This is exactly what happens when I go shopping: I see something I like, I check for colour variations and then I check its price tag, holding my breath since I’ve decided 10 seconds ago that I couldn’t leave the store without buying every colour available. It’s not surprising that I am one of those people who fall prey to bargains. You don’t say no to pretty things when they’re cheap and come in colours that would complement my almost monochromatic wardrobe.

Even if they aren’t exactly cheap, this is the best time to get a sugar rush (can I recommend a small cone of ice-cream?) and let your mind play tricks on you. Don’t worry darling, your bank account has more money than you think. Buying that extra pair of shoes isn’t going to change the numbers drastically. And your mother will never find out as long as you get the credit card bill from the letterbox before she does. Your pulse will quicken once you’ve signed for the shoes and when you carry them with you on the train home, you feel a strange sense of fulfillment. Savour it, it won’t last long.

Since I am no longer earning my own keep and my love life is a barren wasteland, I can’t afford nor bribe a foolish man into buying me expensive shoes. No worries, actually. I’ll just keep finding cheap designer rip-offs. My Forever21 chunky heels are an amazing combination of ugly/beautiful and I’m pretty sure they were inspired by this pair of miu miu platforms. J’adore <3 Of course, the most blatant shoe rip-off in this entry would be my fake Ferragamos lol. They aren't exact copies (I prefer it that way) and I couldn't decide between the black or gray so I bought them both!

I have new rings too, don't they look like cracked speckled eggs? Again, I couldn't choose between the coral or the turquoise so...don't you see the distinct pattern here lol? Currently having a rekindled love affair with my tilkah bracelet, I can’t decide what it reminds me of: reptilian scales or a costume prop from Xena the Warrior Princess. I bought it on my birthday but it’s very heavy so it isn’t the best accessory to wear to school when you’re expected to take down a flurry of notes.

Sadly, my shopping/eating adventures in Singapore are drawing to an end. My heart grows uneasy whenever I am reminded that I only have two weeks left before I am due back in a country I don’t call home. It is natural for people to link studying overseas as something fun, prestigious even and while I would never trade this experience for anything in the world, leaving your family, your things behind is the most bittersweet feeling. Sometimes I feel like a gypsy; always moving around in places never been, forging beautiful memories but never truly belonging. I don’t feel particularly attached to Singapore, to be honest. Sure, I was born and raised here but I find it a little too stifling, too safe. Still, there is an eminent sense of familiarity that draws me back whenever I’m away.

I don’t know if I’m meant to call Singapore home forever but for the moment, this is home and that is good enough.

Happy Christmas everyone! I’m back from my trip in Malaysia and while I didn’t take any photos at all, I had a stellar time with my cousins. But now that I am home again and reunited with my weighing scale, I am very much inclined to cry. I GAINED THREE KILOS OH MY FORKING MADONNA. How did I let this happen?! Asian food isn’t supposed to make me fat dammit – one month of cheap ass Asian grub and I am still far from looking like SNSD. Maybe it’s the lack of kimchi in my diet right now. Whatever it is, I am hauling my ass to the gym starting tomorrow because I would rather work out than not eat at all.

Also, did anyone check out the MANGO sale that’s been going on since last week? I got a couple of things including the pair of heels Scarlett Johansson’s wearing in the campaign photos! How hot are they? They’re 5 inches high and as with all my shoes, they are perfection!

I’ve also been digging up my old copies of Vogue for some light reading and coupled with ice cream from the Island Creamery, it’s my favourite way to waste away the slow afternoons. I’m trying to immerse myself in as much fiction as possible too, before school starts swamping me with massive amounts of incomprehensible theory. A friend gave me a set of books by Haruki Murakami last Christmas and I’ve always regretted not being able to bring it with me when I moved (I ran out of luggage space, the shoe whore in me deemed my heels were more important ._.) so I’m gradually leafing through the pages of each book. If anyone wants an introduction to Murakami, I really enjoyed his collection of short stories: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - check that out if you haven’t ;D

p.s new links will be coming up shortly! I’m doing a major overhaul on all my links and reorganizing them into a new page so it’s taken longer than I’d like.

