But it will be a good Christmas!

Jack has got sitches around his lips but he is still smiling okay. And there’s me. Smiling too.

Thank you.

I didn’t remember saying that.

(the multiple aaa is to show that it feels really shiok)

So i promised to pamper myself regularly.

Especially after so much traveling. Everytime after i travel i sure get sick one. I have this post-travel complex. Bad skin, bad health, bad mood (cuz too many things to do, and i go bonkers when i have more than one thing that need my immediate attention).

So today i’m having a Garnier home spa!

Ingredient:

Garnier
Jim Brickman Ballads
One Fifth Avenue 

I was thinking of aroma therapy also but the Garnier mask smells quite good so don’t waste ma.

First let’s switch on the ever so soothing ballad.

Then start with Garnier PureA scrub wash.

Comes with  Eucalyptus leaf extract, and notice the tiny blue beads for exfoliation and removing impurities. Gently rub them on face, massage especially on T zone, then rinse.

After cleansing it is the mask time!

Garnier Pure self-heating sauna mask.

Comes with cucumber extract and smells really good! The thick light blue liquid slowly turns warm in your palm.

Apply it on your face!

As i have combination skin, i only apply it on my oily T-zone and avoided my sensitive cheeks.

Wooo i can feel it heating up on my skin! I think it makes a good winter mask! 😀

And then you can rest for awhile and do whatever you want. I went into One Fifth Avenue (love the book). And waited for 3 minutes. Ok since i’m such a slow reader i only managed to read like, 2 pages.

Then rinse face thoroughly!

Skin feels tighter and completely shine-free (but got a natural radiant glow. There’s a difference!)

My therapy was a CD’s length. But the face treatment was so simple and time-effective! I had like 7 more songs to go, so i decided to give myself a manicure and light make-over.

That’s my vainity cubicle.

New nails.

Gorgeous nails + good skin.

Now i can go out to see people liao (without cap and giant shades).

=D

So Yuriko had arranged the school visit on the second day. I did a bit of homework. Prepared some big ass posters of Malaysian fruits and the twin towers and stuff, some Rasa Sayang songs, and… nemai i would just make something up if i run of out things to talk about.

I don’t think anyone of them has ever been to Malaysia!

It looks just like how a school is in a Japanese drama. The shoe racks and all.

They had a request, though. They wanted me to speak in English or Malay (i was so glad i was given a choice, i was so afraid they wanted me to speak both) instead of Japanese because of the, you know, whole culture thing.

So i spoke English reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal slow. And that only contributed more confusion and cluelessness to their collective little face. Then i would explain in Japanese then they would go ahhhhh.

I swear i had done enough homework beforehand to avoid any embarrassment. I have checked the amount of population in my home country, the number of levels on the twin towers, the climate pattern, and double checked the name of our prime minister (just in case).

And then this little boy asked, with his eyes blinking with intense curiosity,

“Do the people in Malaysia have the same blood type as Japanese people?”

For a brief moment i wondered if that was the reason why i flunked my Science in highschool, before i realized that all the homework i had done the previous night would have been entirely unecessary because

was something they were more interested in.

It was much fun. Only one of them has ever eaten a Durian before (whose dad has business in S.E.A countries). They rest went completely awestruck. By they i mean everyone in the classroom, teachers included.

They thought Rambutan was Lychee. The thought the mosque was a shopping mall. They exclaimed in amazement at the sight of a Langkawi beach. They gasped at the fact that when you cut a star fruit it really looks like a star. They were sorry that Malaysia doesn’t snow (apparently it’s something to feel sorry for). They are shocked that Malaysian students only have one type of school uniform (“ehhh? Not cold during winter?” and then stopped himself immediately in embarrassment realizing the obvious fact that there’s none in Malaysia).

And i sighed at the beauty of their young, innocence heart.

After (my) class, they were super excited to show me around the school at lunch time.

Some of them tugged my overcoat eagerly wanting me to follow, some of them pull my hand (Rena chan), walked by my side and went all giggly (lol, What’s so funny Gwen Stefanie?), some of them just ran and hide into a corner looking shy.

They showed me their art work.

