Very retro, very pre-WW2, very cool.

His kids are also doing pretty well. The eldest is now a chatty little ball of energy, who apparently isn’t able to sit still just like RC. Mrs RC had also settled in well in the new place, and the baby looks really different from the last time we met them.

I should’ve brought a camera. But I didn’t. I’m still struggling over which camera to get, but am still undecided. At this point, the Canon 400D is the frontrunner, although I really don’t fancy dropping another several hundred bucks on lenses. The Lumix fz-50 is next on the list, mostly because of the lens.

In other news, we went to the Orchard and I got myself Orange. Yay.

I am.

Too funny.

There are few things that I think back upon which still make me chuckle, but these are definite winners:

The one with 250mb of mail
My poor sales producer at that time bore the brunt of that, I promised to increase her mail storage from 6mb to 250mb (to all her various accounts, no questions asked) if she would pose in photos for my product pages. All that knowing that everyone’s mail storage was going to increase in a week anyway.

The one with the credits at the end of Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers
Which was only meant for the marketing producer at the time, but some eavesdroppers overheard my conversation and decided to stay, even convincing their friends and people at the cinema with their misplaced confidence. And we know how long the credits for those movies took…

The one with “dude” in Korean
I don’t know what “dude” in Korean is, but I told Pinkie in the office Sharks that it’s “yoh boh”, a salutation reserved for your spouse. I then proceeded to yell it out to Pinkie whenever I saw her to prove my point. Finally she relented and yoh boh-ed an unwitting Korean co-worker on IM.

I’m amazed at myself. I amuse myself even more. Damn, I’m good.

For Pinky Sharks: {:D >:D< :-*}

That’s what I received this morning, a cute little mug topper that looks good enough to eat.

Special thanks to Eeevahn.

Anyway, what you really need in a situation like that is 4 drops of lavender in the diffuser.

Tiny little sacs of pure relaxation

I keep a small bowl of lavender in the office, just cos it looks nice. It’s cool to just peek at them up close, they’re such a pretty colour. I bought a bag of this for tea, but it tastes a little too soapy for my taste.

Boy, was it a long day
Could it get any longer? I slept badly, woke up early and dragged my sorry ass to work to slog it out. It wasn’t very long before I set some geranium and lemon in the burner. It worked pretty well.

The highlight of my day was sitting in the room with Walking Carcinogen and saying that what he proposed we did was to me, “rape and plunder”. All hell broke loose and I was immediately subjected to the North-South-East-West of I’m not sure you’re familiar with how we count our revenues and let me explain how we keep the office in the black followed by I’m not sure if you got any of that and let me put it in layman’s terms for you without skipping a beat. I do admit I was pushing it with my choice of words, but it was amusing nonetheless to see the fallout.

In my mind, there is no question that this is an issue of greed. But if the business allows itself to be propelled this way, it ought to fail. So in the end, everything works out. And that’s cool with me.

At peace with myself again
Right now I’ve 4 drops Lavender, 4 drops Rosemary and 2 drops Clary Sage burning. It’s quite refreshing. I’m looking forward to shopping in the afternoon with Sharks and a short day. I figure, if I don’t give a shit, really, the person who suffers is the Walking Carcinogen. What can he do besides, scream, shout, threaten, cajole, insist, and ultimately if it comes to that, fire? The beauty is that the downside is relatively small for me, and it’s strangely comforting.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.
~ Neil Gaiman, Sandman

Waking up is hard to do
Am in surprisingly good spirits even though I slept like maybe 5.5 hours last night and got up too freaking early! It was a nice train ride to the office, given it was rush hour (or perhaps remnants of it). I am beginning to enjoy the morning commute, I think it’s because of the MP3 player, and feeling like I’m back in school again. It’s been 6 weeks since I gave up the cab routine and so far it’s been fabulous. Even that time when I stupidly took the wrong train and only noticed 3 stops down, and the ride in the right direction kept stopping every 5 minutes.

