And so he has arrived...

This is a professional review on my new man >> here.

I read all about him. I went around searching for him (to have a test ride). When I finally found him, but my initial thoughts was he was quite a handful, as in he took up the whole of my palm! He wasn't the easiest to mind read; I kept pressing on his wrong buttons, at times I almost gave up. He doesn't has a manual, the only way to know him is still to keep pressing those buttons till I get them right. A pdf could only go this far. Forums do help.

To date, it has been a little over 2 weeks, 17 days old to be exact. I'm still figuring him out, it probably will take me quite a while. I don't think I know everything about my BB whom now sits by my bed as my alarm. His rubber parts have all fallen apart making him prone to dust invasion, so I have to tuck him nicely in a pouch. I still recall having a spare samsung phone which I need to bring out on special occasions, e.g. attending a wedding dinner, a party or anything I wouldn't have much time on the phone! Now, how many phones is considered too many??

Anyway, why did I choose this man? It's very simple, I pick anything free* that goes with my plan. My desired brand this time round is HTC, and there are only 2 choices - Wildfire S and Incredible S. The only thing keeping me back from the purchase was the HTC support in Singapore which I read is horrendous. I hope I never have to use them. I would have considered HTC ChaCha just for the keypad but they are only limited to SingTel, so one choice down. I later saw it in reality and thought I would never give up BB for ChaCha if you saw the way it looked.
*Means I only pay a nominal fee 2 years later if I keep this phone.

While it has a few things I'm still getting used to, such as a touchscreen keypad, highly sensitive touchscreen, pressing the power button everytime I need to unlock it... Also many that Android can possibly improve, having folders in "All apps" instead of on home screen, enhanced address book and other built in apps but these we can easily replaced with the others we choose to install.

I'm not a big iPhone fan, but I don't hate them as well. I think they are good if you just want it like a bundle, just like a packaged tour, it comes all inclusive with many add-ons. I do like to point out a few things my handful man can do (I'm not an iPhone user, so correct me if I'm wrong if iPhone can do that as well):

1. Weather widget
My favourite built in app. It rains and shines on my screen, it never fails to brighten up a gloomy day.

2. Customisable apps and themes
I have now Go SMS and Go Contacts to replace the default SMS inbox and address book. Sorry B, Handcent SMS interface doesn't appeal as much to me as this one does. I can even use a different theme everytime! I have a few now. I'm looking forward to change it to the Christmas one when time comes.

3. I can stick a post-it note on my home screen as a reminder!

4. I have 6 screens to play around with to place my favourite short-cuts, or widgets from the apps, e.g. daily horoscope, weather or news feed.

I can't think of more now, but I will tell you later if I find out more new features. I never thought anything of widgets until I'm now an Android user! They are godsend inventions!! By now, I have already 7 pages of apps from the inital 2-3 provided, I'm becoming an apps whore. The 8mp camera also comes with default lomo effects which I can readily apply. But who needs them when there are too many free apps around! Mr. Incredible S is also lighter than iPhone 4, I have allowed my surrounding iPhone users to have a comparison test.

So he's really quite a handful, isn't he!

Pinkly annoying

Something as easy as the wrong nail color spoils my mood. I don't know why but perhaps this is what color therapy is all about. I wore red (code 60, Golden Rose) some days back, it was bright, cheery and attention seeking. I have to agree it's an awesome red color. Though I enjoyed it, it wasn't really my color. It made me more prone to agitation and impatience.

 My colleague kindly lent me two of her polishes she bought from Korea. The crimson pink (PK 204, Nature Republic) that looked awesome on her somehow sits on me now like we aren't related. It was a pleasant sight at first, but the more I look at it, the more I feel how unsuitable they are on me. It irritates me that I am unable to get them off right now. So *itchy hands* I topped them off with a layer of Essie Petal Pink, a translucent light pink, it somehow changes the color. Now, more a toned down crimson pink. I wonder how long they will last on my fingers, I don't have much confidence they will.

BB I miss you!

I really do.