Just some photos of my lunch date in the city with my bff! I managed to sneak my miu miu bow bag out of the house without my mother knowing and finally after a year of repeated mental reminders to myself that my faux leather bags still looked great next to LK’s Louis Vuitton Tadao bag, WE ARE NOW EVEN MY DEAR FRIEND. Anyway, about my mother – bless her heart, the bag is mine but she insists I use it only for dinners or weddings.

Fancy dinners and weddings occur like, NEVER? That may be a bit of an exaggeration since I did just attend a couple of weddings last week but the point is the miu miu bow is an EVERYDAY bag, it’s not supposed to be unleashed only once every full moon (or in this case, blue moon) like a Taylor Lautner style underage werewolf. Besides, she already has the Chanel 2.55 on hand for special events lol so MOM I’M SORRY BUT I’M HIJACKING MY MIU MIU.

While I do enjoy catching up with my friends (and eating 3x my body weight), being back in Singapore does have its gripes.

1) I was on the train today and this 6-year-old girl is blasting Justin Bieber on her iPhone WTF? Dude, this is not cool. Parents, please educate your children before releasing them into the concrete wilderness kthx.

2) I know a lot of Malay guys are into tattoos, it’s really none of my business what you do with your body but please for the love of AESTHETICISM, DO NOT DIY YOUR OWN TATS. I have been treated to a visual non-gasm of scrawls in faded blue ink on arms and legs. I know a lot of people make the decision (or mistake) of tattooing their girl/boyfriend’s name onto their skin but please do not attempt to scratch “REENA SYG KU” into your skin without a professional’s help. TOLONG LAH SIKIT BILA KITA NAK MAJU NI?!

3) Cupid has some serious explaining to do. Suddenly EVERYONE is getting engaged/hitched/preggers. Two years ago, my mother flipped when she found out I was dating some guy and a couple of months later, she was so happy we were no longer together, it was almost criminal (criminal because it was a dark time for me and she could have at least masked her happiness a little) Now, she is flipping out because I am a fine-fresh-fierce single *snaps fingers* with no plans to date anyone. She’s bent on getting me to date her friend’s son whom btw is SO NOT BOYFRIEND MATERIAL.

Despite the er, indulgent nature of this blog, I am not a superficial bitch. In terms of men, as cliche as it sounds, I don’t believe looks are everything. I like a guy I can converse with over pertinent issues, someone who laughs with me and maybe someone who understands the importance of LANVIN in a girl’s life (LOL I’M KIDDING!) But yeah, this “potential” boyfriend my mother had in mind just wasn’t someone I’d picture myself with. It’s great that my friends and cousins are getting engaged but it’s also great that I’m single and blissfully happy with the way my life has been – besides I want LANVIN, not diamonds ;p

ALL MAH SINGLE LADIES, I GOT CHO BACK GIRLS! x

A rare photo of me as proof that I’m still alive, though just barely. LK bought the top for me at H&M when he was in Hong Kong last year and it’s something I always keep reaching for in the closet when I feel like I need to wear something vivid as a contrast to this bleak weather we’ve been submitted to. I’ve just completed 2 essay assignments so I’ve got a bit of free time to write a quick entry before I let my study routine feast on my soul again. I actually meant to post this earlier this week but if you follow me on twitter, all my entries were wiped out due to a database glitch. It’s fixed now – thank you LK! <33

I feel really awful for neglecting this baby and I think everyone's just sick of me missing out on their entries (I'm sorry guys!) but I guess you can say my priorities are different now. Life is a lot harder when your family isn't with you NOT because you're left to fend for yourself- being independent I can deal with but because there's noone to help you with the forking LAUNDRY. Laundry has got to be the common enemy for all students living away from home, god I could go on forever about laundry but WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT SOILED CLOTHES WHEN WE CAN TALK ABOUT CHANEL Y/Y??

The local Chanel boutique had a exhibition called “Les Secrets De La Veste” which is French for “Yep we know you’d never be able to afford our jackets but hey that’s not gonna stop us from pulling out our iconic jackets, display them in store for you to touch and look at, and then you can go home crying to your spouses, blaming your lack of Chanel in the closet on their miserable paychecks and ultimately, you end up with a messy divorce”. Chanel ruins lives because you always want something you can’t have and they know it.

Like this blazer/jacket for example. Oh my god it’s beautiful. Price tag? $8,000 and guess what, they don’t make them anymore so stab me in the heart why doncha.

