Darkschunt

I was walking through David Jones the other day when a perfume caught my eye.

Kate Moss' first perfume is out!

Most of you who have read earlier posts would know that I'm a huge fan of Kate Moss. And I'm really happy to find out that she's got a perfume out now too and it's fantabulous! And I'm not saying that just because I like Kate Moss. I popped one of the sample sticks in my bag and later at work, I was wondering what that delicious smell was and realised it was wafting from the sample in my open bag next to me. Kate Moss perfume is definitely on my Christmas list now. :)

This is the perfume launch.



And this is the Kate Moss perfume ad.



I got this description of Kate's perfume from the website Fragrantica: The vibrant floral-spicy opening of forget me not, orange blossom and pink pepper, transforms into an opulent mix of rose, peony and lily of the valley. Base notes of sandal wood, patchouli and musk reveal Kate's darker side. The perfume creator is Nathalie Lorson of Firmenich.


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Okay, once again I've broken my promise to post regularly but I just haven't been in the mood to blog. I think I want to redefine what my blog is about but I'm not sure yet what that'll be. But anyway, while I'm pondering that, enjoy a couple of pics that my sister finally sent me from the Gwen Stefani concert. It's only a few but hopefully I'll get more from her later but probably not until after her wedding is over since she's gone completely psycho mad on plans for that at the moment.



This pic doesn't really show off her gorgeous kimono-ish outfit though...



Our Gwen paraphernalia!
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It's here, it's here, it's here!

Resident Evil: Extinction is coming to town!

I really liked the first two Resident Evils, especially the first one, and I'm a huge fan of Milla Jovovich, ever since Fifth Element. I like her long, it's a strong yet beautiful look. I think she's awesome.

I'm not so sure about Resident Evil: Extinction, though. From what I've seen of the trailers, it doesn't look like it'll be as good as the first two, definitely not the first one. But someone on the Internet said it was awesome, and since I'm not hyping up too much about it, maybe it would turn out good. I'll let you know more when the movie finally hits cinemas here and I'll go take a peek.

Watch out for Milla's shorts in the movie, they're from her clothing line Jovovich-Hawk.



Another thing which saddens me is when I was listening to the radio the other day. They have this woman in Germany who gets to interview all the latest stars come on every week and she plays clips of her interviews with people like Jessica Alba, Shia LaBeouf and others. She had interviewed Milla and she didn't have many nice things to say about her, adding that she felt Milla was beautiful but cold and that she heard a rumour that Bruce Willis's nickname for Milla is Milla Bitch.

:O

That's not nice to hear. I hope it's not true. Also, that is probably the first bad thing I have ever heard said about Milla. And I'm not much of a big fan of the German woman myself, Nina Liebold, so I'm reserving opinion on this.
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I've also established new goals, one of which is to take care of my hair as well as I can now, especially now I will be occasionally subjecting it to hair tongs. I used to have this salon conditioner (nothing pricey, it was on sale, and the salon itself was one of those $15 for a haircut type places, which I am now no longer going to anymore, much to the relief of my hair). I bought the salon conditioner because it was going cheap, as part of a serum, shampoo and hair rejuvenating booster set and the thing is, you only use a little at a time because it is so strong, so it's supposed to last you a really long time. The thing is, the shampoo was way too strong for my hair so I never used it after the first few washes. The conditioner wasn't too bad, though, but I got really sick of it after a while. No more of that for me. Anyway, it finally finished up last week so this week I got a Garnier conditioner and have been using it religiously on my hair. By the second wash, my hair was looking really pretty and smelling nice and fruity too. I really like Garnier conditioner and hair mask products, they really do work wonders for your hair.

I also need to take care of my feet because my poor feet are cracked from all the walking in heels that I do all the time. But I am being really lazy about this. Oh well. Maybe sometime soon. Niv and I are also setting workout goals. Our aim is to be supermodel-fit by the end of two months. People tell me that I don't need to work out because I am skinny, but I am what they call 'skinny fat'. I want to be toned, toned, toned without a hint of jiggly on all the bad bits, like thighs, tummy and upper arms. Bikini-bod ready by the time summer is here (which, in this country, comes around when the rest of the world is heading into winter).
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It's been busy, busy, busy. And even though it's a public holiday tomorrow, I've been rostered for work. Not fair! At least I'll get double pay.

I've been studying feverishly for my theory test in driving because I'm transferring my license. I'm not taking any chances this time, remembering how I failed at least three times the last time, because I couldn't be bothered to study. This time, I have to nail at the first time. I have to. Then I'll do a couple of hours of practice driving, get someone to teach me how to parallel park (because I never do that) and then sit my practical test and finally, I will be able to drive over here! At last. My mother's agreed to give me a loan on getting a car, so once I get my license, I'll get my car and then there will be no more endless hours waiting for buses and trains, sitting on buses and trains, looking up buses and train times. No more public transport! Hooray!!!

So, I've been trying to eat more healthily. Last week, I had the brilliant idea of making salads every day of olives, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, feta cheese, roast chicken (by buying a whole roast chicken from the supermarket, easy-peasy) and marinated artichokes. It was really yummy, if not rather oily, since most of these are marinated pre-packaged stuff and it also turned out to be rather expensive. The whole point of preparing home-cooked food for work was to save money and eat more healthily, but it turned out to be pretty pricey stuff. No more of this salad for a while. Back to the frozen vegetables and a roast chicken for a week thing, unless I can bother to come up with something exciting and cheap. At least, I've managed to stick with my new weekly budget, just barely. I have five dollars to spare from this week!

