elusivek | Entries tagged with shopping

Ah… I can’t shake this headache. But overall, I’m feeling heaps better today than yesterday. I had pain in my bones yesterday, shaking as if I had a seizure. Today I only have a slight headache, some achy joints, but overall feeling better.

I’d like to talk about… Pingduoduo! (I think the western equivalent is “Temu”).

I used to say Taobao (AlieExpress) had weird and crazy inventions. Well, Pingduoduo is the same, but at a crazy cheap price that I’m actually afraid of the actual product.

For the sake of research and curiosity, I got a couple things:

Note: this is… 8 bucks my money. 8 bucks my money would make it roughly USD $1. This got me to thinking, assuming man-hours are free, how much are the freaking materials costing?

I can see the knit is actually a machine knit, and the materials a bit on the flimsy side, but, USD $1? It’s crazy.

I wonder if I got covid from this monstrosity.

The next thing I got was this keychain pouch for an RFID door chip thingamajig. How nice, the presentation on the photos, all embossed, nicely stitched.

In reality, it was just a basic print all. (The embossing is fake, they printed a shadow to make it look embossed). The stitching also leaves a lot to be desired.

But then again, for 6 bucks my money, I can’t complain. But I did go to Taobao and look for a more decently priced, $40 one to see if it will look better.

Goes to show you should expect poorer quality when stuff are inexplicably cheap. There are some things though, that I would be looking to get from there. For example, the pet pee sheets for Sai Lup (because he's always lying down, we put a pet sheet around his wee wee part, in case he drips and if he poopoos), they haven't arrived yet, so I'm not sure of the quality, but we'll see.

My recent entertainment has been watching live sales on Taobao. I think I've held myself pretty well. Yes, I've bought a bit of stuff, but not mountainous stuff as I would have liked had I not had self-restraint.

There's this one Taobao store that says they are a "tea utensils workshop", and they do a live sales session every morning. They have a weird kiln-in-kiln set up, and their live sales is a show of "opening a kiln" and seeing the piece "for the first time". I've watched this live sales for around a week and I think I've figured out that their kiln is a fake kiln LOL.

Also, out of curiosity, I "snatched" (since their set up is there's only 1 of each item) a piece and I have it in hand, and I can all the more confidently say, their live sales is all a set up LOL.

For one, the bottom part of a piece usually is not so "clean" (no run-over? no drag? No cracks?) and the inside is a piece of... metal or alum or something not clay, it looks stuck on instead of part of the entire piece, so I don't know.

I'm also following 2 other shops that do live slaes of jewelry. They're pretty entertaining, and what's more, it's not just entertainment for me, I also get to train my ear to listen to Mandarin. I have bought a couple of items, but they are selling stuff so cheap during the live sales, it's a bit unbelievable.

Ah, hahaha. Facebook popped an old photo (the memories function) and that made me think about something.

So in Asia the thing is the "stay white" because if you get too tanned, it means you have been working out in the fields. Ergo, rich people who don't need to work out in the fields are more pale. So, the aim is to stay white.

The other day, some colleagues were commenting on "how white (pale) I am" and that "I won't need to use any whitening products." I said I could get pretty dark if I play out in the sun too much, and nobody believed me.

Now, the conspiracy of our electronics listening in on us aside, this photo came up, so I'm feeling nostalgic.

Look how dark I can get, in comparison to my Austrian cousins! My Sis is the one on the right, 2 cousins on the left and bottom, and I'm in the middle. The painting behind was painted by one of my Onkels and the person painted is my Oma, when she was young. People in the village back then thought I was Thai.

So since I'm feeling nostalgic, here's another old old old photo. I wonder if back then the family thought my Dad weird for bringing an Asian wife. Although Mom is Portuguese, but since she's actually of mixed heritage, when amongst caucasians, she looks more Asian. So, it's Mom and me that look like outcasts.

For those who care more about the dog than the people, his name is Loompi! From Switzerland! Dad got him when he worked in Switzerland, then, when he brought it home, Opa said "a dog is not to live in an apartment" (coz Dad was working in Switzerland, and as chefs go, spent more time at work than at home, and blah blah) and kept the dog LOL. So Loompi got his long walks and freedom every day after.

This photo was at one of my Onkel's garden. It definitely was very, very sunny. I guess I was in my rebellious age and simply bored of life in countryside Austria where nobody but my Dad spoke English with me and my Sis spoke Chinese with me and my Mom spoke Portuguese with me and then I couldn't understand anybody else. Heck, I couldn't even understand the TV. And there was virtually no public transport anywhere so we were stuck in the boring village with nothing to do for 3 weeks.

For the record though, in my 2015 trip to Austria with my friend, we sort of made a circle touring around Austria and it was a lot more fun, more people spoke English, I had started to learn some German properly, and so it was a lot more enjoyable visiting my roots as an adult.

