Friday, November 13, 2009

Rainbow agars

Guess what's this?



Or this?



Or this?



Nice right? So colourful... =) I made all these with agarose, phenol red and xylene cyanol blue dyes

I made them in agar plate (the plate we normally use for bacterial culture)


Nice right the colourful pattern in the agar? This eventually gives purple colour.


This is not for lab use. Just for deco only. Not for fun la.. They have their own purpose.

I really like the combination of the bright colours lo. Look so refreshing! =)

I especially like the rainbow picture at the top. =)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Bahagia

Recently I'm easily feel touched by my girl friends (especially Choo Peng and Cheng Yee). The care they gave me and the conversations make me feel I'm loved and I'm remembered. =) I feel so bahagia (I dun like to use the word 'happy' to mean 'bahagia' becoz happy can mean many things)

Recently I also feel bahagia that I've been contacting my brother. I know this sounds weird but last few years we haven't been contacting each other (maybe I was not caring enough). But recently I started to initiate some conversations and it was getting better. =)

Actually I feel like hugging people lately. Very long time never hug people already. What to do, I haven't been home for 5 months. And I can't just go around and hug my friends coz I dunno whether they will like it. I know Audrey definitely dun like it. So there's nobody I can hug at home. Sunway home, not the Johor one. I like to call this place home because I hope from calling it 'home' I can make this place feel more homy. This is a sad story about a child away from home. Alright, continue with my story. I just want a bear hug from a friend coz it makes me feel warm. Miss the hugs Wey Yiing and Ching Wan gave me years ago when they came back from overseas. Nevermind, this weekend I'm gonna get to hug my parents coz I'm going home! =D Can't wait!


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Comforted by a stranger

Last night I slept very soundly. Was it because of the cooling weather? Or because of the comforting dream?

I dreamed of resting my head on a guy's shoulder and he was patting my head softly. It was a guy whom I've never seen before but in the dream I felt that he's someone very close to me and someone I trusted. That pat on my head gave me a peace in mind.

Even though I slept exactly same hours like normal days but last night I slept extraordinarily soundly. I can still feel the comfort he gave me although I dunno who he is. lol...

Maybe watched too much Korean drama already. =P

-

I just cut my hair. Was planning to just trimming it. But when the stylist suggested shorter, I was curious how would I look with even shorter hair.

Now my longest hair is just 2 inches longer than my ear lobe and the backside hair is very short and bobbed. I like the zero weight feeling on my head.

-

Still having stomach pain. It has been troubling me since last Friday. Another tragedy of food poisoning. Sigh... But it's way better than last time, vomiting and all.

-

Chee Hui just sent me Youtube link about a funny advertisement.

A DHL advertisement.

Their slogan is "We deliver whatever"



It's really funny lo.. But it explains the slogan very well. Haha..



Monday, November 9, 2009

P1 had been advertising it's potong thing for about a month about the broadband services.



Then last week I started to hear radio playing very similar advertisement about potong too. But it's from Streamyx. Who on the earth is so creative lah? lol..



This is just for laugh. Am not bias to any party coz I never try P1 before. Can't judge P1 connection. But Streamyx is currently not allowing me to watch PPStream (too slow until requires 30 minutes to load 1 minute of the total of 1 hour drama), that's a big minus for Streamyx from me.

-

Wanna write a review on Station One Lunch Set.

Had lunch with Toh Theng last Friday at Station One Taipan. The last time I had meal at Station One was at SS15. I had their Chicken Chop Set which was just so-so. That time I told myself if wanna find good food never go Station One.

But I forgot about it last Friday and stepped into the 'trap' again. I ordered curry chicken rice set (Set 3)



The curry was tasteless. The drumstick texture was like those of chicken breast, hard and dry. The rice was hard as if it's not fully cooked. Although they're kind enough to serve a bowl of soup which I haven't drink for long time. Was quite surprised at first but the taste of the soup disappointed me. It's just salt and MSG soup with pieces of some lotus roots sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Toh Theng totally can't figure out what soup it was until she saw the lotus roots.

It tasted worse than the Chicken Chop I had last time. Gosh. Can't believe they still can open so many branches selling meals.

The beverage that came with the set was nice though. It's called 3 layer tea.


Photos courtesy from this blogger

It tasted like the brown sugar + coconut milk + concentrated milk syrup in ais kacang. I never know beverage can taste like that. Yummy! But if the aroma of the tea can be increased it will taste better I think.

So, moral of the story is. Never take meals in Station One. But if wanna go for yamcha, station one beverages are good. I personally like their honey milk which is very soft to my taste bud but at the same time can satisfy my sweet tooth. Hehe.. Their Strawberry-Apple-Orange juice is nice too!



Sunday, November 1, 2009

Beware of whitening products

Have any of you tried Olay Total White cream? (This is not an advertisement la. lol..)


Total white extra fair cream (for darker complexion)

Total white spot lightening cream


I've used it few months ago and found that upon application of the cream it instantly brightened up my skin. Initially I thought maybe after washing it off my face will turned back to its original dark complexion. Out of curiosity, I washed my face after applying it the face still remain as fair!

After applying it for a week my face complexion is far too fair as compared with my neck (I was lazy to apply it on the neck sometimes. Teehee) Everyone who met me exclaimed that I became fairer and I looked nicer. So I was really in love with this product. Summore this product is dirt cheap, only RM3.90 for 20g. Without second thought I used it everyday and when it ran out I bought new ones to continue using it.

Lately it's used up again and I wanted to buy a new one to top up my stock. But when I went to Guardian I couldn't find any on the shelf! So I bought myself Olay White Radiance instead. After that I had been wondering what happened to Olay Total White? So I went to Google up for this product. Couldn't find whether it's banned or something. But found a NST news article I found from Malaysian Babes Forum about several whitening products being banned from the market due to the presence of hydroquinone and mercury in the products.

Research shows that high concentration of hydroquinone might cause cancer. Furthermore, it also can cause irritation to the skin. Mercury can cause liver and kidney damage.

The article opened my eyes on the active ingredients in these whitening products and pushed me to read more on the activities of these compounds in the melanin production pathway. There are several active ingredients used in whitening products: non-toxic ones such as arbutin, vitamin C, glycyrrhetinic acid, kojic acid, melanostat and retinol, and toxic ones such as hydroquinone and mercury.

The functions of most of the these compounds are ultimately similar, that is to inhibit the production of melanin which is responsible for the darkening of the skin. As compared to hydroquinone and mercury, the non-toxic compounds are way more expensive than the toxic compounds (Quote from the NST news "Thailand sells for about US$20 (RM70) per kilogramme of mercury-based ingredients or hydroquinone, compared with highly concentrated licorice extract, which sells for about US$20,000 per kilogramme".

This struck me really hard. If hydroquinone or mercury salts is RM70/kg, 20g of the compound is RM1.40. And the Total White is RM3.90 for 20g. Hmm.. looks like it... I better throw it away.



Note: This is just my simple guess. I can't find any proof that Total White is banned from the government.