My Thots

Jolene and I always have impromptu meet ups. Either that or we plan to meet up then end up doing impromptu stuffs! And this time our meetup took us unexpectedly to have simple dinner at a Hong Kong Cafe followed by a movie.

It was also the first time that Jolene fetched me around I haven’t seen her for quite awhile and I have so much to catch up with her on!!!

When I brought my mum to Kuala Lumpur, I just had to take her to Restoran Ahwa to try the best black hokkien noodles I know in KL, Malaysia. Despite the name, it’s really more of a coffeeshop rather than a restaurant.  And some of the best local food in KL are found in hawkers and coffeeshops like these.

The place serves not only the yummy hokkien noodles but also a variety of hawker food like BBQ sting ray, satay, stir fried seafood dishes, etc. And so we ordered a whole bunch of other stuff together with huge plates of hokkien noodles. Everything here is really pretty good. The BBQ sting ray here is so meaty and such value for money!

It was also on this particular trip that we discovered another awesome food in this same place. And that’s the Little Lim Penang chinese pancake. You can choose all sorts of fillings that will be cooked fresh into a super crispy pancake. My favorite so far is the ham, cheese and egg pancake. It’s really very good and this has become one of the top items in my “To Eat List” whenever I visit KL. After this occasion, I’ve been back many times and brought many friends here and was love at first bite for most people! In fact, my mum kept wanting to go back to this place while we were in KL.

I know the main question for most of you is where is this place so here’s the address for those of you who are heading north for some food exploration.

Restoran Ahwa

66, Jalan 14/48
Petaling Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
In the area of Jalan 222

Before I left for my Europe holiday, I heard from the grapevine that CLIO was going to launch their Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner in Singapore at Watsons and I was super excited! I wanted to head down to Watsons Ngee Ann City outlet where they did their launch to grab some to try out during my trip! Unfortunately, I was insanely busy during the week I was supposed to leave I never got to it. So busy that I didn’t even manage to sleep for 48 hours before my flight and I only packed 2 hours before heading to the airport.

But luck must be still shining on me because when I got back from my trip, 2 Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner landed on my lap! I picked black and beige shine. Black eyeliners are my absolute daily staple and the beige shine was just too pretty to pass up. Actually I liked all the colors! Purple and silver would have been my next two picks.

As the very long name suggests, this korean product is the very 1st in the world to allow you to use gel base texture in a fuss free pencil format. Multitudes of beauty experts and close friends have always told me that gel base eyeliners are the best cause they last longer and have the best texture. Even then I’ve pretty much stuck to pencil liners because gel usually comes in pots and requires a brush to apply on which I find a tad troublesome.

CLIO managed to come up with this awesome product that basically gave me the quality of a gel texture without all the fuss! No need for brushes (which means no need to clean and store extra brush), just use it like a pencil liner and twist the top to release a longer gel stick when you need to. It even comes with a mini built in sharpener that you can detach from the top to sharpen your gel tip in case you want more precise sharp lines when you draw.

Awesomeness! I’m definitely going to  be using this for awhile. I’ve been using it for 10 days now and am still using it. Grab it at your nearest Watsons or if you are lucky, you can win one. It’s crazily simple. Just got to CLIO Singapore Facebook page and try out their simple Tag and Win Contest. Tag your name to the color of gel liner you want to win and stand a chance to win it! Simple right? Go enter before the contest ends!

Just early this month, Dominios introduced they new ultimate Hawiian pizza and I headed down together with a couple of other bloggers to give it a go!

It’s basically the same Hawaiian Pizza we all love except it has more than double the amount of chicken, toasted turkey ham, pineapples and mushrooms. Basically better! The more impressive thing for me is not the new pizza (which is awesome) but the incredibly technologically advance online ordering system they have established.

Call me a mountain tortoise but it’s not often that I order fast food online. However, with Dominos, I just might do it a little more often. Their website is super user friendly with auto saving of locations, 7 days advance booking and GPS ( Great Pizza Service) tracking. Yes! You can literally track your pizza from the moment it is born as a dough ball till the point it lands in your hands. Og course knowing that they have a 30 minutes delivery guarantee and 15 minutes takeout guarantee means it’s a good place to look for food when you are really hungry.  Their last order is at 11pm so great for night birds like me!

