Few days ago, I decided to take up a friend’s recommendation to try the latest nail fad in town.

Gel nails (or so I know it by).

It was indeed a very unique experience, unlike the usual manicures I’ve done.

There was filing, UV light, filling, UV light, base coat, file again etc.

I LOVED the fact that the nails were dried instantly and I didn’t need to worry about letting it dry out for 2 hours before I could go rummaging my bag for things too!

Ahhh so it seems that the computer worm that silently attacked my Yahoo mail and have been sending suggestive links to all my contacts appears to have attacked the gang of gmail and and hotmail too.

Thanks to a nice friend, N. who sent me a link on IMMEDIATE next steps before I bomb his inbox with a few more blank emails … in case you’re encountering the same thing and like me, you dread to have to never use this email account because you have so much of activity/relationship/history/connections with it, here’s 2 immediate steps you should take when you start receiving failure notices and when contacts you’ve not emailed in a while start replying you and asking you what you’re trying to say…

1. Immediately change your password. (Password Rule of Thumb= should be at least 8 characters and contain letters, uppercase and lowercase, and numbers)

2. Change your Security Question and answer (this is how you can get access to your account if you ever forget your password).

The first rule of thumb is to never click on a link that you aren’t sure what it is for, who it came from, and why. If you are ever in doubt, just send an email to the person you got it from and ask them if they meant to send it to you and what it is about.

If you place your mouse over the link the link address should be displayed in the lower left hand corner of the web browser window (in web based email, i.e. Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail) If that address that is displayed in the lower left hand corner is not the same as the link in the email (i.e. Link= http://amazon.com/account, Displayed as http://www.xyz.ca) DO NOT CLICK ON IT.

To read more, here’s a good article N sent me in case you wanna read more about getting smart help.

[Source: SmartAdam]

I haven’t been blogging in the past week, due to many reasons that I’m lazy to list – the top being that most wordpress themes messed up my blog layout big time and I didn’t have that much time on hand to do any fixing.

I had half the mind to delete this blog completely too, and just venture into 2011 solely relying back on my pen & journal. May still do it.

The highlight of the week was receiving a very pleasant xmas present from the husband which was a surprise itself that he actually chose it from Tod’s.  He said he wanted to get me a functional bag that was big enough to throw things in and out that he chose a seasonal exclusive instead of the brand’s staple…which is very his style anyway and I shouldn’t be complaining on top of all the wonderful little gifts he’s been getting me just that…OK I SHALL SHUT UP NOW and just learn to be contented! I even got to get a handbag charm & special horse hair brush just for it!!!So I really should be thankful that I have a husband who even bothers to add some variety to my wardrobe :)))

In the past week, I’ve also been to the new NEX mall like 4 times already. I must be mad. Each time for a different agenda, accomplishing what I happily intended to do, thanks to many shops closing later than the usual suburban malls. I love the fact that ISETAN is there and getting most things is just a 2-min train ride away.

We’ve also finally managed to kick start our Christmas shopping list, get a real christmas tree into the house, start planning for a cozy little party for a requested few before we go for our winter adventure & disappear into the kingdom of fun.

Grrrr, trudge on I will for that long awaited holiday. I so need that break away to play away with snow.

Finally got my hands on another raved about beauty product: NARS blush in Orgasm.

A newly-made friend, Gracie, offered to help me buy during her recent shopping trip. Thanks lots girl, I love the results so far!

Dig the nifty packaging too.

“Whatever happened to FAITH and your God?”, BR asked over a late dinner after a long journey down just to catch up with me yesterday before she flies to Shanghai for another gig.

-”down the drain”, as I munched on the Indonesian crackers to satisfy my very hungry tummy.

She gave me a -_- face, and I didn’t even want to go into the details of WHY enthusiastically. I was weary from working all weekend and on my day off and the last thing I wanted was to go into talk details of my emotions.

So between 4 hours of sleep after trying to deal with spreadsheets,formuals & numbers and waking up at 6.40am this morning for 4 back-to-back con calls, I subconsciously managed to psyche myself into the condition of “expecting good things to come for I’m the Lord’s child”. I read it in one of the daily devotionals recently. Though I must admit…I have been slacking off in diligently reading and more importantly, actually understanding & absorbing most of it. Can I blame it on work and busy social life?

But hey, turns out a positive mindset does work out. Or least it did for me today.

Amidst catching up and joking around with my fellow local markets in KR & CN, bugging my colleague from HQ on some financial stuff which I’m really grateful to the someone who decided to send her here for the GTE program, P buying me a delicious cury puff, squeezing out some 20-minutes me time with my yong tau foo lunch, checking in on mom whose overseas for work, still feeling good despite a serious lack of sleep and receiving a string of surprise smses from a very good friend whom I’ve not heard from since April, seeing 2 ex-colleagues who decided to drop by the vincinity, catching up with my lovely nu nu whose in London - my heart felt extremely contented as I left the office at 9.35pm.

It was as if life had been going on good for such a long while that I didn’t even feel that it was only for today.

WOW. A lot to absorb, but for someone who  loves jam-packing her schedules with lots of activities – today was absolutely lovely.

I finally got to meet my dearest jasmeanie for lunch today after a 6 months hiatus and previous unsuccessful attempts.

