Saving money with Liese

I usually have my hair coloured (or a root touch-up) at the salon. Whilst I think $70 is pretty reasonable considering you get a professional's touch and conscientious service, these are lean times and I'm looking at saving some money. However, colouring one's own hair with store-bought dye kits is never an easy task. It involves great skill and mastery to dye your own hair facing the toilet mirror, whilst struggling with gloves, a comb, and hair dye that threatens to drip and stain your clothes and floor tiles.

And then I saw the TV ad for Liese Bubble Hair Colour. A wonderfully ingenious product that combines shampooing and dyeing, Liese is so easy to use and best of all, effective! I had one inch black roots with the rest of my hair brown, but the result with Liese is an even-coloured brown from root to tip! The only thing you have to take note of is to leave the hair dye on for twice the amount of time the instructions recommend. But if your hair is black like midnight (like Kimmy's), one hour will just render a touch of brown, very subtle if you like it that way.

Overall, a very happy experience for me!

Baking & Gaming

I spent the day baking. Kimmy spent the day gaming. These two activities are as different as night and day. And both of us were not interested in what the other was doing. However, there was one thing in common -- we wanted to complete what we were doing, and complete it well. Great success! After what seemed like eternity (which in fact was just about 9 hours with breaks in between for teatime and dinner), we have achieved our goals. For me, I have a set of beautifully-baked and deliciously moist cupcakes. For Kimmy, he completed his game, one that he has been going at for a month!

We can now retire to bed with a smile on our faces.

2 white baby rabbits need a good home

If you're interested, do email me. :)

My baking woes

I am very bad at baking. In all the times I have attempted baking, most of them have failed. I can even remember the mishaps that happened in every attempt that I have made. There was the one when I baked a cake for my dog, and it was so dry she gave up and walked away after two mouthfuls. And then there was the craze to try to make macarons. I tried twice and both times ended up wasting a lot of money on almond powder. I have also failed in "unbaking" a mousse cake. It ended up in a semi-state of consciousness, not melting to mash, but failing to set hard enough. It was still edible but very strange.

The one time I remember baking something good, was when awwesomepossum and I made gingerbread men-shaped cookies for our clients in 2003. (And they were good only because awwesomepossum has a magical touch for such things!)

Which brings me to my latest "failed" attempt. Inspired by the wonderful photos of all my friends who bake like professionals, I decided to make some cupcakes after dinner today. They turned out delicious, especially since I added bananas. Except...they weren't banana cupcakes. They became banana muffins in the oven. :( They were looking decidedly beautiful halfway through the baking process, but somewhere at 20mins they started cracking and looking like authentic muffins. Sad. My only consolation is that as banana muffins, they were pretty tasty!

Awwesomepossum has encouraged me to practise more, and try again. I can't wait till the weekend, when I can get my hands on flour, butter and sugar, and start all over. Ten fingers crossed this time!

No Work Shower Cleaner

In the midst of trying to write this blog entry, my Macbook's adaptor gave a loud "piak" sound and breathed its last breath. Surprising to me, as it was only 3 years old. Mac products are famed to last for years, but that said, who knows how they make their products now, when profits override the need for lasting quality.

Speaking about products however, I simply had to write this entry on Melaleuca's No Work Shower Cleaner. If you have a shower stall in your bathroom that has a glass screen or screen door, you'd know that by the end of the week, the entire glass will be covered in hard water stains and soap scum, and the term "glass" wouldn't even begin to describe it. To clean it off, I had to use a mixture of bleach, soap and water, a good scouring pad, and a whole lot of arm strength to scrub off the stains. I accepted this as part of my weekly housekeeping routine, until I chanced upon this product by Melaleuca. All it needs is a few sprays on the glass after showering, and when the glass dries, you can see that it's noticeably cleaner. At the end of the week, it's just a tad bit dirty and my cleaning time in the bathroom is considerably shorter!

I think it's fantastic that I have No Work Shower Cleaner to aid me in my housekeeping, this is one product that will keep me happy for ages to come.

Positive thoughts for 2010

A recent discussion with friends on Facebook, a friend's post on "superiority" and "judging", as well as a chance encounter with Luke 6:37, made me realise I might be too much of a mean person of late.

" ³⁷Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. "

I'd admit I haven't been actively following Jesus' footsteps in recent years, and although I've always tried to be nice to people, there are some difficult personalities I dismiss with a wave of the hand.

So, with the bits of advice from Friend 1, 2, and 3, and a new fresh look on my blog, I resolve to judge less, condemn less and forgive more.

I dedicate this post...

I would like to dedicate this post to my grandparents' domestic helpers - Agnes, Lily and Maxilline. They have been a constant source of help and comfort to my grandparents, and I am appreciative that they are there to assist us. I would like to thank them for doing the housework, the cooking, and for all the help they provide to my grandparents in their daily affairs. I'm not one who believes in having a domestic helper at home to do my chores, but I truly am grateful that they are there for my grandparents whilst the rest of the family goes out to work in the day.

I've never seen anyone write a blog post to thank their domestic helpers. The people who pay for their services (I'm not one of them) probably think it's their job so obviously, they do what they get paid for. But I think Agnes, Lily and Maxilline are kind people, who genuinely care about their job and their lives here with my grandparents. It helps also that they come from the same country and have a small "community" of their own. There are too many stories of lonely maids who go mad and start to do crazy things. I know there are times too, when family members get rattled and become impatient when the three of them don't work as fast as they would like them to. It is human to err, and perhaps there are just too many orders barking around them to be able to attend to each quickly enough.

I hope they know they are appreciated in the household. My mother prepares a gift for them every Christmas, and whilst I have not actually verbally thanked them, I do try to help them at dinners when there are 20 hungry mouths to feed and only 6 hands amongst them to do the work. :)