Hatchling

Well, I did tweet about this a few weeks ago so why not blog in detail about it as well? It’s not everyday that I get to see a bird nest in Singapore, at least I haven’t seen one before this.

There was a bird that built a nest on one of my student’s potted plant outside her house. The bird nest looked exactly how I imagined a bird nest would look like, so much so that I thought my student pranked me and put a fake nest outside. =_=

The mama bird looked so pretty!! It also looked like a toy bird on display. =_= If it hadn’t blinked, I wouldn’t even know that it was a real bird.

Then, one egg hatched and I got to see a semi-grown hatchling that frankly, looked like a half cooked chicken.

The next week I went, the student told me that the hatchling had grown all its feathers and flew away. I haven’t even seen the baby bird with full feathers yet!!

What I think of The Body Shop in Singapore

Dunno about your part of the world but I honestly think that The Body Shop in Singapore is a ripoff. To explain what I mean, you need to know that as a member of The Body Shop in Singapore, you’ll get a stamp on your card if you spend $30. Completing a row of stamps entitles you to a $10 discount on your next purchase.

That’s a modest amount of savings you say?

Here’s the catch:

1) You cannot use the discount on your whole bill, it only applies to one item.

e.g. Two items cost $5 each, adding up to $10 in total. With the $10 off, you would not need to pay anything right? Nope. You only get $5 off because your $10 discount only applies to one item only.

2) The $10 off does not apply to discounted items. And let me just say this, The Body Shop almost always have a sale. You’ll find that the $10 off only applies to overpriced new items (sometimes even new items have a “buy two get one free” sale =_=) or items that you don’t need, like their loofah which is so hard that it could scrub off a layer of skin.

Hence, after spending hundreds of dollars in The Body Shop, when I finally wanted to redeem the $10 and $15 discounts in my card, I realised that there was literally nothing for me to redeem them on.

Coincidentally, it was also my birthday month so I was supposed to also get my birthday month discount. The sales person in The Body Shop told me that if I wanted to use the $10 & $15 off, I’ll have to give up my birthday discount and/or the shop discount too. P.s. Birthday discount also only work on non-sale items as well. What can I buy then? A nail file?

It was then that I decided to use the $10 off and subsequently never to go back to The Body Shop again to shop. Then I won’t have to bother what kind of discount I want to use because they amount to no sale at all anyway compared to their annual warehouse sale.

Recently, I went to Malaysia with a student’s mum and we went CRAzy when we saw that they were having a huge sale. Huge as in 70% off shower gels and body butters. Most other items have a modest 30% to 50% off. Their members get another 10% off on top of the already discounted price. Stark difference in contrast to the shitty privilege I get as a Singapore The Body Shop member huh?

I counted, one bottle of shower gel only cost S$4+ as compared to the current 2 for $14.90 “sale” that The Body Shop in Singapore is selling for. Regular sale also about the same as our warehouse sale.

Now, I get to smell nice everyday. I have them in Mango, Raspberry, Satsuma, Neroli Jasmine, and Passion fruit. My favourites are the Satsuma Orange for it’s refreshing scent and the Passion fruit for it’s sweet lingering scent.

P.s. I briefly questioned my sanity about wanting to smell like a fruit but then so does millions of other girls so I reckon that it’s probably a girls thing.

Plant vs Zombies (iPhone/iPad Version)

Are there anyone of you still playing Plants vs Zombies on the iPhone or iPad?

I still occassionally play with the endless version of the Last Stand, trying to see if I could break my own streak of 42.

Anyways, if you stil do play the game, and tap on Achievement, you’ll see all your achievements and scroll further down, there are many nonsensical stuff such as..

A skeletal unicorn..

Some pipes..

And at the very very end, you’ll see this..

Zombies in China? I’ll dig that if they come up with a hopping zombie.

Kobo Glo

Ordered a Kobo Glo online on Wednesday, 8th May and it arrived via FedEx the next day afternoon. It was so efficient!! On the other hand, the cover will only arrive next week. (=_=”)

That day, I was bursting with excitement. Months ago, I’d considered getting a Kobo Touch, even calling to the supplier (luckily it was OOS), but almost everyone dissuaded me. They said that getting an iPad Mini would be more worth it as it had more functions. Can’t say that their reasoning wasn’t sound.

