NARUKO Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturizer EX with NARUKO NRK Rosehip Perfecting Elixir

After the Naruko night gelly, I started to use other products by Naruko. At the same time, I read a lot about the benefits of facial oil and wanted to try it. However, most of the oil were very expensive. Then, when browsing at a online shop, I saw NRK Rosehip Perfecting Elixir and it's RM29, considerably cheap compared to other facial oils. So, I bought it. However, I was afraid to use it alone on my face. Initially, I used it on my lips. However, I found the smell too "plasticky", so I stopped using it on my lips. Weird, my nose must be different from other people, some thought it is "fishy" and some thought the smell was very nice with rose scent when I read the reviews online.

Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturizer EX & NRK Rosehip Perfecting Elixir

Anyway, I mixed the Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturizer with Rosehip Perfecting Elixir. I think that the Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturizer alone was not moisturising enough for me.

using dropper to suck the "Elixir" out

The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom

Hehehe, another book from Mitch Albom. Surprisingly, this book was the second book I finished this month. Must be due to the guilt of buying too many books. Normally, I would read more after I spent a lot on books, then the feeling subsided, and the books would be left in somewhere until the next book sales. I tried to read lying on bed, it's really not ergonomic. So, I tried to read face down, it made me feel more tired with sore muscles if I read more than ten minutes. I wondered how other people read on the bed, it's just not for me. If I have my own place, I think I will buy a really comfy reading chair for myself. Hahaha!

The First Phone Call From Heaven (Mitch Albom)

Anyway, back to this book. This one came with deckle edge. I have no preferences over deckle or smooth edge. But I tend to get cut by paper. So, sometimes deckle edge is good, no paper cut. In this book, the story alternates between the creation of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell and how the people in the small town got calls from their dead loved one. I was surprised to learn that Alexander Graham Bell's wife was a deaf and it's partly due to her that he invented the telephone. It's quite romantic. I even read up on Alexander Graham Bell on the Wikipedia. I remembered the story of the first phone call in the world, but I never knew the background story to it, it's quite interesting.

Bound Feet & Western Dress (A Memoir) 幼儀與志摩

I got to admit I bought this book due to the TV drama "人間四月天", I watched it when I was still in secondary school. The drama was about the story of Hsu Chih-Mo and his love life. The first wife of Hsu Chih-Mo was the main character in this book. Hsu Chih-Mo was a poet, his poem was featured in the test book too. So, I was quite curios with the storyline in the drama, was it all based on the facts or just fiction all along. 

Bound Feet & Western Dresses

From this memoir, most were consistent with the drama. I think maybe the screen writers plucked some storyline from this memoir. Compared to the drama, this memoir focused more on the Chang Yu-I, the first wife of Hsu Chih-Mo and the mother of his child. This was Chang Yu-I memoir after all.

Well, Chang Yu-I was born into a rich family and her mother bore twelve children, eight boys and four girls. Yu-I was the second girl in the family. In the old times, or even now I think, culturally Chinese prefer boys over girls. So, her grandmother considered her mother the most capable daughter in law among all her aunties. That is a bit funny and a bit sad. A woman's worth is measured by how many sons she is able to give birth too, not her talent or her intelligence.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2015

4th December 2015

Time for Big Bad Wolf Book Sales again. Me and my friend, Dila have been going to this book sales for a few years now. It's like an annual activity already. From the first time in Amcorp Mall to the MIECC now. This year, we went to this book sales again on the first day of sales. We took half day leave and reached MIECC on around 2pm. First, we went to The Mines Shopping Mall to have lunch. We went to a restaurant called Little Wok and I was disappointed with the pan mee, in the photo on the menu, there were many fried anchovies, but the actual pan mee didn't even have one anchovy. Mmmm, the taste was ok though. 

After filling up our stomachs, we went to the MIECC. Surprisingly, I felt that the crowd was around the same or less than the 2014 preview sales. Well, maybe it was due to the economic situation or people are waiting for the fire sales afterwards. Anyway, the books arrangement was still pretty good when we were there. That was new! For the previous sales, I remembered even though I went on first day, the books arrangement was quite messy already. 

BigBadWolf 2015 - trolleys are available

This year, the organiser prepared the trolley for the shoppers. Well, it was way more convenient than to lug the corrugated box around like in the previous sales. People thronging to the book sales were calmer too, no more pushing around, and people were willing to give way to others. Well, it's a good experience, except the salesmen and saleswomen who were promoting the credit cards, There're so many promoters inside and outside the hall, walk few steps, some promoters would ask whether one wanted to apply for credit card or not. I met a very persistent saleswoman, it dented my mood a little bit. I think the promoters inside the hall were a nuisance. 

BigBadWolf 2015

I think that the overall price for the books in the Big Bad Wolf Book Sales had increased compared to last year. Not so expensive, but many books were priced from RM10 onwards. The RM8 selections were not that much. I bought a few hard cover books this time around.

