I have been out of the country in the past few weeks: Flying to Hong Kong right after Thanksgiving. Then I flew to Guam (it is a US military base, 4 hours from Hong Kong) to attend my brother’s wedding and got back to Hong Kong on Dec 1. I was back to the US on Dec 4. A business trip took me to UK and Belgium on Dec 6. I was so jet lagged and sleepy by then that my wallet was pickpocked in Brussels! I did not know how that happened and the only thing I knew was the horrible 2.5 hours that I spent at hotel lobby to cancel all my credit cards!

That was why I did not write for a few weeks. But I did get a chance network with my family and friends and some business partners in various places. I also picked up some new trend in the area. I could not resist not sharing the latest beauty trend that was sweeping through the region. Although I have lived in the western side of the globe for quite some time, the asian way of beautifying always apply better on ME! For all the guy readers, bear with me for this time.

The two most latest trends were PU leather dressy shoes and “Big Eyes” contact lens.

PU leather is also called Bicast Leather. It looks extremely shiny on surface. It is made with a thick layer of polyurethane layer applying to a leather service. The PU leather shoes can be worn with work clothes and the shoes just made you look smart. Black and Red color PU leather shoes are the main characters but all the other fun colors (green, blue, orange, pink…) are all welcomed! I wore a black pair to work and got a lot of enquires on where to get them. Send me a comment and I can give you some tips to find them.

The “Big Eyes” contact lens are something really new and NOVEL to me. These are not color contact lens. These are contact lens that can make the iris of the eye look bigger. The key manufacturers of “Big Eyes” contact lens are from Korea. These bigger eyes make the face of the person look cuter and sweeter and seem like they could talk. However since these contact lens are not very air permeable they could not be worn more than 8 hours. For those bride-to-be preparing for their big day, you may want to give it a try!!

 

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My husband and I went with my neighbor for bar hopping last night.  When we arrived at the downtown area, we saw everybody was wearing those explicit (and sexy!) costume: French maid, Man in Black, Alvis, Devil lady etc.  We were totally unprepared as we did not expect people to be serious about Halloween. It turned out that this bar-going crowd had been waiting for this moment to show off their costumes but also their ultimate quest for “exotic” feeling.   We were dancing to the latest Justin Timberlake’s song and at the same time enjoyed watching these creative outfits.  I was in particular attracted to the “Bill Clinton” with THE cigar dancing with a sexy blonde coal miner.   There was another guy wearing a lime green long jacket shining under the spot night looking at us.  Then there were a couple pretending to be contruction workers holding signs of ” No Beer left Behind!”.   There were the brothers Banana and Bowling Ball wandering around the dance floor. They reminded me of Ben Affleck and Mat Damon on Oscar red carpet.    Certainly all ladies were trying their best to show off their stuff:   sexy nurses with very few buttons of their uniforms on (to be honest, I thought those outfits will only be worn in the bedroom. I was again proven wrong!);   sexy police women,  cheerleaders almost wearing nothing.  

 Costumes are so mysteriously evil that they touch some places in our brains and our body without leaving any traces.  We would suddenly have all the fantasy about people wearing various types of costumes.   In these bars with very dim lighting, music with all the suggestive lyrics, and the foggy atmosphere (thanks to the fog machine at our back), looking at these costumed men and women…..I had a feeling that I was in the hell for a minute.  Maybe I had been drinking too much Mojito! 

 

My daughter and I were performing in a piano recital today. Our teacher Gypsy is an Asian American in her late 20’s and the recital took place informally in her home. My daughter started to take piano 2 and a half years ago. Gypsy comes to our home every week for the lesson. This is the most rare convenience that we could get in our hectic life! I decided to learn piano half a year after my daughter started. This has been something that I want to do since I was a teenager. I thought, ” I am 35 now. If I need 10 years to learn and manage to play a few good songs, I shall just be 45 and shall still have a long time to enjoy playing the piano”. It turned out that I could manage to play a few songs even after 1 year of learning. I played Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Love Story last year in the recital. My techique was not that good but at least I enjoy playing the songs. The 20-25 minutes of piano practice becomes my ritual for reliefing stress everday. Gypsy started the recital today with a speech. She told the audience about her voyage in piano playing. It was an on and off relationship linked to her journey in finding her identity and passion. She also said that a lot of parents may have putting too much pressure for their kids in playing the piano. Gypsy said maybe we should just let the kids to be kids and let them to have fun. When they don’t do perfectly in a performance, don’t criticise them but appreciate that they are even willing to participate in it. Striking the balance between commanding and guiding is so important. Praise, praise and praise! She also encouraged the kids to be thankful that they have the chance to learn the piano. A lot of kids in third world or even in America would not be able to afford the piano or even the lessons!! Gypsy’s tears came out during the speech and it made a lot of people including me cry! I grew up in a family always urging us to get the best score and be perfect. In my whole life I look up to approvals from my parents, my teachers, and other seniors for my identity. I now hope my daughter just be confident about herself and find her passion - although I still want to see more focus and discipine from her. I also hope that she can appreciate what she’s got and treasure them. The recital went very well and all the students were granted some sorts of awards by Ms Gypsy. She was very humble about everything but I do think she is an excellent teacher. We all experience how a good teacher can inspire us in our life. She is definitely one of the them for these kids, and parents!!

