members only sites are taking me for all i've got

I guess what I should do is unsubscribe shouldn't I?

Anyways, I've had a pretty stressed day, it has not been relaxing at all. First off, the washing machine in my building is acting up. Again. It switches on but the water doesn't flow into the machine. I have no idea why. Usually when that happens, i leave it for about 20 minutes, come back and it works. Today, I spent three and a half hours going up and down the stairs every half hour to check on the machine. I did not get to do my laundry today but my glutes sure did get a workout :D

Then I spent the entire day dealing with my friend Oz's crisis. She's been off the grid since she emailed me and she's been texting the other girls with emo sms-es and when one of them culminated with a "What's the point in living if the person you love doesn't love you anymore" kinda response and then complete silence, of course we were all freaked.

I spent the day emailing and texting her to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. I made my gal pal who works in Singapore give her parents a call to see if they had heard from her. Scary thing is, Sing Gal told me that her parents didn't know that the wedding was off. I had suspected she might have not said anything just yet to her parents. I was telling Sing Gal to inform her parents so that they would check up on her. She hadn't been returning our calls, emails or texts but she most likely would talk if her mum called. Luckily, just about 20 minutes ago, another gal pal forwarded an sms from Oz to Sing Gal that proved she was still alive and kicking and was apparently going to go fight for her relationship. I'm just glad she's ok.

This post was supposed to be about my first purchase off of OpenSky. I had a 15 dollar credit - 10 bucks from registering and an additional 5 dollars for 'following' one of the chosen curators. My 5 bucks was expiring at midnight so I was trying to see if there was anything I wanted so that I could take advantage of it.

Ok, before I get to the point, lemme explain a lil bit about OpenSky. It's a shopping site that's like twitter. Basically, there's a bunch of "handpicked" celebs from different industries (i.e: food, health & wellness, style, design) who "introduce" you to their favorite product and then invite you to purchase said product at a discount. Some of the celebs involved are Padma Lakshmi, Carolyn Murphy, Alicia Silverstone and Nancy O'Dell. These celebs are called curators and you as the subscriber can pick up to 10 curators for you to "follow" ala twitter. Some special offers are only available if you "follow" the curator that put it up. The 10 you pick are not set in stone, you can just as simply dump one curator and follow another. Get the gist?

So I had the 15 bucks and I wanted to spend it but most of the items were things I wasn't interested in or out of the price range of what I was willing to pay. In the end, I settled for the Sibu Sea Buckthorn Beauty Supplements. I have never heard of this before but it was going for 21 bucks and sounded interesting. I decided to put it in my cart and google it for info. What I found were many rave reviews on the Sibu Sea Buckthorn line. The softgels were highly recommended for the maintenance of skin, hair and overall health. And apparently it also helps with weight loss - BONUS! Don't we all have that few extra pounds we'd love to get rid off? It also has Dr Oz's, Oprah's physician of choice, seal of approval. The company that manufactures the product is affiliated with GNC which is one of the sites I looked at for reviews. Many people decided to get it based on Dr. Oz's recommendation and proceeded to praise it to the moon once they tried it. I was sold, sucker that I am :D

I just checked to make sure that the stuff was kosher and it is. Uses veggie-based glycerin and kosher gelatin. I am still eating my Murad Pure Beauty but thought I'd try this as well. It retails for 30 bucks but OpenSky had it on offer for 21 dollars. All in all I paid 10 bucks for my first OpenSky purchase. There was a 4 bucks shipping fee and after subtracting my credit, I was left with 10 bucks that will be charged to my card.

It says it takes about a week to process but I dunno how accurate that estimation is since this is my first buy and all. Could be it's like Bluefly - super fast or could be it's like Bravado USA (Linkin Park tees) - pretty slow. However it is, it's most likely not gonna make the next ComGateway shipment next week. I am awaiting both the LP tees and the LP Dylan Messenger to arrive on Wednesday and Thursday respectively and then getting all my stuff sent back to Homeland. Am hoping that the stuff will arrive sometime next week whilst I'm there!

DISCLAIMER: All images are from OpenSky.com

i bought it!!!!!!!

I GOT MYSELF THE LINEA PELLE DYLAN MESSENGER IN ESPRESSO! OMG! SO EXCITED! BET YOU CAN'T TELL, LOL!

Ok, calm down, oh geez, my hands are a lil bit shaky as I type this, hehehe. Ok, ok, cool. Right, I know I just posted my handbag covet list and I was seriously talking about getting the Linea Pelle Dylan Messenger since I kept mentioning it in the past couple of posts but I never expected to go ahead and purchase it today. I was thinking sometime next month when I had a lil more financial room to breathe. Turns out, I had some room to maneuver RIGHT NOW! So, I took advantage of said space and made my move!

I was settling my personal finances with my sister and we were going through my AMEX billing. After the dust settled, I had a lil under 1000 bucks to spare for frivolousness and so I went for it! I had been stalking the Dylan messenger on Bluefly.com for a couple of days now and there were less than 10 pieces left. I had been hoping the inventory would stay relatively what it was while I waited for next month to roll around but now I totally don't have to so WOOHOO!

I actually became enamored with the Dylan messenger when I saw it slung across this chick's shoulder while we were both in line at my fave bakery cafe sometime earlier this year. She had the black one and it just looked like the most perfect balance of casual chic that I immediately wanted one of my own. That's great if the style was a recent release but since it's something from a coupla seasons ago, I had a tough time finding one. I was open to the black or the brown but all I could find was the orangey hued version which I knew I was NOT going to be able to pull off.

I can't remember why I decided to go looking for the messenger recently but as I google shopped it, I saw Bluefly had it in stock and it was on sale for $207.99. It's not the cheapest I've seen, the site was selling the orangey one for USD99 a few months back. And really, although at $207.99, I was still not pushed into getting it. Till I saw that Bluefly was giving an additional 30 bucks off of any 150 dollar order for new Bluefly newsletter subscribers. This would bring the price down to $177.99. I could get on board with it if it was less than 200 bucks! I knew once I could squeeze this purchase in, I would get the bag.

As it turns out, today was the day so YIPPEE! Right after I finalized payments with my sister, I told her I was going to be charging something to the card and she said, "Wateva! As long as we have done these payments, there's leeway for you to buy whatever you want". I took her rather muted "Hell yeah, go ahead" and did exactly that - buy my Linea Pelle Dylan Messenger in espresso.

All in all, with shipping, the total came to $185.94. Less than 200 bucks - am happy :D Can't wait to get all the new things now!


UPDATE:
Ok, new fave online merchant is def Bluefly.com. They are fast! Within a coupla hours of my order submisssion, they sent me an email stating my billing info had been verified and they would be processing my order. And just a few minutes ago, I got an email to say MY ORDER HAS SHIPPED! I have a tracking number already!

