Favourite shop in Sao Paulo

In Sao Paulo, the company strongly discourages us from going out. A friend's friend who has been working there for the last 2 years has been robbed 4 times since he started out there. Kidnapping and 'lightning kidnapping' is common, as is carjacking and other small crimes.

My colleagues and I, however, decided to be heroes for the sake of some fantastic Brazilian footwear.
You guessed it right - Havaianas is one of it.

Having bought two pairs on my last two trips, and hardly ever wearing them, I was looking forward to something else.
This is the very artsy-fartsy store-front! It stood out like a sore thumb in the row of prim and proper boutiques.

Melissa!!!

 The moment I stepped into the shop, I was overwhelmed by the smell of candy that came from the shoes.  The boutique looked more like an art gallery than a shoe boutique. Many shoes were encased in glass and plastic balls hanging from the ceiling. I spent an hour there with another colleague as we tried almost everything hahaha.

Here's my loot (pretty disappointing considering the amount of time I spent there):

Pretty and fragrant shoes all in a row

Last-minute desperate attempt to add a third pair to the bill.

This pair is so cute!!! Little Miss Piggy!!

Striking resemblance to another pair of plastic shoes....

It's disappointing that they didn't have some of the things that I really like from their catalogue (aptly called Plastic Dreams).

The white pair looks very similar to the pair of Ferragamo that tore and this time, I am sure it won't tear the same way as it is built better than the Ferragamo.

Unlike the Ferragamo, there are no visible joints anywhere on the shoe thus I can't imagine how it will tear.

All the tired legs - and bewildered feet - that are wondering to themselves how they will ever wear out all those pairs of slippers!
7 pairs of Melissas and over TWENTY pairs of Havaianas.

After that we adjourned to have coffee, salad and cakes.


This is what flying is all about =)

Free haircut

Sillyporeans are getting more and more like the Americans.
A mother filed a police report the same day her son's hair was cut by his teacher.
Said school in Choa Chu Kang said boy's hair was unkempt, and students have been warned to cut their hair two days before that, and letters had also been sent out to parents.

Look here, in MALAYSIA, I think every one of us knows of at least one person who's had his hair cut by teacher in school by force. My cousin is a victim of such disciplinary action as well but regardless of who it happened to, it was always worth a good laugh. At tuition centers, word spreads like fire whenever a boy has his hair cut by school teachers. And parents will have nothing much to say about it because their child knows they've flouted the rules.

If your child has broken the rules, he deserves to be punished. And children need to learn how to abide by rules and regulations in order to become law-abiding citizens. Last but not least, children need to know who's authority (teachers, schools). As it is, the current generation of young Singaporeans in their late-teens to early-twenties are already called the Strawberry Generation (because they are easily bruised). I cannot imagine what will become of the next two generations of Singaporeans.

News of impact

Breaking news left, right and center.
This morning the biggest shocker was that Lance Armstrong has been stripped off all titles he's won at Tour de France. He was such a hero when he came back from cancer to win all that. Hero no more?
In the US (and in Malaysia), not fighting is an admission of guilt. But what's happened to innocent until proven guilty? Because Lance Armstrong decided he won't fight the lengthy court battle anymore, that itself becomes an admission of guilt. Flaw or not?

Next, the Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik only received 21 years for taking 77 lives. That, by the way, is maximum jail term. Will this set a precedent for copycat extremists?

Last but not least, Apple and Samsung gets the ban in South Korea after a court ruled that both companies infringed each others' patents. As a result, sales of Apple's iPhones 3G and 4, and iPads are banned in South Korea, so are Samsung's Galaxy SI and SII as well as its Galaxy Tab and Tab 10.1.
And suddenly, the faltering Nokia will see its sales suddenly spike in South Korea.

Most unheeded warning ever

Because EVERY ONE blew into the case :p
If it still did not work, you probably cleaned it with your t-shirt.
Hahaha, childhood memories.

Hypocrites

I'm aiming to change for 3 London flights in September.
At the moment, I've got one in hand. TWO MORE TO GO!

Mini heart attack

It was a fabulous day today until, after lunch at Wild Honey (verdict: not recommended), I realized that the back of a Chanel earring on my right ear had gone missing.
The earring somehow felt weird hence I decided to touch it, and that was when I realized that it was gone. Markus and I were playing just outside Wild Honey (he was going to give me a piggy back ride) so we retraced our steps back there. As we walked back there, I felt so glum. :(
It's because Chanel's earring backs are different and I thought it was going to be so hard to find a replacement.

