April Skin Premium Magic Snow Cream

Colour: White tone. For a natural healthy glow, 1 layer would suffice.

Pros: Brightens up skin. Very moisturizing & natural. Can achieve a beautiful no make up look. Doesn't feel like you have make up on. If you want to be fairer, just apply a 2nd or 3rd layer.

Cons: Low coverage. Suitable for people with dull skin looking for a healthy natural glow. No SPF. Need to apply a layer of sunblock in the morning.

Repurchase? Yes!! Definitely! if 11 Street promotion is still on going. Gotten it at 80% discount. It's over my budget at original price of RM240. 

My skin type: Dry sensitive skin.

Shizens Natural Pore Nutrient Foundation SPF33

Colour: love it! Illuminates my skin. Very natural colour.

Texture: Dewy & smooth. Not heavy.

Pros: Natural healthy glow. Water-proof.

Cons: Foundation will be visible around skin creases by noon (applied since 7am) thus requires blotting. Needs to constantly wash sponge after each use to achieve that natural look application, which could be troublesome. Otherwise, application will be cakey. Pores will be clogged by end of the day.

Repurchase? No

My Skin type: Dry sensitive skin.

FaceIt Aura colour control CC Cream in N2 Natural Beige

Colour: Slightly darker than my skin colour but turns out to be natural looking after full application. No illumination effect like how its shown in posters. Probably due to this sample is a darker shade. Slightly yellowish tone. Not exactly my preferred colour as it doesn't have a healthy glow. May suit darker skin tone.

Texture: Semi-matte 

Pros: Good coverage

Cons: Only last for few hours (bout 4 hours). Skin gets cakey after that. Can tell u have make up on. Accentuates your pores.

Repurchase? No

My skin type: Dry sensitive skin.

Wart removal on lower eyelid

It has been a while since I last blogged. I had a tough time previously trying to search for info regarding eyelid warts... Thus the reason I'm blogging to share my experience.

Just had an eyelid wart removed at Damansara Specialist Hospital. The surgery was successful and took only 15 minutes. I actually had it for several years but it was only a tiny bump back then. It didn't really bother me much until recently where it suddenly gotten much bigger. Consulted the first opthamologist from Gleneagles and was told that the wart would continue to grow bigger if nothing was done. She advised that I should seek another opthamologist that provides laser surgery, as it is not available in Gleneagles. The knife surgery would leave a dent on my eyelid since she is not able to sew it due to my young age. And that would not look very nice.

I think Dr. Rajalakshmi from Damansara Specialist Hospital, KPJ, did a great job removing the wart without leaving any dent. Would like to take this opportunity to thank her to show my gratitude, as I did not have the chance to thank her properly at the hospital. She is really friendly by the way! She was able to give me the confidence that everything will be alright...and it was :)

Prior to surgery, a friend comforted me telling me not to be scared nor worry, as it is just like popping a pimple. Easy Peasy. So just go pop a pimple and come out. Haha! Well...using laser and knife, it's kinda a scary way to pop a pimple! He joked it is the same like my forceps. U know...u kiam your eye lashes. LoL. What an unforgettable statement. 

Anyway, for the procedure, they first inject local anesthetic on the skin near the infected area for numbness.  Ouch. That was the most painful part. But still bearable. Done in 3 seconds. An opaque contact lense was then placed on my eye to prevent laser from hurting it. Then laser to cut off the wart. It feels prickly initially. Feels nothing after a while.

Total cost for the procedure was RM2.3k+. Thank god the cost was borne by my company. Phew! Bag and iPhone sudahlah got snatched by snatch thief previously. Very broke already. I'm glad my company's staff benefits are good. haha. 

Pre-surgery: Wart sits on the line of my lower eyelid.

Post-surgery: a little redness. Was told it would go away after few days. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, as photos ware taken using my iPhone's front camera. 

A Professional Mistake

A friend forwarded this to me. Judging from the life story told by all my friends working in the Big 4, it's just so true!

Subject: A professional mistake - a must read article for AUDITOR

A professional mistake
Your alarm rings, signalling another brand new day. You get up, looking forward for another new day of challenge, another new day to learn. After washing up, you put on your office outfit, giving you that professional look, one that you believe many out there envy. Breakfast follows(perhaps), and you head off to your office. You’re one of the earliest to arrive, ahead of all your superior and when they come in later, they greet you and you feel all charged up for another productive day. Plenty to do and learn and hence, you are prepared to stay back late to do all that is necessary.

If you’re currently doing a degree in finance, accounting or law, the above is probably what you’ve been waiting for all these years. You work your ass off (well… most of you) in university because it’s your dream to join one of those big glamorous firms out there in the market. Lawyers and accountants are the usual suspects for this curse. Once graduated, all of them will run like headless chicken towards those big firms. If you’re an accounting student… you want to be an auditor in one of the Big-4 right?

