So bloated

After having a really good appetite for weeks, I suddenly felt a reversal of it in recent days. Not sure why it happens all so suddenly. All I need is to drink a glass of water now and I feel so full and bloated.

And all the while I was thinking if my appetite continues to be this good, I would need the fastest way to burn fat before I become terribly out of shape. Looks like I may not need it after all now that I get full so easily.

I think as we age, the body system sometimes get screwed up somewhat. That's the only logical explanation as to why the body acts so strangely sometimes right?

Love doing masks these days

I've been hooked on doing masks lately. The facial ones, I mean. These days, with plenty of selection of various types of masks, and all it takes is 10 minutes or the longest being about 20 to 30 minutes, it's real easy to get to it.

It's especially relaxing on a busy day and if the weather is hot, all the more I feel like peeling off one of those masks and slap it on my face.

Bought quite a few different ones to try out and so far have enjoyed those that I've used. Looking forward to more this weekend.

Next thing I should be looking out for will be eye creams as the dark circles are coming back...and maybe something for wrinkles too. I've been recommended prevera. Never heard of it before.

Maybe before I try all that eye product, I could try the eye masks first. Hehehe, see, told ya I was hooked on masks!!

Are my lines showing?

Just wondering...because recently a well-meaning friend was introducing me to this site: www.agespotsremoval.net. Sometimes I forget I'm going to need some of these products soon in order to stay "youthful". But I keep thinking - not now, not yet. Not sure if that's denial playing its role or I'm just plain naive and optimistic! Haha.

Anyway, perhaps my fine lines are already starting to show...not surprisingly. After a son and now thinking of another...it's about time!

Friend in need

I've got a friend who keeps going around asking for anyone who can give her honest lipofuze reviews before she makes up her mind to go for it. Well none of us can help her as we don't touch such products.

Anyone knows of anyone who does and point us in the direction to get some of these unbiased reviews? Much appreciated. I'd be sure she'll be grateful for them too :)

Permed my hair

Did I mention that just before the Chinese New Year I went for a change of hairdo? Instead of the usual and boring straight hair, this time I had it permed. One of my biggest objective was actually to look more matured. Ahem! Yes you heard me right...I want to look more matured and was hoping the permed hair would help a little.

It's more for work than anything else but you know, some people said I look younger than older! Oh dear....reverse effect! Nevertheless, I think I like it better this way and I do think I do look a little older than before :)

Quite an oxymoron, I know...sometimes I go shopping for wrinkle creams and then I go perm my hair to look older! Haha!

All those beauties pay a price

Have you ever wondered whether the famous and hot celebrities are naturally slim and beautiful the way they are? For most of them, I don't think they are that "genuine". I think most of them go for some sort of plastic surgeries or even botox. Not to mention all sorts of weight loss programs too. Otherwise, how do you explain how some of them can look so gorgeous and shapely a short while after birth?

So I think all those beauty that we see on screen and in print actually come with a price that they paid. Nothing is really so perfect in the world, ain't it?

I'm pigging out

I don't know why but the last few weeks saw me pigging out a lot. I could be quite full from a heavy meal but give me 2 to 3 hours later, I feel like having a snack. Sometimes, it's not just a small snack like a bar of chocolate or some chips, but a rather filling meal at tea time. It scares me!

No, I'm not pregnant if that's what you're wondering. If I am and pigging out like that, I won't be that worried. It's because I'm not pregnant but continue to have such appetite that makes me a little worried. Maybe I'm just being greedy. I know that if I keep this up, I'm going to balloon up in no time.

So I better do something about this. Either stop all that binging or go on some appetite suppressants! I don't quite like the latter, so I'd better be disciplined enough to stop myself. It could be the stress that's causing me to snack like this, so first thing I could do is to keep my stress level in check!

2 weddings and a dresscode headache

Two of my good friends from school are getting married next month. And they are just a week apart from each other. I've got a dresscode woe for one of them...at first I thought of just picking any of the dresses I've made and bought some months back, but when I saw on the invitation that the dresscode is "pink and lacey", my jaw dropped. I have nothing that's pink and lacey!

Since it's a good friend getting married, I would like to play the part and come in the theme she has set. Besides, I'm also one of her chimuis and helping her out a little bit during the reception. So I should at least abide by the dresscode, right?