If you ever see me blog from mobile, I am using my BB. It's almost impossible for me to type on a touchscreen without feeling like throwing it against the wall. Nothing beats a real keypad. I do love my new phone for all the other functions, except accidentally tapping on my data usage! Other than that, it serves me pretty well. Ebooks, games, camera applications... The awesome weather widget, the ability to bookmark news for offline reading, free messaging with my oversea friends... There's definitely a lot more, so I can close one eye about the keypad. It just means I would write lesser, but I still can with my BB I guess :) I want to tell you all about the new phone but I shall leave it to another time.

Have a good holiday everyone!

Weird peh-peh

I wonder if it pays to be nice. I guess not all the time. Today I gave up my seat to a peh-peh, someone old enough to be my grandpa by the look of it. When a seat was available, I ended up sitting besides him, he then got a little friendly and asked where I was heading. I told him reluctantly, coincidentally he was heading to the same destination. Then he asked where I am staying! I gave a rough answer about the area but he kept asking me for my block number that it freaked me out. He told me he's staying at Block 260. Hello peh-peh, thanks for telling me that, but I have no intention to let you know where I stay. Say I'm paranoid if you want but this is not the kampong era where you probably could easily trust all the people in your little kampong.

Choco flakes

My nails are resting from the polishes, it has been about 4 days.


My wallet has been resting since Friday, I had forgotten my wallet that day. Now I am in debts, but should be able to repay my dear friend and colleague soon. I decided to forgo the Club 21 Bazaar Sale over the weekend to make my chocolate cornflakes (to imitate a similar Japanese snack which has discontinued!!) and do some chores (yea, the usual - laundry, dumping the recyclables in the bins downstairs and tidying up the kitchen).


Here's the simple recipe for my chocolate cornflakes. I leave them in the fridge now as they were sticking together and wasn't easy to dry up!

Ingredients:
A bar of bittersweet chocolate, Van Houten, 200g
A box of cornflakes, 325g (but only used 30-40%)

I should really temper the chocolate but I haven't had the proper equipments to. But I did use similar steps, using the double boiler method. I don't have that, so I used a bowl to contain my chopped chocolate and place it over a pan of water. The chocolate melted really quickly as I stirred it with my rubber spatula. Soon enough, it was smooth and silky. I couldn't measure the temperature! So I just based it on my guts :) Then I removed the bowl of melted chocolate, and add in the cornflakes bit by bit, till most of the chocolate were used up. Then I lay the coated cornflakes on a piece of aluminium foil. Now they are sitting in two containers in my fridge, I'm pretty pleased I could make so much out of so little. It costs $4.80 for a small pack in the Japanese snack store, though that's not the one I'm imitating (which is in the shape of sliced pizza).

Morning Friday~

Nothing beats 3 "Thank you" work emails and none giving me extra work. How nice is Friday treating me!

At work I have started drinking bottled water and somehow it's helping the bowel movements (not that I have any constipation anyway!). Seriously, drinking the filtered water doesn't. And Evian seems to the most effective, but I don't get to drink Evian much, just on special occasions. Try it, you never know!

Tonight we celebrate one of my friends's birthday, and my fingers crossed that we will be able to get a table. Beer, friends and good music... one sure can't ask for more! Getting nearer to 30 is beginning to daunt on me.

Did I mention my sister almost bought the whole collection of the popular titles of self-help books from MPH? I recently got a Groupon for MPH, but to my dismay, I can't seem to find something to my fancy. The collection is very very small, compared to Borders or Kinokuniya; besides my sister has already gotten most of the inspirational ones. So I decided to sell it off to her, and she bought herself the "Mini Shopaholic"!

I'm reading "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom (yes, the sister bought it) right now. It has a lot of stirring phrases I like to quote, I shall share them when I have time to write a little review!

A little shiny

My current spot.

Skin Food Jojoba Pure Nail be001

And we found these over the weekend. My mate bought these two colors, while I found my long awaited metallic crackle.

China Glaze's Re-fresh Mint & Heaven

China Glaze Metallic Crackle - Latticed Lilac

Letting go

I have decided on my new phone!!

