Sept- Update

I've been down with cough for about a week. Seems like the whole entire office infected with cough viruses and we are competing who can cough the loudest, longest, and bestest. Silly colleagues of mine. Well I can say, I am quite fortunate that I only having a night-cough. But still its pretty annoying, coz I always wake up in the middle of the night, coughing 2-3 times, took cough syrup and water, apply medicated oil, then continue to sleep again. Not a big matters coz I still can continue my sweet dream, but I feel like I'll be the most productive person if I could just sleep throughout the night.

So why do I took so long to recover from coughing? Okay, I can avoid chocolate, cold water, potato chips, popcorns, all the junk food thingy, which can worsen the cough...but I really extremely pretty cannot unable to tahan to avoid myself from eating chilies. Seriously. I have to had like a full spoon of chilies to eat my rice, to eat my noodle, to eat everything. So now I've repented myself and hope in the next few days I won't eat chilies anymore....at least until my cough subside. Please chilies...stay away from me right now....

Okay, enough for the coughing.




Another update is.....I HAVE PASSED MY JLPT N4!!!!

Meaning my goals for this year is achieved. Good job, Deb! :-D Here is the pics must show-off a bit nor, hahaha...well, vocab i got B, Grammar A, Reading B....quite disappointment but I still feel contented as long as I can pass this exam. Meaning, next year goal is N3 :-(

FYI, Last year 2011, My JLPT N5 results, are all A....

Okay, the last update is....in order to celebrate this....I've bought myself a MACBOOK PRO!!!

No lah joking. There is a story behind it. It was happened on July, when my faithful Toshiba laptop angry with me, decided to give up on me... She has been serving me for a good 5 years so it's kind of expected that she bored of me. LOL

When I was about to blog in one fine evening, it just didn't want to turn on, keep on restarting by itself and the screen was totally blank. Panic. Next day, I brought it to Sim Lim square and get it repaired for few hundred bucks (which now I regretted coz I strongly believed that the shop cheated me. But it's okay in my heart if this is the way they do their business, it won't last for long for sure. There will be a retribution which I may not be witnessing by myself, but I believe God will do his job. Seriously)  So after got it repaired. I happily brought back my Toshiba lappie and use it again. 

On August, it happened again. it didn't want to turn on. But this time round I won't bring it to the repaired shop and decided to buy new laptop. I had a few brands to consider such as Mac, Toshiba (again) , and HP. 

I believe it is by God's grace (not by coincidence) that my company is bringing Apple product and offering the staff purchase which only open for a week. Meaning all the Macbook, iPad, iPod, and etc will be offered to the staff at discounted price. In fact, I save few hundred bucks and for the first time I feel blessed working in this company. Yeah, after my three suffering years here.

So I ordered a Macbook Pro 13 inch, which specs: 2,9 GHz Dual Core Intel Core i7, 750 GB ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm, 2X4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM. Please refer to its website for any reference. But you know what, what a joke, this old Toshiba lappie decided to reconcile with me again. Itchy heart I tried to ON the lappie ( on the day after I made a staff purchase order) . And it worked perfectly fine. I just don't understand. It's kind of fate that in the end of the day, I had to purchase Macbook. I even told to Mel, should I cancel my purchase or buy it and resell it again? But end up, I will donate my old Toshiba to my sis in Jakarta and using Macbook from now, hehehe.....Na, if you're reading this, this old Toshiba for your x'mas present :-D 

Last week, I collected my Macbook Pro at Funan. This week been busy installing the screen protector, or whatever protector/ casing which can protect my lovely Macbook. I am still learning how to use Mac O/S right now. In fact, it took me an hour to write this post on my new Macbook :-D

So now in the day I'm using WIN 7 at my office. At night, I'm using MAC. Hope we can get along well.

Ps: I'm still considering to purchase Office 2011 for MAC or waiting WIN 8 launch in Oct? Confuse confuse.....

Okay, that's all. Thanks for reading.