It's time for more Taobao Shopping show-off. New watercolor paint! The 3 smaller boxes on the left were bought a couple months back. It's a very small amount, but I figure it'll actually last me a long, long, time, since I don't really paint much. Which should be a clue for me to quit buying water color paint. And then the shiney and bigger box just arrived today. It's shiney! It's sparkly!

And then I bought another pair of shoes. I was actually surprised with the materials. It looks like leather, but it's not, and it should be those PV or PU fake leather but it doesn't look like that either. It looks very plastic-y. Then the soles, upon closer inspection, is really some kind of soft plastic or hard silicon type of thing. That they designed it like this makes this pair of shoes very good for rainy weather. China shoe sizes tend to be on the smaller size. I'm a 39 or 9 in EU or UK size, but in China I usually buy 40 or even a 41 if they have it. Oh oh, this was a Taobao online shopping thing, so I couldn't try it on first. Overall it fits but only just. I'll need to put on my "toe brace" for my right foot so that the fourth toe (ring finger, so ring toe?) won't get squashed by the middle toe, but I'm not sure if that will push my little toe too far out and cause it to chafe on the side of the shoe. I'll try it out on the weekend.

Oh yeah, the previous Japanese post was because I suddenly felt like writing in Japanese, so did so. Just some silly thing about pottery class.

It seems like I'm constantly shopping LOL. I've successfully kept the shopping to what I actually need though.

After the 11.11 "shopping festival" (China Black Friday I guess?), the next shopping festival was 12.12 (12-December). For the 11.11 shopping festival, I strategized and went in ready. But this time for 12.12, I didn't plan as much and lost out a bit. LOL. Don't worry, nothing crippling.

On Friday I went on a cleaning frenzy and cleaned out my piano. Did I ever show a photo of my piano? It's a digital piano (I'm told it's vastly different from an electric piano....?) and I chose that model specifically because of the flat top. When closed, it can act like a table and yeah... as time went by, crap just accumulated on top of it so I never really used the piano as a piano anymore. After my cleaning frenzy, the only thing in the way was my laptop. I had a faint memory of seeing a vertical stand went searching for it and found it, but, after doing some measuring I found that it doesn't quite fit, so I had to do a deep dive to find similar products but just a tad narrower, so that it does not cross over that... folding point of the cover. So when the laptop is propped up the piano cover can still open.

The only thing is, the cats have gotten used to the kitty litter box being under the piano chair, so it's there to stay. If and when I feel like going on the piano I'd have to temporarily move the kitty box.

After I placed the order for that laptop stand, I opened the piano cover to check if the piano was still working. Dust and crap had fallen in between the crease of the folding point, so I spent a lot of time rubbing the keys. Then it came to me... I need that cloth that goes over the piano keys! I didn't feel any "pain" yet because the laptop stand and the piano cover were both cheap items and together did not cross the "minimum spend for discount" limit (they had a "Spend $300, get discount of $50" deal going for the 12.12 festival.

After sorting out the piano, I laid back in bed, thinking "I've worked hard today, so I shall chill for a bit," and looked at my make up corner, and realized I saw a product on Taobao that could very well put my products together better. I'd been stacking the day/night cream over the other whenever I use either, so I got this tower thing that rotates!

It still looks messy but now I don't have to stack the day cream over the night cream and then at night take the day out and take the night cream then put it over the day cream (etc. etc.). Again, this was something rather cheap and the three items together, would not reach the minimum spend for discount.

And then, certainly my Dad said he needed something and I found it and got it.

Later in the day, my friend J told me that there was some special "membership points redemption" with the local payment gateway (I don't know any equivalents to the ones in other countries). It's like an online wallet, you top up money to it, then you can pay with that by scanning the QR code. I've sort of accumulated a lot of points over the year since the government vouchers got issued to this platform as well. I've been looking through the points redemption but saw nothing attractive. So when J told me the platform was doing a redemption promotion for "Taobao cash" I went on it and redeemed $50 (once per user only). So now I had $50 to spare, had I known it earlier in the day I could have bought any of those items above for almost free. But there was a deadline to use this $50 and so seeing my dog walk bag is almost going to say bye bye (I can see one part starting to fray and will break off one day) so I found a similar small bag for $60 and got it. Now. Had I accumulated all these items together, I would have reached the $50 off upon $300 spend, and then using the other promo $50 voucher... I could have gotten everything for $200 only LOL. Now the total spend I did was $250. I missed out on that offer. Not debilitating, but still a missed deal.

I was in the market for a good card case that can go on my iPhone, so essentially, a Magsafe thingamajig. I had a phone case that had a slot for cards, but the case was too thick. I later got a magsafe thing but the magnet didn't feel very strong, it felt like the card case would fall any moment. I then chatted with someone who had one nifty one from MOFT (this one, to be exact), I got it, but apparently it's got some technology, or it was too thick, so my staff card was rendered unreadable by the door locks and the printer at work. Then I found this one, also MOFT, but it's a flip thing and supposedly should work with card swiping. But I don't know why I don't see this model on the official MOFT US website.

