in retrospect...

The last few days I've been having the worst days and could only focus on how much i hate Singapore. Very much like the old me. But then today I went shopping and it made me feel SOOOO much better! A shopping diet is not healthy for me...good thing i bought some super cute things and four books!! Here's an update on what I forgot to update all of you on (and by all I mean you three who read my blog) and a look at my new purchases.

So you may have heard about my eyelash extensions which I got 3 weeks ago. Sounded like a great idea at the time...but the moment they were on I wanted them off. they were annoying and uncomfortable, got in the way of wearing sunglasses and yoga (child pose), and hid some of the light coming in so I felt sleepy all the time and would collect water while i was taking a shower so i could never see. However the plus side was I did not put on mascara for 2 weeks! And my eyelashes looked like this...

The biggest downside is that I am now missing a small chunk of eyelash bc I tried to get them off myself. I probably will never do that again!

Last week I went with D (my adorable neighbor) to the Botanical Gardens for the first time. It was crazy hot and I couldn't stop sweating...but it was sooo beautiful. I was too hot to take pictures...so heres one I stole from the internet. I am totally going again and will take more pictures then.

And this past weekend I went to see CHICAGO with SH at Esplanade! It was great to hear an american accent for 2 hrs...but what I DO NOT understand is how these crazy Singaporeans can understand these people in the musical speaking with an american accent BUT refuse to understand me. I actually got told this week by a china/singlish retard that she couldn't understand me because I don't speak proper English. Newsflash: I am one of the few in Singapore who DO! Anyways...this is the best picture I have....bc I suck at picture taking but will definitely improve this year!

And after we watched Chicago we had Haagen Daaz!! MMmmm...I had this waffle dream or something. A fresh made waffle with mape syrup and four mini scoops of ice cream. The Haagen Daaz stores in Singapore are so much better than in the US. There are sooo many cute sundaes and ice cream creations!

And SH took this really cool picture with the negative setting...just thought i would share! :)

And finally, today I went to eat with V at one of my favorite places in Singapore...PS Cafe!Its my favorite for Brunch but I found it today that it is also great for lunch...mmmm I love western food! I had this amazing tomato mozarella pesto sandwich with brocolli soup. I love brocolli!!

 

Later I took V to Far East and I got the cutest jewellry! This great necklace...

It says good luck in a bunch of languages...darling!

I also bought 4 books at borders! Crazy I know...but it was buy 3 for the price of 2...which is my favorite promotion...and they actually for once had good books! And the next book of the Bridal Quartet was out so I also bought that. I love the Bridal Quartet books...its about four childhood friends who grow up together and start a wedding planning business at one of the girl's family estate. One girls is the planner, one girl does flowers, one does cakes and one does photography...and they all live within the grounds of the estate. Its so cute i wish I could be lucky enough to do something like that...and I love how these best friends still live so near each other and work together!

And lastly I got these super cute shoes...although a bit impractical for my day to day slipper wearing life they are super comfy!

And this evening ended with me watching C make cookies. I know I should help since one of my yet to be conquered to goals is to be able to cook but since she was making it from a pre-mix and I was lazy I just watched. She did attend the Culinary Institute of America for 6 months so I am sure she knows what she's doing. 

They were peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips. They reminded me of my favorite childhood cookie...the peanut butter surprise at Blue Chip Cookies...which went bankrupt when I was like 7 or 8. But I still remember getting one everytime I went skating at the PV mall....mmm and they had the best brownies!! I used to get one before skating with my friend Faryn (yes her name was either Faryn or Faren) and we would put them on the ledge of the rink and eat a bite every time we went by. Or maybe that only happened once? Anyways, I miss being a kid...everything was so much easier then. Until next time, xxoo!

Does your computer do this?!

So I have recently had some time on my hands and have been playing around on my computer…and I have to say that I never knew how amazing my laptop with Microsoft 2007 was! Like why does no one tell you about these new awesome things that have been added to computers? I have not had to make a powerpoint since I have had this laptop, but I am currently working on one for work and WOW powerpoint is so much awesome and easier to use than before. They make it so easy for your presentations to look professional. And I know as usual I must be late on the game as it is 2010 not 2007 but I am soooooo impressed. Like you can use Word to publish blogposts?! So cool!
Here are some of the cool things I found on my computer during my free time. Does your computer do this?
Crazy cute game….Purble Place! I am pretty sure the game is geared toward little girls. But I love the cake making game that is part of Purble Place. You just make these really cute cakes and on the advanced level I can't even win yet. Ugh it makes me crave cake though…which is now every day. Because my days at the laptop are not complete without a challenge at Purble Place. Is this like a normal game now on all computers?

