Powderpuff Mae

Look at those eyes....

We did some New Year shopping at Metrojaya last Sunday. We had a great time shopping, just the three of us, Jesse, daddy and mommy.

There were some really cool shoes for little boys at Metro. Usually we have problems getting Jesse to try any shoes but this time he cooperated with us. He tried on most of the shoes, actually only the ones that he liked. They didn't have Jesse's feet size for the ones that we really liked so we grabbed whatever that was available. As I was queueing up to pay for the shoes, James walked Jesse over to the toys section. It wasn't a long queue, it was just my luck to have a really slow cashier on duty that day. I was bored to tears. Thank God for small distractions, the aunty infront of me had really beautiful hair, her hair stylist did a great job perming her hair. As I was admiring her great hair and analysing every detail of it, James came back with Jesse with a new addition, which would eventually be the new addition to the family.

According to James, Jesse fell in love with the toy instantaneously. Usually Jesse doesn't make a fuss when it comes to soft toys, he merely hugs and kisses the toys that he likes and walks away. But not for this puppy, whose name was supposed to be RAVI (the name came with the tag). Anyway Jesse couldn't resist RAVI, he was mesmerised by the dog, somehow. We caved in and RAVI became the newest addition to the Tan family.

Jesse and his new friend, Ravi


It is all in the eyes, I tell you. Look at RAVI'S over sized pupils or some will say cute puppy dog eyes. There is power in that pair of eyes, the ones that had a grip on Jesse which caused him to go "Ehhhhhhhhh" when taken from him and made countless passerby stare at our boy sleeping in the stroller with his beloved RAVI. I think they were hypnotised by those eyes.

Remember this fella and what he did after giving "that loook"

Back to the eyes, I posted about the power of the eyes and how a woman can get a man to think that he is in love with her by just gazing at him. Apparently his heart will go "bedeboop" "bedeboop" if the woman looks and flirts with him with the eyes. Never knew how powerful those eyes were until I met RAVI.

I knew an English couple, Sarah and Robert, who were seconded to Malaysia for 2 years. Their daughter, Charlotte was 5 and took a school bus to kindi. Sarah found Malaysians to be extremely polite people, they often refer to anyone and everyone as uncles or aunties. They found it even more amusing that Charlotte had picked up that habit from her friends. Even if she didn't know the name of the aunty or uncle, it didn't matter, every uncle and aunty had a special name. Thus the bus driver was officially named "uncle bus" by Charlotte and her friends. We had a good laugh, but as I recalled back, all the 4 designated school bus drivers who ferried me and my siblings throughout our 12 years of schooling were either called uncle bus or aunty bus.

Parents at Jesse's kindi had to pick their kids up in an orderly manner. We had to queue up outside the kindi. Everyday when I wait for Jesse in the queue I meet two aunties who were the designated drivers for some of the children at the kindi. The first aunty drove a Toyota Unser and she had 16 kids under her care. Imagine all 16 kids in a van. It was really amusing watching the kids get in. They just keep hopping into the van of unlimited space which reminded me of a tv commercial for Toyota Unser sometime ago where they showed the "forty vertically challenged thieves" getting into the unser in a similar manner as the kids. Indeed the Unser is great for space.

Both the aunty unser and friend had brownish yellow hair. They have kept up with the trend of having their hair coloured and bleached. Similarly, some decades ago, they must have kept up with the trend then and had their brows and eyeliner tattooed black and that event must have slipped their minds when they coloured their hair recently. The tattooing must have happened some decades ago. Today they have grayish black eyebrows and eyeliner (the black must have faded of) with light brown hair. Not good. It was quite excruciating looking at the pair of aunties everyday under the hot sun. Somehow under the bright natural sunlight, every colour and flaw seemed accentuated.

According to a professional makeup artist, she pointed out that the colour of the brows had to match the colour of the hair. As such black hair, darker or black brows; brown hair, brownish brows. I never saw the importance of such colour coordination until I saw how ghastly aunty unser and friend looked in their trendy new hair colour.

Chinese New Year is around the corner and I know many of my Cantonese (Canto) speaking friends who are itching to do something new and drastic to the hair. Just yesterday two of my canto friends, with great enthusiasm and in anticipation of the New Year coloured their hair brownish yellow, it did look very stark with their black brows. SO do be careful if you intend to colour your hair for the New Year, choose wisely.

I wish they were my natural lashes; they are extensions


I have small eyes and have always wanted larger eyes. I am always looking for ways on how to enhance or enlarge the eyes. From experiments and trial and errors, I realised that with proper makeup and some other "little enhancements", any person can have beautiful eyes or at least have better looking and more attractive eyes.

Mascaras could help create longer, darker and thicker lashes. According to a make-up artist, she told me that mascara helps to "open up" your eyes, I think what she meant was that it makes the eyes look bigger. However I dread cleaning the mascara off the lashes at the end of the day, in particular waterproof mascara. Seeing my lashes fall off after each washing was heartbreaking.

