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In my last post I showed all the beauty items I got from Japan. Now let me tell you about how stupid I have been in buying and using some of them 😛
You see, I never learnt Japanese, so although I know how to say a few very simple Japanese phrases, I basically can’t read, write or speak Japanese. However, the Japanese language does use some Chinese characters, and I am Chinese, so what I do is try to guess the meaning of the words on Japanese products by reading the Chinese words and using a little common sense. I’ve even managed to cook pretty decent dishes following some Japanese instructions in this way. However, this method is not fool-proof, as you will see here.
First, the Kose Seikisho Pure Brightener
. What I wanted to buy initially was the Mask White
. But I’ve never seen the actual product before, only pictures of it. Not that it would have helped anyway. I happily bought what I thought was the Mask White at a Japanese drugstore, brought it all the way back to Singapore, and tried to use it one night. I squeezed it out and applied it thickly on my face (ps: both products are black in colour), and wondered why the texture was so weird and why it didn’t dry. I suspected something was wrong so I quickly went online to look for Seikisho products, and then realised… what I had was the Pure Brightener instead! Urrrgggghh! What happened was the 2 products have similar packaging, are about the same size, and I spotted the words “black” and “skin-brightening” on what I bought and assumed it was the same thing. I felt like such an idiot that night…. :S The only good thing is, it makes quite a good scrub, so my purchase wasn’t completely wasted after all. But I still want the Mask White!
2nd silly incident: I wanted to use the Shiseido Rosarium Rose Aroma Oil 
this morning, so as usual I “tried” to read the Japanese instructions and spotted something that said “Usage amount: size of a 10 yen coin”. So I enthusiastically poured out a 10 yen coin amount and tried to use it all on my face. But it was really too much! No matter how much I tried to massage it onto my face I couldn’t finish using it. Then I read the instructions again and I noticed it said “Usage amount is for the face + arms + legs + butt + breasts”. Arrrggghhh I almost fainted when I saw that!
Moral of the story: I should go learn Japanese and maybe then I’ll be able to really read the labels and instructions properly and not feel like an idiot making mistakes like this 😛
These are the sakura cakes I got from Isetan supermarket. They’re light fluffy sponge cakes with layers of sakura jam (made from sakura leaves and powder) sandwiched in between. Sorry for the orientation of the photos. I forgot wordpress doesn’t allow you to rotate the photos after you upload them. Bleah!
A photo of an individual cake:
Now, for the adult toys…. not what you were thinking about! Here’s a sticker book for adults:
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Notice anything strange about this Shisedo counter?
Ans: It’s a paper model that I made. Cool, huh?
This was my lunch today: 
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Sorry for the lousy picture, I took it with my handphone camera, our digi cam being at my mum-in-law’s. It tastes better than it looks :p
I love eggs, they are such a convenient food. You can store them in the fridge for ages and you don’t have to defrost them or plan ahead.
Recipe
2 eggs
4 button medium mushrooms (I used white but I prefer the flavour of brown)
Shredded mozerella cheese (I love it!)
Salt and pepper to taste
- Wash and slice mushrooms
- Beat eggs with some salt and pepper
- Heat pan and add some oil to it, then lower to medium heat
- Sautee mushrooms till light golden brown
- Distribute mushrooms evenly in the pan and pour in egg, making sure it’s spread evenly
- Cook till egg is semi-solid and add mozerella cheese
- Fold omelette into half, cook on both sides
- Voila! Lunch is ready!
I like to eat this with Maggi’s low salt extra hot chilli sauce :9
As DH is away in Mumbai, India on an official trip, I’m back at my parents’ place for a few days of catching up with my family. I think this is still the BEST place for lazing around, even though i have a home of my own now. And I realise why I haven’t been crafting much since I moved to my new place – there simply isn’t a “crafting room” where I can get inspired. Here, all my crafting stuff is in my bedroom so it’s the best place to create new stuff, but in my new place everything’s just scattered around…
I’m in the midst of trying to make my new home more “country-style”, but it’s so hard to find nice country style furniture/ accessories that don’t cost the earth here. There was this fantastic mirror in a shop in Park Mall, but it cost more than S$1,000! Uhmm, I don’t think I can afford to spend that much on a mirror at this stage, I have better things to do with that S$1,000.
 I still have one more set of curtains to do, and that’s the set for our study… The reason why I’ve been proscrastinating for so long is that I bought the wrong colour for 1/2 of the fabric, which means extra sewing for me to make it a matching pair… so I’m been feeling extra lazy about it.
