Stocked up

Yay, went to buy more FIMO clay and accessory parts today. All stocked up to make little presents.

My Macbook is going crazy today. Was trying to copy a few file onto my hard disk but I was shown the "Forced to Restart" screen at least thrice. How disappointing. My Mac that has lasted me 3 years is now old and sickly. Going to send him for repair tomorrow..

AND

Off I go to Cameron Highlands!

Going to enjoy myself so much and take lots of pretty photos!

and that marks the end of my "summer"

12 weeks of Unilever internship went by just like that. It happened so quickly, which makes you once again amazed at the concept of time.

Amazing people, amazing learning, amazing journey.

Someone once told me," Have you encountered such situations before? You find yourself thrown into a situation which requires you to work with various people. After a period of spending time together to complete the assignment, you've grown to enjoy being around one another. But once the assignment is over, you find yourself losing contact with those people. You feel weird to contact them and meet them outside the context of "doing project". But, the truth is, you really enjoy their company."

Again, someone in the internship told me. Just because the internship ended doesn't mean we won't meet up anymore. It's all a matter of keeping in contact. You take the initiative if you want to stay connected.

Many things are not easy. But you just have to go through it. Be brave and learn.

Unilever - Made by U

Hello Friends,

I'm currently taking part in a photo contest by Unilever. Help me like the Unilever Careers Page and my photos ok? :)

You stand to win some attractive prizes too!

Click on this picture to reach my photo and help me like! Yay thanks!

Blunders to Wonders

From Our Daily Bread, 20th July

If you have made a “blunder” so big that it seems irreversible, the most important matter is whether you love Jesus. When we love Him, Jesus can turn our most serious blunders into awesome wonders.

Today's daily bread was particularly meaningful for me. I am one who is very afraid of making mistakes. In a way, the "King" inside of me is showing. I want to be Perfect. That can't happen of course, and I end up feeling frustrated. Very frustrated. 

Today's reading made me realize how important it is to have faith and trust God. Even if we make mistakes, we know God is still with us and leading the way.

If

If this is something I like to do, persist.
If this is within me, change.
Weakness isn't a failure if you have the mindset to improve.

Would like to share a poem that I once received from my JC Civics Tutor. It's really inspiring and the meaning touches my heart.

"if" by rudyard kipling (1865 - 1936)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 

When I first read this poem, I couldn't understand 100% the meaning of the poem. But, I felt inspired by whatever I understood. 

Yes, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. How easy is that? So difficult when you are the one in that situation. What exactly does it mean to keep your head? Instantly, I feel for this phrase. I especially like how the poem concludes. You'll be a Man, my son! That's the true character of a Man. Wow, where do we find Man like this? 

My Civics Tutor printed out this poem for each of us after our A levels. I put it up on my bedroom wall above my table. It has been about 4 years since then, and this poem is still up there. It becomes my source of strength and inspiration each time I feel tackled from life. 

Life...as it is.

Grandma has delicious cookies!

Cousin bought cookies from Hong Kong for Grandma!
There's chocolate, butter, green tea and almond flavours.

A quiet weekend

I like to think. I always have thoughts. I love to imagine.

That's why, I'm the dreamy one. Full of creativity and imagination.

Yesterday was the first day I officially OT in office. haha. Usually I bring my work home to do, but yesterday I had to stay in office to complete certain tasks.

I had intended to OT yesterday anyway, but I was thinking since my friends are OTing, and I had no plans to go out, I could just OT together with them and complete more of my work. However, situation was changed and I have to OT because I really need to complete some task by that day.

Somehow, I didn't feel that happy about OT already. It's kinda weird. I said,"I'll be happy to OT if it a choice made by me, and not that I really have to complete certain things." Come to think of it, why would anyone OT just for fun? hmm... strange me. strange feelings and strange period of time.

My friend said she's not going to OT that day and that sad lonely feeling crept into me. At 7, my stomach was growling so I went down to 7 eleven to grab a Waffle. Hoping that would be dinner.

I prayed to God that I wouldn't feel so sad about being alone OT-ing on a Friday. Then... I was surprised to receive a call from my friend, who ended up staying later in office. Let's have dinner!

