Bimbo-nic indulgences

I came back from the Sg trip with a few huge pimples, despite a Dr Hauchka facial which was a treat from my sister. (That is why you must have sisters, brothers will never get you this!). The lastest trip to DC made a few more HUGE ones, right under my nostrils and in the center of my chin!

So, I got the perfect excuse to try the Decleor Facial which I found some time ago. Yesterday, I blew away 40 quid to get the Aromaplasty facial done. Not bad, but I think Elemis facials smell better. However, the Decleor one seems pretty good! The session started off with a 5 minute back massage (to gentle for my liking- give me the bone crushing, meat mincing chinese Tui Na anytime!), and then cleansing, exfoliating etc. A purifying mask was applied, and I think I fell asleep there because I was so so so tired. My only complain would be all these ang moh facials dont do extractions, and today I still see black heads! However, it is pretty good in clearing the red angry pimples!!I think the 40 quid is pretty well spent. At least I don't have to dab the yucky blood and pus oozing out near my nose!

Today, my colleague exclaimed that I desperately need a manicure! I cant fly off to that meeting with my nails "like that". So, I did one- for the first time in my life. Blew away another 10 quid. However, I dont know how to take care of it. Try to do this do that, and chipped my nails!!! ARGHHHHH...... I chipped my varnish!!!

Wow.. that chipping my varnish is the highlight. FInally feel the anguish of all the bimbos in the world, and feel I am a step nearer to bimbo world.

Need to learn a thing or two about Feng Shui

I need to learn a thing or two about Feng Shui.

I think I am moving to the "best Feng Shui" in town location, so good that i will never let my mum know what is in front of us, and what is behind us. Can imagine her indulging in worrying about it.

Based on common sense, the area will be terribly "Yin", and would have an aura of "hatred" in the air. So, how can I make it a cheerful and bright place? Will my personality (ahem!!!) be a good Feng Shui cure?

Let me tell you what is in my area: a hospital, a railway track for the tube, a prison, and a spooky overhead bridge which had wire mesh almost totally covering it. What else? To prevent people from jumping from the bridge into the track. That is not a bridge I would use, thank goodness. I felt not right the moment I went there, even before I had time to "process" what the wire meshes means.

But bright side? The apartment looks really decent, and i like the previous occupant, and best of all, no "funny feeling". I think it should be alright. I like the space and the location, and NO more carpets!!!!

Speaking about "funny" feeling, I made a note to avoid the 5th floor of the hotel I stay in my recent trip. Thank goodness I was on the 10th floor. The lift would open on the 5th floor often, even in day time, and almost every time at night! When it opens, no one would be there, and best thing is the chamber maids look away!!! It also takes sometime to close, when you press the close door button? Mechanical problems?? I felt that it did not seem "right", and confirmed my suspicion when one of the chamber maid whispered to the other that thank goodness, she has not "seen anything" yet!!

1/2 day in NYC

If I am not uselessly jet lagged, I will have 1/2 day in NYC.

Where should I go/what should I do?

Should I "see" or should I "shop" ?

crazy weather!

It was really really cold this morning.

7C in summer!! There goes the bank holiday for most people. I am wickedly happy because I got to hole up and do some work, and don't feel that bad since the world suffers with me. I am not alone.

Got to postpone the strawberry pluckings till I come back from NYC. :)

I am wishing & hoping that the flight is full when I come back hahahahahah

Theory is proven-Fate like to play play with me

My theory is proven.

There is this perverse "arrangement" which "test & tease" me all the time!

After days of holing up in my hotel room, doing my writings and working in a perfect weather Washington DC, I made my way to the airport. Cursing beneath my breath, "So, this is Washington DC, well at least i know how the famous Arlington Cemetery look like!"

Oh yeah, thanks to my friend's friend getting lost on the way to find "rice", I saw the National Monument and the park, and a glimpse of the Capitol Building roof from the car. That is all!!

Bye bye washington DC!

As the grumpy me walked to the counter to get my boarding pass, a guy gave me a chesire cat grin, and asked me whether I "wish to fly off tomorrow".

I was like, so you read my mind?? Of course??? I haven't seen anything!

My wish was granted.

He explained to me my flight was overbooked, and if I were to be kind enough to give up my seat, I will get a free hotel stay and a pair of free return air tickets for my next flight to Washington DC or another similar US location!!!!

WOooooo hooooooooooooo...I have taken countless flights! This is my moment! The "bump off" deal!

Errr.......no thanks. I got to work tomorrow.

No? Sure? We will give you a free return flight, you choose your US destination, and we will put you in a nice hotel tonight. You can spend another day here. Weather is beautiful.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. NO thanks. Not this time. :((

Really? You can think about it.

Bloody hell. Is he tempting me to quit my job???? That is a good reason!!! Especially when I was coming back to clean up shit. .... but i got to pay rental and the deposit for the new rental flat, and pay for lots and lots of things :(

Sigh........not this time. I have to give a lecture tomorrow. :(

Perverse. Perverse!!! Why does life have to treat me this way????? I had this almost out of body experience: watching myself walking away sadly with my boarding pass, "someone up there" was having a good laugh at me.

sigh............

sighhh...................sigh.....................sigh.......................

In a 5 star hotel room now. So what? sigh sigh sigh.

When you are not around, idiots come out & do all the sabotages. When I come back, it will be a mess & may be another battle.

When a job makes you feel edgy whenever you are away, it is time to move on.

Flying everywhere.......thanks to Ryan Air

I came back to a pleasant surprise: Hubby booked a holiday for my birthday in October. However, it is a let down cos it clashes with the most important meeting of the year, so I cant go!!! :( So, Hamburg is out!

The good thing is we still get to go to a few other places!
Brussels, Glassglow & Milan :)

Long live 1 pence tickets!!