But where am I gonna find something pink and lacey? Pink is quite easy to find but lacey? I could only imagine a lingerie... :P

I'm so proud of myself

Last week I went with a colleague to shop during our lunch break. It was she who needed to shop while I was just planning to accompany her. We went to MNG since there was sales going on. She picked out something that she liked and I did, too. We tried it on and I really liked the little black dress. We met outside the changing room and asked "So, are you getting it?". To which we both thought for a while and said no.

The dress was on 50% off and after discount, it cost less than RM100. Before, I wouldn't have thought twice about buying it since I liked it. But now, I surprise myself that I actually pause to weigh it out.

The day after, my colleague came to tell me that she was still thinking of that dress and she said she would go and get it after all. The truth is, I too was thinking of that little black dress of mine! But I decided not to follow her to the store anymore.

Today we went to a mall and when I saw an MNG outlet, Ray said why not go have a look at the dress again (I told him about it). So in I went and found the dress in my size. I looked and relooked and decided to try it on again. I think I spent a good 5 minutes looking at myself in that dress before making up my mind that I shall not get it. My theory is that if I had to think that hard, maybe I can do without the dress. And I think I'm right, I can do without one more dress :)

I was really happy with my willpower. It's not so much the amount that mattered. I felt like I did something right. Instead of spending that money on myself, I spent it on my baby boy. And guess what? It felt great!

A great but surely embarrasing Sunday

The day started off just perfect. It was a lazy Sunday morning, baby woke and then went back to sleep. I took the opportunity to sleep in as well until he had enough sleep and woke me up with his whining.

And then Ray made me a simple but satisfying 'breakfast in room' (when there's a baby around, there's no more breakfast in bed!). After that I took a long luxurious shower and was getting ready to head out. I was excited about today because my colleague was taking me to see her designer. I've got lots of satin fabric sitting around for about two years and I'm happy to have finally found someone to design something for me. I also wanted to alter my wedding gown. Though I feel a bit sad to have it cut and redesigned into a shorter dress, I thought it's better that way rather than not being able to wear it anywhere at all forever.

Fond memories: Me doing a gown fitting session back then.

Anyway, it was time to get going to the designer's and I was quite glad to be behind the wheels. (I've been driven to work since my 7th month into pregnancy till now! :P ) My car was parked outside the house because we just had the gardener come in the morning to trim the grass. When I got into the car, I realised that the fuel level was dangerously low. So my first stop was to the petrol kiosk.

When I got to the petrol kiosk, I discovered, to my horror, a huge garbage bag stuffed with freshly cut grass was stuck to the back of my car! Imagine how hilarious it was for the petrol attendants!! Even the cashier inside the convenience store was laughing. Of course I too, was in stitches. Can you imagine driving with that black garbage bag dragging along the road? I felt like a total disastrous female driver and somewhat a dumb blonde too. One of the attendant was quite kind, I think he was surpressing his laughter and helped me get rid of the garbage. I've caused quite a mess, because the bag had ripped open a little and some grass had fallen out. I didn't know what to do but laugh and then pretend I was cool about it. This has got to be the most embarrassing event for the year.

Anyway, the story was quickly forgotten when I reached the designer's. I brought along some designs I've picked out and one look at them, she said "somehow they don't catch my eye" and she said while they're very classic designs, she felt they would make me look mature. She's very diplomatic, isn't she? So instead of going with what I had, she designed some for me. But I kept modifying here and there because they were rather daring and sexy. In the end I agreed to a piece of simple and feminine dress which she thought would be great for a morning/day function and a rich red baby doll as evening wear. She would restyle my wedding gown too into a shorter dress and offered to use the remaining fabric to make a bustier. I declined it because I can't imagine where I'm gonna wear a bustier to. Wedding invites are coming to and end as most friends have gotten married. So the only functions I could look forward to would be baby-related parties and my company's annual dinners. Not very happening for a bustier right?

Oh I took a look at some of the designer's work for her customers as well as for herself. She made a few for some brides-to-be, a singer and her own function dresses. She loves chiffon so most of them were made in luxurious chiffon. They are so gorgeous that I was so tempted to make chiffon dresses too! But then again I still have the issue of not knowing where to wear those beautiful gowns to. It does them no justice being kept in the wardrobe.

That was the highlight of my day actually. When I got home, for some reason, I was so tired out (from all that excitement and adrenalin rush at the designer's?) that I slept the afternoon away. Thank goodness baby slept too otherwise I wouldn't have been able to nap.