Suddenly i felt as if i was a character in one of those (hard to understand but supposedly meaningful) movie about summer holidays at Japanese primary school that has unexpected won a César Award. Or something.

Where at the ending they all jump happily rushing out, get on their bicycles and paddle off into a vast greenfield. Sounds like it, doesn’t it?

Except that it was winter and was freezing cold.

They are the bane of all peace sign photo posing. After doing it 8325120332 times in a row, i somehow lost the ability to pose without a peace sign, up till today.

I don’t understand what is so ineteresting about their text book, or rather, me looking at their text book. But they all seemed immensely fascinated with me flipping through the pages.

The boys were the shy ones. They pretended to be uninterested (maybe it’s a cool thing to do, to pretend to be uninterested in a new girl at school, although the girl is twice their age, precisely.)and buried their heads in homework.  But just before i left, they had requested (through the teacher) that they wanted a photo with me.

So cute.

Rena chan showed me the toilet. It was impossibly clean compared to the one in my highschool. (Honestly, i still have occasional nightmare about school toilets until today. Sometimes in my dream the toilets are full of people and i had to go in a doorless toilet hoping no one would look my way, sometimes the toilet floor would be flooded i had to wear Wellingtons and walk in pee. Imagine how haunting school toilets are.)

Then they brought me outside to see the pond and the garden and the bunnies (they kept two bunnies at the back of the school).

And took a picture in front of the school.

Believe it or not they are all 12 years old. Rena chan (next to me) is super tiny i thought she was 6 whereas one of the girls is like, 170cm.

The headmistress was very pleased with my visit. She made me tea. The 6 grade students also made me potato salad (during their Kemahiran Hidup class or whatever) for lunch. It was very very nice.

Group picture with 5A class.

Group picture with 5B class.

Group picture with the 6 grade.

And hugs.

And it was one of the happiest days (and many to come) during my Japan trip.

Before i left,

We went to the music room, because the 6 grade students had prepared a song for me.

They sang really really really well, so unexpectedly well i almost teared (i would have cried if i hadn’t tried very hard to tahan).

Here’s the video.

I had problem uploading the high res file. So pls bear with the bad visual. But you can still listen clearly. 🙂

Two days later, Yuriko passed me a copy of the school’s newsletter.

And i felt so glad i met them.

Ok. So the thing is, Yuriko is a great cook. No doubt. And she is very creative with food.

But.

I mean, this is totally not her fault. But.

(long post. click to read)

17th December 2008. I took a 3-hour train from Shinjuku to Nagano to meet my host family for the first time.

I enjoyed the journey very much. The scenery was the best i’ve ever seen through a train window.

Nagano is a mountain place. Colder than other big cities.

Snow mountains everywhere.

3 hours later i reached Matsumoto. And Yuriko was at the station waiting for me with her daughter Ai chan.

Just 1 minute after meeting me she was already posing for my camera. ^^

Going back home to the snow white house. If you remember. Neh, my attic bedroom which has a window that allows me to gaze at the shining stars in the nightsky lying on my bed. 🙂

Ai chan wanted to play with me.

This is not a fan, but a halogen heater. Cool leh. Well i don’t mean cool, cool.

I was immediatedly treated to one of Matumoto’s specialty: Ringo.

(Which is also the main reason why i began feeling apprehensive about my own name because every single day Yuriko asked the kids “do you wanna eat Ringo?” and no matter how i tried to dismiss it as a joke [which it is not, she was dead serious] it sounded wrong.)

And some savory snacks.

Yuriko’s other kid, Kai, was very shy though. He refused to say hello to me.

(I dislike kids who refuse to say hello to me. I want to stuff their heads into the oven. But Kai was ok. He said hello to me on the third day or something. So i stopped wanting to stuff his head into the oven.)

Yuriko then brought me next door, to her parents’ house. Yuriko’s house is western cottage style while the parents’ one is traditional Japanese Washitsu.

Met Obaasan and Ojisan. And immediately i was treated to more local delicacies.

Kaki. Home made dried persimmon. Another specialty of Matsumoto city.

And some savory snacks.

At this point i was beginning to feel like a chimpanzee in the zoo. Everybody wants to feed me something.

