Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Dolly Wink : Big Eye Challenge Event (Warning scary photo included!)

Haven't been to many events in the past 3 years so this was 1 event I was looking forward to.


Before the event:
Online registration was quite a mess as we have to make payment ($10) before sending in the registration form online. Due to too many participants the organisers took 1 week to get back to us with the confirmation email. Most of us receive the confirmation just days before the event.


Timeslot:
We were given 30min timeslots to chose from which was quite pointless as we end up queuing for more than an hour.

Queued about 45mins to reach the first counter to receive the goodie bag coupon, $10 voucher, a little booklet and a feedback form to fill up. Followed by queuing and waiting for another 15mins to enter the event space in a group.

Once we enter the space they inform us that we have to first go thru the 5 "counters" to learn about eye makeup, followed by going into another event space where we will collect our goodie bag and start to do our eye makeup. We are allowed to do makeup for 1 eye only as there wasn't enough time for us to complete both eyes.


Learning to put on eye makeup:
The 5 counters had girls who would explain the eye makeup "skill" according to what's on the little booklet. Wasn't very clear but I also didn't know what to ask either. Everyone in the group couldn't wait to enter the next event space to get some hands on experience.


Finally at the small but very packed event space:
We were rushed to the goodie bag area first. Gave them our coupons and they give us a cute little bag and ask us to choose faux eyelashes. I chose something that looks simple and natural to me.

Thereafter we were informed to quickly sit down and start doing our eye makeup as we do not have anymore time. By then it was already 4pm and the guests were going to be on stage soon! I had to look for a seat in the packed room but was lucky that a mother and daughter pair offered me a seat when someone else got up.. Once I sat down I stared at the tools on the table and felt like something was missing..

At our table there were 5 of us but there were only 3 mirrors.
Eyeliners, eyeshadow, eyelash glue we can share but sharing 3 mirrors among us was quite a feat as all of us were trying to get it done quickly..


So I used this tiny little mirror to do my eye makeup!

The second thing that I wanted to reach out for was not to be found.. guess what is it?
No eyelash curler!

Did my eye makeup as quickly as I could and hastily got up so that others can have a chance.. Then I rushed to another counter to purchase eyeliner and eyelash glue so that I can complete makeup for the other eye on my own..



Here's the scary photo..
(no big eye contact lens used here, just simple eye makeup)




At around 4+pm the guests arrives, the tables were moved and a sitting area was created in front of the little stage. Here's Xiaxue and Kellykonomi laughing about something Xiaxue said. I think she made fun of her own age or something like that..






Took a photo with Xiaxue before rushing off~


Rushing off to complete the other eye of cause!



And rush back home to see my little one who kept asking me to draw her eyes like this! LOL.
so I supposed I did okay? hahaha.




Top row : Goodie Bag + Free gift
Bottom Row : Items I bought

Goodie Bag contains:
1 Pair of Faux Eyelash
1 set of eye shadow
1 eye shadow pen thingy and
1 small bottle of eye makeup remover.

Total spent:
$10 for registration.
$39.80 for 1 Eyeliner, 1 box of faux eyelashes and 1 tube of eyelash glue.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Collagen Stock / Bone Broth (Also known as Collagen Jelly Soup)


It's much easier than I thought and it's not as expensive as I thought it would be too!

I got my recipe from this blog post.


You would need some Big Bones.




Some Chicken Feet (usually I get 2 boxes..)



Some Chicken Bones. 

Boil 2 pots of water.
1 small pot to parboil the bones.
Another bigger pot for the real deal..

Place the bones in the big pot of boiling water.
As it cooks some junks/oil will float up to the top of the soup.
Remove the scum for a clearer and smoother broth.


Let it boil for about 10mins or so and then put it on low fire for a few hours.
If you have a slow cooker or thermal pot can use them too. :)

I use a thermal pot and usually keep it overnight and remove the soup in the morning.
My soup is usually still warm and I will use a sieve + scum skimmer sheet to remove oil / scums.