They are def the fastest merchants I've ever dealt with. I'm kinda stunned by how quick everything is :) Good on ya, Bluefly! Def the way to keep the customers coming back! I'm a fan! LIKE!

the handbag covet list

This post was actually created on 15th January 2011 but I never got around to finishing it because I just became tres lazy. What else is new, huh? Anyways, I finally got round to it and instead of posting it back when i thought it up, I figure I might as well just put it up in the here and now. Without further ado, I present - Zlena's Arm Candy Covet List.

Okay, I have a lot of handbags and I know there are better (and more meaningful) things to do with my money but I can't help that I covet handbags. I have been going through the list I keep in my head, lol, and have had it whittled down to the ones I covet the most. This is simply a wish list and I am not targeting any specific bag to purchase this year if at all. It's more of a if-the-opportunity-arises kinda situation. I'm gonna make sure I'm done paying off my Miu Miu first though (Which I already did back in May! This is retroactive posting :D)

1 Yves Saint Laurent Muse




2 Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche






3 Balenciaga Giant City (in Anthracite to be specific)





4 Marc Jacob Quilting Stam

5 Rebecca Minkoff MAB Mini

6 Linea Pelle Dylan Messenger (in espresso to be specific)

And thus ends my covet list. I like how it's a mix of high end as well as designer brands. It makes me feel good that I'm not a complete snoot when it comes to my leather arm candies. I can still rock the less than thousands as well as the bleed my wallet dry types :D I'm sure my Corso Como Payson and my Fossil Vintage Reissue II can attest to that. Anyways, the specific models are perhaps not set in stone. Like the Balenciaga, I have been wishy-washying between getting the City or the First or the Town. I haven't fully made up my mind in regards to that. And perhaps some will remain just that, a bag I covet. I might not necessarily get them either because they are no longer being made or I might not want to. The YSL Rive Gauche has been discontinued and so has the LP Dylan messenger. Whatever is available in the market right now is what's left of their inventory. Well, if the time comes.....

DISCLAIMER:
All images came to me via Google Image :) I do not own them.

UPDATE:
One down, potentially FIVE left to go.....

Ummm, I kinda have something to confess. Alright, in the spirit of full disclosure, I do own a hand-me-down YSL Rive Gauche which I got a coupla months back when my sis gave it to me. She got herself a new one in noir and gave me her old one that is the exact shade above. The condition of the bag I got is still pretty good but the leather does look like its on the worn side. But that's why I love it, that it has that worn look, like it's lived and seen things - like it has history. Lol, well it has lived and seen things and has history. I toted it around Paris and London during my sojourn there back in '09. Like I mentioned above, this post was dreamt up back in January. I guess I'll just strike out YSL Rive Gauche because however I got the bag, the point is I have one already. I never did say that I had to purchase each one on my own, right? :)

So, TWO down, FOUR MORE LEFT!

UPDATE (31/12/2011):
Well two more down! Got myself a Stam in Purple and a Giant City in Parme. I know it's not Anthracite but I reserve the right to change my mind in terms of colours :D

anticipating.....Missoni For Target

WOOHOO! My 13th post of the month - this equals my February record, I am slowly getting back on track in regards to blogging, lol. I do realize this is just an audience of one, hehehe.

Anywho, as the title suggest, I am totally stoked for the Missoni For Target collection due to drop on September 13th 2011 and will be on sale up to October 22nd. Even the major Go! International happenings of a few months' back did not elicit much appreciation since I did not even bother getting anything from the reissues. However, this Missoni diffusion line has me in an "I want, I want, I want" tizzy. Everything looks adorable and cool and chic from the clothes to the stationary to the housewares. I even covet the Missoni For Target bicycle! Yup, this collection has a bicycle!

Of course, I can't get the whole collection even if the lil shopaholic (what a total understatement, hehe) in me screams its little heart out. Money is an issue for one, hehehe - oh, to not be beset with money worries, but then again, perhaps I wouldn't be getting the Missoni For Target line and just go directly for the highbrow stuff no? But as I am limited funds-wise, I will have to limit myself to a few choice pieces. As I know I am not the only one madly in love with the collection, I am going to resort to my Cynthia Vincent For Target stalking techniques to ensure I am able to get dibs on the stuff that I want. As of right now, Target.com has not set up the pages just yet but once they do, you can bet I'll have bookmarked 'em for when the collection drops and I can just go for it!

So the items I have my eyes on are basically classic Missoni. Out of the 400 plus (!) items in the collection, I have managed to bring my Missoni lusts down to a very modest 5 items. I am not going to extol the virtues of each product I selected but will instead put up a collage of pics from the Missoni For Target lookbook. It would appear pretty self-explanatory after that :D

Even though I only have the five items in my "most wished for" list, I am likely to limit myself to just the one shoe purchase and am heavily leaning towards the black pumps simply because I have no idea if I am the type who can carry off such a zany print in purple on my feet. Those flats potentially would make my 8.5 sized feet look even larger, bunions and all :D And that first ensemble outfit image, I am not planning on getting the whole thing, just that brown poncho-style cardigan. However much I am coveting the look of that tote, I will most likely forgo it since I am trying to fit into my budget the Linea Pelle Dylan messenger bag I was talking about in my other post.

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait. Let the stalking begin!

just when i thought i could.....

Lately I've been reviewing my life and one aspect that has been on my mind is my steadfast decision to not date or have relationships in general. I was just thinking about making more of an effort to actually go out on dates when I'm asked instead of turning them down and generally getting back into the dating game and whatnot.

I guess these feelings came about as I took stock of where I am and that is the one area of my life I have not made any improvements in. I am stuck where I was 6 years ago and I think it is mainly because I am scared of getting hurt. I admit, I am deathly afraid that I'll get completely destroyed by someone. Scratch that - my number one inherent fear is letting someone into my life that can potentially break my heart. You could say I had a taste of that way back when and it has left me the person I am today. Yes, I am stuck in this limbo and unable to move forward because of a period in my life that, when I look back on it, really should not have impacted me in this way. The gist is, in the space of a coupla months, whatever transpired changed the course of my life to where it is today. But for whatever reason, I am the way I am because of it. And over the years I have wondered how to progress beyond it but I haven't managed to do it just yet. Even now as I write this up, I am unsure if I can even make that effort.

Anyways, my dear friend in Oz announced back in June that she and her long-term boyfriend with whom she's been in a 4 year relationship with had decided to get married in April 2012. She is one of my closest buddies - I've known her since we were 7, we bonded over our love for Take That and the Brazil 1994 World Cup champions' team. She and I go waaaaay back, she's part of our group of six. I was reminiscing with her a couple of emails ago that when she came to visit me here in Workland, at that time she was a couple of months into the relationship and we were having a girls chat about the guys' potential and I mentioned in the email that I guess it was fated it would result in a marriage.

