Reflection

I heart my playlist. It probably is intuitive because it plays just the kind of music that i want to listen to when i feel like it.

I enjoyed Len's lesson very much. Especially the 7 things we can control. I laughed my head off, mainly because I am laughing at myself, for doing all the 7 things he mentioned. Me not very good with controlling... partly because too emotional. And being emotional is no good for business.

Saying this, reminds me Nana K. aka Hachiko. She is a character from Nana, who always have the habit of falling in love at first sight. Which doesn't work very well for her because in the end, love slipped by her hands. She jumps from one relationship to another because she is always feeling lonely. Actually she loves no one, but herself. And she just wished for someone, anyone to love her back.

Incredible. Resembles real life.

Anyway on a cold turkey for Nana. Still got a few more episodes to complete the series. Planning to do so late at night on Fri. In the meantime, suddenly got a lot of work at work to complete. And still got several new projects for Hana. Keeping myself so busy, sometimes pushes me to the brink of breaking point. But I like working and doing. It keeps me alive and useful, needed.

Fear. Fear of failure, disappointment

Doing vs thinking. Are you a 'I should' or 'I could'? There's 2 sides to everything, which side do you believe in?

Words carry alot of weight. Ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecy? We are indeed who we describe ourselves to be

Just something I learnt from yesterday's lesson.

Shojo Manga

I'm really slow in catching up on shows and anime. Nana was such a craze in 2005 when the movie was launched, but I only caught on now! argh. If not for that incredible song Kailin sang, I won't be hooked on this seemingly hentai lesbo show.

But after watching it, it is so not what I thought. No wonder it's such a popular shojo manga because this show is so relatable to young girls. Nana Komatsu aka Hachi, the girl from countryside looking for love and happiness is very relatable and certain characteristics reminds me of myself (like falling in love on 1st sight, idealising love etc). The other Nana, who is the vocalist of the band, remains me of the girl I wanna to become, achieving her dreams despite giving up love.

I'm neither as stupid as Hachi (as least i hope), nor am I strong like Nana. Both girls are incredible in their own right. There was this episode where Nana disapproved Hachi's choice of guy (because that guy is such a player and jerk. I hate it when she married him!), but she didn't dare to criticise Hachi's choice (or rather can't bear to) because she knows to Hachi, a woman's happiness is being with the man she loves.

Sad but true. sometimes we see others making a mistake but we don't dare to reproach them because we scared they will be angry at us. I've seen some of my friends fall head over heels for guys who totally don't deserve them, but I dun dare reproach them. the only thing I can do is probably cheer them on and support them when they need someone. because I've been through it. I've made some pretty stupid decisions when it comes to men... but last thing I want is someone criticizing my decisions. come to think of it, it's stupid. But love is blind.

Why do we let ourselves fall in the same vicious cycle all the time?

Anyway Nana rocks!

Randomness

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/world/asia/20japan.html?_r=1&em&ex=1193198400&en=2d37e48f1fcd907c&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

Stupid article taken from Kathleen's blog

I have a few things to rush before the weekend. Abit stressed abt it. Work and Hana. Enough things to keep me busy man

My sec sch pple are smart

Yesterday my cousin asked me a Maths question which her boss's son has problems answering.

Cousin: "Hui, you no. 2 in class, should be very smart right. Do you know the formula for 1+2+3+...+100 = ?"

Me: "Eh, my maths cannot make it. return all to teacher liao. but no worry, i got very smart friends."

After 1 hr, i emailed her the answer.

Yes, chung cheng people damn smart. I got 2 different solutions for one question. And yes. Both answers are the same.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. drop me a tag if u want the formula.

Thanks to Yichao, Colin and Yingyuan for helping me with the solution. God bless for clever friends i have.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Astri!

Happy 22nd birthday girl. This photo was just taken a year ago, but it seems like ages before. Miss you very much! Wanna go on road trip with ya! Hope you have a smashing birthday! :D

Experience

What constitutes an experience? Is it some event or activity that we have gone through and forget about? Or some lesson that we have learnt?

I have learnt that man is not perfect and is bestow with imperfections. That’s what makes us beautiful and human. Sometimes we can’t live with the flaws of others. But while pointing the index finger at someone else, 4 of the remaining fingers are pointing to us.

So I admire Yannwei, for being to see the goodness in everyone. Praise and encouragement is easy to give, yet we are usually stingy about giving them, especially after seeing their faults. Somehow in my small narrow-mindedness at the point in time, I see their faults bigger than their merits.

Being this blinded makes me less of a leader and no more than a mere whiner which no one likes to stick around with.

