Hahaha, I’m back. I finally decided to buy e Flickr Pro-package cos I exceeded e monthly minimum upload quota so haf been spending most of my free time editing my photos wif Picnik although I haf yet to buy its Premium package, hehehe.
Recently I have been having terrible outbreaks on my face *sob sob* so nowadays really dun feel like going out except wif mc darling, hehehe. I tot it was bcos of my bad diet of all e ben n jerry ice creams n tibits but when i cut down on eating them, it didn't really got any better. These pimples r not e kind on e surface wan lor, they r e deep in the skin type, although not painful but irritating. I only get these type of pimple when my period is around e corner so sth is really wrong.
I finally decided tat e culprit should be my recent change in foundation to SkinFood Gingko Green BB Cream. I bought it cos i heard from frens that it was good, even e reviews i found online commented it was good. I bought it after i came back from Japan. I really liked it as it has good coverage n initially there was no major breakout but after using for abt a week or two, e breakouts started. At tat time, i was eating alot of junk food so tot it was bcos of tat n i continued to use it while i reduced my junk intake but it became worst after a few days of recovery. I even washed my face twice to clean off all e foundation but it wasn't helping n caused my face to b really dry.
Eventually last last Sat, I can't take it anymore so I went to buy a new foundation. I decided to get sth from e cosmetic counter in e departmental stores cos i wan to get sth i can trust to cure my face. After walking ard, i saw Clinique n i remembered a fren telling me tat their products are quite good on her plus it has e image of having solution for problematic skin, so decided to give it a try.
E sales girl was not too bad, introduced me to all e best sellers in e counter n i was happy tat i finally found e closest colour foundation for my skin. It felt light n most importantly, it is for long wearing. Ok, e things there r not cheap but there was a promotion, a gift set for every purchase of $130 of products. E gift set consists of their best seller moisturiser, eye cream, facial cleanser, make-up remover... This tempted me more to buy them so in e end i bought e foundation, a luminous loose powder n a pimple gel. After using them for 3 days, my breakout subsided, really 一分钱一分货. After using it for a week plus, e breakout is gone but i still get 1 or 2 big pimples n some small ones here n there, probably due to diet n lack of sleep. I hope my face will get better as I use them longer, hehehe.
Hai, dun know wat to do wif e BB cream cos I still left quite a lot, abt 3/4 of it. I’m willing to sell it at half price if anyone is interested so leave me a msg in my tagboard if u r, =)
My Japan Family Trip 2008 Day 3 (Nara Park & Osaka) 12/05/2008
It was time for us to explore more of Osaka but first we need to fill our stomach.
Ok, they didn't looked like breakfast but they were food tat i would like to eat for lunch, hahaha. Then when we saw this n it became our breakfast tat morning.
I was too hungry to take pictures of e actual breakfast served to us but e pic above looked close to wat we had, hehehe. Our 1st destination was to Nara Park to see deers roaming freely in e park. While walking to e train station, we saw this.
Ok, it's nothing special cos these red bean pancakes r selling in Singapore but they jus looked especially delicious over there, hahaha. After abt 20 mins of train ride, we reached Nara.
When we walked out of e train station, we saw a monk standing wif a bowl in his hand hoping passer-bys would give him some $$ for charity. Then we saw a police car stopped next to a white car n e police officer came down to stick a bright yellow ticket on e front window. After e police left, we went up to haf a look n although we didn't understand wat was written on e ticket, i bet it was a fine ticket for illegal parking. Their parking fine ticket is definitely brighter n bigger than ours, hahaha.
When we were finding our way to Nara Park, we saw a group of students coming towards us n i guessed they could haf came from Nara Park so we walked to where they were coming from n after 10 mins, we saw....
DEERS roaming ard freely next to e roads. I wonder y they won't run to e roads. This is my favourite pic of me wif e deer.
I didn't dare to touch it cos it was smelly when i went close to it n luckily it was cold so e smell was bearable. I bet they were real smelly during e summer, hahaha. We went inside e park n saw a temple wif a pagoda. Probably e monk tat we saw earlier was from this temple.
We saw quite a number of people feeding e deers wif biscuits tat were selling at e drinks push-carts nearby so we decided to join in e fun, hahaha.
