DEATH

Passing Away of A Friend

It is with much sadness to say that a friend passed away* on 30th October 2013 (which happened to be on her daughter's birthday). I am not trying to sound morbid although I do every now and then as the word 'death' reminds you that you are not immortal and we will all leave this earth one day to be united with our maker. At the same time it humbles us and we begin to think that past hurt is a past and whatever that had happened in the past is no longer important. Let us cherish our love ones, treat each other with compassion and respect every moments of our lives.

 

Tribute to a friend

 

Dear HSH, your passing at such a young age is a great loss to your daughter, young son, family members and all your friends who love you. Words cannot describe the sadness that is looming in my heart (the tears that is welling in my eyes) when I heard the news and I can only imagine how your children would have felt. The tribute written by your daughter saddens my heart even further as she states that she had lost a wonderful mother, a friend and how you will never watch her graduate, see her on her wedding day and held her firstborn.

 

You are a wonderful woman and you smile all the time. You are tough but not a pushover. Most of all you exudes love and it was felt by all who knows you. Rest in peace and may God bless your soul.

 

*Cancer is such a treacherous disease of the mind and body. Let us all pray that a cure will be found.

 

:(

 

 

 

TRAVEL

Hiking At Nepal

Wednesday! Mid working week. Should my countdown to my break starts now, well it's still more than two weeks away.

As I will be doing plenty of walking and hiking in Nepal, I do not think ballet flats or heels is suitable for this trip. I have seen so many blogs where the blogger actually travel and walk on four inches heels (I mean seriously even walking in the city with four inches heels cannot possibly last you more than three hours straight unless it's really a sit down holiday). For one I am not built to walk in four inches heels for long duration as I can be rather clumsy. Besides I think my travel style is comfort all the way though looking nice is a plus point.

 

I have ordered a pair of combat boots from Shopbop and it looks good and the comfort level is way up there. There's a mini heel at about one inch perhaps. Ha ha. Better than nothing I suppose.

 

 

Sam Edelman Combat Boots*

 

*Review

 

I have yet to test this on the road yet and I think I should as you would not want the new shoe to pinch any part of your leg during any trips at all as it will be so uncomfortable and you might just regret purchasing the shoe in the first place.

 

Anyway so far I think it has a good weight (not too heavy), fits the shape of my foot and enough comfort and padding on the ball of the foot while walking.

 

I like this pair as it has a few options for you to wear the shoe, either via the front (the lace up feature) or just slip in by unzipping the back feature (and it comes with double buckle at the back of the shoe). Nice touch I must say.

 

 

Women and shoes, what a terrible combination. I just cannot have enough of shoes but I also realise that I always stick with the same pair of shoes that provides comfort the most but then again not every occasion warrant for the same pair of shoe. So my purchase here is justified (I hope H reads this).

 

Chow :)

 

 





 

HEADPHONES

The Travelling Headphones

I am so looking forward to my next trip. Yes, will be leaving the children and H behind. It is time for H to harness his fatherly love and for him to hone his skills (which he claimed he possess over the children). We will see.

OK the thing with flying is that you are always provided with the cheap plasticky looking ear phones for you to plug into the airplanes entertainment system. Not only that it does not hold it's place half the time, it flattens the hair and it is not flattering on whatever hairstyle you are having as by the time you reach your destination to start your holiday your hair is a *blah*.

I have made two purchases recently and I am trying to see which one I will be taking with me to my holiday.

 

 

One is from Jonathan Adler (very stylish looking) and another is just Sonic-Ear (simple).

I guess I am returning the Jonathan Adler one as I suddenly remembered that I do not need a hairband like apparatus above my head, besides I do not want to attract too much attraction with its stark and bright design. So I am sticking with Sonic-Ear as the head piece is really behind your head and it hangs there (I don't think it will ruin my hair and gives me a flat head look). It's simple and very discreet looking. I know some people favours ear phones but I find them annoying as I can never find anything that fits properly. Guess it's my only problem though it does allow for easy storage.

Counting down to my holiday now.

EXERCISE

New Attire & Gear

After giving birth to two kids, the body is never the same. Welcoming saggy and hollow skin coupled with tiredness and lack of sleep almost every other night is not great actually.

It is all good and joyful to have the children but due to lack of exercise for the last three years I realised it is time to pick back up the habit to exercise.

I guess the best part of it is to shop for new attire.

Happiness!

Exercise here I come.

*Update as at 28th October 2013

Yes I have swam. The feeling is good. Exercise is supposed to give you that adrenaline rush and the pumping of blood from you heart to your whole body provides colour to your cheeks (flushed cheeks sans blush - the natural way) and strenghtens your muscles and joints too.

I bought the (traditional looking)  swimmer above due to several reasons:

Reason 1: Well, it does cover tummy bulges (pooch), ha ha but thank gawd mine is not that serious and I still favours two pieces; and

Reason 2: It's meant to be training swimmers for one reason, it stays put. Has anyone tried to swim in their bikinis? Well when you do freestyle, lets just say that the bikini will go left and right leaving your boobs uncovered. Urmmm ... not great.

Ok my next mission is to put my sneakers (aka trainers) to the test.

Happy exercising folks.

WATCH

Michael Kors & My Classic Tag Heuer

Another day to kill and it's only getting closer to Friday. I can feel it in the air. It's all good.

