Ordered these on 21 Sep 09. Got my parcel today. Lots of eye shadows, blushes, lip gloss etc. Most of it belongs to my friends. A few of us decided to pool our orders together to save on shipping charges.

Was quite surprised that EDM gave me discount for my purchases. Perhaps I ordered quite often from them (I guess).

Here’s the cosmetics:

I ordered 4 lip gloss thinking of giving them as gifts to my mom and mom-in-law

See all the eye shadow colours…. oh my…. they are so colourful and pretty .. can’t wait to try them … but … most of them do not belong to me

Total cost for everything plus shipping minus the discounts is approx USD85.

… I am so unfortunate to be always down with diarrhea after having my dinner there. I only ate twice at Astons and at different outlets. The most recent one was at the Centrepoint outlet. We had a department dinner gathering there.

All of us had the set dinner which comprised of the salad, soup, a main and lastly the dessert.

Here’s the Casear Salad. It’s pretty refreshing and I loved the bread bits

This is the horrible googy soup. It had too much starch that I think if u throw it to the wall it would get stuck there. A colleague did not drank hers. On hindsight I think it’s so clever of her not to cos a few of us who drank this googy stuff came down with diarrhea the next day. I started running to the loo that very night.

Here’s the googy Cream of Mushroom

3 types of mains to choose from.

Colleague A had this chicken set that comes with apple sausage.

Steak with baked potato.

I had this… the fish set that comes with potato wedges. The wedges were nice. So was the fish.

The dessert.. Vanilla ice-cream. It was nice but I was too full to finish it.

The food was not bad (except for that horrible googy soup). But I don’t think I would be patronising Astons anytime soon. Had this phobia of coming down with diarrhea after having my dinner there. Sigh

I think I first posted a review about this stall way back in Aug 07 (http://belyl.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/my-dinner-at-a-zi-char-stall/). It had been 2 years and I am still patronising this stall cos the food is simply delicious and the service of their serving staff are quite good (for a coffeeshop zi char stall).

They had another branch in Serangoon and I blogged about it in my previous posting (http://belyl.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/kimly-steamboat-seafood-serangoon/)

Ordered this crispy chicken that had been deboned 90%. The chicken skin had been roasted so crisp that you can hardly find any fat in it. The usual price is $14 but there is currently a promotion going on and it’s selling for $9.

This handmade beancurd dish was recommended by the aunty taking our orders. She suggested this to us after we told we want something different from the usual beancurd dish that they usually served. This one comes with clams, prawns, scallops and other veg. Very delicious. ($12 for this serving)

Stir Fried Di Wang Miao ($8)

This is another dish that the aunty recommended. Pork Ribs with fried banana slices ($12). This is delicious.

Dessert is complimentry. Sweet Corn Pudding… yum yum

Jin Wei Seafood
Blk 418 Yishun Ave 11
#01-385
Tel: 6757 0127

Had dinner with my family at Lu Gang Xiao Zhen (Asian Kitchen) @ Ion Orchard yesterday evening. Been there once on a weekday lunch with my colleagues and I remembered we queued for quite a while then. So this time round I went there earlier (around 6.30 pm) to queue for a table for dinner. However, when I reached there, I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t any queue and I was able to get a table immediately.

Ordered the Herbal Guitar Duck – Small Serving ($11.70). Duck meat was tender and there is a slight herbal taste. But if you compare this to the ones sold at Dian Xiao Er, I would prefer the ones at the latter as the herbal taste is much stronger.

Soup of the Day – Lotus with pork ribs soup – $7.70. It serves approx 2-3 pax. Tasted ok. Would be better if some red dates were added to enhance the taste of the soup.

You Tiao with Pineapple cubes Salad – $5.90. The You Tiao wasn’t that crispy anymore and tasted a bit soft. Perhaps it had been left mixed with the salad dressing for quite a while.

Their famous Eggy Rice with braised meat and chestnut. Tasted like what my grandma would cook. Yum yum yum. $5.90 per serving

Another of their speciality – Stir fried Four Seasons Beans with Salt Egg Yolk. Very nice and crunchy. I really loved this dish.

Total bill for the dinner came up to approx $62 (inclusive of 3 Eggy rice + 1 bowl of white rice + 1 soy bean drink with pearls) for 4 pax. Pretty reasonable.

The soy bean drink doesn’t taste that great. Don’t think would be getting that again the next time I am there. I noticed that the queues started forming at around 7 pm and I am glad that I came earlier to queue.

At the mmoment this restaurant do not accept reservations. It’s on a first come first serve basis. However, I checked with the restaurant manager, he said that perhaps they would accept reservations later on.

Lu Gang Xiao Zhen – the Asian Kitchen
Ion Orchard
#B3-22
Tel: 65091128

I fell in love with this setting powder which hubby got for me from Paris. This is one of the products sold under Vichy label. As I have very very sensitive skin, not all types of products suit my skin. My skin even broke out with blemishes after using BB cream. I also stopped using Mineral foundation after I realised my skin break out too. Sigh. Then I started using Vichy’s Normaderm range of products and I had not looked back ever since. I moved on to use their liquid foundation suitable for sensitive skin too. But had been trying to find a loose powder suitable for my skin till hubby got for me this setting powder from Paris.

It sets and holds the foundation for 16 hours and it’s waterproof… so now my make up no longer runs….

