It's that time of the year...

It's that time of the year when I see (nice) Singaporean/Malaysian Chinese passengers on flight and give them a deck or two of The Company's poker cards to help them make some money during Chinese New Year!
Gong xi fa cai!!!

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WHOA! I want Alexander McQueen's Heroine Shoulder bag! I was quite skeptical about the Heroine bag at first, thinking maybe, maybe not. But the Heroine Shoulder looks like a good bag to have.

And now I'm kicking myself for not buying another Chanel flap (it's a 2.55 225 to be specific) up until now. I don't have another Europe flight before the price increases TOMORROW. I arrive in Barcelona on Feb 1st and they would have probably increased the price by then.

Regrets. I shall comfort myself with some pineapple tarts.

Clarins UV PLUS HP SPF40 Day Screen

I'm doing a review here of what I think is one of the best sunscreens around. 

I daresay many of you out there run out of the house in the morning without sunscreen. We know how the sun rays damage our skin. We know how it causes aging by breaking down collagen fibers. We know it causes dark spots too. Yet we're all too lazy to use it because the damage isn't particularly noticeable until many years later.

This affects both male and female, and if you still want to look as good as you do now, you should invest in a good sunscreen.

  

Other than laziness, many people leave out sunscreen as part of their daily beauty regime because sunscreens feel heavy on the skin. You know there's something thick on your skin and you feel that your skin can't breathe with the sunscreen on. Worse still, for females, we have to layer on makeup (think: foundation, face powder, blusher) on top of that heavy sunscreen. It's not comfortable at all.

So here's your saviour: Clarins' UV PLUS HP Day Screen with SPF40 that not only protects your skin from UV rays, it protects your skin from pollution too. Hoorah! because we all live in terribly polluted cities now, don't we?

I have two of these, one that is tinted and the other which isn't.

If I remember correctly, there are two shades of tint that this comes in - one with a yellow base and the other that is pink. Shown above are the pink-based and non-tinted versions. 

This is a mineral sunscreen, hence it doesn't clog your pores. It doesn't feel heavy at all, and it blends into your skin easily without leaving a horrible white-cast on your face. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about when I say many other sunscreens make you feel like you're wearing a white mask. With this, you will definitely notice that it blends into your skin and then absorbs into your skin without being greasy and thick. You can easily put on your makeup on top of it without fear that your makeup is going to run when you accidentally brush your hand against your face. I would even say it works very well as a makeup base. The fact that it's absorbed into your skin allows it to hold on strong to your makeup. Did I also mention that it helps me with sebum-control??

Since last year, I've stopped using foundation in favour of Diorsnow's BB Creme (that's for another day). As I stay away from thick foundation these days, I can confidently go out with just a layer of this sunscreen topped with some compact powder (or even loose powder on super lazy days). 

The bottom line is there's no stepping out of the house without the sunscreen.

I personally prefer the tinted version because it gives a slight glow and a healthy hint of colour to the skin. This matters when you're not planning on using foundation to even out your skin tone. 

I guess the non-tinted version will be a better option for the guys. 

Dior has a very similar sunscreen (similar in texture, colour and effect) but it costs more than this. Why pay more when you can enjoy such a great product for less?

Try it at a Clarins counter near you. Clarins are usually generous with samples so don't be afraid to ask for some!

Next Chanel price increase

Not sure if it's true, but I read it's Feb 1st.
Get your bags before the next price increase!!!

Lalang by the bay

This morning I threw up again. Seriously, what's wrong with me?



 On another note, I was at Gardens By The Bay yesterday. I've been wanting to visit this new attraction for months.

 

My verdict of it? Disappointing.

The supertrees are impressive, so are the glass conservatories.

Other than that, it seems like the place is still in its infancy and should not have been opened to public at this stage.

Trees were still small and needed support with stakes. It was such a common sight. The water in the lakes was more disgusting than the water in Tasik Y (of BP). There were bald patches of ground everywhere. And many of the attractions were covered by WEEDS. Even on a Saturday evening, there were labourers working but if they're at work, then why were there weeds that had almost obscured two bull sculptures near the Kingfisher Lake?

IMHO, that place is a mess and very much like something Malaysia - not Singapore - is capable of running.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a lot more pleasant and beautiful I would say.