 

I have been having my old classic ladies Tag Heuer for the longest time. It was a gift from my father and the first 'luxury' watch I ever own at the age of 17 (yes, I do know that Tag is not that luxurious in comparison to other more well known brands like Roles or Patek Philippe perhaps). It is a sign of being a grown up as I still remember the day I stepped into the watch shop to purchase it. It's also a sign of entering adulthood as I was given the power to choose and I do know that children possess too much of that power too nowadays. (My son chooses what he wants to wear everyday and it drives me crazy. Anyhow I try to trick him into wearing what I want him to which works sometimes.)

 

My classic Tag Heuer which I am still using.

 

So I have been having this watch for the longest time (more than 10 years!!), crap I feel old now. Ha ha, but a good watch is an investment and it lasts forever if you take care of them. I am now into lifestyle watches as the fashion term coins it.

 

Michael Kors ('MK') watches are petty nifty if you want nice looking watches that does not cost a bomb and yet it is a cheat sheet that looks like those really expensive investment watches which I have mentioned here earlier. I bought a white MK sports watch recently. It has the potential to look even better (but at the price I am paying for the rubberised strap I do not think I will get the ceramic ones as the latter costs USD100 more).

 

 

MK Sports Watch

 

I have been eyeing a few MK watches from a website and it all looks good. I think I might just purchase another one or maybe two when the sale season hits (and hopefully they will be discounted). Other designs which I quite like are as shown below.

 

This is called MK 'The Everest'

This baby is such a Rolex lookalike at a fraction of the price. Love!

 

 

The real 'Kahuna' 

 

 

Decision time .... which to choose now?

 

Have a good Wednesday :)

 

 

 

 



 

HOLIDAY

Pangkor Laut Resort ("PLR")

Tuesday feels like ages away from Friday which happens to be one of my favourite day (next to Saturday of course). After a heavy lunch of Swedish meatballs at Ikea (am really wondering what is the fuss about the meatballs as it's tastes 'just so so') so I am back at my office thinking about my next trip. I was so hoping that H could score a work trip to Taiwan end of this month, unfortunately he's booked for a trial. What a bummer.

 

Anyway H ('Husband') and I plus the kids and in laws went to PLR during the recent break. We took the Residents Package which included food and accommodation.

 

This is my third time back there and this time with my two children. All in all nothing much has change but I like PLR as it's the closest thing to nature living (but a cheat as you are still living in a nice room with all the amenities). A lot of walking is required if you prefer not to take the car around the Resort which is the point as back home we just sit on our 'ass' the whole day. 

 

However do be warned if you are heading to PLR during the holiday season as it is a pain to catch a ferry to the Resort. This is the problem I faced upon arriving at the Marina to check in. H called a day prior to the trip to book the 1.00 pm ferry to the Resort and everything was confirmed but to my dismay when we arrived at the Marina we were told to wait. OK waiting is fine, but a 45 minutes wait is not fine when you are travelling with four children below the age of five. Further the YTL travel agent 'messed up' my accommodation booking - not only did they not provide me with adjoining rooms which I have specifically requested (which they confirmed that it's available when I paid) and the agent did not lock in the request for rooms to be on the ground floor. That was really annoying. I guess people will promise you the moon and the stars but after 'paying', everything spoken is of non-existent anymore.

 

Sometimes I wonder whether is it just me seeking for perfection or is it because I am expecting YTL to provide the top notch service which deemed to set them apart from others within the industry. Maybe I am wrong after all.

 

The food offered in the eateries is still pretty much the same though I think that the food quality has dropped slightly (Chapman Bay Cafe that is).

 

I guess if you are able to look beyond the booking mishap and the ferry wait there's something that you can look forward to. As for me it's my daughter's first visit to the beach and she thoroughly enjoyed playing with the sand (yup she liked it so much that she tried to eat the sand on a few occasions).

 

I am wondering when is my next break now.

 

There's a saying 'You need a break from a break' and I am looking forward to the next break already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHOES

AQUAZURRA THAT SEXY THING BOOTIES

I love Mondays because I received most of all my online orders at that day.

I have recently purchased a pair of to die for booties. It took me like three months to take the plunge whether to buy or not to buy. As usual it's the cost factor and how many wears will I get out of the shoes considering the fact that I can only wear four inches heels during weekdays and most of the time during weekdays I cannot be too dressy either considering the nature of my job (a lil' bit of conservativeness need to be kept at the office).

 

I took the plunge when this particular website that I frequent (rather often just to browse the beautiful products) offers FREE SHIPPING. Free Shipping is like gold to me as shipping from overseas is expensive but SECURE (you hear that POS M****** for losing my goods most of the time). Further when your overseas product arrives you have to pay an additional customs duties on top of the goods. So after much consideration and after scouting for the cheapest pair I pressed (my mouse) the PAY button.

 

One week later, VOILA!! It came. Yes the AQUAZZURA suede booties is here.

 

*I would have done a pedicure have I known these babies are here.

 

 

My quick review on the shoes is that IT IS TO DIE FOR (yes, I know I say this a lot about the things I purchase - but I really do love these). I usually only purchase four inches heels when it is a design that I think will stand out and will pop on the days when my clothes are just *blah*. It may be nude in colour but it is interesting and looks great. It is quite comfortable and follows the contours of my soles (which is a plus point, as usually high heels that I wear causes an arch in between my feet).

 

 

So who wears AQUAZZURA. Fashionista', Socialites, Celebrities and ME ;)

 

 

Enjoy and have a good Monday.

 

Cheers.