here’s the link:

http://mmeeshell.blogspot.com

(much easier to remember don’t you think?! wordpress users used to following blogs can also subscribe there via email, if you support me enough. )

after moving over from there to wordpress in goodness-knows-when, i’ve enjoyed years of simple, hassle-free blogging. besides, i was going through a slightly rough patch and i needed the password-protect in order not to scare off minors with my cursing and swearing. anyway i’m past that childish stage now. and i’ve found a reason to switch back!

nuffnang. unfortunately, as much as i love using wordpress, it won’t let me run ads from nuffnang (or anywhere else for that matter). but then again, is nuffnang worth the trouble and risk?

while i’m not daydreaming to earn thousands of dollars like popular bloggers around, i hope to at least earn myself a new top or skirt or bag or even a meal, every…..half year or so? lol. i still have some credited in my account earned from years ago when my then-blog had zero readers. so it’s not exactly an unattainable dream is it?

and maybe. just maybe. someday, if nuffnang doesn’t work out for me, i’ll move back here to wordpress!

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as some of you may know, i was plagued with acne since my secondary school days. i have seen private and government doctors, experienced the happiest of clear smooth skin (after my micro derm period) and saddest of relapses and breakouts. my acne may have subsided at the moment but as they say, prevention is better than cure. so i was indeed very pleased when samplestore chose to sponsor me 3 of their new products.

all nicely couriered straight to my doorstep.

eucerin dermoPURIFYER hydrating care (50ml, $25.90)

the light, oil- and perfume-free cream gel regulates the disrupted skin functions, provides the skin with moisture and gives a fresh, relaxed skin feel. the cream gel effectively reduces skin blemishes and prevents the formation of new ones. the result: a finer and clearer skin complexion – after only 3 weeks.

eucerin dermoPURIFYER active concentrate (30ml, $29.90)

the refreshing serum is THE enhancing care for acne-prone skin. it absorbs quickly, gently dissolves cornified skin with lactic acid, improves the flow of sebum, regulates the skin’s functions, refines and clarifies the appearance of the skin. together with the eucerin dermoPURIFYER moisturizer, it gives a boosting effect to fight all four factors of acne.

eucerin dermoPURIFYER active night care (50ml, $25.90)

the light night care with the innovative follicle active system provides a continual supply of lactic acid during the night and dissolves cornified skin, which promotes better flow of sebum. the refreshing cream activates the skin’s own regenerative capability.

my take: the active concentrate is very light and really fast-absorbing. it also has this mild lovely scent and comes in an elegant glass pump bottle. this is something i would probably purchase on its own in future.

the active night takes a little bit longer to get absorbed, and before that there’s a sticky feel which i didn’t quite like. but i like how my cystic pimple reduced by half after the first night i used it. i think it also helped in oil-control.

similarly, the hydrating care worked as an excellent makeup primer and oil-control. my makeup managed to stay pretty matte as compared to before.

though i didn’t have the chance to use the products for at least 3 weeks before doing the review, they did leave a good first impression and i definitely will continue using them because i do see results, however small they may be. furthermore, all the products in this line are compatible with commonly used acne medication and suitable for all needs! (seeing a doctor is what i recommend for severe acne cases.) oh and i like that they’re made in poland / germany and NOT china.

the eucerin dermoPURIFYER range is available at most leading pharmacies, guardian, watsons, unity, hospital retail pharmacies and national skin centre. alternatively, you can also redeem your free samples + a $3 voucher here.

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but the difference is, VD seems so much darker than TS. so many times i actually jump when something pops up suddenly on screen, or hide behind my fingers when i feel something is gonna appear. there’s so much more blood and gore as well. and instead of vampires vs werewolves, VD has vampires and witches! lol.

but i think the main reason why these stuff are so popular are, eye candy! say ang moh vampire, and you get these:

(left to right: stefan salvatore, damon salvatore, edward cullen)

.

.

.

say chinese vampire, and you get these instead:

(left to right: 殭屍, 殭屍, 殭屍)

okay i shall continue my VD, which by now i’m sure you all know why i’m hooked. *points to first 2 ang moh vampires*

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we reached about 6pm, so it was still quite empty. they were still preparing the cooked food, but the uncooked ones were ready. variety of food was quite normal – the usual fishballs, veggies, prawns, crabs, mushrooms, marinated meat, fish, clams etc etc. i think we mainly took the prawns, fish (for me), chicken (for him), cuttlefish, and mushrooms? rofl.

it’s at balestier, near the famous boon tong kee chicken rice stall, and costs $19.80 nett per adult, which i think is pretty okay if you can eat the expensive stuff. and we chose a table with a fan nearby so it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable. probably the downside would be the mosquito bites. i’m super prone to them, so i have like ~5 bites just from one dinner. -_-

but it was fun. will definitely pop by again, though not in the near future. stuffing myself like that is so unhealthy!

then after dinner, we cabbed down to his place to get car, and look what was on (outside) it! mad cute baby lizard with tiny tail and ‘paws’! i tried to scare it off but failed. so SSD drove off with it still clinging on to dear life. it wasn’t there anymore when we reached my place. awwwwww.

a little cake my mum prepared for him that night, since his actual birthday was yesterday.

guess how SSD spent his birthday? stay home and game. -_- which was such a waste considering it was a weekend and he had the car. tsk. i’m considering to add ‘uncle’ when i refer to him in future. how, uncle SSD?