-Deb-

Simpliclear Braces

Yeah! Finally I got courage to write this post.

Jeng Jeng Jeng....like most of you already know...I'm on freaking braces right now! *clap clap*

This post is going to be long so...you may skip this post if you aren't interested about my life.



1. WHY?

After my 25 good years, WHY NOW I WANNA PUT BRACES?
First, It's been my dream to have a straight teeth and neat and beautiful teeth (esp when smiling) but I always back off due to the price and time and pain. To be honest, my mum always wanted me to put on braces since I was secondary school. But back at that time, braces was like very ugly and not pleasant to the eye. Especially after watched Betty La Fea film which story about the braces+ nerd girl who stay single forever coz of her looks (and her metal mouth braces, too) so I changed my mind and have negative thots about braces. :-D


2. WHEN?

So like struck by lightning. It was happened 2 months ago when my gum was terribly sore and after a quick visit to dental clinic, the dentist told me that I am having an impacted wisdom tooth (again!?) so have to be extracted as soon as possible. Okay after the extraction, the dentist examined my tooth X-ray and found out there is something wrong with the gum under my molar teeth and suggesting me to meet an endodontist at once...Of course when you meet endodontist, what they can suggest you is to go for a root canal treatment and crowning. Cut story short, after discussing here and there, calculated the estimated cost 3 molars root canal treatment + crowning will cost me about $6K. Just 3 teeth hor = $ 6K. I screamed unbelievably like a banshee. So expensive!

Then I went to another dental clinic for second opinion, which is not endodontics/ prosthodontics, but just a normal dentist. Okay to give a little bit of background, Endodontist is a professional dentist for root canal treatment. Prosthodontist is a professional dentist for cosmetic dentistry such as crown, bridge, and dental implants. Orthodontist for braces one. Periodontist for gum-specialist one. Oh ya the one that extracted my second wisdom tooth is a Periodontist that is why she could clearly examine something wrong with gum under my molar teeth. Shit! no wonder I've spent $250 plus just to get my teeth extracted!
Okay back to the topic, this dentist is asking me if I have a plan for straightening my teeth in the near future and I said yes! Then he was suggesting me, rather than do root canal + crowning $6k for 3 molar teeth which is very risky (the tooth might break during root canal process and decay and stuff like that). I could use same amount of $ to just take away my stupid molar teeth and doing braces instead. Long story short, after he explained to me about braces pros and cons, etc...I've decided to put on braces... Thanks to my vanity, I chose this simpliclear braces coz it's white and pleasant to the eye. No more metal mouth hey! I'm a plastic simpliclear mouth. :-D


3. TYPE OF BRACES
So lazy to explain...basically got 4 types la.

1. Full metal braces (traditional metal wired braces)
please refer to Betty La Fea picture for more details.

2. Clear braces
The brackets are clear transparent or white to the teeth colour. But wired are from metal.

3. Lingual braces
Metal braces, but very torturing one. coz bonded to the back of the teeth. Can't imagine it though.

4. Simpliclear.
White bracket with transparent wired. Please look out for me I'll show you mine, hehehe....



4. PROCESS.
I can't explain so much about the process. Basically after I agreed to use Simpliclear, signed contract, and did an impression model of my teeth. I've got to wait for few weeks to get the treatment plan and materials from Biomers ( the Simpliclear's company) and start to do bonding. I mean, bonding the bracket to each of my teeth and put on wire on it. The bonding just took about an hour and what I did is just open my mouth, use their tools (not sure what't the name of it) to make my mouth keeps wide-open, and let the dentist do the bonding job.
Right after treatment, was like hell I tell ya. My mouth was sore and tender and sensitive and as far as I remember, I took almost 1 hour just to chew my dinner. No appetite for the next few days. As a result, I lost few pounds. Yeah! Bless in disguise, though.