When we couldn't find it, I felt so lousy. Markus suggested that we walk to Chanel at Takashimaya and ask if I can get a replacement.

On our way to Chanel, Markus said to onlookers, we look like a fighting couple. And I laughed (finally) because it did indeed look like we were fighting. I looked glum and he was like the boyfriend who didn't know what to say/how else to console the upset girlfriend.

ANYWAY, at Chanel, when I told the sales assistant what had happened, she took about 5 minutes to get back to us with a replacement in a tiny little ziplock bag.
And she gave it to me without charging me :)))


Win.
 

An upward shadow

This is a spectacular picture of Mount Rainier casting an upward shadow on the clouds.

I hope to see something like this for once in my life.

Grim long weekend

I'm unexpectedly stuck at home this weekend.
I had changed for off days weeks ago so that I can spend time with the boyfriend. However, his grandfather is very sick. Yesterday the grandfather claimed that he was visited by a spirit that told him time is up.
Today, his condition suddenly improved and he was talking about plans for his funeral.
Things don't look good at all.

Markus and I were suppose to go down to Orchard Road to repair the latch on my luggage but now I'm just stuck at home and having a bowl of cereals for dinner.

How am I going to spend the next two days.

Again

Anlynn makes exams look easy.

She scored with flying colours and is on her way to London!
Extremely excited for her.
I already know what my rosters will look like in future. Even if it didn't look a certain way, I'll have to make it look that certain way eventually!!!

Hip hip!

This is how a heart breaks

<\3

Boey

My favourite cartoonist of today is going on Channel News Asia in 15 minutes!!!

I've been following Boey's comics for a while now and I've religiously gone through all his drawings from Day 1.
He has been gaining popularity steadily, initially from his Styrofoam cups in the States where he resides and now in Malaysia (where he's from) and Singapore after the release of his book 'When I Was A Kid'. Been wanting to get my hands on it but I'll wait till I get back to Malaysia. It's number one on Popular's bestseller list and I'd love to contribute to the escalating number of books sold.
It's a relief to know that the book is doing so well because Boey had much difficulty raising funds to start the book and he wasn't sure if it will eventually happen. It was all chronicled in his cartoon-style blog.
A former animator of computer games such as Diablo, he quit his well-paying job (and dream job for most people!) to focus on his art.

Glad to know he's come so far, that JB boy.

Learn more about him at iamboey.com.

Curiosity visiting a neighbour

Yesterday morning I woke up to the wonderful news of Curiosity's very successful landing on Mars.
The night before, they were expecting a "terror ride" of 7 minutes as the rover will land by ITSELF on the surface of Mars. Of course they were hoping for the best but weighing a tonne, there was the chance it was just going to crash-land itself.

Reading about Curiosity and what it's capable of is mind-blowing. It has the ability to scour the surface of the neighbouring planet and to break up surfaces, and then collect samples and send them to its INTERNAL LAB for analysis of the chemical make-up of the samples (so that we know if there was/is ever life on Mars).
Mind blown right? It's capable of so much more it's crazy. The engineers and scientists who have created this truly deserve our respect.

Hurdles

Playing hurdles on Google's mainpage (it's an interactive Google doodle) just because I have insomnia that's been bugging me for months.
Currently, best time is 18.3 seconds. Gotta try harder!

Full moon in August

Taken by Luke Macgregor of Reuters. Just brilliant!

My private number

Last trip to London, about a week and a half ago, I went to Harrods to get the Bianca.
Instead, I ended up with a pair of No. (Numero) Prive.

I was much too lucky to have come across the No. Prive with the red tip!

I need an event to go to now, now, now!

The shop beside Saks Fifth on Union Square

If you frequent San Francisco, you'll know what shop that is without reading on.

I was bored walking around San Francisco. Sure I saw many friendly faces, I chatted with a handful of shop assistants, got a few names from there, but when I walked past this shop next to Saks Fifth Avenue, I thought it was high time I went in. I've always passed it, but never gone in somehow. I guess it's also because I have nothing to buy from there except something that costs $40k but that's another story altogether (Evelyn will know this one).

Anyway going from boredom I exited the shop with a small blue bag. Happy girl!