LadyHaute

Did a blogshop shoot for LadyHaute the other day so here are some photos from it!

This is an ASOS-inspired piece & I got to keep one!

I also got a pair of grey shorts from them which are really comfy! LadyHaute was actually around quite a long time ago but the owner stopped & then decided to re-launch it properly again; she's super nice so you're in good hands!

Random outfit pic.

Random top taken from my mom's closet haha.

Shorts - online (shop is now closed). Bracelets - H&M.

These shorts are actually DIY-ripped by the girl anyway (obviously I paid her to do it!) so that means anyone can do it really! One of my all-time favourite shorts is cut from old jeans.

Never knew that there is a Singapore Chinese Opera Museum haha.

And... "museum" is one of the few specific words I always have problems spelling.

I misspelt it both times above. Thank goodness for auto-correct.

Sultan Mosque near Arab Street. I didn't go in because females have to wear this robe thing to cover up.

We had to do a few short interviews for our Soci of Religion project so that's how I found out that Muslims have to tithe 25% of their earnings! For Christianity it's 10%. According to my Hindu friend, there is no stipulated amount in Hinduism.

LOL so now you know which religion to pick.

*JOKE*

Headed over to the Perumal Temple (Hindu) at Serangoon Road after that, passing through Little India.

INSANELY CROWDED!

I'm stunned to see this many people in a single place & this was basically the sight everywhere. So that makes A LOT of people in Little India alone! Machiam music festival hahaha. Almost as crowded.

Me: "I went to a Hindu temple"

Friend: "You mean like a mosque?"

General knowledge fail. (Social Studies)/(Moral Education)/(Misc 30 minute timeslots teachers hate because they can't cover schoolwork) fail.

Will update soon! 

I have been incredibly busy catching up on gossip & stalking for the one week I was away. 

Life is hard. Bye!

Tokyo Day 1

Blogging this on our last night in Tokyo! I'm done with my packing; winter wear is so bulky but I managed to close my suitcase without even using the extension! #victorykid.jpg

Alaric & I are coming back with over 10 stuffed toys though -_- of which 8 are the big kind. They're taking up 3 whole hand-carrys of their own. #dafuq

And the worst is that only 2 are mine.

So anyway on Day 1 (the day we reached), we simply headed out to Shinjuku to get dinner. Our hotel has a pretty good location because we're really near a metro station, which is only 2 stops away from Shinjuku. Had Japanese curry that night!

The Japanese love umbrellas O.O Umbrellas sell everywhere & even the hipster/punk guys carry them hahaha. And I notice they all love the transparent one!

I love the transparent umbrella too & my mom has had one for years (like for as long as I can remember, so 10+ years) but it's the non-foldable kind so you can't put it into your bag. SAME AS THE ONES THE JAPANESE USE. They literally walk around with the long, unfoldable umbrella in their hands! What dedication.

Tokyo has lots of Italian & Indian (North) restaurants/cuisine!

Snowing but impossible to capture it.

Curry for dinner:

This restaurant has a Japanese curry for EVERYTHING! Aside from your usual pork/chicken cutlet (I always get chicken) they have shrimp, calamari... even veggie!

And you can select your rice + spiciness level!

This place, has AWESOME curry by the way! It seems that it's a chain & it's also 24hours! 

The place is very no-frills; almost like fast food but the food is really good! And at least they have English menus so ordering is much easier.

CoCo Ichibanya!

We actually went back twice in our 8 days just to eat their curry! Would like some now :(

We bought back one of their instant curry mixes to try. Probably the only food I'll miss from Tokyo; the rest I feel that I can get the same quality (if not better) & greater variety in Singapore because I already know where to find what.

While Tokyo has good food, the annoying thing is that they all specialise in one thing, e.g. Japanese curry, ramen, sushi etc... You can't even enter a sushi restaurant & hope for sashimi (although the ingredients are the same lol). They serve ONLY sushi, in which the choices are already very limited (like 20 options). This basically means both you & your friend(s) have to want to eat the same thing!

In that case I'd rather go to Sakae Sushi & be able to eat both udon & sushi :(

Shop selling ONLY cigarettes!

HAHAHAHAHA, Mr Kentucky, why you look so funny?

No this is not a random photo. This is literally the poster at a KFC outlet hahaha.

The Japanese also love strawberries! They have so many strawberry-related desserts & they are all very pretty & look super yummy! But... they are damn expensive :(

The above small strawberry shortcake costs S$8.50... I've even seen some selling at S$15/slice! As much as I wanted to try one, I can't bear to pay S$9 for a small piece because their portions are even smaller than those in Singapore.

