Happy New Year in low resolution – Dec in a flash.

Apologies for my absence, tbqh.

I MUST blog about Melbourne, but the highlight of it happened to be that I charged my camera battery but forgot to put it back into my camera so I didn’t take many photos!

I’ll blog about Melbourne as soon as I manage to grab photos off my friend, because I only have a few from my phone but they’re not really all that fabulous. I didn’t take photos of everything so yeah – I’m kinda counting on her photos. Until then, here is a super backtracked post – enjoy!

Happy New Year

Long time no see everyone

Well a lot of stuff has happened in the past few weeks and I did have a lot to blog about – I just kept missing the timing to do so because I’m actually running out of time to do the things I need to do on an ordinary basis.

I recently upgraded to an iPhone4S (though super unreliable, terrible, worst carrier in the world - Vodafone still hasn’t migrated my number after TWO whopping weeks – not to mention it took me over 3 weeks waiting for it) but I’m not pressed or truly excited. Planning to use my phone when I go to my Melbourne trip and if it’s still not switched over by then, gonna return it, cancel the lameass contract and then sign up for iPhone5 on another carrier. iPhone4S has a really crap battery. Sorry to Apple fans, but the battery life is just ridiculous by my standards – I’ve just been too used to charging my Samsung just once a week for the past 2 years. Maybe I’ll consider an android phone instead – at least it’s better than chasing Vodafone and getting tired and frustrated after waiting for so long, and having nobody do jackshit about it. Appalling, disgusting service.

I didn’t mean to start off the new year with such a negative opening - it just has been like a dark cloud hovering above my head for the past 2 months and it’s NOT fun at all. Vodafone should be reimbursing me for the time I’ve waited by waiving at least 4 months off my contract, especially sending me a phone I can’t use because the damn SIM card isn’t activated. System issues, public holidays, backlog? Stop making bullshit excuses, it’s just not good enough. UPDATE: I’ve just lodged a complaint to the ombudsman today. 3 weeks and no activation? U SRS?

For now, I’m enjoying the messaging system and the fact I can send Chinese and reduce the number of characters I need to send an SMS. HURRAY. There was a use for it

On the other hand though, I won a bit of money from yesterday’s Saturday Lotto 31 million dollar jackpot I rarely buy lotto but I was pleasantly surprised to see I did win a prize. It’s not much, but that’s a pretty good way to start the new year. MONEY AHEAD OF ME. Gonna collect it from my least favourite newsagency in the world, because I want to be mean and difficult.

No, really, sarcasm aside, I didn’t really have any feelings for new year’s eve. I completely forgot that there were fireworks, until I turned up for work. The fireworks were pretty dismal (I’m too used to seeing them on a regular basis, so fireworks aren’t really my thing) and only lasted 15 minutes. I don’t get why anyone would camp out for so long just for 15 minutes of fireworks.

I snapped this super low resolution photo with the iPhone last night standing at my window. I was too lazy to get outside and onto the balcony. Wasn’t worth it, in my opinion.

Low resolution, indeed.

But as you can kinda tell, I never felt the need to go out and see the fireworks since I could see them from my window. There were actually larger bursts of fireworks near the base of Centrepoint (but they weren’t going off when I was taking the shot), and I was just that lazy to even get a better camera. I wasn’t going to take a good shot anyway so this shall suffice.

Packing Progress: 5… or 50%?

I just realised that today was my last day off work before I go to Melbourne. I’ll be working for the next three days – obviously not enough time to pack. My biggest concern about packing was mostly to do with the transparent cosmetics bag that you need to present to security. There are so many rules about this bag, including that it cannot be more than 1L of volume, and that each individual item in it couldn’t exceed 100ml each. The toughest thing was that this includes mascara, foundation/ BB cream and lip gloss. Don’t forget shampoo as well! I found it a nightmare getting everything to fit. I managed to find the largest resealable bag I had lying around and tried to fit all my crap into it in an intense game of tetris that lasted me at least 2 hours. I finally got there – but I sacrificed my mouth wash (will buy it when I get there), toothpaste (same story, will buy it there) and my facial mist. I didn’t even bring my cream liner – just settled for an eyeliner which I was going to abandon.

To achieve this task I literally dug out my samples hoard, which probably includes over 50 samples. I have them in sachets, tubes, jars, bottles – you name it, I probably have it. Well okay, not really, but… you know what I mean  The only reason why I decided on one thing over another was probably whether or not I trusted the brand, and if I deemed it useable. I have a lot of samples from brands I actually no longer trust (includes Biotherm and Clinique), so I picked samples from those brands that didn’t really matter – like facial toner. Everything else like cleanser and moisturiser, IMO are pretty important so I picked the brands I am using currently. I’m also paranoid about running out of product to use over my stay. I was considering hair styling gel (I have it in a sachet), but then decided against it. I just really had a lot of decisions to make…

I finally managed to fit everything in that tiny plastic bag! I didn’t manage to fit mascara primer… I’ll only hope that it’s not that humid to make my mascara run. Also ditched the makeup remover, too, which kinda sucks :\ So far I only have PJs, that plastic bag and another bag to fit the “dry items” (eyeliner pencils, powders and all). Currently my bag is pretty light which is what I’m trying to aim for. I think I can do without the hair straightener. I’m also planning to buy my clothes when I get there, but I’m not sure if I should do that or not.

Queen Victoria Building: Tea Room

Several weeks ago I went and had high tea. About a week or two later I went to The Loft to have high tea, but I will write about that later/ next time.

High tea (lunch) is $39 a person, $2 extra for tea for connoisseurs.

The Tea Room is also open for breakfast, and there is an option for tea with a glass of wine/ sparkling.

Find more information at: https://www.thetearoom.com.au/

I ordered a regular tea (forgot the name of it, but it was a rose tea) and it was quite nice and fragrant. This isn’t the first time I’ve been to The Tea Room – the last time I ordered a Superior Gyokuro tea (connoisseur tea) and it detoxed me like crazy. Not sure if it was a coincidence or if it was really the tea, but I decided to stay away from that list just in case

As you can see we got macarons, cakes, tarts, sandwiches. There was also an additional plate with scones and spinach pie. I think we finished everything (I think except for half a scone) – it was quite yummy. I really like The Tea Room’s relaxing atmosphere.

Note that the place was quite empty as we walked in at around 4pm – High Tea closes at 5pm, so be sure to get in there earlier so that you don’t rush to finish. It’s best to go there early and slowly take your time. It’s a great place to just chill and chat. I also really love their china and interior design.

Will go back again for sure.

Cutting this post short. Sorry for the crappy nature of this post.

I just have been bogged down with all sorts of random stuff – I really don’t want to sit at my computer and blog because I want to dedicate more of my time off to tidying up my room and doing exercise. I’ve been quite stressed at work because soon I’ll be probably the most senior staff around (STRESS, PRESSURE, NOT GOOD) and I am going to continue my training (again) very soon.

I was going to write about my Christmas pressie haul for myself but it’s probably going to be pointless. My next post will either be new years resolutions or about Melbourne, depending on when I manage to get the photos. I had a lot of fun in Melbourne and this time I really scored some awesome bargains. The highlights of my trip pretty much included Southwharf DFO, having fine dining at Crown Casino, visiting TopShop on Chapel Street, Eureka Skydeck 88 (not really a highlight, but I didn’t do this last time) and scoring ridiculous bargains that I really needed to rub my eyes and pinch myself to make sure they were actually real.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their new year and has a series of awesome things to do for the year ahead! I certainly had fun (even though I didn’t even realise it was the end of the year and start of a new one so soon) and I started this year with a trip. I shall be back really soon with a proper post!

Pony’s Makeup Book: 朴惠敃韩系“抢眼妆“

Finally something beauty related. I need to really congratulate myself for finally being bothered to talk about anything beauty related (review wise) for a looong time.

I’ll probably start with a bit of random background and bits and pieces about myself as well as Pony to explain this post in better detail.

I used to (emphasis on the past tense) spend a lot of money on skincare and cosmetics when I was in my late teens (late meaning 19, 20 – even though 20 isn’t technically “teen” anymore) because I was always attracted to gifts with purchases and stuff like that. I hoard cosmetics to the point I have a supply good enough to last me several years – in fact, I still do it now. Back then, I really had quite an in depth knowledge about makeup, skin care and skin care routines because it was something that I really was interested in. I mean, back then I used to shape my brows and watch beauty tutorials – I knew a lot.

After a period of time, I was told by several people (whom I don’t need to mention, really) that I didn’t need to apply makeup. My closest friend whom I attended uni with for the entire 5 years never could tell when I actually had makeup on versus times when I didn’t wear it – SO… I then pretty much got lazy. I really did forget about makeup techniques. I haven’t shaped my brows for about 3 years – not that it’s a big deal to me, because I like the way they look, but that’s the extent of how lazy I am – and I realised how lazy I was until I came across this book.

