"Back to office" pains

In a retail line, there is no such thing as weekends, public holidays and occasionally off and leave days. Why? Because the stores are open for the public to shop on all days.

That said, when I started as a retail staff, I have gotten used to and resigned to fate of not having any of such luxuries.

However, after I got transferred to the HQ, work days start to get more routine. In general, you will get weekends off BUT you will need to be on standby. Especially when you have a company phone. People from stores may call you anytime. Or even email you at odd hours expecting a reply.

That said, I have always disliked people contacting me for non-urgent stuff when I've clearly indicated an out of office email stating that I will be on leave and the date I shall return. Yet, there will be those who ignores those email and disturb your calm peace on leave.

But that has been improving lately. The locals especially have been "educating" the Japs by intentionally ignoring their non-urgent mails or calls. So its a work in progress. Improving but slowly.

What I hate about going on leave is what I have to deal with when I'm back. The 3-figure unread emails, and a ton of routine to complete. This is precisely why people feel like shit the night before they return to work. It's the last day  of sanity. The last day of peace. And all hell breaks loose after 8 hours of sleep (or less).

These days. I try to take leaves one day at a time, just extending my weekend by one day. Yet, I will still come back to office with a total of 250 emails unread. For a person that makes it a point to clear all unread emails each day, its a bloody eyesore. On the phone where the figures in the red dot keeps increasing. And on the laptop outlook where the bold subjects are scroll-endless and the blue figure beside the "Inbox" keeps updating and increasing. It pisses the hell out of me. Damn it! Even just an additional day off.

This year, I had to take more leave days because of my classes and exams. It's already draining to have to study and work together. But its even more so when you finally complete your papers, yet return to office to find that work has been piled up and you need to work later than usual to clear it.

Sorry. It's all rants this time. Really drained. Will write a more positive post soon ya?

Review: Essential CC Oil & Night Care Milk

I've always experienced dry hair. While many of you may know that heat styling, perming, and dyeing - all that chemicals - can damage and dry out your hair, you may not be aware that our environmental factors and our everyday habits can affect the health of our hair.

This review today is about a bottle of golden magic and another bottle of white goodness.

Left: Essential CC Oil. Right: Essential Night Care Milk

So what does CC stand for? Cuticle Oil. Yes, our hair has cuticles too. And we're often exposed to things that causes damaged cuticles like below.

Extracted from: Garuda Hair

The golden bottle of magic I was talking about targets the 5 main stresses we face almost daily with Cuticle Coat Protection that leaves hair smooth & tangle free all day. It also contains Hair Supplement Oil, which is similar to hair’s natural oil.

1. Blow-drying process of blow-drying removes moisture from the hair, both outside and inside the hair - leaving hair dry, brittle and susceptible for further damage 
2. Combing through wet hair causes great hair damage as the hair follicle is at is most fragile state. Likewise, the friction caused by coming through dry hair can form hair knots which makes hair prone to unnecessary breakage.
3. Split Ends are often caused when the ends of your hair are the oldest and driest parts. When the protective hair cuticle is destroyed at the end of the hair, the hair splits into two or more parts.
4. Hair Breakage happens besides daily heat styling, blow drying and brushing, other seemingly harmless actions like tying your hair into a tight ponytail or twirling your hair with your fingers exert excessive stress on your hair, resulting in hair breakage 
5. Dryness of hair is often due to sun exposure, wind or even air-conditioning can result in hair dryness. The hair cuticle that protects the hair is weakened and is unable to retain moisture within the cuticles of the hair 

These 5 hair stresses are further elaborate by The Evil Hair Stress Brothers.

Enough words, now for the actual review. I like how the prodct smelled because it is not too strong that overpowers whichever perfume you're wearing. And, I guess my hair loves it too. See how easily managed it gets after application.

Another thing I love about this product is how light it is, it does not cause your hair to look all greasy and wet for the entire day. It is quickly absorbed that even after application, you don't feel oily on your palms even.

You should:

1. Use on towel-dried or damp hair
2. Pump an appropriate amount onto palm
3. Spread and apply evenly onto hair, concentrating on mid-length to the tip of hair
4. Do not rinse off
5. Enjoy your easily manageable hair for the rest of your day!

