Israeli Souvenirs

I guess people must be wondering what kind of souvenirs Israel has? Before I went there, I was wondering the same thing too. I thought perhaps they would have local coffee and tea, which incidentally, I bought back one can of Israeli coffee powder for my boss and one box of Israeli black tea for one of my colleagues.

But what about other things? There are beads, jewellery, caftans (lots and lots of them), pashminas, praying scarfs, religious artifacts and Dead Sea products of course! However, the things in Israel are not cheap. Our tour guide himself says that the living standard has gone up a lot, and besides, for a country that uses USD as an "unofficial" currency, how cheap can the living expenses be?

In any case, during our little shopping trips, we managed to bargain the prices down. So I got a beautiful turquoise long flowy skirt that can also double up as a tube dress for just USD20.00, slashed down from USD50.00.

My mum got a white caftan top and a black pashmina. She also got a ceramic plate with the words "God Bless Our Home", which she slashed down to USD10.00 from USD25.00, with a free stand at the same time.

As for me, besides the long skirt, I got some Dead Sea mud masks for myself and friends back home. I also got olive wood rosaries that look like this :

My friend asked me to get her a Jerusalem cross, which is the most expensive so far, costing around USD100.00 (which I managed to slash down to that price) :

This is what a Jerusalem Cross looks like

But of course, my favourites are the fridge magnets that I got to add to my collection, as proof of my travels :

And these that my mum got for me :

This is my favourite so far.

We also managed to buy some candy at the duty free shop at the airport, which I took a box to distribute to my colleagues after I came back. My mum got her neck massager pillow and more Dead Sea products to give away. Hence we came back very happy and satisfied with all our purchases! :-)

A Handmade Notebook

Yesterday during the weekly Friday Women's prayer group, one of the ladies gave each of us a notebook she got from her recent Thailand trip. This is what I got :

Is this not just pretty? This notebook is handmade by the tribes in Chiang Mai. The stitching, lining, appliques and beads are all hand stitched and made intricately. The notebook looks so pretty that I would not bear to use it or write anything on it, in case I deface any of the pages!

Gifts Galore!

My parents were away in China and Hong Kong last week to pay respects to my grandparents for the Tomb Sweeping Festival. My mum just came back on Friday and she bought me so many things that I am utterly grateful and speechless!

 

In the clothes department, she bought me a blue and white retro looking knee-length dress, complete with an electric blue belt to match. That is my favourite as I really look as if I was transported back to the sixties, except for the beehive hair.

 

My second favourite is a black evening dress that is shapeless and drapes on my body, but the look is completed with accessories and a metal belt. She also bought me a black chiffon top, a multi-colour knit dress, and an orange striped dress.

 

In the bags department, she bought me a black Coach tote, a Louis Vuitton and a Hermes. In the shoes department, she bought me a pair of pink pumps to match my pink Coach tote. I guess the things there must be really cheap, as Hong Kong and Shenzhen are known for being a shopping paradise!

 

I feel so happy and loved! Now I have even more things to add to my already enormous collection!

My Favourite Gift For The Year ...

Out of the gifts I have received this year, my favourite is this electronic bookmark dictionary that one of my friends gave me. The moment I took off the wrapping and saw the item, I was immediately fascinated!

 

This is really such a perfect gift! How it works is that you put the bookmark into your book, and wihle reading, you type in any word you come across that you do not understand, and immediately the meaning and answer is flashed out on the small screen! This is so handy! For someone like me who loves reading, this is indeed the best gift ever! Most importantly, it is in my favourite colour - pink!

This is what the electronic bookmark dictionary looks like. Contrary to what it looks like, this is not a toy. It is battery-operated and really does work. It is also small and handy and fits into any paperback. Strange thing is I never came across anything like this before. Kudos to my friend for finding this! This is really my favourite gift ever!

Super Cream!

I am so glad I am finally done with my Christmas shopping! Nothing else to buy already, as I have covered all bases. That also means I am more broke than usual. :-( But I am happy because Christmas is a time of giving after all, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than giving, in the form of anything, to my family and friends, and people I love and care about. That is the meaning of Christmas, is it not?

 

In any case, during my shopping trip, I bought a new hand cream for myself. I have tried several hand creams, but they do not seem to have much effect on my hands. I bought this new hand and nail cream set from The Body Shop, consisting of two Wild Rose Hand Cream (one for mature skin) and one Almond Nut Hand Cream.

 

I tried out one of the hand creams, and guess what? It is so effective! Immediately, my hands look brighter and feel softer and smoother! It is just one application and I did not even use a lot, just one dab on the hand! Wow... I cannot believe the effect this has!