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it seems that as i get older, my life gets more boring. no more skipping school and hanging out at macdonalds. no more pubbing and going crazy. no more bbqs and gatherings. so boring!!

anyway, SSD bought me an anklet. pretty little dolphins! and noisy bell. no more sneaking up and scaring people now, cos i’m so ‘noisy’. lols.

have been wanting one for ages but putting off buying mainly because i’ve lost all my previous ones. they break and drop off and go missing so easily. let’s hope i don’t lose this one.

on a side note, SSD has given me a complete set of jewellery now – earrings, necklace, bracelet, ring and now, anklet. i have so many other jewellery not worn for the last 2 years because i don’t want to remove what he has given. maybe i’ll donate them to flea markets. *shrugs*

school tomorrow. plus steamboat bbq buffet! yay!

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… …

as ximending (西門町) was a mere 10-15 mins away, we skipped breakfast at the hotel for mee sua. where else but at 阿宗麵線’s? both of us had our hands full so no nice pic. they used pig intestines instead of oysters. SSD cheated me into eating one by saying it was sotong. -_- nevertheless, i’m missing this too.

tried the bestseller from 50嵐, one of taiwan’s most popular bubble tea stores. quite normal leh. even the common 珍珠奶茶 from our sweettalk tastes better.

and alas, on the way to the airport and home.

will be back, but…where to next?

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[scheduled]

… …

what better way to start the day with an early morning leisure cruise around the picturesque sun moon lake?

some of the nearby buildings our tourguide mentioned were (i think) -

• the ci en pagoda (慈恩塔) that chiang kai shek (蔣介石) built to commemorate his mother
• wenwu temple (文武廟) dedicated to confucius (孔子) and guan gong (關公)
• xuanzang temple (玄奘寺) that houses the relics (舍利子) of xuanzang (玄奘), better known as tang sanzang (唐三藏)

there is a tiny island in the middle of sun moon lake which belongs to the shao tribe and isn’t open to public.

according to legend, the shao tribe once lived on alishan together with another tribe. one day while hunting, one of them spotted a white deer and gave chase. the deer jumped into the lake and disappeared. having discovered the sun moon lake area, the entire shao tribe moved over.

the tiny island is known as lalu island, where priestesses of the shao tribe performs annual rites and rituals. 2 apparently important totems on this island are the white marble deer and wooden/stone (whichever) owl.

zoom fail. lol. interesting right? i wish we had more of such stuff instead of wasting time at 101 and miramar. -_-

on the way down, we stopped at this ‘shop’ selling local products like lingzhi, royal jelly, honey, and the rare 鹿胎 (deer fetus). not cheap. shan’t elaborate on what SSD bought, even though he used up majority of our available cash. i bought a 6-month supply of royal jelly! please tell me i’m prettier the next time you see me so i can feel the heartpain is worth it. wanted to buy lingzhi for my grandparents but so expensive! and we don’t have enough cash left. probably gonna splurge on my next trip there. lol.

day 7′s lunch deserves a little more mention because the restaurant’s decoration is special! food first! i think from this trip, we all can see that i enjoy (and is probably better at) taking food photos much more than other kinds. this muah chee has a subtle milky taste. and the sweet potato rice. yummy!

a very ‘artistic’ shot taken by our tourguide. lol photographer phail.

the owner is an artist so the interior and exterior are tastefully done. the art pieces around are also available for sale.

on our way to the next destination, we stopped by the martyrs’ shrine (忠烈祠) to see the changing of guards. nothing fantastic imho; they probably simplified it as it was about to rain.

the next destination was pretty special. we were to attend a ‘talk’ by one of the lecturers/masters from the national palace museum. he’s supposedly a very famous master (on tv) but i totally have no idea who he is. oops! anyway, he mainly spoke to us about the pixiu (貔貅). it’s used in the olden days by royals for protection, health and wealth (or something like that). he said the common misconception people have is that you need a pair for it to work. on the contrary, pixius used for good are always male. the females ones are mainly used to guard royal tombs (not good).