The planning began, she asked the girls in the group to be her ladies-in-waiting for her big day and all of us were excited. Since it's slated for early April, I was trying to figure out my air ticket and see if I could get a good deal - I had planned to go back just for the weekend of her ceremony and reception. For some reason I don't know why I kept putting off looking for the tix. In a really sick and twisted way, I guess I was lucky I didn't. She and the guy broke off the engagement and called off the wedding two days ago. Well, the harsh truth is, he broke it off with her. I absolutely cannot fathom the manner in which he did it. He definitely did not mince his words when he told her why he changed his mind about getting married. He told her, and I am quoting him verbatim, "I don't think I will be happy with you in my future." Could the dude not spare her a lil bit????

Sigh. I am sad about this. This should not have happened to her. I just don't get it, what is wrong with men that they cannot figure it out BEFORE they propose. I think this problem is particularly rampant among Caucasian men and you can quote me on that. I don't particularly care if I sound like a bigot. If it ain't obvious, the dude is Caucasian and my gal pal is fully Asian. I have no idea whether background and differing religions played a factor or not but if it did then he truly should not have wasted her time or strung her along by consistently telling her he saw marriage as their end game. Last year, during my other chica's wedding which Oz flew up for, the dude came up a couple of days after for a meet and greet with her fam and without ANY prompting or discussion, he brought up the subject of marriage with her parents and mentioned that he wanted to marry her. He even said he was okay with with converting - that was how much he "wanted" to be with her.

What the hell could have changed his mind in the couple of months between proposing and now? I don't get it. You spend 4 years together with someone and then you decide to propose and now you suddenly tell her that you don't love her anymore???? Right to change your mind and all but I don't get why he could not have done this before proposing. Don't you think these things over before you do the whole "I wanna marry you" speech? He could have spared her so much heartache if he had. Things were in motion, plans had already been finalized, there were only a couple of small things to work out! I am starting to feel royally pissed about this.

But in the end, if they can work it out, call it cold feet or whatever, I will still celebrate her wedding with all the joy I can muster. She is important to me and I don't want to see her broken by this. If there is a way for them to work through it then I hope they can. Because if I'm honest, I'm very afraid my friend will not be able to come back from this.

To the guys out there, seriously, think before you speak. Women don't deserve this!

my lil june bag

Ok, I guess my play on words this time doesn't really come across well - june bag = june bug but I don't think it came off that way. It just sounds like what it is I think.....

So as I continue my retroactive blogging journey on things that have waaaay passed, I thought I'd talk about this gorgeous drawstring bucket bag that I got back in June. Makes sense now? Bag gotten in June = June bag = June bug. Ok, ok, I will stop trying to explain my completely lame word play. I'll even try to stop doing the whole word play thing, I have no idea why I find that so amusing, hehehe. No promises though, I have an intense liking for being wordy like that.

Back in March/April, I started getting pretty obsessed about finding the perfect drawstring bucket bag. I looked high and low for what I deemed the perfect one and for a while all I could find that somewhat suited my criteria was the Louis Vuitton Petit Noe. Why was it that it only somewhat appealed to me? Price tag of course! Btw, totes obsessed with Jessie J's Price Tag ditty. Although the drawstring bucket bag is a classic design, I didn't want to spend soooo much on it. I had a look on malleries.com which is a site that sells pre-loved designer goods and saw a few of the Petit Noes but I still wasn't convinced.

Finally, I can't particularly remember how I came across it, but I found the bag that ticked all the criteria on my checklist - the Fossil 'Vintage Reissue II' Leather Drawstring Shoulder Bag. At the time I got this bag, it was on sale at nordstrom.com for $124.90 from the RRP of $188.00 and it was the only site that had it at a discount. Now that I had found the bucket bag of my dreams, I wasn't about to let hesitancy get in the way of my owning it. I just checked out Nordies and the bag's price has dropped to an even lower $93.90. Do I regret buying it earlier? Honestly - no. I love my bag so much that I do not care that I paid a lil bit more for it. Sure, the few extra bucks would have been nice but I wouldn't have gotten my hands on it already if I had waited.

The reason why I love this bag as much as I do is the fact that it has the most perfect bucket shape to it. Also, the bag can be carried at 2 different lengths -either on the shoulder with the shorter leather handle or crossbody with the longer canvas strap. Overall, the construction is sturdy, the lining is cotton and it was not made in China. If anything, I think I have made it clear that if I can avoid it, I will not buy designer-ish things made in China cos I have had experience where I got some Calvin Klein sunnies that were made in China break on me for no reason. Once bitten, twice shy and all that jazz. The interior has a deep zippered compartment and 2 wall pockets. It is very roomy despite not outwardly looking big. I was able to fit my XL Tintimar handbag pouch and my iPad into the bag and still be able to tie up the drawstring. Granted, it was a bit of a squeeze but it fit and that's whats important :)

Anyways, this is perhaps my favourite buy for the year bag-wise. However, I don't think this will be my last bag purchase cos I have finally managed to find one of my coveted bags, the Linea Pelle Dylan messenger in the shade espresso, going on sale for quite a discount and am seriously tipping towards getting it. I'll update if I do :) Oh, and my LP tees have finally shipped so WOOOHOO!

DISCLAIMER: Product display image came from Nordstrom.com

and the shoe shoe train just keeps on going

LOL, that's my massively lame attempt at word play. But it is somewhat spot on. If that glaringly obvious post title isn't glaringly obvious enough, I have made yet another shoe purchase - if you could see me now, I am hanging my head down in shame :P That's my fourth shoe in a month!

Right, I may feel a tad excessive with all the recent shoe-buying but trust me when I say, I have been wanting these shoes for ages! Yes, yes, I know I made this same claim in regards to the Newport News ruffle buckle pumps but this is also a pair of shoes I have been eyeing since I got my Dolce Vita For Target nude rope wedges. Target was also selling a low wedge heel version of the original Dolce Vita Marci sandal going for $29.99 and I had been debating whether to get a pair in black to complement my myriad of maxi dresses. I already have one pair of black gladiator wedge sandals with a full bead detail from Vince Camuto but it will not go with any of my print maxi dresses. And even though I have a gold hued gladiator sandal, I don't think I can convincingly rock them with every maxi I own - hey, part of being a fashion aficionado is also about knowing your limitations :D

So, I was kinda desperate to find an all black pair, something with a simple design, no details. I took too long to make my decision regarding the Target sandals and by the time I thought "YES, get'em", the shoes were already sold out. Getting the actual Dolce Vita Marci sandals were out of the question as they retail for $78.75. Since then I have been googling around trying to find another pair that appealed to me while fitting the budget I had in mind - around about 30 bucks or less. There were a few that caught my interest but none held me long enough to make me want to get them.

