I was looking through my old photos cos I’m going to chop off a lot of hair on Thursday and need to check what hairstyles I look okay or horrible in.

While flipping through my folders, I found some holiday photos of me and Nanny Wen wearing each other’s clothes. It was hilarious. We generally didn’t like each other’s wardrobes, so it was quite a challenge.

It was an impromptu bit of fun. We were in Genting Highlands for a few days and, on our second day there, we decided to swap clothes for the day! This was in March 2007.

The main thing I didn’t like about this outfit was the top because it was stretchy skintight, had a hole at the chest (see photo below) and was turtleneck.

Turtlenecks make my face look fat and short, stretchy skintights make me look slutty, and holes at chest advertise my non-existent cleavage.

The skirt was nice, but I wasn’t into big belts, although I suppose that suited the outfit. Boots were my own cos I couldn’t fit into Nanny Wen’s shoes.

Nanny Wen was soooo uncomfortable in my outfit, haha. It was very anime-costumy and she just doesn’t wear stuff like that. I thought she looked cute enough to eat, though.

Then again, she always does!

Anyway, that was a stupid hairstyle I had, but bangs give me a lot of freedom and peace. With long fringes, I’m always (95% of the time) annoyed by rebellious hair getting into my face. Even if I stuff all my hair behind my ears, I have strands of hair in the front that are like three inches long and never ever grow longer, so they’re always hovering about, tickling my forehead and generally looking ugly.

Stupid hateful hair.

Anyway, fast forward.

Piers just sent me a couple of photos of us taken at his company dinner. Took them so long to release the official photos (more than three weeks)!

In other news, I’m back in Singapore and trying to not be jetlagged but it’s a bit hard when you’re staying up all night chatting with your partner because of time zone differences.

I need to cut my hair very badly. Half of it is severely damaged due to perming and colouring and dry weather in England. Cutting off the damaged parts will mean my hair will be shoulder length at best. Just nice for Singapore weather, I guess.

Anyway, looking at my photos didn’t help. I think I look horrible in all my hairstyles. My hair can’t be styled in the ways that I like because it’s stupid and stubborn, so I’m sad.

Okay enough about my hair.

We’ll see on Thursday!

I’m taking a short break from Mallorca posts because I’ve been kinda busy shopping for my outfit for Piers’ annual company dinner.

It’s a black-tie event and I haven’t got anything with me in England, so I have to buy everything: Dress, shoes, bag, shawl, jewellery, maybe gloves.

I kind of left it too late. There’s nothing decent in the shops so I had to go online. The problem is, all the dresses I like that suit me are made to measure and will take a month to be delivered. Even the shoes I have my eye on are made to measure.

But the dinner is next week!

It’s very hard for me to find dresses because I don’t look good in bustiers, V-shape necks and halters, which basically describe the style of most evening gowns.

So I had to finally settle for this cheap ready-to-go dress. Ordered it two days ago and it arrived today, but it’s 10 inches too long (even though it’s XS / UK size 6) so I’ll have take it to the tailor.

Dress: USD84
Shipping: USD29
Tailoring: GBP30 (estimated)
Total: SGD200

Turned out not so cheap after all, for the quality. The stitching around the beads looks a bit poorly done.

But what is done is done and I have to wear it.

After shopping, there’s still the business of retouching my hair, threading my face and doing my nails.

Yep, very busy.

Actually, I wanted to talk about a cake today but got sidetracked, sorry.

The supermarkets in England carry very pretty cakes that look inedible because they look more like decorative items than food.

Piers assured me time and time again that they taste awful.

But I can’t help being drawn to them, especially this one.

Do not trust a cake that you can stand upright.

I made Piers buy it because neither of us had a birthday cake this year so we needed to make up for it.

It’s so pretty it makes you happy, doesn’t it?

It’s so pretty it shouldn’t be edible.

Cut along the dotted lines.

Please unwrap me. Cos no one else would.

We should have just left it alone as a decorative item.

It tastes awful.

The description says:

“A Madeira sponge cake layered with plum and raspberry jam and vanilla flavour frosting covered with soft icing and decorated with a sugar plaque and candy flower.”

This is how I would describe it:

“A dry and hard cake with cough-syrup-flavoured jam filling, wrapped in a fatally thick layer of icing so sweet you could go into anaphylactic shock if you tried to eat it.”

Do not judge a cake by it’s icing. And ribbons. And harmless-looking teddy bears.

Well, I have learnt my lesson now.

Next time, I will get Piers to buy the Hello Kitty one instead of the Forever Friends one.

Since I’m going to be a student soon, I have an excuse to change my wardrobe again!

:D

Okay, not really. This probably won’t be the most appropriate outfit to attend the course I’m doing (Montessori education). In any case, I already had the outfit way before I decided to go for the course.

It’s just that I’ve liked high school uniform fashion for a long time already and never seem to be able to outgrow that disposition.

I think it’s because Singapore uniforms are so ugly that I feel like I grew up deprived of style. And there’s 12 years of deprivation to make up for.

