Avoid the Rain!

My mom called me Thursday afternoon while I was at work, and gave me a strong warning not to get into the rain from today until 28 Apr. She said that her friend read “from the internet” something about toxic rain that’s so poisonous it could cause skin diseases if you come in contact with it. She did not have more details, but before she hung up, she emphasized, almost in a panicky tone: “你千万千万要拿雨伞 har!”

Whoa, sounded like a serious thing. I looked out of the window – oh man, it was about to storm anytime, and hubby would be walking over from his office to my office to pick up the car. Immediately I texted him to convey the message and repeated the "你千万千万要拿雨伞" [die die must take umbrella] reminder. I imagined my hubby’s umbrella sizzling and dissolving away as the acid rain pelt on it, and feared for the paintwork of my car as we drive home. Shudder.

I suspected it’s got to do with the ash in the air from the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption, causing acid rain or something. Hubby thought it’s quite remote that the ash and smoke can travel all the way from Iceland, but according to my colleague, traces of volcanic ash were actually found in the rain in Korea?

Credit: AP Photo/Jon Gustafsson

So I did a quick search on Google – if what my mom said was true, it’ll be splashed all over the internet right?

I did not find any confirmation that we are to avoid rain this week. However, I learnt that fine particulate matter in the ash could cause irritation to people suffering from asthma, emphysema or bronchitis if breathed in. The World Health Organization even said in a statement that the plume (ash cloud) does not pose a health threat as long as the ash particles remain in the upper atmosphere. The ash may cause health effects if it reaches the ground in high concentration, but these are likely to be minimal.

Lo and behold, this morning, hubby forwarded me an email in Chinese that he received, warning people of the acid rain from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. That must be the same email my mom’s friend read. See, the power of such emails causing panic to aunties!

Anyway, with environmental pollution these days, I do believe that rain with or without volcanic ash particles is extremely dirty. This explains why I never leave home or leave office for lunch without a brolly. : )

Girls Night Out!

I had a fun night out with a bunch of girl friends (who are my colleagues) last Friday evening. I haven't felt so carefree for a while, and I think that's because I was in the company of girls who are at least a decade younger than me! One of them even calls me "Janet Ma-Ma". Hahaha!!

We left office early and headed to Itacho Sushi at Ion Orchard. It was just 6:20pm and already we had to queue for half-an-hour before we got a table! These 2 volunteered to pose for my new Canon Powershot s90, while in the queue.

JJ said the seafood at this Jap restaurant is very fresh, and very fresh the seafood was indeed! Boring me ordered California maki, and we also had some sushi to share.

An advertisement shot for Itacho Sushi, taken with my brand new Canon s90!

SL took this shot of the tea cup. Nice angle!

 My California maki was wrapped in really crispy seaweed. Yummy!

This plate of sushi costs S$27! Wah... young girls nowadays have big food budget....

Very fresh scallop sushi at S$3.70 apiece

It's fun to be out with people who don't shun the camera. I myself am one who avoid because, as mentioned in an earlier post, my eyes will appear uneven sized in photos (and I haven't mastered Photoshop editing!) or look spastic altogether. Here's one which I look spastic, but this was because I was making a facial expression at dun-no-what, can't remember. I think I should still put it here becoz ZZ looked so serene and all lady-like!

The forever camera-ready SL and ZZ who's looking so demure!

Ok, here's a proper one. Us, plus JJ. QY was the camera woman

The girls already had the agenda planned out - we're to head to Marmalade Pantry next for desserts. Again, we had to take a Q-number. Before that next stop, we visited the 'vanity room', for some vanity....

Now we confirm who is the one who is game to pose anytime. LOL! I love SL!

I whipped my camera and take photos here and there, the girls laughed at me and said I was behaving like a tourist who's never been to Ion Orchard. Honestly, that was just my 3rd visit there....

Looking cool and cute at the same time.....

We were actually quite full already but since all the desserts on the menu sounded so delicious, we ordered the top 3 most appealing one...

Sinful choc fudge cake and apple & cinammom spice cake

This warm date pudding with ice-cream had all our top votes! Heavenly!

Well my day had to end earlier because I try to be home by Chloe's bedtime at 10pm. Thanks girls for asking me out - I really enjoyed myself! And seriously, I need to diet liao!

Thanks gals! SL, (me), QY, JJ and ZZ

New Blogging Equipment

I've seen how other bloggers have been so spontaneous with their photographs and they write fun snippets about their every day life.  I want to learn to write more like them!  I think having nice photos do help to make the stories come alive. However, my photography hasn't improved much even though I have a Canon D1000 DSLR. That's because it's a bit too complicated for me to operate! Furthermore, due to the sheer size and weight of that thing, it's not convenient to carry the camera with me everywhere I go.