Anyway, I am a sucker for phone cases and saw this pretty Chinese-esque one so of course I got it, and this combination is wonderful. The magnet of other phone cases feel very week, I've tried this MOFT thing with different cases, and this is the best, strongest combination I could find.

And this way, at the end of the day I can still simply take off the snap on case and put my phone on charge. I use a wireless charger now. Helps to force me to actually put down the phone and not use it in bed LOL.

It's slowly warming up again, but since it's still generally chilly, so... doggies came up to my bed. It's a tight fit LOL. And... again of course I bought some crap off Taobao. Obviously that's a copycat of The North Face brand... but I figured since it's for dogs, having a The Dog Face logo would still be acceptable LOL. But yesterday when I was out and about I saw a human wearing a pullover with this The Dog Face logo on it, and that's obviously bootleg so... LOL.

I rarely post about this cat and this photo has a story that explains it. Kitty is the in-house "aggressive" cat. She's brutal. She was lying in my Sis' bed, looking cute and totally asking me to pet her, and, since I have experience, I knew she has a trick. I reach out and she tries to scratch me. Yes, I know there are cats that are this way, but this wasn't a play scratch. This was a kill scratch. I got kill scratched by her some 5 years ago (the whole back of my hand from knuckle to wrist so I'm very wary of this cat. I'm deathly afraid of her.

I thought a mocha is a coffee with chocolate or something? Starbucks has this Christmas Bear something something mocha but.... it's really plain hot chocolate with whipping cream topped with more chocolate and a decorative chocolate bear face. Dislike. But this was a good day in terms of working through the financials of the shelter... until I reported to the team that the bank has changed something so I have no access to one bank's online banking system. When I told the one lady (president) she said it's fine, they will send me records when they receive. I received the first few, but then stopped receiving them. So I told them that update has no info from that bank so we should think about making that a group effort (as opposed of just me doing it) but then she just says "the phone or ipad app still works". Geez. Couldn't have told me in private when I told you? Had to put me down this way in the group? B*tch.

Lastly, I think I'll quit doing complicated manicures because... I found manicure stickers! These last around a week. At least they don't chip off in the sides. If it comes up, it's the whole sticker that comes off. I still need to put a layer of the gel-nail thing that needs to cure under the light to "seal it off" but since the actual sticking part is from the sticker nail, it doesn't damage the nail as much as all-out gel nails.

And then my friend (the one with the pastry shop) saw I had a purple jacket on and asked me to model for a photo when I walked past her shop LOL. My first unpaid hand modeling gig.

So, I just picked up my passport yesterday, because i went ahead and applied for a China visa.

Times have changed.

With a Macau permanent resident status, we used to be able to get a 2-year unlimited number of entries to China visa for MOP$800.

Now, because of the pandemic and all that, they've restricted it to a 6-month unlimited number of entries to China visa for MOP$880.

My colleagues were moaning about needing a holiday and getting away, so when they asked me, I decided what the heck, I'll just go get it. Their current draft plan is a quick 3-day-2-nights trip to 順德 Shunde, an area just below Guangzhou. How I understand it, it's a place with good food and all that. 食在廣州，廚出鳳城... how do I translate this... Eat in Guangzhou, Cooking from Phoenix City... and the 鳳城 (Fengcheng) "Phoenix City" here means 順德 Shunde. I'm thrilled. If this comes to fruition (it MUST! I didn't pay $880 for nothing!), this would be my first trip out since February 2020.

My previous China visa was issued in... around end of November 2019, then Covid happened, and in around February 2020 China voided all active China visas... I didn't use it once back then.

My boss is also on his way back to town, so very soon I'll lose this carefree-ish life. Who am I kidding, my boss isn't so restrictive, but I like to be more present when he's around. First thing I'll do is push back all the paperwork back to him, LOL!

Happy shopping sharing! Last week my Sis and I happened upon some kind of... shopping fair or something like a congregated market or whatnot. many shops, but all usual stuff, until we passed by this small stall that had these hand-knit bucket bags in a tribal pattern or whatnot. Apparently these are handmade from Cambodia, and there were so many cute designs. I'm not much of a bucket bag type (I need a zipper to make me feel secure) but it was too cute. There were crazy colors and all that, but in the end I chose a more muted pattern but with a splash of color.

Another thing I've been doing lately is listening to podcasts. My Sis is now obsessed with Uncle Roger and while I like his sketches I just sniffed around more about the man himself, so I found his old podcast with another comedian. Rice to Meet You Pod. It's funny... it's so relatable. So far my favorite episode they had a guest called Deb (Episode #41)... her stories were great LOL.

Anyway, time to go, I'm at Starbucks, just finalized (a second time) the donations list for that shelter place (people sending me information AFTER the deadline... then I have to re-do stuff, and re-check if they are double-sending and all that). Need a quick trip to the loo then I'm off to some area I'm not familiar with to pick up some online shopping or whatnot. Then I'm off to Taipa to meet my friend for lunch. Then should be back home... so... toodles!

