samplestore.sg

it used to be called fr3b, now renamed to samplestore. i've been patronizing them for quite some time now, and i'm here to do another review! :)

a brief introduction - signing up with samplestore lets you choose samples you wish to try out, and after paying the postage (and admin) fee, they'll mail it straight to your home. over the years it's not only allowed me to try out samples before purchasing the actual one (although i usually won't :p), it has also greatly helped to lighten the weight of my luggage while traveling.

and i've found out recently that they do give out retail-sized products too! you'd have to be quick though; they run out fast.

the first retail-sized product i got was this. looking like your normal compact powder...

...with sponge and mirror...

...but with balm instead!

it's supposedly a concealer plus foundation plus moisturizer, with additional stuff like 30spf, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, whitening, and detoxifying etc. retailing at $29.90, i got it together with 2 other samples for just $2.99! :D it unfortunately turned my face into a major greaseball. but i like how my makeup stays more intact at the end of the day and after blotting.

next item i got was this.

flower patterns are so pretty! and it comes with the kind of 'brush' that i've never used before.

haven't tried using it yet, but i've read reviews that it smudges pretty easily, which is bad for me since i have oily lids. oh wells, since i have it, might as well go ahead and try right? lol. anyway, it retails at $21.90 and i got it with 3 other samples for $2.99! :D

not only does samplestore offer makeup and skincare products, they also carry snacks and beverage samples! sign up now! =D

2352

thou shalt not lie

i'm sure everyone's read about the malaysian eatery that sued a blogger (and google!) for posting a bad review about their restaurant. link's here if you haven't. likewise, i've also been 'guilty' of such, and i feel for him. i think it's absolutely stupid of them.

as a customer, i would probably still visit the restaurant even after reading the bad review, because reviews are entirely personal and everyone has different preferences. but by suing someone simply for not liking their food, i think it provides an excellent opportunity for people (especially me) to mock at their unprofessionalism. so what if they won the case? what would this achieve? i bet they'll lose even more customers this way.

everyone knows advertorials have to say only the good things while reviews are the brutal truth, albeit personal. as they say, 真金不怕火烈. since they know there are still people out there who like their food, they could probably still have kept their reputation if they had let this whole saga die out by itself.

i don't know why, but it kind of irritates me to see 小气 companies using legal means to stop people from speaking the truth. haven't they heard of "customers are always right?" lol.

anyway, just to be fair, i shall blog something a little better about nova/rozel. they came to fix up my wardrobe yesterday. although it still baffles me why they need to take so long to find 2 thin slices of wood, i must admit the final result was kind of satisfactory. they also brought the new door and fixed the alignments. hmmm. but i still won't buy from either one of them ever again.

packed everything in last night and my room's finally done! i like the extra space. :D

2331

overpopulated singapore?

maybe not the entire island, but at least, the public transport is. especially during peak hours.

yes, many countries face this.
yes, many commuters face this. everyday.
yes, there's nothing i can do.
yes, ranting doesn't make a difference.
but yes, i still want to rant.

i hate trains (aka mrt). even though they're faster and much less prone to traffic jams than buses. i hate that it's always either freezing cold or super stuffy. i hate the 'beep beep beep beep...door closing' thingy that never fails to make me kanjiong. i hate the lack of holding poles, and how people like to lean on them when there's people around trying to keep their balance. i hate how the glass partitions are so wobbly that i feel like they're gonna shatter when i lean on them. i hate the lack of human touch, especially on lines that don't have human 'drivers'. train experiences are so ughh!!

usually i won't bother writing about it if it's a one-off thing. but since the train is now my only option getting out of the sembawang area, i foresee loads of pissed moments during peak hours where i'll go "quit pushing/shoving/touching me, $*#%_@*!!" :( i'm missing 161 already. boo.