Anyway today I found one selling at 400+ yen! Omg so happy. And it turned out really yummy!

Oh yeah they also like to RANK their products hahaha.

You'll see many shops doing this (food/clothes), highlighting their top 3 bestsellers.

Bought a Japanese magazine because I know they're pretty famous (like ViVi) so I wanted to see what one is like! I didn't see ViVi selling so I got this one; all their mags come with a free gift & this looked the best lol.

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I also (primarily) picked this because I saw the photo had a Chanel powder/case/makeup of some sort, so I thought maybe it came with a small sample. It didn't. T_T

I love these kind of floaty-floaty warm photos!

But one thing... the Japanese models all look the same. The 3 girls above are 3 different girls & in this photo it's already more obvious. When I first flipped I thought it was the same model used a few times.

Another thing... I love the pictures & styling but... it seems a bit blogshop-ish? The way each page is spammed with one pose of each outfit with a simple studio background... looking at these pictures I think some of the Singaporean blogshop models could easily copy the poses & look similar!

But well I guess it's just different from the conventional magazine spreads! 

And at least their outfits are wearable, not weird ones done according to the shoot theme.

Random peach tea I got from the minimart. Sucked :( 

Tried apple tea from another brand, also sucked. Got an orange juice thing another day, also very average. Bottomline, not a fan of the Japanese drinks!

Oh but they serve Oolong tea at a lot of places though! 

Haha found it strange because it seems so Chinese to me.

Ok goodnight! 

Kind of sad to leave Japan but I'm sick of the cold & dryness! 

And I miss Singaporean food/variety! :)

Wanted prata & spaghetti & longan-ice the other day (still do).

I'll be back 24th Feb but my place actually touches down after midnight so... it'll technically be 25th Feb.

See you guys!

From the hotel

Bundled up in long & sensible clothing!

My hair has super bad static here in Tokyo! It sticks ALL OVER.

Sticks to my face, coat, shopping bags, hat...

I think it has something to do with the insanely dry climate. My skin dies in dry weather too.

Super big can of Coke from the Family Mart near our hotel! Hehe that's really what it's called.

We have a 7-11 right across the street too; no real preference between the two but Family Mart is on the way from our MRT exit (super near our hotel - props to me for sourcing out the hotel!)

The Tokyo subway map!

I think some of the train lines might not even be reflected on this map 

(the different lines are owned by separate private companies)

Hehe bought the ear muffs & bath sponge from Daiso! It's a 100 yen shop; 105 after tax - tax isn't included in shop prices but will be displayed on the price tag -> a bit bohliao. 

Might as well just put the final price instead of two prices!

The bath sponge is so useless @.@

1) I don't use a bath sponge.

2) I don't even like bathing.

(wahaha)

But so cute!

Thank goodness for shops like H&M/F21 that keep me sane. 

After too long in Tokyo you start to feel like S$60 items are CHEAP 

T_T

I will never complain about S$26 Far East Plaza/blogshop items again 

(or at least until I remember how much cheaper Bangkok is lol)

IN JAPAN

Shop online at MINISTRY OF RETAIL It's an online fashion store for unique office wear, blazers, dresses & quality winter wear - That's why 10, 000 customers have shopped with them so far. Like their Facebook page for contests, giveaways & more!
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Hello!

Hello from Tokyo!

This will just be a mini-post to say Konnichiwa! We didn't do anything at all after landing except to grab a dinner of yummy Japanese curry at Shinjuku!

Our flight landed at 1pm Tokyo time, then we had to sit on a (very expensive) train into Tokyo itself, which took 1.5hrs. Then... we got lost among the train system. For over another hour O.O

So we only got to our hotel at 5.15pm, at which I promptly conked out for a nap. 

And to think I was thinking of slotting in a visit to DisneySea on the first day... hahaha. 

Also... it's freaking freezing O.O (it was -2°C!)

Tokyo has lots of different train lines & some are rapid ones, some are subway lines, some are metro lines (yes, apparently there's a difference). So basically I think what happened is that we were circulating for a while on a more major metro line looking for our stop, when in fact we are on a subway line :S

And omg... Tokyo has bloody complicated, sophisticated & cheem toilets (NO JOKE I TOOK 5 MINS TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO CLOSE THE DOOR) but their train stations have NO escalators/lifts. 

Dragging a suitcase up & down steps is no fun :(

Japanese beer Alaric bought aboard the express train into Tokyo. 

He says it tastes just like Tiger Beer.

SNOW! 