I used to browse Soompi a lot for makeup inspiration, and one of my favourite threads contained makeup tutorials posted by none other than my favourite ulzzang, PONY (Park Hye Min). I honestly think she’s gorgeous, and her makeup skills are great. Her skin looks flawless and well, yeah, she’s just so pretty. I also thought that she was super generous for posting up free makeup tutorials online to share with fans or girls who just want to look pretty – I REALLY LOVE PONY. SHE IS FLAWLESS.

Ulzzang, or uhljjang is a Korean term given to someone who is idolised because of their looks – it literally means “best face” and ulzzangs are typically popular through their personal blogs, modelling photos they post up for personal or commercial purposes, and are even popular through winning ulzzang competitions online or on tv shows. Pony is one of them, and for good reason.

Yes, ulzzangs do photoshop their photos, they wear wigs, they wear makeup and they wear circle lens. Maybe the style’s not for everyone, but I am certainly drawn to it.

Pony’s makeup book isn’t really about makeup for ulzzangs – it’s more like an in-depth guide to the basics of makeup, makeup application, and then offering you a variety of tutorials as a base for you to start with so you can venture out on your own. There are limitless combinations if you follow her techniques (she has different eyeline drawing methods, which you could mix with different lips, cheek colour application and most importantly, eye makeup) so the so-called tutorials aren’t really looks like you need to follow solidly. It’s more like “here’s what you need to know – now go have fun.”

I found out about the release of ths book from WaiWai magazine – I logged onto Kinokuniya and found that they were still waiting for the shipment to arrive. Literally just a few days ago I checked and realised they had stock. I HAD TO GET IT.

It’s fairly popular as I bought one out of two remaining books. The retail price is $25.88AUD and it’s available at Kinokuniya bookstores. You may also order the book from Yesasia for around $23USD but shipping will cost extra and you will have to wait for it to arrive.

The book has been translated into Chinese, so for those who were worrying about not understanding Korean, problem solved. Of course, if you can’t read Chinese, you could probably still understand everything from her easy to follow diagrams, but you won’t be able to read her extra tips that are on the side.

As you can see from the cover (which I was too excited to bother reading, I just grabbed the book and headed straight for the counter), there are looks for all year round – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter looks, and there’s a 90 minute DVD which is included, so it’s actually fairly good value for money. Everything is in high quality gloss paper and in full colour. I also like the covers because it’s well constructed and have flaps you can use as bookmarks to mark your favourite pages.

The book starts off with the basics of how to highlight and contour different face shapes. I’m really amazed at Pony’s care and detail put into this book because she actually talks about all sorts of different face shapes (about 4 from memory), and not just her own face shape, which is well, obviously, really quite nice ;_; Haha. She tells you exactly where to apply highlighter and even blush, as well as how to shape your brows and what they should look like.

She also goes through the basics of priming, concealing and just basic face stuff to get your look flawless. She even teaches you how to conceal freckles.

There is an entire section about eye makeup, which includes eyelining (she goes through different types of liners – pencil, liquid, cream/ gel), eyebrows (how to trim your brows), mascara (different eyelash types, what mascara brush to use, and product recommendations), false lash application.

As you can see, the product recommendations are really handy for people who are new to makeup. If you find makeup difficult and the look out for good products a pain, you can just copy the list of products and buy those. There are prices included (albeit in Taiwan NT, which doesn’t really help me) so you can decide whether or not you want to buy the products or not. One thing to note though is that Pony does tend to use a lot of professional, high end products which means for those who aren’t so adept at makeup, may be looking at quite an expensive shopping list of makeup items to buy.

Not only that, she has this list for like every look. EVERYTHING. So much dedication. But if you trusted each tutorial… that’s… a lot to buy.

Personally, I don’t look at the lists because I’m more interested in the techniques rather than the products used – well, it’s probably helpful for some people.

This is one of my favourite photos of Pony in the book and it features her with smoky eye makeup which I think is really pretty.

The tutorials are fairly straightforward to understand (it’s like, a picture of her eye, with a bubble marking where you should apply stuff) so it’s fairly straight forward. The tutorials only teach you eye makeup, however. They do not tell you how to do the cheeks or lips.

There are sections that teach you how to apply blush and how to do lip makeup, so you just have to figure it out yourself and follow the corresponding tutorial you think fits the eye tutorial best. This is what I mean by mix and match. Having said that, I didn’t take any photos of her looks because they’re actually similar to her previous tutorials online – only it’s just about the eye only. It doesn’t talk about prepping the face whatsoever – you need to get it from the basics at the beginning of the book.

• There are also other things that the book includes, which may be useful:
• Makeup for single lids (monolids) – there are about 3-4 looks – so single lidded girls are not excluded!
• Makeup that can be done in 10minutes ie. natural/ work makeup for those with a busy lifestyle
• Makeup for those who wear glasses
• How to clean your makeup utensils
• How to cleanse your face/ remove makeup properly

Overall, I think that the book has a good variety of looks from natural, to sweet, to sexy for a good range of events. It also covers girls of all face shapes and eye types, which is good. Like the book aims to do so, it does cover you for the entire year regardless of whatever occasion you need to attend, so it’s a handy book to have around in times when you’re really stuck on what to do. The best part is that you just need to like the photo of her, decide you like the look and then follow the tutorial. Fairly straight forward – just make sure you have the colours for it.

I was under the misconception that there were like 70 tutorials because that’s what I read somewhere – but that’s not the case. If you include every single thing she talks about, maybe there are 70 things, but in terms of just eye makeup tutorials, there are about 30-40 of them, which isn’t bad.

The DVD includes step by step instructions of 12 selected looks. They are just video snippets of Pony talking, and applying makeup with really dodgy Chinese subtitles which were lazily pasted on. Not everything she says is translated, and to be honest, it’s boring. You don’t get to see her full face… you just… see… her… eye >_>

The DVD (more specifically, DVD-ROM) was a nice touch, but I rather stick with the book.

As a fan of Pony, this book is something I think I spent my money well on. However, if you were after unique tutorials, I think some of her tutorials she posted online were actually way more innovative than the ones she has in the book, which tended to be a bit more conservative. She did however, repeat her Golden Cat tutorial in this book. Too bad she didn’t include Russian Blue or Juliette – those were some of my favourites. But then again, they reside in my computer in a folder dedicated to Pony tutorials

Hope this has provided some insight for this makeup book. I’m most likely going to blog again later tonight because I have a crapload of stuff to upload, but if you don’t see the post, maybe next week. Guh. I have a lot to write about.

Let the bull***t begin.

WARNING: IMAGE HEAVY POST.

Not that it matters, because you’re here now already and it’s loaded. BWAHAHAHAHA.

Okay, I’m not a happy chap these days and it’s due to a variety of reasons that are work-related and shit that is happening on a personal level. Not going into detail about any of that because that’s not what this blog is for. Every time it seems that I start to even merely begin complaining about something that is vaguely pinpointed, people are going to latch onto me and start bombarding me with conversations like “BUT U NO PERFECTIONIST URSELF” so I’m just going to keep quiet about things, eventually bundle it all up inside and probably implode from rage maybe 20 years down the track.

I kid about imploding, by the way. It’s not like I have an X-gun that they have in Gantz to shoot myself with… and make myself implode.

Gantz ball. As seen in Gantz: Perfect Answer.

I KID. I WOULD FREAK OUT IF I ENDED UP WITH A GANTZ BALL IN MY BED FIRST THING WAKING UP IN THE MORNING.

Speaking of which, I completely missed the Japanese Film Festival, so I watched Final Answer the bootleg way. Let’s just say… the anime is way better. WAY BETTER.

OK, all sarcasm aside, I really should have updated earlier. I just never had the mood to blog, and I seriously got busy. Training look longer than expected. I started designing a magazine ad for C. Just… stuff.

Sculptures by the Sea

The last time I went to Sculptures by the Sea was in 2009. Back then the Lovigans were doing a random flashmob at the Opera House (we walked all the way there and stood on a full bus there and back…) and then we very randomly last minuted-ly decided to head to Bondi Beach. I know. Random. We walked from literally the north side of the beach to the south side of the beach (in other words, one end to the other), up the hill to the top of Bondi Beach, and all the way to Tamarama Beach. What’s even better was we walked the entire length back.

Our legs were dead that day.

It was really fun that day and I somehow managed to miss the 2010 Sculptures because I was working on my finals. This time we set a date and I was about to miss it again because of work… but I got a last minute shift change, so I half arsed-ly made it. After about an hour on freaking public transport and a full bus all the way to Bondi Beach (as it was the second last day the event was going to be on for – plus lovely weather), I made it.

There were a crapload of dots on the beach (aka, people) but I didn’t bother taking a photo, even though that was my first instinct upon whipping out my camera. Then I was like “meh, cbb.”

Ramille bought a tent and set it up on the beach – it was pure win! Though small, it was kinda enough for all of us (some people like me are vampirish in nature and don’t like vitamin D with free tans – others embraced the sun), and it was easy to spot from the top of the hill, which was where I kind of “descended” from when I alighted my bus. The tent worked out great, until it got really really windy and then we realised we were supposed to put sand on the side pockets around the outskirts of the tent to hold it down.