This week has hardly been memorable. Things just went wrong for me at work. Minor stuff, but enough to make me wish I had just stayed at home. Destressed with a bottle of sparkling wine at the Gutter Philosopher's on Friday, ended up drinking almost three quarters of the bottle (Niv had a glass and a half with me, but then she had to go for a romantic weekend with the bf and the Gutter Philosopher wasn't drinking, sparkling wine being not manly enough for him). Apparently, I was a real pain in the ass to him when I was drunk but I didn't really remember this the next morning when I woke up with a headache. It was worth it though. I really needed to de-stress. The rest of the weekend was spent mostly at home, other than some yummy gin and tonics on Saturday afternoon at K's place, because, as mentioned earlier, I am doing my best to stick to my budget. No more buying unnecessary goods for a while.
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Essential Beauty.
Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of Body Shop has died! That is really shocking. I love Body Shop products, although half the time they're out of my price range. They're also my favourite as gifts for girl friends.

I read on StyleBytes that Body Shop brushes were pretty good so I went to check those out the other day. They were too pricy, though, $30 per brush, so I just went to a pharmacy and got an ordinary make up brush. I need to get another one as well but not yet because I've been spending way too much money. But actually, someone just told me the other day it is probably a good idea to spend a bit more on brushes as you will have them for a long time. Mascara, for example, I wouldn't spend so much since it tends to dry out and need replacing every few months.
The priciest thing I bought was a curling iron. I got the cheapest one in the shop so that made me feel a lot better, it was about $50 or so, while the others were in the $100-200 range. It's pretty good too. It's the BaByliss Professional Ceramic Curling Iron. I'm not sure if it is the one pictured to the right but it's similar enough. Mine is in a funky yellow car though. I haven't had much time to experiment with it yet but I plan to curl my hair for Friday night. I notice that I need to put it in for a certain amount of time otherwise I'll just get an ordinary wave that my hair already has, probably because my hair is so long. I also learnt never to use it with damp hair, after I had done so. Oops. Won't do it again.

After much experimenting, I've found my make-up basics essential. I thought I'd lay it down because I wish someone had told me all this. I had to experiment to find what's right for me and you'll probably have to do that too. I'm not too much into wearing lots of heavy make-up so mine is really simple and fast as well.

FACE AND LIPS.
For day time, I just apply a moisturizer with SPF 15, dust on a light layer of Bobbi Brown Face Powder in Sunny Beige 2, putting a light dusting on my neck to keep the colour even. If I really wanted to keep it simple, this is all I would bother with and a bit of lip balm. My favourite is the Body Shop Vitamin E lip balm (pictured). A lot of people would want to apply bronzer or foundation or a make up base, but that is really up to you and whether you really need it. I don't do any of these three, I think the powder is enough for me, but if you really want to, make sure you have the right shade for you because I see people all the time looking orange-y with bronzer and so on. And it's also probably best to apply a light shade if you do want to put any of these on for daytime. Also, I just remember, you might want concealer. I don't really use concealer myself either.

BLUSH.
If I'm looking pale, I'll use a small fluffy brush to pop on some blusher on the apples of my cheeks. The blush I'm using is Clinique Honey Blush which my mother gave me, it was part of her free pack, she's always using Clinique skin care products. I may start looking for blushers of other shades when I have the money to spare. I used to apply blusher with my fingers but I won't advise that to anyone - use a brush, always! To apply blush, smile and brush on the apples of your cheeks. My friend also taught me a tip, she made me suck my cheeks in, like I was making a fish face, than applied the blusher to where the apples of my cheeks are. It's a pretty handy trick as well. If I think I'm looking particularly pale, which happens when I am sick or in the middle of winter, I lightly brush some blusher on the forehead and along the jawline, but only minimally, just enough for a touch of colour.

EYES.
Then, that's basically it for the make-up, unless I want to apply some mascara or a light touch of beige or gold eye shadow. I was watching the Tyra Banks teaching how to apply make up on her Tyra Banks Show on YouTube and what she says about applying make up along the crease of your eyelids works beautifully. Beauty experts also say to apply a light or white eye shadow or eye cream to the inner corners of your cheeks to create an instant eye-popping celeb look. I have done this before but I haven't really seen much difference.

EYELINER.
I used to wear a lot of eye liner before as well, even in the day, but I've kind of gone off that since I got semi-perm false eyelashes done. They're really the best because I could wear moisturiser and lip balm and with those lashes, I really don't need anything else. But they're a bit too expensive to keep up so I've let that go for the moment. If I feel my eyes really need definition, then I'll put a thin line of eye liner along the bottom of my eyes with a little flick at the outer corner. Leave a little space between the inner corner and the start of the line when you apply eyeliner so your eyes would look bigger. If I'm still not happy with that, I'll put a little on the top too, depending on how heavy I want to go. When it's night time, I often go heavy with the eyeliner, especially if I want a smoky eye but lately I've been going for the natural look. I love MAC eye pencils. The one I'm using now, though, is an Estee Lauder eye pencil which is pretty good as well.

And you're done! It looks like a lot because I tend to go on and on, but basically it's just moisturiser, face powder and lip balm. Blusher is optional, depending on whether your face needs colour on the day (my face sometimes does and sometimes doesn't, depending on how much sleep and sun I've gotten, etc). Then, also optional, add a bit of colour on the eyes using mascara, eyeshadow and/or eyeliner and if you want, slick on a lip gloss or lip stick and then you're done!

NIGHT TIME.
I would probably do do the moisturiser, face powder, blusher and lip balm for night as well. But I might go a little heavier on the blush and also blend it upwards towards the temples for a bit of contouring. Mind you, I have not tried that yet but I read it and it sounds good and I will try it this Friday night and let you know of the results.

Then I'll probably go a little heavier on the eyeshadow and maybe do both eyeliner and mascara as well, depending on what look I am going for for the night. At the moment, all my lip glosses are really nude, which annoys me but I haven't had time or money to buy one that I really like yet. Right now, my night looks are almost the same as my day looks because I usually go out on Friday nights now and it's usually straight from office to work, with me spending a rushed five minutes in the bathroom on makeup. And then you're ready to go!
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I've been sick for the past three weeks and it has been a real drag. Coughing all day and night, going to work with a touch of the flu, feeling completely worn out. I haven't had the energy to cook so I've just been eating junk food and instant food all the while. I've also had no energy to exercise and my body is just crying out for vegetables and exercise this week. Seriously. So it's vegetables, chicken and salmon this week. I can't even eat chocolate or junk food, which I usually love, just looking at it makes me sick, that's how sick I am of junk food right now. I don't even want to look at bread.

