I'm not addicted to hair dyeing!

Unlike some people's opinion that I'm addicted to dyeing my hair, no, I AM NOT!! I re-dyed my hair because the first one didn't live up to my expectations. I was surprised when I looked at it, true, but the longer I stared at my hair the more I longed for the actual color I imagined especially since the old hair dye washed out quickly leaving my hair looked half blonde half orange :( And finally I re-dyed it again last week with the help of a real professional LOL Credits to Pram from L'oreal Jakarta who asked me dubiously when I pointed to the color: "It's usually used as highlight cause it's very bright, are you sure you're confident enough to have it on the whole head?". To which I replied (and made him grin from ear to ear): "You have no idea how confident I can be!"

Here's the result, shiny isn't it? *grin*

Left: with room lighting, Right: with natural lighting. 

And don't I just love my boss? I sent him a message a few days before I dyed my hair:

"Can I leave the office at 3pm on Monday? I want to re-dye my hair cause I finally found a place that has the right shade of red. Since it's the fasting month and offices are closed earlier, the guy can only do it at 4pm."

Reply: "Sure. Why red again and not blue?"

"I wanted to dye it blue but I guess **** and **** won't agree :( The elders already raised eyebrows to my current hair can't imagine what they'll say next week. Anyway, dyeing my hair blue is already on the list of my things to do before I die."

Reply: "Hahaha Go for it."

My friend who knew I left early to do that thought I was crazy for telling my boss the truth, that I left "just to dye my hair". To be honest, I don't see the need to lie cause I've been dedicated enough with my work. Why lie and get yourself into trouble later when you can be honest and dye your hair in peace without being afraid of the office ringing you? LOL

So, do you like the new red as much as I do? :)

OPUS JAY 2013 WORLD TOUR

 

Another dream came true... 

A 10 year old dream to be exact... and it's a past due review but I still want to post this anyway LOL

In the middle of F4 rage in early 2000 I got to know this singer named Jay Chou and had been in love with his music ever since. I bought all of his albums, MV dvds, movies, concert dvds, basically everything that he released. I even had giant posters of his from his 2002: The Once Concert Live and 2006 Album: Still Fantasy hanging on my bedroom wall now.

He held some concerts in Singapore, the last one was in 2010 for The Era World Tour. I missed that one because I traveled to Japan for the first time, thus I spent all my money in that holiday, nothing to spare to watch him. So for the past 2 years I've been waiting to hear if he's going to hold another concert in Singapore.

Then in early February I heard the announcement and got an email from Sistic. He'd finally returned for his World Tour of his last album, Opus 12 on June 8-9! Somehow the first 2 days of the ticket sales was intended only for OCBC card & M1 number holder. Sold out in 1 hour! Then they added another day on June 6, and sold out again even before the public sales began. I asked my Singaporean friends who had own the card & number, they said they couldn't get one, it's crazy. So I thought that maybe I wasn't meant to watch it. I was disappointed but I believed that when it's my time then it will be my time.

I was working  in the office when an email came from Sistic. Due to high demand for the concert, they're adding some seats including those with restricted view. I didn't waste my time and logged into Sistic right away. I didn't get it in the first try but once I refreshed there's a Cat 2 single seat available and I grabbed it right away. Tadda!! I got my ticket for June 8 show!!

On the day of the concert, I got to the venue around 7.45pm - ticket said show would start at 8pm. I wanted to buy a couple of merchandise but the queue was so long! I decided to just wait inside the venue. Show didn't start on time cause people were still queuing for merchandise outside. But I was happy when I saw that in every seat they provided free lightstick and baloons. 

Me and my free balloons :)

I was sitting in the middle of 2 boys in their teens on the left and a guy in his late 40s on the right. They all cheered very loudly and sang along in every song too. And at 8.20pm the lights were out and the concert started. At first an opening video was played on stage and on screens. And before you complained for the lack of quality of the pictures that I'm posting, I didn't bring my camera in purpose because I wanted to really enjoy the show and not being busy behind the lens. So I only used my phone camera, besides I was seated on the right side of the stage so I didn't get a very good view. I didn't complain though cause I could still see him clearly from my seat.

