A Little Luxury...

Well, yes, I've stopped spending on stuff (with the exception of books, but that's allowed) and after coming back from Hong Kong with a busted piggy bank, I know better that I'd have to be on a Project Chinese Jew regime and start scrimping and saving lest I declare bankruptcy.

So I've been slowly rationing out my loot from Hong Kong. I basically bought stuff and not open it. I keep them in pristine condition and then "revisit" them when I feel the need to have something to muse about. So I unwrap them bit by bit (the last was the Dymo label maker) and now, I've got a bit of luxury...

While I was in the Landmark Mall in Hong Kong, I went to the Harvey Nichols beauty section and bought a bunch of stuff...Chanel eye shadow (*yawn* cos it's just eye shadow though a pretty luxe one) and then the cool stuff! Aka Steam Cream (the two colorful round tins) and Love & Toast Lipbalm in Pear.....Here's a closer look after I've removed all the che che packaging...

What fabulous packaging!!!

Both kinda cult now especially the Steam Cream cos it's selling super well in the UK & Japan. It's a hand bag size cream you bring around with you and the cream can be used for your face, body and hand to soothe any dry spots. What's special about this is that using a revolutionary steam-infused manufacturing process, Steam Cream provides a long-lasting, intensive and effective form of skincare that can be used on face, body and hands. 

This fluffy cream contains soothing and moisturising ingredients such as oatmeal infusion, orange flower water and lavender oil. And the best part? It comes in super attractive designs on the tin! Click here to check out more...

Then come another of my favorite brands Love&Toast. They make really delicious products with wonderful smell and organic ingredients. They have body products and perfume too and they all come in really brilliant packaging that's so damn irresistible.

See the inside of the box? First it's got a heart cut out..

 Ohhh then it's got a toast!

 It happens that my favorite flavor (pear) comes in my favorite packaging design too

Love&Toast has got a very charitable philosophy and a portion of their profit goes to a charity for young women to help empower them. Click here to read more...I wish they have this in Singapore!!! Garrr I wish I have some financial backing to bring in my favorite brands to Singapore! But then again, it'll probably fold and close shop cos I like pretty niche brands! oh well...

Artsy weekend....

I had an artsy weekend and I'm feeling kinda inspired now...First, on Friday, I went to an art exhibition at Art Space at Tanjong Pagar Distri Park and it's a collection of contemporary Asian arts and it's not as bad as I thought! Here are some shots I've taken...

This piece named "Choir" has got 1000 different clay figurines all with a different facial expressions all singing songs...some sad, some happy....

Closer look....very cool...It's got opera music playing and it's as if the whole team of clay figurines is singing to us...and the funny thing was, some opera singer who was also a patron went up to me and Mr Bunny and started singing loudly in our face and she told us she's an opera singer...freaky but hey, that woman really could sing!

My second favorite, this is by an Indonesian artist Agus Suwage and it's a gold skeleton bathing in a bucket of rice grains, depicting the decadence of consumerism... pretty well expressed

This one is about war back when German Shepard dogs were used as "suicide bombers" and you need a timer on top of each of them, indicating when they're gonna explode...

This is my favorite piece! It's a very very long panels of boxes with lighted pictures behind. They're all famous paintings of well-known artists or important figures and personality...And on top of the viewing space, say half a meter away, the entire ceiling was hanging with speakers of different shapes and sizes and it had sound bits, music corresponding to the visual in front...I couldn't take a picture of it cos it's too dark

Recognize that? It's the famous diamond and skull by British shock artist Damien Hirst, who happened to be having dinner with my aunt the night before together with Shanghai Tang's David Tang in Hong Kong....Damn it, I would want to meet Damien Hirst! Other than Hirst, there were also pieces from Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Monet, the usual suspects from the classical world and even pop and contemporary artists like Yoshimoto Nara whose work I would LOVE to collect..

Ohhhh see that? John Lennon and Yoko Ono (who happened to be our family friend....long story)

So that was Friday....It was a lovely time cos I really liked what I saw and the last piece, which is the long panel light installation, would make a very very backdrop for a quirky boutique hotel lobby...

Then today, I managed to catch the last day of Art Stage at the Marina Bay Sands....it's awesome! It's got some pretty good classics from Picasso and modern contemporary artists too...I've taken some shots of some of those I love. Didn't take pictures of everything but I only snapped those I find interesting...

This is an awesome 3D photo montage!! If you look closer, they're all assembled by little squares of actual photographs and they're put together to make it 3D. Very nice

Another one by the same artist

Now one for the wall

This is an awesome sculpture that has a bit of optical illusion cos it looks like the head gets increasingly squashed...you can't really see it here but the actual thing really fucks with your vision a bit

Another angle

A  big installation of giant ants with lights as their heads...pretty cool...

Ohhh sculptures of the two characters of one of my favorite Iranian movies, Children of Heaven! I don't think it's particularly brilliant but I love the movie

I couldn't resist snapping this picture...Two of my favorite things! Books and Cats and it's even got one of my favorite books too, A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Now this is my second favorite...fucking brilliant! This is entirely made of mesh wire...how they made that baby in the center I'm not sure how...but I'm so captivated by it...