Buying Dresses From Zalora

I am a shirt and pants kind of person, I have never wore a dress to work before and the dresses in my wardrobe can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It had never bothered me until I agreed to be a bridesmaid for my friend. My friend only had one rule for the dress, it had to be in white colour. Well, most of the girls have white colour dresses. I did not have. So, I planned to buy a dress before the wedding, I was very lazy to go to the malls, so I planned to buy the dresses online. A friend said that she bought a dress from Zalora, dimension and looks wise, it was ok, but the dress had a torn seam, so she returned it and got back the money. 

Well, since my friend did get back her money from Zalora, I had more confidence to buy from Zalora, if it didn't fit, I could just return the dress. So, I browsed to find a white dress. For first time buyer, one could get some discount code if the purchasing amount was more than a certain amount. For the search term, I used "white dress" and sorted from cheapest to most expensive. From the searches, I chose a Flap Pocket Detail Dress by Zalora. For the size, I measured my upper arm circumference, bust circumference and waist circumference with measuring tape and concluded the XS was my size. So, I added that into my cart. 

Flap Pocket Detail Dress

Taobao 1111 2015

I bought two coin albums from Taobao when it was having a RMB2 direct shipping deal. Well, it's an ok experience, I got my stuffs after few weeks. So, during the 1111 Taobao sales, I bought two really not so useful stuffs too because Taobao was offering a RMB5 direct shipping deal. Ah, if not for the RMB5 shipping deal, I wouldn't spend the money at all.

This second time around, I bought 5 pairs of socks and linen on 11th November 2015. Socks are essential items, but for the linen, I bought it because it looked pretty from the photo and it's quite cheap. Initially, I wanted to buy a sling bag too, however, somehow I deleted the item from my cart when I checked out, so, I ended up with two items only. 

double 11 Special deals (direct shipping from RMB 5)

For the two items plus shipping, I spent around RM30. Since it was not something that I really wanted urgently and it was not that expensive, after I paid for the items with online banking, I didn't even trace the items. The delivery system was quite fast, I received my items on 21st November 2015, around 10 days from China to my house. The items were sent using a DHL plastic bag but the document attached to it was from ZTO Express. Mmmm, weird! However, further check after I received my items, the tracking data showed that it was sent by ZTO Express 中通速递, not DHL. 

2 parcels combined and sent with DHL express packaging

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

So far, I think "Feet of Clay" is the funniest and most meaningful book that I have read from the Discworld series. Apparently, there were guilds for all the professions in the City of Ankh-Morpork, including the guilds for assassins, thieves, etc. Anyone operated outside the guild would be taken care of by the guild member. So, for example, a thief that steal without being a member of the Thieves Guild would be "punished" by the member of the Thieves' Guild and that kind of situation actually make the city more manageable. Mmmmm.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Anyway, the story started with a Golem (a man made creature) sold another Golem to a merchant. It's actually started the other event after that in this story. By the way, Golem is made of clay. This story focused on the murder of few elderly people and how the Watch (police in Discworld) solved it. 

Backstreet Café (Banting)

14th November 2015

I am not a 'foodie', so I wouldn't normally venture out to a new place in town to try out new things. However, I do appreciate the gathering time with friends, so when a friend suggested to meet up in Banting, we scrambled our brains to think of a place to meet up. We even considered meet up at McDonald. Hahaha. We are not teenagers anymore, so we didn't keep track of the happening stuffs in our own place, then our younger siblings suggested the Backstreet Cafe near the Banting Bus Station. All four of us had never heard of this place until yesterday.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with this cafe because it's in Banting. In just a few years ago, we needed to go to Klang to dine in this kind of cafe. Me and my friends chose this kind of eatery for the ambience, not for the food though. For food, we would go to the Korean restaurant, we are a fan of Korean food.

This cafe owner painted the walls with chalkboard paint and the menu was written on the wall. I think it's chalkboard paint because the trend was in rage lately. Maybe it's just normal paint in black colour. Anything is possible. 

Backstreet Café

Backstreet Café

Japan Pension: Tax Refund 脱退一時金に課される所得税の還付の申請

After I got back my 80% Japan pension, I procrastinated until my friend gave me an ultimatum, she would proceed with the 20% tax refund application and not waited for me. So, I found all the necessary documents and proceeded to apply for the remainder 20% of the pension that was deducted as the tax when I applied for the Japan Pension lump sum withdrawer.

First of all, one needed to find a willing friend or colleague to be the tax representative. I have a colleague in the area that I stayed in Japan before I came back to Malaysia*. The form here is needed to tell the tax office that one is appointing the person as one's tax representative 納税管理人. Just print out the first page and fill up the necessary items, the second page is not important.

form to appoint the tax representative

*To claim back this 20% tax refund, one needs to go back to the local tax office to submit the document. So, it's better to appoint a local person as the tax representative. My own assumption though, not sure true or not.

