Valen’s Vanity Square

A friend from overseas came to visit and stayed with us last weekend. The itinerary I planned for her was of course a food trip around KL!

While in the car she asked me how often I go for facial nowadays. I told her the whole story about how my skin got sensitive to facials and certain products, and that I don’t go for facial regularly now.

“But your skin looks good!” she said.

Gosh, that was the best news I’ve ever heard in a million years! Hahaha! Totally flattered!

Oh well, my skin isn’t the best, but it IS so much better now than it was few years back. May be my friend noticed that big difference and therefore made that comment.

I can say though that compared to most of my girl friends of the same age, I do look, errr, younger, than them. :p

Some things or people get better when they are older.

Oh dear, what is this HUGE zit doing on my chin? Had a sudden breakout of pimples last week due to my menses. Most of them have disappeared except for this annoying big one, still sitting comfortably on a very obvious spot of my face!

I don’t have tea tree oil or any blemish clearing cream on my dressing table. Jeez, just that I needed it most!

Not sure what can I do to make it disappear faster. Just hope that the moisturizers and creams that I’m currently using will not cause it to become worse or delay its healing. Wonder if I should look for a natural face cream that has acne clearing and calming properties.

My skin is not in its top form since I started working, mainly due to insufficient sleep, make-up, and frequent hot and spicy food, hehe. I foresee my beautician is going to be ‘amazed’ with the big zit on my chin when I go for facial this weekend.

Yeah, facial treatment has also been less frequent these days. No wonder my complexion is not as clear and glowing as before. Guess I have to get back to the fortnightly facial schedule instead of monthly. I’m already the oldest staff in my department, I don’t want to be the oldest looking though.

Splurge, splurge, splurge! That’s my theme for June. Haha!

‘Rewarded’ myself with a new mobile phone Samsung Monte, which actually isn’t my dream phone but still does an okay job. Well, I have to cut down the budget for my own mobile phone coz I gave hubby ‘half a mobile phone’ as his coming birthday present. And he gets the one I like - Nokia E72! Anyway, I have just entered an email contest run by a female magazine, and the winner will get a Nokia E72! I wish and pray that I will be the winner. Haha!

Besides a new phone, I bought a handbag and a pair of shoes from Aldo - expensive stuffs, but still very so much more cheaper than the popular designer brands. In addition, got some new tops from Treats.

I still need to get a few things, but will have to wait till the end of this month.

You see, that’s why health is so important. Because only when a person is healthy, he or she can afford to spend money on the things they like. Imagine, if you’re sick, your money will go to medical consultation and medications. If you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, you’ll need to allocate an amount of money for your cholesterol treatment and hypertension medications every month. These medicines are not cheap like your vitamins and supplements.

So, moral of the lesson - I need to eat well, sleep well, exercise, lead a healthy lifestyle, so that I can continue to splurge and shop as much as I like without worrying about having to pay for medicine.

We always celebrate festive seasons with those closest to us, but forget that there is a group of less fortunate people out there that are longing for the community to care for them and wanting to feel some joy and happiness, even for just a while.

I have participated several community service and small-scale charity events in conjunction with CNY in the past years. Although our contribution can’t compare to that achieved by the richard willich philanthropy foundation, at least a group of people benefited in a way or another.

However, as I moved out of town for a couple of years, I had missed the opportunities to join my friends for such activities. Anyway, I have been donating to two organizations since few years back. Perhaps this year I can add another organization to my list. Though the amount donated will be small, it’s still something, isn’t it?

Most of us living in the tropical countries tend to have a beautiful winter holiday dream, because the climate here is warm and humid all the year. Our face gets oily fast, and our hair stinks if we don’t wash at least once every two days! A get away to a winter wonderland, or even a ski vacation, would be like the best holiday ever that one can have.