However, after a long inner debate, I decided to get a Kobo Glo for it’s long battery life (A month!!) and for its supposedly superior night light.

Digressing a little, I don’t understand why they put designs at the back when most people are going to put on a cover anyway.

I’ve seen the video on the latest Kobo ereader, the Kobo Arc and the back looks interesting. How would they design covers for a ridged back?

The back of Kobo Glo

After unwrapping the package, It was surprising to see the cover with Japanese words on it but it was shocking to find the manual written in Japanese and in Japanese only.

There was only one picture on the screen to guide me and I feared that the instructions would be in Japanese too.

Well it’s not, but I had some sensible questions that nobody else seemed to have. How long should I charge it for?!

The manual doesn’t say, or it does but I wouldn’t know. Common sense dictates that I charge it to 100% but what if it’s like phones that require 6 to 8 hours on its 1st charge? I asked Google but it didn’t know either. You would think that someone somewhere in the world would have the same question as me.

It didn’t matter anyway. I fell asleep while googling for answers and it charged for 8 hours. (-_-)

Setup was easy. I already had a Kobo account which I use on my phone too.

Then I got glued to my eBook and got oblivious to the world around me.

Just finished City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I saw the movie trailer and it looked interesting so as usual, I read the book first before catching the movie later. Book was okay, haven’t started on City of Ashes, the next book in the series. Kobo sells these ebooks in a bundle if they come in a series for cheaper but I don’t like how I can’t rate each book individually.

If you like reading, and you are reading ebooks, get an ereader. Logically, getting an iPad seems more value for money as you can do more stuff with it, but precisely because you can do more things with it, you’ll be distracted.

I remember those days when I sit down with a good old paperback and just read. No messages, emails and Whatsapp to content for my attention. If you like reading, then you’ll know what I mean. Or maybe I’m just peculiar.

And an ereader is lighter. You won’t notice until you’re holding it for a few hours. The tiniest amount of extra weight adds up.

p.s. Thanks to Yvonne who sent me the Hunger Games series of books by Suzanne Collins. Even though I bought the 1st book, I had been hesitating if I should buy the rest as I had been forewarned by a very credible source that the 2nd and 3rd books were not as good. Getting them for free solved the dilemma. Sort of. And of course, thanks also for all the books by Nicholas Sparks.

China: The Panda Adventure

Last Saturday, we went to watch a movie at the IMAX theatre (Science Centre). By “we”, I meant “Eggie, Yulan, Hui Koon and I”. We were celebrating Eggie’s 18th birthday. 18 going on 26. =p

On our last outing, we went to the Science Centre to star gaze at the Observatory and noticed the posters on the Panda movie and so this time, we came to watch it at the IMAX theatre.

It had been a long time since I last watched a movie at the IMAX Theatre. It is a theatre that is enjoyable only when seated at a selected few seats and height. Due to the dome-shaped design of the screen, when seated too far down, half the movie is happening behind you. =_= So unless you like craning your neck, your best bet would be to sit as high up a seat as you possibly can.

At parts showing the scenery, the visual effect rivals that of 3D but most of the time, it simply looks odd as I’m not sure if something is out of focus because of the way the movie was shot or if it was stretched oddly at the curved sides of the screen.

The movie itself makes me fume. Perhaps it is not such a good thing to show an ang moh woman going to China to see pandas, another ang moh man kill mama panda, ang moh woman takes baby panda to America and puts it in a zoo. That’s stealing a national treasure. And it is sending children a wrong message that it is okay to remove a creature from its natural habitat. It is not.

Luckily, the rest of the day was great. I enjoyed the day out with the girls, and I had a great time laughing at the waitress serving our dinner. Her face was literally 😡 throughout the entire hour we were there. Hahaha. Now that I think of it, the service was so bad, it was rather funny. How can anyone be so grumpy?!

St Ives Invigorating Apricot Scrub

Bought a new tub of Apricot Scrub and noticed that the packaging looks different.

The content looks the same, smells the same and I still use it on both my face and body when I feel like I need the extra cleanliness.