Each time I cook this I can get about 4 portions so I will use 1 portion for that day and keep the other 3 portions in the fridge after it cools.



Very versatile soup base.
I use it to cook ABC soup, fish porridge, fishball soup or even use it to cook noodles.
Add a bit of sesame oil and a pinch of salt and it taste just outside's food!


Can you guess what I'm going to have for dinner tonight? :D

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Weekly Special: Extra 20% off on bath and beauty products (last 4 days!)

Weekly Deals begin Wednesday at 10 a.m and end the following Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. You will see the extra discount in your shopping cart.


I'm in the mood to buy some cosmetics and even placed some makeup stuffs that I am interested in getting into my cart. I think I get that mood like 3-4x a year or something.

So when I receive the mailer regarding this week's promotion I felt super lucky!


These are some of the items I've ordered and can't wait to receive them in a few days! :D

ELF Cosmetics Studio Baked Eyeshadow Palette
Cost around $20+ in some shops in Singapore and I got it for less than $11.43. (after 20% discount before 5% discount)


ELF Cosmetics Luscious Liquid Lipstick
S$2.27 (After 20% discount before 5% discount)


ELF Cosmetics HD Blush
S$3.43 (After 20% discount before 5% discount)


ELF Cosmetics Eyelid Primer
S$2.27 (After 20% discount before 5% discount)


ELF Cosmetics Mineral Infused Mascara
S$3.43 (After 20% discount before 5% discount)

I'm super excited to receive this parcel! :D

Friday, September 04, 2015

My 2 cents.

This year would be my 2nd time voting.


I am not very good with words but I still want to write out about what I think and comment on some issues floating around these few days..


There are many young adults who find the elections really overwhelming, many doesn't know who to vote for and are looking to their friends for answers.. I hope this post will help those who are a little lost?


1. Catch the rallies if you can (can watch online no need to go all the way down haha), from there you will know what the parties are offering. Do keep in mind that if something is too good to be true it usually is.  Eg having more benefits now means someone else is going to pay for it later. Think far, think of your kids future.



2. If the rallies are too difficult to understand. How about think of in whose hands would you leave your kids with?
The grandparent who spoils the child or the grandparent who tries to make things work and help the child who is willing to help himself?



3. Here are a few issues people often complain about and what I think of them..

10 years ago MRT was great but past few years MRT often breakdown.
If you buy an electronic item how long can it last before it gets cranky? 10 years ago how old is MRT? How many times did MRT breakdown in the past 12 months?



Our cars are so expensive, our neighbours are laughing at us for paying more.
Land size issue. If everyone of us own a car, all the roads will be congested all the time and carparks will be same height as our hdb flats.



Our houses are so expensive, 10 years ago our 5 room flats used to cost less, now I can't afford it at all. The quality of our houses are also not very good.
I do agree that our houses are not cheap but if you don't earn so much can buy a smaller flat? I do appreciate that our houses gets upgradings and paint works often, been to overseas and saw how poorly maintained their flats are. In Singapore, the flats gets new paint every few years (at least that's what I can see) and most of the flats looks new and nice even if it's build more than 10 years ago.



Our medical is so expensive, even after subsidies we are still paying a lot!
Medical is expensive everywhere, do name me a place that have affordable and good quality medical without their citizens paying high taxes? Other than subsidies, MediShield and Medisave covers partial of the bills too unless it's private hospital or patient choses class B1/A ward? In cases that families could not afford the bills they can speak with hospital for financial counselling, assistance in application for Medifund.

(Just to update I have seen people paying $2+ and even ZERO cents for their visit to polyclinic, I am on long term follow up with polyclinic and often accidentally hear/saw people's bills..)



There are so many old people 50-70yo that are still working and they are so poor thing. How many meals a day can they have with $1,000 a month when food is at least $5 per meal?
Let's not say that it's an assumption that all old folks who work are working are needy, have no savings etc, let's just do some calculation..