University of Malaya Convocation 2015

19th & 20th October 2015

Two of my younger brothers were having their graduation last month, one on 19th October and another on 20th October. Since I took leave for both days, I volunteered to become their photographer on their graduation days. Since we reside at Selangor, it's not far from UM, but not that near either, if one stuck at Federal Highway, it would be so near, yet so far. So, We left the house at 5.30am and reached UM before 6.30am, normally during non peak hour at afternoon, the trip would normally take two hours. If peak hour at the morning, give or take around three hours. Well, my family would rather reached early than stuck at the traffic jam, so, we left early.

The graduates were instructed to gather at the designated area by 7.30am, since parents were not allowed in that early, I accompanied my parents to have breakfast at one of the food stalls manned by the various societies or colleges in UM. After that, my parents enter the DTC, while I waited outside.

Dewan Tunku Canselor of University of Malaya (DTC)

Parents queueing up to enter DTC

Graduates and family members leaving the DTC after the convocation ceremony

Buying Skin Care Online

I didn't buy stuffs online up until two years ago, however, after I first bought a aluminium bathroom rack from a shop in Rakuten. I became quite addicted to online shopping, the highest record was three orders per week and I am a member of Rakuten, 11street, Zalora and Lazada. I am ok right now, I just bought what I needed, if there's any sales, I would buy first to stock up. But the urge to buy is really toned down now. 

The first skin care product I bought was from the Guardian Pharmacy shop in Lazada, My night cream then was almost finished, so I was thinking to get a cheaper night cream, I saw the Olay All In One Fairness Night Cream when I was browsing the Lazada website. It's priced at RM25, for me, it's quite reasonable, however, I kept this in my cart until I had enough items in my cart to qualify for the free shipping. When I finally have enough items, actually the total price was way much higher than the minimum required for free shipping. Hahaha! I bought four items from four different vendors and all arrived at different time. This Olay Night Cream came last. Initially, I thought after I bought the things, all items would be sent to the Lazada warehouse to consolidate (like the one people did in Taobao), then only sent to the buyer. Instead, all came at different time. For this night cream, since it's only one item in the parcel, it's not properly transported, some of the creams stayed on the lid. It must have gone through very rough handling So, I started to use the night cream by scrapping it off the lid. I didn't find it difficult though. 

Olay Natural White All In One Fairness Night Cream

Then, after the Olay Night Cream, I saw the promotion of StrawberryNET in Rakuten. The Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion was priced at RM89.10 and the shop offered free shipping. I have never buy Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion from the beauty salon before. However, from the other Exuviance products that I bought from the salon, I would say that it's very cheap for the 212ml lotion. Even the Exuviance cleanser that size was priced more than that from the salon. Plus, I tried the soothing lotion before (the salon gave me some free samples after I bought almost RM600 of Exuviance products), it's not bad. So, I planned to switch to Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion after I finished up my Shiseido D Program toner. Seeing the price was so tempting, so I put it in my cart along with a Fascy Moisture Bomb Hand Cream. I bought the hand cream because it looks beautiful. 

Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion and Moisture Bomb Hand Cream Milk (bought from Strawberry.net)

Mr DIY Adhesive Wallpaper For The Bedroom

I have been thinking to buy some wallpaper to stick to my bedroom walls for a while, however, I kept procrastinating, finally, it's my mother who actually bought the wallpaper to re-decorate my little brother's room because the paint in his room was peeling like nobody's business. My room was in similar situation, but in smaller scale. Well, it was last painted more than 10 years ago, and since only the lower side was more serious, I think the peeling was due to the dampness in the room. And a fresh new coat of paint will not be helping the situation unless one is prepared to repair the wall (scrap the paint away, patch the holes, sand the wall to make it smoother), it is quite time consuming and expensive. So, wallpaper is the second best choice to stop the further paint peel off, just cover it up!

Apart from the ugliness of the wall, the peel off paint was a mess to clean too, the wall couldn't be scrub with, any force on the wall would cause the paint to further peel off and it's not very hygienic. Below shows the situation of the peel off.

Paint peel off

Paint peel off

I tagged along to buy the wallpaper in Mr DIY. When we went there this morning, we took some time to choose the design. Initially, my mom was interested in a light colour 65cm x 5m wallpaper, however, it's the only one left, definitely not enough. So, finally we chose the 45cm x 5m wallpaper with rose design because we could find 8 rolls of it, it's bad if half way through, no material to continue and left a half finished job, more is always better than insufficient.