Today's "adulting" win is:

I went ahead and cancelled 2 credit cards that I hardly used. One of them has a hidden annual fee to have the card, and the other one has no annual fees, but I'd rather not hold onto 2 cards that I don't use anyway. This way I don't have to worry about those cards... if I ever lose my wallet or have stuff stolen, that's 2 less cards to worry about.

I actually went for a run on Sunday... It's Tuesday now, but my legs are still... non-functional. I'm not in pain, my legs, the front of my thighs especially, are just so stiff LOL. I decided to do some body weight and stretching routines last night, but it hasn't helped. I had half a mind of drink some fresh milk this morning, but then didn't want to finish up dad's milk (for his coffee). I'll get some fresh milk today after work. I saw on a documentary once that fresh milk helps rebuild or patch up the muscles that you've overworked.

Oh, I've also got a bit of a, what I suspect is a "Wish" experience? LOL. One of the last things I ordered on Taobao was (another) pair of earphones. This one claims to be a bone conduction earphone (but I suspect it's really not), but I wanted to get a pair for running, because the other pair of earphones I had were honestly really good, so good that I can't hear the traffic around me, and that is actually not quite good if I'm running outdoors. This is just cheap Taobao stuff so I thought to give it a try. I ordered the "blue" to match my iPhone, but the "blue" that came was totally not LOL. I tried them on, and they are really comfortable, so very light, and I can have them on for a long time and my ears don't hurt. What's more, it doesn't affect my needing glasses either. So, apart from the color, it was very good buy. What more could you ask for for just MOP$80? (Less than USD$10). Even then, the shop offered a full refund. I said no, (it was going to be a hassle to sent that back to China), instead, I wanted to buy another one in black, and they offered me a discount for the next purchase. I didn't place the order yet, but I thought this was a good enough deal.

Not quite sure how to extract a Facebook video, and I'm not sure if this is a public post, but here's a funny video by a pair of Hong Kong Mom-and-daughter in their quarantine quarters. Even I, who suck at Mandarin, found this hilarious, because the mother obviously can't speak shit of Mandarin LOL. I think the daughter's better, where she pitches in, but the Mom? Totally LOL.

https://www.facebook.com/527423908/posts/10160083686493909/

Ugh. My boss had some non-office related online function he had to attend, but didn't want to, so I had to log in on his behalf just so that it's shown his name is there *rolls eyes*. That was last night, there's another same thing in a few days... I'm going to ask to have my hours cut one day next week to compensate the extra work I did outside of normal working hours.

Oh, I got tickets to 2 movies tomorrow and Thursday. I'm still not sure if I'm going yet, I'm afraid the time is too tight for me, but I'll see. The Garden of Evening Mists (2019), and Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots (2021). I do hope I manage to get the dogs sorted out in time and get to watch both movies. And then, a much anticipated dinner on Friday!

Before I closed off my shopping streak, I bought this starry stringlights. I don't think I'd have them switched on too much though LOL, but it was fun. I have my starry night corner now hahaha!

It's really just for the couple nights I feel fancy. But it's fun.

I rearranged my shelving a bit and I have a bit of an extra space. I still have a zen-like backflow incense burner thingamajig, if it works like the photos show, it's gonna be so pretty!

恭喜發財！

Nowadays you will probably read Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Mandarin Chinese)

In Hong Kong you'd see Gung Hey Fat Choy! (English literation of Cantonese Chinese)

In Macau it's Gong Hei Fat Choi! (Portuguese literation of Cantonese Chinese)

So today, or technically yesterday (it's past midnight) was the last day of the lunar year. We got to get off work at 4pm. I went to the flower market 行花市, it's auspicious to do that just before the New Year. It's usually just stalls and stalls of flowers. The popular plant at this time would be orchids. I went for a lookaround.... I really wanted to buy one but I've already got 2 orchids at home, but they haven't flowered yet... So I suppose I have to be patient.

I don't know this couple, but I didn't want to stand in line and wait, there were... many people, it'd take a long time if I waited. It's the year of the tiger, so there's all these orange tiger dolls everywhere.

In recent years though, there's been a surge in stalls that sell crap LOL. Handheld wind.... what's them mini windmills called? I lost the word temporarily. A lot of tiger dolls.

Ah, the god of fortune 財神 was also hanging around LOL

In the end, I only bought this thing shaped like a fish. It's an incense that I put it above a heat source to let it disperse the aroma. There was a very cute tiger one, but I knew my incense burner was a narrow dish (my friend made this Totoro incense burner herself!) so I got the fish. I'm actually lucky it actually fits, as I wasn't sure it would fit.

On the way home, we pass by the Cathedral. Only here I suppose. I'm all for the melding of cultures, but I still think putting Chinese lanterns in a Church is wrong somewhat... but what do I know?

It will be my cousin's birthday in a couple days, and my sis had to get a present for her, so we went to this department store. Mom called and said she wanted some "sweets" (it's custom to have a Chinese New Year box filled with sweets), but she specifically only wanted the sweed candied coconut flakes. Well. There was no choice. Everything's empty LOL. I happened to spy on some vegan-friendly chocolate and a plant-based chocolate pretzel thingamajig (I don't believe in that kind of a packing it's pretzels inside).

