Movie Review: Hello Stranger

If you have not caught this in Singapore, please do. I think the run will be ending soon.

This Thai rom-com is filmed and set largely in Korea and one sees the most amazing touristy spots (as well as those locations made famous by the drama serials, like the Coffee Prince, and Winter Sonata) in the course of the movie.

Two heart-broken people meet in the city of Seoul and they travel together, forging a close bond after just a few days. They realise that they have fallen in love with each other and start dating, only for the plot to take a twist....watch to find out more. I'm not going to spoil the movie for you!!


I laughed till my belly hurt. So if you like to laugh, or if you like the feeling of your belly hurting, hurry to the cinemas now. The movie is only shown at Golden Village cinemas!

Who Is Willow Smith?

"I whip my hair back and forth, I whip my back and forth..." is the catchy refrain from Willow Smith's first single "Whip My Hair".

She's only 10 (born in 2000) and is one of the youngest solo recording artistes around.

As I was watching her music video, I couldn't help but think, she's so un-child-like. Her level of confidence in front of the camera is amazing. And also, that tiny tinge of doubt, as to whether this would be good for her, to be in the limelight so early on. But, one has to give the Smiths (Willow is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith) the benefit of the doubt, as they seem to be rather good parents, not like say, the father of Lindsay Lohan.

Anywho, just watch and enjoy the hair-raising antics of Little Miss Willow.

Am I Crazy?!

for wanting to buy a pair of earrings that would set me back by $150?

The pair in question? The 1960 tribal earrings I saw in the stand-alone shop outside Mandarin Gallery.

They are absolutely gorgeous with a very unique stud-cum-clip-on backing which I LOVE!!!!

The boyfriend forbade me to buy it. But how to resist the call of this charmingly be-yoo-ti-full pair!! :(

I am dejected.

I Wish I had a Reading Room Like This

via Design*Sponge

This is actually a room in house owned by Artist Gunilla Holm Platou and her husband, movie poster designer Eivind Stoud Platou.

The bookshelf has such a lived-in feel to it and the stacks of magazines at the bottom look like mine (only mine is currently living under the bed for now).

♥
-the exposed rafters
-sofa positioned just where the natural sunlight comes in
-colourful pictures on the wall

Music of the Moment: Janita

This week I'm listening to the warm sultry vocals of Finnish born Janita, who is now based in the US. I've included music from her three albums: Haunted, Seasons of Life and I'll Be Fine.

Take a listen and become a fan.

Haunted from her newest album "Haunted"



Firefly from her 2001 album "I'll Be Fine"



I Only Want You from her 2005 album "Seasons of Life"

going gaga over meat

Doesn't she smell, Cher?

This Week's Music Bath

Infectious song. Especially love that husky voice. That must be why.

Cooler than Me by Mike Posner



My pick from the new album from the Scissor Sisters:

Fire with Fire



Sounds a little like last year's National Day song from Electrico huh? Imagine David running up Marina Barrage with this tune playing in the background and you get what I mean.

I couldn't end off this post without a disco track from them, could I?
Here's Any Which Way

yeah go crazy dancing...in front of your mirror and practice your moves for that song in the clubs.



As always, enjoy!

The William

is a great stove that I want for my home!!!!!


Its kind of like an induction cooker, only bigger, more intelligent and cool-er. Heh, kinda like its big brother?

It doesn't tell you where you should place your pot or pan to be heated and you can cook/heat more than 4 pots/pans at once, due to the fact that one can use any part of this stove's surface.

See the video if you do not believe.

You do not deserve her

I met Hai at KFC in Parkway yesterday before my accompaniment class with his students. As we sat down at our table, we became aware of this middle-aged lady scolding a person with short bowl-cut hair. At first I thought that person was the lady's eldest son but after a while I was wondering why the 'eldest son' was feeding his 'brother' when the boy, who looked like he was 8 or 9 years old, seemed competent enough to feed himself.

The scolding went on and on for about 5 minutes, the lady saying stuff like

"Cannot move ah? Must push a button then you'll move? So stupid" or "So now you think you very clever lah..."

The 'son' kept quiet and just continued feeding the boy. And at this point, I felt something was wrong here. Then they stood up to leave and I discovered, the 'son' was actually the lady's maid.

The woman then asked the maid to clean her daughter's mouth (who again, at the age of maybe 7 or 8, was old enough to do something as simple as clean her own mouth), but the daughter ran away from the maid and hid behind her mom.