I mean, DUH, but we didn’t know, okay??? We ended up putting the sand in like 10 minutes before we left lololol. The things we randomly do to amuse ourselves. Like this…

I know, I’m so lame. But I couldn’t help it – the sand was slightly damp and it was perfect for writing something… and that “something” happened to be one of the most abused internet lingo acronyms invented. I just could not resist.

Please excuse and ignore the embarassing watermark noob placement. I think I must have clicked something on Photoshop before saving – too lazy to go back. Facepalm worthy indeed.

There was sand on the floor of the tent and it looked like it spelled the word CHILL so we quickly took a photo of it. Does it look like CHILL? It did upon first glance… not sure now, lol, but I still see it… sorta. It now looks more like CHILLI… so err… yeah…

So basically we spent like… 1 hour or 2 at the tent, eating pizza courtesy of Leah and making crude comments about other commuters at the beach, namely unnecessarily revealing outfits – like G-strings… wth. G-string. On a beach. WHAT.

Credits to Leah 

Well obviously I couldn’t take a photo of myself, and I haven’t seen many other photos posted, but this is a photo fellow Lovigan L took with her film camera That’s me, with chubby legs and holding up a plastic cup shaped like a wine glass looking like a boss. I kid once again. But the cup was just too lolsome for words. And I finally got to wear my straw hat which I bought ages ago. Namely end of 2010, when we were just having too much fun. YUS. STRAW HAT.

As you can see, my legs are actually in the sun – and they were in the sun for a significant amount of time (don’t forget I did climb up to the top as well) – did I tan that day? Well, surprisingly, I didn’t. I didn’t even get darker even a quarter of a shade, which really made me surprised. If anything, I’d like to owe it all to Shiseido Anessa, probably one of the best sunscreens around. SPF 50, yo! I mean, it worked for me, at the very least.

As soon as everyone was gathered at our orange headquarters, we made our ascent towards the top.

This photo is pretty sad because it looks like a really empty and quiet day at Bondi Beach, but it wasn’t. There were so many people it made you want to headdesk lining up to take a photo at the photoframe sculpture. Yes, it was like that. But anyway, it’s because this is the south end of the beach, and it was getting cloudly so it naturally wasn’t inhabited as much. The south side is forever always slightly gloomier and colder – well, in my opinion at least.

There were a lot of sculptures along the way, and I took a lot of random shots of whatever I thought was cool and didn’t have too many people photobombing the shot – but I must be honest, it wasn’t that great. In 2009 I climbed up Bondi Beach with a Sony Cybershot and I took better photos than I did this year, probably because I liked the sculptures more than I did this time around. I must also say, I know my photography has declined rapidly in terms of quality – not that there was much quality to begin with. But I really sincerely think that I used to put more thought into what I took, instead of now – I know I just rely on my camera to make up for the other 80% of lazy when I take a shot. But let’s not get into this, because the photos I take now aren’t meant to be artsy or creative like I tried back in 09. They’re just to document random bits.

Anyway,  because I didn’t really want to have a post with a zillion photos, I decided to just cut the crap short because I didn’t really like most of my photos to begin with.

This seemed to be most people’s favourite along the way. It’s a reindeer made of mesh. Looks a lot prettier in real life.

OH HAY, A HALF NOT SO BAD CANDID SHOT OF THE BACKVIEW OF TWO RANDOM DUDES IN FRONT OF ME.

Maybe I should stick to candid shots, which is what I seem to do the best >_>

Well, this is Tamarama Beach. By the time we got there the sun was starting to set and it was getting cold pretty fast. It was about 6:30pm or so by the time we got there and half of us couldn’t be bothered going down to the sand and just stood at this platform waiting for the rest to come back. We were hungry, kinda tired (I’m probably not as tired as people think, because I’m already used to standing and walking for long hours – THE PAIN IS NOTHING – jk, I have stronger legs than I did 2 years ago), and we were hungry. We were all like zombies demanding dinner.

Mostly because, well, apart from pizza and my random cookies (as I accurately said “made of chocolate… Arnott’s biscuits… and maybe an egg”), we actually all skipped lunch. So we essentially hiked Bondi Beach to Tamarama on an 85% empty tank stomach.

We “took it to the streets” on the way back – no need to go back along the winding, rocky steps – we were just freaking hungry.

We walked along the entire stretch of the main restaurant strip (yes, I know, a lot of walking, sounds painful), found nothing that wasn’t packed or could fit like the 8 of us. So we walked all the way back, LOL.

Leah and Lucy somehow managed to find a Tapas bar named Vue that was upstairs… after a peek, it seemed like there was room for us \o/

The interior is pretty homey. It was my first time at a Spanish restaurant (yeah I know, I am really slow and I miss out on a lot of awesome things), but I didn’t get tapas, because I’m a party pooper.

Actually, it’s because I really really like avocado.

Grilled chicken salad – $15ish.

This photo was taken with the aid of Lamah’s self made studio umbrella – he turned on the light on his iPhone and then covered it with a napkin LOL. I didn’t touch the colours or anything for this photo – it’s 100% raw aside from sizing and the watermark. I must say… the studio umbrella is pretty amazing. The photo turned out surprisingly well.

What to say about this salad? Well, the “grilled chicken” was actually what I described (out loud) as “salted chicken slices” because that’s exactly what it was. I mean, it wasn’t grilled chicken at all >_> Side-eyeing pretty damn hard. The salad overall was flavoured a teeny wee bit to the salty side, but it was flavoursome and I really welcomed the pine nuts (nomnomnom) and the refreshing addition of pears. I haven’t eaten pears in ages so they were awesome. The only thing I didn’t like was… NO CHEESE??? Lately I’ve had a liking towards cheese in salads… too bad there was none in this.

After dinner we then walked back along the strip to Mövenpick where we shot videos in HD and ate icecream. Yummy.

And then we all went home.

It was a seriously fun day – lots of walking and it felt good. Stress-free, healthy, I approve.

Retailers’ Night

Another random thing that kept me busy. Our store won an award so we went to collect it. The location was Cohibar at Darling Harbour. We went after work… there was a dress code, but we decided that we fit the description accurately since our uniform was like, black. It was still sunny-ish though it was drizzling a bit. We were hungry too.

For those who didn’t know, to refresh y’all newcomers or not so newcomers, I work at a designer/ fine jewellery store. We sell branded stuff and we sell finer things like diamonds, precious stones, pearls – stuff like that. I enjoy my job greatly, provided things go smoothly during the day. I think that’s probably all I need to say, lol. I was just thinking about it recently – I was thinking of taking a course in my spare time (if it’s available) to study more about diamonds and precious gems. They’re quite fascinating. I obviously know a lot more than the average person, but I know there’s still a lot to learn. It’s not like “oh you just need to know this and this and you’ll be fine” – no, it’s not fine. There’s a lot to learn. Always. I can never understand why people stop learning because they think they know everything. Nobody knows everything. Nobody can ever stop learning.

Like a bo-

When we reached the inside we all pretty much wanted to hide in a corner because people actually DID bother dressing up LOL. Well, the interior of the bar wasn’t bad. It had its own feel and it was a good size. My boss actually started poking the waiter for clues as to when there would be food available… and we had to wait like another 20 minutes OTL.

By the time they DID serve food though, all of our eyes were stuck on the platters – target LOCKED.

After finally getting food in my stomach (the food wasn’t bad, by the way, it was pretty good) I diverted my attention back to my glass of champagne.

This is the best white wine (if I’m allowed to call it that) that I’ve ever had, hands down. Easy to drink, smooth, great taste. Too bad I have no idea what champagne this is. It was yummy. Only had one glass though, the rest was apple juice and history. No, really, I don’t endorse drinking on a half empty stomach.

This was the view of Darling Harbour from our seat at around 8pm. The view along Darling Harbour really is truly beautiful. There was a time when I started thinking that Darling Harbour was boring, outdated, unsophisticated – but it’s starting to grow back on me again. It really is a great view. Sometimes it’s not so bad when it’s drizzling as well.

My camera battery died somewhere here, because I didn’t charge my battery after going to Sculptures LOL. We then went downstairs to Blue Fish and had dinner. Most of the spaghetti I was supposed to eat ended up on my dress >_> But well, it was a good night out.

Congratulations for making it here!

I know I usually rattle on a lot, but this post is a whopping 2500 words or so. Usually I average at around 1000 words on a lazy day so this time I really did put in a lot of effort to make this post look like I actually cared

I haven’t forgotten about what I was supposed to blog about this time – which was supposed to be something beauty related. I have to postpone it because I’m still trialling the products. I’m not sure… if they work, until I finish using them all. But let’s say I’m pretty disappointed.

So yeah, there’s that, and I am trying to lose weight. Failing miserably. I think I’m just going to give up. Not that I’m fat to begin with anyway. I rather chillax than worry over something that just isn’t happening.

Also, a trip has been booked in for January 2012 – HELL YES I AM FINALLY GOING SOMEWHERE. Though it’s just Melbourne. Again. I guess it means I can just reuse my Melbourne category, but still Ticket, accommodation all booked. I’m really looking forward to it. I know it’ll be awesome. I just miss the feeling of sitting on a plane and I get to use my travel bag too. I am fickle, just like that.

