Around the end of June Donna Merinette messaged me on FB asking me if i'm interested in going to Cafe Takahashi for a meal because she has a four person worth coupon expiring 2 or 3 days later (i forgot lol). It appears that it's too rushed for her to go all the way to pavillion, so after asking my mum about it, we decided to go all the way to try out this restaurant.
To me the food were slightly above average, but my mum dislike fusion food (especially pasta with onsen tamago haha). I was interested in having the purple burger when looking at the coupon~ It wasn't hard to find the place as it's located in Tokyo Street.
We took the menu to see if there's anything else we could order for sides.
The usual green tea from the set.
This two plates of cheese wedges was from the set as well, it tasted meh. Probably because of the pineapple which doesn't seem to match with the flavors.
This was not from the coupon set! We ordered this Hotate Mentaiyaki for the sake of comparing it with other authentic Japanese restaurant. It was a slight dissapointment as the mentai doesn't taste as superb as what we had before in other places.
Beef Bacon and Onsen Tamago carbonara. My mum couldn't accept the existence of that egg in her originall Italian meal lol.
Chicken and Mushroom pasta. My sis was quite satisfied with this, it has some Japanese flavor in the pasta (mushroom used was the Japanese Kinoko), but blended really well with the sauce.
Finally my Ebi Furai Purple Sesame Burger!!~~ The bread itself doesn't have much taste la haha, but apparently it's made from beetroot, so it's supposingly healthy I guess. Ebi Furai is good! Very crispy on the outside and soft fresh prawns inside. The best part for this burger is the photo taking I guess, it's hard to come by a pink purple-ish looking burger!
Overall food picture of the day ^^ Gonna update on my Genting trip soon~
Finally did my first name card during June (C2AGE batch). Sayoko was telling me about her coscard design and I thought why not join the batch to make my own namecard since I wanted to have my first properly printed namecard.
I had loads of fun designing using PS, did many prototypes before making my final decision ^^. I made one before this using a simple template and printed them using my own printer but that's of course doesn't look remotely nice lol, so this time is definitely better~
Front:
Back:
Decided to use a butterfly themed background for the front~ Was having a hard decision between blue sakura petals or blue butterfly. I wanted to do a pinkish theme but didn't have any pictures to match with it, so I stick to blue till the end.
Due to my inexperience, I did not know that after printing the brightness will be lower than what I see from the computer screen =_=. So yeah, my picture look dark in the actual card haizzz (the front was good though). Kinda dissapointed but oh well, this is my first and my second could always be better.
Can't see the darkness from this picture coz I used some flash lol.
Will end this post with my June nail design: Neko themed~
Around Mid-June I got a message from Carlson (CrestFall band leader) to sort of ask me if it's possible to go perform for this event since our band got invited to perform. I find the dates rather rushed and find it impossible to gather for a full electric band performance; however an idea crossed me that I could try out for a 3 pcs acoustic band performance instead since my keyboardist and guitarist were itching to perform as well.
And off we go, the usual meet up practice process lol. This time we've decided to meet at my place instead of booking a studio because...well, there's only 3 of us. We did a total of 3 practices, but rather long and relaxed hours because it's free (duh it's my house) and there's no time restrictions. First practice is Always, always and always very laid back as most members haven't prepared and practice well, especially David (guitarist) who didn't even listen to the song once before the practice.
Nevertheless it was real fun being together with them, can't stop our laughters whenever David said something or even when he did nothing wth. On our first practice we had Sushi Tei for dinner, and due to David's forgetfullness or funny-ness or whatever, i spilled green tea on my sushi =_=. Well no use crying over spilled tea on sushi i guess lol.
2nd practice is a little different because we were practicing for about 2 hours before going for a Music Composition Workshop at Bentley Music. Thanks a lot to Akiko for the directions!
The workshop was "...". It literally made me speachless hahaha. All the speaker has to say was "it's very hard to explain composing, all you need is feel". Which is rather lame as most of us has music background and I'm sure we would hope to learn up some skills which would help to ease the process of composing. Just like a teacher asking students to FEEL the drawing to learn how to draw, so very "helpful".