Hmmm...

Who's gonna buy this when it isn't Halloween?

Roadside buy

Whee!

Unfair

I'm dejected.

Today's flight was tough because of the heavy load and passenger profile. My colleagues and I at my zone worked really hard and tried to deliver our best.

One lady passenger was traveling with two children and her mother who can't speak English. Her mother was visiting her in the US when her father passed away suddenly in Chennai and so they bought a last minute ticket to fly back there. During the flight, one of her children had a high fever so me and my colleague took turns to check on the kid, took her temperature every now and then and fed her medication throughout the 14-hour flight. Not only that, we took care of the old lady despite the language barrier in order to allow the other three travelers maximum rest.
At almost the end of the flight, the lady was so pleased and appreciative that she wrote a glowing compliment letter for my colleague and I. It was a long letter to show her appreciation, and we also appreciate her efforts in doing that.

But at the end of the flight, my leading steward told me he lost the compliment letter :(((((

It's so unfair because we all worked so hard and this is important to us. I don't even know where to direct my anger to now.

Best fries

This is my favourite order at Cheesecake Factory - sweet potato fries! So damn good. I just had to order one to go this morning. Yums!

Rolling in the deep

At the corner of Powell and Market streets, where the Powell & Masons cable car terminates, there's always a long queue of tourists waiting to board the next cable car to take them to the wharf. That's also a good place for buskers to earn tourist dollars.

These buskers are often loud and you can hear them from across the road at Westfield. As I was going to cross the road I was looking for where Adele's song was coming from. It was an upbeat version of Rolling In The Deep on saxophone.

At first I saw a man dancing. I thought that was the busker. You know sometimes people do really silly things yet they still get money, probably for effort.

In San Francisco, I see two kinds of people - friendly people and homeless people. More often than not the homeless are also mad. And my colleagues will disagree with my observation because they say the friendly people are also the homeless people who are also the mad people.

So as I got to the other side of Market Street, the silly man dancing to Adele's song was actually a homeless man who was very drunk. Many people, even from across the street, watched in amusement as he did moves like in the movie The Drunken Master. I hope the saxophonist made enough money after having someone steal his limelight.

Isn't it wonderful to be in a place where something so unexpected happens to break the mundane daily scenes around you? If this had been Singapore, one of those tight-arsed Singaporeans would have reported this to the police and the police would have dragged this man away from the eyes of tourists.

Sales are STILL on

I thought the winter sales would be over by now. They were on when I was in Houston, post-Boxing Day. Today, it's still going on!!!

For some reason I wanted to go to the BCBG boutique at Union Square this trip. I remember being there once and the sales staff were super nice. That trip I walked out with two items. Even though there were no sales then, I walked out satisfied. One of the items I bought that day was a cardigan that I run to almost every time till today. That was really money well-spent.

Back to today at BCBG. So the sales are still on-going, and the boutique had everything displayed neatly on racks, very much unlike other places where sale pieces are all squashed together. I usually have neither mood nor patience to sift through racks like that. Today I scored two pieces that were going at 60% and 40%, with additional discount of 30% taken off at the register. In fact one of the pieces is a runway silk piece so I'm absolutely over the moon!!! I haven't felt so good about scoring deals at a sale for such a long time.
Herve Leger dresses in the boutique are 60% off, essentially saving $600 per piece. That will be consideration for another season though.

Craving

After being sick last week with gastric flu, I was coughing my lungs out over the weekend. While that recovered on Monday, fever hit me very late Sunday night. On Monday, temperature rose steadily throughout the day until it peaked at 39.5 degrees and I was begging my doctor to get me admitted to the hospital.

So I took my second MC *sob* on Tuesday. Things seemed fine until yesterday morning, about 20 hours ago, I woke up to prepare for a morning flight. I vomited out the first proper meal I had in 2 days. I had otherwise been surviving on bits of bread throughout Monday to Tuesday. On Tuesday night, feeling so much better, Markus bought me chicken porridge. It never tasted better!!!
I probably overate, and my stomach couldn't take it so it came back out the same way it went in a few hours later.

Yesterday on my hectic day at work, I could only allow myself to eat bread fearing that anything else, especially oily food, will upset the stomach.

