, and they sure as heck wouldn't wait for you to attack them like it's a dance. The dance moves in 'Do What You Gotta Do' was also really strange and forced. Like they are both trying way too hard to be cool. And I get that it's a musical, but I don't think this was an issue in the previous movies. Or in most movie musicals I've watched.

Since we are talking about the music, I'd just like to mention that the song 'My Once Upon A Time' doesn't fit into the narrative AT ALL. This is the song Mal sings after all her friends have abandoned her. It's really, really strange. I know it starts out with Mal being all sad, but eventually, for most of the song, it sounds uplifting and hopeful. Which is just so strange because there's nothing for Mal to be hopeful about! I feel like they had recorded the song and just wanted to squeeze it in there even if it didn't fit into the plot, just because they liked the song. Sigh. 

There are two illogical things that happen in the movie that I had issue with. First of all, Jane texts her mum, the Fairy Godmother, about Audrey having Maleficent's evil scepter. So Fairy Godmother rushes down to the museum to get her wand but when she's on the steps to the museum, she turns into stone. Jane gets worried and goes off to find her mum, and when she sees her mum, she's sad, but she also starts catching up with her and telling her that it's the longest birthday she's ever had. Even though it's unclear whether or not her mother is able to hear her. 

Okay, whatever. I don't have a problem with all that. It's all good until Jane and her two other friends just... hang out? Instead of grabbing the wand from the museum and trying to do something with it, Jane chooses to hang out. With her mum. Who has turned into stone. Wow. A moment ago, we thought that Jane was smart to dive underwater and escape Audrey's sleeping spell by holding her breath in the Enchanted Lake. We thought that she was smart when she used Enchanted Lake water to turn Ben from beast to human. I guess she used up all her intelligence by then or something. I guess the movie didn't want the minor characters to do anything major because Mal has to be the one who does everything. Ugh.

The second illogical thing that happened was when Mal revealed to her friends that she wanted to close the portal or barrier or whatever that separates the Isle of the Lost from Auradon. Why? Just, why? Obviously she feels guilty, but that's super bad timing. Can't she wait until the threat has been dealt with and admit her mistake? Again, it's like: are these characters supposed to be smart? Because Mal has done a lot of stupid things in all three movies. I don't think she or Ben should be even trusted to rule an entire kingdom, especially when they are basically immature teens.

My last point for this review would be how certain issues remain unaddressed by the end of the movie. You'd think that this is a trilogy and so all loose ends should be tied up, and everything gets neatly wrapped up like a cute little present with a bow on top. But no.

First overlooked issue: the lack of a proper justice system in Auradon. When Audrey is dying because Mal overpowers her magic, causing Audrey's magic to backfire on her or whatever, Mal brings in her father, Hades, because the Lord of the Underworld can help bring people back from the brink of death. Hades struts in, grabs his ember, and revives her. Yay, happy ending!

Wrong. Before Hades revives Audrey, there was a conversation that went something like this:

Hades: Since when do heroes care about villains?
Ben: She's-
Hades: One of your own? (sneer and derisive laugh) Right. When you guys try to destroy the world, this is an error in judgement. But, when it's one of us, lock 'em up and throw away the key. Right, Beast?

This brief conversation encapsulates the problem with Descendants. From the start, Ben has been saying that it's wrong to lock up the villains AND their kids, since the kids are innocent. Yet in the third movie, Mal almost makes the decision to close the barrier, which would have meant that innocents would remain locked up. 

And yes, I know that by the end of the movie, she realises that that would have been a mistake and she gets rid of the barrier once and for all. But there is still no proper justice system in Auradon. What's going to happen if these villains and their kids commit crimes e.g. steal from others? Who knows. And most importantly, is Disney trying to tell kids that they can cast curses on people, make them all sleep and even turn some into stone, yet still get away with it all if their parents are royalty? And there will be no consequences at all as long as they apologise? Wow. No wonder kids today are getting from bad to worse. (Also, as long as you apologise, you get to take part in the musical number at the end of the movie too! Yay!)

The second unaddressed issue in the movie are the toxic relationships. I've already talked about Ben and Mal's relationship, and how incompetent they will be at running the kingdom, but there's also Audrey's relationship with her grandmother, Queen Leah. Okay, so at the end of the day, Ben and Mal apologise to Audrey for hurting her, and Audrey and her grandmother apologise to Mal as well. (Because if you recall, Queen Leah was a bitch to Mal in the first movie too)

But we never see Queen Leah apologising to Audrey for attempting to brainwash her into thinking that the throne was hers. Queen Leah has been insidiously trying to get Audrey on the throne ever since she was born. We see pictures of Audrey and Ben growing up together as kids in Audrey's room. And in Audrey's song, 'Queen of Mean', she literally tells the audience that she'd always thought that she'd be the queen. She also sings that she never thought of herself as mean, even though she has been mean since the very first movie! She's so privileged that she is unable to reflect on her own actions. Jeez. Again this re-emphasises the same idea in the first movie: being born on the right side of the barrier doesn't automatically make you a good person.