Anyway, as you can probably gather, I just came home from a very long day at work. I started this post with editing at around 10pm… it’s now 12:49am and I’ve been yawning since I woke up the morning for work. I am really tired. Hope you all enjoyed – and if not… splashes of colours and random text?

Will be back again soon. xx

Just an update.

As usual, I backtrack a lot and a week ago, I wrote this:

My annual leave has consisted me of doing things like sleeping in, properly moisturing after taking a shower, and washing our very very dirty car. Our windows are next. DAMN IT. I’m the only one who cleans the windows I still haven’t got around to cleaning out my closet and putting unwanted crap away into a large box – I have only gotten so far as to rearranging my bag section by adding an extra box as I decided that I needed a box to encase bags I didn’t want squashed. Called Telephone Banking. Oh, life is so boring.

I went to work on Friday (I sometimes do question myself WAE WORK WHEN ON LEAVE??) so I haven’t really been making the most of my time effectively. Only one more week left – I’ll definitely need to do all the things I need to do this next week – I’ve decided to take hula hooping again because I decided that I haven’t been active enough despite standing long hours at work. I feel really fat compared to this time last year – Why is it so hard to lose almost 5kg over a period of a year and then just to have it all come back!?

Met up with sis, L.

I haven’t seen L in ageeeees. By that I literally mean over a year and a half or something, which is ridiculous, unacceptable, preposterous etc – so we met up.

L is who I’d refer to as my “sis(ter)” and we’ve known each other since high school. Back in those days when we’d stay behind to leech bandwidth and then fangirl over Dir en grey, Vanness Wu or perhaps Gackt or Hyde. Oh yes, those were the days.

L went to work interstate and came back up for the long weekend, so basically we just had to go somewhere in Sydney that was new. We were originally headed for the foodcourt at Westfield, but we didn’t even make it to Westfield LOL – we decided to just wing it at Ichiban Boshi or something – along the way we got distracted by Sushi Hotaru (see how easily we get distracted??) and decided to just go in, not before trying to enter through the back door

So Sushi Hotaru has been a place which has been popping up recently in blogs I’ve been reading and from what I gathered, it’s most well known for everything being $3 unless specified. Yes, $3 sushi. That certainly makes me happy, because I hate how I go to a sushi place and I want to pick up the $2.50 plates, but I try not to because it looks cheap LOL. I guess this place solves all your problems, and the good thing is that they have a good selection, including temaki sushi (a la the sushi that look like ice cream cones) which was all we ordered that day. Their temaki sushi was geeeewd.

Nevertheless, this was the only photo I snapped that day, courtesy of le crappy phone camera – don’t even know how I managed to get the bubbles.

Hotaru – $5.50 @ Sushi Hotaru

L went for the green tea latte with red bean icecream (also $5.50) but I went for the Hotaru, using the logic that it should be the best drink since it’s named after the place (like how the Musashi Blue is the best drink IMO from Musashi *shrugs*). It’s a pretty drink which is supposedly meant to be peppermint and ginger ale, but it really tasted like lemonade, with some mint syrup (that blue stuff) down the bottom. It did come with a lemon and a mint leaf, both of which I did not actively use for ingesting the drink. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed with appreciation either – whatever that’s supposed to mean >_> It was pretty though! Too bad the crappy photo ruins it.

Apart from eating temaki sushi and takoyaki plus gyoza, that was pretty much all we ordered. We had a total of 6 plates between us (1 entree, 2 sushi each) and surprisingly, we were kinda full. With the drink it was like $15 each which is pretty damn good by sushi train standards. I usually walk into a sushi train thinking that I will spend at least $25, but that wasn’t the case. Either way, I was full.

They use iPads to order (yes, those touch screens are iPads which are secured to the wall so that they aren’t stolen), but their system isn’t advanced enough to calculate the bill total (you can always do it in your head, it’s really easy since everything is $3, then you add it to the total the screen tells you, which is the total of what you ordered that ISN’T $3) so you have to get a waitress to count your dishes and you pay at the counter.

Overall it’s a pretty nice place (the service was a bit confusing though, we kept getting our temaki sushi together and we couldn’t figure which belonged to who – so we had to ask – then they had limited English and had to find someone to figure it out…) and I’d probably go back again – soon. If not soon, then whenever.

Half a day wasn’t enough to catch up with L, seriously hope to catch up with you in more detail when you’re back in Sydney, or if I can ever get my lazy self to where you are. We didn’t get to talk about everything – it has just been too long

Now, I wrote something along the lines of this:

WELL THAT WAS AN UNDERWHELMING ANNUAL LEAVE.

Not saying I didn’t do anything awesome or anything – but more like time went by so quickly I didn’t end up doing as many awesome things as I had expected to do. I barely did anything important and I go back to work again tomorrow – TOMORROW! Then it’s another month or two of non stop working I DUN WANNA WORK T_T

In the midst of my shopping, I somehow got sent a magazine from well, as you can see, all the way from Sweden. I’m not sure if everyone gets a copy or not, but when you start getting catalogues in the mail, it’s about time to just stop spending money – it’s a serious issue >_>

I did actually do a bunch of shopping (be it online or in person), but I most likely won’t blog about any of that until probably later in the year, because I have a lot of random material to blog about in regards to purchases, including this which I bought several months ago -

Chloé Mini Marcie Bag in brick red

UM – should I be reviewing this…? I don’t know because there’s not much to really say. As you can see it just comes with an Authenticity Card (doesn’t really do much), and a bunch of tags as well as in instruction care booklet thingy. The dustbag is nice – slightly coarse though? But it came with it so w/e. The leather is presumably calf leather and it’s really soft (made in Spain) – the stitching is immaculate and surprisingly, it fits a lot of random crap in there, as there are 2 small slots for you to hide your spare cash or slip in a bus ticket or something. My record (which includes the bag closing properly) consists of: a wallet, mobile phone, keys, a pair of sunglasses (in a soft case), bus tickets, with enough room to also spare a pen and a bunch of post-it notes. Basically, it’s good enough to fit everything you need to basically survive, which isn’t too bad.

It’s lined in a black cotton – I personally like cotton, but it doesn’t feel as awesome as some other cotton linings I’ve experienced in my lifetime. A bit like how I’m a bit like “wtf” with the dustbag – usually you use the dustbag to wipe the bag, but I can’t imagine myself doing that with this dustbag – in fact I’m pretty hesitant to store the bag in the dustbag >_> Anyway, I shall not repeat myself any more.

If I had to say anything bad about the bag, it’d be the fact that the hot stamp is really tiny, and because the leather is too soft (probably thinner than desired), it could crease and lose shape easily. I currently have this stuffed with loads of tissue paper to stop it from deforming. The strap also is too long by default, and if I move it to another part of the strap, I can see the “mark” where the strap used to be – that is something that really pisses me off, so I just left it as it is. I can only hope that I just get used to it – I have a feeling I won’t, but then again that’s just too bad.

All in all, it’s a good bag for a casual outing – nice with a vintage style, sundress, maxidress or with shorts or jeans. Not suitable for work, unless you work a casual job (in other words, I work a preetty casual job myself trololol – I wouldn’t wear this if I were in a corporate job, to say the very least). For those who know me best, I actually really don’t like the colour red (I don’t usually voluntarily buy anything red in colour that is of substantial size – this is what I consider pretty big) – but it beats having a boring black bag or a light coloured bag which would discolout and stain over time, adding on unwanted stress – I’m pretty particular when it comes to bags being dirty, I must have it kept clean or else you’ll see me sitting down with an eraser attempting to get rid of stains for at least half an hour!

Overall, it was worth the buy – price was pretty good for a small bag (generally small bags aren’t cheap at all – my theory is that they do it because it’s harder to get the sewing machine in a smaller space or whatever) so I’m happy. Ticked off the list and that’s about it.

Guilty, oh so guilty.

Apart from watching Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, which is so embarassing it’s good (seriously, just looking at his face, he’s so not 19 years old, but then again, kids these days grow up so fast ._. – but IRL he’s actually older than me, so point proven – I mean, I wouldn’t go around telling people I’m 18… though some people might actually believe it… but then again… eurgh just no), I’ve been watching every live of this performance, and recently they’ve released an MV. I’ve read a variety of lolsome comments in regards to the group (including comments which contained the word “spasm” and perhaps “goddess pose” which really makes me want to snort tea from my nose) and my verdict is I’m not sure if I should take them seriously or not, because well, it could be the same as my opinion as the Flower Boy Ramyun Shop thing – it’s so weirdly bad, it’s just damn good.

I’m genie for you boy – yes, I see what you did there.

They also had a little bit too much fun with the cameras towards the end *side-eyeing*.

Another “guilt” I have at the moment is the fact that I am seriously getting fat. Yes, I’m repeating what I wrote last week, because it has been that long I’ve forgotten what I’ve typed in the first place. By fat, I mean gaining back pretty much all the weight I lost in 2010, in the form of water. Oh, detestable water. I don’t know how it happened (it was gradual at first), but it came back at me so quickly and before I knew it, I was pretty much back at square one. Still slimmer than originally, but seriously, why is it so hard for me to lose weight and have it come back so damn easily?