It was a fun little pizza party evening with some entertainment from fellow bloggers and their hula hoops, great learnings gleaned from the Domino’s team and tons of pizzas, chickens, onion rings and my favorite lava chocolate cake! I’m actually really in love with the side dishes from Domino! The lava cake is only $3.80 when you order online and it’s super sinful. Oh, and all their pricing is nett pricing so no gst to calculate!

Dominos has several choices of crust and my personal fave is the thin crust. I generally hate fast food pizzas because they have so much dough and too little ingredients but with the ultimate hawaiian pizza and thin crust, I’m going to have to change my opinion soon.

If you are feeling hungry reading about my experience with Dominos or feeling peckish at night, call them at 6222-6333 or log on to their website www.dominos.com.sg now. As of March 2012, there are 13 Domino’s Pizza stores in Singapore so they should cover most areas, if your area is not cover yet, fret not! Domino’s are still expanding their stores island wide!

I think the title is as about straight to the point as it can get. And if you have been following me on twitter (@renzze) or instagram or Facebook then this is probably not very new news to you but I thought I ought to blog about it in case you couldn’t recognize me and say hi if you bumped into me on the streets. ( Seriously, that has happened to me a lot lately and people have to look twice to make sure it’s me!)

Well, I cut my hair short. I woke up one morning on Labour Day and decided on a whim that I needed a new look, marched myself to the salon and asked my stylist to chop it all off. No one knew I wanted to cut my hair short, I didn’t even know it myself! In fact, just 2 days before my sudden impulsion, I just bought a new hair clip to bun up my long hair while shopping with Regina!

A girl’s hair is her crowning glory and it’s always been said that a drastic change like this must have been brought about by an immense push, be it a change of lifestyle, a bad breakup, a new move, death in the family and so on. Honestly, I don’t know exactly what compelled me to chop my hair off. Just last year the thought of cutting off my hair totally scared me and  yet this time I didn’t think twice! Either way I wasn’t upset when I went to cut my hair, I just knew I’ll go through with it.

It was only when I was sitting in the salon chair that I notified some of my gfs about what I was about to do. Every single one of them said Nooooooooooo! LOL!

My hairstylist measured my hair which is at my hips when straightened, made sure I knew what I wanted. She then tied a rubberband and with one swift motion, she clipped off the entire pony tail. I cringed for a second and then it was over. No mourning of any kind as my stylist went about snipping my hair to shape.

And here is the end result…

I like my cut! Normally they say you need time to grow into a new haircut but I think my stylist did a great job! However, I do have to admit that I didn’t recognize myself in reflections and mirrors for the first 2 days and even though it’s been 5 days I’m pretty much still dealing with shocked looks from friends and family. Regina met me shortly after my hair cut and as even when I was right in front of her, she couldn’t recognize me till I was about 2 arms length! Others who have seen my instagram pictures of my short hair were a little more prepared but some still take awhile to realize it’s me.

Here’s the comparisons of before and after.

Friends and family who have been with me for years and the men, generally preferred me with my previous long hair. My colleagues, friends that don’t meet me that often and fellow bloggers say they prefer my new look much better. However, a lot of those who prefer me with long hair are changing their sentiments to you look good either way after getting used to my new hair style.

I think the short hair makes me my face looks rounder and my hair has more volume. My hair was dyed ash as well so I probably look a little more trendy then before. Head feels light without the long hair and shampoo consumption is definitely gonna drop. Maintenance of the hair is really easy and no styling is need at all! The only thing to remember is that I can no longer sleep with wet hair because the shape would look all funky when I wake up ( which could be a cool wake-up hair look if I can pull it off).

Feel free to share your thoughts about my new look! And for those who miss me with long hair, the good news is that you’ll still see me posting tons of  photos of me in long hair on my blog because I’m crazily backdated on so many photos and trips that I’ve yet to share with my readers. My blog is not exactly posted in chronological sequence anyways.

PS- Happy Vesak Day!

I wore this outfit out on one of the weekends. The sweet pink jacket with ribbon is sponsored by Global Citizen and I decided to pair it up with floral shorts to give it a nice casual look. I love wearing shorts (especially in the crazy hot and humid Singapore weather) but can only do so on weekends when I don’t have to go to the office.

Floral shorts were bought in Bangkok and sling bag is from Liz Lisa. My favorite part of this outfit actually the hidden unicorn motifs in the inside of the pink Global Citizen jacket. I know it’s kinda silly to like a detail of an outfit that no one notices or even knows but I’m silly like that. It makes me happy! It’s probably the same with pretty underwear where no one knows what you are wearing but somehow if it’s pretty, you’re just happier wearing them then regular plain ones.

