Beauty Within Difficult Times

Once a while, when things seem so difficult... When the hurdles seem too tall for you to jump over... When everything you do seem to just not work out... And despite the hard work you've put into it, it still comes back and bites you in the ass... And you feel like giving up...

Why is life sometimes so difficult? Why does life throws you into such deep ends and not offer you a life line? What have you done to deserve such treatment? What did you miss? So many questions, yet so few answers.

This is life. It's full of trials and tribulations. Like it or not, life does suck once a while. As much as we want things to go smoothly each time, one a while life will throw a wrench to our plans and change everything.

We break down when things don't go the way we want them to be. Sometimes we don't even know why we're to blame for whatever that happens. People will always like to point fingers at someone else, some out of sheer ignorance, others to shift the burden from themselves. Why are we so susceptible to such?

Simple. We're humans. And we have emotions. And sometimes we do things to protect those emotions. We divert. We avoid. We hide. We blame.

However, we should also not forget that life is beautiful. And we do not face life alone. We are never alone. We have our family, our friends, ourselves. For every down side to things, there is the upside to it. We must also remember to keep our chins up and our spirits high. For everything that is ugly also has a beautiful side to it.

It may seem impossible to find beauty when times are difficult, but it's there somewhere. We just have to look harder.

We're Moving!

Not me and hubby, more like my workplace has decided to uproot to a new location in Petaling Jaya.

Seeing that the lease here in Centerpoint BU is up, my bosses have decided to move everyone to a new location. Now we all know moving is a big process. First you have to find a suitable location, taking into consideration the many factors involved, such as accessibility, ease of public transportation, food options, room availability to rent and car park areas.

After you find a new place, you have to sign the agreement, whatever paperworks that come along etc. Oh, all the above, should at least be done a few months prior to the due date of the lease and the actual moving date, just so you have buffer time to plan and make arrangements for whatever that comes along. Don't wait till the last minute, that's just bad planning.

Bosses decided to move into a bungalow house within the vicinity of Section 17. This is meant to be a temporary hideout first, as we're still in need of something with a bit more space really. So yea, the next 2 days will be spent packing and labeling stuff, so that when the movers come, they can just grab, load everything into the truck and transport them over to the new place.

Durian, The King of Fruits

Image taken from here.

Some say, if you don't eat the durian than you're not a true Malaysian. I find that statement very funny, and can't help agree with it somewhat LOL!

Most Malaysians love durians. I say most because I do know some people who utterly detest the fruit. To durian lovers, the whiff of the fruit is like an aromatic spice lingering in the air, enticing your senses and taste buds. Just the smell of it makes you drool and crave for it. To those that hate the fruit, the smell is like wet socks and rotten cheese rolled into one, irking your nostrils and inducing vomit.

You know it's durian season when you see roadside stall setting up and displaying the fruit in rows. The durian sellers, equipped with a knife and glove in one hand, will go around selecting the durian, sniff it and give it a shake to "hear" the seeds inside to determine the quality. It is said that if you can "hear" the seeds rocking about, it's a good durian.

Hubby and I enjoy eating this fruit. We don't consume much of it because this is a heaty fruit and OD-ing on it is just asking for a sore throat to happen. One time, we were on our way up north, and we made a quick stop at one of the many larger R&R along the North-South highway. We had no cravings for durian then. But the moment the car stopped and I opened my door.... WHOOSH! A strong whiff of durian just hit our faces, and the fruit wasn't even in sight yet!

Yes, the power of the durian. Just the smell is enough to attract you to it...! We ended up buying and eating one from the stall :P

There are many types of durian. D24, D2, D8, Raja Kunyit, Udang Merah and the Musang King are just some of the many types of durian available in Malaysia. Honestly, if you ask me, I wouldn't know how to differentiate them at all. My dad always tells me to go for kampung durians, and to avoid the D24s because this type is usually loaded with pesticides.

One time, hubby and I, together with a few friends, organized a food trip to Penang, and thedurian buffet was one of the highlights of the trip. Boy did we have a good tummy-filling time! Another time, a friend had recommended we buy durians from this particular mobile stall in SS2, he said they only sell the Musang King and the quality is very good. So hubby and I went there one fine day and bought 3 durians from them, possibly the most expensive fruit ever: 3 durians for RM100++ :P

Some interesting durian eating practices you would've heard of before...

1) After eating durians, take one of the empty shell, fill the concave part with drinking water, and drink the water. It is said to curb the heatiness the durian might bring to your body.

2) After eating durian, make a glass of warm salt water and drink, also to curb the heatiness.

3) Having trouble getting rid of the durian smell from your fingers? Place the durian shell under running water, and place your hands underneath the shell to wash your hands. The smell will be gone! Well, most of it anyway.

Energizer Night Race Malaysia 2011


The recent weekend was abuzz with news about the poorly organized Energizer Night Race, held at Sepang on Saturday, April 16th 2011. I got to know about the news through a friend via Twitter, and boy, talk about a brand being flushed down the drain.

