Product review #2 - Body Shop Vitamin C Facial Radiance Capsules

I've grown a bit concerned about my skin's radiance of late. I've never been somebody with fair skin, my skin has always been yellowish/brownish, just not the radiant glowing kind. :( Which also explains my recent obsession with skin care products.

That day, when I was shopping for Christmas gifts in The Body Shop, I came across this:

There was a sale going on and I thought,"Why not?" so I bought it. According to the company website, this item contains:
1. Brazil nut oil - moisturizes and helps to leave skin feeling soft
2. Blackcurrent extract - helps to revive the skin and give it an uplifting boost
3. Orange oil - orange oil is known to uplift, refresh and energize the senses. Has a sweet citrus smell.

Pros: Smells great! The orange oil really comes through. Not oily, even though it supposedly has brazil nut oil and orange oil in it. The little capsule looks small but the amount inside is usually just right for face, unless you have a really huge face. I've been using it for a week and I think there's really a slight improvement to my facial radiance, but the lady did say you have to apply everyday for 28 days, which explains why there are only 28 capsules in a bottle.

Cons: Does not really moisturize. I have dry skin and the brazil nut oil, which is supposed to moisturize, doesn't really work. So really, this thing has no effect on skin except to make it look brighter. Which also means that you have to keep applying this to keep the radiance. Retailing at $45.90 per bottle of 28 capsules, some people may find the price tag a deterrent for continuing this skincare regime. I got it at $29.90 so wasn't that bad, but I don't believe I will continue buying this after my current bottle.

Product review #1 - Somang bb cream

A colleague introduced me the bb cream from Somang. Was wondering where I could get it when I saw it in JB during a weekend drive into JB for some seafood.

Ta-dah!

Pros: contains pearl minerals that gives your face a pearly sheen. Texture of bb cream is quite light, it doesn't feel heavy on the face. Face looks natural, as though no make-up (or minimal make-up) on.

Cons: Only SPF 15, some people prefer more SPF. Personally I don't think there's much difference. Application is difficult because of the sheen, you need to apply evenly, any uneven application is obvious. Not enough coverage.

I guess it really depends on what you want. If you want good coverage then obviously this is not the product to buy, but if you just want to look au naturel with a nice glow then this bb cream is definitely worth a try.

Relationship 101 #1 - Men vs women in the car

"Add the salt, add the salt!" "Stir it, stir it, STIR THE DAMN THING!" "How can you flip the egg over this way? You need to flip it by flicking your wrist!" Sounds familiar? No? I guess no women likes to be told how to cook. We'll probably throw saucepans at the boyfriends/husbands who do the above.

I guess in the same way, men don't like to be taught how to drive. Or have us comment on their driving skills (or lack thereof).

It's standard procedure for a couple to quarrel in the car. Perhaps it's due to the claustrophobic environment, or it may be because of the near proximity to each other. To men, their driving skills equal their manhood and to comment or criticize it is to comment or criticize their manhood. I used to criticize the boyfriend's driving all the time. If he drove too fast, drove too slow, didn't put signal, braked too hard, turned too wide, turned too narrow etc. My comments sparked off SO MANY quarrels that now I've reached the zen level. I no longer criticize. When we meet a**hole drivers on the road who are true idiots and should never have been given driving licences, the boyfriend would be cursing and swearing beside me and I would normally agree and throw in a few comments of my own.

Other times when someone isn't in the wrong but he's just in a foul mood and thinks the whole world can't drive to save their lives, I would just keep mum. Well, he's already in a foul mood, being disagreeable with him would just piss him off further.

However, there are times when he's childish. Case in point: recently we went out for movie. He tried to park between a car and a wall (there was a valid lot), but he couldn't coz the idiot next to him parked too close to the lot. So anyways, to cut a long story short. If it were me (or other girls), I would have just driven off to look for another available lot. But for him (and maybe some guys), oh no, he has to do something about it. Like my girlfriend says, it's like guys have to carry out vigilante justice, be the super cop of all carparks and arrest all parking/driving idiots etc.

So the boyfriend went and pull up both wipers of the car. And I'm like, for what? How in the world does that solve anything? -_-" I think he was just being ultra childish.