 

And I also found another fun game called Ink Blot, where you try to get the colored ball into the corresponding hole but you can use your mouse to draw barriers for your ball to bounce off of. Like computer games are now so much more fun than boring Solitaire or that Minesweep game or Spider Solitaire which I have yet to figure out how to play.

I saved the best for last. I am in love with Microsoft One Note!!! I've described it to a bunch of people and it seems like no one knows what it is…and I can't believe that I would have continued living my life not knowing about this amazing program if I hadn't had all this free time. It is sooooo amazing. And its not new because there was a Microsoft One Note 2003…I wonder if all those years my old computer had it and I never knew. I feel so cheated…because this program would have been the perfect thing to get through college…they even have templates for "history notes", "math notes" and the like.
For all of you out there wondering what the hell Microsoft One Note is…..go to your Microsoft Office programs and see if you have it! I cannot describe it well enough. But basically its like file folders and binders for all the things in your brain on your computer. You can make all these cute tabbed sections for every little thing and write anywhere on the screen and paste any sort of Microsoft doc into it, put in anything from online, share these notes with colleagues, have a brainstorm with your co-workers on it, take the text out of pictures and scanned items and just crazy cool stuff! Like it basically does everything that I would ever want a computer to do!

I can't wait until ex-roomie and I are super fantastic event planners. I can just imagine us using Microsoft One Note with little file tabs for all of our clients…and we will have cool tablet PCs so we can actually input our own handwriting into it! The only down side to Microsoft One Note is that I am realizing how boring my life is…because I definitely have no need to be this organized at the moment!
Anyways, you probably think that I am so weird for being this excited about my computer. But I cannot even imagine the creative ability it takes to develop something like Microsoft One Note! I mean it is everything you never knew you wanted your computer to do. And I feel so behind in the times for not knowing these things, and so dorky for writing a blog about them! Until next time, xxoo from Swingapore!

Week 4 and 5...

So I am not too sure what week I am on on my Being a Better Me plan...mostly becuase I stopped having weekends off, so the weeks get a bit confusing. I think I am doing really well considering its been only a month. I have touched on about half of my goals I think....but there are a lot more things for me to work on! Here are the details on my lastest adventures into self betterment....

I have gone to 2 more flower arranging courses. And i am not going to lie the arrangements I have made are SO not my style and I think they are god-awful. BUT I am learning these particular design concepts and while they are not my cup of tea...maybe they are someone elses? I think the problem I have with them is that there is too much going on! In class, I don't get to do my own thing we just follow the guidelines and teachers' suggestions. So even though I think theere is way too many flowers and sticks I still have to put them in. But anyways...hope you don't judge me too much....I promise I can make normal looking things too.

Week 4 (it gets worse)

Week 5...don't even ask

I have to admit they look worse in the pictures. But hopefully next week's arrangement will actually be cute!

In this these past few weeks, I have also been falling in love with yoga! I always thought it was this lame ultra boring non-sport, but it makes me so sweaty and sooooo calm and relaxed. Its like the whole time you are focusing on yourself and your body and your breathing...it fits in really well with my being self centered plan!

I've also been reading more...I am currently about halfways done with this book by Joyce Carol Oates (which for some reason I got confused with Judith Guest who wrote Ordinary People...one of the only books I actually read of our high school reading books) called A Fair Maiden. It is pretty good....and I really want to know what happens!

And I must say thay I have been spending less money on things. Like I cannot remember the last thing I really bought for myself...however I still am spending a lot on taxi rides and magazines and food. I used to plan ahead how much money I would save so that I could buy some nice thing...but I want to stop focusing on the material things in my life! And I think that I am really starting to plan my life around the experiences I want ot have rather than the things I want to buy.

Finally, I am starting my travels around ASIA! C and I bought tickets to Phuket in May and I cannot wait! The round trip airfare was SGD140.00 only! And the hotels are pretty cheap there too...I think we will be staying here

Looks like paradis right?! And you know what I am already thinking of where I want to travel to next! Loving life at the moment, xxoo!

GMax Reverse Bungee

Today I was supposed to go zipling with A but our schedules got mixed up and we ended up not having enough time to go. But that ended up being a good thing, because we instead decided to try the GMax Reverse Bungee!  Its at Clark Quay...one of my fave eating/partying spots (epic nights with J come to mind!). The whole experience goes by sooooo fast...and it feels so smooth...not jolty and crazy bouncy like it looks! Its a crazy adrenaline rush....I was so nervous before we were shot up into the air but once we were flying it was great!