Anyways, other than spending some time in the outdoors away from buildings and malls, it’s almost a routine for me to meet up my friends over the weekend. This time I met up with Kelvin, Bernice and their 2 lovely daughters, Arielle and Christelle for dinner.

Christelle’s eyes are huge and she was wearing the pink little dress with hearts that I bought from her even before she was born! She’s such a little cutie-pie. Arielle on the other hand has really blossomed into a pretty little girl. It’s crazy how quickly Bernice’s kids are growing! Soon they will be donning the same uniforms that Bernice and I used to wear for the first 10 years of our schooling life.

I don’t catch up with Kelvin and Bernice as I like because of my busy schedule and their family commitments. So every time we meet up it’s an exchange of little updates on our lives. On this particular day, they have finally found a place they love to call home and will be moving soon! Such a new exciting chapter in their lives and I’m really really happy for them. Especially since they are gonna move a little closer to me then where they are at now. Hopefully that means we’ll have more frequent meetups instead of one every month or so.

Arielle has gotten pretty comfortable with me though she still quite shy around strangers. I’m glad to see her so well adjusted to her new sibling. Looking forward to see them again soon! *hugs*

About a month ago, I attended a workshop that was hosted by Blackmores and Watsons to learn more about Blackmores Radiance. In a nutshell, Blackmores Radiance is a skin supplement that provides 24 hours of internal intensive nourishment to keep your skin healthy, hydrated and firm. In short, beautiful skin. I’m not exactly new to the idea of supplements for good skin and Blackmore’s formula is pretty comprehensive! Other than antioxidants such as such as vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, lutein and lycopene; it also includes Collagen-protein extract, Coenzyme Q10, and some herbs. All of which will help to protect your skin against aging, enhance skin elasticity and reduce fine lines.

I’ve personally been taking the supplements for awhile now. Although it states on the packaging that you have to consume for a minimum of 12 weeks to notice improvement, I believe that if you are very observant, you actually notice the difference sooner. I am normally not very consistant with any sort of supplements intake but not this time. I had  just came back from my Europe trip with dehydrated skin that had started producing small bumps that threatened to give me a full on breakout. It propelled me to be really consistant with my 2 pills a day Blackmores Radiance supplement. They consist of a day pill (dark green) and a night pill (light green). After 2 weeks, my skin just cleared without any hint of breakouts!

My skin is very sensitive and I do not wear any foundation on my daily routine. However, recently I attended the Queen Elizabeth II Cup by the Singapore Turf Club recently and wore foundation to the event since I wanted to be a little more glamourous. The next day, small pimples started appearing on my forehead! I pretty much expected that to happen and was prepared to slather on lots of soothing cream for the onslaught of skin sensitivity caused by the foundation. Surprisingly, the skin didn’t turn red and the pimples never grew any bigger. In fact, the whole situation is somewhat under control and the pimples are receding. I haven’t changed facial products so I believe that the change must have originated from taking the supplements. While it doesn’t promises miracles, it does keep your skin in check and increases hydration.

Back to the workshop. There were quite a few bloggers, most of them beauty experts and some of them you’ll probably recognize.  We all had a fantastic time at the event where we were given the opportunity to learn how to cook some simple dishes that were packed with antioxidants, just like the Blackmore Radiance!

The first dish was vietnamese spring rolls! Yummy and pretty fun to make. You get to decide what goes in and how much of each. I especially loved the special peanut sauce that we learnt to make as an accompaniment to the spring roll.

Main dish was baked salmon with lots of colorful vegetables. Gorgeous dish with lots of omega 3 and antioxidants! Baking fish is not exactly a new dish for me but I learnt a new technique of how to wrap each fish in a “curry puff” style before putting it in the oven to bake so that it retains its moisture.

Dessert was a simple to make but oh-so-tasty berry yogurt trifle. It’s so simple to prepare and looks amazing. I definitely gained a lot from that workshop that day. Knowing and learning how to prepare good healthy food for my skin and getting myself set for great skin with Blackmores Radiance supplements.

If you want to give the Blackmores Radiance supplements a try, it’s available at Watsons stores. As a pre-warning, it’s not cheap but if you’ve been battling with problem skin, this may just be your answer.