Dinner we had some turnip cakes. I don't need chilli to go with my turnip cake, but I just happened to look at the jar at the dining table. It's been expired for over a year! The parents say it's always in the fridge so it's fine. Well. Indeed. They haven't needed the doctor's anyway.....

My African Violet is growing like crazy!

I seemingly have a lot of time, but then I am also, at the same time, so busy that I hardly have the time to just write! I constantly have to rush through my tasks then do a quick Wordless Wednesday or do a late Friday Five and the like! But I suppose it's good this way.

Teeth/Braces
They are OFF! Dentist says I'm done with the braces, that the "relationship" between my problem top and bottom molars have their relationship fixed (okay, so braces are like counseling, for teeth, LOL). I just need to use more my left side more for the normal grinding down of my teeth. Right now, the feeling is like when you get your cavities filled and the dentist didn't file the teeth enough, so you feel like you can't completely bite down? This is my constant feeling nowadays, though I noticed the last 2 days seemed better. And even though with my braces out, I supposedly can eat normal again, I'm pretty chuffed that I lost 7kg, so I'd like to keep my eating habits for now. Soup and a bit of bread for lunch. Though, last week was birthday week, so I've been eating a lot more. I don't want to weight in tomorrow LOL.

Birthday
I posted a photo of myself on Wednesday for the Wordless Wednesday... that happened to be my birthday proper, that's why I chose that photo. However, I had used a hair clay that's more for color than styling, and it's white. That photo was taken by the end of the day, so the color probably was a bit off. Here's me earlier in the day. Even if I have to say so myself, I think the distinguished look suits me!

And then, Dad was talking to one of his brothers that night on Skype (dunno which of them). As their conversation was in German, I wasn't paying much attention until I heard my Dad say: (paraphrased from memory, so ignore any grammatical errors!)
Dad: "Kati hat geburtstag" (it's Kat's birthday)
Onkel: "ah, macht Kati vierzig jahr?" (oh, is she turning forty?)
Dad: "Ja, vierzig jahr!" (Yes, forty!)
Me: "Vierzig? Was vierzig? Wie vierzig? Wenn vierzig?" (Forty? What forty? Why forty? When forty?")
Dad: "ahaha! Nicht vierzig?" (haha! Not forty?)

Yeah. For the record, I'm not 40. I don't mind being forty, I mind people being wrong.

My bestie got a kick out of this story, and had her sister make this cake for me: The original design on has the skating girl, but she added a running dog that looks suspiciously like Frenchie. And of course, the message plate. "Noch Nicht Vierzig" Not yet forty LOL LOL LOL. She can make fun of me, but we're the same year, I'm just older than her by 6 months. If I'm forty, she's forty too haha!

Running / Workouts
I've been so busy that I skipped a running session last Saturday. Then yesterday I suddenly had an empty morning, and the sky was really overcast, so decided to grab that chance and go out running... only for the sun to come out and making it unbearable. It's winter. I'm in a sleevless running top.

There's this gym place that I always liked the concept of (Life Project) but the Taipa gym was in the middle of nowhere, and the Macau gym was located in a place that has virtually no parking... however, I have newly found out that the Macau gym has been relocated to a place SUPER convenient for me, practically on the way between home and work. I'm so tempted to join that gym place now. With a premium membership I get credit for 50 group classes, and I can use the facilities all year. They are open from 6am to midnight, and so in my mind's planning, I can drop off my gym back on my way to work in the morning, if there are no classes that day, then I can go there over lunch and walk on the treadmill (I have this habit of walking after lunch, come summer it will be too hot to do so), if there are classes, then I can stop by after work for the class, shower, then get onwards home. Then weekend and/or rainy days I can go use the facilities (treadmill/ellipticals/machines).

I've been good and been doing some yoga and plank exercise every night, but will I have the willpower to actually dilligently go to the gym?

Any spare time that I have that I wanted to just lie in bed and read and chill, but.... the dogs and cat had other ideas... I've finally finished the book I started in November last year. Now i have to decide what to read next to start working on the reading challenge!

Random
Ah... today... I felt like it being Mickey Mouse day... so I had my Mickey Mouse Argyle cardigan, and a pair of Mickey Mouse earrings... but the T-shirt inside is a Totoro T-shirt LOL

After lunch today, I decided to go for a bit of window shopping and use the 20% discount coupon I got at a witchy/culty/gems/spiritual place. On the way there, I saw this old building and snapped a photo of it. Not usually the photographic subject of other people.

Shopping
I got three new tiny stones. I got a Spirit Quartz (far back, white-ish), an Azurite Malachite (middle, blue), and I just forgot the the name of the front one. My sis says it's a pink amethyst, but since the shop is near my workplace, I might just swing by tomorrow again and look. The big stones around (purple amethyst, white crystal, and pyrite in the far end) are stones I had before already. I think this more or less completes my stones display, maybe if I find a green garnet then I'll get it and officially close my stone corner. (Garnet is my birth stone, but I don't really like red stones, so I'm considering a green garnet)

Oh, I had an absolutely gorgeous find on Taobao. It was a steal too!