E deers were really hungry, or should i say greedy. They would come real close to u to get e biscuits n my cousin was kanna bitten at his tummy by one of deers cos he didn't gave them e biscuits fast enough, hahaha. This was captured in e video so look carefully, it's funny, LOL. After we fed them, c wat they did.
They poo poo....eeeee....smelly!!! After seeing them poo poo, we decided it was time to leave n here are some memorable scenes from Nara Park.
It was time for lunch when we left e park n we decided to haf lunch at Nara b4 going to our next destination. We walked back to e train station n near it was a alley of shops n restaurants so we went in n found this chinese restaurant.
The food tasted like back home even better than some of e chinese restaurants in Singapore, i say comparable to Crystal Jade. I ordered my all-time favourite sweet n sour pork, hahaha.
After e sumptuous lunch, we proceeded to our next destination, Universal Studio.
When we were waiting for e train to arrive, we saw this
Of cos, we bought some to eat as dessert, hahaha. When e train arrives, we noticed.
I tink Singapore MRT may need this eventually to protect us women although i dun really take MRT, hehehe. At e moment we got in e train, my bro started to EAT again, hahaha.
After 45 mins of train ride, we reached e Universal City Station to e Universal Studio.
When we walked out of e station, we saw many colourful big signboards on e buildings.
After walking straight for 5 minutes, we saw our destination. I shall let e pictures do e talking now, hehehe.
This was a new performance there but we didn't catch it cos we preferred going for e rides, hehehe. We managed to conquer all e exciting rides like Jurassic Park, Back to e Future n Spiderman. E most exciting n enjoyable ride was Spiderman. Overall, it was quite ok but i enjoyed more at e Universal Studio in US probably it was bigger wif more rides, hahaha. B4 we left, we borrowed this cute Elmo hat to take pictures for remembrance cos e hat was too costly to buy back, hehehe. E route back to e station looked really nice wif all e lights on. We didn't have our dinner when we left so we decided to go to Shinsaibashi, one of e nightspot in Osaka, to haf dinner. It took us abt 1 hr train ride to get to Shinsaibashi. We walked through e streets n found nothing suitable for dinner so we went back to where we started from finally found this place to haf dinner. E restaurant deco was pretty unique n e food were not too bad. It was pretty late after dinner so nothing much to c liao but we still get to c sth happening b4 we return to our hotel. I saw a place where youngsters can perform n there was even a couple performing in public, although there were not alot of audiences around.
~ End of Day 3 ~
To be continued.....
2. family camp out weekend and it is supposed to rain. It is August mr. Weather! This is the month most of us washintonians depend on some sunshine before autumn hits and we get sad and miss the sun. You have messed us all up so much! We went from a very cold spring to a week or so of summer and autumn is already here? sigh.....at least it smells nice after the rain
3. sometimes I feel like I bite my tongue so much I swear I can taste blood
4. yesterday's clouds were the type of clouds that make shapes, I was disapointed I could not see the sky clearly because of all the power poles and telephone lines. I would rally against that stuff but I like power and telephone. So I will not see the shapes of clouds while on my walk.
5. my favorite sounds from yesterdays walk:
*50 tiny birds being scared out of a hedge and flying all at once to a power line above.
*the gravel of alleys crunching under my feet
*children laughing
*the wind blowing around my ears
*the train whistle bvlowing all through town
*my breath as I took in deep long breaths while I walked
*the shutter on Ruby
*the sound of the leaves rustling when the wind passes through the branches
6. I need to order essential oils to make soap for the holiday season again. Maybe next payday. (procrastination again)
7. Mr. Lavender may be getting another bonus at work, and he said I could get a new lens! ;-) Hello Macro telephoto! I want you here witn Ruby and I!
8. these may seem like total random and seperate thoughts, but in my head these all occor simultaniously. My head is crazy busy all the time. This is one of the hurdles I know I will have with Yoga and the relaxation part of it. I have been told I have monkey mind. (Haha, monkey....)
9. to do today
a) 15 minutes in kitchen
b) 15 minutes in bedroom
c) 15 minutes with laundry
d) take a walk
e) get dressed
f) find a local bulk stationary store to buy blank not cards and envelopes to mount my photos on for cards, maybe I can sell these at the yoga studio
g) make dinner
1. The cupcake bakery
2. my fave pizza joint
3. an antique mall
4. a dive bar
three I will have to work to not spend too much money at and one I will have to walk by with yoga pants on and I hope the leering will be a minimal thing.
