Powderpuff Mae

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Jesse came home last week with something he made from his art and craft session at kindi. It was a necklace made from pastas! It was beautiful, at least to me. It was even more beautiful as he puts it around his neck proudly to parade his very own creation.



Funny how something so simple can be so beautiful and meaningful.

Talking about beauty, I was told by a friend that adults' perception of beauty is often prejudiced and distorted by "external factors". I have a friend, Foo, he has this thing for girls with long hair. Any girl with long straight hair would be beautiful to him. And any woman, it could be a Kylie Minogue look alike, with that short hair would be yukkie to him. I used to date Richard who likes girls with really short hair, apparently that gives him the adrenaline rush, but that same beautiful girl would be appalling to Foo.

Anyway back to beauty, according to my friend Luc, babies from the age of 6 months old are the best judge of beauty as their perception of beauty is unbais and untainted by prejudicial preferences or "external factors". Wanna know if you are good looking? If a 6 months old baby stares at you longer than usual with approval, it is good news. If he yells with disgust....sorry, bad news.

Back to the pasta necklace, I am fully aware that my judgments were clouded. Anything that Jesse does would be beautiful to me. If it were made by some other kid, then it would be a different story. Some call it prejudice, I call it love.

Carol gave me a call to passed me a pack of hokkien mein which she bought for my dinner, enough to feed the family for 2 meals. I really love that woman.

Anyway we had a little chat at her dining table under a bright fluorescent light. This woman has flawless skin, I mean not a single mark on her face. She candidly told me that "I am forty something already and touch wood I don't have any eyebags or dark circle around my eyes. I don't even have laughter lines when I smile". To emphasise that fact, she put on a huge smile to show her wrinkleless complexion. What's your secret? I asked. "It is internal and external", was her answer to great skin.

Externally, the skincare products serve to cleanse, tone and moisturise the skin. However there is so much these product can do for the skin. If there is something wrong with the body or internal organs, it may show on the face". I asked her if was related to the picture I saw on her table. It was a picture of a face with a map like demarcation on different parts of the face.

I was right. She said that the chinese sinseh could tell what was wrong with a person by merely looking at the face. She said from her 15 years of experience as a beautician, the chineses sinseh's diagnoses can be quite accurate. For example if a person has pigmentation around the cheeks and after using proper skin care to rid the problem area, pigmentation still persists, the root cause may be the liver. As such to properly treat the pigmentation, use proper skincare for pigmentation and supplement it with the right nutrient for the liver. Milk Thistle is known for cleansing the liver.

I used to have millia seeds around my eyes. Lovely Carol removed them all for me. However the culprit could be bad blood circulation. As such, to combat bad blood circulation, most neutritionist would recommend Vit C and Gingko Biloba . Also according to Carol, tiny pimples on the forehead could be caused by stress or using the wrong shampoo.

Carol also gave me a tip on the proper way to take supplements. She just attended a health seminar and she learnt that for maximum results and absorption when taking supplements, take it consistently at a fixed time. Apparently the body is like a time table and at a certain fixed time every day, it will absorb the nutrients to its maximum capacity. That info was certainly something new for me. I'll give it a try to see if it holds any truth.

Some months ago I was informed by Wendy that Zara was about to have their sale. I asked Wendy to go along with me to help me shop for some working clothes and she kindly obliged. It'll make shopping much faster and easier for me if I went with an image consultant. Wendy looks impeccable at all times and her secret, always get your suits from Edmund Ser and Zara during sales. The cut is great and the prices are reasonable.

I was so looking forward to our shopping trip but she had to cancel due to some last minute appointment. I was devastated. "You got to help me, Wendy" I cried in desperation. Wendy tried to calm me down and she gave me some tips on how to get jackets and pants.

The first lesson from Wendy, the length of the pants. Always wear your working shoes when you shop for your pants. It'll be weird if the pants are too short and you will look shorter if the pants are too long, ie when they cover all the heels. The right length would be when part of the heels can be seen.


The correct length for pants


The next problem was the jacket. She was very sure that I could fit into any Zara jacket as long as it was a "S" size, and she was right. This woman is good! Zara's jackets are lovely, perfect fit and perfect cut. I paid a little bit more for the material, texture and the cut but it was worth every penny that I spent.

The next suit will definitely be from Zara again, but of course I will have to wait for their next Sale!

I got tagged some time ago by dear G on the Top 5 fav movies. Been thinking about it and I found it hard to pick only 5 favourite movies. So, like G I am going to go for movies that brings fond memories.

