Samples Galore!

Recently I've been having receiving quite a fair bit of samples & freebies. Stuff ranging from full sized products to trial kits, beauty products to home sundries and even food & beverage. It's always so fun to receive something in the mail and getting that chance to test out a new product or a always-wanted-to-buy product first, then deciding to buy it after testing :)

Some babes n guys have been asking where I get my freebies & samples from. Hehehehe... Alright, I'll tell u... It's from this site called The Sample Store. They've got soooooo many different goodies to send for free. From open shelf beauty and skin care products to premium-priced to-die-for products. Some come in trial sized kits, some are travel-sized packs/bottles. Sometimes, you even received full-sized products to test out! Cool right?! Of course some magazine also give freebies n samples. but quite a hassle to scour through the pages, and email or even cut-out-fill-up-send-out to get the samples. I find it so much easier to just go to The Sample Store and register for a FREE account, then browse by either brand or category for the products u want.

Errrr..... So what are u guys waiting for huh? Go sign up lah! Here, link provided already. No need to type, just click here: The Sample Store and sign up n start receiving your samples. I've already gotten quite a few sets. Trying them all out now. I'll be writing the reviews soon. So go ahead n grab your freebies too :) Once again, The Sample Store.

Oh by the way, if you like a particular product, you can actually buy them from The Sample Store too. Go, sign up and start exploring. Registration is very simple and takes less than a minute.

Have fun!!!

Been a really long while again since I last posted anything here. Previously, always busy with work, work, work. Workload and pressure was like hell. But the colleagues I had then totally made me just forget the "hell part" and encouraged me to forge on. Though not always appreciated, not always backed-up, not always getting supported, and not always smooth-sailing, but still it was a sense of achievement to survive a rough day, to fix a logistic problem and to hear my customer say I saved his orders.

Travels were also another love-hate relationship. I love travelling. Always did. Since I was a young little girl. Dad always made the effort to take us on trips to see the world, experience new culture, take in the beautiful scenery taste different flavours of the world. Biz trips on the other hand, were much more intense. Pre-travel work, during-travel rush & post-travel fix-the-problems + REPORTS... Sometimes, I don't even remember what I ate on those trips if I forget to take pictures!

Oh, speaking of travels, Singapore Airline's new budget carrier SCOOT has a new deal. Anybody wanna fly for free? I do! So I linked up to SCOOT for a chance to fly the 1st flight for free!!! You can too. Here's the link to get your free chance to Fly Free on SCOOT.

Okie, I gotta run now. Gotta do spring cleaning! See you guys in a bit...

Thank You Steve Jobs, for the Apples...

Heard on the radio this morning that Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. Sad news. Though I wasn't shocked, but I was quite surprised at his "sudden passing". Cos it is known that he was fighting the terrible cancer disease, I was expecting him to pass on that soon. After all, it was only in August that he had announced his retirement from the Apple scene. He's literally work till death crept up...

Before Apple, I always thought that as long as one had a computer, it was considered magic. But after Apple appeared with the iPods, Macbooks, iPhones & iPads, technology took on a completely new meaning. It wasn't just plain magic. It was MAGIC!

Sometime in 2010, out of boredom, I lined up all the apples we had at home (including the green granny smiths). At that point, the iPad hadn't made its way into our home yet. But still, it was amusing & interesting to note that life evolved around the machines named after the common fruit. We talked, listened, played, worked, blogged, surfed, gossiped, studied, travelled, fell-asleep, woke-up with the Apples. It's almost like I would breakdown and standstill if I didn't have my i-something with me. Guess it's really a very big Thank You to Steve Jobs for having done such a good job, changing the world dramatically.

Just to share this video clip which was in circulation some months ago. Steve Job's 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address:

In Loving Memory ~ Pepsi Lee

Obituary

Pepsi Lee
11.5.1996 ~ 23.10.2009

"A truly faithful companion. A very loyal friend.
In life we all loved you dearly. In death, you will be dearly missed.
If only my tears could cry the stairway to heaven.
For which I'd walk up to, and bring you back with me."