When we woke up, it was time to head out for dinner. We headed to Mid Valley because both Ray and baby haven't stepped into The Gardens. I haven't been there in a very long time too. It's a nicer place to navigate the baby pram about because it's rather quiet compared to other malls. But when we hit Mid Valley itself, it's a different story all together.

To end my Sunday, Ray and I are seated in front of our computers, half watching some street magician doing funny tricks and sipping strawberry tea. Ray's actually working while I'm just blogging away...it's been a great day, despite the embarrassing episode. I look forward to more days of simple pleasures like these.

Queen B

At my work place, we love gatherings. We always find a reason to go out for lunch and always in a large group of at least 10 people. You could say that we love food, but more importantly I think we all get along so well that we look forward to such outings.

I gotta say my colleagues are a bunch of really fun people. They are smart, witty, funny, and sometimes downright bitchy but in a playful and fun way. Well, as long as you're not on the receiving end of the bitchiness, you would think it's fun right?

Anyway, during our last lunch gathering, we coined the term Queen Bitch B to be awarded to the person who shows the greatest level of bitchiness. Mind you, this "honoured" title is not restricted to only the females. Right now we have a Miss and a Mister who are neck to neck in competition to be crowned as The Queen B!

Don't get me wrong, we're a bunch of fun-loving people and the bitchiness about us is completely harmless. We are the direct type and pretty much talk "straight to your face". But it's all in good fun and we certainly know our limits. Being open-minded, we don't mind all the jests and insults we so casually hurl at each other.

But what we don't appreciate are people who do this behind our backs. Worst are the ones who, when they are busted for their back-talks, lie vehemently to cover their behinds. You know, once you're caught with damning evidence, there's just no way to redeem yourself. Instead, one should have integrity. If you had the guts to back-talk in the first place, you should have the guts to admit it, agree?

Anyway, I've digressed. Let me get to my point. The term "bitch" is often said in disgust and anger and it means a bad person. But I suspect that a person being labelled as a bitch is often a misunderstood person. Read the following poem and see if you agree with me.

When I stand up for
myself and my beliefs,
they call me a bitch.

When I stand up for
those I love,
they call me a bitch.

When I speak my mind, think my own thoughts
or do things my own way,
they call me a bitch.

Being a bitch
means I won't compromise what's
in my heart.
It means I live my life
MY way...
It means I won't allow anyone to step on me.

When I refuse to
tolerate injustice and
speak against it,
I am defined as a bitch.

The same thing happens when I take time for
myself instead of being everyone's maid, or when
I act a little selfish.

It means I have the courage and strength to allow
myself to be who I truly am and won't become
anyone else's idea of what they think I "should" be.

I am outspoken,
opinionated and determined. I want what I want
and there is nothing wrong with that!

So try to stomp on me,
try to douse my inner flame, try to squash
every ounce of beauty I hold within me.
You won't succeed.

And if that makes me a bitch,
so be it.
I embrace the title and
am proud to bear it.

I bet my colleagues who are in the running for the Queen B title now wants to be THE Queen B more than ever!

27 Dresses

I love weddings. I love everything and anything about a wedding. Whenever I attend a church wedding, I always get teary-eyed the moment the bride walks down the aisle. It doesn't matter that I don't know her, it just moves me to tears.

One of my favourite movies of all time is My Best Friend's Wedding. I've watched it more than a dozen times and I still enjoy it just as much the next time I pop the DVD into the player.

Now there's a new movie about weddings, about a girl who loves weddings so much that she's been a bridesmaid 27 times! Yes I'm talking about the movie 27 Dresses. I haven't watched any movies for months but I'm interested to go for this one. If not to the cineplex then maybe I'll buy the DVD. The latter might be a good idea so that I could watch it over and over, perhaps?

Reading the synopsis of this movie, it reminded me so much of something I've heard about someone. Just like the heroin of this movie, she has been a bridesmaid a few times, including being her younger sister's bridesmaid next, but never the bride in that pure white gown. Whilst the actress of 27 Dresses is in love with her boss who's planning to get married, I heard this person was involved with someone in her previous work place who is ALREADY married. Spells disaster, doesn't it? Doesn't she realise that this isn't going to put her in any wedding gown?!

On the contrary, I think 27 Dresses would be a feel-good movie. So I'm sure the heroin will have a happy ending that'll see her walking down the aisle, wearing that magical white gown and looking so beautiful. Ahh...that's how I like my movies to be.

The hair - married woman or Tinkerbell look?