Common childish things guys do:
- car A in front keep on braking, pissed off boyfriend drives to the front of car A and keeps on braking, just to "give the person a taste of his own medicine".
- car B drives on the fastest lane but drives really slow or according to the speed limit (which isn't fast enough for some people), boyfriend tailgates car B, and flicks highbeam at car B to signal to him to get out of his way.
- car C cuts into boyfriend's lane dangerously, causing boyfriend to slam on the brakes. Boyfriend goes to the next lane, drives up so his car and car C are abreast, then either (a) wind down window, (b) scold vulgarity at car C or (c) point middle finger. According to experience, the boyfriend says combining (a) and (c) is usually very effective. Sometimes when he's busy, he borrows my middle finger instead. :(

Anyway, girls, just bear with them! :) just like we don't like them to nag about our cooking, dressing etc, they don't like us to nag about their driving either. Keeping quiet is the way to treat this problem. Unless you have a child in the car. That's when you need to be firm and tell him to stop driving like a maniac.

Money and the lack of it.

I was getting excited about my impending wedding, which will happen a year later, until all the email responses stopped. *frowns*

I emailed the venue lady, but didn't hear from her ever since. I really really want that venue. At all costs! I will even change the date if need be. This is the first time I've seen or heard the boyfriend so enthusiastic about a particular venue. He keeps calling it his dream wedding. Haha.

I emailed the AD photographer, also no news! :(

The only one who got back to me was the live band I was thinking of hiring, but I found their charges a bit too steep. Let's see when the time comes how much money we have left. :)

I think of the other things that I need to prepare and I feel a little faint. Like, where on earth am I going to get so much money?
- Invitation cards
- rental of gown and suit
- florists
- catering of buses
- wedding car (maybe use the boyfriend's car)

I wanted to do it small because we didn't want to spend too much. But now looking at all these, after factoring in all these, perhaps I'm better off going to a cheaper hotel. =( I know the boyfriend isn't keen so we'll try to make it work. I really need to save $ from now onwards...sigh.

I'm getting married!

It's been almost a year since the boyfriend proposed. I still remember the excitement then, I couldn't believe I am getting married. After several failed discussions, and many disagreements, I'm glad that the boyfriend and I have finally settled on a wedding venue. They say that when you find your wedding dress, you will recognize it immediately and know that it is "THE DRESS", I like to think that for our wedding venue, it was pretty much the same. It is so rare for the boyfriend to just take one look at the picture and like it immediately. He even said "Wah this is exactly what I want leh". I've never seen or heard him so agreeable before. I myself was also very taken by the photographs. Heard good reviews about the person-in-charge too. Just emailed her this morning and am waiting for her to get back to me. :) I have a good feeling about this!

Day 6 - Taipei

Another gloomy day - still, we decided to head to Taipei 101. I've gone up to the observatory before but the 3 of them haven't. Anyway going up costs NT$450, almost SGD$20! (Note: Don't go if you don't like tourists from you-know-where, coz they were truly EVERYWHERE.) More shoving and pushing. These people are weird, they don't know how to say excuse me and they are always pushing/shoving others. I got so fed up that I told myself the next one who shoves me aside will get it from me. Fortunately, it didn't happen again. 

The view was quite breathtaking at first, but when you walk one round around the observatory, you kind of feel that it all looks quite the same. :( or maybe it's just me not knowing how to appreciate the scenery.

After Taipei 101, Cy and I wanted to shop some more as we both felt that we haven't shopped enough. The boyfriend wasn't feeling well again so he went back to the hotel to take a nap while K, Cy and myself went to the underground mall and Taipei MRT station. We bought quite a fair bit of stuff there! :) Surprisingly nice place to shop, with plentiful clothes and shoes. 

After that we were deciding where to go so we decided that for our last night in Taipei, we wanted to revisit Shi Lin Night Market, so off we went! We shopped some more, this time in detail so as not to missed out any "goodies". We had dinner at the underground food mall then shortly after the boyfriend came to join us. We walked around some more then headed back to Ximending. After depositing all our purchases in our rooms, we took a cab to the nearest Carrefour to buy cup noodles. Taiwan has the BEST cup noodles ever, with cubes of real meat! :) So we bought back quite a few bowls, some for C and some for myself. 