I'm still sick, as well, which is a drag, though I'm not coughing all the time as I have been over the past few weeks. Just occasionally. And I think I must have slept wrongly or something because I woke up yesterday with the back and the left side of my head aching. The pain was really killing at my left temple and my left cheekbone, as if I had bashed myself in the face while I was sleeping or something. I haven't figured out what I did to myself yet, but the pain is still there, although sometimes it lingers. I could barely sleep last night for the bloody pain. I'm wondering if it is a toothache, because a couple of my left teeth are aching too, or if the toothache is the result of sleeping wrongly. Urgh.

Well, I'm done complaining about that. :) I've been watching music videos to cheer myself up. I love Nelly Furtado's No Hay Igual and, especially, her Explode video. I'm wondering if it is a new song or a song she recorded in the past that I just haven't had of. It's mind-blowing! And so is the video. You should check it out on YouTube. I've also noticed on all Nelly's videos that there is usually a shaven-head hot guy on her video. I'm not complaining ... :)

Speaking of hot guys, I saw the Bourne Ultimatum this weekend and I must say all the professional killers that were sent after Bourne were pretty hot and fit too. Yum yum.

Spring is here, although it feels more like it's winter most of the time. What I love is coming out in the sunshine to find flowers have sprouted up all over the neighborhood. I walk through a carpet of green grass, yellow flowers and little purple ones everyday to get to my bus stop. But by the time night comes, they'd have all either died or closed up to survive the cold. But when the sun comes out again the next day, they'll be back in full force.
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Oh my gosh I am on facebook and everyone is asking me to add a million applications. I'm getting dizzy and most of these applications require me to check my page for statuses, etc. That's an awful lot of stuff!

By the way, you know what's cool? As in really, literally cool as well? Glacier surfing, that's what. I was listening on the radio a couple of weeks back at work and one of these guys was on the program. I just had to go onto Youtube and check it out. Here's one of the videos below.


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Some things have happened since the last time I've blogged, not least of all the fact that I have turned 23!

Ick. That is so old.

But the girl who washed my hair at the hair salon thought I was like 18 or 19. Still young...

Oh yes, I have also cut my hair, well not really, mostly trimmed and re-shaped so it looks much better now, and I have dyed it too, a warm chocolate brown with golden streaks running through. It's really nice. I wanted it to be a more obvious brown, maybe lighter and warmer. This shade looks more black when it's not under lights but I guess I will have to deal with it until the next time I colour my hair. It's still really lovely. I love my hairdresser.

Anyway, for my birthday, we had a party with the theme of pirates and gangsters. But hardly anyone came dressed up except for a few fun people! But it was really good - my pina coladas were a big hit with all the girls except one who had an allergy to pineapples - whoops, it's a good thing I told her what was going into the drink before I gave it to her! But it was really fun. When everybody gathered round and sang happy birthday and I had the cake, I felt like crying. It was awesome!

And it was definitely a good birthday, mostly because for most of this year I didn't think I would have a good birthday at all. I always put so much stock - way too much stock, the Gutter Philosopher says - in things like new year's and christmas and birthdays so I often end up disappointed. I'm trying not to do that now. But this birthday was definitely a good one. When else do I start the day off with a present of a free pole-dancing class and end by falling onto the ground with a lesbian on top of me? Ha ha, no, it's not as bad as it sounds! The class was a gift from the Gutter Philosopher because I had said I won't mind trying pole dancing classes but I am a bit miffed since I will have to go to the class by myself whereas these are the kind of things you should go to with your girl friends and have a laugh at. Boys never understand girls. And the lesbian thing was just Cindy being drunk and leaning on top of me like I was an umbrella stand and my high heels giving way. I was up again in less than two seconds because I had on a new dress and the ground was wet, wet, wet! (We were all outside then smoking and drinking and waiting for taxis and sorting out cars to go clubbing). Still, it's a good way to tell people how the night was when they ask about it, ha ha !

Speking of presents ... Last year, most of my presents consisted of perfume. This year, it's alcohol. Lots of yummy girly wine. I can't wait to crack open a bottle. I'm making spaghetti with a creamy egg bacon sauce (out of a jar, naturally, since I'm certainly not motivated enough to actually make a sauce from scratch) with chicken and mushrooms plus garlic bread for the Gutter Philosopher and myself on Saturday night and I am going to have the Brown Brothers white wine with it. Yum yum yum ...

But back to the night of the party, we decided to go clubbing after that and had all kinds of adventurous plans to go all the way to the other side of town or to the casino but then fell back on good old dodgy Varga instead. But when we arrived, I got tired and the Gutter Philosopher got horny (or so he says) and we decided to go on home. What do you now but there was absolutely NO cabs around so we had to get into line at the taxi stand that had wound all the way down the block. And worse of all it started raining. It was a good thing I still had my gangsta gurl fedora hat on. But I was also just wearing a little black dress and heels so I practically froze to death. Swore several times and made friends with the couple behind us. Nothing like rain to bring strangers together.