In June 1996, I visited the farm you were born in. So many puppies, all jostling for attention. I asked to look at schnauzers. And only schnauzers. I was taken into another room, with a few pens and cages. I looked at everyone single barking one. All but one, you sat innocently in the pen, looking straight at me. Your little stump-tail, wagging. Love at first sight. You melted my heart. I decided, you were going home with me.

Mommy strongly objected to the idea of having a dog at home, just weeks before I bought you. But when you appeared before her, you stole heart away. Daddy had always loved doggies, and needless to say, you were his little star.

Whenever days were tough, you would always be there to cheer us up. Your mischievous grin and cheeky look, never failed to put a smile back on our faces.

You grew up with me. You went thru thick and thin with me. You shared our beds, and many times, shared our dinners too... You always enjoyed the outdoors, and the beach. You loved the walks with daddy and mommy, and you loved the car rides we used to take you on.

You were there when I fell in love and got married. You were there when I was expecting my kids. You were there when I struggled with diapers and feeding. You were there when the kids were all grown. You were ever so gentle. Like a big brother to the growing kids. You've always stood guard around them, and made sure they were safe. You shared you toys with them. And many times too, you shared their toys as well!

You've always considered yourself a part of us. And we've never denied that fact. Now that you're gone, we feel the grief and pain. It will take us all a long time, before our heartaches heal. But, I want you to know, that you will always be remembered, for many many years on.

Rest in peace, dearest boy... 姐姐 will always love you.

Heavy hearted long weekend

I write this entry with a throbbing and heavy heart. This weekend had been a long one for me. Literally.

While my friends are happily partying away the whole weekend, I had to struggle with working on shipments that had gone very very wrong. The challenge was also upped when it came to trying to contact people. Two schoolds... There were the uncontactables. and the refusing to respond. There was also the odd one who rang to inform of another shipment issue which had no case for claims but insisted on asking as the SOP/Modus Operandi 'required'. Then of course there was the system/server maintenance and breakdown that didn't allow log-ons, even from remote. So basically, everything seemed bloody screwed-up. And, whilst all that was going on, my mind had been very occupied with the well-being of my beloved pooch.

Pepsi, my mini-schnauzer of 14 years, had been very sick for quite some time now. Daddy had previously mentioned that if he has to go to a vet anymore, he's not allowed to be warded. Reason being, we've been told by the vet that Pepsi is very old. If he needs to be warded for observation of any kind, and were to act up and needs a procedure to be done, given his age, he might not be able to take it. And I personally felt that we didn't want him to go under the knife either, at this age.

But this weekend, daddy rang. Told me to consider euthanasia... Pepsi was suffering bad. He's quite blind, and deaf, suffered a stroke not too long ago, now paralysed on the left. He can't walk by himself, and cries all the time. Mummy & Ron have been taking turns taking care of him. But it's also taking a toll on their health cos they jump up at night whenever Pepsi cries, or bumps into something while struggling to move around.

I felt that it was probably also the best option for everyone to let the poor boy go. I said that to mummy and daddy over the phone. But, after I hung up, I felt very very guilty. I could almost hear Pepsi cry. Maybe I shouldn't have agreed. Was I wrong? After all, I was the one who brought him home 14 years ago, when he was still a teeny weeny little 4 week old pup.

I suddenly panicked. I didn't know what to do cos I felt so guilty of passing the sentence. In a way, there was good intention of ending his and everyone else' suffering. But on the other-hand, it was inhumane to take his life away when he's really struggling hard to stay alive to be with us.

I don't know what I should do. Mummy suggested that I should drop by today to take a last look at the old boy, and perhaps bring him to the vet to get it done. But I didn't have the guts to. Daddy rang again today to say that the boy was quiet, not crying much. I just mumbled an OK. Daddy says will keep me updated. I assumed nothing happened, and went on my chores as usual. But I'm still very heavy-hearted.