The next day, we headed for the airport and for home...

Day 5 - Taipei

Waking up on day 5, I felt a little melancholic coz I will be leaving this lovely country soon! :(

Anyway today was hot springs day so we decided to settle our breakfast at Ximending first then head to Xinbeitou.

Next up: hot springs! Actually it wasn't the best day for hot springs, especially when we were planning for outdoor hot springs. It was actually drizzling! But we've never done outdoor hot springs before and it was really very cheap so we didn't mind. Entry costs NT$40, which is about SGD$1.60 heh.

This was really easy to find. Come out from Xinbeitou MRT station, cross the road and walk straight down, past the staircase and the entrance is right there.

Actually not allowed to take photos inside the hot springs, but I only found out after I snapped this picture. :)
Was quite excited actually, until Cy and I stepped into the hot spring...it was REALLY hot. No joke leh the heat. But it was fun and quite an experience. Haha after that had to go into the cold pool....that one also no joke haha it was really really cold. Sigh but it was a fun experience and if ever I go back Taipei I will go to this hot springs again! Cheap and good!

After the hot springs we decided to go to Danshui as we were only one stop away. Unfortunately the sky continued pelting down rain and it was gloomy. The rain came intermittently and in the end we had to buy ponchos in order to continue our journey.

We walked around Danshui until the sky turned dark. The boyfriend had a lot of fun playing shooting games. We won an inflatable club, an inflatable sword and a spongebob squarepants balloon. After that, it was dinner time!

This is the Kanpai branch at Zhongshan station. Both the food and service were great! The waitress introduced us the standard set, upon hearing that it was our first time there. The standard set was quite a big portion, but there were certain items that I felt were not worth ordering. If ever I go again, I'll be sure to skip those and order the rest! One of the items was chicken soft bones 鸡软骨, which none of us knew how to appreciate. The other item was the prawns because they were of a measly size. I'd rather order another portion of meat or mushrooms.

However, I have to say that the appetizer (seen in pic above) that consisted of soft boiled egg, kimchi and tofu was mighty refreshing! And also the lettuce with salt and pepper! I never knew just how nice plain lettuce with salt and pepper tasted! You have to eat it to believe it.

Anyway the meal wasn't cheap, with the standard set plus 3 beers (and a coke) and 3 bowls of rice coming up to about SGD$114...or NT$2640. But I think it was well worth it! Highly recommended!

Day 4 - Taipei

Woke up and was soooo happy to see the sun shining brightly. Today was an important day! We were going to 五分埔 for some wholesale shopping and the weather was absolutely vital to a day like this! First of all, we definitely had to eat Formosa Chang or better known as 胡须张's 鲁肉饭 when we are heading to Wufenpu. Cheap and good! Love it. Regretted not eating more than once. :(

After shopping we were quite hungry so decided to go for steamboat!! K and Cy introduced us this fantastic restaurant that served really good quality food! With freeflow Haagen Daz and Movenpick ice cream (but almost all their steamboat places have this)!

The steamboat was delicious! There were lots of variety to the food (or at least, enough variety for me.), anyway I just go there to eat the beef wahaha. The soup base was nice and at the end of the dinner, the soup tasted really flavourful!

After dinner the boyfriend wasn't feeling well, he's been sick throughout the day so he went back hotel to rest whereas K, Cy and I continued shopping around Ximending area. :)

Day 3 - Taipei

On Day 3, we asked the hotel reception to book buses to Taipei for us the night before. However, when we got to the reception counter, we were informed that the bus companies do not accept reservation of tickets by hotels. Fortunately Cy and I decided to wake up earlier to buy Sun cakes or 太阳饼 before we leave Taichung so after buying the sun cakes we still had time. We walked over to the bus companies which were situated near Taichung Railway Station to purchase the bus tickets.

After that, we went back to hotel. I woke the boyfriend up and then 4 of us trooped over to the bus terminal with our luggages. The bus departed at 11.30am and we reached Taipei Railway Station at about 2pm. We then took the MRT to Ximending which was one stop away. Reached hotel at 2.20pm, couldn't check in yet so we decided to walk around Ximending. First stop was 阿宗面线 which Cy had been looking forward to for ages. Me, I'm not a big fan of Ah Zong but still, gotta admit that after not eating it for 2 years, quite welcomed the taste, and with the big cooling breeze blowing through Ximending, the warm mee sua was quite comforting to the belly!