The grandparents were very impressed by me. Or rather, i’d say that they were a little too easily impressed by anything at all. They ended everything with “sugoine!”, means, wow, great kinda thing. And they say it “sungoine” with a heavy nasal tone, which according to TK only very old people will use. And then we always like to mock the way they say it, cuz very very cute!

Anyway. They were like,

“You know how to speak Japanese? Sungoine!”
“You know how to speak Mandarin too? Sungoine!”
“And Malay also? Sungoine!” (It was a lie. I can’t speak Malay to save a dying pregnant lizard.)
“Is that your camera? Sungoine!”
“You take nice pictures! Sungoine!”

The list goes on.

They are one of the friendlist people i have met. Especially Ojisan. He seems to be fascinated with everything that’s been existing over the last 3 decades.

Yuriko then prepared dinner for us while i watched the weather forecast for the next day.

Really reaaaaaaally wonderful dinner for two adults and two kids (at least that was what i thought that day.) I was so touched and i felt so bloody lucky my foster mom can cook such amazing dinner (at least that was what i thought that day), and thought like, omg imma be a Japanese food expert in no time (yea, that was what i thought that day).

But, in actual fact, there’s something about Yuriko’s cooking that is… Well, i will tell you in the next entry.

Ok i know i’m very suah ku because i only heard about it last week and you have prolly read like a million reviews about it and for a brief instant i felt ashamed that the moment i entered the restaurant i actually gasped in amazement that such wonderful place exists in a country called Malaysia (i must add, though, that i am more ashamed about the fact that i couldn’t decide if the source of my shame came from the suah ku bit or the unpatriotic bit).

Ok, before i comment on this fancy little restaurant/store, i’d like to point out a piece of infomation that has much disturbed me.

Full House is located at this place called NZX. I was wondering what the acronym stands for. When i found out, i got a bit confused. It stands for Niu Ze Xui.

Then i started to wonder what Niu Ze Xui means. And when i found out i got a bit offended. It means 牛车水, means Cow Car Water, to put it in the simplest engrish. First of all it’s a freaking plagiarism of the Singaporean Chinatown, and secondly, whoever opened this bloody place didn’t even bother/have the decency to actually find out the correct pinyin. If the pinyin is wrong nemai, the thing is, such pinyin doesn’t exist.

Wtf is Xui? How turf do you pronounce Niu Ze Xui? No matter how slangy you make it sound, or try to pronounce in it every single dialect: Ngaw Che Sui (Canto), Gu Chia Jui (Hokkien) Ngiu Cha Sui (Hakka), it is almost impossible to come up with such atrocious pinyin. Unless the person was like, lying in the bed conceptualizing his/her/shims latest commercial project and thought, “hmmm, i really like beef and i hope i could change a bigger car next year and i’m thirsty now so why don’t we call it cow car water but how do you say it in Mandarin, exactly? And i don’t really think the length of my arm is long enough to reach my study room and grab me that dictionary so i think let’s settle for Niu Ze Xui and call it a day.” 

Then the next day he went and registered the brilliant name and printed hundreds of banners.

The correct pinyin, is, Niu Che Shui.  Please go back to kindergarten and learn your Chinese. Thank you very much.

When i told Oli about the place, he said it got him worried for a bit because he said he’s afraid he’ll have a hard time when he comes to Malaysia because he thought Malaysia has got a whole new set of pinyin what turf. (He just spent a lifetime perfecting the art of Shanghai pinyin and now he gets Niu Ze Xui what turf.)

Anyway! The restaurant! It’s supposed to be based on the Korean drama Full House. Whatever. I don’t see the resemblance whatsoever. The only thing they have in common is probably how they spell their name. And the sappy background music. I supposed they needed the sappy music, without which their theme would have looked a little short of inspiration.

Tiffany’s and Thomas’s favorite meal!! Wow, the names are really authentic Korean i must say.

However!!! I love the deco lo. Cheez i want to live there.

They sell their own brand of fashion apparel too. Eat and shop. Bring more money pls.

The yellow drink tasted fine if you don’t mind drinking perfume. But the green one was super nice! I hate mint, however, this particular one seems to have neutralized my hatred for that greeny stuff quite a fair bit. Now I can’t say that i haven’t developed a complex liking for it. Mint choco with jelly, was super awesome.