his students then filed in and they helped us to 算命 just by our names and birthdates. i never used to believe in such stuff but she was amazingly accurate. the attributes she said of me were those that i’ve learnt about myself over the years. i’m supposedly lacking water so a black pixiu will be able to help me. super tempted to buy! but mad expensive. and not enough cash. *sad face*

gotta make do with a photograph of my pixiu. in which the photographer MAD FAIL! >_<

dinner was at ding tai fung (鼎泰豐) headquarters. and what’s DTF without xiao long baos (小籠包)? so yes, i ate pork again. piled lots and lots of ginger and vinegar on it to mask the pork smell. ewwww~ the 酸辣 soup was nice, the rest normal. we only had a plate of veggies, a bowl of fried rice, and a few other dumplings. is this even dinner? -_-

back to hotel and out we went. took the 捷運 again, this time to wufenpu (五分埔), a garment wholesale area. it’s like bugis street, just a whole lot bigger and more confusing. spent about an hour here. majority of the clothes are weird, but cheap! i managed to get 6 pieces, the cheapest of them only NT100 (~SGD4.35)!! i should probably go back during spring or summer. i have no use for winterwear. -_-

supper was at the nearby raohe street night market (饒河夜市). this was much easier to walk than shilin cos it’s basically just one street; go in on one side, u-turn and come out the other. confirm can see all the shops. lol.

my last fried 臭豆腐 of the trip. i’m missing it so so much now! also got another 綜合煎 and tried the famous ‘pepper biscuit’ (胡椒餅). i had no idea the ‘biscuit’ was pork-filled and since SSD was full (small-eater or not you tell me!?), i had to eat it. darn disgusting lor. so i, erm, didn’t finish it. :X

my loots! the mat is also NT100! and the box of masks from mybeautydiary. should have bought more cos they’re the thin transparent ones i like.

last night in taiwan!

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[schedule]

took family out for an early birthday dinner at indoor stadium’s jumbo. chose this place since it’s nearer to my ah gong’s place and as an alternative to our usual seafood international. took the set menu for 8 pax even though we had 9 pax. (we got the set menu G @ $328++. different outlets offer different sets at different prices.)

gave us cute little napkins to wear (for chilli crab) in case we dirty ourselves.

jumbo appetizer four – fried youtiao, fried tofu, prawn salad, and some meat salad thingy. everything but the meat is nice. lol. but i was certainly expecting something more expensive than tofu and youtiao. -_-

boiled live prawns. nice and fresh. but they vary in size. and some are small. =\

seafood corn soup. ok this one i got no complaint. it tastes like sharks’ fin, especially after adding pepper and vinegar, but i can eat it cos there’s no sharks’ fin in it! yay! mine had chunks of sotong and crab meat. lovely~

stir fried cuttlefish & broccoli with XO sauce. the veggies are a little hard but the sauce is yummy!

live sea bass steamed with minced garlic. the fish is pathetically small. @_@ but the sauce/garlic is nice and the fish fresh and not overcooked. i likes!

chilli crab. why is it in a claypot? -_- it tastes pretty ok to me, perhaps a little not spicy enough. not really fantastic though.

fried rice with diced chicken & silver bait. they said this was nice, but i find it so-so only. maybe it’s because they diced the chicken so small that i can’t pick all of them out. why can’t they use shrimps or something else? =(

sweet potato sago. we were like “wow!” when it was brought out. perhaps cos it was so pretty. lol. this was refreshing. not too sweet, but yummy. don’t have sweet potato taste though. *shrugs*

and last but not least, birthday cake! and guess what? i didn’t take photo of the cake! rofl~! it’s the lychee martini cake from pine garden that i bought for my dad some years ago. and again, overwhelming lychee taste and no martini. lol. but it’s so simple and pink and purple and pretty!

overall verdict – i’ll probably stick to our usual in future. even though the service is better at jumbo, the food and environment wins hands down (to me) at seafood international. what do you think?

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SSD finally fixed the rilakkuma iphone cover which wasn’t working earlier on. cute right? it’s apparently very famous in taiwan at the moment. they call it 啦啦熊.

had an small early celebration cos i’ll be stuck in class during my birthday next friday. boo. SSD appeared at my doorstep in the morning with…

lol but he already told me he’ll be buying them so…no surprise! =( /muacks.

went to watch real steel. definitely recommended if you haven’t watched it yet. pretty exciting and heartwarming in the end. quite cool to see robots fighting and behaving so human-like too. i almost thought atom had human feelings. /scary.

then it’s nihon mura again for dinner. we tried the seafood teppanyaki; totally not worth @ $12 (2 scallops, 1 shrimp, 1 salmon slice, some mushrooms, and some veggies only). it was very fun though. =\

came home and found out mum bought a new coffee maker. you only need to add water, insert the little cups, and voila~! lovely coffee! i tried the cappuccino; definitely better than 3-in-1. they have mocha, espresso and latte too.

but i’m guessing it’s gonna be a temporary thing. lol. alrights, back to my show. seafood dinner tomorrow. more food pics! ^o^

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