Well, if you do make it, it’s like a dream come true. In such firms, you get a personal computer, maybe a notebook (wow!). All your stationeries are free, and it’s also the first time you step into a ‘pantry’, where you can make your own coffee, just like those nice offices in TVB series. Next, you get an exclusive e-mail, the domain after your name is not the ordinary @gmail.com or @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com… No, it’s not, it’s your-name@a-big-and-glamorous-firm.com. You can’t wait to tell that to your friend.

Then comes the feeling of giving a business card with your name on it, and it’s not any other business card, it’s one with your name on it, it’s onethat signifies you’re an employee with a-big-and-glamorous-firm. And… the word below your name is not a lowly “accounts executive”… the word below your name is exclusive… the word below your name is… “Associate”. And when your friend gives you the “Wow, you’re an associate with this firm?”… you get into instant orgasm.

3 or 6 months into your job, you will then be experiencing the euphoria of saying… I-am-very-busy… I-have-a-lot-work…I-worked-till-very-late-last-night…I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend. Yeah, it’s an euphoria because to you, it’s a privilege to be busy, it’s very cool to work late, you’re very proud to work in during weekends. When you utter such words, a sense of arrogance and pride radiates from you. You feel great because working so hard means you learnt a lot of things, those not in the professional industry somehow looks lowly to you. You feel big, you feel you’re a level smarter than them. Reality will tend to sink in within 2 years or so, though the duration seems to be getting shorter and shorter now with the younger generation.

First, you will probably ask yourself, how come a graduate like you must do all sorts of donkey jobs such as photocopying, checking invoices, going through piles and piles of documents and filing. You will also be wondering how come your superior whom you once looked up to have to suck up to clients. Oh yeah… most all clients are unreasonable.

If you’re an accountant, you will probably realise that there is no such thing called a ‘balance’ sheet. It’s balanced because you did the balancing act so that your big boss can sign on it and certify it as ‘true and fair’.Yeah… signing on accounts, the job that you once dreamed of… isn’t exactly all a bed of roses. You then realise that you will probably never reach that “just-need-to-sign-only stage” but hey… it’s ok, you probably hate that job by now. When you tell your client something, chances are you are just as blur and confused as them. But you have to act as though you’re an expert because you’re the con-sul-tant. This is just a glimpse of it.

Now, all the late nights and irregular meals will probably cause you to age 8 years in 2 years. Those I-am-very-busy… I-have-a-lot-work…I-worked-till-very-late-last-night…I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend will take its toll on your body and it will show. You will probably look very skinny…or very far… you will certainly look old and worn out. Working late and spending weekends in the office is no longer a cool thing but absolute stupidity. But hey… you will still have to do it, because there’s still much work to be done.

By now, all your friends who ended up as salesmen or doing other things except being a professional, those whom you felt superior to are driving anything but a proton. But for you, it’s time to think whether you should buy a proton cause your perodua is beginning to give you problems. Of course, if your father is a well-connected fella, things can be different. But if you’re not, tough luck. You’ll be wondering how come you’re generally under-paid. Those exposure and learning curve that you once craved for are no longer relevant. You want to make more money. But unless you’re a partner of the glamorous firm, money can be a lil tough to come by.

At this point of time, probably after 3, 4 or 5 years, you finally realise that document (click on this link!) you signed when you first joined the glamorous firm was nothing but lies. Then, you decide to ply your trade in the commercial world, you leave the glamorous firm. You think joining a commercial firm will bring about a good change, not knowing that such a move means you switched from being a ‘profit centre’ to a ‘cost centre’. One of the main effects of the switch is that you will be working doubly hard compared to the profit centre, which probably includes a lot of late nights too… but your salary and bonus is much lower compared to the profit centre. What does this mean… a story for another time.

One thing's for sure… your morning will now be something like…

Your alarm rings, signalling another day… another weekday. You get up, after snoozing the alarm a million and one times. You hope today is Friday, but it’s not, and you feel like shit. You think of a million and one reasons to take MC, but you realised you have to go to office because you failed to finish the report due today though you stayed till 10pm last night. You tell yourself you need to change jobs, just like how you have been telling yourself in the last 1 year. Once in office, you’re in a dilemma cause you want time to go slower so that you can finish your work but yet, you want time to go faster so that you can leave the office and go for lunch.

During lunch, you will bitch with your colleagues about work and probably the bosses. You will all talk about so many people who seem to be doing so well except for you. You realised you should have done something else while in university. You realised you may have made a mistake in life… a mistake in being a professional… you have made… a professional mistake.

Author,
Zewt
(www.zewt.blogspot.com)

Lost Parking Ticket and tactics to avoid paying the RM50 penalty

Today is one of those days where everything seems to be going against me. Lady Luck just doesn’t seem to be anywhere near. Was going to meet Kimberly, Lisa, Gillian and her bf (Kelvin) at Mid Valley, and to my horror, the parking lots in every zone were full! Aside from jamming all the way into Zone C, I spent 45 minutes circling the parking area in hope of finding a spot. Since I’m not staying in MV for very long, I decided to just leave my car at the car wash centre and allow my car to have its spa treatment it deserved (hv not been washing my car ever since I got back from China XD). As soon as I thought I solved my parking problem and got out of the car smiling, the guy there told me, “Sorry, car wash services here are ONLY FOR MEMBERS.”

