Barcelona!

DC and I watched Woody Allen's newest movie "Vicky Christina Barcelona" yesterday and we both fell in love with the Spanish city. Barcelona seems like a perfect, charming and romantic place for vacation. We were totally intrigued by the beautiful architecture by Gaudi, his unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Família and the Casa Milà. I'm also enticed by the Spanish guitar and the opening song (though I only understand the word "Barcelona" in the song, it was quite impressionable and nice).

In the movie, the two beautiful American ladies were brought to Oviedo, another city in northen Spain. That's the hometown of the two time F1 World champion and winner of the first Singapore F1 night race! I would love to visit the place one day. :)

Though I was appalled by the role of "Elena Maria", I applauded Penelope Cruz for making the character alive. It wasn't easy acting a irrational, insane woman and she did it real well. And... Javier Bardem (also acted in the film "No Country for Old Men") is so good-looking, no wonder so many women fall for him in the movie. It was definitely a nice show to watch!

Rating: M18
Consumer Advice: Mature Theme
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Language: English and Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Javier Bardem,Patricia Clarkson, Penelope Cruz
Runtime: 96mins

Just as New York City was the backdrop in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”, the stunning city of Barcelona in the setting for the romantic adventures of Vicky and Cristina. These two young Americans spend a summer in Spain and meet a flamboyant artist (Javier Bardem) and his beautiful but insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is straight-laced and about to be married. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is a sexually adventurous free spirit. When they all become amorously entangled, the results can only be described as chaotic. Barcelona is seen as a very beautiful, romantic city like New York was in the movie, MANHATTAN.

We watched the F1 Grand Prix live ... on TV

An exciting F1 Grand Prix in Singapore. We made sure we watch it live, on TV that's it.

And so we glued our eye to the TV box, with red wine, caviar and cheese. It's a truly exciting race. Fernando Alonso is now leading, after starting at the back of the pack. He adopted an unusual strategy, using less fuel during the start, which makes for a lighter car body. Then he got his break when the safety car came onto the track.

Massa is heartbreaking, after pitting when the safety car is on the track and then speeding off with the fuel hose still attached to the race car! He's now picking up the dust at the back ...

This is the first time we tuned in to F1 Grand Prix. A few things we learnt:

Pit stop when the safety car is on the track - 10 sec penalty
The qualifying rounds determined the driver's starting position. Pole position is coveted by all teams.

So now, back to the race, with 11 laps to go!


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F1 Jargons to chew on

Here's some F1 Jargons for you to chew on...

Practice Sessions


Practice sessions usually take place on Fridays and Saturdays and allow the drivers to get a feel for the track and racing conditions but they also crucially permit both the drivers and constructors to test out the two cars they are allowed per team. It is during these practice sessions that vital last minute adjustments are made to the car, and these adjustments can make the difference between a place on the podium and at a place outside the points.

During practice, the drivers are out on the track fine-tuning all the necessary components of their set-up in preparation for qualfiying and the race on Sunday.

Formation Lap


The formation lap is the lap before the start of the race when the cars drive from their qualifying places on the grid in order to form up on the grid again for the start of the actual race.

Paddles


Levers are located on either side of the back of a steering wheel, and drivers can change gear by pushing them up or down.

G-force


Although it sounds very scientific, a G-force is simply a physical force equivalent to one unit of gravity that is multiplied during rapid changes of direction or velocity.

Drivers experience G-forces as they corner, accelerate and brake.

Paddock


A paddock is a private and enclosed area for each team, where they will keep their car transporters and motor homes.

Pit


A pit is an area of track which is separated from the main track by a wall.

Cars are brought into the pits for new tyres and to refuel during the race. The pits can also serve to implement any set-up changes during practice, as each driver can stop at their respective pit garages, until they are given further information.


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The F1 night race flags off

When we came out of the department meeting, we saw this F1 flag on our table. In an instant, everyone sticks their flags out... It felt so like National Day, don't you think? :)




The Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix kicks off tonight!

DC and CP have decided that we will be watching the 'live' telecast of the world's first street night race at the comfort of our home. :D



We missed tonight's practice session though as we were out meeting DC's friend at Dome Bishan and viewing his Europe tour photos. We'll definitely try to catch tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's night race!


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The Power of Messaging

Did you receive the sms below on the recent china milk scare today?

