Nail Decal Stickers DIY

Hey! Found this nail stickers at Raffles Exchange push cart! Costs only $2.50 (buy 4 free 1 some more!!!)

It's so easy to use. I must recommend la. I bought other brands before - from Korea, from Qoo10, etc and they were quite crap -> the edges are not smooth after application. Basically like pasting a normal sticker on top of ur nails. That's bull shit. Anyway, I know there are good ones from established brands like Sally Hansen and Sephora. But why spend so much when u can get it cheap right?? Those costs over ten bucks loh.

I got mine done in 5 mins on one hand. And this is how it look. Quite good right?

 

The sales girl says no need to apply top coat. But you can if u wish to. Anyway, I didn't. Supposedly able to last two weeks without the top coat. I'm not too concerned.

There are a lot of designs available! At least 50 (I didn't count). And I bought ten at one go after she demo one on my finger and I was sold. Hahaha!

How is it done? Basically u just peel off a sticker from the pack that is the nearest fit to the finger u wanna apply on. U can trim it if your nails are smaller. U place one end of the sticker to cover the nail bed and then smooth the sticker all over the nail and pull the other end over the nail edge. File off the excess length at the tip. That's all. Quite idiot proof one.

The sales girl gave me a free nail file too! Yippee. The push cart is temporary. She told me they have a permanent cart at Park Lane mall. Well, I may go hunt for it when I'm done with all of my ten packs. ;-)

Haagen Daz @ Wisma Atria

Brought grandma out for CNY shopping at Orchard today and it was super crowded!!! 2 hours in and I'm starting to wear out. Lol. So I decided to find somewhere to sit down. Since she just had lunch 2 hours back, I decided to go for a drink or a small bite. Takashimaya was over crowded due to some ongoing sale so we walked towards ION. On route, it struck me that maybe I should bring her for a dessert where seats are available. 

I recalled passing by Haagen Daz at Wisma a few days back. Although I'm not overly addicted to Ice cream, I figure ice cream will suit my gran more than say... Starbucks. So off we went. 

Every item on the menu looks criminally delicious. My gran pointed to a waffle concoction and the decision is made. Here it is:

Waffle + 4 small scoops of ice cream / sorbet ( vanilla, chocolate, mango and strawberry) with fresh cut banana & strawberry - $19 excluding taxes. I don't recall seeing the fruits on the picture in the menu so I wonder if it is complimentary. Anyway I have to say - yummilicious! The waffle was freshly made & was still hot & crispy. All the 4 flavours of ice cream were good. Although I have never been a fan of vanilla & would have chosen mango on any other occasion, I have to say Haagen Daz's vanilla is GOOOOOD! The choc one was the taste of dark choc which is slightly bitter. The mango sorbet was good, slightly sweeter than what I would like. The strawberry was the most ordinary among the 4, but I dont mean it's bad. I would like to emphasize that scoops are not regular full size scoops, they are smaller scoops. The final damage with taxes is $22.35.

My verdict? It's good, but slightly pricey. I think it's fine to be shared between 2. A plus - the service personnel at Wisma was very friendly. It's always good to experience good service versus those times you pay mountain to get shit. Ha! Writing abt ice cream is making me hungry now... Omg.

P/S: It's at a corner of level 3 Wisma Atria.

Menya Musashi Ramen - Review

Now this is why the brand Menya Musashi is worth a try if you love ramen like I do!

1) Price - In term of pricing, Menya Musashi is reasonably priced given that their branches are in popular malls like Orchard Ion and VivoCity. A chashu ramen is $12.90. Add a $3 buck and you get to choose a delicious side like marinated mini octopus, gyoza, etc, to complete the meal.

2) Variety - if you like variety in your ramen, Menya Musashi did a good job. Your ramen comes in your preferred base of "red" - spicy, "black" - garlic or "white" - normal. And besides this, the menu gives you options of different types of ramen beside the chashu which I like. Something worth mentioning is this special dry style ramen which you can opt up to FIVE freaking times the noodle portion. That's right, FIVE FREAKING TIMES, and all at the same price. It's a style of ramen whereby the soup base and ramen are served separately & eaters dip the ramen into the bowl of soup/gravy to soak up the sauce. I think it's good for very hungry customers. I haven't know of any friends being able to finish the mega portion though. 