1. The Sound of Music and Oliver





These were the family favourites where the 3 siblings must have seen both the movies like a hundred times, ok I am exaggerating. But we can't seem to have enough of them. Maybe it's because we are musically inclined.....

2. Mr Holland's Opus



James considers me a nerd. He is quite right. When it comes to studies I can be quite anal. This movie was exceptionally sweet because I skipped class to watch it. This was my first truancy and it certainly was not the last. After tasting how sweet truancy could be, the very next week, I skipped another class for "The Rock".

3. A Night at the Roxbury



James, at that time he was dating someone else and his friend KK convinced me that it was a great movie. It stopped screening at all respectable cinemas and the only sleazy cinema that was screening it was at Pertama Complex! I couldn't go alone, as such I had to persuade my siblings to go along with me. I convinced them that it would be hilarious and that I would pay for their tickets. As I drove to Pertama Complex that evening, we passed the FRU at the KL Mosque, at that time it wasn't really safe to be in KL as it was the climax of the Anwar Ibrahim riot or protest. I convinced my siblings that it would be worth risking our lives ....

My siblings' verdict after the movie :- James is wierd and has a queer sense of humour and since I too enjoyed that movie, they considered me as strange and I certainly never heard the end of it, referring to this movie as "the Pertama Complex Movie".

4. Cider House Rules



My first movie with James.

5. Chicken Little



The first family movie, our very first movie at the cinema with Jesse.

I finally can breathe again, at least only for the next few days. Today is a beautiful quiet day, the boy is sleeping and I finally have time to blog or read my regular blog sites and to finish up 1 out of the 2 memes that I've been tagged.

Paris Beaverbanks tagged me for a meme on her blog, so here goes.

1. Who is the first blogger you meet?

Way back before I started blogging, about 2 years 7 months ago, 3 wonderful bloggers, IreneQ, Ariel and Jotay came over to see the then baby Jesse, about 3 weeks after his birth.

2. Who is the "most wanted to meet blogger" for you?

I always wondered how Wingz looks like, does he look anything like his profile photo?

3. Who is the "I can meet, want to meet but somehow never got to meet" blogger?

Not at the moment

4. Who are the group of blogers you most wanted to meet?

The superwomen I want to meet are Paris Beaverbanks, Mott, 5xmom, and Mumsgather. I have always found Ah Pek to be really hillarious, so I suppose I would like to meet him also.

5. Do you have any bloggers/blog readers that you wish to meet right now?

Right now? No... I want to be alone for a while, need my "cave".

I don't think I will be taggin anyone.

One down, one more to go, Gina, I've not forgotten yours....

Carol's car was at the workshop. I offered to give her a lift to her salon. We got to talking and she decided to give me a mini facial as a Chinese New Year gift. Yippee!

The mini facial session ended with the usual massage session and Carol said "I am going to do the digital pressure now". She had always used that term "digital pressure" which I presumed it to be the massage session but I never bothered asking her what it really was. Today I did.

Carol uses essential oils for her facials. For the oil to be fully absorbed into the skin, actually she said "all five layers of the skin" digital pressure is necessary. It involves pressing or applying pressure on certain facial points on the face. The whole procedure takes approx 15 minutes. I asked her about the benefits of "digital pressure". I was surprise to find out that our face may contain toxins from lack of sleep, stress, wrong skin care, self induced pimple extraction and digital pressure helps in removing toxin from the face. It also enhances blood circulation. She confessed that the first time I went to her for facials I had water retention on my forehead! Digital pressure removed it. By applying the correct pressure on the correct facial points, one is actually exercising the face. Some call it facial exercise and that helps in firming the face, giving it an even skin tone with a glow.

After applying digital pressure on the face, the next session is phyto drainage, basically to dispel the toxin from the body. Usually she massages at the neck and back area. The toxin will be discharged via urea or perspiration. That finally explains why I always had a fuller bladder than usual when I have my facials with Carol.

In the past I faithfully went for my facials every month as I had problems with pimples and clogged pores. My complexion improved after every facial however in two months, it would revert to its former condition, all clogged up and all bumpy. In actual fact there wasn't much improvement to my complexion at all. According to Carol, after each session of facial, the complexion should improve and not revert to its former condition. And looking back, Carol's technique worked well on my skin.

It is all about using the right products and going to the right beautician. This may not come easy and cheap for some people, it took me 17 years and a lot of money spent before I was truly satisfied with my complexion. Of course this is only externally, we haven't even begun to explore the internal factors that affect the skin!