And now I'm so bloody hungry and I crave for YEW CHAR KWAY with porridge T______T

I hope my tummy recovers before Friday because I reckon there'll be plenty of oily food (Cheesecake Factory! Dim Sum!) when I visit HK and SFO.

Super lucky

Edit: Suddenly it occurred to me... Ah Ma, is that you planning my rosters every CNY from where you are so that the family can get together?

According to Chinese customs, my family cannot celebrate Chinese New Year for three years after my paternal grandmother passed away. This coming Chinese New Year will be the second.

Getting annual leave during Chinese New Year is close to impossible so what I've been doing for the previous years is that I bid from the 3rd or 4th day onwards.

Last year, I managed to bid for annual leave starting on the 4th day of Chinese New Year. My family and aunts had already booked themselves a holiday to Bali on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year way before my roster was released. When it was released, I couldn't believe my luck that I was to touch down from Amsterdam on the 2nd day in the early hours of the morning. So I bought myself a last minute ticket to Bali and crashed with my aunts for the entire stay in Bali.

 This year,  I couldn't even get annual leave from the 4th day onwards. It was rejected. I was bummed. My family and aunts are going to Bangkok from the 11th-14th. I was quite disappointed that I won't be able to join them. When roster was released yesterday, I couldn't even believe my smashing luck! It literally was a dream come true because they gave me the exact flight I was hoping for - a super-duper long flight that touches down on the 11th morning, which is the exact day my family are flying to Bangkok! So, just like last year, I will come home, rush home to repack my luggage and rush to the airport again to be on our way to BANGKOK!!!!
Because of the long flight pattern, I have enough off days to be in Bangkok for their entire trip.

♥
a.men.

I have found a reason to own an iPad

After so many years since the iPad's launch, I must be the only person in my age group who doesn't own one.

I have never found a reason to.
I've an MBP which I use when I'm at home. It's fast, reliable and has massive storage. And there's the iPhone when I'm on the go.
In fact, I daresay 95% of iPad owners don't use it for work or anything really useful other than for games and watching movies/dramas.

In fact, I remember my cousin saying that the iPad is for him to watch movies when he's in the toilet. And that watching porn will never be the same again haha.

So back to the topic: I think I have found a truly good reason for an iPad - for entertainment (again, entertainment/fun) when I'm at the hairdresser's!
I hate sitting at the hair salon for 3 hours just perming my hair. It's boring. Female magazines that all the other ladies read there bore me. Yup, they're still recycling the same articles from 10 years ago. The last time I went through Cosmopolitan, I went from cover to cover in 15 minutes.
Heavier reading materials will only put me to sleep. Mind you, with those wires attached to the hair while suspending from above, you shouldn't really nod off.
So the best thing to have is an iPad loaded with dramas ;)

Will now put iPad into serious consideration.

On MC

Sigh.

Sharp pains in the abdomen still come and go... and the diarrhea came back this morning.

Despite getting more medicine last night from the doctor, nothing seems to have changed.

:(

Stomach flu

I'm so sleepy.
Down with the stomach flu. Don't know how I caught it. It struck at midnight this morning after I came back from McDonald's.
I had diarrhea twice and when I was finally ready to sleep at 4, I was kept up the whole morning by constant sharp pains in the abdomen. Even if I had fallen asleep, the pain would wake me up. In the early morning, the pain was more frequent but later on it spaced out. That did not mean they were any less painful. Each time it hit, I would curl up if I'm in bed. Or if I'm standing, I couldn't stand upright at all.


After seeing a doctor, the pain has eased significantly. I slept most of the afternoon away but there were still occasions where I woke up because of the pain.

Tomorrow, I fly with someone dreadful to Denpasar. Taking an MC has never looked more tempting. I've been MC-free for more than 2 years but tomorrow's flight with one of the Top 10 bosses is tempting me to break the record.

Tom's wedding night

I didn't know there is a video of Tom McFly's wedding speech song on YouTube.

I have just seen it and it is freaking awesome.
McFly fans will easily recognize the songs in the song speech song medley.
Tom's such a sweetheart!! :')

The Sofia itch is back!