But! I fell in love with the entire building that is filled with music equipments and books and instruments!!! Really feel like getting a sequencer >_<.
Our final (3rd) practice went rather well, and we decided to drop a song because we got too bored playing it. Personally I still feel that we didn't practice thoroughly enough but I guess it's just me, I couldn't stand if there's any mistakes during practice lol. But am trying hard to control myself and let things go a bit since, well, not everyone is like me.
I'm rather satisfied with the song choice this time: Wherever you are by One OK Rock; Last song by Gackt; and This Love by Angela Aki. I've did Wherever you are with Osiria Rose before, and I definitely miss the duet with their vocalist. Last song was a great song to cover for an acoustic performance so I totally bought the idea of doing this right when Joee (keyboardist) brought this up. As for This Love, am feeling really excited and happy practicing this song as it's quite a high level song and I've been wanting to sing it for years and do not have the ability to do so.
Event day
It was of course, a rather small event since the campus is quite small to me lol. Anyway, outfit of the day!
Matte Sequin top and grey skinny jeans (both from Mango, jeans got them from Spain ^^); washed light blue jeans cap; back studded boots.
Max love my sequin top because it's really rare to find a matte sequin because usually they are all shiny and disco looking.
Here's our (performers) resting area. A small lecture hall ^^ Unfortunately we didn't make full use of the room for warm ups because we spent most of the time setting up the stage and EQs (which is kinda pointless because the PA people tempered with it right after we set =_=).
The event has very few stalls, selling document files, handmade goodies, sushi lol.
Really love this file~ Bought them for my sis. I feel like getting one as well but I know I'll just keep it aside and won't use it since it's too pretty haha.
Handmade goodies~~ Kinda regretted not buying.
As predicted, David was late, apparently his car broke down. Setting up took a while because there's some problem with the speaker (it got burst haizzz, don't know why PA people didn't go change it). For some reason the usually chilled to the core David went nervous, probably his first time singing while playing the guitar.
First song (Wherever you are by One ok Rock) was okay, nothing much except our mics got toned down. It was rather soft so I was pretty worried about the dynamics. 2nd song (Last song by Gackt) was a disaster lol. First the keyboard and PA settings got messed up, then Joee's mic became so soft that her solo was difficult to be heard and I went near her to hold my mic for her. And then came the biggest disaster: Joee's keyboard cable got unplugged ohnoessss.
While Joee singing I realised that there was no power from the keyboard, and there's no lights on the screen! And then I looked at the floor....cable was lying flat. I picked the cable and showed her, and panic attack begins!! Ergh it was quite a brain storming process trying to think what to do to continue the performance.
Before the 3rd song (This Love by Angela Aki), we paused for several minutes to try to set the equipments but it's kinda futile. I don't get why the stage crews did not change the speakers while we paused our performance, instead, they changed it AFTER our performance *criessss*
Our This Love was okay, except some mistakes here and there on the keyboard; but thats acceptable after the panic attack. Personally I did not make mistakes for this performance and am kinda proud that I'm levelled up enough to sing Angela Aki songs~ YAY~~
Some on-the-stage pictures:
Two pictures below were taking by Joee's sister, it's blurry since she did not realise there's thumb prints on the lens hahaha. But it made us look as if we are performing in the midst of haze, kinda cool lol
Like got some light effects right haha.
I hope to perform This Love again, next time a much better cover! Why why why Animangaki's performance slot not open yet T_T.
Most of the problems in this performance were caused by the inexperience of stage crews in the event, as such the way they handled situation and made wrong decisions gave us huge problems during our performance. But still, they were all really nice and friendly, and tried their best to work their first-time event out; so I hope they could improve and make a better event next time~
I'll end with two videos from this performance, do enjoy~
It's SUMMER now!! Summer is usually not the season I would buy cosmetics and other seasonal cutesy stuff; I'll usually buy them during Spring/Autumn/Winter.
So here's my compilation of cosmetics/beauty products etc during this Spring!
