What is Love to You?

Someone asked me a good question yesterday.
"What is Love to you?"

Well, here's my answer.

Love is simple, love is sweet.
Love is that feeling which sweeps you off your feet.

Love makes you laugh and love makes you babble.
For some people, it often brings out a dimple.

Love is patient, love is real.
It all bounds down to how you really feel.

Love can't be forced, nor can it be bought.
Love can distinguish between the truth and the fraud.

Everyone knows that having trust is a must.
Yet not everyone knows that love is not lust.

It's all about compromising and keeping it true.
It shouldn't always be all about you.

Love forgives and accepts, flaws and all.
It is the hand that picks you up when you fall.

Love endures through thick and thin.
It shouldn't matter if you lose or win.

Love isn't selfish, love isn't greedy.
Those two things won't satisfy the needy.

Love is never lost; it is always around.
It should build you up; not tear you down.

Love is like a surprise visitor, knocking at your door.
So keep it open, you'll never know what you're in for.

Don't go searching for love, let it find you.
Because once you've found it, you'll agree that this poem is true :)

What is love to you?

Blooping

I saw a cockroach this morning. What a day to start work! Eww. It wasn't big nor was it tiny, so it's probably an adolescent cockroach. I turned around to look for something to hit it with, but the minute I turned back, it was gone. *Gulps* I just hope it scuttled out of the shop and was stepped on by another cockroach hater. I'd like to think so :D "Poor thing didn't live long enough for parenthood."

I told someone who hates roaches about this and he said, "If I opened the shop and saw a cockroach, I'd close the shop and go home."

Oh, and I was right... that woman in white that I talked about in my previous post was not an ordinary customer. I'm still not sure if she's the boss, but she's one of the "top" people of Bloop that no one would like to mess with. Why do I feel like my head could go on the chopping board any minute?

Every single day, we have lots of lost people dropping by asking for directions.
"How to go to McDonalds?"
"Which way to the Old wing?"
"Where's the lift?"
"Where's the toilet?"
"Where's *insert shop name here*?"

Does the shop look like an information kiosk, really?

And once, one of them tried to argue with my colleague. He asked for directions to a particular shop and my colleague told him how to get there. Then he frowned and said, "Are you sure? How come when I went there I didn't see it?"

The obvious answer would be, "You're blind."
The correct answer would be, "You must have missed it. It's there."
Of course my colleague chose the latter.

The Help desk is located only a few metres away, and yet so many turn to Bloop for directory; how ironic is that? Lol.

***

There's a problem with my playlist, so I can't upload any new songs on my blog for now.
But here's a few that I thought you might be interested in.

Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke & Flo Rida
Russian Roulette - Rihanna
Art Of Love - Jordin Sparks & Guy Sebastian
Crawl - Chris Brown
So Cold - Chris Brown
Somebody To Love - Leighton Meester & Robin Thicke
Do You Remember - Jay Sean
Saviour - Lights
3 - Britney Spears
Fireflies - Owl City
Up Down - Jessica Mauboy
Calling You - Kat De Luna
Sweet And Low - Augustana

Check them out ;)

Woman In White

Work's okay, but lately the stress has started to kick in. On Sunday, I had to rush to Pyramid right after church because my colleague needed help at work. Last week, I was having the time of my life.

But recently, I'm having second thoughts about this. I've been doing well at work, but I don't know if I really want to keep this up until the end of next month. Anyway, we'll just see how things go :)
Even as a part-timer, things can get rather hectic. I've met all sorts of people too.
I've faced customers who asked like a million questions even though they didn't intend on buying, but that's okay - it's my job as a promoter to provide them information about the products. My Mandarin was put to test plenty of times at work. I had to speak Mandarin and Cantonese to customers who didn't speak English - and truthfully even my 8-year-old cousin speaks better Mandarin than I do. But it was a great learning experience. I've learned so many new words and ways to attend to such customers; of course I don't go around telling them: "Sorry but I'm a banana so I apologize if I speak like a typical banana."
What I do is that I try my best, even if I'm not good at it.