When friends first saw me with my short hair, most of their first reactions were this:

1. "What happened??"
2. "Ohh...going for the the 'married-woman' look huh."
3. "Did something upset you?"
4. "Why???"

The only nicer response I got was "So what's with the Tinkerbell hair?". It may have carried the the same meaning as any of the above questions but the hint of a Tinkerbell-look was a little more comforting. After all, I do like Tinkerbell's hair carried off by Julia Roberts.


But if you look at it long enough, it does have that married-woman look huh? Damn!

The big temptation

My company's annual dinner is coming up in 2 weeks. I'm quite excited about it. In my 7 years of working life, I've NEVER attended any annual dinners! One of the group I worked for used to be quite lavish and held annual dinners and such. But since I joined, things changed due to the sluggish economy back then. Blame it on bad timing that I missed out on all that.

So when my current company announced the annual dinner coming up next month, I was thrilled and wanted to experience it. "Jakun" or not?

The event is gonna be a formal one and I was thinking of wearing something simple in black. It's the safest colour to wear and you can't go wrong being under or over dressed.

Then this evening we walked pass Beatrice Looi's boutique while on our way to dinner. The window display caught my eye.

Which girl could ever miss the hint of a sale, right?

Is this a message that I should dump the "going black" idea and choose from one of these beautiful pastel masterpieces??

As soon as the idea entered my mind, I was also quick to remind myself a big NO-NO! I gotta keep in mind Point #7 of this post. Whether it's a good reason or not to refrain from buying more clothes, I think it's good to save on the wallet and just go black and commando.

I made a wise decision not to stop and step into the shop for a peek, didn't I? Tell me that I did...

Guess what?

After losing about 50% of my hair yesterday (previous post), I returned to the salon for a minor fix-up. I wanted the back of my hair to be tapered so that it's not just a big lump in the back. To my non-expert judgement, that should be easy enough, just layer it la, right?

But the stylist said it'll look odd, somewhat hanging. He said it would be better only if he cuts it off a little more and it should taper off nicely on the neck.

So now I don't even have shoulder length hair anymore. It's one of those longish boy-cut style. How ironic, from being afraid to try out the short styles I wanted, I ended up with one anyhow. But if you ask me, I like it more like this than yesterday. Now, I don't need that extra courage to go shorter because it just can't get any shorter than this!

Back I am, but gone is my hair...

For months before the wedding, I've been "saving" my hair - I didn't go for trims for the reason of keeping it long and simple so that it's easier to adapt to hairdoes for the big day.

And now, a month after the day, my hair has grown really long and worse yet, very thick and heavy. I probably look haggard, too. So two nights ago I was browsing through a friend's hair magazine, toying with the idea of getting not just a trim but a different hairstyle. I was tempted to go for a boy-cut like I did 8 years ago. I even showed Ray the 2 styles I liked - one is a messy boyish cut while the other is a sleek and sharp one. However, I am no longer the risk-taker I was. I am actually quite terrified of bad haircuts that stay for months on end.

After much thought, I decided to just trim it. I walked into the salon for my appointment today. The sylist asked me what I wanted to do and instead of saying "Trim please", I said "I'm bored with my hair. I want something else". He suggested a style with fringe and I said no. I don't like covering my forehead. He then suggested some stylish and adventurous style which I also didn't dare go for. After a few more minutes I felt quite bad, because this guy was giving me so many choices and I was just too much of a coward to try any. In the end, I told him to just cut it shoulder length, plain and simple.

He picked up a bunch of my hair and cut it all off in one big snip. I saw the bunch fell to the floor in a thud and what I felt was "Ouch!" But when he was done with it, I felt quite good because my head feels so much lighter! Whether I look OK or not, that's something else la. At some angles I do look weird to myself.

I was told with this cut, I need to blow my hair so that the ends don't curve upwards since it's just about resting on my shoulders. I am quite lazy when it comes to doing the extras in dressing up. That's why I don't even bother wearing lipstick. What more, to blow my hair everyday?? What did I get myself into?

But what's done is done...unless I gather enough courage and decide to go for another snip to turn this semi-bob shoulder length into the boy-cut I've been eyeing. But till I am courageous enough, I will try to make peace with this.

Jimmy shoes

Finally, Jimmy Choo has decided to bring his creation back home. I read the news that his luxurious shoes and accessories will be sold in Malaysia starting 2007.

I would like to visit his boutique when it opens but it’s not because I’m a fan or that I’m planning to buy any. I just want to shock myself at how the shoes are priced in unbelievable thousands!