Well, the rain and the fact that most of my party was also spent outside in the evening between drizzles (not good weataher for a birthday party) because everyone was drinking and smoking and thought they were warm when in fact, it was probably below ten degrees outside, it was not good for the cough that I had been developing. Now it is an official full-blown cough and I can barely talk. I cough so much, I sound like I have that horse flu that is taking over the whole country and sending horses in a tizzy at the moment. My colleagues probably hate me because I can't stop coughing and I think I have more or less passed it around because everyone else around me is coughing and sneezing though not as badly as I am. Urgh. I hope I get better soon. So this weekend, I'm probably staying home and resting as much as I can. Oh no, I have to work at the art gallery this weekend! I'm probably going to infect everyone there too.
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Nest-building

Another nice idea I had about home decoration was to have a jigsaw puzzle displayed on a coffee table instead of your usual bowl of fruit, vase of flowers or coffee table books. It doesn't have to be complete right away, but just scatter the pieces across the table and work your way through the puzzle in your own time so it means your coffee table has a new look every time you complete a part of the puzzle. Chose a nice jigsaw puzzle. I also remember reading somewhere once that Kate Moss liked jigsaw puzzles, although that was a long time ago.

I used to love jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid. I remember I had the children's ones, the really easy ones that have maybe five to fifteen pieces. I had one really adorabe one of a kitten and a puppy and I used to take it apart and put it together over and over again. We used to do big ones as a family too. We had one of Lake Tahoe and it was really hard because there was so much green in it and it was all the same.



There was also this shop back home when I was in high school that sold jigsaw puzzles. You'd walk in and there was a dark room at the back where the glow-in-the-dark jigsaw puzzles were put up. It was gorgeous and we used to go in just to admire the room. The pictures were really great too, a lot of them were the horoscope ones. I was really pissed that the Virgo one was so crap when the others were so gorgeous. Honestly. Virgo is a sign that some artists paint really gorgeous and others paint it really crappily. Some Virgo pictures are so awful, I just cringe when I see them.
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Eeeek, it's been such a busy two weeks. I keep wanting to blog but there's no time to blog!

Most of it was taken up by work. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Sunday when we went to watch Die Hard, we also went to the museum and the art gallery. The museum, to check out the National Treasures exhibition, and the gallery to check out the Egyptian antiquities exhibition. I think I must have gotten too hyped up about both exhibitions that it didn't seem as awesome as I expected it to be. The National Treasures one was full of old papers and maps which were pretty cool because you could actually see the old faded handwriting and all that...some of it too faded to be read. Plus the lighting wasn't that great, probably to protect all that old paper, so you couldn't really read what was there anyway. I strained my eyes so badly, they hurt when we left.

The Egyptian Exhibition was pretty cool but there were so many people there, that was a bit of a bother. We had to hurry too, because we had to go watch Die Hard later. Not that that movie was that awesome - see review below. I'll probably go back later to check it out again at my own time.

Then the rest of the week was mainly work. I kept meaning to go online when I got back from work, but it's just too tempting to curl up in bed and read instead...

Then Friday night was girls' night! It's been just way too long since we had a girls' night so it was great. First, we went to this bar where Carine's friend worked as a bartender so we got free yummy cocktails. The bar was mainly full of middle-aged divorcee-types. There were actually some pretty well-done-up women, and there was one who reminded me of those 40-something women in the Age of Love, she definitely did not look like she was having a good time and she kept glaring at us, like 'what the hell are these young bitches doing here? trying to steal my men?' I don't think she had anything to worry about, all of us had boyfriends and none of the men were really that enticing! The only hot, young guys in that place were behind the counter. Haha! But the band that they had was good and the drinks were yummy. And, hey, we're on a girls' night, we're not out to pull...

But actually I had given the Gutter Philosopher a call to come out that night too so he and his group of guys were down at another club so we went over to see them. Then everyone got really drunk and the girls left at three-ish except me 'cuz I was getting a ride home with the Gutter Philosopher and the guys just kept going on and on until the club closed. We went to have pizza and chips after that, yum yum, well the guys had kebabs, I had pizza because I'm not really a fan of kebabs. But give me a chip and bacon roll! yum yum! Then we stumbled home and I downed lots of water because I had to get up early and get over my hangover because ...

My sister was getting her wedding dress the next day and I had to go with her. I wasn't so sure about the dress when we first saw it because it was practically falling off her but now that it's been altered and fits her perfectly, it looks really good. She'll have to practice walking in it though, otherwise she's going to trip over the hem. Really, that's a good question. How do brides make it down the altar without lifting their long skirts in their hands or keeping their eyes on the floor? After all, she's got to have her eyes on the groom, smiling beautifically and all that. And you can't just, like, shuffle down the altar - you have to glide! Must take a lot of practice. It's like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, during that big ball scene when she had to meet the Queen. When she came down some steps with the prince to dance with him, she was not looking down at all. Back straight, eyes forward, all regal and graceful. Down. Steps. In. A. Long. Gown. Now if it was me, I'd trip. But then I'd trip even if I was barefoot in shorts. That's how clumsy I am. Ah, well...

After the dress, we went to some paper shops. They sell the most gorgeous papers ever. I might call it stationary but it was more than that - it was paper! You can actually use the squares to wallpaper rooms, though it would probably be very expensive wallpapering. Or make a cover for candle lamps or for scrapbooks and photo albums and journals. They were so gorgeous. I didn't get any because I don't have any use for them or time to put them to use but my sister bought quite a few, because she's making the invitations for her wedding. Me, I was just glad to get home later and collapse in front of the sofa with pasta and some good TV shows. I saw this really horrible episode of Law and Order SVU the other day and it really got to me like no other episode ever has. I mean, I used to be a big Law and Order SVU fan (although not so much lately because I have been watching it a bit too often on cable tv with the Gutter Philosopher and it was starting to wear off on me) but this just put me off crime shows completely. And all sad movies, TV shows, books, stories, etc. It just made me feel so sad and horrified. I had to scour the library to find a book that didn't have any sad scenes in it. Do you know how hard it is to find a good book without any sad scenes? And unfortunately, the night that I had collapsed at home to just rest up on the couch was the night where the only shows on were crime shows, sad shows and, um, Forrest Gump. Which is pretty sad itself. But I had to make do with it because I didn't have any happy DVDs either. Bleh. But, my, how thin was Tom Hanks back then? Now he's all successful and old and stout. Well, stoutish anyway. You can see he wears a certain jadedness about him now, not as fresh as he was back then. Or maybe that's just my imagination.