... ...

anyway, if you're free and bored now like me, grab a piece of paper and try out this test!

question 1
put these animals in order, starting with the one you deem most important.
Pig, Horse, Cow, Tiger, Sheep

question 2
think of one word to describe the following:
Dog, Cat, Rat, Coffee, Sea

question 3
think of a person whom you can associate with the following colors:
Yellow, Orange, Red, White, Green

done? want the answers? :D

2011: 鱼生 no.1

kinda early for this, but i just had my first 鱼生 this CNY season!

was at ikea for dinner and to pick up my 2 shelves. hauled them back home and fixed them up immediately. see how pretty?!

haha, ok not very pretty like this. it's cheapo ikea stuff but fits so nicely into the overall purple and white theme in my room! wait till you see everything as a whole. mad pretty. mad happy! :D

oh by the way, my wardrobe's NOT fixed yet. 3 more days to moving, and i still can't decide if by then it's still not fixed, should i even unpack stuff into the wardrobe? don't think i've been this angry before. even my parents can't seem to get over the scolding fit i had on monday. and no i don't feel appeased AT ALL. no effort has been put in so far in rectifying the defects. it's always "check and call you back", and with no intention to call at all.

but it's gonna be nice to see what exactly am i capable of when they cross my limit. prelude: "捞啊! 希望 rozel 快点倒闭!" and i'm so gonna chant it at every 鱼生 i go to.

evil? yes me.

2359

guess what's this?!

super cute! :D

.

.

.

.

.

the wall decals cher got me a long time ago!

kawaii! pasted 2 at the side on this small plain shelf and it immediately looked more interesting. have quite a few more and i can't wait to put them all up on the walls! just waiting a couple more months for the new paint to set in.

also put up my pretty accessories holder that flew in from hongkong. bargained a long time for this and i sure hope the same model can't be found here in singapore. lols.

the room seems to be coming together better than i had expected. happy! but the only problem would be the lack of storage space.

furthermore, first, the shelves i want from ikea are only coming in next week. second, the wardrobe we ordered from ROZEL FURNITURE sucks to the max!! not only is the wardrobe super flimsy (even more so than the one in the showroom), the workmanship is super bad! both the glass door and the wood backing have big ugly bubbles in them. the drawer and the door can't be shut properly too. the maddening thing is, it's around the same price as those from ikea, and i 100% confirm ikea's would be of a better quality. zzZz.

only thing i like about it, are the glass doors with faded flower motifs. it covers the almost the whole door but yet faint and subtle enough so that it doesn't draw too much attention. and yes, it's purple. =) anyway, we requested them to replace the whole cupboard which i'm hoping will arrive before CNY, although i don't think they will. which means while i can pack here, i can't unpack there. boo.

SHITTY ROZEL FURNITURE!! (they can sue me but wtf it's the truth. i'm so pissed everytime i see the bubbles; i don't quite mind blowing this up. don't even get me started on their $&@^$% after-sales service attitude.)

... ...

our late lunch.

went ikea again this afternoon and spent a few hundred more. on a side note, i still prefer ikea. designs aren't the best, but quality is commendable. (cheapo ikea sofa can tahan bro's weight for so long while expensive ones can't.) staff's attitude isn't the best either, but i'm happy enough to get around without their help. i can also bring home stuff i want immediately, and playing carpenter is fun! lols.

sighhh. i wonder if we can really make it before CNY.

2324

生日快乐

it's 亲爱的's birthday today! as we also had our chairman meeting, we were unable to really plan a big birthday surprise. so we all went out for a simple dinner.

PL suggested junction 8 and 亲爱的 wanted ajisen, so ajisen it is! me and LP got the seafood ramen...

...while PL and 亲爱的 took spicy chashu ramen.

our sides: (clockwise) baby octopus, fried white fish, cuttlefish, and the seafood thingy.

walked around after that while waiting for dinner to digest, and camwhored! :P

then headed to swensons for dessert. according to PL, they'll give you a free bowl of ice cream if you prove you're having your birthday on that day! ^_^

the free ice cream, with 1 scoop of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry each, 3 cherries and a raspberry!

we ordered fried mushrooms and fries cos too paiseh to eat free. =P

then made our way home. mad tired! at first i was rather reluctant to join as i really wanted to head home and curl up in bed. but i'm glad i went. these people are so hilarious, i had lots of fun and laughter. i think it's always nice to hang out together even though we see one another at work everyday. the atmosphere plays a huge part in our emotions.

p.s. we also gave 亲爱的 a small bouquet of lilies! pretty right?! i think it kinda suits her.

on the other hand, office bought this ugly-looking new year light-up 'tree', which costs $300+. even more than my hair, and one year bring out once nia. madness!

lalala. one last day tomorrow before my leave on friday. lots of packing to do! argh.

