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2013-04-18

Interesting Read: Sleep by Murakami Haruki (Short Story)

It's in Chinese. 

I was in Kinokuniya picking up my mangas the other day and stopped by the Chinese novel section for a quick look since I was looking for a new book to read. This book, Sleep (ねむり) caught my eye instantly basically cos' of the cover and how pretty it looked (I was having trouble sleeping properly when I bought it). I simply bought it for 2 reasons - 1. the illustrations inside are really intriguing, 2. I've always wanted to read a book by Murakami Haruki, I've never read his works before since I wasn't a 'reading person' and everyone always told me how great his works were

This Chinese translated version is a remake I believe, they added in illustrations by Kat Menschik, which I thought was a really smart thing to do cos' the illustrations complimented the text a lot and some of the illustrations were so... captivating. The book was $15.84 in case you wanted to know, but I doubt it matters, it's a really good book. And since it's in Chinese and 75% of my Chinese friends can't read a full text in Chinese, so here's a English translation I found online

There's no proper synopsis written on the book itself actually, so here's a quick summary by me, I don't know if it's good enough or not but beats having none.

Quick 1-para Summary 


The book dictates the life of a 30 year old married woman who stayed awake for 17 days. The story began with describing her daily routine - waking up to make breakfast, sending her husband and children off, going grocery shopping, going for a swim, coming home to prepare lunch, dinner, and then sleep, and repeats cycle. It was until one day that she was woken up and couldn't fall asleep anymore. The book talks about how her life started to "change" after being awake for more than a day, and another day, and then another day. She started to live 2 different lives, her morning self, and her night self. She was the perfect housewife in the day, and she read books, drank whiskey, ate chocolates, went for walks in the night when she was awake in the night. Using the daily routines of the woman, the book explored topics like 'dreams', 'self', 'life' and even 'death'. You can read it online here, but I still think buying the book is best.

Here is my thoughts on the book (along with more details of the storyline), it's going to be really long and might contain some spoilers, so I'm putting it under a Read More cut (wow, I'm finally using Read More function huh).. 

2013-04-17

Tony Moly Eggpore Blackhead out Oil Gel

Recently jwen went to Korea so I asked her to help me get some skincare products!!

Tony Moly Eggpore Blackhead out Oil Gel

Details Of The Product Here
(oh hey, they're using Joomla) 

It's only ₩8,800 if you buy from Korea itself, THAT IS LESS THAN SGD$10!!!! I honestly think if you're getting this, you can just buy it online to save a little ^^ otherwise, you can buy them in stores too if you don't mind paying a bit more than what you could have gotten it for.

But that aside, here's some photos of it.



 I think.... the packaging is really cute, but honestly very redundant hahahhaa. I mean the whole top part is really just........................... nothing. And the packing somehow is a bit messy to deal with? Or maybe I'm just too clumsy for it. Either way, once you opened the cap up, you can see the gel inside, with bits of golden/orangey beads that will create the scrubbing effect later on! 


Basically, just letting you see how it looks when used. Yup. 

I've never really used blackhead removal products before, probably only the biore nose strip thing and previously some facial foam that I cannot even remember their brands but either way, those were pretty useless I guess. So this time I invested in a "proper" blackhead product and I guess it worked pretty well? 

The smell is sweet and when you start rubbing the gel onto your face you could feel the beads inside as though you're really scrubbing it with something (ofc you are scrubbing it with something, what am I even talking about). But it does take quite a bit of time for the whole scrubbing process, and after washing off the gel you can instantly feel like your skin is a bit smoother and blackheads removed! So it does work, but I guess most blackhead products work that way isn't it. 

Idk, i'm always skeptical about blackhead removal products I mean since the results isn't that permanent , you probably have to use this scrub every 2-3 days to remove blackheads and stuff. Cos' after not using it for 2-3 days my pores are slowly getting clogged and I could see some blackheads already, and being the lazy me, I think I probably wouldn't be dedicated enough to use it every other day (probably just once a week /lazy). 

I would say I liked it, except for the fact that the packaging is really a pain to deal with, I tend to mess up with the cap and can't really close it properly OTL Hopefully with consistent usage, the blackheads issue would improve even more!

Starting to try the Laneige Sleeping Mask now! Shall post my thoughts about it another day.