Haha, what was meant to be a post about my lazy Monday at home has turned into a report on my home decoration. Actually I would really like to go out, but I feel sooooo lazy! I’m lazy to even go downstairs to buy some white glue to start one of my craft projects. 😮
And of course, I’m even lazier to prepare for my classes this week. The topic is regression… bot very exciting isn’t it :p
Argh! I was sick on Christmas eve, Christmas, and still am sick today. I couldn’t sleep the whole of last night cos I was too busy spitting out phlegm. Needless to say, my Christmas wasn’t a very happy one.
Even as I’m sitting here feeling sorry for myself, though, I’m thankful that I have a home, good food to eat, loving family and friends (not in that particular order). Â
I really hope the homeless old lady I wrote about earlier (and her kitten) have a good home by now. And I hope they are still together and well. That would be the best Christmas present ever.
Tomorrow will be the Mid-Autumn Festival, better known here in Singapore as Mooncake Festival, haha. (We are not known as a city of food-lovers for nothing, heh.)
And since Sat night when DH and I bought some “Big China” (Da Zhong Guo) mooncakes for our parents and brought some home ourselves, I have already eaten at least 1 whole mooncake on my own! BURP!
A little background on the Mid-Autumn Festival – it falls on the 15th day of the eigth lunar month every year. According to Chinese legend, there was a baaaad king who wanted to live forever and so had someone make a pill of eternal life for him. It would have been disastrous for the people if he had really taken it, so his wife Chang’er took it instead to prevent him from living forever. However, after she took it, she found herself getting lighter and lighter till she floated to the moon! As a remembrance to her, people started celebrating the Mid-Autumn festival.
As for how mooncakes came about, now that’s another story altogether…
The other day, DH and I visited the neighbourhood pet shop just to visit the dogs there, and DH was enamoured by a small little hamster that kept standing on its 2 hind paws and looking upwards till it fell over backwards! It also kept running around the tank at top speed.
The result? We bought it and another one to keep it company. We named the funny fast one Speedy (Gonzales) and the other one (who likes to eat) Hamtaro.
Meet Speedy:
and Hamtaro:
 
Ain’t they cute?
Read my friend HS’s blog entry today, and felt inspired to write this.
 She wrote about how unsuitable she finds herself to be a tai-tai after having nothing much to do at home for a day… For me, after being jobless for 4 months this time and 6 months after I came back from Dubai, I say I definitely pass the tai-tai test with flying colours!
Honestly, I think I was born to be a tai-tai, or at least a housewife. I find that time passes by so quickly and easily and life is so much more enjoyable when I’m not working. Or maybe I’m just allergic to work. :p The only snag is since I’m not a real tai-tai yet (I’m not filthy rich), the money runs out pretty fast and there is none coming in. Otherwise, I’m perfectly happy being unemployed.
I wake up early in the morning to cook oatmeal for my DH’s breakfast, then I have breakfast with him. After he goes off to work, I usually go back to sleep for a while, or watch my fav Sesame Street. When I wake up again I wash up and watch TV, or do some housework, then prepare for lunch. After lunch there’s always still 1001 things to do, like washing the clothes (by machine, of course), hanging out the laundry, boiling water, unpacking my stuff (just moved house), playing with and feeding our 2 dwarf hamsters Speedy and Hamtaro, reading, surfing the net, sewing the remaining curtains, watching more TV, tidying the house, going out to places I’d always wanted to go but never had the time to when working (eg Haji Lane), sleeping, blogging, going back to parents’ home to pack more stuff, watching children’s programmes on Kid’s Central, making jewellery, sewing stuff, making crafts (which I haven’t really had time to do since I moved here), watching DVDs, going to the gym… There are so many things for me to do!
So, when my hairdresser asked me if I felt bored not working for so long, my answer is a big NO! I guess it helps that I enjoy my own company and don’t mind being alone for extended periods of time. Being home alone is fine with me, shopping alone too, only thing I’m too lazy to do alone is go to the gym!
Of course it’s nice to dress up and go to work everyday, and have pay every month to buy whatever I like, but the stress, the hustle and bustle, they’re not for me. So if I could afford it, I’d definitely be a tai-tai for the rest of my life. 🙂
So, I’ve finally gotten a broadband internet connection in my new place, and as promised, here’s a new post! Haha…
I would like to share some photos from our mini Langkawi honeymoon with you (my wedding day photos are not out yet):
 This is the Berjaya beach resort which we stayed at. The “chalets” were all built on stilts, either at the seashore or in the tropical rainforest.
 
 Squirrels frolicking on a tree next to the Beach Restaurant where we had our breakfast. I counted 4 of them!
Well, my stomach is grumbling for some lunch now, so more next time!
The Wild Swans 