Of course, I realise that school kids are not actually supposed to care about style and beauty, but I think people can’t help being drawn to aesthetics. People need beauty in their lives. We get to have pretty school bags and stationery and water bottles, so why can’t we have pretty uniforms?

Well, I’m not trying to change the system or anything. Just explaining why I like wearing school uniform inspired styles.

I also happen to really love school. I wish I were school-age again.

I mean (if you overlook the occasional essay deadline, which is evil, times two if it requires you to read an infinite number of books on pretentious philosophical and literary movements that actually don’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things), being a student is immeasurably better than being a working adult.

If you’re currently a school-age student, you have to trust me on that.

One day, when you have a job, no matter how much you love your job and your boss, you will eventually get chewed out for something you didn’t do and you can’t defend yourself for whatever reason and you can’t quit because then you can’t pay your bills, you’ll start to appreciate school.

Or you might get backstabbing colleagues who will keep trying to get you into trouble or steal your credit.

Or you might get hired into a position requiring you to do the work of five people and you don’t get overtime pay because you’re executive level and above.

Or… a lot of things. You’ll find out for yourself one day. Don’t be in a hurry to find out.

Sure, school years have different sets of problems. But I think I very much prefer them. Plus I like learning.

Oh, well.

Can’t turn back time, but I can go back to school, even if only for a short time.

I’ve been really busy lately (which explains why my blogs have been coming a bit slow).

More specifically, I’ve been really busy shopping.

Even more specifically, I’ve been really busy shopping for bikinis.

Bikini from Simply Beach.

Shopping for bikinis is a colossal task of epic proportions, inversely proportionate to the proportions that the bikinis in question are tasked to contain.

In other words, the task is huge because the proportions are tiny.

In more words, I’ve been doing a favour to mankind by avoiding being seen in a swimsuit since puberty.

I’ve never had to worry about bikini shopping because I normally just beg off swimming or beach outings. We have a lot better things to do in Singapore than patiently sit on a piece of towel and grow skin cancer cells.

But, this month, I’m going to Mallorca (pronounced mah-yor-ka), a holiday island in the Mediterranean Sea that belongs to Spain, with Piers and his extended family. And I don’t want everyone to think that I’m a hypochondriac recluse by hiding indoors all day when everyone’s out enjoying the sun by the pool or beach, never mind that I am a hypochondriac recluse in fact.

So, I need a swimsuit like everyone else. A proper bikini, because that’s what everyone wears, and none of those granny-style swimsuits that make men wish they’d stayed home that day and never gone to the beach.

Then again, me in a bikini probably inspires the same thought but I figure it’s a lesser evil.

If nothing else, I can always be counted on to dress appropriately for the occasion.

I did toy with the idea of just wearing shorts and t-shirts and pretending that I’m allergic to water or something. But even that might foster the impression of hypochondriac reclusivity, so I decided to just go to heck.

Meaning, I have an excuse to go shopping and Piers can’t say, “You already have enough clothes, dear!”

And he can’t blame me if, along the way, I also pick up a dress or ten, and a half dozen necklaces. And maybe a few pairs of shoes. And don’t forget bracelets because the wrists need loving too. Maybe some handbags to go.

Because having the appropriate outfits with matching effects is very crucial for a successful holiday.

Beach kaftan from Simply Beach.

(By the way, this is not advertising. Just happens to be the shop I bought some of my beach clothes from.)

I won’t say how much I’ve spent in the last 10 days because Piers reads my blog. Not that I’m spending his money or anything like that, but boyfriends have a funny way of insisting that you really don’t need another little black dress because they can’t tell the 10 that you already have apart, anyway.

What do they know, really?

So that’s what I have been busy with. You must understand that shopping for bikinis is very time consuming and frustrating for some people, due to the challenging nature of trying to fill a specific shape with nothing.

For some reason, they only make gorgeous bikinis for women with Barbie doll proportions. If your proportions resemble Ken more than Barbie, you have to settle for uglier, plainer designs that make you think maybe swimsuit designers have a shady deal going on with plastic surgeons.

But, after sifting through mountains of photos, I finally settled for less just to end the misery, so now I am done shopping and can get on with my life, which usually involves a bit of blogging and a lot of shopping.

Well, if you don’t tell Piers, I won’t.

Today’s blog will touch on delicious topics as well as very unpalatable ones.

I supposed I’d better show the food first so you can enjoy the photos before your stomach gets turned by the other photos.

Because we were out yesterday (hospital in the morning, shopping afternoon, theatre performance evening), we had to eat out.

After three days of icky hospital food and two days of bland home-cooked food, Kay went at the tasty offerings outside with wild abandon.

Lunch wasn’t too bad. We ate at the food court at Coex Mall (largest underground shopping mall in Asia).

He had omu rice with grilled chicken breast. It was quite nice. We come across omu rice eateries in Seoul quite a lot.

I was persuaded to try New York Fries.

Kay used to eat it when he was living in Canada and he said, “You must try it at least once if you have the chance.”

I think he just wanted a chance to nick some fries for his deprived palate.

