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The husband and I aren’t really fussy about our accommodation options while on holiday. We’re not the chilling-in-the-room sort, preferring to pack every minute of the day with activities. Then we reach back to the room, crash for the night and blitz out early the next morning.

That being said, I’m not the backpacker sort and I can’t do hostels. I still need a clean bathroom and decently soft beds. But I can do without the 5,000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, the milk baths and the personal butler.

I’m low-maintenance like that.

Travelling with the kids is a different story. They need their afternoon naps. And nutritious home-cooked meals. And a nice bathtub. And laundry options because they go through clean clothes like you will not believe. And lots of space to run around. Basically, they need to bring our entire house along on holiday.

So instead of going for a regular hotel room this trip, we decided to go for an apartment, which is sort of like being at home on holiday.

I got introduced to a brilliant website called Roomorama that does apartment rentals. They’ve got an impressive list of apartments in 443 destinations and these are all real homes owned by individual owners. They aren’t shabby either – they come equipped with full kitchens, washers and dryers. Plus, all the apartments are beautifully decorated, each with a touch of personal flair.

Best of all, the prices are like half of what I’d expect to pay for a hotel room equivalent.

I had a hard time deciding on which one to pick because they were all really nice. There was the country-styled cottage one, and the modern chic one and the cosy homely one.

We finally settled on a gorgeous 2-bedroom apartment in St Kilda, right next to the beach.

Booking the place was a real breeze and we’re all set for our accommodation next week. Will update more pictures when we’re there.

PS. For a better idea of how Roomorama works, check out this video here.

I’ve been a fan of balance bikes since I found out about them several months ago. We even got Tru a super macho princess pink Kettler balance bike to help him acquire balancing skills.

Except that after a couple of tries, it fell on his toe once while struggling with it and he’s hated it ever since. That was kind of a bummer because I really thought a non-pedal balance bike was a brilliant way to teach kids how to cycle without ever needing training wheels.

So I sold off the Kettler and that was the end of their bicycle balancing endeavors.

Well, right until CK from The Little Bike Shop offered to send over 2 Striders for the kids. I told him about our Kettler experience and how I wasn’t sure if they would take to it but he said the Strider was different and he was confident the kids would love it.

Long story short, they really did love it.

While both balance bikes did seem extremely similar, the Strider was great for 2 reasons. At 3.2 kg, it was extremely lightweight and easy to manoeuvre. Whenever it fell, they could pick it up quite easily on their own. Also, there are these very handy footrests that they could prop their legs on when they picked up enough speed to glide.

After a week, Truett was able to glide with both feet on the footrests looking all nonchalant. By the third week, he was trying to show off by swerving left and right downslope without falling. He’s so fast now that I’m going to need my blades to catch up.

Kirsten is still picking it up slowly but she’s confident enough to walk with the bike for moderately long distances.

On Saturday, we brought them to East Coast Park and unleashed them with their striders. Here’s a look at how it went.

Here’s your chance to win a Strider Balance Bike (choose any color) from The Little Bike Shop.

How to Enter

1) Go to My Little Bike Shop’s Facebook page and “Like” it.

2) While you’re at it, if you haven’t already – go to Mother, Inc’s Facebook page and “Like” that too.

3) Pick your favorite Strider Bike color and leave a comment below on which color you’d like. Remember to leave your email address (it will be kept confidential) and use your Facebook name (instead of your nick) while leaving the comment.

4) Well, actually, that’s it!

Who can Enter

This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only.

Contest Duration

This giveaway ends on Sunday 4 September 2011, 11:59pm

The winner will be randomly selected by The Little Bike Shop and contacted via email. If the selected winner does not respond in 48 hours, then another winner will be selected.

***

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT! Congrats to Cheryl You, you’ve won a bright yellow Strider Balance Bike. We’ll be contacting you with details on how to pick up the bike. And a big thank you to everyone who joined the contest!