So we went to City hall and had a great dinner. yay. Really thankful for the way it ended. We shared a slice of cake from Fruit Paradise. My friend is such an irony. On a Diet.. Yeah, and eating all the cream....haha

Today's lunch was at Eatzi Bedok Point with a bunch of church friends. Happy, because this is the first time we actually met outside of church. The NZ Ribeye steak we ordered was great, but somehow not as feeling as the last time I ate.

Had stomach cramps due to the monthly visitor. Really bad cramps but as usual. Crawled my way home and slept till 7pm. This visitor came 2 weeks in advance. Maybe that's the cause of my erratic feelings.

I was irritated recently with a lot of issues. I'm wanting too much control over issues and refusing to accept hiccups. It's true. I agree I was trying to "play God. Now, I need to learn. It came as a nice reminder for me. Thanks.

Thoughts

2 more weeks till the end of Internship. Lots more work to do, and I feel more stretched.

Lots of thoughts during this period of time, especially concerning my future ahead.

Just hope that the last 2 weeks would be enjoyable for all the interns and we could bring away nice memories.

Jiayou everyone!

Joyous Occasion

A wedding! A wedding! It's been rather long since I attended one. But I believe very soon, I'll reach the age whereby my friends are all getting married and I will get to attend lots of wedding!

The cute little wedding car. All the flower decorations are done by one of my church's sister. She is really talented. The flowers she arranged look so Alive! and Pretty.

My cousin Amelia on the left with Jane on the right as receptionists!

Evidence of her work. Such nice arrangements of pretty roses!

The grand and beautiful hall walkway. Usually I only see a group of flowers being tied to each single bench. Never did I once saw vines like these connecting the benches and accessorized with flowers! Totally love the effect.

Something interesting that the Pastor said got stuck in my head. Most people think of marriages as 2 half circles joining together. But he clarified that's not a correct concept.

More accurately, marriage is like a triangle and a square coming together! Each bring with them their differences in character. He further mentioned that most people often get married to people who are very unlike them.

If you are obsessed with cleanliness, you probably end up with a wife who is quite untidy.

If you observe punctuality strictly, you end up with a wife who is always late. 

WHY?! because opposite attracts! If the other person is so similar to you, there probably won't be much attraction in the first place.

Now, so how does this union of triangle and square becomes a circle?

You need to learn to live with each other. To learn to compromise and bring out the best in each other.

To more aptly put it in chinese, you need to 磨。

So how? HOW! HOW! surely quarrel sometimes. BUT, with time...

the odd shape will become a circle.

So, if you see a couple who has taken form and is steady, they probably have 10s of years of marriage...

 Our paige boy

 Our flower girl

Our BRIDE!!!! Ok, not OUR bride but the bridegroom's bride! hehehe
Managed to capture a photo of the bride smiling! Wow, imagine on your special day, you feel such joy cause you know you are going to spend the rest of your life with your beloved!

Of course, how can there be no....photos time!

Cute little Qi Mei between Emily and I! 

 And us again!

And now with Meng Hua too!!! Miss her lots. Ever since she went to serve in 2nd service, I no longer see her so often in church because I go for 1st service. But still, always happy to see her.

MORE MORE MORE weddings to come! in 2013 ;)

GSS with Hypnosis :)

Initial disappointment with many unfruitful shopping trips made a turn for the better. All set to go home, the walk past a familiar shop in the familiar city managed to stop me in my tracks. 

Once I stepped in, I realized how much I have been neglecting this wonderful shop in the past. I have always walked past this shop in Citylink and hardly stepped in. The fashion image presented by the mannequins and clothes seen in the shop does not seem to fit my style. But today (more accurately, last weekend), I was surprised that I managed to buy so many items from this shop. It was a pleasant turn of events! From 0 purchases to 6 pieces of clothing purchased: 4 dresses, 1 top and 1 skirt.

The most remarkable thing of all is, I only paid an average of around $27 for each piece! What a bargain! The best GSS ever. ;)

The average price of items in that shop was about $40-$70. But this GSS, there are sale items offered at $20 instead of the usual $40 or even $70! Don't you think they deserve the best GSS shopping experience award?

Without further ado, let me reveal the name of this best GSS shop! 

It's Hypnosis!

Let's calculate the % discount that I reaped. Original retail total = $334. I paid $165.60 in total. That's a discount of 50.42%!!!