Wallpaper from Mr DIY (8 rolls of 45cm x 5m wallpaper and 2 rolls of 10m sticker) 

Naruko Night Gelly (Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Night Gelly EX and ampm Super Triple HA Night Gelly)

When I went to Taiwan last year, I bought many MIT skin care, that included 3 bottles of night gelly from Naruko. The Watson Taiwan was having a buy one free one promotion for Naruko products, and there was a group of girls who were very excited and kept telling me and my friend how cheap it was compared to Malaysia. Although I had never use any of the Naruko product before, me and my friend (my friend CY watched a lot of Taiwanese programs and she knew about the Naruko) got influenced and bought their famed products, the night gelly. I bought 3 bottles and CY got 5 bottles. I got two bottles of Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Night Gelly EX for the price of one and for the ampm Super Triple HA Night Gelly deal, I shared it with CY, so I paid half price for it.

Well, I always wondered why the retailers loved the buy one free one promotion, I prefer direct 50% discount because sometimes, I just didn't need two of the same items. Either it would expired before I could finish the product or I fall out of love with the item, or worst case I had to stop using it due to complications on the skin. Personally, I really think that discount is better than buy 1 free 1 promotion.

I started to use the Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Night Gelly (very mouthful) last November. The smell was quite pleasant. Initially, I was quite worried that my acne condition would get worse with the nightly dose of  this night gelly. To my surprise, I found out that after applying this, the oiliness on my nose area became less oily. No matter how thick the night gelly I applied. It would dry up fast and left a layer of film on my skin. I think it's ok. At least it didn't mess up my pillow case, it's some sort of sleeping mask after all.

Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Night Gelly EX

Coin Collecting - Coin Album

I remember I saw some coin albums in the stationery shop when I was a small kid. Since then, I had this thought, I wanted to collect coins. So, I started to put the coins I have into one small ceramic container. From one container, it started to grow until I have 3 containers. I kept only the coins minted before 1989. Whenever I went out to buy things, I would give paper notes, so that I could get coins as change. For this practice, I ended up with many coins. My family benefited from that, I told them they could spend the coins minted after 1988. 

However, I couldn't find coin album in the stationery shops here when I started to try to get serious, to arrange the coins the proper way. Searching Lazada and Rakuten, no online stores sell coin album. So, I expanded the search and found Ebay. I chose the cheapest price with free shipping, and asked my brother to buy it for me because I didn't have Paypal. The total cost was less than RM20, not cheap, but not so expensive either. That was my first coin album, I didn't check properly the dimension first. The slots in the album were only suitable for one cent to ten cents coins, twenty cents and above were too big for the slots. Anyway, the slots quantity were enough for my collections of one cent, five cents and ten cents only.

my first coin album (bought from Ebay)

Getting a Driving License in Kumamoto

I recalled my miserable driving tests in Kumamoto when I read the article below. I failed three times and only passed the test on my fourth attempt. I know some people who renewed the international license every year at the original home country and used it to drive in Japan. However, it's not really legal. I once heard from a former colleague who studied in Japan for his degree, he was almost deported back for driving with a international license after two years in Japan. Since he was a student, the judge gave him a lenience sentence which was only fines. So, he borrowed money and paid off the fines, he said he had bread only for almost a year to pay off the debts. So, better get the license the proper way.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/driving-illegally-in-japan

First, I worked in Kumamoto City for a year and I took train to work. The second year, I had to transfer to Nakatsu in Oita 中津市、大分 which was not very convenient in terms of public transport. So, I had to take a driving test to drive in Japan. International driving licence is valid for the first year only. Since I had my original driving licence from Malaysia (pass on my second attempt because I forgot my seat belt the first time around), I could convert the license to a Japanese driving license, it is called 外国免許切替. However, for direct conversion, only a few countries are qualified, info here. 

For others, like a Malaysian driving license holder, I had to take a written test and driving test to convert my license to a Japanese license. It's a big discount compared to what the Japanese people had to do to get a fresh new driving license. To many Japanese, the written test was what they dreaded the most. It's a very difficult multiple questions test and many failed at first attempt. So, in Japan, there's tuition class for driving license written test. However, for this license conversion written test for foreign driving license holder, it's just a common sense 10 multiple choices questions. I personally found it easy. 

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

When the news broke out that Terry Pratchett dies on March 2015, I felt sad. I just gotten to know his works recently, and I just started to follow the Discworld series. Anyway, thanks to him, we have many good stories to read.

Maskerade is like the Discworld version of "The phantom of opera". Like "The phantom of opera", there's a masked man who lurked around the opera house and opera singers, in Maskerade, add two witches and it made the story much more interesting.

The protagonist in Maskarade was Agnes (who goes by Perdita X), a girl with a very good voice who was not so thin, who was also courted by two witches to join them. However, she didn't want to become a witch. So, she went for interview at a opera house and got accepted. The story started from here. 