Upside...amazing fun and totally goes with my goal of spending money on experiences not things. Downside...the fastest $45 i have ever spent and I still feel a bit weird. But today was proof that life in Singapore has its plus sides...until next time, xxoo!

Chanel temporary tattoos

I bet this is super old news...but as I live in the sheltered bubble that is Singapore I only just saw these....Chanel Temporary tattoos! Remember those temporary tatoos we all loved as kids that you could win at the arcade? Well these are the grown up vesion and they are soooo adorable...I have no idea what I would do with them but I think they would be so cute for a masquerade/halloween outfit!

ADORABLE right?! Super frivolous and pretty pointless...but I love them!

One on the Bund

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend a concierge party at One on the Bund. This restaurant is actually located at a restored pier about a 5 minute walk from my apartment. I had walked past this building many times before but had no idea what it was! I think being a concierge is one of the coolest jobs there are....you get to try everything bc everyone wants you to recommend their restaurant/tour/attraction.

Anyways...I had a great time at this gorgeous restaurant. It is a modern chinese restaurant...and I love how they restored this old pier building into this chic restaurant but still used chinese antiques to decorate the inside. Free food and drinks...what could be better?! This is the view from the outside....

the outside of the restaurant

the entrance of the restaurant

I love this flower arrangement! So modern and chic

cute opium bed

a delicious appley drink...i think it was called "roll the dice" or something

one sitting area style

another sitting area

outside sitting area...too bad its so hot here I could never handle sitting outside

Later that week it was my friends birthday and i decided we should celebrate at my new restaurant find...

me and sh

Birthday boy and the delcious chocolate mouse pyramid cake

everyone!

In the middle of the heat, crowds, and rudeness, there are moments of wonder. Sometimes life is great! xxoo

the attitude of Singapore

For all of Singapore's upsides (example: as i type i am laying out at my amazing pool)...there is one major flaw...the people. I wish they were more compassionate and less judgemental. These people are brutally honest to the point of bitchiness...and sooooo sooo judgemental of others before they even know the whole story. And it is not just the people who are from Singaporean (bc I have met many nice people here)...but the people who live in Singapore as a whole. In keeping up with my last post on how people diss America to an American here is an article from Singapore's Harper's Bazar that bashes Los Angeles....I only post this because I just want to share what life is like here. This is the kind of attitude I encounter everyday...its like to boost their own confidence they must bash everyone else in sight. But I am not going to stoop to their level...I won't even respond to this article...although I have many things to say about it! This is just for your reading pleasure...

Reality Bites- Kenneth Goh jets off to LA to style cover star Milla Jovovich but inadvertently finds himself part of a reality series called Grammy Week

"Sometime in late January, I flew to America to style Milla Jovovich for our April cover. It also coincided with the Grammys in Los Angeles. Being in LA during Grammy week is somewhat terrifying--far scarier than trying to board a Trans-Atlantic flight in these climes. Forget about stringent strip searches, walking through metal detectors and not being able to carry more liquid beyond your saliva on the plane. Grammy week in Hollywood is like being in the middle of a reality show--not unlike the Jersey shore guys, MTV's hit reality show about a group of 20-something Italian-Americans, self progessed guidos and guidettes, partying and fist-pumping their way through a New Jersey summer.

I was staying at The Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Blvd. The hotel was plastered wall to wall with Jersey Shore brown bodies. This, in the middle of winter can only be the work of tanning beds. Girls were Teutonic to say the least--they had breasts and butts bigger and rounder than beach balls. They had mascara lacquered thicker than Lady Gaga's/ They had pumped lips, 3D cheeks and acrylic talons so long, white and pointed, they could gorge your eyes out and not break a nail. It was horrifying--and this was 9am on a weekday. I felt as if I was in a drag fest--except the women had the real thing down there, though for sure it's been trimmed plucked and waxed to a neat landing strip. And bleached blonde to match their streaked hair.

The guys were no better--browner than a roasted Christmas turkey and probably filled with steroids, judging from the size of their pecs. This is the only place on the earth were it's perfectly okay for men to have (a) breasts bigger than women, (b) wear more diamons and (c) bigger ear studs. They fill their True Religion jeans with gym-worked muscles butts and protein shake-bulging thighs. They pour themselves into blinged out tees, washed to within an inch of their lives so that the Ed Hardy logo looks well-worn in and shows off their head-lamp nipples. Seriously, I could not stop looking at LA nipples. Maybe it's something to prop up their incredibly thin and flimsy tees. Was I in the middle of a new reality series called Nipplegate? Whatever it was , they don;t bother me except when they shove them in your face. They fo that in lifts--cocktails in one hand, cigarettes in the other. So, with no hands left to push, they do so with their nipples. I have been left standing, holding the lift doors open, too many times than I care to remember, When the lift doors open, they rush out and before you kn ow it, the next lot of Botox damsels waltz right in. I didn't even have time to move out.