5. PRESENT.
Now I am still adapting to my braces and one of the most inconvenient is to clean after food. I need at least 5 times brushing my teeth throughout the day. And flossing every single night without fail. Always have to remember to bring toothbrush kit in my bag.
I rather starve myself to die rather than having snack then have to brush my teeth again. No more chocolate. No more soft drink. No more hot coffee ( unless I use straw to drink coffee, which is very odd) No more curry. No more potato chips/ peanuts.
Ohh sometime I still slipped few words when I'm talking. Then quickly correct myself to avoid embarrassment. Must SMILE BIG in order not to have my lips stuck on the bracket. And put MORE ENERGY to TALK properly otherwise few words may have just slipped / pronounced wrongly.
Other than that, I am happy with my braces.



6. FUTURE
Next appointment is to have my molar teeth extracted. Anyway these are bad problematic molar teeth which supposed to be root canal+crown but I decided just to get extracted in order to create space for my braces treatment. I really wanted to show how my braces looks like but dammit my teeth still crooked and ugly. Gimme more time till a bit straight and presentable. Meantime, I'll gather some courage to show y'all yeah.  Still 2 years to go. Sometime I feel stupid and I was like questioning to myself, Why am I doing this!? Waste my money and my time! But every time my negative thinking surfaces, I quickly swapped it with positive thinking which is like, yeah it's a temporary investment in order to have a perfect nice straight teeth. Orthodontics is great solution to straighten teeth as well as improve bites and prolong the life of the teeth, etc.  please be patience, Deb!
Wish me luck. And will update soon after my next visit.

-Deb-

Fancl Moisturizing

Hi Guys,

I've been participating in FANCL product trial for 2 weeks. 

FANCL is planning to bring their Japan product range to Singapore. So, one of their preparation is to gather some members (like me, so if you are FANCL members too, they might contact you soon) to try on their Japanese product and brings some feedback/review by filling up questionnaire. And guess what, the products are imported directly from FANCL Japan. And guess what again. it's FREE!  :-D

Because I'm having a combination-oily skin, with some *occasional acne*. After quick consultation (I think it's more to explaining the product rather than examine my skin), they gave me these:

A set of FANCL Moisturizing I product

I is for normal young skin (more oily skin type)

II is for dry old skin ( less oily skin type)

So now you know that even if you have oily skin, you still have to moisturize it, yeah!

A set of FANCL Moisturizing I product

This is how the bottles look like.

So, I will show you how to use it. Before that, for more details on products, click here

Step 0: Good clean skin is a MUST before doing my skin care routine. So I clean my make up ( night time) with FANCL cleansing oil ( the review, click here) and double cleansing it with facial wash. The best is actually using FANCL facial powder wash la but for the sake of saving $, I'm using my own facial wash. 

Step 1: FANCL Moisturizing Lotion.

Lotion is actually a toner- like for Japanese. 

How to use it, just pour a little bit to your palm, spread it all over the face, and pat gently which promotes best absorbency into your skin. So if you are using Japanese lotion (aka toner), don't need to use cotton balls/pads. 

Step 2: FANCL Moisturizing Essence

It is basically just a moisturizer so apply it as per normal moisturizer. 

Squeeze like a 10 cents coin, spread all over face, and pat gently again. 

The key is light hand to apply this moisturizer. Your face is delicate skin that is why need gentle treatment. 

Step 3: FANCL Moisturizing Emulsion

Not too sure what is this, I never trying emulsion before. 

Maybe it's something like serum but I like this more than the essence one. 

Why? 

First, because it's gel. 

Second, it's less sticky and quick absorbent to the skin

Step 4:  FANCL Moisturizing Mask.

Consist of 6 sachets. use only twice a week.

How to use it, As per normal sheet-mask. Put on mask for 15 mins. Take it off. Massage gently the remaining serum on your face. Done! 

It's optional but for me, I like to chill it in the fridge before using it, in order to give a cooling/ soothing and relaxing sensation.  A little bit sticky so I recommend using it in the night just before you sleep. 