Look at this cute handbag! It's faux leather (for less than MOP$150 / USD $19, of course it's faux).

It opens up on both sides, and already has card and pen slots, I feel so organized using this bag.

Feels sturdy too, unlike other Taobao bags I've seen that feels flimsy and will-break-anytime.

After Bido's passing, I have been taking more care when I look at my remaining 3 dogs. Suddenly, I see that Menina's colors have faded much. She looks a lot more white that she used to, especially her beige parts. And then my brain clicked, geez, she's 17 already. And her previous vet had said "Dachshunds go up to 13 only". Well. She's won 4 solid years. (I can foresee that it will be very difficult for me when Menina goes. She is totally MY dog. She followed me without hesitation that first fateful night that we met. That's a story for another day.)

I started to look around at some other hospice and funeral services and noticed a service to make a "framed fur doll", the dolls looked pretty doll-ish... I mean, those looked really cartoonish doll type, but that reminded me, I had seen a really good artist make those fur dolls. So I searched. And I found her on Taobao.

Look at her works!

For the framed, you can see what is frame and what is the real animal, because of the frame.

But for these full-bodied dolls... when she first sent me the sample (the Pomeranian one), I needed a moment to understand that that.... there was a fake dog there.

Her fur-dolls don't come cheap (close to MOP$2000, say around USD$250) and she has a 2-year waiting period. But comparing to the other artists (one of them local from Macau), they really don't compare. This lady here definitely makes the most life-like ones. Even she was hesitant to accept my commission as "it's a long waiting period" but I figured, I'll wait. What is 2 years. Sounds like a long time but I believe soon it'll be 2 years.

I also don't think she's a scam artist because I've actually seen her products a couple years ago and I had bookmarked it. Now, I also found her products from my old bookmarks, and people are still commenting and reviewing, so I suppose this is somehow safe.

Though I'm more worried I'd forget about it myself, haha!

And that's shopping for stuff I don't need, but LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!!!!

I know I already have quite a few of these water colour palettes. But, I actually gave one away already. So.... I think I've justified myself buying a new one LOL. But this is Kuretake! The colors are so pretty!

And well. If you ask me "So when do you colour anything?" Weeeeelllll......... I used to journal and I drew everyday! Just... not right now... I also do those adult coloring books.... but really I open that book like once every three months...

Okay, this was an extravagant buy. But I saw it and I got excited so I bought it.

*stares admiringly at the colours*

After all the Christmas shopping, I thought I would be done spending money for a while.

Then something happened to some of the TV channels. We still plug the TV onto the aerial antenna thing, but apparently now there are "analogue" channels and "digital channels". I'm slightly technology savvy but that just goes over my head.

Anyway, most of our TVs are capable of the "digital channels". But my Parent's TV don't. Dad was bemoaning the loss of his movie channels.

So I went and bought a new Apple TV. I relocated my old existing one to the parent's room, and am using the new one. Not that I'm hogging the new stuff, it's just that the new one has so many functions, that would all go over my parents' heads. Heck, even I don't understand why the new Apple TV needs to have half those functions.

But one thing I am very impressed with the new Apple TV (4K i think), is the remote. I simply use the Apple TV's remote, and I can control the sound levels. Heck, if I switch on the Apple TV, the actual TV comes on as well, same as switching off. Again, I don't know why that is this way, I'm just assuming the HDMI cable somehow can control that as well? It's interesting.

Admittedly, now with the new Apple TV, I've got it playing stuff constantly (which is good. I've been wasting my Netflix subscription for a long long time. Hopefully, after all the Christmas craze is over, Dad has time to learn how to use the Apple TV in his room, and he can play all the movies, all the shows he wants to watch (or not, just play stuff, use up that subscription time!).

He had been complaining that the HBO type movie channel has been playing over and over the same movies. Heck, I don't watch those channels, but even I know it's been playing Taken/2/3 over and over again.

Casetify costs an arm an a leg... but the cases are sturdy and seem to give off a full protection vibe, but honestly, $65 (USD) for a phone case is indeed a tad on the steep side.

But I can't NOT get this case, right? It's Frankie! And coffee!

(Have I ever mentioned I'm actually not so much a friend of coffee? LOL)

You know... technically speaking... of the Ghibli or Ghibli-related animations, I've really only watched Laputa and Kiki's Delivery Service. Nausica Valley of the Wind was pre-Ghibli era so technically not Ghibli but still the same people, so.... most still consider that Ghibli. But the point I'm trying to make is... I actually haven't seen Totoro. I know more or less what it's about, but no, I haven't watched it from start to finish.

I digress.

I didn't think I'd be into Totoro merchandise too much... but... LOOK AT THIS!

Product Link (Totoro tote bag)

I also got the small white coin purse thingie that totally goes with it.

