Making My Own Eye Makeup Remover

I've been thinking of making my own eye makeup remover for quite some time since I want something that is mild and at the same time does not leave an oily feeling on my lids. I've tried removing my eye makeup with olive oil --- that was waayyyy too oily for my liking.

My online research online revealed that eye makeup removers should contain oil to break down and remove the eye makeup. Then I noticed lately that my Moo Goo Shampoo was getting oily. A thought occurred to me: Moo Goo Shampoo contains coconut oil and that should work in my eye makeup remover! So, I put one and a half pumps of Moo Goo Shampoo into a small bottle with 30 ml water, gave it a good shake and viola, I had my own d.i.y. eye makeup remover!

It's gentle, organic (Moo Goo Shampoo is an organic product), quick to make, doesn't sting my eye, and best of all, it cost me nothing to make it.

To use it, I just put some on a cotton pad, put the cotton pad over my eye for about 10 seconds and then wipe the eye makeup off my lids.

And I discovered a bonus --- it works great for removing my facial makeup too!

Zoeva Brushes

The brushes arrived bubbled wrapped in a bubble lined Jiffy Bag

Each brush comes in its own case

My Zoeva brushes arrived today and ooohhh... they are super soft!

I'd been mulling over purchasing makeup brushes for quite some time but the ones that are sold at Sephora are not only pricey but their quality doesn't feel that great either. Then I came across bloggers and vloggers who were raving over these Zoeva brushes which are made in Germany. To make things more attractive, they are said to be comparable to Sigma brushes in quality but at the fraction of the price.

I found an online beauty store in Singapore that carries Zoeva products. The price that I paid for both brushes is much cheaper than what I would have paid if I had bought direct from the Zoeva online store.

I was holding out purchasing these brushes for the longest time before I finally caved in when there are a flash sale recently with everything in the web store going at a 35% discount. I made a small purchase of just two brushes (the Zoeva 104 Buffer Brush and the Zoeva 231 Petit Crease Brush) to test out the web store's service, the courier service that they were using as well as the products. I also got free delivery with this purchase. This is such a treat! :)

Body Shop Sakura Shower Gel Freebie

My 60 ml Sakura Shower Gel Freebie

I'd just collected my Body Shop freebie yesterday. Thank you Body Shop! :)

Second Interview

I was called in for the second interview with a private university run by Malays today. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

The interview was set at 9:30 AM. I got there at a little past 9 AM and again saw other people in the waiting room. "Here we go again," I thought. "It's going to be another long wait (the first interview was a long wait as well)." There were four others to be exact. The first candidate was called in at 10 AM. I was the last candidate to be called in and had the luxury of hearing from the other candidates of how their interviews went.

The second interview was a chat with the HR Manager alone. The interviews with the other candidates took approximately 30 minutes each. Two of the younger candidates who were interviewing for their first jobs were told to not focus on the money but to think of the "charity work" that they were about to do in educating the students. LOL.

My interview with the HR Manager took only 10 minutes. Strangely enough, I wasn't given the "charity work" talk like the others. I think she didn't really know what to make of me. She talked a lot about "fitting in". Hmmm.... okay, I get it, she probably thought that I'm too westernized and they are an organization where ALL the female Malays wear hijabs.

There was no discussion about money. She kept saying that it was up to some sort of committee to decide on that. Basically, she was pushing the buck and was not being transparent. Surely there is some sort of ball park figure that the university is able to pay? When I said that I was sure that the university had a pay bracket for the role that I was applying for, the HR Manager eluded the issue.

When I asked about the maximum number of teaching hours that lecturers have to do, she told me she didn't know. Then, she said maybe 20. Yes, a HR Manager who has NO idea of what should be a standard university policy. She proceeds to say that lecturers when given low number of teaching hours say nothing but make a lot of noise when asked to teach a lot. Hmmm...... a pretty unprofessional comment made in what should be an "interview".

Personally, I walked away today thinking:
1. I don't fit into the work culture of this organization where they have absolutely NO respect for my time. Making candidates sit around and wait to be called is just a waste of time. They didn't have the common sense to stagger the interview candidates.

2. This is the ONLY private university that I've been to that didn't have ANY sign of buzz and student life going on on campus.... strange....

3. It seems like a seriously Malay kampung where anyone who presents themselves differently (ie female Malay not wearing the hijab) will be harshly judged. You can see this on their faces.

4. People work for money. It is just not right to tell candidates to think of the work that they are about to do as charity. I'm sure that the candidates would be going to charitable organizations if they wanted to do charity work. The only charity that I see here is the organization. I didn't realize that the university was a "charity" case.