New Loot!
I couldn’t resist, and opened my new loot today! Couple of days back I went shopping with Sharks and this is what I got:

Make a Difference Skin Rejuvenating Treatment (aka moisturiser)
I *really* like this one. The texture of this is like Clinique’s Moisture Surge. It’s kind of gel like and light. Unlike Moisture Surge, it doesn’t leave your skin sticky. It leaves a fantastic satiny feeling like A Perfect World White Tea Guardian does. I like it so far, will report how it feels in the morning.
20 March 04, 11am or thereabouts: Nice feeling still on skin. Not sticky or oily. Feels soft and well rested.

Night-a-mins Moisture Lotion (aka moisturiser)
I haven’t found anything I like better than the smell of Night-a-mins before bed. It’s really relaxing, and it helps me end the work day.

Well, I’m getting off the internet now
To get back to wood pulp and glue. My reading backlog has now burgeoned to
· Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman. Which came first – the movie or the book? In this case, the movie (the script to be precise). Both are good.
· The Ultimate Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams. Supposed to contain answers.
· Unfinished Tales- The Lost Lore of Middle-earth – J.R.R. Tolkien. In a bid to make sense of everything.
· One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Apparently highly comic, and deeply tragic at the same time. My kind of thing.
· The King of Elfland’s Daughter – Lord Dunsany. Fantasy probably began here.
· The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It got a little sappy, and I stopped, but I’ll get to it!
· The Rape of Nanking – Iris Chang. Nothing like a little Chinese History.
- while I take my time to savour Good Omens again.

The Gaimans on the way:
· The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish
· Angels and Visitations

In my wishlist:
· Signal to Noise – Gaiman and Dave McKean! Should be awesome.
· Coraline – this should be the last Gaiman for now
· 1984 – George Orwell. Looked good in the Apple Ad.
· The Ground Beneath Her Feet – Salman Rushdie .
I really need to read everything before a fire breaks out or something…

The sky has fallen
Well, it’s official: I’ve lost steam. I can’t really be bothered, and I feel like crap most of the time. I’m tired, and I’ve lost my appetite. I don’t even feel like going shopping. That’s gotta be bad.

I’m going to try burning some Sweet Orange and Lavender. Orange should be good, it’s said to be uplifting and revitalising, reducing apathy and depression. Just what I need. Lavender, on the other hand, is calming and refreshing, dispels moodiness and exhaustion. That should make a good pick me up brew. Either that or I’m going to sleep.

Making some adjustments
So in a bid to start spending less than I’m earning (who’d have thought it would be a good idea?) I abandoned some of my usual toilettries in favour of less expensive ones. In this instalment I’ll run through the alternative facewash adventure.

Face/Off: Origins’ Checks and Balances vs The Body Shop’s Seaweed Purifying Facial Wash vs Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser

Checks and Balances Facial Wash Available at: Origins Price: $35 Size: 150ml Skin type: Combination Rating: 4.5 / 5

Checks and Balances comes in a nice 150ml size and lasts us about 2 months. A small dab lathers into a rich thick foam which washes off clean. Not squeaky clean like Clinique’s facial soap, but nice and clean without the usual slimey feeling. Ingredients include Konjac Powder which sucks up oil, Wheat Protein which redistributes moisture where you need it – it doesn’t leave my skin feeling tight. Yet the loveliest part of it is the Lavender, Spearmint and Bergamot which makes it smell so heavenly.

The price though, is a bit of a put off. I mean, $35 is in between nowhere. You need $50 to get a stamp in your rewards card, and everything else I use (Have a Nice Day and Nite-a-Mins) would put it over $50 but just under $100. Total bummer. Yeah, I could probably give up on the whole rewards thing, I know. But I use those products anyway.

So anyway. I decided to try The Body Shop again, afterall I used their products religiously growing up. And they’re everywhere so it’s really easy to just pop by one of the stores and pick stuff up.

Seaweed Purifying Facial Wash Available at: The Body Shop Price: $14.90 Size: 100ml Skin type: Oily Rating: 2.5 / 5

I just started on Seaweed wash maybe 10 days ago. I have to say it’s not really satisfactory for me. The consistency of the liquid is runny, but it doesn’t lather so well. Too little water and it sticks to your palms. Too much water and it runs off your palms. It’s a fine art that I haven’t gotten the hang of. Once on your face though, it does its obligatory lather and smells pretty pleasant. However, the wash off is a bit of a pain. It’s one of those that leaves that slimey feel on your face, so no matter how much water you splash on it, it never feels clean.

