I'm a full-time mummy

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

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

About the hotel:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Really must consider!

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

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

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

The baby food maker has helped numerous families get their toddlers to enjoy delicious, nutritious meals. There is no shortage of recipes parents can use. In fact, the dishes can be so tasty that mom and dad may feel like having a bite. Here are some quick, easy recipes to try out once you get the best baby food cooker around.

1. Raspberry Yogurt Shake

The ingredients you will need for this recipe include one “just for baby” yogurt, designed for kids between six and 12 months old, one tablespoon of crushed ice, one teaspoon of sugar and about 6 raspberries for each serving you want to make. Here are the steps to take.

1. Wash the raspberries.
2. Blend slightly within the food maker.
3. Once pulsed, add the crushed ice and yogurt. You can also add a tiny bit of sugar.
4. Add more sugar if needed.
5. Serve to your youngster.

2. Watermelon Granite

This is great for toddlers at least eight months old. You will need a watermelon slice, three fluid ounces of mineral water, a lemon and four teaspoons of fine sugar. Perform these steps.

1. Cut watermelon from the rind. Remove all seeds.
2. Place watermelon in food maker and pulse.
3. Boil mineral water and sugar together in a separate saucepan.
4. Mix in lemon juice and watermelon from baby food maker once it comes to a boil.
5. Let concoction cool in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

3. Tomato and Bobby Bean Soup

You will need 50 grams of bobby beans, 60 grams of potatoes and 40 grams of tomatoes. Fill the water up to level three in the baby food cooker. This will liquidize the vegetables into a soupy concoction perfect for toddlers between four and six months.

These recipes are so good, you may feel like dipping a finger into the food to try it out yourself.

As a busy mum with 4 kiddos between 7 months old to 8 years old, I have started to really cut down on doing product reviews to focus on our childcare and family life, home cooking, helping with hubby's administration site of the business and sharing informational articles on my FB fan page so I am only accepting and prioritizing products that can fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or educational stuff, family products, something along those genre)

Over a year ago, the "Welcome to My Modern Parenthood" (WTMMP) campaign was launched to help new and anxious parents with minimal to zero know-how in transitioning into effortless, enjoyable parenthood through insights and education and I had a pleasant and wonderful experience reviewing products from Merries and Kao, so when I was contacted recently for another review, I immediately say yes! I mean, good stuff, how can one say no?!!!  

This year, back by a popular demand, Kao Malaysia launched the Phase 2 of its highly successful “Welcome To My Modern Parenthood” campaign with the expanded “The Secret to My Modern Parenthood” parenting guidebook and enhanced home care solutions with a range of product brands like Merries, Magiclean and Attack.

Phase 2 of the campaign is to give the consumers an opportunity to interact with Kao's products and learn how to properly use them. The improved guidebook now has a total of 18 chapters with topics on caring for a child into toddlerhood plus tips from experts, doctors and key opinion leaders. A total of 40,000 copies of the guidebook will be distributed this year through NGOs, hospitals and other childcare partners. Excited parents can also download the book for free through this website link: www.kao.com/my/my-modern-parenthood/index.html.

We received the following products this time, they are basically the 3 ideal home care solutions:

• Japan’s No.1* Baby Diaper, MERRIES (M and L size);
  

• Japan’s No.1* Home Care Range, MAGICLEAN; 
  

• Japan’s No.1* Laundry Brand, ATTACK

* Based on value share data reported by Intage, SRI for the Heavy Duty Laundry Detergent Category. (January 2016 to December 2016)

After all these years, I am still impressed with Merries diapers. Just love, love, love their pants diapers, so comfortable and yet snuggly and protectively ensuring no spillout or mess! I did say I love their diapers right? Pictures below taken of our 2nd kiddo when I reviewed Merries diapers back in year 2013 when it entered Malaysian market and now, 4 years on (with 2 more kiddos in the family since then), we are still very much happy and satisfied that our kiddos are still able to reap the benefits of such awesome products as they grow along!

We are also impressed with the Magiclean range of products and have used them in our house as well as in hubby's office. A must have range of products, really!!

As for the ATTACK range of products, I feel that the liquid detergent is not bad as well even though we use powder detergent before this. The detergent smells good and cleans our clothes wonderfully. The softener also made our clothes smooth and soft. Also, do take note the Attack “Hygiene and Anti-Bacterial” range now has a newly created anti-bacterial formulation from Japan, which keeps clothes smelling fresh longer as it offers sweat and odour prevention all day long. Coolness!

To sum up our experience, I'm so ever grateful and blessed to be given the opportunity again to review the wonderful range of products from Kao & Merries and yes, I do believe that they will truly transform your parenting life and makes it way more convenient for you to do your house chores!  

Such true happiness that you can only experience when you know you and your loved ones are in the hands of good quality products and reputable brand name!

Kao is powering up this year’s campaign by going nationwide – including East Malaysia, with close to 100 road shows and 3 major events at shopping malls in Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Bahru.

There is a roadshow coming up in July 2017, details below:

Roadshow: Date : July 27 – 30, 2017        Venue : Queensbay Mall Penang.

For details please check out www.kao.com/my/my-modern-parenthood/index.html.

WTMMP FB page: https://www.facebook.com/wtmmp/

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

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