[sponsored review] Trimton 2

So two weeks ago, I was sponsored a one-month supply of Trimton 2 (速效瘦) slimming pills. Trimton is apparently hit in Singapore and Hong Kong for over 8 years. It claims to use totally natural ingredients with different international certification and helps to reduce weight by taking a treatment without diet and exercise. But of cos, slimming pills have quite a bad reputation so before I took on this sponsorship, I had checked out the internet, and found mixed reviews. Some said they lost a fair bit of weight, while some had no difference. However, I didn't see any with negative side effects, which gave me the confidence to try it out. 

Trimton 2 is supposedly a newer edition which is based on a new developed medical technology: Microencapsulation. It focuses on cutting oil and losing weight in a natural way.

Reduces oil:
．Breakthrough E.Microen (肠溶性微粒) Technology stimulate the effect brought by the natural ingredients;
．Oil-blocking effect in intestine;
．Effectively blocks out and dissolves oil from food intake up to 80%.

Targets fatty areas:
．Increases body heat at fatty area and burns fat;
．HCA and Chlorogenic Acid help body to prevent fat storing;
．Effectively reduces body fat percentage.

The main ingredients HCA & Chlorogenic Acid can help to reduce the fat up to 52%; Green tea polyphenols and organic acids can help to block oil intake up to 30% and help to slim up the whole body and lose weight. And it's safe to use with no side effects. Sounds cool right?!

My take on it: 
The recommended treatment is to take Trimton 2 for 3 months (2 capsules daily), but I only had half a month to try it out before reviewing. So obviously there wouldn't be any significant weight loss. 

But what I do realize is:

• I feel fuller with lesser amount of food
• Bowels are nice and smooth (excuse me for saying this; but I actually poop more =X)
• Tummy is slightly flatter as compared to before

Of course I would have liked to see more obvious results, but having only taken it for 2 weeks (some many times I forget to take it in the mornings too), I suppose it's quite good already. Probably I'll be able to see my weight numbers go down if I complete the 3 months. (More sponsor perhaps? LOL!)

Overall I'm really glad to be able to try this out. At this time too! Hello good food in Hong Kong! ^^

Our first doggie gathering!

Lots of firsts recently! :)

So last Sunday, we attended a bbq cum our first doggie gathering. A papillon gathering to be exact. I was quite excited initially, to get a chance to see so many papillons gathered together. But after Popo's behavior at the groomer's the week before, I was starting to worry if she would be too stressed out. 

Thankfully all went rather well! 

When I put her down, she went around sniffing the butts of other paps. She seemed okay with other paps smelling hers too lol. Outside, we let all the paps loose and she started following me around. I think everyone knows her as the one who follows the owner lmao!

It was my first time attending such gatherings and I didn't know anyone, so my evening was spent at a side watching Popo and waiting for poor SSD to cook food for me. We actually weren't full too. Ke lian us.

Bought some pupcakes and a medium cake for the dogs. From The Barkery as recommended by a fellow pap owner. Here's the pretty cake. Didn't get to snap the pupcakes since they were gone unknowingly. 

The greedy pig had huge bites out of all the 3 pupcakes plus a few slices of the cake. Which ended up in a very bloated and uncomfortable night for her. Tell you all something funny. The next morning, I was feeling her tummy, and she let out a loud fart. And she jumped at the sound of her own fart hahahaha! Okay I'm bad. 

Anyway, that sums up our first doggie gathering. More to come hopefully! :)

Valentine's Day 2014

Valentine's this year was a simple affair, as with most of the other festivals. It was a busy, working day full of rushing tenders, a business lunch, and a site showround. Spent more than half a day outside. Phew. 

And as always, SSD sent me a bouquet of roses! To the office again. After I told him this year wasn't necessary. <3 

Pretty! But very heartpain cos it always ends up in the dustbin after some time. :(

Anyway, was able to get off work 'early', and we headed off to buffet dinner at Clover. It's located pretty deep, next to Seletar Airport. Had to walk a lonely stretch of road from the bus stop. Not for the weakhearted to walk alone at night. Lol. 