There are times when I panicked when I was presented with questions I couldn't answer, and there were a few times when I couldn't find the barcode of the products in the barcode book. But thankfully, everything's under control so far.

Today, I was alone in the shop listening to my ipod and reading CLEO, when an elegant woman stepped in, clad stylishly in white with a designer bag hanging off her right arm. She talked to me nicely, and I treated her like how I treated the other customers; I talked politely, took her on a mini tour around the shop explaining to her the functions of various products, and then kindly replied her questions.
The funny thing about her was that she seemed to know the products more than I did. She kept asking me "What is this? What does it do?" on practically every item in the shop. I was new and I didn't have the knowledge of every product on the back of my hand yet, so there were two items that I didn't clearly accentuate to her about. So she filled me in. She seemed to know so much about those products! She could even tell me their functions and their benefits. In my head, I was thinking: Who is this woman? She knows more than I do!

So I smiled and casually asked her, "Do you shop at Bloop often?"
She took a while to reply. When she did, she just shrugged nonchalantly. "Sort of."
There was something different about her. She was a very nice woman, but I felt like she was testing me on my knowledge of the products. And then I felt pressured because it suddenly hit me that she could be the boss.

I don't know what the boss looks like but I only heard of her through my colleagues. No pictures, no name, nada.

She purchased some items and asked for my name. After that, she asked "So what else do you have here?" I explained about a few more items to her, and then she said goodbye and left. On her way out, she added, "Good luck!"
I could feel my heart pounding against my chest. That's not something an ordinary customer would say.
That could've probably been the boss of Bloop - the one who owns the whole of Bloop in Malaysia - and I had no clue.

Bloop

Bloop is a really cute outlet selling French products. None of the items are manufactured in Malaysia. Everything is from Paris.

Some of the items look edible :)

Aromatic candles

Most importantly, the products are safe and easy to use. French people are very particular about health; therefore the products sold at Bloop are mostly organic and alcohol-free.

The cosmetic counter.

Bloop sells a wide range of makeup; there are various types of eyeshadows (powdered, mousse, gel, mineral, shimmer) , eyeliners (pencil, crayon, gel) and even lipcares.

This is a chocolate-flavored lipgloss. :)
How cute is that?!

A lot of people have questioned if Bloop is a new market, and the truth is No, it's not. It's been going on in France for a few years already, and it's also quite popular in other countries (Melbourne especially). Early this year, Bloop came to Malaysia. The biggest outlet is in Sunway Pyramid (the new wing) aka where I work. LOL.

I started working on Monday as a part-timer. But I'm considering going in as a full-timer. I really like it there.

I had to memorize the products and their functions, as well as the prices too. My colleague Dina was really nice. She was the one who trained me and taught me a lot about working at Bloop. I'm so grateful for a sweet colleague like her!

An overjoyed Dina after I did her nails for her.

Win is the other colleague whom I just met a few days back. She's funny. :) A really fun and interesting girl to hang out with.

We had a hearty lunch at Pizza Hut yesterday; and we ended up ordering way more than we could eat.

I admit that I'm not much of a make-up person. I don't really indulge in cosmetics. So yesterday, Dina and Win applied some makeup for me.

The roses are actually on sale too. Lol.

Overall, I do enjoy working at Bloop. :) I've gained some experience on how to handle customers properly, how to approach them with ease and how to manage the shop. There are still some things I haven't wrapped my head around yet, but that's okay. Things will get better in time. :)


I Blooped all week. I'll be Blooping until the end of November.
I'm such a Blooper :D

Work!

I hate sitting around doing nothing during the holidays.

So, I'm going to work!

Well I had two options; either work at the Ralph Lauren perfume counter, or at Bloop.
I chose Bloop.

And I start tomorrow :)

Will update about it.

Candles, Mooncakes and Friends

I like mooncakes, especially the ones with white lotus and pandan. I hadn't celebrated Mooncake Festival in a loooong time. The last time I celebrated it as a child was probably when I was 10 years old. I was at the playground with the other neighborhood kids and we were playing with our paper lanterns. One of them hung his lantern over a pole and went over to the buffet table to eat. And then the pole caught fire!! The fire was leaking through the remnants of his lantern and I was the only person there at the moment. Panicked, I did the first thing that came to mind.