His concert was divided in a few segments. And he opened the concert with a rock song from his Opus 12 Album, but he followed right away with (surprisingly) The Final Battle / 最後的戰役 / Zuì Hòu De Zhàn Yì from his 2002 Album, The 8th Dimension. And after a few more songs from his old albums including the famous song that was used into a Pepsi advert Nunchucks / 雙截棍 / Shuāng Jié Gùn he disappeared for a moment from the stage when suddenly a white piano appeared in the middle of the stage. And the piano acoustic ballad segment began. I practically melted on my seats especially when started playing Silence / 安靜 / Ān Jìng I couldn't help myself but screaming along with the whole stadium at the song's ending: It is because I love you too much / shi yin wei wo tai ni... I knew the boys were staring at me cause I kept bugging them to translate whatever Jay was saying yet I could sing my heart out with every song he played LOL

In the middle of this segment I just couldn't hold my bladder anymore and ran to the bathroom in the middle of my less fave song, but while I was p**ing (I'm sorry that you just have to read this :p) I suddenly heard the intro of one of my fave song Can't Express Myself / 開不了口 / Kāi Bù Liǎo Kǒu and I kind of, errrr... sped up the process, zipped up my fly, express hand washing and ran back to my seat with panting breath, all the while singing along with him! Just how crazy I was, eh? LOL

Jay was about to release another self-produced movie, The Rooftop, so another segment was dedicated to the new movie, where he acted out with a girl and some gang. It was interesting but I wasn't familiar with the songs so I didn't sing along at all in this segment. Still, I enjoyed to see him dancing and acting, if I was a cartoon character there would be stars and love coming out of my sparkly eyes! Hahaha As the concert was nearing the end, suddenly the whole stadium went dark and there was some kanji on the screen and the stadium went silent, the boys translated to me that it said: "Please turn off your light stick for the best effect of the next song." So I did, just like everyone. And a few second later the screen and also the stage lit up with stars and planets as if we're in the milky way... A white piano and Jay in white suits turned up and my most fave song from Opus 12 Album, Sign Language / 手語 / Shǒu Yǔ, started!! I was gaping at the screen to see the dreamy like video when suddenly he was being lifted up onto the middle of the stage and blended with the 3D mapped video!! O.M.G.

Jay singing  "Sign Language / 手語 / Shǒu Yǔ"

I had to admit that the effect of the video and live show combined was very beautiful in the dark. Everything was white and sparkly and even some fake snowflakes were falling from the ceiling onto the audience!! So romantic... *sigh* He really went all out with the show, lots of pyrotechnics,  fake snowflakes, confetti, drama, and everything else that ever came up in all his MVs. Oh, and some giant beach balls at the ending of the concert for his song, Ukulele / 烏克麗麗 / Wū Kè Lì Lì.

Giant beach balls in the middle of the audience :)

All in all, it was a great 2.5 hours show and I was so enchanted from the beginning until the end. It was a sold out 3 day shows actually and I wasn't that surprised to see the variety of people in the audience. From children to grandparents, everyone was singing along to his hit songs and moved their bodies with the music, smiling from ear to ear and laughed as he made jokes in Mandarin (which I didn't get cause I didn't want to bother the boys next to me anymore with translating the jokes lol). Another funny thing was, Jay was knows to forgetting lyrics in live shows. So in the small screen at the top of the stadium, facing the stage, where it usually wrote things like: "Clap your hands" "Sing along!" etc... all his lyrics was played word by word with the sequences such as: "Repeat" "Encore" "Change clothes", I laughed like crazy when I found out about it! Oh Jay...

The concert was so memorable and I'm so looking forward to another concert of his in the future. Some more pics of my handsome boy.... :)

 Theatrical Jay

Guitar playing Jay

Chocolate Review: Bendicks Bittermints

I guess most of my friends know that I love chocolates. I don't remember exactly when, but I started to like Dark Chocolate more instead of Milk Chocolates as I grew older. And lately I'm so fond of this Bendicks Bittermints. It's like the top of the chain of all the Dark Chocolate & Mints combination I've ever tasted.

A friend bought it for me at Singapore Changi Airport 2 years ago. Then everytime I went or someone went there I asked them to buy a box for me. I love Dark Chocolate (say it again) and I love mints (including Peppermint Tea). My ideal Dark Chocolate is usually around 70% - 85% Cocoa, pretty bitter for some people but that's just perfect for me. Bendicks Bittermints' chocolate is 95% Cocoa which is too bitter if it comes in bars but this one comes with mints inside that gives an extraordinary sensation to my taste bud. Bitter in the first bite then comes the sweet and cool sensation of the mints. Love it!

Last week the little boss traveled to London where Bendicks originally comes from and or course I didn't miss the opportunity to ask him to buy me a box of Bittermints at the airport. Not only he bought me a box but he kindly also bought me a box of Bendicks Mint Collection!

So I got to taste all of Bendicks Mints line :) And after Bittermints, the Chocolate Mint Crisps comes second. The chocolate outside is not as bitter as Bittermints (tasted something like 70% Cocoa?) but there are sprinkles of mints in it that gives the crunchy feeling.

