Toners 2017

I never skip toner in my skin care. In fact, I am quite generous with the usage. So, I gone through quite many toners in a year. All are Asian brands.

my pass and current toner (from left: White Formula Super Moist Toner With Hyaluronic Acid, 2 Hada Labo Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion, Silk Fibro Lotion & Hatomugi skin conditioner)

One of my pass toner was Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion (Gokujyun) 肌研極潤スーパーヒアルロン液, bought this because many people swore by it. Well, from the ingredients, one can see that it is very moisturizing, it contains 4 types of Hyaluronic Acid (HA) that have different sizes that can penetrate different layers of skin. The large HA forms a layer of barrier to prevent moisture loss. Medium HA has high water retention ability, able to hold moisture and maintain a longer period of lasting hydration. Next is super HA which able to mimic the natural moisturizing ability and finally, nano HA with tiny fine molecule size of 1/20 of HA that can penetrates and infuses easily into skin. Wow, reading the introduction really makes one has high hope on the moisturizing properties, all those humectants. Well, for me, it's kind of sticky. I use it after a more waterly toner. I only apply 2 layers of toners, I have no energy to apply until 7 layers of toners (Korean 7-skin method). I think it is similar to the Shiseido D-Program lotion, but with a much smaller price range.

Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Premium Hydrating Lotion; Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion

Hand Creams from Guardian Pharmacy And Watsons Pharmacy

Hand cream is part of my skin care must-haves. But I will not spend more than RM20 for a tube of hand cream. I used to get the Korean made hand creams, but that also become more expensive in recent years and apart from the packaging, I think it is not tally with the quality.

hand creams from Guardian and Watsons house brand

Then I remembered the blogs from a few Taiwanese bloggers. Quite a number of them recommended Watsons Olive Hand Cream. Many sing praises on the hand cream, claiming it's a good affordable hand cream. So, when I was buying stuffs from Watsons online, I added one "Olive Hand Cream" into my cart to try it out. It's from the range "Naturals by Watsons" and on the packaging, it stated that it's made of certified organic olive oil from Italy. It's free of colourants and Isothiazolinone. It also contains shea butter, grape seed oil, sunflower seed oil, etc. Similar ingredients with most of the hand creams.

A Short Trip To Sibu

A very good friend, YL got married recently during the 7th day of the Chinese New Year. I knew her back from when we were still studying in university, so young then. Anyway, she chose the date because it was the only time when most of their family members were home for holiday. Even my friend and her new husband were working in Kuching, not in their hometown, Sibu. I bought my flight tickets two months before, initially I wanted to wait for the best price, but after that, I got worried that it might sold out, so I just bought the tickets. 

inside Sibu Airport

Luckily I didn't wait, both flights were full. On my flight from KLIA to Sibu, I noticed that many of the passengers had large packets of Gardenia breads in their hands. When I related this to YL, she told me that it is due to the fact that Sarawak don't have a big bakery like Gardenia, only small bakery chains. So, Sarawakians tend to buy the Gardenia bread when they come to Penisular Malaysia. Well, that's interesting! When  reached the Sibu Airport, it was not very lively, maybe it's a small airport. I walked around the airport to survey what kinds of stuffs that I could buy when I wanted to go back to KL. There are of course, the colourful Sarawak Kek Lapis, some traditional wooden and rattan stuffs, pepper in powder form and original dried granule form, etc. One of the interesting find was Husband Biscuit (老公饼), I knew there are Wife Biscuit (老婆饼), but that's the first time I saw Husband Biscuit.

husband biscuits and wife biscuits

Not long after that, YL came to the Sibu Airport to fetch me. Then, we went for lunch in a restaurant with YL friends from KL. We had egg soup 蛋羹, three-coloured tea 三色茶, fried manicai (I didn't know the actual name for the left vegetable, but apparently it's the same name in Peninsular and Borneo Island) with egg, etc. For the three-coloured tea, I forgot what's the other two flavours were, but one it was pandan, the taste was ok, but if the sweetness could reduce a bit, it would be much better.

How To Pay MBPJ Compounds (a.k.a. Saman) Online

Nowadays, many payments can be made online and that's including fines for traffic related offences. Not proud of it, but I paid the fines. So, no time is not a good excuse for not paying summonses. Well, the traffic offence was parking related and it happened in a place located in Petaling Jaya under Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ). At first, I thought it is "Majlis Perbandaran Petaling Jaya" and I typed "MPPJ" and Google suggested "MBPJ" instead.