Isn't this fantastic!

Here are the price tags on the clothes which I pieced side-by-side.

The main reason for this BIG discount is because, they are offering a FREE dress/jumper from their shop as long as your regular priced items hit $100. That free dress/jumper could be of any amount. It doesn't matter how expensive it is. It's on the house!

Furthermore, all regular priced items have a 20% discount. How are all these possible?! O_O It's a girl's dream come true!

Happy happy.

Here are my wonderful purchases!

Long shimmering grey halter gown.

My FREE dress worth $69.90! This isn't my typical style
 but I like this new bohemian-looking look. The dress bottom
has varying lengths which I thought was pretty interesting.
I did not have dresses like this before.

This is black top with a ribbon in the middle. I think it
now looks like a patch of black from the photo. It has
an elastic band at the bottom, so you can "act" like you
tuck in your shirt. Best for office!

I look the nicest in this dress! I like the pattern at the bottom.

This is a dark purple dotty skirt with a black elastic band
on top. A good change from those typical office skirts.

This dress is very me. Again, there's a ribbon in the middle.
From the past ribbons have been a distinctive feature of my
fashion style. As much as I want to try something new,
I never seem to get out of buying clothes with ribbons.

BEST GSS shopping experience EVER! Hurry and catch this promotion before it ends!

Feel guilty to go shopping again?

Think of it this way. It's just $27 for each piece on average! Definitely worth the deal!

Makeup Frenzy

Went out yesterday with St to get some makeup before she starts work on Monday. On the topic of makeup, I decided to do an experiment with my new product, "that gal" by Benefit. This is a primer that is to be used before you apply your foundation. It is a brightening face primer that claims to be able to moisturize your face, brighten your face and make your makeup last longer. So...why not try an experiment and see!

This has a pretty interesting application. You have to turn the knob at the bottom and the liquid will ooze from the top. I took at least a minute to figure out because I kept turning the knob but nothing is happening. That's because it's a new bottle, and you need to turn it longer before the product comes out.

Moving on to my "daily" makeup routine! I put "" around daily because technically speaking, I don't put makeup everyday! Some days I'm in a rush so off I go! Some days i'm lazy and some days I'm unwell. I don't put makeup when I'm unwell because I won't look unwell anymore. Not that I want to look unwell, but sometimes it's good if people around you know you are unwell so that they will understand if you're keeping quieter than usual and the like. 

Here are the products I use!

From left: 

Laneige's Snow Dual Crystal Foundation No. 23 Sand Beige

Benefit's posie tint cheek and lip stain

Benefit's high beam

Mac's Amplified lipstick in Cosmo shade

Revlon's lip gloss in rose shade

Step 1: Apply "that gal primer" on your face.

Yes, my face did feel moisturized. BUT... in terms of brightening, I don't see much difference. In terms of makeup lastly longer, I think it may be a psychological effect. For the price, I'll probably not purchase it again.

Step 2: Apply Laneige's liquid foundation on your face. (See Picture 1)

I have been using this for about 1-2 years. When I started using initially, I can feel that it's really quite moisturizing. It's supposed to be like snow that melts into your skin. YES i get that feeling at first. But now, after using for quite some time, it doesn't have that revolutionary feeling anymore. It's still not bad. It gives the kind of dewy, supple skin look. I know after using liquid foundation you have to set with powder, but I don't do it. In the first place, I prefer liquid foundation because I think it has better coverage; it is more even; it is more hydrating and it doesn't appear cakey. However, after doing a shopping trip at Cityhall Robinsons with St today, I realized the attractiveness of using compact powder. I'll come to that in a while. 

Step 3: Apply Benefit's posie tint on your cheeks and T-zone, meaning forehead and nose bridge area. (See Picture 2)

I like this liquid blush a lot because it stays on even at the end of the day! It looks natural as well. I find that powder blushes tend to come off easily. Very soon, the colour all drops off. That's the reason my sister quotes me when I asked her why she always apply so much blusher on her face every morning,"Put more now, later will drop one ma." It's important to apply some colour on your T-zone as well to make your face look more natural. If not, it's like red at the cheeks and then colourless elsewhere. Thanks to Ek who introduced me to makeup, I wouldn't know too. She's the one who recommended me all these products and I liked them! 