The following items have been recalled due 2 china's milk situation. This is real. M&M's, snickers, mento's yogurt bottle, dov choc, oreo wafer sticks, monmilk, dutchlady sterilised milk, wall's all natural mango, mini poppers ice-cream, magnum ice-cream, moo sandwich ice-cream, mini cornetto n youcan ice cream. We've been asked by AVA 2 remove them from our stores(robinsons). If u have any of these items in yr hse, don't eat them.

A fast check during lunch and all of us colleagues on the table had received the sms. That's the power of technology!

In actual fact, only 3 items up to date has been confirmed by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority(AVA) to have contain the melamine, a chemical normally used to make plastics, added to make the products seem richer in proteins. They are:
1) Yili Brand Choice Dairy Fruit Bar Yogurt Flavoured Ice Confection,
2) Dutch Lady Brand of strawberry flavoured milk (We drink this brand of milk!!), and
3) White Rabbit Creamy Candy (Quite sad about this as I like this candy since young!)

All the affected products have been recalled earlier and since Sept 19, 2008, AVA has suspended the import and sale of all milk and milk products from China.

Although it was said that the tainted products have to be consumed over a prolonged period of time before one gets really sick as the body of an adult can safely take in and purge some amount of melamine (the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) of melamine as established by the US Food and Drug Administration is 0.63 mg/kg body weight.), now with AVA widening checks to include products made in other countries but may contain China milk-based ingredients, who dares to drink milk now when health is at stake? don't want to have kidney stones...

Will the consumers lose the confidence in this brand? I guess the Chinese will have to work doubly hard to woo them back...

Over the years, we've seen too many of similar occurrences from China and lately even Japan (yes, Japan!?!).

Mar 2007 - Poisoned Pet Food from China where a rat poison called aminopterin was found in United States
Jun 2007 - Toothpaste with prensence of discovered formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax
Jul 2007 - Buns made from cardboards from China
Aug 2007 - Famous Japanese cookies Shiroi Koibito recalled due to falsified expiry dates, hence contaminated either with coliform bacteria in excess of the food sanitation standard or staphylococcus aureus
Jan 2008 - Chinese dumplings with traces of methamidophos, an organic phosphorus insecticide detected in Japan
Mar 2008 - A rat head was found in China-made Shrimp Cracker in South Korea
Sep 2008 - Milk and milk products tainted with melamine from China
Sep 2008 - Rice contaminated with two times the permitted level of toxic pesticide methamidophos from Japan


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Hooked on 鹿鼎记

This is one of the TV drama serials that we would never miss every weekend. The story is ever so fascinating. I remembered watching many years back about the HK-made serial starred by Tony Cheung and Andy Lau. This one made in China is not bad either.

This drama got me interested to know what's the different between the oringal story and TV version. I borrowed home the 金庸 novels from father-in-law! Hehe, I will be busy reading the novels in the weeks (maybe months?) to come! :D


Royal Tramp (Shown every weekends on Channel U, 7:30pm - 9:30pm)


跟据金庸的同名武侠名著拍摄的这出电视连续剧， 主要是讲述韦小宝怎么成为假太监，并与康熙皇帝结为好友，以及后来如何加入天地会，以反抗满清的统治。

Adapted from a famous gongfu novel, this drama serial tells the fascinating story about Wei Xiaobao, a young punk who bumbles his way into the imperial court and becomes Emperor Kangxi’s confidant. But he later joins the Heaven & Earth Society to rebel against the Qing rule.


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On cloud nine

I'm on cloud nine now! :D

DC gave me the most unexpected surprise yesterday! It was a pleasant present - one that I wanted very much. :) He kept dropping me hints that he has gotten it for me but I chose not to believe him. I was very sure that he has not bought it yet, at least this was what I thought...

He hid it under my pillow. When I discovered it, I couldn't hide my excitement and joy. He was quite shocked at my reaction (I over-reacted a little) but was definitely glad that I found it eventually and not gone to sleep without noticing!

I later found out that he got it when he was on leave on 18 Sep

To DC: Thanks a zillion for the wonderful gift, I'll cherish it!




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Are you gearing up for and/or counting down to the first F1 night race that is going to be held in Singapore from 26 to 28 Sep 08?

The 2008 FORMULA 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix race is not just F1's first street race in Asia, but is also the first-ever night event in F1 history! Alongside Turkey and Brazil, Singapore is one of only three anti-clockwise tracks. Are you going to be a part of the 80,000 spectators?