Anyway, after I found the hardcopy "saman" clipped between the window wiper and the car front mirror, I checked online and it was not updated. I forgot how long it took to update in the system, but I think not more than one week, forget the details already.

Anyway, to check the status of the "saman" from the MBPJ, click the MBPJ website. The BM version is "http://www.mbpj.gov.my/" and English version is "http://www.mbpj.gov.my/en". 

1. From the right hand side drop down menu, choose "semakan kompaun"

choose "semakan kompaun" from the right hand side menu

2. After enter the "Sistem Semakan Kompaun Kenderaan Online", insert the vehicle registration plate number and click "cari".

insert the vehicle registration plate number

3. The summary of the fines or compounds of the particular vehicle plate number will come out.

If the vehicle has open compounds , the details like compound number (no. kompaun), vehicle number (no. kenderaan), identification card number (no. kad pengenalan), total fines (amaun dikompaun), date of the compound (tarikh kampaun) and status of the compound (taraf kompaun) will be shown.

example of the summary (already delete the details)

If the vehicle has no compounds, the MBPJ will congratulate you and stated no compound for vehicle number xxxx (Tahniah, tiada rekod kompaun untuk NO KENDERAAN xxxx).

if no compound

4. From the compound number, can proceed to payment. Go back to the main MBPJ homepage and on the right hand side drop down menu, click "Epay@MBPJ".

click "Epay@MBPJ"

5. Then, the log in page will prompt and request for Id pengguna (user ID) and kata laluan (password). 

log in page

For those that not yet register with MBPJ, just click the first "klik disini" and register.

6. After log in, will enter the page "Sistem Pengurusan Perhubungan Pelanggan". At the drop menu menu next to the "Kemudahan", choose "kompaun trafic & Pelbagai". 

choose "kompaun trafic & Pelbagai"

7. Result as below will be shown. The "No kompaun (compound number)", status of the compound and total amount will be displayed. Tick the square box next to the amount (in this case, RM70) and click "Daftar ke akaun".

tick the square hole & click "Dafter ke akaun"

8. Next a page named "Bayaran" will come out. Just tick the square box and then click "Bayar"

tick the square hole & click "Bayar"

9. Method of payment is the next, the sentence on upper left is "Pilihan Mod Pembayaran". Only credit card (Visa / Mastercard) is accepted. One of my friends told me that she once paid with online banking with CIMB Clicks. However, when I wanted to pay, only the credit card is accepted. Click either the "Mastercard" or "Visa", then click the square box with "Kad Kredit".

click the "Mastercard  or Visa" and then "Kad Kredit"

10. Like in any other online purchasing using credit / debit cards, just enter the credit card details and click "pay" on the lower right.

enter the credit card details and click "pay"

11. After the payment is made, one will be lead into the "Rekod Transaksi (transaction record)". The status will show "berjaya (success)". 

Rekod transaksi

The system is quite straight forward, but if the MBPJ accept online banking, it will be better. From my conversions with friends, we noticed that RM30 was deducted from the total amount when we paid the fines. So, those that still owe saman, better pay now, or else cannot renew road tax because it will link with JPJ database. source: here.

Souvenirs from Japan 4

I tried many more food items from Japan. Below are some of it.

One of the famous brands one can get in Japanese Airport is Royce. It's one of the chocolate brands that I like very much. I like their Nama Chocolate, however it needed to be stored in a specific temperature of 10 degree Celsius or below. So it's not easy to get the Nama Chocolate. The one I got as a souvenir was not the type that needed to be refrigerated. Of the three flavours below, I like the Maccha the most and fruit flavour the least. 

Royce Bar Chocolate

Royce Bar Chocolate

The second one was the Ukai crackers 鵜飼せんべい from Nagara River 長良川, Gifu 岐阜. From the website, it claims that it is made from the eggs laid by the local chicken and flour from the Gifu prefecture. Truth to be told, this senbei is very hard, not for someone with weak teeth. Anyway, if one have the chance to visit Gifu, he or she could arrange to visit the cormorant fishing on the Nagara River. From what I read, it sounds very interesting. 

鵜飼せんべい

鵜飼せんべい