Cosmetics:
Bought several Dolly Wink stuffs because there's a discount in TheFaceSecrets.com for DW brown eyeliner (RM38 only!!).
Left top: Black Liquid Eyeliner; Brown Liquid Eyeliner, White pencil liner for bottom lash line.
Left bottom: DW No.17 Eyelash Diamond Dolly (Accidentally bought two, didn't realise I clicked the button twice =_=)
Right top: DW eyeshadow Pink Brown
Right bottom: DW eyeshadow Pink Brown with casing opened. Super love the colours! I've always wanted a brown pallete with pink ^^
The liquid eyeliners were super good, especially the Brown one. It has such a deep brown, not the diluted kind. Super easy to draw too!! The black one I need to try more times to see if it's really Black enough lol, am gonna fine a replacement if it's not good enough for my daily use.
Picture: me + DW brown liquid eyeliner~ Joined DW contest to celebrate them winning Top 3 most popular product.
Seriously love Shu Uemura Spring 2013 OB Collection!!! They have this manga-ish character and the themed is mostly sakura and pastel colours. Bought the Sakura Flower Mini False eyelashes and OB collection rouge unlimited in Sakura Pink. The lash is super cute with sakura flowers and small pink crystals on it~~ Had a tough time picking the rouge because there's another colour I like, but I picked Sakura Pink in the end because....It's spring and sakura fits more lol.
Finally got this. Maybelline Hello Kitty Mascara. It's not bad le, can extend and increase volume of lashes easily, good buy!
This one quite special, Majorca Majolica Little Humming Book I. It's some limited edition collection to celebrate their aniversary. Apparantly there's gonna be 4 books for this year, am hoping to get all (depending on whether the colours are nice haha). Contains eyeshadows and lip gloss~ Would prefer if there's no lip gloss though, they could've add an extra eyeshadow colour or something.
My watson purchases:
Beauty products:
I've been doing facial masks A LOT. By a lot I mean every alternate day. Hahaha don't know why I'm suddenly so determined on proper facial care, guess I'm getting older to care about my skin more. But I realise good skin really helps a lot when applying cosmetics! I have less cakey problems and my skin glows more hehe so skin care is goooood!~
This is one of my favourite mask, got them in Watson when they have some member promotion, can't even find them elsewhere now!! So regretted that I only bought a few...The mask is quite special, it comes with a 2-day mask pack, Day 1 for Hydrating and Day 2 for Whitening. Above each pack of mask there's this Serum to put on after the mask, super cool!!!
Day 1
Day 2
The Masks is seriously one of the best masks I've ever tried! Cotton is super thin so my skin can breath more haha. Serum above is thick gel type; once applied it felt heavy and I thought it was meh, but after few minutes when it's all absorbed, my skin felt super smooth and bouncy!! Was seriously amazed haha. Really sad that I bought only very little that time, but nvm I have loads of other masks to be used so it's okay.
Whats proper skin care without proper makeup removal right? I've been using Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil for few years now, I admit it's really a great product that cleanse all my makeup perfectly but too pricey!!! Around rm260+ per bottle omg T_T. Am finding for substitues and I heard that water based cleanser is the hype now! Was considering Bifesta or Senka water based wash-off remover and ended up with Bifesta. Probably try Senka one after I finish this, then compare them both ^^
Bought some beauty gadget for my mum during Mother's Day and got one for myself too hehe:
The iBeauty Nano Handy Mist Sprayer! I usually have this problem where after few hours my skin dries up and my makeup doesn't look good anymore. Tried those usual sprayer but really hate the big water drops! So this product is just perfect. I put toner or skin care sprays inside, then it atomized the liquids into tiny nanometer particles so it's so much easier for the skin to absorb. No more dry skin yay~ Can use it for hair products also, but for now my face is more important coz my hair got treatment d haha.
My mum loved it as well, she is bringing it while travelling around because it's super useful during flights! Thanks to Akiko for helping me order this and brought it to me before Mothers day, arigatou~
Picture when case is open. It's pretty small and rechargeable, another plus point!