After eating and walking around a bit, we checked in at 3pm. Honestly, this was the first time I was staying at Rainbow Hotel and I've heard loads about it because of its prime location. BUT I told myself this was the first and last time I'm staying there. The room was small and dark, the bathroom was not ideal with the flush a little spoilt. The television was spoilt at our last night. There was no rest area in the lobby for guests to rest, gather, or just wait for each other. Apart from its location, I would say there was nothing fantastic about Rainbow Hotel. In fact, I stayed at Paradise Hotel the last 2 times I was in Taipei and it was definitely much better (though also a bit old).

We walked around Ximending then after that went to Shi Lin Night Market, the most famous night market in Taipei. This was my 5th time there so didn't take many photos of the place.

Though this was my 5th time at Shi Lin, I still found it really enjoyable. The shopping's great, there's also lots of variety when it comes to food, bubble tea, rice, steaks, chicken, smelly tofu, sausages and tonnes of other things. Lots of people say it has become much more commercialised, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as commercialization would only mean that it has become better and more improved for tourists don't you think? :)

After Shi Lin we didn't feel like calling it a night as yet, so we decided to go to the Partyworld opposite Ximending for karaoke. It was uber fun! We sang until about 3am, then walked back to our hotel.

Day 2 - Taichung

Woke up on the second day and my heart sank when I saw that it was still raining. It was a huge bummer as that day was our last full day in Taichung and we were planning to go to Sun Moon Lake. We skipped the hotel breakfast as we were all tired, but met in the lobby at about 11am. The hotel receptionist called a cab for us. Our initial plans were to take cab to Gancheng bus stop then take the SML bus from there. The cab driver convinced us otherwise, he told us that he's willing to take us to SML and be our designated driver for 8 hours at a cost of NT$3000. We felt that given the weather and that there were 4 of us to split the cost it was actually quite an ok bargain so we took it up. It was indeed more convenient for us.

He brought us to this Paper Dome near SML which we felt that erm...can don't go lah hahaha basically it's just a small building built with really really stiff and thick cardboard. Entrance costs NT$100 which is redeemable in the restaurant. The restaurant serves pretty decent fare actually.

After a while at the Paper Dome we went back to the cab driver. Shortly after we reached SML. Need to pay NT$300 to take a ferry again. *frowns* First stop off the ferry: Xuan Guan Temple. SO CROWDED. Full of tourists from Mainland China. It was raining and everyone was holding umbrellas. There were lots of shouting, shoving and being poked in the head and eyes by the umbrellas. The rain didn't help things, we had an unspeakably miserable time there. The ONLY saving grace was the 茶叶蛋, the tea eggs. Each costs NT$10 and we bought one each. They were piping hot, which was really welcomed in the cold weather. 

After our miserable time there, we wanted to take the ferry to the second stop, but the boat staff told us that due to the very heavy fog, they are stopping all ferry rides. The ferry we were queuing up for was the last ferry ride back to the pier where our cab driver was waiting for us. We were all so tired from the travelling that day that all 4 of us fell asleep on the ferry. By the time they reached the pier, the fog had dissipated and ferries were resuming service but we all decided to give the second stop a miss coz we were too tired and the weather too bad to continue travelling around. 

We went to a cafe at the pier for some coffee, bubble tea, waffles and piping hot fries. The ambience of the restaurant and the hot food did loads to soothe an otherwise very miserable and wet day.

After eating, we went back to our cab driver and asked him to drive us to Yi-Chung Street (the other quite famous night market in Taichung). We walked around and ate and thankfully the rain had stopped by then so it was easier to walk around. We actually bought quite a lot of stuff there. It is comparatively smaller than Feng Jia Night Market so we finished walking around the area quite early. They have this thing called 炸牛排 aka Fried Steak which was pretty interesting. It's worth a try!

We then decided to go for what they called "Cosmos bowling" (I think) which is a bowling alley that has the lights switched off and only has UV lights or something like that. Pretty interesting to bowl in the dark but you get used to it pretty quickly and forget you're in the dark haha.