Anyway, on Sunday night, we had great pizza, albeit a dodgy prawn one from Domino's which tasted great but left a funny feeling in your stomach after. Then the week just passed by in a mad rush and here we are, on Thursday! And that's the up-to-date.

Oh, I tried calculating my carbon footprint on the internet. Just search for carbon footprint on the Internet and you'll find lots of quizzes to help you calculate your carbon footprint. But I couldn't really do mine because I had no idea about lots of things like how many kilowatts are my light bulbs and how many miles I travel a day. Lots, I imagine. Should really start planting trees to offfset these things.
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We went to watch Die Hard 4 tonight. First of all, I am not impressed. It was pretty much a case of the trailer being better than the actual movie - again. Sometimes, I think they need to tone it down with the trailer.

Someone also said the previous Die Hard movies were much better than this one. I'm not sure - I haven't seen any of the old ones or if I had, I had forgotten them.

Secondly, I thought Bruce Willis's character was actually kind of an arse. Like, it was really unnecessary continuously taunting the bad guy about his girlfriend's death - I'm really not surprised his daughter got kidnapped after that - Bruce Willis a.k.a. John McKlein was really just asking for it. When the bad guy had kidnapped his daughter, he was less of an arse to her as well than you would expect for a bad guy. Not to mention Bruce Willis was kind of being racist about the bad guy's dead girlfriend being Asian and all that, did he have to keep referring to her as Asian? I mean once is fine, but over and over again? What point was he trying to drive home? And what was that thing about an 'Asian hooker'? Are you insinuating if you're Asian and good-looking, you're a hooker? Please, Bruce. Also, you had to admit, it did seem like the bad guy was kind of hard done by by the US Govt itself. Really, I sympathised with the villain. I did.

It could have been better written. I give it a pretty low rating. If you want to watch it, just watch the trailer, it basically has all the best parts in it. Trust me. Even the special effects and lots of action didn't do it for me. I've seen better action and suspense. And with all the special effects going on in most movies, I think having special effects just does not cut it anymore, no matter how awesome they are. You gotta pair it with a good movie and use it judiciously. Action, too. Like the first Lara Croft was fun but the second one, although they went to a million different countries and there was lots of action, seemed to just have something missing. Like you keep thinking you should be excited about it but you're not.

Oh, I was just telling the Duchess that I was criticising Die Hard 4 pretty badly and she commented about sequels for movies that happen 20 years later. Like with Rocky. Now, the last Rocky movie was pretty good, I thought, it did the previous Rocky's justice. But not Die Hard 4. Sorry. No. That one crashed hard in my book.

Also, we got La Premiere tickets for that movie and we are also not very impressed with the La Premiere. For such a high price, it's just not worth it. We'll stick to normal movie seats.
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Nights Out
I keep wanting to write posts but there never seems to be time over these two weeks. When I get home at night from work, all I want to do is just sit back and read a book and do nothing that requires effort. But that means there are plenty of book reviews coming up ... :)

Last night was a bender. Went out with Baby Bro and his twenty other friends that I have never met before to a masala mix! Met loads of people that I hadn't met in ages which was so fun and nice, I forget how much I miss them. It was so nice that everyone just decided to show up so it was a little like a reunion but without the Duchess and SweetRhapsody. Guys, I needed you there!

So the main of what happened that night was that Baby Bro and I downed an illusion shaker (for old times) in less than five and I had too much champagne and may have insulted my friend's pretentious friend, which I am delighted about because he was really too up himself, but didn't insult anyone else, not at least as far as I recall, which is also good because my mouth tends to get a bit out of control when I get drunk *blush* and sat on a staircase with A for a really long time, talking about what I don't remember, and danced with David *yay! the most fun dancing partner a girl could ask for*, kept losing Carine in the crowd, won the disapproval of K, which is nothing new, and for some reason I was avoiding someone else. Also lost Baby Bro, probably about 100 times. Saw the Boombox, missed you, dude! Then we went to eat but I didn't get to eat much because all the food was gone by the time I made it to the restaurant, then we went to Baby Bro's friend's flat and I found a bag of cheetos but before I got one or two down my throat, Baby Bro hustled me home and I tried to stay the hunger pangs with a bowl of instant noodles which were deceivingly spicy and collapsed into bed.

All in all, a pretty good night!

And water did nothing for my hangover but made it worse.

But in a few minutes I have to take a shower and go meet Louise for breakfast/lunch and make everything better with lots of carbs. Yay!

Will be back with more later!

* * *

All right, now I am back, two days later. Carine and I have rehashed the night and decided it was a horribly drunken and terribly fun night.

I'm knackered from the week. Before Friday night, there was Tuesday night, which was the night of the Gwen Stefani concert! It was really fun. I was disappointed with the Gym Class Heroes' opening act, though, which I had been looking forward to. First, because the sound during their performance was kinda shitty (thank goodness it got better when Gwen came out). And secondly, because it was bad enough that we had seats from far away, but worse still, for some reason, the camera guy would NOT focus on them as a close-up on the big screen. They were smaller on the big screen than they were in real life playing down there on the stage! So unfortunately, although Travis and I were in the same room, he was miles away and I didn't even get to see his face. Sniff.

But Gwen was awesome. It wasn't a fantastic all-out-there performance like a Pink concert or a Sarah Brightman concert but it was great because, well, it was Gwen. She's really cute! And has really great stage presence. And her Harajuku girls are awesome, my favourite is Music(I think. Well, the one from Okinawa anyway). Gwen had a bigger Japanese theme than I had expected, seeing that her new album had less of a Japanese touch than her first one - she wore a really cute Japanese outfit with a gorgeous obi and a short bunchy skirt that's kind of like a mini kimono all bunched up around her hips and thighs. At one point, for the song Luxurious, her male dancers dressed like Japanese businessmen back in, um, I think around the 1970s or 1980s, you know, kind of like Dick Tracey, the noir-ish comic detective, in a suit with boxy shoulder pads and fedora hats, while her female dancers dressed in kimonos and danced around them like geishas. And another time, they played the dance scene from Memoirs of a Geisha. It wasn't like a short concert or anything either, so it was pretty worth it. After the concert, my sister and I got Gwen T-shirts which were pricey at the cost of $45 but are real nice. Merchandise, yay!

