Powderpuff Mae

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!

As I was strolling along the buffet counter of medicine in my mother's home, I noticed a bottle of thick black sticky stuff similar to dark soy sauce ("hak si yau"). The label read "Organic Blackstrap Molasses". Out of curiosity, I asked my "physician" mother what it was.

Blackstrap Molasses is rich in calcium, iron and potassium. That explanation meant nothing to a layman like me. On further enquiry and in summary, the benefits of Blackstrap Molasses are as follows (women please take note):-

1. It reduces menstrual cramps
2. It reduces heavy blood flow during menstruation
3. Reduces or prevents the growth of fibrosis
4. It is anti-cancerous
5. Good for nails because of its high calcium contents
6. Gets rid of heart palpitation

A 1kg bottle of Blackstrap Molasses is priced at about RM15.00. I gave it a try, it wasn't revolting or putrid, there was just a lingering sourish taste behind my tongue. I will probably give it a go afterall its benefits outweighs its taste.

I have not taken enough to see its results and those facts were compiled based on my mother's research.

GONG XI FA CHAI to everyone.

We made our journey back to Taiping on the eve of New Year in the wee hours of the morning. My brilliant husband had made an elaborated plan concerning our journey in order to get us home without getting stuck in the jam. He slept at 9pm the night before the trip and woke up at 3am. I on the other hand had to do all the packing to ensure that the family had everything we needed for the next 3-4 days. I slept at 11.30pm and woke up at 3.30am. We left the house at 4.30am for Taiping.

Despite planning and coming up with the best route to take to avoid the crawl, we were stuck in the mother of all crawls at 4.30am. There was an accident in Rawang involving a bus. As such it took us 2 1/2 hours to get to Rawang when normally a 50km stretch would probably take us 15-20 minutes. The rest of the journey was smooth save for the congestion at the Ipoh toll.

Breakfast at Dunkin Doughnut in one of the stops

All in all we had a good time in Taiping. We didn't really have a big celebration this year as we were suppose to be still "mourning" the death of Ah Poh. When we got back to Taiping, we managed to eat the famous "kai see mein" (shredded chicken noodles) aka KSM. I find it strange that the "Taipingans" seem to love their KSM to no end and they never seem to get enough of this stuff. For example, we had "KSM" the morning before New Year . The next morning, Uncle Ricky bought KSM for breakfast. And James' doting mother made more KSM for lunch but she made enough to feed an entire village for a few more days. So everyone had KSM for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By lunch my entire bodily system was on red alert, too much KSM, need to eat something else, anything but KSM. So I stuffed myself crazy with all the chinese new year cookies and peanuts. Anything will do but please not another bowl of KSM.

Sadly all the good stalls were closed for the new year. So for the next few days we ate the worst food Taiping could offer. The good hawkers were on a well deserved holiday. Whereas the rejects were out to make a quick buck from hungry diners like us who refuse to eat at home. Anyway, the cookies at home were much better as such I stuffed myself with more cookies as the cousins festered in front of the idiot box for a whole 8 hours for our "Heroes' marathon. It was a great series.... save the cheerleader!

The cousins festering in front of the TV eating CNY cookies

Jesse and Baby

We got back last night. It was a long journey. We were stuck in another jam, but it was a great trip nonetheless.

I just came from the doctor's. I discovered this morning that had I lost my voice. In my attempt to avoid KSM, I stuffed myself with too much cookies and peanuts and this my friends have cost me my voice.

Today is Valentine's day. I am one of the few who have difficulties remembering auspicious occasions. Heck I even forget my own birthday until I receive birthday wishes via sms from family and friends.

I remember when I was still dating James, I put off getting his gift until the very last minute, the night before Valentine's. I rushed off to One Utama that evening. I ran out of cash and was the ATM machine. I went into the air conditioned booth and when I was about to retrieve my cash, I felt someone hugging me from behind. I was startled and my instinct told me to deliver my kungfu tiger fist onto the deranged pervert. Quick as lightning I turned and when I was about to deliver the deadliest blow mankind has ever tasted, it was James. Thank God my reflexes were quick as lightning, it could have been a fatal blow if I hadn't stop on time.

What are the chances that he should catch me buying him a last minute gift? And to make things more embarrassing, I made up a lame ass excuse why I couldn't meet up with him that night.

Anyway he was there to get me a last minute present as well. That was seven years ago. Today, we are cool. We do not fuss over presents, flowers and dinners. Just a quiet night alone together watching DVD without any interruptions would be good enough for us.

This year James got me something big, which I will blog about another time:)

A symmetrical face

Last week was an interesting week. My friend Sally was back from Australia. Despite our age gap, we enjoy hanging out together. We had one thing in common, we are both vain and we would pay the price or suffer the pain for the sake of vanity.

Sally had always wanted a set of full lips like that of Angelina Jolie's. She didn't believe in injecting some foreign substance into the body but had not qualms about cuts, stitches and pain. As such collagen was out of the question. She opted for lip embroidery. Sally was to an extent able to choose the shape of her desired lips which she had coveted for such a long time.

We made an appointment with Ms Tang at Metro Prima at Kepong. Ms Tang and her sister are trained "surgeons" from China who had performed thousands of "minor cosmetic surgeries" for more than a decade. Both Sally and I were hopeless at Mandarin and both the sisters could only converse in Mandarin. Still, that didn't stop us from our pursuit for beauty.

Sally knew exactly what she wanted. She had pictures of Amber, Angelina and Gong Li ready for Ms Tang. However, Ms Tang couldn't give her Amber nor Angelina's lips. There are some factors that had to be considered, the original shape of her lips and facial structure. As such, she could only give her slightly fuller and thicker lips.

Couldn't keep my eyes off this picture


Amazing, you can choose the eyes and lips that you desire

My personal favourite - Arousing

Check out the English. I think it is a direct translation from Mandarin

First Ms Tang drew the outline of the lips for Sally's approval. After many corrections and half and hour of chicken and duck talk trying to convince Ms Tang that thick lips are now fashionable and not abominable, the next step was to choose the colour to be tattooed on the lips. Fortunately Sally chose a light colour.

Ms Tang took out her "tattooing pen" and she started inflicting pain for a whole hour on Sally's lips. For the sake of beauty, Sally withstood every prick from the needle that fell onto her lips. She had an option, to either take 4 jabs of anesthetic around the lips, a painless process but her lips will swell up for a few hours or just opt for numbing liquid. Since she had a business presentation in 2 hours, she opted for more pain less swell.

Tattooing in progress

I was with Sally throughout the whole process. I was contemplating whether I should get my lips done. I saw every gory detail. Asked as many questions I could with my limited Mandarin. Saw the end result of my friends ordeal. Ms Tang assured me that I would look lovely with light pinkish lips as I had pale skin and didn't have much pigmentation on my lips. The cost of lip embroidery is RM1,000.00 which includes touch ups.

There are alot of things I would do for the sake of vanity, but I think I will pass on this one.