Step 4: Apply Benefit's High Beam on your forehead, chin, cheek bones and nose bridge area. (See Picture 3)

Maybe from the picture it doesn't look obvious, but a highlighter does have some nice effect. It makes you look more radiant as your face shine at the right areas. And most importantly, it makes my nose seems a tiny bit higher! hahaha! Most happy about that.

Step 5: Apply Mac lipstick and Revlon lip gloss lightly on your lips and a little bit more on the centre of your lips. (See final Picture 4)

I have very pigmented and dark lips. Everytime I go out my Mom would be like,"Why your mouth so black?!" Then I'm like T_T. What to do, natural colour is like that. So I have to go for high coverage lip stick. This Mac lipstick is good because it belongs to the amplified range, which has the highest coverage. I purposely chose a rather red colour and finally! My Mom didn't go,"Why your mouth so black?!" anymore. 

Ta da! That's the final look in picture 4. I was actually contemplating whether to put up this picture because my sister says I look ugly with my fringe up. I actually thought I look nicer with my fringe up! The reason why it's up in the first place is because I'm putting makeup and didn't want my hair to interfere. I asked St and she said I look nicer with the fringe down too. O_o such differing views...

Ready to go! Destination confirmed: Cityhall Raffles City.

I would like to recommend a delicious and affordable dish at Raffles City Food court on Level 3. I love this dish! It's the Fried Fish Bee Hoon Soup!

 

Ratings by components:

Fried Fish - 6/10 still needs some improvement on the fragrance and taste

Bee Hoon - 7/10 tangy and soft

Soup base - 8/10 delicious soup with ingredients like bittergourd, milk, spring onions and the "secret" recipe.

Overall, a good meal! It cost $4.50 per bowl.

Something attracted me to Dorothy Perkins. Look at the picture below. What strikes you most? For me, it's the mannequin in blue dress. Time for some shopping! I thought I would buy a few items from there. However, I didn't get a fruitful "harvest. The dresses are really pretty, but I don't look fantastic in them. Considering no sale, the regular items easily cost above $70 for a top or dress. Verdict: No go. 

After much distraction from shopping, St and I headed to Robinson to complete our task for the day. We found out that the foundation I am currently using has an "improved" version. It's more hydrating and more fluid. However, there's no more 2-in-1 concealer at the top. Because of this, it now has more product (35ml) compared to the one I'm currently using (30ml).

 It comes in only 3 shades, much more limited compared to my current one. I asked the salesperson if the coverage is the same because I assumed it'll have less coverage since it's more fluid. She said yes but I still have my doubts. So, the smart move is....take a sample home to try! So I did. Samples are only available in shade 21 Natural Beige. I tried it on Sunday and it was a ... In short, I'm more satisfied with my current product.

The search continues and we went to different counters trying different foundation products. What tempted me the most was this Chanel Vitalumiere Eclat Comfort Radiance Compact Makeup with SPF 10. 

I have heard lots of nice stories about this product, particular famous for the smooth texture of your skin after applying. True enough, it was soooo smooth. Like silk maybe? I had an urge to keep touching my skin! I realized that the good thing about compact powder is you can touch up anytime you want! For liquid...it's more difficult. Imagine a new blot of liquid on your cheeks midday and you have to rub and blend. hmm...how messy.

Compared to my current liquid foundation that gives a dewy look, this gives a refined and radiant look. St kept commenting that my skin looks really nice and radiant on the left side. My left side looks nicer than my right side anyway. Sidetrack, we should always aim to show our left side when facing the camera as it gives a nicer, gentler look!

B20 is the shade that I tried. I was so tempted to purchase this product. If not for the new full bottle of Laniege foundation that I recently bought, coupled with the fact that the price of this foundation is like the most expensive out of all, I would have just grabbed it! Being such a good customer that I always am, I would have just bought it. Now, the question is not whether I should buy, but when. I am super tempted! Control.

Remember how I started the post wanting to do an experiment with the Benefit primer? Flopped. I concluded that there is no effect and I should not waste my time doing detailed experiment on it. I feel no difference after using for a couple of days. It's rather expensive and my friends couldn't tell the difference too. :( Sadly. Well, a blessing in disguise. This means a savings of $50 for each makeup cycle replenishment!

More updates to come about my exciting weekend! ;)