Me with perfume drink.

The signature wok seared chicken was good.

Jenny had her fried chic.

And Bear with her F&C.

Update:

Nah. Map as requested. Click.

END.

Btw, am i the only one in this world who thinks that Slumpdog Millionaire is not as nice as everyone fanatically claims so? Sure the story is thoughtful and all that but don’t you think the ending is just like what the hell is the point of the movie? Damsel in distress, villain who dies in the end and kissing at the railway and woohoo nominated for Oscar what the hell?!? Sorry i know i just spoiled it for you but i really think i’m doing you a favor by revealing the ending now than you finding out yourself. It’s disappointing.

Update: What turf it just won Oscar(s).

There’s really nothing to update but i’ll update anyway, because the lizard pic is real disturbing even *i* don’t feel like opening my blog. So i fast fast update lo. How about… my new hair? Yea that’ll be better than lizards.

It’s really confusing, i have like, a thousand pictures i need to blog: when i was having short hair in Shanghai, and pictures after my hair extension in Shanghai, then i have pictures of me with hair extension in Japan, and pictures of me after having my hair extension taken out in Japan, then i have pictures of Shanghai with my short wavy hair, and then i have pictures of my latest new hair extension in Shanghai, with the timing all jumbled up. So like, I can post two pictures and nobody could tell when they are taken.

I wonder if Confucius gets confused when he reads this.

By the way, hair salons in KL are so crap and expensive (very the yes offence, but then again maybe because i haven’t been to a nice one). I die also won’t do my hair extension here lo. Unless it is sponsored (YOU HEAR ME? OI?)!!!

It’s so not fair! All the Singaporean girl bloggers get sponsored extensions like, multiple times and i had to fly all the way to Shanghai to do mine (albeit cheap and awesome) but freaking hell nobody here owns a decent hair salon meh?!?

Can anyone tell me if there is any nice AND cheap hair salon around PJ? Or just sponsor my hair la. Please? I write for you! 😀

PS: Have spent some time replying some comments in old post! Go check if you have asked me a question.

I reckoned after so many yummy pictures of good food, it’s only fair i make you lose appetite.

It was the most disturbing thing i’ve ever seen in a kitchen sink.

The bugger was obesely pregnant. Its body was smooth and translucent with glowing pink intestines and wait a minute is that a freaking lizard egg?!?

And i suddenly thought of Xiaxue’s dramatic hatred for lizards and feeling extremely empathetic. They are srsly like one of the most disgusting things on earth.

So the fella won’t go anywhere except lying still like a corpse in my kitchen sink because i think it was too fat until cannot move and was about to give birth (what turf!!!) and i dunno what to do with it!!! 

If i went kacao it it might go crazy and jump all over me, which i’d rather die than to experience. If i don’t do anything to it it might just die there judging from its immobility, which means i would still have to pick it up anyhow. Just that i couldn’t decide which is more gross—-picking up a lizard that pretends to be a corpse or picking up an actual lizard corpse.

Now Typing this alone make me geli until i get goose bumps all over. My skin feels exactly like it has been crawled all over by a cold lizard, if i’m allowed to explain a tragedy with another tragedy.

So Ching came over for swim and she was like what turf is this lizard doing in your kitchen sink? I was like what turf do you think it is doing? It’s going to turfing die there and she was like, THROW IT AWAY LA and i was like HOW TO THROW A TURFING LIZARD AWAY!

(She thinks lizards are like rubbish!!!)

So she said, give me a piece of tissue. And i gave her a piece of tissue.

Then she picked the lizard up with the piece of tissue and flushed it down the toilet.

Just like that.

With hand.

Then we went to the mall and had Oyster mee suah for lunch.

So i was texting this friend about the disturbing alligator in my kitchen sink. And he dared me to pick up a pair of scissors and cut the fella into half  on the tummy for RM500 (of course this is a pseudo dare, we outdare each other all the time.)

“You must look at the lizard in the eye while doing it the honor,” said the friend.

I went all wobbly and weak. 

Ching said she would do it for RM500. So the friend upped the dare (hypothetical of course) to RM1,000 and asked her to do the following. This is his sms, verbatim.