I poured my drink all over the fire. And watched it subside.


Lol. But thankfully that was not my last memory of Mooncake Celebration.



A few nights ago, a group of us headed to Pei Wen's house in Cheras to celebrate Mooncake Festival. Nate, KC, Casey, Shean, Pui Mun, Jean, Stella, me, Pei Wen herself and her two high school friends whom I got to know on that day, June and Shamini.

Me, Pei Wen, June and Shamini

Well, for starters, there was a lot of food! It was steamboat :) So we dipped fishballs and tofus and all that into the bubbling cauldron and waited like 5 minutes for the food to cook, then we ate. We repeated that process for the whole hour. But it was fun. Steamboat is a healthy style of eating. And we just kept eating.

Sooo much food!

Then we played with lanterns and candles!

Nate

Around 10pm, we went back into the house and watched a sappy movie on TV. PS:I Love You.
I've watched that movie for like, 3 times already. And yeah.. from all the reviews I got about the movie, I personally think the movie was overrated. I agree that it was really sweet and touching, but tear-jerking?! Really??
Nope.

Fi and me. Such a darling doggy.
I heart dogs. :)

Pei Wen :)

Eventually, we decided to scoot and go to Lookout Point. I'd never been there. They told me it's a high hill in Cheras which has the overview of KL. It was11.30pm when we left Pei Wen's house.
And 12.30 am when we reached our destination.

We parked our cars in the parking lot and walked up to the tall tower. On the way up, KC suddenly reported: "Uh oh. I think I stepped on a frog!"
She was wearing Crocs. A little frog jumped into her shoe and she accidentally stepped on it with her bare foot. Upon feeling the slimy sensation, she pulled her foot out and the frog jumped out of the shoe and disappeared into the bushes.

That's when KC suddenly spoke of the frog.

We climbed to the highest level of the tower and gazed down at the sight before us. The city stretched out into the night like a blanket of glittering lights.



Well if you really want a view of Kuala Lumpur itself, then you should go to the KL twin towers. At Lookout Point, it was basically just the whole of Cheras that we saw. KL was in a distance.. we saw the silvery lights of the Petronas twin towers blinking miles away. Lol.

By the time I got home, it was 2.30 am. Yes, I was incredibily sleepy. But it was a night to remember!

Candles, mooncakes and friends!

Suburbs

I like suburban life.



I like the scenic landscapes and the peace that blends in, creating a perfectly serene overview.

That's one of the neighborhood lakes I went to.

On certain days, I'd just spend the day at home or roaming the neighborhood in the mornings with Ming and Snoopie the dog. I took Snoopie out for walks three times when I was there. He goes for walks twice a day; in the mornings and in the evenings.

Suburban life is really quite different compared to city life. Things are less hectic and much quieter in the suburbs. When you've had a long day, returning to the suburbs and basking in the ambience of peace and tranquility does more than soothe the soul.

I still am a city person; I need malls and movies and entertainment nearby, so in case I'm bored, I could just go there and satisfy myself. But at the same time, I think it'd be nice to live in the suburbs, where the city is just less than an hour's drive away. I could still have the best of both worlds; living in peace AND shopping at my favorite stores in the city.

Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? :)

So now I'm pretty sure what to look for especially when it comes to choosing my future university.

Food (Part 2)

This is a continuation from the previous post.

The next day, I tried Krispy Kreme for the first time.

Mmmmm. :) The aroma of freshly baked donuts filled the shop.

So, we brought back 2 boxes of donuts to Julia's apartment. Oh, I forgot to mention that her apartment has like the best view of the city.


It's an elegant structure of 80 storeys, and it's probably the tallest building in the city. So yeah, she has a splendid view of the city from her window.

The city at night.
It's a little blurry because I didn't turn on the flash.
And I think my hands were quivering from the cold.
Brilliant excuse for bad photography.