Room for improvement, means no one is perfect. Especially me. I can only be hard on myself and not others.

Runway makeup

Christian Dior Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 07-08 collection featured some of the most outlandish and daring creations I've ever seen on the runway. Greatly inspired by Marie Antoinette, the dresses and makeup is befitting for theatres. I would love to create the below looks. I need volunteers for models! anyone?

Spot the models

Linda Evangelista


Lily Cole

Louis Vuitton 'Speedy'

My favourite luxury brands are 1) Dior, 2) Gucci, 3) Louis Vuitton

When I was younger I swore not to fall in love with monogram bags of LV, Gucci. But now, after seeing the young pretty successful girls like Serine, Iris and Michelle carrying the Speedy LV bags, I think I'm in love with it too. The texture, the quality and the size is just so perfect!

And guess what? Louis Vuitton started out making luggage! That explains why their bags are so impeccable made and there're always fake versions of LV around. Irony is that the LV monogram was initially created to avoid counterfeits.

$1k for a bag like this. Apparently cheaper if you go Europe to buy, $600 - $700!

When I hit my 21%, I'm going to get one of these to reward myself by going France to buy it!

Fashion Allure

Fashion has never been this wearable. On the latest runway show of French fashion house - Christian Dior, its chief designer - John Galliano – started out by showing much masculine elements like vests and well tailored jackets. To contrast the masculinity, Galliano’s choice of softer fabric for the dresses such as chiffons and charmeuse, flatter the female body and show off the curves. I personally find this season’s designs are so soft and pretty yet have a class of luxury to it. Like a rich tai-tai closet of dresses for high tea. I like!

Vogue said: "I want to love first and live incidentally" – isn't that just the perfect Dior?

I can imagine Charlize Theron walking down the red carpet in this.

Dior Runway makeup. I wanna recreate this look.

And I have fallen in love with another fantastic designer house – Gucci – whose current designer is Frida Giannini. This lady who used to be in Tom Ford's team while he was still with Gucci, had big shoes to fill when she was offered this position. Gucci, an Italian fashion house who suffered much turbulence over the past years, have finally caught my eye when I saw this breathtaking Spring/Summer 08 collection.

Frida Giannini

As I won't be able put the collection in words as good as Vogue, here's an excerpt:

"It's no mistake that Giannini has replaced the modern logo with a swirling, more retro version – for she is slowing making us forget the sex mad, morally indiscriminate Gucci girl of the last Nineties and introducing us to one we'd never regret taking home to meet our parents – though we might still have misgivings about letting our husband near her, such is her allure. If we're talking trends, the new season's biggest were confirmed tonight: black and white, loud checks, yellow, pink, bomber jackets, full skirted party dresses and belts, belts, belts – with everything, if not around the waist then holding up a swirling evening gown over one shoulder. Beyond ticking those boxes, Gucci gave us the life of a good time girl – collarless leather pink blouses belted over full monochrome printed skirts were for modern day Pink Ladies. Flowers remain one of the new season's essentials too – by Gucci they were transformed into glittering Perspex and uses as corsages or appeared on the back of KER-CHING black, yellow and white biker jackets. There was a definite rock element, with a touch of Luella Bartley style girly punk, but Gucci is also increasingly displaying a knack for fluid drapery and fabric origami that continues to impress – a strapless cocktail dress in pink had pockets as a result of its full back being pulled into a fitted front (the black version was one of the prettiest LBDs ever). Proving that swimsuits don't have to show off more than they hide to be sexy, here they were low cut in diagonal bands of yellow, white and black, while tiny rolled up shorts and skinny tailored black trousers proved that the Gucci woman is still nothing if not a head-turner. Taking on a more inclusive attitude to our wardrobes has clearly been fun for Giannini: three-quarter length coats of pink or black and white check had wearability written all over them, while dirndl skirts featured stripes of PVC proved that it's more demure but it's never going to get boring. A finale of billowing full length dresses - Carmen Kass in yellow, followed by black and white versions – meant that some day soon, a Gucci wedding dress may not be unthinkable – even in church. "

Clean, Sleek Smoky eyes. Lovely!

Vogue says: Will you let the new Gucci woman meet your husband?

Happy Birthday Pabby!

Hope you have a wonderful year ahead!

The TV bug bites again!

Gundam OO

I'm a closet anime junkie who likes Gundam! Influenced by my bro since sec sch days, the latest Gundam series is here! Saw the 1st 2 episodes and I am hooked. Setsuna Seiei and Marina Ismail!!! Will they be the new couple of this series? (girl's 24 and he's 16, unlikely right?) Oooo and the gundams are way COOOOOOOOOOL!

