Strictly Pancakes

Mmmmm... A food-filled post, my favourite. :) Just before school started, I had an impromptu lunch date with Ruth and Estee! (We had an intense Kinect session after too, but we didn't take any pictures, unfortunately! My body was sore all over the next day and I didn't even know why!) I'd been wanting to try Strictly Pancakes for a while now, so I suggested that we head there for lunch. :D

They have a selection of sweet and savoury pancakes. But since it was lunchtime, we all opted for the savoury pancakes.

Every serving of pancakes comes with complimentary butter of your choice, and a "shot" of maple syrup. I barely even touched these though, cos my pancakes had loads of sauce already!

Shared a Nutella milkshake with Ruth (so that we could share the calories too, haha). Tasted like the Nutella ice-cream that Island Creamery sells!

My pancakes with Garlic Buttered Prawns. It was very yummy, but it's a bit jelak after a while. And even though the 3 pancakes don't look like much, we were all full to the brim by the time we were done with the 2nd pancake!

Estee's Potatoes Leeking Cheese.

Ruth's Chicken A La King.

Aaaaand, what's lunch without a group picture? (Looking very fat and full here teehee.)

x

When my love left on a jetplane.

Earlier this month, it was G's turn to leave for his exchange in Canada. It was reminiscent of two years back when I left for my own exchange haha. :) We've already gone through "LDR" (in inverted commas cos it was only for less than half a year) once, so I suppose this time round it should be somewhat easier. Anyway, here's just a bunch of pictures from his sendoff haha.

I quite like this photo of us. :D

Byebye darling!

Haha we'll see you again in May. :)

x

Baobei's visit

After her last trip to Singapore 2 years ago, Baobei came to visit again in December! This time it was a much longer trip compared to the last, partly cos she LOST HER PASSPORT the last trip just before she was due to fly. -.- So her last trip was cut short to something like 3 days. Please, for goodness sake ah, don't ever lose your passport. (What's worse is when you realise after replacing it that it was at home all along.)

So anyway, pictures!

Breakfast the morning after she arrived. My favourite chwee kueh from Tiong Bahru market!

Went shoppinggggg after that. Omg I was in Orchard almost every single day while she was here. I think I shopped until I got sick of shopping for a while.

We got a matchy manicure! We always have this habit of doing/getting matchy things. :/ The picture's not very clear. :( But basically we got this two-toned manicure - a clear base with blue tips and glitter in the centre. Mine was silver glitter and hers was gold.

Decided to hunt for good BCM one day, so we ended up at the Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle stall which is on Crawford Lane.

This is Justin! (In the queue for BCM...)

So, back to the story of the BCM, the queue was so ridiculously long. Spot Justin STILL in the queue after about half an hour!

FINALLY, AFTER AN HOUR'S WAIT, WE GOT OUR BCM.

Verdict on the BCM? It was good, but not worth the hour's wait. It's very vinegary, so if you like your BCM with loads of vinegar, you'll like this. I think we made the mistake of going during lunchtime so the wait was ridiculously long. :( If I ever go back again, I'll probably choose a super off-peak hour to go. So if you're ever thinking of trying the BCM, I would advise you to go during off-peak hours, otherwise you may feel a little disappointed at the end of all the queueing.

That's it! We didn't take anymore pictures! I guess there isn't much to photograph while shopping (which is what we did most of the time)... Plus as we get older, we seem to be taking less and less pictures. :( Baobei practically doesn't even take out her camera anymore! It's a wonder how we used to easily take hundreds of pictures within a day, back in secondary school. :X

I've also just realised that this year being 2012 would mark the 10th year that I've known my secondary school friends! Which also includes Angie and Xuannie, etcetcetc too, apart from Baobei. OMG IT'S BEEN A DECADE. I was just babbling on Twitter earlier today about friends getting engaged and feeling old... Now this makes me feel old too. :( I wanna be 19 all over again, can?

Oh and since it's CNY in a few days' time, have a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!