Despite that my Blackberry is slowly disintegrating after 20 months of frequent usage, I still can't bear to let it go. I will miss the typing with the keypad, its awesome music and video on the little screen when viewing Youtube and the touchpad. I dread moving on a new phone, having to learn all over again, and the horror of visiting the service centre if anything goes wrong. Fear. It only inhibits new experience. I know I will overcome it, but it's just my reluctance to let it go.

Blackberry, don't die (even though you are!) :( No matter how much others dislike you (my colleague seems to be against BB, he's been psyching me to join the iphone gang), you'll still be in my fond memories.

Lunch buddies

Why are there some people you never get sick of... while there are some you soon have enough of?

My longest record is the same lunch buddy for 20 months and not once was I ever sick of eating with him. Now I get put off eating with this colleague whom I often find annoying. Don't ask me why, but just her personality is a huge turn-off. I reckon one surely needs "chemistry" with a lunch buddy too. I only had lunch with her once a week for the recent two weeks and that was enough. I didn't enjoy it particularly and I think she's beginning to sense it for herself as well. She has began to make her own appointments with friends, I can't say how thrilled I am! She only talks about superficial stuff, mainly about her boyfriend. When she's out for lunch, she can actually "sms" me,"Can you help me buy fruits?" Do you think she's crippled or just lazy? She's out for lunch, can't she just get it herself? It's so annoying. When she has training till lunch time for a few days, she's expecting a slave to buy her lunch, can't she just buy some food before or after? She has often no opinion of what to eat, and would just buy what I'm eating 75% of the time. I don't like copy cats, at least not her. Today I'm out for lunch with the usual gang (including a new temp girl who seems to hit off with me), yet another favour from her to buy fruit juice... Seriously, I can't be bothered, if you're out to lunch, get it yourself, loser. She surely finds joy imposing on others and I find mine rejecting them!

Even at work, she would often bombard me with messages on the office IM, it's really annoying. Once I asked her if she was really free since she sent me so many messages. Guess what? Now she will "act busy" delaying her replies for hours, sometimes with silly messages. If only I can block people on the office IM, she'll be the first on the list.

God, can you please get rid of her? Have you not tested my patience enough??

Turning 30 in 5011200 seconds

To celebrate turning 30 in almost 2 months time, I shall write a trilogy - 3 entries - randomly from now till October. This shall be the first. Don't take my title too seriously, that's only an estimate ;)

In the 20s:

• You are under peer pressure.
• You constantly seek validation (someone to assure you that you look great, blah blah).
• You have to save and scrimp to afford something you been eyeing for months.
• You go through fashion crisis (go dig up your old wardrobe and see).
• You tend to take things for granted, i.e. friendship, love, family.
• You even believe you might marry the first person you date.
• You overestimate yourself often.
• You don't have to work out too much to maintain a great figure.
• You take what you are given.
• Life is a beach.

Nearing 30:

• You have just found yourself, who cares what they say.
• Hey baby, you found self-confidence.
• You can afford to pamper yourself within your own means.
• You know what is style, bad fashion is your own fashion.
• You realise who are the ones you really cherish.
• You do love a variety, test-drive before you buy. 
• You embraced humility.
• No matter how much you work out, the number on the scale stays the same.
• You fuss over what you are given.
• Life is a b!tch.

I might add on to this later... brain dead!

I also found a funny read that makes me smile, some of the things are what I dread of, especially checking the new box for age group when you have to fill up a form.

Voyage de la Vie

Thanks to my colleague, I received free tickets to the show, Voyage de la Vie created by world renowned creative producer Mark Fisher! This is Resorts World Sentosa's resident theatre show, as seen from the poster, it's been on since last year?? I have watched musicals, but never a theatrical circus performance before, and so this is the first. I took my family and a friend along. Apparently, one of my sister and dad weren't the least interested.