 

Finally I found the perfect hand cream! I have been fretting over the condition of my hands for ages, especially when one gets older and the skin just goes duller and drier. Even though I do not use my hands in that way for work, I have to type a lot, and this contributes to the dryness and dull skin. So having a "super" cream for my hands just make things much easier!

The set is the Heavenly Hands Set at Body Shop. It makes a great gift to others, and yourself too! I believe most ladies are like me, fretting over their hands as hands do show your age, and it is good to be well-maintained just so to look younger!

My Dream Teapot

A few weeks back, I came across this website on kitchen ware called Pantry Pursuits. It has all the darling cake mixers and the kitchen accessories I have always wanted! So I signed up for the mailing list, and was added to their Facebook fan page and friends page.

The next thing I knew, I won a free teapot for being their fan and friend! Not just any teapot, but a white ceramic teapot with warmer, the EXACT teapot I have always wanted! It was really great happiness for me!

Just now after work, I went to their office to collect the teapot. The staff there is very nice and the office is very nicely decorated. There is even a piano at the side! The teapot is wrapped up nicely in thin paper and put in their customised bag. The staff even took a picture of me holding the teapot I won!

So now I am the owner of a ceramic teapot with warmer! I am definitely buying all my future kitchen ware and appliances from them when I get my own place next time!

The teapot I won
(Photo courtesy of Pantry Pursuit from their site)

The Heart Of The Ocean

Yes, I am referring to this necklace, which I received last Saturday. Someone sent it to me, with a note that says, "Sorry for this late Christmas gift, but I know you have always wanted this, so here goes...".

Well, the necklace I received is obviously not the original, but a replica. It is light, with a silver chain, and a heart-shaped pendant with the navy blue "diamond", but still, whoever sent it to me must have spent quite a bit on it.

Which makes me wonder, just who sent it to me? There was no name or signature on the note, and neither was there a return address. It was mailed locally. The envelope was printed, not written, so unless I send it to the forensics department for fingerprint extracts, otherwise I am pretty clueless who would send me such a gift.

If anyone is to send anything, why would the person want to remain anonymous? The least he (I am presuming it is a 'he') could do is to let me know who he is, then I can send a word of thanks and appreciation.

But then again, am I really that clueless? The show had been gone for so long. The actors and actresses have since aged quite a bit. No doubt I fell in love with the necklace the moment I set my eyes on it, and have wanted to possess it one of these days, but that was just a moment's fancy of young.

Which means, no one whom I know in my adulthood knows how much I longed for this necklace, certainly not just any mere acquaintance or even a close friend. The only people who knows I want this necklace are my best friend and her ex, my second ex and my third ex.

It is definitely not my third ex as I only mentioned to him in a passing remark, and anyway he never believed in giving exquisite gifts to anyone. It is definitely not my best friend because if she is to give me such a gift, she will pass to me personally. Neither is it her ex because he has no reason to.

Which leaves only one person. Hmmmm..... Shall I send him a note of thanks, or shall I just leave it as it is, since he clearly does not want me to know that it is from him, if it is from him at all? In any case, I managed to get the necklace I really wanted, albeit long time overdue, so it does perk me up a little.

Hot And Stuffy

Thanks to my blog, my Jacky Cheung tickets have been sold! I hope the loving couple will enjoy the show! Furthermore, I just sold my King Lear ticket as well, as my friend has indicated interest so I passed him the ticket just now. Hopefully he will enjoy too!

It has been a few very hot days. Hot, sticky, stuffy. It was so uncomfortable to even step out of a building, as the sun just bears down and makes everyone feel so sluggish. I was even disinclined to step out for lunch, and once I did that, I was even more disinclined to go back to the office. The sun can kill if this goes on.

I have already developed more freckles, on my cheeks and forehead. Oh no! Is UV moisturiser not enough? I cannot have freckles now, not when it is so near my cousin's wedding date, as I have to look presentable and good enough! Now I have to stock up even more sun screen and sun care products!

By the way, our gallery had a sale today, so I managed to buy a wedding gift for my cousin after all! I bought a matching photo frame and trinket box set. The frame itself is decorated with a pair of birds, with flowers around them, just like the trinket box. The box is very small, enough to just put the wedding rings in, but they look really quaint!

I was attracted to that particular photo frame and box set the moment I laid eyes on them. In my mind, I was thinking love birds for a pair of love birds, and may their love blossom and bloom like the flowers growing around them. I think I will write that in the card I am going to get. Sounds corny I know, but to me, that is meaningful for the new couple.