CPF contribution rates for age 50 to age 65 and above ranges from 19% to 5%, which means it's not right to use 20% to calculate but it's okay let's just use 20%..

$1,000 * 80% = $800.

Transport (concession pass depending on age/types ranges from $40-$120)

If he/she owns a house no need to pay rental but paying utilities approximate $80? (If only 2 old folks I don't think the utilities will be very high, if staying with kids would expect the kids to pay for the utilities so $80 is a rough estimate.)

Food say $5 per meal * 3 meals a day for 30 days = $450

$800-$120-$80-$450 = leftover $150 a month to pay for other items.

Liveable? I would like to think so.



10 years ago everything is peaceful, neighbours are more friendly but now more FT comes here and now a lot of crimes, murder cases, molest cases, etc..
These kind of things happens last time too, just that it's not publicised much 10 years ago because mobile phones, social media was not that good then. With social media, bad news travels even faster now. Today, I don't dare to say I am very close to my neighbours (just moved here 3 years back) but they are all quite nice people.

Pressing lift doors for me, share news about upgrading ongoing in our estate, offer me seats on the bus/trains (just to add somehow 99% of the time my kid's seats on the MRT and buses are offered to me by non Singaporeans).



We import so many talents for our sports teams that other countries are laughing at us.
Talents are everywhere but to be able to spot and keep talents is as important. People can laugh at our "imports" but when our imports beat them who have the last laugh? We train these talents and they did us proud by achieving medals, putting our name out to the world. Even when they don't win anything, having good training partners is good for us too. Without good training partners how can our own people grow?



10 years ago it is easy to travel to JB for short getaway but now there is all these charges for foreign cars to enter here and for our cars to go in.
There are other modes of transport if you really must go into JB for short getaway. If there is a better way to stop too many cars going in and out of JB I'm sure they would have used that. If this in not in place how many cars will be coming into our tiny Singapore everyday causing jams to our roads? For the other side that is charging Singapore cars money, that I do not really know why but I don't think our government could control that? Do you think any other elected party can stop another country from implementing new laws?




10 years ago our old folks often sits around at void decks to relax but now all of them are collecting cardboards and drink cans, no time to relax at all.
Did you join the Sunday Qigong Exercise? Once a month walk organised by CC/RC? Dance, Zumba, singing classes? Ever went to coffeeshop to take a look? My block downstairs still lots of old folks chit chatting everyday! At a nearby CC, lots of old folks go there to read newspaper everyday too! Bringing my girl to school I meet many grandmas and grandpas sending their grandchild to school and after that went to coffeeshop to sit and talk or go to the market. Did you speak with any of these working old folks? Isn't it an assumption that if they are working they must be poor and needy?

I am actually proud when I see our pioneers working. Those who are working depends on themselves instead of waiting for welfare, also businesses are willing to hire older generations due to certain policies/benefits too! Not everyone scavenging for cardboards are needy and if you actually bother to spend time to speak with them you may understand them more. My house area has a few folks collecting cardboards and when I do have cardboard I will bring it to them, they are not needy people.



Our hospitals are filled with doctors and nurses from other counties! They don't even speak our dialects and there was even a case a nurse gave wrong medication and cased death.Many of our own doctors does private practice so lesser local doctors in national hospitals. In order to make sure there are doctors and nurses in national hospital so that citizens can see doctor at subsidised rate they have to bring in people from other countries too. Or you would rather they don't bring in any and only use local doctors and nurses. If that's the case then we would expect waiting time to see doctor to be even longer. Do you know in some countries waiting time to see GP is 2 weeks? Yes normal GP for flu and cold!

Human error is everywhere does it mean locals doesn't make mistakes at all? Xenophobic.




Whatever your choice is, your vote is secret. Let no one peer pressure you into voting carelessly.