I hardly use mascara these days (trying to preserve whatever lashes I have left) as such, I opt of fakes or extensions. Just a quick tip for mascara lovers, curling lashes gives eyes the appearance of being wider & brighter. Shoot hot air from your hair dryer on the mascara curler for 3-5 seconds to warm it up before curling lashes. Touch it first to make sure it's not TOO hot. Shu Uemura makes the most popular eyelash curler on the market. I saw my makeup artist for my wedding photos do that and it does wonders for the eyes and lashes.

Winnie, of Splendour De Beauty usually gives me a call when there are offers at her salon. This time, the eyelash extensions are going for RM88 until Chinese New Year. I made an appointment to see her. I've done eyelash extensions last year at Body Perfect (the place where "Gutsy Girl" got her entire slimming course sponsored) and they were beautiful. But beauty came with a price, RM150, and that was the offer price! Normally it would be priced at about RM300! I was looking for something more reasonable so I decided to go with Winnie this time.

Winnie painstakingly stuck each synthetic lash onto my original eyelashes and since, according to her, I had quite a lot of them it took her nearly 2 1/2 hours to complete. Occasionally I dozed off, my body just couldn't resist the calm and soothing music of the waves and nature. Every pain and ache in my body due to lack of bodily movement for the whole 2 1/2 hours was worth it. I was pleased with the results. The eyelashes looked really natural, naturally long which I love.

Synthetic lashes that was glued to my original lashes


Some of the equipment Winnie used





The glue

I've had them on for 2 weeks since and they still look beautiful. Most of them still holding on strong and still in good shape. I was told by Winnie that it will last for a month if I take care of them, that means no excessive rubbing of the eyes.

I am sure they will not last till Valentines or Chinese New Year. I may go back for touch ups next month, it costs only approximately RM40 for her to replace fallen synthetic lash.

Valentines' coming up soon and what better way to look fabulous with "almost" naturally long and beautiful eyelashes. The lashes are so discreetly good looking and trust me, the men will not even realise what hit them unless they have read this post!

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For those interested call Winnie at 77103036. Her salon is at 26M Jln SS21/58, Damansara Utama. Just let her know that I recommended you, she'll know what to do.

Despite having quite a bad memory, I still could remember the first seminar on Image Management I attended 7 years ago. It was conducted by Dennis something something, an image consultant from New Zealand.

I always had an interest in beauty and image and I suppose that is the reason why and how I could remember some of things Dennis said. There are 4 things I remember from this class.

1. Round, round. Square, square.

If you have a round face, wear a round spectacle. Similarly for people with a square face, a squarish shaped spectacle would be more suitable. Dennis belongs to the first school of thought.
However, according to Wendy, who belongs to the other school, felt that round and round is abit over, as such she would recommend a slightly squarish spectacles for a person with round face and a more oval specs for a person with squarish face.

2. Invest in a few pairs of good shoes, preferably made from genuine leather.

Dennis quoted Dr Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lamb. It was Clarice Starling's first interview, and Hannibal sizes up Clarice and said these famous lines "You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste".

Incidentally this seminar was organized by my ex boss. This man really needs a total makeover. He was an asian scholar and is known to be a brilliant man amongst his peers but when it comes to decent dressing, this guy needs to go back to kindergarten. Even Jesse knows how to choose his own clothes and protested vehemently when he was forced to put on his kindi uniform. Back to my ex-boss, he had a pair of black shoes. He wore them daily to the office. It would have been a respectable pair of black shoes save for the fact that he destroyed it with sheer laziness and with his own two feet. Instead of wearing them a shoes, he slips them on like a pair of flip flops and that was the exact sound we heard when he walked around the office "flip flop, flip flop".

After the seminar he bought something to replace the junk. I would have expected him to get at least one good pair from Bally, since he was the boss or maybe something more modest from Bonia, but he got himself a pair of black cowboy boots accessorised with something like silver spurs at the sides. Instead of "flip flop" it was now "cling clang".

Jesse's new uniform...you can't blame Jesse, can you?

3. Proper dining etiquette. Always bring the food to your mouth and never bend down to your food.

I told James about this new piece of information. One lovely evening at a fancy restaurant, with great enthusiasm, we sat at the dinner table brimming with poise and grace and we were all set to put our newly acquired dinning etiquette to practice, we failed miserably. We had soup and food remnants spilling onto our clothes and most of which missed our mouths by just a few inches. Results were dirty chins and shirts and even dirtier napkins.

4. Try to play down your looks especially when you are beautiful.

Dennis said people tend not to take a beautiful woman seriously. She advised all beautiful woman to look more “ah soh” like buning or tying up the hair, wear less make up or maybe wear a pair of spectacles.

Looking back, it was indeed an interesting and informative seminar. Surprisingly it was well attended by many company directors and top executives who needed an entire day of lesson on how to look presentable.

I hate coughs. I used to think having a sore throat is the worst among the "flu" package, until I caught this bout of cough from James. It is really bad, I've been coughing for over a week. I took the doctor's medication, it got worse. I can hardly talk. Even taking a deep breath irritates the throat resulting in a horrible outburst of lengthy chesty coughs and yes, my chest hurts too.