5. This place seems to hire a majority of Malay staff (something like 98% from my observation with only two Indians spotted while I was there and NO Chinese staff).

6. The HR Manager was anything BUT transparent. She mentioned about benefits but elaborated on NONE.

7. Today's "interview" was an absolute waste of time as I saw no point of the need for it.

8. It seemed like they were hiring a lot of people. Is this an indication of the high staff turnover? I have never seen other universities hire this many people at one go.

9. When asked if the university was growing in student numbers, the HR Manager gave me the evil eye and mentioned what I consider a small number of new students. I guess the idea of what constitutes a large number of students is relative.

In short, all the signs are against it. I've given myself the opportunity to find out more about them. Now, I  KNOW that this is not a place that I can nor want to be a part of. When a university hires lecturers for early childhood education who are fresh out of grad school (as in the case of one particular candidate who was there today) with absolutely ZERO experience in the field, it is a bad sign because that indicates that the university can't be bothered with the relevance of real world experience. A lecturer who can only impart what he has learnt from books (with no real world application at all) is of little value as they have nothing much to impart to the students.

The other candidates who they were there for the second interview were about to fill roles of TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) lecturers and guess what --- they don't feel comfortable talking in English! Hmmm........

I am not one for the segregation of the races. A lot of the same kind is never good. If Malays want to be competitive, they have to interact with the other races as well. Religion, as the majority of Malays interpret it is what is keeping them from progressing. Note that it is not the religion that is at fault but their interpretation of is that is hindering them from looking past their blinkers. It is important to have open minds particularly in a place that claims to be a university. 

The Game of Willpower

I've been eyeing on some stuff on this online store. At first, they were giving 20% discount for first time customers and I thought, "I can wait." Then they had a 30% one day only sale which I also passed up on. Later they were giving $20 discount for orders of a minimum of $50 which technically looked like a 40% discount provided that your order total came up to $50 on the dot. My order total order, however, was over $50 and when I worked the $20 discount back into it, the discount came up to about 35%. I decided to forget it. Then yesterday, they announced a flash sale from 6 pm to 12 midnight on the whole store with no minimum purchase limits. I caved in when I saw that many of the items that were previously available were sold out.

I only bought two items and the total purchase cost me half of what I had initially planned to buy. So I consider that a compromise. Besides, I figured that a small order would give me a chance to sample the online store's service. More importantly, I saved some money but not jumping in at the first sign of a discount. It pays to be patient. With the 35% discount, the prices are lower than what the European customers are paying for the products on the brand's website in Europe. I also saved money by planning and researching the items and purchasing only the items that I don't already have (seriously, I'm not buying look-a-likes of things that I already own) and oh, by the way, I got free shipping too :)

Now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my order arrives quickly and without drama.

A Patch for My Beloved Keds

Not one to throw things out unnecessarily, I found it hard to part with my beloved Keds when there was a slight tear in the big toe area of my right shoe. Purchased in Bangkok, this pair of Keds and I have been to many places together. This is my second pair of Keds in this design, yes, I loved it enough to buy a second pair.

 I can wear my fav Keds again!

There's a cute little blue elephant on my shoe!

I stopped wearing it when the tear was beginning to look visible but at the same time, I was reluctant to put into the donation box. I recently had this idea of concealing the tear with an iron on patch (don't know why it took me so long to think of this!) and guess what --- it works and I can now wear my beloved Keds again! I'm a happy bunny!

I Donated My Bras!

If you're like me (I'm assuming that you're female if you're reading this, if not...hmmmm.....what brought you to this page?), you've probably got more than enough bras. Throughout the years, I have purchased and worn many bras that I love. Some of the have become loose but there are others that even though are still in relatively good condition, I no longer wear.

After such a long time of wondering what to do with the bras that I no longer wear for numerous reasons (trust me, I've even googled up for places to donate bras in Malaysia and came up with nought), I finally found a place to donate my bras. I'm so glad that I hung on to them eventhough I didn't know where to donate them then.

Neubodi is now collecting bras for donation at their stores. I just dropped off five of my bras at their 1-Utama outlet today. The donation box is made of acrylic and placed right smack in front of their store (you just can't miss it). It was full when I went there today.

I couldn't help but notice that my bras stood out when I placed them in the box as most of the other bras in there were kinda the basic boring sort. What? I can't help it if I view bras as fashion wear. I admit that I like bras with personality, if that makes any sense to you.

Let's see, I gave away a shocking pink with black polkadots bra, a light blue and white gingham bra, a black bra that had shiny black splashes on it, a skin toned bra (okay, that was a boring one) and a black and white striped halter top one (it looks more like a bikini top really).