Product Link (Totoro coin purse)

These just scream SUMMER!

There's more of those totes big and small but I'm not crazy enough to get them all. I don't need so many tote bags. But that transparent one can really make a statement. And, eh, Japan Post and all, so it's all local only... I've reached out to a proxy shopping service and I've had good experience with them before, so I'll see if they can get this for me. Fingers crossed!

We were eager to get the puppies to the dog park because we like to let the dogs run around off leash. And since it's opened today again that's where we went to in the morning. However, new weird signage is weird. The funny thing is, the Chinese isn't exactly the same as the English. The Chinese says "Please do not just bring your dog to the grass to poop." erm..... so if I let the dogs run around free for a bit then they can poop??? The English doesn't make sense, because it's a dog park (and there's a poop bin inside), but the Chinese really confuses me. Usually the Chinese would be the correct language used, but I doubt this time the Chinese is accurate. I wonder............ (Notice there is no Portuguese. Oh yeah Portuguese is one of the 2 official languages here, BUT ALMOST NO ONE SPEAKS IT!)

First day after this long work from home stretch back at work. Sweet sweet office. I love the connectivity of.... a printer a scanner the pantry (although all I get from there is water)...

Also, I have a huge-ass computer screen at work. Definitely beats this 13" MacBook Air I have right now.

I wanted to order those salad or healthy take out again, but the colleagues were going to do a group order and I thought... I should get together with my colleagues more. They ordered from a Thai place, so my lunch today was this very oily, very fat, but oh so gloriously good combination of barbequed Pork Neck Rice and Hainan Chicken Rice. Half and half. The pork neck was really good. The chicken, hm... I've had better Chicken, but the coconut rice from the chicken was glorious as well. And with some morning glory. Yummy.

Opened a box of probably expired Earl Grey Tea (still tasted good, so okay hahaha) to wash down the oily food. Then the boss again had some weird requests for me to do an international call to over there. Got it done, pronto yay. Decided to leave work a little earlier to pick up some more Taobao order. My Mom asked me to order this shoe wrap thing and it had arrived (that was quick, considering!) and went to pick it up and set up at home. Cut myself when I was trying that blade thing, but it's just a flesh wound. Of course, the neighbour being busybody just had to see what that was all about. Started criticizing how that isn't useful and all that. I'm like, yeah, whatever.

Essentially it's a device with a roll of plastic sheet like food wrap (some places call it saran wrap?), before you step into the apartment you just step into the soft "platform" (it's a foam, so your foot sinks in) then you just drag your foot up and back until the front of your shoe goes to the blades, and you step down to push the blades up and cut the plastic wrap.

This way we don't have to take off the shoes everytime we go into the apartment, and instead we can take off our shoes at our own time and pace and at a chair. And since we don't have to leave the shoes outside the door, the elevator hallway looks more clean and tidy, unlike our neighbours who have an entire shoe cupboard outside in the elevator hall (technically not allowed) and still leave their shoes lying around the hallway.

I digress.

Anyway, today feels like such a fulfilling day, I'm properly satisfied!

Here's a dog butt for your viewing pleasure LOL

And here is the news about casinos opening again at midnight. That’s where I worked!

https://www.facebook.com/180431522657278/posts/507258389974588/?vh=e&d=n

A little more weird work today. My boss missed a therapy appointment he had and I received a call. I did not take it LOL. Even if I take it I'm not gonna be able to reach my boss, besides, they HAVE my boss' number. They can dial until he wakes up. Ooops.

My combination of work mates today as follows:

This is weird. As a kid, I would definitely never let my feet show in a photograph, especially without socks or shoes on. I guess I'm playing into that self image thing as well. I had a pedicure a few weeks ago with gel nails and so my feet still look nice and groomed, I suppose.

I thought I had a few Taobao (China online shopping) items that got lost in the mail, due to the Coronavirus thing happening, we did hear that loads of Taobao packages were just thrown out. I wondered for a moment if my items were part of the sacrifice or not... then the package forwarder had a *You have 1 item en route* message, so I thought, well, at least I got 1. Usually I can anticipate it, if 1 is en route, then 1 will arrive in a day or so. So I was expecting 1 package either today or tomorrow. Imagine my surprise when I opened the forwarder's app today and saw the message *You have 3 items in store. Please collect at your earliest convenience*.

I was down the next minute. I'm lucky we have a forwarder pick up just right on the ground floor of my building block.

What did I get? Don't worry, I've disposed of the boxes and washed everything before use.

A bottle to brew tea. I'm already using those small tea bags instead of an infuser (coz I have to wash the infuser if I use one), but usually I leave the tea steeping too long. So now, I got this bottle. Flip it around so the water goes into the tea section (I still put my tea in those disposable tea bags), let it steep however long and flip it back so the water drains away. Genius invention.

A few months ago I bought a similar blue phone case but of 2 swimming fishies (I should have taken a photo of that to show as well), but my Sis liked it too so I bought the same one for her. While she's using the iPhone 11 (weird 3-lens phone) and I have the XR, I didn't like that we had the same case. After some browsing, I find one similar design, same color town (probably it's the same line of product) but of a heron. Chinese style too. Yay.