Anyway, I took some advise from Kelvin who have had some bad coughing experiences like the "100-day cough" and the "oldman or smoker's cough". He recommended me to get some really good homemade "Pei Pah Ko" from Fook Cheong Sea Foods & Medical Trading from Centre Point, Bandar Utama. I got a bottle for RM22. The normal ones like "Ubat Batuk Cap Ibu & Anak" are much cheaper, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that Kelvin is right.

Also I asked for "Lam Hang Pak Hang" to go with the "Pei Pah Ko". I think I got slaughtered there. One serving costs me RM20. This is my first time buying chinese medication from a medical hall and I am totally clueless when it comes to the prices of dried sea horses, dried rhino horns, dried frogs, ginsengs and etc...

Also the "sifu" advised me to lay off chicken (all forms including eggs), bananas, oranges and ice. I've got a confession to make, the reason why the cough has been lingering for such a long time is due to my love for chewing ice. Looks like sacrifices have to be made now before I get an infection (that's when the phlegm turns greenish).

In the meantime, I'll stay in doors and keep the germs to myself lest I start infecting some unsuspecting innocent person.

We live in a condominium. Despite sharing a piece of 3 acre land with 300 over residence, I hardly socialise with the aunties at the lift lobby. Every morning and evening most of the aunties and their children / grandchildren will congregate and loiter at the lobby to fish for the latest piece of gossip. The main reason I refrain from the pack stems from the fact that I am not fluent in Cantonese and I am very self conscious of my handicap. The more I talk the more likely I will end up being served as tonight's special for their gossip session.

There are many new parents in Block C, the block where I live in. Mothers are a competitive lot when it comes to their children at this condo, in particular this "Kia su" aunty staying on the 5th floor. When Jesse and I first met her at the lobby, her son was 3 months old and Jesse was about a year older than the baby. We exchanged our usual hellos. I remembered our very first conversation. She asked what milk powder Jesse was taking, I told her that Jesse takes Mamil Gold. She proudly offered me a piece of unsolicited information, that her boy was taking a higher grade of imported milk formula, Enfalac A+. Apparently babies who drink Enfalac A+ will turn out to be larger, healthier geniuses, unlike our puny and daft little kid whose dead beat parents could only afford to get him Dumex. Parents like us were frown upon by the likes of herself.

My next conversation with this kia su aunty was when her genius in the making son was close to 9 months old. To my surprise he was much larger than Jesse in size and height. She asked how old Jesse was, and was delighted to learn that her son was growing faster than our vertically and horizontally challenged boy.

Our son is a late bloomer. He walked and talked later than most kids at our condo. Parents often blew their trumpets loud and clear, telling us what their boy or girl could say or do, but Jesse's parents could only reply "our boy cannot talk yet". Some kids could do their spelling bee by the age of 2 and the proud parents demonstrated their kid's spelling prowess and skills to our confused little Jesse and his embarrassed parents. What Jesse could do, other parents, in their competitive spirits proudly claim "mine also can" PLUS additional stunts which often left us flabbergasted.

I thank God for good parenting books and pediatrician who dispenses sound advise to anxious parents like us, constantly assuring us that our son is developing normally. Whilst we were a little worried at our son's progress, we didn't want to put undue pressure on the poor child to perform like a circus clown to each and every parent we meet.

We have learnt not to be too competitive or "kia su", there are so many more things which are important to a child's development besides education. Jesse will learn how to catch butterflies, fly a kite, ride a bicycle, climb grandma's rambutan tree and most of all enjoy his childhood while he is able to before his parents succumb to the surmounting pressures of today's society.

Flirt and seduce with your eyes


I was at the dentist on a hot Monday afternoon. Since it was going to be a long wait I took up this month's issue of Her World and read an article on "Science of seduction". As I read this article I began to reminisce about those carefree days when I was in my twenties. No worries, no commitments, not a single care in the world. Those were the days and gone were the days where I could flirt, date and seduce to my heart's content.

The art of flirting is all in the eyes. According to the author of the article, a Harvard psychologist discovered couples who are deeply in love look at each other 75% of the time when talking. To seduce your man, gaze at him, he wrote. In that way the woman would be able to trick the man's brain into thinking he's in love with her. Apparently that will kick-start the production of phenylethylamine (PEA, the love hormone that makes the heart race). This is just too easy, either that or men are just gullible creatures.

Women are advised to lock eyes with the man even when someone else joins the conversation or when he is done talking. When the woman looks away, she should do it slowly but her eyes should return to her target. In that way, even the blurrest man would know that he is her object of interest. That could again flood his body with PEA.

Research has shown that men are more attracted to women with larger pupils. To enlarge your pupils, you can create the right environment or conditions to control the size of the pupils. Dim or soft lighting enlarges the pupils. Interestingly the pupils enlarge when we are looking at something we like. It would help if the woman can think of something she likes best about her "target".

Hope the above information extracted from "Her World" would be helpful to anyone with a "target" and with such potent information at one's disposal, it'll be bullseyes. Even the most reluctant one will fall prey to his predator.