Her costumes were really cute too. There weren't as many costume changes as you would expect for someone as reknown as style as Gwen, though. My sister spent half her time taking pictures, so I'll put up a few when I get them off her. Also, she didn't wear really skimpy clothes but she looked fantastic and really fashionable (except for a pair of glittery red shorts which I wasn't really a fan of) so more the power to her.

Hmmm. That now occurs to me. I should put up my list of Most Stylish People soon.

And poor Gretch didn't even make it to the concert - she got into an accident on the way, which thankfully she was not hurt badly in, and happily she is feeling better now.

Then there was Wednesday night, when everyone was supposed to come out and have drinks near my workplace, only due to rain and illness and the fact that most of us have work the next day, only Mystery Wolf and her friend made it, which I was actually quite relieved about because I had forgot my ID and they wouldn't let us ito the bar without it because there were cops everywhere. I say luckily because that would mean finding cabs for everyone to go somewhere else and I'd probably have a mass mob on my heels because of that. But because there were only three of us, Mystery Wolf's friend squashed us into his tiny car and drove us somewhere else instead. We went to a bar, then to the base, which had some decent songs but also some really old rnb songs which made me feel like I was back in high school. That was also a fun night but combined with the night of gwen's concert, I was pretty knackered after that. Beer has been my main drink for a while now but I think it's time to drink something new - maybe champagne, like what I was drinking on Friday night! Let's cut down on those alcohol calories for a bit. :)
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Sometimes, you meet the grumpiest bus drivers in the world and sometimes u meet the nicest.

Example one:
Last week, I got on the bus and said hello to the driver, who suddenly leaned towards me and said in a conspiratorial kind of tone: "Did you remember to bring some sunshine with you?" I was taken aback for a second, then I leaned forward and said in the same kind of tone, "Yes, I did!" "Good girl!" he said.

It's people like that that make you remember to bring the sunshine.

Example two:
This morning, as I was getting home from the Gutter Philosopher's, it started raining. At first it was a light drizzle which I didn't mind so much because the morning air was so cool and fresh and all I had to do was put my hood up. I was wearing my long white skirt and it made me feel like a bride/medieval princess as I ran down the street. The bus came and I got on and it started pouring like mad as we neared our stop. When I was getting off at the back door, the driver called me to come up to the front, and I went, thinking there must be something wrong with the back door. Instead, he handed me an umbrella, announcing "from a king to his princess." I protested that I'll never be able to return it to him but he said "just share it with someone else." It was really sweet!

Then there was the cab driver that I discussed psychology with on the way home the other night. Sometimes, you meet the most interesting people taking buses and cabs.

All the same, I can't wait for when I'm finally able to save up enough cash for a car!
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Yummy
I was buying food in one of the city food courts yesterday and this is something I have been noticing - a lot of healthy food restaurants have been sprouting up and they attract a LOT of office workers. I can understand this as when you've been sitting and working all day, you want something quick and something healthy and yummy too, not just a MacDonalds burger that's going to add flab to your thighs or a cold limp salad. Most of these places serve baguettes, salads and wraps. Anyway, I've tried a number of them and so far, Sumo Salad serves the best salads, in my opinion. And they let you have as many different combinations as you can cram into your small, regular or large container. That's a pretty good deal, compared with most places that only let you have one or two choices in the combinations. Today I had a mix of their Malaysian beef salad, baby potatoes in basil mayo and pesto pasta. It was really so good I wished I had gotten more. And it made me feel good and refreshed, the way I do after eating a good salad. When I have Aroma's pasta salad, I don't get that kind of feeling. I wish I could get more different combinations for meals for the next few days but I have been spending money on eating out a lot so I am cooking for the next few days. I've already made a slice of roast chicken breast in lemon juice, coriander and thyme with some steamed vegies for tomorrow, which is yummy.

Oh, speaking of great food, we went to Little Creatures on Sunday and I had the harissa(I think it is called the harissa) spiced lamb and feta pizza and it was sooo good and so great with their famous pale ale. The others had steak and potatoes or fish and potatoes and we all ordered fries with dips. We were completely stuffed at the end of it.
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I got a really nice pair of black leggings the other day. They are footless and made of this really nice material which is super-comfy and bound to last long, and they have little white dash-lines running up each outer side of the legs and around the waistband to look like belt loops and a waist lining for pants. It is really cool and is also my first ever pair of leggings - I keep refraining from buying leggings because I didn't really like the look until recently, and then I thought leggings might be over soon so I didn't want to waste money on a trend that was going out. But leggings don't seem to be going out anytime soon and these leggings were of really good material and only cost $14.95 from Valley Girl Fashions so I thought what the heck, I'll buy it! I've only worn them once but they felt really good and comfortable and were really easy to move around. They made me feel full of energy and really flexible, like the girl in the Vogue Get Happy! Fashion spread photographed by David Sims with her ponytail flying one way and her arms and legs in constant motion.