My Sis saw on one of those random Instagram or Facebook ads about this toy where there is a suction cup to secure the toy and the dog can pull the other end however much it liked. It costed like an arm and a leg. I've now come to the habit of first doing a casual search on Taobao whenever any interesting product pops up (and Taobao has the photo function - upload a photo of the item and they will search a similar looking item - and 'lo and behold! The exact same thing, for a fraction of the price.

It's the same for other things. My Sis bought a nifty backpack thing, again from these ads. I think she paid like USD99 for 2 bags, that would make it around MOP400 per bag. To spite her, as sisters are wont to do (LOL), I did a search on Taobao and bought a similar backpack (okay, I couldn't find the exact same thing). At that time, I didn't bother about price and just bought one that looked nice, as actually I was in the market for a new travel backpack as well. I forgot about it until I received it. So the tag inside had a price tag of around 300 Chinese Yuan, which would make that around MOP350, that's already cheaper than what my Sis paid for. But then I looked back at my actual order (because I didn't think I would buy something over MOP100 from Taobao) and.... I paid 57 Chinese Yuan (MOP65, USD9) for that backpack.

My Sis was annoyed and started to explain how special her bag is, with a compartment to place the phone charger so you can connect it outside of the bag (mine has the same thing), to hers having a secret compartment just on the backside where she can put important documents (okay, mine didn't have that), interior compartment for a laptop, side compartments for umbrella/bottles (both bags have that).

Guess my Sis is annoyed enough haha.

I had my Pilates and Yoga class this morning. After a quick shower and getting dressed, I made a quick trip to China.

Had a late lunch, but it was surprisingly good. A veggie pot soup with vermicelli noodles.

Then Jenny came over (she had to have lunch with her dad, and the lane I have to go to at customs is very unpredictable). We headed off to... a Starbucks in China.

Simply because... apparently the merchandise Starbucks China sells are different from those sold in Starbucks Hong Kong and Macau...

I got the bulldog plate, the mug with an outstretched paw, and a thermos bottle.

Doesn’t mean I didn’t consider to get one of everything. But I’m sensible... *sigh*

A bit more walk around and then we headed back to Macau and home.

Where I found out the Sailor Moon Moon Stick power bank arrived.

I don’t consider myself a die hard Sailor Moon fan, but I thought this Moon Stick is useful enough to warrant a small space in my “nostalgia” corner of my shelf... haha, who am I kidding? What space?? LOL

Again, I had to help the Boss get his meds in Hong Kong so there I went today.

I took the chance to get some personal shopping done as well. First there is this super useless Akita dog card pouch. Yes. Who needs a card pouch? I thought it hilarious and it wasn't that expensive, so I bought it. It can only hold 1 card. Just 1 card. Usually for those touch cash cards thingies? Yes. Essentially useless. LOL.

I managed to buy a small handy pen pouch so I could bring a couple pens out - well, I do have a lot of pen cases, but this one in particular can stand up straight, and show me all the pens I have inside ready to to be taken. This wasn't an impulse buy. I saw this a few months ago, also in Hong Kong, and then thought about it for a while. I did go through the "nah, I don't need it" phase, and then looked around my stash to see if I have anything similar and simply just nah...

I essentially spent 4 months deciding on whether or not to buy a cheap pen pouch.

I also got myself a new Apple Watch. I did swear off that when my previous iWatch died and Support simply said "we don't support that anymore" (bleh) but after a couple months of looking around as well... I was back with Apple. I wanted to try out a Garmin, but my research findings were: "Garmins cost an arm and a leg." That, and the guy explained to me that the series 3 Apple Watches are now waterproof (50M in water, so it's good for swimming too), and also have a GPS function of not needing to have the phone with me and still record the map route? Nice! Coz, well, I now like to run with my age old grandpa-level iPod Shuffle. The small tiny clip-on one. It it's like a fraction the price of the one I bought a couple years back. So there you go.

Time to bed! Work day tomorrow!

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Agueda Umbrella
kat (DW: elusivek | LJ: notte0)
❤︎ loves dogs, dark chocolate, and books.
★ doesn’t exactly hate cats.
◆ hates white chocolate.
more?
I read books :-)

June 2025

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Page generated Thursday, 12 June 2025 04:34

escapades of the elusive kat

taking on the world one day at a time

Entries tagged with shopping

When you are laid down in bed all day…

Taobao Live Sales as Entertainment

I can get tanned

Nifty shopping

Shopping and hand modelling LOL

Ready to travel

Random bits and pieces

Starry Nights

Happy Chinese New Year! 恭喜發財！

Quick wrap up

Happy Shopping

Fur-doll making

Ooops I did it again!

Wow at Technology

Couldn’t not buy this phone case

Here I come again with useless shopping

Back to work

Online shopping and work

Quick trip to China

Quick Trip to Hong Kong

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June 2025

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