Long Weekend

[elusivek]

I have Friday through Monday off because of Easter. Good Friday, and "Ching Ming" 清明, which you can think of as "Chinese All Soul's Day" on Sunday and thus Monday is compensated. Some places get Tuesday off as well, because Easter Sunday is supposed to be compensated as well. But given Easter Sunday will always be on a Sunday (duh)... but I won't go envying people who get the Tuesday off as well.

Since Mom started a plan at some beauty parlor and she wants us (my Sis and I) to share the package, so I went for a facial today. The lady did all the usual stuff, plucked my brows, cleared my pores and all that. Then it got me to thinking, since I'm (albeit forced) starting to take proper care of my skin, and my current stock of skincare products is really approaching the end of it, I went to get some refill. I loved Shu Uemura and L'Occitane and those are products I've been using for quite a while already, but I've come to the stage where I'd like to consciously choose Cruelty Free things. I did a bit of research, and found out there isn't really a lot of options here in Macau. Body Shop, Nature Republic, Lush, Bath and Body Works. That's it. I chose to go to the Body Shop as I know they do the recycling thing as well... and that there's a shop just in downtown so it's easy for me to get to.

So I got a cleansing oil, a cleanser, a moisturizer (usable day and night), the Himalayan mask, and an SPF. The soaps I got because now I like soaps more than liquid soaps, and the hand cream was a freebie gift. I still have minimal of my existing items, but I'll need to slowly phase that out. I'm keeping them for now in case I turn out to have an allergic reaction to any of these new products.

I also went for a manicure today. I went back to my old place because I still had over $3000 (around USD $370) worth of credit there. Just a simple near-beige color, I think it looks good for the upcoming summer. Next time I might do a yellow with one white nail LOL.

Oh yeah, it being Good Friday, we have to eat like a pauper today, so... lunch for simply this rice flour roll thing. I think I've mentioned before, nutritionally, this thing is worth 0. You're practically just eating the sesame sauce and the soy sauce. But once in a while it's nice.

These 2 rascals are always making a lot of noise at home and you would think that they hate each other, but really, I think they are bros.

The Suehime is going strong and it's almost like mushrooms. I go see it every 12 hours and it's different every time I go see it.

My Japanese Maple was also turning green so I've been just leaving it out in the sun and making sure it's got water and finally I see that it's turning red again. So now I know, lots of sun and sufficient water.

And my Pumpkin on a Stick! I repotted it to a large pot, and probably the roots got more space to spread out, so now that plant is HUGE. Lots of flowers too, but we don't have a lot of honey bees so pollination wasn't too successful. I found 3 fruits on the plant now, so maybe I'll get some more mini-pumpkin-looking eggplants this year!

Maybe I should think about trimming it so it doesn't grow too tall...

Comments

[amw.livejournal.com]

Is rice flour roll thing a 齋腸粉? It is one of my favorites! I miss very much. It has a little bit of nutrition, I suppose, there is carbohydrate and protein.

Do you have the green dumplings for the 清明節? I can't remember what it was called in Chinese, but i remember there was some kind of green colored dumpling, or maybe it was a glutinous rice ball, and it tasted like a medicine herb.

[notte0.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, but in Cantonese we call it the 豬腸粉, or sometimes the 混醬腸(probably because you eat it with a mix of 麻醬甜醬辣椒醬. Haha, but really apart from that there’s like, nothing in that. Maybe the sesame sauce has something more than sugar, I don’t know. But this is basically just empty calories.

I’m not sure about the foods from 清明, I just know it’s a day to go up the mountains (coz cemeteries are mainly up in the mountains) and burn offerings. I’ll ask some of my Chinese friends when I next see them. None of my friends are free in this long weekend because they all have to go with family to pay respect to their ancestors.

[amw.livejournal.com]

I think i found the dumpling is called 青團 (i had to check spelling now my computer is in traditional Chinese), it has a strange flavor from what i remember.

[hermitsmurf.livejournal.com]

According to their website Neutrogena doesn't test on animals. I really like their hydroboost water gel and you can get the products easily. My skin is really sensitive and dry and I was actually surprised how well this stuff works!

[notte0.livejournal.com]

Hm..... Neutrogena doesn’t test on animals by default, but since they sell to (mainland) China, and in China any import skincare needs to be tested on animals, so... in a roundabout way, Neutrogena does test on animals.... which isn’t their fault, of course. I might look into the hydroboost gel you mentioned though. :-)

[hermitsmurf.livejournal.com]

well that sucks..I didn't know that about imports.

[mores0ul.livejournal.com]

I love looking at new skincare! And that satsuma scent from the Body Shop is still one of my favorites (and I'm super picky about scented products!)

[notte0.livejournal.com]

I’ll be sure to savor it! It’s just that after I bought the bar soaps I remembered I had received a bunch of body wash and body lotion sets in Christmas... so now I have to use those up first before getting into my bar soaps haha!