Until last night when I noticed that Haute Look was having a Dolce Vita shoes event. I went on to the site with the faint hope of seeing the Marci in the event and then I actually did see the shoes going for the AWESOMELY AFFORDABLE PRICE OF 28 BUCKS - FOR LEATHER SHOES Y'ALL! I made the decision there and then that if I was able to fight off the shark-like American bargainistas, I will without a doubt, immediately checkout.

I have to say, it was very, very touch and go there for the half hour I kept stalking the shoes. I was trying to get the pair in my usual 8.5 and at one point there was a pair that was released from hold but I wasn't quick enough to click on it and some other cyber shopper out there beat me to it. I didn't give up hope though, I kept refreshing that page like my life depended on it, hehehe. And suddenly, I saw the shoes in size 9 available. Without another thought, I clicked it into my cart, where I had 15 minutes to either checkout or back out (hahaha, my dorky humour strikes again!) and then I went on google to see what people were saying about the sizing of these particular shoes. Can I just say that I strongly believe that I was meant to get these Dolce Vita Marci sandals. The majority of the reviews that I had to speed read through, spanning multiple sites, agreed the shoes were sized a half smaller than usual, that most tried on their natural size and decided to size up cos the shoes fit a lil narrower on the front. Doesn't that seem like a sign I had to buy these sandals?

As can be seen, I bought the sandals. It was 28 bucks, genuine leather and it was what I wanted. In total, with shipping, i will be charged USD35.95. Am contented, finally have all my coveted shoes. I will not however make any bold proclamations of this being the last shoe purchase of the year. I'm realistic, Missoni For Target is coming up next month and I seem to think there's a pair of ballet flats from the line with my name on 'em, lol.

DISCLAIMER: First image of the Dolce Vita Marci shoes was "borrowed" from Shoes.com

the countdown begins.....

In about a months' time I will FINALLY get to see my contemporary music idols in concert at the Singtel GP race this 25th September! So in anticipation of said event, I have to of course start making my prep in terms of how I'm going to look whilst rocking out to Linkin Park, hehehe.

And what better way to show LP how much I adore them by wearing apparel sold by the band itself. I had made the decision to get some official LP tees when I was confirmed to go to the F1 race waaaay back in late March. I had been looking around the site and had seen a couple of designs that I liked but since I had a lot of upcoming traveling in my schedule, I decided to hold off getting anything in case I could find a store where I could just get the stuff off the rack.

Trying to find official band tees is difficult in this part of the world for some reason. I guess in the age of digital downloads and whatnot, music stores are hard to find and what more about selling band merch. I even looked around during my Hong Kong trip but could not find a place that had what I wanted.

Anyways, I finally took the plunge last week and ordered my tees off of the site. Yup, that's correct - TEES - as in plural :D Figured since I was already spending on shipping, I might as well get more than just the one. I'm glad I waited till now to get the shirts cos when I decided to buy, the site had a "Back-To-School" promo where if you buy 2 tees, you'll get an additional free of equal or lesser value. Most of the tees are priced at 25 bucks so basically it's 50 dollars for 3 t-shirts. Seems fair to me.

The main one I wanted to get was the t-shirt Mike Shinoda designed for the Japan tsunami relief fund - the Linkin Park Japan Relief Butterfly Girlie T-Shirt. I wanted to buy something that would at least help out in any way possible. When I browsed the site back in April, there were numerous sizes for the ladies version but only XL left now. I got it anyways, lol. It's for charity and I figured I can wear it like an oversize tunic tee. I have no idea how big a ladies XL is so I'm crossing my fingers that I can manage to style it accordingly.

The next tee I got I decided to get one that would have the current concert tour mentioned on it, which is the Linkin Park A Thousand Suns World Tour. I wanted to have a record of which year I got to see them in concert. The tee I went for is the Linkin Park Black Hole T-Shirt. It's just a simple black tee with the LP symbol and on the back it has "Linkin Park A Thousand Suns World Tour Two Thousand Ten And Two Thousand Eleven" printed on it with Linkin Park symbols underneath. I got this in a mens' size small. Aside from the Japan relief butterfly tee, the selection for girls' tees are not very appealing so I made the call to get the guys styles instead. I'm hoping S will fit ok cos sizing is tricky. I have no idea if the tees follow the standard sizing cos if you look at the band, some of the dudes are like super skinny so....

Last but not least, for my free tee, I decided to go for one with the band photo on it. I decided to get the Linkin Park Mirror Photo T-Shirt which is described as a teal t-shirt featuring a mirrored band photo and logo printed on the front. However, either the photo of the tee is waaaay off or whoever is in charge of the t-shirt description doesn't know their colours - that does not look like teal to me, that's more like olive is it not? But anyways, I like that this is not basic black like the other two.

In total I spent $55.99 for the order. Although international shipping was available, I decided to get it shipped to my Portland addy so as to save on the shipping costs since I do have my Spiegel order being shipped there as well. It would have cost me 20 over bucks to get it shipped to Homeland but to Portland it's only costing $5.99 to get it sent there. It's possibly going to cost me just as much to get my shoes to Homeland so instead of 2 x 20 plus dollars, it's possibly going to be just about 30-ish to get all my stuff to Homeland. And that's inclusive of the $5.99 that I'm paying to get it to Portland. Anyways, right now the status of my order is "Order Being Processed" which it has been for the past 5 days. My card has already been charged. I emailed them just now to find out why it's not yet been shipped. The whole point is to get the shirts before the concert and I actually want to get them when I go back to Homeland in 2 weeks time.

I'm flying direct to Singapore from Workland so would really appreciate the peeps who are handling the site to get my order through and shipped ASAP so I can actually rock those tees when I'm in the Lion City :D

DISCLAIMER: All images screencapped from the Official Linkin Park online store

bountiful beauty buys

Ok, perhaps bountiful is an exaggeration, more like a monthly stream of items by the handful. And I know it's now August. And I'm retroactively blogging about April, May, June & July purchases :D Just wasn't in the mood earlier so I'm doing it now.

I guess at the point I was getting these, I wasn't particularly in a shopping mood, I was simply trying to take my mind off of the external circumstances that were plaguing my peace of mind - my work situation. I came to realize later that whatever it was, the shopping was not helping in any way to alleviate the feelings of despair I was beginning to find myself shrouded in.

But anywho, not the point of the post, let's keep things frivolous :D Most of the stuff I got were from drugstore.com. Back in April I made some purchases from the site and got a bunch of stuff - some were replenishment, others were new things I wanted to try out. I was replenishing my supply of Queen Helene Mint Julep Mask, stocking up another tube of Ambi Fade Cream and getting another bottle of Doctor's Best Vitamin D3 softgels in a higher IU.

