My Twitter account has been suspended. I think it’s coz I seldom tweet personal messages now, and have been tweeting ads from Churp Churp and Socialberg aggressively recently. But but but…I put a disclaimer as my profile description so it’s up to you whether you want to follow my account. I also tag my ad tweets with a prefix ‘[AD]’ so people know. I’ve emailed the Twitter folks, but have yet to receive a reply.

I am sad.

Life has a great way of screwing around with you when you least expect it to. The day when I decide to take the MRT home instead of a cab after working late, I get not one but two…TWO freakin’ train delays due to “train faults”. Haha, now I don’t even know whether the train fault is real or just an excuse to kick people out of the train for whatever reason. The first one was on the circle line. Stopped for a couple of minutes, but I couldn’t care two hoots coz I was having a nice snooze. The second one was on the East-West line. This time I was freakin’ tired and hungry and just wanted to get home quick so I lost my patience and was already silently cursing SMRT. Everyone got booted out of the train. Luckily I had a straight bus home from Kembangan station else I would have bombarded SMRT’s twitter account with an angry tirade of hate messages.

The question is, why are we experiencing so many train faults now? Is it coz the trains are old? Or is it the tracks that are old? I don’t care which one is old, SMRT had better get their act together and make sure the tracks and trains are serviced regularly so that the number of train faults are kept to a minimum. Better still, never happen until a couple years down the road.

Omg…I just discovered this really cool shop in Plaza Singapura called JRunway. I haven’t been to the physical store but I just checked out their website and they carry clothing by Putumayo! A part of that brand carries lolita fashion. I actually have two lolita blouses from that brand. Gotta check out the physical store coz I also found out that they are having a sale and selected pieces are going cheap. Woohoo!

Speaking of Japanese style clothing, I’m not one to say that I’m totally into it but I do like the style. How shall I put it? I’m not confident about my looks and I definitely don’t spend time dolling myself up just to achieve a certain look. That reminds me of what a friend said on Facebook this morning. My friend, Jo is on the plump side and she totally adores Disney princesses (especially Ariel). She said that this lady once said something really mean to her. Something to do with her size and whether she would be successful in reaching her dream of working in Disney as a Disney princess. That was downright rude and mean. Jo might be plump but I totally dig her confidence. By the way, she does makeup so well too.

I told her that she is one of those in J-Net that gave me the courage to stand on stage and take part in the J-Net fashion show. For once, I did not feel like anyone was judging me based on my looks or the clothes I wore. I could be me. Thank you Jo. You’re a great inspiration!

Please be patient while I live my life offline. I’ll be back some day…

That’s what the F1 cars remind me of when they are zooming down the track. We had narrowly missed the chance of going to the F1 race, but somehow fate decreed that we would watch our first F1 race (in style no less) this year. Yup, we got sky suite passes thanks to DBS.

Our trip to the sky suite started at the banks of the Singapore River at UOB Plaza where we boarded the private ferry and got ferried across while enjoying the sights and sounds (of the F1 cars) of the Singapore city nightscape. The excitement was definitely building up as we heard the cars zooming right across the bridge above us. The minute we reached the sky suite, we “burst” out onto the balcony to take in the F1 race experience. Boy, was it LOUD. No wonder they said earplugs were a must. After the third car zoomed past, we were scrambling indoors because our eardrums couldn’t take the noise anymore.

Entrance to sky suite

In the sky suite

Out on the balcony with the view of the pit and Singapore Flyer in the background

Dinner was served in the sky suite which we found the food standard only so-so. Frankly speaking, I think only the fish was good (besides the plate of truffles on the table). Oh well, food wasn’t exactly the top thing on our minds. After dinner and exploring the place a bit, we decided to move up to the open-air lounge only accesible to sky suite pass holders. There, we got a nice view of pit and track below. It was also there that we chose to watch the qualifying round that night. It wasn’t the actual race day, but hey, the passes were complimentary so I’m not complaining.

If you asked me how was the experience, I would say it was exhilarating. I thought I would get bored after awhile watching cars doing the same thing again and again, but I was surprised I didn’t feel that way. While some might prefer a different view of the track, I liked the view of the pit because I love watching the engineers and pit crew scrambling around to change the tires. Definitely a tough, high-stakes job.

Here’s a little tidbit to end of the post. It’s Ferrari’s Alonso going round the track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtEdtBqAawg

You know how God tests your patience when you least expect it? God tests my patience via my phone. When I’m up and about, nobody calls/text messages. Just when I lie down hoping to get a snooze, someone has to call/message. My phone sits next to me on the bed plus I’m a light sleeper so I get awoken quite easily. And this goes on not just once throughout my sleep. I end up not getting the nice unbroken sleep that I want. *roar*

No, I can’t turn off my phone because somehow an important call comes in then (talk about coincidence). I just hope that callers will leave a message. I don’t care whether you’re calling to sell me something or want to offer me a job, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a message if I don’t answer the call. I didn’t pay $5 (in fact it’s $15…one time charge of $10 for registering the service) and record my own voice for nothing.