I am wearing them currently with dresses but I really don't see how everyone can wear leggings with little minidresses in winter when it is so cold. I need to figure out the right accessories and winter clothes to wear with these leggings.
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A bowl of stones or a bowl of feathers or even a bowl filled with both feathers and stones is a great way to decorate your home. It's also kind of zen so you can add that with some pretty scented candles to make a little stress-relief corner. I have candles and a couple of pretty candle-holders (that I think need some dusting now arranged on a pretty red bamboo mat in one corner of my room. I want to get said bowl of stones and some feathers and some aromatherapy stuff as well, and also put my meditation kit next to it, but my room is really small now so I can't crowd any more stuff in that corner. Lighting candles isn't too practical either in such a small room especially now that it is winter and I have to keep the windows closed most of the time except when I want some fresh air, so I will wait to get new candles when I have a bigger room.
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The other day, while I was monitoring the news, there was this thing about a police sting operation to catch 'graffiti vandals'. And they were going on and on about graffiti vandalism and how it's not art, and I was like, "excuse me, but I beg to differ!" Some graffiti artists are really talented and it's so much prettier to see their work on a building wall rather than plain old gray or peeling white. Of course, we're talking about like really pretty works rather than just random scrawlings. And sometimes, their work actually sends messages out.

I had a scout around to see what kind of graffiti is being painted around the world and here are some pics:







Some graffiti links:
FabioAcme107 is Italian graffiti and it is where I got the second picture above from.
Iran Graffiti and Urban Art Report.
Graffiti TV where you get to see streamed live videos of graffiti artists creating their art.
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Shine Shine

I got two new lip glosses from Supre - their mega shine lipgloss in strawberry and toffee. They're really cheap - four bucks each. As you can see, the colour looks good in the tube but it really is all shine and no colour. You get plenty of gloss but it takes ages and lots of application to get just a subtle shade of colour but by that time, your lips are so slick you just want to wipe it off and the colour disappears in seconds. So it's not really that worth it - you might as well just get lip balm or something. It's a shame I didn't know about the lack of colour as they don't have any samples in the stores. I think next time I'll buy Revlon's Super Lustrous Lip Gloss as I tried those the other day and the colour, texture and gloss were all quite good.
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I just looked at my blog and realized that I wrote an awful lot about moisturizer.
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These are some of the songs I can't get enough of lately:

Kelly Rowland - Bump Like this

Great party song. But does anyone notice how Kelly kind of looks like Oprah Winfrey with her hair and golden top in her final look towards the end of the video?



Sean Paul - Never Gonna be the Same Again
Listening to this song reminds me of all the good times of the old days ... the Saturday Night Crew, the Flat 11 times, the Flat 28 times, and the Flat 17 crazy days and nights, times at the "Bentley Palace"... and it's true, it's all never going to be the same again, most of us have scattered now to different parts of the world and it'll be hard to all be together again in the same time and place, and even then things might not be the same. Miss those times!

Also, watching the video made me realize the sadder meaning of this song and made me think of my grandmother and grandfather, whom i know are together again and have sent me a sign that they are watching over me



On a happier note, I love listening to Sunshine Reggae by Laidback in the sun on the way to work.



And on the way home from work at night, Armin Van Buuren's Shivers



The other two songs I can't get enough of are Aerosmith's Crazy and Amy Winehouse's In My Bed, you can find the two videos in a recent post below.
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Beauty Products

It's been a busy week so I haven't had time to blog. Most days, I just come home tired from work since it's my second week and my first week of real work on the new job. It's crazy, I just type like mad and listen on my headphones (I swear, I'm going to have an ear infection or go deaf one day) and try to make out what the news anchors are saying because half the time the bloody people mispronounce their words. Not to mention the fact that I have just noticed half the things on TV News are misspelt. It's so bad I keep having to go back on Google and check to make sure it's not just me mispelling. Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm working with a media monitoring company, monitoring the news.) But it's been really fun and I like it, everyone is so friendly and nice.

Anyway, when I get home, I usually chill out for an hour or two and then fall asleep - not such a bad thing as I work the evening shift. Then I'm busy in the mornings, doing laundry, cooking, working out or shopping before headng off to work. So it's been a pretty busy week, but a pretty awesome week at the same time.

But let's talk about beauty products.

I ran out of moisturizer the other day - both day and night moisturizer - and had to go looking for a new moisturizer. But it was so hard to find a really good one! I'm really addicted to moisturizing these days, especially since I use both a day and a night moisturizer, and if I go one or two days without moisturizing, like if I'm really busy or if I'm sleeping over at someone's house, I could actually feel the difference.

I used to use L'Oreal White Perfect Deep Whitening Moisturizing Cream and the night version of it as well. And no, I'm not using the whitening cream to whiten my skin, I think I pretty much cancelled that out because I stay in the sun whenever I can, I love the sun so much, I even make sure I sit in the sun when I'm on the bus, but because the cream has melano to block out brown spots, helps lighten my freckles a little and gives me clear coverage so it's really good that way. It's also great because it has SPF 15 and has these little light reflectors. I really love this moisturizer and I can use it without having to put on foundation or make up base so that's a real plus. The bad thing is that I don't think you can get this outside of Asia - none of the stores stock it and I couldn't find it on Strawberry.net either but I think my sister could get it for me online if I asked her - only I hadn't time because my moisturizers were well and truly over and I needed a new one ASAP!

So I had to find a new one in the pharmacies and honestly, how hard is it to find a good moisturizer with at least an SPF15 from your ordinary chemist? Pretty hard, it seems. I checked out L'Oreal since that was what I used and they had these ranges for different ages and the only thing they had for people in their 20s was their Happyderm range and I tell you, they must think young people don't care what goes in their moisturizer. All it says is "it's for happy skin!" All well and good that my skin is happy but I'd like a little more information to decide if the product is worth buying. It doesn't even tell you if it contains at least an SPF15. Garnier skincare products are also mostly products for women in their 50s, etc., and the products for girls my age didn't look that promising. Their hair products are really awesome, though, especially the frizz-control serum (SweetRhapsody used to own Garnier's frizz-control serum and it smelt really nice) and their conditioners and shampoos are really good as well and have lovely scents. But I think they're a little lacking in the skincare section, though I've always meant to try their cleansing wipes. I think this is because Garnier started out as a haircare range (I think). Dove had some nice tinted moisturizers but I didn't want those.