However, it has kept KF relatively acne free still. Maybe it’s too early to tell. I haven’t fared so well, I’ve got a few spots here and there which gets a little annoying. Somehow I don’t feel that the gel-like consistency really cuts the grease.

Gentle Foaming Cleanser Available at: Clarins Price: $36 Size: 125ml Skin type: All skin types Rating: 1 / 5

I was the most disappointed with this one. It promised a “soap-and-water” clean, but didn’t deliver. It left that slimey feeling on my face, and stung my eyes. It was supposed to cleanse, purify and remove excess oil secretions, but again, didn’t manage that. It couldn’t keep KF’s acne in check, and even I started to break out (not badly, but it’s unusual for me). The worst bit was that it smelled like something my grandma would use. Ingredients include Hazelnut, Jojoba, Shea and Soapwort but it smelled like someone dunked a garden of lilies in there. I stopped using it after 2 weeks. It’s sitting somewhere in my cupboard, waiting for when I get real desperate. Add to that it wasn’t really even cheap. I think they really meant it for more delicate skin.

The moral of the story
If you want to stinge, stinge on stuff that you don’t use on your face. And when the package says Gentle, I think they mean it.

The great thing about the whole exercise is that I don’t know if the food I’ve been making myself tastes good or not. The not so great bit is that I don’t feel like eating until I’m too hungry, and by then trying to get something that goes down easy takes another hour to conjure.

Does aromatherapy work if you can’t smell?
I think so! I started out not smelling anything today in the office. Then after lunch, I turned the burner on, and tried 4 drops eucalyptus, 4 drops lemon, 2 drops peppermint, 2 drops lavender. It was about an hour to an hour and a half ago. Now I can smell little whiffs of it. But I don’t feel any real difference besides being able to smell.

A steady supply of lavender
I think I’m going to need a larger supply of lavender. The bottle I got from Naturally thinking is about half consumed. That’s 5ml. And I managed to do it in 1.5 months.

Special thanks go to my administrator and host, who sits right next to me in the office – which will make hounding him a lot simpler.

Moving right along…

My Favourite Face
Ok, it’s been a while since I added my skincare review but here it is, not that most of you dudes would care. But anyway…

Moisturiser of the quarter!

Clarins Hydra-Matt Day Lotion

I got it last week, and I must say the chick at the Clarins counter was way nice. I didn’t even have to haggle for samples! She dished a couple out quite willingly. So anyway, the Hydra Matt meets a few requirements:
1. It’s refreshingly light.
2. It smells great – clean, fresh scent
3. It’s cheaper than Origins’ Have A Nice Day
Three squirts of the pump (extra plus for the hygiene factor) is all that’s needed.

I noticed my moisturisers last about 3 months. Which could be a long time for something I don’t like, and a short time for something I like that’s expensive. Origins’ Have A Nice Day was fantastic, I think I used it for a year and a half, maybe two. It smells fantastic. Citrusy and creamy, it really gave me a perk. At the time, the heavier consistency was exactly what I needed. And I think in a drier climate, I’ll switch back to it.

The thing that’s not so hot about the Hydra Matt is that it doesn’t contain sunscreen. So I’ve to use a separate sunblock, which is a bit of a pain.

Stuff to Avoid

Clinique’s Moisture Surge and Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion
I’m not going near those two again

1. Moisture surge
Doesn’t really do anything. It doesn’t smell of anything. It might make a good after sun cream though, if you leave it in the fridge. I’d rather just go with Aloe Vera for the price.

2. Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion
Thankfully this was only a sample (but geez, I got 2 of them). I most definitely am not going to use it. It smells like something the pharmacist just cooked up. It’s gunky. It leaves a sticky feel on your face. It doesn’t survive the wake-up test. (The one where you wake up and your skin doesn’t feel dry, or oily, but soft and happy). I hate gunky!