By then, both me and Hai were openly staring at the lady, which probably saved the maid from more scolding (because the daughter ran away from the maid, resulting in the maid not being able to wipe her mouth? Madness!!!). The lady just took the piece of tissue from the maid and cleaned her daughter's mouth. WHICH SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE! I mean, who's the mother here? And surely, this should be a simple enough task?!

Following that, mother, son and daughter left the fast food restaurant, leaving the poor maid to get the bags. I say bags in plural, because there sure were lots of bags for ONE person to carry. Oh but of course! For she had to carry three people's bags!

Lets count the bags shall we?

1 huge canvas bag filled with groceries (probably the lady's)

2 small bags - the kind that kids bring for music/tuition classes and definitely not the heavy school bags and DEFINITELY not very heavy and so the kids should have carried their bags themselves!

2 big red plastic bags

1 white grocery bag

So that was about 6 bags the maid had to carry, whilst the lady carried her handbag, and the kids carried nothing, and jauntily walked away, leaving the maid to struggle to pick up everything on her own and try to follow.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you feeling indignant now?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh i forgot, the lady DID come back, but not to help. Rather she demanded that the maid check to see if she dropped anything. And then she walked off again.

I can't stand this type of people. People who think that since they've already paid for their maid, she has to be at their beck and call and do EVERYTHING for them.

A maid only does everything for you when you are:

a) disabled/bed-ridden
b) too fricking lazy
c) think that you are her queen/ruler

And you, lily-assed lady, are lazier than a sloth, with an attitude worse than even the worst divas I've met on stage.

You, who look healthy and strong enough and yet, you have never spared a thought for your maid and her situation. I don't think you even view her as a human being. Paying your maid does not mean you OWN her. Nobody OWNS anybody. Get that straight!

There should be a law for such people to disallow them from hiring a maid.

And you so do not deserve her.

Review: Smooth Away

I just bought this off Bestbuy. I read alot of reviews on the web saying that this product isn't really good as its like using sandpaper on your skin, takes a longer time, yadda yadda...

After using it however, I beg to differ.

The first time I used the mitt, I wet my skin first with warm water. Reason why I used it on wet skin is because hair follicles are enlarged when its wet and it makes for easier hair removal.

The process was easy, quick and no-fuss.

The second time I used the mitt, I used it straight on dry skin. Again, the process was easy, quick and no-fuss.

All it takes is a gentle circular motion on the skin. The mitt doubles as an exfoliator too and the skin is smooth after usage.

Apply some moisturizer as you would normally do and you're good to go!

Another disclaimer, the mitt seems to work better on finer hairs, so I wouldn't recommend this for men!

The package includes a large mitt for areas like your legs and underarms and a small mitt for your upper lips. It comes with a pouch as well to store both the mitts and the extra pads they have provided, which I think is quite cute! ♪

At SGD26, its quite a reasonable price for something that makes hair removal fun and easy!

I ♥ this!

Review: RMK Gel Emulsion Compact

I decided to get this after reading about it in a magazine. Was actually contemplating getting it in Bangkok but decided not to as I wasn't sure about prices in Singapore and was afraid I'd get it cheaper here.

This compact is definitely one of the priciest around and at SGD89 (!!!) it'd better be damn good. (FYI, You can get it at about SGD83 in Bangkok!)

The counter girl at RMK Isetan Scotts wasn't the most approachable, but she was able to tell just by looking at me what shade I would suit.

I still didn't trust her and (purposely) wondered aloud what if I'd bought it home and it didn't suit. Finally she took out a sample and passed it to me to try it on and amazingly, she was correct!!

So anyways on to the review:

The foundation is rather light and glides on easily. I like that I can use it for my undereyes and it is not cakey! It blends well into my skin and looks natural!

When it dries to a powder finish, you feel like you have nothing on your face which I give two thumbs up for. Another bonus: its SPF27 factor.

The shades available:

I wish I could add these to my wardrobe

Bleubird is having a sale! And I wish I could buy these two dresses.



After conversion and shipping, both might come up to about SGD 90 EACH!

:(

If Mr Bean was in Avatar, he'd look like this...

photo source

Review: No Falsies Mascara

I bought this mascara by Maybelline and decided to try it out.

Didn't like it for 3 reasons:

A) The texture of the mascara was very runny.

B) Hard to remove, even with my go-to makeup remover!

C) No results! My lashes weren't longer and clumps abounded.

My verdict:

No falsies is really aptly termed. You really don't get any falsies with this mascara!
Your money is better spent elsewhere.