Tmr, I have to go to work. I have to look professional, behave professional (as 'requested'), and get thru the very long Tuesday. I will have a guest in town, and will have to swim thru the fishy day packed with meetings as well.

I'm not sure how I might survive the day at all.

Now, flashes of Pepsi in his younger, healthier days occupy my mind... What should I do... ...?

Tokyo Trip - Kinugawa Onsen - Part 2

Day 2 in Japan was meetings, meetings & meetings. Budgets & targets & expectations etc etc etc. We were already so drained in the 1st 2 hours. Plus my flu, cough & the dry air... My nose, throat & eyes were all pretty choked up. I kept sniffing & tearing and coughing away. At one point, Charlie commented that even though budgets were very high, there was no need for me to cry! Hahaha... No, I wasn't crying of course. I was combating the clogged plumbing up in my nose, which caused my eyes to tear also lah!

Lunch that afternoon was a short 5 mins walk to a quaint little town away from the hotel. There was a neat little wooden building which served lunch. Most of us has Japanese curry rice. Again fluffy rice grains paired with fragrant sweet but mildly spicy curry. It was cold outside, and I was quite hungry. So when lunch was served, I started eating very quickly and forgot to take pictures! Grrr..... But I remembered when they served my dessert though! Hahaha...

Meeting continued again in the afternoon. Draggy as usual. Dinner that night was the same place as the 1st night. Similar but more food. This time, the atmosphere was more relaxed. We joked more, laughed more. In fact, laughed so hard, especially when Kevin & Wannong were talking about family names. Kevin, the joker, never failed to perk us all up. We had a lot more alcohol on the 2nd night as compared to the 1st night. More beer, and more sake. Somehow, all the sakes I had in Japan were very nice.

After dinner, I headed to the onsen again. 温泉が気持ちいいですね。。。

Day 3, we checked out after breakfast and headed for our road trip back to Tokyo. Another 2 hours on the bus. We got back into the city around lunch time. dropped our bags in the office, and headed out to the convenience stores to buy lunch. A norm for many office workers in Tokyo. Everyone would just pick up a bento from either a street vendor, or one of the many convenience stores. Easy, fast, and not as expensive as dinning in one of the eateries (which was always jam-packed).

After lunch, we worked as usual in the office as appraisals and discussions were conducted. Then in the evening, we headed to the nearby Sardonyx Hotel to check in, quick shower, and then off to dinner. See, time was so critical. Everything was like jammed together with no time to waste.

Dinner on day 3 was sushi. Lots and lots of the freshest and bestest (is there such a word?). We had a lot fun that night over dinner. Everyone was more relaxed. We sat on tatami mats, ate 毛かに (Hairy crabs)　いくら (Salmon roe), 寿司詰め合わせ (Assorted sushi), 刺身盛り合わせ (Assorted sashimi) and more! And of course, the beer & Sake never stopped flowing! We booked the entire 2nd floor dinning room and every corner was ikura & sake! Like BT said, eat until orgasm! Wahahaha.... But it was the company that counts. Great ppl, good conversations, completely wonderful night.

Day 4 was R&R. We started the morning visiting Tsukiji fish market; tuna auction. And because it was really freezing that morning, we went off to have piping hot ramen! Shiok to the max!!! Then late morning, we wandered off to Asakusa. Took the train there. Saw lots of pretty Japanese ladies in their kimonos going to the grand old temple to offer their prayers & ask for blessings. There was also lots of shopping just outside of Asakusa. Lots of fun we had.