0019

only tuesday T_T

090111 - sunday

went back to PS where i first did my bangs many years ago (never noticed the name but it's the one a few shops away from the food court). the guy who did my hair back then was apparently no longer there, and my 'stylist' was this golden-haired silent ah beng type who already seemed inexperienced when i made the appointment a few days before that. on that day, i was dismayed to learn that he would be the one doing our hair (SSD cut and dyed his hair too), but there seemed to be no one else and i didn't exactly want to hurt his feelings (scarli he damn professional one).

tried to explain the kind of bangs i wanted, but by the time i realized something was wrong and that he totally didn't understand me, it was already too late. my japanese-style bangs-with-side-parting became toot side-swept-bangs. -_-''' kolics did mention it looked not too bad, but the point is, it WASN'T what i wanted. boo.

throughout the 5 hours i was there, he was struggling with doing my hair, doing SSD's, and watching tv. i was glaring at him but i guess the tv programme was more important than a pissed customer. end result was disappointing. besides my V-shaped hair becoming U-shaped, some parts of my hair looked like it was never rebonded. which is stupid, as he only had to concentrate on the top half (lower half already rebonded). sure it looks more natural, but wtf i PAID for straight hair. zzZz. and he chopped off a lot more of my hair than i told him to.

usually i'll hope that it will grow better and better, but in this case i'll just hope it doesn't get any worse (which looks like it's happening). hais. SSD likes him though. he said he likes the 林峰 hairstyle he did for him. tsk tsk. i shall just assume i lost this $200. step in there at your own risk!! :(

100111 - monday

finally finished watching 蒲松龄, an ancient time drama about this fox deity getting involved in a 四角恋 with 3 mortals. (dramas that i actually take time to follow and blog about are good! trust me! :P) it's somewhat connected to the very famous chinese ghost story - 聊斋, so expect lots of supernatural stuff in this too. the ending was unexpectedly ironic.

**spoiler alert**

蒲松龄 was killed by his good friend 高喆, who in turn killed himself. 小翠 gave up her pill of life (or something like that) to save 松龄, and she turned back into a fox (they obviously used a spitz). 心如 was also killed by 高喆, and she gave up her chance to reincarnate to be with 松龄 as a ghost wife.

some parts can be freaky, especially when you watch at night with all the lights off. lols. next drama i'm starting: 诱情转驳. it involves pole-dancing - something i've always wanted to learn but no guts to do so. lols.

... ...

while shopping for presents for 亲爱的, i came across this small wallet-bag in greyish purple that i fell in love with. well, i tend to look for 一见钟情 stuff when i shop, so obviously i just HAD to buy it.

ain't it pretty?! lols. got a smaller one for her, and also a set of peach body mist and lotion. which smelt so so yummy that i'm regretting not buying it for myself as well. they took it off the shelves after i bought them, so it's become limited edition already. boo.

110111 - tuesday

movie session with zhu! kinako is apparently based on a true story in japan of this female dog trainer and her dog, which doesn't give up despite failing the police dog test many times. while the plot is simple and straightforward, it's the yellow lab that made it worthwhile. super cute! XD

lalala. why is it only tuesday? :(

2359

purple is passé...

...or not! :D

spent the whole day at new house fixing things up and waiting for some furniture to arrive, though majority of my time was spent playing sango td and stoning around. kinda waste of time if not for the fact that i wanted to see my light. mad chio!!

when it's not lit up.

with blue LED lights.

with blue and orange lights.

with white lights.

and it even comes with a remote control to change the lights! *haolian* hmmm. i think  it gives the whole room a nice royal princessy feel. so happy!

a couple more stuff....

no idea why the table turned out like that. guess i should have waited for natural light to take the photo. lols. can't wait till everything comes in! the only exciting thing about all this, is playing interior designer! =D

2052

A Memorable Job Interview

saw this prompt on plinky and it deemed relevant at the moment.