Soap is back!!!

And to celebrate his coming back to (me)Singapore, we went out for high tea or rather, lunch at The Shangri-La! It was a very relaxing two hours at the Rose Veranda. We each had a pot of fragrant tea and dined on salmon sashimi, smoked duck and kueh pie tee, just to name a few.

Our favourite Kueh Pie Tee. Crispy shell and very tasty fillings. The crispy shell is a winner! psst! Isn't my phone's camera fantastic!!! ♪♪

The first and last time I'll ever eat a macaroon. Just too sweet for even MY sweet tooth. But the presentation is gorgeous!

A favourite of mine: Mango and Mint. Tastes somewhat like a mojito ♥

The scone was a little too buttery for my liking (I prefer the one at L'espresso)

And of course our obligatory individual and couple shot! LOL!

My very flattering pic of the day! ♥

The price for both of us, including taxes was just under $56. Which comes to about $28 per pax.
Surprised? Well, Shangri-La is having a 39 promotion. Just book your reservation for a date within 39 days from your date of booking, and you get 39% off their buffet rates!

Here's the promotion webpage!

I think I'll try The Line next! *rubs my tummy in anticipation*

Audrey Hepburn's Screen Test

She's such a lady!

Beautiful Sunday and a beautiful blog post

Yesterday was Sunday the 14th of August, the day when the ex-vballers of SRJC (and their spouses) met again and reconnected after such a long looongg while!

This day will remain imprinted on my mind for years and years to come. Hopefully we don't have too long to wait for yet another outing!

Love you guys!!

To end off this post, I'd like to share with you a post from another blog. I came across this sweet one on bleubird's (Miss James) blog written by her partner for her on her birthday.

Read this post and I guarantee you'll feel mushy all over.

No blues yet for this week! Hurrah!

High Tea at L'espresso

Today was a very special family outing (minus my Mummy coz she's working) as we seldom eat at buffets! We got our Dad to come along with us as L'espresso was having a promotion with UOB cards where one adult dines free with every three adults!

Service was good - our dirty plates were collected very promptly, water was served when asked for without much waiting time!

And now for the food! L'espresso serves an English afternoon high tea, so the spread was mostly sandwiches, scones and desserts like cakes, creme brulee and tarts. There were also some asian fare like fried prawn fritters, yam and chicken rolls and also my favourite mango and pomelo!!

We were there for about an hour and a half, the longest my family has ever sat down for a meal! So happy that my dad was there with us today! ♪♪

Chocolate fondue and mango pomelo! ♥♥

Creme Brulee - Eunice's fave!

The smoked salmon was very flavorful! Isaac and I took so much of it!

Foie gras pate sandwich!

The obligatory individual shots.

Papa looks so cute here!!!

Its now 8pm and I'm still feeling sooooo stuffed! What a wonderful day today!! ♫

My 7 Favourite Things - Bangkok Version

1. Tomyam soup and gloriously cooked chicken with lemongrass and lime basil at T42 (Siam Centre)

2. Honey Toast with Ice-Cream at IBerry cafe at Siam Square.

3. Muay Thai at The Pink Panther

4. Watching Blackjack playing at The King's Corner at Patpong with an alternately angry-dancing-crying barefoot tranny on the street just outside.

5. Taking the train into the City for FREE.

6. Fried chicken hip and sticky rice, Iced hazelnut latte at JJ

7. Travelling with LIZ!!! -_-

pictures up later.....!

Losing Weight with Indomie!

Yes you saw right. Losing weight with Indomie :)

As you all know, I've been on a mission to lose weight for the past like six years or so, successful in losing weight about 3-4 years ago, and then, as is inevitable, like what comes up must go down, the needle on the weighing machine has steadily been going up.

So, I've started going to the gym regularly, but its just not helping me lose weight fast enough.

Enter the Indomie diet! Hurrah!

The INDOMIE diet. This diet is a good weight loss program diet, not too healthy, but works.

The INDOMIE diet involves eating one pack of INDOMIE, the small pack, three times daily. A pack of INDOMIE contains approximately 321 calories. So if you eat three packs per day, you are eating less than a thousand calories per day, and your body would be forced to use its stored fat for energy. It is however a dangerous diet, as your body would be starved of nutrients, and diets of less than 100calories per day are extremely dangerous.

When you are on the INDOMIE diet, you take one INDOMIE three times daily, with no additions, except what came with. No salt, maggi, sardines and all the other stuff you would normally add.

