lazy weekend

it's the lazy weekend or what's left of it.
mom's in mcca for prayers for it was Renunciation Day of Guan Yin (Avalokiteshvara) yesterday. when mom's not around i somehow becomes a slug at home... i mean a bigger slug, he he.

i was comtemplating so hard to do something, a lot of things yesterday during near end of work day. pushed the thoughts out & continued working till quite late (or early as i was on shift).

reached home, check mails, fb, groupon (i'm such a coupon freak now...), watched downton abbey (i missed the premier - dont know what episode now but still had an entertaining watch, will be "checking" it out later), watched s01e01 of yuujinchou natsume (where i have left off years ago) & was craving for bubble milk tea like a pregnant lady.
butt, ended up glued to the tilam then slumbered off. pun intended.

today, decided to tick off the long list of to-do items including housework. should be a great work out. first need to ensure i get my butt off the stool n hands off the keyboard.
[yay! tick one off, clearing by 1000+ list of unread subscriptions @ google reader]

hey, just realised. after changing to the new blogger layout, where's the convenient amazon.com toolbar that i've used to search & add links?!!

jagung kueh too rich but i love it

oven is down

if you are linked to me in fb, you would have noticed i've been making sweets but with no baking :). well truth be told, it is not that i'm into alternatives e.g. steaming, etc. it is because my oven had broken down. it is still working but somehow the plate is not rotating. anyone think if i bake in it, the heat will be distrubuted evenly without the plate rotating? it's a conventional oven. any advice is welcomed. (btw, mami is still in the dark about this... she must also be thinking why isnt sofia baking the cheesecake i love.... tee hee...).

too much santan....
decided to make this jagung kueh aka corn custard. so the recipe said 1 cup of santan (coconut milk). didnt say thick or otherwise. so i got a packet of fresh santan from nearby hyper-mart which bloody expensive. can u imagine rm2.50 for barely 250ml of santan.so long story cut short. as normal some conflicts with mami. well jagung kueh was something she made with success in the past. being the older generation, when one does things that is not their norm, they would say it's wrong. sometimes they are right as they did eat salt more than i eat rice. so from the time i poured the 1 packet santan into the batter mixture she was mumbling n grumbling saying the santan too much. but heck, i've already poured it.

stir it, dont shake it
oh yes. this is one sweet that will make you burnt before you gain those calories. you've got to stir till your arm's muscles bulges. but think of the calories you've burnt, worth every drop of sweat :).

nyom...nyom...nyom...
mami tried a little n pulled a long face "coconut stench too strong" n henceforth didnt even pick another piece. guess she doesnt like the strong santan smell n i suspect subconsciously she rejected it because of my defiance. ha ha ha. doesnt matter. this means mumphf-more for mumphf-me!! i'll be bringing some to work. ha ha ha... great way to distribute the calories.

skincare craze

until recently, i've been somewhat of a scrooge on skincare. but due to advancing age and the results of shift work, i've decided to look for better skincare products. well, yes i used to agree that more expensive doesn't mean better. but now i would say it depends :)

[i've received many likes on my fb status when i remarked that u know ur age is advancing when u look for age-defying/anti-ageing skincare....]

few years back, i had ventured into the higher range of facial care, h20plus.
as usual, the purchase wasn't planned & i was lured into the store by the surreal blueish theme.
since i had some dryness on my nose & cheeks, i was recommended the face oasis range. well it was their bestseller so it's obvious that the sales person will push this. & again the blueish theme of the range is really attractive.
since, i'm not going to review the product, i was not encouraged with the product and except for the cleansing water, i abandoned them after less than 2 months of usage.

then i was back to pharmacy-shelves-skincare product which again back to my routine usage pattern, i.e. diligently using it then inconsistently.

due to some promo on beautytalk @ sasa, i bought the latest craze bubble mask - oxymask "pau pau mien". i really recommend this but i hate the bottle. maybe i too cho-lor, it's not working i had to unscrew the pump to use it now. [check here for more] love the product as they have this gel based cream and serum which absorb really well into the skin & effect is instantaneous.
then the splurging began. the gel based cream [ghk-cu vital gel cream] (wanted to get this again but somehow ghk cream/gel is out of stock in all the sasa shop i went), night cream [snowy moisture cream] and essence [snowy memory essence] really absorb very quickly but i feel due to this i had to use a little bit more than usual except for the toner [refine toning lotion] & cleanser [double cleansing gel].
take note, result is great with quite a hefty price tag.