Anyway, back to Queen Leah. She definitely owes Audrey a huge apology because in the third movie, we finally understand why Audrey's the way she is. It's because of her grandmother, who pressurises her unnecessarily, telling her that she should become the next queen. This is what she actually says in the movie:

Queen Leah: A lifetime of plans. Gone. Our family status. Gone. Audrey, you're supposed to be his queen, and you let him slip through your fingers! Your mother could hold on to a prince in her sleep!

This is how Queen Leah got into Audrey's head. And this is an extremely toxic relationship. Children should not be told what they should become when they grow up. Adults should not be living vicariously through their children or their grandchildren. Someone once said, "If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path."

It's a shame that Disney didn't address this issue, because there are kids out there who desperately want to be good and please their family (like Audrey), but following the path that has already been laid out for them ultimately isn't what's good for them.

Overall, the movies were enjoyable because of the fact that they were musicals. The premise was good, but there was potential for the movies to delve even deeper into these themes instead of just scratch the surface. 

How to Plan a Wedding (with a budget of $25,000)

As you probably already know, my husband and I held our wedding ceremony for our family and friends on 2 June 2019 at Hort Park. But what you don't know is how much everything costs.

When my mother was inviting my relatives to the wedding, I told one of my aunties that I was a budget bride and she said, "No lah, don't like that say." I thought that this was weird because I'm proud to be a budget bride! Why would I feel proud about spending a lot of money on just one ridiculous event that is only a few hours long and isn't even meant for me to enjoy? I know that a lot of Chinese people think that "face" is very important, but honestly I can't be bothered. When organising an event, you'd be so caught up with all the details and you'd be so busy making sure that things go smoothly that you'd never actually get to enjoy the big day itself. So why spend so much on the wedding when you can spend more on your house and your honeymoon?

My husband and I paid for the wedding expenses ourselves, so we weren't prepared to spend a large proportion of our life savings on just the wedding when we had to pay for the renovation of our new house too. Also, it's wrong to plan a wedding thinking that you can spend all you want since the angpaos will make up for it, because that's not something that you actually have control over. In our case, we were pleasantly surprised that we received quite a lot of money from our angpaos! Although the angpaos collected ultimately didn't cover the total cost, I think that the money that we spent was worth it because many guests said that the garden themed wedding was beautiful and I absolutely agree.

Here's what we spent on and approximately how much things cost. I've mostly rounded it up or down to the nearest ten or hundred, and GUESS WHAT? It's almost exactly $25k! Mission accomplished! Haha! Anyway, here's the breakdown:

1. Caterer ($12,750)

Food is obviously the going to cost the largest amount of money. We catered for 200 people even though less than 200 people were coming because I wanted to make sure that there would be enough food for everyone in case they wanted an extra serving. The catering company was also in charge of all the floral decorations and the bouquet that I was holding.

Although the caterer screwed a few things up at the wedding, at least the food was good and the macarons were adorable! 

They made 200 macarons as wedding favours for our guests, which were in the shape of cats and rabbits. I chose some pictures of cute macarons on Pinterest and they were able to replicate them! Oh, and the wedding cake was Pinterest inspired too.

Many of our guests kept telling us about how good the food was! I didn't get to eat much but I'm glad that everyone's tummies were satisfied.

2. Prewedding Shoot ($2,600)

Some of you may have a separate budget for the prewedding shoot but I included this to show that it is possible to have an overseas prewedding shoot even on a budget. I did some research and felt that taking pictures in Singapore would be kinda boring. Going overseas sounded a lot more fun! And it was, because we didn't just go to Indonesia for the shoot. We also explored Surabaya a little, then did some hiking at Mount Bromo before heading to Ijen.

Anyway, since we were on a budget, we couldn't possibly go to Europe. Also, some prewedding photoshoot packages seemed really expensive and gimmicky. They would restrict the number of photos that you would get and give you additional stuff that you don't want.

So in the end, we decided to have our prewedding shoot in Indonesia. Since it's not too far away, everything would be much cheaper. I found a list of local Indonesian wedding photographers and we chose to go with House of Photographers. We brought my husband's suit and two of my dresses over, and they arranged everything else for us (two cameramen, one makeup artist, and transportation). Since we didn't want to go to cliche, recognisable places, we went to places that people have not heard of before.

The cameramen and makeup artist were very professional and my husband was super pleased. We were in good hands and he didn't have to worry much. Also, they gave us all the photographs that they took. No gimmicks.


3. Venue ($2,500)

I took this picture when we first arrived 

As mentioned, we had our wedding at Hort Park. We booked the multi-purpose hall for the entire day so that the catering company could go there early and set up the tables and chairs and all the other stuff. We also booked another room for the tea ceremony, which took place just before the dinner.

4. Decorations and other miscellaneous stuff ($2,400)

We hired a vendor to help us with the decoration of the stage and the reception area (welcome board, area to display photographs, and I really wanted a wishing well for the angpaos to be placed in so yay! I got that!). 