You would do this on alternate days, so if you eat just INDOMIE today, then tomorrow, you eat your normal balanced diet, in small amounts too, to ensure you don't get malnutrition.

The INDOMIE DIET if done for two months, will help you lose a considerable amount of weight.

via africanweightloss blog

I just bought three packs of Indomie and I'm going to try it! Of course, in order to make the meal more healthy, I'm going to consume the Indomie with a side portion of salad (no dressing).

Luckily for me, I love Indomie!!!! woohoo!

Congratulate me....

on having gone to the gym regularly for 5 consecutive weeks. And i'm not even growing tired of it yet!

I recently signed up at Amore and gave up my membership at Fitness First. I gave myself quite a hard time over that decision. I guess the real reason why I held on to the FF membership all this time was because I thought it was cool and a "status symbol". I'm not kidding! People do actually view gym memberships as status symbols too - not everyone can afford spending $150 on gym memberships monthly (and not go to the gym, like me).

Anyways, so I signed up at Amore as I wanted to a)lose weight and b)start going to the gym regularly. Figured that as the gym was at Tampines One, and so accessible from my house, I'd go regularly. Turns out that the classes at Amore and thoroughly enjoyable. Once I started, I was hooked!

I still think about Fitness First sometimes and just wonder why I was so stupid to hold on to that membership for so long!

Music of the Moment: Elizabeth and the Catapult

I am absolutely enthralled by Elizabeth and the Catapults! I love their sound and the cutesy album art! Everytime I listen to them, I feel like I'm flying through fluffy clouds, and everything outside is clean, green and fresh.

Don't know what I mean? Then you absolutely HAVE to listen to their music!

My new favourite band!

Right Next To You



Complimentary



They are coming to Singapore!! Catch them on August 16th at the Youth Park!!
I'll be there. Once I find out what time they are actually playing!

Anyone wanna join me??

xx *i'm so filled with love and fluffiness now* aaahh~

Friday

Today is Friday and Soap has taken leave from his NS. You can imagine how excited I was to be able to spend a weekday(!) together...

Its now 2.03pm and we're still at home after racking our brains for the past couple of hours about where to eat and where to go. Finally, he fell asleep and here I am in front of the computer wondering why on earth is Singapore such a boring place!?

I know of couples whose date itinerary consists of and has become:
- Watching movies
- Eating
- Laze around at home

And I don't want to go to this place in my relationship. So I try hard to think of places to go, but sadly I fail. Coz we are here yet again. He sleeping whilst I'm on the internet (why do NS men sleep so much??).

To be honest, there ARE many places one can go. But only if you've got the moolah to go along with it. Living costs are on the rise, albeit slowly, but surely.

Sigh. What's a gal to do?

TV Education

This is an excerpt from an article I read in Reader's Digest, written by Nury Vittachi, this morning during breakfast:

...Perhaps TV does educate you. For example, you learn a useful medical fact: A person who has been shot always has time to speak a partial sentence before he dies.

"The killer was....it was...." (dies).

You also get fascinating architectural knowledge: ALL buildings have air vents big enough to crawl through. For your convenience, these are also clean, have concealed lighting, and end in grills that you can open with a simple push.

But i guess the biggest category of things we learn from TV can be classified under "Life Skills". Bad things only happen on dark and stormy nights. Emotional breakdowns cause people to wander in the heavy rain without umbrellas. And contrary to what scientists say, the crack of lighting and the accompanying flash happen simultaneously, wherever you are.

I've even acquired useful geograpical facts from sci-fi shows: Aliens speak English no matter what part of the galaxy they come from!

Making use of what we learn from TV can improve our security. Consider these three TV truths.

(1) If you are ever attacked by gang of 20 people, don't worry about being outnumbered. The baddies will hang back and take turns to approach you in ones and twos just so you can conveniently defeat them all.

(2) Nightwatchmen are nondescript guys employed to do just two things: sleep at their desks and be the first to get killed. It's in their job description.

(3) Bad guys who are completely covered up in black clothes always whip off their black masks to reveal that they are in fact, gasp, women.

TV also teaches us important information about escaping from danger. Watch and learn.

(1) If anyone is chasing you down an alley, you will find that boxes have been conveniently placed near all the walls you need to jump over. You barely even need to stretch.

(2) You can hide without being detected in the foot well of the back seat of a car, even if you are a large adult and space is only 30 centimetres wide.

(3) If you are tall and handsome with hair that flops over your forehead, you can run from any number of armed villains, and every bullet will miss you.

Be warned, however. If your namecard says "henchman" and you are part of a group of nondescript people pursuing a floppy-haired, handsome individual, a single bullet will kill you. No matter how far away from the chap you're standing. This is sad, but don't fret. TV also delivers useful info for bad guys. All cars are inflammable and have amazing shock absorbers that enable them to soar through the air and land without damage - except police cars. Those will crash and burn in any chase.

TV even teaches us about TV. Whenever anyone turns on a TV, its shows a news flash about someone they know. They then turn the box off immediately after that news item.

Police officers can learn from TV too. When your boss takes your badge and says, "You're off the case," that's when you solve it.

Hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did!!

And oh and one more thing (and this is purely mine own observation), in a horror/sci-fi/action flick, the black guy is almost always the one to die first.

This Sucks

And is kinda scary...i mean the poster, not the movie.

My 7 Favourite Things

1. Missing U tee from Ctrl. Have a look at their lookbook here.


2. Salad - my favourite lunch. Even better served with grapefruit, oranges and Balsamic vinegar!


3. This lingerie set by Emporio Armani. Megan Fox is the new face, replacing Victoria Beckham!


4. New Laflleche pens by Zebra with fragranced inks like Chocolate Parfait and Strawberry Shortcake. I like!


5. Pancakes. A must-have to start off the day! Swensen's has the best banana pancakes on weekends!


6. The HTC Evo phone. Touted to take over IPhone's throne!!


7. Cycling to the beach. I hope we can do that again soon!

Yulia Gorodinski

I love these self-portraits by Belorussian photographer Yulia Gorodinski:

Day Eight of Home Exile

I'm only writing this post on day eight because I finally feel well enough.

I started getting high fever last Saturday night after Rissi's wedding and I took panadol, thinking that this time would be the same as anytime - I'd wake up the next day feeling back to normal. Well, the next three days was a nightmare, my fevers came and went and I started popping panadols like crazy. Stupid me didn't want to see a doctor for fear of being warded and not being able to be at the SYF for my kids on Thursday.

Finally on Tuesday night, I consulted a doctor who told me it was my inflamed tonsils causing the problem.....still didn't help. The next afternoon I asked my Dad to bring me to see my family doctor who didn't know what to make of it. He gave me medicine and asked me to come back if they weren't effective. At night I went back to my family doctor (see, I was desperate. I needed to get better by Thursday which was D-Day, SYF day!!!) and you know what he told my mom?? Send me to hospital.

Damn it!

So off I went to Changi General. I must have looked pretty bad because when my dad dropped me and my mom off at the lobby and I was slowly walking in, this lady quickly pulled her husband aside like I had SARS or something. pfft! That made me feel worse than I already was. Then Soap appeared and I was so happy!! Apparently my sister told him I was on the way to hospital. He was actually on the way to my house to surprise me and immediately went to the hospital instead.

The nurse took my temperature (39.5) and immediately hustled me to the fever room. Then the real nightmare began. I reached the hospital at 9pm and only left at 11.30pm. With a high fever, sweating, and not having bathed before going, I was a wreck. I think I looked like some crazy woman with lank, wet hair. I took an x-ray and waited again. The worst part is the waiting. I really hated the waiting. And finally, FINALLY, the doctor called me into the room again and explained that I had a lung infection (some upper mid level pneumonia). WHOA. I was like wait a minute....so serious meh? Then she said no need to be warded and then thats it. No telling me what to do like don't sleep in air con room or don't eat this or that. I think I left feeling more confused than ever. Not to mention haggard and dirty and sweaty...eew

SIGH. That's why I hate hospitals!

So here I am on Day Eight.

SYF came and went without me being there for the kids :( and I really realised how attached they were to me.

I missed the opportunity to perform at Esplanade Waterfront (a venue which I've been longing to perform at).

BUT! I spent more time at home and my mom has cooked dinner for two nights in a row! And Soap has spent more time at my house too!!

Luckily I have no more fevers. Hurray to no more sweating and changing of my entire set of clothes at 3am! and again at 5am.

OMG!!

P/s: Sorry for the long long post!

Zhang Jingna

Less than two years ago, Zhang Jingna exhibited at The Arts House, and now the talented photographer of only 22 years of age is involved in yet another exhibition.

If you have been to Orchard these few days, you might have seen some of her works in the Canon: Be Empowered campaign along walkways like the underground link towards Isetan Scotts.

I really really love her work, and it makes me even more proud that she calls herself a Singaporean.



Here are more of her works for your viewing pleasure. :)