Here's another baby...

Ohhhh and the instrument I play! The cello! I WANT THIS!!!

And this is my 3rd favorite....these little figures are made from old vinyl records...very nice and colorful and definitely creative...

Ahhh and this is a super cute one cos the little yellow jumper is for a giraffe! It's called "A gift for giraffe"! What a cute concept! Like wake up one morning and go like "ohhh I shall make a gift for a giraffe!"

AND NOW.....MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE FROM THE SHOW.....tadaaaa It's sculptures made from stacking books together by this Taiwanese artist Chen Long-Bin who's now based in the US. He made a series of Buddha sculptures using old books and phone books....it's freaking amazing!!!! I couldn't stop marveling at it cos to begin with, the Buddha's heads are so very well sculpted and to know what it's made from one of my favorite things in the world, ie. Books, it's even more fascinating! How clever...I would really want to buy one!

You can see from the back that it's all phone books....

Now this is the magnificent front view of the sculpted buddha head using a stack of books

Take a closer look, here're all the book spines you see....

Now this is the tower of a series of Buddha's heads using books of different sizes and colors and I'm sooo very interested in buying this...and it's going at $42,000 USD...not really THAT bad

Take a closer look....it's so nice....

So that's about all the really interesting ones that I've taken....I saw a very very nice Frank Auerbach's painting and I didn't bother taking a snap shot of it after asking how much it is cos it's just demoralising to know that it was sold at over $400,000 USD!!! OMG! 

You know what? I really wish I have so much money that I'll be an art collector....and I'd like the work from the followings:

• Frank Auerbach
• Mark Ryden
• Yoshitomo Nara
• Johan Vermeer
• Gustav Klimt
• Picasso

That's all....not very ambitious but still, it's so freaking hard to achieve cos they're so freaking expensive....can someone gimme some please????

Best Body Butter!!!

I've just discovered the BEST Body Butter money can buy and it's very affordable! Now, I've used and tried a hell lot of body moisturizer and last blogged, the last best body moisty I've used is Soap&Glory The Righteous Body Butter Lotion and that I thought was real good. Until I found the Boots Extract Fairtrade Rosehip Body Butter!!! And that is THE BEST!!!!! I've tried really expensive body butter that doesn't even deliver half the result and now my skin has never been smoother and softer!

It's got organic rosehip extract that's certified fairtrade with cocoa butter. It's got a slightly thick texture but it spreads well and melts onto skin and the best part? It's heavenly-scented! It smells totally divine with a very delicate rose scent for an olfactory treat every time you apply! I got mine while I was in Bangkok and it cost only 280 Thai baht which is below $15 SGD. When I woke up the next day in the hotel with super silky smooth soft skin, I immediately bought another 2 tubs. My dad, on the other hand, is now obsessed with the Extract Fairtrade Avocado Body Butter and we've got about 8 tubs at his place now....yeah, it's THAT good....and I think I'll stock up the next time I'm there!!! It's really really good and I've never been more industrious when it comes to applying moisturizer to my body cos I look forward to feeling the silky soft feeling on my skin once my parched skin drinks up all the goodness!

Love Sweet Love!

I just read an interview in Out Magazine on the love story of Tom Ford and Richard Buckley and I simply melted reading it cos it's a totally "awwwwww" article! Love is such an elusive thing and many of us don't really grasp what it really is and me included, but I can sure spot what it is when I see or hear about it and I can tell you it is LOVE with a capital L with Tom and Richard! They've been together for 25 years and went through the rough patch of Richard's throat cancer and they're still very much in love.....Click here to read...

I get all dreamy reading their love story and now the music churning in my head is "What the world needs now...is love, sweet, love...." Seriously, how many people in the world can get a love like that? They're really a very fortunate couple! Erm, of course the fact that Tom Ford is bloody filthy rich...damn it...some people have it all huh? Damn! But hey, they're my favorite model couple!!

Shitty Bank....where the Citi actually sleeps

The Citi never sleeps...or so they claim. But last night, the Citi actually slept.

I called in CitiBank aka ShittyBank last night to do a very simple balance transfer. After navigating the annoying number-picking jungle of selecting your service pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 or *0, I finally got to the phone banking operator. Then when I requested for a fund transfer, they said sorry, couldn't do cos their system is down, please call back the next day. Damn it! But okay, fine. System is fried and screwed up, nobody wants that to happen.

But when I called in this morning, and after pressing a series of 1, 1, 2, 1, 2 and *0 to get to the operator to request for my fund transfer. Guess what? The phone banking operator said she gotta get someone to call me back the next day. Why? Because she's a trainee and couldn't do it. WTF????? You put someone who can't do shit and perform simple banking processes on the phone? What's the point? And they have to call me back the next day? Hello, it's 9am in the morning and the trainee said they're all busy and I just have to wait. Not a couple of hours, not half a day, but a full working day! Shitty service!