well, happy to say, my face glowed & some even commented on it.
ha. it's money well spent. though perhaps i've been consistent or putting on weight face bloated n stretched the face? ha ha ha.

so proud that i actually finished the cream/serum as they are actually just 30ml.

ha. this means another round of purse emptying operation. decided to try the biotherm product which is actually cheaper than beautytalk. nearly purchased kose sekkisei supreme but my arm had a fierce rash when testing the product.
the biotherm salesperson threw in some samples including a generous 30ml aquasource gel. i especially love the roll-on aquasource eye perfection and d-tox bb cream.
currently loving the biotherm products i've bought except that the vivo serum had a little weird smell.

folio cover for kindle

time for me to get one of these since they are on sale :)

it's already april 2009

yo. so it's already april 2009. it is a little (a lot...) depressing to come to think of it that it's the 2nd quarter of the year and all i have done is work... well, ok.. managed to catch some cool anime as well.

since i'm not in the mood to yak about how miserable work is, so it's about what i'm watching currently. so happy days! yay! spring release is here and loads of new anime.

thanks to astro, we are actually watching same telecast with jp for tears to tiara. well, nothing to shout about - the anime i mean. it based on a hit rpg (of eroge nature). google it if you want to know more. i basically watched it cos 1. i had to wake up at 12am on sunday/monday this month as working in graveyard shift. 2. the protagonist has white/silver hair which remided me of gintama. 3. some how the eroge pique my interest, but haha NOT cos it's shown in astro, so there's no eroge ok!

again, thanks to astro - this time for real. it's FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST:BROTHERHOOD. i didnt follow this series cos it was so hyped-up. i'm one person that dont really watch the mainstream anime e.g. naruto, bleach,etc. but well i'm loving this. just first episode though. it's basically the remake of the previous but following more closely to the manga. well i dont read the manga, so i'll just enjoy it.

yea, those close to me already noticed that i'm some sort into baseball (if going to batting cage, playing wii baseball and getting a bruised thumb- still very colourful counts). dont follow games on tv and stuff. but hehehe... but hooked on baseball themed anime and at the moment : major 5th season and one outs. really cool anime. go watch it if you like baseball or think you might like it. one outs-nobody wins but i! is also a very unique baseball themed anime. it combines baseball+gambling. heheh, so now u know why i like one outs, eh? but the protagonist does not have that typical handsome/cute eyes but have a pair of cunning slit eyes - which is kinda mysterious and erm sexy?

i still love some kawaii-ness in anime although i've been spending much time with sports anime (and some seinen). i would recommend k-on. love the cute characters and reminds me of my old school days (well so long ago i'm afraid i might have forgotten most part of it)

mom's back in mcca for the week. i've been eating junks for all my meals. not sure to call them breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper. my time are all messed up due to graveyard shift and sudden call from mgr to go in at odd hours. so now i eat when hungry, eheheheh, and how many meals..., a lot, i lost count.and i still miss che loads... really. oh yea, i must make some time to take up fong's invitation to her bf's kebab place!

what undies are you?

keh... i tot i would get granny's panties... seriously they are real comfy and i fit perfectly into them!
i love boy shorts undies too... they create a flattering silhouette when worn.. or i would like to think so :)
normally i don't spend $$$ for undies (yea i'm not those sexy feline types, & like there's someone for me to flaunt my booties ...) but i do own a few boy shorts undies which imho a little pricey. but still got them as they were on sale (buy second for 50%), comfy and most important - able to streeeeeeeeeeetch :P
go try the quiz : http://apps.facebook.com/girlsunderwear

what's going on with my life

truthfully. nothing. really.
and. i am just plain lazy.

anyway. i'm pretty tired as i've been working the vampire shift for more than a month. and my sleeping schedule kept changing due to this and that... making the shift work worse.

one of the biggest news of the year would be bridget and chim's transfer to uk. aAaa. i'm happy for them but a little heartbroken and will miss them dearly. lucky couple. now they can travel the whole europe. aaaAAaa ... they promised they will wait for me to do prague with them :)

hsin vonn, one of my dear girlfriend has given birth to a baby last month. aaAAaa i've yet to visit her... i'm such a rotten friend... well... everyone needs a rotten friend, eh? :P

euro 2008 is here. and my fave team trounced turkey 2-0! banzai!!