Here’s the delivery

Here’s the setting powder, the new corrective foundation and foaming wash. These are not available in Singapore. I got it from the Vichy USA online website. I got it shipped to Singapore using Borderlinx service. Cos the Vichy USA site do not ship overseas so I opened an account with Borderlinx and use it to ship my products over. And I have to say I am very very satisfied with their service

This corrective foundation provides very very good coverage. And best of all it felt so light on my skin This is my first time trying it… hope no breakouts The current one that I bought in Singapore is not this range. This is the latest range offered by Vichy USA. The one which I bought in Singapore is not sold in the States.

The total cost of all the products is USD89.67 + USD13.87 (Shipping Charges)

Reasonable and I waited approx a week + for the products to arrive. I think I would definitely get more products from Vichy USA Online site once my current supplies runs out. If you factor in the exchange rate and shipping costs, it might be approx the same if you get the products in Singpore. That’s why I only bought those items which I cannot find in Singapore

The last couple of weeks was horrific for me. Think the stress of having a maid from hell made me suffer from severe gastric problems. I was basically throwing up and severe pain in the stomach after ingesting food.

Went to see 2 docs and the last one referred me to Raffles Hospital. Thanks to all the prayers and blessings from closed friends and relatives… I am now on the road to recovery.

My breakfast at Raffles Hosp after I woke up from my Endoscopy. Milo and Tuna sandwich. Yum Yum

Looking forward to a better tomorrow
I am starting my life afresh now.

Bye to horrific maid experiences and bad health…..

I had heard of so much horror maid stories and never thought that I would be a victim of one.

I managed to send off this maid from hell (Suyati) yesterday morning after an eventful episode which involved getting the police down.

I was her 5th employer in her 2 yrs in Singapore. Initially we were reluntant to take her but after the agent saying that she’s just plain unlucky not to get a good match of employer and her sob story of how her previous 4 employers treated her plus she seemed very sincere to work for us and my kid got along with her. With all these reasons we decided to take her in. After her 1.5yrs with us was eventful and involves numerous counselling sessions with her and the agent and us. We found that her she is very stubborn and refused to accept us telling her what was wrong and how to correct it. And there were many times we want to send her back but she would cried and plead with us with her sob story that she borrowed huge sums of money to come to Singapore to work. And if she can’t earn that to repay her debt, her family would suffer etc.  And everytime we would feel sorry for her and give in.

Recently her attitude gotten from bad to worst. She demanded things to be given to her like handphone, freedom to make phone calls anytime and with no time limit to her sister-in-law working in Singapore and also freedom to go out to shop whenever she feels like it. We turned down her requests and she started self inflicting wounds on herself and harrassing my dad to bring her to the Indonesia Embassy if her demands are not met.

Her agent also do not care when we asked them for help. This big maid agency (Nation) that has branches all over Singapore and has a famous TCS actress to be their spokesperson provide terrible customer service after they had taken your money. They said that I could cancel the work permit myself and it’s better I book the air ticket for her myself too. In the end I got the new maid agency staff to help me with this.

This maid told me that Nation Maid agency flew her into Bintan via dosmestic flight and made her take a boat into Singapore. She has never taken a plane and land at Singapore Changi Airport. This is the first time I heard of this.

End June 09 she asked to send money back to her parents and I brought her to OCBC bank (where she already has an account) to remit money back home. But the TT failed cos she said she purposely wrote her dad’s name and her brothers bank account number cos she is afraid her brother will take her money. And she blame us for the fault. It was also this time that I decided to send her back. The subsequent 2-3 weeks was hell for us. She morphed from the meek maid to a devish one that threaten us with alot of things. She demanded that we must accede to each and every of her request immediately or she will tell the embassy we ill treated her.

Yesterday morning when we tried to send her to the airport, she made a big fuss. She refused to collect all her salary from us and said that the bank cheated her of her money and she said that the money are all fake. She threaten to overstay in Singapore to get us into trouble and dare us to even touch her. In the end I had to call the police down. After she saw the police, she realised we are serious in sending her back. Before the police came she said “I don’t work for Singapore Police, I work for u… they can come and I still won’t leave”.

In the end we got to tell her sister-in-law (Amex) who is also working in Singapore to talk to her. Only then did she agreed to leave. Before she go, she said “I will be back to work in Singapore again’ … “just wait”

I am glad to send away this maid from hell. I just hope that other employers-to-be to be wary of this maid. Her name is Suyati from Solo, Indonesia.

This is my 4th order from Everyday Minerals (EDM) and this time round I consolidated my colleagues’ orders into mine to share out the shipping charges. The usual delivery time is 2 weeks but I was pleasantly surprised that this time round it took only 3 working days to get my orders. Initially I thought I had selected the most expensive and fast shipping method that cost more than USD60 but when I double checked with my credit card statement, I wasn’t charged that much. Only approx USD20 for shipping USD129 worth of cosmetics over.

Here’s the parcel from FedEx. Quite big

The packages and order form

All the cosmetics

See all the foundation, concealers etc… wow

I bought 4 eye makeup palattes and this is one of them. Lavendar. Aren’t the colors sweet

The other 3 eye makeup palattes

The mint concealer, kabuki brush and pressed powder

The eye makeup palatte only cost USD10.

It would be sometime before I have another EDM spree again

Had been feeling rather down these few days. Think partly due to certain issues at work and at home. Sigh.

Had been eating alot of junk food lately too. I think my body is starting to fall sick after eating all these junk. Having a cough this morning. I think I should stop eating those rice crackers. But they are so delicious :p