My experience with using the Ambi Fade Cream has been going rather well. But I thought I wanted better and faster results so besides another tube of the Fade Cream, I decided to also buy the Ambi Even & Clear Targeted Mark Minimizer. I LOVE THIS PRODUCT! It does what it says. I put it on the hyperpigmented areas on my face and it has steadily diminished the appearance of all the unsightly dark spots. It does take time but the combo of the Fade Cream and the Mark Minimizer is giving me back my pre-problem skin.

One of the new things I got that might appear to be a baffling buy was something called Monistat Chafing Relief Gel. Lol, ok, I know, what is so fantastic about a chafing relief gel? That's the reaction I got from my sisters when the package arrived and they opened it to find the tube of chafing gel in my order :) When I was doing my research on the Urban Decay facial sprays, I came across a girl's blog that mentioned the Monistat Chafing Relief Gel. She had been using it as a face primer. Yes, I know, a gel that is meant to be used in places where a person normally experiences chafing, for example on the inner thighs, this girl was putting on her face???? She extolled the virtues of the gel as a primer and it piqued my curiosity. I decided to google the gel and to my complete amazement, there were hundreds of other people who were using this product for the exact same purpose - as a face primer! People were comparing it to the Smashbox bestselling primer and also saying it was better than the Makeup Forever HD primer which I owned. And at a measly $8.49 on drugstore.com, I sure as hell was gonna give it a try. My MUFE primer cost me a lil over 50 bucks! The verdict: I am currently using my tube of Monistat and I have to say, I am joining the beauty herd on this one. Love it. Even managed to convince my sisters to convert to it :D Anyways, got myself another tube in a June order as what I have right now is gonna finish in the near future.

Also, in that April order was the Acnevir Acne & Redness Relief gel which is now my go-to zit treatment. I think it's the best one I've used bar none. You can keep your Mario Badescu's, I'm completely happy with my drugstore spot treatment. I think it works as its advertised - and it does it well. It also makes an appearance in my June order - I decided to stock up while it was on sale.

Another beauty-related purchase I made in June was to get the Olay Regenerist Advanced Anti-Aging Moisturize Night Resurfacing Elixir. Phew, what a mouthful. I had read rave reviews about this product and wanted to give this a try. It's supposed to give results like a microdermabrasion treatment without the harshness so I figured I could see if it lived up to the hype. I did not get this from drugstore.com as I got a better deal through Amazon using their "Subscribe & Save" deal. I paid a lil over 16 bucks for a bottle. I used this for 2 weeks after getting it last month but I have stopped since then. I had been using a number of new products when I first started using the elixir and something new in my beauty routine caused minute bumps to form on various areas on my face. They're not visible but when I am washing my face or putting moisturiser on, I can feel them. So I am in the process of elimination. It could be the elixir, it could be the Neutrogena cleanser I got a coupla months back and just started using or it could be the Garnier blotting powder I started incorporating into my routine. Whatever it is, I have stopped using all three for now and will slowly re-introduce the products one by one to see which caused the problem.

And the last beauty purchase is one that I made in early July. I was trying to get rid of my drugstore dollars and decided to use it to get myself another Jane Iredale PurePressed Base Pressed Mineral Powder. I made a remark in a post a coupla months ago about how I finally understood how to use this powder to my advantage and have been so loving it that I can now see pan on the compact I have. When I made the decision to get another one, I had to go through the shades again as the one I am using, which is Caramel, is actually a tad dark for my skin. After a coupla days mulling it over, I went for the shade Riviera. I hope I chose the right hue but even if I didn't, I'll somehow make it work like I did with the Caramel :) When I got the PurePressed powder, I also recieved a Jane Iredale Dream Tint Moisture Tint SPF 15 in the shade Warm Bronze as complimentary gift with purchase. I brown easily as it is so I have never had any use for bronzer and the like but perhaps it's sheer enough that I'll still be able to make use of it.

And that's that on the beauty front.

august shopping expedition #1

So, ok, after my personal, and very literal, Great Depression, last month, it looks as if I am back in the swing of things re: SPENDING MY HARD EARNED SALARY!

I had four successive 'online shopping expeditions' towards the end of last month and it appears to have rolled over into August as well.

To be fair, I had been rather good prior to all the shopping I undertook in the last month of July but like Stella, I have now gotten my groove back and am ready to....I have no idea what I'm ready to do but it seems like I'm going to make shopping an art form (read: obsession).

Anywho, what, where, why and how, I began Augusts' expedition with a lil something, something I have wanted since the start of this year - a pair of shoes :D

Ok, looking back at my shopping bags, I've gotten 3 pairs of shoes in the past 3 weeks (hehehe, like a pair a week) and though it may appear as if I don't need any more shoes, which is possibly 3/4 true, I desperately WANTED these shoes.

Are these shoes not the most cutest nude pumps EVAH?? I have been obsessed with these shoes since I first saw 'em on the Newport News site in January but at the RRP of $64 for a faux patent leather shoes, I managed to rein in my impulse shopping trigger and hold off even though I had a 30% off coupon code.

Periodically, I would get more coupon codes from my Newport News e-letters and for quite some time the price was down to $56 but still I resisted. And finally, when the price went down to $49, I felt that it was reasonable enough to part with my money - at 30% off that is :D

But somehow, Newport News was not dishing out any discount offers when i was ready to take the plunge. I did however receive a 30% site-wide discount from its sister site, Spiegel. Now, for whatever reasons, I have not been able to surf the Spiegel.com site since earlier this year as the site's server has been set up to block foreign ISP's if I'm not mistaken - which sucks balls! Pardon a moi :P I, however, found a workaround - no site's gonna tell me I can't view it! I went through a proxy site. I wasn't really expecting Spiegel to have the shoes but I have been lucky before in that the sites incestuously share their inventory, lol.

And I was super lucky this time cos the pumps were on Spiegel AND going for an additional 10 bucks off at $39! Hence, why I din say I was just plain lucky - I was SUPER LUCKY! The tricky thing with proxies is that sometimes you can't make purchases if the server is not within the country the site you are shopping at resides but good for me I found a free proxy server based out of Texas which allowed me to buy my coveted pumps.

Based on my previous shoe purchase from Newport News, I decided to go a half size down and got myself a size 8. I hope that these pumps stay true to the weird Newport News sizing cos if not, I'll be squeezing my 8 1/2 into shoes half a size too small, hehehe.