I told my daughter and my girlfriend about a game that we played when I was a little girl. So there were two questions each person need to answer. 1. What is your favorite color and WHY? 2. What is your favorite pet and WHY?

Here were the answers from my daughter and my friend:

1. Daughter: Orange because it is strong, vibrant and happy
Girlfriend: Pink because it is soft, beautiful and romantic

2. Daughter: Horse because it is strong but cute
Girlfriend: Dog because it is loyal, affectionate and always listens to me

In fact, these two are phycological questions. The first question represents how you want yourself to be like. The second question tells you how you want your partner/spouse to be like!

My answer to the first question has changed overtime. I used to say I like blue because it is strong, deep and solid when I was a teenager. When time passed by, I become loving color purple because it is STRONG and SOFT at the same time. Pink is too soft for me and red is too overt. The in-between shades of color purple represents me - I think- and it gives me a feeling of warmth. With regards to the second question, my answer has not changed for my whole life: An Intelligent dog because it is loyal, understanding and NOT STUPID!

In fact, there is a third question in this game. We did not play it as it is PG13: What is your favorite food and WHY? My answer is,anything sweet because it is fulfilling.

It represents how you like sex to be!!

Get a beautiful pashima of your favorite color now:

My brother, Eastro, has been planning for his wedding for some time. He is a marketing event planner and has helped most of his guy friends to ”run” their wedding.   For his own one, his would like to “outsource” it and make it as simple as possible.  Otherwise everybody will expect a lot of out-of-the-box ideas and perfect execution since that is his routine.  He really wants to relax a bit and don’t want to feel like at work- although my parents still hope that there will be a sort of small reception for our relatives and friends.  Eastro and his fiancée Sharon eventually decided to do a dual Destination Wedding with Sharon’s sister and her fiancé.  He sent me an email yesterday to tell me that the wedding is going to take place in Guam Island, USA on November 29.
For those who are not familiar with the location of Guam, it is the eastest part of USA. It is a US military base for monitoring the situation in Pacific. From US East coast, one would need to fly from New York to Hawaii and then to Guam – at least 20 hours. However, it is only a three-to-four hour flight from most of the east and Southeast Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.  Thus it is also a very popular tourist place for people from Asia. The island is surrounded by turquoise seawater with beautiful beaches, modern resort hotels and tons of activities. It has also becomes a favorite spot for Destination Wedding, especially for people from Asia.  There are a lot of chapels which can run 6 weddings each day.  There are a lot of wedding package which includes return airfare, 4 day accommodation, wedding photograph, a small reception and even tuxedo and gowns rental etc.  One of the attractions for couples from Asia is for them to get a US marriage certificate.  I just learnt this from surfing sites about Guam wedding.  My husband and I scratched our head and could not understand why having a US marriage certificate would be a cool thing – especially the divorce rate in the US is much higher than in Asia!! 
Anyway, my brother’s wedding is going to take place in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It is a tricky timing for me.  I usually go back to Asia for Christmas and New Year.  That fits both my schedule and my daughter’s year round school calendar.   If I go to Guam in November after thanksgiving, I would not have enough vacation days to stay for the whole December.   I certainly would not fly twice to Asia (or very close to Asia) in a month.   My daughter also cannot miss school for the whole month.
Well I have only one little brother and definitely I cannot miss his wedding.  Frankly I could not imagine his wedding picture without me on it!   I may just try to get to Guam to attend his wedding without my daughter.   I am doing some research now to see if she can fly to Asia by herself in December – although that would be a big adventure for both her and ME!!!