After bowling we went back to hotel and bought cup noodles to sit at the rest area again! Cy and I were especially excited and happy coz we were heading to Taipei the very next day!!! 

Day 1 - Taichung

We reached the airport at 6am, waited forever for our luggage. By the time we reached the bus counters, we had already missed the 6.30am bus. We were surprised to see that it was raining, and when we asked the bus driver, he said the past few days were really sunny and that day was the first day of rain all November! We took the next available bus that was scheduled to leave at 7.10am. The bus ticket costs NT$260, which translates to about SGD$11 each.
We reached Taichung at 9.45am and found our hotel relatively quickly. It's situated behind Taichung Railway Station and you have to get through the underpass to reach it.

After we deposited our luggage, since it was still early and we couldn't check in yet, we decided to walk around the place and get some breakfast!

It was drizzling and we both got quite wet. Decided to head back to the hotel to wait for check in. Finally at 3pm, we were allowed to check in! =)

I liked my room a lot as it was really spacious. You can see from the pic below there's a wooden platform so that's where my luggage went. The hotel was really clean and they gave us a free upgrade so we got the highest floor (level 10). Everything looked really clean and well-maintained. The room was bright and cheerful, despite the gloomy weather outside.

After checking in, I was tired from the earlier walking and lack of sleep so rested in hotel a bit then went out to grab food. Just as we stepped out of the hotel, K and Cy arrived! So happy to know they were here when we got back 10 minutes later.

Immediately they went to their room, changed, then off we went to the biggest night market in Taichung: Feng Jia Night Market!

We walked around, ate and shopped. Both the food and shopping are cheap! Feng Jia is a good place to go in Taichung coz it's big enough to not be boring. But I think we all started to feel tired after eating so much and shopping so much so we went to a small cafe to chill and relax. Met 2 young chaps studying at Feng Jia University and they were so friendly! Had a great time just chatting with them. We left the night market at about 12am and took a cab back to the hotel. After that we bought my favouritest cup noodles in the world and ate at the hotel lobby's rest area. It was fun just eating cup noodles together and chatting and planning for the next day. =)

Off to Taiwan~!

I'm flying off to Taiwan tonight with the boyfriend! It's actually the first time since we've been together more than 2.5 years ago that we are taking the plane and going somewhere far (ok lah maybe Taiwan not that far). We're meeting K & Cy there tomorrow (They are taking SQ flight)! First time I am going overseas with them too but they are really easygoing people so I don't foresee any difficulties or problems! :P
I'm going there really well-prepared this time round. I'm bringing along a nasal spray, anti-histamines, panadol for sinus/cold, charcoal pills and normal panadol. The last thing I want is to have the food right in front of me and I can't smell or taste anything! The weather over there right now is quite cooling and me being so afraid of cold, has to go well-prepared!
Cy also did a lot of research filled with maps, photographs etc. It's an 18-pages long word document! I'm truly impressed. I've also done up a bit of research. At least, I've found the directions to the shop that sells out-of-this-world dumplings hahahahaha.
I've also prepared Currency Conversion Charts! One for me and one for Cy. This will make shopping/eating/spending money so much easier! No need to use calculators at all. Hee.

The flight is at 1am tonight and we'll reach Taoyuan at 6am. We will then take a bus to Taichung. Boyfriend wants to take a bus (2hr50mins) instead of the HSR (high speed rail) which takes abt 50 mins. I don't really mind as I expect I'll be really out of it and really stoned at 6am in the morning.
The excitement is unreal!!! I just pray for zero (ok lah not very realistic, given that we are both such argumentative people) to as-little-as-possible quarrels with the boyfriend!
God bless! =)
It's gonna be an awesome trip!

Of happy things

Life is too short for me to constantly fill it with unhappy things! Yet, I realised I am a born pessimist. Hopefully this blog will help to change all that! I must write about things that make me happy, and try to forget things that make me unhappy! 

Right now, the happiest thing I can think of is that today is Friday! I'm meeting my favourite galpals later C & C! Haha I hope in time to come I can show you all who they are. 

Second thing that makes me so happy is my countdown! 8 days more! To what, you ask? Stay tuned to find out~!