After Asakusa, we went to Ginza. I arranged to meet my old pal Rumiko! And I was sooooooooooooooooo happy to see her. Missed her so much after she left us. We went for Monjayaki, and then the rest of the girls went roaming around shopping while I caught up with Rumiko on gossips. Bitchy Mich came by after that to join in our girly gossips! Hahahaha

Later that afternoon, we parted ways as Rumiko went snow-boarding, and Mich brought us to more shopping around Ginza. Haiyan wanted to buy a DSLR camera for her hubby, the rest of the ladies wanted to buy cutesy Jap make up, toilettries and accesories etc. Vincent & I went wandering to look @ mobile phones. So tempted to buy them cos they're not expensive and so many nice designs that cannot be found in Singapore. But the sales guy was saying that only certain models can be used outside Japan. Not all. Bah...

Oh, we went to Tokyu Hands too. It's a really huge place with EVERYTHING under one roof. EVERYTHING means everything you can think of, from handy home DIY stuff to toys to make up to sationery to clothes to bath & accessories to handbags to luggages to gifts to kitchenware to baking stuff to electrical applices to whatever! If i didn't remember wrongly, it's 9 storeys high!

That night, Charlie took us all to a nice dinner. BBQ Japanese-style. I don't remember the name of the place unfortunately. I was quite tired, and it was very cold that night. Everyone was also very hungry. Mich had dropped us all back at the hotel, and then we jumped into a taxi and headed off to dinner with Charlie giving indtructions to the cab driver over the phone.

Dinner was really good. Charlie did all the 'cooking'. And needless to say, when eating out with Charlie, always expect the best and the unexpected! The beef we had that night was really good stuff. Kobe beef. Which we ate raw! Beef Sashimi. then we also had RAW BEEF LIVER!!! We were cannibals for the night. Thks to Charlie Brown... But of course, there were also gother nice and surprising/interesting stuff we ate over the grill. See pics...

Over all, it was another good trip. Learnt lots, as always. Great to catch up with collegues we speak to everyday but don't get to see all so often. Great oppotunity to meet old friends. And new experiences and new sights too. Most importantly, expectations were made known, targets were set. Now, we'll depend on captain's directions so that we can all sail in the right direction... AHOY!

Tokyo Trip - Kinugawa Onsen - Part 1

OK, OK, I know many of you have been asking me why no updates. There are quite a few reasons. Number 1, I've been really busy with work. Number 2, I've been travelling. Number 3, a lot of events and things have taken place, and happened. At this point of blogging, I'm in one of the worst of moods, very stressed and extremely tired. In short, BURNT OUT.

But since I'm waiting for my Nissin cup noodles to "cook", I'll put up some pics of one of my trips in February (during the CNY period). Yep, I know. it's now May. But anyway, now I'm blogging again...

Another biz trip to Tokyo with all the good food, great sights, and catching up with old friends again. This time, we travelled went to Kinugawa, 2 hours north of Tokyo. Kinugawa or 鬼怒川 literally means Angry Demon River, was actually a very popular place for hotsprings/onsen. But apparently in the 1990s, the economic recession forced the entire town to go bust.

Me in the A380 - upper deck

My seat had side cabinets to keep my barang

Happy Vincent's 1st time in the A380

And yes, after supper, 1 movie and it's time to catch up on the much needed sleep! Good night!

Anyway, after flying 6.5hours on the A380, we arrived in a very cold Narita airport on Wednesday morning. It was only abt 5 deg cel I think. We took the airport limousine to to Tokyo City Air Terminal in Hakozaki. Bus ride was abt 1 hour. From there, Charlie picked us up, and we headed to the office to drop off our bags, and then have breakfast.

Skyline of Tokyo @ 8am

We walked onto this bridge...

... and realised it was so nice. There were ducks swimming in it too!

I was quite tempted to walk in and ask how many million yen it would costs for a SL63AMG. Pity they weren't open yet...

Such pretty flowers outside the car showroom

See, pretty right?

Car's fall sick in Tokyo?

Breakfast was at Denny's Restaurant (yes, I know. An American restaurant in Tokyo, but we were just hungry and Denny's was easy. Mich took us there). And after a nice hot bowl of Ramen (and yes, they served Ramen in Denny's, but not nice!) we headed back to the office to work.