My next blog post is definitely beauty related (I haz a product which I think is awesome, amazing, must have) and probably I will have a post named, albeit curiously, “bikini ready in 3 weeks”…? Perhaps 2 weeks? IDK. At the moment I’m going through a pretty intense bout of (I know this sounds unhealthy) weight loss pills and a drink. If it works, I will post about it and gloat about it. It seems to be working, but that’s only because I am doing exercise at the same time – so in other words, I’m doing 3 things at the same time, but I actually don’t know which is actually working – perhaps all 3? I don’t know, but I have a feeling I will be able to lose an inch off my waist within a week (I’m almost there and it has only been 5 days).

I’m not a person who likes to endorse lazy ways of losing weight (that’s why I’m still active and I do exercise) – but if it’s a supplementary thing that makes things easier – why not? I’ve realised that I have a problem that can’t be solved with just exercise, because maybe I have slow metabolism, or I need to detox or perhaps I just don’t drink enough water in general for anything to work. Anywho, I will write about it in a few weeks’ time.

Last few words to sum up what I’m doing or not doing -

- NOT going to Kpop Festival 2011

- NOT going to spend any money for the rest of the month (unless sales pop up then UH OH BIG TROUBLE)

- WILL upgrade my phone. On Sunday.

- WILL post again sometime next week.

Until then, whip out your sunnies – Sydney is getting HOT – hope it just doesn’t get any hotter Toodles!

/gone to watch Flower Boy Ramyun Shop – DUN DUN DUN…

October wrap up, temporary liberty and more complaints on life in general and everything else applicable.

I have a knack for extra long titles these days, so let it be the trend. It’ll most likely shorten by the time I start blogging in November, though.

So I actually did do stuff in October.

Not a lot, I must say – could be a lot better and I could have done more. For those who know me personally, I’ve officially started my annual leave (though that doesn’t mean I still don’t have to work – blast it to pieces, okay – I still need to work) so that has put my stress levels down. My stress levels are actually up here *drawing a line slightly above my head* because I know when I get back I probably have to face training a newbie again, and the whole process is going to repeat.

Another thing that I’m actually worried about is not being able to take the rest of my leave – believe it or not. Maybe I might be able to get a monetary reimbursement instead (which sounds pretty good to me, considering I’m actually really low on monies and I’ve been calculating every single potential dollar I’m going to earn up until the end of the year, because I have a crapload of stuff I need to buy). IDUNNO. Things are pretty messy right now and I don’t really want to think about it – not when I am supposed to take a break from work and like, wash our windows and car or something.

For those who were asking me if I was going away, the answer is no. I’ve weighed up the possibility of going somewhere – decided it simply wasn’t worth it. I rather spend the money and buy something I can see, use, and feel in my sleep or in my wake if I had to instead.

This post is brought to you via laziness and convenience of a mobile (cell) phone camera. I have been trying to sign up for a blasted iPhone 4S, but no, I keep getting told that 19 entire months is still not enough to upgrade my contract/ phone, when I was told that 19 months was enough. WHAT IS GOING ON. I even started to use my phone case already without the iPhone. I CAN’T WAIT OKAY, THE WHOLE PURPOSE WASN’T TO GET AN iPHONE, IT WAS TO GET A COOL CASE TO ENCASE IT.

Gone absolutely bananas.

I met up with A, whom I haven’t seen for quite a while (actually, I haven’t seen a bazillion people in more than a “while”). We just hung around uni, ate at a random place near uni, and observed changes around uni. We also hiked around uni.

The most surprising thing was that I had no idea I actually lived so close to a Passionflower, which has recently opened near uni.

I once had Western Sunrise (IT IS TERRIBLE, BORING, ETC, DO NOT GET IT) because of the lack of Eastern Sunrise available. This time I was like, “SWEET I shall try it now that I missed out the chance yonks ago”.

Eastern Sunrise @ Passionflower – $14 $16.

I had no idea taro icecream was soooo good. I was kinda meh with the sticky rice icecream – green tea is normal as usual.

What else can I say about this dessert? The orange was bitter, which was actually really really terrible and made the experience pretty crap. The bananas were also not really banana-ey and weren’t sweet. The worst part about it was that we were charged an extra $2 premium on top of the price of the dessert (which supposedly was meant to cover the cost of, well, everything that was included) because it contained banana in it. Yes. $2 for 6 slices of banana. Or, $2 for a super short, and tiny radii banana.

I can’t really ay I was displeased with it, but I can’t really say I was really pleased either. I guess I’m sort of “meh” – the dessert was nice, but it wasn’t super – then the price wasn’t terrible or great either, considering usually it is meant to just be $14. OH WELL. I reckon they should have just left out the bananas and ask customers if they wanted them for an extra $2 – but anyway.

Taro icecream – nomnomnom

Personalised coke can

Caught up with D and decided to grab our free coke cans at Centrepoint Westfield.

We lined up for about half an hour but it didn’t really take all that long – it could have been faster though – it was mostly because some workers really tried to get the labels on perfect >_>

At first I thought that there was a self-serve machine where you type in your name and then a coke can (which gets printed on the spot) comes out – I was probably overthinking wayyy too much because it’s actually just a sticker they stick onto the can LOL. They have a mini bar fridge filled with cans and the sticker is printed like, instantaneously as soon as they click the print button.

While we were lining up and were about 2m from the coke cans, I posed a cruel question: what if they ran out of coke cans? LOL.

I wasn’t jinxing it or anything because I saw that the fridge was full before saying that out loud, of course. But yeah, what happens if they run out of cans? Does that mean you line up for nothing?

We both felt pretty good because on the way to Westfield we already got a bottle of free tea courtesy of Nestea. I thought that the mango flavour was going to be gross, but it was surprisingly quite nice.

My personalised coke can is 200ml and the sticker has air bubbles in it lol. It was worth it for the experience and just getting a can – that was the most satisfying part. We actually felt like we achieved something towards the finish line.

Thomas Sabo new jewellery collection

I ordered these a while ago but they got backordered. I’m happy because I finally get to wear and use these babies!

Not to scale. The necklace is meant to be smaller – I blame it on my poor photoshop skills/ laziness which is kicking in. Because I can be lazy.

It’s a feather pendant from the newest collection with a pair of matching earrings. The pendant was actually a lot prettier, sturdier and larger than I had expected – I really really like it a lot. The earrings are a bit formal and they’re quite heavy so I’m not sure if I’d want to go out wearing the set (I think that wearing sets always tends to look too formal and over the top) but maybe if I had a really good excuse to, I would. I’m happy that it’s quite elegant looking – well priced, too.

Dinner with the Lovigans – OH YEAH.

I haven’t seen the Lovigans for ages. I think the last time was – April? I don’t even remember. Perhaps it was March. Yes, it was that long ago D:

It was a really short meetup and we didn’t even get to go through all the gossip! Usually we get to rant about something, but because we haven’t seen each other so long it tended to be a “how have you been?” kind of question time. I really wish that we’d meet up soon and have more time to well, yeah, talk about more!

I love my avocado and salmon sushi so I got a platter of it – $15AUD at ROLL+, Dixon No1. The thing that annoyed me the most was that I ordered a “Lychee Iced Tea” for $5 and was expecting it to be mixed – instead I got this can >_> Well, on the upside it was a really nice drink – the downside was that I could have ordered a $5 sakebomb and got more bang for my buck. Dayum.

I was stuffed by the time I got to the 7th piece of sushi – I was really content though. FOOD.

MEETUPSOONK.

Other random things I’ve been watching and videos to kill your bandwidth when you’re bored

I finally watched 单身男女 (Don’t go breaking my heart) after much deliberation and found that it was actually a really uplifting and positive film. I enjoyed it more than I had expected and it does leave you feeling optimistic. Daniel Wu remains as my #1 Hong Kong actor bias, because he is still flawless and ridiculously hot – I DO NOT KNOW WHY. Though I keep questioning if architects are really that nice – I mean, after all, I’m not so nice myself. Then again, I’m not a guy so…

It was a really artisticly shot film though, which was surprising. It was subtle and comedic in a gentle way. I’d watch it again – only I’ve already watched it twice in the span of two days. Uh oh.

Tablo is a genius. Despite the crazy MV, song is really nice. Very curious to hear more of Jinsil’s voice.

Mature audiences plz – violence, nudity, alcohol/cigarette use references and a soulful voice.

I’d also add in Girls Drinks Money by M.i.B but I’ll pass on it. Mostly because I’m lazy.

So everyone please enjoy your Melbourne Cup day and save your money because you’re going to spend it soon – AUD has risen once more and it has never been a better time to start online shopping again. I know I’ll probably do it very soon.

Next post will either be a beauty review or another boring consumerist load of crap. Until then, stay safe and remember to put on sunscreen.

BYE.