Speaking of tinted moisturizers, I thought of giving that a try so I went to check out the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer because when I did my research online, everyone seems to swear by this one. And it has an SPF of 20!!! The saleswoman sat me down and slapped on some of the Moisturizer, using the Sand shade. It looked all right in the mirrors under the lights of the department store - then I went into the bathroom and saw that I looked kind of orange. I thought the whole point of Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer being so great was that it was because it was NOT supposed to give you an orange look! I checked it out in sunlight and under the lights of two different public bathrooms in two different department stores - NOT good. I washed it off at once and it's left me with a red pimple on my nose where I have never gotten red pimples since I was in high school. I am not pleased. No tinted moisturizer for me. Anyway, apparently, you're supposed to use your usual moisturizer under your tinted moisturizer as well. There's no point having a tinted moisturizer unless you're really dying for a tan on your face and I advise you to try as many different brand samples as you can first - you can get samples or a saleswoman to help you with trying it out at department stores and you can try the testers in pharmacies - and check it all out under all sorts of different lighting, especially under sunlight, to make sure you have the shade that really suits you.

But for those interested in trying tinted moisturizers, I think Laura Mercier and Clinique have gotten the best votes in tinted moisturizers. You probably should not go with my distaste of Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer since I seem to be the only one who hates it - everyone else seems to love it and it's been voted as In Style's number one beauty buy. My advice is just to try it before you buy it - and don't buy it until a day later, so you can have a whole day to admire or hate your look and see if you are willing to shell out big bucks for it. For those who want a cheaper bargain, I hear Dove's Tinted Moisturizers are pretty good.

Anyway, back to the moisturizer search. I was running out of time before I had to catch the train to work so I just decided to go with Oil of Olay Complete All Day Moisture Cream with SPF15. As you can guess, the SPF bit is essential, since I'm always out in the sun and can't be bothered putting on sunblock all the time. It's not too bad, it feels a little heavy and it hasn't got those wonderful light reflectors of L'Oreal's ... sigh ... I guess I will have to just wait until I get to Malaysia again when my sister gets married and bulk buy then!

Oh, and while I was at the pharmacy, I checked out Red Earth's newest range. I particuarly liked their bronzing potions. I really like the shades they have but I'll probably used it more as blusher or cheek stain than as a proper bronzer so I don't know if I will get that. I might get a cream blush soon because I've never had one and I'm dying to try it. Or maybe a cheek illuminator. Which is better, do you think, cream blush or cheek illuminator? My cheeks get naturally flushed most of the time anyway, but I'd like something for days when I just feel kind of pale and dowdy or when I haven't had enough sleep, because that's when my face gets really pale. I don't want something that makes me look like a clown either, something that's natural yet makes a difference at the same time. I'll check out some ranges and let you know soon!
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Rest and Relax

This is the end of my first week on the new job! So far so good :)
Went out for dinner and drinks at the Moon with Justine after work to celebrate - my first week at the new job and Justine, who has just gotten a new job and is set to start work next week! I had salmon spaghetti and she had carbonara pasta. I also discovered I don't like gin martinis. I have never had one before but now I think I'm sticking to gin and tonics, cosmos and bloody mary(s). That's probably the only cocktail that I met that I didn't like, except for creamy cocktails and cocktails with baileys and kahlua. Everyone else seems to like baileys though.

Anyway, sitting in a computer, typing as fast as I could while straining to listen through my headphones can often strain my back and I haven't gotten the hang of fixing my chair to suit my posture either so I am well in need of a back rub. I promised the Gutter Philosopher I'd give him a back massage this weekend since he's been out on construction sites all week, hammering nails into planks and pouring bitumen over who-knows-what and so on but he'd better give me one too! I've scoured the Net once or twice in the past to find good how-to massage courses and I've been thinking of going for a massage course one day. I found some good sites recently so I've just put them down here so everyone can take a look and find what's good and also so I can remember where these sites are!

So take some baby or scented oil, light a few scented candles or incense sticks, turn down the lights or close the shutters just that bit so the sunlight falls in muted shades across the room, and turn on some soothing music. (Tunes I recommend include Gabriel by Lamb, The River, Say Hello and Fragile Wind by Nitin Sawhney, Lovers Rock by Sade, Silence by Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan and The Sweetest by Nightmares on Wax).



Then take your pick of the following:
Massage 1 (comes with pictures)
Massage 2 (Comes with a video and other links to articles like How to Massage a Headache Away)
Massage 3

Happy Kneading!
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I thought I'd share some WTF? tidbits of news around the world this week.

1) A boy was refused enrollment in a Catholic school in Australia because his last name was Hell.

His father said it was an Austrian name.

Hmmm.

2) A 51-yr-old Parish Councillor from Cheshire is marrying Osama bin Laden's 27-yr-old son!

The only word I have for this? Awwwwww.

3) And best of all ... forget crazed US and Al-Qaeda soldiers tossing bombs and machine-gunning one another to death. You know what Iraq's problem is? Giant badgers! Yes, rumours are floating around Basra that giant badgers have been seen roaming the streets at night. It is suspected they are none other than a weapon of the British forces.

Give a hand to Brown. Less than a month in charge of England and he's already releasing the UK's deadliest forces - those pesky giant badgers.

I swear, this is a true story, heard on a news report on the radio. Yes. An actual news report.
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YES! I've managed to solve that pesky sidebar problem, thanks to the aid of CircleySquare and Stevo. Thanks to you guys, I can sleep well tonight knowing that my blog sidebar is beautiful again. ;)
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I'm a little peeved because I have finally found where my tagboard vanished to - all the way to the bottom of the page. I hate it when the sidebar acts up like this. I think it's because the tagboard may be larger than the sidebar, although I have not had this problem in a long time, but when I changed the size of the tagboard, it didn't really help matters. Does anyone have any suggestions? Help!
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