I’m really not a cleanliness freak. In fact, I’m the opposite of a cleanliness freak because I can put up with astounding amounts of dirt. Wait, I need to to qualify this. If I’m given a choice between sparkling clean and a room covered in trash and tiny dead animals, I’d go with the sparkling clean any day. I’m just not big on the cleaning process before I get to the sparking clean bit.

So I typically find an optimum point in between the spotless and the trashy so I don’t kill myself with the cleaning but at the same time, my house doesn’t smell like the unwashed socks of 14-year-old schoolboys.

Let me illustrate with a scale.

As you can see, my cleanliness level has increased significantly after the kids came along, because I’m responsible like that. My mom says there’s no visible difference but then she operates on a different scale altogether, which consists only of clean and very clean. I hope to get there by the time I’m 45.

Miele (pronounced mee-ler) recently launched their latest range of vacuum cleaners called the S6 series and these petite little babies are pretty incredible. I know this because I’ve been fiddling with one of these for the past week after they so kindly sent over a set.

It basically works like any other vacuum cleaner, but better. I loved that it’s small (but powerful), which makes for easy maneuvering and storage. It’s fancy new 12-step AirClean Filtration system means that all the dirt goes into the vacuum cleaner and stays there. And more dirt inside the vacuum cleaner means less dirt in my house, so that’s always good. Also, it’s a lot quieter than any other vacuum cleaner I’ve tried.

My previous monster of a Karcher is more than double this size and it had this annoying water filtration system where I had to pour out stinking dirt-filled water after every single vacuum. Several times, I forgot to pour it out and it smelt like a reservoir of Trainspotting toilet water with dead bodies. Which totally messes with my system because I start finding excuses not to vacuum at all.

Now with the Miele, I just stow it away after I’m done. And this is my new scale with the Miele (and a lot less effort).

This video pretty much sums up how it works.

Ok, now for the part you’ve all been waiting for – YES, A GIVEAWAY! Thanks to Miele, I get to feel like Santa Claus in the middle of August because we’re giving away 1 set of the Miele S6210 vacuum cleaner (retailing at $428) to one of you.

All you need to do is watch the video and answer this question in the comments below.

“What is expelled from the Miele S6 vacuum cleaner in the S6 zone?” 

One randomly selected comment with the correct answer will be bringing home the Miele S6210. Contest closes at midnight on August 12, 2011.

Update: Keep the comments coming, but don’t forget to key in your email address or I won’t be able to contact you if you do win!

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT! After removing the non-entries, there are a total of 158 entries for the contest, all of which have the correct answer. (nice!)

The good folks at Miele has selected the winning number and it’s…112! Congrats to st3phanini, our 112th comment! We’ll be contacting you shortly with details on how to pick up your new Miele S6 vacuum cleaner.

And thanks again to everyone for joining the contest!

Update x 2: My apologies for not stating earlier that the Miele S6 needs to be picked up from the Miele office in Singapore. Since the first winner Stephanie is residing in NY and not able to pick it up, we have done a redraw.

Congrats to pc, our 102nd comment! Details coming your way.

I didn’t think I’d be the sort but turns out, I love redecorating. Seeing how much time I spend at home, it’s nice to give the place a little makeover every now and then. Plus there’s that whole Barney Stinson philosophy of how New Is Always Better. With which I wholeheartedly concur.

Once in a while, I’ll make the husband move the furniture around just for kicks. He says the cabinet looks exactly the same 5 inches to the left but the man obviously knows nothing about fengshui. Which is admittedly more than I do, but I make up for it by throwing in random words like chi and earth energy.

And it irritates him the most when I make him shift everything back to its original spot because the new layout looks terrible.

Last week, I had a bit of fun redecorating the kids’ room with new wall decals. Alma from Pinnacle Wall Arts sent over a whole bunch of premium quality wall stickers called wallcandy arts. They were so pretty that baby girl was all “I like this one and this one and this one and this one…”

We had a hard time picking out the ones we wanted to put up but we finally settled on Forest Friends for Kirsten and Race Me for Tru. It took me almost a full hour to get the stickers just right but so worth it because the end result was gorgeous.