We weren’t able to have a proper lunch together since we both had to be back by 2pm for some important work matters, and she had some last minute crisis which didn’t allow her to leave any earlier but I couldn’t complain, since I really wanted to see & give her a tight squeeze, and tell her how much I really missed her. And boy was I glad that we HAD to meet because I needed to pass her a bag anyway. This meant, we couldn’t call it off out of convenience!

Jas & Me!

And just as how good friends are, we were able to start from where we left off previously, no awkward silences, weird distances. It was pratically 40 minutes of insane mad catching up while checking our watches in-between just to make sure…

I really miss working with this lady, and am very happy that we are able to become good friends from just being (ex-)colleagues.

She’s definitely one of the blessings God sent.

p/s: Jasmeanie, let’s meet-up for dinner & a proper hangout soon!

There I was, for once, one of the earliest to arrive at a Wedding Dinner, taking my sweet stroll towards the ballroom…when a lady tapped on my shoulder.

“Hey miss, I think you should stop walking. You have a tear in your dress”, she expressed.

I looked over my shoulder, nonchantly thinking that she may have mistook the slit at the back for a tear all about to reassure her that I was alright until…GASP

I spotted a tear along the seams in my dress. It started somewhere from my middle thigh, and it was making its way up to my arse really quickly. I couldn’t believe it. Here I was, just 20 steps short of the wedding reception and congratulation the couple, and I had a tear almost big enough to hide my entire face in.

“Do you have a jacket to cover?”, the lady asked. “Or should I get the hotel to pass you a sewing kit”, she offered.

I declined politely (I wasn’t really in the mood to be sitting and sewing my clothes while wearing nothing???), speed-dial the husband who had just dropped me 10 minutes ago to come grab me, and screamed into the phone telling natalie what had happened.

I did manage to bump into Ed & Cat outside the hotel lobby prior to jumping on my escape car, explained to them my humiliation before handing over the ang pow. I seriously knew I wasn’t going to make it back in time for the wedding dinner. And well, coming to a wedding dinner 3-4 courses late, is just rude.

So I left, went straight home & got changed. The husband had one of the best laughs of the weekend (had to tell everyone else why I turned up for the wine/food gathering at Straits Wine Company instead of being at a wedding dinner thereafter of course).

Grr. Perhaps its finally time to cut back some weight! (a joke which had the guys going all night asking if I was bursting out of my clothes). :(

Not funny. But this has taught me to take a closer look at seams in future.

on normal days:

home-work-home

on today and for future days which I’m happily planning for:

home-work-play-home

in a week’s time:

home-travel-play-home

it’s good to know that I’m starting to get my life back to +happening mode.

my item from missypixie has finally arrived, and I can’t wait to wear it!

funny how receiving shopping items in the mail always thrill me.

I finally succumb to the very crowded Comex affair twice this weekend…only to check out deals for a very lightweight laptop (PC) which would have relatively good specs and a long lasting battery life one only because I was pretty fed-up that the existing mac at home wouldn’t let me watch all my fave HK dramas on the web (they even blatantly stated on the site that they do not support mac OS for their player!).

And since mom was looking for a very lightweight laptop with a long battery life (we managed to find one that lasted till 8 hrs), we decided to recommend her the timeline X series from Acer which we set our eyes on since 2 months ago, since we knew the prices this time at Comex was too good to pass on. It was also our very advanced Xmas present for her, for being such a wonderful mom & always being there for us.

The separate queues for payment & product collection were annoyingly long & slow, but we managed to pull through, spilting ourselves up when needed. It was quite astonishing seeing so many people buying so many goodies for themselves! Then again, the prices were incredibly low.

Needless to say, mom was extremely happy with her very new, light, stylish and incredibly fast laptop while I was overjoyed to be able to watch my dramas again without having to rely on bobo’s work laptop for faster streaming speeds. Plus at a mere 1.6kg, the timeline was really like a much better & faster ‘netbook’ which I knew had the perfect capabilities to handle future uses we had for it.

 I  was also pleased to notice new functions on the Windows 7 platform, although I’m too used to the mac OS now. But it’s nice having both at my side now, for  different uses. I do secretly wish that mac would upgrade their 13″ to a 15″ processing specs soon though so that lugging a good imac around won’t be such a heavy burden. Perhaps.. we may see it at the next Comex 2011 and I can consider another upgrade!? :))

 For now, I’m one happy geek with another gadget added to the stash.

I enjoy snooping on my BR on her blog just to see what she has been up to in life, since we both run busy schedules (she, more than me) and rarely have the luxury of a catch-up meal.

And today, I read another meaningful life’s lesson posted by her.

I sort of lost her in the first paragraph, wondering where all the great marriage reference came about…giving her the benefit of doubt that perhaps I wasn’t quick enough to understand what she was saying.

But I read on, and on. Like an addict chasing after every word of her favourite book & author, thinking to myself “wow, I didn’t know BR thought about life this deep & detailed, and could express it so vividly” (no offense, BR).

It was really brilliantly written, at least to me.

Until I read till the end and realized that she picked it up from an beautifully written article by Tara Sophia Mohr

BR may not have wrote that inspirational self-help note which I very much needed to remind myself at the end of the week, but what I really love & cherish is her resourcefulness to suss out such lovely articles that speak true to our hearts. Daring to share. Daring to be unselfish.

And if I’ve to take any hints from BR’s B+ post and apply it to my own life, it would be to start by answering one’s call (which I know she’s already doing in a weird satisfactory way).

I definitely hope that I’m well on the journey to one too as life unveils that plan to me.

Happy Weekend everybody!