It was mum's first time watching a performance in a theatre like this, I bet she was excited. After the show, she sounded really impressed by it and bragged to the ignorant ones staying at home ;)

"Voyage de la Vie" - " Journey of Life" - tells a boy's metaphoric journey to adulthood. Join the boy on an adventure to discover his identity as he meets memorable characters like the mysterious Lantern Kepper and the Crystal Cat. Told through energetic dance, athletic circus acts, and catchy songs, catch Singapore's first theatrical circus spectacular at Resorts World Sentosa. (text copyrighted to RWS website)

At the beginning of the show, the casts slowly drizzled in. Some found crawling over the seats, others parading down impressing the crowd with their glamourous costumes. As no photo taking was allowed, I can't show you more than I would like. Soon enough, they pulled someone up from the audience to show a very silly trick and then it began.

It was a combination of song and dance, magic show and aerobatics. The sets were amazing and never failed to captivate - I really liked the starry sky with a crescent moon with Aurelia Cat sitting on it (as shown below).

photo copyrighted to RWS blog

It was a shame Alexey Goloborodko (a dancing contortionist) wasn't performing that night as the "Game Master", it would have been great to see the world's most flexible person on stage!

photo copyrighted to RWS blog

They also managed to cut up someone right in front of me... As we were in row F, pretty near to the stage, still I couldn't tell how it was done! Joy nearly covered her eyes~

photo copyrighted to RWS blog

Overall, the ambience was great and the show was entertaining. If you have spent the money on the tickets, I would say it's all worthy! But it would have been awesome if we could get to see the original casts performing rather than the replacements. But this was complimentary, so I can't complain too much ;)

My life without 3G

A couple walked into the train cabin I was in today, they stood in front of me. They exchanged a word before they whipped out their own phones. After that, they seemed like they don't know each other. Technology these days has taken affection out of most people's daily life.

Instead of walking over to have a word, some people choose to MSN or even whatsapp when they are in the SAME house. Even in the office, when you're 1 metre away, you send emails back and forth. I still like the personal touch of talking face-to-face; if I'm not too tied up and the other party isn't, I would rather we have a discussion then send a final email than writing to and fro. In the past, we would make an effort to make a phone call or even memorize your best friend's phone number. Nowadays, you're dead when you lose your phone, you probably don't even remember your parents' mobile numbers (at least I believe you remember your house number!). Not to mention how heartwarming it is to receive a handwritten card or letter than an email.

Most of my friends are carrying iPhone, they asked me why I don't want to get one? Yes, since they have it, it might be easy for me, we can play the same games and use the same applications. But a phone is just a phone to me, and I don't want it to take over my life. I know if I have both a data plan and an iPhone (probably don't even need to be an iPhone, just any smartphone), I would be like that person down the street whom I dislike. Those people that walk with their phone in their hand ALL THE TIME, they look at it from the time they step out of their house right till they get into the office. I just don't want to be one of them.

Social media is a part of my life and I am happy to have access to it when I have wifi. But if I have 3G, I would be on it every moment I have my phone with me. That's so destructive. I find it therapeutic to live without my phone when I go on holidays.

Paint it II

As usual, I have been playing around with the nail colours recently. Here are some of the recently worn. My colleague whom has been painting for me owns a blog showcasing her polish swatches. Here's one of her entries with Orly Cotten Candy she borrowed from me, she also kindly painted them on me. I have to say you can really tell the difference if she painted for me or I painted them on my own. See the below:

Orly Cotton Candy dotted with dark grey, silver & white.
My colleague painted these, how perfect!
I decorated them as you can compare from her blog.

I decided to remove them on one hand & tried it myself.
Not as perfect. This is with OPI Skull & Glossbones.

Silver sparkles. Bought it off a stall, brandless.
On the thumb, its on top of the
Skinfood Pedicure range - dark glittery blue.

Gold specks with flakies.

Color Combos from Sasa.

Shimmery tomato-alike color.
Color Combos from Sasa.

I think I ruined it with China Glaze Crackle - lightning bolt.

It's never easy to do the white crackle effect, I guess I have to experiment with it with more colors and methods. I wish they crack bigger.

This week's Mind Your Body

If you're a Straits Times subscriber, you should read "Mind Your Body" supplement from yesterday's paper. There were quite a few interesting read.