I thought it would be empty, so I was quite surprised when a family came without reservations and was told the restaurant was fully booked. And guess what, they only had 2 staff serving our section (not sure if they were in charge of other sections as well) of about 10 tables, so service was extremely slow. They tried to be nice and polite about it though. 

Food was average I would say. Not enough to make me go through all the effort definitely. 

Hits were the hotpot (we ordered beef and fish slices), the grilled mushrooms, grilled salmon, salmon aburi sushi...the end. Lol. I think we ordered some which didn't appear, whereas some would have been hits if they didn't come too late.

It was extremely disappointing that the salmon sashimi was a big big miss. It looks NOTHING like what was shown on the Facebook page. Quite obvious that it was frozen for quite some time and wasn't fresh anymore. (Don't doubt me, I deal with meat everyday lol.) Tasted weird too. In the end we shabu-ed it. -.- SSD ordered steak too, which was also disappointingly tough.

Price-wise, it was considered 'worth it', as it costs $39.90 nett per pax and the ala-carte prices were pretty expensive. The hotpot is $45, and steak is $18. Though I seriously doubt anyone would order ala-carte. 

The environment was okay; we managed to get a window seat, but as it was night, we couldn't see any planes taking off at all. There is also an open area at level 3 for a better view of the runway. :)

My fault this time, since I was the one who found this place. Where are all the nice and cheap Japanese buffets?!

Happy 1st Anniversary! =)

Today marks the 365th day since I brought Popo home. I used to joke how she's my valentine baby, since it's a day after v-day. And indeed, she has brought me a year of love, fun, and laughter. <3<3<3

If you don't already know, she's a one-person dog and I feel so so fortunate to be that one person! *haolian* It's an amazing and special feeling to have your dog so bonded to you; I've never experienced it with Bobby. I really hope it will remain this way LOL. *selfish*

Probably that's why I also feel so attached and protective of her. She's like my daughter. Her physical health, her mental wellbeing, her emotions......I just want to give her the best (that I can afford). It feels like my heart is just bursting with love everytime I think about her. (Shit is that what they call, maternal love?)

I guess I'm exaggerating. But doesn't anyone feel like this too? I can't be the only weird one?! Oh wells. 

Anyway. Some milestones in our first year together!

• Switched her from kibbles to 95% raw (5% goes to the blanched salmon and hard-boiled egg)
• Started her on supplements
• From totally untrained to basic trained
• Her being the cutest ringbearer ever in our ROM
• Swimming for the first time
• Her first official outing to Marina Barrage + first attempt at socializing
• Our first visit to a dog cafe

Our goals in the next year.

• Upgrade her meat quality (Please rain money!)
• To participate in a doggie gathering
• To let her try out agility
• Most importantly, to socialize her! 

I bought her a box of valentine cookies from Pawlicious last week. The happy girl with her present. The cookies are supposedly made with purpleberry, blueberry and cranberry. I tried it myself (Popo can't finish all herself) and they were not bad. Though I don't really like having flour in her diet, so I guess first and last time.

Happy anniversary baby! And many more years to come! <3
(SSD don't jealous okay? It's a different kind of love lol.)

Sun Ray Cafe

So yesterday, we brought Popo for her usual swimming grooming (and teeth scaling) session, and I saw a side of her which is kinda worrying. As usual, she's overwhelmed by the sniffing dogs there but usually she's okay when she sits on my lap. But this time, she was pretty vocal - growling when the others sniffed too much. And she snapped at a border collie. Hai.

She just up-ed the difficulty level of socializing her. T_T

Then we dropped by Sun Ray Cafe. Thankfully it wasn't very crowded, cos I don't quite think Popo can handle another bunch of dogs. There was only one other dog, which left shortly after we arrived. For some reason I get very pleased when people tell me they haven't heard of a papillon before.

The tired girl.

Had read many positive reviews about the food and service and I was quite excited. Also because we were starving (first meal of the day at 4.30pm).

My hot mocha ($5) and SSD's double choc ($7). Mine was nice, although not as hot as I would like it to be. The choc was super rich and sinful. But yummy!

My dory fish and chips ($16). Loved every bit of it - from the 2 huge pieces of beer-battered fish to the truffle fries. I would go back for this.