Menya Musashi also comes up with seasonal special to surprise customers. I'd recently tried their Tom Yum dry ramen. It's not bad, just that I think I prefer soupy ramen. ;-P 

Anyway, this is what a red chashu ramen looks like:

3) Locations - The brand has sprouted in quite a few places since it's flagship in Singapore at Raffles City. The latest opening should be at the new mall - Westgate. The other locations are Star Vista, Vivocity, Thomson Plaza, Bedok Mall, and Ion Orchard. My guess is they will continue to expand as the franchise is under a rich  boss that runs other popular Japanese eateries in Singapore.

4) Customer friendly - okay I don't really know how to coin this so "customer friendly" is perhaps appropriate. The restaurant provides disposable chopsticks and paper towels on your table - something not every restaurant does. It's perfect because sometimes (we all do) you drop your chopsticks in restaurants and you need a spare, or some noob waiters/waitresses serve you food without cutlery, or you accidentally smeared sauces on your face and need an emergency wipe and you are the kind who is too lazy to bring your own tissue. Heck, the restaurant even put a note that says they serve customers bibs upon request - that's right - bibs. In case you don't know, definition of a bib is: A bib is a garment worn hanging from the neck on the chest to protect clothing from spilling.  I have never actually saw any customers with a bib on but hey - it's perfect for damn messy eaters, or if you have a $200 pristine white shirt on and any spill is gonna set you back by a bomb to clean, or if you have damn messy kids eaters, or if you just wanna be funny to take some selfies of you acting like a kid.

Another important customer friendly point  - ramen are served with the onsen egg and seaweed as pictured. Some local restaurants charges you $3 for an egg or seaweed. That is freaking daylight robbery loh. Every time I see a menu which I have to pay separately for the onsen egg, it irks and pains me. Because that means the ramen will cost over $20 sometimes. Again - freaking daylight robbery feel.

I think in a competitive world, some details like these do matters, and it matters to me. So I say - keep it up Menya Musashi! It sets you apart from the rest.

Now good things aside, I will be frank about 2 factors that may bother you (a little).

1) Consistency - this bothers me a lot. There were occasional inconsistency in the soup base. I know. Because I eat often. Period. It irks me when food are served different from my expectations. I suspect the occasional slip may be due to factors like new cooks. I stated "occasional", not always. So good luck. Didn't stop me from going back.

2) Staff - I have nothing against hiring of foreign talent. But I believe in hiring foreign talent who can speak good English and understand your orders, and whom you can also understand when they speak. I think staff training is required in some branches. Not a big issue once you confirmed they got your right order.

Well, I hope my review is useful to you somehow. Here's a parting shot of me camwhoring with my ramen. LOL.

Byeeeeee!!! And if you are lazy to google, this is their webby: http://www.menyamusashi.com.sg/

Maybe they should pay me for the raving!  Haha.

Meowie Christmas to you!

Wishing u a very Meowie (merry) Christmas from Singapore!

May your coming year be blessed with good health & happiness!

And here's a photo of the mad cat!

MEOW! 

Be random, be fun, be whatever you want, as long as possible. Grow older in age, not in mind. Stay youthful at heart! No, I'm not advocating reckless stunts even if YOLO! Haha.

Su Zhou, Shanghai, Yang Zhou ~ It was a much needed holiday! (Part 1)

Yeeha! Back from a long holiday and feeling much refreshed! Haven't update my blog for a while! Travelling posts are usually long and filled with a lot of details as my holidays are usually packed from morning till night! But nope! Not this one. This holiday was leisurely and relaxed as I spent it at my relative's place at Su Zhou (Reads: FREE ACCOMMODATION! Yeeha! :))

It was a ten days trip - fully maximising the 2-to-fly promo from Singapore Airline as they only allowed a maximum of ten days for the promo flight. Good enough for me since I do not have enough annual leaves to blow anyway! I traveled with my gran ~ my fav person in the world! Both the to and fro flights were red eye flights ~ flying off past mid night and arriving in early wee hours. What to do? The promo flight means the return ticket per pax is less than $500! Nothing to complain abt further at that price for SQ!

