Monday morning began with a coffee with producer Priscilla Khoo from Asiaworks to discuss a piece they are doing for Veria Living TV on Changmoh (the focus is on my having done Chinese confinement).
Followed by a quick trip to Browhaus for the ultimate beauty cheat treatment I’ve only just discovered: the eye lash curl. Due to your beautifully curled post-treatment lashes you look like you’re wearing mascara for the next 3 months. What’s not to like? I’m so lazy in the mornings that I rationalise this 1 hour lash perm actually – pro-rata – saves me time.
Lunch was dim sum at ION’s Imperial Treasure, complete with shots of my favourite refreshingly bitter tea (I’m always so hungry at lunchtime that the truth is I invariably forget to take a picture of the actual dim sum…it seems to be inhaled as soon as it touches the table).
Next was a trip to SQ HQ in ION on level 4, just a hop, skip and a jump away from lunch (hence the choice of restaurant). Going in person to the Singapore Airlines flagship rather than booking tickets online is my new discovery that not only makes the whole booking process almost painless but, by asking the right questions, can save you really quite a lot of money: I saved just under $1,000 per person on flights back to the UK this Christmas all because I asked the wonderfully helpful lady (Susan) who was serving me, why on earth December prices were so high. After about 10 minutes of research on her part – I sat there reading The Count of Monte Cristo – she told me that if I went for four weeks rather than five, tickets would be $1,000 cheaper per person. Not information that I would have gleaned online and incredible valuable.
A visit here is also the way forward for booking the actual tickets you want through airmile redemption which, certainly on Singapore Airlines is (as you will know if you have ever tried) notoriously difficult to do. By going in and sitting in front of an actual person they can instantly search which flights have redemption savers and how many there are available. It’s an impossible job to do yourself online and if you bring a good book to read while someone else does all the work for you, it’s so much nicer than holding on the telephone.
In my constant quest not to look, literally, like a gwai lo (white ghost; I’m very pale) and to look like I’ve had a full 8 hours’ of sleep without the help of makeup, I’m in love with these little tubes of gorgeousness – BB creams. A face cream that replaces the need for serum, moisturizer, primer, foundation and sunblock, they are awesome for extremely light coverage that you can slap on every day, especially if you live out here in sweatsville and are as horribly pale as I am.
So a quick dash to Tangs for a re-stock on Estee Lauder’s bb…brilliant version (Tangs beauty hall is due to open soon after months of renovation, but hasn’t yet) where I finally chanced upon the temporary Estee Lauder counter quivering in the basement. The Asian BB cream that they sell here is almost identical to their European one, (it’s just missing the essence of cucumber extract) the colour is even the same and is strangely compatible with pale Asian and European skins alike.
My handle on instagram: Changmoh
Handwritten diary image courtesy of The Brow