SSD's spring chicken ($20). A little expensive for the portion, but it looked and smelt good. I don't take chicken so no idea how it tasted. The asparagus was nice. Lol.

 

Menu for dogs was super duper limited. And I thought they were meatballs; quite disappointed to hear it was just boiled pieces of meat. Even more disappointed when her lamb ($6) arrived. It was minced, and the portion was pathetic. P/s. Lamb was a wrong choice as there was the yucky mutton-y smell since it was cooked. I'm even more firm on raw feeding now. Tsk.

So that sums up our first visit to a dog cafe. I'm not sure if I should visit more. Not sure if Popo can handle the amount of dogs. Any not so popular ones? 

Our first raw chicken feet

This deserves a blog post because I think it's a big deal. Popo had her first raw chicken feet today LOL. I know I know, I've blogged a lot on her raw feeding. But chicken feet! They're so creepy and freak me out. Totally. I used to be unable to even look at them, much less handle them.

However, chicken feet are a good (and natural) source of glucosamine. Popo's almost 5 years old already, and she jumps a lot on hard floorings. I'm pretty reluctant to feed her store-bought glucosamine supplements, since she doesn't have a problem with her joints at the moment. So chicken feet are like the perfect addition to her diet - an occasional cheap and natural dose of glucosamine.

So yes, I touched a chicken foot for the first time today. And gave Popo her first one too. *proud of self*

Some 'tips' I got online:

1. Don’t look closely at the feet. (Shit!)
2. Don’t listen to the sounds of scratching nails as you dump the package into the bowl. (Nope, snipped them off!)
3. Don’t watch your pup eat the feet because inevitably your dog will look up at you with a foot hanging out of it’s mouth. (Oops! Yes she did. Now I'm traumatized.)
4. No, you don’t need to clip the nails before feeding. (Double oops!)
5. Yes, they are considered a full meal. (Nope! A full meal on feet is gonna give my girl the runs.)
6. No, it won’t hurt coming out the other end. (That's good to know.)

I tried to hold on to it while she chewed, but she still managed to pull it away. Gave her some time to finish it, heart thumping anxiously, and lastly, she looked up at me with a satisfied look. It took her longer than the usual chicken neck, so I'm sure she got a better workout too. Very happy mom is me now. I just hope the huge amount of skin won't give her the runs. *cross fingers*

And I still need a snood. Where on earth can I get one?!

Edit 04/02: She pooped! Nice and firm, which means chicken feet will be part of her diet from now on! Happy mom. Lol.

CNY 2014

Happy CNY! Hope you all had loads of angbao. This year was a quiet affair, since we couldn't go visiting. Which was actually welcoming for me cause firstly, I was (still) sick. And secondly, I wasn't in the mood lol. Shall make it my goal to escape overseas every year from now on! =X

I quite like CNY this year. Last Friday (初一), I spent majority of the day at home, nua-ing and bathing the dog. Then popped over to SSD's place for awhile, before he came to mine. 

And on 初二, we all popped over to grandma's place. I got to bring Popo, along with her pretty new ribbon and bell! I wish I could bring myself to dress her up in pretty clothes, but personally I think dogs look silly in frilly skirts or dresses. And definitely not in this weather, even though she's single-coated. 

She wasn't used to the ribbon so I removed it after all the guests left. I guess natural is the way to go lol. Anyway, everyone loved her, especially the kids. I was a little not very happy because it wasn't hard to see that Popo was stressed out by the amount of attention she got. But none as bad as today (初三). My dad's friends came over and one had a little girl who went a little crazy with Popo.

She kept trying to get Popo to fetch and initially she entertained. But later she got bored and irritated and kept trying to avoid the little girl. Annnnddd the girl kept chasing her around. I was a little pissed too since she kept staying in my room and asking me questions. -_-

She's a pretty nice girl though, just that I reeeaaalllyyy don't like kids. Nor do I like seeing my baby stressed out like that. Next time they're coming I'm bringing my girl out.

Oh wells. Didn't get a lot of angbao this year. But Popo got a few! I think they're enough to cover next week's swimming session as well as the 2 toys I ordered for her. Speaking of which, I'm super excited about those toys. Can't wait to let Popo play. I hope she likes them. =)

2 more days before work starts. Not looking forward!