To top it all, I lost my parking ticket!

Anyway, I somehow managed to squeeze my tiny little Kelisa (damn I love my car!) into a sloping, non-parking area completely blocking an exit door. Haiya… as long as I didn’t obstruct the traffic should be ok la….right? hehe. However, anyone coming out from that exit would need to climb onto my car roof in order to get out. I doubt anyone would take those secluded exits lor... No sign of shoe print on my car roof. Haha!

Coming back to the lost ticket, I was mentally prepared to pay the penalty and declare myself bankrupt for the day when Kimberly opposed my decision to do so. (Had a vivid reverie of Kim being a lawyer yelling, “No! We shall fight!”) She then shared with me about the amusing incident that happened to Japheth and Chung Siew at One Utama and how they avoided the Lost Parking Ticket penalty. Sorry la…I’m not sharing that story, otherwise everyone will start to imitate what they do. Hahaha! I can just say good acting skills are much required. =P

SO, me and my rescue team consisting of Kim, Gillian, and Kelvin, our brainstorm session came up with several plans and tactics:

Plan A : Take Kelvin’s parking ticket, slot it in the machine and exit while their vehicle follows close behind and pretend their ticket is consumed by the machine but the gate is not opening. So when the guard comes and check if you are really the owner of the ticket by asking questions such as entry time, we would know the answer, if the ticket was to be retrieved from the machine.

Plan dropped.
Reason: My car is parked in a different zone, which is not linked to the zone they parked at.


Plan B: Press a new ticket from the parking entrance auto-machine.

Plan dropped.
Reason 1: Japheth (well-experienced in losing parking tickets) executed the plan before and failed. Possibility of heavier object required for the sensor to be able to detect.
Reason 2: Neither one of us want our faces to be captured by the CCTV camera and be mistaken for a car thief.
Reason 3: We’ve all seen how Mr. Bean did it before in one of his episodes and know very well how silly and idiotic it would make us look.


Plan C : Drive Kelvin’s car to the parking entrance, get the ticket, then reverse his car out.

Plan dropped.
Reason 1: Cars would definitely already start building a long queue behind us before we could even reverse our car.
Reason 2: CCTV would be watching our every move and our action would raise suspicion.


Plan D : All four of us take my car, head to the exit, pretend to slot in the ticket into the machine and make a scene with the guard complaining the ticket is defective. Kelvin and Kim will take over the front seat of my car since they are much capable in portraying a poker face while me and Gillian will take the back seat (we admit we’re just lousy at it).

Success rate: 50%
Reason: Chances are the guard would just let us go instead of having us obstructing the traffic. If he really retrieved the previous ticket and ask us for the entry time, we would just answer we were here to have lunch and we don’t have a clue on the arrival time.

As we were taking our chances with Plan D, on our way to the car park, Kim suddenly came up with the ultimate Plan:


Plan E : Borrow her friend’s season parking pass. So coincidently her friend works in Mid Valley. My Saviour!!! Executed the plan and SUCCESS!

One tiny issue we’re worried about is, does the season pass (which functions like a Touch n Go card) permits the card owner to do a double exit? While our escape mission has been accomplished, my saviour could be stuck in the car park after work! So I bought him some chocolates to show my gratitude and in case if he REALLY gets stuck in the car park, it would at least help to prevent him from cursing me so much. >.<

Xiamen Riyuegu Hotspring (厦门日月谷温泉)

This is the first time I've ever had such luxurious 5-star hotspring experience. And I love it! Tropical paradise setting. Wonderful services and facilities. Wide range of hotsprings with different ingredient choices. 3 swimming pools. Free flow drinks.

Moreover, it's not too costly, at RMB 118 during weekdays. No time limit.

More info at http://www.riyuegu.com/english/hotspring/hightlights.php

As far as I can remember, the types of hotsprings available are such as green tea, puer tea, oolong tea, specialty tea (can't recall what's so special), rose, lavender, peppermint, lemon, coffee, aloe vera, curry(this is a weird one.), ginger, ginseng, red wine, white rice wine, dong guai, pineapple, fish spa(additional RMB30) and natural hotspring water. Rose and lavender are among my fav! The aroma's just so relaxing and rejuvenating~

The Puer tea hotspring is pretty special too! It offers a cold then hot sensation. By first dipping into the cold pool then into the hotspring. How it felt? numb! can't feel myself. However, it slowly gets more n more enjoyable. Torturing at first. But rewarding next. =D

There's one culture that caught my attention here. Ladies just walk around in the washroom NAKED. Exposing their breast and their bottoms 0.o omg. I do know about this culture long before. But experiencing it personally in this situation is just.... awkward. Sorry for my 'ulu-ness'. haha!