... ...

many years ago, i applied for this assistant job at a law firm in bugis. on the day of the interview, i alighted at the wrong floor. lols. there was no one else in the lift and i have no idea how i could have pressed the button wrongly. should have taken it as a sign for me to leave, but i went ahead with the interview then.

was brought into the meeting room, and after the usual question-and-answer crap, i was asked to do this proof-reading test on microsoft word. it was the first time i encountered something like that, and i think i was pretty anxious to get the job. i remembered being super freaked out! pretty glad when it was over. lols.

on a side note, i'm obviously not working there anymore. i not only had to endure boring mundane proof-reading of legal documents and OT-till-8pm everyday, it was also freaking scary. cos usually when majority of the people leave after work, the lights would be turned off. so during my OT, the only lights on would be the one above my cubicle and the room lights of one or two managers left. didn't help that the building was actually rumored to be 'dirty'. half a month into the job, i took 2 days MC, and got nagged at by the HR. so being young and rebellious, i quit the next day. :)

... ...

another memorable one would be at NTU. i wonder if it can be considered my best job interview ever. COS THERE'S NO INTERVIEW!! XD

i remember my first day of work was also the first day of school, and i lost my way but too paiseh to ask for directions. lucky i went early. lols. apart from the shitty pay, it's probably my favorite job so far: personal room + laptop + printer, super slack work, short working hours, and being part of the 'provost team' gives me a '一人之下, 万人之上' position, even though i'm a mere temporary staff. shiok! watched and re-watched a whole lot of movies/dramas in the 6 months i was there. =P

... ...

that's about it. pretty boring i must say. more photos of new house up tomorrow! =)

0029

born to the purple

dad: before move in must roll a pineapple around the house first.
me: but i don't like to eat pineapple. can roll honeydew?
dad: -_-'''

lols. if you didn't know, pineapple in hokkien ("ong lye") sounds like 旺来. so rolling the pineapple means rolling luck into the home. hmmmm. but i still don't like to eat pineapple! =P

he came to pick me up (or rather, pick the tv up. more on that later), and we headed first to changi then back to the new house. i got to see my chio purple room!! *happy*

the light and dark purple color combination was even nicer than i had expected, but the floor and ceiling was disappointingly way too white. it made the room brighter than i would have liked it to be. let's just hope the white will be filled up once the furniture moves in.

PURPLE IS CHIO!!! :D

... ...

decided to give up obtaining the photos from office camera, and since i have no mood to work, i shall start on the office party before i begin forgetting stuff. so, our annual party was postponed to the last day of the year instead of christmas eve, and i decided to join the organizing team again this year. events organizing is super fun!

early lunch since the engineers had to rush back to site. food was prepared by Hel's maid. A bit cheapo but surprisingly they tasted quite nice. especially the sweet and sour fish slices.

and then we started on our games. this year, PL went to a lot of christmas parties and she came back with lots of fun ideas. super hilarious!

1. pass the message (1)

the original message was "william farquhar was raffles' good friend. you know the market is bullish." it was just some random sentence we picked up from the newspapers. one group unfortunately got it right, but the other didn't! they got "william fark is raffles' good friend. and he is a buddhist." i'm by no means making fun of religion, but this is funny!! XD

2. pass the nuts

a simple game of passing an object through the clothes of each team member, and we added a string behind. initially i thought they would take some time for this, but they were surprisingly quick; the guys simply laid down and threw the nut through their pants. play cheat!

3. celebrity hunt

we hid photos and names of celebrities and they had to find and match them. hid them in the most un-findable places (like between the calendar pages and under the rubber door stopper) but they still managed to find them. one group even dismantled the table. boo!

4. pictureka!

standard game of pictureka. a chance for them and us to take a breather.