Anyway, I've been trying to find a friend who would enjoy it with me but so far nobody likes it LOL It's always too bitter or too minty for them. Ah, well... that just means I get to enjoy all of them by my self for a week. Lucky!

Makeover

So I finally dyed my hair RED. Yes, RED. After contemplating for a (really) long time, now I'm officially a red head.

Like I've always mentioned many times, there were two things that people was always mistaken about me: (1) That I dye my hair brown. Really, it's natural and my mother used to try hard to turn it black to no avail. (2) That I wear brown lenses. Again, it's my natural eye color, I couldn't even wear contacts cause I can't stop rubbing my eyes for many reasons!

And since I couldn't fix number (2), however I could always fix number (1). So this is the first picture after I returned from the hair salon last night. Please ignore the pimples T____T

Even though I have kind of imagined what it would look like, it still surprised me just how red it looked like! LOL When I got home, my dad didn't say anything, he just stared at me and sighed hahaha I didn't want to ask him anything though :p

As for my lil' brother... he told me: "Why don't you get a costume and take pictures with it? I kind of imagining you posing with a sword!" I was like, "Huh??"

If I was surprised last night, imagine my reaction when I looked at my self in bright daylight! The red hair even looked brighter! :) Again, ignore the pimples, I know they're not cute :(

Most friends were curious as to why I did this. I have several answers. First, my natural hair is brown, why would I dye it in another shade brown? I surely didn't want to dye it blonde and I didn't have enough guts to have candy color hair, but I think red is still manageable for me.

I also sent a message to my boss who's traveling now, "I dyed my hair red, I hope it's okay with you? :D" He replied: "Fine with me. Why you dyed it red?" My reply to him was: "Cause I promised to do it together with my close friend. Or maybe I just want to do something crazy for once in my life."

Just like my previous post, many people thought of me as boring or inflexible almost in everything and I humbly accepted that opinion since I realized that's exactly what I am.  I'm not trying to prove anything here, but I want to assure myself that I can be fun too. I can't dress up sexily with my figure, I still can't put up make-ups the right way to look beautiful, I still learned to change little by little everyday... but my hair color? I can change it NOW.

So here I am with red hair. And to tell the truth? I enjoy every single attention and reaction to it. Tell ya', I can be fun too ;)

OCD? OCPD?

For a long time my close friends have suspected (or accused?) me of having a terrible symptom of Obssessive Compulsive Disorder or better known with its abbreviation, OCD.

Why? After much observation on their side, they felt that I fit the description :) Don't I think so? Well, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to my habitual actions definitely! After all, they are habits, I do it all the time consciously and unconsciously. And then I started to notice the things freaked me out a little. Am I really having OCD?

Let's start to list down the symptoms or should I say, my actions?

1. I'm indexing all of my stuff. From CD, downloads, movies, especially books. I filed them in several ways. For books: Title - Author - Number of Volumes - Condition of the books - Box Number. Then I made the same list with the Author names comes first in case I forget the title but I know who writes it. Books like novels that I read and re-read many times, I put in the book shelf right in front of my bed. So I could get them anytime I feel like reading them. As for the others, especially comics -- as you can guess from the way I arranged them, I put them in numbered boxes. So when I want to read one, I only need to refer to my index list and won't waste time to look for it.

I consider this normal, apparently not so. How about you?

2.  All of my word files are using the same font size, same margins & same paragraph spacing. There were cases when my friends wanted me to read something that they thought interesting and sent me an unorganized word file (i.e: different margins from one paragraph to another, different font size in a page or excessive spacings because it's copied from an html page). Guess what? I wasn't able to read passed the second pages until I edited it according to my standard. Otherwise it gave me headaches and I'd just threw it away. Another reason why I'm highly annoyed to receive a file that I can't edit but have to read or review. Believe it or not, it stressed me out and will take a long time for me to finish.

Do you think it's too much? Are you able to read any unorganized file?

3. Everything has to be planned ahead. Abrupt changes will change my mood drastically. I usually know on Sunday night what I want to do for the next week, when I think I want to go out, what to read, what to wear. Unless the changes happen naturally, then it's doomsday for me. Let's say I promised to meet someone since a week ago and that person cancels one day prior to the meeting. I would be a in a terrible mood! Like I don't know what else to do with my tomorrow when we're supposed to meet and I'll be sulking the whole day. Another example that annoyed me most was when I went to a restaurant with every intention to eat something. I ordered, wait for 15 minutes, then the waiter returned saying that it's not available. In most cases when I'm with friends, I would bear the disappointment and tried to order something else that I wouldn't enjoy. But when I'm by myself, I just looked at the waiter in the eye, paid for my drink and left without a single word and ended up not eating anything almost the whole day.