Perhaps if they covered up a little more it would help. But everyone who was anyone wore an Ed Hardy T-shirt--nevermind that it was seven degrees outside. Perfect--it will allow their huge nipples to stick out even further. Just imagine having a gummy bear stuck at the end of a beach ball--you get the picture.

The irony of all this serious posing was all the attention I unintentionally got. Girls with their weaves and hoochy shorts fell in love with my burberry Prorsum red coat and floppy hair. I had girls coming right up to me in a Mexican restaurant and fingering my fringe. 'You look the business!' they chorused. They touched my coat and squealed, 'It's sick! Sick I tell you!' I had one guy pop into a lift only to jump right out and scream "where did you get this studded jacket--it's "hiss"!' which, I gather, meant it's sizzling hot. And then he popped his namecard in my hand and said, 'I do lashes. Are you here to style the Grammys? 'Cos you look like a stylist.' I nodded my head meekly and he thrusts another 100 cards in my hand. 'Call me if you need lashes done. I am Ja-mal. I do all the TV stars. Call me, girl!' And then he touched my studded leather jacket, went 'Ouch!' and left.

You see, in this land of poseurs, everyone needs to shout for attention From loud-mouthed celebrity types to the brash Grammy PR's, everyone wants a piece of action. All except me. Aren't I too soft, too petite and too quiet to be part of this testosterone-filled, fist-pumping land of stars? But it did get me thinking--what if all the guidos swapped the Ed Hardy tees for some Prorsum and forgot the gym for a month or two? What if their swagger turned into a neat sashay? They would actually stand out in a crowd and they don't even have to say a word. One word of caution: be sure to take the stairs. You don;t want to be left holding the lift doors open."

Actually I lied I am going to say two things....1) the only person who still wears Ed hardy is Jon Gosselin. 2) I have never met anyone in Singapore who hold elevator doors open/ wait for you to get off the mrt before coming in/ even hold doors open who was not a foreigner!

Ok that's all. Singapore you are entitled to your own opinion. (I wonder if many LA-outsiders have this opinion of LA). Just know I am not too fond of you either...until next time, xxoo!

Week 2 and 3!

So I've been trying very hard to accomplish my goals! And so far I think I've been successful. I have attended four flower arrangement classes as of yet...and while I was wishing that was going to be my secret talent, it is not. But I must say that I'm not as awful as I could be. Take a look at my last three creations...

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

I feel like there must be a future where I can utilize these new skills...right?! I like being creative so much more than I like the mundane reality of my job.

So flower arranging is going great...BUT i think I may have been a little over excited when I signed up for Spanish class. My course is way too easy. I've had four classes so far and all i have learned is how to say my name, how are, and where are you from. And I realized that these courses do not even get that intense! I probably need to take private lessons after this if I want to be semi-decent.

And I just purchased my cookbook from which I will hopefully learn to be a better cook. However seeing as I have soooo few kitchen utensils that may be difficult...but I am going to try my best! Do you think this guy can really make me a better chef?!

And I signed up for yoga this week! I went to yoga four times already this week...and am hoping to make it tomorrow before work. I secretly always thought that I would be ok at yoga because I have danced and ice skated, however I actually am awful at it...and am no longer very flexible. I do have high hopes for yoga though...the place I signed up for is called PURE Yoga and is super zen and cute. Check out the website for pictures!

Pure Yoga!

I've also been catching up on the news when I can...and realized that the Singapore newspaper is such an easy read...its like a magazine and I actually enjoy reading it maybe because its mostly fluff? But i totally wish there was like a catch up on current events book/blog or something. Like a breakdown of all the events that are being reported on right now...for instance what is the history of this medical reform thing that just happened...and what exactly just happened with this reform?

And I've basically been focusing on me a lot. I am happy and things that used to piss me off for days just do not have that effect on me anymore. I got an awesome massage the other day at Inner Peace...they have a special that is a 60 minute full body massage and it continues into a 30 minute foot reflexology while you're still lying down on the comfy massage bed. I <3 massages! Life is good at the moment...I'm even debating skipping the trip home to have an adventure in Europe with J!