The Street Race Circuit:


The company organised a virtual simulation car race and the best "racer" gets to watch the actual race. Out of the top 5 contestants, 3 were from my department! :) Today was the final virtual showdown and we went to support. Actually we signed up for the free lunch but when we were down, the lunch were all taken... It was obvious that people who didn't sign up help themselves to the food! :( We had to go to the nearby Food Court to find food. We were back in time to see who our winner was - a black horse from our department! After the award (ticket) giving, the organisers took a lot of pictures of him! He must have felt like a real speed racer. :) There were a SLR around, YY brought it here. I, along with 2 of my female colleagues also joined in the fun and took some pictures with him. We the Grid girls, ha!



I passed by BreadTalk the other day and saw that the shop too was geared up with these race-themed breads. Cute! I wonder how they taste?



If you have not felt the heat yet, here's a preview of the race course (night view) to get you warm up! :)




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My first handmade meal for DC turned out to be ...

... A Failure!

It's just so embarassing to mention this here. DC helped out in every dishes and I couldn't claim any credit at all...



I wanted to prepare a meal for him since last week but we only had the time yesterday to do it.

It's with both pressure and pleasure having him around. Pressure because the way he supervised my work made me nervous. I only want to serve the finished product but not show him the process... Sad to say, his presence did make a difference. There would be no proper dinner if not for him! :P

What we had for dinner:
1) Oven baked Japanese Crispy Chicken - DC's 拿手菜, he did it umpteen times. Nice! I think that's the most perfect no-mistake dish tonight :)

2) Microwaved Honey Wings - I bought it because it was easy to prepare... DC helped me boil it, I put the thawed wings to oven. That's easy job, but I don't really like the taste of the marinated wings though DC found nothing wrong with them.

3) Fried Cai Xin - We had to remove quite a lot of yellowed leaves before cooking... DC took over the cooking when he saw me struggling with the charred garlic. :( But he did a good job stir frying the veg! :)

4) Extra Smooth Silken Tofu - The two packs were gone case. I had ignorantly put them in the freezer and we couldn't revive them by putting them in boiling water... Had to throw them away (so wasteful!). In the process of cutting open to check if they could be used, the water splashed all over my head! Messy loh! DC had a good laugh at it when I told him about this...

5) Rice - I did it not quite right the first time, as a result, when the cooker read "cooked", the rice was still watery. DC had to restart the program to cook it again. :( What? Our dishes were ready but we had to re-cook the rice! Imagine how disappointed (and hungry) I was... :(

6) Apples - My favorite fruit. We had to bite into these to fill our stomach first before the re-cooked rice was ready...

I must have been too confident of my cooking skills to have made those blunders... Hehe, the next attempt will be better!


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What is Vitamin E for?

Just the other day, my bro asked me whether I know what Vitamin E is for and where can this vitamin be found...

He had me stumbled. I knew about A, C and D... but couldn't remember anything about E! How could the family advocate of health not know about this? Hmm... I immediately searched Wiki and gave him a quick answer. Later, I did a more detailed search and compiled the list below from the netdoctor...

More information can be found from:
The Harvard School of Public Health
The Singapore Health Promotion Board

Vitamins

Vitamin A (retinol) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Eyesight, growth, appetite and taste.	Night-blindness.	800 micrograms	Liver, fish-liver oil, carrots, green leafy vegetables, egg yolks, enriched margarine, milk products, yellow fruits.	This vitamin is fat-soluble and so is stored in the body for a long time, especially in pregnancy. An overdose may be dangerous.	Fatty acids.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Nervous system, digestion, muscles, heart, alcohol-damaged nerve tissues.	Tingling in fingers and toes, confusion, difficulties in maintaining balance, loss of appetite, exhaustion, weakened powers of concentration.	1.4mg	Liver, yeast, rice, wholemeal products, peanuts, pork, milk.	No danger. It dissolves in water, so any excess is passed in urine.	High temperatures, alcohol and coffee.

Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Growth, skin, nails, hair, sensitive lips and tongue, eyesight, the breakdown of protein, fat and carbohydrate	Itchy irritated eyes, itchy mucous membranes (nose/mouth/throat), itchy lips and skin.	1.6mg	Milk, liver, yeast, cheese, green leafy vegetables, fish.	No danger. It dissolves in water, so any excess is passed in urine.	Alcohol and light (this is why milk-cartons are better than bottles).