I love how it scrubs so thoroughly, not to mention that the scent is so fresh, it brightens my mood instantly. Buying the tub is cheaper, though I’ve noticed that many of the Watsons stores only sell the 150ml tube. Ironically, I bought my tub from the pharmacy in Marina Bay Sands. (=_=)

P.S. If you are buying the tub thinking that it’ll last you a long time, you are right. However, you have to be careful that the product will harden over time once you expose it to air. My advice is to scoop out the amount you need with a clean spoon and try to minimize exposure.

Plagiarism and Copycats

This post was written way back in March and after reading it, I decided against posting then as it felt pretty whiny to me. However, two months later, discovering the post in the draft section, I still feel the same. It’s not whiny if it’s true!!

I’ve been watching YouTube videos, specifically on beauty products, makeup techniques and DIY masks, and it irks me that there are so many videos out there with the same content.

For example, YouTube search “avocado mask” and you will see tonnes of videos on how to mash up an avocado and applying it on their faces. Oh please, this is blatant plagiarism.

Don’t they have their own input or thoughts to add on? And even if they do, the very least they could do is to quote the person they’re inspired by or link to the original video.

End of rant.

I don’t think copying is cool. In fact, I still remember the girl who sat beside me in secondary school who tried to copy from me during a math test. In exams, she always wrote on long after the time was up. That made me think a little less of her, even now, despite her Biomedical Engineering degree from NTU.

Le Noir Singapore (Part 1)

Cast of Le Noir, photo taken from Base Entertainment website.

It was a great show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a pity though that no photography or videos are allowed inside the theatre. I’m not good with words so it does get pretty frustrating trying to describe something without pictorial illustration.

If I were to describe the show with my limited vocabulary, it’ll sound so bizarre, I doubt anyone would know what I’m writing about. I’ll try though, to the best of my ability, so bear with me.

There were many ass cheeks and flamboyant costumes with feathers. All the female performers wore heels and I also saw a male performer wearing heels during the finale. They started off with a guy on an aerial hoop. He put up a good show and his ability to contort his body in so many ways was impressive. However, I was somewhat distracted from his performance by his very prominent package, clearly visible when he balanced himself on the hoop hands-free.

I don’t have a photo of him, or his pouch, but here’s a photo of some random person dangling from a hoop which I found on the internet.

His were one of the many trapeze rigging performances in the show. There was an aerial silk performance and the performer was practically swinging himself out, inches away from the audiences sitting around the stage. I love aerial silks. For something that requires so much strength and muscles in places that you never knew existed, aerial silks look so effortless and ethereal. To put it in Chinese, it’ll be “力与美的结合”.

If you like Jolin, then you’ll remember that she performed aerial silks in her Agent J album.

I do feel that Jolin’s arms were too bony to look good on aerial silks though.

Among all the trapeze rigging, I like the performance of the two girls on a trapeze best. They were moving in sync, matching action for action in mirror image. It eludes me why but I always find it fascinating to see the mirror effect.

And there was a guy that balanced himself on a plank that rested on a cylinder that only vaguely resembles the photo below in form, except that the cylinders were a lot bigger and the plank a lot smaller.

Did I mention that there was rollerblading stunts, juggling, and a whole lot of other performances that I cannot give a name to because I have no idea what they are called?

Oh, and the ring master was hilarious. I laughed until I was gasping for breath. Though now, if I were to relate to you in words what he did, it wouldn’t even be half as funny as seeing the performance for yourself. Except that Le Noir is no longer here. It was in Singapore from 12th March to 7th April.

I would have written this in March if I could. Typing this entry now took me more than three hours, probably due to the fact that I had to rack my brain to find words to describe the show.

All I’m saying is that if Le Noir comes back to Singapore, I’ll be sure to go again.

Unbearable Lightness

I’d just finished reading Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi. It’s very inspiring and I would recommend everyone to go read it.

It’s a book that made me reflect on myself and the epilogue is really touching. For a book on a person recovering from bulimia and anorexia, it was less “beware or else” and more vulnerable. It is truly a very relatable and enjoyable read.

I bought the eBook version from Kobo for $9.39.