Cut half, ‘juet’ (suck) all the juice and colon inside, cannot rinse mouth with water for one hour. Then say ‘i love yim se (lizard in cantonese)’ . 1k.

And that time i was having my wonderful meal. My stomach flipped. I texted him back.

We were eating mee suah. The oh tasted exactly like what you describe. Like lizard egg. I hate you.

 

lizard eggs.

Geez. Thanks.

You have no idea how geli it is to write this post. This is harder to write than advertorials. Every sentence i geli one time. I hope you feel equally geli reading it.

Update:

I’m attending Obama Magic in KL!

Roger Fisk, Obama’s National Director of Special Events, is coming to speak to all Malaysians for a full-day session on 2 March 2009 at the Petaling Jaya Hilton. Learn how the latest American President campaigned through the use of social networking and development of online communities.

Venue: Kristal Ballroom, Petaling Jaya Hilton
Date: 2nd March, 2009
Time: 8.30am – 5.00pm
Dress: Formal
Entry: RM850 (HRDF-Claimable via SBL scheme)

More info HERE!

*******************

I have decided to do a promotion for Cheeseroll and Couture for next month. Subscribe 2 months and get one month free! 🙂

Thus the price would be only RM60 (or SGD30) a month. Faster book your slot before 28th Feb 2009. Only 5 more slots available for each category. Email me ok!

Gotta go. Got a plane to catch. I dowan to end up liddis:

Wa you really think I will show you. Not a chance.

This is taken in Japan. For the first time I discovered the usefulness of fringe—It can conver up a very badly volcanoed forehead. (Then again I think because I have really oily hair, it contributes to my thus oily forehead, and little volcanoes on my forehead. Then you proceed to cover it with more fringe, which aggreviates more rupture on the surface. Gross.)

My skin became terribly dry when I went to Japan. I had to slab moisturizer every few hours just so my face doesn’t wither and become a raisin. Lips dry, and knees and toes itchy (I dunno why!!!!! I thought it was the Umeshu but apparently it is itchy until today!).

So I had to put on more make up to cover up the flaws. Because we were going to nice places to eat nice food and meet nice people and take nice pictures! And I need to have a nice face to go with all the nice things! But the make up actually flakes off because the skin is so dry. This is like the worst beauty disaster in the world.

So when I came back to Malaysia, ha-ha, guess what? It became worse. And oily.

Now I have one enormous pimple on the left brow, a few smaller ones on the nose. And more on the forehead what turf.

So i either:

Go undercover (distracting caps and giant shades are my current besties) or

feign a severe sickness and refuse to see anyone

Play anonymous. (because no amount of make-up can hide the chan-ness of the long sleepless holiday. Plus my skin needs to breathe.)

I think it’s karma for laughing at Jolin’s Ugly Face. T_T

ARrrgh i need to take good care of my face!

A salon treatment or two would do really good now but hardly go out and i’m really lazy to go out plus i don’t really wanna go out (people can see my ugly face) so i’m thinking of some home remedy. Something i can do while catching a DVD or preparing a blog post or reading a book. Plus i really hate those chinese-pop-songs-turn-music-box melody in those beauty salons!! You know which type?! And those facial sessions are so long until they have to repeat the whole CD like 2 or 3 times arrrrgh tragic.

So i thought i would just go for a relaxing home spa. No need to call a taxi to go out to spend 2 hours in a salon listening to Guang Liang’s Tong Hua music box.

Check out the ingredient:

First i would use Garnier anti-imperfection scrub wash that helps regulate sebum and tightens pores. It says that the exfloliating particles of natural origin will also help removing blackheads and impurities.

And then followed by a pack of Garnier Synergie Pure Sauna Mask. Sounds hot.

I am going to use them now. Brb.

*prepares own music box melody*

Another long post of Osaka—Tsutenkaku通天閣.

It is the most Osaka place of Osaka.

I just heard from the organizer that her concert has been postponed after the ‘events’ of the last week.

The concert is not cancelled, so ticket buyers, please hold on to your tickets and wait for future announcement regarding the replacement date.

Hope you’re not too browned off by it.