Before you leave, there's one more item that I would like to share - the Essential Night Care Milk.
This product protects your hair from pillow friction by leaving a protective coat around each hair
strand and prevent misaligned cuticles when hair rubs against the pillowcase, leaving
hair more manageable the next morning.

You know how you go to sleep with your hair straight and nice but wake up in the morning with a lion's mane? These are usually caused by Pillow Friction where you toss and turn at night, there is friction between your hair and the pillow, causing the cuticles to be misaligned and thereby causes frizz. Although washing our hair solves this issue, it introduces another - blow-drying our hair - which is one of the 5 stresses mentioned earlier.

So, technically, Night Care Milk is like step 1 for each night while you follow up with the CC oil as Step 2 every morning. Frankly, I couldn't see much difference for me when using this Night Care Oil. I usually sleep and wake up in the same position. Meaning to say, I very seldom move around in bed. Apologies, each morning is too much of a rush to take any photos Sorry~! Anyhow, if you're one of those that wakes up with a lion's mane every morning, please give this product a go and let me know how is it working out for you. Basically, all there is to do each night is to apply it before bed.

If you're interested in either of these products, they each retail for SGD 11.90 at most leading supermarkets, personal care stores and western pharmacies or departmental stores.

Lastly, something for your entertainment.

Do check out Essential's Facebook Page and try out the Essential’s Mane Hero Facebook game to combat the 5 evil Hair Stress Brothers and Pesky Pillow King and win attractive weekly prizes! All you have to do is to catch the bottles of CC Oil and Night Care Oil. Good luck~!

After almost 24years, this is my first

First time taking Malaysia Airlines to the other side of Malaysia - East Malaysia. Yes, I'm here at Kota Kinabalu. No, I'm not here for a holiday. Sad but true. Workaholic much. Hahaha. For a very long time, I've not taken any flights longer than an hour since I'm mostly travelling between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur only.

Actually, after the many aircraft accidents last year, our company came up with a list of acceptable airlines based on the airline safety ratings, highest being 7. 

• Anything above 4 is alright but of course, the lowest cost option should be chosen which mostly left us with Jetstar. Not that I'm complaining. Besides the small delay in flight departures, flights with Jetstar have been pleasant thus far. 
• Anything rated 4 is up to supervisor's approval. Malaysia Airlines is rated 4. And Scoot too.  
• Anything below 4 should be avoided unless there's absolutely no choice. In my case, from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu, the only direct flight - AirAsia - falls under this category.

From Singapore to Kota Kinabalu is approximately 2hours and 30mins flight time. But there's only one direct flight from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu each day and its offered by AirAsia around 2-3pm each day. How can I get such luxury working from the noon right? Hahaha. So, my boss actually helped me look for flights and basically decided the flight for me and told me to book it. Hence came my first first time, taking Malaysian Airlines. Like I said, the only direct flight from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu is AirAsia and because I took Malaysia Airlines, here comes my second first time - Transit in KL alone.

I usually fly direct and the only time I transited was on an exchange to Seattle where I had to stopover at Tokyo Narita. Besides that, I've got no experience of transits at all. Of course we're not talking about the trains we take daily! Hahaha. Anyhow, I'm not sure if all transit flights would "directly relay" your luggage from flight 1 to flight 2. I think this only happens if the stopover is short right? Oh well, if I'm wrong, correct me but I was pretty glad that I didn't need to find myself lost and I had extra time on my hands to do a little duty free shopping~

Before I go on, I just had to say this. If there's a direct flight, I would only need 2hr30mins right?
But because I had to arrive in KK at a specific time, I had to transit, and so I was up since 0330am. Yes, you didn't read wrong, I wrote AM. I had to catch an 0640am plane to KL for the transit. And the domestic flight from KL to KK is at 0905am. I will only arrive at KK at 1150 based on the itinerary. That's a total of 5hrs away from home. Twice the amount of time I would need if I was taking direct. So yes, I've been awake for almost 8hrs having just arrived in KK and haven't done anything yet (except a little shopping at KLIA) earlier.

Frankly I started this post on the plane and I couldn't get my PC to connect to the internet at the hotel and that's why you only see it now. Guess its too wordy and all so please allow me to end off with some pictures of KK.