How a guy managed to lose 114kg! I am amazed by his story, 贵人 (angels) still come into some people's lives. I guess some people are luckier than the others. I am inspired and would love to eat much healthier after reading his story. I have been having salads/soup/sandwiches for a week, time to reduce more carbo intake.

Then there's an article about Facebook friends and friendship. Somehow I wish my friend would read this! The author categorized the friendship in Facebook into friendship of utility, pleasure and perfect friendship. Somehow I don't see it as simple as he has illustrated. Though he mentioned friends of utility make use of each other, but even in perfect friendship it might happen too. I do agree with him, a virtual connection is nothing comparable to the face-to-face meeting... Is Facebook really helpful or harmful? I guess it depends on how the user uses it, if you use it to stalk your best friend or boyfriend's activity, is that even healthy? I am being on it because I can share my life with friends I don't see often, I enjoy their photos, I love discovering new things and sharing, I use it as a tool for interaction. If you don't like my newsfeed, delete me or hide me. I take no offence, it's your friend list, do what you want with it. Why do some people take it so seriously?

There's also an article on the worries of using Power Plate. It's a vibration device that helps you to lose weight by making your muscles and cells work much harder through the body vibration. I had a trial once, it really makes you sweat, however I feel its too straining for the body, and you might feel dizzy the first time you use the machine. They talk about the possibility of damage to the organs in long-term, which sounds scary! They also said people use it for a period of under 8-9 months have no issues so far but there's no scientific research of the side effects it might impose. They however did test on different group of people on different diet and fitness plan and those on power plate regime did show better results than the rest. So this is pretty ironical. Take the risk or no.

Delete me please

缩头乌龟 means coward, it also literally means tortoise who hides its head in its shell.

And I am about to tell you I don't like them. If you are reading this, you better know I don't need these as my friends too. My friend whom I recently deleted used to do this, she often hinted on her Facebook status about her dissatisfaction with someone. Sometimes it was obvious she was talking about her husband, and other times, you went thinking,"Who are you talking about? Me?" I dislike guessing games, they are for KIDS. If she had a problem with the husband, why couldn't she talk to him instead of disgracing him in front of her friends? I don't understand. It only means she wanted attention. I am not criticizing her but I am using that as a good example of what I deem as a 缩头乌龟。If someone has something she/he's not happy about with me, I will be gald that to handle that upfront. Tarnishing someone behind their back is just cowardice. Or worse, in their presence to embarrass them? Is there something wrong with your communication skill or your personality?

What was the last thing my friend did to me before I deleted her? You don't have to guess it, she simply said something on her status to all her friends even though I know it was meant for me. So that was the last straw.

Remembering...

I almost forgot August has arrived. Mum turns another year older this month, so is another of my friends.

I used to remember all the birthdays in July but somehow these people have disappeared from my life. Cancerians are often important people that entered my life, somehow or somewhat something must happen and then they are gone. If you ask me if they are lovely people, I can't say so. They always appear nice on the surface, deeply and privately emotional and often eager to please. Suddenly when I try to recall, I can't seem to remember much of them. I guess this is what you call "selective memory". I just read it's dangerous.

The phrase...

"Forgive & Forget" is so so so underestimated.

Sometimes I wish the people who tend to use them first try it themselves. Can you do that easily, if yes, do you think that's a magic trick? Teach me then.

I have forgiven a lot of people whom I held grudges against in my past. Some were a breeze, others took a longer time. It is often easier said than done. Often things that mean a lot to you, have sentimental value or bring back memories usually are a tad tougher.

After a lot of self defensive text messages, she asked me this question, "Can I forgive & forget?" I almost wish this is as easy, I don't hate her, of course. But at the back of my mind, I know I can't promise so easily. Why do people take each other for granted so easily? Why does jealousy easily blind a person and totally changed her overnight? If she could give me a cold shoulder, hostile attitude and treat me invisible for almost a year, why should I forgive and forget in just one day? Am I stupid or something?

I am sometimes so tired of having to put in so much just to maintain a friendship built up with so much trust and memories. A friendship some years short of twenty years, yet needs so much reassurance and possessiveness.

It sometimes doesn't need much to know why I so prefer time alone, does it?