Pre-CNY Shopping

Received my first "angpow" at the start of my mega-CNY break!
Pardon the ugly orange patch. It's for blocking out my address XD

Aiyah what angpow lah, it's my Drugstore spree items lah, out of my own pocket. The parcel was so huge that I'm amazed that the postman managed to stuff it into the mailbox. And of course, credits to the spree organizer for being so thoughtful as to put the items in a ziploc bag first before putting it into the envelope.

What's inside?

2 of this. USD3.99 each. Stock up while the exchange rate is favourable!

My sis' derma e Pycnogenol Moisturizing Gel USD$26.99.

My sis' Aveeno Clear Complexion Daily Moisturizer USD$16.79.

Plus shipping, handling fee and postage, the mean exchange rate was 1.7427, which was the lowest for me all these years. A really good time to buy from US now!

Sotong's Out-of-Control Spending Spree 3

On the same day that we bought the uSqueeze, we also decided that we needed a new computer table.

My brother swiped $1143 at Ikea.

Still got credit left in my card or not?

Sotong's Out-of-Control Spending Spree 2

We decided we should get the uSqueeze for our mother. Called up the AMK Hub branch, but they were unable to give us the same price as offered by the Suntec roadshow. So lousy! So my father took my sister to Suntec to get it. She came back by cab as the huge box couldn't fit on the bike. Somehow, the delivery offered yesterday wasn't valid anymore :\

$648 down.

Sotong's Out-of-Control Spending Spree 1

CNY coming but no new clothes! Actually got lah, I bought 1 for my DnD, but worn before already mah, not counted! And I also have a $10 Ben & Jerry's voucher to spend. Last day already, as usual. In view of the expiring voucher, it's destination Suntec City. Then it would be ramen dinner at Gallery Hotel's Miharu and hop across the road to CornerStone for drinks using my sisters' free stored value card. And if time permits, CNY street market at Chinatown?

First stop was a budget lunch at the foodcourt. Char kuay teow, haven't had for a long time! But my brother asked for prawns instead of hum :\ The beef noodles I had last time seemed to be gone. What a pity, it was nice.

After lunch, we took the lift to level one. Right outside was a boutique Fond and the clothes caught our eyes. Price was affordable too, so in we went. Don't know why, but the sized there looked rather big. The S was like L. We decided on 2 tops. I couldn't resist getting a pair of earrings from there. Afterall, it has been like, 1yr+ since the last time I bought earrings! The hooks were of dubious material, but fear not, I still have plenty of Firemountain silver!
First stop only, and we have busted almost $100 :O

The lunch has already gone further down our GI tract, so it's time for a snack. We looked at where the Ben & Jerry's was supposed to be, and it has become some cafe selling soup! OMG! Closed down liao! It didn't make sense to go to Raffles City to spend a free voucher, so we forgo it. Sad.

Passed by an accessories shop. 20% discount for 2 items, 35% discount for 3 items and 50% discount for 4 items and above. The things are not cheap to start with, easily costing at least $15 for the simplest pair of earrings. I only found 2 pairs of earrings that I liked. My sister found a bear necklace. The sales assistant went through great lengths to convince us that by getting something like a camisole top, with the 50% discount, we would be paying the same sum for 4 items instead of 3. We were taken in and took a brooch and ended up paying almost $50. Only then we realized that the sales assistant meant it when he said "IF you buy a spaghetti top..."
No, I'm not going to show you the clothes and accessories I bought, lest you copy me!

Went to get our caffeine fix from the Starbucks outside Carrefour. Saw Chen Shucheng walk pass quickly. Nobody bothered him. Well-behaved Singaporeans.

Next, a spin in Carrefour since we wouldn't be anywhere near a supermarket after dinner. We stopped by OTO to take a look at the OTO Power Foot. Then we went down to the food level and saw this amazing $88 promotion for Lipton tea because it's in a metal tin.

Ok, we actually do know it's meant for the hamper.

Went to Guardian to buy my Avene Very High Protection Emulsion 50+SPF 50ml. There was a promotion pack with Thermal Water Spray 50ml, Cleanance soapless gel cleanser 25ml, all for $39.90. Considering that the sunblock itself cost about $33, it's quite a good deal.

Passed by The Face Shop. I just had to get a new bottle of nail polish since the last bottle I got 2yrs ago was drying up. Left the shop with a pink tint glitter, in the nick of time as my sister had no more fingers left to test.

Ok time for dinner. Passed by Suntec's gift counter. We could redeem angpow packet and paper bag for every $88 spent. There was no queue so we decided to get them. When we went to level 1, we saw the Osim roadshow and stopped to look at the uSqueeze. My sister tested it out while my brother and I waited for her by looking at the Singapore Mint roadshow. After she was done, we decided there was no point in going down to Miharu already ^_^;; So we went back up to OTO to compare the 2 leg massagers. Then back to Osim again. Must have given the sales assistants plenty of hope eh. Osim's sales assistant offered delivery to our home as she lived quite near us. If we bought OTO, we can have the Everyday credit card rebate. Hmm...