Hong Kong- Got the rooms!

I also got the HK hotel rooms booked. I actually booked YMCA through Expedia! It comes up to £34 per night, which is really cheap! The trick of hunting cheap accomodation is try a few websites! yeah, it is hard work, but you could save load. For example, my sister found Standford at 63 USD at www.hoteltravel.com. That is about 30% off the prices of other websites which asks for USD 90+ to even USD 110+!!! However, YMCA is much cheaper in Expedia compared to this website, which asks for USD 77! That is about USD 10 more expensive per night. Asiarooms, my fav for BKK rooms is even much more hopelessly expensive!

Hopefully I can get another 5% cashback through Quidco, and that makes it even a better deal. All travel bugs/shopping queens based in UK should really consider registering at www.quidco.com to get % money back off their shopping and travel expenses.

Haha. This is the first time I try YMCA. I hope that it is as good as the reviews say about it. If not, die!This is the first time I bring my parents on a holiday and I put them up in YMCA- feel like a bum already. Was really tempted to do Nathan/Prudential or even Holiday Inn. However , after calculating and see that the sum differs by 400-500 SGD easily, sis & I decided that the money will be better spent eating, since we will be only sleeping in the rooms. Besides, doing 2 trans Atlantic flights, & 2 flights back to Sg within 2 months means my credit card is beeping & turning AMBER. At the rate I am going, I will hit the max this month! My boss better give me back my conference fee money soon!

New home soon.

Viewed the allocated apartment this morning. Not that bad!

Thank goodness. Not facing the hospital directly, facing the college instead. Train tracks still a problem, but it is something which we will have to live with.

Space is huge, compared to what we have at the moment. Finally, we will have a proper living room. We have been living without a living room for more than 1 year now.

I hope that we can stay in this place for a couple of years. Hate to move anymore.

HK trip preparation-hotel

Good news- special fireworks display on 1st July to celebrate handover. Woo hoo!!! What a great co-incidence.

Bad news. The hotel of our choice-Stanford Hotel is fully booked! %^&^+?
Got to find another hotel that is:

• -within our budget
• -where you can pop down anytime at night to have supper
• -you get nice "cha chan teng"s at your door step- which serves superb congee & chue cheong fun & yaw char kuay for breakfast!
• -You get another cha chan teng with yummy nai cha & wan tan mee.
• -When you walk down the street in teh mornings, you nose will lead you to bakery which produce yummy luncheon meat "bo lo pau"
• - you walk pass 2 "hui Lau shan" on your way to the MTR!!!!
• - you can shop at the "Ladies market", and bring your things back to hotel; then think you have not bought enough, and return to get more- all within 30 minutes. :)
• If you are hungry or just itchy, just pop down for some "yue dan"(fishball) & stinky tofu!
  

Stanford's size is crap, and life is hell on weekends if they allocate you to a smoking floor. The hotel is populated with weekend visitors from mainland-they are SCARY. Despite all these Stanford probably has the best location. And the price- less than SGD 95 per night leaves you with $$ to eat and shop. Sigh......... Suddenly Stanford seems so good.

If I got $$$$$, i would stay at LMO. Nvm that is can be not so "clean". The service is superb!!! Just remember not to accept a hot drink when you ask for hot water (No kettle in room! They don't expect the guests to lift fingers to put the kettle on! Probably their typical guest wouldn't know how to switch on a kettle). Hot drink, with cookies thrown in cost about SGD 90! That is the most expensive cup of hot chocolate & cookies I had for supper in my life.

What other hotels can fit the bill & replace Stanford??

bluebell valley-Wytham Woods

We missed the "prime time", but the blooms were still impressive. According to SH, it would be much more impressive if we came 1 or 2 weeks earlier.

- where do asparagus come from?**Farm outing** & blue bell valley day

We went to Rectory Farm in Oxford to "pluck" asparagus yesterday morning. May is the British asparagus season, and I wouldnt want to miss the experience. If I did not go yesterday, I would have to wait till next year because all my weekends are gone until mid June (which will be the strawberry season!).

[list of PYO farms in Oxford]

The day started off grey, and MS was somehow delighted, I guess. He hated the sunlight, but I was wondering why are you so worried when you are in a farm? There should be some cover! Wrong!

When we entered the farm and SH pointed out the asparagus plots, my eyes strained to see where the asparagus were! Those looked like bare plots! Nothing there! Rows and rows of brown-greyish land. Where is the asparagus? I finally understood when we got off the car (and given plastic bags to PYO-pick your own).

Asparagus are some kind of sprout- we need to pluck- ie bend it, break it, tear it off and pop it into the plastic bags! The asparagus we saw were nothing like those in the supermarket. Firstly, the colour is purplish, not green. I know why it is green in supermarket- By this morning, some of mine turned greenish. Therefore, green= not so fresh anymore. We pluck those thick juicy looking ones- thicker than the size of most fingers! I even tried one on the spot. I found it edible& crunchy. The rest found them horrible.

I plucked quite a bit and was expecting to pay at least £10. Just 5-6 sticks in the supermarket comes up to £1.99. Guess what we paid? About £3 for just less than a kg. WOW!

Yesterday night we had asparagus-juicy, crunchy, sweet. Much better than the usual stuff! We had it again during lunch, and will have enough to last use till Tues, at least. :) Thank goodness it is the bank holidays, and I can afford to let our urine stink. Asparagus gives you urine that smells like heaven.

After plucking the aspragus we went to the town centre to have lunch, before hitting Wytham woods(Woods of Hazel) for blue bells! We missed the "season", but found a patch in the valley which was still blooming. It was as if we were in a fairy woods. I will post photos when I am done with my mugging.

Related sites:
www.asparagus.org
http://www.asparagus-in-kent.co.uk/growyourown.htm