We were to stay with my uncle who had been working at Su Zhou for years. Staying with a working relative plus super cold weather means not everyday is jam packed with activities. But I love it that way! Enjoying cool weather while taking a break from the harsh Singapore lifestyle with no 101 items to be done like my typical holiday! I didn't plan anything for the trip, basically going with the flow on wherever my uncle suggested! It felt like a school holiday that I do not have to shoulder responsibility for. The only drawback was I'm afraid of cold temperature and had to wrap myself in several layers of clothing during the trip. 

First on Su Zhou. We arrived at Shanghai Pudong airport and went straight to Su Zhou to find my uncle via a 1.5 hour car ride. Since my last trip to Su Zhou more than a decade back, the city has changed a lot. It now contains many mega malls much like those in Singapore. They also have international restaurant chains like those in Singapore. Industralisation really changes places. The speed of development appear much faster than Singapore's neighboring countries. During my stay, I visited some pretty "atas" malls much like that in Sg's Orchard Road, went for karaoke, dined at classy restaurants, ate hong kong and taiwanese desserts and tasted some of the sweetest strawberries I ever had (bought from a supermarket) and took their MRT for $2 RMB. Overall my impression of Su Zhou was pretty good except for the air pollution that happened at the time of my visit. Some snap shots of Su Zhou:

The shopping area surrounding a beautiful river:

This area has the world longest "corridor screen" which is something like a meandering tv screen used to air major events like the olympics. I didnt have the chance to see it light up at night. But guess what I found here? - Ya Kun Coffee & Toast from Singapore! Haha!

Some food galore at various malls ( You get the idea. Wonderful food with 2 thumbs up! Except some local dishes properly require some adapting to.)

Of course, I'm not saying every inch of Su Zhou has been replaced by modern facades, there are of course pockets that reminded us of the past. And these are in fact the more memorable areas I'm more interested in. The following shot shows a small stretch of preserved land in Su Zhou called "San Tang Street". It is more like a tourist spot but hey don't you agree it is beautiful? They still have delivery boats running through the area.

Next up - Yang Zhou. We visited Yang Zhou during a weekend. It was a quick trip after visiting a city called "Dan Yang" which is something like a capital for all the spectacle shops in China. Everywhere in Dan Yang is occupied by spectacle shops! According to my uncle, spectacle lenses in China are all mostly made in Dan Yang. They take orders from other major cities and courier over the finished products. We went there because my gran needs to make a new spects and the cost to make it in Singapore was abt $400 for her prescriptions (My gawd!!). The cost of making her two pairs of spectacles (took them less than an hour to make em at the shop itself!) was only about $100 SGD. I'm impressed. However, Dan Yang is much more polluted than Su Zhou and Shang Hai and you will basically be breathing in dust. We hopped in one random restaurant at Dan Yang and the food was great. Especially the dish "Dong Buo Rou" - braised pork that has simmered for hours until the fats are supposedly melted. This is a famous dish so I recommend trying it in China!

We dropped by Yang Zhou to visit a popular tourist attraction surrounding a lake called "Shou Xi Hu". Due to the lack of time, we didn't get to spend long hours at the attraction. Mainly took a boat ride from one end to the other end. It was a beautiful area that was owned by a group of wealthy salt merchants in the past. According to the boat guide, the place was a must visit by previous emperor when ever he step out of the palace to visit his lands. And they even have a mini version of the place built at the ex-capital for the empress since she can't travel out from the palace. And when the emperor wishes to fish here, the salt merchants will ensure there is a catch by sending divers down the lake to hook big fishes on the emperor's hook. Funny. The place was scenic. But entry fee was not cheap! I think it was $200 RMB. The place was pretty but I think the entry price is too high?

 

(To be continued in the next post cuz I'm tired!)