and, yea. i've changed my hairstyle.

i've always wanted to play the violin... tada tada and i'll going for my first lesson tonite! yay!! guess mom would be pengsaning soon :P

being tailed...

few hours ago i had a scary experience.

i often read and heard cases of cars being tailed and robbed when they stopped.

just now as i was driving to work (i work shifts) , a white myvi came up behind and kept beaming my car and put the left signal.
i was pretty worried whether my car was having some problem or something that i was not aware. of course i didnt stop or slow down, but i did check all my signals and everything was fine.

{
i had the same experience before on highway on my way back from hometown but it was broad daylight and i stopped at the nearest reststop with the busiest section (after making sure the lorry that tailing n beaming n honing me passed me...). everything was ok... i was baffled and then angry...
later when i was on the road again i noticed the lorry was infront of me and a wira stopped by the road side. i guess this car suffered the same fate but NO they shouldnt have stopped in the middle of no where in the highway. it's dangerrous... but the lorry zoomed passed... sick lorry driver.
}

so back to current issue...
i continued driving as the road to my office is desserted and had no place with loads of ppl nearby. my eyesight is pretty bad at nite and was not able to catch the car number. however, it was a white myvi .
it caught up with me so i hit the gas ... i was worried it will purposely ram sideways to my car.
then luckily they decided to give up at a junction to turn into a college nearby.
I WAS SO RELIEVED!!

i suspect it could either be some real robbers with some bad intents but thankfully they were not persistent. maybe they know there will be office blocks coming up the road with guards... i dont know...
OR
some real SICK college students having some silly high. i believe in karma, it's a cycle ... they will face their sin sooner or later
OR
really something wrong with my car? i doubt as i checked every inch of my car when i reached the vacinity of my office.

gong xi FAT chai

this year's celeb a little quiet... i didnt managed to arrange the gang's outing as i was very busy right up to the day i went on leave (2 days before cny) but managed to meet up some of them on 3rd day open house. dad was back for few days cny. he's even rounder than humpty-dumpty - go figure. went shopping with tina for her new shop. my first time @ cowboy. they sell everything from kitchen towels to pork clevers and machetes and even sheeshas! this year "luck" still quite ong. won a few good rounds :) .... paiseh, had to "eat" aunty and uncle $$.... bridget plan to ban me next year... spent v-day with tina, peter n family. it was peter's bday as well. enjoyed pho and yam spring rolls... game rolled rite after candle blowing and cake cutting.... they insisted me to lead.... i resisted... at first...but .... no one can make ppl so willing and happy "donating" $$ than me...

therapeutic shoe shopping escapades

that day yinna & i agreed that baking and cooking is therapeutic. it relaxes your brain and keep the stress at bay. well, a much more $$ consuming is something i love as well - shoe shopping!

well, i have to pat myself on my back as i've not been buying shoes for like 12 months! the last pair(s) i bought was for 2007cny. ( i love my panaches ... they are so lasting! - touch wood). whoa... i no new shoes for the past 12 months?!! some might have fainted. i would've have... but i guess i was too bz to noticed (and no more space @ shoe racks... and no more space for shoe racks...)

shopping in general is fun. not for moi... shopping for clothes is so depressing. i really do know how guliver felt when he was @ lilliput. however, i do love shopping for baju with my skinny, hmm i meant slim friends. i love to design matches for them to try and they look good in most of them. and it's very satisfying when they bought what i suggested. hey... i got a good eye with great taste, ya..

but shoe shopping... aaa... it's another thing!

hehhheh... well up to yesterday, i ended up with 5 pairs. hey, they were not purchased randomly or binges, or something like that. they are reasons behind these buys...

bought pair#1 and pair#2 with bridget on our outing to 1u last saturday. i guess we need some happy therapy after the great betrayal. #1 is a beige open toe court shoes. i didn't have any of those and there's a 20% off ... court shoes @ rm45? it's a must buy! and it's comfy. #2 - a perfect black with white lining mary janes with great stilettos. it's a must buy. everyone need at least a pair of mary janes ... & it's for cny...

