This is a very easy mask to do which I use 2-3 times a week.
The active ingredient in an aspirin is BHA which works well as an exfoliant by penetrating deep into pores, sloughing off dead skin cells to make room for new ones.


Here are what you need:


1 - Put 3-4 aspirins in a plate. Depending on how big the surface of your face, adjust accordingly. I use 3 aspirins.
2 - Sprinkle a few drops of water. Too much water and it will be mushy and will be pretty much useless. The aspirins should disintegrate on its own. Remember to use uncoated ones.
3 - Squirt a little honey onto the mushy aspirins.
4 - Use a spoon to break the remaining aspirins. At this stage, the aspirins are very soft and mushy so use the spoon to stir and mix it up well.


The mixture should be grainy. It should look like this :)

Got to Midvalley at about 2pm.
Took me 30 min just to get into the parking lot.
School holidays, I figured.

Got into Gardens and I was starving by then.
Reminded myself NOT to eat at any shop that could be found in One Utama.
Walked into Paddington House of Pancakes. Sigh... failed coz Paddington is also at One U.
Ordered item #407 Full Monty - my fav.
I looked at my Full Monty and realised something's missing.
Guacamole.
Asked staff why was there no Guacamole.
"We ran out of Guacamole. Can we substitute it with Onion Sauce?"
Wtf?
"No, thank you."


Then I bought stuff.

- Casual brown bag which was so cheap like you wouldn't believe it. And it's brandless, I like :)
- Rimmel London's lipsticks
- Hair clips
- MAC MSF in Soft & Gentle and Paintpot in Rubenesque (I wanted Painterly! -out of stock-)

That was all. Ho ho ho. No clothes.


Till I hit this boutique near my house. I got there specifically to get maxi dresses.


Pardon the very orangey pics. Can't help it since the dressing room is orange.

One great song.
Listen to the lyrics.
Great video, watch from the start to the end.
ALL men should watch this video - at least mine did (forced, haha).
I LOVE IT.
Click here to watch the video

Sorry for the lack of photos lately. I have some but too lazy to download them from the camera. I still look pretty much the same - didn't get ugly, didn't get too pretty either. Heh.


Except maybe I've been checking my skin out a lot lately? I stare at the mirror every morning while brushing my teeth, analyzing my skin. And I go wow because it GLOWS. No kidding, and I'm not gloating either. A little effort goes a long way, I'd say. I guess my current skincare routine has been helpful - a mix of cheap and expensive products. Probably the most expensive would be the Shu Uemura's cleansing oil which I love so much. Your made up face will thank you for it, although I do not use foundation at all.


anyways,

1. I accidentally dropped the laptop battery onto my left foot yesterday and now it has swelled up into the size of a disco ball. And it's turned blue-black and each time I tried rubbing it, it hurts like hell.
   
   
2. While strolling in One Utama with the bf...
   
   girl: hey, I have so much free time now during the day. should I get a coloring book?
   boy: *in a serious tone* yeah, why not?
   girl: with a new set of Luna color pencils too?! can i? can i?
   boy: *serious faced* yup, get that too.
   
   And then we both burst out laughing. This bf of mine layans my shit like there's no tomorrow.
   
   
3. I received a happy phone call this morning! I cannot spill any more beans on this until everything's been finalized. I hope it turns out well :)
   
   
4. Am currently reading a book I borrowed from Sue:
   Remember me? by Sophie Kinsella
   
   ... and it has been an enjoyable read thus far. Like the rest of Sophie's books, this one didn't fail to amuse me :) Great for a light read. I like to read several books at one time, whichever that suits my mood at that time.
   
   
5. David and I can now hold hands in the car because the car can be driven Auto.
   

Are you ready for the Great Malaysia Sale this weekend? I sure am. At full force. Heehee.

I think imma hit the showers, dress up and head to Gardens/Midvalley now.

I finally got my i-akaun from KWSP. Yesterday, Sue and I got to KWSP during lunch hour and everything was done so quickly. We activated our i-akauns within 10min. Parking was easy and best of all, Ipoh Chicken Rice was just opposite. Needless to say, we had a great lunch there - roasted chicken + siew yok. Yums :)


My dinner buddy aka mr tay FFK-ed me last min to go play a 2hr futsal session with Weng and the boys. And so, me and Laena went to Wendy's at Mont Kiara. I had the fish and she had the chicken. I must say, Wendy's fries are as good as McD's fries, if not, better. Laena has sold me on Pilates and I plan to start next month.