Tawandang German Brewery at Damsey

There is one place I like for a special day out - a nice place with good food and great atmosphere - Tawandang German Brewery at Damsey Road. Why is it a good place? I think it is good for people of all ages - you see families, couples, teenagers, working adults, etc, all soaking in the great atmosphere with a live band performance, big tv screens showing the latest soccer match, and of course very good food. They brew their own beer and serve them in great mugs or beer towers and their Thai food is yummy!

For a nice satisfying meal, be ready to fork out at least abt $40 per pax.

The German beer costs abt $15. A giant mug of it!

I highly recommend ordering this prawn crackers basket to go with the beer. It comes with a chili dip that is super awesome. The basket is quite big. $7.

We ordered this Thai deep fried promfet that comes with another Thai chili dip. They have removed the bones on the fish so it's awesome for ppl who dislike the fuss of fish eating! The fish was delicious but a bit oily since it is deep fried. Can't remember exact cost of the fish but it was between $25-30.

We also ordered this awesome Thai fried noodle that's different from the usual Phad Thai. This is really what we usually called "hor fun" - wide flat noodles. I don't know how they made it so awesome but it tastes wonderful. Maybe they used a little rice wine. Picture shows the large portion that serves two (or more) and is $22.

There were a lot of other dishes on the menu which I would like to try - including German pork knuckle which I saw many tables ordering. Maybe next time!

The need for self love

While randomly surfing around for self-improvement tips, I came across an article on the need for self love. And I think it is valid to share. According to the article, one will be a happier person if he/she needs not be always doing things to make others happy in order to make themselves happy. It speaks of the type of person who derive happiness from others' feedback on their kind act. It says  that without self love - if I give you a gift, I give it because it’s what I want to do, but I do it wanting you to like it and, by association, like me (with expectation). If you like it and praise me, I might feel warm and good about myself. If you don’t like it I might feel very sad and disappointed, leading to thoughts that I have failed and let you down. My sense of self has decreased because I didn’t fulfill my goal of you liking my gift and giving me love and acceptance back.

Errrmmm, I don't know about you but I do feel damn sad when the "gift", whatever that is, that I had painstakingly prepared for someone is not (perceived by me to be) appreciated by the recipient. There were times that I had spent hours shopping for a thoughtful gift or spent hours hand making a gift with the recipient simply quipping a lukewarm thank you and putting it aside soon after it passes hand. The article said that people with self-love would react differently to the same situation. With self-love: if I give you a gift, I give it because it’s what I want to do and I do it without expectation. If you don’t like it I might feel sad or disappointed, but I can accept that’s your choice. Either way, I still know that what I did was a kind thing and I still have a good sense of self-love and self-acceptance. 

Going by the theory, it would mean I lack a general sense of self-love?  - which I think could be true. I do think that I'm overly concerned if others like me and what I can do to make people like me. Oftentimes I conform to social norms even if it's not my preferred option. I feel guilty when I say no to someone and I worry the person may be upset. I had realized that "self-sacrificial" unhappy side of me and had been challenging myself to be myself more and not what others prefer one to be. Reading the self-love article makes me feel that it is not too selfish to value my inner self more! Ha!

Here's some tips to more self-love. 

• Self-care.

  Self-care means you treat yourself just as kindly and thoughtfully as you would anyone else. If you are uncomfortable doing something, then you don’t do it and that’s OK. Just because somebody might be disappointed that you didn’t help him or her, that’s his or her choice to feel that way.

• Considering your needs.

  If that means others don’t get all of you, all the time, then that’s also OK. People can learn to adjust and be responsible for themselves.

• Caring for yourself with the same level of effort that you do for others.

  That might mean you don’t always fulfill your goal of helping others because you’d prefer to spend time doing something for yourself. That’s not selfish.

• Accepting yourself for all that you are — both your positive aspects and your human fallibility. 

  You cannot be all good all the time. That’s OK. You can work on self-improvement, but that doesn’t mean you discount the parts of yourself you don’t like as much. Those aspects are still part of your whole.

• Saying no to others’ requests.

  That’s OK. You are not totally responsible for everybody else’s needs.