i got pair #3 when i was groceries shopping @ giant. ok. this one it's cheap and i need a casual sandal / slippers as currently i'm wearing my mom's or the japanese-slipper. it's a blue croc-wannabe. yea. our homegrown buaya - the asadi. it looks like croc and it's as comfy and light as croc. and it's like rm15.99 only! it's cheap even if compared to the sandals i normally get from bata. my previous which travelled with me until its sole broke into 2 (really i also have no idea how it happened) costs around rm40... so this #3 is a fantastic bargain purchase!

after gym today, i had to go to jusco to get some kitchen towels. on the way i spotted some great shoes. sometimes places like ioi mall, they have some good shoe shops. on of them on the second floor carries a shoe label called "solight" ... nice pun, eh? it looks like an ah lian shop but they have great looking shoes with fantastic heels! then this white shoes with black lining screamed out to me. the size fits my feet perfectly! i have a cream shoes but this is white and it's gorgeous.
the shop has some wicked straw platforms. with laces n all. but i think i saw some at ground floor which's cheaper. i had to past the shops when i return to collect my gym bag in fitness first anyway. wooo... they are selling like rm39.90 but without the laces. hmm. straw platforms would look so summery and they are so casual and light and a girl's must have!! and it made it to my collection.

so, that's how i ended up with these 5 pairs. fate has brought us all together and i shall once again have bright and merry walking days!

some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the pot 9 days old

i love cooking porridge and love them thick and very hot with slices of yewcharkueh. it's healthy, easy, fast and yummy. one of the easier to prepare is the chicken porridge. just boil water with uncooked rice and once boil throw in chicken meat (breast meat the easiest to work with and healthy too... but i love using chicken thigh ... got those fats which will definitely made the porridge yummier...). once meat is cooked, take them out to cool while continue to stir the porridge until think and nice. sometimes i add an egg in low fire so you can get stringy eggs in the porridge which looks lovely. peel chicken into strips and throw them back into the porridge. you can leave some to garnish. voila! it's done.

one of the variations i came up with during in one of those wuliao days is using the chinese herbs - yewsamchew (american ginseng roots - smaller ones) and keiki (gooseberries). boil the yewsamchew separately and pour the stock/essense into the porridge as the roots cannot be eaten (doesnt taste nice but i guess its no harm if you wanna chew them in your porridge). for the keiki, cook them with the porridge. i add some during the end of the cooking as i love the cruchiness and the sweet raisin-like taste. this porridge helps to cool your body (yewsamchew) and good for your eyes too (keiki). hmm... each time i cook this porridge i have this daejanggeum song playing in my head...

now i feel like eating porridge ... maybe will cook some seafood porridge later....

5sc.1 class of 93

this photo certainly make my mind racing back to those times where we pulled cheeky pranks on teachers and friends, exams, teeny bopper mags, exams, silly crushes and miami vice. did i mention exams?

note : actually i lost all my secondary school photos. i accidentally thrown the photo albums while shifting houses. so i would be really great if someone can sent me somemore pictures...

beauty time : let's hydrate!

love facial masks. they actually do help. believe me as some yielded the results as promised. today i tried the bbe algae soft mask from it's herbal soft mask range. it is actually in powder form and you have to mix with water into a paste of you prefered consistency before applying. didnt noticed any scents but perhaps my nose is not sensitive enough to pick the scent. it's pretty easy to mix the paste as it disolved easily. i used my fingers to mix it and applied onto my cleansed face. application was easy too but i think i have used too much powder. i think it's quite economical too as i've only used 1/4 of the pack and i had some more paste even after covering my face. and i do have quite a large face :)
after 5 mins after application, i can feel my face getting cooler. i had some tingling sensations after around 10 mins. i felt my face tightening a little and a little itchy after about 13-15 mins. after about 25 mins, i lost my patience and decided to peel the mask off.
removing the mask especially those feel off ones is my fave part. but it didnt went that well. removal of the mask was a really messy affair. the mask was flaking at the corner of the mask while the middle was smooth. i didnt managed to "remove the whole mould" as per instructed (which got me excited when i read it). it cracked, tore or stuck all over. perhaps the paste was too thick? i can actually see my pores' marks on the bigger pieces which i think if good as it cleaned them. luckily i managed to remove the mask residues after rinsing my face with water and using a small towel to lightly scrub the more stubborn pieces.
the after effect was pretty nice. my skin felt supple and smooth. i think my pores looked less defined and face more radiant and fair. maybe the deep oil cleansing before the mask application helped to achieve this too but this algae soft mask did hydrate my skin after all.