I decided to buy a compact camera which does not cost too much, since we already own a DSLR. Purchased a sleek 10 mega-pix Panasonic Lumix on sale for only S$188 at Gain City. 

My darling daughter was very interested in the new toy and kept playing with it. It was my fault to let her have it, thinking she should be old enough not to bite it or bang it against the wall. Alas, on Day 4, Chloe dropped the camera on its lens and the whole thing just could not retract. The warranty would not cover the damage and estimated repair cost was $90, almost half the price of the camera. We made the painful decision to chuck it. That was the most short-lived camera we ever own! Sad...

A replacement was definitely required, and thank God I could afford another one with my April bonus.  After some research, I learnt that the Canon Powershot S90 is quite popular and has similar functions to a DSLR although it's a compact camera.  I don't totally like the look and feel of it, especially it's cased in a super smooth plastic with lousy grip. But I've seen some beautiful shots taken with this camera on some blogsites and I'm totally sold!

Introducing my new equipment below! I hope to make good use of it instead of letting it collect dust on the shelf. And I will NEVER let Chloe play with it.

Gym in my Slippers??

I had been eyeing FitFlops since I first read about it on some beauty blogs. According to some satisfied users, these cool slippers can make your "bum smaller and legs leaner"!  The FitFlop footwear is built with patent-pending muscle-loading microwobbleboard midsole technology which promises to increase activity in the muscles involved in walking by 10% compared to a normal pair of athletic footwear. It also promises to reduce knee joints and ankle joins stress. [I bought my pair for S$119.90 at Isetan Scotts.]

It pleases me to think that when I'm doing my shopping, I'm actually exercising and, what a great bonus if I can tone up my bum at the same time!  I insisted my hubby buy a pair too (the men's design, without sequins of course) so that when he's shopping with me, he will have no reason whatsoever to whine about leg and back pains!

The Most 'Unlikeable' Service People

Are there ‘service people’ who put you off? I’m naming a few categories here based on personal experience:

Facial Therapists
Have you encountered facial therapists who give unsolicited assessments of your facial condition and describe your face like it’s an Amazonian mangrove swamp or Sahara Dessert? Full of grime, slime, clogs, acne, blackheads, whiteheads, dehydration, broken capillaries, sun-spots, age-spots, open pores and what have you?! All they hope to do is to instill great fear in you like you’ve got a face-Armageddon, and so please sign up that $3000 treatment package and buy their products.

Lingerie Saleswoman
I know I’m no Fuji mountain, but don’t have to look down on me (practically), size me up and announce my cup size loudly such that all shoppers within 20m radius can hear. Can do so more discreetly or not?

Cosmetics Counter Girls
When they look up from their mirror whilst at their 24th coat of mascara, you can almost hear them go “Tsk” under their breadth. They don’t know the products well, fail to explain the efficacies of that cream, and still expect you to buy it right after you try out the texture at the back of your hands. Me: “Can we really expect this whitening serum to be able to lighten freckles which I had been born with?” Mascara-coated counter girl: “Oh sure, this product is very popular and saleable!” Huh?! And whenever you walk away not buying anything, you can see the corners of their lacquered lips tilting upwards. Tsk!

Domestic Helpers
It is human nature to be defensive. But I cannot stand liars. Whenever you point out that some part of the house is dirty, they will say “But I clean already!” What a stupid reply. Aren’t you slapping yourself to say you clean already and yet it’s dirty?? And when you point out some lizard-poo that has been stuck to the wall for 3 days and asked how come it’s still there, they will answer, “Oh, the lizard must have just done it.” Hah…. please, you think your madam is stupid?

Secretaries
In my 10 working years, I have not met a single secretary many secretaries who are truly at peace with her job. They are either bitching about their bosses, appearing very stressed and busy all the time, or out-rightly nasty to anyone else. Sometimes I tremble in fear feel really intimidated when I have to seek the secretaries’ help to block the boss’ diary for some meetings. Depending on their mood, you either get a warm reply, or a rude slam-down of the phone. What’s the problem??!!

My secret ambition is to be a secretary one day. I will give all the secretaries in this world a run for their money. I mean, it’s such a cool job – how difficult is it to maintain your boss’ diary, schedule his meetings, book his air tickets, make cappuccino or prepare meeting folders. There’s no econometric modeling involved. These days secretaries don’t even have to take minutes – we officers do it. Why so stressed? I’d serve with a smile and be nice to all my bosses’ subordinates.

I agree with the saying that secretaries are "powerful" people and they control your access to the boss, but that power should not be abused?  I personally think a secretary’s conduct reflects on the boss, and I would like my boss to be proud of me. I hope the bosses out there will impress upon your secretaries to try to be more helpful and approachable.  And I hope bosses out there who need a new secretary who’s smart, highly organized, proactive, resourceful, helpful and radiating a warm and pleasant personality, to contact me for an urgent interview.

Oh So Osvaldo!

Had lunch today with two of my best friends who are also my colleagues, at Osvaldo Ristorante Italiano along Maxwell Road. My friend was bought in by the rave reviews found on the internet and suggested we have a "glamourous" lunch there to celebrate her glorious bonus. Okay... for the regular office-people, lunching at a happening Italian Ristorante is glamourous.

It was a nicely decorated restaurant, almost homely. The moment we were seated down at the table, the waitress came and offer me a handbag hanger. I have not been offered such a gadget at restaurants before, thus was pleasantly surprised by their thoughtfulness (notwithstanding that it was an "al-cheapo" one, as my friend described). 

I ordered some funny hor-fun looking pasta with "duck ragu" sauce whatever that was. Friend 1 ordered tagliate with some pork sauce, which was, according to the waitress, immensely popular. Friend 2 ordered pasta-of-the-day, which was spaghetti in the shape of a thin tube with tomato sauce. Clearly I'm not a Italian food connoiseur so the Italian names don't register with me.

Our food reviews? So-so only lah! My duck ragu was some minced duck meat in soya sauce, Friend 1's pork pasta did not taste better than the regular bak-chor-mee-pok and Friend 2 complained that her tube spaghetti was very salty! Boo!

Being unsatisfied, we ordered tiramisu and warm chocolate souffle hoping for a beautiful finale to the meal. The tiramisu was quite something (*love*) but the chocolate souffle, in my opinion, was somehow overbaked on the outside and did not melt on the inside! Fail!

Well, that cost us S$150 (but lucky for me, my generous Friend 1 paid). Despite the not-so-fantastic food, I enjoyed the lunch tremendously. I always enjoy lunch with these two. Our friendship started from 10 years back, and it's amazing that we can actually find bosom friends at the workplace! 

These are the friends that make leaving the organisation difficult. How silly we public service people commonly cling on to the belief that those private sector people out there are so unfriendly, so political and the workplace so menacing, that most of us fear the world out there! I'm not sure if that's true, but having been in my fluffy and woolly organisation for so long, I actually do have this fear too.  Or maybe it's a fabrication planted by management to deter people from leaving the organisation. LOL!!!

Long Week End

Recently I visited some random blogs which carry awesome pictures and interesting stories. I am so inspired. I also learnt that some of the photos had been "altered" with the help of Photoshop and that got me pretty interested as well. My use of Photoshop has so far only been limited to cropping, re-sizing and enhancing the brightness/colours of my photos. There is so much more I could do and I can't wait to master the tools! 

So, in an attempt to create beautiful pictures to load up on my blog too, I lugged my Canon DSLR out along with my hubby and Chloe to Pasir Ris Park on Good Friday morning. Here's my first wanna-be-artistic shot...

And another one... of some canoes or kayaks (I'm never a sea sports person. Can someone tell me what's the difference?!!!) behind the coffee house we wanted to have breakfast at. Alas, it was not opened, and we were hungry! We decided to make this a 10 minute visit to the park and go find food elsewhere....

Shooting still objects is definitely easier than snapping pictures of Chloe since it's so hard to keep her still for more than 2 seconds at a stretch. Managed to snap one of her with daddy. Notice how she's twisting her leg? 

These days Chloe's very into posing. Whenever we say "Chloe pose" as we take photos of her, she would turn her body this way and that, look over her shoulders, and stick out her butt.  Pretty much like this:

It's hilarious and amused my parents to no end. I really wanted to upload a post on her posing, but as those photos were mostly taken with our handphones, which are not of very good quality, I need lots of time to edit them. Let me master Photoshop first ya?

Anyway, we left the park and had breakfast at McDonald's nearby. There goes my outdoor photo opportunities. Chloe didn't seem to mind as she had fun "driving" after breakfast. I noticed she likes "driving" a lot. It could have been a passion cultivated by my dad, who used to sit her on his lap in his (stationary) car when she was still a baby. I hope she'll do better at driving next time than Mommy.

Later that day, I visited my dear friend, who just gave birth to Baby J two weeks ago. Ohh... so cute... It was quite funny. On two instances, her confinement lady shoved Baby J into my arms and asked me to carry. She said the moment she put him down, he would cry. Then I realised she wanted me to help carry Baby J so that she could go and clean up the kitchen and boil water, and do whatever chores. Haha... I totally understand. When my maid was "stuck" with carrying Chloe, she could not do any housework at all, and couldn't go to the toilet too!

I enjoyed carrying the little one in my arms. Surprisingly Chloe wasn't jealous (it would be a different story if the daddy was the one carrying the baby).