Nodame Cantabile

Recommended by Kailin (whom I met for KTV on sunday, this girl can really hit the high notes), this is surprisingly a great show to watch. Reminds me a little of 恶作剧之吻 japanese version, except the girl in this show is slightly prettier, more talented but 100 times more disgusting. alot of hilarious parts but also very touching at the same time. Jpop and Japanese drama still rocks! I'm now hooked on classical music because of this show! My favourite is Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue. 1/2 way thru the series, can't wait to finish it!

*Listen to the songs playing by choosing from the playlist at the bottom of the tagboard. You can turn it off too if it is too irritating. But that playlist plays my current favourite songs! I heart music!

I'm truly an international TV Buff. I watch Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, certain HK shows, US drama series, not to mention anime as well! So many new seasons out now! I'm also hooked on Ugly Betty, Grey Anatomy, Prison Break, House, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & sisters! someone save me by blessing me with more time!!!

Political Unrest

Ok, being Singaporeans, we are generally bo chup about news happening around us.

But do you know not far from us, there are political unrest in Myanmar right now? Apparently the government has raised the fuel prices by 500% because there is budget deficit and thousands went on the streets to protest. The government has cut off internet access and foreign press to the countries. There are unconfirmed reports of deaths as a result of these demostrations.

One foreign journalist even died: Kenji Nagai (長井 健司, Nagai Kenji?) (August 27, 1957 – September 27, 2007) was a Japanese photojournalist shot to death in Myanmar during the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests. Nagai continued to take photos as he lay wounded on the ground, later dying from gunshot injuries to the chest. He was the only foreign national casualty in the protests - From Wikipedia

Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar#20.2C000_monks_protest

Why I know this? Because one of the hotels I am in charge of is having some problems and in the midst of uncovering the reason, I stumbled upon this piece of current affairs.

I suddenly feel very concerned. How can we so oblivious when something so major is happening so near us?

Fashion Magnet

Hana represented Colourshades in a series of fashion shows that were carried out at Centrepoint and I went down to help out last Saturday.

Glamourous it may sounds, it's actually very intimidating for me. I now have (even more) newfounded respect for Emily and Cindy. Yes, ANTM is showing the true side of models (they are whinny bitches!) Imagine Emily and Cindy have gotten more shit than I have. Nonetheless it was very good experience. Talcum powder, foundation, red lipstick. Haha, experimental makeup!

More pictures to come (i hope)






It's really not easy being a makeup artist or beauty instructor. I still got more work to do...

Blessed

I can't ask for more. Friends, food, presents and fun

It was a crazy hectic weekend. but i love every min of it. Even the fashion show. (more on that later)

More photos to come soon.

Birthday Photo Log

This year my birthday starts very early because I am on leave tmr! My colleagues in the office celebrated for me and here's the pictures:

My cake. Yummy
Making a very important wish (auto-piloting)
Hehe
My dear colleagues' well wishes
Serine, Jewel and me

Thanks darlings, I never knew so many people noticed me in the office (such my failed baking attempts and my 'auto-piloting' habit. HAHAHA

*Auto-piloting is for dozing off AT WORK!

What do I do?

Astri asked me this the other day, and I take it that she is asking about my occupation.

My full time job is a service delivery representative in an IT related company, under one of their businesses, a hotel representation company. Daily activities include do health check on hotel inventory on the Central Reservation System, chase hotel for Travel agent commission, assist hotels who are coming onboard with us and help them with whatever questions they may have with the softwares my company sold them.

Confused by the above description? Don't worry, everyone is. Have to be in the industry to know what I'm getting at.

I also have another 'job' (which I don't consider it a job, just my own business. Something I do at my own time. I think i will get into trouble if my company finds out about my blog) and that's Hana. Hana is a business I have with my friends, specialising in courses and workshops mainly on skincare and cosmetic arts. My role there is a beauty adviser and whenever we have events, I become a makeup artist. And I also attend non-beauty related lessons at Hana, like entrepreneurship, nutrition, water and air essentials etc.

Oh yah, did I mention I'm an Amway distributor too?

The above may seem overwhelming for some, but I still find that I don't have enough things to do. And I'm still seeking for new 'projects' that I haven't tried before, like event planning, PR, marketing, fashion retail sales etc (something related to Hana hopefully).

Something light to share

My favourite comic strip - Baby Blues

My Real Age

... is 14.3 years old! Hahaha. And life expectancy is 81.7. Try http://www.poodwaddle.com/realage.swf

Happy Birthday

Happy Belated Birthday, Bianca! Hope you had a blast on your special day. hehe

*Sidetrack: enjoy life …boyfriend will pop up when you least expect it.