祝你新年快乐，万事如意，心想事成，年年有余！

Hahahaha. Cheap thrill with all the Chinese idioms. :/

x

December's nail polish haul!

School has started and I've actually quite a lot of things on my to-do list right now (in addition to my readings). But... I'm just not in the right mood to be doing academic readings right now. So, here's a quick update on the nail polishes that I acquired in the month of December! Heh heh.

Actually, I haven't been buying nail polish for a while (even though I used to be some kind of nail polish addict) because school has been getting increasingly crazy with each semester. And as a result, I HAVE NO TIME TO PAINT MY NAILS. No time to paint nails --> Zero use of nail polish --> Why even bother buying nail polish? BUT, during the December break, I actually found some time to paint my nails hahaha. Which resulted in this collective haul! It's not massive, but it made me really happy so I thought I'd just blog about it. :D

This is it!

(From L-R)

1. OPI Designer... de Better!

2. OPI Rainbow Connection

3. OPI Divine Swine

4. OPI Yoga-ta get this Blue!

5. China Glaze Skyscraper

6. China Glaze Ruby Pumps

7. Nicole by OPI Step 2 the Beat of My ♥
8. Seche Ridge Filling Base Coat

Here's a group shot of the OPIs. The first 3 are actually from the Miss Muppets collection! (LOVE THE GLITTER) The last one, I got because I did a manicure with this while Baobei was in Singapore and loved this medium-dark shade of blue. It's in between the two OPI blues I already own (OPI Blue My Mind is more of an electric, medium blue while OPI Russian Navy is, as the name suggests, a navy that sometimes looks almost black.), and was sort of like the perfect blue that I'd been looking for. :)

Look at all the glitter pieces in the bottle! I had Rainbow Connection on my toes in December... Did about 3-4 coats saturated with glitter in order to achieve full opacity. Saying that it was a b*tch to remove is an understatement. That being said, it was gorgeous on my nails.

The China Glazes! Skyscraper is relatively new, I think? I have a thing for glitters and blues... Can you tell? I've been wanting Ruby Pumps for sometime now, but just never got around to acquiring it. I believe it's one of China Glaze's signature shades!

This Nicole by OPI polish has a bit of a story behind it. I first saw it at Watson's when Baobei picked it up to show me. Immediately fell in love with it, but I'd been spending quite a lot in December so I resisted the urge to buy it. (After purchasing OPIs for like $10-12 a bottle, $17+ a pop for this seemed kind of expensive!) Unfortunately, a couple of days later, this was still on my mind, so I decided to just buy it anyway! We went to Watson's and Baobei wasn't planning on buying this, but it was the LAST TWO BOTTLES LEFT so she bought it too hahahaha. Anyway, aren't the heart glitter pieces oh so gorgeous? I'm gonna use this for my next manicure! I saw a similar polish by Nicole today at Watson's... It has pink heart glitters only though. But I think the purple + pink gives the glitter more dimension so I definitely prefer this still. :)

Well, that's it from me today! Have a good weekend darlings!

x

Ridin' the waves!

Been meaning to blog for sometime now, especially since G has flown off to Canada already and I am supposed to be free-er. But that hasn't been the case exactly, which explains my absence from this space! More on that another time, but here are photos from a wakeboarding session earlier on in December with G and Macey. :D

First thing I noticed after we parked was that the car adjacent to us had reindeer antlers attached to it! Hahahaha was super amused with that. :)

I was the first to go and the water was mothereffin' FREEZING cos it'd been raining a lot!

Fresh out of the water and all ready to camwhore haha.

G's turn!

I apologise if you're getting sick of our faces..

Just did my nails the day before so I couldn't stop admiring them hehe.

Macey's turn. :)

G, fresh out of the water. And my hair looking a little more tame now.

Macey managed to sorta stand up despite it being her first try at wakeboarding! :)

Group picture to end off the session. :)

Post-wakeboarding, we decided to go for a super early dinner cos we were starving anyway. Headed to Nakhon for some Thai food, and it was awesome! Dying to return again soon, but during peak hours the queue gets a little crazy though, so it's best if you go early. After Nakhon, we gave in to temptation and had twister fries muahahahaha.