Tres excited to get my hands on these shoes, been waiting for 8 months to get 'em. It's been shipped and will arrive in Portland sometime next week. Hopefully, I'll be able to get 'em when I go back for holidays at the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

DISCLAIMER: Image screen capped from Spiegel.com

my grammy's brush with technology

Last evening my sis told me to get on Skype so we could have a vid chat session while she was at my parents' house. Ever the dutiful sister, I went online and was greeted by the sight of my Strawberrynet parcel. Was tres excited. We had an unboxing session with my nieces being lil busybodies and wanting to touch and smell everything. All the items arrived in one piece so I am mucho, mucho happy.

Ooh, also, my books arrived as well. I told my sis to open up the cardboard envelope it came in, giving her instructions to just make sure there were two books inside without having to take the books out of the packaging. I didn't want her to see the titles I bought, lol. Was a bit embarrassed about my Time Bandit book, hehehe. But once you say something to that effect to someone, of course they get curious about it. I suffered through a few minutes of, "Why the hell would you get these books?"

Anyways, my grandma, who stays in a different state about 6 hours from where I live was on an extended visit at my parents' house. She had been resting in her room when we first began our Skype session. My sis was using her iPad 2. As we were talking while I was monitoring my nephew doing his homework, she walked out of her room. My sis called out to her, pointed at my face on the iPad screen and told her it was me and if she wanted to have a chat with me. The expression on my 90 year old Grammy's face was priceless. She looked like she was gonna freak out seeing my head in that box. Then I started speaking, she looked even more baffled.

But after a couple of beats, she started getting the hang of it. We started chatting and at one point, after telling me that I was very pretty (don't you just love grandmothers?), she bent down and kissed the screen, LOL. I thought that was so cute!

We chatted a while more, she was asking me what I was doing here in Workland and if I was married or not, hehehe. My nieces were the ones who were quick to answer her on that one. I just told her I was still young so it was alright, there was still time for all that :D Right before we signed off, she gave me one more "kiss" and told me she'll be praying that I meet a good man, hahaha. My response: I said thank you ;P

Last year when I was back home and I visited her, she couldn't remember who I was. I understood that she was old and that it wasn't her fault that her memory was failing her but it doesn't prevent from your feelings still being a bit hurt. I was doing the driving while we were travelling and every so often she'd ask my dad who was in the drivers' seat. Since she couldn't really recognize me, I was hesitant to act as per normal with her in case she got freaked out by this "stranger" being so familiar with her.

But yesterday, while we talked, she seemed so happy to see me and was saying how she remembered that I was the youngest of my dad's kids and so on and so forth. That in itself made my day. I am so lucky to still be able to have my grandma in my life. In fact, I am simply lucky to have been able to know both sets of grandparents at one point or another in my life. Though both of my maternal grandparents and my fraternal grandfather have passed on, at least I have very concrete memories of my time spent with them. And it's the same with my Grandma. I love ya, Grams!

July's Shopping Expedition #4 - my Egyptian obsession

When it comes to accessorizing, something that I realize about myself, I love to go for Egyptian-inspired pieces. The aesthetic of the Egyptian motifs appeal strongly to me for reasons I can't explain.

A couple of months ago, I got a Jewelmint deal where the site was offering a $59.98 value gift card for half off. Since pieces on the Jewelmint site all retail for $29.99, that basically meant being able to get 2 different pieces for the price of one. I got myself the gift card and immediately used up one credit on the Trinity bracelet which I did a post on a couple of months back.

Since then I haven't gotten anything from Jewelmint as none of the pieces called out to me. Until last month when the site featured the Scarab Ring. From the name itself you can obviously guess what it'll look like but I'll post pics of it (screen capped from the site) anyways:

I fell in love with this ring on sight and i didn't even have to think about it at all, I just went ahead and got it. Fast forward a couple of weeks and it arrived today in Homeland along with most of the stuff I already did a post on below. My sis was opening up the packages today and she immediately wanted to lay claim on the ring. The pic below is of her modeling the ring (whilst simultaneously flipping me off, lol):

It looks gorgeous! I can't wait to wear it!

July's Shopping Expedition #3

Sucker for "Miss You" discounts in da house!!!!

What would an online shopping expedition be if I did not get something from my fave beauty site, Strawberrynet? Ok, my fave beauty site is really a toss-up between drugstore.com and Strawberrynet. But that is besides the point. As is the usual case, I received a loyalty email from SNet telling me how much they missed my money :) They were offering me an additional 5% discount on top of my 7.5% loyalty discount if I purchased 2 items or more. I had been looking over some stuff from the site but wasn't ready to make any commitments - that email spurred me to take the plunge.

When I get these sort of emails, I always invite people to share in my good fortune. I figure, why should SNet benefit from only my coffers - I shall encourage others to part with their hard earned cash as well. I told two of my colleagues about my additional discounts talking up the possibility of more discounts if more items were purchased. They each decided to get fragrances. Y, who is perfume crazy, got himself a huge 150ml bottle of CK In2U For Him while M got a 50ml bottle of LAMB by Gwen Stefani as a gift for his mom. M has been crazy over the scent since he sniffed it on me. He told me whether his mom will like it or not, he doesn't know but he damn well does. I lol-ed at that.

On SNet, when 2 items are put into the cart, an additional discount of 1% is automatically given. 3 items, the discount is upped to 2% and so on and so forth till a max of 5% for a cart filled with 6 items and more. Now I already had 2 items in the cart contributed by my colleagues which already qualified the purchase for the additional 5%. My original intent was just to get the Benefit It's Potent eye cream from the newly launched Benefit B.Right skincare line. My ROC eye cream tube is close to being all wrung out so I need a new tube/pot stat. I read a lot of great reviews about the Benefit It's Potent eye cream and figured at USD29, it was worth a try even prior to the discounts and all.

I also decided to get myself the Jane Iredale Pure Matte Finish Powder. It's basically a finishing powder that should compliment the Jane Iredale PurePressed Foundation powder I already own. I realized that as a foundation, the PurePressed is great but it does not control shine (just to be clear, the PurePressed Foundation Powder is not described as a shine-free powder, I just assumed since it was a pressed foundation that shine-free came with the territory). For that, i have had to use a seperate oil control powder to set the PurePressed foundation but I don't think what I'm using right now is agreeing with my skin. The appearance of little bumps on my cheek attests to that. So I figured, I might as well spend a little bit more (USD35) and get something from the Jane Iredale line. On a side note, I am hitting pan on my PurePressed in caramel and had already ordered a replacement compact but in the slightly lighter shade Riviera from drugstore.com. If I am not too lazy, I will put up a post on that purchase as well though it is still mid-shipment to Homeland.