So now, I've been religiously using these products. I can see big improvement on my skin. My skin is moisturized and hydrated pretty well, less oily, and having a *toing toing* feeling just right after apply the product. And notice some minor breakout, but not to worry I got tea-tree oil to treat this focusly. 

 Just another 1 week to go before I submit the questionnaire to the nearby FANCL outlet and get $50 voucher soon, hehe...

Now I dilemma, if the product finish then how I get it in Singapore? Should I buy it online? or should I just wait until it launch here? 

hmmm...maybe I should try the whitening-range one?

*Mumbling*

-Deb-

Clinique- Loose Powder

Honestly speaking, I really in love with MAC loose powder. The post can be read, here.

Love MAC very much. It's sheer- coverage but yet still can cover my impurities perfectly.

It's perfectly fine, till I realized after few weeks wearing that and I went to facial (on monthly basis), While doing my facial, I had a little talk with my beautician  Here is the conversation.

G: "Deb, do you just changed skin care routine?". 

D: (I was like, " what!? how come she knew? ) "Yes I changed my loose powder to MAC recently and love the coverage, etc etc...."

G: (She replied, short and steady) " Yes, I agree with you, Deb. Coverage is good but one thing that we (girls) want to achieve is a good skin so that we don't need so much coverage. " She continued, " I saw major changes on your skin, especially at temple and forehead area whereby now there's a lot of bumpy oil trap there....you have to *tahan* during extraction time, okie" 

D: .....

Yeah, She was politely saying that maybe MAC is just not for me. And SHE IS RIGHT. When I think back, even when I double/ tripled cleansing end of the day, I still have these oily trap on my face and tell you what, It's freaking painful when extraction!  So with this little simply talk, I decided to swap back to my boring  routine Clinique. 

I'm on shade 03 transparency. 

-Deb-

TGIF! Cupcakes Party

One Friday, We had A small cupcakes party celebration. 

Be warned it's not a normal cupcakes, yeah! :-D 

That night we took lots of photos and savour the liquor cupcakes with a contented plus a bit guilty heart. YES. LIQUOR CUPCAKES! 

Finished all 6 cupcakes at one shots. No mercy. No diet programme on that night. Just Eat. 

Lychee Martini >< Gabriel Victor >< Andre Lawrence

Sex on the Beach >< Rum& Raisins >< Tequila Sunrise

Happy face! 

No diet programme once in awhile doesn't kill, though.

Moreover, got companion some more.

Thanks, Mel :-D

-Deb-

Bali-Day 5 home sweet home

Okay, last day of my Bali trip....finally...

Quick one. After check-out, we went to Warung Made for lunch break.

Here finally I tried Bebek Betutu. First time try duck meat like a chicken. Or maybe they conned us, who knows!? :-D Kidding.....

 Bebek Betutu

Tom Yum Soup

Waiting for the flight, we hang out at Starbucks @ Kuta. Ordered blueberry cheesecake and mocha frapuccino...Did some last- minute shopping, just to found out that the price is much more higher than elsewhere. Could you imagine a Bali shirt Rp 50,000 at Kuta, where you can find exactly the same shirt Rp 18,000 at Tanah Lot. Fainted. 

Blueberry Cheesecake @ Starbucks.

Holiday in Bali is not cheap also...my flight from Singapore to Bali approx SGD 400+. accommodation+ rental car+ eating places etc would be another few hundred bucks. Even if SGD is high right now (approx 1 SGD = Rp. 7200++) , still holiday in Bali is costly.

Having said that, I will definitely come back someday for holiday again...

Okay, that would be all. 

-Deb-  

Bali- Day 4

Morning, we went to Tanjung Benoa for snorkelling. Tanjung Benoa is the most well-known place for water sports. Jet-ski, banana boat, flying fish, snorkelling, sea-walking, and scuba diving, you name it! Not only that, they have seafood market trip and cooking classes, too.