Dinner first. Sizzler as usual. Check it out! No queue on a Saturday evening! Wa recession really bad huh. Please don't order the lamb shank. There's not enough gravy and the meat is dry. By the time the meat was torn off the bone, all the gravy has been soaked up. Had to eat with tomato ketchup.

By the time we were done with dinner, we had decided to get the Osim uSqueeze. But it's 10pm, the roadshow 收档 already lor! Too bad, went shopping at Carrefour. Saw organic toilet roll going for $1+ per roll. Waaa siao lor, must wipe and fold, fold until very very small square then can throw!

When Carrefour made the closing announcement, we knew it's time to go home. No queue at the taxi stand! Got queue of cabs! And idle cabs circling the Fountain of Fortune like they need it! :O Took the Toyota Wish for the first time. A bit higher than usual, but the seats were comfortable. The 35% surchage was over by 8pm, but I forgot about the $3 CBD surcharge applicable till midnight :\ Painnnn....

So if we had gone to Miharu... :O

J&J Sale 2008

Finally, the long-awaited J&J sale! Time for a stock-take:

• 2 bottles of pH5.5 Body Wash
• 2 bottles of Baby Wash abandoned by my sister from 2yrs back
• 3 packets of panty-liners. Should have been 1 only, when I insisted a few mths ago that we surely had some left, but my sister was too lazy to look for them and went out to buy 2 more.

Have to restock panty-liners for sure. Heard they were going for $1 each!

How about the body wash? I think 4 bottles is about the max we can use in 1yr, but it could be just nice only wor... that baby one need to use a lot right? To be on the safe side, I decided to get 2 bottles.

And a Neutrogena Deep Cleanser for my brother.

Did the shopping list and passed to my father. O well, but things had to go wrong. Apparently, the red packet Carefree was going for $2 and the $1 was another type. So I saved only 10cents, not taking into account the space they take up. So much for a sale. My father could have called me... wrote the $1 so big there :\

I think it's probably the last time I am buying from this sale. When my office move out from there (think we probably will), it won't be worth going so far for this anymore.

Purchases and Freebies

New stuff for this month!

Drugstore
My favourite mask was running low, so had to restock from a Drugstore spree. Was damn lucky to come across a spree where the organizer was going to use drugstore dollars to offset shipping!

My sister bought Aveeno Lip Conditioner, USD3.69.


My Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque, USD3.79 each. It's so good and cheap that I foresee myself sticking to it for the next 1 year. Decided to buy 2 of it in one shot to save on postage.

Spree organizer placed the order on 16 July and my parcel landed on my desk on 19 August. 1 month's wait! But it's totally worth it man, because on top of the drugstore dollars, the spree organizer even had 12% UOB discount for Vpost shipping, and don't forget the low exchange rate! Therefore, the USD->SGD conversion rate for this spree is 1.807.

In conclusion,
Aveeno Lip Conditioner SGD6.67
Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque SGD6.85 each

Yay!

Beauty Credit
HSBC sent me a mailer to redeem a free Travel Pack from Beauty Credit. (Got other stuff that required spending lah, so forget them)

CoQ10 essence, keratin shampoo and conditioner, and brown rice mask.

I thought it would be travel-size facewash and stuff, so was quite disappointed. Haven't use yet.

Fr3b
Joined the online free sample site, Fr3b and redeemed my first sample, Eucerin Hyaluron Filler Eye.

Haven't used it yet!

Well, I was charged 80 cents for postage, but the stamp on the envelope read 50 cents, so they overcharged me. I noticed it's flat postage, so next time I should redeem more at one shot or get potentially heavier items.

Monistat

Monistat's Soothing Care Chafing Relief Powder-Gel, $10 secondhand.


This thing is actually meant for relieving and preventing chafing in the inner thigh and bikini area, but those American women found a wonderful alternative use for it - as a makeup primer. My nose gets oily real fast and nothing helped so far, so I got this to try.

Tried it on a normal day to work. (No, I don't wear makeup to work, I'm a lazy sotong) It did work, but my nose still shined. Still, a vast improvement from Care Pre-makeup cream from last year. So... thumbs up?

Time to Start Shopping!

Limited choices of overpriced earrings. Being ripped off by having to pay $2 PER HOOK (WTH!!!) for requesting to change the hooks to silver. A not-so-bad time when it's $1 per hook at SOC bazaar. Yes my ears have expensive taste, but I won't have anymore of this crap! Where can I buy cheap sterling silver hooks so I change them myself?

I came across a spree to buy jewellery components at Firemountain Gems.