My Pen "Collection"

Finally I have submitted my essay on the Gladiators and Roman Colosseum. I do not think I will get a very good grade on that, but still, a paper with some content is much better than submitting a blank piece of paper altogether. I just hope I will not flunk too badly as I am really short of grades now.

It was a good thing I cleaned out my drawer the other day, or else I would never be able to find the nice gifts people had given me through the years. Each time when someone gave me something I would unwrap and then put them away carefully so as not to spoil or lose them. However through the years, things started accumulating and I had to re-organise everything all over again.

One of those things I managed to find was my entire pen "collection". Whenever I left any work place or birthday or Christmas comes along, someone or other would give me a pen. Not just any ordinary pen, but classic pens like Paper Mate, Parker, Waterman, Penelli, even Rotring. Thus, I ended up with several Paper Mate, Parker and Penelli ballpoint and roller ball pens, as well as several fountain pens from Parker, Waterman, Penelli and Sheaffer! Those are things I will really want as I write a lot, thus use up pens very fast.

Needless to say, it is the fountain pens which I like the most. Not only because they are old and classical, but also because they look nice and feel even nicer. At first, I was rather bewildered over the fountain pens as I wondered if anyone even uses fountain pens nowadays, but I realise that fountain pens are still popular and in use even in these modern days when anyone can get the less expensive ballpoint pens or felt pens anywhere.

So why the fountain pen? From what I found out, fountain pens are much easier and smoother to write with than ballpoint pens. Fountain pens are still much favoured by the elderly who cannot hold a pen properly, and by professionals for signing important documents as that will be more professional looking.

However, I have yet to figure out how to use a fountain pen. The few I have, Parker Frontier Fountain Pen (in translucent blue) and the Waterman Harmonie Fountain Pen (in black chrome trim) come with their own refillable catridges. The ink is smooth and flowy, and fountain pens really make an ordinary document look professional! Even in writing, be it a diary or article, the feel is just different when using a normal ballpoint pen and a fountain pen!

But the Sheaffer Agio Angle Brushed 22K Gold Plate Fountain Pen and the Penelli Pen comes with a converter for ink refill. Since I do not have any pots of ink, I have yet to start using the pens. Just when I was fretting to figure out how to use, I came across this website where I could order the entire fountain pen set consisting of refillable catridges, ink pots, blotter, and a guide to using fountain pens! Imagine that! It will be just like the good old days where fountain pens are the pens to write with!

Of Wedding Gifts (Or Lack Of)

I went into the LiveJournal page just to see the difference, and I find that users have the flexibility of marking some entries private. Perhaps Blogger should have this function. It creates convenience if certain things are only to be shared among parties involved and not everyone, yet at the same time does not lock up one's blog totally.

Of course, if one wants to be truly private, then it makes more sense not to blog at all, as anyone can access through the world wide web. The most Blogger does if one wants to mark the blog private is to remove it from its listings, but in some cases, whatever one writes will still be available on the net per se.

There are other functions where people have to log in using a password just to access the blog, but I do not like it as it will inconvenience others. And chances are, if people need to log in using a password, human nature is such that they rather not go in at all.

I was looking around at the gallery (the retail arm) at the basement of my office earlier on, trying to find something for my friend's upcoming wedding dinner. It will be on a weekday, which means that day I need to be a bit more formal looking at work.

I have known him for over twelve years. We were from the same music class, and perhaps because we have about the same family background and of the same age, we started clicking with each other. I am slightly acquainted with his wife as well.

Anyway I was trying to see if I can find something for his wedding, but the retail arm deals with spa, aromatherapy and scents, plus nolstalgic stuff. Somehow I do not think he or his wife will appreciate the wedding favours range.

I am always at a dilemma when it comes to wedding gifts. The most practical thing is to just give cash gifts, and some wedding invitations do state they only want cash gifts. Personally I feel if it is a wedding, people should be able to give what they like to the wedding couple.

Of course, staying in Singapore, it is a different story altogether. Most people here do not give sensible gifts. Couples receive toasters, rice-cookers, and whatnots from well-meaning friends and relatives, things which most wedding couples will find tacky. So of course, the most sensible thing to do now is to just give a big red packet.

I bought a pair of crystal swans for my cousin's wedding in Singapore, as well as a pearl-encrusted photo frame cum jewellery box for my cousin's wedding in Australia, and a pair of Precious Moments wedding figurines for his solemnisation last week.