After a quick brief on how to snorkel, use the mask, fin, and something like that. With the motorized boat, we were going to the middle of the sea, which below underwater scenery present. Lots of beautiful reef, fishes, breath-taking scenery.....Oh dear, it's a bullshit!
Yes, there are lots of beautiful reefs and fishes but we couldn't see a thing. The water is dirty and contain lots of sands. Blur vision. What a disappointment. But it's ok no pain no game. At least I've experienced snorkelling in Bali, huh :-D 

For lunch break, we went to Beach walk, the biggest mall located just opposite of Kuta beach. More info, here. The food court at the highest level of building ( forget what's the name), offer lots of traditional Indonesian food such as Mie Kangkung, Mie Kepiting, and Tahu Gejrot. 

Tahu Gejrot

Mie Kangkung

Having a good lunch, we proceed to walk around Kuta Beach again. Come to my surprise (or maybe I just realized, after 4 days in Bali), the locals never sell fresh coconut water! Why oh why they only sell soft drinks. 

For dinner, we went to Cafe Bali at Seminyak. 

Going to Cafe Bali

Cafe Bali

 Beef spinach Lasagna.

Too much spinach rather than beef

Soon after, we headed to Kudeta, a good place to chill out and sip cocktail :-D

We ordered off the cuff, mojito, and beers. More info click here

Ku De Ta @ Bali

Sit on the daybed -sky show arena

Ku De Ta @ Entrance

Enjoying sea- breeze at night.

We walk back to the hotel, which like only took about 10 minutes walking. Enjoying the last night in Bali. Love this place so much. At Seminyak, the night is livelier and happening with lots of ang mohs searching for entertainment. I'll definitely come back to Seminyak again to fish one :-D

-Deb-

Bali- Day 3

Day 3 in Bali, we went to three destinations.

After having a good breakfast at hotel, we prepared all the stuff (mostly snacks and drinks) for a day outing.

First destination, Dreamland beach @ Uluwatu.

Dreamland beach, a most well-known as New Kuta Beach, located at Bukit Peninsula....just an hour away from the city. The beach has beautiful waves and white sands, which attracts surfers from all over the world, a place to worth a stop if you visit Bali.

Dreamland @ Bali

We went back to Seminyak area, Warisan Restaurant for a quick lunch. The price is quite expensive as this restaurant is categorized as fine dining restaurant. Serve many varieties of French and Mediterranean menu. So here are for lunch!  

Penne A la Sicilian with Prawn, Zucchini, Capsicum, Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Parmesan Cheese

*what a long name*sweat*

 Linguine Carbonara

Okay, second destination is Tanah Lot.

About half an hour journey, we reached Tanah Lot at about 3pm. The most interesting about Tanah Lot is, When high-tide, the temple looks like a floating temple. When low tide, there is a passage surfaces so that the people can walk to the temple. Seeing Tanah Lot for the second time, it never failed me to say how big is our God, our creator of the universe.

Luckily it's a low-tide so that we are able to walk closer to the temple.

Okay, the temple upstairs there is forbidden

Tanah Lot-closer look.

Holy spring water.

Enjoying scenery by the sea, sipping fresh coconut water Rp 50,000

Last destination: Dinner at Jimbaran.

It's just a dinner by the beach, on the sunset, with the fresh mouth-watering seafood. That's all. Price-hike coz lots of tourist comes for a dinner. 

No picture taken here as my batt low at that time. So I goggled below photos for illustration. 

After that, we went back to hotel, having a good night rest. 

-Deb-

Desaru- Weekend Retreat 2012

We stayed at Pulai Desaru for 2 days 1 night. It was a weekend cum retreat cum fellowship cum bday celebration for one of our sister, Fefe. 

Although it was a short trip but I really enjoyed this trip very much. Well, I can say it was very fruitful, a good opportunity for us to get to know each other. Not to forget, thanks so much for the organizers who put time and effort to make it happen. :-D 

Day 1. 