 

 

Consumerist crap – once again (I know it’s annoying, but I HAZ NO PHOTOS)

Today (Sunday) is my day off. The weather outside looks amazing, sunny, bright etc, but unfortunately I am stuck at home nursing my sescond tonsil/ throat/ whatever it is infection I’ve had this year. The first one sounded pretty bad and it was bad (I would link to a post saying something about it, but I can’t find it, I don’t know why) – this time it’s mild (if I try really hard to ignore it, I can get by without painkillers). To recap what happened last time I was told I had some virus, needed to rest/ sleep it off, and I took a day off work because it was pretty bad. I can feel it now, but it’s only 30% as bad as it was earlier this year. HMM. Can I blame it on the lovely weather? Or rather, not so lovely weather change? BLEH – either way, it feels better than yesterday and that’s all that matters for now.

The best part? My doctor has decided to take a one week trip overseas somewhere so he’s out of the country – not that it matters, since last time he just told me (model answer) to take Panadol and drink plenty of fluids. This is why I don’t like seeing doctors >__>

So my phototaking time has been very limited lately, and I’ve decided to split them up into several posts to make it look like I’m actually doing something. I’m counting down just two more weeks until my super lazy annual leave (I am waiting for Sydneysider converted Melbournean friends to come back up to Sydney !!!) so that’s exciting. I get to not work. YAY! As much as I enjoy doing what I do, there are those WTFRAGEQUIT days (I blame it on the customers, though) and I’ve actually been working for about 9 months non-stop as a full-time employee already, which is pretty crazy. I need my rest. This infection is clearly telling me I need to rest – FAST. I get three days off this week though, so that’s actually not too bad.

Going anywhere? Clearly not. I’ve spent most of my money (usually at the rate of buying things before my pay is even paid into my bank account), but I am really interested in visiting Melbourne. Mostly because I want to use my new travel/luggage bag – I AM PETTY JUST LIKE THAT.

So, I promised shoe pics God knows how long ago. Here they are.

Excuse the dirty shoe close up – I really meant to take pics before I started wearing them, but I just couldn’t be bothered. OH SO LAZY.

My (what I call) “designer shoe collection” was really meant to end several months ago, but I got sucked into it because in case if you haven’t realised, I actually really like shoes. I never actually realised it, but now I do and clearly it’s a problem.

I first encountered Jimmy Choo – I don’t really know when. I know it mostly from browsing David Jones and gawking at a pair of $2000 heeled boots discounted half price to $1000 and thinking it was freaking ridiculous. (They were really beautiful though, but probably impossible to walk in, and only good for display – but who knows? I didn’t stick my foot into it to try, so I won’t ever know.)

What’s so special about Jimmy Choo? All their shoes are made in Italy (from what I’ve encountered anyway), and they’re made of genuine leather – including this sneaker which is made of suede leather in a leopard print on the outside, patent leather trimmings, and the inside is actually completely lined in leather – I presume calf skin. I honestly didn’t expect the sneaker to be made of leather on the outside AND the inside, but I guess it’s a bonus because these sneakers were actually freaking expensive for well, a pair of sneakers. I was tossing up between these and a pair of Louboutin sneakers (but they ran out of my size and were more expensive) so I ended up opting for these.

There are various details on the sneakers which made me pretty happy (STARS!), including under the sneaker where there was a really cute star print (not shown because obviously it’s all dirty now) – the metalware says Jimmy Choo on it and they’re fairly comfortable. The sole itself is quite high but it’s nicely cushioned – they really feel like a pair of really good joggers and it feels like I’m wearing Nike Airs, only upgraded to leather. I wouldn’t recommend running in these shoes though, just for the pure reason that they are too expensive to be used for running in >_>

What I like best about Jimmy Choo shoes is that the inside of all their shoes is contoured to support the arch of your foot, which is something I haven’t felt in a long time since the very last time I wore my Nike joggers. Yep – be it sneakers or flats, they are all designed to support the arch of your foot, and that’s what makes them comfortable. The sizing is roomier than expected, but otherwise it’s a well made shoe.

The only thing(s?) I don’t like about these sneakers is that the inside of the sole has the brand stamped on the heel part but it’s in a silver foil, and it has started to rub off already. It’s the inside of the shoe so it doesn’t matter, but I can never really get why shoes use metallic anything since it rubs off so easily – they’ve done that for another pair of flats I bought but at least the brand is a stitched on logo – it’s just the rest of the inside is coming off >_>. Another thing is that the outside is suede, so you really shouldn’t wear them in rainy weather. Last but not least, the black glitter does shed/ come off. That part annoys me the most – I had glitter all over my hands the first day I wore them and it was really annoying to get it off.

Anywho, the packaging is really nice – comes in a beige box, care instructions, tissue paper embossed with the brand and also a super soft dustbag.

Jimmy Choos are seriously freaking comfy and I’m digging the quality of their shoes already (I can say this for their flats and sneakers, at the very least) – I wouldn’t hesitate buying Jimmy Choo at all. I still need to try Louboutins though – but for now I’m content and I’ve ticked that off my list.

I really had to pause for a moment when I bought these because I am not a leopard print person, but the pattern is pretty subtle and the shoe (in my opinion) is cute enough to pull off the print. They’re more formal than casual sneakers though, so that’s always a plus – it ultimately depends on how you wear them.

For a quick note about Jimmy Choo flats, the pair I own is actually really flat, has the contour inside, but also features a non slip rubber heel which is good. They’re also made fairly wide so that they’re great for work or long days. They also feature the Jimmy Choo metal plaque on the back of the shoe.

So, I have finally figured out why so many people were willing to fork out so much money for a pair – apart from just the look, they’re actually surprisingly comfortable.

This post is prematurely terminated due to my increasing muscle pains which have been creeping up on me during the past few hours, despite feeling less pain in my tonsils.

It’s time for me to take a half arsed afternoon nap. Until then, drink lots of water and stay stress-free – I have no idea what mundane post I’m going to update with next, but hopefully, this was remotely entertaining/ enlightening… just a little bit… no? No :\

I’ll be back next time with something a little better Bye!

Dr Scholl MediQtto Sleeping Socks

Forget the shoe review trololol – I need to actually edit photos for that to happen, and I’m lazy. Hence I dug this out from my drafts. Enjoy…?

Recently I heard from my colleagues about this pair of socks and it was really drawing my attention since they actually seemed to be use/ful.

I talk a lot about having high water retention levels and how I’m swollen most of the time. It’s actually not my imagination because I got it confirmed by a work colleague… (that was kinda… idk, not exactly embarassing but I guess reassuring…? Somehow?) and well yeah. I know it. I know I don’t drink enough water and I know I don’t exercise enough.

Img src http://drscholls.jp/hosiery/mediqtto/products/sleep.html

I stand for quite a long period of time and whilst I was really happy to stand (I thought that my legs are getting slimmer by doing so) I overdid it and realised that they started to get swollen again. Then when I sit for longer, I get a fat stomach OTL

The swelling was actually so bad that it hurt whenever I tried to massage my calves – and to think that nowadays I rarely even get to sit for hours at a time, it was about time I had to do something about it. So I tried these socks, lol.

What the socks aim to do is squeeze various parts of your leg so that there are different pressure levels, causing the excess water retention to move away from the foot (as that’s how gravity works). They have different socks for different places (out and about, at home, sleeping) and I chose the ones that were for sleeping because they were actually the cheapest to try. Even so, “cheapest” was around $35 USD from sasa so that isn’t really cheap by my standards.

Should I believe that these socks work? I did once buy a pair of tights (they’re somewhere in my wardrobe, I JUST DON’T KNOW WHERE ANYMORE) that seem to have helped, but they were so tight that they actually cut into my skin >_> I decided to give these a try since I remember seeing these in Japanese magazines (who doesn’t recognise that graphic?!) and they should work because a lot of women have sworn by the product.

They’re actually fairly well made, and the best part is that the top bit where the elastic is at thight level isn’t actually that tight, so it doesn’t cut into your skin - it’s slightly looser than the rest of the sock so it doesn’t actually cut off your blood circulation. The tight part is generally the whole lavender bit of the sock, which is pretty interesting as it distributes the tightness quite evenly.

It also is an open toe sock so that people with different feet sizes can wear this easily. I found it super easy to match my heel and knee with the corresponding bits on the socks (marked in white) – and to my surprise they weren’t super tight, just tight enough, but very comfortable. They come in two sizes (medium, large – maybe there’s a small but I don’t know) which are determined by your height. I’m around 165cm and that’s pretty much the tallest they have on their height chart (so people who are 165cm or above don’t have water retention?!?!), so I naturally ordered a size large. It just fits perfectly. I pretty much slept like a rock the first night I tried these – they were super comfy and warm for a winter night’s sleep, and then woke up the next day with my legs actually feeling lighter.

If people tell you that these are weight loss socks, it’s most likely bluffy – yes, they may help in reducing water retention and helping you get a good night’s sleep if you suffer from tired legs – as we all should know by now, weight (or rather, mass) loss is only really achievable by an active lifestyle, and that’s not really going to happen during your several hours of sleep just by wearing a pair of purple socks.

You’re not supposed to wear these socks other than the time you’re sleeping, so take that into account. They are able to be washed, and they do lose their elasticity over time (so therefore you will need to spend more money to buy new pairs and that’s where the money rolls in) – but for now, they’re actually pretty nifty and I really really like them.