Come to think of it, am I getting myself into trouble? He got me a pair of Kalm's wedding bears for our engagement gift, and he said he would like a pair of Precious Moments figurines as a wedding gift. At that moment in time I thought I was fulfilling his wish, but now I wonder if I am getting him into trouble as well?

What my company's retail arm sells for their wedding favours may not appeal to most locals. Afterall, how many people here actually indulge in couple aromatherapy, complete with scented candles, incense and soothing music?

Personally I will like it. My husband and I giving each other back rubs using massage oils, lighting candles all over, inhaling the scents and creating a romantic ambience. I once told this to my third ex, and he burst the bubble by telling me that the house will catch fire with all the candles around. *Sigh*

On the other hand, I find so many things there for my cousin's upcoming wedding in Malta. Somehow I get the feeling he and his wife will appreciate the gifts more. I can foresee them lighting candles all over their house, yet somehow I can never foresee my friend and his wife doing the same thing.

Maybe this is the difference between someone more Westernised and someone who is very Asian, or Chinese in particular. So I guess I just have to give a red packet as yet again when I go for his wedding dinner.

When Money's Been Sent Out ....

Positive : You sent out a bank draft yesterday so that the item you ordered can finally make its way here.

Negative : You received an email after you sent out the draft stating other modes of payment.

Double Negative : The other modes of payment include a Western Union Funds Transfer which can be done at any post office and the money will be remitted instantly.

The things I do for love …

And I am not sure if he will even appreciate my efforts.

Who Is The Mystery Guy? (Test of Love - Part II)

I just realised today is the 28th of June. Which means it has been exactly one month from the day I started my blog. I am very glad with my blogging achievements so far, and it is all thanks to the support I have from my friends and readers.

I have been asked a lot of questions. As far as I can, I try to answer all queries in my entries. But there are some questions which I like to maintain an air of mystery. One of those is what I really look like. If you have the chance to meet up with me, you can see for yourself, but I will not upload my picture for all to see. I feel that will spoil things. The hot question nowadays is who is this mysterious guy I am putting all my love, affections, time and money into? Actually I believe I have scattered lots of hints around. I do not want to infer outright for fear he may read and panic if it is too obvious. On the other hand, if he cannot tell I am referring to him, then I am pretty happy that my hints are too subtle, even for someone as smart as himself. So you have to wait for the identity of this mystery guy, that is if something clicked between us. If not, then too bad, his identity will forever remain a mystery to all.

I just spent my entire lunch hour at the bank. I went to the express lane first, only to find out that Cashier's Checks can only be issued in Singapore dollars. If I want a foreign currency, I need to apply for a demand draft. And it cannot be done at the express lane but the main line, which was so long that the last person in the queue had to stand outside the doorway! I filled in the form and went to queue. By the time it was my turn, I found out that the money could not be remitted directly to the company. The bank can only issue a draft and I still have to post it to the company myself! I should have gone to the post office for a money order after all. At least I got the draft, and since I was running out of time, I had to quickly grab and wolf down a sandwich. I did not have time to make the post office after all, so I can only go after work today, before going down to my opera practice.

If this is really a test, then I believe I would have passed with flying colours. Most people would not even bother to do so much for another person, especially for someone whom they are not even sure of how he feels. I think I am getting more and more "fan jian", going to such an extent to do something for a guy who may just reject me upfront. My mum will be horrified if she ever knows. In her opinion, she always thinks it is better to let a guy do the chasing as she is afraid I will lose out. But then again, there have been 3 guys who chased me before, and I still lose out in the end. So I guess maybe it does not make a difference who does the pursuing. The main thing is that he is worth it, at least to me.

A Test of Love??

Bad news! I just received an email from this overseas shipping company that the particular item I ordered for a particular someone's birthday gift could not be shipped here. The nearest Asian country that it can be shipped to is Hong Kong. Thus I spent a while surfing the net looking for other websites that will ship this item here. After sieving through, I only found 2 websites but both stated that the item could not be shipped here. It is now not a matter of how much I am willing to pay, as I am fighting a battle against the bureaucracy of the companies involved.

In the end, I finally settled for a similar item but of a different design from another overseas company that is able to ship here. However, I was not able to pay by card as international orders had to incur extra charges if paid by card. The company only accepts Money Orders or Casher's Checks for international orders. So I am going down to the bank during lunch later to get the cashier's order so that I can send it over to the company and they can proceed to ship the item over. Hope I make it on time for his birthday. I really hope he will like it although it is different from the one he is eyeing.

I wonder if all these little hiccups are a test? Then I wonder if I pass the test? Come to think of it, am I very degrading, or what the Chinese will term "fan jian", doing so much for someone whom I may not even end up with?