“世上没有丑女人，只有懒女人。”

Whoever said that must be a genius (not counting Sis who quoted that person). I have never really taken care of my skin or hair until my hair started going all wiry and wrong. I started using leave-in conditioner. Over the years although my hair is still weird and has a life of its own, the quality has become a lot better. I made it a habit to put leave-in conditioner after my bath. Sadly, I have not done the same for my face.

It used to be fuss-free for me. I hardly got pimples so washing my face with a cleanser was just about all I did. I felt it was a waste of time to use all the different facial stuff. Well, now I pay the price. I don’t remember when my forehead started to get extremely oily. I just equated that to having combination skin — an oily T-zone.

I got a really bad outbreak on my forehead in my second year of college. It could have been due to the change in weather and my body adjusting to it. Anyway, some cream from the dermatologist helped, but somehow the problem never totally went away. I started to get some problem on my cheeks. Still, I would use the occasional face mask and cleanser for oily and problematic skin, but never the full regime.

Yesterday, I went for my first facial. Sis had bought some voucher for a facial session for 2. She decided to pull me along since Mum already had her own appointment booked. At first I was a little against the idea since I felt weird having someone fuss over my face and I did not want to be trapped in some sales pitch, but after Mum said I should be going for regular facials especially with my horrible skin condition and well, I couldn’t really worm my way out of it, I relented.

I must say the first time experience was nice (except for the part when the therapist put some VERY COLD mask on my face). She poked at my face, but it was ok since she was helping me get rid of all the nasty stuff. I was told that I had dry and sensitive skin. Was a bit surprised to hear that since all along I thought I had oily skin. Apparently, my oily forehead was due to my own body trying to combat the dryness by producing more oil to moisten the area. Of course, she was taken aback when I said I only used a cleanser for my facial regime. Yes, I know there’s the whole basic 3-step facial regime — cleanser, moisturizer, toner — but hey, didn’t I say I felt it was a waste of time?

The next part of the facial was the most hated part — the sales pitch. Since I had proclaimed that I only used a cleanser and my skin condition was like crap, she had to sell me their products which of course I knew would be horribly expensive considering I’m not earning an income now. The total set would have cost me $300+ mind you. I felt a little trapped. Maybe it was the whole psychological thing of reciprocity acting on me, I felt it hard to say no. In the end, it was Sis who helped me fend them off by giving (somewhat crap) excuses like I just came home from USA and I have no idea about such things so my mum has made decisions for me to get facial stuff elsewhere. To which, the beauty manager said that I was old enough to make decisions and even she was younger than me and she even made decisions to have facial sessions for her mother. (She knew how old I was because I had to fill in some form before the facial session.) I didn’t care what excuses Sis used and if they made me sound like a total idiot. I just didn’t want to pay $300+ for all that.

We walked off without me getting anything. (Hallelujah! Thanks Sis!) That was when I really made a promise to myself that I will make it a habit to take care of my skin. I got the essential facial stuff from Watsons later which although cost me about $50, but I felt I needed them and I felt happy paying for. Also, I’m thinking of having regular facial sessions too. Gotta start loving my skin more.

Expensive lesson learnt, but oh well, I gotta start from somewhere right? There’s really no easy way out for things like that and having fuss-free skin in your youth does not guarantee you having the same after your teens.

No, it doesn’t stand for U.S. Submarine. Apparently, that’s how Singaporeans call Universal Studios Singapore. I was all confused when my sis kept talking about USS. I was like “why is she talking about going to see an American submarine when we don’t have one here?” But you see, I had just come home from four years in USA and had just visited Pearl Harbor.

Anyway, I went to USS with Sis and Jie Yu yesterday. Haha, I cannot be considered a suaku now that I’ve been there. (The boyfriend says I’m suaku becuase i’ve never been to Fantasy Island.) It was fun re-visiting most of the rides since I’ve been to Universal Studios in Japan and Florida. In fact, I visited it twice in Florida. Compared to both locations, Singapore’s is much much smaller. Beside the Madagascar area and Battlestar Galactica roller coaster, everything else was the same.

I was really looking forward to the Battlestar Galactica roller coaster. Yup, you can call me a roller coaster junkie if you like. The roller coaster is separated to two tracks: HUMAN (red) or CYLON (blue). HUMAN is a regular sit-in carriage type of coaster while CYLON is a suspended seat type of coaster. We got on HUMAN first. It was ok for a coaster, but nothing too special. We couldn’t get on CYLON right after because it was shut down due to technical difficulties. Hmmm…wonder if it was really due to technical difficulties or someone puked on the ride. Anyway, we managed to get on it at dusk. Whoa, CYLON was good. Two loops and a corkscrew plus you go through mist. I think what made the ride good was the suspended seats. Your body moves more with inertia so you get more of the thrill.

The best part was while I was putting my hands up all through the coaster rides, Sis and Jie Yu were huddling, screaming, or closing their eyes. The only times I closed my eyes on a coaster ride was the Thunder Dolphin at Tokyo Dome and The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis. Those were the only two that gave me the “heart in my mouth” and free-falling feelings. Not even Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Orlando gave me those feelings. Heh, some day I will try the coasters at Fuji-Q Highland…especially the new coaster, Takabisha. Oh, but I’ve digressed. Anyway, I think to best experience a coaster ride is to keep your eyes open to see where you’re going so you can really “go with the flow.”