My walk yesterday was no less interesting. I walked by Joan's house, snapped a few more shots of those amazing zinnia of hers and handed her a thank you card for the flowers she cut for me. Her daughter was there so she did not speak to me too long, that is okay I was out for a long time and wanted to go home. But that was not the plan, an old co-worker of mine, Pam, was driving by on her way back to work. She stopped and picked me up and was driving me home when she said I needed to see Catherine (another gal I worked with). She has something she needs to tell me. So I told her, just bring me to work with you. She did, I saw Catherine, her head was in one of those scarves, covering a newly shaved head. She has breast cancer. My heart sank in my chest. She is seriously one of the most passionate people I have ever met, she can describe a food dish with so much joy, I swear, Bon Appetite magazine is her pornography. Haha! She showed me her two scars, they hopefully got it all out (lumpectomy) She has just started her chemo treatment and is still strong as an ox. I hope that continues. She is thinking nothing but positive thoughts and I believe she is strong enough to beat this like so many of my brave neighbors here, you know who you are people.
I have been a slack ass about my home cleaning. I swear I can drag my feet better than anyone ever! I get up to do it, and my body gets so heavy and tired. I could lay down and nap after unloading the dishwasher!
When I was a kid, I lived in a house that should have been condemned. CPS should have swooped in and taken us out of there. Mother would tell me "clean the house" and that was my daily chore. But I had been raised with no tools to do this. She never kept the house clean, she never showed me a routine, she never showed me how to do a little at a time, she never showed me, just expected me to do it. When it was not done, each day she would yell and then spank me. I don't think she did this every day, but often enough that it seemed that way. I would look at the house, dirty dishes in the couch cushions, endless clutter, dust, papers, fleas, crust, broken, junk, mold, stinky stuff. I would see it all, lay down and actually sleep. Overwhelmed has always been my monster in the closet, my monkey on my back, my shadow through life. It is really really hard to shake it.
All that said, here is my to do list for the day
3. 15 minutes in the living room-vacuum-tables
5. 15 minutes in the bedroom- sewing machine area
only an hour and a half
My father in law plays piano beautifully and he was playing just after the ceremony while we were waiting for the bride and groom to come back for photos.
The rest are of the bride and groom, except for the last one. I have to say that is one of my faves. That is Grandpa dancing with the bride. Telling her something, we will never know.
So My things on Tuesday.
Icky Stuff
1. no motivation to do anything, there is not enough coffee in the world
2. my sinuses feeling like my cat has stuffed it full of her floof while I was asleep
3. gained back the weight I had lost
4. need to go for a walk.....NOW, but it is cold outside and the computer chair is so toasty
5. husbands family is camping this weekend and we are not. We cannot stand three days of camping with meathead (SIL's "boyfriend" who is closer to nieces age than her own, they both have a thing for him and that is gross). I would kill someone.
Great stuff
1. done with editing the wedding photos finally
2. the yoga studio close to my home is opening next weekend with free classes on saturday and sunday!
3. the warm coziness of my sweatshirt and sweatpants
4. coupon for free panties from Victoria's secret, who does not need panties? wait, don't answer that, I may not want to know the answer.
5. the sun is out right now, YAY! No Rain!
6. new tea from republic of tea called Pomegranite vanilla red tea, it is really yummy
7. tonight I am making a fresh veggie chowder for dinner
8. I am wearing a pair of sweat pants that are too long for me (my legs are rather long, 36"inseam, and it is a very rare thing to find pants long enough, let alone sweat pants!) sure they are ugly as sin with button and zipper waist, and pockets in the back, like they are a regular pair of pants. But they were $14 and go way beyond my ankle
9. I do not have a job and that is okay
10. listened to Michelle Obama speak last night on TV, I want the America she sees, but I find myself a bit cynical in believeing it could actually happen.
My Dad and my step mom are making the divorce final in a few weeks. I wanted to throw a happy divorce party but my dad said NO. I wanted to have the whole family come together and celebrate what was good about the union, leave all the negative stuff at my front door and only share good stuff. But Dad said no. ;-( I would have thrown the best divorce party ever! Banners balloons and all. I know my step mom would be game. My siblings would be too, as well as step grandma, Granny would not, she is a bitter little thing, but the rest of us would have loved it!