It’s not too bad. There are different kinds of powders, sauces and spices you can add as you wish, but when you throw the condiments in your cup, the fries at the bottom don’t get seasoned, so it’s annoying. But they do give you little cups to store more condiments to take away if you want.

The hotdog was a bit of a joke so I wish I hadn’t ordered it.

So far, in all the Korean food courts I’ve been to (which amounts to a grand total of two), I noticed they give you electronic devices that you can take back to your table after ordering so you don’t have to wait at the counter for your food. Your device will beep when your food is ready.

The only time I’ve seen this in Singapore is at Marche VivoCity. I think it’s a great tool which all food courts should implement.

For dinner, we had Indian food. Kay’s suggestion.

It’s a restaurant called Taj Mahal (surprised?) just outside Line 1 Jonggak Station (I think Exit 7 & 8 – underground mall exit).

It was empty when we went up (the restaurant is located on the second floor) but then it was 9:35pm, just after our show.

We ordered a totally ruinous diet of samosas, tandoori chicken, butter chicken masala and naan. It was a set dinner.

I suppose we have to give poor sick boys a break sometimes.

The samosas were a bit hard to photograph, insisting on looking mildly obscene no matter which way I turned them. But they were quite tasty, especially with the greenish dip they came with.

True to Korean style, they served us little side dishes, although we thought pickles and jalapeños were a bit strange to see in an Indian restaurant.

The tandoori chicken was awesome. Most tender tandoori chicken I’ve tasted. It was spiced just enough too.

But the naan and butter chicken masala were mediocre. Naan was quite tasteless, but it didn’t matter that much after dipping into the masala, which was slightly too sweet for my taste.

I know it’s very weird eating Indian food in Korea but it was a good meal, overall. Cost KRW36,000 (S$41) for the set meal for two.

But now the sick boy has to pay penance by eating bland food for the rest of the week! lol.

I did a bit of shopping at Coex Mall in the day. Bought three pairs of boots and a warm coat. I don’t know if it’s a winter coat because it’s not one of those shiny bulky ones with fur around the hood but it’s warmer than anything else I have.

Will get a photo of it next time I wear it out.

I can finally wear boots again!

The pair of boots I brought from Singapore to wear here fell apart on the second day of our arrival in Seoul, so I have been wearing my Nikes the whole time.

I’ve been looking at boots at the cheaper underground malls around Seoul but haven’t been able to find any nice ones. Coex Mall has really awesome ones, so I ended up buying three pairs when I only wanted one.

I bought both of these although they look very similar (differences only in calf height and heel height) because I’m sick and tired of boots that I like falling apart on me.

But now I’m worried about carting them home. I don’t think we have enough luggage space and we’re going to be so grossly overweight.

Tried on some cute Wellington boots but they didn’t look good on me.

So I went book shopping, instead!

Coex Mall has a hugeass bookstore (Bandi and Luni’s) which has a decent section with English books. The books are priced about the same as you’d get in Singapore after conversion.

I’ve gotten interested in reading about North Korea recently. Just finished reading Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

It’s really good, very well-written and engaging throughout, offering a very detailed look at the harsh conditions North Koreans are born to and subject to all their lives.

At Bandi and Luni’s, I bought a book called The Aquariums of Pyongyang, the memoir of a young man who was incarcerated in a North Korean concentration camp for 10 years just because his grandfather was suspected of engaging in political activities.

I was going to buy two more books but Kay stopped me, saying we can buy more in Singapore. Boo.

Okay, and now the gross part.

Kay’s splint was removed yesterday and his arm and hand swelled like a balloon.

Here’s another close look at his wound as it looks now. Click here to view only if you can stomach it.

The stitches will be removed next Wednesday.

His hand got bigger and bigger throughout the day. It’s very disgusting to look at, although what’s more disgusting is the fact that he keeps trying to make me touch it, knowing that it makes me feel eew.

It’s eew because firstly, I imagine that’s how a bloated corpse would feel like, and, secondly, although I know it’s illogical and impossible, I fear that if I press down a bit too hard, his hand will burst.

Kay is not freaked out by it because he’s experienced bloated hands and feet from past surgeries. So he enjoys freaking me out.

Suddenly, out of the blue, he’d go, “Give me your hand.”

I’d give him my hand thinking it’s an innocent request, then he’d put my hand on his bloated hand and give me a wicked smile.

So evil!

After a while, I started remembering and stopped giving him my hand.

But then he’d just randomly grab it and touch it to the bloated hand, anyway. Argh!

Okay, I’m going back to bed to nap for a little bit! (It’s now 11:10 am in Seoul, 10:10 am in Singapore)

Sleeping times are erratic now because we have to wake up early in the morning to feed Kay so he can take his medication. Then it’s sleep a bit more, then wake up to buy some groceries, then prepare lunch. Then sleep a bit more, then wake up to prepare dinner.

That’s when we’re indoors of course. When we’re out we don’t get to nap. But when we’re indoors, we get into a cook-eat-sleep routine through the day, lol.

Well, okay, for me, there’s blogging also. Cook-eat-blog-sleep.

OMG I just checked the weather. It’s -3°C outside now! CRAZY. Time to hibernate. Bye!