Saturday, September 27, 2008

Make-up artist

Just did my trial with my wedding make-up artist, Suki today!!


Before


After

Itu pun I took the "after" photo after I took off the fake lashes otherwise d eyes would've been much nicer, more dramatic!! :)

Notice the "after" photo my eyes don't look symmetrical? Well, that's because I wanted to try out different colours and different effects to see which I like best. So each eye was done up differently. I like the left-eye better!! Earthy-tones but glam up with shimmers and dark dramatic eye liner! I love it!!!

Suki is really professional, flexible and accommodative... she tried out different styles of make-up for me so that I can decide on which one I wanna go with during my big day. Then she took a photo of me to ensure she remembers the look I love best to re-create it on my big day!!

Yay!!! :)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A world without strangers

I am most definitely not promoting Giordano here. My blog stays non-profit, non-commercial!! It's just a nice tagline. :)

I realize that we Asians can be a tad paranoid when it comes to strangers. Can't blame us, so many criminals and con-person around every corner. You can never be to careful, right? But are strangers always bad people? I don't think so. Just a few bad ones doesn't mean all are bad.

Pondering back, I've met a few strangers throughout the journey of my life... some just a passing friendship, some blossomed into something more. I can remember a few...

Last week, I befriended an elderly couple while doing my annual medical check-up. I know that they were cautious about their health because the old lady has 2 brothers who has had a angioplasty. She even gave me one of her home made healthy muffins made of wholemeal flour, rice bran oil and a array of seeds. :)

On the way to the airport while in the ERL, I befriended an Air Asia stewardess who shared about her fun experiences working in the company. And how her family was not too thrilled about her choice to be a stewardess but her boyfriend stood by her.

While applying for our EPF, bf and I befriended the lady at the counter who turned out to be also a Fitness First member. She was soooo nice, I had an entire post dedicated to her!!

The girl I befriended on a bride's forum who was nice enough to offer and email me photos of herself to help me decide on which make-up artist to choose for my own big day.

The old woman I met while waiting for a doctor in a public hospital who was staying in the hospital because her son would not pick her up for her regular follow ups. She was a chronic kidney failure patient. Hers was a really sad story... that was why she kept refusing her treatments.

These are just the passing friendships... Others stayed on...

The crazy teenage girl I met when I attended my first youth camp. We totally clicked although we knew each other for 3 days. We then moved on to sell perfume together and hang out together... and we have been BFFs for 10 years now!!


The ballet teacher I befriended through my blog because I was looking for a house and she was selling off hers. She has moved overseas but we still keep in touch on our blogs and facebook. We've never even met...yet! Hope to meet her some time in the future.

The group of friends I met at the Jazz Festival in Mont Kiara 2 years back! They were complete strangers at the time. They organized a weekly dance session and I showed up in a then stranger's apartment all alone as I was the first to arrive... all ready to dance!! We've since had some good times together and are still in touch till today. This was us learning the Hawaiian Hula.


The doctor I met on Facebook who's currently practising in Hong Kong. Turns out her sister stays nearby and is practically my neighbour! She'll be back for holidays soon I hope to meet her for the first time.

How about the distant colleague from the northern office in a "Dale" shirt in a sales conference in the remote area of Lumut? Found out at the time that we both liked chocolate ice cream and singing.

Dale from the Rescue Rangers ;)
This one really blossomed... it went beyond friendship. And I am marrying him come March!! :)

So, take a few risks... get to know a few strangers. Who knows?? The world can be a more beautiful place with that one stranger less.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

A Canton Experience

Canton... or better known as Guangzhou now. Just went on a short break there since am MBA-free for these couple of months. (yippeee!)

You would think the people in Canton would be able to speak Cantonese but nope... about half of them do only. The rest speak Mandarin. Alamaks!! So, there was a bit of communication breakdown. Dah lah their Mandarin sounds different from ours.

We arrived with only basic info on the whereabouts of our hotel. So, we went on a wild goose chase looking for the hotel which turns out to be truly truly 2min walk from the train and subway stations... as stated on the website. heheheh.




What a relief after walking in the heat for so long! Our room!!! Air-con!!!!


The next morning we went on looking for food... noodles were good but the char siew sucks... I still prefer good ol Malaysian char siew. :)


Sis had yue chuk which was also so-so saje.


We then went for a walk around Beijing Lu... there were shops galore! A lot of brands that we don't get here. I suppose they are local China brands. Their fashion is quite HK-ish... so a bit too lala for our taste. Dah lah it's not cheap leh! I guess our currency value doesnt give us an edge to shop overseas. :(


Every single day, we had to have our daily dose of caffein at the local Starbucks!! Damn expensive... about RMB35 per cuppa. But when you need your fix, you need your fix!!


We also went to Renmin Nan Lu and Shangxia Jiu Lu where there were more shops and more cafes to keep us occupied.

Although it wasn't much of a sight-seeing trip. We still manage to take a few touristy shots! :)



The weather there was pretty much like here. Hot and humid!! We were sweating like pigs walking around so much all day. Lucky there are plenty of icy cold drinks and desserts all over the place. We particularly liked this chain store selling fruity blended drinks. Heavenly for that kind of weather. It is truly blended fruit and not flavouring... so it was refreshing and healthy too!


How can one go to China without experiencing some typically Chinese things like...

Bad Engrish,,,,


Farnie toilets


We managed to go the Zhujiang River side near the Haizhou Square for dinner one nite. The city view was pretty at night... I guess most cities are pretty at night. :)





1920 restaurant. They serve a mixture of Western and Eastern cuisine, and also a vast vast selection of cocktails. A lot of foreigners there too...


Black blood... the cocktail I ordered looked so cool and gothic. Like Bodyjam 45... heheheheh. It tastes really good too.




We both had some porky thang... portions were HUGE!!! Caters to gwei lou's appetites I guess.



Both my sis and my orders were really yummy... very good pork. You cant taste that porky smelliness like the pork you get here in KL. Very well prepared. Mmmmm.... that was actually the only food that we had in the whole trip which tasted really good. The rest were only so-so. Hong Kong and Malaysia still has the best Chinese food around.

We moved around mostly using the MRT. Convenient and most easy to interpret... the station names are also written in English. And we can be sure we will not be ripped-off. :)




Some more touristy shots around Martyr's Park.




Like all vacations.... the ending always comes so soon.


Choi kin, Guongzhau!!!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Wall-e

Watched Wall-e with baby on Wednesday. A very cute movie... not much dialogue yet still heartwarming. A kid in the cinema even cried so hard when Wall-e lost his memory of Eve after the repair. Didn't his mom tell him Disney movies never have sad endings? Trust Disney to create that magic everytime.

Only Disney can make a trash-compacter machine and a roach adorable...


...and create romance between 2 machines


...and give machines charater and behaviour... like obsessive compulsive disorder...


reminds me of my BFF Joyce, heheheh.

Loved it!! :)

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Casablanca

Baby bought the Casablanca DVD and we watched it together last nite. Don't you just love movies from that era? They are so romantic... nothing made in the recent years can come close to that warm fuzzy feeling these old movies give you. But I was kinda sad that Rick and Ilsa did not end up together despite their deep love for each other. True love should always have happy endings... I intend to have mine! ;)

I love it!!


Here's lookin' at you kid!