happy 3-1 fong!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FONG!

fong and myself had a great dinner @ hanwoori in taipan. we had a enjoyable time chatting and filling our stomachs. ah. i managed to order the rice cake dish (ddukboki) i love so much but had to fore go the fried squid as it is pretty expensive and i guess we can't finish it too. the soju was ok but it taste a little like kerosene ... ahha not that i tasted kerosene before... the bbq meat was lovely and i like the smoke "sucker" so you wont smell like on walking piece of smoked meat. the side dishes were quite appetising. we were also given each a bowl of bean paste soup. they also serve free dessert which i found very amusing as they just offered like 2 thin pieces of watermelon. i guess there were only 2 of us but i mean they should make it 4 pieces to look good, rite? however, the refreshing ice cold barley with red date drink served in a bowl was good and a nice way to cap the dinner.
their service were good and prompt. periodically they would come up to ask whether we want to top up the side dish or soup and ask whether we need anything else. (probably we were practically the only customers there). i like their attentiveness as the previous korean restaurants i went, they were quite stingy in replenishing the side dishes. we had to order them to do so. 4 stars out of five. i would have given 5 stars but i had to top up my tea myself.

gun-totting fun

ok, the title might get some hate-mails from anti-arm groups but paintball rocks! erm. especially if it was paid by the company. bwahahahah. getting up at 0600 on a saturday morning really sucks and i was still contemplating whether should i go. however, knowing that i might change my mind last minute, i committed myself in car-pooling with swee and eric to sg buloh paintball facilities. so there was no way out and oh boy! i would regret loads if i had skipped the event.
we arrived and breakfast was waiting us. yum. someone told me lunch was at 1400, so i stuffed myself silly.. i mean it was just around 0900!! then we would be running, shooting and sweating around. i need the energy! ha ha. i was actually quite impressed with the number of turn outs. i expected less as the venue was at sg buloh... well ok. there was a small bunch of us that was quite disappointed it had to be in sg buloh.
after the briefing and quite a messy reshuffling of teams the matches began. i was up against eric's team which had several big sized guys. i was thinking ha ha - easy targets. how very wrong i was!! with a very sound strategy, my team went out to get them to only be beaten in less than 5 minutes. i was like - hey!! it's over already?!! then i felt a stung on my thigh... urgh!! i got shot! (it is a mass of purple,red,green,yellow patch now...). we lost one more match and decided to go all out. since we will not be progressing to the next stage, might as well finish out pellet allocated to us. final strategy - be trigger happy! yeeha! we managed to salvage some pride by trumping the final opponent. at least we broke our little egg. ha ha
eric was hurt pretty badly during his second match with one over-zealous team (which my team exact revenge on later). he was sent to the nearby clinic to be treated as he received several really close range shots on his arms and neck. swee not missing out on the injury list got her bums shot. ha ha ha. one on each cheek! hmm i wonder who was the cheeky guy....
since none of us (swee,eric and me) will be involved in the next stage of the game, after hanging out to watch one match, we decided to head home. injuries aside, it was really a great day

note: the author of this blog is not a beauty queen but believes in world peace and is against violence & possession of harmful arms....

vodka!'s day out

vodka! had a fun foaming time in yesterday's dog carnival by pet-n-you/eukanuba. we reached central park around 0830 and it's already happening :)
vodka! became an instant star the minute he steps into the field. everyone was snapping him. cos he is a handsome boy and unique. we ran into the camera crew and they were so interested in him. i proudly said he is goldendoodle! a mix-breed. the lady reporter (or something) was shocked as it is her first time hearing n seeing this breed. she thought vodka! is a giant schnauzer . when i register to get the goodie bag, the man there was also shocked. he told me vodka! is the first golden retriever / poodle mix. i informed him that goldendoodle is a really famous designer dog. a lot of kids, when we pass them by, they exclaimed excitedly to their parents - "hey! it's shaggy dog!"
finally i met lee wan, whiskey's owner. whiskey is a really cute beagle. he has those eyes that would melt any heart. and he is so padat!! ahahha. the whole family was there with another beagle owner. the 2 beagles and vodka were all foaming at the mouth.. ahah pretty scary sight.. but i guess it is because they are excited.
note : thanks lee wan for your photos.