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Preventing skin conditions, nerve problems, helps the body absorb protein and carbohydrate.	Skin inflammation	2mg - women taking the contraceptive pill may need more.	Fish, bananas, chicken, pork, wholegrains, dried beans.	May cause nerve problems in large doses. Evidence is conflicting about the maximum safe dose, so get medical advice before exceeding the RDA.	The contraceptive pill, roasted or boiled food, alcohol and oestrogen (the female hormone).

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Making red blood and the formation of the nerves.	Tiredness, breathing difficulties, dizziness, abnormalities in nerve tissue function.	1 microgram	Fish, liver, beef, pork, milk, cheese.	No danger. It dissolves in water, so any excess is passed in urine.	Water, sunlight, alcohol, oestrogen and sleeping pills

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Immune defence system, protection from viruses and bacteria, healing wounds, reducing cholesterol, cell lifespan, preventing scurvy. It's also a natural laxative.	Tiredness, bleeding gums, slow-healing wounds.	60mg	Citrus fruits, kiwi fruit, berries, tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes, green leafy vegetables, peppers.	Large doses can cause diarrhoea and nausea. Some scientists have argued that 1000-5000mg per day may damage your DNA.	Boiling food, light, smoking and heat.

Vitamin D properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Strong bones and teeth	Unhealthy teeth, osteomalacia (causes weakening of bones), rickets in children.	5 micrograms	Sunlight (the action of sunlight on the skin allows our bodies to manufacture vitamin D), cod-liver oil, sardines, herring, salmon, tuna, milk and milk products.	This vitamin is fat-soluble so can accumulate in the body. Overdoses are dangerous.	Mineral oil.

Vitamin E (tocopherol) properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Fighting toxins - vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant.	Weak muscles and fertility problems.	10mg	Nuts, soya beans, vegetable oil, broccoli, sprouts, spinach, wholemeal products, eggs.	There is a slight risk of overdose, because vitamin E is fat soluble.	Heat, oxygen, frost, iron, chlorine and mineral oil.

Folic acid properties

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger	Destroyed by
Production of red blood cells. It is essential in the first three months of pregnancy to prevent birth defects such as spina bifida, cleft palate or cleft lip.	Tiredness due to anaemia, red tongue.	200 micrograms. Women planning to conceive should take a daily supplement of 400mcg, continued for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.	Carrots, yeast, liver, egg, yolks, melon, apricots, pumpkin, avocado, beans, rye and wholewheat, green leafy vegetables.	No danger. It dissolves in water, so any excess is passed in urine.	Water, sunlight, oestrogen, heat.

Minerals

Calcium

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger
Strong bones and teeth, nerve function, muscle contraction, blood clotting.	Poor teeth and brittle bones.	800mg	Milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt and green leafy vegetables.	High doses can lead to headaches, stomach pain, high blood pressure and diarrhoea. Excess calcium can be deposited as kidney and gall bladder stones.

Iron

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger
Red blood cells and muscle function, white blood cells and the immune system.	Tiredness, irritability, difficulties concentrating.	14mg	Lean red meat, oily fish, egg yolks, green leafy vegetables, nuts, wholegrains and wholewheat.	Iron is stored in the body and high doses (over 17mg) can lead to constipation, vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea. Very high doses can be fatal.

Magnesium

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger
Converting energy from food, cell repair, building strong bones, teeth and muscles, regulating body temperature.	Muscle spasms, and has been associated with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and weak bones.	300mg	Green leafy vegetables, wholegrains and nuts.	High doses can cause diarrhoea.

Zinc

Benefits	Deficiency Symptoms	Recommended Daily Intake	Food Sources	Danger
Immune system, the breakdown of protein, fat and carbohydrate.	Lesions on skin, eyes and in throat, loss of taste and smell, hair loss, diarrhoea, slow healing of wounds, growth problems in children.	15mg	Meat, shellfish, milk brown rice and wholegrains.	High doses can lead to stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting.

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Checkmate

Check out my new checkmates! All thanks to DC for generously buying them and his buddy for bringing them from Paris! I LVoe the checkered design, they are just nice for the F1 season... :P




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This is so handy and colourful, I feel like owning it...