Gathered in Outram Park MRT station at 8.30am. As most of Indonesian usually do, I was late for 15 mins. :-D    Sorry, guys! 

The journey from Singapore to Desaru was about 2.5 hours and I was asleep in the bus throughout the journey. Reached there at about 12.30pm. Check in hotel room and settle down (for awhile), we proceed for an outdoor game. Here are the photos of Pulai Desaru resort.

 Information board at the lobby

 Desaru is a small tiny island beside Singapore

The road to swimming pool

Okay, the outdoor games required lots of stamina, I don't really like it especially after the long bus journey. But to give face to the game-master, ok lah play enthusiastic a bit.  (Can I say that's a form of compassionate!? uhm...hope he's not reading this) 

Cut story short, there are 2 groups consist of 4 persons. Cut story short again, after 2 rounds of games, end up we lose by 5 points behind. 

So this is our group photo with our *playground/ plaza made from sand*

All handmade. Seriously. 

Loser team. It's okie. The most important thing is team-bonding.

:-D

We have free & easy time, which we use that time to..... go swimming. 

Swimming pool by the sea.

After swimming, most of the girls play volley. Me going back to the hotel room for a quick bath and chill out in the hotel room. Indeed, I am a loner....just wanna be alone and chill out/ watching TV in the hotel room. 

At 7pm, we gathered at lobby to have a dinner. It's a buffet dinner which price RM 35++. At first, we were so happy wah so cheap wah so affordable and stuff like that. End up, after eating happily and greedily *ahem*, the bill came, and the truth is up. RM 35+ is only lunch buffet. The dinner buffet is RM 65+...we were like uhmm...okay...then we paid. 

For me personally, this minor thingy sometime will be very irritating, but don't let it ruin our holiday. Remember our purpose of having holiday is to have fun. Anyway the buffet was also quite good, I like the sausage and the soup very much, and the pasta, too...although lots of flies flying here and there :-D 

*Relax relax....take a deep breath*

Fusilli and Spaghetti

After dinner, we proceed to the boy's room (again) to prepare the birthday celebration for a sister in LG. I don't want to tell you who is the birthday girl, it's a secret. We're not so close (yet) and I'm not sure whether she is mind anot :-D

So we prepared a card, candles, balloons (blow manually together okay!?), and birthday present. She was very happy. 

 Happy 26th bday!

Then we went for a drink...We enjoyed the night by sipping cocktail or beer and asking few questions to get to know each others.
For me personally, being a Christian doesn't mean that I have to be holy all the time. What's wrong with drinking cocktail during holiday? It's not that I will do binge drinking and start doing something stupid...Drinking in moderate should be fine....:-D
I don't know why now I have a habit of trying Pina Colada during holiday trip. errmmm...but still, the nicest Pina Colada that I had, was in Phi Phi Island. Superb! Maybe *Kena Mel's influences, LOL*
So that's the end of day 1. We went back to our room to sleep. ready for the next day. 

Pina Colada RM 30

Singapore Slings

Joel said it's like cough syrup.

Day 2.
Wake up quite early @ 7am, we gathered at lobby again to have a breakfast.
Taking a walk after breakfast, let the food digest....exploring the hotel, enjoying the scenery.  Sooo heaven!

Okay, It's P&W and sharing session. We learnt about Relational Evangelism.

After that, we had 1 hour to pack up and do solitude time. Wah, my favourite!
So without further due, I just walked to the beach, sit by the water, enjoy scenery, talk to God, and jot down on what I've learnt today.

Sitting at hammock, jotting down in a new note

 Still got time to cam-whoring some more.

*Faint*

After that, we chit chat and having a light lunch while waiting for the bus to come.

We reached Singapore at around 4pm. Home sweet home.

Indeed, it's a tiring trip but thanks God it was a fruitful trip, too...Okay that's all. I'm ending this post by this photo. My fave photo ever! 

 Footprint by the water.

-Deb-