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

Cetaphil Oily skin Cleanser

There're many blogs and websites that gave the Cetaphil Skin Cleanser a very high rating. They mentioned that it's a good drug store cleanser. When I saw the word "drug store", I thought it's not too expensive. After reading so much about this cleanser, I decided to get it. I went to Guardian Pharmacy after work one day and couldn't find it, have to ask the salesperson to find it for me. It was placed on the bottom of the rack. Anyway, when I saw it, I was actually quite surprised with the price, it was definitely not wallet friendly, for the 125ml bottle, the price was almost RM60, not really cheap in terms of my budget. 

Cetaphil Oily Skin Cleanser

Anyway, I bought a bottle because I was having pimples that time and the reviews on this cleanser was really glowing. Some even claimed that after using this cleanser, the acne improved a lot. However, I ended up not using it right after I bought it. I wanted to finish up the Exuviance Purifying Cleansing Gel first. Somehow, it took me a long time to finish it. Then, I think two months ago I found out that this Cetaphil cleanser are going to expire on 31st October 2015, and I haven't even started to use it. I never knew cleanser has expiry date too.

expiry date of Cetaphil Cleanser

Souvenirs from Japan 2

I work in a Japanese company, so we have many visitors from Japan and they would normally bring some omiyage (souvenir) over, over the years, I had eaten many items from Japan and I found out that a lot of people would buy the similar items like below pictures. 

One of the items was KitKat, there're many "Japan only" KitKat. I used to like the matcha KitKat. Recently, there's even a flavour for sakura. Nice! 

Kit Kat Otona no Amasa オトノの甘さ

Below KitKat is quite special. The bake-able KitKat in cheese cake flavour. I have seen an article in Rocketnews24  that it could be baked. But I didn't do that, of course, I just got a few of it, too troublesome to do that. I ate it just out of the packaging and didn't get stomach ache. Hahaha! Very special product. 

bakeable Kit Kat in cheesecake flavour

Empties For First Half '15

I enjoyed reading about empties on other blogs. It's quite soothing to the mind. Well, whenever I finished something, I felt a sense of accomplishment, the feeling was like finishing a report or solved a problem, kind of weird, hahaha! For this post, I saved up the empty bottles for a few months for the picture. However, sometimes I forgot and threw it away, so it's a difficult task. Anyway, finally I saved up to nine items and I took the photo below. 

Empties for 1st Half 15

1. Exuviance Purifying Cleansing Gel
I got this cleansing gel from the shop I went for my facial. I didn't feel anything special when I was using this. The beautician there strongly recommended this to me. So, I ended up with two bottles. I finished one, still another half to go. This cleansing gel has an unpleasant smell, although I did get used to it after a while. I used this when I was still having acne on my chin for one year plus, it didn't break me out, but it didn't help me also. After my acne cleared, the function was just to clean the face, nothing else. However, when my youngest brother used this, he suffered serious acne. According to some reviews in Makeupalley, it made their skins tight and dry. Maybe I didn't have this issue because I had very oily face and I used moisturiser after cleansing, I topped up the lost moisture. Will not going to repurchase this, I think one bottle costs around RM150 or more, although it did last a long time, I think it is too expensive for me, especially for something that I am going to wash off.

Business Trip To Singapore

I went to Singapore a few months ago for business trip. It was my second trip to Singapore. Like a lot of Malaysians, the first foreign country I went to was Singapore. Well, my first trip to Singapore was not for pleasure too, I went there for machine buy off, the schedule was quite hectic, so I didn't manage to go around Singapore. For my second trip, I managed to walk around Orchard Road and Clarke Quay. However, the night I planned to go Marina Bay, it rained, so I just abandoned the plan and stayed at the hotel. 

Anyway, for someone who earned RM, everything in Singapore was so expensive. So, even though there were many department stores in Orchard Road, I just window shopped. For the food, I didn't do the mental conversion to RM, so it's still bearable. Well, I didn't go to the high end restaurant, I just had my meals in the food court in department stores, the food selections were quite varied and all the meals I had suited my palate. I guess Malaysians and Singaporeans have similar taste buds.

I felt safe mentally when walking in Singapore. I guess many Malaysians shared my sentiment. Hahaha! The night view in Orchard Road was not bad, I took so many photos using my phone. It's too bad I didn't bring my camera along. 

Orchard Road

Crack Heels

I had crack heels, but it's nothing serious, I mean, it didn't crack until I felt the pain. It's quite mild actually. Although I applied lotions on my body, I felt it's not convenient to apply it on the foot, imagine touching the floor with bare feet after applying the lotion, quite icky. Plus, I don't wear heels and very seldom wear sandals too, I am a shoes person, I like loafers and sport shoes, and I can't drive with sandals. So, my crack heels were not really a issue for me until the skin started to peel off. Then, I started to get worried.