'Twas a fun day filled with good food. Can't say the same for the day after wakeboarding though. I had to avoid moving as much as I could cos of the crazy body ache I was having.  :X

x

Beauty Favourites Part II: Skincare (Body) & Haircare

A continuation from my last Beauty Favourites post, this will be a shorter post on skincare for the body and haircare! When it comes to skincare for the body, I'm not exactly the most diligent person around, so I don't have that many favourites because I don't even use them often enough to justify buying new ones all the time! I'm also slightly lazy when it comes to haircare, it really depends on my mood and whether I have the time for all this... But anyhow, here's a mini post of a handful of my favourites! Oh and please pardon the poor pictures this post. :( I shot them at a rather weird time of the day so the lighting came out a bit funky. :(

1. L'Occitane Shea Butter Dry Skin Hand Cream

The Shea Butter range is my absolute favouriteeee from L'Occitane. (Unfortunately, it never goes on sale! BOO.) I don't know how to describe the scent, but it's a very comforting scent (to me, at least). The first time I smelled this, I thought it reminded me of Johnson and Johnson lotion! But after further research, I realised they smell quite different lah haha. And this scent holds some sentimental value for me because at one point in time while I was on exchange in London, I used to slather the body cream all over myself on a daily basis, so the scent kinda reminds me of London. :) But back to the main point, I like this hand cream because of the scent and also because it's a good moisturizer in that it doesn't leave your hands feeling excessively sticky after application!

2. Crabtree & Evelyn Lily Body Lotion

(Oh and spot my current nails! :D)
The Lily scent is my favourite of all the Crabtree & Evelyn scents! It's very light and yet refreshing. :) I went through something like two bottles of lotion and a tub of Lily of the Valley cream while I was in London! :D This range actually used to be known as Lily of the Valley, which Crabtree has since somewhat discontinued and renamed as just Lily. The scent seems to be pretty much the same though, so I'm just glad that they didn't entirely discontinue Lily of the Valley!

3. Crabtree & Evelyn Antibacterial Moisturising Hand Gel (Citron)

I love the idea of hand sanitizers that aren't just your regular boring Dettol ones! Plus this is moisturising too! (I think the Dettol ones do get a little drying if you use them frequently enough..) And I love that this product comes in a variety of scents for you to choose from. :) At S$10 for a bottle of 50ml though, I wouldn't really say it's a worthy purchase. I got mine cheaper cos someone brought it back from London for me though, so I was pretty happy to buy it at something like £3 for a bottle. Bath & Body Works also has a lovely hand sanitizer range that's moisturising for your hands as well. My sister has a tube so I've tested it out before, but those aren't as easy to get hold of in Singapore. :(

4. Kérastase Elixir Ultime

The ultimate hair serum that I've ever used! I highly recommend this. I used to use L'Oreal Professionel's Lumi Oil which wasn't a bad product, but I hated how oily it left my hands after application and left my hair ends looking like they were never fully dry. Plus the bottles it comes in are so small, with daily usage I finish something like 1 bottle a month. :( Anyway, the Kérastase Elixir is superrrr awesome because a little bit of product goes a long way and this leaves your hair ends super soft and smooth! Plus it doesn't leave my hands ridiculously oily the way Lumi Oil used to. In fact, if you're able to transfer almost all of the product from your hands to your hair, I think you won't even feel any oily residue left on your hands! The bad thing about this product is that it doesn't come cheap, but I think it's worth the money!

Based on the products I've recommended, you'll notice that I'm a sucker for scents when it comes to things that I apply on my body. It might be because I don't have exceptionally dry skin so I tend to buy lotions/creams without taking their moisturizing properties into much consideration. Given that, if you have very dry skin which requires loads of moisture, the products mentioned above may not necessarily suit you. So my advice is just to read everything with a pinch of salt. :)

x