Anyway, the bra donation drive will go on till the end of this month, so there's still another 11 days to go if you've been like me wondering what to do with your pre-loved bras and don't want to just throw them out and add to the already overflowing landfills out there. Neubodi is also giving away a maximum of three RM10 vouchers which you can use towards your Neubodi purchase.

Create some space in your bra drawer and do good at the same time. Donate a bra to the needy.

Next Target: 15k

Having achieved 12k recently in the Pink Charity Run 2014, I'm now looking at my next target of 15k! Something for me to work on.

I've heard many excuses for not running:
1. People who endurance run have been doing it since they were young
2. If I don't win the race, I can't help getting upset about it (lame reason for not even trying to run in a race at all)

Like a lot of other things in life, we present ourselves with barriers. For the longest time, my lame excuse was I couldn't run (yeah, I know, like I said, it was a pretty lame excuse).

I only started running last October. Once I got started, I totally fell in love with it.

For me running is a conscious choice that I make every time I slip my feet into my running shoes. I'm a super slow runner but that doesn't matter to me because I always do my best and whenever I cross that finish line, I am really proud of myself. It's a personal achievement that nobody can take away from me. I'm a hell lot better than those other people who are sitting on their arses and watching tv!

My body is stronger than I think it is. My ass is looking cuter with each run that I do. I've got this. :)

Simply D Review: Pay What You Want for Coffee Mondays

Simply D's Pay What You Want for Coffee promo takes place on Mondays between 3- 4 PM. I was in the Avenue K outlet and offered to pay 10 cents for a mocha just to try out the quality. 

Sadly, the quality of the mocha that I received was a disappointment. It was watered down. One wonders if this coffee has been watered down for the promo or if the mocha is normally this bad on most days, and if that is the case, I sure am glad that I didn't pay full price for it.

Not having any sort of coffee here again, me thinks!

Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon SCKLM 2014

My reward for completing another 10k race

The MSIG 10k Route Map

I must admit that 5 months ago when I signed up for the race, I wasn't so sure whether or not I could do it.

It took me like forever to decide to sign up for the 10k race instead of the 5k race. For the record, this was the first 10k race that I signed up for. What made it worse was that there was a cutoff time as well! But guess what --- all that training paid off! I'm a happy bunny :)

I took the LRT to the race venue. I didn't factor in the long wait for the connecting LRT from Mesjid Jamik station to the Bandaraya station. I arrived at the Bandaraya station with just 3 minutes to spare to run from the LRT Bandaraya station to the end of the starting pen. I also had to stop for a little while to pin on my bib. I only had time to pin the top two pins to my running vest. Yes, I was that strapped for time! Note to self, pin the bib while waiting for the LRT in the future. Thank goodness I got to the end of the starting pen just as they were beginning to move forward.

There were soooo many people in the 10k race which made it kinda difficult to pass them sometimes as some of them were pals and were walking 5 or 6 abreast. I don't know if they were even aware of common race courtesy of keeping out of other runners' way. It took me more than 5 minutes to get from the end of the starting pen to crossing the start line. Yes, there were THAT many people!

Quite a number of people had muscle cramps and stopped at the medical stations along the way for muscle cramp rub ointments. Perhaps this is due to the back to back race with the BSN Putrajaya Night Race which took place the night before? I guess, there were many runners who didn't want to miss out on two of the biggest runs in Malaysia.

Only the first hydration station along the 10k route served 100 Plus but all the other hydration stations had water. There were lots of portaloos along the way too.

I felt okay at the end of the race :) Hmmm... maybe I'm getting this running thing sussed out!

Interviews: A Comparison

I was called in for an interview at a language centre for one of the better known language franchises in Malaysia recently. It was a pretty strange experience. I was made to take a test. Okay...stranger still was that it was a badly constructed test and the things that were being asked in the test really had nothing to do with language teaching at all. Hmmm......

While taking the test at the language centre, I received a phone call for another interview at a university the following day. There, I was asked to give a short sample lesson using just a marker and a whiteboard.

Of the two, the university interview made a lot more sense to me. The candidate's ability to teach is something that should be of interest to the interviewers. In my experience, you don't have to ask a candidate to sit for a test to gauge how accurate their language is. You can get that sussed out during the interview with the candidate. What is more important is if the candidate can teach and engage the learners. We all know people who have a lot of knowledge but who seem to lack the ability to impart the knowledge to others.

It just goes to show that language centers are simply businesses being run  by people who have very little knowledge of language teaching and what it really entails. Most are there just to make money and the extremely low rates that they pay their instructors makes it no wonder why they don't attract experienced and knowledgeable instructors who know what they are doing. Are Malaysian parents really that clueless that they are willing to believe that such language centres are actually doing something worthwhile towards the improvement of their kids' language abilities?