I've been trying to find some kind of leave in hair treatment that will not make my hair into a stringy, greasy mess. I have watched soooo many Youtube beauty vids extolling the virtues of the Macadamia Natural Oil hair care range. I decided to splurge and get myself the 300ml bottle of the Nourishing Leave-In Cream. At the unit price of USD27.00, it's more than I have ever spent on something for my hair. I hope it'll work to overcome my dryness issues. The Garnier leave in cream I am currently using tends to make it not so much nourished but slick within a day after use.

Last but not least, it's my impulse buy. I had not thought about getting this at all, I was just looking at the list of fragrances when this set caught my eye. Plus it was going for rather cheap so I naturally thought, ooh bargain, SCORE! It's the Yves Saint Laurent Baby Doll Eau De Toilette Miniatures Collection and it was going for USD29.50. It's a set of 4 7.5ml miniature bottles of all the YSL Baby Doll EDT variations. I honestly have never smelt the line at all but I could not resist the cuteness of the package. Hope they smell good, if not, it'll make great gifts :D

Since I now had 6 items in my cart, that meant I was eligible for an additional 5% discount. I got a cumulative 17.5% discount. In total, I spent a lil below 100 dollars for my side of the purchase. I'm pretty pleased with that. The items just arrived at my home in Homeland today and my sis and I were vid chatting as she did the honours of opening up my package. Aside from my colleagues' stuff, I told her to bring my Jane Iredale compact and the Benefit eye cream when she comes up to Workland next Monday. I am particularly desperate for the eye cream after my niece, Sophia, told me just a few hours ago that under my eyes was, and I quote her verbatim, SO BLACK. I totally lol-ed when she made that comment, boy that really hit the mark! Thanks so much, niece!

July's Shopping Expedition #2

The monthly subscription sites are gaining traction. I first found myself ensnared by these kind of websites when I became a member of Jewelmint. Now it seems there are a slew of subscription-based sites popping up all over the internet wanting you to part with your money on a monthly basis offering t-shirts, shoes, deluxe samples of beauty products, etc, etc.

One site that specializes in shoes, Sole Society, is a subsidiary company of Haute Look. Since I'm a member of Haute Look, I was of course invited to join Sole Society when they launched. I joined for the heck of it. Since its inception, I always looked over the choices but always ended up skipping the month. But during my recent trip back home, I managed to destroy 3 pairs of shoes in one week and at the end of it, seemed like I didn't have any more good shoes to wear.

My only proper work shoes - a pair of black faux patent leather pumps - had already been fixed once and was again sporting a gaping hole on the side. There's no saving it a second time. I needed a pair of work shoes pronto. Hence, when I received a 30% off on first shoe purchase from Sole Society, I decided to seriously consider getting something.

How it works is that all the shoes found on the site is priced at $49.95. The selection is varied and changes from month to month. The shoe brand is named Marco Santi and was exclusively created for Sole Society. I read somewhere that the designers of the line is the same company that makes the Vince Camuto and Jessica Simpson shoes. That makes me feel great about the quality of the shoes since I have 2 Vince Camuto footwear in my shoe closet. The material ranges from fabric to faux leather to genuine leather. I like that the shoes are all priced the same and you can get genuine leather footwear for $49.95.

Anyways, I looked on the site and found the perfect work shoes - the Imola. It's black, genuine leather (YAY!) peep toe with a heel height of 5 inches and platform height of 1 inch. Ok, I realize 5 " is a tad high :) I got the shoes in a size 8 as the description mentioned that these pair run a half size large. Am I worried about the sizing? Of course I am but out of the numerous shoe purchases I have made online, only 2 have been off base - my Melissa Plastic Dream Vinyl II wedges and the Newport News clogs. the NN clogs are a non-issue but the Melissa wedges are a literal pain to wear. The classic pumps I got:

Don't they look gorgeous? After applying the discount, I ended up being charged $34.95. Shipping is always free - just like with Jewelmint. I like the concept of these subcscription sites though I don't believe I'd be getting shoes every month. And any future purchases I may make, I definitely will try to purchase only genuine leather footwear as then it becomes value for money since the site makes no distinction between faux leather, fabric or genuine leather. Can't wait to slip my Imola's on my feet!

July's Shopping Expedition #1

I coveted the dress. It looks so deliciously "untacky" and I had sat on my desire to own it for about a month already. Clothing with animal prints are tricky. The line between sublimely gorgeous and complete tacksville is very fine. This F21 dress hugs the line of wild sophistication perfectly.

I had seen another "untacky" leopard print dress at Dorothy Perkins during my trip back to Homeland where I attended a "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" seminar last month. The design was not strapless like the one above but was a tasteful sleeveless long dress with a front knot twist detail. Hang on, I'm sure I can find an image of the dress somewhere.

And there it is. Love how the simplicity of the design compliments the wildness of the print. Anyways, I would have gotten it if there had been one in my size but alas, that dress and I were not meant to be. Good thing too since the DP dress, at roughly 50 bucks, is nearly twice the cost of the F21 number I got. The cute dress I ended up getting cost me $24.80.

To qualify for the whole free shipping thing I am so obsessed with, I of course had to get some other stuff. There was a Yellow Tag deal going on for the striped French terry blazer. It was going for USD15 and I decided why not. It's tres cute, I'll find something in my extensive wardrobe to pair it with. Out of the 3 shades, I felt the oatmeal/black pairing was the best combo.

Next I decided to get myself the self-tie slub knit tunic in white. I have been trying to find the perfect white top to pair with my F21 Chanel-esque cropped tweed short-sleeve jacket and I figured this could be it. I have already gotten the most perfect black tunic to wear with the aforementioned jacket but I need a white top so as to "expand" the range of the jacket. It's a black and white tweed jacket, ain't a lot of combos that will make the grade :)

I also decided to get a pair of espadrilles. I have been trying to find some cute flatforms and though the shoes I got are actually just normal espadrille wedges, the difference in height between the heel and the platform isn't that much. I found the simple design of this covered toe shoes just perfect to pair with my casual dresses.

And last but not least, I thought I'd get myself some cute tortoiseshell frames. Well, the frames kinda have a leopard-y feel to them. If it's not clear as yet, I am going through a leopard print phase right now. I plan on replacing the lenses with custom lens once I go get my eyes checked. Yes, it seems that my eyesight is failing me a tad now that I've turned - well I've gotten older-er than I was last year :D

Total damage caused to my Amex - USD76.90. But since the USD forex rates are damn well crappy the past coupla months, it just makes shopping online relatively cheaper all around. As I type, my F21 package is somewhere in the air perhaps, flying from Hong Kong to Homeland. Or it could be in Homeland already getting sorted. Either way, it'll arrive to its destination sometime this week. Can't wait!

reading.....the brothers Hillstrand's biography

I recently talked about how my famous crush of the moment are the Hillstrand brothers of the Deadliest Catch fame. When I have my yearly man faves, I tend to go a tad obsessive. In my spare time I'll do some googling, some YouTube-ing and the like. Although that being said, I never try to "make contact" with these people despite the various social media vehicles that actually enable one to get "as close as possible" to your idols (for lack of a better way to describe it) :) - I like my crush/obsession to remain secret.