This weekend, mr tay and I are going shopping. Property shopping, that is. I spent the entire morning (after a 35min phone call with this certain company in Cyberjaya) browsing at Star Classifieds for the area that I've zoomed down to. I've got a lot of prospect callings to do later. All this property buying stuff, is quite tedious which is why the only thing I look forward to is shopping for furniture and I just can't wait to get to that part!


The next couple of weeks will be crucial for me as I will be going thru a major break-up next week. Totally not how I have planned it to be but ya... major.


*** i never thought in a million years that i'd use oil to cleanse my face but Shu Uemura's Green Tea A/O (antioxidant) cleansing oil is AMAZING.

- Occasion: Vivien bought a spanking new pad!
- Vivien was buying huge stuff which required assembling, hence the need to pay an extra RM80++ for delivery and assembling fees.
- Did you know: Ikea only holds your purchased items for 3 days? Our smart Viv, took leave on 27 Nov to purposely stay home and wait for the Ikea goodies to arrive. She bought the items on 15 Nov, you do the math. Ikea charges RM20/day for storage.
- Alice arrived and we adjourned to CB for drinks.
- At CB, we bitched talked about our bfs, talked about our careers in eye-bee-m (Viv is in HR, Alice is in SAP and me, in the ever 'wonderful' department called Marketing), and ultimately bitched about eye-bee-m.
- Like: Why are there so many double-standard people in eye-bee-m. Why some people do not bother to check their emails. Why some eye-bee-m folks are so disrespectful as compared to Shell (Viv was in Shell). Why, why and more whys.
- At 7.30pm, I left the girls to do their shopping while I headed home to have dinner with the smelly boy.
- Arrived at home to find smelly boy glued infront of the tv watching football, looking so cute.
- Went to this great Japanese place called Entranze for the second time. Entranze is like our secret place for Jap food.
- After dinner, we went home. The 2 of us played Charade with the usual Movie Category. I wanted to make him guess Harold & Kumar - Escape from Guantanamo Bay, but didn't know how.
- At 10.15pm, I picked Laena up and headed to Somo.
- We bitched so much about A Boy Named Alex and A Boy Named David. But at the end of 12.20am, we both concluded that we still love our boys very much.


[ s u n d a y ]

- Bf and I headed to The Gardens and ate lunch at Cova. He browsed books at MPH while I traipsed into the Evil Store got myself items with names like Baby Sparks Dazzleglass, Viva Glam V, Soft Ochre Paintpot, MSF, Pinch Me and Sincere.
- Tina Wee (of the 'it's me and Tina Wee' wedding fame) smsed me and asked me what was I doing at Gardens.
- Figured the woman must be at Gardens as well. Turned out she was having lunch and spotted this dysfunctional couple traipsing around Gardens.
- Met bf at MPH and we both went walking aimlessly around Midvalley only to find there was this HUMONGOUS sale going on at the Exhibition Hall on Level 3. NineWest shoes going for RM129. Raoul clothes, from RM369 discounted 70% and a whole lot of other brands like Miss Sixty, Gant, Renoma and some ciplak brands.
- Texted Tina Wee to come up.
- Tina Wee came up within 15min.
- She picked a nice maroon work blouse from Raoul. I tried it on for her since there were no mirrors and we were both too lazy to queue up to try on clothes.
- She then picked up a puff-sleeved white top from Raoul too, which I tried on for her as well.
- I picked up a white collared crisp white top from Raoul at RM89 (originally at RM369). Friends who know me, know that I have been hunting for THE perfect white collared top since Ice Age. And plus point to this, the length was perfect for tucking in. You know how you hate tucking in tops and only to find them peeking out of your pants/skirts when you sit down and move about. So ya, this shirt.. was perfect. And oh, Tina modeled for me to see prior the purchase.
- Moving along, Tina got another white top for RM20 from Gant. Good for beach outing.
- She also got socks for hubby, bedsheet (which she put back later on), and whole lot of other stuff.
- Where.is.Mr Tay.
- Mr Tay was quietly and cutely shopping on his own and found 2 casual shirts which I thought was really really nice at RM27.50 each, discounted from RM117.90. FYI, my bf is quite the champion shopper.
- My family came about 1+hr later. Mom got some blouses, bath towels and etc. Dad and brother couldn't get anything that they wanted. It was good to see them.
- Bf, bf's bro + gf and myself then had dinner at Vichuda. I've never had telur bistik as excellent as that.