Apparently the race was so badly organized that the participants took their anger to the Energizer Night race Facebook page. Wave after wave of comments poured into the wall, all full of anger and frustration. Energizer really got hit badly in this tsunami, the brand has seriously suffered a major whipping. All thanks to the event company which they had engaged to manage the race. Some of the complains I read from their FB page were about:

1) No clear indications to direct traffic/race route.
2) Having to pay an extra RM 10 for parking.
3) Participants were yelled at, and called hooligans.
4) Goodie bag line was disorganized and resulted in many not getting it.
5) Not enough headlamps for the night run.
6) Not enough water stations were provided.
7) No proper medical support was made available.
8) Many did not receive their finisher medals, certificates etc.
9) Participants had to squeeze through a narrow tunnel (now famousl dubbed the "Tunnel of Death").
10) Comments were being deleted.

What we're witnessing is a the power of social media. Within minutes, the flood gates had opened and a brand is being swept into the grave. I seriously hope the people at Energizer do some form of damage control, because as of now, things seem to only be getting worse. News of deleted comments is spreading like wild fire, and it's only going to rub more people the wrong way.

I don't know if the FB page is managed by Energizer themselves, or by the event company they had engaged to organize the run, but one thing for sure.... Because of this poorly organized event, the brand has suffered a tremendous blow.

The strength of your brand is what your consumers determine it to be. Now with such bad publicity (no thanks to your event company, Expose Media, for screwing up your brand after this event), it's best to think about ways to counter this problem soon. An apology is not going to buy any hearts at the moment I reckon. Energizer should even consider sueing the event company for tarnishing their reputation now.

It's quite sad to see how some event companies are out to scam the public. I've heard about runs that were marred with bad management. Kinda kills the spirit of having fun during a run. Now I'm hoping NTV7's "Feel Good Run" won't suffer the same fate as Energizer. A blessing for hubby and me too, as we had thought of participating in this Energizer run but decided not too cos we both thought the fee was rather high. Otherwise I'll be one of the 10,000 peeps ranting about it!

Tired Kitteh

Plonk!

Quest To Find The Pair
For the past month, I'm on a quest to find a new pair of contact lenses brand which would suit my eyeballs.

You see, when I first started wearing contact lenses, I had to try a few brands before finding one that I was comfortable with. I started out with Bausch & Lomb, which was OK. I also tried Freshkon but that pair didn't work out, because the moment I put it on, my eyes disagreed to it immediately. Then my optician gave me Cibavision's Focus Toric, and I was wearing it for a good 4 years+... before they decided to stop manufacturing it.

Bummer. So now I'm back to testing out a few trial lenses my optician gave me.

My first pair of trial lenses were from Biomedic. My optician asked me to try this pair first and see if my eyes were agreeable to it. Cost wise, it was almost the same as my previous Cibavision brand too. My first impression/feeling about Bimoedia lenses wasn't very encouraging, as I could "feel" the edges of the lenses from time to time. There was no pain, just the feeling of the lenses was a little bother. Plus I noticed if I moved my eye balls too fast, my eyes will take a while to refocus. And the worse part is, half way during the 3rd week of wearing Biomedics, one of the lenses tore during rinsing LOL! XP I've never experienced a torn lens before, not even when I was wearing Cibavision.

My second trial pair of contact lenses is from Acuvue Oasys. This product is said to contain HYDRACLEAR® Plus technology that creates a more wettable, ultra smooth contact lens especially for when your eyes need to be up to the challenge. My optician shared with me that this brand is highly recommended and I should give it a try, although the cost is also higher because it's a bi-weekly type of contact lenses. As I'm drafting this blog post, it's Day 1 on Acuvue Oasys, and I must say my eyeballs are feeling quite good :) Although I'm not sure if it's my astigmatism sometimes that's causing the bits of blurness once a while. I'll have to see how the lenses are by the end of its 2-week lifespan before commenting more on it.

I still have one more brand of trial lenses to try, which is from Biofinity. I did some research on it and according to my optician, both Acuvue Oasys and Biofinity is said to be the highest in terms of quality (not the mention cost). And if my eyes don't agree with both these brands, she'll be really lost for words LOL!

Here's hoping my quest to find a new pair of comfortable contact lenses will yield some results :D

Hiatus
Oli will be away for a few days. Taking some time off to chillax a bit with hubby and a few close friends. Kinda like an annual thing for the both of us :)

We'll be heading to this little hideout for a while~ I'll catch you guys when I get back to the real world. Till then, ta!

Breakouts

About a month ago, I decided to get myself a brand new foundation, as my previous one was finishing up and I thought of trying out a pretty well known brand in the market: Bodyshop. I don't usually cake my face with a lot of stuff, just a light foundation, a bit of concealer and I'll draw my eyebrows. That's pretty much it.

So I figured, Bodyshop should be ok. My main criteria for a foundation is, the formula must be light and oil free. So I got myself a foundation from Bodyshop one fine day and started using it. Things were pretty okay at first.

Then the breakouts started T.T Small pimples started to pop around my forehead and on my temples.

At first I couldn't exactly pinpoint the cause. Then I figured, my usual regime hasn't changed. The only new introduction was the foundation and new face wash. I decided to stop both and let my skin repair itself. I even made a yogurt and honey mask, and have been applying it everyday to help soothe the skin.

The moment I stopped the new products, there were no more new breakouts. Looks like I've identified the cause T.T Perhaps it's something in the product that's causing my sensitive skin to suffer the recent breakouts. Something which my previous foundation brand, has never given me. I'm sticking to Sothys for now, at least I know it won't give me pimples.

As for my skin, well, it's repairing, and the yogurt honey mask is helping to soothe it. There's still some light blemishes due to the breakouts, it's gonna take some time for it to fade :/