There's a really cute and happy colour this season on the Sofia and my Sofia itch is back - just when I thought that I have no other bag and shoes to want.
I want, I want, I want!

Meanwhile, the Lindy has gone back to Hermes while I wait for the French craftswoman to come back from her holiday in Paris. It'll be 3-4 months before I can get my bag back. Tragedy happened about 2 weeks ago, when a pair of black Lycra pants stained the back of my bag. No leather cleaner would clean it out. And it costs a bomb to send it back to Hermes :'(
I hope the craftswoman can restore my bag to its former beauty,

Was also at Chanel yesterday and the MBS store is no longer carrying the clutch that I had recently bought. It was not in their in-store iPad app either. It was a classic piece and had been around for years. I've always wanted it but never got around to convincing myself to pay so much for a clutch. Then I got wind that it will be discontinued so I waited no more and finally bought it after my bag ban last year. I did not ask the sales assistant if the clutch is truly discontinued (as I was there for another reason - my earrings' pearl fell off AGAIN!! T______T) but we will know soon enough I guess.

Over the weekend, as I had mentioned previously, I was in Penang to attend a wedding.
It was a good wedding, but it was such a shame I did not step out of the hotel ONCE after I checked-in. I did not get to savor any of the Penang hawker food. I managed to catch a nap after I checked-in (as I did not get much sleep the night before), went for the wedding, slept again and checked-out early in the morning. 

I wish John and Xiao Min many many happy years (and babies) to come.

Council gang: Eric, Me (and the clutch haha), John & The Mrs., Gerel, Jon

Nuclear bomb

Markus and I were at Popular today looking for pens and highlighters.

There were racks and racks of pens there. One lady moved in between us so I took a step back since I wasn't seriously looking for any stationary.

Just as Markus bent down to look at what pens were on the lower section of the rack, our dear lady gave a loud fart and farted right in his face. Hahahaha. I tried so hard to control my laughter and the look on Markus' face was classic.

He could not stop cursing that lady for the next to hours.

Small time reunion

This weekend, I will be attending John's wedding in Penang.
There will be a small reunion of a few Monashians, one ex-stewardess whom I had flown with and we stood up together against some drama, and.... also attending is Julia, the ex-housemate who gave me hell some two years ago.

Oh my god. I can feel the stress already.

Happy 2013

Happy new year everyone!!!!

The fireworks outside is going off like crazy, and it's already almost 1 hour of non-stop fireworks!

This is so déjà vu because I look out of the window to the same view that I had before when I last counted down to the new year in Moscow. Same view where I can't see the fireworks but merely flashes of light coming from behind a few blocks of apartment. This is my third time crossing into the new year in Moscow, including the one where Anshii and I counted down to the NY at Red Square. Ironically, I haven't even crossed that many New Years in Singapore than I have in Moscow.
Isn't it strange, that it's always Moscow considering the number of cities I travel to, or that I could even be in the plane over somewhere....?

Last year, I would never have imagined 2012 to be so eventful. I went home for NY after my São Paulo flight. I was texting Markus that night as we both stayed home. Shortly after, things began to unfold. A month plus later, a monk came to me with words of advice.

Just before that, my family and I also took a holiday to Bali. The first holiday for us since 1989 (?) to Club Med. I almost didn't make it to that holiday but I'm so glad I did.

There were two important events, and that's the wedding of my two cousins. One from the UK, the other from Melbourne. Those were the two most beautiful days of the year to me.

2012 also marked the day the little one left home to study in London. She just can't stop scoring her As and that is how she ended up in London, pursuing her law degree. London stopovers are now more hectic than ever!!

I probably haven't spoken to Anshii that much as I did in 2012. All thanks to the trip to Melbourne where we shared a room (something that hasn't happened since she got married). I'm glad we caught up.

2012 also saw my grandmother's maids running away. Twice. The burden fell on mum and as a result, mum's health suffered. I just hope in 2013, mum has better health than she did in the previous year.

It was also record year for the least amount of money spent on handbags.
Only one purchase in November. *pat on back*
This last trip to Houston, I barely spent $200 which is the least I've ever spent in the US. I truly deserve a medal.

I wish 2013 will be a more beautiful and splendid year for each and everyone of us. More love, less hate, more patience, less dispute.

xx