Another downside to this is I can hardly enjoy impromptu trip or activities. Once or twice when I'm really in a superb mood then it can turn out to be an amazing experience. Hardly. More than myself, looks like it annoys my friends more cause they think I'm inflexible. Even on holiday, I planned it day by day down to where to eat and what time I should return. Natural changes are acceptable, i.e: the train is late, thus we arrive late at our destinations and have to re-arranged the rest of the schedule. Or suddenly it's raining, so we have to switch to a less wet place. Fine. Acceptable. But "Let's do this since it's more interesting and I think we can do what we wanted to do another day." is totally unacceptable. I'd rather go separate ways then throwing a tantrum that will only make me miserable.

Beginning to sound like a lot of trouble, don't you think? And this is where I get being called a 'perfectionist' T____T

4. I arranged my money in my wallet in a very specific way. From the smallest nomination to the biggest one, from the worst looking to the better one, faces on front - buildings on backs, right side up. I have a lot of trouble with this when paying at a cashier with a long line. I rushed and just put my changes inside, but I couldn't help thinking about what a mess the inside of my wallet is :( At the next possible moment (usually when I was ready to leave the parking lot or when I sit down to eat) I just have to re-arrange my wallet first before I feel happy again LOL

This shouldn't be a problem right? Cause I hear a lot of people do arrange their money in a similar way.

5. I don't shuffle my playlist. Let me repeat that again: I don't shuffle my playlist. If you check my ipod, tablets, and handphones, all my playlist are arranged by singer - album - track list. So if I want to listen to Jay Chou's songs, it's definitely will be from the 1st album to the last and according to the album track list. Unless I want to listen to a specific Album, then I will skip the others and play the album that I want. According to the original track list. Again, no shuffling. Then I have another playlist of Jay Chou's song separated into BALLADS & FAST TEMPO.

Don't I have a mixed playlist where all kinds of genre and tempo and singers are included? Of course I do. But (again, I'll keep saying it) according to my arrangement. I put the songs in the playlist according to how I feel when I arrange it, so when I play it I know exactly what song comes after another. There was once when my beloved cousin Sarah, shuffled my ipod's playlist intentionally, because she was getting bored of my arrangement. It took me less than 10 minutes after it played to yelled at her to put it back to normal because "I don't expect this "A" song comes after "B" when I arranged it after "D" song!" ROFL

Some people told me I'm boring because of this.

6. I have to wear my clothes from the left side to the right. Yes, you hear it right. From left to right. Meaning: when I want to wear pants, I have to put in my left foot first before my right. And when I want to wear a shirt, I have to put in my left arm first before my right. I guess this is the worst symptom that I could think of and also the one that won't annoy anyone by myself. What if I'm in a rush, I wouldn't realized whether I wear my clothes from left right or the other way around, right? No. I'd feel it. I'd feel that something is wrong and after recounted everything from the moment I wake up until I get out of the house and don't find anything wrong; the only conclusion I can get is I must've worn my clothes in the wrong way. I've experienced this before and I just have to find the closest toilet soon, undressed my self and wear it the right way. And tadaaa! Everything's cool again for me :)

Nobody elase has the right to be annoyed with this but myself.

7. I can't stand to see something out of place. When I go shopping and see a clothes fall off the rack, I automatically pick it up and hang it at the right place. When I see a book fall out of the shelf anywhere, I just have to put it back on. When I see a row of chairs and there's one that's located a bit outside the line, it's an eyesore until someone (more likely myself) put it back in line. When I sit in front of a table and it happens to have a DOT that doesn't belong to its pattern, let's just say I'd be pissed without a reason and will keep looking at it, wishing that the dot will disappear.

This also, more annoying to myself than others. Everything just has to be in place.

So what do you think after reading all of my so called 'symptoms'?  Some that I've heard are BORING, CONTROL FREAK, PERFECTIONIST. Wanna add something else?

After I made the list, curiosity got the best of me. I browsed the net to get to know what actually OCD was. To my surprise, I didn't think that it fit me no matter how people said so. You can read the descriptions HERE and HERE.

Instead, it led me to another condition called Obssessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder of OCPD. From what I have described above, I could say that I do show symptoms of OCPD but reading this page, I feel better for getting to know myself more even though it described OCPD somewhat as problematic as OCD. I do realize my inflexibility to things, my way of having to be in control most of the time and doing things "my way" and I'm still thankful that my close friends were pointing them out to me no matter how many times I chewed them out with my words of denial.

So there you go. OCPD. Not OCD. But I still have to change.