The wooden photo frames were from Daiso and we developed the photos before passing them to the vendor so that they could arrange it all nicely. The balloons with our names on them were from Partyshop SG.

I chose to have balloons with vines, as well as balloon bouquets with balloon leaves, since I wanted a garden themed wedding!

Special shout out to Yanli, who designed the wedding invitation cards for me! She managed to draw a cat and a rabbit out and it was exactly what I asked for. Then John and I simply went to a printing shop and got the cards printed out so that we could distribute them to our relatives. Easy peasy!

5. Makeup Artist and Photographer (1,500)

Actually, we spent more than the amount stated above. We gave each of them a tip since they were both so helpful and professional on the day of our wedding. (P.S. I'm not including the amount we spent giving away extra angpaos, since you could consider that as optional)

Most of the pictures I'm using in this blog post (apart from the prewedding pictures and unless otherwise stated) were taken by Zhun Kiat, the photographer we had from Jstillmotion. 


6. Band ($1,500)

Contrary to popular belief, we paid for the band ok. John is part of The MadHatter Project so he knows what the market rate is. Musicians still got to eat, so don't be stingy ok!

7. Alcohol ($1,000)

We had Shake Affinity to help us with alcohol. My dad also provided us with some bottles of hard liquor for the cocktails, but in the end most of it didn't get used. Shake Affinity provided us with beer and wine, but only the wine ran out. So now we have a hell lot of beer and hard liquor in our kitchen. I don't know what to do with this much alcohol!

I chose to have pina coladas and other cocktails at my wedding because I personally love pina coladas (just like the song). But I guess it wasn't a hit. Since alcohol wasn't as popular as I expected, we probably could've saved more money here. But it also wouldn't be nice if we ran out of alcoholic drinks or didn't provide them at all, so this was still kinda necessary.

8. Suit and gowns ($750)

I think I've mentioned way too many times that we got our stuff from Taobao. The most awesome thing about buying stuff from Taobao is that it comes with freebies! For instance, I think every single dress I bought came with a veil, a pair of gloves, and a can-can. They also gave us a free jewellery set, complete with necklace, earrings, ring, etc. (Not that I actually used these things, though. The jewellery was too gaudy and I had my own. I only used the can-cans.)

You might be thinking: Why so expensive? One wedding dress from Taobao is only about $100! Well, after purchasing the dresses from Taobao, we had to bring it to a tailor to alter it to perfection.

My husband got a blue suit from there and I bought a pair of shoes as well as three dresses:

a) Blue gown for photoshoot in Indonesia

We had to alter this gown because the boob area was too big (yes sadly, my boobs weren't big enough). The aunties at Alt-To-Fit had to alter the shit out of this dress by removing some sequins and sewing them back on again. But everything else about this dress was amazing.

b) White gown for tea ceremony

Ok, this gown was a little disappointing because when I first put it on I felt that it looked nothing like the gown in the pictures on the Taobao app. Thankfully, the aunties at Alt-To-Fit were able to salvage the gown so I looked decent.

c) White gown for wedding dinner

I DID NOT NEED TO ALTER THIS DRESS AT ALL. I had it made to measure, which means that I had to figure out what all the Chinese terms meant and then measure what felt like every single part of my body. This was done by my mother-in-law actually, because she's also a talented seamstress herself. Then, she told us the measurements and we messaged the people on Taobao and... Voila! In a couple of weeks, a perfect dress had arrived from China! It was princessy so I really liked it and chose it as the dress that everyone would see me in. Unfortunately I have since found out that I suck at walking in long and poofy dresses.

Total: $25,000

Final thoughts:

Like I said, I'm proud that we managed to plan a wedding that costs only $25k. It may seem like a big amount to some, while others might find that I should've had a more extravagant wedding. But to each their own.

If you know me well enough, you'd know that my dad has eight older siblings, which means that growing up, I've had to attend so many weddings. All of my cousins would have their weddings at luxurious hotels. They'd always have the cliche photo montage (baby to adulthood), speeches, and everyone (mostly men) would somehow feel compelled to shout yam seng for an inordinate amount of time. There'd be so many tables in the ballroom and the food would take forever to arrive. (Once, the dessert took so long to arrive that we left before it was served!) Usually, my stomach would be rumbling but we still had to sit through some lame video that showed us what happened in the morning at gate crashing and all that. To me, it all became boring AF.

Which is why we did away with the speech, gatecrashing, and yam seng portions of typical weddings. I made my own photo montage of pictures that actually matter to my relationship. And instead of waiting for the food to arrive, our guests could go get the food themselves. No groomsmen, no bridesmaids, no wedding rings. My wedding is probably the weirdest one out of all the others. But so what? I don't care if my relatives and friends see my wedding as something that is not as high class or atas as what they are accustomed to.

Remember: This is your wedding. Don't feel pressurised to do what you think others expect of you. Once you know what you want, just set yourself a budget and make sure that you spend within your means. It doesn't matter what people think as long as you're happy and still financially secure after that.