So, I decided to apply lotion on my feet. Since I have two creams from Taiwan that I haven't use that time, I decided to try that for my feet. One was Cingjing Hand and Nail Cream 清境绵羊油护手霜 and another was Celllina Cream 雪芙蘭滋養霜. Both were very affordable. For the Cellina Cream, I bought it in Watson Ximending, while for the Cingjing Hand and Nail Cream, my brother bought it when he went visiting Cingjing, he went earlier than me, so when I saw the exact same package, I really laugh out loud. In the souvenir section in Cingjing, there's a package for two bottles of Cingjing Hand and Nail Cream plus two bottles of sweets made from sheep milk. all four items for 100 NTD. Actually, I was wondering why my brother bought hand cream and sweets, that's so not him. Hahaha, the actual cause was it's cheap. 

mild crack heel (before and after)

Wallpapered Top Of Cabinet

I first found out about self adhesive wallpaper on apartment therapy, since then I wanted to use that on my room. I searched high and low for the self adhesive wallpaper, it's available in Lazada and Rakuten. However, after I knew that it's sold for much cheaper price on Taobao, I lost the interest. Although it's much cheaper in Taobao, I think the shipping cost will make it not so cheap. So, the idea was left hanging. 

Then, a new Mr DIY shop opened in my place, when I visited the store, I found out that they have wallpaper (non adhesive and self-adhesive type) and the price was quite reasonable. So, I googled to know the quality of Mr DIY wallpaper. It turns out that many Malaysians were buying wallpaper from Mr DIY to decorate their homes. Weird, when I used that search term "Malaysia Wallpaper", it only leads me to some online shops. But when I used the search term "Mr DIY Wallpaper", there were many reviews. 

So, I decided to do a small project on top of my house cabinet, it is a plywood based cabinet. We put water pitcher and dish rack there, so, sometimes the water would seep into the top cover and after some time (more than 10 years), it started to crack open, it's unpleasant to look at, so that's my plan, to put the self-adhesive wallpaper on top of the cabinet. 

Before

Special Biomedical Repair Cream

I had chin acne problem for so many years and I thought it is due to the hormonal issue because normally the acne would pop out near or after my period. So, I didn't try very hard to find something to apply and solve the acne. If it's due to hormone, any products would be useless, right?

Anyway, after my trip back from Taiwan, I had continuous chin acne problem for a long time, I think more than a month. I just applied my skin care products as usual, I didn't think too much actually, I was thinking it would subside eventually. Quite positive thinking! 

Then, when I went for a facial, the beautician at the beauty salon recommended a pimple cream (Special Biomedical Repair Cream) to me, she gave me a very small sample tube to try. Well, I tried it on my chin area and somehow, after a few days, my chin condition became better and better! And after using this cream, I didn't have acne for one month straight, even during the period time. 

Special Biomedical Repair Cream

Guardian Pharmacy House Brand (Hand Cream, Body Butter And Hand Soap)

Normally I wouldn't buy house brand skin care products, I would go for the more "established" brands, expensive or not, it must be in the market for some time. Anyway, I was looking for a hand cream after I finished my Nivea Soft. Initially I wanted to buy the Body Shop Hand Cream, it's around RM20 for a 30ml tube, however, at the same time, I saw the Guardian Pharmacy ads on the newspaper (yes, I still read the hard copy newspaper), Guardian was having sales and one of the items was the Guardian Hand Cream, the offer was buy 1 free 1.

Well, the Guardian Hand Cream was around RM9 a tube (not quite remember the price) and it came in a 40ml tube, and the best thing was the buy 1 free 1 offer. I could get two 40ml hand creams for less than RM10. So, I decided to buy the Guardian Hand Cream, it's so much cheaper. Since there were two types of the hand cream, I got one each, the "Cottony Flower" and "Velvety Rose".

Guardian Hand Cream (Cottony Flower & Velvety Rose)

Guardian Hand Cream (Cottony Flower & Velvety Rose)

Aloe Vera Flower

My house have a pot of Aloe Vera plants. When it started to have little Aloe Vera, my mom would cut the old big juicy Aloe Vera out to make Aloe Vera drinks. So, I never knew that Aloe Vera has the ability to flower. So, I was really surprised when I saw spikes growing out of the Aloe Vera plants. 

Aloe Vera Flower

There were two plants on the same pot. I think both flowered at around the same time. By the time I noticed this, some buds already changed colour, not the earliest stage of flowering. I think the earliest stage must look like wheat plant. Hahaha! 

Plant A: early stage of the bloom (10th June 2015)

Plant B: early stage of the bloom (10th June 2015)

In one week time, all the buds bloomed into red / orange flowers. Some of the petals already dropped too. It's so fast.