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Collected my Moonies! :D

7 boxes of mooncakes from Raffles Hotel, all Champagne Truffles! I collected them at my ex-workplace during lunch from a good friend who ordered them for me... $36 per box instead of $48 outside, that's quite a discount! Like my friend said, it's only $28 per box 2 years ago, just look at how much more we are paying now because of inflation!



7 boxes were really heavy... Luckily bro was free to fetch me from work, we had dinner with sis & ah boy, then sis sent me home... I'm so blessed to have them around! :D


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Small surprise

DC was matching the toto numbers on his PC when I saw his eyes lit up, going over the same line again... Knowing him, I asked "又中了?" He nodded his head in surprise... surprised at how well I know what his every action mean! :D

Anyway, the lucky numbers tonight are:
8 17 20 39 41 44 (43)

It's a $20! ;)


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Bad Habits, Pathology

It's movie time again! This weekend we target some arty films... both very cleverly done with a twist at the end.

I like both but prefer Pathology better as it's more straight-forward and it's a thriller! :) Bad Habits is not bad too. It's quite a soul-searching film... the plot moves slower compared to Pathology and every scene was filmed in such a way that some thinking will be required to interpret the stories (e.g. Matilde, the nun and Gustavo, Elena's husband were actually relatives even though it appeared in the film that they are unrelated).

Warning: Do not watch Pathology if you are faint-hearted or when you just had a full meal, certain scenes may cause discomfort (e.g. cutting up the ribs and snapping the internal organs off the corpse).


BAD HABITS
Rating: M18
Consumer Advice: Sexual Scenes
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Simon Bross
Cast: Ximena Ayala, Elena de Haro
Runtime: 98 mins

Sins of indulgence… Intertwining stories of abuse, adultery, and anorexia center around a family and with obsessed mother living in Mexico City. Matilde is a nun convinced that faith moves mountains. Secretly she begins a mystic fasting to end what she considers to be the second great flood. Elena is a thin and fashion-conscious woman ashamed of her daughter’s chubbiness. She’s willing to do the impossible to make her daughter Linda thin so Linda will look like a little princess on the day she receives her first communion. At the same time Elena’s husband Gustavo – a professor of architecture - cannot cope any more with his wife's bones sticking into him during more intimate moments. For relief, he turns his attention to a buxom female student with a hearty appetite.



PATHOLOGY
Rating: R21
Consumer Advice: Mature Content
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Language: English with no subtitles
Director: Marc Schoelermann
Cast: Milo Ventimiglia (TV series HEROES), Michael Weston, Lauren Lee Smith, Dan Callahan, Johnny Whitworth
Runtime: 93 mins
Official Website: HTTP://WWW.ENTERPATHOLOGYLAB.COM/

From the creators of CRANK. When medical student Ted Gray (Milo Ventimiglia) graduates top of his class he joins one of the nation’s most prestigious pathology programs. With talent and determination, Ted is quickly noticed by the program’s privileged and elite band of interns who invite him into their crowd. Intrigued by his new friends, he begins to uncover secrets he never expected and finds that he has unknowingly become a pawn in their dangerous and secret after-hours game at the morgue of who can commit the perfect undetectable murder. As Ted becomes seduced into their wild extracurricular activities, the danger becomes real and he must stay one step ahead of the game before he is the next victim.

Hokkaido Ice-cream - More please!

Hokkaido ice-cream - It's seen almost everywhere nowadays. We found this gelato stall at the basement of Liang Court a few weeks ago and had a good time savoring the scoops of Black Sesame/Green Tea ice-cream... Yummy!


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Sent for Repaired (again)

Got my K850i back from repair today. The key pad got irritably insensitive very often as and when it likes.

After the repair, the phone was still insensitive but now not as frequent as before. I checked and all they did was a software upgrade. So, I didn't even bother to go back to them to resolve the issue. Just hope that it will not act up again.


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Face Spa

The consultant recommended a special treatment for my so-called sensitive skin -- a series of dead sea products done on the face to soothe the troubled skin. The exfoliator did not feel beady and the mask felt icy cold on my face but the effect was pretty good after the session.

Needless to say, it's a round of sales talk after that... (what I hated most!)

She first tried to sell me $5,000 for 20 sessions. I rejected flatly.

