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.