But not proper snow :( 

Seemed more like rain, but I guess at least it doesn't wet you as much.

(After we got to the hotel I changed & bundled up in as many layers as I could haha)

Didn't see much within the vicinity of the Shinjuku metro station except a 4-story Uniqlo... Had a look but they had nothing that isn't available in Singapore. And we were actually refused by quite a few Japanese restaurants because they were completely full O.O I mean, that like... never happens in Singapore right? Guess all the people in Tokyo like to eat out on Friday night!

Oh & we noticed that a lot of Japanese men eat alone! 

Most Singaporeans seem quite self-conscious about eating alone.

And... they EAT DAMN FAST OK. 

I was totally like "Omg the Japanese are gonna hate me because I eat damn slowly!" -> hence decreasing the turnover in their restaurants, which is very chop-chop eat & leave in 30mins. 

Anyway I'm super tired; we're probably going to visit Shibuya (shopping district) tomorrow!

I hope the weather gets warmer soon or DisneyLand + DisneySea is going to be rather painful.

And I totally wanna go to a cat cafe! But I just Googled it, it seems damn expensive... 10USD for 15minutes in the cafe, excluding food & drinks. And you can't pick up or wake up the cats O.O 

Wahlewz. Might as well call it a cat zoo if I can only look at them!

♥ ♥ ♥

Sorry for the slowdown in updates! Hopefully I can upload a vlog soon :(
The pictures below annoyed me insanely too, because no matter what I did they would become saturated when I uploaded them to Photobucket. Finally I had to use Blogger's in-built Picasa host.

I actually have more camwhore pics.. LOL. Ok I will save them for another time. It was a good hair day!

♥ ♥ ♥

Haha furry hat from H&M

♥ ♥ ♥

Went to Yutaki's house the other day with Eric! Surprisingly it was actually quite nicely decorated! Most boys have messy and/or boring rooms haha. He did just spend quite a bit of money at IKEA getting it re-decorated though. I wish I could move house all the time :) Room-decorating is so fun!

Wall of polaroids.
I remarked how the only person in them is him, but he says that he "got put nice architecture what!"
I think most of them were taken during his trip to Europe.

I don't know if you can see it clearly, but there's actually a mini Eiffel tower beside the lamp! Miyake & I were with him when he bought it from this shop in Far East Plaza for $50 or $60. But... it was black colour then. He actually used leftover wall paint to paint it off-white, then tied Chanel ribbons on it!

Saw this hanging-photo thing at IKEA the other day, so if anyone wants it for their room you guys can still buy it quite easily! It's really impossible to go through IKEA & not end up buying something lol. I just bought new curtains, a lap-cushion thing for my laptop & a towel.

I know. Towel also wanna buy.
It was only $5.90 & came in bright blue, green or purple! I got it in purple & I find that it has a good texture (unlike some that are so smooth you know for sure it can't absorb water for nuts).
Haven't used it though.

Yutaki camwhoring with my Lumix G3; to demonstrate how good he thinks the HIGH-KEY mode is (found under Scene) & thus why he regrets selling his off. I never use this mode.

Trying on one of Yutaki's gazillion hats.
He also passed me one of his furry white sweaters for me to use in Tokyo! :D
I'm leaving THIS FRIDAY morning at 6am by the way!

Yet another one of his hats.

♥

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 
Alaric & I didn't do much; doesn't really bother me. I was thinking we could do a picnic, but not on Valentine's Day itself because the usual picnic spots are bound to be crowded. In the end we just got dinner (wanted La Petitie Cuisine but even they were fully booked O.O) at an average coffee place & I bought back dessert.

Then we tried Poppin' Cookin' (DIY Japanese edible mini-foods) &... we sucked at it hahaha.
Didn't dare eat it because it smelt so sugary & I'm sure it's probably not healthy.

Alaric bought me flowers (I tweeted a picture)! I really wasn't actually expecting any (OOH HE GOT HIMSELF A GEM WITH ME EH) but since he has done it... he'll be obliged to do it every year hahaha. And frankly I don't remember what we did for Valentine's Day last year O.O

In 2008 my friend Jeannie & I actually had "Lonely Hearts Club" badges made for Valentine's Day & gave it out to our single friends hahaha. Club of which we were then part of.

♥ Goodnight! ♥

LoveBox Pose & Post

It's that time of the year again!

The coming Valentine's Day will be the second one that I am spending with Alaric! Last year we celebrated with a simple dinner & movie as well as gifts to each other. Some of you may do something pretty low-key, some of you may plan something extra special for your other, while some of you may not feel the need to do anything for it at all! After all, every day can be special.