Lol. Got this coz I thought can use it for my Nano mist sprayer but nooooo. It's so much thicker than usual toner (probably too much goodness inside), so am using it with my hands lol.
THIS!!! I seriously LOVE THIS Origins GinZing Energy boosting moisturizer. Mad love. Have been using it for more than 1 week now, day and night; my skin improves sooo much that it's glowing even without makeup haha. To the point that my mum thought I'm putting foundation even when I'm not lol. Ok la to be fair I use this product + doing mask every alternate day + eat detox/nutrient supplements, so all add up together la haha.
Still I really recommend this product! Smells really good and refreshing, and very light weight (not sticky like some other brands)
Ok thats it! Spring has ended, am gonna prepare for Summer now, loads of stuff to do ergh try not to think about it lol.
It has been 10 years since my last visit to this place > Mungo Jerry Bak Kut Teh at SS19/26 Petaling Jaya. Seriously overflowing with memories lo!! Right beside Mungo Jerry is the place where I first took my piano lessons (when i was 6 i guess) for 7 years. Used to always drop by this restaurant for dinner since it's just right beside.
So days ago my mum were saying her friends told her that Mungo Jerry still opens, and we were like wow so many years d still surviving! And all memories keep flushing back so we decided to pay that restaurant a visit. We found out that they only open at night so we had to brace ourselves to face the rush hour jam to travel there for dinner lol.
**I find the restaurant's name rather funny haha. When I was searching for their opening hours I accidentally typed "Mango Jelly" instead, based on my old time memories when I was a kid ma haha**
To be honest I was a little worried about how the food will turn out because you know, what tasted good 10 years ago may not be the same now, taste changes and all. But still feeling really excited coz we rarely move around just for Bak Kut Teh lol.
Reached! Exterior all still the same~ I doubt they did any renovation for the past 10 years. Very little customers too, it's always only 2-3 tables if i could recall.
The interior cashier area. Notice the cashier machine? It's seriously antique lo, and they are still using it hahaha. The interior looks 100% same according to my childhood memories, feeling super nostalgic. Most of the lighting posters faded, tables and chairs still exactly the same.
We ordered chrysanthemum tea for drinks (mum took jelly bee ice). After a sip of chrysanthemum tea we were pretty amazed with how things have not changed even after a decade. Seriously tasted same!! I remember chrysanthemum tea was my favourite drink when I was a kid and I sort of order that everywhere I go.
What we ordered for food: Bak Kut Teh (of course), Hot pepper pork soup, some random vegetables, and oily fried stick (yau char koay).
THIS!! This is one of the things that I just can't forget! The almighty fried onion rice!! You get to choose white rice over this if you want, but this one is just great!! I remembered liking this rice when I was a kid, and at some point I kinda complained about why all other chinese restaurants don't do the same fried onion rice lol.
Oily fried stick is really crunchy and tasted even better after dipping it into Bak Kut Teh soup. Should get a bigger serving coz I din't felt I ate enough, only 4-5 pieces.
Our main dish~ Bak kut teh! Mixed some different parts of meat in it, don't know how to translate to English hahaha. I remembered why I liked here so much; their Bak Kut Teh has a very strong hint of herbs (and I love herbs!!), and many BKT shops these days opt for a more diluted style of BKT, which I don't really fancy. The meat is very well stewed, very soft and tender to the bite ^^.
Btw the drink behind is mum's Jelly Bee.
Hot Pepper Pork Soup. I can't find anywhere else that cook this dish as nice as this place. I remember we used to frequent this restaurant for this soup. I've tried hot pepper pork soup from many other different place, but they were always either overly peppery or blant in taste, or even worse the pork intestines weren't clean enough ergh. Here it's just nice! Warm peppery feel and has a taste on its own.
Personally think that it's worthwhile going through the jam just for this meal lol. Recalled many good memories here, and I realise that probably for Bak Kut Teh my taste hasn't change much hahahaa. Would definitely go back again coz we didn't manage to order their BBQ Ribs and Pokkari, BKT with pepper soup alone already too filling for us.