5. drink up

another simple game to guess who drank the sour lemon juice. some fake sour faces are funny!

6. shake the balls

we put paper balls into empty shoe boxes with 2 holes on each side, box strapped to each member, and they had to shake out as many balls as possible. RT people never follow rules, and the game went haywire. zzZz.

7. pass the message (2)

this is the funniest. they had to act out professions and it was super super funny when it came to toilet cleaner, hooker, stripteaser, poledancer, and stuff like that. it was actually easier but 亲爱的 was too shy and therefore the other group won. lols.

so that's the end of the games! doesn't seem very fun and funny reading it, but i super liked this year's games. had a great time laughing at other people! :D and now for the much-awaited lucky draw. i think eeyore brings me luck. while preparing the stuff, i immediately picked out eeyore and said "this one will be first prize." when it came to the actual draw, i happened to pick eeyore again. lols.

while they were giving out the prizes from bottom up, i kept hoping they don't call eeyore till at least the top 3, and guess what? i got into top 3! ^_^ 2 rounds of 终极密码 was played, and laoniang got first prize. MWAHAHAHAHA! totally stunned lor.

perfect gift for the new house. :D

2310

2010: over and done with

happy new year! :D 2010 hasn't been exactly good for me at work, so i sure am glad it's come to an end. nevertheless, i guess there are some things worth mentioning and remembering from last year.

like...first time spending the night outside (after watching countdown fireworks), first time meeting a boyfriend's family, first time going to hong kong, first time going on a trip with a boyfriend, first time watching so many movies in a year, SSD and i spent our first christmas together... and we just watched countdown fireworks for the secondth year last night. lots of firsts! ^_^

before anything else, let's do the resolutions first. here's last year's:

1. lose weight (into 3rd year now) - a little, i guess...
2. put in more effort in work, regardless of whether i’ll be doing projects or sales - i give up!
3. balance time for family and SSD (cos family is complaining. lol.) - done too! i guess...

what about this year's?

1. lose even more weight (for the 4th year!)
2. get out of comfort zone and find a job which i enjoy don't mind doing
3. stop procrastinating on that diving course (and many other courses for that matter)
4. make SSD bring me on a further-than-genting trip
5. be a vegetarian as much as possible

...and a few more minor stuff i need to work on. hmmmm.

anyway, as mentioned above, SSD and i went to watch countdown fireworks again this last year! (hilarious office party in another post cos i haven't gotten the photos yet.)

our early dinner at seoul yummy, central clarke quay. set for 2 includes complimentary appetizers: peanuts, kimchi, cucumber, potato salad, tofu, and anchovies.

seafood tofu soup. it looks super spicy but tastes otherwise. there’s also LOTS of tofu inside. yums!

then the salmon teriyaki hotplate. i don't really like my salad hot, but the sauce is nice.

veggie and chicken 拌饭. normal but nice.

food was rather nice and fulling, but a little expensive imho. $40! i kinda wished we had walked into manhatten's that day. lols.

strolled directly to the marina area after that, since i was afraid we won't be able to find good seats. we reached one fullerton around 8pm, and guess what? 'front rows' all taken up! boo! :( luckily we managed to find a nice area behind this trio (who looked kinda short), and proceed to nua till midnight.

since we were basically at the water edge, the fireworks exploded pretty much in our faces. super near! but unfortunately, froggie isn't much better at taking fireworks than satio baby. only salvaged a few (from over a hundred):

[slideshow]

SSD took a video of the whole display instead. glad to say, the 8-minute video isn't quite as disappointing. i especially liked the finale: huge consecutive bursts of one of my favorite 'designs' of fireworks. LOVELY! :)

after it all ended, we slowly made our way back to clarke quay (for mocha frapp). even though the trains extended their operation hours, we opted to take the night rider back. not a very good choice i guess. stood around for an hour plus as the bus frequency was super low and it was always fully packed when it reached us. by the time we managed to hop on one and reached home, it was almost 5am already. but i guess it's better than the year before, where we nua-ed and froze outside till the first train.

how did YOU spend your last 2010 day? =P

0106