Plant A: the flowers turning red (17th June 2015)

Plant A: photo taken from the direction of the ground (17th June 2015)

Plant B: the flowers turning red (17th June 2015)

In one more week time, all the petals dropped and only a stick left on the plant, it's quite sad, life's so short!

end of life (25th June 2015)

petals dropped to the Aloe Vera plants (25th June 2015)

Shiseido DeLuxe Night Cream (R)

I stumbled upon this Deluxe Night Cream (R) when I was window shopping at a discount store Mr. Max in Kumamoto. The reason it caught my eyes was it's a product by Shiseido and it's cheap. It's not sold in the Shiseido counter though, we can only find it in the drug store or supermarket. The retail price on the bottom of the bottle was 800 yen, but I think Mr Max price was cheaper than that, I forgot the exact price. 

deLuxe Night Cream (R) by Shiseido

The package was very simple, it didn't come with a box, just a plastic wrap on the bottle. We can only know it's a product of Shiseido from the bottom label "製造販売元 資生堂". On the label, it mentioned that it's a very moisturising cream "しっとりタイプ" with very moisturising ingredients 潤い成分. 

deLuxe Night Cream (R) by Shiseido

My face was very prone to acne when I bought this cream, it didn't help my acne condition and didn't exaggerate my acne condition. Since it was meant to moisturised, I used it when I felt itchy during the dry winter months. Meanwhile, I keep on using the Shiseido D Program. After that, from early this year, after using a pimple cream recommended by the aesthetician from the facial salon I went to, somehow, my chin acne subsided, I always thought that it was due to the period.

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

Well, this book was a gift from my brother. After bigbadwolf, I couldn't bring myself to buy books in retail price anymore. This book was sold at RM57.90 at Popular book store. For that kind of money, I could buy around 6 books in the bigbadwolf. But, the perk of buying books in normal book store is I can get the latest book that I want. Still, thanks bro! 

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

This novel gives me the feeling of American Gods. The story started with a man (the narrator, it's told in first person narrative) driving around his childhood home after going to a funeral, I think. Then, he started to remember about his childhood, his first kiss and a farm house he visited when he was a child and the girl on the farm house. 

He remembered when his parents faced financial trouble, they rented out a room to lodger, The lodger then committed suicide after losing all his money to gambling, and the lodger chose to die near the farm house because it's at the end of lane with few people. Then, the man (was a child then) met the farm house inhabitants, the old Mrs Hemstock, Mrs Hemstock and Lettie Hemstock. To comfort him, the Hemstock offered him fresh cow milk. The one plot I remembered was it was the first time the narrator drank cow milk directly out of a cow, fresh cow milk, not from a bottle. Hahaha!

Sseal : Escargot 24K Gold Cream (The Face Shop)

I bought a snail mucus cream from the duty free shop when I was travelling in Korea a few years ago. I don't remember the price, but I do remember it was cheaper than my Shiseido D program toner. I didn't normally use something I was not familiar with, however since it was not expensive, it was having a buy two free one promotion, my friend wanted two only, so I agreed to take the third one. My friend was very confident with The Face Shop products, she said that a famous Taiwanese beauty show was praising this exact product. 

Well, the box design was quite fancy, the base was black with golden lines and words embossed on the surface. It came in a golden brown bottle with a giant lid (I think the lid alone contributed around 50% volume of the bottle). 

box of the Sseal Escargot 24K Gold Cream

To Mend Or Not To Mend

Since the Dhaka factory incidents, there are many reports on newspaper on how the fast fashion industry is damaging the environment, exploiting the workers, etc. The fashion retailers are churning out new collections very fast and people are buying more clothes than ever. So, very often one clothing item would be left in the back of the cabinet after one or two wears, or in the extreme case, never unpacked from the shopping bag. When people buy more, more natural resources are used up, polluted more water, and finally, add more textile dumping. 

It's scary to read about that. I think I am not a crazy shopper for clothes. However, I still got a number of T-shirts, shirts, pants, socks, etc. I tried very hard not to buy more clothes unnecessarily, in fact, it's been more than six months since I last bought a shirt for work.

I owned a lot of T-shirts, some are more than 10 years old, I owned it since when I was a teenager and still going strong. Sometimes, I hope it just break and I can toss it. However, the worst thing that could happen to a T-shirt was just the threads came off. I felt weird when I read the comments on the fast fashion articles, some readers said that their H&M or Zara clothes were gone after a few wash, the thread came out. I had clothes from H&M and Zara, it's still fine after many wash. Same story with other really cheap T-shirts, the society T-shirts, souvenir T-shirts, etc, If I really like the T-shirt (the well worn type, very comfortable to wear), I would stitch it and if another side have that issue after a while, I would turn it into a cleaning rags happily.