2013-04-10

阿嫲说:一白遮三丑。

哪三丑??

一白遮三丑 (yi bai zhe san chou) literally means One White Cover Three Ugly. Which 3 ugly, who knows. But since my grandma always say 女孩纸应该白白胖胖的 (girls should be fair and fat - literally white white fat fat) so I've always been aiming to become fair, and fat (no, i didn't aim to be, I merely am).

Either way, being fair in Singapore is SO HARD. Look at that horrible sun and all the heat every afternoon!! Plus, during lunch we gotta travel back and forth our new and old office, and the sun is REALLY horrible I tell you. And without proper sun-block and skin care product, tbh, I think I grew at least 1-2 shades darker in less than a month (which doesn't happen usually since I become fair pretty easily even if I tan). I WAS HORRIFIED. Whatever happened to 白白胖胖, I was 黑黑胖胖!!

Jokes aside, I was using Biore's sunblock previously but I decided it wasn't really good enough anymore, and I've been setting my eyes on Aqualabel for the longest time, and I finally caved in and bought their sunblock after considering over it for almost a month.



SPF 50+ \o/ It's watery when you squeeze it out, and it gets absorbed really fast! What I like about it is that there's no "oily" feel to it, and it's not like my face would be really sticky or something after using it (which is VERY important) And it brightens up the skin too, which acts as a very good base if you're the type like me who can't be bothered with make-ups ^ ^


And when I saw they had some whitening pack (3-in-1 box) I bought it immediately along with their sunblock. Not sure if it's still available as a pack now, but I think their product is really good at whitening omg (includes whitening toner, Emulsion, lotion/milk). Have been using it on and off once every few days (too lazy for daily application) and I must say it works really good! My skin got lighter, uneven skin-tone improved and my dark spots and stuff got lightened too!! It's really moisturizing too and it does make the skin have the QQ feel (lol).

Oh, But this product is really targeted at whitening and stuff only, so if you're looking for pore solutions or pimple scar, those kind of things right, I think this product itself wouldn't be enough, you'd probably have to use something else besides this to fix pore/blackheads issues (which I might blog about in another post later if I have the time lol)

So there you go, another expensive post of mine. I shall continue to work hard on becoming as fair as Sadako. Yosh.

2013-04-08

Hello Kitty x Tokidoki = dokidoki

Lame pun on title ikr.

But hey. $4 for 1 stamp, i bought $6 and got 3 stamps? I guess the cashier lady is feeling generous huh. But all's good anw, let's try collecting this then!

2013-04-07

My favourite moment

My favourite moment is when you're in a pretty empty train, you found a good spot, is listening to good music and reading a good book.

It always feels good to travel alone and just indulge in small things like this that makes you really happy.

Also, so far, ねむり is a very beautiful book. Can't wait to finish it.

2013-04-06

Wallet-kun has fainted and is unable to battle!

As title.

Met my favourite two kids today and had a wonderful day! We went to eat good ramen at Santouka (Clarke Quay, The Central) and then packed Dulcet & Studio's (godly) Strawberry Shortcake and went to Starbucks to have my favourite Iced Asian Dolce Latte! \o/

I have no idea how many people i've pimped that drink to, but I still spazz about it to everyone so I guess everyone pretty much know I'm obsessed already. Lol.

Hanging out with KY and Takachin is just way too much fun. I feel so loved and fortunate to meet QTs like them sobs. Quality time spent ☆‧⁺◟( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ ·̫ ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ )

I also bought 2 Chinese novels from Kinokuniya today! One is 睡 by 村上春樹 (Murakami Haruki) which apparently is a short story. The book looked really beautiful so I bought it (plus, i have been wanting to read his works since forever). And then the other book is some best-seller from Korea or sth, called 刺魚 by 趙昌仁 about this father who gave up everything and anything to save his dying child (9yo). Omg I think I'll blog anout these books after I finish them, they look reallyyyyy promising and i think I'll cry my eyeballs out for that fish book.

Today is a day well spent (but definitely not a good day for Wallet-kun, ごめんなさい)





2013-04-02

Lately,

I've been eating a lot of prawn noodles. And it's very safe for wallet-kun. Also, Hong Lim Food Centre has a lot of good, yummy and cheap food ☆