But my little balance transfer woe is nothing compared to what HL experienced. Half a year ago, her ShittyBank credit card got hacked and there's an online fraud of $800. HL freaked out and called the Citi hotline at 830am, reporting the fraud incident, only to have the phone person told her that, AGAIN, they've got to call her back and mind you, this is a fraud case. So HL requested to have them called her before noon cos for all you know, the fraud might continue and the hacker might still be using her card. Guess what? They didn't call and HL had to call them in the late afternoon!

And once they're at her case at about 5pm, she got the most ridiculous answer. She is told: "Please download online dispute form and fax it to us". Hell, this is a fraud case and fine, even if that's what she's got to do, couldn't the very first operator she spoke to tell her that? And what if I don't have a printer and a fax machine at hand?

Then, SHE herself had to ask them to block the card cos the operator didn't even offer to block the card for her. Isn't that common sense that is someone is hacking your card, you would automatically cut the card?

And when she finally got her case through, they said the investigation will take some time and it's been half a year since and she still hasn't heard back from them!!!

Verdict? SHITTY BANK! And according to HL, AMEX is the way to go cos they've got the best service!

View from the top

Food porn alert! I just went to Ku De Ta for the first time (though I've long been to the original one in Bali) at Marina Bay Sands on the sky garden. Nice view indeed...

The ambiance is just normal, like a typical fine dining restaurant and I prefer the ambiance in the Bali one, but then again, the Bali one is next to the beach and it's a hell lot more relax and chilled out even in terms of the deco. The 3-course lunch menu is pre-set that comes with a platter of 5 different appetitizers (spicy ‘bo ssam’ pork belly & pickles, pressed baby spinach & toasted sesame, smoked eggplant & black vinegar, shima aji tartar, charred angus beef tataki & green chili ponzu) that's in my opinion the highlight....it's got 5 different mini sized dishes arranged in a pretty plate.

I honestly wouldn't eating these little dainty dishes instead of the main course cos the main course is just quite so so. I picked the ranger‘s valley black angus sirloin (rare) with wok-fried spinach and roasted sweet potato.

I'm a bit disappointed cos I was expecting a better quality steak. The cut itself is okay but my rare steak came to be a bit medium rare (I love my steak rare). It's also a wee bit dry and  not as juicy as it should be and my jaw got really tired from all the chewing. BUT the roasted sweet potato was unanimously divine.

Then came the dessert creation of the day and it's Yuzu shortbread with salt, pear and chocolate cream...

Now that is awesome!!! The salty taste went really well with the citrusy aroma of the yuzu and it reminds me of the nice Japanese salty lemon candy which I so very love. The chocolate cream is a mousse that's really divine and rich but it goes perfectly to harmonise with the shortbread. It's not too rich, just nice and I think the salt makes it really easy to go down even for those who don't like sweet stuff.

Somehow, perhaps it was the fact that I was on a holiday while I was at the original Bali Ku De Ta, I actually think the food in the Bali one is slightly better and so was the ambiance too cos the bar area in the Bali one is much cooler. Cos it's got an outdoor area that is super cool

But when I was at Bali's Ku De Ta, it got soooo windy that things were getting blown off and we had to go inside the restaurant instead but it's still super good!

The verdict for Singapore's Ku De Ta? Yes, I would go back but I would probably choose a different main course or perhaps just go back for dinner and I would like to eat only the platter! Like 10 plates or something cos that is just too yummy!

NO DOLPHINS PLEASE RWS!!!!

If I need to take part in some public petition or strike to petition against Resort World Singapore (RWS) to buy 27 wild-caught bottlenose dolphins from the Solomon Island, I would. I would even dress up as the tortured caged wild dolphins to petition if need be!

When they're bidding for the project, RWS promised a Marine Life Park (MLP) to put Singapore on the world map as the region's leader in marine research, CONSERVATION and education. So how the hell does BUYING 27 WILD-CAUGHT dolphins from the Solomon Island a conservation effort? Instead of getting captive-bred dolphins, they have to get the wild ones. Isn't it such a hypocritical thing for RWS to promise conservation but yet PURCHASING 27 wild dolphins to keep them in captivity???  So much for conservation.

In today's (10 Jan 2011) Forum on the Straits Times, apart from saying that RWS would have a team of specialists and experts to care for the dolphins, the VP of Communications from RWS replied to SPCA's plight to ban dolphin captivity by saying that RWS has some $3.2 million-Marine Life Fund and has been doing lots of conservation campaign and what nots since 2008. Okay, fine, kudos to that.

However, when Animal Concerns Research & Education (ACRES) went to survey RWS' resort in Langkawi which also has dolphins, they're appalled by the ghastly condition the dolphins are kept. The “team of professionals and animal experts” failed to provide adequate care to the dolphins in Langkawi and it seems RWS did not even employ a full-time vet to care for the dolphins or have an animal hospital there. Two of the dolphins, who only a year ago swam freely in the wild, have now died. Click here to read more.


And you're telling me that the dolphins are well taken care of? Sorry, RWS, but I think your so-called conservation effort and MLF fund are merely tools to help you win the bid to set up resort here. It's sorely pathetic. Click here to read ACRES' note on Facebook. I totally second that. I hope a petition of sort could be quickly organised to do whatever intervention possible.