If a button came off from a shirt or pants, I would definitely repair it. However, with my current stock of T-shirts, I will have a hard time to finish wearing all of them. I don't even dare to think to wear all the T-shirts until worn out. So, I had some doubts in my mind, should I mend the T-shirt? If I repair it, I am doing a bit for the environment, I extend the life of a clothing item. If I don't, it's still not going into the dustbin, it will become a cleaning rag first before going to the dump site. 

simple stitches to save the T-shirt

If the fabric direct tear off or socks became too loose until keep slipping off, I could just get rid of it. If it's simple thing like the thread came off or button came off, I can and know how to fix it, but should I do it? In a dilemma. 

I really want to get new Marvel T-shirts!!!!!!

Taiwan in My Eyes

After 11 days in Taiwan, below are some titbits on Taiwan. 

1. Taiwan is really the Land of Scooter
Many Taiwanese were not familiar with public transport because most owned a scooter. It's convenient and fuel saving. Somehow in the Taiwanese novel, many heroine owned a scooter, but not the hero. The hero would normally own a car. That's odd. Almost half of the motorists were male, as far as I could see on the road from my 11 days there.

Scooters in Taiwan

Scooters in Taiwan

2. Generally, Taiwanese are friendly, but it's not true for some of the bus drivers / taxi drivers

We met many helpful and friendly Taiwanese along the way, however, some of the Taiwanese bus drivers were on par with the Malaysian drivers, they were impatient and didn't talk nicely to the commuters. Well, I get it, the road was jammed, the bus was packed to the brim, and the clueless tourists still kept asking the dumb questions, etc. (Well, although we tourists already researched about the price or schedule, sometimes,  we need some assurance!). And the most important thing was they also drove dangerously. When I went to and left Alishan, I took bus and taxi respectively, both speeding on the hilly area, and even overtook car in front of them although it was a blind spot! I was so scared, but I refrained myself from correcting the drivers, I was afraid they would drive more crazily. I just prayed in my heart. I am very thankful that I am well and alive.

3. Personally, I like the Taichung BRT concept, too bad, it will be abolished soon
The concept was like train station, the commuter swipe the easycard to enter the stop and waited for the bus, then boarded the bus and upon reaching the destination, depart from the stop after swipe the easycard. In this way, the bus driver didn't have to spend time to collect the bus fare, he or she just concentrate on driving. Plus, since there's a dedicated lane for the BRT, it wouldn't be so affected by the traffic jam. I hope that the Sunway BRT will be a success and do not follow the path of Taichung BRT.

Taichung BRT

4. Coin laundry shop is not as easy to find as I have imagined

It is easier to find coin laundry in big cities, however, in Alishan and Cingjing, I didn't see any coin laundry shops. Maybe we were staying in the more touristy area. Well, not many of my friends would laundry their clothes during any trips, most would bring enough to last the whole trip. However, I am not the kind who is strong enough to lug the big luggage around. For me, a 20kg luggage is the max, anything more than that, it will become a burden and slow me down.

a coin laundry shop in Taichung

5. Other than human, the traffic light have icon for bicycle too

I saw one in Taipei, so cute!

icon for bicycle for the traffic light

6. Most of the takeaway drinks were sealed 

Well, I didn't know whether it's standard or not. But, most of the restaurants / eateries I went have a plastic cup sealer, so the drinks would be sealed nicely. It's very convenient, no danger of spillage. 

sealed paper cup (for takeaway)

7. MIT  stands for Made in Taiwan

When I first saw this MIT, I couldn't catch the meaning. After that, then only I understood it. It's 'Made in Taiwan'. Well, I bought 2 MIT shoes. LOL! The quality was good and it's very affordable. 

MIT (luggages made in Taiwan)

8. Political Campaigning was very intense in Taiwan, if not more than Malaysia

When I was in Taiwan, it was the campaigning time for local elections to choose the mayor for each state. In Malaysia, we will see many small political flags, but in Taiwan, it's just a big huge posters of the candidates stuck to some buildings. I wondered the owners got paid for this posters or not. I think one big poster is good enough, the flags war was quite wasteful, there's no use for the small flags after elections and it's a mess to remove the flags. One big poster is good because after elections, it could be removed easily and maybe could be reuse. I saw some market vendors use the used posters as the top cover for their stall. LOL!

an election campaign poster in Jiayi

an election campaign poster in Sun Moon Lake

Well, I was in Taiwan for eleven days, but I met quite a few politicians there, not really met, but observe from afar. Hahaha! One of them using a car convoy to meet with the voters.

using car convoy for election campaign in Changhua

The biggest surprise was when I back from Jiufen and stopped at Ruifang, the politician was using a concert to campaign. Initially, I thought it was a normal concert, then Miyoshi san told us it's due to elections. Wow!

using songs for election campaign

Other than that, the campaigning was extended to TV advertisements, not only to advertise themselves, but also to smear the opponents. Overall, I think all the politicians are the same, no matter it's in Malaysia or Taiwan. What they did was just to get the votes.