I forgot to mention that, while walking around Gardens, I took a shot of wheatgrass at JuiceWorks. That shot was potent enough to claim that 1 shot = 1kg of fruits and vegetables. Priced only at RM3.50. I just had another shot just now during lunch with Sue. We try to make it a point to take 2 shots per week. Glow, skin, glowwwwwww.


I'm in a funky mood today. Must be the November rain.

 

Today I feel somewhat relaxed, which is odd, especially when you work in this company. There is never a relaxed moment in this company. Today, is different.

You know what makes me happy?

Discovering new favorite artistes. And yesterday, while cooling down during RPM class, Kris played this wonderful song. I never asked people for song titles, preferring to hunt it down on google. So, I tried catching repeated lyrics in the chorus and all I could get was, "I wouldn't be the same, without you..."

And that was how I discovered Brooke Fraser last night. Can I say, she has the most amazing voice ever.

Brooke Gabrielle Fraser, is an award-winning New Zealand singer-songwriter, who is also one of the principal worship leaders of Hillsong. She currently has 2 albums:

1. What to Do with Daylight
2. Albertine

I reckon, Without You will make a perfect First Dance song choice during weddings :)

I have a couple of favorites from her list of songs and I plan to add her albums into my collection, real soon :)

1. I went to Cold Storage to buy my second bottle of the long-awaited-but-procrastinated Cranberry Juice. I chose Del Monte.
   
   Reason: I needed to find a way to consume more than 8 glasses of water a day. I'm not a fan of plain water so I tried squeezing drops of lemon into a pitcher of water for a couple of days last time but it didn't last because it was troublesome. Cranberry Juice is working just fine. Besides, ladies, Cranberry Juice keeps your urinary tract clean :)
   
   I pour just slightly over 3/4 of water into a huge mug, and top the rest with the cranberry juice. It's better than drinking Ribena ok. If you like, you can add ice cubes but I try not to drink too much cold stuff.
   
   
   
2. I ran 40 minutes and sweated buckets! It felt so good afterwards. Sweating is good because it removes toxins from our body, if you do not know that already. My skin was absolutely glowing as I was leaving the gym.
   Reason: I am fat.
   
   
   
3. After gym, I walked ALL THE WAY to Subway and bought the 6-inch sandwich in Teriyaki Chicken - Honey Oats Bread with everything, extra olives and pickles. I feel so healthy today, I'm afraid I might barf later.
   Reason: I am fat.
   
   
   
4. I bought a huge avocado to make my regular Avocado Honey Mask. I will post pics of the tutorial when I get to it. My avocado is still not ripe yet. I enjoy making stuff with my bare hands and slabbing them onto my face, it's fun and most importantly, they are cheap, extremely easy to do and most importantly, they work extremely well.
   
   I like to experiment around with oats, yogurt, egg, etc but found avocado works best for my skin. Avocados are packed with rich E, B and K vitamins. Those vitamins are essential for a beautiful healthy skin. Wow wee, I sound like an avocado farmer, trying to promote avocados.
   
   Reason: I love pampering my face! I think I might be addicted to masks. I just did a Black Sugar mask last night and woke up with glowing skin this morning. Ahhh... bliss. I like anything that is packed with antioxidants because I am 27 and I am getting very old, you see.
   
   
   
5. I replenished my color contacts. I usually go to this shop at One Utama who has this year-long Buy 2 Free 1 promotion for only RM130. I bought 2 in my usual Green and for once, I am trying a pair in Grey. I hope I don't look like I have cataracts in them Grey contacts.
   
   
   
6. I can't think of a number 6. But I am gonna spend a long time in the shower later massaging my scalp, scrubbing myself thoroughly with my Bodyshop strawberry scrub, and trim my eyebrows later. And then I'm gonna do a hand treatment myself which involves some cuticle cream, gloves and 30mins.
   

Have I been treating myself badly over the past months that I have this sudden NEED to love and pamper myself?!


In fact, I am so totally in the zone of Love Thyself mode that I've decided to reward myself with the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic phone, which will only be out maybe next month. Ok, mr tay is sponsoring me so that didn't count as self-rewarding.


Also, I did something drastic on 31 Oct that made me feel oh-so-proud of myself. It cost me a lot of sleepless nights, tears, courage and determination to really stand up, face it and deal it. And dealt with it, I did. I could not have been prouder myself. And as 2008 comes to an end, a new beginning beckons.


A new beginning is beckoning indeed and I can't wait to find out what's installed for me :)