Time passed really fast over there. Stanley arrived later in the morning, and made his way to the office too. We were all happily chatting when he declared he was hungry, then we realised it was lunch time! But none of the rest of us were really hungry yet because we had our Ramen not too long ago, hahaha. So Stanley waited another hour or so before we all head out for Tonkatsu.

よしの (Yoshino) The place where we had our とんかつ(pork cutlet rice)

Still in preparation apparently, but they were ready to serve us.

A quaint little place...

The menu...

My pork cutlet rice. おいしいね。。。

Mich was paying for our lunch

Walking along the back alley to the office

Tiny shop in the corner of an alley...

The apartments are soooo tiny. You'd be lucky is it's any more than 30sqm each!

Wanna guess what these are? Nope not letter boxes... They're locker boxes for office keys. So that there's no need to make so many keys for each staff

Later that afternoon, Kevin arrived. Then followed by Wannong & Haiyan. At about 4pm, we packed up and made our way to Kinugawa. The 2 hour bus ride!

Ever seen me in speckys? Nope, I've perfect eye-sight. These fake speckys belong to Mich. Good for hiding my eye bags!

Haiyan was tickled pink to see me in speckys

Peach flavoured beer. Tasted quite good!

So strange to see the guys sitting like that in a row. Hehehe, I have funny thoughts!

Eiko & Yoko. 2 very sweet ladies who took very good care of me during the trip. I was quite sick that time. Flu, sore throat, cough etc etc... Like what a doctor might say, Full Package!

And irritating Charlie won't let ppl sleep in peace. He goes around taking pics of anyone who dozes off!

Finally, we stopped for a toilet break. Somewhere very very very cold!

This place has a supermarket and lots and lots and lots of vending machines!

That's Mich trying to buy something hot to keep himself awake

Are these ciggies expensive? I don't smoke, so I have no clue. But 320 yen is approx SGD 5.30 for a pack. Sounds cheap to me!

The Kinugawa Royal Hotel was actually pretty old. Looked quite forlorn in fact. But I have to say it was still considered very clean. Mich checked us all in, and there were a mixture of modern rooms with beds, and traditional ryokan rooms with tatami. I went for the ryokan rooms of course! Something different since I'm all the way in Japan...

Views of the exterior of the hotel

Views from my ryokan

Inside my ryokan

And every evening, there'll be a fresh set of sweets & hot green tea waiting for me in my room

We had very little time to freshen up before dinner, but I managed to take a quick shower, and then head downstairs for a very sumptious dinner. There were so much food to eat! Like one of those scenes you'd see from the TV program "Japan Hour"! Steamed crabs, grilled fish, seafood stew, a pot of rice cooking in the traditional "tetsugama" cast iron rice pot, sushi, sashimi (lots and lots of), and a lot of other little side dishes which were very interesting. I can't remember what they all were, but I think tofu, pickles, seaweed and such... Of course we had a lot of beer & sake. The rice was very very delicious. Very nice plump and fluffy grains, which were very fragrant too. I don't normally eat a lot of rice, but when I was there, I ate a lot! Which explains how fat I am now lah (-_-")

Look at all the food... There's more that can't fit on the tray!

The sashimi platter

Yours truly here with Eiko

Haiyan & me

That evening after dinner, I went to the onsen. It was in the hotel, and had both indoors and outdoors. And NO, it was NOT mixed bath. Males had their own onsen and females had our own. SEPERATED, in case some of u sickos are thinking otherwise. And it was really relaxing to just soak in the hot water. Relaxed all the muscles, took away the tension, strain and anxiety from all the pre-travel prep-work, the travelling time itself, and revitalised my tired and dehydrated skin quite a bit. I also found that I slept better that night. Did I mention that I was sick just days before I left for Japan? Caught a nasty throat infection, and didn't have time to see the doc. So when I was there, I was literally croaking and coughing away.

OK, I should pause here for now, and post somemore pics in part 2 of my Tokyo trip!