I found that aside from wearing these socks (which kinda help) is to just massage your legs while you’re watching TV or something – don’t just sit there and do nothing – you should take every chance you get to be active somehow – I found that helped in reducing the size of my calves.

I think that for $35 (plus shipping or however much they are here in Sydney – they probably go for about $60 or so which is totally not worth it considering that’s not how much they should be) it’s a good investment and worth buying. Even if it doesn’t help with your water retention (though it really should – massage your legs if they don’t, or else you may have a pretty serious problem) they are pretty comfy as bed time socks. They’re well made and are pretty good quality, so there’s nothing to worry about.

For something that has been advertised for so many years in Japanese magazines, I trust it should work for most people. I gave it a try and liked it – maybe you’ll like it too.

Some consumeristic crap coming to you soon later this week. Until then, snuggle tight – Sydney is freaking cold for no apparent reason. TIME TO WEAR THESE SOCKS TO SLEEP.

It’s been a while…

Err.

Okay, I did a draft this afternoon and apparently it’s all GONE for no apparent reason. WordPress, you are becoming the reason why I can’t be assed writing blog posts any more – I clearly clicked the SAVE DRAFT button – WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME?

I guess I’m just going to upload the pictures without captions and make it a picture post. Sorry. I really wanted to write more, but thinking about having to type again when my fingers are cold and stiff due to the crappy weather in Sydney lately does NOT really encourage me to blog!

Criniti’s Restaurant: Darling Harbour, Sydney

This was a company dinner because we made a bet at work and we basically won the bet, and got treated dinner as our reward. Bookings are pretty much essential, and even though we apparently got called to confirm our booking, they mysteriously couldn’t find it when we got there so we had to wait at the entrance for about 20mins before being allowed in/ taken to a table.

The restaurant is much larger than expected, and quite popular with views of the harbour. Everyone there was pretty well dressed or at least dressed for a night occasion so I felt terribly underdressed and didn’t feel like I fit in.

Within two minutes we were asked if we wanted to order drinks, which was really dumb because we literally just got our butts to warm up the seat and couldn’t figure out where the drinks were. I personally gave up reading the menu altogether because there was so much writing on it to the point I didn’t feel like looking at the menu.

The ham, cheese and bread platter was pretty nice – the bread was crispy and I had fun with the cheese. We also had a chicken something salad as well as a rocket salad (nyum, rocket salad – I ship it for the cheese) which was pretty good, and ordered a 0.5m pizza. I didn’t really like the pizza that much because the cheese used was more of a bitter or mature taste – I guess I’m too used to the normal tasty cheese which is usually used in pizza. I don’t really know what pizza it was because I wasn’t the one who ordered, but I remember it had avocado on it and it was fairly well made with the crusts nice and crispy.

I didn’t taste the risotto at all, but I did try the mussel spaghetti, which featured pretty fishy tasting mussels. The baked spaghetti with the prawns/scampi (whichever it was) was unexpectedly spicy, oily, and the noodles were hard.

Overall, the place was large, clean, atmosphere was good and the food wasn’t bad – but if I were to go again, I’d probably tackle a 1m pizza for the lulz and stick with the ham platters and salads. I wasn’t a fan of their dishes to be honest.

I don’t really know what the prices were like since I didn’t have to pay the bill, but I guess it’s not bad if you go in a large group – it’s probably not really great value in a small group. I think it’s probably overpriced, plus the portions weren’t all that large especially since they were probably around the $30 mark.

I really do apologise-

- firstly for my absence (I just realised my last blog post was dated over a month ago, which really isn’t good) and this really bad post which was written half-heartedly. I just had no idea how fast time was flying. I’ve been really busy with work since I’m training a new person (with the other colleagues, of course) but because there’s someone new around, it means I have to be alert at all times, so my energy is disappearing pretty fast.

Apart from that, I’ve been busying myself watching Let’s Go! Dream Team season 2, which I had no idea was so entertaining. The obstacle courses are ridiculous, but even more interesting is the fact that I had no idea you could do so much random crap in less than a minute. And to think that they fly through the obstacle course in less than a minute, that’s probably shorter than the time I take to wash my face in the morning or night.

I was going to queue my posts by writing drafts, but since wordpress has failed me, I guess I’ll make my best effort to blog on Sunday when I’m not working. I actually do have several photos to post (though it’s all consumeristic crap which isn’t interesting at all) so I’m feeling a bit iffy and confused as to what I should be writing about next. In other words, I’ve been working pretty hard to tick off items on my wishlist lately – still a long way to go, but I’ve already started to collect stuff I’ve been wanting for quite some time.

Without further ado I shall leave you all with this ridiculous MV which I can only recommend for mature audiences and those with a sense of humour.

Next post will probably be a shoe review.

Until Sunday!

Quit being lazy, still lots to do, though-

Finally lodged my tax return

Australians have until sometime in October to lodge tax returns, so I continually delayed my tax refund for a long long time. It was always the same excuse every week – “I’ll do it next week, I still have time.”

Part of the reason why I never bothered to do my tax return was the idea of thinking of filling in annoying forms, having to possibly visit an accountant and the knowledge that my tax refund is actually quite small There are other factors, such as not really trusting people with my tax forms (I’d feel at ease hiring a more expensive tax accountant, but then again, why should I have to pay THAT much? Then “cheaper” accountants seem a bit dodgy…), and the idea of actually needing to pay someone to do something that I could possibly do myself. I never really had much motivation to lodge my application – until I finally bothered to download e-tax and then complete my form.

e-tax is the way you can do your tax online and by yourself. For those who never really realised, everything you do money-wise pretty much involves your tax file number, so common sense tells you that the Tax Office actually has a record of everything. So why is there a need to fill out paper forms and doing calculations, especially if your tax isn’t something complicated? Well, e-tax actually allows you to download all the information the Tax Office has for your past financial year – all you need to do is check if it’s correct, add in anything they don’t know, and then comfirm that all the information you’ve submitted is correct.

It didn’t take long at all – I completed my tax in about 40 minutes (I had to verify myself, get a password, confirm everything and iron out any “errors”) which was a lot faster than I had expected. The best part was the pre-filling so I didn’t have to fill in a large bulk of the forms. Most of the questions can be skipped, so you just need to fill in the bits that are relevant to you. It made tax a lot easier to understand, and best of all it was free.

e-tax is also pretty cool as it allows you to save a copy of your form (it looks exactly like a paper form as if you filled it in by hand) for your records. You also get a receipt number to prove you’ve submitted your claim, so you feel at ease.

I’m expecting my tax refund to appear in my bank account some time next week, which is really awesome since I really need to save up – I’ve been a little behind my saving target lately because of a series of unexpected/ unplanned shopping binges.

I know, tax sounds boring and all, but after using the software and lodging my form online, it was actually a piece of cake – if anything it was a pretty cool experience and I’m looking foward to having more money. I mean, who doesn’t like more money?

I’ve discovered something pretty amazing which improves your skin by tons and keeps blackheads at bay – sort of

b.liv by cellnique, off with those heads blackheads sebum gel

I’ve actually known about this product for a very long time (even before they changed the name and called it b.liv) but never really got around to buying it.

Firstly, it’s a product that wasn’t exactly available to me for a year or two – then sasa started to sell it, but I was always debating whether or not I should buy it because it’s quite pricey (don’t ask me what the price is – I can’t remember anymore, but this is 45ml and I’m sure it’s around $50 or so). Then AUD went up and so I bought it, lol.

I had a lot of misconceptions about this product, because I wasn’t ever sure of how to use it and what exactly it did – people said that after applying it, it would make your skin kinda oily, but that didn’t happen in my case – not immediately anyway. I also don’t find it making my skin any oilier than what it usually is like.

Just to take a step back, the main selling point of this product is that it uses sebum – aka that oil that your skin naturally pumps out – to get rid of blackheads.

This product is a gel or a serum – unlike what the tube tells you, you can actually get away with using a small amount. It’s absorbed quickly as it’s light, it has a minty sensation when applied, and it smells like Chinese cough medicine. You don’t wash it off (unless you want to), and it doesn’t really get rid of your blackheads like the way we all hope products would – what it does it makes your skin soft and pores nice and slippery so that it’s easier to get your blackheads out (for instance it’s quite easy for me to just scratch my nose and have blackheads roll out – I KNOW GROSS, BUT OH SO COOL). Also, it’s quite effective in eliminating pimples if you can think a little carefully about how the product actually works. It’s also good for getting rid of redness P:

For me, I didn’t know it was a serum and I washed it off – but not before running a cotton pad over my nose and seeing how easily gunk comes out – and this was after just 10minutes of applying the gel on.

I’ve noticed a great improvement in my T-zone area but sadly, the blackheads will always be there. It’s a great product on the long term though – it does help to reduce the size of blackheads so that they’re quite minimal and I think with prolonged use it’ll make them eventually barely noticeable. I’ve only used this for about 2 weeks and I’ve seen a good enough change in my skin – my nose is really nice and soft and I don’t really know how I put up with my nose before lol. Makes my skin look a lot cleaner too – it’s so far doing wonders for my skin.