Then, she reduced the number of sessions to $2,500 for 10 sessions. I continued to decline the offer.

After that, she counter offered $1,900, $1,600 and $1,500 for 6 sessions after offsetting the remaining sessions from the existing package. "No thanks." I fought on but was very tempted.

Finally, she gave a final offer: $1250 plus one free session. There'll be 11 treatment sessions in total...

The consultant was really very persuasive. She eventually got the better of me and I ended up signing up for it. DC thinks that I was conned by her. I actually had the plan to finish up the remaining sessions then say bye bye to them... I don't understand why I allow myself to buy too.

Anyway, I'm going to give the dead sea product a chance... Let's see if it's as miraculous as claimed...


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Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon... The company organised some activities for the mid-autumn yesterday. There were free tea sampling and free chinese calligraphy. There was also the Fortune cookie lucky draw where $20 Taka vouchers could be won if the slip in the fortune cookie read "Today's your lucky day! Congrats, you've won a prize!". Nope, I was not one of the 10 lucky winners.

The one thing I like about this festival is the mooncakes! :D I've been eating free mooncakes during tea break in the office since last week! Fattening I know but I like! :P The snowskin ones from Fairmont and Swissotel Hotel are good. I've also ordered 7 boxes of the Champagne Truffles from Raffles Hotel (4 boxes for DC's buddy and 3 boxes for myself) all thanks to a good friend who got me good discounted rates. I can't wait to collect them from him next Wed! :)


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Perfect Bag? Not Really!

Stains found on the bag caused by the bag handles after barely one week of usage?

The counter assistant claimed that Neverfull is a perfect bag and no one had reported a similar problem. We've checked the Internet too, so far no complaints of stains... Why me? :(

DC did further research on the bag and found that the leather Vachetta used on the bag is untreated and care has to be taken to maintain it from dirt, grime and water. The leather straps will start out almost white and eventually turn into a honey color due to air and use.

They offered to remove the stains for me and guess what they used? An eraser! It's a really unexpected but quick fix. I think I've an eraser lying around somewhere in the house, gonna search for it just in case the bag got stained again!


Here are some other suggestions to clean and clear the bag that I found from the Internet:

1. VACHETTA

Vachetta is the untreated leather trim that is found on many Louis Vuitton bags. Since it is untreated, it has plenty of opportunities to pick up dirt and grime. It starts out almost white and eventually patinas due to air and use into a honey color.

TREAT IT! This will slow down the patina process and make it less susceptible to stains. One great leather protector is Shining Monkey Spray. It may darken the vachetta at first, but will dry clear. Apple Guarde and Kiwi also make a leather protector. Look at your local megastore in the leather care section (car or cleaning) or search online for the brands above.

If you have bought a used bag off ebay or did not treat your vachetta and it is getting a little grimy, you can remove surface dirt with baby wipes. Look for alcohol free ones, they don't dry out your bag as much. Baby wipes are also excellent for blending in watermarks if you did not treat your bag.

If baby wipes don't remove all of the dirt, try a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Dampen the eraser and gently scrub at the vachetta. If the dirt is set in, you may need a few applications. Allow vachetta to dry between each one. WARNING: While Magic Erasers are wonderful at removing set in dirt, they do strip the vachetta of its natural oils and dry it out. It is helpful to apply a moisturizer such as Apple Guarde or Coach Leather Moisturizer.

2. CANVAS & EPI
Mono and damier bags are made out of treated canvas. The canvas has been treated to withstand most everything. Baby wipes are excellent for cleaning up messes on canvas. Baby wipes are also great for Epi as it is treated leather!

3. VERNIS
Vernis is Louis Vuitton's patent leather. As with all patent leather, it is susceptible to color transfer. Once color transfer is on your bag, it is permanently there. There is no way to remove it. Take care as to where you set your bag (avoid newspapers or other printed papers) and avoid wearing a new pair of dark jeans with the bag. Basically if something can transfer onto you or other fabrics, be careful! Because with vernis it is permanent.

Scuffs: Over time, vernis may develop scuffs from use. These are white or black and sit on top of the vernis. The scuffs are different from color transfer, which actually permeates the patent leather. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a great product to get rid of scuffs. PLEASE USE LIGHTLY. If scrubbed too hard, it is possible to remove the top layer of patent from the leather. It is always better to scrub lightly and have to do two applications than rushing through and harming your leather.



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