It’s like the forest animals are having a party around the row of pictures (which I’m supposed to replace with pictures of my kids – I’m still choosing which ones to put up). And the race cars were placed above Tru’s fire engine bed for thematic unity.

It’s a brilliant concept – high quality removable wall stickers that can be repositioned as many times as I wanted without losing its stickiness. I could create a new scene and story with the wall stickers and it was totally hassle free. Just peel and re-paste.

The husband is happy too because me moving stickers around whenever I get bitten by the redecorating bug means less furniture moving for him.

The stickers are also pretty hardy. The kids had a great time peeling them off, scrunching them into little balls and asking me to put them back again. Kirsten pasted an acorn on her nose and went around saying “see I’m a qui-wel, so pretty.” I think she meant squirrel but yes princess, SO PRETTY.

Ok, giveaway time! Pinnacle Wall Arts will be giving away a set of My Sunshine and Sweet Dream Fairies to 2 readers. Just leave a comment below on which part of your home you love best. Contest closes on midnight, Sunday 31 July and 2 winners will be selected randomly.

Also, go check out their lovely range of wall stickers, wall decals and wall murals. You’ll get a 15% discount by keying in the code motherinc upon checkout. This code has no limit or no expiry date so shop away!

UPDATED: Congrats to Shan (comment 24) for winning My Sunshine and pm_babe (comment 14)  for winning Sweet Dream Fairies! I’ll be contacting you for delivery details shortly. Enjoy your new wall decals!

After removing all the non-entries, there were 59 entries for the contest.

Thanks for sharing the favorite corners of your home, I loved reading every single one.

My relationship with Milo goes back a long way, as is probably the case with every Singaporean. It seems like we all drank Milo at some point as a child, whether it was introduced by parents, grandparents or teachers. Remember the Milo van? It was always the highlight of every sports meet and I remember queueing up for many refills. For that, I blame those tiny paper cups – it’s like they were trying to make us come back for more.

It’s pretty much the one drink that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, especially on cold rainy afternoons. Sure, I mean, a hot chocolate is great and all, but it ain’t no Milo, that’s for sure.

I should probably also tell you that I make the most badass Milo Dinosaur you will ever taste, which involves precise measurements of different types of milk and enough Milo powder to give you a sugar OD. My dad used to only drink the Milo that I made and I would concoct mugs of my secret recipe Milo to store in the fridge at night. Only to find them mysteriously gone in the morning (Sarah, I’m looking at you).

When I was too busy to make my own Milo in NTU, my folks would buy me cartons of canned Milo to store in the fridge so I could just grab and go as I scrambled to make it to class on time. The husband came across my stash as he was raiding my fridge one day and he was all “eh, your father owns a Milo store is it?” True story.

At one point, it was the only beverage I drank with all my meals. We’d be out for dinner at the hawker centre and I’d do my most gung ho kopi aunty impression like “aunty, tak kiu peng gao” (which translates to iced Milo, extra thick). We go to mackers and I’d be all “McSpicy meal, change my drink to iced Milo, please.” We go for roti prata and and I’ll go “boss, Milo dinosaur satu.”

Until I began to feel the effects in my behind and had to switch some out to green tea instead.

If you’re a Milo fan, check out this video done by a couple of NTU students. A tad melodramatic but it’s a very impressive effort. I say this because back when I was doing my film module in NTU, our work was significantly um, less polished. We shot a 30-second horror flick where I was brutally murdered and my friend Chee Kong knocked my head against the door frame (twice) as he carried my dead body to a creepy grass patch lit by candles. I’m fairly certain that the footage has since self-destructed due to its appalling production quality but if I ever do find it, it’s going up on the blog.

Anyhow, this one is much better.

When you’re done, head on over to their Facebook page to read all the other Milo stories. Some of them are really good.

I’ll just come right out and say it: laundry is my arch nemesis and the bane of my existence. If I’m Batman, then laundry is The Penguin, The Joker and Poison Ivy all rolled into one giant ball of dirty linen.