Okay, back to the donuts! After a long day in the city, we dropped by Krispy Kreme and bought two dozen donuts back to Julia's.

Box One: sugar-glazed donuts aka original donuts
These were the legend of Krispy Kreme donuts.

Box Two: various flavors
(the chocolate donuts with cream filling tasted the best)

We watched a boring Indiana Jones movie and then for dinner, Julia and Ming Yew (Ming Zen's brother) took us out for dinner at Lygon Street. We had Italian food again. But this time, it was in a different restaurant called "Coretta".

On the way there, Julia accidentally accelerated at the red light and she was stopped by a 'police horse'!

Lol. More on that later ;)

All of us in the car were loao-ing (lauging our asses off).

It's always a challenge to find a parking in the city near your destination. And parking in the city is pretty expensive too. After several rounds that night, Julia finally found a nice spot and we walked to Coretta. It was a cosy Italian restaurant with tons of F1 merchandises propped against the walls, reflecting the owner's huge passion for car racing.

While waiting for our food to arrive, we posed for the camera. :P
They said I was on holiday, so I had all the right reason to take pictures of everything!

Julia and Ming Yew

Evan and Jen Ne

Then our food finally arrived, and we clasped our hands together in glee. =D

Pizza with sliced white mushrooms, cheese and tomato

Salmon spaghetti

Fettucini Carbonara

Hot plate chicken with creamy mushroom sauce

Once again, dinner was delicious!! We ate until the waistband of our jeans were pressing hard against our bloated tummies. But it was worth it. :)

Okay. Now, back to the police horse story.

I was surprised to see real police on real horses in the city. Horses can travel through the traffic. And they could probably gallop twice the speed of the cars (horse power? lol) I don't know why they have police horses over there, but I gotta admit that it was a funny sight to actually see them do their job.

Julia accidentally gunned the gas pedal while the traffic light blinked red. And unfortunately for her, two police horses were nearby and they galloped up to her and tapped on her window, and then demanded her to move to the other side so they could issue her a ticket. Aww. :( We were all laughing because it seemed too ridiculous to be true. Getting a saman from a police horse?

But the fine was no joke. I think she was charged AUD200. In Aussie, bribery is a foreign subject. You can't get away from crime with bribery. Which is a fairly good thing.

Will continue with more food after this. In the meantime, I'm learning how to write and read in Chinese! :) Yesterday, I spent 3/4 of my day learning it on my own. And I've made quite a lot progress. *cheers* I'm glad I did something productive. :P

Food (Part 1)

Melbourne is known for its rich variety in mouth-watering delicacies.

I was really blessed with the opportunity to indulge in so many of them.

Ichipan / Harajaku
Once known as Ichipan, the little Japanese outlet in Melbourne Central selling unique Japanese crepes has changed its name to "Harajaku".

That's just a model of what a Japanese crepe looks like.

They put a real block of cheesecake with whipped cream, blueberries and strawberry sauce on a thin crispy layer of crepe - and not forgetting a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
A must-try for those with a sweet tooth!

That's cheerful Jen attempting a 'kawaii' pose with the entire selection of crepes behind her.

That night, we all headed to Lygon Street for dinner. It was still winter, so there was a lot of cold, nasty wind and my cap was blown right off my head as I was about to cross the road :(
We finally reached Lygon Street and settled for Italian food at a cosy, warm Italian restaurant called Villa Romana.

I forgot the name of the pastas, but I recall that this one was really good.

This one had mussels and lobsters in it.


Another pasta with tomato sauce and mushrooms, I think. But it was yummy too :)

Dinner was awesome. We were all bloated, but there was still some room for dessert. So they took me to MyCube, a Malaysian outlet on Lygon Street selling Malaysian delicacies and one of their specialty desserts: the Ninja Panda Pudding!

That's not a block of tofu. That's pudding.

It was served with strawberry and guava/pear cutlets and thick melted gula Melaka. Yeah it was extremely sweet, but I loved the texture of the pudding. The fruits and sauce complemented the pudding very nicely.

More to come in Food (Part 2) ;)