The cheapest and simplest hook. USD1.49 for 5 pairs. If shipping isn't too ex, it would be worth it. *crosses fingers*

Browsed around and saw many interesting designs. Why not add more variety instead of hooks, hooks and hooks all the time?

Hinged earwire, USD1.60 per pair. Aiyoh so ex...

Hoop earwire, USD2.84 per pair. I dunno what I can hang on it, but for the sake of variety! Heartpain...

Decided against getting studs to save the trouble of working with glue.

$11.73 items + $1.44 shipping + $0.83 GST + $0.70 postpac + $0.50 postage = $15.20

Surprise #1: How come GST is 6.3%? How they count one? But since it's less than 7%, I'm fine with it heehee.

Surprise #2: Firemountain sealed the items very nicely in plastic packets. Must cut open one.

Surprise #3: After factoring the extra costs, my primary objective (the hooks) cost $0.61 per pair! Yay! But if anywhere is selling cheaper, I would like to know. And oh, fuck that pushcart in Bugis Junction for charging me $2 PER HOOK. Hope they have closed down already.

Should have asked not to use postpac. Don't think my items can get smashed since they are flat to start with. Unless they got twisted lah...

Can start expanding my collection now!

Sweets Review

Bought some candies from sprees recently. I dunno why, but each of the sprees were fraught with difficulties.

From USA, Tootsie Rolls and Brach's Root Beer Barrels.

From Japan, 王妃の白葡萄 (Ouhi No Shirobudo).

Tootsie Rolls
I originally order Tootsie Rolls Midgees during the period that I was super busy with work. So busy that I neglected to send the spree organizer my address, and this person also never remind me. Think I'm gonna treat you to candies? Wait long long! I emailed her about it and she took ages to reply me that my candies were no longer available (expected, I think they would have melted if she were so honest as to keep them for me) and she could either refund me or send me Tootsie Rolls in replacement. So I opted for the replacement.

So my sweets came via mail... the envelope broken. Apparently the postman tried to stuff it into my old-style mailbox, so hard that a wee bit of chocolate could be seen almost-oozing out of the wrapper. Got 20+ sweets for $3, inclusive of postage.

Review
Tootsie Rolls are chocolate flavored chewy candy, meaning I'm supposed to chew them, but they stick to my teeth, so I would rather suck. The chocolateness fell short of my expectations. Must put in the fridge or it will melt in my room.

Will I Buy Again?
No, I'm not that into chocolate-flavored candies anyway.

Brach's Root Beer Barrels
First, the supplier the spree organizer ordered from forgot her order. When he was reminded of it and sent out the candies, they got sent back to New Jersey because her address was written wrongly. It would cost USD73.50 to ship back. WTF!! But after investigation, it was found that the supplier was at fault phew~ They finally arrived, like more than 1 month later.

10 sweets*$0.20 + postage $0.50 + handling fees $0.20 + bubble-wrapping $0.30 = $3

Review
Brach's Root Beer Barrels are made with real concentrate from A&W Root Beer, to give you great old-fashioned root beer taste. It's a hard candy, melt-resistant. Yeah I taste the root beer, but it's a bit like Sarsi (which I don't like) minus the fizz.

Will I Buy Again?
No. Real root beer is cheaper.

王妃の白葡萄
Spree organizer emailed on 28 Aug (Tue) that the candies have arrived and said to give her till Friday (31 Aug) to mail out. But by 9 Sep, there was no word on whether she has actually done the mailing and nothing has arrived. I emailed her about it.

The very next day, I had a bulky package note on my table. Must be it already! It's my last outstanding spree. The postman had given up on stuffing it into my mailbox and no one answered the door when he went up to my house. Either my mum was out, or she couldn't hear the door (sometimes they "shout" like ants) or my sister was still sleeping (I won't be surprised). Anyway, I didn't want to risk the above 3 scenarios from happening again if I requested a resend, so I told my sister to collect from the post office.

Review
The brand is Kasugai, never heard of till now. Made from a mixture of chardonnay flavor and concentrated juice of highly prized white grapes. This is one special candy man! Upon opening the package, I could smell the wine-like aroma. This hard candy is actually FIZZY (funny that this is fizzy while those root beer candy makers cannot do the same). The strong flavor and fizz lasts from the outside right to the centre, where there's jelly. Chew on it! I love sweets with centres! It has 106g of vitamin C, but I don't care about this.

I left it on my table for everybody. My sister said my mum took one and later returned to grab a handful. Does she know it costs $0.38 per pcs -_-;;

$6.90 + postage $0.70 = $7.60. 20pcs in each packet.

Will I Buy Again?
YESSS! But not from sprees if I can. I think the organizer ripped me off. I googled a few websites and if I did not misunderstand the Japanese, each packet costs 180yen, which is approximately $2.40. The price disparity is so great! $4.50 for shipping? Yeah afterall, the organizer stated that the candy price is inclusive of shipping. But if shipping will not jack up the cost by 87%, I would like to import it myself. Is anybody going to Japan or has somebody in Japan?