It is pricey as I mentioned, but if you use it sparingly I think it will last a very long time. Another thing to note is that it comes in a pump packaging, which can be convenient and hygenic, but it means I need to use a chainsaw and hack it open to finish the rest.

Stretching shoes, ticking off wishlist – what more can I ask for?

Salvatore Ferragamo Patent leather Varina flats in size 5.5B

I’ve been eyeing these shoes for a VERY long time. I first knew about them from Marie Claire magazine, but I hesitated a lot because of the price – they’re fairly overpriced here at $660 or so a pair. This winter they had some seasonal colours going for half price. HALF PRICE!!! but sadly, all that was left was size this or that and they wouldn’t fit. At all.

I seized the opportunity to get these with flat rate shipping (I also wanted a tshirt so I bundled them both in the same order) and jumped at the opportunity to order 5.5, which is actually my size. Size 6 is a bit too big. I know that with a 5.5 there will be a need for me to stretch the shoes out so that they’d fit right. Tedious, but what else can I do? :\

The leather is really soft but kinda thin – I’m not digging the sole – I know it’s going to lose colour over time >_> I didn’t take a picture of it, but it’s a soft type of rubber which will dent easily and all – but it’s comfortable.

The shoes come with a serial number and all and they’re Italian made which makes it worthwhile. I’m in the process of getting a dustbag for these because said place forgot to give me one. I’m hoping that they send me one, because it’d suck so bad if they didn’t have a dustbag.

As you can probably tell they are too tight – this is a width B, but even so they are RIDICULOUSLY narrow. I don’t have particularly wide feet, so I don’t know how people can have such narrow feet – it’s ridiculous. I wish that they had some different width options to choose from – if I got a C I’m sure it wouldn’t have been so narrow. It’s meant to be a rounded toe flat – but these are so pointy D: I still like them though – but for the price and comparing to how it’s made and all, I’m kinda disappointed. This is probably the most disappointing shoe purchase I’ve made to date, because I had really high hopes for these.

They’re fairly comfortable and they’re really lovely looking, but I find that they look best with skinny jeans or something of the sort, which is pretty surprising.

They’re currently sitting in my freezer waiting to be frozen and steadily expanding. I hope after being iced that they’ll be wide enough for me to wear stockings with them >_>

I originally thought that if they were that nicely made and comfortable, I’d probably start collecting the colours of the rainbow – guess they’re not that great for me to even want another pair. I can’t really say until I finish expanding this pair first – but meh.

This pair of Ferragamo shoes marks the end of my shoe buying (remember how I said I’d stop after my third pair…? >_>), and I mean it for good. I’m currently saving up for a new bag *shrugs*.

I’m not really a leopard print person, but this pair of shoes I obtained recently is seriously comfortable and did not disappoint me one single bit.

Glitter and sequins are awesome.

I’ll be talking about this pair another time. 100% leather. Yep – inside and out. Even I’m surprised.

Until next blog!

EDIT/ So, I’ve stretched out my flats using the water –> ice / chucking shoes into freezer method and I’m pleased to say, they’ve stretched quite well. I guess the shoes are fairly easy to stretch – once that has been done, they’re actually really comfortable, though my main concern still lies in the sole – it’s just so rigid, I don’t know what’ll happen if you accidentally bend the shoe too much – I hope the sole won’t crack. So far, it’s getting scratched really easily, but looks pretty well made. Fingers crossed they’ll last for a looong time.

Painful past few weeks

I don’t want to keep saying the same thing over and over again, but I’m saying it for real – I’m really tired. I guess there are a variety of factors which contribute to this, but lack of sleep is definitely one – as well as the ups and downs when you try to figure out why you’re dehydrated yet quite swollen. I guess one of the lessons at the end of the day is that it’s not easy earning money; I’ve probably been spending it the wrong way (though I do have savings which is pretty interesting) – I just wonder how long I’ll be able to keep up such a busy lifestyle.

But anyway, there have been a variety of random things since the last update which I meant to write about, yet didn’t have much time to do so. I caught up with a high school friend the other week after not seeing her for like, 1 year and 5 months, which is pretty ridiculous.

Now I have a bit of time chillaxing and listening to old school music. YEAH.

Company dinner. Nyum.

We were treated by our boss at the Bavarian Bier Cafe, York Street Sydney, which was something really new to me considering I haven’t had German food before. Yes, I’ve been living in a hole, but there’s a first time for everything, yes? The reason for the company dinner is because it’s an anniversary thing. Schwing!

I’m not going to post too many photos because I’m a bit too lazy to do so I don’t want to bog this whole page with photographs (and crap ones at that), so I guess I’ll just only talk about the main points.

Trololol so lazy that even my watermark is cropped and I can’t be stuffed fixing it ._.

My drink of the night was a Lychee flavoured Ladies’ Bier. It’s really light, doesn’t have that bitter taste that beer has – and most importantly – doesn’t have the fishy/ stinky smell that beer has (call me weird, but I find beer stinks pretty bad and that’s the main reason why I don’t drink it. Strangely enough I’d drink soju without hesitation, even though the smell reminds me of nail polish remover. OH WELL). For some reason when my glass came, it came with a lychee on a stick, whilst the others didn’t get any fruit with theirs at all. Maybe I was lucky and they were randomly giving out fruit..? Either way I think it was a canned lychee or something – the texture and taste of the lychee reminded me of the feeling of eating a raw oyster. >_> BUT sweeeeet free fruit.

The beer itself is pretty light so it’s easy to drink. I did feel my face getting red by the end of the night because we ordered drinks first… on empty stomachs.
(Lololol I had two minute noodles for lunch that day – my colleague had Maccas – I think we were all making room in our stomachs for dinner )

The bad thing about alcohol is that it makes me red and sleepy, but otherwise alcohol doesn’t really affect me that much – then I don’t drink enough of it to actually know. It was a while since I drank alcohol – and that was drinking on the job (with permission) :S – and I did feel sleepy. I just wish we had stuff to eat beforehand.

The largest pretzel I’ve seen to date in my life. It was really crunchy and yummy, minus the ridiculous distribution of sea salt on one section. We all ended up picking the salt off and all. I didn’t really eat my pretzel with butter (their butter is so soft and fluffy :Q__) – I just ate it as it was and I quite liked it. We were all pretty hungry because we walked up there after finishing work and really wanted something eat ASAP. My pretzel was gone pretty quickly – I was starving.

The highlight of the night was definitely the crackling roast pork. YUMMERS. I can’t say it was the best I’ve had, but it was pretty damn good and I was pretty surprised that they did it right! I must say the meat was pretty juicy yet the skin was nice and crunchy. I really loved the potatoes from pretty much every dish we ordered, but I really wasn’t a fan of the sauerkraut. I probably would like it more if it was crunchy and not soggy (but then I assume sauerkraut is meant to be soggy) – just not really my cup of tea.

We also ordered stuff like the ham platter, snitzel, sausages, stew, fries - even pan fried fish. Basically the whole table was filled with beer and food – but we all ended up not eating too much. I actually really like the Caesar salad there – the cheese — YUM. I think it’s mostly because most of their food was so filling that we weren’t able to actually finish everything. All I remembered eating was bits of sausage, snitzel, roast pork and mostly spooning myself potatoes and salad (they were the things I liked the best).

The atmosphere overall was pretty friendly- staff constantly asked if everything was ok, and there were those awkward moments when another table ordered a shot and the waitress comes with the shot on a wooden plank and ringing a bell simultaneously LOL. Everything there was nice and clean and the food overall was pretty good. In terms of cost I guess it shouldn’t be too bad, but considering I didn’t pay the bill, I have no idea.

I shall leave you all with this image of a “ham egg” which none of us dared to eat LOL. Coming to think of it, I didn’t eat any ham that night :Q__ Oh well – maybe next time, if there is a next time and I’m bothered enough to go.

Other random things to come soon

I know a lot of people come here to read about reviews of products, so I’m going to post up a few beauty posts soon (that I have been really lacking lately). I really do apologise for an absence of those – I just haven’t really been in the mood to be doing anything with beauty products lately. My night time regimen consists of washing my face, toner, moisturiser and then sleeping. I used to use sleeping packs but even those have been eliminated because I’ve been too tired to bother with those. To put things into even better perspective, I used to turn up to work with eyeliner – I’ve completely stopped doing that altogether and the funniest thing is that I work in retail. Yes. Something is strangely amiss.

Another thing I’ll blog about will be shoes – again. My shoe collection is getting pretty ridiculous, considering it kind of grew a little too much within a span of just three months. Yes. I wouldn’t have guess it was 3 months myself if I didn’t actually bother to remember how it started D: GEEZ. This time though I’ve found out why a particular brand of shoes is so very much loved by many – it’s because they’re so damn comfortable. I’ll talk about that another day.

Until next update, please be safe and be careful. In the past two weeks I managed to badly bruise my leg and end up with a bruise on my face (I tried to pick something up, bumped into something, felt dizzy and then hit my head – onto something with alumnium coating. It wouldn’t have been half as bad if it was just timber :\) – but then I’m just clumsy. Don’t be like me!