Fairytale

I saw something on Sarah's blog which i agree with. Love is not a bandage for wounds. I used to think having a guy in my life is the answer to my problems. I used to ask myself so many times. Is it? Really? Will he be my prince charming delivering me from all hardships and sufferings?

I wished it was that simple. Really it's not.

I'm on a man prowl. Seriously. I'm putting myself for blind dates, boring dates, lousy dates, desirable dates. I consider it as interview process. Go out with all kinds to know what is suitable. but everytime before a date, I worry and overthink and end up being totally unlike me. I disliked that insecurity. And if the dates turn out bad, I blame it on them. Maybe they are not at fault, I'm just wrong for them at the wrong place at the wrong time.

As I told Cassandra, I'm patiently (trying to be anyway) to wait for the right one to come along. In the meantime I'm making myself a better woman. An independent and stronger (emotionally) girl who will be ready at the right time for the right one. Patiently waiting. The best things in life are worth waiting. In the meantime, let the unfortunate unsuitable men pass through my very bland love life.

What will be, will be.

In the meantime, I am encouraged by the many sensible relationships and marriages around me. Like Rion and Janet, Gordon and Thanet, Len and Caren, Kei and Kristi (Astri's sister who just got married.) and so many more. (: I'm learning to admire from afar and trying not to let the words "I envy them, I want a man too" slipped my mouth.

Spring/Summer 2008

Every time around this time of the year, runways in THE fashion capitals around the world: New York, London, Milan and Paris will be busy with models sashaying in the latest fashion trends for the coming season.

I absolutely love the Spring/Summer collection because it is so suitable for our lil tropical country and there's just so much more colours. Here's some of my favourites of this season:

Stella McCartney:
I've fallen for this designer ever since I read an article on her in Reader's Digest when I was still in Secondary School. She was still with Chloe then and has not branched out into her own brand. But a few years back, the daughter of the famous Beetle member, Paul McCartney, left Chloe and started her own line, collaborated with Adidas and even has a line of fragrance. She is such an inspiration to me.

Her collection which was shown in Paris, was reminisice of a English Country Garden due to the vertical botanical backdrop. Vogue.com says of her collection: Clothes that we're already longing to wear. I say it's soft, flow-wy, womanly, sexy, 70s inspired. So Stella McCartney's style -wearable, feminine yet very independent - and I love it.


John Galliano:
I first got to heard of him when I learnt that he is the current designer of my favourite brand - Dior - during my 20th century fashion module in Poly days. He is super well-known for his theatrical runway shows and never fail to surprise and entertain the audience with his over the top makeup and elaborate yet gorgeous clothing.

His latest collection shown in Paris, reminds me of a rundown circus with surprises lurking everywhere. His style is immecable and his tailoring is superb. It's obvious his style is of grandeur and more 'haute couture' as compared to Stella's, which is more wearable. But if you look at individual pieces as they are, you'll be surprised how versatile it can be.

As Vogue.com would describe his collection: Fashion has to be fun, flirty, happy and romantic

Anna Sui:

It's a pity that most of the people who heard of her thought she started her makeup line before doing fashion design. Anna Sui, who graduated from Parsons School of Design in NY (I wanna go there to learn too), is one of the most popular Asian designer in New York and around the world. And I absolutely love her latest designs for the Spring/Summer collection because it's something anyone on the streets can wear (if they are more adventurous in their dressing)

I call her designs 'Lollipop' style, because it is young (very suitable for the youth street crowd), punkish yet sweet and cute and so pretty.

Betsy Johnson:

Another accomplished American designer who is already 60 years old! (Can you believe it? Her signature move when her show ends is doing cartwheels on the runway. And for this show, she walked down with her granddaughter!). I remembered Bee Lang, my poly classmate did her fashion project based on this whimsical legendary popular designer. And Betsy Johnson is well known for her whimsical style with what some will call crazy colour clash.

Vogue.com says of her collection: Betsy Johnson goes to Prom! Inspired by proms from the 50s to now, her collection showed the evolution of Prom interpreted by Betsy Johnson. The designs are incredibly crazily beautiful, with clashing colours, huge skirts, flirty swimwear and the music is so suited for the runway show! I wish I was there.

Will blog more collections from some of my favourite designers like Alexander McQueen, Singaporean designer Ashley Isham etc when I find time.

Credits to Vogue.com and click on picture to see bigger version.

I want to live, breathe and eat fashion