This year, Durex is launching a very simple contest for couples out there who have captured a special moment with their partner in a photo, with the grand prize being a 4D3N special couple's trip to Krabi worth $5000!

Prizes:

Grand Prize: 4D3N Couple Trip to Krabi worth SGD$ 5,000 x 1

Dining Voucher at Sky Dining worth SGD$ 350 x 5

Durex Hamper & merchandise worth SGD$ 50 x 20

Sky Dining by the way, is romantic fine dining in a cable car!

It's very simple really, you don't need to capture extravagant moments spent together. The most important is that it was meaningful to you, which is what Valentine's Day is all about! But of course, it's an added bonus if photography is something that interests you anyway! ^^

This very unprofessional (not even with a digital camera, this was taken on my laptop's webcam) photo in one of the most uninteresting locations - my school library - is special to me because this is where we first met & spent most our days getting to know each other while studying for exams.

Who knows, you might win you & your partner a well-deserved romantic break to Krabi!

Alaric & I went to Krabi recently & I really liked it! A short getaway with your partner is also a great way to unwind together. That's one type of photo you can submit - holidays you went on with your partner where you got to try & see lots of new things together.

This is in Krabi; I had been wanting a beach holiday for a long time! 

I got to try snorkeling for the first time in Krabi & satisfied my Thai food cravings!

Alaric & I at Chatuchak in Bangkok!

If you haven't had time to go overseas together yet, (which is why you should join the contest) what about in our own little island?

This was taken when Alaric first asked me to be his girlfriend.

Visit to the Night Safari!

Visit to the zoo, feeding kangaroos! :D

And a visit to the new USS! I know, I just listed 3 of Singapore's major tourist attractions. Well, you're a Singaporean; when was the last time you went to the zoo? Why not do something different together? :)

How about even special days of the year spent together?

This is Alaric & I on Halloween:

And us at Christmas 2010!

Just looking through all our photos together, I realised we've had lots of good times :) Now if one of those moments could win us another special moment, why not? :)

All you need to do is submit a photo of you & your partner at the Durex Singapore Facebook page! The contest runs from 16th Jan 2012 - 29th Feb 2012 & is open to any Singaporean/PR who is 18 years old & above.

The Top 50 Voted Photos will be shortlisted for deliberation by a panel of judges & there will be a total of 26 prizes to be given out!

Here's some good news - YOU CAN SUBMIT AS MANY PHOTOS AS YOU LIKE #KiasuSingaporeansUnite!

And the best news is - NO COMPULSORY PURCHASE!
You don't need any proof of purchase to take part in this contest!

Here's how to join:

"Like" the Durex Singapore Facebook Page 

(allow access to the LoveBox Pose & Post application to be able to submit a photo)

You should see this once you have "liked" the page & allowed the application!

Next, go to Strike A Pose & fill in your info.

Click NEXT!

You'll be brought to this page below, where you get to choose which Love Box you want to go along with the photo you're submitting! They have 8 designs, so if you submit 8 photos you won't even have to worry about deciding which is the "nicest" design LOL.

UPLOAD YOUR PHOTO!

I picked a cheery yellow-base Love Box for my picture :)

You can either snap a photo on the spot with your webcam, or upload an older one! If you're the super competitive type you can go & specially take some impressive new photos for the contest LOL.

Here you can zoom in/out & decide how the picture should be framed!

Hehe I thought the kangaroo-feeding was a cute picture!

And that's it! You've joined the contest! It's that simple!

Now you should try & get your friends/family/pets to vote for your picture so that you stand a higher chance of winning! Remember, you need to get into the Top 50!

Even if you don't win the main prize, it's ok because there are 25 other prizes! Furthermore, I think the most important was being able to reminisce about your relationship :)

And ok. Wait. You're not done.

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YOU GOTTA CHECK OUT THE COMPETITION

#competitive

Go to Gallery to see the entries of other couples!

You can see that there are a lot of couples who have already submitted their entry, so you gotta hurry!

1. "Like" Durex Singapore FB Page

2. Pick your LoveBox & upload the photo(s)!

3. Get votes for it to increase chances of winning!

All the best ok! I hope the holiday will be super special for the winning couple :) 

And even if you don't win... well, you've got each other no? :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

And to end off, here's one more photo of Alaric & I that I have never uploaded:

Hahaha that's Alaric & I doing a catwalk for a charity event, with weird face makeup!

Definitely a photo I would want to upload for the contest! :)

So here it is again: Durex Singapore LoveBox Pose & Post contest! Give it a shot!