The woman in charge of the exhibition noticed we (we = my roommate and I) were early and gave us our own private tour which was really nice (now if only she handed over the Chanel flats she had on, it would have made my day). She talked about the whole process of making the tweed for the jackets, the individually weighed buttons which usually feature distinct icons of Paris that Coco Chanel was inspired by and the embroidery/beading that’s outsourced to a Parisian embroidering company that has worked with Coco for many years.

We got out of Chanel, feeling slightly suicidal and hungry so somehow we ended up having desserts at Brunetti’s. Eating chocolate is the best way to heal a severe fashion heartache, that’s just the way it is.

I had the Tre Gusti (it means three flavours in Italian according to Google Translate) which is a triple white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate mousse that’s topped with some squiggly fudge thing and a dainty sugar flower I massacred the minute it was served.

Roomie got this giant vanilla tart topped with a massive chunk of flakey chocolate. The name of the dessert escapes me but it might be “mostro di cioccolato cosa vulcano” which is what Google Translate thinks is Italian for “monster volcano chocolate thing”. I actually like the malay version Google came up with – “rakasa coklat gunung berapi hal” which if directly translated into English means fiery chocolate mountain monster with issues HAHAHAHAHA Don’t take my word for it tho, my malay isn’t as good as my grandmother’s.

Speaking of fiery volcanoes, my dad was in quite a fix last week because my mom’s flight back home was via Frankfurt and it was cancelled due to the volcanic ash in the air. He wasn’t actually worried about my mother being in a foreign country all by herself but letting a woman loose in New York is not exactly a good idea especially when her credit card is linked to your joint account LOL. Anyway, my mom got home safely last week (can’t say the same for the credit card bill though) and she got me a tube of the Chanel Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle and more MAC stuff yay! Sadly, I’m not going to receive them until late May so no swatches or images til then guys!

Oh and here’s one more thing she got for me:

OMFG MIU MIU (sorry about the cellphone photo – my dad shot this for me lol)

CAN I GO HOME NOW PLEASE?

Took some quick shots of the PRADA and miu miu lookbooks I got from my recent visit to the local boutiques with the BFF. These shots were originally for my homeboi, Aaron, whom sadly doesn’t have miu miu in his country. It’s alright bb, you can sleep blissfully at night knowing that I’ll send you the lookbooks via airmail for every season for as long as I remain in Singapore lol.

I love Miuccia Prada so much I’m just willing to call her my second mother, how fabulous would it be to have a closet full of PRADA and miu miu? Make no mistake though, I’m usually much tougher on my fave high fashion labels and PRADA F/W 2009 was a complete disaster omg. I remember wincing at almost every look presented, those chunky and very loose thigh-high boots which were completely unflattering and suitable only for the fish market. Well whatever, that was so last season – Miuccia has since reclaimed herself with the new S/S 2010 collection so I shall be nice and purge the F/W 2009 collection out of my memory.

Surprisingly the lookbook was very well done lol, they actually made a shit collection seem presentable? That is a mark of some extraordinary art direction! It’s contemporary with influences from graphic design, mmm design eye candy makes me happy any day.

miumiu’s lookbook is more traditional with the usual runway shots. The collection was so much better than PRADA’s so it was apt that they showed more runway shots, they had backstage shots as well which is always cool in my books; the whole notion of “behind-the-scenes” is more fascinating anyway, just look at the last photo with the pretty shoe porn! Stunning.

Ok I’m tired of all the fashion drama, a beauty entry is coming up next on tea noir! ;D

Til next time~

I’ve been looking through the scans of the new mag publication, LOVE. Too bad it’s not sold here (yet, i hope.)

Naomi was telling me how awesome SKINS was and how much I needed this character named “Sid” on the show in my life; I was bored and watched the pilot episode on a whim. I love how everyone on the show is just crazy, selfish, deluded and everything just seems to be connected somehow. I’ve just about completed season 1 and baby, it’s a wild world out there.

And I’m finally done rewatching season 1 – 6 of Sex and The City & the movie as well. Feels just as fabulous as though I’ve never watched them before! That’s genuine television gold right there. I’m psyched they’re filming another movie for the series!

I did some *major* online shopping on Saturday since ASOS.com was having a 75% sale, got a miu miu inspired brocade skirt and a crazy poofy dress – pictures when they arrive!