Edit: The back of the package

You Know 20070616 is Auspicious

... when you get invited for 2 wedding dinners on the same day. When I knew that J&F and D&S were having their ADs in June, I thought it wouldn't be such a coincidence, so I agreed to go when D asked me. It's a good chance to meet some university friends that I haven't seen since I graduated mah. Honestly, I prefer J&F's as the crowd would be more fun, my sister might get to meet her idol and I have more confidence in Tung Lok 金玉满堂's food vs Hotel Rendezvous (although I have eaten neither before). But promised already, dun upset people's plans lah :| Pakat with W and M to give $80. Cannot appear giam siap or too generous.

I was blur enough to keep thinking 16th is a Sunday, until Friday night.

Got home from work at 1.30pm. Got my sister to help dye my hair coral pink, which was a disaster throughout. The dye kept flowing down my neck (think she put so much that being non-drip didn't help) and the color didn't come out well. Well because I had some regrowth and I chose to be lazy and ignored the instruction set for regrowth, so the color came out uneven. But even the regrowth looked undyed! The conclusion is that coral pink only looks good on the box.

Tried my new cheap items:

• CARE Pre-makeup cream $3. Sure felt very smooth after applying. Actually I just don't want to look like oily kuali. It better work.
• e.l.f. Brightening Eye Color, Silver Lining $3.03. Got a damn lot of color with 1 swipe. Will it stay? Only time will tell.
• e.l.f. All Over Color Stick, Persimmon $3.03. EEKS! Why is it so silvery?? Supposed to be dark orange-red I thought? Cannot use as lipstick lah. Used as a highlighter instead.
• Blusher from Daiso $2. Also very pigmented. Looked too wayang at first try and had to mute with foundation. This is so much better than that lousy $12 Maybelline one which you can spend a lifetime swiping and nothing shows.
• Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm $6.03. Actually, I hate lipstick. Confirm will drop off since I eat so chorlor-ly. Just put something to prevent my lipskin from peeling then.

First stop was 金玉满堂 to wish J. 6.45pm and she hasn't dressed yet. F was having his hair styled strand by strand. Took a photo with her, passed her a token angpow (why am I so nice?) and left. My sister didn't get to see her idol. Ran into the guys attending her dinner as I was leaving.

Next was Hotel Rendezvous. It's so near, yet so far! So much traffic and traffic lights that it was almost 7.30pm when I reached. But as usual, banquets never start on time. I think it was 8-something when we went in. Dropped my $80 angpow into a donation box lookalike. Didn't know it's like that now. Like quite impersonal.

Sharing the table was poopee, bug, WL, KT and wife. M flew plane because he had a stomachache. Xuelanghu got event. Razor... dunno why. Not sure if there's a 10th person.

It was the usual proceedings, usual food. Most of the time, my table was served relatively later than those around. I think it's my aura. W left before taking the I-was-here photo :(

The sharksfin was noteworthy for a generous amount of crab and dried scallop shreds and long sharksfin fibre than the previous few I had. And of course the 2nd helping since there were only 6 at the table :P

I didn't have the prawns because I didn't want to dirty my hands. It's delicious, according to the rest :(

Had 1 slice of roast chicken with sour plum sauce. Juicy meat, crispy skin, but slices that are ready to pop into the mouth are rare.

They turned off the light to screen the AD video while we were having the steamed fish -_-;; The funniest was the poor little boy commissioned to open the car door for D. He looked extremely pale, half-closing eyes and dark eye rings!

Sliced ab·a·lo·ne with spinach! Mmm~~

闷香菇. Not good, the mushrooms are tasteless inside. Must be didn't 闷 long enough.

生面. Worst. Tasteless gravy and squid. But it has peeled prawns!

Or-nee. Yummy! But it's very rich, so I could only have 1 helping. I would love to take the rest home but I didn't bring plastic bag.

Bug and poopee are big eaters! Thanks to them, we did not throw away 60% of the food. (4 people not here, W left early and I didn't really eat)

I didn't touch the booze. Wedding booze confirm taste bad. KT's wife was slightly sick towards the end. Did she have too much too fast, or it's really... bad? I acted cultured by drinking chinese tea.

People were gone in a blink after they finished their dessert. So 现实. Stupid sky was pouring. It was this time that I discovered that none of us at the table has a driving license *gasp*; KT paid $90 at Mac with his army friends and didn't get a cent back *OMG*

O yes, D's wife is very pretty, for that night at least.

The lousy cream isn't up to my expectations. Eyeshadow partly dissolved, but still visible. Worth the $3.

The gift that we took a good while to figure out the use. It's a salt and pepper shaker.


BooOooO~~ I've killed the red shaker!