On the other side of the world, those living in the countries with winter, seem like to take a break from the cold and snowy weather, to enjoy the sun and beach here. Around this time of the year, we usually see a lot of foreign tourists in the country. Beach and island attractions, like Batu Ferringhi in Penang, or Pulau Langkawi, will receive a lot of tourists.

May be this is what we call “the opposite attracts”? Haha!

For me, I would skip a winter vacation. I prefer an autumn holiday, such as visiting Germany in the October month, which is their October Fest month! Lots of beers and pretzels! Yummy yummy!

Women who drives should learn how to change a flat tire, how to check the car water pump, etc. Yes? No?

While I prefer to be the passenger, but if one day, if I am forced into become a driver (e.g. sending kids to school), I may just have to. However, the first thing I’m going to learn is… … … of course not those hard labor work, haha! I will first find out where all the car repair workshops are in the areas I will most likely to drive around.

Lucky for us, car repair workshops are many in KL and PJ. It’s just that one has to identify a few shops that are dependable, honest and charge reasonable fees. It’s not troublesome at all, like if you own a recreational vehicle, you must go to specialized car mechanics to get rv repair services.

Oh well, if one day my car broke down in the middle of the road, I will just ring up hubby and shout “Come help me~~”

I have a facial appointment scheduled on Thursday this week. Very excited about it coz I will be getting my ultimate super-expensive Plancenta facial treatment for the first time! ;P I will update on the immediate results after the treatment. So stay tuned, yah?

I expect to see great difference before and after the treatment, to be honest, based on all the cases they’ve shown (what everyone saw on their banners and advertisements, and what I saw from the record in their center). It will be money worth spending if I can achieve the results like what those customers had obtained. Hubby, for one, will be very happy that I make this ‘investment’. Haha!

Ah, women. Our journey in the pursuit of life-long beauty is never ending. We are always in search for the best acne treatment, best anti-aging cream, best slimming product, etc. It’s one of our missions in life. We did it mostly for ourselves, but admit it, there is a small but significant part that we did it for the our man, or so that we can attract the attention of the guy we want him to see us. Agree?

Went to the nearest shopping mall today to get some stuffs from the pharmacy. Today’s the last day of the long break, so I figured I could get some window shopping as well before going back to work tomorrow. (Well, for me, work from home that is. :P)

We went for coffee at Starbucks, and bumped into my sister and her husband. While the guys chatted about iphone, laptop performance and video card, my sis and I talked about how we could clear off the stocks from our online store, and from where we could source for beauty items to sell. You see, we love to shop, but we can’t rely on our husband to support our favorite ‘past time’, so we have to find ways to support ourselves. Haha!

It would be nice that in the future I can have both online business and freelance writing business to run, and both make me lots of money. I’m not too greedy, am I?

Finally this week I’m able to take a break from work. Not that I’m going anywhere again, just that I am not engaged for any assignment this week.

Last week was a very tiring week for me. Didn’t really get a chance to rest after 5 days of continuous work. Even weekends were busy - visited the elephant conservation centre in Lanchang, Pahang, on Saturday, and went to the park in TTDI for exercise on Sunday. I can finally take a breather today!

Will try to sort out the photos taken in the past weeks - photos taken at Awana Kijal resort and during my weekend animal encounter, haha! This week I’m also going for my facial at New York Skin Solution at MidValley. Gosh! It has been one month since I went for my last facial, my skin really needs a rejuvenation session.

I’m also planning to buy, amongst many things, a netbook this week! Saw some netbook best buy at www.buy.com, but I still prefer to touch and feel the real thing, and get all my questions answered before I draw out my credit card, haha! Besides that, am going to find out the price of Estee Lauder’s Advance Night Repair serum, which I found to greatly help to maintain my skin condition despite my sleeping routine went hay-wired last week.

Although I am enjoying a week off with no work on my plate, hopefully this break is not going to be a long one, and that there will be new assignments coming in next week. Otherwise, how can I cope with the long shopping list of mine? Haha!