Valen’s Vanity Square

I don’t know if I should feel embarrassed or what… I’m married for 8 years and still receiving red packets (with money inside) during CNY.

According to the Chinese custom, once you got married, you would not be getting red packets anymore, instead you’re the one who has to give away red packets to those younger than you and still single. Somehow, some uncles and aunties are still giving us red packets. And as they handed us the red packet, they would go like this, “Hope I will be giving red packet to your BABY next year, not you.”

*Roll my eyes* Yeah, if I could make baby in just a snap, I would make a dozens and collect many, many, many red packets from all of you!

Anyway, so I have got a number of red packets sitting on my table. Haven’t calculated how much cash in total. I don’t expect it to be a lot, just hope its enough for me to buy a book to teach me how to make a baby? *Eyes rolling again*

Sometimes I buy books online because certain book titles are not available in the local bookstores. If you’ve always been a fan of getting Amazon books, actually there’s another place to get books online too, that is at www.buy.com. The discounts and deals look attractive, and the price tags seem to be cheaper than what I see at my local bookstores. But because of the shipping fees, I’ve never bought from Amazon or Buy.com.

Oh well, I will just visit a physical bookstore one of these days, and enjoy a cup of coffee while browsing through the books…

Have you heard of this bar soap called Eumora? Anyone used it before or is using it now?

When I was visiting relatives with hubby during this CNY, my mother-in-law’s cousin brother (let’s call him cousin uncle) gave me a piece of Eumora bar soap. It’s really a small piece of soap,  smaller than my palm. The soap is retailing at RM95 (about 30USD), that’s what he told us.

So what’s so special about this soap and why is it so expensive?? Cousin uncle told us that it’s good for the skin, specially formulated with some natural ingredients, suitable for all kinds of skin, especially beneficial for acne prone skin. It seems that people with blemish problems or uneven skin tone had improved complexion after using Eumora soap. And you won’t have to spend money on other skin care items anymore since it serves as cleanser, toner and moisturizer (3 in 1?); a piece of RM95 bar soap is all you need. Really? Is that possible??

So I started to use the soap. But then, I don’t know if it’s the soap, or me allergic to some foods that I ate during the CNY period, or me scratching my face with dirty hands, I noticed that my face was itchy here and there for a few days. A couple of pimples popped out.

Cousin uncle actually mentioned that some people may experience a so-called ‘healing crisis’, meaning the skin may show some reactions or acne may get worse the first few days using the soap. This is because the active natural ingredients in the soap is in the process of kicking out the toxins from your skin, and it will manifest as all sorts of undesirable skin symptoms. One should continue using the soap and soon will notice the apparent improvement in the skin.

Even though I knew about this before I started using the soap, I didn’t continue because I was really irritated with my itchy face with patches of red. It’s CNY and I didn’t want to look ugly!

So, if anyone has used this soap before, please tell me whether it’s as good as it’s claimed to be. If it’s not, then I shall just use it to wash my hands.

Finally, managed to get tickets for the “Valentine’s Day” movie. It’s such a sweet and warm movie. Not that kind of lovey-dovey movie, but it does convey a bit about the true meaning of love.

Not sure if Valentine’s Day is such a huge day in LA, but from what was shown in the movie, it seemed that one had to queue up in a long line in order to buy flowers on that day. Reminds me of how we queued up to buy barbecued dried meat for CNY…

Ooooh, and the body of the actors in the movie… 6-packed abs, toned biceps… I think hubby must be thinking “how am I going to achieve that kind of body? I want that body too!” while watching the movie, haha!

Sometimes it really makes me wonder how the actors got so shaped up, is it truly through workout regimes or by taking muscle supplement? Or both?

It’s not easy to maintain a great body, even if you can achieve it at the first place. Perhaps those are the things we don’t know about - actors and actresses have their own sacrifices in order to be in their best shape and look…

So, may be it’s better to just be an ordinary person?

It’s the 5th day of CNY, and it’s a quiet one. Was hanging around at home, watching the newly installed ASTRO channels, hehe.

We signed up for ASTRO, just the basic channels in the family package, through the internet few days before CNY, and the installer came and install the system for us on the third day of CNY! Fast!

Normally Chinese don’t like to drill or bang at home during CNY, but we couldn’t stand watching blur TV screens any longer (coz we didn’t have an aerial installed), haha!

And while watching TV, I was munching away on cookies and candies from bottles placed on the coffee table. Imagine all the sugars running in my body now…And tonight, we’ll be having dinner with both our parents.

This means that, I’ll have to workout on the elliptical machine for at least 20 minutes after this. Burn off some calories first before I take in more tonight, haha! I don’t intend to resort to weight loss products like slimquick or QuickTrim to get rid of fat, so I have to work the difficult way.

Hubby keeps nagging on me to take a driving refresh course, so that I can drive and go any where I like. Yeah, right. You mean, send you to work using your company car, then go shopping using your company car, go pick up the dry-cleaned clothes using your company car…

It’s his company car, not HIS car. I don’t want to drive in his company car (a Proton Perdana). It’s huge, it’s heavy, and I’m not the ‘authorized’ person to drive it. I don’t want to be blamed for any damage done to his company car.

If you want me to become your driver, first get me a car. Haha! I will then get for myself a cheap auto insurance before I start driving it on the road.

But it will take a lot of courage for me to drive on the highways! These days drivers are so reckless on the road, slow lanes becomes fast lanes, and cars take over from the left not the right… It’s really dangerous to go out on the road actually, especially for a new driver, like me.

Wanted to watch the movie ‘Valentine’s Day’ after lunch, but tickets were sold out. In fact, almost all movies at all hours were fully booked!

Well, firstly today’s Wednesday, the movie tickets are 30% cheaper. Secondly, many Chinese have yet to return to work, like hubby. So the best thing to spend time is to watch movie. But it’s difficult to get tickets on the spot during holidays, you usually have to call earlier to reserve tickets or make a booking online.

Okay, no movie for us, so we thought we could get a cup of free coffee at Secret Recipe cafe. They are having a promotion of buy one piece of cake and get a cup of coffee or tea for free. We didn’t manage to have that either, coz the promotion is only available from 3pm to 6 pm. It was only 2.30 pm then, so we decided not to wait. Save money, and save myself from gulping in extra calories, haha! (Otherwise, I won’t be writing this post but looking for weight loss help on the website www.quickweightloss.org now.)

But it’s okay. I bought a CD of Kay Tze, I will entertain myself learning new songs later. Planning to go karaoke-ing this weekend. But this time I’ll make to call and make a reservation first!