For one I feel like I'm at that age where really I should not have crushes on TV personalities/movie stars/rock stars/sportsmen but hell, I'm a commitment-phobic romantic, I have to channel the energy somewhere. Hence, why I choose to crush on the unattainable. They are so beyond my reality that there's no chance of disappointment. Wow, that was a revealing insight into my psyche :D

Secondly, truly, these people deal with enough crazy fans, I don't want to be lumped as "one-of-the-many". I have far too much dignity for that. If ever I were to cross paths with any of the peeps I've crushed on, I most likely wouldn't acknowledge them openly - I'm just that type. History is on my side on this. Way back when in my teeny bopper days, I was a massive Ronan Keating devotee. I was able to see him perform LIVE thrice in my life. The first time was during the height of his Boyzone days at this intimate showcase and as the large congregation of excited teenage girls were waiting in antsy anticipation to enter the club they were performing in, the entire band walked right behind us causing quite a frenzy. I just looked on star-struck as I literally walked alongside them. My sister, who was acting as chaperone du jour to me and 3 of the other girls who were all equally as nuts about Boyzone, and who wasn't even a fan went straight up to Ronan and was talking to him as I watched with my mouth hanging open. Ok, in this case, perhaps I was really stunned to see my pop idol in the flesh but I have met other celebs before (like the group All For One who made the "I Swear" ditty so famous at one point I thought that I would barf if I heard it on the airwaves - so overplayed back then), I just smiled and waved and walked in the other direction. I tend to employ a "too cool for school" attitude.

Ok, really this post has gone waaaaaaay of track. The point I was trying to make was that I tend to try to fact-find as much as I can on my crushes so I can have an accurate depiction if they are actually crush-worthy or I should just not waste my time with them. So in the spirit of this, when I found out the Hillstrand brothers had released a book, I was intrigued but at that point my crush was just developing, it didn't warrant spending money on, lol. But now that I have established that I do think they are all that and more - how can you not like people who are as real as they come - I decided to see what the book was about.

Of course, my first thought was to google and see if anyone had put the book up in my myriad of ebook sites so I wouldn't actually have to spend money on it - I am averse to spending money on biographies of crushes cos sometimes the prose is total crap, it does not make me feel good to have given them money for rubbish writing. I searched for quite a while, on and off for what would probably amount to a month and a half but didn't find one place that had it. And around about 2 weeks ago as I was reading some article, the book was mentioned and the info they talked about had me practically foaming to get my hands on the book. So I finally decided to get it. I figured I wanted the paper version cos I might as well get something physical for my money. Plus, the difference between the paperback and the kindle version wasn't that different. I bought it off of The Book Depository along with another biography, paralympian Josh Sundquist's Just Don't Fall cos Ingrid of MissGlamorazzi YouTube fame and Fleur of FleurdeForce kept plugging his book. Anyways, that was about 3 weeks ago and apparently the book has not arrived in Homeland - I check everyday :P

God, this post is long-winded. Anyways, yesterday evening I was just doing my usual trawl on my fave ebook site to see if there were any good books uploaded and I was on page 12 of the list when I suddenly caught sight of the post title "Time Bandit: Two brothers, The Bering Sea And One Of The World's Deadliest Jobs". LOL, you can't imagine how intensely I freaked on the inside. Lol again cos I have intense internal freak-outs. Outwardly, I was talking to no one in particular since I was in my place alone, I was just saying OMG, I can't believe that someone has finally put this book up. Then I thought, if I had only waited, I wouldn't have shelled out 13 dollars for the paperback. Then I thought further, it's alright, I like them enough that I don't mind giving them my 13 bucks, hehehe. I promptly downloaded it, hells if I was not gonna. I figure I could get this as well as the physical copy cos I definitely wasn't going to wait another 3 weeks to read the book when I go to Homeland at the end of this month. Plus, the book hadn't even arrived yet.

Longgggggg story short, I downloaded it and I read it and I finished it! In 6 hours, dude! Now, one of the things I was afraid of when I was trying to get my hands on the book was that I wouldn't like what I found out from it. Like it might change how I see them. But really, how they portray themselves in the book is so unapologetically them that I can honestly say I loved it. By no measure is this a life-changing book but it does give you insight into the lives of the Hillstrand brothers and the Alaskan fishing industry as a whole. I found it to be personal yet professionally informative. Now there was a ghost writer involved and unlike, apparently a lot of people, I was not too sure which parts came directly from the Hillstrands and which were put together by the writer, Malcolm. I have an idea - like when there was a Latin phrase in the middle of Johnathan's part of the story where I thought, "Hmmmm, I dunno if Johnathan would actually say this" but then again, I try not to underestimate Johnathan Hillstrand. Ok, I admit, I'm quite snooty when it comes to writing. I have a preconceived notion that you have to be well-educated or at the very least, be extremely well-read which does not strike me someone who's a fisherman would be, to come up with really beautiful writing or else the prose comes across as.....simplistic. And though I had the wrong idea that all these fishermen are barely high-school graduates if at all and their lives are stuck in a cycle of generational fishing - as in all they know how to do is fish and they wouldn't be interested in reading and the like - I am soooooo glad to have my ill-informed, completely condescending impression proven wrong with a vengeance through watching DC. I call myself out on my totally uncalled for condescension of people who work in the fishing industry. I mean, c'mon, where do I get off thinking that they are not as good as I am just because I'm a university grad and call myself an engineer? The fishing industry is a billion dollar machine - these crabbers make more money than I'll ever see, lol. You're such a douche, Zlena!

So to bring this on track, let's refocus on my thoughts on the book. The writing in itself is good. I laughed out loud on numerous occasions - some of the things they shared are truly funny. Others were brutally honest and I cringed at the really personal stuff they revealed cos god knows, I would NEVER put certain stuff about myself out there for public consumption. I found out some really surprising things about them and their lives. Some that made me uncomfortable to know even :) I admire them for their courage to have their lives opened up to scrutiny like that but I do wonder if somewhere down the line there'll be a moment of reflection where they think that a lil bit more editing would have been nice.

Anyways, I really think this is gonna go on too long if I don't nip it right now - I'm typing this up on Pages on the iPad and I'm on the third page already so i have no idea how long that translates to on blogger :) All I wanna say is that I thank them for sharing their story, it was enlightening and had lessons to learn from and damn well entertaining. Thank you, Capts Andy & Johnathan, didn't think it was possible for me to like you a lil more :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad