m1rr0r's life

In summary

2009-12-08T22:10:00.000+08:00

Japan didn't wow me as much as expected. I think I'm just bored of city.

I mean, Kyoto & Hakone were definitely wonderful for sightseeing but we only spent 1 night each there, and it was raining on the 2nd day when we were in both places! ggrrhh

Tokyo was, well, just a city. Shopping was super duper expensive, trains were very very very crowded.

Osaka was OK.

Food was wonderful though.

Well, I chose Tokyo coz it was the 1st time to Japan and wanted to go to Disneyland and Puroland.

Otherwise, would have chosen Hokkaido (which will be our next destination if we're going to Japan again in future).

Hmm Disneyland failed to wow me as much as expected, too! omigod what's wrong with me.
I mean yes, it was much nicer & bigger than HK's Disneyland, but perhaps coz it was only last year that I went to HK's (which was my 1st ever visit to any Disneyland, and I was really really excited in there), it was still very similar no matter what. Of course there were things not found in HK.

Sanrio Puroland was.. small. too small. I knew this beforehand but still, a lil' bit disappointed. But I would still go once if I could do it all over again. But once is definitely enough.

I feel that Osaka was nicer than Tokyo in a way, shopping was slightly cheaper and different, they had those long lanes of shops side by side and not just another shopping mall, more variety of food, and the people were slightly different too.

Oh btw, this netbook is too slow for me to edit the photos and upload them so, just this post for now.

Oh weather was wonderful though, it was usually around 10°C, of course colder in early morning and evening, and colder when it rained. Hakone was also colder.
♥ it!

OH! again! what suprised me was that Orchard Road's Christmas lights & decor are so much better than Tokyo's! Well, I only saw the ones at Shinjuku and Tokyo Dome, and near Puroland. But they were basically many many many lights put together on trees and surrounding.

Observation of Japan & Japanese people:
Japanese are very very polite.
It's amazing that they can eat and drink in trains and the trains are still VERY clean.
Girls wear very very very short shorts (hot pants?). Yes, even in end of Autumn/beginning of Winter.
However, I almost never see anyone showing any cleavage, they only show legs.
Most of them wear fake eyelashes and eye make-up and colored their hair brown/copper/ash/blond
Indoors are heated too much. It was very tiring taking-off my jacket once I was in a train or a building. But I really couldn't stand wearing thick jacket indoor, specially coz I wear long sleeve shirt inside (which I never ever wear here). And specially coz usually we were just rushing & pushing our luggages haha..
They used a lot a lot of packaging whenever you buy something.
But they were also very eco conscious. You could practically see recycling bins everywhere, usually 1 for glass bottles & cans, 1 for plastics and 1 for others.
And you could see people coming out of trains and stood in front of the bins to sort their rubbish accordingly.
Even budget/cheap hotels were clean.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK so, since clothes, soft toys, etc. were SO expensive, I ended up buying 2 bags & 1 leather wallet.
1 bag & 1 wallet from Agnes B, and 1 bag from burberry blue label.
Of course there were small items like cute lip balm, etc :p

And today I told Orlando, next trip we must go to Europe (Greece! Italy!) or New Zealand (have recently heard lotsa raves about their scenery).

coffee

2009-11-25T00:17:00.001+08:00

i'm a coffee person and not tea, i only appreciate certain tea if they're slightly higher class (like, hotel-high-tea-kind), i like vanilla tea and also peppermint tea. recently i also kinda like earl grey.
ANYWAY, i never ever order tea at say, starbucks, restaurant, cafe...
i find it such a waste of money to pay for 1 tea bag which cost the same as a pack of tea bags from supermarket.

oh of course i drink green tea and always order them when i eat japanese food. but if there's a cold option, i almost always go for the cold green tea instead.

this just passed my mind coz i didn't have coffee on mon & tue and most prob later neither, coz i had a very bad gastric on sunday and i'm worried it'd come back if i drink acidic beverages

can't imagine if pregnant, can't (shouldn't) drink coffee, how??
i drink 1-2 cups daily...

Prayer request...

2009-11-17T21:15:00.001+08:00

Someone close is unwell. Please pray so that the treatments go well. Thanks.

Courtesy or obligation?

2009-11-16T22:03:00.001+08:00

When A said A would be somewhere at certain timing and didn't show up, isn't it an obligation to tell B? Even if it's on the day itself, or even the next day, it's still better that not informing AT ALL nor apologizing.
It's blindly rude not to.
Even though B already knew A would not show up and even knew that there'd be no news whatsoever.

BLOODY RUDE.

As if A is a 5-year old kid who doesn't understand unspoken social rules

VOMIT BLOOD

Bubble!

2009-11-11T21:56:00.000+08:00

I just DIY my hair color using Liese bubble hair color, chesnut brown
Actually, Mom bought them. Most probably I would have chosen a different color (cassis berry maybe). Anyway, she decided not to use it and gave to me.
I actually thought the end result would be darker (coz Mom doesn't like light colors), but not really, can see brown color.

And I was worried that it's not even. But it is even :D
Well, I followed the instruction, but bottom half of my hair was quite (very) light due to previous coloring. So, I was worried that the end result won't look nice (I thought they'd be patches here and there or something).
I did leave on the top half first for like 5 minutes before I continue to the bottom half, then left it for around 25 minutes.
While washing (shampooing) afterwards, my scalp was a lil' itchy but only for a while.
I'm pleased with the result.
It smelled bad at first, typical hair coloring smell. However, the hair color came with a small sachet of hair lotion (leave-in, not rinse-off kind) and it smells lovely :)

It was really easy to apply because it was foams not the typical hair dye.
Almost like shampooing.
And it costs about the same as other hair dye, I think it was S$20?

OMG can't stop laughing!

2009-11-11T21:26:00.001+08:00

Seriously, I was reading this and i kept laughing till i got teary eyes OMG

it's about bloody time!

2009-11-09T23:45:00.003+08:00

i mean, to change the blog skin
it's been way TOO long
honestly I don't ♥ this one THAT much (a tad too childish with the cat and i'm not even a cat person - except if it's hello kitty hee hee), but i like the format, exactly what I want (with the comment and all, except no post time, need to figure that out)
anyway...... better than the previously missing pic skin :p
g' nite

it was announced today

2009-11-05T20:04:00.002+08:00

so, i can post my 2 drafts (below) :p
as expected, "why"s were aplenty and many thought I found another job

2009-11-02T22:20:00.002+08:00

friday, 30 Oct'09 (PM)

it went something like this: (with heartbeat that went much faster than normal)

after a discussion with my boss and another colleague in a meeting room, i said i wanted to talk to my boss.

so, the other colleague went out of the room (since the discussion was already done anyway).

I was really lost for words, not sure how to say it.

I was like "errmm..." and my boss went: "are you resigning?"

and i said yes.... she asked why and i said i'm migrating

and i went on to explain more details, last day, etc.

so. there.

It's official!

2009-11-02T22:39:00.003+08:00

Ok, this is another backdated post (kept the Drafts earlier on, followed some other bloggers' foodsteps - haha you know who you are).

Monday, 2 Nov'09

Today I gave my official resignation letter to my boss.

However, the HR person is on leave (coz last nite was her wedding dinner haha) thus, no announcement yet.

My boss & I will inform my sub-ordinate (1 person only lar) first before the annoucement.

I'm sure lotsa colleagues will immediately ask me where I'm going (I'm not sure whether the announcement will mention about me leaving Singapore, but obviously I'll be serving more than 1 month notice so, people might be curious).

And I'll say Australia.

And they'll ask things like:

why?

have you found a job?

have your husband found a job?

have you bought a house/flat?

and when I answer "no" to the last 3 of the above, they'll say something like "wah, so daring"

well, this will be the 3rd time i leave my job before finding a new job

although this time is for a totally different reason :p

and this time i really feel sad leaving my job

i actually don't drag myself to work (only drag myself to wake up coz i hate mornings haha) and I don't actually hate Mondays, I guess coz i enjoy working at TBS :D

ah.. as for the "why"s, I'll probably say "why not?" haha...

chicken

2009-11-02T21:41:00.003+08:00

huh... such a coward, don't even dare to leave a proper name for the obviously rejected comment? ha!
*oh btw, why would u even read such a backdated post of mine if u think i'm that bad? weird, super duper weird*

wow this must be what xiaxue and the such (meaning famous bloggers) face on a daily basis, times 10,000 or so haha

What? it's that time of the year again?

2009-10-28T21:17:00.000+08:00

Orchard Road - preparation of the Xmas lights up is definitely under way.
It's been around 2-3 weeks now.
Seriously, it feels like Xmas08 was just here, CNY09, WH sale, went to Timor Leste playscheme, Future Fit (was moved to TBS Singapore), GSS, and it's now coming to Xmas09?? oh my...

Anyway, SO excited to countdown, 1 more month to Japan trip!!
I'm SO looking forward to the yummy food, cooling weather, cutesy stuff (kiki lala here i come!!), onsen

2009-10-26T19:23:00.000+08:00

I was at Sunday mass at St. Ignatius church yesterday (Sunday, 25 Oct) when I suddenly realized my attire that day was quite global (or should I say, regional)

Polo t-shirt: from Hong Kong (Disneyland)
Cotton-on denim skirt: from Australia (Darwin)
Bag: from Cambodia (Siem Reap)
Ring: from Australia (Darwin)
Silver bangle: from Timor Leste (Dili)
Crocs: from Singapore
Jibbitz on crocs: from Indonesia (Jakarta)

Cool huh :p

Hmm... on purpose?

2009-10-13T22:58:00.001+08:00

Last Saturday I had to go to the warehouse for gifts packing, right?
I can claim a total of S$30 of taxi fare for that 1 day.
The past few times, the taxi fare is around S$13.60-14.50 per way.
Of course I don't know which way to take to go there *it's just so weird that almost all taxi drivers will ask which way i wanna go*
When asked that morning, I just said anything, any way.
Of course assuming that taxi driver will take the shortest possible way.

This time, it felt like it was already longer than usual and the view is definitely not the usual one (it was passing thru sengkang area, and i started wondering why they hell are we at sengkang area????)
anyway, i didn't say anything until i glanced at the meter and it was already S$18 and still no sign of that warehouse area (which is near expo, a well-known area so, no way the driver lost his way).
i asked him, is it still much furher? i told him, usually my fare is not even S$15 and not this long. i said usually i didn't go thru this way
(the whole journey was slightly more than 30 minutes, while usually it's only 20 min).
he obviously felt bad and said i can just pay him S$15 later
anyway, when we reached, the fare was S$22+ almost S$23 and i handed him S$50 and he said that he'll just take S$15 and i said ya
i feel bad coz it's quite different, BUT then again, how would i know if he didn't purposely try to cheat me?
if it were my 1st time taking the taxi to the warehouse, i wouldn't know and would have paid him the full fare, right?
it was really a much further way, and when i asked him earlier, he said this way is all highway. Hello, 1st of all it was a Saturday morning, no traffic! 2nd of all, the usual way is also highway all the way hmmpphhh

anyway, i know that my fare home will be around S$18+ coz from 5-8pm there's a +35% peak hour surcharge (and true, it was really S$18+) so i really didn't wanna pay the full fare
i took the receipt though, and i think i should've mentioned that i could only claim S$15 per way
i just wonder if he thinks that i will claim the full amount while paying him only S$15

*sigh*

Some facts about me

2009-10-12T18:29:00.000+08:00

I'm old.
I only slept for about 4-4.5 hours last night and I'm feeling dizzy the whole day. Well we had to go to stores for stock take which started at 7.30am thus, I woke up at 6.30am. Luckily we could go off at 4.30pm coz of the early start. I totally couldn't think properly, just quickly finished my Monday tasks then off I went.
I've never been to any Hard Rock Cafe.
Well, I couldn't go out much when living in Jakarta so, although it was really really popular in Jkt at a point of time, I just haven't been there!
Oh one time my cousin almost brought my elder sis & I there but we were underaged so, decided to go somewhere else.
Hmm wait a minute.. that date with that ex-bf... hmm... nahh.. i think that was Planet Hollywood instead (I remember the cheesecake was super yummy)
I'm considering doing the spontaneous travel to Japan
As in, not planning a proper itinerary nor book all the accommodation.
Well, I've never been to any holiday without booking the accommodation, but am quite used to having a not so planned itinerary.
This afternoon I asked Teresita (my colleague) about her recent Japan trip and was surprised to find out that she didn't book ANY accommodation at all, just walked in.
She also didn't really plan a proper itinerary.
Oh well... Maybe I'll still book some (or all) accommodations coz by then it'll be school holiday so a lil' bit more risky...
I watched "The Last Emperor" under the stars last nite.
It was a botanic garden, as part of the sun festival.
The movie was quite long and kinda weird haha.. Anyway, just wanted to spend time with mom. Oh mom was the one who told me about it coz she saw the ad on newspaper.

Norway tops UN human development index, China moves up

2009-10-05T20:22:00.002+08:00

Norway tops UN human development index, China moves up

Shared via AddThis

>> Nining, "your" country is#1 !!
Actually I heard this on the radio this afternoon and just googled it.
On the radio they said Singapore is#23 but it's not mentioned in the above article

photos...

2009-09-24T21:44:00.000+08:00

just posted photos and wrote some descriptions at facebook, very lazy to do here haha... so just some photos lar :p

back & tanned grin

2009-09-22T22:57:00.000+08:00

O and I went to Darwin over the long weekend, our 1st holiday this year! As previously mentioned, it's been more than 1 year since our last holiday (to Cambodia)!

The above photo was self-taken with my mobile haha.. haven't uploaded digicam photos yet, maybe tomorrow.

This was on the last day, having brunch at Mitchell street.

Wearing my headband from East Timor :D

The weather was gorgeously sunny, with perfect winds. it's not humid at all.

It was kinda like a way toned down Phuket (minus the humidity) haha... nice...

But since it's really just a short getaway, we didn't do anything except sun-tanning at the pool (stayed at holiday inn esplanade), walked around the small CBD, even did some shopping haha...

and went to the sunday mindil beach market (lotsa yummy food!)

random (as usual)

2009-09-14T22:32:00.000+08:00

i wonder how those indonesians can be so easily contented with life.
i seriously thought i was simple but of course it's been quite some time since i realized i'm not (if it's in terms of what i want in life)
i wrote "indonesians" coz i don't know any other nationalities in singapore who are as simple (some malaysians, perhaps)
well, i don't have that many non-indonesian friends in sg in the 1st place.
but i'm not exactly like singaporeans either
i don't 'surrender' to guys like so many other singaporean gals
yes, husbands may make more money than their wives (in general) but it doesn't mean they don't need to share the workload at home (housework, taking care of kids, etc.)
i don't see singaporean guys open doors for women
i don't see singaporean guys treat women as equal and i don't see the women mind
(although that might be the reason for the super obvious increasing number of singaporean women who date foreigners - mainly caucasian)
i don't like being fair unlike SO many other chinese gals, i luv my tan! (which sadly, NEVER last)
i don't like eating rice or noodle on a daily basis unless they're sushi rice haha.. (basically i only like unplain rice like the yellow rice at fish & co, paella, briyani rice, etc.)
i have tattoo and keep thinking of getting more (VERY unIndonesian and untraditional Chinese)
i have tummy and curves but i'm confident enough to wear bikini on holidays (VERY unSingaporean. i know many many many skinny gals who don't dare to wear bikini) afterall it's not for show, it's for getting fabulous tan (which again, sadly, never last)

i'm just blabbering as usual.

i can't believe it's mid Sept already!!!!!!

my back is aching coz yesterday i spent 9 hours at the warehouse packing gift sets
and the money earned already more than half gone at yesterday's dinner at sushi tei haha
anyway i was there coz i had no choice (i'm coordinating it), not for the $$

i'm supposed to be washing hair now so i can wake up later tomorrow
but i feel like sleeping
but it's hard to stop surfing the net

oh we found the best priced LX3 and best freebies BUT sold out, gotta check back in 2-3 weeks time.
looks like i have to live with not taking new cam to this weekend trip
have to live with the sony one
anyway it takes nice outdoor photos
and this is not really a holiday holiday (if you know what i mean) so, can do lar

2009-09-12T11:44:00.000+08:00

i've been listening to radio when i really need to concentrate at work, specially when preparing budget (come to think about it, i've been preparing the budget for about 1 month!).
2 days ago i was listening to Power 98 FM and the DJs were asking listeners to call in and tell them their unfortunate events or something like that..
anyway, this gal called and said that her bf didn't know she has a facebook account and one day he found out, and her ex-bf is in her friend list. so, the bf is unhappy coz in the first place he didn't want her to have a facebook account. so they quarrelled over it or sth.

HELLOOOO, the bf is only that, A BOYFRIEND. what right does he have to tell her what she can and can't do? and it's only a facebook account omigod.
Even if he were the fiancee or even husband, that's not acceptable.

I really HATE controlling guys (must do this, can't do that).

UGH.

do not fall into temptation!

2009-09-10T21:19:00.000+08:00

i'm really trying hard not to blog about something coz it's really not my place and there's really no point in doing so. but it just won't stop omigod, it just got worse. ugh.

anyway, after i wrote the above sentence, i realized there are more things that i wanted to blog about but i really shouldn't. at least not yet. sigh..
say to self: so not fun, that's what happen if u publish ur blog larrrrrrr
hahaha.........

Mooncake - which brand should I buy this year?

2009-08-31T23:39:00.000+08:00

Well, I wanna buy for mom... Last year Raffles Hotel's snowskin mooncake was disapponting thus, I won't buy from them anymore. ever.
Anyway, I'm sure they're more expensive than some other equally good ones.
I'm only looking at the snowskin liquor type though, not the traditional ones. Mom doesn't enjoy the traditional ones as much. As for myself, I love salted egg yolk but the pastes are usually too sweet for those traditional ones. While the slight bitterness of those liquor ones balance the sweetness from the paste (and it's usually different kinda paste anyway).
If I'm gonna get fat from mooncakes anyway, I'd rather get fat from those liquor ones haha...

There are several attractive early bird offers.
I'm tempted by the Swissotel Merchant Court ones as they have a pair for high tea buffet voucher with purchase of 2 boxes of mooncakes.
Or the Shang Palace (Shangri-la hotel) 30% off.
I'm sure some other places offer similar attractive offers (what's with this economy and all). Not to mention credit card promotions...
And those atriums at shopping malls (but those usually started after the early bird promo has ended).

Hmm...

So near, yet so far

2009-08-31T00:58:00.000+08:00

Centrepoint, that is.
I saw a magazine ad about this shoe shop in Centrepoint called Left & Right some time ago and have been wanting to go as I wanna try on the cute sneakers (and buy 1 pair if they look nice).
Anyway, I haven't got a chance to do so yet!

And now I'm browsing and stumble upon a foodie's blog and guess what, there's an Aston's Prime in centrepoint!! since when!!?!?!
I'm like, always going to The Cathay for the aston's specialities. Yes, of course they're cheaper but, the Q is always SO long even at say, 3pm (on a Saturday).
Anyway, the price of a steak at Aston's Prime is still much lower than many other places (and according to the blogger, it's bigger than Aston's Specialities thus, the slightly higher price is justified,right? and they still don't charge ++ from menu price!)

I think the past few times I went to Centrepoint only to Cold Storage and/or The Body Shop.
Oh and to Toast Box for their coffee...

Strangely missing basket

2009-08-31T00:21:00.000+08:00

After the movie, I went to Giant for my weekly groceries shopping. When I was about to be done, I bumped into Yos and then Sofi and mom (we were together before movie, but I thought they've gone home).
Anyway, I was deciding whether or not to buy milk. So, I put my shopping basket at one side first as it was quite heavy. And then I remembered that I should buy lettuce or baby butterhead. So, I went in and sadly it was sold out (except some leftover China lettuce which looked really pathetic). Anyway, I've decided to get the milk (Meiji) AND I couldn't find my basket!
I went back to wherever area I was at recently and couldn't find it!
(I was sure whereabout I left it at, but since it wasn't there, decided to just go around looking).

Ugh, I was soooo annoyed. And had to re-take all the items.
And the rock melon wasn't there anymore (coz earlier I took the last one), as well as the hotdog bun (but later found another brand which is like 20 cents more ex).
AND what's more annoying, I mistakenly took chye sim instead of kai lan! only realized it at home when I was about to steam it :( I don't quite like chye sim :(

I think someone must have taken it by mistake.
I only left it for a short while, really don't think the staff put them back so quickly.

Ugh

The Proposal

2009-08-31T00:15:00.000+08:00

O & I watched "The Proposal" Sunday afternoon. We liked it. I cried several times. Many touching moments. Or maybe coz I'm emotional recently. haha..

And before the movie started, we saw the trailer of some nice movies that we wanna watch next time: Nine, The Ugly Truth, The Blue Mansion (Singapore movie).

We should be buying the HSBC prepaid card (S$75 for 10 movies). But.... we have to use walk-in queue if we wanna use that card.. (past few times we always use the visa platinum card so almost no queue everytime...) Hmmm.....