When I was staying with my mom, I discovered that I had special laundry powers. Every morning, freshly pressed laundry would miraculously appear in my drawers smelling like daisies and lavender. If I couldn’t find my favorite top, all I needed to do was yell “mom, where’s my favorite top?” and it would swiftly make its way to my arms accompanied by a chorus of little birdies.

Then during my hostel days in NTU, I suddenly lost that ability. No amount of yelling would make my clothes wash themselves and hang out to dry, so I found a way to wear my clothes for as long as possible before washing them, thereby reducing my laundry sessions to a biweekly affair.

Things got decidedly worse when I had kids because they didn’t seem to care much for my biweekly laundry plans. They spat up whenever they wanted and pooped, well, pretty much all the time. During those months of desperation, I had to resort to desperate measures. Laundry time meant grabbing bundles of clothes, dumping them into the washer and popping detergent in for a spin. It was followed by grabbing the washed bundles and stuffing them into the dryer for another spin. Which was in turn, followed by grabbing the dry bundles and dumping them into a giant basket in the storeroom. For several months, we had to pick out our outfits from said basket every morning. Ok, it gave my mom a cardiac arrest during one visit but it was our thing and it worked.

While my ingenious basket-system was high on efficiency, it pretty much killed our clothes very quickly. The husband’s Zara shirts became faded and out of shape after several washes, which was a real bummer.

Well, we’ve since abolished that system and are now extremely diligent in doing my laundry. More or less.

I was glad when Kao offered to send over their Color Bleach for a test run. First of all, I welcome all the help I can get in my daily epic battle with laundry. But more importantly, it was like a sign because Kao is my husband’s surname, and all the Kaos I know are pretty awesome (especially my 2 mini Kaos). I was all “look kids, this special product is named after you, which means you must help mommy with the laundry!” but they were like “meh, let’s play toys instead.” It was apparent that they acquired my special laundry powers.

Fortunately for me, I found out that Kao Color Bleach was good for removing stains and brightening colors at the same time. I always thought bleach was too harsh for clothes and its use should be kept to a minimum but Kao Color Bleach is a non-chlorine oxygen bleach that’s heavy-duty enough to vanquish stubborn stains but gentle enough for daily use.

In the spirit of really testing the powers of Kao Color Bleach, I decided to break out the finger paints for a no-holds-barred-mess-making session. Usually, I lay down a set of 48 rules during their finger-painting lessons, all of which revolve around ways to not make a mess. This time, I had only one rule – Do anything you want except eat it. They could smear it on their hair, their clothes, their limbs, the floor and even each other if they wanted.

They smeared it around in delight, then looked at the mess they made and were all like “ewwww so gross, I want mommy to clean.”

This was how their clothes looked like right after the painting.

Even with my limited laundry experience, I knew that stains left on clothes for too long can be really difficult to remove, so they went right into the washing machine while the paint was still fresh with ½ a cup of Kao Attack Detergent Plus Softener and Kao Color Bleach each. I didn’t even have to bother with any soaking or scrubbing.

And here’s how they looked after drying. I know right? Like magic. Ok, don’t say it, I know I’m totally degenerating into an aunty. It’s an occupational hazard, y’all.

I even got some laundry tips from Kao – my favorite one being How to Remove Blood Stains because you never know when that might come in handy. If you ever find yourself needing to remove blood stains from your clothes, quickly rinse with cold water then soak with detergent mixed with Kao Color Bleach and you’ll have them out in no time.

And now for the fun part. Fancy some samples of Kao Color Bleach Powder to test out yourselves? Head on over here to get a sample pack delivered to you & and find out more about all the other convenient laundry solutions that Kao has in store for you.

Wait, it gets better. After your sample of the Kao Colour Bleach has been mailed to you, you will receive a notification of the url to review the product. Let the good folks at Kao know what you thought about their product and you might just be one of the weekly winners to receive a year’s worth of laundry products!

So on that note…

Happy Laundrying? Laundering? Laundromatting? Laun…? Bollocks, my English is broken – I’m going to go fix it. Um, have fun!